Shameless StarCity Plug: Gis wins!
The Netherlands’ Castricum is another well-known European Type I tournament, though held less frequently than Germany’s Dülmen. Congratulations to Star City judge Gijsbrecht Hoogendijk for placing #2 in this year’s first event… With my most recent decklist, no less! Yes, down to the janky Dromar’s Charm, which he said he enjoyed.
As Beyond Dominia’s old Dutchman Hero ‘t Mannetje wrote in his tourney report:”Note to Rakso: He played your Keeper deck, and I mean the exact list. Even the damn Dromar’s Charm.”
Over the past year, Gis sent in a stream of e-mails detailing his Mox- and Mana Drain-trading exploits. I’m glad he finally got to enjoy them, and in no small way.
Congratulations, too, to the winner Koen van der Hulst a.k.a. Thug. He worked with me last month on a still unreleased feature match for the next Bible segment (unless I’m mixing up my Koens).
I recommend Gis report “My Virgin Vintage Voyage” as an excellent piece on playing”The Deck” in a broad field. I’d just like to clarify a part of it:”I actually lined his up next to Darren Di Battista’s version, Paragon Keeper, and decided I liked Oscar’s version better for an unknown metagame. However, they also had a slight difference in their manabase: Darren was playing three Wastelands and four Tundras and Oscar played four Wastelands and three Tundras. I decided to follow a different route: I liked Darren’s three Wastelands, but chose to run four Volcanic Islands.”
These are how the names go.”Paragon Keeper” is the name for the post-Judgment, post-Onslaught evolution developed in the Paragons mailing list. It’s now the standard”The Deck” build because decks without fetch lands and Cunning Wish are obsolete – there’s no”old style” build unless you’re talking about the history of”The Deck.”
“Sun Wukong” is the name I now use for my personal”Paragon Keeper” list, after the legendary, immortal and damned wily Monkey King from Chinese children’s literature. The other Paragons have slightly different personal builds. Darren’s, among other things, needs the fourth Tundra because of the Celestial Dawn in his normal sideboard, and I’d swap my fourth Wasteland for the Tundra, too, if I had to slip Dawn or Moat in.
To cite other Paragons’ lists, Steve O'Connell a.k.a. Zherbus’s”Paragon Keeper” is distinguished by two basic Islands and a sideboarded Blue Elemental Blast because everyone in his area plays Blood Moon. Eric Wilkinson loves Cunning Wish, and plays more copies than the rest of us.
Finally, though”Paragon Keeper” is the default, it’s useful to have a different term to distinguish it from other”The Deck” families. You have European builds that maindeck the Grim Monolith/Power Artifact combo, builds that sideboard the KrOathan combo and thus run green, and builds that maindeck Oath of Druids but no combo, like Chris Flaaten’s”Keep the Oath.” I apologize for not going through the names in my January 2003 list compilation.
The Top 8 Castricum decklists are available at www.morphling.de.
Bode Mises Tan… Again!
The nuttiest play of the week goes to our German mad genius, Roland Bode. I gave the Sligh gauntlet lists below a few test runs, and he happened to be the guy on IRC. So I go Jackal Pup, Goblin Cadets, Gorilla Shaman… the usual.
He plays a Turn 3 Psychatog and I frown.
I figure I can race him, but my jaw drops when he does an end-of-turn Cunning Wish for… Berserk!
Two Gushes later, Sligh is killed on turn 4 by a 38/20 trampling ‘Tog.
Sorry, Wonder… You just lost big in the style points department.
For people trying Psychatog as a Type I combo, Roland got a lot more out of his Tropical Island twist. What he actually did was add Psychatog to a Chapin Grow-esque skeleton, getting an aggro-control deck with eight very lethal threats. Roland hit the Top 8 of the last Dülmen, and his buddy Benjamin Ribbeck won the event with a similar deck. Fastbond adds yet another trick to the ‘Tog kill and makes Gush all the more annoying. It was this card that gave Swen Weinhold a first-turn ‘Tog kill, with the help of two Time Walks and Berserk.
Bode Grow, Roland Bode, Semifinalist, January 19, 2003 Dülmen
Creatures (8)
4 Quirion Dryad
4 Psychatog
Blue (28)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
2 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
1 Foil
3 Daze
4 Gush
2 Cunning Wish
3 Sleight of Hand
4 Brainstorm
Black (4)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
Green (2)
1 Regrowth
1 Fastbond
Mana (18)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
Sideboard (15)
1 Berserk
1 Diabolic Edict
3 Duress
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Misdirection
2 Naturalize
2 Smother
3 Submerge
Roland is also playing the deck in the Mana Drain Online Invitational, successor to the Beyond Dominia Type I Tournament of Champions (T1ToC). When the decklists were posted, JP”Polluted” Meyer AIMed:”I humbly concede the title of coolest person ever to Roland Bode.”
Move over, Pat Chapin!
A. Revisiting Stompy
Stompy, Oscar Tan, January 2003 Gauntlet deck
Creatures (28)
4 Rogue Elephant
4 Skyshroud Elite
4 Ghazban Ogre
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Druid Lyrist
4 River Boa
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
Pump (12)
4 Giant Growth
4 Rancor
4 Bounty of the Hunt
Others (4)
3 Null Rod
Mana (17)
4 Land Grant
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
11 Forest
Sideboard (15)
4 Rushwood Legate
4 Hidden Herd
3 Hidden Gibbons
4 Naturalize
-4 Ghazban Ogre |
+4 Naturalize |
Sideboarding for”The Deck” |
|
The above Stompy is closely modeled after those Matt D’Avanzo used to post on Beyond Dominia. It was an extremely fun deck, especially in the Fact or Fiction era when no one paid attention to aggro. Matt e-mailed,”Mind you that my Stompy deck, when it was totally metagamed (Hidden Herd maindeck and no Rods main), smashed four FoF mono-U without breaking a sweat. I played roughly a billion games of Stompy vs. Mono-U with my friend Eric [Wilkinson] or Mikey P. [Pustilnik] playing blue at Toronto Worlds, and I don’t think either of them won more than two games.”
Matt e-mailed that the final verdict on fetch lands in Stompy is not to run any unless you can replace Ghazban Ogre and Rogue Elephant – since you don’t want to give a deck more opportunities to screw itself. They’re a good idea, but the only way to get around Ogre and Elephant (and use fetch lands) is to splash, most probably for Kird Ape. There aren’t any other good green one-drops, since Hidden Gibbons isn’t too good against, say, German Tools ‘n’ Tubbies and its single Ancestral Recall. We could cross our fingers and ask someone to reprint Jungle Lion, but Randy Buehler said not to expect any more good green weenies.
I put in Null Rod because it seems better in the January 2003 metagame, slowing Mox openings and shutting down things from Cursed Scroll and Powder Keg to Illusionary Mask (and they can turn into classic Winter Orbs in strictly casual games). There aren’t really a lot of sideboard options, and the Hidden creatures obviously come in against nonbasics or burn. Steve O'Connell, a.k.a. Zherbus, and I were even joking to try Hidden Guerrillas and Hidden Predators, just to see something new. Pretty much the only new thing is Naturalize, providing flexibility and anti-fat support in place of Matt’s Parfait-hating Tranquil Domains.
The problem with Stompy, anyway, is that it’s an inflexible (if fun) deck that’s worse in today’s broader Type I metagame. Note, too, how it disappeared from the last Extended.
Stompy is a simple starting point for anti-weenie sideboarding. You only have four conventional anti-aggro slots left in your sideboard, and no longer have the luxury of many things like Moat. The choices for removal are all straightforward; you just lose your more expensive spells and useless conditional spells. Mind Twist won’t have anything to Twist by Turn 3, and you’ll have either won or lost by the time you can cast Stroke of Genius to any effect, especially since you won’t get anything out of Mana Drain against a deck of one-drops.
If you want, you can also replace a Wish with Shattering Pulse directly, since it’s unlikely your opponent will pull something random like a more expensive Choke. The Wishes here hedge with Pulse and Allay, and can still pull out Stroke or even Skeletal Scrying later on. Expect Sligh-esque sideboard cards, though, the moment you see Taigas.
To end, Stompy is fun, straightforward practice for your basic anti-aggro skills. If all else fails, remember that there’s always Perish.
B. Revisiting Sligh
Sligh, Oscar Tan, January 2003 Gauntlet deck
Creatures (14)
4 Jackal Pup
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Gorilla Shaman
2 Mogg Fanatic
Burn (23)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Incinerate
4 Price of Progress
3 Fireblast
4 Cursed Scroll
Others (1)
1 Wheel of Fortune
Mana (22)
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Mox Ruby
16 Mountain
Sideboard (15)
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Scald
4 Pyrokinesis
4 Tormod’s Crypt
Sideboarding against”The Deck” |
|
-4 Incinerate |
|
-3 Fireblast |
+3 Scald |
Sideboarding for”The Deck” |
|
-1 Wasteland |
|
+1 Pyroclasm |
|
-1 Mind Twist |
+1 Powder Keg |
-1 Time Walk |
|
-1 Cunning Wish |
|
-1 Cunning Wish |
|
Some players see Sligh as a necessary evil or a spoiler deck, but it does its part in keeping metagames honest. From the sheer number of cards”The Deck” sides in, you can see this matchup deserves a lot of respect, especially when you read the text of all the anti-Power cards.
The above list is a completely unmetagamed and un-teched list that serves as a starting point. Note that maindeck Price of Progress is no longer considered a metagame build in the last format where dual lands are legal. Because of the present more balanced metagame, few decks have no nonbasics at all, and the strongest such as”The Deck” and TnT present juicy targets.
The broadened metagame means that mono red can no longer side twelve to fifteen cards against”The Deck,” unless you’re up against an idiot determined to take you down with him. Expect about four Red Elemental Blasts and a set of extra threats, or simply more threats in lieu of the Blasts. Many players seem to drop them altogether nowadays instead of just reducing the former eight. They’ve even picked up Matt D’Avanzo’s ancient Scald tech, which used to be just a note in my old columns until everyone finally realized you had to sideboard against non-“The Deck” opponents.
The problem with Sligh is that you never know exactly what extra threats it will side in. It can bring in anything from Scald to Flaring Pain to Dwarven Miner – or even Blood Moon added to Price of Progress by a clueless player. Thus, you cut close to bone and add anti-red, anti-artifact and anti-enchantment cards to your usual anti-weenie complement. A Blue Elemental Blast or Celestial Dawn also gives you flexibility, though the slot can be a luxury.
Note how much harder it is to remove cards after cards like Sylvan Library were replaced with more generic manipulation like Brainstorm. Unlike playing Stompy, you keep Misdirection in because you don’t expect him to be able to side out all his Bolts. After those three slots are sided out, you start scratching your head, and are forced to remove Force of Will, since pitching two blue cards against a one-mana threat is mediocre. After that, Time Walk is actually the next expendable slot.
Finally, you have to think about siding out Cunning Wish, again, because you have no way at all to predict what he’ll board in. You can choose to keep both in, hedging with Shattering Pulse and Allay, and possibly Stroke much, much later. However, you’ll want to side in Shattering Pulse since you know he’ll have at least Cursed Scroll. Leaving the one Wish for just Allay and late Stroke is poor, so you may as well side in Aura Fracture. Fracture hedges against Scald and illogical Blood Moon, which may not allow you to tap for mana to remove them. (At worst, it’s a very poor anti-Price of Progress card.)
I ordered the sideboarding scheme in a rough priority, but it’s not even as simple as deciding how far down you want to go on my list. If, for example, you anticipate that your opponent is old-school (or stupid) and will go with eight Red Elemental Blasts, then you shouldn’t side out your Mind Twist.
Finally, note that you can’t just add, say, ten anti-Sligh cards to your sideboard without planning beforehand what you’re going to side out. You’re already trying very hard with Force of Will and Time Walk.
Dark Elf Sly, Thomas Barrett a.k.a. MolotDET, January 2003 Gauntlet deck
Creatures (12)
4 Jackal Pup
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Gorilla Shaman
Burn (16)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Incinerate
2 Price of Progress
2 Fireblast
Artifact Damage (8)
1 Black Vise
3 Cursed Scroll
4 Ankh of Mishra
Others (2)
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Fork
Mana (22)
1 Black Lotus
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Mox Ruby
3 Barbarian Ring
12 Mountain
Sideboard (15)
2 Price of Progress
4 Scald
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Overload
3 Browbeat
Sideboarding against”The Deck” |
|
-2 Fireblast |
|
-4 Incinerate |
+4 Scald |
Sideboarding for”The Deck” |
|
-1 Wasteland |
|
+1 Pyroclasm |
|
-1 Mind Twist |
+1 Powder Keg |
-1 Time Walk |
|
-1 Cunning Wish |
|
-1 Cunning Wish |
|
Tom’s handle”MolotDET” came from his old Dungeons and Dragons character, Molot, Dark Elf Timelord. The deck was named accordingly. You can see a decidedly anti-control build all the way to the Ankh of Mishra Tom has been pushing, taken from old Sligh builds and recent Extended sideboards. This is a step up from the Black Vise Dave Kaplan got great mileage from in Neutral Ground, though you can mitigate Ankh damage by playing fetch lands first against Sligh.
Ankh works a bit differently in Type I. Our resource person John Ormerod e-mailed,”In Extended, this has always had two problems: First, you don’t want to waste turn 2 playing it – and second, most of the decks can operate on very few land. It also is something else that you commit to the table that dies to Pernicious Deed.” In Type I, while Ankh isn’t strong against everything, control decks are stronger in the metagame. Deed is also far less common, and Ankh is a two-mana threat that forces Powder Keg users to make a choice.
Tom’s (relatively experimental) sideboard has to be more anti-aggro, given the anti-control emphasis of the maindeck. It adds only a few more threats and foregoes the Red Blasts altogether. Overload is something new, but works on everything from Cursed Scrolls to Su-Chis to Phyrexian Dreadnoughts. Other anti-artifact measures include the older Rack and Ruin, though it needs to have exactly two targets (which is especially great, though, against the Illusionary Mask/Phyrexian Dreadnought combo)… Browbeat is a non-creature Ball Lightning that’s Tom’s tech against decks without Mana Drains to exploit it. This is an approach different from anti-fat Extended tech like Ensnaring Bridge and Threaten.
The only Game 2 difference is the increased number of artifact targets, but you were already planning on having speed bump Shaman and Shattering Pulse for Cursed Scroll. How far down to go on the list is a non-issue, since you need the Pulse for an early Vise or Ankh.
Incidentally, this list also has Fork – something not quite everyone agrees with. It’s a reactive, conditional card that may not find a target. A”The Deck” player has to be aware of it, nevertheless, because tapping out for a Braingeyser and getting it Forked does wonders to a control player’s ego. This doesn’t mean to always assume it’s there, of course, but you play around the possibility when you can.
Goblin, David Kaplan, January 2003 Gauntlet deck
Creatures (24)
4 Jackal Pup
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Mogg Flunkies
Burn (16)
4 Reckless Charge
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Goblin Grenade
Mana (20)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
4 Barbarian Ring
4 Windswept Heath
3 Bloodstained Mire
7 Mountain
Sideboard (15)
4 Pyrokinesis
4 Scald
4 Goblin Vandals
3 Flaring Pain
Sideboarding against”The Deck” |
|
+4 Scald |
|
-3 Mogg Fanatic |
+3 Flaring Pain |
Sideboarding for”The Deck” |
|
-1 Wasteland |
|
+1 Pyroclasm |
|
-1 Misdirection |
+1 Powder Keg |
-1 Mind Twist |
|
-1 Cunning Wish |
|
-1 Cunning Wish |
|
Dave Kaplan is Neutral Ground, New York’s most noted Sligh player, and his sideboard reflects his home turf’s control-heavy metagame. The Goblin variant is different in that it reminds you too much of Stompy, except it has a nastier sideboard. (I took the liberty of slipping in fetch lands, by the way, following my own fetch land review.)
You end up facing a more creature-heavy deck, but one that sides in similar non-creature threats. Your sideboarding doesn’t really change since you have no more anti-creature slots, unless you hid a Moat in your sleeve or something. The only change is to yank Misdirection because the reduced burn complement is sided out anyway.
Note, though, that the shift to creatures opens a few doors for creativity. I mentioned, for example, that Neutral Ground control player Robb Williams uses Caltrops. This is effective against 2/1s, but even more so against such a creature-heavy build. Even Peacekeeper can be tried if it’s in the board, though it’s still vulnerable to Mogg Fanatic, Goblin Grenade, and a timely Wasteland on a Tundra.
Well, that’s it for this week. This article was far more tiring than it looks, especially since I filled it in while sick. You try compiling gauntlet lists that people will accept, while weeding out the more untested, more radical tech or extreme metagaming. Thanks to JP”Polluted” Meyer, Steve O'Connell a.k.a. Zherbus, Chris Flaaten, Darren Di Battista a.k.a. Azhrei, John Ormerod, Tom Barrett a.k.a. MolotDET, Roland Bode, and Carsten Kötter a.k.a. Mon, Goblin Chief for comments along the way.
Special thanks, too, to Matt D’Avanzo who taught me my sideboarding a long time ago in Beyond Dominia days. I remember over a week of e-mails just to discuss how to side against Mask, back when it was new! Belated thanks, too, to Brian Weissman for not a few e-mail lectures that managed to slip in 1997 war stories. Ah, the good old days…
Oscar Tan
rakso on #BDChat on EFNet
University of the Philippines, College of Law
Forum Administrator, Star City Games
Featured Writer, Star City Games
Author of the Control Player’s Bible
Maintainer, Beyond Dominia (R.I.P.)
Proud member of the Casual Player’s Alliance