Greetings!
After the old T2 really became boring, the new T2 is still a long way... and drafting can only do so much for you, I was looking for new ways to spice my MTGO life. I played block back when it was still just Zendikar indeed, where you had a UW control without planeswalkers and you'd be happy about it, or when Red Deck Wins used Elemental Appeal. Well, right now I've winning packs like crazy with this baby:
I had a team mate chatting with me asking me for some red cards to play block and I was intrigued, after seeing the deck I felt like it was a pile of junk. But then I was bored and picked it up and managed to go 3-1 , 3-1 , 4-0 , 3-1 in 4 consecutive Daily Events without counting all the 2 man queues I was owning.. I was bewildered. Some of the matchups were feeling like byes (please note that this was at least a week ago back when people thought you were just sporting a bad mono red deck.).
UGR that is probably the most played deck can´t deal with all the LD and removal, you have 4x Cunning Sparkmage and 12 burn spells to kill either Lotus Cobra or Oracle of Mul Daya. Since they only have something like 2 Deprive as maindeck counters, your Land Destruction spells will most likely get trough putting them in a very awkward position. Post board you gain access to Kargan Dragonlord if you really want to but I usually leave the deck as it is. They bring in Spell Pierce and additional counters but then again you should be fine. Depending on how much removal they side out Kargan and Tuktuk the Explorer may be included.
Vampires was a pretty popular deck back in the day and its still heavily played, and by no means its a good matchup. You can win it out most times if you play tight and have decent draws but they have lots of ways of generating card advantage. The matchup game 1 is pretty rough, your only good cards against him are Cunning Sparkmage and the burn suit topped by an Hellkite Charger when he already used his removal.Mind Sludge is sick against you as well as Gatekeeper of Malakir.Post board you gain access to 9 to 12 cards. You start from taking out the 8 ld package consisting on Goblin Ruinblaster and Roiling Terrain since they do nothing against him and you side out an (Everfloing Chalice) since getting to 4 mana on turn 3 its not that important after board. You bring in Kargan Dragonlord, Tuktuk the Explorer and Flame Slash. Be careful about trowing away your Kargans and Sparkmage to Gatekeeper of Malakir and try to protect them with the Explorer. A very annoying card that some builds have is Quest for the Gravelord. You're both trying to kill each others creatures but then he gets a 5/5 in the trade that you can't kill unless going 1 for 2.
Uw Control is something of a mixed blessing. Game 1 if they're not onto you, you can easily grind them out with land destruction spells and then drop an Hellkite Charger or a Lodestone Golem. Emeria Angel is a B****! This card is crazy good against you since you have to kill it but it still leaves a scent of 1/1s. Sphinx of Lost Truths is also hard to beat since you have to go for the 1 for 2 plan. But for most parts you should be able to win game 1. After board you bring in Kargan Dragonlord and Tuktuk the Explorer siding out 4x Staggershock (They bring in Kor Firewalker so Staggershock is useless). I used to take out 4x Searing Blaze and 2x Cunning Sparkmage but they actually help you fight Emeria Angel, so I've been taking out only 4 Searing Blaze for 2x Flame Slash and the above mentioned cards. Tuktuk The Explorer is a decent way of controlling Kor Firewalker since if they are counter light they can't really attack into an untapped opponent. And most people doesn't see the play unless they have been on the receiving end of it. I've ambushed a Kor Firewalker multiple times. They should take out Day of Judgment or at least 1 or 2.
Mono Green its actually a pretty decent matchup all together. If you can grind them out with Cunning Sparkmage and the removal suit they don't have any answers to Hellkite Charger or a Lodestone Golem. I kill almost every creature as soon as I can to prevent any Eldrazi Monument shenanigans. Post board you can bring in the 15 cards if you like (lol). I usually start by taking out what I don't want and then fill the gaps.
-4 Goblin Ruinblaster
-4 Roiling Terrain
-3 (Everfloing Chalice)
-1 Hellkite Charger
+3 Chain Reaction
+3 Flame Slash
+3 Tuktuk The Explorer
+3 Tuktuk Scrapper
Tuktuk The Explorer and Chain Reaction do a pretty nice combo altogether.You can also side in Kargan Dragonlord instead of the scrappers, I honestly don't know what to do with them, Kargan Dragonlord will usually win you the game in the long run but Tuktuk Scrapper can kill an Eldrazi Monument, but since you're already dead to Beastmaster Ascension and you usually kill their creatures before he can Eldrazi Monument the crap out of you, you should be fine.(Barring of course Vengevine, that card is just sick!)
Boros started out as being a tough matchup but I've been winning a lot more than I've been losing. It's all about the approach. Game one if you manage to Roiling Terrain a single mana source they can be put out of their misery really soon. Just kill all their creatures and drop a Lodestone Golem or an Hellkite Charger to kill them out. Post board you again take out the Ld Package plus the Everflowing Chalice and 1 Hellkite Charger for the Flame Slash, Tuktuk the Explorer, Kargan Dragonlord and either 2 Tuktuk Scrapper or 2 Chain Reaction depending on how many artifacts you did see game 1. Game 2 is usually better since the only card they have access to is Kor Firewalker and Lodestone Golem plus the sneaky Tuktuk The Explorer should be enough to get the job done. Remember if you can to Burst Lightning Steppe Lynx and Plated Geopede on your own turn because if they untap and go fetchland you're screwed. The play didn't make sense in standard because you had Lightning Bolt instead that can actually kill them even if they break the fetch in response.
For the mirror match I don't have any definite sideboard plan and I mostly improvise as it goes. I'm not sold on the LD package against them, at least Roiling Terrain seems stupid since you want to bring in 6 creatures. Nowadays people are already experimenting with the deck. The only change I made to that build is the inclusion of 2 or 3 Obsidian Fireheart for the mirror match, and you can bring them in against vampires as well since they have a hard time killing it. I'd recommend taking out the Tuktuk Scrapper since they've been performing badly and the fireheart can also improve your matchup against UW.
Basilisk Collar was in my first version of the deck but then I took them out for the Chain Reaction since they usually come in in the same matchups and Chain Reaction is better against creature decks (There's a new GW tokens going around!). Comet Storm is a card I've been seeing in people's main deck of this deck and I quite like it. It gives the deck a certain reach it didn't have before, if you flooded like hell and didn't have access to an active Valakut.
Well I hoped you liked the article and that you try out the deck and get a felling of how it rolls.
Until next time,
Andrea Fonseca
8 Comments
I've always been a fan of LD so this deck looks sweet. You probably should have mentioned the cost though. Without the Kargan Dragonlord the whole thing is maybe 13 tickets sideboard included. Are there any suitable replacments for the leveler if someone is one a budget? $40.00 for 4 is a little out of what I'm willing to pay for any cards online.
Nice article. I wrote a few Zen Block Constructed write ups and was going to write about this one for next week after seeing it do well in the last few daily block events. Good thing I decided to do something different for the article I was working on this week :). Good luck and continued success with the deck. I think zen block is pretty healthy right now. UGR seemed to be dominating for the last few weeks and then this came along. It's nice to see new decks making their way into the format after the ROE has been online for a few months now.
The deck only calls for 3 dragon lords, but if you need something else, I think you can get RDW style and use Kiln Fiend. With all of the burn you use to remove blockers it should work, well it has been working I should say with U/R Kiln Decks.
3/4 either way 10 dollars is more than I am willing to spend on a single card. I dont really know if Kiln Fiend fits with the deck but if you sideboarded out the ld package i could see it being worth testing.
I've been toying around with some sideboard ideas and you can definitly do so yourselves but I do think that the Kargans are important. Is much like Brad Nelson's UGR sideboard from the MOCS. You have almost 3/6 guaranteed cards to come in after board everytime just because they side out their removal.
Anyone try splashing black for some Kor Firewalker removal with this deck. I keep getting wrecked by mono white Firewalker builds.
Put Unstable Footing in the sideboard.
you actually already have 8 ways of dealing with firewalker and the deck does a pretty good job of racing them if you don't get one of those, especially with kargan. if you can't afford kargan try out the firehearts instead, but kargan has won me games vs vampires and firewalker decks that i wouldn't win otherwise.
also, chain reaction is sick vs vampires too. they tend to overextend. i have been taking out all chalices and 1 or 2 charger when i take out the ld package to make room for all of the rest. usually 12 cards are exchanged between main and sb on the matchups where ld doesn't matter.