Some of you (well, Revjack23 at least) probably wonder just how I spend my time when I’m not trying to disparage Standard and Limited Green. The answer is simple: I try to desecrate Ravager Affinity. In this case,”try to desecrate” is not synonymous with”succeed in desecrating.” I’ve gotten so desperate that I’ve even turned to that feeble multiplayer Magic fall-back, Cowardice, thinking that if I can’t stop Affinity players from winning, I might as well make winning as annoying as possible for them. Sadly, I realize that my hopeless squabble with the best deck in the metagame is of no concern to you. You’d much rather read about a fun, unique, and hapless deck that makes use of Fangren Hunter’s natural synergy with Underworld Dreams. I know there’s a combo here somewhere, but since I can’t find it, I’ll indulge in one of the safest genres of Magic strategy writing: The Deck Update (cf. Richie Proffitt, Profiting from the Same Cards Week After Week, 2004). Yeah, I know that kind of pun-friendly teasing is pretty rich coming from me. Sorry. Let’s start over.
An Apology from the Author
Please excuse the first previous paragraph.
The Basics
The metagame, like Michael Jackson (token rap reference; really, just try listening to Invincible) and Cher, has a different look about it every week or so. On March 24, an article appeared on StarCityGames suggesting a twist on the traditional Ravager Affinity build (Incidentally, you’ll find the present article quite hard-going unless you’ve read the old one, The Wicker Man.). When I wrote that article, the Standard metagame looked rather different than it does today. Most obviously, back then, Tooth and Nail was primarily a Block Constructed fairy tale. I, for one, had no idea at the time that this fairy tale would have such a happy ending. Also, in the ensuing weeks, the various Aggro builds competed with each other over how many artifact removal cards they could maindeck, U/W Control made a minor comeback, Biddingless Goblins made a major comeback, and some idiot posted a U/R Cowardice deck list.
The changes in the metagame have necessitated a new discussion on how to play the Wicker Man and some changes to the deck’s sideboard. For your convenience, here is the deck itself, unchanged from the original article:
The Wicker Man
12 Colored Creatures
4 Leonin Elder
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Emissary of Despair
Artifact Creatures
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Ornithopter
12 Other Artifacts
4 Skullclamp
4 Genesis Chamber
2 Welding Jar
18 Lands
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Ancient Den
4 Glimmer Void
4 City of Brass
2 Darksteel Citadel
Sideboard
4 Purge
4 Terror
4 Second Sunrise
3 Altar’s Light
Questions
To begin with, I’ll cover three questions posed in the forums at the time of the deck’s first publication.
1) With So Many Colored Spells, Isn’t the Wicker Man Much Slower than Traditional Ravager Affinity? Interestingly, though the Wicker Man is somewhat slower in some senses than most Ravager Affinity decks, it does not (and did not when the original article was written) include more colored cards than the typical build. All Affinity decks use four copies of Disciple of the Vault. Emissary of Despair and Leonin Elder are matched (or overtaken) by other decks’ Shrapnel Blast, Shatter, Dismantle, Oxidize, Naturalize, Electrostatic Bolt, and Atog. The double-colored mana casting costs shouldn’t be an issue, since the Wicker Man has twelve sources of both Black and White mana.
2) If You Side-Out Genesis Chamber against Goblin Bidding and Ravager Affinity, Why is it in the Maindeck? This, of course, is a good question. The sideboard cards are very narrow, and any one of them would, if in the maindeck, end up being useless in a number of match-ups. Genesis Chamber, on the other hand, while not fantastic against Goblins and in the almost-mirror-match, is never dead. The Wicker Man ought to be beating traditional Ravager Affinity in any case, and Genesis Chamber is fantastic against Control. Due to the current prevalence of maindecked artifact destruction in even Standard’s most aggressive decks, however, the Wicker Man is no longer at all slower in terms of attacking than most Ravager Affinity builds, and Goblin Bidding has been partially supplanted by Goblins, a deck which, lacking recursion, doesn’t punish as much the playing of Genesis Chamber (though since Goblin Sharpshooter is still a menace, side-out Genesis Chamber anyway).
3) Why Not Put Smother in the Sideboard? Yes, why not? I have to confess that Purge, despite its classy symmetry with Terror, was a mistake. Only useful against Ravager Affinity and Zombies (Lord, no!), Purge lacks versatility. Against Ravager Affinity, the only creatures you’ll ever want to remove are Disciple of the Vault, Ornithopter, and the occasional Arcbound Ravager. Smother takes care of these just fine though Welding Jar can be irksome so far as the last two are concerned.
Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to simply replace Purge with Smother. After all, Purge does do the job better and should only be removed for good reason. The trouble here is that while Smother can stand in for Terror against Goblins and Goblin Bidding, it won’t get you very far when you’re paired-up with a Control deck. I’m not so concerned about being ground into fine powder by Eternal Dragon, but the thought of an Exalted Angel gleefully gaining life for my opponent gives me flashbacks to ‘Nam (“We had Charlie pinned-down until the Vietnamese sent one of their commie Exalted Angels over the hill.”). Still, the sideboard doesn’t need eight creature removal spells. This will be resolved later in the article.
Altar’s Light
As previously noted, the most significant change in the metagame since the original Wicker Man article appeared has been the stellar rise of Tooth and Nail. The Wicker Man’s maindeck and sideboard include only three cards (Altar’s Light) that can answer Darksteel Colossus. Admittedly, this is still three more answers than most decks possess, yet the weakness of others is no excuse for personal negligence. The easiest response is to add another Altar’s Light to the sideboard. Altar’s Light’s first purpose was to remove Lightning Rift and Astral Slide, two enchantments that give the Wicker Man a lot of trouble. It had the secondary purpose of disposing of Damping Matrix, an artifact which, while bothersome, is not nearly as dangerous against the Wicker Man as it against traditional Ravager Affinity builds.
Today, Altar’s Light is perhaps most important as a Darksteel Colossus – and Platinum Angel – slayer. Let us not, however, be too hasty in pinpointing Altar’s Light as our go-to card in the Tooth and Nail matchup. Many Tooth and Nail decks utilize either Leonin Abunas or Lightning Greaves. In the former case, Leonin Abunas must be destroyed prior to the extraction of Darksteel Colossus or Platinum Angel. In the latter case, two Altar’s Lights would be needed, and something has gone horribly wrong with your draw or play-style if the Wicker Man ever has eight mana sources out at the same time.
Another possibility for the Tooth and Nail matchup is Wing Shards, a spell which also troubles Control. Wing Shards, however, is faced with two problems: 1) It can’t replace Smother or Terror as an answer to Disciple of the Vault, Goblin Sharpshooter, post-Bidding Goblin Warchief, or, for our purposes, Ornithopter; 2) Take my word for the fact that Wing Shards interacts poorly with Genesis Chamber.
Keeping in mind that Smother, Purge, and Altar’s Light won’t even touch Leonin Abunas and that Darksteel Colossus stands calm in the face of the former two of these three removal cards, a mixture of Altar’s Light and Terror is called for, probably three of each. This dilutes your own deck, but take a look at Tooth and Nail deck lists, and you’ll see that the best of them contain only one or two copies of their kill cards. Though this is a testament to Tooth and Nail’s abilities, it also gives a big edge to opponents who do have responses to Darksteel Colossus, Platinum Angel, and Leonin Abunas. Woe unto you if your opponent equips Leonin Abunas with Lightning Greaves while Darksteel Colossus is in play, but some things are best not thought about. Nevertheless, it’s helpful to remember just what Leonin Elder can do against a deck without removal. It will take at least three attack phases (often four turns altogether) for a single Darksteel Colossus to kill you, and to any Ravager Affinity deck, even three turns seems like an eternity (getting back to my previous point, an eternity is exactly how long Michael Jackson’s Invincible seems to last after your girlfriend’s put it on the stereo). [A smart man would consider finding a new girlfriend at that point. – Knut, who believes that musical taste is very important in a mating companion]
Arguments have been made for the promotion of Altar’s Light to the maindeck, but I’m not convinced that this is strategically sound. One of my arguments for the Wicker Man not missing Ravager Affinity’s Red element is that maindecked artifact removal is, at best, mediocre for Aggro. In a strange way, slower decks like Tooth and Nail seem to have been granted the right to live solely by the efforts of Aggro players to play retroactive artifact removal. I understand that traditional Ravager Affinity, Goblins, and Goblin Bidding all need to fight off Damping Matrix, but to me, it looks like meta-meta-gaming; each of these decks had the speed to outrace Control’s mass removal before Damping Matrix became a factor, a speed that has been lost as a result of slots filled with artifact removal.
To put it more concretely, I’ll Socratize myself for a bit. What effect does Damping Matrix have on Ravager Affinity? It stops Arcbound Ravager from being useful. Why is Arcbound Ravager useful? It pumps Ornithopter (note, however, that there is little net gain in power on the board). Why is a pumped Ornithopter useful? It can fly over opposing defensive creatures. How many non-flying defensive creatures do White Control decks have? None.
Similarly, with the exception of W/R Slide, most Control decks lack spot creature kill; you’ll rarely want to sacrifice artifacts to Arcbound Ravager for the pseudo-combo win when your Akroma’s Vengeance-holding opponent is perfectly happy to kill those artifacts for you. Now, don’t get me wrong. I understand that Damping Matrix also stops Skullclamp, but if traditional Ravager Affinity and Goblins decks played threats in place of artifact removal, they would be less hamstrung (no offense intended toward the Westphalia Pork Producer’s Association) by the shutting-down of Skullclamp. If nothing else, Damping Matrix costs three times as much to cast as Skullclamp and is, therefore, rather inefficient removal. Additionally, quite often, Control decks will take care of their own Damping Matrix with a rushed Akroma’s Vengeance. I’ve yet to see someone hold back an Akroma’s Vengeance against Affinity for fear of destroying Damping Matrix.
Simply, I believe it’s a mistake for Ravager Affinity (the Wicker Man or otherwise) to maindeck artifact removal, even (maybe, especially) the expensive Altar’s Light. Therefore, Altar’s Light should stay in the sideboard and only come in against W/R Slide, Tooth and Nail, and a number of lower-tier decks.
Other Sideboard and Maindeck Issues
The sideboard now stands at: 4 Terror, 4 Second Sunrise, 4 Purge, 3 Altar’s Light. Even though the creature removal count is too high, it’s no good just replacing Purge with Smother, because this would keep us at eight spells, and four copies of Smother can’t completely fill the role of Terror on account of Exalted Angel. The number of Terrors could be lowered, but eventually, we’d get to the point where there would be too few of them to sufficiently threaten opposing Angels.
But why use either Purge or Smother? Not only are they useful solely against Ravager Affinity, yet it’s in keeping with my anti-reactive slant to make sure that the Wicker Man is trim and in good Aggro fighting condition. Besides, the Wicker Man ought to be able to clean up in the mirror match, removal or not. Leonin Elder negates your opponent’s Disciples of the Vault, so the most common target for Purge or Smother would be Ornithopter in an attempt to force through Emissary of Despair. Since, however, the Wicker Man also runs Ornithopters, it can out-threaten traditional Ravager Affinity regardless. Let us, then, remove four Purges from the sideboard. How these four slots are filled depends in part on your Regionals metagame. Suggestions will, of course, come later.
Emissary of Despair
Understandably, Emissary of Despair’s inclusion in the maindeck is rather contentious. It might be a weakness on my part, but I loathe playing cards that are dead in certain matchups, thus my unwillingness to maindeck creature removal like Smother and Terror. In non-Ravager Affinity match-ups, Emissary of Despair will often be sub-par, yet it will never be useless. In game one against Goblins and Goblin Bidding, when combined with Genesis Chamber, it can end the game just as quickly as it could against Affinity. B/G Cemetery will go into convulsions over it. Now, consider its possible replacements. I’ve already said why I dislike Altar’s Light in the maindeck. Smother and Terror are possibilities, but the one is pointless against Control and the other is groan-worthy against Ravager Affinity. Possible replacements for Emissary of Despair will be discussed below, and I must say that, in spite of my liking for the card, some of its competitors have unique advantages of their own.
Second Sunrise
Unlike the other spells mentioned, I can understand the desire to find a place for Second Sunrise in the maindeck. This instant has no truly bad matchups and, discounting Genesis Chamber from the mathematics, effectively doubles the speed of your pseudo-combo. As an additional bonus, it can combine with Arcbound Ravager to temporarily boost your mana.
Unfortunately, a hand with Second Sunrise in it is always problematic. Though it allows you to over-extend against Control, it necessitates your keeping three mana (two of them White) open, a difficult task in an eighteen-land deck. On the other hand, you will often get a”free turn” just prior to your Control opponent’s third turn; it is sometimes reasonable to assume that the Control player will spend his or her turn three casting Damping Matrix. Therefore, it safer than usual to tap your lands the turn before this could happen. As I discussed earlier, Damping Matrix is not a huge danger for the Wicker Man and, if nothing else, means that your opponent isn’t running Mindslaver.
Just the threat of Second Sunrise (signaled by three open mana) will make your opponent think twice about playing Wrath of God when you have a Disciple of the Vault on the board. Of course, non-W/R Slide players should play their mass removal as soon as possible anyway, since careful Wicker Man players will ensure that things only become worse in the future. Nonetheless, you’ll find that lower-skill players who’ve encountered Second Sunrise in game two will fear it in game three and wait at least a turn or two for you to tap out. Make sure to disappoint them. Few of today’s Control decks play counterspells, increasing the effectiveness of Second Sunrise.
Second Sunrise is also sometimes helpful against Aggro decks. The only problem is, when playing Aggro decks, you should never have three mana open. Never. I’d give a thought to bringing the card out of the sideboard against B/G Cemetery though. It makes Death Cloud simply awful if you have a Disciple of the Vault or Leonin Elder in play. As a final note, remember that Second Sunrise doesn’t bring back Genesis Chamber-induced Myr tokens.
Pulse of the Fields and Wing Shards
Pulse of the Fields, the new Control plaything, makes matchups more difficult. Your damage and life loss will need to come in large chunks, not little batches. This is all the more difficult due to the constraints that Wing Shards put on you; attacking with one, giant Ornithopter is not always a sound idea.
Further Considerations
A number of other cards are noteworthy possibilities for fine-tuning the Wicker Man’s maindeck and sideboard. These are more metagame-dependent than those previously considered. This time around, I won’t provide match-up analyses and sideboarding instructions. Even with the changes I’ve made, you ought to be able to figure these things out for yourself (if not, it probably isn’t a good idea for you to be playing this deck).
Sunbeam Spellbomb
This is not as bad as it looks. If nothing else, it thins the deck, but it also causes problems for Ravager Affinity and Goblin Bidding. If you expect your Ravager Affinity opponents to place more faith in Disciple of the Vault than Myr Enforcer, by all means consider this as a replacement for Welding Jar.
Darksteel Citadel
Though the Wicker Man works with its current number of lands, adding a Darksteel Citadel in place of a Welding Jar can be helpful if, again, your opponents’ Ravager Affinity builds are less beatdown-oriented.
Scrabbling Claws
I don’t think I need to explain this sideboard option too thoroughly. It’s for Goblin Bidding, not Control; Eternal Dragons aren’t your big worry against MWC.
Stabilizer
Second Sunrise is a great help against MWC, but W/R Slide is much more difficult as it has the ability to either burn or slide away Disciple of the Vault when a mass removal spell is on the stack. The Wicker Man has more problems with W/R Slide than most other major decks (hence three copies of Altar’s Light), so an extra shot of aid out of the sideboard might be useful.
Weathered Wayfarer
Weathered Wayfarer could be an interesting choice for a Control-heavy metagame. Your non-Ravager Affinity opponents will usually have more lands than you do (especially considering the number of Tooth and Nail and MWC decks running around), and you could always use extra sources of colored or non-artifact mana in the Control matchup. Weathered Wayfarer allows you to bide your time, not overextending until you have sufficient mana for Second Sunrise. This is a potential replacement for Emissary of Despair due to the fact that a metagame that rewards playing Weathered Wayfarer is rarely a metagame that’s friendly toward the Emissary.
If you think your Regionals field might be favorable for Weathered Wayfarer, also consider finding a way to work Second Sunrise into the maindeck, giving you both more mid-game combo power and greater late-game attack power. Even in Ravager Affinity-heavy metagames, Weathered Wayfarer (combined with Arcbound Ravager) thins your deck for profit. While it’s true that Weathered Wayfarer is easily dealt with (though no more easily than Emissary of Despair), it’s important to remember that any targeted removal aimed at this White cleric is a spell that won’t be harming your Black ones.
Viridian Shaman
As a replacement for Emissary of Despair, Viridian Shaman could be as funny as a three-legged donkey doing cartwheels over a field of herring. Eight of your lands can produce Green mana, and considering Genesis Chamber, it’s good not to take too many creatures from the deck. I wouldn’t dare running four of these, but a couple of them would be, at the very least, cute.
Aether Vial
I’m a big fan of Aether Vial, and it’s yet another card that I’d consider using instead of Welding Jar if your metagame is relatively slow. Besides popping out Viridian Shaman (if you choose to go that route) at instant speed, it grants Emissary of Despair pseudo-haste (meaning, if Aether Vial has three counters on it, your Ravager Affinity opponent has to assume that you can attack with Emissary of Despair next turn, forcing him or her to either keep creature kill in hand or hold an Ornithopter back for blocking. Against Control (even W/R Slide for once), flinging Disciple of the Vault into play in response to a mass removal spell is cruel yet satisfying.
Ivory Mask
A case has been made for the inclusion of Ivory Mask, an enchantment which complicates things for both Goblin Bidding and Ravager Affinity. Note, however, that once again, you really don’t need more help against Ravager Affinity, and the chances of Goblin Bidding pulling a combo over your eyes are severely reduced by the presence of Leonin Elder. The same goes for Tooth and Nail decks running Fireball; they have to have an awful lot of mana to be able to kill you with direct damage.
The deck, then, looks something like this with the bold slots being, in my opinion, those most easily variable:
12 Colored Creatures
4 Leonin Elder
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Emissary of Despair
Artifact Creatures
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Ornithopter
12 Other Artifacts
4 Skullclamp
4 Genesis Chamber
2 Welding Jar
18 Lands
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Ancient Den
4 Glimmer Void
4 City of Brass
2 Darksteel Citadel
Sideboard
4 Second Sunrise
4 Terror
4 Other
3 Altar’s Light
Corrections
The original Wicker Man article included a number of mistakes. To begin with, though the sideboard only contained three copies of Altar’s Light, I wrote as though there were four when sideboarding (Foreshadowing?). Additionally, I suggested Terror and not Altar’s Light against Combo-Clerics, a decision which Clerics-connoisseur David Kotsonis informed me was incorrect (Blast you, Leonin Shikari! Blast you, Lightning Greaves!).
There’s a Light
In conclusion, I believe that the Wicker Man is a viable alternative to traditional Ravager Affinity builds. Recent metagame developments have only made the deck better. Now that traditional Ravager Affinity decks have become slower, the Wicker Man’s built-in hate is all the more deadly in the almost-mirror-match. At the same time, the rise of Goblins at the expense of Goblin Bidding makes Genesis Chamber less dicey. Despite its higher speed, straight Goblins has much less staying power than Goblin Bidding, and the Wicker Man doesn’t lack cheap blockers. Also, the fall in Blue’s popularity gives Second Sunrise a boost. Overall, the field has become noticeably slower.
Even if you choose not to run the Wicker Man (and let’s face it, if everyone ran the deck, the sideboard would have to be changed again), you should at least be aware of its existence. If nothing else, the Wicker Man can outrace U/R Cowardice and still be quirky. Clearly, in my attempt to desecrate Ravager Affinity, I’ve joined the”if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” group. Unlike most of this group’s members, however, I’m suggesting a deck which lets people know that even though you’re playing the biggest deck in the metagame, you really, really hate it.
Best of luck,
Adam Grydehøj
[email protected]
*I would like to thank my contributors for their enormously helpful ideas and opinions.