Tuesday 25 November 2014

Burning Storm


“There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne.“ Ah Storm, described by Wizards of the Coast’s Mark Rosewater as their most broken mechanic. Of course, this depends on who you ask, as the mechanic/deck archetype has friends AND foes around the world. There are a few choice win conditions in Storm decks, but the most popular has always been Tendrils of Agony. For 2BB you can drain 2 life from the opponent and gain 2 life for yourself. Not very impressive you say? Oh right, you make additional copies of it for each spell that was played during the turn. Were you at 20 life points? Not anymore. Welcome to Burning Storm!

When Burning Wish first came out, it was part of a cycle of cards that allowed a player to grab any card of the specified type that they owned from outside the game. This was quickly changed for tournament settings, limiting a player to cards from their sideboard instead. Many people saw this as a chance to build a “toolbox” sideboard, with Wishes allowing them to tutor for whatever card they needed at the time. Burning Storm follows this philosophy, putting both utility cards and win conditions in the sideboard to be searched for as required.

In order to bring the opponent’s life total down to 0, the deck has to be able to play enough spells in a turn to get the proper Storm count. Some decks choose to focus on graveyard recursion (such as IGGy Pop decks), but Burning Storm focuses on card drawing to get the win. It does so via cards such as Infernal Contract, Cruel Bargain, Diminishing Returns and even Brainstorm to an extent.

Diminishing Returns was one of the last cards I added to this deck, but after testing it out, it should have been one of the first. The card is amazing at re-stocking your hand and even helps give you mana to keep adding spells to your Storm count. How? If you crack your Lotus Petals and Lion’s Eye Diamonds in response to casting Returns, they get shuffled back into your library and thus can be re-drawn. The Mox Diamonds are also there to help the deck re-establish a mana base once you’ve cast Diminishing Returns and keep drawing ‘useless’ lands after you’ve played your land drop.

The sideboard contains a few cards that don’t seem very strong, or are even out of place. As I mentioned earlier however, the sideboard acts as a toolbox. The bolts are there as removal in case your opponent sides in Meddling Mage. The bounce spells are there to deal with cards such as Ivory Mask or Circle of Protection: Black. If you think there are better options though, you can add them! The sideboard, and even the mainboard, are very customizable and should be made to suit your play style and meta. Happy brewing!

Burning Storm

Land:

1 Badlands
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
1 Swamp

Total: 15

Spells:

4 Dark Ritual
4 Burning Wish
4 Infernal Contract
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Brainstorm
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
3 Mox Diamond
2 Diminishing Returns

Total: 45

Sideboard:

1 Diminishing Returns
1 Cruel Bargain
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Temporal Fissure
1 Dematerialize
2 Chain of Vapor
4 Peek
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Chain Lightning

Wednesday 19 November 2014

UR Landstill

Question: when do you want your opponent to play their spells? Answer: when you’ve got a Standstill in play! Landstill decks have been around for a long time; making use of the awesome power of manlands such as Mishra’s Factory and Faerie Conclave, the deck aims to put pressure on your opponent without having to cast any spells yourself. This means that the person across from you has 2 choices: die slowly to your Factory Workers and Faeries or cast a spell and let you draw a bunch of cards. Good deal!

UR Landstill is a control deck that tries to grind out wins while stopping the opponent from developing a board presence. The deck contains a lot of burn and counterpells to accomplish this task, as well as numerous sources of card advantage to replenish its hand. What the deck doesn’t contain however, are ‘bombs’. UR Landstill is designed to stop the opponent from posing a threat as it whittles away their life total, which means that you want to focus on control instead of trying to jam in more win conditions.

Despite its focus on control however, the deck contains a surprising amount of ways to win. We are talking about a bi-colour red deck after all, which means that a lot of its removal can target the opponent as well. The deck also contains Grim Lavamancer, which can be a great source of offense as it “re-uses” cards from the graveyard to remove their creatures and/or attack their life total.

Counterspells and removal are not the only way this deck can control the opponent’s board – land destruction/denial are another. The deck contains a playset of Wastelands in order to help keep the opponent from casting their spells. It also has 4 Stifle, which are very effective against decks that contain a lot of fetchlands to smooth our their mana base. Heck, even Ice can be used to tap an opponent’s land for a turn, as could the addition of some Rishadan Ports to further hinder them. Adding more colourless mana to the deck could pose its own problems, but finding a solution is part of the fun. Happy brewing!

UR Landstill

Land:

4 Volcanic Island
5 Fetchlands
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Wasteland
2 Island
1 Mountain

Total: 25

Creatures:

3 Grim Lavamancer

Total: 3

Spells:

4 Landstill
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Counterspell
2 Fire // Ice
2 Fact or Fiction

Total: 32

Sideboard:

2 Pyroblast
2 Hydroblast
2 Fire // Ice
2 Pyroclasm
4 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Chain of Vapors
1 Boomerang

Friday 14 November 2014

Erhnamgeddon

Ernhamgeddon! Here’s a deck that gained popularity back in the early days of Magic and managed to stay relevant for a LONG time. In fact, even after several staples of the deck got restricted, it managed to remain dominant because it never lost the key part of its namesake: Armageddon. For 3W, you get to Destroy all lands. Yes, that means your lands too. Why would you want to do that? I’m glad you asked, Timmy.

One of Green’s most defining features has always been its ability to ramp mana. Green does this in several ways, but two of the most prominent are via 1) searching for extra lands and 2) casting creatures that tap for mana. Good thing for us, this deck has creatures that do both! Birds of Paradise and Weathered Wayfarer are 1-drops that allow you to pump out mana or supply your hand with more lands. Wayfarer has another function in that it can also be used as a sort of land tutor for colour fixing or Karakas. Werebear is also a creature that taps for mana, which doubles as a cheap win condition for the deck. These sources of mana, along with the 4 Mox Diamond, can really help you recover from an Armageddon fast. Unless you’re playing a mirror match, there’s a good chance your opponent won’t be able to do the same, which gives you more than enough time to win the game.

The deck contains another 1-drop creature that neither ramps mana nor searches for lands: Mother of Runes. Despite not doing either of these things, Mother of Runes serves some pretty important roles; she can be used both defensively (to protect your creatures) and offensively (to get your creature attacks to go through unblocked). The deck’s main win condition is no longer Erhnam Djinn, although I did put one in the sideboard for old times sake. Instead, the deck has several big creatures that can finish the game fast: Mystic Enforcer, Werebear, and Terravore. Terravore is amazing with fetch lands, Mox Diamonds and Armageddons. Not only can you ramp it out quickly onto the battlefield, but you can also get it very large with a well-timed land sweep.

The last thing I want to mention about the deck I put together is that it has 2 relevant weaknesses: graveyard hate and combo. I put Orim’s Chant in the sideboard to fight combo, and the 4 Disenchants are in there to remove cards such as Planar Void. How you want to address these weaknesses is entirely up to you though. Happy brewing!

Erhnamgeddon

Land:

4 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
2 Secluded Steppe
4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Karakas
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Wasteland

Total: 24

Creatures:

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Mother of Runes
4 Werebear
4 Terravore
1 Mystic Enforcer

Total: 21

Spells:

4 Mox Diamond
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Armageddon
2 Sylvan Library
1 Rancor

Total: 15

Sideboard:

1 Erhnam Djinn
4 Disenchant
4 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Orim's Chant
1 Land Tax
1 Zuran Orb

Sunday 2 November 2014

WR Astral Rift


Astral Slide is the most fun you’re not having right now! WR Astral Slide was a deck that dominated Standard and Extended when it came out. The deck’s awesome use of its namesake as both an offensive and defensive tool, along with the re-usable direct damage of Lightning Rift, make this deck a force to be reckoned with. If you enjoy combat trickery and a different approach to playing MtG then you might want to check out this Cycling-based deck.

As mentioned above, Astral Rift has a lot going for it in that it offers a lot of interaction with creature-based strategies. The use of bounce and Enter the Battlefield effects can both be enabled by Slide several times in one turn, and only at the ‘cost’ of cycling for a new card. Lightning Rift on the other hand, acts as creature removal and a win condition. Another win condition in the deck is Exalted Angel, which can come into play Morphed before being bounced to its Angel form. I’ve also chosen to include a Blood Moon package into this build, as it’s a bi-colour deck with 4 Mox Diamond (and a lot of lands) to boot.

The deck certainly has a lot going for it, but it also has a few drawbacks. During its prominence, it was well known that the Slide decks just lost to combo. Being White/Red, two colours not known for much interaction with instants and sorceries, that remains a problem. In order to combat combo, I’ve added 4 Abeyance and 4 Orim’s Chant to the sideboard. When timed properly, these can be devastating to a player trying to combo off. How you choose to build the deck is up to you, but be prepared for some very fun games. Happy brewing!


WR Astral Rift

Land:

4 Plateau
3 Fetch Lands
4 Forgotten Cave
3 Secluded Steppe
4 Drifting Meadow
4 Smoldering Crater
1 Plains
4 Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors

Total: 27

Creatures:

4 Exalted Angel
1 Imperial Hellkite
4 Flametongue Kavu

Total: 9

Spells:

4 Mox Diamond
4 Astral Slide
4 Lightning Rift
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Blood Moon

Total: 24

Sideboard:

2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
4 Orim’s Chant
4 Abeyance
2 Wrath of God

Reanimator


The ability to reanimate a creature has been around since the release of Alpha, MtG’s first set. Animate Dead is an enchant creature that allows a player to target a creature in either graveyard and put it into play under their control with a -1/-0 counter on it. Since then, Wizards of the Coast have printed many different cards that allow players to ‘cheat’ big creatures into play without paying their actual mana cost; which resulted in the spawning the archetype Reanimator.

With the release of Mirage came Buried Alive; a card that allows a player to put a number of creatures from their library into their graveyard during their first or second turn (thanks to Dark Ritual). The combination of Buried Alive and reanimation effects allowed players a fast and reliable way to access reanimation targets from the graveyard. Later on, WotC printed Entomb, which does not rely on a Dark Ritual to be cast on the first turn. Animate Dead, Reanimation and Exhume can then be used to put a creature into play and attack for the win.

The Ancient Reanimator shell is very similar to those currently played in Legacy, with the main exception being its access to creatures.  Akroma, Angel of Wrath is one of the strongest creatures, in terms of power, in the format. Akroma’s main weakness is that it lacks protection from white (and thus the best removal card in the game). It also has protection from black, which means Animate Dead can’t be used on it. I chose to add Multani, Maro-Sorcerer because it can be a fast clock if cast early on and has Shroud to help protect it. The sideboard contains 4 Show and Tell and 4 Chain of Vapors to deal with graveyard hate such as Planar Void, which stays in play instead of being a one-shot deal ala Tormod’s Crypt. I also included 4 Wasteland in the mainboard to deal with Maze of Ith and Karakas. Despite the deck having several key cards, there remains a lot of room for change. Happy brewing!

Reanimator

Land:

4 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Wasteland
7 Fetchlands

Total: 17

Creatures:

Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
Verdant Force
Thorn Elemental
Spirit of the Night
Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Total: 5

Spells:

4 Animate Dead
4 Brainstorm
1 Buried Alive
4 Careful Study
4 Dark Ritual
4 Daze
4 Entomb
4 Exhume
4 Force of Will
4 Reanimate
1 Recurring Nightmare

Total: 38

Sideboard:

4 Show and Tell
4 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Chain of Vapors
1 Stifle
1 Hydroblast
1 Boomerang