M13’s second event deck takes a creature heavy approach, making use of creatures that love entering the battlefield.
So, how do you repeat a creature entering the battlefield without wasting cards? Meet the Roaring Primadox. This meaty fellow allows you to bounce a creature to your hand in your upkeep, ready to be cast again, meaning you can get some extra value out of your ETB creatures.
If you look at the decklist, you will see that almost every creature brings value in this way. The Blade Splicer is still the most efficient card for abusing with flicker and bounce effects. For three mana you get four power spread across two bodies, meaning it will see a lot of play until it cycles out.
Thragtusk, the flagship card of this event deck, is a pretty nasty beast, because of his two abilities. When he enters the field, you gain five life, as well as a 5/3 creature. Then if he leaves for any reason, not just due to death, you get a 3/3 beast token to replace him, making him a rather painful menace to be dealt with, and that is before we start abusing the beast.
The Glimmerpoint Stag may seem boring, until you read that it exiles another target permanent. This is great for getting use out of your creatures that use ETB effects, or to reset your Oblivion Rings on bigger threats. You can even mess with your opponent’s bigger threats or disrupt their mana base for a short while.
Lead the Stampede is great for creature heavy decks, filling your hand with creatures while skipping past those extra land drops. At 33 creatures, you should net around three creatures per cast. The Geist-Honored Monk hasn’t seen much play in local FNMs, a fact I hope will change once the overly powerful titans leave standard play.
She brings two flying friends, and her power and toughness are equal to the number of creatures you control. At worst you get a 3/3 with vigilance and two 1/1 flyers for five mana, but if you have been filling your board, you might have a 10/10 behemoth on your hands, ready to break through a heavy defence.
Main Deck
60 cards
12 Forest
8 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket
22 lands
1 Acidic Slime
2 Arbor Elf
3 Attended Knight
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
1 Blade Splicer
3 Borderland Ranger
1 Brutalizer Exarch
2 Elvish Visionary
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Geist-Honored Monk
1 Glimmerpoint Stag
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
4 Roaring Primadox
1 Stingerfling Spider
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Thragtusk
33 creatures
1 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Lead the Stampede
5 other spells
Sideboard
3 Cloudshift
2 Dismember
3 Kemba’s Skyguard
4 Oblivion Ring
3 War Priest of Thune
15 sideboard cards
If your opponent is running a lot of counter magic or spot removal, you might want to swap out your Roaring Primadoxes for Cloudshifts. Cloudshift makes your creatures dodge those horrible kill spells and doomed combat faux pas, while allowing for another use of your enter the battlefield triggers.
Oblivion Ring, one of my favourites, gets rid of most pesky threats, especially those horrible titans. A great way to control the board if your opponent has no enchantment removal. Dismember, which seems to be in the sideboard of every event deck since it was printed, gives you access to some spot removal for one mana and four life.
If you are looking for ways to add some killing power to your deck, Wolfir Silverheart packs a mean punch, while making a friend do the same. Soulbond him with a creature with flying or trample and watch your opponent’s life total plummet. While he doesn’t have trample, your opponent will be losing a creature a turn to an 8/8, winning a war of attrition.
Of course, no deck that makes use of flicker mechanics can ignore the power of the Restoration Angel.Besides being a meaty blocker that can arrive at any time, she can save creatures from death, reset soulbond pairs or get extra use out of your flicker creatures, all for four mana. At 3/4 flying, she can be the threat in the air you need to win a fight too.
While Craterhoof Behemoth (aka ‘Fluffy’) is on the expensive side at eight mana, this beast can take a win from nowhere, turning your field of lowly 1/1s into a massive wave of destruction.With three 1/1s on the board, casting Fluffy will net you 24 power worth of trampling might, possibly ending a game outright. (Don’t forget to shout, ‘Vat hom, Fluffy!’ when you attack).
This deck has many other options available to it, including land destruction through flickering four Acidic Slimes (you will win, but you won’t be popular at all for using this tactic) to using four Stonehorn Dignitaries to stop your opponent’s creatures in their tracks.
Otherwise, look at token generation, such as Captain’s Call, linked with Crusader of Odric and Odric himself. If you are worried about how this deck will evolve come Return to Ravnica, remember that Azorius (Blue/White) will make use of a mechanic called detain, which says: “Until your next turn, detained creatures can’t attack or block and their activated abilities can’t be activated.”
Which will work well with controlling your opponent. Selesneya (Green/White), being the correct colours for this deck, loves lots of creatures and makes use of a new mechanic called Populate which says: “Put a token onto the battlefield that’s a copy of a creature token you control.” Considering that these are just two of the 10 guilds in Ravnica, prepare for some interesting deck ideas.
This event deck, thanks to the Thragtusk and two Razorverge Thickets, is currently worth $58.70, which is fairly more than Sweet Revenge’s $32.70. As such, you may have a hard time finding them in stock. If you do though, this event deck has the power needed to beat your opponents, while offering lots of options so that you can add that personal touch to it.
Stay tuned for our next Magic: The Gathering article, as we’ve got some fancy foil prizes to give away with it when it arrives.
Last Updated: January 3, 2017
