Sunday 17 January 2016

Balancing Tings


“Accidents can be fun.” – no parent, ever. I stumbled upon today’s deck while looking into another archetype that had been requested. While I decided to write about this one today, fear not! It does not mean I won’t ever write about the other. Occasionally it can be hard to figure out which deck I want to write about, but hey, that’s what life is about sometimes: Balancing Tings.

The land base. There are actually a couple of options here, despite the lands’ relatively unique sac-style of play. The most common approach (and the one I stuck with), is the use of the Invasion-cycle that create 2 colours of mana when sacrificed. While I do understand the appeal of the Odyssey-cycle lands in a 5-colour deck without fetch lands, I just do not think the lack of ramp is worth it. 24 sac lands might seem a bit light to you, in which case these can make a great addition to the deck if you want. I obviously went with Wasteland, which has its pros and cons in the comparison.

The win conditions in the deck are pretty few and far between, which is why some of them have built-in protection. While Anurid Brushhoper and Nimble Mongoose are both excellent at staying alive, I find their clock can be a bit slow at times. Because of this, I focused more on the Terravore game plan, which can beat down for the win very quickly. If it’s not already clear, the idea is to play Balancing Act while floating enough mana to cast a Terravore, Brushhopper or Mongoose. The sideboard also includes an Insidious Dreams, which can be used to find a threat if you don’t have one already, while maximizing Balancing Act on your opponent’s hand.

Strategy. One of the best pieces of advice that I found with regards to playing Tings is that you need to focus on your land management. You want to make sure that the colour(s) of mana that you are going to need during your key turns are available. The deck has a strong game against aggro, but can struggle against control and combo. I tweaked the deck to have a better game against both, with cards such as Duress and Overmaster in the sideboard.

Most of the decks that I saw contained 1 or 2 copies of Obliterate to combat control. I decided to omit it however, because a) I included other options and b) I believe it to be too slow for the Ancient format. The deck was designed for Extended after all, while we are playing against an entirely different kind of monster. I could also see a combination of Wish cards and Lion’s Eye Diamonds to be a strong possibility in the deck. Happy Brewing!


Balancing Tings


Land

4 Archaeological Dig
4 Ancient Spring
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Irrigation Ditch
4 Sulfur Vent
4 Tinder Farm
4 Wasteland

Total: 28

Creatures

3 Anurid Brushhopper
4 Terravore
1 Nimble Mongoose

Total: 8

Spells

4 Balancing Act
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Orim’s Chant
4 Lotus Petal
4 Moment’s Peace/Peace Talks
3 Fire // Ice
1 Pyroclasm

Total: 24

Sideboard

4 Overmaster
4 Duress
2 Disenchant
1 Abeyance
1 Hull Breach
2 Ivory Mask
1 Insidious Dreams

Monday 4 January 2016

Miracle Grow


Today’s deck was named after some real life magic! Specifically: the power of poop to pop out some serious plant power. Now say that out loud and try not to smile.  Despite today’s list being quite different from the original version, the thing I like about Alan Comer’s deck was that it is entirely Ancient-legal. That being said.. I don’t think it would be as competitive nowadays, so I made a few changes! So, let us sprinkle some of our own magical poop to create the new and improved Miracle Grow!

Alright, the name of the game is aggro control. You want to lay down a threat and ride it out to victory by controlling your opponent’s resources and board state. While many tempo decks prefer to incorporate Red, I decided to go with White. The main reasons for this are because a) it’s different and b) it offers things Red does not. While arguments can (and probably will) be made for either, it really depends on whether you want to focus more on aggro or control.

Let’s talk strategy. After having just said that.. try not to use Swords to Plowshares unless you have to. Dryad should get big enough that it can take care of their land creatures, so you should save Swords for the ones it can’t. Despite being more control-ish, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to play the aggro game too. Determine which course of action is best based on your board state and go from there. In other words: play Magic.

As you can see, the deck contains a lot of spells, which are meant to enable your win conditions in Dryad and Mongoose. If a Mongoose is on the board but no Dryad and you don’t have Threshold, then for the love of Garfield, DON’T try to conserve your hand for one. Mongoose is a viable win condition on its own; don’t forget that! Ok Mongoose, cover your ears because Dryad IS the main win condition of the deck. The counterspells are there to protect it, and the Rancor is there to help you power through chump blockers. Take note of the Abeyance(s?) as well, which are meant to stall the opponent while growing Dryad and without costing you a card.

Why no Werebear? There are SEVERAL reasons. Allow me to list some of them.. I wanted to run Meddling Mage to focus more on the control aspect. The prevalence of graveyard hate in the format meant trying to ease the pressure off of Dryad, as both the goose and the bear are just not amazing without a large graveyard. Lastly in our list, Werebear is green and I wanted a creature spell to help boost Dryad as well. Whew! Now bring on the naysayers.. Happy Brewing!

Miracle Grow

Land

4 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
1 Island
1 Forest
9 Fetchlands
4 Wasteland

Total: 23

Creatures

4 Quirion Dryad
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Meddling Mage

Total: 12

Spells

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Sleight of Hand
1 Counterspell
3 Abeyance
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Rancor

Total: 25

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Counterspell
1 Misdirection
4 Stifle
1 Abeyance
1 Hydroblast
1 Disenchant