Frank Lepore
12/31/2012 10:29:00 AM
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a sucker for BUG archetypes. I'm also a sucker for tiny, useful creatures (Dark Confidant, Deathrite Shaman, Snapcaster Mage, etc.) and I'm also a sucker for enemy colors (BG and UG specifically). When you combine all of these things, it's quite easy to see why I chose the deck I did for today's Leporatory.

Paige Sorendo sent in the list along with the following notes:

“My name is Paige. I have recently started hardcore brewing with certain aspects from different decks and this is the list that I have come up with for fun. I call it BUG Beatdown!

If this gets some videos from you, that would be amazing but if not, any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you very much for your time. Good luck in future endeavors, and as always, looking forward to your play test videos!

The Deck: Essentially aggro control with a fun little bit of Grisly Salvage to fuel Snapcaster Mage, Deathrite Shaman, and combo with Dreg Mangler. Lemme know whatcha think!”

I really liked the deck from the start. The first deck I ended up brewing when Worldwake was just released was a BUG list. I loved Lewis Laskin's BUG Control list in Legacy from the moment he played it at Grand Prix Indy. I was pretty much fond of those colors in every way, shape, or form I could be fond of them in. I took a look at the list and it seemed very similar to a lot of the lists that were dominant in other formats...

BUG Beatdown by Paige Sorendo Main Deck Sideboard 3 Augur of Bolas 2 Bloodline Keeper 3 Deathrite Shaman 4 Dreg Mangler 4 Lotleth Troll 4 Snapcaster Mage Creatures [20] 2 Abrupt Decay 1 Farseek 4 Grisly Salvage 1 Runechanter's Pike 2 Think Twice 4 Tragic Slip 3 Ultimate Price Spells [17] 4 Drowned Catacomb 3 Forest 4 Hinterland Harbor 4 Island 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Swamp Lands [23] Deck Total [60] 1 Abrupt Decay 3 Cremate 3 Duress 3 Golgari Charm 1 Murder 2 Plummet 2 Thragtusk Sideboard [15] View a Sample Hand! Solitaire this Deck! Click for full deck stats & notes!

Here are my first impressions of the deck

BUG Aggro Intro



I obviously loaded up the list and played a few games in Magic Online to see how things would go, and this was the result.

BUG Aggro vs. Peddler Rites



BUG Aggro vs. Junk Midrange



As you can see I won both matches, and I was actually pleasantly surprised at how well the deck played, but there were a few things that stuck out to me. Let's go over them along with the changes I've made.

We had a lot of removal, but it was all very specific. In order to kill something with Tragic Slip, we had to have the right mix of Ultimate Price or Abrupt Decay which was sometimes obnoxious. It doesn't come up too often, but sometimes you just want things out of the way. I also mentioned in the intro about wanting more high-end cards in the deck. I was waffling back and forth between Garruk Relentless, and a card that I was pretty impressed with when I was using it in the Favorable Tokens list: Dungeon Geists. I ultimately went with the Geists because it has evasion, can be removed with Deathrite Shaman, can be discarded to Lotleth Troll, and can wear a Rancor.

Oh, Rancor? Yeah, I think I like Rancor better than Runechanter's Pike. After all, we have to remember that most of our instants are getting eaten up by Snapcaster Mages and Deathrite Shamans. There were very few times where I actually had a significant number of instants in my graveyard to make the Pike relevant. While I do like the first strike a lot, I think trample is also pretty good, and being able to get it back is also pretty valuable. This is also a deck that cherishes its mana, so the difference between a one mana Rancor and paying four mana to cast and equip the Pike is huge.

So right now we're looking at:

-1 Runechanter's Pike
-1 Tragic Slip
-1 Grisly Salvage
-1 Farseek

+2 Rancor
+2 Dungeon Geists

The Farseek, while cute, was kind of meh. I never want to draw it in the late game, and we won't draw it enough in the early game for it to matter. The last thing I changed was the mana base. We currently weren't running any Woodland Cemetery. This seemed weird. While we do only have one set of shocklands ( Overgrown Tomb) there's no reason we should be running more duals, especially when so many of our cards cost BG or B. This also caused me to remove one Island and one Swamp instead of a Forest.

-1 Island
-1 Swamp

+2 Woodland Cemetery

The sideboard seemed pretty okay already. I gained a newfound respect for Cremate in these matches, and I think of it as a kind of black Thought Scour when you add Snapcaster Mage to the mix. I like Golgari Charm to deal with Enchantments, but I think we can lose one since we have a ton of Abrupt Decay. I could see removing Plummet too for something better, like another Ultimate Price and another Murder or something. Maybe one Vraska the Unseen, but for now I think they're fine.

-1 Golgari Charm

+1 Dissipate

I like Dissipate as a kind of catch all for things like Sphinx's Revelation, Thragtusk, Unburial Rites, etc. Plus it works well with Snapcaster. With all of these changes we arrive at the following list:

BUG Beatdown Update by Frank Lepore Main Deck Sideboard 3 Augur of Bolas 2 Bloodline Keeper 3 Deathrite Shaman 4 Dreg Mangler 2 Dungeon Geists 4 Lotleth Troll 4 Snapcaster Mage Creatures [22] 2 Abrupt Decay 3 Grisly Salvage 2 Rancor 2 Think Twice 3 Tragic Slip 3 Ultimate Price Spells [15] 4 Drowned Catacomb 3 Forest 4 Hinterland Harbor 3 Island 4 Overgrown Tomb 3 Swamp 2 Woodland Cemetery Lands [23] Deck Total [60] 1 Abrupt Decay 3 Cremate 1 Dissipate 3 Duress 2 Golgari Charm 1 Murder 2 Plummet 2 Thragtusk Sideboard [15] View a Sample Hand! Solitaire this Deck! Click for full deck stats & notes!

And here's how we did...

BUG Aggro Update vs. Omnidoor Thragfire



BUG Aggro Update vs. Junk Rites



Both before and after the changes, the deck played really well. I liked the Dungeon Geists and thought they were good at sneaking through damage, since this is kind of what the deck does: it does a really good job at pecking through damage in tiny increments. You could also combine them with a Tragic Slip in order to take out Restorations Angels, but we also have Ultimate Price for those bad boys.

And if you like the deck now, just wait until Gatecrash is legal, where two more of the deck's guilds are revealed. We'll get Breeding Pools and Watery Graves along with whatever else Gatecrash decides to grace us with and I think things are going to be looking better and better for our Human Mage friend. Is this deck better than strategies that go all-in on the graveyard, like Rites? I don't know, but I do know I love cards like Snapcaster Mage, Lotleth Troll and Dreg Mauler Dreg Mangler in the same deck. I think they're three of the strongest creatures right now, and being able to scavenge onto your Augur and make it a 4/6 is pretty good. Let alone scavenging onto your Bloodline Keeper or your Dungeon Geists!

High Mid Low

Snapcaster Mage

$29.97

$23.75

$21.20

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The only thing that scares me about the deck is Searing Spear because of all our three toughness creatures, but I don't know if it's even that big of a deal. I might remove the two Plummet in the sideboard for two more Thragtusk because they're that good, but that's up to you.

That's it for The Leporatory this week! Let me know what you guys thought and, again, you can send your ideas to Leporatory@TCGplayer.com! Please be sure to include your name, a name for the deck, and a brief synopsis of what the deck does or is supposed to do. As I mentioned, I've been getting a lot of requests each week for help with decks, so if I don't get back to you, I do apologize, but I definitely do read all of your emails! Thanks to Paige for sending me the awesome list!

As usual, I'll be back with more Magic later this week, so thanks for reading and I'll see you then!

Frank Lepore
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