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You Lika The Juice? A Tale Of Two Glissas

Friday, March 11 – Two formats. Two Glissas. The new and the old legendary Elves shine in both Standard and Commander, and Bennie has two new decks to show off for both!

By

GLISSA 2.0

I’ve been inspired by Ali Aintrazi and Michael Rooks and have decided to buckle down and stick with Glissa, the Traitor in Standard. For me, there’s no
greater joy in Magic than to do well in a tournament with a rogue deck that I’ve either cooked up on my own or have developed with a handful of
friends. The peaks of Magical happiness were winning Virginia States with Gaea’s Cradle-fueled Blair Witch Green (the precursor to Trinity Green),
making States Top 8 with the very first Dredge deck, and making the finals of States with G/W Midrange featuring Lotus Cobras and Knights of the
Reliquary before either had really taken off. The rush is a mix of deckbuilder’s pride with the buzz of playing something you know your opponents are
underprepared to beat. I get tingly even now just thinking about those glorious run-good days!

Of course, succeeding with a rogue creation requires hard work—the ability to see the potential that others might have missed and the dedication to
support the idea by finding the right cast of cards. However, even the most potent, tight list also needs the environment to be right—if your angle of
attack is a dog to the hot deck of the moment or suffers splash damage from popular metagame answers, you’re going to go down in flames.

I’ve recently noticed that my deck brewing over the past few years has been particularly ADD—I jump from idea to idea to idea, getting briefly excited
enough about something to cook up a decklist, tinker with it a day or two, and then dump it for the next idea. The problem of course is that some of
the ideas are good ones, deck kernels that should be hammered out and forged into a weapon worthy enough to take to battle. Ideas that just
might provide that elusive rogue buzz I constantly seek but so rarely find lately.

One example is Grand Architect. During the all-too brief run of The Johnny Fever Project last November, a couple of us cooked up decklists featuring
this interesting blue creature. My initial build featured Grand Architect alongside Enclave Cryptologist, Thrummingbird, and a slight proliferate
theme. StarCityGames.com Talent Search alum and Muse Vessel author Brandon Isleib took it a slightly different, more
tempo-oriented direction and had a bit more success with it than I did in some local tournaments, but I knew there was some potential power there.
Unfortunately for me, I set the deck aside for other things; eventually Mirrodin Besieged came out… and then Ali Aintrazi hit pay dirt with his version at the Washington
D.C. SCG Open, kicking ass and providing much needed spice to the mind-numbing wall of Caw-Blade, RUG Control, Boros, and Valakut snoozers.

The same tournament also provided Michael Rooks some well-deserved attention. Rooks is an incredibly gifted Magic player who plays locally and brews up
some potent rogue concoctions that often leave opponents smiling as they lose. His Furnace Celebration deck got a Deck Tech feature in
the StarCityGames.com coverage, and then his deck got some well-deserved love on MagicTheGathering.com’s
Daily Deck column; while his 82nd place was respectable in such a large tournament, it doesn’t reveal the fact that he scooped the last round to a
friend playing an easy matchup because he had slightly better tie-breakers and had a shot of placing into the money, so his actual record should’ve
been somewhere in the low 30s (and actually even better than that if not for a big play error that led to his second loss).

What’s awesome is that I’ve seen Rooks working on this deck for months now, and he’s turned it into a well-oiled machine—much better than his initial
sketches of the deck. The thing is he was convinced there was power to be harnessed in Furnace Celebration alongside the Spawn token cards from Rise of
the Eldrazi, and he kept shifting around the supporting cards until the deck became a crazy killer. It’s inspiring to see that dedication bear fruit,
and it’s humbling to realize my shortcomings in that regard.

I think Glissa has a lot of potential, and while my success with it so far has been limited, I think with a little more work I might have a contender
on my hands. For those interested in the previous incarnations of the deck, I first wrote about herhere and then again here. This is what I played at last week’s FNM:

Glissa BAMF
Bennie Smith
Test deck on 03-13-2011
Standard
Magic Arena

Creatures (26)

Lands (14)

Spells (20)

Sideboard

Magic Card Back


If you’ve been following the deck’s evolution, you’ll notice that I ditched the Ezuri’s Brigade, which I briefly thought was the “answer” I’d been
looking for in ramping up the deck’s power. Eventually, I came to my senses and realized — duh — you’re playing Fauna Shaman; your four-drop
should be Vengevine. I also decided at the top end of the artifact-bomb scale to go with Myr Battlesphere and Blightsteel Colossus over Spine of Ish
Sah, since Spine doesn’t really end games like those guys do. Plus, the beauty of BSC is if you draw him too early, you can ditch him to Fauna Shaman
to go get your Vengevine and then later Forgemaster for it if you get set up. I’m proud to say I got my first BSC victory this past weekend, totally
surprising my opponent by tinkering him into play.

I started off strong with 2-0 and then made some ridiculously stupid plays against a really good three-color planeswalker control deck to totally throw
the first game in the toilet. First, I cast Doom Blade end of turn on a freshly cast Frost Titan without two extra mana up when I could’ve waited until
my turn to do so. Ugh. Later, I blocked Gideon with Perilous Myr, targeted the two damage to my opponent, and redirected it to Gideon to knock off
loyalty counters. Turns out Gideon’s zero ability makes him immune to combat damage and damage to his loyalty, something I should’ve realized if I’d
spent a second thinking about it. Double ugh. He crushed me that game… game two was a nail-biter; I got some early Fauna Shaman/Vengevine action, but
Gideon came down to buy him time to claw out of the bind he was in, giving Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Celestial Colonnade time to kill me through the air
and make me realize I desperately needed air defense—1/1 Birds aren’t the only thing to worry about from the sky.

I won the next game and then ran into a Valakut buzz saw, crushing me in two quick and brutal bloodbaths. After sideboarding, he laughed as I took away
his Primeval Titans with Memoricide and ripped his Inferno Titan, tearing me apart with it.

Finishing the Swiss at 3-2, I went to my car, dropped off the Standard deck, and brought back my Commander decks. Then it was announced I squeaked into
the Top 4 on tiebreakers (wth?), so I ran back and nabbed my deck again. My semifinal match was against the same Valakut deck that crushed me before,
so I crossed my fingers and hoped for karma to smile on me. I get curb-stomped in game one in stereotypical Valakut fashion. Game two, karma seemed to
shine my way, as Eric mulled twice and hoped to draw out of color-screw but proceeded to stall out while I drew a relatively decent beatdown hand.

Then karma, the fickle b—, turned on me!

My opening hand on the play was two Forests and five spells that all cost three mana or more. I figured the only chance I had against Valakut was to
have a fast start, so I mulled to six. This time, I had two of the three Swamps in my deck and four green spells I couldn’t cast, so I mulled to five.
This time, I had no lands, so I mulled to four. Tectonic Edge as my only land plus relatively expensive spells forced the mull to three. No lands and
no two-drops, mull to two. Ditto, mull to one…

Acidic Slime. Are you kidding me?

I mulled to zero just to dot the exclamation point and scooped Eric into the finals. While it felt awful going through that epic mulligan disaster, I
have to admit it’s one of those badbeat milestones I can always pull out and share when appropriate. It’s a good storytelling nugget to have on hand.

As I opened my three prize packs, I told karma she owed me a foil Tezzeret for that ridiculous display of nastiness, but instead she shipped me a Green
Sun’s Zenith, which softened the blow a little bit. Since it’s my fifth Zenith, I tucked it into my Commander stock of cards, right next to
Glissa Sunseeker and her stack of potential 99.

By the end of the weekend, I had my new Commander deck…

GLISSA 1.0

Dear Future Commander Opponents:

You can blame Aaron Forsythe.

Love,

Bennie

Back in January, he threw this mondo combo out on his Twitter feed—

@mtgaaron
: Spine of Ish Sah is sweet in my Glissa Sunseeker Commander deck: Float 7 mana, destroy the Spine w/Glissa, recast the Spine.

Now, being awfully fond of the color green in Magic, I’ve made quite a few different mono-green Commander decks in my time—Azusa, Lost but Seeking…
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa… Reki, the History of Kamigawa, just to name a few. Glissa 1.0 is in my “Commander box” of legends, but I’d never really
considered her until Aaron dropped that spark into my creative juices.

WHOOSH
!!

As is easy to tell, I love me some Spine of Ish Sah, which is certainly a midrange-lover’s dream card. I’m not sure if it’s ever going to be any good
in Standard, but it’s certainly awesome enough in Commander that I’ve ordered five extra copies to go in various decks. However, nowhere is it going to
shine nearly as well as alongside Glissa Sunseeker.

Now, to occupy Glissa’s time before I can draw and/or cast Spine of Ish Sah, I figure why not add in some ways to make her ability more than just a way
to destroy random artifacts.

Ashnod’s Transmogrant, Liquimetal Coating, Myr Landshaper—come on down! The best synergy of course is Liquimetal Coating, which can make any
problematic permanent an artifact that can be knocked down with Glissa. Transmogrant is a one-shot way to deal with a creature, while Myr Landshaper
helps Glissa turn into a Strip Mine machine.

To try and get a little extra mileage from Transmogrant, I added Salvaging Station to the mix. To get a little extra mileage from Salvaging Station, I
added Urza’s Bauble and Mishra’s Bauble.

Of course, being able to use Glissa to nail a permanent once per turn is decent but not spectacular, so I figured I’d add some more juice—Seedborn
Muse, you sick and broken card, come on down! Umbra Mantle, come on down! Thornbite Staff, you turn any mass creature die-off into an artifact-smashing
Mardi Gras party.

One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that Glissa’s ability is tied to mana in your mana pool, so you need some mana management in your deck.
Omnath, Locus of Mana seems like a decent way to keep mana floating and open between turns. Manlands such as Mutavault and Mishra’s Factory are nice
mana sinks to dial down the mana in your pool, as is Voltaic Key.

What was interesting as I built this deck was realizing that the cards I had to synergize with my commander’s ability really didn’t take up too much
space, leaving me a lot of room for other strategies and good cards. Since green doesn’t offer up much in the way of tutoring for key artifacts, I
figure the best bet would be to focus on some card-drawing, and nothing draws cards like Greater Good! Since I had the room, I decided to add some good
cards that could just be totally bonkers with Greater Good—Rancor, Skullclamp, Berserk, Empyrial Plate, Nim Deathmantle (!), Deathrender (!!),
Weatherseed Treefolk, Psychosis Crawler, Multani, Maro-Sorcerer; Masumaro, First to Live; and Mossbridge Troll.

Psychosis Crawler (brains!) is just sick with Greater Good out there, and I have a foil one too, which prompted me to make sure I included my DCI foil
Mind Stone (BRAINS!) with its cool brain art in the hopes to get both artifacts out on the board at once just for style points—the Mind Stone can even
feed the Crawler and ping my opponents.

I rounded the deck out with green good stuff—Survival of the Fittest; Genesis; Eternal Witness; Yavimaya Elder; Citanul Hierophants; Chameleon
Colossus; Brooding Saurian; Kamahl, Fist of Krosa; Lurking Predators; Tornado Elemental; Krosan Tusker; Praetor’s Counsel; Woodfall Primus; and
Terastodon. Recently, I decided to try running three Panoramas in monocolor decks—since they tap for mana on their own, you can keep them in play until
you need to shuffle your deck after using Sylvan Library, Sensei’s Divining Top, or Scroll Rack.

It all seemed to come together perfectly, high-powered but looking like tons of fun and capable of fun and memorable haymaker plays:

1 Glissa Sunseeker

1 Diamond Valley

1 Urza’s Bauble

1 Mishra’s Bauble

1 Sol Ring

1 Sensei’s Divining Top

1 Voltaic Key

1 Crop Rotation

1 Green Sun’s Zenith

1 Skullclamp

1 Ashnod’s Transmogrant

1 Ivory Tower

1 Berserk

1 Rancor

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Empyrial Plate

1 Sakura-Tribe Elder

1 Survival of the Fittest

1 Scroll Rack

1 Mind Stone

1 Liquimetal Coating

1 Sylvan Library

1 Malachite Talisman

1 Thornbite Staff

1 Nim Deathmantle

1 Myr Retriever

1 Omnath, Locus of Mana

1 Yavimaya Elder

1 Crystal Ball

1 Worn Powerstone

1 Myr Landshaper

1 Sylvok Replica

1 Krosan Grip

1 Eternal Witness

1 Umbra Mantle

1 Ondu Giant

1 Citanul Hierophants

1 Power Matrix

1 Chameleon Colossus

1 Deathrender

1 Solemn Simulacrum

1 Greater Good

1 Brooding Saurian

1 Weatherseed Treefolk

1 Cauldron of Souls

1 Seedborn Muse

1 Genesis

1 Memory Jar

1 Venser’s Journal

1 Psychosis Crawler (shiny foil brain)

1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer

1 Masumaro, First to Live

1 Salvaging Station

1 Lurking Predators

1 Paleoloth

1 Dreamstone Hedron

1 Mossbridge Troll

1 Tornado Elemental

1 Krosan Tusker

1 Spine of Ish Sah

1 Praetor’s Counsel

1 Woodfall Primus

1 Terastodon

1 Thawing Glaciers

1 Jund Panorama

1 Bant Panorama

1 Naya Panorama

1 Mosswort Bridge

1 Treetop Village

1 Mutavault

1 Mishra’s Factory

1 Mystifying Maze

1 Deserted Temple

1 Winding Canyons

1 Blinkmoth Well

1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Strip Mine

1 Gaea’s Cradle

1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers

20 Snow-Covered Forest

What do you think? Are there any other Glissa Sunseeker synergies I’m missing for a mono-green deck?

Random Amusements

  • Earlier this week, I got a tweet from a Magic player who was lamenting the fact that his special Grand Prix Nashville deck box containing R/G
    Extended cards had been stolen at the StarCityGames.com Open event in New Jersey this past weekend. I assumed he had checked with the SCG staff’s lost
    and found to see if it had been turned in, and he said he had not. While the tales of thieves at large Magic events sadden and horrify us all, one
    thing that I’ve learned from working the events is that most Magic players are honest and kind—a lot of time, when they see someone’s Magic deck box or
    backpack left unattended, they’ll bring it up to the staff who can make sure the cards get returned to the owner. In this case, I sent a description of
    what the guy thought he’d lost forever to Nicholas Sabin, who soon confirmed that the staff from Edison had indeed recovered that property and would
    ship it back to the player. So if you’re the guy who turned those cards in, you’ve made someone’s day this week and, for the entire Magic
    community—thank you!

  • I’ve talked about wishing there were Magic character plushies before, but the general response has been that there are not enough female
    players out there to support them. On the Monday Night Magic podcast this week, Tristan joined me in saying that he, too, would buy them. Come on,
    plushies!

  • Favorite tweet this week: @MattGourley: This burrito is so good it’s being played by Colin Firth.

  • I was shocked to see what Candelabra of Tawnos is going for this week, after the success of the Time Spiral deck in the Legacy Open last
    weekend. I own one that I’ve used in my casual decks for years and years—I was playing during Antiquities, and it was one of those elusive cards I
    really wanted but was never able to acquire until several years after it was out of print. I’m sorely tempted to unload it while its red-hot, but
    sentimental reasons have been holding me back. What do you think?

That’s all for this week. Have a great weekend!

Take care,

Bennie

starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com

Make sure to follow my Twitter feed (@blairwitchgreen). I check it often so feel free to send me
feedback, ideas, and random thoughts on Magic and life.


New to Commander?


If you’re just curious about the format, building your first deck, or trying to take your Commander deck up a notch, here are some handy links:

My current Commander decks
(and links to decklists)

: