For this past weekend at SCG Richmond, I decided I was going to have some fun. In a conversation closing out GP New Jersey, I was challenged by one Gerald
Thompson that I didn’t get dirty enough. As he put it, “You show up with a safe deck full of A’s and never take anyone by surprise. Look at how Tom (Ross)
can leverage a pile of C’s against unsuspecting opponents.”
Perhaps I took this a little too much to heart, going as far as to throw in some D’s – Doomwake Giants – into a strategy rooted in Caleb Durward’s TCG
player 20k G/R Chord deck.
Creatures (23)
- 1 Hornet Queen
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 3 Polukranos, World Eater
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 2 Doomwake Giant
- 1 Reclamation Sage
- 3 Hornet Nest
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (24)
Spells (8)
First of all, and perhaps most importantly, this is a concept that I both enjoy playing and feel rather comfortable with. I played G/R midrange decks in
all of the non-Modern Pro Tours last season to respectable Constructed finishes, highlighted by a Naya tokens strategy in PT M15 utilizing Chord of
Calling. Beyond my admitted bias towards Xenagos the Reveler, G/R has some distinct draws over the more potentially more explosive G/x devotion strategies.
The devotion decks have a linear plan of advancing their boardstate through creatures and eventually overpowering their opponents with breakers like
Polukranos, Genesis Hydra, Nylea, and Hornet Queen. Even if they suffer in the first game, most decks in the format are able to effectively transform or in
some fashion adapt mass removal as a means to keep devotion strategies in check.
An understated aspect of Standard is how powerful the ability to continue building board position while simultaneously diversifying and forcing several
different types of answers from the opponent. By utilizing planeswalkers, Purphoros, and the ability to grab bullets and stand-alone powerful cards at
instant speed, Chord is able to create board situations of rival power level to devotion while requiring less moving parts and raw mana production.
Hornet Nest combined with Setessan Tactics not only put aggressive decks in a tough place, especially enticing with the recent rise in U/W Heroic, but they
give the deck a combo element and a means to break board stalls that punish opponents who either do not respect it or aren’t in the know. This is amplified
by the ability to tutor for Nest mid-combat or on end step to set up a Tactics. The most powerful and entertaining aspects of the deck stem from these
types of interactions combined with Purphoros, or when your new hornets are able to power up Xenagos or more Chords for some truly broken turns.
For all of these reasons, combined with the fact that the number of Mantis Riders is significantly lower than the start of the new Standard format, Chord
was very attractive to me. However, I noticed a few problems. Notably, the deck had issues with the hornet infestation throughout Standard with the rise of
Whip of Erebos decks, and experienced difficulty in punishing or even dealing with an Elspeth Sun’s Champion on turn 6. Adding a third color seemed to have
little cost as long as I didn’t push the deck too much, and Doomwake Giant was a natural answer to the aforementioned, giving myself Hornet advantage in
Green mirrors and being an awesome Chord target to clear the way for my ground creatures to pick off Elspeth. Murderous Cut helped to shore up some of the
predisposed weaknesses to fliers the deck has, and even more significantly gave the deck a means to catch up. Being able to double spell – deploying a
threat while simultaneously answering your opponent’s – is a difficult thing to do with the current state of removal in Standard, and the ability to do so
can give you a clear leg up in midrange mirrors.
As for the tournament itself, one of my two losses came to Shaheen Soorani on camera in round 4. U/x Control decks highlight some of the weaknesses of
Chord, and Soorani’s list in particular is the epitome of a nightmare, not only featuring instant speed removal, End Hostilities, and Elspeth, but six
discard spells!
For the most part, outside of a lucky draw that enabled me to beat Elspeth and then take over game 2, this match was quite a beating. Despite that, and the
fact that U/x Control decks are likely the worst types of decks to face for a Hornet’s Nest deck, I have traditionally enjoyed playing these types of games
over the last year, as they tend to be quite the interesting balancing act.
Some notes for playing against blue decks with green midrange strategies: there exists a phase in the game where you can get under them due to the fact
that there is no longer a consistently played two-mana counterspell (Nullify sees some play but not much), and the majority of their interactive cards cost
three mana. However, once the game reaches the third or fourth turn, there exists a balance where you must constantly choose whether to extend into their
open mana or pass. The difficulty for playing against Esper in particular is that you are forced to make every kind of decision, the fact that they have
access to counter magic, Hero’s Downfall, and ultimately End Hostilities and Elspeth, makes it nearly impossible for your sequencing to matchup perfectly
against their draw. Generally speaking, however, it is desirable to blank their open mana as much as possible while attacking and making land drops with
something like an early Courser. The ideal scenario is that you are able to land a Xenagos, which has the capability of running away with the game by
itself, forcing your opponent into awkward situations to answer it, and thus, allowing you to easily resolve your spells. At some point in the game,
however, just as with Sphinx’s Revelation in the past, it is critical to start forcing them to tie up their mana in attempts to not allow them an easy
window to resolve Dig Through Time or Jace’s Ingenuity. If you can force them into hard decisions, it is possible for your small board advantage and
incremental damage to start to choke them out of the game, with the threat of an end step Chord being a fine test spell.
Going forward, the fact that drawing multiple Nests against midrange and control strategies requires other cards to get true value from them is a clear
weakness in the deck, and as such, it is likely that the numbers of Nests should be reduced and the combination be more of a Chordable afterthought since
Tactics functions as a great breaker by itself in addition to doing a ton of work with Nest. The games where I felt like I was in complete control is where
I was able to take an early aggressive stance allowing the synergies of the deck to snowball. As a result, I believe the deck should lean towards being a
little more proactive. I’ll probably start by shaving the number of Nests and Tactics for Goblin Rabblemasters. I think the deck is an excellent and fun
choice if you’re looking to get out of the Abzan/Mardu/Heroic rat race and should have a solid matchup against the Jeskai Tokens deck that won the Standard
open last weekend to boot.
Legacy
Leading up to New Jersey, I was talking to BBD about Legacy and tested various iterations of control and Stoneblade before we settled on close to the same
75. I fell a bit short, but as everyone knows, BBD took down the tournament, perhaps in the process cementing Jeskai Stoneblade as the premier Treasure
Cruise strategy. As a result, I was looking for an edge in the quasi mirrors, and telling everyone that would listen that I was going to be trying an
untested version maindeck Counterbalance + Sensei’s Divining Top in my Stoneblade deck after seeing Bob Huang’s sideboard strategy in his Jeskai Delver
deck. After being called an idiot by a few folks, I only succeeded in swaying the mind of one man: Ben Friedman. Thankfully he did not play the same list I
did:
Creatures (7)
Lands (19)
Spells (34)
Even though my tournament was a brutal affair, relatively short and sweet, I learned a lot of things quickly. The idea was sound, but my execution was way
off. My logic for Daze was such: that I needed another actual two mana spell in my deck, and that the omission of Spell Pierce would leave me soft to combo
decks. Further, I could aggressively push my threats and defend with Daze. This line of thinking was flawed for a few reasons. I was no longer the high
velocity Pyromancer deck from last week, in reality I was going to be taking a controlling stance in every matchup where Daze would be good, and everyone
else could easily play around it. The inclusion of Top also just made me more mana hungry in general – I acknowledged this by adding a land – but should
have realized that Daze conflicted with this strategy completely. More often than not I was stuck with a bad card in my deck but couldn’t really remove it
because my deck was misbuilt. Having the Counterbalance lock gave me an alternate path against combo decks where I no longer had to aggressively find a
clock and instead could leverage the lock as a win condition. In addition, the sideboard picks up a lot of slack and that has something I have always been
comfortable with traditionally while playing Jeskai strategies, so why get cold feet now?
I kid with Friedman about his love affair for Snapcaster Mage, but in reality it is actually great in this deck, and despite some of his choices I disagree
with, like maindeck Flusterstorm, his last minute tuning elevated my concept and his finish reflects that. Instead of fully embracing the deck as a
Stoneblade deck, in my head I was stuck as some odd mesh of all the Jeskai strategies. Ben commented that his Dig Through Time overperformed and his
Cruises were of little consequence throughout the tournament, and that makes sense considering the lack of Probe and the beauty of Dig Through Time being
able to find both pieces of the combo.
I think this could be the next evolution of Stoneblade, and I find the argument of it being a worse version of Miracles flawed since that deck is so
utterly reliant on Sensei’s Divining Top to do anything much of consequence, while this deck has the privilege of just playing so many good threats and
cards in general while having a firm trump and an actual nut draw against any low curve Jeskai or combo strategies. Perhaps I’m wrong, and even if I’m not,
it might take a long time to find the right list and direction, but for now this is where I want to start working:
Creatures (8)
Lands (20)
Spells (32)
This iteration is no fuss good stuff, taking the best aspects of the Stoneblade strategy and incorporating Counterbalance + Top as a trump like I
originally intended. I’m happy that Ben both fixed a few of the glaring errors I made, and got paid off for it.
I will be at SCG Atlanta and likely running back both these strategies, a little wiser and more prepared from putting myself in more unfamiliar territory
than I am used to doing this past weekend. I can’t wait to see how it goes.