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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 8:18 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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--- description ---
See a new aggro build straight from Brazil! And a very flexible one, for that matter!
--- end description ---
This article is rather short for a change, so a Table of Contents was not needed. If you feel the need for one, tell me and I’ll add it.
1. Introduction
With the release of Time Spiral, and the consequent rotation of the whole Kamigawa Block, aggro players took in a huge blow: the loss of Umezawa’s Jitte. That single card won games "almost" on its own (since it had to have a creature to be equipped), and shifted and shaped the entire metagame for Standard for the whole time it was around the format. Also, some pretty powerful creatures were also lost, so a lot of people started wondering if the metagame was about to be shifted towards control, myself included.
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2. The discovery
I was reading the Time Spiral spoiler a while back (since, as usual, the Pre-Release was delayed here in Brazil), when I stumbled on a certain green uncommon: Might of Old Krosa! I mean, at first I thought "Wow, that card is a better Giant Growth!". Then, I forgot about it, assuming that it was better to be certain than to oscillate, and Giant Growth was still king. However, a few days ago, it struck me: assuming you pump a creature on your main phase, why would an opponent play a removal like Mortify or Putrefy on it in response, assuming they could just play it after you declared attackers? And what if he couldn’t play it AT ALL? Then, ideas started flowing in, picturing Silhana Ledgewalker, in my opinion a Standard wannabe from day 1, finally getting a shot at tier 2!
Then, looking at the Timeshifted cards, I found what I was looking for, the element of surprise: Avoid Fate! Can you believe how broken this card is? It messes with the color pie so much!
So, I finally found out what I wanted to do, I wanted to catch opponents off-guard making they believe I was playing mono-green "straight-aggro", when in fact I had some neat tricks up my sleeve.
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3. Making it happen
So, if I was to bash away, I needed a course of action other than just "hoping to draw Silhana and that no opponent plays a Pyroclasm, Wildfire or Wrath of God", which is pretty optimistical even for me! I could either go for power, or I could go for swiftness. I admit that the first tempting card I saw was Durkwood Baloth. Suspending a Baloth on turn 1 looks much better than playing a pesky elf for an aggressive deck, right? Wrong! Ok, you suspend it, and what do you do for the time being? Aggro decks must play a lot of threats, so they need a good amount of mana, specially early on, so Durkwood Baloth was relegated to second plan. If I could find the room, I’d play some copies.
So, since sheer "fatness" was out, I chose to go with swiftness, and went for the obvious choice, next to untargetable Silhana: Dryad Sophisticate. Let’s be honest, I don’t think there’s a single deck in the standard meta that will play without at least FOUR non-basic lands, so Dryad is nice. Then, I remembered an old pal from when I was preparing for the Regionals here, Skarrgan Pit-Skulk! He works WONDERS with pump spells, since he can’t be blocked by most creatures once pumped. His blood-thirst is merely a bonus.
However, the two latter choices still had some issues: good’ol burn to the face, or removal. That’s always been an issue on mono-green. Until now, that is. As I said before, Avoid Fate provides the PERFECT answer for these problems, so NOW the deck stands a chance.
"Well, ok", you might be thinking, "but 4 copies won’t be nearly enough!". Well, you’re right about that, and that’s when another game-winner comes in: Stonewood Invocation! It’s a darn good pump, being undercosted for the bonus, uncounterable, AND making the creature not subject to spot-removal for that turn! Add in Moldervine Cloak (and I DID add it!), since it’s an aura that you can fetch again if you need to, and picture this: play Moldervine Cloak on Pit-Skulk. On your main phase, play Might of Old Krosa, and THEN declare the attack (after it has resolved), with your opponent smiling on the inside, looking at his Putrefy. Then, as you attack, he plays Putrefy, and you respond with Stonewood Invocation! Period. Due to Split Second, there’s no "playing another Putrefy" in response, and that’s it, you’ve got a 13/13 (or even 14/14, if he was blood-thirst) swinging in, and that’s fourth turn, fifth, without acceleration! Add in earlier beating and life-loss from Pains and Shocks, and that’s one quick game!
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4. The deck
Amazon Forest, 60 cards (MAIN DECK: U$ 148.20 SIDEBOARD: U$ 15.00)
22 Lands:
4 Brushland
4 Temple Garden
14 Forest
16 Creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Dryad Sophisticate
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
11 Instants:
4 Avoid Fate
4 Stonewood Invocation
3 Might of Old Krosa
11 Enchantments:
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Moldervine Cloak
2 Aspect of Mongoose
1 Blanchwood Armor
Sideboard:
4 Carven Caryatid
4 Ghostway
4 Leyline of Lifeforce
2 Pull from Eternity
1 Blanchwood Armor
4.1. Playing the deck
Quick note: my meta does not pack a lot of Land Destruction (actually, I’m the only one playing Vore ’round here), but has a lot of Wrath-like effects, so I chose Utopia Sprawl over Llanowar Elves, since it gives me access to white mana, very useful in case I need to sideboard. Feel free to change it for Elves, the effect in-game will be almost the same.
That being said, the deck is pretty straightforward, as all you gotta do is keep pounding. Avoid Fate will save your creatures from demise, if need be, since most removals are instants. Stonewood Invocation will not only save them, but make then pound more and more, and Aspect of Mongoose is another ace up your sleeve. However, be careful, as it prevents you from pumping your creature further. Use it wisely.
Birds are there for 2 reasons: providing white mana for the sideboard, AND being ANOTHER evasive creature on the offense. Yes, it DOES fly, doesn’t it? Then why not play turn one Birds, turn two Might of Old Krosa, swing for 4, and then play a blood-thirst Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, right? More damage to the party!
Blanchwood Armor is just a nice finisher, what with 18 forests on the deck. If your opponent does not pack a lot of removal, switch an Aspect of Mongoose for another copy, to keep the pressure on them.
As for the sideboard, there’s a MILLION options you could have used, I’ll explain why I chose mine:
Carven Caryatid stops aggro decks, if you have trouble (you shouldn’t, since you can actually chump block with your creatures, saving only 1 or 2 for the alpha strike), AND nets you a card on doing so.
Leyline of Lifeforce makes you a BEAST against counter-happy control decks, specially if one comes in your opening hand (hence the 4 copies, you don’t have an awful lot of creatures, you know).
The extra copy of Blanchwood Armor is there against control decks, also, since you have to beat faster, foregoing some protection in order to do this. Just drop Aspect of Mongoose for it, if you need more power.
Ghostway is here (and that’s why I want so many white mana sources) because these types of decks usually have a hard time when an opponent plays a Wrath of God, Wildfire or Plague Wind (?). Now, granted, in this build, you don’t just play all the creatures in your hand, unless you want some chump blockers. It’s all about quality, not quantity. However, a cleverly-played Ghostway can swing things in your favor GREATLY! And guess what? The worse that can happen is you losing your Blanchwood Armor! Moldervine Cloak has Dredge, remember?
Now, Pull from Eternity is more of an insurance. I’m still not sure wether Greater Gargadons, Lotus Blooms, Errant Ephemerons and Living Ends (which, by the way, cripple this deck A LOT, hence Ghostway becomes even better), not to mention Durkwood Baloths (too bad, no room for him in this build!), will see a lot of play, so Pull from Eternity can become a very good card. You could also use, in its place, Feldon’s Cane, if you are facing a lot of milling, Tormod’s Crypt, if you’re facing graveyard-happy builds, or just stick with the good old fashioned Reclaim or Recollect (my original plan, and the way I play it for now). It’s always good to have some sideboard slots "open" when bilding a deck, let’s you adapt better. You could, for instance, choose to sideboard Chameleon Blur, if someone "out-aggro" you, making for a nice game finisher: you desperatly go for an alpha strike, while your opponent does some tricks to survive, sending in his finishing wave, just to see Chameleon Blur wrap things up, allowing for another full strike from your guys the next turn.
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5. Conclusion
The new meta is still at its beggining, and we still have 2 more sets to see, so who knows where the game will end up by then! However, at least for now, you can play with a very nice and cheap deck (if you cut Ghostway, the duals and Birds for Forests, Elves of Llanowar and Reclaim/Recollect, or even Resize, the deck is very cheap to build) to play until Planar Chaos comes out of the oven!
I hoped you enjoyed the quick ride for a change, and as usual, criticism and reviews are most welcome!  |
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| r2d2quino |
![]() Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 1:39 pm |
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Joined: 29 Aug 2006
Posts: 49
Location:
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| I didn’t like this one nearly as much as your other one. Seems a bit too short, compared to the others you usually write, and I’m not very fond of aggressive decks, I like fun decks better, you know, full of tricks and resources, rather than straightforward beating... I give it a 3, though, as it’s not a bad article, really. |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:07 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Thanks anyway, for the review! |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:32 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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| I feel like the discovery thing was not useful at all... I’d rather see more analysis and honestly, I doubt the deck can fly. Against agro, they’re faster than you. Birds of paradise waste cards for agro. Against control, WoG still wins. I just don’t understand why you would play an agro deck that doesn’t really do significant damage until turn four. Even with a dryad and a cloak a pit skulk, they’ll have 13 health after turn three. Compared to Gruul beats, they can inflict seven without the cloak. With the cloak, they can stack a kill turn four (Kird ape, mauler, cloak, burn). I don’t see that kind of deadly speed here, nor do I see a counter for Wrath, so I don’t think this will work. |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 3:49 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Countering Wrath of God is the most easy thing to do with this deck. If you check the sideboard, there’s Ghostway, just for that and Wildfires, or such. Also, as I ALSO mentioned in the article, it’s about quality, not quantity. You’ll need 2-3 beaters on the table, so just keep the rest in hand, unless you need to block (then, you can play 2-3 at a time, dodging eventual burn), or in case they Wrath the board. It’s all there in the article. Also, assuming they take no damage to pains and shocks:
Turn 1: Birds
Turn 2: Might of Old Krosa, swings for 4, Pit-Skulk
Turn 3: Moldervine Cloak on Pit-Skulk, swing for 5 more.
That’s 9 damage in 3 turns, if you don’t have another pump on turn 3. Now, you can either go another Birds or Pit-Skulk here.
Turn 4: Moldervine Cloak or Stonewood Invocation or another pump, almost lethal damage. And that, as I said, assuming NO DAMAGE AT ALL to pains and shocks, which is pretty unrealistic nowadays...
"Don’t have the speed"? I don’t think so. Actually, I’ve outrun NewZoo twice in five games, playing second. |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 4:29 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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But ghostway is just bad. It’s bad because you don’t get to use your mana. I didn’t mean COUNTER wrath of god, I meant invent a strategy that can work around it. Like char, demonfire, or something like that, or maybe fuge. I think fuge would have done well.
I still don’t think you have the speed to compete with gruul beats. Zoo isn’t about raw speed, but Gruul beats is. I guarantee against neo-gruul beats or any other agressive gruul agro, they’ll be faster. You plan also assumes a few things. A) they don’t have counters b) They don’t have any spot removal, which owns moldervine cloak in the face. I just don’t understand why you would rely on birds of paradise in an agro deck. I like the skulk with cloak and stuff but.... BoPs are mana fixers for control. It just doesn’t make sense.
P.S. Your godhand, which requires more cards than the Gruul godhand, doesn’t deal lethal. Gruul’s does. Also, gruul can shock/seal off BoP in response to Krosa, creating card advantage and massive tempo advantage. I really feel that you need to get this a little faster. 2 of 5 isn’t good enough, and although I don’t really know the new Zoo much (Gruul beats is better in my eyes), I think you’ll need that matchup a consistant 3 of 5, no matter who plays first. Otherwise, you might as well just play new Zoo. |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 10:10 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Actually, Birds are good blockers, since they can block almost anything. And if they have burn, I’ll probably save Krosa for Silhana Ledgewalker, or for a big Pit-Skulk, which won’t be burned easily. Also, Krosa is GREAT do do just that, draw a burn spell, so you can Stonewood Invocation in response. I aggree with you, that Gruul beats is just plain more powerful (actually, I’m building a Gruul beats myself, so, if you’ve got any spare Chars, Shamans, Solifuges and Slums, I’m trading for them), this is just a "cheaper" version of a beats. But it’s still fun to toy around. |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:21 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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Felipe Musco wrote: Actually, Birds are good blockers
Case in point. Agro decks shouldn’t be blocking. The reason you have to is because the other agro deck can be faster. Anyways, I can try to come across some chars and stuff... will take some time, though, as I don’t have any on me right now. |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:34 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Well, if you manage to, tell me of things you like on my have list! 
Birds are also evasion, so you can force some early damage, activating bloodthirst for Pit-Skulk  This deck is cool as a budget, but Gruul IS the new force to be reckoned with. I’m currently curving at 5 mana, with 4 for Gruul War Plow (nice enough with the solid beaters) and Stonebrow, Krosan Hero (AMAZING with the warplow). Looks cool, so far. |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:58 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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I’ve thought about running stonebrow for a finisher, but I think if I did, the deck would be as such.
4 Kird Ape
4 Mauler
4 Shaman
4 Fuge
4 CoTH
4 Stonebrow
4 Fists of Ironwood
3 Hit//Run
4 scorched rusalka
3 Rift Bolt
22 land
I think you should be able to pull down a fair number of creatures and then finish with a stonebrow to pump a bunch of creatures or run ftw. |
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