It’s the eve of the U.S. National Qualifiers. In the last two weeks, we’ve gone from having a giant Jund-colored elephant in the room to having the metagame drastically upset, thanks to the StarCityGames.com Atlanta Standard Open introducing us all to the new million-dollar solution deck: UWR Planeswalkers, affectionately dubbed things like “Super Friends.”
Thanks to some intrepid friends (and to Mike Flores twitter account, which convinced me to last-minute audible to it over playing Jund), I had access to a very close semblance of the UWR “Superfriends” deck that won the StarCityGames.com Atlanta Standard Open – that very same weekend, in a PTQ in Denver. The short story is that, at 5-1 in round 7, I lost to eventual winner Tom Ma playing a very cool Grixis deck that maindecked Sedraxis Specter but still topped out at Cruel Ultimatum. Since then, I’ve read a lot of discussion about two things: One, how Jund is now the third or fourth most-powerful deck in Standard, and two, how ridiculous it is that the current “top decks in the format” need not only a $70 planeswalker (Jace) but also now a $50 planeswalker (Gideon) and likely some number of $55 angels somewhere in the 75. It’s like the heyday of Yu-Gi-Oh, where the super-rare cards would all be listed somewhere between seventy and a hundred bucks. Back then, I said, “that will never be Magic.” Looks like I’m eating my words.
Too bad Mike’s Warp World “list” appears to be nothing but a joke. I’m impressionable! And I’m a guppy for Warp World! Come on, Mike.
So what can you play if you AREN’T going to drop $400 on Planeswalkers?
Vampires
Vampires is the forgotten stepchild of the Zendikar Standard format. Relegated to Tier-2 status because the matchup with Jund can be troublesome, the deck still lingers around, and could be positioned to be a factor in this Standard. With a mix of aggressive creatures and disruption, Vampires seems like a reasonable choice going forward. It’s made a Top 8 appearance so far this year, too:
Creatures (26)
- 4 Vampire Nocturnus
- 4 Bloodghast
- 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
- 3 Malakir Bloodwitch
- 4 Vampire Hexmage
- 4 Vampire Nighthawk
- 3 Kalastria Highborn
Lands (23)
Spells (11)
Sideboard
Rare Cost Summary:
Bloodghast ($5.99 x 4 = $23.96)
Kalastria Highborn ($3.99 x 3 = $11.97)
Malakir Bloodwitch ($3.99 x 3 = $11.97)
Vampire Nocturnus ($19.99 x 4 = $79.96)
Marsh Flats ($11.99 x 4 = $47.96)
Verdant Catacombs ($14.99 x 4 = $59.96)
By now, you should already have been working to supplement your collection with as many of the Zendikar fetchlands as you can; if you need to run three or five rather than eight, it’s probably okay, although I would cut out Swamps rather than add the common fetchlands like Evolving Wilds. Vampire Nocturnus was the pre-release card for M10, and so you should be able to borrow from your buddies.
How does this deck evolve further to fight UW Control and UWR Planeswalkers? I’d start looking at maindecking Duress. You NEED to be able to fight off Planeswalkers – Ajani and Gideon especially – and Duress (and the already-run Mind Sludge) gives you a proactive way of doing so. I like that Jeff’s version of the deck can go up to 4 Duress and 4 Mind Sludge post-board, plus gains Deathmark and Consuming Vapors to fight against walls, Baneslayers, and various untargetable creatures.
Vampire Hexmage is another possible way to fight them – possibly even maindeck over Kalastria Highborn.
Frank’s Red Hot, Reflux Edition
From my experience with the UWR Planeswalker deck, I can tell you that Jund has quite the uphill struggle against the deck. Since then, I’ve seen pundit after pundit recommend Vengevine as a potential inclusion in Jund; the mere fact that he’s a 4/3 haste on four mana is “good enough” to help fight against Wall of Omens and the control decks. The Planeswalker deck has a suitcase full of tools to handle Jund’s midrange creatures – but the key is that most of them are sorcery-speed. Planeswalker activations, Oblivion Ring, Day of Judgment or other sweepers – all sorcery-speed. The original Laskin & Stark version of the deck had only four Path to Exile as an instant-speed answer to a creature. The added value of Vengevine, then, is that you get to make sure that he gets at least one swing in before Super Friends or UW Control figures out a way to handle him. If that’s the case, why not use haste creatures exclusively? When I started brainstorming this avenue (with fellow Combo Johnny and regular wacky-idea-brainstorm-partner Rick Ashby), we realized that we’d seen something like this before – a local deck called “Frank’s Red Hot” had made a few circles back in Lorwyn-Shards-M10 Standard. Built by “Sweet Hair!” Uriah Oxford, and named after local deckbuilding legend Frank Bowker, it strove to just play hasty guy after hasty guy:
Frank’s Red Hot v2, Lorwyn/Shards/M10 Standard
4 Tattermunge Maniac
4 Jackal Familiar
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Stigma Lasher
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Ball Lightning
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Puncture Blast
1 Banefire
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
10 Mountain
5 Forest
(This was the list I found. It’s post M10 so it’s not the original version, but you get the idea.)
The premise is simple: Make a bunch of hasty guys, and keep turning them sideways. Fill out with the “good burn” (although I wonder where Flame Javelin is) and, as they say in commercials, voila. Nothing fancy or intricate – just making the best use out of your available mana each turn to keep doing damage to your opponent. I dare say we’re actually in a time and age that provides the best hasty creatures – and they may have a ton of value against the current crop of control decks.
Creatures (24)
Lands (8)
Spells (28)
Rare Cost Summary:
Blitz Hellion ($0.59 x 4 = $2.36)
Hell’s Thunder ($5.99 x 4 = $23.96)
Ball Lightning ($4.99 x 4 = $19.96)
Raging Ravine ($4.99 x 4 = $19.96)
Rootbound Crag ($5.99 x 4 = $23.96)
So honestly, what is this deck capable of? Your goldfish turn is somewhere around turn 4, unimpeded. With the “added impediments” of Wall of Omens on turn 2 and Path on turn 3, you’re still looking at around turn 5 or 6 to deal 20 damage. All your guys come out swinging, which gives midrange Jund a bit of a headache, especially now that they’re ALSO reducing their instant-speed answers. Your early drops stick around to keep on the pressure, and most of your larger drops go over or through Wall of Omens.
Why Blitz Hellion? Again, he’s hasty, and he tramples, but the real reason is to give you a real chance at being able to kill Gideon when he comes down and goes up to eight loyalty counters. Because you can add threats to the board, Gideon has a very good shot at being “one-shot” – which I think is important. All the haste guys prevents UWR and UW Control from accurately being able to predict the outcome of their board state during their turn. “Can I brainstorm safely with Jace? Or do I need to +2 him to pull out of Lightning Bolt range?” The uncertainty can help them to make the wrong decision, but it also helps that you can back it up by dropping two-to-seven additional points of damage onto the board at a moment’s notice.
Why Colossal Might? The trample is the real key. Nothing says “man, that sucked” worse than having your hasty beater get continuously chumped by Elspeth tokens. Quite a few of the creatures already have trample (or flying, like Hell’s Thunder), but breaking through for critical damage points can be instrumental in taking out an annoying planeswalker … or just flat-out killing your opponent. It gives a bit of extra value to having those early drops stick around; all of a sudden, that 2/2 you thought it was safe to block is now killing your Wall of Omens and connecting to your face.
No Teetering Peaks? With the creature makeup of the deck, to get any value out of Teetering Peaks, you’ll have to cast a guy and THEN lay down Teetering Peaks. I feel like it throws off the curve just that little bit to where I’d almost always rather have a straight-up Mountain.
I just wish I got to trample through planeswalkers. Now THAT would be awesome.
National Qualifiers
For me, this is the second big tournament in two weeks. That’s a lot of high-level Magic for an average guy. Thankfully I’ve got no future Qualifiers until well into June. Maybe then I’ll have an idea what’s going on in the metagame. Maybe by then the METAGAME will have an idea what it wants to do! And maybe someone will actually build a Warp World deck full of Eldrazi. I’ll be tweeting from the Nats Q in Denver all day Saturday. Good luck to everyone playing in National Qualifiers this weekend!
Except you, Tom Ma… I owe you one.
Until next week…
Dave
dave dot massive at gmail and davemassive at twitter and facebook