1000 Tix Challenge - part 5

There was nothing going on here for some time, 'cause I've taken a two week break from Magic. Just before the break I've been playing around with Argentum Quest deck. I'll post an example deck for the sake of it, but I'm sure you're familiar with it.

Argentum Quest by Smang, 3-1 in Standard Daily #1783864 on 11/19/2010

Main Deck

22 Plains

4 Glint Hawk

4 Kor Duelist

3 Kor Outfitter

4 Kor Skyfisher

4 Memnite

4 Ornithopter

4 Squadron Hawk

3 Stoneforge Mystic

2 Argentum Armor

4 Quest for the Holy Relic

2 Sword of Body and Mind

Sideboard

4 Devout Lightcaster

4 Kor Firewalker

3 Leonin Arbiter

4 Revoke Existence

The main plan is to get an early Quest for the Holy Relic followed by a swarm of creatures, which leads to Argentum Armor entering play on turn 3. This is all nice, but I hate the deck's plan B - attacking with dorks and bears is not that great, unless your opponent folds to Sword of Body and Mind. I've been trying to find a solid plan B before the break by adding what's left of Soul Sisters deck. Turns out that while Ajani's Pridemate is still Tarmogoyf even without Soul Warden, Serra Ascendant is no longer the 1-mana Baneslayer Angel. The deck wasn't good enough for my tastes.

After I came back to MtGO I've stumbled upon an article by Josh Silvestri posted on Channel Fireball. The addition of Vengevine seemed like a great idea - after all, both Vengevine and Quest for the Holy Relic require the same conditions to activate. I bought some angry vines and tested the deck in the 2-man queues. While I liked the deck in general, there were some cards that I felt didn't fit. While Molten-Tail Masticore is a great card, it was too slow for my tasted - 4 4-drop spots were already taken by VV, and the deck wasn't aggressive enough. With Masticores gone, the deck didn't need that much mana - and that invalidated the usage of Birds of Paradise. What did I put in? Well, look at the list below:

Main deck

5 Forest

8 Plains

4 Razorverge Thicket

4 Sunpetal Grove

2 Stirring Wildwood

4 Memnite

4 Ornithopter

4 Glint Hawk

4 Fauna Shaman

4 Squadron Hawk

3 Kor Skyfisher

1 Kor Outfitter

1 Stoneforge Mystic

4 Vengevine

4 Quest for the Holy Relic

2 Argentum Armor

1 Sword of Body and Mind

1 Basilisk Collar

Sideboard

1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

3 Devout Lightcaster

4 Kor Firewalker

4 Obstinate Baloth

3 Kor Sanctifiers

This deck has all the things you need to make Quest work - 8 0-drops, Glint Hawks, Squadron Hawks and Kor Skyfishers. This makes it nearly as good at getting Argentum Armor on the battlefield as the original deck (nearly - sometimes you won't have any white mana in your opening hand), while plan B is vastly better. The sideboard is not set in stone - feel free to suggest changes. I recommend this deck to anyone who wants to play aggro with a combo twist.

And this leads us to the point of this post: my new Buy recommendation. I've waited with buying this card long enough, but I think that's it:

I don't think that anyone's surprised. In my opinion Fauna Shaman has been underpriced for a long time. It's an awesome card and it's available for a mere 2.25 tix. The deck I've described is already seeing 3-1 results with Birds in it, and I think that the birdless version is superior.

You may also notice that I've sold some Bala Ged Thieves - that was before my break, and I got 3 tix from 16 Thieves. I should be able to sell the rest for 2 tix now, which would be 1 ticket of profit. Hardly worth the time spent, but things like this happen.

Since this post is already quite long by my standards, I'll end it here. Stay tuned for a little summary of my past recommendations soon.