Ever since I read the week of articles about combo engines on magicthegathering.com I was thinking of a way to abuse some combo in Type 2 (besides Wake, of course). It came to me when I read about a combo involving Nantuko Tracer, Verdant Succession, and Phyrexian Altar. The combo is very simple: have all three in play, sacrifice Nantuko Tracer to Phyrexian Altar to gain one mana of any choice, use Verdant Succession to go get another Nantuko Tracer from your library and put it into play, using its ability to put the first Nantuko Tracer on the bottom of your library - and you are back in the same exact position, but with one mana of any color floating. Repeat for as much mana as you like.

The only problem with this combo is that Phyrexian Altar rotated out with the rest of Invasion Block. So I began the hunt for the card to make this combo work. My first thoughts go to Sadistic Hypnotist from Torment - but the only reward for going near-infinite with him is my opponent's lack of a hand, and as this is a slow combo that would not matter much. Looking through my random Onslaught commons and uncommons I found the answer: Nantuko Husk. It's fast, cheap, and can abuse the infinite powers of Verdant Succession.

So I had my combo: Nantuko Husk, Nantuko Tracer, and Verdant Succession. Now all I needed was the rest of the deck. So far it has to be B/G, and I don't want to have to splash Blue to make it a control deck... So I will stick to B/G and make it an aggro deck with the combo built in. The basics for any aggro Black or Green deck are Birds of Paradise, Smother, and Wild Mongrel. Since this can't be a control deck, I needed some of what green is best at: Undercosted powerhouse creatures. I decided to play Phantom Centaur and Basking Rootwalla, and a pair of Llanowar Elves for some acceleration.

Here is the decklist so far:

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Nantuko Husk
4 Nantuko Tracer
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Phantom Centaur
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Verdant Succession
4 Smother

34 Cards so far, so 4-5 more non-lands. The problem with this combo is Nantuko Husk can be blocked for many turns after the combo goes off. In Black or Green, I could only come up with two efficient ways to get around this problem: Brawn or Dirge of Dread. While Brawn provides synergy with Verdant Succession, I felt that Dirge of Dread was more effective because it doesn't require the combo to break through for the win. Three of these should be enough in a deck. If the game goes late, you will run out of good targets with Verdant Succession - so it was either add in Krosan Reclamation or Dwell on the Past to refill the combo. As Krosan Reclamation provides a better matchup against U/G, I decided to add two of them in the maindeck.

That's thirty-nine cards, so it leaves us twenty-one lands. (Which seems way, way light for a deck that's built around on a five-mana enchantment; I'd go to twenty-three or twenty-four in a heartbeat to avoid mana screw, dropping perhaps a Verdant Succession and a Centaur - The Ferrett) The deck is mostly green, so a twelve Forest/nine Swamp split seems acceptable - but with the new fetchlands, I decided to add two fetch lands of each color.

The sideboard is more interesting. This deck hates to play against the Astral Slide deck - so I put in the silver bullet, Megrim, as well as Naturalize, as it is effective against Wake and Mono-Black Control. With the new environment, Engineered Plague is very effective - especially against Sligh and Squirrel Opposition (and even against U/G, depending on their build). For the last four slots in the sideboard I had to go with the most classic black removal spell: Duress.

Tuna Fish Sandwich!
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Phantom Centaur
4 Basking Rootwalla
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Nantuko Tracer
4 Nantuko Husk
3 Dirge of Dread
2 Krosan Reclamation
4 Smother
4 Verdant Succession
10 Forest
7 Swamp
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
4 Engineered Plague
4 Duress
4 Naturalize
3 Megrim

To explain the strange name, well... My friend dared me to make a deck and post it with the name of Tuna Fish. Don't ask.

Details in playing the deck:

1) Avoid dropping Verdant Succession except when it's absolutely necessary, because there are no other enchantments and they will sideboard enchantment removal if they see it. (This doesn't apply against Mono Black Control and most builds of Sligh, of course, because they don't pack enchantment removal.)
2) Hold off on playing Krosan Reclamation on yourself until you have to make a decision on a card to put into play with Succession.
3) Wild Mongrel is green when it hits the graveyard as soon as it hits, no matter what color you changed it into beforehand.
4) Multiple copies of Verdant Succession are not redundant, so play as many as you want.

The Matchups:

Wake: Dropping an early Verdant Succession and Krosan Reclamationing the Moment's Peace will easily win the game.

Sideboard: +4 Naturalize +4 Duress
-3 Dirge of Dread -4 Smother -1 Llanowar Elves.

The ideal game does not go past turn 6, because if Wake gets a normal draw it cannot be stopped.

Astro-Glide: Unless this deck gets an amazing draw and they get a terrible draw, there is no way for you to win game one.

Sideboard: +4 Naturalize +3 Megrim +4 Duress
-3 Dirge of Dread -4 Smother -2 Llanowar Elves -2 Krosan Reclamation.

After sideboarding, however, it generally wrecks the Astral Slide combo by packing both sideboard hate in and keeping the heavy beats in.

U/G Madness: This is a big pain - because if they're not a scrub, they will realize that they can use Verdant Succession as well. Krosan Reclamation can help get around Wonder but this is about the hardest match-up out there.

Sideboard: +4 Engineered Plague, -4 Basking Rootwalla.

This may sound strange, siding out a good creature - but most of the time, you'll name Merfolk or Lizard with Engineered Plague, and the latter will kill your own Rootwallas.

Sligh: Verdant Succession will completely own this match up, creating many chump blockers as fast as possible will help soak up damage so as not to get burned out in the late game.

Sideboard: +4 Engineered Plague, -2 Krosan Reclamation -2 Llanowar Elves.

Elves can get burned out too easily and Krosan Reclamation is basically a dead card here so in come the Plagues. The first one always names Cats, and the second and third name Goblins.

Mono-Black Control: Yet again, Verdant Succession will rule the day if it is dropped and will spell"game over" unless they can Corrupt for twenty.

Sideboard: +2 Naturalize +4 Duress, -2 Krosan Reclamation -3 Dirge of Dread -1 Llanowar Elves.

This should be more than enough to take down any conventional Mono Black deck.

If you decide to play this deck, you will have a lot of fun going infinite with a 2/2, a 2/1, and an overcosted enchantment - none of which are Constructed worthy cards. Just remember never to gloat when you win; wait until they are almost out of hearing range then gloat to your friends.

If you like my ideas, message me on AIM, my screen name is aitch1217 - or contact me on Yahoo Messenger, where my screen name is also aitch1217.

-Michael Aitchison