{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. They contain, at most, eight to twelve rares. 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 Wildfire, Llanowar Wastes, or Birds of Paradise. 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.}
The 2006 Magic Invitational: Profound Apologies
Wow. Geez. I, uh, I’m, well, *whew* I dunno what to say, really. I am both embarrassed and sad. Here, I’m thinking that I had a chance for the 2006 Magic Invitational on the Fan Favorites Ballot, and I wasn’t even nominated. Moreover, there was no write-in slot! For those of you who were all ready to pencil me in, like my Mom and Brother (Hi, Mom! Hi, Jonathan!), I am incredibly sorry. I was under the impression that the Fan Favorite Ballot was for the fans’ favorite. I was afraid that, without my campaigning, John Rizzo or Jay Moldedspam-Safetycar would just whiz by me. (Heh. Whiz.) Instead, none of us had a chance. Sorry for getting your hopes up. I owe you one.
The Real Reason We’re Here
The last two columns From Right Field dealt with me trying to massage a couple of Gruul Wilding precons into a tourney-worthy deck (defined by me as something that won’t embarrass you at a local Saturday tourney). It didn’t work. To me, it seemed to be a simple matter of the Guildpact Red and/or Green commons and uncommons being not very good. Sure, Scab-Clan Mauler and Scorched Rusalka are great, but it goes quickly downhill after that. We could surely build a decent R/G deck, but that wasn’t the exercise. It was to see if we could smoosh two Gruul Wilding precons together with a minimum of additional outside cards to get the job done. I couldn’t.
A lot of folks were Mortified when I came to the conclusion that a good, solid Gruul deck required too many rares. They Castigated me for not using their favorite spell or creature, or for including ones they didn’t like. Essentially, I was Pilloried.
Gosh, you know, for some reason, I dunno, but I have a hankerin’ to modify the Orzhov precon this week. Weird, huh?
When the Moon Hits Your Eye like a Big Pizza Pie, That’s Orzhova
Remember when I promised no bad Gruul and Izzet puns? That was just for Gruul and Izzet. I came up with a decent Orzhov one. I like it, anyway. Okay, so it’s not so great. You try coming up with one for that guild name.
First things first: here’s what Code of the Orzhov, the Guildpact B/W preconstructed deck, looks like:
10 Plains
11 Swamp
2 Orzhov Basilica
1 Orzhova, the Church of Deals
1 Martyred Rusalka
2 Shrieking Grotesque
1 Belfry Spirit
1 Plagued Rusalka
2 Thoughtpicker Witch
2 Infectious Host
2 Orzhov Euthanist
2 Ostiary Thrull
2 Poisonbelly Ogre
1 Skeletal Vampire
1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
2 Souls of the Faultless
2 Blind Hunter
2 Agent of Masks
2 Mourning Thrull
1 Orzhov Guildmage
1 Festival of the Guildpact
2 Hissing Miasma
2 Strands of Undeath
2 Castigate
1 Mortify
2 Pillory of the Sleepless
The first thing I notice about this deck is how the cards in each rarity seem to be much better, by and large, than the ones in the Gruul Wilding deck. Look at the rares. Skeletal Vampire is much better than Boris What’s-his-name the Cyclops. He comes out faster and swings through the air. He regenerates. He makes underlings, underlings that die for him. Teysa versus Wurmweaver Coil? Fuhgedaboutit. Plagued Rusalka trumps the Scorched Rusalka. P-Rusk cam kill S-Rusk. It won’t happen the other way around.
Careful with That Axe, Eugene
So, why would I pick the Orzhov deck next? You want to know what I was thinking, what was going on in my mind? Watch your step in there. For one thing, it seems like every third person is playing some B/W deck right now. I wanted to get my feet wet and my hands dirty checking it out live and in concert. Second, in the many, many, many games I played with the Gruul deck, thirty-two were against Orzhov-based decks, and the B/W Boys & Girls took twenty-three of them. I wanted some of that that.
Assessing the Assets
Code of the Orzhov is much more focused than the Gruul Wilding deck. It wants to win through combat and life loss. The few control elements in the deck are even focused to that end. Castigate and Thoughtpicker Witch, for example, are there to get rid of threats (or answers to yours) before they hit. Pillory of the Sleepless… well, let’s just say that I know it quite well at this point, and, frankly, I’m glad it’s finally on my team.
There are a few interesting (read: I don’t like ‘em) cards like Agent of Masks and Infectious Host. For 2B, I’d rather have something like Douse in Gloom or Stinkweed Imp than the Host. As for Agent of Masks and its five mana, I can think of hundreds of cards I’d rather have. (Having said that, four Agents went directly into my multi-player, no-holds-barred, five-color deck. “You each lose one; I gain five.”)
A couple of cards that I’m on the fence about are Festival of the Guildpact and Hissing Miasma. While the Festival looks defensive – Hello? It prevents damage – I’ve used it enough in other decks and in drafts to know that it can be a fantastic surprise. You can block in such a way that all of your blockers live while the attackers die, and then use the FoG (get it now?) to prevent the damage from the one or two beefier critters that you let through. Oh, you also draw a card. That’s what makes it good. To me, anyway. Worst-case scenario: FoG cycles for W. However, it would be nice to simply do away with an attacker, like by using Devouring Light.
I’m also conflicted about the Miasma. On the one hand, those weenie hordes are gonna stay put. No one wants to take five damage for attacking with five 1/1 Wood tokens. Heh. One-one wood. On the other hand, it probably won’t stop anyone from attacking with that 5/5 Kokusho or Yosei. Besides, it doesn’t really “do” anything. It just punishes the other person for doing something. Still, that “something” is something they probably want to do. See why I’m conflicted?
Finally, I think this deck should have Faith’s Fetters. Pretty much any White deck should have Faith’s Fetters as far as I’m concerned, and I’m very concerned.
Of course, that’s all theory. As we should know from the fight between the theory of evolution and the theory of intelligent design, you really need to put your theory to the test at some point. My monkey told me this would be a good time to test Code of Orzhov. I’m gonna play a few games with the unedited version. I’ll be right back.
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Our Hero Returns
Code of the Orzhov, unedited, finished 4-2. Six games? Yes. You see, it came out 3-2 in just five games. I hate when that happens to the unedited preconstructed decks. It looks like they’re over .500. Then, if the deck ends up under .500 after any changes I make, it looks like the original precon was better. While that might very well be true (since I suck), it seems unlikely that an unfocused precon deck could actually be better than one that’s been tweaked with any sort of forethought. So, I played a sixth game. And Code of the Orzhov won. Now, to be fair, the person was playing some sort of four-color, um, I dunno. It had Mark of Eviction and some other enchantments. It had Faith’s Fetters, which doesn’t work well against a deck packing Thoughtpicker Witch and Plagued and Martyred Rusalkas, even in one- or two-ofs. I honestly don’t know what he was trying to do.
All I know is that it pissed me off. Now, the precon is 4-2. How bad will it look if I “tune” this from a .667 winning percentage down to a .600 winning percentage. Thanks a lot, whoever you were.
What I Learned While I was Away
- Infectious Host is a wasted card. I’ll probably be adding two more Shrieking Grotesques or Douse in Gloom.
- The deck doesn’t have enough removal. “Surprise!” right? There’s one Mortify, two Pillory of the Sleepless, and two Orzhov Enthusiasts to remove creatures (if the situation is right).
- Blind Hunter is… well, I’ll let my physician, Dr. Cox, tell you about it. “Blind Hunter is ree-di-hih-hih-hih-hiculous, like George Clooney winning an Oscar because, gosh and golly, he ree-heally needs more help pulling the babes, and then he donates his Oscar goody bag to charity so they can auction it off which lands him more babes for being sensitive like a frightened kitten. Do you understand me, Trisha?!?”
- Pillory of the Sleepless is just as good as expected. It neutralizes threats like Pacifism so they can’t use combat to do any Silly Graveyard Tricks, while also sucking the opponent’s life away.
- Evan Erwin was right about Skeletal Vampire. He’s just silly in a deck with other Bats like Blind Hunter and cards like Belfry Spirit that create Bats.
- I was wrong about Belfry Spirit. A 1/1 flier for five mana is a bad card. A 1/1 flier for five mana that produces four other 1/1 fliers that feed Skeletal Vampire hurts so good.
- Souls of the Faultless doesn’t fly, and Hissing Miasma doesn’t keep people from attacking with Angels and Dragons. I don’t want to see a single e-mail or forum flame on these statements. (A sure way to make certain that I see many e-mails and forum flames on these statements.) They are good cards… in another deck. In fact, I could see the Miasma slipping right into a Mono-Black Creatureless Control deck. This ain’t that deck.
- The deck needs four Faith’s Fetters. Badly.
- Festival of the Guildpact is a fantastic trick… in some other deck.
- Blind Hunter is really, really, really, pretty okay.
With all of this in mind, I ran the following deck as my first modified version of the Orzhov precon:
Code WB, v.1.0
10 Swamp
9 Plains
3 Orzhov Basilica
2 Orzhova, the Church of Deals
2 Plagued Rusalka
2 Thoughtpicker Witch
2 Orzhov Guildmage
4 Shrieking Grotesque
2 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
4 Blind Hunter
2 Belfry Spirit
2 Skeletal Vampire
4 Castigate
4 Pillory of the Sleepless
2 Mortify
2 Strand of Undeath
4 Faith’s Fetters
Normally, the first version of a precon that I modify uses only cards found in the precons. I simply had to reach outside the precon to grab four Faith’s Fetters. Why break my own “rule” on that? Because it’s just that good, and the deck can support it. I could have left the Ostiary Thrull in as a Faith’s Fetters stand-in, but I couldn’t justify it. A creature is much easier to remove than an Aura.
How’d everything turn out? Read on!
Game 1: I faced a pretty original G/B/W deck that used Twilight Drover. It had Doubling Season to get more counters on and tokens from the Drover. It also had Shambling Shell as an enabler to get counters onto the Drover. Fortunately, I came out quickly with an Orzhov Guildmage and an enhanced Shrieking Grotesque. I was able to get Faith’s Fetters onto his Drover, but it was met the next turn by Mortify. It didn’t matter, though. The life gain kept me far enough ahead that I could use the Belfry Spirit and its tokens to block while sucking two life per turn off of each of us with the Guildmage. Even though the Belfry Spirit’s tokens pumped up the Drover, the game was over before it mattered. (1-0)
Game 2: I liked this deck, too. It was a mono-White Samurai deck with a twist: Zealous Inquisitor. When a player has mana up for his or her Zealous Inquisitor, it can be very bad news, especially for a deck running a lot of one- and two-toughness creatures. Auras to the rescue! Strands of Undeath emptied his/her hand while giving me a regenerating blocker. Pillory of the Sleepless kept one Inquisitor on the other side of the board while also sucking life away. Faith’s Fetters stopped another one, in addition to giving me a life cushion. Teysa joined a Blind Hunter and a Guildmage. I used her and those two to remove a Samurai wearing Spirit Link. The game was extremely close. I was at one when I ended it by activating the Church of deals. (2-0)
Game 3: Guess what? This deck can’t beat Owling Mine when Owling Mine goes first and gets a second-turn Eye of Nowhere on Code WB’s only land, Boomerang on turn 3 on Code WB’s only land, and a fourth-turn Ebony Owl Netsuke. Also, now that the deck has proven itself by taking a quarter of the Top 8 slots at PT Honolulu, I don’t think it belongs in the Casual Decks room, regardless of how cheap it is to build. Remember, U/G Madness was cheap, too. (2-1)
Game 4: There’s a reason that I truly enjoy playing in the Casual Decks room that I don’t think I’ve ever brought up before. I get to see a lot of great ideas that I never see in the Tournament Practice room. For example, this player was packing Skarrgan Pit Skulk. "Ugh," you’re saying. "What a bad card." Not when the deck is also packing Might of Oaks, Wildsize, and Blanchwood Armor. Of course, had I seen any of the eight cards I have (four each of Faith’s Fetters and Pillory of the Sleepless) that could neutralize a 7/7 Pit Skulk, I would have been fine. I didn’t, and the ginormous Pit Skulk wearing the Blanchwood Armor went the entire way. (2-2)
Game 5: My first mulligan this set. My six-card hand was fine, with a Plains, a Swamp, a Guildmage, a Blind Hunter, and two Faith’s Fetters. I would have liked to have seen a three-casting-cost spell, but I wasn’t willing to go down to five when I had two lands and a spell I could play, especially when I was drawing first. His first two lands were Mountain and Island. I feared an Owling Mine deck like Evan Erwin. It was a SpArc-Splice deck. The Red was to kill me while the Blue was to bounce my stuff. Prior to this game, I had been questioning the discard in this deck. Castigate and Strands of Undeath kept mocking me when I’d draw them. "Ha ha!" they seemed to say. "Your opponent’s hand is empty," or "Betcha wish that was a creature or creature kill!" Not in this game, though. The Strands hit and emptied his/her hand. With no Arcane or Splice spells in hand, his/her deck fell apart. (3-2)
Game 6: Ah, my friend Bill Bryant, whom I haven’t actually seen in months (online doesn’t count as "seeing" someone), decided to sit down for this one. Bill was packing a W/R deck. Not a Boros deck. Just one of those ballz-to-the-wall W/R decks. I kept a two-land (Plains and Swamp) because I had three plays for those two lands (Rusalka and two Castigate). The Castigates worked perfectly, taking a Paladin en-Vec and a Glorious Anthem. The deck has very few ways to deal with the Paladin and zero ways to deal with the Anthem. Unfortunately, I got no more lands until I was at six. He had three creatures on board and Lightning Helix in hand. I never beat Bill. (3-3)
Game 7: As with the last game, the third land didn’t show up until it was too late. On turn 2, I Castigated a Mortivore. I could have taken a Hypnotic Specter. However, since I was holding a Shrieking Grotesque and two Blind Hunters, I decided I could wait for that third and fourth land. I’m still waiting. (3-4)
Game 8: When I see Islands, Swamps, and Ninjas, I get worried. But I also play a little better, I think. I kept holding a Mortify waiting and waiting for Meloku (he said later it was indeed in there) or something else devastating. Again, hurray for the discard. I was able to slow his card advantage to nothing with them. You see, he was packing Floating-Dream Zubera and Surveilling Sprite along with Hideous Laughter. I guess you don’t care about your gang dying when they replace themselves. Thoughtpicker Witch did a great job of minimizing the effects of that, though. In the end, I did Blind Hunter tricks with the Witch to win. (4-4)
Game 9: As Yogi Berra would say, it was like deja vu all over again. Another U/B deck with almost completely different creatures (Stinkweed Imp, Dimir Infiltrator, Bottled Cloister), but the final play was the same thing. With my opponent at two, he had put Followed Footsteps on my Blind Hunter. I followed (heh) with a Thoughtpicker Witch, sacrificed the Hunter to the Witch, Haunted the Witch, then sacrificed the Witch to herself. (5-4)
Game 10: How good is Pillory of the Sleepless? My opponent dropped a fourth-turn Rathi Dragon. This was after a couple of Goblins and some burn to get rid of my Plagued Rusalka. In the end, thanks to the (broken record) Blind Hunter and a Faith’s Fetters, I actually ended at eighteen life. (6-4)
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Now, see what I mean? You’re looking at 6-4 and going, "Yeah, that’s a .600 winning percentage. It had a .667 before he made any changes, though. Way to go, Romeo. You made a precon worse." Look at the matchups, though. Owling Mine was one of the losses. So were two in which I got only two lands until it was simply too late for a third to make any difference. In other words, I’m not just going back to the precon. Sorry folks.
I have to ask myself what I can do to make this better. ("Go back to the precon decklist!" Shaddup!) The word I keep coming back to – maybe because I’m watching the Lady Vols in the NCAA tournament while I’m doing this – is "focus." I’m going to move away from the discard element. That means that Castigate, Strands of Undeath, and Thoughtpicker Witch will hit the bench. That’s okay, though, because I can bring in the other two Plagued Rusalkas for the Witches. Without the Castigates, the deck is very thin at two slot. I’ve also noticed that I don’t have many White creatures to help Teysa. So, three of the six cards left will go to a third Guildmage and two Kami of Ancient Law. By adding the Kami, we have four cards that can hit enchantments. Finally, three Disembowels will help with creature control. Much like Mortify, the Disembowels don’t care about a creature’s color. I like that in my creature destruction. Sorry, Nekrataal. For now, you ride the pine.
Creatures (23)
- 2 Kami of Ancient Law
- 2 Belfry Spirit
- 4 Blind Hunter
- 3 Orzhov Guildmage
- 4 Plagued Rusalka
- 4 Shrieking Grotesque
- 2 Skeletal Vampire
- 2 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Lands (24)
Spells (13)
This is where I’ll pick up next week. Until then, keep those ideas coming, and keep reaching for the stars!