Forging a New Path

Paris was the epicenter of magic deck tech over the last week. With both a Pro Tour and GP there were a bunch of players in attendance and lead to some cool new developments. LSV, PV, Ben Stark and others were rocking a UW deck that plays like past Merfolk aka Fish decks. Both these decks revolve around placing a early threat on the board then controlling the game with counter spells, wraths, and planeswalkers (not so much wraths and planeswalkers in the Fish deck though).

PV went so far as to say that Stoneforge Mystic is the Bitterblossom of their UW builds and that's the reason why they run four maindeck Mystics but only 2 maindeck equipment. The deck looks really cool and has decent matchups against the field the worst being either Valakut or Vampires in game one.

Here is PV's Deck List (Ben Stark also played it to a 1st Place Finish in PT Paris):

Lands:

4 Celestial Colonnade

4 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Tectonic Edge

Spells:
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Day of Judgment
1 Deprive
3 Gideon Jura
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Mana Leak
4 Preordain
4 Spell Pierce
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sylvok Lifestaff

Sideboard:
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Deprive
2 Divine Offering
2 Flashfreeze
4 Oust
3 Ratchet Bomb
1 Sword of Body and Mind

The deck basically sides out all the counters for the aggro decks and sides in the removal and Baneslayers. The Valakut sideboard is out with the Hawks, a Gideon, and the Lifestaff and in with the Flashfreeze, 2 Oust, Sword of Body and Mind, and Deprive. For control it depends on what you are facing. For example, against UB I would cut the Staff for another Sword and maybe squeeze a Deprive in there if I thought it was necessary. Against the mirror I would bring in Sword of Body and Mind, and maybe a Baneslayer for the Lifestaff,1 Spell Pierce. Against the Quest Decks and Tezzeret Decks I would bring in the Divine Offerings in place of counters depending on how game 1 went along with ratchet bomb for quest.

Because I really liked what the deck looked like on paper I built it and tried it out versus Valakut. Most of the games were pretty ridiculous with someone blowing the other person out. In games where I didn't Oust a turn 2 Cobra it was very difficult to win. The new Valakut decks drop Titans like a boss (turn 3 is not uncommon) and Green Sun Zenith gives the deck a lot of versatility. It is really crucial to have turn 2 Mystic in this match up because otherwise Valakut can get a head of you on lands pretty quickly. But Feast and Famine changes that a lot. Body and Mind is good too because you can mill Titans (or even their deck, I won a couple times that way). While I really like the way this deck configured I think it could use a little adjustment to help against Boros and Valakut.

This is the list I will be running:

Lands:

4 Celestial Colonnade

4 Glacial Fortress

5 Island

1 Misty Rainforest

4 Plains

4 Seachrome Coast

4 Tectonic Edge

Spells:

4 Squadron Hawk

4 Stoneforge Mystic

4 Day of Judgment

1 Deprive

3 Gideon Jura

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

3 Mana Leak

4 Preordain

4 Spell Pierce

1 Stoic Rebuttal

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Sword of Body and Mind

Sideboard:

1 Baneslayer Angel

1 Elspeth Tirel

1 Mindbreak Trap

1 Sylvok Lifestaff

2 Divine Offering

2 Flashfreeze

3 Oust

2 Ratchet Bomb

2 Condemn

The changes I made should help improve both the Boros and Valakut match ups. The Sword of Body and Mind is better against Valakut, Control Decks, and Elves. The Lifestaff is better vs Vampires and Boros. I think it is better to have Body and Mind in the main than the side to help against those decks, the Lifestaff can come in from the board against Boros and Vamps. Oust and Ratchet Bomb are each reduced by one to make room for 2 Condemn which are better than either of those cards in the Boros matchup. 1 Baneslayer became a Elspeth Tirel because Elspeth is better vs Vamps than Baneslayer and without Sylvok Lifestaff main you want make sure your board is still good for them. Mindbreak Trap might seem like the most odd choice. My thought process was to cut the Deprive for a Flashfreeze against Valakut because I really didn't want to lose any games against Valakut because I had Mana Leak and my opponent could pay for it. But then I also remember that Valakut was gaining control by being much more aggressive in the early game and if you didn't have Mystic on turn 2 with and have Spell Pierce on turn 3 and be able to drop a Sword into play you were really behind. The other thing I noticed was that Valakut is playing a significantly higher number of spells per turn since the addition of Lotus Cobra. It was only during those games where Valakut had a ridiculous good turn in the early game that I lost. Mindbreak Trap is perfect for this matchup now. Before it was U/B's tool for countering Gaea's Revenge. Now you can actually cast it against Valakut for 0 mana and "counter" anything 

without triggering Summoning Trap. Even if they didn't have Summoning Trap maindeck they most definitely sided it in. Mindbreak Trap becomes a lot worse against other decks but is not as bad as it was because with SOFAF you play something and untap your lands leaving mana up for Mindbreak Trap that you couldn't before. 

Aggro in the House!!

At my last FNM I played Valakut expecting a good mix of both control and aggro decks to be present. Well, I was DEAD wrong. Of all the people who showed up (probably 20-30 people) there were 3 control decks, yeah that is what I just said. My maindeck was tuned to beat control because Valakut has the worst game 2 against control that winning game 1 becomes extremely important. I was playing a list that was not too different from the one I posted a little while ago. But, it did have some changes (I'll talk about Valakut in more detail in a later post) but I'm here today to talk about the Aggro decks in the format.

The are two main archetypes for Aggro at the moment. There is Vampires and Kuldotha Red. If you are really up to date then maybe you have seen the Black-Blue Vampires list that came out of Paris. I like the idea of the deck because it has the fast Vampire shell that runs a few counterspells (Unified Will not Mana Leak) and has Go for the Throat. The deck also has the ability to morph from an aggro deck to an aggro control-deck. The deck also doesn't run Creeping Tarpit because the designers felt it was too slow. I don't have a list for you, but I will have one within a day or two so check back if you are interested.

Kuldotha Red in the form that I listed last week was just not pulling its weight. Yeah, the deck is insanely powerful and can kill you on turns 2-3. But when it didn't it just sucked. I mean it SUCKED. When playing against it with Valakut I was able to Pryoclasm on turn 2. Drop my 3rd mountain turn 3 with no green mana or ramp to speak of. Then play Koth on turn 4 with a top decked Verdant Catacombs and after Slagstorm-ing away a Signal Pest and a Memnite I just used Koth to beat him down (my opponent was forced to Lightning Bolt Koth to prevent his ultimate from going off).

How does Kuldotha Red overcome this problem? The answer that Gerry T. came up with was to splash another color. I think the consenus is that the best splash would be for black. This gives you access to Dark Tutelage. Ryan at Casual MTG Creations spoke about this in detail on his blog. Here is the list he came up with:

4x Memnite
4x Ornithopter
4x Goblin Bushwacker
4x Signal Pest
2x Goblin Wardriver

4x Kuldotha Rebirth
3x Devastating Summons
2x Dark Tutalege
3x Raid Bombardment
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Chimeric Mass
2x Jinxed Idol
1x Flayer Husk

4x Mox Opal
3x Dragonskull Summit
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Contested Warzone
8x Mountain


I like this deck. It is indeed much more resilent to sweepers than most K-Red decks. But, there is a definite trade off. This deck will not win on turns 2-3 as often as other K-red decks because of the increased number of 3 drops. There is definitely nothing wrong with the drops in the deck. They all have a specific purpose for why they are there and each card accomplishes that. In my opinion though the speed trade off is too significant. The ability to get "free wins" against some decks is part of the attraction of K-Red. If I was to redo my list here is what it would like:


4x Memnite
4x Ornithopter
4x Goblin Bushwacker
4x Signal Pest
4x Goblin Wardriver

4x Mox Opal
4x Kuldotha Rebirth
4x Devastating Summons
2x Dark Tutalege

2x Lightning Bolt
2x Chimeric Mass
2x Jinxed Idol
1x Flayer Husk

3x Dragonskull Summit
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Contested Warzone
8x Mountain


Card Choices:


Because Goblin Guide was cut from the deck (cause it just is not good, if you don't believe me build it and try it out) I wanted to make sure we have a constant stream of threats to place on board. That is why I upped the number of Goblin Wardriver from 2 to 4. He is just a boss in this deck and gives everyone a power up whereas a card like Goblin Chieftain only helps out goblins. Jinxed Idol was moved into the main to help you matchup against control. I kept 2 Lightning Bolt because they are needed to help deal with Vampire Knighthawk and can combine with another creature if you have to kill cards like Perimeter Captain which Ryan has noted as sideboard in U/W builds like his Snape Anew deck. The reason I didn't include Raid Bombardment in the main deck is because that the card doesn't do anything by itself. Yes, if you have 5 attackers then it can add up. That's a big if. And if I am going to be playing a deck like this I don't want the "if factor" to be associated with a 3 drop because it is too mana intensive for it to not do anything. I think there is still an "if factor" associated with Dark Tutelage because you could still not draw anything relevant (i.e. lands) but then you were most likely dead if you had the Raid Bombardment in that position too. Also, I want the full set of Warzones in the deck. I saw one version with the Warzones and one with out and I am telling you that they make a huge difference. It like the difference between a Bitterblossom hand with Faeries and hand with out Bitterblossom. You can surely still "get there" but you would be a lot happier if you had the card in your hand. There is one less land in this version than the other. This was done so that you have more room to play impact spells. This might not be correct with the two main deck Tutelage if you have only two lands and no active Mox and can't cast Tutelage. But I am confident it shouldn't be too much of a problem, if any.


My reccomendation for this deck is build it. Try it out. Do a SWOT analysis ( identify the Strengths, Weakness, Opporunities and Threats) then tune the deck  to your personal liking keeping the recommendations in mind.


(For those who are Combo or Control Players look for my post about the Tezzeret decks in a few days!)

Kuldotha Red: Post Beseiged

Red Deck Wins. It has been an ever present menace in multiple formats spanning years of Magic tournament play. It is always changing and yet remains the same. Red Deck Wins will kill you faster than any other archetype. (There have been exceptions in certain formats over the years but primarily RDW is usually fastest.) This is going to remain true for Standard post Mirrodin Beseiged as well. I am traditionally a control player. If I do play an aggro strategy it is usually running four Vengevines. But, this deck might make me consider it for an at least an FNM. When the worst opening hand for the deck is Mountain into Goblin Guide and attack for 2 you know it is packing a punch. Here is the list, check it out for yourself:


Main Deck

Creatures:
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Guide
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
2 Goblin Wardriver

Spells:
3 Chimeric Mass
4 Devastating Summons
1 Flayer Husk
4 Kuldotha Rebirth
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Mox Opal

Lands:
4 Contested War Zone
16 Mountain

All the artifacts ensure that you are going to have metal craft for your Mox Opal and more importantly a sac outlet for Kuldotha Rebirth. Kuldotha Rebirth is the name sake of this deck for a reason. Look at this line of play:

Turn 1: Ornithopter, Memnite, Memnite, Mox Opal, Moutain, Goblin Bushwhacker with Kicker, attack for 9.
Turn 2: Constested Warzone, attack for 9
Turn3: They probably already scooped :)

If you are doing that on the play there is no deck that can answer a play like this. The deck has vulnerabilities to sweepers the worst being Pyroclasm. Slagstorm, Day of Judgment, and Black Sun Zenith are most of the time too slow. Even if you get hit by a sweeper the deck can come back the next turn with a Devastating Summons and a Bushwhacker kicked. This should be the nail in the coffin as you have likely dealt a fair amount of damage before you were hit by the sweeper.

Coming up with a sideboard for this deck is fairly difficult. It is similar to Valakut in the sense that it has elements of a combo deck. If you take out the 0 drops you totally ruin the strategy of the deck and the bigger "reach cards" like Hero of Oxid Ridge and Koth are just slow enough that other decks can deal with them. Here is one possible configuration but it is probably not the best.

Sideboard:
2 Goblin Wardriver
3 Tuktuk the Explorer
4 Jinxed Idol
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Goblin Chieftain
3 Forked Bolt

The Tuktuk are great against decks with sweepers. Forked Bolt and Goblin Wardriver help out in the mirror match. Jinxed Idol is for the control decks. Lightning Bolt and Goblin Chieftain are for Black Red Vampires.  As I said before, this is only one rendition of the sideboard and could be built several different ways.

This deck WILL DESTROY any deck that is not prepared for it. It is too fast powerful for you to have any legitimate hope of recovering and stabilizing if you have been hit for 12 to 18 over the first two turns of the game. This deck is extremely budget too so expect some of the new players to wielding it. But, beware that an experienced player might be piloting this deck trying to beat the meta. If that's the case I would expect them to able to play around cards like DoG, BSZ, Slagstorm, and Pyroclasm to an extent. I say you can only play around Pyroclasm to an extent because the deck has to be aggressive to win and sometimes you have to go all out and just hope they don't have it. If you don't believe the potential of this deck check out the websites in the Links section. Lots of people are talking about it.

Brian Kibler's CawVenge Extended

I'm sure most of you are here to see the deck list and get on with your lives. So I will refrain from commenting about it until after you have had a chance to go through it. Well here you go:

Maindeck:

Creatures
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Dauntless Escort
4 Fauna Shaman
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Vengevine

Instants
3 Path to Exile

Legendary Creatures
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence


Planeswalkers
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Basic Lands
4 Forest
1 Plains

Lands
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Murmuring Bosk
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Stirring Wildwood
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Verdant Catacombs


Sideboard:
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Cloudthresher
4 Great Sable Stag
2 Sun Titan
1 War Priest of Thune
2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
3 Oust

-As designed by Brian Kibler

As you can see there are some interesting card choices. But, to be honest I really don't think I would change much with his deck. I have been experimenting with trying to come up with something along a similar line for standard. I figured this would be a good place to start. This deck makes the most use of Knight of the Reliquary. She (yeah that's right Knight of the Reliquary is one *** kicking girl) is an absolute power house in this deck. Why? Because of the 6 fetch lands and multiple basics, Knight needs those forests and plains.

Squadron Hawk is both one of the most useful and least powerful cards in the deck. The card advantage you get from Squadron Hawk is amazing. A great thing that Squadron Hawk let's you do is overfill your hand to discard Vengevines so you can rebuy them later. Maybe you don't have a Vengevine but you do have a Knight of the Reliquary in play and you are absolutely flooded with mana. Cast the Squadron Hawk discard some Lands and make the Knight huge. But, there are some drawbacks. At the end of the day Squadron Hawk is a 1/1 flyer for 2. So, don't expect that casting a few Squadron Hawks alone will win you the game.

I like that the mana base is much more stable than Naya and that you get access to great removal with Path to Exile which is just really underrated right now. Dauntless Escort is a nice 1 of and I like the synergy it has with Sun Titan coming out of the Board. Qasali Pridemage is a great on curve aggressive threat that can offer some disruption against Faeries by taking out those pesky Bitter Blossoms. However, it is not as great against the Primastic Omens decks as they will usually be able to play around it and the R/G version will go off without it.

Speaking of these decks, I would not recommend Kibler's deck to anyone who expects to face a lot of Valakut the Molten Pinnacle in Extended. Their combo is usually just plain faster than you. Kibler's deck has good match ups against Naya, Mono Red, and Faeries isn't impossible but you have to play smart. However, the Valakut decks in almost all of their incarnations are simply a nightmare. Kibler said he would have to make several changes to the deck if he was going to play it again. Honestly, I'm not sure what he has mind but  I am certainly curious and will let you know as soon I find out.

So, what might Kibler's deck look like in Standard? Here is a brew I am toying with (that means it not done):

Creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Signal Pest
4 Squadron Hawks
4 Accorder Paladin
4 Fauna Shaman
3 Mirran Crusader
4 Vengevine
3 Hero of the Bladehold
2 Moltentail Masticore

Sorceries
4 Lead the Stampede

Lands:
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
3 Stirring Wildwood
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Arid Mesa
4 Forest
6 Plains
2 Contested Warzone

This deck capitalizes on being big and being fast at the same time. It hit for 11 on turn 3 with:
Turn 1: Razorverge Thicket -> Birds of Paradise
Turn 2: Razorverge Thicket -> Signal Pest, Accorder Paladin using the Birds for mana
Turn 3: Plains -> Vengevine attack for 11

Obviously this deck pretty much folds to a sweeper. That is why Lead the Stampede is there to help refill your hand and put noncreature cards on the botton of your Library so you don't have to draw them. But, relying on Lead the Stampede to pull out a win isn't a good strategy. So, this is where the sideboard is going to be very important for this deck. You don't want to be blown out by a Black Sun Zenith, Pyroclasm, Slagstorm, or to a lesser degree Arc Trail. Unfortunately, I don't have a sideboard for you (I said it wasn't finished remember) because there is a fine line between being a swarm deck, a midrange deck, and a creature deck that plays too slow and just loses. What I mean is that I need to find ways of being resilent without sacrificing too much speed. Some cards to consider will be Garruk Wildspeaker, Obstinate Baloth, and Thrun, the Last Troll.

Thanks for Reading.

-Mark
The Strategist