Building Aggro-Control Part 1: Water/Nature Splash "Ill-Folk Style"
February 11, 2005

Building Aggro-Control Part 1: Water/Nature Splash "Ill-Folk Style"

Water/Nature exploded onto the scene after the introduction of Evo-Crushinators of Doom, being propelled by some of the best evolutions and CIP (come into play) effect creatures to grace the game. With the onset of Rampage, Mana Nexus freed players from being limited to hard casting off color triggers in order utilize them, and provided a way to make triggering less random. Shield setting took the build to new heights. It was only a matter of time before players would come to see the additional power the shield manipulation creature Emeral, and consequently the draw creature Illusionary Merfolk offered the build. Thus, the current popular form of Water/Nature was born, the "Ill-Folk Style."

Draw Power & Mana Gain Are So Good Together It's Bad

Any Water/Nature build that's worth a grain of salt will aim to capitalize on the synergy between draw power and mana gain. Water/Nature is fueled by card advantage reaped from cards like Aqua Hulcus, robust forms of permenant and temporary creature removal, and sometimes hand discard. Supporting all this wonderful speed-evolving and card advantage is mana gain or mana conservation (Essence Elf, Elf X) that enables duelists to perform actions at a quicker pace once cards are in hand.

In order to bring the build to its win condition, whether it be swarming with small creatures and few Evos or riding the duel out before strikes, Water/Nature Aggro-Control must draw into its threats in time to trump a Control deck and play its answers in time to put the cork on an Aggro deck. Give enterprising players affordable ways the draw outside the draw phase and they'll be tempted to run them with mana gain to quickly squeeze the most benefit out of large hands. Illusionary Merfolk is one such affordable possibility:

Illusionary Merfolk

Water
Gel Fish
5 mana
Creature
4000 power

When you put this creature into the battle zone, if you have a Cyber Lord in the battle zone, draw up to 3 cards.

Being able to answer and play threats entails placing options into your hand first. Drawing cards only during the draw phase isn't going to make the grade given the natural mechanics of the game, especially when a portion of your deck's strategy involves limiting your opponent's range of actions. Once turn 5 rolls around you're pretty much on the brink of exhausting your options in hand if you've been dropping mana every turn, been making plays, and haven't had the luxury of an early draw trigger. What's the use of all the mana gain if you're not able to tap out most of your mana during your turns or you're sitting with an empty hand? You need to maintain options in hand so that you can continuously produce advantages to win.

Illusionary Merfolk is a wonderful answer to dwindling midgame options. At 5 mana it can come in the nick of time, and it has decent 4000 power so it can trump several blockers and kill a wide range of commonly played creatures. Provided you have out a Cyber Lord you can restock your hand and gain field presence in one shot. Three card draw on a creature is extremely good when it can come before the lategame, especially when the "combobait" is cheap. In general, Emeral set things in motion for Illusionary Merfolk to come into the forefront of decks. Corile is the best Cyber Lord going, but Emeral is the cheapest. Obviously both options in a deck increases your chances of reaping card advantage over your opponent and pulling off the draw combo. When packed with renewed options in hand all you'll require to push your deck's win condition is the appropriate type and amount of mana to play cards, which is why Illusionary Merfolk's card draw rocks with mana acceleration.

Now that we know what Illusionary Merfolk brings to Water/Nature, and hence why it's finally featured in builds, let's drive into the build's strategy and the other card choices.

The Good Stuff: How Does It Win?

Here's a quick reminder of the build's basic tactical options:

Draw Power. Get to your threats and answers sooner.

Mana Gain. Play your threats and answers sooner.

Removal. Prevent your opponent from gaining advantages.

Shield Setting. Make your shield zone produce advantages.

Water/Nature is structured to approach different matchups in different ways. The key to winning matchups is to know when to emphasis the deck's Control and Aggro tactics over one another. When you're playing versus a Rush deck you largely need to play more of a Control game and vice versa when playing against a Control deck. In the mirror you're going to do a lot of juggling. Here are some ways to approach several common matchups based on archetype:

Versus Weenie Rush: Slap down some early defense with blockers like Aqua Guard or do some early shield setting with Emeral. Play out your cheap hitters to match quicker decks, and strike at creatures before they pick up a second wind, especially if you manage to get a power creature like Barkwhip on the field soon. When the midgame rolls around you want to start bombarding your opponent with your own swarm and beef hitters and punish him with your card advantage. Speed decks are the reason why some Blue-Green builds run Holy Awe instead of Terror Pit.

Versus Beefy Aggro: Think Mono-Nature, Mono-Fire or Nature/Fire--decks that have speed and fat. You play against these decks in the same manner as versus Weenie Rush, but you have to use your Control spells and effect creatures very wisely because the threats become stronger fairly quick, like Valdios. You also have to display greater finesse when mounting attacks by timing them well.

Versus Control: You want to establish a good lead in the shield race before your opponent's own card advantage kicks in to rule the race. You've got the goods to trump early defenses with early beef hitters like Barkwhip and the blocker bouncer Paladin. At the same time use your removal to handle some of the threats Control builds drop. You must be careful of sweeper effects common to many Control builds, and judge when it's best to extend your field or break shields. Aim for getting your powerhouses on the board quickly to have threats that aren't affected by most sweepers. 

Versus Aggro-Control: Juggling, juggling, and more juggling. You're playing nearly the same game as your opponent (some versions run more control and others run more aggro), and have to push for being the aggressive player or the controlling player at different times in the duel and know when to do both. When things are sort of evenly matched--like skill and deck quality--then winning this matchup will often come down to who does what better than the other player and which player makes the least amount of mistakes. 

The Bad Stuff: How Does It Lose?

The major weaknesses of Water/Nature is also one of its hallmark strengths: it tries to have its cake and eat it too by playing both an Aggro and a Control game. A Rush opponent can take advantage of a slow start and a Control opponent can exploit the low attack power of many creatures common to the build. It tries to be all things at once but can't be all those things equally well. Here are some ways to hit the build:

Field Sweeping Is Good Housekeeping: So many high-utility creatures with so little attack power leaves a lot of room to decimate fields with cards like Searing Wave, Burst Shot, Vampire Silphy and Sinister General Damudo. Water/Nature has the capacity to swarm once the mana and cards in hand are at a good amount, so the player can overextend. If key beef hitters like Crystal Lancer haven't graced the field yet, sweeping away all the evobait can leave a Green-Blue player with an Evo clogged hand and the field wide open for attack. Basicially, heavy control options can bring the build to its knees, and whether you're rushing or stalling, hitting the little guys as soon as you can go a long way towards shutting down the fancy tricks and lategame housing. These builds are also going to have a tough time dealing with control behemoths like Ballom and Alcadeias if any Demon and Angel Command evobait lurk about.

If You Can't Program Your VCR, Then Call A Technician: Not everyone loves to rock marginally useful cards like Ruthless Skyterror or Crow Winger, but in the face of a field of Water based decks those types of creatures can give your deck better matchups. The great majority of Water's go-to creatures rock low power, and a Ruthless Skyterror that manages to remain on the field can go to town. At 4 mana and 6000 power, it can slam almost all the key Water hitters, and your opponent must expend one of his removal options to deal with it instead of hitting one of your shield-breaking threats.

You're Not Everything, Baby: Water/Nature can't out-rush pure Rush or out-control pure Control. Since it's not totally dedicated to full blown creature or hand control the build may not produce the right answers fast enough and with consistency, even with both Pit and Snare in the deck. Much of the build's choice kill is limited in the number of targets in can handle at a time. If you can hit fast enough, knock out some creatures, and time set-shield breaks, then you can sqeeze out wins. While Water/Nature can overwhelm Control's defenses and produce tricky threats, Control builds pack ample answers. If the right answers come up at the right times, such as board sweepers, pinpoint mana destruction, and hand discard, it may be an uphill battle that's difficult for Water/Nature to win.

Who's On First: Key Card Choices

Water/Nature Ill-Folk style has many wonderful spells and creatures at its disposal. Here are some of the most crucial cards in its library of plays:

Bronze-Arm Tribe

Mana gain, early game creature, and evobait. "BAT" is common-sense mana gain with the slight drawback of possibly dropping a good card down. Nice in decks with Mana Nexus, Beast Folk evos, and creatues that pwn when their appearance is accelerated.

Barkwhip, The Smasher

Early game beatdown creature & Beast Folk support. Great with Fighter Dual Fang, and helps little Beast Folk escape numerous kill choices. Annoying because Hammer, Wave, and Flame, and Death Smoke can't touch it.

Fighter Dual Fang

Mana Gain & fattie creature. 2-card mana gain + a double breaking finisher sans summoning sickness is sweet.

Mana Nexus

Shield setting. Makes splashing and running any trigger more useful to the deck, as well as running BAT and Fighter Dual Fang.

Natural Snare

Removal. Hits the tricky stuff, like Aqua Knight.

Emeral

Draw, shield setting and combobait. Emeral is very sly draw. You are given the earliest chance of shield setting without mana consumption and the bonus of field presence. The cheapest creature to combo with Merfolk.

Aqua Hulcus

Draw and evobait. An affordable creature that replaces itself, and serves as a launch pad for the oft-necessary Liquid People evos.

Aqua Guard

Protection and evobait. See DFBC and Rikabu die. See Aqua Guard & Paladin drop. See blockers run. See all your little hitters get thru for massive hits to the opponent's dome. Very easy to run with Paladin. Great for Lancer, too.

Crystal Paladin

Removal and mid-game hitter. A clinch card that can help decks push through blockers.

Crystal Lancer

Evasion & fattie creature. Excellent beatstick finisher. 'Nuff said.

Corile

Removal, disruption & combobait. You're afforded so many wonderful advantages with this single little bouncer: stall, tempo loss for your opponent, field removal, draw disruption, draw combo piece, and a hitter.

Illusionary Merfolk

Draw power & midgame hitter. Have more options, have more ways to win.

Brain Serum

Draw. Best off the trigger, which could be made possible with Emeral or Nexus.

Splash:

Holy Awe

Defensive & offensive tappage. Gives you a way to trump blockers, nail creatures or stop a barrage of attacks.

Terror Pit

Removal. Pure creature destruction. I love it. You love it. We love it.

What Does It Look Like: The Decks

After reading over the purposes of commonly decked cards and the strategy of the build it's time to see all that theory put into action. Below I provide you with three decks from which to gather ideas when constructing your Water/Nature decks. The first deck won a 5 Civ Regional and it packs several effective plays you can build your deck around. The second deck placed top 3 at a 5 Civ Regional, runs some very interesting tech, and has a swarm angle that highlights many of the concepts covered in this article. The third deck is my personal pet-project that is metagamed and can be effective elsewhere with minor adjustments. I present you with several builds so that you can see what different players are churning out and to show that there isn't a set-in-stone way to produce a successful Water/Nature build. 

bt67's 1st Place Survivor 5 Civilizations Deck

4x Emeral
4x Corile
3x Illusionary Merfolk
4x Aqua Hulcus
4x Aqua Guard
4x Hunter Fish
4x Crystal Lancer
1x Crystal Paladin
2x Teleportation
4x Bronze-Arm Tribe
2x Fighter Dual Fang
4x Mana Nexus
4x Natural Snare
4x Terror Pit
48 cards 

Notes: If you've posted on the Pojo's DM forums, then you probably already know bt67. He chose to run two sets of blockers to have answers for Rush decks (Hunter Fish was Spiral Gate) and tech in 1 Paladin. It's also interesting to note how he runs 2 Teleportation for more removal options.

GordonKane's Top 3 Survivor 5 Civilizations Deck

2x Angry Maple
3x Pouch Shell
3x Illusionary Merfolk
3x Elf X
3x Fighter Dual Fang
3x Burning Mane
4x Torcon
4x Aqua Jolter
4x Bronze-Arm Tribe
4x Aqua Hulcus
4x Barkwhip
4x Corile
2x Natural Snare
2x Teleportation
45 cards

Notes: Fellow Pojo'er GordonKane included Angry Maple thinking it was a Beast Folk creature. He noted that it will be coming out the the deck ASAP. His deck uses a lot of trigger creatures and cheap creatures that play nicely with Elf-X. He uses Elf X and the deck's mana gain to swarm the opponent. The deck also packs interesting evo tech--Pouch Shell and opts not to employ shield setting.

cecillbill's "Yellow And Blue Make Green"

4x Emeral
4x Corile
3x Illusionary Merfolk
4x Aqua Hulcus
4x Aqua Guard
3x Crystal Lancer
4x Bronze-Arm Tribe
4x Torcon
3x Barkwhip, the Smasher
4x Mana Nexus
4x Natural Snare
4x Holy Awe
45 cards

Notes: The deck is simple and straightforward. Holy Awe is to kill two birds with one stone--a pacifier for speed decks and a way for non-Lancer hitters to fly over blockers. Taking out 4 Torcon and 1 Barkwhip will bring the build to 40 without weakening the concept.

Final Thoughts

Water/Nature is a decktype that has been such a common fixture in the upper echelon of winning decks that some duelists feel the decktype has become a "cookie cutter cheap winner." Backlash is bound to occur when a deck becomes heavily played and is a consistent performer. If you play a commonplace deck type, then don't be afraid to give it your personal touch and tech. One of the most interesting Water/Nature splash decks that I ever played against (in the summer of last year) ran Aqua Bouncer and King Corile and the deck pwnd. I've also seen some builds work in Enchanted Soil, Lost Soul, and Brutal Charge with solid results. Remember that your deck can reflect your personal style in addition to being resilient enough to win with proper testing even if you use a popular archetype.

Up Next: Mini-Survivor action. What will the spotlight creatures be? How will the decks look? You'll have to check back here to find out! I'm off to watch some Invader Zim episodes. OBEY THE FIST!

If you have any questions, want to see something covered in an article, or just want to chat, feel free to drop me a line at kaiserpso@hotmail.com.

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