Owling Mine

Owling Mine made its official debut at Pro Tour Hawaii in 2006, though it had been around for a few months before. Called Owling Mine for its use of Ebony Owl Netsuke and the long-time game staple Howling Mine, the deck sought to overwhelm the opponent with card draw, while denying them the ability to play via traditional control. With the Netsuke on the board, the opponent is locked into a full grip of useless cards, taking 4 damage (or more with multiple Netsukes) per turn. Most versions of the deck also pack Sudden Impact or Gaze of Adamaro as a finisher, smashing the opponent with their own handful of cards.

Owling Mine's big weakness is any sort of weenie deck. In March 2006 this was primarily a Zoo-based Red/Green beatdown, fronted by Kird Ape. It will usually lose the first game to these decks, then sideboard in for a more traditional control/weenie-prevention strategy, removing the key components of the deck and replacing them with more counters, board-clearers like Pyroclasm, and control magic. With the introduction of Guildpact and the Red/Green Gruul guild, Zoo became Heezy Street and Owling Mine disappeared from the scene.