Coldsnap - Aurochs Stampede

The Ice Age card Aurochs is a creature with trample that, when it attacks, gets a bonus for each other attacking Aurochs. At the time, there was only one question: What other Aurochs? The “Aurochs Stampede” deck finally answers that question, as three new Aurochs show up to really get the herd rumbling.

Over the first few turns of the game, play cheap creatures like Tinder Wall and Orcish Lumberjack. Besides helping you out in combat, they can accelerate your mana. They do so for a price, however, so be sure it’s worth sacrificing a permanent to get a temporary mana boost. Then, starting with the two-mana Bull Aurochs, you’ll start calling your cantankerous cattle.

Keep the first few Aurochs you assemble as safe as possible while building up your herd. In fact, Aurochs Herd is the card that can help you out the most, since it will find more Aurochs in your deck. If you use the Herd’s ability to fetch another Herd, or you start bringing them into the fold with Hibernation’s End, you can keep playing Aurochs until the cows come home!

Once you’ve got enough Aurochs, the deck goes on the offensive in a hurry. Attacking with five Aurochs at once means each one gets +4/+0, and since they all have trample, that adds up to a lot of unstoppable damage. For those times when “a lot” isn’t enough, Balduvian Rage, Resize, and Bounty of the Hunt can really put the “stamp” in “stampede.” To make sure even more damage gets through, send an Aurochs to the skies with Whalebone Glider while it’s still small, then start your attack.

The deck’s primary enemies are flying creatures, which Frostweb Spider and Whalebone Glider should help deal with, and creatures with first strike, since they can block and kill an Aurochs in combat before it can deal its trample damage. Save your Incinerates for such targets.

After you have a few games under your belt, you might want to make some adjustments to the deck. You can’t go wrong by adding more Aurochs or Incinerates. You might find even more compelling cards in the Guildpact set. The red-green cards of the Gruul guild include cards with bloodthirst, like Scab-Clan Mauler, that will appreciate the Aurochs’ trample damage, and cards that just flat-out like to attack, like Burning-Tree Shaman.

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