Wherein MichaelJ plays a few rounds with Greedy Grixis by Will Price of Progress. Also a discussion on mana bases and a holiday greeting!

I played Will Price of Progress’s Greedy Grixis deck as described in Price of Progress: Kithkin Testing.

 

I was intending to play eight matches per the process I decided on for Eight Matches with Blightning Beatdown, which would have in fact given me the opportunity to call it something cool like “The Top 8 Magic Matches with Greedy Grixis” or some such…

 

But I got bored after three matches (and I will explain why soon).

 

On balance I went 3-0 with Will Price of Progress’s deck before being overwhelmed by the desire to make a Shamans linear deck.

 

The first match I played was versus Shamans.

 

His deck had Red for the Elementals Harbinger and Rage Forger, but was firmly Shamans with Chameleon Colossus, Doran, &c. I found this to be supremely exciting.

 

The games were quite close because he had too many lands coming into play tapped, and so I got them 2-0. Plus my cards were Blue whereas his were !Blue.

 

The coolest play of this session was realizing I had the kill in a sort of non-intuitive way. I got in, used Ajani Vengeant, then Cryptic Commanded my own Ajani, and re-played the Planeswalker for a sick little Lightning Helix to deal the final three. Would I have won anyway? Probably. But very Jon Finkel nonetheless.

 

Hmmm…

 

The second match I played was against the Fae with White. He opened up on Arcane Sanctum and played a second turn Awesome Blossom and I was for a moment struck that I might be in some kind of a “preposterous mana base mashup” mirror.

 

However he ended up the Fae; I am sure you have seen these First Among Equals decks with Esper Charm for Biterblossom in the mirror, and to replace long lost playset of Ancestral Visions.

  

It was win-loss-win, with him shipping to Paris in the third.

 

I was pretty surprised with this win, but I think it was a mite confusing for him. Should he be attacking Ajani? Is it possible this deck is actually good?

 

I am not sure if Sower of Temptation is any good against the First Among Equals or not.

 

The last match on this session was against the Guile deck — more or less — from last year.

 

This was as lopsided a match as they come, with the Guile deck ill equipped to deal with Bitterblossom (and I drew multiples), plus <strike>my</strike> Will Price of Progress’s deck was quite spectacular in sideboarded games thanks to Gutteral Response (counters Cryptic Command and another twenty cards for one mana).

 

Typically I sided out Fulminator Mages and Siege-Gang Commanders and / or Makeshift Mannequin, that is, the cards that don’t do anything ever for cards that are quite good. I brought all the Thoughtseizes and all the Gutteral Responses in against Fae and Guile, and the incremental Sower, Reveillark, and Ajani against Elemental Shamans.

 

I actually got “the Fulminator Mage draw” against Fae and it was decidedly lukewarm. I mean basically this is Stone Rain… Only if you draw it against basic lands, viz. Guile you feel especially worthless (which als happened… but the Guile matchup is quite lopsided due to Awesome Blossom).

 

The best cards in this deck were: Ajani Vengeant, Bitterblossom, and of course Mulldrifter and Cryptic Command. The worthless cards were Makeshift Mannequin and Fulminator Mage (which is why I sided most or all of them out even when they were supposed to be good).

 

The mana base is quite horrendous. I kept having to take damage. Personally, I abhor pain land duals in this format, especially when playing suicidal cards such as Awesome Blossom. For instance the Shamans deck actually tried to race me in Game Two; it was only my topdecking Ajani Vengeant (and then setting up that awesome Cryptic Command two-step) that savedd me from the stupid Caves of Koilos, &c.

 

Presuming you play Will Price of Progress’s spells precisely, your mana costs look something like this:

 

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

RRRRRRRRRRRRR

WWWWWWWWW

 

You can get away with 12 sources of Red mana (Will’s mana base actually only has 10) but need more than 14 sources of Blue mana. It is imperative to have at least 14 lands that come into play untapped, meaning for a deck with only 25 lands, you can only play 11 that come into play tapped.

 

Note that you can theoretically bias the Red mana like so:

 

BBBBBBBBBBBBBB

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

WWWWWWWWW

 

… which is much better than biasing Black mana due to the double cost on Siege-Gang Commander.

 

That doesn’t really get us anywhere, though. We still need more than eight sources of Black mana and probably White mana.

 

This is what Will Price of Progress’s mana base can produce:

 

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

RRRRRRRRRR

WWWWWWW

 

This isn’t too bad in terms of distribution, but for the fact that there are too many pain lands and that Rugged Prairie is actually horrendous in this strategy.

 

I propose:

 

3 Arcane Sanctum

4 Cascade Bluffs

4 Crumbling Necropolis

2 Mystic Gate

4 Reflecting Pool

4 Sunken Ruins

4 Vivid Creek

 

You theoretically have 15 sources that can play Bitterblossom on the second turn and all 25 of your lands produce Blue mana. Also, no pain at all.

 

It’s a question of testing at this point, though I wonder what Paul Jordan would say (hint hint).

 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

 

LOVE
MIKE