Strategy and Gameplay:
Aggro in the ‘05 Metagame – Fire/Nature
April 5th, 2005
By JMatthew

In the past “Agro in the ’05 Metagame” articles we have discussed both mono-fire and mono-nature decks. Both options are a great place for any player to start and will surely snag some strong wins while teaching a great deal about the game. Each civilization has its own advantages, however what if you could harness the power of more than one civilization? Would take make any bit of difference to your game? Well, that’s what we’re here to talk about today – multi-civilization agro decks. What better combination to start with than the two civilizations we have already covered – fire and nature.

Strengths

Both fire and nature are the truly the speediest civilizations in Duel Masters. While fire does triumph over nature in the speed department, nature has something fire doesn’t – mana acceleration. In my article about mono-fire I discussed how some cards are simply not playable in mono-fire. Normally this is due to the high rate of the casting cost. When fire and nature mix you are able to fix this problem – at least to a certain degree (don’t try to go overboard – Billion Degree Dragon still isn’t likely to see any real play). This advantage actually speeds up your deck even more than a mono-fire deck. In addition, you will find that you will be able crank out more powerful creatures at an earlier portion of the game than you possibly could with fire alone.  

Weaknesses

Combing fire and nature suffers from similar troubles as each of these civilizations would on their own. However, since you are able to field creatures more quickly and slightly stronger creatures at the same time as you be attempting to field your fatties, this combination does not suffer from these problem as drastically. Still, if you don’t play your creature removal right you will quickly find yourself in a bind.

Basic Build Formula

8x Mana Accleration

All of these cards will have to come from Nature. Nature is actually kind enough to break it’s mana acceleration down into two types – mana-production and cost-reduction. Mana-production is the creation of mana, which is permanently placed into your mana pool for use each turn (barring catastrophic death by the likes of Mana Crisis, that is). Cost-reduction is the blanket lowering the of casting cost of spells and/or creatures that are played. If you want more details you’ll need to check out my article about mono-nature decks.

Examples: Bronze-Arm Tribe, Ultimate Force, and Elf-X.

8-14x Three or less casting cost creatures

Ah…quick and deadly creatures to help you win games before your opponent has finished shuffling their deck. Between both nature and fire you have them aplenty. In addition, such creatures are also often (but not always) great evo-bait. Also, if you build your deck right some of these creatures can cross over into your mana acceleration slots. Think it over carefully before you choose.

As a note – the amount of these creature you include will depend what cards you choose for mana acceleration. If they happen to be creatures such as Bronze-Arm Tribe you will have some cross over.
Examples: Burning Mane, Brawler Zyler, and Mighy Shouter.

6-8x Support Fatties

Fire and nature allow you to play your fatties much more quickly. Because of this you will find yourself relying on them more than you would in either single civilization version. As they become more a part of your game you begin to enjoy them more and more. Still, don’t get carried away – there is such thing as to big.

Examples: Armored Blaster Valdios, Fighter Duel Fang, and Bolshack Dragon.

8x-16x Support Spells

A nice chunk of these support spells should be creature removal. Fire has some good, however limited removal you can pull from and don’t forget about nature’s Natural Snare. You may want to also include some spells that support your decks function. For example, have a lot of shield triggers? Mana Nexus is great!

Examples: Volcanic Arrows, Tornado Flame, and Mana Nexus.

Sample Decks

I have searched and searched for what I considered to be a good enough sample primed deck to list here. I even tried going to some foreign sites and yet I have yet to find one. So, unfortunately, the sample primed deck must come from my brain today. I think you will like the budget deck. I believe you can make a pretty good budget deck with these civilizations.

Budget Practice Deck:

4x Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
4x Brawler Zyler
4x Bronze-Arm Tribe
4x Mighty Shouter
4x Torcon
4x Barkwhip, the Smasher
4x Mana Nexus
4x Crimson Hammer
4x Volcanic Arrows
2x Tornado Flame
2x Natural Snare

JMatthew’s Sample Primed Deck:

4x Immortal Baron Vorg
4x Brawler Zyler
4x Mini-Titan Gett
4x Explosive Dude Joe
4x Armored Blaster Valdios
2x Armored Groblav
2x Volcanic Arrows
4x Natural Snare
4x Bronze-Arm Tribe
4x Torcon
4x Mana Nexus

Hope you enjoyed the article. Next time we visit “Agro in the ’05 Metagame” we will likely be moving into Fire/Darkness. This will also allow us to begin to transition into some control. Can’t wait until then!

Regards,

JMatthew
Markulin33@msn.com