Some of you may not know that in addition to my StarCityGames duties, I also write the single-card strategy column for Beckett’s Magic the Gathering magazine. You also may not know that I have a black belt in MichaelJ-Jitsu, the ancient deadly art of self-promotion.
For a recent article in the magazine, I focused on Flame Fusillade, suggesting that in addition to your run-of-the-mill Time Vault combo for Vintage/Legacy, you could also run a couple copies of the card in your token-generating decks, to allow Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree to have a little bit of Fireball potential. Well, that was a nice idea, but I hadn’t yet seen a Guildpact spoiler at that point, so I had no idea of the existence of Rumbling Slum. If there’s one card you want your GhaziGlare deck to be splashing for, believe me, he’s the one. I immediately looked up the Worlds Top 8 decks and made some changes:
Creatures (28)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Wood Elves
- 2 Yosei, the Morning Star
- 2 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
- 4 Loxodon Hierarch
- 4 Selesnya Guildmage
- 4 Watchwolf
- 4 Rumbling Slum
Lands (23)
Spells (9)
Changes to the Japanese Deck
The Ghazi-Glare deck that the Japanese took to Worlds was a metagame deck. It did really well against Flores-style Blue and Boros, two decks which were expected to turn out in force at Worlds, and which did in fact make up about 35% of the Worlds metagame (that figure calculated from data found here). Certain other choices, such as having three copies of Hokori in the sideboard despite the fact that a lone copy is searchable by Congregation at Dawn, hosed random decks by opposing commonly played cards like Sakura-Tribe Elder.
Clearly, the format today is not the same as the format at Worlds. This decklist adjusts specifically to reflect several control decks that rose to prominence, either at Worlds or since. These include the Eminent Domain deck (U/B/R mana denial with Annex and Wildfire), other U/R mana denial decks (most of which run land destruction along with Eye of Nowhere and sorcery-speed card drawing to power up Magnivore), and various U/X control decks containing the Urza lands. However, my format also has to adjust to the fact that the metagame is more open than it used to be. Which is why I made some of the following changes:
Watchwolf
I fully understood and supported the Japanese decision not to run Watchwolf at Worlds. In the two most highly anticipated matchups at the time, Boros and Mono-U, he accomplished essentially nothing. However, in testing against Urzatron Blue decks and Eminent Domain, I was having a problem, to wit: avoiding both Pyroclasm and countermagic. Selesnya Guildmage was continually eating either Pyroclasm or Electrolyze, blunting my early offense. However, if I simply tried to ignore early offense and power into multiple Hierarchs or Slums, they were inevitably countered.
I needed a man who can slip under counters while simultaneously avoiding these accursed spells. Watchwolf cursed me for being bigoted in favor of humans, and proved that canines could do the job just as well as men. Now, if you are expecting a metagame full of aggressive decks, in which Ghazi-Glare plays the control role instead of the beatdown role, you could probably do without Watchwolf. However, that’s not the sort of format I would be expecting at my local Friday Night Magic, let alone at Honolulu.
No Maindeck Seed Spark or Pithing Needle
These hurt. Seed Spark was actually a fantastic card in the Worlds version of the deck, since it almost always ensured that the Jitte war was won, while also inflicting a lot of splash damage on cards like Greater Good or Battle of Wits. The Needle is one of the most immensely useful cards ever printed, and the fact that it turns off Jitte or Meloku just decreases the chances that you’ll lose to a fluke start from decks running those two cards.
The problem is the same one that led to Watchwolf entering the main deck: compared to Worlds, there are a lot more decks in the format against which the Glare deck must take the role of beatdown. Between the Watchwolves, the additional four-drops, and the mana creatures who ensure those four-drops hit… something had to get cut. These cards needed to bite the dust, but they didn’t go far; they’re safely in the sideboard, and you’ll bring them in for most matches.
No Selesnya Sanctuary or other “Karoo”
I was asked to write this article with an eye toward the Honolulu metagame. When Eminent Domain won the Japanese year-end tournament “The Finals” in the hands of Masahiro Kuroda, it was pretty clear that Annex was going to be a big factor at Hawaii (if for no other reason than because Hawaii is the easiest U.S. trip possible from Japan).
I tested a version of the Angry Glare deck that had the G/W and G/R bouncelands against Eminent Domain, and, just as I feared, the bouncelands turned Annex into a total blowout. I lost count of the number of games where an Annex of a bounceland not only blocked Yosei and Arashi from being played, but enabled the Domain deck to run a Dragon with countermagic backup the following turn. Thus, the current deck runs more basic lands, and one less copy of Vitu-Ghazi to prevent color-screw.
Matchups
The very first thing you have to ask yourself in a given matchup is whether you are the beatdown deck or not. Certain cards in your deck, such as the Jitte, the Slums, and Congregation at Dawn, involve a surprisingly large amount of finesse depending upon your role, and as we all know, “Mis-assignment of Role = Game Loss.” Considering how few non-creature cards you run, you might find it unusual how often you are the control deck.
While being the beatdown may be self-explanatory, it is worthwhile to explain how this deck plays the control role. When you are the control, you are basically trying to manage your life total and plan for a long-term win. Said long term win will usually come with a token generator; the tokens will either be pumped by a Guildmage, use Glare to clear the way for an alpha strike, or swarm the opponent so that he can be finished off with Rumbling Slum damage. Even a control deck should not miss a chance to get some damage in if offered, but you should also weigh your attacks against what you might need on defense for the following turn.
For example, against a G/R deck with Birds of Paradise and Moldervine Cloak, you’ll want to be very careful about when you swing with Yosei. A Cloaked Bird and a Char is seven damage right there, and even if you have some Birds of your own as blockers a Pyroclasm can make you look very foolish. You shouldn’t necessarily have The Fear of cards, but as I’ve written before, you want a good balance between alertness to what your opponent can do, and awareness of how likely the worst-case scenario might be.
Now, on to the matchups!
Wildfire Control Decks
Rumbling Slum and Yosei have giant butts, derf. I’m not even sure if I would have bothered with this deck if Rumbling Slum did not exist, or if it were a 4/4, because Wildfire is such a blowout for the Glare deck – and there are a lot of Wildfire decks out there. However, if you can get a Slum on the table, random Wildfire decks will suddenly find themselves in a hell of a tough spot. I should also note that Loxodon Hierarch’s activated ability should not be forgotten against Wildfire, and will sometimes be a total blowout for you.
Of this group, the toughest matchup for you is Eminent Domain. If you get a bad draw – or they get a perfect draw – these cards can make it very difficult for you to keep an offense on the table. Either your land-light deck is punished by a turn 3 Annex; or perhaps your turn 1 Bird, turn 2 Wood Elf start can be neutered by a Pyroclasm; or maybe your early Slum would be stolen by Dream Leash.
Sideboarding will usually involve -3 Glare of Subdual and -1 Umezawa’s Jitte, because neither of those cards is of much use against a deck that’s trying to Wrath your board. You’ll almost always bring in the Arashi, even if they have no fliers, since he is a Wildfire-proof man for five mana. Other boarding decisions depend upon what they specifically have. Against Eminent Domain, for example, you bring in the Seed Sparks for their Signets and enchantments, but against Wildfire decks with Life From the Loam, Hokori is probably a better choice. Against the U/R Magnivore deck (which, since it is designed to kill with Magnivore, has trouble with Glare) I would leave in the Glares, cut all of the Jittes instead, and bring in Hokori.
Flores-style Blue Decks
If anyone was still playing the Mike Flores design from New York States, you’d be in good shape. Their plan of “stall until Meloku comes down” has a hard time racing when you can own their flying offense with Arashi and apply long-term pressure with a City-Tree. Sure, they can win by getting a Jushi Apprentice down, drawing infinite countermagic, and pounding you with Keiga, but that won’t happen often enough to call this a bad matchup.
What is a bad matchup is the true U/B deck, like Marcio Carvalho’s deck from Worlds, with Hideous Laughter and/or Kagemaro. These decks are extremely bad news for you. Although the additions of Watchwolf and Rumbling Slum help a little against Hideous Laughter, Kagemaro is probably the worst possible creature to see across the table, because you have virtually no outs to him — he can rumble with all of your guys but Yosei, and he can Wrath your table as soon as you put enough forces out to race him. About your only hope is that the opponent plays Kagemaro when you can play Yosei the following turn without him being able to counter back or Boomerang the dragon or something. Given a competent opponent, that’s not very likely.
Against a Flores-style Blue deck that you expect Threads of Disloyalty from, you cut the Watchwolves and bring in Arashi and the Pithing Needles – if they’re not running Signets or Dimir Aqueduct, you can cut the Glares for Hokori also. Against a U/B deck, you cut the Glares to bring in the Pithing Needles.
Urzatron Blue Decks
Their plan is the same as the Flores-style decks — stall you until they can do something strong. They execute that plan a lot better, however, because at some point they are going to gain a boatload of mana simply by laying a land, and the following turn they will usually have an extremely powerful play that you simply can’t handle. Where the Flores deck stalls for a long time, and then takes an age to win via Meloku, the Urzatron deck stalls for a shorter amount of time, and then wins much faster.
The best thing you have going for you is that they don’t get as much out of Meloku as the pseudo-mono-Blue decks do, because they don’t want to break up the Urzatron. It was only after several test games that I realized the Urzatron deck, unless it has Blaze in hand, should simply make Illusion tokens with reckless abandon and not worry too much about the mana it’s giving up.
I expect this kind of deck to be popular in the new format, if only because (link to) Shuhei ran it at Worlds. For this reason, I have devoted four precious sideboard slots for Wreak Havoc with the intention of breaking up their Urzatron. Usually, you’ll cut the Glares and two Jittes for the Wreak Havoc and the Arashi. If they run more artifacts than just four Signets, you might even cut the other two Jittes for two copies of Seed Spark, with the intention of completely owning their mana.
Green/Red Decks
The problem is, we’re not yet sure what these decks are going to look like. Mid-range decks should not pose much of a problem, since non-Wildfire land destruction isn’t so scary for you. In testing I was actually having the most trouble beating a super-aggro R/G deck whose plan was to go turn 1 giant-size Kird Ape, turn 2 giant-size Scab-Clan Mauler, and follow up with either Burning-Tree Shaman or Moldervine Cloak the following turn. That deck could put on such early pressure that playing Rumbling Slum became a very dangerous proposition. However, playing Congregation at Dawn for three Hierarchs was almost always game anyway, since the Shaman can’t rumble with the Pachyderm.
Speaking of Burning-Tree Shaman, he is a concern because he takes away the easy wins and miracle saves that accompany Umezawa’s Jitte or Glare of Subdual, but he’s not as bad for you as you might think. You don’t necessarily need activated abilities to win – not if you draw Congregation at Dawn. Hierarchs and Yosei are the key; Yosei is an actual Time Walk for you should he die, and the Hierarch might as well be, considering how much of their tempo he negates.
You can consider all sorts of sideboard plans against them. You’ll almost always want to bring in Seedborn Muse to frustrate their attacks and maximize Glare. One plan might be to remove just one Arashi for the Muse and nothing else. Another plan might be to cut Jitte for Seed Spark, since they will probably have maindeck Tin Street Hooligan and almost surely have lots of Jitte hate after boards.
Critical Crap
I use this title to refer to Green/Blue/X aggro-control based around another Flores creation, the Critical Mass deck. As the number of dual lands grows, there will be several viable splashes, but the basic idea is the same: the Green accelerates your mana, the Blue powers out the best of the Legendary Dragon Spirits and the best five-mana creature since Morphling, while still allowing you to counter target spell as needs be.
I first tested against a G/U/R version similar to the “Angry Hermit Update” Flores posted in this MagictheGathering.com article. My test deck switched out the Arashi and the Oboro for a third copy each of Confiscate and Farseek. The Glare deck was on the positive side of a 4-3 match, and the only reason it was that close was because of two mulligans to five for Glare. The problem for the G/U/R deck is that Electrolyze is not nearly as relevant as you might think — usually, it was necessary to kill a Selesnya Guildmage instead of trying to wait for a three-for-one with Elves and Birds — and it doesn’t stop an active Jitte at all. The only games the G/U/R deck won were those where the Glare deck got off to a slow start and Meloku got out of hand, or those where Glare of Subdual was played and subsequently Confiscated.
With that knowledge in hand, I decided to take (link to) this deck from The Artist Formerly Known as Mister Editor Man and make some changes. The result was a straight-up owning of the Glare deck, so I thought I would provide a decklist just in case you’re not happy swinging with pachyderms and Rumbling Slums:
Creatures (18)
- 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
- 4 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
- 4 Wood Elves
- 4 Keiga, the Tide Star
- 2 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
Lands (23)
Spells (19)
I haven’t built a sideboard yet, but you can check Ted’s article for a place to start.
The Glare deck’s sideboarding involves cutting one Rumbling Slum for Arashi definitely, and probably Seed Spark comes in as well to win the Jitte war. However, I haven’t determined yet what is best to cut for Seed Spark, and I’m also unsure if Hokori should try to make his way into the post-board games. You’ll need to test this one quite a bit on your own, if you weren’t planning to already (and I hope you were, because taking my word for it is a dangerous move).
Greater Good decks
Here is where losing maindeck Seed Spark and Needle hurt, since those cards just randomly destroy Greater Good. Game 1 is therefore not spectacular for you, especially if their deck is built with a single-mindedness toward the combo finish. However, these decks will often be all over the place with their mana, and they don’t always combo out perfectly. If you can mount sufficient early pressure and then bluff the Seed Spark, you definitely have a shot. Always be mindful of when Goryo’s Vengeance can bring one of their Legends out of the bin at instant speed and ruin your best attacks.
You sideboard out the Rumbling Slums and the Glares for the Hokoris, the Needles, and Arashi. Just be careful what you name for Needle in the post-board games, because they may transform into another type of deck as a trick, like Frank Karsten did with his deck at Worlds.
Battle of Wits
Surprisingly, a difficult matchup for you. The hardest part will be admitting that to yourself. When you tune and tune your beatdown deck so that every one of its sixty cards seems to hum across the red zone and into your opponent’s face, it can sometimes be hard to accept that the opponent’s 250-card monstrosity can beat you.
They can, however, and they will. The Battle players simply run too much creature sanction, and much of it is tutorable, via either Transmute or Gifts Ungiven. They have a ton of spot removal and plenty of card drawing to find it, so if any one of Wrath of God; Final Judgment; Night of Souls’ Betrayal; or Kagemaro, First to Suffer resolves even once, it usually spells game over. You try to win quickly, and they Wrath you; you try to win slowly, and they’ll have either Battle of Wits or the Clouded Kjeldoran Outpost on Crack in your way.
I actually haven’t had a chance to test any post-board games here, but I would suspect you find a way to bring in Seed Spark because they’ll have Signets and Night of Souls’ Betrayal in addition to Battle. Arashi should also find his way in somehow.
That’s all for this installment. I’m off to crawl through the Steam Vents in search of my next deck idea. Until next time, here’s hoping your Rumbling Slums always hit on turn 3.
The article written while listening to Bruce Springteen’s “Born to Run.”
mmyoungster at aim dot com
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