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@JeffHoogland     -     Email     -     Articles Jeff Hoogland plays as much constructed Magic as the midwest allows. SCG events and Grand Prix are his two favorite ways to spend a weekend. He enjoys attacking new and established formats from unexplored angles. His Magic resume currently includes numerous SCG Open top eights, an SCG Invitational top eight, and a GP top 16.

The Dark Holds a Variety of Depths

There is something slightly poetic about [card]Dark Depths[/card] dominating Legacy events while the Midwest is trapped in a seemingly never-ending “polar vortex.” Today I’d like to look at a pile of different [card]Dark Depths[/card]-powered combo decks that have been seeing success in Legacy recently.

Maverick Depths

The first time a Dark Depths deck posted successful results at a high-profile event was actually at the end of 2013. It was a Maverick-style deck that splashed red for [card]Punishing Fire[/card] and played singleton copies of [card]Dark Depths[/card] and [card]Thespian’s Stage[/card] in its [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] package:

[deck title= Maverick Depths]

[Lands]
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wasteland
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian’s Stage
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
[/Lands]

[Creatures]
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
4 Punishing Fire
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 Life from the Loam
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
[/Spells]

[Sideboard]
1 Stony Silence
1 Pithing Needle
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Engineered Plague
1 Slaughter Games
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Bojuka Bog
[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Unlike most Legacy decks, this list is extremely conservative with its mana sources. Six mana dorks, in addition to four [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card], allow it to produce three mana on the second turn fairly often. [card]Punishing Fire[/card], a full set of [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card], a pair of [card]Umezawa’s Jitte[/card], and Knight being able to fetch up a combo finish give this Maverick-style deck a powerful fair Magic matchup.

I would be slightly worried piloting this deck in a field of unfair decks, though. If a combo player is fetching to blank your [card]Wasteland[/card]s, then a singleton [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card] and four copies of [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card] to find him are your only ways to interact with unfair Magic during the first game.

Thankfully, the sideboard is packed full of hate cards that [card]Enlightened Tutor[/card] is able to find. Speaking from experience, planning to win every game two and three against combo decks in Legacy is not a good plan. Sometimes you just die, no matter how many hate cards you happen to have.

If I knew I was going to play fair Magic for 90% or more of my rounds, I would play the above decklist in a heartbeat. However, in the diverse field Legacy tends to be, I would strongly consider cutting the red and playing [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card] in the [card]Punishing Fire[/card] slots. If you really feel the need for more removal beyond [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card], you can always add another black source or two and play a few [card]Abrupt Decay[/card].

Jund and Junk Depths

Flash forward to 2014. At the first Legacy Open of the year, we see not just one, but two [card]Dark Depths[/card]-based combo decks wreck their way into the top eight. First up, we have a Junk-colored list that I personally helped develop:

[deck title= Junk Depths]

[Creatures]
2 Dark Confidant
1 Deathrite Shaman
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Vampire Hexmage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dryad Arbor
[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]
2 Liliana of the Veil
[/Planeswalkers]

[Lands]
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Barren Moor
3 Bayou
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Marsh Flats
1 Savannah
2 Scrubland
1 Thespian’s Stage
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Karakas
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Dark Depths
[/Lands]

[Spells]
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
2 Sylvan Library
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Green Sun’s Zenith
2 Life from the Loam
4 Living Wish
[/Spells]

[Sideboard]
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Peacekeeper
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Diabolic Edict
2 Golgari Charm
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Wasteland
1 Dark Depths
[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

This is a toolbox deck that play a powerful game of fair Magic, all while threatening a combo finish at a moment’s notice. Sometimes you create a turn-two 20/20 with a Hexmage, sometimes you grind out a long game with [card]Life from the Loam[/card] plus [card]Wasteland[/card], and sometimes you simply play your [card]Dark Confidant[/card], [card]Sylvan Library[/card], and [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] and beat them down with creatures.

I think it is fair to say that this deck is easily the most flexible of the [card]Dark Depths[/card] decks I will highlight here today. Your mana base provides utility with [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], your green creatures provide utility with [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card], and most of your sideboard turns [card]Living Wish[/card] into a silver bullet for a variety of different situations. Maindeck [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card], in addition to [card]Chalice of the Void[/card], ensures that you are not soft to other combo decks in game one.

Next up, we have a Jund-colored [card]Dark Depths[/card] deck innovated by Kennen Haas:

[deck title= Jund Depths]

[Creatures]
1 Nether Spirit
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]
4 Liliana of the Veil
[/Planeswalkers]

[Lands]
1 Badlands
2 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Maze of Ith
1 Taiga
3 Thespian’s Stage
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Karakas
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Dark Depths
[/Lands]

[Spells]
4 Mox Diamond
2 Crop Rotation
4 Entomb
1 Punishing Fire
4 Faithless Looting
4 Life from the Loam
1 Raven’s Crime
4 Smallpox
[/Spells]

[Sideboard]
3 Pithing Needle
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Phyrexian Ingester
1 Exploration
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Coffin Purge
1 Crop Rotation
1 Punishing Fire
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Innocent Blood
1 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

For those of you who think this deck might just be a fluke, 74 of Kennen’s 75 top 8ed two weekends later at the Columbus SCG open. After speaking with Kennen a bit, he agreed that there are two weak points for his Jund list—combo decks and [card]Rest in Peace[/card]. Thankfully, both of these things are fairly easy to solve working in the colors that Kennen’s deck plays.

For combo decks, the fix is as easy as playing some targeted discard ([card]Thoughtseize[/card] is wonderful) or a few more copies of [card]Sphere of Resistance[/card] in the sideboard (the Jund deck doesn’t really play any creatures, so Sphere is strictly better than [card]Thorn of Amethyst[/card]). Dealing with [card]Rest in Peace[/card] is even more straight forward—play a few [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]! [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] really was R&D’s gift to Legacy—the card solves all sorts of problems.

The glue that holds this Jund deck together is its playset of [card]Demonic Tutor[/card], err, I mean [card]Entomb[/card]. The card is capable of finding a copy of [card]Life from the Loam[/card], whatever land you need, [card]Punishing Fire[/card], [card]Nether Spirit[/card], or even [card]Squee, Goblin Nabob[/card], and at instant speed, too. The sideboard even includes a few clutch one-ofs to tutor for at a moment’s notice.

GR Lands Combo

Then, as if three different Dark Depths decklists wasn’t enough, in Baltimore this past weekend, yet another Dark Depths combo deck won the entire event. In the hands of Kurt Speiss, a green-red “all in” lands combo deck took first:

[deck title= GR Lands Combo]

[Lands]
1 Forest
1 Glacial Chasm
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Maze of Ith
4 Rishadan Port
2 Taiga
4 Thespian’s Stage
3 Tranquil Thicket
4 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Karakas
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2 Dark Depths
[/Lands]

[Spells]
4 Mox Diamond
4 Exploration
2 Manabond
3 Crop Rotation
4 Punishing Fire
4 Gamble
4 Life from the Loam
[/Spells]

[Sideboard]
1 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Primeval Titan
1 Crop Rotation
3 Krosan Grip
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Dark Depths
[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Kurt’s decklist is closest thing to traditional lands that I’ve talked about today. The deck features a full four copies of each of [card]Rishadan Port[/card], [card]Wasteland[/card], and [card]Maze of Ith[/card], powered out by [card]Exploration[/card] and even [card]Manabond[/card]. Kurt’s deck is just as capable of massive mana disruption as it is fast combo starts. Speaking of combos, if Kurt feels the need to have more than four copies of [card]Maze of Ith[/card] on the table, he also plays a full four copies of [card]Thespian’s Stage[/card] in his main deck.

Just because this is a lands shell doesn’t mean it doesn’t rely on a few spells to go about winning the game. Similar to how the Jund deck plays [card]Entomb[/card] and the Junk deck utilizes [card]Living Wish[/card], Kurt has chosen to go with [card]Gamble[/card] as his tutor effect of choice. Considering most of the time he won’t care if the card he finds is in his hand or graveyard, this is a fantastic effect to play.

Kurt has opted to have his maindeck set up to beat creature decks with a combination of [card]Punishing Fire[/card] and [card]Glacial Chasm[/card]. To combat combo decks, we find a full set of [card]Sphere of Resistance[/card] in addition to two copies [card]Thorn of Amethyst[/card] in the sideboard. There are also several copies of [card]Krosan Grip[/card] to deal with the occasional [card]Rest in Peace[/card].

I suppose with [card]Manabond[/card] in the maindeck, Kurt also has the option to just make a 20/20 on turn one, allowing him to outright kill his opponent on turn two.

In fact, I would say the only thing I’m really afraid of when playing Kurt’s list is a [card]Surgical Extraction[/card] or two. Taking out his [card]Dark Depths[/card] leaves him with [card]Punishing Fire[/card] as the only way to close out a game—if they extract that as well, then I guess you just have to hope to deck them.

Wrap Up

I think it is really interesting that [card]Thespian’s Stage[/card] has been legacy legal for nearly a year now, but it has only been the last couple months that we’ve seen it making waves at events. Maybe the printing of a certain unblockable, hexproof 3/1 is just what the format needed to generate some innovation.

These combo decks are exceptionally powerful because they are difficult to interact with. Counter magic is bad. Discard spells are bad. Wasteland only buys you a turn or two, and they’ll just Loam back their combo pieces…

What is your opinion on these various [card]Dark Depths[/card] combo decks that have been popping up? Are they just a Legacy fad or are they here to stay? Let me know in the comments below.

~Jeff Hoogland

 

Jeff Hoogland – A Brief Overview of the Legacy Format

Legacy is my favorite format in Magic (followed closely by Modern). The deep card pool, complex interactions, powerful card selection, and aggressively-costed staples make the format highly skill intensive. I feel more in control of the outcome of a match of Legacy than I do in any other format. I can count on one hand the number of Standard games I’ve won with less than five cards in my starting hand. In Legacy, I’ve won off of just four cards dozens of times.

One of the results of Legacy’s massive card pool is that a large variety of archetypes can be successful in the format. Based on some data collection I’ve done, in the last month-and-a-half there have been 32 different decks that have finished in the top 16 of large Legacy events.

While it is true that some archetypes are more represented than others, no single deck represents more than 12% of the top finishes:

Legacy Top Finishes Breakdown

As you can see, our five most-represented archetypes are:

  1. RUG Delver

  2. Sneak and Show

  3. UWR Delver

  4. Shardless BUG

  5. Reanimator

All of these together only represent 46% of the top finishes! That means if you spend all of your time preparing against these five “best” decks, they may only account for half of the matches you will end up playing at a large event.

Today I am going to provide some sample deck lists for each of the archetypes on my pie-chart above as well as a few decks from the “other” slice of the pie. I’ll give a short overview on how each deck functions and what you should be conscious of while playing with/against a given archetype.

[deck title=RUG Delver]

[Land]

*4 Misty Rainforest

*4 Scalding Tarn

*3 Tropical Island

*3 Volcanic Island

*4 Wasteland

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*4 Delver of Secrets

*4 Nimble Mongoose

*4 Tarmogoyf

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Brainstorm

*4 Daze

*1 Fire // Ice

*4 Force of Will

*4 Lightning Bolt

*2 Spell Pierce

*4 Stifle

*3 Gitaxian Probe

*4 Ponder

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*1 Grafdigger’s Cage

*1 Zuran Orb

*1 Sulfur Elemental

*1 Ancient Grudge

*1 Flusterstorm

*2 Pyroblast

*3 Submerge

*1 Vendilion Clique

*1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

*1 Life from the Loam

*2 Rough / Tumble

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Also sometimes called “Canadian Thresh,” RUG Delver is easily the most popular fair deck in legacy. It plays efficient threats and resource denial to hinder its opponent’s game plan while it chips away at their life total.

When playing against RUG Delver it is important to remember to play around [card]Stifile[/card]/[card]Daze[/card]/[card]Wasteland[/card] unless you absolutely cannot. These cards are exceptionally good at punishing bad players, but are often fairly useless against folks that know they are there.

[deck title=Sneak and Show]

[Land]

*3 Island

*3 Ancient Tomb

*2 City of Traitors

*3 Misty Rainforest

*4 Scalding Tarn

*4 Volcanic Island

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

*4 Griselbrand

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Lotus Petal

*4 Sneak Attack

*4 Brainstorm

*2 Daze

*4 Force of Will

*2 Misdirection

*3 Spell Pierce

*4 Ponder

*2 Preordain

*4 Show and Tell

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*3 Blood Moon

*3 Leyline of Sanctity

*2 Echoing Truth

*1 Red Elemental Blast

*2 Through the Breach

*2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

*2 Pyroclasm

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Sneak and Show is arguably the most powerful combo deck in legacy at the moment. Only needing to assemble two cards for its combo makes it fast and difficult to disrupt. Some versions of Sneak and Show maindeck [card]Blood Moon[/card] and the rest of them sideboard some copies – fetch around it if you can. If you get the chance to disrupt their mana with [card]Wasteland[/card]s, always prioritize killing their [card]Volcanic Island[/card]s over the soul lands. They often need double (or even triple) red to kill you outright with a Sneak Attack.

[deck title=UWR Delver]

[Land]

*2 Arid Mesa

*1 Flooded Strand

*1 Misty Rainforest

*4 Scalding Tarn

*3 Tundra

*4 Volcanic Island

*4 Wasteland

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*4 Delver of Secrets

*2 Grim Lavamancer

*3 Stoneforge Mystic

*2 True-Name Nemesis

*1 Vendilion Clique

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*1 Batterskull

*4 Brainstorm

*4 Daze

*3 Force of Will

*4 Lightning Bolt

*3 Spell Pierce

*3 Stifle

*3 Swords to Plowshares

*1 Umezawa’s Jitte

*3 Ponder

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*1 Engineered Explosives

*1 Relic of Progenitus

*1 Sulfur Elemental

*1 True-Name Nemesis

*1 Rest in Peace

*1 Disenchant

*1 Divert

*2 Flusterstorm

*1 Force of Will

*2 Surgical Extraction

*1 Swan Song

*1 Venser, Shaper Savant

*1 Karakas

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

UWR Delver plays a game plan similar to RUG Delver, only its white splash allows it to answer resolved threats via [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card]. There is still some debate to if [card]True-Name Nemesis[/card] is better than [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card] in this deck. True-Name is undoubtedly better against opposing fair magic decks, but Geist provides a much faster clock.

[Deck Title=Shardless BUG]

[Lands]

*2 Bayou

*2 Creeping Tar Pit

*3 Misty Rainforest

*4 Polluted Delta

*2 Tropical Island

*3 Underground Sea

*4 Verdant Catacombs

*2 Wasteland

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

*2 Baleful Strix

*4 Shardless Agent

*4 Deathrite Shaman

*4 Tarmogoyf

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Abrupt Decay

*4 Brainstorm

*3 Force of Will

*4 Ancestral Vision

*2 Hymn to Tourach

*1 Maelstrom Pulse

*2 Thoughtseize

*3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

*1 Liliana of the Veil

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*3 Nihil Spellbomb

*2 Baleful Strix

*2 Disfigure

*2 Flusterstorm

*2 Golgari Charm

*1 Liliana of the Veil

*1 Hymn to Tourach

*2 Thoughtseize

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

BUG decks became extremely popular in legacy with the printing of [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] and [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]. Similar to the BGx decks in Modern, Shardless BUG is simply a “good stuff” deck. It just plays a pile of inherently powerful cards and hopes to overwhelm its opponent with pure card quality. It is important to remember when playing Shardless BUG that your two [card]Wasteland[/card]s are not for denying your opponent mana for a turn – they are there to deal with utility lands that cause you grief.

[Deck title=Reanimator]

[Land]

*1 Island

*1 Swamp

*1 Bloodstained Mire

*3 Misty Rainforest

*4 Polluted Delta

*4 Underground Sea

*1 Verdant Catacombs

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*1 Inkwell Leviathan

*1 Blazing Archon

*1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

*4 Griselbrand

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Lotus Petal

*4 Brainstorm

*2 Daze

*4 Entomb

*4 Force of Will

*4 Careful Study

*4 Exhume

*4 Ponder

*4 Reanimate

*2 Show and Tell

*2 Thoughtseize

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*2 Pithing Needle

*1 Ashen Rider

*1 Chain of Vapor

*1 Coffin Purge

*1 Echoing Truth

*1 Flusterstorm

*2 Spell Pierce

*2 Show and Tell

*2 Thoughtseize

*2 City of Traitors

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Reanimator is the better deck for cheating large things into play when graveyard hate is less prevalent. [card]Lotus Petal[/card] and/or [card]Dark Ritual[/card] enable the deck to call forth a large threat as early as the first turn. [card]Entomb[/card] acts as a [card]Demonic Tutor[/card] for whatever threat works best for a given situation.

When you expect a pile of graveyard hate out of your opponent’s sideboard you simply board in a couple of extra lands and up to the full set of [card]Show and Tell[/card]s.

[Deck title=Elves]

[Land]

*1 Forest

*2 Bayou

*4 Misty Rainforest

*1 Savannah

*4 Verdant Catacombs

*1 Wooded Foothills

*4 Gaea’s Cradle

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*1 Craterhoof Behemoth

*4 Deathrite Shaman

*1 Elvish Mystic

*4 Elvish Visionary

*1 Fyndhorn Elves

*3 Heritage Druid

*1 Llanowar Elves

*4 Nettle Sentinel

*1 Priest of Titania

*4 Quirion Ranger

*1 Regal Force

*4 Wirewood Symbiote

*1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader

*2 Dryad Arbor

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Glimpse of Nature

*4 Green Sun’s Zenith

*3 Natural Order

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*2 Meekstone

*1 Scavenging Ooze

*1 Viridian Shaman

*2 Abrupt Decay

*1 Gaddock Teeg

*1 Progenitus

*3 Cabal Therapy

*1 Natural Order

*3 Thoughtseize

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Legacy Elves is very similar to Kiki-Pod in modern. By this I mean it can combo in a couple of different fashions ([card]Glimpse of Nature[/card] or [card]Natural Order[/card]) and when it isn’t comboing it is still a midrange creature deck that can kill you by attacking with little green men. When playing against this deck it is important to remember a couple of things:

First is that they can kill you out of nowhere with a few creatures and a [card]Natural Order[/card].

Second is that [card]Wirewood Symbiote[/card] + [card]Elvish Visonary[/card] is a powerful draw engine.

Lastly, if they lead with [card]Dryad Arbor[/card] as their first land, nine times out of ten this is their only mana source. Kill it.

Storm

There are two types of storm decks that see play in Legacy: ANT and TES.

[Deck title=TES]

[Land]

*2 City of Brass

*1 Flooded Strand

*4 Gemstone Mine

*1 Misty Rainforest

*1 Polluted Delta

*2 Underground Sea

*1 Volcanic Island

[/Land]

[Spells]

*3 Chrome Mox

*4 Lion’s Eye Diamond

*4 Lotus Petal

*1 Ad Nauseam

*4 Brainstorm

*4 Dark Ritual

*4 Silence

*4 Burning Wish

*1 Cabal Therapy

*2 Duress

*1 Empty the Warrens

*4 Gitaxian Probe

*4 Infernal Tutor

*4 Ponder

*4 Rite of Flame

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*2 Xantid Swarm

*3 Abrupt Decay

*2 Chain of Vapor

*1 Cabal Therapy

*1 Diminishing Returns

*1 Empty the Warrens

*1 Grapeshot

*1 Ill-Gotten Gains

*1 Past in Flames

*1 Tendrils of Agony

*1 Thoughtseize

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

TES is a five-color, fast storm deck. The deck is capable of killing on turn one more often than ANT due to the extra fast mana it plays in the form of [card]Chrome Mox[/card] and [card]Rite of Flame[/card]. Another big difference between TES and ANT is that TES plays Burning Wish while ANT generally does not.

[Deck title=ANT]

[Land]

*2 Island

*1 Swamp

*2 Gemstone Mine

*4 Polluted Delta

*3 Scalding Tarn

*2 Underground Sea

*1 Volcanic Island

[/Land]

[Spells]

*4 Lion’s Eye Diamond

*4 Lotus Petal

*1 Ad Nauseam

*4 Brainstorm

*4 Cabal Ritual

*4 Dark Ritual

*2 Cabal Therapy

*4 Duress

*4 Gitaxian Probe

*4 Infernal Tutor

*1 Past in Flames

*4 Ponder

*4 Preordain

*1 Tendrils of Agony

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*3 Carpet of Flowers

*2 Abrupt Decay

*2 Chain of Vapor

*2 Slaughter Pact

*1 Surgical Extraction

*1 Cabal Therapy

*1 Massacre

*1 Tendrils of Agony

*1 Tropical Island

*1 Karakas

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

ANT trades off some speed for stronger disruption and a more stable mana base by playing a few basic lands. In the past year ANT has put up more top finishes than TES, but I’m not sure it is the strictly-better combo deck.

[Deck title=Stoneblade]

[Land]

*1 Island

*1 Plains

*1 Swamp

*1 Creeping Tar Pit

*4 Flooded Strand

*2 Marsh Flats

*4 Polluted Delta

*1 Scrubland

*3 Tundra

*2 Underground Sea

*1 Academy Ruins

*1 Karakas

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*2 Baleful Strix

*2 Snapcaster Mage

*4 Stoneforge Mystic

*3 True-Name Nemesis

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*1 Batterskull

*1 Engineered Explosives

*1 Detention Sphere

*4 Brainstorm

*4 Force of Will

*2 Spell Pierce

*1 Spell Snare

*4 Swords to Plowshares

*1 Umezawa’s Jitte

*2 Ponder

*4 Thoughtseize

*2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*1 Engineered Explosives

*1 Pithing Needle

*1 Sword of Fire and Ice

*4 Meddling Mage

*2 Rest in Peace

*3 Flusterstorm

*1 Path to Exile

*1 Zealous Persecution

*1 Supreme Verdict

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Stoneblade decks got a huge boost with the printing of [card]True-Name Nemesis[/card]. Stoneblade decks are either Esper or pure UW. The Esper mana base is weaker against [card]Wasteland[/card] decks, but having access to one-mana discard spells with [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] is very powerful against most decks in the format.

[Deck title=UWr Miracles]

[Land]

*5 Island

*2 Plains

*2 Arid Mesa

*4 Flooded Strand

*3 Scalding Tarn

*3 Tundra

*1 Volcanic Island

*1 Academy Ruins

*1 Karakas

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*1 Snapcaster Mage

*3 Stoneforge Mystic

*2 Vendilion Clique

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*1 Batterskull

*4 Sensei’s Divining Top

*3 Counterbalance

*4 Brainstorm

*2 Counterspell

*3 Force of Will

*1 Misdirection

*2 Spell Pierce

*4 Swords to Plowshares

*1 Entreat the Angels

*1 Supreme Verdict

*3 Terminus

*3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*1 Engineered Explosives

*1 Tormod’s Crypt

*1 Rest in Peace

*1 Flusterstorm

*1 Path to Exile

*3 Red Elemental Blast

*1 Wear

*1 Umezawa’s Jitte

*1 Vendilion Clique

*2 Venser, Shaper Savant

*1 Terminus

*1 Mountain

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

UWr miracles is a UW based [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] + [card]Counterbalance[/card] deck. If [card]True-Name Nemesis[/card] continues getting popular then playing [card]Terminus[/card]/[card]Supreme Verdict[/card] is a good place to be in the meta game. The red in the deck is purely for sideboard cards, generally [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card] and occasionally [card]Blood Moon[/card]. Because [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] is so good at killing [card]Counterbalance[/card], these decks generally play one to two copies of [card]Misdirection[/card] – sometimes instead of the fourth copy of [card]Force of Will[/card].

[Deck title=Death and Taxes]

[Land]

*8 Plains

*1 Cavern of Souls

*2 Horizon Canopy

*4 Rishadan Port

*4 Wasteland

*1 Eiganjo Castle

*3 Karakas

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*4 Phyrexian Revoker

*2 Aven Mindcensor

*1 Fiend Hunter

*3 Flickerwisp

*3 Mirran Crusader

*4 Mother of Runes

*4 Stoneforge Mystic

*2 Mangara of Corondor

*4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Aether Vial

*1 Batterskull

*4 Swords to Plowshares

*1 Umezawa’s Jitte

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*1 Cursed Totem

*1 Grafdigger’s Cage

*1 Manriki-Gusari

*1 Meekstone

*1 Sword of Fire and Ice

*2 Ethersworn Canonist

*2 Wilt-Leaf Liege

*2 Oblivion Ring

*1 Rest in Peace

*2 Enlightened Tutor

*1 Sunlance

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

There are only three things that are certain in life:

  1. Death

  2. Taxes

  3. Some form of White Weenie is a viable archetype

Death and Taxes is a hate-bear style deck that utilizes [card]Aether Vial[/card] to get ahead on resources in conjunction with cards like [card]Thalia[/card], [card]Wasteland[/card], and [card]Rishadan Port[/card] to put the other player behind. Don’t underestimate this pile of [card]Squire[/card]s, [card]Jackal Pup[/card]s, and [card]Grizzly Bears[/card] – they mean business.

[Deck title=Jund]

[Land]

*1 Forest

*1 Swamp

*3 Badlands

*2 Bayou

*3 Bloodstained Mire

*4 Grove of the Burnwillows

*4 Verdant Catacombs

*3 Wasteland

*3 Wooded Foothills

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*3 Bloodbraid Elf

*4 Dark Confidant

*4 Deathrite Shaman

*4 Tarmogoyf

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*1 Sylvan Library

*3 Abrupt Decay

*2 Lightning Bolt

*3 Punishing Fire

*4 Hymn to Tourach

*1 Inquisition of Kozilek

*1 Maelstrom Pulse

*2 Thoughtseize

*4 Liliana of the Veil

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*1 Grafdigger’s Cage

*1 Scavenging Ooze

*2 Engineered Plague

*2 Ancient Grudge

*1 Golgari Charm

*1 Pyroblast

*2 Surgical Extraction

*1 Umezawa’s Jitte

*1 Chainer’s Edict

*2 Duress

*1 Life from the Loam

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Legacy Jund is everything the Modern Jund deck wishes it could be. [card]Punishing Fire[/card], [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card], [card]Hymn to Tourach[/card] – it is the essence of a good-stuff deck. Jund tends to dominate opposing fair decks, but it often comes up short against combo decks. It is especially cold to a [card]Leyline of Sanctity[/card].

[Deck title=MUD]

[Land]

*4 Great Furnace

*4 Ancient Tomb

*4 Cavern of Souls

*4 City of Traitors

*4 Wasteland

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*1 Blightsteel Colossus

*4 Kuldotha Forgemaster

*4 Lodestone Golem

*4 Metalworker

*1 Sundering Titan

*4 Wurmcoil Engine

*4 Goblin Welder

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Chalice of the Void

*1 Crucible Of Worlds

*4 Grim Monolith

*2 Lightning Greaves

*2 Mox Diamond

*1 Spine of Ish Sah

*2 Voltaic Key

*2 Mox Opal

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*1 Bottled Cloister

*2 Trinisphere

*2 Duplicant

*3 Phyrexian Revoker

*1 Steel Hellkite

*2 Faerie Macabre

*3 Blood Moon

*1 Mindslaver

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Sometimes also called “Mono Brown,” MUD is an artifact ramp deck that aims to lock its opponents out of the game with cards like [card]Chalice of the Void[/card], [card]Trinisphere[/card], and [card]Blood Moon[/card]. It then uses the cards [card]Metalworker[/card] and [card]Grim Monolith[/card] to ramp into giant threats like [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] and [card]Blightsteel Colossus[/card].

[Deck title=Painted Stone]

[Land]

*9 Mountain

*4 Ancient Tomb

*3 Arid Mesa

*4 City of Traitors

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*4 Painter’s Servant

*1 Phyrexian Revoker

*1 Spellskite

*1 Goblin Welder

*4 Imperial Recruiter

*2 Magus of the Moon

*4 Simian Spirit Guide

*1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Grindstone

*3 Sensei’s Divining Top

*4 Blood Moon

*3 Lightning Bolt

*3 Pyroblast

*3 Red Elemental Blast

*2 Chandra, Pyromaster

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*4 Ensnaring Bridge

*2 Ratchet Bomb

*4 Thorn of Amethyst

*1 Phyrexian Revoker

*1 Magus of the Moon

*1 Manic Vandal

*1 Pyroblast

*1 Red Elemental Blast

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

The mono-red Painter deck wins with the combination of [card]Painter’s Servant[/card] + [card]Grindstone[/card] to mill out its opponent. Its backup plan is [card]Blood Moon[/card]’ing the more greedy mana bases out of the game. And its backup, backup plan is beating down with one and two power creatures while you [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card]/[card]Pyroblast[/card] all of their spells.

[Deck title=Belcher]

[Land]

*1 Taiga

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*4 Elvish Spirit Guide

*4 Simian Spirit Guide

*4 Tinder Wall

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*3 Chrome Mox

*4 Goblin Charbelcher

*4 Lion’s Eye Diamond

*4 Lotus Petal

*4 Desperate Ritual

*4 Manamorphose

*1 Pyretic Ritual

*4 Seething Song

*4 Burning Wish

*3 Empty the Warrens

*4 Gitaxian Probe

*4 Land Grant

*4 Rite of Flame

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*4 Xantid Swarm

*3 Guttural Response

*1 Diminishing Returns

*1 Empty the Warrens

*1 Hull Breach

*1 Infernal Tutor

*1 Pyroclasm

*1 Reverent Silence

*1 Shattering Spree

*1 Forest

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

[card]Force of Will[/card] is the Magic card that keeps the Legacy format from being completely overrun by decks like Belcher. Belcher is a volatile combo deck that generally wins the game on turn one, or it doesn’t win at all. Winning the die roll is especially important for this deck – you want them dead before they even play a land.

[Deck title=Goblins]

[Land]

*3 Mountain

*3 Arid Mesa

*4 Cavern of Souls

*1 Plateau

*4 Rishadan Port

*1 Taiga

*4 Wasteland

*3 Wooded Foothills

[/Land]

[Creatures]

*4 Gempalm Incinerator

*4 Goblin Lackey

*4 Goblin Matron

*4 Goblin Piledriver

*4 Goblin Ringleader

*1 Goblin Sharpshooter

*4 Goblin Warchief

*3 Mogg War Marshal

*2 Siege-Gang Commander

*1 Skirk Prospector

*1 Stingscourger

*1 Tin Street Hooligan

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Aether Vial

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*3 Relic of Progenitus

*3 Mindbreak Trap

*3 Pyroblast

*3 Pyrokinesis

*3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Goblins is one of the oldest legacy decks that still sees play today. People often mistakenly call Goblins an aggro deck, when in reality it is more of a control deck. Similar to Death and Taxes, it plays [card]Aether Vial[/card] alongside [card]Wasteland[/card] and [card]Rishadan Port[/card] to get ahead on resources. It then plays cards like [card]Goblin Ringleader[/card] and [card]Goblin Matron[/card] to generate card advantage.

Closing

As I mentioned at the start of the article, Legacy is an immensely complex and diverse format. The descriptions and deck lists I’ve outlined here only scratch the surface of the archetypes that exist. If there is a desire for it I will write a follow-up piece that outlines some of the more fringe archetypes that see play in the Legacy format that are fun/powerful.

I’m heading to the GP in DC this weekend to play some Legacy myself. If you are there and see me feel free to say hello.

Cheers,

~Jeff Hoogland

 

Ice Cream Scepter – A Delicious Modern Brew by Jeff Hoogland

Isochron Scepter in Modern

GP Detroit has come and gone, Theros has entered the standard card pool, and yet I still can’t help but have modern on the brain! The format is very diverse and I feel that so long as you are playing a powerful combination of cards you are going to be able to win plenty of matches.

One card I’ve also been enamored with is [card]Isochron Scepter[/card] . This card has a powerful effect that you can easily abuse if you build your deck correctly. The first step to this abuse is building a deck that can survive in the current metagame.

Are you aware of how hard it is to play a deck based on a two mana permanent in a format that contains [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]? Here is a dirty little secret – it isn’t if you are doing it right. Let me introduce you to my little friend:

BorosCharm

[card]Boros Charm[/card] doesn’t care that [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] “can’t be countered”. You know what else [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] can’t do? It can’t destroy things that are indestructible.

With that in mind I’d like to talk about two deck lists today that utilize [card]Isochron Scepter[/card] and [card]Boros Charm[/card].

[deck title= Ice Cream Scepter]

[Lands]

*4 Arid Mesa

*2 Celestial Colonnade

*1 Hallowed Fountain

*1 Island

*1 Mountain

*1 Plains

*2 Sacred Foundry

*4 Scalding Tarn

*1 Seachrome Coast

*1 Shivan Reef

*3 Steam Vents

*1 Sulfur Falls

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

*4 Delver of Secrets

*3 Snapcaster Mage

*1 Spellskite

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*1 Apostle’s Blessing

*4 Boros Charm

*4 Lightning Bolt

*4 Lightning Helix

*4 Magma Jet

*3 Mana Leak

*2 Muddle the Mixture

*1 Remand

*3 Spell Pierce

[/Spells]

[Artifacts]

*4 Isochron Scepter

[/Artifacts]

[Sideboard]

*2 Dispel

*1 Faith’s Shield

*1 Magma Spray

*1 Negate

*4 Path to Exile

*1 Redirect

*3 Sowing Salt

*1 Spellskite

*1 Wear//Tear

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

 

First – the name. The name comes from what I am assuming was an auto-complete error a friend of mine made while messaging me about the deck list. I was amused by it, so it is staying as such.

Now – on to the actual cards! I really enjoy this deck because it can assume one of a few different roles depending on your draw. Sometimes you play a [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] on turn one, flip him to a [card]Boros Charm[/card] on two and then [card]Remand[/card] or [card]Mana Leak[/card] your opponent’s relevant spells until they die.

Other times, you are just a burn deck. We sport a whopping forty-eight points of reach in our main deck – not counting our three [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]. Once your opponent shocks themselves or fetches a few lands, it is not hard to close out a game. I do not think I have ever lost a game with this deck where my opponent had an active [card]Dark Confidant[/card] – because while it is drawing them more cards, it is also getting them dead faster!

Finally, we can assume a more controlling role – this is where the Scepters really shine. Our nine main deck pieces of counter magic combined with twelve pieces of spot removal can make it extremely difficult for opposing decks to maintain a board presence. Once you get to four mana you can slam an [card]Iscochron Scepter[/card] and attach a [card]Boros Charm[/card] or [card]Lightning Helix[/card] to it. There aren’t many decks in the format that can keep up with a six point life swing every turn that doesn’t cost you any cards!

Don’t have a [card]Lightning Helix[/card]? How about we just dome our opponent for four damage every turn with a [card]Boros Charm[/card]? No charms around either? Slide a [card]Magma Jet[/card] onto that Scepter and ensure you will almost never draw a bad card for the rest of the game while you kill small creatures or chew away at your opponent’s life total.

That leaves me with just three other cards I’d like to touch on before I get to the side board. First we have a couple more pieces of Scepter protection:

bless skite

[card]Spellskite[/card] is a modern powerhouse that really doesn’t need further introduction.

[card]Apostle’s Blessing[/card] is a card that sees far less play. Blessing is a card that can easily save either our [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] or [card]Isochron Scepter[/card] for just a single mana. Unlike the [card]Spellskite[/card] which sits on the table, Blessing forces our opponent to pull the trigger on trying to kill our threat, and then blows them out.

The last card I’d like to mention is [card]Demonic Tutor[/card], err, [card]Muddle the Mixture[/card] :

muddle

Need a Scepter to strap that sweet spell onto? Transmute your Muddle and go find one. Already have a sweet spell, but need a Scepter to put it on? Transmute Muddle for one! Already have both pieces of your combo are you are worried your opponent has a removal spell? Transmute Muddle for an [card]Apostle’s Blessing[/card]. Your opponent is trying to kill your Delver with a [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]? Counter it with Muddle.

It slices, it dices, and it gets us whatever we want in our deck full of awesome two drops.

The sideboard is still a work in progress, but I’ll share my logic on why the slots currently are what they are.

We start with three additional methods of protecting our Scepter from removal:

red spell shield

That gives us nine protection spells post board – this should be far more than any deck has in terms of removal for our scepter.

Next we supplement our main deck counter magic:

disgate

As well as improve some of our removal for decks with fat/resilient creatures:

magma path

Lastly, we play a few hate cards for Robots and Tron – popular decks online:

wearing salt

At this point I’ve played a couple of daily events with this deck list as well as a number of two/eight man queues. From my experience I would evaluate its matchups against the more popular decks in the field as follows:

Good Matchups:

  • Robots
  • Pod
  • Fish
  • BGx decks
  • Creature Decks

50-50 Matchups:

  • UWR
  • Twin
  • Living End

Bad Match Ups:

  • Tron
  • Storm


[deck title= BWR Scepter]

[Land]

*3 Arid Mesa

*3 Blackcleave Cliffs

*1 Blood Crypt

*1 Godless Shrine

*4 Marsh Flats

*1 Mountain

*3 Mutavault

*1 Plains

*2 Sacred Foundry

*1 Swamp

*1 Temple Garden

*1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

[/Land]

[Instants]

*4 Boros Charm

*2 Funeral Charm

*4 Lightning Bolt

*4 Lightning Helix

*2 Magma Jet

*2 Path to Exile

[/Instants]

[Creatures]

*4 Dark Confidant

*4 Deathrite Shaman

*4 Gravecrawler

[/Creatures]

[Sorceries]

*2 Inquisition of Kozilek

*2 Thoughtseize

[/Sorceries]

[Artifacts]

*4 Isochron Scepter

[/Artifacts]

[/deck]

This next deck list is a bit less tested than the UWR Scepter deck, but I think it also has a few fairly powerful things going for it. The first is the ability to lock our opponent out of drawing cards by strapping a [card]Funeral Charm[/card] to our [card]Isochron Scepter[/card]. A second is the sweet interaction that we had in standard for a few months:

grave vault

So on top of our Scepter providing us a constant flow of action we will have a steady stream of zombies beating down on the ground.

It is very possible that this deck want some number of [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] since using the [card]Isochron Scepter[/card] counts as “casting” a spell. I am worried about getting too gummed up with two drop permanents with [card]Dark Confidant[/card], [card]Isochron Scepter[/card] and [card]Young Pyromancer[/card].

I’ve yet to put together a sideboard for this list, but if I were to do so it would start with filling out the set of [card]Path to Exile[/card] and at least a couple more pieces of hand disruption.

Wrap Up

I hope you enjoy activating [card]Ischron Scepter[/card] as much as I do. I definitely think the UWR version of the deck is competitive and from the few games I played with it, the BWR version might have something to it as well.

My next major modern event is the TCGPlayer Invitational 50k at the beginning of November – it is split standard/modern formats. I’m heading to Cleveland this weekend though to battle it out in standard and legacy at the Starcity Open. If you see me there, feel free to say hello.

 

Cheers,

~Jeff Hoogland

Delving in Detroit- Jeff Hoogland’s GP Detroit Action Report

Delving in Detroit

This past weekend I had a chance to partake in the largest sanctioned event to date for one of my favorite formats (modern) – GP Detroit. If you’ve been following my stream then you know I’ve been trying a variety of different cards inside of the UR Tempo shell I played at GP Kansas city. I ended registering the following 75 cards Saturday morning:

[deck title= UR Delver]

[Lands]

*4 Mutavault

*4 Scalding Tarn

*3 Misty Rainforest

*4 Steam Vents

*1 Sulfur Falls

*5 Island

*1 Mountain

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

*4 Delver of Secrets

*4 Snapcaster Mage

*4 Spellstutter Sprite

*2 Vendilion Clique

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*3 Spell Pierce

*2 Spell Snare

*4 Remand

*4 Mana Leak

*2 Pillar of Flame

*4 Lightning Bolt

*4 Magma Jet

*1 Sword of Light and Shadow

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*3 Stone Rain

*2 Blood Moon

*2 Dismember

*3 Magma Spray

*1 Negate

*1 Dispel

*2 Spellskite

*1 Sword of Light and Shadow

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Why Delvers?

A question have I been asked by a number of people is why I ended up playing [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] in Detroit. For most the previous two weeks I’d been streaming with [card]Scion of Oona[/card] in that slot and was fairly happy with the change.

The main reason for swapping back to Delvers was:

In my last stream before the event I tested [card]Sword of Light and Shadow[/card] with [card]Delver of Secrects[/card]. I was very impressed with this addition.

Sword allows us to grind card advantage in midrange matches by returning Sprites and Snapcasters to our hand and allows us to stabilize with a higher life total against aggressive decks. Speaking of Sprites – the +2/+2 allows us to clock our opponents with a Spellstutter much quicker as well.

The protection is not irrelevent, either. While protection from black only protects against a couple of common cards such as Disfigure and Dismember, protection from white does all sorts of wonderful things in this format. It allows our creatures to attack through a [card]Restoration Angel[/card], while blanking [card]Path to Exile[/card] and [card]Lightning Helix[/card].

So, obviously the Sword is awesome. Why does that mean we cannot play [card]Scion of Oona[/card]? Simple – Scion gives creatures Shroud. This means that while a Scion is on the table you cannot gear up your Sprites, Clique or [card]Mutavault[/card]s. If you get two Scions on the table, then you can’t gear up Scion either. This means if we want to play Swords, Scion has to go.

The Event Itself

At the GP itself I finished an unimpressive 141st place. My final record was 9 – 6, that means after you subtract the three byes I came in with I finished exactly even in terms of Wins : Losses at 6 : 6. The following is a short overview of the twelve rounds I played.

Round 4 – Lingering Jund

Normal Jund or GBx is fairly close to a 50-50 match up for the URx Fae deck. When they add [card]Lingering Souls[/card] to the mix things get tricky though. I win the die roll and win a very close game one off of a mulligan to six.

In game two I am in control most of the way. I [card]Spell Pierce[/card] the front half of a [card]Lingering Souls[/card] and [card]Remand[/card] the back half. I end up getting in a pair of hits with the [card]Sword of Light and Shadow[/card] before he finds an [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] – this card advantage closes out any chance he has of winning.

4 – 0

Round 5 – UWR Control

The was an…interesting match. I mulligan a no-land seven, into a five-land six, into a no-land five, into a no-land four. My three cards are:

[card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]
[card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]
[card]Misty Rainforest[/card]

He is on the play and makes the play of [card]Celestial Colonnade[/card] pass.

My first draw step is a [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] – I go into the tank. Do I play this Delver and try to win this game being three cards down? I come to the decision of “no”. I simply pass the turn back while my opponent plays magic. I scoop game one before I have to discard to hand size.

Game two, I [card]Stone Rain[/card] him on turn three and then [card]Blood Moon[/card] him on turn four – he packs it in a few turns later.

The final game goes long, but my combination of [card]Spellskite[/card] wearing a [card]Sword of Light and Shadow[/card] closes it out eventually.

5 – 0

Round 6 – Kibler Naya

The Kibler Naya deck is another rough matchup. Where were all the combo decks I wanted to beat? Like clockwork he has two [card]Loxodon Smiters[/card] three games in a row. I am able to steal game one with my main deck [card]Sword of Light and Shadow[/card], but then proceed to lose two fairly close games two/three. My mulligan to five in game three didn’t help matters any.

5 – 1

Round 7 – GB Rock

I had an interesting decision come up in the first game of this match I’d like to discuss. The situation is the following:

I’m on five lands and have been clocking my opponent with a pair of Mutavaults. My hand consists of:

[card]Spell Snare[/card]
[card]Spell Pierce[/card]

He has a Liliana of the Veil I’ve been ignoring because he is going to be dead long before Liliana goes ultimate. He has five lands in play, three cards in hand and pushes his Liliana up yet again.

I opt to discard my [card]Spell Pierce[/card], at five lands it isn’t going to counter any removal that he plays. [card]Spell Snare[/card] on the other hand will catch [card]Tarmogoyf[/card], [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] or [card]Dark Confidant[/card] – all of which can stop my [card]Mutavault[/card]s from killing him next turn.

After I bin the [card]Spell Pierce[/card], he slams a main deck [card]Batterskull[/card]. Hind sight being 20/20, I’d have won that game easily if I’d have kept the Pierce. Do you think I made the wrong play?

Game two I kept a very powerful five spell, two-land hand on the play. Turn nine rolled around and the only spell I’d drawn was a [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] 0- which did not flip my [card]Delver of Secrets[/card]. I died a few turns later to a [card]Thrun, the last Troll[/card].

5 – 2

Round 8 – Robots

Finally! A deck I want to play against.

I win the die roll and keep a decent opening hand on the play. I drop a fetch land and pass. On his turn he vomits his hand forth onto the table, including an [card]Arcbound Ravager[/card] that runs right into my [card]Spell Snare[/card]. I am able to slowly pick apart his Robot army and eventually win game one.

Game two I mulligan to six and keep four-lander (including a [card]Mutavault[/card]), [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], and [card]Magma Spray[/card] on the draw. Sadly, I am unable to keep from flooding out and scoop the second game about a dozen turns in.

In game three I was able to punish a play from my opponent. Because I had a [card]Spellskite[/card] on the table I let his [card]Arcbound Ravager[/card] resolve. He was stuck on two land and a [card]Mox Opal[/card] as mana sources, he then drew a second [card]Mox Opal[/card]. As affinity players so often do – he sacrificed his first Opal to his [card]Arcbound Ravager[/card] and then played the second – right into my [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card]. I Cliqued him the following turn, revealing his hand full of blue cards he could no longer cast.

6 – 2

Round 9 – Scapeshift

Two good matches in a row you say? I was truly excited when my opponent suspended a [card]Search for Tomorrow[/card] in the first game of my “bubble” match (for those that don’t know, a “bubble” match is where the winner makes the second day of the event, while the loser does not). I successfully execute my game plan, which is stopping his game plan.

I win a fairly quick 2 – 0

7 – 2

Round 10 – Robots Again

I had seen my opponent the previous day and I am fairly certain he is playing [card]Splinter Twin[/card] – it turns out he wasn’t. My seven card hand that is amazing VS twin is very lack luster against Robots on the draw.

In the second game I have a very embarrassing misplay that lead to a loss. My opponent is dead to a pair of Insectile Aberration plus my reach when he slams a [card]Spellskite[/card] off of the top of his deck – this will prevent me from killing him the following turn. I opt to [card]Magma Jet[/card] his face so I can still untap and kill him.

Before I made this play I did not consider his board state. You see, he has two [card]Cranial Platings[/card], an [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card], and mana to activate and equip both platings. He does so and I promptly die, all while staring at the [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card] in my hand that could have traded with the [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] when it attacked in.

7 – 3

Round 11 – Melira Pod

This loss was a bit frustrating. I mulligan to five and still almost win game one, at one point I put a [card]Vendilion Clique[/card] on the bottom of my deck that likely could have won me the game had I kept it. How was I supposed to know he was going to draw a [card]Reveillark[/card]?
Game two I get him down to two life. There is a [card]Pillar of Flame[/card] in my graveyard and I’ve only played one other removal spell this game. That gives me a minimum of twelve cards to kill him on the spot.

I miss.

A few turns later I have beaten him back down to five life after he podded a[card] Kitchen Finks[/card] into an [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card]. I have a Snapcaster in hand, [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] in my graveyard and an Insectile Aberration in play. He has exactly one untapped land in play after activating his [card]Gavony Township[/card] to remove the minus counter from his Finks. The last card in his hand has to be either a fetch land or a basic forest to avoid falling to three and dying to my Snapcastered Bolt. He plays a [card]Misty Rainforest[/card] and pods his Finks into a [card]Murderous Redcap[/card], killing my Insectile Aberration. I Snapcaster-Bolt his face at end step anyway, giving myself the five outs of three more bolts or either of my two swords.

I miss again.

7 – 4

Round 12 – Living End

I bear a slightly sarcastic smile as I mulligan to five for the countless time this weekend. Thankfully the five I keep is insane in this matchup:

Land
Land
[card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]
[card]Mana Leak[/card]
[card]Remand[/card]

I end up drawing a [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card] and deploy the [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] at the end of his second turn to start the beat down. I quickly take game one.

In game two, I mulligan to five yet again, just looking for land – again I am rewarded with an insanely good five cards.

8 – 4

Round 13 – UWR Control Again

I lose a close game one, steal game two yet again with a [card]Blood Moon[/card] and keep a hand in game three that lacks a red source. I proceed to draw all red cards without finding a red producing land until turn 10+

8 – 5

Round 14 – Naya Midrange Again

This opponent was playing a few more planeswalkers than Kibler’s latest deck lists had featured recently – this enabled my [card]Spell Pierce[/card]s to be insane. I beat double [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card] in game one and was able to take down the second game on the back of [card]Sword of Light and Shadow[/card].

9-5

Round 15 – GB Midrange Again

In game one I “flood” on countermagic while I get ground out by a [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card].

Game two I have an aggressive draw and am able to keep him from resolving anything relevant.

In game three he casts three discard spells in the first three turns, shredding my hand. He then proceeds to only draw three lands the entire match – the rest of his cards are all gas – including two [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]s for both my Swords (even after I Cliqued one out of his hand).

9 – 6 and 141st Place

Wrap-Up

So over all I finished in 141st place, just inside the top ten percent of players at the 1461 player Grand Prix. While this is nothing to write home about, I was happy with my deck choice and came to a number of conclusions throughout the two day event.

First, [card]Stone Rain[/card] was far too narrow of a sideboard selection. Still not sure what I would like in its place, but it needs to be something that can help against Tron and still be live in other match ups. [card]Stone Rain[/card] was not nearly the card I wanted it to be against UWR.

Second, [card]Sword of Light and Shadow[/card] was an insane addition. As you know from reading my round break down – it took home a number of match ups. I would 100% continue playing this card in the future.

Finally, you honestly can never know what to expect to play against going into a modern event. Saturday morning there were a ton of [card]Splinter Twin[/card] and Tron decks in the room – I never played against a single one. While I expected to run into UWR and GBx decks during the course of the event – I did not expect to play against them seven out of my twelve rounds.

If I knew that going in, I likely would have picked a different deck list. The UR Tempo deck is at best 50-50 in both of these matchups, and that is not where you want to be going into a GP. That being said, the UR deck has a number of good match ups in the field and I would play it again at a modern event tomorrow. For those wanting an updated deck list I would recommend starting here:

[deck title= Improved UR Delver]

[Lands]

*4 Mutavault

*4 Scalding Tarn

*3 Misty Rainforest

*4 Steam Vents

*1 Sulfur Falls

*5 Island

*1 Mountain

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

*4 Delver of Secrets

*4 Snapcaster Mage

*4 Spellstutter Sprite

*2 Vendilion Clique

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*3 Spell Pierce

*2 Spell Snare

*4 Remand

*4 Mana Leak

*2 Pillar of Flame

*4 Lightning Bolt

*4 Magma Jet

*1 Sword of Light and Shadow

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

*2 Turn//Burn

*1 Counterflux

*2 Blood Moon

*2 Dismember

*3 Magma Spray

*1 Negate

*1 Dispel

*2 Spellskite

*1 Sword of Light and Shadow

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Personally, I am looking forward to get working on Theros Standard now that GP Detroit is over with. I have standard events every weekend in October. If you plan to be at SCG Cleveland or Milwaukee I’ll see you there.

Cheers,

~Jeff Hoogland

Jeff Hoogland – Delvers, Scions and Lightning Bolts, Oh My!

In November of last year I was searching for a deck to play at my first large modern event — GP Chicago. Nothing that was currently popular in the format struck my fancy. If you know me, then you know I strongly prefer playing a fair (non-combo) game of Magic. I enjoy having all the answers.

Chicago is fairly close to where I live in central Illinois and one of the players from my local shop had a sweet brew he had been working on — a UR Fae deck. After playing a dozen or so games against decks we expected to be popular at the event, I was sold. So, thanks Matt Norton — you created a UR-colored monster.

GP Chicago has been almost a year ago now and I’ve been championing some form of the UR deck in the modern format ever since. I finished in 16th place at GP Kansas City with a UR deck featuring [card]Delver of Secrets[/card]. You can read about some of my thoughts on that deck list here.

I recently started playing Modern on Magic Online (and streaming my events on twitch.tv here). Constant, on-demand Magic in a competitive setting is great for getting in lots of testing. It has allowed me try a variety of cards I hadn’t given enough attention to in the past. MODO really is an invaluable tool for a grinder like me. I cannot believe I didn’t give it a try sooner.

Today I am going to discuss the selection of cards I feel are appropriate to play in the URx Tempo shell in modern. If you came here simply looking for my latest deck list to copy down and sleeve up, then you should simply bookmark my tappedout page and stop reading this article. The point of this article is to help us understand why we choose the cards we play for a given event.

Core Card Selection (Shouldn’t Change)

The following are all cards I believe are “must haves” for this archetype. They make the deck function at a fundamental level and if you cut them you are likely going to have a bad time.

4 [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]

He slices, he dices, he bolts, he leaks — he leaves behind a body that slowly chips away at our opponent’s life total. Snapcaster is everything we want and more in a Magic card. When you are playing just remember Snapcaster’s “hidden” mode — a blue [card]Ambush Viper[/card]. When your opponent isn’t playing into your counter magic and you lack a threat on the table — don’t be afraid to deploy Snapcaster at their end step as just a 2/1 beater.

4 [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card] (S3‘d)

Every deck in Modern plays one mana spells. They all want those spells to resolve. Spellstutter Sprite helps ensure they resolve far less often. In conjunction with [card]Mutavault[/card] this little Fae is a powerhouse.

2-3 [card]Vendilion Clique[/card]

You do not want more than three Cliques and you definitely do not want fewer than two. Clique is an evasive threat that comes down at instant speed. Just don’t fall into the trap of always playing Clique at their draw step. In fact, the only time you should Clique during their draw step is when you have absolutely no other answers in your hand.

4 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]

This is the best removal spell (card?) in Modern. It kills mana dorks and shaves entire turns off of the clock in a race. It also helps you close out games you had no business winning.

2 [card]Pillar of Flame[/card]

The first time a [card]Kitchen Finks[/card]/[card]Voice of Resurgence[/card] slips through your counter magic you will be very grateful to be packing these into your main deck. Pillar gets the nod over [card]Magma Spray[/card] due to the fact that it can be directed to a player. All of your main deck removal should double as reach.

4 [card]Mana Leak[/card] / 4 [card]Remand[/card]

These are our core way of saying “No” to the things our opponent is trying to do. Remanding something that costs over half of your opponent’s mana is almost always correct. Also keep in mind that in a counter war you can always remand your own spells.

2-3 [card]Spell Snare[/card]

Just like one mana spells, there are a pile of two mana spells in Modern we really do not want to let resolve. [card]Spell Snare[/card] helps with this.

4 [card]Mutavault[/card]

In addition to being an ace with [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card], [card]Mutavault[/card] also helps the times we flood feel less detrimental. When four or more of your twenty two lands attack — you are rarely searching for a threat.

Supplemental Cards (Pick your poison)

If you were keeping track, you know that our core card selection only comprises about 26 spells. This style of deck wants around 22 lands, so that leaves us with twelve slots to fill. The following are most of the cards I’ve played at various points in the URx deck and they are all good in different situations depending on the metagame you are expecting for a given event.

[card]Delver of Secrets[/card] or [card]Scion of Oona[/card] (Extra Threats)

The ten threats we listed as mandatory are not enough to close out games on their own. You want either four Delver or four Scion to supplement the beat down. There are pros and cons of playing either threat.

Delver (sometimes known as Wandering One)

The reason to play Delver is free wins. Sometimes you play this little guy on turn one, he flips on turn two, and you ride the Aberration to victory. I’ve won a number of games while stuck on exactly one land because my Delver flipped the turn after I played him.

That being said, Delver is a miserable top deck late game. In fact, a Delver coming down any turn after the second is often far worse than [card]Scion of Oona[/card] (or any other threat). Beyond this, it can sometimes be very hard to get a Delver to flip over. Our deck is constrained to playing at most 24 cards that can flip a Delver.

Scion of Oona

In my current testing for GP Detroit I am favoring playing Scions for my additional threat. You wanted to Decay my [card]Vendilion Clique[/card]? Scion in response. You wanted to Tec Edge my [card]Mutavault[/card]? Scion in response. By having four more “control” cards in our deck we can really gain an edge against a number of things. In fact — the only time Scion feels miserable is when we are failing to get past our second land drop.

Scion is the more consistent choice; this is what you often want for large events.

[card]Burst Lightning[/card]

I’ve often run two Burst Lightnings in my deck list, essentially they act as [card]Lightning Bolts[/card] 5/6. Killing a turn one mana dork is an important play in this format. Having additional one mana removal also makes our [card]Snapcaster Mages[/card] that much better.

[card]Electrolyze[/card]

This card just screams value. Two damage, to possibly two targets and I get to draw a card? Sign me up! That being said, three mana is a lot and I would never recommend playing more than two copies of Electrolyze in a deck playing fewer than twenty-four lands.

[card]Magma Jet[/card]

Jet doubles as both a removal spell and virtual card advantage (are you pumped this is coming back to standard? I know I am). Filtering your draws to find that next land you desperately need or putting lands 7/8 on the bottom of your library are both invaluable. If you are playing Delvers — Jet is a great way to help that little bugger flip over.

[card]Spell Pierce[/card]

You definitely want some number of Spell Pierce in your 75. Having a cheap counter spell is often what can push you over the top in a counter war against another blue deck.

[card]Telling Time[/card]

There is no denying that all the cantrips in modern are awful. That being said — I think Telling time is the least awful of the bunch. It deploys at instant speed and helps you filter your draws to what you want. Snapping it back is no joke, either.

[card]Faerie Conclave[/card]

“Comes into play tapped” lands suck. That being said, there is something to be said for having a fifth land that can beat your opponent to death. If you are playing Scions I would heavily recommend playing at least one Conclave — this is because our first land coming down tapped is less relevant when we don’t have Delvers in our pile of cardboard.

[card]Sideboard Selection[/card]

Your sideboard should 100% be tuned to the metagame you expect to play in. You should never simply copy a sideboard from a posted deck list and expect it to be OK for whatever field you are going into. It is also important to keep in mind that your choice of threats should influence your sideboard selection. It is important to keep your instant/sorcery count high if you are playing Delvers.

That being said, there are a couple cards that I feel are a mistake to omit from the URx sideboard.

Highly Recommended

2-3 [card]Blood Moon[/card]

Modern is a format of greedy mana bases. There are a number of games that we win on the spot because a Blood Moon resolved. This is a powerful card VS UWR, Tron, Jund, Junk Scapeshift and other miscellaneous things you might play against.

2-3 [card]Magma Spray[/card]

Instant speed exiling removal, you want access to at least four pieces of exiling removal in your 75. If you are expecting a lot of Merlia Pod then packing extra can’t hurt. Effective, low cost answers to Finks and Voice are extreme valuable.

2 [card]Turn/Burn[/card]

Cheap removal that doubles as “kill target Goyf/[card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card]”? Yes please!

Other Selections

Additional Counter Magic ([card]Spell Pierce[/card], [card]Negate[/card], [card]Dispel[/card])

I would recommend playing at least two additional pieces of counter magic in your side board. Which ones you pick should depend on what you expect to play against.

[card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

This is our best way to remove troublesome permanents from the table. It kills Goyf, [card]Pyromancer’s Ascension[/card], a swarm of Goblin tokens or a pile of Robots. It is a flexible card and well worth the slot.

[card]Spreading Seas[/card]

Sometimes we want to disrupt our opponent’s mana without disrupting our own. Spreading allows us to do this in a cost effective manner that also doesn’t generate card disadvantage. I am rarely sad to draw multiple Spreading Seas in a game and they are my favorite way of turning off a [card]Celestial Colonnade[/card].

[card]Dismember[/card]

This is a decent, catchall, one mana removal spell. Sometimes something with 4+ toughness slips through the cracks. Dismember is UR’s best way to deal with these things.

[card]Isocron Scepter[/card]

Strap a [card]Telling Time[/card] or [card]Magma Jet[/card] to this bad boy and you likely won’t have a bad draw for the rest of the game. It is sweet to say the least. I wouldn’t recommend playing more than a single copy of the scepter though — they are truly awful when they are drawn without things to imprint on them.

[card]Spellskite[/card]

Good general catchall modern side board card. It protects our threats from removal and disrupts a number of combo decks.

[card]Shadow of Doubt[/card]

Kills target fetch land, stifles a [card]Birthing Pod[/card] activation, counters a Gifts or a [card]Scapeshift[/card] — all while drawing a card. The only problem is that double blue can be hard to cast at times.

[card]Squelch[/card]

Squelch is often like an easier to cast Shadow of Doubt. The only problem? You have to have a valid target for it, meaning you can’t cantrip it on an empty board (you can however activate and Squelch your own [card]Mutavault[/card] if you really need to draw).

Splashing a Third Color

One thing I’ve been experimenting with since Kansas City (and really liking) is splashing a third color for sideboard cards. Black is my current color of choice because gaining access to hard removal such as [card]Go for the Throat[/card] really helps improve some of the harder match ups for this deck. I think [card]Go for the Throat[/card] is the right piece of removal for a number of reasons.

  • Playing [card]Path to Exile[/card] in your [card]Mana Leak[/card] deck is an awful idea — don’t ramp your opponent or play soft counters.
  • [card]Terminate[/card] is out because we often have at least eight lands that do not make red or black mana
  • [card]Doom Blade[/card] is out because our robots match is already fine — so we would much rather have our extra removal kill Bobs/Deathrites
  • [card]Dismember[/card] costs us a ton of life, meaning we often can’t cast more than 1-2 of them in a game. Sometimes we need more removal than that.

Cards I do not think are worth Playing

There are a number of cards I’ve tried over the last year that aren’t the greatest. I’ll list a few of the more common ones I get asked about.

[card]Young Pyromancer[/card]

If you’ve been following my stream for the last month — then you know there was a week where we experimented with [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] in the S3‘d slot. I am here to tell you that I have set fire to a pile of tickets so you do not have to. YP is worse than [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card] in just about every way possible in this deck. YP forces you to often play out your spells in a sub-optimal order in order to try and extract “value” from our Pyromancer. In addition he makes many match ups where S3‘d is an ace much worse (Storm, Living End, Tron, Burn to name a few).

[card]Mistbind Clique[/card]

Playing Mistbind in a deck without [card]Bitterblossom[/card] in a format that is as removal heavy as modern is just asking to get yourself two for one’d. Don’t do it.

[card]Cryptic Command[/card]

Our mana curve stops at three. We don’t have room to play clunky, expensive cards like [card]Cryptic Command[/card]. The triple blue in the casting cost can also be prohibitive with our [card]mutavault[/card]s.

[card]Threads of Disloyalty[/card]/[card]Vedalken Shackles[/card]

New players often feel like they want one or both of these cards against Goyf decks. You know what those Goyf decks also play? [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]. You feel really silly spending three/five mana to take their creature, only to have them spend two mana to snag it back. You’d much rather just be playing removal over either of these cards.

[card]Izzet Charm[/card]

[card]Mutavault[/card] makes this one hard to cast on two. This coupled with the fact that it is unable to go to the dome makes it bad in a race situation.

Sideboarding Advice

One question that is fairly common from players is sideboarding advice. While some general guidelines from a person who has play a deck before can be helpful, writing down strict sideboarding rules is often detrimental to your performance.

In a format that is as wide open as modern, various deck lists often have small changes to them that could make certain cards better and others worse. Because of this, I will only provide a few general rules of thumb I apply when boarding/playing against a few of the more popular modern arch types — these are not hard and fast rules.

Pod

You want all the removal you have access to in this match up. [card]Spell Snare[/card] is awful — board it out. You want [card]Remand[/card]s on the play and [card]Spell Pierce[/card]s on the draw. Always kill the mana dork. If your seven card hand can’t prevent a turn two [card]Birthing Pod[/card], mulligan.

Do not try to [card]Blood Moon[/card] the pod deck.

RG Tron

This match is a perfect example of why we want all of our removal to have the option of going to the dome in our main deck. In this matchup we are essentially a burn deck game one. In games two/three we can board out our poorly-positioned removal in favor of more counter magic and land disruption.

UWR

Against this deck we essentially want to execute a “protect the queen” game plan. By that, I mean we want to stick a single threat and ride it until they provide an answer we are unable to counter. Getting yourself two-for-zero’d by an [card]electrolyze[/card] is the quickest way to lose this match up.

[card]Blood Moon[/card] and [card]Spreading Seas[/card] are good here. Bring them in.

Goyf Decks

On the draw I often take out most all of my two mana counter magic in these match ups in favor of more removal. That being said — never board out [card]Spell Snare[/card]. Having a hard “No” for target [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] is big game.

Wrapping Up

Whew! I feel like I’ve composed a book on URx Fae! Hopefully you’ve learned as much from reading this as I have from accumulating the knowledge it took to write it. If you are interested in seeing how various matches play out with this arch type — check out the archive on my twitch channel. If you are interested in watching some live action, I’m streaming Modern on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. You can always find the latest details on stream times on the before mentioned twitch page.

Have any questions on something specific that I didn’t cover above — feel free to drop a comment below.

Regards,

~Jeff Hoogland (@JeffHoogland)