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Thirst for Knowledge: Good Night, and Good Luck!By Chris Jobin on July 23rd, 2009 · Filed in Standard (Type 2), Thirst for Knowledge · 26 CommentsDespite my love affair with Faeries, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s more than refreshing to see Standard so wide open. Magic 2010 has shaken things up in this format more than any core set has in what seems like ever, and I for one am finally excited to play Standard again. The format has been awfully stale for the last few months, and I was becoming less and less enthusiastic about preparing for the upcoming PTQs. I spent most of last month with Reveillark, and I felt like that deck was very good in the metagame, but finding the “right” deck was becoming a larger and larger grind.
There isn’t much new here, but when is Faeries ever that different? The deck has hardly undergone any change over its lifetime, and now is no exception. Drowned Catacomb is just simply better than Underground River, and Doom Blade is welcome over Terror. I’ve chosen to play the full set of Spellstutter Sprites because I feel like the arguments against the fourth copy just aren’t good enough. I mean, the card isn’t always going to be the best in the early game, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a better spell in the late game (or on the third turn, for that matter). It even gets better with M10, because now it’s even easier to counter an Anthem effect from Kithkin (Honor is only two mana), though I’ll admit that’s hardly ever all that relevant. Still, having a two-mana hard counter against nearly every spell in the “best deck” (Kithkin) is pretty sweet, and I’m inclined to think that four is definitely correct. I considered playing three Thoughtseize in the maindeck, but most of the time two will get the job done. It’s a lot harder to turn one them now, and even when you do manage to get one that early and have the correct mana to play it, it really only means you don’t want to see lots more later, as this format leans much more toward aggressiveness than it does control. That being said, I’m comfortable with two since that means you’ll likely see one each game and it won’t be dead in your hand later because your life total is too low (although having more life to play with now that River is gone is definitely awesome). Regardless, though, you still want the full grip in the seventy-five and the sideboard fills that out. It also includes the other two Sowers, as well as another Peppersmoke. Beating the mirror and weenie decks is the name of the game, so these choices too should not surprise. Deathmark is an all-star against Kithkin and especially Jund, where it kills the accursed Putrid Leech without any trouble. Puppeteer Clique is also very good against the Jund-based decks, as you can steal games from them by killing your own Clique to get back one of their 3-power guys in the bin to block an incoming Stag or just to gain some life with their dead Finks. The Cavaliers are obviously for Kithkin, and they go a long way in making that match-up actually pretty favorable. As long as you play Mistbind Clique correctly and stick a Sower or two, Cavalier as back-up will ensure that you can stay alive more than long enough to finish the game. It’s also a decent card to bring in for the mirror match, though since most Fae players these days have three to four Sowers in game two, that might not be the best idea anymore (back around States last year it was a pretty solid plan). Lastly, we have Infest. Now, to be honest, the Infests are not for Kithkin. We already have lots of sideboard cards for that deck, and Infest counteracts the Cavalier plan. Instead, I’m playing Infest as a concession to GW Elves, the combo deck that has rose in popularity lately and has finally made it as a tier one deck. They have lots of Forge-Tenders and even Dauntless Escorts in their deck to combat sweepers, but nothing they have can actually deal with Infest, and so I feel like it’s the best card for the job. That card coupled with Thoughtseize, Agony Warp, Peppersmoke, and Sower should be more than enough to get the win against them. In fact, I’d consider it a really positive match-up with this list. Speaking of the GW deck…
This is the list that Kenji Top 8’d with at Japanese Nationals this past weekend. This archetype doesn’t leave a ton of room for innovation, and my overall lack of experience with this deck doesn’t really qualify me to offer much anyway. There has been talk about Gilt-Leaf Archdruid in this deck as an additional way to draw cards (as most of your Elves are also Druids), but I think overall that’s fairly unneeded. In all my games with this deck, there was never a time where I felt like having that card would have helped me go off. After all, Regal Force is incredibly efficient at what it does, and it’s clearly unmatched in terms of card-drawing. I never thought much of this deck until I played against it on MODO with Reveillark. The match-up between those decks is actually pretty close, though I found that I needed a really good draw to have much of a shot unless I landed an early Meddling Mage naming Nettle Sentinel. The deck seemed to be surprisingly explosive, since most any deck without Islands was more or less cold to the combo itself once it got rolling. Faeries has a good shot at winning because Peppersmoke is a savage beating in general, Spellstutter is a hard counter for everything in the deck (for the most part), Thoughtseize preemptively prevents the combo, and Infest comes in after game one to cause some real damage. Kenji’s Stag/Oversoul sideboard plan seems to be the best way to deal with Faeries, and I’d wager that anyone taking this deck to a PTQ without a similar plan to beat Faeries is probably going to go home feeling sad and a little awkward. Given that Elves! is the only combo deck in the format, it will undoubtedly end up somewhat like how Swans did: big some weeks, lousy others. The upside is that it’s pretty resilient to most of the sideboard cards used against it, like Ethersworn Canonist. Kithkin should be using that card by now if they know what’s good for them (i.e. listening to Cedric), but it’s pretty manageable as long as you’re aware of it and sideboard accordingly (bring in Path and Pridemage, etc). If you can’t kill it, though, you’re just going to lose. Kithkin’s creatures are much better than yours, and over the course of three or four turns you’re just going to be overwhelmed when your 0/1s and 2/2s get rolled by their first strike guys and 4/4 Figures. The other upside, though, is that a lot of the time the combo nature of the deck will allow it to steal wins when it was quite clearly losing. Considering that a resolved Regal Force usually means good game, it isn’t too hard to guess that randomly slipping one through a counterwall or ripping one off the top when starting down lethal from a Kithkin deck is going to be winning players PTQs all over the globe in the coming weeks. Next, we’re on to Kithkin:
What can I say? Cedric’s a master. If you wanted to give an example of an optimized Kithkin list, would you really expect anything else? There isn’t a lot to be said about this deck that hasn’t already been said. It has effective sideboard plans against all the top decks, a ridiculous clock, and a target on its forehead. If you’re planning on playing “the best deck in the format” at an upcoming PTQ, be sure you’re prepared for the mirror: you will play that match-up a lot. Like, until your eyes start to bleed. You have been warned! Moving along…
I feel like Faeries is the best deck in the format in terms of raw power, but this is probably the most practical. Particularly for me, this deck is just very fun to play and, even more so, efficient. All of your spells just produce superb value, and you’ve got a good match-up with a lot of the top decks. Against Faeries, you have maindeck Stags and the usual suspects like Putrid Leech and Bloodbraid Elf (cascade itself is as effective against that deck as ever), and post-sideboard you gain access to a fourth Stag, another Path for Mistbind Clique, and Volcanic Fallout. You can even bring in the Colossi at that point, though you probably won’t need it. Decks with Vivid manabases still can’t efficiently deal with Anathemancer, so he gets the nod in the sideboard. I’ve been trying Baneslayer Angel in Broodmate Dragon’s spot, and so far I’ve been very impressed. The double white in the manacost means that it will be a later drop rather than a straight turn five play, but regardless it gains you life and halts offenses both from Kithkin decks and the mirror. It will eat removal as much as one would expect, but as long as that removal isn’t Path at least you can get it back with Cruel Ultimatum. In fact, a play like that will undoubtedly force an awkward concession whereas before there was at least some hope post-Cruel. Now, though, a ten-point life swing followed by more ten-point life swings would be more than enough to end the game. 5CB (and for all intents and purposes, Jund) is pretty well-positioned against Faeries, obviously, but it also beats up on Elves! as long as you time your Fallouts, Terminates, Jund Charms, and Hallowed Burials well enough. Kithkin is a pretty tough match-up now, but they lost Paladin en-Vec so it’s probably at about the same point that it was before. If you can hit some impressive Bituminous Blasts, you should be able to win against them. Catching them off guard is the best way to beat them. The Reveillark match-up, which was once the absolute nutlow, is still a pain. They still have plenty of lifegain, and even more ways to halt your advances. Just like before, however, applying lots of pressure will get you there if they don’t have the removal, and with the loss of Paladin en-Vec it only looks better for you. And speaking of Reveillark, let’s take a look at how that deck turned out:
This deck has changed an awful lot. No longer can it just sit back and clear the board with Wrath of God. Now it is forced to play more “stall” creatures and keep itself alive long enough to Cleansing the board and rebuild with Reveillark. I think it is still more than viable, and could easily pop up all over PTQs once people see that it’s far from dead. Baneslayer Angel is a pretty solid fit here, since it not only restores the life you’ve been losing each turn from the creatures you couldn’t kill but it also draws the attention of your opponent on turn five so that you can clear the board on turn six. Granted, both of these cards are only two-ofs, but post-sideboard you also have Hallowed Burial as an additional sweeper (the anti-synergy isn’t much of a concern, by the way, since you’re rarely going to be clearing a full board of your own guys anyway). The last deck I want to talk about today is Five Color Control, which now looks something like this:
This decklist started out with Guardian Seraphs, but over time I became less and less impressed with that card. While neutralizing Honors is great, it really doesn’t do enough. Baneslayer Angel, however, does, and that card has clearly been performing very well for me. It seems like you’d want that card in any deck running white mana that isn’t called Kithkin, and I was personally overjoyed to see it pop up in some Nationals Top 8s this past weekend. I’ll take that as proof that this one indeed does have a shot at being “the next big thing.” This list is more than well-equipped to deal with whatever is thrown at it, from creature decks (see all those sweepers?) to control decks (lots of Faeries hate). There was talk about M10 bringing about the end of control as we know it, but I’m not sure that any of that was justified at all. I mean, what really invalidates this archetype? The only real answer is Anathemancer, but even then you could merely tweak the sideboard to include Runed Halo (although Baneslayer goes a long way in keeping your life total up). Better than I had expected. The Lightning Bolts in this list might need to be Agony Warps in order to deal with Burrenton Forge-Tender, but the fact that Lightning Bolt is only one mana has been pretty important so far. In any case, I feel like this archetype is due for a huge comeback based on the sheer number of creature decks in the format right now, so keep an eye on the old Five Color Control lists. *** Now, there are plenty of other decks out there, but I’m pretty convinced that this handful is the cream of the crop. I think that a Ramp deck could definitely be viable right now with Hellkite (a deck I’d like to cover in a future article, as well as the reemergence of the Merfolk deck), and red-based aggro is always a “choice” (I refrain from saying a good choice, or even a solid one), but overall I think sticking to one of these decks is the best way to go heading into the last leg of the Standard PTQ season. There’s lots of room for experimentation in Standard at the moment, and I for one will be hard at work finding the final piece of the puzzle. But before I go, I should probably mention that this will be my last article for MTGSalvation for the foreseeable future. Starting next week, this column will continue over at Star City Games, where I will be a weekly writer. I sincerely hope that those of you who read this column each week will take the time to read it there, too, and continue your support. My editors here at MTGSalvation have been fantastic, and I hope to work with them again in the future. I've also very much appreciated the great feedback and encouragement I've received from you all in the forums, and I really can't thank you enough. But now, I'll be moving forward in my writing career, and hopefully it will become something I can really be proud of. Once again, thank you everyone and the best of luck! Until next time, Chris "Shinjutsei" Jobin By Chris Jobin on July 23rd, 2009 · Filed in Standard (Type 2), Thirst for Knowledge · 26 Comments |
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