Happy anniversary to me, happy anniversary to me…hard to believe I’ve been doing this Star City gig for a year now. Criminy! That’s a lot of blathering!
So where’s my cake?
Apologies to those who have been waiting for the latest ‘n kind of greatest from ol’ Dave here, but we finally got Tribes 2 (blatant plug) (Like it NEEDS it? – The Ferrett) out the door (please, please, run out and buy your copy today, Lord knows I could use the money), and the push to get it into stores has consumed pretty much all of what little spare time I had. This means at long last our national nightmare is over-I can start playing more Magic again. More playing means more decks and more articles making everyone happy.
Of course, the decks I usually come up with tend to end up being fodder for the Bad Deckbuilder’s Workshop. But I’ve had the good fortune to pick the mind of Jay Schneider for the past few years as he’s been living in Eugene and more than happy to hear my ideas for deck suggestions and whatnot, and his decks tend to be quite fun to play. Jay, unfortunately, is leaving us for greener (and even rainier) pastures in Seattle shortly.
One of my favorite Jay Schneider creations in recent months was a U/B discard/bounce beastie called "Chilly Willy." I’ve been playing around with it and testing it with Jay and the deck has morphed considerably from the original configuration. His latest version, using Planeshift, was called "Penguin Style." I added a little more beef to it – hence, "Walrus Style" (you perverts-what did you think I was talking about?).
Chilly Willy – Walrus Style
4x Ravenous Rats
4x Cloudskate
4x Nightscape Familiar
3x Marsh Crocodile
3x Doomsday Specter
1x Avatar of Will
4x Recoil
4x Withdraw
3x Stupor
3x Probe
3x Spite/Malice
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Yawgmoth’s Agenda
4x Salt Marsh
4x Underground River
7x Swamp
7x Island
2x Dust Bowl
Sideboard:
4x Perish
4x Dread of Night
3x Wash Out
1x Ascendant Evincar
3x Gainsay
If there’s an MVP of the deck, it’s the Nightscape Familiar. This replaced Dark Ritual from the original build as the accelerator, and it’s a vastly superior card. Not only does it let you get off a turn three Doomsday Specter, but it also blocks big scary Blastoderms very nicely. Now you can save your Ravenous Rats for chumping other big fatties.
Cloudskate has, for now, replaced the Spiketail Hatchling. Part of being "walrus style" is going for big bad beatdown. I like the Flying Seal of Force Spike, and it may yet find its way back in the build, but the Cloudskate is now the choice. Also an excellent gating target along with the ubiquitous Ravenous Rats.
For the longest time, I couldn’t decide if I wanted Doomsday Specters or Marsh Crocodiles in the build. Specters have an evasion ability and targeted discard. Crocodiles are beefy and out of range of Urza’s Rage. Plus, the Crocodile has the advantage of being played like Mind Peel – cast it, put gating on the stack, put discard on the stack, players discard a card, return Crocodile to your hand, repeat until opponent is out of cards. In the end, I decided that I could use both, presently three of each seems to be the right ratio.
And, for the coup de grace, a lone Avatar of Will. The deck needs that one uber-fatty to lay the smackdown, and if you can’t cast him for cheap, then something is seriously wrong. It’s usually this or a Yawgmoth’s Agenda that you end up using the Vampiric Tutor for.
Recoil is an automatic addition to the deck. Since the theme of the deck is bounce and discard, this is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of the deck. For a while, I weighed Withdraw versus Boomerang. In the end, Withdraw has proven to be the superior card. While Withdraw lacks the versatility of Boomerang, it does allow for nifty damage-on-the-stack tricks and occasional double bounce when an opponent is tapped out.
The discard element is well served by the Rats, Stupor and Probe. Turn two Rats followed by a turn three Stupor and turn five Probe (which happens very frequently) will have stripped an opponent’s hand while filling your hand with (hopefully) goodness.
Spite/Malice is a late addition to the deck. Too often, I’ve found, I’ll be in control of the game, my opponent would have no creatures in play and no cards in hand and whoops! Topdeck Saproling Burst, you lose. Without counters, the deck loses too often to topdecking. Hence, some sort of counterspell is needed somewhere. I’m still vacillating over Undermine and Spite/Malice. Undermine is a total "no-you-can’t-do-that" counterspell, while the Spite half of Spite/Malice has a higher converted mana cost and can’t affect creature spells (although the Malice half can handle that part quite nicely). For now, I’m using Spite/Malice, but I think Undermine may find a way in here later.
My favorite sideboard card right now is the Ascendant Evincar. This guy rocks. He kills Birds, Elves, Boas, Hatchlings, Airships, Gliders, Sergeants, Hydras, oh my! and makes the rest of my opponent’s surviving forces puny – while making my air force extra beefy. Unless my opponent is playing black, I bring Crovax in almost automatically.
So how does the deck fare against the current field of Fires, Blue Skies and Rebels? Against Rebels, it generally cleans house even before sideboarding in Dread of Night (a card Rebel decks really, really don’t like). It also fares pretty well against Blue Skies. Withdraw is a beating against a deck that runs both Chimeric Idols and Troublesome Spirits. Gainsay in the sideboard is a new addition that strengthens the deck there.
But Fires – Fires is still the bane of this deck, and that’s keeping it from being a possible Tier 1 contender. Too often, the topdecked Burst or Blastoderm will end up finishing me off after I’ve managed to stabilize around five life. Even with Perish coming in from the sideboard and hitting three or four creatures, Fires can keep punishing you. Perhaps time for a little Sullivan-esque Glacial Wall tech? Is Glacial Wall in 7th?
Speaking of which, this deck may be even better after 7th Edition rotates in. The deck doesn’t lose too much and actually gains better cards. Stupor (assuming its rotated out; I’m depending upon info from Wizards and not from other sites with unverified spoilers) can easily be replaced by the only-slightly worse Bog Down, and Duress gives the deck an excellent one-drop which it was otherwise lacking. Diabolic Intent costs you a card and lacks instant speed, but it doesn’t cost you a draw step or two life (and it’s not like the deck doesn’t have tasty things to sacrifice to it). Sideboard-wise, the deck gets Hibernation for Perish (a superior anti-Fires card – it’s Wash Out as a cheaper instant, for cryin’ out loud!) and will probably go with Tsabo’s Decree to replace Dread of Night as an anti-Rebel card. Gainsay may find it’s way into the sideboard as well as an anti-Blue Skies card.
A potential post-7th Edition build shows you how good this deck might be in a month or two:
3x Duress
3x Ravenous Rats
4x Cloudskate
4x Nightscape Familiar
3x Marsh Crocodile
3x Doomsday Specter
4x Withdraw
4x Recoil
2x Bog Down
2x Probe
1x Diabolic Edict
3x Undermine
1x Yawgmoth’s Agenda
4x Salt Marsh
4x Underground River
7x Swamp
7x Island
2x Dust Bowl
Not much different from the original build, perhaps even a little stronger. Again, once 7th Edition hits, everything changes…not quite as extremely as when a block rotates out, but most decks will undergo transformations. Not drastic shifts but subtle nuances. Those who find and manipulate these nuances in the new Standard will find the most success.
I’m not sure what will be dominant after 7th comes in (but I have a hunch), but I think Chilly Willy is certainly a contender.
Thanks to Jay Schneider, Sean Frackowiak, Andy Wolf, Dave Leader, Chris Cade and Rick Saunooke for their work on this deck. Lord knows I’d never come up with this stuff by myself.