I actually got to play in an Extended PTQ last weekend. Not judging, not working — playing. Sweet. My record — not quite so sweet. I had the choice of the best deck in the format, the best deck I had played, and the deck I knew best. I played the latter — and I’ll talk about the deck, its evolution and how to win the impossible mirror.
I played Martyr of Sands. Since I wasn’t judging, I had visions of getting a mirror match in the finals. The mirror is terrible — unless someone screws up, neither player can deck the other, and neither can beat down enough to outrun the other. At least, not game 1; game 2 sideboard tech can swing the match. This was patently obvious one morning when I got into an untimed mirror match in the tournament practice room.
I have been playing Extended online for years, but generally with partial decks. I typically have 0-3 of any critical cards, but my collection is growing. The missing cards vary – for a while, I was even playing Zoo with only three Wild Nacatls. I just could not rip one in draft or sealed, even when I was prepared to take them super early.
Before GP: LA, I played one serious Extended deck online — Zoo — plus a couple more amusing decks, including an infinite Fish deck built around Merfolk and Intruder Alarm. I also had a pretty much untuned GBxx deck along the lines of Macy Rock from years ago. I also played a UW Martyr of Sands based control deck, both as a 62-card Extended build and a 100 card Singleton fun deck.
At GP: LA, I remembered how much I enjoyed Extended, and decided to do some real testing and play in the PTQ. I knew my testing would be online, since I would not have the time to get together with anyone over the week, other than FNM. I had also blown much of my budget for the month on fine dining (okay — plane fare, etc.) in LA. I had to play whatever I could easily afford.
After LA, it was pretty obvious that the best decks in the format were Mono-Blue Wizards, TEPS, Elves, GB variants, and a sprinkling of everything else. I would have loved to played combo, but I had neither the cards nor enough time to practice the decks (except Infinite Fish, but that deck sucks), and even I know better than to try to play a combo deck at a PTQ cold. No TEPS, Swans, or Elves for me.
I could play Zoo — I had finally drafted the fourth (and fifth, and sixth) Nacatls, and had pretty much everything I needed. I wasn’t too excited, however. I prefer something with at least some control elements. For that matter, if I can playtest, I like true control as well. I would probably have been happy with Mono-Blue Faerie Wizards or even UB Fae with Bitterblossoms — but then I started matching my cardpool against the decklists. I was short a couple Vendilion Cliques, a few Glen Elendra Archmage, an Engineered Explosives, Chrome Mox, some lands, etc. etc. Too much to get, unless I used up what playtest time I could muster trying to trade for cards.
I had the cards for GB Death Cloud, but I had much the same experience online that Death Cloud had in LA — it was just a step too slow. It had the potency, but it could not quite beat all of the best decks. More importantly, I played it slowly, and could see myself having real time issues with 50-minute rounds.
I also tried the GB Aggro Loam version, but it didn’t feel really comfortable with it.
That left Martyr. I know that sounds strange, after talking about how I was worried about timing out with GB Death Cloud, but I can play Martyr decks. I also love Wrath of God and so forth. I looked at my list, which had lots of random stuff like a singleton Purity. I’m not going to list that, since it evolved a lot. I had looked for other Martyr lists, for ideas. The first one I found was by Bill Stark. It had some strange choices, but I decided to try it as listed for a while.
Bill Stark Martyr
4 Eternal Dragon
4 Martyr of Sands
2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
4 Austere Command
4 Wrath of God
4 Decree of Justice
4 Mana Tithe
4 Proclamation of Rebirth
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Mistveil Plains
19 Plains
4 Temple of the False God
1 Urza’s Factory
Sideboard
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Disenchant
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Unmake
I played a bunch of matches with this build. Here are the results.
The Good
Zoo and creature beats are what this deck was built to smash. The Force Spikes give you an answer to a turn 1 cat, monkey, or goblin. The Martyr is your ideal turn 2 play. (Turn 2 because you want to be able to blow them in response to removal. You never want to play a turn 1 Martyr unless you know that you are up against control or combo. You can’t afford to lose it to a Mogg Fanatic for no lifegain.) However, if you can get to turn 4 against Zoo and you are not dead, you probably win. After sideboarding, bring in the Unmakes and maybe a Disenchant or two if you saw a lot of Jittes and O-Rings, for some of the Mana Tithes and some of the slower cards, typically a Command, one or two Proclamations, and maybe a Decree.
Affinity — well, I wanted to play Affinity all day, every day with this build. Unmakes and Disenchants killed pesky problems like Blinkmoth Nexus, Martyr stabilized the life totals, then you hit 6 mana and their entire board dies. The Proclamations come out, since you will either have won or lost by the time you could do anything. I also pulled the Mana Tithes, since they are only good turn 1. I bring in a Ghost Quarter or two, since you really, really want to hit your land drops. Ideally, on turn 5 you drop a Temple and fire off an Austere Command naming artifacts — and to do that you need five lands. Later on, Crovax just rocks in this matchup. All their important cards (Ravager, Worker, activated Nexi) just die when he is in play — and it is amazing how many players miss this the first time. It’s funny online. You beat with Crovax, they play the activated ability of Blinkmoth Nexus, you hit okay, the land vanishes, nothing happens for a minute or two, then they type “doh! gg”
Elves is okay, and it is this matchup that seems to justify Mana Tithe. If you can stop them really early, you can probably live until you get a Wrath off, and then give them problems recovering. Martyr makes the Grapeshot plan really bad, unless they can load the board enough to go infinite. After sideboarding, Chalice helps buy time. I had really good results against Elves, but I’m not sure whether that would hold against a really good Elves player.
I saw one Swans deck. All I can say is that Unmake is the perfect foil, but since Swans is pretty much gone, so are the Unmakes, at least from my current build.
The Bad
UB Faeries is a 50/50 matchup. They have some potent counters, but unless they run Stifle you can often kill them with their own Bitterblossoms while you play Martyr recursion games and cycle Decrees. It is not great, but it can be done. What is a lot harder are the Mono-Blue Faerie decks with Riptide Laboratory and Venser. You can “thaw” out all your lands with Eternal Dragons and the like, but if they get around to bouncing Vendilion Cliques or Vensering every spell, you cannot win. In game 2, if you can Ghost Quarter away their Laboratories, you have a shot, but it is not good. Mana Tithe is not your friend here, but, eventually, that is all that Clique will leave in your hand.
Mana Tithe is not all that good in the TEPS matchup, either. TEPS was not that common before GP: LA, but afterwards, everyone was testing LSV’s list. This build is not fast enough to race them, and Ghost Quarter is not enough to disrupt them. Once in a blue moon, you can catch them with Mana Tithe, but that is unlikely once, and almost impossible twice. Chalice of the Void really helps, but it is often not enough. Cute tricks, however, can steal matches. Mistveil Plains (and two White permanents) can make decking impossible. Martyr can make a lethal Tendrils really tough. This matchup is quirky — and almost good. (Note — after a few times through this matchup, I remembered Gilded Light. I checked them out at my local bot, and was pleased to discover that they were both still in the format and cheap. They really help.)
The Ugly
Death Cloud. They kill your hand, then they kill your lands, and any time you begin to recover, they do it again. Game 2 is all that, plus Extirpate. This build cannot beat it, even if they mulligan to two.
Scott Honigmann, the winner of a PTQ in Louisville, played a Martyr deck. I saw that decklist late, and it depressed me. At that point, I was pretty much committed to Martyr, and I didn’t want anyone else to know about it. Props to him, though, for winning with the deck.
Scott had a couple cards that I had already adopted, and some other numbers. I had already cut a Proclamation or two, since you really don’t need them early. I had also experimented with Runed Halo and splashes. I did not really like his Condemns, but I have always loved Akroma’s Vengeance (although in a deck with Halo and O-Ring, Command is often better.) Finally, I liked seeing Chalice maindeck, although I was not necessarily sold on that many.
Splashing
The Mono-White build was cool, but it had some issues. In my casual builds, I splashed for other various other cards — everything from Hondens to Remand to Iridescent Angel. Most of those were not tournament worthy. Here are a few ideas that might be. After all, splashes are so easy — an Eternal Dragon fetches Ravnica block duals just as easily as any other Plains.
Scott Honigmann, the PTQ winner, splashed two colors in his deck.
Blue
I tried a number of Blue cards, but the ones I really wanted were not hybrids or UW gold cards — they were control cards like Glen Elendra Archmage. These cards were fine, but they did not help the Martyr, and following down that path would eventually lead to Mono-Blue Wizards with Riptide Laboratory. The one card that was useful was Godhead of Awe, but that merely helped you win matches you were already winning.
Green
Two cards stand out. Rude Awakening was amazing in the deck, since you generally got a ton of lands into play. It is even better than Decree of Justice at pulling wins out of thin air. The other Green splash was Loxodon Hierarch. The big elephant could supply some pressure, and its sacrifice ability gave you an out if the opponent tried Sower of Temptation or Shackles. It also, when you had a ton of mana, gave you a way to keep creatures through a sweeper like Akroma’s Vengeance or Austere Command, if not Wrath.
Note that Rude Awakening is a card to fear when playing against Whatever-the-Level Blue. You have no answer, and it just blows you out. The rest of the deck is fair, but you have to struggle to resolve Wraths and stay even, so your life total is never great.
Black
Black gives you basically one useful thing: the ability to mess with an opponent’s graveyard. Against GB Aggro Loam and Death Cloud decks, it can nail Life from the Loam and similar toys. I am still undecided, though, whether this splash should be for Extirpate or Cranial Extraction. When the Loam engine is running, the faster card is often necessary. However, Extirpate will rarely hit Mind’s Desire or Tendrils of Agony while it matters, and it can’t hit Death Cloud until it has resolved. At the moment, I am leaning towards Cranial Extraction, but more testing is necessary.
Red
Scott Honigmann ran Boils in his sideboard. I tried that, and I hated it. Boil works against Mono-Blue Faeries, if they tap out. It does all too little against UB Faeries, who have Secluded Glens and so forth. Ghost Quarter is just better, since the Riptide Laboratories are the scary lands. Ghost Quarters are also good in the mirror match, since that can come down to Mistveil Plains recursion to prevent decking.
On the other hand, I have tried two Red splashes I am very happy with. The first is a singleton Figure of Destiny. This gives me something I can Proclamation back, and use to win the game faster than Martyr beats. It is good in the mirror match, and against the decks you beat anyway. It is okay versus Fae decks, since they cannot pump it. It is cute — I’m not playing it in tournaments, yet.
The Red splash I am totally sold on is Ajani Vengeant. If you can resolve this against the Riptide Labs decks, and they don’t have Venser, they need to scramble. Against many other decks, it is something that you can drop, then Wrath and Akroma’s Vengeance to your heart’s content. It gives you an inevitability that the deck needs. Sure, sometimes they can kill it, but even then it is buying time.
Here’s the deck I played. The Boils were just wrong, but I couldn’t find Ghost Quarters. Forbidding Watchtower was just for fun (but it did stop some beats, and it did win a game.) I liked preboarding, and Gilded Light does cycle.
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (22)
- 4 Wrath of God
- 2 Akroma's Vengeance
- 3 Decree of Justice
- 1 Gilded Light
- 1 Chalice of the Void
- 2 Proclamation of Rebirth
- 3 Austere Command
- 3 Oblivion Ring
- 3 Runed Halo
Sideboard
My deck is amazingly pimped out. I had not had time to put cards away since before the last few big events, I had a stack of judge foils at hand. My Decrees, Angels, Dragons, Ajanis, and one Wrath were all foil. To balance it out, so were all the basic lands. Two Chalices were Asian, and a bunch of the non-foils were Pro Tour stamped. It was the gaudiest deck I had ever played.
I also had a pile of Unglued Sheep tokens and my playmat with the Sneak Attack dragon drawn in full color. Too bad I can’t play as well as I looked.
UB Faeries
Round 1 I faced UB Faeries. I won the draw, and dropped a turn 2 Runed Halo naming Mutavault. He proceeded to draw three in quick succession, and some Laboratories. He also Stifled my first two Eternal Dragon cycles, but my grip was all lands, so I got them back. He got a Spellstutter into play, and I O-Ringed it. He was, I believe, sitting on another, so he let it resolve. At that point, he had no Venser and I had Wrathed away one Clique, so we just sat. I got Martyr recursion going, and climbed to 60 life or so. I also thawed lands like mad and drew into Urza’s Factory. With four Vaults, a pair of Spellstutter Sprites in play and one in hand — plus multiple Laboratories and lands, he could counter everything I had — even the Dragons. Finally, with a clear stall on the board, I cycled for Mistveil Plains and put my Decree of Justice on the bottom of my library. Then, just to make the point, I returned and cycled a Dragon, then shuffled. He scooped. We were 35 minutes into the round.
I sided in the Boils. They were sucktastic. He opened with a Secluded Glen, then another. He also had Vendilion Cliques on turns 3 and 4. I dragged it out, but he won fairly quickly. The Boils went back out.
We did not finish game 3. I had him at two, with a clear board and was beating with the Watchtower, when extra turns ended.
The draw bracket is where this deck does not want to be. It is, however, where this deck often winds up. Worse yet, it is where the Death Cloud decks often wind up as well — and I really did not want to face them.
Contested Cliffs / Beasts
I had one clear round, after the draw. I faced someone who faced a too-slow Death Cloud player, and drew. He was with Beasts, and dropped a turn 2 Woolly Thoctar on the play. I dropped a turn 2 Runed Halo. He killed my Halo with an Indrik Stomphowler a couple of turns later, but I had five lands, including a Temple, and cycled Decree of Justice into blockers and a Wrath.
I sideboarded in the Angels for the Chalice and the Gilded Light, and this time I has a turn 4 Wrath, turn 5 Ajani, turn 6 Command. Like it is supposed to be.
I played against three Death Cloud decks over the next several rounds. I beat the first, drew with the second, and lost to the third. The Chalices, Extirpates, and the Angels come in, and a mix of expensive cards go out — including one Dragon and a Martyr, so that the Extirpates and/or Cranial Extractions do a bit less damage. To win, you need to stop the Loam engine, then thaw land fast so they cannot wreck you with a Death Cloud. Runed Halo needs to stop Raven’s Crime and Thoughtseize, or Cranial Extraction if you see that. You also have to not die to the 4/4 beaters and the Eternal Witnesses.
It can be done, but it is not easy. These matches are always long and complex.
3-1-2 was not going to make it in, but I really did not come intending to qualify.
TEPS
Round 7 I basically punted a match against TEPS. I had not bothered scouting, so I did not expect TEPS. I kept a marginal hand with Dragon, Martyr, and 2 Wraths. The game was totally stupid, and he comboed on turn nine. Game 2 I mulliganed a bit, then drew land after land. I was still hitting my land drops, with no pressure at all, on turn 13. I had Gilded Light and Extirpate in hand, but misplayed Extirpate. I nailed Manamorphose, hoping to color screw him, but I should have waited for Tendrils. Gilded Light did what it was supposed to, but he had another Mind’s Desire and Tendrils in hand, and comboed again two turns later. I had drawn two more land.
At that point, I noticed that the player next to me — the only other player at 3-2-2 – was both better than me and playing Death Cloud. I dropped.
See you at the Prerelease. I’ll be running one at Pegasus games in Madison, and probably playing at Misty Mountain on Sunday. Check out the Legion Events website for details.
PRJ
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