Magic Mailbag: Combating Sneak Attack

Every so often there is a Magic: the Gathering question in my email with an answer long enough to merit its own article.  This is one of those articles.  A reader recently wrote:

Sneak Attack
© Wizards of the Coast

"Forest Fire" Preconstructed Deck on Magic Online
© Wizards of the Coast

The answer to your first question is easy.  When Tempest came to Magic Online, Wizards of the Coast sponsored a deck building contest for Pauper decks on PureMTGO.

Submissions were reviewed by Wizards R&D, and the winning deck became available for purchase on Magic Online.

The rules of the deck contest was:
  * Each Deck must contain 4x Muscle Slivers.
  * The Deck must be all commons.  (PDC4L!)
  * 4x's are okay for some cards, but probably not all of them.  Remember, we're aiming for a "precon" feeling here, not a pre-built PDC "contender" deck.
  * The deck 'theme' should be around a R/G "Aggro" (aka Aggressive) deck.
  * There is no specified limit to the number of entries per person, within reason.
  * Only Tempest cards (see the comments section, 3rd one up from the bottom)
  * 60 Cards (as usual for theme decks)
 

Muscle Sliver
© Wizards of the Coast

My submission:

4x Muscle sliver
3x Heart sliver
4x Metallic Sliver
2x Lightning Elemental
2x Fireslinger
2x Skyshroud Troll
1x Mogg Fanatic
1x Coiled Tinviper
2x Rootwalla
2x Rootbreaker Wurm
3x Rampant Growth
2x Crown of flames
4x Kindle
1x Elvish Fury
1x Broken Fall
2x Lightning Blast
1x Rolling Thunder
11x Mountain
12x Forest

As for your second question - Sneak attack and Living Death are currently legal only in Vintage and Legacy.  Every Legacy player to check out The Source.  It is the number one resource when it comes to all things Legacy.  A good place to start reading would be in the Decks to Beat forum, followed by the Established Decks.

When it comes to Eternal formats, only true and tested decks stand up to the crowd.  That leaves three options.  Net decking and going rogue are the two most common choices, however meta gaming is the third option that is often neglected.

Magic decks often fall into the rock, paper, scissors dillema.  Control, combo, and agro.  If the vast majority of players in a group play agro, a combo deck may be the solution because the agro player will have to way to stop it, provided the combo player manages to outlast the agro player.  Likewise if many players start playing combo decks, the answer is to play control.

Now lets take a look at an average Sneak Attack deck (list taken from TCGPlayer.com):

Recurring Nightmare
© Wizards of the Coast

1 Angel of Despair
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Crater Hellion
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Dragon Tyrant
1 Havoc Demon
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Nicol Bolas
1 Penumbra Wurm
1 Reiver Demon
1 Serra Avatar
4 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Symbiotic Wurm
4 Dark Ritual
1 Diabolic Tutor
4 Fling
4 Gamble
4 Night's Whisper
3 Recurring Nightmare
4 Sneak Attack
6 Mountain
4 Sandstone Needle
6 Swamp
4 Urborg Volcano

While the deck Paul may have ran up against might have had different creature choices, both decks take advantage of fast mana spells like Dark Ritual to play an early Sneak Attack.  Without the Sneak attack, the player is often left with a hand full of creatures they cannot cast.  Often times, the Sneak Attack player may mulligan down to six or even five cards just so they have a Sneak attack in hand.

There are several solutions to Pauls problems.  He could choose to netdeck one of the Legacy Decks to Beat, or he can take a proactive approach by using main deck card choices that will deal with problem cards in the first place.

Blue players often have the easiest solution in countering Sneak Attack with a Force of Will, Counterspell, Daze, Force Spike, or Mana Leak.  Black spells such as Duress and Thoughtsieze will also help.  White players have access to Swords to Plowshares, and Humility for creature control.  A good old Disenchant or Naturalize will also take care of Sneak Attack.  If your deck plays spells quickly, then artifacts like Ensnaring Bridge can keep an opponent's fatties from crossing the red zone.

As Zeddicus Zul Zorander, the First Wizard, often told Richard: "Think of the solution, not the problem."  Imagine the nightmare a Sneak Attack Player would have against a deck that took advantage of all these solutions!

Duress
© Wizards of the Coast

I Hate Sneak Attack dot deck
4 Brainstorm
3 Force Spike
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
4 Daze
3 Mana Leak
4 Duress
4 Thoughtsieze
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Humility
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Sacred Mesa
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand (or other fetchlands)
4 Underground Sea (or Watery Grave)
4 Tundra (or Hallowed Fountain)
1 Scrubland (or Godless Shrine)
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Swamp

Do you have a Magic: the Gathering question?
leave a comment or email me at DavidLeavitt at Gmail dot Com.

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