I always enjoy July. The warm weather is nice, but that isn't why I enjoy July. Time off work is wonderful, but that isn't necessarily in July either. However, the Tour de France is always in July!

For most, the Tour de France is a bike race in France that involves a bunch of guys on steroids riding bikes. For me, it is one of my favorite sporting events! Twenty-two days of cycling all around France! While I write this, the Tour hasn't ended yet, but by the time you read it, the Tour will have declared its victor. Don't spoil it for me!

The Tour offers all sorts of tension as the stories build through the three weeks of racing. It is like a miniature soap opera played out on the roads and tiny mountain paths through France. Who are the early favorites? Who starts the Tour in the best form? Who suffers the bad luck of a crash? All of this as teams of riders work to win glory for the team leader at the end. That's right, I said teams. While only one rider wins the Tour at the end, that person is there because their team did a bunch of hard work to make it possible for that rider to end up wearing the Yellow Jersey.

The impressive part is how much the makeup of these teams matches up with the makeup of a deck! For those who know cycling, I'm going to focus on GC teams. GC stands for General Classification, which refers to who is winning the race overall. There are several teams at the Tour who are there just to win stages (single days) of the race. While I won't go into it here, there is also the green and polka dot jerseys that teams try to win. However, the teams that are trying to win the entire race generally come with a team of riders who are there just to do that. The Tour de France allows eight riders per team. Most teams have a single rider designated as the leader. The leader is generally good at all parts of the race. Then there is another rider who is almost as good, but not quite. He is often referred to as a super domestique. Ignoring the fancy term, it just means that he is the next best rider and can take over the leadership of the team if the leader is injured. Most teams then have three climbers and three "big men." The climbers are guys who are good in the mountains. They pace the leader up the mountains, allowing him to save his strength for big burst to bust away from the competition. The "big men" are rider who are better on the flat stages. They tend to ride around the leader to protect him from crashes and allow him to draft behind them to save his energy for the big moves.

The big men are the equivalent of the cards in your deck that keep you in the game. These are the early blocking creatures that prevent you from getting wiped out of a game before it even starts. I like to think of cards that draw cards in this category as well. In itself, these are not the cards you think of when you think about winning the game, but they help mold a board state that can make that happen.

Two-Wheeled Nissa | Commander | Bruce Richard

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Ainok Survivalist
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Bane of Progress
• 1 Baru, Fist of Krosa
• 1 Budoka Gardener
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Creeperhulk
• 1 Dungrove Elder
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Hornet Queen
• 1 Hydra Omnivore
• 1 Jade Mage
• 1 Lifeblood Hydra
• 1 Lotus Cobra
• 1 Masked Admirers
• 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1 Primordial Sage
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Realm Seekers
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Scorned Villager
• 1 Scute Mob
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Terastodon
• 1 Veteran Explorer
• 1 Viridian Emissary
• 1 Wood Elves
• 1 Yavimaya Elder

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
• 1 Garruk Wildspeaker
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

• Instants (2)
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Krosan Grip

• Sorceries (13)
• 1 Beacon of Creation
• 1 Creeping Mold
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Genesis Wave
• 1 Green Sun's Zenith
• 1 Howl of the Night Pack
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nissa's Pilgrimage
• 1 Praetor's Counsel
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Sylvan Offering
• 1 The Great Aurora
• 1 Wave of Vitriol

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Doubling Season
• 1 Exploration
• 1 Perilous Forays
• 1 Primeval Bounty

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Adventuring Gear
• 1 Druidic Satchel
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 The Chain Veil

• Lands (40)
• 36 Forest
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Treetop Village

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Using my Nissa, Vastwood Seer deck as an example, cards like Primordial Sage, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and Acidic Slime are some of the big riders in the deck. Primordial Sage acts as the big body to deter attacks all while giving you plenty of card draw. Garruk, Primal Hunter gives you some early Beasts to stop the bleeding while his -3 ability in this deck often lets you draw 10 cards. Acidic Slime is another fun card. The body isn't as big as the others, but a 2/2 deathtouch creature deters opponents from sending in their good creatures even better than a 4/5! On top of that it offers some pinpoint removal when you need it.

The climbers are the equivalent of the cards that set the board up for the key play. Mass removal spells and ramp spells are the cards that come to mind. For many teams, the climbers are the ones that set a pace up a mountain that most can't follow. They set a really high pace to try and isolate other teams' leaders from the riders who could help them. Once a leader is alone, they have to do all the work pacing themselves and chasing down other leaders who try to burst away. If you have a climber still around to help, they can often set an even higher pace and just bring back that leader that tried to burst away with a higher tempo. This fits the mass removal and ramp spells perfectly! For combo decks, the equivalent would be the counterspells or other cards that opponents must deal with. The goal is to use these cards to empty your opponents' hands or board so when it is time to make your move, you can do it without interference. That is exactly why the climbers are there.

Some climbers in my deck include Bane of Progress, Harrow, Realm Seekers, and Sol Ring. Bane is not mass removal as you normally think of it, but it is very effective at cultivating a board state you want. I have never played it and got less than four counters on it. Then there are the times when I have had 15 counters on it! It can make a fundamental change to the board state, opening things up for the big players in the deck to crush.

Harrow is only a small piece of the ramp package in the deck, but they are all climbers. Harrow surprises opponents with instant speed mana ramp and I love it. Sol Ring is a standard card, but it is solid ramp that fits it virtually every deck. Finally, Realm Seekers is regularly a 10/10 creature, but more importantly, it is a steady way to add more mana. I appreciate the value of Cultivate and Kodama's Reach, but Realm Seekers ensures you have a land in hand so you never miss a land drop.

The super domestique is the equivalent of your backup cards. Perhaps you have chosen a commander for your deck because it does something unique to the board state. Brion Stoutarm flings your creatures to do damage, for example. Then the equivalent would be the cards in the deck that also do that. Fling is the obvious example, but even Purphoros, God of the Forge is somewhat similar. Rupture, Final Strike, Grab the Reins, and Barrage Tyrant all fall into this category.

I also liken the super domestique to the group of cards that do more than one thing. Cards that draw more cards and act as early defense fit here.

This is where I let you in on a little secret about the Nissa, Vastwood Seer deck: Nissa is my super domestique! The commander of the deck would normally be the leader, but if you never played Nissa, the deck's win conditions would continue to be the same. Nissa is generally a great ramp card, helping the deck get to seven lands, then flipping to be both ramp and card draw. I rarely use either of the negative abilities as digging a card deeper is usually the better option.

Finally, there is the leader of the team. This is often the strongest climber, as that is the most important part of winning the Tour de France. However, plenty of the leaders are simply the best all round cyclist. They do well in stages that are time trials. They are good at descending down mountains and speeds that would leave most of us as little more than bloody marks on the side of the mountain. For us, the leader is usually the commander. For 60-card decks, the leader is the key cards you are using to propel your deck to victory. The deck is basically set up for the leader to win.

With Nissa, the leader is a little different. I try to maximize cards that can use all of the land the deck puts into play. Green Sun's Zenith, Avenger of Zendikar, and Howl of the Night Pack are three of the cards I would include as leaders in the deck. Green Sun's Zenith uses the mana by upping the value of X in the casting cost to ensure you can get anything. Avenger of Zendikar regularly produces 14 or more plants and they can get three or four +1/+1 counters fairly easily. Finally, Howl of the Night Pack starts out with 2/2 wolves, but I can usually get a couple of +1/+1 counters on them with little effort.

Using this comparison can force you to consider what cards fit into what category. Once that is set up, it becomes easier to be sure that you have enough options for each. I hope your Tour de France team puts you into the Yellow Jersey for games to come!

Bruce

@manaburned