Friday, December 30, 2011

Junk in the Trunk: Doran, the Siege Tower

   A few days ago, I received a request from fellow blogger and forum member Viperion to do a Deck Doctor article on one of his decks. He had a number of decks that weren’t performing to his expectations and he wanted to see if I would be interested in helping out with one of them. I agreed immediately, partly because I was in dire need of some content for my blog. But the other reason I jumped at the opportunity was because Viperion’s chief concern was that his decks tended to stick to strictly to their core themes, eschewing the often necessary but boring utility slots in favor of more thematic cards. My principal fault lies in exactly the opposite direction – I tend to skew too heavily to the “good-stuff” end of the spectrum, which can unfortunately lead to a certain uniformity and repetitiveness in my decks. 

   So, it seemed to me a good fit, pitting Viperion’s theme-heavy approach against my tendencies toward ubiquitous good-stuff. The trick would be to find a good balance between the two approaches, while keeping the core of Viperion’s deck intact, but thinning it out enough to make room for the effects the deck was lacking.

   Viperion provided a handy write-up with his decklist, outlining some concerns with the existing list and some restrictions on where he didn’t want to go with the revisions. I definitely like having these guidelines, as it helps me tailor my alterations to suit the person who’s going to be playing the deck, rather than just building to suit my own tastes. Fortunately, Viperion’s strictest objections were to mass land destruction and combos that lock other players out and keep them from participating. I happen to share strong aversions to such tactics myself, so it seems our preferences run along the same lines.

   He also provided a short list of cards that he would prefer to keep in the deck, which I was certainly happy to oblige as much as possible.

   Most importantly, Viperion detailed his primary issues with the deck’s performance, listing two key areas he felt needed the most work. First, the deck seemed to rely too heavily on its general, performing poorly when his general wasn’t in play.  Second, and more importantly, the deck was lacking in answers, having too few ways to deal with problematic permanents.

   Finally, he expressed a desire to keep the deck largely Aggro-centric, with Doran remaining  an important part of the deck’s strategy, while being slightly less dependent on him overall. He did not want to see the deck become some generic WBG Rock control deck. Well, as it happens I think we can accommodate all of these requests while still improving on the deck’s overall performance by shoring up those key weaknesses Viperion has outlined. Let’s start with the initial list:

"I like big butts and I cannot lie."
General
Doran, the Siege Tower

Treefolk Creatures
Battlewand Oak
Black Poplar Shaman
Bog-Strider Ash
Bosk Banneret
Cradle Guard
Deadwood Treefolk
Everbark Shaman
Heartwood Storyteller
Indomitable Ancients
Orchard Warden
Old Ghastbark
Sapling of Colfenor
Sheltering Ancient
Thorntooth Witch
Timber Protector
Treefolk Harbinger
Verdeloth the Ancient
Wickerbough Elder

Treefolk Tribal Spells
Lignify
Reach of Brances
Rootgrapple

Other Big-Butted Dudes
Ancient Spider
Blessed Orator
Carven Caryatid
Chorus of the Conclave
Citanul Woodreaders
Cuombajj Witches
Deathless Angel
Herald of Leshrac
Juvenile Gloomwidow
Kami of Old Stone
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Marble Titan
Noble Templar
Oathsworn Giant
Ohran Viper
Opal Acrolith
Oran-Rief Recluse
Priests of Norn
Sanctum Guardian
Shield Dancer
Silklash Spider
Tangle Angler
Teneb, the Harvester
Tree of Redemption
Wall of Blossoms
Windbrisk Raptor

Toughness Pumpers
Eland Umbra
Slagwurm Armor
Solidarity
Spidersilk Armor

Random Stuff
Ajani Goldmane
Crime // Punishment
Door of Destinies
Green Sun's Zenith
Leyline of Vitality
Oblivion Ring
Oversoul of Dusk
Pestilence
Privileged Position
Proper Burial
Regrowth
Shield of the Oversoul
Farseek
Skyshroud Claim

Lands
Bojuka Bog
Eiganjo Castle
Forbidding Watchtower
Godless Shrine
Golgari Rot Farm
Murmuring Bosk
Orzhov Basilica
Overgrown Tomb
Saltcrusted Steppe
Selesnya Sanctuary
Sunpetal Grove
Tectonic Edge
Temple Garden
Terramorphic Expanse
Twilight Mire
Wooded Bastion
Forest x8
Plains x7
Swamp x3

   Well that seems like a perfectly good starting point. Ideally, when messing with other people’s decks I like to keep as much of their initial build intact as possible, because I want the deck to feel like it’s still their deck, not like they’re just piloting someone else’s borrowed deck. For this deck, though, I think that on a card-by-card basis I will wind up making a drastic number of changes. However, I do think that the deck will still be the same at its core – I will retain the Treefolk and high-toughness themes that give the deck its identity and make Doran a relevant and important general. And of course I’ll try to avoid cutting the cards Viperion specifically wished to keep. Beyond that, all bets are off!

   The first step, for me, is to address an issue Viperion didn’t mention in his write-up, but still has me worried nonetheless. A quick count reveals a total of 34 Lands in the deck, and only a few mana-search spells. There are a whopping ZERO mana-rocks, which I can understand a certain hesitancy to include. Mana rocks are possibly the most boring and uninteresting cards you could play in EDH, yet there’s a reason they’re so ubiquitous – they aren’t just good, they’re often necessary.

   So, my first and strongest recommendation is to increase the land count to 36 and add a few other mana-ramp spells. First let’s take a look at just the lands. Here is my ideal list…

Tech!
Bojuka Bog
Eiganjo Castle
Tectonic Edge
Temple of the False God
High Market
Murmuring Bosk
Forbidding Watchtower
Stirring Wildwood
Godless Shrine
Overgrown Tomb
Temple Garden
Golgari Rot Farm
Orzhov Basilica
Selesnya Sanctuary
Sunpetal Grove
Fetid Heath
Twilight Mire
Wooded Bastion
Terramorphic Expanse
Forest x8
Plains x6
Swamp x3

   My additions were: Temple of the False God, High Market, Stirring Wildwood, and finally Fetid Heath, to complete the trifecta of Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands. I’m sure Viperion would have included the Heath if he had one, so I’m assuming it would be an acquisition for him. I do think a Basic Swamp would work just fine instead. I added High Market because the deck had zero sacrifice outlets, which always makes me extremely nervous, especially against Blue decks that often run things like Treachery and Rite of Replication. Being able to bin your guy in response to one of those spells is pretty important. Temple of the False God is just really good. Stirring Wildwood is a nice companion to Forbidding Watchtower, which, by the way, is good by itself but hilariously powerful with Doran on the board!

In addition to the tweaks to the mana base, I recommend the following mana-helpers:

Seedguide Ash (seriously!)
Cultivate
Skyshroud Claim
Sol Ring
Darksteel Ingot
Mirari's Wake

   Seedguide Ash is a Treefolk and he gets mad Forests…  win-win! I think Cultivate is worth the additional mana over Farseek, though I do realize that Farseek can get a RAV dual… I still think this is the right call. Skyshroud Claim is friggin’ awesome and it stays put! Sol Ring is the most boring card in the format to many people, but I simply think it’s important to have here. It doesn’t help cast Doran (at least the first time) but Treefolk in general tend to be a bit mana-intensive. Darksteel Ingot is also pretty good, and if Viperion is worried about artifact hate killing his mana rocks, he at least doesn’t have to worry much with the Ingot. Finally, Mirari’s Wake is just Tha Bomb, and even if it gets killed right away 90% of the time, at least it’s drawing removal away from other, more critical permanents.

   Having addressed my mana concerns, let’s move on to the issues Viperion outlined. First, let’s tackle the removal shortage issue. It’s probably the more critical of the two problems, and the easiest to fix. My first suggestion is, quite possibly, my single favorite bit of “Secret Tech” for a Doran deck:

Wave of Reckoning!
    Oh yeah, baby! Gotta love the one-sided Wrath effects. The beauty is that Doran specifically says  “Combat Damage” which means even with Doran on the battlefield Wave of Reckoning will spare the vast majority of your creatures, while usually wrecking the majority of your opponents. Oh sure, sometimes it’ll spare a Consecrated Sphinx or something, but more often than not it’ll be a massive swing in your favor. In addition to Rootgrapple and Lignify – two excellent choices Viperion is already running – I’d suggest the following

Duplicant
Crib Swap
Beast Within
Path to Exile
Pernicious Deed
Wrath of God
Wave of Reckoning
Decree of Pain

   Duplicant’s has a higher toughness than his power! Go theme! Crip Swap is an Exile effect, which is almost always better than Destroy effects, plus it counts as a Treefolk spell! Beast Within is one of the few ways to deal with Planeswalker at Instant speed (other than burn, which isn’t usually great in EDH), but it’s pretty great as a universal answer to almost any permanent, too. Path to Exile could be Swords to Plowshares, but in an Aggro deck the life gain is marginally more of a drawback than the land search. I still think running BOTH is the correct answer, but whatever. Pernicious Deed is obviously a tremendously powerful card, but I’ll go ahead and spoil it for you now: Deed + Sun Titan. Nuff said. Wrath of God (or Damnation, based on preference/availability) is a must, even in creature-centric Aggro decks. Treefolk are awesome and all, but there will be times that they just get outclassed and outmuscled. You need an out for when that happens. Finally, Decree of Pain provides a much-needed sweeper effect along with some also-much-needed card draw. Plus, they’re still really cheap to buy, so there’s really no downside at all!

   Also worthy of consideration, or use as stand-ins for anything above that isn’t available: Putrefy, Mortify, Vindicate, Akroma’s Vengeance.

   That’s one major point addressed. Moving on to the next, let’s see what we can do to protect our prized general, Doran the Siege Tower. Here’s what I recommend:

Dauntless Escort
Eland Umbra
Shield of the Oversoul
Sword of Light and Shadow
Asceticism

   Under the “Protect Doran” mandate, one of the more useful abilities is Hexproof (troll-shroud to some), and Privileged Position is already included in Viperion’s list. In fact, it was one of the few cards he specifically asked me not to cut if at all possible. Here I am, though, debating on whether or not to cut it. But not without good reason, you see, because I feel like, to quote Master Yoda, “there is… another.” [cue dramatic revelation score]

   I am, of course, talking about Asceticism. The two Enchantments are very similar in most respects – they’re both CMC five, and grant Hexproof to all  your guys. However, they are not identical, and thus one needs weigh the pros and cons of each when deciding which of these two cards will better achieve the desired results. Thusly, what follows is a quick and dirty compare/contrast evaluation, to help us decide which Enchantment gets to stay. Oh, and I  have already considered the ultimate compromise of running both… I’d love to do so, but I have already determined that there just isn’t room in the deck for both, unless Viperion decides to cut something I wouldn’t to make room. It’s possible one or more cards I add to the deck he will not have access to, thus opening up a slot. And, with that, the comparison:

Privileged Position grants Hexproof to all other permanents you control. This means an opponent will have to deal with Privileged Position before he can use targeted effects on any of your non-Privileged Position permanents. It protects Lands, Planeswalkers, other Enchantments, etc. It has a CMC of five, including triple Hybrid symbols of W/G, making it fairly easy to play. One of the advantages to playing Privileged Position in this specific deck is that it combines nicely with Shield of the Oversoul to make Doran or another creature very, VERY hard to kill. It also protects other high-profile targets like Mirari’s Wake or True Conviction.

Asceticism also grants Hexproof to your army, but only your Creatures. It does not extend its protection to other permanent types. To make up for the broader range of protection, Asceticism instead includes a second layer of protection for your creatures, by being able to Regenerate your creatures at a cost of 1G per target. So while Asceticism protects fewer of your permanents, it protects your creatures on two different fronts. Its CMC of five includes a very firm two Green in its cost making it slightly less flexible, but still probably very easy to cast. It’s very hard to pin down in a three-color deck weather GG or {w/g}{w/g}{w/g} is statistically going to be easier to cast, but with the very heavy emphasis on Green in this deck, I’m inclined to thin GG would be easier, though I also think the difference is minimal enough to make the point largely irrelevant.

   What I know about this deck, from my past experiences with my own version, and from the write-up Viperion provided on his own build, this deck is meant to be an Aggro deck primarily, and its only real route to victory is attacking with creatures. In light of this fact, I am inclined to give the edge to Asceticism, for two reasons. First, Creatures are clearly the most important permanent type in the deck, and Doran is arguably the most crucial permanent of all. Second, the ability to Regenerate lets you attack more freely and aggressively, because you’ll be much less worried about losing your creatures to combat damage – something Privileged Position doesn’t help with.

   So, after considering all of this, I’m going to go with Asceticism for the purposes of this article, but I do allow that there might be a wide variety of mitigating factors that I would be unaware of that might tip the balance back into Privileged Position’s favor, in Viperion’s metagame. For example, targeted LD is a highly annoying thing to have to play against, and if someone in Viperion’s group plays a bunch of Stone Rains, then Asceticism loses some of its luster.



   As for the rest, Shield is obviously great, and Eland Umbra is surprisingly delicious-looking in this deck. I can’t see it being much good anywhere else, but in a Doran deck I can see it being pretty sweet. Dauntless Escort can protect Doran and the rest of your army from most board-sweepers. Finally, Sword of Light and Shadow plays a dual-role in protecting Doran from the two colors most likely to have targeted removal, and by adding some good recursion to the deck, giving us some long-game reach and consistency. In fact, since I brough it up, let’s talk about another issue I believe this deck might have: Long-game reach and the ability to keep applying pressure.

   The deck is sorely lacking for card-draw, which for me is a deal breaker, but not everyone is as obsessed with drawing cards as I am. Of course, card-draw isn’t the only means by which we can obtain the desired reach in the late game. Recursion is another great way to keep our deck running without running out of steam. After a lengthy internal debate, I decided that boosting the recursion capabilities worked better for this deck than adding a bunch of card-draw, for a number of reasons.

Teneb and Karador are already present in the list, as is Regrowth. I also already know I want to add Sun Titan, and with all the low-power, high-toughness critters in the deck, Reveillark also looks like a strong contender. Then, once I start to consider Sun Titan and Reveillark, Eternal Witness suddenly becomes vastly more desirable than Regrowth. While I still strongly recommend Decree of Pain, I think that a strong recursion package will do more for the deck’s late game, without sacrificing a bunch of slots to not-particularly-synergistic draw spells like Phyrexian Arena and Harmonize.

   Toughness-Enhancers are another important facet of a Doran deck. They help make Doran relevant and they can play unfair, because toughness-boosting effects are usually a good deal cheaper mana-wise than power-boosting effects. Yet, with Doran in play, they function as if they were power-boosters. So, with something like Slagwurm Armor, you are effectively getting a power-boost effect for the mana cost of a toughness-boost effect. Just how good this really is depends on the effect and how reliably you can keep Doran on the battlefield.

   One of the facets of making your deck less-reliant on its general is protecting that general, obviously. But a slightly less obvious approach to the problem is to eliminate or cut down on the number of cards that are actually or nearly unplayable unless you have your general. Slagwurm Armor is probably a bit mediocre without Doran’s help, but it’s not strictly unplayable. Solidarity, on the other hand, is a card that will be virtually worthless without Doran. If you’re having trouble keeping Doran on the board, you don’t want to be drawing too many of these conditional cards. Cards that are weaker but not useless without Doran are fine, but cards that are outright terrible without him should be avoided. Taking that into consideration, this is my recommended package:

Oathsworn Giant
Unstoppable Ash
Slagwurm Armor
Spidersilk Armor
Leyline of Vitality

   Unstoppable Ash is, in my opionion, a crucial piece of the Doran puzzle. He definitely fits the criteria above, in that he’s certainly not terrible without Doran’s help, but the synergy with our general is amazing. The “Champion a Treefolk” part might cause some hesitation, but I very much intend to make sure we have enough Treefolk to make this guy work. He’s definitely worth it. The other four cards were in Viperion’s list already, and I see no reason to cut them. Spidersilk Armor, in particular, seems vitally important as a way to keep Flyers from owning us in the face.

   Now we come to the miscellaneous stuff that fits well within the deck, but doesn’t belong to the categories above. There were a lot of things in this section that were neat and interesting, and I tried to preserve as much as I could, to keep the decklist fairly unique and interesting, but in the end, I cut most of these random cards in favor of more Treefolk or just more powerful stuff. Here’s what stayed in:

Ohran Viper
Tree of Redemption
Silklash Spider
Ancient Spider
Marble Titan

   I liked the walls, but Wall of Blossoms and Carven Caryatid are dreadful topdecks in the late game, while Tree of Redemption just seemed like the most odd and interesting of them, so I left it alone. Ohran Viper is well-known to be amazing either on his own, or in collusion with Doran. Silklash Spider and Ancient Spider were the cream of the crop as far as Spiders go. Both are acceptably playable with or without Doran, so I kept them too. Marble Titan was an amusingly tech-y choice that I highly appreciated so it too stayed in the list.

   And, last but not least, we come to the very heart of the deck. Treefolk. There were quite a few inclusions that were sub-par in my estimation, and quite a few noteworthy absences as well. I also wanted to supplement the actual Treefolk creatures with some cheaters that don’t say “treefolk” on their type-line but still function as though they did. Changelings are a great way to support a tribe that might need a little hole-filling. Goblins and Elves have enough support you probably wouldn’t want to need Changelings, but Treefolk probably have room for a few. I like the following package:

Actual Treefolk
Ridonkulous.
Indomitable Ancients
Black Poplar Shaman
Thorntooth Witch
Treefolk Harbinger
Bosk Banneret
Battlewand Oak
Cradle Guard
Dauntless Dourbark
Unstoppable Ash
Wickerbough Elder
Leaf-Crowned Elder
Magnigoth Treefolk
Seedguide Ash
Timber Protector
Deadwood Treefolk
Orchard Warden
Verdeloth the Ancient
Woodfall Primus
Doran, the Siege Tower
Sapling of Colfenor

   My additions were: Dauntless Dourbark, Leaf-Crowned Elder, Magnigoth Treefolk, Woodfall Primus, as well as the already-discussed Seedguide Ash and Unstoppable Ash. Woodfall Primus is pretty played-out, but he’s one of the best Treefolk in the format so it seems a shame to slight him a spot here where he actually fits the theme, as well as provides yet another removal option in a deck that was lacking in that area. Viperion mentioned Tooth and Nail as being a bit pricey, but still possibly within reach if I thought it was truly important. Well, honestly, I think T&N would be a fine addition, but if I were to shell out for something, I’d definitely pick Woodfall Primus up first. It’s a bit cheaper than Tooth anyway. If you’re going to spend some dough anyway, I think Woodfall Primus is by far the better choice here. The only downside is, with a CMC of eight, once you have Woodfall in the deck, Tooth and Nail starts to look more and more appealing (but it’s still not critically important).

Poser Treefolk
Changeling Hero
Chameleon Colossus
Changeling Titan
Adaptive Automaton

   I also considered Brass Herald, and indeed that is a fine card, but it just didn’t quite seem to fit the right spot on the mana curve. Even without the potentially great card-advantage, Adaptive Automaton seems to be a better cost-to-impact value. The two Changelings both have the ability to Champion any of your creatures, which is intended as a sort of additional cost, but frankly I see it as a benefit. They are great for protecting important guys from Wrath effects, if you sense one might be coming, and they can do cute things with ETBF creatures, too. Try putting Eternal Witness under one of them, you’ll see what I mean!

Putting It All Together

   I think I’ve rambled on more than was necessary, so let’s just cut to the chase and have a look at the decklist. All I will say is that this is as close as I could get it to be balanced between theme and power. I feel like this list should, theoretically, alleviate most of Viperions chief complaints while still retaining a very definite and clear theme as a Treefolk/Toughness-Matters deck, and Doran should still be highly relevant. It might not have reduced the reliance on Doran quite as much as I’d hoped. He still seems to be the centerpiece of the deck to a fault, but hopefully the deck will still have some game in it without the Siege Tower’s presence.

Creatures

Doran the Siege Tower
Indomitable Ancients
Black Poplar Shaman
Thorntooth Witch
Treefolk Harbinger
Bosk Banneret
Battlewand Oak
Cradle Guard
Dauntless Dourbark
Unstoppable Ash
Wickerbough Elder
Leaf-Crowned Elder
Magnigoth Treefolk
Seedguide Ash
Timber Protector
Deadwood Treefolk
Orchard Warden
Verdeloth the Ancient
Woodfall Primus
Sapling of Colfenor

Changeling Hero
Chameleon Colossus
Changeling Titan
Adaptive Automaton

Oathsworn Giant
Ohran Viper
Tree of Redemption
Silklash Spider
Ancient Spider
Duplicant

Reveillark
Sun Titan
Eternal Witness
Teneb, the Harvester
Karador, Ghost Chieftain

Marble Titan
Dauntless Escort

Spells

Slagwurm Armor
Spidersilk Armor
Leyline of Vitality

Eland Umbra
Shield of the Oversoul
Sword of Light and Shadow
Asceticism

Lignify 
Rootgrapple
Crib Swap
Beast Within
Path to Exile
Pernicious Deed
Wrath of God
Decree of Pain
Wave of Reckoning

Cultivate
Skyshroud Claim
Sol Ring
Darksteel Ingot
Mirari's Wake

Crime // Punishment
Door of Destinies
Green Sun's Zenith
Opal Acrolith
True Conviction
Reach of Branches

Lands

Forest x8
Plains x6
Swamp x3
Bojuka Bog
Eiganjo Castle
Tectonic Edge
Temple of the False God
High Market
Murmuring Bosk
Forbidding Watchtower
Stirring Wildwood
Godless Shrine
Overgrown Tomb
Temple Garden
Golgari Rot Farm
Orzhov Basilica
Selesnya Sanctuary
Sunpetal Grove
Fetid Heath
Twilight Mire
Wooded Bastion
Terramorphic Expanse

   - Enjoy!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Other People's Decks: Thraximundar, by Sinis

   It's not often that I see another list that captures my attention so thoroughly that I would seek to replicate and play it as one of my own. It's not that I'm such a great deck-builder that I always think I could do it better... I very frequently get input on my decks from all over the Net. It's just that, usually, I prefer to come up with the idea on my own, and then get input to help tune it. Occasionally, though, I do stumble across a decklist that makes me think "Forget what I was going to do, I'm doing that!"
   This might be one of those times. Over at General Damage Control, DJ Catchem has posted his new Thraximundar list as redesigned by contest-winner Imshan, aka Sinis. Those of you that have seen my own Thraxi deck might remember that it was a fairly generic Good-Stuff Control build with a lot of the most powerful spells in the Grixis colors, but it didn't really have much of a theme or any particular synergy. Oh sure, removal spells are quite synergistic with my opponents' creatures, but you know what I mean... It was powerful and fun to play, but pretty generic for the most part.
   I still happen to like my own take on Thraximundar quite well, but Sinis' design manages to push for more of a recognizable theme and some actual, honest-to-God synergy, while still keeping the list mostly in the realm of "Good-Stuff Control". Here, take a look:

General
Thraximundar

Creatures
Enchantments
Innocent Blood
Smallpox
Syphon Flesh
Barter In Blood
Wheel of Fortune
Chainer’s Edict
Consuming Vapors
Curse of the Cabal
Syphon Mind
Demonic Tutor
Damnation
Decree of Pain
Black Sun’s Zenith
Promise of Power
Praetor’s Grasp
Deep Analysis
Opportunity
Rise // Fall

Instants
Grim Harvest
Vampiric Tutor
Fact or Fiction
Blue Sun’s Zenith
Stroke of Genius
Grab the Reins
Geth’s Verdict
Diabolic Edict
Wild Ricochet

Lands
Scalding Tarn
Polluted Delta
Bloodstained Mire
Crumbling Necropolis
Badlands
Underground Sea
Volcanic Island
Watery Grave
Steam Vents
Blood Crypt
High Market
Miren, the Moaning Well
Volrath's Stronghold
Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Minamo, School at Water's Edge
Shinka, The Blood-soaked Keep
Temple of the False God
Academy Ruins
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Phyrexian Tower
Strip Mine
Terramorphic Expanse
Evolving Wilds
Command Tower
Reflecting Pool
Mystifying Maze
Vesuva
Tolaria West
Grixis Panorama
Bojuka Bog 
  
   You can read all about the deck itself here, with comments and explanations by both the designer and owner of the deck, so I won't bother regurgitating their analysis. I will simply say that the list impressed me enough that I wanted to save it here for future reference. Normally, I would just get a notebook and jot down a few of the most interesting bits of tech, and use my own list as the basis, but I really think this version is different enough that I needed to just save the whole list and use it as my starting point, then "season to taste".

   To any readers who happen to follow GDC as well as my blog, my apologies for the redundancy of this content - but I wanted to be absolutely sure I could find this list again later when I finally decided to rebuild Thraxi, and posting it here seemed the most elegant solution.

Enjoy.

Friday, November 25, 2011

I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghost!

So, I was at the inlaws for Turkey Day yesterday, watching Ghostbusters on VH1 when I realized I never got around to posting my 6th and final decklist in the last round of deck-building. I came up with a Ghost Council list that turned out to be pretty okay.

The initial design for the deck came about as a result of my love for contrast. In illustration, there's no sharper contrast than between black and white. That has always had an aesthetic appeal to me, for whatever reason. And ever since the Orzhov guild debuted in Guildpact, White/Black has been my favorite color pair in Magic.

What I love most about the W/B pairing, is that in Magic, White and Black are the most opposite of any two colors, while simultaneously being the most similar! This duality of one color being almost the negative image of the other, is fascinating. In the mechanical terms of the game, it simply means I get to have a lot of redundancy. Playing Wrath of God and Damnation in the same deck is as poetic as it is powerful. Having Grave Pact and Martyr's Bonds is also a huge boon.

Mechanically, the deck's primary themes are Life and Death - in other words, removal and reanimation. I'd hoped to make the deck excel at killing opposing creatures, while reanimating the best of them to serve the Church of Orzhova. Also, I tried to run as many W/B pairs like Wrath + Damnation as I could squeeze in. Decree of Justice + Decree of Pain, Elesh Norn and Sheoldred, Profane Command with Austere Command. Whenever there was a Black analog or just a part of a cycle, I tried to include both.

Of course, I made plenty of concessions to "good stuff", utility and other necessities, so the deck looks and plays much less... thematically, than most of my other recent builds, but I'm okay with that. The theme is there, it's just not as dominant. It was simply a necessary concession to make, if I wanted the deck to perform.

Oh, and because it plays so well with the Ghost and the Grave Pact effects, there's a little bit of a token theme as well. Without further preamble, here's the list:

Creatures

Ghost Council of Orzhova

Serra Ascendant
Weathered Wayfarer
Suture Priest
Mentor of the Meek
Academy Rector
Emeria Angel
Hero of the Bladehold
Karmic Guide
Sun Titan
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Reassembling Skeleton
Bloodghast
Fleshbag Marauder
Pawn of Ulamog
Falkenrath Noble
Graveborn Muse
Shriekmaw
Puppeteer Clique
Phyrexian Plagelord
Bloodgift Demon
Geth, Lord of the Vault
Grave Titan
Butcher of Malakir
Sheoldred, Whispering One

Divinity of Pride
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
Angel of Despair

Duplicant
Solemn Simulacrum

Spells

Swords to Plowshares
Path to Exile
Land Tax
Luminarch Ascension
Wrath of God
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Martyr's Bond
Martial Coup
Decree of Justice

Vampiric Tutor
Phyrexian Reclamation
Demonic Tutor
Phyrexian Arena
Barter in Blood
Damnation
Grave Pact
Unburial Rites
Beacon of Unrest
Sorin Markov
Decree of Pain
Profane Command

Mortify
Vindicate
Debtors' Knell

Sol Ring
Expedition Map
Orzhov Signet
Skullclamp
Sword of Light and Shadow
Sword of Fire and Ice
Deathrender
Scroll Rack
Mimic Vat


Lands

New Benalia
Leechridden Swamp
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Bojuka Bog
Cabal Coffers
Phyrexian Tower
Volrath's Stronghold
Temple of the False God
High Market
Kor Haven
Isolated Chapel
Marsh Flats
Godless Shrine
Orzhov Basilica
Fetid Heath
Caves of Koilos
Tainted Field
Command Tower
Terramorphic Expanse
Plains x9
Swamp x9

There really isn't a whole lot to say here. Most of the choices should be self-explanatory.

I will say that Falkenrath Noble and Suture Priest were mostly just attempts to metagame slightlly against a variety of token strategies in my group. I have at least one Ghave deck and a Rhys the Redeemed deck that I square of against quite often. Since both decks push the token strategy way, WAY harder than this deck does, I needed something to give me a bit of an edge. I'm also looking for room for a Massacre Wurm.

The rest of the deck is pretty much dedicated to killing things, reanimating things, making lots of little things, or just drawing cards to keep me from losing steam. I was losing to grindy control decks that would eventually but inevitably out-card-advantage me, so I upped the draw to pretty much the maximum for these colors.

I've got the classic Land Tax + Scroll Rack engine, the modern classic Skullclamp + Bloodghast (or Reassembling Skeleton) engine, and the all-stars Phyrexian Arena, Graveborn Muse, Bloodgift Demon and my new favorite: Mentor of the Meek. The only things I didn't find room for were Promise of Power and Mind's Eye.

Other forms of card advantage include: Mimic Vat, Geth Lord of the Vault, and the pair of Planeswalkers. I've already won a game thanks to Sorin Markov's giving me some reach when I was in topdeck mode. In fact Sorin has actually been far better in t his deck than any other so far, for me. In other decks he would almost always come down, drop an opponent to 10, then die. Not bad, really, but in this deck I've actually managed to make his +2 work to great effect, and I've actually had his loyalty up to 10+ a time or two!

One of my favorite aspects of Ghost Council as a General is that I pretty much only ever have to cast him once per game. Maybe twice. But that fucker is one hard-to-kill sonofabitch!

Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thursday, November 17, 2011

From Rhys to Jenara: CommanderCast Crossover Special!

(Today's article is part of the CommanderCast crossover month, and is brought to you by 'Line in the Sand' columnist Brionne, aka Fork of Doom. Enjoy!)

It's Crossover Month at CommanderCast. Luckily my crossover partner already had an article in mind. One of his friends wants some suggestions for his current deck. The whole experience has been especially enjoyable for me, because I got the opportunity to write something a little different from my normal material. I'm the “community issues” girl, so deck doctoring is something I only get to do in my local community.

The deck in question is Rhys the Redeemed tokens. The deck’s pilot wants to try adding a third color. He's tried Ghave, and now wants to explore the possibility of adding either red or blue. I'm much more familiar with blue than red, so I opted for trying Jenara, Asura of War. My normal tactics of helping people with a deck won't work, because I've never met the player in question. I know that he has a bit of a budget (no Mana Drain here), and that he wants to keep the token theme. With that bit of guidance in mind, I'm going to do my best to lay out some suggestions for some Bant token beatdown.

I chose Jenara to be the general because, let's be honest, none of the Bant generals really contribute to a token theme. Jenara is a great beater, she's cheap, and plays well with Doubling Season, so she seems like the best choice. The addition of blue gives this deck one highly important thing—draw power. G/W tokens are great, but adding blue helps keep your hand stocked, which in turn helps keep pressure on the board. No more running out of fuel or getting blown out by a wrath.

This is the current decklist:

Creatures
Rhys the Redeemed

Soul Warden
Mentor of the Meek
Twilight Drover
Geist-Honored Monk
Sun Titan

Essence Warden
Elder of Laurels
Sporeback Troll
Prized Unicorn
Skullmulcher
Ant Queen
Acidic Slime
Seedborn Muse
Hornet Queen
Woodfall Primus

Selesnaya Guildmage
Juniper Order Ranger
Phytohydra
Phantom Nishoba
Chorus of the Conclave

Adaptive Automaton

Spells
Elspeth, Knight Errant
Garruk Wildspeaker

Sensei's Divining Top
Minion Reflector
Lightning Greaves
Whispersilk Cloak
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sol Ring
Everflowing Chalice

Tangible Virtue
Sacred Mesa
Words of Wilding
Beastmaster Ascension
Raking Canopy
Parallel Lives
Defense of the Heart
Doubling Season
Asceticism
Perilous Forays
Mana Reflection

Armadillo Cloak
Glare of Subdual
Priviledged Position
Pollenbright Wings

Hour of Reckoning
Regrowth
Gaea's Blessing
Nature's Spiral
Cultivate
Reap and Sow
Bramblecrush
Harmonize
Overrun
Gelatinous Genesis

Path to Exile
Swords to Plowshares
Disenchant
Worldly Tutor
Strength in Numbers
Naturalize
Harrow
Chord of Calling
Eladamri's Call

Lands
Command Tower
Elfhame Palace
Sunpetal Grove
Stirring Wildwood
Saltcrusted Steppe
Temple Garden
Selesnaya Sanctuary
Razorverge Thicket
Vesuva
Oran-Reif, the Vastwood
Reliquary Tower
Plains x8
Forest x16

The Subtractive Method

In order to make room for a third color, some cuts will have to be made. Here's what I felt were the weakest cards in the deck:

Geist-Honored Monk: She does make tokens, and can get huge, but has no evasion.

Elder of Laurels: He's amazing when you have a board full of tokens, but I'd rather add another token producer.

Sporeback Troll: He works well with Jenara and Doubling Season, but is simply too much of a mana investment for such a small effect.

Skullmulcher: When you're in G/W, having any drawpower is good. The addition of blue just opens up too many better options.

Phantom Nishoba: Phantom Nishoba is awesome, but he has no synergy with the deck, other than Doubling Season. This deck values more smaller bodies over one big one.

Adaptive Automation: There are many tokens that share the same creature type, but an unconditional anthem would be much better.

Lightning Greaves: Yes, boots are always good with Jenara. However, the deck needs to worry more about wraths than spot removal.

Whispersilk Cloak, Sword of Feast and Famine: Once again, great with Jenara. This deck just needs a way to make all its creatures bigger more than it needs to buff its general.

Everflowing Chalice: With the green-based ramp, I feel like mana rocks that aren't Sol Ring are unnecessary.

Tangible Virtue: Like Adaptation Automation, this would be better as an anthem effect for all creatures.

Sacred Mesa: This can make a lot of tokens, but only in a late-game situation with tons of excess mana available. It's a dead draw early game.

Words of Wilding: Although blue will give this deck more draw power, I don't like the idea of trading cards for 2/2 bears.

Raking Canopy: Jenara can handle just about anything that flies.

Armadillo Cloak: It's awesome, but also comes with the downside of all auras.

Harmonize: When the deck was G/W this was amazing, but the addition of blue just gives better draw power.

Strength in Numbers: It's only a blow-out if you have a board full of creatures.

The Additive Method

With the cuts out of the way, it's time to make some additions. They fall into three categories: token production/buffing, draw power, and miscellaneous utility.

Token Producers/Buffing

Kamahl, Fist of Krosa: Overrun on a body. Also wrath insurance. Nobody wants to lose lands.

Gaea's Anthem: Replaces Tangible Virtue, since it makes all creatures bigger.

Decree of Justice, Leafdrake Roost, Rite of Replication, Meloku the Clouded Mirror, Mirror-Sigil Sargent, Rhys the Redeemed, Sharding Sphinx, Notorius Throng: All of these are great token producers, and this decks needs all the dudes it can get. Notorius Throng does bother me from a flavor standpoint (the tokens are black), but more than doubling your amount of dudes in one turn seems great.

Draw Power

Shared Discovery: There is no way that this won't be Ancestral Recall in this deck.

Coastal Piracy: Assuming you don't go overboard drawing cards, this is a great way to refill you hand using the deck's most abundant resource.

Honden of Seeing Winds: A pet card of mine. Having an Arena that doesn't cost you a life every turn is great, as is a one-time mana investment to draw what can be a good amount of cards.

Opportunity: This would be Blue Sun's Zenith, but sometimes even the most expensive three color mana bases have a hard time producing UUU. I didn't want to put unnecessary strain on a budget mana base.

Miscellaneous Utility

Supply//Demand: One half is a tutor, and the other half makes tokens.

Bant Charm: Mostly to take care of those pesky generals.

Wargate: I'm not much one for auto-includes, but Wargate is such great utility that I can't ever bring myself to pass up putting it in a deck.

As for the mana base, adding a few U/W and U/G duals, along with a Seaside Citadel and a Treva's Ruins would probably do the trick.

 More Power!!

I thought about adding a countermagic suite, but I know that a lot of people dislike countermagic. If that isn't the case with deck, then a few counterspells (Hinder, Counterspell, and Spell Crumple come to mind) would be great, to keep from being blown out by a wrath. Some other cards I thought about but couldn't find room for are:

Mirari's Wake
Triumph of the Hordes
Centaur Glade
Ajani Goldmane
Aura Mutation
Caller of the Claw
Fresh Meat
One Dozen Eyes
Parallel Evolution
Rampaging Baloths
Sprout Swarm
White Sun's Zenith
Blue Sun's Zenith/Stroke of Genius

That's my take on making this Rhys deck into Jenara. It was really fun looking for all the token-related cards, as I've never tried making a token deck. I tried to make sure all my cards choices were budget and from newer sets. For a look at the red draft of this deck, head over to CommanderCast to see DarkThaumaturge's take on Rith the Awakener.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Don't F*** with The Mimeoplasm!

First of all, let me preface this post by stating for the record that I do still prefer Damia, Sage of Stone for this color scheme. Unfortunately, so does everyone else in my group. I was a little sad to see the Mimeoplasm getting no love from my playgroup, not to mention it was becoming difficult to play my own Damia deck due to her increased popularity amongst the other members of my group. But, just because I like Damia more, that doesn’t mean I don’t think The Mimeoplasm is straight up gangsta. It’s really just that Damia says “draw lots of cards” in her text box, which always gets me. I’m a sucker for card-drawing engines.

Anyway, disclaimer aside, I figured it was time for me to unleash the Legendary Ooze on my group so they could see what the other GUB Legend is capable of.

As the players in my group have already seen me playing GUB with Damia, and even Vorosh before her, I really wanted to find a way to make this deck different from its predecessors. There was simply no getting around running some of the staples from those past builds, like the Genesis + Evoke Creatures engine, Rite of Replication (duh!) and a handful of other typical GUB Good-Stuff spells.

One of the first things I hit upon when trying to establish the decks identity was the “Graveyard Matters” aspect of The Mimeoplasm. Obviously my chosen General likes to have things in various graveyards to eat.  This leads to some pretty easy logical choices – Buried Alive and Life’s Finale, for example. Graveyards tend to fill up with creatures over a long EDH game, but helping the cause along where possible is not a bad idea.

Another card that likes graveyards to be full is Necrotic Ooze. Once I started thinking about cards like Life’s Finale in conjunction with Necrotic Ooze, I knew exactly where I wanted the deck to go. While graveyard abuse is nothing new or groundbreaking, I’ve never really made use of Necrotic Ooze before, so now was my perfect chance.

Initially, I also wanted to go “all creatures” with the deck, to further distinguish it from my past GUB decks, but that didn’t really pan out. For one thing, not being able to play Rite of Replication was a huge deal breaker, but I also realized there were some cards that this deck just needed to play. I settled on running a maximum of 20 non-creature spells, allowing room for up to 42 Creatures in the deck – the most I’ve ever played in an EDH deck! My hope is that such a creature-saturated deck will still feel different enough that it will have its own identity.

It also helps that this deck does make quite a few card-choices that I wouldn’t have made with any other GUB build – for example, I chose to run Arcanis, the Omnipotent over Consecrated Sphinx. HUH?! That’s right. Simply put, Arcanis plays well with Necrotic Ooze, and Expiriment Kraj, while the Sphinx does not.

There are, of course, plenty of creatures in the deck that do not have an activated ability for the Oozes to copy, but I believe there are around 20 that do. Where possible, I favored activated abilities over static or triggered ones (such as with the Sphinx vs Arcanis conundrum). But I didn’t want the deck to rely entirely on having Necrotic Ooze in play with a full graveyard, so I built the deck to function along different axes depending on how my opponents react to my various strategies.

The deck will clearly have a weakness to graveyard hate, so I did my best to shore up that weakness as best I could. I think it will still have game even with up to 40 to 50 percent of the deck exiled, but it all depends on WHAT get’s nuked, of course… but enough preamble, let’s see the deck!
Creatures

The Mimeoplasm

Dreamscape Artist
Mulldrifter
Phyrexian Metamorph
Morphling
Arcanis the Omnipotent

Death's Shadow
Disciple of Griselbrand
Fleshbag Marauder
Dimir House Guard
Necrotic Ooze
Hell's Caretaker
Shriekmaw
Corpse Connoisseur
Puppeteer Clique
Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Vengeful Pharaoh
Geth, Lord of the Vault
Avatar of Woe
Spirit of the Night

Sakura-Tribe Elder
Riftsweeper
Fauna Shaman
Fertilid
Wood Elves
Eternal Witness
Timbermare
Chameleon Colossus
Seedborn Muse
Putrefax
Acidic Slime
Silklash Spider
Primeval Titan
Thornling

Shadowmage Infiltrator
Cold-Eyed Selkie
Expiriment Kraj
Wrexial, the Risen Deep
Sisters of Stone Death

Mindless Automaton
Solemn Simulacrum
Duplicant

Spells

Intuition
Rite of Replication
Bribery

Diabolic Intent
Buried Alive
Living Death
Life's Finale

Beast Within
Birthing Pod
Greater Good
Asceticism
Creeping Rennaissance

Sol Ring
Coalition Relic
Mimic Vat
Grimoire of the Dead
Lightning Greaves
Sword of Vengeance
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Light and Shadow

Lands

Breeding Pool
Overgrown Tomb
Watery Grave
Evolving Wilds
Misty Rainforest
Verdant Catacombs
Flooded Grove
Sunken Ruins
Twilight Mire
Dimir Acqueduct
Simic Growth Chamber
Golgari Rot Farm
Drowned Catacomb
Hinterland Harbor
Woodland Cemetary
Llanowar Wastes
Underground River
Yavimaya Coast
Vesuva
Hall of the Bandit Lord
Minamo, School at Water's Edge
Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Volrath's Stronghold
Command Tower
Reflecting Pool
Temple of the False God
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Reliquary Tower
Island x3
Swamp x3
Forest x4

Edited 11/14/01:
- Genesis
- Damnation
- High Market
+ Sword of Feast and Famine
+ Sword of Light and Shadow
+ Hall of the Bandit Lord


Explanation: The cuts were due to lack of cards, and I had to prioritize. For instance, I had three decks calling for Damnation, but only two copies of the card. Someone had to give up their Damnation for something else. Same story with Genesis; that was an easy swap, I just put in Sword of Light and Shadow as it fulfills much the same role. Plus after I got all my decks built I realized I had 75% of my Swords of Stuff and Junk sitting there not in decks, and I couldn't have that!

Hall of the Bandit Lord makes a good fit for the deck, I feel, because it can enable a Haste-y Mimeoplasm one-shot kill. It was also really good with Wrexial, and he's in this deck as well.
The non-Creature selection was tough. I had about 30 cards that I really, REALLY wanted to include, but I was firmly committed to keeping the non-creature count as low as possible, and it turned out 20 was the bottom limit. I’d have been happier with 15, but that meant leaving out some pretty crucial cards. Of course, this led to some pretty fierce competition for slots in the non-creature category, and made for some agonizingly tough decisions on my part as to what to leave out. I’m still iffy on a couple items, but for the most part I think the strength of my choices will speak for themselves. Nonetheless, I will discuss them briefly.

First, the graveyard fuel: Intuition, Buried Alive, Life’s Finale and Greater Good were all primarily chosen for their ability to fill graveyards quickly. Other cards that have different primary functions, but have a secondary effect of adding to the graveyards include: Grimoire of the Dead, Birthing Pod, Diabolic Intent, and of course Damnation. You can see where I chose cards that had a “drawback” or additional “cost” of discarding or sacrificing something, but the deck’s core strategy can easily turn those costs and drawbacks into a benefit, rather than a hindrance.

Living Death is simply a card that thrives in a deck like this, while Rite of Replication, Bribery and Asceticism are more generic “good-stuff” inclusions. Asceticism is one of the few cards I’m not 100% sure deserves it’s slot, but I think it deserves the chance to prove itself. There’s a list of extremely powerful stuff waiting in the wings if it doesn’t perform. It’s such a strong card against targeted removal and some mass removal that I think it’s going to work out in the end.

Sword of Vengeance is an odd pick over the various “protection” Swords, but Haste and Trample are two of the best keywords to enable one-hit kills with the Mimeoplasm, so along with the Power boost, Sword of Vengeance actually seems like a better choice. I definitely would love to have a couple of the pro-Swords in there as well, but for now this one gets the nod.

Creeping Renaissance was a card I was rather cool on when I did my Innistrad set review, and I wouldn’t say my opinion has changed since then. It’s just that with such a high creature count, Creeping Renaissance naming “creature” is too awesome-sounding to pass up. If anything it might prove to be “win-more” and I’ll find myself not needing to cast it, but for now I’d rather have it and not need it, than the other way around.

Mimic Vat should be a no-brainer. It’s already one of the best EDH cards in the Scars block, and should basically be in every deck ever. Here it actually manages to be right in line with the deck’s strategies.

Finally, we have two of the best possible mana-rocks in the game: Sol Ring and Coalition Relic. I’d be happy to include a Darksteel Ingot as well, but I can’t find room right now. Maybe later.

Two cards I really want to find room for are Twilight’s Call and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I have a feeling Creeping Renaissance might lose its slot to Twilight’s Call, while I have no idea what could come out for Jace.  

As for the creature base, well… roughly half were chosen for having a cool activated ability that Necrotic Ooze or Kraj might want to copy, the other half are either finishers or utility, chosen for being awesome targets for The Mimeoplasm – after all I needed to make him relevant too!

The best cards are those that fulfill two or more roles. For instance, Fauna Shaman plays three critical roles: She helps fill my graveyard with creatures for my oozes to copy, she finds Necrotic Ooze itself, and she has an ability that the Ooze can copy, once she’s dead! She’s a perfect card to tie all my various themes and strategies together. I came very close to including Green Sun’s Zenith as one more way of finding Fauna Shaman, but I think the deck will prove reliable enough without it.

Wrexial made the cut because I’m so light on Instants and Sorceries, and Wrexial is a way for me to cheat on my answer count by using my opponents’ spent spells. I considered Memory Plunder as well, but it’s not a creature, so that was out.

In the end, I wound up cutting quite a few cards that seemed cool on their own, but I realized that they enabled various infinite combos. Bloom Tender, for example, led to an infinite mana combo via Necrotic Ooze. If I had the Ooze in play, with Morphling and Bloom Tender in the graveyard, and any other permantent that was Green and/or Blue, I had infinite mana. I don’t know what I’d do with all that mana, but I was uncomfortable with having any sort of infinite combo in the deck, so Bloom Tender got cut.

I don’t think there’s much else that would require explanation, so that’s a wrap for this one. One more deck to post and my deckbuilding project will be complete.

Enjoy!