When we left off last time, we had gone over many of the possible additions Planar Chaos brings to the table. Now it’s time to take a look at what looks to be one the most powerful new archetypes that PC brings to Block Constructed. Wild Pair basically creates a valid card advantage and win engine for a relatively small investment.
The cost has been brought up as a major detriment, but really it only is until you realize practically every half-decent threat in the format costs four or more. Besides, you’re playing Green, the odds on you not running mana-producers are between slim and none. Plus the deck can easily contain Wall of Roots, Riftwing Cloudskate, and other ways to slow down aggressive decks. So to me, time isn’t really a factor for this type of deck.
The key to Pair decks effectiveness come down to two main factors:
1. How quickly Pair can come online; and end the game from that point?
2. Can the deck actually win in a reasonable fashion without resolving Pair?
Number one will depend on the exact contents of your deck, so let’s start by breaking down the mana acceleration and color fixing we’ll have access to with our base Green deck.
Mana Acceleration Choices:
Search for Tomorrow — Gives the deck a one-drop, cheap mana acceleration and an easy way to fetch splash colors (which a deck like this would benefit most from). Seems like an auto-include.
Gemhide Sliver — Not really an efficient choice due to its small stature, but again, the ability to make multiple colors of mana is a big plus for this deck. There really aren’t too many ways to get the proper lands needed outside of multiple Terramorphic Expanse early on or a resolved Search for Tomorrow. So though I think it’s sub-optimal, I could see some people using it.
Wall of Roots — Wow, Wall of Roots is the best mana accelerator in the format. Not only is it great at stalling out normal aggressive decks, but it’s also one of the few mana accelerators you can count on to make G for a couple of turns. The possible-double usage also can come into play when using either the gating creatures during the opponents end step or casting Mystic Snake. Wall of Roots actually seems quite underplayed right now for how effective the card really is. I think if you looked closely at it, you’d see just how much better many Green decks perform when resolving a turn 2 Wall of Roots.
… Okay, enough gushing. Let’s get on with this.
Magus of the Library — I was so happy when this card first came out, because I figured in slower formats it would be amazing. Unfortunately even in this format I’ve rarely been able to actually use its drawing ability to any useful effect. Then the problem with using it as a mana-accelerant is how limited it is. Wall of Roots is far more efficient and difficult to kill, Search is great, and even stuff like Prismatic Lens and Gemhide Sliver at least make different colors of mana.
If you run multiple Scryb Ranger, then the value goes up because you can actually double tap it for a turn and help power up the draw ability at the same time. But that means running Scryb Ranger… I think you can do a little bit better than Magus, even though I want the new Library to be effective.
Prismatic Lens — The big downside to using this is all it does is make mana. Lens isn’t going to be doing any blocking or searching via Wild Pair; not to mention you don’t gain any mana if you need to use it for color. On the plus side, there are far fewer artifact / enchantment kill cards being played (at the moment, at least) than high-end creature kill cards, even in sideboards. So weigh that and think about if it’ll make the deck or not.
Mwonvuli Acid-Moss — Right about now you’re probably going ‘Whaaaaa…’ and I wouldn’t blame you. The card may not be very impressive at first glance, but it gives the deck a much-needed piece of disruption while accelerating into your six-drop. Ultimately that’s the key, the extra Forest you get from it is just as important as blowing up an opponent’s land for an extra turn. Think of this card as a different kind of Reap and Sow and you can see why I think it’s worth playing in the deck. Besides, turn 3 LD is great in this slow format.
Yavimaya Dryad — Not amazing acceleration, but 1GG gives you a 2/1 creature out of the deal.
Okay… after I got over my initial infatuation about it, I realized Acid-Moss and Lens were just better most of the time unless you were playing against Scryb & Force. Realistically, the creature you get with it doesn’t justify the limited color production you’ll get from the slot.
…
If I were to pick a set of mana accelerants for the deck, I’d say the front-runners are Search for Tomorrow and Wall of Roots. Now it’s a question of what we want filling the final mana acceleration slot. For mana slots nine through twelve, I’m taking Acid-Moss for the added disruption effect and to give the deck an effective play later in the game that can potentially cut colors and slow opponents.
Now we have a base of:
4 Wild Pair
4 Wall of Roots
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
The next question is what creatures we want to use in conjunction with Pair, as that’ll determine what colors the final deck ends up using. From just a glance, Blue immediately jumps out with a number of good Comes Into Play guys, but White and Red also have arguments with their respective gating and creature kill men. Let’s start with what Green creatures seemed to work what the splash colors bring to table creature-wise.
Green Creatures
Spike Feeder — Spike Feeder simply has no decks to feed on in this format yet. Feeder’s combination of a cheap body to throw in the way of aggro while gaining four life is a good deal. The problem is that the Feeder doesn’t play well with Pair, nor is it of particular use against the Teferi decks which plague the MTGO format. So consider him as a board choice against WW and nothing more… yet.
Timbermare — Overall? A solid beatdown creature that also happens to be pretty good at fetching out Bogardan Hellkite; nothing to get too excited over, but possibly worth a few slots to help win games where Pair isn’t an option.
Groundbreaker — Cute trick. That’s all it is.
Scryb Ranger and Spectral Force — I lump these two together, because a lot of their value is dependent on working together. The two cards have a deck named after them, so running them together certainly isn’t out of the question as a secondary plan to winning with Pair. It helps that each of them can contribute to Pair if need be: Scryb Ranger can fetch out a singleton Draining Whelk, and Spectral Force can grab a Spectral Force. Let’s face it, nothing is going to stop two of these trampling monsters at the same time, short of a Damnation.
So is it worth six or seven slots? If you’re sticking to colors where you don’t get access to Dragons, I see it as a much needed way to win the game that plays well with the bounce, LD, and limited counters the deck would already be running.
The Green Dragons —If you don’t want to run Spectral Force due to the number of slots it takes, and are willing to stretch the mana (Or play a version specifically in those colors), then Intet, the Dreamer and Teneb, the Harvester are both great additions to the deck. They both have relevant abilities (the Desire effect may be a little random, but in a deck like this flipping another CIP creature, Dragon, Pair, or Harmonize seems fine) and will typically end the game in three swings or less.
Do I really need to go on about how good a huge Dragon is at ending the game?
Blue Creatures
Riftwing Cloudskate — This little guy is probably the MVP of the Blue men in my limited testing. When you don’t have a Wall of Roots to drop, it gives you a turn 2 play, it removes nearly every single threat from play (at least temporarily) and can help disrupt mana if needed. Being a 2/2 also means he’s one of the easiest creatures to fetch out via Pair. The only real question I’ve had with Cloudskate was if I should include three or the full set.
Voidmage Husher — You might wonder why I even mention him. A few people have brought up the idea of Husher being the main recursion method for Pair. Needless to say, paying 3U to get him down and then having to cast another spell to get him back is ridiculously mana intensive and complicated. Run Whitemane Lion if you want a recursion engine.
Mystic Snake — The best counter in the deck. Right now I’m running four, but I could see how having two in hand is a bit awkward at times. So I’ll admit Snake may end up working better in a slightly more limited role. I’ve been very pleased with having Snake to stop opposing non-creature threats, while fetching Riftwing to take care of any in-play issues.
Draining Whelk — A terrible counter for the most part. Yeah, it can win games if the opponent walks into it, but otherwise you’re paying six mana for what amounts to a bigger Mystic Snake. Yes, playing Scryb Ranger as instant speed and fetching Whelk is great fun, but many times it just strikes of overkill or flashiness. I won’t dismiss it entirely; if you run multiple Ranger and Spectral Force it can still be useful as a one-of, otherwise stay away.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir — On one hand Teferi is another way to protect and sneak Pair into play. In addition it gives all your creatures Flash, which could come up for a number of combat issues. On the other hand it asks your manabase to produce an obscene amount of Blue mana and really, other than in being slightly better in conjunction with Pair, what does Flash on all your men buy you? Ultimately I’m not running Teferi simply because getting GG and UUU was too much of a strain on the manabase even, with the acceleration.
Red Creatures
Avalanche Riders — Awesome when you cast them normally; kind of meh when you use Pair with them. I actually got a couple of e-mails suggesting how awesome it would be to have an U/G/R or U/G/R/W version that could simply use Riders, Cloudskate, and Acid-Moss to bounce and destroy the opponents manabase. That was really the key: Avalanche Riders are great turn 3 or 4 plays, but the later they appear, the more useless they become. You never want to Pair them out and have a much lesser effect when you play them later, unlike Snake and Cloudskate (which are pretty much always good). Still, if you were planning on using Red and the secondary theme is LD + Intet, the Dreamer, it could be worth some slots.
Stingscourger — A limited Cloudskate. It’s fine if you aren’t going to be running Blue, but if you are then look elsewhere for utility.
Firemaw Kavu — Bleh. I’m only mentioning Kavu, because for some reason my friend will refuse to stop playing him against me. I’m guessing it’s a desperate attempt to make him appear in a non-limited deck. Hear that, Jeff? I’m not giving in quite yet!
Bogardan Hellkite — Congratulations, if you can hard cast or Pair him out, you’ve probably just won the game. Doing 5 damage and getting a 5/5 flyer will shut down nearly any aggressive deck in its tracks, and it’s one of the best creatures you can ask for if Pair isn’t making an appearance. If you choose Red, definitely fit a few Hellkite into the deck.
I should probably mention Volcano Hellion or something, but honestly I’ve found no use for any of the Red creatures. Good luck to everyone trying to find a Coal Stoker into Pair into bounce combo somewhere in the format.
White Creatures
The Gating / Rescue creatures (Whitemane Lion, Stonecloaker, Dust Elemental) — We can pretty much immediately remove Elemental from the equation for the three creature requirement. Next were left with Lion or Stonecloaker. The easy choice here is Lion, because it’s simply cheaper than Stonecloaker and the extra body size really isn’t going to be an issue.
Anyway, if you run White you want three or four Whitemane Lion purely because they turn Wild Pair into an auto-win. In addition, Lion provides a cheap resource against enchantment destruction by fetching out Mystic Snake at instant speed and then coming back to do it again later. In the mid-game it can be used to save Wall of Roots that has been overused, so they can come back down at full strength.
The Lion is the reason you’d want White in the deck in the first place.
Cloudchaser Kestrel — An effective way to permanently deal with opposing Wild Pair, Sacred Mesa, Stormbind and other annoying enchantments that bounce may not be effective against. The WW in the cost is a bit of a downer, but you only really need one of Kestrel to fetch out via Pair anyway. A good answer when Cloudskate won’t get the job done.
Other White creatures — None of them were really efficient enough, nor could be fetched out via Pair often enough to be worth that much thought. Jedit’s Dragoons is solid, but the 2/5 body makes it nearly impossible to fetch out, while its normal price tag is too steep when you could be making a Dragon or casting Lion multiple times. Aven Riftwatcher’s problem is much the same, the 2/3 body makes it generally unfeasible to fetch out of the deck, and even if you could, gaining two life is nothing special in the short-term.
You’ll notice I didn’t really go over any spells other than creatures and mana acceleration for the deck. That’s because I’ve found very few spells worth spending the mana on that actually help contribute to finding Pair or stall the game more than a normal creature would. Right now the short list of spells I’d consider running in the deck are Harmonize, Think Twice, and Cancel. Realistically Cancel is a little too slow (since you aren’t likely to have UU up by turn 3) and reactive for the deck pre-board, but post-board against control you can afford to play a bit more slowly. As for the other two, I prefer Harmonize purely for the amount of cards drawn, but I’m open to discussion on Think Twice usefulness.
So now that I’ve run down much of the list for splash colors, I’m sure your wondering exactly what the best colors for the deck would be. Unfortunately I don’t have the exact answer for you; however my general consensus on certain cards gave me two builds. One is a G/W/U design focused around utility, countering, and Spectral Force. The other is G/U/R, which relies more on Dragons to get the job done if Pair can’t. Here are two of my test lists; they’re far from being optimal, and so I suggest taking a good look at them, playing some games and considering if the numbers feel right.
Creatures (21)
- 3 Mystic Snake
- 4 Wall of Roots
- 1 Draining Whelk
- 3 Riftwing Cloudskate
- 2 Scryb Ranger
- 4 Spectral Force
- 4 Whitemane Lion
Lands (25)
Spells (14)
Creatures (21)
- 3 Avalanche Riders
- 3 Mystic Snake
- 4 Wall of Roots
- 2 Bogardan Hellkite
- 3 Riftwing Cloudskate
- 3 Intet, the Dreamer
- 3 Timbermare
Lands (24)
Spells (15)
As I said above, the numbers probably look a bit wonky, and I’ll say that these are starting blocks for Wild Pair decks. I don’t expect anyone to pick up and go start winning PEs with these exact configurations. As you can see though, the idea in both is to have a set of win conditions that aren’t dependent on resolving Pair. In addition, both decks still run at least 10-12 cards that are just very good with Pair and can create a large amount of card and board advantage in a short period of time.
Hopefully this will give you a decent starting point to create your own Pair builds. If you feel I’ve missed something important to either increase the speed or power of the deck, let me know! The format is still very young, and due to mid-terms I haven’t had much of a chance to test the decks yet. With luck, that’ll change soon though. In the meantime, I’ve got an Art History exam in 10 hours so I’ll you next week.
Josh Silvestri
Team Reflection
Email me at: joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom