I’m almost certainly going to be playing a Gifts deck in the current PTQ San Juan Extended season, but in thinking about other possible archetypes, I’ve spent some time thinking about Extended porting of either the Team America Legacy deck or the old Standard TarmoRack deck.
I’m not sure if this deck can actually work out against the current Extended metagame, but I’ve gone through several iterations on it and included the most likely one to date in the extended entry.
Click through for deck list and commentary.
PoxStalker
11 Creatures: |
4× Tarmogoyf |
4× Golgari Brownscale |
3× Tombstalker |
25 Spells: |
3× Raven’s Crime |
4× Thoughtseize |
4× The Rack |
4× Smallpox |
2× Life from the Loam |
2× Umezawa’s Jitte |
4× Putrefy |
2× Damnation |
24 Land: |
2× Ghost Quarter |
2× Misty Rainforest |
2× Marsh Flats |
4× Verdant Catacombs |
4× Overgrown Tomb |
2× Twilight Mire |
3× Swamp |
3× Forest |
2× Treetop Village |
15 Sideboard: |
4× Extirpate |
Raven’s Crime |
2× Life from the Loam |
4× Kitchen Finks |
4× Ravenous Trap |
The basic concept behind this deck is to aggressively empty the opponent’s hand while beating them about the face with Tarmogoyfs and Tombstalkers. First, some comments on a few of the maindeck cards:
Tombstalker – Tombstalker is a great card in many ways in Extended, as it evades Engineered Explosives and Vedalken Shackles. You do need to beware both Into the Roil and Remand, however, as you can end up with a Tombstalker back in your hand and a disappointingly empty graveyard. You also need to be careful about how you empty your graveyard, as you don’t want to accidentally unpower your Tarmogoyfs or remove the ability to Retrace or Loam, if at all possible.
Golgari Brownscale – Pitch this to Smallpox. Dredge back for life. Profit.
Raven’s Crime – This is super-powerful with Life from the Loam, but is most relevant in combo matchups, which is why the fourth Crime and the two backup Loams live in the sideboard. In those matchups, however, you should be willing to throw away a lot of land to clear someone’s hand with Crimes.
Smallpox – See the Brownscale, above. Make sure you don’t accidentally Smallpox yourself out of appropriate mana.
Here are some sideboarding plans:
Versus Scapeshift
+4 Extirpate
+1 Raven’s Crime
+2 Life from the Loam
-1 Umezawa’s Jitte
-4 Putrefy
-2 Damnation
Versus Zoo
+4 Kitchen Finks
-3 Raven’s Crime
-1 Life from the Loam
Versus Thopter Foundry
+4 Extirpate
+1 Raven’s Crime
+2 Life from the Loam
-3 Thoughtseize
-2 Umezawa’s Jitte
-2 Damnation
Overall, I haven’t tested this deck a lot, and I don’t expect to play it in a PTQ, but it’s a great deal of fun, and I expect I’ll tinker with it going into the future.