Explorations #17 - Trix 2009

Steve Gargolinski

I've gotten some feedback lately, and here are two questions that I've seen more than once:

1.  Why don't you make Standard decks anymore?
2.  Do you ever make a deck with black without Bitterblossom?

People love Standard.  It is definitely Magic's most popular format, so it shouldn't be a surprise that people want Standard decks.  I will definitely keep this in mind for the future, although I will still mess around with other formats.  To be honest, I really started to dislike Standard after Lorwyn hit the scene; tribal is definitely not my thing.  I moved more towards Extended and Classic for a while, but now that Shards of Alara is out I guess it's time to start moving back.  Of course now Extended has tons of Faeries and Elves decks - I'm never safe!

As for Bitterblossom, well, it's just an amazing card that fits into pretty much any strategy - which is why I end up running it a lot.  I realize it's expensive and just a non-starter option for most people due to the cost, but to be fair I do always end up replacing it in the budget version.  With that being said I get the feedback, so today I'm going to try to make up for some of this by putting together a _Standard) deck with a major _black_ component and _zero_ copies of Bitterblossom!  Let's go!

Most of you are familiar with the Trix deck that terrorized Extended for quite some time.  For those of you who aren't familiar, Trix was a combo deck that can be summed up best with these cards:  Illusions of Grandeur, Donate, Necropotence, Duress, and Force of Will.

Trix was a combo deck that ran tons of disruption (Force of Will, Duress, Misdirection), packed lots of card draw (Necropotence, Brainstorm), ran a full eight tutors (Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Consultation), and then conveniently gained twenty life in the middle of landing its combo.  The main goal in Trix is to cast Illusions of Grandeur, gain twenty life, Donate that troublesome enchantment to your opponent, draw a bunch of cards from Necropotence to feul your deck's disruption, and then sit back and relax while he fumbles around trying to pay the cumulative upkeep.  Eventually your opponent won't have enough mana to pay, and the Illusions will deal twenty damage to them as it leaves play.

A while ago I was playing a deck with Phyrexian Etchings (you can read about it here) and thinking, "It sure would be cool if I could Donate this to my opponent when I was finished with it - let him deal with all of those age counters".  Unfortunately nothing analogous to Donate existed at the time, so I moved that idea to the back of my mind and got on with my life.  Fast forward a year or so and Puca's Mischief is printed in Shadowmoor.

This card isn't quite Donate, but it's definitely the closest that we're likely to get for a while.  Puca's Mischief is one mana more expensive, delayed by a turn, vulnerable to something like Disenchant, and requires some conditions to be correct in order to work.  It's definitely not as good as Donate is in those ways, but it does have something going for it - it can be generally useful.  Donate is a dead card pretty much 100% of the time when you don't have Illusions of Grandeur in play, but there are plenty of situations where Puca's Mischief could be useful - even if you're not using it to give your opponent something malicious.  You could, for example, just trade your Relic of Progenesis for your opponent's 8/8 Figure of Destiny.

So we have our Donate.  How do we go about replacing the other part of the combo?  What, exactly, do we want to Donate to our opponent?  The answer came in Shards of Alara.

Immortal Coil is a weird Lich variant, that enters you into some bizarre deal that lets you turn your life total into your graveyard, and then trade your life for cards.  If you ever end up with an empty graveyard, then you lose the game.  Let's pretend for a minute that you have Immortal Coil in play.  What's the absolute worst possible card that you can see on the other side of the table?  Probably Tormod's Crypt, but in Standard today the worst thing you can see is Relic of Progenitus.

With Immortal Coil in play, your opponent's Relic of Progenitus reads:  (1): Win the game.  That does not sound good for you.  But what if you had previously used Puca's Mischief to give the Immortal Coil to your opponent, and then played a Relic of Progenitus of your own?  Well then we'd be in business.  There's our combo:  Immortal Coil, Puca's Mischief, Relic of Progenitus.

Ok, time to figure out what we're going to run alongside this combo.  Based on the discussion thus far, we're looking at a blue and black deck - so I'm going to focus on those colors.  I definitely wouldn't be surprised if we end up with some white in the list, since we'll be able to benefit from the Esper shard.  The first thing I want to do is figure out a list of cards that (in addition to Immortal Coil) would be fun to Donate to our opponent.

Colfenor's Plans If you manage to Donate the Plans to your opponent, then here's what will happen.  They will skip their draw phase and be restricted to one spell per turn, but they will have access to seven (or fewer) cards from your deck - the ones removed when Colfenor's Plans came into play.  For maximum benefit, play a few of the stronger cards (out of the seven) before Donating the Plans to your opponent.  One of the more bizarre 'draw seven' variations that you are likely to run into! Steel Golem Unless our opponent has some way to get rid of this guy, they will be locked out of casting creatures.  It's kind of a bummer that we need to give him a 3/4 in the process. Plumeveil While not as exciting as the two previous options, Plumeveil provides awesome early-game defense and won't kill you if Donated to your opponent in the late game.  Our main combo doesn't rely on the attack phase, so it doesn't really mess us up that much if our opponent has Plumeveil for defense.  If we end up running some sort of plan B that counts on getting through the red zone, then we should definitely think again on Plumeveil.

Alright, I'll be honest that I was expecting to end up with more than three cards that I would want to Donate - but these are only cards I could find that are actively terrible for our opponent to receive via Donate.  Take a look at something like Oblivion Ring.  If I cast Oblivion Ring and remove my opponent's best creature from the game, and then use Puca's Mischief to trade my Oblivion Ring for his second best creature then the interaction is essentially Control Magic that I can fire off again next turn.

There are many more cards that, along with Oblivion Ring, have cool synergy with this strategy.  Here's a list:

Call to Heel
Weird interaction with Puca's Mischief.  If you use this on something that you've Donated to your opponent, then you get the creature back and they draw a card.  If you Call to Heel something that you've stolen, then you draw a card and the creature goes back to your opponent's hand.

Vedalken Mastermind
This allows you to bounce something you've stolen, which may be sort of useful - but this card has a cool interaction with Oblivion Ring.  Bounce the Oblivion Ring back to your hand in response to the Ring's comes into play trigger going on the stack, and you end up with reusable non-land permanent removal.

Galepowder Mage I've been looking for a reason to play this card ever since the Lorwyn spoiler, and haven't had a chance yet.  Galepowder Mage gives you a way to grab back your Donated creatures, while getting in for three evasive damage.  Not a terrible plan B if our combo win isn't working out. Mulldrifter Draws cards, donates for most things with Puca's Mischief, comes back via Galepowder Mage and draws you even more cards.  Combos with Galepowder Mage even without Puca's Mischief involved. Shriekmaw Mulldrifter's BFF.  Awesome for all of the same reasons as Mulldrifter. Cryptic Command We're playing blue, so if you've got the Cryptic Commands then chances are you want to run them.  This card does it all. Ponder Helps us find our combo, strong enough to be restricted in Vintage.

Unmake
We're running back and we're running white, so Unmake is one of the best removal spells available.

Agony Warp
I'm not sure if this card is better or worse than Unmake in a deck like this, but I think it is probably better.  Agony Warp is cheaper, easier to cast, and may even kill an additional creature.  I know that Oblivion Ring is in, so hopefully those will be able to take out creatures that Agony Warp can't deal with.

Infest
If aggro decks end up being a problem, then we definitely want to go with a few copies of Infest.

Thoughtseize / Tidehollow Strix
If we want early-game disruption, then Thoughtseize and Tidehollow Strix seem like the best options.  Tidehollow Strix gives us a chump block in the late game, but isn't as exciting when we're not on a beatdown plan.

Mind Stone / Obelisk of Esper
I'm not going to start off with either of these in the list, but if we end up wanting acceleration then these are likely our best options.

Savor the Moment
Savor the Moment may actually be useful in this deck.  It lets you take another turn, which gives you a Puca's Mischief trigger.

Liliana Vess
Planeswalker that allows us to search for our combo pieces along with some built-in disruption.  The ultimate ability gives us another route to victory.

I think that's enough options to put this list together.  Here's what I'm going to play first: 

Trix 2009

Steve Gargolinski - Standard Legal

Creatures 2 Galepowder Mage 3 Mulldrifter 3 Shriekmaw 8 cards Other Spells 3 Immortal Coil 3 Puca's Mischief 3 Relic of Progenitus 2 Colfenor's Plans 2 Liliana Vess 4 Oblivion Ring 4 Ponder 4 Cryptic Command 2 Agony Warp 27 cards

Lands 4 Arcane Sanctum 4 Reflecting Pool 4 Sunken Ruins 2 Fetid Heath 2 Mystic Gate 3 Swamp 3 Island 1 Plains 1 Vivid Marsh 1 Vivid Creek 25 cards

I decided that I wanted to try out Galepowder Mage, so I ended up running two copies alongside three copies each of Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter.  I devoted twelve slots to combo pieces, and then the rest of the deck is rounded out with control elements and Liliana Vess.

Game 1 vs Scarecrows

I start off with Ponder while my opponent lays down Seaside Citadel and Arcane Sanctum.  I get Colfenor's Plans in play and start casting out cards from it ASAP.  He brings Heap Doll and Scarecrone into play, while I get back to back Galepowder Mage and Mulldrifter which refills my hand.

Executioner's Capsule takes down Galepowder Mage, but thankfully I had another one tucked under Colfenor's Plans.  Unfortunately for me my opponent has an Unmake for the second one.  I cast Shriekmaw (now that I won't be forced to target my own creature), but he goes down quickly to Oblivion Ring.  I cast Ponder and then a second Shriekmaw, my opponent follows up with Tatterkite.

Ponder drew me into Puca's Mischief, so I run it out there and give him the (mostly empty) Colfenor's Plans.  He casts Reaper King, but I have Oblivion Ring.  I cast Immortal Coil, Donate it over, and then bring down Relic of Progenitus for the win. Analysis: One game in the books, and one victory via Immortal Coil + Puca's Mischief + Relic of Progenitus.  Can't complain about that! Game 2 vs UB Control I play a turn two Relic of Progenitus, and I'm pretty surprised when my opponent takes it down with Negate.  He plays out Phyrexian Rager and Ravenous Rats, and gets going on a little bit of offense.  I play Liliana Vess, but the planeswalker goes down to Faerie Trickery.  Galepowder Mage sticks, and Aven Fisher eventually takes one for the team and draws me opponent a card.  I cast Ponder into Colfenor's Plans and then pass the turn. Gravedigger grabs Phyrexian Rager and the 2/2 comes into play.  He plays Mulldrifter and I use Cryptic Command from under Colfenor's Plans, untapping into a Mulldrifter of my own - who is immediately blinked via Galepowder Mage for four quick cards.  I lose my Mulldrifter to Agony Warp tricks, and then double Phyrexian Rager hits the table for my opponent.

I cast a second Colfenor's Plans and then Puca's Mischief gets hit with Faerie Trickery number two.  He casts a Mulldrifter and then Agony Warps away my remaining Galepowder Mage.  I'm getting low on life, but I manage to resolve Puca's Mischief and Donate one of the two Colfenor's Plans.  I have a ton of land by this point (12 lands), so I Oblivion Ring my own Colfenor's Plans so that I can cast Immortal Coil with Cryptic Command backup, which I don't end up needing.  Immortal Coil buys me some time (I've got 17 cards in the graveyard - see it IS like Illusions of Grandeur!  Gain 20... or something), and then I Donate and use Relic of Progenitus for the win.

Analysis:  I'm not really sure what I think of Colfenor's Plans, drawing seven gives me lots of answers to the current game state and Donating gives me a soft-lock - but I didn't realize while making this initial decklist that Plans really prevents me from protecting my win in any significant way.  I run four Cryptic Commands, and it sure would be nice to use one of those for backup while casting Puca's Mischief.  It would also be nice to Oblivion Ring away a troublesome permanent and then follow up with Immortal Coil.  This is kind of a bummer when up against a deck like this one (UB Control).  One thing that Trix 2009 does have going for it is that the win is very unconventional and your opponent may have no idea what they should counter.  I was honestly shocked when my Relic of Progenitus was hit by Negate in this game, I would expect that to be the exception rather than the rule.

Both of the games I've played so far have been long and grinding; Colfenor's Plans is a big reason why.  I'm going to play a few more games and see how they go before making any real judgements.

Game 3 vs Jund Tokens My opponent starts off with Dragon Fodder and I miss my third land drop.  I evoke Shriekmaw and take out a Goblin token to avoid discarding.  I don't draw any lands for a long time and Marsh Flitter makes my life a lot worse.  I buy a little bit of time with Agony Warp, but Hunting Triad puts enough power on the table to take me out. Analysis: I missed a bunch of land drops, and this deck definitely wants to play out a land per turn.  Infest would have been nice, and this game was a bit of evidence that I may want to run a few in my list.  The reason I shied away from it in favor of Agony Warp, honestly, was that most of my creatures are x/2.  This may not be such a valid point though, considering that by the time Shriekmaw or Mulldrifter is in play I've usually already gotten value.  In addition, I can find one of these guys under a Galepowder Mage attack and safely Infest without harming them. Game 4 vs GRB Something

My opponent is stuck on one land for a while this game, and discards some green and red creatures.  I cast Galepowder Mage and then Mulldrifter, drawing into my combo and playing it out for the win.  All that he really did this game was Incinerate Galepowder Mage and cast Emberstrike Duo with Fists of the Demigod.

Analysis: Not much to say here, I just drew a bunch of cards and cast my combo for the win.  Galepowder Mage + Mulldrifter has been an awesome combo so far, and worked out well again in this game.

Game 5 vs UG Selkie Hedge-Mage

I cast Ponder and my opponent plays (Slippery Boggle).  I get Relic of Progenitus and then take some damage from Viridescent Wisps on Slippery Boggle.  He plays Selkie Hedge-Mage and gains a bit of life; I come back with Colfenor's Plans.  My opponent attacks and then starts to use Selkie Hedge-Mages to recur Selkie-Hedge Mages.  He's gaining a whole bunch of life, but unfortunately for him I don't really care aout his life total.

I do, however, care about my life total - so I use Cryptic Command to counter a Hedge-Mage and prevent another one from attacking.  I get Puca's Mischief in play, and by now I've pretty much bled my Colfenor's Plans dry.  I donate it over to my opponent and then cast Liliana Vess.  My opponent casts Trip Noose and then uses Monstrify on his (Slippery Boggle) to get me down to four life, but I don't face another attack.  Liliana empties his hand and the Donated Colfenor's Plans prevents him from drawing any more cards.  He does cast Spitting Image on my stolen Selkie Hedge-Mage, but I use Oblivion Ring to get rid of his Trip Noose and then trade the Oblivion Ring for his token creature.  With no cards in hand and nothing of note in play, my opponent concedes.

Analysis:  It was pretty cool to pull off the lock with Liliana Vess, an empty Colfenor's Plans, and Puca's Mischief.  My opponent didn't have a single out from that situation, and I would have been able to finish the game at my leisure.  I went down to three life setting up the combo, but once it was in place there was no way out for my opponent.

Out: 4x Ponder, 2x Agony Warp, 1x Island
In: 4x Mind Stone, 2x Infest, 1x Swamp

Trix 2009 v2

Steve Gargolinski - Standard Legal

Creatures 2 Galepowder Mage 3 Mulldrifter 3 Shriekmaw 8 cards Other Spells 3 Immortal Coil 3 Puca's Mischief 3 Relic of Progenitus 2 Colfenor's Plans 2 Liliana Vess 4 Oblivion Ring 4 Mind Stone 4 Cryptic Command 2 Infest 27 cards

Lands 4 Arcane Sanctum 4 Reflecting Pool 4 Sunken Ruins 2 Fetid Heath 2 Mystic Gate 4 Swamp 2 Island 1 Plains 1 Vivid Marsh 1 Vivid Creek 25 cards

 Game 6 vs Green Elves Aggro

I start off with zero lands, mulligan into six cards and one land, and then mulligan again into five cards with three lands.  My opponent plays Llanowar Elves and I get Mind Stone.  He plays Nettle Sentinel and then Boggart Ram-Gang, which brings in some serious damage.  I pay full price for Mulldrifter and then cast Liliana Vess, tutoring up Infest.  Hunting Triad hits the table, and just when I think I'm about to stabilize and pull ahead...  Giantbaiting smashes me for eight and I go down.

Analysis:  Adding Infest was definitely the right move, and would have helped me in this matchup a lot...  Maybe I should have added more than two?

Game 7 vs Mono Red

It's my opponent's turn to mulligan, playing out Ashling the Pilgrim and (Dragon's Fodder) on the attack.  I cast Relic of Progenitus and then Mind Stone, use Oblivion Ring to take out Ashling, and then Puca's Mischief to start grabbing his creatures.  I get hit with double Tarfire to go down to nine, but at this point it's just a matter of time before I get Immortal Coil for the win.

Analysis:  Infest would have been awesome in this matchup also, but I didn't see it.  I'm going to go for one more copy.

Out: 1x Shriekmaw
In: 1x Infest

Trix 2009 v3

Steve Gargolinski - Standard Legal

Creatures 2 Galepowder Mage 3 Mulldrifter 2 Shriekmaw 7 cards Other Spells 3 Immortal Coil 3 Puca's Mischief 3 Relic of Progenitus 2 Colfenor's Plans 2 Liliana Vess 4 Oblivion Ring 4 Mind Stone 4 Cryptic Command 3 Infest 28 cards

Lands 4 Arcane Sanctum 4 Reflecting Pool 4 Sunken Ruins 2 Fetid Heath 2 Mystic Gate 4 Swamp 2 Island 1 Plains 1 Vivid Marsh 1 Vivid Creek 25 cards

Game 8 vs Exalted

I start off with Relic of Progenitus and Mind Stone.  My opponent plays Deft Duelist and then (Guardians of Askara), I cycle away both my Relic and Mind Stone to dig for an answer.  I play out another Mind Stone while taking some damage, and then use Cryptic Command to keep the deadly Battlegrace Angel off of the table.

I Shriekmaw to take out the Guardians of Askara, and then cast Galepowder Mage and Shriekmaw.  I lose the Shriekmaw to the Duelist to save some life after Elvish Visionary and Akrasan Squire hit the table, and then pull off a pretty sweet trick.  I cast Mulldrifter, attack with Galepowder Mage and blink the Mulldrifter, cast Infest to take out Visionary, Squire, and Duelist - and then watch Mulldrifter come back into play and draw me two cards.

From here I cast out another Mulldrifter, and then just use Galepowder Mage to continually bounce potential blockers and swing a few times for the win.  My opponent had Agressive Urge for a few combat tricks, but it didn't end up mattering.

Analysis:  Once again Infest was awesome, and this game showed how vicious of a beatdown Galepowder Mage + Mulldrifter is.  I had way more cards that I knew what to do with, and was able to control the board while getting through for a ton of damage.

Budget Time

There are only a few cards that we need to replace in this deck to make it budget friendly: the manabase (as usual), Cryptic Command, and potentially Liliana Vess.

Replacing Cryptic Command is never an easy task.  You could replace it with another counterspell, maybe Cancel, Negate, Remove Soul, or Broken Ambitions.  You could also add some more removal to the deck and turn a tough UUU casting cost into something with black in it, making the mana base a bit easier: Unmake, more Infest, Fleshbag Marauder, Nameless Inversion, or Terror all fit the bill.  Another option is to add Raven's Crime, since at some point under Mulldrifter Recursion, you should be able to just totally clean out your opponent's hand.  I'm going to try this:

Out: 4x Cryptic Command
In: 2x Raven's Crime, 2x Unmake

... and then redo the manabase:

Out: 4x Reflecting Pool, 4x Sunken Ruins, 2x Fetid Heath, 2x Mystic Gate, 1x Vivid Creek
In: 2x Vivid Marsh, 4x Swamp, 5x Island, 2x Plains

Budget Trix 2009

Steve Gargolinski - Standard Legal

Creatures 2 Galepowder Mage 3 Mulldrifter 2 Shriekmaw 7 cards Other Spells 3 Immortal Coil 3 Puca's Mischief 3 Relic of Progenitus 2 Colfenor's Plans 2 Liliana Vess 4 Oblivion Ring 4 Mind Stone 2 Raven's Crime 2 Unmake 3 Infest 28 cards

Lands 4 Arcane Sanctum 8 Swamp 7 Island 3 Plains 3 Vivid Marsh 25 cards

 And here's the price breakdown (courtesy of mtgotraders.com):

Immortal Coil = $0.45
Puca's Mischief = $0.45
Relic of Progenitus = $0.24
Colfenor's Plans = $0.24
Galepowder Mage = $0.30
Mulldrifter = $0.45
Shriekmaw = $0.80
Liliana Vess = $5.50
Oblivion Ring = $0.32
Mind Stone = $2.00
Raven's Crime = $0.40
Unmake = $0.80
Infest = $1.05
Arcane Sanctum = $3.60
Vivid Marsh = $0.45

For a total of: $17.05.  If you want to get it down to around $12 or so, then I'd take out both copies of Liliana Vess for Diabolic Tutor or maybe even bring back Ponder.  This deck is a lot of fun, and if the idea of winning with Immortal Coil sounds like fun to you - then I'd say it's definitely worth your $12!

Bonus Section: Quick Tournament Report

The place is my apartment, the time is last Saturday, the event is the Daily Classic tournament, and the deck is NecroSpike.  I had won the first four rounds all at 2-0, and was feeling pretty good about my chances to take down this whole tournament.  During the fifth round of the Swiss I win game one, drop my first game of the tournament in game two, and then slump in my chair early on in game three as my opponent hits his Flash/Hulk combo and I don't have any disruption to stop it.  So at this point he has Heart Sliver and quadruple Virulent Sliver to my...  Underground Sea.  I use Soul Spike to take out his Heart Sliver and buy myself a little bit of time at least.  I untap, topdeck Necropotence, pay a bunch of life, and then draw into double Soul Spike which I use to take out two of his Virulent Slivers.

I had to toss away a bunch of Rituals/Tutors to cast those three total Soul Spikes, so unfortunately the Tendrils plan is out the window.  I take two damage and four poison counters on the attack and then come back with a Tombstalker on each of the next two turns.  It seems absurd to me that my opponent landed his 'instant win' combo early on and NecroSpike just ended up winning easily.  I don't even have anything special to deal with five attacking, hasted, poisonous Slivers - the spells in NecroSpike were just strong enough to somehow fight through.  Sure I had to be pretty lucky to get the Soul Spikes I needed, but I thought that was a cool story that shows some of the lesser-experienced power of NecroSpike, as well as its ridiculous resiliance.

Here's another story: fast forward to the semifinals and I'm up against the mirror match.  In game one I play out a few Dark Rituals, Consult for Cabal Ritual, cast Lotus Petal, and then double Tendrils for the turn one win.  Game two starts and my opponent has turn one Ritual -> Necropotence.  I look at my hand and see zero copies of Force of Will.  Not good.  He pays down to four life on Necropotence.  I look at my hand and see one copy of Soul Spike and two other black cards.  Good game.

That's the first full match of Magic that I have ever personally played out in just two turns (and I started when Unlimited was around)!  Pretty good for a combo deck that isn't supposed to win on turn one, huh?

There are two takeaways from this game when dealing with NecroSpike:

1.  Don't forget that you can sometimes just storm out a Tendrils win on turn one or two.  It's rare, but sometimes it does happen.
2.  If you're playing against NecroSpike (or even suspect your opponent has NecroSpike), do not pay Necropotence down to four or less life.

I ended up losing in the finals to Pox 0-2.  I had beaten this same player 2-0 in the Swiss easily, but in the finals I did not have a prayer of winning either of the two games.  The Pox deck did its thing 100% and I went down hard.  Congrats to the winner!

Thanks for reading!

Steve Gargolinski
spgmtgo@gmail.com