Much Abrew: Tergrid Waste Not (Explorer)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Waste Not and Tergrid, God of Fright have long been some of my favorite cards to build around. The game plan of making your opponent discard a bunch of cards to steal them with Tergrid and generate a ton of Waste Not triggers is super unique and fun. However, the plan traditionally has had one massive problem: once the opponent runs out of cards, our two namesake cards—Tergrid, God of Fright and Waste Not—do nothing. The good news is that a sneaky, underrated new addition to Magic Arena from Shadows over Innistrad Remastered changes this equation: Geier Reach Sanitarium! For just three mana, we can use the land to make both players draw and discard a card, which lets us trigger our Waste Nots and potentially steal permanents with Tergrid, God of Fright every single turn, even once our opponent runs out of cards! Does Geier Reach Sanitarium mean Waste Not and Tergrid are finally good? Let's get to the video and find out on today's Much Abrew About Nothing!
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Much Abrew: Tergrid Waste Not
Discussion
- Record-wise, Tergrid Waste Not has been solid. I've been playing the deck for fun and have a 66% match-win percentage so far over a massive 35 matches! We started off at Mythic before the season reset on Arena, got bumped back down to Platinum, and have so far progressed through essentially all of Platinum with the deck!
- On one hand, the game plan of Tergrid Waste Not is pretty much the same as that of any other Waste Not deck: make the opponent discard as many cards as possible to empty their hand, generate Waste Not triggers, and maybe even steal some permanents with Tergrid, God of Fright. But as I mentioned in the intro, this plan has one big problem: once we run our opponent out of cards, it stops working because our opponent will have nothing left to discard. They can just draw and play their card each turn, and both Waste Not and Tergrid will do nothing.
- The reason we're playing Tergrid Waste Not now is that Shadows over Innistrad Remastered solved this problem with Geier Reach Sanitarium—a land that makes both players draw and discard for three total mana (counting the fact we need to tap the Sanitarium). With a Geier Reach Sanitarium on the battlefield, getting our opponent empty-handed is actually an upside. We run our opponent out of cards so they can't kill us or interact with our permanents and then activate Geier Reach Sanitarium each turn. We get the upside of looting through our deck, while our opponent will get no benefit because they'll have to discard whatever they draw immediately. More importantly, this gives us a way to trigger Waste Not every turn to make creatures or mana or draw cards. And if our opponent discards a permanent, we'll be able to steal it with Tergrid, God of Fright. (And if our opponent is empty-handed, they won't have a choice in what they discard to Geier Reach Sanitarium—they will just draw and discard the top card of their deck, meaning they won't have the option of playing around Tergrid by discarding non-permanents.)
- We've also got some additional Geier Reach Sanitarium synergies, like Asylum Visitor, which we can discard and madness into play, and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, to gain us oodles of life as we draw through our deck.
- Otherwise, our deck is basically a pile of discard and removal. Cards like Liliana of the Veil and Sheoldred's Edict are especially powerful in our deck since they are solid removal and discard spells but also have extra synergies with Waste Not and Tergrid, God of Fright. Being able to play Tergrid and then use Sheoldred's Edict to steal a creature or planeswalker for just two mana is an absurd amount of value!
- In our sideboard, we're mostly focused on graveyard hate, with Go Blank, Leyline of the Void, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. This is because one of the other drawbacks of playing a discard-based deck is that if we run into an opponent playing a graveyard strategy like Arclight Phoenix, our discard might actually be helping our opponent. In these matches, we can overload on graveyard hate to make sure we aren't accidentally powering up our opponent's deck. Just be warned that there is a bit of a nonbo between Tergrid and Leyline of the Void. If we have both on the battlefield and make our opponent discard, the card will go to exile so we can't steal it with Tergrid, God of Fright. If this happens, we can always play Tergrid's backside, Tergrid's Lantern, which is actually a surprisingly solid way to close out the game in slower matchups or once we get our opponent empty-handed.
- So, should you play Tergrid Waste Not in Explorer? I think the answer is a clear yes! The deck is competitive, as our 66% match-win percentage exemplifies, but it's also unique, fun, and hilarious. Tergrid, God of Fright is a brutal, brutal card. Casting a Thoughtseize and stealing the best permanent in the opponent's hand is an awesome feeling; plus, thanks to Geier Reach Sanitarium, the Waste Not plan is more consistent than it has ever been on Magic Arena! If you like making opponents miserable, emptying their hand, and stealing all of their permanents, give Tergrid's Waste Not a shot. The deck is super sweet!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
