One of the more disappointing aspects of deck design is being forced to give up on a concept. We can want something to work so much that we force the issue, either screwing up our playtest results or simply ignoring them and disappointing ourselves even more at an FNM or PTQ. It takes a certain amount of willpower to decide that your design isn’t going to fly and leave it by the wayside.
With that lead-in, I might be discussing the Summoner decks from last week’s column, but I’m actually going to talk about some interesting but ultimately “not quite there” ideas that developed from that work, and some overarching thoughts on fighting the metagame that follow from there.
Oh, and a deck list.
Empyrial Archangel FTW?
The attempt to hybridize Summoning Trap with control or midrange decks was okay but nonetheless insufficiently consistent. However, I noticed that among the possible trap targets, Empyrial Archangel was by far the most devastating choice against the widest range of opposing archetypes. Sure, Iona can turn off an entire color, but Empyrial Archangel is sort of a Sphinx of Jwar Isle on steroids. A 5/8 damage shield with shroud is something Jund and Boros decks can’t deal with. Thus, by the time I stopped working with the hybridized Summoning decks, I was running a main deck package of three Iona and three Archangels.
Moving away from the Summoning Trap build entirely, I was really struck by just how powerful a resolved Empyrial Archangel is, and wondered if perhaps I could use it as a finisher in a control deck. Here are two representative builds out of the many I ended up testing:
Bant Control version one (not recommended)
This first control variation attempted to be primarily a green-white build, splashing blue for late-game Kisses and Archangels. I’ll discuss its shortcomings below.
Bant Control version two (not recommended)
This second attempt took its cues from a hybridization of control decks from Shards of Alara and Zendikar Block play, running shroud monsters and Roils on the lower end of the curve, moving up into card advantage leading into Archangels. Once again, I’ll address the build’s shortcomings below.
At this point, after watching these decks stumble in testing, I decided to reality check myself and see just how frequently decks successfully run eight-mana spells as finishers. There certainly is a record along these lines, with Bogardan Hellkites showing up as finishers in various decks over the last few years, including red-green mana ramp and Angelfire builds, along with the occasional red or white Akroma in any number of decks. However, we must once again beware of carrying inapplicable lessons from format to format, as those decks were not facing down Jund, 2009-era Boros, or, indeed, an environment full of card advantage creatures and cascade spells. Still, I was inspired enough to change tack slightly and try a mana ramp deck that simply splashed for Archangel as a finisher in the prior Hellkite role:
Naya Archangel Ramp (not recommended)
This deck was a lot of fun as well, but nonetheless, did not do the trick. So what was the common element that made all these decks fail, as it were, to tick?
Having a plan rather than fighting a plan
If you review the prior deck lists, you’ll see the footprints of my attempt to fight different elements in the current metagame. The first Bant Control deck is tilted toward the Boros matchup, with early chump blockers in the Visionaries and Chosen, backed by Paths and Judgments to clear the board, then planeswalkers and Kisses to gain card advantage later on. As a consequence, it tends to lose hard to Jund decks, even with aggressive sideboarding for the matchup. The second Bant Control deck is primarily tilted toward the Jund matchup. It has a selection of shroud critters, and maindecks the Purges. It also includes Into the Roil, a card that shows up in Zendikar Block control decks.
What you’re seeing here is a confused mix of attempts to nullify the major game plans in the current metagame.
During Shards Block Constructed play, the general approach involved trying to maximize your own cascades while nullifying the opponents. To that end, control decks ran Wall of Denial and our friend Uril, and the more aggressive decks used Sprouting Thrinax. There were alternate approaches, of course, but for a deck that was attempting to fight Jund in more controlling fashion, this combination of target denial and card advantage was the way to go.
In Alara-M10-Zendikar Standard, this approach gets you run over by Boros. The Boros deck can pump out unpleasantly large amounts of damage in the first three turns of the game, but this alone wouldn’t be nearly enough if it didn’t also have a vicious reload plan. In my practice with the Boros deck, my preferred Ranger play grabs an Elite Vanguard and a Goblin Bushwhacker. This is minimally a five-damage reload, assuming all your other creatures are swept in the meantime…except that a pure “Alara-style” control approach doesn’t effectively sweep, meaning that instead of an already devastating five-damage reload, you’re actually allowing a Bushwhacker-fueled alpha strike for tremendous damage. It’s bad.
Unfortunately for control hopefuls, tacking Day of Judgment onto the normal anti-Jund approach does not work out well. You need something more here, whether it’s an Essence Scatter to stop that Ranger of Eos reload or a Wall of Denial to blank a significant number of cards in the Jund deck. In my testing experience over the last month or so, I can’t fit all the cards I need in the available seventy-five. It’s unfortunate, but I think it’s born out as being true (for now) by the results we’re continuing to see in Standard tournaments. Control decks have trouble simultaneously nullifying super-fast aggro and Jund-style cascade.
Just hit it with a rock
One of my favorite parts of the C.S. Lewis novel Perelandra comes about when our protagonist, Ransom, is trying to out-argue the Devil. After days and days of this tiring practice, the voice of God more or less comes along and says, “Why are you trying to argue with him? Just beat him to death with a rock.”
It’s a truism of Magic that threats are always more effective than answers. This is a natural function of the fact that you get to choose your threats but not your opponent’s. Combine that with the dearth of completely generic answers and you will find yourself stuck, from time to time, with answers that are completely inappropriate to the threats you’ve just been presented with.
Another way to think about this is that you want to avoid getting stuck playing your opponent’s game. That’s the message given to Ransom in Perelandra as well. Why try to turn off components of Jund’s game plan when you could instead present counter-threats that Jund is not prepared to deal with? Why try to out-argue the Devil when you could just brain him with a rock and move on from there?
This is essentially what Eldrazi Green does, incidentally.
At the end of a week of testing various takes on control, ranging from draw-go through ramp, I realized that I just needed to hit the metagame with a rock. In trying to nullify the Jund game plan by trying not to present targets while simultaneously trying to nullify Boros by clearing the decks with Day of Judgment, I created a hybrid beast that was destined to fall somewhat short in stopping both approaches.
Instead, I decided to defer more passive control approaches for later on in the season and, in accord with God’s advice to Ransom, present some threats. Here’s what I came up with:
The Heroic Trio
This deck combines a number of threads that can provide success against Jund decks specifically and the metagame at large. In keeping with the concept driving its development, let’s start by taking a look at its threats.
The clear starting point is embedded in the deck’s name, and is by far the most powerful and threatening aspect of the deck. I’ve had decent experience in the past running a four-four split of Elspeth and Garruk side-by-side. After overcoming my own desire to edit this idea ahead of testing, I eventually decided to give a try to simply adding four copies of Nissa in on top of that octet, and the effect is tremendous. I know that some people are reluctant to run too many copies of planeswalkers in fear of getting them stuck in hand, but the thing to keep in mind is that if you have one copy stuck in your hand, it means you have another in play and you are winning. Unanswered planeswalkers are far more devastating than unanswered Legendary Creatures, so don’t get stuck on that comparison.
Elspeth is effective on both offense and defense, making her a flexible threat against Jund, Boros, and other decks in the field. My usual use algorithm for Elspeth goes much like this: “Do I have two dudes in play? If yes, give one dude flying and +3/+3. If no, make a Soldier.” I strongly prefer to have Elspeth powering an offensive critter, but I like having the backup guy in case of a kicked Gatekeeper of Malakir or other sacrifice effect that might make me a sad, Knight-less panda. Notably, the otherwise moderate Nissa’s Chosen becomes a flying 5/6 beater in Elspeth’s hands, which is not bad at all.
Garruk, as another token generator, is similarly offensive and defensive. However, you need to be careful with Garruk as he rapidly falls within burnout range, meaning that he’s likely to translate into “Pay four mana for a 3/3 that counters your opponent’s next burn spell.” This isn’t exactly a bad deal, but it does mean that playing out a naked Garruk with no other blockers in front of a Jund deck is likely to see a follow-up play by your opponent of Bloodbraid into removal for the beast into killing Garruk with Bloodbraid.
We’re all now familiar with the general idea that Nissa can be a powerhouse in an appropriate deck. I picked up my copies of Nissa as Zendikar was coming out, which is also what I did with Elspeth when Shards of Alara came out. To me, a planeswalker that positively generates threats while simultaneously gaining loyalty seemed like it must be good, unless Wizards went out of their way to make it terrible. Interestingly, the apparently unexceptional Chosen are actually tremendously solid in the Boros matchup, where many of the attackers are 2/x creatures against whom the Elf Warrior is an impenetrable wall. The life gain ability is also relevant much more often than one would suspect, even in a deck that runs only eight elves. Sometimes, gaining two or four life a turn is enough, especially if it forces your opponent to kill a Chosen rather than doing something to you or Nissa.
Outside of the planeswalker package, the last remaining threat is Knight of the Reliquary, a card I’m starting to treat like a nouveau Goyf. Much like Goyf, it’s a moderate threat in the early game that can be an instant house when it comes out in the late game. In this deck in particular the Knights tend to ramp up early, as the deck may have up to two fetches in the bin by turn three. I’m tempted to capitalize on Knight by including a single Gargoyle Castle, but that will require additional testing to determine if the mana base continues to work with one less colored mana producer.
I’m happy with the full set of eight mana dorks on top of twenty-four lands as insurance in support of dropping turn two Knights and turn three planeswalkers. In addition, given that the deck runs eight fetches, it doesn’t really operate as if it has twenty-four lands in the long game. As a special bonus, Llanowar Elves enhance Nissa’s life gain and Noble Hierarch is, well, Noble Hierarch.
On the removal side, you’ll see the impact of my increasing displeasure with the interaction between Path to Exile and Boros and Jund decks. Path is an awesome card, so don’t take this as a generic downcheck, but I’ve been finding more often than not that I’m not simply trading away some card advantage when I Path a creature in either of these decks. Pathing a creature against Boros activates their remaining landfall critters as well as ramping them up to Ranger mana. Similarly, Pathing away Thrinaxes and Leeches can lead to Bloodbraids and Broodmates. With that in mind, I’ve chosen to run Pulses, Purges, and Blades. There’s some reduced versatility in choosing to mix Blades and Purges over simply having Paths, but my frustration with Path makes the experiment worthwhile.
The cards in the sideboard should be mostly straightforward. The Judgments are for those decks where you may need to wipe the field, such as Eldrazi Green. In that case, I prefer to take Garruk out to let the Judgments in, as he is the least effective in stopping the green advance. Doom Blades come in one-for-one for Purges when the latter is a dead card. The three Duresses are for potential combo matchups. Finally, the Battlegraces are a bit of an experiment, coming in for Garruks against Boros and RDW. The concept here is that they’re still out of reach of most removal in those decks and their life gain comes online instantly as long as you have one other creature in play. The obvious thing to include in their place is a set of Baneslayers, so I’ll have to see which I prefer.
Don’t play their game
One possible take-home from today’s post might be “control is dead for now.” I don’t believe that myself, but at the same time I don’t yet have a handle on a true control strategy. I’ve therefore opted to go with what ends up being an aggressively tilted midrange deck rather than suggesting an insufficiently successful control build.
The real take-home for me is that we want to avoid getting stuck in the pattern of trying to nullify the opponent’s specific game plan. Like Ransom arguing with the Devil, this is probably a no-win situation. As a consequence, we’re better off choosing our own variety of rock, and then tailoring that rock to most effectively crack our opponent’s metaphorical skull.
great article! I ‘ve been running control since zendikar came out and I agree it’s hard to accept that you’ve just been doing it all wrong. I finally gave up and developed a decklist that runs GW creatures, honor of the pure, and oran-reef the vastwood for pumps, as well as Elspeth and Garruk. My mvp creature is grizzled leotau. Jund has trouble taking it down, it makes putrid leech sad, and blocks boros all day long. Alongside the fat cat are other great GW cats: qasali pridemage, qasali ambusher. I call the deck Garruk’s pride. Other notable stuff in the deck are valeron outlanders , behemoth sledge, path to exile and Day of judgement for removal. Just thought I’d share my similar experience.
Comment by Gatch — November 17, 2009 @ 9:29 pm
Excellent read. Have you given Emeria Angel a try? She’s one of my personal favorites, despite her three toughness. Between eight sac lands and Knight of the Reliquary she could be a strong hand. But then Ajani would seem better than Garruk.
Comment by amos c — November 17, 2009 @ 9:53 pm
I like your stuff, but “present counter-threats that Jund is not prepared to deal with” is much easier said than done. The only type of permanent they can’t destroy out of their main deck is a *land*. They can attack the hand of slow decks and the creatures of fast ones, all without laying off from generating a continuous stream of threats. As you say, you can’t sweep them effectively, and you can’t nullify their plan with anything remotely playable.
I guess one good thing about running 12-walkers is that you’ll never get many-for-oned by a solo Maelstrom Pulse, because as you mentioned your walkers are already legendary.
And good, I’ll give you that. and you’re playing Maelstrom pulses of your own.
Comment by wrench217 — November 17, 2009 @ 10:10 pm
Great read! Keep it up.
Comment by loucksj — November 17, 2009 @ 10:37 pm
I think decks playing Eldrazi Monument are going to slowly but surely find their way to the top tier of Standard. The card requires any player trying to beat you to have 2 answers in hand. As Kali Anderson has said, untapping with Ant Queen and Monument, or something similar, is typically going to be game over. They need a Pulse for Monument, and a removal spell for your creature generator.
Comment by Adam — November 17, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
Control is far from dead. Every tier 1 and most tier 2 decks are based heavily in playing dudes and attacking, and if you play a strategy that defeats that plan, you will have an effective control deck.
Jund isn’t unbeatable, either. If you play a little bit of land destruction and screw them off a color, they can’t play as many 2-for-1s. Revolutionary concept, right? Their manabase is terrible, so a control deck with sideboarded Ruinblasters and some other form of LD rocks Jund hard, most of the time.
Comment by Matt — November 18, 2009 @ 12:06 am
Some perspective to all the Eldrazi lovers out there: I won a game vs Eldrazi green in which they had the Monument and every single elf in the deck in play. How you ask? Elspeth + Knight-Captain of Eos + Conqueror’s Pledge + Beastmaster Ascension. Yes, Beastmaster Ascension. On top of that, I activated Garruk’s Overrun and attacked for over 200 damage in a single turn. Beastmaster Ascension.dec (or “Masters of the Universe,” an excellent Heman reference if I’ve ever seen one) is on the rise!
Comment by Blind Fremen — November 18, 2009 @ 12:37 am
I’ve made and Enchantress deck that never looses to Jund, or hasn’t lost yet! It can beat Vampires, Eldrazi Elves, and any other creature or non-creature based deck except Boros and RDW decks. If I could figure out a more efficient way to beat Boros then this would be the deck I would play. It’s W/G deck running all remove from the game enchantments along with W/G Ascensions. Also playing Conqueror’s Pledge. Use the enchantments to stall the game out until you can swing in with Pledge and activate Beastmaster Ascension(s). I use Elspeth to generate tokens as well. If you have any ideas for W/G decks to deal with fast creature based deck like Boros and RDW; I’m open to any and all suggestions!
Comment by Sketch — November 18, 2009 @ 6:22 am
I think Blind Fremen just gave me an answer to my problems with Knight Captain!!! WOW didn’t think of that one!! I’ll give it a try and let you know what the results were!!
Comment by Sketch — November 18, 2009 @ 6:26 am
Maelstrom Pulse is the only answer this list has to Black Knight and Malakir Bloodwitch right? I really like the list, but I could see those 2 cards in particular giving you fits. Otherwise, this looks Very Solid!
Also, don’t count out the Wur Control deck yet. Luminarch’s Ascension makes that deck WIN. And convincingly! Sure, that list costs an arm and a leg, but it’s still something to consider.
Comment by Wild_Mage — November 18, 2009 @ 8:14 am
As usual, you provide valuable information and don’t succumb to saying Jund is a stupid deck that anyone can just pick up and win a tournament with. Thank you for that. Also you provide an answer to it: a rock.
What I think is happening is that control-oriented players want to slow down the pace but Jund doesn’t allow that to happen, disrupting and damaging as it deploys its threats. I think it should be countered by an aggressive strategy. I would know since I played a lot of Alara Block.
Please keep up the incredible work you’ve been doing. You are a veritable fountain of ideas.
Comment by kakashi — November 18, 2009 @ 8:21 am
“Maelstrom Pulse is the only answer this list has to Black Knight and Malakir Bloodwitch right? I really like the list, but I could see those 2 cards in particular giving you fits. Otherwise, this looks Very Solid!”
2/3 and 3/3 green creatures answer black knight pretty well. The deck also could board DoJ in vs. Bloodwitch if it is needed vs. Vamps.
Comment by Robin — November 18, 2009 @ 8:54 am
Well written, I was just trying to get summoning trap - empyrial archangel and other shroud creatures to work last night…. to little avail.
Comment by David — November 18, 2009 @ 9:13 am
I think you are my favorite new writer on this site. I somewhat bashed the deck you suggested last week, and you took it (and other comments) in stride. I hope I can meet you one day and get some real magical discourse flowing. You seem very solid.
Good work!!
Comment by dowjonzechemical — November 18, 2009 @ 9:15 am
Thanks again for all the great comments. Some specific replies:
@amos - I haven’t tried Emeria, admittedly out of the concern that she will just eat a Bolt or similar while not advancing my board position sufficiently. Of course, I’m all about the testing, so I really ought to just give them a try.
@wrench - I like the walkers as counter-threats for the explicit reason that they represent “many of ones” in a box, and they conditionally blank parts of Jund’s removal. Admittedly, the Jund toolbox is still a giant pain to deal with.
@Sketch - Sounds fascinating. Care to post a list?
@David - Yeah, right? Makes me sad, but so it goes. Many ideas, few working ideas. Just like my day job, honestly.
@dowjonzechemical - Planning to be at GP Oakland or PT San Diego? I think I’m going to make it to both.
Comment by Alex — November 18, 2009 @ 10:21 am
Good article! Nice C.S. Lewis reference. My own attempt at stopping Jund fell miserably short last night, but I was able to slow it down enough to recognize that shroud and big blockers are significant problems for it. I like the land destruction idea. Maybe RWU for Ruinblasters, O-Rings, Walls of Denial, and Jwar Sphinxes?
Comment by Jack — November 18, 2009 @ 11:34 am
Yes! I’ll post it here if that’s ok! I’ll have it tomorrow in the am hours! 8am to 9pm or so.
Comment by Sketch — November 18, 2009 @ 12:57 pm
You are so right about knowing when to but a deck on the side lines. I had been running a mill deck from about the time M10 came out until about two weeks after Zen was released. Why did I scrap my favorite deck type? The answer is that I didn’t have the cards to make it really work and most of the deck had cycled out of standard that really make it hum.
But why did i stick with it into Zen? Because that full playset of archive trap kept making me want to crack them on all those cool new fetch lands. In the end I came to my senses and relized if I wanted to use my fetch hate I was going to have to play a better deck to be facing off with the top decks that ran all those fetch lands.
So I scraped the mill deck and started flipping through my binders for an idea of what to play as I thought about the metagame of my area. Buros needs chump blockers or big beefy blockers to be able to swing in the next turn. Jund needs a target other then me so my life stays up long enough for the deck to go off. Vampire aggro sucks when you can’t get past them so blazing torch would be sweet. Then their is the down side of getting over run with green’s big beefy, but fog or a like spell will cover that…
What was I to play? G/W Kor. Ajani works to suck up their burn and some damage as I’m only using him as basically a 2WW sorcery that says “Put a +1/1 counter on all creatures you control and they gain vigilance until end of turn.” Behemoth Sledge gets thrown on someone other then the “kor lord” Armament Master to make the other guy more a target.
It’s true this isn’t one of the best decks in standard right now but its one of the best that I’ve got because I have the cards to make this and make it work. Also it works because it forces the other player to do what this article is talking about play at it’s level. Sure Ajani is being used as a one trick pony most of the time, but he’s doing a great trick… pulling pressure of my life total and creatures as well as keeping me from tapping out my defense in order to get a big attack in. When I side in the torch for the vampire match i’m not having to get rid of a cool card that make the deck work to but in some hate and buy me more time in the match. Nope that torch coming in speeds up my armament master bonus at the cost of removing a more costly grappling hook which is a down side to going against aggro.
So this is why I’m agreeing with this article is because it tell us that there are two side to the meta game their is what you are going to be facing and what you are trying to do in you own deck. This is because you’ve got to understand that the meta for everyone else is going to included what you are playing. So if everyone really wants to break standard then stop asking how do i beat Jund/Buros and start asking how is Jund/Buros going to beat you…
Comment by Fenthing — November 18, 2009 @ 12:58 pm
I am not sure if I am buying control is dead when presented with marginal control decks. It can be argued that control decks always have inappropriate answers to threats at times, yet they have always been a way to win in Magic and other games. This format is no different, I see many different control decks being successful. U/W/x has flashfreeze and purge to combat jund as well as baneslayer angel with counter backup. It is going to get even better because green midrange is going to thwart the super aggressive strategies and slow monsters will get more popular(eldrazi green).
Comment by Kyle — November 18, 2009 @ 4:03 pm
You say that you want to hit them with a rock instead of arguing with them, and I definitely see the logic in that. One interesting point I think is going to be finding cards that do both, however. One that has jumped out at me recently has been Guardian Seraph, who I think could be really well positioned in this metagame right now. It’s a 3/4 flier for 4, which isn’t a great deal but it’s certainly not a bad deal and it can hit people in the air just fine. In this sense he’s a rock, albeit a smallish one. However, he also argues quite well. Boros has to deal with him or he is going to severely limit their damage output. Further, he is out of the range of Lightning Bolt, which makes him a good bit harder to deal with. He also blocks against Jund quite well, taking out Bloodbraids, Stags, and Thrinaxes while nullifying the attacking potential of Thrinax-produced tokens. Finally, he’s an absolute beating against Eldrazi Green since they really don’t have much in the way of answers for him. If you get out multiples, he makes it really hard for them to hit you with their army for any significant amount of damage.
Comment by DRjester — November 18, 2009 @ 4:34 pm
@Kyle - I’ll quote myself here:
“One possible take-home from today’s post might be “control is dead for now.” I don’t believe that myself, but at the same time I don’t yet have a handle on a true control strategy.”
I have been unable to generate a true control strategy that can simultaneously address Jund and Boros, as the strong points against one often end up being weaknesses against the others. I don’t rule out the existence of viable control, I just think I haven’t found it, so I’m choosing proactivity.
Comment by Alex — November 18, 2009 @ 4:43 pm
If threats are always more effective than answers, why has draw-go so often been a force? While it’s true that answers aren’t always effective (although you can usually mitigate that if you know what you’re doing), threats aren’t always effective either. If I have out Eng Plague, all of your x/1 Goblin threats are completely useless. If I have out Blood Moon, your entire 5C deck may be completely turned off.
Many of the best decks throughout Magic’s history have been so successful because they nullified your opponents’ game plans, virtually regardless of what they were doing. These decks are usually harder to make, and sometimes they don’t really work in a format, but it’s often worth it.
Comment by Joel — November 18, 2009 @ 7:05 pm
Does nobody remember the power of life gain? If you can make so boros or Jund needs to deal 30 damage rather then 20 your odds go way up.
Comment by Matt — November 18, 2009 @ 8:27 pm
In Development - Tangling with the Devil…
Your story has been summoned to the battlefield - Trackback from MTGBattlefield…
Trackback by MTGBattlefield — November 18, 2009 @ 9:02 pm
@Matt: People still remember the power of life gain, especially now that Fetches are slowly draining people, life gain is even more important.
@Blind Freeman: Yep that works. Except, many of us Eldrazi Nissa deck players have switched to GW, which nullifies that quite well. One of the issues the deck has is Luminarch ascension. (Needing to sit back until you overrun them, doesn’t leave much room for a real assault) GW versions running Pridemage deal quite easily with this, as well as giving an answer in the mirror. Add in Path for the ever annoying Bloodghast and Baneslayer (sometimes difficult to deal with, especially when dropped turn 3) and Sledge for a possible attack with the weenies that generally sit there (Visionary mostly). Its starting to shape up to be a tough contender for all deck types.
@Alexander: I Disagree, control IS dead for right now. The cycle is moving. Aggro beats Control. Midrange beats Aggro, Control beats Midrange. We’re in the second phase. The Problem with control right now is, its too fragile. Yes, we can pack 24 removals + sweepers and win, but a strong enough offense still utterly destroys them. Once something is in play, its nearly impossible to deal with in the current decks. (Though the Bant and WU control decks are trying, and getting much better). It will just take some time before we see any solid, consistent control decks. I’ve been trying control since Zend came out, and it just isn’t working, no matter how I try.
Also, take into account combo decks are on the rise as well. The very annoying MTGO popular Valakut deck thats making a big splash for example. A good control dek needs to be able to deal with it. As of right now, current control decks have no way to deal with it. I expect to see midrange king until Worldwake comes out.
@Alex Part 2: Very good article. I myself have been working on an Esper Aggro deck for the better part of 3 weeks, and I feel your pain with a lot of decks. (Though Im on the verge of abandoning it and just focusing on revamping a current deck, it just doesn’t get there all the time.)
Comment by Zac — November 19, 2009 @ 1:12 am
Spreading seas viable in control decks now??
card advantage + Land disruption!
Comment by T0m — November 19, 2009 @ 4:33 am
Alex here is that list you asked for.
4x Crystallization = creature control
4x Journey to Nowhere = creature control
4x Luminarch Ascension = “A” win condition
4x Oblivion Ring = creature, planeswalker control
4x Beastmaster Ascension = helps all three win conditions
4x Sigil of the Empty Throne = “B” win condition
4x Mesa Enchantress = draw
4x Captured Sunlight = life and extra card
4x Conqueror’s Pledge = “C” win condition
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant = token generator
The mana could go with the budget version or the fetch land option. The fetch land option helps out with the draws as well as thins out you deck. The budget option not as fast but is playable!
The best part of this match up is when you have a Beastmaster in play and you attack with Mesa Enchantress, the look on the other players face is truly a Kodak moment!
I’ve made some changes since this list by adding 3 Knight-Captain of Eos taking out one of each Sigil, Beastmaster and Luminarch. However playing last night the Knights never came out to play. I played eight games and not once did I even get a Knight out! I think the Knight and Elspeth could be a great mid to late game stall until you could get more angel tokens or Pledge online for the win. Pledge has been a solid win condition in this deck. I have three angles of attack going on in this deck, plan “A” Luminarch, plan “B” Sigil of the Empty Throne, and plan “C” Beastmaster Ascension and Conqueror’s Pledge. Plans “A” and “B” are really there as fodder as well as to put presser on the other player to keep then in check.
This is the original list I started with. The idea was to have redundant copies because of Blighning, as well as to produce 4/4’s off the Throne. You never want a hand that does not have at least two, in any combination, of Cryst, Journey, or Ring and two lands; one of each color. The only weakness that I have come up with against Jund deck is two Blighnings in a row. If they only play two during the course of a game you can out play them. Jund players have a huge decision to make when play against this deck. In the early turns when you get out a Luminarch they are going to have to start using they burn spells on you to keep counters of the Luminarch or play a threat and hope that you don’t Cry, Journey, or Ring it! I think adding more Elspeth’s to this deck would make it a lot better because she present another option for the Jund players, burn me or her! Especially when you have a Luminarch and Mesa Enchantress. That’s three options in the first 4 turns the Jund play must answer. They will run out of burn spells! When you resolve an Elspeth, you can hold off the one or two creatures they drop out long enough to get Luminarch online. Your back up plan here is the Throne, once that drops out the Jund player has to use their Pulses to keep it out of play, and if they used them on other things you can build an army quiet easily. Plan “C” is Beastmaster Ascension and Conqueror’s Pledge this play can end a game the turn you attack!
Other Matches:
The Vampires deck just looses to this deck because by the time they hit you with the Sledge you have controlled the board and are dropping 4/4 all over the place.
Against control decks, you again just drop 4/4 all over and out run them.
Cascade control is a joke, however, I do like the theory behind the deck!
Elves can produce a lot of creatures to out run you, but you are not dealing damage to their creatures, you’re removing them or keeping them from attacking.
LD not good for this deck!
Boros and RDW really bad to play against!
Some sideboard option are Mark of Asylum, Angelsong, Brave the Elements, Celestial Purge, Excommunicate reason for this one is to advance the stall of the game making the other player draw the same card twice seems to put me a head of the game, Lapse of Certainty for the same reason as Excommunicate, Martial Coup was in the deck but I usually win before I have 7 mana, Path to Exile, but I agree with you on why not to use it, Pitfall Trap, Safe Passage, Silence this one works out well when playing with Excommunicate and Lapse of Certainty. Let me know what you think! And if you have any advise on what could make it better against RDW and Boros!
I came up with this deck because I wanted to play Jund, but I am one of those guys that want to break the format with something different, so I started constructing deck to try and beat Jund on a consistent basis and this is one of those decks. This deck is more consistent than most of the other deck I’ve built. From my testing it wins about 8 out of ten matches. I have other deck that give Jund a run for the money, but none as consistent as this one. And like I said before, it just gets kick in the face by Boros and RDW deck!
Thank you for being interested, I hope that it can shed a different light on this meta. Sketch
Comment by Sketch — November 19, 2009 @ 6:10 am
@ Alex
Unfortunately because I father a toddler and have one on the way, my PT play is limited to local PTQs and events, which GP Portland is. Oakland, while a great city, is too far for me to justify expenses. Apparently, feeding my children and diapers are more important.
I still hope to see you sometime. Do you Facebook?
My name is Andrew Rodenbush, I’ll search for you and send a friend request if so.
Comment by dowjonzechemical — November 19, 2009 @ 9:54 am
@T0m - Nassif is playing Spreading Seas in his Cruel Control deck at worlds (listen to the first PT podcast for the sound of Spreading Seas crippling a cascade deck).
@Sketch - Thanks for the list and commentary. I’ll take some time to read through that all.
@dowjonzechemical - Gotcha. My “kitchen table” playgroup is about 75% toddlered up right now, so I’m the only one going to premier events these days. And yes, I’m on FB.
Comment by Alex — November 19, 2009 @ 10:16 am
One more thing…
@Matt - I would love to be playing effective life gain, but there really isn’t any that comes down fast enough and is otherwise effective enough for the Boros matchup. I’m already drifting away from Angels of any kind in that role, but have not found a suitable card choice there. I want to teleport some Kitchen Finks or Loxodon Hierarchs into the format.
Comment by Alex — November 19, 2009 @ 10:17 am
After 10 yrs away from Magic and just now getting into the swing of things I read your article regarding Jund tuned Ascension Pulse and thought it had the potential to be a good deck. I was able to put it together (hey, I’d have to buy the fetch lands sooner or later right?) but was rather disheartened to hear you put it on the shelf for a while. Rather than just copy a Boros Deck or Jund deck from somewhere I decided to make a couple of minor changes and take it to FMN. First off I cut the Harrows. In it’s place I slotted 2 Scepter of Dominance and 2 Celestial Purge. Sideboard I cut the Duress’s and ran 3 Desecrated Earths. Had a strong showing through Swiss (made top
but lost to Monument Green. Needless to say, I think you were onto something with this deck. The Scepters worked very well and I plan to keep em in. I’m going to lose the Pitfall Traps (there’s too much haste with Goblin Guides) and rarely (if ever) was able to use the trap aspect of it. I believe Harms Way to be the better option there. This leads me to the reason for my post. I didn’t like my odds vs. Monument Green at all. Once that Monument hits it’s rough. My only real thought to this deck is Platinum Angel. I dont think the green monster has a way to deal with it. Needless to say I’ll keep tuning this thing for you Alex. 
Don
Comment by Don — November 21, 2009 @ 3:02 am
I’ve got a rogue deck for you to look at that would most accurately be described as a aggro/control hybrid. The deck was inspired by a combination of wanting to make use of the good black fliers and realizing that Earthquake is an utter bomb in this format. In this particular deck it is a one-sided Wrath of God that hits a planewalker for good measure. I’m still trying to balance numbers and the curve is a little heavy on the 3cc.
The Grixis Airforce
Creatures
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Tidehollow Strix
4x Sedraxis Specter
4x Hypnotic Specter
2x Kraken Hatchling
Instants:
4x Countersquall
4x Soul Manipulation
4x Grixis Charm
2x Agony Warp
Sorceries:
4x Earthquake
Enchantments:
2x Bloodchief Ascension
26 Lands
I would suggest a basic land package with fetchers and Borderposts to blank the Ruinblasters running around. But you could run tri-lands and the 2010 lands if you aren’t worried about the land-destruction.
Card Explanations:
The creature package consists mostly of fliers that either generate card advantage or double as removal. The one exception being the 2 Kraken Hatchlings which are thrown in for curve considerations. Even though they don’t fly the most common earthquake will be X=3 (or 2 or 1) so they should still survive.
Sedraxis Specter in particular is this decks version of a 3 for 1 at worst. Should the opponent kill it before you untap, you can still unearth it for 3 damage and a card. An unmolested Specter puts most opponents in a touch bind. The hypies are not as good but work as Specters 5-8. The hyppies 3 toughness comes into play in some matches.
The flying deathtouchers are there to stall out the game early, and the three toughness on the nighthawk can pose problems for some decks. They work as a great deterent against Sphinx of Shar Isle. Their lifelink is not inconsequential either.
The strix is no slouch either. Against Jund decks still packing Putrid Leech the strix gives you a choice of trading or racing, considering they probably can’t block the strix and the putrid pumps damage them too.
The instant package offers disruption and removal. Soul Manipulations will get back early deathtouchers (or other dead creatures) while countering whatever big creature is coming down, whether its a broodmate or a Ranger. I say big, because you really won’t be keeping counter mana up until after you get a few creatures on the board.
Countersquall serves as mop up for problematic non-creature spells. Most decks have something you want to hold onto this for. I use countersquall instead of negate for damage racing and ascension purposes. If you count Blightning as a three for one, then countersquall is a 2-fer.
Grixis Charm offers versatility. There is the obvious creature removal, but the bounce aspect proves very useful when you have an active Specter. The +2/+0 mode can also win the occasional race (especially nice with the nighthawks).
Agony Warp, often a 2 for 1 gets even better when you have a deathtoucher. A nighthawk will take down a -3/-0′ed Baneslayer and live to tell about it. The numbers on this and Grixis Charm are up for changing depending on your metagame.
Earthquake is the all-star in this deck. All of your creatures either fly or have high toughness making it a very versatile one sided wrath. A boros player with a 3 1cc creature “god draw” will be in for a rude awakening if they all have 1 toughness. X=3 also happens to nicely kill the green planeswalkers and the creature they just summoned (while most likely picking up a couple of other creature). Not that planeswalkers are too much trouble with this many fliers.
Finally we come to controversial Bloodchief Ascension. This is the deck that can use it. 24 spells in your deck just happen to put tokens on the enchantment just doing what they should be doing. No pointing lightning bolts to the dome just to put a counter on. I only have two as they are good on ocassion and certainly not good in multiples. However, they allow you to race with your fliers and win the race once it becomes active.
Cards to Consider:
Esper Stormblade
Lightning Bolt
Into the Roil (for bouncing something for the specters)
Notable Exception:
Blightning
You’re already playing specters, every discard card after them becomes worse.
Why I think the deck is good. It has versatile cards, many of which generate card advantage or negate important cards in multiple decks. It generates advantages on multiple fronts including discard, graveyard recursion, lifegain, evasive creatures, and the ability to counter critical spells for the opponent. The curve is low with no spell going over 3. The mana is a little bit of a mess but testing should correct the problems. It’s a BUr deck with a major emphasis on the black. It should be competative versus most decks, even those packing pro-black creatures considering it has main-deck earthquakes (granted, the pro-blacks will still be more difficult to deal with). Siding in some lightning bolts or such should help that.
Comment by Pete — November 22, 2009 @ 2:41 pm
[...] is very different in specifics from anything I saw in the Worlds coverage, my Heroic Trio deck from last week’s In Development also falls into the G/x Midrange [...]
Pingback by In Development - The Cost of Resilience | ChannelFireball.com — November 24, 2009 @ 9:00 pm
[...] “threat overload” approach is one I’ve already recommended for the Jund matchup. Josh also recommended it in his excellent article on fighting Jund. It might seem natural enough [...]
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