'Lo, all...

In last week's article I shared the creative process and the first several rough drafts of the Turbo-Chant deck, which you can find here. (<--link on "here", por favor, F) This week I'm going to further discuss how the deck works (and sometimes, how it doesn't work), how it matches up against various decks, and whether or not it can establish its role as a competitive archetype in the weeks to come.

As I said at the end of my article last week, the maindeck still has a few issues that need to be looked at. Often the deck wants to find a Howling Mine ASAP, and there certainly is the necessity in many matchups to find the Ivory Mask or a Tsabo's Web with the quickness as well - so there's a strong possibility that Enlightened Tutors could indeed belong in the deck after all. Also, people might want to consider adding either an extra Wrath of God, or - probably even better - a Rout, since Meddling Mage out of the sideboard can removal-lock you otherwise if one sneaks it out the second turn and names Wrath. Mana Short is also an interesting suggestion that was brought to my attention, as it can be essentially two more "Chants" early on in the game when the opponent is low on creatures, and it can help to win the permission wars over Millstone. The deck idea itself is still certainly a work in progress, and I bring this idea to your attention to begin with in hopes that you can take the ball and run with it.

So why would you be inclined to take a chance on this deck? After all, the deck it is touted as being a killer of (Fires), already matches up poorly against other U/W control strategies as is. Also, no matter how the deck is built or will be built in the weeks to follow (and I'm encouraging you to do whatever you feel with it, as I am simply presenting the idea), it is a very, VERY difficult deck to play correctly... And I would say that almost half the games it loses are due to player error. (Errors I've made are Recalling at the wrong time and getting burned out, kicking the Chant when it is unnecessary and thus wasting mana that might be needed to play around Disrupt and the like... Even tapping the wrong colored mana can result in your death.)

Well, take these few points into consideration. When the Chant engine is in place, the only spells that continue to be a threat are instants, most notably instants that can deal large amounts of direct damage. Therefore, due to the nature of the cards Chant shuts down:

- Unlike other U/W control decks, Turbo-Chant doesn't fear Hammer of Bogardan or Pyre Zombie recursion in the first game;

- Turbo-Chant does not have to fear Obliterate from the sideboard, since it is a sorcery, and sorceries tend to never be cast in the late game;

- Unlike other U/W control decks, when the deck has Chant going, the deck does not have to worry about further Rebel searchers being dropped after a Wrath or Rout, as creature spells tend to never be cast in the late game as well;

- Kavu Chameleon, see above;

- A sideboard card for Fires that would otherwise cause problems for an artifact-intensive deck (Hull Breach) tends to never have the opportunity to be cast as well.

So if the deck can be built properly, Orim's Chant provides it a few advantages that other control decks don't have the luxury of. Sure, there are cards that can't be countered or that can be recursed from the graveyard over and over again despite counterspells - but if they're not allowed to be cast in the first place, that problem can be solved.

So with that in mind, let's look at how the deck in its various incarnations matches up against several decks.

R/G Fires of Yavimaya:

Barring a horrible start on the Turbo-Chant player's part and the 4th turn kill hand on the Fires player's part, the Chant player can usually stabilize this match-up anywhere between 10 to 12 life, at which point the only issues become whether or not the Fires deck is the Assault/Battery version or the Ghitu Fire version. If it's the former, it's on to the second game, if it's the Ghitu Fire version, things get a little trickier, but barring bad play the Chant player should have Absorbs and Counterspells long enough to find the Mask.

The sideboard doesn't change much here at all, since mostly all the sideboard cards Fires would bring in against a normal U/W control are virtually useless here for said reasons above. Again, Ghitu Fire - and sometimes Urza's Rage for those inclined to play Rage in Fires - are the only things to be concerned about. If Fires gets the God hand, so be it, as that is one reason the Fires deck should still be respected; it can win the bad matchups with the right hand, as most outstanding beatdown decks are capable of.

Blue Skies:

One of two horrific matchups, as decks with blue instants that read "Counter target spell" tend to be against this deck. Skies, however, can provide the early creature pressure as well, and that is often too much for this deck to handle. The only way you have to win the first game is that if Wrath of God or Rout somehow resolves on the fourth or fifth turns, you can live long enough to Wrath on the sixth or seventh turn with counter backup, you Chant him during your upkeep and then Wrath... Or the Bubonic Plague breaks out in the play area and only you are spared. However, I have yet to hear the phrase, "I was going to lose this game but the Black Plague broke out, so I mized" in any tournament reports. At least take comfort that Wash Out is a completely dead card against you.

Now, the sideboard can go two ways as far as how it handles counterspell-based decks. One sideboard option is to remain the control deck, and to bring in Disrupts (excellent against the ACC countermagic of Skies; the cantrip effect isn't exactly desired in a Howling Mine deck, but who wants to complain about cantrips?), for starters. The deck can then borrow some Nether-Go technology and bring in Meekstone (shuts down eight of their attackers; just bring in one or two more Disenchants for the Idols and the odd Waters) or Wall of Air (even though they're going to side out Wash Out against you and they certainly won't bring in Withdraw, Wall of Air can be a solid answer to Skies, as it blocks all of their creatures and lives, and kills many of them in the process... And it can't be Washed Out, lest they bounce their army as well). A couple of Millstones should be brought in in this case as well in place of the Mines, which are a complete liability against other blue decks.

The other option here is an interesting one: Have a small Rebel chain in the sideboard and convert to Counter-Rebels. In this particular matchup there will be no creature bounce to fear in the second game - although, depending on which Rebels you include in the chain it will be rather hard to punch through for the win on occasion. If you do experiment with the Counter-Rebel sideboard, you will also probably have to sideboard an extra land (unless your build runs twenty-five lands or more).

G/W or Mono-white Rebels:

A dying breed, since they have far more limited ways to defend themselves from sideboard hate than their Counter-Rebel cousin, these decks still see play enough to be taken into account. This match-up goes along very similar to how Fires goes along in the first game, except the modern Rebel decks can't apply the early pressure like a deck like Fires can. As soon as a Wrath comes along to accompany the Chant, the game is over, as the Chant will keep future searchers off of the board. The Wane effect of Wax/Wane is useless here, and only the mono-white versions can present a slight problem, as they have no choice but to run Disenchants.

The second game you know will feature Disenchants, however. The Counter-Rebel sideboard plan would be amusing here considering Rebel Informer, and it is a judgment call, but the matchup in general still favors you enough to where all you should really worry about is Disenchants keeping the Mines off of the table. If you choose to play Meddling Mage in the sideboard, that should take care of that. Armageddon only resolves if you let it or if you make a play error.

U/W CounterWrath and Counter-Rebel:

I'll lump these two together for the moment, since they both present the biggest threat to the deck in general... Once again, countermagic. Again, Howling Mines are a liability against any other deck with Islands. The first game against CounterWrath, while certainly not favorable, can be won if you play smart. If you get lucky you can sneak through a Millstone on the second turn, or Chant one through. If you can get Millstone into play and use it, you should beat the Angel decks. If it doesn't resolve, you're in for a long match. A Millstone being used on you is a very bad thing obviously as well. If you decide to use Mana Shorts in the main, this will help your cause, but things look very bleak for you the first game. Counter-Rebels have the counterspells to keep away the Chants and/or Recalls. If you can run them out of countermagic then you might be able to establish the lock, but it is severely doubtful. Certainly winnable, but extremely difficult.

If you decide to stay the pure control deck here, then against CounterWrath you can bring in two more Millstones and two Disrupting Scepters in place of the Mines. Disrupts help here also, as well as Misdirections and Disenchants. While it's probably a bad idea to keep the Webs in the deck, it does give you a target to Misdirect their Disenchants to should they not have a Millstone of their own, but in general these should be used to win the counter war. The Counter-Rebel sideboard strategy, however, has the potential to absolutely wreck house here if your opponent is not expecting it (and is probably your better option in this particular case), since they have most likely sided out every creature removal spell they have. The third game is up in the air, and becomes the guessing game from hell from the CounterWrath perspective. Do they side back in their Wraths and Routs and die if you put the four Millstones and two Scepters in, or do they leave in the artifact hate and die to the Rebellion?

The Counter-Rebel match-up can also be handled in this fashion as well, as they will probably also side out their Wraths, Routs and Dominates, leaving a Rebel Informer on your side of the table as an unstoppable force. Again, the first game is very bleak for you, but depending on how you build your deck as well as your sideboard strategy in this particular situation will determine if you have a chance or if it is an equally lost cause.

Black/Red:

If people continue to play the MachineHead version of Black/Red, then you should have little difficulty with this matchup other than a late-game kicked Rage. Having two Enlightened Tutors in the maindeck is looking more and more attractive all the time to find the Ivory Mask to make sure this is never an issue. The only way things begin to look bad for you here is if there is massive, massive discard over the first four or five turns of the game, which a Howling Mine can quickly fix. Void only resolves if you let it or if you make a play error (and I stress once again, play errors are rife for the deck in general). Pyre Zombie recursion becomes a non-issue once Chant starts being cast every turn.

If people start realizing that Black/Red is not a control color combination and start going to the freakin' HEAD with it like they should to start with, this becomes slightly more difficult - but decks utilizing the attack phase heavily are what this deck is good against in general. I can't really comment on the likes of these decks, however, as I have either yet to see a competitive Zombie deck (or I'm not at liberty to tell you if I have) Zombie or otherwise. Sorry, I'm giving you a free deck idea for you to experiment with as is, what else do you people want from me? *grin*

So, in closing, can the Turbo-Chant archetype become a Tier One deck? It's really hard to say. It's my humble opinion that the deck in its current form is still anywhere from one to four cards from being an optimal build... Once that optimal build is found, this could change my opinion of the deck, but as is, I feel it is a solid metagame deck at best, if not one that you can pull out on occasion and surprise and annoy your friends with. The deck still has the tendency to auto-lose when it shouldn't, and no Tier One deck should lose games it's supposed to win. I now leave this idea in your hands, gentle reader. Take the ball and run with it, and form your own opinions. THINK!

I'd just like to use these last few sentences to thank all of the people who sent me email this last week regarding the deck and for all of the positive comments and suggestions, especially those of you who either had been experimenting with the deck independently or had done some serious experimenting with the deck after my last article went up and asked for my input as well as providing input of your own. It is people like you who I write this article for; people who aren't afraid to take chances with decks, who keep an open mind and aren't afraid to openly discuss new thoughts, and discussion is indeed a two-way street. And I thank you for that.

And I hate to end the article on a negative note, but I have to get this off my chest as well. For those of you who just blindly criticize and feel like you have to berate things without offering ANY constructive input of your own, I have this to say to you: If you have a deck idea that you feel is superior to any new idea you've seen either from me or from anywhere else on the net, I will personally take space out of my article and I will give you your fifteen minutes of fame right here at my expense. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that any sort of new technology worth discussing is a good thing if it's out in the glaring spotlight of the internet for everyone to read and criticize. Or do you WANT to be in that spotlight? Here's your invitation to enlighten us all. If there's some of you out there with such great ideas that any new idea is inferior to yours, then either bring it or shush. My email address is CarlJ@carlsmail.com as it's always been, and I welcome your input. I'm trying to break cards here...what's YOUR excuse? If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Once again, thank you to the people who had something constructive to offer to this idea and discussion, and...

May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house,

Carl J.
Zeke2517
The King of Greyhounds
I'm not a Hater, I just Shush a Lot.