It seems like everyone is writing about Caw-Blade, and with good reason—it's absolutely dominated major tournaments held over the past few weeks. Even I've enjoyed success with the deck, online and offline. I came in second at the ChannelFireball $5K this past weekend with an anti-aggro U/W Caw-Blade build, losing the finals to Michael Hetrick with anti-mirror U/W Caw-Blade. Still, not all hope is lost, and today I want to talk about one of the notable vulnerabilities all the current Caw-Blade decks share. Green aggro featuring Fauna Shaman and Vengevine chains can give Caw-Blade a rough time, and better still is that many pilots won't be familiar with the matchups due to lack of widespread play. Today, I want to talk about the three main iterations of Fauna Shaman aggro: Naya, Bant, and G/W.

Naya

The key to building Naya is to pick a route to victory and stick with it. If you want to go full-out acceleration and aggro creatures, you don't want to compromise your early speed and Vengevines with concessions outside of Squadron Hawk and Fauna Shaman. If you want a more mid-range deck, then moving toward tutor-heavy singleton packages makes a lot more sense, and a heavier emphasis on four-plus-drops is a lot more sensible. From what I've found, the key to the early aggressiveness of Naya comes from an early Fauna Shaman or Mirran Crusader. Crusader is the biggest gain aggressive Naya got out of Besieged, and it makes for some very interesting play scenarios if U/W cannot Day it away quickly. You can leverage it with Hero of Oxid Ridge or just clear the way for it with Sparkmage and burn, allowing it to clock for 4, 6, or even 8 a turn if equipped with a Sword.

The tutor options at your disposal are Fauna Shaman, Stoneforge Mystic, and Green Sun's Zenith, all of which serve different roles and may not all make the same versions of the Naya deck. Only Fauna Shaman really is the must-have due to its low cost, ability to flesh out a Vengevine chain, and having no restrictions on tutor targets. The other two have drawbacks that could limit their value in the deck; typically, Stoneforge Mystic is an auto-include due to the power of Basilisk Collar/Cunning Sparkmage and Sword of Feast and Famine, but that's a very slow chain with no protection behind it in Naya. As long as you accept a slower build, Mystic fits right in, and should show up as a three- or four-of in the deck. GSZ, on the other hand, is there largely to increase your resiliency against removal, being able to tutor up additional Fauna Shaman or Lotus Cobra, while serving a late-game function by netting Thrun, Vengevine, or Obstinate Baloth. It's best to think of GSZ as a one-shot tutor that's there to help grind opponents out rather than anything incredibly powerful like you'd see in ramp decks.

The key to Naya is being a Fauna Shaman/Vengevine deck with a Plan B of going over the top with a swarm of creatures. Originally, the latter was difficult to accomplish without spells like Overwhelming Stampede or Eldrazi Monument getting the team large. Now you have access to Hero of Oxid Ridge, which is not only a tutorable mini-Overrun, but an evasion method where you can force damage through opposing Squadron Hawks and walls. In fact, Hero of Oxid Ridge was far more powerful than the typical equipment package in aggressive builds, and I highly recommend having access to at least one in all builds.

One of the more difficult cards to evaluate is Cunning Sparkmage; normally it would be a slam-dunk four-of in the main deck, but with so many opposing Sparkmages, it becomes a more questionable addition. If all I wanted to do was trade off Sparkmages with each other, I could just run one and get the same results. Additionally, Mortarpod and Linvala fill the same role against other Sparkmage, Lotus Cobra, and Fauna Shaman decks, which means the need to run the full set outside of a few matches (such as Boros) is wasted. So while I recommend one in every build for tutor purposes, adding more than that is personal preference, especially if you want to save space in the main deck.

Here are examples of the slower, mid-range model, and (below) the faster, aggro variation.

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Cunning Sparkmage

1 Viridian Corrupter

1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

1 Baneslayer Angel

1 Hero of Oxid Ridge

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Fauna Shaman

4 Lotus Cobra

4 Squadron Hawk

4 Stoneforge Mystic

4 Vengevine

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

3 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Bonehoard

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Mortarpod

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Arid Mesa

2 Verdant Catacombs

4 Copperline Gorge

4 Razorverge Thicket

3 Forest

2 Mountain

2 Plains

2 Raging Ravine

2 Stirring Wildwood

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

3 Cunning Sparkmage

3 Hero of Oxid Ridge

3 Burst Lightning

2 Obstinate Baloth

1 Bonehoard

1 Basilisk Collar

1 Inferno Titan

1 Viridian Corrupter

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Fauna Shaman

2 Stoneforge Mystic

4 Mirran Crusader

4 Squadron Hawk

4 Vengevine

1 Cunning Sparkmage

3 Hero of Oxid Ridge

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Bonehoard

3 Burst Lightning

2 Arc Trail

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Arid Mesa

4 Copperline Gorge

4 Razorverge Thicket

3 Forest

2 Mountain

3 Plains

2 Raging Ravine

1 Sunpetal Grove

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

4 Cunning Sparkmage

1 Hero of Oxid Ridge

1 Arc Trail

1 Bonehoard

1 Basilisk Collar

1 Viridian Corrupter

2 Obstinate Baloth

2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

2 Baneslayer Angel

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

The weaknesses of Naya are big-spell decks such as G/U ramp and Valakut, while also having issues with W/U Caw-Go that packs Baneslayer Angel in the main deck. Otherwise, it should be favored against all the current-generation control decks and have reasonable aggro matches (mostly favored after boarding). That control absolutely has to destroy your two-drops before you get Vengevine or Hero plans online is your major advantage in the match.

Bant

I wasn't a big fan of Bant at first, but Matt Nass sold me on the idea after winning a $1K with his Bant brew. The concept of the deck is to have all the best two-drops¹ in the format at your disposal along with Jace, the Mind Sculptor. What happens is that you tend to jam control up on the curve and put your opponent in a very awkward position if he doesn't have Oust or Lightning Bolt available. Even on the play, he either has to leave open mana to Leak a two-drop or have the removal spell in hand; otherwise, a Fauna Shaman or Lotus Cobra is simply miles more powerful than resolved Stoneforge. At worst, the Bant deck can set itself up with Squadron Hawk and discard a Vengevine or fetch up a Sword of its own.

¹ - Fauna Shaman, Lotus Cobra, Squadron Hawk, and Stoneforge Mystic

If you need detailed information about the deck, I'll just send you toward Matt's article (here). To summarize the matches, though, the deck is really soft to aggressive strategies Game 1. By putting all of its eggs in the two-drop basket early, it lacks the kind of creatures necessary to fight an opposing creature rush. Additionally, starts like Goblin Guide/Steppe Lynx and killing the two-drop put you on your back foot, and you could easily be down to 10 to 12 life by the time you have a real creature on the board. Post-board, life gets easier by having a real plan of using Oust and trading early and often, just trying to survive until Baneslayer Angel hits the battlefield. Between extra Gideon Jura and three BSAs post-board, the goal is to survive until the five-drops stabilize the game and let you set up a real board position.

Valakut is a match where you'll be soft Game 1; post-board, you'll have a big edge thanks to Flashfreeze. You only have to counter a few key threats to buy enough time to win the game, and even if your opponent has the Summoning Trap, there's no guarantee he'll hit a relevant guy. Even pre-board, you still can get out to a big lead if your two-drop lives and a Spell Pierce on any ramp spell can buy you a turn. Considering that with a turn-two Fauna Shaman you can bring back double Vengevines and bash for at least 8 on turn four and likely lethal on turn 5, the first game often comes down to a die roll or Spell Pierce.

As for Caw decks, if it didn't have a reasonable match against them, I wouldn't bother listing the deck. Most versions don't have sufficient answers to your turn-two drops, and even resolving a Squadron Hawk, filling the hand, and discarding a Vengevine can put them in an awkward spot. In fact, my build was the best-equipped to beat the deck featuring the full set of main-deck BSAs as well as main-deck Oust to take care of two-drops. In the average W/U version, you won't have to deal with main-deck Oust, and in the normal W/U/r build, there are only three Lightning Bolts or three Arc Trails in the main. Plus, in the case of Mystic and Hawk, it doesn't matter much if they get taken out early, as they'll accomplish their goal just by resolving. You have strong early drops, the same PW suite as U/W, and a better middle and late game, with the Vengevines giving you inevitability on the ground. Unless your opponent has a specific anti-aggro sideboard against Vengevine decks, you have the edge against either version of Caw-Blade.

"Bant!"

• Creatures (21)
• 4 Lotus Cobra
• 4 Stoneforge Mystic
• 4 Fauna Shaman
• 4 Squadron Hawk
• 4 Vengevine
• 1 Baneslayer Angel

• Spells (14)
• 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 2 Gideon Jura
• 1 Mortarpod
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 3 Spell Pierce
• 4 Preordain

• Lands (25)
• 4 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 3 Island
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 2 Forest
• 4 Stirring Wildwood
• 3 Scalding Tarn

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Oust
• 4 Flashfreeze
• 1 Sylvok Lifestaff
• 1 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Viridian Corrupter
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1 Gideon Jura
• 2 Baneslayer Angel

Buy This Deck Export text format

G/W

Of course, just because the trifecta colors all have decks doesn't mean you can't slim it down a bit and roll with a two-color aggro deck à la Boros or G/W Quest. In fact, G/W might just be better minus the Quest now because of all the Divine Offerings, Tumble Magnets, and other answers to equipment running around. Splash damage from Caw-Go makes it a hard sell to keep so many dead cards in the deck when we could replace those for giant dudes and more acceleration for Vengevine. As a result, I'm not a big fan of G/W Quest right now, but would at least give it a fair shot against the non-Red Caw-Blade decks.

Just like Naya, though, there are two ways to take the deck; one involves Stoneforge Mystic and slowing the deck down slightly to take advantage of equipment. Taking this route, all you need to do is look at Naya removing the Red cards for a similar-looking shell with about eight slots to fill. Due to the space expense, you also lose out on some of the singletons G/W could run, and cards like Eldrazi Monument and Overwhelming Stampede are probably off the table. On the other hand, without Mystic, you get a deck like this:

"Jumanji by Harrison Greenberg (ninth place at SCG: Edison)"

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Baneslayer Angel
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Fauna Shaman
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Lotus Cobra
• 1 Molten-Tail Masticore
• 1 Phyrexian Revoker
• 1 Soul's Attendant
• 4 Squadron Hawk
• 4 Vengevine

• Spells (6)
• 4 Lead the Stampede
• 2 Overwhelming Stampede

• Lands (24)
• 4 Forest
• 2 Marsh Flats
• 2 Misty Rainforest
• 2 Plains
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 3 Stirring Wildwood
• 3 Sunpetal Grove
• 2 Tectonic Edge
• 2 Verdant Catacombs

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Gideon Jura
• 3 Journey to Nowhere
• 3 Nature's Claim
• 1 Kor Hookmaster
• 1 Kor Skyfisher
• 1 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Viridian Corrupter
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1 Glimmerpoint Stag
• 2 Leatherback Baloth

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Even if you can't get a Fauna Shaman active, with Lotus Cobra, you can still produce a respectable offense in a quick fashion. This deck tries to take full advantage of Lead the Stampede, with thirty creatures providing an additional form of card advantage and giving another way to discard Vengevine early. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of times where you'll only net two creatures, and casting Divination just isn't all that impressive in a deck with only six to seven heavy hitters. The biggest downside to the strategy by far is the lack of a secondary strategy like Jace or Hero of Oxid Ridge like the three-color variants have. Yes, it can sometimes kill out of nowhere with Overwhelming Stampede, but more often than not, you'll be stuck in a fair fight, grinding with Vengevine and Squadron Hawk. I would definitely consider more main-deck Linvala or BSA if you wanted to cut out some of the singletons; both give the deck another evasion beater and serve important roles in the deck.

As you can see, this deck practically concedes in the face of a good Valakut draw, but that's the price you pay when you take out nearly every single way to interact with the opponent. In exchange, though, you have a version with better mana and a heavier threat density against Caw-Blade and decks designed to grind you out. It also potentially has the best openers in a Fauna Shaman mirror depending on the number of Linvala you play in the deck. Still, no matter what Fauna Shaman shell you decide upon, there are three key points to keep in mind when designing a Fauna deck.

1. Have other powerful two-drops for when you don't have an opener with Fauna Shaman or to be able to consistently skip to three-drops like Mirran Crusader.
2. Have a Plan B, even if that only consists of playing large creatures until the opponent loses.
3. If possible, feature some sort of disruption, whether it's counters, discard, or removal; one of the biggest problems with the straight G/W versions is the lack of ways to interact. Even just running Mortarpod and Oust can make a major difference against decks relying on Lotus Cobra or other early creature drops.

That's it for this week. Good luck to those of you with tournaments, and may you not be pecked to death by birds.

Josh Silvestri

e-mail me at josh dot silvestri at gmail dot com