A little over a week ago, a mono-Black Epochrasite deck was the next big thing in Magic Online Block Constructed PEs. The deck had many small synergies, but the most exciting plays usually involved Nihilith and Smallpox. As soon as the deck began to seriously pick up some momentum, a Green/White deck sprang up to hold it off. In its first PE Top 8 showing, the deck picked off two mono-Black decks along its way to a first-place finish.
The deck went from first place in a Premiere Event to first place in a Grand Prix in under ten days:
Creatures (19)
Lands (23)
Spells (18)
Sideboard
Given its insanely fast rise to the top, there is no doubt that this will be one of the decks to beat in the upcoming Block Constructed PTQ season.
The Deck, in General
The Mana – The first thing to remember about this deck is that it aims to abuse Tarmogoyf from every angle. The block happens to include two lands that go to the graveyard all by themselves (Horizon Canopy and Terramorphic Expanse), and a sorcery that will put any land into the graveyard at instant speed. All versions of the deck start with four Flagstones of Trokair, to take advantage of Edge of Autumn, and four Horizon Canopies. Terramorphic Expanse is not as ubiquitous; most decklists include only two or three copies of this card.
After the Lhurgoyf fuel, almost every decklist runs the full four Llanowar Reborn. The Graft land allows you to mimic Watchwolf with Saffi, and just happens to be powerful in the abstract. Its drawback is minimized in this deck, since it has no one-drops and a high concentration of three-drops. This means that you can easily drop it into play on the first turn, and even when you draw it later you can usually find a painless window (such as turn 3) to play it.
The last group of non-basics that some decklists have is the Wasteland group. Almost every list includes one copy of Pendelhaven, despite having no 1/1 creatures to use it on. Many decks also pack a Vesuva to use primarily as a legendary Wasteland, but also to piggyback Llanowar Reborn.
The Creatures – There is, again, a core set of creatures that ninety-five percent of lists start with. They are the best of the best: four Tarmogoyf, four Mystic Enforcer, and three Saffi Eriksdotter. Tarmogoyf is the most efficient threat in the deck, easily reaching 3/4 or 4/5 for two mana. Mystic Enforcer is a great foil to the Blue/Black control decks, requiring the opponent to have a Damnation or lose. Saffi is reasonable as a 2/2 for two, but shines when she eats the Damnation in Mystic Enforcer’s place.
After those eleven men come the crew that you’ll see in most decks, but not all. Riftsweeper is naturally more powerful in Block Constructed than Standard, since a higher percentage of cards in the format have Suspend. Even when she’s not taking out Cloudskates or Chroniclers, she can re-shuffle a spent Call of the Herd of your own. Speaking of Call of the Herd, many lists have the maximum number of this card, simply because its two threats in one. One 3/3 isn’t the biggest beating in the world, but it’s cards like Call and Saffi that let this deck keep pace with the removal-heavy U/B Control lists. Serra Avenger is the next man up, as an all-around solid creature that can fight and block all day long. There’s not a whole lot to say about the Avenger, which is fine, since everyone already knows what’s up. The last guy you can expect to see, even if Celso didn’t have any at all, is Mire Boa. In aggro matchups he can hold the ground against a Call token or a Calciderm, and in the control matchups he’s an unblockable two points every turn. He even manages to shrug off Tendrils of Corruption.
The Spells – The remaining slots in the maindeck are filled out with spells that, again, make the deck very resilient. Griffin Guide is extraordinarily powerful, both as initial pump and eventual token, but also because it gives you an enchantment for your Tarmogoyfs. Edge of Autumn is the other Tarmogoyf enabler, either comboing with Flagstones to give +2/+2 and a card, or getting cast the standard way to ramp up to two two-drops or a Mystic Enforcer. The only other guarantee for the maindeck is some variety of pump spell. Some people opt for the game-ending power of Stonewood Invocation, while others go for the sleeker Thrill of the Hunt. Thrill is two counterspells in one against a Red deck, can often catch a U/B Control player off-guard in response to a should-have-been-lethal Tendrils, and is a nightmare in the mirror matchup.
The last slot or two is generally used to customize towards the pilot’s preferences. Celso ran maindeck Temporal Isolations, which are extremely strong in the mirror, and similarly good against Korlashes and Shadowmage Infiltrators. Other lists opt for Chromatic Star, both because it gives them an artifact for their Tarmogoyfs, and because it enables a splash such as Fortune Thief out of the sideboard. Other people go for Search for Tomorrows, to ensure that their third turn can be an explosive one if they want it to be.
Sideboard Options
Whirling Dervish – If the deck has a theme beyond “play a huge monster and hit someone in the head,” it’s punishing control decks. Whirling Dervish fits into the Llanowar Reborn curve, slips underneath Cancel, runs past Shadowmage Infiltrator, and threatens to end the game when it goes unanswered.
Cloudchaser Kestrel – There are some scary enchantments out there. One of the deck’s bad matchups is the Wild Pair sliver deck that Wafo-Tapa played in Montreal, and this guy gives you a shot at stopping the Pair before it gets out of hand. It also cleans up Griffin Guides in the mirror, and Temporal Isolations out of all manner of decks. In addition, it’s a decent threat.
Harmonic Sliver – The sliver competes for Kestrel’s sideboard slots, since they’re both there to do the same thing. The tradeoff is that the sliver is a relatively poor threat (though it can always chump-block in a pinch), but it can hit artifacts. It also allows you to double-up if you draw a second one while the first is still alive. Given that the mirror match often comes down to enchantment superiority, the chance of being able to take out two cards with one is very tempting. Note also that the ability is non-optional, which means that a Wild Pair player will be required to kill their own combo.
Calciderm – If the mirror is all about who can stop the other’s fatties with Temporal Isolation and the like, then many people believe that Calciderm is the trump. It can’t be removed in the mirror, but unfortunately, it can’t be enhanced either. This means that you can get into trouble if your opponent has something like a Mire Boa to block with. They can also just double up with a Saffi and trade their two-drop for your four-drop. Even worse is the fact that the control decks now have Korlash to stop him; without that card in their arsenal, Calciderm would be a very potent threat against U/B Control decks.
Sunlance – Strafe here is a good option for killing whatever you need, as long as you aren’t playing against the mirror or White Weenie. One mana takes out Call of the Herd, Shadowmage Infiltrator, and Sulfur Elemental.
Bound in Silence – Bound in Silence is essentially another Temporal Isolation. It’s much more unwieldy than Isolation, but both get the job done against Korlash, Tarmogoyf, and Mystic Enforcer. Then, if the bearer dies for some reason, you get an extra +1/+1 to your Lhurgoyfs from the Tribal aspect of this card.
Serrated Arrows – In the mirror, your creatures will run into each other at roughly the same size; 3/4s against 3/4s and 2/2s against 2/2s. This means that Serrated Arrows doesn’t need to actually kill the opposing guys to do its job. It’s also great in other aggro matchups, where you may need to kill a team of weenies. This card is a big reason that Harmonic Sliver is considered superior to Cloudchaser Kestrel by some players.
Matchups
It is difficult to provide a step-by-step matchup guide like I normally do, given that the deck has not yet settled on an optimal build. Some versions have maindeck Temporal Isolations, while that slot might be filled by Stonewood Invocation in the next deck. Instead of “GW Tarmogoyf versus U/B/w/r Control,” I will just provide guidelines that you can use to help you think about various matchups with whatever decklist you happen to have settled on.
Small Aggro Decks – As is the standard, the way a Big Aggro Deck can lose to a Small Aggro Deck (such as G/W Goyf versus White Weenie) is by getting swarmed and then finished off by evasion. The simple fact is that in a one-on-one fight, Tarmogoyf is bigger than Knight of the Holy Nimbus (and sometimes even Calciderm), while Mystic Enforcer is (sometimes) bigger than Serra Avenger and Stonecloaker. Since your creatures match up well, you’re worried about the ones that you can’t block, such as Soltari Priest. Therefore, you’re looking to bring in whatever answers you have to guys like that, whether your answer is Serrated Arrows or Bound in Silence. Against non-WW Small Aggro Decks, Sunlance can be very strong as a quick answer to most threats. If you have combat tricks such as Thrill of the Hunt, then they’ll be valuable as ways to use your smaller guys to take out their bigger ones, and as a way to counterspell whatever removal they’ve brought in against you.
Big Aggro Decks – In these matchups, removal enchantments reign supreme. Temporal Isolation and Bound in Silence don’t care how big your Tarmogoyf, Mystic Enforcer, Spectral Force, or Bogardan Hellkite are. Since you will be in a mirror-esque situation, even if you aren’t playing against a true mirror, you will also want to be able to answer your opponent’s enchantments. It’s for this reason that something like Harmonic Sliver is exciting over Cloudchaser Kestrel. Two Slivers kill three Isolations, while two Kestrels kill only two. Serrated Arrows gets better the more similar your two decks are. Having a 4/5 run into a 4/5 doesn’t work very well when one person controls an untapped Arrows. On the other hand, sending your 4/5 towards an 8/8 is a suicide mission even with Arrows out (obviously). By the same logic, Thrill of the Hunt is very powerful here, since your creatures are all very close in size, and one Thrill should win you two fights.
Combo – This is the Achilles Heel of the G/W Goyf deck. You don’t have very much interactive power when it comes to non-creature threats, and most of the maindecked creature control comes in enchantment form. This means that you can’t actually kill the creature, whether it’s Brine Elemental, Dormant Sliver, or Grinning Ignus. Your only hope, then, is to try to smash face hard enough and fast enough that they die before they go off. Worse, there aren’t many stock sideboard cards that you can use to turn things around. Sunlances are generally fairly strong, since they’ll take out Morphs, Slivers, and Ignuses for just one mana. Enchantment removal is necessary if they’re packing Wild Pair. Serrated Arrows is less amazing, but the fact that it helps at all makes it good enough to bring in with the rest.
Control – Your plan is to ration out threats in such a way that you put them in a position where they need Damnation, but even having it doesn’t win them the game. Call of the Herd and Saffi both give you good ways to weather a Wrath, and Tarmogoyf and Mystic Enforcer can both demand answers on their own. Beware of decks like Paul Cheon that have multiple maindecked Temporal Isolations and Take Possessions; these enchantments give them good ways to stop a single guy that would otherwise require them to cast Damnation. When you go to your sideboard, your first upgrade is your creatures. If you have anything like Whirling Dervish, this is the matchup they’re there for. Again, you’re trying to play guys that will make them spend their multiple-for-one removal spells on just one guy, and Dervish does just that. If you believe that they’ll be packing a large number of Isolations and/or Possessions, you can bring in your Kestrels if you have them; Slivers may not be worth it because of the tiny size of the man it leaves behind.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me in the forums, via email, or on AIM.
Benjamin Peebles-Mundy
ben at mundy dot net
SlickPeebles on AIM