Post Rotation Splinterfright

Hello Everyone!

This past standard season Splinterfright was played in fringe amounts, although players like Kibler picked up on the deck. Unfortunately the deck never picked up much turbulence and was outdone by decks like Delver and Zombies. In this new format, Delver and most notably Vapor Snag is not going to be legal anymore, so a slightly slower, but much bigger Splinterfright deck may be viable.

4x Arbor Elf
4x Boneyard Wurm
4x Lotleth Troll
4x Splinterfright
4x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
2x Disciple of Bolas
2x Kessig Cagebreakers
4x Ghoultree

4x Grisly Salvage
4x Mulch
1x Jarad's Orders

4x Woodland Cemetery
4x Overgrown Tomb
2x Golgari Guildgate
4x Swamp
9x Forest

Sideboard:
Abrupt Decay
Duress
Appetite for Brains
Thragtusk
Strangleroot Geist
Triumph of Ferocity
Gnaw to the Bone

This deck is very different from last year's Splinterfright deck, which had blue instead of black. After examining the blue cards that were available, I felt that blue was good for being an enabler, but that was it. Between 4 copies each of Grisly Salvage, Lotleth Troll, and Mulch, I think there should be enough enablers in the deck. Keeping this 2 colors makes the mana infinitely better than trying to add in blue, especially because we would get 0 shocklands to help out the mana base we would be required to play an island and a Borderland Ranger to make it playable. The only cards I would want to splash blue for are:

Tracker's Instincts
Deranged Assistant
Armored Skaab
Chronic Flooding
Screeching Skaab

All of these cards are cool and all, but none of them make me dying to play blue. These are all enablers for the green and black cards to be better.

Now let's take a look at what we DO have. This list is pretty straightforward with the Boneyard Wurms and Splinterfrights and Ghoultrees for beats, long with new friend Lotleth Troll as a combo of an enabler/very efficient beater. Arbor Elf is sweet to ramp up mana and even with Overgrown tomb do some color fixing.

But one card that really has me excited to play this deck is Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord! Yes, I have 4 for a legendary creature in this deck because I want him every game! Let's break it down, first things first Jarad has the same power and toughness of Boneyard Wurm / Splinterfright except with a standing +2/+2 bonus on top! That alone makes it a contender for the deck, but it gets better! Back when Kibler was streaming RUG Splinterfright, splashing red for Grim Lavamancer, people kept on saying he should have Fling in the deck. While he never did put it in, the allure of flinging for 10 damage off a Ghoultree is still quite novel. Now here comes Jarad who has a 3 mana fling ability attached! Sadly he can't fling himself, however being able to toss Ghoultrees and Boneyard Wurms over the top at the opponent is incredibly powerful! This is the kind of  reach the deck has been looking for! If that was all, Jarad would already be a smashing success, however there is still one more ability! While you often won't sacrifice your lands to bring him back, it's still worth noting it's there in case you are super flooded you still have action available!

I really like this deck, and while right now it's probably still a little raw, I believe that in time this deck will actually be a contender! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack