Today’s topics of interest include a mash-up of every relevant format. Enjoy!
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If you feel like jumping off a bridge, then you’re probably like me. You’re like me in the way that you are incredibly sick of “old Standard” and very enthusiastic about a brand new one. However, Magic Online won’t be caught up for a few weeks, so I’m stuck with a few scant PTQs over the next three weeks with untested ideas, one PTQ on Magic Online, and not much else. With this feeling, I’ve discovered a huge hole in my Magic game: I need to play more real life Magic.
I’m spoiled. Magic Online allows me to play a ton of tournaments and gather a lot of data in a short period of time. You can find someone to play against at almost any point in the day, and you don’t even have to drive anywhere. You don’t have to organize your friends together to play. You don’t have to do anything except log on. This is what playing World of Warcraft must feel like. While there are a lot of tournaments and pickup games at all points of the day or night, Magic Online can become addictive, and very unhealthy. I’ve found myself playing Magic Online at almost every point in which I’m not at work or out eating dinner or drinking, which means I really need a change in direction, since all this time hasn’t amounted to very much over the years. Unfortunately, in the past, my other outlet has been Poker, but I always seem to go on insane monkey tilt and give all my money away, and I can’t really afford to do that seeing as I’m married and our income is shared. That leaves me with very few options, and just drives me back to play more Magic Online.
With this problem comes a few perks, including the ability to play almost any deck in a current format via autopilot, but there are many more terrible things that happen to you if you let Magic Online dominate your free time. For one, if you want to get better at Magic, you need to learn to develop for yourself. That is one thing I feel like I’ve lost over the years: originality. With Magic Online providing tons of new ideas and decklists, I rarely find myself brewing new things for tournaments, unless I have an occasional breath of inspiration. This leads to having very mediocre decks for the Pro Tour, and blinds me from powerful strategies that others may find obvious. Additionally, when you don’t play with other people in real life, you lose the ability to see new ideas that your friends generate. This could help you in getting a grasp on what your future opponents could play against you at the Pro Tour. In a format as open as Extended, I would feel downright naked going into Amsterdam. I am too reliant on Magic Online for playtesting, and we’ve effectively eliminated constructed Magic from my nearby player base (unintentionally). Our local group pretty much just drafts and plays EDH, which is one of the reasons why I play so much Magic Online. You could argue that the chicken came before the egg, but I’m actually not sure how this trend began. They just don’t have a desire to play real tournaments like I do, and are content in their smaller pool, which is fine for them, but the competitive spirit in me yearns for something grander.
I think that, at this point, I need to begin anew, remembering what once gave me inspiration, as well as what once helped me grow as a player. If I continue on this path of endlessly beating my head against the same wall as everyone else, I don’t think I’ll bust through. I think I might turn my attention away from Standard for a little while and focus on other formats. Legacy, while a touchy subject, is a lot more open than it was just a few weeks ago since the banning of Mystical Tutor, as well as the unbanning of Grim Monolith and Illusionary Mask (the former more so than the latter). I was under the impression that Legacy was heavily warped towards decks that played Mystical Tutor, and the people who didn’t play with Mystical Tutor were probably just incorrect. However, with results immediately after the banning, but before it went into effect, showing that people could easily maneuver around these combo decks, I was inclined to look a bit further into the subject.
Please don’t groan. I know I’m not a Legacy expert, and I don’t claim to be. I’m not going to bash it and tell you it’s broken and unfun, because I would be lying. Legacy is a great format that I love playing, as long as I can interact with my opponent. I believe that the banning of Mystical Tutor helps in this regard, but was not entirely necessary. This is no Rock-Scissors-Paper metagame, but there are definitely archetypes that just smash the crap out of others, which is definitely a good thing. However, before the banning of Mystical Tutor, I didn’t really believe that there were any archetypes that easily beat Reanimator or ANT without a lot of sideboard cards or warping your maindeck. These two decks were just incredibly strong, and attacked you on two entirely different levels. You could not play some dagger of a sideboard card that just hosed both of them, which made that a very big problem for “fair” decks trying to compete. Sideboard space is very restrictive, and often tournaments are won based on the optimal usage of these fifteen slots, which most people don’t even consider as important as their maindeck.
Tournament formats, in the traditional sense, consist of primarily one known combo deck, one known aggro deck, and one known control deck. These decks prey off each other, with one coming out on top when built perfectly, or by slightly altering their strategy to combat their bad matchup. In Legacy, this is much more difficult due to a larger card pool, and also due to the presence of such incredible defensive cards like Force of Will, Pact of Negation, Daze, Thoughtseize, and other forms of hand disruption. These cards were the reasons why it was so difficult for you to interact, because they could stop you cold with a single Thoughtseize before beginning the process of “going infinite” or Exhuming Iona. While some decks, such as Merfolk, could fight against these strategies fairly well, even though would succumb to their “good matchups” more than 35% of the time. Sometimes combo decks are just more powerful than the cards that “beat” them, and I believe that this was the case in Legacy, but most people chose to be oblivious.
I watched the finals of a StarCityGames.com Open Legacy event, where an ANT player cast Dark Ritual, then passed the turn. He still won, and beat a very stiff competitor. While I don’t believe this to be evidence in the lack of necessary playskill in the format, I do think that certain decks can be too powerful, giving the pilot too much breathing room for mistakes. I think Mystical Tutor was too powerful to exist in such a large format, and I’m glad that they’ve fixed it, even if the general consensus is that the banning of Mystical Tutor wasn’t entirely necessary. If anything, it will allow for more people to have fun, and open up room for new combos to emerge that weren’t quite on par with the speed and fluidity of ANT and Reanimator. While there are plenty of ways to kill your opponent during the early turns in Legacy, most of them have relatively easy solutions. Every deck can present some answer to most of the combos, but finding a good sideboard is key for a “fair” deck to compete with the combo decks. People that play Force of Will shall have a bit of an easier time than usual against combo, and can now devote more cards to beating the aggro decks, or niche strategies like Lands. While I like to consider the Lands deck as a “combo deck,” it doesn’t attack on the same level as other combo decks, i.e. winning as quickly as possible. Cards like Price of Progress should be cropping up more than usual as a means for aggressive decks to fight against this strategy, as it should become popular due to the reduced number of both ANT and Reanimator, which were generally considered bad matchups.
I’m very scared of Dredge. With Legacy in an upheaval, I’m afraid that everyone will suddenly decide to cut Leyline of the Void from their sideboard since Reanimator is no longer an issue. Additionally, Dredge has only become more powerful with ANT out of the picture, and that gives people yet another reason to play it. Dredge combats the format on a different wavelength than most people are used to, and is primed to put multiple people into the Top 8 at Columbus due to the way it preys on unprepared opponents. Expect everyone and their brother the be playing their pet deck now that Mystical Tutor has been put in time-out, and expect those people to lose to Dredge, since their 2-4 sideboard cards just won’t cut it. An experienced Dredge player can easily play around Leyline of the Void, Faerie Macabre, Tormod’s Crypt, and Ravenous Trap, simply by using Chain of Vapor or Cabal Therapy before going through the motions. The deck has always been incredibly powerful, and is especially busted in a format where it can protect itself with Force of Will. But enough about Legacy. I don’t want to step on too many toes or say too many “incorrect” or “idiotic” things. I’ll just say that I’ll probably be battling in Columbus, and hopefully I’ll put up a decent result to gain a little credibility with the Legacy audience. I do enjoy the format a lot, and look forward to playing more of it in the coming months.
With Standard PTQs coming to a close very soon, we don’t have much left to talk about in the way of Standard, or even Extended for that matter (unless you are attending the Pro Tour). The Extended PTQ format will not begin until after Thanksgiving, and Scars of Mirrodin will already by legal by that time. Unfortunately, that leaves us with a very large gap of Constructed Magic to talk about. With the PTQ season for Extended lacking both Time Spiral Block and 10th Edition, we will be lost in an upheaval during the early stages of that format. However, that should not deter you from playing. In fact, it should inspire you to build something fun and original! That particular time period will be great for those of us who enjoy building decks and winning with new ideas, but it will also be a great experiment to see what the masses come up with while lacking the guidance of the professional population. I’m looking forward to it, and I hope you are too.
If you are qualified for Amsterdam, then I’m a little jealous. I’ve been trying very hard to qualify this season, and came very close a few times, but have fallen just short on both the Grand Prix (losing in the last round playing for Top 16), and PTQ levels. With so many close calls, I feel like I deserve to be there. But, what right do I have to be there when so many people just like me fall short. Why am I special? The answer is that I’m not special. I’m just like everyone else, grinding and trying to get up on the train, and still looking for my big break. My moderate amount of small-tournament success means nothing compared to a Pro Tour Top 8. While I feel like I can compete with the greats, and beat them on occasion, I don’t beat everyone else as consistently as they do. I’m not on their level, and I know that. I need to work harder, and that hard work starts with the community. If I don’t help them grow, I can’t grow myself, and that is a huge problem. If I can get people around me to get the fire, to travel long distances to play in these tournaments, then it will be a great start. Nationals was my breakout event last year, and hopefully I’ll be able to put up a decent finish this year as well. I know I’m not a great player, and I have a lot to work on, but I can honestly say that few people put more hours into actually playing Magic as I do, which makes me feel good about where I’m at. There is something keeping me just shy of winning these tournaments, and I’m going to figure out what that is, and just destroy everyone in my path once I do.
As for Standard, I hate speculating on newer formats because I’m probably wrong (like most people). I don’t go crazy about certain cards unless they are just obviously ridiculous (Maelstrom Pulse is a great example), and I try to hold judgment until results start pouring in. I didn’t know that Sovereigns of Lost Alara would be a good card eventually, and I disregarded it when it first came out, just like most of you. Now, with such a powerful Aura being provided courtesy of the Eldrazi, Sovereigns of Lost Alara has become a powerhouse card. There are plenty of situations in Magic history where a particular card did not become powerful until a future set, or even another block, had been released. Phylactery Lich is a great example of a card that could become ridiculous. My gut says that, unless they print a lot of decent, indestructible artifacts, then he will probably not be good enough. The two-for-one blowout potential is just too hard to come back from, and especially so when you consider that, when Scars of Mirrodin is released, the Borderposts will rotate out of Standard. With that said, he may become a great card for Extended, which would be awesome. Phrexian Negator is one of my all-time favorite cards, and the new Lich seems poised to step into his shoes, albeit with a much more awkward casting cost.
Primeval Titan has been getting a lot of hype lately, and I’m sure it is deserved. However, the results from PTQs coming up will ultimately be the deciding factor in whether or not he retains his enormous price tag. While I don’t think he’s necessarily format-defining, he could easily help develop tons of new archetypes, or revitalize older ones like Valakut Ramp. I’m not the hugest fan of the mana-ramp mentality in a format containing Mana Leak, but a few spells ramping you into a ton of mana could easily blank their counterspells. Unfortunately, cards like Flashfreeze still exist and are heavily played due to the presence of Jund, which could mean that ramp, as an archetype, will fall just short due to the prevalence of Blue decks. However, with enough tuning and sideboard cards, anything is possible. Like I said, I hate speculating.
Cultivate is another card, like Primeval Titan, that I think will revitalize Ramp as an archetype. With Valakut being a real card again, this card will make sure you hit your Mountains, and push your forward to get your double Green for Primeval Titan. With Oracle of Mul Daya in play, Cultivate becomes even more absurd, acting as a great shuffler, and providing you with an additional land to play when you hit a glut of spells. Cultivate also offers you a way of spending a single card to find multiple colors of mana to cast your “splash” spells. Knight of the Reliquary will probably make an insane addition to anyone casting Destructive Force, since he survives it easily and provides you with a real threat once your opponent has lost all of their creatures. Your only real problem is finding ways to deal with opposing Knights of the Reliquary, and I don’t think that casting a Path to Exile early on is what you want to be doing. Destructive Force takes care of most creatures in the format, including Baneslayer Angel, and just punishes people for tapping out. That card is pretty unreal, and I can’t believe more people aren’t talking about it. Unfortunately for most of us, Pros are focusing on Extended for Amsterdam, which should leave a bit of breathing room during the end of this PTQ season for people who want to innovate on their own. The PTQ season will likely be over by the time M11 is up and ready for Magic Online, which is both a great thing, but also pretty horrific for those of us with awesome ideas for a new Standard environment and with very little ways to test them.
I’ve been working on a Primeval Titan deck lately, but have not had enough people around interested enough to test it out, but here is my first stab at a Naya Force deck, built around Destructive Force, Knight of the Reliquary, Primeval Titan, and Planeswalkers.
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (16)
Spells (26)
- 4 Forest
- 4 Plains
- 3 Mountain
- 3 Rampant Growth
- 3 Oblivion Ring
- 2 Journey to Nowhere
- 4 Cultivate
- 3 Destructive Force
Sideboard
The mana might be a little off, but the reasoning behind most of the lands is pretty obvious. The fetches are there to pump Knight early on, so that he doesn’t just die to a Lightning Bolt. The Evolving Wilds play nicely with the Core Set Duals, but I didn’t want to run too many of them. The problem with running too many of the Core Set Duals along with Manlands is that you get too many of them entering the battlefield tapped. This can lead to cumbersome draws, and leave you dead before you even get your feet off the ground. And now, a bit of a primer.
Your early defense against a rush of creatures involves Wall of Omens, Journey to Nowhere, Oblivion Ring, and Knight of the Reliquary. These cards will help buy you enough time to ramp into a solid Planeswalker, and eventually a Destructive Force to take control of the board. Generally speaking, you should have at least one major threat still in play after a Destructive Force, giving you the ability to kill an opposing Planeswalker, or just kill your opponent in a few swings. All of your “threats” are great post-Destructive Force, and Wall of Omens is the only creature that doesn’t survive it outright. Knight of the Reliquary can just end games on his own, which is nice, but he usually needs a little help from friends like Primeval Titan and Gideon Jura. Garruk Wildspeaker is another awesome addition to the deck, giving you the dual abilities to ramp, as well as provide threats after a board-sweeping effect.
Oblivion Ring and Journey to Nowhere are your early spot removal spells, and it should be pretty obvious why Journey was chosen over Path to Exile. The last thing you want is for your opponent to have more than one land in play after a Destructive Force, so your goal should not be to give them a land, even at the cost of killing their creature. Journey and Oblivion Ring are great ways to solve this problem without giving them that clutch land. While both can look awkward against an active Knight of the Reliquary, that is a gamble you will just have to accept. There is a reason why Knight of the Reliquary is one of the best creatures in Magic, and not just Standard. I have tested Lightning Bolt in these spots, but it is just awful against Jund, and leaves you without a viable way to deal with Sprouting Thrinax or opposing Primeval Titans. I also considered Earthquake, but it often hurt you much more than it helped you, and becomes a dead card very quickly in most aggressive matchups.
Rampant Growth versus Explore:
The mana requirements can get a bit drastic in this deck, since you are sporting GG, RR, and WW quite a bit. Rampant Growth helps you fix this problem, and is always guaranteed to accelerate you, while you can easily get manascrewed with Explore. I cut the fourth Rampant Growth for a 27th land, and I think that is fine considering you are also playing Cultivate. Cultivate is the “engine” fueling this deck, but I use that term loosely. Unlike in times past with Kodama’s Reach, Cultivate does not define the archetype. It just fuels it very well, and gives you the most precious resource that a Destructive Force deck needs: Land. While your opponent is floundering on 4 lands, you’ll be building up to 7-10, looking to end the game with one powerful spell, or a combination of Planeswalkers and solid threats. Planeswalker-based decks used to be pretty bad in Standard due to the presence of the Winged Menace that was Faeries, but those days are long since gone, even if Mana Leak has returned to try and ruin the party. Mana Leak is a small tempo boost, and nothing more. It doesn’t draw a card. It doesn’t even counter a spell every time. What it does do is present you with a choice: play into it or play around it. Every time your opponent plays an Island, your first instinct is to begin to play around Mana Leak, and that is very good for the opponent. The threat of Mana Leak is almost more powerful than the spell itself, since often it will do the job of stalling the opponent even if it isn’t in your hand! Yes, Mana Leak is a game changer. The problem most people have is that they should just play into it.
Yes. I’m saying you should cast your spells into Mana Leak. What’s the worst that could happen? If you have one spell you desperately need to resolve in order to win the game, and aren’t under any restrictive clock or pressure, then maybe it can wait. But there is no reason to hold back every spell in your hand for fear of them being countered. That is a very bad mentality to have, yet one I see in almost every format with reliable counterspells. Holding back your best spells and baiting counters with less-important spells will be the real skill-tester, but you should never sit back on your hand full of gas like Planeswalkers and Primeval Titans just because you’re afraid of a little Blue instant. Man up and throw them onto the table. If they have it, so be it. Sometimes they won’t, and they’ll be dead.
As far as sideboarding is concerned, I haven’t come up with a set-in-stone method, but I do know what cards are for what matchups, and they should be fairly self-explanatory, but here you go:
Ruinblaster comes in against any slow deck. It stalls them out long enough to get your bigger spells online, and if they use a counterspell on him then you are very happy.
Celestial Purge is for Jund, Grixis, and Mono Red, but can be okay against fringe strategies like Vampires.
Pyroclasm is for Mythic and token-based decks, both of which are pretty horrific matchups most of the time.
Obstinate Baloth is for Mono Red and Jund, both of which should become much easier after sideboarding.
Ajani Vengeant is for control decks and Mono Red. A four-mana Lightning Helix might not be great, but it is probably better than Destructive Force or Oblivion Ring against them.
While this list is definitely a work in progress, I figured I’d give it a shot, seeing as most people haven’t yet. If you feel comfortable enough battling with this in a PTQ coming up, let me know how you do! I’ll probably be sporting something similar to this in a PTQ this weekend, and I’ll be sure to post the results. Now go forth and blow up some lands! It’ll feel good. I promise.
Thanks for reading.
Todd
strong sad on MTGO