Last week I took a look at the Standard format’s Mono-Green Aggro deck. This week I’ll be writing about an Extended deck that is frighteningly similar, yet extremely different: U/G Opposition. Both have the capability to put a Spectral Force into play on the third turn, but this deck also has the option of locking the opponent out of the game as early as turn 3.
At the beginning of January, a friend of mine (Kendall Bright) was playing in the Top 8 of a small PTQ in Oklahoma City. In the semifinals, he and his CAL deck ran into a rogue deck piloted by Carl Hendrix. Despite the raw power of Seismic Assault, Life from the Loam, Solitary Confinement, and Burning Wish, my friend was dispatched by a deck playing a three-mana 1/1.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Coiling Oracle
2 Scryb Ranger
4 Wood Elves
2 Eternal Witness
4 Beacon of Creation
3 Spectral Force
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
3 Static Orb
3 Opposition
1 Pendelhaven
2 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Breeding Pool
10 Forest
Sideboard
4 Stifle
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Spell Snare
3 Krosan Grip
2 Voidslime
U/G Opposition, or Oppo for short, doesn’t really look like it can beat anything on paper. There are eighteen maindeck 1/1s, most of which cost at least two mana. However, the synergies present between these tiny creatures are extraordinary. The most obvious is the interaction between Wirewood Symbiote and either Coiling Oracle or Wood Elves. Both combinations allow you to tear through your deck, either digging for a threat or pulling out all of your lands for a massive Beacon. Then there’s the interaction between Symbiote or Scryb Ranger and Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves. Just like MGA, Oppo can toss an 8/8 into play on turn 3. Sometimes you even get draws that combine the two; one game I was able to play Birds of Paradise, Wirewood Symbiote, two instances of Coiling Oracle, and Spectral Force all by my third turn. Finally, there’s the “synergy” between a massive stack of dorks and Opposition or Umezawa’s Jitte. Opposition plus Beacon of Creation is usually a game-ending combination, and Jitte plus Beacon demands that the Jitte itself be dealt with, since you’re not about to run out of creatures any time soon.
Card Choices
As usual, I started tinkering on the deck as soon as I felt comfortable playing with it. I tried out a handful of cards, most of which didn’t end up making the cut, and I started pulling cards I didn’t like out of the original decklist. All of this testing has taken place on Magic Online, so no Planar Chaos cards were accessible. I’ll address the Post-PC changes to the deck later on.
Remand
I played three maindeck Remands in a couple of Extended Queues, and found that they were only good against decks I really didn’t expect to run into in a PE or PTQ. I destroyed Balancing Tings by Remanding his Act in game 1, and I held off a Tooth and Nail deck for two turns while I dug for an Opposition, but Remand was horribly unexciting against Boros, Affinity, Scepter Chant, U/W Tron, and others.
Sword of Fire and Ice
Decks filled with thousands of tiny men usually get away with it by running a boatload of equipment. Sword of Fire and Ice used to get the nod over Jitte in decks like Mirrodin-era Aggro Red, but it’s the opposite in this deck. It is much more difficult to play and equip the Sword on turn 3 than it is to do the same with Jitte, and the lifegain on the Jitte is often very relevant.
Eternal Witness
The two Witnesses in the original deck never seemed that great to me. They were awesome when somebody Duressed away your Opposition and you could just pull it back up and drop it the next turn, but that was essentially the only application I found. If Beacon of Creation didn’t shuffle itself back in, then I would be much happier with Witness, since a double Beacon draw is usually a win on its own. Bringing back a Spectral Force, while sometimes very strong, usually just means that it will again run into whatever dispatched it the last time.
Pendelhaven
In MGA, Pendelhaven allowed you to fight through a Desert, threaten to pump in creature fights, and scare off small removal spells. In Oppo, Pendelhaven fails to make an Insect when you cast Beacon of Creation, can’t be bounced when you have a Scryb Ranger, and can’t be dug up with Wood Elves. It is rare that you have an opportunity to use the pump ability when it is actually relevant, since most of the time you’re using all of your mana to draw cards, dig up lands, and resolve threats. In other words, it’s almost strictly worse than a Basic Forest.
Voidslime
Hard counters are amazing in some matchups, but those matchups don’t exist in any real force. Taking out an Entwined Tooth and Nail is certainly exciting, but there aren’t very many of those running around these days. I found that the usual use for Voidslime was to be Stifles number five and six against Storm decks, and that just didn’t do it for me.
The short version of this is that I wanted to cut Witnesses from the maindeck and Voidslimes from the sideboard. At the same time, I hadn’t really found any cards not already in the deck that I wanted to try. This mean that I simply increased the numbers of the threat cards the deck already played, leaving me with
Creatures (26)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Wirewood Symbiote
- 4 Wood Elves
- 4 Coiling Oracle
- 2 Scryb Ranger
- 4 Spectral Force
Lands (20)
Spells (14)
Sideboard
Having the fourth Jitte and fourth Spectral Force in the maindeck just gave me more chances to do something degenerate on the third turn. Adding the fourth Opposition to the sideboard allowed me to maximize my chances of drawing one against a combo deck, without cluttering up my hand against Affinity or Boros.
Matchups
Boros Deck Wins (Close, but Favorable):
Boros has always been fast, and the versions that pack Kird Apes are even faster than that. As such, when playing against Boros you need to make sure that you aren’t going to get run over. The best hands have mana acceleration, mid-range plays like Wood Elves and Coiling Oracle, and a heavy hitter like Beacon, Spectral Force, or Jitte. Boros might come out of the gates at a breakneck speed, but if you can get into turns 4 and later with a healthy life total, your power cards will start to turn the game around very quickly. The scariest card for the Boros player to get against you is an active Grim Lavamancer, since he shuts down your best weapon against them Umezawa’s Jitte. On the other hand, there isn’t a whole lot that the Lavamancer can do about a Spectral Force, equipped or otherwise, and there isn’t a whole lot that Boros can do against a Beacon-fueled Opposition.
Sideboarding allows you to cut the Static Orbs that are extremely marginal and one Wood Elves for Spell Snares that are extremely effective. The Snares will hit at least Silver Knight, Soltari Priest, and Lightning Helix, and some of the time you will have more targets, from Goblin Legionnaire to opposing Jittes. If you believe that they will be bringing in Jittes or Armadillo Cloaks, you might want to bring in Krosan Grips. If you do want Grips, the best cards to cut are more Wood Elves, since they are usually too slow to be able to abuse in this matchup.
Affinity (Even):
Opposition packs only two Scryb Rangers as flying defense, so a Blinkmoth Nexus with any sort of backup spells trouble. Arcbound Ravager and Cranial Plating are just as scary as they always have been, and Affinity still possesses the capability to end turn two with a squadron of Frogmites and Myr Enforcers in play. On the other hand, as with all aggressive decks, a fast Opposition will almost always be enough to turn the game all the way back around. The standard Symbiote plus Oracle combination will usually buy you enough time to assemble an Opposition and either a Beacon or a handful of dorks to follow it up.
After sideboards, you have access to Krosan Grip and Spell Snare. Both cards are primarily to handle Cranial Plating and Arcbound Ravager, though Spell Snare might stop a Shrapnel Blast and Krosan Grip might take out an Enforcer. As in all of the aggressive matchups, you board out the Static Orbs. To fit all of the sideboard cards in, though, you’re going to need to cut the Wood Elves too. They’re too slow to affect the matchup, and unlike your other slow cards, they will not swing momentum back your way when they come out, which both Spectral Force and Jitte will do.
U/W Tron (Favorable):
The widely-played Tenacious Tron has four Condescends that can stop your Opposition from resolving. Unfortunately for them, you have a pretty good shot at being able to out-mana a XU counterspell when they don’t Tron up immediately. As soon as an Opposition comes down, you can tap them out of colored mana and start resolving things like Beacon and Static Orb, at which point there’s no way out. In addition, they don’t always have that elusive early Blue source, at which point you don’t even need to fight to get your spells to stick. If you’re lucky, they’ll tap two Tron pieces for a Signet on turn 2, and you can just Opposition them out then and there.
On the other hand, sometimes they’ll lead with a land, a Mox, and a Chalice on one, and you will be instantly destroyed. Without access to accelerants or Symbiote, you’re going to have to play fair, and running four- and five-drops into Remands and Condescends isn’t going to get you anywhere. Sometimes they’ll still tap out into your Opposition, but if they know not to do that, you’re going to have to get lucky to win the fight of 1/1s versus Platinum Angels, Razormane Masticores, and Wrath of Gods.
When you sideboard, you get to bring in your three Grips and the fourth Opposition. You can bring in Spell Snares if you really truly want to, but I think that that’s a bad idea. Snare basically can only hit Remand and Signets, and trying to get lucky and manascrew them isn’t worth breaking up your engine or threat count. To make room for the four board cards, cut the Jittes. The enemy deck will have four Repeals to make Jitte do nothing, and while it’s good at making every little man demand a Wrath, it’s also very good at Time Walking yourself when it gets bounced and they take one.
Aggro Flow (Favorable):
If you lose to Aggro Flow it is because they got a piece of equipment going and you simply couldn’t stop it. Luckily, this deck is packed with ways to stop equipped creatures. The primary way to deal with a Troll Ascetic holding a Sword of Fire and Ice is to block it with a Wood Elves and then bounce the elf back to your hand. Since, under most circumstances, this is your plan anyway, you really won’t mind doing that every turn. Meanwhile, if the creature isn’t Troll or the equipment isn’t Sword, Opposition will merrily tap the offending man down.
After boards you get to bring in Krosan Grips and Stifles, both of which put a large dent in Aggro Flow’s gameplan. Stifle may not seem like it does that much to them, but it really does. Aggro Flow leans heavily on Onslaught Fetch Lands to give it a decent manabase, since they can’t afford to run more than a handful of Ravnica Duals. In addition, you can Stifle lifegain from a Ravenous Baloth, regeneration from a Troll Ascetic, and the Equip abilities and triggers from Jitte and Sword. The application of Krosan Grip is much more straightforward: blow up their Equipments.
Black Aggro Loam (Close, but Favorable):
Aggro Loam has a number of tools that will allow them to win the game, but you are actually quite resilient to most of them. There is always the chance that they will play a Terravore and then blow the world up with a Devastating Dreams, but this deck can recover from that faster than most. If you can afford to slow-roll a land and a Birds or Elves, then you can be back online just two turns after you lose your entire side. Seismic Assault is a nightmare when they can just go straight for the head, but when they have to kill your creatures, even Life from the Loam is going to have a hard time dealing with a Beacon for seven tokens. Meanwhile, a Spectral Force can actually fight a Terravore, and Jitte will make their job of killing everything that much harder.
Sideboarding lets you swap out Static Orb and Wood Elves for Tormod’s Crypts and Spell Snares. It is not usually worth it to board in the Grips, since the stock version has only three Seismic Assaults to kill. The Snares must be saved for Burning Wish and Devastating Dreams, unless you absolutely can’t deal with the Werebear or Dark Confidant that’s on the stack. Crypts, well… they’re there to blow Life from the Loam away. It’s not a good idea to run two or three of them out there at once, because you risk losing them all to Engineered Explosives or Shattering Spree, but you also don’t want to get wrecked by Cabal Therapy. Some versions have Krosan Grips of their own in the sideboard, but the list that took first and second place in Los Angeles does not, so play for the fast Opposition lock.
TEPS (Close, but Favorable):
The only way you can win game 1 is to stick an Opposition as soon as you possibly can. Some TEPS decks will have a Chain of Vapor or similar to try to break out of the lock, but unless they have that Blue mana open when the Opposition comes down, they won’t have a chance to bounce it without allowing you to simply untap and replay it. Unfortunately, there are only three Oppositions in the deck, so you’re going to need to get fairly lucky to hit one in a relevant window.
Games 2 and 3 are a much different story. You get to bring in Stifles, Spell Snares, and the fourth Opposition to help you get to the point where you can toss an Opposition into play and ride it to victory. The cards that come out are the ones that are simply too slow to affect the game: Static Orb, Umezawa’s Jitte, and a couple of Spectral Forces. Snares aren’t mind-blowingly awesome, but they do snag Cabal Ritual, Burning Wish, and Infernal Tutor, so they’re definitely better than the cards you take out. Stifle exists to stop Storm and counter Lotus Blooms, and the fourth Opposition comes in to make it more likely that you’ll be able to lock them in time.
Trinket Tog (Close, but Favorable):
Just like with Tron, Trinket Tog has four Counterspells to stop you from doing your thing. On the other hand, these aren’t counters that you can play around by digging up four extra lands. Still, the game plays out very similarly. Any time you can stick an Opposition, it’s essentially over. The Sensei’s Divining Top plus Counterbalance “lock” isn’t nearly as good against Oppo as it is against other decks, because you can just run a Spectral Force into it and not have to worry about anything. Similarly, the Tog deck has only two Fact or Fictions to reveal that can stop Beacon of Creation or Opposition.
On the other hand, there are certainly cards that can make life difficult for you. When they have the Top / Balance combo down, they can save their Counterspells for your Spectrals and Beacons if you can’t capitalize immediately. Sideboarding gives them access to Darkblasts and Ghastly Demises. Darkblast buys them time to set up comfortably (if they draw it), and Ghastly Demise gives them an answer to Spectral Force. Oppo gets to bring in Spell Snares, which you can use to force through your Oppositions and Spectrals, as well as stop Counterbalance and Dark Confidant. To make room, you should cut the Jittes, since your men will just run into Demise, Ghastly Darkblast, or Smother.
I’m not going to lie: typing all of that out made me feel kind of silly. Why? Because I’m claming that this deck has an advantage against every popular deck out there other than Affinity, against which it’s even. I know that the automatic reaction here is to dismiss what I’m saying, since there’s clearly no way for me to be right. That’s the thing, though. I’ve been playing this deck in Queues for a little over a month, and I am literally undefeated. In that streak, I’ve played against every deck I’ve listed above. A large number of the matches go to three games, but I still win every time. I don’t really know how else to say it. If you absolutely must know what Oppo loses to, I’ll tell you: Wizards. Shadow Guildmage, Grim Lavamancer, Fire / Ice, and Jitte all destroy your board, while Shackles and Patron Wizard lock you. Luckily, no one plays this deck.
The release of Planar Chaos brings one very important card into the mix: Gaea’s Anthem. The Anthem is good in this deck for two reasons. First, it turns your army of six 1/1s into a team that can end the game in a turn or two. Second, it trumps most of the hate that’s out there. It’s not too uncommon to run into someone who is sideboarding Darkblasts, and Anthem, while it won’t save your first-turn Birds, will make it so that the rest of your team doesn’t fall victim to the same fate. There are also people out there with Engineered Plagues and Goblin Sharpshooters, two other cards that essentially demand that you win with a Spectral Force. Again, an Anthem turns that right back around.
In my opinion, the correct call is to run two Gaea’s Anthems in the main, and sideboard an additional copy against decks that will be bringing those hate cards in against you. The maindeck can easily afford to lose one copy of each of Umezawa’s Jitte and Spectral Force, and the fourth Spell Snare in the sideboard is another easy cut.
If I were able to make the trip to Grand Prix: Dallas, I would absolutely play this deck (with Anthems). I think it is mostly under the radar; many people have heard of it but not very many people have actually paid attention to it. In addition to that fact, I honestly do believe it to have good matchups against the field as a whole, even if those good matchups are only on the order of 60/40. Finally, it’s a blast to play. There’s nothing like ending your third turn with twelve permanents in play, or drawing tons of extra cards with two simple 1/1s.
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