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Welcome to One Double O, a column that looks at the 100 card Singleton format. I've been really busy so I've not been doing my usual stuff online (including writing)... I'll be reving up my gears so expect to see more of me soon.

So anyway, today I'll be looking at Zendikar cards and also the Duel decks: Garruk vs Liliana and their contributions to the format.
The new set is a very good set and is making life interesting for everyone with a large number of playable cards. I'll be talking about them.

The duel decks, if you ever want to play them, work like this:

Garruk: Cast creatures and beatdown. Laugh at Sign in Blood when you have harmonize instead, cringe when your opponent has a bunch of regenerators and hope that you draw enough serrated arrows to mess with them. Your creatures are so good when they cannot die to the removals played by the Liliana player.

Liliana: Watch in horror as you use crappy cards, be thankful that some can regenerate, while you hope to draw the pauper mono-black life gaining cream in the form of Tendrils of corruption and Corrupt. If you manage to stabilize, you can hope that you stop drawing lands and get something you can use to win. You tend to want to hope that you draw the right removals for the right threats.

If you want to ask if it's worth the money to get it, I can only comment that I will be getting it. I like alternate arts and "new" cards when I play 100 card Singleton.  

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Before going on to the card reviews, I'll just touch upon some tech from extended that one might want to use.

Extended Tech:

With Pro Tour Austin just in the books, showcasing a rather messy array of archetypes, I've pulled out some of the extended tech used there. Most will see some play at some point in time so it's good to not miss out on any of the tech.

Thopter foundry + Sword of the Meek
With the combo out, you get a 1/1 flier for 1 mana. You can cast entomb to put sword of the meek into the graveyard or just hardcast it. An easy combo to assemble but doesn't really do much when not assembled.

Hedron Crab to mill self
Well, you most probably wouldn't be trying to mill your opponent to death in this format. A nice self-mill card.

Scapeshift + (Valukut, the molten pinnacle)
The idea is to cast Scapeshift to get at least 5 mountains and (Valukut, the molten pinnacle) into play and deal 3 damage for each mountain that comes into play so you need at least 6 lands to deal 15 damage. A savage damage combo.

Vampire Hexmage + Dark Depths => 20/20 flying indestructable Marit Lage token
A very simple to execute combo in 100 card Singleton. Seriously, you only have to assemble 2 cards to do this. A very possibly played combo

Grove of the burnwillows + Punishing Fire 
Another one of the PT technologies, the punishing fire + Grove of the burnwillows combo is at best viable in a RGW deck but not a monored or a lower curve RG, unless you are playing into a field that is very burn heavy and you want a nice source that doesn't hurt you. It is not worth the effort unless you have more cards that work around giving your opponent life like kavu predator or karmic justice. Don't be too tempted to try it unless you are making the deck work around it.

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Zendikar - Priceless Treasures, Deadly Perils

Zendikar has been around for awhile and I hope many of you have managed to get the cards you want from the set. Unfortunately, I only managed to get fetchlands only in my 7th sealed, which means I opened a booster box worth of cards and gotten nil so the release experience hasn't been too wonderful for me. I'll be giving short descriptions on various cards that I find playable for the 100 card Singleton format in this section.

Zendikar's Priceless Treasures:

luminarch ascension

Basically, if you miss being able to damage your opponent 4 times, you will almost surely lose to the horde of 4/4 angel tokens that will beat you into oblivion. That said, if you don't have evasion or burn, chances are that a deck with this card can easily find the 4 turns it needs to put counters onto the enchantment. The angels start coming down at the end of turn where it gets the 4th counter but that is not doesn't really change the fact that a platoon of angels are coming down.

Expedition Map

This card is insane at many levels because it lets you search out any land out of your deck. It's a colorless Sylvan Scrying for most people.
It give you a chance against a moon-lock (Blood Moon type of cards) or it lets you search out powerful lands like Volrath's Stronghold or Karakas.
Just these make Expedition map a card worth throwing into any non-aggressive deck.

However, when you have blue mana in the mix, things just get better:
#1- you can search it out with Trinket Mage and Tezzeret the Seeker
#2- you get access to Academy Ruins which lets you set up "draw a land card from your deck every turn" by reusing it.
How this works: Search for Academy Ruins, activate Academy Ruins and put Expedition Map on top of the library, crack and search for any land.

For #2, this works very well for say a UW deck against a control deck where it can even set up an Urzatron to out-mana the opponent.
Even if you are not sold on the idea of playing Urzatron in a 100 card Singleton deck, there are many lands you can actually search for such as Temple of the False God and Vesuva (to copy the temple) to get a huge jump in your mana.

With so many powerful lands in the format, being able to draw into any specific land is like gold for a slower deck.
 

Fetch lands:

With 5 more fetchlands in the mix, there are a total of 10 fetchlands + 5 mirage fetches. This creates more opportunities for people to make greedier land bases or just very consistent splashes.

As with the older fetchlands, they work well with top of library manipulation, going into threshold and also some cards like tithe and Weathered Wayfarer. 

Burst Lightning - A very high quality card because of its flexibility which allows you to kill creatures that matter at various stages of the game. I might say that in Singleton 100, this might be better than a Lightning bolt as it kills the various 4 toughness guys (which the format sees often) while it gets rid of most of what you tend to throw a bolt at too.

goblin guide - 1 mana 2/2 haste that lets your opponent draw lands if the card on the top is a land. The drawback is not that much of a drawback if you consider the odds of your opponent having to discard in the early game. If the board is clear in the late game, more lands tend not to make a huge difference. Its ability might actually be more of a bonus if you consider the fact that it shows you what your opponent is going to draw next, unless of course, it's a land which tends to be only 40% of the time or slightly lesser.

journey to nowhere - A cheap white creature removal that is like a mini-Oblivion Ring. Works in all white aggressive decks, some control builds too and also with Zur the enchanter of course.

lotus cobra - A 2/1 creature that does not need to stop attacking to add mana. Adds more mana with fetchlands but it also doesn't add mana without lands. A very "more-advantage" card that works very well in 100 card Singleton because you don't start to become too reliant on it and you can maximize it by adding more fetchlands?

day of judgment - Wrath of God #2 without the "can't be regenerated" clause. Regeneration is not a very common ability in 100 card Singleton but there are some creatures with it such as Troll Ascetic or Twisted Abomination. Still, at 4 mana, you get a board sweeper which is much better than a large number of existing ones we have today.

Zendikar playables:

Beastmaster Ascension - Attack with 7 creatures and everyone gets +5/+5? Put this into a deck that has an average of 3-5 creatures in play and you'll see your whole team upsize! Elves maybe?

Bloodchief Ascension - This card is plain sick when it works but getting it to trigger tends to be the problem. I see this possibly played in some rock build where a good number of creatures are played. A suicide black deck or RB aggro maybe? Free Shocks are good.

Bloodghast - This is a very interesting card because you can summon it from the graveyard just by having lands come into play.
If Skullclamp were around...
So anyhow, I see potential in Pox/Death cloud type of decks or it can take over the game with a single Obliterate + land drop? Very curious to see how it gets played. Too bad it can't block.

(conquerer's pledge) - With a simple honor of the pure/Glorious anthem/Ajani goldmane out, you can definitely get full mileage from 6 1/1 tokens. the only thing I don't like about it is the fact that it costs 5 mana. 

Cosi's trickster - With 5 additional fetchlands from Zendikar, one can be assured that shuffling is never going to be a rare event, especially against the slower decks that want to play search spells. This is the perfect "fish" or merfolk card but both archetypes are somewhat absent from the metagame as I write this. A very good card for an uncommon archetype. 

crypt of agadeem - This is no Cabal Coffers but it taps for B and can create a substantial amount of mana if built around. The main problem is how to go about having black creatures in the graveyard. Suicide black maybe? 
From what I know, standard has a deck that uses cyclers to fill up the graveyard to power out tons of mana from Crypt of agadeem. Black has no shortage of ways of pulling a land out of the deck with any of its tutors.
 

disfigure - B for a -2/-2 effect makes this a decent card, for an aggressive B (since RB has burn which would be better in most cases unless looking at regenerators) deck. It might fit in a UB control deck that wants to be able to destroy its early threats

elemental appeal - Blistering Firecat #2 that suggests that you don't play cards like Mutavault or Mishra's Factory. It has a nice kicker effect in the event you end up stalling for one reason or another.

emeria, the sky ruin - A land that reanimates your guys every turn if you have 7 or more plains in play. This is quite a steep cost which would require one to warp the entire mana base around to make it function. I foresee a mid-ranged deck, possibly a rock build, using a plains-dual land base, that makes use of this land to recur creatures. I've been brainstorming on this but it's rather difficult to implement unless because I am working on a somewhat WGish base.
The odd thing is that a deck that is naturally jammed pack with plains is a deck that would almost never ever see 8 lands in play, making this an unsuitable candidate for a white weenie deck. If so, would this see play?

eternity vessel - Resetting one's life is probably one of the most irritating abilities that one can come up with. If you can keep your life at a high life total until you cast this, you can just hold lands back and keep resetting your life to the recorded life total. Just be careful of Vampire Hexmage!

gatekeeper of Malakir - If you can consistently churn out BBB, you know you want to play this card because it's a Cruel Edict pasted onto a 2/2 body. It's good at what it does.

Goblin ruinblaster - A very strong card that is closely comparable to Avalanche Riders. Better when not specifically trying to abuse creatures with come-into-play abilities since it doesn't do anything unless kicked. Being a goblin lets it be part of the tribal deck as at least a 2/1 haste.

Guul draz vampire - A 3/2 fear is very hard to fight. A 1/1 for B is very subpar. A deck that can maximize it (like suicide black or RB aggro) should play it. Just remember that you need to get your opponent to 10 or less life.

iona, shield of emeria - A very annoying ability to play, this card can go into reanimation decks to totally wipe out mono-colored decks or just shut down the color of disruption from an opposing deck. Just mentioning that it combos with Painter's Servant and can be Tooth and nailed out.

kor aeronaut - An industrial standard white weenie card. Well, with creatures getting better with time, an evasive bear is what white weenie really needs rather than some random 2/2 first striker with a random ability because evasion gets jobs done.

kor sanctifiers - A white Disenchant on a stick creature. Beats playing with a maindeck Disenchant that might not hit anything. Plus, turn 2 is probably not the turn you want to Disenchant something. A card worth playing in white weenie.

kor skyfisher - Bounce is good with cards with "comes into play" abilities. Of course, a 2/3 flier for 2 mana is quite decent by itself. At least you get to pull some stunts in the mid-game with windbrisk heights or Ranger of eos.

kraken hatchling - A 0/4 for U is a card that blue decks can really use. Currently, the industrial standard for aggressive cheap beaters is 2 mana 3/3s and this simple looking card can tank those cards at a minimal cost. No, I'm not joking but it won't be popular because it doesn't kill anything.

lullmage mentor - A merfolk that gives you tokens for countering spells. Countering spells is what blue does frequently so this might be a very useful card to play in a semi-aggressive deck. It is rather useless in a control deck unless you have some way to churn out tons of merfolks to make them into counter magics (but you would start attacking no?). I am not very familiar with how viable the merfolk tribe is in 100 card singleton but they have had more and more decent quality ones recently.

magosi, the waterveil - This card is very hard to evaluate. There are some people who think it works and many who don't. At the very least, it combos off with Rings of Brighthearth to give you infinite turns. A nice but perhaps vulnerable (because you skip a turn) 2 card combo to have unless the control elements in the deck are very good.

mold shambler - You usually would prefer to have an Acidic Slime or Indrik stomphowler over this unless you want to be able to destroy lands. Definitely playable but there are many good options around too.

ob nixilis, the fallen - This card is very interesting because it is vulnerable the turn it comes into play but it can become gamebreaking real quick. I would liken this to Lorescale Coatl which is similar in this aspect. Maybe Scapeshift + this as a bonus combo?
A card with high playability potential. Best if you can hold a fetchland and wait till you can have a land drop on the turn you cast ob nixilis, the fallen. The deck you play this in might want to be more capable in holding the front so that the big bad monster can turn the tides later on.

oracle of mul daya - An interesting Exploration variant which acts as a Future Sight for lands. Might be useful in a Heartbeat of spring deck since it likes to make land drops but his 2/2 body makes people think. Might be worth the effort.

oran-rief, the vastwood - There are a bunch of cool green creatures out there that can make use of this card but the Kitchen finks and his woodfall primus are the 2 that stand out the most. Spike Feeder has an honorable mention here too. Randomly adding +1/+1 counters to green creatures that come into play can mess up games, especially for red based decks. It can find home easily.

plated geopede for monored is a 3/3 or 5/5 (fetchlands!) for 2 mana, putting itself on par or at a higher ranking than many of the highly rated burn-type creatures such as Hellspark elemental and Keldon Marauders.

(Quest for pureflame) - Doubling damage is a very scary effect, especially for one mana. This card can let random burn spells win by just holding them up and unloading in a single turn. Of course, it can be dropped early in the game to let it maximize its doubling effect rather than having 4 spells not doubled. One possible drawback to this card is that it makes you want to hold back spells if you don't draw this and that might end up making you lose at times when you can't unload the burn spells in hand in a tight damage race, because you don't have the mana and you did not maximize your mana in anticipation of this card.

Quest for the gravelord - B for a 5/5 is an overstatement because it's not really like that. It's probably something more of a B, suspend 4: 5/5. Another possible candidate for the not yet played suicide black archetype.

rampaging baloths - This card makes the Heartbeat of Spring player laugh if he casts this on turn 5 and drops 2 lands on that turn. A seriously warped effect that can also go into UG mid-ranged decks. Seriously. Free 4/4s? Ouch!

rite of replication - Clone that cannot be reanimated and can also be fizzled but has a kicker effect that can turn the whole game upside down. Works in a creatureless deck too.

scute mob - A cool card that is cheap to cast and does something very strong in the mid game: become bigger. I am thinking that this card can be cast and backed up with counter magic before it takes over the red zone. Turn taking effects come to mind as well. Imagine casting Capture of Jingzhou and Scute mob on the same turn. You get a fat beater with haste! (kinda)
It gets searched up by Hibernation's End, Imperial recruiter and Ranger of Eos, just to name a few cards.

Sorin markov - Planeswalkers are very powerful cards because they are very difficult to remove. This one is especially so. All 3 of his abilities are quite powerful or at least worth playing. The BBB in his casting cost is probably the biggest drawback he has.

Sphinx of jwar isle - Remember Simic Sky Swallower? This is basically a cheaper version in one color. Shroud narrows down the possible cards that can kill it to but a sad handful. I think this will be an underrated card that will deliver its goods if you play it.
The second ability is helpful as well, letting you better manage your plays with the knowledge of what will come next. The only drawback to this is that you can't really hope to topdeck something over the next turn anymore.

sphinx of lost truths - A 3/5 flier for 5 that lets you draw 3, discard 3 or kick to draw 3 is very strong for a defensive deck going into the late game. Might be played in control decks left and right because of the advantage it gives when drawn late into the game. One of my favorite cards in the set.

Steppe lynx - Another Savannah Lions friend which can be more aggressive early on. I would try to have Land Tax or at least tithe in the deck I'm playing this card with so that the card can maintain its usefulness longer (since white weenie tends to run out of lands to play).

terra stomper - 6 mana for an 8/8 is great against aggressive decks. Its uncounterability makes life difficult for counter-heavy decks. Trample on it pushes it from unplayable to playable.

Unstable footing - This together with Burst Lightning give me an idea of a RB burn deck that plays Dark confidant and Ad nauseam since both can deal more damage than their converted casting cost suggests. Just an idea.

Valakut, the molten pinnacle - The card itself is not very enticing unless you are willing to commit mountains into the deck. If you play many lands that don't have a mountain subtype, activating this will be difficult or impossible. As such, there must be a commitment made in the event you want to play this card, even if you have Scapeshift in mind, unless your deck is centered around getting Scapeshift. Otherwise, you have to make sure that you have maximum mountains in your deck wherever possible.

Vampire hexmage - Used in the extended PT to spit out a turn 1 20/20 indestructable Marit Lage token from Dark Depths. Of course, there are many other possible uses for its "sac to remove counters from target permanent" ability such as to kill planeswalkers to some creatures that have their stats entirely contributed by +1/+1 counters or maybe even reusing some creatures that have a -1/-1 counter on them and have persist. At the very least, she's a 2/1 first striker for BB. I foresee mono black builds (or with splashes) with tutors to get Marit Lage combo since all you need are 2 cards and many of the tutors can assemble the pieces without much effort but I can't guess how powerful this would be in the format.

Vines of vastwood - A possible candidate for any green based aggro decks because even without its pseudo Stonewood Invocation pump, it protects creatures or disrupts opponents equipping at the very least. A high quality card that might mess up games at the crucial moments.

warren instigator - Double striking Goblin Lackey is not bad by any measure. It is at least a 2 damage for 2 mana and if it connects, the bonus is just crazy.

World Queller - A very powerful effect on a decently costed 4/4. To maximize it, you'd want to be able to at least play a few creatures and hopefully not play a large variety of permanents so that you can make it a one sided effect. Maximum removals are also good so that you can limit the options for your opponent. I'd play this with more colors.

Zektar shrine expedition - This card is not difficult to trigger and it can be kept till an optimal timing before used. I think that this card is playable contrary to popular belief that it gives itself away and that it doesn't do much. It can at least force your opponent to keep mana up instead of casting spells.

Zendikar's Deadly Perils - You have been warned

Pitfall Trap: This card tries to entice you by looking like a no-drawback Swords to Plowshares but be warned: it's a trap.
If you could play Condemn, please play it over this because this is not what it claims to be. It has a double drawback of not being able to kill things that are not attacking and they must not be fliers. It doesn't have a cost reduction if your opponent has 2 creatures attacking you so haste can potentially thwart its timing. Imagine paying 3 mana for this effect. It's nothing near good especially in a format where flying fishes, faerie queens, djinns, dragons and angels are commonplace.

khalni heart expedition: This card looks like your everyday mana accelerant but it does not accelerate anything! Even if you have fetches, you will need to put 3 counters before you can crack it for 2 lands that come into play tapped, essentially not giving you any relevant acceleration into the game. Unless you are playing a deck that keeps putting lands into play, do not play it.

Traps or no?

Traps, in general, are hard to use because the format is not as predictable as others. It becomes difficult to keep mana open to wait on the correct situations to abuse the traps unless the conditions are quite easy to fulfill such as:

Baloth cage trap - Artifacts are not uncommon in the format so this is a nice 4/4 for 2 mana that can be put into a sideboard unless you are fine with a 5 mana flash 4/4.

Cobra trap - Destroying non-creatures is not a rare event but it's not that common either. This is definitely sideboard material.

Summoning Trap, possibly the best SB card from the set, lets you play a green creature off the top 7 cards of your library. Counter-no-more! This and Worldly tutor is going to be a big headache for counter decks. Just so wrong.

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Duel decks: Garruk vs Liliana

Of course, we can't forget the new duel decks that are coming to the online store soon enough. As usual, we want to know what we are getting out of this because the duel decks tend to contain some cards that we don't have at the moment and have to wait years before they get released into the system. So let us look at the new cards from the decks.

Albino Troll  This was once the best 2 mana 3/3 because it regenerated. It has echo so you have to split its cost over two turns. The bar has risen since the old days but it still does what it does properly. Perfect for a deck that wants to be flexible between attacking and defending.

Blastoderm  This is my favorite creature from the time I started playing. It's a 4 mana 5/5 shroud that beats for 3 turns (4 if it has haste). Shroud is a very sickening ability and burn spells can ensure that it connects. I like everything about it except for its new art (and maybe the fact that it goes away... but that doesn't stop it from doing its thing).

Rancor  The BEST green non-creature spell? It gives +2/+0 and trample... and it doesn't go away... EVER! Of course, you can kill the creature it is targeting or bounce it but it's just going to do its thing and let your opponent wack the daylights out of you.

Invigorate  The dryad is lifting up the wumpus... ... ... Poor Hunted Wumpus... ... Well, if you are thinking about having a deck with Punishing Fire and Kavu Predator, this is probably a card that fits into such a deck. A deck that uses False Cure might want to abuse this card too. Well, any deck that has forests in it and wants to play a free pump spell to save/kill a creature can play this card as long. Casting it on a double striker or a creature you are going to Berserk offsets the alternate casting cost greatly. It's at least 1 free damage.

Snuff out  Pay 4 life and you can cast this Dark Banishing without paying mana. Of course, you need to have a swamp in play too. This is one of the cards you want to get the duel decks for because free cards are more often than not, good.

Slippery Karst / Polluted Mire  The original cycling lands. These are more useful in decks that plays more colors and can't afford to spare colored mana to cycle. They act as Barren moor or Tranquil Thicket #2 for some decks. Too bad Life from the loam is still banned or these 2 would see more play.

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Deck of the Week: Fetchie Red + green

Obviously, landfall and fetchlands are friends.

The fetchlands and the landfall mechanic has inspired me to come up with a burn deck + green that would capitalize on these goodies and also include the PT viable tech of Scapeshift into Valakut, the molten pinnacle + 5 mountains. Even without 6 lands, the landfall creatures, Plated Geopede and Vinelasher Kudzu (doesn't need to say landfall to be a landfall creature) can benefit from a Scapeshift into at least 4 fetchlands!

 
Let me explain the mana base first.
Basically, you want to be able to get red mana and green mana with a good degree of consistency, most preferably, a Taiga.
Of the 12 fetches, 3 can't get a Taiga. Badlands and Volcanic Island are played as mountains that give you something you can fetch for when you have already used up one part of the fetchable lands. Other than that, they serve no other purpose.
After you get a Taiga out, you might want to get a Plateau which is there only for Wild Nacatl.
There are 2 lands in the deck incapable of producing red mana and they are Wasteland and Savannah. Savannah has to be there because the deck wants to be able to get green mana out at times and this allows Flooded Strand or Marsh Flats to pick up green mana.

Maximum fetchlands directly increase the power of not only the mentioned "landfall" cards but also Grim Lavamancer and Fledgling Dragon, both of which like having cards in the graveyard to work with.

The mana curve is kept at the minimal and it is very rare not to be able to cast all its RRR spells because of the absence of Mutavault and Mishra's Factory which I feel will hinder those although I really like man lands. Ghitu encampment is also not in because I want to be able to naturally use a Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle but that might change.

The deck itself consists of burn spells and creatures that pack a punch. sylvan Library is found in the deck to facilitate draws and to convert life points into more burn spells, especially good against non-aggressive decks. Found this from a legacy article at starcitygames.com. Works rather well, especially with fetchlands (again). Simple to play other than the fact that you need to take some effort managing the fetchlands which might take some time to learn how to do so.

Punishing Fire and Goblin Ruinblaster are probably the 2 of the most debatable cards in the deck. Just testing them now to see whether or not they are worth playing. I don't really like Punishing Fire because it is not very common to have R free and an opponent play life gain into it.

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Last Words

No tournament coverage this time round so I'll cover that next time.
Before I go, good luck to the community cup people who will be playing the shared 100 card Singleton format!
It'll be interesting to see what the Wotc people will be up to in the 100 card Singleton format. (I have rather high hopes...)
Maybe we'll get to pick up more tricks from them?

tarmotog@hotmail.com
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