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ROGUE PLAY Theoretical Musings

by Nafiz Erman

 

Hello everybody. For this week my subject is Standard Vanguard which is a format that I used to play a lot in the past before v3. Actually my very first article here on puremtgo.com was a Vanguard article. I can guess that for many of you this might not be a very exciting or an interesting subject and most probably some readers already hit the back button of their browsers. However if you are still here and reading, I can guarantee you an entertaining ride through the depths of the format and maybe at the end some of you may decide to give it a try. At least, that's what I hope.

Since two weeks we are having Standard Vanguard tournaments during weekends. I didn't play in those simply because I had no idea what to play. I am not a total stranger to the format and the meta though; I am following it and playing it on MTGO. I had some ideas in mind but unfortunately I didn't have time to test them properly so I decided to stay away from those tournaments for now.

But I watched the replays after the tournaments and I also examined the decklists from the Top-8. Thankfully we have the Decks of the Week section on magicthegathering.com and so we can keep ourselves up to date. So before I start talking about my own approach to the format, I think that it would be better to talk about the meta a bit. After all not everybody is a Vanguard expert and knows what's going on in the format.

 

THE META

I have the results of the last big Vanguard events in front of me. And looking at all those decks from those tournaments, I can clearly say that Control as a deck type definately and absolutely does not exist in the format. Once I saw a few Control decks gaining popularity but they vanished from the scene very fast. So these days only fast and aggressive decks succeed.

Actually only a few months ago, the two avatars you see below were almost the only possible options to play. To succeed in the format, one had to play the Reaper King avatar and if not then the Ashling the Pilgrim avatar.

Out of the eight top decks from the event dated 22.January.09 , four were Reaper King decks and three were Ashling the Pilgrim decks. So it was absolutely not possible to talk about variety.

And just at that point WotC made a few adjustments in the format and nerfed a few avatars including Reaper King and suddenly some other avatars and decks became popular but none was as ingenious as the deck built around the Arcanis the Omnipotent avatar. First seen in the event dated 17.May.2009 played and (most probably) built by reaper9889, the Arcanis the Omnipotent avatar and its deck very quickly reached the "Deck To Beat" status. First, let us take a look at the avatar:

And here's the winning decklist from the last Vanguard tourmament: 

 

I know that by just looking at the decklist you can hardly tell what the deck is doing. Actually the first time I saw the list, I too had to stare at it with blank eyes for some time. Basically combined with the avatar, this deck draws all its cards and reaches to almost infinite mana.  It kills with an uncounterable and unpreventable but just watchable Banefire.

Even though not as dominant as the Reaper King deck once was, Arcanis the Omnipotent deck is today clearly the best deck in the format. Is it invincible? Of course not. It can be considered as a combo deck and just like any other combo deck it cannot function without some basic parts; in this case it is Heritage Druid. But if you are planning to play Standard Vanguard at the serious level, you just have to make sure that your deck can beat the one you see above.

Then there are some other very good decks too but two of them, the aforementioned Reaper King and Ashling the Pilgrim decks, are still the most important decks in the format. First let's take a look at the Reaper King deck:

 

Because of the Reaper King avatar, all multicolor creatures you control get +1/+1 and this means a turn one 3/3 lifelink Nip Gwyllion followed by a turn two 6/5 haste Jund Hackblade for example. Not something every deck can handle. By the way the above version played by alucard_999 has 61 cards and maybe he could have played with one less Murderous Redcap or Sygg, River Cutthroat.

And here's the second deck:

 

By the way I seriously don't know why Fertile Ground is shown under the Lands section. Jamuraa, can you please look into this?

Well, this deck aims to generate a lot of mana and aims to do so very fast; that's the first priority of the deck. The Ashling the Pilgrim avatar deals one damage to each creature and each player for two mana. And to fight against those 6/5 creatures of the Reaper King deck, this deck needs its Rampant Growths, Fertile Grounds as well as its Mr. Garruk Wildspeaker as early as possible. Pyroclasm makes sure that the elves of Arcanis the Omnipotent die quickly and Kitchen Finks ensures that the pilot himself doesn't gets killed by his own avatar.

And we have also the famous Cascade Swans deck's Vanguard version. The same decklist and the same gameplan with the Squee, Goblin Nabob avatar. Not only does that avatar prevent the opponent drawing cards via your own Swans of Bryn Argoll but it also provides a maximum hand size of ten which is very important as well. Then we have the Murderous Redcap avatar with all those persist creatures as well as Goblin Warchief avatar used with aggro creatures.

So that's pretty much all the information you need to know about the format and the meta. We can basically say that the format is incredibly fast and aggressive. Some kill with a huge one turn combo, some kill with oversized and undercosted monsters, some don't even allow any living thing to exist on the battlefield and then kill with their dragon and some kill by throwing lands at your head. But in any case all do what they do very quickly.

 

THEORETICAL MUSINGS
A New Approach

Okay now we know almost everything about the format. Of course you can play one of those decks and aim to win packs. But what's the fun in that?! Let's have some creativity here shall we? Let's find a way to beat them without being one of them. Is it possible? I think it is.

Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to present you the one avatar that might be the next best thing in Standard Vanguard:

So basically you can't win if I don't lose, right? Yeah, I thought so too.

In theory my goal is very simple: A turn one Plains --> High Ground --> Ornithopter --> Spellbook and I become invincible. And as long as I can continue to have those Plains, High Ground, Ornithopter and Spellbook on table, nothing you would do would bother me. So you're sending a X=23943 Banefire to me after tapping and untapping all your elves. How nice. Do I care? I don't think so.

I think that now you get the basic idea. But of course there are problems (there always are problems) and this time we have three of them:

1- What would we do with a Plains, a High Ground, an Ornithopter and a Spellbook? Not much. So we need some playable enchantments and artifacts. Creatures are easy but the other two parts could be a problem.
2- Well, Obelisk of Alara is a very nice artifact and I'm sure that we can do something with the enchantment called Thought Reflection. But unfortunately, before even we get to the half of the mana required to play those two cards, we would be most probably dead. So we need something playable as well as something cheap (as in mana cost).
3- Not losing is nice. But does it mean that we're winning? Actually it does not. So we have to have a game plan. We have to do something with all those enchantments and lands and creatures and artifacts. We have to have a way to win games.

Below you will find six decks. All are built around the Platinum Angel avatar. Almost all are at the theoretical brainstorming stage. Some of them I do play and I have some success with them but some are only pen&paper. So first let me share them with you and then you will tell me if you find something useful among them.

 

DECK #1: Mono Treefolk Tribal

For the first deck the inspiration came from Timber Protector. I was actually looking for creatures with Shroud but then realized that Shroud actually doesn't save the creature from the wrath of Ashling the Pilgrim as well as the wrath of the greater Magic Gods (as in Wrath of God). So I looked for the keyword Indestructible. And there I saw this nice Timber Treefolk. And here's the first deck I came up with: 

 

I seriously don't know why Fertile Ground keeps showing up under the Lands section of the deckists. It seems that it considers itself as a land! Hey Fertile Ground! Dude sorry to ruin your dreams but you're not a land. I know it's heartbreaking but somebody had to tell you this. I admit that you're close but that's not the same.

Anyway, this is one of those decks I actually tested. And let me tell you that a turn one Forest, Herbal Poultice, Treefolk Harbinger opening followed by a turn two Fertile Ground was something that happened quite often. And how does the deck do against others?

Well, I haven't played against Cascade Swans but I know that Ashling the Pilgrim deck is the main enemy of this deck. For others this is simply too much. Reaper King decks can't kill a thing. Arcanis the Omnipotent has Path to Exile which is actually the only answer to indestructible creatures but that deck has four Path to Exiles and I have eight Timber Protectors (I'm counting Treefolk Harbinger as well). And besides, even if they manage to get rid of one Timber Protector, they can't disrupt my state of invincibility.

But the situation against Ashling the Pilgrim deck is a little bit different. Against that deck the only way to win is to act faster than they do. This means that I need my Timber Protector on table to... well, to protect my timbers of course! And thankfully I have enough cards to get it out on time such as Treefolk Harbinger and Leaf-Crowned Elder. Also the discount I get with Bosk Banneret is helping a lot. And the moment I have two Timber Protectors out protecting each other, I truely become invincible.

But there is another problem the Ashling the Pilgrim deck causes and that is its many enchantment and artifact removal in its sideboard. Therefore trusting the Platinum Angel avatar and letting the opponent deal damage like crazy is often not a good plan. While sitting below zero life, a Fracturing Gust can ruin the day pretty badly.

So that was pretty much everything about the first deck. Even though it isn't as fast as the (imaginary) Plains/High Ground/Ornithopter deck, this one most of the time enters the "God Mode" no later than turn three which is most of the time acceptable.

 

DECK #2: Helix Pinnacle

Helix Pinnacle is actually a miracle, a blessing or an oasis out in the desert if one is looking for cards for the Platinum Angel deck. I mean come on, a one mana enchantment that has shroud is just way too good to be true.

One can even use it just because it is an enchantment with shroud but why stop there? I mean, that will make it no different than my High Ground example above. Therefore what you will see below is a deck that has Helix Pinnacle and uses it as its primary win condition. Okay now, in other formats it is very easy to build decks around this enchantment. For example Extended has both Braid of Fire and Paradox Haze which is a great way to generate huge amounts of mana. But this is Standard Vanguard and those two are unfortunately not allowed.

Therefore it was a little bit harder than I first thought to come up with efficient ways to generate big mana. But at the end I decided to use this duo you see below:

And here's the decklist: 

 

Well okay I give up. Fertile Ground, yes you are a land. Who said you're not?! Bah...

Well, actually I have in deck just because of one card and that is the one and only way of protecting my creatures from Ashling the Pilgrim avatar; and that card is Mark of Asylum. If I were to build this deck for Standard and not Vanguard, then I could have easily removed and go with mono though.

Oh and look at who we have in the deck! The lovely toy of Urza; the Ornithopter! Actually alone; the existence of it in the deck should tell you that this deck has not been tested yet, and it is actually an idea. But please don't judge the deck card by card. Please try to understand what I'm trying to do here and judge the idea. After all, this is Theoretical Musings and we're just brainstorming here.

There is only one real enemy for this deck and that is Fracturing Gust which can be found in Ashling the Pilgrim decks' sideboard. What can be done against it? Add for Negate? Maybe. But otherwise this looks like a real good way to achieve first the "God Mode" quickly and then to win rather slowly but steadily.

 

DECK #3:  Mayael's Aria / Mossbridge Troll

From one  enchantment we move onto another one. And this time we will be using Mayael's Aria as our primary win condition. This is actually a little bit harder to achieve than the other two decks, but it can be done nevertheless.

First let's take a look at the deck list and then talk about it a little bit. 

 

Actually achieving "God Mode" with this deck is (at least in theory) easier than the Helix Pinnacle deck above. A turn one Forest, Lush Growth, Ornithopter and a Sigil of Distinction would do. I'm not saying that it will happen all the time but in theory it is possible. But most of the time a turn one Forest, Birds of Paradise and either a Sigil of Distinction or an Ornithopter and then a turn two Mark of Asylum or Mayael's Aria would be more realistic.

And what do we do with this deck? Well, actually it must be quite obvious. The idea is to play a Mayael's Aria and then to play a few Woolly Thoctars and then finally win with Mossbridge Troll + Mayael's Aria at the beginning of our turn. Simple, is it not?

Mark of Asylum is there to protect the creatures from Ashling the Pilgrim avatar and Runed Halo in the sideboard is against the Cascade Swans deck. I must say that this deck is one of my favorite ones out of the six decks you'll find in this article. If you can think of something to make it better or if you see a fatal flaw somewhere, please let me know.

As there is not much to talk about this deck, I move onto number four. 

 

DECK #4:  Maralen & The Orb

This is actually the deck that spawned the whole "hey let's use Platinum Angel as the avatar" idea. Since the realease of Shards of Alara, I have a fun Standard Casual deck that uses these three cards:

Do you see the idea? At the beginning of my opponent's turn he will lose three life and WON'T draw a card or search his library. Me on the other hand, I will lose three life too but don't die thanks to my metal angel. What do you think? Cruel isn't it?

My Standard Maralen of the Mornsong / Mindlock Orb deck is by the way. Because I have to cheat those "can't draw a card" and "can't seach the library" parts. And that I do with cards like Commune with Nature and Gift of the Gargantuan. I don't draw cards but instead I reveal them and take them into hand. Clever isn't it? Well, I always said that I'm a Spike/Johnny and this deck is a pure creation of my Johnny side.

But for the Standard Vanguard I had to add to the deck just because of Ashling the Pilgrim avatar. I had to have Mark of Asylum in the deck. And just because I didn't need Platinum Angel as a creature, I filled that part with Augury Adept which is another card with "reveal".

And here's the final decklist: 

 

I don't have a sideboard for this deck as it is a pure casual deck. But I wanted to share the idea with you regardless.

Normally I try to play my Maralen of the Mornsong on turn four instead of turn three. And when I play her, I immediately play a Robe of Mirrors onto her if I have the enchantment in hand. The reason is actually very ironic. Everybody wishes for a genie to show up to make their wishes come true and I give them one. Maralen of the Mornsong is there to make your wishes come true! But what does everybody do? They lose three life and search their deck for a Terminate and kill her!

That must be the human nature I guess. You ask for a genie and I give you one and as your first wish, you wish for a weapon to kill her. Very nice...

So this deck, as I said, is aimed for the Casual Room where there are no Arcanis the Omnipotent or Reaper King decks. So I play all my cards in calm and if I don't die first in that calmness, I play my Maralen of the Mornsong and my Mindlock Orb and from there watch my opponent lose the game slowly.

 

DECK #5: La Canonista

With deck number four we had great time in the Casual Room but let's move onto the Tournament Practice Room once again. This is another deck that I have high hopes for. It is basically a deck that uses both the avatar but also other cards to shut the opponent down completely. I think that you will understand what I mean after you see the decklist. 

 

I'm still working on this deck and testing it, so I don't have the sideboard ready yet. But currently with my limited testing experience I can say that this deck is the best deck among all the ones in this article. So what does it do?

1- It shuts down Arcanis the Omnipotent in so many ways. Ethersworn Canonist does it, Meddling Mage does it, True Believer does it and even Runed Halo does it.

2- Cascade Swans players hate seeing Ethersworn Canonist or Runed Halo. They won't be that happy to see a Meddling Mage either.

3- Ashling the Pilgrim avatar hurts but that's the reason why I have four Mark of Asylum in the main deck. Of course for the second game there will be a lot of enchantment and artifact hate but they are dealt with Meddling Mage and Countersquall. I can also add Pithing Needle to the sideboard to prevent Garruk Wildspeaker from doing some nasty tricks.

4- Reaper King deck is fast, yes, but I don't care about it after I have my four components to achieve the "God Mode". With only eight enchantments that can be a real problem sometimes and that in fact leads me to consider High Ground as a sideboard card!

5- For the Murderous Redcap deck and its persist creatures I think of some graveyard hate for the sideboard such as Relic of Progenitus or Wheel of Sun and Moon.

And as you can tell as well, I am winning with Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Most of the players just cry when they see it on table (as long as I can prevent them playing their Fracturing Gust of course).

So I can say that if I had to join an event with Platinum Angel avatar, without doubt this one would be it.

 

DECK #6:  Underworld Dreams / Howling Mine Combo

And so we move onto our last deck. So far we finished the games with creatures by dealing combat damage, we dealt damage without entering the combat phase and we also finished the games with two "You win the game" cards. Now it's time to use the final way of ending a game in Magic; Milling.

Underworld Dreams / Howling Mine decks exist since the dawn of time and that deck can't be considered as a pure Milling deck. But this one below either wins by the damage dealt by Underworld Dreams or by milling. Let's have a look at it first. 

 

Actually this deck doesn't need creatures but my avatar says that I have to have at least one on table. Wall of Denial is a perfect creature for this deck but for the rest I'm all ears. Maybe one copy of Mortivore would be nice.

So it's actually a very clear deck. We play Howling Mine, we play Font of Mythos and we play Spiteful Visions to make our opponent draw a tons of cards. With Underworld Dreams we turn each of those cards into one damage. Or we can just do nothing and watch the opponent gets to zero cards and lose.

Our Rule of Law acts like the Ethersworn Canonist in the previous deck and simply shuts down many decks. And we get to keep all our cards in our hand thanks to our Spellbook.

I have fond memories of my old Underworld Dreams / Howling Mine deck and therefore this one above has a special place for me.

 

LAST WORDS

So I think those were enough ideas for one avatar.  As the title of the article says, all of them are still at the brainstorming stage. Maybe some of them could turn into something good after some intense testing whereas some are clearly casual. I would love to hear what you think about the ideas I presented here and would also like to know if you have other ideas regarding the avatar; or any other avatar.

Let's have some love for Vanguard. It is one of those formats that separates us from the paper Magic players. They can't play it whereas we have that privilege. Let's realize that and talk about it as well as other formats that make MTGO more fun than MTG.

And thanks for reading.

See you online
Nafiz Erman, aka Lord Erman