Entries from September 2009 ↓

Adding a Little Deny Reality

Inspired by Ben Botts’s deck list, I decided to try some Deny Reality action in the Cascade Control. Here’s the updated deck list:

Black Baneslayer Cascade Control

4 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Captured Sunlight
4 Deny Reality
1 Enigma Sphinx
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Esper Charm

4 Baneslayer Angel

4 Exotic Orchard
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Swamp
4 Vivid Crag
2 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Grove
2 Vivid Marsh
4 Vivid Meadow

sb:
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Hallowed Burial
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Primal Command

As should be medium obvious I have become a super devotee of the mono-Cascade Cascade strategy over the last few weeks. It is literally all I am interested in playing. This version literally has 21 Cascade cards, 4 Baneslayer Angels, and 8 discard spells to finish Cascade chains. In case you haven’t been paying attention, every Cascade chain ends either with a Baneslayer Angle (Enlisted Wurm or Enigma Sphinx), or your discarding two cards.

This kind of deck requires a greater amount of discipline to play than most decks of any stripe. As Thomas Dodd pointed out in his guest blog post last week, this style of deck requires a lot more racing and resource management than decks with more conventional removal suites. Your “defense” a lot of the time is just putting down one or two guys, or going nutso with Bloodbraid Elf in the Red Zone, or hoping to win the Cascade lottery. That’s okay… The deck was literally designed to win the Cascade lottery.

The main difference from the last version is the inclusion of Deny Reality, per Benjamin’s take on the deck list. Instead of cutting a Cascade spell, I decided to approximate Primal Command and cut the one Obelisk of Alara that Thomas didn’t like anyway. I cut a land in recognition of the additional Cascade spell (Cascade spells tend to facilitate mana flood in long games), and the fact that I had just lowered the curve. Vivid lands had to be shuffled a mite bit as well.

So far the deck has been very nice, including in tournament play. Tonight I won a couple of nail biter queues, including over Mono-Black Rogues (!) and Fae… Both LWW wins. In the case of the Fae deck, I didn’t even sideboard (I was planning to lose)… But when you design your deck to get lucky and always flip over Cascade spells (especially when they are Bloodbraid Elf into Blighting), miracles can happen.

I am planning to play a variation on this deck in the upcoming Star City tournament in Philadelphia (we’re going, right Josh?) … I figure there is no way I am going to have four Lotus Cobras in time, so might as well get lucky with Cascade instead of with Landfall 🙂

The challenge for the ’09-10 version is going to be the mana base. We can’t count on Vivids any more, and filters are going the way of The Dojo as well. So that leaves us with tri-lands and sac duals. I am leaning back towards 28 just because sac duals, you know, eat up all your lands along the way. Does 12 tri-lands, 7 sac duals, and 9 basics sound about right?

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Wonder Woman: Circle

Cascade Control by Ben Botts

I met Ben Botts (aka @Bottsthoughts) on Twitter. He reached out to me and said that he had a nice finish with the Cascade Control deck, so I extended him an invitation to write a report. After you’re done reading this, tell Ben what a great job he did 🙂 –m


Hey guys my name is, Ben Botts. I’ve been into Magic since 2002. I was first introduced to the game by a close friend of mine, Ernest. He showed me the game. And another of his friends, Little Jon, showed me combo/control decks. Ever since then I have had a healthy addiction to those archetypes. And I do not plan on attending therapy.

Moving on to the present — I recently played in a standard tournament at my local card shop. I’ve followed the top deck builders/writers/theory crafters for quite some time, and I always enjoy taking an idea of theirs and putting it to physical application. With that said I caught up on Flores and his current projects in deck building. Contacted him via Twitter, and told him that I had recently top 4’ed with his deck. He then replied (Which was an AWESOME honor) asking me if I’d like to post a tournament report. Of course I naturally had to standstill, ponder my demands, mulldrifter over my stipulations …

Are you kidding me? I replied quicker than a virgin during his first time… with a girl.

Without further banter here is the deck I played along with a tournament report.

Enjoy.

Cascade Control v 1.5

1 Obelisk of Alara

1 Enigma Sphinx
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Baneslayer Angel

4 Deny Reality *
4 Captured Sunlight

2 Primal Command

4 Esper Charm
4 Blightning

3 Reflecting Pool **
2 Exotic Orchard **
1 Graven Cairns
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Wooded Bastion
2 Island**
2 Plains
1 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Vivid Grove
4 Vivid Meadow
4 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Marsh **

sb:
4 Ignite Disorder
4 Grixis Charm
3 Hallowed Burial
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Primal Command

* Deny Reality was the only maindeck change. Bituminous Blast was taken out in favor of non-specific permanent bounce. Since a majority of the players were running Kithkin I didn’t want to risk throwing a BBlast at a creature only to have a Forgetender give up it’s place on the board to prevent removal, or have a Harms Way litter my dome for 2 while saving their creature.

** The mana base was shifted slightly only because Deny Reality is a U/B spell whereas Bit Blast is a R/B spell. (I know that was mundane, but some people may see that and be like “Wow … good call”)

And also I could only find 3 of my Tempest Reflecting Pools … 🙁

Date: September 12, 2009
Place: Cardz-N-Things of Fayetteville, NC
Owner: Al Archibeque
Type 2 Tournament
19 People present

Round 1: I think his name was Josh, he had a Mono-U Control deck

Game 1: I win the roll. I start off with a Vivid. He plays an Island. This is the pattern for the first 5 turns. He had not played any threats – so I assumed he was gripping a variety of Essence Scatter/Negate or Cryptic/Unsummon. I was not about to barrel out the gates against him since I wanted to force him to discard, or make a play mistake. The unfortunate design flaw of running Mono-U in this format is there are not any efficient beaters to couple w/ counters. Anyways this game was pretty much over when I cast Bloodbraid which flipped an Esper charm (at him). Next turn Deny Reality targeting my own Bloodbraid ~ flipped a Captured Sunlight ~ into a Blightning. He was rather disgruntled, and shrugged for a few more turns. He never played a single creature. And I never saw a Cryptic. 4 blightnings later and 2 red zone dances with my Bloodbraid & Enlisted Wurm turned sideways and it was off to game 2.

Game 2: He literally never made it past 3 lands. He swore up and down he had 24 in his deck. I saw 3 this game, and it was a no-brainer goldfishing affair. Bloodbraid~Esper. Deny Reality~Bloodbraid~Blightning. Enlisted~Baneslayer. He scooped.

1-0 Match (2-0 games)

Round 2: Piper was his last name, and Bant was his tune.

First off – this kid – awesome personality. He and I spent the first 7 minutes of the round shuffling, ribbing each other, and make jokes about horrible cards like Bloodbraid, Rafiq, and Broodmate Dragons and what not. Apparently his good nature won him the die roll.

Game 1: He comes out way faster than I could manage. A Timely Essence Scatter backed with a Negate on my Cascade shennanigans ended this game before I could spell WURBG with my trade binder.

Game 2: Different story. -4 Blightnings, +4 Grixis Charms. I was on the play. So on his turn 3 he successfully tapped out for an Eslpeth. EOT – Grixis Charmed that pretty lady back to his hand. On my turn 4 I played a BBE ~ Esper Charm, discard 2. Turn 5 was a beast turn for me. Deny Reality on his Eslpeth, once again ~ BBE ~ Grixis his tri-land back to his hand. He was playing catch-up after that for the rest of the game. I never over-extended beyond my enlisted worm and my 2 BBE that ended up carving his life total to a nice zero.

Game 3: Let me say that this game was my favorite. Piper was on the play. It was Land, Noble Hierarch, go. Mine consisted of the redundant power play of a Vivid, go. For time and constrant of a broken record my next 3 turns were as my first. And Piper’s were a crazy mess of turn 2: land, Jace, draw, go. Turn 3: Land, Jace Draw, Rafiq, swing with Hierarch (18 to his 20). On my turn 4 I dropped a BBE ~ Grixis … killed his Rafiq. Didn’t matter for him. He proceeded to drop a second Noble Hierarch along with another Rafiq. Turn 5: Instead of playing a Deny Reality (Which I thought would be a mistake) I cast a Captured Sunlight instead (putting me back to 22), and opted to draw off my Esper Charm. On his Turn 6: He had access to 8 mana … I was contemplating the worst … and he played Ajani. Rolled him down to 3 Making Rafiq and company pretty thick skinned. He played his Elspeth, pumped Rafiq an additional +3/+3 … making him a 7/7 before Exalted triggers. Exalted Triggers and he is now a 10/10 with a cute ability … Piper drops me to 2 – satisfied that I will be scooping upon my draw phase. I rip my Hallowed Burial. Do a silent fist pump. Chandler dancing ensues, and I drop the baby on to the field. He shrugs – says a few unpleasent things about my H.B. And I bought myself 1 turn. That was all I needed. Next turn for me resulted in a Baneslayer, or as I’ve come to call her Barn’slayer, from my trusty Enlisted Wurm. And I began the long climb back from 2. Piper extended his hand after another turn, and commented on the deck I was playing. I told him to thank Mike Flores for the deck build. And to thank WotC for the concept, and cards.

2-0 Match (4-1 games)

Round 3: Kithkin # eleventy billion … seriously … name need not be smeared.

I know by now you would be expecting another amazing round summary to follow this previous one. But sadly I went up against an empty chair across from me. Sat there for 5 minutes, and thought surely this guy was going to be showing up soon. It’s a casual tournament, and I’m not a rules shark. So I won’t be slamming down game losses unless an act of grievous misconduct took place. I won the die roll (Now this is not very often for me to win the die roll – I tend to favor the luck of Ravnica draft die rolls – where going 2nd meant game for me. No jokes)

Game 1: Typical Kithkin horde. “ME KITHKIN, ME SMASH FACE, ME READY TO LOSE TO SIDEBOARD GAMES 2 AND 3!”

game 2: -4 Blightning, -1 Enigma Sphinx, -1 Obelisk of Alara, +3 Firespout, +3 Ignite Disorder.

Now let me just state: Yes. Ignite Disorder. Come on – I played grixis Charm. Under-rated, and they smash face.

Game 3:
The game was never close. I managed to keep the “I hate Kithkin” hand in my opening grip. Turn 3 Firespout (He missed his Forge Tender drop). followed by a turn 4 BBE ~ Ignite Disorder. This proceeded to be the game plan. Primal’s kept me above the curve on Life to dmg per turn. After a few Enlisted Wurms brought in another BBE and a BSlayer … He said Game 3 should be better.

And it wasn’t. I simply rinsed and repeated game 2 amidst his complaints and frustrations with, “Who plays Ignite Disorder?! Who?!?” goodbye Sprectral Procession tokens.

3-0 Match (6-2 games)

Round 4: Good friend John (Kitchen # zzzz ….)

We ID since we both were 3-0. And neither of us wanted to spend 50 minutes of see-saw when we could be relaxing for the top 8. I myself enjoyed a great EDH game with another friend of mine, but that is another topic entirely.

Top 8:

I am paired up against another friend, Charles, who is playing … you guessed it: Kithkin.

I won the die roll (I took each of these as a sign that this coming weekend will not show me the same courtesy. As is my luck w/ die rolls mentioned beforehand)

As with the previous match-up against Kithkin the same story is told without typing it out. But I will note that he started both games 1&2 with slow openings; slow enough for me to take board position. After I resolve 2 BBE’s ~ Esper/Grixis it really wasn’t difficult to stay ahead of the curve both games.

He scooped Game 2 when; 4 straight turns; I threw Esper Charms at his hand repeatedly.

The Top 4 was less then stellar … All of us (Friends) chose to split (Preferring strong drink over cardboard. Would you disconcur?). A total of 60 packs amongst the four of us. I would say for being able to play for free I banked a nice dividend.

Oh … right … the deck list in question; well it is a Flores Original. The only thing I did that was eschewed from the original build were the Bitumanous Blasts – replaced w/ Deny Reality’s in the maindeck. As well as the Ignite Disorders and the Grixis Charms in the side.

The reasoning behind the Deny Reality, Ignite Disorder, and the Grixis Charm was simple. We have a huge Aggro market here at my shop. So to counteract the efficiency and dominance of said archetype I bring in Ignite Disorder simply because for 2 – or Cascaded it is capable of roasting a few weenies. Where as the Grixis Charm gives me a number of choices that don’t have to worry about a Burrenton Forge-Tender. Return Target permanent was amazing for me. As was the Target Creatures gets -4/-4. Only once, and only because it ended the game did I pick the third module on Grix Charm. I pumped both my BBE’s to 5/2’s.

Grixis Charm to me?

UBR – Instant … choose either Boomerang, Death Pulse, or Path of Anger’s Flame.

I would’ve said Sudden Death in place of Death Pulse, but unfortunately Charms don’t have split second. And I didn’t want to hear about this typo later on because I am sure this post is rife with them as is. 🙂

Verdict?

The deck is simple, effective, and played straight through rough patches. Hopefully Zendikar will give us a few new things.

Remember when you cascade past a Baneslayer, and your opponent sighs with relief … just remind them that you have 3 more in the deck that are closer now. And watch them panic every time you cascade with an Enlisted Wurm.

Thank you,

Ben Botts
@Bottsthoughts on Twitter

WUBRG Cascade by Thomas Dodd

Thomas Dodd, aka @amistod is a friend I met on Twitter. Thomas and I conversed quite a bit about decks like the Rhox Meditant deck and most recently the Kitchen Finks-less inheritor to the Rhox Meditant deck. He was instrumental and influential in the development of those strategies and ran with the more recent version of the WUBRG Cascade deck at the Charlotte 5K. I am very happy to present his contributing blog post.


I wake up early at 6:30AM Sunday morning. I’m one QP away from season six MOCS champs, and I’ll gladly forgo my morning shut-eye for the 7:00AM Standard Daily and that necessary point. The usual suspects are represented, and I thankfully navigate around the quick aggro decks until round three. [Name withheld] is playing WW, and, after a quick win, I have a difficult decision during sideboarding. I realize the Kitchen Finks will not trade with his first strikers, so I remove them for Blightning. The early turns have me shredding his hand, and eventually he top-decks a Ranger of Eos with four lands in play. He tutors up two Figures of Destiny, which I EOT Esper Charm. I’m hooked. Over the next two days, I play in several Alara Block daily events, and I realize the loss of Finks is minor, especially when Captured Sunlight is used. That Wednesday night, I send @fivewithflores a tweet about the possibility of dropping Finks in standard. I wake up the next morning and see this list:

Cascade Control

1 Obelisk of Alara

4 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Captured Sunlight
1 Enigma Sphinx
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Esper Charm

2 Primal Command

4 Baneslayer Angel

4 Exotic Orchard
1 Forest
1 Graven Cairns
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Swamp
4 Vivid Crag
4 Vivid Grove
4 Vivid Meadow
1 Wooded Bastion

sb:
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Anathemancer
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Primal Command
4 Hallowed Burial

I immediately tweak my online list and start testing, as the SCG Charlotte 5k is only two days away. I remove the expensive Obelisk and Enigma Sphinx to reduce my chances of awkward opening hands. This is the list I register on Saturday:

Creatures
4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Enlisted Wurm

Instants
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Esper Charm

Sorceries
4 Blightning
4 Captured Sunlight
2 Hallowed Burial
2 Primal Command

Basic Lands
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Swamp

Lands
4 Exotic Orchard
1 Graven Cairns
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Crag
4 Vivid Grove
4 Vivid Meadow
1 Wooded Bastion

Sideboard:
4 Anathemancer
4 Great Sable Stag
2 Runed Halo
4 Volcanic Fallout
1 Identity Crisis

In Charlotte, I lose once each to Kithkin and Merfolk, weak matchups that I was hoping to avoid. The Runed Halo and Identity Crisis are concessions to Cruel Ultimatum, but I am not convinced they are better than Ajani. While losing to Forgetender and Harm’s Way – and watching Faeries get crushed all around me – I wish that my Fallouts were Infests. I feel awkward without Maelstrom Pulse, as the inability to actually kill something is slightly unnerving. I find that I have to race or trade more than usual. Overall, I am satisfied with the deck’s performance. I go 7-2 in the event, placing 12th.

The main issue I want to talk about with this deck is how powerful decision making is in Magic. Every spell in this deck ends with the opponent making an increasingly difficult decision. The ability to tilt your paper opponent with discard is profound… especially when you snipe their draw with a well timed “pause after your draw” Esper Charm. “You hit what, two Blightnings and three Esper Charms that game? Luck Sack.” I heard this during sideboarding all day long. Your opponent feels the need to explain to you – and to himself – that it was nothing you did, such as designing your deck to only hit discard, that caused the win. I find it interesting that people forget that Esper Charm can do this, and are confused when Esper Charm is used this way. People are not prepared for this much discard from a Bloodbraid deck. I also enjoyed watching people sideboard incorrectly against the deck. Cards boarded for the perceived 5cc matchup, such as Thought Hemorrhage and Identity Crisis, proved prohibitively expensive, as they were forcibly discarded before they could be cast.

Here is the adjusted deck list that I will be playing online until rotation:

Creatures
4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Enlisted Wurm

Instants
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Esper Charm

Sorceries
4 Blightning
4 Captured Sunlight
2 Hallowed Burial
2 Primal Command

Basic Lands
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Swamp

Lands
4 Exotic Orchard
1 Graven Cairns
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Crag
4 Vivid Grove
4 Vivid Meadow
1 Wooded Bastion

Sideboard:
3 Thoughtseize
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Infest

With this adjusted board, I feel like I have a better chance against the more aggressive decks in the format. Dropping Anathemancer may seem crazy, but I only used him in the 5 color match up. Lightning Bolt should help with Wake Thrasher and Ramgang, as well as keeping true to the philosophy of never missing a cascade.

I really can’t say enough about Twitter. This tool has been invaluable in improving my Magic game. The ability to have a real time conversation with some of Magic’s most colorful characters is just too good to pass up. I invite all of you to add me and send me your contact information so that I can return the favor. I am always up for chatting about decks or testing online, so drop me a line sometime.

Currently Listening: 2009 Beatles Stereo Remasters

Thomas Dodd
amistod on Twitter / Mtgo

lotus cobra – Lotus Cobra – LOTUS COBRA

This was what all the hype [on Twitter] was about:

I already wrote the full Preview over on the mother ship so go read what I have to say about Lotus Cobra over there: The Dave Price Rule and the Upper Limit.

I really think this is one of the most insane cards in years… Seems so much faster and different in flavor and function when compared with other Zendikar cards. What do you think?

Best two-drop of all time or what? (Obviously better than Dark Confidant! Come on!)

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9)

Zendikar – Scute Mob

Zendikar rare Scute Mob is not quite Tarmogoyf… Does it matter?

Scute Mob is looking to be one of the most signficant cards in Zendikar… and that’s saying something!

No, you didn’t read that wrong… Scute Mob is probably a terrible one drop, as far as one drops go. That is, don’t look for it to be much more effective than, say, a Mon’s Goblin Raiders, at least not on or around turn one.

The value of Scute Mob is that as the game progresses–past turn five or so depending on the acceleration involved–it is an extremely powerful card.

Imagine Scute Mob in a control deck of some sort. It is probably needlessly narrow to say a U/G control deck given the mana options, but suffice it to imagine a control deck capable of producing G and countering target spell.

Scute Mob is a perfect card to play with five lands in play. The contol deck in question will have four lands left to fight permission wars, either over Scute Mob (that is, resolving it) or keeping the opponent from doing some kind of funny business.

The next turn, Scute Mob will be a 5/5… That is, a 5/5 for one mana.

Okay, there is already a cadillac control creature, a pair of them in fact, Broodmate Dragon and Baneslayer Angel. The first turn around, Scute Mob will not be able to tangle with Baneslayer Angel, but remember it is already far faster than Broodmate Dragon, and a fight–specifically the double block–may be significantly less profitable than it may look from afar.

The greater problem is that Scute Mob is going to be 9/9 the next turn, and 13/13 the turn after that (and so on) provided its daddy has five or more lands in play. It will jump past Baneslayer Angel in the course of one turn, and be completely out of control before too long.

Now our previous hypothetical outlined playing Scute Mob in the middle of the middle turns, and potentially fighting over it (or stuff going on around it). There is no reason the control player couldn’t just play Scute Mob at some point (even turn one) and wait for it to eventually grow up. That is a possibility, and might even be the right play against either another counterspell deck or a combo deck that needs to be put on a clock.

The even more interesting interaction may be Scute Mob piggybacking Ranger of Eos. Think about that tag team! Ranger of Eos already “implies” having four lands… five lands is just one more than that. It is entirely possible to see Antoine Ruel digging up a pair of Scute Mobs and playing them both immediately, presenting 13 or so power the following turn.

Un

Real

I see Scute Mob as being a clear Staple. It is just too cost effective. Go get your playset immediately; it is the second coming of Tarmogoyf, everything Figure of Destiny wanted to be and more.

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Nikolai Dante: Beast of Rudinshtein (Rebellion 2000ad)

New Item On Dungeons & Dragons Tiny Adventures

Top8Magic is reporting a powerful new item for the first time in more than a year on popular Facebook game Dungeons & Dragons Tiny Adventures!

We saw this on Twitpic / Twitter:

If you have EVER played Dungeons & Dragons Tiny Adventures on... on Twitpic

The new item is Gloves of the Moon, which michaelj claimed to have bought for 5000 Gold today (also check out michaelj’s array of items… yowza). Gloves of the Moon seems like the best Gloves in the game, combining the best elements of Gauntlets of Destruction (the rare item Gloves) and Rogues Gloves (the typical top-of-the-line Gloves, especially for michaelj’s preferred class of Halfling Rogue).

More at Top8Magic.

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Invincible, Book 11: Happy Days

Zendikar – Emeria, the Sky Ruin

My Favorite New Card is Emeria, the Sky Ruin!

Well, I am not 100% sure that my favorite new card from Zendikar will be Emeria, the Sky Ruin… but I’m pretty sure it will be.

Emeria, the Sky Ruin is functionally quite similar to old favorite Debtors’ Knell. It does not gobble up creatures from the opponent’s graveyard, but it has a tremendous upside: You Don’t Have to Resolve It. That was the “problem” with Debtors’ Knell (if you can really say there was a problem with a Standard and Block staple)… It coexisted with cards like Remand and Mana Leak so it could be challenging to get into play against Blue opponents. Emeria, the Sky Ruin, on balance is “just” a land, so you just lay it out there to, you know, run (“Sky Ruin”) the opponent’s day.

So of course as cool as Emeria seems, it has some limitations.

The most obvious is that you have to have seven Plains in play before it does anything. You know, when we first started chatting about new Zendikar cards, BDM (aka @Top8Games) said he just knew I would love me an Emeria. I mean, how could I not?

This card touches not on the “Greenest Mage of All” aspect of michaelj (aka @fivewithflores), but the part of me that ran a B/W cycling Eternal Dragon deck in an Extended Pro Tour, the side that produced the first ever Windbrisk Heights / three token “combo” deck (grafted onto a, you know, Eternal Dragon-based Extended deck), or the part of me that went full-on Martyr of Sands for last year’s Exteded PTQ season (you know, with Eternal Dragons and Decree of Justice and all that). The sad irony is that this card would be bananas in one of the Eternal Dragon decks that I always seem to make in Extended (down to returning Martyr of Sands for free, and / or Eternal Dragon itself) without any kind of an unintended interaction with Akroma’s Vengeance.

So let’s think about this jobber in Standard…

We are going to lose Windbrisk Heights — probably the single strongest nonbasic land in current Standard — as Lorwyn Block makes way for Zendikar. That means that straight White decks aren’t going to have a lot of conflict for non-Plains in terms of making space. You can probably run 20-22 Plains and four copies of Emeria, the Sky Ruin in your White deck and have a solid expectation of having seven Plains alongside your Emeria, the Sky Ruin come turn eight (or whenever you actually have eight lands in play).

The interesting thing is…

We don’t know what kinds of creatures are going to fit best with Emeria, the Sky Ruin… at least not in Standard.

We are going to lose our Evoke Elementals (Mulldrifter and so on); there is no clear path for a Fulminator Mage-style lockdown; and even in Extended, Eternal Dragon and such cycling creatures will have rotated. The best thing I can come up with off the top of my head is Glassdusk Hulk… But surely we can come up with something better than this…


Surely we can come up with something better than this…

Regardless of the specifics of how to break (or at least “best exploit”) Emeria, the Sky Ruin in a long game, the basic principles seem to be clear…

  1. It’s about as good as a Debtors’ Knell once you have it going.
  2. Counterspell-based defenses will be insufficient.
  3. Removal-based defenses will eventually be exhausted.
  4. … And it ain’t exactly fast.

The question is whether it will be good.

I, for one, have always enjoyed creating and trying to properly position these esoteric corner-case decks that generate unexpected Stage Three situations… and Emeria, the Sky Ruin seems like the Flores long-game cream dream all bundled up in a single card that you don’t actually have to resolve.

So yeah, Emeria, the Sky Ruin is, at least at present, my favorite new Zendikar card. I look forward to cultivating a long and card-profitable relationship with it.

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Invincible, Book 11: Happy Days

Zendikar – Devout Lightcaster

A White Nekrataal? Meet Zendikar Rare, Devout Lightcaster!

Earlier we talked about Gatekeeper of Malakir, which for BBB is like a Scathe Zombies grafted onto a Cruel Edict (and for BB is versatile enough to be just a Scathe Zombies). This is the White version:

This card is kind of like an Eager Cadet stapled to a Celestial Purge (kind of).

Now obviously for WWW we have a very powerful and highly playable card that generates self-contained card advantage. It is the kind of effect that we simply don’t expect from White. I mean maybe we expect it now that a deck that can consistently produce WWW has everything from Unmake to Path to Exile to the aforementioned Celetial Purge… But we don’t necessarily expect it on a body… Certainly not at a reasonable mana cost; not in White.

But what might be even more unexpected is that this card might just manascrew you.

Manascrew you?

In White?

Yeppers!

Manascrew.

I have a theory that with all these Gatekeepers and other little—and clearly Constructed playable—Vampires, that our old buddy Vampire Nocturnus will be superb. Vampire Nocturnus rewards players for running a lot of Black cards, and I think that that might translate even to lands. The solution? I am guessing that we will see increased play for both Veinfire and Mistvein Borderpost. Why? With Black Borderposts taking up “land” slots, the Vampire Nocturnus has a slightly higher chance of setting up its global Vampire Unholy Strength. I could see a Black Vampire weenie mana base looking something like…

4 B/W sac dual
4 B/G sac dual
4 Veinfire Borderpost
4 Mistvein Borderpost
8-12 Swamp (12 would probably be a bit high, even in a Tendrils of Corruption deck).

The duals (whatever they are called) will allow the Vampire Nocturnus player to shuffle his deck, mid-combat if need be, to get a Black permanent on top of it. The deck would probably have problems hard-casting a Borderpost, but with essentially all basic lands (functionally so, anyway), running them out there one mana soft style should be a complete non-issue.

So… manascrew?

Devout Lightcaster dropping on top of one of those Borderposts on the third turn could be quite the pisser… Stone Rain, but with a Rakeclaw Bears attached.

Oh I guess it can kill some gigantic Black fatty and/or a one mana Quest enchantment that is right about to go off, too. Whatever those!

Snap Judgment: Staple (but sideboard)

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Invincible, Book 11: Happy Days

Zendikar – Gatekeeper of Malakir

A quick review of Zendikar uncommon, Gatekeeper of Malakir. Is it unreal good?

Gatekeepr of Malakir is a very interesting modern application of the Kicker mechanic.

To me this card is highly reminiscent of Kavu Titan… After all, Gatekeeper of Malakir is a fine 2/2 for two… Just like most of the two mana creatures we play across the formats and colors. What is interesting is that Gatekeeper of Malakir is also a kind of cheaper Nekrataal.

For BB you get a Black Grizzly Bears… Nothing you would want to pay for under normal circumstances, but very reasonable given the option on Kicker…

For BBB you get what amounts to a Chainer’s Edict with a 2/2 along for the ride.

If you figure that a regular Chainer’s Edict or Diabolic Edict costs 1B, you basically get the value of a 2/2 body for only one additional mana… Kind of like a Carnophage with no down side.

Black has always had some kind of creature kill capabilities… But this particular stripe could not have come at a more opportune time. You see, Great Sable Stag threatens to hassle the little Black creatures… But if you can isolate him from his friends, Gatekeeper of Malakir can kick him down the staircase.

All in all, Gatekeeper of Malakir is a very clearly playable Constructed card.

But where would you play him?

There are actually a fair number of places where this card might make sense. You can run it alongside Vampire Nocturnus (and other tiny Vampires) productively. It can also be run in any deck that can make BBB in the main deck as just a card that you might want to play… Very much like the Chainer’s Edict we touched on, above.

Gatekeepr of Malakir can also be a very solid sideboard card for a controlling Black deck. It can change the tempo of the game by giving Black a clock when there isn’t a lot of time on the clock in a three-game match (you know, because your main deck was so slow), or it can give a deck some faster removal. Look at the Black deck I posted a few days ago… Gatekeepr of Malakir can speed up the defense of a deck that first starts reacting with a four mana Tendrils of Corruption, a stand-in for Shriekmaw.

So how does it compare to Shriekmaw or Nekrataal?

Generally speaking I would put it on better than Nekrataal and worse than Shriekmaw (due to the latter’s versatility, evasion, ease of cost, and synergy with Makeshift Mannequin). However Gatekeeper of Malakir will shine against other Black decks, and kind of wrinkle its nose against Green decks that make a lot of tokens.

That said, the card should be Staple.

LOVE
MIKE

Unbelievably, the Answer is… Kitchen Finks?

Is it really possible that cutting longtime favorite Kitchen Finks leads us to the right build of Cascade Control?

If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time you know that Kitchen Finks is one of my favorite cards. I loved it in Jund Mana Ramp, respected its ability to crush an opponent with Ajani Goldmane and Persist… Generally loved it in everything from G/W Little Kid to Reflecting Pool Control.

But apparently the right way to make Cascade Control is to cut Kitchen Finks!

A few months back I wouldn’t have easily accepted that cutting Borderland Ranger was right, but this current version of Cascade Control has been treating me pretty well, and its only three mana spells (main deck) are discard spells.

Cascade Control

1 Obelisk of Alara

4 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Captured Sunlight
1 Enigma Sphinx
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Esper Charm

2 Primal Command

4 Baneslayer Angel

4 Exotic Orchard
1 Forest
1 Graven Cairns
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Swamp
4 Vivid Crag
4 Vivid Grove
4 Vivid Meadow
1 Wooded Bastion

sb:
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Anathemancer
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Primal Command
4 Hallowed Burial

Obviously this deck has a bazillion lands–that is 28 lands. I have been asked online if it would still work without Vivid lands… and I am not sure. One of the things I like about this version is that a large chunk of it will translate to the new Standard… But that new format will not have Vivid lands. I think a combination of enemy fetch duals and Alara tri-lands will help make the mana viable.

Primal Command, though, is a card that I really don’t want to see disappearing from my deck lists.

The unique element of this deck–which is not actually unique because I stole it from GerryT–is that all the three mana spells are some kind of Stupor. Therefore you always know what you are going to get on a four mana Cascade, and you can play your Cascade spells in general without fearing you might accidentally turn over a Maelstrom Pulse.

Win percentage with this deck has been awesome. So far I have a legitimate loss to Merfolk, a couple of manascrews (how is that even possible with all these lands?), and one loss to my own B/R Blightning Beatdown deck (at least it looked like it with tri-lands, Tarfire, Goblin Outlander), when he drew three Blightnings in the deciding game; the vast majority of battles have been very favorable for the deck.

By far my favorite match so far was against the R/W Spanish Inquisition. The opponent got Ajani Vengeant going, but I had depleted most of his hand, and had lands back. I tried for Baneslayer Angel. He had Oblivion Ring; I answered with Enlisted Wurm. At this point I could flip almost any card in my deck and get out of the Ajani, which was at that point on five counters. Blightning would tear off three counters. Esper Charm would free the Baneslayer to attack. Captured Sunlight would be a proxy for one of those two, whereas Bloodbraid Elf might kill the Ajani outright in concert with Blightning (but still be just fine with “only” Esper Charm and its own three power). Primal Command would set up some kind of a disaster (probably involing setting up Bloodbraid Elf and forcing a re-cast).

And so on.

But despite having a Bituminous Blast in hand… Unfortunately that’s what I flipped.

So my world blew up two turns later.

Still, I came back!

I had a couple of Vivids in my hand, and used Esper Charm to draw up instead of attacking him or like his Goblin Assault.

I drew up to six, and ran out Baneslayer Angel and Enlisted Wurm (or more precisely, I ran out Enlisted Wurm, which ran out Baneslayer Angel).

With him dead on board and me commanding 2 5/5s… he pulled Martial Coup!

Back to zero.

I ran it back with my remaining Baneslayer Angel.

He responded with Obelisk of Alara to stay even.

I did a little trickery to get him to blow up a Bloodbraid Elf (no more threes in the in deck), which used his ability to gain five life that turn; I had been sandbagging a Blightning, which as a three point Fireball was just enough to finish it.

I know the new Zendikar cards are super fun to look at, but if you need a Standard deck–for now–you might consider this one. It’s a bit worse against creatures than the Rhox Meditant Deck (which couldn’t really lose to creatures) but the heavy discard options (and sometimes card drawing one) make for some more strategic Magic.

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Catwoman Vol. 4: Wild Ride (Batman)