Fun With Forced Assault
Forced Assault is one of my “Johnny” decks. My favorite memory of playing with it is watching one of my friends cast a 13 damage meteor on his own creature! Though I only win the occasional game with the deck, it is worth it to me to witness those hilarious moments. I am still in the process of tuning the deck to have a higher win percentage.
Creating a “Johnny” Deck
My “Johnny” decks usually begin with a single card that screams at me to try to exploit it or a few cards that seem to combo well together. Then, I typically spend hours searching Gatherer for cards that fit with the theme. I usually stick to the Modern format for these types of decks as that gives a wide variety of sets to choose from as well as keeping it...well...modern.
Forced Assault was born when I noticed the synergy between Hissing Miasma from the Guildpact set and Nettling Curse from the Dissension set. Two cards that made my opponent lose life when they attack me….hmm….interesting.
A quick Gatherer search found Contaminated Bond that fit extremely well with the theme. Then the thought came, “You’re crazy! Why would you want your opponent to attack you? You’ll be taking a ton of damage. Besides, if you put Contaminated Bond on your opponent’s creature, he’ll just
stop attacking with that creature, and then you’ll be totally vulnerable to his other creatures.”
“But if your opponent is losing life faster than you are taking damage, it works. Plus, your opponent loses the life when he attacks, which is before you take damage! Also, if you want your opponent to keep attacking with the contaminated creature, you just have to force the attack,” Johnny replied. I looked at Nettling Curse again: “1R: Enchanted creature attacks this turn if able.” There it was! Another piece to the puzzle! I searched Gatherer and found Into the Fray, Rage Nimbus, and Uncontrollable Anger. Uncontrollable Anger also gave the creature +2/+2, which would make it harder for me to win the life race. Rage Nimbus could make a creature attack each turn, and gave me a blocker with 5 power to sacrifice if needed. Into the Fray was cheap, but only usable once….unless I could splice it onto an arcane spell! My friends and I had drafted Champions of Kamigawa together in our first draft ever, so I already knew what arcane spells I was going to use. The deadly combo of Lava Spike and Glacial Ray fit perfectly with my goal of winning the life race. Lava Spike was 3 damage to my opponent for 1 mana, and Glacial Ray could be used as removal on my opponent’s other creatures or be another 2 damage to my opponent. Both are arcane spells, so Into the Fray can be spliced onto either of them.
I like putting play sets of cards in decks whenever possible to keep the deck consistent, so my list at this point looked something like:
Creatures
Rage Nimbus x4
Spells
Nettling Curse x4
Contaminated Bond x4
Into the Fray x4
Lava Spike x4
Glacial Ray x4
I didn’t want to play too many creatures in my deck to effectively counter my opponent’s removal spells, but with no creatures, I had to keep my opponent’s bigger creatures at bay somehow. I also wanted all my cards to be usable in different situations. Lightning Bolt is a prime removal spell or direct damage to my opponent if needed. I realized my Contaminated Bond and Nettling Curse would be “dead in hand” cards if my opponent didn’t have creatures. That’s when I discovered Forbidden Orchard. Mana fixing that gives my opponent a 1/1 colorless spirit creature token? Usually, giving my opponent a creature just for mana fixing would be a questionable idea, but in this case Johnny was almost hysterical, “Mana fixing, giving my opponent a creature to cast Contaminated Bond on, and turning the drawback of a card into a combo?!?!? Amazing!” With that the list looked something like:
Creatures (4)
Rage Nimbus x4
Spells (24)
Nettling Curse x4
Contaminated Bond x4
Into the Fray x4
Lava Spike x4
Glacial Ray x4
Lightning Bolt x4
Land (20)
Forbidden Orchard x4
Mountain x8
Swamp x8
Some of you are probably thinking, “Only 20 lands? What a newbie!” Well, that’s exactly what I was back then, a newbie MTG player who thought that 20 lands was plenty for any deck because I wanted to fit as many fun, juicy cards into the deck as possible. This was during the era when I used Kodama’s Reach in about 90% of my decks, and my friends knew what I was casting on turn 3 almost every time. Believe me, I thought about trying to fit Kodama's Reach into Forced Assault for mana fixing and ramp, but since that was the only green card I would use, I painfully abstained from using it. I don’t remember exactly how I filled the rest of Forced Assault in its earlier years, but I will always remember watching my friend kill his own creature with his own meteor to keep himself alive for one more turn!
Continued Modifications
Another important part of deck design, is continuing to look for cards from newer sets that fit your theme and, in some cases, are just strictly better than cards you already have in your deck. Over the years I was taking a break from physical MTG, I continued to upgrade Forced Assault. I remember trying Sleeper Agent, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Lust for War, and Bloodshed Fever. Sleeper Agent was another creature I could give to my opponent, then cast Contaminated Bond on to make my opponent stop attacking with it, only Sleeper Agent dealt damage to my opponent every turn whether they attacked with it or not. Lust for War is strictly better than Nettling Curse, because for the same mana cost, it already has the “attacks each turn” clause, and it doesn’t have to attack to deal damage, just tap. Now, if my opponent had some way to tap his creature every turn to keep it from attacking, he would still take 3 damage.
Recent Resurrection
During my break from physical MTG, I sold almost my entire collection to buy other strategy board games. Recently, I resurrected Forced Assault and another of my old decks as my “blast from the past” decks to remind me of all the good, old memories from my early MTG era. I have tried many of the same cards I used to use, but also new cards. My current iteration that has not been tested much yet is:
BR Forced Assault
Main Deck (60)
Creatures (4)
Sleeper Agent x4
Spells (33)
Koth of the Hammer x1
Liliana of the Dark Realms x1
Rakdos’s Return x1
Red Sun’s Zenith x1
War’s toll x3
Blood Reckoning x4
Hissing Miasma x4
Lust for War x4
Contaminated Bond x3
Terminate x4
Blightning x3
Contaminated Ground x4
Land (23)
Forbidden Orchard x4
Blood Crypt x4
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth x2
Swamp x8
Mountain x5
A slight variation of this list has been one turn away from beating Patrick’s Temur Aggro deck multiple times; so, I hope these recent modifications get me over that hump. I may have to add some board wipes like Crux of Fate or Mutilate, but I do want my opponent to have creatures to attack with, just not big ones.
Conclusions
A true “Johnny” player doesn’t care how many times he loses with his deck. He’ll keep playing with it for the few times it actually works. I’ll keep playing with this deck for the memories of my friends making strange plays and doing unusual things as they try to win in spite of the Forced Assault on their minds and creatures! Do not be afraid to let “Johnny” speak to you too!
- Nathan
