Green Red Beats

7.20.04 

Hey folks, and welcome again to the Deck Garage! Before I get started, I just want to remind everyone – if you want your deck in the Magic Deck Garage, just drop me an e-mail at Hagan0001@aol.com, and I’ll get back with you!

This week, I’ve been sent a Red-Green Type II deck from Mike. Mike is new to the game of Magic, and would like to get into the tournament scene with his deck as soon as possible. Here is Mike’s current decklist:

4 Birds of Paradise

2 Blistering Firecat

1 Bringer of the Red Dawn

3 Caller of the Claw

2 Copper Myr

2 Eternal Witness

2 Joiner Adept

3 Raging Goblin

2 Rhox

2 Slith Firewalker

2 Spark Elemental

2 Crucible of Worlds

2 Detonate

2 Echoing Ruin

2 Fists of the Anvil

3 Sylvan Scrying

12 Forest

12 Mountain

We’ll start things off by working our way through the creatures. Birds of Paradise are wonderful, so they get to hang out. I also always enjoy a quick, surprise seven damage, so Blistering Firecat is good as well. Bringer of the Red Dawn, however, should probably make the trip.

-1 Bringer of the Red Dawn

Caller of the Claw is more of a sideboard card than anything, so we’ll shift him there. With a full complement of Birds of Paradise, Mike doesn’t really need Copper Myr, so they will be cut as well.

-3 Caller of the Claw

-2 Copper Myr

What will we be adding in their place? First, we’ll start with a full set of Troll Ascetic. The Troll is an all-around solid card and one of the best green 3-Drops in quite awhile. Normal removal doesn’t work on Troll, and it serves as a great blocker as well.

+4 Troll Ascetic

Next on the current list is Eternal Witness. Mike is playing two currently, but the Witness is so good, full complements belong in the deck. Think of all of the burn, artifact removal, and recurring creatures that will go down…

+2 Eternal Witness

Continuing on down Mike’s list, we find Joiner Adept and Raging Goblin. While I have nothing against either of these cards (I encouraged playing Raging Goblin last week. Go check it out!), I don’t think this is the right deck for them. Joiner Adept is better in a deck that is struggling with three or more colors, and the Raging Goblin should probably be found more in strait red decks that want quick damage.

-2 Joiner Adept

-3 Raging Goblin

With more slots now available, we’ll go ahead and add another amazing green creature – Ravenous Baloth! Who doesn’t like gaining life? Who doesn’t like reasonably-priced 4/4s? Who doesn’t like Beasts? Don’t forget, you don’t have to sacrifice Ravenous Baloth for life – any beast will do!

+4 Ravenous Baloth

Finishing out our creatures are Spark Elemental and Slith Firewalker. As we’re leaning towards green more than red, Slith Firewalker will tend to have trouble finding his way to the board. Spark Elemental goes pretty much in the same category as Raging Goblin – good in some decks, not so much in this one.

-2 Slith Firewalker

-2 Spark Elemental

What replaces these cards? I’m suggesting Molder Slug. With massive amounts of Affinity still running rampant and control decks leaning towards Indestructible artifacts, Molder Slug seems like a reasonable call.

+3 Molder Slug

When looking at Mike’s non-creature spells, I’m seeing one major problem – no removal. He has some artifact removal, but an opposing creature will go untouched by Mike’s spells. Thus, I suggest cutting Fists of the Anvil, Crucible of Worlds (that’s a sideboard card), and Sylvan Scrying in favor of a couple of burn spells: Electrostatic Bolt and Volcanic Hammer.

-2 Crucible of Worlds

-2 Fists of the Anvil

-3 Sylvan Scrying

+4 Electrostatic Bolt

+4 Volcanic Hammer

Mike has the right idea about artifact removal, though – more is better! As Affinity will probably be the most difficult and most common match-up, why not pack copious amounts of artifact destruction in the main. I’m upping the count of Echoing Ruin by one, and I’m switching Detonate to Naturalize. Why? Because aside from issues with the stray enchantment, Naturalize can also take out Myr Enforcer (or other high casting-cost artifacts) for cheap.

-2 Detonate

+1 Echoing Ruin

+3 Naturalize

I’ve switched Mike’s land around to look like below. Wooded Foothills are to help straiten out the mana situation, and Contested Cliffs are there for extra removal. Ravenous Baloth, Molder Slugg, and Rhox are all Beasts, which will make Cliffs very effective.

3 Contested Cliffs

12 Forest

5 Mountain

4 Wooded Foothills

Now, as with the last couple of weeks, I won’t leave Mike without a sideboard. First, since Tooth and Nail can be a pain, we’ll use Threaten.

+3 Threaten

Next, why not fill out the count of artifact kill cards? Affinity is a rough match, and Echoing Ruin and Naturalize might as well be burn spells against it.

+1 Echoing Ruin

+1 Naturalize

White-Blue control has been coming out in force over the last few weeks. Do we all know what can absolutely wreck control? That’s right! Land Destruction!

+4 Flashfires

Also to help against the control match-up, we’ll use three Caller of the Claw, which was cut from the main above. As a side note, has anyone noticed that Caller seems to have been forgotten by a lot of people? You just don’t see him a lot anymore.

+3 Caller of the Claw

Finally, I noticed Crucible of Worlds was in Mike’s main. I would assume this means that there is a fair amount of land destruction in his area, so why don’t we keep that card in the sideboard, just to play it safe.

+3 Crucible of Worlds

That about wraps it up for the work on Mike’s deck. Here is the final product.

CREATURES (23):

4 Birds of Paradise

2 Blistering Firecat

4 Eternal Witness

3 Molder Slug

4 Ravenous Baloth

2 Rhox

4 Troll Ascetic

OTHER (14):

3 Echoing Ruin

4 Electrostatic Bolt

3 Naturalize

4 Volcanic Hammer

LAND (23):

3 Contested Cliffs

12 Forest

5 Mountain

4 Wooded Foothills

SIDEBOARD (15):

3 Caller of the Claw

3 Crucible of Worlds

1 Echoing Ruin

4 Flashfires

1 Naturalize

3 Threaten

Hope that helps out, Mike, and good luck! I guess that about wraps up this week’s Magic Deck Garage. If you’d like to see your deck in the Deck Garage, just drop me an e-mail at Hagan0001@aol.com, and I will get back with you as soon as possible. Remember, include every aspect of the deck that you think I should know – what cards stay, what cards can go, what format, etc.

I’ll see y’all next week,

-Paul Hagan

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