Today I get to kick off my first article as an actual columnist! I don’t have a set plan for what I will write about from week to week, although I would imagine a focus on Constructed is more likely. While I am not opposed to writing about Limited, I just think there is less I (or anyone) can say about Limited in general, just due to the nature of the formats. I would like to vary my content of course, and I do play all sorts of formats. I like Vintage, Legacy, Classic online (which is basically just Legacy now that Lotus Petal and Wasteland have been introduced), but those are formats that fewer people have interest in than Standard or Extended. In any case, suggestions as to what people are interested in are appreciated, just drop them in the forums.
I feel like I have been doing kind of a lot of tournament reports lately, so today I’m going to focus on the deck I played in the Extended portion of Worlds, UR Swans.
Creatures (6)
Lands (20)
Spells (34)
This deck is a tight little package, much more so than most lists I play. I mean, look at all the four-ofs maindeck! The list I began with was the list GerryT had been testing, as we prepared together for Worlds. Of course, we ended up running different decks in every Constructed portion, but that’s beside the point. Oddly enough, Cheon, Gerry, and I all played different decks in Extended (Mono-U Faeries, Zoo, and Swans) to records of 5-0-1, 4-2, and 6-0. The fact of the matter is that we never really reached a consensus as to what was best in Extended, so we all played the deck we wanted to play. Cheon and I wanted to play sweet Blue decks and Gerry, who needed to go 3-3 to level up, wanted a consistent deck that had reliable results. This isn’t to say that Paul and I chose decks on a whim, since neither of us were going to play simply bad decks, but we certainly didn’t have quite the rigorous approach that we normally do, especially after my disappointing 2-4 in the Limited portion. Paul specifically wanted to play Islands in his last event for the foreseeable future. Plus, the last time Paul picked up a Mono-Blue deck without testing was GP: Vancouver, and that went pretty well.
Let’s do a quick run through of some of the choices maindeck:
4 Swans of Bryn Argoll
4 Cheon of Plasma
4 Spell Snare
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Firespout
4 Chrome Mox
4 Ponder
2 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Conflagrate
These are the numbers we never thought about changing. The combo pieces are obviously untouchable, and Spell Snare and Firespout are too necessary in this format to risk messing with the numbers. Ponder was a later addition, and after playing with it a little we determined that it couldn’t go anywhere. Oh, and by “we” I mostly mean Gerry, since I didn’t play an inordinate amount of games with the deck before Worlds. Real tournament play is of course the best way to learn a deck, and I played against the whole spectrum of good Extended decks minus Elves. So the above cards are the core of the deck, and I wouldn’t really go near them. Thirst is the best draw spell for this deck, and even though you discard two a good percentage of the time, this deck really doesn’t need a mass of cards to win the game. The next section should be more useful, since that involves cards that can in fact be moved around.
3 Blood Moon
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Mana Leak
2 Condescend
The list Gerry had contained 4 Leak and 0 Condescend, but I much prefer a looser set of numbers, and ran 2 Condescend and 2 Mana Leak. Why not run two of each and draw them in the situation where each is better than the other? In reality, I made the change because of all the Faeries decks that I expected, where Condescend is vastly preferable since the games go so long. Leak is mostly better against Zoo, but I don’t mind siding out the 2 Condescends there anyway.
Blood Moon was incredibly awesome, and one of the main reasons I was winning matches. Well, the actual main reason I won the matches was Conflagrate for 20, targeting my opponent, but Blood Moon did a good job allowing me to get to that point. Three was a good number main, with the fourth in the sideboard coming in often. I could see four main, since you do have Thirst for Knowledge to dump extras, but since I didn’t know what all to expect, I was more comfortable with three.
Engineered Explosives was also quite strong, and it increases the artifact count for Thirst. It is pretty important against Elves, but I actually didn’t expect that many Elves in the tournament. Everyone knew about it and was presumably prepared, so it definitely wasn’t a deck I wanted to play. If even I didn’t want to battle with Elves, it seemed fairly likely that many others wouldn’t as well. Three Explosives and three Firespouts is a possibly valid number, but Firespout is so important against Zoo that I tend to like four and two. I also have trouble imagining a sideboard that doesn’t contain the rest of the Explosives, up to four.
The lands:
1 Breeding Pool
1 Cascade Bluffs
3 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
8 Snow-Covered Island
2 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
The manabase is a balancing act, since you do need to be able to operate under Blood Moon, but also have easy access to your colors. Fetchlands help, and have great synergy with Ponder as well. Just be aware of when to fetch basics in anticipation of Mooning your opponent and you should mostly be fine. The one Cascade Bluffs is there to help get double Red if necessary, and the Watery Grave and Breeding Pool enable your off-color Flashback spells. They also let you get frisky with Explosives, and even cast Firespout for fliers at times. Snow-Covered Islands are pretty important as well, since the picture with the big stone head from Ice Age is easily one of the best islands art out there.
All this talk about the maindeck, and my final conclusion is I wouldn’t change anything but the manabase. Those changes I will get to in a second when I revise the sideboard, but in general, this deck is really tight. All the numbers aren’t very flexible, with the two Leak two Condescend split being really the only place with room for changes. I like a two-and-two split since varying numbers of similar spells has usually served me well. The rest of the deck has no such luxury, since each spell is simply better at its job than opposing spells. Gerry brewed up a nice one, and left me almost no room to spice it up. Of course, there is always the sideboard for that! I got my hands on the sideboard, and what emerged was a Teachings package, which was completely untested going into the tournament! The sideboard worked out pretty well, but I would definitely make some changes.
Let’s start with the good:
1 Blood Moon
2 Engineered Explosives
Being able to go up to 4 of these powerful and efficient cards is necessary, and any sideboard should contain that option. After that, the rest is fair game. The idea behind the Teachings package was that games against Faeries go quite long, and Teachings gives you a shot at overpowering them by assembling Swans plus Chain plus a bunch of counterspells. The reality is that you are playing with 20 lands and some Moxes, and you just don’t have the time for all that, especially against the decks with Ancestral Visions, which is infinitely faster than Mystical Teachings. While the plan did work against one of the UB Faeries decks I played against, I still think there is better to be found.
The cards I think you want against Faeries, without any numbers yet:
Remove Soul
Pact of Negation
Muddle the Mixture
Gigadrowse
Vexing Shusher
These are all capable of stopping their answers to your combo, since you can kill them much faster than they can kill you. One of the most important spells to stop is their Vendilion Clique, as it can strip a combo piece that may take you turns and turns to find again. Because of that, the best choice against them is oddly enough, Remove Soul. It counters Vendilion Clique, Spellstutter Sprite, Glen Elendra Archmage, Sower of Temptation, and even Dark Confidant. A card that hasn’t seen play outside of Standard is ready to move to the big leagues, with a full three copies in the sideboard. The rest of the cards on that list should be added in various numbers, as all play different roles. I really wish we could play Fact or Fiction, as it would be awesome in this deck, but sadly it rotated.
Here are the numbers of the above cards that make sense to me:
3 Remove Soul
2 Muddle the Mixture (stops Ancestral Vision, finds Chain or Vexing Shusher)
1 Vexing Shusher
2 Pact of Negation
2 Gigadrowse
I worry that this might be too much countermagic and not enough card draw, but I haven’t had time to test the sweet sideboard plan of +4 Ancestral Visions in addition to some number of the above disruption. This also may seem like a lot of cards against Faeries, but these cards also overlap with Tron and the mirror, and you are really well set up against Aggro already. The final sideboard I would recommend is:
1 Blood Moon
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Remove Soul
2 Gigadrowse
2 Muddle the Mixture
1 Vexing Shusher
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Pact of Negation
I cut a Grudge because you usually just want two against Tron, and you should be able to outrace Affinity under most circumstances. The plan I will be trying in the next few days is the above sideboard but minus 2 Gigadrowse and minus 1 Pact of Negation for 3 Ancestral Visions, which should be good against both Blue-based control and decks with Thoughtseize. Since I am writing this the day after I return from Worlds I haven’t actually tried it yet, so I don’t want to endorse a plan without testing. Once the Teachings gets cut from the deck, the Watery Grave can also go for another Snow-Covered Island, bringing the deck to such a configuration:
1 Breeding Pool
1 Cascade Bluffs
3 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
9 Snow-Covered Island
2 Steam Vents
2 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Swans of Bryn Argoll
3 Blood Moon
4 Chain of Plasma
4 Chrome Mox
2 Condescend
1 Conflagrate
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Firespout
2 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Spell Snare
4 Thirst for Knowledge
Sideboard
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Blood Moon
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Gigadrowse
2 Muddle the Mixture
2 Pact of Negation
3 Remove Soul
1 Vexing Shusher
The most important thing to know about the opposing deck is how badly Blood Moon hurts them. This not only dictates your sideboarding strategy but also lets you evaluate your opening hands correctly. Against Tron or Zoo, both decks with are completely crippled by Blood Moon, pretty much any hand with turn 2 Blood Moon is keepable, but against Mono-U Faeries that isn’t nearly as impressive. With Ponder, Moxes and Spirit Guides a consistent turn 2 Blood Moon isn’t out of the question, so scouting is very important when you are running Swans. This is of course much more feasible at a PTQ than a Grand Prix, but it is important nonetheless. Here is how I would sideboard against the more popular decks:
Elves
While you don’t have any specifically anti-Elf cards, all your cheap counters and board sweepers make this a favorable matchup. While they can still get nearly unbeatable draws, you should be able to control the game enough to stop them from going off. Additionally, some elf decks can’t kill you if you run out a Swans, since Predator Dragon can’t get through it. They draw a ton of cards, but then you presumably untap and Firespout or Chain of Plasma for the win.
+2 Explosives, +3 Remove Soul
-3 Blood Moon (even the versions with a ton of nonbasics can fetch a Forest or even just play a Llanowar Elves, so Blood Moon is not nearly consistent enough), -2 Condescend
Zoo
One of the main reasons I really like Swans is its Zoo matchup. You have such good trumps in Blood Moon and Firespout, with the backup of Spell Snare and Mana Leak and Explosives to really keep them off their game. You even kill relatively fast, not giving them time to draw out of whatever situation you have them in. The Zoo builds with one Plains and Oblivion Ring as outs to Blood Moon are annoying, but it still wastes their time pretty significantly. Try not to get Swans O-Ring’ed or Bant Charmed, ideally Blood Moon locking them first.
+1 Blood Moon, +2 Explosives
-2 Condescend, —1 Thirst for Knowledge
Mono-U Faeries
This is probably your toughest matchup, since Blood Moon isn’t quite that effective against them. Without Blood Moon, you have to play a relatively fair long game, and you aren’t well set up for that. You can still get fast draws, but overpowering them can be quite difficult, especially game 1. I wouldn’t side out the Blood Moons however, since it still has the side effect of turning off Mutavault and Riptide Lab, taking away some of their more powerful effects. Plus, depending on how many off-color duals they play to power Explosives, it could even legitimately colorscrew them.
+3 Remove Soul, +2 Muddle the Mixture, +1 Vexing Shusher, +2 Gigadrowse, +2 Pact of Negation
-4 Firespout, —2 Explosives, —2 Chrome Mox, —2 Mana Leak
The sideboard package helps quite a bit, since now you can fight their disruption, but this matchup is still quite difficult.
UB Faeries
There are two main differences between UB and Mono-U Faeries: They lose much harder to Blood Moon and they have Thoughtseize. Thoughtseize is annoying, but their vulnerability to the Moon makes life much easier for you. Bitterblossom is also a non-issue, as it kills relatively slowly. Overall, UB Faeries is much easier to play against than Mono-U.
+3 Remove Soul, +2 Muddle the Mixture, +1 Vexing Shusher, +2 Pact of Negation, +1 Blood Moon
-4 Firespout, —2 Explosives, —2 Mana Leak, —1 Chrome Mox
Tron (UB or any other kind)
You wouldn’t mind playing against Tron every round, since you are so well set up against them. You have Blood Moon to cripple their whole game plan, and even without it you have the right kind of disruption to just plain stop them even without Blood Moon.
+1 Blood Moon, +2 Muddle the Mixture, +1 Vexing Shusher, +2 Pact of Negation, +2 Ancient Grudge
-4 Firespout, —4 Spell Snare (most Tron decks don’t play Mana Leak, and leaving Snare in for Signets is pretty useless, especially since they often plan on Chalice of the Void on two anyways)
You have two basic plans against Tron, and both are good. Manascrew them with Blood Moon plus Grudge, or combo off with a bunch of counter backup. Just be aware of Persecute, as most decks run some number in their sideboard.
That about wraps up the more common decks, with some number of lesser played decks still out there. The easy thing about sideboarding with Swans is that many of its cards are very easy to evaluate. Firespout, Blood Moon, Engineered Explosives are all very easy to cut when ineffective against your opponent, as they do very simple things. Similarly, bring in the appropriate disruption in the sideboard, as it too is straightforward.
Grand Prix: Los Angeles is in a month or so, and I am pretty excited for the one event California gets. Whether or not I run Swans is still yet to be determined, but it is clearly under consideration. Any questions about the deck I can field in the forums, so fire away.
Luis