Welcome back, folks! I hope your Prerelease experience was an enjoyable and educational one! Prereleases can create some of the best stories, so I hope you had a lot to take home after last weekend’s events.

Before I get into the article, I’d like to address last week’s Limited review article and apologize for the misinformation and questionable quality of the review. At StarCityGames.com, I know you all have come to expect the best, strongest, and most thorough articles regarding everything from the metagame to breakout decks as well as set commentary and brainstorming. I have done a list like the one you read last week since Dark Ascension for either my blog or this website, but more than any other time in the previous five iterations I received overwhelmingly negative criticism regarding the article.

This is fine and, in fact, welcomed.

I didn’t get it right last week, and for that I apologize. Without playing the amount of Limited I used to, the Meat and Potatoes article series seems irrelevant and out of sync with what I do now. As such, I’ll begin a self-imposed moratorium on those kinds of articles from now on and leave that kind of discussion to the pros that really know their stuff. That’s just as well; I still love to play Limited, but I prefer writing about Constructed.

With that out of the way, let’s hop right into Dragon’s Maze!

Cladion, Champion of Bantice

In the last few months, both Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash have provided the substance needed to create winning archetypes and thus the metagame at large. As the small set, however, Dragon’s Maze is a bit more of a toolbox full of powerful role-players, unique effects, and on-curve upgrades to the format.

I’m always drawn to the oddball build-around cards. For this reason, I was really excited to dig into deckbuilding ideas focused on the ten guild champions. Some are more interesting to build around than others; Tajic, Blade of the Legion isn’t too hard, for example. One of them stuck out to me, and we’ll start our Dragon’s Maze journey by exploring two different Standard applications for him.

Weird, huh? A new take on a combo classic, Gilder Bairn, this bizarre legend can perform the same work for less on a better body and without the nuisance of having to tap and/or attack with him first. Sadly, he can’t target as many permanents as the Ouphe, and Vorel is legendary, meaning you can’t stack them very well. This new take on a familiar doubling effect set my brain a-whirring, and I was suddenly wracking my memory for every permanent that has a counter on it that I could improve. With a few sparks and a quick whiff of ozone, I had it.

Ok, Matt, I think you might need to recalibrate there.

No, wait! I’m going somewhere… I think.

I know that Vorel of the Hull Clade says that it can only target an artifact, creature, or land, but guess what? Gideon can become a creature! Using his second ability makes him a creature with P/T equal to his loyalty counters. Then you can use Vorel to double his loyalty counters! Bear in mind that doubling his counters doesn’t double his P/T that turn, as that is checked only as the zero ability resolves and not continuously. Still, doubling him every turn speeds him along to his ultimate (we’ll get to that in a minute), and it allows him to double in size turn after turn while still being able to attack. That’s something, right?

As I noodled on other counter-based critters, these old fogeys popped into my head.

Waiting five turns to win while your opponent effectively does nothing is not how real decks win games. Three turns is a little more manageable, though. Get two counters, double, then get the fifth counter on the third upkeep, and win. It’s also surprisingly stubborn against conditional removal; Mizzium Mortars, Ultimate Price, Selesnya Charm, and Abrupt Decay can’t touch it, so that’s something to consider too. He’s also a Siege Mastodon in combat, making him helpful even against decks that are still forcing damage through. If you can’t find Vorel, you can pop Gideon’s ultimate, float five mana, and resolve this on an empty board, almost certainly giving you the time you need to naturally get to five counters (that is if you’re huge/huge Gideon smashing on an empty board doesn’t do it).

We now have two win conditions, so let’s find some support and make it happen!

Cladion, Champion of Bantice

Matt Higgs

Test deck on 05-05-2013

Standard

Creatures (14)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Gideon, Champion of Justice

Lands (24)

Spells (19)

Sideboard

Creatures

There are only two creatures in this deck that aren’t essential to the combos discussed earlier. The first is Avacyn’s Pilgrim, the reliable mana dork that provides the white you need to resolve your turn 3 Gideon. The second is Centaur Healer—or Diet Tusk as I like to call it—which provides the solid, anti-aggro body and shockland-erasing trigger that G/W/X has grown to appreciate over the last few months. I’ve included another one in the sideboard for when I’ve just gotta hit one early against the hyperaggro decks. Thragtusk, although obviously more powerful, is worse on the curve, so I stuck with Centaur Healer this time for a touch of mellow smoothness.

Enchantments

I highlighted an enchantment deck a few weeks ago that tried to win solely on the back of those sweet magical Auras. It didn’t work very well, and I think it’s because I became a slave to the theme. Here, we only use the strongest enchantments to protect our combo and to get us to the late game. Sphere of Safety is a good playset; even two together make your opponent pay a Huntmaster of the Fells’ worth of mana for each creature they attack with, and if you manage to resolve three Spheres? Fuhget abaht it!

Pacifism is the classic stop gate answer for any early aggression or to push your Gideon past a lone blocker. On a side note, I think there are too many Humans floating around to justify playing Bonds of Faith anymore.

Detention Sphere serves a couple purposes here. The first you already know—slash an army of tokens down, exile that planeswalker or bind up that problem critter. Here, though, it doubles as a Safe Haven. If Gideon’s ready to go, garrison your squad of Avacyn’s Pilgrim, Sphere of Safety, or Azor’s Elocutors then fire away! Your Detention Sphere will return your stowed permanents safe and sound. True, it’s a bit narrow, as you’ll most likely be pinning your opponent’s permanents with it, but “every angle, no stone unturned” and all that.

If the enchantment package doesn’t work for you, replacing them with some number of Thragtusks, Supreme Verdicts, and Azorius Charms is also acceptable. I wanted to stick to my guns and try though.

Nonpermanent Spells

Farseeks are here. Yep…

Ok, next is Simic Charm! Out of the whole cycle, it is one of the better-designed Charms, always having some use aggressively or defensively. Its non-pump modes will be the best, protecting your enchantments, creatures, or Gideon from interference. Alternatively, in an aggressive matchup just one bounced creature can turn the tide of a fight. Although not as good without a bunch of cantrips to dig for it, Sphinx’s Revelation still draws a ton of cards, and the ramp and mana dorks can help you draw four or five pretty early on.

Besides the fairly standard mana base, I will note two specific cards. Vorel is a funny creature, as are most Simic fellows. Let’s closer look.

Alongside Avacyn’s Pilgrim and Azor’s Elocutors, everything in this deck is a Human, so putting Cavern of Souls on Human is a fine investment. When you need to resolve Azor’s Elocutors to get the ball rolling, it’s in there. Admittedly, Gavony Township in a deck with fourteen creatures and little to no token production is pretty odd. At the cost of a colored land, I thought the possibility that I’d have to beat down with my Avacyn’s Pilgrims and Vorel himself was high enough to include it. Not to mention that if you activate it while Gideon is a creature, he gets a +1/+1 counter that can also be doubled by Vorel. This is a low-risk inclusion that has the potential to pay off, so we’ll try it.

Sideboard

The sideboard is filled with hate enchantments and protective measures to help us land the final blow (or survive until the last filibuster, I guess). Nevermore can be resolved as early as turn 2, and there are several cards that this can tie down on the play: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Slaughter Games, Abrupt Decay, Supreme Verdict, Boros Reckoner, Geist of Saint Traft, and even Farseek can be outlawed ahead of schedule. Rest in Peace is the best graveyard answer, and extras aren’t even a problem since you’ll just add to your enchantment count for Sphere of Safety, assuming you keep them in, which I would recommend against the Craterhoof Behemoth builds of G/B/W Reanimator.

Ready // Willing is a card I’m really excited about—well, the Ready part anyway. It not only has the potential to save your creatures from a mass removal effect, but it also untaps them. This is great news for Vorel, as that turn he can effectively quadruple a permanent’s counters. Nice 60-counter Gideon! I’ve already slid Ready // Willing into other decks, too. Aetherize is just the blanket answer for uber-aggro. Supreme Verdict is harder to cast and can be countered by the likes of Boros Charm, regeneration, or other indestructibility. Aetherize, although not a permanent answer, buys you a lot of time without disrupting your board.

The extra Centaur Healer is in here for those tough aggro matchups. Use these Oblivion Rings in case you’re in the mirror match (color-wise, anyway) and need to deal with Detention Spheres or not deal with same name permanents you control, too. You can just add more instead if you need the extra removal and your opponent isn’t able to deal with enchantments. Two copies of Selesnya Charm made it in as well because it’s the perfect answer to troublesome creatures of all kinds—Olivia Voldaren, Thundermaw Hellkite, Obzedat, Ghost Council, Angel of Serenity, or even a Rancored creature is fine. I do not imagine you will ever side it in for the other two modes, but you never know.

Take this one for a spin if you have an urge to be on the controlling side of a matchup with plenty of interaction to keep things spicy!

Vorelggro

Vorel is not just a one-note diva, though. What if we leaned towards the aggressive side of things with Vorel at the symbiotic helm? Tons of creatures get +1/+1 counters in one way or another, so we can explore a lot of different paths to capitalize on doubling them up. Therefore, my creatures need to get +1/+1 counters with minimal effort, mana, and card commitment to keep it efficient. The first thought I had involved a tried and true ability from Dark Ascension: undying.

Both Strangleroot Geist and Young Wolf were heralded as sweet, semi-indestructible haymakers in Mono-Green Aggro shortly after their release, and although Strangleroot Geist has enjoyed a longer shelf life that Young Wolf, I think both will be great here. The ability to survive combat or a removal spell not only helps keep them around, but it adds a counter, which I can then start doubling. Lots of other green creatures get +1/+1 counters for one reason or another, so let’s explore those choices and flesh out a deck!

Vorelggro

Matt Higgs

Test deck on 05-05-2013

Standard

Creatures (28)

Lands (22)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

Nearly every creature in the maindeck gets +1/+1 for one reason or another. Primordial Hydra is made of +1/+1 counters and automatically doubles, basically letting Vorel quadruple it every turn, and it can be resolved on turn 2 with an Arbor Elf. Predator Ooze and Champion of Lambholt both get +1/+1 counters for doing their thing; Predator Ooze is a safe place to store and/or double counters, and Champion of Lambholt can cause a blowout situation where her power swells to the point where your whole team becomes unblockable.

Rubblebelt Raiders also has the counter interaction, and it can get a ton in just one attack phase. Zameck Guildmage is a great utility creature that can either use your mana to convert one of your creatures into a Tidings or make sure even a late-game Arbor Elf comes in as a sizeable bruiser. A pair of Vorels rounds out our creature base.

Our spells are pretty simple. Rancor is an auto-four, giving our swollen creatures real punching power. Simic Charm is great to protect our team, push through some damage after bouncing their critter, or even as a pump spell to finish off a wounded opponent. Bioshift is a very narrow card, but here it is a legitimate combat trick. Preserve your counters on a safer creature in response to removal or throw it on an unblocked creature to kill them out of nowhere! I wanted to try Give // Take as a singleton since it’s an unconditional counter adder, but it also has the potential to wipe one of your creatures clean to get a full grip of cards. Live the dream and fuse cast this with the Alchemist’s Refuge for a semi-Sphinx’s Revelation in an aggro deck!

Nothing special in the lands. I wanted to make sure I hit green as often as possible with Predator Ooze and Rubblebelt Raiders demanding such strict mana requirements. One Alchemist’s Refuge is here just in case!

For the sideboard, I wanted mostly creatures (as this is a creature deck and all) for certain situations. First, let me take a minute and talk about Skylasher.

Ok, so it’s not a Spider, but it should have been! I mean, I think it would take eight legs to latch on to that tower, personally. I’m just saying. Very well, it’s a Spider in spirit! I love Spiders! Protection from blue, flash, reach, 2/2 for two. Where is the line forming to get a playset of this guy pronto? I think he is one of the sweetest cards in this set, and he might even see Eternal play if Delver of Secrets ever swells up again.

Either way, I love the Skylasher here. There will be some blue-based decks that can’t really get around him, namely that U/G Delver deck floating around as well as a lot of Snapcaster decks, and it doesn’t care about the blue Charms. Unfortunately, it cannot be given counters from most of my counter-building sources thanks to its blue protection. I still like the upgraded Ashcoat Bear, and I want him to work here. I just gotta believe…

The rest of the sideboard is based on specific needs I foresee arising. Wolfir Avenger is a removal resistant creature that does a lot of work with a Rancor. Very little can crack through it as long as you have some mana up. Removal heavy matchups will beckon this guy from the board.

Deadbridge Goliath, if you haven’t noticed, is really large. A 5/5 is hard for a lot of aggro-based decks to get around if they play light on removal, often being restricted to a Ghor-Clan Rampager bloodrush to deal with it. After he’s dead, he provides five +1/+1 counters for whoever you want! I wanted to try a single Lumberknot for sweeper-light decks. It may be way too slow to see Constructed play, but it never hurts to try. In such a matchup, he is a very secure place to store extra counters. Rancor him up and safely smash for a jillion!

As for the spells, I only wanted two. Tormod’s Crypt is a necessary evil in this day and age, but if you don’t see much Reanimator where you play, feel free to bench them at your own risk. Blustersquall is the kind of card I love casting. I like it over something like Aetherize here since Aetherize is at its core a defense-only card. On the other hand, Blustersquall can not only protect you for the one turn you need it, but it can also tap down their defenses when you’re ready for your final swing. Being able to tap down just one creature for U might be enough sometimes too, and I dig the flexibility. Blustersquall is also very difficult to play around, so even that gingerly opponent can be made defenseless.

Both decks provide a unique option to use Vorel, so I hope you’ll give one a try this weekend! Each is fairly light on new cards, so it shouldn’t be hard to get the extra pieces to finish one or the other by Friday.

Before I close out, I want to share my experience playing a deck I considered using for the SCG Open Series in Atlanta a few weekends ago with some slight adjustments.

Assemble the Naya

Matt Higgs

Test deck on 05-05-2013

Standard

Creatures (21)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Lands (24)

Spells (13)

Sideboard

I gave this deck a whirl last Tuesday at a local shop’s Standard Win-A-Box, and this deck got there in a big way!

Mono-Black Zombies: 2-0
W/B/R Olivia/Obzedat: 2-0
Jund Pump Aggro: 2-1
U/W/R Flash: Top 2/Split

Even though it was just a sixteen-man event, this deck proved it had the power to get there. It had a ton of stars, though not everything did as well as I’d planned. Centaur Healers and Thragtusks win a lot of games all on their own, and Boros Reckoner still carries a lot of games too. Sadly, the Legion was only relevant twice. I found three was too many; I had one when I needed it, and I barely missed it when I didn’t.

In the end, this just became a Naya beats deck. I found myself boarding out most of my expensive stuff since the little guys seemed to do the job. The Jund Aggro deck was the toughest, as that deck full of Giant Growths, Ghor-Clan Rampagers, Burning-Tree Emissarys, and Searing Spears did me in game 2 when I kept a hand of five lands and two Thrags on the draw.

Out of the sideboard, Blasphemous Act was killer. This deck actually had enough creatures and ramp to reliably cast Blasphemous Act even if the creature count was kind of low, and it saved me in the last game of round 3. I resolved one Witchbane Orb against the W/B/R, deck and it effectively held off a Rakdos’s Return he had in the grip. Bramblecrush also broke an Oblivion Ring he had cast.

Let’s provide an updated version with Dragon’s Maze!

Assemble the Naya

Matt Higgs

Test deck on 05-05-2013

Standard

Creatures (25)

Lands (23)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

That’s a lot of decks to digest for one day, so thanks for reading and don’t forget to untap!

– Matt

CaptainShapiro on Magic Online

untaptargetplayer.blogspot.com

I am Gruul. Their feral and passionate demeanor appeals to my outlandish yet dedicated deckbuilding style, and I admire the individualist and unbounded nature presented within their flavor. They are emotional and turbulent yet grounded with the roots of quotidian cycles and natural respect. They refuse to be followers, and their roughcast resolve is inspiring; no other guild better embodies instinct, fervor, and solitary determination. Also, I love me some Cap’n Tickles.