Magic the Gathering - Khans of Tarkir Temur Avalanche Intro Pack Review

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

People are saying that the Mardu and Temur Clan Intro Packs are the best. It's hard not to agree with them. The Mardu Raiders deck is easily the best of the five Intro Packs, and this is probably the 2nd best. Let's take a look.

First we have the promo card, Avalanche Tusker. It's 2GUR for a 6/4. Whenever it attacks, target creature defending player controls blocks it this combat if able. Forcing blocks is pretty fun, and with 6 power, it's going to kill a lot. Of course, your opponent can choose additional creatures to block it. But more often than not, you'll go for that 2-for-1 trade.

Onto the rest of the list:

TEMUR AVALANCHE DECK LIST

Lands (25)
2 Frontier Bivouac
1 Rugged Highlands
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Thornwood Falls
8 Forest
5 Island
7 Mountain

Creatures (22)
2 Elvish Mystic
2 Heir Of The Wilds
2 Runeclaw Bear
1 Icefeather Aven
2 Alpine Grizzly
2 Summit Prowler
1 Pine Walker
1 Thundering Giant
1 Avalanche Tusker
1 Bear’s Companion
2 Glacial Stalker
1 Tusked Colossodon
2 Snowhorn Rider
2 Woolly Loxodon

Other spells (13)
1 Stubborn Denial
2 Savage Punch
1 Titanic Growth
1 Force Away
1 Lightning Strike
2 Temur Banner
1 Roar Of Challenge
1 Dragon Grip
1 Temur Charm
1 Windstorm
1 Icy Blast

The creature line-up isn't bad for an Intro Pack. Two copies of Elvish Mystic are definitely a good inclusion, and Heir of the Wilds is a perfectly playable creature. Runeclaw Bear is awfully vanilla, but the 4/2 2G Alpine Grizzly are relevant for their ability to allow you to use the Ferocious abilities of the cards in this deck. Icefeather Aven is a Morph creature with a decent, if a bit underwhelming Unsummon ability. Bear's Companion is a nice card that brings a 4/4 bear along with his own 2/2 body for 5 mana. The rest of the creature line-up is mostly big dumb beaters with power 4 or more and a bunch of Morph creatures that become big dumb beaters with power 4 or more.

The meat of this deck is in the non-creature spells. Stubborn Denial is a playable permission spell that becomes a pure Negate if you control a creature with power 4 or greater (very likely in this build). Savage Punch is a perfectly good card but it would be a lot better at Instant speed - although the Ferocious ability that grants +2/+2 until end of turn to that creature is probably the reason for the downgrade. Titanic Growth is the more powerful but more expensive Giant Growth that no one ever plays outside of Limited. Force Away is an Unsummon that lets you "loot" if you can activate its Ferocious ability - draw a card, then discard a card, for 1U that is playable. Lightning Strike is self-explanatory - 3 damage to a target creature or player for 1R.

Roar of Challenge is interesting, for 2G it forces all of an opponent's creatures to block a target creatures that turn if able. With Ferocious, that creature gains indestructible. It works very well with some of the big bodies in this deck. Dragon Grip is a playable enchantment for 2R that gives a creature +2/+0 and First Strike. You can play it at instant speed if you can activate Ferocious. Windstorm is highly situational, as it only deals with flyers, but this deck does have trouble defending against flying creatures.

Then there's Temur Charm:

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This has three extremely good modes: give a target creature you control +1/+1 until end of turn and make it fight a creature you don't control, counter target spell unless its controller pays 3 (Mana Leak), or creatures with power 3 or less can't block this turn. Those are all very solid modes that a deck like this will use, especially the last one, denying your opponent from chump-blocking.

The second rare in this set is also the last card we'll be looking at:

With its Ferocious ability, Icy Blast is actually a really nasty card. On its own it just taps down X creatures for X and a Blue. But with Ferocious, those creatures don't untap for an entire turn. This card is usually going to allow you enough time for you to get two swings in unchecked. It may turn out to be a bit mana-intensive at times, but I may have underrated this card in my initial review of it. At the very least, it's good in this Intro Pack, and it's going to see Commander play, where mana is rarely limited.

While the creature line-up is pretty uninspiring on the surface, I see this having some fun games when pitted against the other Intro Packs from this set. Obviously, the easiest way to improve this deck is to invest in several copies of Savage Knuckleblade.

Not only is he a 4/4 for 3 mana, but Savage Knuckleblade can become a 6/6 until end of turn, evade removal by returning to the hand, or gain haste. It's perhaps the best card to activate Ferocious that there is, besides Surrak Dragonclaw, the Temur Khan himself, who is a 6/6 for 5 (2GUR). You'd also want to ditch the two Temur Banners for two more Temur Charms. You also will really want a couple more Elvish Mystics and some Rattleclaw Mystics for mana fixing.

There are a few ways that Temur decks might end up going. I will definitely say, if you're feeling Temur, then it's hard not to recommend this intro pack, especially as you get the 2 complimentary boosters, as well.