Sift Through Sands - Stonebrow, Krosan Hero & Sygg, River Guide

Stonebrow, Krosan Hero

& Sygg, River Guide

| Art by Ron Spears & Larry MacDougall 

Of Hooves and Fins

Hello, all! This is Sift Through Sands, an article series exploring how similar card packages work in two different budget-friendly decks so we can better understand how decks function. This week, in a bit of a departure from previous entries, we'll be exploring the concept of combat, and how maximizing value from combat-based triggers ensures a deck's success. To do so, we're going to look at two underdogs of days past: Stonebrow, Krosan Hero

Our Picks

Stoney and Syggie here show their age when compared to recent legends. Although they may seem simple, they serve as signposts, letting our opponents figure out the composition of our decks rather quickly. Stonebrow likes creatures with trample, Sygg likes Merfolk. That being said, a pile of tramplers and a pile of Merfolk don't make a well-composed deck. Both of these commanders, however, ensure that combat damage will be dealt, either by buffing creatures or by protecting them from being blockers. If we structure the decks around combat damage and attacking, we can use our commanders to full value and allow our decks to compete against other commanders. Let's start with our Centaur!

Check it out on Archidekt!

Playing Stonebrow

Stonebrow

Having larger creatures in play will get the ball rolling (or stone, if you will). General Marhault Elsdragon

Since we'll often have large creatures, forcing blocks is a good way to pick off small creatures that may be essential to our opponents. Ram Through

Where Stonebrow

Check it out on Archidekt!

Playing Sygg

Many of our Merfolk have combat damage triggers, and using Sygg to guarantee they hit is the name of the game. Coral Fighters

Many Merfolk care about tapping and untapping permanents. What better way to ensure that than constantly attacking? Surgespanner

Beefing our creatures (or just Sygg) up with Voltron cards helps make up for the lack of large creatures in the deck. While we can build up large threats incrementally, giving a particularly threatening Merfolk Steel of the Godhead

Both of these decks have multiple cards that care about combat damage to creatures and players, blocking, becoming tapped, and so forth. Aggro decks suffer from simplicity, as more complex strategies can outpace a combat-centric deck easily by not needing to interact with an opponent's creatures. By including many cards that benefit from the guaranteed actions of combat, and building upon that synergy, aggro decks can compete by making a simple attacker much more dangerous when an opponent blocking or taking damage are both unfavorable choices. Using this kind of overarching deckbuilding strategy will give many decks a facelift, and commanders that force combat especially can benefit from this. Below, I've included a list of the attack and damage trigger cards in both decks:

I hope you all enjoyed this week's entry! I wanted to try something a little different by examining cards that function similarly, rather than the same exact package. Maybe I will again! I'd love to know whether you've played around with an unusual tribal choice, or a keyword deck like Stonebrow! Let me know and I'll be back soon enough with more fun decks.