Swept Under the RUG
Features
zandl
3 April 2015
3799 views
3 April 2015
3799 views
Swept Under the RUG
How I Won an SCG IQ/GPT with a "Dead" Deck
- Domri Rade (~$30 each)
- Xenagos, the Reveler (~$12 each)
- Stormbreath Dragon (~$20 each)
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx (~$10 each)
- Courser of Kruphix (~$15 each)
- ... and eventually Nissa, Worldwaker (and her $40 ass)
After being thrust into the world of control (because screw aggro), I found little in the way of solace in countering said spells, especially when I was blown out by them anyways the next turn. Games were slow, AEtherling took forever, and Supreme Verdict only did so much against a board of Walkers. A brief stint with Planar Cleansing was admittedly enjoyable, but the love affair was not meant to last. A new rotation was dawning and U/W Control was soon to be dead. With Khans of Tarkir not giving us Mono-Green players much to work with, I looked at what we already had. With the fate of Devotion decks in the balance - Mono-Black and Mono-Blue looked doomed, as well - Khans brought down the price of many Mono-Green staples. Courser dipped down to $10, Nykthos bobbed around $4, and playing a Mono-Green deck alleviated the need for Dragons and Walkers. What I was left with, I liked. I really wanted to incorporate that hip, new card, Temur Ascendancy, into the deck. Drawing a bunch of extra cards and turning things sideways immediately seemed fun, but I couldn't justify the cost of buying a new land-base. However, the time would come. Fast-forward to January. Temur Sabertooth was spoiled in Fate Reforged and everyone sh-t bricks over the Temur Ascendancy combo deck. Temur Ascendancy itself shot up from a dismal 30 cents to a whopping 90 cents overnight! (Hey; a 300% overnight price increase on any level is impressive.) So there it was: a Devotion deck (to which I had all the pieces) which utilized Temur Ascendancy to win in an over-the-top style. A few Yavimaya Coast here and a few Wooded Foothills there, and the deck was built. Lo and behold, it was decent. If the combo got disrupted, you didn't just lose; the deck could turn everything sideways and win the good-'ole-fashioned way, too. If the battlefield was board-wiped, Temur Ascendancy (in conjunction with Eidolon of Blossoms) added a ton of fuel to the flames. If Voyaging Satyr died and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx couldn't generate 14 mana in one turn, 7 was still pretty good. Happy days were ahead and I was loving it. However, most other people got over the initial hype of a playable combo in Standard and went back to their tokens and rhinos. After a few weeks without any real results being put up, the deck eventually fell into relative obscurity and faded away from most people's radars. A few Top 16 results over a couple weeks looked to be the only impression the deck would leave on Standard as the format moved on. Fast-forward once again to March 29, 2015. I have the Sunday free and decide to accompany my judge-buddy to a combined StarCityGames Invitational Qualifier (SCG IQ) & Grand Prix Trial (GPT) at Play or Draw in Avondale, AZ. With some spending cash in-hand and a moderately positive attitude, I scribbled my name down with the sign-up sheet and grabbed a decklist paper. This is the actual list I concocted and used in the IQ/GPT:
| Zandl's Temur Combo (1st @ SCG IQ!) Creatures: 33 4 Elvish Mystic 4 Voyaging Satyr 4 Genesis Hydra 1 Sylvan Caryatid 4 Courser of Kruphix 2 Boon Satyr 4 Eidolon of Blossoms 4 Temur Sabertooth 2 Polukranos, World Eater 1 Nylea, God of the Hunt 1 Nylea's Disciple 1 Arbor Colossus 1 Hornet Queen Other spells: 4 3 Temur Ascendancy 1 Chord of Calling Lands: 23 4 Frontier Bivouac 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 4 Wooded Foothills 4 Yavimaya Coast 6 Forest 1 Mountain Sideboard 3 Nylea's Disciple 3 Reclamation Sage 2 Hornet Queen 2 Arbor Colossus 2 Mistcutter Hydra 1 Sagu Mauler 1 Colossus of Akros 1 Setessan Tactics | I suppose I should clue in those of you who may not understand the combo. Once I have a devotion to Green of 7 or higher, I can tap Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for 7 mana. Assuming I've used my Voyaging Satyr to get there, I can use Temur Sabertooth's activated ability to return the Satyr to my hand (5 floating), re-cast it (3 floating), and untap Nykthos right away with Temur Ascendancy giving everything haste. At that point, I can activate Nykthos again (1 floating) to generate another 7 mana (8 floating). Now, I can keep repeating this process indefinitely and retaining 1 extra mana each time I do for what is, in essence, infinite Green mana. From there, the win can essentially come from anywhere. I can make an infinite/infinite Polukranos with haste to kill everything, pump everything infinitely with Nylea, God of the Hunt, bounce and cast Eidolon of Blossoms to find whatever I need, or gain infinite life by bouncing and casting Nylea's Disciple over and over. There are other options, as well, but these are the most common. Most Temur Ascendancy decks of the past were running 3 Arbor Colossus and for good reason: it gives 3 Devotion and it's a 6/6 that's easily cast on turn-3. I've shied away from it of late with the recent trend toward ground-based combat and cheaper removal seeing play (i.e. Valorous Stance and Ultimate Price). It's a nice one-of in case I need to dispose of a flyer or just need a fat body right away and I'm still packing 2 more in the sideboard for Stormbreath-heavy matches. Hornet Queen is a card that has saved my butt several times but lacks offensive pressure when compared to everything else in the deck. It gives 3 Devotion and can wall up my opponent pretty efficiently, but I'm not a fan of it versus Red. It's too slow and, by the time it comes out, I'm probably beyond saving or winning already. I wasn't too up-to-date on the competitive Standard meta on the day of the IQ/GPT, but I was at least aware of Mono-Red's recent - and ongoing - domination. Because of this, I opted to add a Nylea's Disciple to my mainboard about 5 minutes prior to turning in my deck-list sheet. As luck would have it, that was the correct decision. With control being absent from the 5-or-so Top 8 lists I casually glanced at prior to the tournament day, I decided I could gear my sideboard against mid-range and aggro rather heavily while still keeping cards for the control matchup just in case. Sagu Mauler happens to be a pain in the ass for any mid-range deck to tackle in addition to giving control a tough time. The fact that it can even Morph in and cheat its way around Disdainful Stroke was the selling point for me. Colossus of Akros was more of a fun one-of, but I'm more than aware that U/B can't do a single thing about it without Perilous Vault or Silence the Believers. |
Of the 54 participants in the tournament, there was a remarkably healthy mix of decks and archetypes being represented. I managed to play against a different deck in each of the Swiss rounds.
Round Results
, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. While all of this was going on, I was still surging forward with a pair of Eidolon of Blossoms and some larger creatures. Eventually, though, the inevitable happened and I finally fell behind to the Planeswalker army. Our second game would've been closer, but I went through 5 different cards on top of my deck without seeing a third land for my Courser of Kruphix.
Round 4: Sidisi Whip - 2/1
This deck is funny to me. On the surface, it looks like a highly synergistic and refined reanimator deck that continues to pump out token after token. However, without a Whip of Erebos, the deck just kinda plays out its hand and turns its 3-4 small/medium creatures sideways until it wins. With an easy game-one victory came a close second game in which I misjudged the card in my opponent's hand: Murderous Cut. As I tried to combo off, he killed the Satyr Wayfinder at an unfortunate time: when it re-entered the battlefield and tapped to untap Nykthos (untapping the land is a trigger and he killed it before I could generate more mana). Since the game just kinda came down to me dying a slow death to Zombie tokens, I sided in the rest of my copies of Nylea's Disciple. Gaining 7+ life really hurts Sidisi Whip when they're just trying to hold onto the game long enough to push you out of it. Also, Chord of Calling for Reclamation Sage is my jam. One noteworthy play involved my opponent taking my Voyaging Satyr with a Dragonlord Silumgar and then killing it with an Arbor Colossus on the following turn.
Round 5: U/B Control - 2/0
The only thing that really concerns me in U/B Control is Crux of Fate and I was almost startled at how little it could otherwise do to me before turn-5. U/B's lack of speed became apparent when I landed a Nylea, God of the Hunt on turn-3 before he could have Dissolve open, and having 5 Devotion each turn wasn't too difficult while my mana was accelerated. In the second game, he cast an Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver on the third turn and took both my Sagu Mauler and Colossus of Akros off the top (really?). The Mistcutter Hydra that was revealed next from Courser, though, put an end to the Ashiok. From there, I did some fancy footwork with Temur Sabertooth's indestructibility and managed to snag the game before his Ugin could be cast.
Round 6: draw in
At this point, I hadn't yet played any of the Mono-Red aggro variants floating around. I'd seen many people playing them at the top tables throughout the day and knew I'd have to run into them at some point. Unfortunately for me, that "at some point" was all three matches in the Top 8.
Top 8: RDW - 2/0
Being the seventh-place seed, my opponent chose to go first, so I began Top 8 already in a rough spot. I believe my opening hand for this first game was 3 lands, Elvish Mystic, and 3 Courser of Kruphix. Great! After he killed 2 Coursers and the third one stuck, I wasn't seeing much in the way of value from it. His Goblin Heelcutter was preventing my Courser from blocking with its big butt, but Chord of Calling into Nylea's Disciple to block after his attack was a blowout. I gained 5 life, killed the Heelcutter, and starting seeing lands on top. The turn following, I could cast an Eidolon of Blossoms and Temur Ascendancy. My opponent got behind on cards and I combo'd out. The second game wasn't close, with my opening hand having Elvish Mystic, Courser of Kruphix, and 2 copies of Nylea's Disciple.
Top 4: Red Sligh - 2/0
I distinctly remember being terrified of this guy's Akroan Crusader and the fact that it had Hammerhand and Dragon Mantle on it on turn-2. On the draw once again, I settled in for a rough game. What else should be drawn, though, than Chord of Calling? I set up my board to allow him to swing in and prayed he didn't have burn for my Nylea's Disciple. When it landed, I gained 6 life and blocked the Crusader to trade with it. With that out of the way, a big Polukranos came down and ate all the Soldiers with my Nykthos's mana. The second game was much like the previous round's, with my Disciples showing up in droves and forcing him to turn to defense (which, in an aggro deck, means you've already lost).
Final: RDW - 2/1
My opponent here was originally the eighth-place seed, meaning I finally got the chance to play first. By landing a turn-3 Arbor Colossus, he was at a loss for how to deal with it. The stalwart gave me time to build up my board and get enough Devotion going to bounce a Nylea's Disciple with Temur Sabertooth and re-cast it each turn. Once he saw what I was doing, he conceded. The second game was horrible; he killed my Elvish Mystic immediately, cast Roast on my Courser of Kruphix, and kept my Polukranos from blocking for 3 turns as I drew lands and died a miserable death. On the play for the final game of the tournament, I opened and saw 2 copies Nylea's Disciple alongside 2 Courser of Kruphix and an Elvish Mystic. The Mystic lived through the first turn to help me cast a Courser (which got Roasted) and the second Courser (which did not). The Disciples started coming down as my Devotion built up and I got into the same place I was in for the first game. With 12 mana, each turn I could bounce a Disciple twice and re-cast it twice. I got up to 30 life while he was top-decking and he extended his hand.
Post-Tournament Thoughts
Deck Changes?
- Sidisi Whip and its slew of 2/2 tokens.
- Abzan's removal and Siege Rhino.
- Temur's burn, hefty creatures, and Planeswalkers.
- RDW's and Jeskai's burn, efficient creatures, and combat tricks.
But what to add in its place? Well, as Boon Satyr was usually the last thing in my hand to be cast, I often wished it could be literally anything else. Gladly, there's already a card that's literally anything else: Chord of Calling. Adding a second copy of Chord of Calling would allow me to keep the whole toolbox-one-of-thing going and taking out the other Boon Satyr would offer me a chance to use another one-of. The first card to come to mind for this spot is Karametra's Acolyte. The original Temur Ascendancy Combo decks used some nonzero number of Acolytes as a way to forego needing to have both a Satyr Wayfinder and a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to combo off. With 7 Devotion, Temur Ascendancy, and Temur Sabertooth, it's identical to having Satyr + Nykthos; it taps for 7, bounces for 2, casts for 4, and nets me 1. In addition to having one more option for combo pieces in the deck, it has a great big butt and lives through a bunch of stuff, whereas Boon Satyr dies to all removal but Spark Jolt. Also, unlike Nykthos itself, Karametra's Acolyte is always going to net me mana. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx requires me to have a Devotion of 4 before I see any benefit, though the Acolyte always taps for at least 1 Green mana with no drawback. Something else I've come to consider is mainboarding a Reclamation Sage. While the implications of what it can do in a game-one scenario are great, I'm more focused on fighting aggro decks in the first game (as my mid-range and control matchups are already decent there). Rather ironically, Reclamation Sage seems better out of the sideboard against Mono-Red for its copies of Outpost Siege whereas they don't really have anything to blow up beforehand. Hammerhand is a good card, but it does its job the moment it hits the board. Blowing it up the turn after seems like a concession of sorts. Then there's Dragonlord Atarka, though I'm not entirely convinced it would do enough. Arc Lightning for 5 damage and a fat flyer is neat, but it does cost 7 mana. This leaves me with 3 more reasonable choices: Surrak, the Hunt Caller, another Arbor Colossus, or a second Nylea's Disciple. Surrak can be cheated in and draw me a card off Temur Ascendancy, though the haste would be redundant. However, playing this on turn-3 and then dropping an Arbor Colossus or Polukranos, World Eater is certainly alluring. The increased popularity of dragon creatures makes me want to include another Arbor Colossus in the mainboard, but the Colossus's only trick against Red is "being fat." The prospect of playing a second Nylea's Disciple is also attractive as I would essentially double my chances of seeing it in the first game. During the tournament, I found there weren't many times when gaining a significant amount of life wasn't helpful to some degree. I'm still in a toss-up between all of these, though. Do you have any thoughts?
= page views
= unique visitors
AngryBearTony says... #3
Great read, well written, and insightful. Have you thought instead of Boon Satyr trying out Avatar of the Resolute? Reach to chump through some flying, almost the same body, for one less cost and the same devotion? I don't think Surrak, the Hunt Caller really does anything here anything else already does, the Nylea's Disciple might not be bad to throw down (as you found out), and the Arbor Colossus is just fat. Just a thought, though.
April 3, 2015 6:01 p.m.
you have no idea how happy this makes me to read.
GO ROGUE!
April 3, 2015 6:49 p.m.
Wow Sounds like you had a blast. congrats and thanks for sharing!
April 3, 2015 8:24 p.m.
Congratulations on the tournament and thank you for writing this article and sharing it.
I don't follow professional magic or tournament grinders as closely as some do, and I realize that some other magic sites have professionals on their writing staff to come up with new insights about the game, the metagame, and the overall community. I also realize that it's almost impossible to come up with ideas for brand-new magic-related content on a daily or weekly basis. But in comparison with many other articles or postings on this site, this is the type of featured article I would like to see more of.
T/O will always have its place as a site for sharing ideas, encouraging deckbuilding and helping new players find a place in the game. I'm unaware of another website that even comes close in that regard. But what I sometimes find lacking here is the bridge between posts for advice tweaking casual or FNM decks or "expert" opinions on casual formats or decks that i'm not interested in playing, to the types of articles on other sites by professionals that I don't really care about (except LSV) or constantly changing metagames that I don't have the time or desire to keep up with.
What I like about this article (or anything by LSV, I seriously love that guy) comes down to a few points. First, it comes from a poster with some authority. Maybe the tourney "only" had 54 players, maybe you could have lucked through every round to come out on top, but this is a tournament-winning deck and the author is the winner of that tournament who has spent time thinking about and developing this deck.
Next, it explains some of the thought that was put in before, during and after the tournament. Why did you build this deck and choose it for this tournament? How did some of the actual matches go? What were some of your thoughts during the actual tournament? How do you feel about the deck now that it's all over? I feel like all of those questions were very well answered.
Finally, I feel like I can relate to the author. He could be a pro or a tournament grinder (though I don't recognize his name, again not something I keep track of) but the way the article was written makes me identify with him. He picked this deck because he likes this kind of deck and thought it was good enough to bring to a tourney. He had some matchups he was a bit worried about based on his own history or other results that he had read about. He thinks there is room for the deck to grow or try out new things. This all made the article more interesting even if I don't personally play standard or plan to play with this particular deck.
I apologize for the lengthy post. I've been a member of the site for some time, and I mostly just scroll through dropping comments from time to time. But I really feel that this type of content, even once in a while, is very good for the site and is a good way for this community to keep growing and improving. Thank you again to the writer and the site mods for featuring this.
April 3, 2015 11:14 p.m.
Uh. Thanks! Also, you're welcome. :D
I just sat down and typed down for an hour based on my experience at the tourney. I'm no pro by any stretch of the imagination. I just enjoy sharing ideas on decks I feel very strongly about and experiences I'm proud of.
April 4, 2015 12:19 a.m.
Great post, I'm glad to here Temur Ascendancy turned in some good work. I was really excited to hear about it in FRF, a little sad to not see it jump out right away, but that's fine. I love ramp and I love combo, I will probably play around with it some time soon.
April 4, 2015 12:25 a.m.
Unforgivn_II says... #9
Don't blame your creative light for your "year of darkness". Blame Theros. I simply cannot play standard until that set is gone. Way too many bad cards. When we hit rotation in October, the percentage of tournament playable cards lost from M15 will be greater than that of the Theros block. (That statement had no statistical backing or research. But I'll bet its closer to being true than it should be).
I can't wait to get back into standard. KtK + Origins + Battle for Zendikar? I'm excited for the potential
April 4, 2015 1:08 a.m.
SpartanCEL says... #11
I thought Temur Sabertooth was powerful, and I thought it'd work well with Siege Rhino and abzan. I was pleasantly surprised! Now I have something to do if I want to make my temur deck better. Good deck and nice read!
April 4, 2015 9:50 a.m.
First of all congrats, you're my new personal MTG hero. I love this deck so much because I am running an almost identical version I started in December, just without the infinite combo (obviously as it was before sabertooth was released). I'd like to throw in the idea of Reverent Hunter as a replacement for Boon Satyr. I usually bring it out 4th turn as a 4/4 or 5/5 with haste and a card draw with ascendency out. Of course this is pre-sabertooth and my deck isn't as reliant on devotion. Thanks so much for the amazing article!
April 4, 2015 12:06 p.m.
As soon as I saw the Temur Ascendancy combo deck I fell in love with it. I don't have the cards to make it though. I'm really glad you did so well with it! Congrats :)
I personally think this is one of the funnest decks in Standard right now. Abzan is just Siege Rhino and Fleecemane Lion or Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and that's boring. Red is just creatures and swing, Sultai doesn't do well without Whip of Erebos, and control is...well its control. This thing is too much fun. Like, who can't enjoy playing out a zillion/zillion hasty Polukranos, World Eater??
April 4, 2015 2:05 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #14
I wasn't aware that Temur Ascendancy was considered a "dead deck."
April 4, 2015 4:40 p.m.
fluffybunnypants- It was kind of considered to be DOA. Everyone got excited and then not many were able to turn in a Top 8. To be fair, it does a lot of things that GR/Mono-Green was doing and then added the combo. GW Devo upstaged it in GP Miami.
April 4, 2015 4:50 p.m.
CaptainCaveman says... #16
I have been consistently playing Temur Ascendancy combo deck for the last 6 weeks with a couple of changes to it. My current iteration plays 4x Arbor Colossus and sides Hornet Queen instead of mainboarding it and lacks any Boon Satyr where as the previous build had 3.
It's a solid deck and you wrote a great write up on it.
April 5, 2015 1:35 p.m.
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #17
Kudos for playing a deck outside of the usual meta and winning! I personally love combo decks, and whenever one comes up in standard, I always keep an eye on it. This is the first time I've seen this deck do exceptionally at a high level event. I also like how you played the deck because you like the style of play vs. you like how often it wins (I can relate). Congrats!
April 5, 2015 7:28 p.m.
SwaggyMcSwagglepants says... #18
Nice job at the SCG IQ. Wish I could run that hot at all my FNMs and other tournaments.
April 6, 2015 1:37 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #19
Great article and deck! Mono-green devotion is one of the only midrange decks I like to play, so it's awesome to see that it's doing well. Just out of curiosity, why didn't you play the other Ascendancy combo (Karametra's Acolyte + Temur Sabertooth + 7 devotion)?
April 7, 2015 7:57 a.m.
I'm liking the deck in its entirety. Sounds like something I'd would like to play myself. Congrats on going rogue and succeeding! For the frontier!
April 7, 2015 10:36 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON, he discussed Karametra's Acolyte in the Changes section.
zandl, very nice write up. I played a version of this deck since Khans, and jumped the day Temur Sabertooth was spoiled, and was so excited when it got featured at the SCG. My list Temur Ascendancy COMBO got a lot of attention thanks to the sudden exposure.
I think you played a very solid version, and did a nice job showing it up. Another card you might consider playing (you were looking to fill slots): Den Protector. If any of your combo pieces get killed, 5 mana gets it back to your hand and you can play it again.
In my case I eventually dropped Ascendancy combo for a simpler combo. The Ascendancy combo is Nykthos, Voyaging Satyr, Temur Ascendancy, Temur Sabertooth, and 7 devotion.
The simpler combo is Nykthos, Voyaging Satyr, Crater's Claws and devotion. Like if you have 8 devotion, Nykthos generates 12 mana. Add mana from your other lands, mana creatures, etc., and it's easy to Crater them for whatever their life total might be.
April 7, 2015 8:41 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #23
Oh, I saw that jubale. I was just wondering what made him choose one combo over the other in his original list.
April 7, 2015 9:20 p.m.
Mainly Voyaging Satyr is an accepted piece of green devotion, while Karametra's Acolyte is not accepted because at 4 mana it's competing with green's power cards. If you run Acolyte, you're basically declaring that you want Combo or Bust. I really like 1 copy and Chord of Calling though, because that gives you flexibility without going too deep on situational cards.
April 7, 2015 9:53 p.m.
magnetcrocodile says... #25
Dang, excellent job on the tournament. Now I want to make a mana-ramp Terra Stomper deck
And for any deck changes, I've been recommending the color-hate cycle from DTK as of late, so here it is:
Display of Dominance(Could really help against planeswalker)
Encase in Ice(kinda weak, but, well)
April 8, 2015 7:35 a.m.
iheartblue says... #26
Great article! Glad you did so well. Just wondering, do you have any thoughts on some other rogue decks that could do well? I'm at a bit of a loss as to determining what to play.
ChiefBell says... #1
Good read. Good deck.
April 3, 2015 4:23 p.m.