Last week I talked about some alternate model U/G decks, none of which were outstanding; the top billed ones were actually a bit poor for the metagame. I didn’t stick around on the Mirrodin-based U/G deck for very long, and the White splashes in all the U/G decks from last week were for some pretty decent hate cards anyway, so I decided to cut the Blue (and Fact or Fiction with it) to just go G/W instead of U/G, moving all the White hate to the main. This was my second draft, and the deck I settled on for last Thursday’s mock tournament:
Creatures (24)
Lands (22)
Spells (14)
Sideboard
This is my second draft because I didn’t have Eternal Dragon in the first one. Eternal Dragon is actually perfect for this deck, allowing it to play 22 lands and also giving it some late-game card drawing. I know this deck seems a bit under powered for the current Extended, but believe me, it is good. I would go so far as to say it is the best deck in the format to play, and I have started converting the troops, albeit slowly, as we have practiced and studied the duelling.
The reason this deck is viable, and even quite good in the format, is twofold: 1) Boros is the most popular deck, and 2) TEPS is the "best" deck and also one of the most popular. This G/W deck has favorable matchups against both. That’s it. That’s why to play it. The deck is about as fast as Raphael Levy Aggro Rock from last year, with a little less equipment punch, but different outs and soft-to-hard locks in certain matchups.
Like many decks of this style, it is surprisingly card advantageous, with Elves allowing you to get an early game jump on fair match tempo, and follow up with Calls for reasonable threats and attrition. If you get Sword of Fire and Ice going, that counts as card drawing; as I said before, Eternal Dragon gives you real card drawing in a long game. I have been debating Fire and Ice versus Light and Shadow for this field, but went with Fire and Ice despite the pronounced-yet-overlooked Light and Shadow advantages in this deck because the structure of the deck is strong against Boros to begin with, has eight core life gain (you don’t really "need" Light and Shadow life gain), and the Worship soft lock puts you over the top. Fire and Ice is stronger than Light and Shadow in the abstract, quickening your clock where you need it, and drawing into your spoilers like Gilded Light.
I built the deck to beat Boros and TEPS, but it is also quite good against Trinket Angel (your mana costs don’t really line up very well for them), Goblins, and Affinity. Basically you are really good against single-minded decks, and particularly creature decks. As it is, the deck basically can’t beat Aggro-Loam (though you could easily change the sideboard and make most of their cards not very good), and more powerful decks that use multiple angles of attack can be problematic (U/W ‘Tron, Cloudpost decks, Gifts Rock, and so on). However, these decks in aggregate are not going to be as popular, or so I assume; a bad metagame call here will make the deck a bad deck instead of the Deck to Play. As a side note, the Trinket numbers come from Julian (he claimed a 10-0 set on MWS!), who switched Baloths for Exalted Angels (something I mentioned at the mock because I was constantly siding out Baloths), which obviously can fight Trinket’s Exalted Angels, whereas my current main has few real outs against Angels (besides locking them with Troll / Worship, of course). Against the tough matchups, which usually involve a more profligate manabase than yours, I side in Plow Under. Whenever I don’t know what to do, I pretty much side out Gilded Light, Worship, or Baloth, and try to Plow the Under. You’d be surprised how often you randomly win with clock, clock, Plow Under, regardless of matchup; there’s a reason they rotated it!
One thing I will point out about the most important matchup is that even though you are great against creature beatdown, you can lose to Boros if they draw two Molten Rains (you will in fact tend to lose if they draw two, especially on the play). Sometimes they will beat you if they are on the play and they draw one Molten Rain. I’ve never actually lost a game where they did not draw a Molten Rain. Man, I can’t believe I tried to cut Molten Rain from Billy’s deck.
Mock Tournament Results
Round 1 – Dirty Kitty
Game 1
He didn’t draw anything and I ran him over with what I didn’t actually think was a very good draw – some equipment and multiple gain life four-drops – but it was good enough.
Game 2
Sideboarding:
-4 Gilded Light
+2 Umezawa’s Jitte
+2 Worship
I thought I was going to win because I hit Troll / Worship with four Jitte counters. Unfortunately he made me look quite silly with double Fecundity, eventually drawing into Burning Wish for Tranquility.
Game 3
Sideboarding:
-3 Ravenous Baloth
+3 Krosan Grip
I realized I had sideboarded incorrectly and put all of my Krosan Grips in. Basically if he doesn’t have Fecundity online, his cards are vastly out-classed by those of the G/W deck in-matchup. I thought it would be good to run Rule of Law because that would make him play my slow, plodding, fair game (but with much worse cards), but I realized it doesn’t really matter how much stuff he does if he doesn’t have Fecundity. He can’t really go off without it, and Jitte counters make Skirk Prospector and even Goblin Warchief fairly ineffectual. All the Empty the Warrens decks seem to try to stall in the late game… you get them with the Sword. I decided after this match that Goblins was a good matchup.
1-0, 2-1
Round 2 – Billy Moreno with TEPS
Billy actually 3-0’d me at the Top8Magic offices before the mock tournament with his modified TEPS deck, but I just drew nothing all those games. It had a psychological effect on both of us and probably made me a little more scared than I needed to be and Billy a bit off in the proper assessment as well.
Game 1
I didn’t have anything but just kept making guys; around turn four I just bluffed W1 open. Billy decided to go Goblins via Empty the Warrens because he would have been annihilated had he gone Tendrils (assuming I had the answer), but I just made two more guys the next turn, including a Baloth. Billy had about eighteen Goblins, but I was on 27 from 4/4s and I had seven guys late game. He couldn’t really attack very well and had spent most of his resources setting up. So basically neither of us did anything until I got Eternal Dragon, which went sky-face with a Sword of Fire and Ice.
Game 2
Sideboarding:
-2 Umezawa’s Jitte
-4 Call of the Herd
-1 Worship
+4 Plow Under
+3 Rule of Law
I just played Rule of Law on the second turn and Billy had not sideboarded to beat it (no Wishes in and no Chain of Vapor in). Lucky, lucky.
I actually beat him two more games after that to go 4-0, but really 4-3 in the lifetime series. Good enough.
2-0, 4-1
Round 3 – Julian Levin with Flow Deck Wins
Game 1
We stalled and I got Troll / Worship. Julian had no maindeck outs.
Game 2
-3 Call of the Herd
-4 Gilded Light
+2 Umezawa’s Jitte
+3 Krosan Grip
+2 Worship
I had an all Elf hand, something like six Elves by turn 3 or 4. Julian had a real creature of some sort and a Jitte. This wasn’t very good for me. After I lost four Elves, I pulled my own Jitte. He drew another Jitte, and I drew more Elves. He drew Dark Confidant. Really, this was miserable. He kept killing my Elves and showing Ancient Grudge. So I held my Swords, and was halfway thankful when I drew my Jitte. I got Troll down, then Worship #1, then the second. Julian was in kind of a bad spot because Maher was beating him up, and he couldn’t kill the damn Worships; I was not going to block, for sure. He started to just gain life on Jitte to keep looking for Krosan Grip. I got a series of Baloths to keep counters off the Jitte. Finally he flipped Krosan Grip with Bob. Too bad the other Bob also did him three damage, and those were his last six. I actually had two Worships in play, and one on top of my deck, so I was going to win anyway.
Julian later ran a 10 game set on MWS, and claimed a G/W 10-0. Destructive Flow destroys nothing if you play right (twelve basics in this piece), and you are basically better on every drop, have maindeck breaker equipment, and a de facto hard lock (don’t misplay).
3-0, 6-1
Round 4 – Steve Sadin with Aggro Loam
Steve played versus zero Tormod’s Crypts, zero Leyline of the Voids, and zero Withered Wretches in the first three rounds (I can’t go one round in the MTGO Tournament Practice Room without seeing two Crypts and three Wretches, by the way). So he ran the tables. Nope, I didn’t have any Crypts because I was assuming some Trinket deck would take him out. Both games were the same. I got early initiative, he blew up all permanents with Devastating Dreams and attacked for seventeen in one turn with Terravore. My deck has no chance against Aggro Loam without hate, and even the Wall of Roots is extremely annoying early game. I considered not sideboarding, especially when I realized Plow Under might be good for him, but given how badly he beat me in Game 1, I was compelled to run -4 Gilded Light, +2 Umezawa’s Jitte, +2 Worship… not that it mattered.
3-1, 6-3
Even though I didn’t actually win, I think G/W beats is the right deck to play this week. Like I said at the mock, Steve’s deck is definitely stronger than mine in the abstract, but I don’t think it is reasonable to get through eight rounds of Swiss and three rounds of Top 8 without meeting at least two Tormod’s Crypts. This is a case where I think playing fair with the right positioning will be more valuable than having the most degenerate combo deck or even a robust Loam engine (which is admittedly quite impressive when it is rolling). There is another mock tournament tonight and unless I win it with my U/G deck (Down, Up III… I know, I know…) I am going to play G/W in the Week 1 Philadelphia PTQ.
Wish me luck! Good luck to you tomorrow, unless you play me of course… hehe.
LOVE
MIKE