The DCI Got Hit By a Bus, or BangBus (combo)
Both of you mulligan down to six cards.
You go Underground Sea, Sol Ring.
Your opponent goes Underground Sea, Mana Vault.
You go Polluted Delta.
Your opponent goes Gemstone Mine, Ancestral Recall (tapping Underground Sea), and you counter with Force of Will (pitching Morphling, attempting to bluff your opponent into a Mana Drain).
Your opponent buys it then plays Dark Ritual, Lion’s Eye Diamond, and Mox Ruby.
You have only Mana Drain and Braingeyser in hand. Your opponent has not given you any opportunity to respond. What do you do from here?
Here’s the sample decklist:
The DCI Got Hit By a Bus (BangBus), Falk Bernhardt, #2, July 6, 2003 Dülmen
Blue (9)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Windfall
1 Mind’s Desire
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Brainstorm
Black (9)
4 Duress
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
Red (5)
4 Burning Wish
1 Wheel of Fortune
Green (1)
1 Hunting Pack
Artifact (1)
1 Memory Jar
Mana (35)
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
4 Chromatic Sphere
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
Sideboard (15)
1 Balance
2 Meddling Mage
1 Mind Twist
1 Obliterate
3 Phyrexian Negator
1 Recoup
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Vindicate
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
I already detailed the Roland Bode broken deckbuilding experience, but we have something similar to remind you about carefully checking your opponent’s mana these days. For example, the innocent Chromatic Sphere not only does wonders for mana smoothing, it also turns Mystical and Vampiric Tutor into risk free Demonic Consultations.
Here, you have to realize that he can’t possibly have a Storm card. He has three black mana from the Dark Ritual, one red from the Mox Ruby, and three colorless from the Mana Vault. He doesn’t have the double blue for Mind’s Desire or the double green for Hunting Pack, and he can’t tap Lion’s Eye Diamond without discarding his last card. Thus, it has to be a bomb like Necropotence, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, Memory Jar, or Wheel of Fortune, or a tutor like Burning Wish or Demonic Tutor, and he’ll sacrifice the Lion’s Eye in response to his own spell before passing priority. You simply counter and be happy he fell for it, then use his mana on your Braingeyser.
Better hope it’s Bargain then.
This is too simple, though. For example, going through this sort of thing with John Ormerod, he reminds that your opponent may slip an uncounterable Gemstone Mine or Tolarian Academy into the mix while playing artifacts and Dark Rituals out one by one.
Again, the new Academy decks aren’t perfectly consistent or unbeatable, but they can give rise to random moments where the best play is decided by the flip of a coin.
Christian Flaaten, a.k.a. CF, e-mailed to note you should Mana Drain first and sit on Morphling and Force of Will, possibly hard-casting Force the following turn. Aw… Don’t second-guess the goldfish and make my life harder!
The Shining (combo)
An end-of-turn Mystical Tutor for Ancestral Recall (that resolves without challenge) puts the pressure on your depleted opponent. He untaps his Library of Alexandria, Underground Sea, Volcanic Island and Tropical Island. He draws, then plays Gush on his turn, returning Volcanic and Tropical Islands and pushing his hand size up to six.
You have Island, Tundra, two Underground Seas, and a Polluted Delta, all untapped.
Your hand consists of Mana Drain, Cunning Wish, Swords to Plowshares, and Library of Alexandria. You have not yet used Cunning Wish, except to pitch one to Force of Will.
Force a concession.
Here’s the sample decklist:
Carsten Kötter, a.k.a. Mon, Goblin Chief, Champion, July 6, 2003 Dülmen
Blue (24)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Intuition
1 Gush
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Future Sight
Black (5)
2 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Diabolic Edict
Red (4)
4 Burning Wish
Green (1)
1 Fastbond
Artifact (1)
1 Zuran Orb
Mana (25)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
2 City of Brass
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
Sideboard (15)
1 Aura Fracture
1 Balance
1 Call of the Herd
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Deep Analysis
2 Duress
1 Innocent Blood
1 Mind Twist
1 Primitive Justice
2 Pyroblast
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Vindicate
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
The Germans always preferred combo, given their formerly TnT-infested metagames. The European cousin of”The Deck” thus kept going further and further into the combo route, focusing on un-Misdirectable draw in the face of Growing ‘Tog. It now runs on Future Sight/Fastbond and kills with Fastbond/Yawgmoth’s Will, and takes advantage of Burning Wish to pull out the kill card Tendrils of Agony when needed, and other bombs before then.
Carsten has been in touch from the earliest divergence of The Shining since Grim Monolith/Power Artifact days, so the trail is well-documented. Remember the Eric“Danger” Taylor theory, by the way? The best kill should be a combo, and if once you put them together, the combo deck with more control elements will out-combo the other combo decks and emerge triumphant. Carsten’s battle hymn, apparently.
This scenario is actually adapted from a real game against Stefan Iwasienko, a.k.a. Womprax. I was testing Vampiric Tutor in the sideboard, so Mana Drained his Gush, cast Cunning Wish for Vampiric Tutor, cast Vampiric Tutor during my upkeep, fetched Mind Twist, and nailed his mana and hand in one stroke. (He forced Future Sight successfully a couple of times before this one, but he got the raw end of that deal.)
Rector-Trix (combo)
You play Underground Sea, then Sol Ring.
Your opponent plays Underground Sea, Cabal Therapy, naming Force of Will and taking one of them from your hand.
You play Polluted Delta.
Your opponent plays Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author], Mana Crypt, Academy Rector, Mox Jet, flash back Cabal Therapy, naming Cunning Wish.
You have Cunning Wish, Brainstorm, Braingeyser (topdecked) and Wasteland.
Survive.
Here’s the sample decklist:
Rector-Trix, Tom van de Logt, #2, June 28, 2003 Eindhoven
Blue (18)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Donate
3 Illusions of Grandeur
1 Rushing River
Black (12)
3 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
White (4)
4 Academy Rector
Mana (28)
3 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Gemstone Mine
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
3 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
Sideboard (15)
2 Abeyance
1 Balance
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Duress
1 Illusions of Grandeur
1 Island
1 Mind Twist
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Timetwister
Academy Rector has been a powerful tutor card without a delivery mechanism, and that changed with the printing of Cabal Therapy. It’s very different in Type I, moreover, because it’s the only format Yawgmoth’s Bargain is legal in. Immediately when Scourge rotated in, Rector-Trix was the most popular engine for testing Storm kills like Tendrils of Agony. While not as stylish as DCI Got Hit By a Bus or The Shining, you have to respect a combo deck that packs Duress, Cabal Therapy, and Force of Will.
Here, you’re caught in a very bad position thanks to his fast mana – and this even before you can use the Brainstorm/Polluted Delta combo. Your opponent made a big mistake, though, by walking into your play. You simply sacrifice your Delta for another type of dual land, Cunning Wish for Coffin Purge (which is stronger against Rectors, as you’ll see), then cast it with Underground Sea in response to the Academy Rector triggered effect.
The Oracle text reads:”When Academy Rector is put into a graveyard from play, you may remove Academy Rector from the game. If you do, search your library for an enchantment card and put that card into play. Then shuffle your library.”
This means that if Academy Rector is no longer in the graveyard when the effect resolves, you don’t get any Bargain.
You might have thought you could fetch Tundra, then Wish for Swords to Plowshares. However, take note that you won’t get priority before Rector is sacrificed to Therapy, meaning you won’t get a chance to target Rector with removal.
These are very subtle rules notes, but this is a clear demonstration of how attention to detail spells the difference between a Turn 2 concession and some desperate chances to topdeck.
Hulk Smash (control)
You go Underground Sea, Sol Ring.
Your opponent goes Underground Sea, Mox Jet.
You go Tundra.
Your opponent goes Tropical Island.
You go Polluted Delta.
Your opponent casts Intuition at the end of your turn.
You have Mana Drain, Cunning Wish, Balance, Time Walk, and Force of Will.
What would JP Meyer do? (WWJD)
Here’s the sample decklist:
Hulk Smash, JP”Polluted” Meyer, June 2003 test deck
Creatures (4)
4 Psychatog
Blue (28)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
2 Merchant Scroll
2 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Gush
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
Black (2)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
Green (2)
2 Sylvan Library
Mana (24)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
5 Island
1 Swamp
Sideboard (15)
3 Duress
3 Back to Basics
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Mind Twist
1 Smother
1 Berserk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Naturalize
1 Mana Short
1 Lim-Dul’s Vault
Roland Bode tested Burning Wish versions and a few others and eventually broke the format with Growing ‘Tog, but it was JP”Polluted” Meyer who took the control Psychatog deck from Extended to Type I. His last public listing is very similar to Darren’s above. As you can see, it strips a lot of control elements like removal in favor of putting all the eggs in a very good basket: Psychatog. With Berserk in the sideboard, it aims to outmuscle anything on the other end of the board, and race everything else to the kill, and to hell with flexibility.
This scenario is far from simple, and fellow Paragon Steve O'Connell, a.k.a. Zherbus, and I spent a good half-hour on IRC making sure all the bases are covered. The basic dilemma is that you don’t know what Intuition will fetch you. You might see triple Accumulated Knowledge, for example, but you might also see the Meyer tech of Deep Analysis/Deep Analysis/Merchant Scroll. (Heck, I remember Roland even pulling Ancestral Recall/Yawgmoth’s Will/Regrowth on me in his earliest test runs.)
Plus, you have the problem of having to fight over a spell at the end of your own turn – a throwback from the days of unrestricted Fact or Fiction.
A possible first step here is to hit the dangerous tutor with Mana Drain. He hasn’t cast Duress and still has five cards in hand, so it’s a safe bet he probably has Force of Will, which you hope to draw. You could try to bait it with your own Force then Mana Drain it for five mana, but since you have enough to hard-cast Force, that would make him suspicious.
If Mana Drain resolves, then you have three mana on your turn to work with, noting the Wish.
If it draws the Force, let it go. See what he does, noting that you still have your own Force, then Wish for Red Elemental Blast. If he fetched Accumulated Knowledge, he will cast it, lay a land, and be back at seven cards. If he fetched two Deep Analyses, he will have one in hand, flash back the other, and lay a land. In both cases, he will have two blue mana open.
On your turn, you force Balance and resolve it with one or no cards in hand, taking your opponent’s hand with you (if this leaves him with a Deep Analysis in his graveyard, you hope to still have the Red Elemental Blast) and leaving him with just an Ancestral Recall, the last Accumulate Knowledge and Merchant Scroll for card drawing. You, on the other hand, have not yet drawn into any of your own draw, and still have your remaining Cunning Wishes for Skeletal Scrying.
A less flashy way of doing it is to Wish for Coffin Purge before he untaps, then Purge away the two Accumulated Knowledges or single Deep Analysis that go into his graveyard, protected by Force of Will if you need it. Of course, you lose the option to switch to Wish for Scrying if it presents itself (and a tech option is to Wish for your own Accumulated Knowledge) and the option to have Force of Will on your turn.
Well, that’s it for this week. Hopefully, I’ll have material from GenCon soon despite being on the other end of the world.
Oscar Tan
E-mail: Rakso at StarCityGames.com
IRC: rakso on #BDChat on EFNet
University of the Philippines, College of Law
Forum Administrator, StarCityGames
Featured Writer, StarCityGames
Author of the Control Player’s Bible
Maintainer, Beyond Dominia (R.I.P.)
Proud member of the Casual Player’s Alliance
P.S. – Apologies if this is a tad unpolished. An uncle recently passed away shortly after my mother made a last visit out to the province, and we still haven’t figured out who gets to tell Grandma.