By the time you read this, I will be a stone’s throw away from the Atlantic Ocean for vacation at Virginia Beach. Not a single Magic card from my collection will be within 120 miles of me for about 8 days, which will feel very strange considering that I go through some segment of my Magic cards a few times a week at the very least. I suppose however that it’s healthy to get away from any obsession for a while, clear the brain and come back with a fresh perspective… or at the very least some serious jones for what you’ve been missing.

Last week I was musing on playing some sort of Green-based deck with Thousand Year Elixir, and while they all seemed “cool” to some degree, I was also somewhat worried about not having any sort of removal spell available. It would be a bit embarrassing to be fiddling around with my Elf deck and then have someone else “go off” with their Elf combo deck and kill me and I have nothing to do.

I was also trying to figure out what to do with all the mana the deck could potentially generate, and while worrying about Elf combo it occurred to me – why not use Regal Force myself? A perfect mana sink, exchange mana for cards and a 5/5 fat creature!

At the same time I stumbled across Apocalypse Hydra, a card that seemed like a perfect fit for what I had going on - he was certainly a mana hog to both be large when he came into play and then to use his ping ability from +1/+1 counters. And speaking of +1/+1 counters, I was running Immaculate Magistrate so I could provide a steady stream of pings. Since I was dipping into red I might as well add Lightning Bolts and Banefires. This is what I ended up sleeving for last week’s FNM at Richmond Comix, rather optimistically named:

Thousand Proof Featured by Bennie Smith on 2009-08-16 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/17884_You_Lika_The_Juice_Thousand_Proof_and_Sachi_EDH.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Thousand-Year Elixir Creatures 2 Apocalypse Hydra 2 Chameleon Colossus 4 Elvish Archdruid 4 Immaculate Magistrate 4 Imperious Perfect 3 Llanowar Elves 3 Regal Force 2 Scattershot Archer 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher	Instants 4 Lightning Bolt Sorceries 1 Banefire Basic Lands 9 Forest 1 Mountain Lands 3 Fire-Lit Thicket 3 Gargoyle Castle 4 Mosswort Bridge 3 Rootbound Crag	Sideboard: 3 Acidic Slime 2 Cloudthresher 2 Great Sable Stag 3 Master of the Wild Hunt 2 Scattershot Archer 1 Windstorm 2 Banefire
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I would totally run 4 Great Sable Stags if I had them - they are just incredibly good sideboard cards. When I played one turn 2 and my opponent commented, “that’s nasty!” I took to calling them Stagnasty - props to my Grammie who on rare occasion described something as “shag-nasty” meaning, well… shag-deep nasty. Deeper than your garden variety nastiness.

I did pretty well with the deck at FNM, getting a 3-1-1 record and missing Top 4 on some bizarre tie-breaking formula that put me in 5th place, behind 3 people whom I played (beating one, losing to one, and drawing with one) during the Swiss. Thanks, DCI Reporter! *two thumbs up*

The first round I played Charlie running a Grixis beatdown deck, and I start the night off with a hand of 6 lands and a Hydra, mulligan to a hand of 5 land and a Magistrate, mull to a hand of no land, and mull to a hand of two land and two three drops. I draw another land around turn 5 and try to make a go of it, but I’m far too behind. The second game Charlie has to mulligan and he misses land drops, and since I’m capable of mustering some aggression myself I press the advantage. The last game is more of a squeaker, he gets me down to 7 life and I play very conservatively to finally rush in for a final 10 points of damage. Win 2-1.

The second round I play Chris and his Polymorph deck. I’d heard he was playing Polymorph into Progenitus, so I was stingy with my Bolts and saved one to kill the Mutavault he activated and targeted with Polymorph. For the second game I boarded in Acidic Slime, and set Chris back a land long enough to prevent him from activating Gargoyle Tower into Polymorph while I swung with Elf beatdown. Win 2-0, and feel a bit fortunate!

The third round I play Phillip with Jund Aggro. I get a pretty fast start, he gets a slow start and I press the advantage to win in short order without losing a single life point. The second game he’s boarded into what feels like a metric truckload of removal spells for all my creatures, so that he manages to slowly whittle my life down with the few creatures he does draw. I manage to stabilize at three life while he’s at 26 and play very carefully, mindful of hasty creatures that could pop up on his side, as well as removal for a critical blocker. He draws about five rounds of blanks while I whittle away his life with Gargoyle tokens and then an alpha strike to finish. Whew! Win 2-0 (he makes Top 4).

The fourth round I play Tony with, what else? Five-Color Control. We go to three games, time is eventually called and expires with no victor. My record against Tony in Constructed matches is 0-1-3; apparently he is very skilled at preventing me from winning. Draw 1-1-1 (he makes Top 4).

Fifth round I play against Matthew with Bant Aggro. Ever since I played Bant Aggro at Regionals and lost, I seem to be a dog to Bant no matter what I play. This time my Achilles Heel is Rhox War-Monk, who comes out fast and is too big for my Bolts. I have to draw my Vanquishers or get run over, and if he gets Rafiq there’s nothing I can do. Games 1 and 3 he draws his War-Monks and I get run over. The second game he doesn’t draw the War-Monks, and I get a reasonably fast beatdown draw. Lose 1-2 (he makes Top 4).

Thus ends my run with this build. The Apocalypse Hydras were a complete wash; I only drew them twice. One time I didn’t have time to cast it and the other time I didn’t need to cast it. On the other hand, the Masters of the Wild Hunt were phenomenal, I boarded them in constantly... which has me figuring I should give them a shot at the maindeck. If I get a chance to play this again, I think I’ll try something more like this:

Thousand Proof v2.0 Featured by Bennie Smith on 2009-08-16 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/17884_You_Lika_The_Juice_Thousand_Proof_and_Sachi_EDH.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 3 Thousand-Year Elixir Creatures 3 Bogardan Hellkite 2 Chameleon Colossus 4 Elvish Archdruid 4 Imperious Perfect 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Master of the Wild Hunt 2 Regal Force 2 Scattershot Archer 1 Wolf-Skull Shaman 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher	Instants 4 Lightning Bolt Basic Lands 9 Forest 1 Mountain Lands 3 Fire-Lit Thicket 3 Gargoyle Castle 4 Mosswort Bridge 3 Rootbound Crag	Stats: Average mana: 1.92 Average creature mana cost: 3.40 Average creature power: 2.70 Average creature toughness: 2.77 Deck Composition: Creatures: 50.00% Basic Lands: 16.67% Lands: 21.67% Artifacts: 5.00% Instants: 6.67%
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After the disappointing 5th place finish, I managed to jump into an EDH game, finally breaking in my latest creation. I’d been wanting to play Mono-Green again, and while I’ve been gathering a stack of candidate cards for a Rofellos deck, I didn’t want to be so blatantly crass with my mana production. So instead I built around Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro, with lots of Shaman to give me a nice bumper crop of mana, and a fairly strong sub-theme of snakes.

There are a lot of great cards to sink your mana into: Dark Depths, Staff of Domination, Chameleon Colossus, Tower of Fortunes, and Planar Portal to name a few. I also decided to throw in what Green disruption I could, with Hall of Gemstone to nuke multicolor cards, and Ritual of Subdual to really turn the screws on anyone without a non-land source of mana. I also added a “Black matters” hoser element, looking to combine Painter’s Servant with lovely Green cards like Lifeforce, Compost, and Reap.

I was particularly proud of Centaur Omenreader, who’s a Shaman so you can tap him for two Green mana (assuming Sachi in play) and then all your shaman are discounted!

1 Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro (general)
1 Arena
1 Dark Depths
1 Diamond Valley
1 Maze of Ith
1 Elvish Herder
1 Essence Warden
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Bosk Banneret
1 Compost
1 Constant Mists
1 Distorting Lens
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Lifeforce
1 Matsu-Tribe Sniper
1 Orochi Sustainer
1 Painter’s Servant
1 Reap
1 River Boa
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Sun Droplet
1 Sylvan Library
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Time of Need
1 Wurm’s Tooth
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Eternal Witness
1 Forcefield
1 Hall of Gemstone
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Ohran Viper
1 Scuttlemutt
1 Sosuke’s Summons
1 Spidersilk Armor
1 Staff of Domination
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Centaur Omenreader
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Harmonize
1 Masked Admirers
1 Nullmage Shepherd
1 Power Matrix
1 Sakura-Tribe Springcaller
1 Singing Tree
1 Snake Pit
1 Sosuke, Son of Seshiro
1 Tower of Fortunes
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Genesis
1 Reach of Branches
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Silklash Spider
1 Spectral Force
1 Collective Unconscious
1 Planar Portal
1 Ritual of Subdual
1 Sakiko, Mother of Summer
1 Seshiro the Anointed
1 Akroma’s Memorial
1 Patron of the Orochi
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Vitalizing Wind
1 Winter Blast
1 Nourishing Shoal
1 Deserted Temple
1 Gaea’s Cradle
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Mishra’s Factory
1 Strip Mine
1 Urza’s Factory
1 Vesuva
1 Wasteland
1 Winding Canyons
1 Yavimaya Hollow
24 Forest

There were six of us playing, and I had a pretty good start, with a couple of Shaman and Sachi for mana, Ohran Viper for a little card draw, and when I drew Planar Portal I thought I’d be off to the races. Unfortunately, Josh’s Phelddagriff enchantment deck was quickly laying out a dominant position, with a turn 1 Burgeoning and turn 2 Enchantress (drawing for each enchantment played) had him off to the races. I tried to keep him somewhat contained by hitting his Privileged Position and then his Cloud Cover, but I had to use Nullmage Shepherd, requiring me to tap 4 creatures which cut drastically into my mana production. By the time I played Planar Portal and had the mana to use it, another player had cast Pernicious Deed in the hopes of nuking Josh’s board position. I used the one activation I had with the Portal to fetch Reap since I’d just drawn Painter’s Servant, so once the Deed was done I played Servant and got everything back.

Unfortunately for us, Josh had Replenish, drew a bunch of cards, and played Earthcraft and Squirrel Nest. We all had a turn before Josh created a gazillion squirrels during an opponent’s end step, untapped, and killed us all. Nobody drew anything of consequence, and I was particularly bitter that I didn’t have the time to get my mana up and my Portal online to fetch up Constant Mists, which would have done a nice job of buying a lot of time... Ah well - congrats on the win, Josh!

Speaking of EDH, make sure to be back here next week when I present Part 1 of my EDH primer for those of you who might be interested, with Part 2 the following week. Thanks to everyone who were kind enough to share their thoughts and questions, you’ve been very helpful in making what I hope will be a pretty good and thorough primer for the format. I’ll be very curious to hear what you think!

Have a great weekend!

Bennie

starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com

Bonus Deck – A Good Deck!

Before I sign off, I thought I’d share a neat rogue deck that local talented Magician Michael Rooks has been working on for the last few PTQs. At last weekend’s PTQ in Maryland he took this to a second place finish, having a terrible stroke of luck that let his Kithkin opponent squeak by to win. We’d originally been kicking around the idea of Spitting Image with “comes-into-play” guys, starting with Borderland Ranger, and Michael took it from there:

G/R Hellramp Featured by Michael Rooks on 2009-08-16 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/17884_You_Lika_The_Juice_Thousand_Proof_and_Sachi_EDH.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 3 Bogardan Hellkite 4 Borderland Ranger 1 Cloudthresher 1 Dragon Broodmother 4 Kitchen Finks 1 Magma Phoenix Enchantments 4 Fertile Ground Instants 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Volcanic Fallout	Planeswalkers 4 Garruk Wildspeaker Sorceries 1 Earthquake 3 Primal Command 1 Spitting Image Basic Lands 7 Forest 6 Mountain Lands 4 Fire-Lit Thicket 4 Gargoyle Castle 4 Rootbound Crag	Sideboard: 3 Acidic Slime 3 Caldera Hellion 2 Cloudthresher 4 Great Sable Stag 3 Banefire
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I asked Michael to give me a run-down of how the deck performed during the PTQ:

Michael Rooks: So I took my RG deck to the PTQ yesterday and I made Top 8 with it. I went 6-1-1 in the Swiss, drawing round 8 into the Top 8. I ended up losing in the finals in a really close game 3 versus Kithkin (the same player I lost to in the Swiss).

I played against:
Round 1: 5 Color Blood - won 2-1
Round 2: Merfolk - Won 2-0
Round 3: RB Agro - Won 2-0
Round 4: Merfolk - Won 2-0 (I played Sean McKeown this round)
Round 5: Kithkin - Lost 1-2 (I misplayed and should have won game 2)
Round 6: Kithkin - Won 2-1
Round 7: Merfolk - Won 2-1
Round 8: ID into top 8

Top 8: 5 Color Control - Won 2-0 (I double Primal, plowing his land and getting 2 Hellkites for game 1 - side in about 10 cards and the matchup gets better). Game 2 I started Spitting Image my Borderland Ranger so he had to name Borderland Ranger with Runed Halo. I ended up winning with a Spitting Imaged Bogardan Hellkite. It was awesome!

Top 4: GB Elves - Won 2-0

Finals: Kithkin - Lost 1-2. I lost game 1 and won game 2. Game 3 came down to him being at 3 and me being unable to finish him with my gargoyle token. A Caldera Hellion, Lightning Bolt, or Bogardan Hellkite would have won me the game, but I drew 2 lands and a Fertile Ground off the top while he dropped back-to-back Cloudgoats I couldn't swing through with my gargoyle.”

Thanks for sharing, Michael!