12 months, 12 decks (IX) Thrulls! EC

Preface

The little thrull trudged clumsily, dragging its furry body up the damp, moldy stone steps that spiraled down. Suddenly there was a piercing scream coming from the dungeon and a litany that grew in intensity until the steps ended in what seemed to be a cavernous room. The thrull stuck its little hairy head out, and with its yellowish lemur eyes it observed a human from behind dressed in a dark tunic, who held a knife with a wavy blade in his left hand and from his right hand, swinging upside down, hung a being. with a hairy appearance and lemur eyes, whom he recognized as his breeding brother. The human, whose face he couldn’t see, sang now with more force: «For Tourach, for Tourach», his brother screamed, a cry that was drowned out by the knife that penetrated his throat spilling a green liquid and thick; this lump fell into the depth of the well from which gray mists of mana emanated, then fell the sacrificed thrull. The little thrull also screamed when he saw him fall into that hole as if it were a sack of debris, frightened he perceived the danger, especially when the human, a wizard with bright eyes and a long gray beard turned around, looked at him and exclaimed between laughs: «Welcome!».
What little survival instinct the creature still had made it back off, but the steps that were so easy to climb down recently were now difficult to climb with its short legs. He squealed like a weanling piglet when he felt a hand grabbing hard at the scruff of his back.
«Stay still, it will only be a moment,» the sorcerer said before beginning to sing again for Tourach.
The last thing the nameless little thrull saw was his terrified face reflected in the curved knife edge.

–From Endrek Sahr, Sarpadian Empires, vol. II

Thrulls!

Introduction

Hello again, old school people! Some time ago I wrote about one of my fetish expansions in the world of Magic: Fallen Empires, a expansion that was characterized by its «tribal» theme, which until then had not been so exploited in the game, and among those tribes were the thrulls, spawn bred through dark arts to be slaves to the Order of the Ebon Hand, and to be used in sacrifices.
I’ve always wanted to build a thrull deck that would at least work, not be competitive, but I also didn’t want to just throw together every thrull that was out there. Is not the first deck of thrulls that has been made, far from it. I think the deck is based on a very interesting concept: being able to play six or seven «Bad Moons» to turn your harmless thrulls into a terrifying army, let’s check it out!

The thrulls

There are in old school up to seven thrulls creatures that we can choose, for the moment we are going to discard Derelor that, perhaps is the best of them, but in a monoblack deck it is complicated to play it, instead it shines in multicolor decks with a small splash to black.

Armor Thrull is the weakest of the eligibles, since for three mana it’s weak and its ability isn’t good

next on the list is Necrite, which improves a bit in terms of ability but doesn’t reach the bar of its first cousin: Mindstab Thrull

that has gained a certain respect since from turn one many decks have to get rid of it or they will lose three cards along the way, so the card advantage it generates is something to take into account.

Thrull Wizard is almost as bad as Armor Thrull but it can be a sideboard card if you sense that a lot of black is going to be played in your local metagame, but I would only play it if it was accompanied by Sinkhole, although beware careful with decks with splash to black that this card can ruin your plans;

Thrull Champion, our Bad Moon with legs, is a lord that gives that plus to himself, something that doesn’t happen with other Old School lords, in this deck will be essential, and the ability to steal other thrulls is funny but difficult to activate; and let’s go with the penultimate in the list and together with Mindstab the base of the deck,

Basal Thrull, it doesn’t look like much at first glance but it’s the thrull that comes into play earlier (if you don’t cast Mindstab with Dark Ritual) and its ramp ability will help us for a more lethal Mind Twist or to lower the lord earlier, and if there was a cost one thrull in old school it would be the most playable as I consider this deck an aggro deck and the earlier you cast your creatures the better.

And the last thrull, which is not a thrull exactly, but an enchantment: Breeding Pit. The small detail that the 0/1 thrull enters at the end of the turn makes the card go from being bad to playable, the inconvenience of paying in each of your upkeep is not so much and you will have every turn an infinite blocker or, if the opponent lets the table flooded with small annoying creatures, then we can swell them with our bad moons.

Deck concept

• The deck is based on the premise of playing six, seven or even eight moons (Bad Moon + Thrull Champion) that boost your creatures from being small thrulls to being super thrulls! It won’t be uncommon for your Basal Thrull to be 3/4 creatures.
• I play four Dark Ritual, like many Monoblack decks, so far nothing out of the ordinary, but we know that the Ritual is a horrible card to top deck, luckily here we will have enough turn one objectives to make it a better card, because not only we have the four Hippies, but we also have the four Mindstab Thrull that the more I play them the more I like them, because in the end it happens the same as with the specter, they have to eliminate it because if not they run out of cards, and then it will be easier to finish it off with our The Rack.
• The mana base is typical of so many mono blacks decks we see in old school. Sixteen black sources to be able to have the double black turn two almost assured. The four Strip Mines and the four mandatory Mishras. Library of Alexandria doesn’t go well in this deck, because there will be games where you will be left with four cards in hand at the start of the game, so it’s not profitable, and it is not convenient to put more colorless sources.
• Sideboarding: Gloom is an essential card to slow down many of our worst pairings, Terror is the perfect card to deal with Erhnam, Serra or Sedge Troll style fatties; Drain Life will help us to hold against red, the second Breeding Pit together with Greed and Disrupting are good against control, disks are necessary against strategies that play The Abyss, Moat or many artifacts.
• There are some cards that can be taken into consideration, such as Gate to Phyrexia, which is an interesting card and that we can take advantage of thanks to the Breeding Pit, playing only one in main is risky to play it as a base, but as a sideboard card I see it useful. Tourach’s Gate, having the thrull theme deserves at least mention it, it doesn’t go well with Breeding Pit because if there is no moon / Champion at that time your little thrulls will be mutilated, but the worst thing is that in a format with four Strip Mines you risk getting an easy 2×1 for having to enchant land, in a format with a quarry I see more future. Aeolipile can be used to kill creatures with protection against black, such as the dreaded Whirling Dervish. Greed: the deck lacks a draw engine and bases its strategy on getting the card advantage by discarding the opponent, but against control decks it’s a very powerful card that will get us out of more than one jam.
  Soul Exchange may seem a priori an auto-includable card in a deck of thrulls, especially when those thrulls can be sacrificed to generate an effect, but there are few slots in the deck and it has several conditions to play with a creature on the battlefield and in the graveyard at the same time, so if you don’t meet any of these conditions it can be a dead card in hand and that in a deck with little draw engine isn’t good.
  Thrull Retainer, another of the thrull-themed cards I’ve always wanted to play but haven’t found a deck for, this one is not it. I think it’s a card that can shine in decks where creatures have evasion or are hard to kill, and attaching this enchantment to them would be a survival bonus, or with some main disk. Royal Assassin + Icy Manipulator, in one of the previous versions I played I added this combo because I saw that the deck was lacking removal, but although it’s a good idea I preferred to be more direct and play it to have more creatures, and it worked better.

Conclusion

Playing thrulls is always fun, if you’re tired of playing the typical version of knights in Monoblack this may be an option. You can leave me your comments, ideas, suggestions or opinions here or, if you prefer, on my Instagram account: @retroplayermtg
Until next time!

12 meses, 12 mazos (IX) Thrulls! EC

Prefacio

El pequeño thrull caminó con torpeza arrastrando su cuerpo peludo por los escalones de piedra húmeda y mohosa que descendían en espiral. De repente se escuchó un chillido desgarrador que provenía de la mazmorra y una letanía que iba creciendo en intensidad hasta que los escalones terminaron en lo que parecía ser una estancia cavernosa. El thrull asomó su cabezita peluda, y con sus ojos de lemur amarillentos observó a un humano de espaldas ataviado con una túnica oscura, que sostenía un cuchillo de ondulada hoja en la mano izquierda y de la mano derecha, balanzeandose boca abajo, colgaba un ser de aspecto peludo y ojos de lemur, al que reconoció como su hermano de criadero. El humano, al cual no podía ver la cara, cantó ahora con más fuerza: «Por Tourach, por Tourach», su hermano thrull emitió un chillido, que quedó ahogado por el cuchillo que penetró en su garganta derramando un liquido verde y espeso; este grumo cayó en la profundidad del pozo del cual emanaban grises neblinas de maná, después cayó el thrull sacrificado. El pequeño thrull también chilló al verlo caer a aquel agujero como si de un saco de despojos se tratara, asustado percibió el peligro, sobre todo cuando el humano, un hechicero de ojos brillantes y larga barba gris se dio la vuelta, le miró y exclamó entre carcajadas: «¡Bienvenido!».
El poco instinto de supervivencia que aún le quedaba a la criatura le hizo retroceder pero, los escalones que hace poco eran tan fáciles de bajar, ahora costaban subir con sus cortas patas. Chilló como un lechón destetado cuando notó una mano agarrándole con fuerza del pellejo de la espalda.
«Quieto, será solo un momento», dijo el hechicero antes de empezar a cantar de nuevo por Tourach.
Lo último que vio el pequeño thrull sin nombre fue su rostro de terror reflejado en el filo del cuchillo curvo.

–De Endrek Sahr, Sarpadian Empires, vol. III

Introducción

¡Hola de nuevo, gente del old school! Hace tiempo escribí sobre una de mis expansiones fetiches en el mundo de Magic: Fallen Empires, una colección que se caracterizó por su temática «tribal», que hasta entonces no había sido tan explotada en el juego, y entre esas tribus se encontraban los thrulls, engendros criados mediante artes oscuras para ser esclavos de la Order of the Ebon Hand y ser usados en sacrificios.
Siempre he querido diseñar un mazo de thrulls que, al menos, funcionara, no ya que fuera competitivo, pero tampoco quería juntar todos los thrulls que existieran y ya está. Tampoco es el primer mazo de thrulls que se hace, ni mucho menos. Creo que el mazo se basa en un concepto muy interesante: el poder jugar seis o siete lunas para convertir a tus inofensivos thrulls en un pavoroso ejército, ¡vamos a comprobarlo!

Thrulls!

Los thrulls

Hay en old school hasta siete criaturas thrulls que podemos elegir, de momento vamos a descartar Derelor que, quizás sea el mejor de ellos, pero en una baraja mononegra es complicado jugarlo, en cambio luce en mazos multicolor con un pequeño splash a negro.

Armor Thrull es el más flojo de los elegibles, ya que por tres manas es débil y su habilidad no es buena.

El siguiente en la lista es Necrite, que mejora un poco en cuanto a habilidad pero no llega al listón de su primo hermano: Mindstab Thrull.

que sí que se ha ganado cierto respeto ya que de turno uno muchos mazos se lo tienen que quitar de en medio o perderán tres cartas por el camino, con lo que la ventaja de cartas que genera es para tenerla en cuenta.

Thrull Wizard es casi tan malo como Armor pero puede ser una carta de banquillo si intuyes que se va a jugar mucho negro en tu metajuego, pero solo lo jugaría si fuera acompañado de Sinkhole, aunque cuidado con los mazos con splash a negro que esta carta puede arruinar sus planes;

Thrull Champion, nuestra Luna Maligna con patas, es un lord que se da ese plus a sí mismo, algo que no pasa con otros lords de Old School, en este mazo será imprescindible, y la habilidad de robar otros thrulls es graciosa aunque difícil de activar; y vamos con el penúltimo en la lista y junto al Mindstab la base de la baraja,

Basal Thrull, no parece gran cosa a simple vista pero es el thrull que entra antes en juego (si no lanzas el Mindstab con Dark Ritual) y su habilidad de rampeo nos ayudará para un Mind Twist más letal o para bajar antes el lord, y si hubiera un thrull de coste uno en old school sería el más jugable ya que considero este mazo un mazo aggro y cuanto antes bajes tus criaturas mejor.

Y el último thrull, que no es un thrull exactamente, sino un encantamiento: Breeding Pit. El pequeño detalle de que el thrull 0/1 entre al final del turno hace que la carta pase de ser mala a ser jugable, el inconveniente de pagar en cada uno de tus mantenimientos no es tanto y tendrás todos los turnos un blocker infinito o, si el oponente deja que la mesa se inunde de pequeñas criaturas molestas, luego las podremos hinchar con nuestras lunas malignas.

El mazo

• El mazo se basa en la premisa de jugar seis, siete o hasta ocho lunas (Bad Moon + Thrull Champion) que potencien tus criaturas y ya no sean pequeños thrulls si no que sean ¡super thrulls! No será extraño que tus Basal Thrull sean criaturas 3/4.
  Juego cuatro Dark Ritual, como muchos mazos Monoblack, hasta aquí nada fuera de lo normal, pero sabemos que el Ritual es una carta horrible al top deck, por suerte aquí vamos a tener bastantes objetivos de turno uno para convertirla en mejor carta, ya que no solo tenemos los cuatro Hippies, si no que también tenemos los cuatro Mindstab Thrull que cuanto más los juego más me gustan, porque al final sucede igual que con el espectro, tienen que eliminarlo porque si no se quedan sin cartas, y luego será más fácil rematar con nuestros The Rack.
• La base de maná es la típica de tantas mononegras que vemos en old school. Dieciséis fuentes negras para poder tener el doble negro de turno dos casi asegurado. Las cuatro canteras y las cuatro Mishras obligatorias. Library of Alexandria no va bien en este mazo, porque habrá partidas que te quedes con cuatro cartas en mano iniciando la partida, con lo que no renta, y no es conveniente meter más fuentes incoloras.
• Gloom es una carta imprescindible para ralentizar a muchos de nuestros peores pairings, Terror es la carta perfecta para lidiar contra fatties estilo Erhnam, Serra o Sedge Troll; Drain Life nos ayudará a aguantar contra rojo, el segundo Breeding Pit acompañado de Greed y Disrupting son buenos contra control, los discos son necesarios contra estrategias que jueguen The Abyss, Moat o muchos artefactos.
• Hay algunas cartas que se pueden tener en consideración, como Gate to Phyrexia, que es una carta interesante y que podemos aprovechar gracias a los Breeding Pit, al jugar solo uno de main pues es arriesgado jugarla de base, pero de banquillo sí que lo veo útil.
  Tourach´s Gate, al tener la temática thrull se merece por lo menos mencionarla, no va bien con Breeding Pit porque si no hay luna / Champion en ese momento tus pequeños thrulls serán mutilados, pero lo peor es que en un formato con cuatro canteras te arriesgas a que te hagan un 2×1 fácil por tener que encantar tierra, en un formato con una cantera le veo más futuro.
  Aeolipile puede servirnos para matar criaturas con protección contra negro, como el temido Whirling Dervish.
  Greed: el mazo carece de motor de robo y basa su estrategia en conseguir la ventaja de cartas al descartar al contrario, pero contra mazos de control es una carta muy potente que nos sacará de más de un atolladero.
  Soul Exchange puede parecer a priori una carta autoincluible en un mazo de thrulls, y más cuando esos thrulls se pueden sacrificar para generar un efecto, pero hay pocos huecos en el mazo y tiene varios condicionantes al tener que jugar con criatura en el campo de batalla y en el cementerio a la vez, con lo que si no cumples alguna de estas condiciones puede ser carta muerta en mano y eso en un mazo con poco motor de robo no es bueno.
  Thrull Retainer, otra de las cartas con temática thrull que siempre he querido jugar pero para la que no he encontrado mazo, este que estamos diseccionando no lo es. Creo que es una carta que puede brillar en mazos en los que las criaturas tienen evasión o son dificiles de matar, y anexionarles este encantamiento sería un plus de supervivencia, o con algun disco de main.
  Royal Assassin + Icy Manipulator, en una de las versiones previas que jugué añadí este combo porque veía que el mazo estaba falto de removal, pero aunque es buena idea preferí ser más directo y jugármela a tener más criaturas, y funcionó mejor.

Conclusión

Jugar thrulls siempre es divertido, si te has cansado de jugar la típica versión de caballeros en Monoblack esta puede ser una opción. Puedes dejarme tus comentarios, ideas, sugerencias u opiniones por aquí o, si lo prefieres, en mi cuenta de Instagram: @retroplayermtg
¡Hasta la próxima entrega!

12 meses, 12 mazos (VIII) Titania Combo 7pts

Introducción

¡Hola de nuevo, Old Schoolers! Volvemos con una nueva entrega del reto #12meses12mazos. En esta ocasión hablaremos de una de mis win condition favoritas: Titania´s Song. Creo que es una de las formas más elegantes que existen en old school para finalizar junto a la de «millear» la biblioteca del contrario, ¡y esta vez tenemos las dos en el mismo mazo!
Podríamos resumir que la estrategia consiste en frenar el juego del rival y controlar la mesa gracias a los muchos artefactos que tenemos para, llegado el momento, lanzar el dulce canto de Titania y que arrase con todo de un golpe fulminante. Y fue gracias al sabio consejo de mi amigo Joserra que el mazo tomó un rumbo sorprendente, y añadiendo solo dos cartas lo convertía en un mazo de combo con una segunda win condition. Veamos todo en su conjunto.

Titania 7pts Singleton 93/94 Old School

Debate

• Lo primero en lo que vamos a fijarnos es en la elección de puntos, donde encontramos mucha competencia. Si algo diferencia a 7pts Singleton 93/94 Old School, aparte de que es un formato singleton, es que no vas a poder meter las mejores cartas a tu antojo, si no que tienes que estrujarte el cerebro para saber cuáles son las cartas a incluir. La primera decisión es elegir qué colores jugar. Es evidente que el verde tiene que ser uno de ellos porque Titania`s Song, carta sobre la que gira la estrategia, es verde. Si nos fijamos en la carta clave de la segunda condición de victoria –Power Artifact–, comprobamos que es azul, así que tenemos el segundo color. Elegí el blanco por poseer los mejores anti-criaturas del formato, Balance, Swords to Plowshares y Wrath of God, aunque podríamos elegir el negro por Demonic Tutor y The abyss, o el rojo por Fireball y Disintegrate pero, como tendríamos que escoger obligados Braingeyser –o eso pienso yo– pues ya no nos dan los puntos para incluir todas las cartas que quisiéramos. Con esto ya tenemos los colores con los que vamos a jugar: UGW, y entre estos colores hay muchas cartas sobre las que podemos invertir los siete puntos.

• Dentro del azul tenemos Timetwister, Control Magic, Mana Drain, etc. Pero de momento vamos a asegurarnos Braingeyser y Recall, que serán imprescindibles en nuestra estrategia: 4 puntos. El blanco nos ofrece Balance y Moat, pero este ultimo debemos descartarlo porque invalida nuestra principal win condition, que es matar con Titania´s Song. Land Tax no va bien si nuestra curva es grande o no tenemos los suficientes aceleradores. Apuntamos Balance por un puntito más, sin duda una de las mejores cartas de Magic. Llevamos 5 puntos gastados. El verde nos proporciona Regrowth, Sylvan Library o Channel, muy interesantes las tres, de momento anotemos Regrowth, ya que al igual que Recall, las cartas de nuestro cementerio serán muy importantes. LLevamos seis puntos gastados, solo nos queda un punto… hay que elegir bien. Echemos un vistazo a las cartas incoloras. Los mazos tradicionales de Titania Prison llevan Winter Orb por aquello de jugar varios Icy Manipulator y Relic Barrier pero aquí, con una copia de cada, parece bastante arriesgado porque vamos a necesitar mucho maná libre para usar nuestros artefactos. La pedrería se nos va de puntos, así que vamos a pasar a las tierras, y nos encontramos con Maze of Ith, Karakas y Mishra´s Workshop, esta última podría ser una buena elección ya que jugamos muchos artefactos. Karakas es buena si tenemos alguna leyenda con la que interactuar al estilo de Rasputín, Stangg o Hazezon Tamar, pero, si no, no merece la pena llevarla, y llegamos a Maze of Ith, y aquí entramos en una disyuntiva, porque hemos dejado anteriormente en el tintero Sylvan Library, motor de robo importante, pero el laberinto nos ayuda a aguantar esos turnos hasta que llegue Titania, y aquí es ya decisión de cada uno, las tres cartas son validas para la estrategia pero solo puede entrar una, yo me decanté por Sylvan Library porque es un motor de robo barato que con suerte puedes bajarlo de turno 2, y combina bien con Mirror Universe, Skull of Orms, Jalum Tome, o Howling Mine, nos ayuda a profundizar en la baraja para encontrar las piezas del combo. Otra opción sería quitar Braingeyser y tendríamos puntos libres, para, por ejemplo, incluir Workshop y Maze, pero Braingeyser en este formato es Dios, cuando tu oponente tiene una carta y tu robas seis, la ventaja de cartas que proporciona es apabullante y, por si fuera poco, nos sirve como finisher con el combo de Power Monolith. Así que ya hemos configurado nuestros puntos, una decisión que como veis no es asunto baladí, de hecho, aquí empieza el juego.

Titania en acción

• El concepto en el que se basa el mazo es en desarrollar nuestro juego acumulando la mayor cantidad de recursos y controlando la mesa con ellos, hasta que juguemos una Titania´s Song letal, incluyendo una segunda condición de victoria que nos permita combar a nuestro oponente sin necesidad de atacarle con una criatura. Puedes combar bien deckeando con Braingeyser, o ganando vidas infinitas con Alabaster Potion, o haciendo infinitos daños con Rocket Launcher. Para llegar a esto necesitamos que el mazo tenga elementos que nos ayuden a robar, acelerar, y controlar. Como solo vamos a tener una carta de cada, no podemos meter dos Wrath of God, así que las cartas recursivas serán vitales. Power Artifact y Titania son encantamientos así que Skull of Orms debe entrar en la estrategia por si estas fueran al cementerio. Balance no solo nos quitará criaturas si no que podrá limpiar la mano del rival, porque nosotros no tenemos que preocuparnos por quedarnos cartas en mano, ya que no jugamos counters, podemos desarrollar nuestro juego hasta que robemos una Balance y limpiemos mesa y mano… imaginaos una Balance o Wrath of God y después, en el mismo turno, Titania… vamos a ver algunos trucos más:
• Disrupting Scepter nos resulta una carta molesta, pero si tenemos la calavera en juego podemos anularla, subimos a la mano siempre el mismo encantamiento en respuesta a su activación y así robar carta nueva.
• Ring of Maruf es uno de nuestros tutores, y si lo copiamos con Copy Artifact puede ser doble tutor.
• Mirror Universe es una tercera pseudo-win condition porque si vamos mal de vidas y conseguimos intercambiarlo a tiempo quizás podamos matar con Rocket Launcher o con un simple Aeolipile, o incluso con Mishra´s Factory.
• Refiriéndome a esta última, antes decía que no teníamos criaturas pero sí tenemos una, Mishra´s Factory, y la incluyo por una razón, y es que habrá ocasiones en las que tengamos bloqueado al oponente con Nova Pentacle, y para que pueda matarnos con una bola de fuego o similar tendrá que matar antes a sus propias criaturas y ahí entra en juego la factoría que ante esas situaciones se podrá convertir en criatura para poder redirigir el daño con Nova Pentacle.
• Power Artifact no solo sirve para dar maná infinito con Basalt Monolith, también puedes usarlo en otros artefactos, por ejemplo Rocket Launcher. Si has conseguido intercambiar las vidas con Mirror Universe lo lógico es que el oponente tenga menos vidas, y con el Rocket cada maná que tengas cuenta como un punto de daño así que si tienes muchas tierras puedes usarlo como si fuera una Fireball, o incluso mejor, porque si realizas el truco del Launcher harás el doble de daños. Es lento, pero para la velocidad del formato está bien.
• Si juegas a la vez Weakstone y Bone Flute ya verás cómo controlas a las barajas weenies, combinación por la que el mazo se ganó el sobrenombre de mazo «perro-flauta» entre la comunidad madrileña.
• Si tienes en mesa Skull of Orms y Chaos Orb o Aeolipile y vas a jugar Copy Artifact, con maná suficiente puedes copiar continuamente estos artefactos y subirte cada turno el encantamiento a la mano con la calavera.

Aka «Perro-Flauta»

Posibles cartas

Drop of Honey, Arboria, Urzatron, Aladdin´s Ring, Amulet of Kroog, Fountain of Youth, Control Magic, Steal Artifact, Counterspell, Desert twister, Flood, Círculos, Jade Statue, Knowledge Vault, Meekstone, Ring of Immortals, Ring of Renewal, Stone Calendar, Urza´s Miter, Forcefield, Baterías azul y blanca… la lista es larga, vamos a poner la lupa sobre los más relevantes:

• Probé Drop of Honey y no me disgustó pero creo que no es el sustituto de The Abyss, porque al saltar el trigger en tu mantenimiento siempre existirá la posibilidad de que te ataquen antes al menos una vez; me pareció extremadamente lenta.
• Arboria no es la carta que buscamos para defendernos ya que al tener que desarrollar siempre nuestro juego no la vamos a poder activar nunca, descartada.
• Fountain of Youth y similares. Hay diversos artefactos que nos ayudan a ganar vidas, como la fuente, Amulet of Kroog, o Conservatorio, estos dos últimos van bien con Titania, pero al final no había hueco para todo, y no tienen sinergia con Mirror Universe.
• Steal Artifact es una carta interesante que se puede probar y que funciona bien con la calavera.
• Counterspell; al principio jugaba un counter pero nosotros no podemos estar «guardando maná», tenemos que usar todo el maná cada turno si fuera necesario, preferí el plan de desarrollar nuestro juego sin preocuparnos de lo que hiciera el rival, además todos estos descartes se pueden incluir en el «banquillo» de Ring of Maruf.
• Los círculos prefiero incluirlos en ese «banquillo» del que hablábamos, ya que jugarlos de base me parece arriesgado en el sentido de que serán carta muerta en la mitad de las partidas.
• Jade Statue estaba en la primera versión que jugué. Se pueden hacer muchas travesuras con ella, con Balance y con Wrath of God, pero acabé quitándola por el tema de que se comía los removals que el oponente se dejaba en mano, esto es un tema interesante a tratar, ya que nosotros no tenemos criaturas –solo una Mishra´s Factory– y los robos del rival van a ser peores porque cada removal que robe será carta muerta, y con ello un turno perdido. Así que decidí llevar cero criaturas para que eso sucediera y puedo decir que funcionó.
• Jugué Knowledge Vault en las versiones iniciales, pero me di cuenta de que esta no era su estrategia, ya que se podía dar la situación de tener una de las piezas del combo en la mano y la otra debajo del artefacto, y si te jugaban un removal al artefacto estabas «obligado» a activarlo, con lo que siempre existía el riesgo de que una de las piezas se fuera al cementerio. No es para este tipo de mazos.
• Algo parecido sucedió con Ring of Renewal, hubo momentos en los que no podía descartar porque estaba esperando a la siguiente pieza del combo para combar en un solo turno y encima tiene una activación costosa, así que tampoco funcionó.
• Las baterías de maná sí funcionaron, me pareció interesante el poder acumular maná y además ser un acelerador, y luego convertirse en un 4/4 con Titania, pero lo acabé sustituyendo por Sand Silos por ser más difícil de «destruir».
• Aladdin´s Ring es una carta que me dio buenos resultados al principio y se convirtió en una win condition más, sobre todo cuando bajaba el combo del monolito y no tenía alguna de las cartas para ganar en un solo turno, su elevadísimo coste la hace injugable en la mayoría de estrategias pero aquí se le puede dar una oportunidad.

Algunas estrategias

• Por fin encuentro un mazo en el que Ring of Maruf funciona, su coste es alto y casi siempre le vas a dar un turno al oponente antes de poder usarlo, ya que mínimo vas a necesitar doce manás si pretendes usarlo en el mismo turno en el que entra, pero si el oponente no hace nada y lo deja en mesa, las posibilidades son casi infinitas, y aquí entra en juego otro factor que me encanta de este mazo, imagina poder hacerte el banquillo que quieras, casi sin limite, pues eso mismo te ofrece esta carta.

Mi «banquillo» para Ring of Maruf…

• Algunas de las cartas son cartas alternativas al combo, al no poder buscar una carta que ya tengas incluida en el mazo, Fireball, Disintegrate, Stream of Life, por ejemplo. También cartas alternativas a Ira De Dios o Balance, como The Abyss, Earthquake, etc, o cartas contra algunos colores en especial, como los círculos de protección, o Karma. También es interesante poder buscar cartas de puntos porque la regla permite saltarte la regla de 7pts, siempre es interesante poder buscar cualquier carta del P9.
• Tenemos otro tutor importante que es Transmute Artifact y que nos buscará un artefacto; como, por supuesto, Basalt Monolith, que será nuestro principal objetivo, Chaos Orb, Relic Barrier si tenemos ya la mina en juego, Jayemdae Tome, Icy Manipulator, Aeolipile si nos hace falta arañar esos dos puntos de vida, Rocket Launcher si ya tenemos el combo de Power Artifact, o Mirror si vemos que necesitamos cambiar las vidas.
• Una parte importante de la estrategia son los recuperadores de cementerio. Reconstruction, Skull of Orms, Regrowth y Recall. Llevamos todos los que podemos. Recall sin duda es el mejor de todos al poder coger más de una carta del cementerio. La calavera a veces parece que no sirve porque puede ser que no tengas encantamientos en el cementerio pero básicamente está para recuperar la Titania o el Power Artifact, siempre puede servir para alimentar el Jalum Tome o para sacrificar con el Transmute Artifact.
• Los enemigos del mazo son principalmente mazos con rojo, también los mazos con counter o Disenchant nos pueden hacer daño. Vamos muy bien contra control y midrange, a menos que juegue rojo, que para nosotros es el color más peligroso, por eso es importante Mirror Universe.
  Winter Orb es muy molesta, Shahrazad, que ahora se está poniendo de moda también nos gana, Millstone nos quita las piezas del combo, Shatterstorm nos revienta, Dust to Dust hace bastante daño, Manabarbs nos aniquila en un par de turnos…

La base de maná

• Tenemos 26 fuentes de maná más Fellwar Stone. Pueden parecer demasiadas, pero este mazo no puede quedarse atascado, el color más importante es el blanco ya que sin él no podemos defendernos, pero a la hora de combar el azul es el que necesitamos, por eso la tierra acumuladora, Sand Silos, es azul. El verde, aunque sea el que da nombre a la baraja, solo tiene cuatro cartas, así que tenemos menos. Probé las tierras de urzatron y, aunque no molestaban, decidí que era mejor llevar tierras de colores porque muchas veces eran más necesarias, aparte de que de todas las veces que las jugué no conseguí enlazar el urzatron en ninguna partida. También llevamos las tierras de rigor, Mishra, Strip Mine y Desert.

Most spicy winner. Maravillosas alteraciones que nos trajeron Thomas, Mikl, Erik y compañía al 2nd OS 7pts Singleton Wolrd Championship celebrado en Madrid

Conclusión

Si te gusta sufrir en las partidas y realizar remontadas épicas, este es tu mazo. Mezcla de control y combo, con multitud de cartas poco jugadas, bastante spicy, pero que combinadas funcionan bien. Puede que parezca que no estés haciendo nada durante toda la partida y de repente has ganado en un solo turno, eso es magia. Puedes ver el report que hicieron en la LMOS sobre el mundial de 7pts celebrado en Madrid y en el que hice top8 con esta lista y gané el premio most spicy winner que puedes ver en la foto.
Si quieres decirme algo puedes hacerlo a través de los comentarios o en mi cuenta de Instagram: @retroplayermtg

¡Gracias por leer y hasta la próxima!

P.D: el mazo es el mismo que el que jugué en el mundial de 7pts, el último cambio de puntos no le ha afectado.

12 months, 12 decks (VIII) Titania Combo 7pts

INTRODUCTION

Hello again Old Schoolers! We’re back with a new publication of the #12months12decks challenge. This time we will talk about one of my favorite win conditions: Titania’s Song. I think it’s one of the most elegant old school ways to end alongside milling your opponent’s library, and this time we have both in the same deck!

We could summarize that the strategy consists of stopping the rival’s game and controlling the battlefield thanks to the many artifacts we have to, when the time comes, cast the sweet song of Titania and destroy everything with a withering blow. And it was thanks to the sage advice of my friend Joserra that the deck took a surprising turn, and adding just two cards made it a combo deck with a second win condition. Let’s see everything as a whole.

Titania 7pts Singleton 93/94 Old School

DISCUSSION

• The first thing we are going to look at is the choice of points, where we find a lot of competition. If something differentiates 7pts Singleton 93/94 Old School, apart from the fact that it´s a singleton format, it´s that you will not be able to put the best cards as you please, but rather you will have to rack your brain to know which cards are to include. The first decision is choosing which colors to play. It´s clear that green has to be one of them because Titania’s Song, the card on which the strategy revolves, is green. If we look at the key card for the second win condition – Power Artifact – we see that it’s blue, so we have the second color. I chose white because it has the best anti-creatures in the format, Balance, Swords to Plowshares and Wrath of God, although we could choose black for Demonic Tutor and The abyss, or red for Fireball and Disintegrate but, as we would have to choose Braingeyser –or so I think– because they no longer give us the points to include all the cards we wanted. With this we already have the colors with which we are going to play: UGW, and among these colors there are many cards on which we can invest the seven points.

• Within the blue we have Timetwister, Control Magic, Mana Drain, etc. But for now we are going to make sure of Braingeyser and Recall, which will be essential in our strategy: 4 points. White offers us Balance and Moat, but we must discard the latter because it invalidates our main win condition, which is to kill with Titania’s Song. Land Tax doesn’t work if our curve is big or we don’t have enough accelerators. We point Balance for one more point, without a doubt one of the best Magic cards. We have spent 5 points. Green gives us Regrowth, Sylvan Library or Channel, all three are very interesting, for now let’s write down Regrowth, since like Recall, the cards in our graveyard will be very important. We have spent six points, we only have one point left… we have to choose well. Let’s take a look at the colorless cards. Traditional Titania Prison decks run Winter Orb for playing multiple Icy Manipulator and Relic Barrier, but here with a copy of each it seems pretty risky, because we’re going to need a lot of free mana to use our artifacts. The jewerly are running out of points, so we are going to move on to the lands, and we find Maze of Ith, Karakas and Mishra’s Workshop, the latter could be a good choice since we play a lot of artifacts. Karakas is good if we have some legend to interact with in the style of Rasputin, Stangg or Hazezon Tamar, but if not, it’s not worth taking it, and we come to Maze of Ith, and here we enter a dilemma, because previously we have left Sylvan Library behind, important draw engine, but the Maze helps us endure those turns until Titania arrives, and here it´s up to each one, the three cards are valid for the strategy but only one can enter, I went with Sylvan Library because it’s a cheap draw engine that hopefully you can take down from second turn, and it pairs well with Mirror Universe, Skull of Orms, Jalum Tome, or Howling Mine, it helps us dig deeper into the deck to find the pieces of the combo. Another option would be to remove Braingeyser and we would have free points, to, for example, include Workshop and Maze, but Braingeyser in this format is God, when your opponent has a card and you draw six, the card advantage it provides is overwhelming and, therefore, if that were not enough, it serves as a finisher with the Power Monolith combo. So we have already configured our points, a decision that as you can see is not a trivial matter, in fact, the game begins here.

Titania in action

• The concept on which the deck is based is to develop our game by accumulating the greatest amount of resources and controlling the battlefield with them, until we play a lethal Titania’s Song, including a second victory condition that allows us –with a combo– to kill our opponent without having to attack him with a creature. You can comb by either milling with Braingeyser, or gaining infinite life with Alabaster Potion, or doing infinite damage with Rocket Launcher. To get to this we need the deck to have elements that help us draw, accelerate, and control. Since we’re only going to have one of each card, we can’t fit two Wrath of God, so recursive cards will be vital. Power Artifact and Titania are both enchantments so Skull of Orms should go into the strategy in case they go to the graveyard. Balance will not only remove creatures from us, but it will also be able to clean the opponent’s hand, because we don’t have to worry about keeping cards in hand, since we don’t play counters, we can develop our game until we draw a Balance and clean the battlefield and hand. imagine a Balance or Wrath of God and then, on the same turn, Titania… let’s see some more tricks:
• Disrupting Scepter is an annoying card for us, but if we have the skull in play we can cancel it, we always raise the same enchantment to the hand in response to its activation and thus draw a new card.
• Ring of Maruf is one of our tutors, and if we copy it with Copy Artifact it can be a double tutor.
• Mirror Universe is a third pseudo-win condition because if we’re short on lives and we manage to trade it in time we might be able to kill with Rocket Launcher or a simple Aeolipile, or even with Mishra’s Factory.
• Referring to the latter, before I said that we don’t have creatures but we do have one, Mishra’s Factory, and I include it for a reason, and that is that there will be times when we have the opponent blocked with Nova Pentacle, and so that he can kill us with a fireball or similar will have to kill its own creatures first and that’s where the factory comes into play, which in these situations can become a creature to be able to redirect the damage with Nova Pentacle.
• Power Artifact doesn’t just give infinite mana with Basalt Monolith, you can also use it on other artifacts like Rocket Launcher. If you have managed to exchange life points with Mirror Universe, the logical thing is that the opponent has less life, and with the Rocket each mana you have counts as a point of damage so if you have many lands you can use it as if it were a Fireball, or even better, because if you perform the Launcher trick you will do double damage. It’s slow, but for the speed of the format it’s fine.
• If you play Weakstone and Bone Flute at the same time you will see how you control the weenies decks, a combination for which the deck earned the nickname «dog-flute deck” (Spanish argot) among the Madrid community.
• If you have Skull of Orms and Chaos Orb or Aeolipile on the table and you’re going to play Copy Artifact, with enough mana you can continuously copy these artifacts and add the enchantment to your hand with the skull every turn.

Aka «Dog-Flute»

Possible cards

Drop of Honey, Arboria, Urzatron, Aladdin´s Ring, Amulet of Kroog, Fountain of Youth, Control Magic, Steal Artifact, Counterspell, Desert twister, Flood, Circles, Jade Statue, Knowledge Vault, Meekstone, Ring of Immortals, Ring of Renewal, Stone Calendar, Urza’s Miter, Forcefield, Blue and White Batteries… the list is long, we are going to put the magnifying glass on the most relevant ones.

• I tried Drop of Honey and it didn’t bother me but I don’t think it’s a substitute for The Abyss, because the trigger is on your upkeep there’s always a chance that you’ll be attacked at least once first; I found it slow.
• Arboria isn’t the card we’re looking for to defend ourselves since, since we always have to develop our game, we’re never going to be able to activate it, discarded.
• Fountain of Youth and similars. There are various artifacts that help us gain lives, such as the Fountain, Amulet of Kroog, or Conservatory, these last two go well with Titania, but in the end there was no room for everything, and they have no synergy with Mirror Universe.
• Steal Artifact is an interesting card to try out that works well with the skull.
• Counterspell; at the beginning I played one counter but we can’t be saving mana, we have to use all the mana each turn if necessary, I preferred the plan of developing our game without worrying about what the opponent did, also all these discards can be included in the “sideboard” from Ring of Maruf.
• I prefer to include the circles of protection in that “sideboard” we were talking about, since playing them as a base seems risky to me in the sense that they will be a dead card in the middle of the games.
• Jade Statue was in the first version I played. You can do a lot of shenanigans with it, with Balance and with Wrath of God, but I ended up removing it because all the removals that the opponent left in hand played it them against him, this is an interesting topic to discuss, since we do not have creatures –only one Mishra’s Factory– and the opponent’s draws are going to be worse because each removal he draws will be a dead card, and with it a lost turn. So I decided to take zero creatures for that to happen and I can say that it worked.
• I played Knowledge Vault in the early versions, but I realized that this was not their strategy, since you could have the situation of having one of the combo pieces in your hand and the other under the artifact, and if you were played a removal to the artifact you were «forced» to activate it, so there was always the risk of one of the pieces going to the graveyard. Not for this type of deck.
• Something similar happened with Ring of Renewal, there were times when I couldn’t discard because I was waiting for the next combo piece to combo in a single turn and on top of that it has an expensive activation, so it didn’t work either.
• The mana batteries did work, I found it interesting to be able to accumulate mana and also be an accelerator, and then become a 4/4 with Titania, but I ended up replacing it with Sand Silos because it was more difficult to «destroy».
• Aladdin’s Ring is a card that gave me good results at first and became one more win condition, especially when the monolith combo went down and I didn’t have any of the cards to win in a single turn, its very high cost makes it unplayable in most strategies but here you can give it a try.

Some strategies

• I finally find a deck in which Ring of Maruf works, its cost is high and you will almost always give your opponent a turn before you can use it, since you will need at least twelve mana if you intend to use it in the same turn in the game that enters, but if the opponent does nothing and leaves it on the battlefield, the possibilities are almost endless, and here another factor that I love about this deck comes into play, imagine being able to make the sideboard you want, almost without limit, well that himself offers you this card.

My «sideboard» for Ring of Maruf…

• Some of the cards are alternative cards to the combo, since you cannot search for a card that you already have included in the deck, Fireball, Disintegrate, Stream of Life, for example. Also alternative cards to Wrath of God or Balance, such as The Abyss, Earthquake, etc, or cards against certain colors in particular, such as circles of protection, or Karma. It´s also interesting to be able to search for point cards because the rule allows you to skip the 7pts rule, it´s always interesting to be able to search for any P9 card.
• We have another important tutor who is Transmute Artifact and who will look for an artifact for us; like, of course, Basalt Monolith, which will be our main objective, Chaos Orb, Relic Barrier if we already have the Mine in play, Jayemdae Tome, Icy Manipulator, Aeolipile if we need to scratch those 2 life points, Rocket Launcher if we already have the Power Artifact combo, or Mirror if we see that we need to change life points.
• An important part of the strategy is graveyard retrievers. Reconstruction, Skull of Orms, Regrowth and Recall. We carry all we can. Recall is undoubtedly the best of all as it can take more than one card from the graveyard. The Skull sometimes seems useless because you may not have enchantments in the graveyard but basically it´s there to recover the Titania or the Power Artifact, it can always be used to feed the Jalum Tome or to sacrifice with the Transmute Artifact.
• Deck enemies are mainly decks with red, also the decks with counters or Disenchant can hurt us. Then the deck works very well against control and midrange, unless they play red, which for us is the most dangerous color, that’s why Mirror Universe is important.
• Winter Orb is very annoying, Shahrazad, which is becoming fashionable now, also beats us, Millstone takes away our combo pieces, Shatterstorm blows us up, Dust to Dust does a lot of damage, Manabarbs annihilates us in a couple of turns…

Mana base

• We have 26 mana sources plus Fellwar Stone. They may seem too many, but this deck cannot get stuck, the most important color is white since without it we cannot defend ourselves, but when it comes to kill with our combo, blue is the one we need, that’s why the accumulation land, Sand Silos, is blue. Green, even though it’s the one that gives the deck its name, only has four cards, so we have fewer. I tried the urzatron lands and, although they didn’t bother me, I decided that it was better to have colored lands because they were often more necessary, apart from the fact that of all the times I played them I couldn’t link the urzatron in any game. We also carry the land of rigor, Mishra, Strip Mine and Desert.

Most spicy winner. Wonderful alterations that Thomas, Mikl, Erik and company brought us to the 2nd OS 7pts Singleton Wolrd Championship held in Madrid

Conclusion

If you like to suffer in games and make epic comebacks, this is your deck. Mix of control and combo, with a multitude of rarely played cards, quite spicy, but combined they work perfectly. It can feel like you’re doing nothing the whole game and suddenly you’ve won in one turn, that’s magic. You can see the report they did in the LMOS about the 7pts world championship held in Madrid and in which I made top8 with this list and I won the most spicy winner award that you can see in the photo.

If you want to tell me something you can do it through the comments or on my Instagram account: @retroplayermtg

Until next time!

P.S: the deck is the same as the one I played in the 7pts world championship, the last change of points has not affected it.

12 months, 12 decks (VII) Mono Green 7pts

Hello again, old schoolers! It’s been a long time since the last time, I know, and I owe you an explanation. This last year has been hard in many aspects, between pandemics, health problems, brutal spikes (not just cards) and, above all, the arrival of a new format in our local gaming scene, meant that made him not spend as much time as he should on the format we played in our league: Eternal Central. The new format I am referring to is «7pts Singleton Old School 93/94«, which came like a train running over everything in its path, and which we are playing like crazy and which I have been exploring throughout this last year; if you want to know what I’m talking about I leave you the link to this magnificent introductory article to the format written by our friend Diliz

But we’re back stronger than ever, and of course today’s deck tech is tied to our new favorite format, and it’s an archetype that many of us have loved for a long time, specifically since we started playing Magic… We are talking about Mono Green.

INTRODUCTION

Those of us who have played for a long time know that what we liked as children was to play the biggest creatures to kill our enemy as quickly as possible, the bigger the better, who doesn’t know Craw Wurm, or Force of Nature? Mythical cards. That is what characterizes the color green, large and forceful creatures, but we all agree on something and that is that green is possibly the worst color of Old School, and gossips say that with Mono Green you cannot win tournaments… it’s the ugly duckling of OS, that’s why, perhaps, we are so fond of him. Mono Green players know all this and today I’m going to present you with a deck with which you can stand up to the best strategies and even win tournaments, in fact I won one with a similar list , Let’s start!

Mono Green 7pts

DISCUSS

• First of all, let’s start with the choice of points. If you have read the bases of the format, we have 7 points to spend on a list of cards that have a certain cost. It’s a vital choice for deck building, and adds one more incentive of deck design. As you can see in the photo, the cards that are marked with a dice are Sol Ring, with 4 pts, Mana Vault with 1 pts, Sylvan Library with 1 pts and Regrowth with 1 pts, that has been my choice. There are players who exchange the Vault for the Maze of Ith and others who exchange the Mox Emerald for the Sol Ring and thus have one more point to invest, but in general the Sylvan and the Regrowth are always inside the decks; then we will see the importance of these cards in our strategy.
• We are going to analyze the cards by groups, being a singleton format it would take a long time to explain each card in detail. In the group of mana generators we have two of the cards that are worth points, the Sol Ring is one of the most powerful cards in the format and starting with it in play gives us the possibility of playing on second turn our large creatures with cost 4, Juggernaut, War Mammoth or Erhnam Djinn, something that will be difficult to stop, is undoubtedly one of the best accelerators in the game. Mana Vault is the card with which I have had the most doubts when it comes to including it, but in this deck we are going to take advantage of it thanks to the fact that it accelerates our bombs, the bad thing is that it’s weak against Icy Manipulator or Relic Barrier, which are cards quite played. Wild Growth is a good accelerator because being an enchantment is more consistent than if it were a creature, and the elves also fulfill their function very well, you can miss Birds of Paradise, but since the deck is so aggro and monocolor -and because we played Hurricane and Ifh-Biff Efreet–, it doesn’t make much sense to include them, I prefer elves that start hitting, every life point you subtract from the opponent is important. Green Mana Battery is too slow for the deck concept. Fellwar Stone is a staple of the format and could be a good option, but in the end I didn’t find a place for it.
• Draw engine: as we said before, the cards that should always enter are Sylvan Library and Regrowth, which are also an excellent draw engine and are the cards that everyone plays as a splash to green, Jayemdae Tome can be included because we generate a lot of mana, but I haven’t found a slot in it because I need to be very aggressive. Untamed Wilds combined with Sylvan is a pseudo-cantrip since it shuffles the library and takes a basic land from it.
• Removals: Green doesn’t have as many removals as other colors. Scavengers Folk, Crumble, will help us deal with artifacts as annoying as Icy Manipulator, or Jayemdae Tome, Desert Twister is our wildcard, it goes for anything, so use it wisely, it may seem slow but with the acceleration and tempo of the format it works good; Aeolipile is perhaps the most played 7pt card, a must. Tranquility is our Wrath of God of enchantments, it may seem sometimes that it isn’t necessary but there are very good enchantments, we cannot allow The Abyss or Moat to stop us, or to make us a 2×1 with a Control Magic. Chaos Orb is the card that everyone plays or should play, it’s the quintessential Oldschool Card. Ice Storm is a good option against Maze of Ith or Desert, but we already have cards that can deal with them. The Icy can also fulfill the function of removal on certain occasions, since it takes away creatures with regenerate, which are very annoying, or Mazes and Deserts for a turn.

With these two on the battlefield you can do many tricks (yes, I know, that Ifh-Biff has seen a lot of schoolyard)

• The bombs: Rocket Launcher, Sword of the Ages, Winter Blast, Hurricane, Triskelion, Thelonite Druid, Ifh-Bíff Efreet, Force of Nature and Berserk, are what I consider the bombs of the deck, the ones that will help us win. In addition, they are good removals when the occasion requires it, the least obvious is the sword, but in this deck it works perfectly because avoid Moat, Circles, Arborias and any card that prevents us from attacking, and since it is part of the cost, the activation can’t be stopped if you get killed by a creature in response, thanks to the amount of creatures we play, the damage is usually lethal. Winter Blast is a finisher because the ability to tap X creatures is lethal if we have our army of little critters ready to attack. Thelonite Druid usually doesn’t last long on the table because if we have 5 or 6 forests the attack can be brutal and it combines well with the sword. Hurricane will be the card our opponents fear the most because it’s the green fireball and they’re supposed to go under life, which is what the deck is designed to do. Rocket Launcher has a trick that is being used a lot on 7pt battlefields, and that is its activation after the opponent declares their end game phase, since they don’t have to destroy it that turn and it gets destroyed at the start of the next end step, so we will have it on the table one more turn to be able to activate it 2 times! It’s one of those cards that have improved with the new Oracle text and are better at 7pts than in traditional OS. Triskelion, we already know him, is an old friend, our favorite sniper. Ifh-Bíff Efreet is a Hurricane with wings, he can do ten damage in 2 turns on his own! Force of Nature plus Berserk is a classic, apart from the fact that it works very well with the sword. Berserk is multipurpose because it also serves to destroy the opponent’s attacking creatures at the cost of taking double damage, how many Assembly-Workers and Hypnotic Specter have succumbed to Berserker fever!
• The creatures: I made the choice of creatures based on the mana curve, like all traditional stompy decks, it’s based on the concept of a curve similar to the Sligh decks but in green, with accelerators and big creatures. The idea is to put three threats in the first three turns, the bigger the better, and there will come a time when the opponent controls the battlefield, that’s where the bombs come into play that will scratch the remaining life points. There is a lot to choose from in the color green, but key creatures are Erhnam Djinn, Juggernaut, Scryb Sprites, Elvish Archer, Argothian Pixies, Elves or Cockatrice. The idea of ​​the deck is to be as fast as possible, and there are only three creatures with a cost of five or more; why play a Craw Giant on the sixth turn if you may not be able to attack with it because there’s a Maze of Ith. Then there are creatures that also serve as removal such as Tracker, very useful against 1/1 creatures such as Preacher, Argivian Archaeologist, or –very important– Royal Assassin; or Thorn Thallid who may seem slow (and he is), but he fits the curve well, he’s 2/2 and you don’t need to turn to hit Triskelion-style shots, trust me, no one will let him get to the third counter. Other interesting creatures are Radjan Spirit, Whirling Dervish, Spitting Slug, Master of the Hunt, or Killer Bees. And we leave for the end a creature that has an ability that I find interesting for this strategy: Whippoorwill, the first winged bird in history that doesn’t fly, at the end I included it because it occupies the curve 1 slot of any 1/1 creature (we can also play Timber Wolves) and because with its ability we can skip at some point the creatures with regenerate, which are more than just a nuisance for us, and not only does it not allow us to activate the ability, but on top of that if the creature goes to the graveyard it is exiled, it’s the terror of the Will-o-the-Wisps.

Sniper duel

• Mana base: it’s simple, 21 lands, of which 18 give green, with which we have double forest guaranteed in the second turn, this amount of lands in other decks is insufficient but in Mono Green it’s quite tight thanks to the amount of accelerators we run already the mana curve goes down. We have mandatory Mishra’s Factory and Strip Mine, and one Desert that, being monocolor, will not bother us at any time and that is a very useful card if you face weenie-style decks.
• There are many cards that have been left out, it is something that usually happens in this format, you want to put all of them in, but you can’t! Still we will try to generate a rough list of possible cards to try. In my previous version I included Aladdin’s Ring, a cannon, the downside is its high cost, I think I’ve played it twice in total, but when it comes to the battlefield… be careful. Clay Statue is a good option, the bad thing is that it’s not really a curve 4 creature, but a curve 6, because since you play it you will want to defend it… right? Durkwood Boars, Wormwood Treefolk, Moss Monster, Ironroot Treefolk are strong creatures but as we said before we prefer to be faster than the opponent and in that slot we have the Cockatrice, which is a better creature. Nevinyrral’s Disk is a card that is often associated with Mono Green, but in this case I think it doesn’t combine well with Sword of the Ages and apart from that we generate a lot of presence on the table. Elven Riders is interesting for its evasion ability and can be tested from time to time supported by Hurricane and Radjan Spirit. Niall Silvain can be a good turn 3, but his ability ultimately requires a good chunk of mana to be mortgaged every turn.

Why doesn’t it fly?

CONCLUSION

«Mono Green 7pts» is still a fairly casual archetype full of fun cards, although I think that in this format it improves a lot in terms of competitiveness, so we can say that it is «spicy» and effective at the same time.

Tell me which cards you’re missing or would remove, or tell me about your battles with some Mono Green deck, I’ll be happy to hear it! You can tell me your impressions through the blog comments or on my Instagram account: @retroplayermtg

Thanks for reading and until next time!

BONUS TRACK:

Before saying goodbye, I leave you some links to several articles dedicated to this archetype and that are worth reading.

OLD SCHOOL MTG: MG report in the mythical Old School Mtg blog about a tournament where he played his own and very interesting version of Mono Green.

MTG UNDERGROUND: Great article where they tell us a story about green, going through an interview with a player who loves this color, and reviews several Mono Green Old School decks, great.

THE WIZARD’S TOWER: Good selection of Mono Green decks, he explains how he has built his and what it has been based on, I love the title of the articles. They are two parts.