Tournament Report
So, I originally wanted to write a tournament report for the extended PTQ Hollywood that took place a couple of weeks ago. But as I was standing around the tournament site talking to a few of my friends, Dylan Miller mentioned how writing PTQ reports rarely works out since you usually run into one of two scenarios. If you lose, then you are often too bitter to want to talk about the tournament. If you win, then it really just looks like you’re bragging. The short and long of it is that I ended up winning the tournament and as I began to write a report, I realized how right Dylan was. I just couldn’t bring myself to recount the stories of the weekend, especially when I ended up facing some good friends along the way. So instead of brining you a tournament report about a format that will really only ever get played once again, I thought I’d write about the format that will be on my mind, and which is played almost every week in the maritimes; Standard.
I’ve been pretty disappointed in the recent standard metagame. Before Morningtide, Standard consisted of almost exclusively mid-range decks like BG Elves, UB Mannequin, BGw Doran, RG big mana, Fearies, and a little big of Goblins. I personally have never really been much of a fan of midrange strategies unless they have some very serious advantages. I would prefer try to control the game, combo it out, or take advantage of the early game. For a short period after worlds, I thought that Dragonstorm might make a strong return as a top contender for best deck, but Magic Online Premier Events seemed to indicate that it was only a one trick pony.
Enter Morningtide… In the new Standard format, it looks like we may now have a glimpse of hope for purely aggressive strategies and maybe even for a couple of combo decks. Since the release of the second set of the Lorwyn block, popular decks have risen up in the form of the Reveillark combo deck, RG Warriors, and Red Deck Wins. Now, the Reveillark deck has gotten enough coverage over the past couple of weeks and has shown itself to be a very strong competitor in the metagame. So instead of redundantly babbling on about the same subject much smarter people have already discussed, I would like to talk about Red Deck Wins and other potential aggressive strategies. I started off with the following list:
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Greater Gargadon
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Countryside Crusher
4 Rift Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Tarfire
3 Threaten
4 Treetop Village
4 Karplusan
1 Pendelhaven
3 Gemstone Mine
10 Mountain
It seemed solid enough. I really wanted to make some room for Shard Volley but I wasn’t sure exactly how good it would be in this sort of list. It really came down to Shard Volley vs. Threaten and my testing pre-Morningtide indicated that Threaten was a powerhouse against all the mid-range decks around. Unfortunately I didn’t have much testing results to work with post-Morningtide and there weren’t any similar decks showing up in any reported tournaments around the world. So I needed some encouragement or some results soon...
$5,000 Star City Games tournament from last weekend:
Mike Le – Red Deck Wins – 7th place
4
Blood Knight
4
Countryside Crusher
2
Greater Gargadon
4
Keldon Marauders
4
Magus Of The Scroll
4
Mogg Fanatic
4
Incinerate
4
Shard Volley
4
Shock
2
Browbeat
4
Rift Bolt
15
Mountain
1
Keldon Megaliths
4
Mutavault
Sideboard:
3
Boldwyr Heavyweights
1
Greater Gargadon
4
Magus Of The Moon
4
Sulfur Elemental
3
Threaten
My main problem with this list was the fact that it was not running Tarmogoyf. The goyf has become somewhat of an auto-in for aggressive decks in the past year and this list seemed to have enough room for him… I mean, how good can Blood Knight really be in a format with so many 3/3’s and with almost no white creatures. I also wasn’t completely convinced with Browbeat. I’ve never really liked the card and it only ever saw significant play in Timespiral Block Constructed. Finally, I wasn’t convinced that Mike’s list could make much use of Magus of the Scroll. It’s not a great beater, its ability is very demanding on the mana, and it’s extremely fragile even if you get it online. So I altered the list to combine the success of Mike Le’s list and my own.
3 Greater Gargadon
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Keldon Marauders
3 Mogg War Marshal
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Countryside Crusher
4 Rift Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Tarfire
3 Threaten
4 Karplusan
3 Treetop Village
3 Mutavault
1 Pendelhaven
3 Gemstone Mine
9 Mountain
I gathered a little more insight from my good friend Phil Samms. Now, psamms doesn’t really like constructed too much… and even when he does, you’ll almost never see him testing. Despite all this, he still has a good head for theory and is basically a Siamese twin to the pulse of the internet. He also has a skill for calling things as they are. If something sucks, he’ll tell you it sucks… segue… my list sucked. Phil pointed out that Mogg War Marshal is pretty far from what might be considered an aggressive two drop. He also explained how the new environment made Threaten a lot less useful in a lot of matchups. Essentially, the point that drove home the most was that I hadn’t just made a few small changes to a successful list; I had built a completely different deck built to win on different paradigms. So I had some decisions to make: Should I try to alter my list to try to compete in the current metagame using its own strategy and strengths? Should I try to alter Mike’s list to include Tarmogoyf? Or should I just play something much closer to Mike’s list?
I decided that my deck was simply not built to handle the
current metagame. It could play some ok creatures and then get my opponent’s
creatures out of the way when the game got a little later but the core strategy
didn’t make much sense. I was trying to be aggressive and win the game quickly
using small creatures in a format where almost every opponent will have creature
removal and creatures of their own to put in the way. What Mike had done, was
play a few really small creatures to get in early beats and then once the
opponent kills the small creature, they would just get finished off with burn. I
also decided that I didn’t want to simply play Mike’s list as it was. I was,
after all, trying to test. There seemed to be little sense in testing old ideas
when I know that I’m probably going to have to build a new deck for the
Shadowmoor Standard format in
2 Greater Gargadon
4 Magus of the Scroll
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Countryside Crusher
4 Rift Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Shard Volley
4 Tarfire
4 Karplusan
3 Treetop Village
2 Mutavault
1 Pendelhaven
2 Gemstone Mine
10 Mountain
SB:
4 Cryoclasm
4 Sulfurous Blast
4 Threaten
2 Pithing Needle
1 Greater Gargadon
Card-by-card breakdown:
Greater Gargadon: With Mogg War Marshal out of the deck, this creature becomes a lot less explosive. You really never want to see more than one of them since they will slow down your draw. Two can be useful because this guy can be a real pain in a lot of matchups… he may end up getting cut altogether for more burn options but I feel that there are enough decks around right now that warrant his inclusion. He also gets a lot better after board against Big Mana RG and other midrange decks when you sideboard in the Threatens and he can really turn the tides against other aggressive decks.
Magus of the Scroll: I’m willing to try this guy. He can get in the last points of damage when needed and can be a true wrecking ball against Faeries. I’d be willing to try something else but it would have to be a one casting cost creature. Current alternatives include: Karplusan Wolverine, Mudbutton Clanger (this guy would actually be a 2/2 one third of the time in this deck), and Martyr of Ash (only if the metagame changes.)
Keldon Marauders: This guy can almost always be translated into a spell that reads: “Destroy target non-Tarmogoyf creature and deal 2 damage to target player. If target player controls no creatures, deal 5 damage to that player instead.” Either way, it’s a good deal.
Countryside Crusher: Ah Countryside Crusher *enter crescendo of emotional music.*
I have to admit, I tested the Crusher a lot for the Extended PTQ season and, unfortunately, he didn’t really live up to my expectations. I hope that Standard will offer a more comfortable environment for the Giant Warrior to dominate. This is really the sort of deck the Crusher was designed for. Get in some quick beats, play a big threat to be dealt with, and replace all future land drops with more burn.
The burn package: It’s the best burn around. If you’re running Tarmogoyf, then Tarfire is better than Shock, otherwise Shock is better so you don’t power up opposing Goyfs. Shard Volley should be fine on the mana and combos well with the Crusher and with the man-lands.
Land base: There are 10 green sources and 16 red sources.
This should be more than enough on both sides. The reason there are only 3
Cryoclasm: This is for the Reveillark decks, Mannequin decks, and anything else that may be a little slow and has islands and/or plains. I settled on Cryoclasm over other popular choices like Tormod’s Crypt and Sulfur Elemental because they dilute the game plan of the red deck. You want to burn out these players before they are able to either stabilize or go off. If you add disruption like Crypt or Elemental then you are slowing yourself down while they may not be slowed at all (if they have an answer for example.) It’s also becoming more common for the Reveillark decks to sideboard out the combo in game two out of fear for the hate cards so destroying their land and keeping them off of Wrath of God and all their 5 mana creatures can make all the difference.
Sulfurous Blast: This is primarily for the Faerie and Elf matchups. Magus is the only creature that really cares about being hit by this and even he can be saved by a lucky Pendelhaven. I don’t think these matchups are overly bad, so this might end up getting cut if new needs arise. I think this is slightly better than Pyroclasm since it still deals damage to players and can deal with some of the annoying 3/3s in the format too.
Threaten: Great against decks with big creatures. This is mostly going to go in against the Obsidian Battleaxe Warrior decks and the RG Big Mana decks. Steal a blocker, get in with the team, and even sacrifice it to Gargadon if you’re lucky.
Pithing Needle: A bit of a catch-all. This one may be a
little flexible but it can stop some annoying cards like Garruk, man-lands, or
even Gargadon. But it also kills some game breaking cards that seem to see a lot
of play around this area like
The tournament:
Rd 1 – Neil – Gb Warriors
Neil started game one at 17 life by using a Llanowar Wastes to cast Thoughtsieze. We traded some early beats and Neil tried to stabilize with Wren’s Run Packmaster. I gang blocked it the following turn but made a miscalculation and lost more creatures than I should have in the deal. In the end Neil had be on the ropes but a couple of burn spells finished the game in my favor. In game two Neil kept a one land hand with a Llanowar Elf but I had the turn one burn and with threaten to back up my early beats the rest of the game was prewritten.
Rd 2 – Rick – Faeries
Rick was playing an interesting build of Faeries with Mutavault over the usual Faerie Conclave. His draw game one was a little slow but he managed to somewhat stabilize on 11 life. I only had Gargadon suspended on 7 and one card in hand with four land on the table so Rick figured it was a safe time to play Bitterblossom. Unfortunately for him, I played land number five and a creature then sacrificed them all the Big Gargs to put him down to 2. Bitterblosson did the rest. In game two, Magus of the Scroll backed by other good cards simply locked Rick out of any chance.
Rd 3 – Ben – Faeries
Ben was playing our build of Faeries and has been fairly successful lately so I knew this matchup would be a little harder than the last… I’m going to spare you some of the details here though because all that really mattered here was that Magus of the Scroll dominated both games… that’s pretty much all.
Rd 4 – Ted – Gb Warriors
Ted and I were the only 3-0s at this point so we were able to draw and split the prizes. We played for practice anyway and I won a reasonably close three games. Threaten combined with any amount of tempo and burn just made game three unwinable for him. I should have probably won game two as well but I miscalculated again and left myself open to a counter attack after I alpha-striked.
Sorry I wasn’t able to bring a more diverse matchup analysis but these decks do make up a fair chunk of our metagame so maybe it’s good to here about how the deck performs against Faeries and Warriors. I think both matchups are pretty heavily in favor of the Red Deck although Warriors might be able to change the results depending on their build and play. Faeries would have to really alter their sideboard to be able to significantly improve their chances and I don’t think Red decks are popular enough to draw that kind of attention so this matchup should remain favorable.
As for card choices? I don’t think I would change anything right now. The weakest performer on the day was probably the Countryside Crusher but there were still a few games where he COULD have made the difference between drawing the spell I needed or drawing a land. In each case during the tournament it ended up that spells were always on the top of my deck anyway so it didn’t matter… but it could have. I think he’s an average body that just draws you into more burn. For now, I think the green splash is worth keeping. Tarmogoyf is such a powerful card that it’s hard to just throw him away. Having both he and the Crusher means the opponent has to deal with multiple annoying creatures which can be very challenging. Even besides the Tarmogoyf, I found the Treetops and even the Pendelhaven to be extremely useful.
In closing, I would continue to recommend this deck for the current metagame. I think it really pushes the tempo and has more than enough burn and man-lands to finish the job even if the opponent stabilizes. If you have any questions about the deck or are interested in hearing about a different standard deck, please email me at:
Magic(DOT)kelly(AT)hotmail(DOT)com
I will also try to make myself available on the forums and the new chat room.