Angry Tradewind Survival

Before its banning in Legacy, Survival of the Fittest was an interesting engine that allowed a variety of different play styles and deck construction. Among these, was the idea of a tool box-type strategy, relying on SotF to search for answers as required. While researching another article, I stumbled across today’s deck, which I thought would be fun to write about. The really cool thing about it, was that one of the first versions that I found was actually tailor made for this format! Its name? Angry Tradewind Survival.

Let’s start by talking about the namesakes of the deck, and the amazing things they make possible. Survival of the Fittest is the search engine of the deck, and allows you to search for whatever creature the situation might require. Combined with Squee, Goblin Nabob allows you to gain card advantage as well, as you are not losing a card in hand to discard. Tradewind Rider’s uses aren’t always as obvious, but allow for a LOT of awesome plays. Just remember that it can return any permanent into play, not just yours OR your opponents’..

Mana. Because of SotF, the deck consumes a lot of green mana. As a result, several creatures in the deck are used to help boost your mana output. Wall of Roots is a great example of getting more from your rampers, because it can also act as a good defender against early aggro. Rofellos doesn’t really need explaining.. he’s awesome at what he does.

Win conditions. The deck sort of has 2 main win conditions. The first being death by a thousand cuts.. aka beat them down with the large number of creatures. The other is a lot more devious: Gilded Drake and Tradewind Rider are good friends, as are Rider and Deranged Hermit. Mystic Snake and Rider are also pretty close. Just think about these options.

Once again, I have chosen to write about a deck that has so many interactions and strategies that I can’t/won’t be writing about each one in this article. As always, I encourage you to try the deck and tinker to find what works for you. Happy Brewing!

Angry Tradewind Survival

Land

5 Forest

2 Savannah

1 Taiga

4 Tropical Island

4 Windswept Heath

3 Wooded Foothills

Total: 19

Creatures

4 Tradewind Rider

4 Birds of Paradise

1 Quirion Ranger

3 Wall of Roots

1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

1 Genesis

1 Anger

2 Gilded Drake

1 Spore Frog

1 Elvish Lyrist

1 Uktabi Orangutan

1 Mystic Snake

1 Seedborn Muse

1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

1 Deranged Hermit

Total: 24

Spells

4 Survival of the Fittest

4 Brainstorm

4 Force of Will

3 Enlightened Tutor

2 Stifle

1 Eladamri’s Call

Total: 17

Sideboard:

2 Spike Feeder

1 Goblin Sharpshooter

1 Dense Foliage

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Back to Basics

2 Choke

1 Seal of Cleansing

1 Man-o’-War

1 Worship

2 Naturalize

2 Null Rod

Aluren

“Hey babe, are you a fishing model? Because I find you to be quite allurin’ ”. I am now going to take a moment to apologize to everyone.. these introductions can be hard sometimes! However, with that out of the way, I want to talk about a deck that has a lot of history in the game: Aluren.

Aluren as a card has been around for a pretty long time, but it took a bit more before becoming a viable combo-type deck. In fact, the earliest reference that I found for it came in the form of Raisin Bran – of course, referencing the days when combo decks were named after breakfast cereals. The deck was very cool, and so I don’t want to talk about it as I may choose to do so in its own article some day.

Alright, so with that pointless paragraph out of the way, let’s move on to the actual deck, shall we? Man-o-War is an all-star in Aluren, combining with Cavern Harpy and cards such as Wall of Blossoms and Raven Familiar to dig through your library to find the win condition(s) you need. The loss of life resulting from Harpy is negated by Spike Feeder and Soul Warden, which also happens to be part of the combo to win.

How to win. As I mentioned before, there are several combo pieces that work in tandem with each other (and the separate combos). The actual win condition however, is the combination of Soul Warden and Maggot Carrier. I included 2 of each to be safe, but the numbers for them are at your own discretion. With Aluren in play you want to ‘cast’ Soul Warden, then Carrier – followed by the loop of Carrier and Harpy.

I don’t want to write about too many of the cards I omitted in this brew, because as I mentioned before, they are prevalent in other Aluren-based combos. I do want to mention Wirewood Savage however, as it is great with Harpy to just cycle through your deck to find the win conditions. Happy Brewing!

Aluren

Land

1 Island
2 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Bayou
4 Tropical Island
4 Forest

Total: 20

Creatures

1 Spike Feeder
3 Man-o'-War
4 Cavern Harpy
4 Raven Familiar

3 Wall of Blossoms
4 Wall of Roots

2 Soul Warden

2 Maggot Carrier

Total: 23

Spells

4 Aluren

4 Brainstorm

4 Force of Will

1 Chain of Vapor

3 Intuition

1 Duress

Total: 17

Sideboard

1 Cabal Therapy
1 Wall of Blossoms
2 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Hydroblast
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Eladamri's Vineyard
2 Elephant Grass

1 Stern Proctor

UG Stasis

Magic has always been known for its incredible art. What many people don’t know however, is that the majority of the game’s early artwork was done by students from the nearby university. In fact, one of the only pieces done by an established artist was also one of the game’s most confusing. Have you guessed which card we’re talking about yet? Oh right, the title gave it away. Alright fine, yada yada yada, let’s talk about UG Stasis.

When it comes to Stasis decks, the idea is to h̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶p̶p̶o̶n̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶f̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶g̶g̶r̶e̶s̶s̶i̶v̶e̶  slow the game down so you control the board, eventually winning via your win conditions (in this case, creatures). I decided to go with a UG build because the colours offer so many cards that compliment the main component – Stasis. So let’s talk about the card, shall we? Despite its effect being ultra simple, it results in some very complicated lines of play. “Players skip their untap steps.” Just think about that.

Alright, so if the effect is static and effects both players, then how the heck do you get around it? I decided to include several different ways, including a card that was meant to fight Stasis – Quirion Ranger. The card is seriously awesome in this deck, as it allows you to pay the U mana for Stasis in conjunction with Tropical Island, while untapping your Drakes or Spirit for the beat down.

Aside from creatures, the deck also contains several spells that work to give you an advantage in a Stasis-ized world. Exploration allows you to play around the inherent drawback of having Stasis on the board, as it means you can sort of get around the effect. Combining it with cards such as Daze and Thwart help you not run out of land to play each turn. Another combination is Instill Energy and Birds of Paradise, which provides a U each turn without using your land drops. And then of course there’s Chain of Vapor on Stasis during your opponent’s turn – one of the best ways to play the deck and lose friends at the same time.

I’m not even going to try to tell you about every interaction the deck has, because there are a LOT of them. I do want to mention however, that UG Stasis requires a lot of practice and patience. I also recommend that you re-think the sideboard, as I wanted to post the deck today and thus put very little time/effort into it.  With that being said, I would be very interested to hear what you all decide to use. Happy Brewing!

UG Stasis

Land

4 Tropical Island

1 Forest

8 Island

9 Fetchlands

Total: 22

Creatures

4 Quirion Ranger

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Sea Drake

1 Cloud Spirit

Total: 13

Spells

4 Stasis

4 Exploration

3 Instill Energy

4 Daze

4 Force of Will

4 Brainstorm

1 Chain of Vapor

1 Thwart

Total: 25

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Ensnare

3 Misdirection

2 Chain of Vapor

2 Tidal Surge

English Breakfast

Power or originality? The debate you don’t hear often enough when it comes to deck building. This was the question I had to ask myself when it came to writing about today’s list. “Why?” you might ask. Well, the deck actually has a couple of iterations that are quite different. In the end however, I decided to go with the more original build because it uses some engines that I haven’t written about before. And so, without further adieu, let us dive right into an English Breakfast!

The first thing I want to mention is that when played correctly, English Breakfast actually has some deception to it, which you can use to your advantage. In your first couple of turns, people can actually mistake it for a Psychatog deck, a Reanimator deck or even a Merfolk deck. If they think the latter however, then they are probably new to the format, so go easy on them okay?

I mentioned some unique engines in this deck, which I am now going to talk about! The first one is Tortured Existence; a pretty obscure card that has a lot of potential. In fact, Existence can be used both offensively and defensively in the right type of deck (hint: this is the right type of deck). How? When you combine it with the other unique engine/win con of English Breakfast: Volrath’s Shapehifter. Tortured Existence not only helps ensure which creature is on the top of the library for Shapeshifter, but it can also help save them from cards such as Tormod’s Crypt or Cremate.

How does it win? Technically, there are several different ways to win due to all of the 1-ofs in the deck. When it comes down to it however, I would say the main win conditions are Volrath’s Shapeshifter and/or Psychatog in a pinch. If you want to get fancy though – go for the Phage! Shapeshifter on Phage is just an awesome way to win.

The rest of the cards and their strategies should be pretty self explanatory, so I won’t be going into them. I do want to mention that there are lots of different options for Shapeshifter targets however. And there you have it. Quite the deck, eh? One of my favourite things about writing these articles is reading through various deck builds and analyzing the different strategies amongst them. While I decided to write about this version of English Breakfast, that doesn’t mean I won’t write about others in the future. I also encourage everyone to do their own research and find out for themselves’ which version is right for them. Or heck, why not create your own? Happy Brewing!

English Breakfast

Land

4 Polluted Delta

4 Flooded Strand

4 Underground Sea

4 Cephalid Coliseum

4 Underground River

2 Island

1 Swamp

Total: 23

Creatures

4 Hapless Researcher

4 Psychatog

4 Volrath’s Shapeshifter

4 Merfolk Looter

1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath

1 Phage the Untouchable

1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

1 Wonder

1 Iridescent Angel

1 Reya Dawnbringer

Total: 22

Spells

4 Tortured Existence

3 Buried Alive

4 Careful Study

4 Brainstorm

Total: 15

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Chain of Vapor

4 Force of Will

3 Innocent Blood 

NO RUG

Duck. Duck. Mongoose! Today’s list is an Ancient take on a semi-old Legacy deck. Sorry, did I just lose ya there? Allow me to elaborate.. the deck didn’t actually exist between the span of Alpha-Scourge. In fact, it seems to have been created about 7 years after Legacy became a format. So why do I think it could work in Ancient, a format where creatures aren’t the broken monstrosities they are now? Because the combination of tempo and combo found in NO RUG makes it a force to be reckoned with, that’s why!

Despite not having a creature like Progenitus in the format, Natural Order-based decks do have some pretty strong targets. Among them, I found Fungal Shambler, Symbiotic Wurm and Verdant Force to be among the best for this type of deck. As such, I decided to include one of each, as they all provide advantages depending on the situation at hand. It is also good to keep in mind that if a creature gets stuck in your hand, you can always use Brainstorm to put them back in your library.

While the deck does try to win by getting one of the big guys into play, it can also win via its tempo-based creatures: Werebear and Nimble Mongoose. Once you hit Threshold, these guys become serious threats at a low casting cost. Not only that, but they are also good without 7 cards in the graveyard. For example, Werebear is able to help you ramp mana early on, which can be very relevant if you are going for a fast Natural Order or if you’re facing a land destruction deck. The Mongeese don’t provide mana ramp, but their Shroud does make them hard for your opponent to destroy, which means you should have a target for Natural Order later on.

So what’s the strategy here? To be honest, there are a few of them. You can either focus on the combo with Natural Order, in which case I recommend trying to get out Birds and/or Werebear to ramp. There’s also the tempo game, which can win the game fairly quickly in its own right. Which path you take depends on a variety of different factors and I recommend you practice each. The versatility that the deck provides is one of its many strengths and I definitely recommend you try it out. Happy Brewing!

NO RUG

Land

3 Volcanic Island

4 Tropical Island

1 Taiga

4 Polluted Delta

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Wasteland

Total: 20

Creatures

4 Werebear

4 Nimble Mongoose

4 Birds of Paradise

1 Fungal Shambler

1 Verdant Force

1 Symbiotic Wurm

Total: 15

Spells

4 Natural Order

4 Brainstorm

4 Force of Will

4 Daze

4 Stifle

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Portent

Total: 25

Sideboard

1 Red Elemental Blast

2 Pyroblast

4 Tormod’s Crypt

2 Naturalize

1 Grim Lavamancer

4 Fire / Ice

1 Penumbra Wurm

Enchantress' Bloomers

“This isn’t your grandmother’s Bloom deck.” As many people know, Mike Long helped popularize the idea that a combo deck could win consistently enough to be taken seriously. The deck he played, known as Pros Bloom, is considered to be one of the most important in MtG history. The deck I’m going to be writing about today.. isn’t that one. It does however, (ab)use Cadaverous Bloom in much the same way, to help set up a combo win to finish off the opponent. For those hoping to read about Pros Bloom.. I hope I get around to it eventually. BUT, for those wanting to read about a different take on a ‘Bloom’ deck, allow me to introduce to you: Enchantress’ Bloomers.

Enchantress’ Bloomers is an interesting build that sort of combines a few decks to become its own. Borrowing aspects from Enchantress, Pros Bloom and Storm; Bloomers attempts to create a bunch of mana, draw a ton of cards, and then win via Tendrils of Agony when they can. So how does it go about doing these things? Let’s dive in and see.

Mana production. A key aspect of how the deck functions is via its ability to create a ton of mana to cast more spells. There are a LOT of ways to do this.. Cadaverous Bloom, Wild Growth, Gaea’s Touch and Exploration (all enchantments), each allow you to ramp your mana. Also, unlike Pros Bloom, which used Squandered Resources, I chose to use Dark Ritual instead as it allows faster Bloom drops.

Card draw. Ok, so we have a bunch of mana via Cadaverous Bloom, but how do we get more cards when we’re discarding ones we’ve drawn?? Remember how I mentioned all of those enchantment mana ramps before? They work very well with the cards containing ‘Enchantress’ in their name. When you have multiple copies of them in play, the deck allows you to draw a LOT of cards – more than enough to make use of Cadaverous Bloom and Tendrils of Agony for the win.

Another colour? This is something that I seriously considered, as the other colours have legitimate arguments for adding them. White has Serra’s Sanctum, Red has Burning Wish – both offering different approaches to how to play. The main colour that I was considering for this deck however is Blue, which offers cards such as Hibernation and Wash Out.  If you prefer staying in colour, Freyalise’s Charm and Leshrac’s Sigil are also interesting options. I mention these cards because they are just a small sample of the variations you can take on building the deck, and I encourage others to try them out for themselves’. As always – Happy Brewing!

Enchantress’ Bloomers

Land

10 Forest
4 Bayou
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills

Total: 21

Creatures

4 Argothian Enchantress

Total: 4

Spells

4 Enchantress Presence
4 Exploration
4 Mirri’s Guile
2 Elephant Grass

4 Wild Growth

4 Duress
3 Gaea’s Touch
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cadaverous Bloom
2 Tendrils of Agony

Total: 35

Sideboard

4 Carpet of Flowers

4 Planar Void

4 Ground Seal

3 Naturalize

Maze of Webs

What do you get when you combine a bunch of Elves, mana locks and some obscure land tuckers? Umm.. this. I’ve been considering how to build this deck for quite some time now, and am happy to see it done. Seriously, I don’t even know how long ago I started this thing (hint: a long time ago). As with many brews, this one started out with just an interesting card and a dream. After a bit of research, I found that others had tried tinkering with it as well, so I drew on them for some inspiration and here’s what we got: Maze of Webs.

As you can probably tell, the name of the deck stems from the 2 main lock pieces: Root Maze and Winter Orb. Originally, the deck focused mainly on just using Root Maze. I decided to add Orb, because it adds some consistency to your draws without taking away from the main game plan: ruining the opponent’s mana. “But why Root Maze?” With most decks using fetch lands in Ancient, this card was just begging to be abused. Notice how Elf Maze uses no fetch lands? That’s because it takes an opponent 3 turns to get mana out of a fetch land.

The webs. These things are awesome for locking down an opponent’s mana. Tsabo’s Web can be used to keep certain lands tapped, and Mana Web means they really have to budget how and when they tap a land for mana. If they’re saving up their mana for a spell, then it had better be a good one.

Mana tuckers. Plow Under and Fallow Earth.. what, you’ve never heard of them? Frankly, I’m not that surprised. The effect of putting land(s) on top of an opponent’s library are pretty obscure and narrow, but oh are they ever awesome with a Root Maze in play! Just remember: friendships were not made playing Maze of Webs.

Alright, on to the cards I’d considered. Surprisingly, there is a lot of room for brewing here. So what cards did I consider? Ankh of Mishra, Opposition and Parallax Tide were the frontrunners, and were actually in a version I had considered. I don’t care for the reliance on Ankh however, and adding a second colour means can complicate the mana base (we do NOT want fetch lands). There’s certainly potential there though, and if you’re curious about the deck then you should try them out. As always – Happy Brewing!

Maze of Webs

15 Forest

4 Gaea’s Cradle

4 Wasteland

Total: 23

Creatures

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Fyndhorn Elves

4 Quirion Ranger

2 Verdant Force

Total: 14

Spells

4 Root Maze

3 Winter Orb

4 Tsabo’s Web

3 Mana Web

4 Natural Order

1 Fallow Earth

4 Plow Under

Total: 23

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Naturalize

1 Winter Orb

1 Mana Web

2 Hurricane

3 Ice Storm

Cocoa Pebbles

Ahh Cocoa Pebbles: the breakfast of champions. Back in the early days of Magic, deck builders had decided that naming their creations after breakfast cereals was the thing to do. Admittedly, I’m not quite sure of the reason; but I do know that it became a trend that spawned many a combo deck name. Over time, these cereal decks become strong, consistent and relevant.

Let’s start off by identifying the combo in Cocoa Pebbles: Enduring Renewal, Goblin Bombardment and Shield Sphere. Not only do these cards curve nicely into each other - they are also pretty hard to remove. Bombardment and Renewal are both enchantments, which helps limit what kind of removal can be used to destroy them once they hit the battlefield. Shield Sphere is a creature, but its high toughness means it can survive many direct damage spells and even block to buy you some time.

Speaking of creatures, the deck only plays 8 of them: 4 Sphere and 4 Academy Rector (4+4=8). The latter is actually a super star of the deck and the main reason I decided to opt on this style of Pebbles. Allow me to elaborate: I had started the deck with Blue instead of Black as the third colour. The “problem” was that there were so many ways to tutor for the win conditions, that Blue sort of became unnecessary. Another bonus is that Rector not only gets your key win conditions, but it also has a nice interaction with Phyrexian Tower, which allows some ramp as well.

Buying time. Despite being a combo deck, Cocoa Pebbles can take some time to win. The win involves three different cards, one of which costs 4 mana. There were a few different ways that I chose to address this problem: ramp, stall and removal. The ramping is straightforward: 4 Mox Diamond in order to cast spells ASAP. The stall should never be your go-to move, as it involves using Sphere as a blocker – thus putting it in removal danger it would otherwise not be in. The removal attacks both spells and creatures via Swords, Bolt and Duress.

Early on, I had mentioned wrestling with which colour combinations to play in the deck, and must admit that I am not sure that either is more ‘correct’ than the other. In the end, I found the low-ish number of Blue cards were not enough for FoW, which sort of cemented my choice. In the future, I plan on focusing on a more Fruity Pebbles style and perhaps comparing the two more in-depth. I certainly encourage others to try their own other versions before deciding which they prefer. As always – Happy Brewing!

Cocoa Pebbles

Land

4 Scrubland

4 Plateau

4 Flooded Strand

4 Polluted Delta

1 Plains

1 Mountain

3 Ancient Tomb

2 City of Traitors

1 Phyrexian Tower

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Academy Rector

4 Shield Sphere

Total: 8

Spells

4 Enduring Renewal

4 Goblin Bombardment

4 Enlightened Tutor

4 Mox Diamond

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Duress

Total: 28

Sideboard

4 Orim’s Chant

4 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Abeyance

4 Pyroclasm

Survival of the Undead

For a long time, I’d been trying to find a home for Ichorid in Ancient. There’s no denying the card’s awesome, but it’s one of those build-around-me types of awesome that require a lot of synergy built around it. Because Ichorid has a fairly unique ability, it took some time figure out a way to get it right. So how did I finally do it? If you must know, I suggest you continue reading about today’s list: Survival of the Undead.

To the surprise of no one, a deck with Ichorid in it must have (at least) some focus on the graveyard. Despite its unique recursion ability, Ichorid is not the only creature that is able to rise from the grave. As such, I focused on finding other creatures that don’t mind being dead (both for offense and to ensure Ichorid can reliably come into play from the ‘yard). With that problem solved, I shifted my attention to the next challenge of the deck: in a game where you normally want to keep your creatures in play, how do you get them into the graveyard in a way that benefits you and not your opponent?

As I seem to be pointing out obviously awesome build-around-me cards today, allow me to talk about another one: Survival of the Fittest. While the first thing the deck needed was a bunch of creatures with graveyard recursion, the next thing was a reliable way to get them there. SotF is perfect for this, as it actually generates a sort of card advantage when combined with the aforementioned creatures. I felt that the deck wanted another option as well however, to help ensure more reliable opening hands. The solution to this problem was to add a Bottomless Pit to the list. Originally there were more than one, but I decided to lower the number of them because you mostly want to cast it once you are both in top deck mode.

Despite not being a land destruction deck, Survival of the Undead does contain several ways to stifle an opponent’s land count and slow them down. Hymn to Tourach, Pox and Wasteland all act as ways you can [potentially] attack an opponent’s mana resources. Two of them even allow you to do so if their mana comes from a creature, such as Birds of Paradise. Doing so not only gives you more time to grow your graveyard, but it also ensures Bottomless Pit remains relevant throughout the game.

I believe the deck to be pretty self-explanatory, but I want to mention a couple of cards I’d considered that didn’t make the cut. The Abyss is an excellent enchantment, but I thought it to be unnecessary with all of the other ways the deck has to deal with creatures. Strongarm Tactics was another consideration (go ahead, google it), but decided against it as it essentially gives you a 1-for-1 exchange at best. Of the two, The Abyss might well be worth it, and I definitely encourage others to try it out and let me know what you think. Happy Brewing!

Survival of the Undead

Land

8 Swamp

1 Forest

4 Fetchlands

4 Bayou

4 Wasteland

Total: 21

Creatures

4 Ichorid

4 Ashen Ghoul

4 Nether Shadow

1 Nether Spirit

2 Mindslicer

4 Krovikan Horror

Total: 19

Spells

4 Survival of the Fittest

1 Bottomless Pit

3 Pox

4 Innocent Blood

4 Duress

4 Hymn to Tourach

Total: 20

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Naturalize

4 Pernicious Deed

3 Ostracize

UR Welder

One of the funny things about the Urza Block was the reception of its creatures. Despite introducing several of the games’ strongest 1-drops, they went largely unnoticed because of the OTHER cards in the set. Among those creatures was a little gem called Goblin Welder.  Sure, he could be used to counteract Tinker.. but he could also be used to enable his own combos and win you the game. Today we’re going to explore a deck that does just that! Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce UR Welder.

I’ve never been a fan of decks that rely on a single card to win you the game; they just seem too fragile to me. As a result, I often focus on synergy when creating decks that incorporate such win conditions. If the deck can win without it, then adding in a card that does powerful things is just icing on the cake. A lot of welder decks can be pretty narrow, as they often focus on the Welder combo in order to beat down the opponent. So how do you create a deck with lots of artifacts, that doesn’t focus on being an artifact deck? That’s where it can get tricky.

Focus. The deck has a few areas that it tries to focus on. Getting out big threats is certainly one of them, but finding the right pieces and protecting them once they’re in play are equally important (if not more so). With its emphasis on artifacts, I decided to incorporate the colour most often associated with them – Blue. Intuition and Brainstorm both allow you to find these pieces, with the latter also working with Welder to get your expensive artifacts into the graveyard/play. The 1-of Masticore also helps, as its low CMC means you can get it out and working pretty early on.

The mana base. This was actually harder than you might think. How do you balance a deck that plays 2 colours, while including Sol lands to help power out its many artifacts. The short answer is: thank goodness for fetch lands. The combination of Sol lands into the deck allows many cards to be played early in the game. This isn’t just true when it comes to artifacts either, as Intuition can be played on T2 thanks to Tomb/City. Combine that with a T1 Welder and you’ve got yourself a game. They have the added bonus of allowing your own cards to be played with a Sphere or two in play.

Defense. I decided to add Sphere of Resistance for a few reasons – not only does it provide some defense in the form of slowing down your opponents, but it also acts as a cheap source of artifact-ness for your Welder. Mage’s Guile.. need a second to check that up? I don’t blame you. Believe it or not, it actually came down to a decision between Guile and Mana Leak. I ended up choosing Guile because a) you mostly want either of them to protect your creatures, b) it’s not conditional protection and c) it can be cycled for cheap if you want to dig.

So what are you defending? The creatures of course! Goblin Welder should be your go-to for getting creatures into play, but the deck also contains 4 Metalworkers as well. These 2 creatures allow you to play the very high CMC threats of the deck very early on. I decided to go with some variety in which threats I put into the deck, as Welder + graveyard = toolbox (sort of). If you want more consistency however, then it’s definitely worth taking a look at other options. Happy Brewing!

UR Welder

4 Volcanic Island

1 Mountain

1 Island

7 Fetch lands

4 Ancient Tomb

4 City of Traitors

4 Wasteland

Total: 25

4 Goblin Welder

4 Metalworker

2 Phyrexian Colossus

1 Colossus of Sardia

1 Masticore

2 Triskelion

1 Tetravus

Total: 15

4 Intuition

4 Sphere of Resistance

1 Voltaic Key

2 Smokestack

1 Tangle Wire

4 Brainstorm

4 Mage’s Guile

Total: 20

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Pyroblast

2 Red Elemental Blast

2 Chain of Vapor

4 Force of Will

Pandemonium!

Imagine if every creature in your deck was an improved version of Flametongue Kavu. That’d be pretty awesome, right? Since we’re dreaming here, perhaps there are a few things that could improve FTK. If you ask me, the most notable improvements would be a wider range of targets, a cheaper casting cost and/or recursion. Now here’s the really cool part.. you can actually take all of these things into account when designing this deck. I hope you enjoy a bit of chaos in your magic, because we’re about to enter Pandemonium!

To start things off, let’s talk about the namesake linchpin of the deck: Mountain. They’re pretty good lands, which can allow you to cast some sweet spells. In fact, they’re quite important when casting the other key card of the deck: Pandemonium. For 3R, this enchantment enables a creature’s controller to deal damage equal to its power upon entering the battlefield. Sound familiar, FTK? The problem is that both players are able to use this, and thus you must build around the card in order to abuse its potential and gain the advantage over your opponent.

Recursion. This is perhaps the most important aspect of creatures in the deck. Why? Because Pandemonium is dead on its own, so you want creatures you can use again and again in order to overcome the card disadvantage. In fact, almost every creature in the deck returns to your hand for re-use. Viashino Sandstalker and Viashino Sandscout are amazing here, because they offer a high offense at a low mana cost. Imaginary Pet does as well, but it is more of a defensive card that is meant to help buy time. It is good on offense as well however, as it can also be used in conjunction with Pandemonium for some very cheap direct damage.

Power. Remember how I mentioned that almost every creature in the deck has some form of recursion? There is 1 exception, and it is arguably the coolest creature WotC has ever printed: Phyrexian Dreadnought, which is just incredible here. Think about it - that’s [at least] 12 points of damage for 1 (multiple Pandemoniums stack). I also added some Stifles to the package as a sort of alternative win condition, as I didn’t want the Dreadnoughts to be completely dead cards without the enchantment in play.

Considerations. Early on in development, I had initially included Ball Lightning. The card only has a cmc of 3 and is very strong with (or without) Pandemonium in play. In the end however, its RRR mana cost and lack of recursion made me pass on it. I think B. Lightning could have potential however, and would love to see others try it out. Another card I’d considered was Flametongue Kavu, as the amount of value you can get out of him is incredible. I think there are several different avenues for building this deck, and encourage everyone to do some testing of their own. Happy Brewing!

Pandemonium!

Land

1 Island

3 Mountain

4 Volcanic Island

4 Ancient Tomb

1 City of Traitors

7 Fetchlands

4 Wasteland

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Viashino Sandstalker

4 Viashino Sandscout

2 Phyrexian Dreadnought

4 Imaginary Pet

Total: 14

Spells

4 Pandemonium

3 Stifle

4 Brainstorm

4 Mox Diamond

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Fire // Ice

Total: 22

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Blood Moon

4 Force of Will

2 Pyroblast

1 Red Elemental Blast

Where's Wally?

I know what you’re thinking, “Walls? He must be joking”. Quite frankly, I don’t even blame you. When I first started looking into this type of deck, it was admittedly for something more casual. The more I brewed however, the more I realized how much potential it has. Fun, powerful and swingy? Sign me up! While I make no claims that this deck will win your next tournament, it does have some very strong plays and it really CAN win. Intrigued? Let me tell you about Where’s Wally?

In the early days of Magic design, walls were quite prominent in each set. Most of the time, they would offer a high defense for a relatively cheap cost, and could be used to buy a player some time. In other words - they were used to defend the life total as you looked for a win condition. Because of this, I have found the trick to making a deck based on walls is to treat it as a control deck.  The question then becomes, how do I win with a deck focused on defending?

Believe it or not, the main problem with making a deck based on walls is not finding a win condition - it has plenty of those. Both Animate Wall and Rolling Stones are white enchantments that let your walls go on the offensive. Ageless Sentinels is another option, as it need only defend a creature in order to be able to attack on its own. So where’s the problem, right?

The issue is that these win conditions do nothing on their own, and thus you create a sort of card disadvantage by having so many of them in your deck. To help get around that, I included Wall of Blossoms and Wall of Mulch. Blossoms lets you draw a card when it hits the battlefield and Mulch is exceptional when you are going to lose a Wall anyway and want to replace it. These provide the defense you expect in the deck while creating the opportunities for card advantage.

Red. I had actually considered focusing more on Red throughout the building process, but eventually decided against it. The main reason for this is because of the nature of the deck – a long and controlling-type. So why even think about focusing on more power-based cards at all? I had initially considered the potential of both Fling and Glyph of Destruction. They are incredibly strong together, and offer some very fast win conditions. I found however, that they were too situational and dependent on one another. I do believe the colour itself offers a lot of possibilities however, and encourage others to try their hand at designing their own decks around it. Happy Brewing!

Where’s Wally?

Land

4 Plateau

4 Savannah

1 Plains

1 Forest
1 Mountain

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Windswept Heath

4 Wasteland

Total: 23

Creatures

3 Sunweb

4 Wall of Blossoms

4 Wall of Mulch

2 Ageless Sentinels

4 Tinder Wall

Total: 17

Spells

4 Rolling Stones

4 Animate Wall

4 Regrowth

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Lightning Bolt

Total: 20

Sideboard

2 Pyroclasm

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Orim’s Chant

4 Pyroblast

1 City of Solitude

Solifaerity

“Solidarity, my brothers and sisters – together, we are mightier than our enemy.” It sounds like a line from a pretty awesome movie, right? In this case, it would be about a group of faeries who are working together to win a card game. Geez, maybe I should stop writing about Magic and start on some Hollywood blockbusters! But nah, this is way more fun. Today’s deck actually took quite a bit of play-testing and tweaking before I was ready to write about it. Any deck that combines the satisfaction of tight play with the spice of chance is bound to be fun. So with that in mind, let’s talk about Solifaerity.

Solifaerity is an iteration of the High Tide decks that have been around for a very long time. While some might see it as a sort of budget option, I found that the use of certain cards actually enabled it to play superior ones. Let me explain that.. because I chose to use Cloud of Faeries instead of Reset in this deck, I was then able to use Sleight of Hand over Opt or Peek. Since the deck wants to win on your own turn, the Instant speed is no longer necessary, thus allowing you to play the better card(s). I admit that I was tempted to use Peek though, and some might want to, simply because knowing your opponent’s hand can be very valuable in terms of choosing when to go for the win. In fact, I put one in the sideboard as a Wish target for this very reason.

The name Solifaerity isn’t just because it’s an awesome pun – Cloud of Faeries really does have a large effect on the deck. Not only does it affect when you want to win, but it also gives cards such as Snap some extra utility. For example, if you have a bunch of mana in your pool, you can Snap back Faeries and Cycle them to dig for more business. Another thing they can do? Block. But only use them for this when it is absolutely necessary, ok?

Speaking of business, let’s get down to it - how to play the deck. There are a couple of ways to win with Solifaerity, and they can be somewhat complicated. Essentially, you want to either generate a ton of mana and win via Stroke of Genius OR generate a huge storm count and win via Brain Freeze. The good news is that the way you do either of these things are by generating lots of mana via High Tides and drawing lots of spells. In other words: fun!

Alright then - the ‘how’. High Tide enables you to generate a ton of mana, but it works with a lot of cards to do this. Turnabout, Cloud of Faeries and Time Spiral all allow you to untap your lands to re-tap them for mana. This is done to both create mana and cast more spells. You always want a Time Spiral and/or a Meditate, as these allow you to draw more cards and continue the combo going for more mana generation. Cunning Wish is also a major player, as it allows the toolbox utility of your sideboard (this is also a reason there is a Meditate in the SB, just in case).

Comparison to decks that use Reset. Many people consider the strength of those decks to be that you may cast the win con in response to something such as a hoser. I find that Reset can also be a limitation however, as you can only cast it at certain times. Because of this, I think that both versions are viable strategies. Merchant Scroll does make Opt tempting though, so it can be a tough choice. I am not opposed to writing about a Reset-style deck in the future, but feel free to try your hand at both and see which you prefer. Happy Brewing!

Solifaerity

Land

10 Island

7 Fetchlands

Total: 17

Creatures

4 Cloud of Faeries

Total: 4

Spells

4 High Tide

3 Meditate

4 Force of Will

4 Brainstorm

4 Impulse

3 Cunning Wish

4 Time Spiral

4 Sleight of Hand

3 Turnabout

4 Merchant Scroll

1 Stroke of Genius

1 Snap

Total: 39

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Stroke of Genius

1 Brain Freeze

2 Snap

1 Meditate

1 Rebuild

2 Chain of Vapor

1 Counterspell

1 Opt

1 Peek