Finally! It has been such a long time since I was playing good Magic, having fun while doing it, and getting good results. 2010 feels like such a long time ago that I’m afraid it was all a dream. At Grand Prix Minneapolis, I was back on my game and had the most fun I’ve had in months. It’s time to transform once again!
I can’t take all the credit for my performance in Minneapolis. Nick Spagnolo created one hell of an amazing deck, and that’s what I am here to talk about this week. Here is the decklist for those of you that missed it.
Creatures (24)
- 3 Merfolk Looter
- 4 Wurmcoil Engine
- 4 Grand Architect
- 1 Spellskite
- 4 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 4 Phantasmal Image
- 4 Snapcaster Mage
Lands (23)
Spells (13)
I know it looks like a bad deck on the surface. Nick told me about it the day before I left for the Grand Prix, and I laughed it off as just another crazy brew of his. There was no way I was going to play Grand Architect at a Grand Prix. I didn’t want to be another victim. Lewis Laskin had fallen into his clutches, but I wasn’t going to get caught!
I woke up Friday morning around 5 AM thanks to jet lag and was durdling around on Magic Online trying to figure out what I wanted to play. Lewis was also playing digital Magic cards, and we decided to have some battles. He was playing the Architect deck and crushed me over and over again. None of the games were even remotely close, and I even had maindeck Ancient Grudge in one of the decks I played. Five minutes later I was buying the extra cards I needed and was also on the Grand Architect train. I got to the Grand Prix and was hoping to play this deck but needed to test it first. I told myself if I won an eight-man I would play it.
Easy game.
I have been getting numerous messages about the deck this week, and I think this will be a great place to answer them all.
Why was this deck good at the Grand Prix?
StarCityGames.com recently held Open Series in Madison and Orlando, and the biggest thing to come out of both of these events was that G/R Aggro, Delver, and Humans are all good decks. Every single deck in the Top 16 of Orlando was playing Birds of Paradise, Champion of the Parish, or Delver of Secrets. This means that the removal that people played was going to be revolving around killing these creatures. Gut Shot, Ratchet Bomb, Pillar of Flames, and Whipflare were the removal spells of choice at the GP. This meant that Grand Architect almost never died.
If Grand Architect doesn’t die, it is one of the best creatures to get into play. You don’t have to worry about your opponent killing the Architect in response to you playing a Phyrexian Metamorph or Phantasmal Image to copy the Lord. This allowed me to win many games by just going beatdown with multiple Grand Architects.
The other major reason this deck did well was that no one had a clue how powerful this deck actually was. The best example was against Ben Friedman in the Top 8. Ben is one of the best up and comers in the game and one I know will make a name for himself. He also had no clue what was happening in our match since he had never seen this deck before. Ben kept a slow hand on the draw when he thought it would be fast enough. Instead I just made multiple Grand Architects and took the beatdown role right away. This happened all weekend.
The biggest reason this deck was good was because of what types of creatures people played that weekend. When I wasn’t copying Grand Architects and Wurmcoil Engines, I was making Hero of Bladeholds, Primeval Titans, and killing legendary creatures. Playing Phyrexian Metamorph on one of the many powerful creatures in the format and then bouncing their copy was one of the biggest plays this deck had. People were not prepared to defend themselves against their own deck.
What changes would you make to it?
The first change that has to be made is cutting Merfolk Looter. I thought this card would be good since it lets you find cards when you don’t have them as well as being an early blue creature to help cast Wurmcoil Engines. This looked correct on paper, but the execution was flawed and I found myself boarding this card out every matchup. It is just too slow.
The biggest problem with this list is that it has a difficult time dealing with Delver matchups. I thought the best in the room were going to play control and not Delver which meant I needed cards like Jace, Memory Adept, Sword of War and Peace, Surgical Extraction, and Spellskite. I had no idea they all would just run Delver into a room full of G/R Aggro and Ramp. This meant that I was very weak to the deck. Dungeon Geists is one of the best spells against Delver in this deck, and you have to play with four of them since you need cards that kill them and trying to rely on Wurmcoil Engine as that spell is a very bad move.
This is the list I would play if I got to do it all over again.
Creatures (23)
- 4 Wurmcoil Engine
- 4 Grand Architect
- 2 Spellskite
- 4 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 4 Phantasmal Image
- 4 Snapcaster Mage
- 1 Dungeon Geists
Lands (23)
Spells (14)
Is the deck still good?
This deck will be a good choice for about another week or two. People will start to catch on and figure out how to play against it as well as bring cards dedicated to beating Grand Architect. The good thing is this deck has an unbelievable matchup against any aggressive deck that doesn’t base their strategy around Snapcaster Mage and Vapor Snag as well as any ramp/big creature strategy. This fills up most of the metagame, which makes it a very powerful choice.
The best reason to play this deck is that it is by far the most fun I have ever had while playing Magic. After every round I would tell someone a story from my match. Here is just a small list of them.
- I had two Wurmcoil Engines on turn 4. My opponent had none.
- My opponent laughed at me when I cast Merfolk Looter on turn 2. It was an attacking 6/6 on turn 4. He was dead on turn 5.
- My opponent played a turn 4 Hero of Bladehold. I played two and bounced his.
- Do you know what is better than Inferno Titan? THREE INFERNO TITANS!!
- I missed like all of my land drops, but it was ok since my opponent played Primeval Titan.
- Did you know Frites big finish only costs two mana in my deck?
I had so much fun because the deck did its own very powerful thing, but at worst it would just mimic whatever my opponent was doing. It was not always as good, but I got access to Vapor Snag which is something they never had. Creatures these days are so good that I would be way ahead by just copying and bouncing all day long. This also allowed me to get into very interesting board states, which made the tournament that much more fun.
Matchups
Delver
Game 1 is pretty rough. Their Geist of Saint Trafts won’t be doing any damage, but neither will your Wurmcoil Engines. It is very difficult to get one of these guys to stick since they have four Vapor Snag, Mana Leak, and Snapcaster Mage. This combination of cards makes getting your late game online almost impossible. The only way to attack them in game 1 is to be aggressive right from the beginning. Try to resolve an early Grand Architect and then just start making more of them. This will allow you to be aggressive with your early guys as well as your Snapcaster Mages. You need to keep the pressure on them until they fold. It is very difficult to beat this deck once they get to the late game and can take over the game with tempo and equipment.
Sideboard:
-4 Wurmcoil Engine
-4 Gitaxian Probe
-2 Phyrexian Metamorph
+2 Mental Misstep
+3 Dungeon Geists
+3 Ratchet Bomb
+1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
+1 Dismember
You are able to take more of a controlling approach after sideboard. Mental Misstep might need to be a three-of if you are uncomfortable with this matchup since it is the easiest card to play with. Just simply counter turn 1 Delver of Secrets and even some Ponders. In the late game you can protect creatures from Vapor Snag, which is extremely important in racing scenarios.
Being able to return Ratchet Bomb using Buried Ruins is really good. Ratchet Bomb is also the best way to beat Runechanter’s Pike, which is the best equipment against this deck by far.
The games will play out like an attrition war since most of the time each player will be one-for-one-ing the other. This makes Tamiyo, the Moon Sage a great one-of to sometimes dig into. You can use her to lock down a Moorland Haunt or even just the one creature in play trying to kill you. This planeswalker can also help dig you into a ton of spells if one player finds themselves with a mini army of tapped creatures.
Dismember is very important since a decent amount of Delver players will take on Matt Costa new pet card, Restoration Angel. This card is pretty good in the Delver deck, and we need ways to make sure it and Delver of Secrets doesn’t end our day too quickly.
Wolf Run Ramp
There are two different ways this matchup plays out. The first is the easy way where you win the die roll and cast turn 4 Wurmcoil Engine. This puts them on the back foot and easily allows you to win the game since you have four more 6/6s in your deck than they do.
The other way these games play out is not so pretty. This is where they are the first ones on the board. The good news is our deck plays from behind much better than theirs does. The best way to play out these games is to always be able to keep casting Primeval Titans and make sure that Inkmoth Nexus doesn’t kill you since that is the best card they have to win a game. Dismember and searched up Ghost Quarters should do the trick since you can get rid of all of their Kessig Wolf Runs. Just make sure to play around Devil’s Play when you can.
Sideboard:
-2 Dismember
-1 Wurmcoil Engine
+3 Dungeon Geists
Dungeon Geists is a great answer to many random problems you will face against Wolf Run. I know this card does not sound like a card most decks want, but the games tend to play out for many turns. This means that you will get some mileage out of either just tapping down a Titan for a turn or two or blocking Inkmoth Nexus.
G/R Aggro
This deck was designed because of how good it is against decks like G/R Aggro. They have very few ways to kill Grand Architect so you get to cast your Wurmcoil Engines very early. They don’t have any real way to deal with this amazing artifact, and you tend to keep making more every turn.
You want to use your Vapor Snags very aggressively since your end game is game ending. Just put anything back in their hand that is trying to deal you damage or will slow them down a turn. I even don’t mind returning a mana guy if it will cost them a turn. Just slow them down to where they can’t threaten your Wurmcoil Engine and kill you the turn you play it.
Sideboard:
-4 Gitaxian Probe
-2 Snapcaster Mage
+3 Dungeon Geists
+1 Ratchet Bomb
+1 Dismember
+1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
I like Ratchet Bomb after sideboard, but it might not be correct. There are just some games where you want to kill the tokens in play, or mana guys, or even Swords. It is slow and clunky, but it is a problem solver when no other card you play can be. You don’t have to bring them in if you don’t want to.
Boros
This matchup is also a joke. Vapor Snag is absurd against this deck and drawing two of them is almost always game over.
-4 Gitaxian Probe
-3 Phyrexian Metamorph
+3 Ratchet Bomb
+3 Dungeon Geists
+1 Dismember
Frites
This matchup is also a gimme. They try so hard to execute their game plan, and you get to easily just play a Clone and kill the creature they spent so much trouble getting into play. Their Elesh Norn doesn’t even kill any of your good creatures.
Sideboard:
-2 Dismember
-1 Dungeon Geists
-2 Gitaxian Probe
+1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Grafdigger’s Cage
+2 Ratchet Bomb
Even though this is an easy matchup, some of your sideboard cards also do well against Frites. #easygame
Birthing Pod
Even though there are a million different versions of Birthing Pod, the strategy is always the same. Your initial game plan is to get Wurmcoil Engines on the board before they do to match with their Birthing Pods. This allows you to just try to bash through everything powerful they can do. If you are not able to do this, you will have to just use Clones to try to keep parity until you find a Wurmcoil Engine or pray they put an Acidic Slime into play so you can Clone it. I don’t think they will do this, so just try to get on the board early.
Sideboard:
-1 Dungeon Geists
-3 Gitaxian Probe
+2 Grafdigger’s Cage
+1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
+1 Dismember
Grafdigger’s Cage is the most important card in this matchup, so try to use Spellskite to protect it before you play it since then you only fear the first half of Ancient Grudge. You can also just bring it back after it dies with Buried Ruin. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage is also a possible answer to a single Birthing Pod and possible other problems you might come across.
Control
It is very difficult to defeat a good opponent, so I don’t really know what to say. This is a difficult matchup and attacking them with Wurmcoil Engines will sometimes work, but rarely. Jace, Memory Adept is one of the only ways to win the match, and they should be prepared for it. Just pray you can steal one, but that’s about all you can hope for.
-1 Dungeon Geists
-2 Dismember
-3 Vapor Snag
+1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Jace, Memory Adept
+2 Grafdigger’s Cage
+1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Pray!
I will be in Nashville this weekend playing in the StarCityGames Open Series. I wish all of you Architect fans the best of luck, and may all your Wurmcoil Engines only cost two lands!