Time to fill in the big hole from last week’s recap of my day at the Virginia Nationals Qualifier—what deck I actually played. It’s quite interesting in retrospect that I waited a week to talk about it, considering the role two particular Green mythic rares played in my story, and in the current story of Standard writ large. Let’s rewind back to the week leading up to the qualifier weekend, as I was mulling over my deck choices. I got an email from Sean McKeown that quite frankly left me stunned:
Bennie, I have a reasonably large stack of cards, and could conscience loaning you some of them for Nats Qs and the GP DC weekend if that can help. I’d be curious to see an article from you about the Standard format where you get to play whatever you want regardless of price tag, as I think it’d be interesting to see what you do if you had the ability to play around anywhere in the mind-space of Standard, thus my curiosity as to the “deck of your dreams” as I could potentially facilitate such if only for the short term of two important tournaments. … I do have Vengevines, but unfortunately will be using them, as my Jund 2.0 deck runs the full playset and is far and away my weapon of choice for these two tournaments.
First, the specific implication you can draw from this offer: yes, Sean was offering to loan me a playset of Jace, the Mind Sculptor if that would allow me to play what I truly wanted to be playing in Standard right now. Not just Jace but any other hard-to-acquire cards I might need. That’s just incredibly generous, and on top of that it was humbling to find that he was genuinely curious to see what I could cook up for Standard if card availability wasn’t an issue. Sean plays up in the New York area, surrounded by pros, semi-pros, and plenty of rogue deckbuilders that I’m sure he has easy access to, so I have never figured that what Bennie was brewing down here in Richmond would be of interest.
Unfortunately, I felt it was a little late in the game to jump back on the Summoning Trap bandwagon, or any other funky homebrews that I hadn’t the cards for previously. I was already zeroing in on a couple decks that I had some mileage with and the cards in hand. However, Sean’s last sentence about his Jund deck with Vengevines had me intrigued. Not that I had ever considered playing Jund after it had exploded in popularity, but I was curious about the Vengevines and asked Sean if he could share the list. He said sure, with the caveat that I not write about it before Grand Prix DC. He’d won a Grand Prix trial with the deck and he was working with some folks to rock the Nationals Qualifiers and the Grand Prix with this list:
Creatures (20)
Lands (26)
Spells (14)
Now, this deck set off a bunch of warm-fuzzy alarm bells in my head for numerous reasons — for instance, the Masters of the Wild Hunt and Cunning Sparkmages in the sideboard are some of my favorite creatures — but foremost in my mind was the story potential here. I don’t think I’ve ever been mistaken as a Magic player who writes; I’m a writer who plays Magic, and I particularly appreciate the numerous threads of story that runs deep in this wonderful game. There’s the drama of the duel, who wins and who loses; the tension of the tournament, as each player strives to make the Top 8 cutoff. There’s the shifting metagame, what decks are hot now, what hot decks last week have cooled this week, and what’s cutting edge and unexpected? There are hordes of writers each trying to make a splash and influence readers, or at least to entertain. There are Magic celebs from the local level to worldwide, and people eager to find out their thoughts and choices. There are the people who make the game, giving us new product, letting us know what they’re thinking, and gathering data from us to help them with future products. Then we come back down to the cards themselves, not just what impact they have on individual games, but what memorable stories they create when you blend the mechanics of game play with the flavor of the cards. Amusement blunts the sting of losing to a Birds of Paradise equipped with a Behemoth Sledge when you ponder the visuals of that scene in your mind’s eye.
Now, the storyline Sean’s decklist played right into was the controversial column I’d just written, Mythics & the Cost of Playing. The forum thread got up to 8 pages long, nearly 180 replies and over 7,000 views. There were a lot of things discussed in that thread, and in one tangent feisty forum friend Bosh and Roll and I got into it over whether Lotus Cobra and Vengevine were staple mythic cards and that drove their price to ridiculous levels (my contention), or whether they were actually narrow cards that were overhyped and that was driving their price (his point of view). Snippets of what he was saying:
Lotus Cobra… isn’t that good, and frankly it never was. …The fact is that it’s just not good enough for competitive play in more than a single type of deck, and certainly not as a format staple. …Lotus Cobra is a Green card. And the best Green deck [Jund] doesn’t even want it. Mythic is the only deck that needs Lotus Cobra that has the chops to win a tournament. …know what deck doesn’t/shouldn’t play Vengevine? Jund.
So… part of the reason why Cobra and Vengevine aren’t good, aren’t staples, is because they aren’t played in the best Green deck, Jund. Wouldn’t it be sweet justice, ironic, a twist of faith (or insert any other pleasing narrative hook) if I Q’d for Nats playing Cobra and Vengevine in a Jund deck?
Part of the even larger narrative here is my playstyle: I’ve always enjoyed mid-range decks, and when they’re good in the format, I’ve often found great success. Jund is the most powerful mid-range deck of all time, and I’ve stubbornly refused to play it because I didn’t want to be “that guy” and I never relish playing multiple mirror matches. However, this deck is significantly different, faster, and plays out differently enough that it would blunt both of the reasons why I never considered Jund before.
When playtesting the Warp World deck kept falling through, and with the growing popularity of Mythic Conscription, I finally decided that I’d play Sean’s Jund deck if I could scrounge up the Vengevines. Luckily, there were a couple copies scattered across me and my friends’ collections and I was able to borrow or buy enough to get a playset.
The morning of the Nationals Q I go to buy new sleeves as usual, and ask the dude for the lucky sleeves. He points me to these green Japanese-manufactured ones. I also see that they have the new golden deck boxes, and I buy the one with the Green mana symbol. Green sleeves, golden Green mana deck box, for the best Green deck in the format. The strong narrative continues!
Unfortunately for StarCityGames.com, the timing of the Nationals Q couldn’t have been any worse. The week before they’d already scheduled a PTQ in Richmond, and the week afterwards was Grand Prix DC, an easy ride from Richmond. With three big events in three back-to-back weekends, a lot of players ended up having to make choices and the attendance to our Nationals Q is a paltry 70 players. Of course, the flip side is that the low attendance means an easier path to Top 4, which makes it all the more likely that I can write a happy ending to this story.
Of course, if you read last week’s column, you know my intended narrative didn’t pan out, so here’s a quick run-down of what happened. I started off great by sweeping a R/W Control deck piloted by local Magic powerhouse Michael Rooks. As Sean had indicated, my Jund deck was particularly fast and brutal, and allowed me to take each game just before Michael could take control and finish me.
Round 2 I got crushed by semi-pro Calosso Fuentes playing U/W. For the first game I had to mulligan to 5 on the play and he had all the answers he needed as he needed them. Game 2 I kept a risky draw but it had Cobra and I thought pretty good odds for an explosive early game, but he Spread me turns 2 and 3. I manage to get a Cobra down, and when I draw a Savage Land I feel pretty good about my mana situation so I run Cobra into the Red Zone. I’m hoping Calosso blocks with his Kor Firewalker so that when I cast the first of two Bloodbraid Elves in my hand next turn they can crash in, and he obliges me… and then drops a third Spreading Seas on my Savage Land! Before I could get anything more going he’d gotten a Jace, the Mind Sculptor on the board and went aggro manland on me to finish the game quickly. Heart-breaking!
Round 3 I got matched up with Vampires, we went to three games and each were pretty tight but his deck was overloaded with removal and I couldn’t stick enough creatures to punch through his lifegaining, and Vengevine didn’t even show up one game – the game he Mind Sludged me, of course! I also probably didn’t board correctly either since Vampires wasn’t on the guide Sean sent me.
So, my Nationals Qualifier storyline ended tragically short, though my personal story turned for the better in dramatic fashion in the side draft I entered. However, this wasn’t the end of the narrative for Lotus Cobra and Vengevine. Behold:
Creatures (20)
Lands (26)
Spells (14)
Hmm, that looks damn familiar!! I like the sideboard tweak of All Is Dust, presumably to take on the Planeswalker decks.
A couple other Jund decks sporting Lotus Cobras and Vengevines qualified for Nationals that weekend too: Andrew Hanson, 2nd place in Arizona, and Philip Bau, 3rd place in California.
Of course, the big news from the Nats Q weekend was another green deck featuring Lotus Cobra and Vengevine, dropped into the metagame at the last minute by Gerry Thompson, and earned some other invites:
DeckID=32724
Gerry’s list carried others to qualify as well: Jesse Oliff, 1st place in Virginia; Chris Worley, 2nd place in Wyoming; J.T. Henricks, 4th place in Georgia; and Chris OBryant, 4th place in Kentucky.
That’s not the end of the story from that weekend though—check out this hot little number:
Creatures (29)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 3 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Cunning Sparkmage
- 2 Stoneforge Mystic
- 4 Vengevine
Lands (23)
Spells (8)
It’s like Gerry’s slutty but cute Vengevine Naya list got down and dirty with stuffy yet handsome businessman Mythic Conscription and produced this totally cool love child. If I’d been able to go to Grand Prix DC I’d have been all over this list, which just seems to have everything I like in this format crammed into one deck! I may play this baby at Grand Prix: Roanoke; Barrett Neigel, if you’re reading, drop me a note, as I’d like to get in touch.
Of course, National Qualifier weekend wasn’t the end of the story for our good friends Vengevine and Lotus Cobra. Bradley Carpenter made sure to yell it from the rooftops when he made the elimination rounds of Grand Prix DC with an even spicier departure for Jund:
Creatures (27)
- 2 Siege-Gang Commander
- 4 Hell's Thunder
- 4 Sprouting Thrinax
- 4 Putrid Leech
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 1 Borderland Ranger
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Vengevine
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (26)
Spells (4)
Sideboard
Jiayi Chen went undefeated Day 1 with a list very similar to this.
Now, the unfortunate dénouement of our story, as I click on the prices for our green mythic staples, we find Lotus Cobra sold out at $15 each, and Vengevine selling at $45… that of course brings us full circle back to the issues I raised in Mythics & the Cost of Playing. Issues I won’t raise again here and now. Another chapter in that story is sure to come when Magic 2011 is released, or even sooner if anyone from Wizards decides to weigh in before then.
By the way, EDH fans– make sure to read Abe Sargent excellent article this week, Multiplayer Theory: Subtlety. It’s a critical concept for taking your play in most any sort of multiplayer format to the next level. I have a section on it in my primer (Blatant Power versus Subtle Synergy, from Part 3), but it bears further consideration. I still get EDH decklists sent to me that are just stuffed with power cards, often with a perplexed comment wondering why he always gets ganged up on and loses.
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:
Jacques Le Vert (lots of legends, good stuff)
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund (DRAGONS, RAHRRR!!)
Halfdane (Clone ‘n’ Kaldra)
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (more legends than you can shake a stick at)