One of the decks that caught on right before the first week of PTQs was underpowered B/W Aggro of various sorts. I took a real liking to such decks, tinkering around with the lists online in my spare non-legit testing time. The only reason I can imagine that I believed testing these decks was worthwhile was because they reminded me of Vintage-type disruption decks. They attack specific pressure points where many decks aren’t accustomed to being continually struck.
Hand quality is critical for nearly every single deck in Extended, save for maybe Boros or a similar “every card is roughly the same” deck. As a result, Duress and Cabal Therapy have more potential to cripple decks for only a single mana than nearly any other Extended season in recent memory. Think about it for a moment. Even considering decks that aren’t obviously dependent on specific cards (like No-Stick or TEPS), most of them revolve around a few cards that are just better than everything else. So a deck that absolutely destroyed an opponent’s hand quality seemed solid enough to me. If Zombies can come up just a little bit short of making Top 8 at a 198-man PTQ, then certainly B/W could, right? Unfortunately, what I found was closer to downright depressing.
The problems stem from the fundamental strategy many B/W decks are built with, and the fact that a third of the field’s strategies are relatively unaffected by discard and mana denial. This forces decks like B/W into a difficult balancing act between fighting the Red and Green hordes or letting up on their “good matches,” which lead them to suffer many more close losses. Most of them are forced to run a bunch of rink-a-dink creatures with no more than two toughness or power, with maybe Jotun Grunt stealing the show. Unfortunately, that’s what many decks are forced to run due to constraints on creature quantity and the amount of disruption required.
However, testing these decks did relay to me that Duress plus Cabal Therapy (or Gerrard’s Verdict) > Format. If you can correctly name Therapies, you have one of the best disruption packages in the format against nearly any deck currently seeing play. The problem comes from the other disruption being overcosted or forcing too many burdens on deck design. Simply put, somewhere along the line, somebody has to put a stop to the madness and say no. No, you can’t actually run twenty disruption spells and no card manipulation, because your hands suck worse than Mannings in January. However, there are two deck templates I want to look at today that are based on the principles of B/W while keeping the threat density intact; B/W/G and B/W/U.
We’ll start with the B/W/U version.
Creatures (19)
Lands (23)
Spells (18)
I was quite amused by the deck, reminding me of an updated Dump Truck build from seasons past. Mark Hendrickson made a Top 8 at the Texas PTQ with an eerily similar build that ran the Trinket Mage plus a toolbox set-up. I had tested such a configuration, but it was never quite useful enough for me to warrant keeping it. With his success, I’ll need to reconsider that conclusion.
For reference, the version differences between the two builds are as follows:
-3 Trinket Mage
-1 Engineered Explosives
-1 Pithing Needle
-1 Tormod’s Crypt
-1 Sensei’s Divining Top
+3 Jotun Grunt
+3 Smother
+1 Polluted Delta
Replace the artifact lands with appropriate basic lands, five or six should be enough.
My board:
4 Kataki, War’s Wage
3 Pithing Needle
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Deathmark
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Jotun Grunt
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
The basic premise behind this type of deck is simple; you want to disrupt the opponent as much as possible for the first three turns and then start playing out your threats. You’re not trying to fight opposing aggro decks like Flow Deck Wins and BDW on their own terms. You simply want to decimate their hand and support cards, and then fight them in an attrition war with your remaining threats. In that sense, Descendant of Kiyomaro is just a cheaper Exalted Angel in the deck. Typically, you won’t be playing him until the opponent’s hand has been decimated or they’ve already used most of their in-play resources. Eventually Jitte, Think Twice, Confidant and Descendant should let you dominate the remaining plays most aggro decks have left. The disruption effects on control and combo should be self evident, so I won’t extol their virtues.
Basically, this deck isn’t that powerful, doesn’t have the number of threats decks Zoo and BDW have, and doesn’t run any “auto-win” type combo like Trinket Angel does. So why play it?
The key to this deck and its variants is that these type of decks force opponents to play at your level. You have answers to everything an opponent can play, even in game 1. This deck features a huge assortment of cards that cripple opponents while not costing you much card advantage in the process.
The sideboard has something for just about every match. However, the two Tormod’s Crypt are metagame dependent, and the fourth Jotun Grunt is there simply because having four in the maindeck was too difficult to squeeze in. Not to mention having two in the opening hand is a pain in the butt. Other considerations for the board you may like better for those slots are: Threads of Disloyalty, Seal of Cleansing, Think Twice, Cabal Therapy, and Merieke Ri Berit (This was a wacky idea to beat Aggro Loam’s men).
Boros / Flow Deck Wins
These matches are all about correct resource allocation and getting the most out of Jitte and Descendant. Think of the match in the same vein as Trinket Angel versus Boros, except your disruption is much better and you can actually kill pro-Red men. That being said, the main creature threat they have against you is still Silver Knight, since first strike plus burn can crush all of your men. This means you have to be careful with your pieces of removal when using them on non-Knight creatures, especially because you can’t afford to fight Knights equipped with Jitte or Cloak.
Remember that, when choosing between playing a Verdict, Smother (Explosives post-board), or a creature on turn 2, you nearly always want to go with the spell. The exception is Silver Knight, as most of the ways to deal with it are more mana-intensive than “Firebolt, swing.” The idea is to reach the mid-game in a position in which you’ll have a couple more cards in hand than the BDW player in order to effectively use Descendant and Jotun Grunt. Consider that all of your men other than Meddling Mage are worth a burn spell from the opponent, and you’ll quickly learn the correct “bait” to keep yourself hovering just above four or five life.
It’s not a great match, but it’s certainly winnable once you learn to drag them into playing on your terms. Post-board it’s far easier to take them on since you have a wide range of removal tools, including a mini-Wrath, the full four Jitte, and a few quite hard-coated creatures.
One final note: you’re doomed against the builds that run Vindicate and Molten Rain together. The same if they managed turn 3 and 4 Rain on you. Your manabase is made to support you to three or four lands in play in the first five turns. Any major stunt in this is bound to be fatal unless you’ve already laid a creature and Jitte down.
I grouped the matches together because I had mostly similar results. The deviation that gives FDW an edge over you is due to the increased number of three-toughness men. This means you can’t rely on your guys trading in a pinch. On the plus side, it means Jitte carriers, Grunt, and Descendant are liable to live a lot longer when not in actual combat. An early Flow is usually game, and this combined with the better men means this is an unfavorable match for you compared to BDW. Dealing with multiple Elephant tokens and Kird Ape’s backed by burn is simply more treacherous than bears and burn.
Sideboarding
-4 Duress, -3 Meddling Mage
+3 Engineered Explosives, +2 Deathmark, +1 Jotun Grunt, +1 Umezawa’s Jitte
Basically, you turn into a removal-happy version of aggro-control. EE means they have to play very carefully with board commitments, and between Deathmark and Smother, you can easily wipe out any singleton creatures they plan on enhancing with Cloak or Jitte.
Trinket Angel
Ah mirror matches, how amusing. In essence this is a mirror, but sadly for you Lightning Helix is just better than anything anti-aggro you pack pre-board. An attrition war also is nowhere near as effective, thanks to Counterbalance and Exalted Angel. It’s this sort of match where you really wish you could just run Masticore and be done with it. So expect maybe three or four wins out of every set of ten game 1.
If lucky, you can steal games an early Verdict or Jitte plus Descendant. If you’re not… except a long struggle, with your creatures staring at one another. If they’re smart, burn will be saved for your Dark Confidants and Descendants, and you’ll end up in the awkward position of needing to topdeck or force attacks through. The one major advantage you have is the complete lack of non-CB countering ability they have. Hence you can try to just ride an early Descendant or Jitte to victory, since they need to be dealt with the hard way.
Sideboarding
-4 Duress
+2 Deathmark, +1 Umezawa’s Jitte, +1 Engineered Explosives
Post-board, life gets easier because you have more Jitte than all the netdecked builds and you have additional removal. That’s it. No brilliant game-altering strategies here. Just play tight and save your removal for the biggest threats like Exalted Angel and opposing Grunts. Make the most of your larger men and Jitte advantage while you can.
No Stick (Scepter-Chant)
This match can look one of two ways to you. If you’ve seen this deck (or a similar one) play against Chant multiple times you’ll believe it’s a favorable match. If this is your first time, you’ll probably notice the few amount of “real threats” and scoff at the discard saying Spell Snare will save you. It’s closer to the middle of both perceptions, but I’ve found this match to be good pre-board.
The keys to the match are three-fold.
1. Unless it’s the only way you can win, never over commit to the board. Chant players still loathe to use Wrath, tapping out against less than three creatures. The unknown factor comes into play here as well, as Meddling Mage and Dark Confidant can make any board position seem a little bit scarier for the opponent.
2. Maximize Duress and Vindicate. I can’t stress this enough for newer players. First turn Duress isn’t always the optimal play, but maybe 90% of the time I see people go for it anyway. Unless the entire plan of attack is predicated on having perfect information of the opponent’s hand, it’s far more worthwhile to save Duress until between turns 3 and 5.
Why? Because that’s when you can use it to effectively protect a spell and make the best use of perfect information. If you cast Duress on turn 4 and then either play a Dark Confidant or Vindicate on a key land, you’ll find out which play has the better chance of succeeding and which card you want further down the road. Even if they decide to counter it, they’ve then left themselves wide open.
3. Don’t get frustrated if an early Scepter drops. Yes you’ll probably lose to it. However, I’ve seen a number of people give up (not conceding, but playing without confidence or care) against even an imprinted Fire/Ice. Remember, you have outs to any Scepter imprint except Orim’s Chant, just try to make the best of things with your few large men and Vindicate if possible. If not, try to gain some information and scoop when time permits. Post-board you have a bunch of options, so don’t be so negative when they hit one of their few auto-win plays.
Sideboarding
-3 Smother, -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
+3 Pithing Needle, +1 Jotun Grunt
I’m a minimalist when it comes to boarding. You could also decide to cut some of the two drops for Engineered Explosives or Kataki for additional Scepter hate if you feel the need. Personally I feel you should keep the maximum amount of threats in the deck while adding hate. Of course, this could all go out the window in game 3 if Exalted Angel takes center stage, but that’s why you tested, right? In that case you may be forced to keep some amount of Deathmark and Smother in the maindeck.
U/W Tron
Similar to the No Stick match. A little worse in one sense, yet better in another. Confusing, aren’t I? Here’s the thing, the Tron match is wildly swingy. I’ve dropped four games in a row, just to come back and win streaks of half a dozen. It’s completely dependent on hands; do they get an early Tron? Does their hand fold to turn 1 Duress, turn 2 Verdict? Meddling Mage naming Wrath of God followed up by more creatures winning before Repeal becomes a threat?
The guidelines I found for the match are like so:
1. If they get an active Tron by turn 6 and aren’t at five life or lower (not bloody likely from your perspective), you lose.
2. Hitting Talisman / Signets with Duress or Vindicate can be as crippling as hitting Tron pieces. Many players instinctively keep hands with multiple colorless sources, because they have one of these artifacts in hand with a cheap cantrip or cycler to look for more colored mana. Before boarding, few decks have any viable option to stop this type of hand. Yours does, take advantage of it.
3. Meddling Mage targets are nearly always Wrath of God or Decree of Justice; followed up by Thirst for Knowledge or Fact or Fiction depending on how much information I have. Mindslaver is effectively a ten mana Time Walk that might kill a creature of yours; it’s not a true threat in the same sense as DoJ. Don’t bother naming it, even though it seems scary.
Sideboarding
-3 Smother, -3 Umezawa’s Jitte
+4 Kataki, War’s Wage, +2 Engineered Explosives
My plan post-board is to turn their useful mana artifacts and Sun Droplets (If they run them) into liabilities while running more two drops. EE is an arguable inclusion into the deck post-board; I started boarding it to deal with Soldier and Angel tokens. However Jitte can sometimes pull the same effect while dealing extra damage in the meantime. On the other hand EE is cheaper and doesn’t have to actually connect to be properly used. So right now I side with EE.
Desire (TEPS)
This match is favorable for you; of course, you’ve probably figured that out from the original list. The absolute worst thing they can do to you is cast an early Burning Wish and go off via Empty the Warrens for 10-12. Otherwise, just name Burning Wish or Mind’s Desire with Meddling Mage, make vicarious use of your discard, and have fun smashing them. There isn’t much to say in terms of strategy, it’s very straightforward. You can either disrupt them long enough for your creatures to get the job done or you can’t.
Sideboarding
-3 Smother, -3 Umezawa’s Jitte,
+3 Kataki, War’s Wage, +2 Engineered Explosives, +1 Jotun Grunt
You want as many men as you can get to help race, and Smother and Jitte tend to be the most useless cards in the deck in this match up. That said, if you expect multiple ETWs to be brought in against you, then EE becomes a logical inclusion. If you don’t expect and ETW except out of the board, perhaps you could simply keep Jitte in the maindeck as your answer.
Possible Variants
Despite the breakdown of the B/W/U version, there’s another version that may be effective that I haven’t given its due. I haven’t done too much testing with this exact variant, so I’ll leave you the list and answer any questions anyone has about it in the forum or via e-mail.
Creatures (15)
Lands (22)
Spells (23)
As you can tell, both decks started from the same roots and simply evolved in differing directions. This build is centered much more about combating other aggressive decks with card advantage creatures and a few good aggro deck hosers. The cute board trick I use to help my control matches is simply splashing for FDW’s best tool in Destructive Flow.
I actually believe this deck has just as much, if not more, potential than the above deck, so I figure why not share the love.
Postscript
As you now know, SCG has moved to a weekly column based content structure. As such, I’ll be writing about the Constructed formats specifically. My decks, tweaks on popular decks, testing and observations on the metagame will be my main forte. However, since this requires me to write more often than usual, I’ll be more open to suggestions of what you may want to see. For the next couple of months I’ll be working purely on Extended, so if you have a specific element you want to see explored and I can accommodate it, let me know!
Thanks for reading all.
Joshua Silvestri
Team Reflection
Email me at: joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom