Beats and Skies

A love letter to Preconstructed Magic

03/09/2023

Theme Deck Review Compendium: Stronghold “The Spikes”

Nothing to really comment about above the big deck name part of the post today.

The Spikes

A red and green beatdown deck which features the other new creature type from the block.

Official Product Information webpage (archived)

Screenshot of the site as it looked circa 2007

In its basic form, “The Spikes” is essentially a red-green attacking deck. However, the ability of Spikes to transfer +1/+1 counters among one another provide the deck with an interesting twist on this theme.
Stronghold Strategy Guide insert (compiled here)

Moxfield, MTG Goldfish and mtg.wtf are some good decklist services. 🙂

Most the art for the actual Spike creatures… isn’t great. And there’s two DiTerlizzi pieces to appreciate. It may be clear now, if you’ve looked at a couple of these posts, what I’m going to do.

Advanced Decklist

Lands (22)
2 Forest
1 Mountain
2 City of Brass
1 Gemstone Mine
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Mogg Hollows
3 Quicksand
2 Reflecting Pool
2 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Vec Townships

Creatures (29)
3 Suq'Ata Lancer
1 Wildfire Emissary
1 Shard Phoenix
1 Orgg
1 Shivan Dragon
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Spike Drone
2 River Boa
2 Skyshroud Elf
2 Jolrael's Centaur
1 Pincher Beetles
2 Spike Worker
2 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Spike Breeder
2 Lhurgoyf

Spells (9)
1 Armageddon
3 Incinerate
4 Kindle
1 Hammer of Bogardan

Sideboard
2 Armageddon
2 Earthquake
2 Emerald Charm
1 Tranquil Domain
3 Whirling Dervish
1 Choke
1 City of Solitude
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Scragnoth

Verdant Touch by W M Kaluta & DiTerlizzi

Reviews

Cubic Creativity

Budget Deckbuilding: The Spikes

The Spell department is very weird in this deck. See, “The Spikes” only features Green creatures, but for some reason the deck designers wanted some burn options so there is a tiny splash of Red in here for … reasons, I guess.

M:tG Precon Decon

Stronghold Part 4: The Spikes

The last piece this distinctive artist did for Magic.

Unboxings

Doctor Alzheimers Academia Magica

German language channel

Magic Vintage Schätze 28: BEST OF FLOHMARKT – Teil 15: STRONGHOLD (1998) Theme Deck THE SPIKES MtG

Really not anything around about this one, huh?

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One response to “Theme Deck Review Compendium: Stronghold “The Spikes””

Beat and Skies does a bracket: Pool 1, Week 4. Round 1: decks 25 to 32. – Beats and Skies

November 27, 2023 at 12:21 pm

[…] The Spikes was built around the ~~other~~ unique tribe that was introduced during the Rath Cycle. The ones that were nowhere near as good, or as popular as Slivers were. Which is a bit of a change because the concept behind them was interesting, both mechanically and flavourly. They come into play with a certain number of +1/+1 counters on them, which you can shift to other creatures or remove for effects. The mana cost to do this was probably one of the biggest issues, though there are two Heartstone included to help with that aspect. This likely also explains the amount of ramp in the deck, too. While the mana costs for the Spikes could in no way be considered competitive – they’re Mon’s, Grey Ogres and Hill Giants – you’re not needing a playset of Skyshroud Elf, pair of Rampant Growth and a Hermit Druid (of all things!) to get them into play on time. […]

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