{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.}
I had a conversation with my friend Karl just a few days ago. Since I don’t have the capability to record my conversations like Richard Nixon did, I have to recreate this from memory. It pretty much went like this:
“Romeo, I was checking out your past couple of articles. Your decks didn’t come out too well.”
“Well, I didn’t have a lot of time to really hone them…”
“Mike Flores writes two articles a week, and people win all sorts of crazy tourneys with them.”
“He’s Mike Friggin’ Flores. Comparing me to him is like comparing you to Antonio Banderas. It’s just not fair from any conceivable angle.”
“The reason I said that was not to show how much better Flores is. It was to get to my point: you’re becoming self-referential.”
“Huh?”
“You’re not looking at what else is out there. You’re not allowing yourself to get any creative input from other deckbuilders.”
“So? I build my own decks.”
“It’s like creative inbreeding, but you’re inbreeding with just yourself. You want to be fresh? Look outside yours at other decks first. Then, filter them back through the Romeo lens.”
“I get it now.”
“Good. This conversation was getting creepy.”
So, I started looking at O.P.D.s or Other Persons’ Decks. Specifically, I wanted to take a look at some of the cheaper decks that have been winning tournaments. The first one I wanted to look at, since I had hinted at one like it several weeks ago, is Dralnu du Louvre:
Creatures (5)
Lands (24)
Spells (31)
Non-Dual-Land Rares
4 Desert @ $2.00 each = $8.00
1 Skeletal Vampire @ $3.00 each = $3.00
1 Dralnu, Lich Lord @ $1.00 each = $1.00
3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir @ $8.00 each = $24.00
1 Seize the Soul @ $1.25 each = $1.25
1 Commandeer @ $2.50 each = $2.50
Total Cost of Non-Dual-Land Rares = $39.75
A tourney-winning deck for less than forty bucks? Sweet! Of course, the Negative Nellies out there will point out that (a) there are eight rare dual lands in the deck and (b) Remands go for six bucks. I’ve been addressing (a) for a few months now. You need dual lands if you plan on playing multi-colored decks in tournaments. You can try substituting other lands for them (e.g. Frost Marsh for Watery Grave) while you’re busy collecting the dual lands, but get those duals. A land that comes into play tapped is no substitute for Watery Grave or Underground River. As for (b), this is why budget players like me order four sets of each common and uncommon when the sets come out.
Why is This Deck So Good?
Normally, I think that any deck in which Dralnu is twenty percent of the creatures would elicit the answer “Obviously, it’s not any good.” In this deck, though, Dralnu both rocks and rolls at the same time. Once he’s out, there’s almost nothing that your opponent can do. If you have mana and a Mystical Teachings, for example, in the ‘yard, you can Flashback the MT for 3U rather than 5B. Why? Because Dralnu says so. That pretty much gives you infinite options. Those options come in the form of lots of countermagic, lots of bounce, and a ton of silver bullets (i.e. one-shot answers to specific problems) like Commandeer and Sudden Death.
Okay, so if Dralnu is so important, why is there only one of him in here? Because that’s all the deck needs. Teferi gives all of the creature cards in your library and hand Flash. Mystical Teachings lets you go grab a Flash spell. With Teferi out, your opponent can’t counter anything. So, you get Teferi out, protect him, cast Teachings at the end of your opponent’s turn, grab Dralnu, and cast it at the opponent’s end of turn if you can. If not, wait until the end of their next turn. Once you’ve made it so they can’t respond to anything and that you have a graveyard full of Flashback cards, you’re pretty much the winner.
How Does This Work in Romeo’s Hands?
I played two matches, sans sideboard, one against Empty the Warrens and one against Panda Connection. Dralnu du Louvre won both in two games. In other words, looks pretty good to me, and Dralnu never showed up once. Cool, no?
The thing I had to remember in both of these matchups was that I could counter things early and often. No need to let things slip through. There would be more countermagic right around the corner.
The EtW player was surprised at my wins, saying that most Blue players couldn’t beat his deck. Having worked on EtW just recently, I knew that I couldn’t let the EtW even get cast. The Storm would kill me. Instead, I would counter the Seething Song that would give him four mana. Clearly, though, this deck needs Trickbind in the sideboard as a way to “stifle” Storm from Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, and Dragonstorm. There also needs to be some sort of reusable removal for weenies, something along the lines of Serrated Arrows and / or Rod of Ruin.
Next up, I tackled Mono-Green Aggro:
Creatures (25)
- 1 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Elves of Deep Shadow
- 4 Dryad Sophisticate
- 4 Silhana Ledgewalker
- 4 Scryb Ranger
- 4 Spectral Force
Lands (19)
Spells (16)
Non-Dual-Land Rares
4 Birds of Paradise @ $12.50 each = $50.00
4 Spectral Force @ $4.00 each = $16.00
4 Stonewood Invocation @ $6.00 each = $24.00
Total Cost of Non-Dual-Land Rares = $90.00
The only problem I have with this deck is the cost of the non-dual-land rares. There are only twelve of those in here, but they cost ninety bucks. In addition, over half of that cost comes from only a third of the cards, four Birds of Paradise. Now, BoPs are absolutely a Green staple, a card that new players who like Green should be trying to get as soon as they realize that they like Green. Still, we’re looking at fifty bucks for slightly played versions. Hmm…
Why is This Deck So Good?
You may remember that I pimped a deck like this to the masses a couple of months ago. Mine used much less mana acceleration and Hunting Moa rather than the Ledgewalker and Sophisticate, but the theory is still the same. You beat quickly, and your monsters are huge. Putting Moldervine Cloak on a Ledgewalker and swinging on turn 3 for four essentially unblockable damage is a fast clock. Getting a third- or fourth-turn Spectral Force doesn’t stink either. With Scryb Ranger, you have a creature that gives Blue decks fits while allowing your Force to attack each and every turn. If you like sending men into the Red Zone, this is the deck for you.
Since I’ve built one very much like this, I didn’t feel the need to play this version too much. I know how it plays and how inconvenient both Wrath of God and Persecute are. What I wanted to do was play a cheaper version of this deck. The only thing I could do that would impact the price in any meaningful way was to drop the Birds. So, what did the Birds do for this deck?
First off, they made it almost a sure thing that you’d be casting something a turn earlier than normal. We have lots of cheaper options for mana acceleration. For example, Utopia Sprawl also gives your second-turn, three-mana plays, and it can’t be Shocked. Second, though, the Birds are a creature. There’s just nothing like ending a game by swinging with a 0/1 Birds of Paradise and then casting Might of Old Krosa and Stonewood Invocation on it for the win. Third, it produces Black mana. As you can see from the Overgrown Tombs, Llanowar Wastes, and Elves of Deep Shadow, this deck uses Black for something. Turns out the Black is for cards from the sideboard, cards like Persecute. Being a mono-colored deck, this is quite vulnerable to Persecute itself. Thus, Persecute is a great way to combat Persecute. It also comes in handy against other mono-colored decks, or multi-colored decks that lean most heavily on one color.
So, quick mana, Black mana, and a creature. Can Birds be easily replaced? No. Can we find a serviceable replacement? Yes. If you think the creature part is most important, use Boreal Druid. The colorless mana that it makes is inconsequential. If you can get it out, you have Green mana, and that’s what counts. I decided, however, to go with Utopia Sprawl because I want the colored mana and don’t want Shock or Pyroclasm to stunt my mana growth.
Creatures (21)
- 1 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Elves of Deep Shadow
- 4 Dryad Sophisticate
- 4 Silhana Ledgewalker
- 4 Scryb Ranger
- 4 Spectral Force
Lands (19)
Spells (20)
Non-Dual-Land Rares
4 Spectral Force @ $4.00 each = $16.00
4 Stonewood Invocation @ $6.00 each = $24.00
Total Cost of Non-Dual-Land Rares = $40.00
Now, that price is more like it. Of course, it’s about twice as high as it was when I first wrote about Spectral Force and Stonewood Invocation. Seems that the Law of Supply and Demand has kicked into overdrive on these two cards. People realized that they were really good (see U/G Scryb & Force’s performance at Worlds) and have started snapping them up. The Forces have more than tripled in price, going from $1.25 at the time I wrote that piece to $4.00 each now. Meanwhile, the Invocations have seen a jump of fifty per cent from $4.00 each to $6.00 each. Hopefully, you got them at the old price. Even if you didn’t, they’re still pretty affordable, especially considering how good they are.
How Does This Work in Romeo’s Hands?
I played the original version (with Birds of Paradise) first just to get a feel for it. Essentially, it needs to keep that first mana bug on board if it wants to keep up. Opposing decks have a nearly impossible time dealing with the “classic” Llanowar Elves-wearing-Blanchwood-Armor swinging for four on turn 3. The Sophisticate isn’t much better for them. At least they can target those two, though. The Ledgewalker-plus-any-Aura is almost game over for most decks. As expected, Wrath of God and Persecute – as well as tons and tons of Goblin tokens – are not A Good Thing for The Aggro Force.
You probably expected this, but the Utopia Sprawl both hit and missed. In my first match, against a R/G deck, I was quite happy to have an Aura for that mana boost and not Birds. Burn was flying everywhere, and mana bugs were not living. Game 2, however, saw him bringing in (or finally seeing) Stone Rain. That’s not a nice two-for-one trade. I went to game 3 praying for lotsa mana bugs and Auras, hoping they’d stick. They did, and a third-turn Spectral Force did its job.
Against Solar Pox and Panda Connection, though, not so good. Why do they always have Persecute on turn 4? Of course, had I built a sideboard with Persecute, my turn 3 Persecute would have beat their turn 4 Persecute, unless, you know, they top-decked it.
You know what this deck really, really, really wants in the sideboard? Hail Storm. Squish those little Goblin tokens, all fifty bazillion of them, as they come roaring into the red zone. Take that, you stinky little balls of slime.
By the way, does anyone know how to modulate the sound effects on MTGO? I don’t mean turning them on and off or up and down. I’m talking modulation. It seems that the more damage that’s done or the more creatures that are sent to the ‘yard, the louder it is, as if each instance of damage or death piles on top of the previous one. When I dropped Sulfurous Blast during a different match (obv) and wiped out a ton of Goblin tokens, I thought I was going to blow out my speakers and wake up Luanne. That would have made two of us very mad.
Boros Deck Wins? The Aggro Force ripped it a new one even without the benefit of a sideboard. Granted, it was one match, but it wasn’t close. Why? The Ledgewalker and the Invocation along with the fact that this deck’s creatures got much bigger much faster.
In a control-heavy field, this deck won’t be winning a lot. It can (pardon the pun) force through some wins with good draws and (I hope) the right sideboard. The Aggro Force is clearly a deck to run in a beatdown field. As Boros Deck Wins found, “bigger faster” is bad for the guy on defense.
The next deck that I took on didn’t need any modification to be cheap. It’s called Black Rack.
Non-Dual-Land Rares
2 Arena @ $1.25 each = $2.50
4 Dark Confidant @ $9.00 each = $36.00
4 Stupor @ $0.50 each = $2.00
4 The Rack@ $1.25 each = $5.00
Total Cost of Non-Dual-Land Rares = $45.50
I have to tell you that, when I was pricing this deck, I had a tough time calling Stupor and The Rack “rares.” They’ve been reprinted a lot, and only in Time Spiral’s Timeshifted subset are they rares. Stupor has always been an uncommon, and was reprinted as recently as Sixth Edition. The Rack I can more easily justify as a rare since the last time it was reprinted (Fourth Edition) was even before I started playing. Still, this column looks at the budget through the eyes of someone new to the game, and both Stupor and The Rack would be cards they’d have to go looking for. Thus, I’ll keep pricing them as rares.
Why is This Deck So Good?
Like a lot of the so-called “best” decks, Black Rack is so good because it uses some of the best cards available for that color and doesn’t leave the opponent with many options. In terms of the best cards, you can’t argue with Dark Confidant, Smallpox, and Stromgald Crusader. The Confidant is a card-drawing machine on the “st00p!d” level. The Crusader has protection from Condemn, Mortify, Faith’s Fetters, and Angel of Despair. Smallpox hits four things at once.
Lack of options is what sends this deck over the top, though. The discard can start as early as turn 1. If the insured knows that The Rack is coming, what’s he gonna do? If he plays out all of his cards, The Rack hurts him. If he holds cards in an attempt to fend of Rack damage, he hurts himself by limiting his options. He also leaves himself open for discard. In other words, you either beat Black Rack quickly or you don’t beat it at all.
How Does This Work in Romeo’s Hands?
Once again, unto the breach. In the back of my mind, I kept seeing Funeral Charm. When Craig asked for theoretical States decks, I remember seeing one from someone much better than me that looked like Black Rack but included Funeral Charm. This tickled me because it was almost exactly like a deck I was working on, except I was using Snow-Covered Swamps and Scrying Sheets. Funeral Charm has three abilities, two of which are awesome. The third, giving a creature Swampwalk, can come in quite handy, especially in today’s metagame. However, the Instant-timed discard and the ability to kill an X/1 creature are the two fantastic abilities. In Black Rack, Funeral Charm means that you can prevent them from using up to four cards that they draw and could have normally played. I say “could have normally played” because most discard is Sorcery timed. That means that against normal discard spells, if the opponent draws a creature, he can play it. Not if you hit him with Funeral Charm, though. As I played this version of Black Rack, I kept asking myself, “where can I fit in Funeral Charm?”
Following my previous modus operandi, I took the deck without sideboard into the tourney practice room. My first match – do people know I’m coming or something? – was against yet another Empty the Warrens deck. Do you know what kinds of decks don’t like discard, especially random discard? Decks that want to play four or five spells in one turn. Game 1 was almost over before it began. Turn 1 was Cry of Contrition. Turn 2 was Ravenous Rats. Turn 3 was Cry (Haunting the Rats) and Dark Confidant. Turn 4 was concession. In game 2, I didn’t get enough discard, and he had a degenerate third turn, tossing his entire hand, ending with (I do believe this is right) two Empty the Warrens and an entire dining room table full of Goblin tokens. I played it out, but I had no chance. Nausea! Where are you?!? Game 3 was a repeat of game 1.
The next three matches were all against Black discard decks. Two were mono-Black decks. One was B/W. I only saw The Rack in one of the mono-Black decks. That one took game 3 in an incredible show of the Law of Large Numbers. Both of us had empty hands and a Dark Confidant on board. On his penultimate turn, he dropped a copy of The Rack. I drew two lands. On his last turn, his Confidant grabbed The Rack and so did his regular draw. With three copies of The Rack on his side, I was toast.
I beat the other mono-Black deck when he inexplicably conceded in game 3. I didn’t think things were too bad for him, but I obviously didn’t know what was in his hand. Things were very much in my favor against the B/W deck because of Stromgald Crusader. “Grrrrr” said the Crusader, as he plowed through the White defenses.
The final deck was a G/W Glare deck. They hate discard as much as anyone else. They also hate the Pro White Crusader. GG.
I wish I could have played more games, but I only have so much time. Which is really too bad, because I saw another deck that I liked. It’s called U/B Snow, and it ran a 5-1 record at Worlds for at least one person.
Creatures (7)
Lands (26)
Spells (28)
Non-Dual-Land Rares
4 Scrying Sheets @ $10.00 each = $40.00
3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir @ $8.00 each = $24.00
1 Rimefeather Owl @ $1.50 each = $1.50
1 Commandeer @ $2.50 each = $2.50
Total Cost of Non-Dual-Land Rares = $68.00
Why is This Deck So Good?
As you can see, the budget for the rares in this deck is a tad over what I want. The eagle-eyed ones out there, though, have already noticed that this deck runs no dual lands, either of the Ninth Edition or Ravnica Block variety. The reason is that the deck wants to abuse the Snow “mechanic” via Scrying Sheets and Rimefeather Owl (and a bit with the Phyrexian Ironfoot). It needs as many Snow lands as possible.
The full set of Scrying Sheets is what’s driving up the cost of this deck. To run this deck at its most efficient, you want four copies of the Sheets. Play whatever you have, though. If you haven’t used Scrying Sheets yet, here’s what you need to know: drawing an extra card pretty much every turn is A Good Thing.
How Does This Work in Romeo’s Hands?
I told you I didn’t get a chance to play it. But I’m sure that I would have done very well with it.
What I’ve Learned
There are actually a lot of good, cheap decks right now. (“Sure, if you ignore the dual lands!” Shaddup.) Mostly, this seems to be driven by the fact that Blue has some incredible commons and uncommons. (See also: TriscuitTron, U/G Scryb & Force, and U/B Pickles.)
Black has also been resurgent in the past few months / year. I know that it’s mostly been a support color, but what a great job it’s done in the support role.
I fear for Regionals, though. Worlds has shown us that the Dragonstorm Combo deck is indeed for real. Moreover, we now know that we’re getting a Black Wrath of God named Damnation, or, as I like to call it, Shaft. With both Black and White giving us four-mana board sweepers, I predict that the coming months will feature some very long, boring games with few or no creatures. Between B/W Control, U/B Control or Snow, U/W CounterMesa, and various combo decks, I’m afraid that we won’t be seeing a lot of creatures swinging into the red zone for a while. Unless someone more influential than me starts suggesting that people pack Ghostway in their decks, anyway.
Norin the Wary… we need you!
As usual, you’ve been a great audience. Please, deposit unwanted commons and uncommons in the proxy box on your way out.
Chris Romeo
FromRightField-at-Comcast-dot-net
P.S. – It was suggested by more than a few folks that Thallid actually be in the Thallid deck from last week. The best reason was simply that it got the Spores online more quickly. A first-turn Thallid followed by Thelon of Havenwood meant that you were swinging with a 2/2 Thallid on turn 2.
I cannot argue with such facts. However, I found the ability to accelerate into a third-turn Sporesower Thallid (or a normal turn 4 Sporesower with Avoid Fate mana available) to be more important for the deck. To satisfy your own curiosity, try the deck without the mana bugs and with four Thallids instead. Whichever one you like better, go with it.