Cogs has been a personal fascination of mine ever since I destroyed everyone at the Fifth Dawn Prerelease during a 555 Draft with an Auriok Salvagers and every Trinket Mage and Myr Servitor I was passed. It featured an alternate kill with Grinding Station, which is some good against forty-card decks.
In addition to the Cogs theme, Fifth Dawn also contained the Sunburst mechanic, and I thought to myself: "Could these mechanics work together?"
From that fledgling deck idea, I stumbled onto the surprisingly green Etched Oracle, my favorite Fifth Dawn card. Everything about Etched Oracle is beautiful. Turn 3 Etched Oracle is a wonderfully green opening to the game. How can you not be friends with a 4/4 for four that can trade itself for three cards? You can dump piles of +1/+1 counters on it or even target your teammates to share the card drawing. I have even decked an opponent before with an Etched Oracle when he Arc-slogged too much for safety's sake.
If you compare Etched Oracle to proven cards in the past, its quality is undeniable. Thirst for Knowledge is a two-for-one. Ancestral Recall is a three-for-one. Etched Oracle is a freaking four-for-one. Sometimes that fourth card your opponent's spot removal, sometimes that fourth card is a free block or trade in combat, and sometimes that fourth card is your opponent's twenty life points.
Granted, you can't just throw Etched Oracle into any blue deck like you can Thirst for Knowledge, or any deck period like Meloku the Clouded Mirror. You need colors, lots of colors. Actually, lots of different colors. Well, actually, lots of different colors early in the game. And that is very difficult to accomplish without pain or dual land assistance. What is a creature like Etched Oracle supposed to do? Will it ever find a home?
Etched Oracle is never the focus of a deck; it is never the goal, the endgame, in of itself the strategy. Etched Oracle is a specialized tool for a specialized mana base for a specialized kind of deck.
A deck I was going to build, come hell or highwater.
The card even looks stellar as all get-out in foil. I think I'm in love.
Around this time, everyone else in the world was busy abusing Eternal Witness in every possible way, confirming the rumors that yes, she is The Best Green Creature Ever Printed. Archetypes based on Eternal Witness exploded onto the tournament scene. Dominating decks like Eternal Slide, Crystal Witness, Oversold Witness, Eternal Foundry, Tradewind Witness, Eternal Aluren, Gifted Witness, Eternal Mastermind, Dispersing Orb Witness, Eternal Cowardice, and Unearth Witness began qualifying players by the trillions. With diligent deckbuilders concocting new archetypes like Blood Clock Witness and Serow Witness in underground tech laboratories even as we speak, Eternal Witness only grows in power as each newly printed card lusts for infinite recursion.
Today, you will hear how I "created" a "new" deck and, as always, smashed everyone at Friday Night Magic with green cards. I did it before, I'm doing it now, and I just might do it again.
Sunburst + Cogs. Could it work? Why yes; yes, it can.
Eventually.
Our story actually begins many eons ago...
Sunburst Cogs v1.0
Kenneth Nagle
Mirrodin-Champions of Kamigawa Standard, Pre-Nuclear Ban
Creatures (12)
4 Trinket Mage
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Etched Oracle
Cogs (16)
4 Wayfarer's Bauble
4 Engineered Explosives
2 Aether Spellbomb
2 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
1 Necrogen Spellbomb
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Welding Jar
Other (8)
4 Pentad Prism
3 Salvaging Station
1 Door to Nothingness
Land (24)
1 Ancient Den
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Great Furnace
1 Tree of Tales
7 Island
6 Plains
3 Swamp
3 Mountain
2 Forest
This deck does a number of unique things, which I will quickly summarize before moving on:
- Sunburst Cogs loses 100% of the time to Ravager Affinity. In the closest game, my opponent had an empty board under Necrogen Spellbomb-lock, but I still lost to Shrapnel Blast just one untap phase from an active Sunbeam Spellbomb. Needless to say, I came in second place at Friday Night Magic a whole lot with this deck.
- By contrast, the deck has a crazy high 90%+ win percentage against Big Red LD-based decks.
- It puts the colored artifact lands to fair use, since they would likely be Legendary anyway if R&D were allowed do-overs.
- The deck has a fundamental turn of 6; the turn when Auriok Salvagers or Salvaging Station comes down to wrest control of the game via slow and relentless Cog recursion.
- Every card in the deck is resistant to Engineered Explosives, save Auriok Salvagers (who requires Aether Spellbomb help). This deck Explodes from zero to five early and often with no regard for safety.
- There are very few threats that can't be contained with the Cog toolbox and recursion. The few cards it can't handle include Troll Ascetic, Pristine Angel, Plated Slagwurm, and Salvaging Station.
- I swear, Door to Nothingness wins are freaking hilarious; it would be the most jaw-droppingly astounding win ever to steal the World Championship by turboing a Door underneath your opponent's Meloku. What a race that would be.
The March 1st, 2005 Bannings came and went, taking with it Trinket Mage's ability to tutor up truly degenerate cards like Tree of Tales and Ancient Den. I set aside Sunburst Cogs, turning my attention instead to the then-and-now best card in Standard - Eternal Witness.
To my surprise, an Eternal Witness deck is not entirely different from a Cog deck if you triple the mana cost and power level of everything. Eternal Witness lets you play with your graveyard and move cards around from zone to zone, all while taking an excruciatingly long time to kill your opponent, just like a Cog deck would. How keen.
It would be Thursday, May 26, 2005 - two full Etched Oracleless months after the bannings went into effect before I would reunite with Standard's best four-drop through an inspirational deck presented in Mike Flores' "Throwing Down the Gauntlet":
This deck, without actually playing the deck and using just my intuition, looks like a Sword of Fire and Ice deck stuffed with all kinds of tricks. The reason is because there are four Blinkmoth Nexi hidden inside an otherwise colorful manabase. Between all the utility creatures with warm bodies, this deck seems poised to equip a Sword to a flyer and dominate the table (Anyone else out there ever wonder what a Sword of Life and Artifice might do? I was thinking Naturalize and Millstone...).
Of course, there's the requisite 1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror to identify it as a Standard deck. Meloku always leads a solitary life while Sakura-Tribe Elders travel in fours; if your numbers are different, you must be crazy.
Sharfman has trimmed the Reaches he doesn't need, snuck in colorless utility lands, and filled out his three-drops with Swords and Trinket Mages. This likely gives him a potent threat with a Sword, Etched Oracle, Meloku, or a board-stabilizing Fireball on what I estimate is a religious turn 4. If this indeed is Green Goodstuff's plan, I can see how the third and fourth Witnesses do not help get you there, only to help pick up the pieces when the plan goes awry. Sword of Fire and Ice. Green loves that card.
From here, I began concocting a new Sunburst Cogs deck with green as the primary color and retooled the Cog toolbox to include the green Spellbomb - Sensei's Divining Top. For the rest of the deck, I had to keep in mind my...
Friday Night Magic Metagame Concerns
- Counter-based Control - There are always healthy doses of countermagic, Vedalken Shackles, and Briberies at my shop. Bribery makes life especially difficult for a green mage.
- Cranial Extraction - This card sees way too much play at my shop. The maindeck Briberies and Cranial Extractions week after week go a long way to deterring Tooth and Nail, which has all but faded there. I can't imagine playing maindeck Cranial Extraction unless your deck is already fiercely resistant to beatdown and could use some anti-control cards. Nonetheless, resistance to Cranial Extraction is more important than it should be for me at the moment.
- Tendrils of Agony - Any big finisher like Doubling Cube-powered Fireball, Death Cloud, or Tooth and Nail here will do; I specifically mention this storm card because I feel it's the least interactive card in all of Magic. I generally only play four slots of countermagic, dedicated discard, and mana denial (if any at all) to disrupt these strategies. Load up too much on these and you run the risk of drawing them at the wrong time. My worst-case scenario would be four Condescend, four Plow Under, and four Cranial Extraction between maindeck and sideboard. If you expect lots of huge finisher/combo-type decks, you probably don't want to play any deck I enjoy playing without significant modifications.
- Random Tech - Craziness can happen at Friday Night Magic. I've run into an Underworld Dreams + Howling Mine + Seizan, Perverter of Truth deck, various Isochron Scepter Arcane decks, and every beatdown deck under the sun. Engineered Explosives and the Cog toolbox shine against randomness.
Keeping all these things in mind after some minor playtesting, it became clear that four Witnesses, four Oracles, and four Salvagers stuff the deck with too many mana-intensive cards. I did some trimming and added singletons of all the cards I wanted to try. I do this frequently with new decks; you may miss a true gem if you don't. I filled the final two slots with Magic's newest singleton enabler, Gifts Ungiven, and arrived at a version worthy of a Friday Night Magic gauntlet with my $5 on the line.
Sunburst + Cogs + Gifts? It's called a green control deck, and it goes a little something like this:
Gifted Cogs v1.0
Mana Acceleration (10)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Kodama's Reach
Utility Creatures (13)
4 Trinket Mage
3 Etched Oracle
3 Eternal Witness
2 Auriok Salvagers
1 Duplicant
Cogs (7)
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
1 Necrogen Spellbomb
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
Bombs (7)
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Salvaging Station
2 Gifts Ungiven
1 Plow Under
1 Fireball
Land (23)
3 Mirrodin's Core
10 Forest
5 Island
3 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Viridian Shaman
2 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Iwamori of the Open Fist
1 Etched Oracle
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Rude Awakening
2 Plow Under
2 Cranial Extraction
Attention Netdeckers:
A word of caution to all you netdecking fools out there: This deck is still very experimental; play it at your own risk. In addition, this deck is not easy at all to execute optimally. Here are ten questions you'll have to answer every match, every game, or every turn.
Which lands should I search for?
The normal Gifted Cog color curve is Green, Blue, White, Red, Black (or Forest, Island, Plains, Mountain, Swamp). So in general, that's the order your basics should hit the table barring an emergency red source, as red is the creature-killing color. The trick with this deck is you will probably want two sources of white on the turn you summon Auriok Salvagers.
Which land should I play this turn?
If you were my red counterpart Dan Paskins, you could just answer, "Mountain" - but it's far more difficult when you play the rainbow. For example, if you drop Mirrodin's Core too early, you may color screw yourself out of an Etched Oracle. If you play Mirrodin's Core too late, you may miss out on charge counters. If you wait forever to play the Swamp in your hand, you may start the Necrogen Spellbomb lock one turn later than you could have.
Which lands should I tap for mana?
If you tap your lands sub-optimally, you may find yourself depleting a Mirrodin's Core when you could have tapped differently and used the proper basic land instead. Pay careful attention to the colored mana you want active at end of turn. If you are very likely to use it (such as a white mana to activate Auriok Salvagers), leave the proper basic land untapped. If you just need to threaten a mana but are unlikely to use it (such as popping Etched Oracle), try to leave the Mirrodin's Core untapped so you can charge it given the opportunity.
Which Cog should I search for with Trinket Mage?
The one that you need, of course. It's a toolbox, after all. If there are no immediate problems and I have plenty of mana, I just get Sensei's Divining Top and destroy my opponents with it. One stupid trick is to Trinket Mage for Aether Spellbomb and use it to bounce Trinket Mage after a block, then replay Trinket Mage for another cog. You'll want Aether Spellbomb, Pyrite Spellbomb, and/or Engineered Explosives somewhere between your hand and graveyard to turn Auriok Salvagers into the late-game-dominating beast he can be.
When should I use my Cogs and when should I 'cycle' them?
This comes from experience with playing a Cog deck. Everything is relative. That said, Aether Spellbomb is far better as an Unsummon than a random card the vast majority of the time.
Try very hard not to shuffle away your Top.
What should I Regrow with Eternal Witness?
You should have plenty of practice with Eternal Witness by now. I'm not helping you there.
When should I trade my Etched Oracle for Ancestral Recall?
I usually don't. Etched Oracle is huge. Turn it sideways and watch your opponent cry. If you pop your Oracle just to be flashy and draw some cards, you'll draw three lands and lose the game. I promise.
What should I Gifts Ungiven for?
Everyone is breaking Gifts Ungiven in every format, so if you haven't had much experience with the card, it's high time you got started. I'm still a novice Gifter myself. It's the smartest card printed in quite a while in my opinion, beginning at the deckbuilding level and rippling its way through the myriad "What if?" scenarios each player calculates when it resolves. I'd appreciate some feedback in the forums if you see me incorrectly Gifts or would tackle a Gifts differently.
Am I the Control or am I the Beatdown?
Against the popular Tooth and Nail and MonoBlue Control decks, you are most certainly the beatdown. Against an obvious beatdown deck like Sligh, MonoGreen Aggro, White Weenie, or Rats, utilize your superb blockers and dig for Engineered Explosives to control the game. When in doubt, if your creatures outclass your opponent's creatures on the table, go for the beatdown.
How do I sideboard for a particular matchup?
That's up to you and the sideboard you metagamed for that particular tournament. I play my decks my own way. I will do strange things like sideboard out two out of my four Sensei's Divining Tops against MUC in an attempt to draw a quantity of good spells and cease digging, as most of the time they counter my shuffle effects anyway. If you are very terrible at sideboarding, you can always observe someone else playing a very similar deck and copy them.
Why is Salvaging Station so brutal?
Probably because it's a six-mana artifact in a world full of artifact hate. It had better be brutal. It helps that everyone is so happy to throw his or her Sakura-Tribe Elders, Eternal Witnesses, Trinket Mages, and Etched Oracles into the graveyard, enabling a great amount of finesse with Salvaging Station.
Just look at all the wonderful things Salvaging Station can do:
This card used to cost an unbelievable five mana. Unbelievable!
Now that you know what Gifted Cogs demands of its pilot, isn't it time for the part where I smash everyone with green cards?
The Weekly Friday Night Magic Tournament
Jak's
Biloxi, MS
May 29, 2005
Ah, yes. Here it comes. The part where I smash everyone with green cards. My favorite part!
Round 1: John with MonoGreen Cloudpost
Game 1: What is this guy playing?
I lead with the completely-overpowered-in-my-deck Birds of Paradise into Kodama's Reach. John has Forest, Forest, Sylvan Scrying for Cloudpost. I drop two more Birds of Paradise and a Trinket Mage for Engineered Explosives, fearing anything from Beacon of Creation to Iwamori of the Open Fist. Instead, my Island gets Reap and Sowed. I play another Island and Gifts Ungiven into...
- Eternal Witness, Sword of Fire and Ice, Etched Oracle, Plow Under -
...netting Eternal Witness and Sword of Fire and Ice (in retrospect, Sword of Light and Shadow in lieu of Etched Oracle might have been quite brutal here). I Witness back Plow Under, putting John on Tooth and Nail. He answers with Oblivion Stone, poised to blow up my three Birds, Trinket Mage, and Eternal Witness. John gets Plow Undered, then gets Plow Undered again when I Aether Spellbomb my Eternal Witness, which strands his Oblivion Stone and seals the game.
It's a lame way to win, I know, but it's green and it works. I don't do it very often. And besides, John is more than likely playing Tooth and Nail, a deck that ceased to be cool the instant Kiki-Jiki defiled all the other yummy, hardcastable creatures by usurping a permanent maindeck slot in an otherwise monogreen combo deck.
Sideboarding:
-1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
-1 Wayfarer's Bauble
+2 Plow Under
John appears to be playing Tooth and Nail, but I'm not completely sure; people play some crazy things around here. His deck obviously does not commit much to the table so here come the Plow Unders. Around this time I also realize that Trinket Mage for Wayfarer's Bauble is just a dumb scenario that should never happen in a deck that sports one of the best acceleration engines green has ever seen with Birds of Paradise, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and Kodama's Reach. I'm dropping it from the deck as soon as possible.
Game 2: Seriously, what is this guy playing?
John leads with Cloudpost and Forest while I jumpstart with Birds of Paradise into Trinket Mage for Sensei's Divining Top. John answers with Oblivion Stone. I drop an Elder while spinning the Top for Plow Unders. Sure enough, I find one despite John's Reap and Sow on my Forest. I Witness my Plow Under but John eventually draws out of it and blows his Stone.
I rebuild with my Top, a Trinket Mage into Aether Spellbomb, and an Elder. John Witnesses back his Oblivion Stone and plays it, but a turn later he tries to Viridian Shaman my Top, which I pop, destroying his own Oblivion Stone. Sword of Fire and Iced Bird puts him on a clock. His desperation play is Platinum Angel, but my Aether Spellbomb is still sitting on the table.
If you want to fight Tooth and Nail, try Plow Under, Cranial Extraction, Temporal Adept, Sowing Salt, or Hokori, Dust Drinker. There's at least one brutal card in every color so you have no excuse. You can try a very fast clock but in my Tooth and Nail days I don't remember dying to sheer damage very often unless it was Shrapnel Blast or Arc-Slogger. Disruption is the way to go.
Match Record: 1-0
Round 2: Scott with Turbo Magpie
I know many people hate MonoBlue Control, but I find it can be a rather interesting match, even if it's a little slow at times. This is mainly because I am a green mage whose Viridian Shamen, Troll Ascetics, and Molder Slugs wreck Vedalken Shackles. On the other side of the coin, I live in constant fear of Bribery. The only truly lame mechanic blue has at the moment is an abundance of land bounce (Temporal Adept, Boomerang, Eye of Nowhere) which can end the game before it even gets started. And Shackles against nongreen aggro decks. And Meloku.
Game 1: I Wonder How Many Games I Lose By Not Playing That Guy
I get my wonderful turn 1 Birds of Paradise but my Trinket Mage gets hit by Mana Leak. I try an Etched Oracle when the only card that could stop it is another Mana Leak... but Scott has it.
I let out a sigh and get my Elder Hindered to the top, which I somehow read. I play a second Elder, since I've still got two more in my hand. My team of Elders beats down for eleven points until Thieving Magpie shows up. Scott goes into Bribery-all-your-Witnesses mode and I lose quite handily. He comments how badly he wanted to Bribe my Meloku.
Sideboarding:
-2 Birds of Paradise
-1 Wayfarer's Bauble
-1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
-1 Sword of Light and Shadow
+2 Viridian Shaman
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Etched Oracle
+1 Plow Under
I probably need to justify my sideboarding here: I want to increase my threat density. MUC is at its very best against a deck that spends lots of time and mana setting up a big spell for it to counter, steal, or bounce very cheaply. My deck isn't particularly vulnerable to counterspells, but if a Witness, Oracle, Salvagers, Sword, Gifts, or Salvaging Station never hits, I can't very well win with just mana acceleration and Cogs, especially when many of my cards can be neutralized by a single Vedalken Shackles.
Birds of Paradise are great at powering out spells in the early game to be hit by Mana Leak or Condescend, then getting Shackled. While Plow Under is a great card, it costs a healthy chunk of mana against a deck that wins by countering big expensive spells and beating with Thieving Magpie. My goal is to maintain a board position that meets or exceeds a Thieving Magpie, not let it get active and try to resolve spells like Plow Under and Cranial Extraction (which is difficult to cast since I sided out Birds) while letting that Magpie beat my face. Ideally, I beat down with Elders, Mages, and Shaman any Shackles to force a play, and then I resolve a true bomb like Etched Oracle, Auriok Salvagers, Salvaging Station, or a Sword of Fire and Ice. Green can also play Troll Ascetic, which trumps most everything the blue mage has except Meloku, Keiga, and Spire Golem.
Game 2: Blue's Lame Mechanic
I lead with my unnecessary (but in retrospect, incredibly vital) Wayfarer's Bauble and pop it but Scott Boomerangs the Island it fetches before I untap. I can still play my Trinket Mage and fetch an Engineered Explosives as a catch all answer to Thieving Magpie or Shackles. Instead, Scott drops Temporal Adept.
Usually, that guy is invincible against my green decks. Not today.
I lay my Engineered Explosives for three as a lame answer for the land-hosing Adept. Scott bounces my Island again during his main phase, forfeiting it to my Explosives, but I lose my beatdown Trinket Mage in the process.
Scott plays another Temporal Adept, leaving himself wide open for a Plow Under, which completely wrecks the tempo game he was playing. I use a Trinket Mage to get the correct answer for Temporal Adept - Pyrite Spellbomb. My Etched Oracle gets Hindered to the bottom, then Scott drops Thieving Magpie. I use an Aether Spellbomb on it and ramp with Kodama's Reach.
When the Magpie hits the table the second time, down comes my Salvaging Station to recur my Aether Spellbomb. Scott empties his hand by laying Island, tapping eight mana, and dropping two Thieving Magpies. With help from Sakura-Tribe Elder, I double Pyrite one Magpie and bounce the other, but Scott concedes before I can start doing fun tricks with Eternal Witness and Salvaging Station + Aether Spellbomb.
Game 3: Viridian Shaman, How Could I Doubt Thee?
I have just a Pyrite and Aether Spellbomb to start the game while Scott goes turbo with Chrome Mox, Serum Visions into Chrome Mox, Thirst for Knowledge. I bounce his Thieving Magpie, but Scott immediately Briberies a Witness. In a crazy ownage play, I Eternal Witness my Aether Spellbomb to bounce the Bribed Witness to my hand. The pain is visible on Scott's face.
My Etched Oracle gets Rewound and my second Eternal Witness gets Time Stopped. I get a Trinket Mage into Sensei's Divining Top while Scott Bribes my final Witness and finishes his Bribery parade with Auriok Salvagers.
At this point, the game breaks into a very long war of attrition. Basically, Vedalken Shackles locks the game up by taking both my Auriok Salvagers until I finally find a Viridian Shaman, allowing my Auriok Salvagers, Cogs, and fourteen land to work Scott over.
Man, I really need to fit four Viridian Shaman between the maindeck and sideboard of any green deck I play in Standard. I had some ludicrous thought that I wouldn't need all four Viridian Shamen because I also play Engineered Explosives.
Match Record: 2-0
Round 3: Praxedis with G/B Death Cloud
I thought this was going to be an interesting match, but I boy was I fooled. I tried my best to make it interesting but decks that just accelerate like crazy then play one huge spell (i.e., "a combo deck") just aren't interactive and therefore not much fun.
Game 1: Where are my Mana Leaks?
My turns: I play Birds of Paradise into Sword of Light and Shadow. I equip, swing, then play an Elder (bad play; I should have sacrificed the Elder first, then retrieved him with the Sword). I play Sensei's Divining Top, another Birds, and then add an Etched Oracle. I use a Trinket Mage into Engineered Explosives to try and trap Praxedis's Troll Ascetics should he go aggro.
My opponent's turns: Elder, Reach, Witness, Elder, Reach, Witness, Troll? Elder. Death Cloud for six.
My board is wiped, save for my Top and Sword of Light and Shadow. Praxedis has four lands left. I Top into lands, while Praxedis topdecks Witness into more Witnesses into a Troll. I die.
Sideboarding:
I'm not sure what to sideboard out, but I make an attempt to play more disruptive spells and take out the tricks that aren't effective against his deck:
-1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
-1 Wayfarer's Bauble
-1 Engineered Explosives
-1 Duplicant
-1 Gifts Ungiven
-1 Fireball
+2 Cranial Extraction
+2 Plow Under
+2 Solemn Simulacrum
A Death Cloud deck is akin to a Tooth and Nail deck. It's doesn't really matter what you do unless you can stop the huge Sorcery from resolving because it kills you every time.
Game 2: Bad Play, Good Play
I'm such a terrible player, you'd think I'd never played Standard before. I fire turn 3 Cranial Extraction naming Eternal Witness, seeing a hand with Cranial Extraction, Death Cloud, lands, and Molder Slug. Praxedis fires back Cranial Extraction, naming Eternal Witness. My hand is three Eternal Witness and a Sakura-Tribe Elder. I lose to Molder Slug.
Match Record: 2-1
Round 4: Brandon with RAten Ninjas
The top four players are each 2-1, so the battle for the Top 4 is down to the wire.
Game 1: The Nuts for Cogs
Brandon is playing the Monoblack Rat Ninja deck designed and played by Tim Aten at this year's Magic Invitational. This is the first time I get to see it in action.
Unfortunately for Brandon, I draw the complete nuts. What's the complete nuts for this deck? I suspect it goes something like Birds, Birds, Top, spin the Top, Etched Oracle. Brandon has a very feeble Nezumi Shortfang that forces me to discard Necrogen Spellbomb. How do you improve upon turn 3 Etched Oracle with active Top? Well, you could turn 4 Gifts Ungiven into...
- Eternal Witness, Etched Oracle, Sword of Light and Shadow, Fireball -
...netting Etched Oracle and Fireball (Brandon very quickly threw Eternal Witness and Sword of Light and Shadow in my graveyard, visibly paranoid of those cards). That constitutes a good draw in my book.
Brandon has been holding his own, though. The Rats have taxed my gassy hand and I have to make a very difficult discard of Engineered Explosives while staring down Nezumi Shortfang, Ravenous Rats, and a Nekrataal that just killed a Bird. I spin my Top like crazy, looking for land drops to go with my Kodama's Reach - and I'm rewarded for my hard searching when I aim a Fireball at Nezumi Shortfang, Ravenous Rats, and Nekrataal at the same time.
Unfazed, Brandon nearly turns the game around with Ninjutsu'd Ink-Eyes into my Eternal Witness. I drop my second Oracle and play defense as Ink-Eyes relentlessly charges in. My three fresh cards include two Trinket Mages for the red and blue Spellbombs. Obviously landflooded, Brandon meets his doom when I Eternal Witness back my Fireball then wait a turn and aim it at his skull.
Even against my nuts draw, the Rat deck held on quite well with a slow draw while riding the pure quality that is Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni.
Brandon reminds me that since we are the top seeds, we can just draw in to the Top 4. Why didn't I think of that? I just wasted my nuts draw on a game that didn't matter and even took notes.
Game 2: Two Words
Intentional Draw.
Match Record: 2-1-1
My G/B Death Cloud opponent from the previous round, Praxedis, comments how horrible his matchup must be against RAten Ninjas. Ink-Eyes and company laugh at Terror, Plow Under, and if you get their life low enough, even Death Cloud. Aether Vial works even if Death Cloud wipes the table, and all the while the Rat deck is slowly but surely working your hand over. If there's one thing in Magic I can admire, it's excellent deck design.
Semifinals: Brandon with RAten Ninjas
Silly us. Our Intentional Draw knocks us from seeds 1 and 2 to seeds 3 and 4. We get to play anyway!
Game 1: The Invincible Salvagers
I mulligan a one-land hand and keep a terrible six with two Plains and some green acceleration. Brandon has Vial, Nezumi, Cutthroat, and Skullsnatcher. Meanwhile, I play Plains, Plains, Plains, Sword of Light and Shadow. I'm thinking three Plains is one too many and the Reach and Bird in my hand think so as well.
On turn 4 I topdeck an Island and drop Auriok Salvagers. I block one of two Skullsnatchers and take a Cutthroat and Nexus, and luckily there's no Throatslitter to seal the game. I topdeck a Forest, so my options open up greatly. I Kodama's Reach for an Island and Mountain, make Auriok Salvagers invincible with Sword of Light and Shadow, and smash for a seven-point life swing. Brandon retaliates with Ink-Eyes and I take a nine. Brandon chumps Salvagers with a Nexus, and I Trinket Mage into Pyrite Spellbomb and drop Birds of Paradise.
My plan works fluidly. My Birds of Paradise chumps Ink-Eyes each turn while I use my Auriok Salvagers to recur both Birds of Paradise and Pyrite Spellbomb. When my Salvagers connects for the fourth time, I simply recur Pyrite Spellbomb for the final four points of damage.
Sideboarding:
-2 Gifts Ungiven
-1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
-1 Necrogen Spellbomb
-1 Wayfarer's Bauble
+2 Viridian Shaman
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Etched Oracle
+2 Solemn Simulacrum
Game 2: Engineered Explosives vs. Umezawa's Jitte
I open with Birds of Paradise into Sensei's Divining Top and Pyrite Spellbomb, ending my second turn with one Mountain untapped. That's a very stellar opening against the two-drop Rat deck. Brandon hits me with Nezumi Cutthroat and plays Chittering Rats, so I put back Mirrodin's Core and Shock the Cutthroat at end of turn.
I Eternal Witness it back and play my Pyrite Spellbomb. Witness and Chittering Rats trade, and Brandon begins to miss land drops. I discard Mirrodin's Core to Ravenous Rats and play out Solemn Simulacrum, fetching Plains.
Brandon makes a very cool play with only Swamp, Swamp, Nexus. He swings with Nexus, Ninjutsus Skullcatcher, then replays the Nexus and drops Aether Vial. I can sense the Jitte he's been wanting to play for so long, and that's why I've been sitting on my Pyrite Spellbomb. I play my always-impressive foil Etched Oracle and sit back on defense to keep safe from Ninjutsu tricks. Brandon painfully lays his Jitte (he's actually borrowing three of them from me) and has to leave it unattached, still stuck on the same Swamp, Swamp, Nexus mana base. My Trinket Mage fetches the completely nuts Engineered Explosives for two. This taps me out and Brandon sees that he's in trouble, as a Jitted Ravenous Rats collides with Etched Oracle. The Jitte soon explodes, along with two Skullsnatchers. Etched Oracle relentlessly smashes.
Brandon finally finds a fourth land and drops Cranial Extraction. Brandon is all smiles as he triumphantly rummages through my deck to deprive me of my lone Sword of Light and Shadow.
That's my one Sword of Light and Shadow.
"Just one?!"
"Yep. It single-handedly beat you last game. I elected to not side it out."
"You are so lucky..."
I want to point out how bad Cranial Extraction can be when you lack board presence, like this one was. That's how I feel when I play Cranial Extraction while my opponent has a Thieving Magpie beating me down.
Using no skill, only luck, I play Eternal Witness retrieving Solemn Simulacrum, still sitting on the Auriok Salvagers in my hand that I don't want to walk into Nekrataal... And sure enough, my Witness baits a Nekrataal, but I luck another Etched Oracle so Brandon is more than outclassed without Jitte on his side.
Is Etched Oracle the most underplayed card in Standard? I certainly think so.
Finals - Scott with Turbo Magpie
Game 1: No Time For Clever Lines, I Gotta Win
I lead with Birds of Paradise, though my turn 2 Sword of Light and Shadow gets Condescended for 1 when my Elder would have hit. Scott has a turn 3 Shackles and I play Kodama's Reach and another Bird with my four available mana. Scott wastes no time and drops Thieving Magpie. I waste no time and tap out for Duplicant. Another Shackles hits and I lose control of both my Birds. I pop a Necrogen Spellbomb to force a discard and take the opportunity to Gifts Ungiven for...
- Eternal Witness, Engineered Explosives, Salvaging Station, Plow Under -
...netting me Salvaging Station and Plow Under. I drop Elder and Sword of Fire and Ice so I can play Plow Under through a Mana Leak, which hits just one Stalking Stones because the other one was Boomerangd (there was a rules dispute that this would counter Plow Under, but the correct ruling is made and Plow Under does an Uproot impression).
My Shackles-immune Salvaging Station thunders onto the table and locks out Scott's draw phase with Necrogen Spellbomb. To accomplish this, I drain a counter from one Mirrodin's Core and add one to another Mirrodin's Core each turn for the requisite black mana to maintain the lock. I make note how Mirrodin's Core can perform this task, where City of Brass is painful and Tendo Ice Bridge would fail miserably. Scott continues playing because he does have an out with Thirst for Knowledge into Thirst and artifacts into Boomerang and a hard counter. It's a stretch, but it does exist.
Scott doesn't have many turns because I drop Etched Oracle and immediately equip it with Sword of Fire and Ice. Scott only has five Islands and he's not drawing another one if I can help it, making Etched Oracle a 6/6 pro blue Shackles-immune Ancestral that sticks around as a 2/2 afterward. My two lovely Birds of Paradise valiantly chump block, nicely untapping my Salvaging Station. See? Even on the wrong side of the table, Birds of Paradise are still loyal to the green mage.
Sideboarding:
-2 Birds of Paradise
-1 Wayfarer's Bauble
-1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
-1 Sword of Light and Shadow
+2 Viridian Shaman
+1 Etched Oracle
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Plow Under
Game 2: No Time For Love, Dr. Jones
Scott leads off with Chrome Mox, Island while I charge a Mirrodin's Core. He drops Vedalken Shackles on his second turn and I only have Forest and Core for my Elder - not enough for the Viridian Shaman I'm holding. Scott plays a second Shackles and shuts down my combat phase as my Trinket Mage and Etched Oracle hit countermagic. Another Shackles hits and Scott bribes a Witness while I refuse to play creatures, instead spinning my Top and cycling a Necrogen Spellbomb. When Scott bribes another Witness, I Gifts Ungiven for...
- Plow Under, Eternal Witness, Etched Oracle, Salvaging Station -
...netting me Etched Oracle and Salvaging Station. The Shackles-immune Station hits the table and starts hitting a card each turn. Eventually, Scott plays the last card in his hand, Bribery, and snags a stray Viridian Shaman (the other one is in my hand) to kill Salvaging Station, completely wiping my board position save my Top. Frown. I could have avoided that by swapping Etched Oracle with Viridian Shaman during my Gifts Ungiven.
My two Witnesses, my Viridian Shaman, and two Vedalken Shackles versus my Top means this game is over. I fiddle with my Top, thinking about how I specifically chose Bribery-resistant creatures even though it's completely against being a casual green mage with tons of colors and mana at his disposal. I have a huge problem with my opponents taking my guys; so much so that I choose to weaken my deck against every other card in Standard just so I can attempt to beat Bribery. Since it appears I lose to Bribery not matter what, I might as well play one Meloku to increase my win percentage against non-Bribery cards.
Of course, if the blue mage is wrecking you with Bribery, they are shuffling your deck so your Top sees three fresh cards. If one of those cards happens to be, say, Engineered Explosives for three, it wipes their team, Shackles and all.
One of my cards happened to be Engineered Explosives.
Since Bribery was the last card in Scott's hand thanks to my short-lived Salvaging Station action, he's in topdeck mode. I immediately get my Etched Oracle on the table along with an Elder to start working on Scott's life total. He is forced to Time Stop as a fog, and I make a mistake by forgetting to drop a land before swinging, losing my land drop. Scott's last-ditch Stalking Stones meets my opening hand Viridian Shaman. He tricks me with Boomerang on the Stalking Stones, but I avoid killing my own Oracle by targeting my Top and drawing a card.
Don't you think Sensei's Divining Top is amazing? I certainly think so.
Final Match Record: 4-1-1
Champion's Prize: Five packs of Champions of Kamigawa and five packs of Betrayers of Kamigawa
I made tons of tiny mistakes, like missing Time Stopped land drops and missing Mirrodin's Core charges, and making a huge mistake by winning a Friday Night Magic tournament with a fourteen-card sideboard. Hopefully, as long as I can spot them, I can fix them. I'll eventually learn every little trick and maybe even make up some new ones.
In Standard, Green is beyond amazing. I can even metagame on the spot. If I scout big finishers, in go maindeck Cranial Extractions. If instead there are slews of aggro decks, I bust out the Engineered Explosives and maybe some Pyroclasms or Echoing Decays. If you enjoy playing countermagic, huge guys, little guys, very few guys, Snakes, Sway of the Stars, locks, Legends, or combos, you can do that, too (albeit with varying degrees of success). That's because, if you didn't know by now, you're playing with...
The Best Green Creatures Ever Printed
- Eternal Witness
- Birds of Paradise
- Wild Mongrel
- Sakura-Tribe Elder
- Llanowar Elves
- Quirion Dryad
- Etched Oracle
- Meloku the Clouded Mirror
But before we go...
Pithing Needle
I very well couldn't finish a Cog article without at least mentioning the newest addition to the Cog family from Saviors of Kamigawa: Pithing Needle. I am far more skeptical of this card than most anyone else, and if you want an explanation of why Pithing Needle is not the next Skullclamp, nor even the next Sensei's Divining Top, here we go...
Pithing Needle is a narrow card. You play it and name a card. Now your opponent has to draw that card and get to a point in the game where he wants to activate it. Only then has your Pithing Needle done something useful.
It helps if you name a card that's actually in your opponent's deck and not your own. This is not a laughable point; I've been Meddling Maged and Cranial Extracted for cards I do not play.
This card is not Meddling Mage. Meddling Mage is a vanilla 2/2 beater at the very worst. Most of the time, Meddling Mage locks out removal spells, making him somewhat problematic to remove. At his very best, Meddling Mage defeats a narrow combo deck all by himself. Turn 2 Meddling Mage, turn 3 Meddling Mage, turn 4 double Meddling Mage is a complete savage beating for removal-light combo decks because Meddling Mage kills them while they stumble for answers.
Pithing Needle is like a Meddling Mage, except that it doesn't beat down and only works on a smaller subset of cards. A narrow deck might not be able to win without say a Goblin Charbelcher, Mindslaver, or Goblin Welder activation. Against these decks, Pithing Needle is akin to a one-mana Platinum Angel that can't swing. Note that only certain cards are good to name; for example, Pithing Needle can do nothing to stop Mind's Desire, Goblins, Tendrils of Agony, or Tooth and Nail from going off.
Some decks will win as long as the opponent doesn't draw one certain card with a powerful activated ability. A great example is Standard WW vs. MUC's Vedalken Shackles or Extended's Ravager Affinity vs. The Rock's Pernicious Deed (the place where I feel Pithing Needle is at its most brutal, even upping your Affinity count). Here, Pithing Needle is like Cabal Therapy. You just name the card that wrecks you; you don't care about any other card except the one that wrecks you. As long as they can't play that card, you're going to win.
So Pithing Needle is an answer - and, at times, a right answer. But is it the best answer? There are often many answers to the same question.
Suppose your opponent in Standard plays four of the very popular Sword of Fire and Ice. You can answer his Sword with your Pithing Needle, but couldn't you also answer it with a good old-fashioned Naturalize? If you play a Pithing Needle preemptively, it might get smashed by Viridian Shaman. Then again, your Naturalize might get Distressed because you couldn't play it right away like you can with Pithing Needle. It feels really good to make your opponent tap 5 mana to play and equip his Sword just so you can Naturalize for a mere two mana, doesn't it? If he Swords up a Troll, it doesn't help much to topdeck a Pithing Needle then, does it?
Then again, what if he's got two Swords? One Naturalize is clearly not enough, while a Pithing Needle would disable all his Swords. It makes sense to side in four Naturalizes against four Swords... but do you side in four Pithing Needles to answer his four Swords? Well, do you?
That is a serious question. Think about it. I hope it's beginning to sink in.
In Standard, how amazing is an opening hand of three Lands and four Pithing Needles? That's the best possible hand, right? That shuts down Sakura-Tribe Elder, Troll Ascetic, Meloku, and even another card your G/U Control opponent might be playing. You are safe as long as you have your four Pithing Needles in play. Aren't you?
If you think your G/U opponent is going to beat you down with Sakura-Tribe Elder and Troll Ascetic, counterspell your next relevant spell, then Plow Under your lands despite your four Pithing Needles, you'd be right. You need a very good reason to put a Pithing Needle in your deck - and one criterion I have is you already know what you're going to name as you're shuffling up.
Certainly there are circumstances that call for Pithing Needle. I've mentioned the ones that sprang immediately to my mind, but it can also freeze the Hana Kami engine, Umezawa's Jitte, Isochron Scepter, Shuko (post-rotation Extended Life and Cephalid Breakfast), Psychatog, and maybe Wild Mongrel and Wasteland. The important thing is to recognize decks that are very dependent on a specific card to stay functioning or identify and prevent a specific card from wrecking you, particularly one that could also remove Pithing Needle itself like Pernicious Deed or Engineered Explosives.
Because I use a full set of Viridian Shamen in the sideboard to wreck artifacts, the best card I can think of to name with Pithing Needle in my deck off the top of my head is Nezumi Graverobber. The generic version would be Scrabbling Claws. Particularly in the mirror match, a Cog deck's Scrabbling Claws shreds graveyards, and it's even mana- and card-efficient. If I wanted to stop Meloku's tokens, I could play Cranial Extraction, Eradicate, Bribery, or my own Meloku, now couldn't I? And all those cards also happen to work against Thieving Magpie, Temporal Adept, and Jushi Apprentice, and a slew of other cards. The only issue is speed.
Me, I think Pithing Needle costs one mana because the ability is only worth one mana.
This card is not Skullclamp. Skullclamp dominates formats harder than Necropotence. Do you know what wins games? Drawing an absurd amount of cards for way too little mana. That wins games.
This card is not Sensei's Divining Top. Top is an amazing, trick-filled draw smoother when combined with shuffle effects and it's even immune to removal. Do you know what wins games? Drawing the right lands and the right spells at the right time. That wins games.
Pithing Needle is a narrow card. It is not universally useful against everything. Even its global brethren - the Damping Matrix, the Cursed Totem, and the Null Rod - are not universally useful against the spell types they mention.
To accentuate just how brutal an activated ability must be to merit Pithing Needle, I don't believe Pithing Needle deserves even one sideboard slot in my deck - a deck that sports four maindeck Trinket Mages. That's because I'm playing mad acceleration and all the colors. As far as my deck is concerned, if it activates, it dies to Viridian Shaman, Engineered Explosives, or Cranial Extraction. There is no Goblin Welder, no two-land Belcher, nor a turn 3 infinite combo in Standard to justify sacrificing robustness for Pithing Needle's speed in a deck that can play any answer it freakin' wants.
I'll leave you with a slightly more tuned version of the only deck in Standard that plays all the best cards and is even more fun to play than Beacon Blaster:
Kenneth Nagle
Casual Green Mage Extraordinaire
NorrYtt
NorrYtt@gmail.com
2005.5.29
Current Tick Marks on Door to Nothingness: 11
Further Reading:
The Little Engine that Could? by Chad Ellis
Chad Ellis was chosen at a young age to fulfill a life-long quest to deliver what can only be accurately described as The Definitive Guide to All Things Cog.
Shooting Back: Why Gray Ogre is Better than Survival of the Fittest by Chad Ellis
The common Trinket Mage is tournament-quality tutoring while the rare Artificer's Intuition is a steaming pile.
Blog Elemental: Cog-Tacularity by Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar
The Cog deck was first documented by doctorjay. It took me eleven months to accomplish the same thing.
Throwing Down the Gauntlet by Mike Flores
Mike Flores reminds us why we play land acceleration, Duplicant, and Sunbeam Spellbomb while giving us a good reason to sideboard in Solemn Simulacrum, Iwamori of the Open Fist, and Bribery.
The College Dropout: Giving Gifts by Joshua Claytor
Josh gets it; playing singletons is fun! I'm just jealous that he's been playing the most fun deck in Standard a full month longer than I have.
| 
