This deck was inspired by a single card: Didgeridoo. The challenge came as to how reliably get this card into play early in the game while being able to keep pace with competitive decks. The deck started out as "blue shell" of control and counter spell, with Trinket Mage being the creature to help find the Didgeridoo. Unfortunately, that approach didn't work too well as the deck was easily overwhelmed by many kinds of opposing decks. This deck really blossomed once green came in as it was able to bring in mana producing creatures and also splash in Worldly Tutor. The result is a deck that has elements of control, burn, creature aggro and a lot of fun.
This deck was a joint creation of Kevin Agan, Evan Hart and Philip Jankiewicz. Over the course of two years this deck was refined with the intent of making a debut at a Legacy or Vintage tournament as a surprise contender. Sadly, with many of these tournaments being suspended or no longer being scheduled it was decided to just get the deck out there for others to enjoy!
This deck is built around several principles, but the main one is the exploitation of the Didgeridoo to sneak out big Minotaur surprises and dominate the field. This deck is a mix of control, agro creatures, and direct player damage. Much use of deck thinning and acceleration from fetch lands, tutors and Trinket Mage as well as extra cards drawn each turn from Howling Mine make this a really fast deck.
The main principle of this deck is the Didgeridoo. Using this artifact’s activated ability, it allows for the placement of your minotaurs on the battlefield at instant speed. This translates into surprise blockers when being attacked, or dropping the big bulls at the end of an opponent’s turn. If you wait to drop the minotaurs until the end of a turn, this really protects your creatures as they can’t be targeted by either kill, bounce or damage spells and also keeps them out of reach of enchantments that might hinder or lock down your minotaur. A sneaky benefit – since these minotaurs are being dropped thanks to an activated ability, they cannot be hit with a counter spell. In fact, outside of cards like Rust, Stifle, Bind, there are very few cards that will be able to stop your minatour from coming on the battlefield.
Getting to the Didgeridoo is actually pretty easy. There are four of them in the deck, but there are eight other ways to get them by using Wordly Tutor and target Trinket Mage. Trinket Mage will search your library and retrieve the Didgeridoo and also serve as a creature after the retrieveal is done. You can use the Worldly Tutor to find Trinket Mage if needed. This means that for your opening hand, you have a 38% chance of getting one Didgeridoo option, 27% to get two options, and 11% to get three options. Another way of looking at this is that you have a 76% chance of getting up to three options for the Didgeridoo in your opening hand.
The Boros Battleshaper is a real heavy hitter in this deck. Normally a converted mana cost of 7, this bull can be brought in for only 3 using the Didgeridoo. Once you get two or more on the field, you can really bind up your opponent’s creatures or selectively kill off the ones you don’t like. Boros Reckoner is a great way to pivot damage back to an opponent or player. It is possible to use the Boros Reckoner to kill a much larger creature than itself as it can Reflect back any damage to it back onto the attacker or blocker. As for Fanatic of Mogis, think of this as a creature that can be a surprise Lightning Bolt, Lava Axe or something larger when it comes into play, especially when your opponent thinks they have an advantage.
As for mana, the fetch lands are great for finding the “right” mana you need to cast your spells, while also taking lands out of the library for future draws. The Mishra’s Factory will double-dip as an additional creature or as a colorless mana source. For mana ramp, use the Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise for a boost or as a cheap blocker against incoming attacks.
For control, you have a variety of options in Boomerang, Counterspell, Unsummon and Vapor Snag.
Sideboarding is really fun with this deck, as it uses a “transformative” approach to turn this from an aggo creature deck to a blue/red control/burn deck. On the second game your opponent is expecting to see a minatour rush onto the field, but instead you have pulled all the minatours out and instead swapped in a host of control, removal and damage using the cards Destructive Revelry, Natural State, Redirect, Red Elemental Blast, Blue Elemental Blast and Unsummon. Fork is an amazing card – it can be used as a Counter Spell, or it can copy a harmful spell from your opponent back to their side, or you can use it to copy any spell that can benefit you.
This deck has been a lot of fun to play. I have found it to be very competitive and very versitale against a variety of deck metas and powers.