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Good Game: A Little Bit of a BunchBy Andrew Hanson on May 8th, 2009 · Filed in Good Game, Limited, Standard (Type 2) · 11 CommentsGood Game: A Little Bit of a Bunch That 2 life you pay? It's worth it. Let me start by saying that I am a very lucky man. I am fairly that only one person at my table was drafting green/red/X. And then, I don't think he had black in there. I got three of these things, and they were all after pick five. Really, though, this guy is good enough to be pick three. Maybe pick two. In the games where I dropped him on turn two (and there were more than a few—remember, three of him), I usually dropped to 14 life by the time my opponent died, and that's because I activated him three times. He dominates a board. So, so many times I would swing him into an X/2 creature, put damage on the stack, and then activate him. My opponent could either lose the creature, or do a two-for-one to get rid of my Leech. Many times, the latter happened. Woe to them when I would drop a second Leech. Even later in the game, the guy is good. He's still effectively a 4/4 for two. You can play him and still have removal mana open. There's just not much in the format (including Conflux) that can deal with him. Oblivion Ring, Path to Exile, and, of course... Terminate Not much needs to be said about this. It's going to be good in Standard, maybe played in Extended (who knows what's going to happen there when the fetch lands leave), and it's simply stupid in Limited. Stooooopid. It can kill anything (well, except pro-red, -black, and shrouded creatures) for just two mana. If you're unfamiliar with Limited, I could see how you may not understand why it's so good. Let me illuminate. For the most part, Limited is determined by whoever can control the board. That doesn't usually mean Wrath of Gods and Counterspells, it usually means having bigger, and more, dudes out. That, or playing a bomb. This is why spot removal is prized so highly. It helps you win the dude fight. Also, good spot removal can negate those bombs, like when your opponent has a Rhox War Monk enchanted with a Sigil of the Nayan Gods. Yeah, it's not really a bomb, as it's two cards, but it's a pain in rear to deal with. But really, this is more time than I need to spend on Terminate. If you see this, draft it, even if you're only playing one of it's colors. Splash for the other. His cousins aren't bad, either. This is maybe my favorite three drop in the whole block. Hell, maybe my favorite creature. He's so unassuming, and yet, so devastating. Your opponent has an X/1 that's annoying you? He's uncounterable kill that cantrips. Of course, that's pretty specific. What's not specific is a 3/2 beater that hits the opponent in the face for one more if he or she decides to trade with it. Nor, in Limited, is it all that specific to be able to trade with an X/4, which is quite efficient at three mana, and at common. Again, I am lucky, and my pod let me have four of this guy. He was the backbone (along with the Leech) of my deck. He mucked up the board so bad for my opponent. He kept creatures that otherwise have nothing to fear from common three-drops stuck back. He swung and was rarely blocked because of the potential of two-for-ones or uneven trades. And, on the spot, I could get a different card (usually happened while I was missing a color) while still pinging something. And, perhaps my favorite thing about him, he only costs three, which means he can get played by this guy... Bloodbraid Elf Again, another card that needs no introduction. People have been hyping her up (yes, her; I'm pretty sure those are boobies) for Standard since she was first spoiled, and even our very own Chris Jobin talked about this gal's power here. Why is she good? She's a free card. In Limited, where decks are (usually) composed of singleton bullets, she digs you deeper, maybe bringing you turns closer to that desperately needed Terminate to kill a Rhox War Monk with a Sigil of the Nayan Gods on it. I'm telling you, that's scary to face down. Now, again, if you're unfamiliar with Limited, you might be asking, "Really, digging deeper? One free card?" Remember, Limited is the format where it's not uncommon for the player who won the die roll to draw first, rather than play. One card can be a big deal, and I've seen and played many a game where having one extra card was the difference between winning or losing. And when the Elf drops a Sojourner, it can really gum up the ground. Which means you just might go the distance with this guy: Drawback: he dies to a cycled Sojourner. Now he's just good, clean fun. Three power, haste, and evasion, all with an affordable price tag. This guy won me many games last Friday. I will grant, though, that in a Shards/Conflux/Reborn draft, there will be more flyers for the Esper decks to play with, and that could be problematic for him. But then again, run the green for the flying hate, which comes in the form of Branching Bolt and a Minotaur. Deadshot Minotaur I wont lie, I only ever played this guy once over the course of five rounds of Magic. But, that's because I cycled him many more times. When my opponent doesn't open with Island, but Mountain or Forest, I know that I need to be quick. The Minotaur helped me get deeper to that missing land type so, so many times. And the one time he didn't? Getting a 3/4 for five mana isn't exactly good in Limited, but it's not the worst that you can do (really, as long as he's above X/3, you're doing okay). However, when that 3/4 takes out a flyer when it comes down, you've got something special. Alright, special might be a little strong, as he doesn't seem that good against decks without flyers. But that's why he has cycling. So that you can draft him around the middle, and not feel bad about it. Bituminous Blast Of course, this is a card that you can draft pick one and never feel bad about. Ever. This card is the absolute nuts in Limited. It kills just about anything but rare bombs and a 5/5 uncommon, while simultaneously (or close enough) replacing itself. In Limited, it most often replaces itself with a creature. If you're lucky enough, in replaces itself with a Bloodbraid Elf for extra shenanigans. This card is obviously sick if you're familiar with Limited. If you're not, well, look at the above explanations of Terminate and Bloodbraid Elf. So now, a riddle: what's better than playing Bituminous Blast? Playing it twice, of course! Recycle to something awesome plus deal damage. Seems okay. Oh, and hitting target creature or player for 5 damage in the process. I drafted this card fairly high (the top half of the pack, for sure), and while I was making my deck, I showed it to a friend. He told me it was bad. I assume he thought so because it cost six, and he probably assumed I'd be resurrecting something cheap with it. I never played this card for anything less than a four-drop, except once, when all I had in the bin was a Putrid Leech, and my opponent was at 2 life, so I killed them with it. Other than that, the Rebirth got two other kills. Both times, I dropped my opponent to four life with an alpha strike, then finished the deed with the Rebirth. One time, I was grabbing my Bituminous Blast back. Sadly, or not, I never got the chance to recast the cascade spell. I think I'll end the Limited sojourn (yuk yuk yuk) there. This is by no means a comprehensive list of good Limited cards in Reborn, nor of even good cards in green/red/black. It's just some the coolness I experienced at the Release event, and cards that will be good should you ever find yourself in a real, full block draft. Now, onto something more...constructive. Yes, another pun. Do you know what Anathema means? Anathema, as defined by dictionary.com, means: 1. a person or thing detested or loathed. 2. a person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction. 3. a formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication. 4. any imprecation of divine punishment. 5. a curse; execration. Now, what if I told you that, after all that time and effort and money you put into your mana base just so you could play Five-Color, that I was going to punish you for it? Would you detest me? Would you damn me? Would you, er, formally excommunicate me? Maybe not that last one. But when I told you I was giving that power to punish you for your non-basics to the fastest deck in the format, what then? Excommunication is sounding pretty tempting, isn't it? Here's your divine punishment. And you don't even have to be playing Faeries. Take a look at Pro Tour Kyoto's top eight. Count the number of basic lands in all of the top eight. You have enough for maybe two decks that ran nothing but basics. There were 46 basic land out of 195 land ran. Some decks ran as many as nine basics, while some ran as few as three. The deck with the highest concentration of basics ran nine, but had a 24 card land-base. Nine out of 24. Less than half. In that kind of metagame, which is the same metagame Standard is currently in, Anathemancer gets work done. If dropped on turn three, he usually hits for three. Turn six? Take 5 damage. What happens when you unearth him? The Five-Color and Faeries players cry. Partly because they're taking a metric crap-load of damage, but mostly because it's uncounterable. Let's see, how many uncounterable "screw-you"s has red gotten in the last two expansions? More than it needed. Red was already a bad matchup for Faeries. Now, Blightning practically gets a bye when paired with the bug-men. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It can help keep metagames diverse. You play Faeries, Blightning, or a deck that tries to prey on Blightning. I say "tries" because Anathemancer is going to be good against every existing deck out there. He's going to be a large, repeatable burn spell on a 2/2 body. Which means that Blightning now has the reach to burn out the token decks. An Anathemancer and a Flame Javelin should just about do it. And damn if Blightning doesn't play Volcanic Fallout, too. Here's the first Blightning Deck that we made, and my friend used it to dominate the Thursday release tournament:
Right after he built it, we tested it against Faeries (the litmus-test deck for Standard; if a deck has no game against Faeries, it probably doesn't deserve to see play). Every game was a blowout. It was never close. Every game. On the Thursday event, I was lucky enough to get paired up against him running this (I was running the Fae as I didn't have anything new ready), and I managed to sneak in a win game one. Of course, he had to mull to five, and even then, he got me down to 5 life before I finished him off. But he blew me away in the next two games. One time he dropped a turn five Anathemancer, which sadly resolved and did the full five damage to me. I only have six basic lands in Faeries. Obviously, for any Blightning Deck out there, Burrenton Forge-Tender is going to be a pain in the backside, but see that singleton Terror? Pre-board, you have just as much of a chance of ripping that single Terror as the white player has of pulling their single (probably) Forge-Tender. And post-board, four Deathmarks make their way in, and that card is just solid. Deathmark can kill all the creatures that Red hates to see. Plus, as additional hate, it has the Everlasting Torments and that one Thought Hemorrhage, which was originally intended to rip Broodmate Dragons out of Five-Color, but is just as good at making sure that no further Forge-Tenders will hit the board. Check for a Pulse Ba-dum Ba-dum Boom. Doran also has the ability to roadblock red. I mean, an 0/5 is something they cannot get rid of easily (though they now have Terminate), and he beats any creature in their deck. The only psuedo-exception to this is Boggart Ram-Gang. Though the Ram-Gang loses, too, he at least shrinks Doran. Then chuck in the life gain that Dark Bant enjoys, and Blightning has a real headache on its hands. So what new stuff did that deck get? Well, Maelstrom Pulse for starters. The new Vindicate that takes it to token decks, this will be an auto four-of in any green/black/X deck. But the problem with it in Dark Bant is that Dark Bant doesn't like to run many non-creatures (stupid Ancient Ziggurats). So while I was trying to figure how one could solve that problem, I came to the obvious answer: just get rid of Bant. Go back to the Doran decks of old. Here's my starting list:
The true all-star combo in this deck, though, is old beater Chameleon Colossus with new whammer Behemoth Sledge. Yes, this is not actually a new strategy, as the Loxodon Warhammer has been around for a while and people have been equipping it to the hard-to-answer changeling since it was first printed. But what's different with the Sledge? It pumps the butt. That means, with Doran out, the Sledge is still making a creature hit harder (which is not true with the Warhammer). A 6/6, trampling, lifelinked, protection from black creature that can double it's size? What's not to like? Really, if the Sledge ever makes it onto the Colossus, an opponent's only out is either a Wrath or a Path, both something that Blightning and Faeries does not play. Now, some cards you may notice by their absence are Thoughtsieze and Tidehollow Sculler. I tried. I really really tried. The problem with those was two-fold. First and foremost, the mana base. I need to have so many Treefolk and Elves in the deck in order for the mana base to function properly, and even then I'm not promised perfect efficiency. With Thoughtsieze and Sculler in, I found that my Gilt-Leaf Palaces and Murmuring Bosks came into play tapped more often than not, which really slowed me down. Second, putting those cards really changed the strategy of the deck. It went from being an aggro deck to being something more akin to The Rock, where I play a strong disruption game and then use one of a few beaters to finish it. The only problem, I feel, with that strategy right now is the presence of Kithkin decks, and the other white/X token decks. With cards like Spectral Procession, Windbrisk Heights, and Reveillark, it's way too easy for them to bounce back from a disruptive early game. But if I start the beats at about the same time they do, it takes far less in the way of disruption to ruin a game for them. Does this make B/W tokens king? As for the Persecution, that may still make it in at some point. That card just seems really good. Suddenly, all trades become massacres, and if you're lucky, you also just wiped the board clean of opposing tokens. Really, it's use is minimal in a Doran deck. But think about this card in Black/White Tokens. Already, Black/White Tokens had an edge over the other token decks because it ran more pump spells than the others, and the black part let it run hand disruption. Now, it's pump spells could also double as board sweepers. Sick. Just imagine, you play a Procession on turn three. Your opponent mirrors your play. You play the Persecution, sweeping their board, and then hit for six. You still have two mana open. Maybe you crack the Windbrist Heights? Maybe you drop a Tidehollow Sculler. Either way, the game is looking to be a blowout. Sadly, Doran just can't do that with the Persecution, which is why it got sidelined. Yes, it could create swingy situations, but it would happen far less in my deck than it would in a token deck. In the end, though it's cool, it just wasn't going to be good enough for my deck. That's all I have for now. Standard season kicks off this weekend (for me, at least) with a PTQ in San Diego. I'll be there, gunning for that blue envelope. I'll let you know how it goes. By Andrew Hanson on May 8th, 2009 · Filed in Good Game, Limited, Standard (Type 2) · 11 Comments |
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