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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
G/u/r Panglacial Wurm deck
April 27, 2007

First of all, I just want to apologize for not writing in more often as of late.  Things in my life outside of Magic have been quite hectic lately, but I'm still here and I'm still fixing decks.  Like this one, for instance...
This deck has been doing ok at my local FNM store, but it could still use some improvement. As a student with little $$$, I’m forced to try to make the decks as budget as possible. I created this deck as it benefited from not using dual and shock lands which cost between 10 and 20 dollars at any given time.(Yikes!) The deck is made to accelerate your land count to a point where you can deal game ending burn spells.

 
Phat- the deck
 
Creatures-10
4 Llanwar Elves – Good blocker and early mana accel
4 Vinelasher Kudzu – Keeps getting bigger and bigger!
2 Panglacial Wurm- Just a great card that opponents never suspect
 
Lands- 24
15 Snow Covered Forests
4 Snow Covered Mountains
4 Snow Covered Islands
2 Terramorphic Expanse –Great card for searching out the Wurm
 
Spells- 27
3 Search for Tomorrow – Good search that offers choices
4 Rampant Growth – The original search!
3 Mwonli -Acid Moss - In competition with Hunting Wilds from the new Planar Chaos set. I like the Moss better as in my meta, there are a lot of lightning angel and multi colored decks that rely on a inconsistent mana base that is easily destroyed.
4 Compulsive Research – Good drawing for the burn
4 Tribal Flames – A great reason to run basics
3 Disintegrate – To cheap to afford Demonfire, but this works just as well
3 Telling Time – Good dig, but I have a total of 12 other cards that cost 2 mana and I don’t want to overdue it
3 Blood Moon – I realize it doesn’t fit at all with the theme of the deck, but it is probably (in my opinion) the most powerful red card in the meta. It recks almost everyones land base except mine =)
 
The main problem is, though, is that if aggro decks like boros start playing a mass amount of creatures, I’m dead to put it simply. In the original version of this deck, I included Skreds which helped me fend off creatures, but I have no idea if should I put them back. Also, if you have enough time, I would like your input on a transformative sideboard (For those who don’t know, a transformative sideboard is where you side in all of your 15 card sideboard into your deck to create a totally new deck with a different purpose. This method is very effective as it gives you the advantage of surprise.) Something along the lines of land destruction in the early game and a giant creature in the late game. I hope you get through to responding to me and thanks in advance for your time.
 
~ Jordan
 
It's good to see a deck with snow lands, but I'm not exactly sure why your lands are snow-covered.  For the Skreds you used to run, but why now?  No reason, it seems.  But Skred should definitely come back in.  It basically reads, "R: Destroy target creature."
 
This already looks like a really cool deck (no pun intended) with all that land searching for a surprise Panglacial Wurm.  So how can we improve it?  By fixing the problem you mentioned: difficulties against quich weenie rushes.  I can see your point; you've got very few creatures.  Honestly, I think the main problem in this deck is the color distribution.  Just look at the lands: a 15/4/4 split for green, red, and blue.  I bet I know why your deck struggles against quicker decks; because it spends the first three turns trying to get mana and find a Kudzu to pump up.  I think the best solution here is to drop a color.  Obviously green isn't going anywhere.  Red is giving you Disintegrate, Blood Moon, and Tribal Flames.  Blue is giving you Telling Time and Compulsive Research.  I know running three colors makes Tribal Flames better, but think about it: in your deck, the most damage the Flames will do is 3 if you have all three lands out.  You could just as easily run Volcanic Hammer and deal a guaranteed 3 damage even on nothing but Mountains.  And right now Blue is only giving you card drawing, but card drawing is best when it can help get you the mana you need, not when it's the reason you need mana.  Besides all that, green can draw cards pretty well, too, so Blue gets dropped altogether.  Tribal Flames becomes Skred, Telling Time becomes Ohran Viper (also a creature that can block most of Boros's 2/2's) and Compulsive Research becomes Harmonize (or, if you can't afford Harmonize, Carven Caryatid or Citanul Woodreaders-- also good blockers.  But Harmonize really is better if you can get it).  And the Islands become... Mountains or Forests?  I'd actually say Mountains, so you can be assured of getting one of each land faster.  Only practice will give you the appropriate land distribution, but a 15/8 split sounds about right for getting a first-turn Forest.
 
Now, about that transformative sideboard you asked for.  I was actually thinking that a sideboard could turn this deck into a dedicated land destruction deck.  With Llanowar Elves, you could hope for a second turn Stone Rain followed by a third turn Icefall or Wreak Havoc.  A sideboard like that would look like: 4 Stone Rain, 4 Wreak Havoc, 4 Mountain (since you'll need to sideboard out some Forests to ensure red mana early enough for land destruction to matter), and 3 of whatever large creatrue you would want to use as a finisher (I recommend Rumbling Slum or some sort of Dragon).  You'd probably side out some land search (Rampant Growth and Search for Tomorrow), the Wurm, and maybe Disintegrate since you won't be searching up as many lands.
 
Another way your sideboard could transform you is by turning you much more aggro.  If you sided out your non-Elf mana acceleration and the Wurm, you could go for a quick rush against a slower deck with a sideboard of 4 Burning-Tree Shaman, 3 Uktabi Drake, 4 Giant Growth, and 4 Scab-Clan Mauler.  Or similar aggressive Gruul weenies; i think you get the idea.  It depends on what you want to do and on what sort of decks you expect to face, and on what sort of strategy you think you'd most like to be able to use as a Plan B.
 
That should cover everything here.  Thanks for the E-mail, Jordan, and thanks for showing us such an interesting deck.  I honestly have not seen one like it yet in the entire time I've been a mechainic here (or at least I don't remember seeing one like it.)  I'm really glad I was able to help you with this one, and I hope my advice has helped you.  Good luck!
 
~BMoor


 

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