A couple of weeks ago, Star City published an article of mine about the various U/G decks in IBC, and I stated that I believed that there were no good U/G/R decks in IBC.
And that started all sorts of trouble, as I was deluged with complaints from many a player stating that U/G/R was indeed quite good.
So I re-examined my hypothesis, put up a couple of decks, and I stood by my original statement that U/G/R had potential, but wasn’t the way to go in IBC.
And, once again, my mailbox was filled with complaints, decklists and links.
So once again, let’s examine the theory that U/G/R is no damn good. I scoured the ‘net for every possibly good U/G/R deck I could find; let’s start with this quite unusual deck that popped up in a Top 8 at a Neutral Ground grinder, called”Ceta-Storm,” as run by Chris Napoli:
4 Ceta Sanctuary
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Repulse
2 Ghitu Fire
4 Urza’s Rage
4 Blurred Mongoose
4 Lay of the Land
4 Meteor Storm
4 Mystic Snake
4 Yavimaya Barbarian
5 Forest
3 Island
3 Mountain
4 Shivan Oasis
4 Shivan Reef
4 Yavimaya Coast
Sideboard:
2 Disrupt
4 Gainsay
3 Jungle Barrier
3 Dodecapod
3 Mask of Intolerance
The creature base is akin to the new incarnation of R/G beats, christened”Rocket Shoes,” with un-bounceable Mongooses and Barbarians and a healthy does of bounce and burn. The crux of the deck, however, seems to be getting the two enchantments Meteor Storm (2RG, discard two cards: Meteor Storm deals four damage to target player or creature) and Ceta Sanctuary (…if you control a red and green permanent, during your upkeep, draw two cards and discard a card from your hand). This means each turn you can deal four damage to anything, and rapidly reduce an opponent’s life total to zero.
A quite inventive deck, but it seems a bit janky, though it did make a Top 8 (which is more than I can say these days). Still, I can’t recommend it, as cards like Aura Blast or Tranquillity can kill the combo, not to mention that pro-red and pro-green creatures can laugh off the effects of Meteor Storm.
Several Norwegians were kind enough to send me links to recent Pro Tour trial decks. Remember; be nice to Dave, as I’m of Norwegian descent (hard to believe with a name like”Meddish,” but it’s true).
Trond Christensen piloted this U/G/R beastie to 2nd place at the GP: Oslo trial in Trondheim, Norway. X-Files fans might remember that name from that episode where Scully and Mulder went on board the adrift an American destroyer and got really, really old (one of my favorites, even if I don’t remember the title offhand).
4 Gaea’s Skyfolk
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Mystic Snake
2 Shivan Wurm
4 Thornscape Familiar
1 Emblazoned Golem
2 Fire/Ice
3 Exclude
4 Repulse
3 Kavu Titan
4 Temporal Spring
4 Shivan Reef
4 Shivan Oasis
4 Yavimaya Coast
5 Forest
6 Island
1 Mountain
1 Keldon Necropolis
I’ve got no idea what the sideboard is; it was not printed over at Meridian Magic, where this deck was posted.
Again, to my eye, this seems a rather janky concoction. The deck munges elements of U/G Tempo-Bear, with the 2/2 flying elf and lots of bounce, and R/G aggro beats, with Thornscape Familiar, Flametongue Kavu and Shivan Wurm. At least the Wurm can gate the Gaea’s Skyfolk if it has to.
I’d like to know why there’s a single Emblazoned Golem in the deck. It almost feels like Trond needed a sixtieth card and had to grab whatever was handy. At best, it can be a 4/5 for five mana, if you have all three colors of mana available. I think a fourth Kavu Titan would be a better choice here.
I’m also dubious about running Keldon Necropolis in a three-color deck, but at 25 lands and a mana accelerator in Thornscape Familiar, the deck clearly isn’t hurting for mana.
The better of these U/G/R decks is probably the two decks that finished 1-2 at the GP-Oslo trial, which I believe was being held in Oslo on July 25th. Roy Daae finished first, Ole Christian Fjeld finished second with identical main decks; their decks only differed by three cards in the sideboard.
4 Kavu Titan
4 Gaea’s Skyfolk
4 Thornscape Apprentice
4 Mystic Snake
4 Flametongue Kavu
2 Skizzik
4 Temporal Spring
4 Repulse
3 Exclude
2 Fire/Ice
2 Prophetic Bolt
1 Mountain
6 Island
5 Forest
1 Keldon Necropolis
4 Shivan Reef
4 Shivan Oasis
4 Yavimaya Coast
Sideboard:
4 Dodecapod
2 Scorching Lava
2 Fire/Ice
3 Gainsay
1 Disrupt
2 Prophetic Bolt
1 Tranquillity
For those interested, Ole’s sideboard had one less Dodecapod, one less Prophetic Bolt, and two more Disrupts than Roy’s does; otherwise, they were completely identical.
Clearly, these decks work well, since they ended up meeting in the finals at the Grand Prix trial. But what makes them tick? They are primarily U/G; with red being the splash color.
Like U/G Tempo, it has twelve”bears,” with Thornscape Familiar replacing Blurred Mongoose, and it runs a near-full complement of U/G style bounce and counters, just being a single Exclude and four Rushing River short.
Replacing some of the bounce is only a smattering of burn and removal; the very effective Flametongue Kavu, the flexible Fire/Ice, and one of the great underrated cards in this format, Prophetic Bolt, only costing four with a Thornscape Familiar in play (clearly, this makes the beetle a better choice than the”Goose” in this case). Essentially, the Bolt replaces Fact or Fiction in the deck, not a bad trade-off.
This is, in my opinion, the best U/G/R build I’ve seen. Why? Because it”plays within itself.” Baseball players know that phrase. It means,”don’t try and do something you can’t do.” You don’t send up the utility infielder hitting just above the Mendoza line to try and hit a three-run homer. You send him up to move the runners over. This deck doesn’t try to use too much burn; just the right amount needed to send the bears in for the win.
Like U/G Tempo, the deck will want to drop an early bear or two and clear the path with bounce and, in this case, burn. The FTK does that job nicely, and is a nice warm body to boot. Fire/Ice is my favorite of the split cards just for the sheer versatility. Late game, the deck can drop a Skizzik or kicked Titan for the win.
I really do like the last deck listed above; the deck is tight and effective. So I will amend my previous statement that”there are no good U/G/R decks in IBC” — clearly there are. However, stubbornness runs in the Meddish family, and I’m sticking by my belief that U/G/R is not the way to go for Denver. These U/G/R builds are strong, but they have weaknesses that can be exploited (which, sorry, I’m not going to tell you just now; I’m trying to hoard as much tech as I can for GP: Denver).
But I’ll tell you, my faithful readership, this: If any of the Top 8 decks at Denver are running U/G/R, I’ll eat my hat, with a side order of crow (hopefully with some fava beans and a nice Chianti as well).