Survival Survival Survival Survival

By Mike Flores

Michael Flores is the author of Deckade and The Official Miser's Guide; the designer of numerous State, Regional, Grand Prix, National, and Pro Tour–winning decks; and the onetime editor-in-chief of The Magic Dojo. He'd claim allegiance to Dimir (if such a Guild existed)… but instead will just shrug "Simic."

A few months ago I got to preview a little two-drop by the name of Fauna Shaman, a bang-up creature quite reminiscent of a little two-mana enchantment by the name of Survival of the Fittest; I called the preview article "Survival" for obvious reasons. Well this article is four times that article's, you know ... title.

So what inspired this unusual naming?

It was the results of the Star City Games Legacy Open in Nashville, TN a couple of weeks back; I was actually really enamored of the Legacy results this time and wanted to write about the decks last week ... But "How to Think About Magic" happened instead.

I rarely pay close attention to the Star City Legacy results because Legacy only has Grand Prix or other Premier Event support a couple of times per year, but this time I just couldn't help myself. In this Top 8 there were four Survival of the Fittest decks. All different ... and some of them colossally cool!

Let's see what evolution is bringing us:

Jessie Butler's Green-White Survival

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (29)

2 Basking Rootwalla 1 Dauntless Escort 4 Knight of the Reliquary 4 Mother of Runes 4 Noble Hierarch 3 Qasali Pridemage 1 Stoneforge Mystic 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Vengevine 1 Wonder 1 Gaddock Teeg

Instant (4)

4 Swords to Plowshares

Artifact (3)

1 Sword of Fire and Ice 2 Umezawa's Jitte

Enchantment (4)

4 Survival of the Fittest

Land (20)

3 Forest 1 Plains 3 Horizon Canopy 4 Savannah 1 Tropical Island 4 Wasteland 4 Windswept Heath

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

2 Gaddock Teeg 1 Umezawa's Jitte 1 Aven Mindcensor 3 Faerie Macabre 2 Choke 2 Krosan Grip 2 Path to Exile 2 Tectonic Edge

Deal Another Hand

Jessie Butler's tournament winner is probably the most straightforward of the four. We have certainly seen straightforward Survival of the Fittest aggro decks in Legacy in the past, but Jessie's is even more simple and easy to follow! This is literally a stack of good green and white creatures, a little removal, and three pieces of Equipment—all laced together with Survival of the Fittest.

1 Stoneforge Mystic: In this deck, you can use Survival of the Fittest to find Stoneforge Mystic, kind of like how you use Fauna Shaman to find Stoneforge Mystic in a Standard deck. Jessie has his pick of Sword of Fire and Ice or one of two copies of Umezawa's JItte (one in the board!) in this deck. The right Equipment can, of course, make even the most humble one-drop into a one-creature army ... and the classics are some good Equipment.

2 Basking Rootwalla, 4 Vengevine: One of the baseline strategies for this deck is to dump a ton of Vengevines into the graveyard, then use the Basking Rootwallas to get them back for free. A handful of green mana will transform an otherwise empty battlefield into a slaughterhouse between Survival of the Fittest and these six creatures; no, you don't have to go all-out if you don't want to.

1 Wonder: Because that Tropical Island is really going to ruin somebody's day.

1 Aven Mindcensor: Because this particular singleton, in a deck based around searching through and shuffling your library, is comical. And might just prove effective against decks that need to search through and shuffle their libraries for basic operation.

3 Faerie Macabre: This is a pretty cool sideboard card in a Survival of the Fittest deck. For essentially you can exile up to two cards from the opponent's graveyard. It costs you to search your library for the Faerie Macabre (ideally pitching a Vengevine), but at that point, you can discard at will (no incremental mana cost).

What did Butler beat in the finals? Another Survival deck!

Zach Strait's Green-Blue Survival

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (23)

1 Memnite 3 Aquamoeba 4 Basking Rootwalla 4 Noble Hierarch 3 Trygon Predator 4 Vengevine 3 Wild Mongrel 1 Wonder

Instant (9)

2 Daze 4 Force of Will 3 Stifle

Artifact (3)

3 Umezawa's Jitte

Enchantment (4)

4 Survival of the Fittest

Land (21)

3 Forest 1 Island 1 Flooded Strand 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Tropical Island 1 Verdant Catacombs 4 Wasteland 2 Windswept Heath 1 Gaea's Cradle

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

3 Ratchet Bomb 3 Faerie Macabre 3 Mind Harness 2 Krosan Grip 3 Spell Pierce 1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress

Deal Another Hand

Zach Strait's green-blue deck is probably more recognizable to most readers as the Legacy beatdown Survival of the Fittest deck. This strategy has its roots in the Odyssey Block, when Wild Mongrel was discarding Basking Rootwalla and Wonder ... But co-mingled with Survival of the Fittest in a way only Legacy can accomplish.

As with Jessie Butler's deck, we have a Basking Rootwalla + Vengevine engine. But unlike Jessie's deck, we have the full compliment of Basking Rootwallas, and even Memnite, as another free creature to help set up Vengevine (not unlike Trinket Mage + Memnite in Standard). The full four Basking Rootwallas makes more sense in this deck, as with Aquamoeba and Wild Mongrel, they get more action than they would in the Green-White Survival of the Fittest variation.

Speaking of which ...

3 Aquamoeba, 3 Wild Mongrel:That isn't right, is it?

When was the last time you saw that?

Four Wild Mongrel is the default before we, at least historically, have seen respect for Aquamoeba or other madness outlet creatures.

So what gives? Why promote Aquamoeba to three copies when Wild Mongrel is only at three copies?

The simple answer? Aquamoeba is blue. You need blue cards to be able to discard Force of Will in the first couple of turns. Force of Will, and to a lesser extend the other countermagic in this deck, allow for meaningful interaction with combo decks.

4 Noble Hierarch, 3 Trygon Predator: Noble Hierarch is just the best mana acceleration creature in this kind of a deck. It's a one-drop that produces both of the colors that the deck needs. But unlike Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch can actually contribute some damage (and in multiples lots of damage), but the flying is less relevant because we have Wonder.

First turn Noble Hierarch is of course the first step to second turn Trygon Predator. Trygon Predator is an awesome card in a format where Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top are some of the key cards, along with Æther Vial, countless affinity artifacts (allegedly) ... and of course, the topic of today's article, enchantment Survival of the Fittest. Trygon Predator is kind of like the angry, raging warmonger version of Ophidian.

You'll notice that both of the Survival of the Fittest decks we have looked at so far play Umezawa's Jitte; in fact, despite the strength of many of the cards in these decks, they rely heavily on Umezawa's Jitte for punch and creature elimination. Trygon Predator can tie up an Umezawa's Jitte very well. With two counters on it, a Umezawa's Jitte is not "big" enough to take out a Predator, but both counters per turn (assuming the opponent can keep putting counters on it) are required to keep the Predator from eating the Umezawa's Jitte to death.

1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress: This Odyssey Legend is just a great one-of bullet in a strategy that can find any creature in the deck at will. Not quite a complete lockdown against a deck like Merfolk (they still have Æther Vial to get around Llawan, Cephalid Empress), it is still a tremendous threat that can really help control the tempo of a game.

Question Marks

One thing you probably noticed moving from the Green-White to the Green-Blue Survival of the Fittest decks is the lack of a lot of staple-type stuff. For example, the green-white version played Swords to Plowshares whereas Strait's green-blue deck has precious little on-battlefield creature control.

At an even more basic level, Butler played Tarmogoyf—basically the Cadillac of offensive two-drops; the green-blue deck? Not so much.

How about this one: The Green-Blue Survival of the Fittest deck doesn't play Brainstorm. If it were up to me I would try to find a spot to play Brainstorm, because not only does it improve your opening hands (greater chance of drawing Survival of the Fiittest, plus the ability to hide and shuffle away excess copies), but it serves every much as the go-to for Force of Will companion in an otherwise blue-thin deck as Aquamoeba.

Adam Cai's Retainer Survival

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (30)

2 Basking Rootwalla 3 Fauna Shaman 4 Knight of the Reliquary 1 Loyal Retainers 4 Mother of Runes 4 Noble Hierarch 3 Qasali Pridemage 1 Stoneforge Mystic 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Vengevine 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria