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Prepping for KyotoBy Andrew Hanson on January 2nd, 2009 · Filed in Extended (Type 1.x), Standard (Type 2) · 27 CommentsHey Everybody! I hope you all had a merry Christmas, got all that yule-tide joy out of your system, and are ready to read about some Magic. Today, I was going to show you some select games from the past two Friday Night Magics at the local shop (I was running Merfolk, of course), and tell you a little how my Extended playtesting has been going (got to get ready for Grand Prix Los Angeles). Man-lands are good. Really good. I also put in a pair of Elspeth, Knight-Errants. She acts like Sygg, River Guide five and six for giving my Wake Thrasher evasion, and can single-handedly rebuild my board after a sweeper. To fit her in, I had to shuffle two of the Sower of Temptations off to the board, pulling one Pollen Lullaby and one Reveillark to make room. Also, I made another adjustment for the second FNM (which will be the third match I go through). I had the Sowers in the main trade places with a pair of Deft Duelists from the board. Why would I do this? Faeries. It's one of my hardest matchups, and the Sower isn't that good in it, while the Duelist can be a game winner. Plus, the Sower is for when I'm up against other aggro decks, which I already have a good game against due to Cryptic Command. With maindeck Duelists, I have a better matchup against both Faeries and Monored Demigod. Enough chatter, though. Here's the decklist:
Merfolk vs. 5cc My opponent here was a young man named Julian, and he ran 5cc with Cruel Ultimatum. He won the die roll and chose to play, and we both ended up mulling to six. He came out with just land for the first two turns. I decided to test his hand, and played a Sygg, River Guide on my turn two. Turn three, Julian evoked a Shriekmaw to take out Sygg. I came back with a Silvergill Adept, he dropped a Kitchen Finks, and I played my second Sygg with mana back to protect. Sygg can't protect againts Wrath of God, though. Sad face for me. Turn five, I laid a land and sat back, countering his second Finks with a Sage's Dousing. Notice, though, that he had just Wrathed all my wizards off the board, so I didn't get to cantrip. On turn six, I laid a Wake Thrasher and had mana back to play another Dousing, which I did on Julian's Firespout. I jacked him for a bunch of damage, then lost my guy to another Wrath of God. Next turn, I carried on the fight with a Mutavault and dropped a Stonybrook Banneret. He took two turns of attacks while he made land drops, then played Cruel Ultimatum. It ends games...five turns later. Game one: loss. For sideboarding, I took out the two Sowers and two of the Bannerets to fit in the four Deft Duelists. The Bannerets are good if I want to barf out my whole hand on turn three, but that's not always advisable when up against a deck packing seven or eight board sweepers. We both got to keep our seven, and game two started better for me with a turn one Cursecatcher. He just made a land drop, and I dropped a second turn Deft Duelist. Turn three, I swung, and he condemned my Cursecatcher. I then played a Wake Thrasher, and passed. He had no board sweepers in hand and didn't draw into any, either. I just protected the Thrasher and went the distance with my big fishman. This is how this matchup should go (or at least, how I always want it to go). An early game Catcher with some turn two threat, and a Thrasher on three, with counters in hand to play over the next couple of turns. Sure, it's the nuts, so it's unlikely to get this oftern. But it'd be more likely to happen if I could find something that could play like Cursecatcher five through eight. Got any good ideas for me? Game two: win. No changes to the board for game three. He opened land, while I opened Cursecatcher. Turn two, he just laid another land, while I laid a Silvergill Adept. Turn three, he dropped a Kitchen Finks, and I only played a land on my turn three. I had a Sygg in my hand, but didn't want to put him out there without two mana back to protect. I made the Sygg on turn four without the fourth land though, as I needed something to beat that Finks. I should have played a turn sooner; he hard-casted a Shriekmaw on turn five, killing Sygg. Then I got my fourth land drop, miscounted, and played a Merrow Reejerey and a Cursecatcher. He played a Firespout to clear my board, which I couldn't stop with the Cursecatchers as he had enough land. Not sure what I was thinking there... Cruel Ultimatum? Counter? Too Bad! Game three: loss. Merfolk vs. Bant Exalted The reason I'm talking about this match is to showcase an interesting build. Well, maybe not so interesting as it's quite linear, but it was something that I did not think could compete in Standard. That deck, as you may have figured out from the title of this match, is Bant Exalted. This one was the full three colors (white, green, blue), and ran the white exalted curve with Akrasan Squire at one, Sigiled Paladin at two, the Guardians of Akrasa at three, Angelic Benediction at four, and the queen of the curve, Battlegrace Angel at five. The deck also ran some amount of mythic Rafiq of the Many, boss utility spell Bant Charm, and my favorite, Deft Duelist. The deck actually did well...when it hit its curve. A 3/3 swinging on turn two is nothing to shrug off. But the deck only swings in for four on turn three (kithkin would be swinging in for six or seven), and turn four wasn't that exciting (unless it was Bant Charming one of my creatures away). However, turn five ended up being pretty savage. Turns out Battlegrace Angel is pretty good. By herself, you're looking at a 10 point life swing. Throw in other exalted creatures, and it gets harsh. I'll talk a little bit more about this deck after the match. My opponent was a young lady named Danielle, and she won the roll. We both kept our seven and she opened with a Seaside Citadel. I didn't have a Cursecatcher, so turn one was just a land. She dropped a second Citadel and a Squire on turn two. I made myself a Banneret play. Turn three, she made a regular land play and dropped the Guardians, swinging for three. My turn three, I played the Sower, stole her Guardians, and pinged her for 1. Then she Bant Charmed my Sower away and came in for three more. Next, I dropped a Reejerey, another Banneret, and a Cursecatcher. My board was starting to look pretty good, and I thought this game would be mine. Until she dropped the Angel and swung in with a 4/4 Squire for an eight point life swing. I tried to keep up, using a Cryptic Command to counter a spell and bounce the Angel, but she had another Bant Charm on the next turn to slow down my offensive game. I bought some extra time with two more Commands (yes, two more), which did double duty as she had played a Stoic Angel, but it wasn't enough. In the end, I brought her down to 1 life, and she killed me on her next turn with a scary Angel. Darn lifelink. Game one: loss. For boarding, out came my Sage's Dousings, and in came two more Sowers and the double Pollen Lullaby. We both kept our seven and I went first, playing only a land. She came out with a turn one Squire. I came back with a Banneret on two, and she only played a land on her next turn, though she still hit me with her guy. Not like it mattered at all, as on my next turn, I dropped a Reejerey, an Adept, another Banneret, and a Wake Thrasher. Then I swung for two. Her next turn was Guardians of Akrasa. Mine was Elspeth. A 10/10 flying Wake Thrasher, anyone? The game ended very soon after that. Got to love Merfolk Affinity (Banneret-Reejerey ho!). Game two: win. She was first this time, and after no mulls by either of us, she dropped a turn one Squire. I dropped just a land. She hit me for two, then put down a Deft Duelist. I played an Adept, hoping to dig down to something good, and she played a second Duelist on turn three. I played a Wake Thrasher on my turn, and her next turn was sans land drop, but she still played a Guardians and came in for three with the Squire, putting me down to 12 life. That left her two Duelists back to take care of my Thrasher, who would have been 4/4 on the next attack. I made my fourth land drop, put down a Banneret and a second Thrasher, then passed turn. Her turn, she played an Angelic Benediction, attacked with a Duelist, and tapped down my Adept. I chumped with my Stonybrook Banneret, hoping to buy myself some breathing room. Then, on my turn, I laid down a Mutavault and swung in with the two 5/5 Thrashers, and they both got chump blocked by a Duelist and a Guardians. She probably should have just taken it and kept up the pressure, leaving those creatures alive to block when it really mattered. But, when you're up against Cryptic Command, it's always tricky to know when to chump. He wins games. Are you sick of me showing him off yet? Game three: win. This was an interesting deck. Not so much in design, as it's really linear, but in the way it plays. As I said above, a 3/3 swinging on turn two is nothing to squawk at. But it's turn three is less than crazy, usually just being a 4/4 first striker, maybe a 5/5 if the pilot is lucky. But kithkin does more than that with the nuts hand (swinging for 6 or 7), and doesn't run three colors. The latter part seems like one of the biggest drawbacks of this Bant deck. Game one, my opponent didn't make her Squire play until turn two because of her land. That's just unacceptable. Plus, the exalted mechanic doesn't play well with white's current Standard all-star, Spectral Procession. I could see maybe the Squire and/or the Paladin seeing some splashing into the current White Weenie decks, making their big early game more consistent. And the Battlegrace Angel is simply a beating. But a whole deck built around exalted? Maybe for FNM, but I'm not convinced it's playable in a competitive tournament. Merfolk vs. R/B Control This is another deck I wanted to talk about. Not because it's an awesome deck, or because it'll be something to worry about at the Pro Tour (at the moment, when I think of Standard, I think of Kyoto), but because, in the theory, it should be my absolute worst matchup. It runs four Pyroclasms in the main, four Infests in the board, and Blightnings and Raven Crimes also in the main. The deck hits my hand, hits my board, and forces me to play topdeck with them, which I usually lose because most of my guys are pretty weenie, and Ashenmoor Gouger is not. But I like my hand... His game wasn't bad. He had another Fanatic, an Ashenmoor Gouger, some spot-removal and a Raven's Crime to jack my hand. But Sygg came down on turn five, and another Duelist came down on turn nine, which, I know, doesn't sound impressive. But when the game is a slow grinder (which Merfolk's matchups against red-based decks tend to be), the nigh unkillable creatures are game breakers. Especially when my opponent doesn't hit a Pyroclasm. He couldn't handle first strike and shroud together on one creature. Game one: win. I boarded in my anti-red stuff, which included Burrenton-Forge Tender, more Duelists, and Reveillark. It didn't do much in game two, though. Mostly because I didn't draw it. I played regular old merfolk, and he had board sweepers (yes, plural) behind Ashenmoor Gougers and other spot removal. What normally is a knock-down, drag-out fight was ended by turn seven. Game two: loss. Two abilities at +1? Best misprint ever.  I opened strong, with a turn one Forge-Tender, turn two Duelist. He did little, dropping only a Ravenous Rat on turn two, which is actually a really annoying play. He dropped a second one on turn three, after I played a Sygg, and then Terrored my Forge-Tender on turn four, after I dropped an Adept. He took some more hits as he Blightninged me, dropped a third Rat, then sweeped the board with an Infest, following up with a Mogg Fanatic. I carried on the fight with a Faerie Conclave, hoping to get him to sac his only creature, but the man-land got Nameless Inversioned on its second swing. So there we were, both in top-deck mode, with him holding a Ghitu Encampment back to neutralize my Mutavault while pinging me away with a Mogg Fanatic, when I drew Elspeth. The first thing I did was force his removal. He was only at 3 life, and if I resolved her second ability, it would be all over. So I tried it on my Mutavault. Another Nameless. Next turn, I made a Soldier token. And the next. Then I tried for the win again. No luck; burn this time. More tokens. He hit a Murderous Redcap somewhere in there. But I just kept pumping out Soldier tokens to chump block or trade. I think my opponent was actually worried about her big ability going off (indestructible to all my non-planeswalker permanents), because he kept going out of his way to keep her from getting to eight. I wasn't going to pop that ability, anyways. Her first two abilities are too important, especially in a top-deck game like that. Eventually, after many turns of us grinding it out, he threw a Lash Out at one of my guys when I was going for the win for the umpteenth time. What did I reveal for the clash? Reveillark. I believe I actually exclaimed aloud. Even if the elemental couldn't connect for the win, the promised card advantage of it dying would be too much for Thien. He got the kill on the 'Lark with a sorcery, but couldn't do anything about the critters that got resurrected. Elspeth gave one +3/+3 and flying, and it was finally over. Game three: win. Double Anthem. Eat that, Infest. But wait, aren't most merfolk one toughness weenies? True. But Sygg isn't, and neither is the Reejerey. And with a Reejerey and an Anthem, all my guys can live through an Infest. Of course, Faeries will do something to try and get one of the pumpers out of the way, but that's fine. Whatever it takes to make the games harder on those little bug-men is okay in my book. Plus, against other decks, getting a permanent pump to my guys is usually too much to handle. Against a red deck, a 2/2 Forge-Tender is twice as good as the original. And don't get me started on 3/2 or 4/3 Deft Duelists. Here's the decklist I ran at last week's FNM, where I went 4-0 (I'll talk about those matches next time, when I've got more playtest data with the Anthem). All of those opponents were running red, too, with two being Monored Demigod, one being Thien with his black/red discard control deck, and one being this savage Jund-colored deck that maindecked Jund charms (kills Demigods in bin, sweeps board, or pumps a critter at a critical moment).
If you see this on turn one, kill it. That said, pack hate for it in the board. The last thing that needs to happen is a repeat of last year, where the combo deck to beat (Dredge) performs sub-optimally in a pro event, everyone lightens their hate for it, and it comes back to completely dominate the PTQ scene. Beware of Elves; the deck is still legit. And a last warning for those planning on running Zoo: don't forget about Affinity, either. One day, my playtest partner decided to run Affinity. Pre-board, the games were like 75-25 in favor of Affinity (we did probably close to twenty matches). I have since made room in my board for some Ancient Grudges to deal with that deck. Next time, I'll hopefully have a bit more Extended to talk about, and I'll showcase the Anthems performance. To all those still on holiday break, enjoy! By Andrew Hanson on January 2nd, 2009 · Filed in Extended (Type 1.x), Standard (Type 2) · 27 Comments |
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