Turtle Assassin (Standard)

[Crackdown]

I'm a little divided on what deck to bring to FNM this week. I'm still tuning my MBC deck and it's still a little weak. The Samurai deck with Damping Matrix and Ronin Warclub is a lock for Finals in our metagame, but I want to run something different.

Our FNM features lots of different types of decks, but they are all coming back with artifacts. I'm seeing lots of Chrome Mox, Vedalken Shackles, Tops and Platinum Angels along with the usual Titans in T & N.

Creatures - 25

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Humble Budoka
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Royal Assassin
2 Horobi, Death's Wail
3 Kodama of the North Tree

Spells - 13

4 Oxidize
4 Naturalize
3 Splinter
2 Ronin Warclub

Lands - 22

16 Forest
6 Swamp

I'm not really sure if Royal Assassin works here, especially since it might die once Horobi is out flexing its muscle. Also, I wonder if I'm overreacting to the amount of enchantment and artifact threat really out there. On the other hand, I've seen the damage a Jitte can do and Sword of Fire and Ice isn't far behind.

 

[jorael]

Whoa, that's a lot of artifact kill and not much creature removal. I like your idea of using Horobi!

I'd play more threads and more creature kill. Use the sideboard for all the oxidizes and splinters, is my suggestion, and use your deck to shape the idea of abusing Horobi. The deck could use some more threads perhaps...