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