Man, that was a cheesy opening blurb. The pro in question, if you’re curious, is babyfaced GP: Oakland Top-4-er Conley Woods, who will see his name here in the opening sentences and then skip the rest of this article. It’s probably for the best.
As of this printing, I will be one day removed from the first of two Extended PTQs that I will have the luxury of participating in, and I am stoked. I really love Extended – there always seems to be so many things that you can do, so many different decks that you have the opportunity of playing. You can play one of the established “big decks” (of which there is a dozen or so), or you can go outside of the mainstream masses and pick up one of the forty or fifty different decks that have been available for the last six years.
You may just need to dodge a bullet or two if you go rogue.
Last year, I was all set to play Desire. I was very comfortable with the deck, having played it in pretty much every format where it was legal, and I had practiced the draws and doing the math. I felt like I knew what I needed from each hand in order to “get there.” Then, two weeks before my PTQ, Luis Scott-Vargas won GP Los Angeles with Desire, announcing to the entire world – or at least the entire world with Internet access – that Desire was back and heavily viable in that year’s Extended format. When I arrived at my PTQ, rather than surprising an entire field unprepared for a Storm combo deck, I walked into the room and overheard numerous people saying, “We need to find sideboard cards for Desire.” Heck, I even played a mirror match in round 1!
So, it was with bated breath that I watched this years Grand Prix in Oakland to see if my deck choice was going to be the surprise darling yet again. Luckily, no such thing happened this year. It’s very likely that I’ll be the only person in Denver playing Dragonstorm… and that’s how I want it.
Makahito Mihara and Worlds 2006
This story begins, of course, with Makahito Mihara. While there were a number of people who did well in the Standard portion of Worlds 2006 with Dragonstorm (most notably Benedict Klauser), it was Mihara’s actual World Championship that really showed that a nine-mana sorcery can win big matches in the right environment. Mihara’s deck was focused in the exact spot we want to be in Extended right now: hitting Dragonstorm as soon as possible, most likely on T4 when a Lotus Bloom comes out of hibernation and gives us our first spell towards a Storm count and three free mana.
Here’s Mihara’s deck:
Makahito Mihara’s World Championship deck 2006:
1 Calciform Pools
1 Dreadship Reef
8 Island
4 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
4 Steam Vents
4 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Hunted Dragon
4 Dragonstorm
4 Gigadrowse
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Remand
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Telling Time
Rare Cost Summary:
Shivan Reef ($2.49 x 4 = $9.96)
Steam Vents ($11.99 x 4 = $47.96)
Bogardan Hellkite ($4.99 x 4 = $19.96)
Hunted Dragon ($0.75 x 2 = $1.50)
Dragonstorm ($1.99 x 4 = $7.96)
Lotus Bloom ($4.99 x 4 = $19.96)
Mihara’s deck ran as many accelerant spells as it possibly could at the time – Seething Song, Rite of Flame, and Lotus Bloom. Sleight of Hand and Telling Time dug for the Dragonstorm once you had enough mana acceleration to Storm into a winning amount of dragons. Gigadrowse and Remand provided some disruption to give you time to set up the combo, and then to protect it once you were ready to go off. These three elements – mana, card filtering, and disruption – are all necessary pieces of this deck, and need to be incorporated into any Extended version that we build now.
Mihara’s 22 land says a little something about the format in which this deck was played. Despite the presence of a Gruul aggro deck, the field was primarily composed of more controlling decks (like Solar Flare and Blue-White Tron) which allowed for a longer set-up time. In the finals, Mihara was able to build up enough counters on his storage lands to cast THREE Gigadrowses in the same turn – and still cast Dragonstorm. We don’t have that luxury in today’s Extended, where Dark Depths can produce a 20/20 token on turn 2, and decks like Hypergenesis and Living End can cast their three-casting-cost Cascade spells and quickly establish a favorable board position on turn 3. Even the aggro decks that we are facing are capable of blistering starts, which means any deck built now will need to be able to go off as soon as possible.
Patrick Chapin and Worlds 2007
Patrick Chapin redesign of the Dragonstorm deck took Worlds 2007 by surprise, and very nearly won him a World Championship. Rather than focusing on the fast mana aspect of Mihara’s deck and “playing fair” by actually paying to cast Dragonstorm, Chapin’s deck relied on the power of Spinerock Knoll and direct damage to “cheat” a Dragonstorm onto the stack for, arguably, free.
Dragonstorm, Patrick Chapin, Worlds 2007
4 Fungal Reaches
4 Molten Slagheap
12 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Spinerock Knoll
4 Dragonstorm
4 Grapeshot
4 Incinerate
4 Lotus Bloom
3 Pyromancer’s Swath
3 Rift Bolt
4 Rite of Flame
4 Shock
2 Tarfire
Rare Cost Summary:
Spinerock Knoll ($0.99 x 4 = $3.96)
Bogardan Hellkite ($4.99 x 4 = $19.96)
Dragonstorm ($1.99 x 4 = $7.96)
Lotus Bloom ($4.99 x 4 = $19.96)
Pyromancer’s Swath ($1.49 x 3 = $4.97)
Chapin’s deck was much less likely to hard-cast Dragonstorm, although it could be done (and he did so in Game 1 of the finals) – but the deck was also capable of winning without the Dragonstorm, by finding Pyromancer’s Swath and dealing large Grapeshot damage. It had no disruption at all, but again, this is a product of the environment – in this Standard format, the most likely obstacle on the other side of the board was going to be Thoughtseize, which didn’t affect your game plan of tucking a Dragonstorm under a Spinerock Knoll. The only real countermagic that was being seen was Rune Snag, and since you were less likely to be hard-casting a Dragonstorm, even Rune Snag was less likely to interrupt your process by countering a mana acceleration spell.
At some point, I’d like to explore this deck further in terms of an Extended rebuild (now that it has access to Lightning Bolt), but for now I’m focusing on the mana ramping version.
Luis Scott-Vargas and Desire 2009
The Desire deck I ran in PTQs last year had a lot of similarities to Mihara’s Dragonstorm deck – plenty of acceleration for early attempts to “go off,” card digging to find key combo pieces, and some minor disruption. For my qualifiers this year, I’ve taken the skeleton of last year’s Desire deck and replaced the Mind’s Desire engine with the Dragonstorm engine. But, since I can’t actually FIND that decklist (evidently I never wrote about it?), we’ll have to settle for LSV’s list from Los Angeles:
TEPS, Luis-Scott Vargas, GP Los Angeles 2009
3 Cascade Bluffs
4 Dreadship Reef
3 Flooded Strand
2 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Steam Vents
4 Desperate Ritual
2 Electrolyze
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Manamorphose
4 Mind’s Desire
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Ponder
4 Remand
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
2 Sleight of Hand
2 Tendrils of Agony
Rare Cost Summary:
Cascade Bluffs ($3.99 x 3 = $11.97)
Flooded Strand ($19.99 x 3 = $59.97)
Polluted Delta ($21.99 x 3 = $65.97)
Steam Vents ($11.99 x 3 = $35.97)
Lotus Bloom ($4.99 x 4 = $19.96)
Mind’s Desire ($1.49 x 4 = $5.96)
I know I ran Serum Visions of Sleight of Hand – it gave you less flexibility in the card you drew, but dug you deeper past junk if you needed it.
As a deck, Desire was a mana hog. Because you couldn’t reliably win off of a Desire with four Storm copies, you ended up casting a lot more spells over your “going off” turn, which necessitated a lot of mana. There are full sets of four accelerants in there, plus Manamorphose to do your color fixing and give you an extra card (and an extra free Storm count). If you start with this frame and adapt it to Dragonstorm, you have about a dozen slots you can play with – the Desires themselves, the Tendrils, the Manamorphoses (since you never need double-Blue during the turn you go off) plus the Sleight of Hand and the Electrolyze, I think.
Building a Better (?) Dragonstorm
The landbase: LSV’s deck ran six fetchlands and five lands that they could fetch. The new Dragonstorm will obviously start with four Scalding Tarns as fetchlands, but does it need more? It’s very likely you’ll never fetch out a basic Mountain – and it’s possible that the deck shouldn’t have a basic Mountain in it at all, except as solely a fallback should a storage land get hit by Ghost Quarter and you absolutely NEED the red mana. So if a fifth fetchland enters into the deck, it should be a Misty Rainforest. We don’t need Cascade Bluffs as we should have plenty of sources of Red and Blue, and the need for double-Blue mana is less here than it was in Desire. Mihara’s deck ran two storage lands; Chapin’s ran eight, and LSV’s ran four. I’ve been testing with anywhere from two to six, and I think three or four is the right number – probably four.
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents
4 Dreadship Reef
1 Mountain
1 Cascade Bluffs
5 Island
I also tried out Halimar Depths, but I was honestly less than impressed, even with fetchlands and Ponder to shuffle my deck.
The mana accelerants: I pulled all four of the accelerants from last year’s Desire deck. In today’s Extended, everything happens at rapid speeds. Hypergenesis plonks down 10/10 pro-everything guys and Zoo and Boros attack for brazillions on turn 4. I want to give myself every opportunity to be able to cast Dragonstorm once I have it in my hand.
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Seething Song
4 Rite of Flame
4 Desperate Ritual
One thing I’ve started doing as a result of playtesting the deck is looking at mana accelerant cards as if I’m counting cards at a Vegas blackjack table. Lotus Bloom is +3. Seething Song is +2. Rite of Flame and Desperate Ritual scale, as the first one is +1 and the second is +2. Lands are +1. When I draw my opening seven, I quickly do the math and see how close to nine I am. It gives me a good idea about how far I’ll have to go to get to Dragonstorm – and what I need to dig for with my card-drawing cards. It probably has nothing to do with the fact that I just was watching ’21’ with Kevin Spacey on TV last week. I’m thinking about taking a Sharpie and writing the values on the picture of the card. Think I’d get in trouble for that?
The card-drawing: Ponder and Peer Through Depths make a return here. Ponder is just a great opening salvo, setting up the next turns, or getting rid of nasty cards and (hopefully) getting better ones. The beauty of Peer Through Depths in this deck is that you’ll never be forced to draw into a Hellkite off of it. Any time where a land will make the difference, a mana accelerant will do the same thing. Everything that you COULD get from a Peer, you will want in your hand. The fact that you can splice Desperate Ritual onto it is just gravy – there will be games where you are being stared down by lethal on the board, you have enough mana to Dragonstorm, you just Don’t Have The Storm – and this trick will give you a shot to draw it and still have mana to cast it.
4 Ponder
4 Peer Through Depths
The combo: Dragonstorms and Bogardan Hellkites go without saying. But is that enough? Mihara ran two Hunted Dragons to give himself a hasty attacker should he end up with a Hellkite in hand, but his game expected to go a lot longer than ours, meaning he had a larger chance to draw those guys. Chapin’s deck forewent any extra dragons, but had enough burn to blow up a street block in Chicago to back it up, AND there was the fact that you already had to have dealt seven damage to your opponent to trigger the Knoll, meaning that three Dragons were lethal. In today’s Extended, thanks to Thopter Foundry and Kitchen Finks and sometimes Martyr of Sands, we can’t be assured that Storming up four Bogardan Hellkites is even going to be enough to kill the opponent, which means we need an extra dragon or two. My choice is Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund – he plays well with the deck, and he gives your whole team haste to ensure that you can swing in post-Dragonstorm if need be.
4 Dragonstorm
4 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
The disruption: Remand is probably the best choice of counterspell available to this deck. It doesn’t have any targeting restrictions like Negate or Spell Snare, it isn’t conditional like Mana Leak, and it draws a card on top of that. In most cases, you are just looking to buy yourself a turn, so the “downside” of getting to see the spell again next turn shouldn’t matter – and in the instance where you can Remand a Hypergenesis or a Living End, it’s way more fun. Mihara’s deck ran Gigadrowse; LSV ran Electrolyze last year. This version of the deck started with Magma Jet – the need to split the damage up wasn’t as important as last year (when Elves! was crazy popular), and Magma Jet handled every other problematic two-drop – Gaddock Teeg, Meddling Mage, and Ethersworn Canonist. But as time has gone on and testing has gone on, I’ve realized that a two-damage spell really isn’t helping much in the face of today’s aggro decks, especially the Zoo decks that are now running things like Bant Charm. I’ve decided to go back to Gigadrowse, and to run some sort of mass removal in the sideboard. Gaddock Teeg and Meddling Mage still die to Firespout, after all – and so do a lot of their running mates.
4 Remand
4 Gigadrowse
Meeson and Dragonstorm 2010
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents
4 Dreadship Reef
1 Mountain
1 Cascade Bluffs
5 Island
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Seething Song
4 Rite of Flame
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Ponder
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Dragonstorm
4 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
4 Remand
4 Gigadrowse
Rare Cost Summary:
Scalding Tarn ($11.99 x 4 = $47.96)
Steam Vents ($11.99 x 4 = $47.96)
Bogardan Hellkite ($4.99 x 4 = $19.96)
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund ($2.99 x 1 = $2.99)
Dragonstorm ($1.99 x 4 = $7.96)
Lotus Bloom ($4.99 x 4 = $19.96)
That’s sixty – and it’s the sixty I’ll be playing tomorrow up in Denver. And it all costs less than a playset of Tarmogoyfs. Course, so does my cable. The sideboard is still in flux but will contain some amounts of Firespout (for Zoo), Blood Moon (for Hypergenesis), Echoing Truth (for giant Marit Lage tokens), and maybe Pact of Negation. And maybe something I haven’t thought of yet. Next week, I should be back with a report from Denver, more thoughts on the deck, and hopefully a blue envelope! If you follow me on Twitter, look for updates all day long.
Until next week…
Dave
dave dot massive at gmail and davemassive at twitter and facebook