Showdown #22: It Was a Rock Lobbssteerrr!!

Showdown

Spootyone

6 August 2014

2855 views

Hello all and welcome to Showdown, where I pit my current standard build against those submitted by you all, the members of TappedOut. This is my week again and I'm excited to be back with you all! We'll soon be approaching the fated rotation as Khans of Tarkir comes into being and I want to get as much out of my archangels as possible! Let's recap.

The last time we were together, I took The Conclave's Revenge to go see a Naya Aggro build by Casino647. Unfortunately for him, mana issues and failure to keep an aggressive hand full of threats cost him the match. This week I have a deck that has been fairly popular in Tier 2 since the realease of Temple of Malady and now, Llanowar Wastes. This archetype is known as Golgari Midrange, "Rock" or my personal favorite "Another deck running Thoughtseize and Pack Rat." And they aren't wrong! I present to you all Khaotica and his Rock deck:

The Rock Built in a Hard Place

Standard* Khaotica

SCORE: 7 | 3 COMMENTS | 935 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Khaotica's deck is built to be as close to a standard version of the Modern deck archetype "Rock." This means we're going to see hand disruption in the form of Thoughtseize, powerful and flexible creatures like Deathrite Shaman and Pack Rat and lots of incredibly strong removal such as Hero's Downfall and Abrupt Decay. What do I fear in this matchup? Thoughtseize and Pack rat. Let's face it guys -- the cards are powerful. And there's a reason so many people are bored of them....they win games often. The colors I play don't have a lot of access to ways I can battle a T2 Pack Rat on the draw. I have some in the form of Setessan Tactics and Banishing Light, but neither of those are trump cards.

The fact that these decks like to play attrition strategies is something I've become more and more okay with as I've progressed as a player. In fact, the reason why I build my deck with so many planeswalkers was in order to combat this. Both Ajani, Mentor of Heroes and Garruk, Caller of Beasts do a fantastic job of granting me card advantage along with Courser of Kruphix. I feel like my biggest problem will be dealing with an early Pack Rat, but beyond that I'm not too scared. Let's take a look and see how the match plays out!

I win the flip and choose to be on the play. I keep an opening hand of 2x forest, Temple of Plenty, Elvish Mystic, Fleecemane Lion, Mana Confluence and Advent of the Wurm. Looks like a solid curve with a decent number of mana sources.

Khaotica keeps an opening hand of swamp, forest, Thoughtseize, Pack Rat, Lotleth Troll, Reaper of the Wilds and Vraska the Unseen. It could use another land but I like the prospects of the fated T1 seize into T2 ass-rat.

S1: Forest, Elvish Mystic, pass.

K1: Draws Overgrown Tomb. Perfect! Swamp, Thoughtseize. My hand is revealed and he removes Fleecemane Lion. Both choices could have been reasonable but I think it's smarter to remove the earlier threat. Pass. (s 20/18 k)

S2: Draws Archangel of Thune. I attack for 1 with the elf and play the scryland. I see another elf and place it on the bottom before passing. (s 20/17 k)

K2: Draws Hero's Downfall. Another good one. He plays forest and then Pack Rat and passes the turn.

S3: Draws Temple of Plenty. Not good right now. I play a forest and pass the turn.

K3: Draws Deathrite Shaman. He shocks himself with the Overgrown Tomb and attacks with the rat. Before blockers, I play Advent of the Wurm. However, the token is killed before blocks by a timely Hero's Downfall by Khaotica. I take one and he passes the turn. (s 19/15 k)

S4: Draws Sylvan Caryatid. Not good. I need to be drawing more threats if I'm going to swing this in my favor. He probably has an answer, but Archangel of Thune is my only good play. I get her onto the field with the help of a Mana Confluence and pass the turn. (s 18/15 k)

K4: Draws swamp. Alright so here's an interesting situation. The opposing angel is a huge problem and it's a shame he couldn't have taken that with the 'seize. Well, in any case, he can hopefully get out Vraska soon to handle that before things get too out of hand. He play a swamp and then plays Reaper of the Wilds. Pass.

S5: Draws Courser of Kruphix. Alright! Since the angel stuck and he's TappedOut (PLUG), I can start snowballing out of control with her very quickly. I play Courser of Kruphix and reveal a plains. I take one from Mana Confluence and cast Sylvan Caryatid, play the plains from the top and go back to 18 life, and everyone gets a counter. Then, I attack with my angel, deal 4, gain 4 life, and everyone gets an additional counter. I pass the turn. (s 22/11 k)

K5: Draws Temple of Malady Ahhh...crap. He REALLY needed that fifth land that turn. Allowing the Archangel of Thune another turn to give my side of the field buffs is probably going to be the reason for a game loss shortly. He plays the scryland and sees Hero's Downfall on the top. Yeah. He needed that THIS turn. There simply aren't any good attacks that don't also leave him open to death. He plays Lotleth Troll and passes the turn to keep up mana for his Reaper.

S6: Draws Elvish Mystic and reveals Polukranos, World Eater. I get the new elf onto the field and then play my last scryland in hand, gaining a life and giving everyone a counter. Pollock is fine on top so he stays. When I get ahead on the field with an angel, I prefer to just use her as an attacker and playing highly defensively with the rest of my team. Basically, it doesn't help me win quicker to attack with other creatures and I want to make sure my life total gets far ahead by the time she inevitably dies. Hopefully that comes off clear. I attack with her and deal 6, gain 6, and everyone gets another counter. Pass. (s 29/5 k)

K6: Draws Hero's Downfall. Things aren't looking fantastic for him simply because granting the archangel free reign for 2 turns turned my whole field into sizable threats that need answers. He uses his Hero's Downfall to destroy my Archangel of Thune and scrys from his Reaper. He places a Deathrite Shaman on the bottom of his library and then passes the turn, attempting to stay alive.

S7: Draws Polukranos and reveals a third Temple of Plenty. The scryland is played, I gain a life, and Elspeth, Sun's Champion is reveals. It stays. I cast Polukranos, World Eater. I then use my remaining mana and Sylvan Caryatid (taking 1 from confluence) to use his monstrous ability for x=1, targeting the opposing Pack Rat. The rat dies. Khaotica scrys again, this time placing a Temple of Malady on the bottom. I then go on the full aggressive, attacking with my 5/5 mystic, 3/3 mystic, and 6/8 courser. Lotleth Troll blocks the 5/5 and Reaper of the Wilds blocks my courser. Before damage, the troll is regenerated, and the Reaper is given deathtouch. My courser dies (He scrys Courser of Kruphix to the bottom) and then the reaper dies. Pass. (s 29/2 k)

K7: Draws Temple of Malady. He is dead on board, even with a Vraska assassination. He concedes.

Sideboard tech with Spooty:

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We managed to pull out a victory there, but only because we were able to stick a lucky Archangel of Thune. In order to make sure we can continue to win, we're going to need either more resilient threats or the ability to win through card advantage. I will be bringing in a third and fourth copy of Garruk, Caller of Beasts in place of Advent of the Wurm and one copy of Elspeth, Sun's Champion. I'm also going up to 3 Setessan Tactics and down to 2 Banishing Light. This is to help combat Pack Rat if we get into a tight spot against it. Elspeth is obviously still good here, but I'm okay with only running one since the -3 actually doesn't hit very much from the opponent. I want more targets for garruk, too.

Sideboard tech with Khaotica:

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Lotleth Troll doesn't seem very good in this matchup to me since most of my creatures are just going to be bigger to the point where he becomes card disadvantage. Deathrite Shaman also doesn't seem amazing after that last game and gets worse when you can't pitch them to the aformentioned troll. Abrupt Decay is a great card but it doesn't have a ton of targets against midrange like mine, here. We will be bringing in a fourth copy of Hero's Downfall, the last two copies of Lifebane Zombie, 2 copies of Duress and 2 copies of Erebos, God of the Dead. It seems weird not to see a single copy of Underworld Connections in the 75. I feel like that card would be very good in this matchup, especially if Pack Rat becomes a game plan. I decide to take out 3x Lotleth Troll, 2x Deathrite Shaman, and 2x Abrupt Decay for these cards. As always, I look forward to hearing the plan Khaotica would have personally chosen!

Khaotica is on the play and keeps an opening hand of 2x swamp, Llanowar Wastes, Overgrown Tomb, Mutavault, Thoughtseize and Pack Rat. Once again, I like the prospects of these first two turns. Hopefully it goes as planned this time around.

I keep an opener of 2x forest, Mana Confluence, Temple Garden, Sylvan Caryatid, Archangel of Thune and Setessan Tactics. It isn't amazing but it'll do. Hopefully I can draw into one of my card advantage engines in time.

K1: Swamp, Thoughtseize. Khaotica chooses to get rid of my Archangel of Thune since he doesn't have another answer to it yet in hand. Pass. (s 20/18 k)

S1: Draws forest. Nope. I play a tapped Temple Garden and pass.

K2: Draws Mutavault. And we're on the Pack Rat plan! He plays the mutavault and then gets his Pack Rat onto the battlefield. Pass.

S2: Draws forest. I think I've already lost this game haha. I play a forest and then my Sylvan Caryatid. Pass.

K3: Draws Erebos, God of the Dead. Fantastic! He plays his second Mutavault and passes. He could attack profitably here, but I don't want to leave him open to removal before he makes another rat.

S3: Draws Courser of Kruphix. Well at least is wasn't a forest. I tap out to play the courser and reveal Fleecemane Lion off the top. I then play a forest, gain a life, and pass the turn. Khaotica discards a swamp to make a pack rat token at my end step. (s 21/18 k)

K4: Draws Llanowar Wastes. Oh cool he drew another rat token! He attacks with both of his rats. I choose not to block and before damage he discards a Llanowar Wastes to make a third rat. I take 6. He then plays his Overgrown Tomb tapped and passes. (s 15/18 k)

S4: Draws Fleecemane Lion and reveals Mana Confluence from the top. I play the confluence, gain a life, and reveal Garruk, Caller of Beasts. I'd normally be quite enthusiastic about that, but he doesn't help against Pack Rat. I want to wait for tactics until I have my lion to help out, but by then the rats will be too large to accomplish anything with it. I don't honestly think I'll win this game, but in any case I choose to play Setessan Tactics and target my courser. I then use the ability to fight one of the tokens, killing it. I follow this up by playing my Fleecemane Lion and taking one from confluence. Pass. (s 15/18 k)

K5: Draws Reaper of the Wilds. Oh cool he drew another rat token! Khaotica plays a Llanowar Wastes and then attacks with both rats. I choose not to block. He discards Reaper of the Wilds to make another rat and then turns both of his mutavaults into creatures before damage, leaving me at 5 life. He passes. (s 5/18 k)

S5: Draws Garruk, Caller of Beasts and reveals Archangel of Thune. Unfortunately, I'm just dead. I concede.

After seeing the destructive force of Pack Rat again, I decide to rethink my sideboarding a tiny bit. I remove the fourth copy of Garruk to bring myself back up to 3 copies of Banishing Light. Let's try that again, shall we?

Khaotica's deck did exactly what it needed to -- play pack rat. No more sideboarding seems necessary to me at the moment.

I choose to be on the play and keep an opening hand of 2x forest, Mana Confluence, Sylvan Caryatid, Fleecemane Lion, Polukranos, World Eater and Setessan Tactics. Seems alright. I just hope we don't get messed up too hard with hand disruption.

Khaotica mulligans a hand of swamp, forest, Deathrite Shaman, Lifebane Zombie, Hero's Downfall, Reaper of the Wilds and Vraska the Unseen. Some would keep this hand. I know they would. But I don't like it! Deathrite Shaman doesn't really do jack against my deck and there is zero hand disruption until T3...and that's only if we get lucky to draw into a second black source. Not to mention the fact that the hand requires a land draw more than half of the time. I don't like it, guys. I'm choosing to have him go to 6.

He keeps a 6-card hand of 2x Pack Rat, Duress, Reaper of the Wilds, Overgrown Tomb and Temple of Malady. Now that's more what I'm looking for, here.

S1: Forest, pass.

K1: Draws Duress. Not bad. He shocks himself with Overgrown Tomb and plays Duress, removing the Setessan Tactics from my hand. Pass.

S2: Draws plains. I play the forest and then my Sylvan Caryatid. I really wish I had my removal still so I could avoid what may be a T2 rat again. Fingers crossed! Pass.

K2: Draws forest. Beautiful. He plays the forest and then he plays Pack Rat #1. Pass.

S3: Draws Archangel of Thune. Oh my. That makes things a little more spicy. I'm going to continue concealing my draws by playing the Mana Confluence and not my plains. Pro strats, ya'll. I tap out and take one to cast Polukranos, World Eater. Pass (s 19/20 k)

K3: Draws Vraska the Unseen. Hmm...a 5/5 puts a wrench in the rat plan since he didn't draw into removal for it. Well, we only have one play this turn, anyway. He plays the second Pack Rat and then plays his Temple of Malady, scrying Lifebane Zombie to the bottom. The card is great in this matchup, but he desperately needs either land or removal right now. Pass.

S4: Draws Sylvan Caryatid. I play the plains and then montrous my polukranos for x=2, destroying one of the pack rats. I swing for 7 with him. No blocks. Pass. (s 18/11 k)

K4: Draws Courser of Kruphix. He's officially not on rat plan anymore. Now he's in fight for his life plan. He plays the courser and reveals Overgrown Tomb from the top. This comes into play tapped (revealing Thoughtseize) and he gains a life before passing the turn. (s 18/12 k)

S5: Draws Archangel of Thune. Oh man! C-c-c-combo! I attack with my 7/7 hydra and it is chumped by the opposing Pack Rat. I play Archangel of Thune during Main Phase 2 and pass the turn. (s 17/12 k)

K5: Draws Thoughtseize and reveals Erebos, God of the Dead. He really needed the fifth land for Vraska to try to stabilize. There just aren't any good plays I can think of right now with only 4 mana. I choose to have him play his Reaper of the Wilds and pass.

S6: Draws Garruk, Caller of Beasts. Having 2 angels basically just means I win this game. I cast the second and place it on the field. I then attack with the first and my 7/7 Poluk. Poluk is chumped by the opposing Reaper of the Wilds and the angel deals 3, gaining me 3 and giving everyone 2 counters (2 angels). I pass. (s 19/9 k)

K6: Draws Erebos and reveals Thoughtseize from the top. No fifth land is terribad but let's be honest...it wouldn't have helped with my board position. Khaotic is dead on board and concedes.

This match was more of a challenge than many have been lately. I think that by now it goes without saying that Thoughtseize and Pack Rat are powerful cards. Game one would have been lost if not for me being able to stick my Archangel of Thune and race him. Game two was actually just lost due to an on-curve Pack Rat Armageddon. Game three was a bit of a different story since I managed to not get hit by a Thoughtseize and since there was no answer for my threats once they hit the board and walled the rats. And it's really easy to see how different that third game or first game might have played out if the Vraska stuck in the hand had just been an Ultimate Price or Doom Blade. This is the first thing I'd like to touch upon when critiquing Khaotica's build, here.

You need more removal. Or, rather, you need access to varying removal. Vraska's -3 ability is amazing as a removal spell, but she costs 5 mana. And Abrupt Decay, while amazing, isn't going to be what you're looking for in every matchup. There need to be options in the sideboard for situations like this when you need to remove some of your removal for low-cost creatures. Again, Ultimate Price and Doom Blade come to mind. I think you could probably do without the 2x Terra Stomper in the sideboard, since it's expensive and getting triple green might be difficult in a deck without Elvish Mystic and/or Sylvan Caryatid.

I think you could go down to 1-2 Vraskas MB and have 1 or 2 in the sideboard. Vraska is too expensive in some matchups, and when she's too expensive, it feels really bad to have her in your hand. Really bad. Besides these changes, it might be wise to find room for one or more of the following: Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Underworld Connections. When you are playing a deck that is designed to 1-for-1 with your opponent, you need a way to make sure you can still get ahead on resources. The current version of the deck only has access to slow card advantage through Erebos, and even that is only out of the board. Especially when running things like Pack Rat and Lotleth Troll, one needs a way to recoup the cards lost to make the engines work as intended.

As for my build, I don't think I'd have changed anything after what happened in this match. I think it's fair to say that any deck running large amounts of hand disruption and spot removal are going to be hard for a deck with so many non-threat creatures. Granted, this is precisely why I run both Garruk and Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. They both provide ways to recoup my losses of cards and Ajani turns those mana dorks into viable threats along with Archangel of Thune, who really needs no explanation anymore. She's awesome in so many ways.

I don't normally request specific archetypes to test against in these articles. I feel it limits the number of people who can take part in the series as a whole and I don't want to force anyone to build specific decks just to gain entry into a Showdown article. That said, there is a deck archetype I have been wanting to test against for a long time now and I'd really like to showcase it in 2 weeks when I release my next Showdown. This archetype is basically "GR Doom Engine."

Basically, I propose a challenge to you all this time around. Build and submit a deck that meets the following criteria so that I may have a slew of these brews to choose from when picking a challenger. I want to see how 2 main cards (Scuttling Doom Engine and Generator Servant) do against my deck and I want to witness what I think could be a very powerful archetype -- especially after rotation. Scuttling Doom Engine is a monster of a card that I've personally been testing with and against in my post-rotation builds as a top end. He is essentially a counter to Elspeth, Sun's Champion and you're almost certain to gain some value out of him even if he immediately meets removal. Being able to combo out a potential 17 damage in one turn by using him alongside Shrapnel Blast is just one way to really use his abilities to their full potential.

Generator Servant is a card even more so hyped for its ability to severely out-tempo the opponent at the cost of losing a creature. Cards that can give large amounts of mana at the cost of sacrificing themselves have been some of the most powerful cards in history and while there are arguments to be made against it, I absolutely feel it's worth testing.

Here are the requirements:

• Must be at least G/R. You may add more colors, but inconsistency is a bad thing for a deck.

• Must contain several copies of Scuttling Doom Engine as a win-con.

• Must contain several copies of Generator Servant as ramp.

• Must contain several copies of Shrapnel Blast as a means of comboing out a victory with Scuttling Doom Engine.

• Must not be limited by budget.

• Must contain a sideboard

Apart from these stipulations the deck may contain whatever you so desire as long as it's in standard. I would also try not to limit it to post-rotation, but do as you will. This will not be a long-term way of deciding decks that I will be facing, but I really feel the need to step in this time so we can see just how powerful this archetype could be. I appreciate your help! And I hope you all have fun brewing!

If you'd like to be the next contender in Showdown, please leave your decks linked into the comments below! Be sure to use the "deck-large" option so I don't miss them! Apoptosis will be back next week to take on one of the submissions, but I will be the one to face this Scuttling Doom Engine deck. And I look forward to seeing you all again in 2 weeks!

Here's the deck you'll be facing:

The Conclave's Revenge | GW Midrange

Standard* Spootyone

SCORE: 56 | 67 COMMENTS | 7647 VIEWS | IN 13 FOLDERS

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @Spootyone

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