Five With Flores

Five With Flores is happy to have another post from our friend Thomas Dodd, aka @amistod on Twitter.

Thomas was instrumental in building the mono-Cascade decks and has been representin’ the blog with our signature decks at a number of 5K events, including a Top 16 with Black Baneslayer, you know, before it was cool.

Thomas is back with a great report — and response to the Grand Unified Theory of Magic — and Five is happy, as always to have him.

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On the Monday before the Atlanta 5k, I called my friend, Robbie Cordell, and exclaimed that I had found the deck for us to play that weekend. When I saw Mike’s Grixis list, it was right after listening to Kelly, Will and Mike discuss the Grand Unified Theory, and I felt like the veil had been lifted. My main problem with the Double Negative/Sphinx version is that Duress completely undermines the path to victory. There are as many as ten situational spells in LSV’s list. Once I realized that no card in Mike’s deck “missed”, I was hooked. (As you guys know from my stint with Black Baneslayer, I am absolutely obsessed with never missing a cascade.) Robbie and I began working with the list on MTGO several days before the 5k. Since the first thing I do when I start testing a Flores list is drop one of the expensive spells, I took out Sorin Markov and replaced it with a Terminate. After several matches, we started noticing a trend. We wanted more Nighthawks, and we boarded in the same cards in almost every match. Into the Roil is phenomenal against three drops, but with Verdant Catacombs, not even Spreading Seas could save me from the Leech. The Terminate is really a concession to Putrid Leech. I just can’t seem to play decks that do well against that guy. Countersquall performed better than expected, and we moved it to the main deck. With the added space in the sideboard, this is what we registered:

Grixis Burn, by Thomas Dodd

2 Sorin Markov

4 Divination
4 Spreading Seas

4 Blightning
3 Countersquall
4 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Sedraxis Specter
2 Terminate

4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt

4 Crumbling Sanctuary
4 Drowned Catacomb
3 Dragonskull Summit
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Swamp

sb
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
4 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Countersquall
1 Earthquake
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Pyroclasm

Apparently, Robbie and Mike can’t lose to Vampires. I, on the other hand, can’t seem to beat them reliably, and it was definitely a problem for me in Atlanta. Another thing I noticed was the lack of a cohesive sideboard plan. All day long, I had an uneven number of cards that I wanted in/out. I would like to give you thoughts on updating the deck, but I think the Esper build Mike posted [here] really covers the same points that I would make. In the weeks after Worldwake, you will definitely see me casting Day of Judgment on turn 3, and Sorin Markov on turn 5.

Round 1 - Mono Black Control - Eric

Eric’s deck wasn’t the best list I have ever seen; however, he had up to 4 Duress, Mindrot, and Mind Sludge after sideboarding.

I sideboarded in the Countersquall for a Terminate.

1-0 / 2-1 games

Round 2 - UWR Fog - Scott

I have to admit, this build completely took me off guard, and I wasn’t sure how to play against it. I sideboarded in the extra Countersquall and beat him in 3.

2-0 / 4-2 games

Round 3 - Vampires - Greer

Greer is a local player and I see him at all the Atlanta events. I know he is a good player who loves his linear decks. Game 1 was typical, and I sideboarded in my Nighthawks and Countersquall.

Game 2 I mulliganed to 5, and I was unable to overcome it.

2-1 / 4-4 games

Round 4 - Vampires w/ Red - Todd Anderson

I always enjoy playing Todd, but when his Bolts dispatched my Nighthawks, this match-up proved to be even worse for me than the mono black Vampire build.

2-2 / 4-6 games

At this point in the event, I decided to drop. The number of Vampire decks in the room was staggering. Three lists made the top 8, and I really believe that it was because the deck was so well represented. There was a swiss side event, and I knew the deck could perform, so I joined.

Round 1 - Junk Home Brew - Ric

I sideboarded incorrectly because I won game 1 so quickly that I didn’t really know what he was playing. Game 2 he had turn 3 Ajani and turn 4 Baneslayer. I couldn’t keep up. I really love decks like Grixis and Black Baneslayer because opponents tend to sideboard incorrectly. He boarded in Thought Hemorrhage, etc and kept a slow draw, so he couldn’t kill me quickly enough. “Misassignment of role = game loss.”

1-0 / 2-1 games

Round 2 - Grixis (Double Negative) - David

I knew going into this tournament that Mike’s build would crush the mirror, and I really expected there to be more of these decks in Atlanta. At one point, I played Blighting, he played Negate, and I Countersqualled. 5 life and 3 cards, please. The 8 pack of Land Destruction is really over the top.

2-0 / 4-1 games

Round 3 - Boros Bushwhacker - Taylor

I had just watched this guy smash Vampires, and I was very happy to play him, considering my sideboard. Game 1 was very easy and after +2 Pyroclasm +1 Earthquake, not even Ruinblasters could save him.

3-0 / 6-1 games

Round 4 - True Mirror - Jared

These were two brutal games that were very close: just two Mages slugging each other with Blightning. He boarded in Nighthawks and I added more removal.

4-0 / 8-1 games

Round 5 - Grixis (Double Negative) - J

J was playing the Doubly Negative version of the deck, with the exception of main deck Blightning. I won Game 1, but Game 2 he found a Cruel Ultimatum first. Game 3 I was on the play and mulliganed to 5. His first play was a Blightning, and that was it for me.

4-1 / 9-3

The mulligan at the finish line was painful but overdue, considering how well the deck performed. I was very impressed with the list, although it might have been a poor choice for this tournament. It was tough to overcome the weakness to Bloodghast. Robbie ended the day at 6-3, finishing just outside the top 16.

There is a lot of buzz about different applications of the Grand Unified Theory. All cards have text that explain what they do, but when looking through a broader lens, the impact of the card may be far more than what the actual text says.

Would you play a card that says: 3W, sorcery, draw 2 cards, target opponent discards a card? That has to be worth 2UB at least, and we all know U > W!

At States last fall, I was observing a match where Vampires was playing against Boros Bushwhacker. Both players had several cards in hand, but an empty board. The Vampire’s hand was Doomblade, Infest, 2 Gatekeeper of Malakir, 2 Fleshbag Marauder.

After several turns of Draw-Go, Boros untaps and plays Ranger of Eos, getting Bushwhacker and Steppe Lynx. He is attempting to have one big turn while still being resilient to an Infest, so he passes the turn.

The Vampire casts an end of turn Doomblade on the Ranger. The Vampire player draws a land, passes, and loses that next turn. The correct play would have been to untap and kick a Gatekeeper of Malakir with Doomblade up for the Steppe Lynx. The Vampire player automatically cast Doomblade without realizing that he was just throwing the card away. The Grand Unified Theory can be applied on the fly to help you navigate tricky situations.

In closing, I want to give a plug to some of the guys out there that are really turning out some entertaining and educational content. You guys should really be listening to: Yo! MTGTaps and Limited Resources on the MTGCAST podcast network. If you aren’t reading QuietSpeculation.com and following Kelly Reid on Twitter, you are really missing out on a wealth of knowledge regarding the financial side of Magic.

Thomas Dodd
amistod on Twitter / MTGO

Concerning:

Lots of great and fun cards, like…

Umezawa’s Jitte ∙ Kitchen Finks ∙ Sakura-Tribe Elder
Tarmogoyf ∙ Bloodbraid Elf ∙ … and Umezawa’s Jitte

While I was doing research for another article I hit upon what, at the time, seemed like an unusual deck list. It was a hybrid beatdown deck featuring basically every card that I already like to play… Kitchen Finks (basically my favorite), Sakura-Tribe Elder (still my favorite despite what M10 did to the old boy), and Umezawa’s Jitte. I could forgive the Tarmogoyfs and so on because the deck also played the Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows combination that I so admired from Brian Kibler’s Pro Tour Austin-winning deck list.

But the coolest part?

It was also a combo deck!

So you have this angle of just good Green creatures… Literally the kind of creatures I probably like to play too much (see “The Greenest Mage of All” posts here and here over at Top8Magic), but then the deck also has a full-on Scapeshift kill!

I was used to seeing Scapeshift out of Ceta-colored decks, Blue all the way to their Cryptic Commands… but this could work, too.

(Just) Jund Scapeshift

3 Umezawa’s Jitte

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Kitchen Finks

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Scapeshift
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Tarmogoyf

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire

4 Grove of the Burnwillows
6 Snow-Covered Forest
6 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Stomping Ground
2 Treetop Village
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

sb:
3 Extirpate
4 Thought Hemmorhage
4 Ancient Grudge
4 Blood Moon

This main deck is basically the default “what everyone is playing” for this archetype with no modifications from YT. The sideboard is informed from looking at a bunch of different deck lists and not resorting (for once) to Akroma, Angel of Fury.

You probably get how the main deck works already if you are reading this blog; in fact, you are probably ahead of me because I just saw this deck

… But the sideboard probably takes some explanation.

You can play a sideboard like this one a couple of different ways, including staying straight Gruul instead of going Jund. I decided to go Jund because Extirpate is just that damn good, in particular against Thopter Foundry combo decks. Ancient Grudge is about my favorite Extended card ever… So how could it not join the party? I’ve already got Sakura-Tribe Elder and Kitchen Finks, after all.

Anyway first impression of this strategy was “how can this deck compete with other combo decks,” followed by “I really don’t see how I can compete with a deck featuring Baneslayer Angel” … But after having played it for a while, I really like the feel of the deck.

My first outing was against a Living End combo deck.

He got all kinds of cycling and so forth, but my deck was a bit shy for threats. Anyway he cycled Street Wraith a couple of times but otherwise evoked Shriekmaw to kill my Tarmogoyf… stuff like that. Fulminator Mage kept me off of seven for a while, but he just didn’t kill me. I played two or three copies of Search for Tomorrow and a pair of Sakura-Tribe Elders (the second one was actually Samwise Gamgee at the end of The Two Towers, Umezawa’s Jitte in one slithery hand, ruling the board.

Oh well, you can be 7/7 some other day. What I really want is a basic Swamp.

Kill ya. [Before you kill me, you filthy combo deck!]

I wouldn’t have needed his Street Wraiths because of my Sakura-Tribe Elder beatdown and some Punishing Fire action, but I can’t complain.

Game Two he just drew no Cascade spells. He cycled and cycled and I just played Thought Hemmorhage for Livinig End and he was pretty kold.

I played against a couple of men running the Lightning Bolt Deck… Not surprising, especially for online.

The frustrating part was being essentially unable to sideboard despite losing Game One in the first outing.

I just hit my Kitchen Finks on turn three and it was really easy to win.

I also played against some “rogue” (ahem) type decks and another combo deck (though which kind escapes me). All dubyas so far.

I do think this deck lacks a little bit of “I win” flexibility (for instance, it has no way to disrupt the fastest Dark Depths draw), but all-in-all I was very pleased and I think I will sleeve up a version of this for my next Extended PTQ, provided I play in another one.

Firestarter:
What do you guys think about Dead // Gone? It seems like maybe I should sideboard that; just another card that you can bring in against beatdown (though this deck seems generally advantaged), but also the three mana side can fight 20/20 Coldsnap guys better than, you know, the nothing we have right now.

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come, Part 2

Concerning:

Sorin Markov Iona, Shield of Emeria (kind of) Solar Flare
[terrible] Sphinx of Jwar Isle Awesome Sauce … and Sorin Markov

I know that some of these newly beloved decks are going to be outmoded fairly quickly due to the impending appearance of new cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, but I kind of wanted to flesh the site out a little bit; what with all the little fake posts since Worldwake preview season started.

I still really like the Grixis Burn deck, but Standard has become kind of monotonous; what, with winning nonstop with the aforementioned Grixis Burn deck

I don’t often read random Magic forums, but today’s post actually involves multiple [different] such trips. I was reading one where about 4-5 pages of an otherwise 40-page Grixis [Control] thread was de-railed to chat about my own Grixis Burn. I must say…

People are terrible.

When the main criticism of a deck is that it doesn’t have enough Sphinx of Jwar Isle… I don’t even know what to say. And that is saying something considering I have no qualms about voicing my own damn opinion about any damn subject any damn time of the… Hot damn!

This is a completely gratuitous image of Damnation.
Much like the entirety of Figure of Destiny, it has nothing to do with the rest of this post.

Yesterday I heard about a Solar Flare colors deck and decided to make my own. [Like I said a minute ago,] I looked over some Magic forums and decided that as cool as a cheatyface Iona, Shield of Emeria might be, I would just rather play awesome cards with multiple different colors to be able to deal with Iona (presuming that she hit the battlefield at all) [if it came to that]. The first time I hit the pseudo-mirror, my opponent had to pick up Iona due to an Into the Roil (Iona on White), which I followed up with Malakir Bloodwitch and Sorin Markov; I finished her off with Path to Exile (the second incarnation was, understandably, set to Black).

So my Solar Flare colors deck is very much influenced by Grixis Burn. Of course there is almost no burn element whatsoever (and also no Grixis) but many awesome cards are available, such as namesake Sorin Markov, a re-buy of Spreading Seas, and a dabbling of Countersqualls (you know, the ones I said I would go one-and-one with, possibly, against the somewhat clunky copies of Into the Roil).

Here it comes! I am calling this the version 1.0 despite making minor mana tweaks. I think BDM (aka @Top8Games would approve of the mana… It is similarly, if not identically, sick relative to the Grixis Burn mana base.

Sorin Markov Flare version 1.0

3 Sorin Markov

2 Divination
2 Into the Roil
2 Jace Beleren
4 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Spreading Seas

2 Countersquall
4 Esper Charm

4 Baneslayer Angel
3 Day of Judgment
4 Path to Exile

4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
2 Kabira Crossroads
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
4 Swamp

sb:
4 Duress
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
4 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Into the Roil
2 Countersquall
1 Day of Judgment

The main advantage to this deck over Grixis Burn is the availability of Esper Charm. Esper Charm is not quite as powerful as Cruel Ultimatum, but it is about a million manas faster; I typically use it to destroy the opponent’s hand alongside Duress a la Black Baneslayer to prevent the opponent from getting to Cruel Ultimatum mana [+ Cruel Ultimatum], though it makes for a fine Divination. I have even used Esper Charm to destroy Pyromancer’s Ascension with the second counter on the stack. Basically, that card is awesome and it is relatively shocking that not a soul has been playing it for months: Esper Charm in and of itself is basically reason enough to at least experiment with Dromar colors.

Card Breakdown:

3 Sorin Markov
Basically what we run in Grixis Burn. Esper Colors / Sorin Markov Flare doesn’t have the access capability for a Cruel Ultimatum, so you need some kind of flashy finisher to make it worth playing a non-straight burn / non-Bloodbraid Elf deck. Sorin seems good enough, and has performed superbly thus far.

2 Divination / 2 Into the Roil (+2) / 2 Jace Beleren
Basically these cards are all sharing the one-and-a-half slots left over in a 26-land deck. One possibility was to just play with 4 Divination (as in Grixis Burn) but in the absence of Cruel Ultimatum I felt I needed a persistent threat for other control decks; Planeswalker + Planeswalker is a potentially good front line; remember as well that unlike a Grixis-colors control deck, I can’t Lightning Bolt my way out of an opposing Jace Beleren, so just playing my own is a potential disincentive.

4 Sphinx of Lost Truths
Just piling on the big cards to make up for the lack of a Cruel Ultimatum here. Between this and Sorin, the deck has a fair amount of big mana force… The typical winner for this deck, more often than even beloved Baneslayer Angel.

4 Spreading Seas
I actually find this to be one of my favorite cards in Standard. Sometimes it outright Mind Twists the opponent when you are on the play and they are planning to lean on a Savage Lands; other times it just lets you keep a two-land hand, and then you cantrip into a Jace Beleren or Divination, and it’s like you never had any problems to begin with.

2 Countersquall (+2)
Just an awesome card.

Although probably, unlike Grixis Burn, this deck could afford to just run Negate. Shhhhh… don’t tell anyone.

4 Baneslayer Angel
You know how I feel about her!

Today I was validated (as usual)… Protracted attrition fight against a five-color Blue deck. He is also packing Sphinx of Lost Truths and I make the first move by pointing Path to Exile at his Rhox War Monk (setting up for Divination turn three, and I don’t want to discard). Anyway, I have more card drawing but it takes me forever to find Day of Judgment; when I do, it is a blowout trading my Baneslayer Angel for his multiple Sphinxes, Bloodbraid Elf, some other five power guy… Basically a bunch of gas.

He untaps and slaps down his last card — Sphinx of Jwar Isle.

Same fight as it ever was!

I have about six cards in hand and answer with Baneslayer Angel with Countersquall back up.

Same fight as it ever was!

3 Day of Judgment (+1) / 4 Path to Exile
I probably need the fourth Day of Judgment.

Becker, undoubtedly, would find a way. (hint hint)

Of the sideboard cards, Duress is the most amazing. How have I not played this longtime favorite card in a tournament in more than three years? It’s great against Cruel Ultimatum in particular. Credit to Osyp Lebedowicz for this one, though he suggested it for Grixis Burn (kind of like how I made Giant Solifuge in the Red Deck but it ended up in the URzaTron sideboard).

Anyway, that’s the new deck.

I just made it last night, but for what it’s worth, I haven’t lost a match yet (about 7-0 to 8-0 range). Most of my opponents were Double Negative-style Grixis decks. The closest match was when I went ultimate with Sorin Markov versus a Sphinx of Jwar Isle and my opponent was gripping Courier’s Capsule + Negate. It was particularly embarassing as I had three Countersqualls in hand.

I played his Courier’s Capsule but forgot to hold down ctrl…

Doh!

The plan was to counter with his own Negate, but instead I lost to the Vampire Nighthawk that he drew off the Capsule the next turn!

Have fun.

LOVE
MIKE

P.S. If your opponents at FNM or whatever are Grixis Control, play this deck. If there is one thing I know, it is that you have basically no possible chance of losing to a deck with Double Negative in it. Although I’ve tried! For instance, right before posting this I successfully Countersqualled a Sphinx of Lost Truths into play with Arcane Sanctum in play, and hit F4… With Duress in hand and my opponent with only one card.

… It was Cruel Ultimatum.

I eventually came back from nil, behind his Sphinx of Jwar Isle, to win via a trio of Sorins, with a Countersquall doing the last two points of damage (though to be fair it was protecting a Sphinx and a Baneslayer Angel).

But come on… Was I really going to lose to Sphinx of Jwar Isle?