Musings on MTGO Community Challenge Cup Standard

I have been working on the Standard decks for the MCCC.  The online community got us off to a good start by creating a playable gauntlet that had no overlap.  That was a huge start.  Now we have to refine the decks, and possibly scrap the bad ones and find replacements. 

Oh, yes.  The Wizards folks have agreed not to read the forums in which we are discussing decks and strategy.  WotC - this is another such article.  If you are on the WotC team, or building their decks, please don't read this article until after the event.  Thanks.

We are playing in a special room online - room CCC.  Just type "/join ccc" in any text box and you can join us.  We appreciate any help we can get.  We talk strategy and decks, and look for challengers.  However - please bring gauntlet decks.  Yes, non-unified standard decks are better, but that's not what we have to test against or prepare for.  Our opponents, like ourselves, have to stretch thier fetchlands and mana fixing, as well as bombs, across eight decks.  No one will be able to play, or have to play against, 5 color good stuff.

The biggest challenge for this deck construction is removal, card drawing and the mana bases.  All of these are in short supply.  Creatures, threats, stuff like that are all common - there are a couple hundred creatures in Standard after all.   Lands that tap for more than one color mana - not so many.

 These are all fine lands.  They do much of what we want them to do - and only the tri-lands come into play tapped.  The only downside is that nearly all of them are already assigned to decks.   Decks like Boros Bushwacker - decks that run a dozen fetchlands - simply can't work here.  The decks have play nicely, and share. 

Let's take them in reverse order.  The Refuges are the two color reprints of the Invasion block duals (e.g. Coastal Tower) that give you one life when they come into play.   Coming into play tapped is not great, but they work, if they are all you have.  I have been running them in a UB deck quite successfully, but that is because the UB deck is slow. 

The Panoramas are interesting, mainly because they can function like overpriced fetchlands.  They can trigger landfall abilities twice, like the fetchlands.  They fix mana.  The downsides, however, are that the lands they produce come into play tapped.   I don't think I would want more than maybe two per deck - probably less - but if we have to free up some fetches of better lands for other decks, they may be the answer.  I may try some in Esper Control, Jund and/or Bant.  Yes, it might make those deck slightly worse, but our goal is to build eight playable decks, not three good decks and five piles.   

Targeted removal is much the same.  Terror is gone, but we have Doom Blade, Deathmark, Executioner's Capsule and Terminate, plus a few lesser cards.   The trick is to allocate them.  It gets worse when you look at good global removal.  We still have Pyroclasm and Infest and Volcanic Fallout doing two damage, but the old three damage spells, like FIrespout are gone.  Now we have Caldera Hellion, or Earthquake if you don't need to hit fliers.  Wrath of God and Hallowed Burial are gone, leaving just Day of Judgment, Mass Calcify and (Planar Cleasning) as global kill spells.   How would you divide those among 8 decks?

 That's the challenge.  The other challenge is to wedge as many good cards into the decks as possible.  Getting all the decks to share cards is easy if they are narrow, but if that means that you leave out something you should be playing, that's bad.  For example, leaving Baneslayer Angel sitting on the sideboards is an Epic Fail. 

(Baneslayer is not in a deck at the moment, because we are reworking the UW / Esper build.  She will be, though, soon.)

Some decks are easy, in that they pretty much build themselves.  Here's an example. 

Vampires

for Magic Online Community Challenge Cup Unified Standard

Creatures 4 Bloodghast 4 Gatekeeper Of Malakir 3 Malakir Bloodwitch 3 Vampire Hexmage 4 Vampire Nighthawk 4 Vampire Nocturnus  32 cards Other Spells 1 Eldrazi Monument 3 Disfigure 4 Tendrils Of Corruption 2 Mind Sludge 4 Sign In Blood 13 cards

Lands 24 Swamp 24 cards Sideboard 3 Deathmark or Feast of Blood 1 Malakir Bloodwitch 1 Vampire Hexmage 1 Disfigure 3 Marsh Casualties 4 Duress 2 Mind Sludge 9 cards

This deck is pretty straightforward, but potent.  I think we will save it for one of our teammates who will not have time to playtest before the event.  The deck competes with other decks for pretty much nothing, except the Deathmarks.   We will be testing the (Feat of Blood)s in their play, and see if it works.  Feast of Blood kills Baneslayer Angle, too.

 Here's another deck that should make the grade.

Bant

for Magic Online Community Challenge Cup Unified Standard

Creatures 2 Birds Of Paradise 2 Dauntless Escort 4 Jhessian Infiltrator 4 Noble Hierarch 3 Qasali Pridemage 4 Rhox War Monk 4 Rafiq Of The Many 23 cards Other Spells 1 Behemoth Sledge 4 Bant Charm 4 Vines of Vastwood 2 Harm's Way 2 Oblivion Ring 2 Finest Hour 4 Misty Rainforest 11 cards

Lands 6 Forest 4 Island 4 Plains 4 Sunpetal Grove 18 cards Sideboard 4 Celestial Purge 2 Dauntless Escort 1 Flashfreeze 2 Oblivion Ring 2 Battlegrace Angel 11 cards

Sure, this deck would like Baneslayer Angel and Path to Exile and all the rest, but it is pretty darn good without them.  It may get some tweaks, like Jenara, Asura of War, Knight of the Reliquary, maybe a Panorama so we can steal a fetch  and so forth, but this seems to work.   It is deck # two in the gauntlet.

Deck number three is also pretty much a given.  It wins tournaments.

Jund

for Magic Online Community Challenge Cup Unified Standard

Creatures 4 Bloodbraid Elf 3 Broodmate Dragon 4 Putrid Leech 4 Sprouting Thrinax 15 cards Other Spells 4 Bituminous Blast 2 Doom Blade 2 Resounding Thunder 2 Terminate 2 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Blightning 4 Maelstrom Pulse 4 Verdant Catacombs 20 cards

Lands 4 Forest 2 Mountain 4 Swamp 3 Dragonskull Summit 4 Rootbound Crag 4 Savage Lands 21 cards Sideboard 4 Anathemancer 4 Jund Charm 4 Scepter of Fugue 1 Volcanic Fallout 2 Thought Hemorrhage 15 cards

Beyond this point, the decks get sketchier.   We had both Time Sieve and Soldiers decks in the format, and they both seriously underperformed.  TIme Sieve, frankly, stank.   They have been replaced.  Here's one replacement, in a very preliminary form.  Hamtastic is working on it at the moment.

3  Expedition Map
2  Knight-Captain of Eos
4  (Scepter of Denial)
4  Luminarch Ascension
4  Angelsong
4  Safe Passage
8  (Mountian)
11 Plains
1  Emeria, the Sky Ruin
3  Naya Panorama
4  Ajani Vengeant
4  Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4  Martial Coup
4  Intimidation Bolt
3  Earthquake

The mana is a mess, which will get a lot better if we can find free up the RW fetches.  I'm not even sure of the numbers, or that they add to twenty.  A couple hours ago, this was UW.

One of our team loves mill decks.  Unless that changes, and Sam finds something she likes even better, this will be part of the gauntlet.

Sam's Mill

for Magic Online Community Challenge Cup Unified Standard

Creatures 3 Jhessian Zombies 4 Kathari Remnant 4 Nemesis of Reason 4 Wall of Frost 15 cards Other Spells 4 Hedron Crab 4 Archive Trap 3 Haunting Echoes 3 Jace Beleren 4 Mind Funeral 3 Ponder 13 cards

Lands 4 Jwar Isle Refuge 11 Island 7 Swamp 2 Terramorphic Expanse 20 cards Sideboard 4 Agony Warp 4 Deathmark 4 Flashfreeze 3 Clone 15 cards

I actually like this deck - partly because I built it.  The one real techie part is the Clones in the Sideboard.  If you want another answer to Baneslayer, try Clone.   Clone is even an answer to cards like Progenitus and Darksteel Colossus - more or less.  Against Progenitus, it would help if your Clone/Progenitus had haste as well.  Two Progenituses race, the one getting the head start usually wins.

One final deck - once again, this is the sort of thing that you end up playing when your card pool is severely constrained.  I started building this in ,y head on the commute home - and at that point I thought Hoofprints of the Stag was in Shards of Alara.  It isn't - it's Lorwyn.  The deck really wanted that card, but it works without.

Enchatresss

Magic Online Community Challenge Cup Unified Standard

Creatures 1 Acidic Slime 2 Birds of Paradise 2 Borderland Ranger 4 Mesa Enchantress 2 Progenitus 3 Wall of Reverence 14 cards Other Spells 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria 3 Journey to Nowhere 4 Khalni Heart Expedition 1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen 4 Oblivion Ring 2 Sigil of the Empty Throne 4 Trace of Abundance 3 Warp World 13 cards

Lands 1 Arid Mesa 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin 3 Graypelt Refuge 1 Verdant Catacombs 2 Bant Panorama 4 Forest 4 Jungle Shrine 1 Mountain 4 Plains 1 Savage Lands 1 Seaside Citadel 1 Swamp 18 cards Sideboard 1 Wall of Reverence 2 Solemn Offering 3 Crystallization 3 Terra Stomper 1 Journey to Nowhere 3 Acidic Slime 9 cards

This started as a bit of a joke, but it actually plays pretty well.  It could really use Mulldrifter or something else that can draw cards.  It also needs a board sweeper:  Martial Coup would be perfect.  However, Martial Coup is in use already.  Other great token generators, like Mobilization have rotated out.  (Siege Gang Commander) might be worth testing.  Actually, a lot of this might be worth testing.

The deck is really good against creature beats.  It is less exciting against Cruel Control and the like.  

On the plus side, this is an absolute blast to play.

I have to head to work, and I will be travelling to, then running, a PTQ this weekend.  I may appear online when possible.

PRJ

"one million words" on MTGO

"CC_1M_Words" on MTGO until the MCCC ends.