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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Country Fried Stuff
December 27, 2006

One of the most recent deck fixes I've done was Stuffy Rath-- a Stuffy Doll/Furnace of Rath combo deck.  I don't usually fix decks so similar in such a short period of time, but this one seems different enough to give a look at.  Besides, I'm just coming back from holiday break and since I've been off for weeks, it doesn't really seem like the two fixes are coming too close to each other. 
Hello, and thanks for the great column.  I have been tweaking this deck for the past month or so and this is what I've got so far:

//Land
19 Snow-Covered Mountains

//Creatures
4 Stuffy Doll
4 Orcish Artillery
4 AEtherflame Wall

//Spells
4 Lightning Axe
4 Fiery Temper
4 Skred
2 Shock
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Seething Song
4 Pariah's Shield
4 Disintegrate

How it works:
Basically this deck uses Stuffy Doll as a tool to send cheap burn spells to my opponent.  With him you can change cheap creature-burn spells into cheap player-burn spells.  The Pariah's Shield is there to equip Stuffy if he comes out, but isn't really necessary with that much cheap burn being lobbed around.  I decided on 3 Pariah's Shields since it usually stays around after it's creature dies.

As for other creatures, I chose Orcish Artillery as an emergency way to finish off an opponent if I didn't have the shield, or as a great way to induce damage if I did have it.  With the Shield on Stuffy, the artillery can send 5 damage to the opponent just by tapping!  As for the AEtherflame Wall, it is a cheap defender, that could take out somebody if needed.  It's also a plus if you have to deal with an opposing army of Shadow creatures.

On to the spells!  The main combo is based on Lightning Axe, which requires an additional payment of 5 or a discard.  What a great way to play Fiery Madness for it's madness cost of R.  So, with Stuffy, this combo nets 8 damage to an opponent for 2 crummy mana!  Skred is a great all around spell, you can use it early game to take out creatures, or put the smack down on Stuffy later in the game.  It also has a bonus of being super cheap.  One turn of frying Stuffy with a Skred/Lightning Axe/Fiery Madness combo can spell disaster for an opponent.  Shock is sort of puny but can do well in the early game or deal with a small fliers later with ease.  Volcanic hammer does well early or late.  Disintegrate does a pretty good job taking care of problem creatures or just another punishment to Stuffy.  Last but definitely not least is Seething Song.  Many times this will allow a 3rd turn play of Stuffy (yay!) or pariah's shield.

The deck does have it's problems though.  It burns card FAST.  I have a terrible time with fliers unless I get the Pariah's shield equipped.  It does O.K. against control, if you force them to block cheap burns and then when they are low on cards you play your "good stuff."  What I wonder is what can be done to help against control decks, fliers, and also the issue of never having any cards in hand?  I really enjoy this deck cause it has a way of catching people off guard.  What's fun is if they have more invested in dual lands than in my whole deck and I start the burn before they get their "land shuffling" finished.  Thanks for the help in advance and keep up the good work!

Mark
Well, Mark, thank you for the E-mail.  Sorry it took so long to get back to you, but life outside Pojo beckons.  Your deck looks really solidly built.  You've clearly done a great job on this deck, so much so that there's little I can do to make it better.
 
I can, however, solve your major problems.  Against flying cards, your best bet is a card like Pyroclasm or Sulfurous Blast-- plenty of damage to wipe out everything, except Stuffy Doll of course!  These cards also make a great way to pour extra damage onto Stuffy Doll.
For the problem of running out of cards too quickly, your best bet is Howling Mine.  Yes, it gives your opponent cards too, but yours are bound to be more efficient, so it's worth it.
 
As for control decks, all a red burn deck can really do is keep pouring on the heat and hope they run out of counters.  Howling Mine may actually make this deck even worse, unless they already have a lot of card draw spells, in which case they're either drawing so much that they have to discard, or their draw spells are dead in hand.  Either way, they're not really getting all those cards they're drawing.  However, control decks do like open mana, so the key here would be Wildfire.  Not only will it wipe out creatures, but it will also leave their mana base crippled.  This card should be the backbreaker for you, since by this time they should be scant few life points away from defeat.  Actually, this could take the place of Pyroclasm.
 
However you do it, I'm sure you'll have plenty of success.  Keep the fire burning, and good luck!
 
~BMoor
 
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