Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Sh… erm… welcome to the first edition of Constructed Criticism! I am your host, Todd Anderson, and I’ll be your guide through these shark-filled waters as you prepare for upcoming PTQs, Grand Prix tournaments, Regionals, and hopefully Pro Tours. My goal is to inform, prepare, and excite people about whatever metagame is most popular at any given time. Currently, we are looking at Extended, since it is the format of choice for PTQs over the next two months or so.
Grand Prix: Los Angeles happened recently, where Constructed guru Luis Scott-Vargas won yet another premier tournament with yet another different 75 cards. This man is literally the stone cold nuts when it comes to Extended, and is probably the best player in the game. He is one to admit, however, that he is not always the one who comes up with the best strategies, and relies much on friends and acquaintances for deck ideas, decklists, and input on the metagame. Recently he chose to do battle with TEPS. This is a storm-based combo deck that plays Red ritual spells to generate a high storm count and mana count to play Mind’s Desire, fueling an insanely large Fireball proxy in the form of Tendrils of Agony, which generally leaves control decks feeling like they should have been able to counter something relevant, when generally they can’t. However, as you can see from the Top 8 decklists here, most of the Top 8 was unprepared for storm, and thus he was able to sweep the Top 8, and mostly the tournament. His only loss on the entire weekend was to his own deck killing himself with Ad Nauseum.
Now you may ask: “Todd, why don’t I just play Storm? It seems like the best deck!” This is a common fallacy when it comes to deciding what decks to play in an upcoming tournament. Netdecking Public Enemy # 1 is generally a bad idea, as can be plainly seen by PTQ results the following week. I attended a PTQ in Burlington, North Carolina the week after Grand Prix: LA, and decided to play LSV’s list card for card… and I got completely destroyed. People had prepared for Storm, and I was unable to fight through the immense amount of hate. I started the day 1-2, but finished with a reasonable result of 5-3 overall. I decided to keep playing, even when out of contention for Top 8, because I needed to recoup some rating points. Every round there was some form of hate card for Storm, whether it was Gaddock Teeg and Ethersworn Canonist from Zoo or Elves, all the way down to Stifle and Trickbind from Blue Control decks. I even faced a UW Urzatron deck sporting Rule of Law, Ethersworn Canonist, and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. Clearly this was not a good week to play TEPS. After calculating that my initial record of 1-2 would have cost me upwards of 45+ rating points, I ended up going 5-3 and only losing 23 points, ending at a still respectable 1951 Constructed.
I chose to audible at the last minute from Wizards to TEPS because I felt that people would be underprepared for the deck, and it ended up being a bad choice. Normally online, and at the last two PTQs I have attended (Mobile and Atlanta), my deck of choice has been some form of Wizards/Faeries. If I had to go back in time, here is the deck I would have chosen to do battle with at the PTQ:
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Breeding Pool
2 Steam Vents
4 Mutavault
3 Riptide Laboratory
7 Island
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Spell Snare
2 Stifle
4 Mana Leak
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3Vendilion Clique
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Vedalken Shackles
3 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
2 Engineered Explosvies
Sideboard:
1 Stifle
3 Trickbind
3 Flashfreeze
4 Ancient Grudge
2 Firespout
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Engineered Explosives
After countless hours of playtesting on Magic Online against numerous strategies, I have concluded that this is the best possible list for Wizards in the current metagame. While this sideboard may lack some obvious choices (Relic of Progenitus in mind), I think that the popularity of certain decks (namely TEPS) leaves little room for anti-graveyard hate. Furthermore, the matchup where Relic was good has evolved into a more aggressive strategy, and graveyard hate is no longer as relevant as it once was. The deck I am speaking of is formerly known as the Death Cloud deck from earlier this Extended season, but has evolved into what many now are calling Aggro Loam, though it is not like the traditional version we are used to seeing with cards like Terravore that have rotated (obviously).
The best decks in the format that you are likely to face are as follows:
Affinity, TEPS, Loam, Wizards, Elves!
While these are the Top 5 contenders, you could play against any strategy in your local PTQ, so try to be as prepared for your metagame as you can be. With the sideboard I have shown, I have mostly prepared for the biggest matchups, and tried my best to ignore the random matchups, as Wizards tends to dominate random decks.
Here is a walkthrough of a 4-man single elimination tournament on Magic Online with the deck, to give you a general feel of what is going on, and how a few games play out. For reference, Magic Online was being extremely buggy, and wouldn’t allow me to replay my games, so these are done almost entire from memory. The only things I wrote down were opening hands.
Alright, onto the first match!
Round 1, Game 1: Wizards
I lose the die roll, and open with 2 Fetchlands, 2 Mutavault, Stifle, Mana Leak, Spellstutter Sprite. Keep!
My opponent opens with Island, suspending Ancestral Vision. This is an obvious signal of a mirror match, so I like my hand even more. My first draw step is another Spellstutter Sprite, so the gas keeps on coming. I play a Fetchland and immediately sacrifice it, searching for an Island to avoid Stifle shennigans. He plays Mutavault and passes the turn back. My next draw yields a Jitte. I play the other Fetchland and pass. His Ancestral goes down to two counters. He plays Breeding pool untapped, and passes the turn. I don’t sacrifice my Fetchland, because a Stifle here would be a complete blowout. I draw another Mutavault, play a Mutavault, and pass the turn. During my end step he plays Vendilion Clique. I search for an Island in response, and Mana Leak his Vendilion Clique.
At this point in the game, my hand is Mutavault, Steam Vents, double Spellstutter Sprite, double Stifle. On his next turn, his Ancestral ticks down to one counter, and he mainphases another Vendilion Clique while I am tapped low. I choose not to Stifle the ability from Vendilion Clique, and he chooses to leave my hand as is. I untap, draw into a Jitte, and play a Steam Vents untapped taking two damage, giving me the ability to Spellstutter Sprite twice, or Stifle twice and cast Spellstutter, or Stifle and still be able to cast Spellstutter with a Mutavault activation. In the Wizards mirror match, Ancestral Vision resolving is extremely important, and keeping your opponent’s copies from resolving is just as important.
During his upkeep, his Ancestral Vision triggers. With the last counter removed and the ability on the stack, I attempt to Stifle the ability, leaving the Ancestral Removed From Game. He lets it resolve because he knows my hand and doesn’t want to get into a counter war. He plays a Mutavault (two in play now), and then plays Jitte precombat. With a Jitte in hand, I consider just letting it resolve, but I feel as though he may just have a hand full of four-drops, and if I can stick my own Jitte next turn, the game will be over. I activate my Mutavault and attempt to Spellstutter Sprite for two. He Mana Leaks the Spellstutter Sprite, and attacks me down to 14 with the Clique.
I untap and draw Venser, play Jitte with him tapped out to “legend” the swords away. I follow up with an attack for two with a Mutavault, leaving one back to block. He untaps, bashes me with two Mutavaults and Clique. I choose to block with my Vault on his Vault, causing some hot changeling-on-changeling action. I go down to 9, he has three lands afterwards and passes the turn tapped out. I end up drawing another land, and at this point I have six lands in play after having blocked and killed one of his Vaults. I mainphase a Spellstutter Sprite while he is tapped out, so that I don’t die to his Vendilion Clique, and Venser his Mutavault back to his hand. Next turn he plays Mutavault, suspends Ancestral Vision, and attacks with his Vendilion Clique! I trade immediately with Spellstutter Sprite. I untap, and attack for four with Vault and Venser, putting him to 14. The same thing happens next turn, with him missing another land drop. I, however, draw another Jitte. With only land and Stifle in hand, I play Jitte, equip it to Venser, and attack for four again. He opts not to block, or play counters, or do anything really, falling to 10 life. On his turn, his Ancestral ticks down to 1. He plays Venser while I’m tapped out to “legend” my Venser, and bounce my Mutavault, stemming the bleeding.
I draw another Mutavault. I play the first one and pass the turn. His Ancestral trigger goes on the stack, which I counter with Stifle, leaving two Ancestrals removed from the game. He plays an Engineered Explosives with two counters, and sacrifices it to destroy my Jitte. I gain four life in response. I draw a Mana Leak, and play my second Mutavault, attacking him down to eight with my first Mutavault. Next turn he taps out for Sower of Temptation in an attempt to get a blocker on the table, but I have the Mana Leak. I untap, draw another land, and attack him down to four. At this point, he plays a Riptide Laboratory, forcing me to hold off attacking for a turn or two until I draw something. I draw… Venser! Awesome. I play it, drawing out a counterspell, and attack with 2 Mutavaults. He activates the Vault to block, but can’t use Riptide Laboratory to save it. So he falls to just two life, and I have a Mutavault in play. Next turn he just concedes, I assume holding counterspells and/or Engineered Explosives.
Here is how I sideboarded for Game 2:
-2 Engineered Explosives, -2 Vedalken Shackles, -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
+4 Ancient Grudge, +1 Sower of Temptation
As for sideboarding, in the mirror I generally tend to side out my artifacts and side in Ancient Grudge and Sower of Temptation. This is to avoid getting absolutely crushed by opposing Ancient Grudge, as leaving them with a few dead cards in hand is always nice.
Round 1 Game 2
I keep an opener of two Island, Steam Vents, Riptide Lab, Ancestral Vision, Spell Snare, and Sower of Temptation. This hand is pretty ridiculous in the mirror, so I keep. He opens with Island, Chrome Mox (imprinting Spell Snare), and suspends Riftwing Cloudskate (awkward?). My first draw is a Stifle, so I’m in pretty good shape. I suspend Ancestral and pass the turn. He misses his second land drop, and plays Jitte. I topdeck Ancient Grudge for the complete blowout. I kill his Mox, and pass the turn. His Cloudskate ticks down to one counter, he misses another land drop and passes the turn. I draw Jitte, and play it. He has Spell Snare to counter the Jitte, but no worries. He’ll have no way to counter my Stifle on his Riftwing Cloudskate. This works exactly the same as countering Ancestral Vision with Stifle, as you just counter the triggered effect of playing the suspended spell. He draws, misses another land drop, and passes the turn.
At this point, my hand is Sower of Temptation, Venser, and two lands. I have three lands and a Mutavault in play, but no Green to flashback Ancient Grudge to kill his Jitte, but I’m fine. I pass turn with one counter on Ancestral Vision. On his upkeep I Venser his only land. He draws, plays his land, Mox imprinting Sower of Temptation, and passes the turn. My hand is just two land and Sower of Temptation, so I assume my Ancestral Vision is about to be countered by Spellstutter Sprite, which is exactly what happens. But I still have crazy tempo advantage. I play Sower, stealing his Spellstutter Sprite, activate a Mutavault and attack for four. I play another Mutavault and pass the turn. He draws and passes without a land. I attack with everything, and he falls to five life. Mutavaults are insanely good in the mirror matchup. After another irrelevant drawstep, he packs it in.
In retrospect, these game descriptions are getting a little bit too long, so I’ll calm them down a little for now.
Round 2 Game 1: Affinity
My opener on the draw is pretty bad but keepable. Island, Riptide Laboratory, double Mana Leak, Ancestral Vision, Sower, and Spellstutter Sprite. My opponent leads with Ancient Den into Springleaf Drum. For reference, Affinity is Wizards’ worst matchup, by far. They have extremely different casting costs on their spells, so Spell Snare and Engineered Explosives are generally less effective than normal. I play the Island and suspend Ancestral Vision. On his turn 2 he plays Frogmite, Arcbound Worker, and Cranial Plating… what a beating. I end up dying a few turns later because I fail to draw any lands, and can’t keep up with his insane draw. I was dead before Ancestral Vision resolved.
In this matchup I side out Shackles and Stifles for Ancient Grudge and the extra Sower of Temptation. Sower is generally good as a Flametongue Kavu-esque spell versus their Ravagers, or just taking one of their creatures as a chump blocker. This matchup is all about tempo. If you can counter their important spells, and draw ancient grudge, you can generally win. But, with a mulligan on the play, my opener is two fetchlands, Mutavault, Spellstutter Sprite, Spell Snare, Sower. It’s pretty decent, but Ancient Grudge would be nice. I am extremely happy as he has no first turn play except for Springleaf Drum and land. When they play Ornithopter out on turn 1 with the Springleaf Drum, you are generally in a losing position. I play a land and pass.
On his next turn, he plays his second artifact land, double Frogmite, and then a two-mana Myr Enforcer. I Mana Leak the enforcer, but he then is able to play Cranial Plating. On my turn I draw Ancient Grudge! This makes me happy, as I have Breeding Pool and Steam Vents in play from my two fetchlands. I play my Mutavault and pass the turn. On his turn he plays Seat of the Synod, and I immediately feel stupid. I didn’t play around Delay! This has been a popular card for Affinity as of late, because it keeps Ancient Grudge from wrecking you. He equips his Frogmite, and attacks with both. I attempt to Grudge the Cranial Plating, and thankfully he doesn’t have the Delay. But, post combat, he plays Thoughtcast into Arcbound Ravager.
At this point, I still haven’t drawn a land, but really need to. I end up never drawing a fourth land or anything relevant, and I can’t stop his Frogmites. Even with flashback on the Grudge targeting Ravager, he just moves a few counters onto a Frogmite, and I get bashed to death. Awesome. A fourth land would have allowed me to Sower his bigger Frogmite, but sometimes you get manascrewed and can do nothing about it. Oh well.
So, as for the 4-man, I end up losing in the second round (a.k.a. the “finals”) to my bad matchup. No biggie. I did win a mirror match, which is generally crazy skill intensive, involving a lot of tough decisions based on tempo, card quality, and timing, with a little bit of baiting opposing counterspells. The biggest difference in the mirror match, however, is pregame deckbuilding. The two Shackles are sided out in almost every match, but they are absolutely insane game 1 against every deck except for Storm Combo, and definitely the second-best card in the mirror match behind Ancestral Vision. Stifle is key in the Ancestral battles, as it is the only one-mana spell that hard counters it. It is also invulnerable to Spell Snare, while all of your other “answers” get crushed by that one-mana monstrosity.
There are a lot of nuances to this deck, and it is very difficult to play. I wouldn’t suggest this deck for a PTQ unless you have done an extensive amount of playtesting with it, feel extremely comfortable, and you are familiar with every single interaction, all the way down to Stifling opposing Persist effects.
A little trick I have learned from playing the deck, one that I did not know before and I’m assuming a lot of people don’t know, is a simple layering issue. In the finals of a PTQ in Burlington recently, my good friend Korey McDuffie blew out his Wizards mirror match opponent (in the finals, no less). He activated Mutavault to declare a block on an opposing Mutavault with Jitte attached, having two counters on it. His opponent, before blockers, removed two counters to kill the Mutavault before blocks were declared. Korey let the first effect resolve, making Mutavault a 1/1. However, he re-activated his Mutavault, sending it back up to a 2/2 before the 2nd ability resolved. This happens because Mutavault’s ability is on the same layer as the -1/-1 counters from Jitte. He went on to block the opposing Mutavault, then stacked damage, and used Riptide Laboratory to bounce his own Mutavault. This effectively ended the game, as his opponent was out of creatures in hand, and out of gas. Korey had a grip full of Stifle, counters, and Faeries.
He went on to win the match 2-0, after winning two previous mirror matches 2-0. Clearly, Stifle was effective in each of these mirror matches, either countering Ancestral Vision, the Jitte gaining counters, Persist on Glen Elendra Archmage, etc etc etc. It has infinite uses, and I can definitely see why people would want it maindeck. It has been excellent in testing. Not to mention it is a hoser against Public Enemy #1: TEPS.
In general, this is a very small amount of actual playtesting, but each game is a complex puzzle in itself, testing you against your opponent. There is almost always a route to victory with the deck, and rarely are you completely shut out of any game. That is something I can’t say for any other deck in the format. Extended is a complex metagame full of combo, aggro, midrange, and control. There are many viable decks, but I would choose no other deck over Wizards for PTQs. I will be battling with it for the rest of the season, unless someone breaks Extended with Conflux, but I don’t see that really happening. That’s it for today, and hopefully I’ll be back soon for the second edition of Constructed Criticism!
Until next time, remember that good players draw lands.
Todd Anderson
strong sad on MTGO
soyweenus on AIM
[email protected]