I knew it would come to this eventually, I was just hoping that I could stave it off awhile longer. I enjoy writing, I enjoy Magic, and I very much enjoy writing about Magic, but there just isn’t time anymore. When I first started writing for StarCityGames.com last year, I had a lot more free time, I played Magic often, and I could sit and belt out an article in an hour or two, no problem. Now I work 70+ hour weeks and only play on the weekends, meaning that I now build a deck, briefly test it (2-6 hours, compared to the 2-4 weeks decks would get last year) and write the accompanying article all on the same weekend. That alone wouldn’t be enough to get me to stop. In fact, to a point I enjoy having something to do on the weekends, as I often get bored. I can only work partial days on Saturday, and I don’t get to work at all on Sundays.
The problem is family. I have a fiancée with whom I need to be spending more time. She and I only get to talk maybe two hours throughout the course of the work week, and I need to work long hours and accrue massive overtime pay now before we’re living together. Time had to be made, and I can’t totally do without sleep, so writing has to be what goes. Not entirely, mind you. I’ll turn in an article from time to time, but it will be as a featured free article, not a regular one. The Tribally-slanted set reviews have done decently, so I’ll probably make an effort to keep doing those, and I’ll have several weekends to cobble those together from spoilers, merely needing to touch-up the article with 100% accurate information once the set goes live on Gatherer.
If you’re ever in Kentucky, by the way, consider dropping by. I’ll be glad to accept any paper copies of Steamflogger Boss you have for my cats’ litterboxes. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it more than I would. I mean, he amused me at first. Sure, he does nothing now, but I figured he’d do something cool down the line later. That is, up until Friday, when Aaron Forsythe basically said, "we have no plans to make this card actually do anything, but maybe Kenneth Nagle will. Some day. If he feels like it."
Yeah, and until if and when he does, what’s the point? That you can get away with printing One With Nothing in my rare slot, twice? Har har. Guess what? We know Wizards has total control over what sees print and what doesn’t. You don’t need to drill that point home with awful rares, we get it. I promise. If this had been an uncommon, you’d at least stand a fair shot of getting two or three in a draft and maybe having the Aurochs ability matter. As it stands, you’ve made Hill Giant a rare. Bully for you.
Back to the point… don’t think of this as me vanishing. More like phasing. I’ll be in and out again in the future, as there is, after all, no rest for the wicked. I expect I’ll pull a Tait and still manage to exist on the article feedback forum, because I still have a lot of opinions and not enough tact to keep them to myself.
I don’t want this to get to be any more of a long and drawn-out drama than it already is, so let’s move onto the decklist.
Ze Decklist – Final Format: Extended
Out of all the online formats, the only one I’ve totally avoided so far has been Extended, so I felt it fitting that I give it a try before I go. I wanted to do something with a card I’ve always liked, but never really sat down and focused on. Besides, it’s kind of thematic with the "going away and coming back later" bit I’m working on this time.
Creatures (33)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Phantom Nishoba
- 4 Eternal Witness
- 3 Carven Caryatid
- 3 Indrik Stomphowler
- 4 Yavimaya Dryad
- 4 Aven Riftwatcher
- 3 Calciderm
- 2 Deadwood Treefolk
Lands (23)
Spells (4)
- 4 Ghostway
It’s probably not going to be the deck of choice in the next Extended season, but hey, I don’t have time to be Spike. I can barely keep up with one metagame anymore. The deck basically started off as Eternal Witness plus Ghostway equals Astral Slide, Awesome Edition, with vulnerability to countermagic rather than Disenchant effects. After that, throw in more guys who like to come into play a lot and voila, there’s a deck! The embarrassing part was Stomphowler being the last card added. But with nothing of my own to target, he’s wonderful in this deck.
What the deck does: Play out a bunch of guys who do funky things when they come into play, use Ghostway repeatedly to dodge all attempts at removal, and then clean up with fat like Calciderm and Phantom Nishoba (who also happily replenish their counters after a Ghostway). Stomphowler, as mentioned above, pops annoying Artifacts and Enchantments, and as I typically end up building decks vulnerable to those, I figured I’d come prepared this time. The Carven Caryatid becomes your own personal Howling Mine once you’re to the point of doing Ghostway every turn, via Eternal Witness, one of the best Green cards ever printed. The mana bugs are great because your three slot is very fat and your two slot doesn’t exist, soooo…
Phantom Nishoba is just a big, dumb beater in general, and when you’re playing with multiple ways to recur or replenish him, he gets slightly unfair. Plus, I like to have a Trampler in the casual room to get past Stuffy Doll or Indestructible stuff. Aven Riftwatcher in this deck is basically better in every way than the Hierarch would be. Sure, it gets -2/-1 for one mana of savings, and could, on a bad draw or versus Control, not stick around as long, but it ultimately gains you the same amount of life if played fairly, and gains the same amount of life per Ghostway. Plus it does that Flying thing, which has a tendency to be goodish. Calciderm…well, for anyone who forgot or didn’t know Blastoderm was good, I’m pretty sure you’ve seen by now that he’s no worse off in White.
Also, Bennie Smith is now grinning as Deadwood Treefolk sees play as semi-Witnesses 5-6. The fact that he double-recurs each Ghostway isn’t awful either. Three isn’t a horrible amount of damage to beat for, and failing that, he does a good job with helping Caryatid gum up the ground. Yavimaya Dryad helps thin your lands out of your deck, and I’ve donated a Forest several times to opponents and then used the Dryads to finish them off if they’ve gummed up the ground as well.
You could do some cruel things with a sideboard, too. Consider: End of opponent’s turn Ghostway, untap, Wrath, and giggle – your critters won’t come back until the end of your own turn, long after the Wrath has passed on into the sunset. Ghostway with damage on the stack prevents trades and also acts as Vigilance. Gaea’s Blessing could give you a long game, and Pull from Eternity could save anything that people RFG on you. Life from the Loam is also worthy of consideration, possibly even maindeck.
Things to look forward to from Future Sight: Yeah, I know, I’m adding a section here. This is my going-away party and I’ll cry if I want to, got it? Angel of Salvation gives the deck another Flier, plus she may randomly hose some burn spells or somesuch. Epochrasite would be a non-embarrassing beater. Even if you play it later, you’re likely to Ghostway often, making him into a 4/4 in short order. Plus, if someone actually manages to off him, he’ll be back in a few turns anyhow. Ravaging Riftwurm might even end up useful; he’s not so bad if you’re already in the habit of using Ghostway every combat step. Riftsweeper could be really good tech against RFG effects, although not so good if you’re also using Epochrasite. Unlike Pull from Eternity, it swings for two, though. Admittedly, it puts the cards in a less readily-accessible zone… unless it’s a Green dude and you use Summoner’s Pact. Hee. Quagnoth could be sideboard potential over Calciderm against decks where the Split Second would make a difference.
Oriss, Samite Guardian could possibly be quite bonkers with six maindeck Witness effects for extra copies of her, conveniently returned to your hand right before your opponent’s turn in most cases. "You can’t kill my creatures on my turn, and you can’t play spells or attack on yours. Good luck." I expect if I try this I’ll be socially booted from the Casual Room.
Nacatl War-Pride could be especially good in a deck that never intends to let combat damage resolve on its critters. Slap this guy down and if he lives to swing once, all your other guys get through and you slaughter their weenies. I had a game with this deck against a guy with turn 1 and 2 Soul Wardens that lasted over an hour, as I needed to do over two thousand damage to him. Nacatl would have fixed that in one attack step. "Sorry, dude. Your Soul Wardens decide to chump 3/3s and everyone else is eating your eyeball." He’s kind of like Taunting Elf on crack. Talen points out to me that he makes for a nice Chord of Calling target, but then Talen points out Chord to me in every deck that taps Forests. Granted, Ghostway with its Vigilance-wannabe trick does set up for some nice Chord potential. I might try it at some point. For similar reasons, Sprout Swarm might serve as a wannabe Decree of Justice in the late game (except, lamentably, counterable).
Who the deck is for: I think there’s a little something for almost everyone here. Even Spike might find something to work with here with all the Witness acrobatics and Oriss, but I bet Johnny and Timmy will squeal with glee. This is a wonderfully fun and versatile list, even if White is doing most of the work. Plus, I just like seeing things like Ghostway and Deadwood Treefolk get used. This deck has a lot of inevitability, especially once you reach the point where you’ve got enough mana to Ghostway on both turns in case of opposing sweepers. Thanks to the pseudo-Vigilance bit, the basic premise behind the deck might even have some multiplayer chops, although probably more for team play than chaos free-for-alls. There’s a bit of combo, a bit of aggro, even a little control. Sure, the deck isn’t going to please people who want the balls-out kill before turn 5, but just about everyone else ought to be able to find something to latch on to and like.
Plus, the deck is highly modifiable to suit tastes; the only truly necessary cards are the Ghostways and Witnesses (though I’d make a strong case for Deadwoods and Stomphowlers staying in). After that, you could modify for all sorts of comes-into-play antics, including branching out into other colors for stuff like Man-o’-War or its various clones. Angel of Despair strikes me as an especially nice choice.
What to watch out for: Your biggest enemies are countermagic and RFG effects. Combating Removed From Game effects has been discussed pretty thoroughly above. Defense Grid or perhaps Leyline of Lifeforce could come in handy as sideboard options for countermagic. I think discard and Land Destruction come up as your next biggest problems, although discard can be battled late game just by Witness antics. LD, especially backed by mana-efficient beaters, would be awful times. Speedy decks are high risk if you can’t get down early Caryatids and Riftwatchers. The key is cycling Thickets and dropping Caryatids whenever possible to assemble your core combo. After that, you’re really in a lot better position. I’d even consider Street Wraith perhaps, depending on how much difference that two life makes. Your biggest weakness is playing effectively a combo deck with your draw being limited to three Tranquil Thicket and three Carven Caryatid. As such, I won’t lose respect for you if you cut some critters for Harmonize or something.
It’s been fun, guys. I’ve enjoyed (most of) the community, the writers, doing the articles, all the nookie… wait… who put this in the script? I don’t remember getting any groupies. Ahem. Anyhow, I hope this decklist gets some ideas going or gives for a few hours of amusing games. I’m hoping at some point in the future when I don’t need to come up with something every weekend, I can put some time into an article that will really wow the lot of you. It’s what (most of) you deserve.
All I ask of my replacement is to help keep the odd formats alive in writing. I don’t want them to die without me. Prismatic, Tribal, Rainbow Stairwell and all their spin-offs need love too, ya know?
Adieu and cheers,
Rivien Swanson
flawedparadigm a(aye Carumba!)t gmaSPAMSUCKSil d(.)ot co[Goodbye, Farewell, Amen.]m
Flawed Paradigm on MTGO (I don’t bite. Hard. Often.)