9.01.04  [Nature/Light]

Since Base Set many duelists have known that one reliable deck strategy is to have ample defense coupled with an impressive lineup of hitters & some removal. In the Post-Rampage environment many decks that employ the “attack & defend” strategy are Nature/Light builds. This brings me to Kaijudo Dojo’s next deck submission that comes all the way England. Rob C. writes:

This is my current Nature/Light that I've built and have tried to change ever since Duel Masters came out over here in England. But while it's decent against some decks, I'm finding it just doesn't do the job. My strategy in this deck is get some blockers and beast folk (or Reusols in some cases) out on to the field as quickly as possibly and if possibly, get Barkwhip on the field to start doing some damage to their creatures and shields. Holy Awe and Solar Ray are to disrupt their attacking and Poisonous Mushroom and Bronze Arm Tribe to gain a lot of mana early on. I'd have problems in the past with this deck trying to remove some of my opponent's stronger creatures and I just want a type of deck that can tap, gain me mana and in some way remove some of the fatties on my opponent's side of the field off the field and out of the game!

Helping Rob beef up his deck’s removal options is not an impossible feat; so let’s tidy up Rob’s Nature/Light deck that is listed below:

[Light--24]
4 x La Ura Giga, Sky Guardian
4 x Emerald Grass
4 x Reusol, the Oracle
2 x Senatine Jade Tree
1 x Toel, Vizier of Hope
1 x Urth, Purifying Elemental
4 x Holy Awe
4 x Solar Ray

[Nature--22]
4 x Burning Mane
4 x Bronze-Arm Tribe
4 x Barkwhip the Smasher
4 x Golden Wing Striker
2 x Poisonous Mushroom
1 x Fighter Dual Fang
1 x Dawn Giant
2 x Natural Snare

46 cards

Rob C. has a solid build, but it could benefit from greater specialization. Firstly, let’s map out what each civilization should accomplish in this deck. Light will be used for tapping and blocking and Nature will serve mana gain, removal, and aggro duties.

[Nature]
Nature/Light’s best shots at removal are through direct attacking (helped by Holy Awe) and Natural Snare. So, I’ll jump the Natural Snare count to 4. That increases the deck’s chances at creature removal, an issue Rob said he had with his submitted build. Also, because the deck will have 8 high cost but great shield trigger spells—4 Holy Awe and 4 Natural Snare—Rob could do well to add in 4 Mana Nexus to help set some copies of those spells down in the shield zone where they belong. Mana acceleration can help overcome Nexus’s depletion, and blockers can help stall until Rob’s mana is back up to a healthy count. Mana Nexus’ use is late game shield production, and it should not be hard cast until late game or until mana buildup is at a comfortable level. So if a Mana Nexus comes to Rob’s hand early, he should plop it down as mana—it can become another Mana Nexus’s target late game.

With Nexus maxed out in the deck, Rob needs Nature’s mana acceleration to be on point and have multiple uses. Rob has that basic idea already reflected in Bronze-Arm Tribe and Poisonous Mushroom. Although Poisonous Mushroom is only a 2 copies in the deck, it’s really not needed if Rob runs Bronze-Arm Tribe and Fighter Dual Fang and uses Mana Nexus wisely. Poisonous Mushroom is hand depletion and a weak hitter that can’t be evo bait. What I meant by my earlier statement that mana gain should have additional uses was that creatures should be chosen for the task—because they double as hitters—and that in most decks Beast Folk should be used because many produce mana and can be evolved into 2 of Nature’s best creatures—Fighter Dual Fang and Barkwhip, the Smasher. In order to increase the deck’s chances at slapping down evo creatures and producing mana, the 2 copies of Poisonous Mushroom become 2 copies of Mighty Shouter.

Dawn Giant is a huge creature with double breaker ability, but one that cannot double as potential creature removal because it cannot attack creatures. It’s also a prime removal target due to its summoning sickness. Besides spells, creatures are a great way to get rid of other creatures. With Barkwhip’s pump Fighter Dual Fang can take down just about any other creature or hit for two shields. Therefore, I’ll increase Fighter Dual Fang’s count to 2 and drop Dawn Giant from the deck. Golden Wing Striker is great to have for the evo line and pumps, but the deck needs to have a manageable size and we want to leave room to flesh out the other civilization’s use in the deck. So, the 4 Golden Wing Strikers are dropped from the lineup. Both Bronze-Arm Tribe and Burning Mane are perfect for this deck and will be left at 4 copies each. So fixes thus far are:

-4x Golden Wing Striker
-2x Poisonous Mushroom
-1x Dawn Giant
+1x Fighter Duel Fang
+2x Natural Snare
+2x Mighty Shouter
+4x Mana Nexus

[Light]
For me, using Light always entails packing 4 Holy Awe. The spell is just too useful to pass up, as it’s the best source of tapping from Light. Rob already has 4 copies of Holy Awe in his deck, so he knows its benefit. Rob opted to include Solar Ray for added tapping. I’d use Miele, Vizier of Lightning instead of Solar Ray because it does the same thing for 1 more mana plus provides a hitter. Being a hitter, even a weak one, makes up for the loss of the shield trigger ability that Solar Ray packs. But in this deck fix I am going to suggest running powerful blockers instead of the extra tap that Miele would provide. Rob can still rely on Holy Awe plus beefy blockers and hitters to get rid of threats.

La Ura Giga and Emerald Grass are great early blocker choices, and Senatine Jade Tree is an excellent blocker going into the mid game. For this fix I’ve taken into account that Rob’s blockers could be spread over the cost-to-power ladder in order to increase the chances that they do not trade off with his opponent’s hitters when blocking or attacking. My choices are: 4 La Ura Giga, 4 Emerald Grass, 2 Dia Nork, Moonlight Guardian and 2 Gran Gure, Space Guardian. Although this fix removes 2 early game blockers, Emerald can serve as major Rush deterrence since its likely both Emerald and the weenie hitter will get destroyed (unlike La Ura Giga which usually gets destroyed without taking out the other creature). The other 2 blockers, Dia Nok and Gran Gure can wipe out a good number of hitters without biting the dust—especially Gran Gure.

Reusol is Rob’s fall-to-guy in case he can’t get to a cheap hitter like Burning Mane. If you’re going to have a vanilla Light creature in a two-civilization deck, then it’s best if that creature can evolve into something stronger or block. Reusol does neither, so let’s chuck it. Toel is great for untapping your creatures after they attack and there’s nothing inherently wrong about having it in the deck, but just the one copy most likely means the deck can do without it. Urth is a nice fattie, but the deck is already committed to beefy hitters from Nature. Using Nature for the main hitters is better for the deck because the Beast Folk can be pumped. Sure Urth untaps, but that just makes it a good Death Smoke target and Rob has blockers in the deck to protect guys like Fighter Dual Fang. The next round fixes are:

-4x Reusol, the Oracle
-2x Senatine Jade Tree
-1x Toel, Vizier of Hope
-1x Urth, Purifying Elemental
-4x Solar Ray
+2x Dia Nork, Moonlight Guardian
+2x Gran Gure, Space Guardian

All the above changes lead to a tighter build that has increased removal options & mana gain in addition to maintaining the original build’s blocking, tapping, and aggro elements:

[Light—16]
4x La Ura Giga
4x Emerald Grass
2x Dia Nork, Moonlight Guardian
2x Gran Gure, Space Guardian
4x Holy Awe

[Nature—24]
4x Burning Mane
4x Bronze-Arm Tribe
2x Mighty Shouter
4x Barkwhip, the Smasher
2x Fighter Dual Fang
4x Natural Snare
4x Mana Nexus

40 cards

Improvements can always be made to a deck. Rob could experiment with Light spells like Sundrop Armor if he wants more shield setting, or Diamond Cutter if he wants the deck to be even more aggressive. He could also change Mighty Shouter to Golden Wing Striker if he wants more power and is comfortable with the amount of mana Bronze-Arm Tribe and Fighter Dual Fang could produce as the deck’s only mana makers. If Rob doesn’t mind taking the deck to 42 cards, then he could slap in 2 Miele to the deck to add more tapping ability. He could also increase the blocker count via dropping Mana Nexus if he wants even more defensive measures.

Thanks for writing, Rob. Happy dueling!