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By: AndreaFonseca, Andrea Fonseca
Aug 17 2010 1:04am
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Remember this deck? Well I do. It was one of my favorite going around during the extended season. It could win fairly quickly against most decks and still have a shot at Thopter Depths. Especially after sideboard with the addition of 15 sideboard cards for the matchup. Well, Thopter Depths is no more, so the deck should be fairly good, what cards did we lose?

Sakura-Tribe Elder: This is easily replace with Rampant Growth. Its not EXACTLY the same thing but then again there is no zoo in the format which makes a chump blocker go down in value. There is also no Jitte in deck making it a little less aggro and more ramp towards.

Umezawa's Jitte: There isn't of course anything that replaces jitte, but as I've said there aren't any zoos going around making it less useful since all the aggro decks are already good matchups anyway.

Ghost Quarter: Tectonic Edge is in the format. Even if its not the same thing it could have its uses. But since there aren't any Depths, the card is not needed anymore.

Stomping Ground: This is probably the most heartbreaking loss of the deck. Probably not so much here as in the UGR version, but still it hurts the mana base a lot and can create some awkward "not enough mountains in the deck" situation.

So after pondering the cards the list that surfaced on MTGO was this:

 
The deck is really good in the current online metagame for some reasons:

- It beats all the random aggro decks , including WW , RDW , RG and all sorts of random stuff.
- It has a decent matchup against the "best" extended deck, faeries. Depending on how the game goes you can put them in a position where they have to play some mid-combat spells to gain value of their Bitterblossom tokens or else they eventually die to it, and you can use that opportunity to play out a letal Scapeshift
- Against the combo decks depends on what you're facing but elves is very easy to win, and Hive Mind and Conflagrate Nauseum are decent matchups as well.

Lets talk about some matchups, starting out with "The One".

Spellstutter Sprite Mana Leak Mistbind Clique Cryptic Command

I find faeries a good matchup most of the time. Bitterblossom is no match for Punishing Fire and they only have 4 hard counters for your Scapeshift. Most of the time you can just burn them out and go into an attrition war with Kitchen Finks and (Bloodbraid Elves). Mistbind Clique is your worst enemy since you can't kill it lightly especially if you don't have the combo going on. After board it becomes even easier, even if they bring in Relic of Progenitus or Thoughtseize you can just burn them out with Volcanic Fallout and Great Sable Stag.

Living End Violent Outburst Demonic Dread Fulminator Mage

Living End game 1 is a pain since if they combo you out you're probably dead and even with the fastest start possible you still die to Fulminator Mage and Avalanche Riders. Game 2 you have access to some hate cards like Thought Hemorrhage and Relic of Progenitus that should help you win the game. Remember to play the relic only if you have mana available since they can't combo you out unless they have 3 mana available.

 Hive Mind Ad Nauseam Restore Balance

Other combos are also present in the metagame and unfortunately there's not much you can do against them besides Thought Hemorrhage, but since they mostly lose to faeries I'm not to concerned.

Most aggro decks going around at the moment in the MTGO metagame have little to none response to a lethal Scapeshift. WW , RG and Elves can't deal with the card at the moment and there's also nothing besides some random white cards that they could use such as Safe Passage or Runed Halo. Elves can be a tough matchup if you keep hands without removal since they could combo you out faster than you can draw removal. RG aggro and WW are just jokes since they cant kill you fast enough and even Punishing Fire could do the job.

Overall is a very fun deck to play with and with Scapeshift it can win in most game situations. I've recently talked with some people about cutting Tarmogoyf from the deck. At first it seems crazy but if you think about it for a moment, the deck doesn't really need him and it could use some more proactive cards. I've in mind to try out the red Akroma and maybe some Primeval Titan

Until then,

Andrea Fonseca

4 Comments

I love this deck, I am by Doomhed at Tue, 08/17/2010 - 09:52
Doomhed's picture

I love this deck, I am looking at possibly swapping the tarmogoyfs for something that either regenerates or has 3 toughness. One card I am eager to try is llanowar sentinal. flipping that bad boy off of a bloodbraid elf and then getting a 3rd creature for another 2 mana is amazing. It also survives the fallout, which is important.

I just realized this deck is by Doomhed at Tue, 08/17/2010 - 12:18
Doomhed's picture

I just realized this deck is going to be hit pretty hard with the rotation, losing brunwillows/fire combo, harmonize, search for tomorrow and goyf. any ideas where this deck is headed without those cards?

scapeshift rotates too. every by riclas at Thu, 08/26/2010 - 09:44
riclas's picture

scapeshift rotates too.

every combo deck will disappear after rotation :\

forget that comment... by riclas at Thu, 08/26/2010 - 10:02
riclas's picture

forget that comment... thought scapeshift was from planar chaos.
it'll be the only combo deck in the format then.