4 Drudge Skeletons
4 Restless Bones
4 Dimir House Guard
1 Mortivore
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Skeletal Vampire
4 Last Gasp
4 Phyrexian Arena
3 Putrefy
2 Plague Boiler
1 Vigor Mortis
1 Persecute
11 Swamp
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Svogthos, the Restless Tomb |
  Snake
Mountain.
Description of deck by its author (quoted):
Skeletons are a fun tribe. Like the other two
tribes I've covered, Assassins and Centaurs, Skeletons have a mere five
members. (By the way, after reading Aaron's preview card last week, it
looks like I made my Assassins deck a week too soon). Luckily, we live
in GAS – the Golden Age of Skeletons. Dimir House Guard and Golgari
Grave-Troll were pretty awesome Skeletons, but Guildpact's Skeletal
Vampire tops them both. As a tribe, they have a few issues, though.
Skeletons don't have a mana-curve, exactly. It's more like a staircase.
They have a drop at two, three, four, five, and six-mana. It's a little
more complicated than that, since you will rarely want to play your guys
out if you don't also have Regeneration mana up. In that way, Drudge
Skeletons is more like a three-drop and Restless Bones is more like a
five-drop. The other thing to consider is that you will rarely want to
play Golgari Grave-Troll on turn 5, unless you've managed to get him
into the graveyard for some hardcore Dredging in the first four turns.
As a result, Skeletons are a little slower than they might appear at
first glance. To get you through to the late game (when your most
powerful Skeletons will come online) and to ensure that you make all the
necessary land drops, I turned to Last Gasp, Putrefy, and Phyrexian
Arena.
My deck is a borderline Golgari theme deck, with
Grave-Trolls, Putrefy, Vigor Mortis, the relevant lands, and the key card,
Plague Boiler. Since every Skeleton ever printed has Regeneration (Ha! I
caught you trying to sneak in there, Mistform Ultimus! And Carrionette.
And Skeletal Snake and Crocodile.) … since almost every Skeleton ever
printed has Regeneration, they really don't mind if you sweep the board.
That's no skin off their backs.
It seems like a bit of a waste to have four Dimir House
Guards, and not much of a tool box of Transmute targets to go with it. One
of the challenges of building Tribal Wars decks is finding room for all
the cards you want to put in since the bulk of your deck will be creatures
and land. As it stands, the House Guard can fetch either Vigor Mortis,
Mortivore, or Persecute. I've won a few games by Dredging a Skeletal
Vampire early on and reanimating it on turn 4. Mortivore is another
regenerator who benefits from both Dredge and from Plague Boilers
board-clearing. Persecute can be devastating against certain slower, mono-coloured
tribes (like, er, Skeletons), so I threw in a copy. Other options include
Cranial Extraction, Nightmare Void, Eradicate, Splinter, or even Seek the
Horizon. |
. |
