Shotguns Full Of Silver, Bullets Made Of Glass

 

I get a lot of questions about Tireless Tracker when it comes to Pioneer, or like, what my wish list would be for Historic/Explorer and what would be on it. Well, now we have Tracker in Explorer, so it's not a hypothetical anymore. Tracker is at its best in a deck that is built with it in mind, which isn't to say that it needs to be a specific archetype, but more that it needs to exist at a certain part of a curve and for a deck that is geared to utilize it.

Landfall abilities necessitate having a slightly higher than normal land count, which is funny because they usually are proactive abilities, like Kazandu Mammoth or Steppe Lynx. A Boros aggro deck doesn't usually run 26 lands or whatever they did back in the original Zendikar days, but when you have stuff as powerful as Steppe Lynx and Plated Geopede, you want to get those triggers as much as possible. This isn't the hugest problem for Tireless Tracker, because if you have too many lands, then you'll also have clue tokens to spend your mana on. But in the draws that don't have Tracker, you'll find yourself getting flooded too much.

The other thing that Tracker wants is cheap spells to go with it. First of all, your ideal plan is to cast Tracker on turn four and make your fourth land drop. A one mana spell to follow up with is excellent, like say a Thoughtseize to make sure the opponent can't untap and kill it, or a Fatal Push to keep your life total high and utilize your extra card advantage. Bloodchief's Thirst and even Shivan Fire are nice, because they are solid when you're flooded or when you're tight on mana. Additionally, though, all the cards that you draw off of a Tracker cost you an additional two mana, so if you want to be able to actually cast them, you want them to be cheap. I think the other factor here is that Tracker is a pretty slow card and you need to set it up, so you want to make the board as clear as possible before landing it, kind of like a Planeswalker. It doesn't want to be forced to play defense and it doesn't attack and block especially well right out of the gates, so keeping up on tempo is really important, and then let the Tracker take over the game.

So then, we want a deck with lots of lands and lots of cheap spells, sounds like a recipe for mana flooding. You're going to want to play cards that mitigate your land flood as much as possible, like creature lands, cycling lands, and even Jegantha. I like Tenacious Underdog as a mana sink/early play, and Valki as a card that fits the program but can be a good late game topdeck.

What makes Riveteers Charm so good in a deck with Tracker is that it's a removal spell, so that's obviously good at keeping pressure off yourself, but it also excels in a deck with cheap spells and a high land count. Your best three card exile for a Charm is like, removal spell, land, threat, and if your deck is set up with Tracker in mind, then you're likely to be able to cast all of it. I think there's something good here, mixing Tracker with Charm and all kinds of cheap stuff, so that you can keep the cards flowing and out-value people while keeping your curve super low and not getting tempo'd out.

Witherbloom Command is another card that works well with high land counts that can do some work for us. Now that Elvish Mystic is in the format, more ways to pop off little guys for value seems like it's useful, and Witch's Oven is always a problem.

I've gotta say, in the first little while playing with Tracker, I have been impressed. Not floored, but it's better than I had anticipated. You have to get away from the typical Chandra/Fable/Trespasser Rakdos decks that are all over Explorer, so nothing is very set in stone yet, but I think something's there.

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Just wanted to get something down real quick about Tracker, I'll know more soon after more testing. If you're planning on trying Tracker out, those are the things I suggest. Again, not 100% sold that it's the best thing, but I think there's a re-tooling of the current Jund deck that can make it really strong. Thanks for reading.

Sitting Plush With A Royal Flush

This is the deck I crossed the finish line with this month. By finish line, I mean obtained the incredible achievement of reaching the Mythic rank in the game Magic the Gathering Arena, but the run was solid. I went 26-4 through Diamond and Platinum, so there's definitely something good going on here. If I can do that, then you can probably get the clean 30-0.

There's a lot of experimentation going on with this list as posted, so it's not clean at all. It also feels a little clunky with the amount of three drop threats compared to two drop threats, but I can't really argue with the results. If you think of this as a straight Rakdos Midrange deck with a green bonus, then so far I have to say that the splash is certainly worth it.

First is Riveteers Charm, which has been worth the splash purely by itself. Not only does it turn into a late game draw engine, but it deals with whatever the biggest problem you have is at any given time, including times when most other spells wouldn't be able to deal. Planeswalkers, Hazoret, Rhonas, stuff given Indestructible by Selfless Savior or Dauntless Bodyguard, Glorybringer, Elder Gargaroth, Hall of the Storm Giant, opposing Graveyard Trespassers. All of this stuff is tough for you to deal with, and Riveteers Charm handles it.

I think that the reason behind it being so good in this list specifically is that the cards in this deck are able to be defensive or proactive depending on the situation, and Riveteers Charm fits that role too. You get around the classic midrange "wrong half of the deck" problem by having cards that able to play multiple roles. The Act on Impulse ability might not read like an aggressive one, but in this deck you can win with life total pressure or by gaining card advantage in the late game, either one will work. Riveteers Charm translates into life total pressure by drawing you in to creatures to attack, Thoughtseizes and removal to clear their way, and lands to get up to enough mana to activate your Dens.

I also like that this is a Jund list that has the ability to play Den of the Bugbear. Hive and Lair and some of the other creatures lands are also good, but Den is just the best thing going for utility lands, and when you can play it on turn two and still curve out because the mana costs of your spells works with it, it becomes excellent. Den is at its best when you've gotten yourself out to a fast start already, so if you can cast a two drop and a three drop on curve, your Den not only helped you get there but will clean up the job your quick clock started.

Of course, what I'm really saying is that Chevill isn't in the deck anymore, but I think that's okay. Some of the stuff that Chevill is great against in Historic doesn't show up in Explorer, like Gruul and Goblins and Auras. I similarly found that Chevill didn't quite do it for me in Pioneer. That could definitely change, but as for now, I like the more aggressive slant to this deck.

The sideboard is a mess but I should talk about some of the stuff there. Similarly to Chevill, Sarulf is a card that's not present here because it's not quite exactly what we want against this meta. Instead I've got Culling Ritual in that slot to help against some of the Humans decks, where Sarulf is good but liable to get hit by a Skyclave Apparition or Brutal Cathar. No, the Golgari Anti-creature Legend that we've got here is Polukranos, and Big Luke is a card that has been really good at times in the past and is solid enough as a one-of here.

Klothys is nice to have, something that the normal Red/Black decks don't get access to. I like that it's basically a better Graveyard Trespasser in the matchups where you would want to board in extra Trespassers, either to dodge removal when you're trying to be aggressive or to hit their graveyard consistently. I've never been a fan of Scavenging Ooze as a sideboard card, for what it's worth. Also, we just don't have enough green mana to utilize it fully.

I also should mention the Elder Gargaroths. I like them, they seem like they might be the best thing to have in that spot, but I'm not a hundred percent sold and could be easily swayed one way or the other. What I like about it is how well it plays against the removal you're likely to see out of Red/Black, which is usually Fatal Push, Abrade, Chandra, Stomp, or Glorybringer. It beats up on Chandra and Glorybringer pretty nicely, so it beats their best stuff and is hard to stop. Sounds great, but it might not be the best against the field at large. I enjoy the stop sign it represents against Red decks, but it's also a lot of mana to invest into a Brutal Cathar target or Absorb target. Angrath, Glorybringer, maybe even Doom Whisperer could all work as a midrange trump, and possibly the right thing to do is continue up the mana curve and try Liliana Dreadhorde General or Garruk Cursed Huntsman. The next card on my list to test in that slot is actually Workshop Warchief, of all things, which I'm hoping works out because it's a Rhino in suspenders holding a big gold wrench. Gargaroth is really only ever as good as you can expect it to live, so if you're expecting it to die, play something else, because lots of stuff out there actually is great at dying.

Again, the deck has been constantly in flux, but there's definitely something going on here that's working. The good news is that lots of stuff can slot in here if the metagame calls for it and it'll fit right in, like Witherbloom Command, more Kroxa, a higher curve with five drops in the main, a lower curve with more Underdogs, whatever feels right. Riveteers Charm, a solid mana base, and high-rate versatile threats seems to be a recipe for success.

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That's about it for today. Wanted to get something down since it's been a while, but I have been managing to find a little time to stream on twitch most weekends if you're interested. Explorer seems to be a lot like Pioneer but without some of the stuff that makes Pioneer annoying, like Lotus Field combo and Treasure Cruise in Phoenix, so it's been a lot of fun, give it a try if you have a chance. Thanks for reading.