This week’s saga picks up where last week’s left off. Last week I participated in Grand Prix: Barcelona. I tried moving in response to the metagame, but moved the wrong direction. Last week I traded in my Putrid Leeches and Anathemancers for Esper Charms and Mulldrifters. That was a mistake, and not just because I did poorly. The format is far too aggressive for that kind of plan, and besides, the aggressive cards are just stronger against unknown opponents right now. There is not enough reason to play defensively, when the Bloodbraid Elf so heavily encourages you to play aggro.
I briefly considered remedying the problems by turning even more controlling, similar to Nassif. However, cooler heads prevailed, and I did not try to cure the poison with more poison. I returned to work on a Leech version, though admittedly I did not love the builds I was working on. It just felt like there was something missing.
I have been receiving a lot of great feedback from players that have been playing Five-Color Blood in various tournaments lately, including a guy called Martin who qualified for his Nationals with a version of Five-Color Blood that included the innovation of Sygg, River Cutthroat. I thought it looked interesting, and put it on the To Do list.
I arrived in Seattle on Tuesday afternoon, and Michael Jacob and I made our way across town to the Courtyard Mariott across the street from the site, where we met up with our roommates Manuel Bucher and Martin Juza. We were pleased to discover that Bucher and Juza smiled and generally acted European to such an extent that the woman at the front desk upgraded the room from a one-bedroom with pullout couch to the Queens Suite, which has three beds and could easily house 6-8 comfortably. Mise.
During the week, we hung out in Tacoma, going shopping, running, eating, and generally enjoying the giant freaking mountain nearby (Mt. St. Helen, which is much bigger than one might think). In addition, we tested a good deal of block for Honolulu, as well as a bit of Standard.
Bucher spent the week grinding Magic Online queues with a Five-Color Planeswalker deck of his design that involves Nicol Bolas, Ajani Vengeant, Garruk Wildspeaker, Jace Beleren, and a ton of card drawing. Needless to say, despite it being a solid deck and a lot of fun, he threw it out of the window on Thursday afternoon when everyone and their mom audibled into Five-Color Blood.
Thursday afternoon, Bucher showed me a list from his Swiss friend Andreas Ganz, which also featured the dark Sygg. He asked me if I thought the list was good, because his friend insisted it was, and Bucher had little experience with this sort of deck. I studied it… and some subtle beauty started to emerge.
As it turns out, we were trying to resolve the card draw issue, as we really wanted to draw more cards but didn’t like Esper Charm or Mulldrifter. In addition, we had already switched to Boggart Ram-Gang, which only made Sygg better. We needed another two-drop, as Pyroclasm was just not cutting it, and we wanted more creatures that live through Volcanic Fallout.
I said it looked really interesting and wanted to try it immediately. We through together a prototype and played some games against B/W, immediately crushing them, but also revealing that Sygg was indeed unreal good. It took me an hour before I could no longer imagine how we had ever played without it.
At one point I cut the all of the Cruel Ultimatums, but after a lot of testing, I personally wanted one maindeck, not just sideboard. Not everyone ended up running it, though; it is far from vital. I also tried 4 Sygg a fair bit. I know that sounds like a lot, but it really is that good. I ended up cutting the fourth, as the Legend rule interacting with Bloodbraid just came up a bit too often, but some of the people playing it kept all four.
Ganz had Ajani Vengeants, which I tried for a time, but they were rather disappointing. I may play one in my sideboard against B/G going forward, but I am not sure. Bucher, on the other hand, is still playing two. We tried cutting Bituminous Blast., but they are vital for Faeries and the mirror. In fact, I put a Blast in the sideboard specifically as my anti-Fae card, as it is the best answer to their best card, Mistbind Clique.
The Ram-Gangs instead of Finks are just an adjustment based on the metagame and the push towards more and more aggressive decks. They are easier to cast, they hit harder, they get through First Strikers and Colossus better, as well as Walls, and they don’t lose to Magma Spray. Besides, turn 2 Putrid Leech, turn 3 Boggart Ram-Gang, turn 4 Bloodbraid Elf into Anathemancer or Boggart Ram-Gang is a fine dream.
If you are playing in PTQs this weekend, I highly recommend you test with or against this version, as it completely obsoletes the old version. The results we have been getting have been just fantastic, and the night before the GP, a number of people audibled into it on account of sweetness, including Michael Jacob, Manuel Bucher, Antoine Ruel, DJ Kastner, Josh Wludyka, Brian Six, and some of the players from Team Deck Builders. My version is probably a little rough, so I recommend looking at whoever finished highest in Seattle with it and seeing what can be used from theirs as well, which I assume was Michael Jacob or Josh Wludyka.
Here is the list I played at GP: Seattle:
Creatures (19)
Lands (26)
Spells (15)
As a brief aside, it should be noted that 5CB is also the abbreviated name of a fun Magic format that you may want to check out, Five-Card Blind. I’m not sure if it will come up for you, but if you happen to stumble upon forums on the game, it is definitely an interesting mental curiosity.
I think that four Maelstrom Pulses is absolutely vital, and I would play at least seven. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and pick up a playset, as that card is going to go up in value over time; not because of this deck, but because it is the real deal.
I am playing a 3-1 split of Volcanic Fallouts and Jund Charms because I don’t want my opponents to know that I don’t have Jund Charms. I’m planning on bluffing a lot and I need one in my deck to pull this off. Bucher is just playing 4 Fallouts, as he is a hater, though he does have 2 Ajani to help offset the life loss. DJ, on the other hand, is rocking a 2-2 split, because Jund Charm is better in the mirror, which is looking more and more popular.
Looking around the trials, the most popular decks seem to be Faeries, B/W Swans, and 5CB, though everything except TurboFog was represented. I think we are great against Fae and B/W, favourable against Swans and the pseudo-mirror, great against old school Five-Color Control, decent against G/W, and good against Planeswalkers. We are a little soft to B/G; Reveillark and hyper-aggressive Red are actively bad for us; and Sanity Grinding is hard (though we beat TurboFog, if anyone would play it).
Pithing Needle is obviously for Swans and Planeswalkers, but has lots of classic applications. Thought Hemorrhage is best against combo decks and Anathemancer. The Finks are for aggro matchups, and just for whenever we need more “live” cards. I really need to fit another one in the board.
Bituminous Blast is for the mirror and Fae, though it is an option versus non-token creature decks. Broodmate Dragon is good against Red, and it is good against White. Seems sweet in the mirror too.
Celestial Purge is a nice replacement for Magma Spray. The nice thing here is that it also hits Countryside Crusher and Seismic Assault. Swans has proven popular now, so I am glad I went with 3 Purges. They are also much better against Putrid Leeches and Boggart Ram-Gangs out of the mirror or Jund aggro.
Necrogenesis is also good against Lark, and Manu assures me it is golden versus Elves as well. I presume it is sweet in the mirror, as it is more answer to Anathemancer. I considered Puppeteer Clique, but I must admit I would like to Cascade into Necrogenesis. Finally the Snakeform is not really used by anyone else, but I just want to Snake some Larks, Paladins of En-Vec, and Colossuses, though I wish it was better against Countryside Crusher.
It sounds like, after talking to people playing the deck, that Ajani Vengeant is probably not what you want, and the 26th land is probably needed. In addition, 3 Sygg seems to be the consensus, and a number of people want a third Bituminous Blast main, as well as the fourth in the board, possibly in place of a Jund Charm. People seem to be pleased with the one Cruel Ultimatum and would not want a second. The second Exotic Orchard in my list is a bit too greedy, and should probably just be a Mountain.
Josh and DJ said that the Path to Exiles in their sideboard have been great, and MJ mentioned that he would’ve liked access to a couple. Snakeform looks like it has been producing, and the people who played Loxodon Warhammer seem to have liked it so far. It will be very interesting to see how things develop from here on out.
Gabriel Nassif showed up with a Jund Aggro deck that had a very similar theme to the Five-Color Blood build above, though without Cruel Ultimatum and Cryptic Command. He did not have all of the Syggs we had either, but it is a pretty obvious upgrade to add the Syggs to his deck. Jamie Parke was doing well with that list, as of the last information I had, but all in all, I am pretty sure the Blue cards are worth it.
It is not that Cryptic Command is just a good card, and I think that the manabase can be stretched. It is that Cryptic Command is far better in this deck than in most decks, since it fully takes advantage of Cryptic Command’s most powerful mode: tapping the creatures. The whole reason Merfolk decks have been able to resurface from time to time over the past couple of years has been the ability to tap the team, using Cryptic Command as a Profane Command.
The 5CB deck is very good at dealing chunks of damage to an opponent, but it does not have the best end game in the room, as many people can shut it out of the game once they get going. Cryptic Command can deny and counter play, sitting in your hand and giving you an insurance policy in case anything goes wrong. Then, as soon as you catch your opponent open for even a second, you tap his team and alpha strike for lethal.
I think that the Jund aggro decks (that are essentially Three-Color Blood decks) are fine, and particularly reasonable choices for someone that does not have Cryptic Commands, or just does not feel comfortable with such an ambitious manabase. While I am very sure that the Cryptics are absolutely correct to play, I do acknowledge that it makes the deck quite a bit more difficult to play. If you play the wrong land, even for one turn, it could very easily cost you the game, as your Vivid land situation is more tenuous than many Five-Color decks.
As a result of the added difficulty of the manabase, as well as the care that must be taken in sculpting a Cryptic Command kill, I think that it is perfectly reasonable for someone to prefer the 3CB style, in the vein of Nassif and Parke, though adding some Syggs is a must. Nassif was so jealous when we were casual playing early in the day. He had considered Sygg briefly, but second guessed himself without trying it.
One of the most interesting aspects of 5CB is how fast it can change roles. It is of the upmost importance that, when you play it, you always know Who’s the Beatdown. Remember, it can change over time. This affects every Putrid Leech pump and every decision to keep Boggart Ram-Gang home to block. Are you playing to establish control with sweepers and card advantage, or are you racing with haste creatures and burning them out with Anathemancer?
It is not that the 5CB deck is confused; it is actually very precise. It is just that the deck is designed to swing the momentum of the game from one extreme or the other, depending on which is most favorable for you. It is not a control deck filled with creatures that beat down. When it plays the control role, it continues to push the board further in a direction that will allow it to come out as aggressively as possible at the right moment.
The truth is, 5CB is an aggro deck, and it usually cannot maintain control over the game for long. It has a reasonable amount of blockers and card advantage and removal and permission, but it is not really going to be able to hold on to control, short of Cruel Ultimatum. In fact, one of the nice aspects of the Cruel Ultimatum it does play is that, in a medium-long game, Cruel Ultimatum gives you a realistic way to lock up the game from a control role.
No, 5CB is definitely an aggro deck, gaining tempo early and trying to knock the opponent low enough to put them within Anathemancer or Cryptic Command range. It takes a fair bit of planning to calculate how best to arrive at that position, but it is well worth it. You have nut draws, like Leech into Ram-Gang, into Bloodbraid revealing Ram-Gang or Anathemancer, but you also have a ton of natural turn 5 and 6 kills through resistance.
Mulligan intelligently with 5CB. I mean, this goes without saying, but it is especially important here, as has actually been a weakness of mine that I am trying to work on. Obviously the number of lands in your hand will impact your decision a lot, but you also need to imagine how the game will play out. How fast is your hand? It is not just the speed of the cards you have in your opener, but what can you realistically draw in the first four turns that will immediately help you, that you can actually cast?
I find myself occasionally slipping into keeping loose hands that have too many lands, as I dislike being mana screwed so much that I actually would prefer to be flooded, since I can at least play what I draw. This is a real problem in my game, and one that I am working on, as it is just not right to keep six lands and Boggart Ram-Gang on the play against Faeries (which I did).
In contrast, Mark Herberholz kept six land and Cruel Ultimatum in the traditional Five-Color Control mirror, and it was a great call, as all you want to do is keep playing lands in that matchup. An aggro deck against a good matchup like Faeries? It can do so much better. A single Remove Soul or Broken Ambitions slows me down so much. In the early rounds I was frustrated from mulliganing almost every game (on account of zero- or one-landers) that I was probably tilting a little.
This is not a bad beat, nor a complaint. It is a suggestion to watch yourself for this trap. You may have to mulligan six times in a row. That doesn’t make it any more or less likely that you will have to mulligan in the next match. You cannot let a small puddle of variance turn into a variance land mine by blowing up. I lost a match early Saturday by that loose keep against Faeries, but the very next round, I refocused and when I was presented with a pretty bad hand that had lands but a poor mix of spells, I wisely mulliganed and was rewarded with a turn 2 Leech, turn 3 Ram-Gang, turn 4 Bloodbraid Elf.
It is not always going to work out, though, but you have to have faith in your logic. Jon Finkel once told me that the key to mastering probabilities is being able to make a 51% play, despite it not working out the last 10 times you did it, when you know it is the better play logically. Of course, he then added that understanding the difference between thinking something is right and knowing something is right is a totally other skill, though no less important.
If you are making the 51% play over and over and it doesn’t work, maybe you don’t understand the situation as well as you thought. However, if you know the logic is correct, you have to be willing to make the right play, even when it has punished you the last several times you made it.
In a later round, I mulliganed (against B/W) a hand of six lands and Cryptic Command, on the draw. I ended up mulliganing into oblivion and never cast a spell. Does this mean that I should have kept six lands and Cryptic on the draw? No, it was right to mulligan. It is not a 100% probability of improvement, though it is greater than 51%.
Do not let yourself become too results-oriented. Results are what is important, no question, but being results oriented bases your logic and understanding on random fluctuations, rather than sound logic. That is not useful for producing the results you want.
My final loss on Day 1 was to Bloom Tender Reveillark, a bad matchup to be sure, but it was very nearly winnable, despite my not playing a land on turn 3. Still, I didn’t deserve a win, or any other foolishness. First of all, when you make a deck choice, you are generally going to have bad matchups. When I chose to play 5CB, I was agreeing to be a dog in Reveillark matchups. Was it unlucky for me to have to play against one? You could say that, but the reason I was in that situation in the first place was that I was taking percentage from my Swans, Faeries, Five-Color, and Token opponents, and part of the cost was that if I played Lark, I would suffer. Complaining about bad matchups is generally either an emotional response or a sign of confusion (often both).
As I add this final segment, a small update. I finished 6-3, defeating Swans, two Faeries, and Five-Color Control, losing to Fae, B/W, and Lark. I only had two byes, as I lost a lot of points in Barcelona last week, but it is what it is and you just have to do the best you can. I tried to prepare for this event a little, but my focus is on Honolulu.
Okay, I’ve gotta go cheer for MJ and Josh. See you guys on Thursday for the final word on Next Level Magic, my strategy guide, which drops next week. I am excited. We are so close to release. It is going to be fun!
Wait, we are flying to Hawaii tomorrow? I love my life!
Patrick Chapin
“The Innovator”