I’d be real irresponsible if I didn’t namedrop my good friend Tim Kopcial, who turned twenty-one years of age at the time of this writing. Feel free to call him Gucci-man, or (if the fancy strikes you) Gucci-Gucci. Either will suffice.
Also, I forgot to mention yesterday that Grapeshot is in the board basically to help ensure that the Empty the Warrens plan is good enough to win you the game. I might have mentioned this at least a little bit, but against Char decks a big problem is that Empty the Warrens doesn’t win the game even at 14-16 before they can kill you. Grapeshot kills off a couple of their guys the turn you’re going off, making it a lot less likely that they can just shrug at your Goblin tokens and bash with an evasive dude for the win.
I’ve got another Standard deck to look at today. If you’re not running the crazy storm creation, I would definitely recommend this one to you. It’s Richard Feldman and I’s take on Pat Chapin’s “Flag Burner,” and if you’re going to play Old Glory colors this is the way to go:
Creatures (4)
Lands (23)
Spells (33)
And the sideboarding plan:
Versus Char Aggro:
+4 Faith’s Fetters
+3 Cop: Red
+1 Think Twice
-2 Demonfire
-2 Giant Solifuge
-4 Remand
Versus U/G Aggro:
+4 Faith’s Fetters
-2 Giant Solifuge
-2 Think Twice
Versus Solar Flare/Pox
+4 Faith’s Fetters
+4 Draining Whelk
+3 Grand Arbiter
+1 Think Twice
-4 Wrath
-4 Lightning Helix
-4 Electrolyze
Versus Dragonstorm
+3 Grand Arbiter
+3 Circle of Protection: Red
+1 Think Twice
-4 Electrolyze
-2 Wrath of God
-1 Sacred Mesa
Versus GhaziGlare
+4 Faith’s Fetters
+4 Draining Whelk
+1 Think Twice
-4 Lightning Helix
-4 Giant Solifuge
-1 Electrolyze
Most of the changes we made to the Chapin list involved either basic cleanup (Psionic Blast isn’t really necessary now that Paladin En-Vec isn’t a major player) or personal preference (my doctor actually warned me that it’s unhealthy to enjoy casting Signets as much as I do).
Incidentally, I want to talk about P-Chaps for a little bit. He consistently produces some of the best material you can read, and whenever he writes an article we’d all do well to listen to him. He’s informative, insightful, and extremely funny. I mean, yeah, being “out of the loop” and lagging behind the real world has to suck real bad, but nevertheless he’s come up with some incredibly innovative designs over the last several years.
Yet it seems like the average Magic player has no idea who he is. I guess I’ve been around long enough to remember when he was a Pro Tour mainstay, but Chapin is (along with Flores) THE CURRENT FACE of Magic Theory. We don’t hear from edt or Seth or even Jay Schneider much anymore, but Pat’s putting out one or two articles a month. That’s a hard-as-hell thing to do, especially since every time I read one I find myself learning something new. I guess I just wanted to acknowledge that in a public forum. Check.
That was one of the more barn-tastic paragraphs I’ve written in awhile, so please forgive.
So anyway, the deck. Playing it takes awhile to get used to, because it doesn’t slide easily into any of our normal pre-defined control/aggro/combo archetypes. I mean, it’s a control deck in the sense that it plays the control role in most matchups until it can hurl off a lethal Demonfire, but it’s never really at the point where it’s in complete control of the game—nor is it designed to be. Rather, it just deals with threats on an individual and hardly proactive basis, nicking off a few life points here and there until the opponent loses. It’s a weird deck to play against, too, because there’s usually no clearly defined point where as the opponent you just lose the game. It’s like, “well, I wasn’t really able to quite kill him, and before I knew it I was at zero.”
It’s also not quite a burn deck, because you’re not just sitting around racing while firing spells to the dome. You’re not fast enough to start a pissing contest. Rather, you’re trying to maximize your mana and avoid dying. Eventually, you’ll be able to sneak in a Demonfire or a couple of spider hits while your opponent is still reeling, and kill him before he gets back in the game. In a way, it’s like the Keiga Principle from Honolulu: control the game long enough to tap out for your threat, and win the game with it before you end up dying.
That’s also one of the reasons why Ancestral Vision is so, so good in this deck. You’re always going to be doing something with your mana every single turn, so you can’t ever afford to tap down for Compulsive Research. It’s not that you have to hold mana open for Counterspells, or something; after all, you only play 4 Remand. But if you’re going to kill a control deck before they get to the long game, you’re going to have to spend the early turns developing your mana base and getting rid of the burn spells in your hand. Cycling Electrolyze to the dome actually becomes really good, for example. With Ancestral Visions, you’ll get the cards you need to finish your opponent off without ever having to stunt your development to do so.
Also, no, Giant Solifuge should not become Lightning Angel. One of this deck’s strengths is that it effectively blanks an opponent’s creature removal. Giving someone Mortify or Condemn targets (obviously Sacred Mesa doesn’t count) actually just throws away a major strategic advantage. Also, there is quite a huge difference between a five turn clock and a seven turn one, particularly since Solifuge effectively kills in three hits due to the huge amount of burn this deck runs.
I will go ahead and say that I don’t think Ms. Grease Lightning is that tight in general. I know Flores won New York States with her, and I know as well as anybody that Brian Kowal is a great deckbuilder. That particular deck, though, was trying to accomplish completely different goals than this one. The problem with Lighty Lights is that aggressive decks don’t typically want to run Hill Giants, and for all her abilities she still remains a Hill Giant. Control decks, conversely, want something a little bigger and a little less vulnerable. It puts her in this awkward hole where the only role she fills is that of a substantial mid-range threat that doesn’t need to kill quickly but that you also don’t mind dying.
Tomorrow, I’ll look at the sideboarding options of this deck in greater detail.
Until then,
Zac