I had the opportunity this week to hang out with my friend Yoshi, who was part of my Magic-playing posse back in Germany.
Yes, I had a posse. What’s so strange about that? Can’t you imagine me and a bunch of my gang, rolling into a PTQ, bandanas over our faces, running up victories and taking no prisoners, stealing the hearts of bar wenches in every town?
Okay, you may be right.
Yoshi has been out of Magic since he left Germany three years ago. He lives near Olympia now, and since we’re still in Seattle on our “workcation,” we arranged for a playdate of sorts, where I could catch him up on what’s he’s missed, and we could play a little Magic. Just like old times.
It was a nice “walk down memory lane,” so to speak. I got to explain Champion (a cool mechanic that really only sucked because of Mistbind Clique), the race/class tribal structure of Lorwyn and Morningtide, the hybrid block of Shadowmoor and Eventide, and the Shards. I realized that I probably should have paid better attention to whatever it was Nicol Bolas was doing with Alara, because I knew he was the bad guy, but I had no idea what his motivation was. (I’m assuming it was something more than just “being a d-bag.” The original EDH D-Bag, Bennie?) And the look on his face when I got to the Eldrazi and whipped a couple of those bad boys out to show him … priceless.
Yoshi had said that he kept up with the sets as they were released, picking up a pack here and there, or a pre-constructed deck. He had picked up a couple of the M11 precons just to have something to battle with; they really weren’t much competition for the actual Standard decks I had laying around, so we battled them against one another and came out fairly evenly matched. But, of course, my first instinct was to want to tinker with them. I’m assuming this is why Wizards has started putting an additional booster into the precons – to get people tinkering immediately with the cards that they open in the booster. It’s pretty good incentive, and it starts newer players immediately into card evaluation, which is probably the most crucial concept to grasp in the early stages of learning this game. You need to be able to understand WHY Baneslayer Angel is better than Serra Angel, or why Garruk’s Familiar is better (and worse) than Runeclaw Bears.
With all my desire to improve these, I thought it would be a good opportunity to write another “Reconstructed Preconstructed” column.
Prophecy Reconstructed
Yoshi was playing the “Power of Prophecy” Blue/White deck:
2 Aether Adept
2 Air Servant
1 Armored Cancrix
2 Augury Owl
1 Azure Drake
1 Blinding Mage
2 Cloud Elemental
1 Conundrum Sphinx
1 Harbor Serpent
2 Maritime Guard
1 Scroll Thief
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Wall of Frost
2 Water Servant
1 Condemn
1 Crystal Ball
2 Foresee
2 Jace’s Ingenuity
1 Mighty Leap
1 Mind Control
2 Negate
1 Pacifism
1 Safe Passage
2 Sleep
1 Solemn Offering
The Whole Point of the Deck: With Conundrum Sphinx as the centerpiece of the deck, clearly the focus is on knowing what the top card of your library is, so as to maximize the ability of the Conundrum Sphinx – but also on getting you to the Sphinx with enough life left over to let him take over the skies. The second rare, Stormtide Leviathan, provides a backup win condition that is likely to be hard to deal with when competing against other M11 Preconstructed decks. So we’ll want to keep the main focus of the deck on Conundrum Sphinx and his ability, and maybe supplement with some unblockable creatures or Islandwalking creatures to go along with Stormtide Leviathan.
Immediately we want to keep (and possibly increase the quantity of) anything that has Scry. Crystal Ball, Foresee, and Augury Owl all work great with the Sphinx’s ability. I know from my M11 Launch Party experience that Crystal Ball can make a huge impact to the game; when one person is seeing (potentially) three cards each turn while the other is only seeing one, it seems a little lopsided in terms of card quality. (Yoshi’s only problem was familiarity with the cards – he would Scry, then attack with Conundrum Sphinx … and immediately forget the actual name of the card on top of his library. I say “familiarity,” but I’m probably being nice.) Does Preordain fit into the deck? It’s not included in the precon itself likely because it’s not a great combo with Conundrum Sphinx (you’d have to leave both cards on top to get any benefit) but, still, at that point, it’s one Blue mana for two cards. And, in the early game, it will help you smooth out your draws and let you keep marginal hands that might, say, be missing a White mana source.
1 Conundrum Sphinx
2 Crystal Ball
4 Augury Owl
4 Preordain
3 Foresee
Stormtide Leviathan and Harbor Serpent work pretty well together, and the Serpent gives us a beefy blocker if nothing else. We also want to make sure we keep the Sleeps and the countermagic, which offer up nice defense.
1 Stormtide Leviathan
2 Harbor Serpent
2 Sleep
4 Negate
The rest of the defensive bodies are just passable. Armored Cancrix clearly has a lot better options, especially when Calcite Snapper is available. But I’ll try and stick to M11 cards where possible. Wall of Frost is a great ground wall that will protect you from just about every common and uncommon creature in M11, and live to tell the tale. (The only one that busts through it is Duskdale Wurm.) Pacifism and Condemn make up the removal suite, and I’d up the Aether Adept count as well. Somehow Roc Egg is missing from this deck; it’s a nice little ground stall that should eventually turn into a cool addition to your air force.
3 Wall of Frost
2 Condemn
4 Pacifism
3 Aether Adept
Here’s what the final list looks like:
4 Augury Owl
3 Wall of Frost
3 Aether Adept
2 Harbor Serpent
1 Conundrum Sphinx
1 Stormtide Leviathan
4 Preordain
4 Negate
4 Pacifism
3 Foresee
2 Sleep
2 Crystal Ball
2 Condemn
You can actually get very close to this decklist by simply buying a second precon. You’d be short two Pacifisms and that third Wall of Frost, but you’d have an extra Conundrum Sphinx and an extra Stormtide Leviathan. (You’ll have to find a hook-up for the Preordains in any case.)
Deep Breathing
I was saddled with Breath of Fire, the Red-Blue preconstructed deck. It’s the perfect deck to play a Stormtide Leviathan deck against, since it already has Islands and has no real way to handle the Leviathan once he hits the table. I found that out the hard way. I kept telling my deck “Come on, Unsummon!” without actually knowing if there was an Unsummon somewhere in the deck for me to draw. (It turns out, there is.)
1 Ancient Hellkite
1 Augury Owl
2 Berserkers of Blood Ridge
1 Canyon Minotaur
2 Chandra’s Spitfire
1 Cyclops Gladiator
1 Earth Servant
2 Ember Hauler
2 Fiery Hellhound
1 Fire Servant
1 Goblin Piker
2 Goblin Tunneler
2 Prodigal Pyromancer
1 Stone Golem
1 Call to Mind
3 Chandra’s Outrage
1 Fireball
1 Foresee
2 Lava Axe
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Negate
1 Preordain
1 Shiv’s Embrace
1 Unsummon
I got to live the dream of having a Fire Servant on the board and casting Lava Axe just once, but dealing ten damage for five mana was pretty cool. For about a turn, and then he killed me. I never got to play the Hellkite. Frowny face.
The Whole Point of the Deck: To me, the deck is all about Chandra’s Spitfire. So much of the deck just happens to pump up Chandra’s Spitfire that it should easily be the focus of the deck. Prodigal Pyromancer, Chandra’s Outrage… wait, there are two Ember Haulers in that deck? I never saw those. Hrmph. You also have Goblin Tunnelers, who can make the Spitfires unblockable before you pump them up.
4 Chandra’s Spitfire
4 Chandra’s Outrage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Prodigal Pyromancer
4 Ember Hauler
2 Lava Axe
2 Fireball
I might, in fact, just drop the Blue altogether. All it’s providing you is a Negate and an Unsummon. While the Unsummon might come in handy against giant creatures that you can’t burn out, it only delays the inevitable in this deck. Foresee is fine, but not worth it as the only Blue spell in the deck.
Instead, I’d like to add more cards that work either to pump up a Spitfire, or to take advantage of the increased power. Goblin Tunneler actually works pretty well for what he does, but with no other real targets in the deck yet, we don’t need to go nuts with him. Fling would be a great match for a Spitfire who’s managed to get itself up to 7/3 or 10/3.
3 Goblin Tunneler
3 Fling
And from there, I’d like to include the rares (obviously) and some other creatures that go well with Fling and with dealing a bunch of damage. Here’s the final decklist:
4 Chandra’s Spitfire
4 Prodigal Pyromancer
4 Ember Hauler
4 Arc Runner
3 Goblin Tunneler
2 Fiery Hellhound
1 Ancient Hellkite
1 Cyclops Gladiator
4 Chandra’s Outrage
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Fling
2 Lava Axe
2 Fireball
22 Mountain
That’s a little more my speed. I think I might actually build something like this for FNM some night. Maybe with Chandra herself, and Triskelions. I believe I will call it “Ping-N-Fling.” You heard it here first!
This weekend is the annual Front Range Magic Team Challenge, where teams of four face off for a cash payday and the chance to draft for the top spot. Last year, if you remember, my team was in third going into the last round and won enough of our matches to leapfrog the second place team, only to have the fourth-place team jump BOTH of us and secure second. This year, due to the “workcation,” I’m out in Seattle and don’t get back until Sunday, and missing out on the FRMTC is kind of a bummer. But the next weekend is the StarCityGames.com Open in Denver, which I would not miss for the world. If you happen to be attending, come up and introduce yourself!
Until next week…
Dave