Hello everyone! My name is Kyle Boggemes, and today I’m writing for the first time on StarCityGames.com. The Extended season is now complete, and everyone seems to think it is figured out. Dark Depths is still the big man on campus, and it must be respected in order to win any tournament. Zoo is good versus Dark Depths if there is enough hate, and it’s the most consistent aggro deck in the format. All of the other decks are just not as good.
For those reading this article, your goal is probably to win some tickets on Magic Online and qualify for the Magic Online Championship Series. Since the Extended PTQ season is over, having some knowledge about the format will put you pretty far ahead in both the Premier and Daily Events. A deck I would want for the job would be something that has game versus the top two decks, as well as being able to stop the cascade combo decks, burn, random control decks, and elves.
I am describing a deck that would break the format, if it existed. This innovative Zoo deck is pretty close to doing all of these things.
Creatures (24)
- 2 Eternal Witness
- 1 Magus of the Moon
- 4 Tarmogoyf
- 4 Wild Nacatl
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 3 Knight of the Reliquary
- 2 Qasali Pridemage
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
Lands (22)
Spells (14)
Donald Kastner and I created this deck about a week before Grand Prix: Houston. DJ made a list with Congregation at Dawn when testing for Pro Tour: Austin. The deck was too cute, but Congregation at Dawn seemed better than Ranger of Eos.
The shell of the deck is similar to the Boom/Bust Zoo deck that DJ and I also created in my basement, which I used to win the first PTQ in Columbus. I was satisfied with Bloodbraid Elf as the expensive creature of choice. It also has insane synergy with Congregation at Dawn. Playing Bloodbraid only prevents us from having Negate in the deck, which is not extremely important, given the amount of spells already in the deck. The haste is very useful for killing Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
Remember to use the fetches aggressively, because when you Congregate the deck cannot be shuffled in order to gain maximum value.
Congregation at Dawn seems odd, but it definitely has a place in the Extended metagame. The main search package includes Bloodbraid Elf, Eternal Witness, and any creature that the situation calls for. The Bloodbraid cascsades into one of the creatures, which makes up for the card disadvantage of playing Congregation itself. The Eternal Witness will most likely return Congregation, and you get to search for the whole package again. This results from drawing only one spell, which is the reason Congregation is such a great fit in the deck.
There is one Blood Moon in the board because a second magus is redundant and dies to removal.
The sideboard includes 9 one-ofs, which seems slightly high, but we get some sick silver bullets for any match-up. Now let’s get to the matchups!
Zoo
This is your standard attrition war, much like any other Zoo mirror. Congregation really shines here. The third creature you get is usually a Knight of the Reliquary, simply because of his large body. Try to conserve your life total because there are not any life gain spells in the main deck. The longer the game goes, the better positioned you are to win.
Sideboard:
+1 Kitchen Finks
+1 Congregation at Dawn
+1 Umezawa’s Jitte
-2 Qasali Pridemage
-1 Magus of the Moon
The maindeck is pretty well-positioned versus Zoo, and it’s tough to board out cards. The fast Zoo decks will require boarding in more of the life gain cards, such as the two Lightning Helix and the Jitte. I have not tried out a plan versus this, but you can take out a couple of Bant Charms and the second Eternal Witness.
Dark Depths
The first objective of this match is to prevent your opponent from randomly killing with the 20/20. The Magus of the Moon is good at stopping it, as well as the Path to Exiles and Bant Charms. Use Paths before Bant Charms in order to hold removal for the thopter combo. Try to aggressively fetch basic lands because the search package in this match is Bloodbraid, Witness, and Magus.
Sideboard:
-3 Knight of the Reliquary
-2 Lightning Bolt
+1 Congregation at Dawn
+1 Kataki, War’s Wage
+1 Damping Matrix
+1 Gaddock Teeg
+1 Blood Moon
After sideboard, Dark Depths turns into a control deck that emphasizes Jace. They will bring in every form of creature hate, and that is why Knight of the Reliquary is so bad. It dies to Deathmark, Smother, and Damnation. Kataki stops Thopter from getting out of hand. Don’t be afraid of keeping hands that are slow or don’t have any creatures, because this deck can go long with Congregation at Dawn. Gaddock Teeg shuts off Engineered Explosives, Damnation, and Jace. Two Lightning Bolts stay in because they kill Dark Confidant and can shoot Jace.
Cascade Combo
This is not a favorable match game 1, if you think your tournament will have a lot of these decks, cut the Magus for a Meddling Mage. Try to be as aggressive as possible. The Magus of the Moon is good versus Hypergenesis, but does nothing versus Living End.
Sideboard:
(Hypergenesis)
-4 Bant Charm
-3 Path to Exile
+4 Meddling Mage
+1 Ethersworn Canonist
+1 Congregation at Dawn
+1 Blood Moon
(Living End)
-1 Magus of the Moon
-4 Bant Charm
-2 Path to Exile
+1 Congregation at Dawn
+4 Meddling Mage
+1 Kitchen Finks
+1 Ethersworn Canonist
After sideboarding, resolve Meddling Mage or Ethersworn Canonist immediately. Congregate for many copies of these cards, or an Eternal Witness to get back Congregation as the third creature, and repeat.
Elves
This is another tough matchup game 1, but it gets better after sideboard. This is another match were the Magus is bad and the Meddling Mage is good.
Sideboard:
+4 Meddling Mage
+1 Ethersworn Canonist
+2 Lightning Helix
+1 Umezawa’s Jitte
-3 Knight of the Reliquary
-1 Magus of the Moon
-2 Qasali Pridemage
-1 Bant Charm
-1 Bloodbraid Elf
Burn and Boros
Keep your life total high and board in all of the life gain cards.
Sideboard:
+2 Lightning Helix
+1 Umezawa’s Jitte
+1 Rhox War Monk
+1 Kitchen Finks
+1 Congregation at Dawn
-1 Magus of the Moon
-2 Qasali Pridemage
-3 Bant Charm
After sideboarding, you want to Congregate for the Finks, War Monk, and Bloodbraid Elf if you have access to four mana. If you only have three mana, then you want to get Witness or a big creature like Tarmogoyf or Knight of the Reliquary.
Dredge has not been popular in any tournament I have played in, so I don’t have a silver bullet for the match.
Another thing you may have noticed was that I bring in the third Congregation at Dawn in pretty much every matchup, but don’t play three in the main. The card gets better after you sideboard due to the silver bullets. It is better when your opponent has every piece of removal in the 75 in the main. Chaining Congregations is more important when there are more 1-for-1 removal spells.
For the Grand Prix, I played this list.
Creatures (23)
- 2 Eternal Witness
- 1 Meddling Mage
- 1 Magus of the Moon
- 4 Tarmogoyf
- 4 Wild Nacatl
- 1 Rhox War Monk
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 2 Qasali Pridemage
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
Lands (23)
Spells (14)
The deck changed a little bit before the tournament because more people were on board with the deck. I worked on the deck with Donald, Michael Jacob, and Gerry T the day before the event. I think it is very important to get as many creative minds as possible together when constructing any deck, but it’s even bigger when designing a toolbox deck.
The biggest change was removing all of the copies of Knight of the Reliquary from the deck. I am not sure if it is correct because it is still an awesome card, but the mana ability is less relevant when shuffling your deck is the way it generates mana.
The change that Mike and Gerry wanted to make after playing it in the Grand Prix would be to add a Samurai of the Pale Curtain to fight the thopter combo. The Stirring Wildwood can also be either a Selesnya Sanctuary, or a Sunpetal Grove.
My performance in the tournament with the deck was pretty disappointing. I started out 4-0 with 3 byes and proceeded to go 1-3 afterwards. I beat Thopter Depths and a U/G control deck and lost to Lightning Angel Zoo, Living End, and Swans Combo with a Jacerator shell. I don’t know if it was how I played, or if the deck was too cute. The only thing I can say for sure about my performance was that I should have played against more decks. Extended is a difficult format to prepare for due to the large amount of playable decks. I relied on my past testing sessions and tournament rounds to theorize how certain matchups would work. This normally works, but I usually play fairly standard decks. This is really the first season where I made a serious attempt at innovating.
Although Gerry was the only one to Day 2 with a deck that was piloted by very strong players, I still think the deck is very good.
This is pretty close to a regular Zoo deck, but has a unique twist that can throw off your opponent. There is also a lot of room for innovation because the possibilities are endless with cards like Congregation at Dawn.
As for new cards from Rise of the Eldrazi, I would consider adding Vengevine. A majority of the buzz this card has received was due to the ability for a deck to cascade into a creature and return it to play. Congregation at Dawn makes sure that happens every single time. There is about half of the cards spoiled so far, so time will tell if a sweet toolbox card will be released.
There are still Extended tournaments left, and I would seriously consider this deck for any of them.
Thanks for reading!
Kyle Boggemes
lilbogg675 at aol dot com