Daily Dose 47 - Standard
Daily Dose of Standard
KrazyCaley
17 March 2013
2037 views
vs. Monxide
17 March 2013
2037 views
vs. Monxide
I updated Bolas AGAIN. Here's how it looks now:
Bolas for a Better Tomorrow
Standard*
SCORE: 107 | 506 COMMENTS | 23118 VIEWS | IN 42 FOLDERS
Game 1
Enemy wins the toss and plays first. He keeps his opener
Caley keeps an opener of Island, Swamp, Devour Flesh, Chromatic Lantern, Counterflux, Dreadbore, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Nice solid opening hand.
Turn 1
E plays Swamp and passes.
C draws Sulfur Falls, plays Island, and passes.
Turn 2
E plays Swamp and passes.
His deck remains a mystery for now.
C draws Counterflux, plays Sulfur Falls, and passes.
Turn 3
E plays Swamp and passes.
Very quiet from the other side. I am unsure as to what it could be, as of yet.
C draws Sulfur Falls. He plays Swamp and casts Chromatic Lantern, then passes.
Not too worried about leaving counter mana open since I can answer practically anything with other cards in hand.
Turn 4
E plays Watery Grave untapped and passes. (C 20, E 18).
This is representing a counterspell, or perhaps he has a Think Twice. This could still be any number of decks, but U/B mill probably wouldn't have this many Swamps this early, and Esper Control would have way more nonbasic lands.
C draws Staff of Nin. He plays Sulfur Falls and passes. End step, E casts Forbidden Alchemy, discarding Divination, Island, Dimir Charm.
Interesting. Still no solid clues as to what this deck is, though, although it obviously has a few control elements.
Turn 5
E plays Island and passes.
U/B mill, this is not.
C draws Desolate Lighthouse and plays it. He passes.
Not going to cast the Staff yet. Decks that remain ominously silent while building up mana should be treated with caution, counterspell-wise.
End step, E casts Forbidden Alchemy, discarding Sign in Blood, Heartless Summoning, Divination.
Finally tipping his hand. This is a Maniac-Chimes deck. Sam Black of Daily MTG posted this decklist from a creative Guatamalan MTG player a few days ago, and MTGO has had a few people running this idea on since then. You can go read the article here, but if you want to stay here, the basic idea is to have 4x Sphinx of the Chimes and 4x practically everything else (mostly draw spells and counterspells), then you get out a Sphinx and try to draw your entire deck, then you cast a Laboratory Maniac, draw one more time, and win. Heartless Summoning is there to let you cast Sphinx and Maniac easily while leaving mana open for other endeavors. It's dangerous and wins instantly if not responded to, and it cannot be responded to at sorcery speed. Fortunately I have the right deck for the job, as counterspells and instant speed removal should handle things well enough.
Turn 6
E plays Swamp and passes.
He must still be looking for Sphinx of the Chimes, or else be waiting for me to tap out. I'm betting the former.
C draws Mountain and plays it. He passes. End step, E casts Forbidden Alchemy, discarding Mutilate, Divination, Heartless Summoning.
Turn 7
E casts Sphinx of the Chimes and passes. End step, C casts Devour Flesh.
Daring him to try and combo out; I have counterspells.
In response, E discards 2x Dissipate and draws four. Then he passes priority, Devour Flesh resolves, and the Sphinx dies. (E 24, C 20). He discards Dimir Charm to get back down to 7.
C draws Murder. He casts Staff of Nin and passes.
This looks unconscionably risky on the surface, but I have my reasons. My thinking is that he has to tap out to cast Sphinx of the Chimes, and thus can't combo out on his own single turn, thus I'll get a chance to use Murder on any Laboratory Maniac he casts.
Turn 8
E plays Drowned Catacomb. He casts Sphinx of the Chimes and passes. Staff of Nin pings him for 1. (E 23, C 20).
Man, I am not used to dealing damage with this deck.
C draws Mystic Retrieval in the upkeep, then Dreadbore. He casts Murder on the Sphinx.
The right play may be to cast the sorcery Dreadbore instead and reserve Murder for my opponent's turn, but I am trying to encourage him to draw his entire library, or nearly so, because I can respond with Counterflux to his shenanigans and beat him. Hopefully by casting an instant, and tapping out last turn, I am telling him that I don't understand what he's doing, and he is safe to just combo out whenever he chooses.
In response, E discards 2x Sign in Blood and draws four, then does the same for 2x Dimir Charm, 2x Mutilate, and 2x Devour Flesh. Then he passes priority and the Sphinx dies. C passes.
Turn 9
E plays Drowned Catacomb, then casts Divination. Then he casts Heartless Summoning and passes. End step, C uses the Staff of Nin. (E 22, C 20). E has to discard 4x Island, 2x Watery Grave, and Drowned Catacomb to get back to 7.
He will combo out next turn. I just need to sit on my responses.
C draws Devour Flesh, then Barter in Blood. He passes, discarding Mystic Retrieval.
Sorry Bolas, but I'd be a fool to cast you here. Just sit back and relax.
Turn 10
E plays Island and passes.
He knows. He's just going to wait for me to drop my defenses.
C draws Dreadbore and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. He does nothing and passes. End step, E flashes back Forbidden Alchemy discarding Swamp, Forbidden Alchemy, and Watery Grave. C discards Barter in Blood to get to 7.
Turn 11
E plays Drowned Catacomb. He does nothing and passes. He discards Swamp to get to 7.
C draws Drowned Catacomb and Gilded Lotus. He plays Catacomb, casts the Lotus, and passes.
Him, in chat - "Don't you have Bolas or something?" Why yes I do, thank you.
End step, E flashes back Forbidden Alchemy discarding Swamp, Heartless Summoning, Sign in Blood. He has 1 card left in his library.
Turn 12
E casts Sphinx of the Chimes. Then he casts Laboratory Maniac, but it runs into Counterflux, and E concedes.
Per Sam Black's suggestion, he has included only one copy of the Maniac. He remarked after this game that Counterflux was really good, as his couple of counterspells did nothing against it. Look, no matter how badly you want to explain to your opponent how your deck is really cool, wait until after the match. Now I know he runs 4x Dissipate, which incidentally increases my confidence that this deck hews very close to that MTG article, which runs 4x Negate in the sideboard.
Sideboarding
C boards in 3x Slaughter Games, 3x Essence Scatter, 2x Dissipate, and boards out 4x Barter in Blood, 3x Mystic Retrieval, 1x Murder.
I didn't realize until just now that I had absent-mindedly clicked Murder instead of Dreadbore. I often board out Murder, but it is obviously not the right choice to get rid of here.
Game 2
E plays first and keeps his opener.
C keeps an opener of Watery Grave, Drowned Catacomb, Devour Flesh, Murder, Think Twice, Counterflux, Gilded Lotus.
Turn 1
E plays Watery Grave tapped and passes.
C draws Murder, plays Watery Grave tapped, and passes.
Turn 2
E plays Drowned Catacomb. He casts Sign in Blood on himself and passes. (C 20, E 18).
C draws Essence Scatter. He plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.
Turn 3
E plays Island and passes. End step, C casts Think Twice drawing Island.
C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. He plays Island and passes. End step, E casts Forbidden Alchemy discarding 2x Negate and Sphinx of the Chimes.
Turn 4
E casts Heartless Summoning and passes. End step, C flashes back Think Twice, drawing Dreadbore.
C draws Think Twice. He casts it and draws Devour Flesh. He passes and has to discard Dreadbore and Murder to get to 7.
Bad play. If he plays a land, he can combo out next turn thanks to Heartless Summoning. I was frustrated about not getting any lands (especially black to fuel my Murder, and tried Think Twice thinking that if I got a land, I could make my land drop and still have Essence Scatter up, but I got unlucky, did not draw a land, and am now vulnerable. The better play by far is just to sit on the Essence Scatter.
Turn 5
E casts Sphinx of the Chimes. He discards 2x Mutilate to draw four, then 2x Dissipate to draw four more, then 2x Dimir Charm to draw four more. This goes on for some time, then when he has under four cards, E casts Laboratory Maniac, then C concedes.
Carelessness will cost you, or me in this case.
Sideboarding
C boards in 2x Pithing Needle, out 2x Dreadbore
I neglected to notice that I still had a Murder sideboarded out.
Game 3
C plays first, and keeps his opener of Watery Grave, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Gilded Lotus, Slaughter Games, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.
What is otherwise an unacceptable hand is made into practically a forced win with the inclusion of a single Slaughter Games, a deadly weapon available to all Grixis control decks. He cannot escape, for the earliest he can cast a Sphinx of the Chimes is turn 4. (Turn 2 Heartless Summoning and 2 lands = 4 of the needed 6 mana, turn 3, another Heartless Summoning and a land gets you to needing only 2 mana to cast a sphinx, but with only one land open, or alternately, just playing a land gives you three mana, but with four needed to cast the Sphinx. Thus, turn four is the minimum, and I will cast Slaughter Games before he can cast Sphinx of the Chimes. Thus my victory is practically a certainty, since Slaughter Games is uncounterable.
E mulligans to six.
Turn 1
C plays Watery Grave tapped and passes.
E plays Watery Grave tapped and passes.
Turn 2
C draws Chromatic Lantern, plays Mountain, and passes.
E plays Swamp and casts Heartless Summoning, then passes.
Turn 3
C draws Gilded Lotus, plays Swamp, and casts Chromatic Lantern, then passes.
E plays Island and passes.
Turn 4
C draws Swamp and plays Island. He casts Slaughter Games and E concedes after jokingly hurling a Dissipate at it.
Saving me the necessity of naming a card. It's actually a tough choice given my hand; with more answers I'd be inclined to pick Laboratory Maniac, which absolutely prevents him from winning except by beating down with Sphinx of the Chimes, but with no answers for the Sphinx in hand, I might have picked it instead. On reflection, I think Sphinx is indeed the right call; though he does have a good bit of draw, it's limited by his mana, and I am confident in my deck's ability to draw a Counterflux or resolve Bolas prior to then. Of course, I'd also be confident in its ability to draw enough kill spells to deal with any Sphinxes, even with none in hand.
Thoughts
This is a fast, very dangerous combo deck capable of frequently winning at once on turn 4, a turn when a lot of decks like to tap out for things. However, it is very much a combo deck, and suffers to the usual weaknesses of combo decks. Counterspells, ESPECIALLY Counterflux are very bad for this deck, as is instant-speed removal, though the deck ameliorates that problem somewhat by trying to pack its own counterspells. From Bolas' perspective, this deck is easy prey, as Bolas' triple threat of Counterflux, instant-speed removal, and Slaughter Games is too much to overcome- any of the three wins easily against the combo by itself, and Counterflux and Slaughter Games do not even give the Maniac-Chimes deck a chance to defend itself. Just a bad matchup for the combo deck.
Look out, though. If you didn't see this deck at the last FNM, you may next week.
Jace the Firebrand says... #2
I built U/B Mill deck for that exact reason. I liked Boros before it was Cool is called that for a reason.
Comment: Combo decks always seems really fragile to me, especially in fast paced, non-casual environments. As much as I'd love to run one, I don't see how it can be done effectively.
March 17, 2013 9:57 a.m.
miracleHat says... #3
i'm not sure i like the maniac chimes deck much. it is too easily disrupted. Good playing kaley!
March 17, 2013 11:31 a.m.
Nice game.
Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason you didn't board in Pithing Needle immediately? It would seem to do pretty much the same thing as it would for game 3, and could just turn Sphinx of the Chimes into a 4/4.
Also, the deck can still win even vs. instant speed removal, I think. It can still discard 2 more in response to your kill spell, and if it is lucky, still win.
March 17, 2013 11:52 a.m.
Sure Counterflux and Slaughter Games stops the combo, but what don't they stop? I don't mean to offend, I love reading this series, but it just seems a little odd to me now that Wizards seemed to not want to put Snapcaster Mage and Mana Leak together in Standard again... but then added an uncounterable counter spell and an uncounterable spell that guts your opponent's library of their best cards.
On a different note: Only one Laboratory Maniac? I... do not agree. Yes you can probably easily draw him with the Sphinx, you run into that problem where you have no back-up if he's countered or destroyed. I'd run with 4 of the Maniac for the extra durability.
March 17, 2013 1:26 p.m.
To add to what SpammyV said in his above comment, the extra Laboratory Maniac aren't even dead draws, as you can discard them to the Sphinx of the Chimes if need be.
And yeah, Slaughter Games is brutal. People are always taking my Sphinx's Revelation. Makes me sad. :(
-BuLLZ3Y3
March 17, 2013 2:51 p.m.
SupremeAlliesCommander says... #7
The idea is to have enough mana and cards in hand to counter anything your opponent throws at the Maniac. There are two big problems with the deck, namely Slaughter Games and Counterflux. Nevermore can certainly make things difficult, too. Although at least there are answers for that one. The deck I run uses Seance to bring Laboratory Maniac back into play during an upkeep. That solves the Counterflux problem. However, it still rolls over to Slaughter Games.
I do think Slaughter Games borders on broken. It's one thing to print a card that hoses a mechanic. Lots of players thought Grafdigger's Cage was unfair when it was printed. But to print a card that hoses an entire category of decks? That's a bit silly.
March 17, 2013 8:11 p.m.
umm... Nevermore naming Slaughter Games? splash a little white for that and board wipes as well. could make the deck even better
March 18, 2013 12:09 a.m.
KrazyCaley says... #9
@Wike900 - I should have, in retrospect. Thought "I don't want to remove a kill spell or whatever for it" after game 1, but I realized that it's cheaper than a kill spell, and if I get it out early he can't counter it.
And yes, it can still just draw in response to the kill spell, true, assuming it still has doubles.
Re: Slaughter Games, I think there needs to be a card like that in standard, but making it uncounterable IS pretty harsh! Thought Hemorrhage was just fine; Slaughter Games is brutal.
I don't think Counterflux is broken, though. UUR is hard to cast, and it's a similar casting cost difficulty level to Last Word.
Both of these cards, though, are not common in the metagame, because the decks that have access to them actually don't tend to have too much success and/or are not that popular, so clearly they're not format-breaking, at least.
March 18, 2013 12:49 a.m.
I think of Slaughter Games as the most unfair card in MTG history. But Witchbane Orb is the answer to it. Also probably the best card to play against these color combinations.
March 18, 2013 1:10 a.m.
KrazyCaley says... #11
I don't know about the most unfair card in MTG history, but I will say that it is easily the best "excision" spell in Magic's history, and there have been some good ones.
March 18, 2013 1:17 a.m.
Jace the Firebrand says... #12
I dunno... Surgical Extraction was pretty brutal... especially since you could play it in any color. 2 life to shut down the entire deck because I countered your spell? Sure, why not. Insult to injury if they tapped out to do it.
March 18, 2013 2:11 a.m.
KrazyCaley says... #13
Jace the Firebrand - Surgical Extraction and Extirpate were both really brutal, yeah. The only reason I would put Slaughter Games above them is that Slaughter Games doesn't care if it's in the graveyard yet or not. Hits late-game stuff just fine.
March 18, 2013 2:27 a.m.
SupremeAlliesCommander says... #14
Nevermore can be cancelled or destroyed. I think the best answer for Slaughter Games is Slaughter Games.
March 18, 2013 7:35 a.m.
KrazyCaley says... #16
@SupremeAlliesCommander - I see a B/R deck, my first Slaughter Games names Slaughter Games.
March 18, 2013 2:03 p.m.
MagnorCriol says... #17
@KrazyCaley - Seeing this makes me realize how brutally your deck just smacks down a combo deck. Games and Flux do seem to make it a pretty combo-unfriendly Standard right now (especially post-sideboarding).
(Another reason Counterflux is not quite a perfect counterspell, by the way, is its lack of condescending flavor text. Last Word has it beat in that department hands-down.)
@gufymike - Slaughter Games is brutal but hardly the most unfair card in the game. Games punishes decks that are one-trick ponies (like this Maniac-Chimes deck) that rely too heavily on a single card for victory, and rewards more robust deckbuilding that has more redundancy. Any card that encourages more variance in decks is a good thing in my book, I think.
Besides, there's a long list of broken cards that tops it. Most of them are on banned lists somewhere, but still. I mean, Arcbound Ravager and his other affinity thugs quite literally made droves of people quit the game entirely when they were busy beating up their Standard format and stealing its lunch money. Slaughter Games has no doubt caused people to rage quit games, but I haven't seen a mass exodus over it yet.
March 19, 2013 10:56 a.m.
@MagnorCriol It punishes every deck equally. That is a potential for 16 cards making a 60 card deck, 44 cards with a one in two draw lands. Oh it hurts every type of deck, not just combo decks. I don't want to hear about variance, that's almost half your spells and in the right situation any way to win even if you run two/three types of ways to win in a deck. It's unfair period, end of story. If it was restricted and it won't be in standard, then it would be better. .People aren't rage quitting because the meta is aggro (sadly) and those who play b/r in any form aren't really including this and used mainly in grixis control (atleast in my meta). If it was counterable I would remove this 'unfair' tag I've put on it and let it go. But at this point, I'm satisfied with Witchbane Orb as a foil to it.
March 19, 2013 11:16 a.m.
MagnorCriol ftr and I do want to state this, If I ran b/r I would run Slaughter Games myself. It's not that I don't like the card, I just find it the most broken card. This is strictly my opinion and I have been on the wrong end of many combos on the banned list (from the early days of magic).
GureiSeion says... #1
Any real commentary I'd have has been replaced by my amusement at discarding two Sign in Blood to draw four cards.
Thanks for the heads up on the deck; it'd be refreshing to have a "breather round" between all the Naya Aggro and Nonblue Midranges swarming my meta.
March 17, 2013 5:46 a.m.