Maybe scrubbing is too strong a word.

I ended up dropping after a 3-3 performance at the 5k last weekend. As promised, I stuck with the Greedy Grixis deck I have been posting the past few weeks. I still really like the deck but it ended up being a bad choice for the tournament. I was expecting to see a lot of 5C Control, Faeries and Kithkin (aka the Metagame). I don’t have official numbers, but from looking around the most popular deck in the room appeared to be Red Deck Wins. I didn’t think that RDW would be that bad of a matchup, but the lists I played against had two cards that were very difficult for me to beat: Stigma Lasher and Magma Spray. Stigma Lasher made Ajani awful and Magma Spray made my Shriekmaws and Sowers much worse. I never ever got to play a Makeshift Mannequin the two times I played against Red.

Here is a quick rundown of my tournament by round.

Round 1 v Tom with Faeries
I beat Tom 2-1 this round. Essentially, I won the two games where I got my Bitterblossom (games 1 and 3) and he won game 2 when he got his Bitterblossom and I didn’t draw a Wispmare for it.
1-0

Round 2 v Dave with RDW
Dave was a really nice guy and he crushed me 2-0 with Turn 2 Stigma Lasher (with me having Ajani in hand) both games. I got a couple of good Firespouts against him but it wasn’t enough since I could not gain my life back and he would eventually burn me out. Dave and I got lunch after this round, it was delicious! Dave went on to top 8 the tournament, unfortunately I did not stick around to see how he finished.
1-1

Round 3 v Kenny with BW Tokens
When I realized what Kenny was playing I got very worried because I had not tested the matchup and BDM had been telling me how good the BW tokens deck was for several days before the tournament. I managed to win this one 2-1, winning game 1 where Kenny was short on lands, losing game 2 to multiple Spectral Processions + Ajani (Goldmane) and winning game three with Thoughtseize into multiple Siege-Gang Commanders.
2-1

Round 4 v Gil with Faeries
Faeries again. I figured I had blown all my luck beating Faeries the first round but I somehow managed to beat Gil in three games. I mulliganed to 5 game 1 but it was still very close; I ended up dying to my Bitterblossom the turn I would kill him. Game 2 I found an opening to resolve a Siege-Gang and was able to win off of that. Game 3 I think Gil could have won if he had used his Thoughtseize to get rid of my Wispmare instead of my Thoughtseize. I am not sure if he realized that all of my lands came into play tapped and that I would not be able to Seize away his Bitterblossom before he could play it. Anyways, he made a turn 2 Blossom, which i disenchanted with an evoked Wispmare. A few turns later I found my own Bitterblossom and that was game.

Round 5 v Gerard Fabiano with GR Elves
It was unfortunate to get paired with Gerard as one of us would be eliminated from top 8 contention with a loss this round. Gerard is a really fun guy to play against and even though I lost I enjoyed our match. Since we both knew each others decks we were sideboarding face up and Gerard gave me advice on plays. This behavior was confusing to the people playing on either side of us. Gerard’s deck can get some very explosive draws and he blew me out completely game 1. Game 2 his draw was slower but he had triple Treetop Village which made it difficult for me to stabilize after Firespouting. I sided out Grixis charm here, which in retrospect was bad because it is my only real answer to the Treetop. Oh well.
3-2

Round 6 v Avery with RDW
I decided to keep playing to shoot for top 16, which paid out $100. Unfortunately I got paired against RDW again with all the same cards I can’t beat. Avery 2-0′d me and I dropped.

Despite my mediocre-to-poor performance I still think the experiment with Greedy Grixis was a success. After rounds my opponents usually asked to see my deck and told me that they were sideboarding all wrong because they couldn’t figure out what I was playing. This deck probably would have been much better positioned a few weeks ago when the metagame was less RDW heavy. If I could do it all over again I would probably pick a deck better suited for the field, probably something very similar to an elf list a friend of mine piloted to 7-2 or Merfolk. I will be posting the elf list soon for anyone who is still interested in T2.

WillPoP

In the comments to my previous post More On Greedy Grixis, enzoreal asked me to try to improve upon Will Price of Progress’s deck focusing on Ajani Vengeant, Bitterblossom, Cryptic Command, and Mulldrifter (cards I identified as being some of the strongest in Will’s deck).

This post is an attempt to modify Will’s deck to fulfill this request.

These were my goals…

1. Preserving [some of] the unique elements of Will’s Greedy Grixis deck
2. Staying competitive in the metagame, specifically against the Fae, Reflecting Pool Control, the Red Deck, and Kithkin
3. Minimizing weak draws in early Stage Two
4. Preserving game in Stage Three in the face of decks with Cruel Ultimatum
5. Increasing the deck’s ability to control the board (Will’s version has minimal board control capabilities)
6. Of course focusing on the unique combination of both Ajani Vengeant and Bitterblossom in a single deck

One of the issues I had with Will’s deck is that it obviously boasts some very powerful cards – especially Reveillark – but that a lot of the elements in the deck are at odds with one another. For instance it is a “Mannequin” deck with no Shriekmaw (I know Will mentioned this in Kithkin Testing, but I don’t know his most recent list, if there has been a change).

I have heard from various sources that Fulminator Mage should to be great in this format because of the mana bases but it was actually pretty mediocre. Even at its best, this card is pretty middling unless you are on the play, plus it presses your mana base, requiring (b/r)(br) untapped on the third turn, which is difficult.

I really like the 2/2 synergies in this deck with Reveillark, but they create some strange incentives… In particular there is the RR mana cost on Siege-Gang Commander… Like I said in my previous post you have to play twelve Red mana sources (which of course can be accomplished simply by increasing the number of Vivid lands)… But I have a different RR I’d rather play end game in this strategy.

4 Mind Stone

4 Bitterblossom

4 Cryptic Command
4 Mulldrifter

2 Agony Warp
4 Ajani Vengeant
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Esper Charm
2 Nucklavee

4 Pyroclasm

1 Austere Command

4 Arcane Sanctum
3 Cascade Bluffs
3 Crumbling Necropolis
3 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Vivid Creek

Sideboard:
2 Mind Shatter
1 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Gutteral Response
4 Condemn
2 Wispmare
2 Wrath of God

We know from the Brian Kowal Boat-Brew that Mind Stone into Ajani Vengeant is some kind of two-three sequence. Playing Mind Stone gives us something to do on turn two in the games where we don’t draw a Bitterblossom. In addition, this gives the deck a faster potential Stage Three in the mirror with those Mind Shatters (though obviously Mind Stone is worthless [directly] in conjunction with the main deck’s Stage Three sorcery).

I know that Cruel Ultimatum is old hat for similar decks in this format but I decided that it is the Stage Three this deck wants for a non-intuitive reason: With Bitterblossom as the main threat, life total actually matters! The five life increase is nothing to sneeze at.

You will notice I switched the reanimation from Fulminator Mages into Reveillarks to Pyroclasms into Nucklavees. This is pretty important… The deck is set up to take heavy advantage of Nucklavee; it seems like the change in the metagame towards Elves (possibly) will demand more quick defense than Will’s deck had previously. Pyroclasm is fast, and it has relatively low downside versus Firespout in this environment.

I know the Austere Command looks strange but… Okay, it will probably become a Wrath of God. Fine.

Condemn is a no-brainer for this deck; my friend Antonino De Rosa says you have to play four copies of this card between main and side in Reflecting Pool Control, and there are four in this board; the reason for Agony Warp in the main over Condemn is simply to increase the synergies with Nucklavee. Agony Warp is generally superior to Condemn unless you are actually facing a Demigod of Revenge or Hell’s Thunder. Though Condemn might take over Agony Warp’s spot in the main in order to free up sideboard space.

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