It occurred to me that there are other people who are building cool and interesting decks for the format, and I’d like to start a semi-regular feature talking about them. The thought process started when Armada Games owner Aaron Fortino mentioned during EDH League last week that he wants to build a new deck because “gotta play blue.” Aaron is having some success in Standard with a post-Scars deck featuring Venser, the Sojourner, and it’s definitely giving him an urge for the Islands. There are so many new, interesting blue and white cards in M11 and Scars that I’m going to give Phelddagrif the rebuild it’s been wanting for a long time, but for now, let’s talk other people’s decks.
It’s Aaron’s current deck that I’ll feature this week: his build of Teneb, the Harvester, who’s a rather popular General. In fact, the official EDH forums (
forum.dragonhighlander.net
) list it as being second only to Sharuum, the Hegemon in raw numbers reported. What makes Teneb a good choice is that it’s in the colors (not to mention has an ability) that help you reuse your graveyard over and over. I’m not going to get into a Chapin-like breakdown of resource management, but I think we can agree without overstating the point that getting more than one use out of a card is good, perhaps even necessary in the format. (Okay, I’ll stipulate that casting Insurrection once is usually enough—especially right after someone casts a kicked Rite of Replication—here’s looking at you, Nate!)
I’m a fan of Aaron’s deck because it strikes the right balance. It’s strong, but not broken. It can do crazy, amazing things, but it always has to get played—it doesn’t just play itself. The best decks for the format are those like this that can attack, counterattack, punch, counterpunch, and need to have a real pilot making decisions, and not just someone searching up the “win” cards. I like it because its path to victory depends on what else is happening at the table.
Actually, saying that coalesces a number of my thoughts on the format. The best decks for the format are those whose path to victory depends on interacting with the other decks that they’re playing with.
Creatures
Academy Rector: As we’ll see below, Aaron’s running only six enchantments, but other than Awakening Zone, which I think he doesn’t really need in this deck, he really wants them on the battlefield. The Rector is the way to get them.
Acidic Slime: Acidic Slime is as close to ‘auto include’ for green decks as a card gets. Its utility is so great—it gets used a fair amount in the Armada League to take out lands that are getting out of hand, like Volrath’s Stronghold—that we often forget that its deathtouch makes it a pretty effective rattlesnake.
Angel of Despair: If you were going to make cards that are a reason to play these colors, Angel of Despair would be on it.
Aven Mindcensor: The card is used so often to blowout someone who wants to search their library, that we forget that the ability is a continuous effect and not an “enters the battlefield” trigger.
Avenger of Zendikar: In the world of EDH, there are many lands in play. Avenger is frequently a game-winner all alone (well, with his army of Plant tokens).
Dauntless Escort: The Escort seems a little less effective in EDH than in Standard, since you have to battle against multiple peoples’ Wrath effects.
Dust Elemental: This one seems like an Aaron F original. Although I imagine there are combo deck uses, Aaron most often uses it to save his guys from all those Wraths we talked about.
Eternal Witness: If you play Magic at any level, there’s nothing I can tell you about Eternal Witness that you don’t already know—at least from a strategic standpoint—so I went to the source and asked artist Terese Nielsen. What I can tell you is that this is one of the very few pieces she’s ever done that had no model.
Filth: When you see Filth, you automatically think Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. It seems like Filth has become far more popular in EDH than Wonder, which used to be the Incarnation of choice. Whatever happened to Glory?
Genesis: Another classic, old-school choice from a self-professed “love my graveyard” guy.
Geth, Lord of the Vault: Aaron is such a copycat. I put this in and was rinsing and rewashing with somebody’s Bone Shredder, and he had a nerdgasm.
Grave Titan: I’m collecting dollars for every time Grave Titan hits play, and someone says, “That’s going to be the best Titan in Standard.” I’m paying the mortgage with it this month. Not that Grave Titan isn’t awesome, but he’s not even the best Titan in this deck.
Harmonic Sliver: Aaron started the local vogue of playing just a few utility Slivers. I’m not a fan of this choice because of its potential downside: helping out someone else playing Slivers. For the two additional mana and the bigger body, I’d go with Indrik Stomphowler.
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni: Teneb’s Samurai brother, Ink-Eyes is a little narrower in that he can only get something from the graveyard of the person you damage, but that plus the Ninja ability to put all these “enters the battlefield” creatures back in the hand is pretty damn good.
Karmic Guide: Funny story: the foil version of this is thirteen times more expensive than the non-foil, which I assume sets the high water mark. Ben Bleiweiss can correct me, but I’m pretty sure EDH isn’t a significant driving force in card prices, so… what’s the deal here?
Knight of the Reliquary: A relatively new addition, and one that leaves me scratching my head a little. I played the hell out of this guy in Standard for sure, but there don’t seem to be any “gotcha” lands like Sejiri Steppe to go fetch. I supposed it’s deck-thinning and land-correcting, but without other lands-in-the-graveyard stuff (like Crucible of Worlds), I’m failing on seeing the utility.
Kor Cartographer: His use is obvious. Aaron and I definitely agree on the point that playing things that put additional lands into play is better in the long run than artifact mana ramp.
Lotus Cobra: Used for explosive starts in Standard, used for explosive finishes in EDH. Just kind of silly with Primeval Titan.
Necrotic Sliver: The other Sliver, and one that I don’t disagree with. It’s Vindicate on a stick, and this deck can regrow it pretty often. The other good news is that once you activate its ability, it’s not around to give the other Slivers the ability to do same.
Netherborn Phalanx: A real beating for token decks, the Phalanx’ greater strength is transmuting into either Wild Pair or Lurking Predators, both of which are really swingy.
Oracle of Mul Daya: As I’ve said before, remember to play your extra land first. That way, you can still take your ‘regular’ land drop if this gets blown up.
Primeval Titan: This will remain king of the giants. I like all the other Titans just fine, but there is only one Primeval Titan.
Puppeteer Clique: I have to resist the urge to play this guy in every black deck. My favorite part is his ability to exile someone else’s really good thing (Primeval Titan, anyone?) after getting some use of it.
Qasali Pridemage: Don’t forget the exalted!
Reveillark: The “Reveillark Package” of it, Karmic Guide, and Eternal Witness is for sure quite powerful and has gotten sufficiently ubiquitous as to be a little boring. I do like the use of 0/0 creatures (Phantom Nishoba!) with Karmic Guide in this engine. I hope I’m not giving him any ideas there.
Riftsweeper: Your stuff gets exiled, and you need to get it back. I know Aaron went for this guy as soon as he got unbanned.
Saffi Eriksdotter: Another must-have in your W/G recursion strategy; I can see Saffi getting used a General to some interesting ends.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: Lands. Gotta have ‘em.
Shriekmaw: Creatures. Gotta kill ‘em.
Solemn Simulacrum: My non-scientific poll (meaning I just made it up right now) says that more people are playing Jens than are playing Sol Ring. I have trouble considering a deck that wouldn’t want to play it. With all that, notice how no one is ever sad to see an opponent drop one, and no one ever really rolls their eyes at it either (like they do with, say, Reveillark).
Sun Titan: In practice, I haven’t seen Aaron getting back much more than fetchlands with this guy, which seems like a terrible waste, but I definitely get the point. Sun Titan is awesome. Occasionally, the Harmonic Sliver has come back, which may be a good argument for him over Stomphowler. Recurring Necrotic Sliver, of course, is pretty saucy too.
Vampire Hexmage: I don’t know if this was specifically put into the deck because of my Kresh deck, but even if he was, the Hexmage isn’t a one-trick pony. In the post-proliferate world, I can only think that he’s going to get even more useful.
Wood Elves: The best of the three-mana/go-get-a-land guys, since he puts it onto the battlefield untapped.
Woodfall Primus: Any strong commitment to green means playing Woodfall Primus, and he’s increasingly good when you have a recursion strategy. I know it’s hard to resist the jankyness of adding Juniper Order Ranger to this deck.
Yavimaya Elder: Best three-drop green creature ever, and if you don’t agree with me, you kick puppies.
Artifact
Cloudstone Curio: More than half of Aaron’s creatures have “enters the battlefield” triggers, so he gets a fair amount of mileage out of it right there, but the Curio isn’t limited to just creatures. I’m not sure I’ve seen him use it for anything other than dudes, but I can imagine a scenario where bouncing Concordant Crossroads might be beneficial. Note that you have to bounce a different non-artifact permanent: no Acidic Slime shenanigans.
Lightning Greaves: Gotta attack with my General now!!!
Mimic Vat: While at dinner last night, at our favorite of Tampa’s foodie restaurants, Mise en Place, I got this text from Aaron: “So… Karmic Guide imprinted on Mimic Vat with Survival in play is… really stupid.” I’m not a ‘nuff said kind of guy, but ‘nuff said.
Pithing Needle: Completely a local metagame choice, Aaron plays Pithing Needle for the pile of Sasaya decks that have cropped up at the shop.
Sensei’s Divining Top: So good is the rest of the deck at doing what it wants to do, Aaron has actually discussed taking out the Top.
Sol Ring: Sol Ring seems like it should be an auto-include, but even though it’s still in all my decks, I’m not sure that I’ll be putting it in all future decks. It’s just so not a card you want to draw when you already have twelve mana in play and need answers
now.
Enchantment
Awakening Zone: As I said above, I think this can go, although I can see its uses—especially with Cloudstone Curio in play. Aaron just did some card swaps, and Awakening Zone stayed in while Greater Good left. On this account, I’m in the ‘don’t get it’ category.
Concordant Crossroads: Aaron actually plays this more as a one-mana sorcery, holding it until it’s time to alpha-strike with an army of Avenger Plants or some such.
Debtors’ Knell: Along with Angel of Despair, a reason enough to play B/W.
Lurking Predators: Is it the best six-mana green enchantment ever? There are eleven other non-Un choices. You decide. It’s certainly in the “I’ll never get angry at you for blowing it up” category.
Survival of the Fittest: Speaking of which, Survival of the Fittest is one of the most dangerous cards in the history of the game, while seeming so innocuous.
Wild Pair: Hey, this costs six mana too. Combine with Cloudstone Curio for extreme hilarity.
Sorceries and Instants
Beacon of Unrest: This thing gets artifacts too, which folks seem to neglect.
Crime/Punishment: Aaron is for sure the only person I’ve seen playing with this. Crime has gotten my Primeval Titan more than has been healthy for me. I don’t recall seeing him use the Punishment side, but the flexibility is amazing.
Damnation: Sometimes dudes need to die. This particular Damnation helped deal 600,000 damage to Aaron’s brother Michael thanks to Michael’s Sliver Queen and my Vicious Shadows. It’s what you get for making 200,000 tokens (and not winning right away).
Grim Discovery: Grim Discovery is a card that I passed by on first blush. I was so wrong.
Krosan Grip: Adding one mana to Naturalize and giving it Split Second was genius, since I’d probably pay up to even 4G for the uncounterability.
Makeshift Mannequin: Even more valuable with all his “enters the battlefield” dudes, Makeshift Mannequin provides some swingy “at the end of your turn” moments.
Mortify: I think the only reason Aaron plays this is the cool full art/textless Player Rewards version.
Profane Command: Late game ggs, plus another way to kill dudes. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone playing EDH use the Fear mode.
Recollect: You have to recur your stuff. The ‘fixed’ Regrowth.
Regrowth: The ‘unfixed’ Regrowth.
Return to Dust: The flexibility as an instant is nice, but the ability to Exile two things for one low price is fantastic, especially since you know that other people are going to try some of the same recursion tricks that you are.
Tooth and Nail: I’m so torn over Tooth and Nail, because it’s an example of a card that causes contention in EDH circles, since what constitutes “appropriate use” will get argued over until the Taurean Maulers come home, but the card is just good. It’s a giant haymaker, and always fun to see a table come back from when someone casts it. The last time Aaron played it, he said “you really need to put this in your Kresh deck,” but T&Ning for Lord of Extinction and Stalking Vengeance while having a sacrifice outlet in play seems so anticlimactic that I hate to do it (although I’m sure that one could make the same argument for a giant Living Death). Aaron doesn’t really have any two-dude auto-wins, so this simply serves as “great card” for him.
Wrath of God: Dudes need more than one way to die.
Lands
I’ll list them all for completeness, but only a few merit comment.
Dark Depths: Aaron likes the occasional 20/20 indestructible flier, but who doesn’t? I haven’t seen him do it, and I only heard him talk about it once. I had really wondered about the Snow-Covered lands until he told me he used to run Into the North as cheap mana ramp and something to get if he already had Dark Depths in hand. Into the North is gone, but the Snow-Covered lands remain.
Fetid Heath
Flooded Strand
Forest 5
Godless Shrine
Krosan Verge: There are few lands that have a better return on investment.
Maze of Ith
Murmuring Bosk
Mystifying Maze
Overgrown Tomb
Plains 3
Polluted Delta
Reliquary Tower: The land every EDH deck should not be without.
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Snow-Covered Forest
Snow-Covered Plains
Snow-Covered Swamp
Strip Mine
Swamp 4
Temple Garden
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: As I think I’ve previously mentioned, I stopped running this since lots of other folks were. I can now avoid getting Legendary Land Strip Mined. It’s a little more important to Aaron since he runs Filth. I’m still waiting to see some B/W life gain deck that plays this and Karma.
Vesuva: In a singleton format, being able to make copies of your own good stuff is good stuff. Aaron often uses it to copy his own Maze of Ith.
Volrath’s Stronghold: The whole theme of this deck is using cards, especially creatures more than once, so getting this land up and running, especially while keeping Survival of the Fittest on the battlefield, can lead to a fair amount of board control.
Windswept Heath
Wooded Bastion
Wooded Foothills
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I hope you enjoy the idea of featuring other folks’ decks, and I’m pretty sure we’ll do it more in the future. If you think there is someone’s deck that’s worth featuring, email it to me (firstname.lastnameATgmail) and I’ll give it a look. Until then, keep Embracing the Chaos.