Last weekend was one that this Green mage was very happy about. While I enjoyed personal success with a deck built around one of the coolest Green cards to be printed in some time, that FNM moment paled in comparison to the gigantic splash Kali and Todd Anderson made at the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Nashville on Saturday with a deck that wasn’t just built around a particularly cool Green card, but built entirely of Green cards — along with a very potent artifact!
Since Todd writes for this here site, I imagine he and Kali will be providing a comprehensive write-up on the deck in the very near future, so I won’t spend too much time on it here and look forward to hearing what they have to say. What’s been interesting is the level of derisiveness I’ve seen amongst some pros and other competitive Magic players, as if a deck that’s Mono Green winning a big tournament just has to be a fluke. But let’s present a few facts here:
First, the tournament had 341 people, with 9 rounds of Swiss. While it’s theoretically possible a deck and its pilot could squeak into the Top 8 catching an inordinate number of lucky breaks, it’s highly unlikely.
Second, Kali went undefeated in the Swiss, beating 7 different deck archetypes along the way:
Rd 1, Won 2-0 versus Mono Red
Rd 2, Won 2-0 versus Jund
Rd 3, Won 2-1 versus 5 Color Cascade
Rd 4, Won 2-0 versus Grixis Control
Rd 5, Won 2-0 versus Vampires
Rd 6, Won 2-0 versus Jund
Rd 7, Won 2-1 versus 5 Color
Rd 8, Won 2-0 versus Mono White Control
Rd 9, Won 2-1 versus Bant
Now, I’ve played some loose Magic and made it to 4-0 due to the help of some lucky topdecks and/or bad plays by my opponent, but somewhere around the fifth round you start to play against the serious competitors and things get tough. Yet Kali kept crushing decks along the way. Todd played the same deck and also beat Boros Bushwhacker, twice. Does this mean that Monumental Green owns the metagame? Of course not, but what it does mean is that this deck can fight and win in this metagame against a wide host of decks. I just don’t think that’s something that can be easily dismissed.
I’m particularly interested in hearing about Kali and Todd’s sideboard, which were identical:
1 Eldrazi Monument
3 Pithing Needle
4 Acidic Slime
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Mold Shambler
3 Mycoloth
2 Windstorm
Five of these slots make total sense at a glance – a fourth copy each of Monument and Stag, along with very useful Pithing Needles. But the rest of the sideboard, chock full of cards I personally love? I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying you don’t generally see them riding the sideboards of successful decks. Yet more reasons why this deck has left me with a big, goofy smile on my face.
I expect this deck to be extremely under-represented at Worlds, not because it’s a one-shot wonder, but because I expect most top level Pros can’t bring themselves to play a Monogreen deck in a serious tournament… which is fine. I’m sure it’ll make a resurgence at States!
Okay, let me move on to a deck I’ve got some experience with to talk about now—the Summoning Trap deck! Most of those who pay attention to newer decks bubbling up are probably aware of this version, recently taking down an online Magic tournament:
Es Una Trappa!!!
1st – Lat[GRC]
4 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
4 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Mycoid Shepherd
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Baneslayer Angel
4 Rampant Growth
4 Summoning Trap
3 Trapmaker’s Snare
4 Harrow
3 Trace of Abundance
10 Forest
1 Island
4 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Sunpetal Grove
Sideboard
1 Obelisk of Alara
4 Negate
4 Celestial Purge
4 Day of Judgment
2 Progenitus
Basically, it’s a mana ramp deck trying to get to six mana in order to play my favorite new Green card, Summoning Trap! Summoning Trap is an update to Natural Order, a “Tinker” card made famous in Jamie Wakefield Secret Force deck. Summoning Trap is more expensive, and not as precise as a tutor, but it doesn’t require a sacrifice, and its instant speed gives green a much needed boost in the “clever” department.
Lat[GRC] heavily leans on Summoning Trap, playing 3 Trapmaker’s Snare to give him 7 virtual copies. The tinker targets are quite impressive – Sphinx of the Steel Wind is a metagame house, sticking it particularly hard to the very popular Jund decks. Being a Black 6/6 and having protection from Green and Red means it just shrugs off Maelstrom Pulse, Terminate, Bituminous Blast, and Doom Blade, while it blocks Bloodbraid Elves and Putrid Leeches all day while attacking with Vigilance and Lifelink right through any Baneslayer Angels flapping around.
Then there’s Iona, Shield of Emeria, who attacks other sides of the metagame, shutting down the White removal suite being used, or just flat out hosing any monocolor decks running around.
The nice thing about this deck too is that, with the mana-ramp/mana-fixing you can eventually cast these monsters normally if you need to.
Now, Lat[GRC]’s version is the one making noise, but I think it’s also important to note an earlier incarnation that was found on the Wizards site, a version Matt Place was gunslinging at the Los Angeles, CA Prerelease:
Matt Place’s Snake Trap
7 Forest
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Baneslayer Angel
3 Birds of Paradise
3 Borderland Ranger
3 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Mycoid Shepherd
2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Path to Exile
4 Summoning Trap
In Matt’s brief write-up he said: “A couple cards to think about to improve the deck: Sphinx of the Steel Wind is very strong against Jund decks. They have few ways to win the game once it hits the table due to its lifelink and its protection from Red and from Green.” I can’t help but think that someone made the jump from Matt’s comments and the Sphinx quickly became a staple of the “modern” Trap decks.
The first thing I did was lay out Lat[GRC]’s version, and quickly found myself not too happy with it. There were way too many cards that simply try and set up other cards – only 14 cards in the deck are “action” cards that do something all on their own. In my own personal experience, having that low of percentage of “action” cards often leads to draws where you’re spending mana and casting spells but not really doing anything to advance your win. That style of play isn’t exactly my forte.
On the other hand, Matt Place’s deck looked right up my alley, especially since I very recently acquired fourth copies of Cash Cobra and Walletslayer Angel. I decided to try and take Lat[GRC]’s deck back closer to what Matt had going on, with a small twist – I wanted to give Grim Discovery a try. Even if I drew one early, between the sac-lands and early mana creatures that are sure to eat early removal spells, Grim ought to be worth two-for-one every time. Besides, it’s a great way to “counter” Blightning. Here’s what I took up to FNM:
Creatures (27)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Mycoid Shepherd
- 4 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
- 4 Baneslayer Angel
- 4 Borderland Ranger
- 3 Iona, Shield of Emeria
- 4 Lotus Cobra
Lands (24)
Spells (9)
Sideboard
I imagine the Sovereigns raised a few eyebrows… my reasoning with him was a way to win without having to punch through an attack, with the idea that someone at the game shop was bound to try to run a Turbo Mill deck, with some number of Fogs and Wraths. I’ve got a fair number of creatures that gain life, and no burn spells, so my opponent is liable to not care how much life I get at so long as he’s safely above one life. Then I spring the Sovereign trap and laugh at his Fogs! Also, I figure I could swap in the fourth Iona and the Sovereigns in those matchups when the Sphinxes aren’t any good.
The deck performed pretty well for me, going 3-1 in the Swiss and sending me to the finals, where I lost to the same deck I lost to in the Swiss, a sick little R/g/w Valakut deck I’ll share with y’all at the bottom of this column**. Turns out not having any creature removal (for his Knight of the Reliquary) nor any land removal (for the multiple Valakuts that cropped up) is a really bad idea – who knew? Yeah, I know, that’s obvious, and I was certainly worried about the creature removal issue when I built the deck, but there were various elements I wanted to try out and I just ran out of room.
It was strange playing against Anthony’s Valakut deck, I’d assumed having Pro Red guys in the main deck and Celestial Purges in the board would have given me an advantage, but turns out with two Valakuts in play he’s not too scared of Steel Wind.
You know, I’m guessing the Acidic Slime and Mold Shambler in the Monumental Green sideboard might have gotten the nods due to the threat of Valakut (and likely Emeria), along with having the option of smashing those who build four and five color decks with shaky mana.
Thomas Riester played Summoning Trap (GWUb) at the Nashville $5K, and while he didn’t crack Top 16 and thus escapes notice by those who’re combing through the deck database, he did finish with a solid 6-3 record:
Rd 1: Won 2-1 versus Planeswalker Control
Rd 2: Won 2-0 versus RG Elves
Rd 3: Lost 0-2 versus Boros Bushwhacker
Rd 4: Lost 0-2 versus Mono White Control
Rd 5: Won 2-0 versus Jund
Rd 6: Won 2-0 versus Cobra Rock
Rd 7: Lost 0-2 versus 4 Color Ramp
Rd 8: Won 2-1 versus Mono Red
Rd 9: Won 2-0 versus Runeflare Mine
I’d be very curious to see Riester’s decklist, so if you know him see if he’s willing to get in touch and share his thoughts on the archetype.
I think the archetype has a lot of exciting things going for it, and I also think it’s nowhere close to optimized yet. Summoning Trap is a powerful spell well worth finding the right deck to live in, so I’m certainly going to keep working on this. Some takeaways on it I’ve found so far:
First, Lotus Cobra allows for some potent turns, but in a deck like this, Rampant Growth or Trace of Abundance should get the nod. The odds of having the right mix of cards along with Lotus Cobra surviving seemed to be a little too much wishful thinking. Having your fatties stranded in your hand was a real problem with this deck, and which card in your graveyard helps get you closer to actually casting them – Lotus Cobra or Rampant Growth?
Second, Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Iona, Shield of Emeria are absolutely the correct Tinker targets in this deck; both are totally ridiculous especially when put on the board at instant speed on turn 5.
Third, Grim Discovery and Trapmaker’s Snare were both okay cards… but honestly I should just swap them out for Path to Exile and be done with it.
Finally, Mycoid Shepherd was incredibly mediocre. Maybe I just didn’t play against enough aggro, but he always died and the five life point gift was mostly irrelevant. That said, I’m not so sure what to swap him for – Garruk for more acceleration? Wall of Denial for more robust defense?
Before I wrap up talk of Summoning Trap this week, I’d like to present a few different versions that have cropped up over at MTG Salvation’s discussion on Summoning Trap.
Greenimator 2.0
By meyou, mtgsalvation
4 Rampant Growth
4 Khalni Heart Expedition
3 Trapmaker’s Snare
4 Harrow
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Captured Sunlight
4 Summoning Trap
3 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
3 Empyreal Archangel
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Plains
2 Island
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
10 Forest
Bogardan Hellkite certainly comes in a close third or fourth for fatties I’d like to accelerate into, and Empyrial Archangel is right up there too, doing a nice job of absorbing a weenie rush that might try to otherwise run around your fattie defense. I like the use of Cascade for some much needed card advantage, especially considering you could Cascade into a virtual Summoning Trap.
Turbotrap
By guara on mtgsalvation
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Broodmate Dragon
4 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Knotvine Mystic
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
4 Harrow
4 Summoning Trap
2 Trapmaker’s Snare
4 Arid Mesa
3 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
3 Plains
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
This one doesn’t fool around with anything silly like Baneslayer Angel, instead just running acceleration, acceleration, acceleration, figuring a couple will stick and bring online sweet, sweet Summoning Trap.
Control Trap
By gozolve on mtgsalvation
4 Rampant Growth
4 Khalni heart Expedition
4 Harrow
4 Day of Judgment
3 Martial Coup
3 Trapmaker’s Snare
4 Summoning Trap
3 Sphinx of the Steal Wind
2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Empyrial Archangel
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Island
4 Forest
4 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
I certainly like the Days and Martial Coup in this version, sweeping away the weenie hordes that might otherwise trouble this relatively slow deck. I’m figuring 4 Days of Judgment easily deserve a place in my sideboard.
Bant-ish Trap
By Enjoy on mtgsalvation
4 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
3 Mycoid Shepherd
4 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Rhox War Monk
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Trapmaker’s Snare
2 Trace of Abundance
4 Rampant Growth
4 Summoning Trap
4 Harrow
4 Day of Judgment
4 Glacial Fortress
1 Swamp
5 Forest
4 Plains
2 Island
2 Seaside Citadel
4 Sunpetal Grove
Sideboard:
1 Rhox War Monk
1 Mycoid Shepherd
2 Obelisk of Alara
4 Celestial Purge
4 Negate
3 Meddling Mage
I don’t like all the threes here, and the four Days of Judgment look a little out of place in the main deck, but there’s certainly some nice things going on. Rhox War Monk was a card I strongly considered for my deck before deciding on Borderland Ranger.
Finally, to tie it all together, here’s a funky hybrid build that I actually conceived before last weekend’s $5K, though I took inspiration and added in the Monuments just this week!
Creatures (23)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Elvish Visionary
- 4 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
- 4 Elvish Archdruid
- 3 Iona, Shield of Emeria
- 4 Nissa's Chosen
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (24)
Spells (7)
Dare I call it… Secret Force 2K9? We’ve got Elves, we got “Natural Order” right?
Richmond Double-PTQ Weekend!
While the pros and semi-pros wing out to Minnesota for the Grand Prix, Star City kicks off yet another kick-ass Magic event right here in Richmond, VA this weekend! I’m going to be jumping in to both PTQs (unless I win the first one), so wish me luck in opening a sickly powerful card pool, and having the wherewithal to build it correctly! In case things don’t break my way, I’ve got 4 Elder Dragon Highlander decks ready and willing to battle at the casual tables, and I’ll have a Standard deck or two to try and take down a side event.
Reminder! The Jay Coffman Memorial Tournament November 22nd
If you can spread the word, please let as many people as you can know about this very special tournament in memory of our friend Jay:
Here’s the link to the details on Jay’s tournament.
There are also now links to Silent Auctions of Jay’s gaming materials, with proceeds going to Massey Cancer Research Center. There are some Vintage power cards, classic RPGs, Jay’s Trade Binder, and more – be sure to check it out, even if you can’t make the tournament!
If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll find the time to come out play some Magic in Jay’s honor!
Take care!
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com
New to EDH? Be sure to check out my EDH Primer, part 1, part 2, and part 3!
My current EDH decks:
Doran the Siege-Tower (toughness matters!)
Baron Sengir (Evile Vampires!)
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary (big mana spells)
Sharuum, the Hegemon (equipment.dec)
** The Valakut Deck
I asked Anthony if he could send me his winning deck, here’s the list:
10 Mountains
As you can see, it’s quite similar to other lists running around, though he’s got some odd numbers of the “extraneous” stuff he told me he threw in to test them out. The core of the deck is surprisingly potent – I figured no way could a three-color deck support all three colors and still run Valakut and enough Mountains to work ‘em. I was dead wrong. The Expanses and Panorama allow you to generally get that first Forest into play, and that’s all the Green you need to run Harrow, KHE, Knight of the Reliquary and Oracle. Later, if you need to cast Baloths you can nab another Green.
I’ve seen some lists floating around that are more streamlined, and I’d recommend you test against the deck so you have a plan to beat it. The deck will surprise you… painfully.
2 Arid Mesa
3 Forest
1 Plains
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Naya Panorama
4 Harrow
4 Khalni Heart Expedition
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Fireball
2 Path to Exile
2 Lavaball Traps
4 Knight of Reliquary
2 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Lotus Cobra
3 Plated Geopede
2 Rampaging Baloths
2 Grazing Gladeheart