Last week, I told the story of how I came to play Benzo at Pro Tour Houston. That article covered the evolution of the deck, and the rather frantic last-minute tuning of our final version. This week is a lot less story and a lot more how-to.
The sideboard of this version of Benzo can be an incredibly powerful weapon against the extended field. But like any weapon, you need to know how to use it before you take it into battle. I’ll lay out the sideboarding plans I used in the PT.
To those of you thinking about running Benzo in the upcoming PTQ season, I suggest you try out these plans in your play testing. This deck plays a very different game after sideboarding, so you have to practice for the post-sideboarded games just as much as the pre-sideboarded ones.
A lot can be said about the metagame. There is a fantastic article on this site, laying out the breakdown of decks in the field… But when it comes right down to it, the only deck types in the field that really matter are the ones you play against. This is the tournament from my perspective:
ROUND # |
OPPONENT |
OPPONENT’S DECK |
RESULT |
1* |
Pustilnik, Michael |
U/B Reanimator |
Win |
2 |
Ball, David |
Draw |
|
3 |
Okamoto, Jin |
Win |
|
4 |
Walls, Gabe |
Tog |
Win |
5 |
Larkin, John |
U/B Reanimator |
Win |
6 |
Myrvig, Peter |
Tog |
Loss |
7 |
Krutil, Daniel |
Oath |
Win |
8 |
Ishida, Itaru |
Tog |
Win |
9 |
Hron, Mike |
Enchantress |
Win |
10* |
Jorstedt, Mattias |
Win |
|
11 |
Bakopoulos, Alex |
Rock |
Draw |
12* |
Rose, Kyle |
Tog |
Win |
13* |
Mariani, Rui |
Rock |
Win |
14 |
Remie, Jeroen |
Rock (N/A) |
Intentional Draw |
Quarter* |
Bob Maher |
Angry Ghoul |
Win |
Semi* |
Darwin Kastle |
Rock |
Win |
Finals* |
Justin Gary |
Oath |
Loss |
* Match covered on the sideboard: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/events/pthou02
The main deck served me well enough: Benzo gets lots of easy game one wins versus players who have their answers in the sideboard. The real key to my success was in our sideboarding plans. As my opponents were boarding in cards that allowed them to beat Reanimator decks in their testing, I was bringing in cards that changed the way my deck worked. The cards they sideboarded in were simply inappropriate to deal with the deck they were facing in game 2.
For example, many decks with blue would bring in Gilded Drake. I was going up to four Faceless Butchers after boarding. So let’s see, how does this work… They play their sideboard card taking my guy, giving me a 3/3 flyer. I play my sideboard card, removing the guy they took from the game. Now that we’ve both played our sideboard cards, I’m down one creature – but I have a shiny new 3/3 flyer and a 2/3. To add insult to injury, if my 2/3 ever goes away (like if I were to, say, flash back Cabal Therapy), I get my creature they were trying to deal with in the first place back. Seems fair.
Because so much of the power of this deck is in the sideboarding, to understand the deck you have to be very familiar with what to sideboard against who and why. I’ll go through each match-up and tell you just that.
Sideboarding vs. U/B Reanimator ( I was 2-0 vs. this deck type in the PT)
Cards to take out:
4 Last Rites
4 Exhume
1 Petradon
1 Symbiotic Wurm
1 Phantom Nishoba
Cards to bring in:
4 Diabolic Edict
1 Planar Void
1 Urborg Shambler
3 Phyrexian Negator
2 Faceless Butcher
The Last Rites go out after boarding in most matchups. In game 1, the deck contains a wide variety of fatties, so you will usually have one in your hand to discard. After sideboarding, only the key cards remain, so you have less random monsters to pitch and the card disadvantage of the Rights is far less attractive.
Exhume is horrible versus anyone playing Entomb, so that’s an easy cut. Given this reduction in reanimation, most of your off-color fat has to go. It is nice to keep two big guys in, so if you have one in your hand you can Entomb for the other. Visara must stay because she’s castable and dominates the matchup. Petradon is not as useful against decks that function off of very few land, so he can go.
Phantom Nishoba has a very specific job to do: It’s there to beat red decks. If your opponent isn’t playing red, he’s out. The Wurm is for dealing with decks whose primary fatty control is Diabolic Edict, like The Rock and Suicide Black. Because the U/B Reanimator decks may steal your fatty with Gilded Drake, leaving you wanting to Edict them during your upkeep: Verdant Force is better against them.
After these cuts, there is still plenty of hand destruction between the Duress and Therapies to disrupt your opponent while you set up. The path to victory is either a quick Entomb–Reanimate or old fashion pressure with Negator or one of the 4/3s. Edicts and Butchers will deal with big guys (theirs or yours, taken with Drakes or Treachery). Entomb for Nether Spirit will reduce the threat of opposing Edicts. Finally, if their deck is too graveyard-dependent after boarding, Vampiric Tutor for Planar Void is a nice way to shut them down.
Sideboarding vs. Aluren (I was 2-0 vs. this deck type in the PT)
Cards to take out:
4 Exhume
1 Petradon
1 Symbiotic Wurm
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Nether Spirit
3 Last Rites
Cards to bring in:
3 Diabolic Edict
1 Urborg Shambler
2 Engineered Plague
3 Phyrexian Negator
2 Faceless Butcher
For the reasons stated above, most of the Rites go, but hand destruction is so good against Aluren you just have to keep one in to Tutor for.
The Aluren deck needs its creatures to go off. Between the Edicts, Therapies, and the echo of the Raven, the Aluren player’s graveyard always seems to have some critter in it that’s best left buried. For these reasons, Exhume is actually bad in this match-up.
Aluren often has alternative mana sources (Elves, Birds, Vineyard, and the like), so Petradon can go here as well.
I’m always loathe to cut the Nether Spirit. He’s best against decks packing Edict, but his synergy with Cabal Therapy is nuts. Its possible the Spirit should stay, and one less Edict should come in; this one’s very hard to call. And the bad news is even after that hard decision, you can’t bring in all the Edicts you want.
The good news is this matchup is Aluren’s worst nightmare. You have hand destruction, fast pressure, creature removal, and Butchers for their Drakes. To add to their misery, a Taskmaster, Shambler, or Plague on the table has to be removed before they can go off. This one is as close to a bye as any Pro Tour matchup will come.
Sideboarding vs. Tog (I was 3-1 vs. this deck type in the PT, and it was my only loss in 14 rounds of Swiss.)
Cards to take out:
4 Last Rites
1 Exhume
1 Petradon if playing first, Verdant Force if drawing
1 Symbiotic Wurm
1 Phantom Nishoba
Cards to bring in:
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Urborg Shambler
3 Phyrexian Negator
2 Faceless Butcher
As always, Last Rites is out for game 2. Exhume is fine in this matchup, but they may be depowered by graveyard hate, so you can afford to cut one.
Which off-color fatty its best to keep depends on whether you will be playing or drawing. Petradon is good against Tog in that it keeps them off card drawing mana – but he’s kind of clunky if you’re playing first in that you don’t want to get him out until your turn 3, so your opponent actually has two lands for him to nail down. When you’re playing first, the turn 2 Verdant Force before they have Edict mana is a much better threat.
Edicts are fine against Tog, but they can build up in your hand if you have too many in. Depending on how much graveyard hate your opponent has, and how many Drakes or Treacheries they’re packing, you may want to cut another Exhume or two to increase your Edict count.
Shambler is great in as a clock and to mess with Togs. Butchers serve the double role of clearing the way for your Negators and dealing with those pesky Gilded Drakes and Treacheries.
Despite Tog being the source of my only loss in the Swiss, I’m quite happy with this matchup.
Sideboarding vs. Infestation/Upheaval (I was 1-0 vs. this deck type in the PT.)
Cards to take out:
4 Last Rites
1 Exhume
1 Petradon if playing first, Verdant Force if drawing
1 Symbiotic Wurm
1 Phantom Nishoba
Cards to bring in:
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Urborg Shambler
3 Phyrexian Negator
2 Faceless Butcher
Look familiar? It should; it’s the same plan used against Tog. They are both controlling Blue/Black decks, so similar rules apply.
The only question is the number of Edicts. They will usually be trying to steal your guys, so you probably want at least one. Whether you want to go up or down on the Edicts depends entirely on your opponent’s version: If they have no guys at all, you can cut them and have all four Exhumes, plus both the Verdant Force and the Petradon. As with Tog, if they have a lot of graveyard hate and creature stealers, cut some Exhumes and bring in more Edicts.
Sideboarding vs. The Rock (I was 3-0 + ID vs. this deck type in the PT.)
Cards to take out (when drawing first):
4 Last Rites
3 Exhume
1 Petradon
1 Stronghold Taskmaster
1 Phantom Nishoba
Cards to bring in (when drawing first):
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Phyrexian Negator
2 Faceless Butcher
2 Engineered Plague
When Rock players go first, it is very likely they will have graveyard hate (probably in the form of Coffin Purge) ready to go before you can get an Exhume or Reanimate off. This means that when they get to play first, you’re on the Negator plan.
In the midgame, Exhume gets bad against The Rock, because they get back their Druid, and the card advantage can get ugly. Combined with the mana cost issue, this is the reason to cut Exhume over Reanimate.
As for the off-color fat, the Petradon is weakened by The Rock’s Elves and Birds. They aren’t running Mountains – so the Nishoba goes, of course. The Verdant and Wurm are so good against The Rock that they both have to stay.
Because you want to kill them with Negators, you need to get their stuff out of the way, so lots of creature control comes in. Use your hand destruction to get rid of their answers, play a Negator and clear a path.
The Plagues come in to mess with their mana, and to make the Edicts better. The Rock runs a lot of cannon fodder in the form of Elves, Birds, and Druids. Plague is an efficient way to clear the little guys so your Edicts can do in their Treetop Villages and Spiritmongers.
Despite the danger of Pernicious Deeds, you need Faceless Butchers to deal with their Faceless Butchers and to help clear the way for your Negators.
Cards to take out (when playing first):
4 Last Rites
1 Petradon
1 Stronghold Taskmaster
1 Phantom Nishoba
Cards to bring in (when playing first):
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Phyrexian Negator
2 Faceless Butcher
2 Engineered Plague
When you get to play first against, The Rock it’s hard for them to get Coffin Purge or Planar Void fast enough to stop the reanimation plan. They want to play Elf, Bird, or Duress on turn 1. It’s rare that they will sit back on Swamp-go – and if they do, you can Duress them to see what’s going on.
For this reason I recommend going full-tilt on the reanimation plan when playing first. If they have access to Edict mana for their turn 2 upkeep, go for the Symbiotic Wurm. If they don’t, get the Verdant Force out there. It’s very tough for The Rock to deal with these monsters early. Butcher is their best bet, and you have Butchers of your own to fight that plan.
The Rock is the only deck where I feel the matchup gets worse after sideboarding. Fortunately, game one is strongly in Benzo’s favor.
Sideboarding vs. Enchantress (I was 1-0 vs. this deck type in the PT.)
There are a lot of different ways to build Enchantress decks. This makes the archetype a bit too diverse for a”side in, side out” list to be useful. There are cards that are good or bad against all the versions, so I give you a starting point.
Cards to take out vs. all versions:
3 Last Rites
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Symbiotic Wurm
Cards to bring in vs. all versions:
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Engineered Plague
3 Phyrexian Negator
This isn’t the deck type that Nishoba and Wurm are there to beat, so they definitely get cut. Last Rites is good enough in the matchup that you may want to leave one to Tutor for… But after sideboarding, most of them have to go, even when they are good in game one.
Enchantress decks have a universal weakness to fast pressure with disruption; they also really need an Enchantress in play. This means that against all versions, you want the Negator clock and your ways to kill untargetable 0/1s.
Sideboarding vs. Angry Ghoul (I was 1-0 vs. this deck type in the PT.)
Before I go into the sideboarding, I have to talk a bit about this deck in game one. This deck wasn’t in the YMG testing pool, so our main deck was, shall we say, ill-prepared.
There wasn’t much of this deck at the Pro Tour, but I’ll expect well be seeing more of it in the PTQ, because, well, it’s so darn cool.
I’ll be honest here: Your game one matchup is horrible. I got darn lucky to win game one off of Bob. The thing to remember is if they get an active Druid, you’re toast. Assuming they can pull the Mountain out of the deck with a fetchland, they flop their whole library with one activation (two if the mountain is still in). Then they Reclaim Exhumes or Reanimates, draw, cast it, get a giant Ghoul, and smash you with haste.
Butchers are key in game one. They can sometimes deal with Druids – but more importantly, you can Entomb them in response to their Exhume to deal with whatever hasty monster they wanted to get.
Cards to take out:
4 Exhume
4 Last Rites
1 Petradon
1 Symbiotic Wurm
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Stronghold Taskmaster
1 Verdant Force
Cards to bring in:
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Planar Void
2 Engineered Plague
3 Phyrexian Negator
2 Faceless Butcher
This is a little sideboarding plan I like to call die, Hermit Druid, die! As I said before, the Hermit Druid is a big problem: Fortunately, the sideboard is jam-packed with solutions. You can Edict him, Plague Druids, shut him down with Planar Void, Butcher him – or in an emergency, Entomb–Reanimate a butcher.
With the Hermit Druid out of the way, the Angry Ghoul deck is reduced to a Reanimator deck with only two Reanimates. This is no problem for the post-sideboarded Benzo deck with its four Butchers and four Edicts.
Beware however, the Angry Ghoul player will no doubt want to thwart your attempts to deny him his active Hermit Druid by Entombing Anger and playing a Hermit Druid with haste. Any of your enchantments will stop this, but they do have enchantment kill. Duressing and Cabal Therapy will help with this problem. If they entomb Anger in response to your Duress, go ahead and Reanimate the Anger. Get it out of their grave and start a clock. Your Therapies can get rid of the Druids they hold in their hand, awaiting Anger.
While you have lots of control, you don’t want to try to hold them off forever. The Negators are a nice fast clock to beat them with while the rest of the deck holds them down.
As for the outgoing cards, Exhume and Last Rites are the obvious cuts. Because both Planar Voids are coming in, all the off-color fat comes out. It would be nice to have the additional pressure the Taskmaster offers, but you just need other cards more.
Sideboarding vs. Oath (I was 1-1 vs. this deck type in the PT.)
Cards to take out:
4 Last Rites
1 Petradon
1 Exhume (2 if you’re bringing in the Void)
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Symbiotic Wurm
1 Stronghold Taskmaster
Cards to bring in:
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Faceless Butcher
3 Phyrexian Negator
1 Planar Void (if they are running a no-Deed version)
Petradon is a tough one to cut; he can be amazing, but he’s very hard to use effectively. You want to bring him out when your opponent has two non-fetch lands in play, but does not have an Oath on the table or counter magic ready to go. The unlikeness of this scenario caused me to board out the Petradon.
An Exhume has to go to make room, and all the other cuts are the standard”take out Last Rites and the bad fatties in every matchup.”
There are two ways to beat Oath: The easy way is the no-Oath game. In this scenario, your hand destruction has taken Oath away or revealed that it’s not in hand. You get out a quick Negator or fatty and kill them before they have a chance to draw it.
If they get out an Oath, you’re in for a long fight. You Entomb Nether Spirit, so each of your Therapies get double use, and attack their hand over the course of the game, taking countermagic. Use the Edicts to control Treetop Villages (given that Oath won the Pro Tour, you should work a Dust Bowl into the deck: That will help a lot). Once you are confident you have enough Butchers and Edicts to control the things they Oath up, get your monsters in play and kill them quickly.
To make the above plan work, you need your Edicts, Butchers, and Negators. If for some reason you run into an Oath deck that is not running Deed, Planar Void is a great way to shut down Accumulated Knowledges and Cognivore.
Sideboarding vs. the rest
You now have seen the plans I used against every deck type I faced in the Pro Tour. But, as we all know, there are a lot of other deck types out there: When trying to figure out what to do against them, remember the technique used above. Against combo decks, take out all but one Rites; versus everyone else, take ’em all out. Take out the fatties that are inappropriate to the matchup. Use the spots this opens up to bring in useful cards. Because people will be gunning for the reanimation victory path, you will almost always want to bring in Negators.
Benzo and its sideboard took me further then I have ever been in an individual Pro Tour – as far as one can go, in fact, all the way to the finals. Though I was defeated there 3-2, sideboarded properly this may be the most powerful deck in the current Extended environment.