Speed (Standard)

The Speed deck performs best when it can stop its opponents from mounting an effective defense. When playing this deck, keep in mind that your opponent's life force is his or her most precious resource, so deploying haste creatures to deplete it as quickly as possible will keep the opposition on the back foot.

When putting pressure on your opponent, remember that many of your creatures have unearth, an ability that lets them come back from the dead for one final attack. Time your uses of unearth wisely; the more creatures you have, like Beetleback Chief and Krenko's Command create Goblin Tokens that are unassuming individually, but require a lot of blockers on your opponent's side to be fully stopped. These can also be sacrificed to cards like Goblin Bombardment, or initiate an attack to allow Mardu Heart-Piercer's raid ability to trigger.

One of the strongest creatures in the deck is Zurgo Helmsmasher, khan of the Mardu on Tarkir. As a five-mana 7/2 with haste, Zurgo is capable of dealing huge amounts of damage very quickly. Because he has indestructible on your turn, he is nearly impossible to deal with before he can get in at least one attack.

While you have speed on your side, the Cunning deck has many tricks it can play to thwart your attacks. It's trap cards like Arrow Volley Trap and Whiplash Trap can devastate an unprepared group of attackers, and its creatures with morph or flash can introduce a expect blockers to hinder your dominance. Learning that Cunning deck tricks will let you make informed attacks and prevent you from being caught off guard.