I am not very responsible. Half of my time in class is spent writing down rogue decklists to attempt to break whatever the current format is, while nodding approvingly at my teachers, acting as though I am simply taking notes. Even as I write this I'm on one of my school's computers, writing this damn tournament report when I should be working on an essay. For about a month, I've been putting off schoolwork for so I could test various decks for my State Championships in “The great state of Oklahoma!” I won the whole thing last year, so I felt that I had an obligation to defend my title to the best of my abilities, despite the fact that States gives you little other than more cards, a trophy, and bragging rights. (Not that all that stuff isn't cool.)
For some reason, I decided that it was important to me that I not just make a decent showing, but one-up myself by getting as many of my decks into the Top 8 as possible. I could pass this off as charitable by saying I wanted to see my friends do well. This had something to do with it, but basically I wanted to dominate the tournament so bad that I would effectively smash people I wasn't even playing against at the time. This was an arrogant and stupid thing to do, and it made me spread my focus too thin, so instead of having a couple of good decks, I had about a dozen bad ones.
After a month of testing, I do not have a single deck I am completely happy with, and was pretty much settled on playing U/W/G Control with Whispers of the Muse, which would probably have just got owned by Teferi. The day before States, I was up at Drake's Place, a game store where a Standard tournament was going to take place later, just browsing through the Pro Tour: Kobe coverage on one of their computers. While reading the part of the coverage talking about Momentary Blink, I got a sudden burst of inspiration that basically made me throw all my testing out the window and build a deck from scratch the day before the tournament.
“You should play this with Mystic Snake. It'll be good times.”
This got me thinking about other possible uses for the Blink, and it didn't take me long to assemble a decklist in my head that was basically a Glare deck with Blinks. To abuse the Blinks further, I used Loxodon Hierarchs, Coiling Oracles, and Yavimaya Dryads in addition to the Snakes. You have no idea how badly I wanted to add Avalanche Riders, but thankfully my common sense overruled my desire to push the deck to four colors. I rushed back home to get cards for the deck, went back to the store, borrowed more cards, and ended up winning the tournament. I made a couple of changes to the list and decided to play it, despite my severe lack of testing.
Although this is based on the typical G/W Glare skeleton, the deck actually needs more Blue mana than White, to pay Mystic Snake's UU cost, and play early Coiling Oracles. Although I feel like this is a very strong list, there are still some things wrong with it. I feel that the deck needs more White mana, as getting enough White to function properly was a problem once or twice. Other than that, the manabase is very robust, with Birds and Dryads for fixing, and Coiling Oracle for early card drawing. I feel that the main weakness of the deck is its inability to deal with utility creatures like Shadow Guildmage and Magus of the Scroll. The updated sideboard at the end of the article attempts to address that problem.
The three-ofs may seem a little random, but I felt that I needed Call of the Herd to fight beatdown decks, and a Guildmage and Dryad felt like the best cards to cut. The deck may be a little short on White mana, which could be fixed with a fourth Dryad and maybe more Hallowed Fountains. Mangara was a last-minute addition, and I didn't get much of a chance to abuse him with Blink. I think the only game I activated him, he removed all of my opponents lands, so I don't really know what to think of him. I've also heard of a few other Blink decks playing Riftwing Cloudskate for the bounce effect, which seems decent, if a little slow. Some of the cards may require a bit of explanation, so I'll go through some of the stranger choices, starting with the obvious.
Momentary Blink: This card was excellent for me the entire tournament, whether it was countering spells with Mystic Snake, gaining life with Loxodon Hierarch, or just drawing cards or getting lands with Coiling Oracle and Yavimaya Dryad. It was also handy for its more mundane uses, like dodging removal, removing guys from combat, or just untapping guys to block. There's not much better than having a Mystic Snake in play with a Blink in hand, knowing that your opponents next two spells are probably not going to resolve. Also, Blink will actually return tokens it removes from the game to play! Since the spell is one effect, the game has no chance to check for state-based effects in between the token being removed and returned, so it will return to play. One thing to be wary of is your opponent killing your Blink target in response to Blink. All in all, I feel that this is a very versatile and powerful card. It probably helped that no one expected it, but I still feel that it has the potential to be a major player in the new Standard.
Coiling Oracle: I've had quite a few people tell me they don't like this guy, and that they feel that he's extremely underpowered. While it's true that he is rarely a powerhouse, I feel that he plays so many roles in this deck that he is easily worth the slot. He synergizes with the deck in many ways, combining with Glare of Subdual, Chord of Calling, and of course, Momentary Blink. With Glare, he buys you time, holding off your opponent's threats while drawing you that much closer to your important cards. With Chord of Calling, he is simply another guy to help with convoke, which is extremely important with Chord's hefty mana cost. I've seen many people say that they wouldn't want to waste their Momentary Blinks on a lowly Coiling Oracle, so they could save them for the flashy guys like Snakes and Hierarchs. In my opinion, this is a huge mistake. One of the main reasons he is in the deck is to make sure Blink is almost always a good draw, rather than just a gimmick with Hierarchs and Mystic Snakes. There are many situations where you should simply use Blink on this guy to draw through your deck. Although it seems weak, consider how many people are playing Think Twice, a card that does essentially the same thing for only one less mana. Add to that the facts that of you can put lands into play with the Oracle, block with Oracle, and then Blink him out, or save him from removal while drawing a card, and using your Blinks on this innocuous looking creature seems a whole lot better.
Chord of Calling: This isn't really that odd of a card, but it is so versatile in this deck that it warrants some explanation. Against control, these are basically your fifth-seventh counterspells. While seven mana is obviously quite a lot for a counterspell, your creatures usually come out fast enough to make up for it. Most good players will see it coming however, as you usually need to leave creatures open to cast this effectively. Against beatdown, this is almost always going to fetch a Hierarch. I probably don't need to tell you how important Hierarch is against beatdown. If I do, you should probably take up an easier game. Maybe hopscotch or something. Chord also allows the sideboard to use a silver bullet configuration, a strategy I'm a huge fan of. While Chord usually gets these creatures, it will sometimes fetch something less flashy, like a Bird, Oracle, or Dryad. During the course of the tournament, I probably Chorded for every creature in the deck at least once. It lets the deck handle just about any situation, and adds considerably to its bag of tricks. I'd also like to note that at the tournament the night before States, I Chorded an Akroma into play at instant speed when attacked by a Phyrexian Totem. Let's just say I won that one.
Azorius Guildmage: I confess, this was only in the deck because I was horrified of facing the mono-White Tron deck with the Proclamation of Rebirth plus Martyr of Sands combo. I wanted something to Chord for to break up their combo, and put in this guy. I ended up not playing against that deck, and she wouldn't have been good against much else I played, so I never used her. Still, she only takes up one slot, and a copy of the mono-White deck did make Top 8, so it could certainly have come in handy.
Jolrael, Empress of Beasts: Getting this at the end of my opponent's turn with Chord just seemed so savage that I had to put one copy in. Sadly, every game I would have won by Chording for her, she ended up in my hand, so I never ended up smashing anyone with her. It's also worth noting that if you untap with her, your opponent can't Wrath of God without losing all of their lands.
I am horrible at relaying match details. I didn't take notes, and many of my games were simply not that interesting. So the actual tournament report part will be, shall we say, abridged.
I get up and wake up my friend Chris, or Critter as he prefers to be called. Critter is the guy who taught me to play Magic in the first place. That is, if you want to call tricking me into paying nineteen life to a Minion of the Wastes so he could kill me with a Mogg Fanatic “teaching.” He moved to New York several years ago, and recently decided to move back after an ugly breakup, and is currently living with my family until he gets better set up. I basically talked him into playing at States, even though he doesn't usually play a lot of tournaments, and loaned him a Dragonstorm deck that I didn't have the balls to play myself. Anyway, I wake him up, and we head for the tournament after he takes his customary thirty-minute shower that always seems to make me late for things somehow.
I show up to the location of the tournament, Game HQ, much later than I had intended, and begin the mad rush to find the last few cards for both my deck and Critter's Dragonstorm deck. I barely manage to fill out my decklist in time, and in my opinion it ended up looking like the scribblings of a madman on an asylum wall, but apparently it was legible. I have no further problems, and the tournament gets underway.
Just to note, it is entirely possible that some of these games went differently than I remember, and some of this may just be a bunch of completely made-up crap. I'm pretty sure I got all of the important stuff down right though.
Round 1 versus Dylan Spillman playing Solar Pox
I don't think I've ever played Dylan before, but I recognized his name from the Oklahoma DCI ratings, and knew he was probably pretty good since his rating was way up there. The match ended up being fairly uninteresting, since my deck is apparently amazing against Solar Flare variants. I get a couple of little guys on the board and poke him to death while countering all of his relevant spells with Mystic Snakes. The second game was more of the same, except with more Momentary Blink action.
1-0 in matches, 2-0 in games
Critter lost first round with his Dragonstorm deck, which I can't say surprised me too much. I personally hate the Dragonstorm deck, and he only played it because he hated my Gruul aggro deck. When Dragonstorm craps out, there's not much it can do.
Round 2 versus Colin Mowery playing W/U aggro with lots of fliers
Despite the fact that Colin is still just a kid, I wasn't looking forward to this match, since I figured he could just drop a few fliers, keep Glare off the board with counters, and Psionic Blast me to death. In practice, he had little other than an Azorius Guildmage with an Unstable Mutation on it, and I just attacked him a lot until he died. The second game was more drawn out, with me getting a Glare out and tapping his guys. He still had a couple of Azorius First-Wings that I couldn't tap, so it actually became a fairly close race. I ended up winning with Hierarchs.
2-0 in matches, 4-0 in games
Round 3 versus John Franklin playing R/U/W Firemane without counters
This match was pretty aggravating for me, since it seemed like a pretty favorable deck matchup, and I had some pretty rough luck. I win the die roll, but end up mulliganing to five on the play, so he obviously crushes me. The second game goes much better, which is pretty sad because he wiped my board of creatures three times. The first was with an unexpected Pyroclasm, the second with a Wrath. I recovered from those pretty well, and then he Wraths again, leaving a single land open. I tap out to Chord for a Mystic Snake to counter it, with a Blink waiting to lock him out of the game if I untap. He drops another land, and plays his second Pyroclasm. I follow this up by drawing land after land, none of which are Vitu-Ghazi. He throws out a Sacred Mesa, and I eventually die to Pegasus tokens.
2-1 in matches, 4-2 in games
Round 4 versus Brad Elroy playing Solar Flare
I was happy to see that he was playing Solar Flare, but was somewhat less happy when he went turn 3 Compulsive Research, turn 4 Zombify Avatar of Woe. Any other reanimate target I could have cared less about, but I couldn't really deal with Avatar of Woe. Game 2 went infinitely better, with me playing a turn 1 Birds, turn 2 Birds with Mana Leak mana up. He makes no play, and I drop Mangara on turn 3 with Leak backup, and a Blink in hand. I counter his Compulsive Research, and then start going nuts on his lands. I draw another Blink, and remove all of his lands from the game. The third game was more typical, with me playing a bunch of small creatures and countering his spells with Snake plus Blink.
3-1 in matches, 6-3 in games
Round 5 versus Feng Nai playing R/W/B Firemane with Phyrexian Arenas and discard
The first game was pretty stupid, as he mulligans, and then misses his second land drop. He eventually draws another land and plays a Boros Signet. This is probably the game I most deserved to lose all day, as I forget that Glare can tap artifacts, and let him use his Signet more than I should have. This lets him get back in the game with a Wrath of God and Phyrexian Arena. Although he did a good job of fighting back, it ended up not mattering, as he lost too much tempo early on. Interestingly, he had to cast the Odds half of Odds / Ends on his own Condemn to stay alive. He ended up countering his own spell, and lost. It probably wouldn't have mattered, but it was still a dumb situation.
The second game was all him. I countered his first Arena, but he got a second to stick that I couldn't remove. The card advantage from Arena was way too much, and I scooped to an Angel of Despair.
The third game was a bit ridiculous, but not as bad as the first. My draw comes out well, and I counter his early action with Mana Leaks. He then plays an Arena, which I destroy with an end-of-turn Chorded out Indrik Stomphowler. I attack with it, he attempts a Condemn, and I respond with a Momentary Blink, saving the Howler and bringing it back to kill a Signet. After a while it becomes apparent that he has been unable to find red mana for the entire game. He kills the Howler, but he eventually gets run over by a pair of Hierarchs. After the game, he shows his draw of four Lightning Helixes that he never had red mana to play. I doubt they would have done much, since Helix versus Hierarch isn't exactly a fair fight, but I would have been nice if he had actually been able to cast his spells. Although I'm sure he was pretty pissed off, he was very gracious about the whole situation, and didn't make a big deal out of it like I probably would have.
4-1 in matches, 8-4 in games
Round 6 versus Tyler Lytle with Zoo
Another player who I don't think I've ever played, but recognized from his high DCI rating. He wins the die roll and comes out fast with a Kird Ape and Scab-Clan Mauler, but has little else to contribute to the game other than a Char. He keeps drawing lands, and I have a Call of the Herd to stop his assault. From there I get Glare and Hierarchs, and his lackluster draw can't fight back. The second game is equally stupid, with him mulliganing to five on the play. He has a turn 2 bloodthirsty Mauler, thanks to a Seal of Fire, but once again, his draw prevents him from ever being really in the game against my Hierarchs and Glare. He accepts his bad beat graciously, and extends the hand.
5-1 in matches, 10-4 in games
After I leave the table, I see something that should never happen at one of the top tables. The mono-White lifegain mirror match. Oh. Dear. God. I watch the game for about two minutes before giving up on everything good in this world.
Round 7 versus Mike Dvorak playing Japanese Glare
Mike and I are friends, and seem to run into each other at States a lot, with him beating me with profound amounts of lucksackery more often than not. Luckily this time we can just draw in.
Side note about this guy, just to embarrass him. Last year at States, the morning of the tournament, I gave him a G/W beatdown deck with Faith's Fetters specifically designed to utterly smash any other aggro deck. He starts off 3-1, and then starts playing his match at the table right next to me. He wins his match against R/W handily, only to turn to me, holding up a Faith's Fetters, and initiate the following conversation.
Dvorak: “Why the f*** is this stupid card in here? It stops Jitte, but that's like all it does!”
Me: “Um… right… It's kind of a Pacifism, too.”
Dvorak: (Looks at card carefully) “Oh. Okay.”
He went into Top 8 as first seed last year, where he ran into me. I beat him because he tried to stop my Dimir Signet with a Fetters. Nice.
And now he is probably going to key my car.
The Top 8 was as follows.
Ryan Morlock: G/W Glare splashing Black
Ryan Gin: Solar Pox
John Franklin: R/W/U Firemane without counters
Will Farrell: Solar Flare (With Smallpox I think)
Sean Salazar: Mono-White Martyr-Proclamation combo
Me
Mike Dvorak: G/W Glare
Cory Radebaugh: Zoo
Cory's Radebaugh's Zoo deck ended up beating Ryan Morlock's Glare deck with a crazy draw in game 3 that never left him much of a chance. Ryan Gin won a very favorable matchup against Mike Dvorak's Glare deck, and Will Farrell crushed Sean Salazar's mono-White Tron deck with Persecute and Withered Wretch. As for me, I had to play against the only deck I had lost to so far, John Franklin's Firemane deck. I still felt that it was a good matchup for me, but knew I would need to play tight to pull it out.
The first game went exactly according to plan, with me getting the beats (if you want to call them that) in with a pair of Coiling Oracles. They start attacking, and when he attempts to Compulsive Research, I Mystic Snake it. The Snake adds another body to my army, and I attack him and cast Call of the Herd, with Blink backup in hand. At this point the only thing I was worried about was Wrath of God plus Lightning Helix for my Snake when I try to Blink it out. Luckily, he only has a Faith's Fetters for my Elephant token, and after making absolutely sure that the token would return to play if I Blinked it, I do so, causing him to scoop.
The second game is much longer, with him stalling with a pair of Firemane Angels in his graveyard. He clears my board, and I start dropping more creatures, including an Indrik Stomphowler for his Sacred Mesa. He drops another Mesa, and uses it to greatly slow down my attack. Eventually, he taps all but three lands to play his last card, a Firemane Angel. I Mana Leak it to tap him out so he can't make a Pegasus token. Although I was thinking it would be nice to draw a Blink for my Stomphowler to kill his Mesa, the Selesnya Guildmage that I topdecked to pump all my guys for the kill worked even better, and I moved on to the Top 4.
6-1 in matches, 12-4 in games
Semifinals versus Ryan Gin
The first game was pretty much me countering everything he tried to do. He had a Court Hussar that kept my guys at bay for quite a while, but I eventually overwhelmed it. Not much more to it than that. The second game was pretty rough; with him playing turn 3 Smallpox with a Flagstones of Trokair in play, killing a land and Selesnya Guildmage on my side. I drop another creature, only to see it Smallpoxed away as well, leaving me with nothing but a land on the board. Fortunately, he had very little pressure to follow it up with, giving me time to recover with Coiling Oracles and Yavimaya Dryads. I attack relentlessly with them, and Mystic Snake his attempt at a Court Hussar. I still had a Blink in hand, so after I untapped, there wasn't much he could have done. He scoops, putting me in the finals. Cory's Zoo deck beat Will's Solar Flare, pitting me against Zoo in the finals.
7-1 in matches, 14-4 in games
Finals versus Cory Radebaugh playing Zoo
He wins the die roll and plays a turn 1 Seal of Fire, which kills my turn 1 Birds. He plays a turn 2 Kird Ape and Savannah Lions, and I replace my Mana Birds. He attacks and passes the turn, and I drop a turn 3 Hierarch. He obviously has the Char for it, and attacks me back down to fifteen. Next turn I play another Hierarch, which walks into another Char, letting him attack me yet again. Being the lucksack that I am, I drop my third Hierarch, and he has no way to deal with this one. The big dumb elephant holds his board off, allowing me to get out a Glare for his guys, and beat him to death with elephants.
I have no mana creatures to speed me up in the second game, so my early defenses are fairly weak. He further complicated my mana situation with a Cryoclasm on my Breeding Pool, and attacks with his Kird Ape and Ronom Unicorn. Next turn he attacks, and I decided to block his Unicorn with a Selesnya Guildmage, and his Ape with a Coiling Oracle and Guildmage. Luckily, he has no burn or pump to save his guys, and the board is cleared. I eventually get a Hierarch into play, putting me at a more manageable ten life. He can't get around my Hierarch, and the board stall allows me to start playing my more powerful cards. I eventually overwhelm him, and win States for the second year in a row!
8-1 in matches, 16-4 in games
I have to say that although the deck performed extremely well, I was fortunate to win the entire thing. There were two more traditional Glare decks in the Top 8, and I have serious doubts about that matchup, since I have no real way to deal with Thelonite Hermit. Still, I haven't seen a whole lot that worries me except for other Glare decks, so that certainly shows some promise for the deck's future. Although I admit that I haven't done as much testing as I would like, I'll provide an updated list, and run through a few of the deck's more important matchups real quick. If I had to play this deck again today, I would probably play the following build.
The maindeck has minimal changes. I adjusted the manabase to play more White mana, and cut a Llanowar Elf for the fourth Yavimaya Dryad. The Elf/Dryad swap may be a mistake, and anyone who doesn't like it should just switch it back. Mangara will stay in for now, until I decide whether I like him or not. The real changes are in the sideboard, which I feel better addresses the deck's weaknesses.
You get an excellent answer to utility and evasion creatures in Serrated Arrows, which fixes a major problem with the deck. It kills Magus of the Scroll, Shadow Guildmage, Dark Confidant, Thelonite Hermit, Soltari Priest, and so many other creatures that cause this deck problems. I'm actually kind of embarrassed that I wasn't playing it before. I'm also stealing a bit of Flores tech and tossing in a copy of the seemingly janky Fortune Thief. I'll admit, he looks terrible, but Flores makes the excellent point that Glare decks basically cannot deal with him. To fit in these new cards, the deck loses Carven Caryatids against Zoo. The Caryatids are excellent, but I feel like that matchup is already heavily in your favor, and the slots are better used fixing bad matchups.
Zoo: Despite the fact that Zoo can get draws that run just about anything over, I haven't actually lost to Zoo yet. Between Call of the Herd and Glare of Subdual stopping their creatures, and Loxodon Hierarch preventing them from burning you out, the Blink deck is capable of invalidating their entire strategy. If you start Blinking out Hierarchs, they have basically no chance.
Boros aggro: I haven't played against this yet, but it seems like a worse matchup than Zoo due to their evasion creatures. You need to get a Glare on the board to stop their Soltari Priests and Mistral Chargers, so without a Glare it probably turns into a race situation largely decided by how many Hierarchs you draw. After sideboarding, you get some actual removal for their little guys in Serrated Arrows, so that helps quite a bit.
Japanese Glare: This was one of the more popular and successful decks at States, and I have to say, I don't like the look of the matchup at all. Your maindeck has no good answer for Thelonite Hermit and his cadre of saprolings. After boarding, however, your four copies of Serrated Arrows can come in and run quite a number on your opponent's board. Add to that the possibility of randomly winning off of a Chorded for Fortune Thief, and I feel that the matchup will improve quite a bit after boarding. Fortunately, with Solar Flare variants being probably the most popular archetype coming out of States, it is possible that the popularity of this type of Glare build will wane a bit in the coming weeks.
Flores U/G: They basically lose to a resolved Glare of Subdual, and most builds only have about four ways to permanently stop it. If you can't get a Glare on the board, their main threats are probably Looter Il-Kor and Moldervine Cloak. Be sure to use caution when tapping their creatures, and tap them one at a time so they resolve individually. Tapping all of your guys only to let them wreck you with Plaxmanta would be utterly embarrassing.
Dragonstorm: You don't have the fastest clock in the world, but your beatdown backed up with counterspells will usually be enough to keep them from going off. After boarding, you get Mana Leaks to boost your countering ability even more. They may have Gigadrowse to keep you away from counter mana, but they often don't have time to set up Gigadrowse and their combo.
Solar Flare: I had very little problem with any of the Solar Flare variants I played against. You can usually play a small number of creatures and hit them for a few points a turn while keeping counter mana up. The Haakon engine in the Smallpox builds could cause you problems, but other than that, I don't feel that they have much game against you.
Obviously there are many other important matchups in this ridiculously diverse Standard environment, and I would be hard pressed to cover all of them in detail. I would encourage anyone to at least give this deck a try for their local Standard events, as it really is quite unique and powerful. I believe that's all I have to relate to you about this deck and my experience playing it. I anyone has any praise/criticism/question/insults for or about the deck, I'll try to respond in the forums.
Tony Menzer
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