This week instead of one centralized piece, I’m going to talk about a number of topics that have been on my mind for a while and I just could never fit a full article around. So, apologies in advance if the disjointed structure leaves you hanging.
Mana Drain is dead, long live Mana Drain
So Mana Drain has finally been replaced in the metagame. I honestly wasn’t sure this would ever happen without meaning a restriction was on the way, but when Future Sight becomes legal it looks like it’ll actually happen. Cheers to Mana Drain for stomping on creatures and decks of all quality and color and helping to push Workshop decks out of the metagame. You had a good run, and eventually the pendulum might swing back to you, but for now have fun working on your golf swing.
Mana Drain provided two very important effects for Vintage control decks. The first is that it gave control a counter that could replace its own mana investment while setting up the next turn. The second function it provided was a discouragement to playing any non-Blue, non-instant cards that couldn’t be played within the first two turns. Basically Drains and artifact mana were the reasons Fish decks were allowed to exist. Drain kept the alternative beatdown decks out of the format, while being awful against the little Blue miscreants.
In addition the metagame has seen another shift to doing things faster and better than the opponent can. Ichorid is now a turn 2 type of deck, Flash reminds me of what SX was supposed to be, and Tendrils combo can risk going off sooner thanks to Pact of Negation. Suddenly it’s not so much a question of if you can protect your win turn, rather it’s a question of how much preemptive disruption you ignore or can answer in a short time.
Now perhaps you’re saying to yourself, "But that’s not true! Mana Drain is still the second best counter ever printed! Control will still play it…” To which I say, sure. However, I’m sure not going to bother giving it anywhere near as much time as I used too when plotting out deck ideas or tuning. There are bigger fish to fry now that you might have to deal with combo that wins on turn 2 with Force of Will and Pact of Negation backup.
Pact of Negation is the final nail in the coffin for reactive disruption that isn’t Trickbind. It simply obliterates any sort of Drain deck that wants to rely on its counters as a legitimate countermeasure to combo. Between Duress, Force of Will, Pact, Xantid Swarm, and Misdirection you can imagine the problems control will have stopping combo even with double counters in a single turn.
So I now say goodbye Mana Drain as a dominant force in the metagame.
Flash is the new specimen to watch
Flash is going to be a significant factor in future events once a list is optimized. Thus far, just as in Legacy, there are two main trains of thought with it. One is a very fast turn 1/2 deck focused purely around winning via Protean Hulk (using either the Disciple or Kiki-Jiki kill) or Academy Rector into Yawgmoth’s Bargain into Tendrils of Agony to take up the fewest slots possible.
Using Pact of Negation and Summoner’s Pact along with a Protean Hulk kill gives you one of the fastest decks in Magic history. The downside is the increased damage a Chalice of the Void can cause to your deck and the increased combo size, since the Hulk kill takes up at least eight slots in the deck. Not to mention Hulk and the random combo creatures are far worse than Academy Rector or Yawgmoth’s Bargain happen to be.
Despite this, the first thing I tested when thinking about Vintage Flash was a post-FS version of what amounts to a slightly better Legacy version of the deck.
4 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
2 Tropical Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Benevolent Bodyguard
1 Body Snatcher
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Karmic Guide
4 Protean Hulk
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Flash
4 Summoner’s Pact
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Force of Will
3 Pact of Negation
3 Daze
1 Echoing Truth
1 Chain of Vapor
A few notes about this particular version and why I prefer it over a number of other posted copies.
1. The manabase actually runs a lot of land. The few people I showed the list to always commented on this, because this version runs even more lands than even some Long versions. And of course not running a full set of Moxen always drew an eyebrow raise or two, this is Vintage right?
In actuality the logic behind these choices are simple. If you choose this build, Merchant Scroll is the best way to find Flash in a hurry and have wonderful Blue cards to pitch to Force of Will. This means there will be a number of games where you want to play Merchant Scroll and then go off on the following turn. The problem is your using a very small number of lands and Moxen as your secondary mana source; you are completely and utterly reamed by Strip Mine, Chalice of the Void, or Sphere of Resistance. Basically if you’re on the draw and they have any type of mana disruption spell you may as well of just smashed your gonads with a claw hammer.
Chalice of the Void and Null Rod were my main two considerations for running multiple Elvish Spirit Guide over any kind of Moxen or other artifact mana sources. The idea is simple, you only need to run 22-24 mana sources to get the full benefit of the 2cc mana cost of Flash, so why risk losing to cards that damage your mana base? For a minimal upgrade in resolving a two-mana spell, you’ve opened yourself up to a host of problems from decks like Fish and Stax, which would otherwise have major issues with you even when you aren’t winning on turn 1.
Here’s the thing about running land and ESG, I lowered my overall risk to mana disruption while losing out on a few turn one kills. Yawn. Guess what? If the deck is really so good that it puts all other combo decks to shame, the simple answer is to play Stax. Those nine or ten land builds get rolled by Sphere of Resistance so badly it’s hilarious. They may as well run Gemstone Caverns and eight ESG/SSG and hope for the best.
To be fair though, I’m amused that people think simply resolving Leyline of the Void or Tormod’s Crypt will sufficiently slow the deck down. This is not a deck you can beat with a single disruption piece, no matter how strong you believe it to be. These decks will need to run Xantid Swarm from the board, and I really wouldn’t mind using something like Regrowth in the main or side if I knew I wasn’t trying to win on turn two or earlier.
People are treating Flash too much like a Tendrils deck and its not. You can make Flash into one of the best combo control decks ever created or you can turn it into another Academy deck that gets to run more than four Force of Will.
Workshops may be worthwhile again
I’ve been really amazed at the results my team has gotten with what essentially amounts to Aven Mindcensor Stax. Sphere of Resistance and Chalice of the Void have never been better and Aven Mindcensor cripples nearly every relevant archetype in Vintage. Ichorid and Fish are still annoying, but can be dealt with via the normal means, Tormod’s Crypt and Leyline of the Void for the former and Gathan Raiders for the latter. Surprisingly enough, Fish can’t really beat a deck with a few removal spells and creatures that are bigger than Jotun Grunt.
The main issue I’m having at the moment is determining whether or not Ancient Tomb is needed in the deck in addition or splitting with Mishra’s Workshop. A turn 2 Mindcensor is just better than almost any normal disruption piece and still allows for a turn 1 Sphere of Resistance, Chalice of the Void at one, or many of the normal three casters. At the moment I prefer a 3/3 split, but this could change as the deck becomes more refined.
This all stems from my first thoughts, that the format will be moving towards the bigger and bestest type of attitude. Usually when this happens the manabases all take a major downgrade until the decks are optimized. People love to skimp on land or the total number of mana sources until they feel they absolutely need more. During this transition phase of the metagame, this is the best time for a properly configured Stax build to hit back. So I expect an impact of some sort to make up for the complete dry spell we’ve seen of the brown armies.
So Storm breaks every format?
Regionals are coming up and typically if I have the time free (i.e. I’m not stuck at work) I attempt to go each year. At the moment I’ve been stuck playing catch up in Standard and after asking a couple of buddies their opinion, the basic answer to what was the best in the format revolved around Dragonstorm. To confirm, I harassed my buddies Feldman and Craig to double-check this analysis. It went a little like this:
J: I’m lost, what’s actually good in Standard?
C: The top three decks Dragonstorm, Gruul, and Tron. Everything else is like Tier 2 and interchangeable.
J: Freaking Dragonstorm
Feldman already released his article on Tuesday, which revealed his thoughts on DS. Summed up the article confirms what everyone already or should’ve known, that DS is the best deck in the format and most of the Tier 2 decks (along with Gruul) just run no relevant disruption against it.
I’ve actually been running DS as my fun deck in Standard, just to help out whoever wanted to play the format. All I can really say about the deck is that I really like having 5-6 storage lands and that for some reason I have a sick obsession with running Aeon Chronicler in the deck to help against control, and to absolutely ruin discard decks.
At the moments the two most interesting decks – note I’m not saying best, but most interesting – seem to be R/W/B Smallpox Control and the B/G/U Dredge decks floating around. The Dredge deck has been covered by a couple of different authors already and the main thing they gain is Bridge from Below and the use of Dread Return to use Flame-Kin Zealot or Bogardan Hellkite to help get consistent turn 4 or 5 kills. The downside is how vulnerable the deck is to having its enablers removed, but if it gets them online only Dragonstorm really has a chance to win from that point on.
Smallpox Control strikes me as a solid choice because of the way it attacks Tron and Dragonstorm via discard and LD at the same time. The main problem with the deck is actually the completely unstable manabase, though Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth has gone a long way towards fixing that little problem.
Angel Control
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Godless Shrine
4 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Caves of Koilos
3 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
2 Plains
2 Orzhov Basilica
2 Boros Garrison
1 Oros, the Avenger
1 Angel of Despair
4 Firemane Angel
3 Phyrexian Arena
4 Damnation
3 Mortify
2 Wrath of God
2 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Smallpox
3 Boom / Bust
3 Castigate
3 Persecute
1 Debtors’ Knell
As you can see, it’s not exactly the norm as far as control goes, but land removal goes a long way I find. I’ll be keeping a testing log of the Standard decks I test over the next couple of weeks, so hopefully that will provide some insight into the format. So I’ll see you all next week.
Josh Silvestri
Team Reflection
Email me at: joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom