Well, as I write this, it's March 1st, and thus the deadline for the Stuffy Contest has passed.  Thanks to all of you who entered, and good luck to you all.  The judging will commence over the next couple of days, and I hope to have the winners announced by the week of the 10th at the latest.  I will do several articles featuring some noteworthy decks, and of course the Deck Garage will still be open for business during this time.

 

I just have to say now, that I'm really proud of all of you.  I put out the call, and 34 of you answered, in a wide array of decklists.  I'm really impressed, and I only wish I could send you all the prize.  But of course, I wouldn't ask anything of you that I wouldn't do myself, so as I promised, I present to you four Stuffy Doll decklists-- one for each nonred color.

 

We'll start with the green deck.  My initial idea here was to use Evolution Charm to give Stuffy Doll flying, and then unleash a lethal Hurricane (or Squall Line, to keep it Standard legal).  Thus, a good amount of the rest of the deck goes into land search and mana acceleration, to fuel the almighty X.  Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and Hunting Wilds work well in this capacity, since they also do other things besides get you land.  It helps that Evolution Charm can search for lands, too.  To help draw the combo cards, I included Keen Sense.  With a Keen Sense on Stuffy, Stuffy taps to deal 1 damage to itself (and you draw a card), then deals 1 damage to your opponent (and you draw another card).  If you can get Keen Sense on Stuffy as soon as possible, your opponent (who doesn't read my column) will hopefully think that you have no plans with Stuffy Doll beyond drawing lots of cards and will leave you alone.  I then added Reclaim, so you can use your Charms twice or get back any card you lose, and as a backup plan I threw in some Blanchwood Armor (since you'll be putting a lot of Forests into play).

 

Pins and Needles

 

Creatures:

Stuffy Doll x4

Llanowar Elves x4

 

Other Spells:

Evolution Charm x4

Squall Line x4

Keen Sense x3

Search for Tomorrow x4

Mwonvuli Acid-Moss x3

Reclaim x4

Needle Storm x4

Hunting Wilds x3

Blanchwood Armor x2

 

Lands:

Forest x21

 

It's worth noting that I'm willing to count Blanchwooding up a Stuffy and smashing face as "winning with a Stuffy Doll", but it still feels a little anticlimactic.

 

Next I'll present the Black deck.  My first instinct was Kor Dirge, but re-reading the card made me realize that doesn't work all that well.  Then I remembered that Black has a lot of spells that do damage to creatures and gain you life.  Well, if you had a Stuffy out, you could use those spells to kill creatures OR finish off your opponent, instead of just being able to damage creatures.  So I found five worthwhile creature-drainers: Feast of Flesh, Douse in Gloom, Midnight Charm, Ribbons of Night, and Tendrils of Corruption.  I then found Vampiric Link, which works much like Keen Sense on a Stuffy Doll-- each ping will gain you 2 life.  With all this life gain, you should have no trouble with a few Phyrexian Arena in play.  And that leaves room for one more creature-- I chose Phyrexian Gargantua over Dark Confidant simply because I thought a 4/4 would be of good use.

 

Twenty-Course Meal

 

Creatures:

Stuffy Doll x4

Phyrexian Gargantua x4

 

Other Spells:

Vampiric Link x4

Feast of Flesh x4

Midnight Charm x4

Douse in Gloom x4

Tendrils of Corruption x4

Ribbons of Night x4

Dimir Signet x4

Phyrexian Arena x4

 

Lands:

Swamp x20

 

This deck seems like it would have a rough time dealing with aggro decks, but remember: it has 20 removal spells.  Don't be afraid to aim a Feast or a Douse at your opponent's creatures if necessary.  Also, some of you are probably wondering why I didn’t use Consume Spirit.  The answer is that the object of the contest is to win with Stuffy Doll.  Consume Spirit doesn’t need Stuffy Doll; it can target the opponent directly.  All the drain spells in this deck can’t target players, and are thus no good as a means of winning the game without the Doll.

 

That one wasn't as comboish as I'd envisioned, but I made up for it with the Blue deck.  I knew what the Blue deck would do right off the bat.  Four words-- Freed. From. The. Real.  Untap effects and pingers got me thinking of Fledgling Mawcor and Coral Trickster, and from there Fathom Seer to help draw the combo.  The rest is just the standard Blue ensemble: card draw and counter spells.  I also added Pongify, since hitting your own Stuffy with it results in a 3/3 Ape at instant speed for you, for only one mana.

 

Blue Doll Factory

 

Creatures:

Stuffy Doll x4

Fledgling Mawcor x3

Fathom Seer x3

Coral Trickster x3

 

Other Spells:

Freed From the Real x4

Mark of Eviction x2

Sleight of Hand x4

Compulsive Research x4

Rune Snag x4

Mana Leak x4

Pongify x4

 

Lands:

Island x21

 

Mark of Eviction allows this deck to transition from a one-on-one deck to a multiplayer deck quite easily.  Oddly, Freed from the Real isn't Standard legal yet I kept the rest of the deck Standard legal.  I had no reason to venture outside Standard; all I wanted was counter spells and card draw, but you could get even more creative with a cache of Splice spells designed to untap Stuffy with Psychic Puppetry or whatnot.  Freed would probably be more efficient.

 

And finally, I present to you the white deck.  I admit this was the most difficult deck, but I did have one card to go on: Valor Made Real.  The trouble is, how do you get your opponent to attack into an untapped Stuffy Doll?  The trick is: you don't.  You tap Stuffy Doll.  Then, when your opponent attacks, you untap it and play VMR!  So how do you untap it?  Magewright's Stone?  Well, that's good for extra pings, but it won't trick an opponent; it’s right there on the board.  You'll need to use a card in hand.  A card like Inspirit or To Arms! will work.  Then you play VMR on it, and maybe also Righteousness so you can actually kill some creatures too.  I ended up removing Inspirit-- it cost too much for a reactive trick, especially when I expected to play other tricks in the same combat.  I also added Sunlance as a sort of White Lightning Bolt, and Carom for added trickiness and more cantrips.  Finally, on the realization that I needed more creatures, I added Outrider en-Kor and Crossbow Infantry.  And in case my opponent was too smart to fall for my trap, Master Warcraft will make them fall for it.

 

The White Bluff

 

Creatures:

Stuffy Doll x4

Crossbow Infantry x4

Outrider en-Kor x4

 

Other Spells:

Magewright’s Stone x4

Valor Made Real x3

Righteousness x3

To Arms! x4

Carom x4

Sunlance x4

Master Warcraft x4

 

Lands:

Plains x21

 

If you play this deck, and Carom deals the final point of damage, be sure to laugh in your opponent's face.  Actually, of all four of these decks, this is probably the least competitive.  It's the most reactive in nature, and its backup plan is basically Outrider en-Kor beats backed up by Carom and Sunlance.  If Darkblast or Merfolk Thaumaturgist are popular where you play, you can protect Stuffy by replacing Crossbow Infantry with Ghost Warden.

 

So, there you have it.  Four Stuffy Doll decks, four different strategies, four nonred colors.  I told you I could do it, and I did it.  Also, don't worry if you submitted a deck with a similar premise as one of these-- decks I build don't count against the "creative" requirement.  This is actually quite a treat; after all this time receiving other people's decklists and fixing them, I get to post my own!  If you want to try and fix mine, go right ahead.  Of course, if you do, and you didn't enter the contest, why didn't you?

 

Until next time,

 

~BMoor