BDB Origins - Nathan

BDB Origins!  First up:

Nathan - Founding Father

Nathan is the foundation of BDB. He is the lead for deck design, assembly, inventory, card sorting, purchasing, packaging, and shipping. He is also in charge of our Ebay store. If you buy something from us, Nate is the one fulfilling it, as well as answering any questions/messages through Ebay.

Starting with Mirrodin in 2003, he now plays draft and constructed formats casually with friends and participates in Magic Online prerelease and sealed leagues. He is an avid ingester of MTGGoldfish, Channel Fireball, Tolarian Community College, and TCGplayer content. Nathan favors White/Blue Control decks, specifically Miracles, because he loves playing on his opponent's turn. His favorite card in this archetype is Sphinx's Revelation. Nathan has the looong-term goal of collecting a playset of every Modern-legal card.

Nathan loves gaming in general and teaching them to people. This passion is what inspired him to start BDB, as a way to get new players into Magic affordably.

Art from Sphinx's Revelation by Slawomir Maniak

BDB Drafting and Limited Deck Building Guide

This has nothing to do with Budget Deck Builders or the products we offer, but drafting is simply too much fun not to talk about.  I've learned that the skills you develop while drafting can improve your play and deck building in other formats, making you a more well-rounded player.  My friend and coworker were interested in going to a draft and asked for a few pointers before heading to his first FNM.

1)  Theme/Strategy
- Do some homework.  What are the most powerful cards? What are the themes and synergies within the sets you will be drafting?  If you want a strong deck, you will probably want to settle into one of these themes to get extra value from your cards.  For example, WB Warriors, RG Formidable, or UB Exploit.
- Keep it simple.  Usually the simpler the game plan, the better.  Since you will rarely get more than 1-2 copies of a card in your deck, you can't count on drawing them every game and thus can't rely on combos to win you the game. You are probably just going to win by attacking with creatures, whether it's with a quick aggressive deck, or with a more defensive controlling deck.  Cards that require really strange scenarios to be good should probably be left out of your deck.

Art from Goblin Heelcutter by Jesper Ejsing

2) B.R.E.A.D.
- Prioritize your picks in this order.

B - Bombs: These are powerful rares or uncommons that will almost always win you the game if you get a chance to play them.  They have the power to end the game quickly or can pull you back from a losing position.  For example, Dragonlord Silumgar or Sunscorch Regent.

R - Removal: Quite simply, you need ways to deal with your opponent's bombs.  Whoever can play their bomb and keep it on the board is probably going to win.  Removal spells can also give you a favorable board state for attacking (quick aggro decks) or blocking (decks stalling for their bombs).

E - Evasion: Prioritize creatures that are hard to block, such as flying or intimidate. The battlefield will tend to get clogged up with creatures and evasion can allow you to keep dealing damage without having to attack into blockers.  Don't underestimate the threat of dealing 2-3 damage every turn.

A - Aggro: Most successful limited decks win with creatures.  You will need lots of them.  They will die in combat, die to removal, etc. and you don't want to run out before your opponent.  Make sure you fill out your mana curve with lots of creatures that can deal damage to your opponent.  Generally a 3/1 is better than 1/3 because it can trade with larger creatures and puts more pressure on your opponent to deal with it. It can possibly require a removal spell that would otherwise be used on your bomb.

D - Dud: This just means whatever is leftover.  If there is nothing in your pack that fits the other categories then I look for two possible things here; either good sideboard cards that are very powerful in specific situations, such as Plummet or Naturalize, or I look for cards that other players might want for their decks.  Maybe the pack has nothing playable for my White Green Bolster deck, but that Bathe in Dragonfire would sure be nasty in my opponent's deck. I'll take it just to keep it from being used against me.

3) Deckbuilding: 40 cards. The minimum deck size in limited is 40 cards.  Don't go over that.
- 17 lands is the proven, perfect number.  Don't bother trying to justify 16 or 18, just stick to 17.
-  6 best removal spells.  Consider insants vs. sorceries, mana cost, and how many types of threats it can deal with.  If you don't have 6 removal spells, consider substituting instant speed combat tricks that can help you take down threats when attacking or blocking.
- 17 creatures along a mana curve, which I'll talk about next.

4) Mana curve:  In limited you want to be casting a spell every turn, whether it's creatures on your turn or removal on your opponent's turn.  You can't afford to take turns off or you will fall behind.

- For your creatures, consider a distribution like this.
1 mana - 1-2
2 mana - 3-4
3 mana - 4-5
4 mana - 3-4
5 mana - 2
6 mana - 1-2

I won my first ever FNM draft with this deck!

5) Value: Look for cards with great value.  You get great value when your card is able to trade for two or more of your opponent's cards.  Examples of this are Ainok Survivalist (aggro creature with Naturalize stapled to him) and Pyrotechnics (capable of killing up to 4 creatures!).

Hope this helps!
- Patrick

Fun With Forced Assault

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