From Right Field - The First Planar Chaos Precon-Decon: Red and White Makes Orange

{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.}

Prologue

Three weeks ago, I wrote about a revised version of the R/B Weenie deck with Dark Confidant and Rakdos Guildmage. I held a mini-contest to rename the deck since I didn’t like my new name (Rakdos Redux Bee Doo Bee Doo). There were hundreds, maybe thousands, or even six entries. The winner was Vrax who suggested Quinn’s Harley. Why did I pick it? Because I liked it best. Why did I like it best? I dunno. I just did. Quit naggin’ me, Mom!

Also, I have again, changed the deck. First of all, Keldon Marauders has not been what I hoped. No one seems to be too sacred of a 3/3 for two mana, especially one that goes away on its own. I’ve dropped those out again for Stromgald Crusaders, a creature that can, in a pinch, be made to fly and, thus, block Silhana Ledgewalker.

Speaking of the Ledgewalker, many times, I’ve faced MGA with this deck and been on the verge of winning, my opponent’s side clear of any creatures, when down comes a Ledgewalker and a Cloak. Cruel Edict would have been nice. So, that card’s back in, too, in place of the three Phyrexian Arenas and a single Guildmage.

Finally, yes, I have seen the light. Blaze has made way for the strictly superior Disintegrate. (Get it? “Seen the light?” “Blaze?”) At first, I thought that price might be a barrier, what with Disintegrate being a purple Timeshifted card. I didn’t realize how cheap the reprints from previous sets were. Thanks for all of the suggestions. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

The Main Stage

When I first scoped out the Planar Chaos preconstructed decks, I was much more excited about what I saw than I was about the Time Spiral decks. The decks just looked more solid. I don’t know if that’s a function of the designers having more cards to work with (although the current set is supposed to be the majority of the cards in any precon) or just designing more attractive decks. It could also be better designers. The truth is, though, I didn’t care why they were. I just cared that they were.

After looking at the decks, I decided to start with Endless March. Oh, sure, I was almost seduced by Rituals of Rebirth. After all, that’s decks are rares are Teneb, the Harvester, and Jedit Ojanen of Efrava while Endless March’s rares are Dust Elemental and Fatal Frenzy. To me, this is akin to having a lingerie-wearing contest between the teams of Tyra Banks and Ana Beatriz-Barros and Mandy Moore and Constance Zimmer. In other words, there’s nothing wrong with the latter pair, but the former are professionals who do what they do very, very well.

“Okay, Romeo,” you’re saying to the computer screen as your wife or girlfriend or mother looks at you funny. “If you think the rares in Rituals of Rebirth are so much better than those in Endless March, why choose Endless March to start with?”

I’m just curious. Did the computer answer you? Just wondering.

Anyway, I can tell you in two words why I picked Endless March over Rituals of Rebirth for the initial Planar Chaos Precon-Decon:

Stonecloaker.

Calciderm.

I know that Talen Lee, simply the most vocal of the many critics, didn’t like my set review of Planar Chaos for several reasons, one of which was that I didn’t come down definitively on almost anything. Mostly. Kinda. A bit. Pretty much.

So, let me be perfectly clear here and now as I state for all of posterior:

Stonecloaker and Necrotic Sliver are the two best non-rare creatures in Planar Chaos.

I will concede that, at certain times, another creature or two might be better. For example, a Sulfur Elemental or two out of a Red sideboard is going to eat the lunch of a ton of White Weenie decks. As far as maindeck, put-in-four-copies-no-matter-what creatures go, I’ll take the ‘Cloaker and the Vindicate Sliver over all the others.

Calciderm, being a White reprint of Blastoderm, is a close third. That means that Endless March gave me a chance to play with two of the three best non-rare creatures in Planar Chaos. In addition, Calciderm and Stonecloaker play very nicely together. Calciderm can’t be targeted, but that’s okay. Stonecloaker’s bounce ability doesn’t target. It just commands that you return a creature that you control to its owner’s hand. So, you just drop the ‘Cloaker when the Calciderm has only one Time Counter on it, bring back the ‘Derm, and get ready to recast your 5/5, four-mana, untargetable… ahhhhhh. Sorry. Just had my own Calciderm.

In case you don’t remember how I do this here thing that I do here, first, I play the unadulterated precon a dozen or so games to get the feel of the deck and how the cards work together. Here’s the decklist in case you don’t want to keep popping back and forth between this column and the page that links to the embedded URL that I’m sure that Our Esteemed Editor Craig “The Last English National Champion” Stevenson has put under the words “Endless March.”

Endless March

10 Mountain
11 Plains
3 Terramorphic Expanse

1 Keldon Marauders
2 Mogg War Marshal
2 Lavacore Elemental
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Children of Korlis
2 Icatian Javelineers
2 Errant Doomsayers
3 Whitemane Lion
1 Soltari Priest
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Stonecloaker
1 Riftmarked Knight
2 Calciderm
1 Dust Elemental
2 Stormfront Riders
2 Jhoira’s Timebug

2 Brute Force
1 Fatal Frenzy
2 Timecrafting
1 Dead / Gone
1 Sunlance
1 Dawn Charm

When I do this, I have quite the cognitive dissonance going on. On the one hand, I’ve done a set review (“badly”), so I have some prejudices about cards. On the other hand, I have learned that I need to keep an open mind because, sometimes, the bad cards turn out to be good in the right decks and the good cards don’t live up to the hype. How do I keep from going crazy? I compartmentalize. For the duration of the first dozen or so games, I try not to bring any of the prejudices I have about the cards to the games. I just play them.

(Eleven games later…)

The Timebug and Timecrafting just “bite the wax tadpole” (Google that phrase) in this deck. Stonecloaker and Calciderm were Da Bombs. I can’t tell you about Fatal Frenzy because I didn’t see it once. Dust Elemental only showed up twice. Both times all he did was save my side from mass removal. Hmmmm, maybe saying that “all” he did was save my team from mass removal isn’t a good choice of words. I mean, that’s a nice ability. You know what else is nice? A 6/6 flier with Fear for four mana who stays in play when you cast him. He didn’t stay in play, though, because I didn’t have three other creatures in play when I dropped him.

Nothing in that previous paragraph surprised me except for the fact that I didn’t see Fatal Frenzy one time in eleven games. There are the same number of Sunlances and Dead / Gones in the deck, but I saw Sunlance in six games and Dead / Gone in seven. “That’s randomness for ya!” (Cue audience laughter and applause.)

Of course, just last week, I said that you should tell players the “why” of a card being good or bad. So, here I go. Both Timecrafting and Jhoira’s Timebug suffer from the same problem in this deck. They don’t really do what you want them to do. Sure, once in a while, you can get Aven Riftwatcher to stick around for an extra turn or two. You might even get a Riftmarked Knight out a turn earlier. None of these are bad things. However, when there’s nothing for either to target, they are pretty useless. Okay, the Timebug can block . . . once. No, what you really want those two cards to do is make your Calciderms stay around longer.

They can’t do that, though. Calciderm can’t be targeted. In other words, Timecrafting and Jhoira’s Timebug will be the first four cards to go.

Stonecloaker, however – and this is a shocker, lemme tell you what – stays for sure. In the eleven games I played, three were against Dredge decks. I don’t just mean “there were some Stinkweed Imps and a Golgari Brownscale.” I mean “Bennie? Bennie Smith? Is that you testing a new version of your G/B Dredge deck?” Of those three games, this deck, the unadulterated precon, won two. The third game came down to a topdeck was which the Dredge deck won.

Before I go into the first version of the smooshed together precons – remember, I take two copies and tweak them down to one using only the cards in those two copies – I want to mention only one other card, Lavacore Elemental. He’s very efficient, being a 5/3 for three mana, and so very, very fragile. In order to keep him around, since he has Vanishing 1, you have to cast him before combat. That’s not the worst part, though. Opponent’s combat tricks can turn him into three-for-one trade. Take this bit of trickery. I had a Goblin token and a Whitemane Lion ready for combat. I dropped the Elemental. My opponent had a 2/2 on the other side of the board. I figured he’d either want to wipe out the Lion (losing his guy) or keep him guy and block the token. Nope. He blocked the token, keeping his guy, and Shocked the Lion. That meant no counters for the Elemental, which died on my upkeep. In other words, three-for-one, advantage the other guy.

Moreover, the Elemental is not a card you want to see when you have no one else on board. Sure, you could say the same about the Whitemane Lion (absolutely) or the Stonecloaker (unless there’s something in a graveyard you want to remove from the game), but the Lavacore Elemental is a special case. It will die, while the other two will at least return to your hand. Okay, I guess in desperation, you could drop the Elemental as a blocker. I’m pretty sure that, if you get to that position, you’re game is over.

As for the decklists, I’m not going to fully list every iteration. I’ll show you how I started and where I ended. In between, I’ll explain some of the changes I made, but I’m not going to give you a decklist for each one, though. First off, I don’t want Craig to have to create a new list for each one. (You’re welcome, Craig.) Second, you’re pretty smart. If I say “I dropped the two copies of Whatchamacallit for two Thingamajiggies,” you know how the next version of the deck looked. Anyway, here’s the deck that I call:

March of the Penguins, v.1.0

Chris Romeo

Test deck on 03-25-2007

Standard

Creatures (26)

Lands (24)

Spells (10)

“Romeo, Penguins are Black and White, not Black and Red.”

Unless, as my nephew will point out, that they’re in a blender.

Ewwwww, gross.

I was not happy with this version at all. Howsabout that Sunlance? It blew. Seriously. Chunks. Big, fist-sized, tuna-flavored chunks. You see, it turns out that White is pretty popular right now. Between the new cards released on MTGO from Planar Chaos and the Boros decks people are still playing, that card often sat in my hand, as limp and useless as… well, I don’t need to go into any detail. Let’s just say that it wasn’t very good in those first few games. I could see it in the sideboard, doing some very unexpected damage to decks not running White creatures. Other than that, I was unexpectedly floored by sheer rancidity of the card.

“No sir, I didn’t like it.”

One big drawback to this version, one that I overlooked in my zeal to play all of the shiny new cards, was how many needed other creatures in play in order to stay. That wasn’t such a huge deal with the Stormfront Riders since they do leave a guy behind, but that’s a lot of mana to pay for a couple of 1/1 Soldier tokens.

Oh, hey, and how about this lovely bit of mis-programming. If you don’t have two creatures in play when the Riders hit or three when Dust Elemental hits, the game goes into an infinite loop on MTGO. [I thought this was fixed now? – Craig.]

In addition, even with twenty-four lands, I found that I wasn’t getting to five very quickly, nor was I getting over five very often before the game ended. This deck likes mana. It wants to play tricks, dropping three- and four-mana creatures Instantly while saving others. I finally figured out that the problem wasn’t the number of lands; it was those four Terramorphic Expanses.

I’m sure that you probably had this one figured out already, but this was the first time that it really slapped me in the face. So, pardon me and your slower companions as I explain what I figured out about this.

When you have twenty-four lands, normally, an opening hand of two lands means that there are twenty-two left in the deck. Not so with Terramorphic Expanses. Okay, technically, there are. However, if you lay down those two T.E.s and then pop them off, you only have twenty lands left in your deck, less if you drew any in those first two turns. Under normal circumstances, when you played out your first two lands, you’d have twenty-two lands left (unless, of course, you drew any).

“Two lands. Feh. Big deal.”

Wrong perspective. Ten percent of your remaining lands.

Yes. Big deal.

So, the next two things to go were the Stormfront Riders and the Sunlances. Still, I had too many creatures that, um, with, uh…

Okay, look, can we call the triggered ability on Whitemane Lion and Stonecloaker Gating? That’s what it was called back when Cavern Harpy and Fleetfoot Panther were roaming Standard. Even if that term, Gating, specifically means that you have to bring a creature that shares a color back, heck, isn’t Gating good enough? I say “Yes!” And, until I’m told to stop, Gating it is.

Anyway, there were still too many Gating creatures. Moreover, Whitemane Lion wasn’t truly a second-turn creature unless I got Icatian Javelineers on turn one. Aven Riftwatcher was pretty annoying, too. So, one of each of those went away.

I’m skipping to the last version of the precon-only portion of this piece. I’m already at five pages and twenty-five-hundred words, and, after my last two pieces, Craig deserves a bit of a break. This, then, is the last version before branching out into other Standard cards:

March of the Penguins, v.1.5

Chris Romeo

Test deck on 03-25-2007

Standard

Creatures (26)

Lands (25)

Spells (10)

This version doesn’t seem to be that much different from four versions before. That’s only because you didn’t see all of the changes in between. Trust me, cards moved in and out of this like a youth hostel in Amsterdam during American Spring Break. For example, for two versions, there were no Soltari Priests. It wasn’t doing much on defense, and, at that time, the deck was behaving more defensively, a result of not having enough creatures stay in play. Flash forward to this version with one less Riftwatcher and one less Whitemane Lion, and the Priests are good to go again.

Mogg War Marshal was also a late addition. Again, this was because the deck needed more two-drops that actually stayed around. While the Marshal himself might not hang around due to his Echo cost, he did leave behind someone who did. And that’s where I stopped before looking at other cards to add.

Branching Out on the Wings of a Puffin

It’s always a funny thing when I get to this point in the Precon-Decons. The exercise starts as a hypothetical situation where you walk into a tourney, realize that you don’t have a deck, and buy two precons to smoosh together and play. Yet, we always ask, “What else could I add?” The reason that that question is strange is because, if you had the other cards to add, you probably wouldn’t be in this hypothetical wearing-no-pants-and-have-to-take-a-history-test dream. In fact, if you’ve followed my advice about pre-ordering four copies of each common and uncommon, you’d be able to build this deck for only a few extra bucks (i.e. you’d only have to shell out for two each of Fatal Frenzy and Dust Elemental).

So, why reach back into Ravnica Block, Ninth Edition, and the rest of Time Spiral and Planar Chaos?

For the same reason we do anything regarding this game: fun; fun; and more fun!

The other strange dynamic here is that sometimes cheap cards are harder to find on short notice than expensive ones, usually because the store makes the rares easily accessible while the patrons only bring “good” cards for trading. Try this scene on for size:

“Hey, anyone have Skyknight Legionnaires and Boros Recruits I can trade for?”

Silence echoes off of the gaming store’s walls.

“Oh, I also need Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forges[/author] and Sacred Foundries.”

A Tropical-storm-strength breeze flutters through room as hundreds of trade binders are suddenly flipped open.

Still, this is what I do.

So, how would I change this deck if I used the entire Standard card base? With these colors right now, that is a very loaded question. If we went to extremes, we’d just replace everything in here with all the cards in Boros Deck Wins and be done with it. While that might be within the letter of the law, it’s certainly not within its spirit. We want to keep the flavor of the Endless March deck. Having played the precon and its descendants upwards of sixty times now, I can tell you that flavor includes dropping Calciderms, making Stonecloakers to save guys and ruin graveyards, and play other Silly Combat Tricks. Obviously, I’d have to find room for Lightning Helix and the dual lands. What else, though?

The deck wants a couple of more one-casting-cost creatures, something to allow the Whitemane Lion to be dropped on turn 2, as well as a two-mana creature that could stick around all on its lonesome. Right now, Red and White have an embarrassment of riches in the one-drop department. You can choose among Suntail Hawk, Savannah Lions, Martyred Rusalka, Frenzied Goblin, Martyr of Ashes, Sidewinder Sliver, Weathered Wayfarer, Soul Warden, Boros Recruit, and Karplusan Wolverine.

What? You don’t like the Wolverine? He’s a one-mana creature that can take down a two-toughness blocker. Moreover, barring targeting restrictions, no one-toughness creature will ever block and kill him… unless you allow it. His ability will trigger upon being blocked, and then you can use his ability to deal one damage to the blocker. It’s Uber First Strike! Yes, when a Karplusan Wolverine wanders into a dark alley and gets blocked by a 6/1, the 6/1 is the one who dies. I like that.

Of course, the “best” choice is probably the Savannah Lions. It allows you to hit for two damage on turn 2 if it’s unblocked. With cards like Dead / Gone and Lightning Helix in here, that’s a decent bet. I’m a risk-taker, though. (And the world said “Hah!”) I wanna try the Wolverine.

The only other thing I’d like to do is pick a more solid two-mana creature than the Mogg War Marshal. I know that it’s effectively three creatures in one, but I’d like another flier. Leonin Skyhunter and Mistral Charger leap to mind. I’m going to start with the Charger simply because I don’t want to stress the manabase with so many early double-White (Soltari Priest, Skyhunter, or possibly two Javelineers) mana requirements.

You know what I really wanted to try in that slot, though? The creature that I would have used if I really had ballz? Boros Swiftblade. I have this unrealistic dream of getting him in attack mode, dropping Brute Force on him, and then hitting him with Fatal Frenzy? I can already see the eye’s popping. The problem, of course, is that without all of those enhancements, he’s not gonna do much damage. Better to have two-power flying through the air. *sigh* Anyway, this is what I’d play. I call it:

Puffin Power

Chris Romeo

Test deck on 03-25-2007

Standard

Creatures (24)

Lands (21)

Spells (12)

“Romeo, Romeo . . .”

“Why drop the Stonecloaker down to three copies if it’s so good?” Two reasons. First, it is great, but often it’s “just” a three-power flier for three mana. Oh, sure, there’s the typical “save a guy from certain death” tricks. It’s Magic. There’s combat. That’s always a useful ability in this game. The “wreck your graveyard strategy” part isn’t something that you need in all games, though. (“It just feels like it sometimes! Boo yah!”) Second, even as the deck stands, you have eight Gating creatures. Out of twenty-four, that’s a third, or, to put it in less mathematical terms, a whole stinkload. If you want to, try dropping the Whitemane Lions down to two copies and keeping the ‘Cloakers back to four. I mean, flying is pretty sweet. However, I wouldn’t drop a non-Gater to add in the fourth ‘Cloaker. Having played a few (five) games with this version, I’d also be scared to run fewer two-mana creatures than the seven the deck now has. Going down to six, eeek, that scares me.

Of course…

You could drop a Dust Elemental, but Dusty’s just so very good when it does come up.

“Damnation,” says your opponent.

“Dust Elemental in response.”

“Damnation!”

Poor Craig. Three weeks in a row now with the Norman-Mailer-length articles. You’d think that the non-premium writers would use fewer words, wouldn’t you? Well, it’s almost over for this week. That’s the good news. The better news is that next week, I’m working on that B/W Necrotic Sliver deck. You have been warned. Get your Grave Pacts and Phyrexian Arenas ready, kiddos.

As usual, you’ve been a great audience. Now, go do something outside. It’s bee-yoo-tee-ful!

Chris Romeo
FromRightField-at-Comcast-dot-net

P.S. Okay, one last thing. I tried to work this into the actual article somewhere, but I just couldn’t find a place. Maybe it would fit better into next week’s piece what with Black and White and killing and sacrificing creatures and all. Anyway, as you know, I love a good quote or exchange of lines from pretty much anywhere. So, a couple of weeks ago, I was watching Metalocalypse on Adult Swim. I wish I’d taped it because I didn’t get the exact quote, but it went something like this.

SCIENTIST: Gentlemen, as you can see <pointing to the video screen behind him>, the band has summoned a Troll that is destroying Finland.

GENERAL: Impossible. There’s no such thing as Trolls.

SCIENTIST: <Changing the view on the video screen> Then how do you explain all of the dead unicorns?

Shows on after midnight shouldn’t make me laugh that loud. I woke up my wife and five cats.