New deck that could change the format with Wizard Den!

Hey guys! I'm back for another article and this week it's going to be a deck tech of a list I found while in Spokane, WA for the PTQ a few weeks back. We managed to get in early enough on Friday the day before the event to attend their local Friday Night Magic where I first discovered this deck. It was very simple, but surprisingly fast and annoyingly difficult to deal with. The deck was a Mono-Green aggro piloted by a guy named Stephen Girdner. He ended up crushing me at FNM and I spoke with him later on the next day after I had finished dropping from the event at 3-3 and decided to get in a draft to lift my spirits. He said he was drawing into the top 8 at the time and he allowed me to look through his deck and sideboard. I'm writing this from memory, so it's probably not exactly card-for-card, but here's the idea:

Mono-Green Aggro

Creatures: 34
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Experiment One
2 Wasteland Viper
2 Gyre Sage
4 Kalonian Tusker
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Swordwise Centaur
2 Boon Satyr
4 Renegade Krasis
2 Nylea, God of the Hunt
2 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Mistcutter Hydra

Spells: 4
4 Aspect of Hydra

Lands: 22
20 Forest
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

He mentioned he was able to make the Top-8 cut in two PTQ's in two weeks so, needless to say, I was impressed. I was excited for this deck and couldn't wait to try it out for myself. I threw it together and gave it a test run at an FNM and it was very good! I managed to beat Mono-Blue and other various aggro archetypes simply because the creatures in this deck are just as fast as every other aggro deck, but mine are bigger! Tons of 3 powered creatures coming out on turn two and Experiment Ones becoming 3/3 or even 4/4 by turn 2-3 make this deck a very formidable foe.

While playing the deck, I seem to be tempted into splashing other colors for some other powerful creatures, but the deck works so well on its own that I have to force myself to leave it alone. Splashing another color just gives you lands that come into play tapped and severely slows down the deck, not to mention cutting down on your devotion which makes Aspect of Hydra possibly the best card in the deck.

This deck is a lot of fun for those of you who enjoy some turning lots of guys sideways. If any of you decide to try it out, let me know what you think and what kinds of changes you would make!

Thanks for reading,
DannyO
Wizard Den

Fostering a healthy Magic community with Wizard Den!

       So, if you all haven't heard yet... We're open for business! Wizard Den is proud to be a part of the magic community here in Boise and we hope to represent that community in the most positive way possible. One of our main goals is to be that shop that anyone can feel comfortable walking into and spending their day enjoying some magic related fun. We will strive to have competitive prices and friendly faces behind the counter.

       That being said, I'd like to talk about what I believe is important to strengthening and maintaining a healthy magic community in your area.

       A major aspect of our daily plans at Wizard Den is to make sure that we cater to everyone's needs. We don't currently sell anything other than Magic related products, but we make it a point to educate our customers that we are willing to order anything they could want from our distributors. It can still turn people away if we don't readily provide the services they want, but it's a start. I think that it's very important to make sure that every person that walks in the door knows that they can be helped no matter what they want.

       Along those same lines, we will always do our best to listen to the people's needs for events. I will always be looking for suggestions on daily events and I have no problem running multiple events daily. For now, we have an event schedule that you can find at WizardDen.com, but if the community expresses an interest in an event on a day we don't currently offer an event for, we'll do it! We're also open to suggestions for prizes on each and every event we host(even though it may effect the price of entry).

       Specifically to Boise, I feel that the Modern crowd has been dying off and the Legacy crowd even more so. We here at Wizard Den want everyone to be taken care of no matter what format you love the most, but it's difficult to meet the needs of everyone. We plan to have 2 weekly Modern events, Monday and Saturday, but no Legacy as of now. There was some drama a few months back that seemed to have driven off some legacy players and I think the only way we can get that back on track is, other than just scheduling events, getting those people here to play. We all love Magic and the formats we choose to play should not deter others from getting together to play. One of my biggest personal goals for Wizard Den is to get Legacy started up again in the valley and I can't do it without you, the players!

       We've discussed the legacy thing a bit here, and we've hit a lot of snags that seem to make it impossible. One aspect being prize support. If we offer good legacy staples for prizes, the people who don't have the money to get the tier-1 decks will be turned away, because they feel there's no way they can beat the people who already have the good cards, and those people get the good prizes to further monopolize the accessibility to the format.

       Another issue is the use of proxies. This will allow the people who don't have the money to get into legacy the ability to proxy the cards they need to play, giving them the best chance to compete in the event. However, it's not very fun if everybody proxies 40-50 cards in their deck. Seeing as how expensive some cards can be, this is likely to happen.

       With all of those difficulties(and others unmentioned), I think I've found a way to make everyone happy, at least a little. We will have a specified entry fee for the day. You get signed up into a group with other legacy players for the day. There are no rounds or pairings, rather you just jump into games with other legacy players and report who won. Every time you play a match(best 2 out of 3), whether you win or lose, you get points(# to be determined) and you get your name entered into a drawing, winners of each match might get their name entered twice so that there's still some benefit for winning. At the end of the night(or whatever determined time), we'll announce those with the most points and issue prizes accordingly, and do our drawings for the random prizes.

       I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, but it would allow everyone who wants to play legacy to come in with any deck, and still get points whether they win or lose, but still slightly favor those who come prepared. Also, if you come and play more games than others, you will be favored slightly whether you've been winning or not, just on the sheer amount of games you played.

       I would really like to hear everyone's opinions on this idea and get your help to make it perfect for everyone! Let's get Legacy back in full swing in the valley and foster a great environment for magic players everywhere!