Bad Deck Baz Presents IT'S A TRAP!

Hello and welcome to the first of three Bad Deck Baz posts. Baz, also known as ThatDamnAussie from Twitter, has happily made three decks for me to play that are all, in their own way, terrible, but are also very interesting to play. I'm happy that he's been very creative in the theme rather than 40 5-7 drops and 20 lands and calling it a 'bad' deck.

The first deck, as featured in the previous post, is U/R Trap Control, or as Baz calls it:

IT'S A TRAP!

A “Bad Deck Baz” Deck

9 Island

11 Mountain

4 Scalding Tarn

3 Goblin Artillery

3 Reckless Scholar

3 Runeflare Trap

2 Lethargy Trap

2 Mindbreak Trap

4 Lavaball Trap

2 Whiplash Trap

4 Inferno Trap

4 Trapmaker's Snare

2 Trapfinder's Trick

3 Burning Inquiry

2 Chandra Ablaze

2 Quest for Ancient Secrets

Sideboard 

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Jace Beleren

3 Font of Mythos

2 Pyromancer Ascension

1 Runeflare Trap

1 Burning Inquiry

1 Chandra Ablaze

1 Mindbreak Trap

This deck has a lot of cool interactions, and yet still manages to be outmatched. As I was quick to find out, Chandra or Runeflare Trap was my only hope of ever winning.

EVER.

Round 1: IT'S A TRAP for Boros Bushwhacker!

He curves out fast, Goblin Guide, 2 Geopedes and a Skyfisher. To match this armada, I have a Goblin Artillery, which is a bit like shooting yourself in the foot so someone else doesn't do it for you. I quickly fall to 7 life, then to 1. His creatures overwhelm me, though it's worth saying if I had another mana I could have played Lethargy Trap to live another turn.

Game 2 I Bolt his Steppe Lynx and drop an Artillery to match his Skyfisher. I kill 3 guys of his in one turn, blocking a Vanguard, shooting another, and Inferno Trapping the third (which he Paths to find a land). He drops some more guys, and I shoot them. He Paths my Artillery and starts pinging me with a Geopede. I hold on a bit longer, but he burns me out.

0-1

Round 2: IT'S A TRAP for Sigil of the Empty Throne.dec!

He drops Sunspring Expedition and Ardent Plea into Trace of Abundance. He gets a Sigil of the Empty Throne, I get Reckless Scholar. Numerous 4/4 angels beat a lone 2/1 looter. Who knew?

Game 2 he drops a Luminarch Ascension. I am literally unable to apply pressure, and am slaughtered in 4 minutes according to the time logs.

0-2

Round 3: IT'S A TRAP for Conley's Land Destruction!

Game 1 he plays a Turn 2 Lotus Cobra. I know this will not end well. He gains approximately seventeen thousand lands next turn, and kicks a Mold Shambler. Fortunately it's his third spell of the turn, so I tutor up a Mindbreak Trap to stop it. I get stuck on 3 land. He drops an Acidic Slime. I ask if he has any more LD, he reveals a second Mold Shambler, and I scoop it up.

Game 2 is a lot better.  He drops double Khalni Heart to my nothing. His Ruinblasters do very little against my all-basic-and-fetch deck. He drops Lotus Cobra. I try to bolt it, and he sacrifices his Khalni Hearts. Four hours later, my Bolt resolves to kill his Cobra after he gets about five lands. He drops an Acidic Slime, and I Mindbreak Trap an Ob Nixilis. I use Inferno Traps and trades to take out his guys, and Snare into a Mindbreak Trap to take a Rampaging Baloths.

We have a back and forth until I run out of counters and removal. He then Violent Ultimatums me to 4 lands, then again next turn to 1 land. Yeah, that'll do it.

0-3

Round 4: IT'S A TRAP for Grixis Control!

The first game went by fast. He dropped a Turn 3 Blightning, Turn 4 Blightning, and Turn 6 Sphinx of Jwar Isle, a creature to which I literally have no answer except for double Lavaball Trap. (Yeah.) I do a pathetic attempt at racing, but the Sphinx crushes me.

Game 2 he gets Sedraxis Specter and Blightning. I scoop my brains back in and start to fight back. I drop the key to this whole match: Chandra. Unlike Jund or other Pulse-endowed decks, Grixis Control has no way to kill a planeswalker outside of combat damage.  I make us both draw two, and he Bolts Chandra.

What was that I said earlier? I meant to say "Except for Lightning Bolt."

I do a killer Inquiry, discarding two lands and Whiplash Trap to his tri-land, Terminate, and Sphinx (yes!). He gets double unearth on Specters, I tutor up a Lethargy Trap and use it. I drop another Chandra to draw 3. I bolt his counterattacking Specter, and Inferno Trap when he unearths the Specter. He drops Vampire Nighthawk and I tutor for a trap to kill it with. I then drop Jace, empty my hand, draw three with Chandra, and draw with Jace.

I love planeswalkers.

He uses Blightning to take down Chandra. I start powering Jace up, noticing he only has about 25 cards in his deck by now. If I can mill him that's gg. I want to steal one game with this deck. He uses Magma Phoenix to drop Jace to 5. I'm forced to kill it, and Jace goes to 4. Sedraxis Specter drops him to 2, but all the card-draw has worked in a different way. I drop him from 16 to 9 with Runeflare Trap at EOT, then Reckless Scholar attacks, then Runeflare Trap him again for the win. Random!

Game 3 he gets Blightning, I get Reckless Scholar. The Scholar, like the Looter, actually just wins games if left unchecked: which people always do. Turn 6 he plays Sphinx of Jwar Isle. Remember him? That card I have no answer to? I changed my mind. I have one answer. RACE HIM. I declare in the chat that I will race that 5/5 flier and win.

I then drop Chandra Ablaze. Game on. 

I get her to 6 counters to drop my opponent to 16. He hits me to 11 and drops a Nighthawk. I draw a card with the Scholar and EOT Bolt it. He uses Double Negative. I Snare for an Inferno Trap and use that to kill it in my turn. And by 'use it to kill it' I mean that I pitch it to Chandra for an identical effect. (7 counters). He drops Chandra to 2 counters with the Sphinx. I drop a Jace, drawing a card which I then pitch to take him down to 12 life.

He slaughters Jace with a single blow. I then pitch another card to Chandra. I'm looting all this time, which is the only reason I keep drawing red cards. He's on 8 life. He then makes a big misplay, by knocking me down to 6 and not killing Chandra. I guess he fears a lot of burn.

I then think for a moment. The card in my hand is Lightning Bolt. There's no point looting since it's the best card in my deck to hold at that moment. So instead, I throw it at his face and then go down to 2 with Chandra to draw three. I draw a Lightning Bolt and Inferno Trap. Oh yeah.

He then swings me to 1, and then plays Nighthawk and Magma Phoenix. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're ever in the position of having lethal damage next turn regardless of whether or not you kill a planeswalker this turn, kill it. Else you might just lose to a Baz deck :p

I drop him to 2 with bolt, untap, and pitch the Inferno Trap. GOOD. GAME.

1-3.

And that's IT'S A TRAP! in all it's glory. Join me next time as we preview Blisters on Your Fingers and try to get a certain Merfolk up to godly sizes.

See you!

Miniseries Series 1: W/U Control Part 1

Welcome to the first installment of the Miniseries Series. The topic for this miniseries will be W/U Control. We'll be studying what makes it tick, then make and test a deck based on the concept. So let's get into the theory of W/U Control, shall we?

The Foundations


Control is a form of Magic deck that focuses on stopping any card the opponent plays, and then using a big finisher to seal things up. It's the exact opposite of Aggro, which aims to win before the deck sets up. Control isn't too powerful these days thanks to Cascade and it's barrage of card advantage, but it's worth a try anyway.

The reason W/U Control is popular is because blue has card advantage and counterspells while White can deal with all kinds of permanent except lands. Essentially it makes for a combination that's consistent and has very few holes.

Analysing Past W/U Control Decks


Arguably the most famous W/U control deck is a deck made by Zvi Mowshowitz, known as The Solution. In an aggro-filled metagame, he metagamed perfectly to come up with the following control deck that decimated the field.

60 cards 4  Coastal Tower 10  Island 10  Plains 24 lands 4  Crimson Acolyte 4  Galina's Knight 4  Meddling Mage 4  Stormscape Apprentice 4  Voice of All 20 creatures 4  Absorb 4  Exclude 4  Fact or Fiction 4  Repulse 16 other spells

Sideboard 2  Aura Blast 3  Crusading Knight 4  Disrupt 3  Gainsay 3  Pure Reflection 15 sideboard cards

So what can we learn from this?

The Metagamed Cards: Crimson Acolyte and Galina's Knight were certainly there for a very specific solution. The key here is that sometimes the metagame allows for such things.

Modern Application: Celestial Purge. Most Standard decks run targets for this card and some decks now run 2 maindeck.

The Cantrips: Exclude and Repulse were certainly there for a reason. The ability to stop something the opponent played and draw a card was excellent, even if it only stopped it temporarily. The deck could then draw into more answers.

Modern Application: There actually aren't that many good cantrips in Standard at the moment, so we need to gain card advantage through our spells, like Day of Judgement.

Fact or Fiction: One of the best cards ever in Standard, this card is a machine.

Modern Application: Mind Spring. With enough mana, this card can totally turn a game around.

The one thing this deck did NOT have was a big finisher: but against a field where the best decks all ran red, it was only a matter of time before Zvi's protection creatures made it through.

Lessons Learnt: A control deck should have answers, card advantage, and a way to close the game. It should have a way to gain tempo and gain incremental advantage over the opponent. The metagame is also important. In a more balanced metagame this deck might not do so well (though aggro decks were weaker back then).

The next deck we shall look at is an Extended deck: W/U Urzatron. This is also a more current deck, legal and active in Extended just a few months ago.

Maindeck:

Artifacts
4 Azorius Signet
2 Chalice Of The Void
2 Chrome Mox
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod's Crypt

Artifact Creatures
2 Sundering Titan

Creatures
3 Exalted Angel
4 Meddling Mage

Instants
3 Condescend
3 Fact Or Fiction (Restricted in Vintage)
4 Thirst For Knowledge

Sorceries
2 Decree Of Justice
4 Wrath Of God

Lands
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Skycloud Expanse
4 Tolaria West
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower

Legendary Lands
1 Academy Ruins

Sideboard:
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Leyline Of The Void
3 Threads Of Disloyalty
3 Disenchant
2 Mindslaver
1 Academy Ruins

So what do we have here?

The Urzatron lands are the biggest thing. Rather than gain incremental card advantage, this deck seeks a Spell Burst lock: able to generate enough mana to continue to buy back Spell Burst repeatedly and stop the opponent from ever doing anything.

Modern Application: Standard doesn't really have a hard lock at the moment, unfortunately.

Big Spells: This deck operates under a paradigm that we have to in the new Standard: If you tap out, it doesn't matter if what you play is more powerful than whatever the opponent will play. Decree of Justice was usually Cycled, but Sundering Titan and Wrath of God fell under these categories.

Modern Application: Baneslayer Angel. Sphinx of Jwar Isle...they both operate under the tap-out theory.

Card Advantage: The deck ran lots of instant-speed card advantage: one of the reasons Control is fading today.

Modern Application: None

Lastly, we shall look at another Standard deck.

Threats 1 Yosei, the Morning Star 1 Keiga, the Tide Star 1 Debtor’s Knell 3 Jötun Grunt Card Drawing 3 Gifts Ungiven 3 Telling Time General Control 3 Counterbalance 4 Sensei's Divining Top  4 Hinder 3 Rewind

Control vs Aggro 4 Wrath of God 3 Cover of Winter 3 Condemn Land 4 Scrying Sheets 4 Boreal Shelf 4 Hallowed Fountain 2 Ghost Quarter 4 Snow-Covered Plains 6 Snow-Covered Island

Sideboard 3 Jester’s Cap 3 Pithing Needle 3 Jester’s Scepter 3 Evacuation 1 Jötun Grunt 2 Mouth of Ronom

This deck is from 2006's Standard. It features so many powerful cards that there's little wonder that it was so powerful.

Counterbalance: Naturally, this is so degenerate that it's even in Legacy (though in a format where few spells surpass 3 mana it is more powerful) and in Standard is just amazing. This is of course combined with Sensei's Divining Top which allowed a lot of free counterspells.

Modern Application: Unfortunately none.

Big Finishers: Keiga and Yosei were both great cards. They operated under the tap-out theory mentioned earlier. If your turn is better than their turn, you can tap out.

Cover of Winter: This card essentially stops all aggressive moves until you have complete control of the game. It was an amazing card. It truly is very very strong.

Modern Application: Luminarch Ascension. If you can get this to activate, you essentially win.

Gifts Ungiven: The card that made so many decks tick. You essentially got two of the four best spells in your deck. Absolute gold.

Modern Application: None.

So what have we learnt from our analysis?

We've learnt that control decks need either card advantage or card quality advantage to win.

We've learnt that control decks usually establish incremental advantages before taking complete control.

We've learnt that control decks can take as much time as they like to kill you.

So join me tomorrow as we build a W/U Control deck from scratch in Standard, and then Thursday we'll see how it fares!

Editor's Note: Due to the miniseries' schedule, Fetch A Shockland will be going up on Friday, not Thursday.

See you tomorrow!

Zendikar Decks Part III: W/B/R Control

Hello everyone and welcome to Zendikar Decks Part III! Today's deck is W/B/R Control. Here's the decklist I chose to run:

Lands (26)

4 Arid Mesa
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Marsh Flats
4 Mountain
5 Plains
5 Swamp

Creatures (4)

4 Baneslayer Angel

Spells (30)

3 Ajani Vengeant
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Day of Judgement
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Martial Coup
3 Path to Exile
4 Sign in Blood
3 Terminate
4 Volcanic Fallout

Sideboard:

3 Blightning
4 Celestial Purge
4 Deathmark
1 Martial Coup
2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Path to Exile

I hopped on MWS to do battle.

Round 1 vs. Naya

Unfortunately I lost the notes for this match. I lost, but it went to 3 games. It was his bombs vs. my removal, and in Games 1 and 3 he drew better, and in Game 2 I drew better.

0-1

Round 2 vs. Jund Landfall Ramp

He plays a Turn 2 Lotus Cobra, which I Terminate. I lay a Chandra, and he gets a Harrow / Khalni Heart combo to put loads of land in play. I bolt an Ob Nixilis, and lay Ajani. I then have a fully charged Chandra. The game is over quickly as my planeswalkers burn him out.

Game 2 we play land-go for a while until I drop Ajani. He drops Ob Nixilis. I bolt it and start building up Ajani. He plays Broodmate Dragon. I Day of Judgement and get to 7 counters on Ajani. He Earthquakes for 7. Must be nice...

I drop Chandra and start building THAT up. He plays Baloths and Harrow for 14 power of dudes. I Day of Judgement again and build up to 8 counters on Chandra. I win next turn.

1-1

Round 3 vs. Mill.dec

He plays Birds of Paradise, I play Sign in Blood. He plays Grazing Gladehart. I'm confused. When in doubt, kill it. So I Volcanic Fallout. I drop Ajani, he drops Lotus Cobra and a fetch. Damn it. He plays a Khalni Gem. It could be worse. He kills Ajani next turn. I drop another one to kill Lotus Cobra. He Traumatizes me. Ow. I start building up Ajani, but he Archive Traps me, and then Trapmaker's Snares for Archive Trap #2. I  lose.

Game 2 I manage to get stuck on 2 land and he gets a Lotus Cobra. He Mind Funerals me, and plays Grazing Gladehart before I draw into red and manage to bolt the Cobra. He Traumatizes me. I Blightning him but he's gaining lots of life off Gladehart. He Traumatizes me again, and then searches for an Archive Trap a few turns later, still sittin' pretty at over 15 life.

1-2

Round 4 vs. Valakut Burn

He starts out with a Goblin Guide, revealing no lands several times. I Sign In Blood to find more land, but my life's plummeting. I manage to Path the Guide and play a Baneslayer, and he Lightning Bolts + Fallouts it. He lays Valakut and Bolts me to single-digits. This is NOT good. I fail to draw any stabilising cards, and die quickly.

This game made me want to kill myself painfully. He starts out with double Quest for Pure Flame and starts dropping burn creatures like Hellspark and Ball Lightning. I Path, Purge or Terminate each one of them. This continues for a LONG time but I can't draw a finisher, despite siding more in. Eventually he drops a Valakut and burns me to death. I didn't have any way of dealing with burn besides attacking with Baneslayer. Number of finishers in the deck: 8. Number of cards I drew in that game: 20ish.

1-3

Salivanth's Rating: 1.5/5
Matches Won x2: 2/8

Score: 3.5

This deck is terrible. I don't give it a one because when it did get the mana right, against a creature deck, it was hard to beat. All control decks should be though. The deck has several flaws:

Lack of ability to close the game. I should have added Luminarch Ascension.

Bad mana. This is a 2-color or shard based format. Even 4 colors are better than 3 enemy colors. Seriously. Don't play with an arc deck. It WILL FAIL.

Total inability to deal with non-permanents. This is not good in a deck that needs to be able to answer everything the opponent plays.

Do not play this deck, for the love of god. If you're desperate for a control deck I'll make another one, but don't play this one!

See you tomorrow with Warp World!

Zendikar Decks Part II

I promised in my original Zendikar Decks article here that I'd eventually flesh out these decks. Now is the time for me to do that. I'll propose 7 decks, and I intend to test them, one per day, (except for Saturday) for a week. I'll allow people to vote on their choice. Here are the decks:

W/B/R Control.

Lands (26)

4 Arid Mesa
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Marsh Flats
4 Mountain
5 Plains
5 Swamp

Creatures (4)

4 Baneslayer Angel

Spells (30)

3 Ajani Vengeant
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Day of Judgement
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Luminarch Ascension
3 Martial Coup
4 Path to Exile
4 Sign in Blood
3 Terminate

Sideboard:

4 Celestial Purge
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Solemn Offering
4 Volcanic Fallout

The deck has 7 Wraths, and ample finishers. It can finish from several angles. It has card draw in Sign in Blood, and plenty of spot removal. It's a rough draft, but could turn into quite a deck.

New Time Sieve

Lands (18)

7 Island
5 Plains
6 Swamp

Creatures (0)

Spells ()

4 Day of Judgement
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
3 Font of Mythos
4 Howling Mine
4 Kaleidoscope
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Obelisk of Esper
4 Open the Vaults
3 Tezzeret the Seeker
4 Time Sieve
4 Time Warp

Sideboard:

4 Celestial Purge
4 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Meddling Mage
4 Path to Exile

The deck loses a bit, and doesn't gain much, but the deck still has Tier 1 potential. An extra Tezzeret has been added for the non-combo finish. Obelisk of Esper acts as Borderposts 9-12, and the Day of Judgement is there to stop Vampires.

Vampire Aggro

Lands (24)

24 Swamp

Creatures (26)

4 Bloodghast
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Guul Draz Vampire
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Vampire Nocturnus

Spells (10)

4 Doom Blade
2 Duress
4 Sign in Blood

Sideboard:

2 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Deathmark
2 Duress
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Ravenous Trap

The deck is fast, has some late-game plans, light disruption, removal and card draw, and it's VAMPIRES. Who doesn't like Vampires? The Ravenous Trap in the sideboard is against Time Sieve. Absolutely destroys them.

B/R Bloodchief Blightning

Lands (24)

4 Akoum Refuge
4 Dragonskull Summit
8 Mountain
8 Swamp

Creatures (18)
2 Ball Lightning
4 Goblin Guide
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Goblin Outlander
4 Vampire Lacerator

Spells (18)

4 Blightning
4 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Volcanic Fallout

Sideboard:

3 Banefire
4 Deathmark
4 Duress
2 Terminate
2 Volcanic Fallout


This deck is a fairly simple B/R deck. The idea is to beat the opponent to death, either with or without a Bloodchief Ascension.

New Jund

Lands (25)

4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Forest
3 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures (16)

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Putrid Leech
4 Vampire Nighthawk

Spells (19)

4 Bituminous Blast
4 Jund Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Sign in Blood

Sideboard:

4 Deathmark
4 Great Sable Stag
3 Jund Hackblade
4 Volcanic Fallout

A Jund list with many of the same traits as pre-Zendikar Jund: the ability to play as aggro or control, a malleable sideboard, and a lot of sheer power, and Cascade.

New Warp World

Lands (23)

7 Forest
9 Mountain
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures (29)

4 Birds of Paradise
2 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Keeper of Progenitus
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
4 Siege-Gang Commander

Spells (8)

4 Trace of Abundance
4 Warp World

Sideboard:

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Thought Hemorrhage
4 Vithian Renegades
3 Volcanic Fallout

Most of the deck remains the same. The main additions are Ob Nixilis, who is a BEATING if you get 3-4 lands off Warp World, and Lotus Cobra to power out more fast starts.

Soldiers

Lands (24)

23 Plains

Creatures ()

4 Captain of the Watch

4 Elite Vanguard

4 Kazandu Blademaster

4 Kor Aeronaut

4 Veteran Armorsmith

4 Veteran Swordsmith

Spells ()

2 Conqueror's Pledge

4 Honor of the Pure

4 Path to Exile

3 Brave the Elements

Sideboard:

3 Baneslayer Angel

1 Brave the Elements

4 Celestial Purge

3 Devout Lightcaster

4 Harm's Way

This is an archetypal White Weenie deck: plenty of guys, some modern token-producers, and the Anthem of choice, Honor of the Pure. Also features the anti-removal Brave the Elements as a new addition.

So those are our seven. Be sure to vote for which one should be tested first in the poll!

How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 3

Hello, and welcome back to my series of How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 3. Last week we covered analysing the metagame, and this week, we'll be covering the nuts and bolts of bringing two decks to a tournament. The list which inspired this series can be found here. 


Why Two Decks?


Why would you bring two decks to a metagame? Simple: The local metagame at the PTQ you're attending is likely to be a bit different to the world's metagame. So by bringing two decks each designed to oppose certain metagames, e.g, W/U Reveillark for Anathemancer-heavy metagames and Five-Color Control for Elf Combo / Time Sieve Combo heavy metagames, you can be sure of attacking the metagame from the right angle. 


Make sure you bring decks with different weaknesses. Elf Combo and Jund seem quite different, but they're both vulnerable to the same thing: sweepers.Whereas Elf Combo and Five-Color Control on the other hand operate on totally different realms, and both require totally different sideboard plans. So you could pick one of these decks based on which one the event was less hostile towards in sideboard choices.


Testing Two Decks


Most people would advise testing two decks equally, but I think that you should become equally competent at both. Becoming competent at Elf Combo requires less matches than Five-Color Control, so if you were to run 100 matches, I'd suggest 30-40 Elf Combo matches and 60-70 Five-Color Control matches in your testing. That way you're confident with both of them, and ready no matter what deck you pick.


More complex decks require more matches to master, so take the time to learn them well.


This has been a very short post, but the concept doesn't require too many words to explain. Join me next week as I talk about doing the same anti-metagame move for your sideboard before the event.


Until next time, may you say only what needs to be said (yes I know this is a short post!)

Why You Guys Were Right: Situational Cards vs. Topdeck Cards

Yesterday, I held a comments poll over what card was better: Mind Control or Sleep? The situation was Pack One, Pick One of a draft.

When the results were in, Mind Control won 3-0. All three commentors gave good reasons. Here are their comments:

AndreStompy: Mind Control. I find it's just better. That's not to discount Sleep, which is quite a good card. But I feel much more comfortable picking Mind Control knowing I'll play it, than if I were to pick Sleep and have to only be so-so in this deck.

Basically, Mind Control is only a dead draw if they don't have creatures, in which case, who cares about a dead draw?

Mtgcolorpie: Mind Control. Your bomb has now become my bomb. Sleep is more situational if you could finish them off or need to hold them off. Everyone plays creatures in limited.

Thomas David Baker: Mind Control.

I think of Mind Control in terms of card advantage. Mind Control is simultaneously a very strong removal spell and a bomb/strong creature in one card. A really good 2-for-1. The only situation where it isn't brilliant is at less than five mana, or where you are winning anyway. In which case you now have insurance against that changing.

Sleep can win you the game, no doubt, even steal it. But it is much more situational. Mind Control is the better top deck.

The one mana difference in casting cost is not significant as you won't be casting Sleep immediately after making your fourth land drop anyway.

Thanks for all your comments, guys. All of you are correct. Let's look at the points raised here:

• Mind Control is better than Sleep
• Mind Control goes into a wider variety of decks
• Mind Control performs at full power in every blue deck
• Mind Control can take their bomb
• Mind Control is card advantage: A Terminate and a bomb in one card (Great way of looking at it!)
• Sleep is more situational. Mind Control is a better topdeck.
• The one mana doesn't matter since you don't want to play Sleep Turn 4.

These are excellent points, including some that I didn't consider in my own assessment. For the record: here's my assessment:

Mind Control. Mind Control can perform a wider variety of roles than Sleep can. Sleep breaks a creature stall, and that's all it does. Stealing your opponent's best guy will 90% of the time break a creature stall. So for one more mana, you get something that does everything Sleep does, and far, far more.

The main argument I want to showcase is:

• Sleep is more situational. Mind Control is a better topdeck card.

Thank you Thomas David Baker. You have made the exact point this article was to open with: if you could topdeck a bomb it would almost always be Mind Control, because in 99% of situations, it's more useful. However, Mind Control is a better card than Sleep in general, so let's look at some more closely matched cards.

If these cards were in the same set, available in a draft for an R/G deck, which would you pick? Personally, I would pick the Rannet, because it's more useful in some situations: like when you have 2-4 mana, for example. Ridge Rannet is almost never a totally dead draw.

The main reason Mind Control is better than Sleep is because it is almost always the better topdeck. As previously indicated, Sleep is only good in one situation, Mind Control is good in a multitude.

Until next time, may your first-pick be a bomb whenever you draw it.

P.S: Damn you guys are awesome. Seriously, I love my readership. You are all smart, totally brilliant people and I hope you keep making insightful comments for years to come. This is why I blog (that and I have too much Magic enthusiasm to keep it bottled up!) Great job, guys!

Draft Question

You're playing in an M10 draft. You open your first pack and see Mind Control and Sleep. They're far and away the best cards in the pack. What do you pick?

Leave your answer in the comments!

How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 2

Hello, and welcome back to my series of How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ. We've covered testing your deck here, so now it's time to move on to analysing the metagame. The list which inspired this series can be found here.

The Three Types of Metagame

There are generally three different types of metagame that you'll face in a particular format in a particular year. These modes are about more than decks: they're about how the whole metagame interacts, and understanding it is crucial to victory.

The Deck vs. The Anti-Deck

This type of metagame is when there is one particular 'best' deck that makes up about a third of the field, and generally beats most of the minor decks. The second most popular deck is the anti-deck, which beats the best deck, and generally has passable matchups against the minor decks.

An example here would be Affinity. Affinity was THE deck, and anti-affinity was THE anti-deck. This is a greatly exaggerated example of how it usually is, but it's ideal for our purposes. If you couldn't beat Affinity, you basically couldn't show up.

How this matters: In this case, you need to make a choice: The Deck, which is strong but everyone will pack hate for, the Anti-Deck, which beats The Deck but can lose to minor decks, or a minor deck with a good matchup vs. The Deck and the Anti-Deck. I would generally recommend playing a minor deck if it's strong enough to get a 55-60% win chance against The Deck and the Anti-Deck, because people are less likely to sideboard against and test against it. The Deck, unless ridiculously powerful, is often not a good place to be at if the players have figured out how to beat it.

Rock-Paper-Scissors Metagame

Generally the most common, the rock-paper-scissors metagame features three major decks with favourable matches vs. one, and unfavourable vs. the other. The three major decks all perform well against the minor decks almot all of the time.

An example of this would be last year's metagame, where Faeries beat Five-Color Control, Five-Color Control beat Kithkin, and Kithkin beat Faeries. All three decks performed well against random decks (except Faeries vs. Mono-Red) and all of them were good vs. one deck and bad vs. another.

How this matters: Generally, one deck will be the most popular. The deck it beats will be second, and the deck that the second deck beats will be third. Thus, we need to examine the pros and cons of Deck 1, Deck 2 and Deck 3.

Deck 1: Playing Deck 1 is often a good choice, especially if you're good with it. Most players won't play Deck 3, and plenty of them play Deck 2. Of course the problem with Deck 1 is that minor decks can do well against it if they sideboard heavily.

Deck 2: Playing Deck 2 is generally a bad choice. Losing to Deck 1 is never a good thing. I personally would not recommend it. People will sideboard against Deck 2 as well. Deck 2 = bad idea.

Deck 3: Playing Deck 3 is a good idea. If you can survive the first few rounds of a PTQ, Deck 2 will be mostly eliminated by Deck 1, and you're designed to prey on Deck 1. Most decks will only devote 3-4 sideboard slots to Deck 3 as well. Personally, this is the one I would pick unless I was quite skilled with Deck 1.

Minor deck: I wouldn't recommend it. It's basically impossible to build a minor deck with decent matchups against Deck 1, 2 and 3. In this case, the best move is to go with Deck 1 or Deck 3.

One Deck Many Decks Metagame

The rarest of the three, a one deck many deck metagame is when one deck or subset of decks makes up about 20-25% of the metagame, and the rest of it is spread among minor decks.

A perfect example of this is Legacy. CounterTop decks make up the One Deck, and the other decks (notably Dreadstill and Thresh) are mostly fairly minor, with a couple of 10-15% players. This metagame is hard to predict. It depends on how much hate is brought against the One Deck.

How this matters: In this scenario, it all depends on how new the One Deck is. If the One Deck has recently surfaced, play it. If it's been winning for a few weeks, I suggest playing a minor deck with a good matchup against the One Deck and passable matchups against most minor decks. It's hard to know how this kind of metagame will turn out, but a solid plan against the One Deck is never a bad thing.

The Role of Minor Decks

Minor decks, the ones that make up a small but appreciable segment of the metagame, generally 5-10% are an excellent, valuable addition to the metagame. For one, it keeps the major decks honest. They need to be able to defend against a wide variety of angles of attack to remain in their catbird seats. For another, it provides variety. Sometimes you don't want to play a major deck, and then you can always move to the Merfolks or Blightings of the world and try to strike from an unexpected angle.

I could include some information about how to collect statistics for the metagame, but I'm fairly sure that if you're at the level of seriously analysing it, you already know how to do that. My only tip I will give you is to check out the latest tournaments: StarCityGames.com is good for this. Other than that, it's up to you to ascertain what pattern of metagame you're in.

The best part about this advice is that it will still be applicable 5 or 10 years from now. I'm sure I'll write many articles about the metagame that will go out of date in mere months, but this content is timeless. Enjoy it, and use it wisely.

Until next time, may you see the pattern you've seen before.

How Type 2 Really Works

There are a lot of factors involved in the Type 2 metagame and how 'solved' it is: i.e, how much room there is for innovation within the format so new Tier 1 decks can spring up. People will look at the most infinitesimal parts of the game to try and gain an advantage, but they don't look at one of the biggest factors.

What month is it?

What month it is can often tell you a lot about the format. Each Magic year, in my opinion, starts in October with the release of the large set, in this case, Zendikar. The format then slowly creeps up in power and complexity throughout the year, until October again. At the moment, we have 8 sets and about 1700 cards in Standard. Once October comes along, the Lorwyn cards that dominated the metagame: Spectral Procession, Bitterblossom, Reflecting Pool: they'll all go. Type 2 will be almost wiped clean, and we'll end up with about 1000 cards in the format.

At this point, you have far more options for innovation than you will in October. The format is definitely not solved. Elf Combo popped up, then Time Sieve, now the Mannequin decks. What's next? Who knows?

When Shards of Alara came out, and in fact, when Conflux joined them, innovations were made, but new decks were not. Five-Color Control got Broodmate Dragon and Cruel Ultimatum: but it was still Five-Color Control. Faeries got Agony Warp, but it was still Faeries. And so on, and so forth. Alara Reborn was really what gave birth to new archetypes: Jund and Elf Combo (however, Elf Combo doesn't HAVE Alara Reborn cards. Elf Combo could have been discovered back in Shards and it would have worked fine except for Elvish Archdruid, which powered up the deck but didn't make it exist based only on that card).

Now, with M10 being far more powerful than Tenth Edition, Standard is as powerful as it will get for a year. Innovation is in full swing: but it better be pretty damn good, because there's a pretty high standard on Type 2 right now.

When Zendikar comes out, there will be a rush to solve the format, but I believe the format will lie in the hands of the power cards from Alara block. The decks that survive will be Jund, Cascade decks, and R/G Aggro and Grixis Control may rise to reach Tier 1. Until Worldwake, I don't think Zendikar will be the focus of the metagame, but rather the support cards. The decks will be built around Alara cards. Of course, by the time the third set in Zendikar comes around, Zendikar archetypes will be produced, and the metagame will be shook up yet again as we enter the high-powered section.

The summary of this article is: Standard, more than any other format, is a format that ebbs and flows. From October to Febuary, it's a fairly low-powered format. It starts to rise in Febuary, and really hits it's stride around May. Essentially, there are three blocks: Oct-Feb, Feb-May, May-Oct. And they all play differently.

If I find more to say on the subject, I'll probably write a follow-up post detailing the exact differences, but at this point in time, I don't believe I'm qualified to go into that much detail about it. So in the meantime, enjoy this short article as a break from the monoliths I usually write, and I'll go back to testing tomorrow.

Until next time, may you be at full strength no matter where the metagame's at.

The Transformative Sideboard

One seldom used fact in Magic is that if you have the manabase right, it only takes 15 cards to transform a mostly-aggro deck into a mostly-control deck. 15 cards, conveniently, is the same amount of cards in a sideboard. So today we're going to talk about the Transformative Sideboard.

The example I will be using is the transformative sideboard I've invented for GSS Jund. I will most likely be playing GSS Jund at least until Zendikar, so expect to hear a lot about it. I'm convinced as to the power and consistency of the deck.

A brief aside: I was able to get 95% of a Jund list today: enough to play it. The sideboard was messy, and I was missing 2 Lightning Bolts, but other than that it was great. I went 3-1, losing to a Goblin deck that I probably would have beaten if I'd practiced rationing my sweepers.

The List:

I'm using the following list:

4 Savage Lands

4 Twilight Mire

3 Vivid Marsh

3 Vivid Grove

4 Reflecting Pool

3 Graven Cairns

1 Swamp

1 Forest

1 Mountain

1 Fire-Lit Thicket

Creatures (19)

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Great Sable Stag

4 Boggart Ram-Gang

3 Putrid Leech

4 Anathemancer

Spells (16)

2 Maelstrom Pulse

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Sign in Blood

4 Bituminous Blast

3 Jund Charm

After testing Jund Charm, I've determined that it is, in fact, nothing short of absolutely amazing. Throughout the day it's been an excellent combat trick, letting me run my Ram-Gangs and Bloodbraid Elves into Kitchen Finks all day, and a great sweeper as well. I wish I could play 4 maindeck but I can't justify cutting a Pulse or Bolt even for an amazing card like this. It's better than Fallout, and I can sideboard in Fallout against Faeries or Merfolk if need be.

The Sideboard:

Here's the sideboard I cooked up:

2 Maelstrom Pulse

3 Volcanic Fallout

2 Broodmate Dragon

2 Cruel Ultimatum

4 Mulldrifter

1 Doom Blade

1 Jund Charm

Sideboard Plans:

Here's my sideboard plan:

Vs. Elf Combo

-4 Great Sable Stag, -4 Anathemancer, -4 Boggart Ram-Gang, +1 Jund Charm, +4 Mulldrifter, +3 Volcanic Fallout, +2 Cruel Ultimatum, +2 Broodmate Dragon.

Maelstrom Pulse is rarely a use here: they can replace the Pulsed cards with one Ranger even in the unlikely event you hit two. Your plan here is to use your 7 sweepers to stop your opponent going off (using Mulldrifters to draw them) and then play a Broodmate Dragon or Cruel Ultimatum and win off that.

Vs. Kithkin

-4 Anathemancer, -2 Boggart Ram-Gang, -4 Great Sable Stag +1 Jund Charm, +3 Volcanic Fallout, +2 Maelstrom Pulse, +2 Broodmate Dragon, +2 Cruel Ultimatum

Keep the Ram-Gangs and Leeches in: they're good blockers and survive your sweepers. You want to save your Pulses for Honor of the Pure here, so you can kill all their guys with sweepers. Otherwise, same plan as against Elf Combo, except you don't want to tap out when they have armies-in-a-can, so no Mulldrifters. BMD's and Cruels are worth tapping out for.

Vs. B/R Burn

-4 Boggart Ram-Gang, -4 Putrid Leech, -4 Anathemancer, +1 Jund Charm, +2 Maelstrom Pulse, +1 Doom Blade, +4 Mulldrifter, +2 Broodmate Dragon, +2 Cruel Ultimatum

Putrid Leeches are bad here since you have to burn life to keep them alive, so they kill you quicker. Mulldrifters are good for refilling your hand and blocking / killing some of their creatures, whereas Broodmate and Cruel generally seal the game for you. In Broodmate's case it may not, but they'll need to use so much burn they won't catch up and you'll lay another finisher eventually.

Vs. Five-Color Control

-3 Jund Charm, +3 Mulldrifter

You generally want to use the Mulldrifters to draw into more aggro. Jund Charm is almost useless here.

Vs. Time Sieve Combo

-3 Jund Charm, -3 Bituminous Blast, +2 Maelstrom Pulse, +4 Volcanic Fallout

Target their Tezzerets. They only have 2. If preferable, get them with Lightning Bolts at instant speed. The main strategy for this is to avoid it. It's not too popular.

Vs. Warp World

-4 Anathemancer, +3 Volcanic Fallout, +1 Jund Charm

Grey Ogres bad. Sweepers good vs. Siege-Gang. Need I say more?

Vs. Jund

Option One: -3 Great Sable Stag, +2 Maelstrom Pulse, +1 Jund Charm

Use your Jund Charms as combat tricks, and cascade as much as possible. Pulses are dicey. Hold them back if you're ahead but if they get ahead, you can generally strategically even it out.

Option Two: -3 Putrid Leech, -4 Boggart Ram-Gang, -4 Great Sable Stag, +2 Maelstrom Pulse, +3 Volcanic Fallout, +2 Broodmate Dragon, +2 Cruel Ultimatum, +3 Mulldrifter

Option two is to transition into Five-Color Control and fight them that way, using sweepers and removal to hold them off until you play Broodmate Dragon or Cruel Ultimatum. Pick whichever choice you're more comfortable with, and be sure to playtest both.

So essentially, the idea of a transformational sideboard is not to side in CARDS that make your matchup stronger, which are of course, unreliable when not drawn, but to take on the role of aggro or control that your deck needs to take. Most decks can be beaten if you take the right role, and a transformational sideboard allows you to do so. Try it out, and see how it goes! But don't try to out-control a full Five-Color Control list. They hold the cards there.

Until next time, may you surprise your opponent by dropping a Cruel after a Bloodbraid Elf.

Lessons I've learnt today:

Broodmate Dragon is a great sideboard card.

Great Sable Stag is almost always relevant.

Sweepers are awesome. Very, very awesome.

See you tomorrow!