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BOOSH PROUDLY PRESENTS:

THE STUFFY DOLL SPOTLIGHT SPECIAL of SPECTACULAR SAVORY SYNERGY 

 

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Welcome to another edition of Boosh’s Deckbox of Tricks, a column I’ve started to share my johnnytastic knowledge of combos/synergy with the mtgo community. I thought this article I’d do something different, and talk about one particular card, and the sheer multitude of deck possibilities said card can inspire.

Let me introduce to you what is quite possibly my favorite magic card, but is most assuredly my favorite card in the game to exploit, abuse, and combo: 

 

 

This card makes my johnnytastic heart and soul sing. It has so much combo potential it boggles the mind, so I’m here today to un-boggle it for you and share with you insight, synergy, and everything in between. You might not think an entire article could be dedicated around one card, but this one card has so many possibilities that I’ve almost got too much to write about. Let’s dive in, shall we?

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BEFORE WE BEGIN: ARTICLE PRIMER For those of us far advanced in Magic the Gathering Online and reading magic articles—and subsequently knowing magic slang, you can skip this!

For those of us new to puremtgo.com or unfamiliar with some of the terms here: I am a Johnny. If you don’t know what that means, click here, read that article, then join me back here. If I say CMC, it means Converted Mana Cost. Stuffy Doll’s CMC is 5, (Spitermare)’s CMC is 4, etc.. Rule 202.3. The converted mana cost of an object is a number equal to the total amount of mana in its mana cost, regardless of color.Example: A mana cost of {3}{U}{U} translates to a converted mana cost of 5. 'Ping': to ping something means to do 1 damage to it, or, just in general, to do damage. Ping is a common slang word in various tabletop and video games. Zuran Spellcaster is a prime example of a creature who repeatedly 'pings.' A 'playset' is used to refer to when you have four of one particular card in your deck. If you have 4 Giant Growth's in your deck, you have a playset of Giant Growth. A 'combo' if you don't know, is when two cards work really well together, making them even more powerful then they were separately. The have 'synergy' in that they work so well together. A classic combo that still proves the cards' synergy to this day is Royal Assassin and Icy Manipulator.

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Stuffy Doll's Helping Hands, Ammunition, & BFFs

There are a lot of great magic cards that help Stuffy Doll become an amazing combo piece.
 

	Guilty Conscience: Let’s discuss the best of the best combo cards first. This particular aura, when aptly placed on Stuffy Doll, will ensure insta-victory when you tap it. The stuffy deals one damage to itself, which is then dealt to your opponent, the Guilty Conscience activates, deals one to the stuffy which deals it to your opponent which activates the Guilty Con—you see the pattern, it’s an infinite loop, and quite probably the most feared Stuffy Doll combo. Spirit Loop: Lifelink and Spirit Link and just about any other lifelink-granting card, when applied to Stuffy Doll, will unbalance the life-total-scales: each ping your Stuffy Doll does to your opponent, your life goes up concurrently while their life total goes down. In this specific category, let's not forget Behemoth Sledge, Loxodon Warhammer, and Armadillo Cloak as some other great lifelink deck inclusions.
	Pariah: Stuffy Doll becomes the veritable double whammy— its indestructibility keeps the Pariah on it no matter how much damage it is dealt to it, and your opponent can’t do any damage to you, at all, as the stuffy would then do that damage directly to your opponent. It becomes a real problem for your opponent that has to be dealt with before it locks up the game. Pariah’s Shield: This does the same trick as Pariah at a more mana-costly price, but the fact that this is a colorless equipment makes it almost better depending upon your opinion. It can stick around, instead of heading to the graveyard if it was an aura, and it waits around for another Stuffy Doll to be cast and then equipped—and the pariah/stuffy combo can now be inserted into any deck you make, regardless of color choice.
	Gideon Jura: Gideon is an awesome planeswalker, and his ability to make your opponent’s creature’s attack will ensure that at least one of your opponents’ creatures will have stuffy blocking it, hopefully causing your opponent some serious hurt. Gideon is pretty expensive, fiscally speaking, so I offer him up as a combo piece here—but I’m not including him in any deck builds down below. A nice combo piece with Gideon’s first ability and Stuffy Doll is… Valor Made Real: This is a nice little combat trick at instant speed; this card can turn the tides on your opponent, and make their last-ditch massive creature attack become their own undoing.
	Hero’s Resolve, Ensouled Scimitar, Hedron Matrix: Our Stuffy Doll is very susceptible to -x/-x effects like Last Gasp. Curiosity: This a great way to net some extra cards while using your Stuffy Doll’s abilities. Freed from the Real, Pemmin's Aura, Crab Umbra , Umbral Mantle: another great way to use your Stuffy Doll is to be able to use him as much as possible, and untapping him allows his activation to happen more than once.
	Clone, Body Double, Vesuvan Doppelganger, Sakashima the Impostor : Any creature that can doppelgang an already-on-the-battlefield-Stuffy Doll, like Clone, can be exploited to make your deck have eight or more Stuffy Dolls out on the battlefield potentially. Rite of Replication, Spitting Image: A couple of sorceries that'll net your battlefield some more Stuffy Doll copies. Soul Foundry's a great artifact to clone your Stuffy numerous times. Sculpting Steel, Mizzium Transreliquat: much like employing Clone to double up on Stuffy Dolls, copying him with thusly doubles up your stuffy count as well.
	Lure: Slapping this good ol’ classic card on your Stuffy Doll can be quite a surprise when you follow it up by attacking and forcing all your opponent’s able-bodied blockers to block it. You can just imagine the look on your opponent's face when they block your Stuffy Doll with their whole army of hellion tokens or all of his/her vampires. Silklash Spider or Windstorm and Neurok Hoversail: Giving Stuffy Doll flying with Neurok Hoversail or Kitesail or Flying Carpet or by any other card allows you to exploit green’s natural hatred for flying. Silklash Spider or Arashi, the Sky Asunder can even repeatedly smack around a Stuffy Doll with flying if you have out a Seedborn Muse.
	Tendrils of Corruption: in a deck featuring all swamps, this is great combo card with Stuffy. Target the stuffy, do a boatload of damage for four measly mana, and gain that much life. Corrupt: A great card to do to the dome of an opponent, but also great to target Stuffy Doll with it too. Drain Life, Consume Spirit, Soul Burn: pretty much the same explanation as Corrupt, you can always just do this straight to an opponent's face, but you can do it to Stuffy Doll for flair. Plague Spitter: this upkeep-free-repeat-pinger will hose any 1/1s and ensure an extra point of stuffy damage every one of your turns.
	Evincar’s Justice: This is a buyback-able Volcanic Fallout, which will lower everyone's life but your opponent gets an extra 2 when the damage hits your stuffy. Crypt Rats: A one-time use Pestilence, akin to a black Earthquake in creature-form, this board-clearer will hit the stuffy with a ton of damage. Wound Reflection: Stuffy and his friends are going to be doing a lot of damage to your opponent, why not double up on that damage every turn. Bloodchief Ascension: there are lots of ways to exploit Stuffy Doll to make it so your opponent loses 2 life a turn, giving the ascension enough quest counters to activate and cause general havoc.
	Pyrohemia/Pestilence: The stuffy’s indestructibility allows the Pyrohemia or Pestilence to stick around indefinitely while you slowly ping the whole board, doing double damage to your opponent thanks to your stuffy. Intimidation bolt: This is one of my favorite combo/synergy pieces with stuffy. During your opponent’s “Begin Combat” phase, cast this on your stuffy. All of your opponent’s creatures can’t attack this turn and your opponent nets three damage from the stuffy effect. Earthquake/Rolling Earthquake: If you pay 6 for X, 6 damage will be done to the entire board, and 6 to you and 6 to your opponent’s dome. Stuffy gets this 6 too, netting 12 to your opponent’s face while you only take six.
	Æther Flash This triggers on the stuffy or any of its best friends listed below when they enter the field, and can also put a kink in your opponent's battlefield prescience. Crushing Pain: This card works great with a lot of cards, or it cant net 7 damage in one turn just but targeting the stuffy after you activate it to ping itself. Shivan Meteor: You may think Guilty Conscience is the greatest card ever to be paired with Stuffy doll. You are mistaken. Five mana for thirteen damage to your opponent is outstanding.
	Furnace of Rath: This is sometimes a gamble, as your opponents’ damage is doubled as well. With just it and one Stuffy in play: Stuffy does 1 to itself. That 1 damage turns into 2 damage, thanks to the furnace. The stuffy’s triggered ability fires. The 2 damage dealt to your opponent is now 4. 13 damage from your Shivan Meteor becomes 26 damage, which becomes 52 damage. Quest for Pure Flame – a personal use, one-time only furnace. Fatal Attraction: another aura tailor-made to suit our good pal Stuffy.
	Living Inferno: An awesome creature to use with Stuffy Doll. Pyroclasm/Volcanic fallout,Inferno: Inferno is a bigger, meaner, fierier, doom-bringier version of Volcanic Fallout. All of these sweep boards and combo nicely with Stuffy Doll. Rivals' Duel: unless you’re facing a Construct heavy deck on the opponent’s field, this card can be used to make their Shivan Hellkite smack your stuffy, while stuffy’s invulnerable nature will keep him around for more abuse. Arena is similar in effect to Rivals' duel & this land can go in any color deck and can be repeatedly used.
	Bloodfire Kavu: Nothing like a pyroclasm waiting on the board to go off when you choose it too, though it comes with a higher CMC to accomplish—so a straight-up pyroclasm inclusion might be more your speed. To a lesser extent, Bloodfire Dwarf can be employed to do a 1-damage multi-ping, or for a higher inferno-esque version, you can grab a hold of Bloodfire Colossus for your deck, or—if you want to get a little hinky with auras, Bloodfire Infusion might be your weapon of choice. In any event, if it’s bloodfire, it can probably be included in a stuffy doll deck. Wrath of God/Damnation: our lil' pal Stuffy is indestructible. Exploit that as much as you want in addition to his opponent-ping powers. Novablast wurm is his BFF in a similar vein.
	BUY FOUR ENLIGHTENED TUTORS. I know they are expensive financially. However, they are the greatest way to get either a Stuffy Doll, or the Aura, Enchantment or Equipment you need to bring together your combo. Tinker, Fabricate, Demonic Tutor, Imperial Seal, Diabolic Tutor: Any non-card specific tutor, artifact-tutor and so forth help maximize the potential to get your various Stuffy Doll combos rolling. Another card to mention, here, I feel, is Seething Song: there’s tons of mana-ramping in all forms of colors, but since a lot of great burn couples with Stuffy, this can often plop out a stuffy on turn three so turn four you can already begin your combo shenanigans. Imperial Recruiter, and Sphinx Summoner: Two creatures that can tutor up your Stuffy Doll. Totem-Guide Hartebeest is also a great 2/5 Aura searcher for your combo pieces as well.
	Swans of Bryn Argoll: This card is so amazing, in its own right, and a wonderful bird-spirit to exploit. Putting it with stuffy doll and pyroclasm/inferno/fatal attraction/etc allows you to have a complete draw advantage over your opponent in addition to burning them to death with stuffy doll. Mogg Maniac: a mini, one-time-use version of stuffy doll. Having out a few of this lil' goblin alongside some stuffy dolls and then you cast pyroclasm or inferno… well you see the explodey potential. Spitemare is a tougher, more mana-costly yet more versatile (it can be in any stuffy deck sporting red OR white) version of Mogg Maniac. Alluring siren: force your opponent’s big ol’ creatures to attack you and then block with Stuffy Doll casually.
	Shaman en-Kor, Warrior en-kor, etc: Essentially any en-Kor becomes a second Stuffy Doll in a round-about way. When Blocking, block with him and the stuffy, and redirect all damage dealt to him to the stuffy. Mass earthquake coming at us all? Redirect the damage dealt to your shaman to your stuffy. Flametongue Kavu or a Spitebellows that's evoked: A great way to sneak out more damage to your opponent while keeping up your creature count in a deck. Subterranean Spirit: he can tap to ping the whole field for 1, pinging your stuffy dolls and swans and phytohydras and its pro:red ability helps it survive infernos and earthquakes and so on.
	Dawn Elemental: In all white decks he’s a great inclusion for those that use Pariah strategy. Phytohydra: Another guy where damage to it matters and said damage doesn’t cause him death. And he’s great to be pyroclasmed or infernoed alongside stuffy. Sprouting Phytohydra: Another phytohydra plant friend, this one really only works alongside a deck that uses 1 damage pingers like Bloodfire Dwarf and Tremor. Tajuru Preserver: One of the worst anti-stuffy doll tactics is creative and pragmatic usage of Cruel Edict, Diabolic Edict, Slave of Bolas, etc. The Preserver prevents that, and depending upon your opponent, it may not warrant an inclusion.
	War Elemental: Opponent needs to be damaged before it’s cast? Stuffy taps, pings itself and pings your opponent, so that’s taken care of. Then, Stuffy doll repeatedly pings your opponent, while simultaneously growing your war elemental. Goblin Charbelcher: Cards that can repeatedly damage a target are always great, but this card has been near and dear to my heart since my first packs of Mirrodin. With so much red mana flying around for stuffy doll combos, the charbelcher is sure to do a lot more double-damage than single-damage. Worship: Since Stuffy usually sticks around, it often makes sure the worship sticks around too.

 

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THE TWELVE DECKS OF STUFFY DOLL

Disclaimers:

• I don't take suggesting you buy FOUR Enlightened Tutors up there, lightly. A lot of these decks have a playset of enlightened tutor in them, or could benefit from having a playset. I know they are expensive (financially) so I'm sure you can find adequate budget-friendly substitutes that fit your deck needs, but I REALLY recommend you have at least a couple of these
• The Black-White deck uses a very expensive land base, with playsets of the B/W duals from guildpact and ME3, among other pricey lands. I personally have been scrimping and saving for months to afford them, but still don't have them all, so that particular deck has never been tested outright, but in theory it should work as well as the other eleven, which I do own and have built.
• I already expounded upon most of the card inclusions in these decks, so synergy and deck explanations will be kept to a minimum.
• In order to make sure these are viable by all players, all but one of them have 24 lands.
• These decks are all Classic.
• These decks are meant to be fun, and meant to win, but I honestly don't know how often you can do both. An insta-win Guilty Conscience and Stuffy Doll wins the game for you that turn, ending both you and your opponent's fun, be gaining you the win. Placing a Guilty Conscience on your Swans of Bryn Argoll might be the more fun route, but won't gain you the insta-win.
• These are my deck suggestions, obviously you should take these, the knowledge of the cards chronicled above, and your own thoughts to make your very own perfect Stuffy Doll deck.
• I didn't post any sideboards, I'm sure you can all find sideboards that fit well with the themes of the respective decks and/or the typical opponents' decks you face.

On to the Decks!!:

I thought we'd start out with a monowhite build. This deck exploits the various auras white has at its disposal. Your Reveillark can snag back any other creature in your deck except the Spitemares, especially after a Wrath of God. With 4 Enlightened Tutors you can search up any one of the enchantments that combo well with your Stuffy Doll, including the solo inclusions of Spirit Loop and Worship. Sunlance is in there as both a creature removal spell, and if all else fails, you can do three damage to your stuffy doll for the price of 1 mana. This deck exploits Guilty Conscience the most of any of the twelve deck builds, and it also abuses Pariah, allowing you to place it on a Dawn Elemental to buy you some time, or on a Spitemare when your Stuffy Doll is MIA and just won't come out of your deck.

The mono red version of Stuffy Doll is based around the idea of getting to do a lot of damage to your Stuffy without having to shell out a ton of mana. Crushing Pain + Shivan Meteor are the best ways to do this. Popping out a well timed Furnace of Rath can be your opponent's undoing. Using Pyroclasm or Pyrohemia when your battlefield is filled with Moggs, Spitemares and Stuffys is a fun turn. Browbeat either whittles away your opponent's life in 5 damage chunks (or 10 damage if a Furnace is out), or it helps you draw through your deck. In an all red deck, centered on damaging your opponent, Valakut and Shivan Gorge just seemed to naturally fit.

Tendrils of Corruption came out in Time Spiral, just like Stuffy Doll, and as soon as it did I wanted to pair the two. Obviously this required an all swamp manabase, so I made a mono black deck. Tendrils is the perfect thing to cast on your Stuffy, since it only targets creatures. It does the damage to the stuffy, which does the same amount to your opponent while you gain that much life. Hopefully, you'll have out a Wound Reflection as well. Your playset of Damnation won't affect your indestructible creatures, but will make sure your opponent's battlefield is cleared of creatures. Liliana and the tutors help you get out your combo pieces, and if all else fails you can just cast a Corrupt or Drain Life directly to your opponent's face. The coffers and rituals help ramp up your mana to get the ball rolling, and if all else fails, Sorin can target your stuffy.

This deck takes advantage of Swamp-Plains. By having an all swamp manabase that can also cast white spells, you can take full advantage of Tendrils of Corruption as elaborated on in the deck above, yet still use Pariah and Guilty Conscience combos. A fun trick that can be pulled off in this deck, is attaching a Pariah's Shield or Pariah to a Swans of Bryn Argoll while also having out an Underworld Dreams. Every time anything would do damage to you, it does it to the swans, which makes your opponent draw cards and take damage from the dreams. Soul Link is a fun solo inclusion if you can pop it on a Stuffy Doll, and the swans are great targets for tendrils, pestilence, and plague spitter's triggered abilities.

Here we have a Stuffy Doll build that, again, relies on the tried-and-true combo of Pariah but adds in a very important red element. Inferno does six to everything, often-times clearing the battlefield. If Stuffy is out, he won’t die due to his indestructibility, and he winds up doing twelve to your opponent for the six damage you’ve taken. If Stuffy has a Pariah on it, your opponent nets 18 damage while you don’t take any. The rest of the deck explains itself; you’ve got swans to exploit to grab more cards, and you’ve got meteors and fallouts to keep damaging your spitemares and stuffys and swans. The only extra combo I’ve thrown in here is a solo-inclusion of Heartless Hidetsugu. If you have out a Stuffy Doll enchanted with Pariah, the damage Hidetsugu would do to you is dealt to the stuffy which is then dealt to your opponent—a fun trick to pull off every now and again.

This is the first of two white/green builds. This build centers around turning your stuffy doll into a lured warrior. The sledges and cloaks help give your various creatures more stomp, but when you pop one on a lured Stuffy Doll, it gains lifelink, and gains you a boatload of life while doing a boatload of damage to your opponent. Reveillark grabs back any stuffys or cockatrices or basilisks you might have in your graveyard (especially a lured Thicket Basilisk that’s done its job). A swans with Valor Made Real cast on it will make your opponent draw a ton of cards, perhaps decking or nearly decking them.

This is the second of the two white/green builds. This build centers around giving your stuffy doll flying and then pinging or burning them over and over again with flying-hatred green sources. Use your hoversails and evolution charms and ajani to give stuffy doll flying, even if only for the turn. Next, spend a ton of mana on your silklash spider or windstorm or Arashi to damage the now-flying stuffy doll. If your Spirit en-kor is out as well he can redirect his damage to stuffy doll or spitemare. Your swans give you a lot of card draw when you attack, use your Femeref Archers or activate your spider. A couple of lures thrown in for good measure; Seedborn Muse to be able to activate your arashi or spider every single turn as well as untap your stuffy every turn. Finally, attach your sledge to a spider, to gain as much life as he deals to each creature.

Showcasing a little of the blue cardpool potential, this white-blue deck plays a little slower than some of these decks, as blue often tends to do to a deck. Pop a Pariah on your stuffy, then cast Psionic Blast on it to net 6 damage to your opponent for the price of three mana. Replicate or duplicate your Stuffys with your various blue sources, and if all else fails use your tutors, hartebeests, curiosity-on-stuffy-doll, and brainstorms to find that solo guilty conscience, and end the game.

Our last two-color deck is black/red. This a deck idea I’ve been refining, recreating, and improving since the days of Tempest. A particularly evil combo I’ve employed for quite a long time is Death Pits of Rath, Aetherflash and/or/with Caltrops. No creature can come into play without instantly dying; no creature can attack without instantly dying. Indestructible creatures get around this little issue, so, provided your opponent isn’t playing any, their creatures are on lockdown, and you can just ping your opponent to death with your stuffy, until you draw your meteors. Tendrils of Agony can be used to completely unbalance the scales of life total, until your Sulfuric Vortex whittles your opponent to 0. Obviously this deck isn’t very effective against creatureless or low-creature decks. So I often play this deck in the multiplayer room, in order to at least add more odds of affecting the battlefield.

This deck starts to get wacky with the combos. Employing a Grixis manabase, we can use Mishra to get more Stuffys out, or more summoners to find more copies of stuffy, or more than one capsule to draw more cards to find your stuffys, and so on. Etherium Sculptor makes your artifacts cheaper to cast, and can be sac’ed with your Tinker to plop a Stuffy Doll directly into play. Tezzert keeps untapping your stuffys, as does Voltaic Construct. Phyrexian Colossus’ untap cost can be avoided by using these untap abilities. You can either stomp and swoop your opponents with your big creatures, or ping them to death with your stuffy dolls.

With this deck, we abuse another card I’m very fond of, Paradox Haze. Using various mana-free ways during your upkeep (or upkeeps), we damage our Stuffy Doll or Swans over and over. Using Raka Sanctuary, Honden of Infinite Rage, and Fatal Attractions over and over for free will net you damage to Stuffy Doll or cards from your swans. Vesuvan can change during your various upkeeps if needed. Your Honden can draw you extra cards, and that, coupled with your swans, can activate your Words of War over and over, targeting your Stuffy Doll. If you have out five lands, who doesn’t love tons of dragon tokens? Greater Auramancy protects all your various enchantments, and you can even use a combo of Stuffy Doll, Form of the Dragon and Worship to ensure you don’t die but your stuffy takes five every upkeep.

My last deck to showcase is the most far-reaching, and complicated yet. Using a naya manabase, I can make Stuffy Doll, or my swans, or my various phytohydras into slivers. Essence Sliver and Fungus sliver combine to pump up your creatures with counters, and also gain life whenever they do damage. If my Stuffy Doll is a sliver, he can ping my opponent, gain me one life, and it gains a +1/+1 counter. If I have out my Ion Storm I can remove a +1/+1 counter to do 2 damage to my stuffy-doll-sliver and gain back two counters! If I have out pyrohemia I can put a ton of counters on all my slivers and makeshift slivers; if I have out Sprouting Phytohydra and I use pyrohemia once a turn I put out a bunch of plant defenders. If those copies of sprouting phytohydra are out alongside hivestone and coat of arms all my non-defenders gain a ton of +x/+x. Avenger of Zendikar makes a ton of plants, and puts counters on your phytohydra plants, and with hivestone they become slivers too. Since you have swans, and you have pulmonic slivers alongside hivestones and stuffy dolls, I threw in one silklash spider we used in a green-white deck further up, to be able to damage everything for more counters thanks to fungus sliver; and if the spider is a sliver, essence sliver gives you life for all the damage your spider does. Watcher, Plated, and Might slivers pump up your spouting phytohydra-slivers so you can do more pyrohemia damage and get out a lot more plant-slivers.

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A lot of fun decks can be made using your stuffy doll. I've made twelve 60-card decks, but the beauty of magic is being able to take these cards and synergies and combine them and innovate them and make them your own. I have just about every color combination of stuffy doll deck. Sometimes I throw white in my black/red build; sometimes I make decks that are 70-cards instead of 60. Magic is fun because it has limitless combinations to make up tons of decks. I hope that reading this article might have inspired you, the reader, to build a stuffy deck that's even better than any of mine; or maybe you just want to build a better hivestone deck.

Thanks for reading, and thanks sharing my johnnytastic look at all the things you can do to a Stuffy Doll.
Until next time,

~ Boosh
(AtomicBoosh on MTGO and the PureMTGO forums, Leader of the MTGO clan The Guild of Calamitous Intent)