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This weekend, my LGS is having its first Legacy FNM. For people who don’t play Legacy, this is just a chance for people to show off their dual lands, Force of Wills and Wastelands. I guarantee there will be some people who’ll show up just to see cards they may never see again. I mean, the words “Jace, the Mind Sculptor” are said in hushed tones amongst casual players, imagine the chance to see this legendary card of mythical power, pun intended. But for those playing in the tournament, it’s a whole lot more than a showcase of Magic’s greatest hits. It’s exposure to what many call the best format in the game, the Magic player’s paradise, or Type 1.5.
For those that aren’t aware of this format, Legacy is an eternal format, meaning that the format doesn’t rotate and you can play any card that was printed in the game’s history, provided it isn’t on the format’s banlist. It’s a format where you get to experience the power that was Magic’s history and where you get to see some of the most skill intensive games of Magic you may ever see. It has a huge community online on The Source and on the subreddit, /r/MTGLegacy, yet despite this, people are often turned away or are afraid to approach Legacy. Legacy is my favourite format, hands down, so I’m going to take some myths about Legacy and toss them aside and show you why you would be a fool to turn away from a format where you can put an Emrakul into play on turn 2 or 3.
Magic the Gathering’s Greatest Hits
In recent years, Wizards RnD have done a great job of perfecting power levels. Sure cards like [card]Siege Rhino[/card] and [card]Hangarback Walker[/card] slip through onto the print sheet but on the whole, the game’s power is at a much lower rate than it was fifteen years ago. Which is healthy for the game going forward but come on, would you rather be playing a turn two [card]Sylvan Caryatid[/card] or [card]Sylvan Library[/card]? In Legacy, you get to play with cards that no other format lets you play with. When you cast your [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] or your [card]Dig Through Time[/card], this is the only place where you’re going to find those cards. You get to play with these powerhouses of recent memory that have been banned in Modern and sometimes Standard. And that’s just looking at cards that have been printed in the past few years. Just you wait until you see what RnD thought was okay to print twelve or thirteen years ago!
I love being able to see these cards shine. It feels like you get to play with ancient relics that used to be wielded by gods. Imagine getting the chance to lift Thor’s hammer or pull the sword from the stone. That’s what it’s like to cast [card]Force of Will[/card] and [card]Hymn to Tourach[/card]. These cards that won’t see the light of day ever again because they’re too strong have a home in formats that aren’t Legacy. It’s kind of like that moment in action movies when you get the old, retired action hero to come out of retirement and get back into it again, and then you see them kick serious booty as the other heroes watch in awe. Legacy is getting to fight alongside Yoda and Gandalf! How cool is that?
A Thrill for Skill
Pauper, another format dearly close to my heart, is widely considered to be a brewer’s format. People that love to come up with deck ideas and tinker and brew are drawn to Pauper and it’s brewing capabilities. Legacy, on the other hand, is a player’s format. What I mean by that is, Legacy rewards those who really know the game and their deck. This isn’t to say that other big constructed formats like Modern or Standard aren’t skill intensive. You just need to look at the finals of this years World Championships to see how much skill is present in these formats. But this skill and all of the various lines of play are multiplied hundredfold in Legacy. Legacy matches can be decided on how one orders their [card]Ponder[/card] or [card]Brainstorm[/card]. Similarly, there can be multiple paths to victory and its a matter of trying to isolate the path that is quickest and easiest on the resources.
And this isn’t to say you have to be a “good” player to enjoy Legacy. Instead, if you are a “good” player you will be heavily rewarded in this format and it’s a real test to your skill level. Even if you aren’t a PTQ grinder or the person who regularly goes undefeated FNM, playing Legacy will test you and after even a couple of games, you’ll begin to get better. Games will almost always come down to the player who picks the best plays and utilise their cards in the right manner. I refuse to believe that there are “bad matchups” in Legacy. There are decks that have an upper hand against some decks but I refuse to believe that there are decks that just steamroll other decks. There are decks in Modern that just can’t beat certain decks like Merfolk vs Affinity, or B/G Midrange vs Zoo wheras in Legacy, sure Infect has strong game against Miracles but all it takes is a good Miracles player and they can claw back those percentage points like nothing. If you love trying to figure out the right play or the most mana efficient way of stabilising the board, then Legacy is the format for you.
There’s a Deck for That
There’s a really strong brewing community within Legacy and with the entire history of Magic at your fingertips, you can go nuts with what you have available. And the great thing is all of these decks can be played to great success and have been played to great success. Which means that no matter what you want to play, you can find a deck for you.
Do you like playing control and locking out the game before grinding out a win? Miracles.
Do you want to do loads of maths and thinking over how to sequence your cantrips before picking up speed all in one turn? Storm.
Wanna play a deck that wins by not casting spells? Just look at any of the flavours of Dredge.
Even if you just wanna play ball and hit with creatures, you’ve got a deck for you, Maverick and Death and Taxes. Legacy has something for everyone, regardless of what your preferred playstyle is. It’s hard to find something for everyone in formats like Standard. Combo players often don’t get the love in Standard and even in Modern, combo decks don’t get the care and attention from Wizards. Yet in Legacy, there’s a slew of combo decks you can play from Storm, to Reanimator, to Omnitell, to Dredge, to… you get the point.
All too Good to be True?
This all seems like it’s a paradise for every kind of Magic player but you’re probably asking about a couple of niggles. A few bits you’ve probably heard about Legacy that immediately put you off. No doubt the first one is the price and I wanna get this one out of the way.
Legacy is an expensive format, if you want it to be. Yes, you can splurge all out on a deck like Lands that plays cards like [card]Rishadan Port[/card], [card]Wasteland[/card] and [card]The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale[/card] and yeah, that’s gonna set you back a hefty chunk of cash. Alternatively, you can play something cheaper, something that’s still got great game and isn’t going to break the bank. There’s a whole variety of affordable decks out there that are probably the same as a Standard or Modern deck. Something like Burn, Merfolk, Dredge, even something like UR Delver only really has expenses in the 4 Volcanic Island which is a card that will let you play loads of Legacy decks, and 4 Force of Will which similarly, lets you transition to another deck with little to no difficulty. And in case you’re thinking, “but budget decks are always going to be inferior to decks that are expensive and cost lots of money”, you couldn’t be more wrong. I recommend you check out the Top 8 of SCG Worcester from last July. In that Top 8 you will find Charlie Mitchell playing Burn against Loam Pox and Jeskai Delver, two decks that are both expensive on their own but were fully pimped out, all foils, Alpha and Beta duals and so on. Charlie beat the Loam Pox deck to make it to the Top 4 where he lost to Jeskai Delver. A two hundred dollar Burn deck trounced an easily four thousand dollar Pox deck.
Oh, and Charlie Mitchell was 13 years old when he did that. So you can’t say money buys you victory when those kinds of results and players are out there.
You may also think that Legacy is full of turn one kills and combo deck after combo deck but that is equally untrue. Sure, in Vintage turn one kills or relatively uncommon but in Legacy, yeah there’s fast combo decks and alright, pretty much all of them have the capacity to win on turn one but the chances of that happening are so unbelievably slim. I’ve been playing and watching Legacy for over a year and in all that time I’ve seen Storm combo off on turn one once. And they were able to do that because they cast [card]Gitaxian Probe[/card] to reveal a five card hand with no disruption so they knew the coast was clear. Show and Tell, the most popular combo deck in the format right now, can’t go off on turn one. The mono blue Omnitell deck (another relatively unexpensive deck, I might add) has given up [card]Lotus Petals[/card] meaning it can’t cast [card]Show and Tell[/card] on turn one. Legacy is in fact, a slower format than people think. The Modern Affinity deck is faster than the Legacy Affinity deck, which has access to all of the Artifact Lands, a luxury the Modern deck doesn’t get to capitalise on.
I Now Pronounce You, a Community
I think after all of the crazy stack shenanigans and getting to say, “I equip Umezawa’s Jitte to True-Name Nemesis”, the part of Legacy that has me coming back every time is the community. Whether you frequent The Source or r/MTGLegacy, the Legacy community is always welcoming and is great fun to be around. Possibly this is because we know we’re a small bunch and we have to stick together. When I started getting into Legacy, the local Legacy players were delighted to help out and showed me a couple of their decks. There’s even a guy in my LGS who lets new players play his Death and Taxes deck at Legacy events.
Legacy players have invested into the format. They’ve spent time tuning and learning their decks, and spending large amounts of money on them in a fair few cases. They care about the format and when they see new people coming in, they are always happy to help them out. Even now, a friend of mine has bitten the bullet and is going to Legacy this Friday with his Modern Burn deck, with a few modifications. And I’m delighted. The Legacy community has gotten hit hard by WOTC a lot over history. The Reserved List, not reprinting expensive staples in an easily obtainable manner like a Commander deck, the lack of GPs, it’s pretty obvious we’re not WOTC’s favourite child. So when we see new players coming in, we welcome them in with open arms. The format is constantly growing as more and more people move to the format and most of them are sticking around because there’s a great bunch of people within the community. Guys in America like Bryant Cook, Joe Losset and Eli Kassis are known Legacy players that are great spokespersons for the format, and the same can be said over here with people like Phillipp Schoenegger, Julian Knab and even our own Susann Heidemueller, who became our World Cup Team Captain because she landed a great finish at GP Lille, which was Legacy!
I could go on about this wonderful format for paragraphs but I won’t. Because then you won’t have enough time to start playing this incredible format. Log on to Magic Online or Cockatrice or whatever platform you play on, or even head down to your LGS and ask about Legacy events. Start a proxy league in your shop. Make an account over at The Source and look at what some of the guys over there are posting. There’s tons of ways to get into Legacy and I encourage you choose one or multiple of them and start exploring. I can’t recommend the SCG Open Series enough as a way to get into the format. The commentators do a great job at explaining even the most complicated of combo decks and showcase a variety of decks, not just Delver deck after Delver deck.
I hope that you enjoyed this ramble of a madman and I hope to see you flipping Delvers and spinning Tops at the next Legacy GP!
Craig Wescoe is a pretty good guest. He’s a deck brewer and a member of Team Ultra Pro. He is the foremost white player (white deck player; don’t bring race into this) and he’s a financier to boot, writing financial review articles for each set on TCG Player. You want to hear what he has to say about stuff? Of course you do. He’s not into Demon Cats, by the way. I don’t think I am, but I can’t rule it out. How do you really know? You have to look at a bunch of pictures of Demon Cats and maybe you’re like “Huh, that’s my thing now, I guess. Awkward.” I’d say “awkward” is a bit of an understatement, but that’s me. Why don’t you listen to Craig’s interview rather than looking at weird Demon Cat pictures on the internet, you sicko?
Craig Wescoe joins us as a guest (@Nacatls4Life)
How do you evaluate a new set?
What are Craig’s favorite cards?
Craig likes this set. You’re WRONG if you don’t
What are Craig’s goals for next year?
Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher
Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook
Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter
I have been playing Esper Dragons since Dragons of Tarkir arrived with [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card]. The deck has been fun to play, and I’ve had success with it, but now that Theros is on it’s way out, is Esper Dragons going to survive? If so, will it be weaker or stronger? Will it even be the same deck?
Here is my pre-Battle for Zendikar list. Notice there are no [card]Thoughtseize[/card]s. I am cheap! I preordered the Ojutai’s (luckily!) and opened Jace at the Origin’s prerelease. [card]Despise[/card] and [card]Duress[/card] work for me, save me a few bucks, and aren’t rotating out. True, you can’t take away their draw step, but I don’t find myself in that position enough times to make it relevant. Also, the two life really does matter. I’ve won games with one or two life multiple times, and that is just one [card]Thoughtseize[/card] from death.
[Deck Title=Standard Esper Dragons, Pre-BFZ ]
[Creatures]
*3 Dragonlord Ojutai
*1 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
*1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*3 Bile Blight
*4 Dig Through Time
*2 Dissolve
*2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
*3 Hero’s Downfall
*4 Silumgar’s Scorn
*2 Ultimate Price
*2 Crux of Fate
*1 Despise
*2 Duress
*1 Languish
*2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
[/Spells]
[Land]
*3 Island
*3 Swamp
*3 Caves of Koilos
*4 Dismal Backwater
*1 Flooded Strand
*2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
*4 Polluted Delta
*4 Temple of Deceit
*2 Temple of Enlightenment
*1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
*1 Orbs of Warding
*1 Bile Blight
*2 Dragonlord’s Prerogative
*1 Foul-Tongue Invocation
*1 Negate
*1 Ultimate Price
*1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
*1 Dragonlord Ojutai
*2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
*1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
*1 Despise
*2 Drown in Sorrow
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
Let’s look at the cards in my Esper Dragons deck that are rotating out of Standard with Theros block.
[Deck Title= Rotating Out]
[Spells]
*3 Bile Blight
*2 Dissolve
*3 Hero’s Downfall
*2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
[/Spells]
[Land]
*4 Temple of Deceit
*2 Temple of Enlightenment
*1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
*1 Bile Blight
*2 Drown in Sorrow
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
Overall, we lose six weenie wipers, two three-mana counterspells, three targeted creature and planeswalker removal spells, two value-train planeswalkers. and eight scries through our counters and temples. The Urborg was also helpful and we will have to adjust our manabase at it’s loss.
Does the new Standard have any efficient two-or-three-for-one removal spells? Weenie wipers effectively clear the board when a handful of tiny monsters appear, especially tokens from red spells like [card]Dragon Fodder[/card] and [card]Hordeling Outburst[/card]. We will need a way to kill a bunch of small creatures.
[card]Rising Miasma[/card] is an interesting choice, but feels strictly worse than [card]Languish[/card] and [card]Drown in Sorrow[/card]. Sure, in the mid to late game, it can clear some creatures and give you a 3/3, but the deck has better creatures, and while the 3/3 isn’t nothing, it’s not hugely impactful either.
We may just have to rely more on our friend [card]Languish[/card] on turn four, five, or six. I can see putting a full playset of these in the deck. As we will see later in the article, there are also some new ways to put your own little creatures onto the battlefield in addition to doing some of the things you need to be doing. We may be less needy when it comes to those little threats from our opponent.
Losing [card]Dissolve[/card] isn’t so bad when you have another three-mana spell to replace it that arguably has more utility, giving you a creature late-game if you want. [card]Scatter to the Winds[/card] is a great two-for-one, putting a 3/3 into play after blanking something important from your opponent. That 3/3 can blank your opponents’ whole team of 2/2s and 1/1s.
[card]Dispel[/card] is a cheap way to prevent your opponent’s instants. It might be a good card to side in against the mirror match and [card]Collected Company[/card] decks. Your opponent will have to respect a single untapped blue mana source, and that puts you in a very good position. I wouldn’t main deck these, yet.
I am pretty sure that [card]Horribly Awry[/card] will not be going in the deck unless Eldrazi take over the format. Even if that happens, we still have [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card], which blanks more big spells than Awry.
We lose [card]Hero’s Downfall[/card], and that is going to be trouble. [card]Ruinous Path[/card] appears to be a strictly better version, until one notices the type line, “Sorcery.” [card]Bile Blight[/card] and [card]Hero’s Downfall[/card] both had the benefit of waiting in your hand to see what your opponent chose to do during their turn. We are losing all of those. [card]Ultimate Price[/card] will have to pick up a lot of the slack here, but I am nervous because many of the best creatures in the format are multicolored or, now, colorless. I think a couple copies of [card]Ruinous Path[/card] are necessary to deal with planeswalkers and multicolored and colorless creatures that our [card]Languish[/card] can’t reach.
I don’t think [card]Bone Splinters[/card] will be an option because we just won’t have expendable creatures to sacrifice to it, however, a one cost kill spell is very enticing and may be an answer to a kill spell on a tapped [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card]. Cycling dragons out of the graveyard with [card]Haven of the Spirit Dragon[/card] can bring those sacrificed Ojutais and Silumgars back to your hand. In the end, Splinters is a two-for-one, but in favor of your opponent. That is just not something this deck can afford to do.
Our good friend Ashiok is leaving us. What can I say about Ashiok, but that he was a huge target with a small casting cost. He would save me from taking early damage. He put creatures into play that my opponents wanted to play, so typically they were good for me too. In the mirror, an unanswered Ashiok (only counters and Downfalls could do it) won the game. I don’t see [card]Ob Nixilis, Reignited[/card] taking on Ashiok’s role. Baby Jace might be the new format’s Ashiok. We will have to wait and see.
We get one-drop dual lands to replace our temples in [card]Prairie Stream[/card] and [card]Sunken Hollow[/card], so we can sleep easy knowing that our mana base should continue to be stable. As benefits, these lands come into play untapped in the late game and can be fetched. The downside is that we are losing a total of eight sources of scrying in the rotation between [card]Dissolve[/card] and the temples. Those scry triggers are so useful for smoothing out our draws, especially in the early game. I am pretty worried about this change, and I think it will lead to more variance in the play of the deck. This is probably a good thing for the format, as oppressive control strategies are quite boring to play against.
We straight up lose Urborg, which was great for turning fetches into swamps when paying life wasn’t an option or was less desirable. There isn’t much to be swapped in or out here. We could put in a colorless source with upside like [card]Blighted Fen[/card], [card]Blighted Cataract[/card], or [card]Blighted Steppe[/card]. We could put in a black source with a pretty useful ability like [card]Mortuary Mire[/card]. I think all of these are interesting choices. I am most intrigued with the magical Christmasland thought of playing a [card]Sandstone Bridge[/card] targeting Ojutai, swinging for six in the air, getting the Anticipate trigger, and my opponent never having the opportunity to target him! I don’t really want a white-only source of mana in the deck, but I am going to have to try it, because I want to make pull this off at least once!
Most likely, we are going to see [card]Shambling Vent[/card] take Urborg’s place, because a land that can gain you life and block small creatures is going to be very relevant in this kind of deck. It also taps for the right mana, which doesn’t hurt.
When I put it all together, here is where I end up for post-BFZ Standard Esper Dragons. What does your list look like? What changes would you make to adjust for the new format?
[Deck Title=Esper Dragons Post-BFZ Standard]
[Creatures]
*3 Dragonlord Ojutai
*1 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
*1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*4 Dig Through Time
*2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
*2 Scatter to the Winds
*4 Silumgar’s Scorn
*3 Ultimate Price
*3 Crux of Fate
*1 Despise
*2 Duress
*4 Languish
*3 Ruinous Path
[/Spells]
[Land]
*3 Island
*3 Swamp
*1 Caves of Koilos
*4 Dismal Backwater
*1 Flooded Strand
*2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
*4 Polluted Delta
*1 Shambling Vent
*1 Sandstone Bridge
*3 Prairie Stream
*4 Sunken Hollow
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
*1 Orbs of Warding
*2 Dragonlord’s Prerogative
*1 Foul-Tongue Invocation
*1 Negate
*2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
*1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
*1 Dragonlord Ojutai
*2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
*1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
*1 Despise
*2 Ugin’s Insight
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
Topics include: Battle for Zendikar design, new Standard, new limited, JR’s relic collection and 100-year-old postcard readings, Volkswagon and other recent scandals.
** This cast is for mature listeners **
Your Hosts:
Jason Alt — @JasonEAlt
Slick Jagger — @slickJagger
JR — @time_elemental
Some of you may know that I run a YouTube channel called Windmill Slam where I do silly drafts every week with a friend. One day I thought it would be fun to attempt to make up flavor text for cards and see if my buddy could distinguish between real flavor text and the false ones that I could come up with. We played the game and had a lot of fun with it, but this got me thinking; Why isn’t there a Magic: The Gathering gameshow like Jeopardy or Who Wants to be A Millionaire? There had been stuff in that sort of vein in the past, like Rich Hagon’s “Downtime,” but I wanted a more laid back, more fun experience. And most of all, I wanted to host a live-action one at my LGS. So that’s what I did.
The game, called Windmillionaire, pits players against each other in a setup similar to a game of Magic, but with decks of cards that I have pre-decided and special rules for most of the cards. The intricacies are outlined in the video below, so please check out the first episode, and let me know what you think!
Battle for Zendikar set review.
Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher
Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook
Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter
We finally have the full spoiler for Battle for Zendikar and, despite a lot of community dissent about the power level of the set and its mechanics, I am thrilled with a lot of the cards about to enter the Standard format. I’ve been brewing and looking over cards constantly. That said, there is one card in particular that has completely captivated my attention:
Well, not exactly Blood Artist, but close:
[card]Blood Artist[/card], combined with sacrifice outlets and creatures that leave behind tokens after dying, is the centerpiece of an archetype known as The Aristocrats, regardless of the format (and regardless of if there are any cards with the word “aristocrat” in the deck).
The original Aristocrats deck was a human-based sacrifice-for-value deck in the Innistrad and Return to Ravnica Standard format. Sam Black created the archetype in preparation for Pro Tour Gatecrash, and it took down the tournament in the hands of his teammate Tom Martell.
[deck title=The Aristocrats piloted by Tom Martell]
[Creatures]
*4 Champion of the Parish
*4 Doomed Traveler
*4 Cartel Aristocrat
*3 Knight of Infamy
*2 Skirsdag High Priest
*4 Boros Reckoner
*2 Silverblade Paladin
*4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
*1 Restoration Angel
*2 Zealous Conscripts
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*4 Orzhov Charm
*2 Lingering Souls
[/Spells]
[Land]
*3 Plains
*4 Blood Crypt
*3 Cavern of Souls
*1 Clifftop Retreat
*4 Godless Shrine
*4 Isolated Chapel
*4 Sacred Foundry
*1 Vault of the Archangel
[/Land]
[/deck]
The deck’s name came from two of the sacrifice outlets in the deck that fueled its synergy, [card]Cartel Aristocrat[/card] and [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card]. The value gained by sacrificing disposable creatures like [card]Doomed Traveler[/card] to enable Morbid on [card]Skirsdag High Priest[/card] or protect [card]Cartel Aristocrat[/card] and [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card] with their activated abilities was the synergy that drove the archetype. [card]Doomed Traveler[/card] is perfect in the shell, because it is not only a human to power up [card]Champion of the Parish[/card], but also left behind a spirit token. Though the deck didn’t dominate subsequent tournaments for the release of Dragon’s Maze, it did shine a spotlight on some powerful synergies in the deck and had the community’s attention. Several people continued to brew varying version of the deck that included [card]Blood Artist[/card] and the deck did have some success.
The deck’s next incarnation, following the release of Dragon’s Maze, was brought to prominence and was the weapon of choice for Standard master Brad Nelson. He tweaked and popularized the deck that we knew as Junk Aristocrats.
[deck title=Junk Aristocrats by Brad Nelson]
[Creatures]
*4 Doomed Traveler
*2 Young Wolf
*4 Cartel Aristocrat
*4 Voice of Resurgence
*4 Blood Artist
*3 Skirsdag High Priest
*3 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*4 Tragic Slip
*4 Lingering Souls
*3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
[/Spells]
[Land]
*1 Swamp
*2 Gavony Township
*4 Godless Shrine
*4 Isolated Chapel
*4 Overgrown Tomb
*2 Sunpetal Grove
*4 Temple Garden
*4 Woodland Cemetary
[/Land]
[/deck]
There were various different viable builds of the deck in this format prior to Magic 2014 that saw success. Some lists pushed the human subtheme, playing [card]Champion the Parish[/card] alongside [card]Gather the Townsfolk[/card]. Regardless of what cards were added in the “flex slots”, the deck won by playing out a massive number of creatures, attacking with them, and then sacrificing them to drain out their opponents with [card]Blood Artist[/card] triggers, amass an army of flying demons courtesy of [card]Skirsdag High Priest[/card], or just create a giant [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card] token to bash their opponent to death with. Despite playing a large number of “bad cards”, the deck was resilient and a contender in the metagame.
When Innistrad and company rotated out with the introduction of Theros, the deck died. Various versions of the deck popped up in Modern. Most recently, Steve Rubin played an Abzan version of this shell to a 14th place finish at Grand Prix Oklahoma City this month.
[deck title=Modern Abzan Aristocrats by Steve Rubin]
[Creatures]
*4 Doomed Traveler
*2 Tukatongue Thallid
*4 Viscera Seer
*4 Voice of Resurgence
*4 Blood Artist
*4 Tidehollow Sculler
*4 Satyr Wayfinder
*1 Cartel Aristocrat
*1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
*1 Eternal Witness
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*3 Abzan Ascendancy
*3 Collected Company
*4 Return to the Ranks
[/Spells]
[Land]
*1 Dryad Arbor
*2 Godless Shrine
*1 Isolated Chapel
*3 Marsh Flats
*1 Overgrown Tomb
*2 Razorverge Thicket
*1 Snow-Covered Swamp
*1 Snow-Covered Plains
*1 Snow-Covered Forest
*1 Temple Garden
*3 Verdant Catacombs
*4 Windswept Heath
[/Land]
[/deck]
What is most interesting about this modern deck is that key components of the deck came from the Standard-legal Khans of Tarkir block. [card]Collected Company[/card] and [card]Abzan Ascendancy[/card] are important role-players in the deck and may enable a similar deck to come to light when Battle for Zendikar is legal in Standard.
So let’s start the brewing process. Looking at the Aristocrats deck lists, I would divide the card choices into four categories:
The best way to go about building a deck that fits into the Aristocrats archetype, in my opinion, is identifying the options in each of those categories and then finding the most powerful, synergistic, and powerful 60-card combination.
One card every Aristocrats deck has in common is [card]Doomed Traveler[/card]. It’s integral to the archetype. One mana for two bodies. That’s two creatures to trade in combat or two triggers off of [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card] when those creatures die. Well, we don’t have a single casting cost creature that produces a flying token on its way to the graveyard, but we do have [card]Blisterpod[/card], which leaves behind an Eldrazi Scion token that can ramp us to casting [card]Collected Company[/card]. We also have [card]Carrier Thrall[/card] and [card]Sultai Emissary[/card] that have similar characteristics to [card]Doomed Traveler[/card] and [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card]. Though there is no card in the Standard format capable of doing what [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card] does in this strategy, having creatures that leave behind tokens after they die is incredibly important. Another creature that is worth considering is Standard all-star [card]Hangarback Walker[/card]. Though it is awkward with [card]Collected Company[/card], it is resilient, can leave us with multiple flying tokens, and has a high power level on its own. I would say that, no matter how we build a deck around [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card], it’s safe to say that we will be starting with four [card]Blisterpod[/card] and can add up to four each of Carrier Thrall, Sultai Emissary, and Hangarback Walker. Though [card]Collected Company[/card] is an instant, it does provide us with multiple bodies, and would place it in this category.
Cheap Resilient Creatures/Two-for-Ones:
As for sacrifice outlets, there are a few in Standard worth considering. The most obvious, in my opinion, is [card]Nantuko Husk[/card]. At three mana, it’s perfect for curve considerations. Turn one, play Blisterpod. On turn two, play Zulaport Cutthroat. Turn three, play Nantuko Husk. You have your board state set up to be competitive in combat and start getting value off of [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card]. The best part is that you’re also set up to follow up on turn four with either a Collected Company or by casting two additional Carrier Thrall, Hangarback Walker, and/or Sultai Emissary. There are additional ways to get value off of sacrificing creatures. Evolutionary Leap is incredible at gaining card advantage with [card]Blisterpod[/card]. Or, you can get aggressive and producing a powerful individual threat like [card]Butcher of the Horde[/card]. Later, we can look at some overlap between sacrifice outlets and interactive cards.
Sacrifice Outlets
So, now we have to figure out what higher purpose these poor creatures being sacrificed for. The sacrifice outlets give us value, our reward for making such a [card]dark deal[/card] to begin with. That said, we still need to extract additional value out of our dying creatures. The premier payoff card is the reason for building this style of deck, [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card]. It’s one of our most promising win conditions and makes cluttered battlefields insurmountable for our opponents. [card]Grim Haruspex[/card] would also be a great way to generate incredible card advantage. If we aren’t generating value out of the sacrifice itself, we need to get value out of having multiple creatures on the battlefield. [card]Abzan Ascendancy[/card] buffs our creatures and also provides evasive threats or sacrifice fodder as well. [card]Liliana, Heretical Healer[/card] is also a versatile, powerful option that is can easily be flipped. She is good against red decks, gains value over the course of the game when flipped in the midrange match-ups, and can threaten the hand of control players or recur threats in the late game. There are several options to consider.
Payoff Cards
Now we need to figure out what kind of interaction or disruption we need. If we want a catch-all removal spell, we would look to play the slow, but effective [card]Utter End[/card]. If the shell we end up building has an aggressive slant, we may consider [card]Crackling Doom[/card]. Other good removal spells in the four colors we have touched on thus far include [card]Ruinous Path[/card], [card]Murderous Cut[/card], [card]Mardu Charm[/card](versatile and can create additional creatures when advantageous[/card], and [card]Abzan Charm[/card]. Any of those could be fine options. As far as other disruption goes, without [card]Thoughtseize[/card] in the format, I think the available discard spells are too narrow. If we want to continue looking at flexible forms of interaction, [card]Kolaghan’s Command[/card] could also be a viable and synergistic option, as it does allow us rebuy a [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card] or [card]Carrier Thrall[/card]. Continuing down the path of looking at synergistic interactive spells, we should definitely consider cards that work with the sacrifice theme of the deck. [card]Fleshbag Marauder[/card]/[card]Merciless Executioner[/card] have a symmetrical effect that our deck is well-suited to abuse, and, if [card]Collected Company[/card] is in the deck, the 3/1s are additional targets for the powerful instant. Last but not least, the recently spoiled reprint [card]Bone Splinters[/card] would also serve as a way to sacrifice creatures.
Interation/Disruption
At this point all that’s left is building a shell and testing. There are tons of options available, and many of them could be viable or competitive. An aggressive Mardu shell featuring [card]Butcher of the Horde[/card] and [card]Bloodsoaked Champion[/card] with lots of removal spells could be one direction to go. If you wanted [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card] to be reach to close out a game, perhaps a Black-White weenie strategy with a multitude of 2/1s for one, including [card]Kytheon, Hero of Akros[/card], along with [card]Drana, Liberator of Malakir[/card] and [card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card] could be fast enough to punish midrange decks. From initial testing and deckbuilding with Justin Heilig (who designed the White Devotion deck played by Craig Wescoe at a WMCQ to a top eight finish and by Sam Black to 4-0 the Standard Swiss rounds at Worlds) we’ve wanted to capture the feel of the Aristocrats predecessors. We wanted to balance raw power level of card selections with synergy and thus far, though it’s early in testing, our favorite build is a base green and black shell splashing red and white. [card]Blisterpod[/card] seems like it is one of the most important role-players and the best thing to do on turn one when playing [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card].
[deck title=4c Aristocrats]
[Creatures]
*4 Blisterpod
*4 Zulaport Cutthroat
*3 Carrier Thrall
*2 Sultai Emissary
*4 Hangarback Walker
*3 Liliana, Heretical Healer
*4 Nantuko Husk
*2 Fleshbag Marauder
*3 Butcher of the Horde
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*3 Abzan Ascendancy
*3 Collected Company
*2 Bone Splinters
[/Spells]
[Land]
*4 Sandsteppe Citadel
*2 Llanowar Waste
*2 Windswept Heath
*3 Wooded Foothills
*2 BloodStained Mire
*2 Smoldering Marsh
*1 Canopy Vista
*1 Cinder Glade
*2 Forest
*3 Swamp
*1 Plains
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
*4 Arashin Cleric
*4 Bloodsoaked Champion
*1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
*2 Utter End
*3 Evolutionary Leap
*1 Fleshbag Marauder
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
We had input from several friends including Zach Byrd, Robbie Mitchell, and Allen Wiggs in developing this list. The deck has several resilient creatures, making [card]Abzan Ascendancy[/card] powerful as an anthem effect and as a way to generate additional creatures. One synergy I particularly like in grindy match-ups is [card]Sultai Emissary[/card] and [card]Abzan Ascendancy[/card]. With 29 creatures in the list, the manifest created when [card]Sultai Emissary[/card] dies can often turn into a more powerful creature and, if the manifests die, you generate a spirit token off the Ascendancy (unlike the tokens created by [card]Carrier Thrall[/card] or [card]Hangarback Walker[/card]. That continuous stream of creatures allows you to start alpha striking when your opponent is at a fairly high life total and then drain them out with [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card]. [card]Collected Company[/card] is incredibly powerful but puts a substantial constraint on deckbuilding. This list has 26 targets, which is enough to hit two creatures with a fair degree of consistency. It can be awkward with [card]Hangarback Walker[/card], but having to choose it as one of the targets for Collected Company isn’t the absolute worst. With Zulaport Cutthroat, you get a drain trigger, and with Abzan Ascendancy, the Hangarback Walker generates a spirit token. The Hangarback dying immediately will also flip a [card]Liliana, Heretical Healer[/card].
The sideboard has some some powerful tools. Against red decks, you can simply sideboard out Abzan Ascendancy and two Butcher of the Horde for Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Arashin Cleric. The deck has blockers for days and has more attrition tools in the match-up. Against control, [card]Bloodsoaked Champion[/card] allows for fast starts and is great against sweepers. [card]Evolutionary Leap[/card] comes in to ensure there’s a constant stream of threats to combat their removal spells. [Card] Shadows of the Past [/Card] may also have a role in the board for slower, grindier match-ups. The remaining cards are catch-all answers to nearly anything problematic your opponent presents.
If any of you are like me, you love EDH. If you are even more like me, you don’t have a whole lot of money and you love EDH. If you’re disturbingly similar to me you love EDH, like to play on a budget and your downstairs neighbor only listens to early 2000’s Emo music.
Normally I’d say those first two are an ideal combination of things to write about when thinking of Magic, but just this once I’m going to go out on a limb and include that questionable – and much harder to relate to for the average person – third category. So let’s drape ourselves in darkness, comb our dyed-black hair well into our eyes and turn up the Getup Kids – here comes your 5 most EMO-tional Commanders in Magic.
[card]King Macar, the Gold-Cursed[/card]
King Macar is entirely too sad for what’s actually happening here. He has the ability to not only vanquish his enemies but once he does, his enemies TURN INTO MONEY. I mean, it’s a may ability, why is this guy so depressed? It’s like finding out you can barf quarters and then not inviting your friends to the casino with you when you get food poisoning.
[card]Ghoulcaller Gisa[/card]
For my money it doesn’t get more emo than hanging out in a graveyard while wearing a black wedding dress. I’m sorry, maybe I’ve just seen that one episode of X-Files too much where the teachers are worshipping the devil (remember?) but Gisa really stands out to me as someone who clearly has some emotional issues and is expressing them through regrettable music choices.
[card]Heartless Hidetsugu[/card]
What a terrible life Heartless Hidetsugu must have had before this. I can just picture his mother looking through The Big Book of Baby Names and then just throwing it in the garbage and saying “you know what, I’m going with ‘Heartless.’” That’s the harshest naming convention since they decided “Aiden” was something ok to call a kid. Heartless Hidetsugu may be an ogre but we all know who the true monster is here.
[card]Feldon of the Third Path[/card]
Yikes, poor Feldon. This has to be the saddest Magic card in the world, right? The guy is holding the skull of a robot replica of his dead wife. It’s like someone saw I, Robot and was like, “This needs to be more like Liam Neeson’s real life.”
[card]Darien, King of Kjeldor[/card]
Can we get a better name for the lead singer of an emo band than Darien? “Yeah I’m Darien, and we’re This Beautiful Heartbreak.” Or maybe “Ice Age of the Soul”? Darien is so emo, his actual card mechanics want you to hurt yourself. Darien may be the King of Kjeldor, but he’s the Emperor of Emo in my books.
Of all these EMO-tional commanders, Darien really stands out to me as the one that screams “I hate you DAD!” Luckily, Darien also screams “build around me!” so let’s figure out howto use his wild mood swings and the need for us to hurt ourselves to make a killer deck.
Sure he looks ok here, but this guy is an emotional mess.
[Deck title= Darien, King of Kjeldor]
[Creatures]
1x Archetype of Courage
1x Ballyrush Banneret
1x Benalish Commander
1x Captain of the Watch
1x Catapult Master
1x Court Street Denizen
1x Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1x Daru Warchief
1x Devout Chaplain
1x Enlistment Officer
1x Evangel of Heliod
1x Gempalm Avenger
1x Goldnight Commander
1x Intrepid Hero
1x Knight-Captain of Eos
1x Kytheon’s Irregulars
1x Loxodon Gatekeeper
1x Mentor of the Meek
1x Mirror Entity
1x Odric, Master Tactician
1x Precinct Captain
1x Relic Seeker
1x Rhox Pikemaster
1x Soul Warden
1x Soul’s Attendant
1x Suture Priest
1x Veteran Swordsmith
[/creatures]
[Spells]
1x Ajani’s Presence
1x Angel’s Trumpet
1x Angelheart Vial
1x Caged Sun
1x Cathars’ Crusade
1x Conqueror’s Pledge1x Decree of Justice
1x Deploy to the Front
1x Dictate of Heliod
1x Everflowing Chalice
1x General’s Kabuto
1x Gift of Estates
1x Gods Willing
1x Illuminated Folio
1x Inheritance
1x Jade Monolith
1x Kirtar’s Wrath
1x Marble Diamond
1x Marshal’s Anthem
1x Martial Coup
1x Mask of Avacyn
1x Mind Stone
1x Mobilization
1x Nomads’ Assembly
1x Pearl Medallion
1x Return to Dust
1x Rootborn Defenses
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Staff of Nin
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Torture Chamber
1x Valor in Akros
1x Whispersilk Cloak
1x Worn Powerstone
[/spells]
[Land]
1x Drifting Meadow
1x Emeria, The Sky Ruin
1x Grand Coliseum
1x Karoo
1x Mage-Ring Network
1x Myriad Landscape
1x New Benalia
1x Nomad Stadium
27x Plains
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Tarnished Citadel
[/land]
[/deck]
In a lot of ways Darien is a classic token deck with the obvious limitations of being mono white in a format where that may be the worst mono-color to be in. As a result, the first category we need to talk about is overcoming the shortcomings of our colour choice, namely card draw and ramp.
Ramp in mono white looks suspiciously more of a light grey colour (or brown if you’re a bit older) and you may recognize a lot of these cards from some of your existing EDH decks. If so, it’s the same drill here, we need artifact ramp – except this time we need all of it. [card]Sol Ring[/card], [card]Everflowing Chalice[/card], [card]Worn Powerstone[/card], you know, the cheap ones.
There are of course some other actual white “ramp” spells but I decided to only run the deceptively good [card]Gift of Estates[/card] that was recently reprinted in the 2014 Commander product mostly because it’s very cheap and putting plains in your hand on a budget can be difficult. Along with your artifact sources, those 3 plains go a long way to casting Darien a few times and ramping into a huge X-soldier spell. Disclaimer: Gift of Estates is not actual ramp, but you know what I mean.
If ramp in mono-W is difficult to get, card draw is damn near impossible. After absolutely scouring Gatherer for budget sources of card draw I came to the conclusion that I need to reevaluate my time management skills. I also came to the conclusion that there are not very many spells we can use. Obviously we’ll employ things like [card]Mentor of the Meek[/card] and [card]Skullclamp[/card] and while it’ll come much later in the game, [card]Staff of Nin[/card] does double duty when you have Darien on the battlefield.
Here’s where I had to start stretching a bit – [card]Angelheart Vial[/card] is another artifact source of draw we’ll see a little later in the game and will synergize nicely with our strategy of taking damage (to our hearts) and gaining life (to our… souls?). Otherwise I chose to rely on the somewhat situational [card]Inheritance[/card] and an [card]Illuminated Folio[/card]. I’ll admit I’ve never used either of these cards before but they both look like half-decent sources of card draw and at this point, beggars can’t be choosers.
We have some token makers in the deck, but when you have Darien on your side there’s a more interesting and fun way to get those soldiers. Since Darien says for every point of damage we take we get a 1/1 soldier, we will focus on doing the unthinkable and damaging ourselves.
Before we get to the various weird ways we’ll be hurting (and helping) ourselves, I have to stress one thing: you will get hated on very hard when Darien hits the battlefield. The reason behind this is people don’t like it when your commander basically has the text “You can’t attack me or I’ll win for sure, sucker!” Since our general is absolutely central to our gameplan, we have to treat it like Kevin Mcallister treats his suburban Chicago home – we HAVE to protect it. The usual budget sources of protection like [card]Swiftfoot Boots[/card] and [card]Whispersilk Cloak[/card] do the trick but I’ve also added in a [card]General’s Kabuto[/card], a [card]Gods Willing[/card] and one of my favourite white cards in EDH, [card]Rootborn Defenses[/card]. We have some great utility soldiers like [card]Catapult Master[/card] and [card]Intrepid Hero[/card] in the deck, so all this protection stays relevant for the times you don’t have Darien or happen to draw a boots and a cloak at the same time.
The field has been prepared and now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and start building some hurtin’ (ourselves) bombs – and speaking of bombs, our first is [card]Jade Monolith[/card]. That’s right, the dusty old crappy looking statue in every Goodwill I’ve ever seen is an absolute bomb in this deck. Not only can your opponents not attack you, but now they can’t block your creatures either. This all comes at the low-cost of 1 colorless mana per source which is kind of insane.
[card]Torture Chamber[/card] is a card I discovered putting this deck together and in a Darien EDH list, it does amazing work by hitting you and giving you soldiers on every end step and serving as occasional spot removal for creatures. Plus if you’re really into MTG-based S&M it has a picture of Karn and a Minotaur chained to a wall. Fetish bonus round?
I don’t blame anyone for getting frustrated when I play out an [card]Angel’s Trumpet[/card]. There is so much text on this card and even I get annoyed by it. Basically it says, everyone has vigilance – then if any creatures don’t attack, they tap at your end step and each deal one damage to you. Wow that was easy! Look at me I could totally work at Wizards in the rarely lauded “errata and oracle text” department. Look out whoever actually does that job, I’m coming for you.
Once you understand what the trumpet does, you see why it’s essential in Darien, not only does it allow you to leave your soldiers up to make more, but it forces your enemies to either attack each other or you, and either way, you’re so happy you’re thinking about starting up your own ska band just so you can use the Angel’s Trumpet in that, too.
Finally there are some sweet lands that tap and deal damage while producing white mana for us and are all excellent in this deck: [card]Grand Coliseum[/card], [card]Nomad Stadium[/card] & [card]Tarnished Citadel[/card]. All budget, and if you’re a sports fan, almost all are arena-based.
You may be thinking at this point, “Well sure, if I survive my enemies attacking me, who’s to say I’ll then survive myself?” and this is where I tell you about our beloved sisters, the clerics. Any good D&D player knows the fighters need healers so we went out and got ourselves 3 of the best: [card]Soul’s Attendant[/card], [card]Soul Warden[/card] and what I’m assuming is the sister they adopted from a family of terrifying monsters, [card]Suture Priest[/card]. Any of these lovely ladies will allow you to deal any and all damage to your own face with impunity. When you gain a life for every creature (not only your own for the human sisters) that enters the battlefield, Darien basically goes from being an emotional mess into Lando Calrissian – aka, surrounded by beautiful ladies and expendable soldier dudes dressed like plumbers.
Once you have your soldiers out you need to pump your team and swing for a crazy win but that’s token strategy 101. You don’t need me to tell you [card]Dictate of Heliod[/card], [card]Cathars’ Crusade[/card] and [card]Marshal’s Anthem[/card] are good cards in a token swarm strategy, but in this deck with the ability to produce soldiers at instant speed, I really like [card]Goldnight Commander[/card] and the new [card]Valor in Akros[/card] from Origins. Any one of these can result in the pump up we need for our group of well-trained military men to run roughshod over our opponents.
So there you have it, a journey through the more emotionally unstable side of Commander, along with a sweet budget build you can bring to your next game and make all your opponents (and doves) cry.
This year’s Legacy Champs took place a few weeks ago, and was taken down by none other than Bob Huang, this time piloting a Grixis Delver deck. Grixis is very well positioned in today’s metagame, and it’s no surprise to me that it managed to put up a great finish, especially in the hands of an excellent pilot.
What did take me by surprise however was seeing a Splinter Twin deck, not just in the event, but in the top 8! Max Ansbro piloted a Blue Red Splinter Twin list splashing white all the way to the elimination rounds.
[deck title= Jeskai Splinter Twin by Max Ansbro]
[Creatures]
*3 Deciever Exarch
*3 Pestermite
*2 Snapcaster Mage
*2 Vendilion Clique
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
*4 Brainstorm
*4 Ponder
*4 Force of Will
*2 Counterspell
*1 Spell Snare
*1 Engineered Explosives
*4 Lightning Bolt
*4 Splinter Twin
*3 Dig Through Time
*1 Pyroblast
[/Spells]
[Lands]
*4 Island
*1 Mountain
*4 Scalding Tarn
*4 Flooded Strand
*1 Arid Mesa
*4 Volcanic Island
*1 Tundra
*1 Plateau
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
*2 Relic of Progenitus
*2 Wear // Tear
*2 Ethersworn Canonist
*2 Sulfur Elemental
*2 Misdirection
*2 Pyroblast
*2 Flusterstorm
*1 Izzet Staticaster
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
I saw the list, and my interest was immediately piqued. I called some of my friends to tell them about it, and while none of them seemed as excited as I was, it wasn’t long before I was able to put the deck together. My friends were quick to lend me whatever cards I needed, and I took the deck for a spin at one of our local weekly Legacy tournaments.
Round 1 I sat down across a friend and excellent Shardless BUG player. My hand was a bit slow game 1, but an end of turn Pestermite took him by surprise and I proceeded to combo him out on the following turn. He evened things out in game 2, and we were off to a final game. Time was called and I conceded to his one copy of Night of Soul’s Betrayal. This was the first example of my inexperience with the deck punishing me. Had I been more skilled with it we wouldn’t have gone to time. I don’t know if I should have shaved on the combo during sideboarding to make such hate less devastating, or simply bring in some enchantment removal as protection, but I’m certain my chances would have been much higher, had I come prepared.
I lost the second round, and then got an unintentional draw in the third, once more showcasing my lack of experience piloting the deck. The fourth round I was paired against a friend on Burn. We played a couple more games after we had finished our match, and wow, did the matchup seem great for Splinter Twin! Nearly every game consisted of me having some way to deal with his creatures, and then killing him with the combo with countermagic still in hand. His inability to interact well with what I was doing, and the ease at which the Splinter Twin deck could answer his plays made the matchup a very favorable one for the blue deck.
I wasn’t too happy with my poor finish, but I still felt the deck had potential and that I myself had a lot to improve upon as a pilot. I found that knowing what type of game I was supposed to be playing was very difficult with this deck, and I’m certain I made at least a dozen terrible decisions.
It was for this reason that I decided not to give up on the deck just yet, and a few days later I found myself at home testing against a friend on Miracles. We played a lot of games and the matchup felt super tight and pretty even. My red cards were better than his white ones, but Counterbalance was just such a beating that I had trouble winning the games where he got it into play on turn two.
We talked a lot about the deck between games, trying to find a configuration of the deck that we were happy with. I wanted to add more snapcasters, but we came to the conclusion that the maindeck was fairly well tuned already, and it was tough to make room for it. The white splash had also felt pretty lackluster, and my friend recommended the card Desolate Lighthouse. Blue and red are both great colors in Legacy at the moment, and Desolate Lighthouse was the reward for staying nearly two colors. My opponent would be reluctant to tap out on his turn due to fearing the combo, and every turn I got to sculpt my hand a little bit more, giving me inevitability.
Two copies of Desolate Lighthouse felt like a great addition to the deck, and I’m definitely keeping them around. The combo won me a few games, but I was never happy to see any of the pieces in my opening hand, and felt much more comfortable just playing as a blue red control deck. Counterbalance was the problematic card, and I think if I could reliably deal with it the matchup would be strongly in Twin’s favor. Right now I am considering trying the green splash instead, playing three copies of Krosan Grip in the sideboard. It’s worse than Wear // Tear against Death and Taxes, but much better against Counterbalance. I think it’s worth a shot.
A lot of the time I wanted to shave on the combo going into game two, and play more of a fair game instead. The fear of the combo alone is often enough to put you in the driver’s seat, and I would much rather play to that advantage than cross my fingers and hope. This however leads to us being a bit short on win conditions (one of the reasons I wanted more Snapcaster Mages), and so I would like to fit another card that can win me the game somewhere in the 75.
Tips & Tricks
Splinter Twin isn’t just a combo piece. You can put it on a Snapcaster Mage as a ‘make-your-own’ Isochron Scepter. The 2/1 body isn’t always too impressive, so turning it into a swiss army knife of instants and sorceries is a great upgrade.
Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch can be used on your opponent’s upkeep to Rishadan Port them and hopefully buy a turn, allowing you to catch up or land a Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
The Miracles matchup is very tight and requires you to spend your resources carefully. You can gain an advantage from getting good use out of your weaker cards. Lightning Bolt can take out a Jace, and so can an end of turn Pestermite (with a little help).
Izzet Staticaster + Pestermite go very well together as you can untap the Staticaster to deal even more damage in a turn.
[deck title=Splinter Twin by Sandro Rajalin]
[Creatures]
*2 Pestermite
*3 Deceiver Exarch
*3 Snapcaster Mage
*2 Vendilion Clique
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*4 Brainstorm
*4 Ponder
*4 Force of Will
*4 Lightning Bolt
*3 Dig Through Time
*2 Counterspell
*1 Pyroblast
*4 Splinter Twin
*3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
[/Spells]
[Lands]
*2 Desolate Lighthouse
*4 Volcanic Island
*2 Tropical Island
*3 Island
*1 Mountain
*4 Scalding Tarn
*4 Flooded Strand
*1 Polluted Delta
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
*3 Krosan Grip
*1 Null Rod
*2 Sulfur Elemental
*1 Izzet Staticaster
*2 Flusterstorm
*2 Pyroblast
*2 Relic of Progenitus
*1 Blood Moon
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
This is the list I will be trying next. The original version felt a bit tight on mana at times, so I’ve added an additional land to bring the total to 21. With the addition of another land I decided to add a third Jace and two copies of Desolate Lighthouse in order to mitigate the chances of flooding.
Null Rod does some work against Miracles in addition to replacing the Ethersworn Canonist as combo hate against Storm. It also deals with the equipment in Death and Taxes, something I think will be necessary now that I’ve cut the Wear // Tear for Krosan Grip.
Blood Moon is a card that just straight up wins against some decks, and a single copy can go a long way in a deck where Dig Through Time can help find it.
I still haven’t quite figured out this deck. Blue and red are both very strong colors in the format at the moment, and I’m not sure as to whether the Splinter Twin aspect is actually good or just cute. What I do know is that the deck is very challenging and fun to play, and I want to take it for at least another spin or two before I make up my mind.
Until next time,
Sandro Rajalin.
I believe that Magic is a great game, and if you’re reading this there is a good chance that you agree with me. It’s normal human nature to want to share things that we enjoy with our friends, but introducing Magic to people not familiar with a similar game can be a daunting task. If their initial impression of Magic is poor, it is much less likely that they’ll come back to the game and keep enjoying it. As such, if you want to share Magic with your friends there are a few things to consider first.
One of the core concepts of Magic is the color pie; what each color represents (loosely). Being order and justice for white, knowledge and control for blue, ruthlessness for black, passion for red and nature/growth for green. As experienced Magic players we know that the color pie can be bent at the best of times and outright broken at the worst (looking at you [Card]Hornet Sting[/Card]), but to new players this is an interesting and easily identifiable starting point. It’s not a bad idea to ask the “student” which color most appeals to them based on these traits.
Wizards of the Coast offers 30 card introductory decks for this very purpose and decklists of the current ones are available here. However, if you have your own cards lying around it’s possible, and maybe even preferable, to create your own version. Below is a sample deck using recent cards that exemplify Green.
[deck title= Green Sample Deck]
[Creatures]
*2 Elvish Mystic
*2 Centaur Courser
*2 Kalonian Tusker
*1 Garruk’s Packleader
*1 Terra Stomper
*1 Charging Rhino
*2 Grizzly Bears
*2 Giant Spider
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*2 Giant Growth
*2 Prey Upon
[/Spells]
[Land] *13 Forest [/Land]
[/deck]
Cards like [Card]Garruk’s Packleader[/Card] and [Card]Prey Upon[/Card] reward the player for taking advantage of Green’s big creatures and [Card]Elvish Mystic[/Card] highlights ramp’s place in the color. The deck is very largely creature based and has poor, conditional removal (like Green should), and has an unconventional way of answering Blue and White’s flying creatures with the [Card]Giant Spider[/Card]s. The creatures in the deck are mostly simple creatures with no keyword mechanics other than Trample or Reach and should be simple enough for a new player to understand with ease. The cards can obviously be substituted with what you happen to have in your collection, but be sure to keep the key principles the same.
Creating similar decks in the other colors should be easy. For blue, focus on countermagic, bounce spells and fliers. For red, creatures with haste and burn spells. For white, vigilance and lifegain are key. For black, cards like [Card]Sign in Blood[/Card] or [Card]Bone Splinters[/Card] are perfect examples of the “greatness at any cost” attitude that the color embodies. Your student is likely to appeal to one or more of the colors upon hearing their “philosophies,” so be prepared to let them play with whatever appeals to them.
The rules that you teach a new player should be kept to a minimum. They don’t need to know about the stack, priority or layers; they barely even need to know the phases of each turn. Explain that the players start at 20 life and the object is to reduce your opponent’s life total by attacking them with creatures. Explain summoning sickness and attacking and blocking, as well as noting that you can play spells both before and after combat. After that, tackle each card as it comes up. Your student is likely to have a lot of questions about Trample or First Strike etc. but it’s best to deal with those as they arise during normal play. Overloading your student with information is a very common mistake.
Just play Magic. The game is so well designed and so fun that it will do most of the convincing for you. Don’t worry about letting the student win when you first play; if you’ve taught them correctly they should have fun regardless of the result. If they get mana-screwed or flooded or something like that, explain to them that that’s quite a rare occurrence, but totally a normal part of the game.
What should I watch out for?
There are many traps and pitfalls that people run into when teaching their friends to play, but if you’re aware of them they can be pretty easy to avoid and can dramatically increase the likelihood that your friend will want to come back for more.
You’ve likely been playing Magic for years and have accumulated both knowledge of the game and a vast collection. If you’re teaching someone new though, try to pull most of this back. Teach them with a basic intro deck like the one outlined above, don’t explain to them that Magic is awesome because of your Scapeshift Modern deck and launch into how that works; you’ll overwhelm them quickly and they’ll lose interest. Mentioning archetypes of the game in general is fine, but you shouldn’t go beyond Aggro/Control/Midrange/Combo in terms of detail.
Many people who play Magic for years still don’t fully understand how some deeper rules, like layers, work in niche situations. The friend you’re teaching only needs to know about mana costs, combat and when they can cast instants, sorceries or creatures. They don’t need to know about the legendary rule, poison counters or that artifacts and lands technically have summoning sickness but “ignore” it – that can all come much later.
If you’ve built your intro deck properly this shouldn’t be an issue, but some mechanics can be very confusing for someone just learning the game. Things like Morph or Bestow from recent sets come with a ton of rules baggage that we’ve come to accept, but isn’t necessary for a new player learning the game.
Magic is one of the most slang intensive hobbies in the world – almost everything in the game has a nickname, including plenty of individual cards. Naturally, using terms like “Bob,” “Goyf” or “Gary” is out of the question, but even more general terms that pop up in the game should be kept to a minimum. “Swing,” “Chump,” “Hellbent” etc. can all be left out. It’s not that they’re that confusing, it’s more that they just add to the information you’re dumping on your student and they can make the game feel more exclusive than it needs to be. More intuitive slang like “drain” or “pump” is generally fine, but be careful not to go overboard.
This is probably the most important rule of all. Watching GP and Pro Tour coverage can make us all get caught up in perfect technical play and grinding out value, but at its core Magic is just a fun game to play with your friends and that’s what you’re trying to highlight. Keep things light and competitive to a friendly degree. This may seem obvious, but I can’t tell you how many first Magic experiences I’ve seen ruined by the teacher being too ruthless or salty – if your student doesn’t have a good experience they won’t want to come back, and that experience is entirely in your hands.
Magic has been experiencing a burst of growth over the past few years and it doesn’t look like its stopping, with each new block outselling the last. With changes to rotation, Duels switching to a free-to-play model and an increased push for Magic-related content on Twitch and YouTube, the game is going to keep on growing faster and faster. You can do your part to make Magic as popular as it deserves to be by teaching your friends, and hopefully by following these tips you can get a few of them hooked on the greatest game in the world.
What experience have you had with teaching people to play Magic? Did you have any huge errors that you ran into? Let us know in the comments below!
Grand Prix Oklahoma City happened and we have to let Corbin talk about it. He was there. He lives there. Voluntarily. They have cars and planes and trains and busses. There’s Uber or Lyft if you get too much of a Germany vibe from Uber. There are ways out of Oklahoma City. Corbin chose to stay and cover the event. Did he get a coverage team travel stipend? Can someone look into that? You don’t need a travel stipend to drive 5 miles to the convention center and sleep in your own bed every night. I don’t want to use the word “embezzlement” because that’s a serious allegation but I will use the word “Unethical” and I feel justified in using it. Shame shame shame. Embezzler.
Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher
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Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
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HELLO FRIENDS
EPISODE 42 OF MONEY DRAUGHT IS A GREAT EPISODE WHERE YOUR FAVORITE HOSTS TALK ABOUT RELEVANT TOPICS IN AND OUT OF THE MAGIC COMMUNITY. WHO KNOWS WHAT TO EXPECT? WHAT WILL THEY SAY? WILL JR RANT? WILL JASON DISAGREE WITH POPULAR OPINION? WILL SLICK JUST LAUGH AND PROVIDE 3RD TIER BANTER?
** This cast is for mature listeners **
Your Hosts:
Jason Alt — @JasonEAlt
Slick Jagger — @slickJagger
JR — @time_elemental
Topics include: 2-player Sealed Cube, the PAX Eldrazi display and advertising, reaction to BFZ Expeditions,
our hopes for the Magic movie, a few BFZ spoilers, reaction to Wil Wheaton, Jackie Lee on coverage, sports scandals,
a curse on education costs, and listener questions.
** This cast is for mature listeners **
Your Hosts:
Jason Alt — @JasonEAlt
Slick Jagger — @slickJagger
JR — @time_elemental
There are a lot of varieties of tuna out there. Solid white albacore. Chunk light tuna. Sushi-grade tuna steaks. Mahi Mahi is tuna-esque. It’s probably the best kind of canned meat money can buy. When Starkist, the makers of probably the highest-quality canned tuna money can buy was caught underfilling cans, the resulting lawsuit resulted in a big opportunity for all of us. Value is value and if you are willing to certify under penalty of perjury that you bought a can of tuna from Starkist you are entitled to $25 cash or $50 in tuna and I think we know which one of those numbers is larger and therefore the correct choice. Do the right thing and if you bought some tuna, submit your claim.
Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher
Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook
Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter
Topics include: gaming as a career, solving the Berenstain/stein Bears mass delusion, the leaping
lawyer of Toronto, MTGO leagues, initial Worlds impressions, the world economy in the context of recent
volatility, a BoozeCube Elder Dragon Hangover spoiler, and Eternal Weekend hangouts.
** This cast is for mature listeners **
Your Hosts:
Jason Alt — @JasonEAlt
Slick Jagger — @slickJagger
JR — @time_elemental
The Squad is back again after an unplanned, extended downtime. #BlameWorth
Actually, Ken just managed to further break his computer. Smooth move, Ex-Lax.
So come hang out, and get Lapdances From Tommy.
Contact Us!
Best Laid Plans (B L P 2001) – @BestLaid_Plans
Ken (S A D B O Y) – @Load3r
Tommy (S E X Y B O Y) – @T_Moles
Em (F I R E G I R L) – @sheMehay
Shane (M A D B O Y) – @CreatureMystery
We talk about Goldeneye and Mario Kart and how many more years it will take Mario Party 3 to make it to Oklahoma. We also talk about Worlds, the metagame, Hearthstone and its appeal, what it takes to fix MODO and whatever else we want to talk about. We’re on top of our game and you love it.
Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher
Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook
Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – MTGPrice
Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter
Even though Pro Tour Magic Origins is still fresh in our minds and we are currently looking at a new Standard format, I want to look forward to what I think could be some powerful shells after rotation. It may be premature, but there may be financial opportunity and a way to get ahead of the metagame by taking the time to look towards the future of Standard.
The first archetype with potential to be really powerful is Atarka Red. There will be some changes to the core of the deck, as we are losing [card]Stoke the Flames[/card], [card]Lightning Strike[/card], and [card]Foundry Street Denizen[/card], but I’d like to look at a build I think will be powerful:
[deck title= Atarka Red]
[Creatures]
*4 Monastery Swiftspear
*3 Zurgo Bellstriker
*4 Lightning Berserker
*4 Abbot of Keral Keep
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*4 Wild Slash
*4 Atarka’s Command
*4 Exquisite Firecraft
*1 Fiery Impulse
*4 Dragon Fodder
*4 Hordeling Outburst
*2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
[/Spells]
[Land]
*22 Mountain
[/Land]
[/deck]
I am only posting mountains because we have no idea what kind of fixing we are going to see in Battle for Zendikar, which could stop allied-colored aggressive decks in their tracks before deck-building even starts. That said, I think this shell has a lot of potential if the manabase can be consistent and fast. I think that after rotation, [card]Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker[/card] will be poised to make a splash. [card]Hero’s Downfall[/card] will be rotating, and I expect many pros to be leaning hard on [card]Languish[/card] to keep boards clear. Sarkhan doesn’t care about [card]Languish[/card]. While looking at the list, it’s easy to see the other synergies that work well with this all-but-forgotten planeswalker. [card]Atarka’s Command[/card] has several modes and I think the most overlooked, especially in an aggressive deck, is its ability to ramp out a land. This is great on turn three when you want to push through damage for your [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card] and [card]Dragon Fodder[/card] tokens while also enabling a turn four Sarkhan. An additional land drop doesn’t hurt when you’re looking to dash out [card]Lightning Berserker[/card]s either. The other synergy Sarkhan has that finishers like [card]Thunderbreak Regeant[/card] or [card]Avaricious Dragon[/card] do not is that it is a noncreature spell, triggering Prowess on [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card] and [card]Abbot of Keral Keep[/card]. We haven’t seen any cards spoiled from Battle for Zendikar (at least not for an archetype like this) yet, so it could just get better from here.
The strong sideboard options that will be available post-rotation are not all that different from what we have now. We can plan for longer attrition games with [card]Molten Vortex[/card] and [card]Outpost Siege[/card]. Against the mirror, we have access to [card]Scouring Sands[/card]. If large ground creatures look to get in the way of our plans, a full playset of [card]Roast[/card] is available if we so choose.
Another shell I think has a ton of potential is a Sultai reanimator deck. Though we are losing [card]Satyr Wayfinder[/card], there are still plenty of enablers available. The first, and most powerful, is [card]Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound[/card]. Jace is a discard outlet to pitch your reanimator target (perhaps something like [card]Gaea’s Revenge[/card]), he helps smooth out your draws, and also has the ability to snap back instants and sorceries. [card]Gather the Pack[/card] seems like a natural fit to find and/or mill creatures, while also stocking your graveyard (similar to [card]Satyr Wayfinder[/card]). What reanimator spell best fits in with this strategy? [card]Necromantic Summons[/card]. If you enjoyed or are familiar with Matthew Tickal’s take on [card]Rally the Ancestors[/card], Jace is great at flashing back the Rally if it was milled or already cast. In essence, Jace turns [card]Necromantic Summons[/card] into an [card]Unburial Rites[/card] with upside (the two +1/+1 counters). Other roleplayers in the deck are [card]Sultai Charm[/card] and [card]Murderous Cut[/card]. While [card]Murderous Cut[/card] is pretty straightforward, [card]Sultai Charm[/card] provides not just removal for creatures AND artifacts/enchantments, but also serves as an additional discard outlet (with its [card]Catalogue[/card] mode). The versatility that [card]Sultai Charm[/card] provides with the ability to flash it back with [card]Jace, Telepath Unbound[/card] makes it an all-star, jack-of-all-trades for this style of deck. Though we obviously don’t have the full picture, we can start to piece together a shell and, as spoiler season starts, we can look to fill in the gaps:
Sultai Reanimator (key components)
4 [card]Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy// Jace, Telepath Unbound[/card]
4 [card]Gather the Pack[/card]
4 [card]Necromantic Summons[/card]
4 [card]Sultai Charm[/card]
2 [card]Murderous Cut[/card]
3 [card]Sagu Mauler[/card] (great if it becomes an 8/8 hexproof trampler)
2 [card]Gaea’s Revenge[/card] (potentially a turn five 10/7 with Haste that cannot be targetted)
So we have the start to a deck with synergy, utility, and a high power level. The hidden reason for building a shell like this is that [card]Despise[/card] will still be legal after rotation, and [card]Necromantic Summons[/card] doesn’t matter whose graveyard a fatty comes from. If [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card] is still a thing after the devotion deck rotates, the sideboard plan of making your opponent discard his or her Atarka, upgrading it to a 10/10 with flample, and doing it on turn 5, seems powerful. Another reason to look at a reanimator shell is that the one spoiler we’ve seen from Battle for Zendikar is an Eldrazi. While the Eldrazi Titans cannot be binned to reanimate at sorcery speed, the set may have some Eldrazi targets in the 7-8 mana cost range with powerful abilities that are worth cheating into play. My favorite part of this strategy is that this shell only makes up about a third of the deck. From here we can look to be controlling with sweepers like [card]Languish[/card] and countermagic in the form of [card]Clash of Wills[/card] , further abuse the graveyard and add value with [card]Tasigur, the Golden Fang[/card], and even fit the powerful [card]Den Protector[/card]/[card]Deathmist Raptor[/card] midrange combo. There are many different directions we could go and seems like a worthwhile place to start brewing, especially since [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card] won’t be around to rain on our parade.
The final deck that I’ve been thinking a lot about is a base-blue Temur tempo list. This style of deck gets much better after rotation happens. Without Elvish Mystic, Courser of Kruphix, and Sylvan Caryatid in the Standard format, the board may open up on the ground in the early turns. Cards like [card]Frost Walker[/card], [card]Bounding Krasis[/card], and [card]Harbinger of Tides[/card] seem as though they could play very well together. [card]Bounding Krasis[/card] can tap down blockers to allow [card]Frost Walker[/card] to swing in or tap down an opposing creature before it attacks, allowing [card]Harbinger of Tides[/card] to bounce it the following turn. Though [card]Frost Walker[/card] is about the squishiest threat imaginable, it is capable of dishing out a ton of damage per turn and is a turn 2 Ferocious enabler. The countermagic available to us really pushes a tempo strategy like this over the top as well. [card]Stubborn Denial[/card] protects our threats, [card]Clash of Wills[/card] is versatile and can be quite a nuisance for opponents to play around, and this actually feels like a deck that could get value out of [card]Temur Charm[/card]. In a deck like this, we also have the ability to use [card]Savage Knuckleblade[/card] to its full potential. Instead of running it out as a 3-drop that trades for a removal spell, it can be a finisher that we can play while keeping up extra mana to protect it or disrupt our opponent, much like [card]Gurmag Angler[/card] in the modern Grixis Delver and Grixis Control decks. The reason I feel this strategy could be so powerful in the upcoming format is the manabase that enables it. Being base blue, we have access to both [card]Shivan Reef[/card] and [card]Yavimaya Coast[/card], which makes the deck very fast (painfully fast), and [card]Frontier Bivuoac[/card] for all of our colors. I’m not sure that all of the pieces are out there to make this a tier-1 strategy, but there’s one card in particular that I’m hoping to see reprinted that could push this over the top. [card]Serum Visions[/card]. Many people speculated that we would see it in Modern Masters 2015, but it was omitted. With Scry becoming an evergreen mechanic as of Magic Origin‘s release, we could see this powerful cantrip back in Standard. We also have the option to build this deck around [card]Collected Company[/card], running other creatures with disruptive enter-the-battlefield effects like [/card]Silumgar Sorcerer[/card]. If we’re looking for strong top-end win conditions, Temur has access to [card]Sarkhan, Unbowed[/card] and [card]Icefall Regent[/card].
The MKM Series in Toulouse happened just a few days ago, and with it the Legacy main event. Over a hundred people showed up to play in the tournament, making it a fairly large event. Out of all these people, only eight were left for the elimination rounds, and while there’s a lot to say about each individual decklist, first I want to take a look at what the top 8 itself looked like. Without further ado…
Grixis Delver
UWR Control
Four Color Delver
Grixis Aggro
UWR Control
Aggro Loam
BUG Control
MUD
Interestingly enough we see zero copies of Miracles in the top 8, despite the deck making up thirteen percent of the metagame, and twice as much as the second most played deck; ANT (a complete metagame breakdown can be found on their website). Both Four Color Delver and Aggro Loam (we really need a better name for that deck) however continued to impress, making a showing in yet another larger legacy event. This is just one event, and we should be careful not to read too much into these results. Still, when two decks keep consistently putting up top 8 finishes, that’s a sign that something’s going on. Right now Legacy is evolving, and we are witnessing the process.
While Miracles failed to impress this time, there was still plenty of control decks to be seen in the top 8, and lots of innovation. Miracles has long been the go-to control deck of the format, and it’s nice to see that there are other options. Let’s dive in and take closer look, starting with the winning list; UWR Control by Miguel Alcoriza.
Land1x PLAINS 2x ARID MESA 3x SCALDING TARN 3x TUNDRA 3x VOLCANIC ISLAND 4x FLOODED STRAND 4x ISLAND Creature3x SNAPCASTER MAGE Instant1x SECURE THE WASTES 4x FORCE OF WILL 2x COUNTERSPELL |
2x PYROBLAST2x FLUSTERSTORM
1x SPELL SNARE 4x DIG THROUGH TIME 4x BRAINSTORM 4x SWORDS TO PLOWSHARES Sorcery4x PONDER 4x PREORDAIN 1x SUPREME VERDICT 2x COUNCIL’S JUDGEMENT Other2x JACE, THE MIND SCULPTOR |
Sideboard1x RED ELEMENTAL BLAST 1x BLOOD MOON 1x SUPREME VERDICT 2x WEAR/TEAR 2x SURGICAL EXTRACTION 2x PYROCLASM 2x VENDILION CLIQUE 4x MEDDLING MAGE |
This deck features sixteen pieces of library manipulation, eleven pieces of counter magic, seven removal spells and twenty lands, alongside two copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor, three Snapcaster Mage and one Secure the Wastes as its win conditions.
Game one this deck has a lot of disruption, but no real clock or soft lock to put pressure on the combo decks. That changes quickly after sideboarding though, when the full four copies of Meddling Mage and two copies of Vendilion Clique are brought in to give you another angle of attack.
Rather than Terminus, this deck plays Supreme verdict, as the aforementioned miracle is less exciting when you don’t have Sensei’s Divining Top in your deck. What’s more interesting is the inclusion of the second Council’s Judgement. With both Aggro Loam and Four Color Delver on the rise, the decision to run a second copy makes a lot of sense, as it gives you more outs to some of the troublesome permanents seen in those decks, namely Sylvan Library and Chalice of the Void. With two copies of Council’s Judgement and a single Spell Snare, you should have a decent shot at combating those cards.
The biggest eyebrow-raiser in this deck is certainly the singleton Secure the Wastes, a card rarely seen in Legacy. As far as big spells go however it serves as a nice supplement for Entreat the Angels that also happens to work quite well with Snapcaster Mage. As a matter of fact, Secure the Wastes has many uses. You can play it on turn two to trade with an opposing Dark Confidant, or use it to hold off a Tarmogoyf later in the game, while simultaneously getting in for several points of damage every turn. It also deals excellently with Young Pyromancer, negating the value they would normally get from having a single card produce multiple bodies.
Next up we have Paul Ridoux and his MUD deck
Land2x CAVERN OF SOULS 2x VESUVA 4x WASTELAND 4x ANCIENT TOMB 4x CITY OF TRAITORS 4x CLOUDPOST 4x GLIMMERPOST Artifact1x SPINE OF ISH SAH 1x STAFF OF DOMINATION 2x LIGHTNING GREAVES 3x TRINISPHERE |
4x CHALICE OF THE VOID4x GRIM MONOLITH
Creature1x BLIGHTSTEEL COLOSSUS 1x PLATINUM EMPERION 1x STEEL HELLKITE 1x SUNDERING TITAN 3x WURMCOIL ENGINE 4x KULDOTHA FORGEMASTER 4x LODESTONE GOLEM 4x METALWORKER Other2x UGIN, THE SPIRIT DRAGON |
Sideboard1x DUPLICANT 2x PHYREXIAN REVOKER 1x CRUCIBLE OF WORLDS 1x DEFENSE GRID 1x ENSNARING BRIDGE 1x PITHING NEEDLE 2x WITCHBANE ORB 2x GRAFDIGGER’S CAGE 2x TORMOD’S CRYPT 2x ALL IS DUST |
Paul’s list seems to be a fairly stock MUD lists, with no really unconventional card choices. It has been established by now that Ugin, the Spirit Dragon deserves a spot in this deck, as the card has continuously proven its worth. Time will tell if Orb of Warding will replace Witchbane Orb in the sideboard going forward. It does cost an extra mana, but having a card that deals with both Tendrils of Agony and Empty the Warrens seems sweet.
Chalice of the Void is very well positioned right now, and MUD is definitely one of the better decks to take advantage of that. If you expect a lot of blue decks, perhaps it’s time you consider MUD.
The next deck on our list is Gabriel Deloison’s Grixis Delver deck, featuring a few gems of its own. I present to you…
Land3x VOLCANIC ISLAND 1x TROPICAL ISLAND 3x UNDERGROUND SEA 3x SCALDING TARN 3x FLOODED STRAND 1x POLLUTED DELTA Creature4x DELVER OF SECRETS 4x DEATHRITE SHAMAN 3x YOUNG PYROMANCER 2x GURMAG ANGLER 1x TRUE-NAME NEMESIS |
Instant4x DAZE 4x BRAINSTORM 4x FORCE OF WILL 4x LIGHTNING BOLT 2x DIG THROUGH TIME 1x KOLAGHAN’S COMMAND 1x SPELL PIERCE Sorcery4x PONDER 3x GITAXIAN PROBE 1x FORKED BOLT |
Sideboard2x ABRUPT DECAY 1x KOLAGHAN’S COMMAND 2x PYROBLAST 1x RED ELEMENTAL BLAST 2x SURGICAL EXTRACTION 1x PITHING NEEDLE 1x GRAFDIGGER’S CAGE 1x SUBMERGE 2x CABAL THERAPY 1x FLUSTERSTORM 1x ELECTRICKERY |
Gabriel piloted his Grixis Delver list to a top 4 finish. Sadly this list is missing four cards, but seeing as there are only fourteen lands, I have an idea as to what the missing slots may be. Anyway, the card that catches my eye here is the one maindeck Kolaghan’s Command. Kolaghan’s Command is a highly versatile spell indeed, but normally the mana cost would be detrimental for its chances of being included in a deck like this. Grixis Delver does have a lot of trouble playing against Chalice of the Void, and in fact I beat the deck twice on the back of that card at GP Lille. It could be that the one Kolaghan’s Command is a concession to Chalice of the Void as a miser’s answer that is maindeckable thanks to still being live in other matchups.
The next thing to note is that there are only two copies of Cabal Therapy in the entire 75. In my experience with Grixis decks, their ability to completely rip a hand apart with Gitaxian Probe + Cabal Therapy has been one of its major strengths, which makes the decision to cut down on therapies seem questionable. With Gabriel opting to play Gurmag Angler and True-Name Nemesis, shaving a Gitaxian Probe and a Young Pyromancer however, the power level of Cabal Therapy goes down. Compared to its controlling counterpart, the Grixis Delver deck is a bit lacking in terms of staying power, so having a card like True-Name Nemesis to mitigate that weakness is definitely appealing. I’m not sure I agree with the way this deck is built, but I can definitely see where Gabriel is coming from.
Next up we have an interesting take on BUG Control, a deck that hasn’t been seeing too much play lately. Let’s take a look at what Carles Minion brought to the table!
Land2x ISLAND 1x FOREST 1x SWAMP 3x UNDERGROUND SEA 2x BAYOU 2x TROPICAL ISLAND 3x WASTELAND 4x POLLUTED DELTA 1x VERDANT CATACOMBS 3x MISTY RAINFOREST 1x CREEPING TAR PIT Creature2x TARMOGOYF 3x SNAPCASTER MAGE 1x TASIGUR, THE GOLDEN FANG Instant4x BRAINSTORM |
1x DIG THROUGH TIME4x ABRUPT DECAY
1x SPELL PIERCE 2x FLUSTERSTORM 4x FORCE OF WILL 2x COUNTERSPELL Sorcery1x PONDER 2x INNOCENT BLOOD 2x TOXIC DELUGE 1x LIFE FROM THE LOAM 2x THOUGHTSEIZE Enchantment1x PERNICIOUS DEED Other3x JACE, THE MIND SCULPTOR 2x LILIANA OF THE VEIL |
Sideboard3x SURGICAL EXTRACTION 2x SCAVENGING OOZE 1x MAELSTROM PULSE 2x PERNICIOUS DEED 1x INNOCENT BLOOD 1x FLUSTERSTORM 1x GOLGARI CHARM 1x VENDILION CLIQUE 1x SYLVAN LIBRARY 1x UMEZAWA’S JITTE 1x NIHIL SPELLBOMB |
This deck aims to trade one for one with the opponent and then land a planeswalker to run away with the game. It has a lot of the traditional elements of BUG Control; discard spells, countermagic and removal. The singleton Spell Pierce looks a bit out of place in a deck that’s looking to go this long, but is very efficient early on, and can be made live later in the game thanks to Life from the Loam + Wasteland.
The anti synergy of Tarmogoyf and Innocent Blood is a little unfortunate, but having a creature that can stand in the way of opposing critters as well as live through Toxic Deluge can be quite valuable. This way your opponent will have to add more creatures to the table if they are to attack past your blocker, making your sweeper even better. Tasigur takes this one step further, as he survives Pernicious Deed in addition to Toxic Deluge.
After sideboard you have the option of adding even more creatures in the form of Scavenging Ooze and Vendilion Clique, enabling you to take a more proactive stance versus the combo decks, and potentially other control decks as well.
Game one versus combo your best bet is to get a Liliana of the Veil into play to keep their hand in check. A combination of hand disruption and permission should be enough to get there.
These BUG Control decks have a certain draw to them. It seems as if every card they draw has an impact on the game. There is very little ‘air’ in a deck like this, and the power level of each individual card is very high.
Land2x VOLCANIC ISLAND 2x UNDERGROUND SEA 2x TROPICAL ISLAND 2x FLOODED STRAND 2x MISTY RAINFOREST 3x POLLUTED DELTA 3x WASTELAND 3x SCALDING TARN Creature3x TARMOGOYF 4x DEATHRITE SHAMAN 1x SNAPCASTER MAGE |
4x DELVER OF SECRETS
Instant3x DIG THROUGH TIME 4x FORCE OF WILL 4x DAZE 4x BRAINSTORM 2x SPELL PIERCE 3x ABRUPT DECAY 4x LIGHTNING BOLT Sorcery4x PONDER Enchantment1x SYLVAN LIBRARY |
Sideboard1x SURGICAL EXTRACTION 2x GOLGARI CHARM 1x NULL ROD 1x SULFURIC VORTEX 2x SUBMERGE 1x VENDILION CLIQUE 2x FLUSTERSTORM 1x HYDROBLAST 1x RED ELEMENTAL BLAST 1x PYROBLAST 1x GRAFDIGGER’S CAGE 1x PITHING NEEDLE |
This is the stock Four Color Delver list. The deck has been making top 8 after top 8, placing very well in larger legacy tournaments lately. While these lists are very much alike, there are a few things to note about this one. First is the decision to play the 3-1 split between Tarmogoyf and Snapcaster Mage and the 19:th land over the maindeck Red Elemental Blast. This is the version that was taken to a top 8 at GP Lille by Petr Sochurek. Playing a 3-1 split makes sense when you don’t want to overload on Tarmogoyf, and because Snapcaster Mage is the more mana hungry card you want the extra land. Most of the time you will be flashing back a one mana spell, but every now and then you need a Dig Through Time or Abrupt Decay with your Snapcaster Mage, which is when the importance of the additional mana source becomes especially apparent.
In the sideboard we see a couple of interesting card choices that differ a bit from what we’re used to. Javier opted to go with a Grafdigger’s Cage and a Surgical Extraction over the two copies of Nihil Spellbomb that Petr Sochurek had in his sideboard. Surgical Extraction is quite strong with Snapcaster Mage, although not quite as good as when paired with discard spells. It also happens to be much better against Punishing Fire, a popular inclusion in Aggro Loam (or should I say Punishing Blue?) that can single handedly deal with almost all of your threats. Grafdigger’s Cage is great against Elves! and dedicated graveyard decks, and doesn’t mess with your Tarmogoyfs. I can definitely respect the decision to go with the more powerful card, even if it’s not as good against the top decks. Legacy is a diverse format, and stepping into a tournament you are likely to face a variety of decks.
Sulfuric Vortex is an interesting choice. Traditionally strong against Miracles it might seem like a sound decision, seeing as how that deck is currently very popular. To cast Sulfuric Vortex however you need double red, and unless you have a Deathrite Shaman that is a serious stretch if you also want to be playing Tarmogoyf and Abrupt Decay. Sulfuric Vortex does have some utility against Batterskull, but I’d much rather have access to Ancient Grudge in my sideboard. Especially now that many Miracles players have adopted Monastery Mentor, making them far better at taking a proactive stance and racing the enchantment, I would be hesitant to include Sulfuric Vortex outside of Burn.
Land3x UNDERGROUND SEA 3x VOLCANIC ISLAND 4x SCALDING TARN 3x POLLUTED DELTA 1x FLOODED STRAND 1x BLOODSTAINED MIRE 1x MOUNTAIN 2x ISLAND Creature2x SNAPCASTER MAGE 1x TASIGUR, THE GOLDEN FANG 1x GURMAG ANGLER 4x YOUNG PYROMANCER |
Instant4x BRAINSTORM 4x FORCE OF WILL 4x DIG THROUGH TIME 2x TERMINATE 1x RED ELEMENTAL BLAST 1x PYROBLAST 4x LIGHTNING BOLT Sorcery4x GITAXIAN PROBE 4x PONDER 4x CABAL THERAPY Other2x JACE, THE MIND SCULPTOR |
Sideboard1x NULL ROD 1x PITHING NEEDLE 1x RED ELEMENTAL BLAST 1x ELECTRICKERY 2x FORKED BOLT 2x SPELL PIERCE 2x FLUSTERSTORM 3x SURGICAL EXTRACTION 2x BLOOD MOON |
This deck is listed as Grixis Aggro, and to be honest I don’t really see why. While it is certainly capable of coming out of the gates quickly with an army of Young Pyromancer tokens or an early Tasigur, the Golden Fang, it should be even better suited for games that go long. All your cards are very powerful and your answers are very efficient. The low land count and high density of cantrips means you will most likely be getting a steady stream of gas, and should provide you with both card quality advantage and virtual card advantage. Dig Through Time is also a beast going long, and this is one of the best Dig Through Time decks in the format. It is Grixis Control.
I finally picked up this deck a few days ago after having had my eyes on it for quite some time, and was super impressed with how consistently powerful it felt. There have been a few different variations of this deck going around, with the main difference being whether they play Deathrite Shaman or not. At first glance this might seem like just any other Grixis Control list, but there are a couple of interesting decisions here that I want to take a closer look at. First up we have the choice of removal spells. Four copies of Lightning Bolt is a given, but after that things start to get more interesting.
A singleton Murderous Cut was a common inclusion for a while, since it deals with most creatures for a small cost and this deck fills the graveyard so easily anyway. There are two main problems with Murderous Cut however, and they’re the reason I would stay away from the card right now. For starters, it is a lot worse on turn one, and having this in hand as your only removal spell when your opponent deploys a turn one Mother of Runes or Goblin Lackey is not a spot I want to be in. Secondly, while having enough feeding delve may not be a problem in a vacuum, you have to account for the fact that you also want to be chaining Dig Through Times. Other versions of this deck have had four additional cantrips, and sometimes even Thought Scour. Once you move away from those however, Murderous Cut gets a lot worse.
Forked Bolt is a card I like quite a bit, especially if you’re expecting a lot of Young Pyromancer mirrors. The problem is that it fails to shore up any of your weaknesses. You already have an answer to smaller creatures in Lightning Bolt. What you’re missing is a way to deal with all the Tarmogoyfs, Gurmag Anglers and Knight of the Reliquaries your opponent might throw at you, and Forked Bolt doesn’t help with any of that.
When I played this deck I had Terminate, and it’s a card I would play again. It’s not flashy, but it gets the job done. It does have the same problem as Murderous Cut with it being unable to answer a turn one play on the draw, but gets better as the game goes on. In a deck that is built to trade one for one it is essential that your removal spells do what they’re supposed to. Because of the low land count however you also need them to be efficient in order to not fall behind on tempo early on. This is why I think Terminate is a better fit for the sideboard, as games usually slow down a bit after board.
Next up we have the counter magic. When I played this deck it had three copies of Counterspell and a lone Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Ruben’s version has two Pyroblast effects and an additional copy of Jace. This can easily be explained by the fact that my metagame is less blue, with more creature decks seeing play, making Counterspell preferable over Pyroblast. Pyroblast also happens to be more narrow, and three copies feels a bit much, which means you get to fit in another Jace instead.
Land3x ISLAND 4x POLLUTED DELTA 4x FLOODED STRAND 3x VOLCANIC ISLAND 3x TUNDRA 1x PLAINS 1x MISHRA’S FACTORY 1x KARAKAS Creature1x VENDILION CLIQUE 3x SNAPCASTER MAGE Instant4x FORCE OF WILL 2x LIGHTNING BOLT 4x SWORDS TO PLOWSHARES |
4x BRAINSTORM1x FLUSTERSTORM
1x SPELL PIERCE 3x DIG THROUGH TIME 1x PYROBLAST 2x COUNTERSPELL Sorcery4x PONDER 4x PREORDAIN 1x PYROCLASM 1x SUPREME VERDICT 2x COUNCIL’S JUDGEMENT Other2x JACE, THE MIND SCULPTOR |
Sideboard2x BLOOD MOON 2x WEAR/TEAR 1x FLUSTERSTORM 1x VENDILION CLIQUE 2x SURGICAL EXTRACTION 3x MEDDLING MAGE 1x PYROCLASM 2x PYROBLAST 1x SECURE THE WASTES |
Ah, another innovative UWR Control list! It is very similar to the winning list, and even has the signature Secure the Wastes, only this time it’s in the sideboard. The fact that both decks made it to the top 8 is for me reason enough to at least have a closer look at the archetype. That will have to wait for another time though, as for now we’re going to examine the differences between the two lists.
Adria plays three additional removal spells (the two Lightning Bolts and the one-of Pyroclasm) where the other list had a second Pyroblast, a Spell Snare, and the fourth Dig Through Time. Eight pieces of dedicated creature removal might be too much, but when I play a deck like this I always want to have an answer ready for my opponent’s creatures. If you have to spend your cantrips looking for a removal spell you might find yourself shuffling away otherwise good cards or keeping bad Ponders just because you desperately need to answer their threat, and that is a recipe for failure. I’d much rather play it safe and not skimp on the removal. Having a second sweeper also takes a lot of the pressure off when facing an army of Young Pyromancer tokens, and Pyroclasm is a much more efficient answer than Secure the Wastes.
Having shaved some of the counter magic, Adria’s list is weaker to combo. To compensate for this, the singleton Secure the Wastes has been replaced with a Vendilion Clique, serving as both disruption and a victory condition.
Aside from Storm, Spell Snare also has a lot of utility against various problematic permanents, such as Counterbalance and Chalice of the Void. Having split the two copies of Flusterstorm in order to fit in a Spell Pierce ensures you still have as many ways to deal with these cards.
Land4x WASTELAND 3x VERDANT CATACOMBS 3x WINDSWEPT HEATH 3x GROVE OF THE BURNWILLOWS 2x BAYOU 2x TRANQUIL THICKET 1x TAIGA 1x SCRUBLAND 1x FOREST 1x SAVANNAH 1x BARREN MOOR 1x KARAKAS 1x MAZE OF ITH 1x URBORG, TOMB OF YAWGMOTH |
Artifact4x CHALICE OF THE VOID 4x MOX DIAMOND Creature1x DRYAD ARBOR 4x DARK CONFIDANT 4x KNIGHT OF THE RELIQUARY 1x GADDOCK TEEG 1x DEATHRITE SHAMAN 1x SCAVENGING OOZE Instant3x PUNISHING FIRE 3x ABRUPT DECAY Sorcery2x GREEN SUN’S ZENITH 2x LIFE FROM THE LOAM Enchantment2x SYLVAN LIBRARY Other3x LILIANA OF THE VEIL |
Sideboard2x ETHERSWORN CANONIST 2x CHOKE 2x GOLGARI CHARM 1x MAELSTROM PULSE 2x THOUGHTSEIZE 1x RECLAMATION SAGE 2x SLAUGHTER GAMES 3x LEYLINE OF THE VOID |
This is essentially the exact same list that we’ve seen repeatedly doing well in tournaments lately. The only change that has been made here was to replace the second copy of Barren Moor with a second Tranquil Thicket. Tranquil Thicket seems stronger in general, whereas Barren Moor helps cast Liliana of the Veil, and also works very well alongside Life from the Loam and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
This deck just keeps performing extremely well over and over again. It’s time we recognise its place among the best decks in Legacy.
As for me, the journey outside my comfort zone has been great. I’ve kept my promise, trying new things in Legacy and playing better decks. So far I have tried both Grixis Control and Omnitell, going 4-0 and 3-1 respectively. My confidence as a player has been renewed, and I couldn’t be more excited to keep working on the format, exploring new ideas. There’s a WMCQ coming up, where I’ll be playing Mono Red, so for the time being most of my energy is directed towards learning the ropes in Standard.
Once the WMCQ is over however it’s all about Legacy, as the first season of our legacy league is coming to an end. Sixteen players will be competing for the title of Stockholm Legacy Champion, hundreds of dollars in legacy staples, and a handmade playmat by @PG_Alterations.
Until next time,
Sandro Rajalin
Last weekend brought us GP London so let’s take a look at the Standard action that happened last weekend:
Abzan Aggro was the story of the tournament! Putting four people into the Top 8, [card]Hangarback Walker[/card] is still a force to be reckoned with. Let’s take a look at some Abzan Aggro card numbers to see where the deck is possibly headed in the future.
Land
16x [card]Windswept Heath[/card]
16x [card]Sandsteppe Citadel[/card]
14x [card]Temple of Malady[/card]
12x [card]Caves of Koilos[/card]
12x [card]Llanowar Wastes[/card]
8x [card]Temple of Silence[/card]
4x [card]Mana Confluence[/card]
4x [card]Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth[/card]
Planeswalker
6x [card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card]
2x [card]Ajani, Mentor of Heroes[/card]
Creature
16x [card]Anafenza, the Foremost[/card]
16x [card]Fleecemane Lion[/card]
16x [card]Hangarback Walker[/card]
16x [card]Siege Rhino[/card]
12x [card]Den Protector[/card]
6x [card]Warden of the First Tree[/card]
4x [card]Wingmate Roc[/card]
Instant
14x [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card]
12x [card]Abzan Charm[/card]
10x [card]Ultimate Price[/card]
6x [card]Hero’s Downfall[/card]
Sideboard
16x [card]Thoughtseize[/card]
10x [card]Tragic Arrogance[/card]
8x [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card]
6x [card]Herald of Torment[/card]
3x [card]Surge of Righteousness[/card]
4x [card]Ultimate Price[/card]
2x [card]Unravel the Aether[/card]
2x [card]Arashin Cleric[/card]
2x [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card]
2x [card]Glare of Heresy[/card]
2x [card]Self-Inflicted Wound[/card]
2x [card]Tasigur, the Golden Fang[/card]
1x [card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card]
Based on those numbers, [card]Hangarback Walker[/card] is a new key piece of the Abzan Aggro strategy. [card]Anafenza, the Foremost[/card] is another creature that is critical to the strategy. A 4/4 that keeps growing your creatures every turn, with a bonus of being able to shut down graveyard strategies, is definitely a large threat in the deck. In terms of planeswalkers, [card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card] should not be overlooked as it can greatly help out against the new U/R Thopters archetype by giving you some lifelinking reach throughout the game in order to survive the critical final turns.
The other decks that rounded out the Top 8 were GW Megamorph, Jeskai Tempo, Abzan Midrange, and RG Dragons.
Similar to Abzan Aggro, GW Devotion was playing [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] due to its huge versatility in the format right now. Other cards seen were [card]Hangarback Walker[/card] (again), [card]Hidden Dragonslayer[/card], and [card]Nissa, Vastwood Seer[/card].
Jeskai Tempo is still making good use of [card]Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy[/card] however the use of [card]Soulfire Grand Master[/card], [card]Mantis Rider[/card], and [card]Ojutai’s Command[/card] should not be overlooked. These cards provide fast and massive amounts of card advantage throughout the game.
Finally, GR Dragons was packing the usual [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card] and [card]Stormbreath Dragon[/card] along with [card]Draconic Roar[/card], [card]Rattleclaw Mystic[/card], and [card]Haven of the Spirit Dragon[/card].
All in all, not an exciting Top 8 it but it does provide us with some data about how Origins continues to shape up the format leading into Battle for Zendikar. Keep tuning in for more weekend updates.
No Marcel this week so the gang has Ray Perez Jr (@rayfuturepro) fill in. Hijnks ensue.
Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher
Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook
Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation
Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation
Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter
Money Draught #39 — We Never Sleep
Topics include: post-rotation Standard, Community Cup changes, Modern Masters 2015 flashback drafts, the Great
English Pet Culling of 1939, Jim Jones, Bernie Sanders and demographics, JR’s horse handicapping strategy, and
a revival of the pre-Vegas Money Draught Modern rotisserie draft.
** This cast is for mature listeners **
Your Hosts:
Jason Alt — @JasonEAlt
Slick Jagger — @slickJagger
JR — @time_elemental
No Corbin this week, so we have that going for us. Still, the docket was light and a light docket isn’t always ideal. How does the gang cope? By talking about fetches.
Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher
Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook
Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation
Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation
Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter
Deckbuilding is a passion of mine. Over the past couple of years, I’ve found the formula that best suits my style when creating a new deck. I analyze my brews and the card selections within along three axes: power level, synergy, consistency. If those three components of a deck are sound, the deck in question often has what it takes to be competitive in its format. Many players want to assemble something sweet, placing synergy above all else and building their deck to try to ensure they can pull off their plan. In the current metagame, a good example would be Blue-Red Sphinx’s Tutelage, built by Andrew Cuneo for Pro Tour Magic Origins. The deck is full of card-draw spells, removal or other interactive spells that slow its opponent’s ability to mount an offensive board ([card]Anger of the Gods[/card], [card]Whelming Wave[/card], and [card]Send to Sleep[/card]) and a win condition that takes advantage of the card-drawing spells. Though the power level of many of those cards may not be the highest available in that color combination, his card-draw spells become recurring triggers for [card]Sphinx’s Tutelage[/card] on board while also allowing him to dig for answers for his opponent’s attackers.
This deck is highly synergistic and consistent, and countermagic out of the board helps him protect his hard-to-interact-with win condition in [card]Sphinx’s Tutelage[/card]. In true Cuneo fashion, this deck is a symphony of what were somewhat obscure card choices that allow him to durdle (when not milling out the opponent by turn five) until his opponent is nearly helpless and then win in a relatively untraditional, inevitable fashion.
Conversely, there are decks like Abzan Control in the format. It has a good curve, card advantage, and power. It’s like a traditional Jund deck in that way – it’s comprised of the best removal spells, card advantage, value-creatures, and finishers in its colors. It works cohesively because every card has a high impact in most matches of Magic, but those cards aren’t inherently synergistic.
Last week I was incredibly proud of the list I posted in my first article. I thought I had found a deck that was balanced and met my standards, and the standards required to be competitive in this Standard format, in terms of power, synergy, and consistency. Over the last few weeks, I had shared the evolution of this deck with a professional player I hold in the highest regard, Craig Wescoe. I felt like that Mono White Tokens deck was completely finished and was the best possible 75 it could be. I tested it on Magic Online extensively, tested competing card options in the deck, and was proud to share it with someone who enjoys playing the archetype. Craig tested it, choosing to play it for his weekly article and in this case, video series, for TCGPlayer, and chose to play it this weekend at Grand Prix San Diego. Just the fact that he considered my deck as being worthwhile to test further was a tremendous source of pride. The night before the tournament, we went over the card choices via Facebook, finalizing the 75 cards before registration the next day. I was flying high. To say it was an honor is an understatement. For someone who, as I mentioned last week, is not a competitive player, but is driven to find hidden, competitive decks in the format, this was the realization of everything I wanted out of Magic: The Gathering. A Pro Tour-winning, future Hall of Fame member, white deck enthusiast was going to play my deck in a Grand Prix. I tested a few matches online after our discussion, trying to glean any additional information I could pass on before ultimately succumbing to sleep (face on keyboard) at nearly 5:30 AM.
Though I felt really good about the deck, Craig’s intuition told him to play [card]Knight of the White Orchid[/card]. I had my reservations about that card and was adamant about it in my article last week. It’s not synergistic. It’s not as proactively powerful in a token-based strategy, it’s not an anthem on wheels like [card]Consul’s Lieutenant[/card]. It doesn’t pressure control or [card]Sphinx’s Tutelage[/card] decks like the Lieutenant can. Testing against Abzan Rally decks made me realize how much pressure the Lieutenant could put on and how hard it was for that deck to deal with a 3-power First Strike creature. I had played [card]Knight of the White Orchid[/card] in earlier versions of the deck, even tested it in the final version and it felt like it wasn’t proactive enough to warrant inclusion. What I didn’t realize is that, though I made concessions and chose cards to increase the consistency of the deck, it still wasn’t consistent enough. Even though [card]Knight of the White Orchid[/card] couldn’t steal games the way [card]Consul’s Lieutenant[/card] had during my testing, what it did do is give the deck a much better chance to win with hands that I’d grade as a C-. The hands you knew you had to keep. The two-land hands where you just need to “get there” to get your [card]Archangel of Tithes[/card] on the board and let the deck do what it does best: manage a cluttered board until it becomes just favorable enough to create a window to win the game. To clench the match. To be in contention for top 8. The margins this deck operates on against Abzan Control and Green-Red Devotion are so slim that a consistency issue is almost always a death sentence. When your deck is playing cards that are, if not for a synergistic reason for inclusion, almost laughable on their own (like [card]Raise the Alarm[/card]), mulligans can hurt you far more than they would your opponent. In hindsight, it’s clear now that the true power of the deck is that despite looking unassuming, its creatures can dominate most boards. It’s really hard to attack into a [card]Brimaz, King of Oreskos[/card] and a [card]Hangarback Walker[/card] on the ground. [card]Wingmate Roc[/card] and its token offer enough pressure in the air that they can often close out the game on their own. [card]Archangel of Tithes[/card] makes it very hard for an opponent to continue using their mana to add creatures to the board while also being able to pay the tithe required to block off alpha strikes. An offensive 2-drop would be nice in the deck, but having a serviceable body that also improves your chances of getting to [card]Archangel of Tithes[/card] and [card]Wingmate Roc[/card] before it’s too late is far more important. Another land also seems like it could be a welcome addition to help with those consistency issues as well.
Without going into too much detail about a tournament I didn’t play in, the deck seemed to beat itself from what I heard. I don’t think I’ve ever checked my phone so much over the course of a weekend. Wescoe was kind enough to keep me in the loop after nearly every round. I truly felt like I was in it with him and was grateful to feel like part of a team with one of the best players in the world. The deck showed its prowess at beating, well, Prowess in the form of [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card] and [card]Abbot of Keral Keep[/card]. The deck also had mixed results against Abzan Control and Green-Red Devotion, its consistency being a major factor in the unfavorable outcomes. I took the negative portion of the results personally. I had earned the trust of a player I revere and always hope to see win whenever he’s featured on coverage. When every match, every game, and in this case, every land drop can impact a professional player’s chances at earning Pro Points, the responsibility of having a deck you designed fall short in terms of consistency weighs quite heavily on you. At one point he shared that he had two white sources and two [card]Foundry of the Consuls[/card] in play and lost to GR Devotion with two [card]Tragic Arrogance[/card], two [card]Archangel of Tithes[/card], and a [card]Wingmate Roc[/card] in hand. All of the best cards in the match-up were stranded there, uncastable. I felt sick, felt as though I had let him down, felt as though I had personally taken away his opportunity to play Magic. A professional player’s intuition was correct and since I designed and tested the deck, he trusted me and went with my two-drop selection, which impacted his record at the tournament.
While the tournament was in progress, Craig and I also talked about trying find that special “something” to push the deck over the top. Push the power level just a little more. He thought that perhaps adding a second color for either [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] or [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card] was the way to go and I’ve chosen to pursue the latter option. The manabase in the deck can support a second color at very little cost. The deck already plays five scry lands to dig to either action or lands, help to prevent flood, and give the deck some velocity. Adding some fetch lands should pull most of the weight in terms of rounding out the splash. [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card] seems like an ideal selection for a deck with synergistic creatures that combine to trump opposing creatures that are individually more powerful. In a long, grindy game, it’s hard to rely solely on the synergy when trading in combat and having your creatures fall to removal spells. [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card] slots in perfectly out of the board to answer most of the trump cards in the format. [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card], [card]Languish[/card], and [card]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/card] are all cards the deck can beat if they’re resolved, but the right pieces have to be in place at the right time to do so. [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card] is the back-up plan to protect your creatures and your board advantage as the game progresses. I’m still testing the new version of the deck, but it feels every bit as powerful (sorry [card]Consul’s Lieutenant[/card]), more consistent, and has a more versatile sideboard.
[deck title= W/u Tokens]
[Creatures]
*3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged
*4 Knight of the White Orchid
*4 Hangarback Walker
*3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
*4 Archangel of Tithes
*3 Wingmate Roc
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*4 Raise the Alarm
*2 Valorous Stance
*2 Banishing Light
*2 Devouring Light
*1 Spear of Heliod
*1 Ajani Steadfast
*1 Dictate of Heliod
*2 Secure the Wastes
[/Spells]
[Land]
*4 Temple of Enlightenment
*1 Temple of Silence
*4 Flooded Strand
*2 Tranquil Cove
*2 Foundry of the Consuls
*2 Island
*9 Plains
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
*2 Hallowed Moonlight
*3 Tragic Arrogance
*3 Disdainful Stroke
*1 Negate
*1 Stratus Dancer
*1 Banishing Light
*1 Valorous Stance
*3 Surge of Righteousness
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
Here, all of the blue spells are relegated to the sideboard. I believe it’s too risky to main-deck a card like [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card] in a format with Mono-Red and Blue-Red “Running With Scissors” being played as much as they were at Grand Prix San Diego. The sideboard gives the deck great ways to prevent [card]Languish[/card] and more interactive choices against G/R Devotion. [card]Hushwing Gryff[/card] has been great for me, though it is a “nonbo” with [card]Wingmate Roc[/card], and the newly added [card]Knight of the White Orchid[card] makes it a liability. [card]Vryn Wingmare[/card] is simply too narrow and feels worse than countering the spells it is disruptive against. Our match-up against [card]Rally the Ancestors[/card] is worse than it was in the previous version, but that deck didn’t perform well enough this weekend to warrant more dedicated slots. I’m still confident that we’re a strong favorite if it does show up. A big reason to include [card]Negate[/card] over more copies of [card]Stratus Dancer[/card] is [card]Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver[/card]. Against U/B Control, Ashiok can be one of the toughest cards to deal with and having answers is a big boon, especially since you can leave up [card]Negate[/card] in the early turns and cast [card]Raise the Alarm[/card] on your opponent’s endstep. It can also be a key card if [card]Sphinx’s Tutelage[/card] rises in popularity after its win this weekend.
I don’t know where the deck goes from here. I’ve heard good feedback from people who ran versions at their LGSs over the weekend and there is power in it. The above 75 certainly feels good every time I play it. Craig Wescoe believes there’s potential, so in all honesty, if you’re interested in what a white-based [card]Archangel of Tithes[/card]/[card]Wingmate Roc[/card] deck can do, what the absolute best version of it is out there in this Standard format, I would look out for anything he posts if I were you. I know I’ll be looking.
—
I want to change gears a little bit and end this article with a pet deck I’ve been having a blast playing when taking a break from testing Standard. Although the premise for the deck will be controversial and most players will disagree with it, the deck was built around the hypothesis that [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card] is a better card than [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] in the current Modern meta. Voice is more disruptive, is better against removal (or exactly AS good against [card]Path to Exile[/card]), and grows in much the same manner if your deck is built to create a large board presence. With the rise of Grixis decks, preventing an opponent from playing on your turn is quite strong. I’ve also been testing various homes for Kytheon in Modern, liking him in my version of Orzhov Sisters, but I’ve been enjoying Abzan Tokens for a few weeks now. I definitely don’t feel like I’ve found the finished version of the deck, but I do think there’s potential in this brew:
[deck title= Abzan Tokens]
[Creatures]
*3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged
*4 Voice of Resurgence
*2 Siege Rhino
*1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*4 Inquisition of Kozilek
*3 Thoughtseize
*2 Path to Exile
*2 Bitterblossom
*2 Intangible Virtue
*2 Abrupt Decay
*4 Lingering Souls
*4 Spectral Procession
*1 Maelstrom Pulse
*1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
*1 Murderous Cut
[/Spells]
[Lands]
*4 Windswept Heath
*4 Marsh Flats
*3 Temple Garden
*3 Godless Shrine
*1 Overgrown Tomb
*2 Stirring Wildwood
*1 Gavony Township
*1 Isolated Chapel
*2 Razorverge Thicket
*1 Forest
*1 Plains
*1 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
*1 Leyline of the Void
*2 Rest in Peace
*2 Stony Silence
*1 Disfigure
*1 Duress
*1 Celestial Purge
*1 Surgical Extraction
*2 Abrupt Decay
*1 Sundering Growth
*2 Kitchen Finks
*1 Pithing Needle
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
There have been many cards added and removed over the last few weeks and it’s hard to nail down exactly how each match-up feels with so many cards going in and out, but I’ve had good results against [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] decks. The Grixis Control match-up feels closer, though I do think this deck is favored. Jund feels that way as well. Other than that, a lot of its match-ups seem pretty similar to what you’d experience with most GBx decks, though this is far more heavily based in white. If you are casually playing Modern with friends or it’s the upcoming FNM format, I think this deck is a solid choice and I’d love to hear feedback on your results or alternate card choices!