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By: Tarmotog, Naoto Watabe
Jun 24 2010 1:10am
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Welcome to One Double O, the place to keep in touch with the 100 card Singleton format. Today I'll be looking at useful cards from Urza's Legacy and a new deck archetype that will be born with the new set. We also have a diverse field in the top 8s of the recent 100 card Singleton Weekend Challenges that you might want to take a look at. The links with the decklists are provided at the dates.

-------------One Double O Tournament Center------------------------------------------------------------------

4/6/2010 100 Card Singleton Weekend Challenge

4c Rock (minus red)
UW Control
5c Scapeshift Rock
MonoRed
UG Midranged
UBG Control
Doran Rock (without Doran)
5c Scapeshift Rock

13/6/2010 100 Card Singleton Weekend Challenge

Poly/Oath
5c Scapeshift Rock
Crosis Control
Naya Zoo
MonoRed
MonoBlue Control
UB Control
Naya Zoo

Comments:
If I didn't say already, I believe Scapeshift to be one of the most powerful cards in the format because it is essentially a 1 card combo kill with a condition of having at least 7 lands in play, 8 for a 21 damage kill. If one would take a look at the various 5c builds, one would find them to be very different from the original list played which is not surprising since the mana base can support a variety of choices.

The red lists maintain their choice of no longer playing Goblin Recruiter. I suppose the players don't really want to get stuck with the generally weaker goblins when they have access to various powerful red creatures of the recent years, which is very understandable. This change also moves moves the deck away from being affected by sideboard choices such as Engineered Plague.

The winning Poly/Oath deck is a "new deck" to the format. I know a player who has been tinkering with a similar deck for quite some time so I might be able to look into the deck. Poly/Oath is a control-combo deck that you need to be careful when facing because if you don't take the extra precaution, you will get your face bashed in by a 15/15 alien. It mainly works on the back of Polymorph effects (so you should keep your mana open for removals for the targets) but it can also use Oath of Druids to get the game winners out. Sideboard cards that eat a few cards out of the deck can potentially cripple the deck's win conditions but the deck has enough fighting power without the win conditions to win so extra caution should be taken.

Once again, it's good to see the format being a diverse and healthy one with a nice mix of everything in the top 8s so anyone can take anything to the top tables if luck is with them and they play well. The tournament pays well. The tournament pays well. The tournament pays well. I said it thrice.

-------------One Double O Set Review: Urza's Legacy------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall, as with the other Urza sets, Urza's Legacy comes with its bunch of powerful cards but unlike Urza's Saga, I think that the value and the quantity of such cards are considerably lower. Still, I think that it should make a significant mark on the format in the near future when people start to use its cards.

 

While this is not an exciting card to look at, this card adds card volume to a deck that wants the Twiddle untap effect.

I am guessing that a deck with Lotus Vale or Gilded Lotus + untap based storm deck would be the house for this card.

There are a few reasons why this card is played.
The first is the most obvious, being that it untaps 2 lands so decks that are able to produce more than 1 mana out of their lands may want this.

The second is the fact that this is a "free creature". This goes well with equipments or auras which consume considerable amounts of mana. This is complemented by the fact that this card has flying so there will be more mileage points with equipment such as Mask of Memory, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Light and Shadow or even aura like Curiosity.

I expect this card to see play in this format because having instant access to any land is a really powerful effect and that is why Knight of the Reliquary is pure goodstuff.

Just having this in the deck lets you toy around with a "toolbox" mana base. There are a variety of lands that I can think of to justify playing this card such as Dark Depths, Karakas, Wasteland, Bazaar of Baghdad, Volrath's Stronghold or manlands to name a couple.

Flagstones of Trokair can be played with this to prevent card loss.

Another plus side to this card is that it can be used against Wasteland effects that one faces every now and then but that is mainly secondary.

This is one of the more dangerous cards of the set, capable of ending games with the powerful world eating fatties that we have come to know in the recent years.

Do note that it doesn't say that you can't have a bunch of creatures. It only requires your opponent to have "three or more" creatures. This fact makes this card a very nice card for decks with access to green mana to play.

Maindeck worthy if you expect a metagame with creatures. Might be better in the sideboard if your opponents are unlikely to have 3 or more creatures in play.Better against green and white aggro (unless they pop down a Ronom unicorn).

This is one of the most classic cards of the set. I believe that when this card was in standard, it was used together with Tradewind Rider which would bounce this to get the net gain of 4 squirrel tokens and have Opposition to lock the game up.

The fact that this creature is an elf means that he works well with Wirewood Symbiote and can be tutored via Wirewood Herald. Having 5 creatures makes Chord of calling immediately usable.

9 power of creatures for 5+5 mana isn't too bad too but one should be careful to take into account the possibility of him being killed and the squirrels getting a downsize.

This card is a unique card in that you will lose a card count for using it.
This is a "free filter" which can be used to add storm count but it is also a very good madness enabler or a card that supports flashback, Bloodghast or Vengevine and the likes.

It also can be a potential mana boost if lands that produce more than 1 mana are played (like the karoo lands). This is a powerful card that supports a deck that needs it very well. 3 mana for a Arrogant Wurm out of nowhere should catch people unguarded.

Untapping Bazaar of Baghdad is not funny too.

 

While there is a slightly more powerful version of this card from a portal set called Fire Imp, this card is a very unique card in that it is like a Skirk Marauder morphed up with the opposite sequence. Being able to shoot the head is probably useful but this card is probably better against opposing creature based decks because it can potentially trade 2 cards but echo can be a tough price to pay.

Cards such as Momentary Blink or Angelic Renewal can increase the value of this card as can Reveillark. I don't think too highly of this card but it is definitely playable to some extent, depending on what deck it is put into.

As one of the oddest cards in Magic, Goblin Welder is capable of very sick plays since artifacts exist in many various forms. Welding a Seat of the Synod for a Mindslaver or a Sundering Titan is going to make people curse from their seats in front of the computer.

And of course, there are annoying plays such as stressing out a Sensei's Divining Top for a discarded mana artifact.

The power of this card is proportionate to the number of artifacts that are played in the format. Vintage has moxes. We do have a couple of playables ourselves but not probably not enough to make Goblin Welder a big menace.

Cards such as Strategic Planning which put cards into the graveyard have slightly more value with Goblin Welder.

One of the few powerful artifacts that exist in the game is finally here. I would believe that the only reason why Mana Vault is not online yet is because they want this card to see some amount of play first. (Since there is no reason to play this over Mana Vault when it costs 1 more to play and not as if it is supported by another format.)

While not that impressive by itself, combine it with Voltaic Key or Tezzeret the Seeker and you can get a large chunk of usable colorless mana. While I don't recall any decks now that want this mana, with the playable 10-11 mana eldrazi legends in the format, this can be a dangerous threat. (I mean it)

 

A neat sideboard card to play against a control player. 1 mana for a 4/4 is not something one can laugh at especially since it serves as a very good bait for countermagic later in the game as well.

Even against aggressive decks, this card might deter your opponent from casting his Swords to plowshares or Lightning Bolts since this automatically trades 4 damage or 2 cards.

It's not that powerful a card to give it maindeck space because it can be played around but it is definitely worth considering in the sideboard and boarded in if you notice that the opponent plays a good number of instants.

For an aggressive deck with red, this card can be a quick geddon. The magic number here is 7. That is 3 + 4 lands which means that the most possible situation is one where both players are stuck at 3 lands. That is not so bad for the red deck since it is capable of running on a low mana count.

The drawback to this is that it only works on your upkeep which is to say that the opponent can make plays such as lay 4th land, (Day of Judgement) and there will be a clear board that is not too good for the red player.

This is the card I've been waiting for for a very long time. This spirit is the other half of Reveillark, capable of creating a strong defense line. This can return Reveillark which can return it later on. It might be better not to pay her echo cost in that case.

She isn't really a "strong" card by herself as a 2/2 pro black flying creature with echo to hog up mana but she's probably as good as reanimating bodies get. The other is Phyrexian Delver which chews on life totals.

She enables a Protean Hulk based combo which involves the Protean Hulk dying via Sneak Attack or Through the Breach and getting Karmic Guide and Carrion Feeder, reanimate and sacrifice the Protean Hulk, get Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker and put a copy ability on the stack while sacrificing Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker. When the Karmic Guide copy enters the battlefield, return Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker and loop. You get infinite 2/2 flying pro black haste creatures but this combo is definitely more tedious than the Pestermite + Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker combo.

 

Memory Jar is a very one sided card since one player would probably never get to use enough of the "new hand" for it to be considered a symmetric effect.

A draw 7 that is available for any deck to use may not be a bad thing. Imagine putting one into the sideboard of monored and throwing 5 burn spells at an opponent.

Of course, draw 7s are better when played in decks that want card quantity, such as combo decks, especially since this card digs 7 cards deep.

This card is a draw-discard spell which means that as with Frantic Search, this card enables madness and other decks that run on cards going into the graveyard.

A mini Mana Leak that you can cycle away. 2 is a very bad number because it is very easy to be in a situation where a players has 2 mana open unless the game is in its early stages but that is where the cycling comes in.

Also, cycling it away early can send signals to your opponent and that can put you at a slight advantage because they will start to think about what your hand looks like for you to get rid of a potential counter magic.

The most powerful white weenie card would probably be this card since she can protect the key creatures in play, especially when they start to be in trading range.

Nothing too difficult to describe. Just a card that needs to go into any white based aggressive deck that can be searched out via Ranger of Eos.

 

This is the king of the land untapping cards, capable of producing infinite mana if your 7 lands produce a total of 12 or more mana.

Heartbeat of Spring or High Tide are the more common pairings that would allow you to fulfill that condition and you only need 6 lands to get a net gain of 1 mana. The full 7 will give you 3 mana per loop.

4 Islands plus a tron set would give exactly 11 mana so that is not an option unless you want to create infinite storm count.

Of course, this can be used in a mono-blue / UB / UW deck as a finisher since it allows the player to have mana open and it has in-built "protection". An easy favorite.

This card is for heavy creature based rock decks. This card works best against decks that don't deal damage fast, similar to how Sylvan Library functions against slower decks.

The nearest comparison would probably be Oversold Cemetery which is "free" to use but needs 4 creatures in your graveyard to start functioning. This card is slightly more resilient against graveyard hate since you can activate it multiple times.

Golgari Brownscale + this = negated lifeloss. (If it means anything)

This is an odd wrath variant because it is so easy and difficult to trigger at the same time. Against most green based decks, having a total of 4 or more creatures on both sides is not difficult. Turn 1 Birds of Paradise, turn 2 something, turn 3 something is already 3 creatures.

The thing about this is that if your opponent can mess around with the creatures in play, this card can be played around, potentially making it a useless card.

Cards such as Wall of omens make this card more playable since it gums up the board and makes the opponent drop more creatures.

Playing it on turn 2 can slow down the board progress considerably and that itself might make it worth playing.

http://www.mtgotraders.com/store/media/products/ul/Quicksilver_Amulet.jpg

In a world where the Eldrazi run around with many angelic or hydra legends, I would not be too surprised if this card sees play alongside some other cards such as Hypergenesis, Show and Tell or Eureka.

Plopping down an Eldrazi at the end of turn sounds hard to beat but it is undeniable that playing this card is a very risky move to some extent.

As long as this doesn't get countered or destroyed before an activation, this card can potentially warp games.

I know for one thing that people don't like seeing Emrakul in play.

No one can predict what Scars of Mirrodin will bring so this card's value might go up a little in the near future. Being an instant makes this card a Cunning Wish target more than anything and this is Ancient Grudge for people not playing RG.

Sideboard card that might see more play in the future.

With Stoneforge Mystic seeing considerable amounts of play, I do think that it is not too uncommon to see 2 artifacts in play. The only drawback is that if there isn't 2 and you need to clear up a Sword of Fire and Ice, you can only sit there and watch it stay in your hand as you hope another artifact appears.

Cycling makes most semi-playable cards possible maindeck cards.

This is one of them since it is potentially a removal but you can get rid of it if the situation doesn't look good.

Having random cyclers can randomly help cards like Lorescale Coatl or Tarmogoyf grow.

As with Rack and Ruin, this card will have a similar purpose in a sideboard.

Unlike the red card, this card has more playability in the short-run where it could bounce equipments and mess up games or get cycled away for another card.

Having this push back signets against a Counterbalance might be a sick play.

Also, there are other uses to this such as adding storm count by replaying 0 or 1 mana artifacts.

This card is a very unique card because it is similar to a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir.

As most of us have experienced, a 3/4 flash creature is capable of taking down many of the creatures played in the format and most of the time, you would try to take this down because you probably don't want to lose your attackers or can't deal 4 damage to it on the next turn.

Echo is one thing but this card is like a removal + haste creature if I had to say something about it. I don't think the echo part would be too relevant it, at the very least, trades for 2 cards against aggressive decks.

Free creature bounce is good if you would have played Unsummon in your deck. 

This card is very efficient at what it does and can help a UG type of midrange deck get far ahead without losing any tempo.

This works well at adding storm count and untapping lands too. This also protects large creature bombs such as Baneslayer Angel very well too, especially on the offense where you can replay it post combat.

A cheap reanimation spell that gets back Tarmogoyf, Psychatog, Knight of the Reliquary and a couple of other cards.

I think that this goes well in decks that have a bunch of creatures being sent into the graveyard and can add pressure against slower opponents.

Wild Mongrel, Oona's Prowler and Psychatog do a good job at activating this card. Cards with additional costs such as Wren's Run Vanquisher or Talara's Battalion come into play with this too.

A Dwarven Miner for artifacts that deals bonus damage to opponents.

Artifacts are commonly played in 100 card Singleton so it would not be surprising to see this being played. Having a toughness of 3 is a bonus since it doesn't immediately die to a Sword of Fire and Ice and can hang around to get rid of it.

The cost of both the card and the effect are relatively reasonable but not amazing. Scars of Mirrodin might shake things up.

A 2 power protection from red is probably enough to block most red creatures effectively since most are toughness 1 or 2 which is why cards like Silver knight, Kor firewalker or even Deft Duelist are so effective against mono red.

This one costs more mana but is accessible to blue / blue splashed decks that want to hold the ground (and the skies) for awhile against mono red.

One way to win green on green matchups is by having fatter creatures. Another is to have a constant stream of creatures. This card does a little of both.

It's not too horrible by itself since it trades quite easily with 5/5s. It is a little weak against burn but that's a little too much to ask for a guy that recycles.

Additional note: This with Sneak Attack is R: 5 trample damage.

That marks the end of the Urza's Legacy set review. There are much fewer great cards than the other sets but the handful are really rare effects to the format and have very high potential. The lack of quantity comes from the fact that we already did get a few hits of the set such as Rancor, Bone Shredder and the man land cycle that we see all the time so it's not that the set is weak but we have quite a few cards already reprinted.

-------------One Double O Deck Tech - Hightide------------------------------------------------------------------

A new deck archetype will be available in 100 card Singleton with the release of Urza's Legacy. That archetype revolves around the land untapping cards from the set, more specifically, Palinchron.
With a veteran Highlander player pointing me to a high tide list, I managed to study how the deck works. Here is a sample decklist which is explained in more details in this blog here for those who are interested.


The main distinctive feature between Highlander and 100 card Singleton is the fact that Highlander runs much less lands than most 100 card Singleton decks. This comes from the special mulligan ruling the format has that allows players to swap part of their hand away rather than ship the whole hand away to prevent games being heavily determined by not getting mana flood / screwed. This rule allows decks to run on much fewer lands than what we would require to optimally run a deck. As seen above, the deck runs 29 lands. That is almost impossible to replicate in 100 card Singleton for a deck that wants to play with at least 6 lands in play. I can't do that.

Together with that drop in spell density in 100 card Singleton is the loss of 2 very powerful cards, Intuition and Gifts Ungiven, from the ban list. If either or both were in the format, I would think that this deck would be set at a very comfortable position to come join the format as seen from how Heartbeat of Spring decks run and how resilient they can get but this is another restriction we have to face.

We, however, do have access to a sideboard which might help in the weaker matchups.

For now, the deck below is what I have, running 37 lands over the original 29.


Having played a couple of games with the deck, I feel that it has a strong game against control and is considerably weaker against aggro because of the lack of the 2 banned cards which can give the deck much more access to the critical cards which provide the speed needed to race aggro. However, if you do get the cards and conditions in place, you can start the infinite mana nonsense and outright win. Control decks don't do enough to mess your game most of the time so the aggro matchup is the one to be weary of.

The deck is very odd in the sense that it doesn't need to go infinite to win. Just going off fast can give you a relatively strong board position enough to win games on the back of creatures but of course, infinite is always better.

A very powerful card in the deck is Spellweaver Volute which is capable of chaining large spells from small ones. If I were to describe it, I would say that it works similar to how Future Sight works. It just gives you so many cards. The only thing about it is that you need to get a hang of playing with it by setting up instants for sorceries and planning the sequence of events that would be good for flow of the game.

Other than that, the deck is relatively straightforward and can combo off when the pieces come together. The only problem I know is that it can take quite some time to combo-kill someone because forcing an opponent to draw almost 90 cards means that you need to have that much mana in your mana pool.

-------------Last Words------------------------------------------------------------------

The UL release is ongoing now so do grab the cards soon while the prices are low. Hopefully people will play some UL cards in 100 card Singleton before M11 enters the format and stirs things up again. Grim Monolith might be the most expensive card of the set since Legacy has new access to it so grab it before that crowd does.

tarmotog@hotmail.com
Tarmotog on myMTGO.com

3 Comments

fantastic stuff I always look by JustSin at Thu, 06/24/2010 - 21:23
JustSin's picture
5

fantastic stuff I always look forward to reading your articles when a new set is coming out because they tend to give me insight to casual decks beyond 100cs

Agreed by First_Strike at Fri, 06/25/2010 - 10:41
First_Strike's picture
5

I always enjoy reading your articles and insight.

Thank you for the kind words by Tarmotog at Fri, 06/25/2010 - 22:54
Tarmotog's picture

Thank you for the kind words =)