Pyromancer Ascension in New Phyrexia

PA definately got some good tools in NPH.  I had initially dismissed the set as being bad, because it encourages people to play enchantment removal for the Splinter Twin combo, but due to the way Twin/Exarch works, you need instant speed removal, and the only color that gives that at this time is Green.

Other colors are going to have to resort to answers that aren't as amazing against PA, like anything from Black, and Tumble Magnet is pretty terrible against PA.

The increased "heat" from more Nature's Claims, or even Into the Roil (who told Caw Blade about this card?  That's supposed to be my sekret tech!) may be too much for PA to deal with, but maybe some handy sideboard-tech like Dispel will be what we're looking for to answer the answers.

In any event, there are actually some pretty good cards from NPH that I'd overlooked.


Phyrexian Mana cards:
Whomever made the red cards has a poor sense of humor.  It seems like most of them are more likely to be played in non-red decks, than red ones.  Gut shot is quite bad (for a deck with Mountains).  Couldn't it have been (PR)(PR) for 4 damage?  or 1(PR)(PR) for 5?  Stupid black, getting the good stuff...

Moltensteel Dragon and the artifact Phyrexian Firebreather are terrible for PA, because the sideboard cards they would bring in against PA auto-kill these guys.  (unlike Kiln Fiend, or the like).  Even Into the Roil is awesome against them.  Ug.

The other Phyrexian Red mana cards are even worse, so lets spend no more time on them.

Phyrexian Blue, on the other hand, has some stuff we should consider.

Mental Mistep is probably not good enough to include in Pyromancer, either main or sideboard.  The only spells it counters of consequence are Spell Pierce, Nature's Claim, and the Discard spells.  These are fairly important spells, but nothing like the 1-flood you'd see in Legacy.  The creature-based one-drop threats we'd see can be handled by our plentiful burn from red, we don't need to try and use blue to solve the same problems red is already handling for us.

It is moderately humerous to me that this spell is shown countering a Myr, when the only "Myr" card at 1cc is Origin Spellbomb...

Gitaxian Probe might be good.  It's a "Free" Peek.  I've considered including Twitch, or Twisted Image, just because they cycle, and this takes cycling to the next level.  The option to play it for no mana can be quite relevant for many reasons.  Trying to keep counter mana up, putting multiple charges on your PA in the same turn, and checking to see whether the coast is clear before casting your "real" spell (often PA).  It'd also let you play turn one Preordains with a little more knowledge of what you should do.  (otherwise, T1 preordain is often non-amazing)

It does only net you even, but "standard" PA cards like See Beyond only do that, and for 1-2 mana more.

You can't cut quality digging like Preordain for this, but it could be a useful way to fill in around the turns.  It also lets you plan your countermagic, and/or tapping out, around your opponents plans, something that only Swamp-Mages have been used to in these times.

Phyrexian Metamorph is the cheapest "Clone" to see print yet.  It can't legend-rule anything relevant, and it is a non-amazing answer to the Primeval Titans out of Valakut, but it could be a useful sideboard option against... something? 

Tezzeret's Gambit, now there's a card!

1) It is Divination, which is pretty non-terrible for PA, because it is actual card advantage at the 3-slot, something we don't have in standard.  Jace B is about as close as we get, and it is not a Instant/Sorcery.
2) In times of mana-flood, we can still cast it for 4, and no life loss.
3) It has proliferate, which means it can be a one-cast full-charge of PA, with one copy in the graveyard.  (Similar to Staggershock)

The only thing this card makes me worry about is flooding on 3's.  Foresee might be better, but the proliferate is worth quite a bit in this deck.  (and 3 is often times less than 4, which is quite important)  If Into the Roil, Hex Parasite, Hexmage and Co. Start to see more play, being able to one-spell yourself back to a full Ascension (while doing something useful) is pretty strong.

Spellskite might be worth thinking about, as a way to protect the Ascension.  Being an artifact in a sideboard plan would often be a terrible plan, if it is an artifact like Moltensteel Dragon.  However, due to what the Spellskite is trying to do, as an artifact, it can redirect most anything that could target PA to itself, which is quite useful.  It even works on otherwise-trumps Hexmage, and Hex Parasite.  Its manaless activation, ability to block any flavor of sworded Mystic, and the ability to screw up the plans of opposing ExarchTwin decks makes it a strong contender for sideboard slots to counter anti-PA tech.

Pretty much the only thing it does not stop is counterspells.  Demystify, Relic Crush, Back to Nature, Ratchet Bomb and Celestial Purge are the only things I can see dealing with a resolved PA, that Spellskite does NOT stop.  None of these are seeing heavy play, and proliferate effects can mess with an opposing Ratchet Bomb quite well =)

Rules clarification:  If a spell said "Destroy target artifact or enchantment", and they targeted PA, I could redirect it to the Spellskite.  If the spell said "Choose one: destroy target artifact or destroy target enchantment" I could not, because you cannot change modes, only targeting.

Lastly, Dismember is a potential sideboard answer to Kor Firewalker.

Proliferate Cards: (And rebound?)
Proliferate is awesome, because it is a one-spell full-charge of a Pyromancer Ascension, with one duplicate of the card in the graveyard.  Some people were using Steady Progress (3 mana instant, draw-proliferate) in PA before New Phyrexia came out, and NPH gives us a few more options for consideration.

Steady Progress is on the verge of being good enough in my book.  It only draws one, but it is an instant, and proliferate is quite good at charging PA.  Basically this competes with Treasure Hunt, and See Beyond, as net-zero card source, and it takes 3 mana to do it, which is not amazing.  Compare with Staggershock for general usefulness.

Tezzeret's Gambit, great.  See above.

Volt charge is pretty nifty. 

Three damage kills equipped Squadron Hawks, which is pretty important, as well as killing brainstorming JtMS's.

When combined with a Lightning Bolt, Volt Charge can takes down a resolved Titan.  (The cheapest way we can burn out a Titan, at instant speed even)  Burst Lightning requires 6 mana to do the same task, which is too late.  Ascended Volt Charges also one-shot a Titan, which is about as good as we can do.

This competes with Staggershock (want both), and Arc Trail (good caw-blade and misc aggro killer)

Something this spell, and Tezzeret's Gambit open up the possibility for, is going heavier towards Red than Blue.  TG can be cast for no Blue at all, and Red has a few good spells for charging up the Ascension, and/or killing them.  Searing Blaze could become more of a valuable tool in the opponent-murdering business if we're playing a land split more like 7I/13M + 4ST, rather than 9I+4HD/7M +4ST.  Three cheers if you can read that.

Gitaxian Probe also plays pretty nicely with that strategy. 

Surreal Memoir, a rebound spell (also a one-card charge of PA with a copy in the GY) does a pretty awesome Call to Mind impersonation, when your goal is to spend R for 3 damage.  It is also a two-for-one even unascended.

And really, who doesn't want to cast a spell with a freaking floating eyeball on it!  Theme deck with Gitaxian Probe...

Lightning Bolt
Preordain

Arc Trail
Searing Blaze
Pyromancer Ascension

Volt Charge (P)
Staggershock (R)

Tezzeret's Gambit (P)


Surreal Memoir (R)

Seems like a pretty interesting list.  Missing any sort of countermagic, Gitaxian Probe, Treasure Hunt/See Beyond, Into the Roil, and Call to Mind.  Sideboarding Searing Blaze (for main-board Treasure Hunt/See Beyond, or Into the Roil) against creature decks would be reasonable.  Something like 2x Surreal + 4x someting else + 22 land could also be doable, since we're aiming more towards the game being over, than having it draw out as a card advantage war.

I'll do some testing on this, and branch out into another blog post.

Other Colored Cards:
No creatures/artifacts to sacrifice to Artillerize.  Nothing to cast with Geosurge.  Victorious Destruction is a full mana slower than a spell I realized was too slow(Demolish).  Shatter/Crush may be necessary with our new artifact overlords.  Batterskull, and Swords are a nightmare for a long game.

Vapor Snag (Unsummon + Lose 1 life) could be interesting, but I prefer the versatility of Into the Roil.  ITR can't bound manlands that Vapor Snag can, but ITR gets planeswalkers, non-creature artifacts, and enchantments.  <3 Into the Roil.


Artifacts:
Batterskull: What, no inate flash on this, for the full aggro-screwing?  This card just makes it that much more imperative that we burn out those Stoneforge Mystics, and don't wait to "waste" their mana.

Hex Parasite:  Could be a strong sideboard card against Planeswalkers, but killing them (or the player) is a pretty good strategy.

Immolating Souleater:  If only this wasn't a artifact (to be vulnerable to the same hate as PA), a sideboard Kiln Fiend + burn strategy would have been that much more viable.  As is, unusable.

Kiln Walker: Not remotely Kiln Fiend 2.0

Shrine of Burning Rage:  An answer to Kor Firewalker, which would be troublesome in the more burn-heavy deck above.  (Ascended burn spells kill through KFW pretty well though)

Shrine of Piercing Vision:  This is a joke, right?  I'd love to play "Impulse", but I am not interested in this "better" version.

Sword of War and Peace:  More reason to either burn out all their creatures, or sideboard some Shatter/Crush action.

Overall:
The best spells in NPH are the proliferate ones.  Volt Charge and Tezzeret's Gambit are both very good.  (Though perhaps encouraging a 3-heavy deck).

Gitaxian Probe is interesting.

Spellskite has amazing potential as a sideboard card, to counter their hate.

The density of good red cards, that work well with PA may indicate that there is enough power in Red to move away from some of the Blue.  The spells I'd miss most would be Treasure Hunt + Halmiar Depths (Hard to have minimal Blue, with Blue Taplands), and Into the Roil.  Double-Blue spells are hard to rely on even with 17 blue sources.

It also might be worth considering some of the green or black options, like Explore (as good as anything in blue), or Doom Blade/Memoricide (Not terrible against Valakut).  "Splashing" Tezzeret's Gambit of course!  If only the green/black proliferate/rebound options were not so terrible....

Time for artifacts?

 It seems like, with everyone fetching out pro white/red, pro green/black swords, and playing hideous creatures (who wants a 1/1 for 2?  sign me up?) that only make the grade based on their pulse, and ability to carry a sword, that artifact creatures nicely dodge all the color-hate.

Put on top of this, the fact that you'll likely combo these artifacts with enchantments, and enchantment hate being at an all-time low, this is another advantage to the decks strategy.  A deck might have shatter effects, or they might have disenchant effects, but they won't have both.  If you have 8 anthem-enchantments/planeswalkers, and 16-30 artifacts, a sideboard plan of 4x nature's claim just isn't going to cut it to stop your plan.

There are a couple main themes I could see pursuing:

WHITE: Tempered Steel, Myrsmith, Ajani Goldmane, Dispatch


































Ajani and Tempered Steel are solid anthem effects, pumping your little guys.  I'd give the nod to Tempered Steel in general, since Vigilance is not amazing, and Ajani basically only has one ability (-1) for this deck, making him somewhat more limited, especially as we drive the "theme" of the deck.  He does pump our non-artifact guys, but I'd rather "double up", at -1 casting cost.

Dispatch is superb removal.  If we build the deck "right", it's very close to a Swords to Plowshares, debatably the #1 white card of all time, if some reliable sources are to be believed.  It is almost certainly the best removal spell we'd have access to.

Myrsmith is not amazing, but it provides a stream of artifact guys, so it is definitely worth keeping in the back of our minds at least.

BLUE:  Grand Architect, Mana Leak, Trinket Mage, Treasure Mage

Grand Architect is the main seller here, and it combines fairly well with Treasure Mage to pump out the larger end of the artifact creature scale.  (Wurmcoil, Battlesphere, Myr Superion)  If we are "going big", the anthem effects are not as big a deal.  Grand Architect's anthem effect is probably better than Ajani, just because it will induce more screw-ups.

Mana Leak is among the worse "removal" spells, but it is a reasonable answer to sweepers, or the big planeswalkers (Gideon, Jace) that wreck an aggro player's day.  Trinket Mage is okay, but obviously dependant on having quite a few 0's and 1's that are great.  (Hex Parasite?)

GREEN: Beastmaster Ascension, Garruk

Both of these provide a sort of anthem effect, both are fairly lethal.  I'd give the edge to BMA, because:
1) It's less green, easier to splash off less duals. (more room for utility lands)
2) It's cheaper, easier to play in our aggro deck.
3) It's immune to non-enchantment removal, unlike Garruk.
4) Creating green blockers is at an all-time low in terms of usefulness.

Colored Artifacts:
Colored artifacts don't have any advantage in this deck.  In fact, they probably have a disadvantage, because they are potentially non-immune to the effects we'd otherwise ignore.  However, the reason they are colored is that they have Phyrexian mana in their mana costs, which means we (the aggro deck), can throw away life (a resource we care less about) in order to get improved stats.  That's something at least.  However, with a swarm-aggro strategy, we care less about the individual stats on our creatures, and more about how many of them there are. 

A few of them stand out above the others:  Vault Skirge, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Porcelan Legionairre

Vault Skirge is a one-drop, with 1.5 useful abilities.  Flying is pretty strong evasion, and lifelink isn't terrible.
The white creature is a 3-power first-striker for 2, which is fairly impressive.  Unfortunately, the things it is blocking are going to tend to be 3/4, or 3/3 flyers.
The Blue option gives some uniqueness.  It copies most any non-anthem effect in the deck, which could be great.  A standard clone has never been so cheap as this.

Artifact Guys:
0: Memnite, Ornithopter
1: Signal Pest, Hex Parasite,
2: Glint Hawk Idol, Gold Myr, Necropede, Ichorclaw Myr, Perilous Myr, Phyrexian Revoker, Steel Overseer, Myr Superion
3: Myr Galvinizer, Myr Propotagor, Origin Spellbomb, Etched Champion, Palladium Myr
4: Lodestone Golem, Molten-Tail Masticore
5: Precursor Golem
6: Thopter Assembly, Wurmcoil Engine
7: Myr Battlesphere

Artifact Token Generators: (Not already mentioned)
Master's Call
Myr Turbine
Shrine of the Loyal Legions

Since I love me some midrange, I'd be headed towards Lodestone, Battlesphere, Wurmcoil, Glint Hawk Idol, and the like.  Unfortunately, that pushes me more towards Blue, to power them out, rather than the Green I initially planned, for 8x anthem.

For combo, the Metamorph gives you some double-ups on the 2xGalvinizer + Palladium(or 2x small myr) infinite mana combo.

For pure aggro, there are definately some aggressively costed creatures.  As you edge into BMA, Myrsmith, Master's Call, and the like become more plausible.

This definitely needs some more thought.  Whether it is better or worse than a "standard" Green-based Beastmaster Ascension list, I don't know.  I definitely like the idea of having 8 anthems.  Whether you can reliably turn the BMA on though, I am not sure.

What do you think?

Someone got his picture took at the NPH Prerelease...

Yay for table 73 being empty =)  This was my round one match in the previous blog entry.

http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/

New Phyrexia Prerelease

I went to the prerelease in Seattle this last Saturday, and it was a really good experience.
I had a hard time getting to the actual location, because there were medians, one way streets, and freeways in the way of my intended destination, so I ended up just parking within sight of the general convention center area, and walking the last 3 blocks, which ended up working out just fine.

The actual place the event was being held was also relatively difficult to find once I was on site.  I eventually gave up, and looked up the details on my phone, and got my bearings with one of the many maps of the seattle convention center area.  (With the Space Needle, the EMP, and many other cool buildings/fountains/etc).  Not 15 seconds after I checked my phone, I saw a New Phyrexia poster taped to the side of a building with an arrow pointing in the direction I was travelling.  Doh!

I got to the site around 8:55, when the flights started at :45 after throughout the day, but I got a chance to wander around, and found a guy I knew from a MTG group at work playing, as well as a colleague I knew from work, which was a surprise.  I chatted a bit with the people, got to take a gander at what people were playing, and work out the "I don't remember my DCI number" problem in plenty of time before the flight started.

I also struck up a conversation with the guy seated across from me while we were waiting for our packs.  He seemed like a great guy, and actually worked in a related field, and was from the Redmond area (like me), which was quite amusing.  I am terrible with names, so I apologize for that right off, but all day, 90% of the people at the prerelease were very nice!

I proceeded to open one of the least encouraging sealed decks that I've seen.  I had a rare infect creature (that got better the more infected they were) with only 1-2 other playable infect cards.  I got two Furnace Celebrations (and two of the land-searchers), with only 2 ways to sacrifice anything.  I buckled down though, and tried to find what I could make work with what I had.  I had 20 of the cards I wanted to play with ~5 minutes to spare, and had ~0 time to play through some test hands once I'd finalized my 40.

Here is what I opened, see what you would do with it, I'll give my list afterwards:

White:
Auriok Sunchaser
2x Lost Leonin (2/1 Infect for 1W)
Loxodon Wayfarer
Fugilent Distraction
Vigil for the Lost
2x Remember the Fallen
Kemba, Kha Regent
Shriek Raptor
Sensor Splicer
Due Respoect
Kemba's Skyguard
Arrest
Dispense Justice
Origin Spellbomb

Blue:
2x Spined Thopter
2x Defensive Stance
Trespassing Souleater
Plated Seastrider
Turn Aside
Disperse
Scrapdiver Serpent
Neurok Replica
Chained Throatseaker
Blighted Agent
Inexorable Tide

Black:
2x Grim Affliction
Memoricide
Praetor's Grasp
Parasitic Implant
Entomber Exarch
Painsmith
Psychic Miasma
Mortis Dogs
Plague Stinger
Caress of Phyrexia
Vault Skirge

Red:

Kuldotha Rebirth
Flameborn Hellion
Victorious Destruction
2x Furnace Celebration
Rage Extractor
Melt Terrain
2x Volt charge
Trigon of Rage
Panic Spellbomb
Urabrask, the Hidden
Blade-Tribe Berserkers

Green:
Phyrexian Swarmlord
3x Death-Hood Cobra
Tel-Jilad Defiance
Beast Within
Molder Beast
Copperhorn Scout
Glistener Elf
Tel-Jilad Fallen

Artifact:
2x Iron Myr
2x Copper Myr
2x Mycosynth Wellspring
2x Phyrexian Hulk
Blinding Souleater
Livewire Lash
Kiln Walker
Strider Harness
Necropouncer
Mindcrank
Clone Shell
Memnite
Darksteel Myr
Golem Foundry
Necrogen Censer

Land:
Pyrexia's Core

How would you build this?

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I would rate this selection as having no "bomb" rares.  Several of the rares and uncommons had no synergy with anything else in the card pool, so they had to be set aside.

Kemba is pretty good (+ 3 total equipment, so I was pretty lucky that they were at least marginal), and Urabask seemed like he could be good in an aggressive strategy.



Livewire Lash, Strider Harness, and Necropouncer are not exactly amazing equipment, but they were reasonably aggressive, so they made the cut.  (Never cast Necropouncer)  The Blinding Souleater seemed like an auto-include, even if it wasn't the most aggressive card.

I played all the removal in RW (2x Volt Charge, Arrest, Dispense Justice)  I liked the Volt Charges (most common target: the 3/1 first strike guy (Porcelain Legionnaire).  Dispense wasn't awesome, to be sure, but it was okay. 

I started pretty much any flyer I could (2x off-color Spined Thopters, Shriek Raptor (infect), Kemba's Skyguard.).  I did not start the Sunchasers, because my artifact count was pretty low.  The Raptor was a great "wall", and the Spined Thopters applied some early damage, or traded off with opposing flyers I couldn't otherwise block/deal with.

I played both on-color spellbombs (the only spellbombs I had), because they seemed to go okay with the decks "strategy", and both real abilities worked quite well.  Panic Spellbomb + Urabask made things quite difficult for my opponents.

I played the Sensor Splicer (acceptable, one of my "aggressive beaters"?), and Kiln Walker, which was always excellent.  Kiln Walker was probably 1/3 of the damage I did with this deck.

I played the Trigon of Rage, but it only accounted for perhaps 6 damage all day.  It was a threat for more damage, but I just didn't have the time to activate it very often (mana was tight).  The times when it did damage it was pretty crucial damage though, so that's fine.

2xRemember the Fallen was pretty excellent.  It often did Morbid Plunder duty, getting an artifact (creature), and another creature.  Sometimes I had nothing to bring back, because all I had in my graveyard was removal, so I would advocate stocking up on the (artifact) creatures before you play 2x of these, but it was pretty great.

Iron Myr x1 made the list, basically as filler.  I may have attacked with it for 1 once, used it to enable metalcraft once, and tapped it for a red once.  I am glad I did not play 2x.

Blade Tribe Berserkers was another filler.  I did Metalcraft it once, and juse used it as a Hill Giant another time.

Due Respect was pretty awesome.  I'd often cycle it on their T3 upkeep after they had no turn 2 play.  Their land comes into play tapped, and they can't put anything out there to block my 2/1 flyer, or 0/3 Kiln Walker, or some other member of my Motley Crue of "attackers".  As a tempo play, or pseudo-Abeyance, it was quite nice.  I imagine if I had been in more close race situations, casting it in response to one of their post-combat creatures would have been game-winning, but I never got to those situations (with Due Respect in my hand)  I would definitely not underestimate this card, and play any that I drafted.

9 plains and 7 mountains rounded out the list.  I felt I had to get lucky to get the creatures rolling early, and I had no (good) 6+ drops.  I didn't play any Islands for the Spined Thopters, because I wanted to have no problems casting Kemba + Skyguard (1WW) and Urabask (3RR) on time.  There was only a few times across the many games where I even could have paid 3 mana to cast the thopter, so it worked out okay.

I thought about the Black for a long while.  I really wanted to play the draw 3, and -1/-1 proliferate, praetor's grasp for their Koth/Karn/etc, but I resisted the urge (mostly due to BB-casting cost problems), and stuck to "two" colors.

the 2/2 unblockable for Phyrexian U also danced in and out of my deck depending on mood.  It's pretty good with power-pumping equipment/Trigon, but I ended up benching it because I just wanted the other cards more.  I could definitely see someone playing the Trespassing Souleater, but it didn't end up happening this time.

Round 1, I battled a fine gentleman, whose deck seemed to be solely composed of 1 and 2 power flyers.  (Black/White)

He beat my down quite handily in game one, and I sided out some clunky stuff for the Vault Skirge I had in my sideboard.  I drew my 2/3 infect flyer, and some Kiln Walker + Blade Splicer "beatdown" to take game two.   He had an artifact that exiled graveyard artifacts to make golems, which seemed quite strong.  I had to have Urabask to win this one, and between him, Panic Spellbomb, Kiln Walker, and Blade Splicer, all timely draws, I managed to squeak out a win.  (Key play, his golem-generator artifact tried to make a golem in response to my lethal attack, but Urabask (in play from the previous turn) caused it to not block so well).  After the match, he showed me his "Destroy all creatures, Cap you for 3 cards" black sorcery, that he did not play in this game.  I don't know that I had 3 cards in my deck worth taking out, but it definately would have won the game off the wrath effect.

Game three, I stabilized in the air, and he drew many many lands.  He did have some removal spells, but I never saw a big threat from him like in game 2.

Mark Rosewater came by partway through this match, and asked if he could put a picture he took of us up on his Facebook (or some other social networking site).  It was an amusing image with thought bubbles for what we were "really" thinking while we were playing.  I chickened out from asking him for a job (ug), and it was a fun encounter with a MTG spokesman.

Round 2, I was paired down against a fine guy, whose name started with a H. (apologies).  He was playing Green/Black, splash White for some removal/Golem creators.  Game one, his deck decided to not give him anything early (that I couldn't burn away) and the Kiln Walker + Kemba + removal took him down. 

Game two, he drew some removal, into the 3/6 which shut me down fairly well, and he just kept dropping 6-7's until I lost.  (Including Wurmcoil, which I pretty much can't beat unless I Arrest it)  I boarded in the 5-mana sorcery that destroys lands and artifacts in a vain hope that if he was mana screwed (in his multiple-HorizonSpellbomb deck), I could slow him down a turn, or cut him off a color with enough time to win.

Game three looked like game 1, until my heart stopped when he tapped 6 mana to drop... 2 equipment, into his creatureless board.  My slow beaters were enough to finish the game off from there.

So, I'm feeling pretty lucky here.  I head over to the artist area, to get a card signed (I brought a M11 Voltaic Key - awesome art).  The artist had his wares out, and was churning through the signatures like a machine.  He was a friendly guy, and I told him his art blew the original out of the water (which it did).

Round 3, I sit down and face my opponent, a very friendly gal named Anne.  She, like several of the other people I talked to, came from the Eastside (across a lake and stuff) to get to the event.  Made me wonder why the held it in Seattle and not Redmond!  Anne was rocking a Red/Black deck, with some phyrexian mana cards that seemed quite good (the clone to kill my Kemba made me sad).

The first game, I was completely overrun by dangerous red creatures, and Urabask (After the match, she told me she had two(!) of this mythic rare)

The second game, I had some removal for her early stuff, and Kemba + Strider Harness is not bad at all.  (Harness the new cats for haste, reequip postcombat to make a new cat).

In the decider, I felt terrible, because I had been chatting conversationally throughout the match, and I got a Kemba + (topdecked, like a champ) Strider Harness out, and she had a Shrine of Burning Rage.  It was pretty funny, because she would say "Untap, Upkeep, Rage", and I would say "Untap, Upkeep, Cat".  Eventually, the shrine got up to 4 counters, and she sacrificed it, targetting my Kemba.  I said "Are you sure you want to do that" (or something along those lines), but because I had been joking/friendly the whole time, she may have thought that I was attempting to convince her to not kill my Kemba, when in fact I was trying to call attention to the fact that that action might not be the best.  She took it like a champ though, and didn't complain or anything.  The next turn, she legend rules my Kemba with her clone (Phyrexian Metamorph?), but I think Trigon of Rage + Strider harness put a hasty attacker in to seal the deal.  I felt/feel pretty terrible about this win.

While waiting for round 4 to start, I played against one of my Microsoft friends, and he beat my soundly 2-0, so I got a reality check that my deck might not be "all that", since it basically scoops to any 6-drop in the format.  The Microsoftie also gave me a Granola bar out of the blue, so props to him!

In round 4, my opponent and I did a prize split, but we played out the last round, for the glory of a single pack.  Again, he was a very friendly guy, and very professional.

In the first game, I got out to a slow start, trading creatures on defense just to prevent him from getting too far ahead (I'd found at this point that my "Aggressive" deck wasn't very aggressive, or I wasn't playing it very aggressively, or something), then the artifact tap-guy came down, with me having a significant board advantage, and he scooped into game two.  He showed me some mountains, plains, and islands during the game, so I presumed he had some even better stuff than I saw.

In game two, I played out some dorks, and some removal, and on the turn he died, he showed me a hand of 6 blue cards, with 0 Islands (+5-6 land) in play.  Yuck!

After the game was over, he showed me Karn, Venser, and Horde Smelter, so I am just glad that my deck was kinder to me with my rares than his was to him.  Planeswalkers are pretty non-beatable in limited.  Pretty much anyone in the room had more value in their 6 opened packs than I did, so that was pretty nifty to think about.

I proudly grabbed my 7 packs for the day, said goodbye to my friends, and drove home, pretty happy about how I'd taken what seems like a sub-par sealed deck to a 4-0 record.

================================

After I got home, I watched some GGSLive, where Rashad beat some guys, then lost to a elf deck, whose pilot didn't know what JTMS did, walked into sweepers, and gave him an extra turn in exchange for killing his Venser.  (He got his Garruk to 9(!) counters as well...)  I have alot of respect for Rashad from watching those games, as a player, and a person.  He was very solid on the rules (he is a judge I believe...), explained things well/pateiently, didn't miss triggers, and had a great win rate against the random challengers.  He even had a guy try to give him a hard time after he (Rashad) killed him, because the guy had the life totals wrong, but Rashad was very patient, and the only downside was having to listen to the guy complain about what he "would have done".  Block your Phyrexian Crusader with my Mortarpod FTW!  I think there were only 50 or so people watching this, but I felt lucky to observe strong play, and fine person.

Way to go Rashad!

How Far We've Come...

Uncounterable way to tutor equipment out of your deck, and get it into play?  We had a way to do it in the original Mirrodin block!  Why wasn't this the basis of the #1 deck in standard at the time?  That is a question I'll leave up to the reader to determine.  I mean, T-N S is a full +1/+1 better after all...

Green-X Landfall - Cards

I've had this on my mind since I saw a web post, where some crazy guy was playing a landfall aggro deck, revolving around a few additional elements.

 

Running Lynx + Geopede is nothing new, but  that is not what caught my attention.

The ideal play for this sort of deck is T1 Steppe Lynx, T2 Plated Geopede(fetch, attack for 4).  T3 Fetch, Harrow, attack for 17, dead on turn 3.  Or various other combinations he runs through that also yield them being dead fairly quickly.

However, you may note that this requires three different, untapped, colors of land on t1-3, and fetches that in general do not fix your mana.  (RW fetch - Arid Mesa, is the only one that would be actual mana fixing)

The deck also had non-synergistic spells like Inferno Titan (vs Primeval), and Hero of Oxid Ridge (which is synergistic in that it empowers attackers, but at RR2, would be fairly hard to cast), and Precursor Golem.  They're good, and they invalidate some strategies, but they don't seem amazing. The RW aggro decks are often sideboarding OUT the Plated Geopedes, even in 12+ Fetchland decks, so going into another color to get this, plus two other things that don't really help the general strategy, seems marginal.  One thing these creatures do is overload the cheap removal that is often used to remove them, so that is something. but really, the mana seems like a nightmare.

However, this post did get me excited, and got me thinking about green-based landfall, because there are quite a few green effects that would strongly benefit a landfall-based strategy (because green is good at ramp).  The key in my mind is to make them actual good cards, that combine fairly well with other actual good landfall cards.

Reasonable Landfall Cards:

The core, Green:

  

 


Green has a ton of the land-playing abilities, which we'll talk about later, so finding good cards in this color are much better than potential good cards in other colors.

Lotus Cobra is very strong.  It ramps you to 5 on turn 3, potentially 6 on turn 3.  Rampaging Baloths is a fine threat against the white (chump-)blockers we see nowadays.  Avenger is a very solid finisher.  Both of those can win games on their own.  Gladeheart can do a fair(ly bad) impersonation of a Obstinate Baloth, but would be a sideboard card at best against hyper-aggro.

Friend-color color splashes:  White + Red

Friend color splashes are:
Good, because it makes the mana very reliable.  The new lands from MBS (come into play untapped if you control 3 or less lands), and the M10 duals (CIP untapped if you have a basic of the appropriate type), give you strong access to the right color, untapped, on turn 1, and turn n.
Bad, because the fetches are tap-lands (Terramorphic Expanse) or do not fix your colors.

Steppe Lynx and Geopede are incredibly aggressive creatures.
Emeria Angel is a great blocker against a Hawk-filled metagame, and provides a stream of attackers.  Admonition Angel would be good if your opponent has removal for it, which seems fairly non-plausible.  Rampaging Baloths is probably better against those decks anyway?

The enemy colors: Blue and Black

Enemy color splashes are:
Good, because they have a "on color" mana fixer, in the fetchlands you want to play anyway.
Bad, because that fetchland is the only mana fixer that allows the land to come into play untapped.  You can still use Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds, and "off-color" fetchlands to power up the main deck theme.

Ob Nix is pretty much the best card here.  Caustic Crawler really needs those to be -1/-1 counters to be great.  SSE is pretty reasonable, as the creature count rises, but it's not amazing.  The crab is a role-player in decks that are probably not this one.

Secondary splash advantages:
Outside the cards that specifically help the decks synergy/strategy, you also have to consider cards that you get from all of these splashes that are not landfall or land-searching.  Blue adds counterspells (Mana Leak), and card drawing (Jace, Preordain), Black adds creature removal (Doom Blade, Go for the Throat), and discard (Inquisition of Kozilek, Duress).  Red adds damage-based removal (Lightning Bolt, Arc Trail).  White adds semi-removal (Oust, Condemn)

Colorless colors: the artifacts

These two cards are amusing, because of how different they are.  One is a cheap way to pump creatures in this deck.  The other is a expensive way to draw cards, but given the interaction with this deck, both of these should be considered, depending on the outlook.

Reasonable "Play More Lands" Cards
The best:

Explore is a great card, because it is cheap, it replaces itself late, it accelerates you early.

When combined with a turn 2 Lotus Cobra, an Explore can accelerate you into a turn 3 Primeval (Explore -> Fetch -> Fetch -> 6 mana)

The one downside to this, in my mind, is that it does not search a land out of your deck, but rather gives you a random card.  So if, on turn two, you need a third land, you might not get it.  However, the advantages of Explore make it a top contender for a deck like this.

Oracle is a incredibly strong card. 

It lets you play lands off the top, so you are always drawing a spell.

It lets you play lands off the top, so you are thinning your deck, and accelerating, without having to draw the cards.

It combines well with fetchlands, because you can shuffle to try and either get more lands, or better spells on top.

It combines well with Explore (and blue cards like Preordain, Jace, and Halimar Depths) to rearrange the top of your library in a favorable way for you.  (Give you more shots at land, etc)

Oracle is a near-lock for this deck.

Primeval Titan is a format-warping card.

It can search for non-basics, which means it can get two fetchlands (setting up omni-landfall next turn), two dual lands, two Tectonic Edges, and so on.

And, of course, it provides you two (additional) landfall triggers on a turn.

In contrast to some other PT decks, the PT doesn't have to necessarily survive and attack for it to be good.  The PT is a pretty good setup card for the rest of your deck, but otherwise a strong top-end.

It would be pretty hard for me to look at any board state, and not want my card in hand to be Primeval Titan.

Genesis Wave is a hay-maker.

It doesn't combo very well with instants or sorceries you might use, but if you utilize enchantment, artifact, creature, or planeswalker-based removal, it can get that, which is pretty nifty.


This deck is likely to make a zillion mana, so being able to use it to win the game "next turn" (or this turn, if you have any landfall-based board position) could be useful.






 
The Rest:

Both of these are three mana, two land cards, that trigger landfall when played.

Cultivate is "safer", and gives you actual card advantage, as well as more total land once you run out of land to play.

Harrow is higher variance, can be cast as an instant, and sets you back a land if countered.

I don't really like KHE, even though it says "Landfall" and gets lands.  Anyway, the good and bad:

When your deck is working, it works, when your deck isn't...

It "stores" lands up, for potential use later.

It is a pretty bad topdeck, because it doesn't trigger landfall until you play 3 more lands (ug).  It's kinda slow to turn on.

Multiple KHEs charge each other up pretty well, and some effects (like Primeval Titan) charge it up quite well.

It is a perminant, for Genesis Wave, and is only non-creature to qualify as working with Genesis Wave at all.  (It also charges up near-instantly if revealed on Genesis Wave)


What would the final deck look like?
Well, it depends on the colors.

I like a core of:

Get More Land:
4x Oracle of Mul Daya - 3G
4x Primeval Titan - 4GG
4x Explore - 1G

 Use More Land:
2x Seer's Sundial - 4
3x Avenger of Zendikar - 5GG

Both:
4x Lotus Cobra - 1G

1x Genesis Wave  - XGGG


Neither:(Removal, counter, discard)


Land:

4x Tectonic Edge
12x Fetchland as appropriate (Green/X, Green/Y, X/Z, Terramorphic, Evolving)
12x Basic/Dual.

That leaves around 12 cards, that have to either use the land we're generating, or be non-synergistic but shore up other holes in the deck.

I believe that whichever path we choose, at least 4 slots need to be devoted to some sort of removal.
If Red, Lightning Bolt/Arc Trail
If Black, Doom Blade/ Go For the Throat/ Inquisition of Kozilek/Duress
If White, Oust/Condemn/Journey to Nowhere

If the splash is Red, we'd likely play Plated Geopede(1R), and another removal spell (both Arc Trail (1R) and Lightning Bolt (R))

If the splash is White, we'd play Steppe Lynx (W) and Emeria Angel (2WW)

If the splash is Black, we'd play Ob Nix(3BB), and another "removal" spell in the form of one of the discard spells (B), and one of the "true" removal spells (1B).

Caw Blade: "Connecting with a sword is like Time Walk" - not..

In case we need to be reminded, this is what people are implying:






                   ==







This seems to be about as grand of an overstatement as can be made.

1) Them discarding a card of their choice is neither as good as you drawing a random card, or them not drawing a new card. 
2) You do not get another attack step.  In fact, you often get a relatively poor attack step (take three!)
3) You do not get another activation of your Planeswalkers.  Planeswalkers are a big freaking deal. 
4) You often cannot use the mana you are untapping anyway, because you are out of cards by the time you get the hits in.  Getting hits in with SoFaF causes you to be able to play all your cards, which makes the untap ability progressively LESS relevant as the game goes on.  Often what you do with the mana is equip the sword over to another creature.  Nice Accorders Shield.

There are several things that the sword-wielders, or sword-commenters are NOT considering when they look at how effective the sword is.

1) It took 4 or 5 mana, potentially over two turns, in order to get your "free untap" of between 4 and 5 mana that first turn.  The ability to spend it over two turns is good, and the ability to threaten counterspells is good, but often you cannot use the mana precombat, or postcombat, because you are playing around counterspells like Mana Leak on your powerful high-mana spells.
2)  The sword provides you a burst of mana, which quickly becomes irrelevant.
3) The sword doesn't cost a card most of the time, because you get it "for free" off Stoneforge Mystic.  However, you have to play Stoneforge Mystic (1/2 for 2), in a land of Fauna Shaman, Lotus Cobra, and Lightning Bolt.
4) The sword doesn't give you anything until it hits 1-3 times.  Sure, it's a "free" lava axe/Necrogen Censer, or a "free" Mind Rot, but it's really not all that free, and not all that consistant.

The sword is pretty good.  It gives you protection from one of three credible removal colors.  It gives a reasonable (though not large) power/toughness boost for cheap dorks.  It apparently is a good game against Valakut, when combined with alot of other truly good cards (against Valakut), because it provides a clock on both their life (through damage), and their big cards (through discard).

The sword, like planeswalkers, really starts to pay off on the second turn.  When you no longer have to spend mana to equip the sword (cast the planeswalker), you can use the ability again (to start to generate real card advantage).  If you don't get that second swing (that connects), you're not going to be in a great scenario.

I have no idea how the PA  vs. CawBlade matchup plays out.  I'm pretty sure the problem I am going to have is with their Planeswalkers, and huge creatures.  (Jace, Gideon, Sun Titan)  I need to get some time in with this matchup this weekend.

Sword is good, but it's not even close to a Time Walk.