Fans,

Enjoy this great Deck Tech from Pro Tour: San Diego 2010 with Zvi!

When I was at the Prerelease this past weekend a lot people were wondering if Ruin Ghost was good enough to play in Limited. After a weekend of fooling around with him in a couple of different draft decks I am convinced — and now wondering if he is good enough in Constructed. What doesn’t the Ruin Ghost do?

Here is one of the decks I drafted over the weekend which had the Ruin Ghost working overtime — with an able assist from the Pilgrim’s Eye (aka Civic Way-flier).

2 Mysteries of the Deep
1 Aether Tradewinds

2 Pilgrim’s Eye
1 Stonework Puma

1 Bajuka Brigand
1 Caustic Crawler
1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
1 Urge to Feed
1 Marsh Casualties

1 Apex Hawk
1 Arrow Volley Trap
1 Fledgling Griffin
2 Hada Freeblade
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Kor Hookmaster
1 Kor Skyfisher
1 Marsh Threader
1 Ruin Ghost
1 Talus Paladin

1 Island
2 Sejiri Steppe
1 Marsh Flats
7 Swamps
7 Plains

I ended up in love with this deck despite what could appear to be some awkward mana. The Pilgrim’s Eye was amazing for fixing the colors and keeping the mana flowing — it also conveniently blocks and trades with pesky one toughness creatures (Yes, Surrekar Marauders, I am looking at you!) The real star was the Ruin Ghost who was essentially Isochron Scepter imprinting Hindering Light thanks to the two copies of Sejiri Steppes. Any of the spell lands from the new set — or the ones from the Zendikar — can become a real problem with Ruin Ghost on the table.

In an earlier draft — and the first time I tried out the Ghost — I got him going with Khalni Garden and Emeria Angel, in an otherwise uninspiring deck, to spawn soldiers in an unending army of fliers and chumpblockers each turn. I had one match with the deck listed above where my opponent was waiting until my turn to aim a removal spell at my Talus Paladin. When I played the Sejiri Steppe he responded with Hideous End but since he could not respond to me playing the land I was able to use Ruin Ghost in response to his Hideous End. The Steppe blinked in and out play and in some sort of time travel conundrum was able to give the Ally protection from black before its ability from when it was originally played had resolved.

It felt like playing with Mother of Runes. Yes it required two cards to get the same effect but Mother of Runes is not exactly an option in Standard right now. I could see those two cards being played in a White Weenie deck that also features Kor Firewalker (aka Bearclaw) against a Jund player. They basically have to aim some fire at your Ruin Ghost or they are never going to be able to Pulse that pesky Firewalker.

One of the unexpected abilities of the Ghost in this deck was to filter my mana. I was able to turn WBB into BBB for a kicked Gatekeeper on more that one occasion and used it to get to BB for an unkicked — but board sweeping — Marsh Casualties in another. Instant speed landfall was the most exciting and my Mysteries of the Deep were good for three cards at the end of an opponent’s turn at instant speed in multiple games.

I posted something about my affections for Ruin Ghost on Twitter and Facebook and thanks to a suggestion from Kevin An I am now looking to play with the Ghost in Elder Dragon Highlander where it can do some pretty spicy things with Thawing Glaciers. Thawing Glaciers does not have to return to your hand if you exile it and an ostensibly new card comes into play. Things get even saucier when you add Amulet of Vigor into the pot. You play the Glaciers and untap it, tap it to go fetch a land which comes into play and untaps, then you use that mana to activate the Ghost and exile the Thawing Glaciers, which then comes into play untapped and ready to go again. If there was only a way to untap the Ghost…

If Tectonic Edge becomes a staple in the new format then you could see the Ghost as some kind of countermeasure. It also can protect activated man-lands from having unfortunate accidents. I don’t know if it will become a Constructed staple but I know I will be trying it out in a bunch of different decks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 5

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 4

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 3

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 2

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 1

If you like to gamble, start playing with this deck:

Crypt Combo AKA “Crabs”

4 Crypt of Agadeem
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 U/x Fetch Land
2 B/x Fetch Land
5 Island
2 Swamp

4 Hedron Crab
2 Kederekt Leviathan
2 Fatestitcher
4 Extractor Demon
4 Rotting Rats
4 Architects of Will
4 Viscera Dragger
4 Monstrous Carabid
3 Corpse Connoisseur

4 Grim Discovery
4 Traumatize

Sideboard:
4 Duress
4 Blister Beetle
4 Disfigure
3 Pithing Needle

I haven’t played the sideboard listed here, but its what the people who are placing in MODO events are playing so it must be good!

If you don’t know how this deck works, its pretty simple: mill yourself with Crab and/or Traumatize, mise a Crypt somewhere in the first 4 turns, then make a bunch of mana with at least one crypt activation and Unearth FTW. If your opponent has infinite life, then you just mill them out via Extractor Demon triggers.

Of course it is not always that simple, because rarely is your hand the right combination of Crypt/Crab/Traumatize/Grim Disco. The nut draws with this deck easily win turn 4, but the sub-nut draws have you mulliganning to 5 and hoping to get there on Cycling.

Because of the inconsistencies (I have played somewhere in the range of 100 games with this deck, that’s how badly I wanted it to be good) the matchup against any deck that can goldfish a turn 4 win is pretty bad. Red Deck Wins is virtually impossible (although i have not tried the Disfigures). Against Boros you can get there off a heavy Rotting Rats draw and chump blocking until you can systemagically set up your graveyard. Jund is a favorable matchup, especially if they do not have main deck Jund Charms, and double especially if they don’t have Goblin Ruinblaster main. Mono-Green is also favorable since they do not get nearly as fast a start as any of the decks mentioned previously. Against both Jund and Green, Unearthing (or even hard casting!) a Leviathan turn 4 or 5 will give you more than enough time to complete your kill.

You can’t really beat any deck that has Goblin Ruinblaster, Ajani Vengeant, Acidic Slime, or any of the blue enchantments that turn your land into something other than Crypt of Agadeem.

Against control decks (if you manage to spot one online, which is very rare) you are practically a lock game 1 because they can’t interact with you at all while you goldfish your win. Post board you can just side in your duress/negate and take your time. Set up your graveyard and you can even make them discard their whole hand via rats if you want before you attempt to go off.

In essence, this deck is a total crap shoot against the format. If I were to run it at states tomorrow, I would predict a 5-3 finish, probably good enough for like, 6 packs. I do think this is a deck to keep an eye on, however, should the format slow down at all. If any kind of control deck emerges from Worlds (happening this week for anyone who didn’t know), or if for whatever reason the red decks fall from popularity, then it is possible that Crypt Combo could be very well positioned for states. I am certainly going to keep it in mind, but in the meantime, there are quite a few other decks that have caught my eye, which I will write about as I get the chance to play with them.

As a side note: I have finally returned to Magic, and intend to start posting here again regularly! I have been pretty busy with a lot of other stuff the past few months and had to put the game on the back burner. In addition to having time to play, I have installed Windows on my Mac, and can now play MODO, which is absolutely insane. If you feel like playing some games, chat me up in game (my name is sloppystack, just like Twitter! PS: Follow me (and top8games, fivewithflores, and mattwang97) on Twitter!).

~WillPoP

One last match with BeckerDotDec

Standard Nonsense: Part Seven

Mike and switched decks again…this time to the deck formerly known as Mono Cascade. Apparently Jon Becker was peeved (imagine that) that the deck was not actually “mono-anything” — color, cascade, what-have-you. Mike has taken to calling the deck BeckerDotDec in honor of our curmudgeonly friend. This was definitley my favorite deck that we played on the evening although it felt pretty cumbersome at times with all the do nothing turns and come-into-play tapped lands. Still it was a lot of fun to play and really highlighted for me just how powerful Blightning is against the Planeswalkers strategies we kept seeing on MTGO that evening.

Standard Nonsense: Part Six

Here is the list:

BeckerDotDec
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Captured Sunlight
4 Deny Reality
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Esper Charm
4 Baneslayer Angel
2 Arcane Sanctum
1 Arid Mesa
4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Exotic Orchard
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Rupture Spire
4 Savage Lands
2 Seaside Citadel
1 Swamp
Sideboard:
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Lightning Bolt