{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.}
This Week’s Campaign Promise: I Will Win the 2006 Magic Invitational for You
Someone asked me why I really wanted to do this. Like all good politicians the answer is “for you.” Listen to them. They don’t lie. No one really wants to be President or a Senator or State Supreme Court Justice for themselves. They all just want to do it for The People. Hey! Coincidence! Me, too! I want to be in the Invitational so that I can win it for the casual players of the world. We deserve respect. I plan on getting it. For you.
Remember, voting for the Fan Favorites starts Friday!
Speaking of the Invitational…
There seems to be a groundswell of support, led by our own Ken Krouner, for the idea that the Invitational is a Magic All-Star Game of sorts and that a lot of people, like Mike Flores and me, don’t belong in it. I disagree. First and foremost, I disagree out of sheer self-preservation. If the Invitational is indeed an All-Star Game for players, I’ll never make it.
With that out of the way, we can move on to be real reason that I disagree. This isn’t an All-Star Game where the best of the best face each other. Magic already has those tournaments. They’re called Pro Tours, Grand Prixs (Prixes? Prix’s? [Apparently, the vote is tied between “Grand Prix,” “Grands Prix,” and “Grand Prixes.” I like the simple “Grand Prix” for the plural. — Craig]), Nationals, and Worlds. Think of this like golf – a game I truly despise watching, by the way. The Invitational is not The Masters, though the racial makeup will be about the same. The Magic Invitational is more like the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Sure, Tiger “I Married a Hot, Swedish Nanny” Woods is there as well as Phil “See? I Did Win a Big One” Mickelson. But Samuel L. Jackson and Bill Murray played, too. Just think of Soh and Mori as Woods and Mickelson and me as Samuel L. Jackson. (Thought I’d go with Murray, dincha?) While this may not convince you, I feel better now that I’ve had my say.
Just a reminder:
Let’s Get Retarded
As a writer, one of the best things about Guildpact is the guild names. I couldn’t do much with names like Selesnya and Golgari. But just look at Guildpact’s guild names. It’s not hard to make puns out of these names, Izzet? No, it Izzet! Can it be Gruuling? Orzhov not! Sometimes you have to be Gruul to be kind.
All-rightee-then, I have that out of my system, and, unless I can come up with something truly witty, I promise no more Guildpact guild puns.
This came up, of course, because this is the first of the series of articles in which I modify two copies of a Guildpact preconstructed deck for tournament play. I call these Preconstructed Deconstructions. The most frequent question I get when I do these things is, “Why do you use two of a single precon?”
The biggest reason is that many of the precons have two copies of a good card. By getting two of the deck, you have your four-of set. For example, the Boros precon from Ravnica had two Lightning Helixes. If you’re gonna play that deck, you want four copies. Two precons = four Lightning Helixes. Ta da!
Sadly, sometimes, you don’t get four of a card that would be really good in the deck. That’s usually when you know the precon is trying to do too many things at once. Take a look at the decklist for Gruul Wilding:
11 Mountain
12 Forest
1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
1 Scorched Rusalka
2 Sparkmage Apprentice
2 Bloodscale Prowler
1 Indentured Oaf
2 Dryad Sophisticate
2 Gatherer of Graces
2 Gruul Scrapper
2 Dowsing Shaman
2 Bramble Elemental
1 Gruul Nodorog
1 Battering Wurm
1 Scab-Clan Mauler
1 Burning-Tree Bloodscale
1 Streetbreaker Wurm
2 Skarrgan Skybreaker
1 Borborygmos
1 Wild Cantor
1 Gruul Guildmage
3 Fencer’s Magemark
2 Fists of Ironwood
3 Beastmaster’s Magemark
1 Wildsize
1 Wurmweaver Coil
There’s a lot to like about this deck, but I can’t help focusing on what I don’t like — namely, too many one-shots. What’s the reasoning behind only one Wild Cantor, or one Gruul Guildmage – a signature card for the guild – or one Wildsize? Heck, the Golgari precon deck from Ravnica got two Stinkweed Imps and two Putrefies. There’s no good reason for good cards to be one-ofs, except that the designer was required to do too many things at once (or wasn’t allowed).
Romeo’s New Favorite Card
Before it was called U/G Madness, I won a Standard tournament with a deck that Matt Frazier helped me design. Okay, he designed most of it. He had the brilliant idea of adding Krosan Beast. He was usually an 8/8 pretty quick. Chump blockers stunk, though. Especially the regenerating Nightscape Familiar. For our last slot, I convinced Matt that Sylvan Might would win us games by sheer surprise as well as making Trample damage. It did.
Flash forward to Spring of 2006, and I am now in love with Wildsize. While it doesn’t Flashback like the Might, it draws a card. “Here, take six damage that you weren’t expecting to take because you blocked with your Raging Goblin, and, oooooooo, lookee here! I drew a Wurmweaver Coil to put on one of my guys next turn. Hey! Where ya going?”
So, make it official: my new favorite card is Wildsize. That makes me sad. Why? Because whoever designed this deck decided (or was told) that there should only be one in here. Come on, man (or woman)! You’re making a Green-Something deck from Guildpact! There should be four of those in here! Okay, the rules of precon design probably preclude that, but they could have put three in there, anyway. The same goes for Dryad Sophisticate, Scorched Rusalka, Scab-Clan Mauler, Gruul Guildmage, and Wild Cantor. So, what happened?
It looks like competing ideas happened. There are ten non-creature spells in here. Nine of them are Auras. Obviously, the designer was told to emphasize both the Bloodthirst mechanic and the interaction between the Magemarks and the creatures that have some synergy with them like the Gatherer of Graces and the Dowsing Shaman. The problem is that they don’t seem very efficient. Besides, there aren’t enough of them.
Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall
What do I see when I see this deck? I see schizophrenia. Half of it wants to cast fast, efficient creatures, like Wild Cantor and Scorched Rusalka, as a way to power up the Bloodthirst of creatures like Scab-Clan Mauler and Burning-Tree Bloodscale. On the other side is a deck that wants to make its creatures bigger and trickier through judicious placement of Auras.
Okay. Show of hands. Who thinks that I’m going the fast, weenie, power-up-the-Bloodthirst route? Good, thanks. And who thinks I’ll go the tricky-Aura-me-up-baby way?
You know what, any other time, I might actually do both. However, over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been crotch-deep in enchantments, and, frankly, I’m sick of them. So, I’m going to test this thing with an eye to the weenie-powered, Bloodthirst rush. Give me a chance to run a few games with this thing unaltered. I’ll be right back…
…Three Hours Later…
Surprise! The unchanged Gruul Wilding deck didn’t do too well. It won two out of six games. To be fair, one of the wins was against a mana-hosed opponent. Of course, a lot of that was his fault. When you’re stuck on three lands, you don’t sac them to bring back Akuta, Born of Ash. You just tough it out in hopes of getting removal. The other game that this deck won it won in the fashion that I expect to see in the future. Wild Cantor went unblocked on turn 2 (my opponent didn’t want to lose the 1/1 Kird Ape.) That gave me a 3/3 Scab-Clan Mauler to match the Watchwolf that came down on the other side. He let the Mauler through on turn 3, which led to a 4/2 Bloodscale Prowler. In that game, the Auras made their only notable appearances. I did get a Fencer’s Magemark on a creature, but it happened so late that it was definitely a win-more play. I have to admit that the first strike on a 3/3 Mauler was nice. It survived combat, but I’d rather it was another Wildsize or burn, or even another creature.
With that in mind, here’s my first pass at modifying the Gruul Wilding deck:
Gruul Wilding Precon-Decon, 1.0
12 Mountain
10 Forest
2 Skarrg, the Rage Pit
4 Wild Cantor
2 Scorched Rusalka
4 Scab-Clan Mauler
2 Gruul Guildmage
4 Dryad Sophisticate
4 Bloodscale Prowler
2 Streetbreaker Wurm
2 Borborygmos
4 Shock
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Wildsize
I know that mana curve is wacky, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. You’re loaded for bear (heh) in the one- and two-mana slots. You have a three-mana dude that can just break some decks. There’s a nice, efficient 6/4 for five mana (two copies), and then the seven-mana Borborygmos. Don’t laugh, but I like that guy in here. Think about this… in the past year, we’ve been fine paying six mana for 5/5 fliers. Yes, a few of these like Yosei, Keiga, and Kokusho, are some of the best creatures the game’s ever had. The fact remains that Borborygmos gives you a bigger, trampling body for only one more mana, and he can make himself and the rest of your gang bigger. I don’t mind spending seven mana on him.
To move from two Gruul Wilding preconstructed decks to this deck took a total addition of fourteen common cards. I found those online for one single ticket. (It was actually sixteen for one. I picked up a couple of Repeals while I was at it.) IRL, that means this thing should cost about twenty-five bucks.
It doesn’t matter how much you spend, though, if the deck suxors. So, let’s see how it played in the Casual Decks room.
Game 1: Okey dokey. Right out of the box, another Zoo deck. Fortunately, I got to go first. My opening hand was a Forest, two Mountains, Wild Cantor, Shock, Scab-Clan Mauler, and a Bloodscale Prowler. Yeah, that’s a keeper. I dropped the Mountain and the Cantor. He dropped a Stomping Ground, paid two life, and made a 2/3 Kird Ape. Holy Déjà vu! On my turn, I played the Forest and swung. He obviously feared the Shock, which was my hope. The one damage made me a 3/3 Scab-Clan Mauler. On his turn, he paid more life to bring a Temple Garden into play untapped so that he could make a Watchwolf. After that, it was all Gruul. I kept Wildsize in hand knowing that Lightning Helix might show up. It did, and I saved one of my men. His lifegain was enough to force another turn, but I had Volcanic Hammer to end it after combat. (1-0)
Game 2: A couple of weeks ago, StarCityGames’s own Caldwell Van Der Snoot wrote me to ask if my Casual Room games really went they way I wrote them. Yup, they do. He asked because I rarely seem to run into tourney decks or Umezawa’s Jitte in the Casual Room, while it happens to him so often that he stopped playing his casual decks there. I explained that it could very well be because I always advertise for people to come join my games. Maybe people with those decks lie in wait for unsuspecting n00bs to join their games. Whatever the case may be, I’d like to “thank” CVDS for jinxing me.
This was just ugly. Mono-Black Rats with Jitte. Black removal doesn’t care about the size of the creature, except for Darkblast and Last Gasp, both of which were plenty for my guys. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t have been for that damn Jitte.
“And the Whiny Award for Most Overused Complaint in Magic for 2005 is…”
This deck needs main deck artifact removal in the worst way. Good thing Green and Red have that in droves. (1-1)
Game 3: Now, this is my kind of casual deck. Sadly, it had Loxodon Warhammer, Coat of Arms (for the Snakes and Insects), and Icy Manipulator. Yes, I need artifact removal maindeck. The Coat was the worst thing. By keeping himself in the game, he was able to make the Coat work. The Snakes and Insects started coming down much bigger than the Gruul deck could handle. And it was so close. Thanks to early beats and burn, I got him to two life. He’d obviously been here before, though, because he blocked everything to keep his life high enough to allow him that one turn to drop the Coat and nothing else. Then, when he cast three Snakes in one turn, it was pretty bad. I couldn’t just rush in without losing everything. Then came the Hammer. (1-2)
Game 4: Okay, I’m stopping this right now. There’s zero need to keep banging my head against a wall for six more games after this. This was a Boros deck with a few Guildpact goodies like Scorched Rusalka. He also had Sunforger. Yeah, right. RW, Unattach Sunforger: cast Devouring Light on Dryad Sophisticate. Bah. (1-3)
Well, like I said, no need to keep on this road. The deck feels fine until some st00pid piece of Equipment hits. Time to go get me some Tin Street Hooligans!
Gruul Wilding Precon-Decon, 2.0
12 Mountain
10 Forest
2 Skarrg, the Rage Pit
4 Wild Cantor
2 Scorched Rusalka
2 Tin-Street Hooligan
4 Scab-Clan Mauler
2 Gruul Guildmage
4 Dryad Sophisticate
4 Bloodscale Prowler
2 Borborygmos
4 Shock
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Wildsize
Apparently, since it’s still early in the online life of Guildpact, the Hooligan is fetching a premium. That’s okay. I got four of them and two more Repeals for one ticket. I can handle that. That’s still pretty cheap. In real life, that would be fifteen or so cents each. And I have my set of four Repeals for my Halcyon Glaze deck.
For now, I’m only putting in two Hooligans. I don’t like the loss of the Wurm. He was big and efficient. Something had to go, though, and this deck has been doing well in the early game except for artifacts. Besides, what else was I going to drop? The Cantors do so much for the deck. They enable the Bloodthirst and they accelerate mana. The Rusalkas also enable Bloodthirst without having to worry about losing creature to combat. You just lose one to the Rusalka. The Mauler, Guildmage, Prowler, and Sophisticate all stay as well. I know, I know. It looks like Borborygmos will be the guy to go if we need four Hooligans. That may end up being the case. It would also allow us to drop a land or two. As it stands now, though, he stays. The only potential problem with using the Hooligan as opposed to Viridian Shaman is that the Hooligan is Red while the Shaman is Green. The only non-Red source of damage in here right now is the Sophisticate. That shouldn’t be a problem, but who knows right now. Something to keep an eye on.
Game 1: Okay, this wasn’t very auspicious. Gruul Wilding almost lost to a U/B deck packing Coral Eel. Yes, really. I don’t know if he’d seen a deck like this before or what. Whatever the reason, he would not let me get Bloodthirst through combat. Every creature I threw out, he blocked even though it meant he lost his guy, too. Finally, he had a flier, a Snapping Drake, and a Ravenous Rats to block and kill any X/1’s I had, after it had taken a Borborygmos. Ugh. Fortunately, the Gruul deck packs a lot of burn. I got a Volcanic Hammer to drop the Drake. After that, I out-creatured him. *whew* (1-0)
Game 2: He was playing some sort of Selesnya deck. I swung with a Dryad Sophisticate, and, of course, he didn’t block with his Selesnya Evangel. That gave me a 4/2 Bloodscale Prowler. At this point, he said, “I meant to block that.” Really? Would a deck that likes to use its token generating machine lose that machine to a 2/1? Maybe if this was game 2 and he knew what was coming. I just didn’t believe it. On my next turn, the Sophisticate became unblockable thanks to a Brushland. That allowed me to drop not one but two 3/3 Scab-Clan Maulers. I got a “gg” and then a concession. (2-0)
Game 3: I was worried about White Weenie decks. They can match the creatures with the Gruul deck and have their own Bloodthirst. It’s called Glorious Anthem. However, I got the amazing, mythical turn 2 4/2. On his first turn, he dropped a Suntail Hawk while I cast a Wild Cantor. He swung with his Hawk and wouldn’t block with the Savannah Lions he made. Makes sense. Who wants to lose a Lions to a Wild Cantor? That allowed me to sac the Cantor for the third mana to make a 4/2 Bloodscale Prowler. After that, it was all Gruul thanks to Shock, Volcanic Hammer, Scab-Clan Mauler, and a perfectly timed Wildsize that allowed me to take out both the Lantern Kami and the Kami of Ancient Law blocking the Mauler. By the way, no Tin-Street Hooligan for the third game. However, Skarrg, the Rage Pits made its first significant contribution, allowing my Prowler to survive combat with a Leonin Skyhunter. (3-0)
Game 4: I kept a very risky hand – Forest, Rage Pit, Cantor, Prowler, Mauler, Guildmage, Mauler – to see if the deck could pull out of it. Even though I never saw a Mountain, I almost won. The opposing deck was a U/G Soramaro deck. I got him down to four and was holding two Shocks, with him tapped out. Just no Red mana. Oh well… (3-1)
Game 5: Okay, I put in the Hooligan for the artifacts. Where are you? This was a R/W deck with Jitte, and he got the Jitte on turn 4, casting it and Equipping the 3/3 (thanks to Glorious Anthem) Leonin Skyhunter. The Hooligan again did not show. I have a feeling that I need to make sure this is a four-of guy. I’m tempted to drop a single Mauler and a Sophisticate to make room. I have to ponder this. (3-2)
Game 6: Why am I always so streaky? I started 3-0, and, after this game, I’m 3-3. I played against an Orzhov deck. Pillory of the Sleepless and Faith’s Fetters are bad news, especially the Pillory. I got a Sophisticate out, and it was promptly Pilloried. Over the next three turns, I had creatures Fettered and Pilloried. Then, he got a Blind Hunter and a Teysa. Meanwhile, I couldn’t get burn to kill any of my guys. I most surely need Naturalize or Nullmage Shepherd in the sideboard. The game did last long enough for Borborygmos to hit, but Faith’s Fetters just shackled him. Not bad draws for a B/W deck with no card drawing. (3-3)
Game 7: With my opponent playing mono-Green, I expected to see big creatures quickly. It didn’t happen that way, for whatever reason. Yes, I burned out the Birds and Llanowar Elves. However, looking across at six Forests, I expected, I dunno, something big. At least a Bramble Elemental. Maybe he was holding an Emperor Crocodile. Whatever it was, the Gruul got the quick drop and simply ran over whatever he put out there thanks to three Wildsizes. Burn took care of the other creatures, and he conceded when I had a 4/2 Prowler and a 3/3 Mauler. (4-3)
Game 8: This was some sort of unusual G/W Spirit deck that ran Seedborn Muse; Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang; lotsa mana; Ghost-Lit Redeemer to gain life; and Icy Manipulator. Again, I didn’t see Tin-Street Hooligan, but I didn’t need it. I came out quick with a second-turn 3/3 Mauler (thanks again to a Cantor). I presumed with the Muse that he’d have some sort of instant-timed removal or something, but I guess it was just there to allow him to use the Manipulator and the Redeemer twice as often. It worked for a short while, but I had hit him so hard that it didn’t matter once the Gruul Guildmage appeared. (5-3)
Game 9: I faced my first Rumbling Slum, and man it was ugly. Okay, not so ugly as disappointing. I got him to ten, with me still at twenty, when the Slum hit. I killed the first one with Shock and Volcanic Hammer. The second one, though, he had Bathe in Light. And here’s where Tin-Street Hooligan may not be the best card. The good news is that I finally got one! Yeah! It didn’t kill an artifact when it hit the board, but I got one. However, since it’s Red, his Bathe in Light was able to protect his Slum and his Selesnya Guildmage from everything I had (Mauler, Prowler, Hooligan, and Cantor). Because of the hits we’d both taken from the Slum, I was low enough that this was an alpha strike for him. If only the Hooligan had been a Viridian Shaman… (5-4)
Game 10: This was a B/W deck that used Blood Clock to clean my clock. He kept recasting Nekrataal. Like, eight times. I had him at five and simply could not finish the deal because I saw no Shocks, Volcanic Hammers, or Scorched Rusalkas. Heck, even Wildsize would have helped. Again, no Tin-Street Hooligan, but I did keep Borborygmos in my hand from pretty much the beginning. Granted, Blood Clock is not something you think you’ll see every week at the Saturday tourney, but it did drive home the point that this deck needs maindeck artifact removal. (5-5)
Ah, yes, another grand even-Steven finish. The story of my life. I’m not gonna go into that here. Suffice it to say, though, it’s boring. As much as I hate to do it, too, Borborygmos will be leaving. In its place, I’ll add two Viridian Shaman. Given the fact that this move means the entire deck costs three mana or less, I’ll also be dropping a Forest for another Tin-Street Hooligan. Better safe than sorry, doncha think?
Creatures (25)
- 2 Viridian Shaman
- 4 Bloodscale Prowler
- 4 Dryad Sophisticate
- 2 Gruul Guildmage
- 4 Scab-Clan Mauler
- 2 Scorched Rusalka
- 3 Tin Street Hooligan
- 4 Wild Cantor
Lands (23)
Spells (12)
That’s where we leave it for this week. I know, I know. It makes you sad. You don’t want to see me go. I’m sad, too. I’d love to just keep playing Magic for you, but I have things to do. I have to go to work. I have chores to do. I have a wife to do. Sorry. I’ll be back next week.
Until then, you keep on keepin’ on, brutha man.
Chris Romeo
CBRomeo-at-Travelers-dot-com