Those of you who have access to StarCityGames.com Premium have witnessed the kafuffle over the past few weeks between some of our lions of Magic strategy, with Mike Flores and his 4/1 deck theory on one hand, and Adrian Sullivan and Richard Feldman on the other. For those who don’t have Premium, here’s the Reader’s Digest version – basically, Flores wrote up an article where he claimed that the very best Magic decks adhere to the principle that you should either have 4 copies or 1 copy of each card in your deck, and if you run 2 or 3 copies of cards you have a suboptimal deck. Sullivan and Feldman strongly disagreed, and pointed out flaws in Flores’s argument and/or offered up counter-theories. All three guys are smart and highly proficient in presenting their points in print, and it’s been fun watching the battle play out across columns and in the forums.
This whole dust-up had me thinking about Premium strategy in general, and what these writers offer up to the Magic community. It’s good stuff for players looking to take their game to the next level, and yet a lot of times I personally get a bit frustrated because the advice often isn’t very practical for guys like me. Much of these treatises can be boiled down to simply this: spend more time playtesting, and get a network of serious Magic players to playtest with. Good advice to be sure, but for many players like me there’s not a lot of extra time in the day, and there are not a lot of local serious Magic players that I’ve been able to connect with. It’s a hard reality for me, and my Magic performance over the past few years has reflected that reality. If I measured my enjoyment of Magic by tournament performance, I’d have walked away from the game by now.
Luckily, Magic has remained fresh and fun for me because the number one appeal of the game is the constant infusion of new cards that brings a constant infusion of new deck ideas four times a year. I love whipping together new decks and taking them to tournaments to see how my rogue concoctions fare against the highly tuned death machines netdeckers bring. The wins I pull off are like heavenly nectar of the gods. This time of year is the very best of the four influxes of new cards because there are an even larger crop of cards leaving the Standard format; the impact is huge – some deck archetypes are annihilated, some are crippled, some are strengthened, and on top of it all are brand new archetypes waiting to be discovered. I tend to go on a deckbuilding frenzy, whipping out new decklists by the hour. It occurred to me that the method I go about sketching out initial decklists allows me to get a pretty good idea whether an idea has “juice” enough to warrant further exploration, or whether it ends up being too clunky, too much work to try and make it work. So for those of you interested in the method, here’s how I do it; if you’ve got any suggestions for improving it, or have your own method that works for you, please share your thoughts in the forums!
Of course, everything starts with the idea. Let’s say you’re interested in building a deck around Doran, the Siege Tower – I know I am! A three-mana 5/5 is a beating, and if you build your deck to take advantage of his ability he becomes even better. Wall of Roots leaps to mind as a good card that becomes ridiculous with Doran in play.
My method works best while you’re on your computer – since I spend a lot of time on the computer in my jobs, and ideas pop into my mind all the time, it’s handy to pop open Notepad to sketch out the idea. I’ll first type in “4 Doran, the Siege Tower.” I’ll also go ahead and add “4 Wall of Roots,” but I put that in the line above Doran because it costs less mana. Like this:
4 Wall of Roots
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
When Devin Low previewed Doran, the Siege Tower on MagictheGathering.com, he presented quite a few cards that worked nicely with Doran, such as Birds of Paradise, Ohran Viper, Tarmogoyf, and Timber Protector, so let’s add them to our Notepad list mindful of your mana curve, from cheapest on top to more expensive below.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
4 Ohran Viper
4 Timber Protector
At this point I look at my list with a critical eye – what is it telling us so far? The two and three mana slots are filled nicely, we’re a little short on the one mana slot, and we skip four mana and jump right to five with Timber Protector. Also, there are two cards that demand deck considerations – Tarmogoyf wants you to diversify card types, and Timber Protector wants you to have more Treefolk. Addressing the one mana concerns and Tarmogoyf, I thought of Chromatic Star, which also helps increase the odds of getting the mana you need for Doran the Colored Mana Hog. Addressing Timber Protector, for available Treefolk there’s Heartwood Storyteller and Battlewand Oak (spoiled on MTGSalvation.com). Both of these cost three mana, competing with Doran and Ohran Viper; I love Heartwood Storyteller, but the card doesn’t play nicely with Tarmogoyf, and at this point Tarmogoyf seems like a good fit. Battlewand Oak adds to Timber Protector in wanting more Treefolk too. Hmm. Let’s fill out our list.
4 Chromatic Star
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
4 Ohran Viper
4 Battlewand Oak
4 Timber Protector
At this point the three-mana slots are rather crowded, we still haven’t addressed our four-mana slots, and we’ve only got four more cards we can fit in to leave us a base 24 lands. Tarmogoyf is screaming for more card types, and we need some removal so our beaters and Viper can get through the Red Zone. I think let’s cut the Treefolk theme altogether in order to free up some deck space.
At four mana, Loxodon Hierarch and/or Glare of Subdual would be strong considerations, but we’re building for the new Standard here. Nothing jumps immediately to mind, but luckily we’ve got tools available to us. One thing I use quite a bit is Gatherer on MagictheGathering.com, sorted by Cost, Standard format with Text Spoiler output. There’s also the excellent card database available right here on StarCityGames.com. With an eye to Tarmogoyf, let’s check out the available instant removal spells at four mana. Tendrils of Corruption is good, but it would require us to run multiple copies of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Not much else available there, so how could we make it work? Edge of Autumn is a card that’s been paired up nicely with Tarmogoyf; it’s a sorcery, it can cycle off Urborg if you draw another copy of it, and it can help you fix mana with Doran. Let’s look at our list now:
4 Chromatic Star
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Edge of Autumn
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
4 Ohran Viper
4 Tendrils of Corruption
Okay, assuming the mana works we’ve got the deck pretty well fleshed out for the early and mid-game; now we’ve got 4-5 more spots for the later game. Liliana Vess is an interesting possibility that makes Tarmogoyf smile some more, and if we’re running Urborg the double-Black in the casting cost shouldn’t be a problem. Rootgrapple is intriguing, cantripping if you’ve got Doran out there, and providing two relevant card types for Tarmogoyf. It can also take down opposing Planeswalkers, which may prove to be important in the upcoming Standard.
With Birds, Walls, and the Edge, I’m thinking I can get away with running just 23 lands, which gives us five spots. I’m going to use three spots for Liliana; with the cantrips, cycling and possibly a hit or two from Viper, I should draw into her by the time I’d want to cast her. Her tutoring ability also makes a few bullets possible, so I’m going to dedicate a Rootgrapple and a Damnation for the final two spots. I also note that the Star and Edge make it so you can tutor for a card and play it the same turn, which is quite nice.
4 Chromatic Star
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Edge of Autumn
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
4 Ohran Viper
4 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Damnation
3 Liliana Vess
1 Rootgrapple
So let’s take a look from top to bottom. The mana curve is decent: 8 ones, 12 twos, 8 threes, 5 fours, 4 fives – very easy to eyeball because of the way we’ve organized it. The power level looks solid, with format-defining Tarmogoyf leading the charge, fat and happy with seven different card types. Our early plays are all Green, so when we flesh out our mana we need to make sure that’s considered. We also want to keep in mind the heavy color requirements to pull off a turn 2 or 3 Doran. This is telling me we’re going to want to run Llanowar Wastes and Brushland. Edge of Autumn tells us we’re going to want to run basic lands as well, and we’re also pretty sure to be running at least three copies Urborg, Tomb to Yawgmoth. Working out the correct mana for a Doran deck is going to be a challenge, but my initial impression is that this deck could be worth the effort.
When it comes time to figure out the land, organizing your list this way can help give you a jump-start on the process. Taking a look at the top of the list, you can see what sort of colored mana you’d be needing in the early game, so make sure your mana mix will handle that.
A few last things to keep in mind:
When positioning cards on your list, mana cost isn’t always going to dictate placement. For example, I’d put Greater Gargadon at the top of the list amongst the one-mana spells, because you are far more likely to suspend the card for one Red mana than hard cast it. Something like River Boa I may put in the three-mana slots because I’m going to rarely want to drop it without having regeneration mana available. A piece of equipment like Loxodon Warhammer I’d likely place at five, because I’d typically want to cast it and go ahead and equip it the same turn (and hopefully attack). Similarly, cards with kicker where you are almost always going to “kick” should be placed farther down the list than their base mana cost. Cards with the new Evoke mechanic where you’ll tend to Evoke rather than hardcast should be adjusted up the list. Morph cards should pretty much hover around the three-mana mark, though Morph creatures you’re going to want to play and yet have mana open to unmorph should be adjusted upward.
As an extreme example, here’s a decklist centered on maximizing Kindle the Carnage and Riddle of Lightning:
4 Mindstab
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Mind Stone
4 Shriekmaw
4 Akroma, Angel of Fury
4 Kindle the Carnage
4 Damnation
2 Mournwhelk
4 Riddle of Lightning
2 Stuffy Doll
Now, if we just analyze the average mana cost of the deck it would look ridiculously mana heavy, but I’ve organized these cards based on when I would play them, using Suspend and Evoke costs as placements on the list. I’ve got eight one-cost plays, eight two-cost plays, eight three-cost plays, six four-cost plays, and six five-cost plays. You’ve got a ton of high-cost stuff to make Kindle and Riddle amazing, but you’ve also got plenty of play available in the early game.
(Apologies for the Stuffy Doll, but my romantic vision is of a gigantic Kindle the Carnage with a Stuffy Doll in play… ah, you know it would be sweet!)
Using this method lets me sketch out tons and tons of decklists, many of which I end up scrapping as not viable — though I typically save them anyway to go back and look at again once more cards have been added to the card pool. I find it a real time-saver, helping me gage what decks are worth actually putting together for playtesting, and which aren’t worth the effort. Of course, there are going to be deck ideas I discard that would actually be worth developing if I put in the time, but for those of us who don’t have a lot of extra time this method can be a big help. I’m hoping you might find it useful, too — let me know! Until next week…
What? How did my Simic Flash deck do at FNM last week? Well, I made a few changes to it after some suggestions were given and I did some thinking. Here’s what I ended up with:
Creatures (35)
- 3 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
- 4 Mystic Snake
- 2 Plaxmanta
- 1 Trygon Predator
- 4 Ohran Viper
- 2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
- 1 Thelonite Hermit
- 2 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
- 4 Epochrasite
- 4 Heartwood Storyteller
- 3 Venser, Shaper Savant
Lands (22)
Spells (3)
As good as they are, I ended up cutting the Tarmogoyfs when I realized how horrible they’d be in a nearly all-creature deck. D’oh! I did go ahead and add a non-creature spell and was pleased with its inclusion; Chord of Calling added a lot of power to the deck, and as an instant you could limit your opponent’s drawing from the Storyteller to his end step. Since the deck seemed predisposed to beat control decks, I added the Shapeshifter/Thelonite Hermit combo, which ought to be a beating against other creature decks (I also added the “pickles” half of the combo to the sideboard). I thought the Novijen would be rather inspired late game, and I envisioned using them on Epochrasites when they came back from Suspend-land. It didn’t really pan out that way, but I did realize what would be better — and still Standard legal this fall – Urza’s Factory! Playing the deck, I’d be holding a reactive spell like Mystic Snake and when my opponent didn’t do anything I was stuck with the choice of adding more pressure to the board, or holding the card to react to something the following turn. Factories solve that problem quite nicely, adding pressure while keeping your control cards in hand.
Let me just say that Heartwood Storyteller is simply amazing; if you haven’t had a chance to give it a try in a heavy-creature deck, please do so. I drew a ton of cards off them in the three rounds of Swiss. I went 2-1 and missed Top 4 on tiebreakers, beating a Solar Pox and Seismic Loam deck and losing to a Dralnu deck of all things. My Dralnu opponent knew what I was playing and said there was no way I lose, but I kept making mistakes that he was able to capitalize on, and if you give a deck like Dralnu opportunities you will lose. This was the game that made me realize how valuable Factories would have been. I chalk this up to lack of practice rather than a flaw in the deck.
I’m looking forward to updating the deck for the new Standard, since most of the deck remains intact in the rotation. The mana is going to be less reliable (bye-bye, Breeding Pools!), but depending on what Lorwyn brings we may be able to fix that.
So after my Magic night was cut short by missing Top 4, I found that I had just enough time to get to the theater and catch a late movie. My choices when I got there were “Superbad,” “The Brave One,” and “3:10 to Yuma.” “Superbad” and “The Brave One” were just about to start when I got there, so I would have missed coming attraction movie trailers. I love coming attraction movie trailers, and I so rarely get to see them that there was no choice at all. 3:10 to Yuma it is.
I was a little worried about the movie. Sure, Christian Bale and Russell Crowe are top-notch actors, but I wasn’t sure how they’d fit into a Western. Plus, I’m not overly fond of Westerns (with “Unforgiven” and “Little Big Man” being the big exceptions). Thankfully, my worries were unfounded – the movie was superb! The ending was a little perplexing to me at first, but as I drove home I realized that it made sense if you thought about some of the events and things said leading up to it. The mark of a good movie is one that makes you think about it after you’ve left the movie theater, and this one certainly did. The only thing that could have been better is if Christian Bale’s wife in the movie, Gretchen “The Notorious Bettie Page” Mol, had gotten naked for us. Ah well, you can’t have everything!
Until next week, enjoy the Lorwyn previews!
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com