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Thirst for Knowledge: For the BirdsBy Chris Jobin on March 19th, 2009 · Filed in Thirst for Knowledge, Standard (Type 2) · 19 CommentsFor the Birds I'm not sure if it's just the places where I choose to spend my time, but I often hear a lot of back-handed comments about the current state of Standard. It's typically something about Faeries being too powerful and stifling all the creativity, or even that Spectral Procession is far too overused. While it is indeed true that cards like Cryptic Command and Spectral Procession are very powerful and are used in a number of decks in the format, I find it hard to believe the number of people who think that innovation in Standard is dead. It's kind of a ridiculous statement when you consider that a four-color Doran deck was in the Top 8 of the latest Pro Tour, and a deck like RW Lark didn't even exist until a few months ago. Creativity exists in Standard right now - you just have to know where to look. That being said, there are a few steps to run through when building a new deck to compete in Standard. Below I've outlined the two most important questions: 1. Can this deck beat Faeries? 2. Does this deck do anything that an existing deck doesn't already do better? If you can answer "yes" to both of these questions, your deck might have a shot at being competitive. Potential control decks in Standard seem to have a good deal of trouble answering "yes" to the second question, though, so I would wager that it certainly is harder to make a viable control deck in light of Faeries and Five Color than it is an aggressive deck. However, that didn't stop the Japanese players from creating a new control deck for Standard, which managed to win a tournament in Japan a week before Pro Tour-Kyoto. The deck's success rippled through the Japanese community, and a number of the players from that country played the deck in the Pro Tour. Below is the list that Shuhei Nakamura piloted in Kyoto to a Top 32 finish:
And here is the list that just won the San Jose SCG 5K:
So what exactly is this deck, and what does it do? Well, Swans Control is an incredibly complex control deck that seeks to win all of its games by burying its opponent in card advantage. I suppose that this approach is hardly revolutionary, but I think this is the first deck in a long time that simply must out-draw its opponent in order to win. There is no Broodmate Dragon or Cruel Ultimatum to end the game at a critical stage. There is no Bitterblossom or Mistbind Clique to dominate games. There is only Swans of Bryn Argoll and the deck's lands, and that's all it needs. Finally this card gets some justice... The Swans deck is at its best when up against the aggressive decks in Standard, as those decks, generally, want merely to dump as many tokens and small men into play as they can and beat face. This works well for a deck like Swans because the deck itself feeds off of this strategy. The more aggressive the aggro deck gets, the better cards like Volcanic Fallout become. There have been numerous times in testing where I would clear the board three consecutive turns with Pyroclasm. Normally, that's quite absurd as it tends to stall you out once you're out of sweepers. However, with this deck, you WILL draw into the other sweepers based on the fact that you are almost undoubtedly going to draw a boatload of cards over the course of the game. The best part about all of this? Because Pyroclasm is only two mana and Volcanic Fallout is an instant, the Swans deck plays pretty close to Draw-Go, and that's a good thing when it comes to besting the Faerie deck. This aspect also helps it out-play Five Color, though that match-up is generally pretty rough. Still, if you're looking to play this deck in any kind of competitive setting any time soon, I recommend you test with it a lot. Swans is a very difficult deck to pilot that requires a tremendous amount of understanding and patience as well as very tight play. You have an inherent advantage against the aggressive decks, sure, but a dim-witted Swans player will likely lose more often than he wins even against his good match-ups if he does not come prepared. To better understand the deck, a quick run through the card choices is in order. Although some of the cards in the deck are self-explanatory, I will still reference everything. Mutavault and Ghitu Encampment These cards are your win conditions in the event that Swans of Bryn Argoll and Seismic Assault don't pan out. Faerie Conclave is fine here as well - you just want to have some manlands that can get there in the event that your main win conditions don't work out. The rest of the manabase The collection of blue and red lands are pretty straightforward, although the 5K list included Vivid Creek to make the black cards in his sideboard a bit more consistent. There isn't much to say here, other than that every piece if necessary (that is, I wouldn't recommend skipping out on the Reflecting Pools or something). Plumeveil I don't particularly feel as though this card needs an introduction these days, does it? Plumeveil is simply the best at what it does: it soaks up damage, makes attacking unprofitable for the aggro deck, and can buy you enough time to set up your win. It's simply an essential card. Swans of Bryn Argoll This card is obviously the centerpiece of the archetype, and the main reason it's so effective. It is immune to any form of red-based removal (though opponents will often point burn at it to refill their hand - watch out for this), and has a huge body to boot. Considering that it will often only deal 4-8 damage on its own in the typical game, the real value of this card is that it makes all of your sweepers into card-drawing machines and it pairs with Seismic Assault to dig through your deck for Shocks. Volcanic Fallout and Pyroclasm On their own, these cards are just sweepers. Considering that the average Swans list plays seven or more of these things, it stands to reason that Swans should have a pretty impressive match-up with creature-based decks and even Faeries. While that is indeed true, the real beauty of these cards is their synergy with the deck's namesake, in which case they become insane double-tasking card advantage engines. I don't think a control player could ask for more out of his cards at that point. Possibly the best use of Jace yet? Four of them seems like a lot, sure, but this deck treats Jace a bit differently than any deck before it. In Swans, this guy is expendable. You can run him out against decks that you know can kill him within two turns, and you don't have to think twice about it. If he draws you two cards, he's done his job. Of course, you want more out of him than that, but often times you'll just work with what you have. There were many times in testing where I would have him in play and not play his ability for multiple turns in a row because I had too many cards in my hand. Can you think of the last time you honestly had that problem in Standard? Cryptic Command, Broken Ambitions, Negate, and Remove Soul Simply the best counterspell suite any deck without Spellstutter Sprite can have in this format. Obviously there is nothing new to see here, though. Incinerate Part burn spell, part removal spell, part draw spell - this card just gets it done in this deck. In the first few turns it will serve as a removal spell for Figure of Destiny and Knight of Meadowgrain, while later on it will be Ancestral Recall or the last 3 points to your opponent's dome. Shuhei's list from the Lunatic Moon tournament in Japan played more than the two he included for Kyoto, and I'm more inclined to play three than I am two. Still, there aren't a lot of cards to cut, so two is still acceptable. Tidings Though questionable at first, this card is simply remarkable here. It digs for your win conditions if you don't have them yet, and later it digs for lands to fuel Seismic Assault. It also combines with the other draw spells in the deck to create a card advantage machine that simply is unmatched in Standard. No more than two are necessary, but I feel like any less than two is just wrong. Seismic Assault In all my testing, one thing became pretty clear over time: the games in which I resolved this card were the ones I had almost no shot of losing. Whether it is used to clear blockers for Swans of Bryn Argoll or your manlands, to draw cards (again, with the deck's namesake), or to Fireball the opponent, this card simply makes the deck tick. You won't ever need more than two (as any beyond the first are useless), but with two you can be sure to draw it every game (typically three-ofs fit this rule, but not in this deck - I'm not joking about the insane amount of card-drawing). If you can resolve this card against Faeries, I'm quite sure you can never lose. That's a pretty good feeling to have. *** Next I'm going to go though some match-ups, but first I'll need to present my own list as a reference for the sideboarding. You'll notice it is not that drastically different from Shuhei's, but that's because his list was very well-tuned and positioned for the current metagame. Regardless, here it is:
Five Color Control - 50/50 (possibly less) +4 Goblin Assault +2 Glen Elendra Archmage +2 Banefire -4 Pyroclasm -2 Volcanic Fallout -2 Plumeveil In this match-up, you want to be as aggressive as you can whilst also out-drawing them. It's difficult to strike a proper balance for this, but the ideal way to do it is to drop a Goblin Assault and allow it to act as a pseudo-Bitterblossom that will endlessly apply pressure without costing you any mana investment. Glen Elendra Archmage can help you go toe-to-toe with Cruel Ultimatum and also to win you counter wars. Banefire is obviously a way to end the game quickly if you need to, but be sure to watch out for Swerve or Wild Ricochet! The match-up with Five Color is generally even. You may draw more cards than they will, but the card quality overall in their deck is better. If you can stick a Seismic Assault, you should usually win. They might have Runed Halo, though, so be sure to hold a Cryptic Command back when you have enough lands for lethal. Faeries - 60/40 +2 Banefire +1 Volcanic Fallout -1 Jace Beleren -2 Incinerate Resolving this vs. Fae is priority #1. You can also bring in Goblin Assault in the match-up, but with all the board-sweeping you'll be doing it just seems kind of clunky and awkward. RW Lark - 65/35 +2 Pithing Needle +2 Swerve +1 Volcanic Fallout -1 Jace Beleren -1 Swans of Bryn Argoll -2 Negate -1 Broken Ambitions RW Lark is generally the deck you want to play against when piloting Swans. With no way to make its men bigger than x/2, you're going to always get the most out of your sweepers. Your counterspells make up for what Pyroclasm and company won't kill, and Pithing Needle makes Figure of Destiny, Siege-Gang Commander, Windbrisk Heights, and Ajani Vengeant rather awful. Swerve gives you an out to Banefire and Path to Exile, and the rest of the match-up goes according to the Swans deck's plan. A pretty easy match-up overall, which is good considering the popularity of RW. BW Tokens - 55/45 (less if they have Thoughtseize) +2 Pithing Needle +1 Volcanic Fallout -1 Jace Beleren -1 Swans of Bryn Argoll -1 Broken Ambitions This match-up is mostly in your favor (and thus might actually be higher than 55/45), but the success that Swans has against BW is directly related to whether or not the Tokens player resolves a Glorious Anthem effect or not. Just like against RW, your sweepers will be able to clear the opponent's board while also gaining you card advantage. The plan of countering threats and periodically clearing the board works fine 90% of the time, but sometimes they will sneak a second Glorious Anthem into play and then you find your sweepers to be nearly useless. If the BW player can make his tokens bigger than x/2, you've probably lost. Seismic Assault can help to bail you out of this situation by giving you more ammunition to pick off the stragglers, but generally it means game over. If they have Thoughtseize, expect a slight improvement in their deck performance against Swans. The good news is that Swans is innately resilient to Head Games, since they likely won't want to fill your hand with lands. It's still bad for you since they will give you the least useful cards at any given time, but it's a far cry from what happens to a Five Color player. *** The majority of my testing with Swans was against the "Top 4" decks, but the rest are pretty easy to figure out. In the limited testing I had against the Tier 2 decks, Blightning was by far the worst. Because Volcanic Fallout and Pyroclasm generally don't kill most of the creatures in their deck, it becomes hard to gain much from playing them. The best way to handle that deck is to resolve a Seismic Assault quick and start dropping their life total. Plumeveil can keep you alive, and Banefire can finish things off. Regardless, I'd say that this is probably the deck's worst match-up. It's amazing how many cards this neuters... The last match-up that I want to mention is Kithkin, but only briefly. Basically, play this match-up just as you would BW Tokens: stop Glorious Anthem, and use Pithing Needle to shut off key cards, and, most of all, neuter Burrenton Forge-Tender (note that this holds true for all the decks running this card). That card basically ruins the plan for Swans altogether, so you either have to Needle it or trick your opponent into sending it into a flashed-in Plumeveil. *** I spent an entire week with Swans, and my opinion of it is that it's a pretty good contender right now in Standard. It has the tools to beat all of the top decks (and fairly strong match-ups against them to boot), and has the potential to topple the lower tiers as well. I think a good deal of its success lately has to do with the surprise factor, but I definitely feel like Swans can go places. I personally would never play it over, say, Faeries, but that's mostly because I can play Faeries in my sleep. If you want to give Swans a shot, my advice from earlier still stands: playtest, playtest, playtest. It's a very complicated deck, and it demands incredibly tuned play to pilot correctly. It seems like one of those decks that will work for some people but fail for others (the Tezzerator deck in Extended is a good example), but I don't think that that's such a bad thing. It breathes at least a small amount of new life into Standard, and that's enough for me. Besides, there can never be too many control decks in a single format, right? That's all for this week, folks. I'm not sure what I'll be writing about next week yet, but I'd like to talk more about Standard. If you have any suggestions, please comment in the forums! Until next time, Chris "Shinjutsei" Jobin By Chris Jobin on March 19th, 2009 · Filed in Thirst for Knowledge, Standard (Type 2) · 19 Comments |
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