After last week’s Boat Brew update, a number of readers asked me to address Extended. They were looking for a rogue approach to the format, something that they figured would be right up my alley. While I definitely feel that taking that kind of approach is something that I’m totally down with, I also know that I’m not deeply excited about any of the attempts I’ve made on crafting something new for Extended. I’ve tried a number of things, but none of them really seem to strike that right balance that I feel is necessary in the format.
What is it that is “necessary” for Extended, you ask? To my mind, there are three clear Enemies: Elves, Wizards (or “Mono-Blue Faeries”, if you prefer), and Zoo. Elves, while definitely not as exciting to many players now, is still the powerful deck that can rip out a turn 2 win and roll over any opponent who has chosen to not sufficiently prepare for the matchup. Zoo is the de facto aggro deck in the format, and is perhaps more worthy of respect now than it might have ever been — the sheer power of Wild Nacatl makes Kird Ape look a little puny, and Kird Ape was once banned. Finally, Wizards makes a fantastic default control deck. Most analysts agree, Wizards holds the kind of resiliency even after it is known that Tezzerator does not seem to hold. (Perhaps this is the reason I have such a soft spot for Tezzerator — my own decks are often incredibly potent when they are ciphers, but the more known they become, the easier they are to dismantle.)
Forging a deck in this format does not mean that you have to beat all of the Enemies. You should be able to beat at least two, and not be so terrible in the last matchup that you simply cannot beat it after boarding without a “Christmas Miracle.” You might need to get lucky, but it should be within the realm of possibility. Beyond that, your deck should be resilient against any potential opponent. There are at least 13 (if not more) reasonable decks that your opponent might play against you. It simply is not reasonable to expect as your baseline that you be able to smack them all around. It is reasonable, however, to be able to have game against enough of them that a seven- or eight-round PTQ is unwinnable without uber-luck. Affinity, AIR, Burn, Wizards, Faeries, Death Cloud, Zoo, Storm, Swans, Elves, Rock, Tezzerator, Tron — each of these is a reasonable opponent to run into, and once you go into obscure decks, it gets really complicated. Don’t worry that you can’t beat Dredge. It might exist, but unless you know for sure that you’ll see it at the event, worrying about it is not worth your time. With so many potential opponents, its not about making sure you can beat them all, it is about making sure that you have plans for what will happen in the matchup, and that you know the matchup well enough that they won’t blindside you with a common trick.
Into this void, my own attempts to make a “new” deck have all fallen short — at least thus far. One of my control decks smacks Zoo around, but struggles with common builds of Elves, and doesn’t seem to have a real advantage over Wizards. Further, random matches can be deeply problematic. Without a rogue deck of note to present to you all (see Richard Feldman excellent article on his Red/Green list for one I do think merits attention), I thought instead I’d focus on another specialization, burn…
Two of my favorite things to do with a deck have always been to Burn the Face or to Counter Spells. This week, let’s check out the crispy version…
Burn!
A long time ago, Mike Flores wrote The Philosophy of Fire (an article that he called an exercise in “Adrian Sullivan appreciation day”), where he talked about a concept of mine that deals with the value of life in analyzing Magic decks. I’ll be getting more to this point in an upcoming article series, but typically the take-away from The Philosophy of Fire is that if you have a sufficient amount of burn, your deck becomes a combo deck where every card in it is a piece of the combo or mana. “Pick 6!” used to be the joke I had with an old Urza’s Block Deck that I would beat Zvi Mowshowitz up with. Zvi hadn’t expected that it could do the work, but pretty much give that Red deck any six random burn spells and it would usually have you dead (thank you, Landslide and Acidic Soil!).
In current Extended, you almost don’t need that many. Most people’s life totals seem to start even lower (13 to 18, typically), there are a number of burn spells which can actually pack in 4 or 5 damage, the lifegain prevention actually does damage, and Blinkmoth Nexus works as a flying man-land. Getting it done is actually not all that hard.
What does become hard, though, is figuring out what kind of list to play. Do you play Seal of Fire? Do you play Keldon Marauders? What burn is the right burn?
Well, one of the first things to do, of course, is see what has been done before us. With that in mind, here are some lists. While the most press has been given to the Burn list that Jon Finkel played (and there are things I like about it), it remains that that list went 4-2, and there were three players who went 5-1 with Burn. Further, Finkel’s 4-2 came out of a fairly low bracket (only 15 points at the time), which was at least matched by other players. Zack Hall and Mario Pascoli both started in the same 15-point bracket, but Antti Malin started at the much higher 27 point bracket, finishing 5-1. One thing that this points out is the weakness of looking at lists from mixed-format events and expecting them to give us an idea of their actual measurable power. I think it seems fair to claim, for example, that Malin’s opposition was probably stronger than either Hall’s, Pascoli’s, or Finkel’s. That said, this still makes the idea of measuring them against each other a hard proposition. Malin’s might be the “best,” but it does have some glaring issues with it that strike me as, perhaps, a little undisciplined. Hall and Pascoli’s list is so virtually identical (their land is slightly different) that they also merit sharing. While I understand the interest in Finkel’s choice, it is definitely surprising to me how little attention the World Champion’s choice has been given…
Here is Antti’s list:
Antti Malin, 5-1 Extended
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
11 Mountain
3 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Spark Elemental
2 Flames of the Blood Hand
4 Incinerate
4 Lava Spike
4 Magma Jet
4 Rift Bolt
2 Seal of Fire
1 Shard Volley
4 Shrapnel Blast
3 Smash to Smithereens
Sideboard
2 Demonfire
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
2 Pyrostatic Pillar
1 Shattering Spree
4 Slice and Dice
1 Smash to Smithereens
2 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Tormod’s Crypt
Zack Hall, 5-1 Extended
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Great Furnace
11 Mountain
2 Darksteel Citadel
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Spark Elemental
4 Incinerate
4 Lava Spike
4 Magma Jet
4 Rift Bolt
4 Shard Volley
4 Shrapnel Blast
3 Sulfuric Vortex
Sideboard
2 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Martyr of Ashes
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Sun Droplet
Jon Finkel, 4-2 Worlds
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Spark Elemental
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Incinerate
4 Lava Spike
4 Magma Jet
4 Rift Bolt
3 Flames of the Blood Hand
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
12 Mountain
Sideboard
4 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Firespout
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
4 Smash to Smithereens
After a look at their mana curves, something very interesting shakes out.
Antti Malin:
1s: 19
2s: 18
3s: 2
Land: 21
Zack Hall/Mario Pascoli
1s: 20
2s: 16
3s: 3
Land: 21
Jon Finkel:
1s: 16
2s: 16
3s: 7
Land: 21
The sample size is low, of course. There were 14 players playing Burn at the event, but I do think there is something meaningful to be seen in all of the 5-1 players playing only two or three three-drops (if we’re counting Rift Bolt as a “one”). For Malin, this was 2 Flames of the Blood Hand, and for Hall and Pascoli, this was 3 Sulfuric Vortex. To me, this seems very much in line with the deck’s need to just unload. Spending time doing things, no matter how powerful, doesn’t bode well for how this deck plays out. It’s not that the deck can’t do well if the game goes long, it’s that it might not have time to do enough if it is going to win.
Malin’s list is perhaps most interesting, with its inclusion of three main deck Smash to Smithereens. A glance at the various decks in the format shows that this is a fantastic call against most non-Elf lists. Nearly all of them have very Smash to Smithereenable permanents. This is not the equivalent to running Lash Out in a creature-heavy environment; Smash to Smithereens is guaranteed to add in the extra three damage if it has a target to smash, and it doesn’t have a double-sided mini-Scry potentially causing you a problem. The real worry is whether you’ll simply have a blank in your hand. I’m willing to bet that Malin felt that the Elves matchup was good enough to invest three slots into the deck that are just dead. More on this contention in a second, but first, let’s continue to examine the main deck.
His list, incredibly, includes only two Blinkmoth Nexus. Compare this to Hall and Finkel who ran four each. The thing being balanced is the need for colored mana against the need for more artifacts and a desire for man-lands. Finkel only runs five non-Red producers, though six seems acceptable. For Malin, he clearly believes that not having to spend +1 mana to cast a Shrapnel Blast is worth losing the Nexus. Further, I imagine that he is only interested in attacking as an afterthought. This makes a lot of sense to me, though it could be that the answer is between the two, with three/three being the right split.
Also interesting are his discretionary one-drops: 2 Seal of Fire and 1 Shard Volley. Malin’s two Seal of Fire strike me as a concession to the curve, as well as being a near-analog to Mogg Fanatic (especially in a world where Elves are expected). When needed, they can take out a critical Elf, but at the final hour, they can simply be a kill card. As for Shard Volley, it is worth comparing Malin’s to the others, where Finkel eschewed Shard Volley altogether, while Hall/Pascoli each ran the full complement of four. How does one work, though?
In many ways, I think that this is probably one of the most brilliant things about Malin’s list. The thing about Shard Volley is that it has deeply diminishing returns. Sure, you can go all-in on Shard Volleys, but if it doesn’t work out, you really are in a world of, um, crap. One the other hand, running only a single Shard Volley never really has that problem. The way that the deck plays out, you can often run it as your last burn spell and not worry about being screwed if it is countered. On the other hand, when you run many of the card, you’ll often have to cast it if you’re going to be casting a burn spell in there at all.
Perhaps if we’re going to go any further, we should compare these lists to a list that was actually played in a single-format tournament. In this case, we can turn to Brian Reeves, whose 2nd place list out of Memphis becomes deeply worth noting, for a number of reasons. One, unlike the Worlds lists, its standing in the tournament is solely on the back of its performance. Two, the event wasn’t “merely” some random PTQ, but a PTQ at Worlds. Anyone who has played at a PTQ at a major event knows that you’re contending with some of the most difficult competition that PTQs ever see at events like this. Among the Top 8 are a slew of people who regularly do well and are leaders in their area. Heck, Paulo Carvalho got seventh.
Here is Reeves’s list:
Brian Reeves, 2nd Place, Worlds PTQ
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
3 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
12 Mountain
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Flames of the Blood Hand
2 Incinerate
4 Lava Spike
4 Magma Jet
4 Rift Bolt
4 Seal of Fire
2 Shard Volley
4 Shrapnel Blast
3 Sulfuric Vortex
Sideboard
3 Blood Moon
3 Pyroclasm
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
2 Shattering Spree
3 Smash to Smithereens
1 Sulfuric Vortex
Interestingly, we see our first break from the idea that Spark Elemental is a must-play. With this extra space, he merges many of the ideas from the other three lists, reducing the Shard Volleys to two, but still being willing to lean on them a little more than Malin was. His three/three split on Darksteel Citadel and Blinkmoth Nexus reinforces the idea that four Nexus might not be necessary. Perhaps most shocking is his decision to not only cut the Spark Elementals, but to also cut Incinerate to two copies. In its place, he runs a full complement of Seal of Fire.
The extra land (22) is likely there to make more effective use of a deck running three Nexus and two Shard Volley, and having six three-drops — likely Finkel, too, should have been playing up a land. His curve looks like this:
1s: 18
2s: 14
3s: 6
Land: 22
These lists have a lot in common. They all have the ability to deeply punish an opponent for relying on the “good” lands that come out of reliance on Onslaught saclands. They all ignore commitment to board development, and instead favor just dropping that life total. What is different about them isn’t their respective methods, it’s the particular card choices. Their spirit is the same, like some wastoid Beavis and Butthead fanatic: FIRE, FIRE!
Rebuilding the Deck
The first thing to look at, to my mind, is the land.
Typically, this isn’t the case, but for this deck, we have to ask ourselves some questions. How much do we think that we should be working the Blinkmoth Nexus, and if we’re going to go there, is Reeves right, and do we need 22 land?
Clearly, none of the players felt comfortable with less than fifteen Red-producing sources. That makes a baseline. We should eliminate a couple of options that the “creative” might lean towards. Do not run Spinerock Knoll or Ghitu Encampment. These are good cards. I like them. But, for this deck, in this format, not losing access to a mana is critical. If you think that either of those cards is a good idea, it may well be the case, but not for this deck, which is hoping to unload its hand and kill you before you can do anything useful.
Scouring the legal cards, I did see several possibilities that are worth thinking about. The first is Gemstone Caverns. The Caverns won’t often get in the way of what you’re trying to cast, and that extra burst of speed on the draw could absolutely make the difference on the off chance that you draw it. However, while one copy might not ever get in your way, per se (barring an AIR deck Wastelanding you with their own), it can’t count as a Red Source┢, and thus you have to cut into your Nexus and Citadel counts. Its power certainly doesn’t justify that.
The next two I took some time with were some Legendary lands. Mikokoro, Center of the Sea is a card that I’ve come to use many, many times. It’s just a potent card, capable of turning around the pacing of a game that has gone bad. It suffers from the same problem as the Caverns, with regards to questions of color, but it might just be good enough to run, though likely will just watch the game from the stands. Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep is another Legendary land that seems potentially useful, though only if you can find an appropriate Legend to make use of it. Of the available Legends, only two seem remotely playable: Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, and Zo-Zu the Punisher. Ballard’s big problem is that she is not a fast actor. She’s potent, don’t get me wrong, but she doesn’t get the job done quickly. Zo-Zu, on the other hand, might not be a speed demon, but he’s also deeply constraining of an opponent who is trying to get something done. Zo-Zu turns a sacland into a pile of garbage. He’s probably not good enough, but it still is conceivable that he could make it.
For now, then, we have the following list:
12 Mountain
4 Great Furnace
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
3 Darksteel Citadel
(Maybe 1 more Nexus, kinda maybe 1 Mikokoro, and really maybe a Shinka for a Mountain.)
Now, we get to our baseline burn spells:
4 Magma Jet
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Lava Spike
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Rift Bolt
This actually leaves an amazing amount of room. For my part, I feel very comfortable trusting one of Malin’s ideas, and making sure that I keep my curve lo-o-ow. The question mark comes in the form of “Sulfuric Vortex or Flames of the Blood Hand”. If I end up running 22 land, I think I feel fine stretching to a grand total of three big copies of the card, whereas if I stay at 21, I definitely know I feel far more comfortable with two.
There are other three-drops to consider, certainly. Lightning Storm is greedy and dangerous, but might work for the truly crazy. Flamebreak is also worth considering if you don’t mind upping your Red count ever so slightly. Pulse of the Flame almost seems worthwhile, until you remember that your opponent probably has much less life than you, and if they don’t, you’ll likely not have the mana to make it work out. I’m reminded of Zo-Zu, but it just doesn’t feel potent enough. Vortex and Flames are the ones that stay to the fore just because of this.
For the one- and two-drops, if we look at things by casting cost, we get an idea of what it is that we’re choosing between. Our options are the following: Shard Volley, Shock, Tarfire, Seal of Fire, and Spark Elemental. I know that I like Malin’s 1 Shard Volley a heckuva lot. Also, between Shock, Tarfire, and Seal of Fire, Seal seems like the clear winner. I don’t want to go to those others at all. This actually solves a small problem for me: I have six to seven slots to fill, and only two cards that I’m now considering for it, Spark Elemental and Seal of Fire. If I’m going to bother playing Spark Elemental, the highest return for me is to play enough to draw it in my opening hand. I have to play four, if I’m going to bother at all. This gives me several potential configurations:
4 Seal of Fire
1 Shard Volley
1 Filler (perhaps a card like Lightning Servant, which can be a weak Spark Elemental, or a kind of Blaze)
Or…
4 Spark Elemental
1 Shard Volley
2-3 Seal of Fire
Or (if I really like Sparky)…
4 Spark Elemental
1 Shard Volley
1 Lightning Servant
Personally, the first two are the ones that look like they’re actually pretty good to me. A part of this equation is going to have to revolve, though, around our two-drops, and whether we choose to run Keldon Marauders or not. If we do choose to run Keldon Marauders (which is the default), we are essentially deciding on having the ability to turn our Seal of Fire into a Bolt by getting our Marauders through when there is a blocker. If we don’t, we have two cards making four damage (and killing a man) versus five damage if we do.
Immediately, this line of thought starts me thinking about Chevy Red. This set me off down a path filled with Simian Spirit Guiding out a turn 1 Keldon Marauders (stronger, by far, than it sounds), but a quick set of playtesting showed it to not be good enough, on its own. In many ways, the issue was that while running the Spirit Guides was strong, it didn’t have enough in the way of potent cards to feed into.
So, back into a more conservative territory, you have the following:
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Spark Elemental
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Lava Spike
4 Seal of Fire
1 Shard Volley
4 Rift Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Shrapnel Blast
21-22 land
Or, in other words, +2 Seal of Fire on Antti Malin’s shell. This only leaves 5-6 slots open. In many ways, I find his idea of going for the now very compelling, and think that Flames of the Blood Hand is a great way to go about that. In another, though, I find myself worrying about Umezawa’s Jitte. Malin must have also had this worry (3 Smash to Smithereens). Taking a cue from him, I suddenly find myself in the interesting position of not having room for the Incinerates.
Essentially, I am the same deck as he is, without 4 Incinerates, and instead, running +1 land, +1 Keldon Marauders, +2 Seal of Fire. Something about this feels disquieting to me. At the same time, I’m not really too scared of this configuration, even if it isn’t running Incinerate. Looking to Reeves, I see that he only ran two Incinerates, and he actually didn’t bother running Spark Elemental. If we just embrace it, we get to this:
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Flames of the Blood Hand
The sideboard becomes the next big challenge. Malin’s looks all over the place, in many ways, unsure of what he might have to worry about. I do like his decision to run Slice and Dice as an instant means of dealing with an Elf player who is going off. Slice and Dice also happens to be a great way to punish many a Faerie player, with all of the one-toughness they have running around. Pyrostatic Pillar remains a card that seems worth remembering, if only because it can not only punish an Elves player, but also a Zoo player.
There are, though, some problems to solve, still. The Big Creature problem is always one to remember. Ensnaring Bridge is the common way to deal with this, and in this way it is very good at what it does, though it does also ensure that you aren’t going to be much of an attacker yourself. Even with access to 3 Smash to Smithereens, you’re still going to need a little bit more to deal with Affinity. Shattering Spree is one option, as is the rarely seen Shatterstorm. With a set of Great Furnaces, Spree seems like the better option here. Ensnaring Bridge seems totally reasonable, as well.
As this deck rises in popularity, the COP: Red problem becomes more and more important. At this point, you really, really need to think about dealing with that. Pithing Needle is the simple and easy way of dealing with COP: Red, but it comes with a big problem — is it actually that good against much else? Demonfire (perhaps Antti’s answer) gets around this issue, as does Everlasting Torment, but Everlasting Torment doesn’t do the damage that Vortex does, nor does it have much use in multiples. In singles, though, Everlasting Torment doesn’t get in the way of anything, and also manage to nip in the bud any annoying life gain. Without the access to Sulfuric Vortex that most lists have, the best answer to these things seems to me to be a three/one split between Vortex and Torment, giving you the full ability to stop the lifegain, but adding on your ability to stop COP: Red, without filling your hand ever with an extraneous Everlasting Torment.
With that we have our list and board:
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Spark Elemental
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Lava Spike
4 Seal of Fire
1 Shard Volley
4 Rift Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Shrapnel Blast
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Flames of the Blood Hand
11 Mountain
4 Great Furnace
3 Darksteel Citadel
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
Sideboard:
4 Slice and Dice
3 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Everlasting Torment
1 Flames of the Blood Hand
1 Smash to Smithereens
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
2 Shattering Spree
This configuration has left itself somewhat open to an onslaught of Big Men, but, fortunately, the most common thing you might see able to make such a critter is Affinity, and with 3 Smash to Smithereens main, the fourth in the board, and two more Shattering Spree, this is certainly a situation that isn’t too worrisome.
While not going balls to the wall to beat COP: Red, it still has a lot that can make that happen. While attempting to overwhelm the COP with spells can happen (perhaps trading three spells to make one actually work), the majority of the work is done by a post-board total of 4 Flames of the Blood Hand (which can’t be prevented), three Blinkmoth Nexus, and a solitary Everlasting Torment (which doubles as a “fourth” Sulfuric Vortex). The truly bold might forego some of those cards and instead fit in Blistering Firecat, though I don’t know that I recommend it.
Pyrostatic Pillar is partly there to keep an opponent from having easy choices with their Naturalizes and the like, but also to keep any of the combo decks honest. Elves can simply just go off and win, but a single Pillar can slow them down at least a wee bit. Pillar can also cement a race, but of course, this is very, very risky. Against control decks, though, a Pillar can be devastating, since they really don’t have much in the way of a race, and most of their spells still trigger it.
I feel this configuration is very solid, and takes into account the murmurs on the ground that I’ve been hearing of late. COP: Red strikes me as very real. Affinity seems to be (slightly) on the upswing. Forgetting about Elves is something that a lot of people are doing, and so exploiting that is very much to an Elves player’s advantage — don’t let them take it!
Previous to writing this article, I was largely thinking about playing Tezzerator, but now, I’m finding myself torn. Don’t be surprised to see me shuffling up Lava Spike if you come to the PTQ in Madison!
Best of luck, everyone, in any qualifiers you’ll be playing in the coming days.