Inferno Titan ∙ Sun Titan ∙ Frost Titan
Grave Titan ∙ Primeval Titan ∙ … and why Inferno Titan really the best card in Standard!
Well, at least that’s what my Twitter bud @Triphos asked me to say 🙂
But who can say no to someone with a Patsy Walker crafted by Colleen Coover as his Twitter icon?
Anyway, even though seemingly every article on the Magic Internet two weeks ago was about Titans (and then every article this week was about actual Titanic Titan performances) there has been relatively little practical comparison of how the Titans really roll. And by “roll” I mean… How much effective mana do these Titans tally?
Inferno Titan
Let’s break down the Titans. Basically they mirror the Kamigawa Dragon cycle… They all cost six and have the same frame; rather than being 5/5 flying creatures, these are all six mana 6/6 creatures. In addition each Titan has some kind of superpower that 187s the battlefield not just when the Titan comes into play, but every time it attacks!
Yes, you heard it here first.
Sun Titan We talked about Sun Titan back when it was “merely†the It Girl-to-be come M11 Prerelease time. Now… Actually a contender for the best Titan performer. When we originally wrote about Sun Titan, we didn’t yet know about the competition in the cycle… What about Sun Titan’s 187?
Whenever Sun Titan enters the battlefield or attacks, you may return target permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
This ability has a variable mana effect. It can be as little as one (getting back some kind of one mana doodad that is actually worth one mana) and as much as a free Jace Beleren (probably an immediate mana value of, again, one… But with the promise of more one mana packets of “drawing one card†value). In case you were wondering, buying an untapped land directly into play is worth slightly more than two mana; for reference: Rampant Growth.
It may be worth noting that among all the Titans, Sun Titan’s ability may be the least reliable. That is, if you haven’t got a saucy target in the bin, no dice.
Frost Titan Originally I was a seller of Frost Titan, but the Big Blue of the Titan Team has grown on me. You may recall that in my first speculative article on TCGPlayer.com I suggested a U/G/R Titan / Destructive Force strategy including Garruk, Jace, some obvious cards like Cultivate and a less obvious duo of Frost Titans.
Well lo and behold!
I mean some of the details are off (Lightning Bolt and Mana Leak over beloved Spreading Seas for instance), but the old girl still has some gas in her.
Okay! What about Frost Titan’s 187 ability?
Whenever Frost Titan enters the battlefield or attacks, tap target permanent. It doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
Despite the ability to trump another Titan going long, or lock down lands after a Destructive Force, I put Frost Titan’s ability at a value of one mana (about a Twiddle).
It may be worth noting that between the regular keyword abilities like Vigilance and Trample, Deathtouch and “Firebreathing†… Frost Titan probably has the best of the bunch; it is the most durable besides…
Grave Titan Wow!
How are you supposed to kill a 6/6 Black creature? Yes, yes… Martial Coup or the equivalent still works just fine… But Grave Titan is yet quite the durable army in a one-man package.
And its 187?
Whenever Grave Titan enters the battlefield or attacks, put two 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens onto the battlefield.
This one’s mana is a bit difficult to evaluate on a single-ability basis. Sun Titan is not exactly comparable to known effects, but the value of what you are actually getting back is a fine clue. Frost Titan is like a Twiddle or an activation on an Icy Manipulator… But what makes two 2/2 creatures?
I would shudder at calling it a Grizzly Fate because I don’ t know if anyone would pay five mana just for the two 2/2s (though they are Black, which is a durability upgrade generally). I think that a more reasonable approximation would be WW, though I would be willing to take some input on this.
Inferno Titan And we return to the best card in Standard!
[not really]
Inferno Titan’s 187 is very familiar to many of us, and hearkens back to one of the most skill-intensive periods in Magic’s history. The aforementioned ability basically attaches an Arc Lightning to a firebreathing 6/6:
Whenever Inferno Titan enters the battlefield or attacks, it deals 3 damage divided as you choose among one, two, or three target creatures and/or players.
So what is this worth?
The easy answer is 2R — exactly the cost of an Arc Lightning. That might be defensible on the basis of Arc Lightning’s rampant popularity back in 1999 and the fact that we would probably pay 2R for the effect now in 2010. [Firestarter: How does Arc Lightning, in your estimation, compare to Staggershock?]
However I think that a more reasonable estimation of its value is R + .5 mana. I feel like two damage is worth about one mana, and this makes three, or one-and-a-half mana worth of value. That you can split it across multiple bodies is gravy.
Primeval Titan Primeval Titan is probably as good as the hype. Not only does it have Trample (Josh Ravitz’s favorite keyword slapped onto an animal), but this impressive 187:
Whenever Primeval Titan enters the battlefield or attacks, you may search your library for up to two land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
How much is that one worth?
More than four.
More than “I win†mana according to the Zvi Mowshowitz scale!
Not equal to “I win†mana… More!
Why is it worth more? Is it because we earlier referenced Rampant Growth saying that was worth (unsurprisingly) about two mana? Nothing so fuzzy around the edges my dear students.
Don’t forget that in previous formats we had Block-dominating effects for G3 that weren’t as good as a Primeval Titan’s repeating 187.
Don’t forget that Explosive Vegetation was an absolute monster and that the venerated team in Renton, WA changed the Legend Rule partly because Billy Jensen failed to win the Pro Tour due to Osyp Lebedowicz’s playing Akroma first when Billy otherwise had a highly likelihood of winning. Primeval Titan can do everything we would be willing to pay four mana to do with Explosive Vegetation… But can do even more! Can Primeval Titan get a ho-hum Forest and Mountain like Explosive Vegetation did? Sure? But it is more interesting when it is getting cards like Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, isn’t it? Or perhaps when Valakut is already online a pair of Mountains? Isn’t that kind of like twice as good as Inferno Titan (which we have already decreed the best card in Standard)? Dealing two different packets of three damage instead of splitting up one (as good as that can be)?
Well at least we know why Primeval Titan has the price tag it does.
Dark Tutelage ∙ Phyrexian Arena ∙ Dark Confidant
being overrated ∙ killing yourself ∙ … and Dark Tutelage
A lot of people have asked me why I haven’t added Dark Tutelage to any Top 10 (and by “Top 10” I clearly mean Top 11) Lists, and deck lists, any laundry lists, &c.
I had to go look the card up after the first incoming email.
First: Was this the same card I thought it was?
Yep.
So: Why the hell is everyone asking me this question?
As far as I can tell, Dark Tutelage stinks.
Dark Tutelage
Superficial comparisons:
Superficial Comparison #1 – Phyrexian Arena
I’ve played Phyrexian Arena a couple of times (I even came within one game of winning a PTQ once), but I never really liked it. Phyrexian Arena — back in the Beach House days — was mostly important so that you didn’t fall behind another Beach House deck should it have come to an attrition mirror; a lot like Jace, the Mind Sculptor in a lot of decks… It wasn’t really proximate to winning, but could be necessary to avoid being blown out. Because when one person has one and the other one doesn’t, he is going to get ahead due to the opponent’s [probable] softness in the threats department.
Anyway, Phyrexian Arena was never really that great; it was just whatever with a small up-front investment; but each incremental card (after maybe the first) was relatively discounted. A card is worth about two damage, so paying only one life for an incremental card (with no parallel mana commitment) would put you ahead and further ahead over time (theoretically); like I said, I have never really liked Phyrexian Arena very much.
Dark Tutelage is like awful by comparison.
Remember: The bar isn’t very high.
Same effect as Phyrexian Arena, same CMC (three versus three), but generally much higher investment in life.
If you are flipping lands 100% of the time (or even cheap cards like Duress or, I dunno, Scute Mob, it’s basically the same (or maybe better). However you’re probably going to be wanting to draw real cards. At the point that you are flipping twos, you are actually handing Shocks to your opponent… Shocks he doesn’t have to pay for. If you are flipping more expensive cards, you’re just falling the eff behind. It can be a disaster!
Caveat: There are two things that can be plus signs, even given this framework. First of all, you can conceivably side this in against [another] mid-range control deck; you can edge them in the same way that Phyrexian Arena was pivotal in the Beach House mirror.
Remember: Dark Tutelage is easier to cast than Phyrexian Arena, being 2B rather than 1BB… Not that that probably matters given the awesome mana bases we get to play with.
Superficial Comparison #2 – Dark Confidant
As you probably know, I feel like Dark Confidant is the most overrated card of all time. That isn’t to say it’s bad, just not the best creature of all time or whatever. Dark Confidant is basically Kobe Bryant. Not only does it have Fortier’s PT win under its belt and the Billy-Sadin connection (you know, like TCGPlayer.com) with The Best Deck of All Time, but Bob Maher’s smiling face. Good! Yes! It’s good! Just not the best of all time.
That said, Dark Confidant is a disaster about half the time.
Most of the reason that it looks so damn good is that people don’t know how to play against Dark Confidant. I have stood in the Feature Match of a Pro Tour and watched a player coming off a Top 8 that season burn three consecutive Dark Confidants in a game where he had six burn spells in his hand. I mean that is just terrible. His opponent obviously won as he had exhausted all of his resources instead of easily killing him like he was supposed to. Of course Dark Confidant looks good if you are going to donkey punch yourself.
Anyway, Dark Confidant is often a disaster. I think lifetime I have won half my games against Dark Confidant proximately because my opponent killed himself. My overall win percentage in games where my opponent plays Dark Confidant is something ludicrous like 80%-plus; BDM says that’s because I play weirdo decks, but half the time I just have something like a Jitte or an Exalted Angel and my opponent has problems racing two different ways. Whatever; it’s a disaster a lot of the time.
I would even go so far as to say that I have had no way to win but my opponent played a Dark Confidant. I remember one PTQ I was playing for X-2 v. a name player (you would know this player). I lost the first due to being a donkey. Game Two we are at a standoff. I have Jitte; opponent has Sword. Nobody wants to brawl. We just accumulate more and more animals on both sides of the table. Call of the Herd tokens; I have Baloths; opp with Troll Ascetic. But there aren’t really any attacks. If I move forward I will start accumulating Jitte counters but I will lose a guy to gang blocking, and Sword is going to keep me from any mid-combat shenanigans. Opp can’t swing, even with Troll; I will accumulate Jitte counters for free because my defense is big enough.
Then Dark Confidant comes down — ostensibly to bust the game wide open with card advantage — and it does; by giving me a way to win!
That is how most of my games v. Dark Confidant have gone, lifetime.
And Dark Confidant still pees all over Dark Tutelage.
First of all (and ironically in the “mathematics” case), 2 > 3.
That’s right, two is bigger and bolder and better than three. Dark Confidant is cheaper and gets his first card first.
Secondly, Dark Confidant helps you race the face. Both cards are going to hurt you, but Bob at least smashes the face back. You are less likely to kill yourself with stupid Dark [whatever] damage if you’ve killed the opponent to death.
Most importantly, Dark Confidant — besides bashing for two like a good little Bear — is a 2/1 creature. A 2/1 has one toughness… Basically the smallest possible toughness! You can kill your own Dark Confidant if it seems like you are going to die to it! There are lots of different ways but my favorite one is this:
“I once had to Hit my own Dark Confidant after I had flipped Hit // Run with it. Embarrassing. But not as embarrassing as it was for my opponent. I won that game.”
-Patrick Sullivan
Dark Tutelage on the other hand is an enchantment; Black is basically awful at killing enchantments. That’s part of what makes it cute. Har har, you can’t kill your own Necropotence! This time around, you’re probably going to flip over like a Grave Titan.
You deserved it for playing Dark Tutelage in your Grave Titan deck.
LOVE
MIKE
Most embarrassing Dark Confidant story:
At that PT that LSV won with Elves, Andre Coimbra went x-1 v. Zoo (most popular deck), largely because his Flores Blue* deck had all Islands and didn’t take damage from its own lands. Anyway, he’s full on ahead in a Game Three situation v. some Zoo deck. He has it all… Jitte on board even! Opponent has nil, topdecks a Dark Confidant. Andre steals its face with like a Vedalken Shackles or perhaps a Threads of Disloyalty.
Looks like Magic 2011 is going to be a set where tournament staples of times past are just going to be strictly outmoded by the M11 versions.
If you don’t have a lot of context, War Priest of Thune might just look like a pretty good 187 creature. That doesn’t quite capture it… War Priest of Thune is in fact full court bananas. You see there used to be a creature Monk Realist; Monk Realist was played main deck in basically all of the Survival of the Fittest decks of its era.
… And War Priest of Thune is twice the man Monk Realist was.
Monk Realist — also a Cleric mind you, so there isn’t much wiggle room around creature type — was a mere 1/1 creature for the same 1W mana cost.
And now that there is a new Survival of the Fittest with legs? I think War Priest of Thune might just pick up where Monk Realist left off ten years ago.
Of course a 2/2 for two mana with a very serviceable special ability (I’m looking at you Oblivion Ring) is plenty good enough for regular old inclusion in a beatdown strategy. I don’t know that I would want to be the Pyromancer Ascension rogue in the room once the War Priest comes legal.
Snap Judgment Rating – Role Player (high); Staple (in White-enabled Fauna Shaman decks [one-of])
One of the exciting new M11 cards that seems to be a “goes straight in” for Red Decks is Ember Hauler:
Ember Hauler
Ember Hauler is efficient. He is a 2/2 for two mana, and unlike previously “good enough” Red two drops like Ironclaw Orcs or Goblin Raider (I actually remember having a conversation with Randy Buehler where he told me he made sure to have Goblin Raider in the Core Set to make sure Dave Price had a two drop), instead of a crazy drawback… it has a crazy superpower!
There is a clear precedent for this card. Remember Tsuyoshi Fujita’s Extended Boros Deck Wins deck? The old man played four copies of Goblin Legionnaire.
Ember Hauler is like a Goblin Legionnaire that only has the “Red” ability.
Ember Hauler is clearly better insofar that you don’t have to play White to play it; plus, no one has ever played Goblin Legionnaire’s White ability in Constructed combat. No, never, not one time.
So: advantage Ember Hauler.
In addition, there are subtle plus-ones for Ember Hauler. Sure, neither one can run by a Silver Knight… But unlike the supposedly better Gold plated version, Ember Hauler can set up a Malakir Bloodwitch for a Searing Blaze instead of being ignored [like, you know, the White ability on Goblin Legionnaire].
Advantage Ember Hauler.
So if all those advantages weren’t enough, Ember Hauler costs two colored mana to play (same as Goblin Legionnaire), but unlike the Apocalypse Gold Goblin, Ember Hauler’s operating mana is colorless! So if you have a stray Tectonic Edge or whatever, you can funnel that mana into Ember Hauler instead of having to make sure you didn’t spend all your Mountains at the main phase candy store before passing the turn. This is probably going to be at least medium important for the “chump block that giant and deal to to your motherlovin’ face†phase of the Red v. Green matchup, as you desperately hope to draw burn before being overrun (or possibly even Overrun).
Advantage. Ember. Hauler.
So Goblin Legionnaire was good enough. Good enough in fact to Top 8 an Extended Pro Tour against Psychatog and Life from the Loam. By all early indications, Ember Hauler is just the better Goblin Legionnaire (minus the goofball eviscerated Healing Salve wannabe that no one ever played anyway).
So why does this blog post speculate on the “Cons†of Ember Hauler?
Other than the possibility of opportunity cost (the great Katsu Mori found room for only two Kargan Dragonlords, leaning on old school Hellspark Elementals on two, instead), there is just one:
No more damage on the stack.
Part of the reason Goblin Legionnaire was such a bruiser was that with damage on the stack, he was a 2/2 that could play like a 4/2 (or I guess in pretend unicorn land he could tackle the opponent’s x/2 and save two points of damage or maybe win some fight elsewhere). Ember Hauler lives in a different universe.
Who’d win, Hulk or Superman?
I mean any reasonable person would just say “Hulk†— and the fact of the matter is that the Hulk is the strongest one there is, and the Hulk writers say they wrote him to be able to beat up Superman if it ever came down to it…
But Superman is the poster boy of a different universe.
Can you have a conversation that includes both Hulk and Supes? Yes.
Will fanboys agree as to who would win this battle of biceps? No.
Does it really matter? Again no.
They are from different universes and don’t really meet under regular circumstances. That is the problem with Goblin Legionnaire and Ember Hauler. The new mono-Red guy seems like it might be better — certainly comparable — but because they exist / existed in such non-compatible environments, the comparison is almost moo (you know, like a cow’s opinion).
M11 Rare Phylactery Lich – It sure ain’t a Role Player.
In the unlikely case you haven’t seen it:
Phylactery Lich
Phylactery Lich is certainly powerful. It is like a Phyrexian Negator… But instead of tearing apart your board when he tussles, Phylactery Lich annihilates eradicates anything that gets into the Arena with it. Not even a first striking Baneslayer Angel can walk away from a brawl with this indestructible Zombie.
And what a cut of Zombie it is!
Phylactery Lich is absolutely gorgeous. Usually I don’t cotton to Black cards’ art, but this painting is just perfect. It evokes the fear and flavor of the old AD&D Liches; great light; great variation of detail; great power-to-casting cost ratio.
Okay, back to the Magic: The Gathering strategy.
A 5/5 indestructible creature for only three mana is a near no-brainer in terms of playability… Only there is that whole:
As Phylactery Lich enters the battlefield, put a phylactery counter on an artifact you control.
…
When you control no permanents with phylactery counters on them, sacrifice Phylactery Lich.
Basically:
You need to have an artifact in play when you play Phylactery Lich.
You need to have enough cheap artifacts in your deck to have an artifact in play when you play Phylactery Lich… and they have to be good enough to play in Constructed even if you don’t have Phylactery Lich in your opening hand.
That is the problem.
There are plenty of reasons to play a 5/5 for three mana… The question is if there are enough artifacts to play in Standard to play this particular 5/5 for three.
Kai Budde won his first Pro Tour — if you can even count the 1999 World Championships as a Pro Tour — with the card Covetous Dragon; which is kind of like a Red parallel to Phylactery Lich. You had to have an artifact in play for Covetous Dragon — not a particular artifact mind you — but even that card (arguably less powerful than Phylactery Lich) was good enough to build around.
Some notes:
A well-placed bounce spell is going to kill Phylactery Lich. To death.
Multiple Phylactery Liches can all jump on the same phylactery counter-wearing artifact. That means if you run it on a Relic of Progenitous or Armillary Sphere (and you have to spend it), np.
Some artifacts that are cheaper than Phylactery Lich and might be worth playing:
Phylactery Lich isn’t a Staple; it doesn’t “go in decks” (unless they are Black artifact decks!) … You have to build around it.
Phylactery Lich isn’t a Role Player; as above.
It’s really a question of Flagship or Constructed Unplayable.
Why it might be Flagship
Phylactery Lich is just TDG. Relic of Progenitus is good enough against Vengevine and Bloodghast, Scepter of Fugue is good enough against Mana Leak, and Phylactery Lich is good enough at rasslin’
Pepper with Consume the Meek, Consuming Vapors, and All is Dust.
Potential Problem – All is Dust doesn’t care that Phylactery Lich is indestructible.
Why it is probably Constructed Unplayable
You can make a deck… It just isn’t good enough.
We shall see.
I think that the presence of Nantuko Shade in M11 is a good omen for this cool new card. I’m pulling for you Phylactery Lich!
While it’s not a clear upgrade to any of the staple big bad fours in Green, Obstinate Baloth has the bonus superpower of showing up just as onetime Staple — and for that matter “best card in Standard” — Loxodon Hierarch evaporates from the Extended format. So despite the loss of Ravnica Block, the tradition of an efficient 4/4 Green creature for four mana, that somehow (either coming down or leaving town) can gain four life lives on in Standard and Extended.
As for Standard, I like this card in general. I mean it is an efficient 4/4 creature for four mana. Most of you kids out there probably don’t recall that once upon a time Erhnam Djinn (4/5 with a drawback for four mana) was the most fearsome offensive creature in Standard, and for that matter Nettletooth Djinn (4/4 with a serious drawback for four mana) was played in Pro Tour Top 16 Constructed decks. So as for precedent, it is clearly there already, not a lot of convincing has to go on here.
I like it in particular in Standard.
Right now one of the top “anti-” decks is Red Deck Wins and its cousins (Barely Boros, Devastating Red, and what have you); that deck in particular beats up on U/G Turboland to the point of making Turboland non-viable if there is any expectation of Red Deck Wins.
You probably already know that after Pro Tour San Juan BDM wanted to play a deck based around Lotus Cobra, Oracle of Mul Daya, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor but I objected on the grounds that any of the three parts that make that deck roll fold in embarassing fashion to Lightning Bolt. In order for U/G Turboland to be viable in the format, it needs a nigh-transformative plan for Red Deck Wins… I think that a counter-offense that relies somewhat on Obstinate Baloth is a good start. The card will typically require two non-Flame Slash cards to remove, and the 187 on Obstinate Baloth is the equivalent of two Red cards in counting to begin with.
In a word: Mise.
What about the other application?
I don’t know that you would play the card for just the second ability, but you don’t really have to make that decision. Dave Humpherys once won a Grand Prix with main-deck Dodecapod, but that might have been a special case (Probe, Recoil, Gerrard’s Verdict, and Ravenous Rats were all Staple at the time); we know how good Wilt-Leaf Liege was last year, played everywhere from White Weenie to Doran variants to of course Elves. So the second half is also quite good… Especially in a format that is so friendly towards Blightning.
Seems like this cat (and by “cat” I of course mean “Beast”) would play nicely with our old buddy (and by “old” I mean “new”), Vengevine. Not only is Obstinate Baloth potential fuel, but they are such jolly “I hate Blightning” friends; heck, they even share a mana cost.
Today Matt Sperling said to me that most Eldrazi Monument decks are basically precon decks…
Until they play the Monument.
Then they bash Bash BASH you, of course. Eldrazi Monument being the frightening motherlover that it is.
Now even though a number of different decks can play Eldrazi Monument — Jund, Vampires, and so on — we most closely associate Eldrazi Monument with Green creatures due to the pre-Worldwake Eldrazi Green decks (you know the ones with Nissa Revane), the Block versions popularized by Team Zvi Mowshowitz or Ben Hayes, and of course the present crop in Standard that float between Block upgrades and G/R Overrun builds.
But the best Eldrazi Monument in my experience is commingled with Bloodghast. Bloodghast is such a great partner; you sacrifice the Vampire on upkeep, play a land to re-buy it, and half the time you are swinging in anyway due to the card’s conditional haste.
For three.
What kind of deck can play this uncanny combination of Eldrazi Monument and Black creatures? Is Monument at its best in the Vampires deck?
Nah.
In our experience that title belongs to DredgeVine.
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Drowned Catacomb
6 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Swamp
Modifications include…
-2 Sphinx of Lost Truths / +2 Grim Discovery (never cast Sphinx)
-1 Ponder +1 Mistvein Borderpost (the main thing you are Pondering for is land)
Now I don’t mean to say that Dredgevine is the best deck ever to play Eldrazi Monument (I think the jury isn’t back on that topic yet)… More that Eldrazi Monument itself is more impressive in this deck with its Bloodghasts and Vengevines than in most other decks. The Bloodghasts come at almost no cost, which is even better than sacrificing a Nissa’s Chosen or Awakening Zone token (which comes at a small cost)… especially as they are so often attacking the same turn anyway.
How does this deck work?
There are a couple of different things going on: you can play more than one game plan.
One game plan starts on Renegade Doppleganger. You can play a Hedron Crab on turn three (doubling up the Doppleganger), then play a Misty Rainforest, and Millstone yourself for twelve cards. You probably have a Vengevine in the bin at this point, so playing a Bloodghast or other two mana (or even one mana) creature will get you a hasty re-buy.
The Doppleganger is also good for doubling up on Vengevine or Extractor Demon for tons of damage out of “nowhere”. It is also just a cheap creature that you can use to set up the Vengevine.
Another game plan is to just start on one of your one drops and hope that it doesn’t get removed… Fill your graveyard and / or improve your hand accordingly. I am often surprised at how often I actually go “Jayemdae Tome” rather than “merely” Jalum Tome on Enclave Cryptologist. There are long games where you actually have to fill up your hand to set up a Vengevine re-buy.
The surprising All-star in this deck is Sedraxis Alchemist. He is a serious over-performer and the key reason I play a third Mistvein Borderpost. You really just want a Blue permanent in case your enablers have all gotten themselves killed.
Now you have probably read my friend Steve Sadin’s article on this deck already.
I don’t actually love it as much as Steve and BDM but I respect it enough to think that the interaction between Bloodghast and Eldrazi Monument is tops in [at least my experience of] Eldrazi Monument interactions. I have actually had serious problems performing with this deck in MTGO tournaments relative to other decks I like (for example decks with Eldrazi Temple in them).
But I wanted to write a blog post on it to frame a match that I recently had with KYT.
KYT refers to “some Japanese deck designer” … Those of you who follow these things know Shimizu was one of the top designers to come out of Japan a few years back, responsible for Solar Flare (aka michaeljBane) as well as Scryb & Force.
I lost Game One principally due to chatting with Jake Van Lunen. Jake had just smashed me and was curious about the DredgeVine list. I missed the fact that KYT could kill me if he had a certain Knight-Errant in grip, and I am pretty sure I would not have cracked that land had I not been engaged with the Sliver Kid Champ.
If you haven’t seen the upcoming Magic 2011 Prerelease card Sun Titan, you’re about to; here it is:
Needles.
The sound high heels make on linoleum.
Bugs… Especially grasshoppers. Spiders… Do spiders count as “bugs” (certainly not insects)? Tons of our readers are frightened of those.
Small spaces.
“The ocean”
Garden gnomes. Heights. Overhead construction.
“Eldrazi Monument.” [me too]
“The price of Jace, the Mind Sculptor.”
There are certainly a lot of things that our readers and Twitter followers will admit to being scared of. But you know what scares YT? New card Sun Titan.
What is so frightening about Sun Titan? Is it going to be Standard’s next Faeries-like boogeyman?
Probably not. But it is scary to me.
You see, my goal in life — or at least in Magic — is to not play The Rock.
Let me explain: While I was one of the first players to popularize The Rock, handed down by Sol Malka, The Rock eventually revealed itself to be a not-desirable strategy most of the time. The Rock, being defined by progressive card advantage… You know, every Yavimaya Elder, every clever trick with Cabal Therapy, wheedling down to low margin victories, typically on the backs of anemic, even flaccid, threat cards…
I decided some years ago to try to avoid that despite some early success around 2001.
Even when you are not B/G you might be The Rock. I once played a B/U/R control deck and Zvi told me I was playing The Rock. Where was my Stage Three? Nope… My deck was all two-for-ones… Incidental ways to win while grabbing small amounts of tempo: The Rock.
That is what scares me about Sun Titan. I don’t want to get excited by a card and accidentally fall into old patterns.
It doesn’t help when one of my best friends (BDM in this case) is Tweeting…
“T/F you will Sun Titan back Borderland Ranger.”
True?
I hope not.
It didn’t help that at the time I was confused about what a Sun Titan was. Twitter was all-a-Tweeting about Sun Titan, but I hadn’t seen the card yet; I thought they were talking about Sundering Titan. I guess Borderland Ranger and Sundering Titan can go into a deck together, I thought. Lo and behold, different card altogether.
Note that Sun Titan doesn’t get back a three, per se. You can’t, say, get back a Survival Cache for more and more action and possible card draw. It has to be a permanent. And in my case — in the very “The Rock” flavor I fear — it is going to be something along the lines of a Pilgrim’s Eye.
You know, progressive card advantage.
But maybe, like our fears of spiders and small places, this fear is unwarranted.
You see, there is nothing wrong with progressive card advantage; it is really a question of being able to finish off the opponent before he recovers, and Sun Titan is, after all, a gigantic fatty boom boom.
Fear averted?
Maybe.
Let’s assume Sun Titan is non-awful. What are some of the things we can do with it?
The absolute bomb-diggity-est possibly returning permanent has got to be Jace Beleren. Jace runs himself out after drawing three cards (or trading with Jace, the Mind Sculptor… I see nothing wrong with a re-buy here to nix future Jace Planeswalkers or just shotgun more cards.
You can buy back one of these artifacts every turn, draw two cards, keep going and going while attacking and defending; remember, this fatty boom boom is vigilant as a Serra Angel.
An off the wall [of Omens] option is to get back Arid Mesa or Marsh Flats every attack. This is a case where putting the permanent directly into play is highly advantageous… One of those White strategies so good they seem almost Green. You can actually accelerate your mana this way.
Why might you want to do this rather than something more powerful?
Because you can jump from six to eight to ten to Emeria, the Sky Ruin online in just a few attacks. Which would, of course, allow you to resurrect even more expensive things.
The only problem is that you’ll probably kill the opponent before fulfilling this little strategy… barring lots of Solider tokens blocking or some such.
Ben Botts aka @BottsThoughts has graced us with another guest blog post — this time a great experience with the U/W Eldrazi deck (or as he calls it “Floresdrazi”).
Anyone who wants to check out Ben’s previous contributions to Five should check out:
Third time around the block, and I still find this to be both an honor and a sweet, sweet opportunity to put myself out there.
Once again, I took up the mantle as a steward of Flores’ recent suggested deck list for Standard. And I must say I was not disappointed (How could I be?). I was, however, hesitant but only for a short distance between my trade binder full of Super Friends, U/G Polymorph, Gerry-Naya and other such variants a-waiting to find a home in those exclusive 75 sleeves.
Before I dig into an excerpt of the weekends’ events I will provide the deck list (both MD and SB):
Maindeck:
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Spreading Seas
4 Path to Exile
4 All is Dust
2 Day of judgment
2 Mind Spring
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Gideon Jura
4 Wall of Omen
2 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
6 Island
3 Plains
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Sejiri Refuge
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Eye of Ugin
Sideboard:
1 Jace Beleren
2 Eslpeth, Knight-Errant
2 Day of judgment
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Kor Firewalker
2 Oust
Moving along.
Round 1: Josh, playing Boros Allies
Josh is an awesome guy. I can’t help but have a great time regardless of whether it’s a win or loss.
I won the die roll for Game 1:
Let’s just say I stabilized at 9 life, Swung once with an Ulamog that ate his only Plains when it was cast (So as to not find myself on the fetch a basic side of a PTE) – and he rips the 3rd Lightning Bolt. He pocketed 9 to my dome. And thus was the short end of game 1.
Game 2:
-1 Eye of Ugin, -1 All is Dust, +2 Day of Judgment
He took a horrendously slow hand, and I never looked back. I dropped a Wall, Spread his only Mountain, DoJ’ed the board, Dropped a Gideon, Dropped a Jace, Dropped a Ulamog (That Jace then gladly returned said Ulamog to my hand to simply be recast post combat to eat an opposing Elspeth).
Game3: I kept the sideboard intact sans the post-first game changes.
He did a few cute tricks with his Ally triggers before I resolved back-to-back DoJs then cleared his board on turn seven with a game ending All is Dust … the card is just retarded. I showed my hand full of removal, and my Jace was going up to Ultimate status on my next turn. He graciously extended a handshake.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2: James, playing SpiritDancerWW(?)
Game 1: I won the die roll
I didn’t see much of his deck. Honestly. He misplayed countless times, and it was sort of a rag on the experience. Example – He played a T2 Spirit Dancer. Then T3 plays a Hyena Umbra on said Dancer then plays another Spirit Dancer which he showed he had in hand BEFORE he played the Umbra. I know it may seem inconsequential but that sort of thing misses a free draw. Also – I don’t think this guy was very conversational. After a number of Walls hit the table alongside my couplet of Sea Gate Oracles to clog his Red Zone attempts I ushered Kozilek out to the table w/ his good friend Ulamog. He quickly scooped to go to game 2 … in which he brought 15 cards in … 15.
-1 All is Dust, -1 Eye of Ugin, -1 Everflowing Chalice, -1 Jace TMS, -1 Kozilek
+2 Oust, +1 DoJ, +2 Elspeth
Game 2:
I Ousted a Spirit Dancer that he failed to attack w/ to break my Wall of Omens down, but instead he seemed content to play 3 Hyena Umbra’s on her so he could draw. He did play 3 Lone Missionaries on me which didn’t hurt my feelings – I just played a DoJ that ended up giving me a dirty look from him (I mean … “you killed a puppy†look). I resolved a Butcher, and he extended his hand after I revealed 2 more All is Dust and a Gideon to fog past his combat phase(s).
I inquired as to what he sided in against me, and he just darted back with a, “If you had played fairly you would’ve seen my Sideboard in the gameâ€.
I took my win without losing any sleep.
2-0 (4-1)
Round 3: CJ, playing WW (w/ Stoneforge tutoring)
CJ won the die roll
Game 1:
CJ opened with a first turn Elite Vanguard. I simply played a tapped Celestial Colonnade. His turn 2 procured a Mystic-Stone Forger fetching up a trusty machete. My turn 2 graciously gave me an Island with which gave me the option to play a 0/4 wall, or accelerate into a turn 3 Sea Gate Oracle with PTE mana left up. Knowing CJ’s deck doesn’t have the potential to run me over before turn 5 I opted to play a Chalice for 1. This ended up being the strongest play for me – I curved into a turn 4 Gideon after ripping said Fog Master off the top of my library. As always Senor Giddy Pants received the obligatory sigh of disapproval from yet another aggro player. It seems to me that Gideon’s first impression left a sour taste across the archetypal landscape. After a DoJ cleared his board of some unwanted creatures I simply set-up further classes on why Flores’ deck just gut checks the aggro match-up.
1-0 me
Knowing CJ doesn’t run a crappy sideboard in case he does run into a Control deck I knew I had sleeved up my Oblivion Rings for a reason (aside from them being FNM promo 4’ofs). I didn’t know exactly what he took out, but I knew he sided in 4 Luminarch Ascensions. Albeit I run All is Dust, but sometimes an early Oblivion Ring can be the needed punch to set-up an All is Dust w/ an Eldrazi to follow foot.
-1 All is Dust, -1 Eye of Ugin, -1 Everflowing Chalice, -1 Kozilek
+2 Oblivion Ring, +2 Elspeth
Game 2:
Sure enough. CJ slams a turn 2 Ascension. I figured he was aiming hard to get one down immediately; seeing as that he decided on a 5 card hand mulligan. Fortunately for me he missed the first counter; which allowed me to play a little loose before setting up an AID on turn 5. I dropped a turn 2 Chalice, which led to a turn 3 Chalice on 2. He was able to activate Ascension for 2 Angels which took me down to 6 before I was able to dig into a turn 7 AID; which came after he played his own O Ring on my Gideon. As is the case he struggled to recover, and Gideon swung with a +3/+3 buff from his Girlfriend Elspeth. Only took 2 swings with Senor Gideon before CJ extended his hand after pulling nothing of consequence.
3-0 (6-1)
Round 4: John L (3-0, 6-2), playing Valakut Combo
We decided to ID the round because there was only 1 other 3-0 at the time. Looking back on this decision now made me realize I should’ve just pushed for the win that round. I hadn’t had any time spent on specific match-ups, and this would’ve been a great chance to cover some ground in respect of researching the inner-workings of said deck on deck play. I must admit though, plenty of people over-look Valakut Combo as a viable deck in this format. It may not be Jund and/or Mythic by any stretch. Hell it isn’t anywhere near the price-tag of Super Friends. But when you can simply say (Or Simply walk into Mordor for that fact), “I dealt 12+ damage with a single Harrowâ€. Well then you damn well deserve a high five worthy of Flores, let alone anyone else.
3-0-1 (6-1)
Round 5: Bryan W (3-0-1), playing U/W tap-out
Bryan is a good friend of mine, and I asked him how he managed a draw, and he told me it was against another Control deck. They spent 50 minutes of attempting to resolve answers on both sides of the table, and when the time ran down they had 5 turns to figure out how to bore each other a little more.
Needless to say I respect Bryan as a very strong player, and he asked me if I would like to draw. Without fear of being bumped out of any of the top 8 slots I gladly accepted the ID. We then spent that time discussing EDH, and watching various other matches underway for Round 5. You know – Jund v Jund; those exciting matches.
3-0-2
Top 8 – Round 6
Adam M (Playing Jund – traditional build w/ Sarkhan the Mad)
I won the freaking die roll … WWMFD? Fist Pump and smile.
Game 1:
This is where the master’s course in role assignment came into effect. I never take Jund lightly. Nobody should. Until this cancer rotates out of Type 2 you should never shrug off the opportunity to play test against any of the builds (old or new).
I lead off with a turn 2 Spreading Seas on his Savage Lands (note: I have played [them] all tournament – this was the only relevant match-up where I felt it necessary to express, emphatically, when I played one).
Which gave me an Eldrazi. I then played a turn 3 Chalice for 1 leaving PTE mana open in-case he decides to play his Turn 3 Thrinax. No such luck. I met a turn 3 Blightning; which oddly enough made me happy. I didn’t want Kozilek in my hand, neither the Eye of Ugin that was sitting lifeless in my grip as well. So I shipped those two cards off, and gladly took a free shuffle courtesy my opponent’s Blightning. On my turn 4 I had a very serious decision to make: Play my Jace and leave myself naked to a BBE (albeit I could leave 1 mana up for my PTE, but I didn’t want to risk running him out there without absolute assurance of his survival). I opted for a Chalice at 2. This came as the best play looking back. I met a second Blightning which asked me kindly as to which 2 cards I would like to lose. I was staring at:
Jace, Mind Spring, DoJ
I chose to toss the DoJ and Jace. This left me with a prayer on ripping a 5th land for turn 5 – which would give me a Mindspring for 6. I mise’d the land drop, and quickly pushed Mindspring for 6.
He came out strong on his turn 5 – knowing I may have pulled some serious answers to whatever he played. He gave me a BBE which flipped a Ruinblaster; he opted to over-look the Kicker cost, and swung for 5. Which after 2 Blightnings and that left me at a precious 9 – he then chose to bolt me down to 6. So I was now within Bolt/Blightning range. BBE/Bolt~Blightning range. Or any sorts of threats that would call me dead.
I resolved a much needed DoJ w/ Path mana left after I played a post-DoJ Wall of Omens. He played a Thrinax (which met my Path), and passed the turn. I dropped Gideon and immediately rolled him up to perform guard duty. After Adam played his Sarhkan he opted for his first ability … flipping his 2nd Sarhkan. Bad times.
I quickly dropped Kozilek and a Sea Gate Oracle. Which He then asked if we could get on with game 2.
1-0 me (I am both pumped and nervous … Jund is a rough match-up for me)
-2 Jace TMS, -1 All is Dust, -1 Eye of Ugin
+2 Eslpeth, +2 DoJ
He comes out with a turn 2 Trace of Abundance … Which means I am possibly facing a turn 3 BBE, or possibly a Blightning w/ Duress. Any of those combinations would make for a bad day.
I run out a turn 2 Chalice, and pass. Fortunately he does not play any of those. Instead he drops a Prophetic Prism which then cantrip’s him into a Duress. He gladly drops this on me – with which I was able to safely show him a hand full of this:
2 Wall of Omens, 2 Eslpeth, All is Dust
He takes away 1 Elspeth (which makes me wonder if he has a Pulse for her, or if he is hoping to Strip my hand with a Blightning or two).
My turn 3 finds a freshly drawn Land which allows me to set up the board. I lay down both Walls and draw into 2 Lands (made me glad to see this … because Blightning can eat those if I am sufficient on mana)
His turn 4 gladly showed a missed land drop. He played out a pair of Putrid Leeches, and passed. I took advantage of this good fortunae and knowing his shrouded land + lens would give him the colors required sans any Spreading Seas I may draw into/play I still knew the prospect of having a land Spreaded gives your opponent additional mana math to deal w/ while restocking your hand for a probable Blightning. My turn 4 found a Spreading Seas off the top. I laid it down on his Dragonskull Summit. This drew me a 2nd Spreading Seas which then clasped safely on to his Forest. That Spreading Seas, by sheer fortunate, drew me into a Sea Gate Oracle. He managed to squeeze out a Siege-Gang Commander on his 5th turn. Which I gladly dropped my All is Dust on the following turn. Yes I lost my Spreading Seas, but he lost both his lens and Trace – along with his SGC & company. He was able to rebuild while I spent the time doing the same, and preparing myself for the worst of it. He gave me another Blightning as a present, but I was able to use my miser’s copy of Eye of Ugin in response to fetch up an Eldrazi to toss to said BBE > Blightning; which then gave me back my graveyard. Granted he was able to push me down to 2 life over the next 2-3 turns, but I stabilized with 2 back to back Gideons that both died valiantly and for a cause I was hoping wouldn’t have been in vain. I drew into my 1 copy of Jace TMS I left in, which gave me a DoJ and Elspeth with which I gladly shipped back 2 lands and proceeded to drop both, and then make a token. I was on the open-season end of a ripped Bolt, Blightning, BBE into any other haster. But He never managed to pull an out. And I grabbed the game when I resolved an Ulamog and ate his only Raging Ravine that had been played.
Sejiri Refuge = Godsend. That 1 life may seem miniscule. But when it helps you stay above the 6ft under guidelines for shaking hands and giving the GG to another player then you’ll come to respect that little uncommon with generic artwork.
4-0-2 (8-1)
Top 4: Round 7
John T, playing Mythic (Never saw the entire decklist, but it was a Conscrptn/Finest Hour mix)
Game 1: I do not procure the die roll
John T dropped a 1st turn Birds, and I am already mentally bolstering myself for a turn 2 Lotus cobra into a turn 3 Sovereigns, etc, etc. He does stick his turn 2 Lotus Cobra, which gives him a second Cobra to follow foot. On my turn 2 I opt to not play a single spell (I had 2 untapped lands, one having been my turn 1 Sejiri Refuge putting me up to 21 … w/ 2 PTE’s gripped I was ready to pray and slay). On his 3rd turn that’s when I watched as he laid down a Fetch Land (cracked it netting him 4 free mana), tapped for a 5th in the pool – tapped the birds and the 2 other lands for a grand total of 8 mana. I watched as he Dropped Finest Hour and 2 Noble Hierarchs. I started doing the math in my head.
+3 Exalted triggers for the first Combat on a Lone Lotus Cobra then receiving another set of +3 for the next combat phase. I waited for him to announce combat. I dropped a Path, one for each Lotus. Looking at that play I had just given him 8 mana on turn 4. My turn 3 showed me a Wall of Omens and a Path off the cantrip. I passed the turn. John T smiled. I figured he was pocketing a Negate for this moment. I was wrong – he went greedy, and played a BS Angel, and nothing else. He swung in with an Exalted Noble.
My turn 4 showed DoJ. I threw an obligatory Fist Pump and tapped out for the answer. He had all but spent his hand in the early turns, and never drew into any PW’s or any other severe threats (Which honestly I don’t think he was playing any, and if he were I never saw them, nor did he ever talk about it). I dodged a bullet on that one – because I hate seeing Sovereigns just sit there, and point their puffy cloudy fingers at you as they give way to smashing your face.
Game 2:
-1 Eye of Ugin, -2 All is Dust, -2 Sea Gate Oracle, -1 Chalice
+2 Oust, +2 Oblivion Ring, +2 DoJ
Turn 1: Noble. Me? Land. Turn 2: Lotus Cobra with a cracked fetch dropping a KotR. Me? Turn 2 I played a wall of Omens, which then led me to a turn 3 O Ring on his turn 3 Finest Hour after my Wall had soaked up a good chunk of damage from an Exalted and beastly KotR before allowing me to take 5 off the exalted triggers. Turn 4 gave me an Oust on his Lotus Cobra and a Chalice set for 1, and 1 land left open to bluff a PTE. I proceeded to run a clinic on my opponent. I was able to stabilize with a Jace spending his loyalty counters bouncing a Lotus Cobra and eventually after Gideon showed himself table side I was able to DoJ the table a couple more times while letting Gideon get in there. After I showed an Ulamog and Kozilek in my hands, and with John T at an unfortunate disadvantage due to multiple board wipes he extended his hand and congratulated me on the win.
Top 2: Round 8
Adam Uhler (6-1), playing Mythic (sans Conscription build – more Kibler’s list)
We chose to split 44 packs between the two of us (Because quite frankly it was 1:47 am, and he wanted to go out and hash with his friends. And my girlfriend was ready to go.)
He gave me the win so I ended the night with a 6-0-2 match record overall, and we had it written up as a 2-1 in my favor.
I personally went 5-0-2 match play with 10-1 as my games played record.
All in all I was fortunate to play another one of Flores’ lists. I always enjoy the challenge, and I won’t lie – I almost Blue 42’ed back to my Super Friends. But once I had already publicly spoken via Twitter and FB that I was going to give Mike’s deck a run for its money I couldn’t back down and chance looking like a pansy for not remembering what a tree branch feels like.
This deck is a serious reminder as to, “Who is the Beatdown?â€*
And as with his previous King Hulk list you must obey this rule first and foremost.
It is not a suggestion.
Because suggestions end up in bargain bins and yard sales.
As always here’s to hoping you stayed awake for the entire read.
I am always open for criticism and advice. I am learning to write better tournament reports/articles. So any advice on how to approach match-play breakdown and/or any statistical research to better my craft would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again, Mike Flores, and you his viewers for the time and space allotted.
sb:
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Baneslayer Angel
2 Day of Judgment
2 Gideon Jura
4 Kor Firewalker
1 Oust
I swapped out one copy of Jace, the Mind Sculptor for one copy of Jace Beleren. In all my testing and tournament play, I have come to the conclusion that no one really needs four copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor; every time some miser goes from four copies to three copies the next tournament, they seem to do a little bit better. The one Jace Beleren is equivalent to a Jace, the Mind Sculptor for purposes of hassling an opponent’s Jace; however you can also start off a little turn earlier to initiate the card advantage Jace trades.
The other main change was to cut one Sphinx for an Oust. The Standard format is a bit faster than the Block format where Daniel Gardner excelled with the original build of this deck; I wanted to respect my opponents’ Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarchs, and Sprouting Thrinaxes. It is possible the deck needs more instant speed copies of Path to Exile for Celestial Colonnade, Gideon Jura, or Eldrazi Conscription, but so far Oust has been outstanding.
This deck has been very good against everything I’ve played against so far but in particular “regular” U/W decks. I was lucky enough to test against DougP and KYT earlier this week and they actually recorded the games. KYT hasn’t finished editing them but you can check out the first game; notice how DougP trash talks me the whole time while their asses get ka-blammo’d.
That’s right: Ka-blammo.
If you pay attention to DougP’s strategy, it seems like he is trying to deck me by eliminating all of my Eldrazi Cthulhus; presumably the Canadians can win with their “everything else” or I will just run out of cards; at any point that I am actually in danger of being decked, I can just draw up with Eye of Ugin and discard a last Eldrazi, or I can draw-and-discard with Sphinx of Lost Truths. In sum, I don’t think that the right plan for the U/W deck is to try to deck the U/W Eldrazi giants.
If you listen to DougP’s commentary at the beginning of the video, he talks about watching me get battered around by Kor Skyfisher; what happened in that match was that I kept playing something awesome (say Jace, the Mind Sculptor); my opponent would play an Oblivion Ring on it, and I would play another copy (replace with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or whatever); he would play Kor Skyfisher and pick up his Oblivion Ring, Legend Ruling my face.
My opponent was a mono-White deck based on Emeria, the Sky Ruin, so as cute as that Oblivion Ring interaction may have been to watch, it probably doesn’t surprise you to read that I won the match in overwhelming fashion (I have four Spreading Seas and two infinity copies of 10/10 Vindicate for his only card that matters); however I underestimated my opponent and managed to lose the second game.
He simply made ten Soldiers with Martial Coup and hit me twice while I failed to find an answer. I was configured to beat I-don’t-know-what, and only had three copies of All is Dust and no copies of Day of Judgment at all in that game, and I failed to death, losing Game Two.
I feel that if the regular U/W deck wants to win, regular U/W has to be the beatdown and try to beat up Eldrazi U/W with Celestial Colonnades or Martial Coup tokens. If the game goes long, Eldrazi U/W is going to batter regular U/W with Eye of Ugin… Essentially infinite, un-counter-able card advantage.
To answer your question – Yes, I would recommend this deck for play this weekend. Good luck friendlies!
