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The very existence of the 2011 Magic State and Provincial Championships (also known as “States”) is a triumph of the Magic community. Long considered a mainstay of the less-competitive tournament scene, it was eliminated by Wizards several years ago. Bowing to popular demand, tournament organizers banded together to offer a tournament at the same time, in the same format, and with similar levels of prize support—what has emerged is a unique annual tournament that often has played the meat thermometer to Standard's Thanksgiving turkey—that is, even given the SCG Open Series of tournaments, the raw amount of data that we can take away from the 60+ tournaments is astounding. If you want more information about your local State championships, you can click here.
States has long been a favorite tournament of mine because the relatively low-stakes prize structure tends to promote a more congenial atmosphere, and because there always are innovative ideas being showcased. In beginning to prepare for States this year, I cobbled together a Standard deck and played in SCG Open: Indianapolis. Anticipating a high volume of Tempered Steel and Mono-Red Aggro in such an untested format, I played a fairly stock U/W Control list (one that I wouldn't suggest playing without modification).
| Stock U/W Control Featured by Jon Agley on 2011-10-16 (Standard) | ||
Artifacts 1 Batterskull Artifact Creatures 1 Wurmcoil Engine Creatures 3 Snapcaster Mage Enchantments 3 Oblivion Ring |
Instants 3 Dissipate 4 Mana Leak 1 Negate 2 Surgical Extraction 4 Think Twice Planeswalkers 3 Gideon Jura 1 Jace, Memory Adept 1 Karn Liberated Sorceries 4 Day of Judgment 3 Timely Reinforcements Basic Lands 6 Island 6 Plains Lands 1 Drowned Catacomb 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Inkmoth Nexus 1 Isolated Chapel 4 Seachrome Coast | 1 Batterskull 3 Witchbane Orb 4 Grand Abolisher 4 Mental Misstep 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Timely Reinforcements |
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There are several problems with this list, especially in the current format, which might better be explained after reviewing match results.
Round 1: U/W Blade (Win 2-1)
Round 2: U/B/w Tezzeret (Win 1-0)
Round 3: Goblins with Manabarbs (Loss 1-2)
Round 4: Puresteel Aggro (Loss 0-2)
Round 5: Solar Flare (Loss 1-2)
Round 6: U/W Control (Win 1-0)
Round 7: Solar Flare (Loss 0-2)
The matchup with Goblins was very close, and only multiple copies of Manabarbs swung it in my opponent's favor. It is worth noting, however, that as control and ramp strategies become increasingly popular, Manabarbs is an excellent weapon for Mono Red. The loss to Puresteel Aggro was a simple case of multiple mulligans to five and beyond, and it didn't feel like the matchup was otherwise troublesome.
However, despite my inclusion of maindeck Surgical Extraction to assist with the Solar Flare matchup, which I expected to be very prevalent, I simply couldn't beat Solar Flare. Especially given the results of the SCG Open tournament in Nashville, this simply isn't acceptable. There were several issues with the matchup:
Card selection in this U/W shell isn't great. With only four copies of Think Twice and a single copy of Jace, Memory Adept, it's surprisingly easy to draw a number of ‘blanks' in a row and to fall completely behind.
This is a very reactive deck, especially given the inclusion of Snapcaster Mage. Consequently, it is very threat-light (few planeswalkers, few creatures).
Solar Flare gets insane mileage out of Forbidden Alchemy. Not only do they get to keep a card in hand, they get to discard nightmarish stacks—I had an opponent, on my third end step, discard Sun Titan, Unburial Rites, and Phantasmal Image to a Forbidden Alchemy. That effect is so good that it hired Impulse as its gardener.
The deck's sideboard was “okay,” but Witchbane Orb isn't very good right now. Targeted burn is less prevalent than in the recent past, and while cards like Brimstone Volley and Incinerate are very real, red decks are pushing damage through with creatures (i.e., Stromkirk Noble, Chandra's Phoenix) more so than with spells right now.
In order for U/W Control to be more viable in a field of Solar Flare, it needs to move in one of two directions. Either:
Become more threat dense: bigger/better threats, and more of them;
Improve card selection to out-control an opponent.
Of the two, I'm inclined to think that option (a) is superior, especially after seeing Tim Landale's performance before SCG Open: Nashville.
| U/W Walker Control Featured by Tim Landale on 2011-10-09 (Standard) | ||
Artifact Creatures 3 Wurmcoil Engine Creatures 2 Consecrated Sphinx Enchantments 4 Oblivion Ring Instants 3 Dismember 2 Dissipate 4 Mana Leak 3 Think Twice |
Planeswalkers 3 Elspeth Tirel 2 Gideon Jura 2 Karn Liberated Sorceries 3 Day of Judgment 3 Timely Reinforcements Basic Lands 7 Island 7 Plains Lands 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Inkmoth Nexus 4 Seachrome Coast | 1 Mind Control 2 Mental Misstep 3 Surgical Extraction 1 White Sun's Zenith 2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 3 Geist of Saint Traft 1 Gideon Jura 1 Jace, Memory Adept 1 Timely Reinforcements |
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He still has a plethora of early plays, including Mana Leak and Dissipate (which impresses me more every time I play it) for permission, and Dismember, Oblivion Ring, Day of Judgment, Think Twice, and Timely Reinforcements for board control and card draw. However, he really hits hard on expensive, relatively hard-to-remove threats: five planeswalkers at 5cc, five creatures at 6cmc, and two copies of Karn Liberated at seven cmc.
What his deck lacks in general synergy (aside from the expected synergy of the “U/W Control” shell) it makes up for in raw power. He also has the opportunity to become more aggressive with Geist of Saint Traft, and so after boarding his deck can play more like U/W Blade. The most interesting card in his sideboard, though, is Mind Control; with multiple decks in the Indianapolis and Nashville Top 8s running different Titans, Mind Control may be better than just a singleton; it might be a legitimate sideboard option for any blue-based control strategy (Volition Reins might be better because it can steal planeswalkers?).
One question that currently comes to mind is whether U/W decks should be running a few black-producing lands and Nihil Spellbomb instead of Surgical Extraction. And, of course, if they're doing this, why not simply add the Solar Flare package? In terms of role differentiation, it seems as though U/W Control is currently the “Tap Out” deck, whereas Solar Flare, despite having a number of powerful creatures and sorceries, is the more synergistic, traditional control deck—reanimation aside.
After working with U/W Control for a while, though, I ended up switching gears. After seeing how good Kessig Wolf Run performed in nearly mono-red decks, I was interested in finding a way to abuse lands in different ways. Ultimately, Brian Sondag developed a much more streamlined version of the deck that I was attempting to develop, but as the metagame adjusts for Wolf Run Ramp, we might be able to absorb some strategies from both approaches. First, my initial take on the deck:
| R/G Slaver (deck shell) Featured by Jon Agley on 2011-10-16 (Standard) | ||
Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Primeval Titan 1 Tree of Redemption 4 Viridian Emissary Enchantments 3 Rites of Flourishing Legendary Artifacts 4 Mindslaver |
Legendary Creatures 3 Thrun, the Last Troll 1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger Sorceries 4 Green Sun's Zenith 4 Rampant Growth 4 Slagstorm Basic Lands 7 Forest 3 Mountain Lands 4 Buried Ruin 4 Copperline Gorge 2 Kessig Wolf Run 4 Rootbound Crag | Stats: Average mana: 1.95 Average creature mana cost: 3.53 Average creature power: 3.00 Average creature toughness: 3.71 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 16.67% Creatures: 21.67% Enchantments: 5.00% Lands: 23.33% Legendary Artifacts: 6.67% Legendary Creatures: 6.67% Sorceries: 20.00% |
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While this deck can play like an R/G Beats deck, with Birds of Paradise into Viridian Emissary into Thrun, the Last Troll, it really is a ramp deck with an unusual endgame. In an attempt to capitalize on the lack of maindeck countermagic in most Solar Flare lists, it attempts to achieve a Mindslaver lock with Primeval Titan and Buried Ruin as the centerpieces.
With Birds of Paradise, Rampant Growth, Viridian Emissary (sometimes), and Rites of Flourishing, a turn 4 Primeval Titan was not uncommon in testing, though it was still a far cry from Valakut's oppressive ramping abilities. Once the first Titan has hit the table (theoretically fetching two Buried Ruins), then we're looking to put Vorinclex into play and then Mindslaver our opponent. In the event that that sequence of plays happens, the game effectively is over, as we can recur our Mindslaver and our opponent cannot untap.
In the process of developing this shell, I encountered several problems. First, despite the inclusion of Slagstorm, Viridian Emissary (Capt. Blocks), and a tutorable Tree of Redemption, aggressive decks sometimes would run me over. Second, the deck probably devotes “too much” to a cute combo kill. Yes, it feels great to “Slaver-lock” an opponent, but is Mindslaver really better than another threat? Is it really worth running a symmetrical card like Rites of Flourishing just to have access to additional cards? Finally, countermagic is pretty difficult for this deck to overcome, especially hard counters—without the inevitability of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, where even drawing lands is a constant source of damage—this strategy lacks staying power.
For comparison, let's look at Sondag's approach to R/G:
| Wolf Run Ramp A Standard deck, by Brian Sondag 1st place at a StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, United States on 2011-10-09 | ||
Artifact Creatures 3 Solemn Simulacrum 3 Wurmcoil Engine Creatures 1 Acidic Slime 1 Birds of Paradise 3 Primeval Titan 4 Viridian Emissary Instants 4 Beast Within Planeswalkers 4 Garruk, Primal Hunter |
Sorceries 4 Green Sun's Zenith 4 Rampant Growth 3 Slagstorm Basic Lands 9 Forest 3 Mountain Lands 4 Copperline Gorge 4 Inkmoth Nexus 2 Kessig Wolf Run 4 Rootbound Crag | 1 Ratchet Bomb 3 Sword of Feast and Famine 2 Tree of Redemption 1 Viridian Corrupter 4 Ancient Grudge 3 Thrun, the Last Troll 1 Slagstorm |
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Obviously, the deck is very good—it smashed SCG Open: Nashville, but it remains to be seen how we interact with the deck (i.e., did it make enough of a splash that we'll start to see four copies of Flashfreeze in every sideboard, which already is good against Mono Red?).
Including lands, our ramp decks share 39 cards and differ on 21—this largely is due to differences in how we've approach the endgame. Sondag and I share copies of Green Sun's Zenith, Rampant Growth, Slagstorm, and Viridian Emissary, and Primeval Titan, in addition to running 20 of the same lands. However, compared to my list, his has:
+3 Solemn Simulacrum
+3 Wurmcoil Engine
+1 Acidic Slime
+4 Beast Within
+4 Garruk, Primal Hunter
+4 Inkmoth Nexus
+2 Forest
-3 Thrun, the Last Troll
-1 Primeval Titan
-1 Tree of Redemption
-3 Birds of Paradise
-1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
-3 Rites of Flourishing
-4 Mindslaver
-4 Buried Ruin
Some of the cards in his list clearly belong in mine as well (Solemn Simulacrum probably is a strict upgrade from Rites of Flourishing), but we win in very different ways. Most importantly, his deck does not have to resolve any spells to beat an opponent. Because of the incredibly powerful synergy between Inkmoth Nexus and Kessig Wolf Run, he easily can beat an opponent in one or two short turns after drawing an Inkmoth Nexus. He also runs hard-to-remove threats in Garruk, Primal Hunter and Wurmcoil Engine. In addition, Beast Within provides his deck with a level of reactivity to troublesome cards like Oblivion Ring, and, of course, other planeswalkers.
If we want to retain the Mindslaver package as our endgame (and it is unclear whether this is the right thing to do or not—I haven't been able to test following SCG Open: Nashville), we might consider incorporating elements from Sondag's list into ours:
| R/G Slaver (deck shell two) Featured by Jon Agley on 2011-10-16 (Standard) | ||
Artifacts 2 Sword of Feast and Famine Artifact Creatures 3 Solemn Simulacrum Creatures 1 Acidic Slime 1 Birds of Paradise 4 Primeval Titan 1 Tree of Redemption 4 Viridian Emissary Instants 2 Beast Within |
Legendary Artifacts 4 Mindslaver Legendary Creatures 1 Thrun, the Last Troll 1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger Sorceries 4 Green Sun's Zenith 4 Rampant Growth 3 Slagstorm Basic Lands 7 Forest 3 Mountain Lands 3 Buried Ruin 4 Copperline Gorge 1 Inkmoth Nexus 2 Kessig Wolf Run 4 Rootbound Crag | Stats: Average mana: 2.08 Average creature mana cost: 4.13 Average creature power: 3.19 Average creature toughness: 3.75 Deck Composition: Artifacts: 3.39% Artifact Creatures: 5.08% Basic Lands: 16.95% Creatures: 18.64% Instants: 3.39% Lands: 23.73% Legendary Artifacts: 6.78% Legendary Creatures: 3.39% Sorceries: 18.64% |
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Notable is the inclusion of Sword of Feast and Famine (from Sondag's sideboard), which allows us to cast and activate a Mindslaver in the same turn if we have fewer than ten mana available. We replace Rites of Flourishing with Solemn Simulacrum and shave our numbers of Thrun and Birds of Paradise in order to include Acidic Slime, the Swords, and two copies of Beast Within. Finally, since it is unlikely that four copies of Buried Ruin are necessary, we “hedge our bets” by including a copy of Inkmoth Nexus to provide an alternate win condition.
There are a variety of cards that we might consider for the sideboard, depending on how the metagame evolves. I fully expect Flashfreeze to become more and more prevalent in the upcoming weeks and artifacts of all sorts continue to be problematic. Cards that we might consider include:
Autumn's Veil: This deck might be the home for which our underused hoser has been searching. This card stops countermagic, Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, and other problematic cards—note that the “until end of turn” clause allows us to set up a game-breaking turn.
Ancient Grudge: Stock artifact removal that is resistant to countermagic (except Dissipate).
Into the Maw of Hell: In a deck that can generate a large amount of mana, this may not be the worst removal spell in the world. In particular, if Wolf Run Ramp really takes off as a popular deck, this has the ability to destroy either a Kessig Wolf Run or Inkmoth Nexus while removing a Primeval Titan from the board. That's a surprising amount of utility.
Wurmcoil Engine: Being able to play this on the fourth turn against red seems pretty powerful, although they, too, have access to Ancient Grudge.
A prospective sideboard might appear as such:
4 Ancient Grudge
3 Autumn's Veil
3 Into the Maw of Hell
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Beast Within
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
Again, it is not clear that this shell is superior to Sondag's; while his deck needs to win through the red zone, ours doesn't, with the downside of being much less streamlined. If I were playing in States tomorrow, I'd probably play a somewhat modified version of Sondag's list (especially with Autumn's Veil/Into the Maw of Hell in the sideboard), but I'm really hoping that someone can break the principles outlined in the “fancier” R/G ramp list I've presented.
Good luck at States! If you're in Indiana, feel free to look around for me.
