The World Has Changed

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jacelightning

3 March 2011

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Table of Contents

Intro
New Decks
Ported Decks
Decks Waiting in the Wings
A Challenge

Intro

The hoopla surrounding Pro Tour Paris is fading, but the impact on the standard environment is lasting. Before the release of Mirrodin Besieged all the deck archetypes were well defined and it was a question of playing tight technically and sideboarding correctly and less a matter of building a deck to exploit the entire field, but things are different now. We live in a more savage world where a war torn world has thrown itself in the middle of our own and we must seek to tame the beast that is Besieged legal standard.

We have the benefit of three tournaments (two SCG open events and a Pro Tour) worth of data to work with in our analysis. I want to cover the three types of decks that exist currently and look at how MBS impacts them all. First I want to look at new decks made possible, then the old decks ported over and whether they are still viable or not, and finally the decks that can still wait in the wings and need just a little more to make a splash. The way this shifts the entire format around is really fun to look at and even more fun to play.

New Decks

In every set there are cards that scream, “BUILD AROUND ME!” and this set was no exception. There are lots of cards that you take a look at and say man this is really strong and I think I really want to play with it, but most of those cards are ideas that just don’t pan out. It’s important to work through all of these ideas because you never know what are good ideas and what are bad until you’ve tested them out. Ultimately I think the two cards that have had the most impact on the current standard environment in terms of generating new decks are card:Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Blightsteel Colossus.

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas – In my set review of this guy I said I didn’t think he could fight off Jaces and Titans then Patrick Chapin took that idea and top 8ed The Pro Tour with it. This guy is absurdly powerful and I’ll recap my opinion here that I thought he isn’t that practically strong as ultimately he requires other cards to make him better and that really isn’t a position that I think you want to be in. In my thinking I compared him with Koth of the Hammer, which has to have mountains to be a good card but the key difference is that artifact cards in the middle of an artifact block are quite a bit better than mountains. In reality he has generated two decks, the Grixis colored deck piloted by Chapin which packed red for spot removal and board sweepers and a U/B contraption that uses Kuldotha Forgemaster to bring out things like Myr Battlesphere, Blightsteel Colossus (more on that guy in a minute), and Wurmcoil Engine. These decks ultimately work more as combo decks than anything else, but the engine that drives them is definitely tezzeret as if you put the rest of the cards together they really don’t do much on their own. The key to beating these decks are preventing a tezzeret which means that Duress is much more powerful in this matchup than Inquisition of Kozilek and that Counterspells are key especially things like Spell Pierce that can hide behind that one blue mana you have open and not be telegraphing something like Mana Leak or Stoic Rebuttal. Also Memoricide is a very viable sideboard option as the both of these decks lose their ability to do unfair things the moment you take Tezzeret away from them. The other way to combat them once they have a tezzeret is with a combination of damage and spot removal. A 5/5 artifact creatures still dies to Doom Blade and other creature removal ala Day of Judgment. Tezzeret does some absurdly powerful things, but you must keep in mind that the deck doesn’t function at all if Tezzeret is gone or if the artifacts can’t stay on the battlefield.

Blightsteel Colossus - This is the honorable mention for new deck creation card in Mirrodin Besieged. Tezzeret raises up a whole new deck archetype, but Blightsteel just gives us a one shot kill that can be targeted with things like Mass Polymorph, Shape Anew, and Kuldotha Forgemaster. I know the opinion might be that this card doesn’t really deserve to be mentioned in the same category as Tezzeret and I think that is correct, but the idea of a one shot kill being around in standards is quite extraordinary. The idea one card being able to end a game in one turn is just something that no card has been able to do in standard for quite a while. Yes cards can seal the deal when you are way ahead or catch you up in you are behind like Cruel Ultimatum, but what if Cruel Ultimatum made opponent lose the game and that is what you’re dealing with right here. It generates new decks because it gives those archetypes something to shoot for that can be denied. The end result is card that must be kept in mind.

Ported Decks

The first of the ported decks is the infamous Kuldotha Red deck that was based around the Kuldotha Rebirth token generation along with pump creatures like Goblin Bushwhacker and Goblin Chieftain. In Mirrodin Besieged an entire mechanic seems make for this deck, Battlecry. It is a mechanic that rewards attacking and the more attacking you do the more you are rewarded. If you attack with 4 creatures and the battle cry creature then you get +4 attacking power. The beauty of this is the fact that one of [the battle cry enablers is a Goblin and that goes right along with the rest of the deck, [card:Goblin Wardriver]]. The other battecry enabler that this deck wants to run is the evasive Signal Pest. In addition to these battle cry creature goodies the deck also gets a battlecry land in the form of Contested War Zone. The deck is quite a powerful force and sometimes it just wins no matter what your opponent does. The downside is that once someone knows to prepare for it the deck can be just slaughtered. Wrath effects are deadly and once someone has a creature like Grave Titan then the deck is kind of dead in the water.

The next deck I want to mention is the U/W control deck championed by Brian Kibler at Worlds in Chiba under the name Caw Go. The deck was really good then and I thought had some definite potential, but with the release of the Sword of Feast and Famine (or a control decks equipment) and the addition of Stoneforge Mystic the deck became an absolute beast. It took on the name Caw Blade and then took down Pro Tour Paris. The addition of Stoneforge Mystic allows you to play equipment at instant speed and it’s uncounterable unless you get the mystic on the way down. This extra bit of utility really helps this deck force through its most powerful threat ahead of schedule. The sword then pushes this deck into insane power levels as it violates the normal rules of control decks. Normally a control deck has to pay for its powerful threats by having to tap out for them and not being able to leave up counter mana to stop your answers, but with the sword you can play a Gideon Jura or Jace, the Mind Sculptor then attack and untap your lands leaving mana open for Counterspells. The key to stopping this deck is to target one of the attributes of the ‘combo’ either counter the mystic, save a duress effect for once the sword is in the opponent’ s hand, use spot removal on creatures or the sword or play board sweepers than can take care of any creatures equipped with the sword. This disables the powerful part of the deck, but in the end you are still dealing with a U/W control deck and that is dangerous all by itself.

The last deck that I think gain significantly from the new set is Boros. It’s aggressive and already works with the two swords. The Sword of Feast and Famine is a great addition and helps the deck fight the black spot removal. The key addition that makes this deck go is the Hero of Oxid Ridge. This is because with all the card:squadron hawks running around the ability to make them not be able to block can push this deck over the top. It is that extra bit of reach that makes this card so dangerous and helps the deck become a real threat in a metagame where control is the boss. In order to beat this deck you need sweepers and spot removal and an eventual creature that can stand up to all the boros deck threats like Grave Titan.

Decks that waiting in the wings

Let me say this once and for all that Infect isn’t quite there yet. Despite getting cards like Inkmoth Nexus, Phyrexian Vatmother, and an in color fix all removal spell in Go for the Throat, the deck just isn’t there yet. I don’t think it has the consistency and power level required for a deck to be successful yet, but perhaps there is a way to make it work with proliferate as a friend.

The old boogeyman Valakut is still around and still capable of putting a clock on anybody, but it definitely felt the pain from the all the other addition for the other decks. It does get an uncounterable 4/4 four mana creature that can regenerate itself. It also gets a great utility spell in Green Sun's Zenith that can be all the extra copies of cards that you want more of in the deck. The boogeyman is still out there and then just biding his time until you forget about him and then he’ll blow the roof off of the place. As card:tectonic edges and Spreading Seas start to creep out of decks, I just have Nightmares about more valakut decks.

Challenge

So here’s the deal I didn’t cover every deck in standard in this article, but I covered the main ones and if I didn’t cover a deck and you want it covered post in the comments and I’ll get back with you. So much like crossclimber and Gp Atlanta (great articles that you should go read when finished finish reading this), Tappedout is letting me represent them at GP Dallas. The format for the tournament is standard and since I am representing tappedout I thought there is no better way to do that than to let the wonderful people here at tappedout help me prepare. Over the next several weeks I’ll be posting articles about my preparation and how I’m getting ready for the tournament. I hope that you will help me by suggesting ideas for my deck and things I should watch out for in such a big tournament. If any of you live around the area I hope to see you there, as it should be a great weekend of magic.

If you want to get in touch with me you can reach me at my email [email protected] or on twitter @jarrodkwilliams. I hope to hear from you and look forward to getting ready for this event with the great community here at tappedout on my side.