Thursday, February 20, 2014

Who Can It Be Now

When I met Jason, Sneak Attack was the cornerstone of the first deck he played against me. Eventually, I just had to try and make it for myself and this is what I came up with.

3 Through the Breach

4 Seething Song
3 Flamebreak
3 Pyroclasm
3 Gamble

3 Pathrazer of Ulamog
2 Pelakka Wurm
3 Dragon Tyrant
1 Nicol Bolas
1 Bloodfire Colossus
4 Penumbra Wurm

4 Lotus Petal

4 Sneak Attack

4 Smoldering Crater
14 Mountain
1 Dwarven Ruins
2 Sandstone Needle
1 Forgotten Cave

I named the song after the awesome Men At Work ditty, because the creature suite was always going to surprise. The core started with Penumbra Wurm because it would help give the deck some reach. With only 14 creatures, having some that would stick around to provide more pressure seemed like a good idea. Over the course of years, I updated the creatures list as Sneak Attack decks occasionally appeared and now that Sneak and Show is an official, nasty Legacy deck, I thought it might be time to revamp this a little.

In a Reddit Legacy Magic forum, I saw a thread on Sneak and Show, so I looked into it. I don't have any interest in changing this from a mono-red deck but that doesn't mean there aren't some good ideas.

Out: Flamebreak, because if I need to use it, something had gone wrong. Also, one Through the Breach, because I feel that six Sneak Attack effects are enough redundancy. And three Smoldering Crater.

In: two Defense Grid. This is a concession to my current metagame. My opponents run less Jason-type decks with combos that ignore the opponent, opting for more disruptive elements, from creature removal to countermagic, and taxing elements are stronger than people give them credit for. I've always liked this card and I'm glad to have a reason to use it.

Two Reforge the Soul go in as well. This I took from the Reddit suggestions, and there's enough mana production in here that I can pay the mana to draw a new set of seven cards if I have to. With only 14 creatures, digging up an extra seven cards can be a huge boon, and means I don't have to rely as much on Gamble to get what I need.

Finally, the Smoldering Crater were replaced with three Forgotten Cave. This was done strictly because if I cycle this on an opponent's turn, it's cheaper than cycling Smoldering Crater and I'm hoping that will provide more opportunity to miracle the Reforge the Soul.

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