Mana Drain based Control decks, and Combo Control decks, are among the strongest and most consistent decks in Vintage today. In 2005, both Gifts and Control Slaver put up great numbers and were among the top finishers at almost every major Vintage event in the United States. In this article I’d like to share with you four subtle tips and strategies that will grant you new insight into Mana Drain decks, as well as improve your overall game and the consistency of your play.
In order to play any of the Drain based decks of Vintage – Control Slavery, Gifts, Keeper, or whatever – the most important virtue to keep in mind is patience. Excluding games where one player simply “out brokens” the other (i.e. draws all The Good Stuff against a toothless opponent), playing Mana Drain decks is all about one thing: methodically executing a preconceived gameplan. The guidelines I have set out in this article are to help Mana Drain players to win the close, up-in-the-air games, where play skill and decision-making play a major factor in the outcome. If you take these four tips into account at the next Vintage event, playtest session, or weekly tournament, I promise you will see improved results in your play, and have a better understanding into the workings of your deck.
1: An uncracked fetchland is a Mana Drain player’s best friend.
Aside from fixing your mana, and ensuring that splash colored mana can be played when the appropriate time arises, fetchlands provide a series of game-impacting effects. The best way to win tight games is to take advantage of every single effect you can possibly create, and capitalize on all of these small victories. As in any game, sport, or competitive exercise, the player or team that wins all of the small battles usually emerges victorious. Maximizing the influence of your fetchlands is a good place to start.
The foremost place that I see players make mistakes when playing Mana Drain decks is misuse of their fetchlands. Players who come to Vintage with experience from other formats – Standard and Extended in particular – tend to be of the mindset that fetchlands are good for thinning out lands from their deck. While this is most certainly true – fetchlands do pull a land out of your deck, making is statistically more likely that you will draw a business spell over a land card – arbitrarily fetching out lands is almost always a misplay. (Keep in mind that I am talking about fetching to thin with a Mana Drain based deck: Fish and other Aggro decks are a different can of worms). Aside from deck thinning, Polluted Delta and Flooded Strand provide a plethora of relevant effects:
- They ensure that you can find off color splash mana at the appropriate times.
- They protect your mana from spells and effects that would destroy your land (particularly Wasteland, Strip Mine, and Sundering Titan).
- They provide you with a shuffle effect that shares extreme synergy with Brainstorm.
It is for these reasons – the efficiency and consistency that they add to Mana Drain decks – that I believe Polluted Delta and Flooded Strand are the most important lands in the format, more so than the restricted Tolarian Academy, Strip Mine, or even Mishra’s Workshop.
When I am playing Slaver, I never crack my fetchlands except under the following circumstances:
- I have just resolved Brainstorm and want to shuffle so that I won’t draw the cards I put back.
- My opponent has just targeted my fetchland with a Wasteland or Strip Mine
- My opponent is going to control my next turn via Mindslaver.
- I need to fetch out the mana to play a spell.
- There is a Root Maze in play.
- My opponent has a Pithing Needle on the stack.
By saying this, I am trying to reinforce that fetching for no reason is bad, and should be avoided at all costs. At any point in the game, if you draw Brainstorm you’ll be extremely happy that you didn’t fetch without reason. Also, if you fetch, it allows your opponent the opportunity to Wasteland one of your off-colored mana sources, cutting you off from playing certain spells.
Statistically, the advantage you gain from deck thinning is almost always smaller than the possibility of drawing a Brainstorm (depending upon how many are left in your deck, of course). The fact that an inactivated fetchland also protects your manabase at the same time reinforces the fact that fetching for no reason is bad.
2: In the Mana Drain versus Mana Drain matchup, “Think before you drop that Mox!”
One of the biggest tells of a weak Mana Drain player is how they play out their Moxen and other zero-cost mana artifacts. It is the natural tendency of players to play all their toys as soon as possible, making things readily available to them. Against decks that make it difficult to get your Moxen into play, it is strategically beneficial to play out your mana sources. For instance, Fish plays Chalice of the Void – this counters later Moxen. Stax also plays Chalice of the Void, in addition to Trinisphere and Sphere of Resistance. Combo decks play “Draw Seven” spells, so that if you don’t play your jewelry it may disappear. In all of these matchups, casting your Moxen early is usually the right call.
However, when you are playing against another Mana Drain deck (Chalice Oath excluded, for obvious reasons), playing out your Moxen for no reason is almost always a misplay. My rule of thumb for the Mana Drain versus Mana Drain matchup is this:
If you are not going to need it for mana this turn, leave it in your hand.
Holding back Moxen in the Drain versus Drain matchup performs a variety of functions. First: an unplayed Mox is an unknown card in your hand for your opponent to second-guess. When you are holding back two Moxen, with five cards in hand, your opponent has no idea that almost half of your hand sucks; rather, he may well be waiting until he can play around the Force of Will and Mana Drain you’re representing. Second: I cannot tell you how many times I have trumped an opponent’s “land, off-color Mox, off-color Mox,” first turn – with no play, I might add – with a game-ending turn 1 Gorilla Shaman. If my opponent had held back his Moxen, there is the possibility that he could have Brainstormed and Fetched them away, or waited until he had dealt with my Welder to cast them, or even cast them and had an opportunity to use the Mana once before I destroyed them with the Shaman. Many of the Mana Drain decks in the format, in particular Control Slaver, run some number of Shamans in the maindeck; respect the Monkey or suffer the consequences.
Playing Mana Drain decks is all about being patient and making the right plays. If you hold the irrelevant Mox, it can also be pitched to a later Thirst For Knowledge, or may help you get seven cards in hand to activate a Library of Alexandria. If you don’t need it, heed my advice: don’t play it, because it serves you better in your hand.
3: Declaring no attackers.
When you are piloting a Drain deck, it is important to plan ahead. A good example of this is determining in which of your main phases your Mana Drain’s triggered ability will occur. For instance, if you are planning on playing a spell during your turn, with Mana Drain back up to make sure it resolves, you need to decide between two things: do I want the Mana Drain’s trigger to resolve during my second main phase of this turn, or do I want to get the Mana Drain trigger during my next turn.
Remember that, regardless of whether or not you want it, every turn includes two main phases separated by an attack step. If you Mana Drain a spell during your first main phase, you will have Drain Mana in your pool during the second. I frequently see inexperienced players make this mistake, and they end up taking manaburn in the second main phase because all of their Blue sources are tapped. If you clearly don’t want the Mana Drain trigger during your second main phase, be sure to declare an attack first; even if you have no attackers to declare. Always consider whether or not they can respond to your spells before you cast them, and don’t get hasty or overexcited about casting that bomb-diggity Tinker for Darksteel Colossus backed up by Mana Drain before declaring an attack first.
However, sometimes you’ll specifically want the Mana during your second main phase – most likely if you are using Drain to backup a Yawgmoth’s Will or a Tinker for Mindslaver.
Also, keep in mind that you can declare an attack to move into your second main phase as a way to bluff that you do have Mana Drain. I’ve scared many a player into letting me resolve a random Gorilla Shaman or Thirst For Knowledge in my second main phase, because they didn’t want to risk having their Force of Will countered by the Mana Drain they thought I had.
The moral to the story is to think ahead, and determine beforehand the most advantageous time for your Mana Drain’s triggered ability to resolve.
4: Brainstorm protects bombs, wins you tight games when played correctly, and loses you games when misplayed.
Aside from possibly Gifts and Fact or Fiction, Brainstorm is the most skill intensive card in any Mana Drain based deck. It requires you to do a variety of things correctly in order to maximize its efficiency. First, you must play it at the right time in order to see its full potential. Second, you have to keep and throw back the correct cards.
As an added bonus, Brainstorm has the capability to protect your most important spells from cards like Duress, Mesmeric Fiend or Mind Twist. Brainstorm is the best card to have in your hand when an opponent plays Duress, because it allows you to put the best two cards in your hand top of your library – to be redrawn – where your opponent can’t hit them. If you are playing against a deck that you know has Duress, use your Brainstorms as protection.
Players also mess up with Brainstorm when casting it at the wrong time. My philosophy for playing Mana Drain decks is to be patient, and to never exhaust resources until it is necessary. Most of the time, casting Brainstorm on turn 1 is a misplay. If I have a hand that has business, I think the best play is to hold onto the Brainstorm for later. Obviously, if you need to draw a Force of Will on turn 1, or if your hand has no gas, or no more lands, playing the Brainstorm is the right call. It has amazing potential to stabilize sub-par hands.
The longer you hold onto a Brainstorm the better it becomes, because it digs you deeper into your deck. Don’t forget that two of the cards in your hand will be going back onto of your library; if you Brainstorm looking for business and miss, you have to wait three draw steps before seeing a new card. The best possible example of this tip in action was in the finals of the 2004 World Championships between Mark “Windfall” Biller and David Allen.
Mark was playing Control Slaver, and David was playing his 5/3 deck. Both are out of gas and in topdeck mode, but David has a slow clock on the table, beating down for one a turn. Mark is on five life.
Mark has to hit one of his two remaining Goblin Welders to win, or Yawgmoth’s Will because all of his robots are in the Library already. It plays out like this:
- Mark draws a Brainstorm during his draw step, but instead of casting it to find a solution, he simply passes.
- David draws, plays a land and attacks Mark down to four.
- This process repeats, more or less, for three more turns until Mark is down to two life.
- With his life total at two, Mark draws for his turn and then casts Brainstorm. The third card down was the Welder he needed.
- Mark played the Welder, let the Triskelion beat him down to one, then untapped and won the game.
The point of the story is that Mark won the game because he was patient and he didn’t Brainstorm too early. Had he flinched and cast it any sooner, he would have lost. As a result of his patience and correct play of Brainstorm, he was rewarded with the 2004 World Champion title.
If you cast Brainstorm when it’s the last business spell in your hand, if you strike out you’re completely vulnerable for the next two turns. Every turn you wait is one card deeper into your deck. Usually, I will hold Brainstorms until I find a fetchland to shuffle away the cards I don’t want.
Patience pays off when playing with Brainstorm; However, I do understand that sometimes one has to find a Force of Will in an emergency. The key to becoming a masterful Brainstorm player is to be able to tell the difference between when you are in a state of emergency and need to cast it, and when you have breathing room to wait and dig a little deeper first.
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The above four tips are a sound basis for success, a springboard from which to leap into the Vintage Mana Drain metagame. Once embraced, your play-skill and knowledge should increase dramatically.
Good luck at your next event!