Build With Me- Standard Aggro Part 2

Last article, I shared with you all the initial steps involved in me breaking into an aggro deck from scratch.  This time, I'll continue where I left off and go over what I want to do on turns 3-4.  Note that I'm building the deck as I'm writing the article, so you'll see the entire process that I'm going through.

For those of you too lazy to go back and read, or if you just don't remember, this deck is currently a Naya creature aggro deck with the goal of casting creatures on turns 1 and 2, some kind of hand advantage on T3, and an anti-boardsweeper on T4.  In the last article, I narrowed down the creature base from the entirety of colors down to my current list of Naya creatures:

Loam Lion
Steppe Lynx
Squadron Hawk
Stoneforge Mystic

Goblin Guide
Plated Geopede

Copperhorn Scout
Fauna Shaman
Nest Invader
River Boa
Sylvan Ranger

Phyrexian Revoker

Alright then, now I'm going to talk a little bit about what I want from my turn three play.  Basically, I want enough cards in my hand that my opponent will hold off on that sweeper until I can drop my deterrent.  Squadron Hawk is good for that.  +3 cards, and knowing for a fact that they're all creatures, does a fine job at making an opponent want to hold back their sweeper.  Stoneforge Mystic?  Not so much.  Sure, he's essentially a cantrip, but it doesn't give you more creatures, the whole reason to hold back a WoG in the first place.  In fact, it pressures the opponent to kill your board then and there before you can flash in a sword.  He's still a great card, but not what I'm looking for in hand advantage.

The first time that Stoned + Sword has ever been a good thing.

Right then, without further ado, here's what I'm looking at in naya colored hand advantage:

White

• Narrow Escape- could see play in decks with more disruption/countermagic, and great for recycling Stoneforge Mystic, but in a deck like this I want to be playing more creatures over on top of my mangled corpses, bot trying to save them from death.  Despite being hand advantage, makes a largely dead card in one's hand later in the game, and slows you down too much earlier in the game.
• Repel the Darkness- actually more like it.  Versatile in that it can stop an attack, stop a block, or both, and nets you a card in hand as well.  The problem is that this card is most effective the later into the game you get, and I want to cast my hand advantage on T3.  Also, since it's only +1 card, it's not really hand advantage, just a fog without reducing your hand size by one.
• Squadron Hawk- I think I've been over this already.
• Stoneforge Mystic- This too.
• Survival Cache- With my deck's plan, I should be at least as fast as everything save Kudoltha red, so even against aggro decks I should be able to get the full effect for this.  The problem is that if I've cracked too many fetches, I might not have the life total to support the card draw.  Something to keep in mind, but I wouldn't rely on it.

Red

• Arc Trail- yet another example of not exactly what I'm looking for.  Although a great source of CARD advantage, it's not HAND advantage.  Remember that I want to discourage my opponent from wiping the slate clean, so letting them keep creatures in play is one way of doing that.  After I finish my T4, it's likely that I'll play this card, and it's good against decks that don't have sweepers, but it's not the advantage I'm looking for in my T3 play.
• Manic Vandal- Again, this is card advantage, not hand advantage.  Still, I wanted to mention him, because I'm probably going to run at least one to tutor with Fauna Shaman.  He's a good card right now.

Green

• Cultivate- Almost a cantrip attached to a Rampant Growth, but not quite there yet.  Would be okay in this deck if it let me draw, but as it is it gives me that Stoneforge-esque hand advantage.
• Explore- Better, but not hand advantage.  In fact, it'll usually be the exact opposite.  Good for my landfall beats, though.
• Lead the Stampede- I've talked about this card a LOT in the last article.  Gives a whole lot of cards if you build your deck right.  Even at its worst, you'll rarely end up without breaking even.  At its best, you draw five cards for three mana in green.  And then you discard a Vengevine or two.
• Snake Umbra- If Cawblade keeps on tapping down on the first few turns, this could actually be quite decent.  Recovers you from a sweeper/removal spell, gives a damage boost, AND grants card draw.  It's basically a Sword without the protections, still a decent piece of equipment.

Colorless

• Infiltration Lens- Some people like this card, but I don't.  If Browbeat taught us anything, whatever decision we want the opponent to make, they'll make the other one.  Whatever decision we want to have happen more, there's a better option we could use the slot in the deck for.
• Origin Spellbomb- Oh, HERE's the Elvish Visionary I've been looking for.  Makes a great card to pop after a sweeper and equip things to, in particular Bonehoard.  Unfortunately, it doesn't trigger Vengevine.

And there we have it, a full list of +card cards.  Pick and choose what I like for now, and here's what we have for a card pool:

Loam Lion
Steppe Lynx
Squadron Hawk
Stoneforge Mystic

Goblin Guide
Plated Geopede

Copperhorn Scout
Fauna Shaman
Nest Invader
River Boa
Sylvan Ranger
Lead the Stampede

Snake Umbra

Phyrexian Revoker

So far, here's a comprehensive list of possible plays for the first three turns of the game:

Turn 1 Loam Lion, Steppe Lynx, Goblin Guide, or Copperhorn Scout.  Attack for 0-2 damage.

Turn 2 (w/o hand advantage) Plated Geopede, Fauna Shaman, Nest Invader, River Boa, Sylvan Ranger, or Phyrexian Revoker, attack for 1-4 damage OR drop two of the 1cc creatures and attack for 1-6 damage

Turn 2 (with hand advantage) Squadron Hawk or Stoneforge Mystic.  Attack for 1-4 damage.

Turn 3 (w/o hand advantage) two in combination of above listed cards, or cast a Sword.  Attack for 2-14 damage.

Turn 3 (with hand advantage) above two-mana spells, Lead the Stampede, or Snake Umbra on a River Boa/Squadron hawk.  Attack for 2-13 damage.

Notice how it's technically possible for me to win on T3.  Highly unlikely, but possible.

I'd go through the antisweepers by color like I have been, but I basically already know what my options are.  There's Vengevine, Koth, Glint Hawk Idol, Mimic Vat, Garruk Wildspeaker, Thrun, and Stirring Wildwood.  Then lastly is disruption, or Bolt, Arc Trail and Journey to Nowhere, to be precise.

It's funny how the best toons in stompy don't actually have feet.

Card Pool

Loam Lion
Steppe Lynx
Squadron Hawk
Stoneforge Mystic
Journey to Nowhere

Lightning Bolt
Goblin Guide
Plated Geopede

Arc Trail

Manic Vandal
Koth of the Hammer

Copperhorn Scout
Fauna Shaman
Nest Invader
River Boa
Sylvan Ranger
Lead the Stampede

Snake Umbra

Vengevine

Phyrexian Revoker

Sword of Body and Mind

Sword of Feast and Famine

Bonehoard

Now, to decide what I want to cut, I need to figure out the correct ratios.  With a 60 card deck, if I run 24 lands, I'll have 36 slots remaining for cards.  If I want to see consistent one drops in my seven card open, after two lands in my hand, there's a 41 card pool, and I'm picking five cards out of it.  Five in fourty is one in eight, meaning one in every eight cards should get me one, but only for two land hands.  60/8 is 7.5, so two playsets of 1-drops should be sufficient.  For safety's sake, I'd rather have 10-12.  Preferably 12.

Come T2, there's an 8 card hand, and by now I should have land 3.  Three lands and a 1cc creature out of my hand, there's four slots remaining, and one of them needs to be a creature castable on T2.  4 picks from a 35 card pool is roughly nine to one, so one in every 60/9=7 cards should be a 2-drop creature.  If I count the 11 1cc dudes still in my deck, I make this fine, but the odds of getting two are slim and I want to be sure to have a use for both of my lands on turn two, so I want to have access to as many 2-drops as possible without getting too clunky.  Let's go with 11 in total for now, this will probably go up since they're the core of the deck.

On T3, this is where I need my hand advantage, 9 cards I have access to, minus three for lands and two for creatures means that yet again I'm picking out of four cards.  4 in 34 comes out to 8.5, or seven cards in 60.  Fortunately, however, the four hawks alone count as half of that, so I'm just going to say the Lead the Stampedes and leave it at that.

On T4, I want to have some way to recover from a sweeper better than 'have more creatures in hand'.  With ten cards, my fourth land drop, and three spells cast, this adds up to only three cards to pick from, although odds are better thanks to Lead the Stampede/Squadron hawk that I should have played by now.  Using the lowest set of odds in hawk and not Lead, I have three picks in 30 cards, or one in ten.  So six slots in the deck should hopefully get me one.  Vengevine + Fauna Shaman does this quite well, I think.  I really don't need anything else to stay alive.

So if I use this:

4 Goblin Guide

4 Loam Lion

4 Steppe Lynx

4 Squadron Hawk

4 Fauna Shaman

3 Stoneforge Mystic

2 Plated Geopede

4 Lead the Stampede

1 Sword of Body and Mind

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Manic Vandal

4 Vengevine

That comes out to a grand total of exactly 36 cards, and should do exactly what I want it to do.

The curve:

1cc - 12

2cc- 13

3cc- 7

4cc- 4

Mana dependency:

W- 15

R- 7

G- 14

Symbols:

Wx15

Rx7

Gx18

Unfortunately, the only dual-colored fetches available to the deck are Arid Mesas, which mean there will be a lot of fetches that do nothing other than pump Lynx and Geo.  No big deal, bit it does make the manabase a bit tougher.

Not that it would help this deck, but I still want WotC to print a Black Mesa.  I want to do some science.

Basically, it looks like we want an equal nimber of W and G, maybe a little more W, and then half as much goes to R.  So if we split the pool into five parts, R gets one while W and G each get two.  I also want to have easy forest access for Loam Lion and GG for Vengevine/Fauna Shaman, so G might get a fraction of a boost.

4 Arid Mesa

2 Marsh Flats

1 Scalding Tarn

4 Misty Rainforest

2 Verdant catacombs

2 Mountain

5 Forest

4 Plains

This gives me 10 for white, 7 for red, and 11 for green.  Not quite the ratio I'm looking for.

4 Arid Mesa

2 Marsh Flats

4 Misty Rainforest

2 Verdant catacombs

2 Mountain

5 Forest

5 Plains

There we go, 11 white, 6 red, and 11 green.  I just worry that I won't be able to get the T1 Goblin Guide mana when I need it.  More testing is definitely needed for this deck, and I probably want more lands.

In any case, I've taken you through a quick design process for what to think about while constructing a deck, and some quick math for figuring out your odds.  Hopefully, this will inspire you, or at least help you in your future endeavors.  This is Jim Bowie, saying good night to you and yo mama.

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