On Tuesday or Wednesday last week, I realized that I had a problem. I had started my Godo-related Daily, and I had some decks from earlier this month, but those decks were in serious danger of being made obsolete by the results of Grand Prix: Minneapolis. Godo is a pretty powerful card, but he has a lot of trouble defeating infinite Kagemaro, or infinite Ethereal Haze, or infinite Sickening Shoal, or …. you get the idea.
Like a lot of Western deckbuilders these days, I needed the Japanese to step in and give me some inspiration. Two separate decklists bearing Godo made the Top 8 of Grand Prix: Niigata last weekend, and I thought that both were not only competitive, but get a ton of fun out of running Godo.
Today, I’ll examine the “KDW” deck played by Yun Suhan to an eighth-place finish:
<DECKID= 12379>
This deck is not too much different than the so-called Legend Paddle deck (designed by Tsuyoshi Fujita) that Shuuhei Nakamura played to a ninth-place finish in Philadelphia. Shuhan basically cut the most useless legends – here’s looking at you, Jugan – and replaced them with Kumano, Jiwari, and Thoughts of Ruin.
The changes were absolutely necessary against the aggressive decks in the format. The Fujita deck might have been able to handle White Weenie with its four-of Meloku, but Black Hand has entered the format since then, and those decks’ efficient removal and trample-granting O-Naginata are a problem even for the Clouded Mirror of Victory.
So, here come Jiwari and Kumano to help solve that problem, just as they were supposed to in my deck from Tuesday. In fact, I’m kind of surprised that Jiwari only shows up as a two-of, given the way that he can sweep a board when channeled or dominate a board when summoned. I’d rather run the third Jiwari than that odd one-of Orochi Sustainer. Kumano as a one-of I can understand; he’s actually too slow for many situations, but on occasion he will be simply amazing.
The four-of Godo had me saying, “That’s more like it!” after the one- and two-of Godo in my first three decks this week. He’s an all-purpose tool for you; against aggro he might tutor up a defensive Jitte, and against control he’ll force your opponents to find an answer for Tatsumasa. Sometimes you’ll play Godo and sac him to Miren right away, simply so you can tutor up another equipment with a second Godo in hand.
As for the Thoughts of Ruin, it’s a fascinating card. Given most Red decks’ tendencies to empty their hands, the card hasn’t really found its niche yet; in most decks where I would have wanted to run it, it was hardly better than Sunder From Within. In this deck, you have a full set of Meloku to power up your Thoughts of Ruin; that’s synergy, derf, especially since the consensus best deck in the format is so mana-hungry.
However, preparing Meloku -> Thoughts also takes a lot of time and mana; if your opponent were to throw a monkey wrench in the works, say with a Hideous Laughter for the tokens, then your Armageddon may not end up gaining you much. It’s a game-ending card, but an unreliable one; I assume that’s why Suhan ran only two copies.
Your Gifts matchup isn’t terrible even without Thoughts of Ruin. You beat it in a style that would make Jamie Wakefield proud: summon your giant men (who cannot be killed by Hideous Laughter) one by one, forcing the opponent to expend his hand, until the last fatty kills him. That plan won’t work if they have a nuts draw that allows them to get Kagemaro recursion going quickly, but you can beat sub-par draws pretty easily. At least you have a plan; that’s more than most people can say against the best deck in the format, no?
If I were to build this deck for the PTQ season, I’d make a few changes, but the legend core would stay intact. I’d cut the Sustainer for another Jiwari, and I’d cut Konda’s Banner (which is great when attached to Meloku, but terrible when attached to every other man in deck or sideboard) for Tenza, Godo’s Maul. Wear Away would go in the sideboard, to prevent you from being owned by Manriki-Gusari across the table; the mana-ugly Hinder can be cut for this purpose. Kodama of the North Tree has a place, if only to serve as a Nekrataal for any Northsidaz across the table. Finally, Fujita had the super-techy Mindblaze in his Philly sideboard to beat the Ethereal Haze lock; that still seems good today. This gives us:
{Insert Random Letter Here} Deck Wins
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Kodama’s Reach
4 Honor-Worn Shaku
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
3 Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
2 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
4 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
2 Thoughts of Ruin
4 Godo, Bandit Warlord
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang
1 Tenza, Godo’s Maul
7 Forest
3 Island
4 Mountain
1 Pinecrest Ridge
4 Tendo Ice Bridge
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Okina, Temple of the Grandfathers
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
Sideboard:
4 Glacial Ray
4 Hisoka’s Defiance
3 Kodama of the North Tree
3 Wear Away
1 Mindblaze
Tomorrow I’ll look at the winning deck from Niigata, and respond to some of your questions from throughout the week.