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Decktalk „LockAtog“

Lately Atog Decks have become en vogue, so I’d like to grant the Old School community an Atog architecture that has some special twist: the LockAtog.

Personally I think it is the Italians who made Atog decks great again, and while we continue to see lots of Atog brews where the strategy built around our lil‘ red brownie muncher focuses on the so called „smash“ theme with Juggernauts, Su-Chi, Triskelion and a decent burn suite, we witnessed a slightly different approach from Valerio at Noobcon X where he landed Top 8 with his SerendibAtog build, tuning a traditionally mono red artifact architecture with Psi Blast, Effreets and blue power spells.

When I started thinking about an Atog theme a couple of weeks ago I was especially inspired by a good friends prison deck and his mighty and notoriously hated Winter Orb / Relic Barrier combo – a combo that could easily be played in the low mana curve Atog deck I was about to design.

The good thing about Atog decks are the diversified damage sources: artifacts, creatures and burn spells. An opponent will have difficulties handling all of them, so you attack from different angles in early game and install a late game lock to stop your opponent and buy enough time to draw the finisher, i.e. Atog or cheap burn.

Artifacts first: with the help of Moxes, Lotus and 2 Mana Vault one or two early round Black Vise can be quite common here; together with an early Ankh of Mishra those cards alone will easily eat half of your opponents life. Then it’s time for a Su-Chi before getting your Winter Orb / Relic Barrier lock in place.

Meanwhile an Atog might show up and say a frightening „hulloh!“ – of course your opponent will send him to exile or burn him, but in late game we might have one of his siblings, and when he comes… he comes big thanks to the 4 or 5 Artifacts on your side

LockAtog proved to be quite versatile against control as well as aggro decks. A decent sideboard might include REBs, Shatters, Blood Moons, Earthquakes, a Fireball and – depending on your adversary – even Howling Mines that work well with Relic Barrier too.

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Decktalk „The Rodeo Deck“

How can you balance aggressiveness and responsiveness, vehemence in killing and creativity in staying alive? How is a deck possible that is non-linear enough to be full of forward options and defensive answers?

Finding answers to these questions led to building the „Rodeo“ deck: a White & Green body that is strengthened with artifacts and a basic red burn suite – and optionally refined with black and blue power splashes.

At its very core „Rodeo“ works as White Green red mid-range deck, where you hold fast with cheap removal and build ground with a broad Mana base to bring out your midrange beaters and your opponent to his knees in the late game.

Starting with the body or core of the deck: 3 Erhnam Djinns and 3 Serra Angels form an army with a play set of mighty Su-Chi to steadily make your opponent fall. But you will have to stay alive until that army builds.

We have Sylvan Library and the tome for tuning your draw step and indispensable white removal to keep early threats at bay.

A broad mix from Duals, Fellwar Stones, Moxen and Lotus helps to develop your mana base while red burn spells harmonize the balance between defense and offense.

In recent play testing this deck earned its name „Rodeo“ for holding fast while White Weenies and Black threats flooded the early board. Red burn, white power suit and Su-Chi made those aggro horses lame and tired, and even  a ratio of 5 to 28 life points had been reversed to a late game win after Rodeo took its Angels out for a fast ride home.

Variations: For those who are not (fully) powered: You can always replace Moxen with lands, and Lotus with Mana Vault. This deck also perfectly works as a 4 color variant without the blue splash by replacing Ancestral Recall and Time Walk with another Lightning Bolt and another Swords to Plowshares. Also: for the Mana Curve it could make sense to replace 2 Fellwar Stones with Birds of Paradise.