Immediately upon the release of Time Spiral, I wrote an article with five test decks and some ideas about the key cards of the new format. Unfortunately, when submitting it, I added a ‘suspend — 20 days’ to the casting cost, with the result that it is only now ready for your viewing pleasure.
Trying to pass the article off as up to date is not really going to work — given that the good ideas I had were picked up by others, and the bad ideas… well, you’ll get to see them in a bit. With States mere days away, I reckoned that you probably wouldn’t be that impressed to be reading three-week-old tech. So the first part of this article is specifically focused on preparing for States, a couple of decks and some thoughts on the format, and then the original article is like a bonus section — because you might find it interesting, entertaining, or useful.
Having read the thoughts of other writers, this format is one with many different options, where people will be focused on trying to do cool things and with no clear best deck.
There is a process that people always follow when testing for this sort of format. They make a bad version of a Red beatdown deck, and they find that it beats all their other decks. So they spend a lot of time tuning those other decks, never modify the Red Deck at all, and then either manage to beat the untuned Red Deck or rationalise that it doesn’t matter that they still can’t beat it because no one will play it, or they have two Circle of Protection: Red in their sideboard or something. They let the fact that they want their other decks to be able to defeat the Red Deck override the fact that they would have done a lot better if they had decided to play the deck which their testing said was the best, and worked on tuning and improving that.
My initial test gauntlet was a Zoo deck, a Rakdos deck, a Boros deck and Mike’s Blue/Green deck. Because of this, I was baffled when people said that the Blue/Green deck was any good. It would play an Elf which died, then an irrelevant shadow two-drop which couldn’t even block, then a three toughness creature which would die, and then have a handful of reactive cards and creature enchantments while facing down two or three creatures which it could only remove with spells that dealt it damage. And that was when it got a good draw. It was only when I played the Blue/Green deck against other decks like Solar Flare that I realised how good it was against decks which let it cast its three drops on turn 2 and then have counterspells and Psionic Blasts.
Similarly I thought Solar Flare was good because I was testing the 4 Akroma, 3 Angel of Despair version which Mike wrote about, which reliably was able to play Wrath on turn 3 or 4 and follow it up pretty much immediately with Akroma, and it wasn’t until I read the article by the inventor of Solar Flare that I realised that the problem with playing the version which could reliably race a Red beatdown deck with Akroma was that the other Solar Flare decks, or Blue/White control decks or counterspell decks or whatever else would beat it (he didn’t even have Akroma in some versions of his Solar Flare deck!). In other words, the people who correctly tune their Solar Flare deck to be able to keep up with the fast aggro decks run the risk of getting beaten by the people who have control decks which actually don’t beat Zoo or Rakdos or whatever.
I thought that Ravnica might mean the end of the Red Deck, but in fact it turned out to mean that we just get more Red Decks. Of the three decks — Boros, Rakdos and Zoo – each have different strengths and weaknesses.
I like the Boros deck — it is very consistent and the interaction of Gemstone Mine and Boros Garrison is nice. I have 4 Amrou Scout (and 4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus) in my version, which I’ve found to be much better than a random 2/2 flier or Soltari Priest, because Scout beats for 2 in the early game and is perfect for recovering from mass removal or outlasting a deck full of targeted removal. That said, the deck is a bit slower than the other options and therefore weaker against the control decks.
The Rakdos deck still needs some fine-tuning. The problem with it is that there are too many different good creatures (n.b. this is a good problem). Testing shows that Shadow Guildmage is better than Magus of the Scroll, and Sedge Sliver is excellent. The problem is that sixteen creatures is probably more than desirable, and I want to try to fit in Dark Confidant, Orcish Librarian (which is totally ridiculous with Dark Confidant, lets you find a Confidant if you need it, and in the late game means that you draw a burn spell every turn) and Rakdos Guildmage. Although Cruel Edict doesn’t deal damage and Hit / Run does, Edict gets Akroma whereas Hit tends to hit a Signet. Apart from that, the deck has some of the best red burn spells around for years. I was surprised to see Craig describe Rakdos as a beatdown deck — I think of it more as a burn deck, and it is easily possible to do twenty points just with burn even if the opponent can handle the creatures.
The fastest beatdown deck, and the one which everyone’s testing is showing is one of the best, despite the collective denial I talked about earlier, is the Zoo deck. Gemstone Mine means that you defeat yourself less often via the manabase, and Might of Old Fireblast is four damage for one mana, which is exceptional and lets you have those turns where you deal nine or so damage with your creatures on the third or fourth turn like the old Red Decks used to be able to do with Ball Lightning. And all it loses is Isamaru.
The reason why Zoo is the strongest deck is because it naturally trumps the other most powerful strategies. With removal for Elves and multiple different spells that deal three damage, it can go 1:1 against the most powerful Green cards — Call of the Herd, Ohran Viper – while also deploying 2/3 and 3/3 creatures of its own at the same time. Against decks with countermagic and mass removal spells it has eight two-power one-drops and upwards of sixteen burn spells, so it can win quickly or burn the opponent out, making them extremely vulnerable to having the wrong answers to the threats it presents. It has access to abundant enchantment and artifact removal and land destruction if needed out of the sideboard. And because there is not currently a consensus that all decks need to be tuned to beat it, those decks that it struggles against, such as Selesnya which has bigger creatures and lifegain, lose to other popular decks.
Zoo isn’t the new Affinity or anything like that. It is eminently beatable, and in my testing it was level with the Boros and Rakdos decks. It is just that in an open field, it is best to play the naturally strongest deck when people aren’t specifically gunning to beat that deck. If Mike weren’t obsessed with his Islands and Forest, he would compare the Zoo deck to Deadguy Red just after Tempest was released — you might have your Dragonstorm BloomDrain deck or your Solar Flare Draw-Go deck or a Red/Green Blue/Green utility deck, but I am going to attack you from sixteen life down to seven on turn 3 and then cast my hand full of burn spells until you are dead and I can pick up my overkill bonus.
Blisterguy has already won his States in this way, so you could copy his list — I’ve been using Call of the Herd instead of Scab Clan Mauler, which may be better or may be worse, and you can run Ronom Unicorn or Tin Street Hooligan if you are particularly worried about any artifacts or enchantments. If, as Blisterguy says, Moldervine Cloak is the trump in the mirror, then you will need 4 Cloak and some Unicorns in the sideboard, as well as possibly Rumbling Slum (or Greater Gargadon, though Gargadon is a horrible topdeck). Something like this:
4 Savannah Lions
4 Kird Ape
2 Magus of the Scroll
4 Watchwolf
4 Call of the Herd
4 Seal of Fire
4 Rift Bolt (though I found myself often wishing this was Volcanic Hammer?)
4 Lightning Helix
2 Volcanic Hammer
4 Char
3 Might of Old Krosa
4 Temple Garden
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
2 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
2 Karplusan Forest
4 Gemstone Mine
Sideboard:
4 Moldervine Cloak
3 Ronom Unicorn
3 Disenchant
1 Might of Old Krosa (against decks you need to race)
4 Stone Rain
Best of luck at States, as long as you have Mountains in your deck,
And here’s the original article. I’ve left in the predictions, whether good or bad, just with updates underneath where I have made subsequent changes to decks:
…
It’s always nice to see the return of an old friend. I was expecting to be spending the past week thinking about all the cool new toys that Time Spiral brought us, when in fact I’ve just been thinking about how great it is to have Orcish Librarian back. I haven’t played Orcish Librarian for literally ten years. For those who don’t know, it has an ability that allows you to put a burn spell on top of your deck every turn, and as such was used in the early Sligh decks.
Anyway, let’s try and make some decks for the new Standard. I had intended to write an article looking back at the past year to set the scene for this, but there isn’t really all that much to learn. Ravnica has been good for Red decks, allowing them to diversify into Gruul (won a Pro Tour), Zoo (second at a Pro Tour), Rakdos (top finish for a deck in its block Pro Tour) and Boros (top 8 at a Pro Tour), which is our best performance for some time. We lose very little from Champions of Kamigawa except Isamaru, Hound of Konda for Zoo and Boros, and Genju of the Spires for Rakdos – both great cards, but nothing compared to what we’ve had to wave goodbye to in the past.
I do just have one little rant, though. It’s not really specific to Red decks, but a little part of me dies inside whenever I read anyone criticising people for including Dark Confidant and Hit / Run in the same deck. Yes, you might take eight damage about once every ten games, and you might occasionally even lose a game because of it. But if you are playing that sort of deck, you shouldn’t be thinking about the possible downsides… you should be thinking about how Hit is a removal spell which also damages, and hence awesome, and how Dark Confidant lets you draw additional burn spells.
Moving on, it is worth thinking not just about which cards are going to be the most powerful in the abstract, but about what the new challenges are going to be from what the other decks are getting. From a quick read of the list, White gets our old enemy Tivadar and Knights of the Holy Nimbus, as well as Soltari Priest. Soltari Priest never used to be that much of a bother, because it couldn’t block Jackal Pup and the Red deck could nearly always win a damage race. But giving White a range of different creatures which can hold off red creatures very effectively to go with the Paladin En-Vec is a potential problem.
Green has been given Call of the Herd, which is both something we can use in Zoo or Gruul decks, and something which can be used effectively against us. Together with other big creatures like the Plague Sliver and the Sporesower Thallid, as well as already existing nuisances like the Loxodon Hierarch, R&D are making big creatures a lot better than they used to be, so our decks need to be able to take this into account as well.
Rather than do a card-by-card review, what is more useful is to have some decklists. So here’s my initial versions of the decks I’ll be testing, and if you think that there are any cards which would fit nicely into them, or ones which would improve other decks that I’ve missed, let me know in the forums. These decklists are as much to learn about the new Standard environment and the new cards as anything else, and should be viewed in that light.
Red Deck Wins 2006
4 Magus of the Scroll
4 Orcish Librarian
4 Dark Confidant
2 Jaya Ballard, Taskmage
4 Seal of Fire
2 Shock
4 Rift Bolt
4 Char
4 Hit / Run
4 Demonfire
4 Blood Crypt
4 Sulfurous Springs
2 Gemstone Mine
10 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Snow-Covered Swamp
[This deck is currently -4 Magus, -2 Jaya, -2 Librarian, -2 Shock, -2 Gemstone Mine, +4 Shadow Guildmage, +4 Sedge Sliver, +3 Rakdos Guildmage, +1 Snow-Covered Mountain]
The sideboard should include Giant Solifuge, Skred / Lightning Axe / Cruel Edict to kill big creatures, possibly Wildfire Emissary against the White decks, and some artifact destruction. The other thing that I have been thinking about for if there is ever a Red deck mirror match is how good Greater Gargadon might be, because if suspended on the first turn, it is virtually guaranteed to come into play at exactly the time when the opponent has run out of ways of dealing with a 9/7 – around about turn 7. But that’s pretty narrow for what we need at the moment.
This is an update of Suicide Sligh, with the Magus, Librarian, and Jaya intended to give the recurring power that Genju used to have. Against decks like the White deck or Blue/Green creature deck, you can either race them with your 26 sources of direct damage, or kill off their creatures and try to win a card advantage race, and a lot of the skill will be in working out which is the correct thing to do. All of your creatures are really dangerous against a control deck, as each of them practically guarantees at least two damage per turn if not removed.
Boros
4 Savannah Lions
4 Magus of the Scroll
4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
4 Soltari Priest
4 Amrou Scout
4 Serra Avenger
4 Lightning Helix
4 Char
4 Seal of Fire
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Boros Garrison
4 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Plains
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Flagstones of Trokair
It’s not quite 20/20/20 unless you count the Magus as a burn spell, but this Boros deck is so much better, card-for-card, than the one from a year ago (which did extremely well at States).
With Boros, the question will be whether fliers are better than Rebels. From everything I remember of how good Rebels were, I don’t think they will be. The progression of Boros decks over the last year, from starting with only 4-8 burn spells and lots of small fliers, and ending up being nearly 50-50 between Red and White spells with more resilient creatures, was interesting and something we should learn from.
Zoo
4 Kird Ape
4 Savannah Lions
4 Magus of the Scroll
4 Watchwolf
3 Ronom Unicorn
4 Call of the Herd
4 Seal of Fire
3 Might of Old Krosa
4 Lightning Helix
4 Char
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple Garden
4 Stomping Ground
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Karplusan Forest
2 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
2 Gemstone Caverns
This is pretty straightforward. I think this is the best deck to try out Gemstone Caverns in, because if any deck finds it worth the risk to get the advantage from drawing it in its opening hand, it is the Zoo deck, and I have Call of the Herd in there because the aim is not just to create the quickest version of the deck, but to have an automatic advantage against any other Zoo decks or similar. Sideboard includes Rumbling Slum, artifact destruction, Thornscape Battlemage and Giant Solifuge.
Gruul
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Orcish Librarian
4 Stone Rain
4 Cryoclasm
4 Ohran Viper
4 Call of the Herd
4 Avalanche Riders
4 Demonfire
2 Stalking Yeti
4 Stomping Ground
4 Scrying Sheets
7 Snow Covered Forest
7 Snow Covered Mountain
Always nice to see the return of the Ponza deck. It’s important to test against this sort of deck, and I like Orcish Librarian + Scrying Sheets. There is a relatively large amount of land destruction available at the moment, so a land destruction deck should be in your initial gauntlet of decks to check how your deck performs against it.
Izzet
Izzet decks have tended to focus on the Urzatron and what have you. I don’t like those sorts of decks, and I wonder if there is a viable burn deck featuring Red and Blue with the release of Time Spiral:
4 Seal of Fire
4 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Lightning Helix
4 Char
4 Psionic Blast
4 Compulsive Research
4 Lightning Angel
4 Demonfire
1 Kher Keep
1 Gemstone Caverns
4 Steam Vents
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Shivan Reef
4 Izzet Boilerworks
2 Boros Garrison
Between the new cards from Time Spiral, the old friends that have been Time Shifted, and the diversity offered by Ravnica, there is a huge range of different kinds of decks that are viable. As a result, the usual way of building a Red deck — looking at what the best decks are and aiming at beating them, won’t work at this stage. Some of the things that we are trying to find out at this stage are:
Which of the existing top strategies — Rakdos, Boros and Zoo — survives best in the new environment, given what has been lost with the rotation?
Which new cards supplement these strategies, and how should the decks adapt to make best use of them?
Are there any “natural strategies” – such as burn, land destruction, small creature beatdown – which receive a particular boost, and can our decks handle these different challenges?
Once we’ve started to do this, and to see what else is out there, the fine-tuning can start in time for the States Championships and beyond.
Until then, from all of us here in the Orcish Library,
Take care,