FNM Recap - GW 'Walkers (2-2)

Had a smaller attendance than I was used to last night; twenty-four people I think. Four rounds. Broke out my GW Planeswalker deck, modified a bit from the last time I mentioned it.

Wasn’t too hot a showing on my part, but I still ended the night 2-2. I suppose there are worse fates.


GW ‘walkers
—Land (23)—
1 Gavony Township
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
10 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Plains

—Creatures (18)—
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Primeval Titan
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Strangleroot Geist
4 Viridian Emissary
1 Wurmcoil Engine

—Noncreature Permanents (9)—
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Garruk Relentless
1 Gideon Jura
2 Karn Liberated
1 Mimic Vat

—Instants / Sorceries (10)—
4 Day of Judgment
1 Divine Deflection
1 Entreat the Angels
3 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 White Sun’s Zenith

—Sideboard (15)—
1 Acidic Slime
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Revoke Existance
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Thrun, the Last Troll


Round 1: 0-2 vs Naya Wolf Run.
Game 1 saw me mulligan away a one-lander into another one. Drew a second land, and was able keep up with my ramp spells. He plays a Primeval Titan, then I respond with my own only to see it Beast Within’d. I lose shortly after. Game 2 saw me getting Bonfire of the Damned for ten. I’ll leave it at that.

Round 2: 2-0 vs UW Bounce Splicer
He didn’t have a very good game 1; a single counterspell that took out a Geist, and having to pop a Ghost Quarter in order to find his first white source. By that time, I had Elspeth Tirel out. Then came Garruk, Primal Hunter. By the time he could get a flyer out I had a wrath in hand more than enough token-creation to recover fastest. Game 2 was quite back and forth, with three of my Days showing up to get rid of excessive Blade Splicers. The final stalemate was broken by hard-drawing my Wolf Run, which Thrun happily used.

Round 3: 0-2 vs Naya Pod
Had to mulligan to five just to see one land in game 1. It didn’t last long. Game 2 I managed to stall out long enough with Oblivion Rings to clear most of his board with Elesh Norn. After her came my Primeval Titan along with myself feeling pretty confident about winning. Naturally such thoughts were short-lived, since he O-Ring’d Norn and Zealous Conscript my Titan in order for exact damage.

Round 4: 2-0 vs Ferocity Ramp
Always fun to end the night against a friend. Game 1 saw a timely Day of Judgment murder a couple of his Dungrove Elders and a Primeval Titan before finishing via an 8/1 trampley Birds of Paradise. Game 2 I ended up ramping into Karn fairly early on. He dominated the board alongside Wurmcoil Engine. Took a while to get through lots of undying defense, but it happened. Not before exiling a Batterskull to the bottom of his exile zone, though.

I’m rather eager to get my hands on a playset of Rancor and a couple Akroma’s Memorial once M13 gets here. Been tossing around a Eldrazi Green-type of deck in my head.

Deck Concept - White Sligh

Daily MTG's Building on a Budget Column has ended. Those who know me or have read my comments on the articles know that I'm no fan of the last author. So when the namesake of the last article doesn't even make it in a deck, I take that as a reason to start building.

There's a tribal creature if I ever did see one.

 

I can't claim to have a record at making decent tribal decks. Wolves and Myr aside, I honestly don't care for them that much. Besides those two, the only time I made a serious tribal deck was back in Lorwyn times, after literally opening only goblins from a few back-to-back drafts. Today I'm going to turn to the same base strategy that I used when assembling that old thing: Sligh.

In a nutshell, Sligh is a type of aggressive deck that takes to heart the value of using all of your mana in a given turn. It plays cheap creatures for fast attacking combined with burn for removal and yelling "KO!" at your opponent's face. That last link goes more in depth and probably better than I could ever explain it.

Wait a second. I said burn, right? Well, okay, I'll disclaim now that going outside of red can severely hinder that burn part, which can't be understressed. We're fortunate to have a few ways to make up for it, but in the end, we lack the simple elegance of 'Bolt to the Head. 

Onto the deck building.

We're making tribal, so screw our concepts of good creatures and turn to Gatherer for a preliminary list of Soldiers and Knights that might be inclusion-worthy. Linked are the M13 cards, since I don't like making you do all the work.

• War Falcon
• Odric, Master Tactician
• Knight of Glory
• Crusader of Odric
• Captain's Call
• Attended Knight
• Aven Squire
• Accorder Paladin
• Hero of Bladehold
• Kemba's Skyguard
• Mirran Crusader
• Riders of Gavony
• Silverblade Paladin
• Spectral Rider
• Champion of the Parish
• Doomed Traveler
• Elite Inquisitor
• Gideon's Avenger
• Loyal Cathar
• Mentor of the Meek
• Porcelain Legionnaire
• Thalia
• Timely Reinforcements

A respectable list, no?
I see a few rather juicy inclusions that I want to use, but sadly won't. Immediately tossing in three Hero of Bladehold sounds grand, but that wouldn't be showing up Van Lunan, now would it? If budget is something you don't value, then by all means run her, Mirran Crusader, Thalia, and Champion of the Parish. Hell, that sounds like a pretty good reverse order of plays too! Moving on.

Copy/pasted from that-link-I-somehow-believe-is-easier-to-keep-referencing-than-just-to-relink, this is the general format of a Sligh deck:
1 mana slot: 9-13
2 mana slot: 6-8
3 mana slot: 3-5
4 mana slot: 1-3
X spell: 2-3
Removal/Burn: 8-10

That doesn't seem too hard to follow, no?


White Sligh
---Lands (23)---
23 Plains

---1cc Critters (12)---
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Elite Vanguard
4 War Falcon

---2cc Critters (8)---
4 Elite Inquisitor
4 Loyal Cathar

---3cc Critters (5)---
4 Attended Knight
1 Mentor of the Meek

---4cc Critters (3)---
2 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Riders of Gavony

---Removal (5)---
3 Bonds of Faith
2 Oblivion Ring

---X Spells (4)---
3 Divine Reflection
1 White Sun's Zenith


Okay, I kind of mish-mashed the X spells and removal a little bit. Divine Reflection tends to do that. But it's the only form of white burn I'm aware of in Standard that hits both creatures and players. Bonds of Faith tries to compensate its lack of player removal by strengthening most of your creatures. As far as general creature selection goes, I tried favoring creatures of card advantage; Attended Knight is the poor man's Blade Splicer, while Doomed Traveler and Loyal Cathar keep on swinging after they die. Mentor of the Meek is a one-of intended for the late game, to help use up that mana and keep up creature mass. Beyond boring old Plains, I leave the land up to you. My only advice is to favor battle cry over exalted.

Meh.

Deck Concept - Stuffy Love [GR] [BRU]

Another ReConstruction idea. I figured that I didn't give it any love last time he was legal, so it was due.


Stuffy Burn [GR]
---Land (23)---
4 Buried Ruin
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Rootbound Crag
9 Forest
4 Mountain

---Creatures (18)---
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Elvish Visionary 
2 Predator Ooze
4 Stuffy Doll
4 Viridian Emissary

---Noncreatures (5)---
2 Batterskull
3 Garruk Relentless

---Instants / Sorceries (14)---
4 Blasphemous Act
4 Faithless Looting
2 Rampant Growth
4 Red Sun's Zenith


Idea's mostly straightforward. Burn the doll. Extra style points if you get a Batterskull onto it.

And now for the crazy...


Dancing Dolls [BRU]
---Land (24)---
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Drowned Catacombs
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Sulfur Falls
3 Island
3 Mountain
2 Swamp

---Creatures (7)---
3 Creepy Doll
4 Stuffy Doll

---Noncreatures (11)---
3 Pristine Talisman
4 Sphere of Suns
4 Spiteful Shadows

---Instants / Sorceries (18)---
1 Blasphemous Act
2 Bonfire of the Damned
3 Diabolic Tutor
3 Faithless Looting
3 Ponder
2 Slagstorm
4 Switcheroo

Just a shell for this fun interaction:
Stuffy Doll + Switcheroo + Spiteful Shadows.
You do the math.

Deck Concept - Worldfire [RU]

With M13 coming out, ReConstructed is asking for something featuring M13 cards. Naturally, I defenestrated all tribal ideas and tried thinking up something amusing.

This monstrosity was begging for some attention.

So I gave it some thought. Points of dwelling:

• Hitting the mana to cast it.
• Surviving to the point where I can cast it.
• Winning after casting it.

Well, for the first point, Blightsteel Colossus's old friend Counterlash cuts Worldfire's mana cost by a third. It's at cost of card advantage, but who cares? Clearly we're playing a Johnny deck here. Which means we have a fourth point.

• Digging for the combo.

That does help with the second point a bit. Also focusing on defense will be Red Sun's Zenith, Distortion Wake (suck on that, tokens!), and the respectable blocker that is Augur of Bolas. Remember, any non-lethal damage we take is irrelevant after Worldfire hits.

Third point, winning. That Red Sun up there helps. I originally wanted to run Vexing Devils, but decided to keep this budget. Oh well. Going with Delver of Secrets; It'll flip almost half the time with the amount of instants and sorceries that we're packing in this nonsensical thing.

And lastly, for giving the Johnny a happy ending, we have the cheap masseuse's named Ponder, Faithless Looting, and Wild Guess. If the most inexperienced of the three isn't doing it for you, try replacing it with some Pillars of Flame for second and third point reinforcement. Also good for getting use out of redundant combo piece draws.

Ideally, when Worldfire hits, it'll be off of an opponent's sorcery spell. Well, they probably aren't playing twenty in their deck, much less any after game one when they see you hit six mana. That's why twelve of our sorceries cost one to play. A seven mana Worldfire is still better than nine. I'd also suggest having one land in hand for dropping after a Worldfire, unless you're feeling particularly draw-lucky. You should have a much easier time than your opponents at casting a cheap win condition, particularly with all the filtering spells in the deck. 

So, putting it all together we're looking at:

Worldfire [RU]

---Lands (24)---

2 Desolate Lighthouse

4 Sulfur Falls

9 Island

9 Mountain

---Creatures (8)---

4 Augur of Bolas

4 Delver of Secrets

---Combo (8)---

4 Counterlash 

4 Wildfire

---Sorceries (20)---

4 Distortion Wake

4 Faithless Looting

4 Ponder

4 Red Sun's Zenith

4 Wild Guess

Yeah, just be glad I didn't try to squeeze in room for two more land or Gitaxian Probes...

Deck Concept - RW Aggro

For the past two weeks I've had this thing stewing around half-formed in my head. Let's just get it out of there. Particularly since I don't have access to the somewhat required Vexing Devils to run it. The idea started with basic Cloudshift abuses and evolved into a "Boy, I'd like to see Sun Titan bust a Lightning Mauler out of the 'yard..."


Pink Assault
---Lands (24)---
4 Clifftop Retreat
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Slayers' Stronghold
8 Mountain
8 Plains

---Creatures (23)---
3 Blade Splicer
2 Leonin Relic Warder
3 Lightning Mauler
1 Mentor of the Meek
2 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Silverblade Paladin
3 Stromblood Beserker
3 Sun Titan
4 Vexing Devil

---Noncreatures (13)---
3 Cloudshift
2 Divine Reckoning
4 Faithless Looting
2 Fling
2 Oblivion Ring


I also wanted to run Priest of Urabrask to abuse with cloudshift, but ultimately decided that without something like Inferno Titan, it's not so easy to spend a solid RRRRRR. Oh well, that's what it gets for being a concept.

Quick Post - Catching Up

Since I'm clearly rather slow when it comes to reporting tournaments, here's the nutshell version;

• Game Day - Went to a small turn-out shop, GW 'walkers decided to have a crappy mana base. Ended up Top 4'ing from my first round bi, and winning on sheer luck.
• FNM  6/1 - Walkers again, 3/2 overall, deck failed me in the last round. Oh well.
• Library Tourney 6/5 - YourDeck.Dick stomped, surprisingly. Ended up taking second after having a draw-go fest against UW Humans.
• FNM 6/8 - Walkers yet again. 3-1-1'd into Top 8, immediately mana screwed against Delver while still putting up a fight. Major deck changes.

Decklist - Cascade Modern

Arg, I still need to post the weird luck-sacking that was my Game Day. In the meantime, something casual. I've had it around for a long time, but seeing as how it's one of my Planechase decks, and a new Planechase set came out...


Resonance Cascade
---Land (26)---
3 Arcane Sanctum
4 Crumbling Necropolis
2 Gemstone Caverns
4 Jungle Shrine
2 Mirrodin's Core
3 Reflecting Pool
4 Savage Lands
4 Seaside Citadel 

---Creatures (10)---
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Enigma Sphinx
3 Enlisted Wurm
2 Mulldrifter

---Instants/Sorceries (22)---
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
4 Captured Sunlight
3 Deny Reality
4 Esper Charm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Mnemonic Nexus

---Noncreature Permanents (2)---
1 Maelstrom Nexus
1 Obelisk of Alara


General Breakdown:
The deck's goal is to abuse cascade, ultimately ending on discard spells most of the time (88% of the time when cascading from cc4). Later, half of the discard (Esper Charm) spells can switch over to card draw, further increasing the card advantage gap. The other half (Blightning) has a built-in Lava Spike, giving it a long term use and enabling a sense of inevitability.

I won't go into to much detail this time around, but I'll make a few notes still;
 - The few lands that come into play untapped are intended to do so to help get casting earlier. The deck is a slower one otherwise.
 - For the above reason, Captured Sunlight is important.
 - Mnemonic Nexus is a vital provider of recursion. It restocks the dangerous spells while also screwing around with some Modern-archetype strategies.
 - Obelisk of Alara and Maelstrom Nexus are fun little add-ins. One gives me late-game shenanigans, the other makes the deck feel like the Half-Life reference that is the deck title.


Now, the above list is what I consider to be the "competitive version." Blightnings can be hell in multiplayer, and Mnemonic Nexuses turn a neutral game into one that lasts for hours. So here's my quick modifications for multiplayer, namely Planechase:
 - 4 Blightning, -4 Esper Charm, -2 Mnemonic Nexus
 +2 Sprouting Thrinax, +2 Rhox War Monk, +2 Wooly Thoctar, +1 Tamanoa, +1 Knight of New Alara, +2 Primal Command