One Warped Friday - A Quick FNM Warp World Recap

Right! FNM report. Conveniently a day before the next one... how... lazy of me. Probably explains why it's not even close to in-depth or anything.

All in all I went 3-2 (8-5 individual game-wise) for the night. Don't get five rounds every week, and usually I don't get to go up against such a variety of opponents. For the slow ones reading, the deck used was my Warp World deck, listed in the previous post.


The sideboard I eventually decided on:

x4 Cunning Sparkmage
x3 Basilisk Collar - Such an annoyingly fun combo.
x4 Naturalize - A little Conscription paranoia. None saw play.
x1 Pithing Needle - Not that my deck in theory has issues with planeswalkers...
x2 Lightning Bolt
x1 Ricochet Trap - These last three were replacements for what I wanted to use; x3 Relic of Progenitus for use against Vengevine and Open the Vaults users.


Match One - Black/Green/Red Weenie (2-0)
Their deck played small creatures coupled with shenanigan spells like Virulent Touch. There isn't much to say about the match, since both games saw early Warp World into ludicrous board advantage, proceeded by a next-turn victory for the first game and in the second, the rare situation where I "go infinite" and empty all my permanents onto the battlefield. Semi-medium story short, optimal situation.

Match Two - Blightning Vampires (1-2)
Vampires, heck, any weenie deck that features high permanent counts are something I don't want to test my odds Warping against. First game I wasn't even given the chance, thanks to losing an early Treespeaker and not drawing the last land I needed to use that Warp in hand for four more turns before my demise. Second game saw two Avenger of Zendikars and at least 15 plants around. Victory was rooted (hurr hurr). Last match was nuts. He had a kill spell for every creature I played. Without blockers, I didn't last very long. Seriously, painful.

Match Three - Jund (2-1)
This one I'd been wanting to face for a while. In theory, it should prove a fair challenge do the whole card advantage thing. In any case, real bad draws in game 1, causing a lose mostly to a Geopede. Game two and three proved Warp's worth. Even warping with near similar amount of permanents, Jund's spells brought it down quite a bit (a third of it's position, on average). Combined with siding in the SparkCollar combine, the little goblins provided by a Seige-Gang Commander didn't last very long. Mix in Terastadon for added pain. Jund is mana-specific, afterall.

Match Four - Red Deck Wins (2-1)
Ick. Didn't like this match. Not because of it's speed, but because I didn't draw a single warp in all three games. In theory all the minimum land count, burn spells and "end-of-turn sac" creatures don't help it out much, but all of that argument is useless when the blasted sorcery doesn't turn up at all. Long story short, it wasn't, except for game two, which was one through sheer persistence of creatures coming out nearly every turn and clogging up the battlefield until a plant-oriented win. Still, ick.

Match Five - Green/Red Eldrazi (2-0)
Very straightforward. First game a warp turned up double-Eldrazi monument and two creatures on his side of the field. Ouch much? Didn't alleviate my fears of uncovering any of the big three in his deck. Regardless, game two was relatively easy with Sparkmage / Collar out, and warping turned out in my favor. Went easier than expected.

Overall could have done better, but still not bad. I'm considering fitting a Rampaging Baloths or two in somewhere, to help lean the deck off depending on a warp. I'm really pleased with the Sparkmage / Collar in the sideboard. Really clears up the board when needed. Haven't seen it against Mythic yet, so that'll be interesting when it happens. Also Superfriends; "Your deck's half-planeswalkers?! Alright, I'll Warp World..."

As for tomorrow's FNM, I'll be using a different deck (which I'll talk about later today or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow). Warp will be showing up, since I'm letting a friend borrow it. We'll see how it does!

Oh Noes Pile Jund!

The deck I've been using for the past two months. Not as original as Warp Drazi, but still fun as hell to play nine time out of ten. Since we all know what Jund is, here's my version of it as it stands today:


Oh Noes Pile Jund
---Land (25)---
x2 Akoum Refuge
x5 Forest
x1 Kazandu Refuge
x3 Mountain
x2 Raging Ravine
x2 Rootbound Crag
x3 Savage Lands
x3 Swamp
x4 Terramorphic Expanse

---Creatures (20)---
x4 Bloodbraid Elf
x1 Broodmate Dragon
x3 Lotus Cobra
x1 Master of the Wild Hunt
x1 Mordant Dragon
x4 River Boa
x2 Siege-Gang Commander
x4 Sprouting Thrinax

---Spells (15)---
x2 Bituminous Blast
x4 Blightning
x2 Garruk Wildspeaker
x4 Jund Charm
x1 Lavalanche
x1 Sarkhan the Mad
x1 Terminate

---Sideboard---
x1 Caldera Hellion
x2 Consume the Meek
x4 Goblin Ruinblaster
x4 Lightning Bolt
x1 Pithing Needle
x3 Terminate


Main differences would be River Boa instead of Putrid Leeches, using Jund Charms instead of Bolts, and the lack of Maelstrom Pulses. I can't help the third one, but the first two are deliberate.

The Boas are a response to wishing my Leeches were more hardy (particularly when I'm paying 2 life to have my opponent bolt them). They give me something that forces my opponent to pump his Leeches just to compete with, and gives those annoying "Spreaders" a nasty treat. Not to mention being able to block Knight of the Reliquary for an excessive amount of time.

As for the Jund Charms, they give me flexibility; options. So much more satisfying than a Bloodbraid Bolt to the face. Can't block my 2/1 Islandwalk? Then let's make it a 4/3. Response to Joraga Warcaller: kill off your other elves before he can pump them. Same for that annoying monument. Tapped out for open the Vaults? Alright, I'll remove all those pesky artifacts from your graveyard. Damn that instant speed smells good. Moving on.

Let's see... this is Jund... what more is there that you don't already know? Right! Mordant Dragon. He started off as a placeholder for when I eventually get a second Broodmate Dragon, but after eating so many Kor and Elves, I think that Broodmate will need to find a different slot. Plus with Sarkhan the Mad's third ability, he brings the chance of nearly killing an opponent by himself.

Results-wise, I'm very pleased. With it I usually see a top 8 placing at least every other week, which I'll admit makes it a tad hard for me to move onto / try out new deck ideas.

So yeah, that's about it.

First Post / 'Drazi Warp

Since the Wizards Community blog system is a tad too clunky for my tastes, I'll try here instead. Laziness pending, expect a new deck at least once a week, and occasional FNM deck reports. Savvy?

Anyways, onto the deck!

I wanted to play with Warp World, but my older deck lists (Alara-Worldwake) for it were too slow in my opinion. Rise of the Eldrazi introduced new options that made a turn 4 Warp 'feasible' in theory (albeit not advisable), and ultimately I couldn't resist a go. 'Feasible' here being (A) able to gather permanents for a warp rather quickly, and (B) able to warp quickly enough to still be a "relevant" event in a given game. So here's the list after some hard brainstorming (and input from a fellow demented planeswalker).


'Drazi Warp
---Land (24)---
x4 Evolving Wilds
x4 Forest
x4 Khalni Garden
x8 Mountain
x4 Terramorphic Expanse

---Creatures (28)---
x2 Avenger of Zendikar
x4 Bloodbraid Elf
x1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
x1 Goblin Bushwhacker
x1 It That Betrays
x4 Joraga Treespeaker
x3 Lotus Cobra
x1 Madrush Cyclops
x2 Mnemonic Wall
x4 Nest Invader
x2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
x1 Omnath, Locus of Mana
x2 Terastodon

---Spells (8)---
x4 Growth Spasm
x4 Warp World

---Sideboard---
Not yet finalized.


First thing's first, the creature section's a mess. I want to four-of the Cobras and eventually decide which hastey to stick with (Cyclops or the Bushwhacker - both have valid uses). The Eldrazi I want to switch out with Kozilek and Ulamog, since Warping into the current ones are okay, but (mainly with Emrakul) the mana base still has a tiny bit of trouble hitting anything above 11 mana quickly.

Premise of the deck is simple: Ramp up, net permanents whenever you can, and play Warp World as soon as you get the chance, hopefully catching your opponent with their guard down and most likely netting an advantageous post-warp board.

Playtesting has taught me that one of the fun qualities of this deck that I didn't expect is that an opponent too worried about Warp being played risks being beaten down by the little critters (point to Bushwhacker). And being the crazy fellow I am, I slapped together a crude sideboard and took it to the Rise Gameday, taking a place in the top 8. I'll be using it again this Friday, so we'll see how that goes.

So, criticism, yes? Also, I'd appreciate sideboard advice for use against Mythic. Thanks for glancing!