11.03.04  [Mono Nature Beast Folk]

Constructing a Mono-Nature Beast Folk deck seems like an extremely intuitive and straightforward process. Toss together Fighter Dual Fang, Barkwhip the Smasher, Bronze-Arm Tribe, 4 other cheap Beast Folk, Natural Snare, Dimension Gate and Mana Nexus—all at 4 copies—and you’re ready to party. But, with so many Beast Folk to choose from and differing metagames, is everything always so simple? Is decking Mighty Shouter always a better idea than decking Silver Axe? How about the benefits of decking non-Beast Folk utility creatures like Gigamantis and Rumbling Terahorn? Even when a build is commonplace and tightly fastened around a strategy without bells and whistles there’s plenty of room for variation. Today zman22674’s stops by the Dojo with his uber-aggressive Mono-Nature build:

I run a mono nature deck and it seems to run pretty clean and smooth. The 

mana acceleration in this deck is unreal and I have beaten people in as little as 

6 turns. Most duelists do not like the Steel Smashers because they cannot attack 

shields, but I use them either as a cheap evo base or a way to drop him in turn 2

 so he cannot be Crimson Hammered before I drop Barkwhip on him turn 3. I also 

use him with a Barkwhip to kill my opponent's Barkwhip. While I tap my Barkwhip to 

attack a weaker creature or a shield, then I use Steel Smasher to kill my opponent's 

Barkwhip. You can see, I use a lot of lower cost Beast Folk creatures to help me get 

Fighter Dual Fang or Barkwhip to the field quicker. 

Fighter Dual Fang x4

Barkwhip The Smasher x4

Raging Dash Horn x4 

Fear Fang x4

Golden Wing Striker x4

Bronze Arm Tribe x4

Steel Smasher x4

Burning Mane x4

Dimension Gate x4

Mana Nexus x4

Natural Snare x4

44 cards 

Zman22674’s deck doesn’t absolutely need tuning. It’s nicely built around the synergy 

that Barkwhip the Smasher provides the Beast Folk and exploits the quick creature 

summoning potential of Nature. The two very minor fixes I’ll apply to the deck are a 

matter of maintaining the creature count while at the same time decreasing the deck 

size to maximize the chances of drawing needed cards. Zman22674 informed me that 

his deck’s 44 cards because he’s decked out before. There are 8 cards that thin the deck 

for mana, and if you manage to play all of them then you’d siphon 12 cards to that end. 

Even so, I’d run mono-Nature at 40 cards because it lacks blockers, needs to evolve 

rather fast, and has sparse direct creature removal. You don’t want to wade through 

too many cards to get to your needed evolutions, even with Dimension Gate in the deck. 

Besides, you don’t have to summon a creature or cast a spell if will make you deck out. 

If the situation is that dire at that point in the game, then you’ve probably already lost 

without a creature like Fighter Dual Fang hitting the field. A 44-card deck doesn’t spell 

an instant loss, but I’m aiming for maxed draw chances considering the weaknesses 

inherent in Nature.

-4 Fear Fang

Fear Fang is a shot at stability for evolutions, but Steal Smasher’s the same thing for one less mana and Burning Mane’s there for the quickness factor. Although Golden Wing Striker is more vulnerable than Fear Fang, when it swings it can hit for more.

Creature searching is great for Mono-Nature because those decks tend to be around 70% creatures, and you need a way increase your chances of seeing the most effective creature for the job at hand. Enter Dimension Gate or Rumbling Terahorn. I see slightly more benefit in running Rumbling Terahorn over Dimension Gate. For 2 additional mana Rumbling Terahorn gives you a hitter on the field plus its replacement in your hand. With Dimension Gate the search process can come for free and sooner—plus it’s another target for Mana Nexus, which are all great—but having a hitter plus a refilled hand with Rumbling Terahorn isn’t bad either. In some match ups having another hitter in the battle zone and my evolution in hand, even though Rumbling Terahorn packs extremely low power, helped solidify wins. Evolving the Beast Folk is essential for the deck. However, the 8 evolution creatures in this deck don’t add to the field count, they simply make existing creatures stronger (which is the great aspect of evolving). Since the deck can generate additional mana and having more hitters in the battle zone greatly helps an Aggro strategy, another creature plus search can be a nice fit for the deck. Dropping Dimension Gate for Rumbling Terahorn is not a necessary fix, and it does involve a degree of personal preference, but it’s a fix that can give the deck more hitters without losing needed spells (Nexus & Snare), pushing the deck past 40 cards, or losing creature searching.

-4 Dimension Gate

+4 Rumbling Terahorn

The deck with changes:

Fighter Dual Fang x4

Barkwhip The Smasher x4

Golden Wing Striker x4

Raging Dash Horn x4 

Bronze Arm Tribe x4

Steel Smasher x4

Burning Mane x4

Rumbling Terahorn x4

Mana Nexus x4

Natural Snare x4

40 cards

If zman22674 finds himself not fearing a deck out sometime in the future, then he could test out Silver Axe in place of Golden Wing Striker for more mana making fun. Then there’s Mighty Shouter if he wants assured mana gain or Silver Fist if he wants a hitter with a greater pump effect. Also, if zman22674 greatly dislikes Rumbling Terahorn then he always can slap Dimension Gate back into the deck. A Mono-Light or Mono-Water deck can give Mono-Nature trouble. Mono-Nature is an aggressive deck and nothing spells trouble from Aggro quite like beefy blockers. If zman22674 faces a lot of blocker decks then he might try 4 Holy Awe or 4 Terror Pit in place of 4 Golden Wing Striker. Basically he’d play Awe/Pit to the mana zone when he has enough creatures out so that losing the kick of Raging Dash Horn isn't crippling. Holy Awe or Terror Pit off the trigger is most helpful for obvious reasons, and those spells also make for nice Mana Nexus targets. Most players don't like to 'hold onto an Awe/Pit’ in hand for extended periods of time. For those who drop Raging Dash Horn to put in splash like Awe/Pit, they turn to other pumpers like Silver Fist, other Horned Beasts, or the Giant Insect race. Speaking of the Giant Insects, if Raging Dash Horn is in the build with splash then Sniper Mosquito has the potential to fish Awe/Pit out of the mana zone to re-activate Raging’s effect. zman22674 will have to keep play testing in his meta to see if those options work for his meta. Happy stomping!

If you live in the MO/IL area please come to the Shadowclash of Blinding Night Release Tournament on November 13, 2004 at Dizzy Dugout:

104 South Morrison Avenue
Collinsville, IL  62234
(618) 345-6453