Get the MTG
Interactive Encyclopedia
from Amazon.com

 

Small Fires of Yavimaya

Erkki from Germany sent me what seems to be a r/g fires deck with a lower curve.  I like the idea, so I'm going to try and take it into a different direction than most fires decks go.  He wants the deck to play like a stompy or sligh type deck with the flametongue and thornscape battlemage and the burn removing blockers.  Here's the deck:

>Creatures:28
>4 Llanowar Elves
>4 Skyshroud Ridgeback
>4 Blastoderm
>4 Horned Kavu
>3 Thornscape Battlemage
>3 Flametongue Kavu
>2 Jade Leech
>4 Thornscape Familar    
>
>others:10
>4 Ghitu Fire
>4 Scorching Lava
>2 Magma Burst
>
>Lands:22
>4 Shivan Oasis
>10 Forest
>8 Mountain

         The first thing I want to do is cut some of the creatures.  I really don't like skyshroud ridgeback, I'd rather have a guy that won't leave me when times get tough, and maybe a guy that'll let me go faster.  I also want to keep with lower curve idea and drop the jade leeches.   So what can replace these guys?  How about thunderscape familiar and Sparkcaster?  Also, let's up our removal men to 4 of each, so that Sparkcaster is better, and so that we can count on the removal more often.  So our creatures look like this:
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Thunderscape Familiar
4 Blastoderm
4 Horned Kavu
4 Thornscape Battlemage
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Thornscape Familar
4 Sparkcaster
         So, this increase in creatures means a decrease in spells which means that we're gonna need to pick and choose what burn to drop.  Scorching lava is the least appealing of the bunch, so it'll be the first to go.  Also, if we can up the mama bursts to three, that'd be great.  I'm also going to suggest that the ghitu fires go, since we now have a deck that is not only faster, but cheaper.  The last three cards I'm going to add is what I started the article with:  Fires of Yavimaya.  Three of these can lead to some ridiculous turns, and the +2/+2 is always a plus.  So now our spells look like this:
3 Magma Burst
3 Fires of Yavimaya
         I'm also going to augment the land a little bit.  Karplusan Forest is going to replace the slower shivan oasis, because shivan oasis as anything but your first land can be devastating.  And I'm also going to add 2 City of brass and 3 Rith's grove.  The Grove's drawback isn't really noticeable in a deck this fast, as long as you tap the land you're gonna return before you return it.  Also, Rith's Grove and City of Brass allow you to play the other ability of the battlemage, and that can be really useful for killing chimeric idols which your other stuff has more than a little trouble killing.  I'd rather have the land look like this:
10 Forest
4 Karplusan Forest
2 City of Brass
3 Rith's Grove
3 Mountain
         So, now let's look at one of those insane turns I was talking about with fires of yavimaya, for all of you doubters.  Bear in mind that this is uncommon, but harly rare as far as draw go:
Turn 1:  Forest, tap for llanowar elf
Turn 2:  Karplusan forest, tap karplusan and llanowar for thundersape familiar, tap forest for thornscape familiar.
Turn 3:  mountain, tap mountain and forest for fires, tap llanowar and karplusan for...sparkcaster, or thornscape battlemage, or horned kavu, or , all of whom can attack this turn.  And next turn you can drop blastoderm/flametongue kavu and one of these guys.  A pretty good turn 4, eh?

Well, hope I helped you out Erkki, see you in a Flash!
-Wally West


Pojo.com