I’m a big fan of the way that Time Spiral Block seems to be playing out. There have been many, many PTQ seasons where I’ve qualified in the very early weeks of the format (in the first week or two), and one thing I have to say about new or semi-new constructed formats: you can tend to tell pretty early if the format is dynamic or static. Before I elaborate about what I mean, I’d like to give a little shout out to Joe Lossett, who played the Baron in a PTQ in San Diego, and managed to not lose a single game in the Swiss. Go, Joe! (A side note, to Joe: change the main deck back. You’ll be glad you did.) Joe didn’t win the event, but I’d love to hear some details from him on his PTQ finish. That said, let’s return to talking about the life of formats…
Static formats are extremely restrictive. Take Masques Block as a classic example. I was lucky enough to qualify in the very first week with a mono-Red Ponza variant that I liked to call Two Bits (it was jam packed with really, really inexpensive rares – inexpensive to buy rares, that is). After any degree of time had passed, however, the deck had become unplayable. The reason was the static nature of the format. There simply were cards that demanded that people play them, or else. Sure, sure, there were innovations, but they were all incredibly minor. Every White deck was going to run Ramosian Sergeant, and every Green deck was going to run Blastoderm. The more that you worked on any deck, the more they all drifted into certain directions. Joel Priest’s Snuff-o-Derm became a deck in which there was very little variation that could be allowed. In White Weenie, as short-chain Rebels was explored and disseminated to the masses, the “innovations” quickly became incredibly inbred choices – how many Jeweled Spirits or how many Mageta would you run between the main and the side? The power level of certain cards as compared to other cards in the format demanded that you play them, and thusly, there ended up being very little that you could actually do to build a deck that would have any degree of play against the decks that had been discovered.
If we compare that to something like Invasion Block, where, while there may have been a few decks that were clearly arguable as “the best,” there was such a wide variety of powerful spells and the format had a very dynamic feel. People could put together any combination of cards, and if they were well thought out, well-integrated choices, they could hope for a great degree of success. Brian Kowal’s B/U/G control deck was a great example of a first week deck like that, and its success carried on throughout the season that year, with many players making their own minor innovations that made sense for their particular metagames, play styles, or needs.
I’m pretty sure that Time Spiral Block has more in common with Invasion Block than it does with Masques. There are a wide variety of very powerful spell and effects, and they are greatly distributed throughout the colors. People have a lot of choices that they could make even within established archetypes. There are a couple of things that play out as limiting factors, as they do in every format. Richard Feldman had some fantastic analysis of one of the limiting factors: Black/Blue/(x) control. In this format, it seems that the squeeze is between the power of Tendrils of Corruption and Damnation on one side, and Tarmogoyf on the other. There are, absolutely, plenty of other things that are available in the format, but these two factors are big hurdles that every deck has to jump over to win an event.
One of the casualties of this, lately, seems to be Mono Red. Mono Red is in a difficult position in a metagame like this. Tarmogoyf and the creatures that live with him tend to be a nightmare for the Red deck. Typical burn spells have to work hard to kill a Tarmogoyf, and often the Tarmogoyf player can simply use a Thrill of the Hunt or Stonewood Invocation to greatly punish a player for even trying. The Tendrils decks need not get off a Tendrils on one of your creatures to break free of the damage you might be dealing them. They can also just take out one of their own. Who cares if they are giving you, the Red deck, a literal two-for-none (a card advantage equivalent of you resolving your own Ancestral Recall)? From another sense, though, it can often be card parity. The typical Red deck can do three damage with their burn spells. Getting of a Tendrils for six, even on one’s own creature, makes the control deck trade, virtually speaking, with two of your burn spells. Two for two is generally an alright choice for the deck with the tutors and card drawing.
So, what’s a Red deck to do? Adapt or die. Look at Grand Prix: Montreal… no Red decks in the top. I know that in the PTQ I played in Chicago there were two or three in the Top 8, but clearly something is amiss.
I’ve been reading the early articles this week on Mono Red, and I have to say it seems as though everyone and their brother has been trying to do something to make Red have the kick that it needs to be able to survive in this format. Dan Paskins had a lot of really interesting things to say, and as always, he remains one of those voices that I tend to pay a great deal of attention to when it comes to Red (though there are some things that I quite disagree with him about… more on that next week). He throws out a number of solutions to the Goyf/Tendrils squeeze, and I’m going to throw out another…
Creatures (17)
- 2 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
- 4 Magus of the Scroll
- 4 Mogg War Marshal
- 3 Akroma, Angel of Fury
- 4 Gathan Raiders
Lands (29)
Spells (14)
Sideboard
If you go through the list and do some counting, you might notice that the deck is running 29 land. Yes, 29 land.
If anything, I think that is the first thing that needs some explaining. The last time that I ran something like 29 land, it was in a Ponza list for Regionals way back when people were playing Necropotence and Yawgmoth’s Will.
In a lot of ways, 29 land is a bit of a cheat in the deck. Many of the lands do not actually play out the way that lands normally might. 12 of the lands are pretty unremarkable, but that’s only because they are Mountains. After that, this deck pretty much runs every utility land that might fit into it, with the exception of Gemstone Caverns. It is able to get away with this cheat by running two specific lands: Zoetic Caverns and Vesuva.
Running 4 Zoetic Caverns means that you get to increase the number of sneaky Morphs in your deck. In a sense, this means that your deck generally plays out a lot like it were a 25 land deck, as you are very nearly always casting the Zoetic Caverns as a 2/2 rather than laying it as a land, though you can always choose to throw it out there as a land should you need to at that moment.
4 Vesuva is a little different. Clearly, against Urborg, it makes a nice Wasteland, and it can also serve that purpose against any of the less common Legendary Lands, though it is primarily there for the Urborgs. Other than that, though, they can be fantastic for preparing for the late game that you generally are playing for, copying Keldon Megaliths or storage lands, as need be. Any late game that you get to is very likely to have you with a large number of ready Megaliths as a result.
After that, we have the oddballs. There are enough 1/1s that a Pendelhaven seems useful. The Kher Keep can be a card that wins games all by itself sometimes, supplying the equivalent of an expensive defensive Icy Manipulator every time that you activate it. This might not seem that big of a deal, but then you’ll have a time that you’re holding off a Aeon Chronicler or an unenchanted Goyf or a Gargadon, and you’ll be amused at just how game-impacting the Keep is. The two Reaches are actually the two hardest fits in the deck, reducing your color count in a deck that really does want to have a decent amount of access to immediate Red mana. Despite that, the Reaches can also be used to power out an overwhelming Disintegrate from the main, and Akroma, or a Molten Disaster from the board. Finally, the one Urza’s Factory seems like a reasonable fit in any deck that already runs 16 primary sources of Red, and 6 potential secondary sources for Red, as well as such a high land count.
The creatures, then, begin the shell-game package. Many decks might force the question of whether or not the creature morphed is a Zoetic Cavern, and even extend the question to whether or not it is a Gathan Raider. With this much mana, though, the question can be yet further extended. What if it is actually an Akroma? As the game goes later and later, the question can become more and more problematic, with the wrong answer potentially really damning an opponent who guess wrong.
Two of the other creatures, Magus of the Scroll and Jaya Ballard, are both designed to be potentially problematic creatures for another creature deck to answer. Clearly, Tarmogoyf is a big, big problem, but often an active Jaya can keep any number of problematic creatures under control, whether it is with the fantastic power of Jayaing out a Fiery Temper, or just using the Incinerate power of Jaya in a supporting role with the rest of your burn. Clearly tossing two burn spells at a creature sucks, but it is often better to do that than to die to it. With each successive turn, the ability of the deck to deal with a fantastically problematic creature increases. It can take five mana, but a Jaya and a Magus together get to deal five damage to something. When you’re talking about a deck with 29 mana, being able to deal that five damage at will is something that can easily happen, and if you need to deal more, you often have the cards to help.
Mogg War Marshal ends up being the oddball creature in the mix. Normally, I’m not a big fan of the War Marshal, but he really does help fulfill a number of crucial roles. First of all, he supplies a two-drop that can deal two, and last. Killing War Marshals is very annoying, and it can often take several swats to knock everything away. In a more focused beatdown deck, I’m not a big fan of the Marshal, because the Echo really does seem problematic in applying the beginning of a beatdown. This is not a beatdown deck, however. You need to be able to slow down the other aggressive decks to bide your time for your greater late game power. A War Marshal can hold of any big creature for three turns, if need be, and can nickel and dime another player to death in other situations. In addition, he really helps your otherwise low creature count deck activate one of the real powers in the deck, Thunderblade Charge.
If any of you have played Thunderblade Charge, you know how expensive it is. Obviously it costs five mana to activate, but that can be an incredible strain on your resources. Even if you can activate the card, sometimes the question becomes whether you should want to activate the card. Five mana for three damage is not a fantastic deal if you have a better option, but it can be an incredibly important deal when you need to eek out the extra card’s worth of damage. Charge is greatly helped out by the War Marshall, but it also serves to help out a big theme in this deck, repeatable damage.
4 Magus, 2 Jaya, 3 Charge, 4 Megalith (and potentially 4 Vesuvan), 1 Kher Keep. Each of these cards can create an incredibly damage-capable deck. I’ve played against numerous, numerous control decks with this deck, and they’ve gained, sometimes, thirty life. But I just hit them back down to zero anyway. Obviously, you don’t want to lay out a creature onto a blank board if you have your opponent at a very low life, and you think you can topdeck them with burn, but there are other instances where you just don’t care. Remember, your 4 Vesuva can greatly reduce the chances that an opposing Urborg will even be in play, so often a scary Tendrils becomes much less scary. Even so, you can just punch through it more often than not. I know that when Stephen Neal played this deck in the PTQ in Chicago, he dispatched Black/Blue, and nearly gave me a loss on the back of the repeat damage that the deck can throw out.
The other burn spells are there to help make sure that that repeatable damage can be backed up. Fiery Temper has the obvious utility of multiple Madness outlets, but the Disintegrate can do a lot as well, including killing regenerative permanents, or negating the recovery benefits of a Griffin Guide. Simply zapping someone for a lot isn’t bad either.
The board includes a number of things that are of great use. Dead/Gone is one of those incredibly useful cards against problematic big creatures and annoying small creatures. Dead/Gone doesn’t just kill the early opposing Blood Knight, but it also “kills” the Gargadon or the Griffin Guide. I’m constantly shocked at how much mileage you can get out of a Dead/Gone.
Browbeat is insane against any of the slower controlling decks. Versus Tendrils, the strategic choice of reducing your less powerful Tendrils targets reduces the quality of their Tendrils, and Browbeat ends up being a very difficult choice. Three cards might very well represent far more damage than five. It might even push you into your Molten Disasters, which are likely to be game ending if you are playing against a control deck. Remember, 29 mana means that you can expect to do a lot of damage with a Disaster, and there isn’t anything that they can do about it, not even Willbender.
Word of Seizing most often finds use against other aggressive decks as a means to get a potential two-for-one, or as the equivalent of a multiple Fireblast, taking some big, big creature, and punching through for the damage you need to kill them. I absolutely remember many games where I’ve stolen the Spectral Force, or even just a Tarmogoyf for the kill.
The singleton Jaya and Fortune Thief both serve a good purpose. More Jayas is a very potent weapon in any of the creature matches, and they often are one of the first things that get killed. They are cards that need to be killed, even if they are likely to be. Fortune Thief is a card that is getting less and less mileage as people are more prepared for it. It is, however, useful to keep your opponent honest. With so many other Morphs to distract from it, people might choose the wrong morph to kill, and leave a Fortune Thief unmolested. I really would like to see a second Thief, but it doesn’t feel correct to cut any other card to make the room, though more testing would probably help me figure out which card is the most appropriate to cut.
There are several things that are very important to remember in the deck. The first of which is that you have to respect the power of Griffin Guide. Sometimes it can be far better to try to kill something before a Guide drops on it. Mogg War Marshal and Kher Keep can supply a little weenie wall to buy you time against bigger men, but thy don’t do anything against a big flier. About the only thing you can do (unless you’ve got your Dead/Gone in hand) is to get an Akroma up, fast. That’s often easier said then done, and even then, all they need is a trick to wreck you for the attempt.
The next is to make sure that you don’t forget to respect the Tendrils. Try to gauge whether or not you think a Tendrils will wreck your day completely or not. If you do, attempt to play around the Tendrils. Save up a number of creatures to drop all at once, or leave back a Fiery Temper to take out a creature that they might Tendrils. The Zoetic Caverns is always a great dodge-master of Tendrils, but do make sure that you respect the card. It is a card that you can absolutely out-damage, but you don’t want to have to be forced into that situation unless it is clear that you’re going to be able to be the one that comes out on top.
Certainly there are other options for Red if you want to try to beat the squeeze, but I’m pretty happy with this one. It only seems to go about 50/50 versus Green/White/x variants (and I think that they are the ones that the breaks swing to, when they swing), but that’s better than most. On the other hand, beating most of the Tendrils decks is fully within the reach of this deck, especially after you have a chance to board in your four Browbeat and two Disaster. The games go long enough that your boarded games tend to make the Disaster the game winner.
Overall, I’m really pleased with this deck, and more importantly, I have a lot of fun playing it.
I hope you do too!