Five With Flores

Just what it sounds like… How to play with Marsh Flats in the Junk Mana Ramp Deck.

What is the Junk Mana Ramp Deck?

1 Behemoth Sledge

4 Grim Discovery
2 Mind Shatter
4 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
2 Sorin Markov

4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Maelstrom Pulse

4 Lotus Cobra
1 Thornling

4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Path to Exile

1 Graypelt Refuge
4 Forest
4 Marsh Flats
4 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Verdant Catacombs

sb:
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Doom Blade
2 Mind Shatter
2 Sorin Markov
1 Filigree Fracture
4 Summoning Trap
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

The short story: This deck is excellent.

It doesn’t play Blightning, but other than that, I don’t know what kind of shots you can take against it. It has been playing superbly for me against everything; as much as I hate to admit this, it has a much better batting average than Black Baneslayer.

I guess the shot you can take against it is that this deck is all rares and mythics, making it super cost prohibitive for some players.

The deck plays three different game plans, all extremely potent.

The first is a Lotus Cobra based plan. Basically, you play Lotus Cobra and cross your fingers; if you untap with it, you can usually demolish your opponent. Typical turn three plays include Baneslayer Angel and an initially unimpressive Ob Nixilis, the Fallen. However in concert with one another, multiple Lotus Cobra activations can be truly disgusting. Consider…

• Turn Two: Lotus Cobra
• Turn Three: Marsh Flats (adding W), sacrifice Marsh Flats for Swamp (adding W), Baneslayer Angel.
• Turn Four: Marsh Flats (adding B), sacrifice Marsh Flats for Swamp (adding B), Sorin Markov; put the opponent on 10, attack for 5-7… Unless the opponent has a Planar Cleansing, he is most likely dead to something on the battlefield already… Maybe even just the Cobra.

I generally dislike playing Maelstrom Pulse main deck (in Black Baneslayer I like to play it in the sideboard against attack oriented decks or Howling Mines), but it has been pretty good in this deck; without Red mana access, this deck needs something, and Maelstrom Pulse is the best candidate.

The second major plan is operating as a high quality creature deck; you can play Ob Nixilis on the third turn with Lotus Cobra, but that is often dangerous (unless you have a backup Ob Nixilis or the opponent has only shown Green or White mana); in this deck Ob Nixilis can just kill the opponent if you untap with it. There are eight Marsh Flats and Verdant Catacombs, and if you have Knight of the Reliquary on the battlefield, they are probably just dead if you have a removal spell (or maybe you don’t even need one).

You have solid resource management capabilities in the Junk Mana Ramp deck due to Grim Discovery, which is simply one of the best cards in Zendikar (considering the fact that Marsh Flats is a Ball Lightning in this deck).

The advantage Junk Mana Ramp has over the updated Jund Mana Ramp is that instead of going to six mana for Broodmate Dragon and Rampaging Baloths, this deck has the best fives; eight of them. It’s not like I need to sell you on Baneslayer Angel.

But the card that is something special in this deck is Knight of the Reliquary. I noticed in the Pro Tour Austin Coverage how popular Knight of the Reliquary was in Ben’s and Brian’s Zoo deck, Ikeda’s Zoo deck, lots of Zoo decks… Probably it is good enough for Standard!

I found it excellent.

One of the important things I learned about playing with Knight of the Reliquary is how to properly manage my Marsh Flats. Maybe this is old hat to you but it took me a couple of games to realize that I should be getting Marsh Flats instead of basic Plains when using the Knight’s special ability… Just +1/+1 and possibly important Landfall triggers.

When Knight of the Reliquary and Lotus Cobra link arms, it is a mana and power (and power level) explosion!

The last plan, which is a plan you will most often execute against Vampires and control decks, is Planeswalker lock, specifically winning with Sorin Markov. If you haven’t played with Sorin yet… Do it. This is a card I started to take more seriously after seeing @conley81’s Pro Tour Austin deck. Sorin is just unbeatable in some games; for instance Vampires has a huge number of 2/2 creatures where Sorin is just a progressive The Abyss that can only be breached by a small number of cards in the Vampires deck (typically Malakir Bloodwitch and sometimes Vampire Nocturnus). But unless they have previously emptied you with a big Mind Sludge, you can just out-quality the Vampires on the board with Ob Nixilis, Baneslayer Angel, or your many removal cards. Vampires is one of the best matchups for this deck, though it’s hard to point at any one single reason… Basically you are faster, your cards are better, and if you get Sorin in play, they are in a lot of trouble.

Even against some Red/x decks Sorin gives you a lot of space. Sorin kills every Bloodbraid Elf they can play while generating a profit; this leaves you room to spend your cards or set up your blocks anywhere else: all good.

Here is a rundown of the last five matches I played with Marsh Flats, Knight of the Reliquary, and Lotus Cobra tonight:

Three-color Vampires
I lost Game One to a Malakir Bloodwitch off the top; I had a Behemoth Sledge but no man, and a Path to Exile. He had no cards… but I had only three life. It’s not like I would have unconditionally won on any other play, but it would have been a heck of a lot better than dead on board.

For the second game I sided out Mind Shatter for the other two copies of Sorin Markov; the second game I locked him with Sorin and he conceded fairly quickly out of frustration.

Game Three I got a turn three Baneslayer Angel; he got three copies of Vampire Nocturnus but couldn’t really attack me; I had a 6/6 Knight of the Reliquary and removal, etc.

G/R Valakut
This was a cool deck I have played against several times this week. Basically it’s Rampant Growths and so on, setting up super Valakut + Mountains action with Harrow… all that. I don’t know if he played Warp World, but he did play Bogardan Hellkite (and in a previous match a Valakut opponent ran out a Warp World which left me with three Baneslayer Angels and him with nothing good). Anyway…

Game One I went Knight of the Reliquary into Baneslayer Angel; Lotus Cobra (with Knight in play) to a Mind Shatter for six or seven. He packed.

Game Two he got double Oracle of Mul Daya and Needled me for Knight of the Reliquary. I had a Knight, but also two Maelstrom Pulses… Goodbye Pithing Needle and Oracles both. I eventually set up for a Baneslayer Angel on only six life; if he ripped a Mountain he could have killed me with double Valakut, but he ripped, ironically, a Hellkite.

Four-color Control
Game One I shipped to Sunpetal Grove + Grim Discovery. Yes, that is a mulligan to two. I won’t say I almost won, but I was somewhat competitive. I steeled myself and elected not to concede; instead I recorded all of his cards for the next game. They were…

• Naya Panorama
• Rupture Spire
• Rupture Spire
• Rupture Spire
• Arcane Sanctum
• Lightning Bolt (my fifth turn Knight of the Reliquary)
• Plains (from Naya Panorama)
• Arcane Sanctum
• Esper Charm (taking my Ob Nixilis, the Fallen and Lotus Cobra)
• Offering to Asha (my second Knight of the Reliquary)
• Esper Charm (Baneslayer Angel and Plains)
• Crumbling Necropolis
• Liliana Vess
• Esper Charm
• Arcane Sanctum
• Ajani Vengeant

I conceded the turn he was going to go ultimate on Liliana Vess after making me dump my hand.

Game Two I played a turn three Ob Nixilis; this was a screwup because he had a Lightning Bolt (could have played Baneslayer instead). I followed up with Knight of the Reliquary, then screwed up on an Offering to Asha (I didn’t see that with my Lotus Cobra down, I could generate just enough Lotus mana to pay for the Offering).

Anyway I stalled on three lands forever.

On the last turn I actually drew the card I needed to win on the spot (Verdant Catacombs for a long ball Ob Nixilis with Knight of the Reliquary in play) but he spent his fourth Esper Charm on my grip.

This was frustrating to lose due to the ship to two, but moreso Game Two; I think I won this close one if I either played Baneslayer Angel over Ob Nixilis on turn three or if I figured out to pay for the Offering.

Vampires
Game One went long, with me controlling a huge Ob Nixilis and finding the Thornling. Thornling went north with Elspeth’s help, forcing a block from Vampire Nighthawk (I didn’t want to put Ob Nixilis in that position due to Deathtouch); Thornling went both hasty and indestructable to win that exchange.

I lost the second with no Green. It would have / should have been an easy one.

Game Three I actually ran a savagely poor mis-click. I tapped my only Swamp to play Lotus Cobra and lost it main phase to a removal spell with Grim Discovery in my hand. The game was close but I ultimately got there with Sorin Lockdown.

Naya
I haven’t played this loose in a while; after winning the first I accidentally discarded my second turn Plains instead of putting it on the battlefield. I played out but it was not good enough.

I redeemed myself in the third though. He stalled for Red for some turns, which gave me time to develop.

Overall: 4-1

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: The Death of Captain America, Vol. 3: The Man Who Bought America