I. Introduction
No, not these hunters!
After writing about Teneb last article, I decided to bring my Vorosh deck out of retirement. This deck was another that I hadn't really updated for a while (this one since Morningtide), but I knew it was more powerful than my original version of Teneb. As a matter of fact, I didn't even have to perform a major overhaul to bring this deck up to speed. However, I did want to include some of the big goofy stuff that I hadn't really been able to play. Vorosh gives you opportunities to play cards that you just wouldn't be able to in other colors. Let's get on to the deck.
II. The Deck: Hunting for kills!
Let's take a look at our Commander:
Vorosh is kind of awesome. He gets larger whenever you connect. If you really wanted to, you could go with a counter/token theme. As a matter of fact, I did start to put something together like this, and I may show it again at some point in the future. But I really didn't want to go overboard with this theme, and the only card I included that was specific to Vorosh was Fireshrieker.
Now, there is a fairly general, but very competitive type of Vorosh deck out there. The main method of winning for this deck is through recursion of a Temporal Manipulation type of effect, usually through Eternal Witness getting bounced with something like Crystal Shard. So you include a couple more ways to get multiple turns, with Time Stretch and similar cards. The black is used for tutors, card draw and board control, using Decree of Pain and Damnation. You can use Erratic Portal as a duplicate Crystal Shard effect. Beacon of Unrest can bring back stuff you need as well. The beatdown is provided by Vorosh himself. But I didn't want to go that route.
Like I said, I had an older deck using this guy. Let's take a look.
Although this deck hasn't been updated since Lorwyn block, it's still actually pretty good. You can take this right now and win some games with it. However, what I really wanted to do was increase the fun factor of the deck and update it a little. There aren't going to be a ton of changes, but there are some.
I'll be honest, I'm not sure that I made the deck better, but I really wanted to play with some of these cards. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out what the updates are. I know I was bad by reducing the land count from 40 to 39, so sue me.
Card Draw
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Arcanis the Omnipotent, Aeon Chronicler, Graveborn Muse, Mulldrifter, Future Sight, Mystic Remora, Phyrexian Arena, Stroke of Genius, Recurring Insight, Mind's Eye: A good amount of card draw provided by blue. I like the blue creatures that provide some card draw, as they bring either large amounts of draw or a beefy body. Mystic Remora is underplayed, I think, as typically people don't pay the cost to keep you from drawing, unlike Rhystic Study. Stroke of Genius has the benefit of being an Instant, which is awesome when you have Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth out. |
Mana Help
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Coalition Relic, Darksteel Ingot, Fellwar Stone, Solemn Simulacrum, Oracle of Mul Daya, Explosive Vegetation, Farseek, Kodama's Reach, Life from the Loam, Scapeshift: This is pretty basic stuff. Some land search and mana artifacts help with acceleration. The stand outs here are Life from the Loam and Scapeshift. Loam gets back your cycled lands and fetch lands, as well as any lands that get destroyed. Scapeshift typically searches up Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers, as well as any other help you need. Oracle of Mul Daya is good enough that I will need a really good reason not to include it in any future green deck I make. |
Theft
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Gilded Drake, Keiga, the Tide Star, Bribery, Thada Adel, Acquisitor, Wrexial, the Risen Deep, Mindleech Mass: Obviously your opponents are going to be playing some good stuff, so you might as well use their stuff against them. As I've said before, every deck with blue should use Bribery, so that you can use your opponents' Eldrazi against them. Everyone plays artifacts, so Thada Adel can always get something. Mindleech Mass is pretty fun and can get some good stuff out of people's hands when he hits. And the landwalk abilities of Wrexial are great. |
Beaters
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Vulturous Zombie, Lord of Extinction, Wrexial, the Risen Deep, Mindleech Mass, Simic Sky Swallower, Skeletal Vampire, Dread, Vigor: Everyone likes large dudes, and each of these brings a little something extra to the table. Vigor goes well with Pestilence. Simic Sky Swallower is just a beast that is hard to deal with, with multiple abilities that are all useful. |
There aren't really a whole lot of combos in the deck. It's just a fun deck that has a lot of stuff that I like and haven't really played yet. There are no real tips or tricks to it. It's just beatdown with card advantage. The correct plays are usually pretty easy to figure out. The deck has some defense, some offense, recursion, removal, and ways to reset the board. It can produce big mana, make some tokens, and just beat down. It's fun.
Now, there's nothing wrong with the other type of Vorosh deck that I mentioned. As a matter of fact, just by adding the cards I talked about and a couple more tutors, you can turn this deck into an extreme killer. However, I like the goofier side of the game, and you can pull off some wins with this guy as is.
III. The Game: Fight!
This isn't the best game I played using this deck. However, what I wanted to show you guys is a look at threat assessment. I basically had a chance to win, but I didn't correctly assess who the biggest threat was. Instead, I ended up playing more emotionally and it cost me the game. Let's take a look at the opponents for this game.
As we know by now,
Thraximundar is usually Grixis control, but everyone has their own spin on him. GAIV is typically a griefer type of deck, punishing you in various different ways. Unfortunately I don't realize just how much of a threat this type of player is until it was too late. This is my first game playing against a Linvala deck, so I am curious about what I am going to see. Each of these Commanders can be threatening, but Linvala was the unknown quantity for me.
Thraximundar wins the roll. Here is my opening hand:
Round 1
L: Plains.
Round 2
Me: Draw Forest, play Forest.
Round 3
A great early game play.
Attacks G with the Knight (38).
G: Doesn’t use Tax. Plays Island.
L: Plains.
Round 4
T: Swamp.
G: Uses Tax to get an Island and two Plains. Plays Island. Discards three basics at the end of turn to get to 7.
Round 5
T: Island. Animates
Creeping Tar Pit. Gives the Knight flying. Attacks Garruk with the Knight, and G with Tar Pit and Mauler. G
Condemn’s the Mauler,
making T go up to (44). Garruk dies, and G goes to (35)
Brutal.
This should have been a clue about who was the biggest threat in this game. G is playing a deck that makes it harder for you to cast stuff, and basically uses a two card combo to get rid of an opponent in the first few turns of the game.
L: Attacks G with his Soldier (34).
Round 6
T: Draws the only card in his library,
Taurean Mauler. Plays Swamp.
Profane Command, killing my Beast and hitting G for 4 dropping him to (30). Then attacks G with the Knight (28).
L: Attacks G with the Soldier (27). Casts
Luminarch Ascension. That gives me the uh-oh feeling. The Ascension is a pretty good threat, so something usually has to be done about it pretty quick. The Ascension is actually what throws me off here.
Round 7
T: Loses because he has no library. Ascension gets 1 counter.
G:
Halimar Depths, then
Reveillark. Doesn’t have anything is his graveyard to be worried about yet. Ascension gets a second counter.
A "don't touch me" card.
So basically L has played 2 pretty powerful enchantments. One, however, is purely defensive. I should have taken this into account, but I didn't. What would you guys have done in this situation?.
Round 8
Me: Draw
Scapeshift. Play Miren, then
Fireshrieker, and attach it to Vorosh.
Aurification is really, really annoying, and the best way I can think of to get rid of it is to kill it's owner. I attack L with Vorosh. After his first strike I pump him, hitting L for a total of 18 Commander damage (20). Vorosh gets 2
Aurification counters. If I'd thought about it more, I could have just attacked G with Vorosh and L with Mulldrifter.
L: Casts
Kor Cartographer. In response, G drops
Aven Mindcensor. This is another clue as to who the biggest threat is, as he's willing to keep someone from searching for a basic land. As a result, L can’t find a Plains. So we have L with
Aurification put out in an attempt to get an active
Luminarch Ascension, and we have G who used a two card combo to eliminate a player early then prevented another player for searching for a basic land. Which one is the bigger threat?
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Me: Draw
Spitting Image. I attack L with the Treefolk, again unnecessarily worried about the Ascension. L blocks with Linvala. I then cast
Keiga, the Tide Star. Ascension gets a counter, but it won’t matter.
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Makes any little dude a true beast.
Round 15
IV. Conclusion
So let's look at what the two opponents did:
L: Plays a semi-threatening general, Luminarch Ascension, and Aurification to keep you from hurting him.
G: Plays a punishing general, takes out an opponent in the 5th turn with a two card combo, recurs Reveillark, uses Aven Mindcensor to keep people from searching their libraries, then draws a bunch of cards and is able to keep them in hand.
After the fact, we know which is the bigger threat, but in game things are a little different. If anything, this shows that you should take a better look at your opponents and the threats that they play. Purely defensive cards are annoying, but they aren't the end of the world. You can always play around them. The worry is that they give their controller time to set up and do something horrible in the future. Luminarch Ascension is nothing to laugh at.
In addition, Eldrazi Conscription is actually really good. For 8 mana, you give your critter and extra 10 power plus trample! That's huge. The Annihilator is just icing on the cake. I may consider using it in future decks.
On top of the Time Walk effects, other things you can consider some other cards such as Pestilence Demon and Tooth and Nail to go with your Vigor, Mephidross Vampire and Triskelion, and Mortivore. Puppeteer Clique is another card that I wanted to fit in here. Actually, all of these can probably go in a Golgari deck, so you will probably be seeing them in the future some point.
So I hope you guys can use this game to better assess threats, and it gives you a better idea about what to look for. Obviously threats can change as the game state changes, but you should also take a look at the long game as well. Until next time!
Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
2 Comments
I love the deck and think it has a lot of potential. Could use a time warp at least to try to hit the vorosh win with dmg, and even rystic study in addition to the other draw. It has a lot of similarities to your old deck, and I think it can take great advantage of some of the new m11 cards as well.
because you didn't include him
Fungal Shambler
the only other GBU creature in existance.