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.

12 months, 12 decks (V) The Wizard’s Rack

INTRODUCTION

Hello to everyone again! The idea for this deck emerged when I saw a video on Timmy’s channel, YouTuber that I recommend you follow if you don’t already. In that video, Timmy, commented on 10 janky, unusual, but fun combos, and one of them was the Apprentice Wizard combo with Disrupting Scepter that, as you may be thinking, may not be a winning combo, or a devastating one, but I realized that perhaps the wizards werean undervalued and little played card, and combining it with the Disrupting Scepter made it a useful card, and let’s remember that the objective of this challenge is to transform cards that nobody plays into cards, at least, playable and achieve strategies different but that work. My first idea was to make a pure control deck, while you were removing cards from the opponent´s hand you had blue mana untapped to counter any threat and finish the games with The Rack.
This was the initial idea but the deck gradually became more versatile.

The idea is to play threats in the first turns and then discard cards from the opponent´s hand with the scepters while with the Icy Manipulator you control the battlefield, and finish the games with The Rack or Psionic Blast. I don’t play Counterspell because we´re not draw cards like The Deck and we don´t play white, and there comes a time when you cannot face all the opponent’s threats and you don´t get to develop your game, that’s why I ended up removing them, so I only play Mana Drain, which also helps you ramp, something necessary in deck strategy:

The Wizard’s Rack

DISSCUSSION

• The «star card» is Apprentice Wizard, from which we will get a lot of value from the 3 mana it provides, because the whole strategy is built around it. It´s a slow way of ramping, isn’t the same as Mishra’s Workshop or Mana Vault, the wizards are very useful in the middle of the game when you have mana displayed and at least one Disrupting Scepter and with him on the battlefield you will be able to play anything that you draw. It´s also very useful when there is Energy Flux or when you need to pay for the Mana Vault to untap it.
• Another star card is Disrupting Scepter. It´s somewhat slow but it goes well against control and against aggro it will be devastating because once The Rack is in play the opponent will try to keep the cards in hand but with the scepter we will discard them and with Apprentice Wizard we will only have to spend a blue mana, having untapped the rest of the lands.
• We know the power of Sage of Lat-Nam in artifact decks, here it´s essential and it´s our draw engine together with Library of Alexandria, with which it gets along very well (we already know that sages go to the library a lot) but above all, it combines well with Mana Vault since we can play a Su-Chi or an Icy Manipulator in the first turns and then sacrifice the vault to draw a card before it hurts us.
• We will need the Icy Manipulators to defend us from the opponent’s creatures, our favorite victims will be the omnipresent Serendib Efreet and Juzam Djinn. The Icy is usually the main objective of the Copy Artifact and with 3 Icy Manipulator on the table we can control aggro or midrange decks.
• The Rack is another of the main objectives of the Copy Artifact, especially in the late game, and it´s that many times the game is decided by a double rack.
• Azure Drake doesn´t see much game because Serendib Efreet is better, but here it shines because, being a pseudo-control deck in which many times you need to defend yourself rather than attack, the drake is perfect to block Serendib, Hypnotic Specter, etc, and doesn´t die with Lightning Bolt. For its cost you can easily play it with Mana Vault or Apprentice Wizard. Plus, survive the dreaded Energy Flux. The bad news is that he dies with a red blast, you can’t have everything…
• A 4/4 for 4 mana was never bad and Su-Chi is the best example, and you can play it even on turn one, its greatest handicap are the 4 mana that must be used when it goes to the graveyard so that you don´t burn for mana burn (in EC rules) but that’s why we have the Mishras Factory, the scepters, the Icy Manipulator and even the Fountain of Youth. Su-Chi allows us to have that versatility I was talking about before, since we can get very aggro together with Copy Artifact. Apart from that it will help us ramp with Sage of Lat-Nam or avoid an Energy Flux in upkeep thanks to the 4 mana it provides.
• In the photo there are 3 Psionic Blast but I played 4 and they works very well, so 3 or 4 is the ideal number, never less. They are necessary to remove threats like Serra Angel, or to surprise and get to remove 10 life points in the same turn with several The Rack in play.
• Because I only run a Tetravus, or a single Triskelion? Well, as I said before, they are cards that raise the mana curve a lot and if we don´t have a Workshop then it´s more difficult to cast them. In this deck they are included as a finisher, they are large creatures, and the Tetravo is included in main because it flies and can jump Moat, a card that must always be taken into account, especially if you don´t play Disenchant.
• Braingeyser or Mana Drain are the best restricted cards that you can include if you play blue and unpowered, and with all the mana you can generate they work well. Mana Drain can be saved you against threats like Armageddon or Energy Flux, which is better they not to touch the battlefield because if they don´t complicate the game much.
• There are some cards that could be included, for example Jayemdae Tome, but this one gets on very badly with Mana Vault and Disrupting Scepter. Mind Bomb could be an option although I have always seen it more as a card for suicide-style decks, where it´s accompanied by fast creatures, such as Flying Men or Serendib Efreet, the latter we could also play it but that point of life that we take turn by turn It hurts us a lot, especially playing Mana Vault and Psionic. The Hive is a card to consider because the wasps are the perfect food for the sages and we will generate an infinite blocker and works well with Apprentice Wizard, even so it´s too slow and you need a lot of mana. Mirror Universe might be an option against burn decks but it doesn’t go well with The Rack. Recall may seem weak but you still have good goals like recovering a Braingeyser or a Chaos Orb.
• Broadly speaking, The Wizard´s Rack works well against aggro and even better against midrange, that has fewer creatures and we can control better, and it works especially well against Monoblack decks since it cannot remove some of our threats (Control Magic, for example). Against control isn´t bad because we discard the cards with the scepters, but The Deck has so many options that we’re always one step behind, maybe it´s our worst pairing. We are going badly against Erhnangeddom because an Armaggedom sends us home, and against Atog or UR since the amount of sparks they have doesn´t give us time to react. Another horrible pairing is Ponza, against which it will cost us a lot to overcome the games.
• The mana base has worked quite well for me playing in an environment of 4 Strip Mines and it would not change anything, and with so much colorless spell we can run the playset of Strip Mines and factories, the latter is essential to avoid burning ourselves with the colorless mana of the Su-Chi.
• From the sideboard, Blue Elemental Blast are essential, Amnesia will be our best trick against The Deck and control decks, Control Magic is a «must have» against decks that cannot be removed it. Psychic Purge is another «must» against Monoblack but also against small creatures decks as it removes other annoying threats, such as Argothian Pixies or Preacher. Triskelion is a similar case, at once it enter the battlefield can make a 3 for 1, apart from being a good finisher. Fountain of Youth works great against decks like Atog or with Black Vise and Ankh of Mishra, since they go down for free and that life point you gain helps you cushion the damage of the Ankh since you need to drop land every turn and when already you don´t need them you can give them as food to the sage. Steal Artifact, Flash Counter or Boomerang are other options for the sideboard.

CONCLUSION

If you thought that Apprentice Wizard not worthed a penny, here you can see that it´s worth something else. In limited format or cube it´s a card to consider, but nobody played it in constructed, or at least I had not seen it in any deck. The Wizard’s Rack is a versatile deck with which maybe you will not win tournaments (or maybe yes, who knows), but with which you will have a good time. If you are curious, here you can see the list I played in the 1st day of the Madrid old school league in which I got a 3-2 and top 8.
If you want to comment on something I will be happy to hear from you, you can tell me your impressions through the blog comments or on my Instagram account @retroplayermtg
Regards and until next time!

12 months, 12 decks (III): Titania Fungusaur

Titania Fungusaur

Hello again old school folks! It’s been a long time since I last wrote here. Throughout the world a turbulent time is being experienced due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. Many of us have been confined in our homes and living with tension the events. The terrible information that we see every day in the news, the difficulty in getting some cards, and personal matters that are irrelevant, have not allowed me to focus on writing, but here we are again, and we are going to continue with the challenge we set ourselves at the beginning of the year.
Things have changed since then – and unexpectedly. During the confinement I have played a lot of Old school and Premodern and formats as new as Legacy96 (all online, of course), even a tournament where I tried the idea of this deck.
I hope that you are all well, and I hope that you enjoy today’s article and for a few minutes you escape from the reality that we have to live these days, this is my small contribution.

Introduction

The idea of combining Titania´s Song with Fungusaur may seem absurd. At first glance they look like cards that have nothing in common. I wanted to play Fungusaur, but I also wanted to do it differently than usual, that is, in a BG deck with Pestilence or Cuombajj Witches, an idea that I love, by the way. I started to investigate and I came across Rod of Ruin, I liked the combo, although it was a bit expensive to play, but cost 4 could be profitable for Titania´s Song, since it would become a 4/4 that previously would have removed some life points. I wondered if the two cards could coexist in the same strategy, and I got down to work.

Titania Fungusaur 1.0

In this version I played Rod of Ruin and Fungusaur in the main, but it was very weak against removal and the artifact was very slow. The sensations were good ending with a 2-2. At least this result indicated that the deck could work, so I kept working and got to the next version:

Disscussion

• As we said before, Fungusaur is weak against removal (a simple spark kills it) so I thought of another plan. Avoid Fate was an option, but I had to put the playset in to be effective, and at some point I would have to use them to defend my artifacts, so Fungusaur would continue taking all the removal. I saw that in some versions of Titania sideboards creatures played, and I thought that was the key to the plan. As a base, he would play a prison style deck, without creatures, and in the second game he would play a deck with more victory conditions and that was designed so that he wasn’t so prone to succumb to our biggest enemies: Energy Flux or Shatterstorm. I designed a sideboard with a selection of creatures that would works well against certain decks. The opponent, if he doesn’t see creatures in the first game, it’s normal that he will remove some removal, we know that Lightning Bolt is almost never going to be removed but Chain Lightning and some Swords to include hate against artifacts.
• Playing the deck is how I discovered that there was another card with which Fungusaur works better than with Rod of Ruin, this was Desert, which is faster and more effective, and also it helped me defend myself in the first turns of fast creatures like Savannah Lions (The lions are dying of thirst in the desert XD), it also provides mana, so you have to play the playset. Having 2 in the battlefield plus a Fungusaur and free way (something easy to get in this deck) we will put on it 2 counters each turn, becoming it a good finisher. I rarely used the Rod of Ruin to inflate the Fungusaur, so I ended up removing it. You could also play Triskelion because Fungusaur growth up with each of his shots.
• Fellwar Stone is the first card I think of when I build a deck based on Titania´s Song, I never play less than 4, especially playing unpowered. It provides acceleration and mana of «almost any color», many times thanks to the opponent’s City of Brass, and is a potential 2/2 for when we have to attack. We also have the classic Toolbox for prison style decks: Icy Manipulator, Howling Mine, Winter Orb and Relic Barrier. In my opinion I think that you have to include 3 Icy Manipulators for the versatility of the card, it has control ability, «removal», and it’s a 4/4 with Titania´s Song on the table; mines can range from 3 to 4 but would not include less than 3 because it’s the main part of our draw engine; 2 orbs is enough, because they can easily be dead card in hand, and sometimes benefits the opponent more than us – remember this version is unpowered – and Relic Barrier, a card of which I am a declared fan, for two mana can tap Mishra’s Factory, Tetravus, Triskelion, Su-Chi, Mana Vault, etc. Although people play 2 to 4 copies, that depends on how you build your deck, the handicap of this card is that against some decks it loses effectiveness because at most it will tap a Sol Ring, but it’s very important in our strategy to tap our own mines and orbs, and it’s a nightmare for artifact decks.
• As a prison deck without blue it’s necessary to play with white since we need to protect ourselves at the beginning of the game to be able to develop our game, Swords to Plowshares, Disenchant and Balance are essential, especially Swords that combine very well with Mirror Universe.
  · When I started to investigate possible cards I realized that there was one that I had never seen play, at least in a tournament, that card was Nova Pentacle and it has been one of the great discoveries because it works quite well, its disadvantage is that it was not can activate if no creatures are in play, making it worse against UR or Burn decks, but in a deck without creatures like this, or in which, sometimes, your only creature will be Fungusaur, it’s worth spending a slot in it. It’s not a substitute for Icy Manipulator, but can be combined with it, since the advantage of the Pentacle is that it eliminates the creature while Icy Manipulator does not. With Titania´s Song in play it’s a 4/4 not insignificant. If we combine it with Desert we can kill creatures that are asymmetric in strength and resistance, such as Ernham Djinn, Kird Ape, etc., since we are going to redirect the damage and normally the opponent will choose to do that damage to the same creature that is attacking and to the At the end of the combat phase we will do that last point of damage with the desert, enough to annihilate it. It’s a card that once its power is understood the opponent always wants to get rid of it. I think that 2 copies can be played if you have a lot of capacity to generate mana since its activation cost is high, but I think that one copy is the optimal amount.

• 

  Are you sure you want to redirect the damage?

• One of the cards that improved the deck compared to the first version was Mana Vault, because it accelerates to play before Icy Manipulator or Mirror Universe, or with Mind Twist. When I played without this card the opponent’s Strip Mines frustrated me and didn’t let me play anything, but thanks to the Vault I can play a Fellwar and a Relic in the same turn, or Relic and Mine at the same time, something necessary in this deck.
• We already know the power of Mirror Universe, we aren’t going to discover America, it was another considerable improvement because the deck in the first version always lost against decks with many sparks like Atog or UR, because you could not do anything against bolts and Chain Lightning but this card changed things a lot, because in addition to being able to look for it with the Demonic Tutor at the appropriate time, it combines very well with Sylvan and Mana Vault and once it’s resolved – protecting it with Avoid Fate if necessary – you only have to cast Titania´ s Song and attack with any of the artifacts you have on the battlefield, with which we could say that the Mirror Universe is one of our victory conditions.
• Our main objective is to play one artifact after another while we are changing lives for cards (with Sylvan Library) or stealing extra cards with the mines and controlling the table with Relic Barrier, Icy Manipulator, Winter Orb, Swords, Disenchant … until let’s accumulate a sufficient quantity of artifacts to play a deadly Titania´s Song with which we’ll finish with a single blow to the adversary. The most important thing is to avoid being countered because Disenchant allows you to attack that turn (remember that once it comes into play, if Titania´s Song leaves the game, the effect continues until the end of the turn) and normally you play this card to win although sometimes you are forced to play it before time because perhaps you are forced of lives and you have to kill in 2 turns instead of one.
• For this unpowered version I chose the splash to black to be able to play the 2 best cards of that color: Demonic Tutor and Mind Twist. With the Tutor we’ll look for our bombs, such as Mirror or Balance, Titania´s Song or Chaos Orb, or a saving Disenchant to remove Moat, or his inseparable and most faithful friend: Mind Twist. This card is devastating and although we play without the P9 by generating so much mana and, especially, thanks to Mana Vault, the Twist we play will be quite effective.
• The mana base is solid and although there are 3 colors with the 2 city of Brass, Scrubland and Swamp you can manage to play the splash to black, since many times you will get that color thanks to Fellwar Stone. In the photo a swamp appears but in that slot it’s best to put a Bayou, a card that I currently don’t have. Deserts are great to take on the first few turns versus quick decks of small creatures. The deck doesn’t suffer much against Blood Moon because it has many basic lands but there can still be games where it’s an annoying card.
• Our greatest enemy is Energy Flux and a single turn in which we have to deal with this enchantment can be devastating, that’s why the deck is designed to face this card, first with the sideboard with all the creatures we run and with the that we do not have to pay with the Flux on the battlefield. As we see in the deck photo, we have Wirling Dervish against Monoblack, Preacher will be a nightmare for many decks, especially for those whose removal is only Swords and have been removed for the second game. Fungusaur will become a not inconsiderable finisher thanks to the combo with Desert and in 4 turns they can end the game. Serra Angel will be for those decks with Moat. The other cards are to reinforce our strategy against aggro or control.
  City in a Bottle can be annoying but we can deal with it, although it can destroy our mana base by taking away the deserts and the City of Brass.
  UR or any deck with many sparks are very dangerous and Mirror Universe will be our main weapon to beat them, we have Circle of Protection: Red, a true classic.
• Monoblack has the Gloom and the knights with protection against white that will annul our swords and then Icy Manipulator will be our “removal” to fight them, we’ll also need massive removal like Balance or Wrath of God. Underworld Dreams is also very dangerous, being able to enter the first turn thanks to Dark Ritual and for that we have Tranquility on the sideboard, which will be in many cases as the fifth Disenchant that skips the Gloom.
• Time Walk, which would be our best card if we played with blue, is a fearsome enemy because if the opponent manages to nullify our permanent tapping artifacts, and Howling Mine is in play and untapped, he or she can get many cards if plays several turns in a row, it’s a difficult move to foresee and can throw overboard all the work we have done, so be careful.
• Obviously, all decks that play white will also put us in trouble because Disenchant will most likely play and Dust to Dust will be the sideboard that we have the most to fear. Against Disenchant we have Avoid Fate, but against Dust to Dust we only have the creatures that we put from the sideboard or try to break the double target with our Strip Mines and Chaos Orb.
• Could include a copy of Guardian Beast to protect our artifacts against Nevinyrral’s Disk or combine with Chaos Orb. Maze of Ith is a great candidate and I played it in some versions but I had to choose between developing the mana base (Maze spends a land drop) or having more protection against creatures.
• Some cards are necessary although they don’t appear in the deck, ignoring p9, but Library of Alexandria is necessary, The Abyss could be very well in main although it would not work with our current sideboard. If you have Mishra´s Workshop it’s also a great card for this deck full of artifacts.
• It’s necessary to change your way of thinking with the use of the Strip Mines, since they are normally used as removal, but in this case they have to be used as one more land. If they are included it’s more to combat Library of Alexandria, although they can always be used at specific times such as breaking the double blue in case you intuit that there is a Counterspell or for the double white and stop a Moat or Dust to Dust from going cast. But they will normally be used as one more land that gives mana.
• Another key card on the sideboard is Avoid Fate, I like to play 2 in main deck but if we sideboard our creatures, it’s best to put 2 more, and since the opponent will have removed part of his removal, the 4 Avoid Fate will be much more effective .

Fungusaur in action

Conclusion

We’ve here one of those decks built around a single card, which at first glance seems to have a unique condition of victory but that has some surprises, especially when we sideboard unstoppable Fungusaur that will devour everything in their path in just a few turns to the opponent’s amazement. As always, I would love to hear your opinions and you can tell me something through the blog comments or on my Instagram account: @retroplayermtg 
And you know, take good care of yourself in these difficult times. Until next time!

12 months, 12 decks (II): Atog Weenie

Atog Weenie

 

Introduction

Hi, folks old school! Here we are again with the challenge #12months12decks, if you need to refresh your memory or know what this is about click here

Ornithopter is one of those cards to which we all love in one way or another, it’s an iconic card from old times, although it didn’t see much play in the time of Revised. When Mirrodin was published, we did realize its true potential, expansion where «Affinity» emerged, the terrifying deck of artifacts… days in which we knew that after Ornithopter will came a Cranial Plating, a play with which still I have nightmares.
The idea of the deck was born because I wanted to play Ornithopter in Old School, his affinity with Atog is more than obvious, but by itself it’s not very dangerous, until you play a Blood Lust, and the opponent begins to look at him with a little more of respect, but let’s not get ahead, let’s start by seeing the deck, I played a similar list on the last day of the league with which I was ninth:

Atog Weenie 2.0

DISCUSSION

• Why call the deck «weenie» and not «sligh«? Well, when I first thought about the deck I had seen quite a few decklists that combined Atog with Black Vise, Su-Chi or Ankh of Mishra, or with other creatures that weren’t artifacts, such as Serendib Efreet or Savannah Lions, but none played small creatures artifact and that’s what I based on to design it, in an army of low-cost creatures that were scratching the life of the opponent and when they were no longer useful were food for Atog, thus fulfilling a double function, that’s why it comes closer to the concept of «weenie»
• Like White Weenie or Black Weenie, it’s based on low-cost creatures and some disruption and in some way pump them. The best artifact creature of cost 1 in Old School is Brass Man, that was an easy choice. For a mana we have a 1/3 that if you want to untap it, you have to pay one colorless mana in upkeep, and if we can’t untap it, it will be food for Atog. He is able to stop Savannah Lions, Mishra Factory or Black Knight, not bad. Ornithopter is another artifact that we should include, by itself it’s no big deal, it enters free, flies and is a blocker of Hypnotic Specter, Serendib or Serra Angel, apart from being food for Atog, but combined with Blood Lust becomes more dangerous. Atog is our best creature, our «finisher», the bad thing is that it’s red and Circle of Protection: Red (from now on COP: Red) is played a lot.
• Battering Ram: I know it’s one of the most controversial cards in the deck, but then I explain the reasons why I included this card that is never played (unless you are playing a cube). As I said before, the concept of the deck is based on the «weenie concept», and in Old School Battering Ram is the only creature artifact of cost 2, we have the Ornithopter of cost 0, Brass Man of cost 1, the next in the list is Battering Ram, if wego to the next one on the list (cost 3) we have Onulet, Dragon Engine, Yotian Soldier … but the mana curve soar and in a 4-Strip Mine format and unpowered if the curve is high we run the risk of not being able to play them for to get stuck -and they would become dead cards in hand- hence playing Battering Ram, because we’ll be able to cast it on most occasions, it also has other advantages, its ability to win banding in the pre-combat phase is quite useful because we can attack with Atog and protect him if we see an unfavorable situation at the battlefield, and I already tell you that the two in attack will become virtually 2/3 which, in practice, will be almost unblockable, because if they block them all the damage will go to Battering Ram and we will save the Atog. Then there’s his second ability that if we find a wall, no matter how big, it will fall. And another reason to play it’s that there’s nothing more epic than winning a game by hitting with Battering Ram, I assure you.
• Ankh of Mishra and Copper Tablet: normally all Atog decks play with 4 Ankh of Mishra and occasionally some Copper Tablet, there’s no need to explain their power, starting T1 with Black Vise and T2 Ankh is almost a «prison style». I designed the deck with a ratio of 3 + 1 respectively. I decided on this combination because the Ankh of Mishra at an advanced game loses power, but the Copper Tablet, on the other hand, at an advanced game is good enough to scratch those points of life that resist us; I always want to see an Ankh in my opening hand and the Copper at late game, I even won a game thanks to Copper Tablet.
• I think that without Blood Lust the Ornithopter would be worse. A typical start for this deck is T1 Mishra, Brass Man and Ornithopter, T2 Mountain and attack with Brass Man and the Ornithopter plus Blood Lust, which takes 5 lifes points. Logically, in the second game it’s more difficult to do this because the opponent is already prevented.
• The red color isn’t famous for its ability to draw cards, so the only card we have to draw is Wheel of Fortune, amazing card, in this deck is decisive, as you have several Black Vise on the battlefield and get to solve the Wheel It can be very painful for the opponent.
• Balance is undoubtedly another of our MVPs, I played it as the only white card in main (you can also play in the sideboard), and it’s one of the few cards we have to confront big creatures such as Serra Angel, Juzam Djinn, Shivan Dragon etc. . It may seem incongruous to play it in the same deck along with Black Vise, for its enormous discarding power, but being so versatile we can have both in the main. As we also put many creatures on the battlefield we can do the trick of feeding Atog in response to Balance being resolved and it will surely be larger than the creature chosen by the opponent (unless it’s a Colossus of Sardia).
• We have 20 mana sources plus 4 Strip Mines, having so much artifact we can put the 8 colorless lands. Mishra`s Factory is essential and combines well with Atog, being the second best creature in the deck. We have 6 sources that give white to play our sideboard, and with that amount I have managed well, I have not missed the white color in any game.
• Obviously, one of our worst pairings is The Deck, which has a lot of cards against us: Moat, Swords to Plowshares, Lightning Bolt, Blue Elemental Blast, Disenchant, etc … but which decks are going well against The Deck? Few, of course. Nor do we like decks with big creatures like Erhnangeddon, or Workshops decks. Triskelion is our public enemy number 1, it will clean the battlefield as if it were an Wrath of God. Energy Flux is another of our worst nightmares, we want to have Red Elemental Blast at hand, or Disenchant. Sedge Troll will also put us in trouble as we only have Balance to get rid of. Of course, COP: Red, we’ll have to destroy as soon as we can.
  Dust to Dust being a sorcery won’t be so scary to answer if we have Atog (And maybe it’s the opponent who has to exile his artifacts). We like the decks that runs Serendib Efreet because, although they do a lot of damage from above, we can play the race to see who does more damage. Monoblack, unless you get an early Juzam down, it can be a good pairing since with our removal we kill half an army.
• Our star card on the sideboard is undoubtedly Disenchant, essential. It’s the reason why I play with white and not with another color, it will help us break COP: Red, Moat, Tetravus, Energy Flux, etc., the list is long. The second best option is Red Elemental Blast, as it helps you fight Counterspell, Energy Flux, Serendib, etc. Then the rest is a matter of the local metagame, Winter Orb against control, City in a Bottle, Swords, Meekstone…
• As possible cards to include we have Jalum Tome, which is an artifact and draw engine. Orcish Mechanics also seems good option but it takes away artifacts that might come in handy for the Atog. Aeolipile is more direct damage than skips COP: Red. Aladdin, although the bad thing is its cost 4 that is high in the mana curve. We could even play Tawno´s Weaponry because it’s an cheap artifact and would give Ornithopter a plus.
• I think the splash to white is important, with blue you gain P9 and Serendib, with black Demonic Tutor and Gloom, with green Sylvan Library and Regrowth, but with white you gain Balance and Disenchant that for as it’s thought the deck seems to me better, Disenchant are critical against many strategies. Maybe with black you can make a good deck, but Gloom aren’t as decisive as the Disenchant. Monored I don’t see it effective enough because if opponent plays a COP: Red you won’t be able to do practically anything.

Atog & Friends

Conclusion

That’s all for today! With this deck we give a twist to the classic Atog deck (and budget-friendly). Thank you for reading and we’re waiting for you next month with a new post of #12months12decks I hope you liked it. You can follow the hashtag on Instagram and I would love to hear your impressions through the comments or on my Instagram account: @retroplayermtg
Until next time!

Deck Tech: Erhnamgeddon Budget

By: Carlos Piélago

INTRODUCTION

I start this series of deck tech with a brief explanation of the reasons that have taken to do it.

Like many of those who are reading this article I started playing Magic in 1994, with the arrival of Revised Edition in Spain; at that time I did not know the existence of Unlimited, Beta, Legends, etc, I only knew of the existence of an expansion called “The Dark” because I had seen some purple booster packs in local stores (which I would have loved to open, but I only got it with those who were in Italian, from L’Oscuritá).

Recently, two years ago, when I met Old school I was fascinated with the format and I was amazed when I played all the cards I had saved in a shoe box. But I soon realized that the cards I had never seen in my time, and that I only knew through price lists and photos in old magazines, they were too powerful: Black Lotus, moxes, Time Twitter, Ancestral Recall , Time Walk, and some more, make the difference in OS.

For a moment you may think I was frustrated, but it was not like that. Thanks to the LMOS policy of full proxies and, above all, that OS is a casual format in which you can play your Thallids deck without anyone laughing in your face and in which creativity is rewarded. OS a more than friendly format.

I’ve played two leagues with proxies and I´ve tried many of the strategies with the full P9, but I soon realized that in many «big» tournaments they were not allowed, and here I started to have a dilemma, I asked myself: » Why play with cards that I know I’ll never have? «

Whenever I have gone to these tournaments that I referred to earlier, my decks have been unpowered and this has forced me to «explore» the possibilities and different strategies in those that the decks without P9 could be really competitive, and I discovered that they were not few, and they could give quite a game.

My idea when making this series of Deck techs is not to make a top, but to deepen these strategies, to discover even more feasible strategies, to make known those that are not so well known and to help those who want to play the format without having to resort to lotuses and moxes or even to anyone who wants to start and try some of them.

For me is a challenge, almost an experiment, to see if you can really play (be a bit competitive) in Old School with this type of decks, the unpowered decks that have been top in different tournaments corroborate this, but I It seems interesting that we talk and talk about this. Let’s explore this possibility together.

 

DECK TECH ERHNAMGEDDON UNPOWERED

Hi Old school players! Today we are going to talk about a deck that is a classic, we are not going to discover gunpowder now, it has been a competitive deck since the beginning of the game, but it is not the objective of this series of deck techs to discover new things, if not to delve into the strategies that can be played in an OS tournament without the need to use the P9, because it is a deck that sees a table frequently, but almost always full of P9.

Today we bring you Erhnamgeddon.

Maindeck:

CREATURES

4X Llanowar Elves:

Essential for the strategy, we need to start the game with an accelerator, be it elves or birds, or the Sol Ring, or even a Land tax depending on the situation. They provide us with the necessary acceleration and attack the advanced game from an advanced one.

4X Birds of Paradise:

Along with the Llanowar elves are those that give us acceleration and over any color for when we need double white. They will also serve as a last resort to block large flying creatures such as Serra Angel or Serendib efreet.

4X Erhnam Djinn:

An obvious choice, since the deck bears his name. It is our biggest creature, its resistance 5 is very important in a format like OS and many times it will force the opponent to make himself a 2×1 to be able to kill this djinn, sacrificing blocking creature and spark, or spending two sparks at the same time ; In addition, if we manage to cast an Armageddon his «handicap» in the form of a forestwalk will no longer matter to us.

3X Serra Angel:

A whole classic. Necessary when our opponent plays Moat, a transatlantic that goes up and defends at the same time, the only downside is that it dies easier than the Erhnam or Jasmine, since it will be in the spotlight of the opponent’s Psionic blast.

1X Jasmine Boreal:

It is our «fifth djinn» and it works very well as such. For only one more white mana we have a creature with strength and resistance equal to that of Erhnam Djinn and above without any handicap that, at times, can mean a defeat when one of the opponent’s creatures has a forestwalk.

REMOVAL

4X Disenchant:

The white color has the two best removal of the format, and in an unpowered deck like this you have to put 4 of each. This affordable instant for all budgets will clear the table of such dangerous annoyances as The abyss, Moat, Underground dreams, or Sylvan library, etc., and a long list of artifacts and creature artifacts.

4X Swords to Plowshares:

If you ask me what is the best removal of creatures from Magic I would say without hesitation that this. For only one white mana at instantaneous speed will liquidate any creature (only the black knights are saved) no matter how big, with a handicap that will always be worth it, and more in this deck that we take the lives of 4 in 4. Only it is dispensable against decks that do not play creatures, although they are the least.

1X Balance:

The MVP of white color, essential in any strategy that plays white. It is true that in this deck many creatures are played and sometimes it is not convenient to play it, but if you sweep the table for any reason it will be one of the cards that can help you balance the game again. Also, as a discarder it is brutal.

1X Dust to Dust:

A card that I like to put at least one copy of the main because of the huge amount of artifacts that are played in the format. But, in addition, it links very well with the strategy we want to follow, because you can use it against the mana generators, such as moxes, Sol ring or the Fellwar Stone of the opponent. It will give us a 2×1 and it will help us attack the mana base, which is very good for us when we play an Armageddon and the opponent can not rearm and get the necessary lock to smooth our way to victory.

3X Armageddon:

Our star card, if it is resolved with one of our monsters in the table the game will be decided in our favor from that moment. But we must be careful that the opponent does not have a creature of equal or greater size (we will have to use our swords) or, if not, the game can be equalized. That’s why I think cards as Dust to Dust or Disenchant are so important to attack the opponent’s mana base, especially the artifact-type accelerators, since if you have many, the opponent may have the opportunity to play a Wrath of God or different removal that would equal the game.

4X Strip Mine:

I put it in the removal section because at the time of designing a deck I almost never count it as a source of mana, but rather as a resource, because that is what it is. It will take the Library of Alexandria out of the way, or the Maze of Ith, or the Mishra’s Factory that are also annoying, and it will help to delay the opponent’s game, especially if we know how to play it in the previous turn. The Abyss, or a Moat, and if we get to play the next turn an Armageddon …

CANTRIP

2X Land Tax:

Combined with Armageddon it works very well, because if we leave the opponent without land it is very possible that we have several of our own in hand thanks to this enchantment of cost one. In addition, it becomes a draw engine combined with the Sylvan Library, as we can see each turn three new cards thanks to its ability to shuffle the library with what will give us a really good card advantage.

1X Regrowth:

For only 2 manás it allows you to recycle any card from the graveyard, and we have many possible targets: Swords, Disenchant, Balance, Strip Mine, etc. Normal that is restricted: P

3X Sylvan Library:

By itself is good, the first draw you do with the Sylvan is always a luxury, and is possibly the best green card of OS, but if we combine it with Land Tax the advantage of cards is devastating, to see three new cards each turn gives a lot of advantage. We need 3 in the deck because it will always be a priority target of the Disenchants and Chaos Orb of the opponent and in this deck is the key card to have a similar advantage (which does not equal) to the best blue cards of draw.

MANA FONTS

2X Fellwar Stone:

A card used to the satiety and that is a useful resource, accessible, and necessary, for decks that don´t play the P9.

1X Sol Ring:

The second best accelerator of Magic, we always want to play in the first turn. Always useful will help us to cast an Erhnam Djinn of turn 2. It is one of the cards that everyone has in his deck because it is valid for all strategies. Little more to say.

1X Pendelhaven:

With one we have enough, being a legendary land and not having so many targets (only the Llanowar Elves) we don´t need to include more copies. Advanced game can be a good option to play an Armageddon with an elf on the table and then play this land and kill the opponent based on inflating our little elf.

MANA BASE

I don´t include any copy of the Mishra’s Factory because it doesn´t fit well with the philosophy of the deck, since they would be lost with an Armageddon or with the Winter orb, a card with which they do not combine anything well, especially if you do not have Relic Barrier or Icy Manipulator.

The Strip Mines go much better because with them we remove threats like LoA or Maze of Ith. I used to play with 3 but what I have seen is that the playset is necessary.

The Savannahs, which are the most expensive cards in the deck, are important to reduce the number of mulligans and to be able to start indifferently with Elves, Birds or Land Tax.

Then you have to include a sufficient amount of basic land to be able to look for them with the Land Tax and make it more effective, and to be immune to a Blood Moon.

SIDEBOARDING

The sideboard is always very relative and depends on your local metagame, I’m just going to talk about the reasons for my choices at the time of elaboration.

Spirit Link works very well against very aggressive decks, such as Goblins, Quicksilver or Monoblack, but if I play against Pink Weenie then I have to accompany them with a pair of Avoid Fate to counter Disenchant or Swords.

The Winter Orb are great against slow strategies and control or combo decks, like The deck, or Power artifact, etc. It slows down your game a lot. I played them before main but against fast decks they were not effective and I decided to leave them on the sideboard.

The Circle of Protection: Red alone can dismantle a strategy, against Goblins, Burn, Sligh, Power Surge, etc., they are a more serious threat and it stops them at once.

Dervishes against monoblack are great. It is always difficult to play against this deck, since the Hypnotic Specter of first turn or an early Juzam Djinn can do us a lot of damage if we do not have swords in hand and, according to what I have played, everything happens to be faster than them, and these bugs are perfect because they do not stop growing and the opponent can not stop them until to be able to activate a Disk or Chaos Orb, but for that we have Disenchant. They are also valid against strategies based on The abyss.

In my opinion you always have to take 2 Dust to Dust in the sideboard because there is always the possibility that you are against a deck based on artifacts, and this sorcery is a real machine of annihilation against them. It also goes very well against The Deck to exile the moxes or the Jayemdae Tome, and of that I am sure: you will ever find a The Deck in any metagame :

To finish a little review of other decks that I have seen before and that, in some way, inspired me to make my list and test it:

The first, the one posted by the user @oldschoolmtg in his Instagram account, which I recommend you follow because there is always post a lot of interesting information.
This was the deck that made me see that it was possible to play a deck like this in tournaments.

Then we have this deck, designed by Alejandro Martín and played in the tournament that held the Ilicitana League last year, one of the largest made so far in Spanish territory.

That’s all for today, thank you for reading, I’ll be happy to hear your opinion, through the comments of the blog, or on the Liga Madrileña Old School or, if you want, on my Instagram account.

Carlos Piélago
Follow me in: https://www.instagram.com/retroplayermtg/