I have made my love for Bloodbraid Elf no secret, and have been posting Five-Color Bloodbraid decks that are my “real deck,” one that I am planning on playing in Grand Prix: Barcelona and Grand Prix: Seattle. I listed a traditional Cruel Blood build, I listed a Mannequin Blood build, and most recently I have arrived at a Leech Blood build that I shared in my most recent Next Level Magic preview last week.
Two years ago, Regionals was my first tournament “back,” and the day before I posted the actual deck (Korlash) that I was playing in the event. I ended up winning the Great Lakes Regional championship, and a number of other people qualified for their national championships with Korlash.
This year, I could not play in Regionals, but I shared my GP deck nevertheless. I do not yet know how many people qualified with it, but would like to share the experiences that local RIW player Ari Lax had with the Leech build of 5CB.
Creatures (17)
Lands (24)
Spells (19)
In 9 rounds of swiss, Ari lost only a single game, winning the Great Lakes Regional championship with the best record in swiss despite scooping someone into the Top 8. I suggested he add a Cruel Ultimatum in place of a Bituminous Blast, and we brewed an updated sideboard.
I told him to fix the mana, and his change was to switch the 2 Exotic Orchards for 2 Vivid Creeks. This seems like a lot of tapped lands to me, but it obviously worked for him. Another teammate of ours, Dan Overbeek, played the same deck, but with a third Twilight Mire instead of one of the Vivids. I am not sure which is better, but I suspect the extra untapped land is probably superior, though it might depend on the sideboard.
Not surprisingly, Ari was very happy with the deck, but says he will be making the following changes:
Maindeck: +1 Cruel Ultimatum, -1 Cloudthresher
Sideboard: +1 Cloudthresher, +2 Thought Hemorrhage, +2 Runed Halo (maybe… it depends on the mana), -1 Cruel Ultimatum, -2 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender, -2 Pithing Needle
His only game loss was dropping a game to the identical mirror while manascrewed.
Ari said that Cruel Ultimatum was amazing for him, and says that Cloudthresher maindeck just isn’t needed, as the end game of Cruel is too good. The sideboarded Thought Hemorrhage is primarily to name Anathemancer, and the Runed Halo doesn’t need to be Halo, it just needs to be something else to battle the 2/2 Red/Black powerhouse. The mirror was a common occurrence, and should only increase in regularity.
They said that the mirror was bizarre, with the primary points of interest being:
1) Figure out if and when you are the aggro deck. If you play a couple of creatures and your opponent doesn’t play Finks, you can quickly knock them down into Anathemancer range.
2) Are you playing for a Cruel Ultimatum stage three? If your opponent plays a Finks, you probably should. If you are playing for Cruel, you need to play accordingly. Don’t pump Putrid Leech on turn 3 most of the time, and save your Jund Charms to remove an Anathemancer, except under the most extreme of circumstances.
3) Stop playing lands when you have 6 in play, assuming you have an untapped land in your hand that will enable Cruel Ultimatum. When it is time to Unearth Anathemancer, or cast Cruel, or cast a three drop with Cryptic back-up, go for it and play the seventh. Obviously feel free to drop extra basics at will. It is vital to arrange it so that you can live through as much Anathemancer nonsense as possible.
In my experience, 5CB (as it is currently configured) has favorable match-ups against B/W, G/W, Faeries, Cruel Control, and is fine against Jund. I think it is soft against Jund Ramp, and I haven’t tested against Boat Brew, but it is probably an important match-up to test as it would appear the reports of Boat Brew’s demise have some how been exaggerated (even though the deck is SO last month).
I know a lot of people are surprised by the aggressive direction this deck is moving, but honestly, Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, Gerry Thompson, Luis Scott-Vargas, and everyone else claiming that this format is hyper-aggressive and only moving further in that direction… Well, they are right.
The issue is Anathemancer, and to a lesser degree Bloodbraid Elf and Zealous Persecution. The format is very hostile for Control, Faeries, and defense, and it is only going to grow more hostile. In addition, Tokens are very strong, primarily driven by Windbrisk Heights and Spectral Procession, but the format is hostile for them as well. Any decks without a ton of creatures should probably be playing a
lot of sweepers.
I know that Anathemancer hasn’t totally caught on with the PTQ scene yet, but it will. Right now, Anathemancer is totally amazing. Non-basics are everywhere, and Anathemancer is the right card for the job. In addition, just about the best way to fight Anathemancer is to use your own. RACE!
There are a lot of people who have tried cutting Cryptic Command from the 5CB decks I am suggesting, and turning it into a dedicated Jund deck, but I really think this is a big mistake. Cryptic Command is the best card in the deck, even better than Bloodbraid Elf, and not to play it is to lose a valuable aspect of your game. It is not just a Counterspell and an awesome card; it is an important part of your end game, tapping all creatures for a lethal alpha strike.
Anyway, I have said what I have to say about 5CB. Time will tell the tale, but I am telling you that you should be spending some time understanding this powerful new strategy. The format is not all about B/W Tokens… People just think it is. Last week, I was not sure if B/W was the best and if 5CB was just “more my style.” I can now tell you with confidence, B/W is not as good as 5CB, and as the format evolves, B/W will fall behind 5CB in terms of relevance.
Two U/W Reveillark decks made Top 8 of the event, the most notable aspect of which was their manabases. These Lark decks were specially configured to beat Anathemancer, and I think it is only the beginning of a trend towards more protection from the evil zombie wizard.
I am going to continue to work on this archetype this week; leading up to GP: Barcelona, and I strongly suggest you do too. Next, I want to talk about a couple other decks before we call it a day.
Creatures (19)
Lands (13)
Spells (28)
- 8 Forest
- 2 Mountain
- 4 Rampant Growth
- 3 Makeshift Mannequin
- 4 Gift of the Gargantuan
- 4 Banefire
- 3 Volcanic Fallout
Sideboard
Flores has been advocating a traditional Jund aggro deck, but this just seems loose. Why are we not playing Bloodbraid Elf? So we can use Banefire and Rampant Growth? Gift of the Gargantuan is our card draw engine? What is our end game? Dragons? What is our early game? Shriekmaw isn’t even good anymore.
This deck seems outdated and outmoded. It is the classic bad mid-range that is hopelessly doomed to mediocrity. I mean, just think about the hands you are going to be dealt with this beast. For instance, picture a hand of Banefire, Makeshift Mannequin, Broodmate Dragon, Volcanic Fallout, Fire-lit Thicket, Forest, Mountain. Do you keep that?
The problem is that you have a lot of bad cards against everyone. Just like when the Rock would get stuck drawing Cabal Therapy and Duress against aggro or Smother and Deed against control, this deck is doomed to game after game of drawing the removal against control or the slow cards against aggro, or even just a mixture of cards that don’t work well together.
This deck really is the textbook example of a lame mediocre mid-range deck that fails to win before the opponent reaches their end game (Stage 3), it fails to keep the opponent out of Stage 3, and it doesn’t even have a Stage 3 that trumps most game plans. Anyway, I am not going to say much more about this strategy other than to say that this deck is not terrible, but it is not good, and it will not be particularly exciting as the results come in. It is a straight-up demonstration of Flores’ love for “the fair.”
I know I’m hating on this strategy, which is beloved by many, but there is a point. I think that serious tournament players should keep this deck in their playtest gauntlet, as it is not terrible, but they shouldn’t play it, because this is the type of deck that is turbo Top 64 at the PT, but never Top 8. It’ll jump you straight to a quick 6-3 in your local PTQ.
I know this is a mid-range format, on the surface, but that is only because of the high proliferation of quality cards that primarily impact the mid-game. That doesn’t actually mean that the format or the cards make mid-range the right strategy, it just means that the mid-game is easy to positively impact in this format.
Black/White Tokens looks like a mid-range deck to some, but it’s not, not really. It is an aggressive deck that actually does have a reasonable end-game. It is fast, but it is much bigger than most fast decks and actually tries to produce a quick Stage 3, rather than gain card advantage or position in the mid-game, as mid-range decks do. It tries to bring about an endgame quickly, looking to create blow-out victories and powerful plays that trump the opponent’s game plan.
Just look at the differences between the Jund deck and the Black/White deck. The Jund deck is a steady steam of small incremental card advantage and slight positional gains. The B/W deck creates blow-outs with massive token generation pumped up or a quick Heights trigger. The mere fact that B/W is stronger than Jund is not the reason that it is not mid-range. I am just trying to draw focus to a primary difference between a deck that is hopelessly mired in Stage 2 (Jund) and a deck that just produces a quick Stage 3 (B/W) albeit one that is easily trumped should the opponent actually reach their Stage 3.
Let’s look at another deck that attempts to produce a very fast Stage 3. Remember, just because a deck is “the beatdown” doesn’t mean they are a traditional aggro deck. Another good example of a “beatdown” deck (the aggressor) that wins by producing a very fast Stage 3 rather than keep the opponent out of their Stage 3 is that of Combo Elves, as recently discussed by 2007 World Champion, Uri Peleg.
Creatures (33)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
- 1 Cloudthresher
- 4 Heritage Druid
- 4 Devoted Druid
- 4 Nettle Sentinel
- 4 Regal Force
- 4 Ranger of Eos
- 4 Elvish Visionary
- 2 Dauntless Escort
Lands (13)
Spells (14)
Strategically, this deck attempts to position itself in the metagame by quickly producing an endgame that trumps the mid-range tactics that are so very obvious in this format. The fatal flaw is that this deck suffers an unreal amount of splash damage from the fact that its combo engine revolves around a ton of small creatures sitting in play. Could this format be any more hostile for this?
What deck isn’t hostile for this deck? B/W has Zealous Persecution, and more and more often it’s opting to include Wrath of God, sometimes maindeck but always after sideboarding. Five-Color decks play a slew of sweepers. This deck is very vulnerable to permission, so any Cryptic Command deck is trouble. I guess you are well positioned in a field of Turbo-Fog, G/W Aggro, and Jund Ramp.
The deck is well built, and I can’t knock it beyond that it is poorly positioned in this format. The other complaint I would lodge, however, is that it seems absurd to play a deck so bent on playing one-drop Elves that has only ten ways to play Llanowar Elf on turn 1. It is not a total deal-breaker, as you can just “slow-play” the hand, but it does seem awkward.
This deck has serious trouble with 5CB, and I don’t see how you can overcome this and keep the core of the deck intact. If you are playing some random deck with no sweepers, test against this as it could give you trouble, but if you are reading this column, hopefully you are playing a deck with sweepers (whether they are Volcanic Fallouts, Zealous Persecutions, Jund Charms, Pyroclasms, Wrath of Gods, or whatever).
Let’s look at a deck that does not feature sweepers.
Creatures (30)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Shorecrasher Mimic
- 4 Jhessian Infiltrator
- 4 Rafiq of the Many
- 4 Rhox War Monk
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Dauntless Escort
Lands (20)
Spells (10)
There is no question this deck is cute, as who wouldn’t want to Shore-crash in conjunction with Rafiq and Finest Hour? Those are serious beats. That said, the deck is very much a one-trick pony. What does it do against a Path to Exile? Its vulnerability seems wretched, as I can’t even imagine how I would play this deck against a B/W Token deck with Zealous Persecution, Wrath, Path/Terror, and token generators.
This is another deck that is not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s another deck that seems to lack a theoretical reason to exist in the meta beyond “Noble Hierarch is a good card.” Isn’t this just a bad G/W Tokens deck?
I am bashing decks, so let’s talk about Faeries for a moment. I know that the Faeries’ last great hope, DJ Kastner, played Faeries in our Regionals after a last minute change of heart. It only took him one round to drop, realizing that, this time, the memo on Faeries’ demise is legit.
Why would you want to play Faeries in this field? “Hostile” doesn’t even begin to describe the format.
If you have your heart set on Faeries, I would try Bitterblossom, Mistbind Clique, Vendilion Clique, and Bloodbraid Elf (for serious). It is time for a change.
Jund Aggro? I have come to really appreciate that Jund Aggro is just a bad version of 5CB.
B/W? It is a good solid deck, but if everyone keeps gunning for it, it is not as good in this format as Faeries was before. Still, I don’t feel bad recommending this deck to anyone who wants to play a Windbrisk Heights deck.
U/W Reveillark? I was initially against this strategy, and I am still not in love with it, but I must admit I hate it a lot less than most of the decks people play. I am not sure how much future there is in it, but it does have reason to exist in this field, and I have come around a little. I don’t think it is Tier 1, but it is certainly not embarrassing.
G/W? Another reasonable choice for a player committed to Windbrisk Heights. All I can say here is make tokens, not Teeg. Little Kid G/W is pretty bad, but Tokens is reasonable. I don’t love it, but it is reasonable.
Turbo-Fog? Okay… What would make you think that this is the right time for Turbo-Fog? What card got printed that pushed it over the top? Font of Mythos? Seriously? To be fair, a Turbo-Fog player did qualify in our Regionals, so perhaps I need to keep an open mind, but I know that, historically, people have made Turbo-Fog decks many times, and it never stands up to even the most cursory of glances. It is best used as a metagame tactic when people don’t expect it. I vote no, but I know the type of people that would play Turbo-Fog are generally the type of people who don’t care what anyone else has to say on the matter.
Cruel Control? There are aspects of the Cruel Control deck that are still very appropriate for this format, but that is why we incorporate those elements into the maindeck or sideboard of 5CB. Bloodbraid Elf is that good, and Anathemancer changes the ballgame, forcing you to be more aggressive.
If you do want to play more traditional Cruel Control deck, I recommend a mixture of Kitchen Finks and Plumeveils. Also, make sure you sideboard a lot of Thought Hemorrhages for the mirror and pseudo-mirror. Getting Cryptic Command taken is really damaging. Then you lose Anathemancer and/or Cruel Ultimatum, and it becomes hard to win.
If you play traditional Cruel Control, make sure you play enough, and varied, sweepers. I really like Jund Charm a lot, if you can cast it, as the counters help your Finks and the graveyard hate is great against Lark and Anathemancer, which are both very relevant. Wraths main is a must. It is okay to scale back on the anti-Faerie hate.
It has been a very busy weekend for me, so I have to take off and prepare for my international tour. I am taking off in a couple of days to hit up GP Barcelona (where I will almost surely be playing 5CB), and from there I’m moving to Seattle for more of the same. Hawaii is next and, if all goes well, Brazil, although I am going to make absolutely sure I can go before I set off, if you know what I mean.
Look for the Next Level Magic strategy course coming very soon, and seriously, check out the preview this Thursday. I have worked really hard on this guide, and am very proud of the finished product. It is useful for people trying to qualify, and you would do well to check it out. Besides, the material isn’t just accurate, it is entertaining. If you haven’t already, check out the Next Level Magic preview with Jon Finkel from last week to get an idea. It is up on the free side of StarCityGames.com, and can be found here.
Congratulations to everyone who qualified for Nationals this weekend. Anyone else who played a 5CB style deck in their tournament this past weekend, please chime up in the forums. I would love to hear more perspectives on the deck, as I am trying to tune it myself for use next week.
I will be on the road for almost a month, but I will still be here every Monday on Premium, and all this month I’ll be dropping Next Level Magic previews on Thursdays, so look out for those. Thanks again to all of the readers who have Friended me on Facebook. It is really great to be in touch with so many people that are a part of this game and culture.
See you guys next week, when I come up with something different…
Patrick Chapin
“The Innovator”