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With no M11 on Magic Online, it’s pretty hard for me to manage any solid Standard testing. It doesn’t seem quite right to try and sell you guys on what I think is good when there are plenty of tournament results coming in. I’m also not here to teach you how to fish, although I will probably do that some point.
However, this week is all about Extended. If for no other reason, I write this article in order to draw some attention to the format. Extended is legal online, and will be fully legal with the release of M11 next week. While it might not be “relevant” to most of you, i.e. the people not attending Pro Tour: Amsterdam, the format is still tons of fun.
It will allow you to get a leg up on competition for next year’s PTQ season, and it’s also a great way to pick up the cards you might need for the format relatively early. Some stuff like Bitterblossom might be a little unrealistic right now, but most of the other stuff is pretty cheap. For example, Punishing Fire is one of the best cards in the format, if not the best, and Grove of the Burnwillows is only three tickets.
Anyway, onto business! Let’s take a look at the recent MTGO Daily Event results.
RUG “Junk”: 4-0, 4-0, 4-0, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1
Living End: 4-0, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1
Elves: 4-0, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1
Burn: 4-0, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1
Merfolk: 4-0, 3-1, 3-1
UW Lark: 4-0, 4-0, 3-1
ANT: 3-1, 3-1, 3-1
Doran: 3-1, 3-1
Jund: 3-1
Faeries: 3-1, 3-1
Kithkin: 3-1
Magic-League’s darling baby RUG deck is still doing incredibly well, despite ultimately staying at the same 75 in which it made its debut.
| RUG Featured by Magic League on 2010-08-01 (Extended) | ||
Creatures 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Lotus Cobra 4 Tarmogoyf Instants 4 Cryptic Command 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Punishing Fire Legendary Creatures 3 Vendilion Clique |
Planeswalkers 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Sorceries 4 Ancestral Vision Basic Lands 2 Forest 4 Island 1 Mountain Lands 2 Cascade Bluffs 3 Flooded Grove 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 3 Misty Rainforest 4 Scalding Tarn | 3 Relic of Progenitus 4 Great Sable Stag 4 Negate 3 Volcanic Fallout 1 Primal Command |
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My initial results indicate that Lotus Cobra isn’t very good in this deck, especially with only 23 lands. Mana Leak might actually be better than Bloodbraid Elf. Negate is already a staple in the sideboard because of the occasional combo deck, so you have to side out Bloodbraid Elf at that point anyway (unless you want to risk the embarrassment). I do remember a time when my Hypergenesis opponent sided in Silence against me…
I don’t think that whoever built this deck in the first place got everything right from the get go. It’s just another instance of the so called Hivemind naturally assuming that this is the best build because it keeps on winning. Greatness can always be improved, and I’ll definitely be looking to do that in the near future.
The RDW matchup, while not particularly popular, is somewhat suspect, so I wouldn’t mind playing a couple of Wall of Roots and lands in the Lotus Cobra spot.
Great Sable Stag seems poor. Punishing Fire is absurd, and probably going to win your Faerie matchup straight up. The value of Volcanic Fallout is much the same. Sure, it’s nice to absolutely crush Faeries, but isn’t that matchup good already? Why do you need to devote so many slots to it? At least Fallout, unlike Stag, can be useful in other matchups, but still. It’s probably unnecessary.
The Relics are great and have plenty of uses, from Reveillark to Living End, so those can stay.
Living End is proving to be nearly as good as Travis Woo says it is, although it’s almost exclusively in the hands of Superchibi.
| Living End Featured by Superchibi on 2010-08-01 (Extended) | ||
Creatures 2 Avalanche Riders 4 Deadshot Minotaur 4 Fulminator Mage 3 Jungle Weaver 4 Monstrous Carabid 4 Shriekmaw 4 Street Wraith 4 Valley Rannet Instants 4 Violent Outburst Sorceries 4 Demonic Dread 3 Living End |
Basic Lands 2 Forest 3 Mountain 3 Swamp Lands 1 Dragonskull Summit 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 1 Lavaclaw Reaches 1 Murmuring Bosk 4 Verdant Catacombs Land Creatures 1 Dryad Arbor | 2 Tormod's Crypt 1 Avalanche Riders 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Great Sable Stag 4 Kitchen Finks |
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It seems like the cascade decks are the most powerful in the format, although no one really has a good Restore Balance list. Living End has already been fleshed out last season almost solely by Travis Woo, and the man is incredibly smart. You’d be wise to listen to him, on the subject of Living End or otherwise.
I like Chibi’s maindeck for the most part. Street Wrath is probably good enough, but I’d be incredibly wary about cycling that thing in certain matchups. Even decks like RUG are looking to burn you out (at least in game 1), so your life total is a pretty valuable resource, especially when you don’t really affect the board in the early turns.
His sideboard is incredibly interesting. While I haven’t seen it in practice, I assume that he’s attempting to play the beatdown role in the mirror. Wouldn’t Leylines be a simpler answer? Granted, they are easily killed by popular sideboard cards, but it would allow you to stick with your game plan rather than morph into an awkward creature deck.
If Living End does become a huge player, maindeck Leylines will probably be a must for the mirror match. I can only imagine how miserable those game 1s must be in the mirror.
Chibi is a good player, so I know that he’s thought about his plan a lot, but I also haven’t seen him try anything else outside of a couple Boom/Busts. It’s hard to say if it’s out of laziness or just because he knows that he’s got the best plan.
Next up is kingcobweb’s darling Elf deck, which Gavin Verhey already wrote about here.
| Elves! Featured by kingcobweb on 2010-08-01 (Extended) | ||
Creatures 1 Arbor Elf 4 Elvish Archdruid 4 Elvish Visionary 4 Heritage Druid 4 Joraga Treespeaker 1 Joraga Warcaller 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Nettle Sentinel 4 Ranger of Eos 3 Regal Force Instants 4 Summoner's Pact |
Sorceries 4 Primal Command Basic Lands 9 Forest 1 Plains Lands 4 Brushland 4 Horizon Canopy Legendary Lands 1 Pendelhaven | 3 Acidic Slime 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender 2 Dauntless Escort 1 Oversoul of Dusk 1 Scattershot Archer 3 Tajuru Preserver 3 Vengevine |
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Overall, a fairly standard looking hybrid from the old Mosswort Bridge Standard list and last year’s Extended. Not much to say, except that the manabase could probably be better. There are plenty of options for White-producing lands, and while only Brushland makes Green on the first turn, it adds up to a lot of damage when combined with Horizon Canopy. Nearly half your lands damage you for making Green mana! That seems outrageous to me.
As Sean McKeown pointed out in the forums, you can run a manabase with eight Green fetches and a Murmuring Bosk if you don’t want to go the Brushland route.
The sideboard is another example of modern combo using the transformational surprise plan. Punishing Fire in an incredibly huge pain, but one that could be solved by playing Mark of Asylum instead of big, dumb animals.
I’m not quite sure what the Acidic Slimes are for. Gavin isn’t playing with them, nor did he mention them in his article, so I’m left a little clueless.
Tajuru Preserver is a cute answer to Living End, but is that any better than Ethersworn Canonist, Tormod’s Crypt, or Relic of Progenitus? Yes, they might bring in Ingot Chewers against you, but they already have Shriekmaw. Preserver doesn’t stop them from reanimating a bunch of huge dudes, so you still need to combo them quickly. Overall, it seems like a weak sideboard option.
Sandydogmtg is a master of aggro decks, but he seems to excel on the tribal front. Here’s what he’s been cashing with consistently:
| Merfolk Featured by Sandydogmtg on 2010-08-01 (Extended) | ||
Creatures 4 Coralhelm Commander 4 Cursecatcher 4 Lord of Atlantis 3 Merfolk Sovereign 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Stonybrook Banneret Instants 4 Cryptic Command Sorceries 4 Ponder Tribal Instants 3 Sage's Dousing |
Basic Lands 18 Island Lands 4 Mutavault | 4 Dragon's Claw 4 Spreading Seas 4 Flashfreeze 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
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Another archetype, another deck that is absurdly weak to Punishing Fire. Do you see why the RUG deck probably wins so much? Don’t think that Merfolk is without options. Those Spreading Seas aren’t just to give your Islandwalkers a place to swim! Tectonic Edge is another option, but it would probably have to take up a spell slot considering how Blue mana intensive Merfolk can be.
Batutinha has been playing Merfolk as well, but he opted for a White splash for Reveillark and Burrenton-Forge Tender. Again, no Mark of Asylums.
One of the more interesting decks I’ve seen lately placed two players in the money in the last DE. I saw the original list on Magic-League, but this is the slightly updated version played by Weta:
| Ad Nauseam Conflagrate Featured by Weta on 2010-08-01 (Extended) | ||
Artifacts 4 Coalition Relic 4 Lotus Bloom Creatures 4 Simian Spirit Guide |
Instants 4 Ad Nauseam 4 Angel's Grace 2 Careful Consideration 4 Mystical Teachings 3 Pact of Negation 1 Spell Pierce Sorceries 1 Conflagrate 4 Ponder 3 See Beyond Lands 1 Gemstone Mine 1 Halimar Depths 4 Shivan Reef 4 Underground River 4 Vivid Crag 4 Vivid Creek 4 Vivid Marsh | 4 Wall of Omens 3 Flashfreeze 1 Pact of Negation 1 Silence 1 Slaughter Pact 1 Wipe Away 4 Duress |
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A two card combo to win the game seems pretty powerful in Extended, but the setup cards are fairly weak. Rather than actual rituals, decks like this and Hive Mind have to use junk like Coalition Relic. I suppose that’s a good thing for Magic, but it’s still pretty funny when you think about something like Memory Jar or the original Trix deck. They just don’t make spells like they used to.
The only thing I can really comment on is that there might be too many Vivid lands, and perhaps Reflecting Pool could find a home.
My buddy Tommy Ashton easily 4-0ed the first Extended DE with this list:
| Reveillark Featured by Tommy Ashton on 2010-08-01 (Extended) | ||
Artifacts 4 Fieldmist Borderpost Creatures 2 Body Double 2 Glen Elendra Archmage 4 Knight of the White Orchid 4 Mulldrifter 4 Reveillark 2 Sower of Temptation 4 Wall of Omens |
Instants 4 Cryptic Command 3 Negate 4 Path to Exile Sorceries 2 Day of Judgment Basic Lands 4 Island 7 Plains Lands 3 Celestial Colonnade 3 Glacial Fortress 4 Mystic Gate | 3 Relic of Progenitus 3 Burrenton Forge-Tender 4 Meddling Mage 3 Stillmoon Cavalier 2 Wall of Reverence |
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I was intrigued. It seemed like it had been well tuned, despite the relative infancy of the format. Eighty tickets later, and I was gaming with it as well. After all, I needed something to play Extended with. Might as well start here.
Tommy was confident behind all of numbers, but I was soon disagreeing with a scant few of them, namely Body Double and Sower of Temptation. Neither were incredibly necessary. If you drew a Reveillark or Mulldrifter against mid-range decks like Jund, you were pretty heavily favored. You didn’t need to create the unkillable 4/3 flier to beat them.
Similarly, Sower just didn’t solve any problems. There are few decks that have one big guy you want to steal. Often they are swarming you or nickel and diming you with little guys like Goblin Guide. Sower sucks in both of those situations. I suppose the mirror could be an issue, but that didn’t come up very often.
Wrath of God was the obvious answer to the swarm problem, while more spot removal or better blockers solved the other. Stillmoon Cavalier was easily cuttable for more Wraths, but I liked most of the rest of the sideboard.
More acceleration would have been nice, and thankfully Mind Stone exists to fill that role. Kitchen Finks was also a great anti-beatdown card, but one that also works as anti-control.
Magic-League’s results are slightly different. They have a lot more innovation going on. I suppose when money isn’t on the line, there’s more freedom to do whatever you want.
Here’s a list of what’s been doing well on ML, with the number of each time they placed in the top three or four:
Junk: 11
Elves: 2
Seismic Swans: 2
BW Tokens: 1
Mono W Eldrazi: 1
Restore Balance: 1
RDW: 5
Faeries: 1
Jund: 2
Lark: 4
Doran: 1
WW: 1
ANT: 1
Clearly this is a more interesting take on the format, and one that more realistically shows what the format is capable of. There is a wide variety of decks you can play, and they’re all pretty sweet, so get interested!
This recently 6-0ed a ML trial, in the hands of joaoxavier:
| Fauna Shaman Featured by joaoxavier on 2010-08-01 (Extended) | ||
Creatures 2 Baneslayer Angel 1 Big Game Hunter 4 Birds of Paradise 1 Faerie Macabre 4 Fauna Shaman 1 Gaea's Revenge 1 Gatekeeper of Malakir 1 Kitchen Finks 3 Knight of the Reliquary 1 Mitotic Slime 4 Noble Hierarch 1 Obstinate Baloth 1 Qasali Pridemage 2 Shriekmaw 3 Tarmogoyf 4 Vengevine Instants 2 Smother |
Legendary Creatures 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob Sorceries 3 Maelstrom Pulse Basic Lands 4 Forest 1 Plains 2 Swamp Lands 4 Marsh Flats 3 Murmuring Bosk 2 Sejiri Steppe 4 Verdant Catacombs | 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender 2 Obstinate Baloth 3 Qasali Pridemage 3 Path to Exile 1 Maelstrom Pulse 4 Thoughtseize |
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This list is pretty cool, but there’s a few things I don’t like about it (unsurprisingly). Only 20 land seems very low. Gaea’s Revenge doesn’t seem entirely necessary, and neither does Gatekeeper of Malakir or Mitotic Slime.
If combo ends up becoming more popular, there needs to be a little more hate in the sideboard. Even as is, Elves seems like a difficult matchup. There’s definitely a lot of hope here, though.
Hope to see you in the queues!
GerryT
