The Great Champs Experiment: Part 7 – The Tempo Decks

What exactly is a tempo deck? My own definition is more then likely a simple one, and it can be put up for debate. I feel that a tempo deck is any of many decks that use a creature beatdown strategy and back up those men with something else besides burn spells. It may be hand disruption, countermagic, or land denial. I choose to ignore burn when discussing tempo, because I feel that any spell that can go upside the head is one that fits into an aggressive strategy. I can go further with the burn comments, as I feel that if the deck does not showcase burn (unlike Gruul or Zoo decks, which pack plenty), then tempo decks can freely run a few burn spells. Decks like U/W Weenie or Sea Stompy can take advantage of the burn and still have enough of a tempo-based strategy.

Is my definition more then likely wrong? Yes.
Will people make fun of me because of it? Yes.
Will Ben Goodman leave comments about me being a stainsy noob? God, I hope not.
Do I like my overly simplified definitions? Yes, so deal with it. Smiley face goes here.

Enough of the discussion! I am sure you guys just clicked here to get a bunch of decklists, and that is what I have to offer for you today. I have lists for Sea Stompy, Critical Mass (Netherlands style), Magnivore (classified as tempo because of the mana denial), Orzhov (tempo because of hand disruption and non-burn creature removal), French-Style White Weenie, and Blue/Black/Green Tempo.

What it Does
This deck simply takes advantage of one of the mana accelerants to power out quick men that can provide some form of card advantage, be it card draw or some sort of removal effect. This deck is good because it can beat down quickly, and back up its men with protection from the removal effects that other decks pack. We have the best counterspell in Standard (Remand), and Mana Leak gets around just about everything in the early game. One of the better sideboard plans that this deck gets is the ability to add even more disruption out of the sideboard, in the form of Cryoclasm and Stone Rain. After boarding it can play like a three-color land destruction deck (a la 8StoneRain.dec), and I am not aware of many decks that can withstand land destruction starting on turn 2.

What Does Time Spiral Add to the Deck?
Call of the Herd and Psionic Blast are both noteworthy cards that can fit into this deck. Yes, this deck can easily support Char as well, but if one is forced to pick between the Char and Blast then the better call is Blast, because of the prevalence of Protection from Red (Soltari Priest and Paladin En-Vec) in the format. I am not comfortable in maindecking Psionic Blast, as I think the creatures in the deck can just win by themselves. The last card to add to the deck is Gemstone Mine. The three-color decks like this and Zoo have long taken damage to make sure they can stick to their game plan, and this is a temporary source of colored mana that does not deliver a donkey-punch to the gut every time they tap it or put it into play. Spike Feeder would be another card to consider, but I do not think there is a place for it here.

What it Does
Welcome to Sea Stompy with the omission of Red. This deck is just a basic creature beatdown strategy backed up with countermagic. Think of this deck as being similar to Blue/Green Madness, without the really broken two-drops.

What Does Time Spiral Add to the Deck?
Like most Green-based decks, Call of the Herd is an automatic inclusion, and we get to mess around with Psionic Blast. We can play with Unstable Mutation, considering how many of these men have some form of evasion. Looter Il-Kor was originally Thought Courier, but why play with that guy when the Looter is essentially the same man, plus it deals one point of damage? I also think that this deck benefits from Krosan Grip, and I think the extra mana in the cost is worth the fact that this spell is pretty much uncounterable (sadly, we do not get it when Sensei’s Divining Top and Umezawa’s Jitte were heavily played). I want this deck to beat down quickly so it can take advantage of the counterspells, so I am choosing not to maindeck Blast in favor of the creature enchantments. Mystic Snake is a welcome addition, giving the deck a hard counter and another beater.

What it Does
Vore takes land destruction to brand new level. You still start off on turn 2 with a Boomerang, and curve up with disruption spells ranging from Stone Rain to Avalanche Riders. When all the early disruption is used up, you refill the hand with some card draw, and end the game with a devastating Wildfire and Magnivore combination. There’s a “natural” good game against control decks with these sixty cards, but the deck is at a disadvantage against the beatdown decks of the format. Pyroclasm is only marginal in this format, and if the game goes long and the opponent can stabilize to point where the land destruction spells are useless (or, God forbid, they play Flagstones of Trokair – very good against you, and playable even if Magnivore were not around), then you are going to lose. You can see that the sideboard packs a lot of removal for the aggressive matches.

What Does Time Spiral Add to the Deck?
Not much of anything. We have cute storm land destruction spells that cost infinite. We have Demolish variants, and we have an Invitational winner in Darwin Kastle. We can play with the countermagic of Cancel (not likely), or the pinpoint removal of Psionic Blast (which finds a home in the sideboard for the aggressive matches). We can also play Wipe Away (which I feel is worse then Repeal for the decks we need bounce against).

What it Does
Beats down with some of the best White creatures in the format, backs it up with some dangerous card advantage, and takes control of the game with the removal of Castigate and Mortify.

What Does Time Spiral Add to the Deck?
Not much. I think Knight of the Holy Nimbus is the only really fantastic inclusion for the deck, as his ability is going to make it hard for the creature matches to push through the needed damage sometime. Disenchant will see play out of the board, and it sure is nice to see that card back in the format after a few years away. Stupor should also see some play out of the board. Funeral Charm might also be a good fit for the deck. I am pretty sure that the effects of Time Spiral will not touch this deck very much.

What it Does
Imagine a Mono-Green Aggro deck that has countermagic as well as pump spells. Oh yeah, you have to imagine that it runs two colors. This deck features an almost unheard-of amount of creatures with evasion. We have twelve men with shadow, four men with protection from color, three with flying, and four men that are very hard to handle in combat. We have a great pump spell in Unstable Mutation, and just like every other deck featured here today we have the best countermagic that aggro decks need to pack.

What Does Time Spiral Add to the Deck?
Psionic Blast, Serra Avenger (one of the best aggressive spells in the new set. I have changed my stance since the preview article came out), Soltari Priest, Looter Il-Kor (I felt the deck needed some form of card filtering), Drafter Il-Dal (I am not excited about the prospect of having to a pay mana every turn to keep him, though he does combo well with Unstable Mutation), and Unstable Mutation (this can also be a kill spell if you have blockers, but if you have blockers you should be killing the guy with an Unstable Mutation on your own dude – I never said it was an optimal plan).

What it Does
This deck is pretty much Vipies with a Blue splash in place of Demonfire. We can gain card advantage from Dark Confidant, Ohran Viper, and Shadowmage Infiltrator (who should be a lot better this time around). In place of the massive X spell, we get to run countermagic and some targeted removal. I know that this style of deck is one that is looked at whenever there is chance, because the combination of fat beats, countermagic, and removal makes for a very good option.

What Does Time Spiral Add to the Deck?
Simply put: Call of the Herd and Shadowmage Infiltrator. Although they do not make the deck, Dimir Cutpurse or Hypnotic Specter work well in the Johnny slot. Gemstone Mine helps out from the damage that the dual lands and Elves of Deep Shadow can cause. Psionic Blast is the last piece of what could be a potentially powerful puzzle for the maindeck. We also get to run Stupor out of the sideboard, and we can afford to place some anti-Blood Moon technology in Krosan Grip.

…

This is all I have to say about the potential tempo decks of the format. Join me as we go over the Blue-based control decks in the next issue, and then finish up with the remaining non-Blue control decks (and a couple of the cuter combo decks) that will see some play in the new format.

Thanks for reading.

JXC