For those that don't know, DAT stands for Dredge-a-Tog. I'm sure there are countless other threads for DAT but I have yet to see any go with a more aggro approach. Anyway, I threw this together and played around with it for a few games and it seemed pretty solid. I figured I'd share the list, although I have absolutely no testing with it against any of the Tier 1 (unfortunately).
UGb Aggro DAT
Lands (20)
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Wasteland
1 Cabal Pit
3 Lonely Sandbar
Creatures (12)
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Wild Mongrel
2 Psychatog
1 Wonder
1 Genesis
Spells (28)
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
3 Intuition
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Life from the Loam
1 Darkblast
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Mox Diamond
I haven't gotten around to building a good sideboard, I just have some randomness thrown together for the moment (some Stifles, Needles, Krosan Grips, etc).
Basically, I wanted to try and fuse together Threshold and Psychatog sorta. Nimble Mongoose is just begging to get put into a deck with Loam, as is Wild Mongrel. Mongoose is a great Lackey blocker and is also great at slowing down opposing aggro strategies early on. It's a great alternate win condition to Psychatog (especially with Wonder), and it's a thorn in many peoples sides regardless. G for a 3/3 untargetable is a solid inclusion to DAT, IMO, especially since DAT is a typically slow deck. Wild Mongrel is great because it gives me an additional discard outlet if I have a Wonder or Genesis stuck in hand and it's also a fairly strong beater for 2... it's not Threshold dependant, it avoids color issues (like vs Mother of Runes), and it can get fairly large with Loam. Both provide excellent early game protection vs opposing fast aggro strategies and provide excellent alternate win conditions to Psychatog.
I wanted to try and encompass the 8 cantrip plan that I usually roll with because it helps out early game bad hands but also digs for stuff throughout the entire game while being very mana efficient. They increase the consistency of my plays and also help develop Threshold for Mongoose if I don't get an early Loam. Backed with the 8 cantrips, I run 3 Intution to either dig for Loam itself or toolbox (Cabal Pit, Wasteland, Lonely Sandbar, Wonder, Genesis). I considered some of my other options... Deep Analysis, Fact or Fiction, Careful Study, and so forth but none of them seemed better than the 4/4/3 config I have right now.
As far as countermagic goes, I found Counterspell a little slow in Aggro DAT since I typically curve out throughout most of the early and mid-game. It's somewhat weak vs Goblins usually and against combo I think it may be a bit too slow. It's great vs Threshold but I should be able to overwhelm Threshold with card advantage, since I have early game beaters to slow down their assault long enough. This is all theoretical for the moment though. I went with Daze because, although DAT is usually mana hungry, I felt that it was important to gain as much control over the early game as possible (getting my early beaters or Intuition etc to resolve). So far I've liked Daze, the return a land part hasn't seemed too counterproductive for what it's worth so far. I may find myself changing them to Counterspell, but for now I think Daze works better since I want to put aggro into play early on.
2 Loam seemed like an appropriate number with 3 Intuition, since multiples are usually pointless, but I fear with only 1 I may not be able to get one or keep ahold of one. This may get dropped down to 1, I'm not sure.
For removal, I figured I didn't need a ton since I am using aggro to trade with aggro (and I can board into removal g2 and g3 if necessary). 1 Darkblast can be tutored with Intuition and recurred to wreak havoc on things like Goblins, 1 Cabal Pit can be recurred with Loam to handle most things, and the 3 Pernicious Deed is insanely good, even with Mox Diamond. I enjoy Deed'ing things and then recurring my guys with Genesis, it's lovely. It helps give me card advantage vs just about everything... killing Vials (Deed + Wasteland wrecks Goblins), Werebears, Slivers, you name it. I run 3 so that I can grab 1 with Intuition if need be and 4 seems a bit overkill, at least MD.
To round the deck out, I run 20 lands with 4 Mox Diamond. Running only 20 lands hasn't seemed to be an issue so far... the 8 cantrip + basic Island enable me enough dig for the early game, especially since my guys curve at 1cc and 2cc, and Loam eventually overwhelms me with land. Mox Diamond with only 20 land hasn't been a problem so far, although I'm sure it's an eyesore to most. Basically, I like how it enables turn 1 Mongoose + cantrip, turn 1 Loam, or turn Mongrel plays (and turn 2 Intuition is very sexy too). It may seem counterproductive with Deed, but I actually think Mox Diamond and Deed go well together... the Mox helps me accelerate in Deed faster. Losing the Mox is rarely an issue if I get a Loam active anyway. It cannot be Wasted or Ported, so it helps out greatly against Goblins or even B/w Deadguy and B/r Sui. The acceleration is amazing vs just about everything else.
The deck is pretty fun to play and alot faster than typical UGb DAT and I think it solves alot of the problems that standard DAT builds had... simply too slow to keep up with Goblins and little to no way to beat combo. The combo matchup is probably bad still but I think with the additional aggro and potential sideboard options (such as Stifle and Duress), the deck shouldn't have a terrible matchup vs combo. I'm hoping for the Goblin matchup to be good and I will try to test this against Goblins when I can. As far as Threshold goes, I'm almost positive that this deck has a favorable matchup against it... but don't quote me on that.
Comment/Suggestions welcome, Discuss!
Enjoy ;)
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)