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jkarnes

24 March 2012

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Objective for this Article

In my previous article Upon this rock... I built a mainboard of 60 cards around the philosophy of using a combination of early game discard and efficient cheap kill spells to project ourselves into the Midgame where the deck would then capatalize on it's 4-6 CMC threats.

The goal in this article is to review the playtesting done with The Ascended Rock (as it was called in the playtesting group) and see what changes should be made based on the performance of the sideboard.

A Quick Aside on the Process:

When you build a deck for the first time and test it through a gauntlet you might notice that you side in cards in almost every match regardless of who or what you're playing against.

If you notice that this is happening, it means that you have uncovered a better way for your deck to function. Don't be discouraged! The best players sometimes make judgment calls that come into question and become scrutinized. That's exactly how we get to "optimal configurations..." players test and see what comes in more often than not.

A Word About the Sideboard

Going into testing I had already established a few problem areas for the deck. 

1. As Cableguy and a few others pointed out: there was only one way to spot remove a black creature and that was Beast Within.
2. The deck has no consistent way of achieving its mana goals or color fixing outside of Evolving Wilds and Solemn Simulacrum. 
3. We have no early creature plays; however, this is by design.
4. There's not a lot of syngery with Liliana of the Veil and the rest of the deck.
5. The deck suffers from a lack of consistency and variance.
6. The deck has no answers for Graveyard Shenanigans

Here's the sideboard I decided on:

Sideboard (15)

3x Surgical Extraction: I wanted to see this card at least once in a game if not twice. It's uses are varied from removing Unburial Rites from our oponent's game plan, to getting rid of creatures which prove problematic (if not just impossible) to deal with.

1x Green Sun's Zenith: I wanted a way to fish out any green creature in the deck but didn't stop to think that they all cost five or more. I'd rather play Sheoldred, Whispering One over GSZ for a Titan.

2x Go for the Throat: Self-Explainatory

3x Ratchet Bomb, 1x Sever the Bloodline: Our solution to Tokens

3x Heartless Summoning: It was a tough decision to make between this and other ramp spells. In the end I decided to go with Summoning because it literally catapults us into midgame.

1x Sorin Markov: Non combat damage which buffers our life total, sets our opponent's life to 10 (take that random lifegain guy!), and ends the game if he hits his ultimate... sure.

1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: My thinking here was that if they didn't have an immediate answer to Mikaeus that Acidic Slimes would start to re-enter play, Solemns would get twice their effectiveness late game, and all kinds of silly things would happen. Turns out I was right.

Playtesting

V. Tokens

This was our worst predicted matchup so I wanted to put it first on the playtesting list. The main issue with fighting tokens is that if they hit even a moderately good draw we have to rush an answer to Anthem effects (of which there are 5 in the deck) in game one. Subsequent games we can get away with dropping a ratchet bomb and biding our time a bit while drawing the game out to our advantage.

There are two "real" versions of tokens circulating at the moment: G/W Gavony Voltron and U/W Spiritmash

I tested against the U/W version of the deck because I feel it's far more annoying. Having access to a backup plan in the form of Drogskol Captain, Geist-Honored Monk, and Geist of Saint Traft in the event that the anthems just don't cut it (or your opponent is playing ratchet bomb) just make this deck better overall. It will usually use Darkslick Shores and Drowned Catacombs to make the flashback of Lingering Souls available with little or no disadvantage.

Wither is our opponent and he is piloting My Spirits.

Game One

I win the roll and proceede to mulligan down to six (one land hands are not keepable with this deck... durrr). We trade lands until the end of my turn 4 where I miss a land-drop and play Liliana of the Veil and eat a mana leak. I miss my drop turn 5 as well and he EoTs a Midnight Haunting. Spirtual damage starts will begin to wash over me. He plays a Geist of Saint Traft. I draw a land and follow with Solemn Simulacrum fetching another land (We're not worried about color fixing so going into the type isn't important). He EoT's a Vapor Snag onto the Simulacrum. I take 8 (total 11 life remaining). I draw another land, play it, and then play Life's Finale chosing to put his remaining Geist and two Geist Honored Monks into the yard. He plays a Drogskol Captain and passes. I still can't draw a threat as I pull a Distress. Wither swings 2 in the air and passes. I draw Bloodgift Demon and play him to block more damage in the air. Wither responds with Midnight Haunting and a Vapor Snag. I concede.

Sideboarding

I need to be able to keep up with the spirit army and single target removal just isn't optimal against this deck at all. The deck also needs to have ways to kill the tokens without much serious effort or we will lose.

In: Ratchet Bomb x3, Heartless Summoning x3, Sever the Bloodline x1

Out: Doom Blade x3, Garruk, Primal Hunter x2, Garruk Relentless  ^Flip x2

Game Two

I keep my opening seven with Ratchet Bomb, Life's Finale x2, Despise, Swamp, Forest, Woodland Cemetery. Open with Swamp into Despise and see Island, Plains, Plains, St Traft, Doomed Traveler, Ponder, and Intangible Virtue. I choose to strip away a Geist of Saint Traft. Wither draws and plays plains into traveler. I draw Beast Within and play my Ratchet Bomb as a deterent force for any token spells or anthems he may draw. Wither plays Island and ponders, rearranges, and draws. Swing one and pass. I draw Forest and play it, passing. Wither plays Plains and then plays Oblivion Ring on Ratchet Bomb, swings for one (total 2 dealt). I draw Sever the Bloodline (still no threats), play my remaining Forest, and pass. Wither plays Moorland Haunt, Doomed Traveler, and Geist of Saint Traft (that cheater). I draw Evolving Wilds and set it down then Sever the Bloodline on the Doomed Traveler to deny tokens. Wither goes straight to combat and delivers 6. I drop to 12 life. I crack the wilds for a swamp and then draw a forest. I play the land and follow with Life's Finale, Wither responds with Vapor Snag on his Geist. I remove his Geist Honored Monks to the graveyard. Wither then replays his Geist on his turn and drops a land. I untap and draw Solemn Simulacrum, play him, search a forest, and pass, Wither EoTs Moorland Haunt. After deliberation, he plays the Intangible Virtue from his hand finally and then swings with the vigilant spirit token (down to 10 life). I draw Praetor's Counsel (joy) and then play the second Life's Finale choosing 3x Drogskol Captains and draw my card from Solemn. It is Bloodgift Demon. Wither draws and passes. I draw a forest, play it, and the demon, then pass.

At this point the game has gone on quite a while. Tokens is proving fairly resilient by taking advantage of Moorland Haunt's interaction with my deck's Life's Finale. Unfortunately for me, I need to keep casting large wipe spells to make sure I didn't get overwhelmed until I could draw an actual threat. I would have liked to Beast Within the Haunt but did not want to die to a 4/4 vigilant beast token.

The only other highlight of this game is when I Beast Within the Oblivion Ring targeting my Ratchet Bomb and then activate it to kill two spirit tokens and the beast I created. Wither wins the game with a well timed vapor snag, ponder, search for the last Drogskol Captain, and swings with a 3/3 spirit to finish me off from damage received earlier in the game.

Observations

Well this went pretty much as planned. Without any fliers aside from Bloodgift Demon it's very tough to present any kind of roadblock for the flying spirit army to break through. I'm very sure that my inabillity to draw a blocker for the Beast Token that Beast Within would have made as I destroyed the Moorland Haunt cost me the game. I would have prefered Black Sun's Zenith in this matchup.

I really, really, really, do not want to main deck or board a card like Ezuri's Archers to beat spirits, so it looks like Curse of Death's Hold is going to have to find a way into the deck (curses! lol).

V. Delver

Runechanter's Delver, Monoblue Delver, Delever of Vengence, Secrets of the Delver... there's so many iterations of "Delver + X" that it makes me dizzy trying to keep track of them all. I playtested against Lu Cai's version of UR Delver that can be found here.

Cai's deck makes the most of powerful cards and really takes advantage of synergy. With the right pilot it's very hard to beat unless you can match it pound for pound. Grim Lavamancer and Stormkirk Noble are very real cards. Chandra's Phoenix is a headache waiting to happen, especially for us.

Game 1

I can sumarize this game with three words: "Chandra's Phoneix Sucks." The only way I'm getting rid of this thing is with Sever the Bloodline and I couldn't draw the only one in the deck. I managed to Dispise out a T1 Delver of Secrets  ^Flip only to have my opponent draw another one. Given my luck, it doesn't shock me that he revealed Mana Leak off the top and flipped into an Insectile Abberation. I had to Doom Blade during the upkeep or risk the Mana Leak. From here things just went downhill as Snapcaster Mages flashed back Galvanic Blast to return Chandra's Phoneix over and over. A man can only remove so much.

Sideboarding

The only way I'm going to compete with this mess is if I can power out threats that couldn't be solved.

In: Green Sun's Zenith x1, Sever the Bloodline x1, Heartless Summoning x3, Surgical Extraction x3

Out: Garruk Relentless  ^Flip x2, Beast Within x2, Moldgraf Monstrosity x1, Acidic Slime x3

My thinking here is that I will never see the Monstrosity, and even if I did, it wouldn't have helped me win. Dead cards don't help anyone ever. Acidic Slime does not have any targets aside from land and is therefore not as useful as he should be.

Game 2 and 3

I would have to say that being on the play and dropping down Heartless Summoning turn two with a followup turn play of Solemn Simulacrum feels pretty good... especially after hitting my opponent with a turn one Despise hitting Chandra's Phoenix and seeing no gut shot which allowed for a perfect chain of Surgical Extraction to get rid of the thing forever.

Game two was easy to win because of what my opponent claimed was a combination of "random sideboarding" and "sheer luck." Basically, an unanswered turn 4 Primeval Titan went the distance. I asked if he sideboarded in Flashfreeze. His answer was that it wouldn't be smart because I wasn't playing red and green, only green. I guess that's a valid point; however, I'm sure he was wishing that he had that Flashfreeze when the Titan came down.

Game three was significantly harder to play through as my opponent decided to sideboard back in Mana Leak and Vapor Snag. Removal spells from both sides were well timed to keep damage to a minimum. In the end, the disadvantage of not playing black or white crept up on my enemy as I played a Distress to clear the path for Sheoldred, Whispering One who caused a sacrifice of Chandra's Phoenix and returned Primeval Titan to play. Harsh.

Observations

Yet another game where a Curse of Death's Hold would have been exponentially more useful than most other cards. I notice that some of my sideboard options are weak (Green Sun's Zenith) because in games I would bring them in, my opponent is probably now playing with Flashfreeze and/or Negate. Against this Delver deck I would have loved to draw Mikaeus but I never boarded him in. I strongly feel that he might be main-deck material over a Titan.

Changes

After testing against Delver and Tokens I felt I had learned enough about the deck to make some changes and finalize a sideboard before going on to test against the heavier contenders of WRR and Hunted Humans. Here's what was done:

Move Thrun, the Last Troll into the Sideboard. Add 2 Heartless Summoning

Thrun is strictly a sideboard card if you're not playing Big Green. I find that I want him in G2 and G3 against control, but against agro he just sets up awkward situations.

Move two Go for the Throat Main from side, move one Doom Blade to side and remove the other.

We want a better "kill black creature" package because of zombies being on the uprise. Doom Blade is a great way to kill Inkmoth Nexus but so is Curse of Death's Hold, Acidic Slime, and Beast Within.

Remove Distress and Praetor's Counsel completely. Add one Despise, two Curse of Death's Hold and one more Heartless Summoning

Metagame almost guarantees you'll hit a creature with Despise and it gives us information. By bringing ourselves down to 4 discard spells it makes it less likely to have a mid-game draw of another one.

Replace Moldgraf Monstrosity with Chancelor of the Tangle

Potential T1 Heartless summoning and a brick wall for fliers. Also wins games.

Remove Green Sun's Zenith & One Surgical Extraction from Sideboard.

GSZ is too gimicky and I feel like I would have to run two of them if I wanted to acomplish the results I want. It also makes Flashfreezes that are boarded in against the deck that much stronger as I noted earlier.

Switch Primeval Titan for Vorapede

The more I thought about my reasons for including the green titan I decided that the Vorapede would be a better choice. He has trample, has the same strengths as the titan, and the added bonus of having Undying. Yeah, the cost is a bit steep with tripple green but Garruk, Primal Hunter has it too and I haven't had any trouble consistantly producing it.

Switch Garruk Relentless  ^Flip with Increasing Ambition

This gives us a great way of grabbing any given card we need and produces a little bit of card advantage if the game goes way long.

Regarding Liliana of the Veil

I think that with a lot of motion going on in the deck that keeping Liliana isn't a bad idea. I know that there still isn't a lot of synergy between her and the rest of the deck, but I still feel that the ability to switch between her -2 and her +1 is too strong to be ignored. Once we exhaust our hand (which happens more quickly than you'd think) then +1 becomes rather one-sided until she eventually hits her ultimate and ends a game.

What's next?

Now that the dek is modified and sideboard ready I'm going to test it against WRR in a few variations and be very in depth with game reports so that everyone can get a solid idea as to why and how the deck plays what it does. It'll also quench the argument that the Wolf Player I test against is an idiot.

Come Wednesday you'll see the game reports for Wolfrun and Haunted Humans with the changes as given along with more ideas onto what should get into the deck and what might not be viable.