Just a quick update about my performance at the 2008 New York State Championships.
I’ll probably write something more substantial about this tournament — and outlining my deck of choice, maybe with a video — in the near future, but I figured I’d update you as to how I did.
I went 6-2, tied for the eighth position, but based on a second round loss I finished middle-of-the-pack in the Top 16.
The deck was great and performed as i thought it would. The only change I made from the previous post was to swap two Lash Outs in the sideboard for two Shriekmaws (which I foolishly bought on-site for $3 each). The reason was that I didn’t want to be too far behind against multiple Burrenton Forge-Tenders. In the sparse testing I did against the Weenie White decks, I crush unless they have multiple Burrenton Forge-Tenders; if they have multiple Burrenton Forge-Tenders, it’s really a question of how many of those little buggers “multiple” is… I don’t think I can easily beat three if they have anything else, and even two Forge-Tenders is rough.
R1 – Won 2-1 v. Faeries
R2 – Lost 0-2 v. the Red Deck
R3 – Won 2-0 v. Reflecting Pool Control
R4 – Won 2-1 v. Reflecting Pool Control
R5 – Won 2-1 v. Kithkin Backlash
R6 – Won 2-0 v. the Red Deck
R7 – Lost 0-2 v. Faeries
R8 – Won 2-1 v. Faeries
Versus the Red Deck in Round Two in Game One all my mana came into play tapped and I was just a turn off; it’s pretty frustrating to be on the play with a Rampant Growth and two Kitchen Finks and getting hit with a Stigma Lasher!
Game Two I had Lash Out to allegedly fix my draw and hit a Rampant Growth but sat on four mana for turn after turn with multiple Primal Commands and Broodmate Dragons in my hand, withstanding four (!!!) hits from a Demigod of Revenge and never playing anything.
I don’t have any real excuse for Round Seven; sometimes you just lose. Game One he got the monkey Faeries draw and successfully played his cards in the order they came. Game Two I had a Gutteral Response to cover a Cloudthresher but his answer was a Spellstutter Sprite. If the Cloudthresher resolves it’s a blowout for me; it didn’t so I went from twenty-ish to zero in two attacks thanks to multiple Scions. He showed a great deal of strategic ddiscipline in not blocking my Chameleon Colossus with his second Scion of Oona — I think most players would have crumbled and blocked — and that non-block was highly instrumental in his winning. Just the right play under pressure; the sad part was I was playing for Top 8 and he wasn’t! Random pair-down; he got me, then he didn’t even make it.
That said, I think the Jund Mana Ramp deck is superb against Faeries, though. Two other wins on the day, all the tools… You win most of the time, but not all the time of course. And on the draw, sometimes you just get Clique-Clique locked and never make any meaningful plays.
All in all, not my best New York State Championships. The sad thing is, the deck is probably done. In case you have occasion to play a deck that is generally very good against the Red Deck, very good against Faeries, and smashes Five-color Control (this is the ultimate reason I played the Ramp deck), I suggest Jund Mana Ramp (I make no claims about Reveillark or the mirror, friends).
Final Deck List:
1 Broodmate Dragon
4 Firespout
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Jund Charm
4 Civic Wayfinder
4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Cloudthresher
2 Farhaven Elf
4 Gift of the Gargantuan
2 Primal Command
4 Rampant Growth
4 Fire-lit Thicket
8 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
sb:
3 Mind Shatter
2 Shriekmaw
2 Broodmate Dragon
4 Gutteral Response
2 Primal Command
2 Lash Out
Some additional links care of BDM at Top8Magic.com:
NY States: Broodmate Dragon Misses By That Much
NY States: Playing for Shards of Alara Boosters
LOVE
MIKE
14 comments ↓
If I understand correctly, you played Ramp with Jund colors for 4 things:
1. Sweepers
2. Spot Removal
3. Blocking Demigod
4. Mind Shatter
I run a very similar list to yours that’s 2 colors maindeck and not as susceptible to Fulminator Mage. It’s GW with Mind Shatter and Swamps side, Condemn, Wrath of God, and Archon of Justice. I’m thinking of putting Hallowed Burial in the side, too. It uses Terramorphic Expanse, Rampant Growth, and Civic Wayfinder for fixing, and so never has trouble getting the right colors (even 2 Plains) at the right time. Also, being GW, I can run Wilt-Leaf Liege for Blightning/Mind Shatter/Raven’s Crime and Oversoul of Dusk for obvious reasons.
-MLB
[…] Jund Mana Ramp Creatures (19)2 Farhaven Elf4 Civic Wayfinder4 Kitchen Finks4 Chameleon Colossus4 Cloudthresher1 Broodmate Dragon Spells (18)4 Rampant Growth4 Gift of the Gargantuan4 Firespout4 Jund Charm2 Primal Command Lands (23) 4 Fire-lit Thicket4 Savage Lands4 Treetop Village8 Forest1 Mountain2 Swamp Sideboard (15)3 Mind Shatter2 Broodmate Dragon4 Guttural Response2 Primal Command2 Lash Out2 Shriekmaw I’ve said before that I love me a good rogue deck, but I couldn’t find or build one that could compete with both Five Color Control and Faeries. This deck seems to have the tools to beat both, so I will definitely be testing it out.Sources: Jund Mana Ramp for States and Jund Mana Ramp at the New York State Championships […]
Virtual top 8s are a spit in the face 😛 6-2 is pretty great though in what i’m sure is a tougher states in NY.
It seems like thoughtseize would’ve been nice against the fae, as kind of a more proactive pseudo-gutteral response that can also take out bitterblossom before it comes down. Did you ever consider it for the side? Not sure what i’d take out cuz i love me a gutteral response. Could you imagine 4x thoughtseize alongside 4x responses agains the fae? Total annihilation!
First of all, congratulations for your virtual Top 8 al NY States.
One question. After you play Jund Mana-Ramp, you think in play again with any changes??
Byezz
I would play the same strategy but I think I would fix my mana. My mana base is definitely sub-optimal; I think Gilt-Leaf Palace might be good in this mana base with all the Elves — I would therefore probably play some Nameless Inversions in the sideboard over Shriekmaw.
I’m curious why you went with Jund Mana Ramp instead of, say, Blightning Beatdown. It sounded like you chose it as a last-minute decision.
Grats on your top-eight.
I didn’t make Top 8 unfortunately… What BDM would call a “virtual Top 8” instead. I finished Top 16. I was planning on playing Jund for about half a week prior to the tournament. I tested it online and I did very well for myself; in particular the deck is excellent against Reflecting Pool Control, which was the most popular deck online.
On balance, Blightning Beatdown was a late find for us. I of course saw it after the Berlin LCQ, but we didn’t take that seriously until after the LCQ, where Brian’s performance was undefeated. However I was set for Jund already at that point. Those were my two favorite decks going into States though, Jund Mana Ramp and Blightning Beatdown. If I played the same tournament again, I would play Jund Mana Ramp again, albeit modifying the lands somewhat.
This is a response to ascensionblade / MLB…
I played Jund because it was crushing Reflecting Pool Control in testing. I have probably said this 100 times now but it felt like I was always playing against Reflecting Pool Control and I was not happy with any of my Blue decks.
Truth be told you can probably take what is good about my Jund Mana Ramp deck and apply it to an alternate Reflecting Pool Control deck, viz. four-color Doran / Reveillark and have a similar strategy, albeit packing Cryptic Command. That is something that I am working on for Worlds.
As for blocking Demigods and so on… That is actually something that came later. Double Dragon was a late addition for this deck that came from the Storyteller in the last couple of days leading up to States. I didn’t choose Jund Mana Ramp because it could block Demigod so much as I — or really Evan — found a way for Jund Mana Ramp to block Demigod.
The sweepers were of course nice but you can apply similar strategies to say Quick’N’Toast; just run Firespout and Wrath instead.
For me the biggest things were the identification of Rampant Growth as probably the best accelerator in the format and Gift of the Gargantuan as arguably the most underrated spell in Shards of Alara. I knew I wanted to have my “Signet” and Rampant Growth was the only one available… and Gift of the Gargantuan is very powerful, in particular teamed up with Treetop Village. Everything else fell into place later.
Thanks for your comment and interest.
LOVE
MIKE
Hi again Mike.
Look, I have a Playtest this afternoon and I play this deck (it’s awesome, I play two of your decks in last two years, angelfire and this mana ramp :D)
With your indications, i change the mana base for this:
4 Fire-lit Thicket
6 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Savage Lands
1 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
3 Gilt-Leaf Palace
With this manabase i don’t have any problem with colors and in turn 3 I have the 3 colors always.
In sideboard I’m only change Maws with Nameless.
I play always against faeries and the result it’s 9-1
I think this is the correct manabase but, against Kithkins, I Think 2 plus Nameless it’s better than Lash Out… What do you think??
Finally, I’m very interested i comment a question (not related with this deck) in “private mode” Can you sendme an email if you have free time please??
Anyway, and again, sorry my little english and see you!! 😉
I considered playing Nameless Inversion – and they obviously work better with the Gilt-Leaf Palaces. Maybe four is better in the sideboard than any Lash Outs due to all the Red removal main deck; however Lash Out is much better against most beatdown decks because if you have enough time, it will actually improve your draws (that is, the longer games with more deck selection favor you).
Feel free to send me an email on Facebook… But I am not always the best about responding.
I would love to see an update of this deck with Conflux in the mix.
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