In the forum thread to my column last week, a poster asked if I’d go into more details on the decisions I made when assembling my Ancient Ziggurat deck for the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open. Given that another Ziggurat deck just made a huge splash in Kyoto, being pretty much the only new and innovative deck to come out of the tournament, I figured it would be worthwhile going over the choices I made in building my deck, how the Kyoto deck differs, and where the archetype may go from here.
First, what I played at the $5K:
Creatures (33)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 3 Doran, the Siege Tower
- 3 Shriekmaw
- 2 Sower of Temptation
- 4 Boggart Ram-Gang
- 4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
- 2 Glen Elendra Archmage
- 3 Rafiq of the Many
- 4 Rhox War Monk
- 4 Noble Hierarch
Lands (22)
Spells (5)
So credit for Ziggurat/Hierarch fun goes to Patrick Chapin for initially throwing his idea out there. If Chapin likes something, it generally means the idea is at least feasible, if not ultimately “the best choice” to win a given tournament or take down the current metagame. I chewed his ideas around some but shuffled it off to the back of my head until Michael Rooks smashed me with his Ziggurat/Hierarch deck in the FNM before the $5K, and ended up making it to the finals with it. Playing against the deck was terrifying, since it was capable of dishing out damage incredibly fast. Like Chapin, his version also ran Boggart Ram-Gangs for hasty exalted smash mouth.
Rooks’ deck ran 4 copies of everything except three copies of Primal Rage. Now, granted, giving your Exalted fatties trample is pretty sexy, but I had visions of constantly drawing the second and third copies of the enchantment rather than the other animals or removal I needed to seal the deal. I also had visions of drawing multiple copies of Doran and Rafiq, so I ended up trimming one of each, trimming one Path and dropping the Rages. There was something else I cut too, but I can’t recall what it was.
Anyway, the “Bennie” elements added were:
+3 Shriekmaw
I’ve long been a huge fan of this card, and he’s a two-mana removal spell that can be cast off the Ziggurat. When you want to smash face with a fast Doran or War Monk, you want to clear away blockers or anything threatening to stop the beats. He shines even better in this deck; since it’s easier to raw dog him off Birds and Hierarchs, and his Fear makes him the perfect exalted torch-carrier. In this metagame full of tons and tons of tokens and creatures, unblockability is huge.
+2 Glen Elendra Archmage
Most people have gotten the memo on how good this fellow is, and again he’s even better in this deck, being able to accelerate fast with Birds/Hierarch, either ASAP or with a Blue mana up to counter something. The Archmage’s flying evasion helps maximize the exalted abilities.
+2 Sower of Temptation
Just a total beating against so many decks, I wanted to have at least eight removal spells to clear the path for Doran or Monk or Ram-Gang, and this one helps against Stillmoon Cavalier. I started with 4 copies, but trimmed two to make room for the Archmages. This card also shines in this deck, accelerating a turn early, and flying evasion to carry the exalted torch when need be.
I have to say, I was very happy with all three of these “Bennie-ism” additions to the Ziggurat deck after playing the deck 7 rounds (if you missed the details of the my 4-3 run with the deck, you should go check it out).
Okay, so flash forward a week and we’ve got Brian Robinson rocking a Top 4 performance at Pro Tour: Kyoto with a very similar deck. Here’s what he played:
Creatures (32)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Doran, the Siege Tower
- 3 Gaddock Teeg
- 2 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
- 3 Rafiq of the Many
- 4 Rhox War Monk
- 4 Tidehollow Sculler
- 4 Noble Hierarch
Lands (22)
Spells (6)
Sideboard
The main game plan is the same: play turn 1 mana accelerator, play turn 2 hyper-efficient three-drop, and hopefully follow up with Rafiq or Liege on turn 3 and attack for massive damage. Brian’s take is quite a bit different than mine: he packs less removal (2 Paths, 3 Inversion), and much more disruption in the form of Tidehollow Sculler and Gaddock Teeg. Brian’s obviously more worried about pre-emptively stopping threats like Planeswalkers, mass removal, or Cryptic Command while smashing his large animals into chumpers until a path is pummeled into existence. To make room for these he relies on War Monks and Doran to be the turn 2 fattie, whereas I’ve also got the Ram Gang. I have to admit, I was a little concerned about the huge number of three-drops in my deck, so I tend to like Brian’s lower-cost approach here. If you don’t have the second turn three-drop plan working, dropping a Sculler instead is a fine play.
The other big difference is Brian’s lack of evasion; he’s got Birds that fly, Treetops that trample, and one miser’s Warhammer. That’s it. Brian relies exclusively on a few removal spells and superior creature size to eventually break through the red zone. With a fast start, this is often more than enough to carry the day.
Brian’s manabase is also quite a bit different than mine; I was totally shocked by the lack of Reflecting Pool, given that Ziggurat/Reflecting Pool I found to be the mana-fixing Holy Grail for this style of deck. Brian’s large number of painlands (including the Bosks) I suppose explains the presence of Kitchen Finks. Personally, I would have run more Bosks myself if I could have found more than just 1 copy (and I’m still trying to figure out where my other two are…).
I like the 4 Scattershot Archers in the sideboard; given the number of Bitterblossoms in the metagame — and the Top 8 of Kyoto—that certainly seems like a wise move, not to mention Spectral Procession. I know they were good to me in the main of my Elf deck.
Unfortunately, Brian Robinson isn’t a name on the Pro Tour, so we only get one shot at reading about how his deck played outside of the Top 8, in Round 14 with a Top 8 berth on the line. Here’s a quick summary of how it played out:
Round 14 vs. Ari Lax/Faeries (with maindeck Plumeveils, Infest)
Robinson opens game 1 on Bird into Doran into War Monk and Treetop, while Ari plays turn 2 Bitterblossom, then combat-step Vendilion Clique with Robinson swinging with Doran, Monk, Treetop. Ari throws a lot of Faeries into the breech but never pulls out from the devastating fast aggression. Robinson gets another turn 1 mana creature in game 2 into turn 2 War Monk. Follows with Sculler, then plays Rafiq. Smashing in with War Monk, clearing Bitterblossom tokens with Archers, it’s a rout.
Now here’s a summary of how his Quarterfinal and Semifinal matches went:
Quarterfinals vs. Cedric Phillips (R/W Vengeant Kithkin)
Robinson starts game 1 with Hierarch, Hierarch, then turn 3 Sculler, turn 4 Teeg. Finally draws a War Monk, plays another Hierarch and goes nuts with the triple-exalted Monk, which starts to offset Cedric’s weenie offense. Doran comes, and then Warhammer and the lifegain beatings are just too much.
Game 2 Robison starts with Birds into Doran, then Sculler, then a fistful of removal spells to finish with Doran beats.
Game 3 Robinson starts with Birds into Doran into Liege, Liege and just fattie-smashes Cedric’s weenie army into submission.
Semifinals vs. Luis Scott-Vargas (Black-White Tokens)
Game 1 Robinson starts with Hierarch into Doran into Rafiq. LSV’s turn 2 Bitterblossom just makes it even harder to dig out.
Game 2 Robinson opens Birds into Teeg, misses land drops, no fattie, he’s toast.
Game 3 Robinson opens Birds into Doran into Liege. LSV has Exile for Doran, Terror for subsequent War Monk. Bitterblossom holds off Liege, tokens overwhelm.
Game 4 Robinson opens Hierarch then Birds, then turn 3 Doran, then War Monk, Archer, and LSV Wraths, game over.
What are the takeaways here? Obviously, the “short-ramp” (as someone in the forums cleverly coined) into turn 2 Doran is the bees-knees, and almost all his victories begins with that, to the point where I guess you have to think hard about keeping a hand that doesn’t have that possibility. Also, pumping up a War Monk tends to push things quite lop-sided.
So the main plan is to quickly steal initiative right off the bat, and to that end Sculler is a fantastic way to keep initiative by stealing your opponent’s best counter-play (which is often a removal spell). Like the short-ramp into three-drop start, an early Sculler also seems to be key to victory.
The underperformers, to my mind, are Teeg and Wilt-Leaf Liege. I love the Liege, let me tell you – little feels better than to have a 5-color Control player terrified of Esper Charming your last two cards away because he’s afraid of the Liege. Liege also gives you a little buffer even to Cruel Ultimatum, pretty much erasing the life gain during your next turn.
Still, those are narrow corner cases; most of the time Liege plays the part of just being a team-booster. Granted he does it very well… but personally, I liked drawing Rafiq and Sower much more than I did the Liege.
Okay, so after playing my deck and mulling over Brian Robinson’s deck, how would I build Ziggy Hierarch for the next FNM? Glad you asked!
Creatures (32)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Briarhorn
- 4 Doran, the Siege Tower
- 3 Shriekmaw
- 4 Sower of Temptation
- 3 Rafiq of the Many
- 4 Rhox War Monk
- 4 Tidehollow Sculler
- 4 Noble Hierarch
Lands (21)
Spells (7)
I feel bad that I had to let Ram-Gang and Glen Elendra go, but something needed to give way for the awesome Tidehollow Scullers! Since we cut back on the three-drops I figured I’d go ahead and play the fourth Doran; turn 2 Doran just seems to be key to so many game wins. Assuming I find the other two Bosks, I also added two Inversions to go with Doran to help cheat the Bosks in untapped often enough.
The freaky new maindeck spice are the two Briarhorns, a card I really found surprisingly good in the Mono-Green block elves deck, and a card which seems like a perfect fit here when you tend to attack with your eggs in one Exalted basket, opponents are going to try and respond by burning out the creature, or maybe double or triple block to take it down. Responding in turn with Briarhorn should be backbreaking. Briarhorn can be cast with Ziggurat mana, so you could even bluff your opponent into thinking you don’t have any instant-speed combat options with just two Ziggurats open.
In the sideboard I’d like to give Galepowder Mage a try. It’s a card I’ve loved for a while, a major player in my old “turbo-Blink” deck, and recently it’s cropped up as Adrian Sullivan mirror-match tech in Brian Kowal’s Boat Brew. I’m guessing it’s not a bad card to bring in against Boat Brew or token decks, being a large flier that can carry the exalted basket while winking out tokens or resetting Figures.
Finally, speaking of Ancient Ziggurats… we’ve got one not too far away from the United States, just inside the Yucatan Peninsula from Cancun, Mexico. Check out this bad boy:
I don’t know if they still allow people to climb to the top, but I managed to pull off that feat during my honeymoon and it’s an awesome and humbling site to stand beside something so massive and ancient. If you get a chance to go to Cancun for vacation, I urge you to block off a day for a trip to Chitzen Itza to see the pyramid and all the other Mayan ruins, including the gigantic sinkhole they used for human sacrifices.
Okay, that’s it for this week. Tonight I’m bringing a brand new deck up to the Standard Friday Night Magic with high hopes for fun and shenanigans, so join me next week as I unveil the deck and recount my adventures. I’m also going to weigh in on my thoughts on M10, see you then!
Take care…
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com
Currently listening to:
Leave Yourself for Somebody Else, by Phantom Planet
Subdivisions, by Rush
Pony (It’s OK), by Erin McCarley
Tame, by The Pixies
The Show, by Lenka