If you haven't read Part One, we strongly encourage you to do so now; otherwise, this article isn't going to make much sense.
So, How Do I Play Super Grow?
Other than deciding or not to mulligan, the most important early game decision you will make is what role to play, the eternal question: control or beatdown? Generally, against a slower control deck, Super Grow is best played as a beatdown deck. Your plan is to get and keep a Dryad on the board ASAP. If you can't find her, cast a Werebear or two, start beating down and hit threshold. Once you have some dudes on the board and threshold, then you play in classic aggro-control mode: countering anything that disrupts your beatdown plan, removing blockers, and ignoring most everything else that isn't going to cause you to lose in a turn or two. Against a control deck, Super Grow has a good matchup because you have more creatures than they have removal and you have just as many (if not more) counters. Of course, be careful not to over-extend yourself if mass-removal is a possibility.
Against aggressive decks (Goblins/Sligh, White Weenie, R/G Beatz, etc.) your role somewhat depends on your opening hand and how your opponent starts, but generally the right plan is control. Stay alive long enough develop your mana, draw as many cards as you can, hit threshold and play your threats. The creatures in this deck are larger than what your opponent is playing with, so it's a matter of staying alive long enough to stabilize your position and gain control of the board. At a certain point (if you've lived through your opponents initial rush of threats), you take the aggro-control position; put the beatdown deck into a defensive/control position, a role they don't play well.
Against combo, you're the control deck again. But you may have to aggressively mulligan to start with enough control cards to stay in the game.
How To Mulligan With Super Grow
Running on so few land, Super Grow can be crippled by land destruction strategies and plain-old mana screw, so practicing how to mulligan and knowing which hands are playable is critical.
Things to look for in your opening hand:
1-2 Lands, preferably Fetchlands, but Duals or basic Islands will do;
1-2 Card drawing spells, preferably Serum Visions, but Brainstorm is fine;
2-3 Permission spells, Daze, FoW, StP, Stifle, BEB, etc.;
0-2 creatures - anything but Mystic Enforcer.
These are listed in order of priority, from top to bottom. Lands are always a necessity. Opening with 1 land and Serum Visions is usually safe, especially if you have Brainstorm backup (always cast Serum Visions first though).
Since Super Grow is mostly a control deck, the "God hands" it draws are pretty boring to look at, like Fish. But here are a couple of "optimal" hands that Super Grow can draw.
Against Aggro: Island, fetchland, StP, StP, Serum Visions/Brainstorm, Daze, Force of Will. If you're playing against Red-based aggro, those StP can be BEB as well, but you'll need to play around REB if this is the case.
Against Control: Island, fetchland, Daze, Force of Will, Serum Visions/Brainstorm, Quirion Dryad, Werebear.
Against Combo: fetchland, fetchland, Brainstorm, FoW, FoW, Daze, Quirion Dryad.
Due to the land count, you'll want to shuffle the hell out of the deck before every match. Riffle shuffling (at least 7-10 times), pile shuffling, etc. You'll want those lands distributed as evenly as possible through the deck.
Yeah, That's All Well And Good, But How Do I Really Play This Deck?
We're glad you asked. As an exercise in some of the decisions you'll need to make in the early game, here's the play-by-play against a typical Suicide Black deck....
Super Grow wins the die roll (5 to 2 on a translucent green d6 if you're curious). Of course, we choose to play first.
Draw:
Daze
Serum Visions
Quirion Dryad
Serum Visions
Mystic Enforcer
Polluted Delta
Werebear
Well, this isn't the best hand but it has a few things going for it: that Daze, a Blue fetchland, and those 2 Serum Visions. There's only 1 land, but it is a fetchland, and those two Serum Visions should draw us into the land we need. And when we get another land, there's that Werebear to help us develop our mana-base. The worst thing about this hand is that it's too creature heavy. Ideally we want 1-2 creatures, and three is really on the high side. Also, having Mystic Enforcer in your opening draw is like a mulligan, but against a mono-Black deck he's worth his weight in gold (take the pun, leave the pun, whatever). Again, it's not the best hand, but it will do.
The Suicide player (Bob) keeps his original 7 cards.
Super Grow, Turn 1: Play Polluted Delta; sacrifice it for a basic Island (Hong Kong APAC, just so you know); tap Island for U, cast Serum Visions. SV draws Force of Will; Scry: Counterspell, Windswept Heath. Counterspell is best in the mid/late game, so that isn't useful at the moment, it's put on the bottom of the deck, with the Heath put on the top since we really need another land.
About our mana development, note that the Delta could have fetched any mana-producing land in the deck (except the lone basic Forest), but if you know or suspect your opponent is playing Wasteland, it's usually best to choose stability over versatility in the early game. Now if we had more land in hand and a Swords as well, it might be worth the risk to fetch a Tundra instead of the Island, but that isn't the case at the moment.
Sui Black, Turn 1: Draw, Swamp, Dark Ritual, Phyrexian Negator.
Yikes!
It's a good thing we have that Daze (and a Force of Will we got off Serum Visions, but Forcing is always a last resort). Anyway, we pay the alternate cost to Daze, returning our APAC Island to our hand. The Negator hits the graveyard. One benefit of Forcing would be to have two lands up on turn two, but since we've decided to play the control role for the early game, Daze is the right move now.
Super Grow, Turn 2: Draw Windswept Heath; play Island (the one returned to our hand last turn), cast Serum Visions; draw Quirion Dryad, Scry: Misdirection, Brainstorm. At this point we pause to consider our next couple of turns. We have that Enforcer we drew, and he/she/it will mess up Bob's plan in all sorts of ways; so one good plan involves casting Werebear next turn and using his mana-ability to power out Enforcer the turn after that (assuming we draw another land). If our opponent ruins that plan, there's always Plan B: Quirion Dryad Beatdown, since we're holding two at the moment. Since we want our creatures to live, Misdirection is put on the top of the library and Brainstorm is put on the bottom. A strong case could have been made to keep Brainstorm on top with MisD beneath it, and cast Brainstorm next turn to draw the MisD (because the bottom card is going to get shuffled away when we activate the Heath) but then we wouldn't be able to play Werebear next turn. Another good play would be to move both cards to the bottom of the library to double the chance of drawing another land over the next two turns; these are all things to consider. Finally, note the graveyard count at the end of our second turn: 4 (Delta, Visions, Daze, Visions).
Sui Black, turn 2: Draw, Swamp (a foil Kamigawa Swamp, sweet); Flesh Reaver. Fine.
Super Grow, turn 3: Draw Misdirection; play Windswept Heath, sacrifice Heath for our basic Forest (this could be a Tropical Island but we need our lands to stick around for a couple of more turns); tap Island and Forest for Werebear. Graveyard count: 5.
(If you go back and check, that's a total of 16 decisions we've made so far. That number might be a little off, but it's no less than 16. Note that we made eight decisions before our second turn began: 1) play or draw; 2) keep hand or mulligan; 3) which land to fetch; 4) cast SV or pass turn; 5) scry: Counterspell: top/bottom; 6) scry: Heath: top/bottom. 7) counter Negator; 8) Force or Daze. Granted, some of these decisions a well-trained gorilla could make; just know that if you're going to play Super Grow in a tournament you'll need to keep your mind focused on the games, because even a small play error can easily lead to a game loss.)
Sui Black, turn 3: Draw, Bloodstained Mire, sacrifice for Swamp; Swamp, Swamp are tapped to cast Hymn to Tourach. Though we were saving it for critter removal, our Misdirection will do just as well here, so we Misdirect that Hymn back to Bob, removing Force of Will from the game (graveyard count: 6). Bob isn't exactly smiling as he discards a Wasteland and Night's Whispers. In retribution, Bob attacks with Flesh Reaver, bringing us down to 14.
Super Grow, turn 4: Draw Flooded Strand (scrying that Brainstorm to the bottom of the library two turns ago was the right move after all!); sacrifice Strand for Tundra (graveyard count: 7, threshold); tap Island, Forest, Tundra, tap Werebear for G, cast Mystic Enforcer. That's pretty much game. We now have a 4/4 (tapped) and a untapped flying, Protection from Black 6/6 creature in play, and a couple of Quirion Dryads in hand.
We play it out anyway. The following turn, Diabolic Edict sends Werebear to the graveyward and our Tundra gets Wasted, but the Dryads and a second Mystic Enforcer all join the party within the next few turns, and things just spiral out of control for Bob from there.
This exercise serves to illustrate the many decisions you'll need to make: which lands to fetch, which cards to Scry away, which creatures to play, which counters to cast, etc. Super Grow is a deck that punishes bad decisions severely, but rewards good play skill just as well.
Matchups
Because of the infancy of the format, the top Legacy tier is pretty murky, but consistent standouts include Survival of the Fittest-based decks, Goblins and other Sligh/RDW-esque beatdown decks, Blue/Green Madness, Mono-Blue (sometimes with White) Control and a few combo decks. Since Legacy has yet to establish a regionally-consistent metagame, we thought we'd pick some decks you're likely to see and discuss sideboard options and strategies.
Survival-based Decks (Angry Tradewind Survival, Survival-Advantage, etc.):
Side In: Meddling Mage, Seal of Cleansing, Ray of Revelation, Annul, Wax/Wane, Damping Matrix, Cursed Totem
Side Out: Misdirection
Your Role: Control
Against ATS and other Survival of the Fittest based-decks, Super Grow is the control deck. There is always the possibility of capitalizing on a poor-draw (or poor play) and swinging for an early win, but let that happen on its own. Your primary job is to lay lands, draw cards, and disrupt their lock parts, with their key lock mechanism being Survival of the Fittest. If you have the opportunity to disrupt their early mana base, and I mean early (e.g. you open with 2 Stifles, and they open with 2 fetches) then go for it. Also, slow their creature-based mana development by Dazing/Countering/Swordsing their Birds of Paradise, Wall of Roots, or Quirion Ranger.
With White as a support color, Super Grow has many ways to disrupt their plan: Meddling Mage naming "Survival of the Fittest," "Tradewind Rider" or "Spore Frog"; Seal of Cleansing, Disenchant, Ray of Revelation, Wane, and Annul for Survival; Swords to Plowshares for Rofellos, Masticore, and Tradewinder Rider. Super Grow has many ways to stay in the game.
But it isn't over just because you've handled Survival. With their explosive mana-production capabilities, hardcasting their threats from their hand is always an option. But once you've established board control, you should overwhelm them with card advantage over the course of several turns. And getting out a thresholded Enforcer and Werebear puts them on a two-turn clock.
Blue/Green Madness
Side In: Engineered Explosives, Stifle, Vedalkan Shackles, Damping Matrix, Cursed Totem
Side Out: Misdirection
Your Role: Control
Now this is an interesting matchup; an old-fashioned Odyssey-block mechanic cage-fight. If you're playing first, you can safely go: fetch/Island/dual -> Serum Visions/EOT Brainstorm and be fine, because at best they're going: "land, Brainstorm on your EOT or Basking Rootwalla, go" on their first turn. The critical turn is their second, because you'll need to stop that two-mana Madness outlet at all costs. Your first line of defense is your countermagic. They'll only have Force of Will to counter back (and likely Daze for games 2 & 3), but their Circular Logics won't be castable yet. Your second line of defense is Swords to Plowshares and Engineered Explosives (or other mass-removal), but those won't stop them from dumping Wonder into their graveyard before the outlet is removed; and Wonder causes all sorts of headaches for Super Grow.
Sideboard Gaea's Blessing or Tormod's Crypt to deal with Wonder if Madness is dominant in your area. If your opponent is running Waterfront Bouncer or Echoing Truth, your Dryads will become exceptionally sucky, since she'll lose all of her counters when she's returned to your hand. However, Bouncer is a card that's safe to Swords (preferably with counter backup), since he can't use his bouncing ability the turn he comes into play. Though the odds are slightly in Madness' favor, this is not a hopeless match. It will come down to skill, luck, and the particular build your opponent is playing. Note that Engineered Explosives with zero counters will destroy all token creatures (like Roar of the Wurm tokens). And, set to "2", EE will destroy all of your opponent's permanent Madness outlets.
Goblins / Joblins
Side In: Chill, Blue Elemental Blast, Sphere of Law, Vedalkan Shackles, Engineered Explosives, Powder Keg
Side Out: Accumulated Knowledge, Merchant Scroll, Quirion Dryad
Your Role: Control
This is a difficult matchup because Goblins decks are fast. So you'll need any equally fast "control hand" to win, since you're not going to out-aggro them. But if you can survive their early blitz, you have a chance of pulling it off.
Goblin Lackey: The classic opening: Mountain, Lackey, ugh. Either Daze Lackey as it's being cast, Force of Will it, or Swords to Plowshares it if it hits play. Trade one-for-one if you can get a Werebear or Dryad into play. Just don't let Lackey deal you combat damage to you, or things will quickly get out of hand.
Mogg Fanatic: Since you'll be playing back a bit anyway, you shouldn't worry too much about this one, except you'll want to be sure not to lay a Quirion Dryad unless you either have Stifle or a cantrip that you can cast immediately. Use the stack to your advantage: don't cast your cantrip until he attempts to pop your Dryad with the Fanatic, because the +1/+1 ability of the Dryad is a triggered-effect and uses the stack. Make him go for it first and respond; remember you are the control here.
Goblin Grenade: The crucial "warning zone" for this deck is anything under 10 life, since two Goblin Grenades can end the game. Misdirection comes in quite handy here, providing a net 10 life game swing in your favor, if you target your opponent. In general, Misdirection has a lot of utility in this match to protect your permanents and avoid stuff like dying.
Resolving an early Chill will slow them down (though the game is certainly not over, two Chills, however...), since they rely on their low mana-curve. Essentially, Chill buys you a few turns to develop your resources and find more answers. Though twice the cost, Sphere of Law is another option; one that most opponents will hate to see.
One side-note: a variant of Super Grow (Aaron's) packs Nevinyrral's Disk and Aether Vial. Both cards are very strong against Goblins, the former more so than the latter. Disk buys you time the same way Chill does. It doesn't win you the game, but it will buy you a turn or two. Aether Vial can be used to your advantage for getting your threats into play and doing combat tricks with it. (Vial a Werebear or Dryad, with cantrip backup, into play after they declare their attackers, but before the declare blockers step). Disk can give you the board advantage you need to take control.
Red/Green Beatdown
Sideboard Strategy: same as Goblins (see above)
Your Role: Control
This is a somewhat favorable match, but it isn't easy. Play conservatively, but Daze aggressively. If your opponent is playing with Rancor, wait until they cast it and then Swords their target creature while Rancor is on the stack. That's an easy two-for-one. Quirion Dryad is hot and cold. She'll have a large Lightning Bolt bulls-eye on her for a few turns, so don't count on her doing much other than contributing to your graveyard. If you can get three or four counters on her, she's in the clear. When you hit threshold, Werebear, and especially Mystic Enforcer, are the game-turners for this match. Protect those, draw as many cards as you can, and you should win.
Know that Werebears make great target practice for Flametongue Kavu, so watch out for them when your opponent hits four mana. You can Stifle the "comes-into-play" ability, but you'll still have an opposing 4/2 to deal with. Troll Ascetic should usually be countered, unless you have threshold and a blocker; a Rancored-Troll is problem, but then you're running Misdirection, and a Rancored-Mystic Enforcer is, well, something your opponent doesn't want to see. This should go without saying, but if your opponent is boarding in Blood Moon after the first game, the first thing you'll want to fetch is one of your basic Islands to counter or remove it with one of the 3 or 4 Blue Elemental Blasts you'll sideboard in. Though, even under Blood Moon, it's still possible to win this match with your basic lands in play (or a basic Island and a Werebear). Finally, since most of your opponent's threats will be clustered in the one- to two-mana range, Engineered Explosives can be devastating if you're opponent has overextended themselves.
Control (Blue, Blue/White):
Sideboard tech: Aether Vial (Aaron's tech), Meddling Mage, Seal of Cleansing, Control Magic
Your Role: Beatdown
As in days of old (i.e. 2000), this is still a favorable match. Make them pitch their cards to counter to your threats, and make sure you have counters to back up your threats. The more you can wear down the hand the weaker they will be since a control player is only as strong as their hand is full. And don't hold back because you are fearing a Counterspell or two. Just apply your pressure as early and often as you can.
In game 2, bring in Aether Vial if that's in your sideboard. They are three more threats that your opponent now has to counter. Don't worry too much about getting a Vial up to "4"; you should be able to win with a Dryad and a Werebear. If you choose to bring in a Meddling Mage or Seal of Cleansing, only do so if they are playing a board-control variant (such as Moat, Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, etc.) or if you are fearing White board clearers (Wrath of God, etc.).
Suicide Black
Sideboard tech: Aether Vial, Damping Matrix, Meddling Mage
Your Role: Control
This matchup is in your favor, but like Goblins, it's a matter of living to see the mid-game so you can get your threats on the board. After that you should practically win by default, since Super Grow has inevitability over mono-Black (provided something doesn't go horribly awry.)
Phyrexian Negators: read this card carefully, and abuse. Aether Vial can come in handy here. Vial in that Werebear-it's sacrificial, but you'll kill off four of his perms in the process. You'll also have Swords to Plowshares.
Flesh Reaver: some builds play this, again, with Aether Vial you can trade one-for-one with it, damaging your opponent in the process.
Nantuko Shade: Damping Matrix is really handy here. It's also another reason to get your Mystic Enforcer out as soon as possible.
Hymn to Tourach / Sinkhole: Both are targeted effects. Get where I'm going with this? These can be potentially devastating if you have Misdirection in hand. Since these are favorable matches, we haven't dedicated a lot of sideboard space to fight Sui, but if they're popular in your area and they're giving you problems, you can always pack Compost, Karma and other Black hosers into your sideboard.
Goblin Charbelcher
Side In: Meddling Mage, Seal of Cleansing, Annul, Null Rod
Side Out: Misdirection, Isochron Scepter
Your Role: Control
This game is all about surviving the first few turns. Unlike Type 1 Goblin Charbelcher, this deck can have a hard time recovering from an early stunted mana base, so you'll want to disrupt their early mana production as much as possible. Let them cast Land Grant (it gives you more information) but counter Tinder Wall, Daze Goblin Charbelcher, Swords to Plowshares Goblin Welder and most importantly of all: let him cast Spoils of the Vault. You'll get to see what cards are removed and sometimes you can win just because the card he wants (even a four-of) may be just out of reach. If he doesn't go off on the first turn, get out a creature or two and start beating them down. Legacy Goblin Charbelcher uses life as a precious commodity, so even slight decreases in their life-total can be gamebreaking.
Finally, we encourage all competent Legacy players and writers to get off their asses and write a good article or two. Now, there are several reasons that the old Type 1.5 format languished in obscurity, but the main reason was that so few people played it. If we want our format to be vibrant and dynamic, we to need take a good, hard look at how the Type 1 community resuscitated that dinosaur of a format: organizing tournaments, handcrafting an exceptional online community (www.themanadrain.com), and writing until their fingers bled. Stephen Menendian, Oscar Tan, JP Meyer, and a few others did what so few people were doing: communicating to the public how awesome their format was. And look at Vintage now: a wide range of innovative top-tier decks, SCG's P9 Tournament Series (and many other well-attended tournaments), and (to a limited degree) the attention of Wizards of the Coast.
Now, given the depth of the Legacy carpool, the banning of offending cards (price and power-wise) that discourage people from playing Vintage, and the amount of exploration to be done, Legacy is one of the most enjoyable format people can play. Cards don't rotate out as they do in Standard, Block, or Extended, so all of your dual lands, Force of Wills, Jester's Caps, Psionic Blasts, and whatnot have a format they can call home and you don't have to worry about your opponent pulling that Yawgmoth's Will out of their ass when they should be toast. It's the best of all possible worlds, really.
The fate of the format is up to us folks. Thanks for reading.
Dan Spero
bardo_trout on TMD and MTS
email: bardo49 at yahoo dot com
Aaron Hill
Strick09 on TMD and MTS
email: strick09 at electric dot dreamhost dot com
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