For me, August and September this year are months of Magic relaxation. I’ve got vacation days coming up, which means I’ll need to put in some extra time at my part-time job during the other weekends to make up for the lost time, so traveling to PTQs are out. I’ll also unfortunately be missing out on a neat “Richmond City Champs” program that Richmond Comix and Time Capsule are going to be running every weekend in August and early September to fill the void left by the defunct City Champs events Wizards ran last year. So for Standard it’s pretty much just going to be a handful of Friday Night Magic I’ll get to play in between now and State Champs this Fall.
I’ve decided to power down my critique of the current Standard for the duration, even while some of the bigger names in Magic analysis seem to be coming ‘round to my way of thinking. Yes, I still think it sucks, but since I’m not going to be competing in any big tournaments with anything large on the line, why let it bother me? Instead, I’ve decided to dedicate the waning days of pre-Zendikar Standard revisiting some old favorite “Tier X” deck ideas based on Lorwyn/Shadowmoor cards that never got much traction before, starting with my recent foray with Treefolk and now moving on to other things. Are there any interesting deck ideas I’ve tossed out centered around Lorwyn/Shadowmoor cards that you’d like to see revisited? Who knows, maybe we’ll accidentally stumble across a strategy that’s gotten considerably better due to new cards or shifts in the metagame.
This week, I want to come back to Thousand-Year Elixir. When the card first came out, I built three decks around it – one based around Mangara of Corondor and Merieke Ri Berit; one based around Elementals; and then, when Alara came out, I built one based around Master Transmuter. I love creatures that do stuff other than just attack and block, so Thousand-Year Elixir was like an arrow from Cupid’s bow launched straight to my Magic heart. So many creatures tap to do cool things, but unfortunately you have to play them during your main phase (dodging countermagic) and then it has to sit there and avoid creature removal until your next upkeep before it can tap and do cool things.
For reference here are the decks I cooked up with Thousand-Year Elixir in the past 20 months or so.
1,000 Year Elixir
4 Thousand-Year Elixir
4 Icatian Javelineers
4 Mulldrifter
4 Riftwing Cloudskate
2 Grim Harvest
4 Momentary Blink
3 Unsummon
4 Mangara Of Corondor
4 Merieke Ri Berit
3 Venser, Shaper Savant
3 Island
3 Plains
2 Swamp
3 Adarkar Wastes
2 Caves Of Koilos
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Vivid Creek
2 Boreal Shelf
2 Frost Marsh
Sideboard:
4 Burrenton Forge-tender
4 Shriekmaw
2 Sower Of Temptation
3 Stonecloaker
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
The New Kool Aid
3 Thousand-year Elixir
2 Cloudthresher
3 Crackleburr
4 Fatestitcher
4 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Mulldrifter
1 Reveillark
1 Shriekmaw
4 Smokebraider
1 Wispmare
3 Negate
3 Remove Soul
2 Horde Of Notions
1 Crib Swap
3 Island
3 Mountain
2 Cascade Bluffs
4 Primal Beyond
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Shivan Reef
2 Vivid Crag
2 Vivid Creek
Sideboard:
2 Reveillark
2 Shriekmaw
4 Spitemare
3 Wispmare
4 Wrath Of God
Esper Elixir
1 Pithing Needle
1 Scourglass
4 Sigil Of Distinction
4 Thousand-year Elixir
4 Esperzoa
4 Etherium Sculptor
2 Ethersworn Adjudicator
1 Grim Poppet
4 Master Transmuter
1 Platinum Angel
3 Sphinx Summoner
4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Esper Charm
1 Sharuum The Hegemon
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Underground River
2 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Meadow
Sideboard:
2 Dispeller’s Capsule
3 Relic Of Progenitus
2 Scourglass
1 Razormane Masticore
3 Path To Exile
4 Thoughtseize
All three of these decks were loads of fun and marginally competitive, though I certainly didn’t win any tournaments with them and eventually moved on in my quest for the holy quest of rogue decks: fun and good!
What brought me back around to Elixir were two Green cards from Magic 2010: Elvish Archdruid and Master of the Wild Hunt.
Elvish Archdruid has already made huge waves in Standard, and with a couple or more Elves in play the Archdruid can generate crazy amounts of mana with Elixir. There are also a fair number of Elves with tap effects (not to mention the usefulness in attacking with a Wren’s Run Vanquisher with the option of untapping it with Elixir to block).
Master of the Wild Hunt gives green the rare ability to destroy creatures, and it’s a reusable effect, so it’s certainly worth paying attention to. As a 3/3 for four mana, he’s a bit on the fragile side for the mana cost. Unfortunately, you’ve got to wait around until the next turn in order to tap and use his ability. On the plus side, his tap ability doesn’t require mana, so if you cast it with an Elixir in play you get to use it right away. The catch of course is that you also need at least one Wolf around to tap too. There are a few options available: Wolf-Skull Shaman and of course Chameleon Colossus are proven quality cards. Wren’s Run Packmaster is marginal… as is Howl of the Night Pack with enough mana running around (something Elvish Archdruid can certainly provide).
Let’s take a look at the other Green cards in Standard that tap to do stuff: Behemoth’s Herald, Birds of Paradise, Bloom Tender, Devoted Druid, Druid of the Anima, Drumhunter, Elvish Branchbender, Elvish Harbinger, Elvish Piper, Everbark Shaman, Gilt-Leaf Seer, Godtoucher, Immaculate Magistrate, Imperious Perfect, Jagged-Scar Archers, Kithkin Daggerdare, Leaf Glider, Llanowar Elves, Naya Battlemage, Noble Hierarch, Sacellum Archers, Sacellum Godspeaker, Scattershot Archer.
That’s a lot of critters… a fair number of them are pretty much Limited fodder, though I am a tad bit intrigued by the thought of Behemoth’s Herald into Godsire and immediately making 2 or more 8/8 Beasts a turn with Elixir… throw some Knotvine Mystics in there for sacrificing? Man, that’s tempting…
However, the card that really jumped up and slapped in the forehead in this list though is Immaculate Magistrate. Keen metagame observations may recall this deck from 2007 Worlds, posted (as far as I know) only in the Japanese coverage:
Kuroda-de-Pon / Worlds 2007 Standard Decks
Fujita Tsuyoshi
4 Brushland
4 Horizon Canopy
1 Pendelhaven
4 Snow-Covered Forest
6 Snow-Covered Plains
4 Treetop Village
3 Boreal Druid
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Immaculate Magistrate
3 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Mangara of Corondor
3 Masked Admirers
2 Saffi Eriksdotter
4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Thousand-Year Elixir
Sideboard
1 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Primal Command
4 Riftsweeper
4 Troll Ascetic
2 Viridian Shaman
This decklist popped up about the same time as I was kicking around with my first Elixir deck, and having Fujita validate my Mangara/Elixir approach certainly felt pretty good. Of course, my version didn’t have any Green in it back then… but now that I’m thinking about Elixir in a Green deck with Elves, why not Immaculate Magistrate? It’s a shame we don’t have Triskelion available, since that would be a perfect target for the Magistrate. Are we bold enough to consider the mana gyrations needed to “splash” Deathbringer Thoctar?
Okay, so taking Fujita’s decklist for a little bit of inspiration what about something like this?
Creatures (29)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Immaculate Magistrate
- 4 Imperious Perfect
- 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
- 4 Chameleon Colossus
- 3 Devoted Druid
- 2 Scattershot Archer
- 4 Elvish Archdruid
Lands (23)
Spells (8)
I have to admit I find the idea of hitting a Colossus with Magistrate tokens is… very… appealing. The beauty of Elixir of course is that you can spread the wealth around, and not just put the Magistrate tokens on a single creature that’s just begging to be nailed with a Path to Exile. There’s also the interesting move of dropping the tokens on Devoted Druid for mana production.
I wanted to have Cloudthreshers in here, but Jay convinced me that I should probably just try and win the game with Overrun, at least in the maindeck. Otherwise why not just play Combo Elves, right?
Okay, here’s a wolfier version:
Creatures (29)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Imperious Perfect
- 1 Wren's Run Packmaster
- 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
- 3 Chameleon Colossus
- 4 Wolf-Skull Shaman
- 1 Rhys the Redeemed
- 4 Elvish Archdruid
- 4 Master of the Wild Hunt
Lands (23)
Spells (8)
When I was talking with some of my friends about Elixir and Master of the Wild Hunt, they pointed out that that was a “non-bo” since even if you untapped Master with Elixir you’d still have no untapped Wolves with which to activate Master’s ability. You’d need to have two Elixirs to pull that off. While that is technically true, the Elixir is useful for more than just getting double duty out of a tap ability. For instance, I could see you’d want to do something like tap Master and Colossus to kill something (a chump blocker perhaps), then untap the Colossus with Elixir and attack with him.
Of course, kicking around with Elves you don’t have to stick with Green, so looking into Black creatures that tapped reminded me of the Green/Black Assassin deck I won a side event with at StarCityGames.com very first $5K event in Richmond. M10 brings back Royal Assassin which, while fragile, becomes quite potent with an Elixir in play. The turn after your opponent attacks, drop the Royal (“with Cheese”) Assassin and wack two tapped creatures right off the bat. He also makes a heckuva deterrent against all but the most vigilant attackers. So he gets killed? No problem, Scarblade Elite can still make use of him.
Creatures (27)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 3 Royal Assassin
- 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
- 4 Chameleon Colossus
- 4 Scarblade Elite
- 4 Murderous Redcap
- 4 Elvish Archdruid
Lands (23)
Spells (10)
You didn’t forget the nifty trick with Nameless Inversion and Murderous Redcap, did you? Good times indeed…
Speaking of Assassins, there’s a Bant “assassin” I’ve been considering for a while—Giltspire Avenger. I’m thinking he’d be great in a deck with Thousand-Year Elixir to get immediate and double-duty out of him. Something like this:
Creatures (31)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 3 Soul Warden
- 4 Rafiq of the Many
- 4 Rhox War Monk
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Giltspire Avenger
- 4 Skyward Eye Prophets
- 4 Knotvine Paladin
Lands (23)
Spells (6)
Sure, your opponent has to damage you with creatures before Avenger can go to work, but between Soul Wardens and Rhox War Monk you should be able to take the hits. I figured we could try Skyward Eye Prophets, which have got to be insane with Elixir and if nothing else gives you a +1/+1 boost for Knotvine Paladin.
Okay, and just for fun… you know I couldn’t let pass the idea of Behemoth’s Herald searching up a Godsire with an Elixir out! I’ve been dying to pull off that play, so how about something like this:
Creatures (33)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 3 Brion Stoutarm
- 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
- 4 Safehold Elite
- 4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
- 4 Behemoth's Herald
- 2 Godsire
- 4 Knotvine Mystic
- 4 Elvish Archdruid
Lands (23)
Spells (4)
Yes, that’s Brion Stoutarm picking up and tossing Behemoth tokens, gaining huge amounts of life… Good times, good times!
Okay, before I wrap this column up, some observations from Nationals…
A hearty congrats go out to friends Adrian Sullivan and Evan Erwin for grinding into Nationals. That’s one of the most difficult ways to score an invite to the big show, so huge props to them for making it in the hard way. Also congrats to our own Todd Anderson for making the U.S. team; all in all, Nats was a great day for StarCityGames.com family of writers!
I would also like to thank Baneslayer Angel for staying away from the top tables. Out of the box and a half of M10 I’ve opened, I have yet to crack a single Baneslayer Angel, and I’ve been having nightmarish flashbacks of Tarmogoyfs while watching the singles price on the Angel skyrocket. Can you imagine what it would be going for if one or more Top 8 deck from U.S. Nationals prominently featured Baneslayer Angel on the back of it popping up in overseas Nationals the week before? I love the Angel and certainly would like to have a playset, but I really don’t feel like it warrants a $20 price tag and can’t afford to dish out $80 for four. Thanks to its absence this week, I still have hope of acquiring some at reasonable price or trade value.
Okay, Spanish Inquisition — is that not one of the best deck names ever? Kudos, both on the rogue deck idea, performance, and nombre.
I’ve been asked by some people both in the forums and via personal email for more details on how I go about building Elder Dragon Highlander decks, and since I’m the StarCityGames.com writer who covers EDH most frequently, I’ve decided to work on a detailed “primer” over the next few weeks. I’m going to try and cover the basics aimed at helping players new to the format get up to speed, as well as my own personal methods in constructing decks that hopefully even veteran players may find interesting. What I’d like to request from you all is some feedback on what you’d like to know about EDH in general or my EDH decks specifically. I’m particularly interested in hearing from my readers who have not yet tried the format but are interested in perhaps trying it out sometime – what would you like to know about the format? I think it’s the most entertaining group game format I’ve ever played, and my goal is to spread the word and grow interest in EDH.
You can send me feedback by posting on the forums, sending me a message through the forums, or (preferably) by email: starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com
I’m off to Norfolk this weekend for the Bayou Boogaloo & Cajun Festival and a couple days of Zydeco music, good Cajun food, and adult beverages. Hope you find some fun too!
Take care…
Bennie