2001)

A major theme in my Invasion Block Constructed playtesting so far has been that Black-Red is everywhere. BR decks can be built as creature-control, discard-control, beatdown, or any combination of those three. Powerful, efficient removal such as Terminate, Flametongue Kavu, and Pyre Zombie give this color combination a definite advantage over other possible combinations. At some point, then, this leads to attempts to create decks containing specific problems for the BR decks.

One of those potential nuisances for BR is the powerful white flyer, Voice of All. Since the BR critter-kill spells begin with Terminate and then generally proceed into a variety of burn spells, a Voice of All with pro-red can be a real problem. Generally, the BR deck will have some way to deal with it, either in the form of Void or Tsabo's Decree, but that doesn't mean that it isn't strong to force the BR player to have to have one of these 5-6CC answers to your flying threat.

So by beginning our deck with the Voice of All, we are definitely based in white, since the Voice has a double-white casting cost. So, what other color(s) should go into the deck? If we go to blue, we will probably be looking at UW Control featuring Voice of All, which is undoubtedly a solid choice. However, GW will allow us to assume a more aggressive posture, and gives us some great tools to use against the BR player, such as Armadillo Cloak, Wax/Wane, and Eladamri's Call.

The choice to use Armadillo Cloak is once again based on the idea that we are trying to beat BR decks. In general, I strongly subscribe to the theory that critter-enhancing enchantments are not a good idea, as they can lead to card disadvantage. However, in this case, what we don't want to happen is to get our ace-in-the-hole, the Voice of All, and have the opponent not care about it. No matter how difficult your Voice of All may be to eliminate, it doesn't win you the game if your opponent has enough creatures just to race you. This is where Armadillo Cloak comes in - it doubles the rate at which your Voice kills your opponent as well as slowing down any progress your opponent is making against your life total by 4 points per turn. In testing, the Armadillo Cloaked Voice has proven to be a game-winner versus a variety of decks, including BR, BU, GW, and GR - pretty much any deck that doesn't encourage you to make your Voices pro-white.

Our next GW gem is Wax/Wane, and this card definitely rates very highly on my scale for IBC, for several reasons. First, IBC contains very little in the way of artifacts, making the artifact half of Disenchant-type cards largely unimportant. Second, many decks in IBC are built enchantment-free, but the enchantments that are used in IBC decks are of a game-changing level, such as Teferi's Moat, Yawgmoth's Agenda, or Natural Emergence. This can leave the deckbuilder stuck in a quandary when deciding how much main-deck enchantment removal to include. Finally, as I mentioned before, once you get past Terminate, much of the removal in this format comes in the form of red burn spells such as Urza's Rage or Ghitu Fire, making an instant +2/+2 a potential way to counter removal. Roll all of these together, and you see that Wax/Wane is a versatile, mana-efficient solution to several potential problems your deck may encounter.

Another nice card GW gives us access to is Eladamri's Call, the instant-speed critter tutor. The instant-speed of this card makes the 2-mana investment a little easier for us to accept, and the benefits this card can provide make it well worth it. If Voice of All is the creature we need, the Call can fetch it for us, essentially giving us 8 copies of the important angel. However, when the situation calls for a different creature, the Call can fetch whatever we need. It even allows us to play with 1 copy of a few narrow-purpose creatures to tutor for. So far in testing, I have used 1 copy each of Crimson Acolyte, Kavu Chameleon, and Nemata, Grove Guardian, and 2 copies of Fleetfoot Panther. The Acolyte, while narrow in scope, warrants inclusion for his devastating effect on the BR decks. Having the Acolyte plus the pro-red Voice means just a single Void or Decree won't buy the BR player out of trouble, and will probably mean victory for the GW player. Kavu Chameleon is included for UW-based control decks, as it is uncounterable and can't be stopped by Teferi's Moat. It can also be made immune to black removal in the UWB control-deck builds. Nemata, Grove Guardian is an army-in-a-box, and single-handedly wins games against a variety of decks if you have enough mana in play. The only real drawback is the heavy mana-cost, which makes the 1 Nemata, 4 Eladamri's Call configuration perfect for showcasing the Grove Guardian's power. As for the Fleetfoot Panther, it is well known that the Panther gives us some neat tricks usable to save our creatures from lethal damage or provide surprise blockers. However, I feel it is much better to include Eladamri's Call and only a few Panthers rather than including 4 Panthers, due to the drawback of gating when you have no other critters to bounce.

So, we have our superstar creature in Voice of All, and a variety of interesting creatures to tutor for, but we still need some straight-up attacking and blocking beasts. We'll start our curve off with Thornscape Familiar, because it can provide mana-acceleration while attacking, as opposed to Quirion Elves which can provide acceleration or attacking, but not both at the same time. The Familiar is also stronger when we want to cast multiple spells, such as Fleetfoot Panther and Armadillo Cloak, all in the same turn. In our 3CC slot, we'll include Noble Panther, pretty much because that is as fat as it gets for 3 mana without gating. My next choice of creatures, however, has been quite controversial. I have chosen to play with Charging Troll, but no Kavu Titans or Jade Leeches. I chose Charging Troll because he can regenerate from a Void or Tsabo's Decree, as well as from burn-based removal. Additionally, he answers the question of ´´attack or hold back blockers?´´ when your opponent has Fires of Yavimaya on the table, since he doesn't have to tap to attack. This also further justifies the inclusion of Armadillo Cloak in your deck, since having an Armadillo Cloak on a blocker means your blocker can absorb the damage of more than one attacker, as well as having an increased chance of killing any creature it blocks. Charging Troll allows maximum usefulness from your Armadillo Cloak by applying it to both offense and defense.

Next, our GW deck could benefit from a bit of removal, as a little extra guarantee that we will be able to win the race. Unfortunately, our options here are fairly limited, with choices like Hobble and Shackles. If I'm going to play with a card that I'm not absolutely excited to be playing with, it had better at least be a cantrip, so I've gone with Hobble so far in testing. I honestly wasn't expecting to get much mileage from Hobble when I initially included it in my decklist, and figured that after some testing I'd be removing it and filling in the space with something I would decide I needed during testing, but I have been pleasantly surprised by Hobble's usefulness during testing. It may not be Terminate, but in this deck, it fulfills its roll quite nicely.

Finally, no deck would be complete without land. I am a little embarrassed by the childish looking mana base of 10 Forest, 10 Plains, and 4 Elfhame Palace, but what can I say? I have to use what works.

So, without further ado, here is my decklist for Call of the Armadillo, my aggro-control GW deck for IBC. It may have started out just with the intention of being a nuisance to BR, but it has since proven to be a potential contender in the IBC environment:

4:Thornscape Familiar
4:Noble Panther
3:Charging Troll
4:Voice of All
2:Fleetfoot Panther

1:Crimson Acolyte
1:Nemata, Grove Guardian
1:Kavu Chameleon

4:Armadillo Cloak
4:Hobble
4:Eladamri's Call
4:Wax/Wane

4:Elfhame Palace
10:Forest
10:Plains

As always, I welcome any questions or comments at crazy_monkey1@msn.com.

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