Remember that Clinton campaign slogan? It really was stupid. Let’s be honest… how much power does the President really have over the economy? If you want to blame someone for that sort of thing, look at the chairman of the Federal Reserve board.
Before you peg me as anti-democratic, though, I want you to point you in the direction of a great blog about the war in Iraq. It’s called “Baghdad Burning” and you can find it here. The writer is a highly educated Iraqi woman, and she is extremely critical of the U.S. war in Iraq.
With that digression behind me (is it possible to digress when you haven’t even begun to cover the main topic?), it’s time to talk about Grand Prix Richmond, and the Sealed Deck format now that Guildpact is legal.
I could give you the play-by-play, but I’ll spare you the details and cut to the chase. My card pool was very strong. Everyone who saw my deck thought it was gas. I played well, but nevertheless ended up dropping after going 3-2.
What happened?
To provide an explanation, you need to see the deck I played:
Creatures (16)
- 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
- 1 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Conclave Equenaut
- 1 Divebomber Griffin
- 1 Hunted Lammasu
- 1 Ivy Dancer
- 1 Siege Wurm
- 1 Stinkweed Imp
- 1 Thoughtpicker Witch
- 1 Trophy Hunter
- 1 Blind Hunter
- 1 Ghost Council of Orzhova
- 1 Ghost Warden
- 1 Orzhov Euthanist
- 1 Orzhov Pontiff
- 1 Silhana Starfletcher
Lands (6)
Spells (18)
Tournament Report Aside #1
Technically, this is the deck that I meant to register. At the actual event, I accidentally registered an extra Swamp and Plains, forgetting to subtract two for the bounce lands I included. My third round opponent pile-shuffled my deck and when he finished, he looked at me quizzically and asked how many cards were in my deck. I faked a confident smile, told him 42, and we started playing.
I kept a shaky hand that consisted of Plains, Plains, Swamp, Plague Boiler, Pillory of the Sleepless, Civic Wayfinder, and something else. Since I was on the play, I figured that I could keep, play the Boiler, stall with the Pillory if necessary, and blow up the board, buying me enough time to draw into some additional lands, preferably Green ones.
This plan backfired in the worse way possible. It was like my opponent stacked his deck. He came out fast with Elves of Deep Shadow and a turn 3 Greater Mossdog. Then he played Dimir House Guard followed by Strands of Undeath. When the Boiler finally blew up, it left my side of the board clear and my opponent with two creatures in play.
Not much later, my opponent dropped Rumbling Slum. Yeah, I lost that one, and the match.
Back to the deck I played. You’ve got fatties, fliers, removal, enchantment destruction, and even a reset button. It looks great, right? There aren’t any bad or even mediocre spells, although the traitorous Lammasu could get me into trouble.
There are two serious problems with this deck. The first and biggest one is the mana. It starts well with Green as a base, and the Black splash looks good too, but then it gets ugly really fast. The White component includes three spells with WW. Then there are four Black/White spells; in other words they require both splashes to be castable. I could have built a more reliable mana base, as you’ll see from the card pool below, but no number of mana fixers could save a deck that depends equally on Green, White, and Black.
This format may be all about three colors, or even four, but the best way to make such decks consistent — aside from obviously running mana fixers — is to divide your three colors according to tiers: a base color, a secondary color, and a splash.
For instance, running a deck that looks like this:
Main Color: 13 Spells
Secondary Color: 8 Spells
Splash: 3 Spells
Is much more reliable than running something like this:
Main Color: 12 Spells
Secondary Color: 12 Spells
Splash: 10 Spells
The second big problem is the mana curve. Though G/B/W has some very strong cards, it does virtually nothing before turn 3. This format is slow, but even the slow decks have at least two Signets they can play on turn 2.
With the mana and mana curves in mind, let’s take a look at my original card pool and see what sort of alternative builds would have served me better.
Raw Sealed Deck Card List
Duskmantle, House of Shadow
Golgari Rot Farm
Orzhov Basilica
Skarrg, the Rage Pits
Izzet Signet
Boros Signet
Spectral Searchlight
Plague Boiler
Junktroller
2 Wild Cantor
Boros Recruit
Centaur Safeguard
Petrahydrox
Shadow of Doubt
Gaze of the Gorgon
Elves of Deep Shadow
2 Silhana Starfletcher
Ivy Dancer
Trophy Hunter
Civic Wayfinder
Golgari Brownscale
Greater Mossdog
Gruul Nodorog
Siege Wurm
Fists of Ironwood
Sundering Vitae
Recollect
Beastmaster’s Magemark
Scatter the Seeds
Votary of the Conclave
Ghost Warden
Wojek Apothecary
Hunted Lammasu
Skyrider Trainee
Divebomber Griffin
Conclave Equenaut
Benediction of Moons
Leave no Trace
Withstand
Conclave’s Blessing
Sinstriker’s Will
Festival of the Guildpact
Thoughtpicker Witch
Orzhov Euthanist
Sadistic Augermage
Stinkweed Imp
Cremate
Douse in Gloom
Hissing Miasma
Disembowel
Terraformer
Steamcore Weird
Crystal Seer
Tidewater Minion
Zephyr Spirit
Convolute
Flight of Fancy
Repeal
Scorched Rusalka
Sell-Sword Brute
Sparkmage Apprentice
Goblin Spelunkers
Goblin Fire Fiend
Indentured Oaf
Smash
Dogpile
Orzhov Pontiff (FOIL)
Blind Hunter
Ghost-Council of Orzhova
Conjurer’s Ban
Pillory of the Sleepless
For those who enjoy playing around with the cards, you can download this in various formats here.
Subtracting the unplayables…
-1 Conjurer’s Ban
-1 Leave no Trace
-1 Conclave Blessing
-1 Benediction of Moons
-1 Zephyr Spirit
-1 Goblin Fire Fiend
-1 Smash
-1 Shadow of Doubt
-1 Petrahydrox
-1 Hissing Miasma
Listing the hybrid cards twice so that you can better appreciate the power of each color you get…
Everything but the Chaff:
Duskmantle, House of Shadow
Golgari Rot Farm
Orzhov Basilica
Skarrg, the Rage Pits
Izzet Signet
Boros Signet
Spectral Searchlight
Plague Boiler
Junktroller
Elves of Deep Shadow
2 Wild Cantor
2 Silhana Starfletcher
Ivy Dancer
Trophy Hunter
Civic Wayfinder
Centaur Safeguard
Golgari Brownscale
Greater Mossdog
Gruul Nodorog
Siege Wurm
Fists of Ironwood
Sundering Vitae
Recollect
Beastmaster’s Magemark
Gaze of the Gorgon
Scatter the Seeds
Votary of the Conclave
Ghost Warden
Boros Recruit
Centaur Safeguard
Wojek Apothecary
Hunted Lammasu
Skyrider Trainee
Divebomber Griffin
Conclave Equenaut
Withstand
Sinstriker’s Will
Festival of the Guildpact
Scorched Rusalka
Wild Cantor
Boros Recruit
Sell-Sword Brute
Sparkmage Apprentice
Goblin Spelunkers
Indentured Oaf
Dogpile
Thoughtpicker Witch
Orzhov Euthanist
Sadistic Augermage
Stinkweed Imp
Cremate
Douse in Gloom
Gaze of the Gorgon
Disembowel
Terraformer
Steamcore Weird
Crystal Seer
Tidewater Minion
Convolute
Flight of Fancy
Repeal
Orzhov Pontiff
Blind Hunter
Ghost Council of Orzhova
Pillory of the Sleepless
Now I remember why I never write about Limited. There’s too much damn typing for the friggin’ card lists.
G/B/W (Now With Greater Consistency)
Creatures (15)
- 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
- 1 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Greater Mossdog
- 1 Siege Wurm
- 1 Stinkweed Imp
- 1 Thoughtpicker Witch
- 1 Trophy Hunter
- 1 Blind Hunter
- 1 Ghost Council of Orzhova
- 1 Ghost Warden
- 1 Gruul Nodorog
- 1 Orzhov Euthanist
- 1 Orzhov Pontiff
- 2 Silhana Starfletcher
Lands (7)
Spells (18)
Looking at this list is making me hyperventilate. What a difference five cards can make:
-2 Plains
-1 Hunted Lammasu
-1 Divebomber Griffin
-1 Conclave Equenaut
+2 Swamp
+1 Boros Signet
+1 Spectral Searchlight
+1 Gruul Nodorog
I should have registered the list above. While it packs less of a punch, the mana is tiered properly, with a base color, a secondary color, and a dedicated splash. I think that I would have had a really solid chance of making Day 2 if I was shuffling up those forty cards, rather than my sloppy forty-two.
Let’s look more closely at the differences. Gone are the great White creatures, allowing White to become a true splash rather than part of an unwieldy 50/50 White/Black splash.
Boros Signet and Spectral Searchlight provide a little extra acceleration, which is crucial when the deck has so little action for the early turns.
Despite being fat and dumb, Gruul Nodorog helps compensate for the departure of the White men. Thanks to Boros Signet and Spectral Searchlight I can even activate the Nodorog’s ability.
I couldn’t settle on whether to run the second Silhana Starfletcher or Ivy Dancer. In the end, I went for the Starfletcher. The paranoid in me favors the former for even more mana smoothing, but with so many people drawing on Green’s depth in Ravnica the Dancer is a great win condition.
Looking at how great the Green is, you start to wonder if you can take the deck in an entirely different direction. While the White/Black cards are quite strong, they place significant constraints on deckbuilding. Getting WWBB for that 4/4 bomb is especially troublesome.
What if we drop those gold cards, drop White since its best spells are WW, and add Red and Blue?
4C Green
Creatures (15)
- 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
- 1 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Greater Mossdog
- 1 Indentured Oaf
- 1 Ivy Dancer
- 1 Sell-Sword Brute
- 1 Siege Wurm
- 1 Sparkmage Apprentice
- 1 Trophy Hunter
- 1 Gruul Nodorog
- 1 Izzet Chronarch
- 1 Scorched Rusalka
- 2 Silhana Starfletcher
- 1 Steamcore Weird
Lands (3)
Spells (22)
With the addition of Red, this deck has a much better mana curve. Surprisingly, the mana is actually better in this four-color deck than in my original three-color build. Why? Basically the entire mana base is R/G, leaving only six spells that require Blue or Black mana. To get these other colors, you have seven sources. Plus, these six non-Green, non-Red spells are intended to be played in the mid-to-late game anyway.
There’s also a whopping six removal spells, including Electrolyze — and the ability to recur it with Izzet Chronarch. You could even throw in Recollect so that you can cast it a third time.
Nevertheless, with White/Black missing, the deck is lighter in the finisher department. Ghost Council of Orzhova is particularly missed.
Tournament Report Aside #2
The Ghost-Council is insane attacking and blinking on its own, but when you add creatures with haunt things get really out of control.
In one round my opponent got careless with his life total. I started the turn with my opponent at five life. I already had Ghost Council in play, cast Blind Hunter (draining for two) sacrificed it to the Ghost Council, and haunted another creature. Then when the Ghost-Council returned to play at the end of my turn, I removed it again, sacrificing the haunted creature (drain for two)
My opponent was totally surprised when I killed him apparently out of nowhere.
Maybe it’s best to just stick to the basics. While Green has lots of solid cards and makes a great base color, there aren’t really any Green bombs, although Siege Wurm is quite strong.
What if we focus almost entirely on White/Black?
Creatures (16)
- 1 Boros Recruit
- 1 Centaur Safeguard
- 1 Conclave Equenaut
- 1 Divebomber Griffin
- 1 Hunted Lammasu
- 1 Indentured Oaf
- 1 Junktroller
- 1 Sadistic Augermage
- 1 Stinkweed Imp
- 1 Thoughtpicker Witch
- 1 Blind Hunter
- 1 Ghost Council of Orzhova
- 1 Ghost Warden
- 1 Orzhov Euthanist
- 1 Orzhov Pontiff
- 1 Skyrider Trainee
Lands (8)
Spells (16)
To run this (almost) two-color deck, sacrifices have to be made and some marginal cards enter the fray, like Skyrider Trainee, Hissing Miasma, and Boros Recruit. Even these cards have their charms.
Skyrider Trainee is pretty lame when you don’t have a single enchantment to suit it up, but it provides another warm body on the ground.
While Hissing Miasma is normally very situational and only shines if it hits play very early or you’re facing down token armies, it shows more potent than usual here because there are several spells that cause life loss.
Boros Recruit can get in early beats, power up Convoke, and fend off the various X/1 creatures at large.
Junktroller finally makes the cut because it works great with Hunted Lammasu, blocking that 4/4 all day long. In general, it’s a great man to have holding the ground while you bombard your opponent from the air. In the unlikely event a stalemate, Junktroller can also team up with Thoughtpicker Witch to provide a non-damage route to victory.
Tournament Report Aside #3
In my final round, I had a great play with Thoughtpicker Witch. I cast Orzhov Pontiff, sacked it to the Witch, haunted my Witch, and then sacked the Witch to itself. My opponent was impressed by the one-sided Hideous Laughter. I thought it was the play that would have won me the game. Of course, I was too mana-screwed to pull it off. By the time I finally found Green mana, my opponent had an Ostiary Thrull, Oathsworn Giant, Shambling Shell combo out. It was a bad way to go out.
Aiming for maximum reliability and wanting another big creature, I went with a very conservative Red splash, but splashing Blue is another very viable option. Indeed, adding Repeal (great with the Lammasu) and Flight of Fancy offers the deck some much-needed card drawing.
Which Build is Best?
Mana, mana, mana. That’s the most important thing in this format. Even if you have to cut a few good cards to make your mana more consistent, it’s probably worth it (like how I cut the powerful WW creatures). Are we any closer to figuring out what was the optimal build, though?
G/B/W?
G/R/U/B?
W/B/r?
They all have their charms. W/B/r seems a little underpowered compared to the other two decks, since it runs more marginal cards.
I’m leaning towards G/B/W. It’s got the flexibility. It has more life gain and life loss plus the ultimate catch-all for problems: Plague Boiler.
What do you think? Did I miss another build that’s even better? Let me know in the forums.
Thanks for reading.
May your Limited decks contain powerful cards that harness consistent mana.
-Rick
[email protected]