Don't be so Basic

Anyone who followed the Highlander format knows that there has been a fairly lively debate going on for the past few months regarding the potential pointing, or not pointing, of everybody's favourite cards to lose to:

The debate has its vocal proponents on both sides and I have been very clear in my belief that the level that these cards are played at in the format is a bad this and that a pointing is in order to relieve the pressure their presence puts on the format.

Disclaimer:  Before I go into the core of my arguments, it should be noted that I am a Melbourne player and while I do check Canberra deck lists from time to time, the Canberra meta is not my area of expertise.

My aim here is not to get the committee to put 3 points on each of these cards and call it a day, that just isn't a thing anyone wants, well... perhaps some do..., but it's not what anyone is realistically arguing for.  The anti Moon stance is generally that these three cards need 1 or 2 points collectively.

No one is calling for points on Magus of the Moon since it's a creature that is easily dealt with. 

The argument breaks down to pointing either Blood Moon or Back to Basic (or both, but realistically that isn't going to happen unless one is pointed first and they keep repressing the format even more than they are now).

Each time the debate comes up, the pro Moon players present these kinds of arguments for why the 3 moon effects are not worth a pointing:

- Keeps greedy decks in check/Good for the health of the format

- Incentivises creative deck building

- It's a pillar of the format

- Good players play around it/It's easy to play around

Ok, well, that's just like, your opinion man. 

Are any of these arguments actually true?  Let's break it down.

'Keeps greedy decks in check'

Ok this one sounds like a freebie right?  If everyone's playing Blood Moon decks, you can't just play 3+ colour decks and get away with it right?!  Well, wrong.  You can play 3+ colour decks and even if you don't you'll still lose to Blood Moon and co.

People still play 4c midrange decks that have favourable matchups against UR Moon, people still play 3/3.5c control decks (which I can only assume do have a terrible Moon matchup) and do well with them, Tolarian Academy/Gaea's Cradle decks became so good and popular recently that they copped a pointing on Crop Rotation, various Shops decks which rely heavily on their sol/utility lands even though they tend to run few colours still see play.

Thing is, the 3 moon cards aren’t good because the crush 4-5 colour 'greedy' decks, they're good because a certain percent of the time they just auto win when they resolve against ANY 2+ colour deck that is not running red as a main colour or any 3+ colour deck that is running red and people who play them love their free wins.  Who doesn't right?

Let's say you're playing a 2 colour agro deck, say black/white (yes I know it's not actually a deck, it's a hypothetical).  You have 1 drops in both colours, double cost cards at 2 mana in both colours.  Is this a 'greedy' deck?  I think you'd have to be insane to say that it is.

You draw your 7, it has 5 spells, 2 fetchlands, perfect.  Obviously you want to fetch Scrubland into Godless Shrine since you know you may have need of WW and BB in the early turns of the game and it's important for an agro deck to get a good start, is it 'greedy' to do that though?  What if you do and your opponent goes turn 3 Blood Moon?  Well, you may as well scoop.

This brings us to the old 'Good players play around it/It's easy to play around'.

But what's the alternative?  Getting a Plains and a Swamp?  Sure, ok, say you do that, congrats you played around Blood Moon, winning.

Problem is, you STILL lose to turn 3 Blood Moon here.  Opponent plays Moon, you draw your 3rd land and... it's a non-basic.  Grats, you still can't play your BB or WW spells.
Even if you're #GoodAtTheGame and draw another basic, you're still locked out of half your double cost cards.
Say you play 4 basics in a row, cool, you only had to wait till turn 4 to play that Hymn to Tourach or Silver Knight, you can still win right?  No, no you can't, damage done.

The argument that Moon only hurts 4+ colour decks is a lie.  It hurts all 2+ colour, especially aggressive decks, immensely.  Think about it, when was the last time you saw a Zoo deck do well at an event?  Or a 2c agro deck that didn't run red?

Aside:  Personally I find the 'just play around it' argument insanely condescending.  You think I don't know that basics don't get turned off by Blood Moon, really?  Give me a break.  You and I both very well know that people play Blood Moon decks because you actively CAN'T play around it a significant amount of the time, yes, even in 2 colour decks.  That's why the cards are good and why they see a huge amount of play.

In the end we return to 'Good for the health of the format'.

Is it?  Is a Highlander format where non red agro is unplayable and where control is super heavily skewed towards UR lists that all play the same 3 unpointed cards healthy?

Well, if you think so I probably won't change your mind but I for one miss agro being a thing.
What's even more ironic is that Zoo used to be the non-basic police.  It could Wasteland and Strip Mine (THAT'S THREE POINTS BTW!) you out of the game and kill you from 10 with a Price of Progress.  People used to play around these cards, a lot, no one was just running rampant with overpowered 5 colour decks because Blood Moon saw little play. 

But why encourage people to have to think about and spend points on their land hate when you can just play a simple UR deck and get a stronger effect for free I guess... I miss you Wild Nacatl, I really do.

'Incentivises creative deck building'

I honestly don't know where to start with this.  What does that even mean? 

Does it mean I should figure out how to remove 2 colours from my 4c deck so that it's better against Blood Moon?  Or does it mean that I should be creative and figure out how to play a 3c deck with 12 basics in it?

Or maybe I'm looking at it wrong, maybe it means I should put answers in my decks!  I know, I'll just put Qasali Pridemage and Abrupt Decay in my deck and it will be fine!  Good. Plan.  Like we weren't playing these cards already.  Issue is they're both uncastable through a Moon and one of them dies to bolt.

Putting fetches and 3-5 basics in your 3c deck doesn't require skill, it's not creative and at the end of the day, doesn't REALLY help you not lose against Blood Moon all that much.

I guess I could be looking at it completely from the wrong side though, maybe they mean it makes the Blood Moon player more creative.

Ok let's see, well the cards are red and blue, sweet, guess we're playing UR.  Now, they shut off non basics so... I know!  We'll put basic Islands in the deck!  Such creativity, much wow.

Because these cards are completely unpointed, it also means UR players just jam them in their deck because, well, they can.  Even 3c players have been jamming them lately since they can play 2-3 Moxen to power them out and get around their mana issues.

Seriously though, if someone can explain to me why having to build every single deck in the format around 1 set of three cards inspires creativity, I would LOVE to hear your explanation, cos it really doesn't.

Hell, if you want to encourage creative deck building, point fetches!  That is something that would actually make people think about their mana bases.

'It's a pillar of the format'

Yes, it is.  This one is 100% accurate; triple moon decks are a pillar of the format.

To me a pillar of the format is a card/set of cards that get built around.  Not just cards that see a lot of play but cards without which decks would not exist.

Let's have a look at some other sample pillars of Highlander:

- Equipment package creature decks (5 points in 4 cards; SFM, Steelshaper's Gift, Jitte, Clamp)

- Academy wheel decks (3 points in 2 cards; Tolarian Academy, Crop Rotation.  Additionally all wheels are 1 point)

- Mud decks (1 point in 1 card; Mishra’s Workshop.  Additionally all the good mana rocks are pointed from 1-3 points)

- Storm (7 points in 2 cards; Black Lotus, Yawgmoth's Will)

- Acall control (5 points in 2 cards; Ancestral Recall, Merchant Scroll.  Additionally all remotely playable blue cards are 1 point)

So where does the Triple Moon pillar fall here?  Zero points in 3 cards.

The above is certainly not a comprehensive list but you get the idea. 

I agree, Triple Moon is a pillar of the format, it sees a huge amount of play, and it should be pointed accordingly.

I am of the firm opinion that Highlander was a much better format before half of it (again, talking Melbourne meta here) started playing triple moon and that both Blood Moon and Back to Basics are well deserving of a point each both based on power level and on how much play they see but as I mentioned earlier, I think starting with just one of these is the correct approach.

So which one?

Well, I think it's certainly close but I would lean towards pointing Back to Basics myself.

Yes, I think Blood Moon is a slightly more powerful card but it also goes into decks that don't actively abuse it (basically mono red needs all the help it can get) while Back to Basics pretty much funnels them all into UR moon control/combo shells which use heavy card draw to find them and counterspells to force them through.

At the end of the day blue is a much stronger colour than red in highlander.

People keep telling me that if you put a point on BtB and Moon the UR deck will just drop something like Dig Through Time and still play them.  Well, ok… doesn’t that indicate that they’re worth the points if you’re cutting a great 2 point card for them?!  Think about it just a little.

Anyway, I don't really expect to convince people who play these cards because, well, they're good cards and people like winning games.  It's a complete no brainer to put them in any UR deck you happen to be playing, I get that.
What these Moon effect cards are more than anything are the epitome of miserable to play against.

My hope is that maybe the committee will one day point these cards for the enjoyability of the format if nothing else and that I will once again be able to play Zoo but until then I guess I'll play the deck that has the best UR Moon matchup; 4c Bant.

Cheers,

TJ

Leading the Pack at the 'Rat

High stakes Legacy events don't come up that often so when GUF Ballarat announced they were putting up 2 Volcs, 3 Seas and a Bayou as Top4 prizes for their ladder finals event, I was in.
A lot of Melbourne players made the trip to what ended up being one of the best MTG events I've been to.
Great location, staff, player base and organization lead to a truly enjoyable day.  The fact that I ended up top of the swiss and took home a Sea and a Bayou for my efforts didn't hurt either.

I went with my standby, my always faithful Death and Taxes.
I have played this deck a lot in Legacy (it was the first deck I bought into because I though it looked easy to play... oops!) and while I have done stints with Miracles and a variety of Delver decks, it's the deck I always come back to when I want to take the format seriously.
There are many great decks in Legacy but this one is mine.

The list I run is fairly stock, perhaps a little heavier on the Recruiter package than some:

Creatures(26):
4 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 Serra Avenger
4 Flickerwisp
3 Recruiter of the Guard
2 Sanctum Prelate
1 Mirran Crusader

Spells(4):
4 Swords to Plowshares

Artifacts(7):
4 Æther Vial
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Land(23):
9 Plains
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
3 Karakas
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy


Sideboard(15):
2 Council's Judgment
2 Rest in Peace
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Containment Priest
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Palace Jailer
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar


The only recent changes to the deck are a second Containment Priest and a Faerie Macabre in the SB as a nod to the popularity of graveyard decks in our meta and the rise of BR Reanimator.

A few mulligans aside, the deck performed extremely well and I ended up taking it to a 5-0-1 finish in the swiss (and no, I didn't ID any rounds...).

Here's a breakdown of my day.


Round 1 - Goblins:  Win 2-0

This was a fairly textbook showcase of the Vial deck with equipment beating up the Vial deck without equipment.
Game 1 I had active SoFI and Jitte by turn 5 or so and assembled the same in game 2 after choking my opponent's mana for a few turns with active Mom holding off his ground game and attacking with a Serra Avenger.

Boarding:
+2 Containment Priest
+1 Council's Judgment

-2 Sanctum Prelate
-1 Spirit of the Labyrinth



Round 2 - Death and Taxes:  Draw 1-1-1

This was one of the dumber mirror matches I've played with DnT.
I won game 1 after a mulligan to 5 off equipment superiority, game 2 started out very well with me drawing 3 Wisps against my opponent's Containment Priest but he eventually got a Jitte with 4 counters on it, GG.
Game 3 was where it got real dumb though.
I keep a decent 7, though it lacked a vial, it had mana, Mom, SFM and Recruiter.
I lead on Mom, opponent has a Plow.  Turn 2 I SFM getting Jitte but my opponent responds with double Mom on his turn 2, not good for me since it locks out Jitte unless I can find a flier before he does.
Turn 3 my opponent plays Karakas and casts Mangara... VERY not good for me...
Mangara has fallen out of favour lately, mostly because it's very slow, and personally I’ve never been a fan but on this board is was going to crush me.  The problem with playing against it is that you have to keep feeding it permanents so that it can't go after your lands before you find an answer.
In the end it ate my Jitte, SoFI, a Mom and a Pithing needle (in hind sight putting the second equipment in play was a mistake).  I desperately needed a Wasteland for the Karakas but I never saw one.
The needle here was an interesting decision point which in hind sight I'm not sure I did correctly.  It's obviously an answer to Mangara but I also had a Plow in had (which is not due to double Mom).  I decided to Needle his Moms which I was in no position to beat with a Plow in any case, aiming to Plow the Mangara when he next activated it (who knows, I guess there’s an off chance he doesn’t target the Needle?), which he did, exiling the Needle and losing the Mangara in the process as planned.
After this I immediately began losing badly to a Jitte but I managed to navigate the board to a point where my opponent used all his counters to kill various things and I managed to get my sideboarded Sword of Light and Shadow and the Batterskull onto a Containment Priest.
Around here we went into turns and I was still losing badly to Jitte and now a SoFI which was able to get through due to Mom.  On turn 3 of turns, my opponent made the critical mistake of missing a Jitte trigger and I was able to get enough blockers onto the now beyond silly board to not die on turn 5; hello draw bracket!

Boarding:
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Sword of Light and Shadow
+2 Council's Judgment
+1 Leonin Relic-Warder
+1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
+2 Containment Priest

-4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
-1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
-2 Sanctum Prelate
-1 Aether Vial

PS:  I'm really uncertain about my board plan here.  I don't think I like Containment Priest here at all and frankly, I don't like Gideon in any matchup.  I plan on working on the mirror board plan a bit in the future.


Round 3 - 4c Loam:  Win 2-0

I don't find this matchup particularly interesting to be honest.  Usually they can only win by getting early value with Punishing Fire and I was able to win game 1 with a Mom, Mirran Crusader and some random other creatures in the face of 2 12/12 Knights fairly easily.
Game 2 I played a Sanctum Prelate naming 2 after he Maelstrom Pulsed my RIP, he could not answer it and a timely Plow on his Knight sealed the deal.

Boarding:
+2 Rest in Peace
+1 Leonin Relic-Warder
+1 Palace Jailer
+1 Pithing Needle

-1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
-4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben


Round 4 - Storm:  Win 2-0

This was a pretty savage beating.  Both games I had Plains, Waste, Port, Vial, Thalia in my opening hand.
Game 1 I went vial into Thalia and my opponent Burning Wished for Massacre on his turn 3 which he couldn’t cast that turn due to Thalia.  I wasted his Sea to get him off swamps and he never drew another one.
In game 2 my opponent mulliganed to 5 and the Turn 2 Thalia into Sanctum Prelate naming 4 was good enough for the scoop since he could no longer win, nor cast Massacre so needed to draw multiple spot removal spells.

Boarding:
+2 Rest in Peace
+1 Faerie Macabre
+1 Grafdigger's Cage
+2 Ethersworn Canonist
+1 Leonin Relic-Warder

-2 Mother of Runes
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Umezawa's Jitte


Round 5 - RUG Delver:  Win 2-0

Game 1 was fairly close but I correctly played around Daze by jamming a useless Revoker on turn 2 after my opponent played Trop into Goose on his turn 1 after probing me, seeing Thalia and SFM as clearly better 2 drops.
He took the bait and Dazed the Revoker, a mistake that cost him game 1 as I was able to play Karakas into Thalia on turn 3, following up with SFM for SoFI on the next turn.  He almost raced with double Goyf but it was not enough.
Game 2 I wasted his only land after he shuffled a Ponder on turn 1 and he missed his next 2-3 land drops which was more than enough to seal the deal.

Boarding:
+1 Council's Judgment
+2 Rest in Peace

-2 Phyrexian Revoker
-1 Recruiter of the Guard


Round 6 - BR Reanimator:  Win 2-0

This was an interesting game 1 followed up by a modern-esque 'look at all these sideboard cards!' game 2.
Game 1 I keep a medium hand with Vial, Mom, 2x Wisp and some lands, including a Wasteland.
My opponent leads off with basic swamp, go.  This is never a good sign and sure enough, end of turn Entomb makes me slump in my chair since I almost certainly can't beat a Griselbrand, Grave Titan or Elesh Norn.  However, my opponent chooses an Iona!  This may sound like a reasonable plan against a mono white deck but I already have a Vial in play so the question becomes can I beat a 7/7 flier?  Well, that's not an easy task either since I can't remove it and certainly can't beat it in combat but it is doable with an active Mom and a flier.
On his turn 2 my opponent Thoughtseizes me and takes a Wisp, then reanimates the Iona naming white (colour selection on point).  I end up drawing an Avenger on turn 3 and stabilize with Avenger + Mom after taking 2 hits from Iona.  The follow up Wisp seals the deal and I win without casting another spell.
Game 2 I mulligan an uninteractive 7 and keep a 6 that has Grafdigger's Cage and Containment Priest but no white mana, just Waste + Port, scrying a Vial to the top after thinking about it for a while.  It's a little slow but will probably do given I have the Cage.
I rattle off turn 1 Cage into turn 3 Canonist and my opponent concedes as he did not bring in his Decays, preferring to stay as fast as possible but getting punished by the turn 1 hate card.

Boarding:
+2 Council's Judgment
+2 Rest in Peace
+1 Faerie Macabre
+1 Grafdigger's Cage
+2 Containment Priest
+1 Palace Jailer

-4 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Phyrexian Revoker
-1 Umezawa's Jitte
-1 Recruiter of the Guard
-2 Mother of Runes

I move on to 5-0-1 and enter the top 8 at the top of the swiss.


Top 8 - Quarters - Colourless Eldrazi:  Win 2-1

I was a little nervous going into this matchup.  I knew what my opponent was on and while the matchup is actively good for DnT, I have a really bad track record playing against it.  They always seem to double Smasher me by turn 4 or draw their 1 of Jitte that I can't ever beat.  Anyway, turned out ok.
Game 1 I had a more or less perfect hand for the matchup.  Vial into wasteland into SFM for Jitte into Port you into Wasteland.
On around turn 5 I started connecting with the Jitte and my opponent had only managed to get 2 Mimics into play so the turn after that he had no lands and no creatures in play after double Waste, a City trigger and 2 Jitte counters, works for me.
Game 2 I think I made the mistake of playing a 2 drop rather than Wasting my opponent and got punished by Smasher into Endbringer into Smasher.  I got close with some Palace Jailer/Flickerwisp/Vial shenanigans keeping the Endbringer at bay but I died to the trample damage from the second Smasher.
Game 3 was another Vial + mana disruption hand and I got there fairly easily with early disruption into Recruiter + Flickerwisp chaining.

Boarding:
+2 Council's Judgment
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Palace Jailer
+1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar (Urg, get out of my deck!)
+1 Sword of Light and Shadow

-3 Mother of Runes
-1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
-2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben


Top 8 - Semis - Death and Taxes:  Win 2-0

Ah here we are, can't get through a Legacy top 8 without running into Sean Brown!
Sean was also on his DnT list which he knows as well as anyone; there would be no getting him with fancy tricks here.  Still, I enjoy playing the mirror and at this point I was going home with at least an Underground Sea so pressure was off and I was ready to jam and have some fun.
The games ended up being pretty classic n+1 fliers on one side of the mirror games while the ground was clogged up and equipment was Revokered.
Game 1 he drew a Revoker for my Jitte but I had air superiority so I won after 7 Flickerwisp attacks and in game 2 I drew a Revoker for his Jitte and again had 2 fliers to his 1.
Perhaps not the most thrilling games of Legacy ever but I'll take it.

Boarding:
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Sword of Light and Shadow
+2 Council's Judgment
+1 Leonin Relic-Warder

-2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
-1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
-2 Sanctum Prelate


Top 8 - Final - Omnitell:  Concede

This is not a particularly scary matchup but I did not need the 2 Volcanic Islands that were the 1st place price but very much did need the Underground Sea + Bayou that were the second place prize.
The monetary value here is in favour of the Volcs of course but not by all that much and certainly not worth the hassle of selling them and buying the duals I need while maybe ending up 50$ so I just conceded.
In hind sight, I could have offered to swap the prizes for 1st and 2nd and have my opponent concede to me to get the official 1st place but it had been a long day and we all know Death and Taxes in the best deck in our hearts anyway so no big deal.


All in all a truly enjoyable day and a great way to finish off my holiday break before heading back to work on Monday.
Deck wise, there's not much I'd change other than removing the Gideon from the side board.  I know people like this card but the best thing it's ever done for me is be a 4 mana 2/2 so, see ya.

Next time at Cancon!

Till then, don't worry about the Vial on 3, it's probably fine ;)

Tom

Traveling for GPs is Great EV!

Ok, it isn’t.  Still, when you have 12-13 weeks of stored annual leave banked up and your boss is yelling at you to take some, there's no reason NOT to schedule it, at least a little, around some sweet overseas MTG Grand Prix action.  Especially since we get so few big events in Australia.
With that in mind I decided late last year to do a Europe trip this year, mostly since I have family in Czech Republic and friends living in England for a year, so I checked the Wizards upcoming events calendar and what did I find?  GP London (15-16 Aug) and GP Prague (29-30 Sept) 2 weeks apart in the time of year I like to visit Europe.  Gas!
Better yet, both are Standard format, rather that the Sealed GPs we get in our area that I am not a fan of.

Standard has been pretty great this year and battling in two European GPs seems the perfect way to cap off the season.
I have played several decks in the format to some level starting with Mardu and moving though GR Dragons, RW Agro, Bant Heroic messing around with some fringe decks and eventually coming back around full circle to Mardu Dragons which is my current preference.
Currently that's the deck I am on but I'm waiting to see what comes out of the Pro Tour before locking in a standard deck for my trip.

This is the Mardu Dragons list I am currently on:

Creatures(21):
4 Seeker of the Way
3 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Kolaghan, Storm's Fury

Spells(14):
4 Crackling Doom
1 Foul-Tongue Invocation
4 Draconic Roar
2 Ultimate Price
1 Murderous Cut
2 Thoughtseize

Lands(25):
4 Nomad Outpost
1 Temple of Malice
2 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Triumph
3 Battlefield Forge
2 Caves of Koilos
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon


Sideboard(15):
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Crux of Fate
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Arc Lightning
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Read the Bones


One thing I'm trying out is Abbot of Keral Keep to replace 2-4 of the Seekers but not locked in on that yet either way.

Besides standard, I also plan on taking Modern Affinity and Legacy Death and Taxes which are my preferred decks in their respective formats for side events and miscellaneous battling.  (Sadly, no Highlander side event at either GP :( )

I've been running this streamlined version of Affinity of late to good success:

Creatures(28):
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Master of Etherium
1 Etched Champion
2 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
2 Spellskite

Spells(16):
4 Cranial Plating
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Mox Opal
1 Welding Jar
3 Galvanic Blast

Lands(16):
1 Island
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
3 Glimmervoid
4 Inkmoth Nexus


Sideboard(15):
2 Etched Champion
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Whipflare
1 Electrickery
1 Wear // Tear
2 Thoughtseize
2 Spell Pierce
1 Torpor Orb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Blood Moon


I have also been experimenting with a build featuring 4 Hangarback Walker, 2 Day's Undoing and 4 Disciple of the Vault and I have been very impressed with initial results, in particular regarding Hangarback Walkers as the card has been performing extremely well so watch this space.

In Legacy I have not been playing DnT of late as I have been running RUG Delver and UW Mentor in recent proxy leagues and events but DnT is the Legacy deck I own and it holds a special place in my heart.
This is the list I've rebuilt for it:

Creatures(26):
4 Mother of Runes
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 Serra Avenger
4 Flickerwisp
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Spells(4):
4 Swords to Plowshares

Artifacts(7):
4 Æther Vial
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull

Land(23):
8 Plains
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
3 Karakas
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Eiganjo Castle


Sideboard(15):
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Cataclysm
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Council's Judgment
2 Rest in Peace
1 Graffdigger's Cage
2 Containment Priest
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege


Nothing too special there, just a bit of a leaning towards anti-blue cards since Europeans love their Brainstorms.

This will be my first time playing Magic outside of Australia so looking forward to seeing this great game played in different environments.

Tom

Top 8 Bad Cards in Standard

Well, there's a new set out with Dragon of Tarkir and with it a whole bunch of sweet new cards are hitting Standard play.  However, instead of looking at the new good cards, today I went and put together my Top 8 list of bad cards that see Standard play.


Top 8 Bad Cards in Standard

8:  Evolving Wilds

This card keeps managing to sneak its way into real Standard decks and every time it does a part of me dies a little.
Unfortunately, the current Standard mana base is god awful and Evolving Wilds remains a necessary evil.


7:  Foundry Street Denizen

I have chosen this pass out draft common as the poster child for the current available 1 drops for the hyper aggressive red deck.  Dragons of Tarkir have introduced 2 great red 1 drops in Zurgo and Lightning Berserker but the synergy with Hordeling Outburst is unfortunately still keeping the old Denizen in decks.


6:  Satyr Wayfinder

I get it.  It’s an enabler.  That doesn’t change the fact that this is a 2 mana 1/1!
Is this card needed in the decks that run it? Yes, it probably is.  Does it still suck? Absolutely!


5:  End Hostilities

Five mana wraths are awful.  Yeah they’re all we have but they really are bad.
End Hostilities gets the nod for the list here over Crux of Fate because I do like the dragon win con synergy Crux allows you to build into your deck.


4:  Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

Every time I play against a blue-black control deck and my opponent smugly plays one of these one turn 3 I let out a sigh of relief, untap, play a Rabblemaster and kill my opponent.
I have no idea why people still include this Tibalt level planeswalker in their decks but I’m ok with it!


3:  Outpost Siege

See my previous blog entry regarding the specifics on this one.
Additionally, I feel that with DTK hitting standard, Outpost Siege has gone from bad to outright embarrassing.  There was so much main deck and side board enchantment hate already and the addition of Dromoka’s Command made it even worse.  That coupled with the fact that Thunderbreak Regent is now a standard legal 4 drop make this siege a very bad idea.


2:  Ashcloud Phoenix

This.  Card.  Sucks.
There are roughly a million exile effects being played but all the top tier decks (Chained to the Rocks in RW, Abzan Charm in all forms of Abzan, Perilous Vault in control, Banishing Light in GW Devotion, Silence the Believers still comes up from time to time) that all crap all over this card.  Couple that with the fact that token decks are a very real thing at the moment and that it has 1 toughness and you end up with one unplayable bird.
This card’s always been bad and Thunderbreak Regent firmly closed the door on ANY excuse you had to still be running this.


1:  Every card in the Blue-White/UWR heroic deck

Was there ever any doubt?
The top spot here cannot be given to any single card but instead goes to this entire deck.
I’m not saying the deck itself is bad, apparently it STILL puts up results… , but it cannot be denied that almost every card in it is an atrocity and an affront to constructed magic.
There have been other successful draft commons/uncommons decks in the past, current season mono red, last season’s mono blue ect, but none of them come anywhere close to this deck’s level of jank cards.
This is not a draft commons deck.  With all start like Aqueous Form, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Stratus Walk, Battle Mastery and even the format defining Mortal Obstinacy often making the cut, it truly is the first constructed playable draft passouts deck.

Outpost Siege is a Bad Card

Outpost Siege has been seeing heavy play out of red decks to gain card advantage but it is actually worth it?

How many cards does a draw spell need to give at sorcery speed for 4 mana you before it's actually good?

Harmonize is probably the line where it's acceptable; 4 mana sorcery speed should draw 3 cards before it's a consideration.

The standard legal comparison is Treasure Cruise, a card that has proven super busted in older formats, and that matches up fairly similarly to the Harmonize rate where you're happy paying 4 for it and anything under that is just gravy.

Sorcery speed draw 2s cost 3 mana and don't really see much play in main decks at that cost so you're certainly not happy playing a 4 mana draw 2.

If you take this and look at Outpost Siege you find that it takes 4 turns to return 3 cards for your 4 mana investment!

When you further consider that flipping cards to it is not as good as drawing them, since it doesn’t let you hold up removal ect, it will realistically take at least 5 turns to be on par with a sorcery speed draw 3 in terms of raw card numbers, and that's assuming you're not dead and that your opponent can't remove it which in a format full of Sultai Charms, Perilous Vaults, Utter Ends, Ugins and Erases is FAR from a sure thing.

In my experience, if you take a turn off to play Outpost Siege and your opponent kills it at instant speed, you almost always lose the game due to the massive tempo loss.

Yes Outpost Siege draws you cards, yes drawing cards is good but current standard is extremely hostile to doing nothing.

Even against blue black control, a glacial deck which is the reason the red decks need Outpost Siege and where it is the best, I've been in situations where I knew if I played siege I would just give my opponent the breathing room they needed to get to Ugin mana and lock the game up.

I would rather it have been any threat.

I've won more games off Chandra than I can count and it's always upsetting to me to see more and more people cutting my Lady in Red from their deck lists for a stupid 4 mana enchantment that only has 1 of her 3 excellent abilities.

In my experience, Chandra's +1 wins more games than her zero in an aggressive red deck and I'll be sticking by her through thick and thin.

Yes, she dies to Hero's Downfall but she will be avenged with stormy breath if my opponents dare such heresy!

Disclaimer:  Tom takes no responsibility for your deck building choices and cannot be held accountable for any games lost due to not running outpost siege.

Reforging Fate

Fate Reforged has been a much anticipated set for various story reasons and just because it's a follow up to one of the most popular sets ever printed in Khans, also, Dragons are cool.
People didn't really know what to expect apart from Dragons and Ugin and speculations were pretty varied and wild.
Well, the set is here and mostly spoiled so has it lived up to the hype?
For me the answer to that question is unfortunately a big fat resounding:  No, it has not.

There are clearly some super strong cards in the set that will see heavy play in standard but I feel that the set is lacking flavour and has some weird design issues that I just can't get on board with.
What it comes down to most for me is the way Mythics have been done in the set and the super underwhelming dragons being printed.

I understand that when you’re printing something like 10 dragons in a set, they can't all be mind blowingly sweet constructed all-stars but would it be too much to ask for 1 or 2 of them to at least be decent?  Instead, each time a dragon was spoiled was more disappointing than the last.
Now that they're all spoiled, there are only 2 that are even remotely worth talking about, those 2 being the GW and RB ones.

I feel these, in particular the GW one, may see some niche play but I'm not holding my breath even on these.The rest are flat untouchable from any constructed point of view.
PS:  Yes, you should first pick the dragons in limited.  Cos you know, reasons...

The other issue for me are the mythics.
WotC has completely switched around which cards they put at mythic in this set and I hate it.
In all other sets, the legendary Dragons and the Khan leaders would be printed at mythic and the power mythics in this set would be printed at rare.
I would be fine with the dragon cycle here being at rare given the limited mythic slots in a small set but the entire hybrid mana activated ability mythic cycle should be at rare as well as cards like Monastery Mentor.  These cards are all very powerful but they are not 'mythic'.
It's like if Boros Reckoner was printed at mythic and Aurelia, The Warleader was printed at rare in Gatecrash.
Overall a giant flavour fail.

The weird choice of cards to put at mythic has also left the set with super powerful mythics and basically zero playable rares which is annoying for monetary card values at the very least.



The new manifest mechanic also seems to have led to some uninspired and repetitive card design.
Just take a look at these 2 commons for example:

There are two huge issues I have with these 2 cards in this cycle.
a) They're the same card with minor number tweaks
b) The red one makes a bigger creature than the green one

Really?  Is this the best design space the manifest mechanic provides?
I hate this mechanic a lot in general but what I hate most about it is the lack of diversity it seems to allow.
Still, would it have been so hard to make the green on cost 5 and give 2 counters and the red one cost 5, give 1 counter and haste? Or hell, just flip their colours and leave as is for much better colour pie adherence?


With all that said, there's no doubt that the set will impact standard heavily and people are already jamming the new cards into decks to see what works.
Below are 3 decks that I've been having a look at.  They are still early versions obviously with little to no play testing but I feel each of them represent a viable strategy going forward in Fate Reforged standard.


With all but 1 of the mythics and most of the rares spoiled, I think it's fair to say that Shaman of the Great Hunt is the best agro card in the set which means that we musts plays it my precious!

I'm still not sold on mono-red, outside of the sligh version which has no time for 4 drops, since the 2 drop slot is super lacking for the deck at the moment and the field is extremely hostile to small ground creatures that don't go real wide.
Also, apparently Shaman of the Great Hunt has an activated ability.  Admittedly it's a bad one since it doesn't do damage to things but an activated ability none the less so why not see if we can activate it at some point.
Savage Knuckleblade is another card I've been wanting to play since it got printed and one I feel is underplayed right now for its stupid power levels.
To this end, I decided to roll out my Lounging Kibler playmat and make its subject proud.

Here's the hunting party I ended up with as a first draft:

Creatures(25):
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Heir of the Wilds
3 Boon Satyr
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Savage Knuckleblade
4 Shaman of the Great Hunt
2 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells(12):
3 Crater's Claws
4 Lightning Strike
2 Temur Charm
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Disdainful Stroke

Lands(23):
4 Frontier Bivouac
2 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Temple of Epiphany
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Shivan Reef
1 Mana Confluence
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
2 Mountain


Sideboard(15):
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Arc Lightning
2 Wild Slash
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Back to Nature
3 Hunt the Hunter


RUG has seem some play but it's never really been a top end contender.
I've always found the deck inconsistent and lacking that little bit of extra punch to put it over the top.
I don't know if Shaman of the Great Hunt will fix its issues but this is a home I feel will suite the hunter well.


The other card, again a Mythic because apparently playable cards all get printed at mythic now *shrug*, that was immediately in my wheel house when spoiled is Brutal Hordechief.

The obvious comparison to Hellrider is obvious but realistically I expect this card to play very differently to my demon friend of seasons past.
The lack of haste is a VERY big difference and means you can't really play this as the top end to a creature heavy RDW style agro deck like Hellrider saw play in.
I think the best shell for the Hordechief is a BWR tokens list where it adds a lot of value to your random 1/1s, even if they’re just chump attacking.
This brings is to the token master himself, Young Pyromancer 2.0 or as I like to think of it, Goblin Rabblemaster 2.Slow, Monastery Mentor:

I feel this card is currently being slightly over hyped but probably not by very much.  The card's a good one to be sure and will see heavy standard play.
A lot of people are excited for him in UWR tokens but I feel he has a very good home in BWR too.

Here's a preliminary list featuring both these cards that I'm keen to try out:

Creatures(12):
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Brutal Hordechief

Planeswalkers(3):
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Spells(20):
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Hordling Outburst
4 Crackling Doom
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Lightning Strike

(Haven't bothered adding a mana base but you should be able to sort it out)

I'm not really sure if Hordechief is actually better in this deck than Butcher of the Horde but I'm willing to give him a go.
He's also a warrior and the mass of playable warriors IS slowly creeping into the critical range so a BW warrior list may be on the horizon pretty soon.


The last deck I revisited was the classic UWR tempo/argo list from early in the season since Monastery Mentor and Shaman of the Great Hunt both look to fit in there too:

Creatures(18):
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Mantis Rider
2 Shaman of the Great Hunt

Planeswalkers(2):
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Spells(16):
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Lightning Strike
4 Wild Slash


It's highly likely that the tokens Ascendency version of UWR is still just better but I did enjoy playing the tempo deck and wouldn’t mind picking it up again at some point.
Also, Mantis Rider is WAY too sweet to not see play.
The curve of mantis rider into Shaman of the Great Hunt (btw, really wish it had a shorter name...) seems rather good.  Even if you can't attack with the Shaman, Mantis rider gets a +1/+1 counter and next turn you can remove or bounce their blockers to get through on the ground as well, or just draw 2 cards, attack for 4 in the air and get another counter.
Sure, I get that removal exists and that this scenario isn't too likely but hey, everything dies to removal and sometimes they don't have it.

I'm sure I'll be brewing a whole lot of decks in the coming few weeks but that's it for now.
I'll be running the Saturday pre-release event again as usual so looking forward to seeing how the limited game play is changed.


I guess I can't really leave it without commenting on Ugin himself so here he is:

I don't like this card.  Basically at all.
Sure, it will probably see 1, maybe 2 of, play in some sort of UW, UB or Esper control list but this is certainly one of the weakest mythics in the set.





PS:  None of the siege cycle are playable.  Sorry Sam.

That's a Pieing!

Last weekend saw the world's best Magic pros battle it out in Pro Tour, Khans of Tarkir.
The decks played were their takes on the still forming new standard format and will form the baseline for standard for at least the next few months.

The top 8 lists for the event can be found here:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptktk/top-8-decklists-2014-10-11

There were several popular decks but the clear winners in the format were UWR Tempo and Junk Midrange/Agro with UB Control also rearing its ugly head, almost keeping up with the field.

To me, the UB control list looks like a pile of I don't know what but several very high ranking players (basically those that are nostalgic for the UW or Mono Black lists they played last season) were running the deck and Ivan Floch even managed to sneak one copy of the list into the top 8 so there might be something there going forward.
Ultimately, I feel that the lack of playable planeswalkers, no wrath and no real available finishers is going to keep this list from becoming particularly dominant in the general meta, particularly in places where people play agro.
That said, it is at least an indication that there might be a control deck out there for people willing to do actual nothing other than kill creatures and counter things.

The UWR and Junk decks were fairly clearly going to be a dominant force going in based on the early open series results and while the lists being played did vary a lot, the general principle behind them is the same as before.

The variance of the Junk lists was very apparent throughout the weekend and even for the 3 lists that made the top 8, the rage was from a two and three drop based argo deck (notably not running mana dorks or Coursers) in Mike Sigrist's list to the grindy planeswalker, approaching control, version that Ari Lax eventually piloted to overall victory with Thiago Saporito being somewhere in the middle.
While their colours were the same, the only non-removal cards that all three lists actually shared were Siege Rhino and Sorin, Solemn Visitor.
This is interesting as it indicates that at least the Junk colours are dense in high quality cards which allows players to build their decks in a variety of ways, catering to their personally preferred play styles.
This makes for a far more interesting format as more decks mean more play variety which means more fun for everyone.
This is already a vast contrast to the identical 75s of 3-4 decks that we had last season in basically every event that would fluctuate 0-2 cards week to week.

When all is said and done, the real hero of the event for me was Ari Lax and his excellent card choices.
Namely, this guy:

My Hero!

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is in my opinion a highly undervalued planeswalker that has not seen the play time he deserves.
He saw some amount of play in the Junk midrange lists that were popular on the open series toward the end of last season but I think his best times are yet to come.

The quality of the card aside, the reason I was very happy to see Ari include two copies of this walker in his main deck is that I may have had a little something riding on Ajani seeing top 8 play before the next set comes around.

The background is that when Ajani first came out, I did a set review of Journey into Nyx with a friend of mine, Byron, on his YouTube channel and we had some, shall we say disagreement regarding the quality of this Ajani.

The review discussion can be found here:
 http://youtu.be/UF0WU1LMIfo?t=58m45s

I liked this card a lot immediately but Byron was very down on it.
We borrowed a solution to this kind of dispute from Evan Erwin and Brad Nelson who make pie bets regarding cards they disagree on in their reviews.

The Bet:  Ajani, Mentor of Heroes will see top 8 play with 2 or more copies in the main deck at a GP or PT level event before the second set in Khans block comes out.
The Participants:  Tom for, Byron against.
The Prize:  Winner gets to pie the loser in the face.

Well thanks to Ari Lax, THAT'S A PIEING!
And not for me :)

Byron originally offered to up the stakes to 2 pies for top 8 at a PT but I was not up for that one so it will be only 1 pie this Friday at our local game store.

As for the actual card itself, I still believe it is very powerful and I was very impressed with what it was doing in Ari's deck and other Junk decks that brought him in from the sideboard.
Every time Ajani was in play on camera over the weekend he was doing serious work and quickly swinging games.

The decks that he ended up seeing play in were basically exactly where I originally saw him fitting.
He saw play in the Junk lists of last season, fetching up underworld connections, and now in a PT winning Caryatid/Courser/Elspeth deck.

Here is Ari Lax's PT winning Junk Midrange list for reference:

Creatures(16):
2 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Wingmate Roc
4 Siege Rhino

Planeswalkers(7):
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Spells(13):
4 Abzan Charm
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Utter End
4 Thoughtseize

Lands(24):
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Silence
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Caves of Koilos
4 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard(15):
1 End Hostilities
1 Duneblast
1 Mass Calcify
3 Drown in Sorrow
3 Bile Blight
2 Murderous Cut
1 Unravel the Æther
1 Liliana Vess
2 Nissa, Worldwaker

Ari clearly skewed his deck to the upper end of the mana curve available in Junk and I have to say that I am a fan.
There's so much gas at the top end of this deck that I don't see any other decks keeping up with it when the game goes long.
This could be seen in a lot of Ari's matches where he was playing against other junk lists where the board would grind out a bit and then Ari would take over the game with his heavy hitting planeswalkers.

The other interesting side of the PT is looking at what cards and decks were absent.
I think the two most notable deck absences were Green based devotion/monsters and all of the delve/reanimator decks.
I was not particularly surprised by this since in my experience, neither of these decks have enough power or upside in them to compete with the Junk or BWR midrange lists.
There was also a distinct absence of Polukranos anywhere near the top 8 (not counting the sideboard of the combo deck...) which is something I predicted early on when the spoilers for Khans were coming through.
I've never really liked Polukranos.  To me it's not much more than a vanilla 5/5 for 4 mana which is not standard playable and now that there are real creatures to replace him with, I don't see the World Eater seeing anywhere near as much play as he did previously.

Anyway, this week I'll be battling it out in the top 4 of the Highlander league on Wednesday and then taking another look at my standard list to iron it out a bit more for Game Day this weekend.

Congratulations again to Ari Lax on his win and my whole hearted approval of his deck building choices.