Innovations - Block, Extended, Standard, Vintage, and Limited

I am covering a lot of topics today, so please bear with me. In all, I will be covering where I am at right now with regards to Block Constructed, Extended, Standard, Vintage, and then close with some words on the value of enjoying what you are trying to master (i.e. how I have been working on my Limited game). I know that is a lot of information, so let’s jump in!

After Grand Prix: Chicago, Manuel Bucher and I were chilling back in Detroit a day or two before his flight to Germany. We’d been testing Extended all day. He was playing Juza’s Faeries list, slightly modified, such as including maindeck Future Sight for added value in the mirror and against B/G. I am going to touch more on this specific deck in a minute, but right now only mention it to lead up to Block.

After putting up decent numbers against Zoo, and utterly crushing Elves, we decided to chill on the Extended for the day. For a change of pace, we decided to throw together some Shards-Conflux Block Constructed decks. One of my favorite parts of Magic is building decks or a brand new format. Obviously Block is going to change dramatically before Pro Tour: Hawaii, with the addition of Alara Reborn, but nevertheless, throwing together some decks and giving the format a go sounded fun, and there seemed to be a good chance to learn a thing or two.

I am going to start by listing the deck that Bucher built, since it was much better than the decks I tried.

Naya Planeswalker Aggro
Manuel Bucher

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Feral Hydra
4 Druid of Anima
4 Woolly Thoctar
4 Ranger of Eos

3 Path to Exile
3 Banefire
4 Elspeth, Knight-errant
4 Ajani Vengeant
2 Sarkhan Vol

3 Mountain
3 Plains
9 Forest
4 Naya Panorama
4 Jungle Shrine

He told me that a lot of people play decks like his, though most people play Stewart of Valeron, but that he thinks Druid of Anima is just better, as the consistency both to play it on turn 3 and to get Red mana out of it is worth more than the size and vigilance.

He said that the other decks that people have made include Jund Tokens, Esper Pseudo-Control, Grixis Unearth (anti-Planeswalker stuff like Blightning and Sedrexis Specter), and White Weenie (the Exalted deck is WW, not Bant, as the mana consistency is worth more than Rhox War Monk, allegedly).

As you might have guessed, my inclination was to try Five-Color. ManuelB correctly predicted that this is what I would try, and told me that I was probably going to do exactly what he did and that it wasn’t going to work. Still, he knew that I had to see for myself, so he let me go through the charade.

The first deck I built was a ramp deck that focused on tons of removal, some card draw, Voices from the Void, then dropping Broodmate Dragons and Nicol Bolas. From there, I tried Cruel Ultimatum, but the Naya deck seemed to be able to beat Cruel Ultimatum reasonably well on the strength of its speed and Planeswalkers. It could easily sacrifice some random mana creature and then bash for more than five on the counter attack. It would just be sitting there with a Banefire in hand, so the discard aspect was not as good as I would have liked. You know I love me a Cruel Ultimatum, but it was not at its best here.

I switched to Martial Coup to try to have a more immediate impact on the board. Here the last version I had during our session.

Block Five-Color Control
Patrick Chapin

3 Broodmate Dragon

4 Path to Exile
4 Wretched Banquet
4 Celestial Purge
4 Esper Charm
4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Scourglass
3 Martial Coup
4 Armillary Sphere
4 Obelisk of Esper

4 Arcane Sanctum
2 Seaside Citadel
2 Crumbling Necropolis
6 Plains
5 Swamps
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Forest

As you can see, by the time my deck arrived at this configuration, I was getting pretty sick of getting beaten up over and over by Bucher and his Planeswalker deck. The Scourglass is obviously a potentially great weapon versus Planeswalker decks. The Celestial Purges help keep Ajani and Sarkhan Vol under control. On the whole, it seems like a great maindeck card in this format. Sure, it is dead versus WW, but that is not too bad at all.

I know that my deck is basically a B/W deck splashing Esper Charm and Broodmate Dragon. I do not claim that to be a good plan. Esper Charm is a fine card, but it is not the greatest splash. Courier’s Capsule is not what I am looking for (in conjunction with Armillary Sphere) but maybe Covenant of Minds has potential. I don’t know though, a bad Concentrate seems, well, like a bad Concentrate.

I wish there was a better way for me to draw cards. I just don’t see it yet. It is tempting to try Sharuum instead of Broodmate, but I don’t think Sharuum is that good in my build. The dream of rebuying the Scourglass is a little excessive, and rebuying Armillary Sphere is not interesting. I like that Broodmate beats Path to Exile, a card that I think will help define the format.

Elspeth is not just a great finisher or defensive tool, but is also a reasonable answer to other people’s Elspeths. The Broodmates and Martial Coups are a respectable end game. The Wretched Banquets were unbelievable. That card is VERY underrated. It is not just a great answer to Noble Hierarch, but is almost always easily able to trade up at most stages of the game. This card is going to be important to this format. I also love that you can play it or Path to Exile after dropping the turn 3 Obelisk of Esper.

In the end, I ended up far behind in the series. I think the final score was somewhere around 30-5, maybe slightly worse. That is REALLY bad. To be fair, I think that the record looks worse than it should because my deck was completely unplayable at first, and I lost at least 15 games before I won a single game.

By the time we finished, I think the match-up is probably to the point where the Five-Color Control deck can expect to win at least 1 in 3. That is hardly inspiring, though. I mean, my Five-Color deck is ALL removal and card draw. If I am such a dog in this match-up, what is the point?

The problem is that the Naya Planeswalker deck has better mana (fewer colors, good fixers, a lower curve), faster better card advantage (10 Planeswalkers and 4 Ranger of Eos, as opposed to 4 Esper Charm, 4 Armillary Sphere, and slow bombs), and a better end game (Banefire backing up the Ranger plan, and the Planeswalker plan trumps the Martial Coup Dragon endgame).

If we played a real game it was a close, hard-fought struggle, with both sides having good tools to get ahead. The control cards could all trade up with small value, often, meaning that if I drew the right mix of cards, I would have edge. I kept losing because I did not have enough library manipulation or a strong enough draw engine to ensure that I actually drew the right mix at the right time.

Sometimes I needed to deal with Planeswalkers, other times a turn 2 Thoctar. Sometimes Ranger would overpower me with threats, still other times I would lose to game-ending Banefires. I am really a Careful Consideration short of being able to do what I need. When I drew the right cards I could win, but it was so easy for me to not have the right card at the right time.

Manuel says I have tried essentially the same sorts of things he did, and recommends that I experiment with Blightning and Covenant of Minds, but he advised me that he gave up on Five-Color Control until Alara Reborn as it seems so far from good, compared to how sweet the Naya Planeswalker deck is. We didn’t really experiment with the other “major” archetypes, but Manuel says that he thinks that Naya aggro is clearly the best.

What can we take away from this? I think that major technological advancements must be developed in order to justify Five-Color Control in the metagame. It’s obviously possible that Alara Reborn and its 100% Gold card pool will add what this archetype is missing, so we should keep our eyes open for that. It may also be that closer examination of the Shards-Conflux pools reveals a way for Five-Color to get enough of an edge, though I suspect it will turn out that we’ll have to wait for Alara Reborn.

In Standard, we have Cryptic Command. We have Mulldrifter. We have Broken Ambitions. We have Plumeveil. We have Pithing Needle. We have Vivid Creek. We have Reflecting Pool. The Block pool is a poor, poor imitation. That is not to say that the cards aren’t there, but we cannot simply transpose the strategy of “good cards and Dragon/Ultimatum.”

As Alara Reborn begins to be spoiled, I am going to keep a close eye out for cards that can fill some particular voids. First of all, some sort of Pithing Needle would be a dream come true. Planeswalkers are so powerful in this format and it is very challenging to deal with them without losing value.

I will also be on the lookout for good countermagic. The Block countermagic thus far is rancid, making true control unrealistic. Better card draw would be a huge asset as well. Basically, the dream is if the new set has decent variants on Pithing Needle, Mana Leak, and Careful Consideration.

There are a few Extended Grand Prix tournaments on the horizon, but I am going to have to skip Hanover and Singapore for financial reasons. I would love to go to Kobe, but alas, they are holding that one in Japan this year. Beyond rocking Faeries in PTQs, I think my next event will be the Legion Events Alara Reborn Prerelease in Minnesota. I had a ton of fun at a Conflux Prerelease and am greatly looking forward to Alara Reborn.

I mentioned last week that I have begun work on an examination of every major archetype the game has known. This is more lengthy an endeavor than a typical article, and is going to take a bit of research and careful planning. It is not just enough for me to do it. I am going to do it right.

I realize this article is not the most focused one I have written, but I am in somewhat of a transition period. With no more top level competitive events on my personal calendar for a while, I am not in the period of intense work that I was in last month.

Here is my update on each format:

Standard

I obviously like Five-Color Control best. I think Faeries is also fine. Boat Brew puts up numbers that certainly buy it credibility in certain regards, but my personal experience has been that it can be picked apart if approached right. It is very interesting to me that R/W Lark on the whole had a winning record against Five-Color Control in Kyoto. This leads me to believe two things-

1) People still build Five-Color Control wrong (no surprise here).
2) Not everyone practiced the match-up enough to properly pace it. There are definite nuances to the match-up that may not be immediately obvious.

I don’t recommend t B/W and Swans and Kithkin, though I understand why people play them. Noble Hierarch is a tricky one, as I have seen its potential, but I think it needs to evolve to stay competitive, now that everyone knows about it. Mike Long suggests Thoughtseize in the main. I am not sure if you can make the mana work satisfactorily, but it seems nice with Teeg and Sculler to really disrupt an opponent, leaving them vulnerable to Doran beats.

Four-Color Hierarch

Mike Long

Test deck on 03-22-2009

Standard

Creatures (31)

Lands (21)

Spells (8)

Sideboard

I have not personally played with his build, but it is obviously derivative of Brian Johnston’s Top 8 list, with the only questions really being whether or not Thoughtseize does enough of what we need and if the mana still works in this build. I am wary of the overdependence on Gilt-Leaf Palace, but I can see how it could work, especially if Mogg Fanatic loses a little popularity, with Red and Boat Brew on the decline.

Still though, I am all about Five-Color Control, and if you are taking a version to your local FNM, you must remember your Wydwen, the Biting Gale. I see so many people cut her without even trying her. She is great in the mirror, and a very nice way to regain percentage against Faeries, as the Five-Color Control deck we play is not as good against Faeries as some of our other versions have been. Still, I would play mostly Nassif.

As far as Extended goes, I still support Faeries. I am not sure what I would play at a Grand Prix, but as far as PTQs go, I think I am going to try a more consistent, less ambitious build based on Martin Juza’s (of B/W Tokens fame) build with Ancestral Vision.

Faeries
Patrick Chapin, Manuel Bucher, and Martin Juza

4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Venser, Shaper Savant

4 Ancestral Vision
4 Spell Snare
2 Stifle
4 Mana Leak
1 Future Sight
3 Engineered Explosives
2 Vedalken Shackles
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Chrome Mox

1 Academy Ruins
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 River of Tears
1 Secluded Glen
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
3 Riptide Laboratory
4 Mutavault
9 Island

As I said, this list is almost entirely Martin Juza’s take on Faeries, with only minor personal adjustments. My sideboard would be made day of, but would start with 3 Relic of Progenitus, 3-4 Threads, and probably Future Sights and Stifles. The plan against Zoo is to beat them with Threads, holding open an Island so that when they respond with a Hedge-mage, you trump them. In my experience, Zoo can’t really beat Threads unless they destroy it, and if everyone is Hedge-maging, Stifle is the perfect solution. The fact that it can randomly mise manascrew wins is just icing.

I would not be embarrassed to play a B/G/w Loam deck, and can’t laugh at Zoo, but beyond that, I am just not a fan of these decks that people play. I am pretty sure you should either build your deck around Tarmogoyf or Spellstutter Sprite in this format. I just don’t know how to make combo consistently able to beat a well prepared Faerie deck. Admittedly, I haven’t got to play too much Extended in the past couple weeks, beyond my testing with Mono-U, but the format doesn’t really seem too much different, beyond the impact of Path to Exile, Noble Hierarch, Knight of the Reliquary, Volcanic Fallout, and so on.

In Legacy, I suggest 4c Counterbalance, as usual. Natural Order builds are ok, but there is no reason to give up the consistency of a more traditional build, I think. Again, I would play mostly Nassif.

Vintage? I haven’t really played lately, but I hear that Mystic Remora is back.

Mystic Remora

Luis Scott-Vargas

Test deck on 03-22-2009

Vintage

Creatures (5)

Lands (16)

Spells (39)

Sideboard

This is Luis Scott-Vargas take on the new weapon recently unveiled by Vintage superstar Rich Shay. Shay’s original version had Darksteel Colossus instead of Leviathan, Old Man instead of Sower and Tog, and a few minor cosmetic changes. On the whole, I think LSV’s version is an upgrade, though I don’t love the Togs (maybe change one to a Tezz?) and wish there was a way to squeeze one of Shay’s Repeals back in.

In case you are not familiar with current Vintage, let me assure you, this is not a joke. Mystic Remora, Meditate, and Commandeer are not typically thought of as pillars of Vintage, but they form a very strong card draw engine that trumps all of the other Blue decks out there. With Mystic Remora out, suddenly pitch Magic like Force of Will and Commandeer become unreal. Combine this with Meditate to draw even more cards to fuel the pitch Magic plus take advantage of the Remora and you have a monster.

With Mystic Remora in play and a deck full of pitch Magic, giving your opponent an extra turn is of little consequence. You are drawing a card each time they play a spell anyway and don’t have to pay extra upkeep for the Remora. What good is there turn beyond the card they draw? Obviously this is a simplification, but I am sure you understand the premise of the deck.

Rich Shay has been at the forefront of Vintage innovation for some time now, making huge contributions to Worldgorger Dragon decks, Tyrant/Oath, and Slaver just to name a few. He is one of the best Vintage deck builders of all time and could make a huge impact on “Pro Formats,” should he ever apply himself, in my opinion. He finished well in Grand Prix: Chicago, but it is not just eternal that he can excel. I saw a Pickles list from him a while back that looked interesting.

Luis Scott-Vargas is obviously dominating every format, and Vintage is no exception. The Vintage community, which is not notoriously in love with the Pro Community, has pretty universal respect for LSV not just as a Magic Player, but as a Vintage player and as a Vintage deckbuilder. Put two of the biggest minds in Vintage together and this is what you get.

In any event, I think I would play something along these lines if I played Vintage tomorrow.

In S-S-C draft, I either play Esper or Five-Color Control or die trying. I like the format, but that is partially due to the fact that I have gotten a lot better at drafting in the past two months. Pro Tour: Kyoto was to be half draft, as you know, so I spent a lot of time and energy getting back in shape to be world class at Limited.

Every Pro Tour this year will have 6-9 rounds of Limited, so I have made a commitment to getting my Limited game back to the relative level of strength from when I made Top 8s at Limited Pro Tours years ago. Admittedly it was easier to be great at Limited back then, since there were less than 50 good drafters in the world, but nevertheless, there was nothing fundamentally holding back my Limited game beyond my perception and the amount of effort I put into it.

I had been unhappy with Limited for a while, as every time I played I felt like I was robbed of my strengths as a Magic player. As a result of my telling myself that I was not enjoying it, I began to reinforce the idea in my head that I don’t like Limited. This is not a healthy attitude for someone who plans on playing Limited (at least partially) for money for a living. It also led me to classically under-prepare for Limited, as I just haven’t wanted to play.

Mike Long and I talked at length and he helped me get back on track with regards to my Limited game. I decided to focus on what it is about Limited that I enjoy, and I remember several things, such as how much I enjoy making Top 8 at the Pro Tour, how good it feels to win matches, and how much I enjoy Magic in all shapes and sizes.

It sounds funny, but I forced myself to enjoy it, and while I was on the first Magic Cruise (check out the second Cruise next year in Jamaica!), I drafted quite a lot. I didn’t just draft over and over again, however. I also replayed my decks quite a bit, and simply picked up experience playing the format. I also tried more ideas that my friends suggested, deciding that it was more important to me that I won rather than play an absurd control deck with two-and-a-half victory conditions.

Between the drafts on the Cruise and my practicing with Heezy, Nassif, and Bucher, I found myself not only enjoying Limited again, but actually winning much more often than I was losing, and against good players. My play has tightened up, my drafting is sharper, and my head is more in the games. Obviously, I wish I had had an opportunity to see how far my Limited game had progressed by Kyoto, but nevertheless, I look forward to Honolulu.

The Block portion could be very interesting depending on what Alara Reborn brings, and I look forward to a heavy focus on draft. This block really favors decks that I enjoy, and that is okay by me. As I said, I prefer Esper and Five-Color, though I suppose I am open to Grixis, maybe, maybe even Jund if the cards are coming right. I am pretty anti-Naya and Bant, but what can I say? I may secretly enjoy drafting again, but I am not about to give in to the urge to beat down…

Thanks for reading. You guys are always a pleasure. See you next week!

Patrick Chapin
“The Innovator”