Entries Tagged 'Decks' ↓

Concerning:

Anyone who has read my previous posts on Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, or perhaps my comeback article at TCGPlayer.com knows that I am completely confused about which Eldrazi giant is which, which ones have which powers (or whatever); so even if I am playtesting, the one I have is just “Eldrazi Guy”.

But which Eldrazi guy?

I originally wanted to actually full-on game with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, but Josh Ravitz and Sean McKeown explained to me that I would only get to fifteen mana in a dream world. The other option was the draw-four Eldrazi guy (whatever his name is); however the situations you want any Eldrazi guy basically amount to 1) not getting decked, and 2) killing the other guy’s copy of Jace, the Mind Sculptor. When you play Ulamog, even if the opponent counters your “finisher” you get it (and everything else) back; but you can kill his Jace no matter what.

So what is the deck where in we are playing ye olde Ulamog?

Raka XXX aka tBVotBD

4 Everflowing Chalice

1 Cancel
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Mind Spring
4 Spreading Seas

3 Ajani Vengeant

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Day of Judgment
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Martial Coup
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Wall of Omens

3 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
2 Mountain
4 Plains
3 Scalding Tarn

sb:
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
2 Scepter of Dominance
3 Cancel
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Ajani Vengeant
4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Oblivion Ring

The original version of this deck — with which I did most of the playtesting — had no Wall of Omens; they don’t have Wall of Omens on MTGO. That version had one more copy of Martial Coup, Mind Spring, Cancel, and Island.

I had to shave four cards to fit four Walls but didn’t know which ones initially. I felt like four copies of three different X-spells was super sexy; but even with Critical Mass, I made key changes to cards we played for deck naming purposes at the 11th hour to improve performance (if I hadn’t cut some Gnarled Masses for Consuming Vortexes, I wouldn’t have beaten Tim in the Top 4 of the PTQ, for the slot). Wall of Omens is certainly good enough to warrant cutting stuff.

The X-spells went under the Thomas Dodd school of “when playing a Flores deck, cut the most expensive card”; Cancel went on account of being an unplayably bad piece of poop, and with four more cantrips, I could afford to cut a surplus Island. Grok? Good.

So why is this deck tBVotBD?

Basically I started with the super successful Tapout U/W decks and realized that as good as they are, they are structurally unsound decks. These are decks that have to win with creatures, but they are themselves full of Wrath of God, playing in rooms full of Wrath of God. By substituting mediocre cards like Sphinx of Jwar Isle with awesome sauce like Ajani Vengeant, we can create, basically, King Hulk.

King Hulk, the Green Scar

We all know that Hulk is the Strongest One There Is. The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets. Hulk’s main flaws are 1) he is an idiot, and 2) he is counterbalanced by a pantywaisted genius. However when Hulk perceived a betrayal by Earth’s leading heroes resulting in the death of his wife, he was able to manifest a version that was in complete agreement with itself. Both Hulk and Banner were loved by her, and so in seeking a mutual revenge they felt a solidarity of purpose. Moreover the loss of his wife made Hulk madder than ever; limitless rage equating with limitless potential.

King Hulk was able to defeat basically every hero on the planet Earth, up to and including the Sorcerer Supreme — the king of all Magic — Dr. Strange. That’s how awesome sauce he was.

And with this deck we have the commensurate King Hulk manifestation in Magic: The Gathering. A U/W deck that is not at odds with itself. It plays a high level of threats but doesn’t destroy them itself. In fact, with a larger Wrath of God count, including Martial Coup which is the strongest one of them all (kind of the Hulk of Wrath of God variants), it can overpower regular Tapout U/W decks planning to win with Knight of the White Orchid beatdown, et al.

That is the baseline theory of the deck.

The practice of the deck is to constantly refill its hand with cantrips and card drawing while engaging in mana-profitable activities, like trading one card for many cards or activating Planeswalkers to awesome sauce effect.

Because these are probably easy concepts for readers of this blog to understand, I won’t belabor them; expect a longer exploration of the deck on Monday. For now, I will just explain some of the more unusual card choices:

Cancel
You basically have to play two Counterspells in a deck like this. I would prefer to play Countersquall but these colors don’t let you play Countersquall. So the other option is Negate, which is basically a terrible Countersquall.

Aside on Countersquall v. Negate

When [someone] was in [his] mid-20s [he] dated mostly women in their 30s. [This person] dated a fair range, from not-quite-20 to late 30s.

Countersquall is a stunning thirtysomething, the fine wine of permission. Initially you will look at Countersquall and see a Negate with some disincentive. The Black mana nags at you for a moment until you realize that given your resources, there is basically no difference between BU and U1. So once you get past that Black you see that Countersquall is actually just the Negate that knows what she is doing, knows what she wants, and gets there aggressively.

Negate on balance is only a sometimes-Countersquall, and when she is a Countersquall, a less effective one. Negate isn’t sure who she is, and is in fact sometimes Essence Scatter — almost the opposite of what you want — and sometimes a Flashfreeze, which is a whole other story.

In sum, Negate can give you the benefits of Countersquall, but not really help you get there (you still have to do about one [absolute] mana more work without getting one mana more value); and a fair amount of the time, Negate isn’t even Negate.

Negate can drive you crazy.

Countersquall gives you basically exactly what you want, and does so expediently.

End aside.

Grok?

Good.

You see, the Counterspells in Standard are so bad that you really only want to counter one spell (maybe two if you count Cruel Ultimatum) and that spell is Mind Sludge. That is why you want Countersquall. Unable to play Countersquall I refused to play her penniless wannabe twentysomething [toothless] cousin, so opted for two Cancels.

I figured that sometimes I might have to Counterspell an Eldrazi giant, so mize.

That said, Cancel is without a doubt the worst card in this 75, so it was a not difficult cut when I had to go Wall of Omens, even if it put me behind the default two copies of Mind Sludge on the head-to-head.

Spreading Seas
Easily the best Blue card in Standard — yes, better than Jace, the Mind Sculptor — and the only reason this kind of a deck is so dominant (yep, I said it) against Jund and Red Decks. Had this been Treasure Hunt or See Beyond, we could lose to level up or Raging Ravine. Instead we draw cards while putting the opponent further and further behind on the battlefield so that he can commit more and more resources into our…

Scepter of Dominance
This card will be Staple in White decks following this weekend. I originally brainstormed it for the Borderland Ranger deck as a method of 15/15-suppression that also had other functions. This card basically does exactly what you want… Smashes Hell’s Thunder, forces creature decks into over-commitment, protects you from Celestial Colonnade after you play Wrath of God on Mythic, laughs off Gideon Jura, and gets the opponent into the complete lockdown. Do you know how many times I have gotten the triple Spreading Seas, Ajani Vengeant, Scepter of Dominance manascrew draw? Once. That’s right — once; but it was freaking awesome.

Like I said I will report more on Monday, but I wanted to make sure my sicky sick loyalists had the sauce for tomorrow.

I plan to win. You should now, too.

tBVotBD!

LOVE
MIKE

For reference, please see yesterday’s deck, Rhox Meditant Deck 2010 version 1.0:

1 Ajani Vengeant
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Captured Sunlight
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Naya Charm
4 Steward of Valeron

4 Borderland Ranger

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

4 Arid Mesa
5 Forest
4 Jungle Shrine
2 Mountain
3 Plains
4 Raging Ravine
4 Stirring Wildwood

sb:
2 Ajani Vengeant
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Goblin Assault
2 Celestial Purge
3 Day of Judgment

Before Sunday’s PTQ I wanted to do an update to the sideboard, which was haphazardly thrown together just based on cards I like. As good as Goblin Assault is, I think that it has to be cut. The sentiment from Twitter was that the metagame will be:

• Jund
• U/W
• Boss Naya
• Vampires
• White Weenie
• Red Decks
• Allies

One way I like to develop sideboards is to figure out what I can afford to side out. Let’s look by archetype:

Jund:
My entire deck is actually quite strong against Jund in Game One, which is one of the reasons this deck has a fair advantage. I had a game [one] tonight where I drew several Captured Sunlights (rather than Bloodbraid Elves) that kind of let my opponent into the game when he drew multiple Bloodbraid Elves. It might not be accurate to say I was behind (even though I was behind on cards and the battlefield, because I eventually drew an Enlisted Ultimatum which flipped up a Baneslayer Angel and I easily won from 22 (he had used a lot of removal spells on my Borderland Rangers early on).

This deck is just set up very well against Jund and is likely to win the first game. A lot of people decry the Borderland Ranger but it is a heck of a stop sign against their best creature.

You can get away without sideboarding but Captured Sunlight is one of the weaker cards over a strong mix. Also on the draw I would side out my Planeswalkers; they are hard to defend:

-1 Ajani Vengeant
-4 Captured Sunlight
-1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

On the draw (and most Game Twos will be on the draw), I would side in 4 Great Sable Stag and 2 Celestial Purge. Note that if I had more copies of Celestial Purge, I would likely side them in over Lightning Bolt (leaving, say, two Lightning Bolts)… But there is nothing wrong with Lightning Bolt on the draw, in particular for Putrid Leech defense.

I don’t particularly like Lightning Bolt on the play. You don’t really need Lightning Bolt to defend against Putrid Leech when you are on the attack. Also Planeswalkers are a lot better playing.

-4 Captured Sunlight
-4 Lightning Bolt

+2 Ajani Vengeant
+4 Great Sable Stag
+2 Celestial Purge

U/W:
I am not sure who is favored in the matchup between Borderland Ranger and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. The U/W matchup can go either way, but so far it seems to favor the Naya deck due to the card advantage and Planeswalkers.

It can definitely go either way in particular based on which version the opponent is running; for example the Knight of the White Orchid + Martial Coup deck is going to be much harder to beat because of its card advantage and potential 5/5 flying advantage (post-Wrath) than a deck that can only win with Planeswalkers against Bloodbraid Elf and Planeswalkers. Put another way, Knight of the White Orchid actually effectively blocks Bloodbraid Elf, Steward of Valeron, and Borderland Ranger… all of the non-5/5 creatures in the deck. And even Baneslayer Angel is only even with the opponent’s Baneslayer Angel.

The only card you really want to cut is Captured Sunlight. Baneslayer Angel is marginal but might be very effective against Sphinx of Jwar Isle, and will at least keep pace with the good 5/5.

The next worst card is Lightning Bolt, though I don’t know I would side all of them out all of the time. Lightning Bolt can be relevant against Planeswalkers, and can get White Orchid out of the way.

With the present sideboard, I could see going
-4 Captured Sunlight
-2 Lightning Bolt

+2 Ajani Vengeant
+4 Goblin Assault

Note that if I had the third Ajani Vengeant in my sideboard I would bring it in, and while I only have a clear four slots to remove, I can remove between 6-12 cards without being unhappy.

All that said the great danger of the U/W matchup is being completely blown out by their White cards. Martial Coup, uncontested Baneslayer Angel, good night.

Boss Naya:
All 60 of my cards are pretty good in this matchup.

However I want to be a combination of fast — but defensively fast — and powerful. I don’t need to be offensively fast, though I can seize a Steward of Valeron draw, particularly on the play.

However Boss Naya is weakest against a combination of Wrath of God and card advantage; note that I don’t want to remove Lightning Bolt and Naya Charm even if I go Wraths because I want to remain very limber defensively, so as to avoid a Kayo from his Bloodbraid Elf dream draw. One thing to think about is mitigating the damage Wrath will do to me… That means siding out Steward of Valeron, which can actually propose icky Who’s the Beatdown questions… I’d just as rather avoid them.

-1 Captured Sunlight
-4 Steward of Valeron

+2 Ajani Vengeant
+3 Day of Judgment

Note that I only have three copies of Day of Judgment to side in; I’d like the full four against Boss Naya, and would be willing to move a Captured Sunlight for that option (Ajani at the same mana cost can also gain life).

Vampires:
Surprisingly, I lost a match to Vampires tonight. In both Game One and Game Three, he drew multiple copies of Malakir Blood Witch. This deck doesn’t have a great direct answer to Malakir Blood Witch (but for Day of Judgment); I lost Game One to triple Malakir Blood Witch by exactly one point of life (which means I probably missed something somewhere). Game three I didn’t draw Day of Judgment.

Given that I don’t really want to invest in Burst Lightning the way Naya Lightsaber did for Malakir Blood Witch, the best option is probably to go with the fourth Day of Judgment, per the Boss Naya matchup. The “right now” sideboarding numbers are / were:

-1 Ajani Vengeant
-3 Naya Charm
-4 Steward of Valeron
-1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

+4 Great Sable Stag
+2 Celestial Purge
+3 Day of Judgment

The sideboarding seems a little bit weird, I know. Planeswalkers are a bit expensive given what you want to do on four mana and a potential liability against Vampire Hexmage. Speaking of four mana, the reason Steward of Valeron leaves because of Day of Judgment… Again, you just don’t want to have extra cards going away with your Wrath. Most of the rest of the creatures are two-for-ones. However unlike some other matchups, you want to keep Captured Sunlight for two reasons: 1) It is superb for racing where Malakir Blood Witch is an important threat on the other side, and 2) It Cascades into Great Sable Stag. Again, with a fourth Day of Judgment, I would be very comfortable siding the fourth Naya Charm. You can play either the beatdown or the control against Vampires, but you are more likely to play the control, with Day of Judgment and powerful two-for-one threats, including the almost unbeatable Great Sable Stag. Enlisted Wurm into Day of Judgment is just too filthy.

Small note: Great Sable Stag is only only almost unbeatable. Try not to leave him by himself, for fear of Gatekeeper of Malakir.

White Weenie:
I haven’t played versus the current White Weenie decks with this deck yet, but I have played a fair amount from the White Weenie side (Conrad Kolos “Kor” Landfall version), and I think White Weenie should be an easy battle. The White Weenie (that is, Kithkin) decks over the summer were stronger and faster, and the Borderland Ranger deck of that era had a commanding percentage… without Baneslayer Angel.

The matchup from the summer PTQ season was basically fast removal (Lightning Bolt and Naya Charm) suppressing the opponent’s ability to run the good guys over; Enlisted Wurm flipped the Wrath of God of the era (whatever the heck its name was) would ensure the late game. No reason why the same shouldn’t stay true.

-4 Bloodbraid Elf
-1 Steward of Valeron
+2 Ajani Vengeant
+3 Day of Judgment

Siding out Bloodbraid Elf seems unusual, I know, but it is the result of a lot of testing, again from the summer version of the decks. Basically Bloodbraid Elf has almost no value on the table due to the ability of the opponent to glut the board (especially if they have Kor Firewalker or the equivalent), whereas Captured Sunlight can help keep your spirits up as you live long enough to start playing trump cards.

With a fourth Day of Judgment, Steward of Valeron #2 would of course be the cut.

Red Decks:

+2 Ajani Vengeant
+2 Celestial Purge

-3 Enlisted Wurm
-1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

You can cut a Naya Charm instead of the third Enlisted Wurm (fairly difficult to play) but all of the abilities on Naya Charm are highly relevant (instant speed creature removal, re-buy on a Baneslayer Angel or other powerful spell; you can also tap a Hell’s Thunder especially in a gang attack). But overall Enlisted Wurm — often the strongest card — is the weakest card just due to its expense.

Allies:

Allies is a faster, more aggressive version of Naya than either Boss Naya or this deck. The main strategy should be to try to slow down the Allies attack and win with Day of Judgment. Despite Ajani Vengeant often being insane against aggressive decks featuring Red mana symbols, can quickly become irrelevant as Kazandu Blademaster and the lads get too big. I would err on the side of consistency in this case and cut the one and not bring in the others like we do in other beatdown matchups.

-1 Ajani Vengeant
-2 Enlisted Wurm
+3 Day of Judgment

Given this exercise, I think I would make some small adjustments to the sideboard:

3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Great Sable Stag
2 Goblin Assault
2 Celestial Purge
4 Day of Judgment

Goblin Assault is quite strong but can be replaced with Ajani Vengeant in the control matchup. Losing the fourth option for Day of Judgment isn’t that bad because you can just keep a Lightning Bolt against U/W, which is fine. The fourth Day of Judgment seems very worthwhile for the Boss Naya, White Weenie, Vampires, and Allies matchups all.

Good luck on Sunday… But only if you play this deck. Bad luck otherwise ;p

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: The Umbrella Academy: Dallas

Concerning:

stirring wildwood ∙ Stirring Wildwood ∙ STIRRING WILDWOOD! Rah!

BTW:

Stirring Wildwood

Yesterday’s Borderland Ranger deck was a hit. I liked it a bit, but something wasn’t quite right. I’m not sure if it was the mana consistency (not terrible but not quite… you know… right).

On Twitter follower Gareth Lewin suggested cutting Black. At first I thought that would be ridiculous because of the loss of Bituminous Blast and new It Girl Resounding Thunder… But after playing a bit, it seems like this might be the right way to go.

If nothing else, cutting down to only three colors gives us the opportunity to double up on man-lands, adding Stirring Wildwood to the already excellent four-pack of Raging Ravines.

Rhox Meditant Deck 2010 version 1.0

1 Ajani Vengeant
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Captured Sunlight
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Naya Charm
4 Steward of Valeron

4 Borderland Ranger

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

4 Arid Mesa
5 Forest
4 Jungle Shrine
2 Mountain
3 Plains
4 Raging Ravine
4 Stirring Wildwood

sb:
2 Ajani Vengeant
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Goblin Assault
2 Celestial Purge
3 Day of Judgment

Okay, what are the differences between this deck and yesterday’s deck?

Spells:
-1 Ajani Vengeant
-4 Bituminous Blast
-4 Resounding Thunder
+4 Steward of Valeron
+4 Baneslayer Angel
+1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

I cut one copy of Ajani Vengeant (beloved Ajani Vengeant) for one Elspeth, Knight-Errant. You can argue as to which Planeswalker is stronger (I don’t know that it is at all clear), but especially given the erratic nature of Cascade in this deck with no Bituminous Blast and no chain into exclusively Mind Rot-like discard spells, you really don’t want to flip over the second Ajani Vengeant, which happens sometimes. Also the greater emphasis on White mana makes main deck Elspeth and Baneslayer Angel relatively easy to cast… So why not?

Bituminous Blast and Resounding Thunder obviously went with the basic Swamp (et al).

Adding Baneslayer Angel is medium-obvious given the switch in mana…

But the real story of this deck is the addition of Steward of Valeron.

I lost a tight match with Jund tonight. Finally I had a semi-normal night where half or so of my opponents were all Jund. We went into the third; I went to six, he had the perfect Putrid Leech / Sprouting Thrinax / Bloodbraid Elf curve. I basically got flattened. My spells were okay, but his perfect curve starting on turn two (on the play) was just too vigorous that game (I think the four-color Borderland Ranger deck has a long run advantage over Jund, still).

So my inspiration following Gareth’s suggestion was to start my own curve a bit earlier. Steward of Valeron is probably somewhat less powerful than Putrid Leech (again, this is an Ajani v. Elspeth fight with one being more powerful than the other but both cards being quite good and relatively close in power level); but in a Cascade deck heavy on fours (especially one with “good” mana)… Steward of Valeron can help us stick the third turn Bloodbraid Elf, Ajani Vengeant, Captured Sunlight, or Knight-Errant; accelerate into a faster Baneslayer Angel or Enlisted Ultimatum, et cetera ad infinitum.

In sum, I have been Cascading into Steward of Valeron more than I would like… But it isn’t like I’ve dropped any matches because of that (so far).

Mana Base:
-4 Exotic Orchard
-2 Mountain
-1 Swamp
-2 Verdant Catacombs
+1 Forest
+3 Jungle Shrine
+1 Plains
+4 Stirring Wildwood

The mana in this deck is clearly improved with the removal of Black. Not only do we get even more Stirring Wildwood man-land violence, we get to play four Jungle Shrines. Naya Lightsaber was criticized for playing no Jungle Shrines (which was clearly correct… see also Boss Naya), but in a deck with no dedicated one drops but relatively heavy on fours, Jungle Shrine is a not-surprisingly welcome addition. I think the mana is near-perfect [despite at this point being a non-Tectonic Edge deck.

A card conspicuous by its absence in this version is Path to Exile. I am fairly obsessed with not missing on Cascade, and Path to Exile is no good from that standpoint, at least main deck. Path to Exile will likely be added at least to the sideboard if Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and his pretty girlfriends prove playable for Standard Qualifiers and Regionals (or whatever they are calling it this year).

It probably shouldn’t be blatantly obvious that this kind of deck can compete with Jund. It’s kind of like Naya Lightsaber… Naya cards with the exception of Blightning are in our opinion more powerful than Jund cards. Baneslayer Angel being heads up more impressive than Broodmate Dragon, and in this deck, Enlisted Wurm backing her up on the six. Bloodbraid Elves are even more-or-less, the White Planeswalkers are about 100x better than Garruk Wildspeaker, and Naya Charm is a legitimate trump.

Seriously.

Play a little Naya Charm and you will be very happy with the results in a variety of matchups. The ability to Falter past blockers, Fog while setting up an Alpha Strike, or play Lightning Bolt / Regrowth… All the abilities are bonkers actually (but mostly the combat / anti-combat one).

The real tension is between Blightning and not-Blightning; or in this case Borderland Ranger specifically.

As we saw in yesterday’s deck (or for example in Kelly Reid’s Jund deck) Borderland Ranger can go just fine in Jund. I am going to make a relatively controversial argument (but hey — it’s my blog!) that the two cards are not so far apart in power.

I was the first person to start calling Blightning the strongest card in Standard; but hear me out:

1. Both cards cost three mana, but Borderland Ranger is marginally easier to play.
2. Both cards give you what we might call a (+1) in card advantage immediately; Blightning will punish opponents who took a trip to Paris and make for relatively difficult decisions for some opponents with certain draws… Borderland Ranger has none of these features, but can increase your consistency to play over time, and will generally ensure that you hit your fourth mana (and we know this deck is strong on four).
3. Blightning does three immediately; Borderland Ranger does nothing immediately, but has arguably no upper limit to how much damage it can do.
4. Borderland Ranger is an excellent card against opposing Bloodbraid Elves, essentially even on cards but one faster, negating Bloodbraid Elf in combat (+1 for Borderland Ranger!)

If you think about it for a while, I think that you will see that Borderland Ranger isn’t getting lapped or anything by Blightning. Blightning is generally stronger in particular because of its ability to fight Planeswalkers (in particular off a Bloodbraid Elf), but even there Borderland Ranger has some action; the point is, the card can compete, and it isn’t so far off in speed or power level.

Anyway, that’s the deck.

It has been performing very nicely for me, including a superb record so far against Jund. I know Rise of the Eldrazi is going to change things, you know, starting this weekend… But I think that there might be some merit to trying this deck, say this Sunday.

Battle on Five with Flores fans!

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: The Master Butchers Singing Club (P.S.)

Because, you know, Enlisted Wurm-into-Borderland Ranger is plus-two cards.

Weapons of the Enemy

2 Ajani Vengeant
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Captured Sunlight
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Naya Charm

4 Borderland Ranger

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Resounding Thunder

4 Arid Mesa
4 Exotic Orchard
4 Forest
1 Jungle Shrine
4 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Raging Ravine
1 Swamp
2 Verdant Catacombs

sb:
2 Ajani Vengeant
2 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Goblin Assault
4 Baneslayer Angel
3 Day of Judgment

With this deck we return to the style of Cascade that I ran in some PTQs to near-Top 8 finishes in the era before falling in love with Blightning.

The deck satisfies a relatively strong power level (despite missing the absolute best card in the format, and generally so closely associated with Bloodbraid Elf)… an “ultimatum” in the form of not just Enlisted Wurm Ultimatum, but the eight mana option on Resounding Thunder.

I lost a bit after getting locked out by Jace, the Mind Sculptor; and a close one against a Goblin Guide / Hellspark Elemental beatdown deck (topdeck mode… I drew three straight lands to his one Hell’s Thunder). But the rest of the matches went pretty well tonight.

In particular, the deck seems pretty solid against Jund.

Borderland Ranger actually matches up pretty well against Bloodbraid Elf. Bloodbraid Elf will usually only net two cards on a Blightning, so Borderland Ranger can match it card-for-card; Borderland Ranger, being a turn quicker, acts in superb anticipation of the more heralded two toughness Green creature. In the late game, this deck has both Enlisted Wurm and Baneslayer Angel to match scales and wings (respectively) with Double Dragon.

I would actually like something a bit faster against the Red Deck. If you draw Lightning Bolt in your opening hand, it is very difficult to lose; but if you don’t, your first answer is circa turn three, and against a turn one Goblin Guide on the draw, you’re just going to discard a bunch; i.e. “poop”. There. I said it. If you can play your game, Captured Sunlight chaining into Baneslayer Angel has been pretty good. I am not 100% on the right sideboarding strategy. I won a close one with four Enlisted Wurms in my deck, but was chewing my nails down to bloody stumps waiting for my sixth land against a triple Goblin Ruinblaster draw; I swapped Bituminous Blast back in for the third (which should have been great against all the Red Deck hasters), but they never came up. The deck probably wants at least two Enlisted Wurms just to have a way to win; don’t forget that Enlisted Wurm can morph into Baneslayer Angel with some regularity*.

Obviously by the Standard PTQs and Nationals Qualifiers we are going to have fifteen-drops to worry about… I actually think siding a bunch of gigantic Eldrazi might be a strategy for this deck against those Blue bastards.

LOVE
MIKE

* Not actually that regular.

Concerning:

1. Jamie Wakefield
2. Student of Warfare
3. The Spanish Inquisition

Before we get in to Magic: The Gathering blogging, I just wanted to throw something out there:

Jamie Wakefied has just come out with a new book. As far as I can tell, this book is not about Magic: The Gathering. I am going to order it… any longtime fans of Jamie (and I’m sure that many of you hold yourselves in that group) should probably do the same.

For the love.

Okay, now for the Magic: The Gathering part.

Student of Warfare:

Multiple people, including Jeroen Remie via Twitter and Slov01 in the comments of the last post pointed out that Student of Warfare is much the 3/3 for three mana as Transcendent Master.

I was actually planning to write about Student of Warfare anyway… But I hadn’t thought of it in that way.

The reason is that, even if it can be thought of as a 3/3 for three mana, it isn’t. It is much, much, better.

The first reason why Student of Warfare is better than a “regular” Gnarled Mass is that it costs one, not three, as a base. This lets you put a down payment on the card on turn one, then spend the next two on turn two for three damage on the second turn (you know, a turn before you could even playTranscendent Master.

Its one-ness is very powerful with one of my three favorite [Standard] creatures, Ranger of Eos.

Student of Warfare is like the white side of Figure of Destiny in the same way that Kargan Dragonlord represents a Red analogue. In my opinion, Student of Warfare seems like the stronger card because its one mana-ness lets it lace up with Antoine Ruel like Figure of Destiny did in Boat Brew.

The second reason why Student of Warfare is much better than a Gnarled Mass — not that being better than a Watchwolf on the second turn without going into a second color isn’t good enough — is that it isn’t just a 3/3; it’s a 3/3 first strike… Kind of like a White Knight grafted onto a Hand of Honor (you know, whiteout the racism).

Getting to Level Seven is quite realistic. It will be awesome when it is awesome. We probably don’t have to spend a whole lot of time on the “ultimate” to this leveler.

Snap Judgment Rating – Staple

More Spanish Inquisition

I know “current” Standard is medium-irrelevant just now, but I have been having a lot of fun playing. This is what I have been playing most; I am very happy with it actually:

4 Armillary Sphere
4 Everflowing Chalice
1 Obelisk of Alara

4 Ajani Vengeant

4 Burst Lightning
4 Chandra Nalaar
4 Lightning Bolt

4 Day of Judgment
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Path to Exile

12 Mountain
4 Naya Panorama
2 Plains
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

sb:
1 Obelisk of Alara
4 Goblin Assault
4 Celestial Purge
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Oblivion Ring
1 Path to Exile

The distinguishing thing about this version is still the Goblin Assault set after sideboarding. I really like those: They have been great against control, in particular the relatively popular Jace, the Mind Sculptor decks.

Main deck the main difference between this and the pre-Worldwake version is the addition of Motherlovin Cup aka Everlasting Chalice. The Chalice lets this deck play third turn Ajani Vengeant, Day of Judgment, or sometimes Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

If there is one card (or kind of card) I would like to play (or rather add), it is something like Earthquake or Martial Coup. Martial Coup would be great in particular with Motherlovin Cup… Not sure what to cut right now. I have sided every card in the ‘board in the last 24 hours, with Oblivion Ring a necessary evil due to the many, many Planeswalkers that are now played even in Standard aggressive decks.

Anyway, that’s it for today. Pretty exciting news for fans of me, Billy Moreno, and Paul Jordan that we will unveil relatively soon 🙂

/anticipation

LOVE
MIKE

… and even sadder… it’s good.

It is possible I have been a little harsh on my man Sphinx of Jwar Isle on this blog.

Here are some of the things I have said about him over the past year or so:

In my own defense, people have been playing him in basically atrocious decks. I mean why would you play Grixis Control when you could play Grixis Burn? Why would you — in general — play Sphinx of Jwar Isle when you could play Sphinx of Lost Truths? Especially in U/W or some kind of gassy Esper variant?

Unfortunately — and I mean really unfortunately — we may now have an answer to this question.

I was trolling around Twitter and saw a deck by Neale Talbot on his blog. This is Neale’s initial version:

Target This!

4 Deft Duelist
4 Calcite Snapper
4 Wall of Denial
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

3 Path to Exile

4 Treasure Hunt

2 Marshal’s Anthem
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Spreading Seas
2 Ardent Plea

3 Jace, The Mindsculptor

3 Island
3 Plains
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Sejiri Refuge
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Marsh Flats

Original deck list from http://wrongwaygoback.com

I didn’t hate the deck; in fact it reminded me of “the Untouchables” — a series of decks that were played around the time of my first Pro Tour (primarily in the Juniors division), centering around cards like Autumn Willow and Deadly Insect. The concept of this deck is similar… All the creatures [thematically] have Shroud.

Looking over the deck list I decided that I didn’t want to Ardent Plea into Deft Duelist ever, and the Spreading Seas portion of the deck seemed a bit inconsistent. So I cut that and some of the creatures in favor of more defense and card advantage.

This is my take on Neal’s deck, based on several matches of testing:

U/W Tap-out Untouchables version 1.1

4 Calcite Snapper
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Mind Spring
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Spreading Seas
4 Treasure Hunt

4 Deft Duelist

2 Day of Judgment
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Marshal’s Anthem
2 Martial Coup
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Path to Exile

4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Halimar Depths
7 Island
5 Plains

sb:
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Wall of Denial
4 Celestial Purge
2 Day of Judgment
4 Kor Firewalker
1 Martial Coup

The first version I played had a third Oblivion Ring and no Marshal’s Anthem. Marshal’s Anthem clearly right in this deck… I somehow forgot to play it despite its being in Neal’s deck list. Oh well, old.

You probably understand how this deck works. The creatures all have Shroud and are therefore relatively difficult to deal with using conventional means (Terminate, Path to Exile, even creature combat).

The deck seems to perform well against a variety of decks. It has Day of Judgment to gain an advantage over reach-poor decks like Boss Naya and White Weenie, and a combination of early game mana disruption and Shroud defense against Jund. Against other U/W decks, you are the beatdown. Strangely, they have a hard time dealing with your creatures. This can lead to the opponent having to tap out at inopportune times, allowing you to deal with their Planeswalkers or just get a Planeswalker advantage yourself.

I mostly won with the deck, and I managed to do better than break even in the tournament queues.

The deck is serviceable against Allies, but you have to watch for their Haste. I found that even when I felt like I should be winning, the reload power of that deck was not to be completely overlooked. The deck is relatively weak against the card Eldrazi Monument. Eldrazi Green seems like a very easy pairing but for that card… But then again, they did name their deck after it. Jund is… Jund. You win some, you can get blown out by triple Blightning, too.

The best matchup seems to be Boss Naya.

Deft Duelist sings in the Boss Naya match, but it is the weakest card generally. I find myself siding out Deft Duelist quite a bit, when I reach for the three additional Wrath of God effects in the sideboard. Generally Calcite Snapper is the superior threat… Sometimes you just go beatdown with Calcite Snapper, and even Jund can just look on in horror as Sprouting Thrinax gets covered by Oblivion Ring, Bloodbraid Elf meets Path to Exile, and Beast tokens go flying into the aether thanks to Jace, the Mind Sculptor as the ravenous convertible turtle rumbles in for four, Four, FOUR per turn.

This is obviously not a Regionals-ready deck… yet. But I was very surprised at how its synergies could make up for the relative weakness of some of the individual cards.

Analysis of the main deck cards:

Calcite Snapper
I was hot and cold on this one; however the ability to go aggro — and put the opponent on a legitimate clock — came up several times in both practice and tournament matches. This is clearly one of the centerpiece cards of the deck.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
I won with this about 20% of the time. Many games are about setting up several Shroud creatures to surround and protect Jace… and that’s it.

Mind Spring
Very good in this deck. You need a reload in part because you are drawing, let’s be frank, motherlovin Deft Duelist.

Sphinx of Jwar Isle
I think two is the right number; however if I fall even further out of love with Deft Duelist, I can see going to three copies. He isn’t good (still); he kept running up against either Boss Naya with Basilisk Collar online or Baneslayer Angel. However he could pull it through sometimes thanks to Marshall’s Anthem or help from Jace, the Mind Sculptor or other spot removal. I begrudgingly admit that this card is actually perfect in this deck (though I maintain that he probably isn’t optimal in most other decks).

Spreading Seas
Never side them out.

Treasure Hunt
I was much happier with the Treasure Hunt / Halimar Depths combo in this deck than I was in the more reactive Esper deck. The U/W aggro deck can play out, say, a Deft Duelist and then use Treasure Hunt to draw up; I rarely had to discard, and I usually got a little bonus (though “desperation” Treasure Hunts rarely seem profitable).

Deft Duelist
Shockingly good against Boss Naya. These did everything from running by a squad of defenders to beat up Ajani Vengeant to huddling around Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Jace Beleren so that they could do their damn jobs.

…

Most of the other main deck cards have seen heavy play in other decks discussed on this blog. They are all good… I often feel like I want another Oblivion Ring, but maybe that’s just because I lost to Eldrazi Monument.

Sideboard Cards:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor – came in most matches

Wall of Denial – I never sided more than one copy in, even against the beatdown decks where you would expect them to be good… I felt like these conflicted too much with the excess mass removal (though they seem quite useful against Jund, where you don’t want Day of Judgment)

Celestial Purge – All-star, not surprising.

Day of Judgment / Martial Coup – The next most common cards to come in after Jace, the Mind Sculptor #4. Especially backbreaking for Vampires, Boss Naya, White Weenie, and to a lesser extent, Allies.

Kor Firewalker – I never sided these in. I would like to do a ten game set or so versus Mono-Red, Red-splash-Black, and / or Barely Boros to get a feel of how necessary Kor Firewalker is. I only played versus one Mono-Red deck, and he would have no second game after his Goblins were so dominated by Deft Duelist in the first.

I think this one might be worth some time investment… Let’s see how Rise of the Eldrazi looks in a few weeks. I could see incorporating more Planeswalkers, such as Gideon Jura.

LOVE
MIKE

So after something like a month, I finally logged back into Magic Online today!

The process has been a harrowing one that culminated in my figuring out how to install Windows onto my new (savage) iMac via Parallels. Long story short – I was able to brew in a practical format.

I won’t bore you with all the little details that went into the inclusion of Resounding Wave in the current build of Esper, but it has been pretty good. I felt that Esper was the strongest Standard deck pre-Worldwake, being the control deck that could not only compete with Jund and terrorize Naya, but consistently crush other control decks (primarily Grixis Control).

Our friend Thomas Dodd even made Top 8 of a MTGO PE with the Esper deck. I decided to go with Thomas’s “cut an expensive card from the Flores list” strategy, so I cut one Sorin Markov for one Elspeth, Knight-Errant in the main of this version:

Sorin Markov Flair version 3.0

2 Sorin Markov

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Resounding Wave
4 Spreading Seas
4 Treasure Hunt

4 Esper Charm

4 Day of Judgment
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Martial Coup
4 Path to Exile

4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Halimar Depths
2 Island
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
3 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge

sb:
4 Duress
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Countersquall
4 Baneslayer Angel

Philosophically this is the beloved Esper deck even if the end game looks a bit different.

From Worldwake we have added Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Treasure Hunt (largely replacing Divination and the previous Jace Beleren), Halimar Depths, and Tectonic Edge.

This is very much one of “my” tap-out control decks. There are no counterspells main deck, and the first match I lost was one where I realized mid-way through the second game that I had no Countersquall for his Open the Vaults (managed to get the first game with triple Planeswalkers). Luckily I remembered for subsequent matches (though I have yet to actually side in, let alone play, a Countersquall).

So why Esper?

Can you really think of anything better you can do with your three mana than an Esper Charm? I mean really?

Neither can I.

Rundown:

2 Sorin Markov
I went with Thomas’s numbers; nevertheless, Sorin is probably our best card and might make it back to three-of by Regionals.

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
This card replaced both our previous Jace Belerens and all the finishers. The previous Esper deck, if you recall, played four Banelsayer Angel and four Sphinx of Lost Truths main deck. This deck wins by a combination of Jace-driven resource suppression and Sorin-plus-man lands-based offense. I don’t know which is better objectively, but this version has been running cleanly against a variety of opponents so far.

4 Resounding Wave
Another big change with this version (despite Resounding Wave not being a, you know, new card). With the previous version, the main complaint was that “Esper has no Cruel Ultimatum” … Well Resounding Wave is our Ultimatum. I actually ran the three mana version three times over against the Empty the Vaults deck to make him discard 3-4 times, losing to the fact that I never got to a fourth land (or in fact a Swamp to use the three copies of Duress in my hand, any of which would have pre-empted the lethal Filigree Angel combo).

So one of my original ideas with Resounding Wave was to supplement the Spreading Seas portion of the deck. Especially on the play you can leave your opponent having made no plays when you get your third turn. You can at that point aim a Resounding Wave at his land and force him to discard. There are some other subtle advantages with this card; it gives you two (or depending on tuning, even three) different colors of instant speed creature defense; at full bore it can target a near-ultimate Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Iona, Shield of Emeria without fear of interaction. Overall, a much better card than its level of play to date would seem to indicate.

4 Spreading Seas
A top-five card in Standard, I think.

4 Treasure Hunt
We’ll write a lot more about this one before too long; for now just think about its advantages with 28 land and Tectonic Edge in particular; in a Spreading Seas (or Spreading Seas + Resounding Wave) mana control strategy.

4 Esper Charm
Is there anything better to do with three mana? I mean really? (Okay, but you can’t play Esper Charm and Blightning together outside of mono-Cascade… believe me, I’ve tried!)

4 Day of Judgment
Upgraded from three copies to four… With fewer creatures in this version, we need more creature defense, especially with the rise in decks like G/W and White Weenie.

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
If we can convince Thomas to write about his experiences with the previous version of Esper, we will probably find out why this card is good enough! So far, it has been good.

1 Martial Coup
I haven’t drawn it yet; chalk this one up to needing even more copies of Day of Judgment… Also an additional way to win, of course.

4 Path to Exile
Basically a given.

… A bunch of lands…

4 Tectonic Edge
I was actually surprised I didn’t blow a lot of people out with these. Tectonic Edge is highly synergistic with the other cards we have talked about (Spreading Seas and sometimes Resounding Wave); it is also quite good with Treasure Hunt. Treasure Hunt helps you draw more lands than the opponent so that parity plays like a Tectonic Edge one-for-one can imply profitability.

The sideboard needs a bit of work. Moving so many creatures out of the main kind of glutted the sideboard, and the ability to go creature “overload” (though really just becoming a mid-range creature deck) is less of a possibility with this build.

I think the sideboard needs a set of Celestial Purge; I lost some very close matches (mostly based on mis-clicking due to lack of practice and lack of familiarity with Jace, the Mind Sculptor) where Celestial Purge would have given me a bit of margin. You know; the usual stuff… Hell’s Thunder or whatever. Don’t forget that Celestial Purge is also quite effective against Ajani Vengeant. I also think the deck could benefit from a pair of Countersqualls in the main, similar to the last build.

One card that is not in this version is Everflowing Chalice aka Motherlovin Cup. The mana costs are so all over the place (BBB, UUU, WW) that I wanted to play lots of colors-producing mana sources; the Tectonic Edges by themselves are bad enough. So I decided to go with a heavy Halimar Depths plan with Treasure Hunt… The old “hit my land drops” rather than “accelerate with a Signet” line of plays. Might not be optimal from the bird’s eye view, but for a deck with Esper colors, I do think it is right.

LOVE
MIKE

Concerning:

So I was going to run a post that was like “this is THE END of FiveWithFlores.com… But based on my recent non-posting status, despite the fact that this is April 1, ye ole joke might not come across the hilarious way I would have intended. So instead, we’ll talk about something that is not joke, no joke whatsoever: Jeroen Aga’s Allies Deck.

Naya Allies – Jeroen Aga

4 Bloodbraid Elf

3 Harabaz Druid
4 Oran-Rief Survivalist

4 Akoum Battlesinger
1 Goblin Bushwhacker

4 Hada Freeblade
4 Kabira Evangel
4 Kazandu Blademaster
2 Path to Exile
2 Ranger of Eos
4 Talus Paladin

4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Arid Mesa
2 Forest
4 Jungle Shrine
1 Mountain
5 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove

sb:
3 Cunning Sparkmage
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Tuktuk Scrapper
4 Kor Firewalker
2 Path to Exile

So… 34 creatures, 27 of them Allies. Ho ho Allies linear!

This might not have been the rumored G/W Allies deck that the Japanese were brewing for the most recent Pro Tour, but Jeroen Aga was able to start out 9-0 at Grand Prix Brussels, and ultimately finish in the money, if not the Top 8.

So, Top Decks this week is devoted [rightfully] to the level up mechanic, so we are going to use this space — and resurrect the interest in this blog while we’re at it — to talk about one of the things we would normally have done over at the mother ship: an interesting and quite different new deck.

Another Bloodbraid Elf deck?

Yes.

Bloodbraid Elf is just that damn good.

But this time — at least when you are not flipping over a Path to Exile (please Please PLEASE)… You will generally be doing something Ally-tastic.

There is certainly going to be some Bloodbraid Elf draw-dependency. For example when you are poised for an Alpha Strike, flipping over Harabaz Druid is going to put you on tilt like, you know, a pinball machine that has been knocked to the side.

And sometimes you are going to flip over Kabira Evangel and you will look like an absolute action hero. Holy Reverent Mantra Batman!

The Allies deck is a good example of a deck that is not Jund. Its cards are significantly worse than, say, Blightning and Putrid Leech. Heck, the Lightning Bolts are in the sideboard… and there are only three of them!

Like Kazandu Blademaster is a good man and everything — probably a hair better than Hada Freeblade — but he’s not as good as a two mana conditional 4/4… not by himself. Not until he is 4/4, anyway.

But Kazandu Blademaster, Hada Freeblade, and Oran-Rief Survivalist get the linear bonus. As you play more and more Allies, they get better and better, and have to be evaluated as such.

For example, the average Kazandu Blademaster (in this deck) probably says something like:

WW
Creature – Human Soldier Ally
First Strike
Vigilence
2w: {this} gains +1/+1 and creatures you control are unblockable until end of turn; use this ability only once per game
3w: {this} gains +1/+1 and creatures you control gain lifelink until end of turn
4/4

Something more elegantly stated than the above, but you get the idea. Every Ally card in this deck is functionally speaking a good deal better than its printed value in this deck.

So when you start doing evaluations between the most recent incarnation of the 2/2 first striker for WW [versus a Putrid Leech, which is the default two-drop in Standard], you can’t stop with it being a 2/2… It is so much more when surrounded by all these other puzzle pieces. That’s how you look at the cards in a linear deck.

I once said that all the linears are about as good as each other, at least because they are held in check by hoser cards.

That was pretty not-correct.

Some cards say: (b/u)(b/u) – Kill the opponent on the second turn. Other ones are just very good 4/4 creatures for four mana (also very good… but not as good as the b/u jobby, above); Allies are probably somewhere in the middle… Less powerful than a Sword of Fire and Ice-weilding Indrik Stomphowler, but much faster in exchange; probably more apt to set up completely unexpected blowout draws.

The Allies have some cute stuff going on. For example a Ranger of Eos can grab a pair of Hada Freeblades to quickly make your Kazandu Blademaster (or whoever) into a one-Ally assault force. Or, like in the Boros deck, you can get a solo Goblin Bushwhacker to just go kill the opponent. When the Bushwhacker is on the tail end of a stack of Allies all holding hands, making each other bigger, faster, longer, and harder, even a single attack can be very impressive.

As such, I would probably have played more copies of Ranger of Eos (personally I have that card very near Bloodbraid Elf and Baneslayer Angel in power level), but I have neither Aga’s experience with these Allies, nor his 9-0 Grand Prix opening.

Yes, yes: Consider us back.

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: The Night Watch (Watch, Book 1)

It’s the first You Make the Play of the new year… or for that matter over three months! Featuring Celestial Colonnade and a host of new Worldwake cards!

The scenario:

You are playing a Raka control deck… U/R/W board control, no counters main deck, but lots of good cards. For sake of argument, this is your deck:

Pretend Raka Control Deck

4 Everflowing Chalice

2 Divination
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Spreading Seas
4 Treasure Hunt

3 Ajani Vengeant

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Day of Judgment
4 Path to Exile

2 Celestial Collonade
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Halimar Depths
4 Island
1 Kabira Crossroads
2 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn

Before you make any comments (and I’m sure there will be comments), I am not pretending this is the optimal Raka-colors deck; this is just a with some stats that you can use to help formulate your solution to today’s You Make the Play.

The reason you went U/R/W over Grixis or Esper is that Everflowing Chalice can ramp you to Day of Judgment or one of two very good Planeswalkers on the third turn. Given the interaction between one of those and Treasure Hunt (as well as Halimar Depths and Treasure Hunt), it seemed worth running around Esper Charm and Cruel Ultimatum.

To you are putting a lot of faith in Treasure Hunt. You’ve cut down to 23 lands because of Treasure Hunt’s “cantrip” capability as well as the presence of Everflowing Chalice (aka Motherlovin’ Cup), which should help you get action.

Okay! The problem:

It’s a simple one… given the above deck, do you keep or no?

On the play?

On the draw?

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Treasure Hunt
Ajani Vengeant
Lightning Bolt
Day of Judgment
Celestial Colonnade
Scalding Tarn

I think this should make for an interesting discussion; I think you should think so, too.

So I am not going to work on the solution until we have at least 25 comments 🙂

That shouldn’t be a problem. This You Make the Play drew 38!

LOVE
MIKE

A review of hot new Worldwake uncommon, Tectonic Edge. Also free deck list!

This card is masterful. U/W with Crucible of Worlds is currently my second favorite Extended deck. Tectonic Edge fits right in (at least sideboard) and will be some kind of wonderful in any attrition-type match against other decks vying for the control role.

Superficial comparisons can be made to two iconic cards:

Wasteland
“It’s worse than Wasteland!” Well… Yeah, it’s probably worse than Wasteland. That said, so what? Ancestral Vision is worse than Ancestral Recall, but managed to be a fine card. On that note, Tectonic Edge can give you a measure of redundancy over your Wastelands if you’re playing, say, a deck with 30+ lands that can play multiple lands, over and over. Its fundamental limitations on both the opponent’s minimum mana situation and the additional mana activation cost do in fact make this card less perfect than the fearsome Wasteland, but, again… So what?

Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl is another card you could have said was worse than Wasteland; in fact, in head’s up comparison, Dust Bowl is slower than Tectonic Edge, though it does not have the same [opponent’s] minimum mana requirement. On balance, Dust Bowl allowed you to sacrifice other lands, allowing for a long-term, methodical, assault on nonbasic lands that Tectonic Edge does not.

Ultimately – Tectonic Edge is probably strictly worse than a card that was strictly worse than another popular card (Strip Mine)… But should still be very good in a good many places. This is a card that I can see playing in my sideboard in Standard, going up to 28 or even 30 lands to fight decks like Jund or other Grixis or Esper control decks (you heard it here first). The non-destruction / cycling attack from Spreading Seas will leave a land in play, “allowing” the opponent to ramp up to four, giving you an open to ‘Edge. It’s all coming together, no? A great companion to Treasure Hunt and Jace, the Mind Sculptor provided you are not under threat of lethal force.

Snap Judgment Rating – Staple / sideboard – high

LOVE
MIKE

P.S. Free Deck List

U/W Two Combos

1 Chalice of the Void
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Thopter Foundry

3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Repeal
4 Thirst for Knowledge

4 Kitchen Finks

2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Day of Judgment
1 Martyr of Sands
3 Path to Exile
2 Wrath of God
1 Yosei, the Morning Star

2 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Den
3 Arid Mesa
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Gargoyle Castle
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Marsh Flats
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Plains
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Snow-covered Island
3 Snow-covered Plains
1 Tolaria West

sb:
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Vedalken Shackles
2 Repeal
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Day of Judgment
1 Path to Exile
1 Wrath of God

I really wish I had played this U/W deck instead of the other one in the Connecticut PTQ a few weeks back. Or at least some of the cards I missed, like Vedalken Shackles or the Thopter combo.

There are some sideboarding holes, especially now that GerryT’s hybrid Dark Depths / Thopter Foundry combo deck has become popular, but this version of U/W has still performed well for me. Since the third most common kill is Crucible of Worlds + Gargoyle Castle, you can probably see why Tectonic Edge would be good in this deck (at least in the sideboard).

The most common kill is something involving Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek; though my deck lacks either a Time Sieve or Ironworks combo to go infinite.

The second most common kill is Emeria + Miren + Yosei (you can set everything in this deck up with a Gifts Ungiven, Academy Ruins, and a little time).

Then of course there is something to do with the Martyr combo. I started with Conley Woods’s deck, swapped out Black for Blue, and steadily cut back on Martyrs as they were the weakest part of this deck [presumably without Phyrexian Arena]. Still good, and still cute given that you can turbo charge a post-Thirst for Knowledge Sword of the Meek with one 🙂

My favorite Extended deck right now is G/R Scapeshift. I am about 20-0 with it… It seems to have a fair number of structural and sideboarding holes, but I have somehow managed to win [and dodge for the most part GerryT’s deck].