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By: Splendid Belt, Splendid Belt
Aug 30 2010 12:43am
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Hello and welcome back to Out of the Blue.  I chose this title because I hoped my decks, observations and sporadic inclusion of the word 'spatula' would be surprising.  And because traditionally, my preferred colour in Magic is blue.  However, it's been a while since I created a blue deck, even in tandem with other colours.  Well my first deck this week will fix that.

Last week I had a bit of a moan about colour screw.  Well I'm over that now, and back to creating new decklists.  My first is a combo deck which aims to hurl twenty damage at the face in a short space of time.  As most combo decks it needs to buy time to pull its constituent parts together, and ways of drawing into those parts.  For the former goal we have red, and all the removal we could possibly want.  And for the latter; blue, complete with drawing, stalling and generally irritating.

Sounds good, or at least better than being poked in the eye with a spatula.  So who's the centre-piece of the deck then?  Why I'm glad you asked.  It is in fact this guy, Mr Fire Servant.  I know what you're thinking.  He dies to removal.  Well, so do Baneslayer Angel and Primeval Titan, the difference is they cost rather more than $0.04, which is the Servant's cost (on MTGO Traders) at the time of writing.

Get this guy out, and your lovely red damage spells just got twice as good, with costing any more mana.  Or to put it another way, your opponent's life total is effectively halved while the Servant lives (at least in terms of burn, we're not as bothered about beats to the face here).

One card which loves seeing the Servant on the table is Lava Axe.  Another cheapy, which is rather underwhelming by itself.  But ten damage to the dome for five mana?  Yes please.  And how about we get really silly and Reverberate or Twincast (we can do either in these colours) that Axe?  That's twenty damage. Thank you and good night.

   fire servant

Incidentally, some of you might not know that you need to hold ctrl down while you play a spell in on the MTGO client in order to be able to respond to it yourself, for example if you want to Reverberate it.  Easy to forget, and easy to miss out on the chance of causing another ten damage for two red mana.

Anyway, it's a casual combo.  Eminently disruptable, absolutely killed by Leyline of Sanctity, and heavily reliant on 5cc creature with three toughness.  But let's see how robust and effective we can make it.

First up, let's consider our burn suite.  We want a lot of it, the more efficient the better.  We want enough to remove our opponent's creatures, with plenty left over to fire at the dome.  It's a tall order.  Here are some options.

Burn baby, Burn!

burst lightning    Burst Lightning's flexibility gives it a strong case for inclusion, since it's still relatively impressive in the late game, unlike the simple Shock it provides in the early turns.  Still, even then it can remove a potentially annoying Student of Warfare.
lightning bolt   Lightning Bolt is a sure inclusion.  It's hard to imagine any red deck leaving home without it, let alone one which is at least partly reliant on efficient burn.
Fireball   Fireball is another card which gets more impressive as the game continues.  In its favour, it can also generate some card advantage by taking down a few small enemies.
Volcanic Fallout   Volcanic Fallout can be a four damage sweeper with the Servant out.  Unfortunately, it also sweeps away the Servant, so probably won't be an especially synergistic choice here.
Staggershock   Staggershock's beautiful keyword 'Rebound' means it's sometimes a two for one if your opponent has some weenies out.  And with the Servant around, it's capable of taking down some beefier creatures too (or just doing a pleasing eight to the dome).
Chandra Nalaar   The cheapest Planeswalker is underrated in my opinion.  Chandra Nalaar won't see any improvement from the Servant, but she still packs a punch of her own.
     
     

Well that's all well and good, but burn decks traditionally run out of gas, so some card draw might be nice.  Also, life gain (of which Standard is crammed full at present) and cards like Kor Firewalker and Leyline of Sanctity are going to give us a really bad day.  So some measure of control would be nice.  Okay, let's shine the blue tinged torch up in the sky and see what swoops down to our aid.

Control baby, Control!

Deprive    Deprive is one of the best counters in Standard right now, nuff said.
Jace Beleren   'Little' Jace Beleren is relatively budget friendly, capable of generating fantastic card advantage, and like all Planeswalkers, encourages your opponent to direct damage elsewhere.  Good enough for me.
Jace's Ingenuity   The fact that Jace's Ingenuity is an instant mustn't be overlooked.  We can keep counter mana open, then still have something to do if it turns out we don't need it.
Mind Spring   Or if you prefer your card draw slower, but more flexible, there's always the old stalwart Mind Spring.  Shortly to rotate, it will be missed.
Mana Leak   If Deprive doesn't float your boat, there's always Mana Leak.  A killer in the first few turns, it can still sometimes hit the jackpot in the late game too.
Mnemonic Wall   Mnemonic Wall is card advantage.  We're running a lot of instants and sorceries.  The wall will get the best one back for us, and hang around to block for us.  We won't want a full playset, but two or three should be good.
Into the Roil   Certain cards scare us, not least of all Leyline of Sanctity.  If they get through your counters the first time, Into the Roil can give you a second chance.  Kicked, it's even better: a tempo gain with card parity.
Mind Control   Mind Control may be slightly off theme, but it can deal with any fatty that breaks through the (shallow) counter wall, and give your opponent something to worry about instead.

 

So, those are the cards that are up for consideration, here's how I actually built the deck.  As ever, deck space is at a premium, and some good cards didn't make it into the final cut.  I reduced the counter suite to a playset of Mana Leak only, since we're slightly more aggressive than true control.  I would have liked a full set of Into the Roil as insurance, but I was unwilling to cut any burn to accommodate it.

 

The Deck

Flaming Servility
An attempt to get maximum value from burn by Splendid Belt
Creatures
3 Fire Servant
2 Mnemonic Wall
5 cards

Other Spells
4 Burst Lightning
2 Fireball
2 Into the Roil
2 Jace Beleren
4 Lava Axe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
1 Mind Control
2 Mind Spring
2 Reverberate
4 Staggershock
31 cards
Lands
4 Evolving Wilds
7 Island
13 Mountain
24 cards

Reverberate

 

So how does it play?  The answer is, very nicely thank you.  Obviously Fire Servant is vulnerable at a mere three toughness, so if you can keep a Mana Leak (or substitute a Deprive in if you prefer) open when you play him, he'll last longer.  But he only needs to live for a turn in order for your burn to do the job.  I was able to take opponents down very quickly once he was out.

And what about lasting long enough to get this engine rolling?  Well we certainly don't like to see things like Bloodbraid Elf, or other fast aggro strategies across the table, but generally I found I had the burn to keep the board clear most of the time.  A potential good inclusion could be Sea Gate Oracle for its sorting abilities and aggro stopping body.

I had a particularly good game against Grixis which included the official 'Best Ever' use of Reverberate, targeting of course your friend and mine, Cruel Ultimatum.  Good times.

Against weenie decks I sometimes wished I had a Pyroclasm or Volcanic Fallout, but Fireball was often able to give me a two or three for one, as hoped.  And Mnemonic Wall was able to turn off the occasional sub-four power attacker.

Part II

Now I want to mention another deck I've been using lately to good effect, one which won't be around in Standard for much longer.  Because we're currently in the somewhat unusual state of being able to choose from both M10 and M11 card pools, mono black currently enjoys the benefits of both Corrupt and Consume Spirit.  And of course Tendrils of Corruption is still around.  And crucially, so is Sanguine Bond.  Guess where I'm going with this?

This time, have a look at the list first, and I'll explain my choices later.

Double Core Set Sanguine
A ridiculous Standard deck by Splendid Belt
Creatures
2 Bloodghast
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Guul Draz Assassin
9 cards

Other Spells
2 Armillary Sphere
4 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Consume Spirit
2 Consuming Vapors
4 Corrupt
3 Sanguine Bond
4 Sign in Blood
4 Tendrils of Corruption
27 cards
Lands
24 Swamp
24 cards

Sanguine Bond

 

Whilst it's tempting to go creatureless and turn off your opponent's removal, the card advantage provided by our creatures here is too good to pass up.  Gatekeeper of Malakir is often a two for one.  If it's not dealt with quickly, Guul Draz Assassin can be many for one, especially against mono green.  And the Bloodghast speaks for itself.

And with the amount of removal in the deck (most of which can also be aimed at the dome of course), quite often one of those creatures will have a clear path through the red zone, and nibble for the two damage required to add a counter to Bloodchief Ascension.  Incidentally, get a Sanguine Bond out, and a couple of countered up Ascensions, and see how fast you win.  Each time a card goes into your opponent's graveyard (so pretty much every time he casts a spell) he loses eight life, and you gain four.  And it's not a hard situation to engineer with this deck.

Royal Assassin would perform a similar function to the Guul Draz version, but since he only beats for one at best and can't turn on the Ascension, I prefer Guul Draz.

Whilst we're discussing cards that didn't make the cut, a special mention must go to Vampire Nighthawk.  I didn't include him in the deck for my testing, and in retrospect he might be a good inclusion.  He's a great defender, gains life, and also turns on the Ascension.  What to take out though is of course the tough decision.

Obviously the curve is on the high side, but there's so much life gain that you can afford a slowish start.  One thing you don't want to do is miss any land drops, and Armillary Sphere is there to help avoid  just that.  It's possible that 25 lands would be a better number, but generally I found this to work quite well.  This is a deck which doesn't mind flooding, as more swamps equals more powerful spells.

There's just time for one quick game report to give an example of how it plays.

Game Report vs. Dunderella (Mono Black Megrim Control)

Megrim Mind Rot Grave Titan Black Knight

I'm on the draw with a risky hand of Armillary Sphere, Consume Spirit, Consuming Vapors, Sanguine Bond, Sign in Blood and one Swamp.  I've got two chances to draw a second Swamp.  Ordinarily I'd mulligan this, but both the Sphere and Sign tempt me to keep it.  I just need one more land and I'm in business, with a good set of removal, and of course the all important Bond.

My first draw is Tendrils of Corruption, and I feel that familiar bowel clenching sensation that I've made another stupid mistake.  One chance left to draw land.  My opponent casts a turn two Sign in Blood on himself, and next turn I draw a beautiful, beautiful swamp.  Realizing that Sign in Blood wouldn't actually generate card advantage, but just make me discard, I cast the Sphere.

Dunerella reveals his strategy with a third turn Megrim.  I draw Bloodghast, and use two mana to crack the Sphere to ensure I hit my land drops.  I play one of the newly fetched lands, but am still forced to discard a card, losing two life to Megrim before my opponent has had to do anything.  I discard Bloodghast, safe in the knowledge that it will be back (and hoping my opponent isn't packing any Bojuka Bogs).

On turn four my opponent casts Mind Rot.  Since he has shown no sign of having any creatures yet, I toss Tendrils and Consume Spirit.  On my turn I lay a Swamp and get the Ghast into play for free.  Next I Sign in Blood myself (going down to twelve life), and lay down my second Armillary Sphere.  Looks like I'm going to be okay for mana in this game.  On his turn, Dunderella casts two Black Knights, which effectively switch off my Ghast for the moment, but make the Consuming Vapors I've been holding look especially attractive.

I'm on twelve life, and at some risk.  I want to lay down my Sanguine Bond before I start using up my life gain, but if I do that I'll certainly take four next turn from the Knights, then my opponent will potentially have Corrupt mana up.  I decide it's a risk worth taking as I'd live through that sequence, and have the life gain to edge my way out of danger - life gain which will double as attack with the Bond out.  I tap out to cast the Bond.

On turn six the Knights take me to eight as expected, which is followed by a Grave Titan, which wasn't.  Being the amazing card that he is, he brings a brace of 2/2 zombies with him, leaving my board position of one Bloodghast and a Sanguine Bond look rather puny.  But it's fine.  It's now my turn six, which is when this deck traditionally goes off.

I can cast Consuming Vapors, but that's only going to hit a zombie token next turn, and the Ghast can't block.  I could Corrupt to the dome for twelve damage, but Dunderella has enough damage on the board to wipe me out even with the life gain.  No, the obvious play is to aim a Tendrils of Corruption at the Titan before it has the chance to create more tokens.  I do exactly that, going up to fourteen life, and taking my opponent down to twelve.  I also crack my second sphere, guaranteeing that when I do finally cast Corrupt, it's likely to win me the game.  I also offer to trade Bloodghast for a zombie token, which Dunderella doesn't accept, electing to go down to ten life.

On turn seven four 2/2s take me down to six life.  A Howling Banshee entering the fray takes me to three.  But I have Corrupt in hand and Sanguine Bond out, which is pretty much the holy grail of the deck.  Corrupt (for fourteen damage and a twenty-one point life swing in total) wins the game with Consuming Vapors and another Tendrils in hand and unneeded.

 

And that's a fairly good example of the way the deck plays.  Get through the early game in any way possible, dig through the deck to find a Bond, and then let the life gain run riot.  There's one card however which this deck absolutely does not want to see, and it's Leyline of Punishment.  Then your Bonds are worthless.  Your spells will still work as damage, but you can kiss goodbye to any life gain.  Your best bet then is to side in more creatures and race, but that would be a tough matchup.  Everything else though is fair game (tournament level decks notwithstanding).

 

And that wraps up another Out of the Blue, thanks for your time.  There's a very good chance I won't have time for an article next week, as my wife is now a week overdue to give birth to our second child, so one way or another it's coming out before next Monday.  Something tells me the prospect of me sitting at the laptop for hours to write my column won't go down well next week.

Until next time.

 

Splendid Belt

www.splendidbelt.com

12 Comments

Congrats on the newborn (to by Paul Leicht at Mon, 08/30/2010 - 01:14
Paul Leicht's picture

Congrats on the newborn (to be)!

Gratz on the second kid, and by Westane at Mon, 08/30/2010 - 11:41
Westane's picture
5

Gratz on the second kid, and fun article. I've never really been attracted to Red outside of Wheel of Fortune and Goblin Welder but this was neat.

Congratulations on the new by Leviathan at Mon, 08/30/2010 - 16:21
Leviathan's picture

Congratulations on the new baby. You will find out shortly that somehow 1 + 1 does not equal 2 when dealing with taking care of kids. Good luck!

Where's the baby? by Splendid Belt at Mon, 08/30/2010 - 16:44
Splendid Belt's picture

Thanks for the comments guys! Still no baby yet, he's obviously just too comfortable where he is. Somehow I have a (totally unscientific) feeling that tonight's the night...

Good article by laughinman at Mon, 08/30/2010 - 23:03
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5

as usual, and have fun with the (soon to be) 3rd player at your table.

Great article, and by BradWoj at Tue, 08/31/2010 - 12:53
BradWoj's picture

Great article, and congratulations on the soon-to-be baby! Having a month old baby, I warn you: don't start any drafts if you are the only one watching the kid. I'm out two draft sets to daddy duties.

Always liked by Lythand at Tue, 08/31/2010 - 17:12
Lythand's picture
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I have always liked your articles and this is no exception.

Suggestions for the black deck.

Although I can see where you are going with the gatekeeper, I would run the Vampire Nighthawk over him. It fits the theme of the deck, and if someone does have a creature out, it deters them from attacking because they will loose the creature, and possibly life if you have the the bond out.

Armillary Sphere I am not a fan of. I have tried to run it in decks but find it's not fast enough. Outside EDH and the occasional slow landfall deck, not a fan. A card I would consider is Absorb Vis. It can cycle for the lands early on, and in the late games if you have a Sanguine Bond out, it deals 8 points of damage. Unlike the sphere wich if you draw late game, is probably going to be a dead card. I would even consider running four of those and cutting back to 2 consume spirits.

The two Bloodghast would probably be Malakir Bloodwitch for me.

Oh by Lythand at Tue, 08/31/2010 - 17:12
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5

And congrats on the new kid.

Thanks for all the lovely by Splendid Belt at Wed, 09/01/2010 - 06:53
Splendid Belt's picture

Thanks for all the lovely comments :)

Big bouncing boy (7lbs 13oz) born last night at 20:24 GMT after lightning fast labour. Almost too fast for the midwife and paramedics, who arrived a mere four minutes before the birth. Nearly had to deliver him myself, took ten years off my life at least.

Mother and baby doing very well.

That's Splendid news Splendid by Lord Erman at Wed, 09/01/2010 - 07:10
Lord Erman's picture

That's Splendid news Splendid Belt! You should name him Jace :).

LE

Yay! by Scartore at Wed, 09/01/2010 - 08:03
Scartore's picture

Good for ball three of you!

Congratulations to you and by ArchGenius at Wed, 09/01/2010 - 08:59
ArchGenius's picture

Congratulations to you and your family.