---

---

Updating For 2012

Well, it's a new year and we're on the verge of a newish block format. Contrary to what I wrote at the end of my previous article, I decided to keep the name, but scrap the old banner. It looks simple enough, heavily inspired by turn of the century JRPG's, but this time I had enough sense to make the image very modular, and extremely easy to alter when the need arises.

All in all, I'm fairly happy with it... and now I'm going to go play Final Fantasy VII for the first time in about 12 years...

---

Pile of Junk

In ISD block constructed so far, my first line of thought whenever building a new deck has been, how can I cram all available planeswalkers into a single deck? DKA furthers that thought process by introducing Sorin, and my mind immediately jumped to WBG Junk. Having some kind of Swords to Plowshares variant in this set would have put this deck over the top, but even still I'm finding it to be extremely solid in the testing I've been able to do.

When the set becomes legal you're going to see a huge surge of BW Tokens, GWb Tokens, GW Tokens, and all manner of aggro decks. As a result, decks not following such a strategy are sure to be heavy on sweepers like Blasphemous Act. Having solid answers that are resilient to such board wipes is going to be key to winning in the format, and we have access to some very solid 'walkers.

Planeswalker Junk - v0.1
Lands: 27 4 Isolated Chapel 4 Woodland Cemetery 3 Evolving Wilds 2 Clifftop Retreat 2 Shimmering Grotto 2 Grim Backwoods 1 Vault of the Archangel 4 Forest 3 Plains 2 Swamp Creatures: 7 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim 3 Bloodgift Demon Planeswalkers 10 4 Garruk Relentless 3 Liliana of the Veil 3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad	Other Spells: 16 3 Sever the Bloodline 3 Blasphemous Act 2 Curse of Death's Hold 2 Lingering Souls 1 Army of the Dead 1 Harrowing Journey 1 Increasing Ambition 1 Naturalize 1 Ray of Revelation 1 Unburial Rites	Sideboard: 15 4 Dead Weight 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 3 Tribute to Hunger 2 Curse of Death's Hold 2 Tree of Redemption 1 Ray of Revelation

It's clearly a rough draft, but I'm anxious to get some form of this deck into the queues. There's a lot of singletons in the deck, but they're pretty much all there to do the same thing. The creature base is pretty standard, and the strong token theme helps fuel the very strong Grim Backwoods, a card I may up to three in the list if not for my fear of getting mana screwed. Curse of Death's Hold and Ray of Revelation are both solid against the tokens decks, and there's even more anti-aggro in the board.

Thalia is a experiment, and I can't say with any amount of certainty whether or not she'll stay in the deck. Against any blue-based control, that is, control with blue in it, I can see her making a decent impact on the game, while not doing much to hurt me.

---

Pull the RUG Out From... Nevermind

RUG is a deck I wanted very badly to work in the current ISD Block format, but it just didn't. The closest incarnation was 4cc Snapcaster control, and even that is slipping in terms of competitiveness. My current build for post-DKA RUG looks like this.

RUG - v0.1
Lands: 26 4 Sulfur Falls 4 Hinterland Harbor 3 Evolving Wilds 2 Kessig Wolf Run 1 Haunted Fengraf 4 Forest 4 Island 4 Mountain Creatures: 14 4 Huntmaster of the Fells 3 Hellrider 3 Daybreak Ranger 3 Snapcater Mage 1 Manor Gargoyle	Planeswalkers 4 4 Garruk Relentless Other Spells: 16 4 Brimstone Volley 3 Forbidden Alchemy 3 Devil's Play 2 Blasphemous Act 2 Think Twice 2 Faithless Looting	Sideboard: 15 3 Rolling Tremblor 2 Tree of Redemption 2 Blasphemous Act 2 Ancient Grudge 2 Naturalize 2 Sturmgeist 2 Dissipate 1 Manor Gargoyle

I was originally running a full set of Delver of Secrets until I remembered this isn't Legacy and I can't play Brainstorm. Testing proved with the amount of spells in the above list, he just wasn't good enough. He is what I cut to make room for the Hellriders and Manor Gargoyle, which I've been much happier with. I considered the Hellrider + Curiosity combo, but couldn't find the room to justify it.

The draw engine is solid and the deck has a very hard time running out of steam, though I really should add a couple or so Shimmering Grottos so as to flash back Forbidden Alchemy later in the game.

The deck is in a fairly good position to handle what I expect the meta to be... though I said the exact same thing about RUG before the ISD Block events started last year, so, time will tell.

---

Zombie Redux

Another set, another excuse to build a zombie deck!

Zombie - v2.0
Lands: 22 22 Swamp Creatures: 26 4 Diregraf Ghoul 4 Gravecrawler 4 Black Cat 4 Highborn Ghoul 4 Geralf's Messenger 3 Bloodgift Demon 3 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed	Other Spells: 12 4 Sever the Bloodline 3 Moan of the Unhallowed 3 Victim of Night 2 Curse of Death's Hold	Sideboard: 15 4 Wooland Cemetery 2 Shimering Grotto 4 Crushing Vines 2 Curse of Death's Hold 3 Liliana of the Veil

Highborn Ghoul and Black Cat make for a pair of potent 2-drops, something the deck desperately needed given Walking Corpse is formally all we had. The sideboard plan against Grafdigger Cage is suspect at best, and may not even be necessary in the long run.

The deck wants to be all out aggro, relying on small cheap creatures, a steady stream of zombies, and the Undying mechanic to keep the beats on. I guess, really, it's a pretty brain dead deck... go figure.

---

Bringing Back Stompy

The last list I've been running through the ringer is good ol' stompy. I'm partial to decks like this and zombies, simply because the mana is just so good. Ironically, I think this is the deck that would be most affected by the cage besides Burning Vengeance, but handling it really shouldn't be an issue either. Here's my current list.

Mono Green Stompy - v0.1
Lands: 22 18 Forest 4 Hinterland Harbor Creatures: 24 4 Young Wolf 4 Wolfbitten Captive 4 Strangleroot Geist 4 Ambush Viper 4 Predator Ooze 4 Vorapede	Planeswalkers: 4 4 Garruk Relentless Other Spells: 10 4 Prey Upon 4 Tracker's Instincts 2 Creeping Renaissance	Sideboard: 15 4 Naturalize 3 Bramblecrush 3 Tree of Redemption 3 Hallowhenge Scavenger 2 Gnaw to the Bone

Simple mana, good protection and recovery, and very solid creatures. I think the deck has potential in the meta, assuming it can deal with token decks. I'd love to have a Viridian Shaman dude in the set to incidentally handle Cage, but I'm not really complaining.

Undying is proving to be an incredibly relevant ability, hampered only by a few cards including Dissipate and Sever the Bloodline. Being able to survive board wipes and block small creatures all day long is very powerful, and I think this deck takes very good advantage of that. I think in terms of power level, it's competing directly with Dredge, so we'll have to see where each deck ends up.

---

Conclusion

I'm not going to write up on BW tokens, I really don't see the point. Everyone is playing it and frankly I haven't done a lot of testing with it. What I can tell you from my testing is this:

• Grafdigger Cage is a very real card... but not so much in this format
• Planeswalkers will remain as beastly as ever
• Evolving Wilds may be the most relevant card in the set
• Undying is deceptively powerful, and will play a big role for aggro and possibly midrange decks
• The set can't be released fast enough

 Next week I want to talk about how DKA will affect existing ISD Block decks... and I just might do that!

Until next time!

-Jeff Torres