Well folks, as promised I've been working my little butt off writing about Magic on the inter-webs over at Mana Deprived and Legit MtG .
It's not easy, but so far I'm doing a pretty good job of keeping up with the pace of writing for growing Magic websites with large readerships. The people I work with at both sites are pretty amazing and in particular to thank Dave Mantel, Justin Duewel-Zahniser and Heather Meek for making my job so much easier. Of course it's also great to be working with Jon Medin and KYT; both of these guys work tirelessly to make Magic a better place and I'm proud to be a part of helping their websites grow.
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of news for you folks except to say that I've published a few articles and I appeared on Episode 14 of the MtG Podcast: Heavy Meta with regular hosts @MattyStudios and @KevyMetall with special guest @MTGOFerret. Check out the links below:
A Triggered Response: The Woman in the Mirror. - A personal response to the second round of trigger rules in competitive Magic (since changed a 3rd time).
Chasing the White Whale - over on Legit MtG.com we take a look at Duskmantle Seer, a new card from Gatecrash with amazing potential that might struggle to find a home in Standard.
Heavy Meta Episode 14 - The Ferrett, the Witch and the Bottle! - my aforementioned first every appearance on a Podcast. We talk about the Gatecrash Pre-Release, the banning of Bloodbraid Elf in Modern, Financal Advice with the MtGO Ferret and some long winded shoutouts. I had a blast and the boys said I did a good job but you be the judge.
Tha Crossroads: The Passing and (Potential) Rebirth of Jund in Modern - This is a more detailed look at what the Banning of Bloodbraid Elf means for Jund in Modern. Hint, it's not good.
Well folks, until next time thanks for reading and I hope to see you again real soon. Keep it weird.
-nina
The Cardboard Witch - Competitive Magic with a Casual Attitude
A Toronto based MtG blog that proves you don't have to be a "Jerkstore" to be good at Magic.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
A Long Expected Journey
"There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything." - Steve Jobs
Hello folks, long time no see huh? I'm sorry about that guys, it's pretty much (entirely) my fault. To be completely honest with you I've been avoiding the act of writing this post because somewhere inside, I knew it was going to hurt. While I won't proclaim this blog as some sort of writing masterpiece, I'd like to think I was always took a very "honest" approach to my work here. Whether you loved it or hated it I wanted to promise readers that they'd always get my real thoughts, opinions and sometimes even emotions here at The Cardboard Witch. The downside (or upside, depending on your perspective) is that writing for this blog has become a very tangible part of who I am; both as a Magic player and a writer. I've poured a little bit of myself into every one of these posts and so the idea of leaving them behind is legitimately scary. I feel a profound sense of loss every time I think about writing this letter and as a result I've been too chickenshit to do so. I'm sorry about that. Unfortunately however the show must go on; even if I'm feeling a little Misty about the closing act.
To be completely fair, I am not closing The Cardboard Witch. I don't see any reason to take down the work that's already posted here and it's not like someone is offering me big money for the rights to this website. Unfortunately, my writing has progressed to a point that it's worth sharing on a larger stage and I've recently started writing regularly for two websites in particular:
First and foremost I'd like to say that I am incredibly happy that both of these websites have given me an opportunity to showcase my work. While I consider both KYT and Jon Medina to be personal friends I'm also really excited about being a part of the excellent content these guys deliver to the Magic community on an almost daily basis. It's really a win/win situation for me as a writer with the possible exception of this letter. Both of my new "bosses" have been kind enough to let me work without deadlines but even when I'm "on" it's going to be hard to come up with 2-3 articles a month for both sites and still maintain this blog. Barring the ability to clone myself something has to suffer and sadly for the last 3 months it's been the Cardboard Witch.
At this point all I can really promise is that the occasional article will appear here from time to time and I promise to link to them on Twitter/Facebook when they do. I assume there will be times where the editors at the sites I'm writing for don't want a particular article and occasionally I may need to share something too personal for mass consumption. This essentially relegates The Cardboard Witch to "LiveJournal" status so I feel it's only fair to warn you. The truth is that "The Cardboard Witch" has always been me, rather than this blog and when I move on to other sites I'd like to think she comes with me.
Finally I'd like to thank everyone who came here to read my ramblings over the past 3 years. Knowing that someone was out there reading got me through a lot of long nights and gave me the confidence to chase my dreams. I can't thank you guys enough for that.
If anyone is interested or hasn't already read there here's a few links to the work I've produced while I was away:
I also contributed a paragraph or so to Heather Meek's year end round up:
Well folks, this isn't goodbye but it is "see you later and probably a little less often". I'm all teary now so let's just get it over with shall we? Keep it weird and thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
-nina
Monday, November 26, 2012
And Now For Something Completely Different.
Hello folks; I certainly hope you're all having a better day/week than I am right now and welcome to another edition of The Cardboard Witch. Unfortunately I don't have any sweet Standard technology for you today; in fact this isn't really a Magic article at all. Recently I've been testing Modern Jund decks on a nightly basis in the hopes of attending/doing well at Gran Prix Toronto on December the 8th. As I also mentioned my life has been extremely stressful recently and at some point these two facts crossed over and my tiny squirrel-like brain spit out the "masterpiece" of modern rap "filkery" you see below.
For those of you who don't know the song, go download/watch Jay Z's "Brooklyn, We Go Hard" and come back or this won't make much sense:
"Bloodbraid, We Go Hard"
Bloodbraid, Bloodbraid, Bloodbraid, Bloodbraid
We go hard, we go hard
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X2)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X3)
This is Swamp magic rap
There's no fear in my eyes when I fetch, crack
Betta cast Expedition Map
It's fine, me not like ta Bob-fight
Me not tink such a deck is threat to my life, right?
So you wanna test my ride?
Just promise when I win, you won't cry
Boom bye bye, Lil voodoo, it's crucial
I'm a Cascade pro, it may take some gettin' use to
Hand snatching, can't have it, gotta rip it
Same shit from Infect to lame Fishes.
Master this child; mana pooled, full grippin'
Even the combo deckers, they was all afraid to bang with it
Before you know it, I win the game; bang finished
Reach for my sweet sideboard, peel the answers back
Like a rin-ger is, I'm dangerous
Tell me, you ain't really playin this shit?
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X3)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Blood-braid Elf-Ok?)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard)
(I Cascade, cast again!)
(Repeat entire section X2)
I Thoughtseize, I Bloodbraid Elf to them
I crack, I Bob, I win
Ah man, what card types are in the bin?
Cause when Goyf meets face, I'm going ta win
Lucky me? Ninja please, you can't touch me
Betta call off the bets, 'less you top-deck quickly
You're looking for cards, but yo hand is so sickly
No love, miss me, deck by... Smitty?
I pity the fool with tools from LSV
With no history, in Toronto, meet sorrow
Ain't no way that you'll be returning tomorrow
Day two don't come out for many, right Benny?
Cash orphans, your deck should'a been an abortion
Top-decks almost did, yet I managed to live
I mull hard, I owe it all to my rips
Now, please tell me; what the fuck is harder than this?
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X3)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Blood-braid Elf-Ok?)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard)
(I Cascade, cast again!)
(Repeat entire section)
Well I've got no byes, due to circumstance
Up at Six, as a consequeance
By round 5, I'll be done with fools
Mouthbreathers; don't know the rules
Road was harsh, now its all good
That shit wont fly in my neck of the woods
Let's call the judge now, that's a warning
Sun-day, we play all morning.
Gotta make you think, dropping tricks like ballers
Shaman is a whore, just glad I'm the one that got her
Why don't you just quit, shaking to the core
One turn, one draw, beat you some more
The field is tough and top eight's a mess
Got big cash dreams and a tricked out deck
Robbing fools just to earn street cred
To kill your voice, whining in my head.
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X 3)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X 3)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
go hard, go hard
Well, I think it's safe to say we all feel better after that. I know I do. Until next time remember that if you aren't having fun, you aren't really playing Magic. Hopefully I'll be back with an article before the GP talking about "How I Learned to Play Modern Despite Hating the Format". Peace out gang.
-nina
For those of you who don't know the song, go download/watch Jay Z's "Brooklyn, We Go Hard" and come back or this won't make much sense:
"Bloodbraid, We Go Hard"
Bloodbraid, Bloodbraid, Bloodbraid, Bloodbraid
We go hard, we go hard
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X2)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X3)
This is Swamp magic rap
There's no fear in my eyes when I fetch, crack
Betta cast Expedition Map
It's fine, me not like ta Bob-fight
Me not tink such a deck is threat to my life, right?
So you wanna test my ride?
Just promise when I win, you won't cry
Boom bye bye, Lil voodoo, it's crucial
I'm a Cascade pro, it may take some gettin' use to
Hand snatching, can't have it, gotta rip it
Same shit from Infect to lame Fishes.
Master this child; mana pooled, full grippin'
Even the combo deckers, they was all afraid to bang with it
Before you know it, I win the game; bang finished
Reach for my sweet sideboard, peel the answers back
Like a rin-ger is, I'm dangerous
Tell me, you ain't really playin this shit?
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X3)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Blood-braid Elf-Ok?)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard)
(I Cascade, cast again!)
(Repeat entire section X2)
I Thoughtseize, I Bloodbraid Elf to them
I crack, I Bob, I win
Ah man, what card types are in the bin?
Cause when Goyf meets face, I'm going ta win
Lucky me? Ninja please, you can't touch me
Betta call off the bets, 'less you top-deck quickly
You're looking for cards, but yo hand is so sickly
No love, miss me, deck by... Smitty?
I pity the fool with tools from LSV
With no history, in Toronto, meet sorrow
Ain't no way that you'll be returning tomorrow
Day two don't come out for many, right Benny?
Cash orphans, your deck should'a been an abortion
Top-decks almost did, yet I managed to live
I mull hard, I owe it all to my rips
Now, please tell me; what the fuck is harder than this?
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X3)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Blood-braid Elf-Ok?)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard)
(I Cascade, cast again!)
(Repeat entire section)
Well I've got no byes, due to circumstance
Up at Six, as a consequeance
By round 5, I'll be done with fools
Mouthbreathers; don't know the rules
Road was harsh, now its all good
That shit wont fly in my neck of the woods
Let's call the judge now, that's a warning
Sun-day, we play all morning.
Gotta make you think, dropping tricks like ballers
Shaman is a whore, just glad I'm the one that got her
Why don't you just quit, shaking to the core
One turn, one draw, beat you some more
The field is tough and top eight's a mess
Got big cash dreams and a tricked out deck
Robbing fools just to earn street cred
To kill your voice, whining in my head.
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X 3)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
(Repeat X 3)
Bloodbraid, we go hard, we go hard
go hard, go hard
Well, I think it's safe to say we all feel better after that. I know I do. Until next time remember that if you aren't having fun, you aren't really playing Magic. Hopefully I'll be back with an article before the GP talking about "How I Learned to Play Modern Despite Hating the Format". Peace out gang.
-nina
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Standard Deviations - In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King
"A champion should ask himself: 'if I were to compete against myself, what would I practice to beat me?' -Leo Vieira, Brazilian Jujitsu Fighter/Instructor
I'm here to tell you that it's going to be okay. I know it doesn't seem like it right now; I know you're frustrated and more than a little embarrassed. The truth is that we've all been there at some point in our Magic experience. I haven't heard your specific story but stop me when this starts to sound familiar okay? You copied the best deck on the internet last Tuesday when the latest round of deck-lists and Magic articles came out. You spent a couple days putting the deck together, practicing online and reading every scrap of information available about your weapon of choice. By Thursday you knew the correct lines of play and how to mulligan against every 1st tier deck in Standard; you even practiced how to break the mirror and threw in a couple of hot side-board cards just to accomplish this goal. Walking into your FNM, weekly tournament or GPT was a rush all by itself; you felt confident that you were the most prepared player in this room. Let's be honest, you were just hoping for even draws all night because deep down inside you genuinely believed you were going to take this event down.
Then, Round 1 happened. Your opponent was playing some kinda horrible Jund deck with a bunch of sideboard cards in the first game. You battled hard but when he dropped a 5 point Rakdos' Return on your hand and redirected the damage to your Jace that was pretty much game. You boarded in more counters for game 2 but he boarded into Duress and Lilianna of the Veil; it was almost like he knew exactly what you were going to do before the game even started. As you signed the match slip 0-2 you couldn't help but snap at your opponent "so how exactly do you expect to beat Zombies again?" He just shrugged and said "I prolly won't play it bro; good games, I gotta go smoke." As he walked away you worked hard to keep your rage in check; after all there were still 3 more rounds to play and you could still prize out if you ran the table.
Rounds 2 and 3 weren't much easier to be honest; you lost game 1 both times to W/x "Humans" decks running 30+ creatures and main deck Thalia, Guardian of Thrabens. Naturally, you'd come prepared for aggro but you hadn't counted on paying 5 for Jace, 6 for Tamiyo and 7 for Terminus. Your creatures were better than his and you gained some life but there was no way you could keep up with just your G/W cards. Thankfully neither of your opponents were actually that good at Magic; they both made mistakes in games 2-3 that allowed you to advance through Thalia on the back of 6 board sweeper cards. When you finally won that second game 3 to move to 2-1 on the night you broke down and asked your opponent why he was running Thalia in the maindeck. Without blinking he said "well everyone thinks Bant control is the best deck right? Thalia destroys that build and I can't afford to change decks every week." When you objected and asked about other match-ups he flatly told you "I've played nothing but Bant and Azorius all night man; she's the best card in my deck today."
The worst part of your night however was probably round 4. With prize money on the line, you sat down across from a sneering jackanape who opened your match by saying: "so you're playing that old version of Bant Control? This should be interesting." Game 1 did not go well; he stuck an early Geist of Saint Traft and then countered yours when you tried to cast it a couple of turns later. You eventually stabilized behind a Beast token and a Restoration Angel but a top-decked Bonfire of the Damned at precisely the wrong time ended the game immediately. Game 2 was much better. You were on the play, hit a farseek and your opponent played a bunch of tapped lands. Given some room to work with, you forced out some threats and countered every answer he tried to play. You particularly enjoyed applying the finishing touches with your Traft after boarding up to 4 copies. The 3rd game however, was a heart-breaker. You and your opponent spent 3/4 of the contest exchanging counterspells and 2 for 1's before you finally managed to stick an Angel of Serenity. You couldn't do anything about your opponent's Traft but you ate up his Restoration Angel and "reloaded" a couple of Thragtusks from your graveyard. Your opponent was literally screwed; the Angel would hold of Traft unless your opponent wanted to Detention Sphere her and give you back 4 men and 10 life in the process. You shipped the turn with confidence only to see the little bastard bust out a shit-eating grin and ask "so you're all tapped out?" before he even drew a card. He proceeded to "flash" in a Restoration Angel, untap and cast Dungeon Geists of all fucking cards; targeting your Angel. As he crashed in for 9 you desperately hoped for a good top-deck and for once in your miserable life the universe delivered; you slammed a second Angel of Serentiy, exiled the Resto/Dungeon Geist and shipped the turn. You were just starting to feel good about the match when he said "okay, I'll cast Thundermaw Hellkite and kill you then?"
Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Nina Illingworth and when I'm not practicing amateur Magic psychiatry I write a blog called The Cardboard Witch. Since you're here reading this I can only assume you already knew that, but what you might be asking yourself is why I just made you read through a completely hypothetical bad beat story about a netdecker who went 2-2 at his FNM. The reason of course is because we've all been the player in that story; playing the best deck from last week, one step behind the local metagame and wandering through tournaments with a giant target on our backs. To say that this is no fun would be a mild understatement; I've seen nights like these put players off of playing Standard for entire rotations. There's a general sense of helplessness and frustration; a lingering sensation that if everyone had just chosen the right decks or cards you clearly would have performed better. It just doesn't feel fair that your opponents specifically tailored their decks to beat yours while you diligently prepared for a variety of opponents; yet they advance while you flounder in the .500 bracket. It doesn't have to be this way however; the metagame doesn't have to be your enemy. In fact, a competent player can learn to use his understanding of the metagame as an ally while building decks or even during actual game play. To illustrate this concept, let's talk a little bit about what a metagame actually is and how it directly affects you as a player regardless of what level you compete at. Once we understand these ideas we can take a look at a couple of kick-ass Standard decks and how they actively taking advantage of the current metagame to win more matches.
What is "the metagame?": From a purely Magic-centric perspective the metagame can be defined as a loose collection of all the decks and cards that are currently popular in tournament play for a given format. Additionally when discussing the metagame most players will qualify a given card's place within it based on how often it appears in relevant tournaments. Thus in our current Standard, Thragtusk can be described as being a "very big part of the metagame" while Epic Experiment combo decks would represent an extremely small part of same. What's more, individual card choices can be further qualified as "good" or "bad" in the expected metagame depending on how effective they are against the most commonly played cards or decks. For example; Feeling of Dread can be a great way to answer creatures you can't (Vampire Aristocrat) or don't want (Thragtusk) to kill. If these creatures are a big part of the current Standard metagame it stands to reason that Feeling of Dread would perform admirably as a main-deck choice against them. In other words; the metagame is simply the cards and decks you know you will play against in a given Magic tournament and the act of metagaming is nothing more than filling your decks with cards that will be good against these known quantities.
Time keeps on ticking: Naturally, there are complications. For starters the metagame is constantly changing and I don't just mean "whenever a new set comes out". Let's assume for a moment that the most popular and successful deck in the format is Rakdos Zombies. This shouldn't be too hard for those of you actually playing Standard because it actually was the cat's ass at the start of the format. The deck is fast, extremely aggressive, very resistant to traditional creature removal effects and general wins games on turn 5 without disruption. None of this however is to say that Rakdos Zombies is invulnerable; it struggles against life gain effects, cards that exile creatures and aggro's new bugbear; Terminus. This naturally causes players to include more and more cards that are good against Zombies until they finally break through and "solve" the deck in testing. Once the weekend rolls around decks like American Control and Bant Midrange explode onto the scene and scour the Rakdos Zombies menace from the format. The lack of success for Zombies begins to pull players away from that deck type while the success of these new "zombie killers" draws players towards them. In a matter of days being ready to beat Zombies is no longer relevant and the new metagame now revolves around beating Restoration Angels, counterspells, Terminus and Jace, Architect of Thoughts. This in turn pushes the next wave of players towards cards like Lilianna of the Veil, Appetite for Brains and Cavern of Souls and thus the cycle continues.
Where it's at: The other essential problem with understanding the metagame is that it changes on a regional or even store to store level as well. While conceptually we talk about cards being "good in" or "a big part of" the metagame the simple truth is that your personal metagame will be defined entirely by the decks and cards you face over the course of a given tournament. If your local shop is packed with wall to wall U/W aggro players it makes little sense to play a slow control deck that struggles against flyers. Following the same line of reasoning it's probably a bad idea to try and win Magic tournaments in Toronto without any counter-control metagame cards; people in my town will play the crap out of this deck type even when it isn't good in my experience. Sometimes even blind luck is a factor; if the computer decides to pair you against 3 straight Mono-Red players at your next tournament your personal metagame is going to revolve around Hellrider and Brimstone Volley awful quickly for example. In short; the metagame and the quality of your metagaming decisions can vary wildly from tournament to tournament. This is why it's generally a bad idea to copy a top 8 SCG Open decklist the night before a tournament and assume you're good to go at your local FNM this week.
Assess, adapt and survive: The important thing to remember here is that despite outward appearances the constant shifting of the metagame is not random. You can clearly define and accurately predict these metagame shifts in advance simply by looking at which decks are currently winning large tournaments and MtGO daily events. Personally I prefer to use TCG Player for all my decklist needs but I assume there are any number of websites out there that provide this information. While every environment is different the simple truth is that most Magic players aren't about to re-invent the wheel; the vast majority of the decks you'll face locally will at least be based on something that did well online or at a big tournament somewhere. Once you identified the popular decks and cards it's important to mentally run this information through your local knowledge filter for maximum effect. If the best player in your environment has been playing W/x aggro for the past 4 years it's a pretty good bet he's not going to switch just because Jund control won a PTQ in Winsconsin after all. Do not hesitate to use anything you know about your future opponents' card preferences against them when building your deck. This is small time gambling folks and there is nothing dishonorable about punishing a fool for repeatedly playing the same tired old deck every Friday when money is on the line.
Now that we've talked about what the metagame is and how it affects us on both a local and international level, let's take a look at those deck lists I promised early. While neither of these decks are equipped to "take on all comers" they both represent excellent examples of how a smart player can attack the current Standard metagame:
(Slightly) Modified American Mid-Range
by Ryan Forsberg, 1st place SCG St. Louis (I changed like 3 cards):
Creatures - 15:
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Geist of Saint Traft
4x Restoration Angel
3x Thundermaw Hellkite
Spells - 21:
4x Searing Spear
3x Azorius Charm
2x Essence Scatter
2x Feeling of Dread
2x Dissipate
2x Detention Sphere
3x Syncopate
3x Bonfire of the Damned
Lands - 24:
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Steam Vents
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Sulfur Falls
4x Clifftop Retreat
1x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Slayer's Stronghold
Sideboard - 15:
3x Purify the Grave
2x Pillar of Flame
1x Dissipate
3x Dungeon Geists
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Supreme Verdict
1x Tamiyo the Moon Sage
1x Syncopate
Analysis: As you can see from the title, I didn't build this deck so much as I stole it off the internet and changed 3 cards. For those of you interested in the original version you can find a complete decklist here. The simple truth is that I wasn't playing against many Zombie/Humans decks in testing anymore and I got tired of staring at Centaur Healers and Thragtusks with a Pillar in my hand. I also found Unsummon to be pretty underwhelming while Feeling of Dread was winning entire games for me whenever I drew it. Aside from these minor quibbles however I have to say that this deck is absolutely perfect for an environment dominated by mid-range builds on the Thragtusk/Restoration Angel plan or slow control decks with multiple boards-sweepers.
Against these decks U/W/R mid-range seeks to capitalize on it's cheaper threats to quickly establish board control while still leaving up counter-magic and disruption. This often depends on casting a Geist of Saint Traft but in my experience you do win a suprising number of games behind a lone Restoration Angel and a rando Snapcaster Mage. Frankly, if you draw Slayer's Stronghold and enough mana virtually any single creature in the deck becomes a legitimate threat to kill your opponent. Against control you'll be actively attacking removal spells, Planeswalkers and Boardsweepers while simultaneously milking the Flash and Haste traits for as much advantage as possible in this match-up. Against midrange the deck is primarily trying to counter effective blockers and pesky sources of enemy card advantage; say Garruk or Sphinx's Revelation. Eventually however your opponent will stick a threat of some sort; typically because you've tapped out, run out of counterspells or he's put a Cavern of Souls into play. Once this happens the U/W/R deck shifts effortless into evasive beatdown mode, using cards like Detention Sphere, Thundermaw Hellkite and Feelings of Dread to slide through tremendous amounts of flying damage. Finally if your opponent somehow survives all that you can always just "dome" him with Searing Spears/Snapcaster Mages and the occasional Bonfire of the Damned.
On the downside the deck isn't very good against aggro strategies in my experience. That isn't to say the deck auto-loses to weenie rush decks; no build that runs Bonfire of the Damned is ever completely out of a fight against swarms of enemy monsters after all. The deck does however struggle with concepts like "blocking" and I've spent entire games digging for a Detention Sphere while my opponent slowly ground me out with Loxodon Smiters. Even with 2 maindeck Pillars the deck is a clear underdog against Rakdos Zombies in game 1 and I've lost more than a couple games against G/W Soulbound Humans while waiting for a Bonfire that never came. Additionally due to the lack of Farseek the deck's mana base is still ever so slightly "wonky." It's actually much better than previous versions of this deck that I've seen and Ryan's specific selection of spells is a huge part of how it overcomes these problems. This means you really can't tinker with the deck too much, sideboarding is a bit of an issue and even if you don't touch it all there will still be games where you play your first 5 lands into play tapped. Naturally since this isn't my own creation I can't offer many insights on card selection or the process that went into building this deck. What I can say is that it's a wonderful example of a smart player successfully exploiting the metagame to tune his deck for the purposes of winning a tournament. Ryan Forsberg correctly identified a hole in the environment, built his deck to attack that hole and ended up walking away with first prize in St Louis on a weekend when most experts assumed the eventual winner would be rocking 4 copies of Thragtusk.
"Boss Hog" - Jund Control:
Creatures - 16:
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Huntmaster/Ravager of the Fells
2x Olivia Voldaren
4x Thragtusk
2x Thundermaw Hellkite
Spells - 19:
4x Farseek
3x Dreadbore
2x Rakdos Keyrune
1x Underworld Connections
2x Sever the Bloodline
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
3x Bonfire of the Damned
2x Rakdos's Return
Lands - 25:
4x Blood Crypt
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Rootbound Crag
3x Dragonskull Summit
3x Woodland Cemetery
3x Forest
2x Kessig Wolf Run
1x Mountain
1x Swamp
Sideboard - 15:
3x Duress
3x Pillar of Flame
2x Deathrite Shaman
2x Rakdos Charm
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Lilianna of the Veil
1x Sever the Bloodline
Analysis: This deck on the other hand I did build myself; albeit after looking at 5 or 6 older Jund lists online. Once again the idea here is to attack a format dominated by midrange and control decks while simultaneously offering as much resistance as possible against aggro in game 1. Unlike the deck above however, Boss Hog Jund does this not by sliding a threat under a slower/unwieldy format but by forcing a protracted, "grindy" game of card advantage and 2 for 1 effects. Virtually every card in this deck was chosen for it's ability to be a long term thorn in the side of multiple popular strategies here in Standard and in that respect they do their jobs very well. With 31 mana sources, a small army of creatures that threaten to win the game individually and a stunning selection of removal spells, board sweepers and card advantage effects this deck is clearly built to both force and dominate long games of Magic. The real cherry on top however has to be the selection of "X" spells and mana sinks; ripping your opponent's hand, wiping his board and then dumping all of your mana into Kessig Wolf Run is an extremely satisfying path to victory folks.
Of course it's not all gumdrops and lollipops; in order to ensure such a ridiculous game against other midrange decks it became necessary to "sacrifice" a few potential match-ups. For starters I don't think this deck can beat Rakdos Zombies in game 1 and I'm not sure bringing in 3 Pillar of Flames, 2 Abrupt Decays and another Sever the Bloodline really makes you a favorite in games 2 and 3 either. This probably isn't a big deal considering the decline of Zombies in the overall metagame but it's never a good thing to have an auto-loss against any random aggro deck. Additionally the deck relies a little too heavily on Vampire Nighthawk, Bonfire of the Damned and Dreadbore in other aggro matches. While these cards certainly hold their own against decks that turn dudes sideways we're still talking about 10 cards total in a 60 card deck; if you don't draw them you might be screwed. Finally while I feel Boss Hog Jund is the pre-sideboard favorite over virtually every other control deck I've seen in Standard, it can be somewhat difficult to win games 2 and 3 against a deck who boards into a simply "ridiculous" number of counterspells. This forces us to use 5 sideboard slots on Duress/Lilianna and while this isn't a "problem" per se, it certainly makes effective sideboarding against other strategies in Standard more difficult.
Unfortunately due to the extreme length this article is already reaching I can't detail the reasoning behind every card selection in the deck for you here today. Frankly it wouldn't be all that relevant to our discussion anyways. The point here is that both of these decks survive and even thrive by specifically adapting to and attacking the current Standard metagame. They both surrender ground against less popular/successful decks in the format in order to maximize their ability to crush matches against the best/most popular decks in Standard. Finally they both utilize a number of highly specific "griefer" or sideboard cards in the maindeck specifically to disrupt the so called "established" metagame. Oh, and I guess it's fair to say that based on a couple hundred games worth of testing they both smash a whole lotta face.
Well folks the lactic acid building up in my fingers and wrists tells me we've reached the end of our discussion. The simple truth is that reading and exploiting the metagame in Magic is a complex subject that requires both intensive study and a certain amount of intuitive thinking to master properly. There's simply no way anyone can "learn how to metagame" from an article on a blog; even the best writer on earth could at best only hope to describe the metagame in it's entirety for but a single moment in time. In light of this it's my hope that this article can serve as a sort of guidepost; a shining light to illuminate your own path towards predicting and reacting to future metagames. Short of that however let me leave you with some simple advice on the subject once imparted to me by someone far smarter than myself. I don't know if he stole these ideas from somewhere but in a moment of drunken lucidity a friend once shared the following thoughts on winning Magic tournaments with me over a bottle of wine:
In the years since I've been unable to decide if these ideas represent the single greatest 3 minute guide to winning card tournaments known to man or the drunken ramblings of an overconfident lunatic. Considering the source; they could be both (I miss you Jared). Until next time folks; always remember that all is fair in love, war and when splitting prize payouts at meaningless FNM events. Keep it weird.
-nina
I'm here to tell you that it's going to be okay. I know it doesn't seem like it right now; I know you're frustrated and more than a little embarrassed. The truth is that we've all been there at some point in our Magic experience. I haven't heard your specific story but stop me when this starts to sound familiar okay? You copied the best deck on the internet last Tuesday when the latest round of deck-lists and Magic articles came out. You spent a couple days putting the deck together, practicing online and reading every scrap of information available about your weapon of choice. By Thursday you knew the correct lines of play and how to mulligan against every 1st tier deck in Standard; you even practiced how to break the mirror and threw in a couple of hot side-board cards just to accomplish this goal. Walking into your FNM, weekly tournament or GPT was a rush all by itself; you felt confident that you were the most prepared player in this room. Let's be honest, you were just hoping for even draws all night because deep down inside you genuinely believed you were going to take this event down.
Then, Round 1 happened. Your opponent was playing some kinda horrible Jund deck with a bunch of sideboard cards in the first game. You battled hard but when he dropped a 5 point Rakdos' Return on your hand and redirected the damage to your Jace that was pretty much game. You boarded in more counters for game 2 but he boarded into Duress and Lilianna of the Veil; it was almost like he knew exactly what you were going to do before the game even started. As you signed the match slip 0-2 you couldn't help but snap at your opponent "so how exactly do you expect to beat Zombies again?" He just shrugged and said "I prolly won't play it bro; good games, I gotta go smoke." As he walked away you worked hard to keep your rage in check; after all there were still 3 more rounds to play and you could still prize out if you ran the table.
Rounds 2 and 3 weren't much easier to be honest; you lost game 1 both times to W/x "Humans" decks running 30+ creatures and main deck Thalia, Guardian of Thrabens. Naturally, you'd come prepared for aggro but you hadn't counted on paying 5 for Jace, 6 for Tamiyo and 7 for Terminus. Your creatures were better than his and you gained some life but there was no way you could keep up with just your G/W cards. Thankfully neither of your opponents were actually that good at Magic; they both made mistakes in games 2-3 that allowed you to advance through Thalia on the back of 6 board sweeper cards. When you finally won that second game 3 to move to 2-1 on the night you broke down and asked your opponent why he was running Thalia in the maindeck. Without blinking he said "well everyone thinks Bant control is the best deck right? Thalia destroys that build and I can't afford to change decks every week." When you objected and asked about other match-ups he flatly told you "I've played nothing but Bant and Azorius all night man; she's the best card in my deck today."
The worst part of your night however was probably round 4. With prize money on the line, you sat down across from a sneering jackanape who opened your match by saying: "so you're playing that old version of Bant Control? This should be interesting." Game 1 did not go well; he stuck an early Geist of Saint Traft and then countered yours when you tried to cast it a couple of turns later. You eventually stabilized behind a Beast token and a Restoration Angel but a top-decked Bonfire of the Damned at precisely the wrong time ended the game immediately. Game 2 was much better. You were on the play, hit a farseek and your opponent played a bunch of tapped lands. Given some room to work with, you forced out some threats and countered every answer he tried to play. You particularly enjoyed applying the finishing touches with your Traft after boarding up to 4 copies. The 3rd game however, was a heart-breaker. You and your opponent spent 3/4 of the contest exchanging counterspells and 2 for 1's before you finally managed to stick an Angel of Serenity. You couldn't do anything about your opponent's Traft but you ate up his Restoration Angel and "reloaded" a couple of Thragtusks from your graveyard. Your opponent was literally screwed; the Angel would hold of Traft unless your opponent wanted to Detention Sphere her and give you back 4 men and 10 life in the process. You shipped the turn with confidence only to see the little bastard bust out a shit-eating grin and ask "so you're all tapped out?" before he even drew a card. He proceeded to "flash" in a Restoration Angel, untap and cast Dungeon Geists of all fucking cards; targeting your Angel. As he crashed in for 9 you desperately hoped for a good top-deck and for once in your miserable life the universe delivered; you slammed a second Angel of Serentiy, exiled the Resto/Dungeon Geist and shipped the turn. You were just starting to feel good about the match when he said "okay, I'll cast Thundermaw Hellkite and kill you then?"
Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Nina Illingworth and when I'm not practicing amateur Magic psychiatry I write a blog called The Cardboard Witch. Since you're here reading this I can only assume you already knew that, but what you might be asking yourself is why I just made you read through a completely hypothetical bad beat story about a netdecker who went 2-2 at his FNM. The reason of course is because we've all been the player in that story; playing the best deck from last week, one step behind the local metagame and wandering through tournaments with a giant target on our backs. To say that this is no fun would be a mild understatement; I've seen nights like these put players off of playing Standard for entire rotations. There's a general sense of helplessness and frustration; a lingering sensation that if everyone had just chosen the right decks or cards you clearly would have performed better. It just doesn't feel fair that your opponents specifically tailored their decks to beat yours while you diligently prepared for a variety of opponents; yet they advance while you flounder in the .500 bracket. It doesn't have to be this way however; the metagame doesn't have to be your enemy. In fact, a competent player can learn to use his understanding of the metagame as an ally while building decks or even during actual game play. To illustrate this concept, let's talk a little bit about what a metagame actually is and how it directly affects you as a player regardless of what level you compete at. Once we understand these ideas we can take a look at a couple of kick-ass Standard decks and how they actively taking advantage of the current metagame to win more matches.
Time keeps on ticking: Naturally, there are complications. For starters the metagame is constantly changing and I don't just mean "whenever a new set comes out". Let's assume for a moment that the most popular and successful deck in the format is Rakdos Zombies. This shouldn't be too hard for those of you actually playing Standard because it actually was the cat's ass at the start of the format. The deck is fast, extremely aggressive, very resistant to traditional creature removal effects and general wins games on turn 5 without disruption. None of this however is to say that Rakdos Zombies is invulnerable; it struggles against life gain effects, cards that exile creatures and aggro's new bugbear; Terminus. This naturally causes players to include more and more cards that are good against Zombies until they finally break through and "solve" the deck in testing. Once the weekend rolls around decks like American Control and Bant Midrange explode onto the scene and scour the Rakdos Zombies menace from the format. The lack of success for Zombies begins to pull players away from that deck type while the success of these new "zombie killers" draws players towards them. In a matter of days being ready to beat Zombies is no longer relevant and the new metagame now revolves around beating Restoration Angels, counterspells, Terminus and Jace, Architect of Thoughts. This in turn pushes the next wave of players towards cards like Lilianna of the Veil, Appetite for Brains and Cavern of Souls and thus the cycle continues.
Where it's at: The other essential problem with understanding the metagame is that it changes on a regional or even store to store level as well. While conceptually we talk about cards being "good in" or "a big part of" the metagame the simple truth is that your personal metagame will be defined entirely by the decks and cards you face over the course of a given tournament. If your local shop is packed with wall to wall U/W aggro players it makes little sense to play a slow control deck that struggles against flyers. Following the same line of reasoning it's probably a bad idea to try and win Magic tournaments in Toronto without any counter-control metagame cards; people in my town will play the crap out of this deck type even when it isn't good in my experience. Sometimes even blind luck is a factor; if the computer decides to pair you against 3 straight Mono-Red players at your next tournament your personal metagame is going to revolve around Hellrider and Brimstone Volley awful quickly for example. In short; the metagame and the quality of your metagaming decisions can vary wildly from tournament to tournament. This is why it's generally a bad idea to copy a top 8 SCG Open decklist the night before a tournament and assume you're good to go at your local FNM this week.
Assess, adapt and survive: The important thing to remember here is that despite outward appearances the constant shifting of the metagame is not random. You can clearly define and accurately predict these metagame shifts in advance simply by looking at which decks are currently winning large tournaments and MtGO daily events. Personally I prefer to use TCG Player for all my decklist needs but I assume there are any number of websites out there that provide this information. While every environment is different the simple truth is that most Magic players aren't about to re-invent the wheel; the vast majority of the decks you'll face locally will at least be based on something that did well online or at a big tournament somewhere. Once you identified the popular decks and cards it's important to mentally run this information through your local knowledge filter for maximum effect. If the best player in your environment has been playing W/x aggro for the past 4 years it's a pretty good bet he's not going to switch just because Jund control won a PTQ in Winsconsin after all. Do not hesitate to use anything you know about your future opponents' card preferences against them when building your deck. This is small time gambling folks and there is nothing dishonorable about punishing a fool for repeatedly playing the same tired old deck every Friday when money is on the line.
Now that we've talked about what the metagame is and how it affects us on both a local and international level, let's take a look at those deck lists I promised early. While neither of these decks are equipped to "take on all comers" they both represent excellent examples of how a smart player can attack the current Standard metagame:
(Slightly) Modified American Mid-Range
by Ryan Forsberg, 1st place SCG St. Louis (I changed like 3 cards):
Creatures - 15:
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Geist of Saint Traft
4x Restoration Angel
3x Thundermaw Hellkite
Spells - 21:
4x Searing Spear
3x Azorius Charm
2x Essence Scatter
2x Feeling of Dread
2x Dissipate
2x Detention Sphere
3x Syncopate
3x Bonfire of the Damned
Lands - 24:
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Steam Vents
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Sulfur Falls
4x Clifftop Retreat
1x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Slayer's Stronghold
Sideboard - 15:
3x Purify the Grave
2x Pillar of Flame
1x Dissipate
3x Dungeon Geists
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Supreme Verdict
1x Tamiyo the Moon Sage
1x Syncopate
Analysis: As you can see from the title, I didn't build this deck so much as I stole it off the internet and changed 3 cards. For those of you interested in the original version you can find a complete decklist here. The simple truth is that I wasn't playing against many Zombie/Humans decks in testing anymore and I got tired of staring at Centaur Healers and Thragtusks with a Pillar in my hand. I also found Unsummon to be pretty underwhelming while Feeling of Dread was winning entire games for me whenever I drew it. Aside from these minor quibbles however I have to say that this deck is absolutely perfect for an environment dominated by mid-range builds on the Thragtusk/Restoration Angel plan or slow control decks with multiple boards-sweepers.
Against these decks U/W/R mid-range seeks to capitalize on it's cheaper threats to quickly establish board control while still leaving up counter-magic and disruption. This often depends on casting a Geist of Saint Traft but in my experience you do win a suprising number of games behind a lone Restoration Angel and a rando Snapcaster Mage. Frankly, if you draw Slayer's Stronghold and enough mana virtually any single creature in the deck becomes a legitimate threat to kill your opponent. Against control you'll be actively attacking removal spells, Planeswalkers and Boardsweepers while simultaneously milking the Flash and Haste traits for as much advantage as possible in this match-up. Against midrange the deck is primarily trying to counter effective blockers and pesky sources of enemy card advantage; say Garruk or Sphinx's Revelation. Eventually however your opponent will stick a threat of some sort; typically because you've tapped out, run out of counterspells or he's put a Cavern of Souls into play. Once this happens the U/W/R deck shifts effortless into evasive beatdown mode, using cards like Detention Sphere, Thundermaw Hellkite and Feelings of Dread to slide through tremendous amounts of flying damage. Finally if your opponent somehow survives all that you can always just "dome" him with Searing Spears/Snapcaster Mages and the occasional Bonfire of the Damned.
On the downside the deck isn't very good against aggro strategies in my experience. That isn't to say the deck auto-loses to weenie rush decks; no build that runs Bonfire of the Damned is ever completely out of a fight against swarms of enemy monsters after all. The deck does however struggle with concepts like "blocking" and I've spent entire games digging for a Detention Sphere while my opponent slowly ground me out with Loxodon Smiters. Even with 2 maindeck Pillars the deck is a clear underdog against Rakdos Zombies in game 1 and I've lost more than a couple games against G/W Soulbound Humans while waiting for a Bonfire that never came. Additionally due to the lack of Farseek the deck's mana base is still ever so slightly "wonky." It's actually much better than previous versions of this deck that I've seen and Ryan's specific selection of spells is a huge part of how it overcomes these problems. This means you really can't tinker with the deck too much, sideboarding is a bit of an issue and even if you don't touch it all there will still be games where you play your first 5 lands into play tapped. Naturally since this isn't my own creation I can't offer many insights on card selection or the process that went into building this deck. What I can say is that it's a wonderful example of a smart player successfully exploiting the metagame to tune his deck for the purposes of winning a tournament. Ryan Forsberg correctly identified a hole in the environment, built his deck to attack that hole and ended up walking away with first prize in St Louis on a weekend when most experts assumed the eventual winner would be rocking 4 copies of Thragtusk.
"Boss Hog" - Jund Control:
Creatures - 16:
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Huntmaster/Ravager of the Fells
2x Olivia Voldaren
4x Thragtusk
2x Thundermaw Hellkite
Spells - 19:
4x Farseek
3x Dreadbore
2x Rakdos Keyrune
1x Underworld Connections
2x Sever the Bloodline
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
3x Bonfire of the Damned
2x Rakdos's Return
Lands - 25:
4x Blood Crypt
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Rootbound Crag
3x Dragonskull Summit
3x Woodland Cemetery
3x Forest
2x Kessig Wolf Run
1x Mountain
1x Swamp
Sideboard - 15:
3x Duress
3x Pillar of Flame
2x Deathrite Shaman
2x Rakdos Charm
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Lilianna of the Veil
1x Sever the Bloodline
Analysis: This deck on the other hand I did build myself; albeit after looking at 5 or 6 older Jund lists online. Once again the idea here is to attack a format dominated by midrange and control decks while simultaneously offering as much resistance as possible against aggro in game 1. Unlike the deck above however, Boss Hog Jund does this not by sliding a threat under a slower/unwieldy format but by forcing a protracted, "grindy" game of card advantage and 2 for 1 effects. Virtually every card in this deck was chosen for it's ability to be a long term thorn in the side of multiple popular strategies here in Standard and in that respect they do their jobs very well. With 31 mana sources, a small army of creatures that threaten to win the game individually and a stunning selection of removal spells, board sweepers and card advantage effects this deck is clearly built to both force and dominate long games of Magic. The real cherry on top however has to be the selection of "X" spells and mana sinks; ripping your opponent's hand, wiping his board and then dumping all of your mana into Kessig Wolf Run is an extremely satisfying path to victory folks.
Of course it's not all gumdrops and lollipops; in order to ensure such a ridiculous game against other midrange decks it became necessary to "sacrifice" a few potential match-ups. For starters I don't think this deck can beat Rakdos Zombies in game 1 and I'm not sure bringing in 3 Pillar of Flames, 2 Abrupt Decays and another Sever the Bloodline really makes you a favorite in games 2 and 3 either. This probably isn't a big deal considering the decline of Zombies in the overall metagame but it's never a good thing to have an auto-loss against any random aggro deck. Additionally the deck relies a little too heavily on Vampire Nighthawk, Bonfire of the Damned and Dreadbore in other aggro matches. While these cards certainly hold their own against decks that turn dudes sideways we're still talking about 10 cards total in a 60 card deck; if you don't draw them you might be screwed. Finally while I feel Boss Hog Jund is the pre-sideboard favorite over virtually every other control deck I've seen in Standard, it can be somewhat difficult to win games 2 and 3 against a deck who boards into a simply "ridiculous" number of counterspells. This forces us to use 5 sideboard slots on Duress/Lilianna and while this isn't a "problem" per se, it certainly makes effective sideboarding against other strategies in Standard more difficult.
Unfortunately due to the extreme length this article is already reaching I can't detail the reasoning behind every card selection in the deck for you here today. Frankly it wouldn't be all that relevant to our discussion anyways. The point here is that both of these decks survive and even thrive by specifically adapting to and attacking the current Standard metagame. They both surrender ground against less popular/successful decks in the format in order to maximize their ability to crush matches against the best/most popular decks in Standard. Finally they both utilize a number of highly specific "griefer" or sideboard cards in the maindeck specifically to disrupt the so called "established" metagame. Oh, and I guess it's fair to say that based on a couple hundred games worth of testing they both smash a whole lotta face.
Well folks the lactic acid building up in my fingers and wrists tells me we've reached the end of our discussion. The simple truth is that reading and exploiting the metagame in Magic is a complex subject that requires both intensive study and a certain amount of intuitive thinking to master properly. There's simply no way anyone can "learn how to metagame" from an article on a blog; even the best writer on earth could at best only hope to describe the metagame in it's entirety for but a single moment in time. In light of this it's my hope that this article can serve as a sort of guidepost; a shining light to illuminate your own path towards predicting and reacting to future metagames. Short of that however let me leave you with some simple advice on the subject once imparted to me by someone far smarter than myself. I don't know if he stole these ideas from somewhere but in a moment of drunken lucidity a friend once shared the following thoughts on winning Magic tournaments with me over a bottle of wine:
- You can't win an environment. You will never be declared the ultimate winner of Magic because Magic keeps on changing and there's a new winner every second. The only thing you can do is win the tournaments you enter.
- To win a tournament you must be able to beat the decks, players and cards you will play, not those that you should play. It doesn't matter what you think or some website thinks is the best deck; what matters is what the guy across from you is playing and whether or not you can beat him to advance.
- Ask yourself "what decks will the better players in the room be playing?" This is important because if you intend to win the tournament you'll be spending a lot of time playing against these players on the low numbered tables. If you have to make assumptions why not assume that you're going to be winning and therefore playing against the best players in the tournament all day?
- If you must go into a tournament absolutely blind don't play the deck that beats "the best" deck. Instead play something that performs well against the established build that preys on "the best" deck in the format. This not only ensures easier matches as the tournament goes on but it also allows you to use your less savy opponents to suppress the most popular deck in the room; sorta like a good NFL cornerback cheats by using the sideline in man coverage.
In the years since I've been unable to decide if these ideas represent the single greatest 3 minute guide to winning card tournaments known to man or the drunken ramblings of an overconfident lunatic. Considering the source; they could be both (I miss you Jared). Until next time folks; always remember that all is fair in love, war and when splitting prize payouts at meaningless FNM events. Keep it weird.
-nina
Friday, November 9, 2012
Standard Deviations - Banging Your Head on Some Mad Bugger's Wall
"Standard counts and keeps on countin', and we knows now finding tha trick of what's rotated and lost ain't no easy ride. But that's our cypher, we gotta break it. And there ain't nobody what knows when it comes undone. Still in all, every night we does the tell, so that we 'member what it was and can still be...but most of all we 'members counting back-wise from twenty, before the Angels came. And we lights the fires, not just to remember but for all them what turn creatures sideways. 'Cause we knows there comes a night, when they see the distant light of Gatecrash and they'll be comin' home." - Nina Nix, Return to Ravnica: Beyond Thunderdome
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest edition of The Cardboard Witch. As you can tell by the above introduction I'm feeling a little "theatrical" today; don't worry I'm not crazy enough to try to write an entire article in the voice of Savannah Nix. I would however like to address the elephant in the room that nobody else seems to be talking about; the death of Aggro strategies in post-RtR Standard. Let me repeat that for those of you who weren't listening: aggro is dead in Standard. When I say "dead", I do in fact mean kaput, obsolete, roadkill, devoid of spark, promise or life. In short, if you're playing a turn 5 deck that turns creatures sideways in Standard events right now you are literally "dead money" and will be unlikely to win said tournaments. Now before you get upset at me please understand that it brings me no joy to deliver this news. I am a firm believer that a healthy Standard format revolves around having effective aggro, control and mid-range options with a few odd-ball combo decks thrown in for spice. Unfortunately it seems that lately Standard formats rarely actually achieve this sort of balance and in my opinion the post Return to Ravnica format actively discourages/hinders aggro strategies. These are bleak times for weenie rush decks folks and after several weeks of testing I am prepared to state the case against aggro before you today. It's a grim tale but I hope that in the telling I can convince at least some of you out there to stop wasting entry fees on decks that simply cannot win tournaments for you.
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth: Ironically, the death of aggro here in Standard was caused primarily by the most innocuous and traditionally least profitable effect in Magic: the ability to gain life. Historically the refuge of new players, casual multi-player aficionados and the truly desperate; cards that gain life do not have a long history of success in tournament Magic. There have certainly been exceptions to this rule (Kitchen Finks comes to mind) but ultimately the generally held theory that board control is more relevant than your life total has prevailed. After all, if you're trading cards for life that means you aren't trading cards for my cards and sooner or later the monsters I've cast will overwhelm you. The RtR/Innistrad Standard format turns this theory on it's ear however by being absolutely loaded with cards that both gain huge chunks of life and help you establish board control. As an aggro player it can be disheartening to watch your opponent gain 5 life from a single card; depending on the point in the game this likely undoes an entire turn of hard work and gives your opponent time to cast more expensive (and typically superior) cards to thwart you. When this life gain is combined with a kill effect or a reasonable defensive body (again see Finks) the problem becomes more serious; not only are you likely down a turn but you're probably down a card now as well in one way or another. So what happens when your opponent can gain 5 life, Flash a 3/4 flying defender into play and simultaneously create a 3/3 chump blocking token? What about when your opponent can repeatedly trade his worst creatures and tokens for your best creatures while simultaneously gaining life in 6-12 point chunks turn after turn? How exactly do you "race" against a deck that can easily gain 60+ life over the course of a single, moderately long game? These are rhetorical questions folks because the answers are as plain as day to anyone playing Standard right now: you get blown out, you lose and you can't (respectively).
Of course there are other reasons for the demise of aggro here in Standard besides the preponderance of awesome life gain effects; we'll cover some of those later in the article. For the moment however let's take a closer look at the incidental life gain cards that literally "ruinate" aggressive strategies in this format:
The Unholy Trinity: If you've been playing aggro in Standard recently I'm willing to bet that your least favorite turn 1 play in the format is "Temple Garden into play tapped, go". The reason for this of course is that if your opponent is skipping his first turn and playing a G/W dual there's a very good chance he's playing 4 copies each of Centaur Healer, Thragtusk and Restoration Angel. Taken individually each of these cards represents a fairly formidable roadblock against aggressive strategies. At 3/3 for a converted mana cost of 3 it's probably fair to question why Centaur Healer gains a full 3 life when it enters the battlefield. In a world of 2/2 Zombies and 2/1 Knights the Healer makes a habit of undoing more than a single attack's worth of work while simultaneously threatening to devour a weenie on each subsequent swing. Moving up the curve we get to everyone's (least) favorite card in Standard; the nigh ubiquitous Thragtusk. Better writers than I have already devoted many paragraphs to detailing exactly why 'Tusk is pretty stupid in Standard so I'll skip it here. What I can say is that for an aggro deck the 5 points worth of life gain is significantly less painful than the body that trades off for one of your best creatures; twice. Finally, even without a good target for her come into play trigger Restoration Angel does a pretty good job of ambushing small dudes in the middle of combat. At 3/4 she ranks as one of the better front line blockers here in Standard and both Flash and Flying are extremely relevant to her performance in this role. Of course when you combine these 3 cards together in the same deck, all hell breaks loose. Just 4 Healers and 4 Tusks alone represent 9 blocking bodies and 32 points worth of life gain but by adding the Angel to the mix you get free blocks/tokens, free ambush kills and double dipping rights on the lifegain effects. To say that this causes "problems" for aggro strategies would be like saying "that iceberg caused problems for the Titanic"; this isn't a mismatch, it's a massacre in favor of the G/W player. Perhaps most disturbingly the mana costs on these 3 creatures involve a total of 2 green and 2 white mana, which in turn makes it criminally easy for an absolutely huge number of decks in this format to include all 3 cards.
Punched in the Junk: While the 3 cards discussed above are certainly the most popular incidental life gain effects here in Standard they are by no means the only, or even the best such effects. As games drag on and mana/creatures become more plentiful this environment provides a whole new set of problems for aggro decks in the form of mass life gain effects. In particular, three extremely popular cards have appeared to choke the last breath from aggro strategies in post-RtR Standard: Azorius Charm, Sphinx's Revelation and Vault of the Archangel. Of these 3 cards the Charm is probably the most frustrating simply because it can be used as a removal spell in the early game against aggro strategies. As we discussed in my last article there are a number of benefits to be gained from "topping" an early aggressive creature with this card and as such it represents a legitimate obstacle to any beatdown plan in Standard. Of course, once our opponent does play a few creatures the mass-lifelink mode of this card typically puts the final nails in aggro's coffin; it's pretty hard to finish off a deck that's attacking for more damage than you can while simultaneously gaining life in 8-15 point bursts. At the other end of the spectrum is Sphinx's Revelation which is thankfully awkward and expensive if you're going to gain any significant amount of life from casting it. Unfortunately it also lets the caster draw a card for each point of life he's gaining and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that some of those cards will probably be good against aggro. It's also an Instant; just in case potential combat damage math wasn't hard enough already on aggro players in this format. Probably the worst part of facing down this card with an aggro deck however is that your opponent will typically cast it just before you are about to finish him off and right after both of your hands have drained extremely low. Let's just say that this is pretty demoralizing and significantly reduces aggro's chances of actually winning that game. While both of the above cards seem a little unfair when you're trying to beat down with weenies, they are at least Instants that must be actually cast and therefore "used up" to cause the aggro player harm. The same can not be said for our final "junk punch" card; Vault of the Archangel. I'm not a card designer by any stretch folks but a tiny part of me wonders how anyone could possibly think it was a good idea to print a land that can potentially give all of your creatures Lifelink turn after turn. Yes, it costs 5 mana to do so and that is not an insignificant investment but when you have the potential to gain upwards of 15 life per turn it seems like a relative bargain doesn't it? This is all besides the point that the silly thing actually gives out Deathtouch as well which makes it one of the premier defensive cards in the format even before you factor in gaining rivulets of life. While a mid-game Az Charm or Sphinx's Revelation probably means the aggro deck loses, an active Vault (with creatures to affect) most definitely ensures that it will.
Blindside Pressure: To be honest the above 6 cards alone are probably good enough reasons to avoid aggro altogether here in Standard. It's never a good idea to fight uphill battles all day during a Magic tournament and the preponderance of quality Bant, Junk and even plain old Selesnya Midrange decks in the format virtually force aggro to do just that. Sadly however there are actually a number of other, less popular life gain cards that still qualify as "playable" (or better) here in Standard. In my mind the best example of this is probably Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. While you are unlikely to find Trostani in a top tier Standard deck at this point, she's still a 2/5 body that can potentially gain massive hunks of life over the course of a single game. She's got 5 toughness, works well with tokens and makes it extremely easy to outrace other creature based decks if they can't kill her. As a result, she's at least reasonably popular with the FNM set and it's never too shocking when your opponent drops a turn 4-5 Trostani at smaller events. Another card that works well in the lifegain package and has the potential to cause aggro strategies serious grief is the casual/Comander favorite, Deadeye Navigator. On the downside the Navigator is 6 mana and doesn't actually have a printed lifegain effect. If you can Soulbond him with a Centaur Healer or a Thragtusk however, the situation quickly becomes all upside as his 1U flicker effect theoretically allows near-infinate potential life gains. Other quality cards that randomly provide some sort of life gain effect include Huntsmaster of the Fells, Vampire Nighthawk, Sorin's Vampire tokens, Tribute to Hunger, Deathrite Shaman and Griselbrand. Heck, I've even played games against cards like Nearheath Pilgrim and Gnaw to the Bone in post-RtR Standard. While these cards are certainly less popular than the previous 6, the simple truth is that they are out there and each of them represent another strike against the aspiring aggro player.
"Sweep the leg Johnny": Of course not all of aggro's problems in this Standard format revolve around life gain; it's certainly fair to say that playing in a format with two Wrath of God effects doesn't help either. For those of you clutching your Lilianna of the Dark Realms, hoping for a Mutilate revival I'm talking about the wonder-twin tandem of Supreme Verdict and Terminus. Trying to play around as many as 8 potential boardsweepers while maintaining a reasonable clock is a nightmare for aggro decks facing down Hallowed Fountains. The only real mitigating factor here is that because many decks in the format can shrug off a Supreme Verdict you might only face them in games 2 and 3 from the sideboard. There is no relief from Terminus for the aggro player however and you can firmly expect to see 3 maindeck copies and a 4th from the board if you're trying to beat down against Azorius in Standard. As if this situation wasn't miserable enough; there are also 3 key one-sided boardsweep effects that see significant play here in Standard. Of the three, Cyclonic Rift probably represents the least danger due to it's cost and because theoretically the aggro deck can just recast it's creatures. The fact that it's instant and only requires one Blue mana however is a fairly serious issue; frankly it's not that difficult to get to 7 mana against aggro if you've gained 18-25 life along the way. Mizzium Mortars is also expensive at 6 mana and has the added problem of requiring RRR to Overload; which adds potential turns to it's casting time. If your opponent does survive to cast it however, 4 damage across the board is usually more than enough to wipe out most aggressive create bases. Finally of course, the most dangerous one-sided boardsweep effect for aggro in this format is a "miracle'd" Bonfire of the Damned. With as little as four available mana a deck running Bonfire can completely wipe the aggro deck's board, throw a lightning bolt at the pilot's face and free up all of his monsters for a savage attack. Naturally of course there are ways to attack some of these cards (Gravecrawler, Vampire Aristocrat, Geralf's Messenger, Wolfir Avenger and Strangleroot Geist) but the simple truth is that no aggro deck in the format can play around all of them. In fact, I suspect you'd be hard pressed to find any aggro deck in Standard that can play around Terminus and Cyclonic Rift.
The Land of Bad Math: Hopefully by now you are starting to understand why it's simply not a good idea to play aggro in this format. On one hand aggro decks are forced to rapidly advance their board state to attempt to "outrun" near infinite life gain effects in Standard. On the other hand if they dump out their hand to accomplish this there are multiple boardsweep effects waiting to punish them for doing so. Further complicating matters are the sheer number of potential 2 for 1 cards aggro decks must contend with in this format. While the number of cards in Standard that match this description is somewhat staggering, the 3 most common problems for aggro decks in this format are Detention Sphere, Sever the Bloodline and Lingering Souls. Sphere is frustrating because it's an exile effect (negates regenerate, indestructible or undying) and because it actively discourages casting multiple copies of your best creatures. When your deck doesn't draw cards and wants to vomit it's hand onto the table as quickly as possible, this can easily lead to quick blowouts unless the aggro player is extremely cautious. Sever the Bloodline presents virtually all the same problems as Detention Sphere except it's all but guaranteed to provide a 2 for 1 effect in a long game due to it's flashback. On the upside for aggro, 4 mana for a kill spell isn't the greatest deal and in the absence of other answers your opponent may not survive long enough to hit 7 mana and flash it back. The most annoying card of the lot however is probably Lingering Souls, which for 5 mana mortgaged over 2 turns provides a staggering 4 flying chump blockers. The only way around this card for most aggro decks is the Trample Trait, Blood Artist or a top of the curve Thundermaw Hellkite. Naturally, when combined with Vault of the Archangel this card goes from "extremely annoying" to "legitimately game breaking" awful fast if you're trying to throw guys sideways into the spirit tokens.
Show Me the Money: I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "well that all sounds very scary Nina but people can't run all of these cards in the same deck and they can't draw them every game. I'll be fine". Unfortunately I have bad news for you folks; yes they actually can run all these cards in one deck and until Gatecrash at least it is highly unlikely that aggro will be "fine". The existence of RtR shocklands, Innistrad buddy duals and cards like Farseek make it easy to build a variety of powerful, greedy (3 colors with lots of double mana symbols) mid-range and control decks. When Blue/White control decks have absolutely no problem selling out for Pillar of Flame and Bonfire of the Damned you know we've gone past concepts like "colors" and "mana restrictions". In an effort to highlight exactly what a good mid-range deck can do to aggro in Standard, I've built an extremely simple Junk (G/W/B) deck to share with you today. I may or may not have also heard a rumor that more people will read your article if you provide a decklist :) :
Welcome to the Machine - Junk Mid-Range w/Rites
Creatures - 18:
4x Centaur Healer
4x Restoration Angel
3x Thragtusk
2x Sigarda, Host of Herons
2x Armada Wurm
3x Angel of Serenity
Spells - 18:
4x Grisly Salvage
4x Mulch
2x Farseek
4x Lingering Souls
4x Unburial Rites
Lands - 24:
4x Temple Garden
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Woodland Cemetary
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Isolated Chapel
4x Forest
2x Vault of the Archangel
Sideboard - 15:
3x Intangible Virtue
2x Sundering Growth
2x Oblivion Ring
3x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2x Sever the Bloodline
3x Entreat the Angels
Analysis: Conceptually this deck is designed to be a G/W Midrange deck that uses it's graveyard and Unburial Rites to either accelerate towards a win or finish off a staggering opponent in the late game. In this context it becomes very important that the deck be able to reasonably "hard-cast" every creature in the deck while simultaneously looking for opportunities to take advantage of it's graveyard. This prevents the deck from ever being dependent on Unburial Rites and makes it very easy to board them out in game two if we're expecting graveyard hate. In this case I've chosen to fill the void with a more token based strategy but this is very much a personal preference. You could probably go a number of different directions with this sideboard so long as the chosen cards adequately replaced the Rites you may board out. More to the point of our discussion however this deck absolutely steamrolls aggro and it does so without running a significant number of cards that are simply bad in other match-ups. While it's fair to say Centaur Healer doesn't shine in every game, cards like Restoration Angel, Lingering Souls, Thragtusk and Vault of the Archangels perform admirably against a wide variety of opponents. Looking back on our previous discussion it should be fairly easy to see how this build interweaves an absolutely massive number of "aggro-killing" cards effortlessly into a highly focused/structured deck design. While I haven't had the opportunity to enter a tournament with this deck a few days of online practice and a quick scan around the internet/my FNM confirms that many other people are exploring these same card combinations successfully.
Well folks, once again that's just about all the time we have for today. At this point I feel that if I haven't convinced you that aggro is just a bad deck choice by now there may be no hope. For reasons beyond my comprehension there will always be a certain segment of the Magic community who simply cannot resist the seductive allure of curving out at 3, dumping your hand and turning little dudes sideways. In these dark times I can only wish these poor unfortunate souls godspeed and the ability to topdeck multiple "threaten" effects. For those of you who can count past 3 however there remains hope; Standard is home to a number of solid mid-range, token beatdown and control decks right now. It's time to embrace your inner Timmy, break out your trade binders and release your 4, 5 and 6 drop rares and mythics. This format has become a battle of colossal monsters and earth shattering sorcery; you don't want to be the guy who shows up with a pack of 1/1 goblins. Remember gang, big monsters always need lunch.
- nina
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest edition of The Cardboard Witch. As you can tell by the above introduction I'm feeling a little "theatrical" today; don't worry I'm not crazy enough to try to write an entire article in the voice of Savannah Nix. I would however like to address the elephant in the room that nobody else seems to be talking about; the death of Aggro strategies in post-RtR Standard. Let me repeat that for those of you who weren't listening: aggro is dead in Standard. When I say "dead", I do in fact mean kaput, obsolete, roadkill, devoid of spark, promise or life. In short, if you're playing a turn 5 deck that turns creatures sideways in Standard events right now you are literally "dead money" and will be unlikely to win said tournaments. Now before you get upset at me please understand that it brings me no joy to deliver this news. I am a firm believer that a healthy Standard format revolves around having effective aggro, control and mid-range options with a few odd-ball combo decks thrown in for spice. Unfortunately it seems that lately Standard formats rarely actually achieve this sort of balance and in my opinion the post Return to Ravnica format actively discourages/hinders aggro strategies. These are bleak times for weenie rush decks folks and after several weeks of testing I am prepared to state the case against aggro before you today. It's a grim tale but I hope that in the telling I can convince at least some of you out there to stop wasting entry fees on decks that simply cannot win tournaments for you.
Of course there are other reasons for the demise of aggro here in Standard besides the preponderance of awesome life gain effects; we'll cover some of those later in the article. For the moment however let's take a closer look at the incidental life gain cards that literally "ruinate" aggressive strategies in this format:
The Unholy Trinity: If you've been playing aggro in Standard recently I'm willing to bet that your least favorite turn 1 play in the format is "Temple Garden into play tapped, go". The reason for this of course is that if your opponent is skipping his first turn and playing a G/W dual there's a very good chance he's playing 4 copies each of Centaur Healer, Thragtusk and Restoration Angel. Taken individually each of these cards represents a fairly formidable roadblock against aggressive strategies. At 3/3 for a converted mana cost of 3 it's probably fair to question why Centaur Healer gains a full 3 life when it enters the battlefield. In a world of 2/2 Zombies and 2/1 Knights the Healer makes a habit of undoing more than a single attack's worth of work while simultaneously threatening to devour a weenie on each subsequent swing. Moving up the curve we get to everyone's (least) favorite card in Standard; the nigh ubiquitous Thragtusk. Better writers than I have already devoted many paragraphs to detailing exactly why 'Tusk is pretty stupid in Standard so I'll skip it here. What I can say is that for an aggro deck the 5 points worth of life gain is significantly less painful than the body that trades off for one of your best creatures; twice. Finally, even without a good target for her come into play trigger Restoration Angel does a pretty good job of ambushing small dudes in the middle of combat. At 3/4 she ranks as one of the better front line blockers here in Standard and both Flash and Flying are extremely relevant to her performance in this role. Of course when you combine these 3 cards together in the same deck, all hell breaks loose. Just 4 Healers and 4 Tusks alone represent 9 blocking bodies and 32 points worth of life gain but by adding the Angel to the mix you get free blocks/tokens, free ambush kills and double dipping rights on the lifegain effects. To say that this causes "problems" for aggro strategies would be like saying "that iceberg caused problems for the Titanic"; this isn't a mismatch, it's a massacre in favor of the G/W player. Perhaps most disturbingly the mana costs on these 3 creatures involve a total of 2 green and 2 white mana, which in turn makes it criminally easy for an absolutely huge number of decks in this format to include all 3 cards.
Punched in the Junk: While the 3 cards discussed above are certainly the most popular incidental life gain effects here in Standard they are by no means the only, or even the best such effects. As games drag on and mana/creatures become more plentiful this environment provides a whole new set of problems for aggro decks in the form of mass life gain effects. In particular, three extremely popular cards have appeared to choke the last breath from aggro strategies in post-RtR Standard: Azorius Charm, Sphinx's Revelation and Vault of the Archangel. Of these 3 cards the Charm is probably the most frustrating simply because it can be used as a removal spell in the early game against aggro strategies. As we discussed in my last article there are a number of benefits to be gained from "topping" an early aggressive creature with this card and as such it represents a legitimate obstacle to any beatdown plan in Standard. Of course, once our opponent does play a few creatures the mass-lifelink mode of this card typically puts the final nails in aggro's coffin; it's pretty hard to finish off a deck that's attacking for more damage than you can while simultaneously gaining life in 8-15 point bursts. At the other end of the spectrum is Sphinx's Revelation which is thankfully awkward and expensive if you're going to gain any significant amount of life from casting it. Unfortunately it also lets the caster draw a card for each point of life he's gaining and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that some of those cards will probably be good against aggro. It's also an Instant; just in case potential combat damage math wasn't hard enough already on aggro players in this format. Probably the worst part of facing down this card with an aggro deck however is that your opponent will typically cast it just before you are about to finish him off and right after both of your hands have drained extremely low. Let's just say that this is pretty demoralizing and significantly reduces aggro's chances of actually winning that game. While both of the above cards seem a little unfair when you're trying to beat down with weenies, they are at least Instants that must be actually cast and therefore "used up" to cause the aggro player harm. The same can not be said for our final "junk punch" card; Vault of the Archangel. I'm not a card designer by any stretch folks but a tiny part of me wonders how anyone could possibly think it was a good idea to print a land that can potentially give all of your creatures Lifelink turn after turn. Yes, it costs 5 mana to do so and that is not an insignificant investment but when you have the potential to gain upwards of 15 life per turn it seems like a relative bargain doesn't it? This is all besides the point that the silly thing actually gives out Deathtouch as well which makes it one of the premier defensive cards in the format even before you factor in gaining rivulets of life. While a mid-game Az Charm or Sphinx's Revelation probably means the aggro deck loses, an active Vault (with creatures to affect) most definitely ensures that it will.
Blindside Pressure: To be honest the above 6 cards alone are probably good enough reasons to avoid aggro altogether here in Standard. It's never a good idea to fight uphill battles all day during a Magic tournament and the preponderance of quality Bant, Junk and even plain old Selesnya Midrange decks in the format virtually force aggro to do just that. Sadly however there are actually a number of other, less popular life gain cards that still qualify as "playable" (or better) here in Standard. In my mind the best example of this is probably Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. While you are unlikely to find Trostani in a top tier Standard deck at this point, she's still a 2/5 body that can potentially gain massive hunks of life over the course of a single game. She's got 5 toughness, works well with tokens and makes it extremely easy to outrace other creature based decks if they can't kill her. As a result, she's at least reasonably popular with the FNM set and it's never too shocking when your opponent drops a turn 4-5 Trostani at smaller events. Another card that works well in the lifegain package and has the potential to cause aggro strategies serious grief is the casual/Comander favorite, Deadeye Navigator. On the downside the Navigator is 6 mana and doesn't actually have a printed lifegain effect. If you can Soulbond him with a Centaur Healer or a Thragtusk however, the situation quickly becomes all upside as his 1U flicker effect theoretically allows near-infinate potential life gains. Other quality cards that randomly provide some sort of life gain effect include Huntsmaster of the Fells, Vampire Nighthawk, Sorin's Vampire tokens, Tribute to Hunger, Deathrite Shaman and Griselbrand. Heck, I've even played games against cards like Nearheath Pilgrim and Gnaw to the Bone in post-RtR Standard. While these cards are certainly less popular than the previous 6, the simple truth is that they are out there and each of them represent another strike against the aspiring aggro player.
"Sweep the leg Johnny": Of course not all of aggro's problems in this Standard format revolve around life gain; it's certainly fair to say that playing in a format with two Wrath of God effects doesn't help either. For those of you clutching your Lilianna of the Dark Realms, hoping for a Mutilate revival I'm talking about the wonder-twin tandem of Supreme Verdict and Terminus. Trying to play around as many as 8 potential boardsweepers while maintaining a reasonable clock is a nightmare for aggro decks facing down Hallowed Fountains. The only real mitigating factor here is that because many decks in the format can shrug off a Supreme Verdict you might only face them in games 2 and 3 from the sideboard. There is no relief from Terminus for the aggro player however and you can firmly expect to see 3 maindeck copies and a 4th from the board if you're trying to beat down against Azorius in Standard. As if this situation wasn't miserable enough; there are also 3 key one-sided boardsweep effects that see significant play here in Standard. Of the three, Cyclonic Rift probably represents the least danger due to it's cost and because theoretically the aggro deck can just recast it's creatures. The fact that it's instant and only requires one Blue mana however is a fairly serious issue; frankly it's not that difficult to get to 7 mana against aggro if you've gained 18-25 life along the way. Mizzium Mortars is also expensive at 6 mana and has the added problem of requiring RRR to Overload; which adds potential turns to it's casting time. If your opponent does survive to cast it however, 4 damage across the board is usually more than enough to wipe out most aggressive create bases. Finally of course, the most dangerous one-sided boardsweep effect for aggro in this format is a "miracle'd" Bonfire of the Damned. With as little as four available mana a deck running Bonfire can completely wipe the aggro deck's board, throw a lightning bolt at the pilot's face and free up all of his monsters for a savage attack. Naturally of course there are ways to attack some of these cards (Gravecrawler, Vampire Aristocrat, Geralf's Messenger, Wolfir Avenger and Strangleroot Geist) but the simple truth is that no aggro deck in the format can play around all of them. In fact, I suspect you'd be hard pressed to find any aggro deck in Standard that can play around Terminus and Cyclonic Rift.
The Land of Bad Math: Hopefully by now you are starting to understand why it's simply not a good idea to play aggro in this format. On one hand aggro decks are forced to rapidly advance their board state to attempt to "outrun" near infinite life gain effects in Standard. On the other hand if they dump out their hand to accomplish this there are multiple boardsweep effects waiting to punish them for doing so. Further complicating matters are the sheer number of potential 2 for 1 cards aggro decks must contend with in this format. While the number of cards in Standard that match this description is somewhat staggering, the 3 most common problems for aggro decks in this format are Detention Sphere, Sever the Bloodline and Lingering Souls. Sphere is frustrating because it's an exile effect (negates regenerate, indestructible or undying) and because it actively discourages casting multiple copies of your best creatures. When your deck doesn't draw cards and wants to vomit it's hand onto the table as quickly as possible, this can easily lead to quick blowouts unless the aggro player is extremely cautious. Sever the Bloodline presents virtually all the same problems as Detention Sphere except it's all but guaranteed to provide a 2 for 1 effect in a long game due to it's flashback. On the upside for aggro, 4 mana for a kill spell isn't the greatest deal and in the absence of other answers your opponent may not survive long enough to hit 7 mana and flash it back. The most annoying card of the lot however is probably Lingering Souls, which for 5 mana mortgaged over 2 turns provides a staggering 4 flying chump blockers. The only way around this card for most aggro decks is the Trample Trait, Blood Artist or a top of the curve Thundermaw Hellkite. Naturally, when combined with Vault of the Archangel this card goes from "extremely annoying" to "legitimately game breaking" awful fast if you're trying to throw guys sideways into the spirit tokens.
Show Me the Money: I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "well that all sounds very scary Nina but people can't run all of these cards in the same deck and they can't draw them every game. I'll be fine". Unfortunately I have bad news for you folks; yes they actually can run all these cards in one deck and until Gatecrash at least it is highly unlikely that aggro will be "fine". The existence of RtR shocklands, Innistrad buddy duals and cards like Farseek make it easy to build a variety of powerful, greedy (3 colors with lots of double mana symbols) mid-range and control decks. When Blue/White control decks have absolutely no problem selling out for Pillar of Flame and Bonfire of the Damned you know we've gone past concepts like "colors" and "mana restrictions". In an effort to highlight exactly what a good mid-range deck can do to aggro in Standard, I've built an extremely simple Junk (G/W/B) deck to share with you today. I may or may not have also heard a rumor that more people will read your article if you provide a decklist :) :
Welcome to the Machine - Junk Mid-Range w/Rites
Creatures - 18:
4x Centaur Healer
4x Restoration Angel
3x Thragtusk
2x Sigarda, Host of Herons
2x Armada Wurm
3x Angel of Serenity
Spells - 18:
4x Grisly Salvage
4x Mulch
2x Farseek
4x Lingering Souls
4x Unburial Rites
Lands - 24:
4x Temple Garden
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Woodland Cemetary
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Isolated Chapel
4x Forest
2x Vault of the Archangel
Sideboard - 15:
3x Intangible Virtue
2x Sundering Growth
2x Oblivion Ring
3x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2x Sever the Bloodline
3x Entreat the Angels
Analysis: Conceptually this deck is designed to be a G/W Midrange deck that uses it's graveyard and Unburial Rites to either accelerate towards a win or finish off a staggering opponent in the late game. In this context it becomes very important that the deck be able to reasonably "hard-cast" every creature in the deck while simultaneously looking for opportunities to take advantage of it's graveyard. This prevents the deck from ever being dependent on Unburial Rites and makes it very easy to board them out in game two if we're expecting graveyard hate. In this case I've chosen to fill the void with a more token based strategy but this is very much a personal preference. You could probably go a number of different directions with this sideboard so long as the chosen cards adequately replaced the Rites you may board out. More to the point of our discussion however this deck absolutely steamrolls aggro and it does so without running a significant number of cards that are simply bad in other match-ups. While it's fair to say Centaur Healer doesn't shine in every game, cards like Restoration Angel, Lingering Souls, Thragtusk and Vault of the Archangels perform admirably against a wide variety of opponents. Looking back on our previous discussion it should be fairly easy to see how this build interweaves an absolutely massive number of "aggro-killing" cards effortlessly into a highly focused/structured deck design. While I haven't had the opportunity to enter a tournament with this deck a few days of online practice and a quick scan around the internet/my FNM confirms that many other people are exploring these same card combinations successfully.
Well folks, once again that's just about all the time we have for today. At this point I feel that if I haven't convinced you that aggro is just a bad deck choice by now there may be no hope. For reasons beyond my comprehension there will always be a certain segment of the Magic community who simply cannot resist the seductive allure of curving out at 3, dumping your hand and turning little dudes sideways. In these dark times I can only wish these poor unfortunate souls godspeed and the ability to topdeck multiple "threaten" effects. For those of you who can count past 3 however there remains hope; Standard is home to a number of solid mid-range, token beatdown and control decks right now. It's time to embrace your inner Timmy, break out your trade binders and release your 4, 5 and 6 drop rares and mythics. This format has become a battle of colossal monsters and earth shattering sorcery; you don't want to be the guy who shows up with a pack of 1/1 goblins. Remember gang, big monsters always need lunch.
- nina
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Standard Deviations - Get Off My Lawn
"I like how you have given up on playing fair Magic" - Mark Everson, Team Dickwolf
To be completely honest with you folks, I kinda hate writing about my Standard decks. I always feel like some sort of traveling door-to-door saleswoman; practically begging someone to let me in the door so I can display my wares. Even worse; at least door-to-door saleswomen get paid for grovelling like that. In my case I'm writing for a free blog with about a thousand regular readers at most. Perhaps more germane however is the fact that if you as a reader are looking for "hawt new Standard tech" you really shouldn't be trolling random Mtg blogs but rather devouring top 8 deck lists from SCG opens, GP-level events and Pro Tours. These decks win multi-hundred person tournaments for a reason and to tell you the truth the vast majority of my successful builds aren't all that different than the decks you can find making the cut at these events. As such, I typically find myself ignoring Standard altogether here on the blog unless I feel the deck I'm playing is significantly different than the run of the mill netdeck version you can find basically anywhere. Obviously since you are reading this and I am writing it, I feel that is the case with this deck.
Genesis: Like most good ideas in Magic the original concept for this deck was savagely stolen from other, more successful players. After messing around with Jund for a couple of weeks to start the format I got tired of getting my teeth knocked in by Rakdos Zombies and decided a change was in order. After asking a few of the stronger players I know on Twitter for some advice I was eventually pointed towards this deck by none other than Seth Burn. Frankly, there is a lot to like about this build in the context of the format it was created for. Namely it has an incredibly strong game 1 against both Rakdos Zombies and Jund Mid-range; the two accepted "big bad wolves" of the early post RtR-Standard format. For the exact moment in time that it was designed this deck is literally almost perfect. The problem of course is that by the time I got my grubby little paws on it and started testing that moment in time was over; the metagame had shifted firmly towards grindy mid-range decks with Thragtusk or lightning fast aggro decks built around Geist of Saint Traft. This didn't mean that Jund and Zombies were dead per se, but they were no longer popular enough to ensure that simply beating "them" would lead to winning tournaments. More perplexing however was the fact that the deck wasn't actually all that good at winning "grindy" Thragtusk mirrors. While cards like Jace, Garruk and Sphinx's Revelation showed promise I discovered that the vast majority of the time both players would bounce non-trampling ground-pounders at each other until someone cast an Angel of Serenity that wasn't answered. Since the match hinged on such a limited number of cards there were a number of games where I simply didn't draw my "mirror breakers" and my opponents did. Finally even rock solid match-ups like Jund and Zombies were started to become more difficult post sideboard. Jund players began running Appetite for Brains and Rakdos Returns to answer Bant's card advantage while Zombies began boarding in multiple "Threaten" effects to simply steal your 5 power beasties and bash you with them. After a solid week of tinkering and losing in the top 8/top 4 of my local store's Gameday events I finally accepted that the deck as presently constructed was "yesterday's news".
Enter the Pod-Father: Unable to solve the problem myself I quickly sought outside council while preparing to trade for yet another new deck. Fortunately heaven sent me an angel in the form of sharp dressed, fast talking podcast host Scott MacCallum. In a moment of sheer serendipity Scott happened to stop by my office for a random friendly visit and before long we got to talking about Bant decks. Naturally he had a more recent list in mind and showed me this article on Manadeprived.com. To be completely fair this deck was much more in line with how I felt a good Bant deck should look as the format evolved. It's much faster than the previous deck, maindecks 4 copies of the cheapest mirror-breaking card in Standard (Geist of Saint Traft) and is generally less confused than the Montana build. In short rather than jamming half of a control deck with half of a beatdown deck, Bianchi has chosen to be a strong beatdown deck with "some control elements". This strategy is basically right up Scott's alley and after some minor threats he convinced me to read all of Alex's well-written article there on the spot. As I read through the article and poured over the card choices it suddenly dawned on me why I disliked virtually every Bant deck I'd seen online. I turned towards Scott and said simply "it's too confused sir." Scott demanded an explanation and by way of careful interrogation helped me verbalize my issues with "traditional" Bant midrange:
"Sandy"Bant
Creatures - 16:
4x Centaur Healer
3x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Restoration Angel
2x Thragtusk
2x Sigarda, Host of Herons
2x Armada Wurm
Spells - 19:
4x Farseek
4x Azorius Charm
3x Cyclonic Rift
2x Selesnya Charm
3x Detention Sphere
3x Jace, Architect of Thought
Lands - 25:
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Temple Garden
4x Hinterland Harbor
4x Glacial Fortress
3x Sunpetal Grove
3x Forest
2x Island
1x Plains
Analysis: Before we talk about what this deck is and how it works, I'd like to take a moment to discuss what this deck isn't. For starters, this isn't a control deck. There are no counterspells, no sweepers and no "win the long game" Planeswalkers in this build. Jace is included primarily because drawing cards is freaking amazing and while I have used his -8 ability it's exceptionally rare that games will go long enough to actually do so. This also isn't a "grindy" mid-range deck either; you win games by keeping your creatures alive rather than trading monsters and milking marginal card advantage effects for 15 some odd turns. Finally, only a fool would call a deck who's creature curve starts at 3 and finishes at 6 "aggressive" so it certainly isn't an aggro deck either. No folks, this is a sledgehammer; a big ole, super-mean junkyard dog that simply refuses to interact with other decks until it finally goes over the top for the immediate win. In fact, if anything Sandy Bant plays like a combo deck where the combo is "Cyclonic Rift and 12-24 power worth of broken creatures". If you don't believe me let's take a basic look at how this deck wins games in Standard:
Questions, Answers and Advice: Traditionally in this type of article the author will chew through a few pages describing the usage, corner case applications and selection rationale for each and every single card in the deck. In virtually every single case this will be terminally boring unless the deck designer is supernaturally talented or the reader is an absolute rank beginner. I am not a brilliant writer and you aren't a rank beginner so why is this necessary? You don't need me to tell you that Geist of St Traft closes out games, Restoration Angel works well with "187" triggers or that Farseek lets you play Jace on turn 3 into an empty board. In lieu of this tired old trope I'd like to take a few moments to answer some of the questions I am most commonly asked when I share this deck list.
3x Cavern of Souls
3x Loxodon Smiter
1x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Thragtusk
2x Acidic Slime
2x Rest in Peace
2x Sphinx's Revelation
The Caverns, Smiters, Geist and Tusks are for control decks that run counters and sweepers. The Acidic Slimes are there to kill Kessig Wolf's Run. Rest in Peace attacks both Snapcaster control decks and Reanimator. Finally Sphinx's Revelation is there to win mid-range mirror matches that drag too long; think of them as Cyclonic Rifts #4-5. I should also mention that there are no SB cards for aggro decks in here because your deck should already beat the holy crap out of aggro. You can always bring in the 2 bonus Tusks if you absolutely must have additional answers.
Well gang, that's about all the time we have for today. When I original sat down to write this article I expected it to be about 2 pages long and take roughly 3 hours to complete. Roughly 9 hours and 8 pages later I'm still not sure I've gone over all the important details. Unfortunately tired eyes and sore fingers will not be bargained with and so I bid you adieu for the time being. Before I go however I'd like to thank Scott MacCallum, Tommy Liu and Jeremy Skelton for all the deck ideas I stole from them when constructing this deck. I would also like to thank Alex Bianchi for his wonderful article on Manadeprived.com that helped me finally crystallize what I felt Bant mi-range decks were missing in the format. Until next time then; always remember that it's extremely easy to kill an enemy mage when your board is full of fat, broken monsters and his is comprised only of lands. Ciao folks.
To be completely honest with you folks, I kinda hate writing about my Standard decks. I always feel like some sort of traveling door-to-door saleswoman; practically begging someone to let me in the door so I can display my wares. Even worse; at least door-to-door saleswomen get paid for grovelling like that. In my case I'm writing for a free blog with about a thousand regular readers at most. Perhaps more germane however is the fact that if you as a reader are looking for "hawt new Standard tech" you really shouldn't be trolling random Mtg blogs but rather devouring top 8 deck lists from SCG opens, GP-level events and Pro Tours. These decks win multi-hundred person tournaments for a reason and to tell you the truth the vast majority of my successful builds aren't all that different than the decks you can find making the cut at these events. As such, I typically find myself ignoring Standard altogether here on the blog unless I feel the deck I'm playing is significantly different than the run of the mill netdeck version you can find basically anywhere. Obviously since you are reading this and I am writing it, I feel that is the case with this deck.
Genesis: Like most good ideas in Magic the original concept for this deck was savagely stolen from other, more successful players. After messing around with Jund for a couple of weeks to start the format I got tired of getting my teeth knocked in by Rakdos Zombies and decided a change was in order. After asking a few of the stronger players I know on Twitter for some advice I was eventually pointed towards this deck by none other than Seth Burn. Frankly, there is a lot to like about this build in the context of the format it was created for. Namely it has an incredibly strong game 1 against both Rakdos Zombies and Jund Mid-range; the two accepted "big bad wolves" of the early post RtR-Standard format. For the exact moment in time that it was designed this deck is literally almost perfect. The problem of course is that by the time I got my grubby little paws on it and started testing that moment in time was over; the metagame had shifted firmly towards grindy mid-range decks with Thragtusk or lightning fast aggro decks built around Geist of Saint Traft. This didn't mean that Jund and Zombies were dead per se, but they were no longer popular enough to ensure that simply beating "them" would lead to winning tournaments. More perplexing however was the fact that the deck wasn't actually all that good at winning "grindy" Thragtusk mirrors. While cards like Jace, Garruk and Sphinx's Revelation showed promise I discovered that the vast majority of the time both players would bounce non-trampling ground-pounders at each other until someone cast an Angel of Serenity that wasn't answered. Since the match hinged on such a limited number of cards there were a number of games where I simply didn't draw my "mirror breakers" and my opponents did. Finally even rock solid match-ups like Jund and Zombies were started to become more difficult post sideboard. Jund players began running Appetite for Brains and Rakdos Returns to answer Bant's card advantage while Zombies began boarding in multiple "Threaten" effects to simply steal your 5 power beasties and bash you with them. After a solid week of tinkering and losing in the top 8/top 4 of my local store's Gameday events I finally accepted that the deck as presently constructed was "yesterday's news".
Enter the Pod-Father: Unable to solve the problem myself I quickly sought outside council while preparing to trade for yet another new deck. Fortunately heaven sent me an angel in the form of sharp dressed, fast talking podcast host Scott MacCallum. In a moment of sheer serendipity Scott happened to stop by my office for a random friendly visit and before long we got to talking about Bant decks. Naturally he had a more recent list in mind and showed me this article on Manadeprived.com. To be completely fair this deck was much more in line with how I felt a good Bant deck should look as the format evolved. It's much faster than the previous deck, maindecks 4 copies of the cheapest mirror-breaking card in Standard (Geist of Saint Traft) and is generally less confused than the Montana build. In short rather than jamming half of a control deck with half of a beatdown deck, Bianchi has chosen to be a strong beatdown deck with "some control elements". This strategy is basically right up Scott's alley and after some minor threats he convinced me to read all of Alex's well-written article there on the spot. As I read through the article and poured over the card choices it suddenly dawned on me why I disliked virtually every Bant deck I'd seen online. I turned towards Scott and said simply "it's too confused sir." Scott demanded an explanation and by way of careful interrogation helped me verbalize my issues with "traditional" Bant midrange:
- Too many of the cards argue with each other. If this deck were a high school student, she'd be the emo chick who listens to Dead Can Dance while cutting herself. Whether we're talking about the inclusion of counterspells in a ramp deck full of 4, 5 and 7 casting cost cards, the general inability of it's big finishers to actually finish or the sheer insanity of running 3-6 sweepers in a deck trying to beat down with 5/3's these builds have serious "focus" problems.
- Depending on the build, the mana base for this deck is genuinely horrible. Either you're trying to run Jace, Garruk and Angel of Serenity in the same deck or you're dropping Cavern of Souls/Gavony Townships into builds with multiple greedy non-creature spells that all want to come down as soon as possible on the curve. This is literally a recipe for disaster in the current "go over the top" Standard.
- The decks generally lack a clearly defined path to victory. This once again speaks to the lack of synergy in the build to some degree but it's actually much deeper than that. It's hard to win games when you're tucking your own finishers under your library or drawing dead Sweepers/Counters when all you need is some more "action". This deck wants to see it's cards in a very specific order and when they come out of sequence you generally sit around sulking about it until you die.
- 40 minute game 1s. I really don't feel this bears much explaining. This deck's finishers are traditionally pretty horrible at actually finishing; you've got 5-6 flyers and a bunch of guys who don't trample. It's virtually impossible to finish 3 games in 50 minutes versus a competent mid-range opponent with the Montana States build for example.
"Sandy"Bant
Creatures - 16:
4x Centaur Healer
3x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Restoration Angel
2x Thragtusk
2x Sigarda, Host of Herons
2x Armada Wurm
Spells - 19:
4x Farseek
4x Azorius Charm
3x Cyclonic Rift
2x Selesnya Charm
3x Detention Sphere
3x Jace, Architect of Thought
Lands - 25:
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Temple Garden
4x Hinterland Harbor
4x Glacial Fortress
3x Sunpetal Grove
3x Forest
2x Island
1x Plains
Analysis: Before we talk about what this deck is and how it works, I'd like to take a moment to discuss what this deck isn't. For starters, this isn't a control deck. There are no counterspells, no sweepers and no "win the long game" Planeswalkers in this build. Jace is included primarily because drawing cards is freaking amazing and while I have used his -8 ability it's exceptionally rare that games will go long enough to actually do so. This also isn't a "grindy" mid-range deck either; you win games by keeping your creatures alive rather than trading monsters and milking marginal card advantage effects for 15 some odd turns. Finally, only a fool would call a deck who's creature curve starts at 3 and finishes at 6 "aggressive" so it certainly isn't an aggro deck either. No folks, this is a sledgehammer; a big ole, super-mean junkyard dog that simply refuses to interact with other decks until it finally goes over the top for the immediate win. In fact, if anything Sandy Bant plays like a combo deck where the combo is "Cyclonic Rift and 12-24 power worth of broken creatures". If you don't believe me let's take a basic look at how this deck wins games in Standard:
- Play lands while simultaneously "Time-walking" your opponents with Az Charm and/or Centaur Healer/Restoration Angel if he attacks before you're ready to allow it.
- Cast the best creatures in the entire Standard format for 2-4 turns; pausing only to play a Jace, Architect of Thought if necessary.
- If cards like Traft, Sigarda and Armada Wurm haven't already killed your opponent play your 7th land and bounce all of his permanents back into his hand; sometimes at Instant speed!
- Turn your guys sideways into his empty board and kill him
Questions, Answers and Advice: Traditionally in this type of article the author will chew through a few pages describing the usage, corner case applications and selection rationale for each and every single card in the deck. In virtually every single case this will be terminally boring unless the deck designer is supernaturally talented or the reader is an absolute rank beginner. I am not a brilliant writer and you aren't a rank beginner so why is this necessary? You don't need me to tell you that Geist of St Traft closes out games, Restoration Angel works well with "187" triggers or that Farseek lets you play Jace on turn 3 into an empty board. In lieu of this tired old trope I'd like to take a few moments to answer some of the questions I am most commonly asked when I share this deck list.
- "Why haven't you included a sideboard?"
3x Cavern of Souls
3x Loxodon Smiter
1x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Thragtusk
2x Acidic Slime
2x Rest in Peace
2x Sphinx's Revelation
The Caverns, Smiters, Geist and Tusks are for control decks that run counters and sweepers. The Acidic Slimes are there to kill Kessig Wolf's Run. Rest in Peace attacks both Snapcaster control decks and Reanimator. Finally Sphinx's Revelation is there to win mid-range mirror matches that drag too long; think of them as Cyclonic Rifts #4-5. I should also mention that there are no SB cards for aggro decks in here because your deck should already beat the holy crap out of aggro. You can always bring in the 2 bonus Tusks if you absolutely must have additional answers.
- "Why are you only running 2 Thragtusks in the main? Isn't it the best card in Standard?"
- "Bitch, have you ever even read Time Walk? How do I timewalk with Azorius Charm?
- "Doesn't this deck just snap lose to Control?"
- "Why did you choose Armada Wurm over Angel of Serenity?"
- "Is Cyclonic Rift really the best card in Standard?"
- "Why Selesnya Charm? Can I replace those cards with counterspells?"
- "Why didn't you answer my question?"
Well gang, that's about all the time we have for today. When I original sat down to write this article I expected it to be about 2 pages long and take roughly 3 hours to complete. Roughly 9 hours and 8 pages later I'm still not sure I've gone over all the important details. Unfortunately tired eyes and sore fingers will not be bargained with and so I bid you adieu for the time being. Before I go however I'd like to thank Scott MacCallum, Tommy Liu and Jeremy Skelton for all the deck ideas I stole from them when constructing this deck. I would also like to thank Alex Bianchi for his wonderful article on Manadeprived.com that helped me finally crystallize what I felt Bant mi-range decks were missing in the format. Until next time then; always remember that it's extremely easy to kill an enemy mage when your board is full of fat, broken monsters and his is comprised only of lands. Ciao folks.
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