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