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
Trace of Abundance ∙ Rampant Growth ∙ Explore
Jund ∙ mana acceleration in Jund ∙ … and Trace of Abundance
Trace of Abundance
I just wanted to do a quick writeup on a card I hadn’t previously considered in Jund. Last week you probably know I did a Podcast with Morgan Chang, Sean McKeown, and PRO PLAYER “Mulldrifting” Lauren Lee. Lauren was on Jund… featuring Trace of Abundance.
Current Jund lists have shown precedent for running two mana mana acceleration as a two-of. For example in the finals of the most recent Pro Tour, Kyle Boggemes played two Explores while champion Simon Gortzen played two Rampant Growths.
What happens if we split the difference and just slide in two copies of Trace of Abundance?
Why would we want to do that?
Many of the post-Gortzen Jund decks play under the philosophy of “all lands, no removal” … The reason is that the lands are so good! In particular, Raging Ravine.
Not only does a second turn Trace of Abundance help you accelerate to Bloodbraid Elf on the third turn in the same way that Explore or Rampant Growth does, but going deep, Trace of Abundance on a Raging Ravine is a Troll Ascetic-like threat for a U/W Control opponent. Within a couple of attacks, your Raging Ravine will become big enough to rumble past a Baneslayer Angel!
Common U/W answers — Spreading Seas, Tectonic Edge, even Path to Exile — all become irrelevant because they can’t target the damn thing.
So how does a control player win?
When Lauren played Trace of Abundance against me, offensively, I tapped down or applied Spreading Seas to all her other sources of Red. That way she couldn’t activate the Raging Ravine to begin with. Eventually, I drew into an Oblivion Ring to take out the Trace, then battled back fair and square.
Believe it or not, I am a little geeked on Trace of Abundance.
To the point that I would consider playing Jund at Nationals Qualifiers! (Really.)
Ulamog, the Infintie Gyre ∙ The Sauce ∙ Getting There
How to Get There ∙ Playing Awesome Cards + Hitting Land Drops ∙ … and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
My Playtest Copy of Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Photo Credit: Brian David-Marshall, aka @Top8Games
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
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.
In the quite likely event that you read Top Decks last week, you know that I listed not just Flame Slash but Forked Bolt in the “awesome” at one mana category. This post is going to be a follow up to the Flame Slash post as well as a brief discussion of its one mana twin / competitor / equal and opposite.
First of all, I just wanted to should out to our great FiveWithFlores.com community for some of their additional Flame Slash commentary.
I focused on Malakir Bloodwitch (probably because I tend to think of Naya first… and Burst Lightning was an important component of the World Championship winning deck); but Twinblaze pointed out that Flame Slash is good against Putrid Leech, and Alfrebaut and some others talked about using Flame Slash to help a beatdown deck get past Wall of Omens, or a Red Deck deal with problem creatures like Rhox War Monk (and any Red mages out there know what a serious problem that 3/4 can be).
So what about Forked Bolt?
Forked Bolt
Forked Bolt v. Lightning Bolt
First up, it is not strictly true that Lightning Bolt is better than Forked Bolt. I mean it is probably true, but it isn’t even strictly true that Forked Bolt is better than Shock. I mean we all know that Lightning Bolt is the better card due to the twofold “I deal three damage” and “I do those three damage at instant speed” brothers, but we can’t say strictly.
Because of that, I don’t know that Forked Bolt will do much displacement of Lightning Bolt in the first four slots allotted to Red one mana removal spells (don’t forget that Boss Naya and Naya Allies don’t even play four Lightning Bolts main deck). However I feel like Forked Bolt will be a second string main deck card more readily than Flame Slash.
After all, it goes to the head.
Forked Bolt v. Burst Lightning
Forked Bolt v. Burst Lightning makes for an interesting comparison. Burst Lightning — at least before Rise of the Eldrazi — sat on the front line of the second string. There were decks like Grixis Burn that actually appreciated a Burst Lightning and the ability to deal four points of damage. As a Shock variant, Forked Bolt is not going to match that incentive from Burst Lightning.
How about killing little guys?
I have found a lot of tension during the first couple of turns of a game, especially against Vampires or Naya decks… Which one mana spell should I use? Against Vampires you often want to clear out a Vampire Hexmage before playing Ajani Vengeant; against Naya the target is Birds of Paradise or Noble Hierarch. So do you Lightning Bolt or Burst Lightning?
It’s been months and I still have no clue!
Against Vampires you typically want to save Lightning Bolt for Vampire Nighthawk… But sometimes you have to make sure you have ammunition for Vampire Nocturnus (I mean, should the worst happen). Against Naya, you usually want to save Burst Lightning for Knight of the Reliquary (provided you can still deal with it at all, Burst Lightning will often be better than Lightning Bolt) or Woolly Thoctar; on the other hand, the Burst Lightning deck I played for months would often have to respect Great Sable Stag.
While Forked Bolt can’t actually kill a Woolly Thoctar [by itself], it does remove a lot of the tension on the first turn. For example Forked Bolt versus Lightning Bolt is not much of a fight when you are faced with Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, or Vampire Hexmage; you can kill any of those little guys, and send an extra point to the opponent’s head. Perfect!
Subtly, Forked Bolt is a good supplement to Lightning Bolt when you have to kill a larger creature. You can tag team to take down a Woolly Thoctar, say, and still point the last ding ding at the opponent; while that doesn’t make up for the craptastic-ness of blowing a second card on a three drop, paying yourself back a point is nice (or you can snag an X/1 while you’re at it, to more-or-less break even).
Forked Bolt v. Flame Slash
As far as second string single [mana] sorceries go, these two are both awesome… but don’t really compete for the same jobs. They are like Diet Coke and Vitamin Water.
Forked Bolt does something pretty unique; in the past you needed to invest three mana for this effect. And even if it was good (Osyp made Top 8 the first Pro Tour Electrolyze was legal), no one has played it in forever… We just don’t like to deal two damage for three mana even when we get to draw a card. Make no mistake, this card can be a blowout against some draws. You know those games where the Green deck kept two lands and two Elves (or whatever Birds / Druids)? Forked Bolt can Mind Twist them at the same time as manascrewing them on one of these draws.
Plus, Forked Bolt is so much more versatile. You can pick it up and point it (or, as we’ve said a couple of times, point half of it) at the head. That makes it hell off the top.
Flame Slash is different. Flame Slash is surgery. That might be a strange thing to say given what a generally inflexible, brute force (if awesome) card Flame Slash is. But think about it: You want Flame Slash for a specific job. Specific kinds of decks want it, typically out of the sideboard, to get rid of or compete against known — dangerous — quantities.
In the words of the great Tsuyoshi Fujita, “Depends on the metagame.”
I think Flame Slash is unlikely to be a main deck card, but quite likely to be a sideboard Staple.
I think Forked Bolt will be the new second string main deck card, largely replacing Burst Lightning in that role. That is due to the ability to go to the head and the ability to deal with common creatures while still hitting for a little damage (all for so little mana, of course). However depending on how the metagame evolves one might be more common than the other. Alternately the decision might be dictated by what deck is making the decision. For example, I don’t really see my school of Naya decks fighting over little X/1s rather than caring about the much-mentioned Malakir Bloodwitch.
But it would be perfectly reasonable for some Red Decks to go the other way.
Is it as good a card as Lightning Bolt? Not really.
Flame Slash is a sorcery rather than an instant. That means you can play it about half as often as Lightning Bolt (even less often if you think about it… You can play Lightning Bolt on your own upkeep, end step, and so forth); Lightning Bolt — long the benchmark for riotous Red — is so much more versatile. It can go to the head (Flame Slash can’t), it can mess up a double block, it can take out a Raging Ravine.
Flame Slash can’t do any of that.
Lightning Bolt is way overpowered. We all know that. Those of you who have been following this blog for a year or more — or me on Twitter or whatever — know that I was skeptical about Lightning bolt really coming back. It is just so overpowered… That, and we were perfectly willing to play Volcanic Hammer in Extended or in Standard Black-based control decks or in ‘Vore or a dozen other places it seemed like a dream world for Lightning Bolt to come back.
Lightning Bolt was the Old Soldier. It wasn’t needed (or at least it didn’t seem needed).
The thing is… Flame Slash is way overpowered, too.
One of the only things that has kept Red removal interesting since, I dunno, Alpha is the fact that it has a high water mark of three; great when a Grixis deck needs to take out a Great Sable Stag… less so when the classic Sligh has to do battle with a Serra Angel.
Modern Standard has its Serra Angel, too; this girl:
Malakir Bloodwitch
You’ll probably recall that Naya Lightsaber sided a pair of Burst Lightnings. They were there, primarily, for a base-White deck to deal with Malakir Bloodwitch (I had Andre siding Burst Lightning in against Boros Bushwhacker, too, but when they were on the mid-range strat going second, Burst Lightning was a lot less effective).
So how about Flame Slash?
Even worse against Boros Bushwhacker.
But how about Malakir Bloodwitch defense?
Couldn’t be better.
I think that you will find Flame Slash to be one of the best cards in the new set. It is probably not going to be a main deck card. Ironically — in a world with options like Searing Blaze — it might not even get Red Deck sideboard love. But for White or Naya decks (at least those unwilling to invest in a Day of Judgment), I think Flame Slash will become the option of choice for suppressing Malakir Bloodwitch and Woolly Thoctar… Or just another one mana play that can help out against, say, a Noble Hierarch on the first turn.
I don’t think it matters a whole lot that Flame Slash is a sorcery. Yes, it is much worse against a man land, but for the most part, creatures give you a window to deal with them before they start whaling away at your life total (no offense to Vengevine). As such, while Flame Slash is less flexible than the current options… Who cares? You don’t make friends with salad, and you don’t win Pro Tours with flexibility (well, maybe sometimes you do… But forget any times that would conflict with my awesomely pithy claim).
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:
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:
+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
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.
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).
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:
Both cards cost three mana, but Borderland Ranger is marginally easier to play.
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).
Blightning does three immediately; Borderland Ranger does nothing immediately, but has arguably no upper limit to how much damage it can do.
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.
