Brief Guide on Sylvans (part 2: spells/traps) - by Baneful
June 2014

 

Right now the standard line-up is 3 Soul Charge, 3 Mount Sylvania, 3 Miracle Fertilizer and 3 Sylvan Charity.  Let's go through them one by one.

 

Soul Charge is for reviving Hermitrees and Sagequoias to excavate and then XYZ.  You can revive Veiler for Synchro opportunities and Lonefire for searching.  However, you cannot attack, but that's okay.  You use it to build card advantage for the next turn.  So you +1 from excavation and then you use your Draccosack-Felgrand combo to put the opponent in a difficult spot.

 

Miracle Fertilizer is a weaker version of Soul Charge but more versatile since you can also attack.  Use on Hermitree usually, or Sagequoia. However, you cannot Normal Summon, which sucks for cards like Marshalleaf and Kuribandit.  Doesn't make much sense to use this card on the same turn as Soul Charge, so use it on a aggro turn after you gained the card advantage previous turn.  Or, if you draw Fertilizer first, just use it to get the engine flowing.

 

Sylvan Charity is a staple what else is there to say.  What I usually do is return a situational card I don't want to draw at the time first, and then a good excavation card on top of that.  Or you can return 2 cards to be excavated if you have the means.

 

Mount Sylvania is like Dragon Ravine.  Its used for speed more than direct card advantage at first.  Its worth discarding to fill up your grave and you set your deck up for excavating.  Excavating at the opponent's End Phase is harder to prepare for, but the longer Sylvania is out, the more plusses you'll get out of it.  Even if your opponent MST's it, you still have 2 more.

 

Borderline staples like Pot of Duality, MST and Dark Hole are generally not used here because they don't focus toward the Sylvan engine.  Besides Sylvans do a lot of removal by themselves if you can make them consistent enough.

 

As for other spell cards...

 

Rank Up Magic the Seventh One can definitely work well but some players avoid it due to the fact that its inert from the core Sylvan engine.  Trade-In can work with Hermitree, but don't use more than 1 of it.  Reasoning is risky, as it could either Sage/Hermit fast or it could be a dud like Marshalleaf.  One for One may work, but Cherubsprout is probably better for the engine. 

 

Archfiends Oath sounds interesting, but it also may complicate the spell line-up as monsters have plenty of excavation potential already, so I dunno on that one.  As for generic Plant support, Fragrance Storm is too much of a -1.  Mark of the Rose could work in a more aggro oriented build for sure.

 

As for trap cards, Sylvan decks should go light on them.  In fact, Sylvan toppers like Jeff Jones have avoided traps entirely because even the lighest Trap line-up is victim to Wiretap anyway.  Instead make the playset of Wiretaps useless by not running any traps.  And use 3 copies of Rose Archer to protect yourself against your opponent's trap-heavy setups. 

 

Perhaps in another format, the basic Solemn Warning, Torrential Tribute, Breakthrough Skill and Bottomless Trap Hole could certainly work though.  But I'd never exceed 6 traps due to the monster-engine focused nature of the deck.  Think Mermails.

 

- Baneful

 

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