---

First off I want to apologize for not writing anything last week -- I've been out of town for a funeral and haven't had much time to write as a result. I'm back though and am going to continue today by discussing one of the top archetypes in Rise limited: G/x ramp. First off, however, I'd like to update my thoughts on the three archetypes that I've already written about: U/W Levelers, G/W Gnarlid, and W/x Hartebeest Control.

 

For some reason, I completely skipped over colorless cards when discussing the forks and cornerstones of these archetypes. Luckily, the colorless cards aren't all that relevant to these particular archetypes with one major exception that I will get to shortly. As a generally aggressive archetype, U/W levelers is less likely to splash and less likely to want to run expensive Eldrazi than almost any other archetype in the format. Thus the colorless cards don't really help there. I mean, you can run an Ulamog's Crusher in your leveler deck but you usually hope to not do that. The same is fairly true of the G/W Gnarlid deck, although that deck is more likely to splash for sweet aura cards like Narcolepsy, Lust for War, and Drake Umbra. As such, Prophetic Prism can be important to that deck. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a cornerstone, but if you really want to splash then you should treat it like one, and an important one at that if you lack fixing in pack 3. Similarly, the Crusher can go reasonably well in the Gnarlid deck, especially if you take some more generic green fork cards like Overgrown Battlement and Kozilek's Predator early and still end up playing them. Don't go crazy with the Eldrazi but don't automatically discount them either.

 

The really important card to discuss is a rare:

 

 

This card is one of the biggest bomb auras ever printed. I initially underrated this card when the set came out because auras are usually pretty weak, and the idea of paying 8 mana only to get two for one'ed made my stomach turn. That said, this card in this format is an exception. I think that you can play Eldrazi Conscription in any archetype in this format, but there are a few archetypes that it really shines in. Of those archetypes, the most important is the Hartebeest control deck. Honestly, it was criminal of me to not mention this in my last article as Eldrazi Conscription is probably the number one reason to draft that deck. I'm not going to lie to you -- it's not a consistent Tier 1 deck like G/x ramp in this format. But if you get a conscription it becomes really, really hard to beat. In fact, this situation is one of the few times where I would advocate forcing in this format. Because the Hartebeest deck is Tier 2 and all the cards that make you really want to play it are uncommon or rare, it's not something that will be drafted at every table. As such, it's a lot safer to force it than other decks IF and only if you open the key cards early. So even though Eldrazi Conscription is the ultimate fork in some ways because you can play it in any deck and it will range from good to redonkulus, it's also the ultimate cornerstone because it is so much better in the Hartebeest deck than any other deck that you really just want to play that if you pop a conscription.

 

Some of the reasons why this is the case are obvious but others are more subtle. The obvious ones are that Hartebeest fetches up conscription, thus dramatically increasing the odds that you will be able to play your bomb, and that your deck is on a control plan, thus making it more likely that you will see 8 mana. The more subtle reasons are pretty compelling too, though. First of all, lets review the possible ways a game can unfold in which you cast Eldrazi Conscription:

 

1. You are so far behind at this point that you die anyway (we can't really prevent this from happening other than by drafting and playing better, so it's not really worth considering here).

2. You swing and win the game immediately, or you swing twice and win.

3. You swing and gain a large advantage, but your opponent has a sorcery speed answer next turn and you have to find another way to seal the deal (which often isn't difficult). Noteworthy sorcery speed answers include Corpsehatch, Guard Duty, Narcolepsy, and a threaten effect + a sac outlet (although if they threaten your conscripted guy you may be screwed even if they can't sac it!)

4. Your opponent has one of a few instant speed answers and you get blown out. Those answers are: Heat Ray, Staggershock (not likely), Vendetta, Regress, Spawning Breath (really not likely!), and Induce Despair.

5. Your opponent has sided in enchantment removal and busts your aura, thus leaving you basically where you were before. You might get two for one'ed in combat by this, but if you do you annihilated them first which leaves you closer to parity.

 

I'd say the most common scenario is 2. In an umbra based deck it's really easy to bait out answers by offering your opponent a two for one with a weaker aura, and honestly that two for one isn't likely going to matter when you brawl with your +10/+10 trampling eldrazi. You will get blown out sometimes, but the Hartebeest deck provides you with tools for avoiding this outcome more than any other deck. First of all, you will likely have access to a totem aura to protect your conscription target. If you have a totem armor on, then Regress and Induce Despair are your only real fears. Since you likely have big butts already (Hartebeest is 2/5, for example) then they might not even be able to Induce you, especially if you stick a big umbra on it first. I know it sounds loose, but if you know your opponent has multiple copies of induce you might even consider siding in Eland Umbra to protect your conscription target. Or you can just bait it out before.

 

I've faced the following scenario multiple times in draft and it's made me want to bash my head into the wall every time:

 

1. My opponent plays Hartebeest and fetches Eldrazi Conscription. I peer at the Vendetta in my hand, licking my chops.

2. My opponent untaps and plays a Hyena Umbra on one of his creatures. I can now either kill that and let him resolve conscription on something else, or let it resolve knowing that he can follow up with conscription on the same creature and I won't be able to stop him unless I draw another answer.

3. I die a horrible death.

 

OR, even worse:

 

1. Opponent fetches something like Drake Umbra.

2. I am forced to burn my removal on the Drake Umbra target.

3. I lose to the conscription.

 

The hartebeest deck is also uniquely equipped to deal with the sorcery speed answers. The actual removal spells get foiled by totem armor just the same, and you are much more likely to have an answer to the enchantment based removal because you draft enchantment kill spells a little more aggressively  (and are thus likely to have sideboard answers to Narcolepsy and Guard Duty). You also have the potential to get cute by siding in Crab Umbra against Narcolepsy. You are still pretty cold to Regress, but there isn't much you can do about that regardless of what archetype you are playing. And hey, if they regress your Hartebeest it isn't the worst thing ever.

 

There is also a colored cornerstone card for the Hartebeest deck that I left out:

 

 

The boar gets a lot of action in the Kiln Fiend archetypes but hasn't been given his due in this deck. First of all, its a defensive card which works well with your control strategy and especially well if you get some copies of Lust for War, which synergize with the boar very well. He blocks their guy, and the lust clears they way for him to attack back. If you can connect with boar once it's almost impossible to lose the race if you have a lust on them. The other reason why boar works well in this archetype is that he's great with totem auras. Hyena Umbra makes him very difficult to block, and Drake Umbra is ... well ... let's just say that it demands an immediate answer.

 

OK! Now that we've got that out of the way, lets talk about Green.

 

 

 G/x Ramp

 

It would be irresponsible of me to write this article without mentioning Ben Stark's excellent article on the subject which can be found here. Stark has consistently been one of this archetype's major proponents since early on in the format, so it would be foolish of me to not seriously consider what he has to say. I think he has the archetype pretty well figured out, but there are a few points that he makes which really merit quite a bit more discussion than he gives them. First of all, I want to pull one a comment he made and really focus in on it:

"There aren’t really any hidden gems for this deck, as most of the cards that are good for you fit into your main plans of “stay alive” and “develop your mana to play busted late game cards." -- Ben Stark

Basically what Stark is getting at here is that this archetype doesn't really have many cornerstones. It's cornerstones are good enough in enough other archetypes to be forks. On the one hand, this makes the archetype really good because it means you can try to draft this deck without taking any "bad" cards that will be wasted picks if you have to shift into a different archetype. However, it also means that there isn't much you want for this deck that will be coming super late as long as the archetype isn't underdrafted. What that means is that you have to decide to go in on this deck or not in the middle of the first pack rather than toward the end. If you think that Green is open enough to draft this deck, you should know that by mid pack. If it is, go for it. If it's not, then you will have to branch out into something else quickly.

 

Before we get any further into discussing the archetype, I want to clear up something about some of the language that Stark uses. He talks about archetypes as being either Tier 1 or Tier 2. I even picked this idea up a bit earlier in the article when talking about the Hartebeest deck. That said, we must not confuse these terms with what they mean in a constructed context. In constructed, a Tier 1 deck is a deck that has game against a wide portion of the field and has enough power in a vacuum to likely contend with whatever the next big deck is. Jund is an excellent example of a Tier 1 deck -- it matches up pretty well against almost anything and tends to stay competitive as the metagame shifts. Tier 2 decks, on the other hand, are more narrow. They tend to have a few very good matchups and a few very bad matchups. As such, they are more narrowly applicable to a metagame. They are also less likely to survive the introduction of new decks to the format. Tier 2 can also describe decks that are outclassed by Tier 1 decks -- like if a deck has generally good matchups but there is another deck out there that has even better matchups against all the same decks, then the first deck will be relegated to Tier 2 status even though it might be Tier 1 if the second deck didn't exist.

In draft, tiers mean something very different because of the scarcity factor. In constructed, the same cards are available to everyone all the time (aside from budget concerns, obviously). In draft, however, you are beholden both to what cards the packs contain and to what your neighbors take. Thus the Tier system in limited is more of a statement about probability than it is about what the best thing to draft is. When someone makes comments about tiers in limited, they are assuming something about the metagame. Either they are assuming a neutral metagame (a fictional metagame in which nobody has any preferences going into the draft) or they are assuming some particular metagame where players on the whole tend to prefer certain colors or archetypes over others. Unfortunately, Stark didn't really get into what his assumptions about the metagame were in his article. Regardless, we can make an assumption about what he means: I think what Stark means to say when he calls an archetype Tier 1 is that it is relatively likely that you will be able to draft a successful deck with this archetype at a given draft table. As such, a Tier 2 archetype is one that is a bit less likely to result in a successful deck at a given draft table. The reasons for this probability are many. For one, the writer may be making assumptions about how over/under drafted certain colors and archetypes are. If an archetype is underdrafted, then it'll be much easier to get a good deck of that archetype. Another factor is the average quality of a deck of a given archetype. Some archetypes will produce a solid deck even if the draft goes relatively poorly while others need everything to fall into place to become awesome. So if a deck's average performance is higher it's more likely that you'll get a successful deck with that archetype all other factors being equal. A final factor is the deck's reliance on certain cards and the rarity of those cards. If an archetype is completely beholden to one or two particular cards (like Dampen Thought back in Kamigawa block), then the likelihood of drafting that archetype successfully is a lot lower especially of those cards are uncommon, rare, or mythic. On the other hand, if an archetype is relatively flexible in what cards it needs and those cards tend to be common, then it's pretty easy to draft that archetype because it's likely the cards you need will be present.

 

So the moral of this story is that in constructed, Tier 1/Tier 2 is code for how good a deck is. In limited, Tier 1/Tier 2 is a much more complicated statement which basically boils down to how likely it is that this choice will be good at a given table. Consider Alara block. There were some really ridiculous rares in that block, such as Martial Coup and Cruel Ultimatum. It's pretty common to hear people talking about "drafting to their rares" in that format, which basically means that when you open a busted rare, you just draft your whole deck around it because it's so powerful. So when you open Cruel Ultimatum you take it and then draft the Cruel Ultimatum archetype. When this deck came together it was absolutely awesome and very likely to be the best deck at the table. But you could never call it Tier 1 because the likelihood of getting a Cruel is so low. That deck would only come along once in a great while, so it was Tier 2. The same is true of the Hartebeest Conscription deck I discussed above. It's Tier 2 because the cards for it aren't going to be available in every draft, not because the deck isn't "good."

 

Back to G/x Ramp -- I think that Stark is absolutely right that this deck is Tier 1 simply because it can get by completely on commons and highly redundant commons at that. It really all boils down to one simple equation:

Ramp + Removal + Boom Boom = Win.

 

Stark basically breaks down the cards in this archetype into three categories (the ones I mentioned above). You use ramp spells like Ondu Giant, Growth Spasm, Overgrown Battlement, Joraga Treespeaker, and Kozilek's Predator to accelerate your mana and cast big finishers like Ulamog's Crusher, Artisan of Kozilek, Gigantomancer, and Gelatinous Genesis. You then win the game with said finishers. The removal part of the equation serves two purposes. First of all, it helps buy you time against an aggressive opponent. Secondly, it eliminates any threats that might be able to stop your finisher. Thus really there are two very different categories of removal -- the removal that buys you time and the removal that protects your finisher.

 

Removal that buys you time:

Removal that protects your finisher:

 

Note that most of the second category of removal spells also fill in for the first, particularly Regress. Induce Despair is conditional on having a large creature in your hand to power it up, obviously. And I know Daggerback Basilisk isn't really removal but it basically fills that role.

The interesting thing is that removal used to buy time is basically filling the same roll as ramp does. It gets the game to the point where you can cast a finisher into an advantageous board. Ramp does it by getting the finisher out faster, removal does it by keeping the board stable for longer. The thing is that the ramp spells tend to be more efficient at what they do because they mostly provide card advantage. Joraga Treespeaker, for example, provides a kind of card advantage in that he takes the place of two lands. Ondu Giant gives you a land and a blocker. Of the first category of removal spells, only Staggershock provides card advantage unless your opponent plays into a two-for-one, and even then it only provides card advantage under certain circumstances. So, generally speaking, when you are playing this archetype you should be taking ramp spells over the first category of removal spell unless you already have plenty of ramp and have very little removal. Also, keep in mind that Basilisk and Swipe are both pretty bad because they only deal with creatures that you can block, and those creatures don't tend to be as problematic anyway.

The second category of removal spells come at more of a premium because they pull double duty for you. They deal with the opponent's critical threats and ensure that your opponent can't use creatures to resist your finishers. I do want to point out though that both Vendetta and Corpsehatch don't kill Black creatures, which has lost me plenty of games. You want some diversity in your removal spells so that you don't end up losing to a heavily Black player.

Another thing to consider when selecting your finishers is resiliency. The reason why cards like Pelakka Wurm, Gelatinous Genesis, Gigantomancer, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre are so good in this archetype is that they are either especially hard to get rid of or provide value even if they die. The Eldrazi and the Wurm fall into the value category (although they are no easy feat to kill either!), while genesis and Gigantomancer are both tough to deal with because you either have to remove multiple creatures in the case of genesis or remove the Gigantomancer entirely -- on board removal will not suffice. The same is true of Wildheart Invoker, which can be just as dangerous a finisher although it's a bit easier to kill.

So given all this information it's pretty clear why the deck is base Green and can pick a number of secondary colors, typically Black or Red. Furthermore, you will often want to splash one or two other colors, with Blue being a common splash color. I agree with Stark that the best secondary color is likely Black simply because the Black removal is better in the deck than the Red removal is. That said, it is really close with Red also providing some solid ramp with Emrakul's Hatcher, which I like better than Dread Drone. If you splash more than one color you probably will want to consider running Prophetic Prism unless you have a ton of other fixers.

That leaves one important question: where does this deck run into trouble? I think there are basically three common scenarios. The first and most obvious is when you draw your cards in the wrong proportions. This archetype is vulnerable to the same basic flaw that all ramp decks are vulnerable too: when you run a lot of ramp, the likelihood of getting flooded is high. If you don't draw your finishers or if your opponent can deal with the ones that you do draw you can often be stuck drawing piles of unneeded land while your opponent slowly builds a board to overwhelm you. Other times you will draw too many finishers but not enough ramp and removal and your opponent gets you before you can do anything.

The second scenario involves your opponent playing something that you can't deal with. This most often comes up against other ramp decks but can also occur with particularly threatening cards in other archetypes such as a really well supported Bloodthrone Vampire, a huge Aura Gnarlid, or a couple of nasty levelers. More rarely this happens when your opponent has a more midrange bomb rare like Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, Sphinx of Magosi, or Conquering Manticore. Even a non-ramp deck can sometimes get these cards out before you get your finishers in play. In these situations you usually either have the appropriate removal spell or you lose. It's often going to come down to luck because you will rarely have a huge surplus of the good removal.

A final scenario comes up when you draft an unfocused deck that gets confused between this archetype and a token based archetype. This is a really easy mistake to make, but it's also luckily under your control. Tokens and ramp seem to go well together because they share so many desired cards. After all, the tokens can be used to ramp your mana! The problem is that the finishers for the two archetypes have tremendous anti-synergy. Casting huge creatures requires you to sac your tokens. Broodwarden, Lavafume Invoker, etc. want you to keep your tokens in play. You can't do both. So if you try to hybridize this deck you are going to end up with really awkward draws where you draw a Lavafume Invoker and an Ulamog's Crusher and one of the two is basically going to do nothing. It's OK to wait a little while to decide what archetype you are drafting but once you do decide you should really stick to it if you can. Some hybridization is going to happen, but limit it whenever you can.

So now that we've been through all of that, I'll leave you with my list of Forks that can lead into this archetype:

 

 

I know it's a long list, and some of these cards aren't really that great in the deck. They are all fine and I wouldn't be unhappy playing them, but something like Nirkana Cutthroat really isn't at its best here. I do want to comment on a few cards in particular. You are probably drafting Beastbreaker of Bala Ged too high in this archetype. It's a fine card, but its really more aggressive than this archetype is. You'd rather be ramping than leveling this guy most of the time, and he is too easily dealt with to be a reliable finisher. He's a fork because he's good in a number of archetypes but this is one of the ones where he is probably least good. You also have to be really careful with Consume the Meek. If your ramp package consists of a bunch of creature based mana such as Overgrown Battlement and Joraga Treespeaker then you probably should not be playing this card. Likewise if you plan to amass a ton of tokens as your ramp package. If you have it early you can still play the game to maximize its potential but it isn't as easy to do that with this card as it is with most mass removal except against leveler decks where you can count on most of their threats dying to this.

 

I suppose I can mention a few "cornerstones" too:

 

Honestly, I'm not sure if Hellcarver Demon is any good. If it is then this is the only archetype where I can imagine it being playable. Spawnsire is unexciting but it can be allright. The same is true of Skeletal Wurm. You don't really want these to be your finishers but they will do in a pinch. The two mythic Eldrazi are only playable in a few archetypes but they are incredibly awesome in those. They are also mythics so don't expect them to go late. Dreamstone Hedron is the closest thing to a true cornerstone that we have here -- it can be really good in this deck because it ramps you by a lot and you can cash it in for cards. It's a big tempo hit to break your hedron but it can save you from some of those draws where you get really flooded.

 

Next up I will discuss "The Token Archetype" which can be R/G, B/G, or R/x.