Sneak Growth: Sneak Attack in Premodern
Tommaso Salvatori's RG midrange ramp and Sneak Attack combo deck, with no Survival of the Fittest and no Orcish Lumberjack.
There is a legend surrounding Premodern which says that building a competitive deck around Sneak Attack isn't really possible. This powerful enchantment is supposed to be a trap because there simply aren't any threats scary enough to sneak onto the battlefield to make it worthwhile.
I don't 100% agree with this statement. Here's my take.
The lack of insane payoffs like Emrakul or Atraxa definitely makes building a Sneak Attack deck much more complicated, but I don't think it's impossible. The key is not to rely on Sneak Attack alone.
Many deckbuilders have had the same idea of increasing the number of enablers by adding Natural Order to the mix. I don't think this really solves the main problem, namely the lack of big, unbeatable threats. It also creates a sort of conflict between the creatures that work well with Natural Order and those that are good with Sneak Attack, which are quite different. You would never want to put a hasty Verdant Force onto the battlefield, and you literally cannot Natural Order for a Dragon Tyrant. The idea of simply adding more ways to go off is simple and tempting, but in my opinion, it doesn't really bring the deck any closer to being competitive.
Another card that is often considered is Survival of the Fittest. You can definitely make use of it, and it significantly improves the deck's inevitability. On the other hand, it takes up a lot of slots and requires a pretty clunky setup. You really won't get anywhere unless you have Sneak Attack, Survival, and a creature in hand. Then you need green mana to tutor and red mana to cheat your creature onto the battlefield. That's quite a build-around, isn't it?
Considering that Survival of the Fittest isn't exactly the cheapest card in the format, I decided to go hard mode and leave it out of my 75. And that's not even the most debatable choice I've made.
The deck in short
The plan is to cast Sneak Attack as quickly as possible and cheat some serious heavy hitters onto the battlefield. Some of them generate value even after hitting the opponent hard, such as Penumbra Wurm and Symbiotic Wurm. Then we have Dragon Tyrant, which doesn't generate any value but is capable of closing out the game in a single hit. The remaining spells are mana accelerators and utility cards.
Creatures 20
- 4Birds of Paradise
- 4Fierce Empath
- 4Tinder Wall
- 2Blastoderm
- 1Crater Hellion
- 1Dragon Tyrant
- 1Genesis
- 1Krosan Tusker
- 1Penumbra Wurm
- 1Symbiotic Wurm
Spells 8
Enchantments 8
Lands 24
- 4Forest
- 4Karplusan Forest
- 4Mishra's Factory
- 4Mountain
- 4Wooded Foothills
- 3Treetop Village
- 1Phyrexian Tower
Sideboard 15
Orcish Lumberjack is (almost) a trap
There is a player whose 75 comes really close to mine and who has achieved some pretty good results in his country: João Pedro Falcão. I think he has built the best combo-oriented Sneak Attack deck possible, and, like most people playing this archetype, he runs Orcish Lumberjacks in the main deck.
It may sound crazy to cut this guy. He's extremely explosive and provides ridiculous amounts of mana, so cutting him might seem like madness. And I think keeping him is indeed the right choice if you want to build the best combo-oriented Sneak Attack deck possible.
But my point is that we can build a good deck without going all-in on the combo.
Sneak Growth
Sneak Growth is designed to develop along two different game plans: RG midrange ramp and Sneak Attack combo. We still have some absolutely nuts starts, smashing our opponents with hasty monsters, but we're also equipped to survive even when our favourite enchantment doesn't show up.
The most threatening strategies in this format are enchantment-based decks, Dreadnought strategies, and fast aggro. That's why we're running a package of three Naturalize and two Earthquake in the main deck. These are versatile cards that can buy us some crucial turns to go off.
I consider this a Sylvan Library deck. We can count on 12 shuffle effects (4 fetchlands, 4 Fierce Empaths, 3 Rampant Growths, and 1 Krosan Tusker), which allow us to dig pretty deep for whatever we need. Library is also one of our best answers to Swords to Plowshares. Once we have Library online, we can keep feeding the engine: big threat → life gain → extra cards. That's why I never side out Sylvan Library, not even one copy, even against Sligh.
Cutting Orcish Lumberjack allows us to play a strong manland package, which can buy us a lot of time and even win us some matches. Our opponents have to respect the combo side of the deck, which obviously remains our priority. But if the game eventually comes down to topdecking, our manlands can become real game-breakers.
No Lumberjack means less explosiveness, that's true. But if you're concerned about the hardcast plan, don't worry: we still have eight mana dorks and three ramp spells. Hardcasting Wurms and other big creatures is still very achievable, and we no longer run the risk of sacrificing our Forests only to get our spell countered.
The fact that Sneak Growth is so midrange-oriented forces us to include some really appealing threats in the sideboard, such as Nicol Bolas (although he will never leave my sideboard: he's insane against blue decks). We simply cannot afford to have many dead draws.
A great idea I borrowed from João is adding Blastoderm. It makes the midrange side of the deck more solid and partially compensates for its weakness to Swords to Plowshares.
Some configuration suggestions
Earthquake, Blastoderm, and Naturalize are partially interchangeable. A more aggro-heavy meta calls for three Earthquakes; a meta dominated by Dreadnought and enchantment-based strategies requires three Naturalizes; and a meta full of Swords to Plowshares makes three Blastoderms more appealing.
Another flex slot is Genesis. I like it for its late-game recursion, but if you want to be more effective in the midgame, you can run Weatherseed Treefolk instead.
The meta
I think this deck is surprisingly well-positioned in the current meta. It has a shot against most of the field, although it struggles against faster combo decks (which is why you'll find four Tormod's Crypts in the sideboard).
It's also a ton of fun and creates some really interesting game situations.
I strongly recommend giving it a try. I was quite skeptical at first, and it took a bit of work to get to this list, but I'm pretty happy with where it ended up.
If you ask me, smashing your opponent for lethal with Dragon Tyrant is something every Premodern player should experience.
