Recently I decided I wanted to start playing Magic: the Gathering Online. I realized that the only way to get better at the game is by playing, and the best way to do that is to be able to play it anytime, anywhere. Of course, that means I needed to invest into Magic Online and that hurts. You look at the prices right now and you see Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy at $70, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar at $23, and fetch lands between $8 to $10. For a poor college kid like me, it’s ridiculous to have a digital copy of a deck and a paper copy of the deck, especially at those prices. So I decided to invest in a cheap, decent standard deck for my first go at Magic Online. Introducing…
BR Devoid Aggro
| Creatures (27) 4 Dominator Drone 4 Dust Stalker 4 Endless One 4 Forerunner of Slaughter 4 Sludge Crawler 4 Vile Aggregate 3 Wasteland Strangler Spells (11) 1 Complete Disregard 1 Exquisite Firecraft 4 Ghostfire Blade 1 Ultimate Price 4 Wild Slash | Lands (22) 3 Blighted Gorge 4 Bloodfell Caves 7 Mountain 2 Nomad Outpost 6 Swamp Sideboard (15) 1 Complete Disregard 1 Duress 2 Outpost Siege 2 Roast 2 Self-Inflicted Wound 4 Transgress the Mind 2 Ultimate Price 1 Wasteland Strangler |
On paper, it just looks like a draft deck, and that’s pretty accurate, but it has a lot of synergies. And for $14, it is a cheap, easy way to start testing Standard and getting used to the metagame online. With the first Standard league I played, I went 3-2 and I find that very respectable for any deck, not just this one. So, if you want a deck where you can have fun, learn the metagame, and get practice with the MTGO interface then this is one that could help you out.
The Main Deck
Looking at this deck, you probably don’t know what some of these cards are. You probably haven’t even drafted them in Battle for Zendikar limited, so I thought that I would go over some of the key cards that make this deck work.
Dust Stalker
Dust Stalker is effectively our Siege Rhino. The fact that he has haste is super important in the deck because of the plan of attack we have—kill them as fast as possible. He also has a pseudo-dash ability which can come in handy post-wrath very often because it can blank their sorcery speed removal.
Forerunner of Slaughter
Forerunner of Slaughter is one of the best cards in this deck. He has good stats as a 3/2 for two and he can give all of our guys haste! This is super relevant for this deck.
Sludge Crawler
This guy is probably the worst card in the deck, but fills an important role. Sludge Crawler is a solid one-drop but is only a 1/1. He does have ingest, which is important because it feeds our Wasteland Strangler, and is able to pump himself up but still is the most lackluster card in the deck.
Vile Aggregate
This is my absolute favorite card in the deck—he is a powerhouse here. He has so many relevant abilities—trample being the main one. Vile Aggregate can easily become a 5/5 with how many colorless creatures we run, and he can hold a Ghostfire Blade really well. He is a tank and by far one of the most important creatures we have.
Wasteland Strangler
Wasteland Strangler is removal on a body. Yes, it takes a little bit to set up, but the value you get off of him is amazing if they have any card in exile. This includes ingested and delve cards which makes his ability a lot easier to become active that I initially thought. He also is a 3/2 which, in fact, is quite relevant.
One option that may be a little more expensive would be a couple copies of Hangarback Walker. One thing this deck needs is a way to be resilient against wrath effects and Hangarback is the best card to do this, especially in the colorless deck. After all, Hangarback Walker is the best eldrazi!
Sideboard
Even if we are looking at a more budget-friendly option to Magic Online, these are very strong sideboard cards that we see very often in the Standard metagame. Since the deck is very creature heavy, we want to make sure we have sideboard cards for the creatures out deck can’t bea—the big ones.
Roast
One of the things we want to be prepared for is Siege Rhino decks and Roast is a perfect answer for those creatures that are larger than our little devoid eldrazi.
Self-Inflicted Wound
This is another helpful card when it comes to the Abzan matchup and obviously Self-Inflicted Wound also has some utility against the GW Megamorph deck as well.
Ultimate Price
Ultimate Price is versatile and that is what I love about it. Having more of this card helps us against decks like the Atarka Red, R/G Landfall, and GW Megamorph.
Complete Disregard
This deck doesn’t play white, which means we don’t get access to Silkwrap. Instead, we get to run Complete Disregard which is better in its own ways. It can permanently exile cards like Deathmist Raptor while also giving us more access to instant speed removal.
Wasteland Strangler
Four copies of this card in the main is a little much, but I think the fourth does, in fact, belong somewhere in the 75. Not only does it have a decent body as a 3/2 but sometimes you need that extra -3/-3 to get you places.
Transgress the Mind
This card is one of my favorite cards out there in Standard. It is one of my favorite answers to any control deck and it is strong against a lot of decks in the metagame included cards like Abzan, Dark Jeskai, and the RG Eldrazi deck.
Outpost Siege
Outpost Siege is another great card against the grinding and control decks—we have a lot of bad cards against them and it is essential to have tools in our arsenal to combat these decks.
Duress
Duress is effectively a “fifth” copy of Transgress the Mind in this deck. Like I said before, a lot of our cards are dead against the control decks and we need to make sure we have a better game plan against them—especially if they are running cards like Languish, Crux of Fate, Radiant Flames, or any other sweeper that can hit this deck hard.
Conclusion
I have to say, I’ve had a great time playing this deck on Magic Online and over the next few weeks, I will be streaming at www.twitch.tv/kintreespirit for more fun with BR Devoid Aggro and will have a comprehensive guide soon! I am always open to answering questions there or on my twitter, @kintreespirit.
Pick up your copy on MTGO for $14 on Magic Online or $40 for your next FNM!
Lexie Mettler is a Level 2 judge from Fort Wayne, Indiana. By day she is a student, by night she streams MTGO and practices for tournaments all over the Midwest