SpellBreaker Behemoth

Since I started playing magic here in Japan, i’ve been longing to create my own strong deck. But apparently, mtg is not that easy. You cannot just pick strong creatures and put into your deck. You need to study many things, like mana curve. Reading mtg related articles also help a lot to give you insight of what popular cards or decks are out there. Deck building is one of the point where strategy comes into play.

The appearance of Alara Reborn with its new mechanism, “cascade”, really change the flow of standard format. I know I’m not an expert at all with mtg, heck I’m still a noobie, but the feeling of playing the game before and after the release of ARB is so different. Reading articles here and there, I found out that Faeries deck is (or was) the strongest in standard. With its so many counter spells, Faeries deck set the bar for every other deck. “If you create a new deck, try it against faeries. Lost? Create another one.”, that’s what my friend said before.

So after experimenting with almost all color combinations including ARB, I finally decided that the following deck is strong!

// Lands
4 [ALA] Savage Lands
6 [ALA] Forest (4)
5 [ALA] Swamp (2)
5 [ALA] Mountain (2)
2 [CFX] Ancient Ziggurat

// Creatures
4 [ARB] Bloodbraid Elf
4 [ARB] Spellbreaker Behemoth
4 [SHM] Farhaven Elf
4 [ALA] Sprouting Thrinax
4 [ALA] Broodmate Dragon
4 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
3 [ARB] Lord of Extinction

// Spells
4 [ARB] Bituminous Blast
4 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [ALA] Infest

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [CFX] Volcanic Fallout
SB: 4 [ARB] Anathemancer
SB: 3 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 4 [CFX] Banefire

As you can see I chose RGB colors, Jund. Why? Because Maelstrom Pulse is very good and Bloodbraid Elf is insane. These two cards are a must. So I was thinking how to create a good deck that includes these two cards. Maybe someone else already invented my way of thinking, but anyway, here is how I decided the creatures. First, I considered three phases of the game: early stage (around turn 2-3), mid stage (turn 4), and latest stage (turn >5 ). Assuming I can put land every turn, I will have 3 lands in early stage, 4 lands in mid stage, and more than 5 lands in latest stage. Second, I chose creatures on each stages. And these creatures need to be useful (doh). So I decided to pick these creatures:

1. Early stage
   • Farhaven Elf: The problem with playing more than two colors deck is mana. This creature can solve that problem most of the time.
   • Kitchen Finks: Finks just very good. Persist, gain life, no way you’re not using it
   • Sprouting Thrinax: With its ability to give birth to tokens when it dies, this guy definitely needs to be in the deck.
2. Mid stage
   • Bloodbraid Elf: Like I mentioned, this girl has to be there.
   • Spellbreaker Behemoth: 5/5 creature for only 4 manas, how can you Not?! And it can’t be countered!!
3. Latest stage
   • Broodmate Dragon: 4/4 flying dragon that comes with a best friend, hard to resist.
   • Lord of Extinction: Now this last spot actually still open for public. I was thinking, I need a creature that can give a big pressure to the enemy. So I chose this guy. It can be really huge, and it sounds scary

Now let’s go to the instants and sorceries. Only three: Maelstrom Pulse, Bituminous Blast, and Infest. Maelstrom Pulse is a must. I chose Bituminous Blast over Terminate because of the cascade thing. Just imagine, play Blast, then cascaded into Bloodbraid, then cascaded into Maelstrom :D  Infest can handle those annoying tokens.

For sideboard, Anathamancer and Fallout are the only ones I think I need. Banefire and Relic only there to fill the spots until I find a good side to fill that spot. Anathamancer is natural enemy for 5CC or any decks that uses so many non basic lands. Fallout is there to support Infest to fight tokens.

At first I didnt use Ancient Ziggurat.  But it was so hard. I tried to keep the nonbasic lands minimized. Adding two Ancient Ziggurat was unexpectedly change the flow. I think it’s because many creatures in this deck.

So that’s it! I tried it online, and the result was unexpectedly good! Although it’s not really a thorough experiments, I mean I just fought people randomly but I had a chance to fight against faeries, 5CC, Doran, tokens, and RB Burn deck. This deck can really compete with them. Give it a try! Comments and feedbacks are always welcome