Showdown 2.0 #4: Aviation

Showdown

Spootyone

14 August 2014

1789 views

Hello tappedout community! Welcome to another weekly showdown where I step in for Spootyone and play one of my standard builds against submissions from the tappedout community. Two weeks ago, I showcased my Gorgon's Head deck that featured Izzet Staticaster and first strike creatures to allow the continual application of pressure.

However, that deck has traditionally been horrible against control matchups, so I had been fiddling with the build with the help of a friend who is a really talented player. He and I put together an alternative version that used Dictate of Heliod as a combat trick to make guys beefier and push into the late game. I took that build to my LGS last week and well, it got crushed. That failed build and why it didn’t work can be seen here: Houston, we're going to screw up our build..

Undeterred, I went back to the drawing board to retool the deck that still featured the deathtouch through Gorgon's Head, with nice synergies, but could also beat control. My plan for beating control centers around two concepts: 1. Haste and 2. Dictate of the Twin Gods. Control tends to dertle around with a minimal board presence, which makes dictate a great trick to flash in on the end step then slam home for the win. To maximize this, hasty bombs like Stormbreath Dragon and Spark Trooper can explode for the win on the untap. Additionally, Boros Reckoner amplifies damage and with Boros Charm/Izzet Staticaster in there too, it means that I can amplify to infinite damage relatively easy. At least that was the concept. So how to keep that idea intact while still keeping the core concept of the deck? My latest solution: Ensoul Artifact and Shrapnel Blast! Having been on the receiving end of this combo, it’s a great aggressive combo that also synergizes with Dictate of the Twin Gods and Boros Reckoner (flash dictate, explode Gorgon's Head at the reckoner for 10, 20 to you). Is it a “win more” strategy? In most matchups, yes a bit -it’s a potential finisher but against control with their sphinx’s rev and elixir looking to stabilize it’s perfect. The sideboard still needs work, as I just threw the Fiendslayer Paladins that used to be in the mainboard to the side. Additionally, since the artifacts that used to come out against control now serve a purpose I'm still figuring how to board correctly, but nevertheless it’s Showcase time and the show must go on! I’ll tweak as we go. So, with that in mind, I present my retooled deck:

Houston, initiating a controlled explosion

Standard Apoptosis

SCORE: 23 | 7 COMMENTS | 5155 VIEWS | IN 6 FOLDERS

This weeks opponent is Caligula’s Waters of Space (U/Affinity), which also uses Ensoul Artifact to apply pressure through a blue agro shell. It features tempo cards like Void Snare and Rapid Hybridization to keep control of the board while evasive or unblockable creatures pound away and Military Intelligence keeps the beats coming. I’ve seen a number of aggressive builds that take advantage of Ensoul Artifact, usually with Illusory Angel/Ornithopter in either mono blue or izzet. It’s a cool build and it will be interesting to see how the two pair off.

So without further delay, onto the match.

Apoptosis wins the flip and keeps Temple of Triumph, Hallowed Fountain, 2x Ash Zealot, Precinct Captain, Gorgon's Head, and Boros Reckoner one red land away for being really strong
Caligula draws 2x island, 2x Judge's Familiar, ornithoper, [[rapid hybridization], and Ensoul Artifact that’s a nut draw

A1: plays Temple of Triumph scrys Temple of Enlightenment. I hate throwing away the third land I’d need to cast reckoner, but keeping it still leaves me stuck not being able to cast the two zealots. Sometimes you need to roll the hard six, to the bottom.
C1: draws Void Snare perfect. Plays island, casts Judge's Familiar and ornithoper.

A2: draws Stormbreath Dragon it’s never good when you suspect as early as T2 that you’re in real trouble Plays Hallowed Fountain untapped (A18/C20), casts Precinct Captain.
C2: draws island and plays it. Casts Ensoul Artifact and swings in (A12/C20). boom!

A3: draws Temple of Triumph and plays it scrying Steam Vents (bottom). Attacks with the Precinct Captain (A12/C18), Apoptosis gets a soldier.
C3: draws Haunted Plate Mail, plays island. Attacks with all (A6/C18). Casts Judge's Familiar.

A4: draws ornithoper and casts it and Ash Zealot. Attacks with the ground troops, no blocks. (A6/C13), Apoptosis gets a soldier. End step, Caligula casts Rapid Hybridization to destroy Apoptosis’s ornithoper. In response, Apoptosis concedes game 1.

Caligula wins game 1!!!

Thoughts on the game, when blue aggro/artifact goes off, it is a real bomb! Caligula’s deck preformed perfectly and while Apoptosis’s deck was able to apply pressure, there was no solution to the board state. Rule #1: if your deck isn't flexible enough to deal with threats, be ready to lose.

Sideboard for Apoptosis: I definitely need to lower my curve and try to stabilize, out goes Dictate of the Twin Gods, 3x Stormbreath Dragon but I hate losing the flyers, Godsend is akso out. In comes 2x Lightning Strike and possibly 3x Fiendslayer Paladin, which actually are not great in this matchup but if I can stick one, the lifegain can help a lot, 2x Spark Trooper for the lifegain could help a lot too, since I’m basically left digging for a staticaster. 23 lands still feels too low, but 24 feels to high at 60 so yes, I break the cardinal rule of playing 60 and go up to 62 total cards.

Sideboard tech for Caligula: honestly, when you win by T4 it’s hard to see what your opponent really wanted to do. From Apoptosis we saw aggro that wasn’t enough. I think we have the answers and don’t want to mess with the build. If game 2 goes bad, we’ll think about tinkering for game 3.

Onto game 2, Apoptosis on the play.

Apoptosis draws Temple of Triumph, Temple of Enlightenment, Fiendslayer Paladin, 2x Izzet Staticaster, 2x Ensoul Artifact. having two dead cards in hand and being unable to cast anything isn’t good but the staticaster’s are my best answer to the threats that Caligula will throw. Let’s do it.

Caligula draws island, Darksteel Citadel, Rapid Hybridization, Chasm Skulker, Rapid Hybridization, Haunted Plate Mail, and Military Intelligence. Not a great hand, but it’s ok: an early threat, potential card draw, and an answer to a threat.

A1: plays Temple of Triumph, scry’s Precinct Captain (keep)
C1: draws Ensoul Artifact boom goes the dynamite, now this hand looks good, plays island, casts Hypnotic Siren

A2: draws Precinct Captain, plays Temple of Enlightenment, scry’s Temple of Enlightenment, keep.
C2: draws Springleaf Drum, plays Darksteel Citadel, casts Military Intelligence, attacks with siren (A19/C20)

A3: draws and plays Temple of Enlightenment, scry’s Sacred Foundry (bottom). Casts Precinct Captain.
C3: draws Ensoul Artifact and casts Springleaf Drum, taps it and siren to cast Ensoul Artifact onto Darksteel Citadel screwed up and should have done that last turn, but was hoping for a land so I could attack this turn with both the siren and citadel to draw a card and hit for 6. Oh well, still in good shape.

A4: draws and plays Temple of Epiphany, scrys Ash Zealot (keep). Attacks with the Precinct Captain (A19/C18) and gets a soldier, casts Izzet Staticaster and blasts the siren to the yard.
C4: draws and plays island, casts Ensoul Artifact onto the Springleaf Drum and attacks with both, on the trigger Caligula draws Haunted Plate Mail. Apoptosis has a soldier explode (A14/C18).

A5: draws Ash Zealot, casts Fiendslayer Paladin, attacks with the Precinct Captain (A14/C16), gets a soldier.
C5: draws and plays island, casts Chasm Skulker, attacks with the two beastly artifacts and on the trigger draws Judge's Familiar and the skulker grows... Apoptosis blocks the drum with the soldier, who really hates his job (A9/C16).

A6: draws Fiendslayer Paladin, attacks with Precinct Captain and Fiendslayer Paladin (A11/C12), gets a soldier.
C6: on the upkeep Apoptosis flashes in a second Izzet Staticaster and both ping the Chasm Skulker to kill it, Caligula gets two islandwalking squids with summoning sickness and draws Illusory Angel. As Caligula I’m in a difficult spot, Apoptosis is developing a board presence, those soldier chump blockers are helping him to stabilize, and he’s gaining life on the backswing. I think I want to develop my board and get that angel out there to have an unblockable threat more then additional card draw right now. Casts Judge's Familiar and Illusory Angel (using Springleaf Drum and a squid). this prevents Apoptosis from swinging away at me

A7: draws and plays Temple of Enlightenment, scrys Izzet Staticaster (bottom, I need a Gorgon's Head or Ornithopter). The staticasters kill the squids and bird with a “popping” sound. And at this point the tappedout playtester screen freezes ruining the game, initiating an outcry from the community at yeaGO and prompting me to grumble and go get lunch as I have to redo game 2. grumble grumble, mutter, mutter.. shouldn't have messed with the tokens on the playtester.

The Void wins Game 2!!!

--

Onto Game 2!!! Apoptosis on the play draws Temple of Enlightenment, Sacred Foundry, Steam Vents, Ornithopter, Ash Zealot, 2x Gorgon's Head.
Caligula mulligans a 1 land hand and draws a potentially slow hand of island, 2x Darksteel Citadel, Military Intelligence, Chasm Skulker, and Illusory Angel.

A1: plays Sacred Foundry (A18/C20), casts Gorgon's Head and Ornithopter
C1: draws Judge's Familiar, plays and island and casts the bird I want Military Intelligence online ASAP.

A2: draws Gorgon's Head haha tappedout, you suck THREE?!?!?, plays Steam Vents (A16/C20), casts Ash Zealot and attacks (A16/C18).
C2: draws and casts Ornithopter, plays Darksteel Citadel, casts Military Intelligence attacks with the bird (A15/C18) and just like that folks, card advantage is ready at T2

A3: draws Hallowed Fountain, plays Temple of Enlightenment, scrys Hallowed Fountain (bottom), casts both Gorgon's Head and attacks with the zealot (A15/C16)
C3: draws Ornithopter, attacks with bird and Ornithopter, trigger draws Void Snare, plays Darksteel Citadel, casts Ornithopter and Illusory Angel Note the Military Intelligence trigger goes off regardless of whether damage is being dealt.

A4: draws Sacred Foundry and plays it tapped. Equips the Ash Zealot with a deathhead and attacks (A15/C14)
C4: draws Ensoul Artifact and casts it on a Darksteel Citadel and just like that Apoptosis is in bad shape. Attacks with it, the angel and the bird, trigger draws island. Apoptosis blocks the citadel with the Ornithopter (A10/C14), plays island.

A5: draws Izzet Staticaster and casts it, plays Hallowed Fountain (A8/C14) and equips the staticaster with a Gorgon's Head, then kills the angel. C5: draws Void Snare, casts it at Ash Zealot, casts Chasm Skulker, and attacks with citadel and Judge's Familiar, trigger draws Void Snare and the skulker grows... (A2/C14).

A6: draws Boros Reckoner, and casts it and Ash Zealot
C6: draws island and plays it. Casts 2x Void Snare to bounce both Boros Reckoner and Izzet Staticaster to hand. In response, Izzet Staticaster kills the Chasm Skulker and Caligula gets two squids. Attacks with citadel and Judge's Familiar, trigger draws island, Ash Zealot jumps in front of the citadel, (A1/C14).

A7: draws Temple of Enlightenment and is dead on the board because of those squids.

Caligula wins the game and the match!!! Caligula’s deck is really consistent in dropping threats and I had no answer for that indestructible citadel (other then dropping soldiers in front of it). Ironically, my old version of the deck had 3x Turn / Burn and 3x Polymorphist's Jest, which deals with indestructible quite well. However, I had scrapped them after at experience at my LGS where I ran into an opponent whose creatures have counters upon them. Again, it’s a case of not having enough flexible answers to a variety of threats. Also, this means “Oh just throw the fiendslayers into the sideboard” wasn’t the best idea. How, will I tweak my sideboard? Turn / Burn, Detention Sphere, and Celestial Flare immediately come to mind over Lightning Strike, but one can see how my deck got outclassed by a relatively straightforward build. Perhaps this is why we don’t see “American aggro” in mtgtop8. For now I've put Turn / Burn back into the sideboard, but I will go back to the drawing board. Or maybe I'll admit that it won’t work and go back to UW control unhappy face, with a wink.

As for Caligula’s deck, I think Ensoul Artifact makes blue aggro a real threat that needs to be taken seriously. Will it be tier 1? Probably not, but it’s consistent and can win in a variety of ways by T5, which makes it a legit threat to take seriously. I’m not sure what I would change. Probably I would get rid of Haunted Plate Mail in favor of 2x more Hypnotic Siren, or 2x Thassa, God of the Sea. The latter let’s those land bound ensouled artifacts keep up the beats to avoid chump blockers and I was never happy to see Haunted Plate Mail in my hand. All in all a great build!! Congratulations Caligula!

That’s it for me folks, I hope you enjoyed my beatdow... err article. Stay tuned for next week when Spootyone is back for his showdown series.

By the way, Spootyone, I know you wanted red ramp/ensoul/doom engine for your next challenge, but I formally challenge you to go up against my build Houston, initiating a controlled explosion Just take out the 4x stormbreath dragons, add the doom engines, and it's on! The gauntlet has been thrown down