Here Comes the Value Train | Brewer's Kitchen
Well, hello there! Brewer’s Kitchen here, and today we’re taking a ride on the value train all the way to it’s final station: Death.
As usual, make sure to watch the video before reading this article since seeing a deck in action is usually more insightful then just reading about it.
The Gameplan
The gameplan of the deck is to flood the board with tokens, play Junk Winder for cheap, Neoform it into a Craterhoof Behemoth, and smash face.
Some of you might be familiar with parts of this deck because this was a win-condition in The Junkwinder Massace (Watch the video here). To this day, it is still one of my favorite decks I’ve ever played for content. While revisiting the list, I noticed that we got two amazing new additions to the deck: Gala Greeters and Tireless Tracker. While the original deck had numerous different combos, we now have the pieces to solely focus on the Neo-Hoof plan and even do it as early as turn four if we’re lucky.
To make a Junk Winder or Thought Monitor cheap, we need tokens. To make Craterhoof lethal, we need creatures. So, the deck plays a bunch of creatures that accumulate token value.
Lonis, Cryptozoologist and Tireless Tracker provide a constant stream of Clue tokens, while Gala Greeters and Prosperous Innkeeper create Treasures. All of these cards synergize beautifully with Chatterfang, Squirrel General. Once it’s on the battlefield, every token we create will come with an additional 1/1 Squirrel.
These cards create an incredibly solid engine of board presence and value. Some decks might already struggle with a continuous stream of tokens, but some just wipe the board or overrun us. While the deck is very good at durdling around and accumulating value, we can switch gears at any moment and go for the kill.
Junk Winder and Thought Monitor both get their mana costs reduced by our tokens.
The Winder has affinity to tokens, easily making it cost only two mana once we get Chatterfang going. Its ability to tap down nonland permanents will shut down attackers and blockers, and usually crush a combat-based deck by itself as long as we keep creating tokens.
Thought Monitor has affinity for artifacts. While that doesn’t synergize with our Squirrels, all the clues and treasures will quickly reduce its mana cost. It draws two cards when entering the battlefield, hopefully drawing us into the last piece of the puzzle.
Neoform is the card that ties it all together. For two mana, we sacrifice a creature and put a creature from our deck that costs one more mana onto the battlefield. Even though we usually pay 1-3 mana for them, Junk Winder and Thought Monitor both have a mana value of seven. That means we can Neoform them into an eight-drop, namely Craterhoof Behemoth. It will pump all of our little dorks into powerful creatures and overrun our opponent on the spot.
Of course, all of this just works if we can actually keep our creatures. Removal and especially Boardwipes will slow us down quite a bit. Luckily, Lonis, Cryptozoologist and Tireless Tracker create constant card advantage with clues if the game gets grindy. Remember that Tireless Tracker grows when we sacrifice clues. If we play it right, we can cheese out the opponent by using Lonis’s ability to sacrifice all our clues in one fell swoop and pump the Tracker into a lethal attacker.
This deck is very focused on executing the plan, so we don’t have much flexible interaction. Chatterfang, Squirrel General can be activated with black mana from treasures to remove creatures. But besides this and tapping down permanents with Junk Winder we have to rely on the power of our deck to push through interaction and aggression. Between Gala Greeters and Prosperous Innkeeper we often have enough life gain to outheal our opponents aggression before we hit them with the Hoof.
Wrap up
Just like The Junk Winder Massacre, this deck is right up my alley. It plays some of my favorite cards in magic (Lonis, Tireless Tracker) and converts sweet token value into one devastating final blow. One day, we’ll get Academy Manufactor on Arena, which will power this style of deck up to new levels. Maybe we could even get a better eight-drop to Neoform into, but is seems unlikely that anything tops the Hoof to be honest.
If you have questions or ideas for this or any other deck, you can reach me on Twitter @Brewers_Kitchen or at brewerskitchen@mtggoldfish.com.
