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Hello every one. It's a brand new Sunday and I am here with a new deck. It is still in its preliminary stages of development, but shows promise and is pretty fun to play as well. Usually when I tackle a new list it has either been extensively tested for playing in prize rounds, or it is a new emerging archetype that has been placing well. This time however I figured that I would show some of the process as it is happening instead of just the finished product. Before we get into exactly what the deck is or how it functions I thought it would be a good idea to start with the inspiration and the push that got me started down this road.

 

For the few people who don't have an internet connection ( not sure how these people will read this) Pro Tour Austin was two weeks ago, and the Dragon Master, Brian Kibler took down the event with Baneslayer Angel. Yes in a world of combo (sound familiar?) he was able to take a midrange deck and wipe the floor with agro and then sideboard into some ridiculous combo hate. A lot has been said about the approach that he and his playtesting team took to get the trophy and even though Randy Beuler almost wet himself when the $35.00 mythic took home the title there is something in the results to look at in Classic. For reference here is the list that won a cool $40k.

 

 

I won't get into specifics here about the deck as it has been covered quite extensively by everyone and their mothers. Yes I said it, your mom. lol. Ahem... back to the subject at hand, the deck was well positioned in the metagame and the "creator" Ben Rubin managed a 9-1 record with the deck. All in all pretty sexy, even if the fact that Elspeth, Knight-Errant won Kibler 2 of his 3 finals games was downplayed to insignificance in the face of the Angel. In my mind this will go down in history as the first Pro Tour won by a Planeswalker, and not an overcosted monster.

 

This was one very important first step in the direction I took when trying to build the new deck. The other important factor is the undeniable fact that Mana Drain has seen little to no play. I mean it's Mana Drain come on! But whiffy, you may ask. We have had Drain and Angel for months, what changed?  The last piece of the puzzle came from the fact that I like making sound investments. For instance my playset of Baneslayer Angel cost me $56.00 and is now close to $140.00. Taking this example in mind I bought a playset of the most over hyped card to be released in a long time.

 

                                                                                       

This guy seems absurd. We all know how good and bad it can be. After all, all those mothers chimed in on this card too. It isn't very often that a card can generate the level of discussion that this rainbow endorsing serpent has. At $13.00 a piece, I bought a playset more for the fact that I expect it to settle around $20.00 then for the fact that it was going to make waves in constructed Magic.

 

Fast forward a few days from the impulse purchase and we see our hero (me) getting really frustrated with Zendikar limited, namely sealed deck and the fact that for 6 events straight I lost at least 2 matches to mana screw or flood with some really good looking decklists. I needed a break from limited, but the reason I was playing limited so voraciously was the fact that I was not having much fun playing Classic. Lately in prize matches I have been running one of these two decks.

Creatures 1 Darksteel Colossus 1 cards Other Spells 1 Tinker 2 Chrome Mox 3 Mind's Desire 1 Mana Crypt 4 Lotus Petal 4 Cabal Ritual 1 Demonic Consultation 4 Dark Ritual 2 Ponder 3 Infernal Tutor 1 Necropotence 2 Tendrils of Agony 4 Burning Wish 4 Brainstorm 1 Demonic Tutor 4 Lion's Eye Diamond 4 Duress 45 cards

Lands 2 Underground Sea 1 Badlands 1 Island 3 Bloodstained Mire 4 Polluted Delta 1 Flooded Strand 1 Swamp 1 Volcanic Island 14 cards Sideboard 1 Mind's Desire 4 Ingot Chewer 4 Tormod's Crypt 4 Thoughtseize 1 Tendrils of Agony 1 Empty the Warrens 15 cards

 

 

These are both fine decks and have won me a lot of matches in the 2 man events, but I can't seem to hit 3 wins in the 4 round daily events with either of them. Either I blow it somehow with Teps and forget to play out Burning Wish+Lion's Eye Diamond correctly and lose the match or I get the 2 random decks that eat Thresh for breakfast. Needless to say I have become disillusioned with the tournament structure for Classic. Even though I am barely holding my spot in the top 16 for Classic PoY that ClassicQuarter.com is running, I think I am done with these ridiculous 4 Round events.

 

 

Getting back on track. I'm sick of limited and I’m sick of tourney Classic. What's an eternal player to do? I guess it's either quit or get off my high horse. I don't want to waste the last 3 years of my hobby so quitting is out of the question. That leaves me getting off the horse and putting my innovation cap on. Last week I shared the beats deck that was also a direct influence from Kibler. The guy who created it is at it again, this time concentrating on trying to break a different Zendikar card. I figured that I would take a stab at the lovely green Dark Ritual. Which I feel is the way to try and observe Lotus Cobra. Its effect is very much like a Dark Ritual that can't be used on turn 1.

 

After taking a look at my library of decks and trying to figure out how I could incorporate the king of snakes into Classic I came across one of my favorite decks from 2009, Bant agro. Many months ago Kaxon and I took the then new deck out for a spin in a top 8 event and secured a 1st place and a 8th place with it. Kaxon won the whole event and I merely placed, the important thing to remember though is that 100% of the decks made the money from an unknown position. The deck had evolved from that entry in the annuls of Classic history and I found myself looking at this teched out version built to beat Necropotence decks when they were in their heyday.

I took a long look at this deck and saw a place for the Cobra, obviously I had to do a complete face lift on the archetype since the meta it was built for has been dead for the last 6 months. Once I took out all the extraneous pieces I was left with a lot of room. Add in the fact that I want Mana Drain to be playable and we see the start of a ramp deck in Classic. What do you ramp up to though? How about an overpriced mythic from M10? Here is my first stab at the deck.

 

 

I upped the land count since I am trying to make Landfall happen regularly with the Cobra and if all else fails I need to be able to actually get 5 mana to "hardcast" the angel. Speaking of the Angel she is on a really good track to hitting the table on turn 3. In-between the Cobras and the Drains there is a lot of action happening on turn 3. Unfortunately there is not a lot to actually ramp up to. I mean turn 3 angels are superb, don't get me wrong, and plan b of dropping double Tarmogoyf on turn 3 is also not too shabby but the deck needs some more oomph. After posting the list in my Clans forums I got a hit back asking about Fact or Fiction. This would help solve my "dead" draws and it gave me something I really wanted in the first place, namely some form of card draw. FoF also fits pretty nicely with all the "ramp" elements of the deck. After playing it a half dozen times I tweaked it slightly by taking out 1 Spell Pierce and the Balance for a pair of FoF.

 

 

Let’s take a look at the deck in its different parts.

Mana Excel- 11
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Mana Drain
3x Lotus Cobra

 

 

This is the core of the deck and the reason I built it in the first place. This deck is all about the 2nd turn. If possible the best opening play involves a Hierarch and a Cobra. You make your one drop and then you make your mythic 2 drop before playing a second land. From there it depends on what's going on. I think that being able to lay a fetch land, and popping it for a Tarmogoyf and an untapped land is pretty sweet, especially when your holding a Spell Pierce to protect your big dumb guy. On the other side of the table we have Mana Drain to help us ramp. Hitting a 2 drop is pretty important here as we want to get up to 5 as quickly as possible. If you’re trying to stop a 1 drop it should only be if you’re under a lot of pressure or if you only need 1 extra mana to do your own thing. Lastly there are only 3 Cobras because he is not that spectacular on his lonesome and the key apparently to making him playable is that your deck needs to function when he is not around. I may max this slot out soon though as anytime I have him and a fetchland the mana is silly. Last little tidbit on Cobra is that he can fix your mana by adding ANY color to your pool, so you can play out your angel with no mana on the table.

 

Protection- 11(+4)

4x Force of Will

4x Path to Exile

3x Spell Pierce

(the Mana Drains)

 

We already spoke about Drain so we will move onto the other cards. FoW is a given. It is the glue that holds the format together and is instrumental in stopping combo or allowing you to actually tap out on your own turn for a threat. Besides the fact that it was the only tourney viable rare in a set that didn't sell well in a time when Modo was at its bleakest, it deserves to be the highest priced single in Classic especially as it has rightfully so made itself the icon of Classic. Whether you love the fact that its $60.00 or hate it, the card does its job better than any other card in the history of the game. As for Spell Pierce. The reason I want this card over Daze or Spell Snare is because I don't actually care all that much about creatures hitting the board. Simply put my end game is better than any other one out there that is using the red zone. So when I get my fatty down on the quick like, I enjoy being able to protect it from the various types of removal in the format. Daze is easily played around and it conflicts with Path and the complete absence of any kind of mana control. Spell Pierce may not be able to hit Dark Confidant or Tarmogoyf but you can protect yourself from the hand disruption or counterspells that usually accompany these giants of the format, also as a pure bonus Pierce is miles ahead of Snare and Daze when facing RDW. For the spot removal slot I chose Path to Exile over Swords to Plowshares. One of the reasons I did this was Tinker, and the resurgence in Phyrexian Dreadnought. This is a midrange deck, and even though the ability to drop a t3 5/5 lifelinking game ender is there, most of my wins did not happen until turn 7 or 8ish. This list simply can't afford to give the opponent and extra 3rd of their life total. Another reason is the lack of RDW and Zoo in the format. Yes I know Bazzar of Bahgdad has recently been putting up 4-0's with toolbox zoo but there aren't many others giving the best agro deck a whirl. Finally this deck is all about getting 5 mana so in a pinch you can Path your own dude to hit the magical threshold or simply fix your colors.

 

 

Win Conditions- 7

4x Tarmogoyf

3x Baneslayer Angel

 

Although Hierarch and Cobra can swing in for the pain this deck gets most of its muscle from these guys right here. We all know how good Tarmo is, and in our deck he is better than our opponents Goyfs since our 1 drop makes him kill others and live to talk about it. Tarmogoyf and his small friends are also really good at soaking up spot removal so that Baneslayer can go tap dancing on the other guys face unmolested. There are also some Trinket Mages that can double as a threat after getting an important disruption piece.

 

Utility-10

4x Brainstorm

2x Trinket Mage

1x Tormod's Crypt

1x Pithing Needle

2x Fact or Fiction

 

Brainstorm is a pretty good card on its own merits. Paired up with 9 fetch lands and Cobra though, it gets a little better. With a Cobra out, you can play a fetch land and produce mana to play your Brainstorm before cracking the fetch to bury the undesirables. Fact or Fiction brings us some much needed card advantage and is still one of my favorite cards from yester year. I mean sure a lot of players look at it and say "well gee whiff, it lets them decide, and giving your opponents options can't be that good" the thing is though is that they have to make a decision based on imperfect knowledge. Sure they make the piles, but you know which one to take based on the contents of your hand and deck which most opponents won't know. Lastly there is a small Trinket Mage package mostly to try and give you a small edge against Dredge and Wasteland. I tried really hard to have these 4 slots be a Tinker package but ultimately couldn't find a way to cram enough artifacts into the deck to make it work. These last four slots are the ones I am scrutinizing the most as they seem out of place with the rest of the main deck but help serve to speed up the acquisition of silver bullets from the sideboard in games 2 & 3.

 

Lands-21

4x Tropical Island

3x Tundra

2x Savannah

1x Forest

1x Plains

1x Island

4x Windswept Heath

3x Flooded Strand

2x Misty Rainforest

 

The printing of enemy fetch lands almost demands that I use basics in the list. Bant agro already did this in the past, but know it is easier to get that Forest. There are 9 fetches in total and this is important for making the most of Lotus Cobra. As I said earlier Cobra is like Dark Ritual but you need to play a fetch to make that analogy work. Otherwise with a regular old land that taps for mana he is like a Rite of Flame. The Savannahs are the weakest lands in the deck and if making sure that I have 2 was not so important for turn3 I would probably cut them. As it stands though I may cut them anyway for a 4th Tundra and another spell slot as I think 21 lands may be a bit high with 11 accelerants in the deck.

 

The current Sideboard

4 Meddling Mage

1 Pithing Needle

3 Ravenous Trap

3 Ethersworn Canonist

2 Engineered Explosives

1 Relic of Progenitus

1 Tormod's Crypt

 

As you can see I am not so worried about agro all that much, and I shouldn't be. In-between the lifelink evasion monster and my disruption, agro games should go easy peasy. This board is built to take on the Juggernauts of the format, which I see as Dredge, Teps,helm/line, Pinter/Stone and Belcher. Mage, and Canonist should help significantly against the Storm style combo decks, and the Ravenous Traps as well as the Explosives and more time tested graveyard hosers should go along way against Dredge, especially in conjunction with the main deck Trinket Mages. The second Needle really helps against activated ability combo decks too. Lastly the Explosives are a bit of a catch all as I am not running Krosan Grip a nice thing about this deck is that with Cobra out I can play sunburst for 4 or 5 if I choose to. Got to love that any color clause on the Cobra since it also allows you to hardcast Ravenous Trap.

 

To finish up this article I am going to leave off with the list I will be using for the next couple of days and see how the minor changes go. I am going to take a page from the finals of Austin and squeeze in an Elspeth, as I need more things to ramp to as well as another win condition. Here it is.

Cobra Slayer

Creatures 2 Trinket Mage 3 Baneslayer Angel 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Lotus Cobra 16 cards Other Spells 4 Mana Drain 2 Fact or Fiction 1 Pithing Needle 3 Spell Pierce 4 Brainstorm 4 Path to Exile 4 Force of Will 1 Tormod's Crypt 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant  24 cards

Lands 1 Island 1 Forest 1 Plains 4 Tundra 3 Windswept Heath 3 Flooded Strand 4 Tropical Island 3 Misty Rainforest 20 cards Sideboard 4 Meddling Mage 1 Pithing Needle 3 Ethersworn Canonist 2 Engineered Explosives 1 Relic of Progenitus 1 Tormod's Crypt 3 Ravenous Trap 12 cards

 

For those of you who are curious this deck currently costs $956.00 as of 10/29/09 from MtgoTraders.com. I hope you enjoyed this look at a new deck type and I will be back next week. See ya in 7, whiffy out.

 

Georgios Efelis

whiffy penguin on modo

Member of Clan Magic Eternal

 

P.S. The Med Block Pre is going to be scheduled on the first weekend of December either on Friday or Saturday. I would like some voting to commence as to the best time to run the event. Popular opinion will decide what time and day the event will be held. Here are the options.

 

Friday

5pm-12am based on Eastern Time. The hour that gets picked will be when registration for the event starts and the tournament will start on the next hour.

 

 

Saturday

9am-6pm based on Eastern Time. The hour that gets picked will be when registration for the event starts and the tournament will start on the next hour.

 

Please vote on what time you would like the tourney to start!. Also more on registration and side prizes next week.