Get the MTG
Interactive Encyclopedia
from Amazon.com

 

Bear-Geddon

         Well, a user who wanted to remain anonymous made a heart-felt plea to me to tune this deck up.  Considering the fact that tuning decks is what I do, I figured hey, why not?  He describes his deck as a "w/g speed deck that splashes red for power cards like Rith and horned kavu."  He says that his area is filled with blue/black/red and blue/white control decks.  Here it is folks:

>Creatures
>1 diving griffin
>1 rith,the awakener
>1reya dawnbringer
>1 horned kavu
>1 skyshroud elf
>2 quiron sentinels
>1 avatar of might
>2 thornscape apprentice
>2 nomadic elf
>1 tarpan
>1amphibious kavu
>1 rooting kavu
>2 quirion elves
>1 yavimaya barbarian
>1 prison barricade
>2 llanowar knight
>1 mirrorwood treefolk
>1 obsidian acolyte
>1 alpha kavu
>1 kavu titan
>1 llanowar elite
>1 stone kavu
>1 razorfoot grrifin
>spells
>1 pulse of llanowar
>1 shackes
>1aggressive urge
>1 strength of unity
>1 artifact mutation
>1 scouting trek
>3 revivng dose
>1armadillo cloak
>1 animate land
>1 forgotten harvest
>1 fertile ground
>lands
>7 forest
>2 tinder farm
>1 geothermal crevice
>5 plains
>2 mountains
>1 elfhame palace
>1 terminal moraine
>1 irrigation ditch
         Well, we have a lot of room to work with this deck, and one of the first things I want to cover is what is known as "redundancy theory."  It basically says that multiples of cards in decks increases the consistency of the deck so that you can adjust your play and draw the better cards more often as there will be more of them in the deck.  What I'm going to try to do is redesign the deck to be more consistent and more efficient.  By efficient I mean that I'm going to try to make sure that all the cards in the deck help it achieve a single goal in a specific way.  I'm also going to try to keep the deck cheap, as its owner seems to not have either access or money for all of the rares that could fit into a "w/g speed deck."  So, off we go.
         First up, I want to figure out red's role in our deck.  I think we'll lose red altogether, in order to increase our mana consistency and because red doesn't really lend anything phenomenal for us to use.  Also, I think we'll probably go to white for the higher quality creatures and look to green for some easily splashable creatures whose cost-to-power ratio is fitting with the deck.
         So, for the creature base we're going to focus on cheap creatures, predominantly 2/2s for 2 mana, with a couple other creatures which we'll utilize for their unique strengths.  There's some obvious ones in white and green, so lets throw those in to start:

Creatures:
4 Steadfast Guard-2/2 for WW, and they don't tap to attack, ideal for an aggro deck
4 Longbow archers-2/2 first strike for WW, and blocking flyers makes them great
4 Llanowar Knight-2/2 for WG, but the pro-black is what we really like
4 Nomadic Elf-2/2 for 1G, but these guys will make the red splash much easier
4 Thornscape Apprentice-for only a G, you'll occasionally use the red ability, but tapping possible blockers with the white ability is what we want him for.
4 Llanowar Elf-these guys will be sure to speed you up and get your army out a lot quicker, so that you can swarm your opponent
4 Quirion Sentinels-2/1 for 1G ain't that great, but the way they help speed up the rest of your deck and give you mana is superb.
4 Stampede Driver-giving all of your creatures +1/+1 and trample every turn of the game is a huge power swing that can give you the extra damage you need to win.

Spells:
4 Armageddon-the only rare in this deck, but this card should win you the game with the creature advantage you should have established at this point.
4 Armadillo Cloak-this card absolutely changes the game, and can't be ignored.  Its power is unmistakable.

Land:
4 Elfhame Palace
4 Rith's Grove
8 Plains
4 Forest

         The elfhame palaces slow us down, as do the rith's grove, which we would gladly replace with brushlands and cities of brass respectively...if we had them at our disposal.  Otherwise, considering that we have no GG casting costs and 8 WW casting costs, we have to give white the majority of the mana distribution.  Still, 12 green sources should be fine and more than enough to get it when you need it. 
         Our anonymous player also asked for possible sideboard options, so here they are:
black or red:  either acolyte, light of day, circles of protection, all should do well
blue/white control:  kavu chameleon, blurred mongoose, uncounterable effects or other armageddon effects, such as global ruin, if they resolve, give blue/white decks fits.  Also, River Boa is an all-star against islands.  a lot of times if you leave him out there by himself, your opponent will take 6 or 8 damage and then waste a wrath of god on just him. 
         Well anonymous reader, I hope I helped you, see you in a Flash!
-Wally West


Pojo.com