Madness has broken out where I live…
It’s Carnival Time, baby!
Down south in the Netherlands that means that people dress up, Halloween style, in all kinds of happy and weird costumes, and start boozing for four days straight. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are all designated as days where nothing else matters except for partying, drinking, and more partying. This involves going to parades, where giant floats as colourful as everyone’s costumes are seen; going to bars; or in most cases, just gathering somewhere on the street. It doesn’t matter where, as long as there is alcohol to be had.
And in the middle of all that, I have to write my article… That’s cool though, I haven’t really been in a partying mood, being back in school and all. I’ve been preparing for the PTQs held during party season. I was set on playing a pretty standard Flow Rock deck, which I had decided on with my good friend Alex Lieberman as the deck to take to both of our first PTQs.
Then disaster struck.
As a Magic pro of three years and counting, I haven’t been used to checking my schedule … I am used to doing whatever I feel like, without having any real responsibilities. Now I’ve decided I want to finish school, I am sure you can guess…. Pro Tour: Yokohama collides with that in a big way.
It’s during my week of exams.
This means no PTQs for me. I am not the kinda guy that can still go and play his best at a PTQ for money if I don’t have my eye on the prize. I need the motivation, and without that… forget it. I might as well not bother.
Why I didn’t check all that before I started testing and preparing? Yeah, you got me… I don’t know either. I am not used to actually having stuff to do.
On top of that, I opened my trusty mailbox, [email protected], to see what questions I got this time around… and found that there was nothing to be had. I hadn’t received a single question for the whole of last week, and I really don’t know why. I had noticed the forums had also been quiet, but I am still not sure if that is a good or a bad thing.
Which means I need your help again, great readers of mine. I need feedback. I need to know if everyone enjoys what I am doing, or if I need to change! Let me know, drop me a note, send me an email… heck, the forums will do fine. I’ll make sure to do what I can for y’all.
As for now, here are this week’s questions:
Christopher Folk sends us the lone question this week, regarding Planar Chaos:
Here’s a non-Extended question for you: now that Damnation is going to give U/B control decks a huge boost, what do you think the future of Green Aggro in Standard is going to be? I would suspect Mono Green Aggro is dead, but given the fact that Green now has a few good men with Haste (Giant Solifuge, Groundbreaker, Timbermare) there has to be some sort of color combination that will be successful against control. R/G is the obvious choice, but I was thinking that U/G with Hasted men (instead of the Scryb/Force combo that will die to Wrath or Damnation) would work, with the Blue there basically as a splash for a little countermagic and Psionic Blast. What do you think?
Hey Chris. To be honest, I disagree with the premise that Mono Green will disappear. I even think that in the coming metagame, Green will have the best tools available to combat the coming (metaphorical) storm. Here’s how I see it…
With the rise of Damnation, a lot, if not all, control decks will have the power to Wrath away all your creatures. This means that playing weenie creature swarm decks is going to be pretty bad for anyone, as not only will the control player be safe for another turn after casting the sweeper, but they will also gain massive card advantage in the process.
Against a single creature beatdown strategy though, Wrath is not very good. It costs four mana at sorcery speed, and compared to stuff like all of the Edicts, Putrefy, Mortify, or whatever, that is a horrible deal. This means that if you want to succeed in this new Wrath-based environment, you will have to look at single solitary threats, not a bunch of speedy weenies. Haste is also something that works very well, as a hasty follow-up to a board-clearing effect while your opponent is tapped out, immediately putting them under pressure again, is exactly what you want. And that is exactly what Green is so good at right now.
Spectral Force, Timbermare, Giant Solifuge… heck even a Moldervine Cloak! These are cards that, by themselves, force your opponents to deal with them now or die very quickly. It probably means that decks will have to change, as Llanowar Elves get worse (as they’re caught in the Damnation crossfire), and stuff like Signets and Wild Growth get better because they stick around… but I feel that if any color has a chance winning with creatures, it’s Green.
Does that mean a Mono Green strategy, or one that splashes a color? I’m not sure. All I know is that to solve the problem of Damnation and Wrath of God, you simply need to steer away from weenie horde and switch to cards that are huge threats by themselves.
Aside on Groundbreaker: A lot of people still compare Timbermare and Giant Solifuge to the new Ball Lighting, and saying that Groundy is more efficient, dealing more damage for less mana. What they fail to see is that the other two hasty Green men are actual genuine threats by themselves, whereas Groundbreaker is just a bad burn spell. If a Timbermare hits the board with six available mana, the control opponent just has to deal with it, or he’ll die. Cap’n Tickles will kill you if you don’t find some sort of answer quick, but Groundbreaker? Sure, I’ll take six, be happy with the card advantage and move on. Sure, six is a lot of damage, but if your opponent is at twenty, he’ll thankfully pay that if that means you are down another card. This doesn’t mean Groundbreaker is a bad card – six damage for three mana is a lot – but it does mean that it is completely different card when compared to other hasty Green standouts .
Next up, a question by Jarod White:
My Extended PTQ isn’t until the 25th of February, a mere few days after Planar Chaos becomes Constructed legal. This makes preparation difficult. To increase my problems, I have to travel a significant distance to another city for the PTQ, which means I will have little grasp on the local metagame. Are there any suggestions you might have to help me prepare for a tournament in that situation?
Also, I have done some testing with the following deck against U/G Desire and U/G Madness, it performs reasonably against both decks, but I’m not sure it’s up to scratch overall. Do you have any suggestions to improve the deck in any way? Or if it’s simply not good enough, please say so and I’ll go back to the drawing board.
2 Kokusho, the Evening Star
2 Eternal Dragon
4 Duress
4 Extirpate
2 Damnation
3 Wrath of God
4 Smother
4 Vindicate
3 Mana Tithe
2 Isochron Scepter
4 Orim’s Chant
3 Phyrexian Arena
4 Godless Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Windswept Heath
6 Swamp
3 Plains
Sideboard:
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Disenchant
3 Infest
3 Krosan Grip
Hey Jarod. If you don’t really know what the metagame is going to be like, as you say at the start of your question, it is very hard to have answers available to what you expect to play against. This Extended metagame is wide open, with at least ten decks seeing play across the world, each capable of winning tournaments. This means it is hard to find an anti-deck in an unspecified metagame. What you really want to do in such situations is play an aggressive deck that plays its own game, and doesn’t care about finding specific answers. Decks in this category can be, but aren’t limited to: TEPS, other forms of combo, Boros, and control decks with general answers like countermagic.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at your deck.
First of all, I find it very hard to figure out what your main game plan is. You have the Scepter-Chant combo in there, but you aren’t dedicated to it as you only have two Isochron Scepters. You seem to want to be control, but then you play very matchup-specific cards, like four Extirpates and six Wrath of God effects. Looking at the rule I mentioned above – play a deck that plays its own game – means that this deck is not optimal. It doesn’t do what you want to do in a wide open metagame. On top of that, I am having a very hard time seeing what you are actually trying to do.
You are splashing Green in a deck that already can support Disenchant and other options. Despite this Green splash, you then refuse to splash cards that can dominate matchups and are generally good, like Loxodon Hierarch. You have three Arenas in a deck with only four win conditions and no lifegain. And those are just a couple of the problems.
On top of that, the only matchups you mention you’ve tested are against decks that are not in the current Top 10 decks in the format.
Combine all this, and I am sad to say that you should definitely switch decks. Whatever you choose to do, however… good luck!
Ray Bechtel once again helps out with a ton of questions:
1. What do you think are the best mana acceleration spells in Extended right now?
As far as mana acceleration goes, it all depends on what you really need. The options that are there are:
Chrome Mox
If you do not care about the card disadvantage, and if you plan to do a lot of things in the early turns, this is what you need. Either you are running a fast deck that wants to come out fast, or are running Blue with tons of drawing that can get you your card disadvantage back.
Birds of Paradise
If you are running a multicolor deck with Green at its base, this is your guy. No card disadvantage, a cheap cost, and he taps for everything. The only thing that is bad about this guy is that he can be a bad draw in the late game, and that he actually costs you your first turn to play. If you are looking to play, for example, Dark Confidant as early as possible, look for Chrome Mox. Otherwise, this is your guy.
Elves
Llanowar, Deep Shadow, Boreal… If you are mostly Green with no real need for the many colors the Bird gives you, these are just better as they serve as actual beaters. These are also unreal if you carry Jittes in your arsenal, as they love to pick up the pointy stick.
Signets
If you have a non-Green deck that simply doesn’t want to lose a card, but does need to ramp up, these are your cards. They are great because they fix two colors at no actual price, with the only downside being that they don’t actually tap for mana.
Talismans
If you do need them to tap for mana, these are an easy substitute for the Ravnica Jewels. Think of these as inferior Signets, but they can be better if you want to cast stuff like Spell Snare or Mana Tithe on turn 2 after you play one.
[We’ve also got Wall of Roots and Sakura-Tribe Elder. Both are great if your metagame is dominated by Boros-style aggro. – Craig.]
Which one is the best? As you can see, it all depends on what your deck needs. They all have their pros and cons.
2.You mentioned that you are beginning to like Aggro Loam more and more. Which colors do you prefer? I use a four-color build, and I tend to kill myself with my manabase, but it’s the only way I feel like it can actually compete in the format.
I was going to play B/G/R Aggro Loam at my PTQs… before I found out I couldn’t play. I don’t feel the White is as essential anymore, as there’s been a decline in the matchups in which it ruled, but I feel cards like Putrefy are a must-play now that everyone loves a Chalice of the Void.
Four-color is just not worth the pain and risk.
3. If you were to play in a Standard Two-Headed Giant Tournament tomorrow, who would be your partner, and what decks would you play? What about Limited, either Draft or Sealed?
If I got to choose any player in the whole wide world? It would definitely be Kenji. He is so far ahead of anyone right now, and he’s simply the best Magic player in the world. On top of that, he is also very cool to be around, even though he only speaks English when he is drunk (I hear he is getting better though). As far as formats go, I don’t think that matters at all, as Kenji is just the best in all of them!
In reality though, I would probably pick up one of my friends, as tomorrow is impossible to prepare for at such short notice. We’d play any two good Standard decks… couldn’t you give us some time to prepare?
4. First pack, First pick. Lightning Axe, Knight of the Holy Nimbus, or Stonebrow, Krosan Hero. Why?
Lightning Axe. As good as Stonebrow is, he is just another fatty. You will get plenty more shots at picking up wobbly men later in the draft. He also puts you in two colors immediately, which I don’t really like. This means I’d go for the best removal in the format. Lightning Axe is great start to the draft, and a card I am guaranteed to play. The Knight is simply weaker than the other two cards, and also in the weakest color… and he’s hard to cast. I am not even considering him.
5. When I utter the words "World of Warcraft", what’s your reaction?
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Having lost a lot of great friends to this game, and never seeing them ever again, (where are you, Sam Gomersall?) I refuse to see this as anything more then pure poison. Anything that makes people completely stop functioning in society is something I don’t want to take part in.
6. Ninjas or Pirates?
Seriously? Ninjas. They are just cooler. In a killer sort of way. Since all they do is kill people. Which isn’t very cool, actually.
Come to think of it…. All pirates do is bad stuff, too! Neither of these is cool at all!
I’ll have to stick with puppy dogs and pretty bows. Oh, and pretty girls of course.
7. Do you ever play Vintage or Legacy? What are your thoughts on those formats?
I play whatever the next tournament format is. So no, I don’t play Vintage at all, and I only played Legacy for about a month leading into the GPs. This means I don’t really have any actual thoughts on the formats. The lack of real competitive tournaments make them unappealing to me.
That, and the fact that they are only for rich lucksacks with their turn 1 kills and their spoiler cards that require no skill whatsoever… [To the forums! – Craig, amused.]
8. Who’s your favorite writer, Magic or otherwise?
Magic-wise, that’s easy. That has to be Jamie Wakefield. I love his style, and I even own his book! I wish I could write like that guy. Otherwise, well, lets see:
Comics: Ed Brubaker
Movies: Quentin Tarantino (Yeah, boring, I know)
Cookbooks: Jamie Oliver
Greeting Cards: The Hallmark Crew
TV-Shows: The geniuses that write House. Dear lord.
9. Do you have a favorite place to eat when traveling abroad?
There are actually three places I actually look forward to eating at when I travel, and they’re all American. One is Panda Express, as I am addicted to their Orange Chicken. You can’t get it outside of the U.S. (Lucksacks). Another is BD’s Mongolian Barbecue. I was first introduced to this eatery by the fine Indy Crew, led by one Gabe Walls, and since then I can’t wait to go back and have me some more (GoMongo!). The last is any Brazilian Steakhouse, like Platiforma or Fogo de Chao, especially with such great people at the table as the entire New York / New Jersey crew, who always make going to these places a most excellent adventure.
10. Are there any Grand Prix tournaments you plan on attending this year?
Are you kidding? Amsterdam man, I’ll definitely be there! Other than that? Nope.
That’s it for this week. Be sure to send me some questions folks! I need them to keep this column going! [email protected] is the place to send them. I’ll be waiting!
See y’all next week.
Jeroen.