What’s In A Name?
Before I dig into the meat of this column, I’d first like to ask: who cooked up the name Cephalid Breakfast? The Cephalid part is obvious, and I don’t begrudge the little guy getting some recognition since he is the lynchpin of the deck. Presumably the “breakfast” part comes from the unfortunately long tradition of naming combo decks after breakfast cereals, with a nod toward Full English Breakfast (which this deck resembles Not At All). But honestly, let me put on my Flores hat here & talk historically: in my humble opinion, the deck should really be called Son of Angry Hermit II. I’d love it if combo decks moved to the convention of sounding like a bad B-grade movie title. So maybe if enough of you who decide to play this deck for the PTQs will write the historically correct name on your deck registration list, maybe we can change this grievous error!
(As a quick aside, I will say that I have not consulted Flores on my “historically correct” name and fully expect that he will refute me in the forums, but what the hell, it works for now)
[I’m pretty sure that the name exists because all extended combo decks have to be named after breakfast stuff… Cephalids being perhaps the least attractive if those. – Knut]
A Little History: Angry Hermit II
As readers of Mike Flores can attest, Magic history is filled with odd things: odd names, odd decks. Oddly, Angry Hermit II hardly resembled the original Angry Hermit at all, where the Hermit in question was Deranged and the “anger” indicated the burn spells supporting the Green beatdown. Part II featured a Hermit of the Druidic variety and the incarnation Anger, which worked in tandem to produce a massive trampling, hasty Sutured Ghoul of lethal proportions in the early turns of the game. Angry Hermit II was designed by Tsuyoshi Fujita and played by the Dutch, Neil Reeves and Bob Maher at PT: Houston 2002. The Great One took this deck to a Top 8 finish:
Angry Ghoul
Bob Maher Jr.
1 Underground River
2 Reflecting Pool
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 City of Brass
2 Darigaaz’s Caldera
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Tarnished Citadel
4 Forsaken City
1 Mountain
2 Anger
4 Hermit Druid
2 Sutured Ghoul
1 Avatar of Woe
2 Verdant Force
1 Krosan Colossus
4 Mox Diamond
4 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy
4 Exhume
4 Entomb
2 Reanimate
1 Krosan Reclamation
4 Vampiric Tutor
Sideboard
3 Chill
4 Defense Grid
2 Naturalize
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Coffin Purge
1 Swamp
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Engineered Plague
1 Addle
To read more on the original deck, Victor van den Broek wrote about its origins, and Sideboard covered Bob’s quarterfinal loss to Robert Dougherty’s Reanimator deck.
At the next year’s Extended Pro Tour, Angry Hermit II got a revamp by Tomohiro Kaji:
Pro Tour New Orleans (2003):
Angry Hermit
Tomohiro Kaji (11th)
2 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Brass
4 City of Traitors
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Underground River
4 Vault of Whispers
1 Yavimaya Coast
4 Hermit Druid
3 Krosan Cloudscraper
2 Sutured Ghoul
4 Buried Alive
1 Cabal Therapy
4 Corpse Dance
1 Dragon Breath
4 Duress
2 Exhume
1 Krosan Reclamation
4 Mox Diamond
2 Mystical Tutor
1 Reanimate
4 Vampiric Tutor
Sideboard
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Coffin Purge
1 Crippling Fatigue
3 Defense Grid
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Naturalize
4 Propaganda
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Woodripper
The biggest innovation here was Dragon Breath, eliminating reliance on Mountain in play + Anger for that hasty Ghoul.
It’s Breakfast Time!
All right, enough history, let’s dig into Cephalid Breakfast! The buzz on the street from the PTQers I’ve spoken with seems to be dismissing Cephalid Breakfast as a fragile and inconsistent combo deck that’s strictly inferior to Life. Some of the higher-level players seem to think differently. From Brian David-Marshall “The Class of Columbus” over at mtg.com:
BDM: Were there any decks from Columbus that finished outside the Top 8 that merit the attention of PTQ players?
Pierre: Yes!! The terrific Cephalid Breakfast!! An interesting deck made in Spain!!
Gadiel: That Spanish combo deck was pretty good. Rock merits attention in that it sucks.
Nick: Cephalid Breakfast, this deck is powerful and although subtly different from Reanimator it is probably more powerful.
Ryuichi: Even though it didn’t make it to the Top 8, I thought Cephalid Breakfast was really interesting — I think I would choose that one, because it looks fun.
Four of the five Top 8 competitors from Columbus that BDM interviewed feel that Cephalid Breakfast deserves attention, eh? Pierre and Gadiel both beat the deck in the late rounds of Day 2 and they still liked it! So perhaps this wacky little deck really is worthy of our attention? Six people showed up with the deck, four of them made Day 2 and three of them finished in the money, netting a total of $9,600.
13 Dominguez, Javier [ESP] Cephalid Breakfast 33 $4,100
15 Carvajal Blanco, David [ESP] Cephalid Breakfast 33 $3,500
23 Olivera, Adrian [ESP] Cephalid Breakfast 31 $2,000
All three guys played the same decklist except for David Blanco with two minor differences: he ran a second Caves of Koilos instead of the Brushland, and ran Viridian Shaman in the sideboard over Uktabi Orangutan. I suspect these changes might have been strictly due to card availability, so let’s go with the majority for the “standard” decklist:
Javier Dominguez –
Cephalid Breakfast
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Brushland
2 Yavimaya Coast
1 Caves of Koilos
2 Underground River
3 Tarnished Citadel
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 City of Brass
4 Nomads en-Kor
4 Cephalid Illusionist
2 Shaman en-Kor
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Kami of Ancient Law
1 Gilded Drake
1 Krosan Cloudscraper
1 Sutured Ghoul
4 Brainstorm
4 Worldly Tutor
4 Vampiric Tutor
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Reanimate
1 Exhume
1 Dragon Breath
1 Krosan Reclamation
4 Chrome Mox
Sideboard
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Exhume
1 Dragon Shadow
1 Uktabi Orangutan
3 Phyrexian Negator
4 AEther Vial
3 Wall of Hope
How does the deck play?
Critics of the deck say “it’s a three-card combo,” “it’s too inconsistent”, “it has little disruption.” Actually, it’s just a two-card combo: Cephalid Illusionist plus an en-Kor critter in play. If you get these two creatures in play early enough, everything else takes care of yourself and you’ve likely won the game. Jon Becker interviewed David Carvajal during Pro Tour Columbus about the deck on video that offers insight on how the deck works, but I’ll also break it down here.
One thing to keep in the forefront of your mind as you play this deck is that the odds of you winning the game go down dramatically each additional turn that goes by. It’s a speed combo deck that wins by doing up to 28 points of trampling damage (not including the firebreathing activations you can do with Dragon Breath and your rainbow mana). There are some decks that can field extremely large blockers quickly or gain enough life to make one attack non-lethal. There are decks that can take away your ability to attack. So it’s imperative from the very beginning that you are prepared to aggressively mulligan into an explosive opening hand that can get your two-card combo down in the first 2 turns. Ideally you’ll get at least one of the combo pieces and a Tutor to go find the other one. A Chrome Mox for acceleration makes the hand even better.
Once you get both Cephalid Illusionist and an en-Kor creature in play, you’re set up to win. Activate the en-Kor’s free damage redirection ability to the Illusionist, which triggers the Illusionist’s ability that mills three of your cards from the library into your graveyard. Note that the en-Kor doesn’t need to have taken damage first to activate the ability (and the combo deck Life takes advantage of the same ability). Do this enough times to mill your entire library into your graveyard, which will include three Cabal Therapies. Flashback up to two Therapies by sacrificing the two creatures you have in play to make sure your opponent doesn’t have anything in his hand that can stop you from winning the game right now. Then cast Exhume or Reanimate on the Sutured Ghoul, removing enough creatures to make the Ghoul large enough to trample over for lethal damage, and enchant it with Dragon Breath from the graveyard to give it haste, and firebreathing if you need it. Don’t worry if you don’t already have Exhume or Reanimate in hand: Krosan Reclamation is in the graveyard and you can shuffle them back into your library and draw it. The goal is to pull this off early enough that you win on the spot, and you should use your mulligan option to put together as close to an ideal hand as you can.
Here are some additional tips:
1. Meddling Mage is a huge pain in the ass, but not necessarily game over. If it comes down naming Cephalid Illusionist, you can always use Cabal Therapy on yourself to get it into the yard then Reanimate/Exhume it into play (hopefully with an en-Kor buddy already in play). I’m also half-convinced that playing a few Meddling Mages yourself might be helpful; with your rainbow mana, it’s not out of the question.
2. Don’t forget Cephalid Illusionist’s activated ability! He can hold off one attacker indefinitely if you need to buy a few more turns.
3. Watch your life clock! Not only is your opponent likely to be aggressively attacking your life total, but you will be too. With City of Brass, Tarnished Citadel, Vampiric Tutors, and Reanimate, you’ve got a lot of self-inflicted damage going on, and the lower you get you’ll start running out of things you can do. At seven life you can no longer use Reanimate on the Ghoul, and will have to rely on the single Exhume. At two life you can no longer Vampiric Tutor. At one life, your Cities become lethal. Again, time is not on your side.
4. If you draw Krosan Cloudscraper, you will need to find a Brainstorm to put him back in your library before you mill it into your graveyard. Without the Cloudscraper, you can only muster 15 or so points of power for your Ghoul. But also keep aware of your opponent’s life totals, since other decks are also playing painlands and Vampiric Tutors, they may be low enough that a smaller Ghoul could go ahead and win.
5. While Cabal Therapy can handle instant speed creature removal for your Ghoul, some decks are running Seal of Removal, and one on the board early will demand your attention before you can win. Kami of Ancient Law takes care of that and any random Worships you might run across. [Ah, PTQ season! – Knut, who both loves and hates randomness]
6. Don’t forget that when you mill your library into your graveyard, Riftstone Portal will likely mean that your lands produce Green mana so you can cast Krosan Reclamation even if your lands wouldn’t normally allow it.
Metagame Matchups
I followed Dominguez, Blanco, and Olivera through each round in Day 2 to see what decks they faced and how they did. Here’s a summary of what I found:
Matchup Performance on Day 2
Matches | |||
Vs Deck | Wins | Losses | Win % |
Reanimator | 4 | 1 | 80.00% |
Goblins | 2 | 0 | 100% |
Desire | 2 | 1 (Black version 1-1, White version 1-0) | 66.70% |
1 | 0 | 100% | |
2 | 0 | 100% | |
RDW | 2 | 3 | 40% |
Scepter/Chant | 0 | 2 | 0% |
U/G Madness | 1 | 0 | 100% |
The Rock | 1 | 1 (Red Rock) | 50.00% |
Affinity | 0 | 1 (and 1 draw in the final round) | 0% |
TOTAL | 15 | 9 | 62.50% |
Games | |||
Vs Deck | Wins | Losses | Win % |
Reanimator | 5 | 2 | 71.40% |
Goblins | 6 | 2 | 66.70% |
Desire | 6 | 3 | 40% |
4 | 1 | 80% | |
2 | 1 | 66.70% | |
RDW | 4 | 10 | 38.50% |
Scepter/Chant | 0 | 4 | 0% |
U/G Madness | 2 | 0 | 100% |
The Rock | 2 | 3 | 40% |
Affinity | 1 | 2 | 33.30% |
TOTAL | 32 | 28 | 53.30% |
Even though the deck has a pretty respectable overall winning rate of 63% after playing a pretty good diversity of Day 2 decks, it’s interesting to see when you drill down to Games Played the win percentage drops to 53%. This suggests that a lot of matches come down to game 3, likely due to going bust when gambling on your aggressive mulligans and having to settle for a mediocre hand.
Vs. Archetype (PT: Columbus Matches won-matches lost, percent matches won)
VS RDW (2-3, 40%)
Shuhei Nakamura – Red Deck Wins, 2nd place finish
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
8 Mountain
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Jackal Pup
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Blistering Firecat
4 Firebolt
4 Seal of Fire
4 Magma Jet
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Pillage
Sideboard
4 Blood Oath
4 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Fledgling Dragon
3 Flametongue Kavu
1 Gamble
It’s not hard to see why Red Deck Wins against Cephalid Breakfast: it has a zillion fast ways to kill the fragile creatures that make up the CB combo, it can aggressively attack CB’s mana base, and is helped in the damage race by CB’s propensity for inflicting damage on the player himself. Nakamura beat two CB decks on his way to a second place finish. CB’s listed sideboard tries to address the problem with Walls of Hope in the sideboard, pretty much conceding game 1. But with a low match win percentage and even worse game win percentage, I’m not sure if they went far enough. RDW is likely to see a lot of play at the PTQ circuit so the CB player should bone up for that matchup. Perhaps an Engineered Explosives in the maindeck and a few more in the side might be prudent?
Vs. Scepter/Chant (0-2, 0%)
Nicholas West – The ‘NO’ Stick, 3rd place finish
7 Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Skycloud Expanse
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Plains
4 Meddling Mage
2 Exalted Angel
4 Chrome Mox
3 Orim’s Chant
2 Force Spike
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
4 Isochron Scepter
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Mana Leak
3 Fire / Ice
3 Cunning Wish
Sideboard
2 Wrath of God
1 Energy Flux
1 Welding Jar
1 Stifle
1 Disenchant
1 Forbid
1 Fire/Ice
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Orim’s Chant
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Hibernation
1 Intuition
1 Annul
1 Boomerang
I playtested against this deck and was discouraged by the ease by which the NO Stick handles Cephalid Breakfast. The counterspells, the Fire / Ice, the Meddling Mages, and of course the Chant/Scepter lock that pretty much shuts down the deck. Even Exalted Angel can quickly put the game out of reach. It’s obvious that the Spaniards put Aether Vial in the deck to help fight counterspell control decks, but they didn’t win a single game against NO Stick, before or after boarding. I’m not sure what the answer is: maybe Meddling Mages of your own might help, but I expect NO Stick to also be a big player at the PTQs, so fans of CB better put some work into this.
Vs. Affinity (0-1-1, 0%)
Pierre Canali – Modular GG, 1st place finish
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
2 Ancient Den
2 Glimmervoid
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 City of Brass
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Frogmite
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Meddling Mage
3 Myr Enforcer
3 Somber Hoverguard
3 Cranial Plating
4 Aether Vial
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Thoughtcast
Sideboard
3 Kami of Ancient Law
3 Engineered Plague
3 Chill
1 City of Brass
2 Seal of Removal
3 Cabal Therapy
Not a whole lot of data to go on, though in the one match played out they did go to three games. I playtested this matchup a little bit, and it basically came down to whether Cephalid Breakfast could pull off its combo fast enough to outrace the swift damage onslaught of Affinity. Again, Canali’s Meddling Mages proved to be huge, slowing the game down enough to dish out the last points of damage. I don’t think the Spaniards were at all expecting Affinity and the sideboard reflects it with just a lone Uktabi Orangutan/Viridian Shaman representing. Canali’s win of the Pro Tour has pretty much let the cat out the bag that yet another format has to prepare to fight the Ravager menace.
Vs. Reanimator (4-1, 80.0%)
Gadiel Szleifer – Reanimator, 5th place finish
4 Underground River
4 Polluted Delta
6 Swamp
2 Island
4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
4 Putrid Imp
3 Rorix Bladewing
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Careful Study
4 Exhume
3 Duress
4 Brainstorm
4 Chrome Mox
4 Reanimate
1 Show and Tell
1 Sickening Dreams
4 Cabal Therapy
Sideboard
4 Smother
3 Phyrexian Negator
2 Gilded Drake
2 Show and Tell
1 Echoing Truth
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Energy Flux
1 Energy Field
Gadiel actually won his match against Cephalid Breakfast, but it’s not hard to see why this is generally a good matchup for CB. There’s practically zero removal for CB’s creatures & CB’s combo kills faster than Reanimator does. CB even runs Brainstorm to help dodge hand destruction, and can steal a big Reanimated target with a maindeck Gilded Drake.
Vs. Goblins (2-0, 100%)
Erik Grondahl – Goblins, finished 39
9 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Swamp
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Burning Wish
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Aether Vial
Sideboard
1 Perish
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Pulverize
1 Echoing Ruin
1 Chainer’s Edict
1 Pyroclasm
1 Patriarch’s Bidding
1 Firebolt
1 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
3 Damping Matrix
I was a little surprised by these results, but playtesting confirmed that Goblins doesn’t have as much creature control as RDW to reliably keep killing the combo creatures in CB. If they don’t draw what they have early, CB just goes off before Goblins can kill them. Barring a nuts draw or getting lucky on the removal, this is a pretty good matchup for Cephalid Breakfast, and after boarding in Walls of Hope odds improve.
Vs. Desire (2-1, 66.7%)
(CB went 1-1 against the Black version and 1-0 against the White version)
Masashi Oiso – Desire (Black), finished 6th
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground River
1 Flooded Strand
1 Swamp
7 Island
4 Cloud of Faeries
2 Nightscape Familiar
2 Merchant Scroll
4 Chrome Mox
4 Brainstorm
4 Sapphire Medallion
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Mind’s Desire
3 Snap
3 Intuition
3 Cunning Wish
2 Vampiric Tutor
2 Deep Analysis
1 Turnabout
1 Tendrils of Agony
Sideboard
2 Echoing Truth
2 Psychatog
1 Envelop
1 Coffin Purge
1 Condescend
1 Brain Freeze
1 Snap
1 Mana Leak
1 Intuition
1 Rebuild
1 Energy Flux
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Turnabout
Morgan Douglass – Desire (White) finished 88th
1 Plains
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Flooded Strand
8 Island
4 Sunscape Familiar
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Chrome Mox
3 Turnabout
3 Deep Analysis
3 Snap
1 Cunning Wish
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Intuition
2 Merchant Scroll
4 Sapphire Medallion
4 Mind’s Desire
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
Sideboard
4 Sphere of Law
4 Brain Freeze
3 Submerge
1 Turnabout
1 Snap
1 Rebuild
1 Intuition
When two combo decks collide, who wins? Usually the faster combo, and in this case it appears that Cephalid Breakfast is just flat out faster, especially since it’s built to aggressively mulligan into a quick kill. Desire doesn’t really have any way to disrupt CB except for Snap or Cunning Wish for Coffin Purge (the black version).
Vs. U/G Madness (1-0, 100%)
Alfredo Dominguez – U/G Madness, finished 37th
4 Yavimaya Coast
9 Island
6 Forest
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Aquamoeba
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Arrogant Wurm
1 Gigapede
2 Wonder
4 Chrome Mox
4 Careful Study
4 Deep Analysis
4 Daze
4 Circular Logic
2 Intuition
Sideboard
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Powder Keg
3 Submerge
3 Waterfront Bouncer
4 Chill
2 Gilded Drake
I did some playtesting against Madness and had a much more difficult time of it, so I’m not sure whether the sweep of Alfredo Dominguez by Blanco was a lucky break or whether I just still haven’t gotten a handle on learning to mulligan aggressively enough. It felt like my opponent always had a Daze or Logic to screw me up while I lost to fast beatdown. Obviously though, CB wins a lot faster than Madness can, so if you can avoid early counterspells you should win easily.
Vs. The Rock (1-1, 50.0%)
(Red Rock won)
Torben Twiefel, finished 11th
2 Mountain
6 Forest
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Treetop Village
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Wasteland
3 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Flametongue Kavu
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Eternal Witness
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Vampiric Tutor
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Engineered Plague
3 Duress
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Cranial Extraction
Sideboard
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Withered Wretch
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Flametongue Kavu
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Naturalize
3 Engineered Plague
The Rock is slooooooow, and normally would have zero chance in hell against a fast combo deck, but their disruption can buy enough time for Cranial Extraction to be lights out. CB beat the stock version of Rock 2-1, but got swept by the Red Rock with Flametongue Kavus. I’m not sure the Kavus were what made the difference, though being able to strip CB’s hand of tutors and then killing one of the combo creatures on the board could be the key.
So, would I run this deck at a PTQ? To be honest, probably not. That’s not a condemnation of the deck, but rather a truthful look at my weaknesses as a player. I don’t think I have the stones to play a true combo deck that requires a player be willing to mulligan over and over until you get a winning hand, game after game after game. I think I’d find that incredibly nerve-wracking. But if you think you can do that and are willing to put in the time playtesting, and tweaking the deck and sideboard to accommodate the PTQ metagame, then I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with this deck’s performance. For those of you who like to tinker with decklists, I have a couple of thoughts that cropped up as I was playtesting and writing this article:
- Could the deck use Cranial Extraction? Meddling Mages? Living Wish?
Beacon of Unrest and maybe a couple other large creatures might be interesting. - What would adding Burning Wish + Spellweaver Helix to the mix do?
- Absolute Law and/or Engineered Explosives might help vs RDW.
Postscript
Since submitting this assignment to Ted several weeks back, Cephalid Breakfast has gone on to win Grand Prix Boston… almost. Lucas Glavin had everything needed to win but a play error cost him the victory. Still, it was a very impressive run for a deck that so far hasn’t really done much more than get some moderate attention in the wake of PT: Columbus several months back.
Glavin’s deck is particularly noteworthy due to some evolution in design. Here’s his decklist:
Cephalid Brunch
Lucas Glavin
2nd place GP: Boston
4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Starlit Sanctum
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Tarnished Citadel
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Brushland
1 Underground River
3 Cephalid Illusionist
3 Daru Spiritualist
3 Nomads En-Kor
1 Shaman En-Kor
1 Sutured Ghoul
1 Krosan Cloudscraper
4 Aether Vial
4 Brainstorm
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Worldly Tutor
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Living Wish
2 Chrome Mox
1 Dragon Breath
1 Exhume
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Reanimate
1 Worthy Cause
Sideboard
2 Kami of Ancient Law
2 Gilded Drake
1 Dragon Shadow
1 Energy Field
1 Bone Shredder
1 Forsaken City
1 Battlefield Scrounger
1 Cephalid Illusionist
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Nomads En-Kor
1 Rootwater Thief
1 Starlit Sanctum
1 Uktabi Orangantun
Glavin obviously noticed that Cephalid Breakfast and Life use similar creatures and mechanics to set up their wins. As Mike Flores pointed out in this week’s Swimming with Sharks column, “while Lucas may be playing a slightly inferior Cephalid Breakfast deck he is also playing a slightly inferior Life deck!” Why would he do that? Again, Flores hits the nail on the head: “Cephalid Breakfast is mediocre against Red Deck Wins (because of that deck’s ability to burn a Cephalid Illusionist) . . . but Life is great against Red!” Glavin’s evolution of the deck allows him to either go for the fast Sutured Ghoul combo win, or if he needs to buy some time against a fast damage assault, he can go infinite on life and combo kill at his leisure. The addition of Living Wish adds both additional combo search as well as opening up a toolbox sideboard. And don’t miss the addition of the now nearly ubiquitous Aether Vial to the maindeck, fixing mana and churning out uncounterable creatures, not just here but all across the Extended landscape.
What’s surprising is that, even though Glavin very nearly won the GP with Cephalid Breakfast, the deck hasn’t been tearing up the PTQ circuit yet. Checking all the Top 8 decklists posted so far over on mtg.com, there’s no sign of our mollusk mage. Was Glavin’s deck a complete secret, was his performance a fluke, or does it just take an inordinate amount of practice with the deck to do well with it? I’m not sure, but I can say I’m certain that Cephalid Breakfast’s story is far from over…
In closing I will say that the current Extended is shaping up to be an incredibly exciting and diverse format where apparently anybody skilled at playing a deck sporting a suitable power level can succeed. Hats off to Wizards of the Coast and the DCI for giving us just the right amount of bannings to make this one of the most fun formats ever!