Flores Friday – Work in Progress: Vorosh.dec

I have a PTQ next week (not tomorrow), which is basically the only one I get to run

this whole summer, despite the fact that Neutral Ground gets two this season (long story).

Therefore I have to make it count. I figure I have a little room to move around between now

and then.

If, however, the PTQ were tomorrow, I would probably play this:

This deck actually played Vorosh at one point. Well, I had it in the deck file, but

Vorosh never actually made it to even a single Tournament Practice room match… But it was

a neat idea.

Originally this was a Tarmogoyf deck (like everybody else’s). As you know, I like to

tap out with my control decks, and I figured that Tarmogoyf was about the best thing that I

could possibly tap out for on the second turn, given that it would hold off their Tarmogoyf

almost by default, and a pretty good thing to tap out for on the fifth or sixth turn, after

I logged my first two- or three-for-one sorcery. There are a couple of problems with this

strategy, the big one being that my cute idea is to block their Tarmogoyf, but not only

might they block my Tarmogoyf, they might have Thrill of the Hunt or some such, and that’s

just embarrassing. Also I found myself siding Tarmogoyf out all the time against aggressive

decks and controlling decks (ironically I would bring in more Tendrils of

Corruption and Sudden Deaths against both types of decks), and that says something itself.

Mostly blowing up your own Tarmogoyf, while not optimal, happens all the time because you

are using it to milk the other guy’s board, and your Tarmogoyfs end up not being good. I

played Chromatic Star (between two and four copies, depending) in the early versions to fix

my mana and pump my Lhurgoyfs, but they eventually became good old land… And two Gaea’s

Blessings.

Gaea’s Blessings?

What’s up with the one Mwonvuli Acid-Moss for that matter?

I actually don’t know how I found room for all this jazz as well as Tarmogoyf,

but I did, and I had something like 2-4 four mana Stone Rains as well (and with the paucity

of basics, they were typically mediocre in the mid-game). After I took them out, though, I

came to realize that you want Mwonvuli Acid-Moss against other control decks, to

blow up their Dreadship Reefs. Having just one isn’t the worst… It is kind of a redundant

card advantage spell on four, and it really does have its core competency; believe it or

not, it’s pretty good going long with Gaea’s Blessing… Or I assume it would be but my

games have never actually gotten to that point.

I seem to be ahead in most of the matchups, but none of them seem utterly legitimate

bye, so you’ve still got to put the work and not – for want of a better example – tap your

Serrated Arrows main phase to kill to irrelevant men.

Card Breakdown:

7 Forest
I think this deck has a pretty good manabase, given the format. One of the things that

always gets me is that Vorosh.dec has only one Island and one Swamp, but it relies so

heavily on the alternate colors of mana in the middle turns.

2 Gaea’s Blessing
Back before it stopped being a Tarmagoyf deck, this one… Awkward. It was a Tarmogoyf

deck. When I cut Tarmogoyf, I found myself wanting another way to win, and this card seemed

a nice fit. You can win with Blessing while recycling life gain, which is the old Brian

Schneider trick for PTQ level. Like I said, I’ve never gone long enough to get to the

infinite Acid-Moss loop or anything, but I get saved by the extra topdeck a fair amount.

Yes, yes. I’ve already gotten the “Did you get that deck from Adrian,” question

more than once… And this is from people who hadn’t even seen the one Acid-Moss!

1 Island
1 Swamp
As above.

4 Aeon Chronicler
This is one of my favorite cards in Block or Standard. The problem with it is

nowadays people can actually beat an Aeon Chronicler sometimes with Riftsweeper, Pull From

Eternity, or some similar. The presence of good answers has never quelled my love for

particular threats, and you can long ball the Chronic, biding time with Foresee and

Harmonize into Ana Battlemage. Really, who is going to keep the Riftsweeper? Exactly! Even

if the worst occurs, luckily you can shuffle the big guy back in!

2 Ana Battlemage
Believe it or not, this card has been consistently better than Tarmogoyf in this deck! I’ve

actually had more than one game where I said to myself, “Self, the optimal topdeck

here is… Ana Battlemage,” and there he would be. I’ve always wanted to run an Ana

Battlemage, and it was originally my successor as the Resident Genius that gave me

realistic reason to try the heretofore unplayed Gray Ogre out. Guillaume’s Wild Pair deck

presents a unique dilemma in Block, being a combo deck with very real design constraints,

bending the metagame away from the age-old and comfortable attrition fights. While my deck

can’t deal with Wild Pair the permanent directly in Game 1, it can kick the hand

and make Wild Pair less effective in the short term, hopefully setting up sufficient time

to win with Aeon Chronicler. Incidentally I didn’t have much luck with Tarmogoyfs (got

raced), but the sideboard has been pretty good. While Ana Battlemage is definitely present

for the Blue kick, the Black one gets played roughly 50% of the time. It should come as no

surprise that the best – or at least most fun – target is Spectral Force.

4 Coalition Relic
This card is actually absurd. I want to go back and make a Mishra deck (only one class of

two mana Artifact acceleration) just so I can play this card in it. Watch it! It is a

little tricky figuring out what the right play is on your mana management at the end of the

opponent’s turn.

4 Damnation
I know. This card is not very good… just a placeholder until I can find something better.

4 Dreadship Reef
This, incidentally, is one of the main cards that makes end-of-turn mana management

challenging. Which permanent gets the counter? Usually I give it to the Dreadship Reef

because then I get to choose when to spend the mana. See more below.

4 Foresee
2 Harmonize
1 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
This is definitely Vorosh.dec’s sweet spot, and the structure of everything falls from this

point in the curve. It’s probably pretty obvious that I not only played a fair number of

lands, I jammed every available accelerator into my deck. The reason is that when my

Foresee or Harmonize shows up, I want to be able to play it. One thing that I

figured out in Standard months ago is that Aeon Chronicler by itself consistently beats

other control decks, even when Teferi shows up. I wanted to really push the volume of my

card advantage above and beyond what anyone else could do with, say, Mystical Teachings. I

just want more. The control decks in the present format are notoriously weak on

permission. If you can’t resolve your spells… You don’t deserve to! Blue mages are

cutting the scary counters (Dismal Failure) for the faster and lighter ones (Delay) that

don’t even work half the time. You always want to rip one of these (okay, maybe not

Acid-Moss), and they pull you out of hopeless-seeming games to the point where you win on

one life… but with seven in hand.

4 Prismatic Lens
4 River of Tears
4 Search for Tomorrow
More mana, More Mana, MORE MANA.

1 Sudden Death
2 Tendrils of Corruption
I find myself siding as many of these as I can in against decks with Jonny Magic, Teferi,

&c.

4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Urza’s Factory
The second Urza’s Factory has been pretty good. The deck’s defense is kind of slow without

Urborg; Obviously this is because it runs BB elimination and especially Tendrils, but only

one real Swamp. I would say that I lose the majority of games to having no Urborg when I

have multiple Tendrils against, I dunno, a 2/2.

Sideboard
2 Krosan Grip
4 Riftsweeper
1 Seal of Primordium
4 Spell Burst
2 Sudden Death
2 Tendrils of Corruption

I generally hate reactive spells, and this sideboard is full of them. However they are

so effective in certain context. The mix of Krosan Grips and the Seal is a legacy from the

Tarmogoyf era that I never bothered to change. Note that this isn’t a Mystical Teachings

deck, so it’s not empirically right to play Krosan Grip over Seal; they both have their

merits. This deck draws quite a few cards, so it is actually nice to have the Seal, which

can be dropped onto the board without being spent, freeing up cards in hand for Foresee and

Harmonize. That said, Krosan Grip is an instant with Split Second, and obviously the more

powerful. I think the break is fine – possibly preferable / right – for now. SECRET TECH

ALERT: If anything, I would consider Ancient Grudge (as many as two) with or without a

Mountain. That card seems absolutely nutso crazy in this metagame with all the control

decks packing Coalition Relic and Prismatic Lens. It’s not a matter of being strategic,

more of winning a grinding long game war (Master Sun would frown on this). In my experience

this deck has more mana than more controlling and arguably more powerful decks, and then

just has the mana to play and resolve Harmonize-into-Damnation or whatnot when it is behind

to, say, a Teferi and a Brine Elemental or an angry Shadowmage Infiltrator.

Vorosh.dec originally came about as a reaction to the two-into-four-color Dralnu /

Teferi school of decks. Christian Culcano (Top 8 at New York States and Tin Street Julian’s

trading partner) was testing B/U with a Plains splash. I walked over and asked him why

White was such a good splash. Riftsweeper is roughly one million times more devastating

than Pull from Eternity, and [SECRET TECH ALERT] Quagnoth seemed like a legitimate

sideboard card. I mean, the archetype strat would lose Teferi’s Moat, but the way the

metagame has broken down with Red Decks so much more reliant on Browbeats and Marauders,

and the default beatdown shifting to two- or even three-color G/W base with Griffin Guide,

it’s not like the ‘Moat has stuck around as a powerhouse. I explored the idea

independently, going the typical (for me) tap-out control direction, and the above is what

I came up with… Still working on getting Quagnoth in.

I like having the extra Tendrils and Sudden Deaths, not so much for the ‘goyf decks,

but for Teferi and Jonathan Magic, who is gaining popularity.

Spell Burst is for Shifter and Pickles decks. You can often get two or three cards with

this, but don’t be afraid to burn one-for-one with the sick one mana response / removal. It

doesn’t matter if you hit a Vesuvan Shapeshifter, a Brine Elemental, or a lowly Fathom

Seer. They all cost three or more and Spell Burst costs one, which is an awesome trade

given the structure of the deck.

This deck functions in a fundamentally different area than the other control decks in

the format. Instead of playing powerful cards like Teferi, Korlash, and to a degree,

Mystical Teachings with some measure of defensive interaction, Vorosh.dec leverages its

mana advantage to draw lots of cards and sets those cards aside to win discreet attrition

fights, sometimes bulk and sometimes one-for-one, always seeking to have one more relevant

play than the opponent. I realized early that card draw on four and five was my sweet spot

and I wanted to maximize my shot of having enough mana to stick my Harmonizes, Foresees,

and Aeon Chroniclers as early as possible, which is why my deck has a super-Wakefieldian

measure of lands and Lenses and Searches and mighty mighty

Coalition Relics. Last night I got battered to no cards by a second turn Riptide Pilferer

out of Mono-Blue (luckily I was up a game) and got back into it by being able to play a lot

of lands so I could play whatever powerful bulk card advantage card I drew every turn,

eventually blowing up the Pilferer and a Shapeshifter, topdecking into Ana Battlemage, and

– believe it or not – winning with seven cards in hand again. The important thing to

remember for this deck is that Aeon Chronicler is one of the strongest possible threats

against control, even when they have strategic Teferi to squash your Maro before he

actually resolves. The incremental Howling Mine side will give you enough mana to stay in

the game; permission is very weak in Time Spiral Block, with Delay good but not good enough

in a long game, Cancel terrible, and Dismal Failure powerful but slow and now a minority

due to the control decks favoring Korlash over defense and the straight Blue decks trying

to speed up. Repeat after me: “I can resolve my spells.” You can! Even when they

draw three Cancels you eventually stick a Foresee that begins an avalanche of card

advantage. You have enough life. Somebody will have an Urborg. You can Tendrils the Teferi

and slide back into the game, even when you’ve been battered by Shadowmage Infiltrator for

several turns. Believe me, I know this can be frustrating. You’re probably not in great

shape when they’re up a ton of cards. However, this isn’t Standard or Extended, or even

Legacy, where that kind of incremental Ophidian action will put you on the wrong side of an

iron wall of interaction. I generally dislike Extirpate, but I would consider playing up to

four in this deck (which is not presently slotting Detritivore) to win control fights;

“Nice seven cards in hand.”

Operationally, play your mana, then try to draw extra cards, then keep the opponent

from killing you. You will often have some curious tactical dilemmas early. Terramorphic

Expanse on turn 1 or Search for Tomorrow? I usually play Terramorphic Expanse to set up

turn 3 Search unless I have no other acceleration and a four I really want to hit, viz.

Foresee for turn 3. If I have a Lens, I will definitely play the Expanse, but I am not sure

if this is right.

Here’s a question: Which Dreadship Reef do you put the counter on? When you have one

Dreadship Reef with one counter and one with none, obviously you put the counter on the one

that already has a counter; one counter and one counter is the same as no counters and no

counters short term, but two counters and no counters is the same as, you know, two

counters and no counters. However, what about when you have like two counters and three or

four counters? At that point does it matter as much? Either Dreadship Reef can give you

bulk. If you are setting up a big turn, it’s probably right to put as many counters on the

one with the most counters when you have to choose, I’d assume, but there is probably an

operational best practices that I am missing here. More interesting is Dreadship Reef

versus Coalition Relic. When I absolutely have to choose I go Dreadship Reef… Otherwise

you end up doing stuff like adding four mana at the beginning of your first main phase (no

choice) and have to play two Prismatic Lenses pre-combats, and suddenly your Maro is 6/6

instead of 8/8. Embarrassing.

Vorosh.dec is pretty good against White Weenie and the presently dominating G/W decks,

especially in three games, with four Tendrils and four Damnations in two of them. The most

difficult card to beat is actually Griffin Guide, so I side in all three of the enchantment

removal spells, sacrificing a mix of mana acceleration, in those matchups. I think it is

weaker against Red Decks with Greater Gargadon because they have reach (old reach, not

Andre Coimbra reach), and because they can fizzle the Tendrils you need to stay alive. I

think that is less of a concern right now as Red Decks are not going to be popular for at

least two weeks because they aren’t very good against G/W, and G/W is our Scarlett Johansen Rachel McAdams presently.

While it’s not blisteringly fast defensively, this deck is nevertheless a fairly good

paragon of my favorite elements of deck design, because it rewards getting into attrition

fights. If you can trade cards, you will generally win on the back of a Harmonize. You lose

when you for some reason can’t trade or fall behind to the opponent’s tempo. The biggest

weakness is the lack of an Urborg against beatdown… Maybe I should swap in the fourth for

one River of Tears. The issue there is that you don’t want infinite Urborgs, and I would

feel obligated to play at least one Careful Consideration… and this deck plays only one

Island. See the design tension? Do you feel it?

Another option would be to reposition the sideboard to a faster defensive line with

Epochrasite-based defense instead of removal-based defense. This actually solves quite a

few problems… On balance, all the cards in the sideboard do something and

actually have to be there in order to win certain predicted matchups. I don’t see myself

beating Guillaume’s deck without both Ana Battlemage and the reliable draw of at least one

enchantment removal card, for instance. I guess Spell Burst is soft… Could go to 0-2

without too much strategic disruption (though the trade-off would be the fourth Sudden

Death, minimum).

Besides these small issues, the other main concern I have, for and against, is Korlash.

Obviously Korlash would be an interesting inclusion in this deck, both offensively with

Urborg and as a surefire Korlash-killer. However, I can’t see including him because I only

have one Swamp, and I am very comfortable with the Green-centered mana right now. The

additional question is Korlash-against. Definitely Korlash is a dangerous opponent.

However, so far, I have been able to run with Korlash trading with Damnation (he has four,

I have four) winning on increment because I have so much card drawing. It hasn’t come up

yet, but I can’t wait for the inevitable Korlash versus Ana Battlemage fight on turn 15.

That said, everyone knows Green is the poopiest color, and I am thinking about going more

B/U/g rather than b/u/G, which would allow for Careful Consideration to dump excess Urborgs

and solve some of the other minor design questions.

If I am not nutso overwhelmed by Master Sun next week, you’ll probably get an update to

where I am on this or some other strange deck before the PTQ.

Thanks for reading,

LOVE
MIKE