In an effort to qualify for the Magic Online Season Championships, whose queues were churning out vast quantities of qualifiers points for the Alara Block Constructed format, I started analyzing the data after Pro-Tour Honolulu and saw the power of the Jund-based decks, whether aggro or control. Naturally, I looked for a way to counter that deck’s tools and investigated the G/W decks, such as this one played by Hall of Famer, Raphael Levy, to a 7-3 showing. Anecdotally, the archetype had a good showing, and with that kind of designer pedigree, it was worth trying it out.
I got in a few testing sessions with my clanmate, country_hillbilly, sporting 5-color control and saw some potential. The challenge, as I saw it, was to build a deck that could overcome Wall of Denial regularly, profit against removal strategies like Jund, and have play against Esper decks. The G/W (splash Rafiq) decks needed a complete overhaul as Dauntless Escort and Ethersworn Canonist were merely preventing the blowouts, but still succumbing themselves to 1:1 removal, followed by too much board control. Some cards like Battlegrace Angel were sure tempo losers against removal spells, not to mention potential card disadvantage off a cascade. Some cards like Martial Coup were slow and just didn’t do enough in the long game, and that wasn’t a state I wanted to prepare for much anyways; there were better ways to take down the Wall. Here is what I developed:
I wasn’t going to play this archetype without good reason, but I liked the rough sketches of my ideas a lot, so far as they went towards meeting the above goals.
HammerTime - Can't Touch This!
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To that end, I looked to incorporate removal-proof cards like
Uril, the Miststalker and
Vedalken Outlander, taking out removal magnets like
Battlegrace Angel and
Mycoid Shepherd, and even
Thornling, at least as a 5cc spell.
Knotvine Paladin also died to absolutely everything and could easily be chump-blocked. Once I had a good core of hard-to-remove guys, Canonist and Escort took on diminishing returns, so I upgraded the former to
Esper Stormblade and the latter to 2
Jenara, Asura of War (unfortunately legendary) and 2
Aven Mimeomancer, a fine spell in its own right that really works nicely with
Noble Hierarch (the Aven’s feather effects continue even after she is removed from the game). Based on my theory that my guys were going to be relatively safe from removal, it made sense to upgrade
Behemoth Sledge to a full 4-copies: Sledge + Outlander + perhaps an Exalted creature is a regular draw and pretty impressive in this format, and my deck would offer plenty of sicker possibilities than that. Finally, I availed myself of the red splash to support a single
Realm Razer which has very strong surprise value, especially against control decks, and can also lead to The Fear on my opponent’s behalf as they may play around it inappropriately. As a metagame choice, I chose to start with only two copies of
Path to Exile, as they tend to sit in the hand a lot against Jund Control and especially 5-Color Control; my most recent look at the metagame online wants at least the third copy back (unless they become Purges).
A lot of my decisions had to be constrained by the available mana, as upgrading Escort to Jenara, for example, is not as easy as it looks. I was trying to support a lone red mana on four different cards (all late-drops), and a lone blue mana on about a dozen. I swapped out Plains and Forests in equal proportion to fit in playsets of both
Exotic Orchard and
Ancient Ziggurat. I took my remaining Plains and turned them into 2 each of
Jungle Shrine and
Arcane Sanctum – giving me 10 mana sources for Uril and 18 for my blue spells when you count Hierarch, eminently reasonable. A card the deck really wants,
Sarkhan Vol, is just too risky, since as a non-creature, I only have six available mana sources. 22 lands + Hierarchs seems about right from my experience, as occurrences of mana screw are about on par with mana flood, which is my usual litmus test.
Can the list be improved???
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Undoubtedly. It’s hard to imagine a deck that could run
Bloodbraid Elf not doing so. My curve is already steep, so I’ve given it a pass so far, but maybe it’s just better than Elspeth, Rafiq and Uril. Speaking of which, is that trio, all legendary, correct at three copies each? Thornling is definitely a real possibility for inclusion. Another possibility is moving
Celestial Purge to the maindeck over Mimeomancer or Stormblade or Path to Exile – the metagame is just that favorable for Purge at the moment. Realm Razer has rarely been a liability and has won some games that otherwise would have been losses, but it is the weakest card on the list, and accordingly, deserves long looks. I usually don’t draw him and/or sideboard him out, so he stays for now while I gather more data.
How is the deck in practice? I played in 6 eight-man queues during the previous week when they paid out 4 qps each, garnering 9 points and playing out to records of 2-1, 2-1, 2-1, 1-1, 3-0, 3-0 (with a concession on the last one). The vast majority of games I was losing was due to mana issues, so I knew I had an “in” to the format, so-to-speak. It was a long time until I got a chance to test the deck in a daily event, but with Friday off due to the holiday I found a 10pm (yikes!) event that would work. The rest of the article is that report.
Tournament Report – 7/2/09 (35 players, OTJ Qualifier)
Round 1 vs. Esper Aggro
It seemed like a semi-jank build with
Cathartic Adept and
Puppet Conjurer. Game 1 he was color-screwed off black mana, and a Behemoth Sledge on my part equipped a Valeron Outlander and went the distance. To tell the truth, I’m not sure if his 60 has an answer to that. I brought in 4 Purges and 3
Filigree Fracture for 4 Vedalken Outlander, 2 Uril, and the Realm Razer. In game 2, I was a bit mana-screwed, keeping a 2-land, Ziggurat draw. The bad news was that I never drew a single land the rest of the game, but the good news was that my first seven draws yielded a playset of Hierarchs. Celestial Purge on
Glaze Fiend, Fracture on (Thopter Factory) when he was tapped out allowed me to stabilize. Jenara at 3/3 took him down from 15 to -1 when I landed
Rafiq of the Many, and was able to Purge the only eligible blocker. 1-0, 2-0
Round 2 vs. 5-Color Control
I quickly started the match facing off 2
Wall of Denial after he stabilized around 15 life. I built up some mana, then cast Jenara with WW2 untapped. He played Bituminous Blast on Jenara which I let pass to see the Cascade spell, in this case, Terminate. He used the Terminate on my Pridemage, and now with Bituminous still on the stack I pumped up Jenara to 5/5, saving her. This misplay cost him the game, because Jenara as a 15/15 flier soon overcame the two walls and cruised into victory. I sided as follows: +4 Hindering Light, +4 Celestial Purge, -2 Pridemage, -2 Mimeomancer, -4 Esper Stormblade; this takes out the vulnerable critters for quality spells.
Hindering Light is a mini-bomb in this matchup, trading 2 mana for so much more, nullifying his powerful spells, and drawing a card to boot. So, in game 2 he got rather lucky, compounded by my own misplay. That was walking a second Vedalken Outlander into a
Maelstrom Pulse when I was tapped out with Hindering Light in hand. Then my Outlander of the pro:black variety was killed by a cascaded
Infest off Bloodbraid Elf. To add insult, the Elf with the help of
Ajani Vengeant (which I soon Purged) took out my Elspeth. Fortunately, he was only on 5 mana and tapped out, which allowed the Realm Razer I had been sitting on to enter the battlefield with a resultant board of Razer, Elspeth (my second), and 2 Walls of Denial. He didn’t find any land anytime soon, and the indestructible Elspeth army with Hindering Light backup was enough to prompt concession. 2-0, 4-0
Round 3 vs. 5-Color Control
This game I was given the
Cruel Ultimatum and my pro:removal army faced off against three Walls of Denial. This time back-to-back Elspeths supported an Uril to take out the Walls one at a time as his life total slowly dwindled. Despite the Ultimatum, nothing seriously challenged that rather straightforward gameplan. (Sideboard as in round 2.) In the second game, I developed slowly due to a double Ziggurat draw with mostly spells. I finally got Uril out again, and this time he went all the way without help. He had a one turn window to play out a 7
th land (untapped) and take out Uril with Cruel Ultimatum (he blasted away my other dudes), after which I’m sure I would have lost, but again, none of the ten cards in his hand provided an adequate answer. 3-0, 6-0
Round 4 vs. Jund-Naya Aggro
Game 1 was a beating. His 2
Putrid Leech,
Sprouting Thrinax, and Bloodbraid Elf were no match for a pro:black Outlander with his favorite sledgehammer. Another Outlander and an Uril dropped by to say hello in case he got ideas of counterattacking. I sideboarded in 4 Purge, 2 Hindering Light, and a 3
rd Path for Realm Razer, 2 Mimeomancer, and 4 Esper Stormblade. Unfortunately a Bloodbraid Elf revealed his own Sledge, eventually trading with my Uril. A second set of Uril (his and mine) died to the legend rule, while his third met my early Rafiq-enabled Outlander, while my third just killed him. For the last several turns his board incremented by the 9
th, 10
th, and 11
th lands with a sad Sledge sitting in the corner with nobody to hang out with. Lucky me for his flood and my 3
rd Uril. 4-0, 8-0
Round 5 vs. G/W Aggro
Whoa, Nellie – blown out in this one. I knew G/W Aggro or full-on Bant was my worst matchup going into the event, but it didn’t have to be this bad. In the first one I drew 5 lands and an Outlander, not that great against his deck. My next 6 were playable except that he drew multiple Paths for my critters, and a Purge for my only target, a desperate Realm Razer. His
Knight of the Reliquary was more than up to the task of beating my empty board (no lands either). I sideboarded in 4 Hindering Light, 2 Paths, and my extra copies of Rafiq and Jenara for 4 Vedalken Outlander, the Razer, and 3 Esper Stormblade. The latter should have been Valeron Outlanders but, I kept a juicy but sketchy 2-mana hand. Since the juice started on 3-mana, and I never got that far, I put up no fight whatsoever. 4-1, 8-2
Round 6 vs. Jund Aggro
This was by far the most disappointing match. Despite the 4-0 start, the Magic gods gifted me with Deathtouch, that is, after playing against me, my opponents constantly lost out (33% win percentage in games after playing me), so I wasn't taking top 8 for granted. In game 1, I had very little board presence, keeping a 5-land hand with Path and Uril. A Sledge and a late anti-red Outlander helped out, but despite having 31 life or so, he had enough blockers, and double
Broodmate Dragon had me bamboozled as I drew even more lands. I sided out the Razer, the Mimeomancers, the Pridemages, and the Stormblades for Purges, Paths and 3 Hindering Light. Game 2 he was screwed – I won with Hammer + Outlander. Game 3, mana screw was my fate as I Exiled a few creatures and watched free attack after free attack go by. My eight Outlanders basically retired in the odd-numbered games, and that was that. 4-2, 8-4
Fortunately, that Swiss performance was indeed good enough for 6th place after all.
Round 7 vs. Jund Aggro (Quarterfinals)
Different opponent. A slow start saw my 5
th turn board presence reduced to a lone Valeron Outlander, but I laid down the Sledge and the whole theory of the deck worked like clockwork. On turn 6, I equipped, dropped a Hierarch, and ran the Outlander into 2 Leeches, Thrinax, and an
Elvish Visionary for a ten-point swing in life totals. He attacked and got a
Bituminous Blast into Bloodbraid Elf into Leech for a monster board presence, but I laid Elspeth, and this time got a 14-point swing. Six guys vs. 1, with mine being the smallest guy, and yet, David vs. Goliath was a good role to play. Fortunately, his Leeches were on a short leash with his life total so precarious. I dropped a Stormblade, took a ton of damage, some soaked by Elspeth, and met a Broodmate Dragon off the top of his deck. No matter:
Qasali Pridemage landed and this Outlander traded with a 1/1 Elf and a dragon token netting 5 more life. I equipped Pridemage with the left over mana and used it to block the Elf, gaining four more life, dropping from 24 to 15. I equipped the Stormblade flying over his fresh Thrinax for another 12-point swing. His next swing brought me down to 11 with a Dragon and Leech to save him, that is until I dropped and equipped a second Sledge for a well-earned victory. I started quickly in the next with Hierarch and Vedalken Outlander teaming for 8 points with a removal spell. Sledge showed up on turn 5, and played piggyback. Pulse took out the Outlander so I played the other one I was holding. His Broodmate Dragon pressure forced me to run it into a Leech for a few points of life.
Jund Charm on Dragon made it 6/6 and brought me to three life, but my third Sledge-wielding Vedalken Outlander gave me just enough points to survive his last useless topdeck at one life.
Round 8 vs. Esper Control (Semifinals)
In the first game, my noob skills were only outpaced my lack-of-drawing-land skills. I kept a saucy aggro hand with a Pridemage and acceleration via Hierarch, but my only land was an Arcane Sanctum. Same story on turn 10 – loss. I have a lot of hate from the board, so I wasn’t too worried. Next game, I quickly laid down a pair of Esper Stormblade, drew into a pair of Filigree Fracture, and though the Stormblades were enough to draw his spot removal, a Behemoth Sledge makes a legitimate threat even out of Noble Hierarch, or three Hierarchs, as in this case. Game three started poorly when he exiled and countered my only two cards by turn 4. My 5th turn Stormblade was trumped by Sharuum the Hegemon. However, end-of-turn it was Fractured for a free card, and allowed me to play both Hierarch and Rafiq on the 6th turn for a 10-point hit out of nowhere with lethal next, my hand still full.
Round 9 vs. Jund Aggro (Finals)
In game 1, a mulligan left me with an Outlander, Jenara, Elspeth, and Uril with two lands – not bad if I get three more lands off the top! Unfortunately he went first and landed a turn-2 Putrid Leech. My outlander only came down on turn 3 due to tap land issues, so I started off way on the back foot. His response was Bloodbraid Elf for another Leech. I played my other Outlander, which got Pulsed, and the 3 on 1 attack was too devastating. Game 2 saw me with another reasonable draw, turn 2 Outlander, followed up by Sledge, but it couldn’t overcome one of the sickest draws in the format: turn 3 Bloodbraid Elf (off Hierarch) snagging a Leech, turn 4 Pulse (on Sledge), turn 5
Madrush Cyclops, and turn 6 Broodmate Dragon. His Ziggurats and Hierarch gave him very good mana and acceleration.
Well, that’s all she wrote – an early bedtime at 3:30 and 63 tix worth of packs and a foil
Lava Axe (some promos I just don’t quite understand). It’s great to have confidence in a deck, like I do with this one for this format's metagame. I hope you enjoyed the ride!
11 Comments
It's been a while since we had a Block article here, so thanks for this. And it is also good to see that my beloved shard is still doing well in Block. Adding red for Uril and Realm Razer also makes a lot of sense.
Nice job!
LE
Leaving BB elf out is probably a good call. I'd have to test it to see... Possibly over mancer and jenara? Elf is much better when you have all kinds of removal to snag. Thanks for giving me a new deck to tool around with ;).
Thanks for the kind words. Whenever I play G/W I have a little Star Wars moment where I'm Han & Luke vs. a mighty Black-Red menace. It's a fun deck to play, whatever else.
Nice theory and great article, but how is the deck only 59 cards?
Man, good catch, I accidentally left out Realm Razer from that list. If Josh thinks it's worth his time, maybe he can fix it for me.
pretty nice block article BoB ! waiting for the next one
So, any comments on what you would change the deck to after a good tournament like this one under your belt? Did the Esper Stormblades and Aven Mimeomancer's work out good or would it be better served with something else?
-M
Stormblades are just more efficient in my mind for their cost than the other creature options available. Knotvine Paladin, Knight of the White Orchard, the other XBlades, Canonist are basically equally subject to removal (Purge, granted, but if someone sideboards Purge against me just for Stormblades, I have to be happy) and don't have evasion. A good argument can be made for Qasali Pridemage, a clinching one if Esper gets more love. For my money, I keep Stormblades. Mimeomancers could be more Jenara, especially for the more greedy - but they are flexible: reduce a dragon to a 3/1, pump up a Hierarch and give it flying.
That was compared to creatures. The comparison to spells is harder.
Creatures, because of Ziggurat x4 are always easier to cast, but this deck can handle at least some number of spells. Would you rather run Purge or Path that is sometimes dead/bad or a generic 3-power evasive creature for 2 to 3 mana that is susceptible to removal? My approach so far was to bring in the correct spell to replace the not-too-bad creature in sideboarded games. A gambler's approach to the metagame could be to have the spell - potentially a dud, but possibly a savior - in from the beginning of the match. Control decks have the luxury to gamble more, since they make up for cards that are occasionally bad in certain matchups with card advantage from other sources.
I don't know which is the correct answer. I want to bring in a couple of Purges for the Mimeomancers, but before I do, I want to have a consistent sideboard plan, like I currently have without the changes.
Ok, a 2nd Daily Event last night with 40 players and a 2nd top 8. I hit my worst matchup in the quarterfinals, G/W Aggro and quickly lost.
I've been playtesting this deck and a bit and I lose quite often, especially to anything remotely fast. Anything running Ranger of Eos and Nacatls absolutely kills it.
The lands have been an issue as well. I get mana screwed once every 2-3 games.
I think replacing the Mimeomancers with Celestial Purges makes this a better deck. I'd keep the Paths in the sideboard if the Purges are added main deck.
I'm also tempted to replace the Ziggurats with possibly Panoramas or Spires. It sits out too often when I'm holding 1 or 2 Elspeths, and often costs me games.
What do you people think? Has anyone playtested this/made changes?
I've played about 45 matches in the format and ahve yet to see a single Ranger or Nacatl. That said, this article indicates that G/W is a bad matchup. If you think you'll see a lot of G/W aggro, don't play this deck.
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