Welcome to CDW

CDW 

Welcome to My Stomping Grounds

        Now you might be here wondering what is CDW?  This blog is about, the competitive card game, Magic the Gathering (MTG.)  Here I, Tallen, will be bringing you news of my adventures and experiences delving into the aggro strategies of Magic.  Now for those new to Magic, aggro is a deck strategy that focuses on using aggressive and cheap creatures to deal as much early damage as possible before using a combination of damage spells or bigger creatures to close out the game. 

        So wait what does CDW mean?  CDW is my personal acronym/motto and stands for Creature Deck Wins.  All of my competitive decks focus on a creature based synergy or strategy to win the game.  I'm an incredibly impatient player when it comes to Magic.  I want to get right to the action of attacking and trading blows with my opponents. This has driven me away from the control and midrange deck types and straight into the arms of aggro.  So if you're a new or experienced player, who loves the creatures in the game or the idea of coming at your opponent 150 mph, then this is the blog for you.

        Now that's enough of the introduction.  You want to see some new or different takes on aggro decks.  So let's begin.   I'll be showing a sort of intro deck to the aggro archetype that seems fitting to this intro post for CDW.  It is also a pretty good budget deck for new aggro players looking to start their competitive journey.

Deck: Emissary's Chant (Post-Theros Rotation)

Creatures:28
Experiment Onex4
Rakdos Cacklerx4
Burning Tree Emissaryx4                                         
Gore-house chainwalkerx4
Brushstriderx4
Chandra's Phoenix x4
Ghor-Clan Rampagerx4

Enchantments:4
Gruul Warchantx4

Instants:8
shockx4
Magma Jetx4

Sorceries:3
mizzium mortarsx3

Lands:20
Forests x7
Mountains x9
Stomping Groundsx4

        This deck is heavily influenced by Craig Wescoe's post rotation Gruul aggro deck ( Found Here.)  It comes in at less than one hundred dollars, assuming you own none of these cards and the only expensive part is the dual lands.  This is a blitz deck that is able to establish a large board presence by turn 3.   You have access to eleven forms of removal and magma jet allows you to set up your draws with it's scry 2 rule, allowing the deck to keep up its momentum and provide less outs for your opponent by you missing a necessary land drop, finding that key burn spell, or drawing an unnecessary land.

        The most obvious synergy in the deck is the turn two Burning-Tree Emissary into a Brushstrider or Gore-House Chainwalker.  These two creatures supply three power for two mana to the board.  Assuming you had a turn one play you will have seven total power on board turn two with a Rakdos Cackler    or eight if you played a turn one Experiment One.  This followed by a turn three haste driven phoenix or burn spell will allow you to have your opponent at less then half of their life total if they are a control or most midrange decks.


        The biggest divergences from Mr. Wescoe's Gruul (red/green) deck is the inclusion of Chandra's Phoenix and Gruul War chant.  Chandra's Phoenix gives your deck a form of consistent evasion that your damage spells can bring back to your hand if you are forced to block with it or an opponent uses a boardwipe effect.  Having haste is relevant as well so you can continue to pressure the opponent on turn three and if the opponent's deck has few fliers Chandra's pet can freely chip away at his/her's life total.  

        Gruul War Chant is a $.25 uncommon that has yet to make a big splash in the competitive scene of magic.  However smart aggro players will be constantly developing new strategies to combating the defenses other decks will be preparing against us and this card has some interesting tools to offer.  The first tool the Chant brings is evasion.  Forcing your opponent into bad blocks is always a good thing for an aggro deck.  You will often find against control or midrange decks that they usually will only have one or at best two blockers on the field after turn three, while this deck often has more than double this amount.  Dropping the chant on turn four means that most if not all of our board can get through and bring the opponent right into burn range.  Now four mana for a bit of conditional evasion isn't worth the investment.  But, thankfully the chant brings a second tool to the table in the form of a +1 to attacking power of your creatures.  Allowing our creatures to trade up if they need to block or get in the extra damage provided by the chant's evasion to end the game.

        Now let's be clear here.  Emissary's Chant isn't a tier one deck.  As I noted before discussing it.  The deck is a cheap way to get into competitive magic with an aggro deck.  I would rank it at as FNM (Friday Night Magic) tournament worthy.  The decks is fast, has a great early game, punishes bad or questionable hands kept by the opposition and can finish the game by turn 5.  But is susceptible to decks with a great deal of early removal, board wipes if its pilot over commits and will have issues if the game goes too long.

        Still, if you are the kind of player who loves creatures and gets an adrenaline rush when you see fear in the opponent's eyes, after you just hit them for tons of damage on turn three.  Then to you I say welcome...

Welcome to CDW!