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Standard. The environment that defines men, crowns kings, and humbles scrub and pro alike. Although the new expansion is brimming with possibilities, I would like to take some time to talk to you about the best deck in Standard, one that far too few people are playing.
Adrian Sullivan won his State Champs a few months ago with a deck idea well before its time. In an environment dominated by Aggro-Control and straight Aggro matches, he used a combination of resource denial and acceleration to establish complete board control, most frequently through the excellent Wildfire.
Let's look at his list for a moment.
| Eminent Domain A Standard deck, by Adrian Sullivan 1st place at a States/Champs tournament in Wisconsin, United States on 2005-10-23 | ||
Artifacts 4 Dimir Signet 4 Icy Manipulator 3 Spectral Searchlight Enchantments 4 Annex 4 Dream Leash Instants 4 Remand 4 Shock Legendary Creatures 3 Keiga, the Tide Star 3 Kokusho, the Evening Star |
Sorceries 4 Wildfire Basic Lands 1 Island 2 Mountain Lands 4 Dimir Aqueduct 4 Shivan Reef 4 Tendo Ice Bridge Legendary Lands 2 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 2 Miren, the Moaning Well 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds 1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse | 3 Soratami Savant 3 Execute 2 Overwhelming Intellect 3 Shadow of Doubt 4 Pyroclasm |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
It may look strange, but one of the fundamental concepts of this deck is the interaction of tempo limiting cards — Icy Manipulator, Remand — with cards that generate tempo — Annex. Traditional resource denial is a wonderful application, but it seems so wasteful; wouldn't those lands look better on your side of the table?
The win conditions are rather straightforward. Three Kokusho, the Evening Star. Three Keiga, the Tide Star. Oh yeah... and three Spectral Searchlight.
Wait a second... what?
That's right: artifact burn rears its ugly head, in the form of abusive donation of excessive mana. Although frowned upon, and downright impractical in many situations, the possibility exists to get around tricks such as Worship, or even to ping a Control player down to zero life, inch by inch.
So what's the deal? Shortly after States, I decided to give this deck a trial run. It looked fun, and the U/B concoction I was working with was going nowhere. I began assembling the deck... until I reached a serious issue. My copies of Kokusho were in a friend's build of the Greater Good Combo deck, and he was busy playing out of state!
What's an intrepid (and occasionally somewhat brilliant) deck-builder to do? There are Friday Night Magic tournaments to win!
The answer was simple — drop the Black.
The Bureau Of Land Management
| The Bureau of Land Management Featured by Josh Ulmer on 2006-02-05 (Standard) | ||
Artifacts 4 Fellwar Stone Creatures 1 Mahamoti Djinn 1 Shard Phoenix Enchantments 4 Annex 2 Confiscate 4 Copy Enchantment 3 Dream Leash Instants 4 Boomerang |
Legendary Creatures 1 Keiga, the Tide Star Sorceries 4 Compulsive Research 4 Stone Rain 4 Wildfire Basic Lands 10 Island 6 Mountain Lands 4 Shivan Reef Legendary Lands 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 1 Miren, the Moaning Well 1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep | 3 Defense Grid 2 Pithing Needle 1 Shard Phoenix 3 Blood Moon 3 Shadow of Doubt 3 Pyroclasm |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
So what? What does stripping win conditions, losing a color, and removing the ever-present Cranial Extraction from the sideboard actually achieve?
1: It makes the deck faster... much, much faster.
A problem of the old version was that it was somewhat lacking in third turn options. If you nailed the second turn Signet, then you could go Annex crazy. Barring that, you could push out a Spectral Searchlight and say go.
So, what are you to do on turn 3 when you don't have acceleration?
Stone Rain. A single land doesn't matter that much in the grand scheme of things, but combine it with a second turn Boomerang — or a fourth turn Annex or Dream Leash — and suddenly your opponent has serious consistency issues. The early tempo of games is often defined by your land interactions (if you're winning) or the acceleration of Sakura-Tribe Elders and Kodama's Reaches (if you're losing). You aren't casting a single land destruction spell, you're chaining three or four “land effects” during the early turns of the game. This allows for silly things like turn 4 Keigas and turn 5 Wildfires. You won't lose many games when that happens.
Fellwar Stone is a godsend. Artifact mana doesn't die to Wildfire, although it may be handicapped if you completely wipe your opponents board. The Stone enables a third turn Annex, one of the most tempo-advancing plays in the deck. Stone rain plus Farseek, and the land isn't necessarily tapped? Sweet. Of course, the Stone is more than happy to activate any off-color effects of stolen cards later in the game.
2: It allows for massively powerful permanent controlling effects.
Copy Enchantment is one of the most powerful, underused effects in Standard today. It enables degenerate, game-swinging turns. For example:
- Play Copy Enchantment. When it comes into play, choose Dream Leash. Attach the copy to a permanent of your choice, tapped or untapped.
- You have six mana available. Annex an untapped land, then copy the Annex. Taking two lands on the fifth turn, or sooner!
- The best by far? Steal a Kodama of the North Tree. Copy Enchantment ignores the untargetable clause.
3: Improves Resiliency and inevitability.
This deck is one of the most tempo oriented decks I have ever played. You are making moves that won't be felt for two or three turns, but you are setting up inevitability. You are cashing in partial card advantage in a series of one-for-one trades that mean more to you than they do to your opponent. Stealing a land isn't a one-for-one trade... it steals that land drop's tempo too.
The deck's biggest problem is an opponent using hard mana accelerants, like Kodama's Reach and Sakura-Tribe Elder. It's hard for early trades to impact the game if the opponent recovers rapidly — hence the Shadow of a Doubt in the sideboard.
Match-up Analysis (in order of popularity)
Ghazi Glare - 60% pre-board, 70% post-board.
This match is truly enjoyable. You simply wreck them. Glare of Subdual does little to nothing if they ever get it online. If you hit early disruption, they will frequently go for either the “Congregation at Dawn plus Yosei, the Morning Star” plan. Nothing ruins a Congregation like a Wildfire. Betcha I know what cards are on top, and they aren't lands...
After sideboarding, things improve. Pyroclasm, Shard Phoenix, and Blood Moon combine to turn the match from a fun one to a beating. Both this deck and Greater Good (below) suffer from similar problems — if you can manage the splash color until you sweep, and manage the Green after that, they are inconsistent and dysfunctional.
Sideboard Plan
In: 3 Blood Moon, 3 Pyroclasm, 1 Shard Phoenix.
Out: 4 Compulsive Research, 2 Dream Leash, 1 Mahamoti Djinn.
Greater Good - 60% pre-board, 65% post-board
There is an easy way to win this match-up — manage their Black mana. If you can starve them of Black in game 1, and bring in the Pithing Needles from the sideboard, you should have an easier time. This is not a difficult match-up, as all games against Forests come down to one thing — casting Wildfire early, and often. Winning is secondary to not losing, as this deck can simply win via combo if you don't hit their core. Copying the Greater Good and stealing their dragons is a great plan, but don't be surprised if you have to attack with a Shard Phoenix a few times. Sacking the Phoenix to a copied Greater Good can fetch you cards if your hand is too slow later in the game, just make sure you have some lands to pitch. Most Greater Good builds aren't as troubled by Blood Moon as the Glare decks.
Sideboard Plan
In: 3 Shadow of Doubt, 2 Pithing Needle.
Out: 4 Compulsive Research, 1 Dream Leash.
B/U/G Aggro/Control - 45% pre-board, 50-55% post-board. Not much in this one
I am somewhat forced to lump all my B/U/G testing in this category, as the decks are varied, but the basic idea is the same. Control decks are less susceptible to early mana disruption, but the fact remains that they eventually have to play a threat, and they are nowhere near likely to have enough hard counter to back it up. An early Hypnotic Specter is a constant issue, so be sure to bounce him. Take their threats, and win with them. The more Blue-heavy versions — indeed, any Blue-based control — come down to a coin-flip more often than not. You need the early Boomerang/Stone Rain/Annex to prevent them from setting up, enabling an early Wildfire. Also remember that Shard Phoenix is their nightmare card — they can't kill him completely.
Sideboard Plan: heavy countermagic
In: 3 Defense Grid, 2 Pithing Needle, 1 Shard Phoenix.
Out: 4 Compulsive Research, 1 Dream Leash, 1 Wildfire.
Sideboard Plan: heavy Black
In: 3 Pyroclasm, 2 Pithing needle, 1 Shard Phoenix.
Out: 4 Compulsive Research, 1 Dream Leash, 1 Wildfire.
R/W Aggro (Boros Deck) — 50% pre-board, 60% post-board.
These are getting rarer and rarer, but they are arguably your hardest match-up. It will come down to whether you can deal with their early threats. The most likely route is to steal their land and hope for an early Wildfire. If you resolve a Wildfire with more than five life remaining, you should win the game.
The sideboard helps this match up, and a number of my test group suggest playing the Pyroclasms in the maindeck. If your field is rife with R/W Aggro, then consider it. Pithing Needles are excellent against the ever-annoying Umezawa's Jitte, as their Jitte counters will protect creatures from Wildfire. Remember, you may need those Needles for Eight-and-a-Half Tails too.
Sideboard Plan
In: 3 Pyroclasms, 2 Pithing Needle, 1 Shard Phoenix.
Out: 3 Compulsive Research, 1 Dream Leash, 1 Copy Enchantment, 1 Annex
UPDATE - Guildpact!
Guildpact is here, and with it come some possible changes. Below, I outline some new cards that'll have an impact.
Izzet Signet
Almost a direct replacement for Fellwar Stone. We lose the ability to activate off color-costs on stolen cards, but this is outweighed by a faster Wildfire recovery time. Your opponent can miss their land drops without an issue. It was a minor annoyance before, but the fact that we can probably expect a wash of long game Control decks in the coming weeks, due to the inevitable popularity of the Gruul guild, means that the deck needs to tighten its belt.
Steam Vents
U/B dual land? Four for me, plzkthnx. Sidenote - put them in place of Mountains if you run with the Blood Moon plan.
Mimeofacture
I am betting that this is the card that allows this deck to keep pace with R/G. They have no answer for it, save untargetability, and the two creatures that have that — Giant Solifuge and Kodama of the North Tree — are easily handled. Definitely a consideration if R/G moves W/G to the bench.
Gigadrowse
I like this spell. It replaces Icy Manipulator, and can Mana Short an already mana-confined opponent. Not to mention it taps permanents for the deadly Dream Leash.
There are two cards in the set that offer interesting potential, but I feel won't pan out:
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
He's cool, but the four toughness (and four colored mana casting requirement) scare me. He depends entirely on how much removal the B/W decks end up running.
Invoke the Firemind
The closest common parallel in any domain deck is Tidings. This spell seems excellent on the surface, but I think it's really a “win more” card. If you have the mana to draw three or more cards, you should probably be doing something else. The burn is slow and inefficient.
The last (and biggest) impact Guildpact has on this deck is the environment itself. One of the biggest reasons I feel this deck (and variants thereof) have been so successful for the last few months is that they are a direct counter to most of the metagame. Every deck in the format, bar Mono-White Weenie and Mono-Red Burn, is trying too hard to do cool things. They're experimenting with four-color manabases, casting five spells a turn, powering up to multiple dragons, and so on. The only deck that really isn't doing this is GhaziGlare, and that deck stretches its manabase so hard a Blood Moon can simply snap it in two.
What happens at the end of this month? If I knew, I would be a better player. My hunch is that there will be a lot of Forests and Mountains flying around. Let's face it, the majority of the Magic community likes to play Aggro [that's not true where I live...- Craig] Those that don't will likely dive into Aggro countermeasures: the third turn Wrath of God that B/W Control will consistently put out. There will be some other form of U/R, likely either UrzaTron or Combo.
So what does it all mean?
1. The deck needs a higher concentration of threats. Three win conditions was cute, given that one of them was the Phoenix. However, there will soon be a lot of Remove From Game effects, so I think the deck needs more threats. Multiple Keigas and Skarrgan Firebird is a consideration, as is anything that can sit through a Wildfire or return from the grave. Even Giant Solifuge is a consideration. I am currently testing with eight win condition slots. The curve is killing me, but I think it's necessary.
2. Pyroclasm will have considerably less effect as people cool on GhaziGlare. A targeted removal spell is going to be important, and I think Mimeofacture fills the role. Most threats are legendary these days. The only thing it doesn't grab that kills its counterpart outright is Burning-Tree Shaman.
3. Guildpact will likely bring a faster environment. As the fundamental turn of each deck lowers, the early disruption plays become more significant. Mulligans become more important than ever, as you seek out the early tempo plays.
If nothing else, I hope that you consider this deck as part of a gauntlet. It is a strong choice, and I don't know many people that look forward to playing against it. Land destruction is never fun to face, but when it uses those lands to fuel even more nonsense, then the deck can pull some impressive finishes. It can play as everything from a straight control deck, reacting to your opponent in the mid-game, to a prison deck preventing them from doing anything in the late game.
Give it a try, and may you always have the "Boomerang into Stone Rain into Annex into Dream Leash" start that feels so very, very good.
Josh Ulmer
