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Control FREAK: Weird Fires at RegionalsBy David Hitchcock on May 30th, 2006 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 5 CommentsNot Just Another Regionals Report: Oh! You Tech my Tralalala!
Maindeck Issues: What? No Gifts? That's right, buddy! And don't you give me the, "but it’s broken!11" sass! I am well aware, thank you. What deck is Gifts really useful against in this current format? Sure, it’s good against opposing control decks sometimes, but that is not really a ringing recommendation in a format with such dangerous combo and aggro decks. No Electrolyze? This one is harder, since Electrolyze is a very good spell, and a vicious play when one toughness stuff is around. But it is a really anti-aggro card in a deck that is almost categorically anti-aggro already. Cut! 2 Zur's Weirding: Seems like the magic number. Not enough copies to interfere with our defensive cards, but just enough that we are likely to draw one eventually. One can get killed or countered too, and can act as bait. Karoooo-kie-crisp!? Hokori sucks! He is even worse with Augustin! I randomly lost too many times to those dudes and Descendant of Kiyomaro. Hence, these lands. Also, mana advantage over time is a good thing, although three of these is probably pushing it. Testing continues, and I will most likely go down to 2. 12 Duals? If you got ‘em, play ‘em. I don't got ‘em, I borrow as many as I can! Yay for friendship! Telling Time: Solid early game fixing, easy to cast, instant, and also shrewdly combos with Zur's Weirding later on, by totally bypassing your opponent's ability to see and control a draw or two. Stupid people let you draw it off Weirding too. It’s funny. No Pithing Needles? I am not rich enough. Sorry! The Lowdown on the Sideboarding: Now I'd like to comment on the sideboard choices, based on mostly MWS testing, essentially by match-up. One thing to note is the multi-purpose inclusion of Muddle the Mixture. It transmutes for many useful things, including Azorius Guildmage and Lightning Helix. As I am sure most of you know by now, Firemane Control has a pretty easy time versus aggro decks. Gruul and Zoo need absolutely retarded draws to stay competitive with a mediocre hand from this deck. Pre-board, my deck hates a resolved Cranial Extraction, but I don't really expect many players to pack them maindeck. Game 1 against Heartbeat is a stressful 50/50 against a good player, or a free game versus a bad player. So let’s look at how things get evened out in the board: For Heartbeat: This powerhouse combo deck will be played, and it will most likely be piloted by good players. Even a total idiot can look at this deck and realize that if you do not know how to run it perfectly, you will scrub out hard. Heartbeat has no forgiveness for bad players, so I need to assume that the people who do pilot it are dangerous, and so here's the Heartbeat hate: In: 4 Spell Snare: Counter wars are inevitable in this matchup, and Heartbeat runs Remand, Muddle, and maybe Hinder or Voidslime. Hitting eight possible counters out of up to 12 is excellent. It also smacks Tribe Elders if you smell a low-land hand or have multiples. 4 Muddle the Mixture: Again, excellent for the inevitable counter war, this also transmutes for our early game bullet: Azorius Guildmage. 1 Azorius Guildmage: Countering transmute effects does not end the game, but it really slows their development. Playing around this card as Heartbeat is actually pretty difficult, provided you have the mana to use it properly. 2 Rewind / Privileged Position: These slots are still up in the air as I write this, since I am still trying to figure out how Rewind helps against Gigadrowse after turn 4, and also whether or not the Position is even playable versus Heartbeat. (Note: I worked it out myself on the car ride to Montreal and ran 2 Rewind in the Board. I can only maintain stupidity for so long, you see.) Out: 4 Wrath of God: With these boarding choices, I am assuming that the Heartbeat player does not have a man plan in the board, and that if they do, they won't be putting it in versus my deck. Since I am far more afraid of a Gigadrowse-style board, I am also more prepared for it. 4 Lightning Helix: Lifegain is okay against Heartbeat, but not super. I prefer the free life from Angels in the yard anyways, and they probably won’t have many critters to smite. 3 Faith's Fetters: Something has to go, and this is useful mainly for life gain and not much else. Husk, Hand, Ghost Dad: Assuming I give them a brain tumor in game one, sideboarding is pretty simple. If I do not wreck them, or they are packing some kind of tricksy anti-Lanky tech, the board plan may be totally different. In: 3 Pyroclasm: Huzzah for wiping out the board on turn 3, sometimes with counter mana open! New lemon fresh scent too! Very nice answer to Promise of Bunrei after a Wrath too, since it's a sorcery, and a [card=Nantuko Husk]Husk can't swing on your turn. 4 Spell Snare (Optional, actually): Jitte, Confidant, Hands, Castigate, Distress, Jitte. And for emphasis: Jitte! Out: Depends. You are looking at three very similar, yet very different decks, and so some choices do vary. 3 Telling Time: The tricks with this and Weirding are less useful here, and you kind of need Researches to dump Angels into the yard. 1 Hinder: You need slots; this could easily be mana leak depending on apparent deck speed. 1 Compulsive Research: Again, you need slots, and often can't cast this early in these match-ups. 1 Azorius signet: Can't cast it early, loses some relevance, our curve is lower anyways. 1 Izzet Signet: Can't cast it early, loses some relevance, our curve is lower anyways. Magnivore, Wildfire Variants: Simply put, Wildfire usually cannot resolve. You will spend your entire game trying to avoid Wildfire, so the board options reflect this. In: 4 Muddle the mixture: Counters most of the relevant spells that the decks have. It transmutes for Signets, too, if you draw one after a Wildfire resolves. I actually found this highly important a few times. 2 Rewind (If they are in the board): Counters are good. Hard counters that allow you to play more spells afterwards are awesome too, especially against a deck largely based on sorceries. 4 Spell Snare (Optional): If they have a 2-mana permission suite, board these in, perhaps even just three or two. You are playing to stall, anyway. X Pyroclasm (Optional): Against Meloku (some variants run as many as three), as long as you didn't die from the previous swing, this can help some times. Out: 4 Lightning Helix: Nothing in their deck dies to this. Unfortunate, but true. If they are running Meloku you many want to consider keeping a few in, just for the Pyroclasm / Helix turn where many lands are left in their hand. 2 Faiths' Fetters: Vore has haste. Two is still good. X Wrath of God: Based on how many threats they seem to pack. Straight Vore has 4, but some variants have more. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: Good Match-ups: Almost any aggro deck, Enduring Ideal, "Beach-house" style Control. Bad match-ups: Owling Mine (Ew, what a nasty deck against us game 1, even with Angels in the yard. 4 Spell Snares for their 4 owls really helps though), Wildfire. Ugly Match-ups: Heartbeat (Yes it’s around 50/50 overall, but it is still a mind-numbing coffee-fest against a good player), the mirror match (Who decks first?) So off to Regionals I go! We shall see if my "tech," testing, and play make me a good player or a scrub! You have read my thoughts and analysis pre-Regionals, and now let’s see how it plays out. After Regionals: Boy, was that different than what I expected! Essentially what occurred in Montreal was that everyone anticipated lots of Husk and other aggro decks, and came with control builds. Some enterprising souls anticipated this shift and brought anti-control decks, or heavily metagamed builds of control. There was also a wild selection of new builds in the top circles of play. I can say a few things about the metagame now, though. Control can dominate it. I saw almost no Heartbeat played in Montreal, and people who did play it did not get very far, from what I could see.   control did very well in general, as did several variants packing Green. I even saw one guy playing Battle of Wits. My matchups for the day broke down like this:Round 1: Sir Scrubsalot (I forget his name, nice fellow though) Playing: Blinkmoth Nexus? Yes, free win. It was   anyways, and I played through the 2 games without really caring about his deck violations. He assured me that the nexus was in 9th anyways, and I did not have the heart to tell him no. [Note: always call a judge if something like this happens, even if the matchup is easy for you. People need to learn what cards they can play and what cards they can’t, and sometimes they have to learn that by having a judge talk to them at Regionals. –Ed.]1 - 0. Round 2: James Playing: Firemane Control Oh God, the mirror. We both groan in agony when we realize what the other is playing. Unfortunately for me, James has a much better draw game one and places 3 Firemanes in the yard by turn 4. He proceeds to just lay mana and bait me out. I find my Firemanes slowly, and eventually he simply decks me with Researches and Mikokoro, with us both at 50+ life. Game 2, he has an amazing board for me, Ivory Mask and Hide // Seek come in, and I can't deal with them. My board is totally not prepared for the mirror, and I lose horribly to his savage tech. Way more savage than it seems! 1 - 1 Round 3: Sebastian Playing: U/W Aggro Sebastian is a bit of a jerk, but I don't mind too much. He is playing Hokori, Jitte, Ninja of the Deep Hours, and then a suite of fliers for Pride of the Clouds. He beats me down hard game one, with a Jitte resolving after I had to Wrath. Game 2, I destroy him with an early Zur's Weirding. Game 3 is a long and stressful stall, as he resolves threat after threat that I have to deal with on my own turn. Jitte got a Fetters, Pride got a Fetters. Hokori got a Fetters! It was amazing how long I went without drawing an Angel. Eventually we went to time, and he was unable to kill me in 5 turns. 1 - 1 - 1 Round 4: Dennis Playing: Owling Mine Oh God. Oh my loving, sweet, merciful creator . . . why? I get destroyed both games. Game 1 he Exhaustions or Gigadrowses me eight times in a row. EIGHT! I wanted to hit him. Game 2 I try an early Zur's Weirding, but I see 2 Boomerangs, an Owl, two Remands and a Howling Mine. I don’t have enough permission to stop it, and he wrecks me again. 1 - 2 - 1 Things are not looking so good right now. I have seen some pretty awful matchups so far, and I need to win 4 times in a row for prizes. Round 5: Poutine (Also forget his name, sorry) Playing: Husk Poutine is a very nice man – agreeable, good sport, you know. We have some good games, but my deck is way too resilient for him. Game 1, I Wrathed away two creatures three times in five turns. That really slows him down. I Hindered three Ghost Councils, and Angels pounded him down. Game two, I ripped one of my two Weirdings in my opening hand, along with three mana, a Research, a Leak and a Signet. I keep, drop Weirding on my third turn, and Poutine never sees a third land hit play. Zur's Weirding can simply and utterly destroy people sometimes. Dude, you are creeping me out! 2 - 2 -1 Round 6: Ben Playing: Owling Mine I have determined at this point that my deity hates me. Not one ORLY OWL deck, but TWO. ASD***AGAGA. I cry for a bit, and then settle down to play. And quickly realize everything is going to be all right, as Ben tries to play an Owl turn two, and I roast it. He resolves one turn 5, but I have already drawn six more cards and laid two signets. I eat a single Owl trigger all game, and I relentlessly counter everything he does, letting Mines and Kami of the Crescent Moon resolve freely. I use all Helixes on him by the end. Game two, I have a crazy board for him: 3 Muddles, 2 Rewind, and 3 Snare. 4 Research and 4 Wrath came out. I counter every early play, and slam a Weirding down, praying for no Boomerang. He does not have it, and I stall him on three lands for the rest of the game. Eventually, I transmute for a Helix and finish him off. 3 - 2 - 1 Round 7: John Playing: Tron Wildfire. John got some pretty sickening hands both games, and I never saw more than four lands. He was running Annex, so you can imagine how this match went for me. I am trying very hard to forget it now. I hate Wildfire! 3 - 3 - 1 Round 8: Jafar (Not really his name, Again I forget) Playing: AgroUnfortunately for Jafar, this matchup is a total bye for me, but we do have some fun and talk about the day and how it went. I monkey-stomp him both games, but it was still a fun time. Final Record: 4 - 3 -1 Some Observations: Of eight rounds all day, I saw two aggro decks even worth mentioning; one I drew against, one I stomped. The deck did what it was supposed to do. I simply called the wrong overall trend in the winning bracket. All of the good aggro decks got wrecked in the early rounds, and Owl died a collectively horrible death, managing to take me with it. I desperately wanted to fight more Husk, more Gruul, and more Zoo. They were around in the mid slots, but I simply got paired really badly and them’s the breaks. Top 8 had at least five control builds that I could identify, and at least three of those were Wildfire variants. It was rounded out by one Ghost Dad, one Beach House build with 4 Crime // Punishment main, and probably James from my Round 2, as he was 4 -2 when I last talked to him. Jitte is as broken as ever, but It just was not enough. I saw no Zoo and no Gruul do well in any games I watched, either. One major miscalculation that I am not kicking myself about is Heartbeat. I did not see it played at all. I think there may have been one or two players, but they did not place. Firemane Control has served me well, but I think it is time for me to retire the deck and move on. My one major comment on the deck is that versus control, Zur's Weirding Wins the Game If It Hits the Table Early. They can't put everything in the yard, and the way the deck is designed, that is what they end up having to do. Going Forwards from Regionals: I think top 8 Regionals lists will demonstrate that Firemane control is a viable deck choice, even in the new metagame. Some things I would change already are the addition of Pithing Needles to either the maindeck or the board if you have them [Playing 3 maindeck is recommended. –Ed.], and the addition of Hide // Seek and Shadow of Doubt to the board. Hide and Seek was incredible against me in the mirror, and I watched my opponent use it well in other matchups: against Jitte at instant speed, it is really quite good. You can run a few Watery Graves or Underground Rivers to help play the Seek element. It does not have to be much. Final Thoughts: 1. Regionals has given me an interesting look into the new metagame, and I must say that I see a ton of potential in the set once Kamigawa Block fades away.. Dissension especially seems to have boosted the raw power of the Control archetype, and you will see a lot more from me on that subject as things develop. Some sleeper cards to be scared of in the new format include: Crime // Punishment and Hide // Seek. For two mana, finding a finisher in an opponent's deck and removing it, and then gaining a ton of life is very good. It also wrecks heartbeat very easily, deals with Jitte, deals with annoying enchantments, and so on. 2. Sideboarding is going to be the hardest thing to do for Nationals Standard, since between then and now, there are not many Type 2 events to draw on. 3. The Greek Souvlaki in Montreal is soooome good, lemme tells yah! 4. I'd say that the name for this article could easily be changed to "Burned at Regionals!" Firemane Control is a good deck, but I did not really get to exploit its key strengths when it mattered, and I got fried by my own calls on the metagame. In hindsight, I can't really blame myself too much, but that could just be my ego self-repairing! So until next time, never tap out if you don't have to! By David Hitchcock on May 30th, 2006 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 5 Comments |
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