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When a new set comes out, one of the first things I look for are cornerstones. These are cards that are worth building entire decks around. Almost every set has a few of these, and Mirrodin Besieged is no exception.
At first glance, these are the cards that caught my eye:
There are two main things I'm looking for in a cornerstone card:
- Power level—The card needs to be a "game-breaker," a card that will swing the game dramatically in my favor when I resolve it.
- Synergy—The card should benefit from having a deck designed around it. It should become even more powerful when combined with the other cards that I've placed around it in the deck.
Psychosis Crawler is the type of card I love building decks around. It rewards you for drawing lots of cards. That's great; I like doing that anyway! Here's what I came up with:
[cardlist]
[Creatures]
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Sylvan Ranger
4 Bloodghast
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Vengevine
4 Psychosis Crawler
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Sign in Blood
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Evolving Wilds
6 Forest
10 Swamp
[/Lands]
[/cardlist]
One of the key things I'm keeping in mind when designing decks around these cornerstones is the metagame. Based on the results of Pro Tour: Paris, I'm expecting lots of Blue control decks. This deck is filled with cards that are good against control decks. The obvious ones are Vengevine and Bloodghast: creatures that can be recurred if killed or countered. Fauna Shaman and Psychosis Crawler are major threats that can't be ignored; they have to be dealt with immediately. The rest of the deck consists of cheap creatures that can put pressure on and help keep Planeswalkers off the board.
There are several reasons that Psychosis Crawler is a good fit in this deck. The first reason is Lotus Cobra: I can get the Crawler into play quickly without having to empty my hand. Even going first, I can get it into play on turn three while still having four cards in hand (which is an important number against Red removal.) Then, on turn four, I can be attacking with a 5/5. Cards like Sylvan Ranger, Phyrexian Rager, and Sign in Blood help me keep my hand size high while waiting to draw my Crawler. After I have one in play, the Ragers and Sign in Bloods give me plays that hurt my opponent without shrinking the Crawler. It can sometimes be hard to keep your hand size high when playing a deck with Vengevine because of the need to play our multiple creatures in one turn. This makes the Rangers and Ragers a key part of this deck's strategy.
Bonehoard is another card that's exciting in a Fauna Shaman deck. I especially like it in a Dredgevine-style deck with Hedron Crab:
[cardlist]
[Creatures]
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Hedron Crab
4 Enclave Cryptologist
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Bloodghast
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
1 AEther Adept
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
4 Vengevine
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Bonehoard
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Swamp
5 Island
5 Forest
[/Lands]
[/cardlist]
Much like my previous deck, this one is well metagamed for Blue control. With one-drops like Hedron Crab and Enclave Cryptologist that can practically win the game by themselves, it's even tougher on them. The Bonehoard is probably an even better threat than the Crawler, too. It's cheaper and more resistant to removal. In the late game, a Bonehoard can even be immediately equipped to a Bird for the win in the air.
In Game 1, I use Shamans, Crabs, and Cryptologists to quickly fill up my graveyard, making Bonehoard a big threat. After sideboarding, if my opponent is playing with lots of creatures, I can bring in Skinrenders and more Gatekeepers to help fill up my opponent's graveyard with creatures. Thanks to the resilience of Bloodghasts, I'll usually have targets to equip the Bonehoard to no matter how much removal my opponent is running.
Bonehoard is perfect example of a true cornerstone card. Every other spell in the deck is a creature, making all of them work well with Bonehoard. They're helpful in the graveyard to make the Bonehoard bonus bigger and useful in play as targets to be equipped. Even if you can't keep your outlet creatures alive to start filling up your graveyard, your outlet creatures themselves are starting to fill up your graveyard.
Continuing my theme of cornerstone cards that go well with Fauna Shaman strategies is Green Sun's Zenith. (Fauna Shaman is actually a great example of a cornerstone card!) Green Sun's Zenith is a card that saw lots of play at Pro Tour: Paris in Valakut Ramp decks.
[cardlist]
[Creatures]
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Arbor Elf
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Nest Invader
4 Leatherback Baloth
4 Vengevine
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Obstinate Baloth
4 Wolfbriar Elemental
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Eldrazi Monument
[/Spells]
[Lands]
22 Forest
[/Lands]
[/cardlist]
The key to making GSZ powerful is having some mana-ramping and some exciting creatures to search for. With 8 one-drop elves, I'll often have 3 mana on turn two, allowing me to immediately fetch a Fauna Shaman. Leatherback Baloth is an exciting three-drop to search out. Thrun and Obstinate Baloth make great creatures to search for later in the game. Thrun, the Last Troll is a great fit with Green Sun's Zenith, in part because it's a Legend. The Zenith gives you lots of access to your Legends, while allowing you to only play one copy of them.
This whole deck is about making maximum use of your mana. Not only do I have lots of powerful things to do at every point from 1 to 5 mana, but Wolfbriar Elementals give me something cool to do if I ever have more than 5 mana. The deck starts putting on pressure immediately with cheap creatures, and keeps increasing the pressure every turn. With Eldrazi Monuments at the top of the curve, the deck has an excellent finisher, especially against Valakut Ramp. Like many creature swarm decks, it's a little vulnerable to cards like Day of Judgment. I hope, though, that cards like Vengevine and Wolfbriar Elemental will allow me to power through.
Hero of Oxid Ridge is another card that saw lots of play in Paris. It made a powerful finisher for Boros and for Kuldotha Red. It's a strong play for any deck that puts lots of creatures into play before you get to 4 mana:
[cardlist]
[Creatures]
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Steel Overseer
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Hero of Oxid Ridge
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Master's Call
4 Tempered Steel
4 Galvanic Blast
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Arid Mesa
11 Plains
9 Mountain
[/Lands]
[/cardlist]
On the one hand, this deck can be good against Blue control because it's fast. On the other hand, swarm decks are vulnerable to cards like Day of Judgment and Black Sun's Zenith. This deck does have some ways to beat Day of Judgment, though. First, by killing fast. Going first, I can definitely do 20 before my opponent gets to 4 mana. Master's Call, Tempered Steel, and Hero of Oxid Ridge can all help me either play around or recover from mass removal. Creature removal doesn't get rid of Tempered Steel, and after opponents tap out to kill my creatures, I can play a Master's Call, untap and play a Hero, and they're either dead or at least right back under the gun. Even if they do manage to stabilize, Galvanic Blast can make an excellent finisher.
Obviously, these aren't the only cards in Mirrodin Besieged that can be cornerstones for a deck. There are some other possible cornerstone cards that come to mind: Neurok Commando, Phyrexian Rebirth, Shimmer Myr, Treasure Mage, Victory's Herald, White Sun's Zenith, and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas even saw some successful action in Paris. Keep in mind that despite the decks I've presented here, you can also combine more than one cornerstone card in the same deck. Green Sun's Zenith is an obvious example, because it can combine nicely with two of the other three, since it can be used to search for them. What cards do you think will be the constructed cornerstones from Mirrodin Besieged?
