Brian Weissman update
It’s another year, and the legendary”The Deck” creator (see Brian David-Marshall,”Three Takes on Type I“) sent in what he’s working on for the archetype’s ninth year of existence:
Hey there man, good to hear from you as always. I haven’t made an official update to my list yet, but I did some extensive testing against Scott McCord when he was visiting here over Christmas, and the deck he was using taught me quite a bit. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but the way this deck thrashed me really leads me to believe that Academy Rector needs immediate restriction. For reference, here is his deck:
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Academy Rector
4 Dark Ritual
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Illusions of Grandeur
2 Donate
1 Necropotence
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
4 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Tolarian Academy
5 Moxes
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
The interaction between Academy Rector and Cabal Therapy is just disgusting, with a successful resolution of that creature immediately ending the game against most decks. It’s simply too easy to get a Therapy into the graveyard, and once it’s there you cannot win if they ever resolve the Rector. And actually keeping that creature out of play against eight one black mana discard spells is nearly impossible, especially since the deck has plenty of other”must counter” cards and four Forces of Will. The only solution I see to this deck is Chalice of the Void, and testing showed that a Chalice set to one in the early game would generally beat it. It has 20 one mana spells, and without them the deck can neither search nor disrupt. I have been thinking about Chalice of the Void more and more lately, and I think it also serves as a way for me to punish people who use Brainstorm. I think that running Chalice would make the use of at least one Fire/Ice mandatory, as I can’t rely on swords with the artifact in play. I haven’t tested this build yet, but I think this is what I may be using from now on:
January”The Deck” (Beta)
Non-Mana Producers:
————————–
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Misdirection
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Fire/Ice
1 Cunning Wish
1 Morphling
1 Regrowth
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 The Abyss
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Time Walk
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Braingeyser
0 Brainstorm
Mana Producers:
————————
4 Volcanic Island
3 City of Brass
3 Underground Sea
3 Polluted Delta
2 Tundra
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
5 Moxes
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
Sideboard
————–
1 Mana Short
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
1 Zuran Orb
1 COP: Red
1 Moat
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Gorilla Shaman
1 Dwarven Miner
I haven’t tested this build enough to have a finalized version, but I suspect that the two Chalices will cover a lot of gaping holes in the current metagame. I know people have suggested Mind’s Eye, but frankly I think that the casting cost for that artifact is too high. Sure, it costs only one per turn to draw a card, but 1. you’re forced to draw the card on their draw step, which makes you vulnerable to main step discard like duress and therapy, and 2. you’ve got to get the Mind’s Eye into play in the first place, which is no small task at five mana. The difference between four and five mana is gigantic, since a start of land-Sol Ring followed by land-tome gets you around two mana permission. I think Mind’s Eye falls into the same category of tons of other powerful card advantage machines like Future Sight, Browse or Treasure Trove. It’s game ending once it’s on the table, but getting it onto the table it just too hard or risky. Let me know what you think about the card, and I’ll give it some more thought also.
I hope this helps you with your article, and please send me a link to it when you’re ready. As always Oscar, keep up the good work, and I’ll talk to you later.
Brian
“The Deck” 2003
“The Control Player’s Bible, Part IV.2: History, 2003” stopped at July 2003, and so much has happened since then, especially with”The Deck”‘s newfound post-Vintage Championship strength. By that last update,”The Deck” had embraced Polluted Delta, Flooded Strand, and Cunning Wish (see”Part VI.1: Cunning Wish and the Core Extension“), and was integrating some less radical structural changes.
Aside from the very visible change of Decree of Justice for Morphling (which in turn replaced the classic Serra Angels and Mirror Universe), nothing fundamental has changed. There’s just been a trend to include three of a certain card for specific reasons, such as Duress after the Vintage Champs, then Chalice of the Void after Mirrodin and the rise of Burning Desire, and finally, Isochron Scepter.
Although Hulk Smash and raw firepower was the top deck going into Vintage Champs, changes in the metagame made”The Deck” and its flexibility the Blue-based deck of choice once again. For example, the December 12, 2003 Dülmen saw three top German players-Oliver Daems, Roland Bode and Falk Bernhardt-Top 8 using”The Deck” with Isochrons, and it also featured prominently in January 2004 European tourneys.
Since the notable event in this slice of time is mainly the release of Mirrodin, it’s easier to understand the evolution on a card-by-card basis. I spent December finishing off my theory articles and January starting with my midterms so I haven’t been able to really update my deck, either, but here’s what’s on my plate for reference:
Sun Wukong, Oscar Tan, January 2004 test deck
Blue (18)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Cunning Wish
3 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
Black (5)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Mind Twist
1 Skeletal Scrying
White (5)
1 Balance
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Decree of Justice
Red (3)
2 Fire / Ice
1 Gorilla Shaman
Artifact (3)
3 Isochron Scepter
Mana (26)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
1 Island
Sideboard (15)
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Coffin Purge
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Pyroclasm
1 Disenchant
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Orim’s Chant
1 Stifle
Decree of Justice
It wasn’t that obvious a kill card at first, but at least within the Paragons, Steven Holeyfield a.k.a. Nameless cajoled enough that it quickly won over Morphling and Goblin Trenches.
Put simply, Decree is now the kill card of choice and the decks that don’t run two run three. It cycles early, which is even more flexible than Morphling’s pitch to Force of Will, and it can even take a weenie or two with it. Later on, it can make more than five power of creature, resulting in a faster clock. And most of all, it’s instant and counterable only by Stifle, making it easiest kill to protect to date. (As a side effect, it also happens to up the permanent count against Smokestack and Tangle Wire.)
Just a couple of things. First, Decree puts just a little more strain on your White mana, so you have to remember it’s not as irrelevant against creatureless decks. Second and more important, there are some metagames where Morphling and The Abyss are still better. For example, Morphling is a better midgame blocker, and Decree isn’t as easily played off an early Mana Drain to stall fat creatures.
Humility
The Abyss has long since been retired from general use since too many opponents have no creatures (and Goblin Welder still gets one use), and too many of the ones that do are wise to the trick (from artifact creatures to Landstill’s Mishra’s Factory and Faerie Conclave). Further, although it’s still brutal against some decks like Suicide Black, Madness, and metagame Red/Green, Isochron Scepter can substitute somewhat.
The other traditional anti-creature silver bullet was Moat, but the double White is a strain and it still does nothing against creatureless decks and Goblin Welder.
Humility is a substitute now possible with Decree replacing Morphling. It slows attacks without caring about creature characteristics like artifact, untargetable, Protection from Black, or flying. It also shuts down utility creatures from Welder to Dragon’s Ambassador Laquatus.
Duress
A Duress in the opening hand was a tempo-efficient stopgap for that crucial window before you had the mana to Mana Drain, and having both Duress and Force of Will in your opening hand was a good way to survive.
However, a deck that aimed to dominate the mid- and late game had a love-hate relationship with a card that was largely useless after the first turns, and for opening disruption, it was soon superseded by Chalice of the Void.
Chalice of the Void
Chalice had the broadest effect on the metagame of all the Mirrodin cards, and was certainly the most bitched about. See, for example, the Paragon articles”Chalice of the Void: Is the sky really falling down?” by Carl Winter,”Chalice of the Void: The new Black Vise” by Smmenycakes Menendian, and”The State of the Metagame Address” by yours truly.
A month ago, Chalice was wonderful. With Moxen loosening up its mana curve,”The Deck” was one of those archetypes that could take advantage of it. X = 0 was necessary to buy breathing room against Burning Desire, while X = 1 shut down weenie decks like Goblin. After that, X = 2 and X = 3 also worked if you timed them right.
However, two things happened. First, I said that a lot of the decks vulnerable to Chalice already made sacrifices to adjust, and a wily player might not run Chalice and rely on just the threat of it, rather than have dead cards against decks that didn’t care about Chalice. Indeed, since few decks are completely hosed by it, Chalice is now a tool for slowing down opponents instead of completely hosing them. Ironically, it’s even a stronger tool against “The Deck,” and Suicide, for example, can cut off its one-mana setup spells and Swords to Plowshares with an early Chalice for one.
Second, Lion’s Eye Diamond and Burning Wish were restricted, and Burning Desire was brought back down to reality. With X = 0 no longer crucial, all those slots became essentially dedicated to budget decks, and it was a waste. Moreover, you have to run Chalice in multiples for it to be effective.
Moreover, it’s very cumbersome to run both Chalice and the more synergistic Isochron Scepter. After the demise of turn 1 kill-capable Burning Desire, I’ve since removed Chalice from the main. However, you can’t justify all that sideboard space given its increasingly limited use, so I quickly dropped it altogether.
Isochron Scepter
With nicknames from”the Stick” locally to the”Dildo” in some Paragon e-mails, Scepter is a colorful card that was only given full attention once Burning Desire was on its way out and the need for maindeck Chalice disappeared.
Certainly, it made some people’s eyes bug out at first glance, and just as quickly made others pooh-pooh that it was an R&D marquee card that would soon be proven as overrated. For example, Vintage World Champion [author name="Carl Winter"]Carl Winter[/author] said:”While yes, it’s fun to have infinite Fire’s and Brainstorm, it’s slow, clunky, and can lead to some hardcore card disadvantage unless you can activate it in the same turn, allowing you to hopefully achieve card parity if they kill it. That requires four mana. On your turn. What does this remind us of? Jayemdae Tome. Is Jayemdae Tome playable? I rest my case.”
I think the real answer is somewhere between the two extremes, though: It’s not broken, but it’s definitely solid. Better yet,”The Deck” with its array of instants from all colors is very capable of abusing it (though Blue/Red budget Isochron decks have also been successful).
As former Dülmen champ Oliver Daems wrote:”Imprinting Ancestral is something everybody fantasized about when they first read the card, it is really good, but it’s rather boring in my opinion because it wins the game all by itself. You can be a totally bad player and all, but after imprinting Ancestral first turn you can’t lose the game and that’s an overall bad thing I’d say. After all it doesn’t happen that often, but the Scepter is a really good card which has to be dealt with rather quickly or it will win the game all by itself, but is a big investment in the future development of the game and cards like Null Rod are becoming even more important in budget decks.”
Under the weight of the last several expansions,”The Deck” has been increasingly forced towards more flexible but lower-cost cards such as Brainstorm and Cunning Wish. Scepter lies along this path nicely, and can act as The Abyss, Ertai, Wizard Adept, Jayemdae Tome, or Cursed Scroll without any changes to the deck. Cunning Wish only increases its depth, from Disenchant and Elemental Blasts to the Orim’s Chant lock.
Moreover, the cheap Scepter has improved my smaller Yawgmoth’s Will plays somewhat, and I’ve even done more sadistic Ancestral Recall Imprints than I expected with a timely Cunning Wish or Demonic Tutor, plus a Force of Will in hand.
The feared card disadvantage, on the other hand, isn’t as bad as I thought. On Turn 1, you can bring it out with a Mox or Sol Ring, and you won’t mind if it draws Force of Will. If it resolves, cheap artifact kill like multiple maindeck Naturalize isn’t that common (though I did draw a Chain of Vapor once). On the other hand, Imprinting Mana Drain at that point kills your opponent’s tempo.
Later on, it’s cheap enough that it’s not so hard to protect, and you can still respond to artifact removal once, for no CA loss. At that point, it can break slower games open, or start clearing away permanents.
Some games, I’ve even been grateful for how it can smooth a color-screwed draw. Others, I used it to trade for a Nevinyrral’s Disk or Pernicious Deed in lieu of Cunning Wish or actually burning a Decree.
Of course, Scepter isn’t without its problems. First, it’s a lousy topdeck, and while it’s great if you can get two mana and play it early against Suicide, it becomes a dead draw if you get hit by discard first. Second, it becomes a liability against cards like Null Rod, found in a number of aggro-control decks.
Orim’s Chant
I gave this as an anti-Storm surprise some time back (see”The Storm Mechanic“), but it takes on a whole new dimension with Isochron Scepter and Cunning Wish. Abeyance can lead a counter war (or hose Yawgmoth’s Will). Orim’s Chant can, too, and doesn’t draw a card, but suddenly it’s wording becomes more important since it can kill the opponent’s main phase if cast every upkeep. The Fog side effect doesn’t hurt, either.
Steven Holeyfield tested a few more Scepter-Wish surprises as well. For example, he tried Reclaim in the sideboard, targeting Time Walk each time. Perhaps more amusing, he also tried Dream’s Grip, giving him a strange Mishra’s Helix option for the mirror.
Accumulated Knowledge
This is the workhorse of the faster Hulk Smash, and especially with the popularity of Isochron Scepter, it’s something a lot of people are trying.
I don’t want to go that route with”The Deck.” First, if you use it, you obviously have to use all four. It’s hard to find the slots, especially considering AK starts to shine only when the third comes out. I’d much rather just slip in Skeletal Scrying and Fact or Fiction.
Second, to truly maximize AK, you need Intuition, which is even more slots, especially considering Intuition is far less useful in a deck full of one-ofs. Thus, I don’t think being able to Imprint one is worth the sacrifices you have to make.
Finally, even if you do find all those slots, you’ll still be caught flatfooted in an AK mirror. Hulk Smash, for example, better embraces AK, and better replaces it with other things like Deep Analysis.
Nevertheless, the Paragons are apparently split on this issue. JP”Polluted” Meyer e-mailed that he’d test this for January 2004:
Blue (24):
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Cunning Wish
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
White (6)
1 Balance
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Decree of Justice
Black (3)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
Red (2)
2 Fire / Ice
Artifact (3)
3 Isochron Scepter
Mana (25):
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Dust Bowl
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
Damping Matrix
If Isochron Scepter is the permanent of the moment for”The Deck,” Damping Matrix is the new rogue, metagame choice. It was first spotted at the January 11 Dülmen, where regulars Lennard Freitag and Kim Kluck Top 8’d with it, anticipating”The Deck” and Blue/Red redux versions with even more Scepters. (Interestingly, their team’s build had the Scepters in the sideboard.)
Enter the Matrix, Lennard Freitag, Top 8, January 11, 2004 Dülmen
Blue (16)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
White (8)
1 Balance
3 Decree of Justice
2 Dismantling Blow
2 Swords to Plowshares
Black (5)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Skeletal Scrying
Red (3)
2 Fire / Ice
1 Gorilla Shaman
Artifact (2)
2 Damping Matrix
Mana (27)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Dust Bowl
1 Tolarian Academy
1 City of Brass
1 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Plains
Sideboard (15)
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Disenchant
1 Exalted Angel
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Humility
2 Isochron Scepter
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Silent Specter
2 Stifle
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Tormod’s Crypt
Matrix itself demands a little explanation. Null Rod is used in aggro-control while Cursed Totem isn’t used, so what good is Matrix? In the right metagame, the slightly more expensive combination of both is amazing. Aside from the mirror and opposing Scepters, Matrix handily hoses the new Workshop decks’ Goblin Welders and Mindslavers. As a bonus, it can (but doesn’t always have to) be brought in against a number of other decks, from Hulk Smash to Dragon (for example, former Paragon Steve O'Connell a.k.a. Zherbus says it isn’t necessary against Dragon, even if it’s already in the board).
Steve has been the man pushing Matrix for his current metagame. I asked him if he thought using it was better than running Scepter, and he answered,”I surely do, especially considering that Matrix is fundamentally a turn faster than properly Imprinting a Drain, Impulse, or AK. In addition to playing the Scepter for two, you’re going to need the two mana to defend it, barring a FoW in hand.”
Here’s his most recent list:
Blue (20)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Brainstorm
2 Cunning Wish
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Stifle
White (6)
1 Balance
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Decree of Justice
Black (5)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Mind Twist
2 Skeletal Scrying
Red (3)
1 Fire / Ice
2 Gorilla Shaman
Mana (26)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
1 Island
Sideboard (15)
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Deep Analysis
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Coffin Purge
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Disenchant
1 Vampiric Tutor
3 Damping Matrix
1 Blue Elemental Blast
Vampiric Tutor
Mystical Tutor’s lesser cousin (in Type I) has a funny history. Years back, it was cut because it didn’t pitch to Force of Will and its card disadvantage was a liability in the control mirror (see”Vampiric Tutor or No?“). Much later, it was put in some sideboards to make later game Cunning Wishes more flexible (see”What Would JP Meyer Do?“).
Now you see it back in some main decks, including mine. My simplest explanation is that artifact kill has become more useful. For example, with all the cheap artifact disruption like Sphere of Resistance and Chalice of the Void Suicide Black now packs, you no longer even side out Gorilla Shaman there.
In short, Shaman has become important – I’ve given Workshop players fits just by playing an early Shaman, for example – and in some cases, important enough to warrant the second Shaman of old. Vampiric Tutor is a nice compromise, seeing how it can fetch some of the other additions as well.
If you don’t like it in my list, it’s easily replaced by the fourth Brainstorm I hated to cut.
Rack and Ruin
Again, we’ve seen a lot more artifacts lately, and we need stronger early solutions. It was originally very strong against Mask since it killed both the Phyrexian Dreadnought and Illusionary Mask, but there’s a lot more where that came from.
Tolarian Academy
This was tried a long time ago, but it was quickly dismissed since it could make some opening mana bases too erratic. When the artifact count increased with Chalice of the Void, it was tried again, but I know I didn’t like it. It’s still best used in combo decks with far more zero-mana artifacts.
Dust Bowl
I’ve written on Dust Bowl as well, and I didn’t like how it’s slow and generates no CA. Now, with the popularity of Landstill (Standstill + Mishra’s Factory + Faerie Conclave, among other things), some people are running it again.
I still don’t like it, since it is slow. It’s definitely not a Wasteland replacement, since you don’t want to be holding Dust Bowl when you need an early, pinpoint Wasteland. If you’re already running the full four Wastelands, it’s hard to find a slot since the colored mana slots are tighter than ever.
Besides, Landstill, specifically, has its own Wastelands. Some also run Teferi’s Response, and if you aren’t able to filter into your normal removal and Wastelands, you probably can’t protect against Response, either.
Stifle
First seen as Blue’s only chance against Storm, Stifle has found so many seemingly random uses that it’s no longer considered a specialized card. From mono-Blue, it’s found its way into even”The Deck”, with some even maindecking it.
At its most basic, Stifle is a land destruction spell against fetch lands, and Fish and Landstill decks use it as a blue Sinkhole, forcing control players to play around it early. On the other hand, the same control players can also use it to protect against early Wastelands.
Then come the more specialized uses that happen to come together: Isochron Scepter, Decree of Justice, Mindslaver, Worldgorger Dragon, Pernicious Deed, Nevinyrral’s Disk, Academy Rector, and so on. Even well-timed single uses against Goblin Welder or Bazaar of Baghdad can be significant.
I haven’t had much experience with it, so I’m testing it right now along with an Orim’s Chant.
Library of Alexandria and Mind Twist
Some players have advocated dropping either bomb given the speeding up of the metagame. I suppose it could be justified in very specific metagames, but as a general rule, don’t.
Burning Wish
Let us pause in a moment of silence to honor Carsten Kötter’s pet”The Shining” build, which managed to milk a Dülmen win with its dying breath, as collateral damage from Burning Desire set in:
The Shining, Carsten Kötter, Champion, December 21, 2003 Dülmen
Blue (23)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Intuition
1 Gush
2 Future Sight
Black (4)
2 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
Red (5)
4 Burning Wish
1 Gorilla Shaman
White (1)
1 Swords to Plowshares
Green (1)
1 Fastbond
Artifact (1)
1 Zuran Orb
Mana (26)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
2 City of Brass
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
Sideboard (15)
1 Balance
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Deep Analysis
1 Duress
2 Gaea’s Blessing
1 Meltdown
1 Primitive Justice
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Reverent Silence
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
It’s a well-kept secret that Carsten’s deck is the real reason they restricted Burning Wish. Everything else you heard is Paragon misinformation.
Honest.
Silent Specter and Exalted Angel
The original”The Deck” boarded up to four Gorilla Shamans and two Dwarven Miners and won with mana denial. Much later, some tried Rootwater Thief, though this was weaker since it died to the Red Elemental Blasts that would surely come in. Now, we have a new set of creatures.
The most colorful so far is Silent Specter, and some German players have been seen with a couple to board in after the opponent sides out removal. Note, though, that the popularity of Isochron Scepter has also slightly increased the number of Fire/Ice in decks, which is easier to keep in, and can catch the face down version.
Eternal Dragon
To end, however, the most amazing creature to recently grace a”The Deck” variant is none other than Eternal Dragon. Persevering despite my early analysis (see”The Landcycling Mechanic“), Paragon Josh Reynolds dared to dream of hilarious kills powered by Dragons and Angels.
Josh e-mailed:
You’re welcome to use the following list, as long as you make clear that the build is very experimental. You could use it as an example of the kind of radical changes Team Paragon’s go through in trying to break or re-break a deck… dozens of them never see the light of day.
That said,
Eternal Keeper
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
1 Strip Mine
3 Wastelands
1 DustBowl
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Library of Alexandria
6 SoLoMoxen
1 Eternal Dragon
2 Decree of Justice
2 Isochron Scepter
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Duress
1 Mind Twist
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Cunning Wish
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Humility
4 Brainstorm
1 Y Will
1 Time Walk
4 Standstill
Sideboard must include at least one Plow, Disenchant, Fire/Ice, Orim’s Chant, and Lim-Dul’s Vault/Vamp. I currently also use a dismantling blow to give alternate cc chalice removal, and 1 chalice of my own just to mess with people
A little commentary, this build is designed to try and speed up Keeper’s card advantage in the current environment where decks are become more tuned every month. By removing such expensive bombs as braingeyser, future sight, and fact or fiction, we have the ability to have 5 first turn ancestrals (with moxen). IT places the opponent in the situation of not playing spells for several turns (good for keeper) or giving keeper 3 cards. The dragon acts as a card advantage engine if they go for the first route; and can come back late game to steal a win.
Morphling is replaced by Decree for 2 reasons. 1) Decree can not be countered, short of a stifle. 2) Humility.
Humility does everything we used to love the abyss for, but it also works wonders against Morphling, welder, juggernaughts, and dreadnaughts. Its only viable in the heavier white (dragon) mana base though.
The deck would ideally love to use factories, and if it went toa more Land-Still approach (ditching the dragon, humility and basic plains) it could do that. But I love the dragon and hate colorless lands. I have also not had any problems winning the game without factories. The recurring dragon (and decree’s and scepters of course) is just fine as a win condition and its ability to become a tundra early on is great. The only thing that testing HAS shown to be critical, is the Strips. 5 strips is a MUST for controlling lands under the standstill… and dustbowl is DEFINETLY worth its risk in this situation.
I hope some of that is useful. its really 2 experiments going on at once in the deck, the standstills AND the dragon. but its a really wild keeper variant that I”ve had a lot of fun with.
Counting Magic Theories
The number of the day is… (gothic lightning, thunder, and maniacal laughter)
Oops, wrong article.
Over the Christmas holidays, I finally found the time to finish off the first set of Back to Basics articles in my head, the ones that tied up my previous card advantage and tempo counting articles.
My framework is simple as hell: Magic is a cardboard stock exchange where you start with a bunch of resources – cards, mana, and life (or something else related to a win condition) – then trade them around until you hit a victory condition. Their values fluctuate; for example, mana is extremely valuable at the start of the game, then quickly drops (hence the power of cards like Dark Ritual and Chrome Mox) (see”Counting Shadow Prices“).
Thus, to gauge a play, you just count the trade (or logical series of trades) you’d make and see if you like the exchange. Further, when building a deck, you try to set up the trades you’d like to focus on. For example, an aggressive weenie deck will look for low cost creatures with a high mana-to-power ratio.
Other writers, however, have been pushing the”baby food mush” I complained of last week (see”Counting Card Quality, or Why You Can’t“).
Again, you have to track the game’s various resources, and you can’t lump your counts into a single”currency” or uber-resource no one can spell out.
The last article we saw was Jun-Wei Hew’s”Introducing Option Theory,” which said:”Option theory states that the player with the most (viable) options available to him or her will win the game.”
This sounds like a new take on the game – and it’s not, since retired Featured Writer Israel Marques wrote”Got Options? A New Theory of Card Advantage” in March 2001, although Israel was not cited – but it’s just”baby food mush” after a wardrobe change.
First of all, notice control decks love flexibility, but not all decks do. There aren’t so many ways to play Goblin Piledriver, for example, but that doesn’t make Goblin weak.
Second, consider that split cards, cycling cards, and Mirage and Invasion Charms aren’t the end-all of Magic.
It all goes back to resource counts.
Options have a price, and many of them are lousy bargains. For example, what happens if you replace a Diabolic Edict or Counterspell in your deck with Spite / Malice? Sure, that slot now gives you double the options, but you also have to spend double the mana.
Thus, Vindicate is a flexible but unspectacular card, since it’s at its best only when it kills a four-mana permanent or better (see”Counting Tempo, Part II“).
Moreover, even for the decks that love options, manipulation spells have minor tempo costs attached. Many fast, aggressive decks don’t want to play early manipulation instead of a threat straight away, and the rest can’t afford to spend too much time manipulating that they take too long to play the spells they were looking for.
Here’s the key: Options are good when the resources you trade for them aren’t worth more than the options (sounds like”Counting Shadow Prices,” doesn’t it?).
Thus, the more efficient Fire/Ice sees more mileage than Spite/Malice. Diabolic Tutor is weaker than Demonic Tutor, and more so Demonic Consultation. Vampiric Tutor costs a card, so it has to be used to set up a very good resource trade. And so on.
Mental weighing scales. Trade-offs. Resource bean counting. (gothic lightning, thunder and maniacal laughter)
I especially disagree with one of Jun-Wei’s lines:”As for tempo, tempo, by nature is a very vague concept that is pretty much non-quantifiable (at least, to my knowledge).” (see”Counting Tempo, Part III“)
Oscar Tan (e-mail: Rakso at StarCityGames.com)
rakso on #BDChat on EFNet
Paragon of Vintage
University of the Philippines, College of Law
Forum Administrator, Star City Games
Featured Writer, Star City Games
Author of the Control Player’s Bible
Maintainer, Beyond Dominia (R.I.P.)
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