Eva Green

It’s funny – I often have several articles started, but find it hard deciding which deck I want to post next. I’ve considered requests/ideas in the past, but I enjoy waiting for cards to arrive in the mail so I can playtest a deck before writing about it. Today’s deck didn’t have to wait however, as I already have 73/75 of the cards (and the 2 I don’t are in the sideboard). This is a colour combination I’ve wanted to write about for a while and, as previously mentioned, have several articles started that use them. I finally decided on this deck however, as I’m pretty sure it’s the one I started putting together first; and because it’s just a lot of fun to play. So, without further ado, let’s talk about the hottest deck in Magic – Eva Green.

What’s a bit strange about today’s ensemble is that it actually led to the demise of another deck I’ve already written about: Red Death. That’s not entirely fair however, as the real culprit was actually our ‘friend’ Tarmogoyf. Now I know what you’re thinking - if Tarmogoyf’s to blame then Eva Green must not be good without it. That’s simply not true - Werebear was bearing arms before Tarmogoyf was ever printed. In fact, when ‘goyf premiered, people actually argued against replacing the bear with him. Those people were clearly wrong as we all know, but that doesn’t mean Werebear’s not a good card. Its use of Threshold is shared by another creature in the deck, and is easily achieved thanks to Eva’s Rituals, hand disruption and mana denial. With these, you should have no problem getting 7+ cards in your graveyard fairly quickly. Bear can also ramp your mana, which is not irrelevant in such a mana hungry deck. Another ‘forgotten’ beater of the past is Nantuko Shade. Think of Shade as an upgrade to the old pump knights - he costs less mana to pump, and offers protection to himself in the form of +1/+1 instead of +1/+0. Shade is actually one of your best win conditions as he can get very big, and makes Rituals you might draw later quite valuable.

Tempo. Sharing an archetype does not mean sharing a strategy. Because this deck can be quite mana hungry, it does not play the same as other tempo decks such as RUG. For example, without access to Red’s direct damage, it means all of your win conditions are creatures. It also means that your creature removal does only that: remove creatures. Eva Green does have some advantages that R does not however – it offers a lot of discard spells, along with added mana denial for the opponent and mana ramp for yourself. The latter makes playing threats much faster, which is exactly what you want to do. Despite being different, the deck does exactly what a tempo deck should: drops an early threat and denies your opponent resources as you beat them down and win.

The deck has a bunch of different win conditions, along with numerous ways to control your opponent. I had considered adding Unmask and/or Contagion, but eventually decided against them. Both are ‘free’ spells you can use to remove the opponent’s hand/creatures, but I thought the 4 Snuff Out provided enough card disadvantage in the name of tempo. Admittedly, I think we could shave off a couple of creatures and put in some more tempo spells, however I’m not sure these are the cards to use. Sylvan Library is also a card. Then again, who knows? Try tinkering with the deck and find what works for you. Happy Brewing!

Eva Green

Land

4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Bayou
4 Swamp

1 Forest

1 Cabal Coffers

4 Wasteland

Total: 22

4 Werebear
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Nimble Mongoose
1 Carnophage

Total: 17

Spells

4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Snuff Out
1 Rancor

Total: 21

Sideboard

4 Choke

4 Pernicious Deed

4 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Naturalize

Total: 15

Mono U Tempo

“Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s.. a reasonably costed blue flier!” I’ve decided to call this deck Mono U Tempo, but it didn’t start out that way. Originally, I had been researching Faerie Stompy as an old archetype that I wanted to bring back. Upon further study however, I discovered that there was no version of the deck that didn’t use equipment. As I was searching through old lists of cards for another deck, I also stumbled upon Blue Skies - something very similar to Faerie Stompy, which I believe to be a re-named variant. I took cards that were used in both, and developed a strategy that I found via their sideboards. Allow me to explain..

Modern day tempo strategies are pretty straightforward: deploy a big enough threat early on - then protect it/control your opponent as you beat them down for the win. Pretty simple, right? So how do you do this in Mono U, when the creatures were actually pretty fair? There’s actually a few ways. The first is the use of Mox Diamond and Sol lands (Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors). These allow you access to 3 mana on turn 1. Blue didn’t have high power 1-drop creatures, but 3-cost’s a different story. Diamonds and Sol lands are also valuable in another way: their synergy with Winter Orb. If the other player can only untap a land that produces 1-mana, as you can untap both artifact mana and a sol land, you’re creating a pretty big advantage. Winter Orb is one of those cards where, if a deck has been built around it is facing a deck that hasn’t, the former can have a serious advantage over the latter.

Ok, now on to the creatures. Your ideal turn 1 is to land a Sea Drake or a Serendib Efreet. Drake hits for 1 more, but Efreet can survive a bolt so I’m not going to say one is always better than the other. Rishadan Airship doesn’t have the toughness of either, but it can hit for 3 and so it can draw a surprising amount of removal. Cloud of Faeries can also be pretty amazing, as it can allow 2 creatures to be played on 2 lands, or even just dropping it for some damage and then having mana open for your opponent’s turn. Lastly, the 2 Man-o-War are awesome ways to create tempo, especially when combined with Winter Orb.

So what did I change from the original two decks? Quite a bit actually. First, I raised the land count because the deck uses Mox Diamond instead of Chrome Mox. I also decided to go the Winter Orb route because of the various ways to untap and/or return land to my hand. I also want to point out that the original versions both played equipment and Chalice - Winter Orb and Psionic Blast are meant to give the deck some reach and control over the spells they can and can’t (or rather should or shouldn’t) play.

The deck has a bit more of a tempo-control feel than I had originally planned. You want to land a threat fast, then ride out the free spells/land trickery as you beat them down for the win. Winter Orb was always an awesome card when there were ways around the drawback – Mono U Tempo tries to do the same thing here. I encourage everyone to tinker with the deck, and see what works for them. As always – Happy Brewing!

Mono U Tempo

Land

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
9 Island
5 Fetch lands

Total: 23

Creatures

4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Sea Drake

3 Rishadan Airship

2 Man-o-War

Total: 17

Spells

4 Mox Diamond
4 Force of Will

4 Daze
4 Brainstorm
1 Psionic Blast

3 Winter Orb

Total: 20

Sideboard

3 Misdirection
4 Tormod's Crypt
1 Old Man of the Sea
2 Powder Keg

2 Snap

1 Psionic Blast

2 Submerge

Total: 15