You might not know this about me, but I keep fastidious records on my MTGO tournament play statistics.
That is how I know what decks are good!
So after coming back from US Nationals last week, I was very excited to try out some of the breakout decks from that tournament.
Specifically, I looked at three decks:
Mono-G Ramp, a la new TCGPlayer columnist Conrad Kolos
Soul Sisters – in particular because teen heartthrob Gavin Verhey clued me in on the mirror match sideboarding tech
Mythic Conscription because Utter-Leyton’s deck looked so sick I had to take a personal day at the mere prospect of playing it.
Overall, the most impressive deck of the three was Mythic Conscription. I will detail the other two (less exciting) decks [or my experiences with them, anyway] in blog posts later in the week (probably), but for now I wanted to talk about Utter-Leyton’s Conscription deck.
I wrote a lot of my ideas about this deck in last week’s edition of Top Decks. Those didn’t really change based on my playing the deck. In fact my respect for the version just increased.
Overall I was enchanted my the success of such a no-frills deck. I had been mesmerized by all these Fauna Shamans and Squadron Hawk engines and only one copy of Eldrazi Conscription, loading up on Primeval Titans, and so on. But Utter-Leyton’s deck bucked recent trends, uncompromising in its refusal to, you know, compromise. Great deck, and worthy of the very deserving champion.
The card a lot of people have pointed out in this deck is Explore.
I didn’t really know what to make of it. Yes, there were times when I had a Lotus Cobra followed by a third turn Explore and things went absolutely bananas… But when I was reaching for sideboard slots, this was also always the first card I considered cutting (and to be honest, I won an awful lot of matches with one Explore in my deck!) Sorry, ffej 🙁
Match rundown:
Soul Sisters – Won flip, lost match; -9 points
R/G Valakut – Won flip, won match; +10 points
White Weene (regular, not Soul Sisters) – Won flip, won match +7 points
B/G Ramp – Lost flip, won match; +9 points
B/G Ramp (same deck) – Lost flip, won match; +8 points
Mono-Green Valakut Ramp – Won match; +6 points
Mythic Conscription – Won match; +7 points
Overall, 6-1; +38 points
I try to keep track of whether or not I win the flip but I only remember about 2/3 of the time; I don’t know if it is useful to keep track of this if you don’t remember 100% of the time. As you can see over the first seven matches I played with Utter-Leyton’s Mythic Conscription deck I only remembered to record this 5/7 times.
Regardless, the performance was pretty wicked — 6-1 — and the points more than made up for my performance with Soul Sisters, Mono-Green Ramp, et and cetera.
At this point Utter-Leyton’s Mythic Conscription is my best win percentage of any deck over the 166 lines of my spreadsheet for the current Standard format! Huzzah!
A few months ago I wrote about the so-called Danger of Eldazi Conscription. Some paps on Twitter pointed out that the approach I suggested in this blog post might not be optimal for fighting Mythic Conscription decks. For example, given all the Lotus Cobra mana-making gas in a Mythic Conscription deck, it is possible that the opponent might just play an Eldrazi Conscription that he draws.
But when you do get the Conscription combo… it is, as they said back in the 1990s, some good.
I don’t remember how I lost the Soul Sisters matchup… As a Soul Sisters player in different points in the post-Nationals testing process, I did a fair amount of losing to decks with Forest / Noble Hierarch.
Most of the other matchups I won with a combination of card quality, tactically devastating Mana Leaks, Planeswalkers, Sovereigns of Lost Alara, and math.
To wit:
Card quality – Have youseen the awesome sauce of cards in this deck? The moron threat is Jace, the Mind Sculptor. A lot of games your opponent is playing clunky style and you are doing three or four different insane things. For example you play out a turn one Birds of Paradise or Noble Hierarch, a second turn Lotus Cobra, and like 100 things on turn three thanks to Explore and two copies of Misty Rainforest or Verdant Catacombs.
Tactically devastati Mana Leaks – I am the kind of magician who runs out a Mana Leak basically whenever I have two mana, but some Mana Leaks are made differently from others. For example you Crash with a small animal after powering out Sovereigns of Lost Alara, but seem otherwise tapped out. Your opponent goes for his Big Play (â„¢) in response and you pop off your Knight of the Reliquary with the best two drop ever printed in play. Oh no, you hear the opponent mouth. That’s right, buddy; you’ve been swindled. Mana Leak.
Planeswalkers – I initially found it weird that so many of the threats in this deck are Planeswalkers (I originally considered Jace a non-strategic card that wes mostly good at suppressing opposing copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor), but they were okay. Soldier production on the part of Elspeth, Knight-Errant is a little odd against Soul Sisters, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. That said, it was pretty fun to make my Soul Sisters opponent pick up Ajani’s Pridemate on six consecutive turns, especially as it was always bigger than a 3/3 🙂
Sovereigns of Lost Alara – Playing this version of this deck I often felt like Diamond Dallas Page in the late 1990s… Biding my time, looking for my spot, trying to stick my Diamond Cutter. In this deck, your Diamond Cutter is actually connecting with Eldrazi Conscriptiontwice. Like sometimes one big hit will not be enough because you don’t get the Annihilator benefit and they will attack you to death on the bounce back. Or you might think you have an open but you can smell the Path to Exile a mile away. That is when you have to be clever.
Math – I found Mythic Conscription to be surprisingly cerebral to play. Yes, there are games when it is reminiscent of Critical Mass. Namely you play the “U/W Control” game of Jace, the Mind Sculptor + Counterspells even better than U/W does because you can get your mainline plan online a turn faster with Birds of Paradise, Lotus Cobra, or Noble Hierarch; that’s kind of fun. But the really rewarding games are the multi-turn offenses, I think. Turbo out Elspeth, Knight-Errant, go to the air for about 4-5 points, set up Sovereigns of Lost Alara + Exalted + Elspeth evasion for a lethal strike the next turn. You know, math.
Approach:
Mythic Conscription exemplifies the decks of the Tier One metagame. Basically this is all really good cards laced together by some mana acceleration (and some of those cards are themselves really good cards) and Mana Leaks. Therefore who’s the beatdown equations occur a little bit differently than they do in traditional Magic. Whether you are the beatdown or the control is less a matter of what deck you are playing against than the circumstances surrounding the cards you draw. So if you draw Birds of Paradise, Knight of the Reliquary, Lotus Cobra, and Sovereigns of Lost Alara… All things held equal you are probably going to try to cram Sovereigns of Lost Alara down the opponent’s throat, possibly defending with the Knight. If you draw Birds of Paradise, Jace the Mind Sculptor, and Mana Leak, you are probably going to play a “U/W Control” type game… and it doesn’t matter than you were paired against what should nominally be the “control” deck in both cases.
I played against a mess of decks with Primeval Titans. My approach there was largely borrowed from Zvi Mowshowitz. Basically he has a six and I have a six. I can disrupt his ability to accelerate to six… It is a lot harder for him to do the same. If his six hits, I might be annoyed. If my six hits, he gets crushed for 11+ damage in a single turn. If that damage is coming from a Birds of Paradise, it might be tantamount to dying on the spot. Good matchup, as far as I can tell.
The one thing I never got was when to play Jace’s Ingenuity.
As you can see from the tournament statistics, I played against ramp decks a couple of times; I often found myself siding Jace’s Ingenuity in against those, especially when I was going to drop a copy or two of my Planeswalkers. I often felt I’d rather have a 3/2/2 split of Jace, the Mind Sculptor; Jace’s Ingenuity; and Elspeth, Knight-Errant against decks that couldn’t deuce my Planeswalkers with their own copies, but no idea if that plan would be co-signed by the man who took all the names with this deck.
I held back on writing this blog post (my Mythic Conscription matches all took place around 8/26) because of my article on TCGPlayer today. I wrote about how Pyromancer Ascension was the best deck — and gave a lot of really good reasons that I certainly believed in at the time — and didn’t want to conflict with that article before it came out. I still think my Pyromancer Ascension choice was fine (and would probably play my same 75 again), but the solid results from even seven matches with Utter-Leyton’s Mythic Conscription certainly impressed me.
LOVE
MIKE
PS – In the unlikely case that you haven’t seen or heard about Flores Rewards, check out this video. I think you will like it 🙂
You can also check out the new Flores Rewards blog at — you guessed it — http://FloresRewards.com!
While it’s not a clear upgrade to any of the staple big bad fours in Green, Obstinate Baloth has the bonus superpower of showing up just as onetime Staple — and for that matter “best card in Standard” — Loxodon Hierarch evaporates from the Extended format. So despite the loss of Ravnica Block, the tradition of an efficient 4/4 Green creature for four mana, that somehow (either coming down or leaving town) can gain four life lives on in Standard and Extended.
As for Standard, I like this card in general. I mean it is an efficient 4/4 creature for four mana. Most of you kids out there probably don’t recall that once upon a time Erhnam Djinn (4/5 with a drawback for four mana) was the most fearsome offensive creature in Standard, and for that matter Nettletooth Djinn (4/4 with a serious drawback for four mana) was played in Pro Tour Top 16 Constructed decks. So as for precedent, it is clearly there already, not a lot of convincing has to go on here.
I like it in particular in Standard.
Right now one of the top “anti-” decks is Red Deck Wins and its cousins (Barely Boros, Devastating Red, and what have you); that deck in particular beats up on U/G Turboland to the point of making Turboland non-viable if there is any expectation of Red Deck Wins.
You probably already know that after Pro Tour San Juan BDM wanted to play a deck based around Lotus Cobra, Oracle of Mul Daya, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor but I objected on the grounds that any of the three parts that make that deck roll fold in embarassing fashion to Lightning Bolt. In order for U/G Turboland to be viable in the format, it needs a nigh-transformative plan for Red Deck Wins… I think that a counter-offense that relies somewhat on Obstinate Baloth is a good start. The card will typically require two non-Flame Slash cards to remove, and the 187 on Obstinate Baloth is the equivalent of two Red cards in counting to begin with.
In a word: Mise.
What about the other application?
I don’t know that you would play the card for just the second ability, but you don’t really have to make that decision. Dave Humpherys once won a Grand Prix with main-deck Dodecapod, but that might have been a special case (Probe, Recoil, Gerrard’s Verdict, and Ravenous Rats were all Staple at the time); we know how good Wilt-Leaf Liege was last year, played everywhere from White Weenie to Doran variants to of course Elves. So the second half is also quite good… Especially in a format that is so friendly towards Blightning.
Seems like this cat (and by “cat” I of course mean “Beast”) would play nicely with our old buddy (and by “old” I mean “new”), Vengevine. Not only is Obstinate Baloth potential fuel, but they are such jolly “I hate Blightning” friends; heck, they even share a mana cost.
Today Matt Sperling said to me that most Eldrazi Monument decks are basically precon decks…
Until they play the Monument.
Then they bash Bash BASH you, of course. Eldrazi Monument being the frightening motherlover that it is.
Now even though a number of different decks can play Eldrazi Monument — Jund, Vampires, and so on — we most closely associate Eldrazi Monument with Green creatures due to the pre-Worldwake Eldrazi Green decks (you know the ones with Nissa Revane), the Block versions popularized by Team Zvi Mowshowitz or Ben Hayes, and of course the present crop in Standard that float between Block upgrades and G/R Overrun builds.
But the best Eldrazi Monument in my experience is commingled with Bloodghast. Bloodghast is such a great partner; you sacrifice the Vampire on upkeep, play a land to re-buy it, and half the time you are swinging in anyway due to the card’s conditional haste.
For three.
What kind of deck can play this uncanny combination of Eldrazi Monument and Black creatures? Is Monument at its best in the Vampires deck?
Nah.
In our experience that title belongs to DredgeVine.
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Drowned Catacomb
6 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Swamp
Modifications include…
-2 Sphinx of Lost Truths / +2 Grim Discovery (never cast Sphinx)
-1 Ponder +1 Mistvein Borderpost (the main thing you are Pondering for is land)
Now I don’t mean to say that Dredgevine is the best deck ever to play Eldrazi Monument (I think the jury isn’t back on that topic yet)… More that Eldrazi Monument itself is more impressive in this deck with its Bloodghasts and Vengevines than in most other decks. The Bloodghasts come at almost no cost, which is even better than sacrificing a Nissa’s Chosen or Awakening Zone token (which comes at a small cost)… especially as they are so often attacking the same turn anyway.
How does this deck work?
There are a couple of different things going on: you can play more than one game plan.
One game plan starts on Renegade Doppleganger. You can play a Hedron Crab on turn three (doubling up the Doppleganger), then play a Misty Rainforest, and Millstone yourself for twelve cards. You probably have a Vengevine in the bin at this point, so playing a Bloodghast or other two mana (or even one mana) creature will get you a hasty re-buy.
The Doppleganger is also good for doubling up on Vengevine or Extractor Demon for tons of damage out of “nowhere”. It is also just a cheap creature that you can use to set up the Vengevine.
Another game plan is to just start on one of your one drops and hope that it doesn’t get removed… Fill your graveyard and / or improve your hand accordingly. I am often surprised at how often I actually go “Jayemdae Tome” rather than “merely” Jalum Tome on Enclave Cryptologist. There are long games where you actually have to fill up your hand to set up a Vengevine re-buy.
The surprising All-star in this deck is Sedraxis Alchemist. He is a serious over-performer and the key reason I play a third Mistvein Borderpost. You really just want a Blue permanent in case your enablers have all gotten themselves killed.
Now you have probably read my friend Steve Sadin’s article on this deck already.
I don’t actually love it as much as Steve and BDM but I respect it enough to think that the interaction between Bloodghast and Eldrazi Monument is tops in [at least my experience of] Eldrazi Monument interactions. I have actually had serious problems performing with this deck in MTGO tournaments relative to other decks I like (for example decks with Eldrazi Temple in them).
But I wanted to write a blog post on it to frame a match that I recently had with KYT.
KYT refers to “some Japanese deck designer” … Those of you who follow these things know Shimizu was one of the top designers to come out of Japan a few years back, responsible for Solar Flare (aka michaeljBane) as well as Scryb & Force.
I lost Game One principally due to chatting with Jake Van Lunen. Jake had just smashed me and was curious about the DredgeVine list. I missed the fact that KYT could kill me if he had a certain Knight-Errant in grip, and I am pretty sure I would not have cracked that land had I not been engaged with the Sliver Kid Champ.
Ben Botts aka @BottsThoughts has graced us with another guest blog post — this time a great experience with the U/W Eldrazi deck (or as he calls it “Floresdrazi”).
Anyone who wants to check out Ben’s previous contributions to Five should check out:
Third time around the block, and I still find this to be both an honor and a sweet, sweet opportunity to put myself out there.
Once again, I took up the mantle as a steward of Flores’ recent suggested deck list for Standard. And I must say I was not disappointed (How could I be?). I was, however, hesitant but only for a short distance between my trade binder full of Super Friends, U/G Polymorph, Gerry-Naya and other such variants a-waiting to find a home in those exclusive 75 sleeves.
Before I dig into an excerpt of the weekends’ events I will provide the deck list (both MD and SB):
Maindeck:
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Spreading Seas
4 Path to Exile
4 All is Dust
2 Day of judgment
2 Mind Spring
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Gideon Jura
4 Wall of Omen
2 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
6 Island
3 Plains
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Sejiri Refuge
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Eye of Ugin
Sideboard:
1 Jace Beleren
2 Eslpeth, Knight-Errant
2 Day of judgment
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Kor Firewalker
2 Oust
Moving along.
Round 1: Josh, playing Boros Allies
Josh is an awesome guy. I can’t help but have a great time regardless of whether it’s a win or loss.
I won the die roll for Game 1:
Let’s just say I stabilized at 9 life, Swung once with an Ulamog that ate his only Plains when it was cast (So as to not find myself on the fetch a basic side of a PTE) – and he rips the 3rd Lightning Bolt. He pocketed 9 to my dome. And thus was the short end of game 1.
Game 2:
-1 Eye of Ugin, -1 All is Dust, +2 Day of Judgment
He took a horrendously slow hand, and I never looked back. I dropped a Wall, Spread his only Mountain, DoJ’ed the board, Dropped a Gideon, Dropped a Jace, Dropped a Ulamog (That Jace then gladly returned said Ulamog to my hand to simply be recast post combat to eat an opposing Elspeth).
Game3: I kept the sideboard intact sans the post-first game changes.
He did a few cute tricks with his Ally triggers before I resolved back-to-back DoJs then cleared his board on turn seven with a game ending All is Dust … the card is just retarded. I showed my hand full of removal, and my Jace was going up to Ultimate status on my next turn. He graciously extended a handshake.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2: James, playing SpiritDancerWW(?)
Game 1: I won the die roll
I didn’t see much of his deck. Honestly. He misplayed countless times, and it was sort of a rag on the experience. Example – He played a T2 Spirit Dancer. Then T3 plays a Hyena Umbra on said Dancer then plays another Spirit Dancer which he showed he had in hand BEFORE he played the Umbra. I know it may seem inconsequential but that sort of thing misses a free draw. Also – I don’t think this guy was very conversational. After a number of Walls hit the table alongside my couplet of Sea Gate Oracles to clog his Red Zone attempts I ushered Kozilek out to the table w/ his good friend Ulamog. He quickly scooped to go to game 2 … in which he brought 15 cards in … 15.
-1 All is Dust, -1 Eye of Ugin, -1 Everflowing Chalice, -1 Jace TMS, -1 Kozilek
+2 Oust, +1 DoJ, +2 Elspeth
Game 2:
I Ousted a Spirit Dancer that he failed to attack w/ to break my Wall of Omens down, but instead he seemed content to play 3 Hyena Umbra’s on her so he could draw. He did play 3 Lone Missionaries on me which didn’t hurt my feelings – I just played a DoJ that ended up giving me a dirty look from him (I mean … “you killed a puppy†look). I resolved a Butcher, and he extended his hand after I revealed 2 more All is Dust and a Gideon to fog past his combat phase(s).
I inquired as to what he sided in against me, and he just darted back with a, “If you had played fairly you would’ve seen my Sideboard in the gameâ€.
I took my win without losing any sleep.
2-0 (4-1)
Round 3: CJ, playing WW (w/ Stoneforge tutoring)
CJ won the die roll
Game 1:
CJ opened with a first turn Elite Vanguard. I simply played a tapped Celestial Colonnade. His turn 2 procured a Mystic-Stone Forger fetching up a trusty machete. My turn 2 graciously gave me an Island with which gave me the option to play a 0/4 wall, or accelerate into a turn 3 Sea Gate Oracle with PTE mana left up. Knowing CJ’s deck doesn’t have the potential to run me over before turn 5 I opted to play a Chalice for 1. This ended up being the strongest play for me – I curved into a turn 4 Gideon after ripping said Fog Master off the top of my library. As always Senor Giddy Pants received the obligatory sigh of disapproval from yet another aggro player. It seems to me that Gideon’s first impression left a sour taste across the archetypal landscape. After a DoJ cleared his board of some unwanted creatures I simply set-up further classes on why Flores’ deck just gut checks the aggro match-up.
1-0 me
Knowing CJ doesn’t run a crappy sideboard in case he does run into a Control deck I knew I had sleeved up my Oblivion Rings for a reason (aside from them being FNM promo 4’ofs). I didn’t know exactly what he took out, but I knew he sided in 4 Luminarch Ascensions. Albeit I run All is Dust, but sometimes an early Oblivion Ring can be the needed punch to set-up an All is Dust w/ an Eldrazi to follow foot.
-1 All is Dust, -1 Eye of Ugin, -1 Everflowing Chalice, -1 Kozilek
+2 Oblivion Ring, +2 Elspeth
Game 2:
Sure enough. CJ slams a turn 2 Ascension. I figured he was aiming hard to get one down immediately; seeing as that he decided on a 5 card hand mulligan. Fortunately for me he missed the first counter; which allowed me to play a little loose before setting up an AID on turn 5. I dropped a turn 2 Chalice, which led to a turn 3 Chalice on 2. He was able to activate Ascension for 2 Angels which took me down to 6 before I was able to dig into a turn 7 AID; which came after he played his own O Ring on my Gideon. As is the case he struggled to recover, and Gideon swung with a +3/+3 buff from his Girlfriend Elspeth. Only took 2 swings with Senor Gideon before CJ extended his hand after pulling nothing of consequence.
3-0 (6-1)
Round 4: John L (3-0, 6-2), playing Valakut Combo
We decided to ID the round because there was only 1 other 3-0 at the time. Looking back on this decision now made me realize I should’ve just pushed for the win that round. I hadn’t had any time spent on specific match-ups, and this would’ve been a great chance to cover some ground in respect of researching the inner-workings of said deck on deck play. I must admit though, plenty of people over-look Valakut Combo as a viable deck in this format. It may not be Jund and/or Mythic by any stretch. Hell it isn’t anywhere near the price-tag of Super Friends. But when you can simply say (Or Simply walk into Mordor for that fact), “I dealt 12+ damage with a single Harrowâ€. Well then you damn well deserve a high five worthy of Flores, let alone anyone else.
3-0-1 (6-1)
Round 5: Bryan W (3-0-1), playing U/W tap-out
Bryan is a good friend of mine, and I asked him how he managed a draw, and he told me it was against another Control deck. They spent 50 minutes of attempting to resolve answers on both sides of the table, and when the time ran down they had 5 turns to figure out how to bore each other a little more.
Needless to say I respect Bryan as a very strong player, and he asked me if I would like to draw. Without fear of being bumped out of any of the top 8 slots I gladly accepted the ID. We then spent that time discussing EDH, and watching various other matches underway for Round 5. You know – Jund v Jund; those exciting matches.
3-0-2
Top 8 – Round 6
Adam M (Playing Jund – traditional build w/ Sarkhan the Mad)
I won the freaking die roll … WWMFD? Fist Pump and smile.
Game 1:
This is where the master’s course in role assignment came into effect. I never take Jund lightly. Nobody should. Until this cancer rotates out of Type 2 you should never shrug off the opportunity to play test against any of the builds (old or new).
I lead off with a turn 2 Spreading Seas on his Savage Lands (note: I have played [them] all tournament – this was the only relevant match-up where I felt it necessary to express, emphatically, when I played one).
Which gave me an Eldrazi. I then played a turn 3 Chalice for 1 leaving PTE mana open in-case he decides to play his Turn 3 Thrinax. No such luck. I met a turn 3 Blightning; which oddly enough made me happy. I didn’t want Kozilek in my hand, neither the Eye of Ugin that was sitting lifeless in my grip as well. So I shipped those two cards off, and gladly took a free shuffle courtesy my opponent’s Blightning. On my turn 4 I had a very serious decision to make: Play my Jace and leave myself naked to a BBE (albeit I could leave 1 mana up for my PTE, but I didn’t want to risk running him out there without absolute assurance of his survival). I opted for a Chalice at 2. This came as the best play looking back. I met a second Blightning which asked me kindly as to which 2 cards I would like to lose. I was staring at:
Jace, Mind Spring, DoJ
I chose to toss the DoJ and Jace. This left me with a prayer on ripping a 5th land for turn 5 – which would give me a Mindspring for 6. I mise’d the land drop, and quickly pushed Mindspring for 6.
He came out strong on his turn 5 – knowing I may have pulled some serious answers to whatever he played. He gave me a BBE which flipped a Ruinblaster; he opted to over-look the Kicker cost, and swung for 5. Which after 2 Blightnings and that left me at a precious 9 – he then chose to bolt me down to 6. So I was now within Bolt/Blightning range. BBE/Bolt~Blightning range. Or any sorts of threats that would call me dead.
I resolved a much needed DoJ w/ Path mana left after I played a post-DoJ Wall of Omens. He played a Thrinax (which met my Path), and passed the turn. I dropped Gideon and immediately rolled him up to perform guard duty. After Adam played his Sarhkan he opted for his first ability … flipping his 2nd Sarhkan. Bad times.
I quickly dropped Kozilek and a Sea Gate Oracle. Which He then asked if we could get on with game 2.
1-0 me (I am both pumped and nervous … Jund is a rough match-up for me)
-2 Jace TMS, -1 All is Dust, -1 Eye of Ugin
+2 Eslpeth, +2 DoJ
He comes out with a turn 2 Trace of Abundance … Which means I am possibly facing a turn 3 BBE, or possibly a Blightning w/ Duress. Any of those combinations would make for a bad day.
I run out a turn 2 Chalice, and pass. Fortunately he does not play any of those. Instead he drops a Prophetic Prism which then cantrip’s him into a Duress. He gladly drops this on me – with which I was able to safely show him a hand full of this:
2 Wall of Omens, 2 Eslpeth, All is Dust
He takes away 1 Elspeth (which makes me wonder if he has a Pulse for her, or if he is hoping to Strip my hand with a Blightning or two).
My turn 3 finds a freshly drawn Land which allows me to set up the board. I lay down both Walls and draw into 2 Lands (made me glad to see this … because Blightning can eat those if I am sufficient on mana)
His turn 4 gladly showed a missed land drop. He played out a pair of Putrid Leeches, and passed. I took advantage of this good fortunae and knowing his shrouded land + lens would give him the colors required sans any Spreading Seas I may draw into/play I still knew the prospect of having a land Spreaded gives your opponent additional mana math to deal w/ while restocking your hand for a probable Blightning. My turn 4 found a Spreading Seas off the top. I laid it down on his Dragonskull Summit. This drew me a 2nd Spreading Seas which then clasped safely on to his Forest. That Spreading Seas, by sheer fortunate, drew me into a Sea Gate Oracle. He managed to squeeze out a Siege-Gang Commander on his 5th turn. Which I gladly dropped my All is Dust on the following turn. Yes I lost my Spreading Seas, but he lost both his lens and Trace – along with his SGC & company. He was able to rebuild while I spent the time doing the same, and preparing myself for the worst of it. He gave me another Blightning as a present, but I was able to use my miser’s copy of Eye of Ugin in response to fetch up an Eldrazi to toss to said BBE > Blightning; which then gave me back my graveyard. Granted he was able to push me down to 2 life over the next 2-3 turns, but I stabilized with 2 back to back Gideons that both died valiantly and for a cause I was hoping wouldn’t have been in vain. I drew into my 1 copy of Jace TMS I left in, which gave me a DoJ and Elspeth with which I gladly shipped back 2 lands and proceeded to drop both, and then make a token. I was on the open-season end of a ripped Bolt, Blightning, BBE into any other haster. But He never managed to pull an out. And I grabbed the game when I resolved an Ulamog and ate his only Raging Ravine that had been played.
Sejiri Refuge = Godsend. That 1 life may seem miniscule. But when it helps you stay above the 6ft under guidelines for shaking hands and giving the GG to another player then you’ll come to respect that little uncommon with generic artwork.
4-0-2 (8-1)
Top 4: Round 7
John T, playing Mythic (Never saw the entire decklist, but it was a Conscrptn/Finest Hour mix)
Game 1: I do not procure the die roll
John T dropped a 1st turn Birds, and I am already mentally bolstering myself for a turn 2 Lotus cobra into a turn 3 Sovereigns, etc, etc. He does stick his turn 2 Lotus Cobra, which gives him a second Cobra to follow foot. On my turn 2 I opt to not play a single spell (I had 2 untapped lands, one having been my turn 1 Sejiri Refuge putting me up to 21 … w/ 2 PTE’s gripped I was ready to pray and slay). On his 3rd turn that’s when I watched as he laid down a Fetch Land (cracked it netting him 4 free mana), tapped for a 5th in the pool – tapped the birds and the 2 other lands for a grand total of 8 mana. I watched as he Dropped Finest Hour and 2 Noble Hierarchs. I started doing the math in my head.
+3 Exalted triggers for the first Combat on a Lone Lotus Cobra then receiving another set of +3 for the next combat phase. I waited for him to announce combat. I dropped a Path, one for each Lotus. Looking at that play I had just given him 8 mana on turn 4. My turn 3 showed me a Wall of Omens and a Path off the cantrip. I passed the turn. John T smiled. I figured he was pocketing a Negate for this moment. I was wrong – he went greedy, and played a BS Angel, and nothing else. He swung in with an Exalted Noble.
My turn 4 showed DoJ. I threw an obligatory Fist Pump and tapped out for the answer. He had all but spent his hand in the early turns, and never drew into any PW’s or any other severe threats (Which honestly I don’t think he was playing any, and if he were I never saw them, nor did he ever talk about it). I dodged a bullet on that one – because I hate seeing Sovereigns just sit there, and point their puffy cloudy fingers at you as they give way to smashing your face.
Game 2:
-1 Eye of Ugin, -2 All is Dust, -2 Sea Gate Oracle, -1 Chalice
+2 Oust, +2 Oblivion Ring, +2 DoJ
Turn 1: Noble. Me? Land. Turn 2: Lotus Cobra with a cracked fetch dropping a KotR. Me? Turn 2 I played a wall of Omens, which then led me to a turn 3 O Ring on his turn 3 Finest Hour after my Wall had soaked up a good chunk of damage from an Exalted and beastly KotR before allowing me to take 5 off the exalted triggers. Turn 4 gave me an Oust on his Lotus Cobra and a Chalice set for 1, and 1 land left open to bluff a PTE. I proceeded to run a clinic on my opponent. I was able to stabilize with a Jace spending his loyalty counters bouncing a Lotus Cobra and eventually after Gideon showed himself table side I was able to DoJ the table a couple more times while letting Gideon get in there. After I showed an Ulamog and Kozilek in my hands, and with John T at an unfortunate disadvantage due to multiple board wipes he extended his hand and congratulated me on the win.
Top 2: Round 8
Adam Uhler (6-1), playing Mythic (sans Conscription build – more Kibler’s list)
We chose to split 44 packs between the two of us (Because quite frankly it was 1:47 am, and he wanted to go out and hash with his friends. And my girlfriend was ready to go.)
He gave me the win so I ended the night with a 6-0-2 match record overall, and we had it written up as a 2-1 in my favor.
I personally went 5-0-2 match play with 10-1 as my games played record.
All in all I was fortunate to play another one of Flores’ lists. I always enjoy the challenge, and I won’t lie – I almost Blue 42’ed back to my Super Friends. But once I had already publicly spoken via Twitter and FB that I was going to give Mike’s deck a run for its money I couldn’t back down and chance looking like a pansy for not remembering what a tree branch feels like.
This deck is a serious reminder as to, “Who is the Beatdown?â€*
And as with his previous King Hulk list you must obey this rule first and foremost.
It is not a suggestion.
Because suggestions end up in bargain bins and yard sales.
As always here’s to hoping you stayed awake for the entire read.
I am always open for criticism and advice. I am learning to write better tournament reports/articles. So any advice on how to approach match-play breakdown and/or any statistical research to better my craft would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again, Mike Flores, and you his viewers for the time and space allotted.
sb:
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Baneslayer Angel
2 Day of Judgment
2 Gideon Jura
4 Kor Firewalker
1 Oust
I swapped out one copy of Jace, the Mind Sculptor for one copy of Jace Beleren. In all my testing and tournament play, I have come to the conclusion that no one really needs four copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor; every time some miser goes from four copies to three copies the next tournament, they seem to do a little bit better. The one Jace Beleren is equivalent to a Jace, the Mind Sculptor for purposes of hassling an opponent’s Jace; however you can also start off a little turn earlier to initiate the card advantage Jace trades.
The other main change was to cut one Sphinx for an Oust. The Standard format is a bit faster than the Block format where Daniel Gardner excelled with the original build of this deck; I wanted to respect my opponents’ Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarchs, and Sprouting Thrinaxes. It is possible the deck needs more instant speed copies of Path to Exile for Celestial Colonnade, Gideon Jura, or Eldrazi Conscription, but so far Oust has been outstanding.
This deck has been very good against everything I’ve played against so far but in particular “regular” U/W decks. I was lucky enough to test against DougP and KYT earlier this week and they actually recorded the games. KYT hasn’t finished editing them but you can check out the first game; notice how DougP trash talks me the whole time while their asses get ka-blammo’d.
That’s right: Ka-blammo.
If you pay attention to DougP’s strategy, it seems like he is trying to deck me by eliminating all of my Eldrazi Cthulhus; presumably the Canadians can win with their “everything else” or I will just run out of cards; at any point that I am actually in danger of being decked, I can just draw up with Eye of Ugin and discard a last Eldrazi, or I can draw-and-discard with Sphinx of Lost Truths. In sum, I don’t think that the right plan for the U/W deck is to try to deck the U/W Eldrazi giants.
If you listen to DougP’s commentary at the beginning of the video, he talks about watching me get battered around by Kor Skyfisher; what happened in that match was that I kept playing something awesome (say Jace, the Mind Sculptor); my opponent would play an Oblivion Ring on it, and I would play another copy (replace with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or whatever); he would play Kor Skyfisher and pick up his Oblivion Ring, Legend Ruling my face.
My opponent was a mono-White deck based on Emeria, the Sky Ruin, so as cute as that Oblivion Ring interaction may have been to watch, it probably doesn’t surprise you to read that I won the match in overwhelming fashion (I have four Spreading Seas and two infinity copies of 10/10 Vindicate for his only card that matters); however I underestimated my opponent and managed to lose the second game.
He simply made ten Soldiers with Martial Coup and hit me twice while I failed to find an answer. I was configured to beat I-don’t-know-what, and only had three copies of All is Dust and no copies of Day of Judgment at all in that game, and I failed to death, losing Game Two.
I feel that if the regular U/W deck wants to win, regular U/W has to be the beatdown and try to beat up Eldrazi U/W with Celestial Colonnades or Martial Coup tokens. If the game goes long, Eldrazi U/W is going to batter regular U/W with Eye of Ugin… Essentially infinite, un-counter-able card advantage.
To answer your question – Yes, I would recommend this deck for play this weekend. Good luck friendlies!
I was pretty successful with the deck. I even came back to beat a G/R land destruction deck starting Goblin Ruinblaster (didn’t think that was going to happen); in Game Two I got an Everflowing Chalice draw into Baneslayer Angel and he failed to remove it; in Game Three I ran three Walls into two Sea Gate Oracles and stayed mildly ahead to hit Chalices and three Baneslayer Angels. Go go Gadget card advantage!
The sickest win may have been over Red Deck Wins. I was behind a Manabarbs, but Eye of Ugin let me play All is Dust off of two Eldrazi Temples almost for free; I made sure I had all four Everflowing Chalices in for Game Three… But that one was pretty easy when I matched his first turn Goblin Guide with my Kor Firewalker! I am not sure if we want maybe two Celestial Purges, but Gideon Jura seemed like a necessary card against Mythic Conscription and so on.
Unsurprisingly, you can’t possibly lose to another U/W deck. The winning is so effortless (this is based on tapout and U/r/W Planeswalkers opponents)… They lay out a bunch of stuff and you blow it up with All is Dust. Finally hard casting the Eldrazi has come up, revealing the super sickness of their triggers. I know this may seem heretical to some readers but I feel like the Opportunity on Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is more significant than Jace, the Mind Sculptor advantage. I fell behind opposing Planeswalkers several times tonight, and never really felt like I was in any danger. Even if my opponents had a Counterspell, I always had so much more Eldrazi gas, and Eye of Ugin is almost impossible to stop with Ajani Vengeant. Getting out of trouble wasn’t much trouble at all.
Not too much to say at this point… It’s a U/W deck.
You use Wall of Omens and Spreading Seas to hit your land drops early, get ahead with Everflowing Chalice, and then go big with the sweepers and big card advantage.
That said, it’s a U/W deck that seems to be pretty fantastic in the mirror; it looks to hold the rest of the matches okay. Oust has been spectacular, by the way. I think Zvi was the one who first said it… I feel so stupid having played Path to Exile for so long! Oust has been tearing up every Leatherback Baloth, Lotus Cobra, whatever. And then the big big spells come online.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence ∙ Mythic ∙ Mythic Conscription
Adding Vengevine to Perfectly Good Decks ∙ A Little Jace, the Mind Sculptor ∙ … and Linvala, Keeper of Silence
So with all the hubbub about Vengevine last weekend (and did anyone notice a deck that was a few cards off of what we posted made Top 8? I mean sure, maybe we needed Maelstrom Pulse to compete with Basilisk Collar, but it was in large part our Sarkhan the Mad Jund deck!), I decided to, you know, stick good old Vengevine into Mythic Conscription.
I mean it’s not a stretch at all.
Vengevine is a creature that thrives on being played in a context of lots of other creatures.
Lo and behold, Mythic Conscription is like mono-creatures – A perfect marriage!
sb:
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Negate
4 Rhox War Monk
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Gideon Jura
3 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Ranger of Eos
The fundamental delta of this deck was to just remove the relatively low powered Dauntless Escort (good against Wrath of God) for high powered Vengevine (also good against Wrath of God). I took out all the Planeswalkers, et al for a nine card Ranger of Eos package.
That is, originally I was much more mono-Vengevine in my card selection. Playing all my Planeswalkers in the sideboard, I started one more Sovereigns of Lost Alara, Ranger of Eos, and Baneslayer Angel. However, it turns out that playing Jace, the Mind Sculptor main deck really is better in Mythic decks. Basically I played against so many control decks (including some kind of goofball mono-White control decks) that it was simply foolish to not play Jace, the Mind Sculptor starting. Decks with core of mana acceleration are actually much better at playing Jace than the control decks where we are more used to seeing that Planeswalker. Even on the draw you can plop a Jace down and totally dominate some poor Fieldmist Borderpost ham and egger.
I probably don’t have to tell you what all the cards in this deck do… Mythic Conscription is by this point one of the main pillars on which our metagame rests. The one thing I will mention is that I added the second Sejiri Steppe to the mana base (from Brett Blackman’s GP Top 8 list); I really like the ability to give the opponent a false sense of security… This measure has been instrumental in many a Reliquary mirror.
The one card that I really like in this deck is Ranger of Eos. Sure, Birds of Paradise is a downgrade relative to the Wild Nacatls that Andre used to win the World Championships, but the presence of Vengevine makes Ranger of Eos so much more attractive (and I already had Ranger as a Top 10 Standard card as you know). One thing that I found even in my pre-Jace, the Mind Sculptor builds — especially in the mirror — was how dominating Ranger of Eos was. Just loading and overloading on Noble Hierarchs was insane! No matter what threat you were attacking with, it would be much bigger than the opponent would likely be able to profitably block, even in a mirror.
The weirdo tech — though at this point it probably isn’t that weird — is Linvala, Keeper of Silence.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence – aka “weirdo tech”
Basically, Linvala is insurance against Cunning Sparkmage or… um… Royal Assassin I guess.
Linvala has been pretty good for me. I’ve tried her against everything from Putrid Leech to Knight of the Reliquary in the mirror. Of course I am a giant dumb bum and didn’t initially realize that Linvala is asymmetrical. So I like sided out my own Knights for… the… You get it. You don’t like that you get it, but you do. Yeah, that’s me.
The cool thing I’ve found about this particular gal is that as bad as I initially was playing my own Linvala, Keeper of Silence… Opponents play worse. A typical scenario is you play Linvala to lock down one or more copies of Knight of the Reliquary; even when Linvala rumbles and dies in combat, your opponent may just forget that their Knights are back online and randomly attack with them in 2/2 form.
No lies.
The sideboard is kind of a random mish-mash of cards I wanted to play. It is not particularly well measured. We can utilize the same technique I wrote about in last Friday’s TCGPlayer article to improve it.
What are the big baddies in Standard?
Let’s start with these eight or nine decks:
Jund
Mythic Conscription (the mirror), and regular Mythic
U/r/W Planeswalkers
U/W Control
Naya Vengevine
Devastating Red
Polymorph
Vampires
Remember, this technique just identifies what is less acceptable and helps you to identify areas where you need (or can afford) coverage; you can make efficiency swaps to your heart’s content (i.e. all things considered a Celestial Purge is probably better than a Smother against Vampires).
Jund Still the most popular deck, I have found Jund to be a very favorable matchup, in particular when you can overwhelm them with Ranger of Eos and Vengevine card advantage. Blightning is not particularly good against this deck (you can discard Vengevine and ruin them), but Maelstrom Pulse is excellent, in particular when they can get two-for-one (or better) especially against your Noble Hierarchs or other mana creatures.
What’s bad? All of your cards are fine. The worst is probably Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
(3)
Mythic Conscription As I said before, a big chunk of your edge comes from Ranger of Eos advantage feeding Noble Hierarchs. Most Mythic decks have no Rangers. Huzzah!
What’s bad? Again, nothing is bad, really. I can see siding next to nothing (you certainly want the fourth Ranger)… Everything is acceptable.
(0)
U/r/W Planeswalkers I heard this was supposed to be a bad matchup, but I have had nothing but luck against it recently; I guess that comes from playing a faster Jace than they have, forcing them to waste a turn tapping out [all their White, hopefully] then clocking the nug with Eldrazi Conscription.
What’s bad? I guess Mythic is just so focused that nothing is bad, ever. Because here is yet another matchup where nothing is bad! If anything is less desirable in this matchup, it is probably beloved Baneslayer Angel. She is a superb creature, objectively, but you don’t really want slow fives against U/r/W. She gobbles up lots of mana and is awkwardly costed for Vengevine re-buys.
(3)
U/W Control This is a very similar deck to U/r/W Planeswalkers… But a matchup where you can’t afford to side out Baneslayer Angel. They have Baneslayer Angel (unlike U/r/W, typically), meaning you might need yours to keep pace.
What’s bad? I have had a fair amount of luck siding out one Eldrazi Conscription; remember, you can shuffle it away with Jace, the Mind Sculptor if need be. You can move a high variance card like Scute Mob if you like… Not a huge amount of space here.
(2)
Naya Vengevine This is a matchup where you vastly out-class them… Unless they have Cunning Sparkmage. Cunning Sparkmage, in particular next to a Basilisk Collar, are going to spell doom for you.
What’s bad? They are the beatdown deck, so you might want to cut Jace; provided you aren’t getting ruined by Sparkmage, they are just littler.
(3)
Devastating Red As with most of the other “fair” decks, you out-class Devastating Red by a fair amount. The main issue is that they can burn all your mana creatures and kill you before you get done showing them how bright your features are.
What’s bad? I would for sure cut every slow card: all five cards that make up the Eldrazi Conscription package, and probably all the Planeswalkers. Under other circumstances, I could be persuaded to cut Baneslayer Angel, but she is a huge lifelink after all.
(8)
Polymorph
This seems like a matchup where you’re kind of up the creek without a paddle. Game one you kind of have to stick Eldrazi Conscription and kill them to death… or you’re just going to get combo killed. Your main weapon is going to be the looming threat of Jace, the Mind Sculptor, or perhaps the long term “Unsummon” potential. Unless you kill Polymorph outright, most of the rest of your shiny bells and whistles are going to be irrelevant.
What’s bad? I would cut the solo Scute Mob immediately. It’s unlikely you are ever going to get to the point in the game where Ranger of Eos manipulation into a an efficient fatty is going to be the deciding factor. For that matter, I would cut all the Baneslayer Angels. Life matters very little in this matchup, but being a slow five mana threat matters a lot.
(4)
Vampires
I’ve never played this matchup. Osyp seemed really comfortable with Vampires v. Bant variants at the NYC PTQ he played in, but they didn’t have Vengevine, or I presume, Ranger of Eos.
What’s bad? The weakest card is Scute Mob, due to the presence of Vampire Hexmage. You can cut Jace, the Mind Sculptor for the same reason, but Jace is a really good Mind Sludge recovery play (and potential Malakir Bloodwitch defense), so I wouldn’t.
(1)
So where does this leave us?
Jund: 0-3
Mythic whatever: 0
U/r/W Planeswalkers: 3-5
U/W Control: 2
Naya Vengevine: 3
Devastating Red: 8
Polymorph: 4
Vampires: 1
What about:
1 Jace, the Mind Scuptor
4 Negate
2 Telemin Performance
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Celestial Purge
2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Ranger of Eos
13 of the 15 cards fit nicely into the “what’s bad” schema; I added Qasali Pridemage as an additional catch-all. Admonition Angel is nice and all… But you never know when you are going to want to hunt down a Howling Mine.
Rundown:
Jund
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+1 Baneslayer Angel
+2 Celestial Purge
Mythic
-1 Eldrazi Conscription
+1 Ranger of Eos
U/r/W Planeswalkers
-1 Eldrazi Conscription
-1 Scute Mob
-3 Baneslayer Angel
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+4 Negate
U/W Control
-1 Eldrazi Conscription
-1 Scute Mob
-1 Baneslayer Angel
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+2 Telemin Performance
Negate is probably still good here; not as good as against U/r/W becuase you actually care about stopping Planeswalkers, but good; I figured you could shave a Baneslayer Angel because Telemin Performance is going to net a Baneslayer Angel about half the time; this is pure speculation of course… Maybe you should just play some Negates and use the space for anti-RDW cards.
Naya Vengevine
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
+1 Ranger of Eos
Devastating Red
-2 Eldrazi Conscription
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-3 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
+1 Negate
+2 Qasali Pridemage
+1 Baneslayer Angel
+2 Celestial Purge
+2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
A lof of these cuts are just efficiency swaps… cut a six drop for a four drop, etc.
Polymorph
-1 Eldrazi Conscription
-1 Scute Mob
-2 Ranger of Eos
-3 Baneslayer Angel
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+4 Negate
+2 Telemin Performance
This seems like a miserable matchup; lots of Negates and Performances should help.
Vampires
-1 Scute Mob
+1 Celestial Purge
It really feels weird to have another Celestial Purge… And not bring it in against Vampires. Eldrazi Conscription number two, maybe?
That might not be a perfect set of sideboarding strategies, but at least there is some logic behind it.
Vengevine ∙ Joining the Dark Side ∙ Good Old Bloodbraid Elf
A decided lack of Blightning ∙ Countersquall ∙ … and Vengevine!
Vengevine
Yeah, yeah yeah… The old man qualified!
Grixis Hits! Countersquall! Just like we promised.
My basic metagame diagnosis is that if Grixis is good, it is the best deck in Standard (play my 75… Though you may want to switch out Duress for Thought Hemorrhage * in place of Duress, for Vengevine). However it is possible that the success of control in general (including Grixis Hits, which is at the top of the control deck pyramid) will incentivize players to run more beatdown… Red Decks, Vengevine decks, etc.
This deck obviously borrows, strategically from GerryT’s Naya deck… All guys. All guys leads to all Vengevine triggers. Your Bloodbraid Elf always flips over a creature, setting up big Vengevine attacks, &c.
Weird things: No Blightning. No copies of my favorite card. Not a creature. Who is avoiding the random Bloodbraid Elf flip!?! Is this bizarro world?
Yet we have Sarkhan the Mad. He is your spell. This card is very strong. Stronger than I originally thought. Yes, it gives you a Countersquall target in a deck that can’t otherwise Blightning away Countersqualls. It is also not a creature; it is possible that Broodmate Dragon would be a better choice… But I think not enough people are playing Countersquall right now (certainly very few on MTGO). I have been doing quite well with this Jund, and I think it might be a deck.
Card rundown:
Bloodbraid Elf
Yep, still the strongest creature in Standard. Absolutely perfect in this deck, in particular for its ability to flip up Cunning Sparkmage.
Borderland Ranger
Awesome v. other Jund (trades with their Bloodbraid Elf without a loss of card advantage); you hit your land drops… Very good with Lotus Cobra, of course; nice blocker.
Cunning Sparkmage
Awesome against Mythic (albeit less awesome than a deck with Basilisk Collar); a fabulous main deck card against Polymorph.
Lotus Cobra
Just the right accelerator in this style of deck. Good with Vengevine and Bloodbraid Elf for the two-to-four jump; respectable front side for a two drop; good with the sideboard.
Malakir Bloodwitch
Because people play decks that can’t deal with it.
Putrid Leech
Still the scariest offensive two drop in Standard. One of the things I like about this deck is that it plays kind of like the West Coast Plated Geopede deck… Two different offensive two drops; better mana utilization than most versions of Jund, therefore.
Sprouting Thrinax
I would play Vampire Nighthawk starting in this spot… But its synergy with “your spell” is just out of control.
Vengevine
The whole point of the deck. Hi-yah!
I don’t know if this deck is better than either GerryT’s deck or a regular Jund deck… But it seems to be winning plenty for me online. Sideboard is kind of loose right now, but I think there are some good ideas.
Recurring Insight is the biggest beating of them all; its presence is kind of predicated on the idea that the opponent is going to semi-manascrew you with Spreading Seas. You can cast it fine with Lotus Cobra, and, say, a Scalding Tarn for Island (thank you Lotus Cobra).
Nicol Bolas is your Cruel Ultimatum. Basically I really wanted to cast Cruel Ultimatum but this deck obviously can’t muster such a profligate mana cost… Nicol Bolas seems like the next best thing. We’ll see how it bears out.
LOVE
MIKE
* Separately suggested by Osyp over the phone and Verno on Magic Online
I am just going to c/p the description I put on YouTube (’cause mise):
Mind Sludge – It has been called the only reason to play Counterspells in the current Standard environment (there are actually two reasons… the other one is in our deck).
I am playing basic Swamp this weekend because of the “I have must-counter sorceries in my deck” factor. This is a pretty surprising couple of games with my current favorite Standard deck, Grixis Hits:
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Divination
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Spreading Seas
Hello e’re body. I have yet again been honored with a guest blog on this here interwebs, courtesy of Mike Flores.
Per request I have made some time to scribble down my adventures of last weekend’s Type 2 Saturday at the local card shop here in Humid Fayetteville, North Carolina:
(smell the plug)
Cardz-N-Things
(inserting Garth Brooke’s, Shameless, while i’m at it)
Moving along …
I had been enjoying his more recent [sic] Mid-“Borderland”-Ranger Naya list recently, yet when Flores had mentioned he had “teh tech” (early that Friday via Twitter) for this past weekend I was refreshing his blog every few minutes (Come on … don’t lie to yourself; I know a few other folks who were just as feverish as I).
His list became the cards I sleeved up and shuffled towards a successful 4-1-1 record on the day.
Raka XXX, tBVotBD (King Hulk, in my book)
4 Ajani Vengeant
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
4 Wall of Omens
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Spreading Seas
2 Oblivion Ring
The only changes to my 60 and that of Mike Flores were:
-1 Island, +1 Mountain
-1 Cancel, +1 Ajani Vengeant
Having gone up one more copy of an amazing Planeswalker I then needed to make sure I could validate this inclusion (i.e. eight Red spells in an essentially U/W Control build). I know, I know most of you are now scratching your heads, or simply clicking your way to another website, but hear me out! Or at least continue reading.
I am no Menendian when it comes to percentiles, nor am I able to simply conjure a perfect pie chart to display my reasoning. Yet to go from 7 Red spells that only ask for 1 red source to 8 Red spells that; yes continue the aforementioned trend; isn’t as simple as it seems. To me anyway.
I figured I needed to make sure that my 6 Fetch Lands were capable of meeting said requirements. This having been said it should then lead you to see why I added my third Mountain. I did not want to find myself in a situation where I needed to hit a red source for my Lightning Bolt(s), and/or Ajani(s) yet couldn’t. I wanted to increase my chances of hitting said color requirements without straining the already dedicated mana base.
Three Mountains for eight Red Spells. With six fetches available to delivery the goods I never once had a color screw on the entire day. That is the only Maindeck exception from what is entirely Mike’s creation.
OH! Sideboard … right, right:
4 Flashfreeze
2 Negate
2 Scepter of Dominance
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Telemin Performance
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Note the lack of Baneslayer Angels… if you have extra lying around I would gladly help you find an adoption agency willing to help relocate them to my 75.
Telemin’s Performance was brilliant on the day; just give it a chance.
As to prevent further boredom (hopefully you are still awake this far along) I am going to give my 6 rounds of play a somewhat paltry breakdown.
Round 1: Jeff, playing U/B Control
Game 1: I win the dice roll (lucky mise)
The game is boring from the get-go. He is playing an entirely obscure deck that I was neither worried about, nor hesitant to play into. For the first 9 turns(!) it was the typical: draw, land, go. Game 1 consisted of my Jace killing his Jace, me sticking an Ajani that went Bruce Willis on his manabase after a few redundant turns of “Simon Says” on his CitP tapped lands. I did fumble a turn 4 Jace off of a chalice, however. Instead of opting to roll Jace up w/ his first ability I simply brainstormed without much thought. Then when my opponent untapped I sadly frowned at his Creeping Tar Pit that suddenly went sideways into my Jace. I promptly made sure the next Spreading Seas made sweet nautical love to said offender ASAP.
me 1 – him 0
Game 2: After having not seen a single creature game one on his side of the table I took quick action
-3 Day of Judgment
-2 Martial Coup
-1 Wall of Omens
+2 Negate
+2 Scepter of Dominance
+2 Telemin’s Performance
Please do the math and figure out what happened … turn 6 he scooped on an unanswered Telemin’s. I flipped 1 of his 3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle. He had taken out his spot removal, and had also sided out his Gatekeeper’s. It didn’t hurt my feelings when I flipped 2 foil Sorin’s along with 1 foil Jace after the Telemin’s resolved.
Round 2: John, sporting White Weenie
I do not master the art of winning the dice roll, and John leads off the match w/ a Student of Warfare (How cute).
I land a turn 2 Chalice which allows me to plant 2 Wall of Omens on my third turn; which had me feeling pretty safe. Until his 4th turn procured an Elspeth (The angry virgin). On my turn I rip 1 of the 2 O Rings MD and promptly lay it down on her. Only to watch as John gleefully lays down a Gideon on the following turn. Now I have to race a Gideon and a Student of Warfare. He paths one of my Walls on his turn, and I happily get one of my 3 Mountains. After I stick an Ajani his Gideon never untaps the rest of the match (Seriously … Ajani is teh nuts). The usual song and dance involved a Celestial Colonnade and a few swing with a 7 deep Martial Coup then we were off to the SB for game 2.
me 1, him 0
– 1 Elspeth
– 1 Jace
+ 2 Oblivion Ring
Nothing much to change in my Maindeck for the 2nd game … I figured more O Rings would be helpful to stunt an early onslaught – long enough to land a DoJ and/or a healthy Martial Coup. And Mike’s list essentially favors the aggro match-up (especially WW, or any non-RDW list for that matter).
Game 2 was over pretty easily. Nothing to elaborate on except that Mike’s list rolls aggro … hard. Sad to say nothing exciting to discuss on this match-up.
2-0 (4-0) so far
Round 3: Bobby, running Jund (ala Stock Car)
Bobby is a friend of mine, and sad to say he was playing Jund. Yet unlike Affinity – you can’t just punt every misplay and still come out ahead. With that as my precursor it is safe to say I won this round … because … honestly WHO WANTS ANOTHER JUND MATCH-UP ANALYSIS? Maybe I am being trite, and rather unforgiving but I will not sit here and delegate on the behalf of “Well, Johnny, this is how you play against Jund”.
All I will say is that we went all 3 games. I ended up squeezing out the 3rd game with some extremely tight play;that and he never saw a Blightning (the entire 3rd game … who was the lucky duck? Me)
3-0 (6-1) On the day so far
Round 4: Adam (3-0) w/ Jund
We ID into the Top 8 so neither of us have to spend the next 50 minutes figuring out what will be cascaded and how much my Martial Coup will be for. I seriously loathe playing Jund. It isn’t a contempt for said deck … it’s the bandwagon it generated (eg, Faeries, Affinity, etc, etc). Almost no innovation has taken place since the original list surfaced some time last year.
Sure we’ve seen a few Borderland Rangers, Elvish Visionaries, and the sporadic Master of the Wild Hunts being featured in some builds. Yet nothing truly innovative has come from playing Michael_Jordan.dec (greatest all time; hands down) That said I don’t see Lebron James hoping to be “Like Mike”. He is creating his own future in the NBA. Did that help drive my point home?
3-0-1
Round 5 (Top 8): Matt, playing ??
… … … … My opponent dropped? … … I sat there for 11 minutes (giving them plenty of time to make it since we don’t run a clock for the Top 8 matches) waiting for him to show up. The round was almost over when his (Matt) girlfriend shows up. He had left with his boys to go out for drinks, and apparently forgot to pick her up from work. Her mom dropped her off.
Needless to say his chops were busted.
And I was given a free round … luckily while I had been waiting I was able to squeeze in an Epic Game of EDH so the entire time had not been wasted.
4-0-1
Round 6 (Top 4): Adam (w/ Jund)
So we couldn’t draw this round, thusly we shuffled up.
Please … Please … Please … for the sake of Orphans all around the world … do not begin to hound me for this round’s analysis.
I’ll give you a “Real Life: I’m Recovering” break down in a free form poem.
Putrid Leech < Oblivion Ring
Blightning < Flashfreeze
BBE > Putrid Leech = Flashfreeze + Lightning Bolt
Wall of Omen(s) < Maelstrom Pulsing two'fer
Master of the Wild Hunt < Oblivion Ring
Martial Coup for 8 > his life total.
Game 3:
Duress > my Spreading Seas
Wall of Omens > his Putrid Leech
Blightning < Flashfreeze
Blightning > nets 2 cards
Raging Ravine > my life total
Maelstrom Pulse > Ajani Vengeant
Ajani #2 < Lightning Bolt
Ajani #3 < BBE into Blightning
FML
All in all I enjoyed the day. Hopefully that Jund Poem spoke to your soul as much as it did mine.
Flores's list is legitimate. And in all honesty has an option to transform into "Super Friends" post board if you felt the urge to sport 2 decks in one. Laskin and Flores were spot on with calling the dominate color choices for this past weekend; as well as the months to come.
As is the case I will gladly play this until another case of Deckbuilding ADD strikes. Which shouldn't be too far off in the near future.
Sorry for the sporadic and hasty nature of my post this time around. I was unable to hit up a much larger venue to give this deck a Wayne Brady around the block.
La'Chaim
Benjamin David
