Looking at some long car trips this weekend, I decided that the best way to pass the time was with some music and Legacy testing. Before I got on the road, I loaded up some decks into Magic Workstation to study some matches that I was unsure about and likely to encounter at upcoming events. I especially wanted to see how Qasali Pridemage and Vendilion Clique interact in a deck, so I chose the Bant Counterbalance deck I talked about last week and Rich Shay 3rd place SCG: Boston $5k Dreadtill deck. Here they are for reference:
I wrote down my preliminary thoughts before I even began playing, to see if I was on the right line of thinking. Here’s what I had:
Creatures (13)
Lands (18)
Spells (29)
Creatures (9)
Lands (21)
Spells (30)
“Dreadtill probably wants to get Standstill out as soon as possible and burn out Pridemages. I think it’s gonna be a real slugfest between both decks, but a Vendilion Clique or Phyrexian Dreadnought will decide a lot of games. The Bant deck has Spell Snares, and those are going to be pretty strong if it can ride those. The early game is going to be very interesting, especially regarding who gets their Counterbalance down first and tries to grind it. The Bolts from Dreadtill are going to be good if they can contact too.”
I don’t want to pass up the learning experience of being proven wrong, so I definitely wanted to see how off I was, especially regarding whether the two decks have a good potential for accessing their stellar cards in time. With Tops and Brainstorms, they both have a lot of selection.
Powered by albums by the White Stripes, Beulah, David Bowie, and Vampire Weekend, I tested and took notes until my batteries ran out, then recharged and wrote up more of my thoughts. I selected three games that I really liked and discarded the games that were lopsided due to bad mulligans or early Dreadnought maulings. The first two games are unsideboarded; the first shows the power of Qasali Pridemage in the match and is good persuasion for why you should run it. The second shows the impact of Sensei’s Divining Tops in how the decks interact, and the final game is a real grinder that shows the value of tight play and card management. Throughout the article, I added in polls for readers to interact and share their thoughts on what the right play is. This also extends to the forums, where you’re welcome to comment on any boneheaded play that I made. Though these are essentially solitaire games, I learned more than I would have with an opponent, as I could get an understanding on how both decks evolve during the game and value threats. I like to do testing like this before I play with testing partners so that I have a decent sense of how matches play out when I have the privilege of someone else’s time. With no further ado, let’s get into the games!
Sample Game #1: Pride In Pridemages!
Bant wins roll, hand of:
Qasali Pridemage
Qasali Pridemage
Rhox War Monk
Force of Will
Brainstorm
Spell Snare
Windswept Heath
I want to see what this hand does. The Brainstorm is really what juices it, and otherwise I would just send it right back. The Spell Snare and Qasali Pridemages are going to be hitting hard and are predicted to be good cards in this matchup.
Dreadtill opens:
Tarmogoyf
Standstill
Force of Will
Stifle
Brainstorm
Island
Wasteland
If only one of those lands were a Tropical Island! This one is a keeper too, as even though it’s land-light, the hand sees six more cards early on and has a decent chance of, between Stifle and Wasteland, manascrewing the Bant deck.
Let’s see how it plays out!
That first-turn Brainstorm from Bant resulted in a Plains and a Flooded Strand. Since I wanted both of those lands, I put them back in the above order. A Qasali Pridemage soon followed. With any other creature, like Tarmogoyf, Bant should probably wait until the next turn to try and land it if it has a Spell Snare in hand. That’s because the scariest things coming from Dreadtill are Standstill and Counterbalance in this match, and I’d be much happier to Snare one of those and give up my second turn. The Pridemage can remove either of those and makes playing a Standstill unprofitable.
Dreadtill draws a Mishra’s Factory. Its’ options are somewhat limited right now with no Green mana to play Goyf and stop the Pridemage. I opted to Wasteland the Tropical Island and hope that with the Stifle in hand, it can stop any fetchlands coming from Bant. It’s not an amazing play, but I’m not going to realistically play Standstill right now or a Factory, although either serve to get rid of the Pridemage from the other side. I’d rather get full value out of those cards, especially Standstill, later.
Bant goes for the Flooded Strand next turn, only to lose a battle over Stifle. I chose to have Dreadtill pitch the Standstill over the Brainstorm, as I really need to find a Green mana soon to try and get my Tarmogoyf out. The other option is that I’ll be landing a Mishra’s Factory and trading it for a Pridemage, but that seems unpleasant to lose a land drop.
Note that neither side has a Sensei’s Divining Top or Counterbalance in play right now.
The next few turns see Bant getting a second Pridemage out and Dreadtill Brainstorming into a Dreadnought with no Stifle. I thought that maybe I should have Brainstormed earlier to get that Dreadnought, but that would’ve meant that Dreadtill couldn’t have blown away that Flooded Strand and the second Pridemage would have hit sooner. Dreadtill has to burn the Blue side of Fire/Ice to see another card. It draws a Brainstorm, which finds Tropical Island and Engineered Explosives! The Tarmogoyf gets Snared, but Dreadtill has some hope left. Unfortunately, Bant draws the second Blue card to turn on Force of Will and it’s on to the next game!
This game highlighted the power of unanswered Qasali Pridemages, which constrained Dreadtill quite a bit. They take the teeth out of its namesake card, which, against a deck that lacks the cats, is a resounding beating. It seems that Dreadtill should go for early removal or permission and try to get Counterbalance or at least a Top down, since outside of Pridemages, there’s nothing especially threatening coming from the Bant deck.
For the next game I want to highlight, I selected one where Dreadtill got to go first, and it’s quite a different style of game.
Sample Game #2: Top of the Top
Dreadtill’s opening hand is:
Fire/Ice
Sensei’s Divining Top
Phyrexian Dreadnought
Brainstorm
Volcanic Island
Island
Mishra’s Factory
Note that in this game, Dreadtill mulliganed two bad hands until 5 cards, also bad, and I just had it draw back up to 7. An example of how the deck lives and dies on its mulligans. This hand has some great early burn and that crucial Top.
Bant keeps:
Sensei’s Divining Top
Sensei’s Divining Top
Force of Will
Brainstorm
Counterbalance
Swords to Plowshares
Flooded Strand
Except for having only one land, this hand is pretty good. A Stifle on the Flooded Strand would make me a very sad panda (or war monk?), but if it can catch some more lands, it’ll do well.
Dreadtill opens with a Top and Bant gets a Tundra from the Brainstorm. I had Dreadtill open with a Top because I’d like to pair that Brainstorm with a fetchland and I’ll be using my mana for other things during my later turns; ergo, a mana on the first turn is worth less than a mana on the third turn. Dreadtill gets the Wasteland for the Tropical Island that Bant got. That was another tricky decision; should Bant get Island, being safe, or go for the dual to turn on the Tarmogoyf it drew? To quote the old knight in Last Crusade, “you have chosen poorly.” Considering Bant’s hand, getting Counterbalance and Top out was probably a higher goal than an early Tarmogoyf. Bant gets a break when the Top reveals a fetchland on top, but just plays that and passes the turn with Swords to Plowshares and Spell Snare in hand. I’d like to get one of those off during the opponent’s turn, or at least get a fetch & Top activation.
Dreadtill solidifies its hand with two Force of Wills with backup and a Mishra’s Factory on board. It will soon be able to start attacking in with the manland. Bant tries for the Counterbalance, but loses it to a Force of Will. Bant has Force of Will and Spell Snare, but I’d rather have that up for something else. Dreadtill attacks with Mishra’s Factory and sees it Plowed. Dreadtill also has Force of Will available, but losing a Factory isn’t worth going unprotected against an opponent who can find all sorts of nasties to sneak through.
Like two toddlers fighting, the two decks at this point have made a lot of noise, but haven’t been able to hurt each other at all. It’s really fascinating to look at how they have mostly equal hands and boards and at this point in the game, I’m excited to see what will happen!
Bant sees its Tarmogoyf Force of Willed. It has Force of Will in hand, but Top revealed another Tarmogoyf and again, it wasn’t worth coming off of protection to fight for a card when another Goyf is coming right up. Dreadtill found a Standstill, and unfortunately, Bant is tapped out and cannot Spell Snare. Bant will probably end up breaking it at some point. Are the Force of Will and Ponder that would be going better than the opponent getting three free cards next turn when we play our Tarmogoyf?
I ended up Forcing it. Both decks had Tops out and Bant could not afford to give the opponent the cards or wait to sculpt a better hand. Further, the Dreadtill player now has only one card in hand. Bant plays out the Tarmogoyf and passes to Dreadtill, which plays a Trinket Mage for Engineered Explosives. Bant Tops into a Vendilion Clique, sending the Explosives back home. Dreadtill sees an unfortunate top three cards, plays Counterbalance and sends the turn back. Bant tries for a Ponder, which is countered by the Blue enchantment, but swings in for seven and passes. Dreadtill needs to find some action very quickly or risk losing. A sad Mishra’s Factory is all it can muster and it passes back. The Factory tries to block the Tarmogoyf, and Bant attempts to introduce it to the quiet, pastoral rural life behind a plow. Counterbalance puts an end to that and my silly metaphor. Dreadtill holds the Trinket Mage back to absorb Tarmogoyf coming through and counters a Qasali Pridemage with Counterbalance.
Dreadtill finds a Trickbind to get its Dreadnought out, but with three life, it cannot stop the Clique coming through and loses.
Like I said before, this was a much different game because the Tops allowed both players to handle each other. I thought the Counterbalance from Dreadtill would do more, and while it countered four cards and kept it in the game, the enchantment showed up too late. The Vendilion Clique showed at exactly the right time from Bant and the flying was especially relevant. If you remember last week’s article, I discussed how good the legendary faeries were in a CounterTop deck, and in this case, they acted like a Dissipate that attacked in for critical damage. Dreadtill lost the game with two Tarmogoyfs in hand, an example of how its manabase can be pretty soft.
Sample Game #3: Getting A Grip
Next, I’ll show you what I thought was a great sideboarded game. Here are the changes both decks made:
Bant:
-3 Rhox War Monk
+2 Krosan Grip
+1 Pithing Needle
The War Monks did not impress me much in this match, and I’d like both Grips as well. The Needle came in to snag Wastelands or Mishra’s Factories. I don’t plan to draw it, but I like to know it’s there and I definitely prefer it over the rhino, which can be hard to cast against a deck with Stifles and Wastelands.
Sideboarding for Dreadtill was difficult throughout the testing, as there are a lot of good cards I’d like to bring in. More importantly, there are also a lot of cards that I do not want to cut! I ended up bouncing out the Trickbind, Fire/Ice and Dazes for Krosan Grips and Red Elemental Blasts. The thinking was that I want Dreadtill to be able to win Counterbalance wars and also protect its Dreadnoughts. It’ll need to be in control for many turns, as it’ll have to beat in with Mishra’s Factory and Tarmogoyf to seal the deal.
With both decks, I had a problem of trying to not over-sideboard. For example, Path to Exile would have been really nice in the Bant deck postboard, since it can essentially grind Dreadtill out of win conditions, but I didn’t want to take anything else out for them. I also wanted Submerges postboard in Dreadtill, but I didn’t think that they would do enough, as Dreadtill couldn’t press the tempo advantage that it would gain, neither did it need to stop early aggro beats. What do you think?
Dreadtill, playing, keeps:
Tarmogoyf
Tarmogoyf
Krosan Grip
Force of Will
Ponder
Flooded Strand
Tropical Island
Great! This hand has access to all the colors we want, two very solid threats, countermagic and some draw.
Bant keeps:
Tropical Island
Forest
Qasali Pridemage
Spell Snare
Swords to Plowshares
Flooded Strand
Brainstorm
Dreadtill gets started early, losing its first Tarmogoyf to Spell Snare and seeing a Qasali Pridemage from Bant. The second Tarmogoyf also comes down, only to be sent farming after losing a counterwar. Unfazed, Dreadtill’s Ponder finds a Sensei’s Divining Top and then passes the turn. Bant swings in for four damage, thanks to a newly-played Qasali Pridemage #2. Dreadtill catches a Tarmogoyf off the top of the library. It taps Top to draw the Tropical Island to play that beastie, but Bant takes the chance to blow a Pridemage and kill the Top… or so it would seem, as Stifle keeps the crucial Top around.
Unfortunately, the Dreadtill deck did not have the mana to play the Tarmogoyf that turn and lost it to a Vendilion Clique. Dreadtill replays the Top and sees a Lightning Bolt. It draws the card, this time unmolested by the Pridemage on the table. Now it has a tough decision to make: what to point the Bolt at? Hitting the Clique gets rid of a creature that will likely attack in and finish the game by itself. The Pridemage is more easily blocked and killed, but it has a lot more utility on the board.
I chose to Lighting Bolt the Qasali Pridemage, since my Red Elemental Blasts can still hit the Clique and I can possibly race with a Phyrexian Dreadnought as well. Bant just attacks and sends back to Dreadtill, which replays the Top and then sees an Engineered Explosives for next turn. Bant attacks again and plays a Counterbalance, which won’t be a problem to Dreadtill, which is holding two Krosan Grips. It’s do or die time, and the Dreadtill player is at a precarious one life! Armed with another Explosives in hand and a Trinket Mage on top of the library, though, it can give a fight. Bant finds a Tarmogoyf but loses it to an Engineered Explosives, being unable to find another two-coster with the Top.
With even boards, Dreadtill Grips Bant’s Top. Bant gets another Top by way of a Ponder, but Dreadtill smashes that one with the other Krosan Grip. Dreadtill rips a Mishra’s Factory and plays it and a Trinket Mage, getting a Dreadnought. Bant can only Swords to Plowshares the Mishra’s Factory and it takes two from the Mage the next turn. Dreadtill attempts a Standstill, which meets a Spell Snare, only to protect it with a Red Elemental Blast. Bant now has no cards, facing an opponent with Standstill out but a very fragile life total. Salvation comes in the form of a Tarmogoyf, which runs into a Force of Will from Dreadtill, powered by that Swords to Plowshares a few turns back that got it out of lethal range.
Bant takes damage for several turns, as a result of incremental advantages that Dreadtill gained. A Pithing Needle on Mishra’s Factory saves some life points, but Dreadtill checks the top of Bant’s library with a Brainstorm. Seeing a Force of Will, Dreadtill plays a Lightning Bolt. Bant will have enough mana to hardcast the counterspell next turn and this is the time to get it out. Bant will have no options if it draws the Force of Will. Bant loses on the next turn to Trinket Mage, in what was a very taxing postboard game.
These games illustrate the general theme that came from my testing that Bant was poised to take the unsideboarded games, while postboard, Dreadtill could eke out wins. I’d rather be Bant 100% of the time in this match, as it doesn’t have 9 slots dedicated to a namesake combo that will rarely hit for lethal. There were games where, because Bant didn’t have Daze, it couldn’t stop the turn 2 Phyrexian Dreadnought and lost. There were others where Dreadtill faltered on mana and lost to Exalted Tarmogoyfs. I might go so far as to say that the better player, especially the better mulligannier, will take the match. The sideboarded game is especially illustrative of good card management turning around weak matchups.
I’m looking more and more at the Bant Counterbalance deck, ideally looking to cut the Rhox War Monks for something with more punch. I was impressed with the Pridemages and the Cliques, and I was also surprised with how Dreadtill can control the game for several turns to attack with bears. Both would be strong choices for upcoming events. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the polls in this article and interacting with readers on the forums and through email!
Until next week…
legacysallure at gmail dot com
P.S. I wanted to write about the Dark Enchantress list I posted last week, but I didn’t think it was ultimately strong enough to devote a matchup analysis article to. I’ve heard from some readers about their experiences with it, and if you’ve found success with a list, I’d like to hear about it!