Playing Catchup

So, over the past month or so I've been playing around with mostly two decks.
The first of which is my still-current standby; monogreen.


Monogreen Midrange
--Land (22)--
20 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Kessig Wolf Run

--Creatures (24)--
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Borderland Ranger
4 Dungrove Elder
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Llanowar Elves
1 Primeval Titan
1 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Strangleroot Geist
4 Viridian Emissary
1 Vorapede
1 Wurmcoil Engine

--Noncreature Permanents (9)--
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Birthing Pod
2 Garruk Relentless
1 Karn Liberated
4 Rancor

--Sorceries (5)--
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Genesis Wave
3 Green Sun's Zenith

--Sideboard (15)--
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Acidic Slime
2 Beast Within
2 Crushing Vines
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Torpor Orb
1 Super secret tech of the week


It needs work, as I haven't touched it in two weeks. I really like the one-of Pod, seeing as it doesn't show up enough to get in my way, yet can keep an opponent on their toes. The Genesis Wave, not so much.
Moving on, the second deck's one that I thoroughly enjoy, but am rather sad to observe as being a bit too slow for the format.



Seven Evil Ex's
--Land (24)--
8 Plains
9 Swamp
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Ghost Quarter

--Creatures (6)--
2 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Wurmcoil Engine

--Noncreature Permanents (12)--
1 Batterskull
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Gideon Jura
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Lingering Souls
3 Pristine Talisman
4 Sphere of the Suns

--Instants/Sorceries (18)--
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Day of Judgment
1 Entreat the Angels
3 Lingering Souls
4 Sign on Blood
1 Timely Reinforcements
3 White Sun's Zenith

--Sideboard (15)--
1 Act of Aggression
1 Celestial Purge
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Day of Judgment
1 Mimic Vat
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Revoke Existance
1 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Torpor Orb


This one's probably going to be deconstructed soon. There's just too many ideas I want to try before rotation.

Budgetplay - Draw-Go [UW]

So, after taking a look at the previous deck, I realized it could be done fairly easily on a budget. Cutting out the Mythics is the most obvious first step. After that, removing the duals lands hurts our constancy, but gnaws off about a quarter of what’s left in the price. Normally I’d toss in Evolving Wilds to replace them, but with it in the deck already and all the X-spells I plan on running, I figure it’s better to cut Wilds and run Shimmering Grotto for fixing and let some basic land fill the dual-land gap.

Now what to fill these remaining holes with? Well, I like the redundancy of White Sun’s Zenith, especially with our drawing powers, so I’m upping it by one. I’d bring it to four, personally, but I have the dual-lands to support that WWW converted mana cost. It won’t be so easy here either, I think, but even if this deck lacks specific searching, it knows how to draw into things. Like land. And additional copies of something we probably shouldn’t be playing four of anyway. In also comes a Blue Sun’s Zenith, for additional card advantage. I figure it wouldn’t hurt off of a rewind, or any dead turn. Our third hole filler is a Darksteel Sentinel. He’s not the most impressive 6-drop out there, but the ability to flash in and survive most removal gives me some reason to give him a shot on the B-Team. I also ended up cutting a Day of Judgment in effort to budget up a bit more. The replacement for that was either a Divine Deflection or an Elixir of Immortality. I erred on the side of potential win-card, but won’t knock the other card’s ability to restock counterspells and life points.

I was tempted to throw in Intangible Virtues, but their lack of Instant-flavor detracted me. Here’s where I note that with Midnight Haunting and Lingering Souls around, one could easily go the token theme route. The reason I didn’t do that originally, at least the last time I played a physical variant of the deck, was because I tend to play heavy mass-removal (At the time, 4 Day of Judgment and 2 Phyrexian Rebirth). This deck is far from that, so it could work out. I guess I’m just not fond of seeing 1/1s all game long.


More Budgety Draw-Go
—Instant Speed (26)—
1 Darksteel Sentinel
1 Blue Sun’s Zenith
4 Dissipate
3 Divine Deflection
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
4 Rewind
3 Think Twice
3 White Sun’s Zenith

—Sorcery Speed (10)—
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Day of Judgment
4 Ponder

—Land (24)—
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Shimmering Grotto
10 Island
8 Plains


Strategy: It’s Draw-Go. On your turns, draw a card, and say go. On theirs, be a dick and slap counterspells on anything they try to do that seems important. Deviate from this plan to play 1cc’s if you can spare the mana, or to nuke the board. Savvy?

• Divine Deflection can easily be creature removal. Especially if they’re playing with Cavern of Souls. Watch out for those communists smarter opponents that cast things after combat!
• Unless Sentinel’s having a good day, most endgames will come down to White Sun’s Zenith. Before then, feel free to sacrifice kitties in combat. Remember, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll draw the card again.
• If you don’t have Rewinds, Cancel should suffice.
• There’s very little early game solutions for Strangleroot Geist here. Be prepared to take hits, or sideboard accordingly.

So what’s the damage, captain? A touch over twenty-five bucks as of this posting.

Deck Concept - Draw/Go [W/U]

Usually, whenever a significantly changed Standard Format comes around, there’s a type of deck I’ll turn to for the first week or two; Draw-Go. Normally, it’s to take a step back and see what everyone else is playing and also satiate that urge to be a dick. Now, I don’t feel like M13’s bringing along the significant change that usually involves something rotating out, but that second urge… Well, that gets increased by lacking the cards I want to play with. Particularly when I do have an old playset of Rewinds on hand.

Last time I played Draw-Go was on the onset of M12/Scars of Mirrodin/Innistrad. I was the first in the shop to run Delvers (As an additional turn one option, something to play turn 3 with a Leak in hand, etc), and ended up utterly dominating the unstable meta. Of course, I don’t think things’ll be so easy in M13/Innistrad/Return to Ravnica, with Delver being well known and all.

Anyways, here’s what I’m halfway tempted to run next FNM:


Draw-Delver
—Instants (23)—
4 Dissipate
2 Divine Deflection
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
4 Rewind
3 Think Twice
2 White Sun’s Zenith

—Sorcery-Speed (13)—
3 Day of Judgment
4 Delver of Secrets
1 Entreat the Archangels
1 Gideon Jura
1 Jace, MA
4 Ponder

—Land (24)—
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Evolving Wild
4 Glacial Fortress
8 Island
4 Plains
1 Swamp

—Sideboard (15)—
1 Day
3 Devastation Tide
1 Elesh Norn
2 Mimic Vat
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Revoke Existance


Strategy’s pretty simple: Do something turn one if you can. Otherwise, sit back and counter their stuff, playing spells at the end of their turn if you’ve got the mana free for it. Board wipe if something bad slips through or if you decide to take the risk and drop a planeswalker. Otherwise, win condition goes to Delver-smashing or Rain of Kitties litterboxing your opponent.

Sideboard’s all off the top of my head; it’s a tad removal heavy I think. But with Cavern of Souls around, I think it’s worth having. Also, I’m a little iffy on the mana base. Last time around I ran with only two Ghost Quarters and four Shimmering Grotto and did fine. You want to draw land consistently to work your way up to something big with room to counter, so the grottos are probably the better bet. Of course, I didn’t have a single Glacial Fortress back then…

M13 Prerelease

And I took fourth out of thirty. Huzzah!

So, I’m still not the biggest fan of the new line of Core Sets, but I have to say WotC did an amazing job on the packaging. Not only do the packs look sweet, but they open beautifully. Like they were made for “popping.” <— See 3:44 of this video. Heck, even the new card smell’s better than most recent sets. Methinks I get a bit too much into opening packs. <_<

Opened some good stuff for once. Wanted to go black/white, but ended up full esper for the draw. Blah blah blah details. Here’s what I opened / built, italics indicating rarity and foiliness.


Sealed For My Pleasure [BUW]
—Land (18)—
3 Evolving Wilds
6 Island
5 Plains
4 Swamp

—Creatures (13)—
Ajani’s Sunstriker
Archaeomancer
Arctic Aven
Chronomaton
Duty-Bound Dead
Guardians of Akrasa
Knight of Glory
Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
Sublime Archangel
Warclamp Mastiff
War Priest of Thune
2 Welkin Tern

—Noncreatures (9)—
Divination
Elixir of Immortality
2 Index
Murder
Oblivion Ring
Staff of Nin
2 Talrand’s Invocation

—Sideboard (8)—
Disentomb
Duress
Essence Scatter
Gilded Lotus
Guardian Lions
Healer of the Pride
Plains
Safe Passage

—Other Opens—
Battleflight Eagle
Captain’s Call
Divine Favor
Griffin Protector
Show of Valor
Silvercoat Lion
2 Bloodthrone Vampire
Cower in Fear
2 Walking Corpse
Wit’s End
Downpour
Faerie Invaders
Harbor Serpent
2 Hydrosurge
Jace’s Phantasm
Kraken Hatchling
2 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
2 Negate
Sleep
Vedalken Entrancer
Arbor Elf
Bountiful Harvest
Deadly Recluse
Duskdale Wurm
Elvish Visionary
Primal Huntbeast
Rancor
Ranger’s Path
Spiked Baloth
Timberpack Wolf
Arms Dealer
Bladetusk Boar
Dragon Hatchling
Fervor
Goblin Arsonist
Goblin Battle Jestor
Kindled Fury
Krenko’s Command
Reckless Brute
Rummaging Goblin
Searing Spear
Torch Fiend
Turn to Slag
Volcanic Geyser
Volcanic Strength
Wild Guess
Ring of Kalonia


Round 1 vs Black/Red (2-0) - I faced a highly competitive player known for his ragequit temper when things don’t go his way. Outside of Limited, all he’s capable of is netdecks. Moving on, since I’m not here to bash. Game one I do a little early attacking, and he gets out Vampire Nighthawk. I Talrand’s Invocation into two 2/2 flying blockers, stalling the field until Murder kills the Bloodhawk. He scoops in response, unwilling to lay out an (apparently) cruddy hand. Game two’s not much different, this time him scooping after loudly proclaiming mana screw and something along the lines of a rather snoddy “Nice three color deck.” Probably best that I kept my tongue held. After all, I was only mainboarding Gilded Lotus at the time, alongside my three Evolving Wilds and those Indexes.

Round 2 vs Green/Red and Black/Blue (2-0) - In game one I got out Sublime Angel, but ended up having to trade her with a Dragon Hatchling. Nefarox came out shortly after, but couldn’t attack on account of a Deadly Recluse. After a few turns of stalling, an Index grabbed my O-Ring to get it out of the way for the win. He switched colors for game two, and sadly for him I ended up curving perfectly, too much to stop.

Round 3 vs Monoblack (0-2) - The guy opened up four Murders, need I say more? My stars died easily, and my second game had a rather slow hand. Hey, luck can go both ways.

Round 4 vs Black/Blue/Green (2-0 / 3-1) - Battling a friend, we choose to split the prize packs and play for points. Which was a good thing, since I ended up utterly overpowering him. Sublime Angel + Talrand’s Invocation is really good stuff. Especially when it happens two games in a row. We played two more games after that, and still had a third of the round left when we’d finished.
All in all, an excellant showing.

Budgetplay - Shape Anew [RU]

Being a Johnny player more than anything else, I’ve been a big fan of Polymorph decks in the past. In fact, it was the first thing I tend to throw together in Standard whenever they announce a fun fatty creature.

Sadly, I realize that when October hits, we’ll be depending on Return to Ravnica to bring it back. So we better enjoy the one we have while it’s here.



Now, generally there’s three parts to the combo: The target, the spell, and the fatty. Let’s work backwards.

• Considering that Shape Anew works only with artifacts, I’ve only one one fatty in mind; Blightsteel Colossus. 
• Shape Anew’s our Polymorph. Fairly straightforward.
• Well aware of the existence of Naturalize and it’s kin as well as the ever fun Oblivion Ring, I want something that can survive the former and can sneak in before the latter has a chance to hit it; Darksteel Relic. With Trinket Mage, we only need to run one copy, therefore avoiding hitting another when casting Shape Anew.

There’s what I call a shell. Since this combo can work by itself, one can basically build a deck alongside these bits. In current Standard, that tends to be a Blade Splicer control deck. Since the release of Restoration Angel, Blade Splicer’s upped beyond the budget range I’m trying to shoot for. Since I want the combo to be the star here, I’m going to focus on digging for it. Red helps with that.

Speaking of Budget, I’ll be only using one Blightsteel Colossus. I advise against this, as drawing your only one without a way of emptying it from your hand rather sucks. Red helps with that.


Shaping Steel
—Land (24)—
4 Evolving Wilds
10 Island
10 Mountain

—Creatures (5)—
1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Trinket Mage

—Spells (31)—
2 Apostle’s Blessing
1 Darksteel Relic
4 Faithless Looting
2 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
3 Pillar of Flame
4 Ponder
1 Red Sun’s Zenith
4 Shape Anew
3 Think Twice
3 Wild Guess


Like I said, lots of digging. And a few burning and counterspells to slow down the opposition. Ideally you want a turn 3 Trinket Mage, getting the Relic ready to drop/shaped on turn 4. If you’re wondering about the Apostle’s Blessings, they’re in to combat Vapor Snag/Oblivion Ring and to give us a quicker win against one-color boards. I’d have two more on Sideboard for sure.

As far as the mana base goes, I kept things even for the benefit of Wild Guess. As a Blightsteel discarder, it’s worth keeping around even if it doesn’t bode so well with a turn one Ponder. For those adding Sulfur Falls, I’d only take out one of the Islands.

Oh hey, how’s Andrew Jackson sound for a budget? Because as of this posting, the deck clocks in just under twenty dollars. Check it out.

Deck Concept - Battle of Wits [BRU]

Yeah, I tossed this together the day I heard it was spoiled, and just want to get it out of my head and off my Sticky Notes.


Battle of Wits aka Deck Population: 227
—Land (90)—
4 Evolving Wilds
86 other lands

—Creatures (22)—
4 Bloodgift Demon
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Oculus
2 Rune-Scarred Demon
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Vampire Nighthawk

—Digging (53)—
4 Amass the Components
4 Dangerous Wager
4 Desperate Ravings
4 Divination
4 Faithless Looting
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
1 Mind Unbound
4 Reforge the Soul
4 Sign in Blood
4 Think Twice
4 Visions of Beyond
4 Wild Guess

—Graveyard Recovery (5)—
4 Elixir of Immortality
1 Time Reversal

—Mana Fixing (16)—
4 Gem of Becoming
4 Manalith
4 Traveler’s Amulet
4 Vessel of Endless Rest

—Stall Tactics (26)—
4 Blasphemous Act
4 Cancel
4 Circle of Flame
3 Death Wind
4 Devastation Tide
4 Dissipate
3 Killing Wave

—Tutors (11)—
2 Diabolic Revelation
4 Diabolic Tutor
3 Distant Memories
2 Increasing Ambition

—Win Condition (4)—
4 Battle of Wits


I think the groupings above pretty much take care of the basic strategy. Dig for Battle of Wits or if you can, tutor it. Then, if you need more cards in deck, find a piece of graveyard recovery.

Remember kids: Real combo players count their hand, graveyard, and permanents instead of their deck!

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...