MTG Strategist

Continuing from August of last year, and inspired by an excessive amount of pumpkin pie, I'm adding another to this running list. 1. Your deck should strive to either win or control the battlefield by turn 5. 2. Your deck should be able to play every turn...even turn 1. 3. Your sideboard should hold answers for cards that specifically break your deck's strategy. 4. Your deck should have multiple win conditions. (At least 1...yes, I'm talking to you Mr. Control deck that has no win condition. And combo decks that need 4 or 5 cards to set off the combo...that's not a win condition, that's a penny in a well. (For an example: http://www.mtgstrategist.com/2017/09/ixalan-improbable-but-infinite-cats.html ) New: 5. If your deck relies on a specific card to win, have a way to get to that card quickly. We don't have to stop at 10.  Your ideas are much appreciated.

The only thing better than having an incredible board state with a lot of powerful creatures is stealing your opponent's board state and multiplying it. Cleaner Clones is a Standard legal deck that utilizes Mirage Mirror, Tilonalli's Skinshifter, and Saheeli Rai to duplicate either your own or your opponent's toughest creature.  Mirage Mirror can become a copy of a target artifact, creature, enchantment or land until end of turn.  This includes any of these items on the battlefield (yours or your opponent's). Saheeli will help you scry through your deck, but what you really want from it is it's -2 ability.  You can make a copy of any artifact or creature that you control.  Now, I won't be shocked if you don't recognize this card.  It isn't really used.  But for this deck, it works great.  Tilonalli's Skinshifter (great name) will jump on the attack bandwagon and copy another nonlegendary creature. If your opponent doesn't have

Behold...the card that promises so much, but only delivers despair.  I present my argument for the most unplayable card in Standard...Imminent Doom. The reason this card frustrates me is 3 fold. 1. It promises so much, but delivers so little.  If you get this out  on turn 3, you can now begin your slow climb through your 1,2, and 3 drop spells to deliver a total of 6 damage.  If you don't miss any land drops, that means you will be able to cast both a 1 and 2 drop on turn 4; a 3 drop on turn 5; and a 4 drop on turn 6.  This will deliver a total of 10 damage to your opponent from Imminent Doom.  This assumes, of course, that you have drawn the correct cards...in the perfect order. 2. It stalls your strategy until turn 3 or later.  If you don't wait to reap the benefits of Imminent Doom, you risk the chance of casting your 1 and 2 drops before it's on the field.  So you wait...and wait...while your opponent builds up and you just sit there...waiting. 3. It mo

Recently, I have attempted to utilize Boneyard Parley to build a semi-competitive Standard deck. While I have put together something 'interesting' to say the least, I started wondering what you guys/gals could do with this card.   So I hereby issue a challenge.  On Monday night (20NOV) of the upcoming week at 8PM Pacific, I will be in the Constructed Open Play-Just For Fun MTGO room with my deck.  My name on MTGO is badmando1.  Bring your version of the deck.  And we will kill each other like civilized men/women. I'll say right now...my version of the deck is fairly awful.  I will put no constraints on the deck build, but I don't plan on using The Scarab God....mainly because it's in too many decks already and putting it in this deck will make it a Scarab God deck and not a Boneyard Parley.  I suppose the only real constraint is this: BONEYARD PARLEY HAS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE WIN CONDITION. Now...shall we dance?

In the wake of pro-tour bliss, it's nice to stop and throw out a FNM deck that doesn't rely on any super competitive strategy, but rather, plays well enough and has a combo element that will make even the most cynical of players crack a smile.  Submitted for your approval, I present Merfolk Revolution...a fun combo deck that utilizes the following key cards. I know what you're thinking.  That's a lot of cards to make a combo happen.  But given the support cards that I've added to the deck, this can happen.  Plus...nobody will really see it coming before it's too late.  Here's what will make this work.  First You will need Aethergeode Miner and River Sneak on the battlefield along with Arcane Adaptation.  Name Merfolk for Arcane.  This will make your Miner a merfolk.  Next, you want either 2 Decoction Modules out or 1 Decoction Module and 1 Aetherstorm Roc.  With that, you can bounce the miner over and over again because each time the miner en

It is my absolute pleasure to report that I have been retained as a staff deckbuilder for Chuck Wagon MTG.  It's an honor to be working with Chuck.  He's easy to find on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube.  I think getting exposed to a wider audience will inspire a more diverse assortment of deck builds. One thing that I would like to add for other deck builders out there.... If you see a deck that I've put together and it is similar to something that you have made, I'd like to hear what you did differently.  I spend a lot of time watching deck builders to make sure that I'm proposing something that is somewhat original.  I try to be honest about how competitive the deck will be (as opposed to how fun).  Again, if you find that a build is not as competitive as claimed, please let me know. I've created a second page with a running list and links to all of the Chuck Wagon MTG decks that the CWMTG team has produced.

Let me just say that Endless Sands has some real potential and will be the subject of many future deck techs.  In a single game I exiled my Fairgrounds Warden, Dire Fleet Ravager and an Aerial Responder...then brought them all back for the win.  Great card to play with.  It is susceptible to Field of Ruin....so there's that.  Here's where I'm at with it thus far.  DFR is a great monster.  I think Oketra's Last Mercy is what really sets this deck up for the win.  Regaining your life total after your opponent has been expending every effort to drop it really flips the game on its head. Here's the deck so far.  I'm still working the sideboard.

The idea behind Dire Mire is to use lifelinking creatures to build up a lead in life.  Then drop Dire Fleet Ravager and blink him/her in and out of the battlefield until your opponent is dead. Dire Fleet Ravager (DFR) causes all players to lose 1/3 of their life rounded up.  From the spreadsheet below, you can see that you need an approximate 3 point life lead to maintain yourself as you bounce your DFR. I am currently trying out two decks.  One uses a rather obvious strategy with The Scarab God and God-Pharaoh's Gift.  The other uses a white/black strategy that I like a little more.  White gives us better access to lifelink and has a lot of strong removal.  My desire to not put The Scarab God into another deck is strong, so I'll probably go with the black/white deck.  I could add God-Pharaoh's Gift to it just to give it that extra push.  Both decks use Endless Sands to store up DFRs when they become targeted.  Here are both decks.  I'm curious what you think.