This week I am going to be reviewing a brew by a recent MTGO opponent. Due to budget and personal flavor I am usually seen around the tournament practice room representing some green variant of 12-Post. This last week I came across one of the sweetest brews that I have ever seen in Tireless Assault by Tyler Anderson.
This deck features an old favorite of mine. It features Doran, the Siege Tower alongside some sweet ways to use that defender’s advantage: Tireless Tribe and Assault Formation. I was killed on turn three in one of the games, but after talking with the pilot I learned that it can produce a turn two kill as well. After much discussion I had decided that I had to share this with the MTG community and with Tyler’s permission I present you all with this decklist of his.
Tireless Assault
I know, right? The deck is super sweet and it uses so many of my favorite cards throughout my magic-playing career. I really enjoyed Doran, the Siege Tower in Modern, Glissa, the Traitor was a huge part of my early Legacy career, and Unearth will always hold a special place in my heart due to its essential role in Astral Slide. This not being a brew of mine I am going to discuss some key points of the deck, rather than my usual “Primer” type of set up.
Quick Kills
The deck can kill as early as turn two and only requires two or three specific cards to do so.
On the play we simply need one land, a Tireless Tribe, a Doran, the Siege Tower and an Unearth. Turn one starting with either a Scrubland or a fetchland to find one and then cast a Tireless Tribe. Leaving five cards in hand. On turn two we draw up to six cards and discard a Doran, the Siege Tower alongside four other cards, Unearth the Doran and then attack for twenty one damage. Granted this line of play is very high risk-high reward but it is certainly a line to consider against unfair decks like BR Reanimator or Storm which can otherwise kill us very quickly.
On the draw, the kill is a bit more stable in that we not only have extra cards to discard, but we get to play our second land and cast an Assault Formation. If there are no creatures in the way we can just go nuts and punch for lethal. If there is a creature in the way we can potentially take a similar line to the “On the play” kill and use a Swords to Plowshares to clear the way and hopefully close out the game.
General Synergies
Although we have discussed the quick kill potential that this deck can manage, the long game also matters. Force of Will, Swords to Plowshares, and now Fatal Push can slow us down a bit and force us into the long game. Doran, the Siege Tower is essentially a 5/5 creature which can match up against any opponent extremely well in the early game and hit hard later to close the game out. Doran also makes Tireless Tribe a very difficult creature to get into combat with as long as you have cards in hand. Our defenders like Wall of Roots and Wall of Blossoms also become those rare punching back kind of walls. Good luck running into them!
One of my favorite synergies in the deck (aside from the Doran/Assault Formation abilities) is the synergy of the creatures with Ensnaring Bridge. When you are in the fair match up I wish your opponent good luck at pushing damage through while you are setting up for a kill. If they can push damage under a bridge, chances are you are about to hit a very hard wall and fail worse than Wile E Coyote.
Later the game goes for this deck, generally the better it goes. Chances of a one-hit kill are very good and when the grind is real, Painful Truths and Life from the Loam are here to maximize card advantage and throw this deck far ahead of the competition. Wasteland-Loam lock is definitely a real thing that some decks just lose to.
Sideboard
The sideboard increases hate bears and Faerie Macabre in order to fight fast combo and ensure we get in a position where we can win. Against Miracles we already have a great match up, but we can increase our Gaddock Teeg count to three copies each to fight Terminus and with Abrupt Decay in the main we aren’t worried about getting locked out by Counterbalance. It is possible that if you see a lot of graveyard strategies you may want to have a few Leyline of the Void in your sideboard you can also support a few Leyline of Sanctity if Burn is a nuisance in your local meta.
Enlightened Tutor and an alternate win condition like Leyline of the Void/Helm of Obedience could even be an option if you are against a removal heavy opponent. Dread of Night is a decent option against Death and Taxes if you find it to be a struggle, though this deck has a pretty resilient combo compared to what Death and Taxes wants to do.
I want to dedicate a bit of this section to Glissa, the Traitor. There are many sideboard options that we could go with using Glissa if we chose to. Executioner’s Capsule for creature heavy match ups, Nihil Spellbomb for graveyard based strategies or Engineered Explosives if we need sweeper effects against decks like Death and Taxes, Empty the Warrens or Monastery Mentor. Glissa is a card I build around and ran for a long time when I first entered Legacy and having her in the board gives so many great options. The first strike and deathtouch doesn’t hurt in combat either.
Initial Thoughts
Other options that Tyler has tried and may work better for other pilots/in other metas are as follows.
Tree of Redemption—This can be a thirteen power attacker while being able to “reset” your life total when things get tough. You could also try a Tree of Perdition to knock your opponent’s life total down from twenty to make a kill easier.
Wall of Blood—This may be more for a suicide black approach for the deck, but it can certainly combo well with Tree of Redemption for an explosive turn.
Reanimate—Cheap and efficient way to cheat Doran into play, can also be used against an opponent who might get greedy using a Faithless Looting to set up for an early Griselbrand. I’ll take that, thank you!
Cabal Therapy—A very cheap and easy way to disrupt our opponent. Redundant Tireless Tribes, mana dorks or Treefolk Harbinger can be used for flashback to really tear apart the hands and dreams of our opponents.
I was completely enthralled by this deck when I first came across it and I will likely be sleeving it up in paper soon. For any of you non-blue or Abzan players out there I seriously suggest that you give this deck a chance and try it out. If you see this deck piloted by Tyzer on MTGO be sure to give a shout out and enjoy the match, no matter how good or bad it is for you! Just remember to always have fun and never be afraid of trying something new, it works more often than you would believe.
Happy brewing to each and every one of you. If anyone has an idea for a brew that they would like to see, I will gladly take requests and challenges on twitter. 🙂
Aaron Gazzaniga works part time at a game store and in his off time has been an avid magic player/brewer since 2003. Having begun in Odyssey Standard Block and always favoring control and prison style decks, we come to this moment in time where Aaron finally gets to talk about and share his ideas. If you want to contact Aaron tweet @aarongazzaniga