I would like to write an article about the Kamigawa Block season, but you can take everything I know about this format, put it on the head of a pin, and still have room for a cup of coffee. I know that the B/G Gifts Ungiven decks are probably the best in the format. They can beat everything; however, the mirror can lead to infinite drawn matches what with all of the Topping and Gifting.
So you should play Gifts, except when everyone else is running Gifts, in which case you should run a deck that loses to Gifts. See what I’m saying? This format makes baby Jesus cry. Or maybe it makes baby Jesus watch me cry, after I bomb out of another PTQ.
Anyway, that’s why I’m writing about Standard this time around. That, and the fact that U.S. Nationals is only a couple short weeks away, and all of the National Opens (“grinders,” for the Nationals-illiterate) are going to use the Standard format this time around.
I’m not going to judge the wisdom of having all-Standard Grinders – J. Sawyer Lucy does that well enough here. I’m just going to accept that decision, and take a look at what may well be the most important matchup for players looking to play.
The word going in to U.S. Regionals was that Tooth and Nail was the best deck in the format, and it certainly posted that kind of result. According to the spiffy Star City deck database, decks identified as Tooth and Nail took first place in 12 Saviors-legal Regionals events, and took a total of 84 Top 8 slots in those events.
There are a lot of different ways to build the Tooth deck, but one thing that seems to work best in the mirror is land destruction and Plow Under. Terry Soh suggested Bird of Paradise in the Tooth deck, to enable Plow Under one turn faster than decks that don’t have it. So I built this deck to use for our experiment:
4
“>Sakura-Tribe Elder
4
“>Birds of Paradise
3
“>Kodama’s Reach
4
“>Sylvan Scrying
4
“>Reap and Sow
3
“>Plow Under
4
“>Eternal Witness
4
“>Sensei’s Divining Top
2
“>Oblivion Stone
3
“>Tooth and Nail
1
“>Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1
“>Sundering Titan
1 Duplicant
4
“>Urza’s Mine
4
“>Urza’s Power Plant
4
“>Urza’s Tower
10 Forest
Sideboard:
4
“>Creeping Mold
1
“>Plow Under
2
“>Iwamori of the Open Fist
2
“>Razormane Masticore
4
“>Troll Ascetic
2 Molder Slug
Lots of people take aim at Tooth with all sorts of weapons, but the one I have seen work the best is the deck that won Mid-Atlantic Regionals in the hands of Tommy Ashton:
Creatures (16)
Lands (19)
Spells (25)
Sideboard
This deck was the “secret tech” that I was asked to keep on the DL while I was writing the Tramampoline article. It proved worth the hype, as it placed two players into the Top 8 of Mid-Atlantic Regionals; it might have put both of those players into the Top 4, except for the fact that they faced each other in a 75-card mirror match during the qualifying round.
To call this “Red Deck Wins” is not merely a reflection of color. This deck plays in much the same fashion as the Extended deck of the same name in seasons past: get in some early shots with efficient creatures and then finish the game with a flurry of burn, “Tim” effects, and an efficient-damage artifact. That strategy not only doesn’t require Arc-Slogger, but in fact it’s actively hindered by the 4/5 beast, especially when you put your Mountains at risk by using the Genju.
I pitted these decks against each other in a series of ten game ones, so that the vulnerabilities of each deck in time for them to play each other at Nationals. Here’s the blow-by-blow:
Game One
Tooth plays first. The hand pulled is {Top, Power Plant, Tower, Plow Under, Sundering Titan, Kiki-Jiki, Forest}. It was kept, but this was a very dangerous keep. Having Kiki-Jiki in the opening hand, regardless of matchup, is itself a mulligan to six. However, this hand will easily be able to assemble the Urzatron, possibly playing a turn 4 Sundering Titan, so I felt it was a worthwhile keep.
RDW ships back a one-land hand, and gets {2 Shatter, 4 Mountain}, which should be an obvious mulligan. The five-card hand was {2 Mountain, Slith, Shock, Jet}, and we’re off.
The Top was played on turn 1, and activated on turn 2, revealing the needed Urza’s Mine. In the meantime, though, the Red deck was growing its Slith and using Magma Jet to set up the top of its deck with burn, so when the turn 4 Titan came down, Tooth was under heavy pressure. The Titan swung once — a topdecked second Jet had led to both cards being kept on top, so waiting did not seem promising – but this allowed Shock + Slith attack + Mox-Blast to end the game. 1-0
Game Two
RDW goes first, and pulls {2 Jet, 2 Mountain, Shock, Blast, Sorcerer} off the top, which is an easy keep thanks to the Jets. Tooth pulls {Mine, Power Plant, O-Stone, Scrying, 3 Forest}, which is an easy keep thanks to the guaranteed Urzatron.
The Red deck’s first Jet sets up a turn 3 Slith; when the Tooth deck topdecks a Witness on turn 3 to block, the Sorcerer comes down to continue the beats. On turn 4, the Tooth deck plays Reap and Sow for an Urza’s Tower, completing the Urzatron, and plays an Oblivion Stone without activation mana open, needing to risk the Shatter or else lose to Slith + burn spell.
RDW didn’t have the artifact-removal spell, but after the Stone activation, the Tooth deck was at five life. The aggro deck had three opportunities to topdeck an artifact or Blinkmoth Nexus to win with a Shrapnel Blast in hand, but all three draws were blanks. Then the Tooth deck topdecked a Divining Top, which in turn produced a Sundering Titan. The following turn’s Top activation yielded a Tooth and Nail, and that was that. 1-1
Game Three
Tooth and Nail, playing first, keeps {3 Forest, Top, Scrying, Tower, Witness}. RDW sends back a hand with a Nexus as its only mana source, and pulls {3 Mountain, 2 Jet, Jinxed Choker}, which is a perfectly fine keep thanks to the power of Magma Jet.
However, this game was a tribute to the power not of Magma Jet, but of Jinxed Choker. The Red deck topdecked Mountains on its first two turns, but this simply made the turn 3 Choker more potent. The first Magma Jet set up another Jet, followed by Genju of the Spires. The Genju forced Tooth to play the Witness on turn 4 instead of a land search spell, which in turn allowed one more turn’s worth of Choker use, which in turn allowed the Red deck’s triple-Jet draw to win the match. My notes show that the lone Choker did nine points of damage to the Tooth deck (at the cost of ten points to its owner, of course). 2-1
Game Four
The Red deck is on the play this time, which makes its opening hand of {2 Frostling, Zo-zu, Choker, Slith, 2 Mountain} all the scarier. The Tooth deck’s kept hand of {2 Power Plant, Forest, Tribe Elder, Reach, Reap and Sow, Tooth and Nail} hardly seemed able to compete.
The Tooth deck did topdeck a turn 1 Divining Top, which was very fortunate, but the Red deck topdecked a Genju of the Spires on turn 2, which made its victory seem all but complete … until it didn’t draw its third land on turns 3 or 4. The Genju could not swing, and Zo-zu sat useless in hand, while the Tooth deck developed its mana. The Slith and Frostlings were able to work the Green deck down to eight life, before the Topped-into Urzatron allowed Sundering Titan to hit play. A Shatter prevented instant Titan ownage, but the Green deck had sufficient Forests left over for Eternal Witness, whose resolution ended the game. 2-2
Game Five
Tooth and Nail plays first with a hand of {2 Forest, Mine, Tribe Elder, Reach, Scrying, Reap and Sow}, which seems pretty strong, except that the Red deck’s hand was {Frostling, Zo-zu, Choker, 3 Mountain, Chrome Mox}, which is some good against a hand full of land-search.
The Red deck rubbed it in a little by topdecking a Genju on turn 1, and then a second Frostling on turn 2. This enabled not only the turn-2 Zo-zu, but an extra Frostling to clear a path for the Genju attack. By turn 4 the Tooth deck’s life was so low that it could no longer play land. You can imagine how this ends. 3-2
Game Six
The Red deck, playing first, pulled {Genju, Slith, Shock, Frostling, Chrome Mox, 2 Mountain}. That’s not quite the nut-high hand for this deck, but only because Zo-zu isn’t involved. It was more than sufficient against the Tooth deck’s {Forest, Power Plant, Scrying, O-Stone, Top, Duplicant, Birds of Paradise} draw.
The Tooth deck did draw into a Tribe-Elder and Witness to block, but the Red deck drew into a second Shock to clear out the Green deck’s squad. A Slith and Genju attack reduced the Tooth deck to 8 life on turn 3 (!); again, you can imagine how this ends. 4-2
Game Seven
Tooth and Nail plays first with {Forest, Mine, Top, 2 O-Stone, Scrying, Plow Under}, and considering the damage done by Genju of the Spires so far, I thought that Plow Under might come in handy.
However, it turned out not to matter against a subpar draw from the Red deck. A one-Mountain hand with all three-mana spells was sent back, and {3 Mountain, Nexus, Sorcerer, Choker} replaced it. I knew this hand was not so great, but I am usually loathe to go to five (which, I admit, may be a hole in my game), and Jinxed Choker had done so well earlier.
Anyway, the Choker did its work, but only Shatters were drawn by the Red deck, so there was no further damage while the Urzatron was assembled. A hard-cast Sundering Titan was Shattered, but the Tooth deck was able to use its massive mana to control the number of counters on the Choker. The Red deck was eventually killed with its own artifact. 4-3
Game Eight
The Red deck decided to keep {3 Mountain, 2 Choker, Slith, Genju} for its turn on the play. Generally, most hands with a castable Slith are keepers, and this is no exception. By contrast, the Tooth deck had a very risky keep with {2 Plow Under, Mine, Power Plant, Reach, Scrying, Top}.
This was probably a bad keep, a result of the overvaluing of the Divining Top. No Green sources and no action for the colorless mana makes it very, very hard to win with the Urzatron, even if it gets drawn. This game was a perfect example; even though Tooth topdecked the Tower on turn one for a natural Urzatron (how lucky!), it did not top into blockers or action and was quickly killed by Slith and Genju. 5-3
Game Nine
Tooth, playing first for the final time, sent back a two-Tooth and Nail, one-land hand, and received {Mine, Top, Tribe Elder, Birds, Tooth and Nail, Plow Under}. With the previous game fresh in my mind, I sent this back also, receiving {3 Forest, Tower, Power Plant}. That’s an awful one, but it’s better than going to four, I guess.
The Red deck kept {2 Mountain, 2 Slith, 2 Jet, Genju}, and it definitely looked like it was going to be a short game. It was … but not in the direction you’d think.
The Tooth deck topdecked Sundering Titan on turn 2, and Sylvan Scrying on turn 3 to enable a turn 4 Titan, blowing away the Genju and leaving Red with only a Slith for gas. The Tooth deck had been Slithed and Jetted down to 9 life at this point, so the Titan couldn’t attack for fear of losing to “Slith swingback + burnout.” Slith and Titan stared at each other for one turn, and then the Tooth deck topdecked its signature sorcery, ending all resistance. 5-4
Game Ten
The Red deck sent back {2 Choker, Blast, Mox, 3 Mountain}; the way I saw it, keeping that hand was simply a mulligan, because of the nigh-unusable Mox. It received {Nexus, 2 Slith, Shatter, 2 Mountain}, which is a keeper.
Tooth has a tough choice with {Tooth and Nail, 2 Eternal Witness, Forest, 2 Power Plant, Mine}. Just another Green source, or a single land-search spell, will enable the two Witnesses and eventually the Tooth and Nail. However, there is no Top to guarantee that pull, and no blockers or O-Stones to play defense. This hand seems to be very luck-dependent, and the good player should always be at war with luck. I kept the hand to see what would happen, for testing purposes; however, my notes read “probably bad keep” and I haven’t changed my mind since then.
The game was quick and brutal, as double-Slith games are wont to be. Tooth played a turn 1 Power Plant, turn 2 Forest, turn 3 Mine, turn 4 Power Plant into Reap and Sow for the Urzatron. At this point it was staring down two angry Slith Firewalkers and a Frostling, and it still had not drawn the necessary second Green source for its Tooth and Nail.
On turn 6 the miracle topdeck was accomplished, and a Forest was pulled to allow Tooth and Nail to be played. However, the Red deck had a Shatter and Shock in hand, so Kiki-Jiki died instantly and the Duplicant (Titan would not have worked, as the Red deck had too many potential attackers) he tried to copy was destroyed before the copy ability resolved. The Green deck died immediately afterward. 6-4
Using the Results
I understand Terry Soh reasoning on running Birds of Paradise; it does allow for a Plow Under to be cast one turn faster in the mirror. However, if I run Tooth and Nail at my Nationals, you can be sure that my mana-producing creature of choice will be Vine Trellis. I’ll gladly accept whatever disadvantage that might bring in the mirror, if it will prevent death by Slith … which, it has to be said, is one of the most unfun ways to lose a Magic game I can think of.
Sideboarding is obviously a major issue. If you read Terry Soh original Troll and Nail article, this transformational sideboard is mainly aimed at Red decks, which have a bit of trouble with Troll Ascetic on turn 3 and a lot of trouble with 5/5 and 4/6 monsters on turn 4. I’m pretty sure the Cosmic Larva in Ashton’s sideboard is not the answer; it was actually intended as tech for the Red Deck mirror, where after an early game of attrition you should have enough lands to play the monstrous bug and the game in a few quick swings.
Coming back to the Tooth deck, Flamebreak in the sideboard can help with Trolls, but Iwamori and friends are still a problem. If there’s one thing that the game ones showed, it’s that the Red deck can usually cut it’s opponent’s life total in half even in the games that it loses. For this reason, I’ve been experimenting with boarding in burn that goes straight to the face; everything from Lava Spike to Flames of the Blood Hand and even Hidetsugu’s Second Rite.
Your plan then is simply to make it unwise for the fat guys to attack, as a couple of Slith swingbacks can put the opponent in range for your copious amounts of burn. I’m not saying it’s foolproof, but it’s something to consider as you make your plans for Nationals.
Until next time, here’s hoping that you’re never on the receiving end of a turn 1 Slith.
This article written while listening to OutKast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.”
mmyoungster at aim dot com
mmyoungster on AIM – I’m new to the instant-message thing, though, so I can’t guarantee speedy response
Later.