Deck History: The problem with Aurochs
So, fun fact; The G/R Aurochs Stampede precon deck from Coldsnap was my very first deck. I've constructed and deconstructed many decks since that time, but the Aurochs deck has always stuck around in some form. Naturally I looked for ways to improve the deck as time went on. But, as I soon discovered, Aurochs just have a lot of problems that make it hard to win with them (save for against the most casual of decks). Particularly:
- Aurochs are slow to play (high mana cost)
- Aurochs are fragile (generally low p/t for their mana cost)
- Aurochs are dependent on each other (You NEED multiple Aurochs to make it work)
- There are only FOUR Aurochs in the ENTIRE GAME
Notice how all of these points work against each other. You need multiple Aurochs in play to take advantage of them, but they're fragile and die easily and take forever to get into play. Oh, and there's only 4 of them in the entire game. This is all assuming of course that your opponent is doing absolutely nothing. I did come across some cards that I tried using that I thought would help address some of these issues. Cards like
Shared Animosity
,
Dolmen Gate
,
Elvish Piper
,
Bifurcate
, and changelings, while helpful, did not make the deck much more consistent overall. It was still easy to run out of gas or lose Aurochs to removal or board wipes, or just not draw the relevant support card you needed at the relevant time.
Things weren't looking good for my Aurochs pals until one day I came across the card
Wild Pair
. At the time, I was running
Game-Trail Changeling
in my deck because he felt close enough to being an Aurochs. That's when I noticed the synergy it had with
Aurochs Herd
. Playing either creature with
Wild Pair
out would allow me to put an
Aurochs Herd
into play, allowing me to search for another copy of either card to play again next turn. At this point, the deck took a hard turn from the traditional "stuff with creatures" approach as I began to see what other combinations I could make work with
Wild Pair
. After all, I didn't really need the other Aurochs if I could get them all out with
Wild Pair
Eventually, the deck came to be in the state that it's in today. There are only 8 Aurochs cards
in the deck (6 if you don't count changelings). It may not be tribal in the traditional sense, but if smashing your opponent's face in with 50+ trample damage from Aurochs isn't considered tribal, then I don't know what is. The deck is much more consistent and flexible now with Wild Pair acting as a toolbox to fetch any creature you need. But most importantly, it's a lot of fun!
Playing the deck
To summarize: The main goal of the deck is to ramp into
Wild Pair
, then start casting creature spells to build an army of Aurochs. Notably, casting either
Game-Trail Changeling
or
Aurochs Herd
with
Wild Pair
in play will allow you to search for and play
Aurochs Herd
,allowing you to set yourself up to repeat the process next turn.
Many of the creatures in the deck are built with
Wild Pair
in mind, so it's easy to get the creatures you need. For example. Casting any 1/1 elf creature with
Wild Pair
in play can net you a
Fierce Empath
, which you can then use to tutor up an
Aurochs Herd
. On the other side, casting any 2/1 or 1/2 creature will allow you to search for
Elvish Harbinger
, who can in turn search for
Game-Trail Changeling
.
With your toolbox of wild animals, you should have an answer to most common threats. Opponent has aggressive attackers? Search up your ThornWeald Archers to buy some time. Oppressive artifact or enchantment in play?
Viridian Zealot
paves the way! There are even alternative wincons that can be searched up.
Gigantomancer
is great for pumping your Aurochs up into huge X/7 tramplers, but works just as well on your early game mana dorks, and Bull Aurochs!
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Is just a great win condition on it's own and can be easily cast in this deck. It also serves to help us against mill or keep us going in longer games if we start to run out of cards in our library.
You can see a full list of all the creature cards and how they can tutor one another in the link below
2 total P/T
- 3x Boreal Druid
- 4x Joraga Treespeaker
- 1x Fierce Empath (*)
- 1x Gigantomancer
3 total P/T
- 1x Viridian Zealot
- 2x Thornweald Archer
- 2x Elvish Harbinger (*)
- 3x Bull Aurochs
8 total P/T
- 2x Game-trail Changeling
- 3x Aurochs Herd (*)
Note: Cards with a (*) are what help you find creatures in other power/toughness divisions
Keep in mind that it's easy to cast multiple creatures a turn with Wild Pair out, so things can get out of hand quickly. It's typical to have most of your Aurochs and mana dorks out on the field in two or three turns.
What if I don't draw Wild Pair?
In the event that you don't draw into Wild Pair, you can still tutor for Aurochs with the help of
Fierce Empath
and
Elvish Harbinger
. Finding one
Aurochs Herd
will allow you to get the rest into play. Most likely though, you will have a hard time getting a good presence of Aurochs without wildpair, so you will have a better chance of winning by using the aforementioned cards to search for
Gigantomancer
and smashing face with your mana dorks/
Bull Aurochs
, or just focusing on ramping into
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
.
Other
Note: I would like to keep this as close to modern legal as possible.
Fierce Empath
is the only card not legal in modern, but it's a good fit for this deck so I'm running it. I'm also looking for a good card I can run that discards cards to give me an effect that is relevant at most points in the game, but that I can also use to discard Ulamog if I need to reshuffle my library. I'm considering Fauna Shaman, but I feel like she will be a big target for removal before I can use her reliably, unlike Fierce Empath who has an impact right away.
