True story: I HATE spiders. I wouldn't quite say I have arachnophobia, but I really don't like 'em.
Except I'm loving the potential of a Spider tribe in Magic.
Arachnus Spinner
makes it all possible. It combines with
Arachnus Web
to shut down your opponent's creatures.
A subtheme is Spider poison. Not only do we have the venomous Deadly Recluse, but we also have -1/-1 counters from Blightwidow (infect) and
Juvenile Gloomwidow
(infect's predecessor, wither).
Frostweb Spider
also gets +1/+1 tokens, and
Aquastrand Spider
passes them out like candy. Why is that all important? Because spider-shaped artifact Contagion Clasp can proliferate those tokens to either -1/-1 token your opponent's creatures to death (or at least soften them up enough to make those
Arachnus Web
s stick even on large creatures) or make the Frostweb and other "Aquastranded" Spiders quite massive.
And speaking of massive, check out heavy hitters Silklash Spider and
Goliath Spider
. They make nice "generals" here, even if the latter is a tad expensive.
The high prices can be made easier to swallow, however, as you lay down a couple
Overgrown Battlement
s. One allows you to tap for one extra green mana, two allow you to tap each for two green, for a total of FOUR extra mana...yeah, they get crazy good really quickly.
The instants and sorceries provide some nice combat tricks.
Evolution Charm
is worth mentioning in particular, as its ability to give any creature flying can combine with flyer-killers Silklash Spider and
Stingerfling Spider
for instant kills, or get some tokens onto the
Frostweb Spider
s. At worst, the Charm can at least grab lands from your library or Spiders from your graveyard.
Speaking of the graveyard, it can be hard for your opponent to load it up in the first place. First you've got
Penumbra Spider
which doesn't seem to die even when it dies. But even better is Swarmyard, which gives your Spiders regeneration. Your other special lands Oran-Rief, the Vastwood and Llanowar Reborn add more tokens to your Spiders to work with the proliferation strategy from before.
Yeah, I still hate Spiders, but at least I can stand them long enough to try and build this deck. How about you? Do you think it's worth trying out? Any and all tips and comments appreciated!
