In my last article I said I was going to play some extended Two Headed Giant and write how I fared against Cloudpost decks. I did all my playing and was ready to sit down at my computer when "POOF" the announcement came that Extended was only going to include releases from the past 4 years rather then the last 7 (or so, how easily I forget). That meant that Cloudpost was going to rotate out early. I found myself without an article. Grrr. It took a lot of hemming and hawing, but I finally decided what to do. I'm going to just talk briefly about Cloudpost decks and then give decklists for my three favorite Extended 2HG decks, a report on how they played, and changes that could be made to make them Extended legal once again.
Cloudposts - BOO!
Even though Cloudposts aren't Extended legal anymore, they can still be played in Classic and Legacy. And if the rumors of a format that moves between Extended and Legacy turn out to come true, they should also be legal in that format. Cloudpost decks can be all different types, but they tend to have cards in common. Cloudpost decks can still dominate 2HG in formats they are legal in. Just today I saw a Classic 2HG game with the qualifier "No Cloudposts, say no to CHEEZE!". I also think it's worth talking about Cloudpost decks in 2HG because I don't think they will ever be limited or banned. I say this because 2HG online is casual only. The only tournament 2HG is paper and paper decks are limited to 4 copies of each card per team rather than per player. Even though that makes the paper and online formats fundamentally different, Wizards still wants to treat them the same to have a consistent restricted/banned list.
These are the foundations of the deck. With these each player has a potential of 8 Cloudposts in play. These tend to be found with tutors that can find any land card.
Primeval Titan isn't legal yet, but I'm sure it would fit great into a green Cloudpost deck.
With all the mana that these decks can bring out, they can do some crazy things really early. Turn 5 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or an early Myojin of Night's Reach aren't fun to see on the other side of the table. The only really good way to deal with a Cloudpost deck is through land destruction. One or two land destruction spells can quickly drop the available mana of a Cloudpost deck from 16 to 4. At this point they can't do much.
Old to new Extended
Right now multiplayer extended has taken a big hit. It used to be that 2HG games were about 1/3 Classic, 1/3 Extended, and 1/3 Standard. Since the change it's almost exclusively Classic and Standard. There might be only one extended game in the multiplayer room at any given time. I hope Extended comes back as a format after Magic 2010 and Shards of Alara Block rotate out. More extended games should be started as players want to keep playing their favorite cards from those sets. Of course that will be balanced by the players that stay away because they don't want to see those cards. Personally, I'll be very happy if I never see another Bloodbraid Elf!
So here are the three decks that I liked playing the most in the old Extended.
What's in there: The key to this deck is to get out the Deep-Sea Kraken or the Ghastlord of Fugue and equip them with the Quietus Spike. These two creatures could also be Cloned, which is also useful in copying an opponent's creature for your own use, or just to get rid of any Legendary Creatures (including Progenitus!). Lighthouse Chronologist has the potential of giving you three extra turns a round, so I had to put a couple in. Tidehollow Strix is a great little creature that comes out quick and serves as a great deterrent. Soul Manipulation serves the dual purpose of returning one of your unblockable creatures from the graveyard and is a good creature counter. Doom Blade is cheap removal, and Slave of Bolas is one of my favorite creature removal cards in the game. I'm taking your indestructable Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre attacking with him, and then sacrificing him. Thank you! I originally had Loxodon Warhammers instead of the Lightning Greaves, but I needed the protection more than the lifelink.
How it plays: The deck plays well, but it is very susceptible to removal. If you get the Kraken out equipped with the Quietus Spike, the other team is usually on a 2-3 turn clock. You can take them from 30+ life to nothing very quickly. I never got the Lighthouse Chronologist to the highest level, he's a removal magnet once you start leveling him, but that is one removal that won't target the Kraken or Ghastlord. The other downfall of this deck is that it can be outraced because a lot of the cards are mana intensive and there isn't any acceleration built into the deck. The Kraken is hit or miss. I once played a storm deck and he came out the turn after I suspended him and won the game after the storm failed to do us in. Other times he'd be suspended for at least 3 turns. At a converted mana cost of 10 he was never hard cast. I often considered replacing the Krakens with Hada Spy Patrols. They would be an easier drop early in the game and then can protect themselves with their own shroud when fully leveled. Just make sure to equip them before they get shroud.
Keeping it Extended legal: Only two cards aren't legal in Extended anymore. They are Dimir Aqueduct and Lightning Greaves. The Aquaduct can be replaced fairly easily. I'd substitute any land that produces Blue and Black mana. Terramorphic Expanse would be a cheap and easy fix. The Lightning Greaves are harder to find a substitute for. Whispersilk Cloak gives the shroud, but granting unblockable is a little redundant on the creatures you'd want to equip it. Negate would be a good general purpose fix that could provide protection and could also defend against sweepers. Eel Umbra could be interesting, but I'm not sure that it would be more useful than Negate. The Kraken is only legal for a little while longer so after they rotate out, I'll try to put in the Sky Patrols as talked about above.
What's in there: Use Doubling Season to make crazy big Apocalypse Hydras and Protean Hydras and a lot of Oozes with Gelatinous Genesis. As a last resort, get to 100 counters on Helix Pinnacle accelerated by Doubling Season and win that way. Cloudposts are in there to help you along, but without any way to search for them, the only way they are going to give you extra mana is if other players are using them also (in the old Extended, that was something you could count on). If you have a big creature, it's better if they trample, thanks Loxodon Warhammer, and the lifelink is just gravy. Fertilid and Borderland Ranger are for mana fixing and chump blocking with their fellow chump, Mr. Plant Token from Khalni Garden. No explanation is needed for Lightning Bolt and I don't have an explanation for the single Comet Storm. Chain Reaction is the red sweeper of choice in 2HG games, so it's in there as well as in just about every other red 2HG deck.
How it plays: This deck isn't as good as the Unblockable deck. It suffers from the same weakness to removal of key creatures. Plus once those creatures are out in the Unblockable deck, they can start doing damage right away. The creatures in this deck need help removing blockers. The thing this deck is best at is scaring opponents. They tremble at the sight of a 20/20 Hydra right up to the point it's Path to Exiled, Oblivion Ringed, or Doom Bladed. Oblivion Ring is an especially cruel fate, because if the ring goes away, all the counters on the hydras go away and they go right to the graveyard.
Keeping it Extended legal: There are three cards to worry about here. Cloudpost and Gruul Turf are both easily replaced by other lands, so that's no problem. Doubling Season is hard to replace because it's one of the cornerstones of this deck. Although in a lot of games I was wondering if Doubling Season slowed down this deck too much. It might play better without it. Because Helix Pinnacle isn't much use without Doubling Season, there are 6 spots to fill. I'd probably add more mana ramping in their place. Omnath, Locus of Mana would be fun, although expensive. (Jorga Treespeaker) has become a favorite of mine lately that would work well. Fertilid also doesn't work as well without doubling season, so I would replace it with another mana ramp card. After Magic 2011 comes out, I'll probably take both the Fertilids and Borderland Rangers out and put in Cultivates and Sylvan Rangers. Loxodon Warhammer is another card that will rotate out of Extended soon, and Whispersilk Cloak will replace it. If you can't bash to the head with trample while gaining life, might as well be sneaky and unblockable with shroud.
What's in there: This deck is built around bringing out Dolmen Gate and then attacking with creatures with high power and low toughness. For the theme of this deck I went with elementals, this deck is even Tribal Legal. Wilderness Elemental is a great card in 2HG because it's power is equal to the number of nonbasic lands both opponents control. It wasn't uncommon for him to attack as a 4/3, 5/3, or even 6/3 trampler on the third or fourth turn. Nova Chaser continues the theme as a monster in a 10/2 trampler body. A lot of times the champion effect even helped out. If they killed the Nova Chaser with a sweeper, often the Wilderness Elemental was back on the board even bigger than when it left. I picked Lightning Elemental and Spawnwrithe over elementals like Ball Lightning and Hellspark Elemental because they stay around and can be championed by the Nova Chaser on the next turn. Tornado Elemental was an experimental card. I wanted to see how it would play, it has the possibility of taking out fliers and assigns damage like it isn't blocked, which is better than trample in this deck. The last elemental, Fertilid, is there for mana ramping. I packed the Tectonic Edges into the deck to deal with Cloudpost decks. Everything else is pretty much self-explanatory.
How it plays: This deck is one that definitely needed some tweaking. I think the principle is sound, attacking with high power creatures that can't be killed due to Dolmen Gate worked well. However the supporting cards needed to be adjusted. When I put the deck together I didn't realize how fast it would be. I should have taken out the Fertilids for something with more offensive power. Also the Tornado Elemental had such a high casting cost it never saw play. I'd probably also replace the Khalni Gardens with forests or another land that didn't enter tapped in order to speed things up a little more. The deck was also loaded with 2-3 CMC spells, the mana curve needed some adjustment. All changes I would have tried out if the Extended format wouldn't have changed. Sigh...
Keeping it Extended legal: At first it looks like this deck would be easy to convert, there are only three cards that cycled out. Two of those cards Lightning Greaves and Tornado Elemental would be easy to replace. Tornado Elemental I talked about above, and the best replacement for Lightning Greaves might be Cloak and Dagger. It slows the deck when compared to the Greaves, but it fits the theme of the deck. It gives shroud like the Graves but also a +2 to power and power is everything when attacking with Dolmen Gate in play. Wilderness Elemental is a harder card to replace. There aren't too many 3 CMC creatures that can pack it's punch. Although if this deck doesn't need the green for Wilderness Elemental and Fertilid and Tornado Elemental are also gone, you could remove Spawnwrithe and convert the deck into mono Red. In that case there are other Elementals that could fit right in. Rakka Mar, Valakut Fireboar, and Bloodpyre Elemental might fit the bill. Magic 2011 also has some great red elementals that would be fun to play, such as Chandra's Spitfire and Fire Servant. Going this direction I'd also take out some of the equipment for more burn spells.
Of course with this deck you could also forget Extended and make it a Classic Tribal 2HG deck. That opens up many more possibilities.
If there is any other suggestions on what you think the best way to convert these decks to current Extended I'd love to see them. As I said above, I think the Extended format is dormant (hopefully not dead!) but will probably come back around when Magic 2010 and Shards Block cycle out of Standard. That leaves a lot of time to keep the ideas simmering.
2 Comments
I don't recall being overly annoyed by all the cloudoosts but maybe that's just me. Of course I haven't played two headed giant since the eldrazi came on the scene so what do I know.
Is there anything people should watch out for now that posts are gone?
Annihilators are the ones that nobody seems to like to play against. Although I don't think they are too bad. Although most games I see them in they are hard cast. I think that makes them much more tolerable then when cheated into play.
Two cards in standard that are always trouble are Bloodchief Ascension and Luminarch Ascension. They need to be taken care of before they build up tokens. The Luminarch is especially powerful because it's easier to token up and then very quickly you face a swarm of angels.