Regionals is over*. Congratulations if you did well, and damn Wizards for making mana screw a part of the game if you didn’t. Because you didn’t punt any matches away, right?
With Regionals over and done with, the next Constructed season is going to be for the fully completed Time Spiral Block. To be honest, I’ve only had a passing interest in the format since Yokohama (and from the complete dearth of articles, I’d guess most others feel the same) and only recently been looking closer at what Future Sight brings to the table.
I figured the best way to start would be to take a look at what FS brings to the Block format, a la Naoki a couple of weeks ago with FS and Standard. I’ll start with the current decks in the format and then move onto potential for new ones.
* In case you were wondering, I managed even worse beats than Mark Young. Work once again messes up my vacation days and I’m stuck helping idiot wonderful customers all day. Not that it mattered too much, since I’d of only had a Izzetron deck to play thanks to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. nobody had cards and my card peddling friend took a sudden trip to San Diego).
Aggro Decks
Mana Ramp (R/G)
It seems odd to me that the first deck I get to review is already halfway through the alphabet name-wise. Take advantage of all the letters guys! Anyway, this deck doesn’t gain much creature-wise, but might be adapted to use some of the enablers from Future Sight.
Magus of the Vineyard may be an acceptable one-drop simply because a turn 2 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss or Hunting Wilds gives you a huge boost in development. In addition, you could choose to use it as a one-shot boost and then use it as sacrifice bait to Greater Gargadon. Of course, there’s always the potential of the opponent beating you over the head with the extra mana, but hey you’re playing a deck with no good plays until you hit five mana anyway.
The other major mana accelerant coming in is Rites of Flourishing, which is a Howling Mine plus a two-sided Exploration in a 2G enchantment. At first I thought this would be a much more useful card for the deck, but we’d need to make some significant alterations to the deck to make it truly functional. First, most of these decks run between 22-24 lands, which means the Exploration ability really isn’t that hot, even drawing two cards a turn; and you have to rework the manabase to include more lands. This isn’t completely terrible because of Horizon Canopy (and possibly Keldon Megaliths) going into the deck, but it’s not fun to take away slots from other mana producers or creatures for land.
Second, you have to take into account that the soonest you can play the card using the normal acceleration suite (no Magus) is turn 3. This means your opponent is going to get the first shot at throwing down a big man. Not to mention the ability to power up Tendrils of Corruption and Korlash, Heir to Blackblade even quicker than normal, which can put a serious damper on whatever creature you were thinking of playing anyway. Rites may be playable, but it’ll take a bit more work than some of the lists I’ve seen kicked around early on.
Three potential big man throw-ins are Scourge of Kher Ridges, Quagnoth, and Skizzik Surger. Scourge isn’t exactly going to make anyone jump up for joy, especially when Bogardan Hellkite is legal, but the extra toughness means he wins in a fight against the vast majority of fatties in the format. In addition, the Pyroclasm ability can keep the board clean for extended periods of time against various aggro decks, morphs, or Thelonite Hermit. Skizzik has the much simpler reasoning of being a six-point burn spell in a deck that already runs some combination of Hellkite, Stormbind, and Disintegrate.
Quagnoth is special for this deck in that it’s a difficult threat against the typical control deck in this format. At the absolute worst you can think of him as a bigger Sulfur Elemental against control that can’t be wiped out by Tendrils or Teferi. At best it’s like a super Scragnoth. It can’t be killed easily, can’t be blocked easily, and is generally a pain in the butt to deal with in any reasonable way.
As for smaller creatures that might make the cut, the immediate thought goes to Magus of the Moon. He can buy a couple of turns against B/U control if they run Slaughter Pact, and completely crush those that don’t. Of course, I’m going to say the same thing about the playability of the card in just about every Red deck as long as the Teachings decks run half or more of their manabase as non-basics.
Molten Disaster is a pretty self-explanatory card. As long as you’re willing to support the RR or RRR cost by turn 4-5, it can be a useful anti-weenie tool. However, you can’t just shove it into most mana ramp decks because of the heavy slant towards Green in the early game.
Mono Red
Mono Red Aggro gains a lot from Future Sight, the main cards being Gathan Raiders, Magus of the Moon, and Keldon Megaliths. A couple of outliers that might be good are Ghostfire, Emberwilde Augur, and Thunderblade Charge.
Dealing with the surefire the hits first, Gathan Raiders represents the cheapest amount of resources you have to invest to get a 5/5 in this format. Odds are if you go all-out with the Red deck you’ll hit Hellbent by turn 5 or so, and in longer controlling games you can sit on the Raiders until you absolutely need to flip him over. Even as a 3/3 for three, he’s good value overall compared to most of the smaller creatures in the format. I’m sure you could come up with a reason not to play him in Mono Red, but he’s pretty much an auto-inclusion from what I’ve seen in testing.
Magus of the Moon is another obvious addition, simply because eight or more of the FS lands are going to see Block play, and land bases were already half non-basic anyway. Besides, what other good three- or four-drops other than this, Sulfur Elemental, and Raiders are there? Even if it doesn’t make the cut, I figure it’ll see serious sideboard play against the various Teachings decks.
Some of the borderline cards include more potential burn spells. Ghostfire can take out Soltari Priest, and is basically just a better Fiery Temper in most nearly all builds. Or you could replace Sudden Shock, since the majority of abilities you’ll end up dealing with in this block come from Morphs anyway. Thunderblade Charge is an interesting attrition card, because it fits the mana cost = damage rule for Block burn while providing a reusable damage source even after board clearers. It’s not uncommon to see a near-destroyed Red board with a small creature in play and the opponent hovering in the single digits. This card basically forces them to react ASAP, or it’s like ripping a burn spell every turn to dome them with.
In initial testing these cards seem just better than Sudden Shock and Fiery Temper, but further testing will have to be done to see if you want to fully dump Sudden Shock. Fiery Temper is getting the boot for sure now, at least from my builds.
Tarox Bladewing is a potential addition into the board against slower decks that seek to gum up the board with Epochrasite and Wall of Roots, but the five mana cost is a significant drawback in many cases. In addition, the three toughness removes a lot of its usefulness from mirror matches, which is usually where the large dragons shine. Still worth thinking about, purely for the amount of damage it can deal in a single turn.
Scryb & Force
Heartwood Storyteller, Delay, and Quagnoth are probably the biggest deals here. Baru, Fist of Krosa and Summoner’s Pact may see some play as well. Quagnoth is pretty obvious in this type of deck; uncounterable fat is good, especially when you can accelerate into it. The Green Pact is similarly obvious, as you can use it to fetch whichever fattie your heart desires, but is probably a bit too expensive to be worth it.
As Naoki Shimizu said in his Standard review, Heartwood Storyteller can delay a good deal of search and mana acceleration effects if played early enough. Opponents simply don’t want to give the Green player two or three free cards before they Wrath. At worst, it cantrips when it finally gets removed.
Delay is obviously only going to matter to those playing U/G Shifter variations, but it could have the same impact as Remand did for slower aggro decks like this. Delay gives the deck the ability to leave open a small amount of mana and potentially stop any Damnation, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, or Mystical Teachings for a couple of turns, opening up huge windows of opportunity. If you’ve got the Blue, you should give it some serious consideration.
Baru, Fist of Krosa is interesting because of the potential mini-Overrun effects each turn, let alone in conjunction with spells like Hunting Wilds. The obvious flip-side is that by itself it’s only a 4/4 (Sudden Death range), where as the other creature at that slot is an 8/8. In addition, Scryb and Force has typically relied on a few large fatties to carry the day, rather than the swarms Baru works better with. He’s worth consideration, more so if you run the full set of Thelonite Hermit in the deck.
WW
The biggest additions for WW probably are Nimbus Maze and Lumithread Field. Nimbus Maze opens up the possibility of running Psionic Blast without totally crippling your manabase, which is huge since WW could really use Psionic Blast or Delay to keep its creatures alive and attacking longer. Speaking of which, that’s the only reason to even consider Field at all.
If people continue the crusade of putting as many Sulfur Elemental as legally possible into VW Bugs, then WW basically needs to answer it with the Field. On one hand playing such a defensive card really goes against the grain of the deck, on the other I’m just really happy we finally have an answer that drops before Sulfur cleans the board.
As for Blade of the Sixth Pride, if your willing to maindeck the Fields or just aren’t afraid of the red version of Engineered Plague, then it’s perfect for the deck. If not, well then I doubt it’ll see too much play because of it’s vulnerability to Sulfur foremost and every playable creature in the format second.
Control
B/U Teachings / Pickles
You get River of Tears, what more do you really want? The deck does gain actual card manipulation cards in Mystic Speculation; and more importantly Foresee. I expect a couple Foresee to be run in Teachings decks from here on out, because despite only drawing two cards, odds are you’ll get two you like after Scry.
The Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth war becomes a bit more interesting thanks to Tolaria West and the possibility of Korlash as a finisher. In one sense, running Tolaria West says you can afford to only run one or two Urborg now and safely fetch them up whenever, but the sheer awesomeness of Korlash may lead people to pack full sets purely to power him up and Wasteland opposing lands. Not to mention Tolaria West being able to grab Pact of Negation and Slaughter Pact if the need happens to arise.
Oh, and Slaughter Pact is the answer you want to have to kill off Magus of the Moon. Tolaria West basically says if you feel the need to only run one or two Slaughter Pact, you can still do so without being hurt that badly. Although I have to admit the card has been testing so well I’d feel somewhat vulnerable without running three or four between the main and sideboard.
Really, the question is how many Tolaria West would you want to run in the deck? There’s not a pressing need to get a first or second turn play in Block, unlike Standard, so the “comes into play tapped” clause isn’t as big an issue here. In addition, the Pacts give you immediate impact spells if you tutor for them, instead of simply being limited to fetching Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Urza’s Factory. Right now I prefer three, but that number could fluctuate drastically depending on what range of turns your deck is designed to excel in, and what targets you’re willing to run.
Creature-wise, the two that immediately jump to mind are Venser, Shaper Savant and Linessa, Zephyr Mage. Venser, Shaper Savant probably gets in as a one-of since he can be fetched via Teachings and bounce anything, which can be huge against storage lands and huge creatures like Spectral Force and company. Plus, you get a future blocker out of the deal, or a 2/2 beater for those in topdeck mode.
Linessa requires a bit more thought and a change in the deck, since you’ll be trying to build around her and the two solid abilities she brings to the table. If you can find a way to power up her Grandeur ability via library manipulation, you can quickly reset a board and set an opponent back two or three turns of mana development. Not to mention when used in conjunction of her first ability, the chance to bounce enough cards back to hand that they’ll be forced to discard. In addition, you can also soft lock an opponent by using Deadwood Treefolk or Undertaker in conjunction with Linessa’s normal abilities.
As for the other cards, Delay is kind of obvious, Tombstalker was a bit too clunky in my testing, and can’t even go toe-to-toe with other huge flyers, and Augur of Skulls was excellent board material to bring in against midrange decks.
Unless you can get Rites of Flourishing or Magus of the Vineyard* to work here, the deck doesn’t gain all that much at first glance. The best early game addition comes from Epochrasite, which can drop on turn 2, take one for the team, and then come back on turn 5 or 6 as a burly man and play more defense. In addition it gives you an effective way to Pair out 1/1 creatures from the deck, which was previously rather difficult to do in the deck since most of the 1/1s were just bad.
There really isn’t much else to add to the deck, unless you want to throw in Pact of Negation / Delay / Logic Knot for a counter during the turns you’re trying to drop Pair. Or if you want to be really cute, run the kill with multiple Virulent Sliver over the traditional Muscle Sliver finisher.
* I haven’t had a chance to try this guy in here, so if anyone has, feel free to share with the class.
Potential New Decks
Mono Black / Black X
Augur of Skulls and Korlash are basically the best Black cards in FS; and easily in the top 5 for the block itself. Nihilith may get there as well once the PTQ season picks up, considering its various uses and how well it plays into many of Black’s strengths. Before there was no good reason to really consider a Black deck outside of the control variations, let alone without splashing for Aeon Chronicler. Now however, the tools are in place to make a successful Black aggro / Rack deck for Block.
Consider what you have in terms of discard options for your first four turns:
Funeral Charm
Augur of Skulls
Smallpox
Stronghold Rats
Stupor
Shimian Specter
This isn’t a complete list, merely one for cards you can use over the first three turns or so. You have a significant discard presence if you choose to use even a conventional set-up of Charm, Augur, Smallpox, and Stupor. Now add in the fact that you have legitimate finishers in Nihilith and Korlash, and suddenly discard and having Swamps for lands is a great boon. In case your still wondering about Nihilith, consider that you’ll typically get him in play on turn 4 or 5 if you resolve a Smallpox (three cards hit the grave? Nice deck) or Stupor. That’s not bad for a measly 1B.
Even other creatures like Tombstalker and Gathan Raiders can get in on the fun if you really want, considering the amount of cards you dump from your hand in a short time.
Here’s an example build.
Mono Black Rack
4 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
4 Nihilith
3 Tombstalker
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Augur of Skulls
4 Stupor
4 Funeral Charm
4 Smallpox
3 Sudden Death
4 The Rack
22 Swamp
Like I said, you’ll have to play with the deck for a while to get the creature base right, especially because Gruul and Zoo doesn’t exist in this format. Meaning some of the clunkers like Tombstalker have time to get going, while Withered Wretch loses most of its targets in this format. Thankfully, other than the loss of Cry of Contrition and Dark Confidant, you bring a lot of the same base spells and creatures over from Standard into a slower format. Since you can also run Graven Cairns as no real cost, you might also want to consider the Red splash for Raiders, Gargadon, and possibly burn.
Mono Green
Take the mana ramp decks, remove the Red and silly stuff and just replace them with even more fat, and you get a deck like this. Really, if any deck was going to abuse Rites of Flourishing that wasn’t abusive combo (or Turboland), it’d be one of these two.
Mono Green Beats
1 Deadwood Treefolk
4 Baru, Fist of Krosa
4 Thelonite Hermit
4 Spectral Force
4 Imperiosaur
4 Yavimaya Dryad
4 Wall of Roots
4 Magus of the Vineyard
4 Hunting Wilds
4 Harmonize
1 Pendelhaven
3 Dryad Arbor
19 Forest
What’s the plan here once the monsters start coming online? Cast counters and Damnation, and hope for the best against 16 fatties and a Deadwood Treefolk? Realistically, the deck will need a better way to compete against Mono Red Aggro and WW, but there’s room for potential. The deck went from having almost nothing good to cast in its own colors to being able to play a massive Overrun from one guy and laying Forests down.
Other cards that I couldn’t really find a place for, but have potential…
Phosphorescent Feast – This card is terrible, but in heavy Green decks like the one above, it can gain you around 14-20+ life in one shot. Even with Mono Red’s new goodies, they’ll have issues taking you down from 40.
Logic Knot
Take Possession
Sprout Swarm
Magus of the Future
Magus of the Moat
Haze of Rage
Rift Elemental
That’s about as far as I’ve got with kicking around the FS cards in Block due to Regionals, but now with the MTGO events happening again hopefully we’ll get to see a larger influx of data come in about the format again. See you next week.
Josh Silvestri
Team Reflection
Email me at: joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom