Daily Dose 29 - Standard

Daily Dose of Standard

KrazyCaley

2 February 2013

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I've been here.

No really, I was here all these months. You guys just didn't notice it because I Twincast a Time Stretch with Cast Through Time out. If you don't know me; I'm KrazyCaley and I write lots of stuff for the site except for times when I am not.

I am (hopefully) back at work for the site on a long-term basis, and am happy to bring you only the BEST in Magic: The Gathering content that does not appear on Starcity, Magic Lampoon, Wizards.com, any given pro's website, etc.. Let's get back into the swing of things with a nice daily dose of standard. I'll be taking a magic deck to war on MTG Online, and offering play-by-play and commentary as we go.

The deck

I am putting aside The Doom That Came To Sarnath, as fun as it was, for new Grixis tech, which I planned on doing ever since I saw Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker in the M2013 spoiler. Before we get to the actual match today, spend some time with me going over this deck, as I'm going to be throwing it up here for a long time to come.

The new deck is Bolas for a Better Tomorrow. It is a reimagining of my most successful standard deck, Nicol Bolas, Inc., whose roguey goodness I used to kill it back in ALA-block standard cycles.

Strengths:

• Kills almost any creature except Sigarda, Host of Herons, and has the capability to kill a large NUMBER of creatures with a very few cards as well.

• Has a very flexible sideboard that is especially effective against other control decks.

• Highly effective mana-fixing and ramp; good mana base generally, though I can't afford to put every awesome dual land in there that I'd like.

• Win condition ( Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker ), is highly reliable if it sticks.

• Very good card advantage mechanics ( Think Twice and Mystic Retrieval ) usually keep my hand fuller than my opponent's.

Weaknesses

• No variety in win condition. There are three copies of Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker; no other REALLY compelling win condition cards were available for this deck. The deck is highly vulnerable to deck surgery, especially the unstoppable Slaughter Games.

• There is no decent wrath available in these colors. Large swarms of creatures WILL eventually overwhelm this deck; for that reason it sideboards two copies of Curse of Death's Hold, but that is a low number against the many token decks one sees these days.

• The counterspell count is lower than I would prefer and the deck often drops the first game to other control decks, though the sideboard is, again, highly efficient against such decks.

Thoughts for Gatecrash

I built this deck with as few Innistrad cards as possible, so that I could keep it through the block after Ravnica. Looking at Gatecrash, I am primarily searching for:

1 - Kill spells that improve on the ones I have, ESPECIALLY any wrath effect.

2 - More potential win conditions, especially cards that will be cheap. Priority goes to non-creatures and/or creatures with hexproof, since I have no other creatures to soak up the removal.

3 - Better counterspells.

4 - Any general improvement.

Looking through Gatecrash, I find....

Death's Approach COULD be a highly-effective and cheap piece of removal for me, but it's not effective early in the game, which is the only place it would really be an improvement on anything else I have.

Devour Flesh is cheaper than Tribute to Hunger. I do not care about my opponent's life, but gaining the life from Tribute to Hunger often helps me. I am up in the air on this question so far, but the 3-mana spot in my curve is very crowded.

Illness in the Ranks is a MUCH cheaper Curse of Death's Hold as far as I'm concerned. Of course, it does not work against tokens, alas, which keeps annoyances like Avacyn's Pilgrim quite playable. Perhaps a blend of the two would be best?

Lord of the Void is a fine win condition, except he would really need haste or hexproof to be worth it to me.

Dimir Charm is very flexible, but I'm not sure it's better than cards already present.

Lazav, Dimir Mastermind has hexproof, but is hardly a reliable win condition, and probably not worth it.

Mortus Strider is a fantastic defender, but having a kill spell instead will usually preferable, and the Strider will not keep the really bad threats at bay.

Psychic Strike has a slightly easier casting cost than Counterflux or Dissipate, but there are so many decks whose graveyards you'd prefer to keep empty. Dissipate actually HELPS that problem, while Counterflux is itself uncounterable and at least makes things no worse in the graveyard.

Soul Ransom is a VERY interesting idea to me. #1 - It is a theft card, giving this deck an important capability against the Thragtusk-types of the world, and #2 - It gives my opponent much more difficult choices and yet another opportunity to make mistakes. I will definitely be looking for a way to include Soul Ransom.

Beckon Apparition is an interesting card; I currently have two copies of Tormod's Crypt in the sideboard to deal with the heavier graveyardish decks, but this could possibly be a more efficient solution for the much greater number of decks that have only SOME recursion.

Keyrunes are nice, but I think I much prefer Chromatic Lantern in a three-color deck, and I have no more room for Keyrune-type stuff.

Glaring Spotlight is an obvious sideboard choice.

Thespian's Stage is an interesting idea, but having colored mana is incredibly important to this deck, and lands aren't the serious, deadly problem they were in Mirrodin-Innistrad standard, when Inkmoth Nexuses and Kessig Wolf Run made entire decks go.

So that's where were at. Let's take the deck for a spin, shall we?

vs. Krakemrasta

Game 1

Caley wins the draw and plays first. He keeps a hand of Mountain, Drowned Catacomb, Counterflux, Dreadbore, Gilded Lotus, Barter in Blood, and Think Twice.

Ordinarily a borderline hand, but made playable by Think Twice.

Enemy keeps their 7 hand.

Turn 1

Caley plays Drowned Catacomb tapped and passes.

Enemy plays Plains and passes.

Turn 2

Caley draws Tribute to Hunger, plays Mountain, and passes.

Enemy plays Plains and casts Gather the Townsfolk, then passes. End step, Caley casts Think Twice, drawing Rakdos's Return Gulp.

New rule- token decks actually have to purchase and run sufficient numbers of token cards in order to be able to use them.

Turn 3

Caley draws Chromatic Lantern, does nothing, and passes.

Very cruel draw.

Enemy casts Intangible Virtue and attacks with everything, hitting. (Enemy 20, Caley 16). Enemy passes.

Turn 4

Caley draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, destroys one of the tokens with Dreadbore, and passes.

Enemy attacks with his remaining token. (Enemy 20, Caley 14). Enemy passes.

Turn 5

Caley draws Gilded Lotus, does nothing, and passes, discarding Gilded Lotus.

Already have one, thanks. Still very much in this game; drawing a single land will set me up for Chromatic Lantern followed by Barter in Blood next turn, hopefully keeping him under control.

Enemy plays Grove of the Guardian, then casts Midnight Haunting. He attacks with his soldier. (Enemy 20, Caley 12).

Turn 6

Caley draws Chromatic Lantern and concedes the game.

Can't win now; it will take at least two turns to set up something that will realistically keep me in the game, and he now kills me in two turns.

Sideboarding

Caley boards in 2x Curse of Death's Hold, 2x Slaughter Games, and 2x Dissipate. He boards out 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, 2x Rakdos's Return, 1x Gilded Lotus, 1x Dreadbore, 1x Mystic Retrieval.

The late game can be watered down significantly against a token deck; staying alive is tantamount to winning in this matchup.

Game 2

Caley plays first. He keeps an opening hand of 2x Mountain, Drowned Catacomb, Island, Slaughter Games, Counterflux, and Curse of Death's Hold.

Jackpot. I could not have asked for a better opener. This will almost certainly prevent Intangible Virtue from ever coming out; token players always lead with their token generator on turn 2 and then Virtue on turn 3 to pump them for their first attack. This is usually the best play, as it maximizes damage over time. However, with a counterspell in hand followed by Slaughter Games the next turn and Curse of Death's Hold after that, casting Intangible Virtue after a token spell will be bad news for my opponent this time. Hopefully I will draw a black mana source by turn 5.

Enemy keeps their opener.

Turn 1

Caley plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

Enemy plays Golgari Guildgate and passes.

Turn 2

Caley draws Swamp, plays Island, and passes.

There's the black mana I was looking for. Now my next few turns will play themselves.

Enemy plays Golgari Guildgate and passes.

Very slow play. I assume he played this because he had no basic land to play.

Turn 3

Caley draws Tribute to Hunger, plays Mountain, and passes.

Counterspell defenses up, and Tribute to Hunger is nice to have in my pocket for bigger threats later.

Enemy plays Plains and casts Lingering Souls, then passes.

Turn 4

Caley draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. He plays Swamp then casts Slaughter Games naming Intangible Virtue, exiling one copy from the hand and three from the library. He passes.

According to plan. The rest of his deck was: In hand - Three lands and Rancor. In the library - 4x Call of the Conclave, 1x Captain of the Watch, 1x Garruk, Primal Hunter, 3x Gather the Townsfolk, 1x Geist-Honored Monk, 2x more Lingering Souls, 3x Midnight Haunting, 2x Oblivion Ring, 3x more Rancor, 2x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, 2x Thragtusk, 1x Tribute to Hunger, 2x Ultimate Price, 2x Vraska the Unseen, 2x Wayfaring Temple, and a bunch of land, including 2x Grove of the Guardian.

Enemy plays Selesnya Guildgate and casts Rancor on a token, then attacks. (Enemy 20, Caley 16). He passes.

Turn 5.

Caley draws Island, plays it, and casts Curse of Death's Hold targeting Enemy. The tokens die and Rancor goes back to Enemy's hand. Caley passes.

Enemy plays Plains and passes.

Turn 6

Caley draws Mystic Retrieval, plays Mountain, and passes.

Another hot draw. This will let me recharge Counterflux and/or Slaughter Games if necessary. For right now I prefer to hang onto it and keep Counterflux at the ready.

Enemy plays Selesnya Guildgate and passes.

Turn 7

Caley draws Island, plays it, and passes.

Enemy plays Plains and casts Vraska the Unseen. Caley responds with Counterflux and Vraska is countered. Enemy passes.

Turn 8

Caley draws Murder. He casts Mystic Retrieval returning Counterflux to his hand. He passes.

Enemy does nothing and passes.

I love it when token decks are nice and quietly well-behaved.

Turn 9

Caley draws Drowned Catacomb. He plays it and passes.

I could cast Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker at this point, but if he has the other Vraska the Unseen in hand, that could cause me some embarrassment. Better to stay steady for now.

Enemy plays Overgrown Tomb and passes.

Turn 10

Caley draws Slaughter Games. He casts it naming Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, exiling two from the library, and passes.

Now it might be worth it to bring one of the Slaughter Games back with Mystic Retrieval and keep watering down the deck. He had nothing interesting in hand.

Enemy plays Forest and passes.

Turn 11

Caley draws Barter in Blood. He flashes back Mystic Retrieval targeting Slaughter Games and passes.

Enemy plays Plains and passes.

Turn 12

Caley draws Dragonskull Summit, plays it, and casts Slaughter Games naming Thragtusk. Enemy concedes.

Despite the 4x copies of Call of the Conclave that I know are still in there, Thragtusk is probably the best choice since it annoying creates death tokens.

Sideboarding

Caley makes no changes.

Worked like a charm.

Game 3

Enemy goes to 6.

Caley keeps his opener of Island, Island, Dragonskull Summit, Barter in Blood, Curse of Death's Hold, Counterflux, and Dissipate.

No Slaughter Games in hand to start, but this is still a fine hand.

Enemy concedes the match.

He said that he was hoping I would have to mull down, and conceded as soon as he saw that he would be a card down on the play.

Overall:

The sideboard mangles tokens. Illness in the Ranks may add extra sauce to that mangling, but we'll have to see how the metagame develops with Gatecrash before I commit to anything.