Niv Mill-it!

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Ed Guise

Recently I’ve found myself getting pretty bored of standard, so much so that going to FNM every week had stopped becoming my first choice for something to do! For a while I really struggled to find a deck that I could enjoy playing, and week-on-week I found myself facing what felt like the same types of deck over and over. Restoration Angel is so damn popular it got really boring really fast. And although I have a playset of the godforsaken card myself, I’m definitely not an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” kinda player!

At 1am on friday morning I finally had a chance to sit down and make myself a new standard deck. I had previously thrown together an Izzet deck for the Ravnica game day, attempting to build around Guttersnipe, but with so much lifegain within my metagame I found the deck lacked any finishing power. Moving forwards, I was sure that I wanted to try some form of control deck, and given the lifegain issues, milling my opponent seemed like a good alternative strategy. Looking through my Ravnica cards I found a set of Chronic Flooding. Although obviously not the best card, the idea of using this intrigued me so I thought I’d try them out. I had a Jace, Memory Adept and two Increasing Confusion to back up my plan, and thankfully managed to arrange to borrow a second Jace (which I eventually I decided to just trade for).

Of course, being an Izzet deck how could I not include the guild leader!? Especially since he’s a dragon. And so to round out the deck with a possible back-up strategy, I included my two copies of Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius. Here is the final decklist that I took along to FNM, which has since been entitled “Niv-Mill-it”

Niv Mill-it

Ok, first some quick notes on the deck. I’ve already talked about why I included Chronic Flooding. I found that in my first two matchups the card actually worked quite well for me, effectively neutralising one or two of my opponents’ lands for the beginning of the game. However in the later rounds, against decks that were happy to try and play a longer game, it wasn’t so effective and so I found myself siding them out whenever possible. Simply controlling the game to the point where Increasing Confusion could prove lethal seemed like a much more solid strategy to run with.

I expected some trouble from Planeswalkers, hence the inclusion of Dreadbores. I was a little worried about my “lack” of black mana sources, but this proved to not be a problem on the night. In fact any mana problems I did have seemed to be due to a lack of Blue mana! I’ll have to adjust my manabase slightly more in favour of blue in the future.

In all honesty, although it may look well crafted, the sideboard was just thrown together. I wasn’t really sure what to expect so just went with a nice variety of possible answers. Good job I did! Almost my whole sideboard came in for round 3…

To kick off I faced an opponent who openly admitted to taking his UWR tempo list straight from the internet. Admittedly he did have the edge, but both games were very closely fought. I lost out each time to Restoration Angel appearing at the end of my turn. Countering this left me vulnerable to Geist of St Traft in his following turn. I may need to have a couple more Rewinds in my sideboard in the future to help deal with that damn angel. Still, both matches were excellent to play so I felt pretty happy about how I’d done and confident that my new deck had some potential. 0-2 for me, my opponent went on to win the night.

In Round 2 I played against a Mono-Black Vampire deck. I say Mono-Black, it actually used shocklands to splash Green and Red for things like Abrupt Decay and Rakdos’ Return, all the while retaining the power of Mutilate. Fortunately I knew all the removal would be next to useless against me, so I didn’t have to worry about that so much. Game 1 went smoothly, although it did take a fair amount of time as it took me a while to get into a position where I could mill my opponent.
Game 2 I was on the draw, and greedily kept a hand with no blue source. This came back to hurt me, I didn’t see any blue for a good 4 turns, and by the end of the game (which went pretty long!) I only had 2 blue mana sources in play. Slaughter Games took care of my Jaces, and being unable to make solid offensive plays myself (and back them up with counter magic), I just sat back and dropped lands. With 2 Increasing Confusion in my graveyard I got to a point, healthily (or so I thought) on 16 life, where I could flashback one and then the next in the following turn. I made the play, and oh how it cost me! Not being fully familiar with Liliana of the Dark Realms, I didn’t realise that she could boost creatures as well as kill them! My opponent Rakdos’s Returned for 7, then pumped his Vampire Nighthawk to swing for exactly lethal. Gutted! Nevermind, I’ll know for next time.
Going to Game 3 we only had 10 minutes left on the round (about 8 once we were done shuffling). I figured I could probably hold out for a draw, but likely not be able to mill my opponent in time. I did try to make Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenious stick, but it seems my opponent hadn’t quite sided out all his removal spells and I was tapped out unable to protect him. My opponent Slaughter Games‘d for Jace again (for some reason insisting on taking time to look fully though my library for the second time.. with less than 4 minutes left on the clock -_- lol). As expected we went to time. Flashbacking a Devil’s Play in the final of the 5 extra turns I was able to do some damage, but unfortunately not enough to win the game. And with that, it was a draw. Still, a reasonable performance from my deck. I may have to get used to going to time seeing as we (irritatingly) have shorter-than-normal round times. 1-1-1.

In Round 3 I faced, what I thought, was a brilliantly constructed deck. I’m not sure where the idea came from, but the plan seemed to be play an accelerators, such as Arbor Elf and Farseek early on, get Chromatic Lantern into play, and from there.. do whatever you want! With all 5 colours readily available the deck had a lot of good spells to choose from and throw at me. But this wasn’t my main problem. These could all be countered. To my surprise, the card that kill me, the one I had no answer to, was Stensia Bloodhall! I’ll admit, wrapping up the first game I was a bit worried. My deck seemed to have no way to stop the inevitable killer land.
Then took a look at my sideboard. Its like it had been created purely to beat this deck! I brought in a massive 13 out of 15 cards! Only Tormod’s Crypt got left behind. More counter magic looked good, Izzet Staticasters kill Elves (and block Thragtusks that attack my Jace, giving me another turn to mill with him). Witchbane Orb stopped all of his direct damage, and even some of his removal in the form of Tribute to Hunger! Without that, he was unable to answer my Niv Mizzet in Game 2. For the first time ever I had the Dracogenius survive through my opponent’s turn, from which point onward it almost felt unfair. Niv’s card drawing ability is, quite simply, INSANE! I managed to win through Milling in Game 3 to take the round 2-1.

The final round saw me paired me up against what looked to be a bit of a random 4-colour “good stuff” deck. I was later told that the game plan was in fact to combine Dead-Eye Navigator, Zealous Conscripts and Gilded Lotus to create infinite mana and the steal all his opponent’s stuff. There were also cards like Huntmaster of the Fells and Bonfire of the Damned thrown in there, and no doubt many other great cards that I didn’t see.
In Game 1 we both played draw-go for a while, until I broke form and tried to cast a Jace, Memory Adept to see what my opponent was up to. Of course, it got countered. This was fine. He followed up with Huntmaster, which I was able to kill in my following turn and soon after Unsummoned the token to clear up the board. I held out until I was able to perfectly time (and back up with counter magic) a flashbacked Increasing Confusion to end the game.
In Game 2 my opponent landed an early Augur of Bolas, and all that really happened from there was him swinging for 1 each turn, and me milling for 3 with Nephalia Drownyard. Later, my opponent cast Tamiyo, the Moon Sage to tap down my milling land. I responded with Jace, Memory Adept and promptly ended the damage/Mill race.in my favour. 2-0.

Going into the night I said I’d be happy with 2-2, so I was pleased with my 2-1-1 result. I really should’ve taken round 2 as well but then I would’ve had different matchups in the following rounds.. who knows what would have happened. Rounds 3 and 4 may not have been as fun

On top of finding and constructing a new deck of my own design what I think I’m really going to enjoy playing with, the best thing about the night overall was that ALL my games were really good ones. For the first time in a LONG time it seems as though a lot of the local players were trying out new things. Perhaps everyone is finally bored of the same old standard aggro strategies, and for that I’m very thankful. Or at the very least, I managed to avoid these decks in my matchups

I’ve often said that I don’t mind losing good games but I hate winning bad ones. It may sound strange to some, but standard recently has definitely proved that for myself. Now I have an enjoyable deck to play with hopefully going to FNM will start to become a more appealing prospect once again.

I’m planning to update the list a little for next week, with a little tuning (and the obvious removal of Chronic Flooding) hopefully I’ll continue to enjoy standard and maybe even have some success with the deck Until next time!

Mono Green Infect Deck Tech

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Ed Guise

Ever since Wild Defiance was spoiled I’ve been wanting to try it out in a Mono-Green Infect deck. I know, its such an obviously good card for it, and the recent (re)printing of Rancor in M13 is just a nice bonus really, as I’ve finally got around to putting a deck together and testing it out a little.

I’ll kick off with my current decklist. Do bear in mind that this deck was literally just thrown together from the cards I had around me (I am yet to acquire the necessary Rancors) and so it is not an ideal, or even finalised, deck list.

Mono Green Infect

I’ll start off by discussing some of the card choices. The creatures are fairly standard. Admittedly I do want a 4th Inkmoth Nexus here, in which case I think I could reliably drop a forest, as well as one of the Blight Mambas to free up room for another pump spell.

Hunter’s Insight is something I’ve had my eye on for some time, especially for this deck. I found it quite strange that this card seemingly is yet to appear in any of the net-decks you will commonly find, and I can’t understand it! In testing, this card has proved to be amazing. Rather than having to commit to a “one-hit KO”, you’re deck is able to kill over a couple of turns. With Wild Defiance already down this alone on any creature will help you hit for 4 Infect damage AND re-stock your hand! Add any other targetted spell in there in there for some seriously insane card draw. Sure, you could just run another pump effect in its place, but for versatility, I think this might just be exactly what the deck needs.

Revenge of the Hunted is primarily in the deck because I love Miracle cards. Were I to take this to FNM, it’s likely these would be replaced with something more consistent, like another pair of Titanic Growths.

Livewire Lash is amazing. That has been known for some time. I tried the deck with just one but I’m now certain that I want two, its superb when you’re unable to win by turning your guys sideways and just need to find another way through.

Finally, Gitaxian Probe. I really like this in place of a set of pump spells, since it allows you to play around combat tricks and removal as well as effectively thinning your deck. I feel this is an important factor here, when it seems as though having a Wild Defiance down is key to most victories. A Ranger’s Guile or two might be competing for a couple of these slots soon though, depending on if I feel the deck needs Apostle’s Blessings 5-6.

Of course this deck is yet to face the big guys, such as delver and Reanimator. I have no idea how I’d go about dealing with a Turn 3 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. I guess I just have to be sure that my opponent is already dead? Perhaps a couple of Cystbearers in the Sideboard could be a good idea here (or I could just be boring and use Phyrexian Metamorphs like everybody else). In the games I have played so far this deck is showing a lot of promise.

I’m yet to open any M13! But once I get round to that I’m hoping to find a couple of Cathedral of War to test out here, as well as Rancor of course. I think I’ll be wanting 3 of these, although as for what to cut? Ask me in a couple of weeks…

Sideboard wise, it can be a bit tricky since you dont want to take away from the vital parts of the deck. As already mentioned, 2-3 Cystbearer could be nice to help get around (or through..) Elesh Norn. I’d also like 3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast in there to help with the Mirror Match, should it come up. Finally, Viridian Corrupter is a solid choice and then round out with a few ways to answer enchantments that will screw you such as Curse of Death’s Hold. Oh, and perhaps some Gut Shots and/or Dismembers too.

I’d love to hear feedback on the deck, especially if you’ve had experience playing with or against similar builds yourself. Is there anything major that I’ve overlooked or things that I need to keep an eye out for?

As always, thanks for reading. Ed.

PS – Yes, I’m confused as to why it says “tooltip” at the top of this post too. No idea why its there, and no idea how to get rid of it!)

Rockin’ Green Black Pod Once More

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Ed Guise

Having tired of playing UB control I really fancied playing a different deck this week, but not having much time (or much of a card pool) available for innovation I once again turned to my Green Black Birthing Pod build. The only real addition that Avacyn Restored has provided me with is Borderland Ranger, which in truth is actually a card that I’m really grateful to have back! He was a key component in my original Pod deck; losing him with rotation hurt quite a lot and I hoped he would straight back into place and e brilliant once more. Heading along to the store, I felt so tired that I wasn’t really sure I even wanted to play this week. But I’m glad I decided to give it a go…

Green Black Birthing Pod

Three things to note. Yes, its a 61 card maindeck. This is because I wanted to run a single Beast Within but couldn’t decide what to cut. As it turned out I didn’t see the card all night, so never mind! Second, the Sideboard is a bit strange. As I said before, I didn’t have a lot of time to work on it so I just include a wide range of tech, mostly stuff that was just left with the deck from the last time I played it. Finally, I have included the (first) names of my opponents this week, as a few of the people in my regular play-group now read my blog it may be beneficial for them to know exactly who my opponents were.

Warning, the report for Round 1 is LONG! (but awesome!)
I faced David Remon, who was running his take on the UWr Miracle deck. As we sat down, he mentioned he was running 3 copies of Torpor Orb. “Sideboard?” I asked. “Nah, Maindeck”, came the reply, “It stops Messenger, Soulbond, and a whole load of other things”. “Yeah, like my entire deck!” I laughed. This matchup was going to be tough, perhaps even nigh on unwinnable for me. So.. into the first game we go!
I started out well enough, until an Orb came down on turn three and making innefficient weenie-beatdown my only option for now! I lead with Strangleroot Geist and Phyrexian Rager. Knowing I could be facing Terminus at any moment (which I eventually did) I didn’t want to over-extend and so held most of my creature cards back. Once I managed to play a Birthing Pod and unable to find Sylvok Replica with it, I decided it best to race up through my mana curve into the big dudes and attempt to hit harder.
Dave cast his first Entreat the Angels for 2 of the flyers, but fortunately I was able to answer it with Sever the Bloodline and to continue beating down. I managed to get Sheoldred, Whispering One into play, but she was quickly met with a Terminus.
And then Tamiyo, The Moon Sage arrived. +1′ing every turn she kept either my Pod or a lone creature locked firmly in place. She was soon joined by Gideon Jura, drawing my attacks for a couple of turns. And then as if that wasn’t enough, a second group of angels arrived! Forcing me to attack into the wall of feathers, I found a Land waiting on top of my library; allowing me to flash back Sever the Bloodline and swing through, thankfully with just enough power to take out the White ‘Walker. Tamiyo continued up to 9 counters to survive an Ultimate activation. Fighting through unlimited cards could be difficult, especially when one of those was Feeling of Dread.
With the game going long both of us were struggling to find a way to close it down, but finally finding my only answer to the Orb in Sylvok Replica allowed me back in the game. I Podded into Sheoldred once again, and used her to bring back Brutalizer Exarch to finally get rid of Tamiyo before yet another Terminus once again dealt with the Praetor. Terminus isn’t the greatest card against me, I’m sure had all these been straight-forward Day of Judgments instead then Dave would’ve had a much easier time of it, but being able to re-use most of my creatures with Birthing Pod is a huge bonus.
My constant flow of creatures had just about managed to put Dave down to 6 life, and with the game going long we both really needed to find something to tie up the match. With that, I managed to rip a Birds of Paradise from the top of my deck. Pretty underwhelming, but playing it allowed me to immidiately upgrade into Strangleroot Geist and get in for another 2.
I tentatively passed the turn, fully expecting another Entreat the Angels to take the game. And there it was. I was on 16 life, but no matter, with no way to punch through I was all but dead. Into my final turn I was looking for any way to deal that final bit of damage. And then I actually felt my heart skip a beat as I layed eyes on a card in my hand. Tragic Slip had been a dead card for me all game. But now there was nothing I’d rather of had, as I remembered one more creature in my deck that I had so far not seen this game. Podding the Geist into Geralf’s Messenger, the Slip was exactly what I needed to kill him, triggering his life-loss effect twice and take my opponent to 0!
And with that, Game 1 was over. And what a game! It had taken over half an hour to play, and finishing the round within the remaining time looked unlikely, but we didn’t care. I came unsure if I wanted to even play FNM, but even if this were to be my only good game tonight then it had been well worth it!

Onto game two. Fortunately Dave didn’t find Torpor Orb this time. I did wonder if maybe he had even sided it out, but doubting that I continued to play “around” it slightly (or at least play with it in mind, being sure to hold the Replica and Bramblecrush to deal with it (or potentially hitting a Planeswalker with the latter).
Dave’s deck didn’t seem to do much for a while. Until, from nowhere, a Sun Titan arrived on turn 6! Dave hoped this guy would prove to be some kind of awesome Sideboard tech, assuming I would side out most of my removal (which was more-or-less correct, the 3 Slips were gone but Sever remained). And he was right. I played Garruk Relentless to churn out 2/2 Wolf chump blockers, but the Titan was quickly copied by a Phantasmal Image! Balls…
(Now at this point, it turns out that I could have used Garruk’s second ability to fight the Image and have Garruk still survive. However, at the time I believed it would work in the same way as actually Fighting and I assumed I would lose Garruk by doing this, and so unfortunately missed that play.)
I managed to get a Titan of my own, through Phyrexian Metamorph, which quickly traded with one of Dave’s as I continued to chump the other. Finally able to answer the Image-Titan by Podding into Morkrut Banshee, there was not a lot of time left on the clock.
I upgraded into Massacre Wurm and Wurmcoil Engine, with Glissa, the Traitor allowing me to return Sylvok Replica to deal with more Torpor Orbs. With me on the beatdown, the game went to time.
Credit to Dave here, he did offer to scoop and award me the Round 2-0 in the case that we went to time. This wasn’t something he had to do, but I would be much happier with the victory were I able to beat him properly. Going into the extra turns, Dave was unable to come up with an answer and I finally got in for lethal damage on the third.
Satisfied with the victory, I was more happy with the fact that both of us agreed that this had been the most amazing games/round of Magic either of us had ever played. I know I’m unable to convey here just how great it felt to play (and in hindsight i do really wish we had set up a camera to record the whole thing, not least because my memory of the game is far from perfect) but it really was an immense round. And I’d just like to take a moment to thank Dave for being such a great opponent. It’s always a pleasure to play with (/against) you, I love that you brew your own decks and tech; the sideboard Sun Titan here yet another fantastic example!

In Round 2 I faced Ben, piloting his usual Frites net-deck (ugh..). Unfortunately Game 1 didn’t start on the most positive note. My opponent is known to be a fairly sloppy player, so when I was sure I saw him draw “one” card (which seemed to split into two in his hand) followed by a second card, before discarding two after casting Faithless Looting, I pulled him up on it. My opponent seemed pretty flustered, but as far as he was willing to show me the cards added up so I let it go. Although I’m still pretty sure something dodgy went on here, I didn’t really want to push it any further.
I possibly should have taken a mulligan this game, relying a bit too much on a pair of Birds of Paradise in my opening hand. After seeing a third, I thought I might be ok given I was holding Sheoldred, Whispering One (I’m pretty sure She would have locked down the game had I been able to cast her) but stuck on three land I was unable to do anything. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite came down and we went to Game 2.
Irritatingly in Game 2 another frustrating situation occurred, as my opponent cast Mulch and resolved the spell before deciding what lands to tap to pay the cost. Potentially an innocent mistake, but again dodgy given he hadn’t yet made his land drop for the turn. I didn’t comment on this one at the time, though perhaps I should have. I was able to Surgically Extract Unburial Rites, forcing my opponent to play on even terms (against Pod.. yeah I know ;P). I feel I played really well in game two, notable using Acidic Slime to keep him off the right colours of mana for casting the big guys like Inferno Titan. As it turned out I was bang on here, as he was holding two as I destroyed his second red source (ignoring my opponents attempts of suggestion at which land I should destroy, lol). This allowed me to take the game fairly easily once I got to my big guys.
Game 3 I also took as my opponent complained of “his deck not giving him what he wanted”. The thing that irritated me most though was his short attention span. As I was closing down the game with Vorapede and some other creatures, my opponent became “distracted”, looking everywhere but the battlefield, including through his sideboard whilst trying to claim that his deck was a card short, possibly as if to suggest that because his deck might be illigal we should re-start the game? Worst of all, he “accidently”(?) knocked a Spirit token onto his side of the battlefield. Now, thats not a problem in itself, but he proceeded to pick up the token as he decided how to block, and then attempted to try and block with the token! After questioning where the token came from, he simply replied “oh yeah…” before instantly putting it to one side (not even questioning the fact, implying that he knew exactly what he had done) and took the lethal damage.
It was a bit of a shame afterwards to actually have to tell my opponent that he really needs to learn to focus on the actual game better and not get distracted. Especially having to say this to a player who has played for a good number of years but just seems to refuse to learn. This almost definitely annoyed him, I think this is perhaps the closest I’ve ever come to making an opponent “tilt out”, lol, but in the vague hope he will learn for next time then all the better!
He continued to blame his loss on “mana screw / mana flood / etc”, but I’ll admit, it was satisfying to (once again) beat this guy who (due to the fact our FNM is mostly made up of home-brewed decks) tends to do rather well by averagely piloting a net-deck week on week

Round 3 pitted me against Ian’s UB Zombies. I knew this would be a bad matchup for me before we started, and I wasn’t far wrong. In Game 1 a Blood Artist backed up by a lot of aggressive creatures took me down fast. In Game 2 however, I managed to Pod into Tree of Redemption just early enough to save myself. Making the Tree a 0/1, I took the 13 life and ran with it. Once again, my favourite removal spell in standard (and I think also the most under-rated/played) Sever the Bloodline, saved me from first one and then a pair of opposing Geralf’s Messengers. Once the big threats came into play the game was, more or less, safely mine for the taking.
In Game 3, Tragic Slip quickly dealt with a Blood Artist but only able to cast one chump creature a turn from then on, facing down a pair of Gravecrawlers did not end well. My opponent did find himself stuck on two land, which became just one after I cast Acidic Slime, but I was unable to permanently deal with early Zombie prescence. If only M13 had already been released and that damn Hollowhenge Scavenger I was holding could have been a Thragtusk…
Afterwards we discussed whether I should have sided in my Witchbane Orbs, the conclusion being a resounding yes. I was aware of the possibility that I could do this at the time, but for some reason, I forget why, I decded against it. And that decision may have cost me the round.. who knows!

Round 4 I faced Brian’s RW Myr/Token deck. Im not quite sure what the deck was really aiming to do, it never seemed to get going. Glint Hawk Idol and Inkmoth Nexus seemed to be the main threats, although the latter was never activated. I was able to play my deck relatively unhindered, although in Game 1 my Wurmcoil Engine found itself Oblivion Ringed no less than three times! The first was dealt with by Brutalizer Exarch, the second with an Acidic Slime and the third by Sylvok Replica. Finally getting to attack with the Wurmcoil brought my life total up to a comfortable level; the game took a while to close down but I never felt on the back foot so it was really just a matter of time. Timely Reinforcements was cancelled out by Massacre Wurm in Game 2 and again I took that one relatively easily.

So overall I went 3-1, pretty much my standard FNM result. But at least this week I felt that in the round I lost I was actually beaten by my opponent, rather than by my own deck failing as has happened frequently with UB control. Best of all, it felt really good to be playing with Birthing Pod again! With Thragtusk coming soon I’m looking forward to perhaps going back to this deck for a while, although do I have a couple of other ideas to try out first…

I don’t normaly write full FNM reports any more but I felt this week definitely deserved one. I hope it was a good read; I certainly enjoyed writing it, and I’m really glad that I decided to play in the end

Until next time. Ed.

Brewing in Heartless Exile

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Ed Guise

I had planned to finish writing up my Avacyn Restored Pre-Release report tonight.. but then I saw this from Andrew Magrini (@A_Magrini) on Twitter:

“I want to build an FNM deck that uses Misthollow Griffin, Surgical Extraction, Skaab Ruinator, and Heartless Summoning. Anyone wanna try?”

YES! I DO! I guess my Pre-Re report will be put on hold tomorrow then.

Now normally I draft out my blog posts and spend some time re-wording, re-ordering, scrutinising and making corrections before I hit publish. Seeing as I’d like to get to bed quite soon however, this time I’m just going to be writing on the fly so please bear with me in the case of any mistakes or nonsense!

Ok, so to kick off, the requested 4 cards. You can immediately see we are Blue/Black. Since I’ve been playing a UB Control deck recently, I’m imagining something combo-esque in a control-ish shell. However, being creature based this is likely going to be relatively aggressive, so I’m thinking lets go counter-magic light and stick to the Black side of control.
Misthollow Griffin – Core of the deck, 4 of these.
Surgical Extraction – Great for getting the Griffin into exile, but I don’t think you’d want to overload on this effect, so I think I’ll include 3 in the maindeck. It’s also a great card for neutering some other decks (especially Zombies) so the 4th will be in the sideboard.
Skaab Ruinator – Works beautifully with the Griffin, and will likely be the main beater in the deck, another 4-of.
Heartless Summoning – A nice engine to get everything going. Definite 4-of.

So there’s 15 cards straight off. For a manabase, the dual lands Drowned Catacomb and Darkslick Shores are no-brainers, assuming you can get them. If not, some Evolving Wilds should be nice for a budget version. I have found Nephalia Drownyard to be fantastic as an alt-win con, but here it also helps fuel your deck. Perhaps add a couple of Ghost Quarter too if you’re worried about seeing opposing land threats (although remember, no counters means no need to worry about Cavern of Souls here! Fill out with Swamps and Islands up to 24(ish) lands (I’ve been having mana screw problems lately even with 26 so I might go a bit higher).

Once you have a Ruinator in play, making duplicates on the cheap seems like it could be a good idea, so a few Phyrexian Metamorph can’t hurt (not you at least, hopefully they’ll be hurting the opponent lots!) Also great for mimicing opposing threats

21 cards left to find. Memoricide has just jumped to mind with potential for inclusion, but taking a few moments to think about it, since we already have Surgicals and the Ruinators to exile the Griffins I think it would be an unnecessary inclusion.

Perilous Myr seems good. Bit of spot removal (especially against those pesky Mirran Crusaders). Another 2-drop that I’ve grown to love using with Heartless recently is Black Cat. Yet another creature that opponents hate swinging into.

Now perhaps this is a bit too obvious, and feel free to criticize me for this one, but Havengul Lich jumps out. Yes, Lich-combo has been done before. But it’s a solid creature to have at the top end of the deck, and it can’t hurt to include a couple.

One final creature I’d personally love to play with is Griselbrand. With a couple of Heartless Summonings down he is the same cost as a Phyrexian Obliterator. Seems… fair? Probably only include one though.

Ok, finally onto the removal suite. Tragic Slip is great at the moment. As is Black Sun’s Zenith, but since you want to be having guys down I don’t think this is optimal. Instead, I’d rather have Sever the Bloodline right now. A fantastic card to deal with opposing Titans/Undying guys/etc and probably at about the right place in the curve of this deck so you can get rid of their main threat and continue to beat down. Finally for a little more spot-removal, a couple of Go for the Throats could be good, but since we already have the Myr acting as pseudo-removal, I think I’d like a couple of Tribute to Hunger to help deal with those damn Hexproofers.

Since this deck has been put together in a hurry off the top of my head I won’t bother dreaming up a full sideboard just yet, but I guess a few counters and perhaps even those Black Zenith’s I mentioned could be a good idea there, just in case. One final card that should probably be in the sideboard, but because I’ve been having fun winning with it along side Drownyard, is Increasing Confusion. So im going to throw one of those into the deck for kicks.

To finish, here is a round-up of my proposed decklist:

4 Heartless Summoning

2 Black Cat
4 Perilous Myr
4 Skaab Ruinator
4 Misthollow Griffin
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Havengul Lich
1 Griselbrand

3 Surgical Extraction
4 Tragic Slip
2 Sever the Bloodline
2 Tribute to Hunger
1 Increasing Confusion

4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Nephalia Drownyard
2 Ghost Quarter
6 Swamps
6 Islands

And there you go! Just over 30 minutes from when I wrote the first word until now, that’s pretty good going I think! I hope you like the deck (especially Andrew, if you took the time to read then thank you) although I am sure there are plenty of improvements that could be made. Do let me hear any feedback you might have, and perhaps even try it (or something similar) out at you local FNM. If you do, be sure to let me know how it goes!

Until next time! (Which will be tomorrow, when I finally get around to publishing my Pre-Re report)

@EdGuise88

(Edit: I’ll admit, I did just do a quick 2 minute proof read before posting to twitter lol)

FNM Report – Blue Black Control

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Ed Guise

So after a disastrous week playing UB control at last week’s FNM, back at my local store this week I made a few changes to the deck and gave it another shot. Most significantly my friend had acquired a Karn Liberated so I now had another Planeswalker in my arsenal.

I’ll kick of with my decklist.

Creatures:
1 Consecrated Sphinx, 1 Grave Titan, 1 Frost Titan, 2 Snapcaster Mage
Spells:
Removal – 2 Black Sun’s Zenith, 3 Tragic Slip, 1 Sever the Bloodline, 2 Tribute to Hunger, 1 Go for the Throat
Draw – 3 Think Twice, 2 Forbidden Alchemy, 1 Blue Sun’s Zenith
Counter – 4 Mana Leak, 3 Dissipate, 2 Negate
Other – 1 Curse of Death’s Hold, 1 Ratchet Bomb,
1 Liliana of the Veil, 1 Karn Liberated, 1 Sorin’s Vengeance
Land:
4 Darkslick Shores, 4 Drowned Catacomb, 2 Ghost Quarter,
2 Nephalia Drownyard, 7 Island, 7 Swamp

Sideboard:
2 Witchbane Orb, 1 Nihil Spellbomb, 2 Surgical Extraction,
1 Go for the Throat, 1 Curse of Death’s Hold, 3 Steel Sabotage,
2 Flashfreeze, 1 Increasing Confusion, 2 Phyrexian Metamorph

The most crucial changes to the deck since last week were obviously the inclusion of Karn, but I also removed a Snapcaster Mage; having been rather underwhelmed by him in previous weeks I think two are adequate. I’d acquired an Increasing Confusion for the sideboard, which turned out to be a key card, and my counterspell count was increased a little since I’d been having problems not seeing enough counters in past weeks. Finally, a Grave Titan was added in place of a Sphinx.

And so, onto the games!

Round 1 vs UWb aggro.
In game 1 I managed to shut down everything my opponent tried to do. Lingering Souls tokens were met with Black Sun’s Zeniths and his Dungeon Geists had no targets. I won with Sorin’s Vengeance, flashed back with Snapcaster Mage. Exactly the reason fro including that card in the first place, I’m glad I was finally able to make that play. In game 2 I managed to Surgically Extract his Lingering Souls early on. From there my counters and removal kept his deck locked down as I took the round. 2-0.

Round 2 vs Br Zombies (David Remon, whose report of this FNM can be found here)
Zombies is perhaps my least favourite match-up. Still, I managed to win game 1 almost out of nowhere! It was close, but down to 3 life a perfectly timed Tribute to Hunger to get rid of a Phyrexian Obliterator helped me stabilise and I was able to ride out the game ti victory. Dave even complimented me on how well I played my deck in game 1 Game 2 was equally fantastic, and unfortunately for me I was unable to answer Dave’s super secret sideboard tech… Manabarbs! This locked me out of the game and I died to some direct damage. Game 3 was a disappointing end to the round. I mulliganed. Three times. Only seeing 1 land each time. I wish I could have given Dave a better game but I think he was happy with the end result as he took the round. 1-2.

Round 3 vs Tempered Township
As the name suggests, this was essentially a Tempered Steel deck backed up by Gavony Township. My opponent came into the round saying that he expected to lose, which is never a good attitude. I probably should have mentioned that fact, and will be sure to remember to do so in future. In the first game my deck worked smoothly an I took the artifact offense apart piece by piece and Consecrated Sphinx got on with the beatdown. Again I suffered from mana problems in game 2, but in game 3 my deck was back on form and a barrage of counter magic held my opponents’ deck at bay. A large Chimeric Mass made it a close game, but both Nephalia Drownyards milled my opponent’s deck faster. 2-1.

Round 4 vs Bant Pod
A very interesting match up. Ive played with Pod a lot before, as well as against it, so I had a good idea what I wanted to be focusing my control on. Game 1 was ended as I battled against a Venser, the Sojourner who had gone ultimate no less than twice! Once again, Snappy and Sorin’s Vengeance teamed up for a satisfying win.
Game 2 I found myself mana screwed AGAIN! I really don’t get how this seems to happen so often with this deck, I’m running 26 land. Perhaps I need to shuffle more but we are short on round time (only 45 mins) as it is Anyway, I basically scooped that one.
Onto game three. My early countermagic played out smoothly, as I hit my opponent with a few Drownyard activations, a very key card in this match-up since once my opponent did manage to stick a Birthing Pod he found himself accidentally podding away creatures with nothing left to find! I closed the game with Increasing Confusion, first for 8 and then 16 the following turn to reduce my opponents library size to exactly zero! Passing the turn he tried to draw and died.
Afterwards he flipped over the last card in his hand, none other than Purify the Grave! Fortunately for me it happened that in his penultimate turn my opponent had tapped out for a Moldgraf Monstrosity and forgot to leave the W mana open. Still, I had backup in hand from Blue Sun’s Zenith and in play from my Drownyards, so either way was good for me A fantastic way to end a fantastic night. 2-1.

And with that, I came 3rd! My best result in weeks (ever since my last victory with GB Heartless Pod I believe..) Dave finished in 2nd. I was a bit disappointed not to receive an FNM Promo Dismember, since I hadn’t got one yet and tonight was my last chance, so now it’s missing from my collection. But never mind, I didn’t really want one for any reason other than it being pretty anyway, lol. On the plus side I did a load more trading tonight, acquiring another 12 artifacts which will now be having to compete for slots in my EDH decks.

On Sunday of course there is the Avacyn Restored Pre-Release which I am very much looking forward to. Whether UB control will be viable in the coming weeks is to be seen, although I’m considering turning to some form of BW control anyway so I’ll see what I can come up with there…

As ever, thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a reply or drop me a message on twitter

@EdGuise88

FNM, EDH, and some general musings

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Ed Guise

Hello again! It’s been quite a while since I last updated my blog, for the past few weeks I’ve been more-or-less away from magic completely. Various holidays and such meant I missed out on 3 FNM’s in a row, including the monthly alt-format which was Modern this time. Which is not such a big deal, since I don’t have a competitive Modern deck anyway, hehe.

I’ve definitely been withdrawn though, since I got home I’ve taken every opportunity I can to play magic, 4/7 nights this week! I’ve enjoyed spellslinging with friends, something I don’t get to do enough of these days, and last night I made it along to FNM too. Just two hours beforehand I mentioned to my friend Dave Remon (who also blogs here at WWGB, see link) that I was bored of my GB Pod deck. So he offered to lend me UB control. Arriving at the store I quickly adjusted the deck and sideboard, and even managed to borrow a pair of Liliana of the Veil from another player!

Before we started I was told by another experienced player that UB Control was one of the hardest decks to play in standard at the moment, so I was a little concerned given I had no previous playing experience with the deck, but I thought “its a control deck (and not even a complex one tbh), how hard can it be!?”. Over the course of the night I actually found the deck rather easy to pilot. Sure, I probably wasn’t making optimal plays every time, and I definitely need to work on my Sideboarding (in general), but overall I felt like I got on really with this deck playing it out of the blue. The only problem I had were the games (and one entire round!) where I drew close to zero of my ~10 counterspells. Still, I had a great time playing with the deck, really enjoyed the night and had some absolutely fantastic games. See the bottom of this post for my Decklist and a brief round-by-round report.

As well as FNM I’ve been taking time to catch up with friends and play some casual magic, including EDH (unfortunately only 1v1 but its all good), in the past week. Dave has recently assembled an Experimental Kraj EDH deck (I’m sure he will blog about it at some point) so I’ve been helping him test that out facing it with all three of my decks (Lyzolda, Ulasht and Zedruu).

Playing with my Zedruu deck against just 1 other opponent is actually really fun! At one point Dave stole Zedruu with Beguiler of Wills. I used Volition Reins to regain control, but realising I was going to have to win by Milling rather than damage, Zedruu was drawing me too many cards (with Jace Beleren, Howling Mine and Temple Bell also in play). So to get around this I Oblivion Ring‘ed the Reins, and then used Spine of Ish Sah on my own O-ring to get the Reins back and steal myself a Contagion Engine! This is why I love EDH, it’s all about the epic plays… and using your own spells to 2-for-1 yourself, apparently

When I first blogged about my EDH decks I mentioned that Zedruu was the one I felt like I was having the most difficulty with getting it feeling “right”, in terms of being able to play politically. Politically Correct, if you will. With a number of additions since I now feel like my Zedruu deck is at a point where I’m really happy with it. I continuously update the deck lists of each of my EDH decks here on my blog as I make changes to the decks themselves. So if you would like to check out the latest version of my Zedruu deck it can always be found here.
Recent additions include Consecrated Sphinx (is there such thing as too much card draw?), Sensei’s Divining Top (it took me so long to acquire this card!) and Mindslaver (can you get any more political?). Just need to get together with more than one other person now in order to properly test them all out.

As always, thanks for reading! This post was more of a “catch up with what I’ve been up to” rather than having a specific topic as with my previous posts. I hope be back to some serious blogging soon, with more on EDH (I have a new deck idea in mind) and the evolution of my Horde deck. The next few weeks are hopefully going to involve a lot of magic for me, with the Manchester GP next weekend and of course the Avacyn Restored Pre-Release the week after!

My FNM report follows below for those interested. Until next time!

@EdGuis88

FNM Deck – UB Control
Creatures:
2 Conscecrated Sphinx, 3 Snapcaster Mage, 1 Frost Titan
Spells:
Removal – 2 Black Sun’s Zenith, 3 Tragic Slip, 1 Sever the Bloodline, 3 Tribute to Hunger
Draw – 3 Think Twice, 3 Forbidden Alchemy, 1 Blue Sun’s Zenith
Counter – 4 Mana Leak, 3 Dissipate
Other – 2 Curse of Death’s Hold, 1 Ratchet Bomb, 2 Liliana of the Veil
Land:
4 Darkslick Shores, 4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Ghost Quarter, 2 Nephalia Drownyard
7 Island, 7 Swamp

Sideboard:
3 Negate, 1 Nihil Spellbomb, 2 Surgical Extraction
2 Go for the Throat, 2 Doom Blade, 1 Tragic Slip
1 Sever the Bloodline, 1 Phyrexian Metamorph, 2 Bloodline Keeper

Round 1 I faced Mythic red. Game 1 I was on the verge of defeat, and for some reason my opponent chose to restart the game with Karn Liberated. He seemed to think that Karn left himself in play (I’m unsure if this was a genuine mistake or just hoping I didn’t know the card. Fortunately I’d heard someone talking about the exact same situation just a couple of days ago or I may not have questioned it!). So in the end I went on to win Game 1. Post-sideboarding was a disaster for me though, this was the round I mentioned earlier where, having sided in all my counters, I saw no more than two of them (both Mana Leaks) all round! My opponent resolved Grafdigger’s Cage, Tumble Magnet and Koth of the Hammer and I had no way to deal with them. Game 3 was very similar, except my Ratchet Bomb was just a little too late to prevent Koth from going ultimate and taking the game. 2-1.

Round 2 was against a UB Vampire deck. Certainly not a finely-tuned version though, so the strength of my control deck made this round a pretty easy 2-0 win (partly helped by opponents mulligans in both games and mana screw in game 2, which is never fun for anyone).

Round 3 I faced Tempered Steel, but my opponent didn’t hit the god-hands and struggled to get much damage through under the weight of Black Sun’s Zenith and Tribute to Hunger. 2-0 here and not much else to say I’m afraid.

Round 4 was against a RG aggro (/infect) deck. Game 1 was quite close but I lacked any counter magic to stop the continual threats, Strangleroot Geist, Huntmaster of the Fells, Primeval Titan and Triumph of the Hordes (where the Infect danger came from). I was on 9 poison counters for a while and almost managed to stabilise, but it was closely fought.

Game 2 was the most incredible game I had all night. I was able to counter and Surgically Extract his Geists early on. However I was severely lacking in card draw and playing in near-top deck mode for the middle part of the game. A Huntmaster caused some serious trouble, until I managed to rip a Ratchet Bomb off the top, just in time! Stabilising myself on 3 life. My opponent went on to Green Sun’s for a Titan, grabbing an Inkmoth Nexus and Kessig Wolf Run. I’d already dealt with a couple of Nexus’ with Tragic Slips and a Ghost Quarter. I had no board and my opponent swung with the titan. I cast Tribute to Hunger, so in response he activated his Nexus. Fortunately I also had a Tragic Slip in hand! Hitting the Nexus and gaining 6 valuable life.
I cast a Consecrated Sphinx, but an opposing Mimic Vat meant I had to be careful. My opponent found one of his own Bird of Paradise under the Vat, which is no joke with a Wolf Run in play! Also it seemed I had Drownyarded a Increasing Savagery into his grave. So as he untapped, got a Bird token, cast Savagery on it and swung for 11 in the air. The bird fell to yet another Tribute to Hunger and I went back up to 20 life! With barely any library left and going close to time, my opponent conceded.
We agreed to draw game 3, which seemed like a fair result. And to be honest my head was reeling from the epic-ness of game two so I was glad to have a break lol.

Overall I had a really good night, and it felt great to be playing a completely new deck for once (all be it not one of my own design). I’m planning to play the deck again next week with a few tweaks. I have time to think more about the sideboard beforehand this time.
I think Sever the Bloodline is an incredible card right now, at least for my local metagame, so I’m going to run an extra one in the Maindeck over a copy of Black Sun’s Zenith. Having heard so much about the excellent card that Snapcaster Mage is meant to be I must say I was quite disappointed. I guess he is just better in decks with cards like Gut Shot and Vapor Snag. Still, its nice to have some of the versatility when it comes to recycling my removal spells.
Other than that there is not much more I’d change, although with possibly just 1 Liliana for next week im going to have a single Wurmcoil Engine step in to the empty slot. I almost hate myself for this, I’m sick of 6/6′s for 6 in standard. But I did feel like the deck needed another finisher, and since I have a Wurmcoil available it’s just too good to refuse.

FNM Report – Another Win for Heartless Pod!

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Ed Guise

Despite feeling pretty rough I decided to head along to FNM tonight, mainly because I really felt like I needed to get out the house. Turned out to be the right decision! I took my usual GB Heartless Pod build (updated decklist can be found at the bottom of this post).

Round 1 I faced a RDW deck, of sorts, it was focussed on artifacts and Battle Cry. A turn 3 Black Sun’s Zenith for me in game 1 cleared the opponents board nicely and left him for dead. Marrow Shards did a similar thing in game 2, and with Curse of Death’s Hold also in from the Sideboard that pretty much nullified anything my opponent could do and I took the round 2-0.

Round 2 was against mono-green aggro. Metamorphing an opposing Vorapede definitely helped me win game 1, but a fantastic hand of accelerant, 2 Acidic Slime and 2 Dungrove Elder for my opponent ensured I was unable to do much in game 2 other than die. Onto the final game, where my deck ran smoothly into Sheoldred, about whom there wasnt a lot my opponent could do. 2-1.

Round 3 was against the all-to-familiar White Weenie deck that I seem to end up facing at some stage every week. Off of a Mulligan, opposing Fiend Hunters caused huge problems for me in game 1. And in game 2 I mulliganed twice! But my opponent kept a sub-par hand and near-prefect top decks for me meant I was able to somehow pull out a win with Massacre Wurm podded into Sheoldred. The third game was yet another mulligan for me, but essentially went the same way as the second had. 2-1.

And so onto the final round, the only other person to go 3-0 so far was running RB Vampires. In game 1 he kept a hand that relied heavily on drawing a Swamp, which he didn’t get and I was basiclaly able to run away with the game. Game 2 went something like this: T2 Heartless, T3 Pod, T4 Wurmcoil, T5 beat with Wurmcoil -> Pod into Sheoldred -> opponent concedes. Pretty brutal! 2-0.

And so for the second week in a row that I’ve gone to FNM, my deck has been victorious! When I first built GB Pod last year it won 3 FNMs in a row, I wonder if I’ll be able to repeat that next week.. check here to find out! Its nice though, as for a long time (post-rotation) my GB Pod builds were underperforming, but it seems that my local Metagame has now shifted to a point where certain key cards (cough !Massacre Wurm! cough) are once again brilliant. And thankfully there seems to be very little RDW around now, which for a while destroyed me week on week.

And of course, for those who would like a decklist, here you go:

3 Heartless Summoning
2 Birthing Pod

3 Viridian Emissary
2 Perilous Myr
1 Spellskite
2 Phyrexian Rager
1 Geralf’s Messenger
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Glissa, the Traitor
2 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Skinrender
1 Bloodline Keeper
2 Acidic Slime
1 Morkrut Banshee
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Brutalizer Exarch
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Rune-Scarred Demon

2 Tragic Slip
1 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Beast Within

1 Garruk Relentless

4 Woodland Cemetery
6 Forest
9 Swamp
2 Evolving Wilds*
1 Grim Backwoods*
1 Island
1 Ghost Quarter

Sideboard:
3 Surgical Extraction, 2 Marrow Shards
1 Black Sun’s Zenith, 1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Doom Blade, 1 Go for the Throat
1 Peace Strider, 1 Hollowhenge Scavenger
1 Curse of Death’s Hold, 1 Tree of Redemption
1 Phyrexian Obliterator, 1 Sylvok Replica

* These were last minute inclusions to the deck for this week. Whilst im fairly happy with the Evolving Wilds, im not sure Grim Backwoods is necessary. Plan was for it to get me a little advantage against removal.. but it was never relevant. Might stay for next time but I think overall having colour consistency is more important.

FNM Report – Pod Back On Top!

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Ed Guise

So with Dark Ascension released I took an updated Pod list to this weeks FNM, notably replacing the 2 Doom Blade and a Phyrexian Rager in the Maindeck with 2 Tragic Slip and a Geralf’s Messenger. Both proved to be fantastic! Tragic Slip is the new “best removal spell in standard”, atleast for a deck that can easily self-trigger the morbid ability. And the Messenger is great for some 3-drop variety (finally!), and feels almost like a black Bloodbraid Elf! Big call I know…

I won’t go into so much depth on each round this week. But to summarise:

Round 1 vs White Weenie. The same deck I faced in round 4 last week. Aggro seems to be getting easier for me to beat! Although admittedly mana trouble for him game in 2 did help slightly… 2-0.

Round 2 I faced an original BW build focussed on equipping and feeding Humans to Ravenous Demon. I really enjoyed facing this deck and despite using a lot of cards that are probably considered “bad” by most players it made for an extremely difficult matchup! Tragic Slip proved vital here though, combatting the Demon perfectly and allowing me to take the round 2-1.

Round 3 I faced an updated take on the relatively old idea of the Liquimetal Coating Land destruction deck, with Ancient Grudge a fantastic new adition. Over the first 2 games I struggled to keep enough land in play, but some help from my ramping guys in the third saw me able to take control with “relative comfort” and edge out the victory. 2-1.

Round 4 was fantastic, first time facing a new-style RB vampire deck sporting many additions from Dark Ascension. Took the round to the final game where, after initially stopping the vampires in their tracks with a pair of Perilous Myr, I suffered from severe mana flooding. Luckily I had just enough board prescence and an extremely well-timed Black Sun’s Zenith off the top to hold out until I was able to draw a big guy for the win. 2-1.

So overall a really successful night. Won myself a nice promo Despise. And as an additional “bonus” I was finaly able to trade for a Garruk Relentless! A card I have been after for a very long time, he will finally be featuring in my Pod deck at our next standard FNM

FNM Report – Pod’s Still Got It!

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Ed Guise

I turned up to FNM last night with both my Toxic Rocks and Heartless Pod decks on me. Up until a couple of minutes before the first round I still hadn’t decided which to play, but a snap decision meant I was going with Pod; the maindeck look the same as in the post linked above except for

-1 Phyrexian Obliterator, -1 Tribute to Hunger, -1 Forest, -2 Swamp
+1 Spellskite, +1 Black Sun’s Zenith, +2 Ghost Quarter, +1 Island

and I quickly threw together a sideboard

3 Surgical Extraction, 2 Dismember, 2 Marrow Shards, 1 Tribute to Hunger, 1 Gnaw to the Bone, 1 Phyrexian Obliterator, 1 Black Sun’s Zenith, 1 Beast Within, 1 Sylvok Replica, 1 Tree of Redemption, 1 Curse of Death’s Hold

Right, onto the games.

Round 1 vs UW control
Game 1 was close, there was a huge swing in board position almost every turn. After many Day of Judgments and Snapcaster Mages I was eventually able to stick a creature for the beatdown. Gideon would have been a problem, except for a well-timed Beast Within.
I brought in the Surgicals for game 2, as well as the Curse to deal with those Timely Reinforcements and Moorland Haunt. I didnt see the latter, but killing a Geist of St Traft early on allowed me to extract the rest of those from my opponents deck, shortly followed by removal of Day of Judgements. With that, the control deck didnt have a lot left and I simply swung my way to victory. 2-0.

Round 2 vs Esper Reanimator
Game 1 was incredible, my favourite of the night. My deck played smoothly, but got subdued onder the weight of an opposing Sheolderd, Sun Titan and Massacre Wurm. Black Sun’s Zenith for 4 meant I fell from 7 to 1 when my opponent next attacked, and in my next turn I podded a Slime into a Massacre Wurm of my own! And then my opponent used Unburial Rites to bring his own Wurm back from the grave, and Dismembered my Wurm to take game 1! Awesome!
Game 2 was strange, I was somehow able to beat from 20 to 0 with nothing more than an army of 2/2′s.
Game 3 and Surgical proved great once again, taking out his Unburial Rites early on and leaving my opponent to be forced to cast creatures the old fashioned way. Still, I saw nothing more than some Emissaries and land for the rest of the game and I was unable to deal with a hard-cast Wurmcoil Engine. 1-2.

Round 3 vs Tempered Steel
Aggro, not my favourite matchup. Game 1 went pretty much as expected, I died REALLY quickly.
Game 2 however I managed to draw out long enough to claw my way back, and similar in game 3, using a well timed “bluff” where my opponent attacked with 4 artifact guys, Tempered Steel in play and one holding a Sword of Body and Mind. Besast Within on the sword allowed me to block a couple of creatures (Phyrexian Revoker + Memnite) with Sol. Sim and Emmisary. As in game 2, Marrow Shards proved to be a justifyable inclusion, effectively increasing the power of my blockers. Now with just 2 creatures on the board I was able to stabilise and take the game. 2-1.

Round 4 vs White Weenie
I had faced this deck last time I went to FNM and there it had resulted in a rather swift and brutal defeat for myself. Game 1 went the same was as ever, a slow start for me meant I couldn’t keep pace and I was quickly beaten down. As ever against Aggro, Tree of Redemption came in, although I have never actually managed to have it in play before!
Game 2 and the White Weenies continued to be a pain, especially Doomed Traveller. Human-boosting equipment added to the pain along side a Mirran Crusader, but a Metamorph allowed me a Crusader of my own. Eventually having dragged the game out a LOT I was able to stabilise with a relatively high life total and my superior creatures took the long game.
Onto game 3! Not often I get to say that against aggro decks… And finally, for the first time ever, I was able to cast Tree of Redemption! It basically stood infront of my opponents creatures for the whole game whilst I abused my life total with Pod, grinding out advantage. A pair of Crusaders almost caused problems but by this time Sheoldred, Glissa and Heartless were all out with Perilous Myr in hand (/grave). 2-1.

So after a number of weeks of poor results with my deck, I finally had a week where mana problems did no dominate one or more rounds and in general my deck played really well all night! I finished 5th which, since Innistrad arrived, is I believe my best FNM result (also, i was 5th based on opponents win %, my own win % was actually greater than those of the guys in 4th and 3rd place! Yes, the system is irritating! lol). However this did mean I got one of the random promo cards which was nice.

I was pleased with my changes to the maindeck, and also I think my sideboard was mostly well constructed so I’m pretty happy there, just a few changes needed for next time. With Dark Ascension on the horizon I have a good idea of what bits I want to add to the deck, so hopefully it wont take too long to acquire those. For now, thanks for reading!

Toxic Rocks

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Ed Guise

Around a year ago my town got its own FNM for the first time. As might be expected it started out as a very aggro heavy metagame, including myself. After a few weeks of running my 16 land White Weenie deck (to great success!), I decided it was time to create something new.

I was pretty sure I wanted to play Infect, so began by throwing together a GB aggro deck… boring! I didn’t want to play aggro, but my deck must be able to beat it whilst also being able to infect a control deck early on and using proliferate to grind out the game.

Whilst looking through cards for ideas, one quickly jumped out at me. Throne of Geth. I instantly knew I wanted to be playing with this. Would it be possible to build a deck around it? I hoped so! Around this time I recall listening to a Pro player, Patrick Chapin I believe, talking about how good a card Ichor Wellspring is in sealed. And of course, it works well with the Throne too! So I decided to try this one out for myself.

The most important cards in the deck were of course going to be the creatures. Focussing on artifact dudes, Necropede and Ichorclaw Myr were obvious. But I really needed something to get a poison counter on asap. And then whilst flicking through my cards I saw Vector Asp, perfect! I know, Inkmoth Nexus existed.. but to begin with I wanted to stick to a tight budget (i.e spending £0).

So I now had my early game plan set out nicely. Drop an Asp, swing on T2 to get some poison in or trade, follow up with another creature. In the case of not being able to punch through I really wanted a guaranteed way to start the infection. Ichor Rats were added to the deck, but got cut when they started to prove a bit risky as opponents started proliferating me to death! I also tried Corpse Cur but found Core Prowler to be much better at 4 mana, doubly so with the Throne.

The final budget additions included Virulent Wound, Contagion Clasp and Tumble Magnet. The first was such an vital card to my strategy, being good against virtually every creature based deck I faced as key-creature removal whilst also getting the infection started early. The second added some more weenie-removal whilst also helping to grind out with proliferate late game. The third turned out to be a hugely important card. At the time, the strength of tumble magnet in constructed had not yet been widely realised, so I like to think of this as something I spotted early, backed up by the fact that once I started using it to good success it wasn’t long before I was seeing them in a number of my opponents decks.

And so, finally, to a decklist. This is the current version, but isn’t far from the list I had so much success with. I had a hard time thinking of a name, but asking on Twitter lead to a suggestion that I liked, and it stuck…

Toxic Rocks
Creatures:
4 Core Prowler
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Necropede
2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
4 Vector Asp

Spells:
4 Virulent Wound

Artifacts:
3 Contagion Clasp
4 Ichor Wellspring
2 Lux Cannon
4 Throne of Geth
3 Tumble Magnet

Land:
3 Inkmoth Nexus
20 Swamp

Once the deck showed to consistently perform well I managed to acquire the more expensive pieces, namely Inkmoths and Skithiryx. Lux Cannon is another incredible card, I’ve only ever lost one game once after resolving this card.

Toxic Rocks matched up fantastically against the Tempered Steel deck of the time, which was the other strongest deck in our local meta. I played the deck every week for a good few months with roughly 30% 1st and 30% 2nd place finishes, and never outside top 8.

I haven’t played the deck much recently since switching to Pod, but I did lend it to a friend a couple of months back who went on to win FNM losing only 1 game (so going 8-0-1 overall) all night. Personally, my best FNM victory with it was a 5-round FNM where I had to face the same Tempered Steel deck twice in a row, followed by Elves in the final.

This deck will always feel special to me. It is the first time that I’ve built a deck that truly felt like my own, from start to finish, and I think it defined a significant point for me as a player. Unlike with Pod, for which I designed my GB list before it got big, similar lists to Toxic Rocks never appeared at big name events and the fact it was so successful for me at FNM made it so much sweeter. Also I love the fact that its more than just an aggro or control deck, it has elements of both whilst also being a combo deck of sorts, and playing with it is probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing competitive magic.

I actually have the competitive history of the deck archived somewhere but its currently not accessible. Should I ever regain access to the info then I’ll write a follow-up article.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my deck and perhaps feel inspired to give it a go sometime. With the aggro heavy metagame we have at the moment it may even still prove to be a good choice competitively. Should you decide to test it out, please let me know how it goes

edguise88

A wrongwaygoback.com MtG weblog

Category Archives: Standard