I wish all of you a pleasant Thursday. Welcome back to your daily dosage of deck. I’m your host, Abe Sargent, and this week I’ve been randomly rolling cards from Magic’s past and then I am forced to write an article around each one. It seems simple enough, right?
On Monday I rolled Standing Troops and I built a deck around the Stand theme. Tuesday came and brought with it Volrath’s Garden, around which I built a combo deck. Wednesday arrived and Justice was selected. I built two decks around Justice, although one may not work.
That brings us to today. What will Thursday bring? I grab my trusty translucent orange and purple dice (one is orange, the other purple; they aren’t both colors on each die or anything) and give them a toss. I roll set 29. What set is that?
Legions.
The good news about rolling Legions is that I’m leaving behind these early sets. What shall I roll? I rolled the first one hundred and number 17. What’s card number seventeen in Legions alphabetically?
I already did a boring White creature this week, and I don’t want to do another theme deck like I did on Monday. What else can I do? Let’s use the first strike ability of the tracker combined with provoke to actually do something.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Sylvan Basilisk
- 4 Beloved Chaplain
- 2 Commander Eesha
- 2 Silklash Spider
- 4 Tracker
- 4 Lowland Tracker
Lands (26)
- 12 Forest
- 12 Plains
- 2 Yavimaya Hollow
Spells (12)
Lowland Tracker combined with Venomous Fangs is a very nasty thing. Your provoke ability will force any opposing creature you desire to block the Lowland Tracker. First strike damage will then resolve and the Fangs will off the defending creature before it has a chance to damage the Lowland Tracker. In other words, Lowland Tracker plus Venomous Fangs will kill any non-first strike, non-indestructible creature in the game that is successfully provoked.
That’s a powerful ability and it makes the Lowland Tracker very dangerous. Another Tracker can also use the Venomous Fangs. The Fangs work whenever the enchanted creature deals damage, not just in combat. The Tracker is a Green creature that can actually deal damage to opposing creatures, making it another valuable addition to the Venomous Fangs club. It also fits the theme as a second Tracker.
In case the Tracker is about to die from its ability, I included a pair of Yavimaya Hollows in order to regenerate your creatures. Now you can throw a regeneration shield around your Tracker before using its ability.
Beloved Chaplain is another creature that can really benefit from Venomous Fangs. A humble 1/1 that can block any ground creature and live is a solid wall, but with a Fangs on it, it becomes a Chaplain of Death. No one will attack into it. Eesha can perform the same function in the air.
Another creature on which the Venomous Fangs is solid is the Silklash Spider. Just deal one to every flyer and watch them all die (except for your own Eesha, which won’t take damage from a creature source).
The deck includes a typical suite of destruction. Wing Shards exists to remind opponents to only attack cautiously. It’s a gentle nudge that people should not attack a White mage with impunity. If you need a bigger lesson, look at Vengeful Dreams. Naturalize is your Disenchant effect, and you could actually run Disenchant if you wanted.
I tossed in a pair of Sylvan Basilisks. They are tough, tough creatures with a devastating effect (creatures die when they block, not when they take damage or at the end of combat). They are usually unblockable 2/4 creatures but you can use the Hollow on them to save them from the occasional removal spell that would off one.
The combination of these cards and creatures gives the deck a very classic Green feel. Basilisks, venomed creatures, a lot of 2/4s, an actual Basilisk, a Spider, and so forth. Yet the deck retains a White base with defense and removal. The Lowland Tracker is an instrument of doom in this deck, so use it well.
Until later,