This must be “nobody actually cares about writing” week on StarCityGames.com from what I’ve seen so far. [There’s always a lull between the Real Life and Online release of cards… When Planar Chaos hit’s the electronic streets, watch out! — Craig.] So, what do I bring to the table?
I was originally going to write a quick article on Time Spiral Block, since that’s what was overwhelmingly voted for, but then I realized it was rather pointless seeing as Planar Chaos is about to finally hit MTGO. So maybe in another week we can go over some of the constraints of the format, and give a good starting point to many of you.
After my last article, I’ve had to tell at least half a dozen of my buddies that, yes, the net-decked Aggro Loam deck that’s everywhere is what they should be playing.
A sad day indeed…
As I see the format, I break it down into a simple four-piece diagram.
The decks that use Life from the Loam
The decks that use Trinket Mage
The decks that use Gifts Ungiven
Everything else
Now before I get any comments about how some of these decks run both or “wah wah, my deck doesn’t run them and it’s still great!” here’s the thing… I use these distinctions because it gives me a clear idea of what deck is trying to smash my brains in, and how they plan on doing it.
Decks using Life From The Loam are going to attempt to bury me under card advantage, and a creature (or enchantment) that can use all those excess lands to ruin my face. See Psychatog, Seismic Assault, Solitary Confinement, or Astral Slide as examples of these.
A deck using Gifts Ungiven either has some really spooty graveyard / recursion effects they want to use to mess with me, and / or it has a toolbox with which to annoy me. Typically these are a little more reactive, but they have the ability to shift gears and simply win the prize when they get a chance.
Trinket Mage means I’m playing either an underpowered aggro deck (i.e. Not Affinity) that is using lots of men that are great because of general utility, or with narrow uses, or with Psychatog just to piss me off. That’s why this effect, although not as powerful as the others, is notable.
“Everything else” is just that: everything else. Decks are using an alternate engine for some reason, some of which are very strong* still and some not so strong**, yet many times people will ignore these three strong engines due to the amount of deck space they take up. This, to me, is a mistake, because over the long haul you need some sort of consolidated plan with some amount of control and resiliency. Every round is liable to be completely different than the previous, and will potentially require a new plan of attack or set of options to use your deck optimally.
* Artificer’s Intuition, for example
** Did I ever mention you shouldn’t count on seeing too many cards from only Dark Confidant and Sword of Fire and Ice? Yeah, you really shouldn’t… but you keep dreaming.
This isn’t to say all decks not running one of the mentioned three cards are bad. It’s just that the amount of synergy and power required tend to make these decks more match-up and sideboard dependent rather than skill oriented. Take Midrange Flow. If it runs into a deck that’s relatively immune to its namesake, then the match already begins as an uphill battle. If it has to fight a different type of threat – say, Trygon Predator – the lack of options suddenly becomes obvious and crippling. Draw a Putrefy or be ready to start taking two a turn, unable to play equipment in any meaningful way for the rest of the game, and flat out losing if they lodge their own piece of equipment on it.
That’s what I’m getting at when I refer to the lack of options many decks have. This Extended season features an incredibly varied field, and as it stands no deck has shown enough power to just blow through everything without having options available to it. That’s why I believe decks like Flow and Affinity get to Top 8s largely by virtue of numbers and match-ups; then they fall when they start to run into more flexible decks piloted by competent players in the Top 8.
I’ve received a number of messages and e-mails requesting a listing for the exact G/W/U deck I was referring to in my last article. Although I was using Kyle Sanchez build, King in the Castle, I have made a few changes that may help in some metagames. This is my current listing:
Creatures (22)
Lands (22)
Spells (16)
- 1 Sensei's Divining Top
- 2 Umezawa's Jitte
- 4 Armadillo Cloak
- 1 Tormod's Crypt
- 3 Chalice of the Void
- 3 Chrome Mox
- 1 Engineered Explosives
- 1 Pithing Needle
Sideboard
The board is a bit of a mess right now, but you get the general idea. Run something to trump artifacts, something to beat Affinity, something to beat Loam, etc. Mana Tithe is the “extra” answer I’m looking for against a deck that wants to try to Wrath me out of the game on turn 3 or 4 (I’m looking at you, Tron; I see you too, Tog).
The general principles of the deck have only changed slightly from the original contraption. Just a note, though… if you expect all aggro, this build is worse than the original. I had modified to instead deal with the slower decks like Loam and Tron.
The biggest changes were to the manabase, and then a couple of creature swaps. The original mana, to put it plainly, was completely dysfunctional for me. It gave me far too many mulligans and color screw scenarios for me to even conceive keeping it the same. Instead I altered the manabase to include enough basics to safely play against Destructive Flow without needing to keep Elves alive. In addition, the added fetches allowed the mana to be stretched to play Meddling Mage in the maindeck with few issues.
The creature swaps were removing men that were only good in the normal aggro matches (like Hierarch and Call of the Herd) and moving onto cards that were stronger against multiple types of decks. Meddling Mage compliments Chalice of the Void nicely, allowing for game 1 locks and allowing for more flexibility in how aggressive you can be. Trygon Predator is just insane, and I’d run him in any aggressive deck that can support his mana and has any creature enhancements. Trygon Predator will have targets against nearly every deck in the field, and is otherwise a solid evasion creature to Cloak up.
Now everyone is waiting for a brilliant Damnation deck to come along and wipe out the field. Unfortunately I don’t have any for you – the best I could do was think of Damnation plus Pernicious Deed plus Eternal Witness, and come to the conclusion that you successfully destroy half the format, because almost no aggro deck can stand up to multiple Wrath effects, especially when your equipment gets blown up as well.
In all seriousness, trying to “break” this format is like being severely beaten by an enraged pack of schoolchildren armed with cudgels. The best aggro deck I could come up with that uses Planar Chaos cards is the same aggro deck with a Mana Tithe in the board somewhere, just to say I was running something new. Forgotten Ancient called… he wants you to know Keen Sense is about seven years too late to actually do anything. Oh yeah, and Porphyry Nodes? Brilliant, now we not only do we have to deal with Damnation, but a nice cheap White hoser that can stall aggro decks all day.
I’m halfway tempted to just run Flying Men and Curiosity in a deck because so much of the removal has now become three mana or more. Yeah, it would mean the deck would be terrible, but I’d get my two cards back! Also it seems like a bad sign when I stare at Goblins and think, “You know, maybe the deck could be viable with Goblin Lackey… nah.”
Okay… too much rambling. It’s simply the frustration of not being able to click the format into a nice round hole to dissect and analyze. Oh yeah, was anyone else amused when they checked and Nightscape Familiar was still legal in the format? You think Tog will play it?
Here’s my plan if I had a PTQ left and I couldn’t play any of the top 17 decks in the format.
Step 1: Take G/W Slide
Step 2: Add Solitary Confinement, Sterling Grove, and Wall of Roots
Step 3: ?
Step 4: Profit.
Why not? Creature decks end up as a bye, you can actually Confinement into Chant lock opposing Loam decks. Heck, you even have Sacred Ground to trump Dreams if you want. Better still, you could kick the Loam player in the shins and then accidentally knock his deck across the room. Or hire a rabid hobo midget to hide in your bag, and come out when he’s under the table to start gnawing on the opponent’s foot. Why? Because it sounds fun to watch.
In conclusion: B/W is the worst deck ever. I hate it. You should be ashamed to play it, and your families will be forever shamed because of your indiscretion. Affinity players, you too. In fact, let’s just lump the TEPS players in too, because they can piss off with 10 minute do-nothing turns that end with “and then I fizzled.” This is what you can do with your decks.
Meet the toilet. And yes, that’s me laughing at you. If I was a fifteen-year-old girl with fangs and green hair.
Josh Silvestri
Team Reflection
Email me at: joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom