This is a public service announcement to remind you that Patrick Chapin was right.

Garruk, Primal Hunter is the best planeswalker in Magic 2012. He might even be top five all time behind the old Jaces, Ajani Vengeant, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

People seem to have forgotten about him, choosing to play a whole spectrum of non-green decks. Even when they do play green, they play things like Valakut, which basically has a mono-red mana base or Birthing Pod, which wants the full sixty to play every value guy possible.

Making a creature while adding counters is huge. You get a blocker to protect him; he gets further out of range of dying; and he eventually just kills them. Do you remember how impossible it was to kill an Elspeth? Garruk is that, only more so, as his tokens actually trade for things on their own. He even has a real threat as an ultimate. Did I mention he can also draw cards?

What’s the catch? You need to make triple green? That’s easy compared to something like Tezzeret, which demands you play a bunch of mediocre artifacts to make him work. Most of the good green cards want you to have heavy green to cast them early. Lotus Cobra actually does the whole job for you, jumping straight to five mana and ignoring any color requirements. Even in the future without Cobra, a solid two-color mana base can easily support him.

Green is also well positioned as a color right now. Naturalize effects are at an all-time high, and Lotus Cobra still is a huge issue for Caw-Blade. You are obviously short on removal and need to find the right finishers to back up Garruk, but fortunately you can grab bag your colors due to Cobra and all the non-basic lands in Standard.

While all the three-color combinations are feasible, a few of them really stand out. The first one is the obvious deck that has been around since mid-Zendikar Block.

RUG

Ari Lax

Test deck on 07-31-2011

Standard

Creatures (12)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Lands (17)

Spells (28)

Sideboard

This is pretty much a straight port of the old RUG decks. Jace being gone is a problem, but Solemn and Garruk fill the void. Both are midrange card advantage engines, and Garruk rapidly becomes a threat if not answered, much like Jace. The deck worked before, and it will still work now.

The main choices for a backup finisher are Frost Titan, Inferno Titan, Avenger of Zendikar, and Consecrated Sphinx. In terms of guys that kill them rapidly, I think Inferno Titan wins out against Avenger right now. It is more relevant against Tempered Steel’s fliers and comes down faster against Mono-Red, not to mention it costs less against Splinter Twin. Avenger also matches up poorly against Dismember, a card which 90% of your opponents should be playing.

As for the less lethal side of things, I prefer Sphinx over Frost Titan mostly because Frosty does nothing against Splinter Twin while Sphinx pretty much ends the game if you untap with it regardless of matchup. I definitely would rather have the tap down effect against Valakut, but that deck scares me much less then someone attacking me for literally a million. Of course the word literal here only means that half the time, but when Tempered Steel resolves and they bash, it feels like a similar scale of damage to a googolplex of 1/4s coming at your face.

The removal mix has changed from the past choice of four Lightning Bolts mainly to cover a weakness to Splinter Twin and to deal with Tempered Steel. If you can Into the Roil the namesake card, it helps quite a bit in getting to your high end. Bolt is better than Dismember against that deck, but you have to make compromises to answer Deceiver Exarch, Hero of Bladehold, and Overgrown Battlement.

The sideboard is one of the reasons this deck shines, as it has access to all the best cards bar Kor Firewalker. You have the best instant Disenchant in Nature’s Claim; you have the best sweepers in Pyroclasm and Slagstorm; and you have Flashfreeze as the best boarded counter in the format. Thrun is filler and could easily be anything else, but the singleton Dismember is wanted to help against Twin. It is possible you want a couple Spellskites, as they protect Cobra and are otherwise good against Twin and Mono-Red, but I think you would want a couple more cards for Valakut before that.

There are two drawbacks to this list I see. The first is that RUG traditionally preyed on the do-nothing style decks like U/x Control, which aren’t as prevalent now. It still was powerful enough to beat most other decks, but times may have changed with two full new sets since the deck last saw serious play. The other concern is that this deck is a bit light on threats. The lists from Dallas had 11 between Precursor Golem, Jace, and various six- or seven-drops. Consider fitting one or two more bombs in the main to prevent the deck from stalling out due to lack of gas.Â

Also, while I personally prefer Inferno Titan over Grave Titan right now, some people may beg to differ. Here is a BUG list that basically does the same thing. The one additional problem with this deck is your central fetch color is green, meaning that while you are more likely to cast Garruk through Tectonic Edge, your fetches are more strained. If you fetch blue now, your land now doesn’t make green for Garruk. If this is too much of a problem, this list might have to downgrade to a lesser threat like Liliana Vess or Garruk Wildspeaker.

BUG

Ari Lax

Test deck on 07-31-2011

Standard

Creatures (12)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Lands (19)

Spells (26)

Sideboard

Next up is a list based off watching Korey Fay’s Jund deck.

Junk

Ari Lax

Test deck on 07-31-2011

Standard

Creatures (20)

Planeswalkers (5)

Lands (19)

Spells (16)

Sideboard

The first thing I noticed about Jund was that Grim Lavamancer looked like garbage in the deck. It wasn’t fueled well enough to get a lot of value and even then seems too slow for this format. The second thing was that there weren’t any other red cards in the deck worth playing. The third was that you had no outs to a Gideon Jura or Tempered Steel, prompting me to add Oblivion Ring. Even though you don’t need it for Dismember, black was awesome because Doom Blade killed Deceiver Exarch, Glint Hawk Idol, and Titans.

The new Caw-Blade threat base was a natural transplant, partly because all the threats are awesome on their own and partly because they curve well with Lotus Cobra and five-drops. I thought about playing blue instead of the black, but I don’t think the mana or curve works out to fit in Mana Leak. Once that is gone, you are splashing for Preordain and Celestial Colonnade, at which point I would prefer the better mana, but someone else may be able to work it out.

Sun Titan and Wurmcoil Engine might not be the correct high drops, and two might be too many, but you need a bit more endgame gas than Caw-Blade due to the lack of Colonnade. Grave Titan almost got in there, but splashing that guy makes the mana gutsier than I want to get.

Thrun is again the last card, this time in the sixty instead of the fifteen. I’m sure there is a better option here, but I wanted a three- or four-cost threat that wasn’t a Sword. Mirran Crusader was the previous best option, but that card is miserable in this metagame where it doesn’t dodge much outside of Dismember. It is possible you want Vengevine and Fauna Shaman, but that engine isn’t profitable in a metagame short on blue control and stacked with combo. The singleton Sunpetal Grove looks odd, but you don’t want the full eight tapped lands if you are casting six-drops. Other than that, the mana is reasonable but obviously could be further refined.

I originally had Birds of Paradise in the deck, but it never looked right. I don’t think Birds is functional in any deck that wants more than twenty-three lands. The card isn’t a solid enough mana source to let you hit higher mana counts or later color commitments. It doesn’t count as a full mana source in deckbuilding as you can’t count on it living so you still need enough lands to cast your spells without it. When you are only looking for three-drops, everything is fine, but once you start casting four- and five-drops you are looking at decks that are half mana and lack card draw or filtering to get around this. Maybe Birds is fine in a metagame where there isn’t a better alternative, but I would rather draw Lotus Cobra and have a Goblin Piker late game than a 0/1.

The previously boarded Nature’s Claim becomes Naturalize, as you actually plan on trying to kill them with damage mid-game rather than just slamming an unbeatable Titan. Obstinate Baloth supplements Kor Firewalker, as you need to stabilize your life total against Red going late when you don’t play the game with a turn-two auto-win. The four Memoricides are because you need to mean it against Valakut and to not play the role of the non-interactive midrange deck against them. Even with them, I want a couple more cards against them that also are good against other decks. Acidic Slime is too slow when you don’t have Cobra, and don’t even try to bring up Leonin Arbiter, as that guy is just a glorified Fresh Volunteers.

The talk about mana brings up the issue of why you even need more colors. Garruk definitely has a place in a deck that doesn’t have to worry about what non-basics to play, like this one built by MUD Poison designer and green mage Stuart Parnes:

Green Superion

Stuart Parnes

Test deck on 07-31-2011

Standard

Creatures (32)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Lands (9)

Spells (16)

Sideboard

Garruk replaces Lead the Stampede, flipping your card advantage engine from a three-mana spell that doesn’t alter the board state to a legitimate threat. Myr Superion looks awkward but has enough support to provide a solid early threat and more Pyroclasm resilience. Other than that, this is basically the Zendikar Block Constructed deck. Make some dudes and just bash them. Overrun was the pump spell of choice, as if you have a larger guy in play you probably can kill them without it. It is the times you only have a few mana dorks and need to deal fifteen where Overrun shines, making it better than Overwhelming Stampede.

As for not having another color, I lied a bit on that one. Your worst matchups are combo, and you can turn to a bit of Block Constructed technology to help here. Unified Will sounds silly at first, but in reality it is just a two-mana counterspell you can splash. Not only does it counter their Primeval Titan or Splinter Twin, it can stop Pyroclasms or a control deck’s Day of Judgments and Gideons from interfering with your opponent dying.

The rest of the board is your normal green fare. Leyline of Vitality may look strange at first, but it turns off a lot of red cards and keeps your life total afloat. Creeping Corrosion is just because this deck wants to mean it against Tempered Steel and doesn’t plan on using it to stabilize but instead to end all hopes of a race. The Dismember and Naturalize are just solid utility, taking out random threats including Splinter Twins and Deceiver Exarchs.

For those of you who just want to straight up win and don’t care about how awesome Garruk is, play this.

Tempered Steel

Ari Lax

Test deck on 07-31-2011

Standard

Creatures (22)

Lands (4)

4 Inkmoth Nexus

Spells (34)

Sideboard

If your opponents aren’t completely devoted to beating you in some way, you will win, barring your deck not providing a real hand for you. If you are still playing Go for the Throat over Doom Blade, know you are just embarrassing yourself. Every reason the deck was good in Block still applies: you are too fast, too consistent (especially with Steel Overseer being added), and too resilient to normal Wraths due to Inkmoth Nexus and Glint Hawk Idol.

The one difference is now you are not the only deck in the format, and people aren’t maindecking Creeping Corrosion. The joke is that they may want to be soon. Disenchant effects are obnoxious, but that’s about all anyone has added to their arsenal. You are stacked on disruption for Splinter Twin, are reliably faster than Valakut even if you don’t Dispatch a Titan, and just roll over the rest. My current record with this list or derivatives of it is over 90% in match wins, which even in the soft environment I’ve been playing in is absurd.

Before anyone asks, the blue splash is bad. This is almost entirely because you can draw Glacial Fortress and not have it cast spells immediately.

Finally, one last list. This is only here because at least one person will appreciate it despite the fact I’m sure it is terrible. I only have two comments to make on it: If you have Garruk, it only takes three Fogs to go lethal instead of enough for the rest of their deck, and splashing Jace Beleren is the definition of gutsy mana.

Bant Turbofog

Ari Lax

Test deck on 07-31-2011

Standard

Creatures (5)

Planeswalkers (4)

Lands (17)

Spells (34)

Sideboard

Legacy Combo Review Part Three

Week Five: Storm

After finding a few good alternatives, I figured it was time to run back Storm and reevaluate its power. After finding a couple other options I was happy with, notably Hive Mind, I wondered if I would still feel like Storm was the overpowering option I thought it was before.

Storm

Ari Lax

Test deck on 07-31-2011

Legacy

Lands (14)

Spells (46)

Sideboard

Same 60 as last year, same 15 as last month. The topic of Sensei’s Divining Top over Preordain has been popping up lately, but it still is miserable with Cabal Ritual and the other cantrips. I don’t think the metagame is quite that slow, especially as all the time you use Topping is time they get to find more resistance.

Simply put, I didn’t quite get to see what I wanted but. I didn’t play against any blue decks, which resulted in a complete stomping. I lost one game, and the average game I played lasted under three turns. Whereas other combo decks would have had issues against some of the softer interaction like Hymn and might not have been raced by something like Zoo, Storm just smashed people.

Even Hive Mind, the next fastest stack-based combo deck, can have issues with Wasteland or other cards without the word “counter.” Hive Mind does punish the Stoneforge control decks for playing conditional counters, but looking at the results from Cincinnati that might not be relevant. I played some against the Bant decks that are becoming better positioned, and even with Force of Will they still can’t put up close to enough resistance. Daze is still a complete joke for this deck. The one card that is gaining momentum that this deck cares about is Vendilion Clique, and even that is just another card.

If you know what you are doing with this deck, it still crushes people. You can play straight through the soft hate, and the decks that are real problems are poorly positioned: Reanimator, Team America, and marginally Painter’s Stone. As far as I know the real masters with this deck aren’t going to be playing over the next couple weeks, so I don’t expect a lot, but the deck could easily win an event if they were.

Week Six: Elves

This deck started off as more of a joke. When I first started playing Legacy I didn’t have any access to cards and just jammed my Extended deck. After a month, I finally lost to someone who boarded in Cursed Totem and Engineered Plague on top of the old standard U/W control main deck. Since then I’ve noticed this deck is a very popular intro choice to the format due to the relative inexpensive price tag associated with it, so I rebuilt it to see how well it actually performed. Instead of the recent builds with Fauna Shaman or lots of Priest of Titania effects, I just jammed what was almost my old 75.

Elves

Ari Lax

Test deck on 07-31-2011

Legacy

Creatures (32)

Lands (10)

Spells (17)

Sideboard

Emrakul is miserable because it does nothing when you just randomly draw it. Ezuri and Mirror Entity both let you bash people, and Ezuri solves the “60/60 guys can be chump blocked” problem people usually cite when arguing against Mirror Entity. Entity is still wanted, as it makes the end-of-turn Chord for three lethal and goes infinite, but Ezuri backs him up in case you spend Entity early going for the non-combo kill.

The deck definitely has power. Oddly enough, the deck was playing oppositely to how it did in Extended. Back in the day, they had to do so much to respect the combo that they would just get beat down by random idiots. In Legacy, their counters to stop the combo are free, but most fair decks with counters aren’t ready to interact with Wirewood Hivemaster or Symbiote. Your opponents end up burning their resources trying to not die to Insects and unkillable Elves, letting you slam a late Glimpse or Regal Force and go off.

You definitely have the power to beat the fair decks, but the deck sits in a very odd position. You are slower than pure combo; a lot of the Storm hate is good against you; and you are weak to sweepers. So, for Elves to be viable, you need a metagame of mostly fair decks that is light on tribal decks (and Grim Lavamancer) where Storm isn’t played despite most of the hate being directed at alternate combo decks.Â

Basically, that means now. Angel’s Grace and graveyard hate are likely to be people’s focus while they try and win Knight of the Reliquary wars. I would not be surprised to see this deck at the top tables in the next couple weeks of Legacy Opens.