After two straight days of random creature deck-ness, you aren’t about to see me slow down. We might as well see this theme to fruition.
For those who are new to the series, or forgetful, I randomly select a creature type from the Mistform Ultimus Watch on the Wizards website. Then, I build a deck around whatever creature type I select.
Monday I had selected everybody’s favorite creature type – the carriage deck. Then on Tuesday, I build a deck of Volvers. What will I select today?
It’s a very simple process. I head over to the webpage and randomly choose…
Of course, there’s no suspense since you know the tribe I’m writing from the title. Just in case you can’t figure it out, the type chosen was the nomad!
Creatures (32)
- 4 Avalanche Riders
- 4 Weathered Wayfarer
- 4 Ghitu Slinger
- 2 Ghitu Fire-Eater
- 1 Pianna, Nomad Captain
- 4 Nomad Decoy
- 4 Mystic Zealot
- 2 Mystic Crusader
- 4 Spurnmage Advocate
- 2 Teroh's Vanguard
- 1 Possessed Nomad
Lands (24)
Spells (4)
This deck is a creature-control deck with a variety of creatures designed to keep opposing creatures honest. Let’s take a closer look.
All of the nomads I found are White or Red, so building a White/Red deck seemed obvious. After that, I put in the ten Red cards I thought were really essential.
Ghitu Slinger is great because he’s direct damage in Nomad form. Play him and deal two to something, plus you’ve got a Nomad in play. He’s great. Of course, I’ve long touted the usefulness of the Slinger, but it’s nice to have a chance to slide him into a theme deck here.
Ghitu Fire-Eater is a Seal of Fire 2/2 if untapped. You can throw one at somebody who was just Slingered in order to get a bigger creature. It can be nice to have some backup removal, but the Eater isn’t as good as the Slingers, so I only included two.
The last Red Nomad I added was the Avalanche Riders. I felt the hasted land destroyer would find a nice home in this deck, and it looks like I may have been right. You opponent may not expect these guys from a largely White deck.
I also tossed in four Ghitu Encampments. You can tutor for them with the Wayfarer, and they make great attackers or blockers after mass removal.
After rounding out my Red section of the deck, I turned to the large White section. I chose to continue with the removal theme here.
I’ve long been a fan of the cheap Spurnmage Advocate. It’s a nice one-drop that can kill attackers. Sure, you send cards back to someone’s hand, but little ol’ Spurnmage can take out Akroma dragons, Phage, Silvos (almost), other big Green creatures with trample, and Akroma again. It’s a great backup plan.
Nomad Decoy can tap down one creature before threshold and two after. This can be used to get a hit in with one of your attackers. Otherwise, feel free to lock down one or two attackers of someone else’s.
There are four Weathered Wayfarers present, because I like tutoring for lands, especially the Encampments or Nomad Stadiums. Feel encouraged to sac a Stadium for life, even if you don’t need the life, if it allows you to use your Wayfarer.
For defense, I included four Mystic Zealots. These 2/4 ground creatures become 3/5 flyers after threshold. A 3/5 flyer can block a lot, like Serra Angels and Sengir Vampires. It can also attack for a lot of damage.
Mystic Crusaders join the Zealots. Their pro-Black/Red status make for a fine blocker, and post threshold they can block flyers like Shivan Dragon and Kokusho the Broken Star with impunity. They can even get through a concentrated Red/Black defense for two damage pre-threshold and three post-.
I tossed in a pair of Teroh’s Vanguard as a nice surprise. As a surprise creature, they make a sturdy blocker. After threshold, they make an even more powerful surprise against Pestilence decks, lots of Black creatures, and similar effects. Playing a Vanguard and then attacking with the team past a bunch of Black defenders might make some people wonder if you are playing some other color besides White, especially since White rarely has Falter effects.
To round out the deck, I tossed in one each of a pair of rare nomads. Pianna is a legendary Nomad who can lead your team. The Possessed Nomad is a solid body and although you cannot use his ability, he still can be a 4/4 for just four mana. If you want to be able to use his ability, toss in a Black mana producing land to get with your Wayfarers. If your casual game has a lot of White, put in another and pull a random Nomad for him.
I wish Nomads En-Kor were actually nomads, but they are not. You might be mistaken by looking at this list into thinking that maybe Nomads hadn’t been in print yet when Stronghold came out. In fact, the first Nomads were in print all the way back to Arabian Nights (Desert Nomads).
That about does it for another version of the random creature game. What will tomorrow bring?
Until later,