Magic the Gathering TCG-Beatdown Decks Strategy
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Beatdown is a magic the Gathering strategy that's been part of the game since the beginning. Beatdown is basically what it sounds like, and this has been a popular deck type since 1993. The strategy of this build is to get a large creature or an army of large creatures into the battlefield and then win the game solely through attack damage. It's a huge deck type with a lot of history that began with large green and red decks. There are a lot of colors to choose from, but you're going to see beat down mostly in green, black and red. White decks has traditionally chosen creature army decks called “White Weenie” strategies. Beat down decks are a version of aggressive deck, with the goal of getting a large creature into play or several while controlling the board. Beatdown decks must plan for mana ramp spells to help them deploy their creature finisher and often deploy partial board sweepers including Pyroclasm, Earthquake and Hurricane.
Magic the Gathering TCG Beatdown Deck History
Beatdown decks most famously used the finishers from the original Alpha release including Force of Nature, Lord of the Pit, Nightmare, Shivan Dragon and other early creatures including Juzam Djinn, Erhnam Djinn and other large creatures supported by removal and protection spells for your creatures. Beatdown decks require spot removal spells like Terror, Lightning Bolt and Fireball to remove threats and use cards including Llanwar Elves, Sol Ring and Birds of Paradise to produce the threats. Beatdown decks sometimes use sneaky cards to get large creatures onto the battlefield including Sneak Attack, Animate Dead and Natural Order to fast track their creatures onto the board. Most commonly, mana ramp is used to deploy a creature finisher to the board and the finisher is supported by damage and removal spells. The weakness of a Beatdown deck is the use of spot removal-spells, board cleaners including Wrath of God and cards including Moat that can halt the finisher’s attack. This is why a strong sideboard is required that can remove these threats.
The Natural Order deck was the deck that was popularized back in the Mirage and Visions time period. Natural Order is a card that allows you to sacrifice one of your green creatures to search your library for another green creature. This enabled a lot of Beatdown decks, and at the time, Verdant Force was the chosen target of the exchange as the Beatdown deck champion. Many other players would use additional large creatures in the deck to win. During this time, a black Beatdown deck including Juzam Djinn supported by quick creatures including Fallen Askari, Black Knight, Erg Raiders and Hypnotic Specter was successful. The deck used Dark Ritual as mana ramp and was supported by boosters including Unholy Strength and Bad Moon. Some Beatdown strategies employed a few finishers with armies of smaller support creatures that is closer to aggressive deck builds. The hybrid deck described has been popularized and is more common today than strictly Beatdown decks.
Beatdown strategy decks need to overcome small creature armies, control decks with excellent spot removal and board wipers and combo decks. The Beatdown deck has the advantage of a surprise finisher that can be fielded and win the game quickly. Cards including Earthquake and Pyroclasm are some real good ways to kill off creature armies. Just like the other deck types I have showcased, Beatdown decks need extensive playtesting to avoid running out of mana ramp and becoming hand locked with an expensive creature or lands. You're going to want to find ways to gain card advantage just like any other deck and improve your tempo. Getting finisher creatures out as soon as you can is really the goal of the deck. Mana ramp including Sol Ring, Grim Monolith, Mana Vault and mana creatures while growing and anything that can sneak them out is going to be key to the deck.
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