Welcome back to another edition of Thank God It’s FNM! As I said last week, I plan to do the normal routine but with a little “spoiler talk” at the end of each article. To be honest, none of the new spoilers excite me that much right now, so I’ll get back to that next week when they show me something more impressive. I like some of the cards that have been spoiled in the past week but not enough to talk about.
To get right into the thick of things, I received a pretty cool decklist from Travis Brown a little over a month ago. He has a pretty unique twist on a deck that never really made it into the spotlight. Here’s the list he sent me:
Creatures (16)
Lands (24)
Spells (20)
The general premise of the deck is to use effects that give your creatures haste in conjunction with tokens and creatures that make tokens. Fervor and Hellraiser Goblin are the go to Concordant Crossroads effects and Thraben Doomsayer; Bloodline Keeper; and Krenko, Mob Boss are there to make good use of them.
Skirsdag High Priest is a particularly sweet one. The card is definitely good, but when you can play it post-combat along with a Lingering Souls and make a 5/5 out of nowhere is when it really starts to seem sweet. Krenko’s Command and Lingering Souls round out the token package, while Faithless Looting and Intangible Virtue play support roles.
There are definitely a few things going on in this decklist that I liked. I liked the idea of using Fervor effects along with tap creatures, and I liked that the deck had a normal token-like “plan B.” I wanted to change some things around in the list to fit my play style and supplement the plan B even further. The thing that was the most difficult for me to analyze was whether or not I wanted Hellraiser Goblin. My favorite part about the old token aggro decks was that they could play defense and offense at the same time by making a critical mass of creatures. With the Goblin in play, though, you need an Intangible Virtue or all bets are off. I decided to keep it because the six Fervor style cards seemed like the right number for what this deck is trying to do.
To supplement plan B a bit further, I wanted to add a pair of Hellriders. Hellrider is at its best in an aggro deck that likes to make as many creatures as possible, as token decks typically do. The cuts I made were two Faithless Lootings. I have never really been a fan of it, but it is decent with Lingering Souls and can help smooth out draws so two seems like the right number. Lastly, I shaved a Mountain for the first Isolated Chapel because I am a sucker for dual lands.
I decided to run the list through a few games to see how it plays. Here are the results.
Game 1: Four-Color Good Stuff
The first game began with my opponent going to five cards and me keeping a hand of:
I started with a Dragonskull Summit, and he played a Steam Vents. Then I played a Dragonskull Summit, and he played a Plains. On my turn, I cast a Faithless Looting in hopes of hitting a shockland since I had drawn another Summit the turn prior. I hit a Blood Crypt, pitched my Lingering Souls and Doomsayer, and cast Krenko’s Command. He matched me with a Lingering Souls off of a Drowned Catacomb, but an Intangible Virtue put me in the driver’s seat.
He traded two tokens for one of mine and then played an Olivia Voldaren. I played a Krenko, Mob Boss, hoping he wouldn’t get to six mana, and I was delighted when he only flashed back a Lingering Souls, attacked with Olivia, and passed. I then played a Hellraiser Goblin, made three tokens with Krenko, and swung for a chunk. He went to four, killing the Goblin, but with a Hellrider in my hand, I knew the deal was basically sealed. He conceded in his main phase.
That game is a decent example of how the two plans of the deck can function together. Sometimes you are a token deck that can just explode with a Hellraiser Goblin and a Krenko to swing for a large chunk, but I’d say Intangible Virtue did most of the work that game. It made my attacks much smoother and made his Olivia much worse.
Game 2: R/B/W Burn
I won the roll and kept:
I led with a Godless Shrine, and he played a Boros Guildgate. I played a Faithless Looting on my turn, drawing some more lands, one of which was a Vault of the Archangel. He played a Plains, and I played a Fervor that I drew off the top. He Searing Speared me to seventeen end of turn and passed after playing a Mountain. I played a Krenko on my turn but made the mistake of activating it right away. He killed it with the trigger on the stack and I got nothing. We live, we learn. I then played a Bloodline Keeper that I drew, activated it, and swung for two. He killed the Bloodline Keeper end of turn, untapped, played a land, and used a Flames of the Firebrand to deal two to the Bat and one to me.
I flashed back my Faithless Looting, which drew more lands, and then played a Thraben Doomsayer. From here on out, just assume I activated any creature I played. He played a Bump in the Night on his turn, and I just played a second Doomsayer along with an Intangible Virtue and swung for a decent amount. He played an Archwing Dragon and put me to five after an end of turn Boros Charm, but the Vault I had in play plus the two fateful hour abilities from the Doomsayers put him at a life total significantly lower than zero and me at a life total above twenty.
That game illustrates how Fervor can help play for the long game a little bit. Typically, playing a card like Thraben Doomsayer on turn 6 is less than exciting and easy to deal with, but when you start getting value off of them immediately, you can bury your opponent pretty easily. Overall, I liked how Fervor was feeling in the deck.
Game 3: Jund Aggro
I won the roll again (running pretty hot, wasn’t I?) and chose to play. I kept a seven of:
I led with a Blood Crypt, while he just played an Overgrown Tomb. I drew a Thraben Doomsayer and paid two life on the Sacred Foundry so I could cast Doomsayer next turn if I drew a white source. I played the Skirsdag High Priest and passed. On his turn, he just played a Blood Crypt and passed again. I drew a Hellraiser Goblin and sent in for three damage. He played a Woodland Cemetery and a Dreg Mangler for defense. I played a Krenko, made two tokens, and sent in everyone. He blocked the High Priest and took four. On his turn, he played a Deathrite Shaman and used a Domri to trade his Dreg Mangler for my Krenko. I untapped and played a Hellrider, and while he wasn’t exactly dead, he saw the writing on the wall and conceded.
While there was little interaction in that game, it was a good example of how aggressive the deck can be. With Hellraiser Goblin, Hellrider, and Krenko, you can flood the board by turn 5 and start swinging for chunks. Most of your creatures are small, but it will be hard for your opponent to take out all of them without a Bonfire of the Damned. His creatures were bigger than mine, but I had three times as many creatures as he did.
Game 4: G/B/W Midrange
Four-for-four on die rolls, obviously, so I was on the play. I kept:
We both started off with some lands, and I played an Intangible Virtue on turn 2. On turn 3, I missed my land, but the Faithless Looting I drew instead helped me find one. I pitched two Lingering Souls and flashed one back. He played a Centaur Healer on his turn and continued to hit his land drops. I played a Fervor and a tapped Blood Crypt and swung for four. On his turn, he used an Oblivion Ring to get rid of my Intangible Virtue and attacked for three.
I played a Hellrider and hit him for eight, and then the Hellrider met a Sever the Bloodline and I took another three. On my turn, I flashed back the other Lingering Souls, played a Krenko’s Command, and put him to five with my six creatures in play. On his turn, he just sent in for another three but used a fresh Vault of the Archangel to go to eight life. Luckily for me, I had a Bloodline Keeper to finish him off.
Realistically, there isn’t too much to say about this game that didn’t happen in the rest. I used Fervor, some tokens, and some creatures that make tokens to create a large board presence. Hellrider definitely helped soften his life total in the early game, and overall I was pretty happy with the card.
To finish up, the deck is definitely a lot of fun. Fervor and Hellraiser Goblin create some sweet draws, and I think I may have underestimated the Goblin. I still feel that six haste effects is the correct number, but switching the numbers or doing a three-three split might be better. I recommend you give this deck a try at FNM before Dragon’s Maze comes out. Hellrider was sweet but definitely not necessary to play, so feel free to just play Travis’ list. Sideboard cards could include ways to beat Supreme Verdict and Bonfire of the Damned such as Rootborn Defenses and Duress. If you want, you could even put some Sorins in the board for the control matchup.
As usual, feel free to send me any decklists or ideas you have for both pre- and post-Dragon’s Maze. If you have any comments or questions, both my email and the comments section down below are great places to foster a discussion. Thanks to Travis Brown for sending in this sweet decklist! As a bonus, I’d like to see any cool EDH/Commander decks you may have, preferably for 1v1. I have a multiplayer general that I enjoy, but I was considering putting something new together for some 1v1 events that my store might be holding. Good luck if you play tonight, and thank god it’s FNM!
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