Blocks have identities. We see these identities in the most obvious places — oh, look, Invasion cards have Kicker, Planeshift Cards are considered poop; oh, look, it’s Kamigawa so it has a long name I’m going to make fun of because six-syllable words scare me*. One aspect in which we don’t often see that identity, however, is how the players are defined by the blocks they started in.
For a start, anyone who started Magic back in 1994 seems to have a bad habit of thinking creatures are poo. Lots of them exist, and it seems they haven’t changed gears to adapt. Some people are still playing like Armageddon’s in the environment, and anything that costs four mana or more has to be crap. Others still play like Counterspell is lurking around the corner, and Force of Will is under the bed!
Other scars are more subtle. I still can’t draft worth crap, and part of that, I feel, is that I started during Mirrodin block. It’s so hard to recognize color signals after that, and even harder to send them. I remember three guys, all in Red, sitting next to each other, who were able to draft quite handily (including all three getting Spikeshot Goblin), because so much of the set was colorless that they didn’t really have any way to know how to keep out of their buddies’ ways.
I honestly think the players who started during Ravnica are going to have a hell of a rude awakening in a year’s time, when they actually have to build a manabase. Right now? Oh, any four colors will do. Pick the one you like the least, carve off the miscellaneous bits, and move on. The people who are really learning how to build one of the most important components of your deck right now are the budget players — but between Signets and Karoos, even they’re getting the ability to play with three colors easily.
Of course, this level of land-based color-fixing saturation could become du jour, passing me over into the realm of the crotchety and useless.
The problem is, at the other end of the scale is what, exactly? Building mono-colored decks, right now, is a simple admission of poverty. There really isn’t a good enough reason to do it — the lands are just that good, and there’s no way the life loss from painlands and dual lands is causing you to Lose The Game. Damage doesn’t come in big enough or small enough chunks that that matters. So any mono-colored strategies need a Really Good Reason. Even cards like Blanchwood Armour don’t give you enough of a reason; why not run some Stomping Grounds and just tolerate the slight reduction in life total since it would let you, oh, I don’t know, Ps. Demonfire You.
Laying Down The Lore
In the tradition of Rivien Swanson, I’m now going to champion a bad card that asks you to invest way too much black mana to actually be good. And I’m going to have fun doing it. I won’t say “Better than Necro” — but I will say “Better than Forgotten Lore.”
I was chuffed to see Shrouded Lore when it showed up. It felt very right, both in the color it was shifted to, and the effect it gave you. When it comes to Black mana, you can do anything… whispers the ferryman, If you but pay enough. Green is the color of resources, but Black… Black is the color of exploiting resources. Give me enough Black mana and I will tear this world apart, render it as a silver platter, and upon it, lay the heads of thy enemies.
I actually played with Forgotten Lore. Generally, it was just a bad Regrowth; Regrowth, provided you use it for its intended purpose rather than its actual, functional purpose (cf. Broken Things), is pretty safe in casual circles (indeed, it’s legal in Legacy, which is a generally good ballpark of “fair enough play” for casual gamers). Still, it had a purpose in decks with lots of flexible spells, or redundant effects.
What got me to test Lore initially was a simple thought: What if it’s getting the only card in your graveyard? That’s not that shameful a deal, really — B to get back something in the early game could lead to some nice opening plays. It’d also allow you to abuse redundancy. Spending BB to get one card of your choice isn’t too bad, either. I thought I’d give it a shot, and played with it a little. My initial plan was a little haphazard — first turn Blackmail; second turn either end of turn Swampcycle an Abomination, or Dash Hopes; third turn Lore seemed pretty good to me. The weak link in this plan was, in fact, the Dash Hopes — I just couldn’t get them to work.
Now we get to the actual lists I’ve been playing. Yes, lists — sideboarding is not my strong suit, so I instead just built the deck twice, so I could see what differed depending on who I wanted to attack.
First, the bash-th’-living-out-of-Aggro list:
Spells (31)
Then the Everyone-Else list:
Spells (29)
In the first list, Tendrils of Corruption is golden. It’s a fantastic little spell — eating Hierarchs the turn it comes online, and then getting steadily better and better. Against aggro, it’s a backbreaker sometimes. Anyway, overall, I’m sure you can-
…
…
…
Yes, those are Damnations in there.
…
…
Yes, I’ve tested this list.
…
Hey, what can I say? I got lucky cracking packs in a Draft. Didn’t rare draft, scout’s honor — I just got a pack with a Groundbreaker, a Vorosh, and a Foil Damnation. Yeah, I wish I hadn’t drafted with that pack, either. Still, I’m sure the rest of the table had fun — I won one match with the deck I piloted (mono-White, in fact), then lost to roughly sixteen thousand River Boas backed up by Rathi Trappers and Gaea’s Anthem. I think there may have been a Jedit Ojanen involved as well — but I do remember that I was being beaten to death by an Uktabi Drake as the only man who could sneak through the walls. Quite embarrassing.
The joy of the decklist is that you tend to not need multiple Damnations versus aggro — one will do the trick. Also, the deck’s reasonably cheap, once you move past Damnations. I really don’t have any suggestions for replacing the card, which is a pain — but this is a Damnation Deck that doesn’t need or want a full playset. So for those of you who were planning on getting a Damnation set, but only have one or two, or who cracked one and now don’t know what to do with just one Damnation, well, here’s the deck for you.
This leaves us with the following final decklist:
Spells (30)
- 4 Consume Spirit
- 4 Blackmail
- 4 Cruel Edict
- 3 Bottled Cloister
- 1 Nightmare Void
- 1 Seize the Soul
- 4 Phyrexian Totem
- 4 Tendrils of Corruption
- 2 Damnation
- 3 Shrouded Lore
Sideboard
I’m not going to do a full card-by-card analysis. Those tend to be boring, and rarely offer much edifying to the reader. I will make some quick notes, about the House Guard Toolbox, though:
House Guard Himself
If you didn’t notice, this guy is a two-power Fear dude. When you’ve got the game stitched up but need a way to win, this guy works just fine as a way of softening up your opponent. He can also sacrifice animated Phyrexian Totems with damage pointed at them, or damage on the stack. Don’t forget the card’s own uses.
Nightmare Void, Plague Sliver, Muse Vessel (Sideboard)
This, curiously, is your “main deck” anti-combo gear. It’s surprisingly effective; transmuting for a Nightmare Void, with Hinder no longer in the world, is a great early play that makes life very, very annoying for combo decks. Many decks — if you hit the right pieces, or they don’t rip like demideities — are just not able to cope with having their best card stripped away time after time, and if they don’t have pressure on the board (which they tend to not do), you can often just win the game at your own pace then.
Plague Sliver is a short, sharp clock. He does the exact same job as the Phyrexian Totem, and against a clear board, he’s probably not as good — but the Sliver forces token defenses into chump-block mode, and doesn’t even begin to put you in serious danger when you consider the hazard he poses to enemy life totals. All that and he can occasionally — and I do mean occasionally — come down on turn 7 and kill your opponent in their upkeep.
Heh. Slivers, lol.
Muse Vessel is an additional source of disruption versus Combo; occasionally, they’ll have a good enough draw that you need to keep constant disruption on — and that can be a serious problem with the Nightmare Void, locking you out of drawing while they just look for something like Careful Consideration, or some other busty hand-refiller to ruin your day. Rather than fall behind in those circumstances, the Muse Vessel lets you replace the functionality of the Void at a lesser pressure on your library, and giving you the option of nibbling away lands, supporting your own manabase.
Mortivore
Svogthos does not like meeting this guy coming in the other direction.
That’s the deck, more or less; the tools are all pretty intuitive. Your opponent makes creatures, you choke them to death in a dark alleyway. When they try to play combo games, or control, you can sideboard into a discard monstrosity with multiple four-turn clocks that start stripping their hands right out of the gates. Oh, and Shrouded Loring back a Tendrils versus Aggro is one of the sweetest feelings in the game.
One final note: I don’t like the Smallpoxes. I’d actually rather Distress in that slot. But you gotta do what you gotta do, and the alternative is what, exactly? There are no Shortfangs, and I don’t think Ravenous Rats are that good an option, are they?
On Nicknaming
Seriously, guys, I know you’re enthusiastic and all, but please, just stop it. You don’t get things nicknamed by trying. You call it something and see if it sticks. Oh, and when you start to give something a name with fully twice the syllables as its real name, you’ve lost the point of a nickname. I mean geeze. Nobody calls Skred “Snow Plow,” after all, even if the comparison is apt and the name clever.
You know who you are.
While We’re Talking About Smashing Aggro
Here’s a speculative decklist I put together based on the old idea of Attunement plus Replenish equals Gas. Working with Demonic Collusion as the Attunement and Retether as my Replenish, I was able to produce this following list:
4 Castigate
2 Orzhova, the Church of Deals
4 Orzhov Basilica
4 Orzhov Signet
4 Pacifism
4 Pillory of the Sleepless
9 Snow-Covered Plains
9 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Souls of the Faultless
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Demonic Collusion
4 Enslave
4 Retether
The idea works decently enough; you can charge up your graveyard, and power out a pretty busty Retether that can work as a Wrath of God and a win condition. Then it screechingly grinds to a halt when your opponent watches you fritter away at your library, sitting behind your walls and… doesn’t make any creatures.
In that circumstance, your only win condition is Imp beatdown and Orzhova management. Not a very viable strategy. This deck’s not actually been tested, mind. I don’t have Retethers yet. Or Enslaves. Or, weirdly, Souls of the Faultless. Yet it demonstrates the fundamental problem with Retether — specifically, what the hell do you get?
If you play in Extended, the decklist probably wants to go U/W. Stuff like Thirst for Knowledge, Careful Study, and the like are both cheaper and easier to use than Consultation — and don’t leave you tapped out for a heavy-duty pantsing later on your opponent’s turn. It’s fragile against countermagic and needs people to be playing more than one creature at a time.
In this regard, it’s a good deck for the Magic Online casual room, but pretty Ze Poop for FNMs, unless you know for sure people are pushing aggro strategies (and bad ones — this deck doesn’t seem to have much of anything it can do against an opponent packing burn) heavily. Perhaps the strategy will work out better in multiplayer, with slower play, and a partner who can protect your spells. There, however, a problem arises — in that, why this? There are better non-interactive decks you can be making, and better spells to protect than the laughably budget Retether.
Same reason you go mono-colored in Standard: Because you can’t afford better. But hey — everyone loved Ravnica, right?
Right?
*grumbles*
Hugs And Kisses
Talen Lee
talen at dodo dot com dot au
PS: I’ve been thinking of updating my picture. Some people seem to think I’m a real hardass. Craig thinks I like heavy metal. Vrax voiced sentiment that I look like I’m about to eat someone. This is remarkable, given that I am the kid that the nerds beat up in lunch break, their glasses still askew from the real bullies.
* Seriously, people, what the hell? The manglings of Japanese you’d hear at a tournament were epic, and worse, when it was brought to people’s attention, their attitude was indifference. This makes language geeks sad pandas. Nobody cares, and a good time is had by all (except aforementioned, sad panda-esque language geeks, but they don’t count because nobody listens to them).