As best as I can reconstruct things, I was supposed to have the floating Feature last Thursday, but Craig told me I was getting moved over at the last minute for “Pat.” I of course assumed that Patrick Sullivan was stepping up to my challenge regarding how to dominate the PTQ-level Red Deck / Boros mirror match, but then I got a phone call from that other Patrick, who was basically bouncing around his office like a superball at the idea of having bumped my ass. Chapin? Really? Does anyone even read that guy? I vaguely remember something about ants, maybe legos… I think.
This is not a set review article. This is just my first impressions going over the Planar Chaos spoiler and trying to make sense of not the cards themselves, but what might or will happen to the currently fairly healthy formats when such a strange new set with such potentially powerful stop signs and openings runs headlong into the side of Planet Metagame. I’d write more preamble, but you don’t need any “Flagship” or “Constructed Unplayable” guidelines for this one, so I’ll get right to the meat of the matter.
Black Control, White Control – Damnation
We might as well get the big one out of the way first. You’ve doubtless been chattering about this amongst yourselves for the past 22 or so days. You know what it does; you know that its predecessor was the hands-down best card of Champs Standard. So what does Damnation mean?
I think the people saying “now B/W can play eight Wraths” are missing the point. B/W decks have no problems killing creatures, and if they want to get tangled in the whole BB / WW mana cost Wrath of God thing, they can just play Dimir House Guard for access to essentially eight Wraths already, and have been able to for more than a year. I don’t think this card is going to break Extended or anything, though its being in the format for the next seven years or so will definitely be something that deck designers have to keep in mind; Black has had Mutilate since Torment, and that card isn’t even played as a universal four-of in Extended Black control.
My good friend the once and future king of strategic Magic writing has had his name bandied about quite a bit over Damnation, specifically in his opposition to the printing of the card. Zvi’s argument is not that Damnation will break Constructed Magic, but that it marginalizes White. White is bad, Wrath is overpowered; put them together and White is the best color in Standard (it was statistically best at Regionals last year and even better at Champs this year, but I think Red and especially Blue might be ahead post-Worlds). Black has been doing a great job supporting Blue in Standard of late, with Mystical Teachings vastly improving the Pickles deck that BDM and I posted a few months back as well as the Dralnu control decks of course. White’s high position in the format is – or at least was – largely (if not wholly) contingent on Wrath being the best creature control card in the format.
When you change something in the Magic metagame, it’s never just one element in the abstract… Nothing significant works that way. Imagine a lake, full of fish, spiders, froggies, whatever. You drop a stone into the water; maybe it’s a giant stone like Damnation threatens to be. Maybe it causes an omnidirectional wave of wet that soaks the land in every direction and empties the lake, stranding every frond and algae, drowning every fish with dry gills. Even small stones cause ripples in the surface, and may displace something or other. White was the best color in Standard, due largely to Wrath of God. How does its position stand to change? Wrath of God was the best card… What happens when its arch enemy color is powered up with its equal in cost and effect? The B/U control decks will definitely be empowered. Our B/U and B/U/R decks tend to be thin against the good beatdown decks… We sometimes even have problems against the terrible ones (losing to a Silhana Ledgewalker wearing ten mismatched leaf loincloths can be quite embarrassing). You’d be surprised what directions we’ve gone in order to solve these problems.
Me? I don’t have an official position about whether it’s good or terrible that Black just got a Wrath of God. I’m not that guy. I don’t bitch about Umezawa’s Jitte; I’ve found that my energies are much better spent trying to find out how to solve a format given its parameters rather than in complaining about things that I can’t change anyway (I know, I know your combo deck would be great if people just didn’t play Vial Affinity, but…). I’m not that guy. Therefore the thing that bothers me about this new card is that I hate the easy answer. I figured out Stinkweed Imp in Ophidian Eye trumps Ledgewalker, as necessity is the mother of invention. If you don’t need things (such as answers to questions) you don’t need to figure things out… All of a sudden new things don’t get invented. That’s why good deck designers hate solved formats. I just fear that the riddle of the optimal B/U control will be solved before the question is even finished being asked.
Does Damnation marginalize White as a control color? There sure is a powerful competing impulse to substitution from Black, so maybe (but see below). I don’t think that the disincentive to White-based control decks as we know them in current Standard is Damnation (see also below). However, White the beatdown color just seems to be even more solidified by Planar Chaos… Then again that is a short-term thing that affects only one of ten Guild-centric and specific attack decks, whereas Damnation’s incentives and disincentives are general and non-specific, so it’s probably not a net wash.
Firemane Control and Martyr of Sands theme decks (MartyrTron, Snow White, etc.) – Extirpate
Dead.
Dead?
Coma maybe. Just sleeping, I think.
There was and is a phenomenon in Extended where graveyard decks were too good (see the end of last year’s PTQ season and the rise of Ichorid), then a ton of hosers appeared (Leyline of the Void and then Tormod’s Crypt) bent on completely smashing graveyard decks. The graveyard decks eroded somewhat as the ‘Tron decks rose online, and by Worlds, the graveyard decks, while not dominant, still put up a number of x-1 and x-0 records. No one even talks about the robots any more.
In Extended, there are just so many awesome decks to play that boast powerful and sometimes mechanics-driven themes that it is impossible to specifically hate them all out. For many decks to beat Affinity, they need something on the order of Kataki to fight; they can’t just win with an Oxidize. My friend Tsuyoshi Fujita explained his Pro Tour: LA Top 8 loss to Antoine Ruel in these terms, even though neither one of them were actually playing Affinity. Tsuyoshi thought that good players would not gravitate towards Psychatog because it was so poor against Affinity. He chose a deck that could beat Affinity and other decks that beat Affinity; the then-Resident Genius had little shot against Antoine’s version of Psychatog, though. He didn’t think that a deck that would lose hands-down to Affinity would not be popular.
Think of a deck that can stop Affinity; dedicated graveyard decks like Ichorid, Elemental Bidding, or Aggro-Loam; Goblins; ‘Tron decks; and TEPS. There is no way a single deck can hate with Kataki and Leyline of the Void and Engineered Plague and Destructive Flow and consistently draw its hate cards in the proper matchups and play a proactive hammer hand. When I was playing against Greg Weiss in the Philadelphia PTQ a few weeks ago, he said that he thought Elemental Bidding was a safe choice because players just don’t want to pack the graveyard hate. It’s easy for everyone to play, but either they think that the existence of the Crypts will scare off the proactive graveyard players, or that someone else will deal with the problem (kind of like how some small minority of parents don’t vaccinate their kids because everyone else vaccinates theirs, and therefore there shouldn’t be any horrible childhood diseases to catch anyway).
Do you see the analogy?
Standard, while by definition not as diverse as Extended, is awfully diverse. You can’t even describe a default Glare deck, despite the fact that “Glare” was broadly the most popular deck at Champs. There are Ravnica Block-descended Blue decks with Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, different Blue splash decks with Momentary Blink, Red splashes with Demonfire, Black splashes with infinite life engines, and plain old two-color decks! There is no consensus on U/R/W controllish decks, or even decks that start with “Solar-” in their names. You certainly can’t hate in every direction in Standard. What does that mean?
Sure, it might be scary to play Firemane Angel or Martyr decks the first week or so Planar Chaos is legal for City Championships or the JSS, but presuming that the format settles away from those particular single threat graveyard recursion board control decks (even if the reason is fear of Extirpate), I’d guess that it would be completely safe to run one of those mighty strats by Regionals. Honestly. Last year Loxodon Hierarch was supposed to be the best card in Standard, but Tin Street Lie Spewer and I ran the proto Budget Boros to a combined 11-2-3 Swiss at Regionals. Obviously Budget Boros became the most popular beatdown deck in the format that summer (even though Tin Street had to switch to Solar Flare to qualify, and I never did), but I’m not talking about the deck here; I’m talking about how we were “allowed” to play a deck that was so bad against Hierarchs given the card pool. Without the hype support, there were very few Hierarchs and literally no Three Stupid Elephants ™ in our path. We played against four total, between us, over seventeen rounds.
Is Extirpate good? It will certainly have an impact. It will be played, and when it actually gets cast, it will be backbreaking. My guess is that long term the bark on this card will be worse than the bite, that the fear of the bark will just, um, extirpate the affected strategies from the metagames of relevant formats.
Boros – Whitemane Lion, Boom / Bust, and Cautery Sliver
Past the hyper hype of Damnation and Extirpate and their obvious bolstering of Black-based or B/U control, and the disincentives (including competing incentives) to existing White control decks (which all play Wrath and mostly play Firemane Angel or Martyr of Sands), the most significant Planar Chaos impact on existing archetypes seems to be a three way thumbs up in favor of Boros Deck Wins.
The first Boros Deck Wins out of Champs 2005 were just crappy Kamigawa-esque White Weenie decks splashing the obvious Lightning Helix and a couple of Chars; almost all of them ran for-ex Glorious Anthems and two times infinity times the correct number of Flying Men. A week later, the Extended versions came from the others side, were essentially Red Deck Wins with improved creatures. Pat Sullivan ran Boros Guildmage because his attitude was so Red Deck-centric, and Tsuyoshi preserved the mana denial aspect of his archetype Red Deck with Molten Rain and Pillage taking the place of Rishadan Port and Wasteland (his version actually ran quad Pillage an Extended Pro Tour earlier, but for different reasons). Boros the powerhouse we know today in both Standard and Extended comes neither from the Crusade deck update of the early Standard version nor expressly the improved Red Decks of the Extended tradition but the hybrid of the 20/20/20, Standard Zoo, and the triple Garrisons of Budget Boros. This deck is not an improvement on either a bad deck full of Scryb Sprites or a good deck trying to find replacements for lost Cursed Scrolls but a different sort altogether, designed with proactive elements specifically and synergistically geared to attacking the core threats and strategies of the metagame. You can see this everywhere, from Hand of Honor and Kami of Ancient Law in the original version, to the inexplicable Wildfire Emissaries in Nick Lovett Worlds version. Remember how necessity is the mother of invention? Unlike predecessor Zoo Pants, which is actually full of the best drops top-down, if Boros is (or became) good, it’s because Orzhov beatdown was popular first. Lovett’s Wildfire Emissaries won the most at Worlds because Boros itself was established to be good. The archetype has essentially reached a critical mass of great drops and efficient burn spells within just the two colors, allowing it to actually approximate Zoo without actually having to go into Green (though Extended Boros sometimes wants to splash for just the Apes).
It is difficult to imagine a way the archetype as it stands can actually get better in terms of its proactive plan. Standard and Extended Boros decks are already as good as beatdown-and-burn decks have ever been within the contexts of their relative metagames. Boros doesn’t have Fireblast, true, but the quality of the first part of its plan makes up for this, especially given that Lightning Helix is so much better than every burn spell classic Sligh and Deadguy Red ever had. The added value that Planar Chaos brings to Boros does not push what WW/r or Sligh-with-better-guys already wanted or did. These cards are the Samurai of the Pale Curtains, the Kami of Ancient Laws, and Manriki-Gusaris. They help give Boros flexibility and card advantage in particular contexts without otherwise disrupting core offensive competencies.
Whitemane Lion is a two-power drop for two mana. That’s basically what a Boros wants. I played Kami of Ancient Law in the deck despite its being less effective in battle or against removal than, say, Hand of Honor, less disruptive to Dragons than Samurai of the Pale Curtain; in the same spots, other players might have run Kataki, War’s Wage or Azorius Guildmage. With Standard and Magic itself drowning in a sea of Tier 2 cards, there are few empyrical automatics. I see Whitemane Lion as the White Weenie equivalent of Plaxmanta, heavily but not universally played, not the most effective member of his team, but conditionally a backbreaker. Whitemane Lion could theoretically combine with powerful 187 effects, but I don’t see it as powerful enough at its cost to be staple in Ghazi-Glare (Indrik Stomphowler) or Orzhov Beatdown (Shrieking Grotesque). Boros though… like I said, any Bear in a storm. If the format shifts away from burn spells and combat as the default ways to kill creatures (say because of all the Damnations and Serrated Arrows), Whitemane Lion will probably be better than Knight of the Holy Nimbus; it might be more popular main than Ronom Unicorn anyway.
Boom / Bust is a legitimate table-toppler. Even at six mana, Bust would have seen play, maybe as much as a three-of main deck in a variety of beatdown (and some control) decks. At the very least, Bust changes the way the game will be played. No more of this “playing out all of my lands without thinking about it” for Standard! Walking into a Bust might just, um, bust a lazy control mage.
With Boom in the mix? I would be surprised if it were not an automatic four-of in at least some versions of Boros Deck Wins. Everything I already said about Bust still applies; the deck can get any kind of an advantage on the board, and then pop everything. This is particularly good in an archetype with Boros Garrison, which both makes it easier to hit six mana and gives the Boros mage the chance to reload post-Bust, and Flagstones of Trokair, because mise. Like I said already… “with Boom in the mix?” I’m sure you’ve already thought about this, but first turn Lions, second turn Boom is better than Jackal Pup plus Wasteland (assuming Flagstones of Trokair, of course)!
Cautery Sliver is 80% worse than Goblin Legionnaire (a creature that no longer makes the cut in every Extended Boros), but Standard is a narrower format, and with its colorless activation costs, Cautery Sliver should be awesome. It also illustrates the erosion of tournament staples… Is this card better than Soltari Priest? Knight of the Holy Nimbus? Boros Guildmage even? Interestingly, Cautery Sliver is better than all three in some matchups, worse than all three in others.
My conclusion is that Boros will have more tools than ever in Standard, but also be more difficult to build and tune optimally.
U/R Wildfire (particularly Annex Wildfire) – Inet, the Dreamer and Numot, the Devastator
The U/R Wildfire decks lost a lot in the transition of Kamigawa Block to Time Spiral. Blue and Red got two of the best rare creature finishers they’ve ever had in Time Spiral, but even where U/R played these cards, they were never the best at the task. Teferi is better in decks that can abuse Mystical Teachings, especially more controlling decks, and a toughness of four is poor in a Wildfire deck; and Bogardan Hellkite is better in decks like Dragonstorm (where it will, you know, win the World Championship). I particularly disliked the curve on U/R Wildfire decks topping on Draining Whelk and Bogardan Hellkite… The mana just always seemed clunky and undesirable.
Both the ‘Tron-Wildfire decks and Annex Wildfire / Eminent Domain decks played Kamigawa Block Dragons last year. Eminent Domain, in particular, has not been seen since Kuroda’s win at The Finals. Part of the reason this deck, which has otherwise transitioned satisfactorily to Time Spiral Standard, has disappeared is the loss of a logical finisher. Inet, the Dreamer and Numot, the Devastator give these decks the opportunity to win with a creature that is toughness five-plus, as well as a monolith to hide behind when facing Boros.
Numot, The Devastator seems perfectly suited to a mana control strategy. I actually like the White requirement, and can’t wait to try a version of Annex Wildfire splashing for Three Dreams.
Inet, The Dreamer is a 6/6 flying Dragon for six, which is just awesome on the numbers. I’m sure Inet’s ability will come up sometimes – and be good when it does come up – but it’s not really the kind of ability I can assess without playing at least a little bit. This card seems exactly what eight Annex needed to make the initial break out of unplayability, and should be roughly one thousand times better than Mahamoti Djinn.
White Control – Mana Tithe and Porphyry Nodes
I would already be completely paid up on my “Damnation is going to stab White Control in the knee” school tuition but for Mana Tithe. This card should be either an automatic in U/W Control or, like Extirpate, enough of an intimidation component that it should change the way the game is played. The really exciting part of Mana Tithe is that you can play it in other decks than U/W Control. Like how sick is it when Boros or Ghazi-Glare smashes a Wrath of God Damnation (who are we kidding?) tap-out? Good game.
Drop of Honey was never the most exciting Abyss the game ever saw, but it was also in the wrong color at the wrong time. I don’t know that Porphyry Nodes will be a tournament staple in maindecks, but it certainly has a place, and can be knock-down drag-out unbeatable when opponents aren’t looking for it. I know that I play one more Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree than, well, any other player on the planet (Glare obv, but Standard control decks, Standard combo decks, and Extended beatdown too), but this card is a clear combo with the Green Outpost. You can keep the Nodes around indefinitely and completely lock whole schools of creature decks out of any possible chance to win. This combination is somewhere between Isochron Scepter plus Orim’s Chant and Sensei’s Divining Top plus Culling Scales. Like a lot of cards and combinations on this list, I think this one will force some players to re-think how they approach tournament play.
Ghazi-Glare – Dust Elemental; Sunlance; and Crovax, Ascendant Hero
Regardless of what I say or what recommendations I make, Glare is one of my favorite decks; it has a special spot for me right here. My team qualified with it, we probably should have played it on the Pro Tour, and even when I bagged on it due to “Solar-” decks, it still put up staggering volume at Champs. Even in a Standard where Dragonstorm won the biggest tournament of the year, there is a brand new brand of Solar-, and the popular Blue decks are what they are, I actually think some version of Ghazi-Glare might be the best deck to play.
Dust Elemental – Dragon much? This card is mighty like a Mystic Enforcer, even if it has a sort of drawback. As with Whitemane Lion, the drawback can actually be a significant advantage. Picking up three creatures is a rough condition to be sure, but can be bent to one’s advantage. Note that you can go to combat and make some decent blocks, run out the Dust Elemental as a one-sided Wrath of God. Note that you can put your Bear in front of his bear, your Hill Giant in front of his, stack the damage, and play the Dust Elemental and just return him as one of the three; he also seems like a fine answer to Wrath of God.
You can use Saproling tokens to discount the Dust Elemental if you wish, but the thing that really excites me is combining this card with Indrik Stomphowler. In our Block Glare-on-Glare testing, straight G/W Glare was always the best, beating the Arbiter decks, because it just had room for more stuff. In context, “stuff” was three Stomphowlers starting, which were obviously backbreaking in the mirror. With the infinite Civic Wayfinders, Yavimaya Dryads, Coiling Oracles, Avalanche Riders, and so on in the format, Dust Elemental should make for some really unfair fair Magic.
Sunlance is a Strafe. Strafe was probably less popular than it should have been, but then again it was in the same color at the same time as Assault / Battery, Flametongue Kavu, Urza’s Rage, and numerous other options. Basically, Sunlance is the White Lightning Bolt for purposes of, say, killing Fortune Thief. This card will be a near-universal four-of in at least the sideboards of any decks that don’t have access to the traditional removal colors. I don’t know if Glare wants it main, but non-Red Glare decks will definitely want it somewhere, as will non-Mortify, non-Putrefy, non-Seal of Doom versions. I can also see more aggressive G/W decks running it main.
How awesome is Crovax, Ascendant Hero? He’s just better than the other version, trading flying for both a strong defensive ability and a beefier frame. I think he’s just better than the other card. Seeing as Ascendant Evincar saw multiple Pro Tour Top 8 appearances, that ain’t bad. At first I thought this card would be a bomb in Standard G/W Ghazi-Glare, and I started writing how much better than Akroma he should be in context… but then I remembered that we would not see 2/2 Saproling tokens but instead, um, no Saproling tokens. Crovax isn’t Glare’s friend at all, but a significant barrier that it maybe can’t ever beat. Crovax won’t be quite Yosei in White control decks, but he will make some kind of impact. Any decks relying on Birds, Elves, Saprolings, Boas, Hooligans, other Goblins, and other x/1 creatures will have to figure a way to handle this monster. May I suggest something starting with “Sudden”?
New Archetypes – Seething Song and Gossamer Spirit
Seething Song? You read right. I know it is not a new card in Planar Chaos. Instead, it will just become better than ever before. Seething Song was always a minority card in Goblins, and played as any old Ritual in Red-friendly combo decks, but I think that with two new creatures, we will see the Song’s breakout in Standard fair decks.
Torchling – It ain’t Morphling… but who cares? Torchling is some brawler. He can also pick whatever fights he wants. Despite the inability to hold the fort single-handedly against a gaggle of Goblins and consistently win from ten, Torching should still be significant once it hits. The Silver Wyvern-like ability actually makes Torchling more problematic to remove on some boards. On turn 4, you can Song down a Torchling and make life hairy for the other guy a couple of turns early, mana open.
Akroma, Angel of Fury is actually even more exciting to me. Do you see a third turn (or good God, second turn) morph down? Kill it. Just kill it. Once the opponent has four mana, Song and a tap makes for some kind of 6/6. Losing Vigilance and Haste are drawbacks, but with Firebreathing? The new Akroma’s remaining Flying and Trample make for an extremely scary threat.
Seething Song doesn’t make either card, but the presence of both can validate its inclusion. I think of it like when Dan Paskins played Song in his hybrid Red Deck about two years ago: He could play Arc-Slogger or play and equip Sword of Fire and Ice as big threats on turn 2 or 3. The flash point on the predicted modern Song seems like it will be turn 4 (unless you’ve got additional acceleration or you want to risk a naked Torchling). Tinker away!
Gossamer Spirit is an idea I got from Greg Weiss for an updated Fish build. Alongside Krovikan Mist, Gossamer Spirit might ruin Blue’s reputation for cheap attackers.
Green Aggression – Mire Boa (Radha, Heir to Keld in Gruul)
I guess I’ll start with Radha because we’ve been talking about her a lot at the office. Is she good? I think she’ll probably be better in Extended than Standard. The first thing I thought was that Radha and the Savage Bastard could link arms in The Red Zone, and Radha could reach over and pet her poochie to pay for his Violent Eruption. Awww. Isn’t that cute?
Even in Standard, Radha can just play for mana efficiency… borrow her mana to nuke a creature prior to blockers rather than during first main… You get the idea. The fact of the matter is that Gruul is shy for two drops right now, with most decks playing only Scab-Clan Mauler unless they are Aura-focused with Silhana Ledgewalker (previously Dryad Sophisticate). She should be strong in that sense: Remember, she’s never much worse than a Llanowar Elves.
My two-year-old daughter has a crazy hat. It is a knit cap woven out of multicolored orange, red, and yellow yarn. She gets this glint in her eye and will pull it on and suddenly go berserk. She will run in a five-foot circle until she falls down, or failing that, up and down the hallway, arms in the air. She screams and tumbles and does I don’t know what else. I’d try to describe it further but she is still bound by the physical laws that affect two-year-old girls and I wouldn’t be able to convey the manic energy that comes over her, Bruce Banner-like, when she puts on the hat, anyway. Just this morning I surprised her and pulled it down over her ears when she came up to me in the kitchen, just to see what would happen. I wish I had my video camera. My wife says she’s like a pinball, but you know, less metallic and shiny… which is ironic, because pulling on the crazy hat is like Bella’s Autobot Matrix of Leadership, transforming her into something pumped full of energon and impossible to injure.
Mire Boa is my crazy hat. When I look at it I just want to punch the screen to pieces and then drown my enemies in the blood running down my slashed knuckles. I want to hurl my arms into the air and cry to the moon… but I remember that I’m not physically very imposing and that I wouldn’t be scaring anyone. This card is just so exciting to me and you know why. It’s a bare half-degree off of my favorite two-drop ever. I played its predecessor over Wild Mongrel in U/G in Extended and won $250. Sol Malka used to play the River-style slitherer in The Rock, or The Rock’s great grandfather, whatever. I can’t wait to drop a Mire Boa on turn 2. I love a crazy hat. I hate Crovax even more than I want to play him.
The metagame – Detritivore
Boom / Bust scares me in the sense that it genuinely changes how we will play Standard… Old tactics will have to shift, especially for one-spell Demonfire decks. In a sense, Detritivore seems even more scary. At least most of the decks that would pack to a six mana Boom / Bust can fight it with a Remand or whatever. But Detritivore? This is such an Orzhov card. It is slow but grinds and grinds to a potentially massive advantage. We play decks with single digit basics and think that we have a ton of them. A six mana Detritivore is in some sense better than a Rain of Salt, because even the most controlling, seven card handed, control deck can’t really stop it… And you get some kind of monster when it resolves. There are tons of times you will be willing to tap out seven, eight, or even more mana, pick a good spot to fight, and sit back while the card advantage comes all on its own. I think this card is being criminally underestimated right now.
Combo decks – Simian Spirit Guide
Red already had a critical mass of acceleration for Standard and even Extended Storm combo decks, but the more is probably still the merrier. The other Spirit Guide is played in Vintage, after all. I don’t really know much about combo decks, but I do know that you can’t easily counter this card, and that in a skilled player’s hands, a card with essentially no mana cost is a weapon that many combo decks would love to have picking their fights in uphill matchups.
Umm… Calciderm?
Obviously I tried to figure out where to play this card as soon as I saw it… It’s Blastoderm! All Blastoderm ever did was smash people to death. Then I realized… is this card Blastoderm? The untouchable clause is actually a liability in Beasts in Extended if you wanted to play that (can’t use this otherwise awesome body in a Cliffs fight). In one sense having a Juzam Djinn in White is something that White might certainly want (at least out of the board in particular matchups, like some kind of Hawaiian Hunted Wumpus), whereas Blastoderm was merely the first of a line of Jade Leeches, Phantom Centaurs, and Open Fists… But even in the best deck Blastoderm ever appeared in, the fact that it was Green was a key reason that it did so well. Ben Rubin G/W deck from Pro Tour New York ’00 relied on the fact that Blastoderm was Green… In the Rebel-on-Rebel matchup, the opponent couldn’t run past Ben’s Green creatures whereas all of Ben’s guys, Rebels and Beasts and Saprolings alike, could smash past the boring monochromatic forces on the other side with a well placed Reverent Mantra.
I’m sure you and I will both have more and better ideas as the weeks progress.
LOVE
MIKE