Come into My ParlorLair

Welcome to Planechase Preview Week! Gathering Magic scored not one, but two preview cards today (because our illustrious editor knows where all the bodies are buried at Wizards), and this one is a show-stopper. Based on historical precedent, it has a legitimate claim to the title of Best Creature in Multiplayer. Of course, that’s a matter of opinion, so I’ll let you make up your own minds. Without further ado, here it is:

Oh wait, that’s not Dragonlair Spider; that’s just a good guide to what you can expect to get for the same casting cost. Livonya Silone was a Legends rare that kicked off R/G’s recurring theme of nonbasic land hate. She’s fairly strong and has certainly stood the test of time better than most of her contemporaries. (I'm looking at you, Marhault Elsdragon!) Also, Dragonlair Spider kicks her ass across the board. We’ve come a long way, baby!

Now, onto the preview:

Sorry, I appear to be having some trouble with the links today. Verdant Force isn’t the preview card, but it is the mechanical forerunner, and you need to understand what makes the Force so great in order to get the most out of Dragonlair Spider.

Mike Flores would tell you how Verdant Force made Pro Tour history in Jamie Wakefield’s Secret Force deck, but you’re in Casual World now; what you need to know is that Verdant Force was Anthony Alongi’s pick for the second-best creature in multiplayer. In fact, it was ranked Number 1 for over a decade—until just barely being edged out by Stuffy Doll in Anthony’s penultimate article.

What makes Verdant Force so powerful is its scalability. In a four-player game, you make three 1/1s ready to swing on your next turn; in a six-player game, you make five, and so on. The more players there are and the longer the game goes, the more card advantage you’re going to accrue—unless of course you follow up with an Overwhelming Stampede, in which case the game doesn’t need to go long!

Verdant Force was also the inspiration for the Magmatic Force and Celestial Forces from last year’s Magic: The Gathering Commander release—Magmatic Force ended up similarly awesome to Verdant, but Celestial was so much worse because of the inherent utility of creatures. They attack, they block, they pick up Swords; they literally slice and dice! In the right deck, a single creature can be anything you want it to be, so a free and continuous source of creatures (of any size) gives you a huge advantage over your opponents.

Now that you’ve sat through the lecture, here is the real deal:

Pretty sweet, huh? Dragonlair Spider is a worthy successor to Verdant Force in every respect. Here are the highlights:

• High power and toughness for a nice low price
• Easy to cast
• Verdant Force–esque mechanic
• Much easier to manipulate than an upkeep trigger
• Two interesting creature types
• Killer art from Carl Critchlow, the king of spooky!

Now, I'm sure a lot of people will compare this, perhaps unfavorably, to Dragon Broodmother, which has a comparable cost and produces better creatures (1/1 flying devourers rather than vanilla 1/1s), but I think Dragonlair Spider is the superior card on a couple of different axes. Firstly, it’s flat-out bigger, which is nice, and the reach helps to balance out the lack of flying and discourage attacks.¹ This beastie doesn’t live in the Dragon’s lair by accident; the Dragons know better than to mess with it!

Third, Dragonlair Spider is significantly easier to cast than either the Force or the Dragon. That single mana symbol makes quite a difference unless you’re planning to cast the Dragon with a Seething Song or a very expensive mana base. One third of your mana from a secondary color on turn six is a piece of cake, but a half is sometimes a big ask; in other words, Broodmother lends herself strongly to a R/g deck, whereas the Spider goes just as well in R/G, R/g, or G/r.² Of course, if you have enough ramp, you can just go ahead and play with both of them, which would be undeniably awesome!

Finally, don’t tell me you never wanted to build a Spider deck! Anyone who has played much with M12 knows how strong the new Arachnus Spinner and Arachnus Web can be, and cards such as Acid Web Spider and Stingerfling Spider are threatening to make the cut in a lot of decks where Giant Spider never got a look in. And did I mention the Insects? Dragonlair Spider produces Insect tokens rather than Spiders, which is weird, and I can only assume that it was because the name Spider Spawning was already taken. (Spider-Spawning Spider? Spider Sex Machine? I'd love to know the playtest name!) That reminds me of Onslaught block, which had a strong 1/1 Insect token theme as well as a lot of great Insects that probably don’t get enough love on account of being, you know, Insects.

On the whole, I am stoked by Dragonlair Spider, and it is definitely powerful enough to draw me to whichever precon it lives in when I play in the Planechase release event—even though it probably won’t have any black in it. Honestly, what higher praise can I give to a card?

Below are three deck ideas, in ascending order of meanness, for taking advantage of the power of Dragonlair Spider.

"Staying A Hive"

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Moldgraf Monstrosity
• 2 Living Hive
• 2 Stag Beetle
• 4 Dragonlair Spider
• 4 Giant Solifuge
• 4 Plated Geopede
• 4 Vorapede

• Spells (15)
• 2 Momentous Fall
• 1 Overwhelming Stampede
• 3 Decimate
• 4 Cultivate
• 4 Prey Upon
• 1 Coat of Arms

• Lands (24)
• 7 Forest
• 8 Mountain
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 4 Gruul Turf
• 4 Swarmyard

Buy This Deck

This deck is the kind of smart aggro I love in multiplayer: early plays—but none so small that they become obsolete in the late game—strong card advantage, and resilience against sweepers. The removal package is decent and versatile if not amazing, but frankly, if the rest of the table isn’t playing sweepers of some kind, you’re just going to run them over, which means you can focus on pinpoint removal. Plus, Prey Upon is so flavorful for Spiders that I just had to include it.

And while there isn’t an Insect tribal lord that boosts all of your creepy crawlies, take some time this week to find any old copies of Swarmyard in your LGS’s junk rare bin. A play set in this deck is going to be horrifyingly effective, regenerating both Insects and Spiders.

"Spider’s Pique"

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Dragonlair Spider
• 4 Scion of the Wild
• 4 Skyshroud Elf

• Spells (24)
• 1 Earthquake
• 1 Hurricane
• 4 Decimate
• 4 Overrun
• 4 Rites of Flourishing
• 2 Junkyo Bell
• 4 Howling Mine
• 4 Temple Bell

• Lands (20)
• 13 Forest
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Swarmyard

Buy This Deck

I often feel weird suggesting decklists for people I don’t know; it’s entirely possible you don’t have any of the cards I’m suggesting. However, this deck is different. All you need to execute this strategy is Dragonlair Spiders and ways to make your opponents draw cards, whether it’s the original Howling Mine, the new Otherworld Atlas, or any of a dozen different ways to put cards in people’s hands. The competitive pressures of multiplayer Magic will do the rest.

Do you think people are going to seriously think about not casting stuff just because of your Spider? Hell no; when a player is drawing five cards a turn, he’s going to cast as many of them as he possibly can—otherwise, someone else will run him over (although you can always cast Liliana's Caress to make sure!). You may only need one round between casting the Spider and dropping the hammer with a big Overrun (or similar effect), and Scion of the Wild and Junkyo Bell will also help you benefit from a high creature count.

Other cards to consider are Brawn and Anger (because it won’t be hard to discard them), any kind of Storm Seeker/Sudden Impact/Iron Maiden effects, and the sort of generic midrange beaters that R/G decks excel at. I could happily just put a bunch of Rumbling Slums, and while I’m in a Ravnica state of mind, Burning-Tree Shaman might be handy just to keep people using their mana on spells rather than activated abilities. There are a lot of ways to benefit from Howling Mine effects, and while the Spider is clearly among the best ways of doing so, the choice of support cards is wide open.

"Putting the ‘Hive’ in Hive Mind"

• Creatures (20)
• 4 Acidic Slime
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Dragonlair Spider
• 4 Mogg Sentry
• 4 Tinder Wall

• Spells (17)
• 3 Choking Vines
• 3 Spore Cloud
• 3 Tears of Rage
• 4 Hit // Run
• 4 Hive Mind

• Lands (23)
• 4 Mountain
• 6 Forest
• 3 Hinterland Harbor
• 3 Sulfur Falls
• 3 Swarmyard
• 4 Rootbound Crag

Buy This Deck

Yes, Tinder Wall is a great way to accelerate into Dragonlair Spider (or any other 6-drops).

Yes, this is intended to be a fun Hive Mind deck.

No, I don’t think it will win you many friends.

I realized that there was another way to make your opponents cast spells even if they didn’t want to, but the drawback is that your spells can be turned against you (hence, no targeted removal spells here). However, a Gatherer search for “attacking creatures” revealed a ton of spells that can be played in order to give you benefits without any downside.

Spore Cloud and Choking Vines will generally be better for you than a generic Fog effect. Spore Cloud can take out two players’ creatures for you—or, you can just cast it before you declare blockers, and then you won’t lose anything.

Choking Vines can stop some or all of your opponent’s attackers, and if the amount you pay for X is equal to the number of attacking creatures, each opponent will have no choice but to target the same creatures with his Hive Mind copy. As a result, it essentially reads, “Choking Vines deals X damage to each attacking creature, where X is the number of players in the game.”

All of these spells will be great for you to cast without Hive Mind—harmless if someone else copies your spells and potentially devastating if you can force someone else to cast one on his turn. Imagine using Hive Mind plus Tears of Rage to take out one opponent and wipe the board of another, all while swelling the ranks of your deadly Insect army.³ Best of all, your Sentries, Slimes, Spiders, and tokens will deter your opponents from attacking you, giving you even more of a chance to either build up your armies for a Run/Tears-augmented alpha strike or crush your opponents with a Hive-Minded combat trick.

“Come into my parlor,” said the Spider, the Rattlesnake, the Gorilla, and the Pigeon in a single glorious chorus!

¹ It’s a Spider that’s also a Rattlesnake!

² Lower cases, of course, denote a secondary color.

³ Not, I have to say, a Deadly Insect army, although I have a decklist for that in the works, too!