R/w Devotion at FNM

CDW

 

He'll bring out the Fanatic in YOU!



        After my less than stellar performance at the Billings State Championships I took a break from magic and focused on the real priorities in life.  Family, church, friends etc. and it helped remove the funk I'd allowed myself to fall into. Last week I decided to return to my comfort zone in Red based aggro decks.  Almost every deck I've ever played in a competitive scene has featured red in it.  The GW I took to the States Championship was a completely new beast and my lack of familiarity with designing a deck based upon these colors and attitude set me up for failure. 

 

       The red deck I chose to bring with me to a tournament in Milwaukee, Oregon was Boros or R/w Devotion build. 

 

Boros Fanatics

 

 

 

 

Creatures:26

Rakdos Cacklerx4

Firedrinker Satyrx2

Ash Zealotx4

Burning-Tree Emmisaryx4

Chandra's Phoenix x4

Boros Reckonerx3

Fanatic of Mogis x4

Purphoros, god of the Forgex1

 

Spells:13

Chained to the Rocksx1

Magma Jetx4

Lightning Strikex4

Boros Charmx4

 

Lands:21

Sacred Foundryx4

Temple of Triumphx3

Plainsx2

Mountainsx12

 

 

Quick Analysis

 

        This particular Red Devotion design splashes white for access to Boros Charm and non-red removal in the form of Chained to the Rocks.   The charm protects the decks board presence and devotion count.  While Chained to the Rocks allows the deck to efficiently remove threats, such as Desecration demon or Master of Waves, which are immune to many of red's threats and removal.  No Mutavaults removed the possibility of missing a turn three reckoner. 

 

 

The Tournament

 

        The venue of choice was Epic Games. An excellent shop located in Milwaukee, Oregon.  Every opponent I faced was at least a solid player and if you are the type of player seeking a competitive environment, this could be a great home for you.   We had almost thirty attendees. 

Note:  While the match scores are completely accurate, I'm writing the games from memory so I apologize to my opponents if they stumble upon this and see an inaccuracy. 

 

Match 1:  Matched up against a relaxed gentleman named Bruce, running Rakdos or RB Aggro.  This was a straightforward match as I used a mixture of burn and Ash Zealots to control the board until I began dropping Phoenixes in both mathes.  Scoring 2-0 in my favor.

Match 2:   My Second round opponent's last name was Nishimoto.  He ran a Mono-Black Devotion variant that seemed to focus on using lifegain to stall and deal damage using Sanguine Bond.  Game 1 he flooded and I overran him with phoenixes, even after I had mulliganed down to five.  Game two he quickly stabilized between removal and a turn four Desecration demon.  The last game came down to a timely Boros Charm deflecting his Heroe's Downfall from killing Boros Reckoner, allowing the Reckoner and a Phoenix to swing in for five.  He never recovered from this loss in tempo and I won the game shortly thereafter.  Boros Devotion goes 2-1 this round. 



 

Match 3:  Round 3 was Mono-Black again!  My opponent's name was Chris Cech.   His version of Mono-black seemed even very removal heavy and relied only on Grey Merchant for life gain.  I took game one as Chris drew mostly lands and all of his copies of underworld connections.  Game two, was extremely close, but an early and active Erebos stonewalled and pressured me as his plethora of removal allowed him to begin to attack in.  The final game came down to Chris facing a difficult choice after I put him down to four life, the same as mine.  He had Erebos, Nightveil Specter and a Grey Merchant upon the field.  They were facing a single phoenix as a blocker.  He failed to draw a removal spell and spent five minutes pondering whether to go for it and risk one of the cards in my hand being a kill spell, which would leave me alive to swing back for lethal, or staying back and blocking.  Finally he decided to go for it and I showed him a hand with two lands.  An excellent match against a great opponent.  Loss 1-2. 

Match 4: I played a Mono-Blue Devotion deck piloted by Max.  There isn't much to report here as I had a slow hand game one and succumb to his flyers and game two I mulligan twice before getting stuck on one land and dying soon after.  Loss 0-2. 

Match 5:  The final game was against a GR Ramp deck.  The deck focused on using early land destruction to slow its opponents and ramp into huge threats.  However like most land destruction decks in Standard it fell short.  My opponent would draw a few good ramp creatures, such as sylvan caryatid.  Allowing him to destroy one of my lands early on.  However, agro decks do not require any significant amount of land to function and all his land slaying efforts did was allow me to build my board.  Boros Reckone was a beast both games killing Ember Swallowers and swinging past Caryatids.  A relatively easy 2-0 win. 

 

 

Results and Thoughts

 

        My 3-2 finish was good enough to net me seventh place and fifteen dollars in store credit.  A positive beginning, after my break.  A real eye opener was how much I've missed playing red based decks.  The deck was a solid contender, but we can do better.  I will be experimenting with many variants based upon R/w and will report their results in the future.  This coming week we'll be taking a step into a Let's Build X article where I will select an underplayed or interesting card and build an aggro deck around it.  The card we will be examining is Lyev Skyknight, for you Azorius fans. 

 

 













Theros: Creatures of Interest

CDW

Epic...that is all.

        It's time to take a break from all the Golgari chatter.  Today Tallen is going to be discussing several of the interesting creatures brought to us by Theros.   And how they bring new tools to the aggro player.  Let's get into the red zone!  

        Whew...feeling a little warm under the collar for this one.  A 2/1 for one mana is pretty solid.  But this isn't new, considering Dryad Militant is a 2/1 as well.  However, our little soldier has some skills.  He's a one drop with protection from MULTICOLORED.  Yep, not just from creatures, our brave little man dodges any multicolored removal as well, with the bonus of gaining us extra life.  This is incredibly useful in a format filled with powerful multi-colored cards from the Return to Ravnica sets.  Is he a Champion of the Parish?  No, but he is incredibly powerful in his own way, giving white decks a great one drop for the future.

        An admission must be made.  Upon first glance this is a solid 3/3 for two mana and I wondered how this was any better than a Call of the Conclave.  Thankfully I read on and saw his monstrous affects.  Well, hello there... hexproof and indestructible 4/4.    This cat is a control player's nightmare.  The only cards or abilities capable of interacting with a monstrous Fleecemane Lion are sacrificial effects.  This card will see play in many G/W aggro decks.  

        Let's change it up a bit with a non-white card.  I love this guy, period.  If someone thought I was a fan of the previous creatures then you need to be enlightened.  I'm a black/red player at heart.  They are two of the most destructive and aggressive colors in Magic.  They are the essence of aggro, in my opinion.  So how can we use this guy?  First his sacrificial ability is very good for two mana.  Experienced aggro players know there comes a time in a game where you can get stalled out.  Tymaret allows your creatures to have value, even if the opponent has great blockers, such as Boros Reckoner on the field.  Ideal sacrificial targets are early game creatures, such as Rakdos Cackler and Spike Jester.  Both lose their great value as the game progresses and Tymaret let's each deal a last, spiteful, two damage, to help end the game.  His second ability is not as impressive, but a recursion affect with a steep cost can be useful in certain situations.  All in all I really like the tools he brings to my favorite colors.  

        Narnia fans, Tumnus is back and armed!  Boon Satyr has great potential in aggro-tempo decks.  Flash let's our satyr move at instant speed.  Allowing him to dodge board wipe affects, a desirable ability.  He's a 4 power creature for three mana cost and his Bestow mechanic can enhance other creatures. Should your opponent kill the enchanted creature, you still have a  4/2 satyr to work with.  Allowing us to avoid a two for one card loss.  Boon Satyr should find its way into several card slots in decks using green spells, especially the mono-green archetype.  

        One word to describe this creature, potential.  The fiery adept has potential with the good number of scry spells released by Theros.  She will likely find a home in a blue/red tempo deck, due to these colors having access to some of the best scry spells.   Two great examples of scry spells are voyage's end and magma jet.  Flamespeaker Adept is not for every deck, but in a deck built around her, like tempo, she will be able to exert a great deal of pressure on the opponent.  

          Hopefully this post has your aggro minds whirring with ideas and  teaches us to pay close attention to the less hyped cards before a new set is released.  We aggro players need to analyze our options to find the new workhorse creatures to build our game plan around.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Golgari Brew with a side of Theros

CDW

Proof that ugly can be awe inspiring!

        I'm excited.  I can't lie. I'm loving the process of brewing this deck.  This is not just because the Golgari Guild (green/black) is my favorite guild from the Ravnica set.  It's my own personal brew, inspired by several new cards from the coming Theros set.  Similar to a father's loves for his child, I'm fond of my original ideas.  However, there is no evidence the deck idea is effective in competitive play.  Matter of fact the deck was just conceived today.  Following the parent and child metaphor, this deck needs to learn to crawl before it can walk. So let's build this love child from the ground up.  This post will start with the deck concept, discuss the creatures available and analyze the benefits they bring.

        Before we begin, some may be wondering why you should care about my personal deck that isn't even play tested nor used in a competitive setting.  Here's a quick list as to why you should care.

1. We love the Golgari Guild's exotic background and the flavor of its creatures and want to see a potentially good creature deck based around these its colors.  
2. You enjoy brewing decks and originality as much as I do.
3. We want a competitive beater deck, similar to big mono-green decks.  But, has access to more flexibility.  
4. New cards from Theros will be featured in this deck and their potential will be discussed.  
5. You too love decks with graveyard interactions.  

Brewing: Golgari Wilds (Post-Theros Rotation)

Concept:  Bring resilient creatures, the ability to recycle them and flexible removal as only the green/black color combination can.

Step One: This blog is called Creature Deck Wins and we need a solid core, featuring the best green/black  has to offer.

The Creature Core:              
Elvish Mystic
Kalonian Tusker
Lolteth Troll
Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Witchstalker
Reaper of the Wilds
Nylea, god of the hunt or Desecration Demon

        Let's start with the one mana cost creatures and work our way up.  Our first candidate is the Elvish Mystic, an excellent addition for the early game ramp into our quality three and four drops.  For the two drop slot we have Kalonian Tusker, an effecient beater and excellent scavenge target.  His fellow two drop, Lolteth Troll is a resilient beater that turns irrelevant creature draws into counters for him and sets up future scavenging targets for Varolz, the Scar-Striped. Varolz turns our graveyard into a resource.  His ability grants scavenge to our dead creatures.  Allowing even the smallest elf to become a threat and turning our bigger beaters into overwhelming threats.  Witchstalker may seem like a sideboard card, but a hexproof 3/3 with the ability to take advantage of opponents playing black or blue spells on our turn is very strong.  He works well with Varolz as a powerful creature to scavenge on to.

        Ah the four drops, our first contestant hails from the plane of Theros and was a key player for inspiring this brew.  let's begin with the Reaper of the Wilds.  I scry whenever a creature dies?  Seems good.  Oh she has death touch?  How thematic.  And hexproof? Seriously? Wow, 3 solid abilities, and a sexy 4/5 body on top of that? For four mana! I think Varolz just found his girl.  Let's summarize what this new gorgon brings to the deck.

1.  Less dead draw steps with her scry ability.

2. difficult to block and attack into, thanks to her tough body and death touch.

3. Hard to remove with hexproof.  She's a great late game draw, when six mana is available.

        Our final two card options for the creature core.  She-Hulk...I mean Nylea, god of the Hunt and the blasphemous Desecration Demon.  Both bring viable tools to Golgai Wilds.  let's compare the two.

Nylea's Pros:

• An indestructible and 6/6 body?  Appropriate for the Magic She-Hulk.  
• Grants our creatures a way to get damage though with trample.  
• Has a nice bonus ability to buff our other creatures. 
• She's a steal at four mana for what she gives us.
• A great creature to scavenge onto or from.      

Nylea's Cons:

• Reliant on devotion to become a creature.
• Done!  (Well I could for hexproof, but that would be extremely greedy.)

Desecration Demon's Pros:

• He works out at the same gym as Nylea coming in with a huge 6/6 body of his own.  
• Possesses evasion in the form of flying.  
• Great attrition creature with his sacrifice ability.
• Great cost to power ratio at four mana.
• Another great creature to scavenge from.  

Desecration Demon's Cons:

• His sacrifice ability can be to our detriment.  
• He's vulnerable to "destroy target creature spells."

Verdict?  

       WOW!  These two creatures are value with a capital "V" a majority of the time.  Making the decision of choosing between the two incredibly difficult.  Nylea is a great team player with the deck and relies on us having a good board, so her devotion activates.  Her ability to grant a +2/+2 buff to a creature is a reasonable mana sink and fits with her role as a beater and team player.  Desecration Demon is strong as an independent card.  An scenario where he is potentially stronger than Nylea is when the opponent plays a destroy all creatures spell to wreck our board.  Making him a significantly better follow up than Nylea.   Reaper of the Wilds has a small crush on him as his sacrifice ability synergises well with her scrying activation.  He's more vulnerable to removal than Nylea though.   Honestly the choice between the two will be meta and deck build dependent.   So I'm going to test the deck with only Nylea or the demon.  Then try out both in the deck.  I have some misgivings about putting the demon into the same deck, because he doesn't add to her devotion count.  Play testing is a necessity for this decision.

Here's a list of other creatures we could or will see added to the final decklist.

Creature Possibilities:
Deathrite Shaman
Gladecover Scout
Gyre Sage
Scavenging Ooze
Lifebane Zombie
Dreg Mangler
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Polukranos, World Eater
Erebos, god of the Dead
Kalonian Hydra

      Look for the next post, where we'll discuss the deck's instant, sorcery and enchantment/artifact choices.   Once its finished a look at the current deck list will be taken next week, after testing.  And remember boys/girls to smile whenever a control player rages.

Brewing at CDW

 CDW

What gender is the one in the middle? Seriously. 

        That's right, Tallen is going to be doing some mental aerobics in conjunction with his physical workouts to prepare for the next FNM, at his local card shop.  FNM (Friday Night Magic.) for the new people, is a gathering of players looking to take a break from the rigors of the week to play Magic.  The ultimate goal of this event is to gain new players, keep the old ones interested and enjoy Magic as a community.  Speaking of community, the deck I'm going to be testing for this coming Friday's tournament is based around preserving my community of high powered, under costed and aggressive creatures.  This will be the first of a two article series.  The first is a pre-Theros brew that involves two of competitive Standard's least beloved planeswalkers.  The second will be my take on a post-Theros deck.  Utilizing the cards spoiled so far.

Deck: G/Walker Aggro (Pre-Theros Rotation)

Creatures:16
Experiment Onex4
Elvish Mysticx3
Imposing Sovereignx4
Loxodon Smiterx4

Other Spells:17
Call of the conclavex4
Selesnya Charmx4
Rootborn Defensex2
Read/Willingx2
Advent of the Wurmx4
Oblivion Ringx2

Planeswalkers:6
Ajani, Caller of the Pridex3
Gideon, Champion of Justicex3

Lands:
Godless Shrinex4
Overgrown tombx3
woodland cemetaryx1
Temple Gardenx4
Selesnya Guildgatex1
Forestsx4
Plainsx5

      Competitive players, you just had a reaction.   Big or small you had it.  "Tallen..." you say.  "Where's Voice of Resurgence in your two drop slot?"  It's the ultimate green/white card right?  It makes a token whenever your opponent plays a spell on your turn.  This token's power and toughness are equal to the number of creatures you have on the battlefield.  Which is a huge boon to creature based decks.  So why isn't it here?  Well ,as Harry Potter learned, power comes with a price and the price tag retailers have decided to put our elemental deer at is over $30.00.  Now without going into a rant about how overpriced the Voice is let's look at why I chose to avoid it here.

 

       Taking center stage ,at the two drop slot, in place of Voice of Resurgence, is the Imposing Sovereign.  This tiny human has a major board effect that favors aggro strategies.  Tapped creatures can't block and allows the deck to get its early beats in without resistance.  The Sovereign's ability is also crippling against other aggressive decks' creatures.  Forcing their creatures to come into play tapped means not only can they not block, but their haste creatures cannot attack the turn they enter play.  Giving us the edge in a race scenario, where the goal is to get them down to zero life first.   Against any deck running creatures Imposing Sovereign will often have a valid role. This is the main reason I'm running it over the Voice, beside the fiscal cost.  

       Next let's do an analysis of G/Walker Aggro.  The deck is comprised of many high power for their cost creatures, with  access to the cards to ramp into them (Elvish Mystic) and protect them (Rootborn Defense, Ready/Willing.)  Allowing the pilot to ride the deck's efficient beaters to victory.  Despite its very direct approach G/Walkers has access to a certain level of subtle play.  There are a total of twelve instants in the deck which is pretty high for an aggro deck.  Allowing you to respond to your opponents plays and maintain your strong board position.  A great example is the oddball choice of Ready/Willing.  This is a powerful combat trick that can allow us to gain life and make great trades with opposing creatures. Or allow us to play offense and defense with its ability to untap our creatures, oh and they are indestructible blockers as well.  The deck has access to two Oblivion Rings as well to enhance the its flexibility.

        A significant difference you'll see in this deck from other green and white decks is the use of Ajani, Caller of the Pride and Gideon, Champion of Justice.  These two planeswalkers have seen little to no use in major competitive events.  They are also the two of the most aggressive planeswalkers in standard.  Ajani's minus ability is an amplified silverblade paladin ability.  Turning one of your creatures into a flying, double striking beater and Gideon is an indestructible creature who can become massive with his plus one ability.
        Like many I had almost zero interest in these two planeswalkers because their abilities are somewhat underwhelming on their own.  Paying three mana for just one +1/+1 counter isn't impressive at all in Ajani's case and Gideon's plus one is dependent on your opponent's board.  However Craig Wescoe, a well known pro-player, who specializes in white aggro decks has started showing them in different builds he's preparing for Theros.  His articles made made me want to try these two planeswalker pariahs,  in my own build. Now let's stop and summarize what they bring inside of a vacuum.
               
                   Ajani Pros:                                                          

• He's cheap at 3 mana. He makes big creatures bigger.  
• His minus ability grants evasion and massive potential damage output.  
• His final ability can break open a game if allowed to go off.  

                  Ajani Cons:

• Weak plus one ability.
• His second ability makes him easy to kill.
• His final ability is near impossible to pull off.  

               

                Gideon Pros:

• Can easily become a 6/6 or 7/7 with his first ability, for four mana.   
• Povides an indestructible attacker with his second ability.
• Similar to Ajani, if he's allowed to use his third ability it's game over.
• dodges wrath effects and most removal.

                  Gideon Cons:

• His size depends on your opponents field.  
• Cannot block.
• His final ability should never happen.

       So the key factors both planeswalkers bring to the deck is the ability to attack your opponent from different angles and present different kinds of threats to your opponent.  Ajani is similar to a double barrel shotgun.  You use him the turn he lands to deal massive damage to your opponent and anything else he does is gravy.  If your opponent leaves him alone then they can take a second round from an Ajani powered creature.  Should your opponent decide to kill Ajani this means they wasted time on him and you can continue to beat in on the opponent.  Gideon dodges wraths and is a hard to deal with attacker, which is great if the game goes late.  Remember this lesson aggro players, attack from multiple angles.  Many of the most successful aggro decks in Standard have been able to achieve consistent Top 8 results because they are designed to have more than one attack vector and ways to deal damage.  A great example of this Philosophy is the Junk Aristocrats deck run by Brad Nelson back in June.  The deck has many ways to attack the opponent's life total.  Either through tried and true combat damage, blood artist triggers, multiple forms of evasion or resilient threats.   Junk Aristocrats found the way to get at the opponent's life total.  

        Junk aristocrats is rotating this month with the coming of Theros.  However its example should be followed by all aggro pilots and deck creators looking to make a Top 8.   This brew is definitely still in its infancy, but I will be testing it this coming week and be back with my thoughts, changes and results.    

       Good luck this coming Friday my fellow aggro players.  If your opponents rage about losing to a "brainless" aggro deck then you should smile.  Because you know the truth about good aggro decks. 

(All credit goes to Mr. Wescoe, for being willing to give Ajani and Gideon a chance in competitive play.)

       

       

Welcome to CDW

CDW 

Welcome to My Stomping Grounds

        Now you might be here wondering what is CDW?  This blog is about, the competitive card game, Magic the Gathering (MTG.)  Here I, Tallen, will be bringing you news of my adventures and experiences delving into the aggro strategies of Magic.  Now for those new to Magic, aggro is a deck strategy that focuses on using aggressive and cheap creatures to deal as much early damage as possible before using a combination of damage spells or bigger creatures to close out the game. 

        So wait what does CDW mean?  CDW is my personal acronym/motto and stands for Creature Deck Wins.  All of my competitive decks focus on a creature based synergy or strategy to win the game.  I'm an incredibly impatient player when it comes to Magic.  I want to get right to the action of attacking and trading blows with my opponents. This has driven me away from the control and midrange deck types and straight into the arms of aggro.  So if you're a new or experienced player, who loves the creatures in the game or the idea of coming at your opponent 150 mph, then this is the blog for you.

        Now that's enough of the introduction.  You want to see some new or different takes on aggro decks.  So let's begin.   I'll be showing a sort of intro deck to the aggro archetype that seems fitting to this intro post for CDW.  It is also a pretty good budget deck for new aggro players looking to start their competitive journey.

Deck: Emissary's Chant (Post-Theros Rotation)

Creatures:28
Experiment Onex4
Rakdos Cacklerx4
Burning Tree Emissaryx4                                         
Gore-house chainwalkerx4
Brushstriderx4
Chandra's Phoenix x4
Ghor-Clan Rampagerx4

Enchantments:4
Gruul Warchantx4

Instants:8
shockx4
Magma Jetx4

Sorceries:3
mizzium mortarsx3

Lands:20
Forests x7
Mountains x9
Stomping Groundsx4

        This deck is heavily influenced by Craig Wescoe's post rotation Gruul aggro deck ( Found Here.)  It comes in at less than one hundred dollars, assuming you own none of these cards and the only expensive part is the dual lands.  This is a blitz deck that is able to establish a large board presence by turn 3.   You have access to eleven forms of removal and magma jet allows you to set up your draws with it's scry 2 rule, allowing the deck to keep up its momentum and provide less outs for your opponent by you missing a necessary land drop, finding that key burn spell, or drawing an unnecessary land.

        The most obvious synergy in the deck is the turn two Burning-Tree Emissary into a Brushstrider or Gore-House Chainwalker.  These two creatures supply three power for two mana to the board.  Assuming you had a turn one play you will have seven total power on board turn two with a Rakdos Cackler    or eight if you played a turn one Experiment One.  This followed by a turn three haste driven phoenix or burn spell will allow you to have your opponent at less then half of their life total if they are a control or most midrange decks.


        The biggest divergences from Mr. Wescoe's Gruul (red/green) deck is the inclusion of Chandra's Phoenix and Gruul War chant.  Chandra's Phoenix gives your deck a form of consistent evasion that your damage spells can bring back to your hand if you are forced to block with it or an opponent uses a boardwipe effect.  Having haste is relevant as well so you can continue to pressure the opponent on turn three and if the opponent's deck has few fliers Chandra's pet can freely chip away at his/her's life total.  

        Gruul War Chant is a $.25 uncommon that has yet to make a big splash in the competitive scene of magic.  However smart aggro players will be constantly developing new strategies to combating the defenses other decks will be preparing against us and this card has some interesting tools to offer.  The first tool the Chant brings is evasion.  Forcing your opponent into bad blocks is always a good thing for an aggro deck.  You will often find against control or midrange decks that they usually will only have one or at best two blockers on the field after turn three, while this deck often has more than double this amount.  Dropping the chant on turn four means that most if not all of our board can get through and bring the opponent right into burn range.  Now four mana for a bit of conditional evasion isn't worth the investment.  But, thankfully the chant brings a second tool to the table in the form of a +1 to attacking power of your creatures.  Allowing our creatures to trade up if they need to block or get in the extra damage provided by the chant's evasion to end the game.

        Now let's be clear here.  Emissary's Chant isn't a tier one deck.  As I noted before discussing it.  The deck is a cheap way to get into competitive magic with an aggro deck.  I would rank it at as FNM (Friday Night Magic) tournament worthy.  The decks is fast, has a great early game, punishes bad or questionable hands kept by the opposition and can finish the game by turn 5.  But is susceptible to decks with a great deal of early removal, board wipes if its pilot over commits and will have issues if the game goes too long.

        Still, if you are the kind of player who loves creatures and gets an adrenaline rush when you see fear in the opponent's eyes, after you just hit them for tons of damage on turn three.  Then to you I say welcome...

Welcome to CDW!