This week we’re back on the Extended trail, and instead of the usual trickiness or midrange decks I tend to cover, we’ll be going with the beatdown. I’ll be talking about RGW Zoo and some of the advantages it has in the current metagame, as well as some brief thoughts on TEPS updates and a quick shot on Knight of the Reliquary decks.
To sum up why I like the Zoo deck: I enjoy beating down with the stupid animals available from all the colors. However, most of the spells and manabase I play in the five-color version make me cringe. I definitely prefer the RGW version of Zoo, but I took issue with how reliant it was on Wild Nacatl or a Keldon Marauders attack. There just wasn’t enough burn for my liking; the best example I can give is the idea behind Molten Rain in the deck. If the opponent hasn’t played a creature yet and you hit Rain, the damage done tempo and damage-wise is absurd, and it becomes very difficult to lose. Other times, Rain was a really poor burn spell that had minimal effect on the opponent’s strategy unless he was mana-light to begin with. If you have a great draw already, then Molten Rain makes it even better, and the rest of the time it’s complete chance that it’ll actually be worth the mana and card invested.
Turn 1 drops are like free damage on turn 2 in everything but the mirror, and they usually get in for one more shot against Fae and combo. This is perfectly reasonable, and gives us a good average damage from one-drops with two power or more. Turn 2 drops are trickier, and Tarmogoyf is so ridiculously good that it can actually hold its own on the ground with zero support and deal a bunch of damage. Pretty much every other two-drop says it needs a clear board to do anything useful; or has it haste, gets in on turn 2, and then becomes useless (Hellspark or Rip-Clan Crasher). As a result, I hate almost any and all two-drops in the deck, and have cut the non-Tarmogoyf ones. Sometimes I miss the Marauders, but most of the time I’m pretty content getting one more damage off a normal burn spell or Scry.
The other problem with the deck in its current form is how much reach it loses if Wild Nacatl gets blown away from Path to Exile or something similar. This does have the upside of giving you the opportunity to play a turn 2 Sulfuric Vortex, but most of the time you can’t make up the damage lost with the cards the deck runs. By running the full set of Vortex and more burn in general, at least now you have the opportunity to burn them to death.
As a result of these concerns, I modified the deck heavily and came up with something that’s closer to the burn deck philosophy while still taking advantage of the Green men.
Goyf Burn
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Helix
4 Incinerate
4 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
1 Flame Javelin
3 Mountain
1 Temple Garden
2 Sacred Foundry
3 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Bloodstained Mire
The sideboard is usually fifteen out of these:
Choke
Gaddock Teeg
Kitchen Finks
Ancient Grudge
Duergar Hedge-Mage
Pyrostatic Pillar
Path to Exile
The exact configuration depends on what you expect from the field. Usually a set of Choke gets the nod no matter what, while the others are a bit more open for debate. Personally I prefer Hedge-Mage to Grudge in an open metagame, but killing Jitte is so important for this deck that the extra usage is probably better. Teeg and Pillar are both to cripple Storm, as you can usually goldfish them on turn 4, or turn 5 at the latest, so if you can stall them for a turn or two you’ll usually win. The numbers of those cards are entirely dependent on how much TEPS you expect to see at a 10-11 round tournament. I explain PTE a bit further below, but to sum it up, if you run more creatures then PTE is a equivalent to a better STP. Unlike Standard, Extended midrange decks have very little to ramp into, so hitting Finks or Tarmogoyf and them getting a land really isn’t much of a drawback. For you though, you get to keep enough open mana to make another play that same turn.
Creature-wise, only the most damage-oriented and best ‘general’ threats got to stay, and the men like Keldon Marauders and Mogg Fanatic got the axe. Ultimately I disliked both against other aggro decks, and they were marginal against combo. Fanatic is still great against Elves and Faeries, but the number of creatures he’s actually able to kill in many matches is insignificant. Hellspark Elemental was in the deck for a while, but testing showed that it ran into many of the same problems that plagued Marauders. I think if anything, the deck would want both or neither, and at that point Tarmogoyf might be cut out since you lean so much toward Haste.
Burn-wise, everything is pretty standard. With fewer worries about the board, I was free to dump Seal of Fire for Lava Spike and get the straight damage increase. In addition, the heavier burn count meant I could run Magma Jet and typically dig into the third land drop or clear the way for any gas. It usually isn’t a turn 2 play and it isn’t flashy, but the amount of damage from the card, plus the clearing it does with Scrying, usually averages more than just Incinerate.
The manabase looks like a pile, but that’s largely because drawing a basic Forest or Temple Garden is like getting your balls smashed by a claw hammer. I still run a singleton Garden purely to support Gaddock Teeg in the board, but past that I pretty much always want to start with untapped Stomping Ground (or fetch into Ground). Past that, I’ve never felt the compulsion to fetch any non-Mountain basics so that’s all that you’ll find in the deck.
Why is Goyf Burn or the traditional version of the deck good right now? Well, it has the best turn 1 play in the format in Wild Nacatl, the goldfish is only a turn slower than TEPS, and it still has access to a variety of hosers and disruption if it feels like it. Plus Sulfuric Vortex is one of the best cards in the format against control or midrange strategies, and this deck can easily run four of them. If you run a more creature-oriented build than mine, you also get Path to Exile, which is essentially the aggro Swords to Plowshares. Getting a Finks or Knight out of the way for W is amazing, and the extra land they ramp into is meaningless, because they literally have nothing to ramp into. Nice singleton Worm Harvest.
For TEPS players, the biggest problem is the increase in anti-combo cards appearing in sideboards. For the maindeck, Repeal is the best addition, allowing you to get by non-Gaddock Teeg cards without breaking the bank and still getting a card from it. Against aggressive decks, it usually buys you an extra turn if cast on a Wild Nacatl, and versus Faeries you can often just cantrip it off a Chrome Mox. Electrolyze is still fine, but just note that Vendilion Clique is still an option against Stifle effects game 1, and actually quite fine as a blocker and making sure opponents have nothing else absurd in their hand when you try to go off.
Faeries players are just going overboard with the number of Stifle effects they seem to be packing now. Okay, you’re 100% sure you can beat Gigadrowse? That’s fine with me. Now that you’ve loaded the deck with even more spells that don’t deal damage to me, how about I just run Xantid Swarm? If I get it in the opener and drop it into play, I win for free. If I don’t, I have a ton of time to find it and attempt to force it into play (Spellstutter Sprite being the only real counter you have against it, as Leak is easy to pay and Snare is ineffectual). Sure, it means I need to play Green in the manabase to help support the bugger, but when you’re covering an opponent in bees, that’s the price that must be paid.
Alternatively, you could go nuts and board into an entirely different plan against control. Just load up on Keiga, the Tide Star; Meloku the Clouded Mirror, or maybe a huge dragon like Rorix Bladewing. The point is that for post-board games, Fae is horribly positioned against this type of strategy. The only relevant counters they have are Mana Leak and Venser, and everything else is basically just dead. Game 3 they can try to guess what plan you’ll be using. Is this a good idea? Probably not. Is it a possible idea that could be good if someone figured out the right configuration? I think so.
Against discard, not a lot is needed, but if you dislike Ad Nauseam and are really worried about Raven’s Crime decks, run Quagnoth. It may be dead most of the time, but the opponent will be in for a rude shock when his opener is kept on the premise that you’ll be spending turns 1-3 discarding business.
Finally I’d like to talk about Loam decks and this obsession over Knight of the Reliquary, like it’s some savor to the archetype. Here’s a tip, make the deck not lose to dumb animals and burn, and you’ve infinitely improved it. Pretty much every single non-Slide version of Loam is a dog to Red decks, because they have a very limited early defense and almost no way to beat a burn onslaught on turn 4. Sure, Raven’s Crime and the big guys will certainly knock out Red if given enough time, but too many times a turn 1 Wild Nacatl with any sort of follow-up just crushes you. Kitchen Finks is by far the best defensive creature these decks commonly play, and that simply isn’t enough unless immediately followed by Umezawa’s Jitte.
If these decks had more cards like Wall of Roots, or more guys to carry an early pointy stick — heck, even more lifegain could help out – then it wouldn’t be such an issue. Problems occur when you try to add this stuff, because you then become more of a dog in matches against Blue and combo. The problem with Loam decks is lack of space; you can fit the core engine, some number of beaters, Raven’s Crime, Jitte, and some removal, and then suddenly you have something like 4-6 slots left to slant the deck to gain an edge in certain matches. As a result, the Loam decks have great game against sub-par or very average draws from opponents. Good hands from most decks just gain a big tempo edge on the Loam deck that requires the first three turns addressing before even starting to really play out its strategy. In this format, that seems rather suicidal, although the archetype can work, and Michael Jacob finish at Grand Prix: LA can attest to that.
That’s all for now. Hopefully we see some interesting changes popping up in the Extended metagame in the future. Personally, I’d like being able to play aggro again, instead of just being outclassed by blue and combo without running a billion hosers.
Josh Silvestri
Team Reflection
Email me at: joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom
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