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By: Splendid Belt, Splendid Belt
May 11 2012 8:09am
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 Hello and welcome back to Out of the Blue. 

Over here in England we're in the midst of a drought, according to the water companies.  There's an almost nation-wide hosepipe ban to save water.  Ordinarily people grumble at hosepipe bans, as they're forced to watch their lawns go brown and wither before their eyes.  No-one minds too much this time though, because following up on the wettest April on record, we're now having the wettest May for 300 years.

And yet we're still technically in drought.  Ladies and gentelemen, I present to you, England.  The only country in the world that can simultaneously drought and flood.

Despite the rain, my lawn is still a bit patchy, a constant source of irritation for me, since I see its health as my pet project.  It just needs more... life.  Maybe that's what inspired me to create today's decks?  Or maybe I just needed a clunky segue to move me on from moaning about the weather, to talking about Magic?  

You decide...

 

A few weeks ago I came up with a Modern deck which aimed to gain lots of life, and then win with Felidar Sovereign, if it didn't beat or burn you to death first.  It featured two of my all-time favourite cards, Loxodon Hierarch and Lightning Helix.  Being basically brilliant, they're probably lots of people's favourite cards, so I don't claim to be especially unique on that front.  No, I'm unique due to my ability to communicate directly with ancient alien civilisations, across time and space.  But I digress...

Today's deck is similar, and is a sort of evolution of that deck.  It also contains another of my all-time favourite cards (yes, there are several), Eight-and-a-Half-Tails.

Actually before I continue, there's something I have to get off my chest.  I edit a magazine professionally, so correct grammar and punctuation are geekily dear to my heart (since I'm writing for a Magic website, and you're reading it, let's none of us make any pretentions of non-geekdom, you got your membership card at the door).
   Eight-and-a-Half-Tails

It's correct to hyphenate 'Eight-and-a-half', but why is there a hyphen between that phrase and 'Tails'?  Surely it should be 'Eight-and-a-Half Tails'?  Have I bored and alienated my audience yet?  Excellent.

Anyway, once you've got some decent mana up, Mr Whatever-Number-of-Tails protects your creatures against most forms of removal, helps your blockers withstand most opposing creatures, and generally wins the game for you.

He also combos very nicely with cards like Shriekmaw and Doom Blade, since you can turn any black creatures white, and destroy them happily.  But we won't be doing that today.

And if you can't find Mr Confusing-and-Controversially-Hyphenated-Fox-Thing, no matter!  There's also the not-quite-as-wonderful-but-still-great Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant.

Felidar Sovereign   

Old Rune-Tail is an odd creature.  Superficially he's a 2/2 for 2, but get to that magic 30 life, and he flips and turns into an enchantment.  Quite a party trick.  Quite an enchantment too, since he does for free what his close friend Quite-a-lot-of-Tails takes 3 mana to accomplish - protects your creatures.

So, we'd like to get to 30 life.  That being the case, it would be incredibly remiss of us to leave out the excellent Serra Ascendant.  She'll both help us to get there, and become quite ridiculously efficient when we do.  A 6/6 flying lifelinker for 1 mana?  Ouch.  Is there anything more efficient in the game?  Once we're at 30 life, she only needs to swing twice to enable an automatic win with Felidar Sovereign

"Yes but the great big Cat Beast thing dies to removal!" you seem to say.  Well, not with Just-Under-Nine-Tails in the room he doesn't.

Without any further ado, here's how I built it:

 

 

I could also have included Test of Endurance, but decided I had enough win conditions, and needed more cards that did things.

Survival Cache is there as our card draw, and the fact that it also gains life, aiding our lifegain loving cards, is just a bonus.  Split-Tail Miko is possibly suboptimal, but I like it, and it can mess up combat calculations for our opponents, which is always nice.  If you want slightly more power, and slightly fewer foxes, you could replace it with Kitchen Finks, which is rather good I hear.  You can also get persist cards to recur indefinitely by removing their -1 counters with Ajani Goldmane's second ability.  Can be a nice combo.

Enough talk, to the Casual Room!

Games

Game 1 vs. nailinandbailin

Precursor Golem Urza's Mine Urza's Tower Urza's Power Plant

I keep this natty little seven on the play, and open with a turn one Serra Ascendant.  My opponent opens with Urza's Tower and Expedition Map.  I have learnt to fear the Urzatron in my years playing Magic, and am immediately expecting to lose, with only two cards played on each side.

My opponent assembles the full combo of Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine and Urza's Power Plant on turn 4, and plays Thirst for Knowledge and Precursor GolemSunlance, anyone?  I dread to think what combos are available in Modern with this card and the Urzatron out.  Fearing the worst, I Oblivion Ring the Golem, leaving the tokens as they are, and play Ajani's Pridemate to go with the Martyr of Sands I played earlier.

On turn 5 nailinandbailin plays Thirst for Knowledge again and Parallel Lives.  I cast Faith's Fetters on one of the Golem tokens, putting me at 29 life, one off making my Ascendant pretty special.  I attack with her and the now 3/3 Pridemate.  My opponent unwisely blocks my Ascendant, so I sac Martyr of Sands, revealing Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite in my hand, and going to 32 life.  The Ascendant becomes 6/6 and sends the Golem packing.

Next turn my opponent plays two Walking Archives.  Like Howling Mine, these will benefit me more than him, unless he has something tricky up his sleeve.  What he has is Throne of Geth, which puts another counter on his surviving Archive, after he chumps my Pridemate with the other.  I treat it to another Oblivion Ring before he can draw cards from it, and win with the Ascendant on turn 7.

 

Game 2 vs. Unknown

Cunning Sparkmage Goblin Fireslinger Kumano, Master Yamabushi Fractured Loyalty

The client failed to record this one, so I'm writing it up from memory.  I started with an early Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, which turned out to be the perfect counter to my opponent's deck.  His principle strategy seemed to consist of assembling a horde of pingers, then either destroying my creatures, or whittling my life away.  My Many-Tailed-Protector was initially effective at keeping my creatures up, but it was very mana taxing on my side.

The game then started to slip away from me when he cast Fractured Loyalty on my Ajani's Pridemate, which had managed to grow reasonably large.  I was able to at least keep swapping it back to my side by continually targeting it with my Ludicrously-Appendaged Fox, but eventually Eight-and-a-Half-Tails himself succumbed to a simple Lightning Bolt, my mana exhausted by the pingers.  I also made a play mistake by removing Fractured Loyalty with Oblivion Ring.  Turns out that just means the creature stays with your opponent, and now you have no easy way to get it back.  Lesson learnt there then.

By this time, my opponent had a hideously huge Slith Firewalker in play.  I managed to buy myself a few extra turns by swinging with a Wurmcoil Engine, which at least whittled some of his pingers away as he was forced to chump with them, but eventually I had to use the Wurm as a chump itself, and the resultant 3/3 tokens were removed a turn at a time by his three remaining pingtastic archers.

At least that got rid of the Firewalker though, thanks to Deathtouch.  The remaining pingers put me on a two turn clock.  A clock which I managed to extend, and then beat by finally getting two Emeria, the Sky Ruins in play.  Turns out they're still good.  Endlessly recurring Wurms, Pridemates and even a strangely shaped fox tend to win games.

Game 3 vs. Asiancityman

Lord of the Unreal Phantasmal Dragon Summoner's Bane Krovikan Mist

Once again, the client failed to record.  This time though, I'm armed with notes.

I mulled to 6 on the draw.  My opponent started with a turn 2 Lord of the Unreal, which I answered with Ajani's Pridemate.  Next turn Asiancityman casts Cryptoplasm, making a second Lord of the Unreal.  I cast Survival Cache, pumping the Pridemate and drawing me two cards once it rebounded.  On turn 4 my opponent casts Phantasmal Bear, which at this point is a 4/4 for 1 blue mana.  I respond by removing Lord of the Unreal with Oblivion Ring, reducing the Bear to a more manageable 3/3.

On turn 5 Asiancityman ups the ante, casting Phantasmal Dragon.  Where's Eight-and-a-Half-Tails when you need him!  He's perfect for this match up, he can kill everything for one mana!  Just turn it white, and it does due to Illusions being funny about being targeted.  In the absence of the Foxy one, I cast another Survival Cache for more Pridemate pumpage and card advantage, and finish the turn with a Serra Ascendant (still 1/1 at this stage).  Next turn the Dragon beats me for 6.  I gain some of that back with Kabira Crossroads, and cast Ajani Goldmane, using him to pump both my creatures (since he'll inevitably die next turn to the Dragon anyway).

At the end of turn I attempt to cast Martyr of Sands (bit if a misplay, since waiting until now to cast it means it misses out on Ajani's pump), but it's countered by Summoner's Bane, which puts yet another Illusion on the table.  On turn 7 my opponent casts Krovikan Mist, then kills Ajani with the Dragon, and casts another Cryptoplasm.  On my turn I cast another Ajani, then finally make an attack, swinging with a vigilant Ajani's Pridemate.  It's triple blocked by Cryptoplasm, Krovikan Mist and Phantasmal Bear.  They all go to the bin, which is a result I'm happy with, despite the loss of my enormous Pridemate.

On turn 8 my opponent casts Ice Cage on my Ascendant, and sends his bear in to kill Ajani, and his Illusion token, Lord and Dragon straight at my face.  I'm now a long way from the 30 life (13 life, in total) needed to activate my Ascendants and Rune-Tail, and further still from the 40 life needed to make Felidar Sovereign a game-winner.  On my draw step, who should show up but that very same Felidar Sovereign!  I also gain some much needed life from another Crossroads.  Turn 9 sees me drop to 9 life courtesy of the Dragon, but my Sovereign holds off the ground troops.  Thanks to its vigilance, I'm able to attack with it next turn.  Oddly, the shuffler serves me another Sovereign, so I cast it too.

On turn 10 the Dragon beats me again (taking me to 7 life), and my opponent casts another Phantasmal Bear, but I'm able to outrace, gaining 8 life from my two Felidar attacks on my turn, then even managing to cast a THIRD Felidar Sovereign thanks to more shuffling oddness.

I win two turns later, thanks to triple Felidar beatdown.

 

Sanguine, my brother...

Sanguine Bond   

Before I leave you for another week, here's a different way to use lifegain for the win in Modern.  This time we're black, a colour that provides rich rewards for going mono, so that's exactly what we'll do.  Mono-black has lots of ways to gain life, much like its distant cousin mono-white.  If anything though, mono-black is even better endowed, with cards like Corrupt, Consume Spirit and Tendrils of Corruption desperate to wreak lifegaining havoc for you based on the number of swamps at your disposal.

Then we just need to add Sanguine Bond to get double value from these direct damage spells.  Have 6 Swamps out, cast Corrupt for an 18 point life swing.  Sounds like fun to me.

We'll also fill the deck with lots other ways to gain life, and since we're in black, a whole raft of removal too.  We're also using another of my favourite cards, Kokusho, the Evening Star.  Yum. Let's have a glance at the decklist, then a brief look at how it plays

   

 

 

Game 1 vs. Kingtroll123

Lightning Helix Surreal Memoir Lone Missionary Path to Exile

I keep this lot on the draw. My opponent mulls to 6 and opens with the familiar looking Kabira Crossroads.  I play a turn 2 Sign in Blood, which finds me the land I need for turn 3.  Kingtroll123 casts a turn 2 Lone Missionary.  So, another lifegain deck then.  I wonder if he's playing any Foxes or Cat Beasts?  One way to find out.

Next turn I lay down a Vampire Nighthawk which succumbs to a Lightning Helix.  With the addition of another Kabira Crossroads on turn 3, my opponent is already at 31 life.  I thought I was the lifegain deck?  Instead, I'm on a fraction over half that figure, at 16.  I cast another Vampire Nighthawk in an effort to redress the balance.  On turn 4 my opponent plays the even more familiar looking Survival Cache.  I really don't want the second deck I feature to be beaten by a version of my first, that's just embarrassing.  He then Path to Exiles my Vampire.  Although I go down to 14 life, I don't mind too much, as I like the extra land I get from Path.  More swamps means more power to my lifegaining burn (assuming I draw any).

On turn 5 I cast Wurmcoil Engine, hoping Kingtroll123 doesn't have any more Paths in hand.  He does, as I find out in his next turn, along with another Lone Missionary, putting him up to a princely 39 life, and me down to a paltry 12.  I want to cast the Sanguine Bond I've been holding all game, but I need to reduce the incoming damage and gain some life, so I cast Consuming Vapors instead, which soon deals with both Missionaries.

I get the Bond out on turn 7, and we play draw-go for a couple of turns (since I'm drawing neither creatures nor burn) until turn 9, when my opponent burns me down to 7 with Comet Storm, then returns a Path to hand with Surreal Memoir.  On turn 10 I finally draw a Consume Spirit, which does 16 damage to my opponent, and gains 8 life for me.  Nice.

It turns out I needed the life gain, as my opponent then hits me with Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix, which would have put me at one life without it.  Memoir returns the other Path back to my opponent's hand, and we play draw-go again for a while.  I still seem to be unable to draw any more creatures or burn.

Over the next few turns I Sign in Blood myself twice, and cast Liliana Vess to destroy my opponent's hand.  He finds another Lone Missionary, but I've drawn so much removal by this stage it's an irrelevance.  My turn 15 Wurmcoil Engine gets Pathed as expected, but my turn 16 Corrupt does 24 damage, gaining me 12 life.  Life totals instantly switch from me at severe threat and him sitting pretty, to the opposite.  He's now at 6, with me at a comfortable 19.  He has two Wall of Omens out too, and a Consuming Vapors in combination with Sanguine Bond deals the final damage to end the game.

Conclusions

So that's two Modern ways to use lifegain for fun and profit.  As ever with my decks, fun is the priority.  Profit, to be honest, isn't anywhere in sight, unless you count the fact that I bought Felidar Sovereign back when it was worth about $0.20, and it's now $8.34, and seemingly climbing steadily.

One strength I'd like to emphasise about both decks, is that you can really pull yourself out of a deep hole with some fast lifegain.  Whether it's an unlikely combination of triple Felidar Sovereign, an enormous Corrupt, or a timely Martyr of Sands activation, you can make yourself far harder to kill than your opponent has any right to expect.

Of course you can still be milled and poisoned to death, and more notice should no doubt be taken to defend against those strategies in the sideboard.

That about wraps it up for me for another week.  It's actually stopped raining for the moment so I might swim down the road to get some fresh air.

Until next time.

 

Splendid Belt

3 Comments

Correct me if I'm wrong, but by KaraZorEl at Fri, 05/11/2012 - 08:25
KaraZorEl's picture

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it be easier just to run 4x Story Circle instead of 2 of each circle?

Story Circle would indeed be by Splendid Belt at Fri, 05/11/2012 - 10:25
Splendid Belt's picture

Story Circle would indeed be better. Hangover from building lots of pauper decks, so my knowledge of commons is often better...

Water is becoming scarce in by evangeline at Thu, 12/12/2013 - 20:50
evangeline's picture

Water is becoming scarce in England. That sign is ominous to something worse. - Richard E. Dover