Pattern Recognition #306 - Slow Grow 5 Deck Choices

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

28 December 2023

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Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

And welcome back everyone! I hope you enjoyed your holidays. I did as my Nieces pooled their money (and mostly their dad's) to get me a box of Commander Masters and wow did it contain some doozies. I have pictures of the rares if you're interested.

Anyways, that was that and this is this. It's time to get back into the swing of things with discussion about this year's Slow Grow Tournament. As soon as my FLGS announces the Rules! You know who you are. You Read This. I know you do!

But, for those of you who do not know what I am talking about, let me explain the ground rules. A Slow Grow Tournament is a multi-week event held by my LGS which lasts for 6 weeks. We tried with 8, but at that point, things were pretty bad and fatigue had set in. Anyway, each player starts with a legal Commander Preconstructed Product. Due to win ratios, the organizers have had to ban pretty much every deck that has and in them. I think Lathril, Blade of the Elves is the only one left.

After the first week, every player may switch out up to five cards in their deck. Five in, Five out. Sometimes, like last year, everyone gets a free switch when they banned Sol Ring on Week 2. Yeah, that was a thing. And each week, players accrue points based on their positions at each table, as well as bonus (or negative) points for special actions during the game. First gets 4 points, second 3, third 2, and Fourth+ (in case of 5 player tables) get 1 point each. If you kill a player with Commander damage, that's a bonus. If you fire off an infinite combo, kiss all your points good bye. Once I have the final rules in front of me, I'll pass them all along to you.

So at the end of 6 weeks, everyone will have had the chance to switch out 25 cards from each deck and see where they are in the standings. Prizing is then handed out accordingly.

I've talked about my participation in these beforehand, and this will be my fifth run through the tournament. I've been in the top half each time - mostly because people drop out - but I did get in fourth once! But that's OK, I'm in it for the fun, not the serious business of winning.

But let's get to it then, shall we?

Last year, I ran with the Deck that had Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist as one of the alternate Commanders, and, well, if you start here, I didn't do so well. Partly on me for bad upgrade choices, partly on the bad basic deck I was working with, and partly because I wasn't giving it my all.

Time for a change then.

I've had time to think about things, and to evaluate my personal preferences. It's time to mix things up. So today, I'm going to look at three potential Precons and weigh their pros and cons against each other and see what I can come up.

CHOICE 1: Commodore Guff

The Commander Masters Precon featuring Commodore Guff was the only one I actually bought from that set, and I did some upgrades to it. Less than 20 cards changed and it preformed remarkably well! Buffed up the Planeswalker count, added some support cards, and it was a pretty solid choice for a deck.

I've been playing it on and off since the summer for FNM, and people quickly came to recognize the threat it could possess if they allowed me to get up to speed. And I had quite a few different ways to win, from board wiping then rebuilding faster, to burning out my opponents with spells and Loyalty Abilities.

It's a good, solid deck, but I have observed a couple of problems with it. First is the lack of Instant Speed interaction. This deck is amazing and an utter powerhouse - on my turn. But like all good plans, my opponents get a say in things as well, and I can't depend on the good old standby of slapping some Swiftfoot Boots onto my Commander and calling it a day. In addition, Spark Rupture and The Immortal Sun are hard counters to my deck, meaning I need to include cards specifically to deal with them. Disenchant is amazing, but is only one card.

The problem becomes every card I need to protect my Planeswalkers is another card I'm not using to help me advance my game, and as previous Slow Grows have shown, I can be bad at making that judgement call about when to focus on that or when to keep advancing my game plan.

And for once, I won't have problems with the mana base! This deck is loaded with mana rocks, and the Commander makes dorks to help offset the expense of my other Planeswalkers. It's something I never had any troubles with in my playing of the deck, and I don't think I will have troubles with it this time around. Unlike last year. That was a goddamn mess of a mana base.

I can see myself playing it, but I'm not sure I can finish with it. It's very linear and once I put Guff down on the table, that's that. People know exactly what I'm doing and what's about to happen. They can plan for it, play around it, and in general, know what to do when I announce I'm running Planewalkers. And I don't want to give them that sort of advantage. Which leads to the next option....

CHOICE 2: Zaffai, Thunder Conductor

Please ignore the misprinting in the card, it was a known oopsie, and was corrected day 1 with Oracle Errata.

This IzzetPrismari deck from a couple of years... wait, has it been four years already? Urza, where does the time go? Anyway, this deck likes to throw its weight around. Sling spells with huge mana values, and from there build up a board state to win!

It can be better. It can be so much better.

You see, last year, I had an absolute blast rolling out with Balmor, Battlemage Captain for my Commander at FMN, and I was busy stomping people left right and center. In fact, here's the toned down version of the deck:

Pattern of Prowess

Commander / EDH berryjon

SCORE: 1 | 35 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

But this deck? This precon? The real powerhouse in the deck isn't Zaffi. It's this guy:

Veyran is an amazing Spellslinging Commander, and if I put in Guttersnipe, Young Pyromancer, Murmuring Mystic and Harmonic Prodigy on Week 2? And something else, like Ruby Medallion or Sapphire Medallion? The deck starts to become very terrifying when I get extra token, extra damage, and extra everything, just from slinging spells.

And there's a terrifying array of options to choose from for an Izzet Spellslinger. There's Niv-Mizzet, Parun, Najal, the Storm Runner, card:Mizzix of the Izmagus, Melek, Izzet Paragon, Kaza, Roil Chaser, Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer, Baral and Kari Zev, and even Adeliz, the Cinder Wind. Switching out 25 cards here to reduce the casting cost across the board from some of the ludicrous spells in here and you have the makings of a deck that can go wide on the board as well as ruin your opponents day in the same motion. Win-Lose-Lose-Lose! As long as I win, mind you.

Of course, there's almost too much in the way of options here. I need to pick a commander, and stick to it. Probably Veyran because he does so much already. After that, I need to stay focused on the sorts of spells I'm putting into the deck. Combat tricks? Disruption? Removal? Card Draw? There's a lot of things I could be doing, and note to self: If I do this, tell my brother I want my Cyclonic Rift extracted from my Niece's Reaper King deck for this, and I don't want to be overloaded with options. Perhaps I may just see what's coming down with the other players after Week 1 and decide from there.

On the other hand, this deck is going to require a lot of work. There's quite a few cards that need to come out, no matter what I do and which way I go, and prioritizing changes is going to be a weak-by-weak hassle. But I think I can do it. I know I can do it. If I go this way.

But even as I'm considering this and flipping through my cards for options to put into the deck, I came across my potential third deck. What if I went with...

CHOICE 3: Saheeli, the Gifted

This Planeswalker Commander is my least familiar as I never really played it back when I got it all those years ago. I was dumb-ish, and took Lord Windgrace into that Slow Grow and got my ass handed to me. But in the years since, in addition to being a Spellslinger, decks have improved their Artifact relations across the board. This is a good thing, as the deck makes Artifacts, and lots of them to swing at my opponent. The recent Ixlan set also includes an interesting series of options to add to the list of artifacts, and the possibility of switching my Commander out from the Planeswalker to Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance is always an option. Actually, probably a very good alternate and she should go into the deck anyways.

This deck rolls out with artifacts. Lots of artifacts. Pretty easy to go infinite artifacts. So let's not do that. Instead, improving the deck should focus around things like Foundry Inspector and Jhoira's Familiar to reduce costs, and the thought of copying my Wurmcoil Engine and getting tokens that stick around when the copy dies just brings a smile to my face.

But the real kicker is going to be stealing a card from the previous deck, and adding in a little something spicy. You see, there's this little card called Metallurgic Summonings in the precon, and while there may not be a lot of spells to be slung in the deck, it does pair quite nicely with one of the pulls from my Commander Master's Christmas present. Mechanized Production. People won't see the Constructs as the same thing because of their variable power and toughness so they might not notice I have 8 of them until it's too late.

Actually, that might be better as a backup play in the Spellslinger deck. But that would require more thought than I care to give it right now. And probably latter on.

But what artifacts to put into this deck if I'm going to focus on the copy effect? That's going to be the issue and again, a problem that only be solved by seeing what I'm going up against. Now, some things to great with ETB effects or LTB effects. Copy a Meteor Golem or the Wurmcoil Engine, and it's all value. Can't go wrong with that.

No Blightsteel Collossus though. I do have standards.

Of course, this deck is going to be very tempo based. I have to know what to copy, when, and how to best make use of my inevitable side-gig of having lots of Servos running around, because you know for sure, I'm running Saheeli, Sublime Artificer in this.

So, those are my three choices as well as some off-the-cuff musings about them. Please, comment below about the strengths and weaknesses of each, and what you thing I might be able to do with them. Or just suggest which one I should take directly and then watch me flaffle about like Jace trying to be intelligent.

Thank you all for tolerating my hiatus. Work was... work. I'll tell you that much, and I look forward to another year of talking to you all! And I love the feedback. I really do. Except the trolls they can go away.

Join me next week when I talk about something different. What it is, I don't know yet.

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!