I was pretty successful with the deck. I even came back to beat a G/R land destruction deck starting Goblin Ruinblaster (didn’t think that was going to happen); in Game Two I got an Everflowing Chalice draw into Baneslayer Angel and he failed to remove it; in Game Three I ran three Walls into two Sea Gate Oracles and stayed mildly ahead to hit Chalices and three Baneslayer Angels. Go go Gadget card advantage!
The sickest win may have been over Red Deck Wins. I was behind a Manabarbs, but Eye of Ugin let me play All is Dust off of two Eldrazi Temples almost for free; I made sure I had all four Everflowing Chalices in for Game Three… But that one was pretty easy when I matched his first turn Goblin Guide with my Kor Firewalker! I am not sure if we want maybe two Celestial Purges, but Gideon Jura seemed like a necessary card against Mythic Conscription and so on.
Unsurprisingly, you can’t possibly lose to another U/W deck. The winning is so effortless (this is based on tapout and U/r/W Planeswalkers opponents)… They lay out a bunch of stuff and you blow it up with All is Dust. Finally hard casting the Eldrazi has come up, revealing the super sickness of their triggers. I know this may seem heretical to some readers but I feel like the Opportunity on Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is more significant than Jace, the Mind Sculptor advantage. I fell behind opposing Planeswalkers several times tonight, and never really felt like I was in any danger. Even if my opponents had a Counterspell, I always had so much more Eldrazi gas, and Eye of Ugin is almost impossible to stop with Ajani Vengeant. Getting out of trouble wasn’t much trouble at all.
Not too much to say at this point… It’s a U/W deck.
You use Wall of Omens and Spreading Seas to hit your land drops early, get ahead with Everflowing Chalice, and then go big with the sweepers and big card advantage.
That said, it’s a U/W deck that seems to be pretty fantastic in the mirror; it looks to hold the rest of the matches okay. Oust has been spectacular, by the way. I think Zvi was the one who first said it… I feel so stupid having played Path to Exile for so long! Oust has been tearing up every Leatherback Baloth, Lotus Cobra, whatever. And then the big big spells come online.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence ∙ Mythic ∙ Mythic Conscription
Adding Vengevine to Perfectly Good Decks ∙ A Little Jace, the Mind Sculptor ∙ … and Linvala, Keeper of Silence
So with all the hubbub about Vengevine last weekend (and did anyone notice a deck that was a few cards off of what we posted made Top 8? I mean sure, maybe we needed Maelstrom Pulse to compete with Basilisk Collar, but it was in large part our Sarkhan the Mad Jund deck!), I decided to, you know, stick good old Vengevine into Mythic Conscription.
I mean it’s not a stretch at all.
Vengevine is a creature that thrives on being played in a context of lots of other creatures.
Lo and behold, Mythic Conscription is like mono-creatures – A perfect marriage!
sb:
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Negate
4 Rhox War Monk
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Gideon Jura
3 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Ranger of Eos
The fundamental delta of this deck was to just remove the relatively low powered Dauntless Escort (good against Wrath of God) for high powered Vengevine (also good against Wrath of God). I took out all the Planeswalkers, et al for a nine card Ranger of Eos package.
That is, originally I was much more mono-Vengevine in my card selection. Playing all my Planeswalkers in the sideboard, I started one more Sovereigns of Lost Alara, Ranger of Eos, and Baneslayer Angel. However, it turns out that playing Jace, the Mind Sculptor main deck really is better in Mythic decks. Basically I played against so many control decks (including some kind of goofball mono-White control decks) that it was simply foolish to not play Jace, the Mind Sculptor starting. Decks with core of mana acceleration are actually much better at playing Jace than the control decks where we are more used to seeing that Planeswalker. Even on the draw you can plop a Jace down and totally dominate some poor Fieldmist Borderpost ham and egger.
I probably don’t have to tell you what all the cards in this deck do… Mythic Conscription is by this point one of the main pillars on which our metagame rests. The one thing I will mention is that I added the second Sejiri Steppe to the mana base (from Brett Blackman’s GP Top 8 list); I really like the ability to give the opponent a false sense of security… This measure has been instrumental in many a Reliquary mirror.
The one card that I really like in this deck is Ranger of Eos. Sure, Birds of Paradise is a downgrade relative to the Wild Nacatls that Andre used to win the World Championships, but the presence of Vengevine makes Ranger of Eos so much more attractive (and I already had Ranger as a Top 10 Standard card as you know). One thing that I found even in my pre-Jace, the Mind Sculptor builds — especially in the mirror — was how dominating Ranger of Eos was. Just loading and overloading on Noble Hierarchs was insane! No matter what threat you were attacking with, it would be much bigger than the opponent would likely be able to profitably block, even in a mirror.
The weirdo tech — though at this point it probably isn’t that weird — is Linvala, Keeper of Silence.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence – aka “weirdo tech”
Basically, Linvala is insurance against Cunning Sparkmage or… um… Royal Assassin I guess.
Linvala has been pretty good for me. I’ve tried her against everything from Putrid Leech to Knight of the Reliquary in the mirror. Of course I am a giant dumb bum and didn’t initially realize that Linvala is asymmetrical. So I like sided out my own Knights for… the… You get it. You don’t like that you get it, but you do. Yeah, that’s me.
The cool thing I’ve found about this particular gal is that as bad as I initially was playing my own Linvala, Keeper of Silence… Opponents play worse. A typical scenario is you play Linvala to lock down one or more copies of Knight of the Reliquary; even when Linvala rumbles and dies in combat, your opponent may just forget that their Knights are back online and randomly attack with them in 2/2 form.
No lies.
The sideboard is kind of a random mish-mash of cards I wanted to play. It is not particularly well measured. We can utilize the same technique I wrote about in last Friday’s TCGPlayer article to improve it.
What are the big baddies in Standard?
Let’s start with these eight or nine decks:
Jund
Mythic Conscription (the mirror), and regular Mythic
U/r/W Planeswalkers
U/W Control
Naya Vengevine
Devastating Red
Polymorph
Vampires
Remember, this technique just identifies what is less acceptable and helps you to identify areas where you need (or can afford) coverage; you can make efficiency swaps to your heart’s content (i.e. all things considered a Celestial Purge is probably better than a Smother against Vampires).
Jund Still the most popular deck, I have found Jund to be a very favorable matchup, in particular when you can overwhelm them with Ranger of Eos and Vengevine card advantage. Blightning is not particularly good against this deck (you can discard Vengevine and ruin them), but Maelstrom Pulse is excellent, in particular when they can get two-for-one (or better) especially against your Noble Hierarchs or other mana creatures.
What’s bad? All of your cards are fine. The worst is probably Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
(3)
Mythic Conscription As I said before, a big chunk of your edge comes from Ranger of Eos advantage feeding Noble Hierarchs. Most Mythic decks have no Rangers. Huzzah!
What’s bad? Again, nothing is bad, really. I can see siding next to nothing (you certainly want the fourth Ranger)… Everything is acceptable.
(0)
U/r/W Planeswalkers I heard this was supposed to be a bad matchup, but I have had nothing but luck against it recently; I guess that comes from playing a faster Jace than they have, forcing them to waste a turn tapping out [all their White, hopefully] then clocking the nug with Eldrazi Conscription.
What’s bad? I guess Mythic is just so focused that nothing is bad, ever. Because here is yet another matchup where nothing is bad! If anything is less desirable in this matchup, it is probably beloved Baneslayer Angel. She is a superb creature, objectively, but you don’t really want slow fives against U/r/W. She gobbles up lots of mana and is awkwardly costed for Vengevine re-buys.
(3)
U/W Control This is a very similar deck to U/r/W Planeswalkers… But a matchup where you can’t afford to side out Baneslayer Angel. They have Baneslayer Angel (unlike U/r/W, typically), meaning you might need yours to keep pace.
What’s bad? I have had a fair amount of luck siding out one Eldrazi Conscription; remember, you can shuffle it away with Jace, the Mind Sculptor if need be. You can move a high variance card like Scute Mob if you like… Not a huge amount of space here.
(2)
Naya Vengevine This is a matchup where you vastly out-class them… Unless they have Cunning Sparkmage. Cunning Sparkmage, in particular next to a Basilisk Collar, are going to spell doom for you.
What’s bad? They are the beatdown deck, so you might want to cut Jace; provided you aren’t getting ruined by Sparkmage, they are just littler.
(3)
Devastating Red As with most of the other “fair” decks, you out-class Devastating Red by a fair amount. The main issue is that they can burn all your mana creatures and kill you before you get done showing them how bright your features are.
What’s bad? I would for sure cut every slow card: all five cards that make up the Eldrazi Conscription package, and probably all the Planeswalkers. Under other circumstances, I could be persuaded to cut Baneslayer Angel, but she is a huge lifelink after all.
(8)
Polymorph
This seems like a matchup where you’re kind of up the creek without a paddle. Game one you kind of have to stick Eldrazi Conscription and kill them to death… or you’re just going to get combo killed. Your main weapon is going to be the looming threat of Jace, the Mind Sculptor, or perhaps the long term “Unsummon” potential. Unless you kill Polymorph outright, most of the rest of your shiny bells and whistles are going to be irrelevant.
What’s bad? I would cut the solo Scute Mob immediately. It’s unlikely you are ever going to get to the point in the game where Ranger of Eos manipulation into a an efficient fatty is going to be the deciding factor. For that matter, I would cut all the Baneslayer Angels. Life matters very little in this matchup, but being a slow five mana threat matters a lot.
(4)
Vampires
I’ve never played this matchup. Osyp seemed really comfortable with Vampires v. Bant variants at the NYC PTQ he played in, but they didn’t have Vengevine, or I presume, Ranger of Eos.
What’s bad? The weakest card is Scute Mob, due to the presence of Vampire Hexmage. You can cut Jace, the Mind Sculptor for the same reason, but Jace is a really good Mind Sludge recovery play (and potential Malakir Bloodwitch defense), so I wouldn’t.
(1)
So where does this leave us?
Jund: 0-3
Mythic whatever: 0
U/r/W Planeswalkers: 3-5
U/W Control: 2
Naya Vengevine: 3
Devastating Red: 8
Polymorph: 4
Vampires: 1
What about:
1 Jace, the Mind Scuptor
4 Negate
2 Telemin Performance
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Celestial Purge
2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Ranger of Eos
13 of the 15 cards fit nicely into the “what’s bad” schema; I added Qasali Pridemage as an additional catch-all. Admonition Angel is nice and all… But you never know when you are going to want to hunt down a Howling Mine.
Rundown:
Jund
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+1 Baneslayer Angel
+2 Celestial Purge
Mythic
-1 Eldrazi Conscription
+1 Ranger of Eos
U/r/W Planeswalkers
-1 Eldrazi Conscription
-1 Scute Mob
-3 Baneslayer Angel
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+4 Negate
U/W Control
-1 Eldrazi Conscription
-1 Scute Mob
-1 Baneslayer Angel
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+2 Telemin Performance
Negate is probably still good here; not as good as against U/r/W becuase you actually care about stopping Planeswalkers, but good; I figured you could shave a Baneslayer Angel because Telemin Performance is going to net a Baneslayer Angel about half the time; this is pure speculation of course… Maybe you should just play some Negates and use the space for anti-RDW cards.
Naya Vengevine
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
+1 Ranger of Eos
Devastating Red
-2 Eldrazi Conscription
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-3 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
+1 Negate
+2 Qasali Pridemage
+1 Baneslayer Angel
+2 Celestial Purge
+2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
A lof of these cuts are just efficiency swaps… cut a six drop for a four drop, etc.
Polymorph
-1 Eldrazi Conscription
-1 Scute Mob
-2 Ranger of Eos
-3 Baneslayer Angel
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+4 Negate
+2 Telemin Performance
This seems like a miserable matchup; lots of Negates and Performances should help.
Vampires
-1 Scute Mob
+1 Celestial Purge
It really feels weird to have another Celestial Purge… And not bring it in against Vampires. Eldrazi Conscription number two, maybe?
That might not be a perfect set of sideboarding strategies, but at least there is some logic behind it.
Vengevine ∙ Joining the Dark Side ∙ Good Old Bloodbraid Elf
A decided lack of Blightning ∙ Countersquall ∙ … and Vengevine!
Vengevine
Yeah, yeah yeah… The old man qualified!
Grixis Hits! Countersquall! Just like we promised.
My basic metagame diagnosis is that if Grixis is good, it is the best deck in Standard (play my 75… Though you may want to switch out Duress for Thought Hemorrhage * in place of Duress, for Vengevine). However it is possible that the success of control in general (including Grixis Hits, which is at the top of the control deck pyramid) will incentivize players to run more beatdown… Red Decks, Vengevine decks, etc.
This deck obviously borrows, strategically from GerryT’s Naya deck… All guys. All guys leads to all Vengevine triggers. Your Bloodbraid Elf always flips over a creature, setting up big Vengevine attacks, &c.
Weird things: No Blightning. No copies of my favorite card. Not a creature. Who is avoiding the random Bloodbraid Elf flip!?! Is this bizarro world?
Yet we have Sarkhan the Mad. He is your spell. This card is very strong. Stronger than I originally thought. Yes, it gives you a Countersquall target in a deck that can’t otherwise Blightning away Countersqualls. It is also not a creature; it is possible that Broodmate Dragon would be a better choice… But I think not enough people are playing Countersquall right now (certainly very few on MTGO). I have been doing quite well with this Jund, and I think it might be a deck.
Card rundown:
Bloodbraid Elf
Yep, still the strongest creature in Standard. Absolutely perfect in this deck, in particular for its ability to flip up Cunning Sparkmage.
Borderland Ranger
Awesome v. other Jund (trades with their Bloodbraid Elf without a loss of card advantage); you hit your land drops… Very good with Lotus Cobra, of course; nice blocker.
Cunning Sparkmage
Awesome against Mythic (albeit less awesome than a deck with Basilisk Collar); a fabulous main deck card against Polymorph.
Lotus Cobra
Just the right accelerator in this style of deck. Good with Vengevine and Bloodbraid Elf for the two-to-four jump; respectable front side for a two drop; good with the sideboard.
Malakir Bloodwitch
Because people play decks that can’t deal with it.
Putrid Leech
Still the scariest offensive two drop in Standard. One of the things I like about this deck is that it plays kind of like the West Coast Plated Geopede deck… Two different offensive two drops; better mana utilization than most versions of Jund, therefore.
Sprouting Thrinax
I would play Vampire Nighthawk starting in this spot… But its synergy with “your spell” is just out of control.
Vengevine
The whole point of the deck. Hi-yah!
I don’t know if this deck is better than either GerryT’s deck or a regular Jund deck… But it seems to be winning plenty for me online. Sideboard is kind of loose right now, but I think there are some good ideas.
Recurring Insight is the biggest beating of them all; its presence is kind of predicated on the idea that the opponent is going to semi-manascrew you with Spreading Seas. You can cast it fine with Lotus Cobra, and, say, a Scalding Tarn for Island (thank you Lotus Cobra).
Nicol Bolas is your Cruel Ultimatum. Basically I really wanted to cast Cruel Ultimatum but this deck obviously can’t muster such a profligate mana cost… Nicol Bolas seems like the next best thing. We’ll see how it bears out.
LOVE
MIKE
* Separately suggested by Osyp over the phone and Verno on Magic Online
I am just going to c/p the description I put on YouTube (’cause mise):
Mind Sludge – It has been called the only reason to play Counterspells in the current Standard environment (there are actually two reasons… the other one is in our deck).
I am playing basic Swamp this weekend because of the “I have must-counter sorceries in my deck” factor. This is a pretty surprising couple of games with my current favorite Standard deck, Grixis Hits:
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Divination
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Spreading Seas
Hello e’re body. I have yet again been honored with a guest blog on this here interwebs, courtesy of Mike Flores.
Per request I have made some time to scribble down my adventures of last weekend’s Type 2 Saturday at the local card shop here in Humid Fayetteville, North Carolina:
(smell the plug)
Cardz-N-Things
(inserting Garth Brooke’s, Shameless, while i’m at it)
Moving along …
I had been enjoying his more recent [sic] Mid-“Borderland”-Ranger Naya list recently, yet when Flores had mentioned he had “teh tech” (early that Friday via Twitter) for this past weekend I was refreshing his blog every few minutes (Come on … don’t lie to yourself; I know a few other folks who were just as feverish as I).
His list became the cards I sleeved up and shuffled towards a successful 4-1-1 record on the day.
Raka XXX, tBVotBD (King Hulk, in my book)
4 Ajani Vengeant
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
4 Wall of Omens
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Spreading Seas
2 Oblivion Ring
The only changes to my 60 and that of Mike Flores were:
-1 Island, +1 Mountain
-1 Cancel, +1 Ajani Vengeant
Having gone up one more copy of an amazing Planeswalker I then needed to make sure I could validate this inclusion (i.e. eight Red spells in an essentially U/W Control build). I know, I know most of you are now scratching your heads, or simply clicking your way to another website, but hear me out! Or at least continue reading.
I am no Menendian when it comes to percentiles, nor am I able to simply conjure a perfect pie chart to display my reasoning. Yet to go from 7 Red spells that only ask for 1 red source to 8 Red spells that; yes continue the aforementioned trend; isn’t as simple as it seems. To me anyway.
I figured I needed to make sure that my 6 Fetch Lands were capable of meeting said requirements. This having been said it should then lead you to see why I added my third Mountain. I did not want to find myself in a situation where I needed to hit a red source for my Lightning Bolt(s), and/or Ajani(s) yet couldn’t. I wanted to increase my chances of hitting said color requirements without straining the already dedicated mana base.
Three Mountains for eight Red Spells. With six fetches available to delivery the goods I never once had a color screw on the entire day. That is the only Maindeck exception from what is entirely Mike’s creation.
OH! Sideboard … right, right:
4 Flashfreeze
2 Negate
2 Scepter of Dominance
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Telemin Performance
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Note the lack of Baneslayer Angels… if you have extra lying around I would gladly help you find an adoption agency willing to help relocate them to my 75.
Telemin’s Performance was brilliant on the day; just give it a chance.
As to prevent further boredom (hopefully you are still awake this far along) I am going to give my 6 rounds of play a somewhat paltry breakdown.
Round 1: Jeff, playing U/B Control
Game 1: I win the dice roll (lucky mise)
The game is boring from the get-go. He is playing an entirely obscure deck that I was neither worried about, nor hesitant to play into. For the first 9 turns(!) it was the typical: draw, land, go. Game 1 consisted of my Jace killing his Jace, me sticking an Ajani that went Bruce Willis on his manabase after a few redundant turns of “Simon Says” on his CitP tapped lands. I did fumble a turn 4 Jace off of a chalice, however. Instead of opting to roll Jace up w/ his first ability I simply brainstormed without much thought. Then when my opponent untapped I sadly frowned at his Creeping Tar Pit that suddenly went sideways into my Jace. I promptly made sure the next Spreading Seas made sweet nautical love to said offender ASAP.
me 1 – him 0
Game 2: After having not seen a single creature game one on his side of the table I took quick action
-3 Day of Judgment
-2 Martial Coup
-1 Wall of Omens
+2 Negate
+2 Scepter of Dominance
+2 Telemin’s Performance
Please do the math and figure out what happened … turn 6 he scooped on an unanswered Telemin’s. I flipped 1 of his 3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle. He had taken out his spot removal, and had also sided out his Gatekeeper’s. It didn’t hurt my feelings when I flipped 2 foil Sorin’s along with 1 foil Jace after the Telemin’s resolved.
Round 2: John, sporting White Weenie
I do not master the art of winning the dice roll, and John leads off the match w/ a Student of Warfare (How cute).
I land a turn 2 Chalice which allows me to plant 2 Wall of Omens on my third turn; which had me feeling pretty safe. Until his 4th turn procured an Elspeth (The angry virgin). On my turn I rip 1 of the 2 O Rings MD and promptly lay it down on her. Only to watch as John gleefully lays down a Gideon on the following turn. Now I have to race a Gideon and a Student of Warfare. He paths one of my Walls on his turn, and I happily get one of my 3 Mountains. After I stick an Ajani his Gideon never untaps the rest of the match (Seriously … Ajani is teh nuts). The usual song and dance involved a Celestial Colonnade and a few swing with a 7 deep Martial Coup then we were off to the SB for game 2.
me 1, him 0
– 1 Elspeth
– 1 Jace
+ 2 Oblivion Ring
Nothing much to change in my Maindeck for the 2nd game … I figured more O Rings would be helpful to stunt an early onslaught – long enough to land a DoJ and/or a healthy Martial Coup. And Mike’s list essentially favors the aggro match-up (especially WW, or any non-RDW list for that matter).
Game 2 was over pretty easily. Nothing to elaborate on except that Mike’s list rolls aggro … hard. Sad to say nothing exciting to discuss on this match-up.
2-0 (4-0) so far
Round 3: Bobby, running Jund (ala Stock Car)
Bobby is a friend of mine, and sad to say he was playing Jund. Yet unlike Affinity – you can’t just punt every misplay and still come out ahead. With that as my precursor it is safe to say I won this round … because … honestly WHO WANTS ANOTHER JUND MATCH-UP ANALYSIS? Maybe I am being trite, and rather unforgiving but I will not sit here and delegate on the behalf of “Well, Johnny, this is how you play against Jund”.
All I will say is that we went all 3 games. I ended up squeezing out the 3rd game with some extremely tight play;that and he never saw a Blightning (the entire 3rd game … who was the lucky duck? Me)
3-0 (6-1) On the day so far
Round 4: Adam (3-0) w/ Jund
We ID into the Top 8 so neither of us have to spend the next 50 minutes figuring out what will be cascaded and how much my Martial Coup will be for. I seriously loathe playing Jund. It isn’t a contempt for said deck … it’s the bandwagon it generated (eg, Faeries, Affinity, etc, etc). Almost no innovation has taken place since the original list surfaced some time last year.
Sure we’ve seen a few Borderland Rangers, Elvish Visionaries, and the sporadic Master of the Wild Hunts being featured in some builds. Yet nothing truly innovative has come from playing Michael_Jordan.dec (greatest all time; hands down) That said I don’t see Lebron James hoping to be “Like Mike”. He is creating his own future in the NBA. Did that help drive my point home?
3-0-1
Round 5 (Top 8): Matt, playing ??
… … … … My opponent dropped? … … I sat there for 11 minutes (giving them plenty of time to make it since we don’t run a clock for the Top 8 matches) waiting for him to show up. The round was almost over when his (Matt) girlfriend shows up. He had left with his boys to go out for drinks, and apparently forgot to pick her up from work. Her mom dropped her off.
Needless to say his chops were busted.
And I was given a free round … luckily while I had been waiting I was able to squeeze in an Epic Game of EDH so the entire time had not been wasted.
4-0-1
Round 6 (Top 4): Adam (w/ Jund)
So we couldn’t draw this round, thusly we shuffled up.
Please … Please … Please … for the sake of Orphans all around the world … do not begin to hound me for this round’s analysis.
I’ll give you a “Real Life: I’m Recovering” break down in a free form poem.
Putrid Leech < Oblivion Ring
Blightning < Flashfreeze
BBE > Putrid Leech = Flashfreeze + Lightning Bolt
Wall of Omen(s) < Maelstrom Pulsing two'fer
Master of the Wild Hunt < Oblivion Ring
Martial Coup for 8 > his life total.
Game 3:
Duress > my Spreading Seas
Wall of Omens > his Putrid Leech
Blightning < Flashfreeze
Blightning > nets 2 cards
Raging Ravine > my life total
Maelstrom Pulse > Ajani Vengeant
Ajani #2 < Lightning Bolt
Ajani #3 < BBE into Blightning
FML
All in all I enjoyed the day. Hopefully that Jund Poem spoke to your soul as much as it did mine.
Flores's list is legitimate. And in all honesty has an option to transform into "Super Friends" post board if you felt the urge to sport 2 decks in one. Laskin and Flores were spot on with calling the dominate color choices for this past weekend; as well as the months to come.
As is the case I will gladly play this until another case of Deckbuilding ADD strikes. Which shouldn't be too far off in the near future.
Sorry for the sporadic and hasty nature of my post this time around. I was unable to hit up a much larger venue to give this deck a Wayne Brady around the block.
La'Chaim
Benjamin David
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).
