It’s been a busy week and I don’t see it slowing down until after the Invitational. Until then, I’ve got a lot of work to do.
Over the last few days, I’ve played some Standard, Legacy, and Modern, all with the goal of figuring out what I want to be doing in each format. Glenn
Jones recently moved to town, and he’s been trying to play as much Magic as he can before he starts his new job at Wizards of the Coast in 2015. I’ve done
my best to oblige him.
Standard
I qualified for the season four Magic Online Championship Series (MOCS), but elected to play a Super IQ instead. The MOCS was Modern, and with the
Invitational being Standard and Legacy, getting some practice in for those formats seemed a little more important. Also, I haven’t been able to get many
games of live Magic under my belt lately, and that may have hurt my performances overall.
My deck of choice was W/U Heroic, which I did a video with last
week. However, the decklist I used in the IQ was vastly different.
Creatures (16)
Lands (23)
Spells (21)
I went 6-1 in the swiss before losing in Top 8. Both of my losses were to the same Mardu player, but both matches were close, and I now realize that I
could have a better sideboard plan for that matchup.
It’s odd how Tom Ross effectively builds the same archetype in each format, but that’s an article topic for a different day. Regardless, he’s the one who
brought this deck back to my attention, and for that I thank him. I’ve been having a lot of fun playing the deck, and I think it’s possibly the most
underrated deck in Standard.
The key differences between mine and Tom Ross’s list:
1) Stubborn Denial is my secondary protection spell. Instead of saying “Stubborn Denial isn’t very good in this deck because you’re not always ferocious,”
you should ask yourself, “How can I make Stubborn Denial good?”
Regardless of your feelings on Feat of Resistance or Ajani’s Presence, I think we can all agree that Stubborn Denial is definitely what Heroic wants as its
secondary protection spell. Being able to counter End Hostilities, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, Perilous Vault, and (the most important of all) Crackling Doom
means that you should try to make it work.
Sure, Stubborn Denial isn’t great in Tom’s build of Heroic, but we are allowed to change the cards in our decks!
2) I am going hard on Treasure Cruise. Matchups tend to get grindy post-board, which is why you want a clean draw spell, but what about the matchups that
are grindy in game 1? Hoping to connect with an Ordeal of Thassa is a fine dream, but in reality, it’s difficult to make it happen.
Matchups like U/B Control and Abzan Midrange, you want access to some Treasure Cruises in game 1 because those decks typically play most of their removal
in game 1. Those also tend to be some of your more difficult matchups, and that’s not a coincidence.
I think there’s a better way to fight them, which I’ll get to in a second.
3) Right now, I have no Heliod’s Pilgrims, but that might be a mistake. I had an idea and I wanted to try it.
Against Mardu, countering their Crackling Dooms is a start, but that’s only going to happen so often. If you try to play Heroic as a deck that always has
the answer, you’re going to be very disappointed. Instead, you should be try to build your deck in such a way that it can win even if everything is going
wrong for you.
I’d like to try a “go wide” subtheme in Heroic. I imagine it would do wonders for the Mardu matchup, but I’m unsure how much it will affect the other
matchups.
Creatures (21)
- 4 Phalanx Leader
- 4 Favored Hoplite
- 4 Hero of Iroas
- 1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
- 4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
- 4 Heliod's Pilgrim
Lands (22)
Spells (17)
Sideboard
This one is a little wacky, but might get the job done.
I’m a little worried about the lack of protection against multiple removal spells, including sweepers. The more painful manabase is also a concern, but
it’s kind of a necessity when trying to run Phalanx Leader alongside blue spells — Drawing multiple Islands isn’t really something you can come back from.
In this version, I think it would be better to try and build multiple smaller threats rather than one big one, so Stubborn Denial isn’t going to be very
good. Additionally, without Battlewise Hoplite, you have less heroic creatures that start at 2/2, so the ole Defiant Strike / Stubborn Denial won’t be
available as often. I think this deck can get away without Stubborn Denial, but if it proves to be too weak to sweepers, I’ll try to find another way.
Other decks I like in Standard include Abzan Reanimator, U/B Control (Is Ali Aintrazi a genius or crazy? I’m not sure.), Mardu, and the Monastery
Swiftspear Jeskai decks, whether they be combo or otherwise. Hopefully I’ll be crossing some of those off the list in the days leading up to the Open
Series in Portland.
Legacy
Every two years or so, I have to play some tournaments with Stoneforge Mystic to remind myself how bad the card is. I know it has a lot of advantages over
something like Tarmogoyf, and it’s quite good in certain matchups, but if I wanted to play a two-drop, I want something that kills quickly and doesn’t die
easily.
Stoneforge Mystic doesn’t meet those requirements.
When goldfishing, a turn 2 Stoneforge Mystic doesn’t kill until turn 7, whereas a Tarmogoyf typically only needs three or four attack steps to close the
game, albeit with a little help. Stoneforge Mystic can be favored to win in lategame scenarios, but I don’t like playing for the lategame because no deck
has inevitability. Given a few turns, most decks can cobble together a way to fight back. I just want to close that window, and Tarmogoyf is the right
animal for the job.
Of course, if you had a way to close that window, I’d be down to at least try it. Using Counterbalance plus Sensei’s Divining Top, like James Pogue and Bob
Huang did at Grand Prix New Jersey, would be such a way. In theory, a soft Counterbalance lock wouldn’t allow them to resolve their topdecked Smash to
Smithereens, burn spells, or combo.
Counterbalance does seem quite good right now, so why only sideboard it?
Creatures (9)
Lands (19)
Spells (32)
Creatures (9)
Lands (18)
Spells (33)
- 3 Sensei's Divining Top
- 4 Brainstorm
- 1 Umezawa's Jitte
- 1 Lightning Bolt
- 2 Counterspell
- 4 Force of Will
- 4 Swords to Plowshares
- 3 Counterbalance
- 4 Ponder
- 1 Batterskull
- 1 Flusterstorm
- 1 Sudden Demise
- 3 Treasure Cruise
- 1 Dig Through Time
Sideboard
The day before the Legacy portion of #SCGRich, Michael Majors sent me his decklist, which was basically what Ben Friedman played to a Top 4 finish. I like
the deck in theory, qualms about Stoneforge Mystic aside, but I did have some problems with his specific decklist.
For starters, Treasure Cruise does not seem like the delve card you want. With all the Sensei’s Divining Tops, Counterbalances, and other delve cards, it
seems like drawing three random cards will yield worse results than a Dig Through Time. Most of your cards have diminishing returns, so the extra card off
Treasure Cruise likely won’t matter too much. I’d prefer to go much deeper and actually find things that I need.
Miracles has had this issue for a while, where it generally operates like a control deck, but that’s mostly worse than using Counterbalance as a soft lock
while pressuring your opponent. I liked James Pogue’s and Bob Huang’s sideboard Counterbalances, but thought they were good enough to mold the deck around
them. Worst case scenario, it’s a way for you to protect your threats from things like Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolts.
I’ve always liked the idea of using Counterbalance in an aggro-control shell, so once Majors sent me his version, I set out to build my own. On Monday, I
played a local Legacy tournament with my own take on Stoneforge Mystic plus Counterbalance. My list was rough and isn’t worth posting, as I didn’t like how
the games played out. Granted, I know how to tune the deck a lot better now, but I’d still rather be Tarmogoyf-ing people than Batterskull-ing people.
I really should get rid of these four beautiful Japanese Stoneforge Mystics that I still have from the Caw-Blade era. Maybe if I don’t have them, I won’t
be tempted to play with them again.
Modern
In light of Grand Prix Madrid, I wanted to try Abzan. I played B/G Midrange last season and it was always solid for me, and I toyed with adding some white
cards as well. While some of the white sideboard cards are great, there just never seemed to be a great reason to add them. What you gained from having
those cards in your sideboard was generally offset by the damage you dealt yourself thanks to a more painful three-color manabase.
Enter Siege Rhino.
This card isn’t just great in Standard. It gives you reach, some maindeckable hate for Burn (which is a difficult matchup), and is great at stabilizing the
board against Birthing Pod. On top of it all, it’s excellent against the Treasure Cruise decks.
They try to beat you by drawing a bunch of extra cards, but with U/R Delver, the extra cards they draw often don’t deal with a bunch of Tarmogoyfs and
Siege Rhinos. Their backup plan, burning you out, also becomes more difficult once you have Siege Rhino. Overall, Abzan invalidates the entire U/R Delver
strategy.
As I mentioned earlier, I 6-0ed the MOCS prelim and later did a video,
where I went 3-1 against a bunch of bad matchups. The deck is great and if you like midrange strategies and feeling like you have a chance against your
opponent, no matter what they’re playing, you should try it.
Creatures (13)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (18)
The real thing that sold me on trying the deck was the absence of Dark Confidant. While it’s clear that Bob Maher made one of the best cards of all time,
Magic has since changed and not in his favor. Basically everyone is on a proactive gameplan and rightfully so. That means that your life total is
constantly under pressure, and in combination with Thoughtseize, fetchlands, and shocklands, you will find that your life points are more valuable than
they used to be.
It also means that on turn 2, you are often better off doing something that affects the board, not playing out a mopey 2/1 creature that basically doesn’t
attack or block. With the advent of Siege Rhino, it makes playing Dark Confidant an even more risky proposition, since even though you now have something
that gains you life, your manabase is more painful and dinging yourself for four isn’t a winning proposition.
Lightning Bolt is probably the most popular card in Modern, and that doesn’t bode well for Dark Confidant either. Not only does it mean there’s a one mana
removal spell in most decks, but it also means your opponent has the means to deal you the last few points of damage in a tight race.
I’m sure there are metagames where Dark Confidant will be good, but that time is not now.
***
Even after a full week of Magic, I’m looking forward to playing more. I kind of stunk at the last two Invitationals I played in, so I kind of have to
redeem myself. I also wouldn’t mind that spot in the Players’ Championship…