M11 spoilers are in full swing, as you are no doubt aware, and like M10 before it, Wizards looks like it has a winner on its hands. The cards we’ve seen thus far are flavorful and powerful, and it looks like some care has been taken this time to keep the spells at an appropriate power level as compared to the creatures. Mana Leak, Condemn, Cultivate, Preordain, Jace’s Ingenuity… these are strong spells, matched by some powerful creatures like Obstinate Baloth, Aether Adept, and Scroll Thief. I’m really excited to draft this set and to see what Standard looks like for the rest of the summer. Rise of the Eldrazi and M11 are really going to flesh out this format and it should be an exciting few months of Magic.
Let’s go back and look at that list of creatures again. Obstinate Baloth has already been discussed elsewhere, and this card is obviously constructed playable. The latter two creatures might not be strong enough for constructed play in this day and age, but I know I’m not the only one that’s excited to see these cards come back into Standard. Man-o-War is one of my all-time favorite Magic cards, and a long time ago during Mirage Standard players ran rainbow lands like City of Brass and Undiscovered Paradise to get enough blue in their decks to support it. Unfortunately, creatures today exist on a different scale than they did in 1996, and many of the creatures being played now are actively poor choices for a bounce effect. I would love this card to be playable, especially in some kind of blue/green tempo deck, but I’m not going to expect this card to impact the format like it did over a decade ago.
Similarly, Ophidian was a monster of a card in its heyday, but it is also a card that has clearly been trumped by later printings, including Shadowmage Infiltrator — which itself barely saw any play in Time Spiral standard; similarly, Cold-Eye Selkie saw basically zero play in Standard. Scroll Thief is literally an upgraded Ophidian and has the benefit of the same casting cost, but again, I’m afraid this is a card that Magic has passed by; that said, Scroll Thief has the not irrelevant benefit of being a Merfolk in a Magic world where these things matter, but I’m not sure it will matter enough in this Standard.
Okay, great, so there’s a few cards I want to play that probably won’t be good enough. How about some cards that might actually see play?
So what do we get out of this creature, exactly? A 4/4 for five mana is clearly behind the curve of Standard playable creatures, but on the plus side this casting cost is low enough to accelerate into play quickly and the single green makes it an easy splash into other decks or decks with greedy mana (like Jund). The danger with this card is that it is going to be in a format with Condemn, Path to Exile, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and so on, so its graveyard trigger might never occur. But if it does, this thing is packed with value. Think about it: what is the stock mana of a vanilla 4/4, two vanilla 2/2s, and four vanilla 1/1s? Twelve mana? (Full disclosure: I honest-to-God really like the idea of stock mana, but I don’t have any clue how to successfully apply it, if such an endeavor is actually possible.) Ok, how about this: how many opposing creatures can this one lock down by itself — what is the tempo gain on a creature like this, which makes profitable combat so difficult for an opponent? Then, how do those effects magnify in a format with cards like Eldrazi Monument?
This is a challenging card to measure.
I’m not really actively engaged in enough Standard to really say this card will definitely see play, but I’m struggling to come up with a card that sits in the same design space as this one, despite what seems like an obvious (if very cool) mechanic and design. While we’ve seen similar cards before, Slime could easily be playable in Standard as soon as this summer, or in the format post-rotation (when Path to Exile leaves). It continues to add value to Sarkhan the Mad as well, both being a fantastic protector of Planeswalkers and uniquely suited to exploit Sarkhan’s -2 ability.
Have you seen the art on this one yet?
Forget the actual card for a minute and just look at that art. I’m not really an “art” guy when it comes to Magic; I don’t buy artist prints, I never get cards autographed or doodled on, and while I appreciate full-art expanded cards, I don’t own any myself. Still, I can appreciate a flavorful piece like this. The art on Phylactery Lich evokes any number of traditional fantasy games (for me, it reminds me most of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, only because that’s my most recent full-on fantasy game) and helps hammer home the fact that Wizards is really pushing the traditional fantasy setting of their core sets.
Back to the actual card itself: this is an indestructible 5/5 that costs three mana. Think about that and remember what I said about Man-O-War and Ophidian, but on the plus side, we’re no longer playing a Standard format with Dark Ritual; unless Scars has some serious mana-fixing, Phylactery Lich is going to be difficult to play in Standard outside of mono-black decks — and those that have some artifact worth playing, to boot. Thankfully we’re headed into an artifact block so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Did I mention this is an indestructible 5/5 for three mana?
Again, we’re in a format that has cards like Condemn that trump indestructibility, so like Mitotic Slime, it is possible that I’m over-valuing Lich in Standard. What about in formats where you actually can play Dark Ritual? There have been plenty of times where Dark Ritual combo decks in Legacy and Vintage have wanted a card like Phyrexian Negator; most of those decks have plenty of mana artifacts to target with Lich’s ability, and Lich has none of the drawback of Negator against a deck packing burn spells; it can hold off an opponent’s largest creature indefinitely or go on the offensive as a first-turn 5/5.
This is a very cool card. I wouldn’t have expected a card like this to be in a core set, either.
A new Negator, Man-o-War, and Ophidian, all in the same core set? Thus far I’m still very much excited about this set.
But wait, it gets better:
Is this card actually going to be good enough? I have no freaking clue, but the mind boggles at the possibilities. I mean, playing Jace on turn one in Vintage is one of my new favorite things in the world — but playing Jace at instant speed might be even cooler. End of turn, play Jace?
Does this mean that the next time I play Red, I might have to worry about my opponent playing Day of Judgment in my main phase?
Even worse, what does it mean for control decks to potentially flash in Planeswalkers after combat and have full mana available to protect them in their main phase?
In Vintage, if we’re in magical Christmas happy-land, your brain will do somersaults if you start thinking about this card.
How about… end of your turn, play Yawgmoth’s Will? Or Demonic Tutor? End-step, flash in Oath of Druids off this here Forbidden Orchard, bypassing your Trygon Predator?
On your opponent’s upkeep, before he or she draws a card, play Mox Ruby, Sol Ring, Chalice of the Void, Sphere of Resistance? So much for the weakness of MUD on the draw. But, is it worth effective going to six to have that effect? Do you start to think about actually playing Blue Stax?
How about leading off on an opponent’s upkeep with Mox Jet, Mox Sapphire, Dark Confidant? How insane would it be to draw off Dark Confidant on your first turn of the game?
Part of me strongly thinks that this card is going to be all flash, no substance — pun not intended, or good — but another part thinks that when this card finds the right home, it could be a monster. I love that it has potential in multiple formats, and the fact that we’re looking at another cycle of Leylines, in a CORE SET no less, is truly exciting.
Two small things that I find amusing:
One, can we just pick a functionality for Deathtouch and stick with it? The ability isn’t nearly relevant enough to justify this many re-workings. If the ability doesn’t work right any more, just send it off to Siberia with Banding and Rampage.
Two, Microsoft Word’s auto-correct function changed a few of those sentences around; as an example, one read, “I wouldn’t have expected a card like this to be in a corset.”
It’s the small things, it really is.
Philadelphia PTQ — 6/26
My last PTQ was March 14, 2009, and was an Extended PTQ in Philadelphia. Last Saturday, I went to Philly to play in the PTQ. Actually, I more or less went to hang out, grab lunch at the Reading Terminal Market, and test Legacy; the playing of the PTQ part was kind of an afterthought. The only Standard decks I had recent testing experience with were Blue/White and RDW. As much as I like the Blue/White deck, the metagame seems to be turning against it, so RDW it was. I have an almost-finished foil version of Devastating Red, so I went with that instead of the Unearth-fueled RDW that actually did well last weekend (including winning the StarCityGames.com Legacy Open and this PTQ).
Here’s what I played:
Creatures (16)
Lands (24)
Spells (20)
Sideboard
After the Standard portion of the Philly Open was posted, I changed my RDW over to this build, with the only changes being -1 Mountain, -1 Teetering Peeks for +2 Smoldering Spire.
My first round, I was paired against a Black/White control deck, which isn’t quite the easy match-up you’d think, as he had lots of cheap main-deck removal (Path, Vendetta, Doom Blade) and Baneslayer Angel. I led out with Goblin Guide, followed by a second Guide, which got hit by Path to Exile. I had two more lands in my hand and no Bushwhacker, so I figured I might as well add two more 3/3s to my board on turn two. That was enough to win. The second game, my opponent tapped out for an Abyssal Persecutor on turn four when I had just a Plated Geopede in play, and he was at 16; I knew he had a Baneslayer Angel in hand from a Goblin Guide trigger. I dropped a Smoldering Spire, Devastating Summons, and Goblin Bushwhacker and attacked for 16. Game over.
Round 2, I played against Josh Ravitz with Jund. I won the die roll and had a nut draw the first game with a perfect curve and Bushwhacker / Summons. Game two, Josh got stuck at three lands, and his fourth one was a tapped land, and that was enough of a hiccup for me to win easily with another perfect-curve hand.
I then played against Jund again in round 3, played by Dave McNamara, who ended up making the top 8. My personal Archenemy Deck definitely has a scheme involving Dave McNamara clobbering me. I can’t beat the guy. Game one he had a Lightning Bolt for my Goblin Guide and two Thrinax to clog the board, and then Bloodbraid into a third Thrinax. Tough to punch through that. Game two, I had an opening as Dave had no removal spell for my level 2 Kargan Dragonlord; he tapped out into a Bloodbraid and Cascaded into a Doom Blade, and that was enough advantage to put the game out of reach.
Round 4 I played against Turboland, a deck I’d read about but wasn’t at all familiar with in live Magic situations. It’s definitely my kind of deck, now that I’ve seen it in action, but it does seem to have a tough match-up against RDW. The games were actually pretty close, but in both games, a high-level Dragonlord bypassed a bunch of plant tokens to win the game. Jace decided to take the match off, so that helped considerably.
It was Jund again in round 5. The first game, I got smashed. Game two, my opponent kept a hand with double Thrinax but no black mana, and I won before he found any; this was kind of an awkward game because I kept an anti-Thrinax hand with two Searing Blaze and an Earthquake but not much creature offense. I ended up playing a Summons on turn five that got in there for 14, and that won the game. Game three was more of the same — another good hand without black mana that didn’t get there for my opponent. I led on Goblin Guide, then Bushwhacker, then another Bushwhacker and burn closed it out.
Round 6 was Jund again, and I had to mulligan both games into Goblin Guide hands that were basically done when said Guide ate an immediate Bolt.
While Jund was popular at this PTQ, playing it four times in six rounds was unfortunate for me; the match-up isn’t bad, but the die roll matters a lot and having only two Spires was a bad design flaw in my deck; the more Spires you have, the easier that match-up gets (although it also depends on how much main-deck cheap removal they’re packing). I found myself siding out Staggershock every round, and also wishing desperately that I had some more Smoldering Spires as that card is absolutely insane against a lot of the field, regardless of your build of RDW. The Summons combo was good for me on the day, but the results from the past weekend seem to heavily favor the build without it. Dragonlord was exceptional for me all day, but that has a lot to do with the match-ups I faced.
I’m hoping there are one or two more weapons for this deck in M11. I had a great time rocking the red deck, but it is still lacking one thing that blue, green, and white have all had: a single-color Planeswalker that doesn’t suck.
Please Wizards, retire Chandra and give red one good four-cost Planeswalker. You took Mystical from me for no (valid) reason, can I at least get a freaking red Planeswalker that Elspeth, Ajani, and Jace don’t mock constantly?
Instead of battling for the last two rounds to try to win a few packs, I dropped to test some Legacy.
Exhuminator
After dropping from the PTQ, I got to test an updated version of Exhuminator for a few hours against Merfolk, Goblins, and Zoo. Here’s the list I was using:
Creatures (7)
- 1 Blazing Archon
- 1 Inkwell Leviathan
- 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
- 2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
- 1 Terastodon
- 1 It That Betrays
Lands (18)
Spells (35)
Again, the sideboard is still something of a place-holder until we get a better feel for the actual format.
Playing against Zoo, I felt reasonably comfortable the more I play with this build; as shown in the testing session last week, a lot of those games come down to getting Sphinx into play and protecting it. Having the second Iona might not be necessary if Zoo becomes our primary opponent; I lost a few games because I had Sphinx stranded in hand, or didn’t have a second one in the deck if a Path resolved on the first. That swap might be worthwhile.
The Merfolk games actually went pretty well, as an early Iona can be a game-ender, and Blazing Archon is the general trump card in the match-up. It That Betrays can also steal games in this match-up because they don’t have Swords or Path.
The Goblins games, on the other hand, were pretty brutal. The list I have, which I haven’t played with in some time, is a pretty basic Chieftain / Mogg War Marshal list with a black splash, but it had only one Stingscourger and two Warren Weirdings. I believe modern Goblins lists tend to have more Stingscourgers. Regardless, Goblins is a tough nut to crack with Reanimator. If you go for Sphinx, you can’t block Goblin Piledriver, and actually will often lose that race. If you try to hide behind Blazing Archon, they can kill it with Gempalm Incinerator and you can’t counter it. Best bet really is to try to Force or Thoughtseize your way past Lackey and Vial and stick an Iona, but that plan is much harder to pull off consistently without Mystical Tutor. It That Betrays can also steal games if you get it into play early enough and protect it. The interaction with Mogg War Marshall is kind of amusing.
Oh my Lords!
Here’s the deck that won the Legacy portion of the Bazaar of Moxen earlier this year:
Creatures (26)
- 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- 4 Lord of Atlantis
- 4 Merrow Reejerey
- 4 Silvergill Adept
- 4 Cursecatcher
- 4 Merfolk Sovereign
- 4 Coralhelm Commander
Lands (22)
Spells (12)
If this list looks familiar to you, this could be the reason:
Creatures (26)
- 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- 4 Lord of Atlantis
- 4 Merrow Reejerey
- 4 Silvergill Adept
- 4 Cursecatcher
- 4 Merfolk Sovereign
- 4 Coralhelm Commander
Lands (22)
Spells (12)
The sideboard is obviously different, but the maindeck is the same. The key difference in this build as compared to “normal” Merfolk decks it the use of a full set of 16 “Lords” — four each of Lord of Atlantis, Coralhelm Commander, Merfolk Sovereign, and Merrow Reejerey — along with two maindeck Kira. All of those overlapping Lords turn this into a much more aggressive build; the extra lords are usually replacing Standstill and Stifle, cards that are weak against Zoo. With less combo in the format, and more Zoo, this build makes a tremendous amount of sense. I’d strongly suggest you test with it and against it for any upcoming Legacy tournaments, including the Grand Prix.
This version’s Zoo match-up is much stronger than “regular” Merfolk; you run out of removal quickly and can’t just burn out the lords because they seem to hit 4/4 almost immediately. Once lords start piling up, Wild Nacatl can’t push the ‘folk around, and then the unblockable and flying lords show up. I’d imagine this version plays well in the mirror as well, since you get a big advantage out of additional lords.
Next week, I’ll cover the most recent Blue Bell with an eye toward prep for Vintage Champs.
Or, maybe something else.
Leylines in a core set. I really have seen it all.
Matt Elias
[email protected]
Voltron00x on SCG, TMD, and The Source