Initially, I wanted to do an article on the ten worst decks to come out of States, but all you fine
people out there weren’t very cooperative. I mean, what am I gonna do, criticize someone for not playing four Explores in their Eldrazi deck or
not playing a second Eye of Ugin in the sideboard? Sure, it’s probably wrong, and seeing that kind of oversight in decklists makes me want to
gouge my eyes out, but it’s really splitting hairs.
So what’s a curmudgeon to do?
For starters, I’m going to say that for the most part, everyone played a boring old net deck,
and I’m disappointed in all of you. Past that, I guess I’ll just write a somewhat normal article. Stealing a page out of Cedric
Phillip’s book, I want to go over a few cards or decks and then give my opinion on whether they are over or underrated.
U/W Control
Right now, I’d be playing U/x Control in Standard, where X is either red or black. Several people
have asked me why I wouldn’t play white instead. After all, it’s the default best color for control, right? Over the years, that
really hasn’t been disputed, except when black has something like Mystical Teachings, Psychatog, or Nether Spirit (and some of those Nether-Go decks
were U/W!).
The thing is, white doesn’t offer very much right now. Yes, cards like Baneslayer Angel, Day
of Judgment, and Condemn are all cool and good, but whatever happened to being correct? A few weeks ago, I posted on Facebook and Twitter that Frost
Titan was the most underrated card in Standard. Since then, the oft-maligned Titan has tripled in price, at least on MTGO.
Frost Titan basically invalidates all of the other white win conditions that one might want to play.
Venser is solid, as the ultimate is game over, but you need to build your deck around it. Wall of Omens and Spreading Seas are cute and everything, but
they aren’t good right now. Winning by achieving value isn’t necessary. Winning the game as quickly as possible, or at least
stabilizing, is all that matters.
Condemn, Journey to Nowhere, Oust, and Day of Judgment are great cards in their own right, but
that’s not what we need right now. There are only a few decks you need to be Wrath-ing, but those decks are more vulnerable to Pyroclasm than Wrath.
Even against Elves, with its Leatherback Baloths, consider that they’ll often bait out your Day of
Judgment and punish you by returning some Vengevines (like Kyle Montgomery’s
build
from States),
or by playing a backbreaking Garruk.
With U/r, you’d be able to Pyroclasm away their little guys and counter their follow-up. Sure,
Leatherback Baloth is hard to kill, but its clock isn’t very fast if you’re killing their turn 1 mana guys, which U/W doesn’t want
to do, nor is it capable of doing so. Vengevines are trouble for both builds, but at least with U/r, you have a legitimate shot of keeping them off four
mana. U/W doesn’t really have that luxury.
People say U/W’s mana base is “better,” but is it really? Celestial Colonnade and
Glacial Fortress often prevents you from playing a removal spell on turn 1, or playing two spells on turn 3. While there are a lot of dual lands, they
aren’t actually that good when you want to use one mana on turn 1, two on turn 2, three on turn 3, etc. Entering the battlefield tapped is a
serious drawback when you’re under the gun from an Elf or RDW deck.
When facing down RDW with U/r, playing turn 1 Burst Lightning, turn 2 Mana Leak, and then turn 3
Mana Leak plus another removal spell is probably game over. You’ve successfully taken all the wind out of their sails.
If you were U/W, maybe you get to play a Wall of Omens on turn 2 (which they can burn out), and then
a removal spell on turn 3. You’ve stopped two of their threats and taken somewhere in the neighborhood of six damage. That’s unacceptable.
Yes, U/W should have a good matchup against RDW because of things like Kor Firewalker and Baneslayer Angel, but U/r doesn’t need any sort of
life gain to crush RDW. Focusing on velocity is more valuable these days. Brute force just doesn’t cut it, as the control cards are on par with the
aggro (or ramp) cards these days.
I still play three Terramorphic Expanses in U/r, but going down to two isn’t unreasonable,
just to avoid the above situations.
Verdict:
Overrated
Mimic Vat
The Vat seems to be slowly acquiring an underground following, included among them a select few pro
players. I’m not one of them. In another time, another format, perhaps the Vat would’ve the time to shine, but this doesn’t seem like the
one. The aggro decks are too fast, so you don’t have time to mess around setting up the Vat. Hell, even the Ramp decks can get you dead on turn 7 or
8 consistently. Even if you’re not dead per se, you’re certainly drawing dead.
Mono-Black
Control
is an amusing concept, but no amount of Skinrenders is going to help you in this format. I adore
Fauna Shamans and Vengevines, but those midrange style decks just aren’t good right now. The control and Ramp decks go over the top with Titans and
Eldrazi, and your clock isn’t fast enough. Nor is there enough effective disruption.
Mimic Vat doesn’t interact well with the decks in the format. Yeah, it’s cool to Doom
Blade a Primeval Titan and make your own army, but they already searched up their Eldrazi Temple or Valakut, and you’re still under pressure.
Searching up some Tectonic Edges of your own might be too slow.
Don’t even get me started if people start sideboarding Manic Vandals because the Vat actually
becomes played…
Mimic Vat most likely falls under the danger of cool things.
Verdict:
Overrated, but Has Potential
Gaea’s Revenge
I lose to this card a lot. When I was trying out Nick Spagnolo U/B Trinket Mage deck, this
was often the first thing I would Memoricide against Valakut. I’d counter a Titan and Dispel or Spell Pierce a Summoning Trap, but Revenge was almost
always game.
Ramp decks were king for a minute, but in the next few tournaments, I expect the blue decks to take
over. Once blue decks are more prevalent, Revenge becomes a possible maindeck inclusion.
Verdict:
Underrated
Mark of Mutiny
When designing
Strobe Red,
Mark of Mutiny was one of the main pulls to go in that direction. With Ramp at possibly the peak of its existence throughout all
of Magic, Mark was the go-to card. No one was expecting their Titans to attack them for eleven, and it made the green decks free wins. After all,
what are they going to do, not cast their Titans? How do they plan on actually killing you?
In the future, I predict the Ramp decks are going to need a plan against red that involves lessening
the impact of Mark of Mutiny. A sideboard plan with Obstinate Baloth and Wurmcoil Engine and cutting all the Titans and Eldrazi seems feasible.
Verdict:
Underrated
Fog
Yeah, that’s right,
Fog.
I played a few of these (maindeck!) in my initial Turbo Land
build at the MMS in Wisconsin, and they sucked. However, this is probably what Ramp decks are going to turn to in order to fight Mark of Mutiny.
Being useful against explosive Elf draws is nice as well.
Calosso Fuentes barely missed Top 8 of States with Strobe Red after getting Fogged out in the
decisive game. How humiliating!
Verdict:
Underrated
Abyssal Persecutor
Some are calling this the four-drop Titan, and I agree. The only problem is that there are few
removal spells you can play that actually kill this thing! Clearly that works both ways, but I don’t exactly want to fill my U/B deck with Into
the Roils just to appease my Demon lords.
Nick Spagnolo
U/B
deck is probably the best place to jam Persecutors, since Trinket Mages are already an adorable clock, but they can also tutor up
Brittle Effigy, a card you wouldn’t play otherwise. While I wasn’t initially impressed with Trinket Mage (and especially the whole
Elixir of Immortality thing), Persecutor increases its value ten-fold (I did the math).
So far, I’ve had success loading my control decks with counterspells, but that plan falls flat
on its face against Gaea’s Revenge. Persecutor can legitimately race or even trade, so it’s probably the best answer.
In the same vein, some friends of mine have had success with Calcite Snapper. The control player in
me wants to sit on counterspells or cast Jace Beleren on turn 3, but Snapper will probably kill your opponent on its own. Snapper into Persecutor
is probably unbeatable for most of the slower decks.
Verdict:
Grossly Underrated
Terastodon
The go-to guy for the Ramp mirror. Splashing Memoricide is probably better if you only have the
slots for one or the other, but access to both should give you a huge edge.
Verdict:
Underrated, Even By Me
Memoricide
Aside from Abyssal Persecutor, this is the reason to go black. Yes,
Doom Blade
embarrasses nearly every creature out there, but two mana is a big difference from the one needed for Burst
Lightning or Lightning Bolt.
Cranial Extraction can be straight up backbreaking against Eldrazi Ramp, Valakut, Pyromancer
Ascension, and some builds of control. Most control decks don’t vary their threats, so naming Frost Titan against most of them should work out well for
you, or at least draw out a counterspell.
Verdict:
Underrated
Rite of Replication
Of all the cards I wanted to talk about, this is probably the sketchiest. Yes, even sketchier than Fog. What
I envision is a deck much like
Kurtis Droge’s
from the Top 8 of the MMS at Gen Con. His “Frosty the Snowman” deck was like Turbo Land from the future. Can you imagine
turbo-ing out a Frost Titan and then having seven
more pseudo-Titans you could play? Can you imagine
kicking
Rite of Replication on your Frost Titan?
Modophotos
would
go bananas.
Even when facing down opposing Titans or Eldrazi, Rite isn’t the worst card to have either.
Still, I’m not entirely sure what kind of brew would play this or why aside from comedic value. Kurtis‘ deck looks interesting, even now.
Turn 6 Frost Titan is a huge beating, but turn 4, which is pretty average, is amazing. Your opponent will have a difficult time coming up with the
requisite mana when you start keeping their land tapped starting maybe as early as their turn 2!
I suppose all of this is just a ringing endorsement for Frost Titan, but who doesn’t want to
run the “Still Had All These Frost Titans?”
Verdict:
Potential Sleeper, Possibly Garbage
Mindbreak Trap
I think I’m the most excited about this one. For months, my sideboards have been filled out by
Dispel, a card used to win counter wars and counter Summoning Trap on the cheap. Mindbreak Trap can do all of that for free and still counter
Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Why then, was I playing Dispel all this time?
First of all, I think it was a holdover from my Pyromancer Ascension days where I was using it to
protect me from Celestial Purge and Into the Roil. Mindbreak isn’t very good at doing that, so it never even crossed my mind.
Think about it. They play a Primeval Titan, and you predictably Leak it. They gladly slam a
Summoning Trap on the table, but also laid a trap for them. How diabolical.
If you’re lucky (and Cedric Phillips), when they slam the Trap, you can act upset and ask if
they want to save time and just cast their other Traps, too. Now
that
is a Trap!
Clearly Mindbreak Trap wins out over Dispel in a counter war, so when is it worse than Dispel? I
think Gabe Walls and I determined that it was only when they were hard-casting Summoning Trap. Regardless of how you Mindbreak their Summoning Trap,
you’re getting the better end of the deal.
Buy at least two of these (I recommend StarCityGames.com), put at least one of them in your
sideboard, and maybe cut the Stoic Rebuttal in your maindeck for the other.
Verdict:
Grossly Underrated
It’s discoveries like these that cause shifts in metagames. Primeval Titan is top dog right
now, but I see a world two or three weeks from now, probably after the StarCityGames.com Opens in Charlotte and Boston, where the Eldrazi are flying
back to whatever planet they came from, tails between their legs and all. Fast clocks plus disruption, people; get on it. Memoricide them, Persecute them,
Mark them. Do whatever you have to. Having a Ramp deck as the best deck is simply embarrassing.
I can honestly say that when I (hopefully) attend Charlotte and Boston, I won’t lose to a single
Ramp deck.
GerryT
www.g3rry.com
www.twitter.com/g3rryt
Postscript
Two updated lists for your perusal… Enjoy!
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (19)
Spells (28)
- 6 Island
- 4 Mana Leak
- 1 Negate
- 4 Doom Blade
- 2 Into the Roil
- 2 Spell Pierce
- 2 Everflowing Chalice
- 1 Consume the Meek
- 1 Deprive
- 1 Brittle Effigy
- 4 Preordain
Sideboard
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (9)
Spells (40)
- 1 Pyroclasm
- 4 Mountain
- 12 Island
- 4 Mana Leak
- 2 Negate
- 2 Burst Lightning
- 2 Into the Roil
- 1 Mindbreak Trap
- 3 Spell Pierce
- 2 Flame Slash
- 1 Jace's Ingenuity
- 4 Preordain
- 1 Destructive Force
- 1 Stoic Rebuttal
Sideboard