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 and Sygg, River Guide.
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!
Playing Stonebrow
Stonebrow gives our attacking tramplers a boost, and the best way to utilize this is to have low-mana-value creatures in play before him. Charging Badger, Wilson, Slith Predator, and Spawnwrithe are all good to have in hand as we begin play. Prophetic Flamespeaker, Stromkirk Occultist, and Atalan Jackal help us even more, providing card advantage and ramp. Setting up some support with Fires of Yavimaya and Tempting Licid will help us later on as we amass our forces.
Having larger creatures in play will get the ball rolling (or stone, if you will). General Marhault Elsdragon makes blocking unpleasant, Boartusk Liege increases damage, and cards like Mage Slayer and Scepter of Celebration can move around to make individual tramplers more dangerous. Being able to ensure combat damage being dealt, regardless of blockers, is something we can use to our benefit. Our biggest payoffs come in the form of Quartzwood Crasher, a juggernaut even on its own, the unsuspecting Wilderness Elemental, and the legendary Borborygmos himself.
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, Toralf, God of Fury, Roar of Challenge, and Revenge of the Hunted all help to this end, and Auras like Laccolith Rig and One with Nature let us tack value onto creatures without damage triggers, as well, and supporting planeswalkers like Domri, Chaos Bringer keep us ahead. This deck is simple, and in play will quickly become brutal as we establish a foothold and take out our opponents' creatures.
Where Stonebrow is straightforward, Sygg is more subtle, as his abilities are less direct. As a two-mana commander, Sygg will be a factor in most games, and the power of protection is not to be trifled with. Similarly to Stonebrow, our Sygg list makes combat damage guaranteed. Ever since Lorwyn released, Commander players have been struggling to make Azorius Merfolk work. Apart from Sygg, there's only a couple that are both colors: Galina's Knight, Puresight Merrow, and Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper. A land animation deck this is not, but more of a weird evasion deck. Let's look at our list!
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, Rootwater Thief, and Riptide Pilferer are a lot more annoying when they trigger each attack, and Sygg helps allow this. Giving our creatures Auras and Equipment, like Steel of the Godhead and Mask of the Schemer, let us manipulate combat to our favor even more, and tribal pieces, like Seafloor Oracle and Judge of Currents, help push the deck in the right direction.
Many Merfolk care about tapping and untapping permanents. What better way to ensure that than constantly attacking? Surgespanner, Veteran of the Depths, Fallowsage, Merrow Reejerey, and Wake Thrasher are all excellent pieces in this deck. The ridiculous Vodalian War Machine even lets us tap down all our Merfolk to maximize these kind of triggers, and cards with built-in tap abilities, like Overtaker and Harpoon Sniper, let us work outside of combat.
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, Quietus Spike, or Octopus Umbra makes them much more dangerous. Ocular Halo is notable for giving a tap ability to one of our creatures, which we have many ways of utilizing.
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.
