When you’re in love, it’s not manly to gush about the cutie-buns you’ve just fallen for. You’re supposed to bury your love deep inside your heart, acknowledging it only occasionally with a manly grunt and perhaps a raised eyebrow.
It’s even less acceptable when you fall for a card.
“Only scrubs fall in love,” Spike mutters — and why not? He has no love in his heart; he discards his cardboard partners at will. The moment someone more efficient comes along, Spike’s old flame is instantly doused. And Timmy? Don’t make me laugh; all Timmy cares about is size.
But Johnnies — ah, the Johnnies know love. They know it too much, in fact; they’re completely whipped. Their lovers hand poor Johnny loss after loss as they make pathetic excuses for her, convinced that this will be the time she comes around. But it’s an ugly, conniving kind of love; she lies to him that she’s worth his time, and he lies to himself that this must be worth the energy he’s put into it.
My cardboard love, however, is genuine and true.
She wins games for me. Not only does she win games, she’s amenable to bringing other partners in for a swingin’ time. She has a really attractive friend that she loves to bring along, and sometimes her friend will fetch two or three other friends, and the next thing you know we’re waist-deep in a big card-discardin’, life-gainin’ puppy pile o’victory.
The card? Flickerform.
Check this deck.
6 Forest
7 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Auratouched Mage
1 Benevolent Ancestor
1 Bramble Elemental
1 Carven Caryatid
1 Conclave Equenaut
1 Conclave Phalanx
1 Disembowel
1 Elvish Skysweeper
1 Fists of Ironwood
1 Flickerform
1 Gaze of the Gorgon
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Last Gasp
1 Nullmage Shepherd
1 Oathsworn Giant
1 Overwhelm
1 Phytohydra
1 Scatter the Seeds
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Strands of Undeath
1 Terrarion
1 Veteran Armorer
Flickerform by herself is okay. She allows for a nice combat trick or two; you know, the ol’ “Damage on the stack, phase out, bye bye.” Whatever she’s sitting on is nigh-untouchable as long as you have the mana open for it; oh, you’re hitting her critter with a Disembowel or trying to hit her with a Seed Spark? I’ll just yoink her out.
Yeah, it’s eight mana, four of which has to be white… But that’s why I have eighteen mana in the deck.
By herself? She’s not bad. But combine Flickerform with, say, Conclave Phalanx, and you’ve got life comin’ in huge, whoppin’ waves. If you have four critters out, that’s four life a turn. Kind of hard to beat if you have any kind of ground stall, and it gets worse as time goes on.
Slap a nice little Fists of Ironwood on her, however, and she’ll bring you a new two 1/1 tokens per turn, gaining you increasing amounts of life as time goes on. Slap a Strands of Undeath on as well, and your opponent is dropping two cards a turn…
I call it the Trifecta. And nobody’s beaten me when I’ve gotten it out.
But Flickerform’s bestest friend is Auratouched Mage, baby. Look at those lips! Look at that figure! Okay, it’s kind of a whacky threesome — you know, it’s a straight married guy, an angry guy in a jester’s outfit, and a big fading rock-monster…. But when you have someone who can fetch the first enchantment, and then get more enchantments at will, I’m not complaining.
I’d like to write a dispassionate assessment about my card pool and my deck this week… But I can’t. Look at her! She can stall, generate tons of tokens, and then slam everyone with an Oathsworn Giant vigilance-fuelled Overwhelm! I’m all sappy on this little decky-poo, and I couldn’t bear to have anyone telling me that she could be better in the forums.
I’m 3-2 with her, which would be 4-1 if I hadn’t misclicked and thrown away two games that I would have undeniably won when I was one game up… But that’s okay.
She’s perfect. Let’s move on to other items.
Mulliganing
Last week, I wrote about angering the Mana Gods… And it turned out that my mana problems were due to bad mana bases, which should surprise no one. I have further beaten my mana problems with two issues, one old, one new:
The Old: The Courage To Mulligan Mana
There are two traditional problems with mulliganing: terror and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm, I got covered. If I look at a deck and I have any twinge whatsoever that this might be bad, I throw it back. Brutal experience has taught me that I will not draw the cards I need, so I’d better be happy with what I have right now.
Terror, however, is a different thing.
The terror comes from when you look at a hand. It’s not a great hand, but it’s got the mana you need. The problem is, it’s low on action. It’s a little slow (with nothing castable until turn 5) or a little underpowered (with a 1/1 and a 2/2, and zippo else)…
But what happens if you toss it back, draw your six, and wind up with dross?
You’re afraid of the unknown. So you keep your hand, going with what you know instead of risking a potential auto-loss by going to five… And you lose anyway.
It’s easier on MODO. There’s less attachment to winning. You’re not facing a person, so you don’t see the look of pity when you lose. There’s no psychological satisfaction in beating someone who looks cocky, and no feeling of shame when you make the wrong move. It’s bloodless, so throwing your hand back is easier.
I’ve finally gotten past the fear. My games have gotten better as a result.
The New: Looking At The Early Game.
This is a deck-specific issue, of course, but you really have to consider what your game plan is. This deck’s taught me the plan: get out early blockers and defense, then stall until you get to the late game.
I know about mulliganning for aggro, of course; that’s a given. It’s an automatic to throw back a hand when you can’t do enough damage by turn X. And mulliganning a hand for control is easy, too; you need to make sure you have enough removal. I’ve done both of them for years.
What I have started doing recently, however, is asking the question, “Will this hand accomplish what my deck needs to do in the early game?” and tailoring that question to this specific deck. It sounds obvious, I know, but while I’ve done it a lot in Constructed I haven’t really applied that lesson to Limited.
There’s a good reason that I’ve been such a bozo, however; asking “What’s the game plan?” for this wins a lot more games, but it’s a much harder question to ask. That’s because Limited decks are less focused; you don’t have the redundancy or the Tutoring power to have a narrow strategy. Which means that quite often, you’re asking, “Does this hand suggest a path to victory that my deck can accomplish, and am I likely to carry this out with the tools these seven cards provide me?”… Which can be a very complex thing to try to figure out.
It’s a lot easier to flick your eyes over the cards and mutter, “Three creatures, four lands, go.” But alas, I’m over that. Before, I was asking, “Does this have enough offense or defense?” Now, I’m asking, “How do I tailor these seven cards to a win?”
It’s subtle. But it’s important.
(And of course, the day after I wrote this section, I wound up with three back-to-back “Mulligan to five and get landscrewed,” proving that sometimes The Mana Gods really do hate you.)
Now, first let me tell you what Eisel and Pelcak said:
John Pelcak said:
“You have to Strands your guy and pass the turn. There really isn’t any other play.”
Nick Eisel said:
“This is a bit confusing, since I’m not sure what happened between turns 9 and 11… But from what I see you hafta put Strands on the Sparkmage and regenerate from the Necroplasm on his next end step. Then the turn after, you can equip and start making him block every turn.”
(Note that Nick may have misunderstood the no-counters state of the Necroplasm, given his wording, but I’m not sure.)
And Matt Vienneau said:
“Things are getting tricky, but it seems good. Incite the Necroplasm. You could try Inciting the Sewerdreg and maybe he’ll sac it to prevent five damage.
“That’s not the end of the world, though; we’re kinda low on time with the Quill giving him so much gas. So equip, hit for five. Next turn he does whatever, slap the enchantment on your 5/1 and beat. Hope he doesn’t draw more chump blockers than you have turns to live (or that you draw other answers).”
Now, I disagree with Eisel and Pelcak, but then again I may be a chump. I looked at it this way: since my opponent had a Bloodletter Quill to draw the cards, I needed to slow him down.
Note that he only has seven mana available to him each turn. If I Incite and drop him to three life, he can’t afford to pay another life to the Quill — not against a Red deck, anyway. That means he has to pay four mana per card, leaving him only three mana to cast whatever he draws with the Quill (or spreading it out over two turns). That gives me some outs.
At eight life with two blockers, however, he could sit behind his ‘Plasm and pay a life to the Quill to draw into two cards the next turn, one of which would most likely be yet another creature or removal… And he’d be able to cast it immediately. Once he gets three creatures out, I don’t stand a chance; my guys aren’t good enough. Furthermore, given that Last Gasp is in the format, the “regenerate” clause on the Strands isn’t nearly as strong as I’d like it to be.
As far as I’m concerned, I have to drop him to three. My deck has fewer creatures, and they’re all tinier than his; if he keeps a blocker back, I’m doomed. So I Incited and sent it in.
As it turned out, that was the right play. He drew a land the next turn and sent with the Sewerdreg, standing behind his Plasm (which was a questionable call). I forget what I drew the next turn, but it was removal, and that allowed me to charge in.
My next card was a Galvanic Arc, so he was most likely doomed anyway. But he wouldn’ta been if I hadn’t attacked.
So where’s the weekly build? Well, this week’s a little short because my kid’s in town, but next week we’ll have a full card pool for you to tell me how badly I misbuilt it.
Signing off,
The Ferrett
TheFerrett@StarCityGames.com
The Here Edits This Here Site Guy