I just got through doing my usual laughing, head-shaking routine as I read over the Top 8 decklists from Grand Prix: Singapore on MagicTheGathering.com.
I can’t help it. Have you ever looked at a Japanese decklist and just thought, "Man, where in the world did that come from?" To be fair, I’ve always just assumed that they were operating on a different level from the rest of us, and that I would never understand how they arrived at the card choices they did. Look at Shingo Kurihawa’s list. One Sensei’s Divining Top? For serious? One Krosan Grip in the board and one Ray of Revelation? Two Tormod’s Crypt and one Extirpate? I’m no Balancing Tings player, but at a glance, I have no idea where these card counts came from. (More on this later, you forum-jumpers.)
There’s actually a lot of value to be found in correctly analyzing someone else’s decklist. Zac and I had a series of near-heart attacks when we found that people were replacing Razormane Masticore with Triskelion in our deck, and I bet Kurihawa would have a similar reaction if we replaced that "random" one-of Ray of Revelation with a second Krosan Grip in his list.
But we’ve always faced this dilemma when we download someone else’s deck for playtesting: if we don’t understand why a card was included, how can we possibly know how to play it? How can we know when to board it in or out?
Usually, we don’t want to put in the time to puzzle through the intricacies of the list, so we alter it to fit a model we understand instead. However, this is a lot like discovering that you can’t figure out how to fit Michaelangelo’s Statue of David in your living room, and solving the problem by busting out your hacksaw and giving Big D a flat-top haircut.
It’s still basically the same, right? What difference will a couple of cubic centimeters worth of alterations make? What difference will a couple of card choices worth of alterations make?
Like I said, I never understood how Japanese players arrived at the card choices they did… until this past Sunday.
Boy, did that second-to-last decklist ever make me happy. I tell you what, nothing feels better than waking up in the morning to see that a Level 6 Mage from Japan has made Top 8 at a Grand Prix with your deck. Seriously, how exciting is that?
Tomoharu Saito made the elimination rounds at Singapore with the following Tenacious Tron update:
Creatures (2)
Lands (23)
Spells (35)
I realized something, looking at Saito’s list. If I’d skipped out on this Extended PTQ season, I would have done the same laughing, head-shaking routine I always do when looking over his list. One Disenchant and one Dismantling Blow in the sideboard? Akroma’s Vengeance? Chalice of the Void? Petrified Field?
This time, though, things were different. That was my Petrified Field, my Crucible of Worlds, and Zac’s Chalice of the Void. For once, I knew exactly why these strange cards were there – we’d put them there!
Comparing Saito’s decklist to the (mostly similar) one I suggested in Tronnovation made puzzling through his card choices and counts pretty manageable. For the first time ever, I was actually able to look at a Japanese decklist and figure out exactly why the cards had gone there. What’s more, having gone through the exercise, I found that I agreed with practically all of his decisions.
You don’t get to Tomoharu Saito’s level by making "random" card choices, so it’s safe to assume he made the changes he did for a reason; the question is, what was that reason? Today I’m going to leave the hacksaw at home. I’ve looked through Saito’s list once, but now I’m going to give it a thorough going-over. I’m going to walk around it, examine it from every angle, and figure out why he made the changes he did.
Ready? Let’s go.
-1 Razormane Masticore (Maindeck)
+1 Wrath of God (Maindeck)
First up is my beloved Razormane Masticore. The ‘Core – while certainly a beating – has a big, fat Ancient Grudge bullseye taped to his forehead these days. At the deck’s inception, the Grudge was not that popular. The Boros decks that splashed Green sometimes boarded it over Kataki, but Trinket Angel had few or no Disenchant effects with which to remove it. Besides, the Boros of days past had no Reckless Charge, so you had time to set Chalice at two before playing the Masticore anyway. Opposition had Krosan Grips in the board, but didn’t know to board them in until Tenacious Tron became public knowledge and the U/G players came to expect them. Finally, Aggro Loam was not very popular at the time, and had only Grips in the board besides.
Things are different now. Aggro Loam is very popular, and boards not only Ancient Grudge, but Shattering Spree as well. All Boros-With-Green / Zoo / Gaea’s Might Get There decks are boarding Ancient Grudge, and are bringing them in regardless of whether or not they expect Masticore, just to kill Chalices and Signets and Moxen. Gerry Thompson U/B/r Trinket Tog build, which has made multiple PTQ Top 8s in the past two weeks, splashes Stomping Ground to play Ancient Grudge.
Saito took out the maindeck Masticore not because it has become weak in game 1 – it hasn’t – but because it will be boarded out against every single opponent in this environment. If Masticore is good against them, they will have some combination of Ancient Grudge, Krosan Grip, and Shattering Spree available to two-for-one you… and that’s simply too much hate for a guy that you’re planning on riding to victory by himself.
However, Saito has come up with a replacement “play one guy and ride it to victory” sideboard card against aggro decks. Check it out:
-2 Razormane Masticore (Sideboard)
-1 Platinum Angel (Sideboard)
+3 Exalted Angel (Sideboard)
Exalted Angel has a number of upsides and downsides compared to the ‘Core. Obviously, it gains life and Morphs, while Masticore costs less and interacts with Academy Ruins. The lifegain is fantastic against the burn decks, but the fact that the Angel costs one more means that sometimes she won’t be able to start hitting until it’s too late. The fact that she can’t shoot things is a big deal against Opposition, where she’s just garbage if the opposing deck resolves its namesake – but then again, she can sneak in under the radar much better. One of the problems with Masticore in that matchup is that if you have five mana, the opponent pretty much definitely has four mana (or will next turn), so tapping out is a risky proposition if they might also have the Krosan Grip to turn off your shooting capabilities. However, there are plenty of situations – say, when you have a Mox and are on the play, or when they lack acceleration, etc. – where you can morph in an Angel and then untap with countermagic mana open before the opponent can hit four mana and resolve an Opposition. Then you just unmorph the 4/5 on his end step and ride the counter-Angel strategy straight to the finish line.
However, all of this is inconsequential compared to the fact that Angel does not die to artifact removal. As per Mike Flores rule (paraphrased), “You must play in such a way as to minimize your opponent’s ability to disrupt you,” Saito plays Angel because he can ride it to victory even if the opponent has Ancient Grudge. They can still kill your Signets, but can they kill your 4/5 Vampiric Linked flyer?
-2 Chrome Mox
-1 Island
+1 Hallowed Fountain
+1 Flooded Strand
+1 Plains
Again, the artifact count is trimmed. Chrome Mox is fantastic in this deck, but getting it Grudged is a kick to the junk. Saito cut our initial count of four by half, but retained two copies instead of removing them altogether. I understand this compromise; you can’t really go too low on artifacts without hurting Thirst for Knowledge, and all our best openings start with Chrome Mox.
Also note that Saito has cut three effectively Blue sources for three effectively White ones – two of which also tap for Blue. Before artifact destruction began running rampant, our main complaint about Chrome Mox was that it only ever tapped for one color of mana, and with only three Wraths and two Decrees in the deck to Imprint, it was pretty much always Blue. With Saito’s fourth maindeck Wrath and three sideboarded Exalted Angels, though, early White mana is more important to him than it was to us. Changing the land counts in this way bolsters his White count while reducing his artifact count, both of which are updates I can get behind for this list.
-1 Chalice of the Void (Maindeck)
+1 Tormod’s Crypt (Maindeck)
Chalice of the Void, though amazing in many matchups, has become a riskier proposition in recent weeks. It’s still the disruption card of choice against TEPS, Boros, Gaea’s, and Scepter-Chant, but Chant has gone from being one of the most popular decks in the format to a tiny blip on the radar. The Boros and Gaea’s matchups are hurt by the switch, but Tormod’s Crypt is fine against TEPS because it acts as a zero-mana Meddling Mage on Sins of the Past. I have always boarded in my one Crypt against them specifically to do this, because it’s such cheap disruption.
Chalice isn’t the powerhouse it once was against Aggro Loam since they started maindecking Putrefy and Engineered Explosives, and I presume it is specifically this change in the metagame that has led Saito to maindeck a Tormod’s Crypt instead of the fourth Chalice. All it takes is one Gifts to set up a recurring Crypt in game 1, which will reduce Terravore and Life from the Loam – and therefore Seismic Assault as well – to inconsequentially weak power levels. Without those three cards, it’s mighty difficult for Loam to scrape together a victory against you.
With Loam being as popular as it is among top-tier players, I can easily see justifying this change for a Grand Prix, though I’m not convinced it will be worth it at the PTQ level. If you know Loam will be popular in your area, go for it, but if you expect more variety – especially in the form of TEPS, Boros, and Gaea’s Might Get There, I’d stick with the fourth Chalice. Also, I haven’t tried out the Balancing Act matchup, but it’s pretty clear that Chalice would be superior there as well.
-1 Serrated Arrows (Sideboard)
+1 Tormod’s Crypt (Sideboard)
Serrated Arrows is just out-of-date. It was originally included to kill Kataki and Dwarven Blastminer in long attrition wars against then-popular Trinket Angel, which really couldn’t be any further off the radar these days. I suggested keeping it in even after Trinket Angel faded from popularity, because Opposition was on the rise, but that deck has also waned in popularity and so the reasons to play Arrows over another sideboard choice have essentially vanished.
This third Tormod’s Crypt is pretty much for the Aggro Loam matchup alone. I could see bringing two in against TEPS, and there’s not enough Ichorid around anymore to justify a third on those grounds… but Loam’s popularity is such that it’s probably worth the slot by itself. As with the maindeck Crypt, however, if Loam is not as popular in your area as it was in Singapore, I would remove this slot in favor of something else.
-1 Platinum Angel (Sideboard)
+1 Akroma’s Vengeance (Sideboard)
I played a second Platinum Angel in my board mainly to help out with the Ichorid and Affinity matchups. With a full three post-board Crypts and five answers to Pithing Needle, Saito hardly needs help with the Ichorid matchup…and if the slot’s going to be devoted to the Affinity matchup exclusively, then why not focus the card more on beating Affinity?
By choosing Akroma’s Vengeance, Saito has done exactly that. With fewer Chalices and Chrome Moxen in his deck, Vengeance is not nearly as painful for him as it was in previous iterations of the deck, and there’s no question that it will be absolutely devastating if resolved against Arcbound Ravager and friends. Vengeance also has a third, potentially trickier use… but to explain that, I need to explain something else first.
-2 Repeal (Sideboard)
+1 Dismantling Blow (Sideboard)
+1 Disenchant (Sideboard)
Now I do love me some Repeal, but the reality of Extended these days is that there are some seriously dangerous artifacts and enchantments running around today compared to yesterday. Earlier in the season, the only equipment in the format was being played by Trinket Angel. Now Midrange Flow and Opposition maindeck it. The only enchantments of note were Worship (countered by Wrath of God), Counterbalance (irrelevant), and Seismic Assault (blanked by Chalice-for-two). Now there’s Opposition, Destructive Flow, equipment aplenty, and Blinkmoth Nexus in higher quantities than ever before. All of these call for sideboarded removal, which is why Saito put them in there.
Why one Disenchant and one Dismantling Blow? Why not two of one and zero of the other?
The reason you play one of each is that it sets you up to cast Gifts for an artifact or enchantment removal spell. If you don’t have a third artifact or enchantment removal spell in your deck, you can make Repeal and Condescend your third and fourth cards, setting you up to bounce and counter the offensive permanent if the opponent refuses to give you a way to directly remove it. If you’ve boarded it in, you can just put the singleton Akroma’s Vengeance as your third card – meaning you must be handed at least one Disenchant effect, regardless of what your fourth is.
-1 Ghost Quarter (Sideboard)
+1 Mindslaver (Sideboard)
With Dismantling Blow and Disenchant available to kill Blinkmoth Nexus, Saito’s only use for Ghost Quarter is land destruction against the mirror, against TEPS, and against Balancing Tings. Quarter is a straight-up Wasteland against Tings, and usually against TEPS – though some have opted to play a basic for protection – but it only turns a Tron piece into a basic in the mirror. This will put you behind on land drops, which is why I suggested using it as an extra land drop in the early game and as a Tron piece killer only in the late game once your mana production capabilities had reached an acceptable level.
Mindslaver is strong in all three matchups, but I’m not convinced that Ghost Quarter isn’t better. Obviously activating a Slaver is Game Over against Tings, but the consequences of casting it before you have ten mana available can be potentially dire for you as well; you may find yourself putting all of your permanents into the graveyard instead. It seems that Tings would be one of the few matchups in which recurring Ghost Quarter would be a reasonable endgame strategy, as they are virtually incapable of applying pressure of any kind without going all-in by feeding all their permanents to an easily counterable spell (barring Orim’s Chant, which falls easily to Chalice). Having said that, one sideboarded Ghost Quarter is sufficient to set up a lock via Gifts, so the second copy is still in question.
Of all Saito’s changes, I am most skeptical of this one, though it will be up to testing to determine if it is worthwhile or not. Based on my experience with the deck, I would prefer to bring in a second Ghost Quarter than a third Mindslaver against TEPS, the mirror, and Balancing Tings, and I would not board in either card in any other matchup. The thing is, I’ve found the main challenge in those matchups is to disrupt the opponent long enough to assemble the Tron, not to finish him off once the +4 mana boost comes online. I haven’t tried the third Slaver, mind you, but I’m going on record as mistrusting it.
And that’s the last of the changes.
So it turned out there was a reason for Saito’s one-Dismantling Blow, one-Disenchant, one-Akroma’s Vengeance sideboarding strategy. Turned out there was a big one, and because of the Affinity matchup factor, the choice was even more complicated than "this lets you Gifts for artifact and enchantment removal."
A closer look at Shingo Kurihawa’s "random" one-of Sensei’s Divining Top will reveal that it’s not a half bad card to fetch with Insidious Dreams, especially in conjunction with the Draco / Explosion plan. What if your opponent Remands the Erratic Explosion? You sure don’t want to be stuck drawing Draco next turn, and Divining Top protects you from that unpleasant occurrence. Dreams also fetches Extirpate, which is a million times better against Ichorid than Tormod’s Crypt is, just as Ray of Revelation is much better against Opposition than a Krosan Grip is. But how many people who will be playtesting against Balancing Tings as a gauntlet deck will just smudge the Top right off their list for a fourth Remand? I’ve certainly been guilty of such things in my playtesting experience, and I’m sure plenty of others are as well.
So take a closer look at those puzzling decklists. Try and think "why is that there?" instead of "wow, that looks awful." You might be surprised at how much tech you’ve been missing out on.
See you next week!
Richard Feldman
Team Tok-Tok, Volcano Born
[email protected]