Are you becoming tired of a Block Constructed format that is becoming stagnant after only three weeks of PTQs and wish to break the monotony of White Weenie and Gifts mirrors? Then do I have the deck for you! When I arrived in Minneapolis and discussed with Gabe Walls what we should play, he said we should play something fun so that we can money draft as soon as possible. I told him about a spicy little number I had cooked up and had been testing for the day I was at home between London and Minneapolis. As soon as I mentioned Heartbeat of Spring, my rich, round friend was at the dealer’s tables acquiring the cards. Little did I know that my decklist was one card off of winning the Grand Prix.
I had been thinking about the deck for a long time now. It started before Pro Tour: Philadelphia when Jeff Cunningham and I were brainstorming the most abusable cards in the format. Heartbeat of Spring seemed best because very few decks had anything to do with all the mana you give them. Back then the premise was the same as the current version, you put a Myojin of Seeing Winds into play and they never get another turn because of repeated Time Stops. There were two problems with the deck at that point: There wasn’t an easy way to kill your opponent after you played the Myojin, but Saviors solved that with Maga, Traitor to Mortals, a tutorable Fireball with life loss (not damage) to boot. Problem number two was that the mana base was quite ugly since you needed lots of Forests to cast your Kodama’s Reaches and Sakura-Tribe Elders, as well as double White for Final Judgment, double Black for Hideous Laughter, and triple Blue for Myojin and Time Stop in one turn. Saviors also solved that problem by giving Black a Wrath of its own in Kagemaro, First to Suffer.
10 Forest
5 Island
4 Swamp
4 Tendo Ice Bridge
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Sakura Tribe Elder
3 Hisoka’s Defiance
3 Time of Need
2 Sickening Shoal
4 Kodama’s Reach
4 Heartbeat of Spring
3 Hideous Laughter
2 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
1 Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
4 Time stop
2 Myojin of Seeing Winds
1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Sideboard:
4 Hinder
4 Kiku’s Shadow
2 Wear Away
1 Hideous Laughter
1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
1 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
1 Hisoka’s defiance
1 Sickening Shoal
That is the list I used in Minneapolis. I’m confident that if either of the Melokus (preferably the one in the maindeck) were a Myojin of Night’s Reach then I would have made Top 8 and quite possibly have won the Grand Prix. The fact that I did a day’s playtesting destroyed me. I originally had the Myojin in the sideboard, but I was handily beating Gifts without it, so I figured it would always be better to get a Myojin of Seeing Winds with Time of Need, since in all the games I’ve played I’ve only ever lost one in which I resolved a Myojin of Seeing Winds.
I would like to offer a word of caution – this is not a deck that you want to just pick up and play at a PTQ. It is quite complicated at first, since you have a great deal of decisions to make each game. Choosing the wrong cards to play around or even getting the wrong lands with Kodama’s Reach can cost you the game. After a while though, everything becomes much easier. The deck hinges upon playing an early Sensei’s Divining Top and then using it and shuffling until you can set up a turn, hopefully with at least seven lands where you play Heartbeat of Spring, Time Stop them, untap play Myojin of Seeing Winds, and Time Stop them again after drawing a million cards. From that point it is quite easy to win by casting a couple Heartbeats, Time of Need for Maga, and twenty to the domepiece.
The deck was an excellent choice for Grand Prix: Minneapolis, and will remain one unless the metagame shifts away from WW and Gifts towards decks like Andy Stokinger’s Mono-Blue Control. White Weenie is likely the easiest matchup. It is very difficult for them to win without an early Umezawa’s Jitte, Kami of Ancient Law, and Hokori, Dust Drinker. You need to use your Black removal to stabilize the board as much as possible, until you can play a Heartbeat and protect it with either Time Stop or Hisoka’s Defiance. You also need to be careful with Celestial Kirins, because they can destroy your Heartbeats with a Shining Shoal for 1. In this matchup I have been sideboarding in 1 Sickening Shoal, 1 Kagemaro, First to Sufffer, 1 Hideous Laughter for 1 Myojin of Seeing Winds, 1 Time Stop, 1 Hisoka’s Defiance. Gabe and I went a combined 6-0 against White Weenie in the Grand Prix, and I lost very few matches to it while testing on Magic Online beforehand.
After its strong showing at the Grand Prix, the next most prevalent deck is likely to be Gifts. I went 2-2-1 against various versions of Gifts in the Grand Prix. One of the losses and the draw can be attributed directly to my lack of Myojin of Night’s Reach in my deck or sideboard. If I had one somewhere in my seventy-five cards I would have been 4-1 against Gifts. In this matchup you want to wait as long as possible before playing your Heartbeat because there isn’t much they can do if you wait until you have two counters at the ready. The only way to lose game one is if they get off a Cranial Extraction early and you don’t have a Top. Now I’m not advocating letting Cranial Extractions resolve willy-nilly, but the deck is surprisingly resilient to the pinpoint Lobotomy. Most people name Heartbeat of Spring, and while that is annoying, it is nowhere near the end of the world. You can still win by playing a Kagemaro, then Myojin of Seeing Winds with Defiance backup, and attack for ridiculous amounts with Kagemaro.
Sideboarding in this matchup is very dependent on one thing: Whether or not they have Nezumi Shortfangs. If they have Shortfangs then you need to bring in the Kiku’s Shadows in addition to the Hinders and Hisoka’s Defiance. If they have Shortfangs you bring in those nine and cut 1 Meloku, The Clouded Mirror, 1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer, 3 Hideous Laughter, 2 Sickening Shoal, 1 Time of Need, 1 Kodama’s Reach. Cutting a Kodama’s Reach may appear quite odd, but there is some reasoning behind it. The reason is that the turn you cast Kodama’s Reach they can often come back with Cranial Extraction. Therefore Kodama’s Reaches aren’t all that effective, since you generally want to wait to cast them until turn 5 or 6 when you can cast it and have mana open for Hisoka’s Defiance or Hinder. If your Gifts opponent doesn’t have Nezumi Shortfang then sideboarding is much easier. You bring in the five counters for 1 Meloku, 3 Hideous Laughter, 1 Sickening Shoal.
After those decks there are a number of other decks that are just below teir one, like Mono-Black Aggro, the “Green/White/Blue Creature Control” deck I designed for Philadelphia, and Green/Black Giftsless big creature decks. All of these matchups are fairly easy. Against Mono-Black you merely need to get a Heartbeat into play and they roll over to your powerful effects with nothing to do with all that mana except play more creatures to get slaughtered by Kagemaro. Green/White is about as easy as it gets – they have no threats other than fatties that can be Defianced, and are too slow to put real pressure on you. Green/Black plays very similarly to Gifts, but is a little easier because fatties are generally too slow and they have less opportunities to disrupt you. Again the only things that worry you are Cranial Extractions and Nezumi Shortfangs, and you should sideboard accordingly.
Next I will relay my experiences from Grand Prix Minneapolis, and discuss any interesting situations I encountered with the Heartbeat deck.
Round 4: Vrba, Ben
Ben was playing a Green/Black control deck with little disruption, lots of creature removal and large creatures. Game one he cast some large creatures, and I countered the first two. The rest didn’t have enough time to put my life total in any danger before all of his turns started began getting stopped on his upkeep. Game two I had to tap out for an early Kodama’s Reach because I only had double Blue counters in hand and a single Island. This let him get off a Cranial Extraction on my Heartbeat of Springs. This wasn’t a big deal, it just made the game take a lot longer. For most of the game I had more counters in hand than he had cards. Eventually I played Kagemaro, Stopped on his upkeep, untapped and played Myojin of Seeing Winds with Hinder backup and attacked for about 20.
Round 5: Meyer, Justin
I played Justin round two for the second time in the two Kamigawa Block Constructed tournaments I’ve played. In Philadelphia he was playing the only Gifts deck that I beat. Here he was with an interesting Blue/Red deck that consisted of exclusively creatures and burn spells. His turn 1 Frostling traded with two of my Sakura-Tribe Elders, clearing the way for his other Frostling. Eventually I played Heartbeat of Spring, which allowed him to play Kumano and Meloku, both of which I Time Stopped. My Myojin led to more counters, and eventually a large Maga. The second game was the only one in the tournament I won with Meloku. That only happened because he drew about 10 lands and 3 spells.
Round 6: Lura, Chad
Chad was playing White Weenie and this match went as they usually do. Game one he quickly ran out of creatures after two Hideous Laughters and a Kagemaro each took out two. Since he was without pressure I had ample time to find a Heartbeat and Myojin. Game two I had a mediocre draw after a mulligan that lacked a way to deal with his Celestial Kirin plus a Jitte and Kami of Ancient Law. I eventually tried a desperation Heartbeat which would have allowed me to play Myojin next turn and hopefully draw into some Shoals and Black cards. He tapped three lands for Terashi’s Grasp, then attacked and said “gain three life”. I chuckled a little while correcting him that he in fact lost three life instead. Game three I played first, he played turn 1 Lantern Kami, turn 2 two Lantern Kamis. I played turn 2 Heartbeat of Spring. His turn three was play Jitte, manaburn for two, attack for 3, equip Jitte, in that order. I untapped, played two Heartbeats, and Hideous Laughter. He didn’t have a follow up creatures, and the game ended when I cast Myojin of Seeing Winds next turn.
Round 7: Lieberman, Alex
Alex and I were on the same mailing list for Philadelphia, and had been testing together a bit before this tournament. Therefore I knew he was playing Gifts and mulliganed a hand with three useless removal spells. I kept my next hand which consisted of a Top and some Green mana cards. Unfortunately I never found a second land and conceded rather quickly. Game two he had Top and I didn’t, which is often the difference in this matchup. He wasn’t able to shuffle much with his Top so he was stuck on 4 lands for a long time. I tried a Maga for 5, but he answered with Kokusho after blocking with an Elder once. Eventually I was able to get Heartbeat and Myojin out with double counter backup, but it was at this point that I realized it would be difficult to actually kill him since I had boarded out most of my creatures. It took a while, but he had no way to stop my Myojin and Elders attacking while I had more counters than he had cards. Game three was quite similar to the first but fortunately it was Alex, not myself that was stuck on a land and a Top.
Round 8: Beltz, James
After round 7 Billy pumpernickel was complaining that he lost to a Gifts deck that didn’t play the usual gifts cards like Hana Kami and Soulless Revival, just removal and lots of fatties. I commented that I would love to get paired against that. Of course I end up eating my words. Game one he Cranial Extractions my Kokushos, and I win rather easily. Game two he is able to get a quick Kodama of the North Tree through since I couldn’t draw one of my eight early game counters. Then when I tried to play Heartbeat and Time Stop him before I died, he had the two Wear Aways he needed to get through my Hisoka’s Defiance. Game three I kept a hand of Hisoka’s Defiance, Time Stop, Kodama’s Reach, Sakura-Tribe Elder. I died to various fatties before I drew a non-mana producing spell.
After Day 1 I went to a nice dinner with the five of the “Seven Kings” that managed to go to the correct airport for their flights, Gabe Walls and Thomas Pannell. The “Kings” refused to Credit Card Game for the bill, claiming they could live for three months off of what the bill cost.
Round 9: Heriford, Brandon
Brandon had a midrange Black deck with Shortfangs, Distress, Takenuma Bleeder, as well as removal like Hideous Laughter. This matchup is quite scary if he draws from the right half of his deck, but also very easy if he draws from the removal half. He played turn 2 Shortfang, but I was able to get a Heartbeat and a Top out before it flipped. Fortunately he didn’t have much pressure, only the Shortfang with a bunch of removal spells in hand. After four turns of Topping and shuffling I finally found a Time of Need for Myojin of Seeing Winds, which allowed me to Stop on his upkeep, untap and win. Game two was similar but I had Kiku’s Shadow for his Nezumi Shortfangs, and he didn’t have enough cards to board in for all his useless removal.
Round 10: Leggate, Philip
Both games of this match we’re quite similar, his early creatures died to Hideous Laughters and Kagemaros, and eventually I played a Heartbeat with multiple counter backup, untapped and dropped the game winning Myojin.
Round 11: Levin, Eugene
I knew Eugene was playing Gifts without Shortfangs so I played and sideboarded accordingly. Game one Eugene had Top and a bunch of mana acceleration. I didn’t cast any spells until turn 6 Heartbeat, followed by Time stop, and Myojin with Hisoka’s Defiance backup next turn. Game two I didn’t have Top again, and his Top allowed him to find enough threats to overwhelm my mediocre draw. Game three I have a decent draw with an Elder, a Reach and some counters. I manage to find and cast my first Top of the match on turn 6 and am able to answer all his threats, but cannot pull ahead before time is called.
A situation came up during game two that brings to light some of the problems with both Kamigawa Block Constructed, and the current way of dealing with slow play. During one of the later turns of game two I had to carefully consider a complex board position, as well as my options with Time of Need, what my opponent’s likely play is, not only this turn, but a couple turns into the future. Unfortunately the head judge wandered over on this, the only turn of the match where it could be said that I was playing slowly. I was told I needed to speed up my play which I found humorous since I was playing at about three times the pace of my opponent for the entire match up to that turn. Unfortunately one can only judge based on what they see, and since the table judge who was there the whole time appeared to be afraid to offer a dissenting opinion from the head judge I had to cut my considerations short and pass the turn. It’s a shame that I was the one being harassed for playing slowly even though I played much faster for nearly the entire match. The ineffectiveness of dealing with stalling is exaggerated in a format like Kamigawa Block Constructed, which is so slow due to the excessive Topping and shuffling. If only major tournaments could be held on Magic Online.
Round 12: Stokinger, Andrew
This matchup is absolutely unwinnable. Both games went exactly the same. I had a turn 1 Top and spent the whole game accelerating my mana, and using the Top aggressively, while he played and protected a Jushi Apprentice. He had seven or more cards for most of the game, and enough counters to stop anything of relevance I could cast four times over.
Round 13: Herberholz, Mark
Mark and I were teammates in Atlanta, and have moneydrafted together for a number of years now. As we sat down for the match Mark wanted to make a large split. I would only split on the condition that he pay the 10 pound bet we made in London on the legality of Mana Drain in Legacy. We worked out a mutually agreeable split and got down to business. Game one he was able to extraction my Heartbeats, and then my Maga, when I had Myojin of Seeing Winds in play. I stopped his Hana Kami engine by removing it from the game, and eventually attacked with a 20/20 Kagemaro. Game two he had a quick Nezumi Shortfang, and I couldn’t find a Kiku’s Shadow before my hand got crippled. I had to run out a desperation Heartbeat, with a Myojin for next turn if he had nothing. Unfortunately he had a Black Myojin, which I conceded to. Game three he mulliganed into a turn 2 Shortfang, but I was able to find a Shadow after only two discards. The two discards were enough though as he eventually overwhelmed me with threats to the point that I had to play my last two cards: a Heartbeat and Myojin with no counter backup or mana open to draw into some. He unfortunately had Myojin of Night’s Reach and Sickening Shoal to make me discard the 10 cards I could draw.
Round 14: Bearl, Ken
After the excitement of getting paired against THE Ken Bearl died down (not my excitement). We got down to business and I crushed him in two short games. Game one he had minimal fatties and no disruption. I quickly played Heartbeat, Stop, Myojin, Stop, Heartbeat, Maga for the win over the course of turns six seven and eight. Game two was similar, except that he cast more threats, but similar in that none of them resolved.
From that point I did a couple of “casual, fun” drafts, and made the long drive home to Toronto. I hope you’ll give this deck a try – I’m trying to work on my reputation as a constructed mastermind.