The Gold Standard

We’re probably looking at being a couple of weeks away from Alara Reborn previews starting on the mothership and other places, but I can’t get the idea of a set of all multicolor cards out of my head. I mean, it’s just nuts. I wonder if it will be too much for the average Magic player. I sure know it won’t be for me; man, I love them gold cards. And Wizards has done such a great job of pushing the power level of gold cards in recent sets that I am just jonesin’ to see what they’ve come up with for this set.

Yep, I can’t stop thinking of gold cards. And neither, evidently can some of the players in Extended PTQs:

Paruns Aggro An Extended deck, by Tommaso Campanini 6th place at a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament in Mantova, Italy on 2009-03-01 As reported at http://www.deckcheck.net/print.php?event=PTQ+Honolulu+2009+-+Mantova%2FItaly Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifact Creatures 4 Tidehollow Sculler Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Lightning Angel 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Rhox War Monk	Instants 4 Bant Charm 4 Countersquall 4 Electrolyze 4 Lightning Helix Legendary Creatures 4 Doran, the Siege Tower Basic Lands 1 Forest Lands 4 City of Brass 4 Gemstone Mine 3 Horizon Canopy 4 Pillar of the Paruns 4 Reflecting Pool	Sideboard: 3 Fracturing Gust 4 Hurkyl's Recall 4 Jund Charm 4 Gaddock Teeg
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Pillar of the Paruns suddenly went from a dollar rare to a four-dollar rare, and StarCityGames.com sold out of them. It’s the ideal sort of land to take advantage of all the amazing gold cards that Wizards has put out over the years.

In Standard, they’ve also been giving us some great lands to let us play as many of the gold cards as we want. Reflecting Pool is the land that gets the most press, as it forms the backbone of the popular Five-Color Control deck, but there are a number of other options for those of who want to play all the cool gold cards but want to stay away from $25 lands.

Ziggurat? Thanks But I’m Trying to Quit

In Standard, Ancient Ziggurat is at the core of the Dark Bant deck, which uses Doran, the Siege Tower and Rafiq of the Many to build a single giant double-striking attacker. It also runs a lot of the more powerful gold creatures, like Tidehollow Sculler and Rhox War Monk.

With dozens of potent gold creatures to choose from, where do you start? With Ancient Ziggurat and some of the other color-fixing lands, there’s no need to rely on a single Shard, so it looks like it’s time to see what’s the most powerful gold cards out there.

Lorwyn: All of Lorwyn’s gold cards are rare, but that doesn’t mean that aren’t some that are usable to us. Brion Stoutarm ($2.50) is a great big lifelinker who loves giving your little guys a new lease on life in the mid-game. Okay, maybe “lease on life” is a stretch for Brion, but you know what I mean. Wydwen, the Biting Gale ($1) has been seeing some sideboard play as a hard-to-remove creature.

Morningtide: There aren’t any. Bummer.

Shadowmoor: Thanks to the multicolor nature of the hybrid cards of Shadowmoor, there’s lots to choose from here. The problem is that the hybrid mechanic is designed to make creatures EASIER to play, not harder. Still, there are some great multicolor creatures available from Shadowmoor, like Kitchen Finks, Boggart Ram-Gang, and Lieges like Thistledown Liege ($2.50), and the multicolor lands will help us play all of them in the same deck.

Eventide: For an aggressive deck, I really like Crag Puca. He’s a beefy guy for his mana cost, and his ability is nothing fancy, but it’s exactly the sort of thing you’d want for this deck. It allows him to hit for 4 on offense while still being able to avoid the most commonly played mass removal in Volcanic Fallout.

Shards of Alara: Most of the big guns are in here. Rhox War Monk, Woolly Thoctar, Tower Gargoyle (who is criminally underused), Tidehollow Sculler. I also want to consider aggressive guys who will always “get in there” like Jhessian Infiltrator, or early drops like Rip-Clan Crasher.

Conflux: If you’re going all five colors, Fusion Elemental is worthy of consideration, although I like the guys with some evasion better. Hellkite Hatchling gives you another use for your early guys that have outlived their usefulness.

Four-Color Evasion Aggro Featured by Dave Meeson on 2009-04-05 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/17287_Tribal_Thriftiness_62_The_Gold_Standard.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifact Creatures 4 Tidehollow Sculler 4 Tower Gargoyle Creatures 4 Crag Puca 4 Jhessian Infiltrator 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Rhox War Monk	Instants 2 Bant Charm 4 Esper Charm 4 Path to Exile Legendary Creatures 3 Wydwen, the Biting Gale Basic Lands 1 Forest 5 Island 4 Plains 1 Swamp Lands 4 Ancient Ziggurat 4 Arcane Sanctum 4 Seaside Citadel	Stats: Average mana: 1.70 Average creature mana cost: 2.96 Average creature power: 2.70 Average creature toughness: 3.00 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 18.33% Lands: 20.00% Instants: 16.67% Creatures: 26.67% Legendary Creatures: 5.00% Artifact Creatures: 13.33%
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Rare Cost Summary:
Wydwen, the Biting Gale ($1.00 x 3 = $3.00)

I probably like Crag Puca too much, especially in a deck with no Red source other than Ancient Ziggurat, but I’m allowed my idiosyncrasies. You could replace him with something “Not Ready for Constructed Prime-Time” like Esper Cormorants or Sludge Strider.

Rares You Could Add, If You Had Them: Thistledown Liege ($2.50) pumps up everything in the deck at least a little bit, plus double-pumps your biggest threats in Tower Gargoyle and Rhox War Monk. Oversoul of Dusk ($4) has enough protection to effectively have evasion, plus avoids most non-Path-to-Exile removal.

There’s also the possibility of making a more Red-centered version that flushes out the spells with burn, to give the deck a little end-game reach.

Four-Color Beef Aggro Featured by Dave Meeson on 2009-04-05 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/17287_Tribal_Thriftiness_62_The_Gold_Standard.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 3 Bull Cerodon 4 Crag Puca 3 Hellkite Hatchling 4 Knotvine Mystic 4 Sprouting Thrinax 4 Woolly Thoctar Instants 4 Flame Javelin 4 Naya Charm	Legendary Creatures 3 Brion Stoutarm Sorceries 4 Blightning Basic Lands 2 Forest 4 Mountain 3 Plains 2 Swamp Lands 4 Ancient Ziggurat 4 Jungle Shrine 4 Savage Lands	Stats: Average mana: 2.30 Average creature mana cost: 3.60 Average creature power: 3.24 Average creature toughness: 3.40 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 18.33% Lands: 20.00% Creatures: 36.67% Legendary Creatures: 5.00% Instants: 13.33% Sorceries: 6.67%
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Rare Cost Summary:
Brion Stoutarm ($2.50 x 3 = $7.50)

I tried to maximize the number of cards that could use the Knotvine Mystic mana ramp; you could even use it to cast Flame Javelin if you really had to. Again, I probably like Crag Puca way too much here; Boggart Ram-Gang certainly fills the same slot.

Rares You Could Add, If You Had Them: This deck is just begging for Realm Razer ($2). It might need to add in a couple more mana creatures, but even Llanowar Elves would be enough. A Llanowar Elf, a Knotvine Mystic, and you can cast quite a few things still – one more land and you get most everything else.

All these gold cards, man, I would love fanning open hands of these decks and seeing all those gold cards. Hybrid cards are okay, I guess, but I love the look of the gold border, and these decks have ‘em in spades.

Braving the Elementals

Morningtide had another five-color land besides Reflecting Pool, and it saw a little bit of play, but recently Primal Beyond has fallen out of favor. I imagine that Five-Color Elementals has fallen out of favor, too. There aren’t a lot of gold Elementals, which is kind of a downer, but there are plenty of hybrid ones!

Elementals Featured by Dave Meeson on 2009-04-05 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/17287_Tribal_Thriftiness_62_The_Gold_Standard.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Ashenmoor Gouger 4 Cultbrand Cinder 4 Fusion Elemental 4 Kulrath Knight 4 Mulldrifter 3 Soul Snuffers 4 Spitemare Legendary Creatures 2 Horde of Notions	Tribal Instants 3 Crib Swap 4 Nameless Inversion Basic Lands 2 Island 5 Mountain 3 Swamp Lands 4 Ancient Ziggurat 3 Crumbling Necropolis 4 Primal Beyond 3 Rupture Spire 4 Vivid Crag	Stats: Average mana: 2.30 Average creature mana cost: 4.48 Average creature power: 3.83 Average creature toughness: 3.83 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 15.63% Lands: 28.13% Creatures: 42.19% Legendary Creatures: 3.13% Tribal Instants: 10.94%
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Rare Cost Summary:
Horde of Notions ($1.00 x 2 = $2.00)

I ended up with a little -1/-1 counter subtheme, with Soul Snuffers and Cultbrand Cinder handing them out, and Kulrath Knight taking advantage of them. It turns out to be a tidy little BR aggro number, with Mulldrifters to refuel and Horde of Notions to use your graveyard as a resource in the midgame.

Rares You Could Add, If You Had Them: Fulminator Mage probably has a place here, at least in the sideboard, for the Five-Color Control matchup.

The Gold Standard in Control

(Or, the Gold Control in Standard.)

The other facet of the Pillar of the Paruns deck is that it gets to play all the great gold instants from the last five years. There are a number of good control cards available now to the player who’s willing to spread out their colors for them; the existence of the Five-Color Control deck at all is testament to that. With all the Charms and the great gold cards at our disposal, all that’s missing is a good five-color land to complement the set.

Unfortunately, we don’t have anything Pillar-like in today’s Standard.

Gold Control Featured by Dave Meeson on 2009-04-05 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/17287_Tribal_Thriftiness_62_The_Gold_Standard.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifact Creatures 4 Tower Gargoyle Instants 4 Agony Warp 4 Countersquall 4 Esper Charm 3 Hindering Light 4 Jund Charm 4 Punish Ignorance 4 Unmake	Legendary Creatures 1 Oona, Queen of the Fae Sorceries 4 Firespout Basic Lands 5 Island 2 Swamp Lands 4 Arcane Sanctum 4 Rupture Spire 3 Savage Lands 2 Shimmering Grotto 4 Vivid Creek	Stats: Average mana: 1.80 Average creature mana cost: 4.40 Average creature power: 4.20 Average creature toughness: 4.20 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 11.67% Lands: 28.33% Instants: 45.00% Artifact Creatures: 6.67% Sorceries: 6.67% Legendary Creatures: 1.67%
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Rare Cost Summary:
Punish Ignorance ($1.25 x 4 = $5.00)
Oona, Queen of the Fae ($4.00 x 1 = $4.00)

Rupture Spire and Shimmering Grotto. Not exactly what you’d choose if you had the entire Magic database at your disposal, huh? I mean, even City of Brass would be better here. But they’ll do for now, and will help cast the gold cards that we’ve got. It’s got enough mass removal to hold off the weenie hordes, and countermagic to protect your win conditions.

Rares You Could Add, If You Had Them: Obviously Reflecting Pool is the rare of choice for this deck, as it would be invaluable in casting all those gold spells. Even Exotic Orchard ($5) might be beneficial in terms of casting all your spells.

Next Week

As you can tell, I’m really ready for all the gold cards in Alara Reborn. We’re already starting to get a glimpse of the new cards, and no doubt a lot of discussion will be had about the merits of Spellbreaker Behemoth, the 5/5 uncounterable for four mana, and what his place is in both Standard and Block Constructed. Come back next week and let’s talk more gold cards!

Dave

dave dot massive at gmail and facebook