Three weeks into the City Champs competition and things are really heating up! Between the carefully tuned – and copied – decks from the Magic Online metagame, and the Friday Night Magic homebrews, I’ve never played against such a wide variety of decks! I know I’ve sprung some surprises on my opponents too, even when I show up with my favorite Green/White “Saffi Beats” deck, I know I loved the look on my Dragonstorm opponent’s face this weekend when his last Bogardan Hellkite comes into play and I saddled it with Temporal Isolation (flash!) to keep the last five points from killing me. He glances at the board, sees lethal damage coming across even with three Dragon blockers and extends the hand.
Here’s the current build that’s gotten me into two Top 8s recently:
Creatures (31)
- 2 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Loxodon Hierarch
- 4 Ohran Viper
- 2 Harmonic Sliver
- 3 Magus of the Disk
- 4 Saffi Eriksdotter
- 4 Scryb Ranger
- 4 Spectral Force
Lands (23)
Spells (6)
Temporal Isolation also works wonders on Akroma beats too…
I’m really excited about running my post-Planar Chaos Standard decks in the City Championship tournaments. Everyone is expecting me to run Dredge, but I haven’t had the best of luck trading anyone off their lone Damnations (and so we all stubbornly sit on our one copy), but I have a few other ideas up my sleeve.
I go over to the Wizards site to see who’s shaping up to be the points leader here in Richmond, since knowing the enemy could make a difference in which direction I take the deck or whether I decide to switch up…
… but hang on…
… there’s no link to Richmond’s City Champs…
… what the?
Then it hits me, the stupid reality of it all… oh yeah, only a handful of Cities are allowed to hold these City Championship tournaments. Only those guys have the opportunity to get Q’s for Nationals and byes for Regionals. The luck of geography and the whims of Wizards are not with the good folk of Richmond and many other cities across the country.
But this is the Beta season; if all goes well and the numbers crunch nicely we might expand the program…
Oh, screw your “Beta” season crapola.
Sorry to start this off on a bitter note, but I just finished reading BDM’s blurb on City Champs over on Wizards site and it pissed me off all over again. Apparently the response in the lucky Beta cities has exceeded Wizards’ wild expectations: well, duh – the program was already a smashing success in Europe!
Grrr…
*stomp around a bit*
*drink a beer*
*drink another beer*
Ah well, life’s too short to curse what’s already passed you by, so… onward!
Two-Headed Giant Champs
I have two heads
Where’s the man, he’s late
One burns, one’s sky
Where’s the man, he’s late
I’m two-headed one free one sticky
(Bonus points if you recognize this song lyric.)
I don’t know about you, but 2HG Champs kinda snuck up on me—it’s March 3rd, less than a month away! Last year, Josh Adams and I came a whisker away from taking the Championship title but had to settle for second place after walking into a Hex. This year, Josh has dropped off the Magic face of the earth (not difficult to do with a small child and school to suck up all his time), so this time around I’ll be teaming up with another longtime friend and constant Magic sounding-board, Jay Delazier. I’m hoping we’ll be able to get together at least once or twice before then to playtest the format… but then it occurred to me – there’s at least one site out there where you can randomly generate booster packs and tournament decks, so why not generate a 2HG pool and kick it back in forth via email with Jay?
Here’s what we yielded in our first run:
Creatures (64)
- 1 Spitting Slug
- 1 Giant Oyster
- 1 Aetherflame Wall
- 1 Basal Sliver
- 1 Basalt Gargoyle
- 1 Benalish Cavalry
- 1 Castle Raptors
- 1 Corpulent Corpse
- 1 D'Avenant Healer
- 1 Drudge Reavers
- 1 Errant Ephemeron
- 1 Evil Eye of Urborg
- 1 Goblin Skycutter
- 1 Ironclaw Buzzardiers
- 1 Ixidron
- 2 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
- 1 Jedit's Dragoons
- 1 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
- 1 Might Sliver
- 1 Penumbra Spider
- 1 Plated Pegasus
- 2 Sage of Epityr
- 1 Sangrophage
- 1 Savage Thallid
- 1 Slipstream Serpent
- 1 Spiketail Drakeling
- 1 Sporesower Thallid
- 1 Urborg Syphon-Mage
- 2 Viashino Bladescout
- 1 Watcher Sliver
- 1 Zealot il-Vec
- 2 Blightspeaker
- 1 Blood Knight
- 2 Brain Gorgers
- 1 Dunerider Outlaw
- 1 Essence Warden
- 1 Fungal Behemoth
- 1 Giant Dustwasp
- 1 Gossamer Phantasm
- 1 Mire Boa
- 1 Necrotic Sliver
- 2 Pallid Mycoderm
- 3 Poultice Sliver
- 1 Primal Plasma
- 1 Rathi Trapper
- 1 Ridged Kusite
- 1 Riftmarked Knight
- 1 Saltfield Recluse
- 1 Simian Spirit Guide
- 1 Sinew Sliver
- 1 Sophic Centaur
- 1 Spitting Sliver
- 1 Stingscourger
- 1 Sulfur Elemental
- 1 Synchronous Sliver
- 1 Uktabi Drake
Lands (2)
Spells (38)
- 1 Resurrection
- 1 Celestial Dawn
- 1 Aspect of Mongoose
- 1 Bewilder
- 1 Call to the Netherworld
- 1 Chameleon Blur
- 1 Chromatic Star
- 1 Empty the Warrens
- 1 Eternity Snare
- 1 Fool's Demise
- 1 Foriysian Totem
- 1 Fortify
- 1 Gaze of Justice
- 1 Grapeshot
- 1 Haunting Hymn
- 1 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
- 1 Orcish Cannonade
- 1 Plunder
- 1 Premature Burial
- 1 Return to Dust
- 1 Rift Bolt
- 1 Squall Line
- 1 Strangling Soot
- 1 Tendrils of Corruption
- 1 Brute Force
- 1 Circle of Affliction
- 1 Cradle to Grave
- 1 Dichotomancy
- 1 Dust Corona
- 1 Enslave
- 2 Erratic Mutation
- 1 Fury Charm
- 1 Mana Tithe
- 1 Melancholy
- 1 Midnight Charm
- 1 Shrouded Lore
- 1 Utopia Vow
When thinking about Time Spiral Limited, I tried to cook up with a list of things to look out for when sorting through the cardpool:
Check for Slivers
Check for Storm / Suspend synergies
Check for Rebel engine
Check for Thallids
Check for landwalkers
Check for Madness / Madness enablers
Here are my initial observations:
Slivers: Watcher Sliver; Basal Sliver; Might Sliver; 3 Poultice Sliver; Necrotic Sliver; Synchronous Sliver; Spitting Sliver; Sinew Sliver
I think we got a good mix of Slivers here, but I worry a little bit about helping the other team’s Slivers. I think this will be something to really pay attention for in playtesting.
Storm / Suspend: 2 Grapeshot; Empty the Warrens; Rift Bolt; Plunder; Errant Ephemeron; Dichotomancy; Riftmarked Knight; Corpulent Corpse; Giant Dustwasp; Fungal Behemoth
I was really hoping for a Search for Tomorrow or Baloth to round out the Red/Green Suspend / Storm plan. I’ve really enjoyed drafting the Storm / Suspend deck in Time Spiral draft, but I’m not sure how effective Grapeshot or Empty the Warrens is going to be in 2HG – and in this pool especially, since there isn’t many supporting cards for a Warrens swarming plan.
Rebels: Zealot il-Vec; Knight of the Holy Nimbus; 2 Blightspeaker; Riftmarked Knight; Saltfield Recluse; Rathi Trapper; Dunerider Outlaw
Two Searchers seems like it would be worth running B/W and have rebels as a keystone of the build.
Thallids: Savage Thallid; Sporesower Thallid; 2 Pallid Mycoderm; (Fungal Behemoth)
The Thallid theme seems pretty thin, though Mycoderm plus Sporesower is worth running in G/W. Fungal Behemoth seem like a decent long-game bomb…
Madness: Call to the Netherworld; 2 Brain Gorgers; 2 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage; Ridged Kusite; Sophic Centaur; Urborg Syphon-Mage
The Madness sucks, but double Jaya is nuts! Sadly, our draw power is pretty thin to feed Spellshapers.
Landwalkers: Mire Boa (+Urborg)
Mire Boa is pretty hot, and I think we’ll be running Urborg anyway (see below).
Other synergies:
Giant Oyster + Rathi Trapper, Midnight Charm
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Shrouded Lore, Tendrils of Corruption
Jay took a look at the pool and my comments, and this is what he had to say:
I think that you may be undervaluing both Empty the Warrens and Grapeshot. With two people working on the storm count you could put a serious dent in your opponent’s board, and Empty the Warrens + Fortify is always a solid plan.
This card pool is very challenging. There’s not a whole lot that you can do with it. I’ve tried building decks four times and each time I ended up with junk.
Fool’s Demise and Necrotic Sliver – Dropping your Fool’s Demise on your partners Necrotic Sliver seems pretty good. Dropping your Fool’s Demise on your opponent’s bomb and then having your partner Necrotic Sliver it is also some good.
Fury Charm has to be amazing. Any card that can destroy an enchantment or artifact but also does something else should probably be considered for the decks. I’d probably even consider Plunder to be a playable.
After chewing on Jay’s feedback and kicking around a few different builds, this is what I cooked up:
Deck 1
Zealot il-Vec
Knight of the Holy Nimbus
2 Blightspeaker
Riftmarked Knight
Saltfield Recluse
Rathi Trapper
Dunerider Outlaw
Necrotic Sliver
Basal Sliver
Urborg Syphon-Mage
2 Pallid Mycoderm
D’Avenant Healer
Benalish Cavalry
Castle Raptors
Circle of Affliction
Cradle to the Grave
Premature Burial
Tendrils of Corruption
Return to Dust
Haunting Hymn
Gaze of Justice
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
16 Plains and Swamps
The rebel chain seemed to be too good not to play, so I built this deck B/W around that – and it also doesn’t hurt to have Necrotic Sliver in the mix. Haunting Hymn should prove to be absolutely backbreaking.
Deck 2
Mire Boa
Stingscourger
Utopia Vow
Giant Dustwasp
2 Grapeshot
2 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Orcish Cannonade
Empty the Warrens
Rift Bolt
Penumbra Spider
Strangling Soot
Goblin Skycutter
Chromatic Star
Foriysian Totem
Sporesower Thallid
Squall Line
Plunder
Essence Warden
Blood Knight
Brute Force
Fury Charm
1 Swamp
16 Forests and Mountains
I think there’s a fair amount of possibility here to set up a good storm for Grapeshot, Warrens, and/or Plunder, and as Jay pointed out your partner can help out too. I added Strangling Soot here since you can either discard to a Spellshaper and flash it back, or to hard cast it you can 1) draw the random Swamp, 2) pop the Star, or 3) wait until your partner has Urborg in play.
One thing I really like about the two builds is Squall Line – between Essence Warden, Syphon-Mage, Tendrils of Corruption and Blightspeaker bleed, you should be able to set your team up for a life advantage so that Squall Line can be a game ender; if not, you can always pitch to Jaya.
I actually like the look of these builds; there’s nothing super-sick, and Jay and I would have to rely on tight play and a few lucky breaks to make top 8 with it, but it’s very possible I think.
I shoot the decks over to Jay, and he has this to say:
Not even tempted to try the Blue splash?
What’s going on with those Pallid Mycoderm in the B/W deck? I think that he’s definitely best alongside Thallid Shell-Dweller and Sporesower. I’m not crazy about Watcher Sliver, and that’s basically what he would be in this deck.
I’d probably throw the G/W storage land in the R/G deck. You can save up for a massive Squall Line. The only reason not to run it would be the Essence Warden, and I’m not totally in love with her here anyway.
You’re not playing Enslave? It’s a Control Magic that shoots your opponent in the face. There’s no way that you don’t run that. A definite bomb.
Where’s Fortify? If you’re running the rebel chain then I think that you should try to run mass creature pump so you can take advantage of your creature quantity advantage.
Wouldn’t it seem better to put a random Mountain and the Strangling Soot in the B/W deck than the random Swamp in the R/G deck? Doing it your way it is definitely more likely that you’ll be able to use it twice, but if you move the Soot over to the other deck then I think you’re more likely to be able to use it in the first place. I hope that made sense…
Circle of Affliction just seems pretty terrible. You’re going to be seeing at least four different colors of damage coming at you.
I think maybe your list cut off one line earlier than mine did or something. How do you not play Fungal Behemoth? That guy just makes your team all gigantical and whatnot, right? He can put his counters on your partner’s guys too. It’s also a "may ability", so if your team doesn’t have any guys out, you don’t have to give a counter to the opponents. He seems pretty bomb-tastic to me.
Essence Warden > Simian Spirit Guide? Could be, but I’m just not quite sure.
Jay raises excellent points about the G/W storage land in the Squall Line deck (d’oh!), and how in the world did I overlook Enslave? However, what in the world is he smoking ranking Simian Spirit Guide over Essence Warden?! We end up shooting comments back and forth about it:
Me: How can Essence (Soul) Warden not be nuts in a four-player, creature heavy format with relatively limited creature removal that you’d want to hang on for bigger and badder things than a 1/1?
Jay: You’re saying that there’s limited removal for the Essence Warden? There are a few creature control cards that are specifically geared to crushing x/1’s: Erratic Mutation, Shaper Parasite, Feebleness, Serra’s Boon, Piracy Charm, Funeral Charm, Midnight Charm, Serrated Arrows, Flowstone Channeler, Zealot Il-Vec. Definitely all playable. I’m not saying that your argument isn’t valid, but is "my opponent won’t want to kill it" a valid reason to run a card? You’re not going to start advocating Brass Gnats, are you?
Me: Re: Essence Warden. I won’t go to the mat for that card, but it certainly seems worth playing with four players putting a lot of creatures onto the board. If there’s something better I’d be up for replacing it. It just seems decent in a deck where Squall Line is one end-game possibility.
What do you all think? Is Essence Warden a good card in this format? Horrible? Filler?
I’m also curious – How would you all build your two decks out of this card pool? See ya in the forums!
Bennie