Five With Flores

Osyp suggested a similar idea (but no deck list) on our mailing list. You know that I am like a feather and anyone suggesting I play this… I probaly will float in that direction if it is mentioned.

The deck list:

3 Chalice of the Void

4 Akroma’s Vengeance
2 Crovax, Ascendent Hero
4 Decree of Justice
4 Eternal Dragon
4 Mana Tithe
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Proclamation of Rebirth
4 Wrath of God

22 Snow-covered Plains
4 Temple of the False God

sideboard:
1 Chalice of the Void
4 Unmake
4 Condemn
1 Crovax, Ascendent Hero
3 Kataki, War’s Wage
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

I played about five matches with this deck last night but my computer crashed so I lost the notes. So I am going completely on memory for the first night.

For the first night I played on Boseiju, Who Shelters All in the main. It was kind of awful. In fact I played it as my first land against Zoo and Red decks and I think it cost me the Zoo Game One. So I moved it to nowhere (I always had the second Boseiju in the sideboard). Anyway, I crushed Swans with two awful draws and I don’t see how you can reasonably lose to Faeries or Wizards on MTGO; I don’t see how those decks can beat you in a tournament unless you don’t draw anything the whole match.

Swans
I get the worst mana flood ever. Crush him.

I get a medium horrible mana screw. Crush him.

The Swans matchup was pretty simple. I drew sixteen straight lands in Game One, and somehow won. Basically I took a couple of hits from his Swans and then played Chalice of the Void for two, to counter his Chain of Plasma. I blew up his guy.

Wait, wait wait… He goes for it, Repeals my Chalice and plays the combo with all his mana… I have the Mana Tithe. Of course I re-play the Chalice and finally draw Eternal Dragon. Blood Moon of course did nothing.

Game Two was the opposite… I wasn’t completely screwed but I was discarding for a while. Just so happened to have a key Mana Tithe, etc.

Affinity
I actually got run over by the super fast draw in Game One. Game Two I got Akroma’s Vengeance, and Game Three I got Kataki. Affinity is a non-issue for this deck.

Zoo
As above, I was quite punished by the main deck Boseiju. I replaced it with a Plains… The deck actually needs 26 lands, and skimpint to 25 hurt.

Game Two I kept a hand with three Eternal Dragons and Condemnm but only one Plains. It took six turns to find the second one. Some nice stalling with the Martyr helped a lot. This was actually pretty close… He didn’t play Teeg (at least against me).

Going down 0-2 to Zoo is annoying if he doesn’t present Teeg… Just a case of my hiccuping against Zoo and the fact that you don’t want to do that. The sideboard is chock full of cards that are actually cheap enough to point at Teeg.

Gifts Rock
Nope, this deck can’t beat Gifts Rock. Death Cloud and Life From the Loam destroyed me. I had a Chalice on two in play in I think Game Two but he just killed me with Kitchen Finks.

Today…

All-in Red
A surprisingly easy matchhp. Especially in sideboarded games, I had every Unmake a girl could ever want.

Lightning Bolt Deck
This one was also super easy.

My hot play was to Martyr for four, not five, not revealing my tricky card. The opponent tapped out to point Flames of the Blood Hand… My last card was Mana Tithe

Weird Elf Deck
I conceded match after he showed me a fourth Thoughts of Ruin. I actually screwed up on the first Thoughts of Ruin.

Fae
He timed out. I was the beatdown eerly, then got him eventually to three life. I suggested he concede but he kept playing.

There seems to be very little Fae / Wizards can do against this deck, at least in Game One. White has more card advantage, which is inexorable as it is inexhaustable.

The main advantages of this deck are that it is solid against Red and Fae. It cannot however beat The Rock, ever.

Just some thoghts. Happy New Year!

LOVE
MIKE

PS Is it worthwhile to splash Red? Lightning Helix is already White for the Martyr… Firespout might be good against Zoo and playable against Elves. Thoughts?

An updated deck list followed by a couple of matches with All-in Red, including two mini-You Make the Plays!

I have been playing mono The Rock lately but some discussion on my mailing list has put me off The Rock for the moment. I decided to play the other Extended deck I like tonight, All-in Red.

This is my deck list:

4 Chrome Mox

4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Deus of Calamity
2 Manamorphose

4 Blood Moon
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
4 Simian Spirit Guide

18 Mountain

sideboard:
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Firespout
4 Gutteral Response
4 Shattering Spree

Basically I reversed the numbers on Manamorphose and Empty the Warrens from the pre-Pro Tour Berlin version. Manamorphose really just improves Warrens; and Warrens was the best threat. I don’t know if Manamorphose will ultimately make the prime time version of the deck list, but I like it quite a bit because I have some gamble to me and have been known to play it just to see what happens. What usually happens is that I reveal a Demigod of Revenge or some such.

In this deck, versus Standard, I actually prefer Deus of Calamity more than Demigod of Revenge. In All-in Red in Extended, you don’t actually get to play multiple Demigods in a single game very often because you simply don’t have the mana (you usually use a lot of the Red Dark Ritual cards and don’t tend to have a lot of staying power); if you can play Deus of Calamity on the first turn on the play, there are really very few ways for you to lose. At the least you usually get to play The Abyss for a while until they can deal with the Deus, at which point you can often clean up with a medium Empty the Warrens or some other threat, exploiting the, you know, calamity that the Deus wrecked.

I originally only wanted to play about three matches but they went relatively quickly and ended up playing about five. Everyone I played tonight was very nice. Thanks for the games all.

ONE

Game One:

My opponent led off on Darksteel Citadel, pass.

Now no Affinity deck will ever do that so I put him on the Lightning Bolt deck. I kept this hand.

YOU MAKE THE PLAY ALERT. What do you run (answer in the forums)?

Chrome Mox
Chrome Mox
Seething Song
Empty the Warrens
Magus of the Moon
Demigod of Revenge
Mountain
Mountain

We can discuss this in future, but what I actually did was to play both the Moxes, imprinting Demigod of Revenge and Magus of the Moon to play turn one Empty the Warrens, burning to 19.

The other option is to play Demigod of Revenge; however as I put my opponent on Lightning Bolt deck, I assumed that he would have a hard time dealing with eight Empty the Warrens tokens whereas he might be able to just Shrapnel Blast the Demigod out of the sky if need be.

He played Keldon Marauders, putting your hero to 18.

I sent all my Goblin tokens and put him to 13.

He counterattacked and put me to 15, then played Sulfuric Vortex.

I looked at his board… Darksteel Citadel and Great Furnace, eh?

I will be on 12 on upkeep. If he hits a land, that Sulfuric Vortex is gonna… well you gotta play the cards that they give you!

He had the double Shrapnel Blast, but sadly (for him), no fourth land. Huzzah!

Sideboarding:
I decided to side in 3 Umezawa’s Jittes and 1 Shattering Spree for 4 Blood Moon. Magus of the Moon is no great shakes but at least he has a body for the Jittes I sided in.

Game Two:

He opened on Spark Elemental.

I responded with turn one Deus of Calamity.

Pause.

Yep. That’s a concession.

1-0

TWO

I played a very nice player with medium Red whom I have played a couple of times before with my version of The Rock.

Game One

He shipped to five and kept a one lander. It wasn’t a competitive hand against my second turn Demigod of Revenge.

Sideboarding:
I sided four Firespout and 3 Jitte for seven Blood Moons and Magus of the Moons (leaving a Magus, obviously).

I had to use the first Firespout on his turn one Slith Firewalker. There were no Seething Song for Arc-Slogger heroics in this one and All-in Red beat medium Red in unspectacular fashion.

2-0

THREE

Game One

I kept two Moon cards versus Lightning Bolt deck. Luckily I drew eight Mountains off the top. So at the end of the game, my spell count was a Mox, Blood Moon, and Magus of the Moon. No, I didn’t get there.

Sideboarding
I sided identically to the first match, above. I probably should have sided in more Shattering Sprees.

Game Two

Turn two Deus of Calamity was deployed, but he blocked to stall and played Ensnaring Bridge! Good gravy. I wasn’t sure what to do and played a naked Demigod of Revenge, which did nothing. Then I topdecked a Jitte. He ran out a Pyrostatic Pillar. I decided I didn’t want to mess with that with my no-acceleration hand and just made two Warrens tokens with the outlook of hopefully getting something online. However he had a Mogg Fantatic to keep the tokens off.

I played some dorks, took Pillar damage; he had to burn every one and take Pillar damage to keep Jitte off him. Eventually it was 5-7 my lead but he had this card Shrapnel Blast and saved it for when I foolishly summoned a Simian Spirit Guide.

I am not sure how I should have played it differently. Possibly I should have waited for another Warrens, but I think waiting too long I would have just died to multiple burn spells.

2-1

FOUR

Game One

He opened on a tapped Steam Vents.

I was on the play and answered with turn two Deus.

Concession!

Steam Vents? What is that? I assumed Fae but didn’t do anything on account of possibly being wrong.

Game Two

I got Spell Snared as a two-for one (I had already committed Rite of Flame)… so that prevented a turn two or three Empty the Warrens for six.

Then I resolved some Moon-ish spells, and the race was his Vendilion Clique versus my Magus of the Moon.

Following I got in Empty the Warrens for eight; this survived the aforementioned Vendilion Clique, which took my other Empty the Warrens.

He kept sending the Clique and used Threads of Disloyalty to mise one of my tokens.

Then he showed me Venser, which executed two tokens, and Vedalken Shackles.

I thought I had enough gas because of holding a Deus of Calamity back, but he had Flashfreeze as well.

Luckily I had gotten him to two life at this point.

So basically I could win on a storm Warrens or a Demigod of Revenge, but probably be frozen out by anything else. Unfortunately I knew there was one of my remaining three Warrens on the bottom of my deck, meaning I only really had two Warrens left…

But luckily one was on top.

So Mox for nil got me four tokens… possibly enough to win.

But no! Engineered Explosives ate all my guys and suddenly the fae was off to the races. He even made a Spellstutter Sprite for no value.

On his main phase he Shackled my remaining 2/2 dork to get in with Venser and the Clique. Okay… Shackles tapped. Sprite tapped. YT on two.

I could smell the demigod on top.

Yep, topdeck city!

That’s match. Thank you top of my deck!

3-1

FIVE

Game One

I was on the draw.

He ran out turn one Overgrown Tomb.

I answered with turn one Deus of Calamity.

He was honored to be able to eat a Tarmogoyf.

Oblivion Ring! No fun.

Main deck Jitte? Even less fun; then Dark Confidant.

I basically had to play a Warrens for two just to keep the Confidant / Jitte from running me over.

Check and check plus… but he still had a Jitte with a counter.

I sprang into action with a hasty 5/4.

But he had another Oblivion Ring!

I was waiting for that and played another Deus. Whew.

But he answered with Mogg Fanatic, now wearing the Jitte.

He trades, but greviously, including a Seal of Fire.

Now it’s Spirit Guide beatdown.

But no! Kird Ape.

I play Magus of the Moon.

A terrible battle ensues, killing everyone and soaking up all the Jitte counters.

Nothing from him…

And I Mox for nothing, and play four tokens from Warrens.

And finally I get by a Jitte!

Sideboarding:
I sided out 1 Magus of the Moon and two Manamorphose for three Umezawa’s Jitte. Magus is okay-plus, but I figured he had Red removal and Jittes (which are colorless) as well as Plains for Oblivion Ring… So not that good.

Game Two

This is the hand I kept:

Simian Spirit Guide
Simian Spirit Guide
Mountain
Deus of Calamity
Blood Moon
Seething Song
Magus of the Moon

He opened with Windswept Heath for Wooded Foothills.

I ripped a Mountain.

YOU MAKE THE PLAY ALERT: What do you do?

I elected to play first turn Blood Moon using both Guides.

He answered with a turn two 1/2 Tarmogoyf, which made me think maybe I should have played the Magus instead.

My next two draws were Deus and Seething Song, so little direct improvement, especially as he mised Plains.

Next turn I made Deus with Rite of Flame and Seething Song.

He swung…

I blocked and he finished off the Deus with a Tribal Flames.

He ripped and played Oblivion Ring on my poor Blood Moon.

I ripped and played Deus.

He played Confidant into Confidant…

But your hero picked up Jitte.

Uncontested Jitte did what uncontested Jitte does.

4-1

So 4-1… Not conclusive but certainly a fine record for the night.

Please address how you would have dealt with those opening hands in the comments below.

LOVE
MIKE

Some notes you might find helpful from preliminary Extended testing with The Rock, and against the dreaded Elves…

Before we get to today’s actual post, a couple of things…

Actually go back and read Playing with Follow-through. I know I said to read it after the last post / video but I bet most of you didn’t. IT’S AWESOME. I totally forgot that I wrote it with this completely affected diction, like a 1950s gossip rag. I don’t toot my own horn about articles that often (I mean other than Who’s the Beatdown?, The Rogue Strategy, and Magic: The Intangibles)… but this one was an absolute joy to re-read.

Just a little back story. It was about June of 2005 and I was worried about getting burned out. So I toyed with the idea of… Hold on, let me just find the bonus section from Sideboards I Like:

 

Bonus Section:
I initially submitted a 50’s-style society gossip column this week, highlighting the backbiting of a certain Mr. S_____ on the occasion of the P__ T___, but Teddy Cardgame rejected it on the grounds that Star City is an alleged “Magic Strategy” site and they don’t publish 50’s-style gossip columns… Not The Month Before Regionals, anyway. So if you, like Jamie Wakefield, actually burst into tears every Thursday night at midnight at the lack of urine-inducing joviality in my once lighthearted writing, you just wait.

You have been warned.

Anyway, go back and read that one.

Also Merry Christmas, &c.

With that preliminary stuff out of the way, I’d like to talk about testing Extended.

I think I have a pretty good Extended deck. 

It is The Rock.

I haven’t been losing very much. Basically not at all. Tonight I had the opportunity to test against a pretty good Elves deck; the demeanor of the player struck me as being very knowledgeable playing Elves. I got the first game of our first match when he fizzled. He won games two and three possibly because I didn’t mulligan, possibly because I didn’t play very well.

In particular I was on the play one of the games and I elected to draw Barren Moor and Wooded Foothills on turn two instead of playing Chrome Mox and running out Engineered Explosives for one. His board was a Forest and a Llanowar Elves. Of course he killed me to death the next turn, albeit by narrow margin.

I talked it through with him and he agreed to play some more. 

I won I think all the rest of the games, admittedly with strong draws (though fueled by strategy-specific mulligans). Here are the preliminary things I learned:

1) You have to play cautiously against Elves. “Drawing two” and worrying about the consequences later was tantamount to “I don’t think you have it,” or at least “Prove it.” Don’t poke the dragon. He beat me in a game where I had Engineered Explosives for one down and Darkblast the whole game just by playing three Wirewood Hivemasters and swarming me before I could play all my creature removal. Elves, like High Tide, is the kind of combo deck that can fizzle, spend a ton of resources, but still be better off at the end of the turn than it was at the beginning of the turn (as opposed to some combo decks that can’t really win if they fizzle). Therefore if you have the resources, it is important to keep Elves in as close to Stage One as possible using removal because if you let them flirt with Stage Three, don’t be surprised if they show you a dominating Stage Three turn that you can’t actually beat.

2) You don’t tell bad beat stories about what was “supposed” to happen. Last night my Cleveland Cavaliers, arguably the strongest NBA team this year, but inarguably the strongest home team in the league came quite close to giving up their first home game during a nationally televised Christmas outing with the lowly Washington Wizards… the worst team in the Eastern Conference. For most of the fourth quarter I was on the edge of my seat chanting, “No. Not to this team. Not at home, and not on Christmas.” I was zombie-like. I don’t know who I was talking to, even though there were lots of people in the room at the time. Part of the problem was that the Cavs’ best players, both certain All-Star LeBron James and likely All-Star big Z were having sub-par games. Happens, right? But we were getting absolutely killed by an undrafted Washington guard by the name of Mike James. Mike James is a career .424 shooter averaging under 7 points per game this season. Last night he lit it up with superb 10-14 shooting, including 5-8 three point shooting. My dad had already consigned the Cavs to a giant lump of coal apparently, and “blamed” the game on Mike James coming out. “He isn’t supposed to do that. Those shots aren’t supposed to fall.” And no, when a team like Washington has every shot falling, that isn’t “supposed” to happen… but I bet Washington fans think it’s just dandy when that happens! Magic and the heavy statistical work I have been doing over the past couple of years has ironed out the kind of dialogue that I used to nod my head to as a sports fan. I knew the Cavs could have just not let Wally Szerbiak touch the ball. Wally — who gets paid about 13 million dollars per year and doesn’t even start — absolutely bled possessions and put up bad shots that could have gone to higher percentage players. If we lost a close six point game, I would have pointed my finger to our team’s decisions, and how five possessions in Wally’s hands had done more than enough damage to lose a single digits game.

That’s how you have to approach Magic, I think; at least tournament Magic against good decks that can explode on the second turn. Before Pro Tour Berlin I was working with Jacob Van Lunen and he was walking me through a matchup scenario; I stopped him mid-sentence. “I know you have them on winning turn four-point-five, but you can’t actually play like that. You don’t get eliminated from Day Two or Top 8 contention because things happened exactly the way they were supposed to!” Maybe that combo deck is supposed to go off on turn four-point-five, but what about that point five? That means that they go off on actual turn four sometimes, or maybe three-point-something. You don’t get eliminated by everything going the way you planned (or at least I hope you don’t!). It’s the games where you leave shaking your head, complaining about a Mike James getting hot when you should have been focused on keeping Wally off the floor… those things YOU can control.

When I lost to the Elves deck because I went for Loam instead of Mox and Engineered Explosives, I let Wally shoot. Wally was traded to the Cavaliers last season as a marksman… He was supposed to be the number two scorer on the Cavaliers, the guy who broke up opposing defensive rotations and kept LeBron’s coverage to a manageable three or four defenders instead of all five. When he hits a three, the crowd is very happy. Just like when you draw two cards for two mana with sights set on three cards next turn (still for two mana), your inner crowd cheers. But when he rims out — or the opposing combo deck has a disagreement with your projected inner cheering and you don’t actually get to untap — What then? You have to control the things you can control. And in this case, that starts with cautious play that respects the opponent’s ability to kill you instead of daring him to prove it. 

Because he just might prove it.

I talked the game over with my  very gracious opponent and a spectator, and the general conclusion was that I would have had to pop the Explosives early, but I would have slowed the game down somewhat. I wouldn’t have ruined him by any means, popping it early, but…

It would have been a hell of a lot better than dying. 

Which is what happened.

Like I said, I learned a lot, and I think I am going to be confident with my build of The Rock. I will of course post it here (provided I am still on it) as we get closer to the Extended PTQ season.

LOVE
MIKE 

PS The best game was when I was sitting on Engineered Explosives for one and he presented all twos… Elvish Visionary, Hivemaster, Hivemaster. Then Fecundity. I could see the gears moving in his head, and he went for Weird Harvest for four (I only had three men left in my deck). I saw the Golden Path and drew three at the end of his turn. Two of the three were Persecutes. Hot damn! Main phase I played Crime // Punishment for his twos, let him draw three, and slammed Persecute with a Mox! Things looked bad for him, but he topdecked and played a second Fecundity. I played an Engineered Explosives for three… and mis-clicked and popped the one I was saving for some future Nettle Sentinels and Druids various. Doh! But I had just read Playing with Follow-through and knew to give up the turn to eat the Fecundity twins anyway.