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SIDEBOARD:
2 Ancient Hydra
4 Blastoderm
2 Boil
1 Masticore
1 Splinter
3 Thran Foundry
2 Uktabi Orangutan

Angry Hermit 2000.

Description by Brian David-Marshall @ www.wizards.com (quoted):
(2002)0ne of the most exciting decks to come out of Pro Tour Houston was a reanimation deck called Angry Hermit: Part 2. This of course prompted the question: What was Part 1?

Long before Aaron Forsythe became the venerable editor of this very site, he was a Magic player with an invite to Nationals. Aaron was associated with some pretty good players in the Pittsburgh area but had yet to achieve any notoriety on the national stage. That would change with his Top 8 performance and his rogue Standard deck, Angry Hermit.

The deck came out of left field and was the darling of the tournament. It was a hybrid between two popular mana denial decks that were popular at the time. Trinity was a mono-green deck that relied on getting early Plow Unders to leave its opposition floundering for mana. The other was Ponza, a mono-red deck that used Stone Rain and Avalanche Riders to similar effect.

“The deck started out as pure land destruction with Deranged Hermits as finishers. I quickly swapped out the Stone Rains for Arc Lightning once I realized I couldn't beat other decks that had Birds and Elves. People laughed at the card, but it could kill lots of stuff, including a handful of Rebels, Thieving Magpie, Skittering Horror, and Skirge Familiar,” explained Aaron.

“The deck was built for my brother for States the year Masques came out. He wanted a green/red LD deck featuring Darwin and Plow Under, and he left the rest up to me. I played a Wildfire deck at States that year and did significantly worse than Neil.”

The Avalanche Riders could come down on turn three thanks to ten mana accelerators in Aaron’s build. Following that with a turn four Plow Under meant most opponent’s had little chance of recovering. Not only are you set back two turns in your mana development (three if you include the Riders) but ironically you are only going to draw land for the next two turns.

Rishadan Port is such a powerful land that it was actually banned in Block Constructed. Whether it was being used in the early game to forestall opponents from reaching the critical amount of available mana for their decks to strut their stuff or later in the game to lock out a color, the Port was a key card to the this deck’s success.

Capable of killing up to three mana creatures in one fell swoop, Arc Lightning was also a form of mana denial. Arc Lightning was not generally considered a constructed-worthy card prior to this tournament. After Nationals there was no denying its flexibility and tournament worthiness in sixty card formats—providing a huge boost in morale for rogue deck builders worldwide.

I guess the Masticore could also kill mana creatures but let’s face facts… The Masticore kills everything including your opponent. While the drawback of the Masticore is steep, it is softened by the presence of Yavimaya Elder—otherwise known as the Ancestral Recall on wheels.

While the deck denied mana to its opponent it gorged itself with eight one-drop mana creatures. You know them, you love them… Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, let's give a big hand to the ubiquitous Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves. In addition to the oldsters, the deck ran Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary and Gaea's Cradle which provided the potential for terribly explosive early turns. On turn three with a Bird, Elf, Rofellos, two Forests and a Cradle the deck could generate NINE mana. That is enough to cast both Avalanche Riders and Plow Under leaving a smoldering crater where the opponent’s mana used to be.

I love so many cards in this deck—Plow Under and Yavimaya Elder are both Top 10 faves—but my favorite part of this deck is its “Rebel chain.” Skyshroud Poacher is an unlikely green Rebel that seems overcosted at first glance. Where most Rebels can only search out other Rebels, the Poacher searches for Elves. Deranged Hermit (also on my all time Top 10) is an Elf that brings his friends—four Squirrels to be precise—with him when he comes into play. Gaea's Cradle can pay the echo on the Hermit perfectly so the squirrels usually stick around as 2/2’s thanks to his built-in Crusade effect. Often they will attack as 3/3’s with four friends staying back to join the attack next turn after another activation of the Poacher.

Aaron posted an eight-place finish, lost in the quarter-finals to Jon Finkel, and went on to defeat Mike Long and teammate Mike Turian in the loser’s bracket to earn a spot on the US National team alongside Finkel, Chris Benafel, and Frank Hernandez.

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by Aaron Forsythe @ www.magicthegathering.com (US Nationals 2000 - Standard)

BEATDOWN: Deranged Hermit - Masticore