Showdown #18: We're Back Baby!!

Showdown

Spootyone

11 June 2014

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Hello all and welcome back to another edition of Showdown, where I pit my current standard build against those sent in by you: the members of TappedOut. It's been a while, hasn't it? I want to sincerely apologize for that. The past month and a half have been taken up mostly by me attempting to be responsible and getting one of those "job" things people keep talking about. If you're curious, you can find out more details about where I've been and the state of my articles here. If you've been a long-time follower of my series, I hope you continue to follow and enjoy what I have to put out.

When we last were together, JOU had pretty much just been released. Cards were still finding their homes, the metagame was shifting, Patrick Chapin hadn't won the Pro Tour, and I was playing with a ridiculous "tribal centaurs" deck featuring almost no centaurs. We faced off against Tabu34 and his tribal Minotaur deck, which (much to everyone's surprise) we ended up beating. I still think that was a fluke but hey...what're you gonna do?

After that, I revealed my next standard build. This build is a tribute to my once-high-scoring Conclave Counter-Cutter | G/W Midrange, and is one I had been fine-tuning for quite some time. This is the deck that I shall be using in my Showdown articles (hopefully) until rotation occurs. Here it is for those that may have missed it:

The Conclave's Revenge | GW Midrange

Standard* Spootyone

SCORE: 56 | 67 COMMENTS | 7647 VIEWS | IN 14 FOLDERS

(A comprehensive deck tech can be found here)

So, it's been freaking forever but I finally have the first of many soon to come battles between this brew so dear to my heart and soul. But who is my competitor, you ask? They're cold. They're precipitation.....ey... uhh... Snowstorm!! (not the deck). Here's his build chosen for the match:

Let all feel joy in pain

Standard Blizzicane

SCORE: 19 | 27 COMMENTS | 4570 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

What drew me to this build was just how explosive and unforgiving it can be to the unprepared player. I have had nothing but problems with extreme Rakdos aggro for months now, and I end up losing to it fairly consistently. The difference this time? Well, I have MB answers to it just for this reasoning. I want to see if these MB answers are worth the slots or if they matter not to the matchup. I've made you all wait long enough -- Let's get to the action!

Game 1

I won the flip and chose to be on the play. I kept an alright hand of plains, 2x forest, Sylvan Caryatid, Loxodon Smiter, Banishing Light and Garruk, Caller of Beasts. Garruk isn't amazing in this match but I think the caryatid and smiter can hold him off a bit as long as he doesn't have a complete curve out.

Snowstorm keeps an opener of swamp, Blood Crypt, 2x Madcap Skills, Spike Jester, Xathrid Necromancer, and Mogis's Marauder. Wish we had a one-drop but what can you do?

S1: Forest, pass.

O: Draws swamp, plays Blood Crypt tapped. pass.

S2: Draws Banishing Light. A little slow, but it can still really get the job done. Plains, Sylvan Caryatid, pass.

O2: Draws mountain. Snowstorm plays the mountain, casts a Spike Jester and swings in for 3 unblocked. Pass. (s 17/20 o)

S3: Draws Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. I love this card but this isn't the matchup for it. Since I have two banishing lights, I can afford to use one here. And Spike Jester is a worthy thing to remove in my opinion. I decide to play out my forest and cast Banishing Light, exiling the jester. Pass.

O3: Draws swamp. Alright, now he's a little flooded. He basically needs to draw zero more lands the rest of the game. He plays out a swamp and casts out a Xathrid Necromancer. Pass.

**S4: Draws Polukranos, World Eater. Well, there's big poluk. A single land could help me out tremendously in the next turn. And the necromancer is an even better target for Banishing Light. Because we have no real pressure on us yet, I'll go for it. I choose to play the other Banishing Light, exiling the necromancer. Pass. **

O4: Draws swamp. Ughhh.... He plays the swamp and plays out the Mogis's Marauder, giving itself haste and intimidate and attacking for an entire 2. Pass. (s 15/20 o)

**S5: Draws forest. There's the land I wanted! I play out the forest and then cast Polukranos and pass. **

O5: Draws Blood Crypt. This is a bit nonsense. He plays the crypt tapped. Madcap Skills is really awkward right now due to the opposing polukranos, since I can use the monstrous as a means of generating a 2-for-1 or worse. And yet, it's our only possible play. He chooses to put a single madcap skills on the marauder and attack with it. Honestly, I can easily take the trade here, and I double-block. Polukranos and the marauder both die. Pass.

**S6: Draws Mana Confluence. Not bad, not bad. I play out the land and cast Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. I use his first +1 ability to put 3 counters on my caryatid and pass. (s 14/20 o) **

O6: Draws Ultimate Price. This game is going nowhere. He concedes.

Spooty "wins" Game 1!

That was super dumb. I feel like my deck curved out and drew very well, and that was good to see, but the opposing deck flooded out terribly and couldn't even get a foothold. I will likely play an additional game at the end.

**Sideboard tech with Spooty: Most of my aggro-hate is mainboard, but there are still some adjustments to be made. Archangel of Thune will always come in in place of Nessian Game Warden against aggro. Elspeth and Garruk are both super slow and they can be replaced by better, cheaper cards like Scavenging Ooze, Celestial Flare, and I'll be bringing in a single Deicide on the off-chance I can hit a Madcap Skills and save myself from the trauma that can bring. **

Sideboard tech with Snowstorm: From the sideboard, we get access to Lifebane Zombie and Thoughtseize, which are really good in this matchup. In place of these 4 cards, I'll be removing the playset of Rakdos Shred-Freak. I think the card is really good in this deck, but being a 2/1 is a bit lackluster against a deck full of Fleecemane Lion, Sylvan Caryatid, Nyx-Fleece Ram and Polukranos, World Eater.

Game 2

Snowstorm has to mulligan his opener of 6 cool cards and....mountain. Boooo...The six card hand isn't the greatest either. Being on the play, I don't know if we can afford to go down another card. I'm going to be risky and keep the hand of swamp, Tormented Hero, Spike Jester, Lightning Strike, Mogis's Marauder and exava, rokdos blood witch. c'monnnn luck!

**I receive an opening hand of Temple Garden, Temple of Plenty, Fleecemane Lion, Nyx-Fleece Ram, Courser of Kruphix, Loxodon Smiter and Banishing Light. BEAUTiful hand for me. Total keep. **

O1: Swamp, Tormented Hero, pass.

**S1: Draws Banishing Light. I play my scryland and see Archangel of Thune on the top. While I really don't want to bottom this card, I need land, so I do. Pass. **

O2: Draws Rakdos Cackler. He has one more turn to get going, here. He attacks for 2 and then plays and unleashes the cackler. Pass. (s 18/20 o)

**S2: Draws Polukranos, World Eater. I shock myself with my temple garden and play out my Fleecemane Lion. I could go with the ram, but this plays around Doom Blade and Ultimate Price a little better. And if they want to Lightning Strike him...well, that saves me 3 life. Pass. (s 16/20 o) **

O3: Draws Madcap Skills. Didn't get there. /rage. Well, he has nothing he can do. Pass. (I'm sorry Snowstorm :( )

**S3: Draws Temple Garden. I choose to play out the ram, and have the temple come in tapped before passing the turn. **

O4: Draws Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch. Game 1 -- all lands, Game 2 - no lands. I really feel bad about this absurdity. Pass.

**S4: Gains one life from ram and draws Celestial Flare. I play out the Courser of Kruphix and see Loxodon Smiter on the top. We can afford to start attacking. I swing in with the lion for 3 damage and pass. (s 17/17 o) **

O5: Draws swamp. Wow, the only land he could draw that does nothing. He plays the swamp and passes the turn.

**S5: Draws Loxodon Smiter and sees Polukranos, World Eater on the top. This game is quickly closing. I use Banishing Light to exile the Tormented Hero and then swing for 5 with the lion and courser before passing. (s 18/12 o) **

O6: Draws Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch. concedes.

Spooty feels really lame!

That was kind of garbage. No, actually, that was complete garbage. We're playing more games.

Game 3

Snowstorm keeps an opening hand of swamp, Rakdos Cackler, Tormented Hero, 2x Madcap Skills, Lightning Strike and Lifebane Zombie. I know, I know. Same sort of hand. I want to see if this hand can ever work. SCIENCE.

**I choose to keep an opening hand of 2x forest, plains, Temple of Plenty, Elvish Mystic, Sylvan Caryatid and Polukranos, World Eater. We have some good early-game ramp and hopefully we draw into more fuel. **

O1: Swamp, Tormented Hero, pass.

**S1: Draws Nyx-Fleece Ram. Beautiful! I play out the forest and Elvish Mystic and pass. **

O2: Draws mountain. SEE IT DOES WORK SOMETIMES. He plays out the mountain and places Madcap Skills onto his Tormented Hero, draining me for 1 life. then he swings for an additional 5 unblockable. Pass. (s 14/21 o)

**S2: Draws Archangel of Thune. That will be helpful if we make it that far. I am in a weird situation right now where I have to choose between playing out my Sylvan Caryatid or my Nyx-Fleece Ram. The former sets me up really well if the opponent does not have removal and is a lot riskier. The second is safer, but also leaves me vulnerable to loss by removal. I think mana is the way to go, simply because it will give us more options next turn when things will be a lot more dire. I play the Sylvan Caryatid out and then put out my scryland to find a plains of top. Not needed. It's gone. Pass. **

O3: Draws Thoughtseize. Very interesting. Well, first things first. He attacks for another 5 unblockable with the hero. He then plays out an unleashed Rakdos Cackler and a Thoughtseize, which takes the Archangel of Thune from my hand. Sadness... Pass. (s 9/19 o)

**S3: Draws Courser of Kruphix. Alright. I have to try to stabilize now and hope he doesn't have a ton of removal...or a Mogis's Marauder. I choose to play out the courser, revealing Temple Garden from the top. I'm not going to be shocking myself right now. I play a plains from my hand, gain a life, and then play out the ram before passing. (s 10/19 o) **

O4: Draws Mogis's Marauder. That would be really amazing if he had the land to play it. I think the best course of action now is to hope to win by the marauder. He places the second Madcap Skills on the cackler and passes the turn.

**S4: Draws Temple Garden and reveals Deicide the top. Oh, hello there friend. I play out the forest, gain a life, and then play out my Polukranos. We're dead to a marauder, but let's hope he doesn't have it. **

O5: Draws Tormented Hero. Nope. The opposing Polukranos once again throws a huge wrench into his plans. He needed to win before his guys could be killed and allow for a 2-for-1. And on my next turn, I can actually create a 4-for-1 with the monstrous ability. I guess he might as well attack to get some use out of the cards before they die. He swings with both creatures. I choose to block the cackler with the ram and the Polukranos, and the hero with the caryatid and the mystic (That's alright because I don't need the mana and I'd rather have the courser here). All of his creatures die, Polukranos dies, and my mana dorks die. He then plays out another Tormented Hero and passes the turn.

**S5: Draws Deicide and gains one life from the ram. Loxodon Smiter is revealed from the top. I play the temple garden tapped, gain a life, attack with the courser for 2 damage, and then hold up mana for Deicide. Pass. (s 14/17 o) **

O6: Draws rackdos cackler. I don't really understand the mana issues with this deck. 22 lands is absolutely reasonable if not ideal for the curve and the playstyle of the deck. I guess he's just getting incredibly unlucky today. :/ He attacks with the tormented hero. I know that he might have Lightning Strike to finish off my ram. I want to keep my ram. And so I don't block. He follows this up by playing another Rakdos Cackler and passing. (s 12/17 o)

**S6: Draws Loxodon Smiter gains a ram-life, and reveals forest from the top. I play the forest and gain another life and reveal Elvish Mystic from the top. At this point, we're completely alright, so I choose to attack for 2 with the courser and play out the smiter before passing. (s 14/15 o) **

O7: Draws swamp. FREAKING FINALLY. He plays the land. It's really just too late, though. He plays out the Lifebane Zombie for no value and passes the turn. At this point he can only hope to win with a lucky Mogis's Marauder attack.

**S7: Gains a life, Draws Elvish Mystic, and reveals Ajani, Mentor of Heroes from the top. That should help me next turn for sure. We can afford to continue attacking. I attack with the smiter for 4 damage and then follow that up with the Elvish Mystic I drew. Pass. (s 15/11 o) **

O8: Draws Blood Crypt. It enters play tapped. He attacks for 3 with the zombie and passes the turn. (s 12/11 o)

**S8: Gains a life, draws Ajani, Mentor of Heroes, and reveals Courser of Kruphix from the top. I play out Ajani, use his +1 to put 3 counters on my courser, and then attack for 9 with the courser and smiter. Pass. EoT Snowstorm hits me with a Lightning Strike. (s 10/2 o) **

Draws mountain. He can only get me to 1 and he cannot survive to win this game. He concedes.

Spooty wins the match

Afterthoughts

Alright, we have a bit to discuss about this match. The elephant in the room was the abundance of mana problems that were witnessed when piloting Snowstorm's deck. I mentioned during Game 2 that it seemed incredibly unreasonable to be having as many problems as I was having, and I stand by that logic. 22 lands is a perfectly reasonable number of lands for this deck. Could this be helped? Yes. With a curve topping out at four with Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch instead of the more traditional 3 cmc that most aggro decks stick to, it's possible that the lands might need to be bumped up one or two to compensate. However, this could easily lead to flooding out when one needs to be hyper-aggressive (such as in Game 1). My best advice would be to simply remove the witch. I think that both Gnarled Scarhide and especially Herald of Torment provide great alternatives to the build and can help to keep the curve low enough to be supported by 22 lands.

What else happened? Well...I kept a one-lander twice. Is this wrong? Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Aggro decks are typically not my forte. This might have been clear after seeing how I played the opposing decks the past couple articles. And because of this I feel that my own judgment calls may have not been the greatest and I may have accidentally cost Snowstorm a game or even a match due to those potential errors. As I use to note during the intros of my articles, I'm not a MTG pro yet. I want to be, but I have a long way to go. And one of the biggest mountains to overcome for me is to learn how to correctly pilot more aggressive decks when I need to as opposed to my normal preference of midrange builds.

Now, how did my deck perform? Well, I won but that's not the biggest point to take from this. I think that with all the issues with mana that it was actually quite difficult to take too much from this match except for what transgressed during Game 3. Right from the get-go, I was in severe danger. Being at 14 life before even playing a second land is not a position anyone wants to be in. And yet...I pulled it out. Sylvan Caryatid, Nyx-Fleece Ram, Courser of Kruphix...these creatures are pure all-stars against aggro. And I think that with PTJOU having come and gone we can easily see that Caryatid and Courser are key players in the upcoming standard format post-rotation. The RAM is something that I've loved since the beginning, but have grown to wonder about its placement in the deck.

Since this match, there have been a few changes to the deck. Archangel of Thune is now MB over Nessian Game Warden, who really doesn't shine very much unless against control. I've also decreased the number of RAMS and put one in the sideboard. Selesnya Charm was also added since...well...it's still really good. Having that instant-speed trample is absolutely key against decks with Elspeth, and can win games out of nowhere as well. This doesn't even include the fact that it's a great way to deal with Obzedat and other threats as well. I'm going to miss Selesnya Charm come Khans of Tarkir :(

I want to thank Snowstorm for his great submission. There were many times in playtesting that I was quite shocked by how devastatingly explosive it can be. If you would like a chance to be the next competitor to face The Conclave's Revenge, all you have to do is submit your build below! I look forward to checking it out :D

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @Spootyone

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