Steve Deck Wins: August 2011

1.

This is something a bit different.

I usually post up decklists that I've played a lot, thought about a lot, and would be happy to play in a tournament tomorrow. This post is not about one of those decklists.

Wizards have just announced that Modern is officially a thing. It also looks like Extended is biting the dust. Hard.

beeeep

"Hi Extended, it's Pro Tour Philly here. Look, I know we said we'd get together, but I just don't see it working out. It's this new guy I met..."

click

beeeep

"Uh, hi. This is 2011 World Champs, calling for Extended? Um, this is pretty difficult to say, and I don't like doing it by machine, but..."

So I'm not expecting too many grieving notices on the Internet. The largely unplayed and ignored Extended format has been unplayed and ignored long enough for Wizards to realise that people are not playing it. In fact, they have been largely ignoring it.

Enter Modern. There is an air of exoticism surrounding non-rotating formats for me. Something to do with the bulk of the cards being unfamiliar because I wasn't playing Standard when they were printed. Or Type 2, or whatever. I can understand why people are excited to play with the old cards, and to know that they aren't ever going away short of a ban. I even started to get in on that feeling as the cards I grew into this game with started becoming staples in LEGACY. Imagine it. The format for old cards, and Dark Confidant was good. I owned the Tarmogoyfs that some Legacy players complained about being unable to get. And they have dual lands!

I started playing, technically, with Portal. But it was Eighth Edition that I really began collecting cards. My first tournament outside of the house was the Darksteel pre-release. I opened Spellbinder, but left Terror in the sideboard because it was bad against artifact creatures. I played Battlegrowth because it was good with all of my creatures. I maybe won a game. (I could go and check on DCI, but why spoil the expected narrative - let's just assume I got the kicking I deserved for daring to venture into a tournament with actual players).

Modern represents my whole experience in Magic. I can now understand how people who've been playing Forever feel about Legacy, and I am finally enfranchised in a non-rotating format. It is good.

All of which overly long introduction brings me finally to the point.

Aside.

Okay, there is no aside, but it's fun to drag this out, no? No. Onwards.

End aside.

So I don't have a deck to write about. I may not end up with a decka the end of this. But I do have a wish, and that is to play with River Kelpie again. This is my speed of thought attempt to bring that wish into being, with no guarantees of success, and no editing beyond the basic use of grammar. Hopefully what it will be is an interesting exploration of a small corner of this new format.

2.

For one period, back in Alara, I had the solution. I had the under-the-radar deck that was ripe to take out the main contenders in Standard. This was a Standard that relied on Vivid lands to fuel 4- and 5-coloured monstrosities, that tried to combo one spell that cost UU with another that cost RRR in a deck with thirty something lands. And Faeries. I had the deck that could take them apart, that would foul up their early game, stifle their attempts at coming back in the mid turns and then win with the best Cruel Ultimatum in the format. I have sadly lost the list.

I missed Nationals that year due to the wedding of two people I hate with every fibre of my being. I won't mention them by name, we are still good friends.

The plan back then involved Boomerang to take out their first land, Fulminator Mage to get another, then Makeshift Mannequinning it back for a third. From that point Mulldrifters and Kelpies would help refuel LD and counters, Sedraxis Specter could be a supercharged card advantage machine, and Cruel would eventually put the nail in the coffin. It was brutal to play against and it contained some of my favourite cards of all time.

Please let it be good again.

Here's that list of key cards:

Immediate thoughts:

Specter was, and is, a metagame card, so I can see that hitting the bench.

Avalanch Riders immediately stands out from the expanded card pool.

With a mana-denial/delaying plan, both Remand and Delay look like feasible spells. Mental Misstep is banned, but Spell Snare is available and looks important to have available. Mana Leak should be a hard counter if all is going to plan.

I've just checked through my emails and found an early draft of the original deck. I won't post it here, but to hint at how rough it is Cruel Ultimatum is still Sedris the Traitor King...

It did remind me that Cryptic Command is all that and was the alternative turn four play to take out another land.

Damnation is the ultimate in board clearance if something should slip through. Shriekmaw cleans up Goyfs and such and works with Mannequin and Kelpie. Murderous Redcap was in some drafts, but probably doesn't fit the picture.

Retrace! What better way to run the rub-ins than discarding lands to play spells?

"Oh, you look land light. I STILL HAD ALL THESE SWAMPS!"

We're three colours, using fetches and Ravnica lands. Ponder should be great at lacing the plays together. We can aim for turn one Ponder to set up Boomerang into Mage into Riders or Mannequin, shuffling when required with a fetch.

As always there are far too many cards to fit in, but we can work to maximise that core plan and fit in answers around it. I played 24 lands before, and Ponder should make that fine to do again. It looks like we're very heavy on the blue so the duals should reflect that.

Boom // Bust is the other two mana land destruction spell. Is that playable? With a fetch it is one sided, but on turn two we both get hit. What about Crack the Earth? Akki Blizzard-Herder?

3.

Attempt One:

Steve Deck Wins
4 Reflecting Pool	1 Raven's Crime	Thoughtseize
4 Scalding Tarn	4 Boomerang	Spell Snare
4 Misty Rainforest	4 Mana Leak	Flashfreeze
4 Watery Grave	4 Ponder	Remand
4 Steam Vents	3 Cryptic Command	Mindbreak Trap
2 Island	2 Damnation	Damnation
1 Swamp	3 Makeshift Mannequin	Pyroclasm
1 Mountain	2 Cruel Ultimatum	Shatterstorm
24 Lands	23 Other Spells	Shriekmaw
		Sedraxis Specter
4 Fulminator Mage		Leyline of the Void
2 Avalanch Riders		Vampire Nighthawk
4 Mulldrifter
1 Shriekmaw
2 River Kelpie
13 Creatures

---

I have a little program that generates sample hands and lets you goldfish them. It's pretty basic, but it is obvious that there is too much damage from the lands in that version. Might be a little too light on plays in the early game, but difficult to tell so far. Let's try with more basics and some filter lands.

---

We're one land short. I also think that Preordain is preferable to Ponder here and we need another cheap disruption spell.

Magnivore used to do a similar thing, I wonder do I have any of those lists?

...

Eye of Nowhere! Perfect. They only had access to Eye and Stone Rain, but I think Fulminator Mage serves our interests better than too many sorceries.

Attempt two:

Steve Deck Wins
4 Reflecting Pool	4 Fulminator Mage	1 Raven's Crime
4 Scalding Tarn	2 Avalanch Riders	4 Preordain
2 Misty Rainforest	3 Mulldrifter	4 Boomerang
4 Watery Grave	1 Shriekmaw	2 Eye of Nowhere
2 Steam Vents	2 River Kelpie	4 Mana Leak
3 Island	12 Creatures	2 Cryptic Command
1 Swamp		2 Damnation
1 Mountain		2 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Sunken Ruins		2 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Cascade Bluffs		23 Other Spells
25 Lands

Plugging this one into the goldfishinator.

---

Test hand number one:

We'll keep this.

1. Play Watery Grave (tapped)

2. Draw Mana Leak, play Sunken Ruins, (Leak their play)

3. Draw Boomerang, play Reflecting Pool, Fulminator Mage and sac to kill a land

4. Draw Watery Grave, play Watery Grave (tapped), Boomerang a land

5. Draw Makeshift Mannequin, play Reflecting Pool, Makeshift Mannequin on Fulminator Mage, kill a land

6. Draw Scalding Tarn, play Scalding Tarn, sac to Fetch Mountain, play Avalanch Riders, attack

7. Pay update on Avalanch Riders, draw Swamp, play Swamp

Shriekmaw in hand, set them back four lands, but failed to draw a Mulldrifter, Preordain or Ultimatum to get out of reach.

Test hand number two:

This is a similar hand, it has our opening plan but we'll need to draw into gas...

1. Play Watery Grave (tapped)

2. Draw Steam Vents, play Reflecting Pool, Boomerang

3. Draw Cruel Ultimatum, play Island, Fulminator Mage, sac

4. Draw Cascade Bluffs, play Steam Vents (tapped), (Mana Leak up for their turn)

5. Draw Watery Grave, play Watery Grave (tapped)

6. Draw Island, play Watery Grave (tapped), make sad face

7. Draw Boomerang, play Cascade Bluffs, Cruel Ultimatum

If Ultimatum resolves we would be fine, but there definitely seems to be an issue of stalling out from these two hands. Lets try one more.

Test hand number three:

This looks like is has what we need. Go!

1. Play Steam Vents (tapped)

2. Draw Damnation, play Sunken Ruins, Boomerang

3. Draw Raven's Crime, play Island, Boomerang, Raven's Crime

4. Draw Cascade Bluffs, evoke Mulldrifter, draw Island and Steam Vents, play Steam Vents (tapped)

5. Draw Eye of Nowhere, play Cascade Bluffs, Eye of Nowhere, (Mana Leak up for their turn)

6. Draw Mana Leak, play Island, Damnation, (Mana Leak up)

7. Draw Watery Grave, play Watery Grave (tapped)

Again we run out of steam.

---

What can we do about this?

These were very low velocity hands; that is, we saw very few cards each game. Partly this was because we never drew Preordain, which might have dramatically improved things. It looks like we need to improve the number of cantrip effects to provide maximum momentum, which will probably let us go back down a land.

Attempt three:

Steve Deck Wins
4 Reflecting Pool	4 Fulminator Mage	1 Raven's Crime
4 Scalding Tarn	4 Mulldrifter	4 Preordain
2 Misty Rainforest	1 Shriekmaw	4 Boomerang
4 Watery Grave	2 River Kelpie	2 Eye of Nowhere
2 Steam Vents	11 Creatures	1 Oona's Blessing
2 Island		4 Remand
1 Swamp		4 Cryptic Command
1 Mountain		1 Damnation
2 Sunken Ruins		2 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Cascade Bluffs		2 Cruel Ultimatum
24 Lands		25 Other Spells

Up goes Fish1000 for a final attempt.

---