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M11 Standard
This past week we’ve gotten our first results from PTQs and Nationals events all over the world, and it’s time to dive in.
First up, news flash: Primeval Titan is ridiculous and probably the best card in M11 this side of Fauna Shaman. In Japan the PTQ was dominated by Primeval Titan, and in Pittsburgh the PTQ was dominated by Fauna Shaman. What do I think about this? I think it’s a great time to be a Green mage! Finally, after being crapped on for so many years, the Forest-tappers out there finally get their due. You want the best mythic in the set? You got it. You want the best rare in the set? You got it!
Let’s take a look at a decklist:
| Titan Ramp A Standard deck, by Tamada Ryouichi 1st place at a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament in Kanazawa, Japan on 2010-07-18 | ||
Creatures 4 Avenger of Zendikar 4 Primeval Titan 4 Siege-Gang Commander Enchantments 4 Khalni Heart Expedition Instants 4 Harrow |
Sorceries 4 Cultivate 4 Explore 4 Rampant Growth Basic Lands 6 Forest 12 Mountain Lands 3 Evolving Wilds 3 Terramorphic Expanse 4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle | 3 Cunning Sparkmage 4 Oracle of Mul Daya 2 Summoning Trap 2 Chandra Nalaar 4 Forked Bolt |
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This is the winning list, basically a “Cultivate Deck” that uses the new Kodama’s Reach with scary efficiency. This deck just ramps-ramps-ramps until it can drop Siege-Gangs, Primeval Titans and Avenger of Zendikar on your head and smush you with them. It features no less than twenty ramp spells, a full 1/3rd of the deck, with the rest of the deck either being fatties or lands. My kind of deck!
But how about that Destructive Force? The new Wildfire is perfect for the Titans, and the Japanese figured this out pretty quickly. He’s a decklist:
| Titan Force A Standard deck, by Kamiya Shogo 8th place at a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament in Kanazawa, Japan on 2010-07-18 | ||
Creatures 2 Frost Titan 2 Primeval Titan Instants 2 Into the Roil 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Mana Leak Planeswalkers 3 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
Sorceries 3 Cultivate 3 Destructive Force 3 Explore 2 Mind Spring 3 Rampant Growth Basic Lands 4 Forest 4 Island 3 Mountain Lands 2 Halimar Depths 2 Khalni Garden 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Raging Ravine 2 Scalding Tarn | 1 Mold Shambler 3 Obstinate Baloth 2 Pelakka Wurm 2 Mind Control 4 Negate 1 Destructive Force 2 Earthquake |
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This deck is three colors, once again powered by Cultivate and Rampant Growth, running not only Garruk Wildspeaker, who is perfect to drop a Turn 5 Titan by untapping two lands, but also the best planeswalker ever printed, Jace, the Mind Sculptor. But what is that I see? Primeval Titan and... Frost Titan? Wha’? The ‘worst’ Titan is rocking a Top 8 list? Nice!
The best part about Frost Titan is that against any other Titan, he wins. You got a Primeval Titan? Hope you enjoyed those two lands, because he won’t be trampling anywhere anytime soon. Got a Grave Titan? Sure you’ve got a couple Zombies, but that’s not enough power to stop a 6/6 blue monster.
Me? I’m loving this Titan Cycle. Ready to see where the Grave Titan ended up? In Esper Control! Check out the decklist:
| Esper Control A Standard deck, by Erkki Siira 2nd place at a Nationals tournament in Finland on 2010-07-11 | ||
Creatures 2 Baneslayer Angel 3 Grave Titan 3 Wall of Denial 4 Wall of Omens Instants 4 Esper Charm 4 Mana Leak 4 Path to Exile Planeswalkers 2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant 1 Gideon Jura 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
Sorceries 2 Duress 2 Inquisition of Kozilek Basic Lands 1 Island 3 Plains 3 Swamp Lands 3 Celestial Colonnade 4 Creeping Tar Pit 3 Drowned Catacomb 3 Glacial Fortress 4 Marsh Flats 2 Tectonic Edge | 1 Baneslayer Angel 2 Celestial Purge 3 Condemn 2 Negate 3 Day of Judgment 2 Duress 2 All Is Dust |
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Now this deck is really interesting. I really enjoy seeing the Inquisition of Kozilek here, as it deals with Putrid Leeches and Lotus Cobras and Knights of the Reliquary in ways that Duress cannot. It also is running Wall of Denial, a card that probably doesn’t see near as much play as it should. It blocks everything, including Titans, and lives to fight another day... or, well, block at least.
But let’s switch gears and unveil out an evolution of one of the most powerful decks in the past few months: Check out Fauna Conscription!
| Fauna Conscription A Standard deck, by Kurt Spless 2nd place at a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States on 2010-07-18 | ||
Creatures 2 Birds of Paradise 3 Fauna Shaman 4 Noble Hierarch 1 Ranger of Eos 1 Scute Mob 2 Sea Gate Oracle 3 Sovereigns of Lost Alara 4 Vengevine 4 Wall of Omens Enchantments 2 Oblivion Ring Instants 3 Path to Exile |
Planeswalkers 2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Tribal Enchantments 2 Eldrazi Conscription Basic Lands 5 Forest 2 Island 1 Plains Lands 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Seaside Citadel 1 Stirring Wildwood 3 Sunpetal Grove | 1 Qasali Pridemage 4 Wall of Denial 2 Bant Charm 2 Deprive 2 Negate 2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence 1 Gideon Jura 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
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Now this deck takes your shell of Lotus Cobra into Sovereigns of Lost Alara into Eldrazi Conscription and adds a little Survival of the Fittest on the stick to the mix. Fauna Shaman didn’t just show up here, of course. There’s Naya Shaman, where Fauna Shaman goes and finds Vengevines and Rangers of Eos with ease, and it also showed up in Next Level Bant, where you can run a Bant shell with a singleton Sovereigns of Lost Alara and Eldrazi Conscription to go fetch the mondo combo when you’re ready to bust it out.
But the real technology from this deck? Linvala, Keeper of Silence. This girl does exactly what you need her to do: Stop your opponents’ Fauna Shaman from wrecking you. Now what it doesn’t stop is Primeval Titan or Grave Titan from stomping you silly, but that’s why she’s a 1-of. When you need her, search her up with Fauna Shaman and bam, problem solved. For those looking for a Mythic with a lot of growth potential, both in playability and financially, Linvala is one I’d keep an eye on.
Last, we have to talk about the rogue craziness that is Dueling Megrims.
| Dueling Megrims A Standard deck, by Hannu Vallin 8th place at a Nationals tournament in Finland on 2010-07-11 | ||
Enchantments 4 Liliana's Caress 4 Megrim Instants 2 Burst Lightning 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Staggershock Sorceries 4 Blightning 4 Burning Inquiry 2 Diabolic Tutor 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 1 Mind Rot 4 Sign in Blood |
Basic Lands 7 Mountain 11 Swamp Lands 4 Dragonskull Summit 2 Lavaclaw Reaches | 4 Dragon's Claw 2 Anathemancer 1 Black Knight 3 Goblin Outlander 3 Blood Tithe 2 Earthquake |
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Talk about your fun decks - finally, kitchen tablers all over the world can see what it looks like when one of their favorite cards, Megrim, finally hits the big time! This incredibly budget-friendly deck wipes the floor with cards like Burning Inquiry and Liliana’s Caress, cards I can assure most of your fellow competitors will have to read. How does it work? Well, with two Megrims out, one Burning Inquiry loses them a whopping 12 life! And how sick is Blightning with two Megrims out? How’s that 11 damage treating you?
All I know is, we’ve just scraped the surface of M11 and its possibilities. Cards like Primeval Titan and Fauna Shaman are essentially giving us a Green Renaissance, but there are plenty of other cards, such as Mass Polymorph, that have yet to show us what they’re really capable of. So just like Chapin said last week, this is the time deckbuilders: Get to throwing together those 60-card concoctions and making the rest of the playerbase novel at your skill and grace in bashing face.
Rumors & Emblems of Pure Purple
There’s been a lot of talk these past few weeks about what Scars of Mirrodin may hold for us. Needless to say, it’s been quite a ride. Let’s cover these wacky rumors one at a time.
The first rumor is the most persistent, that is purple mana as begun by forum poster KainXavier over on MTGSalvation. Purple mana has been tried before, most notably during Time Spiral block development, and it was killed because... well, there’s a whole host of issues involving purple mana, most notably: what defines it? The functions cards serve in this game have been doled out time and time again, and to give a new color its own flavor would be very difficult.
I mean, what is Purple and where does it fit? Purple is the enemy of Green, as Green doesn’t really have ‘enemy colors.’ I mean, Black? Black is the color of death, and what’s more natural than the life and death cycle? How about Blue? So... the enemy of nature is... water? C’mon. But how about Technology? Now that’s an enemy to nature. Technology takes over nature and often poisons it... like Phyrexia is doing to Mirrodin... and what could fuel robots other than technology, a.k.a. purple mana?
Now this isn’t saying they’re adding a purple mana symbol to the back of the card. Rather, they’re going to use it just like Snow in Coldsnap. Coldsnap sucked, but that isn’t to say the Snow theme did. I thought the Snow theme worked really well actually, providing benefits for ‘going Snow’ just like you could have benefits for ‘going purple’ in Scars of Mirrodin. So that’s one wacky theory that’s really exciting.
But how about something concrete? A week or so ago Wizards of the Coast announced Emblems, a new way to show continuous effects so you don’t have to memorize them. The example given was from Elspeth, Knight-Errant, who gets a new printing this November in the Tezzeret versus Elspeth Duel Deck. Now instead of saying “For the rest of the game, artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands you control are indestructible." it will now say “You get an emblem with "Artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands you control are indestructible."
This is really exciting in that it opens even more design space to play with and appears that other cards will be using emblems from the get go. For example, Stigma Lasher may one day say that the defending player gets an emblem with “This player can’t gain life.”
To take it one step further, how about alternate win conditions using emblems? What if you got an emblem that said “If you have 50 or more life, you win the game”? Sure that’s Test of Endurance, but to have a state-based effect that is now on an object, particularly one that can’t be targeted or destroyed, means the game can suddenly swing in a different direction and you will need to attack players from a new angle. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Scars of Mirrodin can do with Emblems, as I have a feeling this change didn’t have to do so much with Elspeth or Stigma Lasher than it did in opening design space for future Magic sets.
Now I want to talk about the craziest rumor to make its way out of the ‘Mill, that of the upcoming Mirrodin Pure and New Phyrexia sets. First, the names are known due to Trademark filings by Wizards of the Coast, and after “Lights, Camera, Action” turned into Scars of Mirrodin “Camera, Action”, it only makes sense that Mirrodin Pure and New Phyrexia fit right in.
But that’s not the twist. Here’s the twist: These two sets will be in the same booster box come next Spring. Yes, 18 packs of one set, 18 packs of another. At the prerelease you will choose a ‘faction’ and get packs of either Mirrodin Pure or New Phyrexia to build your deck from, but not both. Now...this is pretty mindblowing, no question about it.
But the definition of ‘set’ is what’s in question here: Is Mirrodin Pure 145 cards and New Phyrexia 145 cards? What if the set is 70-ish cards of one and 70-ish cards of another? Then of course come the concerns that if one set is much better than the other that shop owners could get left with half a box that doesn’t sell while the other flies off the shelves.
My take? I think this is not only real, but brilliant. Concerns about making one set better than the other? Negligible. With enough brilliant minds at WotC putting this stuff together, I don’t expect the hits to stop just because of a little ‘combined set’ gimmick, and I trust that R&D will happily put chase Mythics and Rares in both sets instead of overloading one with amazing cards. It will help both sets sell better, as you only get ‘half’ a box with each purchase, and will make for a very interesting sealed format.
To conclude, we now have the final list of cards included in From the Vault: Relics. Let’s check em out:
Karn, Silver Golem
Ivory Tower
AEther Vial
Sword of Body and Mind
Mox Diamond
Isochron Scepter
Mirari
Nevinyrral's Disk
Jester's Cap
Sundering Titan
Zuran Orb
Masticore
Black Vise
Sol Ring
Memory Jar
Cards with new artwork? Ivory Tower, Aether Vial, Mox Diamond, Isochron Scepter, Nevinyrral’s Disk, Zuran Orb, Masticore, Black Vise, and Sol Ring
I guess it’s expected at this point, but I’ll just get it out there: This box set will be worth a lot more than the MSRP of $34.99. And by that I’m talking around at least a hundred bucks before it’s all over. Not counting the Scars of Mirrodin preview Sword of Body and Mind, which, if it takes after the existing Fire & Ice / Light & Shadow swords, will be a metagame powerhouse that players will want super-shiny for their cubes, EDH decks, and Standard decks come this fall.
The set will be released to your local game store on August 27th, so get in those preorders now if they’ll let you, and 400 copies will be distributed over 4 days at Gen Con August 5th - 8th to a lucky hundred people each day.
So that’s the world of rumors, releases, and upcoming sets for we Magic players. I hope you guys are enjoying all of this as much as I am. Until next time, Magic players, this is Evan Erwin. Tapping the cards... so you don’t have to!
Evan “misterorange” Erwin
