Hello everyone and welcome to my first article for Mana Nation. For those who don't know me, I've been writing a constructed column for the better part of three years now. While I enjoy playing Magic and have had some limited success at it, my favorite part of the game has always been designing, turning and seeing what makes good decks tick. I've always had a soft spot for aggro decks though and they've just been getting blasted in Standard for the past couple of months. With the release of Mirrodin Besieged it's now time to update all of our decks and see if any can make the jump to respectability.

To begin, let's go over the decks which are already good and regardless of Besieged improvements, will continue to see play in the short-term. The four I refer too: B/U Control, W/U Control, RUG Control and Valakut. At the bare minimum three of these decks will receive some upgrades from Besieged

Quickly covering the known upgrades, we have U/B gaining Go For the Throat, a slam-dunk replacement for Doom Blade. Not only is the new Doom Blade actually useable against Vampires, it completely shifts how U/B mirrors play out since Grave Titan is no longer the ultimate trump and sneaking in Creeping Tar Pit damage is that much harder. The real killer against aggro is clearly Black Sun's Zenith, which is a modifiable Marsh Casualties/Infest/Incremental Blight and far superior to Consume the Meek against swarm strategies. Since Battle Cry specifically reinforces the overextending plan, this could make life very miserable for us. Still considering how much of the metagame involves control, Valakut and midrange piles I'm not too worried about people suddenly deciding a large removal suite is in order.

RUG Control gains Thrun, the Last Troll along with Slagstorm and possibly Green Sun's Zenith either maindeck or sideboard. Nothing is going to fundamentally change how the deck plays out, but Thrun allows it to be far more aggressive in control matches than it could before Besieged. Not having to worry about protecting its main threat while tapping out or focusing on dealing with any opposing Titans or large threats on the other side of the table while Thrun goes to work. Against aggro however it's just another big body which isn't exactly the scariest thing to see across the table, however it should be noted that a 4/4 is a natural trump to practically every early threat.

Instead Slagstorm and GSZ are the main things to be concerned with when coming from an aggro perspective. What Slagstorm does is reinforce the notion that an extra toughness isn't going to make a difference most of the time, thus lowering the value of cards like Leyline of Vitality, pump in general and Refraction Trap. With fewer ways to cheat around the inevitable sweeper, speed becomes more important and the same goes for how quickly you can recover. Green Sun's Zenith normally wouldn't be a significant threat, but it means any number of early blockers* or midgame defenders like Obstinate Baloth goes up, potentially even doubling in number. For a red deck, the scariest thought for me has to be Obstinate Baloth and a GSZ into another Baloth producing a massive life-swing and two creatures that can't easily be removed.

* Viridian Emissary comes to mind.

Valakut gains Slagstorm, Thrun and GSZ, all of which I covered in the RUG deck, the main difference being that Valakut makes amazing use out of GSZ. Just in your standard Valakut maindeck you already can fetch up additional Overgrown Battlement and Primeval Titan; with likely additions of Birds of Paradise and Joraga Treespeaker also joining the club. While using the Green Sun like a Rampant Growth isn't too scary for Boros or RDW, green and white base aggro decks are going to be at the mercy of turn four Titans and Wurmcoil Engine more often than not. Post-board Viridian Emissary also looks to make a significant impact, being able to block and trade early while accelerating the base Valakut strategy. Point is that the initial goldfish aggro test was already to racing turn four Primeval Titan and winning on turn five / six through a Pyroclasm and the additions Valakut got only make this job harder.

So now that I've laid out all the potential issues and negatives around playing aggro in a format with Mirrodin Besieged, let's look toward the positives and what we've gained. There's a lot to go through and for this article I'd like to narrow the focus to Boros, WW and Tempered Steel strategies with a sprinkling of knowledge about other decks. These decks all made significant gains and were already viable or on the cusp of viability before Besieged.

Boros

Let's first take a look at the most successful of the Boros lists, Pat McGregor's list from the SCG Open he won.

[cardlist]

[Spells]

3 Adventuring Gear

1 Sword of Body and Mind

3 Journey to Nowhere

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Koth of the Hammer

[/Spells]

[Creatures]

4 Goblin Guide

4 Plated Geopede

3 Spikeshot Elder

4 Squadron Hawk

4 Steppe Lynx

3 Stoneforge Mystic

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

5 Mountain

5 Plains

4 Arid Mesa

1 Evolving Wilds

4 Marsh Flats

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Terramorphic Expanse

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

1 Basilisk Collar

4 Cunning Sparkmage

3 Goblin Ruinblaster

1 Koth of the Hammer

2 Arc Trail

3 Mark of Mutiny

1 Tectonic Edge

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

This is one of the few decks that actually made decent use of Stoneforge Mystic and gained a great attrition card in the form of Bonehoard. The ability to fetch up a Mortivore against control and still get use from it even after it dies is pretty impressive compared to what you normally fetched up. Throw in the fact that Boros features Spikeshot Elder and Squadron Hawk and Bonehoard goes from good to amazing. I'd try to fit in at least two or three into the deck with the only question being how many I'd want maindeck. Throw in another type of Sword and short of Skullclamp or Umezawa's Jitte, you have the best equipment available we've had in years.

So how do we make room for the additional equipment in the deck? There are two valid routes that I can see, the first is cutting into the existing equipment and reducing the number of Adventuring Gear in the deck. This would slow the deck down, but since we aren't exactly trying to set land-speed records, this would only be a notable dent in the Valakut match. The second route is moving some removal to the board and relying on the equipment and evasion creatures to Brute Force your way through the opponent's larger creature drops. I'd still keep Lightning Bolt simply to have the highest chance of killing off Lotus Cobra while having the least disruption come to your own curve. Given the current metagame my choice would be to dump some Adventuring Gear, but I'm not 100% sold that's correct.

Another card I wouldn't be surprised to see replacing Koth in the maindeck is Hero of Oxid Ridge, which just seems to fit Boros far better than Koth. Both are great against control, but Hero doesn't get sucker punched by Spell Pierce and not only avoids Walls and Squadron Hawk, but allows other creatures to do the same and it pumps them to boot! While it has higher upside in a deck like Kuldotha Red, you still have plenty of creatures to pump with Battle Cry and really the only reason to have Koth would be to duck sweepers. Thing is that Koth just isn't necessarily a scary card in a world where everyone has a manland, Squadron Hawk or Lightning Bolt to keep it off its ultimate. So for this deck I'd also recommend swapping the maindeck Koth of the Hammer for Hero's and perhaps even adding a 3^rd, you can always keep a pair of Koth in the board to bring in at no real loss. Cunning Sparkmage value has been on a consistent decline for months now and it likely just better as more Arc Trails and Journey to Nowhere for creature matches.

With those swaps, Boros looks like this:

[cardlist]

[Spells]

2 Bonehoard

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Adventuring Gear

2 Emerge Unscathed

4 Lightning Bolt

[/Spells]

[Creatures]

4 Goblin Guide

4 Plated Geopede

4 Spikeshot Elder

4 Squadron Hawk

4 Steppe Lynx

3 Stoneforge Mystic

2 Hero of Oxid Ridge

[/Creatures]

[Lands]

5 Mountain

5 Plains

4 Arid Mesa

1 Evolving Wilds

4 Marsh Flats

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Terramorphic Expanse

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

1 Sword of Body and Mind

1 Bonehoard

2 Koth of the Hammer

4 Arc Trail

2 Mark of Mutiny

4 Goblin Ruinblaster

1 Tectonic Edge

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

WW

For White Weenie to be viable, pure speed is going to be the only thing keeping WW out of the bargain bin of decks. Previously people fit Quest for the Holy Relic in to give the deck free wins, but as a result the rest of the deck was straight garbage. Instead now we can try to cut the gimmickry and attempt to have a solid aggro deck. Here was my initial test build:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

2 Hero of Bladehold

4 Kor Firewalker

4 Squadron Hawk

4 Accorder Paladin

4 Steppe Lynx

4 Signal Pest

4 Elite Vanguard

2 Student of Warfare

4 Memnite

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Brave the Elements

4 Honor of the Pure

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Marsh Flats

4 Arid Mesa

8 Plains

4 Contested Warzone

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

Now I don't think the deck is optimized by any stretch, but I felt like it was a good starting point. By maxing out on the number of one-drops in the deck, you maximize the quick draws you can get and the number of hands that have 3-4 creatures in play by turn three. This is an important distinction as typically turn three is the first turn where the deck will start to do maximum damage with Battle Cry and Contested Warzone. Even a simple start like Memnite, Elite Vanguard, Accorder's Paladin and a Contested Warzone adds up to 14 total damage by turn four. Even without Memnite, many hands are capable of double-digit damage early in the game and your overextension can be protected with Brave the Elements.

Right now the deck is a bit soft to WU Control and may need to move to a slightly slower direction such as Stoneforge Mystic and Bonehoard, but for right now this is one of the few aggro decks I like against Valakut. If people stick with Pyroclasm then it won't be quite as easy to use Brave as a counter, but right now I can't imagine people passing up all the extra utility Slagstorm gives them. Still if the deck can just race Valakut and RUG without issue, then the sideboard can take care of adapting the deck to a more midrange role with cards like Hero of Bladehold and the aforementioned equipment package.

As for adding Quest for the Holy Relic…I think it's possible, certainly if you were willing to add Glint Hawk and Ornithopter you could add it in. It won't necessarily be anywhere near as dead Signal Pest could add it in. The big issue with that approach is you effectively need 6-8 cards that really suck to draw after turn one (and really you never want to see either armor in the average game). Plus if you can kill on turn four consistently without those cards (not saying it necessarily will mind you, but if it could) then there's no real reason to add Quest for 'free wins' as you should already have those in spades. It doesn't help that the Armor plan really sucks against UB and UW when they pack a decent amount of spot removal.

As a variant, it'll be worth trying out, bringing to my final spotlight deck.

"White Steel"

• Creatures (28)
• 4 Steel Overseer
• 4 Phyrexian Revoker
• 4 Signal Pest
• 4 Ardent Recruit
• 4 Glint Hawk
• 4 Ornithopter
• 4 Memnite

• Spells (12)
• 4 Glint Hawk Idol
• 4 Mox Opal
• 4 Tempered Steel

• Lands (20)
• 16 Plains
• 4 Contested Warzone

Buy This Deck Export text format

(You can also use Steppe Lynx rather than Ardent Recruit. If you do, add 8 white fetches if Steppe Lynx is used.)

This by far is the simplest deck and the one that was easiest to design with the least expectations set-up for it. What you have here is effectively a block deck that gains another 0cc guy and Steel Overseer. A quick breakdown of card choices: All of the 0cc creatures were obvious inclusions and I doubt anyone would question Steel Overseer or Signal Pest's role in the deck. Ardent Recruit for me was the weakest Besieged inclusion and the one up most for debate. A Steppe Lynx and quick addition of Fetchlands can deal nearly as much damage as the best-case scenarios for Ardent Recruit and without being so dead when lacking metalcraft. Turns out it's a heck of a lot easier to hold back a fetch or draw land than getting metalcraft back online once your side of the board has taken some lumps.

For the sake of testing though, I played out more games with Ardent Recruit and wasn't too disappointed by him. He makes your good draws into your best ones and attacks for more than Steppe Lynx on average. So while I could see running either one, for this build I kept the Recruit around. Glint Hawk Idol is probably the oddest looking choice, but one of the best creatures in the deck. Having evasion and naturally avoiding sweepers by turning back into an artifact on end-step is a huge boon that none of the other creatures can boast. When I was hit by a turn four Slagstorm, many games were won because Glint Hawk Idol was there to pick up the pieces. Another card in the same vein, Etched Champion, was eventually voted off the island because the deck hates three-drops with a passion. Not only is it dead with mana-light hands, but without help it just doesn't force through enough damage at a three slot. This could be a card I'm wrong about as it was one of the best choices in the Block version of this deck, but for Standard it just feels slow and unwieldy.

After throwing this deck against the existing gauntlet what I found was that while it was just dead to Slagstorm or Day of Judgment, the deck absolutely destroyed anything that lacked an early sweeper effect or failed to play it early. Spot removal was only good against certain hands and not against the majority of keepable hands. The other key point was that this deck was not designed for creature combat and it shows, none of your creatures are particularly good at surviving combat without help from Overseer or Tempered Steel. If Vampires, Boros, Elves or any other aggro deck takes off as a valid choice, this entire archetype needs a major reworking to exist. Still let's take a look at what can be done about the sweeper problem.

Without a functional Brave the Elements the protection scheme we had going with WW is right out the window, Tempered Steel also doesn't the majority of these creatures out of Slagstorm range either. Unlike the RDW variants that got faster though, we have a valid option of splashing for answers without diluting the speed of the deck. Black isn't wholly unreasonable with Marsh Flats and Mox Opal making up for the lack of a WB dual land. This allows Inquisition of Kozilek or Duress to fit into the deck while not having to go overboard on artifact cuts. On the other hand we also have the opportunity to use a pair of duals, Seachrome Coast and Glacial Fortress, at a low cost and run Spell Pierce and/or Negate in the deck. Unfortunately this means leaving open mana every turn, which is really harmful to a deck that loves to tap out every turn, but it may just be the better option mana-wise.

Just like with WW, it wouldn't be difficult to graft on a Quest for the Holy Relic engine on-board to the deck. While I'm not a major fan of it in the normal WW deck, the back-up plan for this deck actually rivals G/W Quest. Both have a high number of evasion guys available and the ability to bash with a bunch of huge creatures, only truly lacking the resilience available that a Vengevine would give. The proposition remains intriguing though and I quickly brewed up a build.

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

4 Steel Overseer

4 Phyrexian Revoker

4 Signal Pest

4 Glint Hawk

4 Ornithopter

4 Memnite

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Quest for the Holy Relic

2 Argentum Armor

2 Bonehoard

4 Tempered Steel

4 Mox Opal

[/Spells]

[Lands]

16 Plains

4 Contested Warzone

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

While the creature and artifact count dropped, there's still 20 artifact creatures for Steel to power up and all the key cards to power out an early Quest. If I were to add anything, I may be tempted to cut back on the mana further and add a pair of Kor Skyfisher in. You could also go the other direction and cut the Bonehoard to add another pair of creatures and go all-in on Armor, but that really opens you up to spot removal.

That's all for right now and hopefully you picked up some strategies for your own aggressive plans, even if they aren't the same as the ones in here. Good luck to those playing in tournaments this weekend and let me know if you have any questions.

Josh Silvestri

Email me at: joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom