I had planned to win States this year. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men…
But I came pretty close.
After the release of Scars of Mirrodin, I was pretty excited about the new set; you can color me closer to the Chapin end of the spectrum when it comes to the Chapin/Mowshowitz split when it comes to this set. New sets result in a lot of changes when they come with rotation. We were living in a world full of laser guns, but if someone just flipped a switch and made them all cease to work, we might find our conventional guns underwhelming, but they’d still do the trick against everyone else and their conventional guns. It’s all context.
As it was, I was really taken with a combo in the format that made me think of my old State Championship deck from a few years back, Eminent Domain.
Creatures (6)
Lands (23)
Spells (31)
Sideboard
Wildfire was back in the form of Destructive Force. There wasn’t an Annex, but I’d been having a lot of success with a proto-Ponza deck running Destructive Force and Roiling Terrain. Volition Reins looked awesome, even if it was incredibly expensive.
I brewed a lot, and ended up with this:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Roiling Terrain
2 Koth of the Hammer
2 Comet Storm
3 Inferno Titan
4 Volition Reins
3 Destructive Force
1 Dreamstone Hedron
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Evolving Wilds
4 Terramorphic Expanse
6 Mountain
6 Island
The results, I must say, were underwhelming. Something was fundamentally wrong. If you’ve spent any length of time working on decks seriously, sometimes you can put it together, know that there is
something
going on with it that might be useful, but not really have your finger on exactly what it is that is going wrong and what is going right. Normally, you’d be able to hammer these details out with playtesting, but I was really under the gun with other responsibilities, and I didn’t have the time to properly get the work done on the deck.
What it really boiled down to was that the deck was trying to go in several directions at once, and the power level of the deck was suffering; the individual cards were actually incredibly strong. The more clearly “weak” cards were still cards that had proven themselves to me in the past: Roiling Terrain had been surprisingly potent in my testing over the past year, and Volition Reins just seemed really great nearly every time I cast it.
In a lot of ways, I felt like I had devolved Eminent Domain. Eminent Domain had come out of an attempt at the moment to create a Ponza deck, and realizing that the deck simply couldn’t work. A playful attempt to overwhelm opponents with card-stealing effects proved shockingly potent, and the deck shifted over time to become what it did. Here, I felt like I was stepping
backwards
down that path, back to a mediocre Ponza deck that not only had a second color, but had it
heavily. Not good.
I largely shelved the deck, moving on to red decks of various sorts. I’d come to a Goblin deck that seemed like it had potential, and a slight revamp of the Sligh deck I’d been working on pre-Rotation. These decks had a lot more promise, but I was still excited about Volition Reins and Destructive Force.
I ended up playing some games against Patrick Chapin, in a deck much like what he ended up publishing last week, but quite a bit rougher than where he got to. In a lot of ways, this reinvigorated my thoughts on the deck, but I didn’t really have anything
new
to consider. I
did,
however, walk away fully on-board the Preordain train that Chapin has been pushing for a while now. Pyroclasm was also in the mix for me, now.
I remade the deck, and was looking at sideboard cards and maindeck options. And then, Chapin and GerryT wrote their articles that were chock-full of explicitly worded ideas on Blue/Red(/white) decks. I had something more substantive to chew on.
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (11)
Spells (39)
- 3 Pyroclasm
- 5 Mountain
- 10 Island
- 4 Mana Leak
- 3 Burst Lightning
- 4 Everflowing Chalice
- 2 Deprive
- 1 Flame Slash
- 1 Jace's Ingenuity
- 4 Preordain
- 1 Destructive Force
- 1 Volition Reins
Sideboard
Creatures (6)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (24)
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 3 Pyroclasm
- 4 Mana Leak
- 2 Into the Roil
- 4 Spreading Seas
- 4 Preordain
- 2 Stoic Rebuttal
- 1 Volition Reins
Sideboard
These are two fairly radically different lists in a lot of ways. Chapin’s initial list (very much like what I’d played against earlier) was largely a Scroll Thief deck. Thompson’s list was pretty clearly further down the line into a Jace/Frost Titan list, really. They had some very fundamental points of agreement on the fine details; the conversation about Burst Lightning versus Lightning Bolt was actually really evocative.
Frost Titan, though, was a revelation. Brian Kowal had been pumped on Frost Titan since the beginning, and I had largely pooh-poohed the card. However, a lot of this is a question of context. As Titans have become more and more prevalent, as Gerry said, Frost Titan is the Trump Titan, turning off the other player’s Titan in ways that a Sphinx of Jwar Isle really can’t compete with.
Frost Titan not only provided me with a Kokusho, but also an Icy Manipulator. It was
exactly
what I was looking for.
What I wasn’t convinced by, though, was Gerry’s use of singleton Volition Reins. I didn’t at all mind the concept of running a singleton of obvious power like Destructive Force. A deck like this can go a long way towards making singletons have a huge influence on the way the deck can play out; games can go a long time, and there is enough card draw and library manipulation to potentially get to these cards by a late game.
I always like to look at what I know about people’s biases, however. For Gerry, I’ve noticed that he likes to have his control decks be as pure as possible, in general. He claims that drawing one Reins is usually better than drawing a second one. I’m sure he’s definitely correct in this claim if you have to play Reins like a valuable commodity. If you only have two Reins, I’m more than willing to bet that one Reins is better than two. On the other hand, if you have
four
, you can afford to be a little liberal with your use of them, and take something just for value. Gerry was, I think, looking at this deck like a more pure control deck, and I had been looking at it as an Eminent Domain update.
Ultimately, I ended up in a place
incredibly
close to the deck that Jason Ford played in New York.
Â
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (25)
Spells (26)
This is only scant inches from GerryT’s final list (six cards) and only
four
cards from Ford’s. Given the work that GerryT did on Ford’s list, I have to say that from an “attribution” standpoint, I think it belongs to Gerry (or Gerry and Jason), but as I have it built, I still see this as an Eminent Domain descendent.
I think a lot of the deck has been discussed, but there are some small counts that I wanted to go over.
I feel like one of the big lessons from the Soorani style of U/W is that you only needed a little bit of countermagic if you were otherwise just going over the top on your opponents. This isn’t the case against opposing blue-based opponents (and Flashfreeze is too potent to ignore against the green or red ones), but overall, you only need the barest bit of countermagic to be
hard,
particularly if you have Mana Leaks.
The debate on Bolt versus Burst was a really interesting one. Clearly, Lightning Bolt was the outright more powerful card. On the other hand, I was definitely convinced that doing four, particularly in the late game, was a reasonably powerful thing to do. I started thinking about Gerry’s argument about Celestial Colonnade, and given it (and other four-toughness cards), how many Burst Lightnings that I would want, if it
only
kicked. Two was the answer I came to. I still wanted another point-and-click burn spell, so I followed up with the “best” one: Lightning Bolt. Amusingly, this put me in the exact split that Ford used.
Running a full set of Volition Reins really was incredible in a field full of ramp decks of various sorts and U/W. In both matchups, the card is a powerful weapon, particularly against the ramp decks. Being able to aggressively steal a Valakut is a big deal, and between Reins and Frost Titan, you can often hold down two-color ramp decks from being able to do things (particularly if they’ve aggressively pushed towards red in their mana development). Versus U/W, they were a trump, albeit one with a huge cost: tapping down. This makes Volition Reins a risk as well as a huge weapon. The two Destructive Forces are easier to justify with as many Reins as this, because you’ll often have stolen what looks to be a key land.
Initially, I was only running four Jace, the Mind Sculptors, and I’d move up to thirty mana sources, like Gerry had suggested. As I looked at how the deck developed, I kept feeling like I wanted a little more card draw, and a little less land. Cutting an Island for a Jace seemed to be the most economical means of accomplishing both tasks. After lots of test games, and after my experience at States, I was quite happy with how this played out.
The sideboard is a little wilder, in parts.
Flashfreeze, Pyroclasm, Jace Beleren, and three Negates are all easy includes in the deck, just to shore up some of the places in the deck in fairly obvious ways. The remaining six slots do bear some more discussion.
Mindbreak Trap serves as less of an answer to multiple spells (though it can be great against someone who happens to be doing Pyromancer Ascension for some reason), but as a means to hard counter something in the late game, particularly Eldrazi. It also dodges the “counter” trigger of Summoning Trap, which can be quite useful and is a versatile answer to late-game U/X decks dropping a creature (which often, otherwise, just hit). I shaved down a Negate to fit it, and I’ve been very happy with it.
Kazuul is a surprising card that does a lot of work. Against those decks that are attempting to swarm you, whether they are Elves, Artifact White, Vengevine decks, Goblins, Devastating Summons, or other decks, a single Kazuul nearly always shuts them down, and many times, they don’t have very good answers to it. Its legendary nature does give it pretty hardcore diminishing returns. I’d try to fit in more, but there’s only so much room, it’s a legend, and it’s a five-drop, so one seemed like the best choice.
Ulamog, as a late-game card
and
as a Feldon’s Cane, seemed like a great way to grind out the control matches. I thought about running another one, but, again, there were a lot of other decks to consider as well. One thing I’ve contemplated is running a single Elixir of Immortality against the control matchups
just
for the Feldon’s Cane effect.
As it is, I’m running two Elixirs of Immortality for essentially one reason: red burn is the only thing I feel like I don’t fully shore up in my sideboard. It strikes me as fully realistic to just get burned out, and Elixir of Immortality struck me as the best answer to this if I’m only going to run a few copies of a card, and if I’m so creature-light. As I mentioned before, I also think it might work as a “semi”-Ulamog in control matchups, so I think it has several roles that it fulfils.
For those decks that I’m
looking
for more point-and-click creature kill, Flame Slash is just the best option. I would have run more of this card (perhaps two), but there simply wasn’t room.
A quick and dirty “report”:
Round 1 — Vampires
In the first game, counters and burn trade with his threats, and I get down an unopposed Jace. It doesn’t take very long for it to ultimate, and I claim the game. In the next game, he gets down some solid beats and empties my hand, but I have down a Frost Titan, and then a second one. Things fall apart for him pretty quickly at that point.
1-0; 2-0
Round 2 — Green Eldrazi
I counter his relevant threats, and his first Summoning Trap retrieves a Primeval Titan. I steal it, and between it, a Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and a Frost Titan, I pull ahead, Frosting or Volitioning or Edging any of his mana development, and keeping him from getting to anything relevant again. The next game is much of the same, with a scary turn in there where if he’d had an Ulamog, he could’ve turned it around. He didn’t, so Frosty/his Primeval into Edges/Volition Reins again keep him off of mana.
2-0; 4-0
Round 3 — Elves
I stabilize the first game at a fairly reasonable life, but with two Vengevines lurking in the graveyard. As sometimes happens in Magic, I spend the next many turns (four) before I find a good card (Jace), and not only do I not find any action, I don’t have any fetchlands. He draws a second creature, and resurrects his team, killing me in two turns.
I maintain massive control over the second game, and he’s never really in it before multiple Frost Titans take charge, leaving us the rubber game. Here, I make a slight error on turn 3, and don’t Mana Leak a spell; he could pay for it, but if he does, this means he won’t get to attack with his Archdruid. This two life comes back to haunt me several turns later when I’d win the game, if only I had
one
more life.
2-1; 5-2
Round 4 — White Weenie Quest
I take a few Memnite beats for several turns, but I keep the board pretty clear with point-and-click burn and Jace. After losing a second Jace to the attack phase, I’m setup: I drop a Frost Titan and then follow up with Destructive Force, wiping out the whole board.
I lose the next game incredibly quickly as a turn 1 Quest for the Holy Relic quickly converts to me having no important permanents. The third game is basically a repeat of the first, but without the neo-Wildfire.
3-1; 7-3
Round 5 — Blue/White Control (John Treviranus)
John’s deck is largely built to take out control matchups, but mine is also built with more of a focus on this in mind. The games all largely go the same: we wrangle over Jace, and someone gets one down for more than a few turns. In one key turn in the second game, we fight over a Sun Titan (which resolves), tapping him down, and I’m able to leverage this moment into a resolved Frost Titan. We trade when he attacks (with nothing to bring back of note), but the loss of his mana cascades into the resolving of a Volition Reins (on Tectonic Edge) and then another Frost Titan, locking him out of white.
4-1; 9-4
Round 6 — Valakut Ramp
While this player manages to use Valakut to effectively burn me out in the second game, in both of the other two games, Tectonic Edge, Frost Titan, and Volition Reins hold down his mana so that he can’t accomplish anything meaningful. He ends the last game with several cards costing GG that he can’t cast.
5-1; 11-5
Round 7 — Red Burn
My opponent gets me down to a critically low life total, but is left without burn spells to finish me off when I get my first Frost Titan. I claw my way back, with a Deprive held in reserve in case anything goes wrong. The second game is incredibly unspectacular, as I use burn spells and Flashfreeze to keep the table clear, and only take damage from my own land.
6-1; 13-5
Round 8 — Green Eldrazi
I have the first game pretty wrapped up, unless his last card in hand is a large Eldrazi. But it is. In the next game, I hold him off of large totals of mana and steal or counter anything that is at all noteworthy. In the final game, Tectonic Edge has kept us mana low, but I’m also slightly shy of blue. He taps out to cast Primeval Titan; I counter; he casts Summoning Trap, and I don’t have an open blue, just an Evolving Wilds. His Trap hits Primeval Titan, and I’m too far behind to catch up.
6-2; 14-7
Madisonian Jed Grimmer, who was playing a deck a little more like Gerry Thompson than my own, would eventually win the tournament:
Creatures (3)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (26)
Spells (26)
- 3 Lightning Bolt
- 4 Pyroclasm
- 4 Mana Leak
- 4 Everflowing Chalice
- 2 Deprive
- 1 Jace's Ingenuity
- 4 Preordain
- 2 Destructive Force
- 2 Volition Reins
Sideboard
From a maindeck perspective, he and I are basically pretty close:
+2 Lightning Bolt, +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Jace’s Ingenuity, +1 Tectonic Edge, +1 Island
-2 Burst Lightning, -1 Frost Titan, -2 Volition Reins, -1 Mountain
Philosophically, I think he’s closer to Gerry’s build, though, definitely.
After playing the tournament, the most I think I might change in my maindeck is changing over a Mountain to a Tectonic Edge (as Jed did), but I’m a little concerned that might limit my red
too
much. There have been some people who’ve questioned the value of Everflowing Chalice, but I have to say, I think that they’re invaluable. Speeding up the deck is of
huge
value, and even after a Destructive Force, simply being able to recover so quickly can be very important. In the control matchups, turning off an opponent’s Mana Leak matters a
lot,
and Chalice helps make that happen, as well as creating the opportunity for double-threating.
Jed’s path went like this:
R1: U/w/r Control, W, 2-1
R2: Vampires, W, 2-0
R3: Green Eldrazi, W, 2-0
R4: Valakut Ramp, W, 2-1
R5: U/R Control, W, 2-0
R6: Valakut Ramp, L, 0-2
R7: White Weenie Quest, W, 2-0
R8: ID
T8: Green Eldrazi, W, 2-1
T4: Valakut Ramp, W, 2-1
T2: Green Eldrazi, W, 2-0
I know that both Jed and I
loved
playing the deck, even if ours had some small, but significant differences. I find a deck like this really a blast to play, and I’m glad I got out
my bacon sleeves
and battled with it. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about this format with negativity, but I think that there’s a lot of room to play around in this format. Currently, it strikes me that the deck(s) to beat are the Primeval Titan decks, all of which can do some fundamentally unfair things if a Primeval Titan resolves (and many of which can get it down on turn
three
), and the overwhelming nature of that single card could be a huge reason that people aren’t excited by the format. I’m definitely looking forward to being able to play this deck on MODO, and I can’t wait for Scars to be released online.
Until next time,
–
Adrian Sullivan