by Bardo, Ridiculous Hat and Mad Zur

Serum Visions? Sleight of Hand? Daze? Werebear? You're joking, right?

Like Fish, the cards that Threshold/Gro employs appear to be crap. But when you put them all together, you end up with a powerful set of complimentary strategies that is successful in developing a potent aggressive-control plan while simultaneously stunting your opponent's game plan. Seen another way, Threshold is a model of deck-building efficiency: free countermagic, a cheap and robust draw engine, 4/4 mana elf/beaters for 1G, etc. But this isn't apparent just by looking at deck lists.

What's often missed by a cursory glance at a typical Threshold/Gro deck is the deck's versatility and the subtle inner-synergies between the card interactions.

Cantrips: find land early; find threats/answers later; allow us to cheat on land count; fills the graveyard for threshold creatures; combo with Predict
Counters (free): allow us to tap out to play threats while offering defense; create "virtual mana" for an already land-light deck; used offensively in aggro-control mode; fills the graveyard with cards for threshold without spending mana
Removal: StP used to remove a threat (defense); remove a blocker (offense); disrupt recursion; gain life against burn
Fetchlands: fixes mana; combos with Brainstorm; fills the graveyard for threshold; virtual "basic land" for a three-color base
Werebear: accelerant in early game; strong blocker in mid-game; savage beater in late-game
Meddling Mage: "counters" spells while putting your opponent on a clock

It is these often overlooked synergies that make the deck so deceptively powerful. Because, let's face it, the decks looks like shit. It also helps that the Threshold/Gro has a highly relevant game plan in the current Legacy metagame.

Threshold has put up a respectable showing in the past few months (see Appendix II), but its ability to place three people in the Top 8 of GP: Philadelphia has given Threshold a promotion into the LMF.

I. THE CORE

The basic skeleton of the deck:

Draw: 12-16
Counters: 10-12
Creatures: 10-14
Removal: 4-8
Lands: 17-18

The archetypal list:

<Draw>
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
*4-8 others*

<Counters>
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Counterspell
*1-3 others*

<Creatures>
4 Werebear
*6-10 others*

<Removal>
*4-8 slots*

<Land>
6-8 Fetchlands
6-8 Dual Lands
2-5 Basic Land

The low land count, massive amounts of cheap card-drawing, and undercosted beaters are hallmarks of the deck.

There are several ways to go with this build and there's a significant amount of unexplored territory remaining in the archetype. The base is always Blue and Green, this gives us our counters, draw engine, and beaters. You can stop there, developing Flores' U/G Threshold build for Legacy, probably adding Wasteland and pondering yet another deck where Life from the Loam can be degenerate. But most people have added a tertiary support color, and this is properly where the discussion begins.

II. BLUE/WHITE/GREEN
As in days of yore (2001-02), splashing White into the Blue/Green base has the effect of making our weak match-ups (aggro) strong, while making our already strong match-ups (combo and control) even stronger. At the cost of increasing our exposure to non-basic hate, Thresh/Gro acquires several cards that are hard to replace:

Swords to Plowshares. Perhaps the most obvious and ubiquitous splash card, this offers a powerful answer not only to the omnipresent goblin threat (and especially Goblin Lackey) but also gives the deck a powerful answer to creatures of any size. This spell is often cited as the most efficient spot removal card ever printed, and after playing with it, one would be hard-pressed to disagree. Further, StP stymies creature recursion (Factory/Crucible, Tog/Genesis, etc.) and can be used as life gain if we're only one attack phase from winning a game. At the cost of a single white mana, you can't beat it.

Meddling Mage. While this card has fallen out of favor with some players, our experiences tell us that this is still a potent tool in many matchups, especially in the control/combo matchups. It is a proactive disruption card combined with an efficient threat, and has quite a powerful effect on the game state. With a pair of these, many combo decks are without their most necessary engine card and the ability to restore access to it.

And while some may be skittish about playing maindeck Magi in an unknown field, it's not that hard to read what your opponent is playing from the first few land drops and their opening turns. It's also worth noting that seven maindeck Meddling Magi made it into the Top 8 of GP: Philadelphia (Lam had one in his sideboard) -- and that was hardly a "known metagame". In other words, don't be a pussy.

And as a skill-tester, Meddling Mage truly rewards those who know what they're doing.

Mystic Enforcer. While Thresh/Gro already has many undercosted threats, this card is about as efficient as you can get at the high end of the mana curve. For a mere four mana investment (which can be played off three lands and Werebear mana), one is rewarded with an extremely powerful evasive creature that can typically end the game in three swings without assistance. The protection from black is just gravy but occasionally makes for near auto-wins -- for example, Lam Phan's game 1 against Chris Pikula in the top 8 of GP: Philadelphia.

It is also a huge pain in Dredge-a-Tog's ass: 6/6, flying, protection from black is actually pretty good here. ;)

Disenchant/Seal of Cleansing. Typically Gro has problems with certain non-creature permanents, and sometimes the original answer is the best. Disenchant has always been the very definition of a versatile and efficient answer, and very rarely will this card be completely dead. While not everyone plays with this card, the rise of the white control decks packing Humility, certainly justify it.

Armageddon. The original disruptive threat, Armageddon frequently steals games against heavy control decks, allowing you to play in classic ErnieGeddon fashion. With Nimble Mongoose and/or Werebear on the table before this spell resolves, many slow reactive decks such as Landstill or Wombat have an almost impossible time recovering. Thresh/Gro's ability to gain a fast advantage with undercosted threats and then protect Armageddon and the rest of its cheap threats with free counterspells, makes the card a perfect fit for the archetype.

There are other potential options, and one may also note Tivadar's Crusade or Dueling Grounds as Goblin countermeasures, but really these effects are not exclusive to the white splash; Pyroclasm is present in the red splash and serves a very similar purpose.

Two lists...

UWG Threshold/Gro
by Ridiculous Hat
T8; Grand Prix: Philadelphia

4 Meddling Mage
3 Mystic Enforcer
4 Werebear

4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
4 Predict
3 Sleight Of Hand

4 Force Of Will
2 Counterspell
3 Daze
1 Disrupting Shoal

4 Swords To Plowshares
3 Pithing Needle

4 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
3 Flooded Strand
3 Windswept Heath
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest

<sideboard>
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Nimble Mongoose
4 Hydroblast
3 Armageddon
3 Tivadar's Crusade


UWG Threshold/Gro
by Bardo

4 Serum Visions
4 Brainstorm
4 Mental Note
2 Sleight of Hand

4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Counterspell
1 Disrupting Shoal

4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant / Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives

4 Meddling Mage
4 Werebear
3 Mystic Enforcer

4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest

<Sideboard>
4 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Seal of Cleansing
3 Tivadar's Crusade
3 Armageddon
2 Pithing Needle

III. BLUE/RED/GREEN
The primary advantage of splashing red in Gro/Threshold is that it offers the most versatile range of efficient removal. Burn helps a great deal against most aggro decks, primarily Goblins. The biggest disadvantage to red is a vulnerability to larger creatures; Angel Stompy and RGSA, in particular, will give the deck some trouble. Combo and control matchups are affected only slightly; the deck lacks the disruption of Meddling Mage but gains a quicker clock to compensate. Beyond the removal, the red splash also affects your creature choices and sideboard options (Pyroclasm and REB), while the rest of the deck remains relatively unchanged.

Removal:

Red's spot removal selection has as much depth as black's, but with the unique advantage that none of it is ever dead. Even in the worst-case scenario where you have large (or pro-red) creatures to contend with, your removal will turn into reach and help you win the race.

In deciding what removal to run, you have to weigh efficiency (1CC burn) against versatility (2CC burn). This is highly metagame-dependant, but the aggro-dominated Legacy tends to favor the former. Lightning Bolt is the first choice for cheap burn, and other less efficient cards such as Chain Lightning and Shock are available for removal slots beyond the first. However, the versatility of Fire/Ice and Magma Jet is significant - the former replaces itself at worst, and generates card advantage at best. The latter serves as library manipulation and burn at once, and has synergy with Predict. The choice comes down to the metagame; what kind of creatures do you have to deal with, and how much time will you have?

Creatures:

Werebear and Nimble Mongoose fill the first eight creature slots, as red doesn't offer anything that competes with them at that cost. The third creature can be Fledgling Dragon or Sea Drake, depending on build and metagame. The former strains the manabase more, generally requiring more Volcanic Islands (and if you see recurring Wasteland often, consider a basic Mountain). However, its ability makes it the fastest finisher available to the archetype; it can reduce an opponent from twenty to zero in three turns. Sea Drake takes five turns to do this (and sets back your land drops), but it's much easier on the manabase and more synergistic with Winter Orb, a powerful sideboard option. Dragon is superior in combat but Drake is easier to cast through mana denial.

Sideboard:

The most important red sideboard card is Pyroclasm - the cheapest sweeper available to the archetype, and more versatile than Tivadar's Crusade. Four will be critical as long as Goblins remains on top, and in the right metagame it may be correct to shift some to the maindeck. If necessary, you can even make use of a plethora of secondary sweepers such as Earthquake, Rolling Earthquake, and Steam Blast. You could also use your sideboard to pack in even more spot removal, from cheap burn that can't fit in the maindeck to the powerful Flametongue Kavu.

Beyond removal, your red sideboard cards will be mostly color-hosers. Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast are the next most important sideboard cards, bolstering your countermagic in the control and combo matchups. Once again, there's more than enough possibility for redundancy - you can run any number between zero and eight. These do their part to compensate for the lack of Meddling Mage and Armageddon, though they are more specific. You also have access to Flashfires and Anarchy to combat some of the white decks that tend to be Gro/Threshold's more difficult matchups, but these are quite narrow and thus metagame-specific. Rabid Wombat and Rifter, however, are quickly growing in popularity, so keep Flashfires in mind.

Here are two contrasting lists of UGR Gro/Threshold that illustrate two basic directions the deck can take (the first being my current list). Alix's list is much like a traditional Gro deck, with 4 removal slots, 15 draw spells, and 10 counterspells, but Pat's utilizes redundancy, running a full 12 counterspells and 8 removal spells. Notice that while the second list has less pure draw (and none that generates card advantage), Ice packs velocity into the removal slot.

Pat McGregor (Sarcasto), GP Philly, 6th:

4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
2 Fledgling Dragon

4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fire//Ice

4 Mental Note
4 Serum Visions
4 Brainstorm

4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
4 Tropical Island
2 Island

Sideboard:
4 Pyroclasm
3 Winter Orb
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Naturalize
2 Pithing Needle

Alix Hatfield (Obfuscate Freely), GP Philly, 43rd:

4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
3 Sea Drake

4 Force of Will
3 Daze
3 Counterspell
3 Stifle

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Predict
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
3 Portent

3 Island
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Forest

Sideboard:
4 Pyroclasm
3 Winter Orb
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Naturalize
2 Tormod's Crypt

So you may be asking: should I splash white or red (or black)? A quick review of the options:

/White

Maindeck
- Swords to Plowshares
- Meddling Mage
- Mystic Enforcer

Sideboard Options
- Armageddon
- Tivadar's Crusade / Sphere of Law / CoP: Red
- Serenity
- Ray of Revelation
- Sacred Ground
- Wrath of God

/Red

Maindeck
- Fire/Ice
- Fledgling Dragon
- Magma Jet
- Lightning Bolt

Sideboard Options
- Pyroclasm
- Red Elemental Blast
- Flametongue Kavu
- Thoughts of Ruin (?)

The choice is up to the reader. The red build has a better game against goblins, and is overall easier to play; frequently a slight misstep with the white build will lead to a game loss. However, the white build has better all-around matchups and is generally better-equipped to handle rogue creations, e.x. Orlove Reanimator. UGR is a better choice for some metagames, but UGW has the tools to deal with anything that it faces and is generally better at rewarding high levels of playskill.

IV. HOW TO PLAY THE DECK
(All are encouraged to review the first half of Part 2 of Bardo's UWG Threshold primer for general play information. Note: this was written a year ago and is somewhat out of date.)

Oftentimes when people first pick up this deck, they are greeted by loss after loss against many archetypes. The deck seems to be underpowered and inconsistent upon first inspection, and picking it up without understanding the strategy behind it often is an exercise in frustration. This is almost always due to critical misassignment of the deck's role and ignorance the complicated decision-tree you must navigate, but we are here to explain the basic strategies that are the most effective against the different archetypes. But first, the overarching mission statement...

YOU ARE NOT A LONG-TERM CONTROL DECK. If you try to play as though you can counter everything and as though you have inevitability, you will lose. You do not have much (pure) card advantage and you do not have the long-game inevitability that Landstill or MWC (Wombat) do. You must apply pressure to your opponent in the midgame and end it before your opponent has a chance to recover from your initial flurry of cheap countermagic and beaters. Nothing is more important than this philosophy to the deck and this is why the deck only has two actual Counterspells; you cannot afford to keep mana open in the midgame when you should be dropping threats to win the game.

A. AGGRO
Early game (turns 1 through 3 or 4): You are the control. You must protect your face to get to the midgame and reach the point of having threats in the hand and 7 cards in the bin. Use your Dazes against important threats and Swords anything that threatens to take the game away from you in the beginning, especially Goblin Lackey. You must blunt the initial assault so that your superior creatures can end the game. It is also acceptable to blindly Pith Wasteland in this matchup--if everyone's land works just to play spells, your average spell is better than theirs. So it's often helpful to spend a Needle as insurance.

Goblins: The cards that threaten you most are Lackey (gets Ringleader and other broken goblins into play), Piledriver (due to massive damage potential quickly), AEther Vial (gets Ringleader and other broken goblins into play without the chance to counter them), and Ringleader (lets them outlast your countermagic and removal). Under NO circumstances should you let Ringleader resolve, as that is their key card in the matchup. Your opening hand can typically deal with theirs, especially if you Pith their Vial or Swords their Lackey. Ringleader gives them basically a new hand and you can't allow that. The chief goal in the early game is to stop anything that gets Ringleader into play and keep Piledriver from killing you. An early Meddling Mage on Lightning Bolt is a surprisingly effective Lackey blocker.

Midgame (turns 3 through 5): You are now assuming the role of the beatdown. You must switch roles now or you will be overrun by a beatdown deck's inevitability. At this point their hand is largely exhausted and you should have a few powerful threats ready to land: a threshed Werebear or Mystic Enforcer. It does not often matter if you have a counter in hand unless your opponent is playing a legitimate threat to your plan. Drop your threat and prepare for the attack.

Endgame (turns 5 through 8 or so): You should be damning all torpedos forward at this point, using your counterspells to protect your creatures and potentially stop any game-winning threats that they've drawn into. Most decks are incapable of dealing with a couple Werebears or an Enforcer once their initial attack has been stopped, so don't be afraid to just reduce their life to zero.

B. COMBO
You are the control for the entire game here, as most every combo deck in this format has a faster win than you, if they can push through your disruption. Luckily, you have several extremely potent disruption tools and better cheap threats than most aggro decks. You can easily stop them from going off if they attempt to do anything in the early game, and by the late-game you slightly shift your role to control with a threshed beatdown creature in play to finish the game while still maintaining your advantage.

Your first Meddling Mage should name whatever vital combo piece your opponent needs to go off and your second Meddling Mage should name the answer to the firest one (i.e. against Flame Vault, the first Mage names Time Vault (or Fusillade if Vault is in play) and the second one names Burning Wish.) Against Solidarity, name "High Tide" first, then "Cunning Wish." Just set up your hand with cantrips, play a few threats and win while they struggle to get their combo pieces together. Typically Thresho/Gro is regarded as the worst possible matchup for combo decks, and after playing the matchups, one can easily understand why. At times it almost feels like you're the beatdown in this matchup, because you will always drop the first threat-- but this is solely due to the fact that they cannot realistically employ their plan while they sit helpless.

C. CONTROL
You are the beatdown here, but this time they have better tools. Typically Pithing Needle and Meddling Mage are very potent weapons here, but you mustn't be afraid to just run single threats out there and start bashing. Daze anything you can and don't be afraid of counterspells-- typically Landstill has a pretty weak counterbase and your spells will resolve more often than you might think, especially if backed by a crucial Daze.

Landstill: This deck is not favored against you, no matter how tough it may seem. Typically Needles will want to hit Wastelands or Factories, leaving them with very few threats. With a Meddling Mage naming Swords, all you have to do is counter Wrath effects and they have a lot of trouble winning the game before you. Don't be afraid to break Standstill, as typically they'll just draw more inefficient cards that don't affect you that much. After board, Armageddon is a wrecking ball when you have a threshold creature on the board, so just save your free counters to defend it and you should be able to take it home without much trouble.

Wombat: This matchup is significantly harder for you, but it is far from unwinnable. The main threats in this matchup are Humility and Wing Shards; Humility because it makes it nigh-impossible to win and Wing Shards because it's their only uncounterable removal spell. Mage typically should name Shards because of this. The only spells you really care about countering are Humility and Wrath effects. If they Abeyance through a Wrath, do not try to fight it. They have very few ways to gain card advantage in the matchup, where you will be swimming in card drawing. You will typically have no more than two threats in play at any given time, though obviously this can change late-game if you have a counter and an extra guy will give you lethal damage. Also, an early Pithing Needle on Eternal Dragon can potentially hamstring an opponent with a land-light draw, so don't be afraid to run it out there. Post-board Mongoose and Armageddon are both huge and tilt the matchup in your favor if played properly. Also, if you have Winter Orb in your sideboard, this is the matchup for it. It slows their development down to a crawl while you are less hampered.

(Specific sideboard details are covered in Part 4 of Bardo's Threshold primer.)

The most important thing is to playtest matchups and realize what the most important threats are for you in each match. You only have a limited amount of permission so learning how to stop the most dangerous threats is of paramount importance. You don't have much actual card advantage, so do not act as though you can own the lategame.

Also, a special note on Predict. You will set up this card less often than you might think. While in the control matchups you have the time and the necessity to make Predict a potent engine, a lot of the time in aggro matchups when you need to quickly assume the beatdown role, Predict will target yourself and name a 4-of that you haven't seen yet. Getting early threshold is very important and putting three cards in your bin is not to be underestimated. Don't be paralyzed by the possibility of a cool play when a simple one will do.

Appendix I: The Legacy UWG-Threshold Primer
by Bardo (parts 1 - 4) and Strick09 (parts 1 & 2)

Part 1: Design and Construction
Part 2: Strategy and Matchups
Part 3: Tuning the Maindeck and Sideboard
Part 4: Strategy and Sideboard Guide

Appendix II: Recent successful builds

Dortmund (GPT) (19 November 2005): First Place UWG), 3rd and 4th place (URG)
Bremen (24 November 2005): First Place (UWG), Seventh Place (URG)
Grand Prix: Philadelphia (12-13 November 2005): 3 in the Top 8 (!)
Bremen (27 October 2005): Third & Fourth Place
Hamburg (16 October 2005): Sixth Place
Louisville: (10 September 2005): First Place
Dortmund: (20 August 2005): Second Place
Fairfax (14 August 2005): Eighth Place (Blue/Green/Red)
Bremen (04 August 2005): First Place
Syracuse (Big Arse II, 17 July 2005): First Place
Aurich (25 June 2005): Fourth Place
Vancouver, BC (early summer 2005): First Place

Appendix III: The (original) "Super Gro" Thread in the Open Forum

Appendix IV: Further Reading

Building a Legacy - GP: Philadelphia *Top 8* [with Threshold/Gro] by Ben Goodman (aka Ridiculous Hat)
Legacy Gro: A Tournament Report (by Paul Burke aka TheAntar)
The Evolution of Miracle Gro (by Alex Shvartsman)
Learning From the Flaws Of Aggro Decks in Vintage – A Look At Bird Shit (by Josh Silvestri aka Artowis aka Vegeta)
UB Trippin' (by Mike Flores)
The Lands that Almost Weren't (Randy Buehler)



Edited By bardo_trout on 1134278796