Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. The 2010s were this weekend and there was much innovation abound. Now we got the decklists and we’re barrelling toward the Nashville Open this weekend where I’ll be live and in person commentating all day. Let’s go!
Your New Scars Metagame
So last week the 2010s happened and were a huge success. Players all around the US and Canada battled for the title of State and Provincial Champion. But I think the real winners here were the creative deckbuilding we got to see. Who were the winners in Scars of Mirrodin? Let’s look at some decklists.
First up is probably my favorite of all, Metal Red:
Creatures (19)
- 4 Goblin Chieftain
- 4 Goblin Bushwhacker
- 4 Goblin Guide
- 4 Memnite
- 1 Molten-Tail Masticore
- 2 Spikeshot Elder
Lands (10)
Spells (31)
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 11 Mountain
- 1 Basilisk Collar
- 1 Darksteel Axe
- 3 Mox Opal
- 3 Galvanic Blast
- 4 Kuldotha Rebirth
- 1 Infiltration Lens
- 3 Panic Spellbomb
Sideboard
How cool is this deck? What a crazy direction to go! This gives you the Goblin trifecta of Buschwhacker, Chieftain, Guide and a new breakout, Spikeshot Elder. Ole Spikeshot here saw a ton of play in a variety of red decks, as players have finally woken up to the fact that activated direct damage is pretty ridiculous with almost any kind of pump effect.
But the real star in this deck is the interaction with all of its artifacts. Hey look, it’s Mox Opal, being all Mythic and badass. There’s four Memnite, happily jumping into the fray and helping you achieve Metalcraft. But look at the Artifacts: Collar, Axe, one of my new favorites Infiltration Lens and is that Panic Spellbomb? That’s three Panic Spellbombs, thank you very much. Cantrips in a red deck are hard to find, and as you can imagine, stopping their Sea Gate Oracle or Wall of Omens from blocking your Darksteel Axe-wielding Spikeshot Elder while also drawing a card is good times.
But the real breakout of this deck? Kuldotha Rebirth. Let’s imagine a line of play. Turn 1 you play a Mox Opal that you don’t plan on actually getting Metalcraft for, but simply pay a Red mana and then put three 1/1 Goblins onto the battlfield. Let’s say you’re a lucksack and do it again next turn with another mountain and another Mox Opal or perhaps you’re just the actual stoneblade and you sacrifice Panic Spellbomb, pay the red to draw a card, and get another three 1/1 Goblins. Next turn, you play Goblin Chieftain and serve.
Of course, this is taking another trip to Magical Christmas land, but this deck didn’t just accidentally win Georgia States, it won because it’s a brilliant design and can burst outta nowhere with a lot of guys and damage. Love it.
More winners? How about Lux Cannon? Yup, putting a hole in the world was never so much fun. Let’s look at another amazing decklist, Bluecraft:
Spells (53)
- 23 Island
- 4 Mana Leak
- 2 Voltaic Key
- 4 Everflowing Chalice
- 2 All Is Dust
- 4 Preordain
- 3 Contagion Clasp
- 3 Mox Opal
- 2 Stoic Rebuttal
- 3 Ratchet Bomb
- 3 Lux Cannon
Sideboard
Now this is some innovation. Again, we see the illustrious Mox Opal, and there’s our favorite $75 bill, Jace, the Mind Sculptor. That said, what makes this unique? Well, Contagion Clasp seems pretty awesome in a deck with Lux Cannon, Everflowing Chalice and Planeswalkers, while the Voltaic Keys power up Ratchet Bombs with wild abandon.
Mana Leak and Stoic Rebuttal give your permission suite, and there’s Everyman’s Titan, Wurmcoil Engine, here to save the day. You reset the board with All is Dust while you smooth draws with Preordain. This is my kind of deck.
But let’s take a wider picture. More forest, less trees as it were. Taking a look at StarCityGames’ unique Metagame Summary, we see that U/W Control dominated the meta. Let’s look at an example list from Ross Holladay in Utah:
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (16)
Spells (23)
Here are your basic U/W Control components:
Instant-speed Permission and removal? Condemn and Mana Leak.
Game-winning Monsters? Baneslayer Angel, Chimeric Mass, Frost Titan and Sun Titan say what’s up.
Sorcery speed removal? Journey to Nowhere and Day of Judgment
Planeswalkers? How you doing Daddy Jace and Baby Jace, Gideon Jura and Venser, the Sojourner
And that’s your deck, in a nutshell. What do you do? Well, you use Sea Gate Oracle for card advantage and mucking up the ground, while your permission stops their plays and your Planeswalkers provide such an overwhelming advantage when combined with Titans of the Sun and Frost variety that it’s often far too much for any deck to keep up.
Defeating these decks requires a deck that can power past them in speed or drop scary monsters they must continually deal with. Enter stage left, Valakut Ramp, our second most played archetype in the 2010s. Here’s a winning list from John Iglesias in Florida:
Creatures (10)
Lands (10)
Spells (40)
- 3 Lightning Bolt
- 5 Forest
- 13 Mountain
- 4 Harrow
- 4 Khalni Heart Expedition
- 3 Summoning Trap
- 4 Explore
- 4 Cultivate
Sideboard
Now this deck is much unchanged: You ramp with Explores, Cultivates, Harrows, Oracle of Mul Daya and Khalni Heart Expeditions. Then you drop the fatty boom-booms in the form of Primeval Titan and Avenger of Zendikar.
This deck is the culmination of simply putting every ramp spell in Standard into a deck, and using the combination of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and Mountains to give you a plan B. Who cares if they Day of Judgment your board when your Valakuts are active and every Mountain is a Lightning Bolt or better?
Needless to say, these stomped pretty heavily. But another deck got almost the exact same percentage, with much the same game plan. Take a look at Eldrazi Green, as seen winning Nova Scotia via Mark MacGregor:
Creatures (19)
- 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 4 Joraga Treespeaker
- 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
- 4 Overgrown Battlement
- 2 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
- 4 Primeval Titan
- 3 Wurmcoil Engine
Lands (24)
Spells (17)
Sideboard
Now if you thought the last list was rampy, holy crap does this deck generate a ton of mana. You’ve got Joraga Treespeakers, Overgrown Battlements, Cultivates, Explores, Growth Spasms, it’s all here peeps. The benefit to this list is running Baneslayer Thrinax, er, I mean Wurmcoil Engine and Summoning Trap. Good ole Summoning Trap, messing with blue players something nasty these days. Mana Leak that Overgrown Battlement? Oh look, it’s Emrakul, the I Win Lols in my top seven. Nice. Counterspell.
But look at these three archetypes. These three decks made up a whopping 40% of your metagame. That means that almost half of the time a player sat down to battle, they were facing these powerhouses.
What was beyond these three? Why, Red Deck Wins of course! Only one of them went all the way, Brian Siu’s version in New Hampshire:
Creatures (14)
Lands (14)
Spells (32)
Again, there’s that Panic Spellbomb. This card is good stuff folks. I know it looks bad, as all of the spellbombs do very minor things, but not being able to block and drawing a card is rare in a red deck, and this one also features the newly-discovered Assault Strobe. Yeah, so how about some monster double-strikin on your Kiln Fiend? Oh, hey, that’s a 4/2 double striker with a single spell. You got a Lightning Bolt and they got no blockers? Take 17.
Yeah, Assault Strobe is Serious Business and is ready to see some serious play. Is that a Zektar Shrine Expedition I see, again, ripe for double striking goodness? Mark of Mutiny your Baneslayer Angel, Assault Strobe, hit you for 12 and gain 12? The wackiness just goes on and on.
But where’s Koth? In the sideboard? Pfft. This man needs to be a star in the decks he appears in. Let’s take a look at one, Mike Stewart’s winning Big Red list from Nevada:
Creatures (20)
Planeswalkers (4)
Spells (36)
Sideboard
Oh hell yeah! Now this is an exciting archetype. We’ve got Wurmcoil Engines, Iron Myrs, Everflowing Chalices, Flame Slashes, Inferno Titans, the goodies are all here!
Now a few combos for this one include the whopping four-of Cunning Sparkmage with your two-of Basilisk Collars holding the fort down for ole Koth. Koth of course powers out Molten-Tail Mastictores that will happily throw your chump blocking Iron Myrs from the graveyard to the face of the nearest opponent. Flame Slash is a perfect answer to Wall of Omens and Overgrown Battlement, though a 4/4 mountain bashing in from Koth is pretty good too.
In the sideboard we see the Eldrazi Green and Valakut Ramp-hating Tunnel Ignus, a card I suggest all players of Mountains get their playset of soon. Contagion Clasp works amazing well with the deck, but is in the sideboard as it sometimes blanks, particularly against slow control decks.
Speaking of, let’s show you one of the many Jace, the Mind Sculptor decks. First up? Good ole American Red/White/Blue control that won in Colorado from Michael Svein:
Creatures (6)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (23)
This deck, as originally seen in Patrick Chapin Premium article the Friday before, he’s designed another winner. This is a fantastic control deck. It has all sorts of angles. Let’s take a look:
Early game you’re holding the ground with a full complement of Sea Gate Oracles, messing with their mana thanks to Spreading Seas, countering spells with Mana Leak, smoothing draws with Preordain and stopping quick onslaughts with Ratchet Bomb or Pyroclasm.
Mid-game, you’re countering spells with Stoic Rebuttal, playing Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Venser, the Sojourner.
Late game you take their permanents with Volition Reins, overwhelm with Planeswalker advantage, or beat them to death with Frost Titan or Celestial Colonnade. It all gels together with scary efficiency and if you haven’t played with or against this powerhouse, I’d give it a shot.
The last archetype we’re going over this week is Jeremiah Edwards’ first place deck from Idaho, Kor Weenie:
Creatures (31)
- 4 Ornithopter
- 4 Kor Duelist
- 4 Kor Outfitter
- 4 Kor Skyfisher
- 4 Stoneforge Mystic
- 3 Squadron Hawk
- 4 Memnite
- 4 Glint Hawk
Lands (8)
Spells (20)
This deck, again, debuting in Patrick Chapin article series weeks ago, is crazy sexy and something to be aware of. Sometimes you get the double Glint Hawk / Ornithopter / Quest for the Holy Relic draw and just get there. Other times you eek out your card advantage with other equipment like Basilisk Collar and Sword of Body and Mind. A straightforward strategy, but definitely fun and destroy a control deck before they have time to stabilize with Day of Judgment and scary planeswalkers.
So who were the winners and losers in this metagame? Let’s take a look at some stats via the SCG-exclusive complete card breakdown:
Question: what was the most played card for the 2010s? Answer: Tectonic Edge. This guy deals with all of the troublesome manlands, and is a required stopgap from them taking over the metagame.
Question: What was the most played nonland card for the 2010s? Also known as The Truth, Jace, the Mind Sculptor is in the running for one of the best cards ever printed ever, and his light has never shown so brightly. He’s in every format and he’s taking over this Standard metagame. If your deck doesn’t have the tools, you better get em.
Question: Number one sideboarded card. Ready? Why it’s Obstinate Baloth of course, that wacky Jund killer has stuck around to make sure Red Deck Wins suffers just as mightily. If there is one creature a burn spell-wielding player doesnt’ want to see, it’s this one.
Question: True or False: Vengevine is in the top 50 cards played in the 2010s. Answer? False. Vengevine wasn’t used nearly as much as one would expect, falling all the way to 78th place, behind Molten-Tail Masticore, a card I feel is a bit scarier and more interesting. That said, I don’t think this rank will last–Vengevine is too good and abusable for him to stay ignored for long.
Question: True or False: Elves is a real deck again. Answer? Brian Boss would like to welcome you to his winning list from Missouri:
Creatures (27)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Elvish Archdruid
- 3 Nissa's Chosen
- 4 Arbor Elf
- 4 Joraga Treespeaker
- 4 Fauna Shaman
- 4 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (22)
Spells (5)
Sideboard
So yeah, that is a playset of Ezuri, Renegade Leader winning the tournament, and yes, that is Nissa Revane, finally seeing more play! Oh, hi Genesis Wave. You seem amazing in this deck, and I bet you work like charm. Have you ever turned over multiple planeswalkers with this card? Just wait until you do, it’s like a gold bar dipped in ice cream and sprinkled with dollar bills. Aww yeah. Good times really doesn’t describe it, now does it?
So that’s it for this week folks. This weekend I’ll be live and broadcasting from the StarCityGames Nashville Open courtesy of GGSLive, so feel free to swing by and say hello. Until next time Magic players, this is Evan Erwin. Tapping the cards…so you don’t have to.
– Evan “misterorange” Erwin
Community Manager, StarCityGames.com