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Extend Your Reach: RavnicaBy Stefan Preiml on September 27th, 2005 · Filed in Extended (Type 1.x) · 10 Comments
Devouring Light is a card White Weenie players have thirsted for years, a cheap useable spot creature removal. Sure it doesn’t compare with Swords to Plowshares, but its as good as you’re likely to get from WotC these days. The Convoke ability just makes it superb for a Weenie deck with the possibility to occasionally play it for free, and removing the creature from game rather than destroying it is also quite a bonus considering the graveyard recursion-heavy Extended format. Its also possible to combo it with Deftblade Elite but this might only end in small shenanigans. Damping Matrix was a heavy hitter in T2 by barring your opponent from using some of his best cards and White Weenie, probably the only deck that was capable of working without any activated abilities, could take full advantage of it. Enter Suppression Field. It might not shut down everything from artifacts and creatures, but it has two very major advantages that make it a superior choice to the Matrix: a) it affects all activated abilities, even if they aren't from permanents in play; and b) it is an enchantment, making it less likely your opponent will have a maindeck solution for it. Extended is a format jock full of activated abilities. Probably every deck has at least one that it relies on to work correctly, may it be sacrifice, cycling, pump, fetch or equip. Taxing two mana on an ability that usually costs next to nothing slows a deck down big time, buying the White Weenie player enough time to finish the opponent. A third card that might end up in this deck in small numbers might be Hunted Lammasu. A 5/5 flying body for 4 mana is nothing to sneeze at especially if the opponent is usually at 12 to 10 life when he comes down, and the 4/4 horror can easily be taken care of, if he even matters. But Exalted Angel is sometimes just the better option for the deck, and the very tight deck design might just leave no space for the Lammasu.
G/W and R/W Slide The only card to reasonably argue for in the R/W department is Lightning Helix, although the Wraths make pinpoint removal also somewhat obsolete for the deck. For the same reasons, Devouring Light can be ruled out of both decks. The fact that both cards can't be cycled just makes matters worse for them. In comparison, the G/W variant obviously has a huge advantage tapping into Ravnica since the Boros guild is very creature and combat oriented and doesn't provide much for a control deck that runs four to eight Wrath-Effects. It gains a useful creature in the form of Loxodon Hierarch. Although Slide has a Masters’ degree in stalling out fast-paced creature decks, the Hierarch might be something to think about. Four life a turn is nothing to overlook, and his ability to occasionally save a Witness from a Firebolt could prove to be very useful. He comes down fast to be an early barrier Goblins need to breach first and could buy some time to find that Wrath. He can alsoset up a faster kill since relying on Eternal Dragon proves to be annoying sometimes. The only question is: Does a deck with four to eight or more Wraths really need another creature? But there are also other options for the Witness Protection Program to be considered. One of them is Farseek, but the incapability to search for Forest cards makes it look inferior compared to Rampant Growth and Sakura-Tribe Elder. Lastly, I would like to mention Life from the Loam. Slide easily tends to dump lands into the graveyard and recurring three fodder cards for the Slide is nothing to dismiss easily. The card advantage that can be produced with this could prove to be tremendous, but things have to be seen first.
The Rock Probably the easiest one to take a look at is Carven Caryatid. Its predecessor, Wall of Blossoms, was a staple in The Rock for many years, slowing down fast aggressive decks with only small amount of evasion slipping through and cantripping a card at the same time, digging into other solutions. The Caryatid has a big advantage compared to the Wall: it has 2 power. Wall of Blossoms sometimes just chumped into stuff without anything else and then fell victim to a burn spell. The Caryatid on the other hand can take lots of small creatures with it. Saviors' underachieving semi-reprint Stampeding Serow also looks like a decent option for this deck now with the Caryatid, Eternal Witness, and Viridian Shaman from the board while providing a 5/4 trampling body. Speaking of the Shaman, I'm not quite sure what to do with it now since The Rock is now able to have maindeck artifact hate besides Pernicious Deed in the form of Putrefy. Some players of The Rock were already used tap into red for Flametongue Kavu and/or Terminate. Putrefy mimics the later and can also destroy artifacts without the possibility to regenerate them. The ability to take out equipment and a wide range of other artifacts before sideboarding without burning a Deed. But The Rock also gains two new finishers that may possibly show up in the deck: Gleancrawler and Grave-Shell Scarab. I personally think that the latter has more potential. He is virtually unkillable and putting cards into the graveyard is for The Rock only a small drawback if it can't be even moved into an advantage. Plague Boiler is also an option for The Rock as additional Deeds if they are locked under a Pithing Needle, but the lack of variation and the inability to destroy artifact lands lets the Boiler easily be dismissed. Sundering Vitae and Shred Memory seem like viable options for the sideboard, but the ability of Vitae to be possibly paid for without mana is slightly hindered by the fact that the Rock puts its creatures out on a slow pace, making Naturalize the better option. Shred Memory on the other hand seems like a workable replacement for the less needed Coffin Purge and is also strictly better than Decompose to gain an advantage against U/G Madness, although the Transmute ability will be less needed as it looks like the focus on three mana might move Sakura-Tribe Elder out of the deck and Llanowar Elves in.
Psychatog Sorting this out through a mass of U/B cards that mostly concentrate on mill we come down to three interesting cards beside the obvious Watery Grave. Telling Time could be a decent replacement for the rotating Brainstorm, but it costs twice as much as its competition: Opt and Serum Visions. After that we have Shred Memory, which has already been mentioned above. The difference between the Shred in The Rock and Psychatog is that in the Transmute ability could realy shine in the Scepter-driven Tog designs, heavily depending on two mana instants. But a sorcery speed tutor for three mana is far from optimal, and not realy something desirable for Psychatog. Only Moonlight Bargain could strike jackpot. Tog often plays Fact or Fiction as a card drawing engine and here we have a useable and comparable card with similar cost and effect. Tog could have space for both of them. 2 life is a heavy price for one card, but the advantage of not having your opponent know what you drew could do realy well, especially in mirror matches [Not to mention getting the two best cards of the top 5 for 4 life. -Ed]. The only thing this card lacks is the psychological pressure Fact sometimes puts on the opponent.
MBC This leads us to another MBC addition out of Ravnica: with the inclusion of Duals it is possible to tap into different colors for additional stuff that couldn't be accomplished till now. Green can provide the Artifact and Enchantment removal MBC was missing, and fetching Overgrown Tomb with Polluted Delta also sets up a new Top. The resulting inclusion of Putrefy into this deck also gives another piece of creature removal and an artifact removal in the maindeck, not to mention the possibility of playing Pernicious Deed.
Miscellaneous The previous decks are the ones that will be most commonly be seen in the upcomming season and/or profit the most of Ravnica, but the set still has much to offer. Sundering Vitae could be a good replacement for Naturalize in decks with a heavy creature count such as Opposition and R/G Beats. Razia, Boros Archangel will probably replace Rorix Bladewing if Reanimator is viable. Thanks to the tremenous amount of mill, a Blue and Black deck concentrating on this could also work. Farseek will also see some play in Domain decks. With Congregation at Dawn and Chord of Calling, there are also two useable creature tutors that might find their home somewhere. Overall, Ravnica seems to be a very good set for Extended, bringing in lots of useful cards. It might also enable one or two new decks in the format. A very good set IMHO. Credits: Writing: chaosof99; Banner: votan; Editing: Binary and Goblinboy By Stefan Preiml on September 27th, 2005 · Filed in Extended (Type 1.x) · 10 Comments |
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