{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 Wrath of God, City of Brass, or Birds of Paradise. The decks are also tested by the author, who isn’t very good at playing Magic. His playtest partners, however, are excellent. 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.}
How much do I love you guys? How much do I love this gig?
This <————————————————————————————————-> much.
Here I am, on vacation, celebrating my first anniversary to a woman who really deserves better than me, and I’m thinking about cheap Magic decks for you. Well, and me, too, since I play theses suckers in tourneys myself. Before we get to the end, though, I’m gonna let you in on the creation of a deck.
In the Beginning, the Deck was Without Form . . .
The genesis (heh) of this deck was due to Affinity. You see, back after the March 1st, 2005 bannings (and before they went into effect on March 20th, 2005), our tournament organizer decided that it would be nice to get rid of Affinity early. So, while other folks were suffering through the death rattle of Affinity in Standard, we played KBC (Kamigawa Block Constructed) with only Champions and Betrayers, just like the big boys did a couple of weeks ago in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Trivia: Philly was actually the capital of the United States for a time before Washington, D.C. Philadelphia is the home of The Liberty Bell. Philadelphia Eagles fans once beat up Santa Claus.
Ever since I saw them, I’ve been intrigued by the Genjus, especially the Blue and Black ones, Genju of the Falls and Genju of the Fens, respectively. They influenced my choice for that first KBC tourney. My first attempt at a U/B KBC deck looked something like this:
24 Lands
4 Waterveil Cavern
10 Island
10 Swamps
16 Creatures
4 Nezumi Graverobber
4 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Genju of the Falls
4 Genju of the Fens
20 Other Spells
4 Hisoka’s Defiance
4 Hinder
4 Minamo’s Meddling
4 Consuming Vortex
4 Rend Spirit
This deck was fun, and I was impressed that it worked as well as it did with only four rares. It mostly worked thanks to Hisoka’s Defiance, Minamo’s Meddling, and the Graverobber. Man, was Defiance good. I could counter Kokusho, the Evening Star, and then steal it with a flipped Graverobber. Don’t underestimate Minamo’s Meddling, either.
Minamo’s Meddling Trivia: Minamo’s Meddling is a hard counter. It doesn’t matter if the spell is Arcane or not. Meddling counters it. You get to look at the hand of the countered spell’s controller whether the countered spell is Arcane or not. Oh, and if the spell that’s countered did happen to have something Spliced onto it, you get to make your opponent throw those cards into the graveyard, too. Kinda a four-mana kick in the hush puppies.
The deck, however, just didn’t have staying power. Kira was nice but fragile. She shrugged off spells thrown at her, but she wasn’t good in a fight. She fights, well, like a girl. Not like Hilary-Swank-in-Million-Dollar-Baby like a girl. More like Chris-Romeo-in-a-biker-bar like a girl.
I was also less than impressed with the Genju of the Fens in this deck. The two Genju were fighting for lands to activate them, and it was almost always the Blue Genju that I activated. It flies, after all. This is not to say that I don’t simply adore the Black Genju. It’s just that it needs to be in a mono-Black deck.
Fens Trivia: Fen actually means “swamp” or “swamp-like area.” Thus, the Boston Red Sox literally play in Swampway Park. Cranberries were originally called fenberries because of the bogs in which they grow. However, some smart farmer realized that people probably didn’t want to eat swampberries. So, the name was changed to cranberries.
The Deck Begins to Take Form
Since the deck wasn’t ready for a tournament, I played Shrines that first week. Shrines did so well and was so frustrating to play against that I promised my friends I’d never play it at our local tourneys again. I’m just that kind of guy.
I went back to that decklist the next week, though. I knew that both Kira and the Genju of the Fens would be dropped. With all of the Blue mana required for all of the countermagic, the deck needed more Islands anyway. Swamp Genju was just in the way. That would only help with the Genju of the Falls. I dropped Kira for Jetting Glasskite. Now, there’s a guy who’s good in a fight. Finally, I turned the one-mana Genju of the Fens into the one-mana card-drawing spell Reach Through Mists. I figured at some point I could probably Splice Consuming Vortex onto it.
24 Lands
4 Waterveil Cavern
13 Island
7 Swamps
12 Creatures
4 Nezumi Graverobber
4 Jetting Glasskite
4 Genju of the Falls
24 Other Spells
4 Reach Through Mists
4 Hisoka’s Defiance
4 Hinder
4 Minamo’s Meddling
4 Consuming Vortex
4 Rend Spirit
This version definitely did better. I was even more impressed since I was now down to zero rares. The biggest problem that I had with this version was that Rend Spirit was dead against a lot of decks like the mono-White Samurais, R/W Samurai, and mono-Black Rats’ Nest. It was great against Kokusho and Friends, but that wasn’t enough. I also kept losing to these fast Red weenie decks. Blademane Baku is very, very bad. Cunning Bandit is very, very bad. Akki Avalanchers and Akki Raider are very, very bad. Rend Flesh was a one-for-one trade and only for one of those creatures. The Reach Through Mists trick never quite worked, though card drawing was nice. The deck needed some more overhaulin’.
“You Call that a Deck?”
One thing I noticed was that there appears to be two kinds of Spirits. There’s the come-out-and-play-quick Spirits like Hana Kami and Blademane Baku, and then there’s the wait-for-it—-now Spirits like Kokusho. So, I started thinking maybe I needed some mass removal for weenies instead of one-to-one removal for Spirits. Mass removal would also allow me to kill small, non-Spirits. Later in the games, I could simply counter the Myojins and other bigger Spirits. That was how Rend Spirit became Hideous Laughter. I also wanted more card drawing. That was when Honden of Seeing Winds popped up. This version of the deck didn’t seem to need card drawing early. It was late that it was needed. The Honden was perfect for that. Of course, if I did that, I’d probably need twenty-five lands. That was fine since I could easily make it only three Hondens in the deck. That was how I got to this:
25 Lands
4 Waterveil Cavern
14 Island
7 Swamps
12 Creatures
4 Nezumi Graverobber
4 Jetting Glasskite
4 Genju of the Falls
23 Other Spells
4 Hisoka’s Defiance
4 Hinder
4 Minamo’s Meddling
4 Consuming Vortex
4 Hideous Laughter
3 Honden of Seeing Winds
I was pleased with how this did in “real life” testing. So, I brought it online. I was kicking azz and taking names (figuratively; I didn’t actually write down any screen names. Sorry) in the Casual Decks room. It was time to bring it to the Tournament Practice room.
Tournament Practice Room Trivia: Did you know that, when I first take a deck to the Tourney Practice room on MTGO, I don’t use a sideboard? It’s true! I want to see if my deck even works before worrying about a sideboard. Also, did you know that, if you set your system so that you can view the avatars at the tables, sometimes you can see serving wenches visit the tables in the Tournament Practice room? It’s true!
In the middle of April, it was tough to figure out what a tournament-worthy KBC deck would look like. Sure, there was Zvi’s stuff anticipating Pro Tour: Philadelphia, but no one knew for sure. (Of course, whatever Zvi says is pretty much gospel. People will play his decks completely untested and for good reason. I wonder what it’s like to have that kind of power. He could say “This random pile of Red and White cards is the deck to beat,” and that’s what people would play.) Still, based on the number of Kokushos, Keigas, and Umezawa’s Jittes that I came across, people had an idea of what was good. The funny thing was none of them thought that this deck would be good. Oh, sure, they lost to it, but, they still teased me about it. Once, I was even ridiculed for my deck after I beat a guy! “You call that a deck?” Yes, yes, I do. And you should call it “my daddy.”
That’s my way of saying that this deck was doing well in the Tournament Practice room even without a sideboard. As good as the countermagic was, though, the Nezumi Graverobbers were the MVPs. Not surprising given what I learned from modifying the Rat’s Nest deck.
Oh, and as for how it did against the Gifts Ungiven deck that became famous after PT Philly, very well. How can that be? Let’s just say that deck doesn’t like having stuff countered and removed from the game.
Nezumi Graverobber Trivia: You can bring creatures back from any graveyard with a flipped Nezumi Graverobber (a.k.a. Nighteyes the Desecrator). So, once he’s flipped, if, for example, you use Hisoka’s Defiance to counter Keiga, the Keiga can be yours for only 4B. Also, you can rearrange the letters in Nezumi to spell “un-mize.” Coincidence?
I had been worried about using the Honden for my card drawing. It’s not card advantage until the second card it draws for you. Given that this was not a Honden deck, it meant that it was going to be two upkeeps after I cast it before the Honden got me ahead. However, it ended up working just fine. As I expected, I didn’t really need card drawing early. It was turn six and after that it was needed which made the Blue Honden perfect.
Meanwhile, Genju of the Falls had been as good as I predicted. It was early defense in the worst cases and a win condition later. The question then became how to port this to Standard since I wouldn’t be playing in PT Cheesesteak and Regionals was only two months away. First and foremost, Hisoka’s Defiance would have to make way for Mana Leak. Even in Standard, the Defiance often came up big, what with the Glacial Rays, Cranial Extractions, and Kokushos everywhere. Often, though, it suffered from The Wrong Answer Syndrome™. Maybe later in the sideboard. Also, I could diversify the mana base with Salt Marshes. Finally, I switched the Vortexes out for Echoing Truths.
U/B Genju Control (Standard)
25 Lands
2 Waterveil Cavern
4 Salt Marsh
13 Island
6 Swamps
12 Creatures
4 Nezumi Graverobber
4 Jetting Glasskite
4 Genju of the Falls
23 Other Spells
4 Mana Leak
4 Hinder
4 Minamo’s Meddling
4 Echoing Truth
4 Hideous Laughter
3 Honden of Seeing Winds
Into the House of Pain
During my vacation week (taken to celebrate my first anniversary), my wife was sick for three days. That gave me plenty of time to play in the Tourney Practice Room on MTGO to play some Standard matches. Sadly, I got so frustrated that I almost kicked the computer. I didn’t, though. I kicked the cat instead. (Geez, just kidding. It was a dog.)
“See? I toldja the deck stunk on ice.”
That’s what was so frustrating. It didn’t stink. I kept getting mana hosed. I know, I know. It happens to everyone, and I’ve gotten much better in the last couple of years at recognizing when I win thanks to my opponent getting the hose, too. If you’re gonna whine about getting mana hosed, you need to know when it benefited you, too. This, though, was beyond belief.
In my first forty games with this version, I had to mulligan zero- or one-land hands twelve times. Twelve times! That’s thirty percent of my opening hands. That is simply not believable for a twenty-five land deck. Moreover, of the other twenty-eight games, in fourteen of them, I had two-land opening hands, but didn’t get a third land by turn 3. Stunning. (Of the final fourteen, i.e., the fourteen in which mana was not an issue, this deck won ten of them.)
Of course, mana issues are one thing that you test for. You don’t want to go into a big tourney running twenty lands and forty spells when you’re playing with a bunch of five-mana cards. That wasn’t the case here, though. I was playing a twenty-five-land deck, and the “shuffling” was being done by a computer. Yes, I expected to get mana-hosed a little, but not nearly that much. Statistically, the game was out of whack.
So, I pulled a Wakefield. I went up to twenty-six lands.
Guess what.
Yep. I was still getting mana hosed. How in the name of the Sith do you get mana hosed running twenty-six lands?
I stopped testing the deck.
I’d love to just use the force of my personality to say “This is a great deck” and have people play it. I’m not Zvi, Mike Flores, or even Andy Clautice. I can’t just say “this deck works” and have people believe me. I need data to back up my claims, and I don’t have it. Obviously, the mana issues are not typical. Maybe it was just my three nights to get mana hosed continually. Without the data showing U/B Genju Control beating up on Tooth and Nail, G/B Control, MUC, et al, though, why believe me? (Speaking of Mike Flores and credibility, I notice that he’s talking about Two-Headed Dragon now. I’ve been pimping that card for months, and no one’s listened to me yet. Let’s see if he can convince folks to run with it. Lord knows that I couldn’t, and 2HD is a very nasty critter.)
Moreover, I needed a deck for Saturday. The Saturday after my anniversary. I was smart enough to not even ask about playing on our anniversary. It was my first; I didn’t want it to be my last. I went back to Green and Red again. Those colors are very good together right now. Besides, I was itching to play with Grab the Reins again. With so much beef out there, GtR can come up huge.
Grab the Reins Trivia: Did you know that, if you play Grab the Reins with Entwine, take Keiga, the Tide Star, and sacrifice Keiga, you (not Keiga’s owner) get to take control of a creature? It’s true! In fact, any creature that you take with and sacrifice to Grab the Reins is your creature. So, any triggered abilities are yours to control. For example, GtR a Solemn Simulacrum, and you draw the card when it dies.
I’ve had great fun lately getting a three-for-one (or more?) trade with Keiga and Grab the Reins. I’ll take Keiga and throw it at their second-smallest creature. Then, with Keiga’s triggered ability, I take the biggest guy they have left. It’s tons of fun.
While GtR was the MVP of the day, what I put around the Grab the Reins was the meat and potatoes of the thing. I’d been working on a deck based on a KBC idea that had been bandied about between Karl Allen and me. His idea was that Forked-Branch Garami with its double “Soulshift 4” would be a sweet play in one of Dr. Romeo’s Budget Decks. The FBG gets back stuff like Hearth Kami, Pain Kami, Blademane Baku, Frostling, Hana Kami, and Kami of the Hunt to name a few. Since I don’t want to make this thing any longer, I’m going to forget about telling you how I came up with these particular cards and just show you what I played.
Fork You
23 Lands
4 Shivan Oasis
2 Pinecrest Ridge
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
9 Forest
6 Mountain
19 Creatures
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Hearth Kami
4 Pain Kami
4 Forked-Branch Garami
3 Kodama of the North Tree
18 Other Spells
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Commune with Nature
4 Glacial Ray
4 Kodama’s Reach
4 Grab the Reins
15 Sideboard
4 Wear Away
4 Sideswipe
4 Earthshaker
3 Scrabbling Claws
Why, Exactly, Are There No Eternal Witnesses?
Just trying to keep the price as far down as possible.
Why on Earth are You Playing Commune with Nature?
Because it’s fun, and it can get you exactly the creature you need. If you want, take them out for Eternal Witnesses. That’s not nearly as fun, though.
What’s with the Legendary Lands? Your Only Legend Can’t be Targeted?
You are correct. Kodama (North) can’t be targeted by either Okina or Shinka. Those two lands are there for (a) mana and (b) to kill opposing Okinas and Shinkas.
Dude, Your Sideboard is So . . . Random.
Not really. The Wear Aways are there for those decks that run way too many artifacts for Hearth Kami to handle alone. They also hit enchantments and can be Spliced onto Glacial Ray, Kodama’s Reach, and other Wear Aways.
But . . . Sideswipe?
Cranial Extraction. Next question.
Okay. Earthshaker?
Wipes out weenies. Say you’re sitting across from a bunch of X/1 and Y/2 creatures as well as one Kumano. Cast Glacial Ray targeting Kumano and wipe out your opponent’s side of the board. Sure, your Pain Kami and Hearth Kami go away. If only the deck had a way to bring them back… If you don’t like it, use Flamebreak. Flamebreak is a rare but had the added benefit of killing Troll Ascetic (if he’s not wearing Sword of Fire and Ice).
Cut to the Chase
I went 3-1, losing only to a very well-tuned deck, the details of which I promised not to divulge. (Hopefully, the guy playing the Deck About Which I Will Not Speak will continue to play it and not give up on it. Last year, he had been causing havoc around here with Mono-Black Clerics. I was convinced that it had the tools to win 2004 Regionals, but he gave up on it. Ironically, our Region was won last year by a guy playing Mono-Black Clerics.) Even the match I lost was not a runaway. It went to extra turns in game three. Had I gotten to any of my Earthshakers, it would have been game over since I would have been able to wipe out his <creature card #1> and a couple of <creature cards #2>. As it was, even with the Top, I couldn’t pull one out of my deck. Oh, well. These things happen.
Would You Suggest This Deck for Regionals?
This, of course, is the question that’s on everyone’s mind right now, even us rogues. If you want something aggressive with tricks, this may be your cheap deck. The only rares are three Kodama of the North Tree and a couple of lands that you could ever make into a Forest and a Mountain. It’s been resilient against G/B Death Cloud control because the FBG gets back creatures when sacrificed, it can match lands, and Grab the Reins really mucks up their Kokusho plans.
More Grab the Reins Trivia: When you play GtR with Entwine and take a Kokusho, if you sac the Kokusho, you gain five life while your opponent loses five. They hate when that happens. Also, even though Kodama (North) can’t be targeted, you can chuck him to the Grab the Reins’ second mode.
Fork You is also some good against Tooth and Nail, especially if they get out a Colossus. Just take it and throw it in their face. If they aren’t at eleven or less when you do that, something has gone horribly wrong.
As usual, you’ve been a great audience. Join me next week when we get into Saviors-Era Standard for Regionals, and I unveil the latest incarnation of White Skies complete with something from SoK.
Chris Romeo
CBRomeo-at-Travelers-dot-com