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Return of the Not-A-CounterTronBy Sean DeCoursey on March 29th, 2007 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 17 CommentsThe first Standard competitive decks to feature the Urzatron (Urza's Mine, Urza's Tower, and Urza's Power Plant) appeared during the Mirrodin expansion set, and neither the first, nor the second deck to utilize these three supermana lands featured Blue in them. The second deck I think everyone is fairly familiar with, and it's called Tooth and Nail. The first deck to competitively use the Tron though, was Mono-White Control. Blue was only the third color to start messing around with the big guys, and then only after affinity had been nerfed.  The original Urzaholic. The deck originally didn't start out life with that goal in mind though. It actually started out as kind of a joke. I just wanted to see what would happen if I threw all the best cards from most of the best control decks together in one skeleton. It was bad, but it randomly destroyed things sometimes, and I realized it had potential. The first cut I made from the original version was Tidings. I was running Wrath of God, Wildfire, and Tidings in the same deck, and I realized it was just too many double colored casting costs to support. So Tidings went away for Research/Development. This was fine, as while Development is about equal to Tidings when cast during your opponents end step, when they have to choose between 9 damage and three cards, it is significantly worse during your own turn, however, this is offset by the ability to randomly cast the Research side of the card to deal with my Angels and Urza lands being Extirpated, but adding any Green to the manabase was simply impossible. That's when some of the signets got replaced with Prismatic Lens. Not only did lens do a better job of filtering mana into colors and counter Extirpate, it also provides mana on its own, which is kinda useful after you watch a Bust resolve. I initially ran four, then realized the one mana it takes up is sometimes significant, so I cut it to three and have been happy ever since. The next change was to cut the Wildfires out, since the deck didn't really do that well when destroying its own lands. I initially replaced them with Odds/Ends, but realized that card had gotten significantly worse with the printing of Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. Something random like Confiscate went in next, but it never felt like it did enough. It was while playing against Eminent Domain and wishing I had Akroma's Vengeance that I did a search on Magic Online for "destroy all artifacts" and "destroy all enchantments". I came up with Magus of the Disk. Let me tell you, wow, everyone is terrified of this card. He eats removal and counters faster than anything else I've ever seen. Even faster than Bob does. Sometimes I think he actually reads "2WW: force your opponent to play their best removal and counterspells." While getting to use him is rare, the amount of hate thrown his way validates my decision to run him I think. The next cut was Lightning Helixes for Faith's Fetters. This was made solely on a castability factor, and I'm pretty happy with the result. The last change was the toughest, but really helped me conceptualize what this deck was trying to do. I cut the hard counters. Rewind requires double Blue, which already made me not like it, and it never was a card I was happy to see in my hand. I looked at the deck and realized I was more interested in casting big spells than in countering stuff, remembered the old Mono White Control decks, and had an epiphany. In Animal Farm terms, "Big Effects Goooood, Counterspells Baaaad." So Rewind and some other counters got cut, and more draw, the fourth Firemane, and an Island came in for them. The single Island looks random, I know, but its there to make sure you don't lose a land on the first Ghost Quarter activation. That extra non-loss of tempo is simply huge. OK, so I've talked about whats in the deck a lot, but I haven't shown it to you yet. So here goes.
I organized this by card function, not card type like most lists do. I think that's an important upgrade to the way decklists are usually presented, because honestly, Aeon Chronicler and Firemane Angel might both be creatures, but they have far less in common with each other than they do with Compulsive Research and Urza's Factory. This method helps you to get a better picture of what your deck does rather than what cards are in it. On all the random one, two and three-ofs. This isn't a superspecial all-out aggro deck where there are only like three cards I'd want to run and then run like 10 copies of each. WoG and Magus are on a 3/2 split because while they do something similar, there are variations on their effect that makes you want one sometimes, and sometimes the other. In a metagame as diverse as the current standard, and with so many cards on a very near power level, diversity in your decklist is your friend. This isn't three years ago when there were a few very good cards and a whole lot of crap. Wizards has finally realized that printing more than just a few tournament worthy power level cards a set doesn't lead to power creep... it leads to a diverse environment. That's a good thing, but it means that unless a card is clearly essential to your strategy, or head and shoulders above the rest, you probably want a couple of similar cards in a 3/2 or 3/3 split rather than just four of one or the other. Some notes on some of the apparently odd choices in the deck: Disintegrate over Demonfire. Look, you know when this deck has Hellbent? Never. Seriously, it just doesn't happen. Ok, but say theoretically Hellbent did happen. You know what? All the decks you'd want Hellbent Demonfire against are running Commandeer, and most of them are running Mystical Teachings to find it with too. So yeah, the Hellbent does nothing 98% of the time because you have cards in hand, and the rest of the time it gets Commandeered. Teh Yayness. Disintegrate on the other hand, kills Skeletal Vampire, Sedge Sliver, Hedge Troll, and Mire Boa dead, dead, dead. It's small and random, but still a better advantage than you get from Demonfire. The Aeon Chronicler is there in place of the third Research/Development, and as a one of, I'm absolutely thrilled with the card. Yeah, Teferi turns it off. So what? You've still drawn four extra cards uncounterably. It's worth it.  SUPER SECRET TECH  is really hard for this deck, so I switched in Chronicler's little buddy, and blammo, much, much better. I'd honestly rate the 'Vore as a significantly better sideboard plan than Annex. He just devastates the vast majority of control mirrors. Oooohhh, a storage land? Boom. Tron? Boom. Bounce Dual? Boom. I actually Remand him and Chronicler sometimes if I don't think my opponent will be nice and do it for me. (Well, most people understand that's a bad idea, but it's still funny when it happens). Sacred Ground is definitely the weakest slot in the board. It's mostly there because the deck lacks counters to protect its manabase from LD. I keep having the sneaking feeling though that Muse Vessel, Jester's Cap, or Jester's Scepter would be significantly better in that slot against the majority of the field. In general, you're going to Remand and Repeal stuff early to buy time and cards to get to the point where you're doing ridiculous things with Mr. Urza and his friends, and if things ever get out of control, just use Wrath and Magus to reset the board. Also, don't be afraid to tap out to develop your own board, its not like you've got counters anyway, and a happy opponent that overextends to take advantage of your "tappyness" is just setting themselves up to be disappointed. On matchups: Dralnu: wow, that deck is screwed. They might win game one, but after that look out sally. If control mirrors come down to who has more mana, you're already ahead. But your super sneaky triple secret sideboarding plan of awesomeness is just too much for them to handle. In: 3x Jotun Grunt, 4x Azorious Guildmage, 2x Detritivore. Out: 4x Remand, 2x Spell Burst, 3x Repeal. See, they're better at countering stuff than you, and they have Teferi, in multiples, with tutors. So that's an area of strength for them. Don't fight them where they're strong, it's bad for you. Fight them where they're weak. lotsa lotsa dudes, graveyard hate, and uncounterable effects. Did you know Azorios Guildmage counters Dralnu? They probably won't either until she does it the first time. Very much a matchup in your favor. Using lens to get back your Extirpated stuff is just gravy.  I <3 Non-Basics. MGA: They're pretty screwed. Oh look, I'm gaining life from Firemane, better kill me quick. Oh look, I've got Wrath and Magus. Oh look, I just Fettered your dude for a bunch of life. Oh look, I've got tron and Spellburst. That's basically about how these games play out. Good for you, not for them. Dredge: This match comes down to can you get a Guildmage online or not. Seriously, that's it. Guildmage = win. No Guildmage = Loss. Grunt is also pretty cool here, and Sacred Ground can come in as well. Repealing their Greenseekers and Bazaars is just a massive slowdown for them. Delirium Skeins is the stone sadface unless you're holding Angels, in which case it's still the sadface, just for them. Eminent Domain/Magnivore: The only reason I haven't pulled the trigger on Sacred Ground yet, although to be honest, even if you get Ground out on turn two, you're still probably going to lose. Magus can sometimes save you against Domain, but still, not so much. Everyone has bad matchups, these are yours. Dragonstorm: Guildmage stops transmute if you see it game one, otherwise, try to get an angel on lifegaining duty asap. At that point, they've actually got to attack to kill you, which means Wrath can protect you. Use Fetters proactively to try and push your life total even higher. The most they can do on a single turn is 32, so get over that lever and you're safe. Ish. The biggest advantage you have is that they'll be scared of counters you don't have, so try and play into their assumptions by doing things like Remanding Telling Time. It'll make 'em scared. Unless they're smart and running Venarian Glimmer instead of or in addition to Gigadrowse, but I haven't seen any lists that do yet. There are about a billion viable Standard decks right now, but I think this section covers how to play against most of them. Overall, it's a fun deck and smashiefaces most aggro and control strategies out there right now, or at least has the tools to do so if it draws the right cards. In that way its kind of like the Rock, no bad matchups, 'cause you can always draw the card that pwns face vs. that particular deck, but you can also draw all the wrong cards against a particular opponent too. By Sean DeCoursey on March 29th, 2007 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 17 Comments |
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