At the moment, there seem to be a few decks that are humiliating the rest of the field in various Top 8s in Grand Prix Trials and other Block Constructed tournaments, including the most recent double Pro Tour Qualifier in Hollywood. From what I hear, Mirrorweave Kithkin took Friday’s PTQ, and Saturday’s was likely won by Faeries but I haven’t seen confirmation anywhere. As far as the decks to beat according to overall numbers from GPT and such… Kithkin, Faeries, Elves, and Elementals, with Doran as an honorable mention number-wise. The middle three probably won’t surprise you if you played any amount of Block on Magic Online 2.5, as nearly every Premier Event had some combination of those strategies.
Index:
A1: Kithkin
B1: B/G Elves
B2: Mono Green and W/G Elves
C1: Faeries
D1: Elemental Aggro
D2: Elemental Control
E1: Demigod Control
A1
Kithkin are back, in large part due to two cards from Shadowmoor: Spectral Procession and Mirrorweave. Now excuse me for a mini-tangent: Craig and some of my testing partners can confirm that I’ve been extolling Mirrorweave’s virtues for a while now. The card acts like a cheaper instant-speed Overrun in this type of deck, as well as serving some defensive purposes against sweepers like Firespout and Final Revels, with a few other niche considerations (fizzling Mistbind Clique). It gives Kithkin a decent amount of free kills from opponents playing lords, or even just a large creature, when you can swing in with five or six and they can only block two.
Spectral Procession was a rather helpful addition, giving the Kithkin deck some cheap evasion, mass removal recovery, and enough guys to activate Windbrisk Heights immediately on the next attack. Combined with the threat of Overrun, Procession on turn 3 or 4 could signal an immediate alpha strike or Heights activation that isn’t crippled by spot removal.
For reference, this is what the Kithkin decks mostly look like now. Many people have either seen the deck performing on Magic League (the first version I saw belonged to Redblade), or simply deduced the majority of it from the builds pre-Shadowmoor. This just happens to be my version of it.
Creatures (23)
- 4 Cloudgoat Ranger
- 4 Goldmeadow Harrier
- 4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
- 4 Knight of Meadowgrain
- 4 Wizened Cenn
- 3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
Lands (25)
Spells (12)
Not much in the way of frills here. I switched Thistledown Liege with Wilt-Leaf Liege, because the fact that it was a Kithkin came up approximately* never. But the only real difference in my build from many I’ve seen; is that I cut the 26th land for the 4th Mirrorweave and I run more anti-aggro sideboard cards. Personally I’ve had very few problems running 25 land, even with the increased amount of four- and five-drops in the deck. Meanwhile, running the 4th Mirrorweave gives me a notably higher chance of either drawing it by turn 4/5 or hitting it with Windbrisk Heights. Even if I kept the 26th land, I would likely cut a Surge to get the 4th in.
* Because you know there’s always that one game or match in which you just want to boot yourself in the head since you switched.
Sideboard-wise, when I shipped my G/W Elves deck to those fellows going to Hollywood, I had a set of Pollen Lullaby. When they asked why, I replied simply that it wrecks swarm decks in the mirror. This still holds true, as in many close races with Kithkin it comes down to a turn or two where one player holds the advantage and can dictate combat or board position either via overwhelming force or Mirrorweave. Pollen Lullaby basically is a way to help win close races that many decks in the format simply can’t deal with, especially if you win the clash and get two free attack phases. Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile is the slower more appropriate response to Kithkin. Basically, she dares the opponent to swing in or try to stop your creatures from dealing damage; the only downside about her is the 2WW price tag, and the fact that she can be removed via Oblivion Ring.
As far as the rest of the board, Inquisitor’s Snare is a nice cheap way to beat up Red creatures and Doran. Wispmare is the easy answer to Oblivion Ring and Bitterblossom, since it can’t be Peppersmoked away easily like Elvish Hexhunter. Meanwhile Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender is a one-mana walking counter to Firespout, which is the bane of the deck in the first place.
B1
Elves just won the Pro Tour, so one could imagine how it can easily port over to Block Constructed and do a lot of damage. One could play a bit of swap meet with the PT-winning deck, but rather than arguing about what card replaces Tarmogoyf, I’ll just show you an example of a G/B Elf deck that came in 2nd from a 70 player Japanese Grand Prix Trial.
Creatures (26)
- 4 Imperious Perfect
- 4 Shriekmaw
- 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
- 2 Bramblewood Paragon
- 4 Chameleon Colossus
- 4 Devoted Druid
- 4 Kitchen Finks
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (8)
Sideboard
As you can see, all the standard power cards are here: four Chameleon Colossus, four Profane Command, and some Garruk Wildspeaker for good measure. Also, if you take a good look at the mana, you’ll see a very solid base that’s only going two colors. If Masaaki had desired, he likely could’ve fiddled with the numbers and ran Doran and White board cards with little problem.
Meanwhile, the usual elf base has been cut back a bit, only using a small cache to take advantage of Imperious Perfect, Paragon, and Vanquisher. Tower Above may seem odd to see outside of a Limited deck, but the card is absolutely crushing in a mirror. It crushes the biggest blocker they have almost regardless of cost and P/T difference, usually gets some trample damage through, and also usually keeps the road open to swing with a few other men by clearing the way. Nath, on the other hand, went from being from a card that used to decide a lot of slower attrition matches at the very start of the format to being relegated to niche status. There simply are better things to do with your time and resources.
B2
Featured in one of the articles covering the PT was Ruud Warmenhoven and Osamu Fujita’s builds of Mono-Green Elves, featuring such greats as Jagged-Scar Archers. The funny thing is the Mono-Green version of the deck was arguably better than the B/G ones in the translation to Block. You basically had an insane mana engine from Heritage Druid, a lot of anti-Faeries cards from Lys Alana Bowmaster, Cloudthresher, Archers, Chameleon Colossus, and the power of Mosswort Bridge. The main worry comes from Firespout, which is a tremendous beating that we didn’t need to deal with earlier. This can still be overcome, as about a third of your relevant elves survive outright, but it definitely becomes an uphill struggle if you get pegged by one.
On the flip-side, you have a really strong threat base against spot removal, the ability to go broken if Heritage Druid is taken out quickly, and you can use Primal Command better than almost anyone. Why? Well, Primal Command has an ability that doesn’t see a whole lot of play, but I find cripples a good many decks in the format – its Fallow Earth section. With an aggressive deck like this, casting Primal Command on a land on turn 4 is potentially crippling, while on the draw for most decks it is backbreaking. Oh, and if you nail a Vivid land and they need to replay it as their land drop? You’ve pretty much won unless you got hit by a Firespout.
The alternative to getting beaten up by Firespout then becomes to adopt a W/G version of the elf deck. If you look at the W/G/r beatdown list I presented a few weeks ago for Standard, you’ll notice that 90% or so can be converted over to Block Constructed. The only real switches are that Cloudthresher becomes more important, and Heartmender becomes a realistic option because a decent number of Green decks will be brawling with one another. Heartmender and the set of 7-8 other Persist creatures means your men will be able to chump or trade at will and then repair eventually. If I were to follow that line of thought, it would lead me here:
Creatures (33)
- 3 Cloudthresher
- 4 Imperious Perfect
- 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
- 3 Elvish Hexhunter
- 3 Heartmender
- 4 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Safehold Elite
- 4 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
- 4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
Lands (24)
Spells (3)
Sideboard
Pretty straightforward… play guys, attack with them, crush the opponent. The only trickiness comes from Weave, and I’ve already covered that card. You could run Oblivion Ring in the deck, but I prefer Cloudthresher as extra maindeck insurance against Faeries, since your game 1 against them isn’t anything to write home about.
The sideboard is in flux, and this is just for an open field at the moment. Post-board against Faeries you go up to a full set of Thresher, and Bowmaster / Oblivion Ring can keep Bitterblossom and the rest of the non-Clique army in check. Gaddock Teeg is there against the huge mana control decks and Mannequin entities. Chameleon Colossus is a bit of a metagame slot; it’s a very good card for facing a Doran deck and not bad against Bitterblossom, but awful against other portions of the field. This is effectively a metagame slot against those types of decks. Originally I had Pollen Lullaby in these slots to help against fast starts with Kithkin and to have a trump in the G/W or G/W/B mirror, which often was long and grinding or came down to an early Mirrorweave ending the game.
C1
For Fairies, very little changes in the transition to LOR/SHM Block Constructed. You lose Ancestral Visions (this really hurts) and Rune Snag (this hurts a bit less, but believe me when I say Broken Ambitions feels like garbage compared to Snag). You also lose Terror, but you can safely run Shriekmaw if you really had to run Terror effects in the maindeck. Sower of Temptation also becomes an often-seen maindeck card due to the creature-heavy aspect of the format. Peppersmoke also becomes a viable option for the mirror, and to kill off random elementals, goblins, and elves while drawing a card. As far as the sideboard options go, Consign to Dream seems like a solid enough choice to buy a lot of time against big Green and Doran decks, along with the traditional Thoughtseize and others.
Creatures (20)
Lands (24)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
Alternate Sideboard
4 Mulldrifter
3 Shriekmaw
3 Profane Command
4 Makeshift Mannequin
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
The alternate sideboard requires an extra land or two in the maindeck, but basically you transform from the normal Faeries deck into a much more controlling version that’s situated to play a late game against other aggro decks. Otherwise, it’s Faeries… you know what it does, how it does it, and approximately how well it competes.
D1
Elementals is the remaining deck that’s put up pretty solid numbers at GPTs thus far, and from what I hear one of the five-color builds made Top 8 at the all-Faerie PTQ in Hollywood. For what it’s worth, I actually think aggro, control, and combo versions can all work until the format is clearly defined, but rather than bore you, I’ll simply give you a brief summary and list about the aggro and control versions.
Creatures (26)
- 2 Ashling the Pilgrim
- 4 Flamekin Harbinger
- 4 Smokebraider
- 4 Rage Forger
- 4 Sunflare Shaman
- 4 Fulminator Mage
- 4 Intimidator Initiate
Lands (22)
Spells (12)
Sideboard
This is one of the most basic Red decks in the format. It succeeds for the same reasons that the Elemental decks at the PT finished highly on Day 2. The deck comes out very aggressively with its early drops and then enhances them into pinging machines with Rage Forger. Not only do all the creatures in the deck get a notable enhancement from Forger, but Intimidator Initiate allows them to attack in for another turn or two before getting knocked down in combat. Before, if you wanted to attack after Forger, you’d most likely trade at best and get a ping, now you have a real chance at getting notable amounts of extra damage in.
In addition, this aggro elemental deck has the advantage of alternate attack plans, rather than simply bashing away. The burn suite combined with Ashling and Sunflare Shaman can create a legitimate end game for the deck while eschewing the red zone. This deck also features the ability to curve, drop Fulminator Mage and possibly play or tutor for a second, and completely wreck an opponent’s manabase. A deck like Ten Commandments is completely shut down by such an attack, and is basically left to rely on Firespout and timely topdecks to recover due to how top-heavy it can be.
The sideboard is obviously basic answers to cards, Spitebellows for large opposing creatures like Chameleon Colossus and Doran, Shusher versus Cryptic Command and such, and Torment against Finks and Primal Command. The one oddity I’m sure that stands out is Knollspine Invocation. This card may be complete garbage, but by playing it you basically compliment your burn suite while ignoring removal and large creatures from the opponent. It serves much the same as Ashling; you invest into it for a certain amount of damage down the road. Alternatively you could try something like Shared Animosity and just overrun slow decks during the set-up phase, since a few swings with Animosity out will end the game. Wild Ricochet is another possibility.
D2
Creatures (19)
Lands (26)
Spells (15)
Sideboard
The control variant of Elementals pushed out by Gerry Thompson earlier this month is a good example of the other extreme of the deck. By abusing the evoke creatures, Mannequin, and Firespout you can make a version of Mannequin Control that doesn’t outright lose to Kithkin or Chameleon Colossus. The only downsides of the deck are the vulnerability of Smokebraider and lack of a singular scary threat. Mind you, these aren’t crippling, but rather eliminating Smokebraider can limit what the deck can actually do, as well as most of its card manipulation before Primal Command gets online. As far as the big threat thing, I bring it up merely because a card like Oversoul of Dusk would be a nightmare for the deck to actually beat, and there’s no easy way to race. Cards like Shriekmaw and Spitebellows do a great job of eliminating any large threat, but it assumes that you happen to have the card in hand* at that moment. Otherwise it only takes an untap for Oona to wreck the board or an attack from Chameleon Colossus to devastate a life-total.
* Or in the grave and Mannequin is in hand…
All that said, the deck is very strong and has a solid game against many of the swarm decks that have picked up popularity. Although it would be interesting to see how it held up against a top-heavy control deck like 10C, or even a big mana G/W/X.
E1
Finally we’ve come to the last deck on the agenda, and this is one I’ve been working on for a while now, seeing if the concept was viable. After countless iterations, this is how the deck looked.
Creatures (17)
- 3 Cloudthresher
- 4 Mulldrifter
- 3 Shriekmaw
- 3 Sower of Temptation
- 3 Demigod of Revenge
- 1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
The deck is basically a big Mannequin deck merged with the best Planeswalker and smushed with a lot of solid answers / threats instead of mostly utility. Demigod of Revenge and Oona are the main finishers in the deck, but realistically you’ll win plenty of games with stolen creatures, Shriekmaw, and beast tokens. Otherwise the typical game involves sitting around playing land and then throwing down huge threats until the opponent dies. Or drawing cards and casting utility to drain them of resources, and then beating them down with men. Or eventually resolving a Demigod of Revenge to bring back a friend and smash for 10.
Originally the deck ran Firespout purely in the sideboard (as you can see in the board, since that configuration is better against other slow decks), but I finally caved to the idea of running it maindeck as to not get brutally maimed by Kithkin every game I didn’t have a turn 2/3 Shriekmaw. The other problem was, much like the 10C deck, it started to get a bit too top-heavy for its own good. The defensive cards were great, but you needed to actually see them for it to matter. Drawing a second Demigod when you weren’t in a position to cast the first ranged somewhere between feeling awful and throwing your deck against the wall. Similar feelings pop up for Makeshift Mannequin which would sometimes be amazing, but other times would be obnoxiously useless since your man got removed by Oblivion Ring.
It struck me early on that the Demigods could simply be overkill, and removing them would make the deck flow better. This observation has remained, but often its ability to simply kill an opponent out of nowhere (or force blocks) couldn’t be paralleled with the remaining cards in the deck. That said, if I had to cut Demigod, I would run 3 Ponder to help smooth the overall draws of the deck and give it another bit of manipulation. The deck is full of really powerful cards, but the value of them drastically changes match to match.
As far as the sideboard goes, Kitchen Finks and the one-ofs should be self-explanatory. Bitterblossom and Wispmare are both used against other control decks (destroying Fertile Ground, Oblivion Ring, and Bitterblossom) and Faeries themselves. I’ve often found that by employing this strategy, my deck would become a slightly weaker Faeries deck in the first five turns, but completely dominate after that stage of the game. Remember, most of the cards in the Faeries deck are not good against you. In Standard it could be said that the core of Faeries was 20 very strong cards backed by a bunch of role-players. In this match Mistbind Clique and Cryptic Command are the main cards to be concerned with, Bitterblossom being an honorable mention, and nothing else even registers when compared to those three. You run the same eight, and though you have nothing that’s like Clique in this match, you have better cards overall, and far bigger threats.
With any luck you are now sick of reading about Block Constructed and have sleeved up something and started playing. If not, thanks for getting this far anyway, for all the good that it did ya. Good luck to those attending the Grand Prix this weekend.
Josh Silvestri
Team Reflection
joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom
Really tired
Top 3 for the week
1. Sowelu — I will
2. Avenue Q soundtrack — What Do You Do With a B.A. in English? / It Sucks to Be Me
3. Burial – Ghost Hardware