Landwalking
By KrmtDfrog on August 24 2001

Jeremy wrote:
The basic idea of this deck is to use landwalking abilites to kill my opponent. The sideboard i know needs help but i think i have a pretty solid build on the core of the deck. This is currently a type II deck.


"Landwalk 101"
by VoodooPreacher

//CREATURES
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Dream Thrush
4x Reef Shaman
4x Mystic Snake
3x Lumbering Satyr
2x Magnigoth Treefolk
2x Rootwater Commando
2x Rushwood Dryad
2x Sand Squid

//SPELLS
4x Traveler's Cloak
2x Shimmering Mirage
2x Tranquility
2x Harrow

//LAND
4x Yavimaya Coast
10x Forest
9x Island


//SIDEBOARD
SB: 4x Counterspell
SB: 3x Giant Growth
SB: 2x Tranquility
SB: 2x harrow
SB: 2x Shimmering Mirage
SB: 2x Sand Squid


I'm not entirely sure what I want to do to this deck... It seems suitable for fun play - entirely too slow and somewhat fragile for serious play. I can't conceive of this becoming a legitimate threat in T2, as decks like Fires should run over it. After all, it boasts of too many cheap, efficient creatures and burn for a deck like that to handle. Decks like Skies, Machinehead, Go-Mar and Counterebels would be either able to outrun it or outcontrol it. In a casual environment, I can see how this is an acceptable theme, so I'm going to try and keep it in that frame.

Cards like Rushwood Dryad, Sand Squid and Shimmering Mirage are subpar for what they do and better cards can be brought in. Harrow is not needed in a 2 color deck, especially given it's annoying casting cost of sacrificing a land (remember, if they counter it, you've still lost a land). Tranquility doesn't really make sense when you have enchantments as well (unless you want to destroy them for some reason I can't fathom). With those in mind, lets go find out what we can come up with for this deck.

I'd like to add in red for some removal and a third landwalk ability. This may crowd it a bit, but I think it will add some needed versatility to the deck.


"Landwalk 101"

//CREATURES
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Dream Thrush
2x Reef Shaman
4x Mystic Snake
3x Lumbering Satyr
2x Magnigoth Treefolk
3x Vine Dryad
22 Total

//SPELLS
3x Traveler's Cloak
3x Tangle Wire
4x Urza's Rage
4x Fires of Yavimaya
14 Total

//LAND
4x Yavimaya Coast
2x Shivan Reef
2x Karplusan Forest
4x Mountain
6x Forest
6x Island
24 total


//SIDEBOARD
2x Washout
3x Withdraw
3x Elvish Lyrist
2x Scorching Lava
2x Trade Routes
3x Yavimaya Barbarians


Now you have a deck that has a good speed burst in Fires, some disruption with Tangle Wire and some removal in Rage. If you don't have 4 Rages, Assault/Battery is probably your next best alternative, as you will often need a creature and not the burn. I added a land because the one thing this deck doesn't want to do is start out with mana problems. The addition of Mountains will also aid the Magnigoth with another land walk.

Taking a look at the mana curve, we have the following look to the deck:
1 - 6
2 - 4
3 - 14
4 - 10 (keep in mind that I'm including the 3 Vine Dryad's which will probably never be paid for)
5 - 2
Turn 3 is going to be a bit crowded, so changing those Rages to Assault's might not even be a bad idea if you are worried about that. Birds and the Shamans/Thrushes are a good speed up to get that acceleration a bit quicker - I would even say its not a bad idea to sub those two Shamans for 2 Llanowar Elves - maybe even make it 3 and knock out a Rage or Thrush or Satyr. The Sideboard is now built to help you withstand a rush, enchantments, land destruction, decks that have weenies or Nether Spirits and heavy blue decks - all potential problems for this deck. gressgress All in all, though, I think I've managed to make this deck a bit better while still keeping the flavor of it. Let me know how good or how bad it went.

                                                                   -KrmtDfrog