Ask The Drama – Curse You, Mike Flores! More Questions on The Rock

After last week, the only thing I didn’t want to answer questions about was The Rock. Sure, I know people think of me as the Rock Master, but I just didn’t think the deck was viable. I thought I’d had my share of questions about it, and that was that.

And then Mike Flores had to unleash his newest finding on the world. His latest Extended tech. And it turned out to be… The Rock.

Heh.

In the forums, the first couple of comments were people wondering what I thought of the deck. That’s where I’ll start this week: I’ll share my thoughts on Flores Rocks. Here’s the list for reference, since I am sure not that all of my readers read Mike’s stuff:

Flores Rocks

Mike Flores

Test deck on 01-28-2007

Extended

Creatures (24)

• 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Krosan Tusker
• 4 Ravenous Baloth
• 4 Wall of Roots
• 4 Spiritmonger

Lands (22)

• 5 Forest
• 3 Wooded Foothills
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Mountain
• 4 Contested Cliffs
• 2 Bloodstained Mire
• 3 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Blood Crypt

Spells (14)

• 4 Cabal Therapy
• 2 Scrabbling Claws
• 4 Pernicious Deed
• 4 Putrefy

Sideboard

• 3 Duress
• 4 Dwarven Blastminer
• 4 Ancient Grudge
• 4 Sudden Shock

Last week I reminded everyone that Rock decks can be built two ways: to beat creature decks, and to beat combo / control. This version is clearly built to beat the creature decks. Wall of Roots, the beast engine with Contested Cliffs, and the lack of maindeck Duress means you should crush decks like Affinity and Boros.

This makes me nervous. I don’t want to lose to TEPS. And to be honest, it crushes this deck. I really can’t see how two Scrabbling Claws makes your matchup against graveyard decks so much better, and how you can avoid playing Duress in a format full of combo and control.

In short, in the right metagame, this deck could be awesome. I tried it, and the main thing it does is completely demolish creature-based decks. It even has a good game against Scepter-Chant and the like. The match-ups against Cloudpost and Urzatron decks though, as well as the matchup against TEPS, are just not good enough. My metagame is not set up for this deck to be a good call.

I do like how coming full circle, and making the deck simple again, is often the solution to making it relevant once more. I would like to see how it performs with 4 Duress in the main, cutting a Tusker and some Elders, or some Walls of Roots, but I haven’t had the time to test it enough. That will almost certainly make your Therapies and general game far stronger against decks like TEPS, and it might make the match-up good, but it could also nuke the aggro match-ups. Be sure to try the changes before running blind.

To be honest, when you really look at it, Flores Rocks looks like a poor man’s Aggro Loam. Now, this is a deck I am starting to love more and more. Who doesn’t love a little Erhnamgeddon…

And with that out of the way, let’s go take a look at the questions I got this week at [email protected]. The way to get to know whatever you want. Or at least the stuff I can tell you about…

This week’s first question is by Johnny Botondo:

Seriously Jeroen, I get that you do not like the new set. However:

1. Do you not love the fact that Black gets a Wrath of God?
2. Will you be using it in any format?

I’m also curious why you are back on the PT, as I was under the impression it was not enjoyable for you any more.

I am glad you get where I am coming from regarding Planar Chaos. After all, a couple of good cards do not a good set make.

To me, a good set should be very nice for Limited, having a couple of good cards, but also a fairly low general level of commons so it is hard to get a good deck in Draft. This then awards skill. I also don’t like having “spoilers” in the common or uncommon spot, and this set has plenty of those.

As for Constructed, this set is boring. Everything feels like it has been done before, and this does not challenge me as much as I would like to be challenged. I just don’t get that “new-card spark” that we all love when a new set arrives.

Now for your questions. No, I do not like Black getting a Wrath of God, since I love to play with creatures. Not only does Damnation devalue White as a color – because Wrath is really the only thing White had going for it – but it also creates a very hostile environment for creatures everywhere. Heck, better players and smarter people then me, like Zvi Mowshowitz, have even said that it will be a disaster, and I just don’t like that idea.

Will I be using it? Hell yeah. Just because I don’t like the printing of a card doesn’t mean that I don’t like to win. If the best deck will end up running the Black Wrath of God, rest assured that I will be running it.

The second question comes by way of Joseph Sindone:

I’ve just read your Musings on the Rock in Extended article, and I was torn. Because at the bottom you asked me to mail you, but at the same time said you would love to see some non-Rock questions. So I decided that I would do the best of both worlds (Although the deck in question is not really a pure Rock deck anymore)

I am currently trying to break into the Pro Tour (legally, of course) and the Pro Circuit. I feel like I’m at the level where I can start running towards the goal, and only either my lack of determination or natural skill cap can stop me. I’m trying to break into that next level, and I was just curious if you had any inspirational stories / words of advice / personal experiences that may help me (and all of your other aspiring-to-be-a-pro readers).

I always have a bunch of stories ready. Stuff like “never give up,” and the fact that you don’t always have to get there the “natural” way. For instance, do you know that I myself have only made a couple of PTQ Top 8s before I got on the Train? And a player like Josh Ravitz, who I consider to be about my equal, has made at least 200? Sure, he played a lot more, I am sure… but it just goes to show that you don’t have to win every game or tournament you play to get there. All you have to do is have the necessary faith and skill, and then the determination to reach your goal.

Heck, I’ll even one-up myself. Current Resident Genius, and a player widely considered one of the best players in the World, Frank Karsten, has never even won a PTQ. Lord knows he played in a lot, but he needed a GP finish to finally get to the show. [I myself had never won a tournament before I made the Pro Tour on the back of a Grand Prix Top 4. Not even an FNM. — Craig, always ready to mention past successes.]

The other question(s) I wanted to ask you pertain to the deck below. I’ve been playing around with it for the past few weeks. I was originally going for more of a traditional Rock feel, but with the addition of all the new White and the boarding of the Deeds, I realized the decklist was more like PT Junk than the Rock. So, it’s kinda like answering a non-Rock question… right?

The deck posts favorable match-ups against Boros, TEPS, and U/W Tron/Post decks, but I haven’t been able to do much more than speculate about other decks in the field so far.

What we have here is a twist of current decks that are around in the Extended metagame. Rock, with all its twists, looks like this, as does Mike Flores G/W Haterator deck, and even the B/W neo-discard decks have a small similarity. This also means that your deck tends to lack a little focus, and tries to do all the things these other decks do. It does some things a little worse sometimes, and some things a little better. Sadly, this means it is less consistent, which is something I just don’t like.

Make sure you know what you want to do, and stick to that game plan. Don’t try to do too many things at the same time. These decks are, in general, fine decks to get to the Top 8… but they seldom win the whole thing because of their inconsistent nature.

What I need help on is the horrid manabase, as I have no experience building Extended manabases, or how you treat fetches and the like… Also, I was wondering what you think of the Eladamri’s Call toolbox. I know that none of the major decks are using it, but I’ve found that it gives me almost as much versatility as the Wish, at instant speed, and it doesn’t sacrifice half of my sideboard to do so. Plus even if you draw the one-ofs, they’re usually not horrible. (Unless it’s something like Nekrataal against TEPS.) Is there some reason why no one plays Eladamri’s Call that I’m not aware of? Like some sort of DCI-floor rule where, if you play Eladamri’s Call, it’s a Major Procedural Error if you place higher than 9th?

Okay, so that one got me laughing. No, there is no procedural error for running Eladamri’s Call… but there might as well be. Decks running this card (a card I love, by the way) have never performed particularly well. This is mainly because it is fairly slow, and it means you’d better have some great targets to fetch, a thing that G/W never really tends to have. Cards like Exalted Angel and Hierarch look like fun to tutor for, but they aren’t really answers — they’re simply good cards. You may as well play more of those.

You seem to have trouble balancing your manabase for a couple of reasons, and the most important one is that you are trying to squeeze everything in the deck that looks good. A G/W tutor that needs to fetch up a BB creature spells doom for your lands, as the only way to get this to really work in time is to take a butt-load of damage. My advice would be to level your color requirements. For instance, if you want to stick to your Calls, swap out Withered Wretch and Nekrataal, and try some more Elephants and Loaming Shaman (which pretty much does the same thing). Cut the miser Vitu Ghazi and some fetch and dual lands, and go for some less painful solutions. For an example, look at Mike Flores deck at the start of this article. It splashes, but it still manages to have a consistent manabase despite 4 colorless lands. Adding Sakura-Tribe Elders over Wall of Roots obviously helps this cause.

I also have been torn between running the Sword of Fire and Ice, or Umezawa’s Jitte, or a combination of both. And whether or not Gerrard’s Verdict is good enough to cut it over maindeck Duress. But so far, the Verdicts have been good to me, so I need to test more to be sure. Any thoughts?

I like Gerrard’s Verdict a lot, but I would try and get this deck a little more focused in the color department. Every game you lose to color screw and land pain is one game further from your goal. Often, the less complicated solutions are the better ones. Take a look at the decks I suggested, and you should be fine.

Next up: Jeremy Mansfield:

First of all, you’re still young until you hit 30. Trust me, I’m going to be 36 this year…

I appreciate what you say about The Rock not being good enough, although it is still my favorite deck ever [wipes tear from eye]. My question is therefore NOT about The Rock [sigh], but rather an anti-TEPS question. I hear commentator after commentator describing TEPS as the best deck, but I know I would not be able to pilot it terribly well myself, ergo I need to plan to beat it.

How would you try to attack a TEPS deck; what, in your opinion, are its natural “holes” that can be exploited?

Hey Jeremy, I know I am not old, but being surrounded by sixteen-year-olds sometimes make you feel this way. Luckily getting mail from actual old men like you makes me feel like a green leaf once again… hehehe.

As for TEPS, the bully of the format, it is definitely the best deck in an open field… but this doesn’t mean it doesn’t have weaknesses. What makes it so good is that, thanks to storm, it doesn’t really care about countermagic much, and thanks to its focused speed it is able to race decks like Boros fairly well. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t have holes, and it is definitely possible to be hated clean away. The fact that it still puts up great results is that most of the hate doesn’t show up until after they have won game 1, and then needs to be drawn for both game 2 and game 3.

The list of hate against it is almost endless, and it wholly depends on what your deck is trying to do and the colors you are running. Strong options include discard spells, artifacts like Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void, and (apparently) Jester’s Cap, but also enchantments like Rule of Law and Pyrostatic Pillar. These last couple of things can be hit with bounce spells before going off though, which doesn’t make them ideal in decks that like to give your opponent time (non-beatdown decks). In those cases, you are better off playing spells against them, rather than permanents. These can be hit by Duress, but they are still stronger in the face of bounce trickery. Think of Orim’s Chant, Stifle, Trickbind or even Gilded Light.

The fact that all of these cards are fine, but need to be drawn and then survive Duress, Chain of Vapor, and Hull Breach, means that they are not to be completely relied upon. They do not make the TEPS match-up an auto-win: they just help a lot.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to keep those questions coming! The address is [email protected]. Remember, this column is nowhere without your questions.

Stay tuned next week… we have something special in store for you regarding Set Reviews and Planar Chaos.

Jeroen.