So Benjamin Goodman had me on a high with Valaku, the Molten Pinnacle when I started to peruse decks from Zendikar Game Day. You may have read in Top Decks about my early affinity for the R/W Spanish Inquisition-type decks. I liked what I saw and decided to make my own.
The first Spanish Inquisition deck was a metagame neutron bomb coming out of the US Opens and catapulting Mark Hendrickson into the Top 8. His R/W deck posted absolutely absurd numbers over multiple tournaments, stunning opponents with an offensive array including Call the Skybreaker, Ajani Vengeant, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, and of course, Goblin Assault.
Mark’s deck ran Ajani Vengeant as a four-of, and–though it is rare for me–I decided to play all four main as well; in addition, I upgraded Mark’s Elspeth count to three (from two) and replaced all his Hallowed Burials with the Maximum Number of Day of Judgment. These White cards might seem obvious until you look at the mana base of my deck…
Remember up top when I talked about being hooked on Valakut thanks to @RidiculousHat? I meant it! There are only two total Plains in the deck, so in order to play Elspeth or Day of Judgment, you’ve got to have them both.
Because of that I am thinking about replacing all four copies of Elspeth with Goblin Assault… Not sure about it yet. Elspeth is objectively the stronger card when already in play, but she costs functionally twice the mana of a Goblin Assault… and only rarely uses either of her non-Goblin Assault analogous abilities.
I decided to play more streamlined than some of the lists online… I cut all the Lavaball Traps, leaving my land destruction in the sideboard only. That said, for big spells I have all four copies of Chandra Nalaar in the main, as well as a single copy of Obelisk of Alara (Mark originally played zero and two of that expensive pair).
I have beaten a wide variety of decks (msostly creatures, but also Jund or whatever) and these are my conclusions…
I lost to a PT Junk colors deck, where he drew three Duress very early (maybe even his opener) and I dropped the third to double Duress (obviously got the first one in dramatic fashion); that might not seem so insurmountable but this deck is not very threat dense and the only card drawing gets you lands. I didn’t get blown out, but both were games where I needed a Pyroclasm that he took, for instance, and lost, not to a bunch of little guys, but more to the fact that they hit me once. I am fine with that kind of matchup, though; long run anyway. The only other deck I’ve lost to is the Hedron Crab “Dredge” deck. Without devoting signficant slots to Relic of Progenitus and Ravenoous Trap, I don’t see how you can beat that deck easily. Maybe it’s not a real deck? Very poor matchup.
First of all, every single card in the main and side has been producing. If anything my least favorite cards are Path to Exile and Elspeth, Knight-Errant… but you know the caliber of those cards. That said, my favorite cards to play so far have been Goblin Assault and Obelisk of Alara. No one has conceded to a Goblin Assault, but many players have sent Duress or Celestial Purge before the first Goblin came online. Also no one has conceded to Obelisk of Alara, but many have commented that they can’t beat it… three or four turns before actually losing.
I won a mirror last night (yay). We had very divergent strategies. I sided in Celestial Purge and he sided out all of his Ajanis and Chandras and so on 🙂 I won in three.
The second game I lost from a fair amount of life when I tapped down 6/7 mana for Obelisk of Alara and got hit by a kicked Elementa Appeal (WHAT?). The problems with his strategy were: 1) Ajani and Chandra were still really good for me, as was Goblin Assault, so the fact that he had Celestial Purge didn’t change the fact that he used 1.5-2 cards per Red permanent to stay even, and 2) he still had Red permanents for my Purges to hit.
I think this is the deck I am going to play for a while on MTGO, despite the fact that it has neither Baneslayer Angel nor Bloodbraid Elf 🙂
Comments are available, below. Use them! (Make them?)
Slightly less unbelievably, a deck not by YT at all.
Ben Goodman (aka @RidiculousHat) pinch hits with quite a hit of a deck, actually… Starring (you guessed it) Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle!
Ben Tweeted a greeting along the lines of…
Have you played with [V]alakut yet? Killing people with lands is awesome.
I actually really like the G/R Valakut decks for Extended [albeit packing Sakura-Tribe Elder, probably my favorite creature ever] (what is it with these Extended strategies largely playable in Standard? You know, like yesterday’s?) … So I tried out Ben’s deck for a few matches.
I won them all relatively easily.
They weren’t super duper easy as with Naya Lightsaber, but keep in mind I had never played his deck before. As he has been saying on Twitter, this Valakut attempt is very solid:
I only had the chance to play in three matches with the deck so far… Here are my experiences:
“Dredge”
You know this deck… It is a combo deck featuring Hedron Crab, Crypt of Agadeem, and Extractor Demon. Their goal is to put a bunch of creatures into the graveyard, either with Hedron Crab or using Cycling + Unearth for eventual value.
The annoying part of the deck comes from their Rotting Rats (with double discard value), the big kill from Extractor Demon. There are a million Unearths in the deck, but Extractor Demon is a big one that can come out with a big swing for a single-turn kill from down low (presuming their graveyard is jazzed enough). Also Extractor Demon can serve as an alternate win condition, decking the opponent thanks to all their guys disappearing from the battlefield at the end of an Unearth turn.
Luckily, my match didn’t really go to those ends.
Game One I just tempo’d him out. Lightning Bolt for Hedron Crab, then some attacking with Bloodbraid Elf and Goblin Ruinblaster. The Goblin was particularly helpful, chomping a Crypt before it got out of hand.
I lost the second game to a series of Corpse Connoisseurs setting one another up (while I was mana shy).
The third game ended in dramatic fashion; I kept being forced to discard, and he attacked me relentlessly with Cycling creatures from the graveyard. However I had three copies of ye olde Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle in play, and two Khlani Heart Expeditions on the map. I finally hit a land drop which allowed me to put counters on the Expeditions, play the Harrow I had been sandbagging to get the next two counters on each, and explode for roughly one trillion damage. Hi-yah!
Esper Control
I almost conceded Game One on turn three. I kept a one lander with Expedition Map and some Rampant Growths. I stalled on one but eventually hit the second land to go digging… Which put me in the path of Archive Trap + Twincast. Unbelievably, he hit nine of my Mountains. I didn’t really know how I could win… But I just played my cards, and one of them was Siege-Gang Commander. That Goblin circumvented his Wall of Denial, and I won a long one.
The second was another bunch of Valakuts on the board; he had to Counterspell every Harrow, everything. Which he didn’t.
Nissa Revane “Gruul”
This was an insane game! He had first turn Oran-Rief, the Vastwood. So everyone who came out came out with +1/+1 (no fun). He battered me but somehow I drew just enough lands (having kept I think a two lander) to chump with Siege-Gang Commander and set up Lavaball Trap! RAH!
The first trap took out Mountain, Rootbound Crag, and three 1/1s with +1/+1 counters on top.
The second one got his remaining Forests and a Llanowar Elves.
(He only had four).
I might have been stuck on one life, but I had plenty of time to win; I didn’t need it because he conceded to unopposed Bloodbraid Elf the next turn.
Finally, I got a tempo game with just some Pyroclasm action. It was a combination of tempo from Bloodbraid Elf and assorted beatdown, followed by Valakut control.
All in all, a fine trio of matches, and a nice introduction to this “Ridiculous” Red Deck 🙂
A card breakdown…
Expedition Map
Usually I got Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle with this pap; once I got Forest to set up Bloodbraid Elf. You really need to play this card in this kind of deck to reinforce the number of Valakuts.
Bloodbraid Elf
This is a really odd card in this deck. Half the time you are flipping over Rampant Growth. Sometimes you flip over Lightning Bolt like some kind of a miser; other times you flip Bolt and it didn’t do very much. This is like Blastoderm in Angry No-Hermit from back 2000 days (was Napster era really almost 10 years ago?). Just like Blastoderm in that deck, I wouldn’t consider cutting this strange, seemingly misplaced, four drop.
Harrow
Khalni Heart Expedition
These cards are somewhat modular in this deck. You can play them early but you will often not explode them until you have Valakut online; they are a Ball Lightning each, remember, beyond being regular old mana acceleration.
Rampant Growth
This one you will not usually want to wait on; sets up turn three Bloodbraid Elf and all that.
Goblin Ruinblaster
This was a surprisingly valuable main deck card, despite the fact that I sideboarded it out against the deck with Oran-Rief (for Pyroclasm). Nice tempo; nice action on Crypt of Agadeem. I’m sure it would be fine against beloved Black Baneslayer and so on 🙂 (Or is it “:(“?)
Lavaball Trap
I was pretty shocked when this saved me. The deck has a queer semi-Ponza vibe with the Ruinblasters and this main, and the somewhat transformational sideboard.
Lightning Bolt
Not really strategic in this deck; I can see siding it out.
Siege-Gang Commander
Another one that was somewhat hard to contextualize before I actually played… But I guess you need a way to win.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
The ace.
I played 12 of the 15 cards in Ben’s sideboard fairly happily (no Sylvan Bounties… at least not yet). Due to its cost I probably would have overlooked Volcanic Submersion, but it was useful against the Dredge deck.
Before I sign off for the night, a couple of notes…
In case you haven’t seen it yet, two Two TWO copies of Black Baneslayer made the Top 8 of the recent Star City Games $5,000 in Nashville; if you know them, give Chase Lamm and Derek Mong a punch in the arm (or the affectionate bum pat or whatever of your choice).
I recently read one of my favorite articles of all time as a multi-part ‘cast over at Top 8 Magic. Give a listen to “How to Win a PTQ” (inspired by Adam Levitt). (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5)
Apparently I had a glitch on the site so that no new people could register to make blog comments. Sorry about that one kids! It should be fixed now. So comment away. Please!
Baneslayer Angel: It has been called by our most recent Pro Tour Champion possible the best large creature in the history of Magic. Baneslayer Angel, a card that I just haven’t managed to put into any decks, ever. Baneslayer Angel–a mismatch in the quick Zoo archetype? Baneslayer Angel… Criss-cross applesauce. Baneslayer Angel!
Har har har.
The context of this post will be even more hilarious when I write about the Nissa Revane and re-vamped G/W decks based on Evan Erwin’s “Conqueror’s Sledge” that I worked on this week 🙂
It is based somewhat on Brian Kowal’s Naya Excalibur deck from around US Nationals 2009 and somewhat on Brian Kibler’s Pro Tour winning deck from Austin.
Incidentally I watched this movie with my daughter this weekend:
Twice.
Gold star to the first person who notes in the comments why I pointed that out.
Anyway, the above Naya deck is super good. I borrowed most of the cards from Kibler’s deck; that is, Noble Hierarch up. The presence of Noble Hierarch makes Ranger of Eos particularly attractive. The question was what to play with the Ranger. In Kowal’s Naya Excalibur deck, he had an absolutely brilliant mana base around Rootbound Crag and Sunpetal Grove where Figure of Destiny was perfectly positioned alongside the Plains and Mountains for Wild Nacatl. This deck doesn’t have the luxury of the near-Tarmogoyf Figure of Destiny, but Noble Hierarch is very good (along with Wild Nacatl)… My preference for playing three copies of Ajani Vengeant left just enough room for one Scute Mob.
If there is anything my playtesting has taught me at this point, it is that I often want a second Scute Mob!
Scute Mob is absolutely rapturous. As a post attrition play, Ranger of Eos is an absolute game-shatterer; particularly because it can get the solo Scute Mob. Mother loving monster in this deck. However sometimes you draw it and are forced to trade with an Elite Vanguard early; then you want another Scute Mob to draw later… and you don’t got it.
I went with Woolly Thoctar, like Naya Excalibur, as the only three drop in the deck (Kowal played his Great Sable Stags in the main… I don’t see that as particularly attractive, even with the prevalence of Vampires in Standard). I would actually prefer to play Knight of the Reliquary (like Kibler did in Extended)… But there aren’t many natural advantages in this deck. I only play–and can only afford, really–the four Arid Mesas.
These kinds of lands carry with them particular dependencies. In Extended you can play a bazillion Verdant Catacombs, Marsh Flats, whatever, what have you, and get away with it with only a few mana producing lands in your entire deck. That is because your Arid Mesa can point at your Hallowed Fountain, and so can your Misty Rainforest, and you have to draw through some insane percentage of your deck (in a format that sometimes ends on the third turn) before it catches up with you. But in Standard, if you play with four Arid Mesas in any deck but Boros Bushwhacker (which itself is quite quick to the quick), you have to play with more than four Mountains-plus-Plains to reliably not get thrown off the Island math-wise, if you take my reality show meaning. So anyway, with only four Arid Mesas, Knight of the Reliquary will probably start off as only a 2/2 (maybe a 3/3), but will only rarely get serious in size ahead of time; yes, Oran-Rief, the Vastwood is an absolutely bonkers weapon and tool… But there is only the one in this sixty, and it is not strategic to Naya Lightsaber. It isn’t like in Extended where Ghost Quarter can swat off an entire Dark Depths deck.
So the reason we don’t have room for that other three (Knight of the Reliquary or not) is Baneslayer Angel… baneslayer angel, Baneslayer Angel, BANESLAYER ANGEL! News flash: This card is really good. You get it online with the Noble Hierarch, or just by peeling lands off the top. It is great in attack-on-attack; a very good trump card after a lot of trading. It is a must-deal-with card, and a card that can dig you out of a great many holes. By this point you should know I am up for Baneslayer Angels not just in beatdown, but in Cascade decks, along side Ob Nixilis, just about anywhere.
The main under-performer in this deck, if there is one (this is one of those decks where Ranger of Eos is the clear over-performer) is his fellow four, Bloodbraid Elf. Maybe I am just used to always hitting an awesome two-for-one Esper Charm or the incomparable Blightning… But in this deck, not so much. Half the time it’s just another Noble Hierarch (though to be fair, that makes for a 5-power hasty muffin in the Red Zone, and sometimes Oran-Rief is even online). But you can’t really complain about hitting a Lightning Bolt, I guess.
Path to Exile? Another story entirely.
But not a reason to cut either.
As for the sideboard, I like most of the cards but I don’t love the sideboard in its entirety. Burst Lightning is an excellent card but I would prefer a card that could deal three on its lonesome for Vampire Nighthawk, earlier in the game. Goblin Ruinblaster, on the other hand, is a blaster of all different kinds of ruins; for example, Emeria, the Sky Ruin.
Just a quick update on this one. I took out Thornling (even though he has been pretty good) for some of the reasons brought up by wobblesthegoose in the comments of How to Play With Marsh Flats. Essentially the deck only needs one Green mana source to operate (though it does need that initial Green)… Except when you consider Thornling. Thornling is very Green mana hungry, but the rest of the deck is pretty Black mana hungry (you actually need three of the four Swamps in play most games), not to mention needing two White sources in play for Baneslayer Angel.
The randomest cards are / were Behemoth Sledge (one-of plus one-of) which actually didn’t do enough in matches where the opponent could Lightning Bolt all your jones (which is ironically often the kind of match where the second copy went in) and Mind Shatter. Mind Shatter remains awesome, but you will often lose game one when you draw it if the opponent is faster than you are. Mind Shatter is more the kind of card that pre-empts a more controlling deck’s Cruel Ultimatum or messes up their ability to hit land drops when they are tapped for a Planeswalker. It’s not unconditionally good despite being unconditional card advantage.
All those came out for Putrid Leech (about as fine a man as you can get for a two-drop Zombie Leech).
The sideboard saw significant changes. Mind Shatter shifted from main to side as a new Game Two four-of (potentially) against more controlling decks, or decks with a significant Cascade component.
The biggest shift–at least in this test version–was moving away from Summoning Trap (which has yet to materialize for me, or even get cast despite my keeping double Summoning Trap hands against Counterspell decks) to Celestial Purge. The inspiration for moving to Celestial Purge came at a loss tonight to Ajani Vengeant. I had just spent a Maelstron Pulse relatively well, but then he had that best of Planeswalkers (one of the Ajanis probably is, anyway)… and whittled at my options over and over. I really need another card to deal with these kinds of permanents, I thought. It turns out that Celestial Purge is a Doom blade of sorts against the Red Decks (gain seven or whatever), and as pointed out by Alfrebaut, is really good Sprouting Thrinax suppression.
So there you have the current test version; it’s actually winning less than the previous ones, but not on account of any of the new cards (or the old ones missing, I think)… So I think it will have more potential to be better.
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 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.
So I finally caved and added Rupture Spire to my Cascade deck.
I don’t actually know what I was apprehensive about before… Rupture Spire has been great. The deck went from struggling (somewhat) to advertising some very valuable expectation.
Here’s the quickie-quick on how to play Rupture Spire in a deck like this…
Typically you want to play a comes-into-play-tapped land on the first turn; you know, Seaside Citadel… something like that.
You run out your Rupture Spire and pay.
You hammer the opponent with whatever kind of three you drew, after playing a regular land.
See?
It’s that easy!
The down side on Rupture Spire is that it can potentially force more mulligans; for example you have a two-lander and they are both Rupture Spires; any other two-land opener combination and you can at least think about keeping (like if you have Arcane Sanctum and Savage Lands and two Esper Charms you will probably keep)… But with double Rupture Spire, that is a zero option (Remember Finkel’s Second Law).
The other annoying thing about Rupture Spire is when it is your fourth or fifth land and you are already rolling on spells. Like a lot of the time you will go comes-into-play-tapped land, comes-into-play-tapped land, comes-into-play-tapped land, Forest: Bloodbraid Elf… then you can go another Bloodbraid Elf or Captured Sunlight plus another comes-into-play-tapped land; however if your fifth land is Rupture
Spire [especially off the top] then you stall on four. This might not be the end of the world (you are already hammering them with awesome Cascade spells), but you might actually consider pointing Esper Charm at yourself in this spot–this is another somewhat common spot where Rupture Spire can slow you down.
I just pulled four lands out for four Rupture Spires while half-asleep… Not a lot of huge science here, but the Spires have been contributing (I made @RidiculousHat‘s eyes bleed).
The sideboard is transformative. You are no longer a “mono Cascade” deck sideboarded. You transform into a “regular” (but aggression-hostile alternate deck. The attitude sideboarded is more like a “classic” Standard deck (or like the Borderland Ranger deck of old)… Cascade for value rather than full-on ultimatum.
These changes were largely thanks to my Tweeps @RidiculousHat and @amistod… Thanks Tweeps!
Here is a rundown of the last, you know, “five with” matches I ran with ye olde Black Baneslayer:
Four-color Control
His deck was mostly esper with Red for like Double Negative (obviously a solid against YT).
I opened up on Esper Charm, which hit; then he sent Double Negative at Bloodbraid Elf.
My next play was Esper Charm, which I used to draw up and hit lands (it hit).
The next move was (another) Bloodbraid Elf, which stuck and drew out two cards with Esper Charm. He saved a Lightning Bolt for the Bloodbraid Elf itself… But he was out.
Baneslayer Angel obviously hit. And hit. And hit. And that was it.
Next one I opened up on Esper Charm, which drew out a Counterspell.
Sick as hell, dawg! Untap, Ajani Vengeant.
I worked him with Ajani for a few turns while emptying his hand. He hit all his land drops and played the Sphinx.
I was “winning” but stuck on four for a while so I couldn’t deploy Baneslayer Angel or Deny Reality, so Ajani died. That said, he was empty, if in command of a 5/5 shroud when I played Baneslayer Angel…
Baneslayer Number One, that is.
More to come (more Baneslayers, that is)… Concession.
On Twitter @amistod has been trying to get me to play Sphinx over Baneslayer Angel; his argument is that if you untap with Sphinx you generally win.
I don’t agree with him in that if you untap with Baneslayer you win about as often, plus you get to play out of stuff like Anathemancer, too.
Jund Aggro
Interesting game… He started on Putrid Leech but stalled.
He pumped for two every turn, but I was all comes-into-play-tapped and wasn’t doing anything past the the Blightnings and Esper Charms… Nothing to fight his Putrid Leech head-on.
Then I got there with Deny Reality and he packed.
Second game he conceded quickly to my discard plan.
I don’t typically sideboard much, if at all for Jund. All my cards are good… It’s a matter of their being super quick more than anything else; I will sometimes bring in 2-4 Lightning Bolts in Game Three if I am on the draw, but not typically on the play.
Four Color Control
Game One was very competitive as he raw drew three Blightnings. That made the game “very interesting” as they say. I got rid of his hand back, and he topdecked Sphinx. I topdecked Baneslayer. Baneslayer won of course.
I thought I was going to bowl him over in the second, but he had Swerve! He turned one of my Blightnings against myself! That certainly un-landslided it. I got back in there but we were both coming off the top. He drew and played Courier Capsule. With great discipline he waited until the end of my turn to fire it (what if I drew Blightning?) … Unfortunately I drew Esper Charm and re-emptied him. That was the beginning of the end.
Esper Control
I had played v. him a couple of times before… But his deck is heavily anti-Jund, so I take a little splash damage on that one (think Sphinx of the Steel Wind).
I don’t know why I am telling you this but you should know…
I won the first game on a common error on his part.
As usual v. control I opened up working him with discard spells. He made Jace Beleren to get out of it, targeting only himself, putting Jace to below three loyalty. That allowed me to kill Jace with Blightning while erasing his hand!
If he had played Jace so both players would draw card instead, the game might have gone differently.
Games two and three he got me with Identity Crisis.
No!
I had marginal lead on the board, but no hand after turn six or so.
In Game Three he was down to two cards when he played the Identity Crisis, so I had an open to rip almost anything and wreck his hand… But I drew a land. He drew four Counsters off the top to protect His Shroud Phinx.
White Weenie
You know… Mono-White Steppe Lynx.
I got Game One with the dramatic personae if you know what I mean.
He bum rushed me in the second… I was all swimming in hobos.
In the third I got a bunch of Rhox War Monks going but screwed up. He had multiple Honor the Pure in play and I got lazy on Lightning Bolt. I could have just killed his Lynx on my turn but instead I gave him the empty-handed open to draw Arid Mesa to demolish me (can’t respond to both triggers). Instead, I was forced to chump with two beautiful Rhox War Monks.
I worked my way back up to the point where it was no longer interesting. I didn’t die, so I got the space to Ultimatum him a bunch… But that one turn was what mattered; I just got mad lucky to Cascade out of it (or maybe it wasn’t lucky, now that I think about it).
Four wins, one loss in this five-match set. I really like this deck (which you probably know).
I figured I’d do something a little different today and maybe run it regular-like.
It has one Summoning Trap.
1. What is this, some kind of a Q & A?
Yes. That’s exactly what it is.
2. Okay smart guy… How come you don’t make YouTube videos any more? I really liked those.
Thanks! I appreciate it. I will probably go back to actively making the fivewithflores videos on YouTube but not in the immediate future. I used to have a really nice MacBook Pro that I did the videos on and I don’t have that computer any more. Any fivewithflores fans make videos on the PC?
But let me make it up to you. Just pretend that Scarlett Jo is michaelj (or you might not want to):
3. Sounds weak… Why don’t you make PodCasts any more then?
That is a little different. I still think of myself as making PodCasts (and regularly)… Albeit a little less frequently. We are all just really busy (at least relative to when I was kicking out PodCasts every week with BDM). Longer hours and more responsibility at the day job, plus more kids! I guess I can’t blame everything on Clark, but it is still a different life than during the Charleston PTQ season, for instance. Don’t worry–we are all still active PodCast making machines!
4. What was the answer to that You Make the Play?
Look very closely at the game state:
Tim Gillam asked what I had sideboarded in. Fair question, but I don’t know how much it matters based on this game state.
We are gearing up to smash with a Blightning here. He has two cards in hand. We have no clear next play because we can’t cast anything in our hand with the mana we have access to; if we were going to play Esper Charm, we’d have to pull an Island probably.
Given that we have to topdeck, I think we should topdeck ourselves into the best possible situation.
Originally I was playing Savage Lands (you can even see Savage Lands “highlighted” as the top-left); but I thought better of it.
The right answer here is Exotic Orchard.
Exotic Orchard taps for white. Playing it puts us in a position to pull Plains, Arid Mesa, or another Exotic Orchard to go straight to the big girl next turn. Even if we don’t hit our untapped White, we can Savage Lands into Forest the following turn to hit the Enlisted Ultimatum.
5. Did you figure out how to play Rupture Spire?
The short answer is yes, but I’m not getting into it right now. Instead, check out this deck:
As-Yet-Unnamed Three-color Bombs
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
It has been testing pretty well so far. Lotus Cobra has been absolutely explosive. The ability to actually make plays on turns two and three was like a memory before this deck. And your turn four is often a Sorin plus a Pulse (take that Pyromancer’s Ascension deck!).
Verdant Catacombs headlines a new take on Jund Mana Ramp. Just how linear is Landfall?
Without going into too much detail, this is basically the third major build of the Landfall Mana Ramp deck. It started as really, really Landfall-based all the way down to Bloodghasts.
As of this evening I cut all the Khalni Heart Expeditions; there was just too much mana ramping in the deck and not enough gas. I moved two copies of Sorin Markov to the main deck, and upped the land count to 25. The land had to go up not just because of cutting the Khalni Heart Expeditions, but because I at the same time cut four basics to play four Savage Lands.
Previously the deck was “all basics” … That is, eight Zendikar dual lands and fifteen basic lands. With all the mana ramping that was fine… However the other night I finally lost to that awful Pyromancer’s Ascension deck.
If there is one deck that I always beat with every deck it is the Pyromancer’s Ascension deck. The Black Baneslayer deck can beat Pyromancer’s Ascension consistently with three trips to Paris under its belt (trust me, I’ve had to), and this deck can at least compete with aggressive Scepter of Fugue sideboard games (though I have also won with Maelstrom Pulse and Ob Nixilis of course). However this one game my opponent had Ajani Vengeant and kept my lone Mountain tapped… With only a single true source of Red in my deck (regardless of how much virtual Red access there is), I could lose to Ajani, spot removal, and so on.
That said, I think the deck has a lot of potential. If not for Black Baneslayer, I would probably like this deck best (I like them both):
This deck is structurally fairly similar to my 2009 Regionals era Jund Mana Ramp deck; it is the same colors, at least. The difference here is that instead of a pure two-for-one theme, we have more of a mix of cards, including some flexible removal (Maelstrom Pulse) that I usually try to avoid playing, and Sorin Markov on the top end (quite good, seemingly everywhere).
This deck is a pretty consistent performer, though you can get some awkward hands with two or three pieces of mana and multiple six mana plays. You usually have to keep.
I played about four matches with the Version 3.0 of this deck tonight; here’s how they went:
1. Vampires
Game One we were racing, me with some kind of wonderful, him with multiple Vampire Nighthawks; in this game I was introduced to the “Deathtouch” feature on the aforementioned Nighthawk (who knew). He peeled Vampire Nocturnus and I lost on the last turn, my own kill in hand.
Game Two was a blowout. My stuff was just bigger; he didn’t draw (or maybe didn’t play) Mind Sludge.
Game Three was a super fast acceleration game. Turn two Rampant Growth (two to three); turn three Harrow (three to four), play land, Rampant Growth… Turn four Rampaging Baloths plus a land (that is, plus a 4/4 Beast). I drew three removal spells and he only drew four guys.
1-0
2. Jund with Sedraxis Specter
We went to three… In the third he drew all his Lightning Bolts but failed to ever peel a Forest. His first two Bolts had to shut off my Planeswalker and the others half-traded for Borderland Rangers. I was able to overcome him with two Rampaging Baloths; two Maelstrom Pulses sat back in reserve.
2-0
3. Ranger of Eos Naya
This deck featured newcomer Scute Mob and was pretty exciting.
In the first game I just traded with him “one for one” … My first Ob Nixilis bought it to a Lightning Bolt (I planned for this to give up due to having Grim Discovery in hand). He grew his second Scute Mob and I played a Broodmate Dragon. He came in with his now-large Mob and I chose to double block it with Dragons; one went down and I took three from the Ranger of Eos to go pretty low, but I knew one of his remaining cards was another Scute Mob and the other was a topdeck. My remaining Dragon came in, then I played DI Re-buy on Misty Rainforest and my lost Ob Nixilis, finished with that flurry and a Rampant Growth. Ob Nixilis is so crazy.
3-0
4. Vampires
Game One I thought I would win despite drawing only two Harrows and two copes of Ob Nixilis. It turns out he was able to race usuing multiple platforms.
Game Two I was ahead but didn’t really know how to translate that into a win.
Then I drew a Planeswalker.
All of a sudden he was pretty locke ut of doing anything.
I was already getting kind of annoyed at MTGO at this point; but there wa a lot of lag and my session with the Landfall Ramp had to end on a sour fiish.
Game One I thought I had it despite drawing only two Harrows and two copies of Ob Nixilis for spells. He raced with Nighthawks but I just couldn’t beat a pair of Malakir Bootwitches.
Game Two was kind of a narrow win, but it was a win. I didn’t really know what to do (I knew his cards and so I knew my creatures were probably not going to make it long)… But then I drew my Planeswalker and controlled his board until I could profitably tap him out with the Mindslaver function.
Game Three was super close (like Game One and its three spells… I probably could have won if I played my lands in different order… He was at 2 the turn before he won). It came down to my playing Ob Nixilis instead of Broodmate Dragon with two Dragons and Sorin Markov back. His Vampire Nocturnus showed a Tendrils of Corruption, and it just didn’t register that he could have Gatekeeper of Malakir for my Black Ob Nixilis, the Fallen.
If I had played the Dragon, my worst case scenario would have been five or six in. I would have had the next Broodmate Dragon for more attrition, and could have won with the big swing on Sorin Markov plus Ob Nixilis. Instead, I lost to exactly lethal: 11 points.
At long last, the post-Zendikar mana base for the Mono-Cascade deck… Will Seaside Citadel be the answer to our post-Reflecting Pool / post-Vivd Crag mana base woes?
[Also a bonus You Make the Play!]
Okay, let’s start at the end. This is the current version of the Mono-Cascade deck (at least how I have been tuning it):
sideboard:
2 Obelisk of Alara
2 Duress
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Lightning Bolt
So that’s the new mana base.
Without boring you with too many details I have found the deck to win essentially every matchup as long as its mana comes out.
That is not idle smack talk… It’s just a fact, and a dual-edged vulnerability. I have been trying to figure out what is “wrong” with this deck. In the best terms, the strategy has one of the deepest Stage Ones of any competitive deck, ever. The deck almost can’t make a play before turn four, and I have lost games where I hit my first six land drops and never played a spell!
This is very clearly a Stage One problem.
It has only gotten worse with the transition from Vivid lands and Reflecting Pool to the current mana base.
Because I recognized the Stage One issue, I pulled Enigma Sphinx in favor of more Seaside Citadels (previously the aforementioned Sphinx and one Sunpetal Grove). I am still not 100% happy with the mana base. Not at all, but it has certainly gotten better (that said, Rootbound Crag should probably be packing up his desk if you know what I mean).
I played many matches last night in the Tournament Practice Room (not playing tournaments until I can get my own side of the street relatively garbage-free), and lost matches that I found inexplicable.
I lost to one of those new-fangled [almost?] permission-free four- or five-color control decks, which I think Cascade should be a heavy favorite. I hit turn three Blightning and turn four Captured Sunlight into Blightning… and then stalled on four for the next four turns while he went from crippled to dominating position by topdecking Esper Charm and Jace. Any land drop would have been game, I think (I had three copies of Deny Reality in hand, and he had already discarded one of his Cruel Ultimatums). After I recoverd somewhat and put myself once again in a decent position he pulled Cruel Ultimatum; I held back Enlisted Wurm over Deny Reality… and flipped into Bituminous Blast with no targets on board.
One thing I will give him… His strategic game was admirable. I stalled on three in the last game, and he drew three copies of Thought Hemorrhage. He immediately went for Esper Charm… and unfortunately I had two copies in hand. He saw I had two Obelisks of Alara in hand, too, and made his second Thought Hemorrhage a six-point Blightning, and when I started to recover, he just named Blightning itself.
The Obelisk of Alara naming made YT a victim of opportunity, but the other two plays were superb because they cut off the bottom of my Cascade chain. So once I got finished being manascrewed, I had the privilege of playing with a buffoonish Talruum Minotaur and about 1/3 the value of a Loxodon Hierarch for the same mana cost. Even in-matchup breakers like Deny Reality get really unexciting with the threes cut (though you can flip Ajani Vengeant and that is pretty awesome). Anyway, didn’t win.
I had some frustrating losses like the above early in the evening, but after adding another Seaside Citadel and cutting the Enigma Sphinx, results improved over the course of many, many matches.
One of the excuses I have for not updating this blog as much in the past couple of weeks is that I have been playing almost nothing but Black Baneslayer / Mono-Cascade. In more than 15 years of Magic I have never had this experience before… As you probably know I have deck ADD. Even during the term when I was designing decks like Critical Mass and Jushi Blue I could not stay loyal and focused. I was always branching to Wild Gifts, then URzaTron, and even G/W and R/W creature decks. I just love to design decks and I just can’t help myself… Or at least that’s how it was.
There is a true joy that comes with playing this deck that I have never experienced before… Not even with a Napster or a Masques Block White deck.
It’s really rewarding to be able to plot out how the next X turns are going to go; as long as you have a spell to cast, some amount of the next turn is predictable. Yeah, he starts to beat on you with his Putrid Leech and Sprouting Thrinax, but you can confidently empty his hand before moving to the Baneslayer Angel phase of the game, or you just keep chaining him with Cascade spells, generating incremental advantages that lace and loop together until the opponent falls further and further behind that victory becomes unimaginable.
One deck that Black Baneslayer absolutely, positively, always beats is Pyromancer’s Ascension. I played against that deck half a dozen matches last night, including mulligans to five and I think even four, faced off against multiple Mind Springs for six or thereabouts, and failed to drop a match. I wasn’t keeping great attention but I don’t think I dropped a game. Basically their deck doesn’t do anything disruptive, nor does it ever pose a remote chance of killing you before Pyromancer’s Ascension comes online, so you have all the time in the world to get your mana straight. Blightning is great, per usual, and even though I don’t recommend actually pointing Esper Charm at Pyromancer’s Ascension, you can if you have to, and it’s fine. Usually through the middle turns you Deny Reality their only X, and / or Pyromancer’s Ascension (which will force counters resets) and eventually you can kill them with Enlisted Wurm or Bloodbraid Elf or whatever.
So there is the new mana base.
Plus there is some griping about not hitting land drops.
And here is a minor You Make the Play…
So this was an epic battle, at least so far as preliminary mana testing in the Tournament Practice Room goes.
Game One he played a turn two Lotus Cobra and utterly demolished me with it. Bloodbraid Elf, Baneslayer Angel… I kind of lost track but it was brutal.
I sided in Lightning Bolts for Game Two but his opener was Knight of the Reliquary, and it was immediately in 4/4-ville. I could see where the game was going but I hit my lands and played super tight.
… And by super tight I mean I played the cards I was given.
The only play that mattered whatsoever was when I had some “exact mana” multiple spell turn laid out, but I forgoed (forwent?) it in favor of a potentially loose life gain move.
Then I realized he could topdeck Bloodbraid Elf and I could very well be dead. So I played Captured Sunlight (the only one I had in my deck that game) instead (which pained me), because I accomplished half of what I intended to do.
Of course he flipped Bloodbraid Elf and I realized what I genius I am 🙂
It was a nailbiter but I managed to win Game Two on one life.
So here’s the shot for Game Three:
He openend on Knight of the Reliquary again.
I had the hot draw with the ability to actually play my spells, heavy on the threes.
I hit turn three Blightning and already have turn four Blightning mana queued up.
The only question is, given my hand of:
Blightning (about to be put on the stack)
Esper Charm
Baneslayer Angel
Exotic Orchard
Forest
Savage Lands
Which land should I play?
Look at the game state; how many cards does he have in hand? How big is his Knight? How big is it likely to become soon?
Bloodbraid Elf
Bloodbraid Elf
Enlisted Wurm
Mountain
Plains
Reflecting Pool
Who knows what your next card is going to be?
But there is an interesting mental exercise…
What land do you play?
… So, why is this interesting again?
As you could probably tell from the screen shot, this actually came up for me last week, playing with my Mono-Cascade deck*. I was going to just run out Mountain…
Why would I run out Mountain?
When you play this kind of a deck enough–even now that we’ve layered it with four main deck Baneslayer Angels–you try to play around Anathemancer. I know it’s only turn two… But really, you start to train yourself to play Mountain in these kinds of spots as a default.
Anyway, I thought to myself, if I pull Blightning, I can play it on turn three anyway.
It was at that point that I realized my error.
There is only one right play: Reflecting Pool.
Why?
Because you have an equal chance of drawing Blightning or Esper Charm!
Your path is clear starting on turn four. If you only want to consider four mana spells, you have no issue. Any order of your next three lands will allow you to play a pair of Bloodbraid Elves. In this deck, that two-turn sequence is automatically devastating. The opponent will be under pressure and will be down four cards… That’s just how the deck is designed.
But if you draw an actual three mana spell, you can put yourself so far ahead come turn four or five that the opponent will be in topdeck mode whereas you will be playing Ultimatum Magic (that is actually part of the reason I like the Mono-Cascade deck the best… It is just ferociously more powerful than basically everything else that people seem to be playing… but more on that later).
So in this case, you can see that playing Reflecting Pool is the best turn two play. The next best play is Plains.
If you play Plains and then draw Blightning, you can play Reflecting Pool or Mountain and cast the Blightning; it is inferior to Reflecting Pool on turn two because in this case you will have to take a counter off of your Vivid Creek in order to play the Blightning. This may or may not be relevant in the particular game at hand, but this kind of haphazard play can and will have a negative effect on your long term victory prospects if you are not aware of it.
Why?
… For the exact same reason that playing Reflecting Pool is better than playing Mountain on turn two.
We sometimes talk about the general rules in Magic.
Zvi calls this one “Finkel’s Law” (it was made popular by myself and Justin Polin during our short term at Brainburst Premium): Focus Only On What Matters.
Some people who listen to the Top 8 Magic Podcast know that Finkel actually has more than one law. This is a second one: Magic is a game of options. Generally the better play is the one that preserves the most options.
So in this case, playing a Reflecting Pool on the second turn is better than a Mountain because it helps leave open your options… You will be able to play Esper Charm or Blightning on turn three, regardless of which (if either) you draw.
By the same token, playing Plains is better than playing Mountain on turn two, but worse than playing Reflecting Pool because it shines a similar light (or lack thereof) on your options. You will theoretically be able to play either three mana spell, but if you draw Blightning, you will have to spend a counter on your Vivid Creek that you would not have to spend if you instead played Reflecting Pool first. That Vivid counter might end up mattering.
So what really happened?
I actually just pulled another land (either Plains or Exotic Orchard, I don’t remember). He was playing a U/W deck of some sort and got annihilated by discard into more discard into sixth turn Enlisted Ultimatum… Just like they all do! 🙂
* Yes, yes, yes dear readers, I know this whole hypothetical is based on an imaginary, now-outdated mana base. And yes, I made a new one. Check back tomorrow-ish 🙂
(Bella and I are almost done!)
