Tyler's Type Two

8.5.03  Dear Tyler,

Hey. I know this deck looks a lot like Elves! but it really isn't. It uses my 2 favorite cards. . . Might of Oaks and Ensnaring Bridge. Here's the deck list.

Lands:
4 Wirewood Lodge
16 Forest

Creatures:
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Taunting Elf
4 timberwatch elf
2 caller of the claw
4 wirewood herald
4 Birchlore Rangers
4 Wellwisher

The Power:
4 Wirewood Pride
4 Might of Oaks
4 Ensnaring Bridge

So there ya go. It is 2 over 60. . . but I dont know what to take out :-\. All i need is a taunting elf out and 1 card in hand. . . with a bridge out to get through and to not let them get through. See the nice part is I can attack with a 0/1 even with no cards in hand and the bridge out. You dont have to post this on the site or anything I just would like some feedback on it. I know you are busy but any help by Friday if possible would be greatly noted. Thank you

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Lol, I actually built a deck very similar to this recently. I noticed Ensnaring Bridge coming back, and wanted to exploit it. This is actually a surprisingly good deck concept.

You are almost there. Just a few tweaks and you’ll be ready to annoy all that come against you.

First of all, there is no stall in your deck to buy time enough to reach your Ensnarings. Remember your gonna be running 60 cards with 4 of them needed for you to survive. If we were in a perfect world, you would draw the ensnaring on turn one every time, but what I’ve found, is they are almost ALWAYS near the bottom

So… I say get yourself 2-3 Moment’s Peaces. These are absolutely wonderful cards from the Odyssey block. They will allow you stall just long enough to get to the cards you are looking for (namely the Bridge). Sometimes all it takes is one Fog to prevent from losing.

Next, you MUST put in wild mongrels. I know, I know, everyone uses them, but they do for a reason. This deck has a different reason, though. Unlike U-G madness and other quick beat-down decks, you’ll be using the ability STRICTLY as a hand removal. Once you’ve gotten down an ensnaring, I bet you you’ll have at least 2-3 cards in hand and if you are facing a Goblin deck (which there are plenty of out there) you’ll still be seeing a large beating coming your way. With Wild out, you quickly sack all cards in hand and lock the game up into a battle-free freeze until YOU say its time to attack. Even if your glorious might of oaks is in your hand, sack it. What you are looking to do is top deck the pumping cards so that your opponent can never attack on their turn.

Last but not least, I would bring your favorite card, Might of Oaks, down to about 2. At 4 Mana, you might find yourself with a few In hand and no where to play them. I love the Wirewoods since they are probably going to act like a oak for you at only one mana, but the Oaks are a bit pricey to run 4 in a deck designed around small hand sizes. But then again, if you find yourself adding the Wild’s like I suggested, this will probably not be such a problem. Test the deck either way and see if you run into any problems. If not, keep them in.

To make room for the cards I added, and to make it strictly a 60 card deck, is to remove one Xantid, and one of a couple of the elves. Most of the elves you are running at 4 and its not necessarily needed. Even though the Wirewood Pride and Timberwatch are looking for more food for pumping, you’ve got enough that you can erode a little with out any negative effect.

Lands:
4 Wirewood Lodge
16 Forest

Creatures:
3 Xantid Swarm
2 Wild Mongrel’s
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Taunting Elf
4 Timberwatch Elf
2 Caller of the Claw
3 Wirewood Herald
3 Birchlore Rangers
3 Wellwisher

The Power:
4 Wirewood Pride
3 Moment’s Peace
2 Might of Oaks
4 Ensnaring Bridge

What is good about the deck, though, is that even if you don’t get to your Ensnarings or they get removed, the Timberwatch and other pumping abilities could still win you the game. This adds for diversity in the deck. Heck, a Xantid with a Timberwatch and a couple of Lodges out could be one heck of a killer attack…

But there is a dark side to every deck. All you need is ONE Sharpshooter roaming on the opponent’s side to take your deck down in one foul swoop. Being a mono-green deck, there is little to nothing you can do about it unless you start adding in Coat of Arms or such to bring up the defenses, but that will just bog the deck down. The best hope you’ve got against decks utilizing Sharpshooter would be to have both those Caller of the Claws in hand to switch the Ten 1/1 and 0/1 creature loss to a whopping Twenty Two 2/2 creature gain.

Good luck and hope this helps,

Tyler G.


 

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