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Lands:
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
3 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Mountain
3 Plains
4 Treetop Village
1 Wooded Bastion

Creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Calciderm
3 Gaddock Teeg
4 Kavu Predator
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Stonecloaker
4 Tarmogoyf

Other Spells:
3 Edge of Autumn
4 Fiery Justice
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Incinerate
2 Last Breath

Sideboard:
2 Krosan Grip
1 Last Breath
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Pithing Needle
3 Riftsweeper
3 Ronom Unicorn

Predator 2008.

Description of deck by Mike Flores (quoted):
...So how does Predator work? The signature creature—besides Tarmogoyf of course—is Kavu Predator. This creature actually gets bigger as the opponent gains life, so it is one of the better solutions (for a creature deck) when the opponent runs out Kitchen Finks (and the Standard Predator has four Finks, main, of its own). The deck is suited very nicely to exploit the Predator, playing spells like Fiery Justice and taking the edge off the usually disastrous (again, for a creature deck) Grove of the Burnwillows. In fact, many Predator players will be happy to mana burn at the end of the opponent's turn while giving the opponent life in order to accumulate counters on Kavu Predator (theoretically you are just breaking even); with two Predators in play, you actually net potential damage in +1/+1 counters (apologies to -1/-1 Counter Week) for every tap of the Grove of the Burnwillows.

One of the less appreciated features of Predator is Stonecloaker. Andre Coimbra used to love fighting Tarmogoyf with Tarmogoyf, putting damage on the stack, then lifting (and ultimately saving) his own Tarmogoyf. Meanwhile, the opponent would be short a card in graveyard (ideally the only sorcery, ideally a Call of the Herd) but anything that put the opposing Tarmogoyf -1/-1 post combat would be acceptable.

Today Stonecloaker not only helps win the dying Calciderm, but in resetting Kitchen Finks (especially when already wearing a -1/-1 collar); additionally, Stonecloaker costs exactly the right amount of mana to tangle, memorably, with a Reveillark. Say the opponent pays the full 5W to evoke Reveillark... The Reveillark leaves play and targets two creatures in the graveyard. You can play Stonecloaker in response for three mana, target one of those targeted creatures, return Stonecloaker to your hand, and re-play Stonecloaker to nab the other... effectively Time Walking the opponent and costing him not only his best card, but probably his entire strategic game to that point.

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by Scott Jeltima, 4th place, StarCityGames.com Standard Open Tournament on May 10, 2008, discussed by Mike Flores @ www.wizards.com

BEATDOWN: Kavu Predator / Calciderm / Tarmogoyf - Stonecloaker

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