A Return to the Pinnacle of Success:

Once Scars of Mirrodin was release Valakut decks became very popular and highly competitive. They were posting good numbers as there just wasn't a well defined strategy to beat them yet. Well, as we know, because of the success of the deck that is exactly what happened. The birth of Blue Black put Valakut on its heels. With cards like Memoricide, Spreading Seas, Tectonic Edge, Flash Freeze, and discard options Blue Black was able to oust Valakut as the top deck.

Now that Blue Black is top dawg can Valakut do anything to reclaim its title? I feel a Rocky Balboa movie coming along cause this going to be the story of a top fighter who is now the under dog coming to bash some face. Thrun, the Last Troll and Green Sun Zenith might just offer the resiliency that Valakut needs to reclaim its title.

Here is my proposed list:

Valakut Post Beseiged

Creatures:

4 Overgrown Battlement

4 Primeval Titan

1 Inferno Titan

1 Avenger of Zendikar

1 Gaea’s Revenge

Total: 13

Spells:

3 Lightning Bolt

4 Explore

2 Slagstorm

4 Growth Spasm

3 Cultivate

3 Green Sun Zenith

2 Summoning Trap

Total: 20

Lands:

3 Terramorphic Expanse

3 Evolving Wilds

11 Mountains

6 Forests

4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Total: 27

Sideboard:

3 Acidic Slime

1 Slagstorm

1 Summoning Trap

1 Avenger of Zendikar

1 Gaea’s Revenge

3 Ricochet Trap

2 Thrun, the Last Troll

Card Choices:

4 Battlement: great early accelerants, offer stall, can't be removed via Lightning Bolt or Slagstorm.

4 Primeval Titan: Come on, really. I'm not explaining this one.

1 Inferno Titan: Great against aggro decks as it can decimate their board. especially if it makes it to the attack phase.

1 Avenger of Zendikar: Not bad verses control or aggro, if you can't answer him he wins the game byself. I like to keep the threats varied so that's why he's a one of with another in the board.

1 Gaea’s Revenge: The variation rule applies here too as he is great against control but not as spectacular against aggro.

2 Slagstorm: This is the replacement for pyroclasm. The extra mana is worth the extra damage it deals. Plus is can hit players and creatures unlike pyroclasm. Also, planeswalkers.

3 Green Sun Zenith: This slot was originally held only by summoning trap. But because of the extra consistancy of the Zenith it gets a slightly bigger nod as opposed to summoning trap.

2 Summoning Trap: This card is still too good not to play it. It is instant speed and can be cast for 0, neither the Zenith can do. It will be better in control match ups than aggro because of its aforementioned abilities.

The rest of the cards in the main deck are fairly simple and necessary. In the board we have:

3 Acidic Slime: Used to take out which of the 3 things it can target is most detrimental depending on the match up. Drawing multiples usually isn't bad.

1 Summoning Trap: This is here to increase of match win percentage against control.

2 Thrun, the Last Troll: I wanted to give control as hard a time as possible. Having to stare down this guy while fighting the Valakut strategy will be difficult.

1 Gaea's Revenge: Here for the same reasons as the Troll.

3 Ricochet Trap: This card is a must have!!! I don't know how I have seen so many player not have this card somewhere in their 75 card list. It makes no sense. This card can let you counter their counter spells and redirect those pesky Memoricides and Inquisition of Kozilek back on your opponent.

Everything else is pretty self explanatory. Look for my version of GW Beats in the up coming days.

How to really make Mono Black Infect:

Hey everyone!!! Sorry I never update this. Life is pretty busy with school and all. I never seem to have the time to really dedicate myself to this blog. However, with Mirrodin Beseiged coming out some of my friends were discussing how they would make a Mono Black Infect deck. This is what they had come up with:

(Note: Some of the cards listed here are from Mirrodin Besieged which will be released on February 4th with the prerelease on January 29th. All Besieged cards can be found at MTG Salvation)

14x Swamp

4x Inkmoth Nexus

4x Fetch lands ie Verdant Catacombs/ Marsh Flats

4x Hand of the Praetors

4x Phyrexian Crusader

4x Plague Stinger

3x Ichor Rats

2x Phyrexian Vatmother

2x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

4x Grasp of Darkness

4x Go for the Throat

1x Black Sun's Zenith

This list still has 10 open slots which they weren't sure what to do with. Well I took this as an invitation to take a crack at what I think the deck should look like and here is what I came up with:

Creatures:

3x Plague Stinger

4x Phyrexian Crusader

4x Ichor Rats

3x Hand of the Praetors

4x Phyrexian Vatmother

2x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Instants / Sorceries

3x Inquisition of Kozilek

4x Sign in Blood

3x Grasp of Darkness

4x Go for the Throat

2x Black Sun's Zenith

Lands:

12x Swamp

4x Tectonic Edge

4x Inkmoth Nexus

4x Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:

2x Disfigure

3x Duress

2x Doomblade

1x Black Sun's Zenith

3x Corpse Cur

3x Memoricide

1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

I have to say that I while I think my friends made a solid attempt at the deck and that I agree with a lot of their choices, their deck left a lot to be desired. I mean it didn't even have 60 cards, what's up with that? :) I chose the list because you have access to early disruption via Inquisition of Kozilek which can hit most cards and you have access to Duress in the board for contol. Corpse Cur is in the board for removal heavy decks or decks with sweepers like Day of Judgment. There will come a time when trading 1 for 1, removal for creature, or creature for creature, will not be advantageous and Corpse Cur gives you the ability to get back one of your critical guys. The one card I did not fit into the 75 that should probably be there is Mind Sludge. I think 1-2 in the side board would be good. Instead I added Memoricide because most top heavy decks are only running one main threat. This may change after Beseiged and I will update the list accordingly. The sideboard also gives you access to other removal options and the ability to overload on removal if you feel it is necessary. The extra Skittles in the board is for those matches you expect to go longer and where you might have to play to conservatively then drop Skittles, give him haste, and win out of no where. With Hand of the Praetors on Board that's a potential 6 poison counters. I only have 3 Hand of the Praetors in the main deck because he can be killed pretty easily but if he resolves and sticks he's really good.

I also want to draw your attention to one of the removal spells, Go for the Throat.

This card is easily one of the best cards spoiled so far. It offers almost no draw backs. Go for the Throat only misses Wurmcoil Engine and Myr Battlesphere. Neither of these cards are being played heavily right now, at least not in standard anyways. But, this spell might change that. (Sorry Grave Titan) Which is why I included Doomblade in the sideboard. Also, think that black is probably going to get played more once Beseiged gets release, as if it wasn't played enough already. So, that's why Grasp is main decked. But, back to Go for the Throat. This card is going to be format defining a removal staple for years to come. It also serious implications for the Extended format.

Faeries has been one of the most dominant decks in Extended right now. Because of that it has been receiving a lot of hate and the varied number of threats it faces has made it very difficult to have the right removal at the right time. This has prompted Faeries to have to rely on discard options like Thoughtseize, Duress, and Inquisition of Kozilek. But, Go for the Throat solves all of Faeries' problems. Many players had been changing their mana base to support Grasp of Darkness but still found the double black requirement hard to get, especially in the early game. Again, Go for the Throat also solves that problem. This might give Faeries the slight edge it needs to stay on top of the meta, at least for right now.

Now that I have gone completely off topic let's return to the Mono Black Infect deck. The cards that really put it in contention are Phyrexian Vatmother and Phyrexian Crusader. These creatures are powerful and well costed. The Vatmother's drawback as of right now is essientially nothing as Infect is not yet a deck and might still be under the radar for the first week or two. But as infect gets more popular it is very possible that the Vatmother might have to played conservatively or not at all in the mirror match. Otherwise, THIS GUY IS NUTS! The only removal spell he dies to is Go for the Throat, which I believe is one of the reasons it was printed. And when he deal combat damage to a player his power is doubled due to the fact that you only need 10 poison counters to kill your opponent. Phyrexian Crusader is just a really solid threat. First Strike and Infect is a great combination and the protection from Red and White make it well positioned in this meta game because he only dies the black removal spells (disfigure, go for the throat, and grasp of darkness). Overall, I think think if a solid two drop or one drop gets printed (which is what I think this deck is really lacking) it will play much like Jund did in Standard in the last season. It would end up being a mid-range beatdown deck with good removal. The only difference is that Mono Black Infect lacks the number and quality of two for one's that Jund had, Blightning and Bloodbraid Elf. But the raw power of Mono Black Infect's creatures might just be enough.

That's all for now. Peace Out.

The Strategist: Mark

Bant Mass Polymorph: Scars of Mirrodin Standard

We all know how Valakut Ramp has turned into the new Jund deck. Valakut has posted very good results against a lot of the decks in the format and has such a strong ability to "go over the top" of other decks that it is the clear deck to beat. So, I was thinking if you could play a bigger threat at the same or similar speed as Valakut then you put pressure on them to finish you off as soon as possible. Essentially, if they don't get the perfect hand you will win. Aggro decks have tried to accomplish this by spamming creatures early game or using landfall effects to hit for massive damage. But Pyroclasm has been a real problem for these decks. Top players like Gerry T have started to run Pyroclasm main deck. Yes, you can play around Pyroclasm so that you constantly have threats. Doing so however, causes you to have play slower whereas Valakut's strategy is unchanged. They have kept the same inevitability while slowing you down. Any aggro player knows this is bad. This is not to say that aggro can't beat Valakut because it definitely can. Especially when B/R Vamps is packing Mark of Mutiny you can lose a game out of no where. But Valakut wins more consistently.

So, what do I have to contend against Valakut? Something you probably didn't see coming: Bant Mass Polymorph.

Here's the List:

Creatures: 3

1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

1 Ulamog, the Infinte Gyre

Spells: 31

3 Preordain

3 Oust

4 Explore

4 Mana Leak

4 Growth Spasm

3 Cultivate

4 See Beyond

3 Awakening Zone

4 Mass Polymorph

Lands: 26

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Khalni Garden

3 Terramorphic Expanse

2 Tectonic Edge

4 Plains

5 Islands

4 Forests

Sideboard:

3 Condem

2 Journey to Nowhere

2 Spell Pierce

2 Negate

3 Ratchet Bomb

3 Jace Beleren

My friend Ryan over at Casual MTG Creations also put up a Mass Polymorph deck (after I mentioned it to him) if you would like to check out his build. His mana base is more consistent, but his deck lacks removal and runs creatures that produce Eldrazi spawn like Nest Invader. I refained from doing this because I don't want to Polymorph into them. But, he also included Beastmaster Ascension to make up for this. I have not yet fully tested this deck and I am sure it will need changes. I just don't know what yet. It might be that the deck is still too slow to compete against Valakut and that mana base is too inconsistent. But I hope those things can be worked worked out.

Ryan: Mimic Vat in the House

Jund is back to be the deck to beat (at least I think) in this new Mimic Vat configuration. Ryan, here is my list which I adapted from yours:

4x Bloodbraid Elf

2x Kitchen Finks

4x Putrid Leech

3x Fulminator Mage

4x Shriekmaw

3x Skinrender

1x Grave Titan

2x Bituminous Blast

4x Maelstrom Pulse

2x Blightning

3x Terminate

3x Mimic Vat

25x Lands

First off, I decided to wait on which lands to include in the deck. I’m not sure what the main deck list will look like and for now while it is undergoing so many changes I thought it might be best to wait. Also, there is my lack of experience with the extended lands. Some notable changes I made were the inclusion of Kitchen Finks and Blightning. I included Kitchen Finks because (I’m not sure if this is how persist will work with Mimic Vat though) I think you can gain 4 life in some circumstances when you bring back a Kitchen Finks.

For example, Kitchen Finks is on board and chump blocks a creature and dies. It’s persist ability goes on the stack. In response you activate the Mimic Vat. The Vat ability resolves before the persist ability. Now, you bring back Kitchen Finks with no counters during your declare blockers step. Kitchen Finks enters the battle, you gain 2 life, blocks and dies, hits the graveyard and comes back so you gain another 2 life. At the end of turn the Finks, is exiled due to the Mimic Vat.

The possible 4 life, but guaranteed 2 life might not be enough to warrant the inclusion of the Finks. However, it does give Jund a way to prolong itself into the late game if need be (out last Faeries when they have Bitterblossom active and you don’t have a pulse for it), or counteract the Putrid Leech activations.

Blightning I thought was too powerful not to include. I cut the mournwelk because it felt too slow and couldn’t be cascaded into. Blightning accomplishes the discard and deals damage which if need be can be redirected to a Planeswalker. I decreased the upper end of the curve to ensure that the deck doesn’t lose any tempo by cutting 1 Grave Titan and Bituminous Blast. I would not mind going back up to 2 Grave Titan and maybe another Bituminous Blast but I would need to actually test to find out. I also cut 1 Mimic Vat because 4 seemed to many. You can still win without it and having an opening hand with more than 1 might make it unkeepable and you really don’t want to have to mulligan with Jund. If the Finks is not worth it, I could see those card slots being used to up the Grave Titan, Bituminous Blast, Blightning, or Lightning Bolt count (not that my list includes Lightning Bolt in the main, which might be a problem).

Fulminator Mage is really powerful in this deck, but only if you have Mimic Vat. Its power level drops considerably if you don’t have the Mimic Vat so I reduced his count to 3. Skinrender, while not full out removal offers a great Mimic Vat target, is a good tempo card, hits black creatures, and is a decent body. For these reasons I upped its count by one. So, that’s all I have really for changes. I agree with your assessment on the Lands that reflecting pool, raging ravine, the eventide lands, maybe the scars lands in some number, and fetches, all will probably be included in some number and configuration but testing will also play a big role for that.

I really am looking forward to getting the pieces together for this deck as I think it will be an Extender contender even if it is not the top deck. I also think the sideboard Volcanic Fallouts, Great Stable Stag, and maybe a Bituminous Blast and a Blightning or two for the faerie and control match ups respectively, will give the deck at least a 50% win percentage against most decks. Scapeshift I think will be the hardest opponent and may warrant the inclusion of a 4th Fulminator Mage from the board. Lightning Bolt or smother may also be other creature removal and direct damage options to look at.

What do you think of the changes? Did I miss anything? Let me know.

-Mark

Blink and it's Gone

This deck is a post Scars deck that Ryan and myself came up with. The deck tries to abuse Venser's "Bink" ability to trigger enter the battlefield effects. It also synergizes really well with baby Jace, aka Jace Beleren. It allows you to continuously use his -1 ability to draw cards. Then exile him with Venser to restore his counters. Other targets for Venser include Wall of Omens, Seagate Oracle, even Sun Titan. This deck really gets ridiculous when Sun Titan hits the field. If you can't blink any of these targets lands work just as well. This allows you to potentially leave counterspell mana up after casting spells. Noticeable cuts from the deck include Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Baneslayer Angel.

Creatures:

4 Wall of Omens

4 Seagate Oracle

2 Transendant Master

4 Sun Titan

Spells:

1 Ratchet Bomb

3 Preordain

3 Mana Leak

3 Deprive

4 Jace Beleren

3 Day of Judement

3 Venser, the Sojourner

Land:

4 Celestial Colonnade

4 Glacial Fortress

3 Seachrome Coast

3 Tectonic Edge

4 Islands

4 Plains

As always I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions on the decklist

Back to Basics

I have been receiving numerous emails desperately pleading for me to restart my blog, well not really. I mean I think only one and half people actually read it. Paul counts as a half because we aren't sure if he is entirely human yet. (Sorry Paul) The real reason why I wanted to get back to writing this blog is that my Magic: The Gathering skills have improved immensely since my last post on June 2nd.

Over the summer I spent a lot of my time drafting and playing constructed at a new card shop that my friend Ryan introduced me to. (Yes, we are still best friends/rivals, more on this later). The store is called Toys 'N Things. The shop owner Evan is a great guy who really caters to the players. The store is open as long as people are there playing. He even provides free pizza at FNMs! So, even if you don't place at FNM the pizza and the competition make it worth while.

That brings me to the players. The level of competition at the store is difficult with the majority of players having competed in PTQs and a few players making the Top-8. These guys thought me a lot about higher level competitive play. When I first started playing Magic I was concerned with only the cards I was attempting to resolve and what my plan of action was. But, to be truly competitive you can't be a reactive player like I was. Proactive is the way the go, and no I don't mean the acne medication. What I mean by proactive is anticipating what your opponent is planning to do or might do in the future and then playing or, in some occasions, not playing your spells to set up a favorable board position.

With the influx of good players comes good cards. I was able to buy and trade cards and put together a strong White-Blue Control deck. So, here is the list that I have been playing at FNMs in the recent weeks:

Creatures:

4x Wall of Omens

4x Baneslayer Angel

2x Sun Titan

Total: 10

Spells:

3x Path to Exile

2x Condem

4x Mana Leak

2x Deprive

2x Jace Beleren

3x Jace, The Mind Sculptor

2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

3x Day of Judgment

2x Jace's Ingenuity

Total: 23

Lands:

1x Mystifying Maze

4x Celestial Colonnade

4x Glacial Fortress

3x Seriji Refuge

3x Tectonic Edge

1x Scalding Tarn

1x Arid Mesa

5x Pains

5x Islands

Total: 27

Sideboard (Subject to change on a weekly basis due to the meta-game):

2x Negate

2x Flashfreeze

2x Luminarch Ascension

3x War Priest of Thune

2x Oblivion Ring

2x Leyline of Sanctity

2x Sphinx of Jwar Isle

I am not ashamed to admit that I am still not as good at sideboarding as I would like to be. In theory sideboarding is a very easy concept, but in practice it can be very difficult.

Last night's FNM is a good place to start talking about this deck and the odd circumstances that always surround Ryan and myself whenever we compete in the same FNM. Yesterday, was the second FNM in a row where we were paired in the opening round. In the first FNM I won the matchup. But this time around Ryan got is well deserved revenge and beat me 2-0 with ease. I was discouraged at first because the last time I lost in the opening round I missed placing by one win, loosing to the mirror match.

Ryan was playing the Soul Sisters deck. It was a deck I had been aware of but did not consider it as truly competitive. I was dead wrong. Its ability to gain life and pump out large creatures is amazing. With an easy to achieve 30 life Serra's Ascendant becomes a 6/6 flying lifelink for W. Ajani's Pridemate can get insanely big off the essential 8 copies of Soul Warden in the deck. He gets a +1/+1 counter for each instance of life gain. So with two soul wardens in play, you drop down a creature, make a token with Elspeth, and give all your creatures a +1/+1 counter and vigilance until end of turn. So that means your Pridemate gets +5/+5 total. Total mana cost: one white for a Serra Ascendant that is probably now a 6/6. My Blue White deck just could not handle the power, aggressiveness, and lifegain that the Soul Sister deck powered out.

But overall both Ryan and I managed to go 4-1 on the night. My last match was against a Naya Ramp deck. He was running the same list that placed 5th at Nationals. Here it is:

Lands:

4 Arid Mesa

5 Forest

3 Mountain

4 Plains

4 Raging Ravine

2 Stirring Wildwood

3 Tectonic Edge

1 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures:

4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Primeval Titan

Spells:

2 Ajani Vengeant

4 Destructive Force

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

3 Garruk Wildspeaker

2 Gideon Jura

2 Oblivion Ring

3 Path to Exile

4 Rampant Growth

4 Trace of Abundance

Sideboard:

3 Celestial Purge

3 Day of Judgment

4 Obstinate Baloth

2 Realm Razer

3 Ricochet Trap

Our first game lasted 40 minutes. My opponent Jim had a turn 5 Destructive Force with him having 7 lands and only 5 lands for me. This pretty much reset the board and giving him a slight advantage. It took a while but I manage to maintain board control with my planeswalkers and then build up my mana to a point where I could cast spells again. After trading some powerful cards I got a slight edge in board control. At this point we had 8minutes remaining in the round. I showed my opponent my hand loaded with powerful cards. I told it would take a me a while but I have the board position and card advantage to beat you. He considered it and resigned hoping to take the next two games quickly.

Things did not go well for him. I had a turn 2 luminarch ascension, turn 3 wall of omens, and 4 jace the mind scluptor. he was locked out of green mana only have a plains and two arid mesa on his turn 4 and didn't have a land for turn. After he passed back to me I got the final counter on my ascension. Fatesealed with Jace, like I had been doing since I played him, and passed the turn. At the end of my opponent's turn I made 3 4/4 angels. then I played elspeth pumped an angel attacked for 15 and put my opponent down to 3 life after fetchland damage. He then promptly conceded. The time left on the clock was under one minute.

So overall, it was an exciting FNM and easily one of my favorites. All my friends did well and I can't wait for the next event.

Time To Get Aggressive!!

Standard right now is being dominated by 5 main deck variants. We have the obvious Jund, Blue-White Control, Red-White-Blue Planeswalker Control (Superfriends), Naya Vengevine, and Mythic Conscription. Naya and Mythic are the fastest of the deck types here. It can be debated which of the two decks is the fastest (I would give it to Mythic b/c of the lotus cobra knight of the relquinary combo). The drawback for Mythic is that the combo can be easily broken. Jund is Jund and is all about card advantage. Blue-White plays more counterspells than Superfriends and varies in the number of creatures. It also usually has more X spells and so can have longer matchups. Superfriends splashes red for Ajani Vengeant and runs a few less than impressive draw spells like Divination. I'm not a fan RWU Planeswalkers because I don't really like Ajani. But he can control the board a little with his plus ability and can deal damage to a creature or player (damage to a player can be redirected to a planeswalker) with his minus 2. I suppose if you really have the board locked down Ajani's Ultimate becomes instant win.

What have here in Standard are two slow decks, 2 fast decks, and Jund somewhere in between. Note that because of Cascade's card advantage Jund can be just as fast as the fast decks but since it is unreliable it can lean towards the slower side as well. My solution to try to win against all these decks in Standard is to play fast and play hard. Here's the Black-Red Aggro deck that I came up with to meet these needs.

Creatures:
4x Goblin Guide
4x Vampire Lacerator
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Plated Geopede
4x Hellspark Elemental
Total: 20

Spells:
4x Lighnting Bolt
2x Sign in Blood
4x Terminate
4x Blightning
3x Sarkhan the Mad
Total: 17

Land:
3x Lavaclaw Reaches
4x Dragonskull Summit
3x Arid Mesa
3x Verdant Catacombs
6x Mountain
4x Swamp

Sideboard:
4x Duress
3x Goblin Outlander
3x Goblin Ruinblaster
3x Thought Hermorrhage
2x Consuming Vapors
Total: 15

This deck doesn't run a creature with converted mana cost higher than 2, even with kicker, in the main deck. It gets a little higher with Goblin Ruinblaster in the Sideboard. The Ruinblaster and the Outlander make good additions for Superfriends and White-Blue Control. Thought Hemorrhage is also brought in against these matchups to relieve the pressure that Planeswalkers can place in these decks. Duress is crucial for taking out hard to deal with cards before they ever see play. Consuming Vapors can be brought in against Naya, Jund, and Mythic where you might take some early damage that you need to recover from while removing threats at the same time. The creatures also great at taken out planeswalkers because of their haste and the ability Bushwhacker which can give them a power boost as well as haste. Blightning is simply a great card. Sarkhan the Mad is there for late game insurance. Being able to put 5/5 fliers into play as well as draw cards and deal large amounts of damage is pretty nice. Playing one Sarkhan and using him to put dargons into play under your control and then when he dies using a second to deal damage straight to an opponent can be too much for them to handle. Terminate is there for the big creatures and Lightning Bolt for small important creatures like Lotus Cobra, Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, as well as the all important Planeswalkers. The fetch lands help to fix mana and the extra Landfall for the Geopedes is also a blessing. I think this could be a competitive deck in the Standard format.