Fetch A Shockland: Part 1 - A Journey Into Extended

Hello, new and returning readers and welcome to my newest series: Fetch A Shockland. This series will chronicle my journeys into learning more about Extended as a format, and becoming more skilled in playing it. This first post will be all about the introduction: where I am now, and where I intend to go.

I know a bit about Extended already. I know the major players in the format and I keep a casual view of the metagame. So here's my current, immature analysis of the metagame:

The major players are Zoo, Faeries, Next Level Blue, Hypergenesis, and recently Dark Depths. Various Rock decks including Death Cloud also exist in some capacity. Dredge is a rogue deck that comes and goes in cycles. Everyone forgets about it, and it strikes. Everyone boards in hate, and it dies. People stop boarding in hate, and forget about it. It strikes again.

The deck I intend to begin with is Zoo. It's the only really Tier 1 aggressive deck, but comes in a few flavours. Here are the decks I considered:

Rubin Zoo

Pros:

•  Has controllish elements in Baneslayer and Punishing Fire / Grove of the Burnwillows.
• Good lategame: something many Zoo decks lack.

Cons:

• Noble Hierarch is a bad topdeck.
• Has to play 24 lands, thus has more chance of flood.
• A lot of people will be playing it, since it won PT: Austin.

Spectral Zoo:

Pros:

• Has random tech against Hexmage Depths
• Has Jitte, which Rubin Zoo couldn't fit in.

Cons:

• Sideboard seems weird.
• Spectral Procession puts a lot of strain on the manabase.

Landfall Zoo:

Pros:

• Abuses the HELL out of landfall. I mean, seriously.
• Has very aggressive starts.
• Has better Knights than other Zoo builds.

Cons:

• Can attack from less angles.
• Hasn't got much of a late-game.
• Can't really defend with it's landfall guys.

Hyper Aggressive Zoo:

Pros:

• 16 1-drops.
• Fastest Zoo deck ever.

Cons:

• Runs out of gas too quickly.
• NO lategame.
• Sweeper = you lose.

I decided to go with a process of elimination. I figured Hyper Aggressive Zoo simply wouldn't cut it in the mirror, so that was out. I also want a deck to start that will teach me a lot about the format, and mindless attacking won't do it. That ends the chances of Landfall Zoo.

I really like Rubin Zoo, but I also like the Jitte. However, in the end, I'm a sucker for an aggro deck that can control the game (that's why I play Jund) and the Grove / Punishing Fire combo simply suckered me in, so I decided to choose Rubin Zoo.

Here's the decklist I will be using, copied almost card for card from Brian Kibler's deck:

Lands (24)

4 Arid Mesa

2 Ghost Quarter

4 Grove of the Burnwillows

1 Marsh Flats

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Sacred Foundry

2 Stomping Ground

1 Temple Garden

2 Treetop Village

Creatures (21)

3 Baneslayer Angel

4 Knight of the Reliquary

3 Noble Hierarch

3 Qasali Pridemage

4 Tarmogoyf

4 Wild Nacatl

Spells (15)

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Lightning Helix

4 Path to Exile

4 Punishing Fire

Sideboard (15)

3 Ancient Grudge

3 Blood Moon

3 Celestial Purge

2 Ghost Quarter

1 Kataki, War's Wage

3 Tormod's Crypt

The only change I made (and the changes that rippled from that) was removing the Meddling Mages. I don't have enough of a handle on the format to name the right card. Because of that, I removed the Hallowed Fountain from the sideboard, and due to that was able to cut a Marsh Flats for a second Ghost Quarter (against the mirror). To make up for the missing slots, I added Tormod's Crypt as an anti-Dredge mechanism and Celestial Purge against Dark Depths.

I'm concerned about my ability to beat Hypergenesis now, so the next thing to do was to look at the match reports for an idea on how Zoo can combat the deck. I don't know too much about how it works, either.

After a read up on Kibler's beating Hypergenesis, I find that Hierarch into Blood Moon is a strong move, and Ghost Quarter is very good. (So it's good against Hypergenesis, Dark Depths AND Rubin Zoo? Why am I not playing FOUR!?)

And so this is the deck I've decided to play. I'll be playing some matchups over the next week, and that, as well as the lessons I learn about the format, will be featured next week!

Play Along At Home:

This is the Play Along At Home portion of the post. If you want to learn more about Extended yourself, you can follow along with my journey and do what I intend to do in order to improve our knowledge of the format.

Homework: Play 10 matches of Rubin Zoo (either through real-life, proxies, MODO or MWS, I'm really not picky).

Look up some articles on the current metagame and Rubin Zoo.

See you next week with Fetch A Shockland: Part 2!

Zendikar Spoilers + Bonus Extended Decklist

Hello, readers! Let's cut to the chase, shall we? We have plenty more Zendikar cards to analyse, so let's get analysing! For those who just showed up for the decklist, it's at the end of the post. Okay, for the 3% still with me, let's go!

*Mind Sludge
Sorcery
Target player discards a card for each Swamp you control.

This could prove quite useful in MBC, obviously. I don't know if it'll be enough to bring it to Tier 1, but I know one friend of mine who will be very, VERY happy with this card.

Turntimber Ranger
Creature - Elf Druid Ally
Whenever Turntimber Ranger or another Ally enters the battlefield, you may put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Turntimber Ranger.
Illus. Wayne Reynolds	2/2

Another one to watch out for. Could an R/G midrange Ally deck be possible when Worldwake comes out? Food for thought...


Also, this will kill you in Limited in any deck that plays 2 allies after it plays this.

Celestial Mantle
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets +3/+3. Whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage to a player, double its controller's life total.
Illus. Steve Argyle

Another ULTIMATE UBER AURA, this card will see play in EDH for certain. Zur decks and away! Similar to Elder Mastery, this card will get played for the sheer awesome factor. Best played on an evasive dude though. If it connects a couple of times, you'll find it near impossible to lose. Sealed will find this guy on a flier or a trampler to be a game-winner.

Carnage Altar
Artifact
3, Sacrifice a creature: Draw a card.
Illus. James Paick

This is the kind of card people try to break, and never will. Especially with M10 rules. NEXT!

Felidar Sovereign
Creature - Cat Beast
Vigilance, lifelink At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have 40 or more life, you win the game.
	4/6

Hmm. How to describe this guy. In Sealed, he's obviously a beating, with a 4/6 vigilance lifelink just winning games even without his 'you win the game' text. In EDH he'd see play if there was ANY chance he'd survive a turn. Maybe with Teferi.


Naturally, he'll be featured as a win condition in a casual Beacon of Immortality deck. But I don't see this guy played competitively.

Scalding Tarn
Land
, Pay 1 Life, Sacrifice Scalding Tarn: Search your library for a Island or Mountain card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

The U/R fetchland is officially named Scalding Tarn. What the hell is a tarn? Google defines Tarn as:


a mountain lake (especially one formed by glaciers) 

Well, that makes sense then. So we have a scalding mountain lake. Makes perfect sense. Good name.

Oh! The card! Yeah. U/R Storm got a bit better. Yeah... Grixis Control too...let's move on to some interesting cards. Powerful does not equal interesting all the time.

Marsh Flats
Land
, Pay 1 Life, Sacrifice Marsh Flats: Search your library for a Plains or Swamp card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Illus. Izzy

Moving on. Nothing to see here. Yep, it's great. Yep, it'll cost 15-20 bucks. NEXT!

Khalni Heart Expedition
Enchantment
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a quest counter on Khalni Heart Expedition. Remove three quest counters from Khalni Heart Expedition and sacrifice it: Search your library for up to two basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
Illus. Jason Chan

A Limited fixer, but how good? This has to reach 5 land before it can be used, assuming a Turn 2 play. Otherwise, it's basically dead. I don't think this'll see much play except in a dedicated Landfall deck: but they should be able to pick up 2-3 of these in a draft.

Lorthos, the Tidemaker
Legendary Creature - Octopus
Whenever Lorthos, the Tidemaker attacks, you may pay . If you do, tap up to eight permanents. Those permanents don't untap during their controllers' next untap steps.
When Lorthos emerges from his deepwater realm, the tide bows to his will and the coastline cowers in his presence.
Illus. Kekai Kotaki #53/249	8/8

Lorthos, the Tidemaker
Lorthos, Winner of Sealed Games
Lorthos, First Pick of Drafts
Lorthos, The Should We Reanimate This Guy? Probably Not.
Lorthos, the NEXT!


Oh. That's it. Okay. I present to you, the deck I would play in Extended if I played Extended. Although I do intend to dabble in it online some more. I present:


Dark Zoo


Lands (20)


4 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
2 Marsh Flats
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Marsh


Creatures ()


2 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Dark Confidant
3 Kird Ape
3 Plated Geopede
2 Scute Mob
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Woolly Thoctar


Spells ()


4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
2 Quest for the Gravelord
2 Umezawa's Jitte


Sideboard:


1 Ancient Grudge
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Krosan Grip
2 Ranger of Eos
1 Sulfuric Vortex
3 Volcanic Fallout




Features: The deck runs 10 fetchlands. This is to allow it to abuse Plated Geopede more often. The deck also runs some new cards. Let's go through each.


Bloodbraid Elf: This is just incredible. The ability to have a 3/2 haste and cascade into any of Zoo's devastating spells is amazing. 2 is just a trial: I would like more.


Plated Geopede: a 5/5 as often as not, and if not, it's generally a 3/3 in the first 4-5 turns: and by then, the opponent should be dead.


Scute Mob: A rare LATE-GAME plan for Zoo, Scute Mob can become a 5/5 for one in the lategame: a super Wild Nacatl. It gets bigger and bigger, too. And all for one mana.


Quest for the Gravelord: With lots of creatures dying, how better to bust the game back open after Blue gains control than with an uncounterable 5/5 creature?


I think this deck is something to watch out for come Extended season: although it will probably be tuned by better hands than mine. Enjoy the decklist!


Until next time, may you not be shy to embrace new tech.

Checking Off Maro's Zendikar Checklist.

Last week, Maro posted the following list in his Planechasing Your Dreams article. All of these cards are in Zendikar.

• A card that is a two-card kill combo with a rare card in Magic 2010.
• A spell capable of making a 14/1 token.
• A creature that can sacrifice itself to make a planeswalker go to the graveyard.
• A legendary octopus
• A spell that can allow you for no mana to put a creature from your library into play.
• A card with the reminder text "The land continues to burn..."
• A card that allows you to pay eight mana for four 4/4 fliers
• A creature whose rules text includes the phrase "you win the game."
• A cycle of cards that players have been begging us to print for years.

So which ones have been seen by now?

A card that is a two-card kill combo with a rare card in Magic 2010. YES.

Can you find it?

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Okay. The combo is:

If your opponent is at an even amount of life (say, 20) play Sanguine Bond, then kick Blood Tribute. They lose 10 life, you gain 10 life, and thanks to Sanguine Bond, they lose another 10, and that's game.

A spell capable of making a 14/1 token. YES.

The card is Elemental Appeal.

Kicked, the card is a 14/1 token.

A creature that can sacrifice itself to make a planeswalker go to the graveyard. NO.

This is pretty obvious to figure out. The only card that sacrifices itself in Zendikar so far is Scythe Tiger if you don't sacrifice a Forest when you play him.

A legendary octopus. NO.

A spell that can allow you for no mana to put a creature from your library into play. YES.

What card is that, you ask? Surely, SURELY I would have seen that.

Well you have. Behold (again) 

No cost whatsoever in mana. Clever.

A card with the reminder text "The land continues to burn..." NO.

A card that allows you to pay eight mana for four 4/4 fliers. YES.

Although there's a catch.

Well, it costs 8 mana! Maro, you sneaky so and so...

A creature whose rules text includes the phrase "you win the game." YES.

When this creature deals combat damage to a player, you win the game.

Behold:

...

...

...

...

...

...

Okay, just kidding. That's a NO. 

A cycle of cards that players have been begging us to print for years. YES.

Behold the long sought-after cycle:

And companions.

Well, this was an interesting post. So let's see what we've still got.

A creature that can sacrifice itself to make a planeswalker go to the graveyard.

A legendary octopus.

A card with the reminder text "The land continues to burn..."

A creature whose rules text includes the phrase "you win the game."

This is shaping up to be one badass set. Enjoy today's extra-special fudge-coated bonus post!

Zendikar Spoilers: Article 4

Welcome back readers! We've got a bunch of new cards to analyse, so let's delve right in.

Blood Tribute
Sorcery
Kicker - Tap an untapped Vampire you control. (You may tap a Vampire you control in addition to any other costs as you cast this spell.) Target player loses half his or her life, rounded up. If Blood Tribute was kicked, you gain life equal to the life lost this way.
Illus. Alex Horley-Orlandelli

Pretty situational for Limited: pretty expensive for Constructed. I don't think this will see much play.

Roil Elemental
Creature - Elemental
Flying Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may gain control of target creature for as long as you control Roil Elemental.
Illus. Raymond Swanland	3/2

Limited or Sealed bomb. With all the removal in Standard, I don't think this'll be played in Constructed though.

Guul Draz Specter
Creature - Specter
Flying Gull Draz Specter gets +3/+3 as long as an opponent has no cards in hand. Whenever Gull Draz Specter deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card.
Illus. Mark Tedin	2/2

This, I could see being played in the eternal Tier-2 black discard deck alongside Nyxathid. As for Limited: watch out for this guy. Fragile though.

Nissa Revane
Planeswalker - Nissa
[+1] Search your library for a card named Nissa's Chosen and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library. [+1] You gain 2 life for each Elf you control. [-7] Search your library for any number of Elf creature cards and put them onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Illus. Jaime Jones	2

At first glance, worst Planeswalker yet printed. The -7 is good, but by the time you get to it, an Elf deck's already won.

Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Legendary Creature - Demon
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may have target player lose 3 life. If you do, put three +1/+1 counters on Ob Nixilis, the Fallen.
	3/3

How many Limited bombs must they spoil as a group? Give us some Constructed cards, damnit. I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

Archmage Ascension
Enchantment
At the beginning of each end step, if you drew two or more cards this turn, you may put a quest counter on Archmage Ascension. As long as Archmage Ascension has six or more quest counters on it, if you would draw a card, you may instead search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle your library.
Illus. Christopher Moeller

EPIC Johnny card here. I could see this being played in EDH as well, as a 'why not?' card, since so much card draw is packed into them anyway. I look forward to seeing someone break it.

Verdant Marsh*
Land
, Pay 1 Life, Sacrifice Verdant Marsh: Search your library for a Swamp or Forest card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

There it is. The card I pray to open at the Prerelease. That, or any fetchland I can trade for this with. Sal needs his playset!

Obsidian Flats*
Land
, Pay 1 Life, Sacrifice Obsidian Flats: Search your library for a Plains or Swamp card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

I can seriously see W/B control being a viable archetype in Zendikar. Day of Judgement, Quest of the Gravelord, Luminarch's Ascension, various removal, perhaps another Wrath effect...


Combined with this to fix mana, it could be good.

Unstable Geyser*
Land
, Pay 1 Life, Sacrifice Unstable Geyser: Search your library for a Island or Mountain card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

Awesome card, uninteresting to talk about. NEXT!

Luminarch Ascension
Enchantment
At the beginning of each opponent's end step, if you didn't lose life this turn, you may put a quest counter on Luminarch Ascension. (Damage causes loss of life) : Put a 4/4 white Angel creature token with flying onto the battlefield. Activate this ability only if Luminarch Ascension has four or more quest counters on it.
Illus. Michael Comarck #25/249

Sweet. Either awesome for Multiplayer, or the next thing to be broken in Standard. How about Turbo-Fog with this as a win condition? Or the aforementioned B/W Control deck. I love subgames in Magic, and this one has it on both sides of the table: Quest for the Angels vs. Quest to Ping The Opponent Every Turn.

Misty Rainforest
Land
, Pay 1 Life, Sacrifice Misty Rainforest: Search your library for a Forest or Island card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Illus. Shelly Wan #220/249

Lastly, the U/G fetchland.


Well, that's all the cards spoiled so far. Let's sneak some strategy articles in before 10 more cards show up!


See you tomorrow!