From Right Field - Blame Canada

{From Right Field is a column for Magic players on a budget or players who don’t want to play netdecks. The decks are designed to let the budget-conscious player be competitive in local, Saturday tournaments. They are not decks that will qualify a player for The Pro Tour. As such, the decks written about in this column are, almost by necessity, rogue decks. The author tries to limit the number of non-land rares as a way to limit the cost of the decks. When they do contain rares, those cards will either be cheap rares or staples of which new players should be trying to collect a set of four, such as Dark Confidant, Birds of Paradise, or Wrath of God. The decks are also tested by the author, who isn’t very good at playing Magic. He will never claim that a deck has an 85% winning percentage against the entire field. He will also let you know when the decks are just plain lousy. Readers should never consider these decks “set in stone” or “done.” If you think you can change some cards to make them better, well, you probably can, and the author encourages you to do so.}

This week, I’ve decided that it’s high time that we here at From Right Field salute a sadly overlooked and under-appreciated part of the world: Canada. Canada is not just, as some people think, the United States North. It’s actually a whole other country! Really, it is. Wikipedia even says so.

Usually, when an American – or, to be less confusing since Canada is in North America – when a United Statesian thinks of Canada, all they think of is the bad stuff that they’ve unloaded on us: Celine Dion; “Country music” singer Shania Twain; Nelly Furtado; Michael J. Fox; Avril Lavigne; and, of course, bitter cold weather.

People forget that Canada also gave us Barenaked Ladies, Jeff Healey, The Cowboy Junkies, Gil Evans, Moist, Rush, Steppenwolf, Sum 41, Three Days Grace, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, The Band, Kathleen Edwards, Bruce Cockburn, Leonard Cohen, Diana Krall, and Michael Buble. And that’s just the music. What about hotties like Alison Lindsey, Michelle Ryann, Natasha Henstridge, Elisha Cuthbert, Tricia Helfer, and, of course, Lost‘s Evangeline Lilly? For all of the unkind things we’ve ever said about you, I apologize to Canada and thank you for all of the good things you’ve let us borrow.

In honor of our friends to the North, I give you today four Time Spiral Block Constructed decks that feature the colors of the Canadian flag, Red and White.

I know. It surprised me, too. They do indeed have their own flag. Canadians are a very resourceful people. I mean, think about it. You may blame them for sending Celine Dion down to us, but wasn’t that pretty darn smart of them? Now, she’s our problem, not theirs. “Pretty sneaky, sis.”

We Salute Canada!

Okay, I have to come clean. I’m just your typical, truth-challenged American. The inspiration for this deck wasn’t Canada. I was just using that as something we writers call “a device.” The true inspiration was the fact that Cautery Sliver was my second favorite Sliver in Planar Chaos, after Necrotic Sliver, which I’ve already beat to death.

Hey, that was kinda funny. Necrotic Sliver. Beat to death. I didn’t even plan it, either. Swell. There’s a freebie for you.

I’ve been a sucker for Goblin Legionnaire even since he first got printed back in Apocalypse. He was a Goblin. He was a Soldier. He could do extra damage. He could prevent damage. He was a friggin’ common. In fact, I still make casual decks for people using the guy because I have a couple hundred of them. “Them” being Goblin Legionnaires, not people. Anytime I went into a card store, I’d scour the commons box and pick up Goblin Legionnaires, Gaea’s Skyfolk, and any of the other multi-colored common Grizzly Bears that I could find from Invasion Block. If you didn’t play back then, look them up in Gatherer, and see why you might want to have a few dozen extra of each of those for friends new to the game.

Fast forward six years, and Wizards gave me another 2/2 creature for RW that could also deal and prevent damage. But wait! There’s more! This new guy was even better. You didn’t need Red mana to deal the damage. You didn’t need White mana to prevent damage. Any color of mana would do. In addition, thanks to the fact that this guy was a Sliver, other Slivers became Goblin Legionnaire Extraordinaires, too.

As Planar Chaos was becoming Standard legal, my friend Joe showed us that you didn’t even need a Sliver deck to make Cautery Sliver useful. He built a modified Boros Deck Wins using Cautery Sliver, and it was a monster. I still can’t figure out why none of us ever played the deck in a tournament. Probably because we just didn’t believe how good it was. (Joe’s still not given me permission to discuss it. So, if you want to know the decklist, you’ll have to somehow get hold of him. Maybe, if you ask real nice, he’ll post it in the forum for this article. You gotta say “please,” though. And “thank you,” too.)

At From Right Field, though, these next couple of months aren’t about Standard here. They’re about Time Spiral Block Constructed. All of which brings me to the first Red-and-White (a.k.a. R/W) deck of the day:

Caut in the Act

Chris Romeo

Test deck on 07-08-2007

Time Spiral Block

Creatures (25)

Lands (23)

Spells (12)

Before I get into the workings of the deck itself, I’d like to point out how cheap this is. Remember, the presumption in this column is that, since we’re conscientious about our Magic budget, we’ve already got four of each common and uncommon. The only rares in this deck are four Sedge Slivers, which now go for a whopping $2.50 each, and two Essence Slivers at three bucks each. Yes, for sixteen dollars, you can have the rares you need for this deck.

I’m gonna risk sounding like a used car salesman, but here goes. This deck runs like a dream. Because of the low, low, low average mana cost, there is almost no such thing as a bad opening hand unless you have only one land. A first-turn Sidewinder Sliver into a second-turn Sinew Sliver or Two-Headed Sliver is some bad news for the bad guy. Of course, Cautery Sliver causes all sorts of conniption fits for your opponent, too. “Ugh. I was gonna save this Sudden Shock for something else, but, gah…”

Ingredients in Canadian Bacon

Some people would drop the Essence Sliver, possibly upping the Bonesplitter Sliver count to four and adding other support spells. I like the Essence Sliver. As I hinted last week concerning the use of Spirit Loop in this Block or as we know from Loxodon Hierarch being all over the place for the past twenty months, a little lifegain can go a along way. I’ve had opponents give me the ol’ “GG” thinking they had me right before I topdecked an Essence Sliver and gained eight life, completely turning the game around.

Sedge Sliver is a sort of Stealth Sliver in this deck. Opponents expect much more Black mana. He’s really just there to pump the other Slivers up. Don’t be afraid of dropping him on turn 3 even if you have no Swamps in play. At least twice in testing, I did that very thing, topdecked a Terramorphic Expanse, and went to get a Swamp on turn 4. Sure, you can’t regenerate anybody because the Swamp comes into play tapped from the Expanse, but so what? Everybody’s getting +1/+1.

Sometimes, though, an opponent is very helpful in that respect. Sometimes, they’ll drop Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. All of a sudden, you have a phalanx, a company, a veritable battalion of regenerating Slivers, and they can regenerate with a Plains or a Mountain. It’s quite nice.

The obvious hero of the deck is Cautery Sliver, though. It allows you to do so many things that I can’t possibly list them all. Here, however, are a few of the nice tricks I’ve pulled with him:

* When an opponent points a Tendrils of Corruption or any other spell at a Sliver, sacrifice it. This is especially nice if they’re pointing Reality Strobe or Arc Blade at it. Why someone would do that when you have mana open, I don’t know. (Note to people playing with the Strobe and Blade: in that case, bounce a land or point the damage at me, respectively.) They do it, though. When they do, the Strobe or Arc Blade gets countered, and it doesn’t get re-Suspended.

* You can prevent an opponent from getting an advantage with some sort of combat-damage-triggered ability by sacrificing your Sliver before damage is dealt, waiting, of course, until damage is on the stack. You do, after all, want your about-to-be-dead Sliver to deal its combat damage.

* Kill a freshly minted Augur of Skulls. Trust me. If you can off that guy when they drop him, do it. Better to lose one Sliver on board than two cards in hand.

* You can save several Slivers from mass damage spells like Sulfurous Blast. Just use the ones that are going to die anyway to prevent damage to ones you might save.

* Last and certainly not least, you can end the game. Swing with your guys. Stack combat damage. Sacrifice Slivers for the rest of the damage. GG.

“Gosh and golly, Dr. Romeo. With all of those neat tricks you can do with Cautery Sliver, why do you even have Rebuff the Wicked in there?”

Good question. Fortunately, I and my crack team of, um, teammates have been on this like Lindsay Lohan at a wedding reception with an open bar in the back and Mercedes test drives out front. Essentially, there are three situations in which Rebuff the Wicked comes in mighty handy. First, if you don’t have a Cautery Sliver on board, well, then you can’t sacrifice anybody out from under a spell. Second, you might not want to sacrifice that Sliver. Wacky, I know, but it sometimes happens that you want to keep the guy at which the Bad Ole Spell is aimed. Third, Rebuff the Wicked can stop a spell aimed at any permanent you control. So, if your opponent does indeed point that Reality Strobe at a land, you can Rebuff the Wicked sonofasailor.

This leads me to the second White support spell, Temporal Isolation. I can’t understand why this didn’t make it into more Standard decks, although I’m sure Craig will insert something about Faith’s Fetters being more versatile. [Faith’s Fetters is more versatile. — Craig.] Still, in TSP Block, this card is hard to beat. Think about it. Bogardan Hellkites come into play and do nothing. Or you can slap one on that recently un-Suspended Greater Gargadon, and you don’t have to sit back and block with your regenerating Sliver.

Killing Me Softly

This deck can kill quickly. It’s not first-turn-Standard-Dragonstorm fast, but it can really win unexpectedly. As I alluded to before, the combination of Sidewinder Sliver and Two-Headed Sliver make for some bad choices on defense for the other guy. Throw in some direct damage, some Slivers that like to take one for the team, and that Temporal Isolation, and you have one potent package.

The Man (Heh) in the Mirror

The toughest battle for this deck is actually the mirror match or, rather, the “mirror” match. In other words, what do you do when you meet up with other Slivers? Fortunately, I haven’t found other Sliver decks to be a problem. Typically, they don’t have Black mana to regenerate their Slivers… unless they’re playing their own Sedge Slivers. In that case, it wouldn’t matter if you were playing with the Sister Sedge anyway. So, Sedge Sliver means that you could win the war of attrition. Mostly, though, you win because of Rebuff the Wicked and Temporal Isolation. Other Sliver decks will also pack spells like Ghostfire or Rift Bolt to off your guys. “If a child objects, Rebuff ‘em!” Then, Isolate their most important Slivers. Resist the temptation, however, to off the first one you see, unless the first one is their own Essence Sliver. In that case, I think you’re gonna win anyway because their “Sliver” deck didn’t make a Sliver until turn 4.

Improving on Perfection?!?

Some people, though, didn’t think this deck was quite good enough. In fact, one fan, who asked to remain anonymous, caught up with me after he’d seen me testing Caut in the Act and offered his own R/W Sliver-based Time Spiral Block Constructed deck. It was:

Pea Tear Griffin’s Livers

Chris Romeo

Test deck on 07-08-2007

Time Spiral Block

Creatures (22)

Lands (23)

Spells (15)

This deck is significantly more expensive than Caut in the Act because of the Serra Avengers. While you lose six dollars worth of Essence Slivers, you gain twenty-four dollars in Serra Avengers. Of course, that still means that you’re only laying out thirty-four dollars for the rares in this deck.

The problem was that I didn’t like it as much as the original. Sure, Griffin Guide was a nice addition, lifting my Slivers over the crowded battlefield. The deck, however, had lost something. Serra Avenger just didn’t make up for the loss of both Sidewinder Sliver and Essence Sliver. Moreover, I ended up not liking Rift Bolt in this deck. It was too clunky. I would rather cast Sidewinder Sliver on turn 1 than to hope I can hit something with a Suspended Rift Bolt. Still, he claimed to be having great success with it. So, I played against it a few games, played with it a few games, and decided to submit it for your approval.

That made me wonder if there was a deck somewhere between the two, one that included Sidewinder Sliver, Griffin Guide, Essence Sliver, and Sudden Shock without adding Rift Bolt and Serra Avenger. After several swings and misses, I ended up with:

Canadian Slivers

Chris Romeo

Test deck on 07-08-2007

Time Spiral Block

Creatures (24)

Lands (23)

Spells (13)

Essentially, this deck lost the Rebuff the Wickeds from the Caut in the Act deck in favor of three Griffin Guides. The fourth Rebuff, a Ghostfire, and a Two-Headed Sliver made way for three Sudden Shocks. The reason I ended up dropping the fourth Two-Headed Sliver was simply that it was the weakest of the three two-mana Slivers. True, its ability can make the Slivers nearly unblockable, but you only need one in play to do that. More than one doesn’t add any benefit. Additional Sinew Slivers make all Slivers bigger while more Cautery Slivers means that losing one won’t rob you of the Cautery abilities. Extra Two-Headed Slivers, though, don’t make your creatures that much harder to block. In other words, a second one doesn‘t mean that each Sliver has to be blocked by a minimum of three creatures, etc. On the other hand, your opponent could mess up your combat math by offing the only Two-Headed Sliver you have.

This is yet another reason why the first version is still my favorite. Rebuff the Wicked says “Nay, foul demon. Thou shalt not mess with my combat math! Be gone!” You see, even with all of the Cautery Sliver tricks you can do with this deck, Griffin Guide still is often a two-for-one trade in favor of your opponent. Sure, when the Guide sticks, you’ve got an uber Sliver that flies over the defense. Sadly, many times, the intended object of the Griffin Guide’s affections is bounced or killed out from underneath it while the Guide is still on the stack. There’s your two-for-one trade. Again, Griffin Guide looks great in this deck. If only I could find room for Rebuff the Wicked, too. Unfortunately, I couldn’t because I had to work on the next deck.

Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right
Here I Am, Stuck in the Middle With You

The last deck I wanted to make was one that echoed the Cautery Sliver-Boros Deck Wins that Joe had come up with. In other words, could we make a Time Spiral Block deck that used the Cautery Sliver without being a Sliver deck?

Caut in the Middle

Chris Romeo

Test deck on 07-08-2007

Time Spiral Block

Creatures (23)

Lands (23)

Spells (14)

Okay, so it’s not really like Boros Deck Wins. BDW had a higher ratio of burn spells to remove blockers and/or send at the opponent’s head. Pretend that Temporal Isolation, though, is a burn spell that reads something like this:

Temporal Isolation
Instant
1W
Temporal Isolation deals whatever damage is needed to make sure that that big old bad creatures over there never bothers you again.

It also lacks the bit of lifegain that Lightning Helix brought to the Standard version. I toyed with Essence Sliver as a way to take care of that. Guess what? Shade of Trokair is *tee hee* a shade better. Yeah, I was surprised, too, but you can Suspend that sucker on turn 1. If you have to cast them, though, the Essence Sliver is better. For you folks who like to go balls to the wall, drop the Shades for the Essence Slivers, drop the Temporal Isolations for the fourth Sudden Shock and three Fiery Tempers. Then, even up the Plains and Mountains because your color balance has shifted more toward the middle. I warn you, though, Temporal Isolation is much better against Spectral Force.

“Why Fiery Temper and not Disintegrate? I mean, there’s no way to discard the Temper, right?”

You are both observant and correct. This deck doesn’t make much mana. To get three damage from Disintegrate requires four mana, and it’s a Sorcery. Fiery Temper is more BDW-like because it’s an Instant that’s also efficient. Yes, it would be better if you could discard it. Whadaya wanna do? Add Sliversmith?

That was a joke, kids.

Of course…

Nah.

So, there you have it. Four inexpensive decks to honor our Canadian brethren. And I didn’t say “eh” once.

Next week, more cheap Time Spiral Block decks. Maybe. I might change direction just because I’m spontaneous like that. I’ll have to think about it. As usual, you’ve been a great audience. Now, stay tuned for Terrence & Phillip in Not Without My Anus.

Chris Romeo
FromRightField-at-Comcast-dot-net