Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Vampires Post WWK

With about 1/3 of the new set spoiled, it is already pretty apparent that Vampires will be the new Kithkin of Standard and the new Faeries of Zendikar Block Constructed. With only 3 GOOD Vampire cards spoiled so far, I am personally very excited to see what more will come. I have been a fan of Vampires since the release of Zendikar (Malakir Bloodwitch is one of my favorite cards from the set) and I was excited to see Vampires finally take home a major victory at the Star City Games 5K in Dallas/Fort Worth. Current Vampire lists are pretty sketchy though. The control matchup is usually pretty good, but when put face to face with another "aggro" deck Vampires just cant compete. They cant outrace RDW/Barely Boros, cant deal with Mono-White's massive amount tokens and first strikers, and cant 2 for 1 better than Jund. In fact, Vampires is hardly even a Teir 1 deck. However, this will soon change with the release of Worldwake. First off, lets take a look at the spoiled Vampires so far:


First off is Anowon, the Ruin Sage. Fans of MTG Lore and back stories will  recognize this character as Chandra Nalaar's guide to the Eye of the Ugin. As for his card representation, Anowon is pretty nuts. He fits into the higher end of the Vampire curve, being priced the same as Bloodwitch, and like the Witch has a pretty sweet ability. Sure this guy is only a 4/3 for 5 in the Vampire mirror, but in other matchups his ability can be pretty nuts. Making an opponent continually sac creatures means you will almost always maintain board control. Plus, his ability deals with the pesky shroud creatures like Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Wall of Denial. I can see this guy as a 2-of in post WWK Vampire lists as you dont want to get flooded by him and he is pretty underwhelming against faster aggro decks like RDW and Boros.


The next Vampire card is probably one of my favorite cards in Worldwake so far. Urge to Feed reminds me alot of Agony Warp but with a different "bonus". Agony Warp's bonus is that it can target multiple creatures, allowing you to negate the damage of 2 small creatures (Fog one, kill the other) or other sweet 2-for one options. Urge to Feed, on the other hand, only targets one creature, but is a perminent pump to all of your creatures. I can only imagine all the sweet combat tricks this card can be used for. It will almost definitely be a 4-of in every Vampire deck.



The final good Vampire was spoiled last week on The Magic Show. The "Lose X Life, Gain X Life" ability is fairly common amongst the Vampires of Zendikar. Kalastria Highborn gives every Vampire you control this ability for the small cost of a black mana. The usefullness for this card can be quite numerous. First off, it makes Wrath effects like Day of Judgement and Earthquake much better for you. If your opponent DoJ's your board of Bloodghast, Highborn, and Nighthawk, and you have BBB open, all of a sudden their 4 mana just set them back 6 life while boosting your life total 6 more than it was before. This guy is definitely worth testing in Vampire lists to come.

In conclusion, I will leave you all with this possible post WWK Vampire list:

3x Bloodghast
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
2x Kalastria Highborn
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Vampire Nocturnus
3x Malakir Bloodwitch
2x Anowon, the Ruin Sage

4x Urge to Feed
4x Sign in Blood
4x Tendrils of Corruption
2x Mind Sludge
1x Eldrazi Monument

4x Marsh Flats
4x Verdant Catacombs
15x Swamp

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment on the deck.

-David

Friday, January 15, 2010

FNM Deck Report: Sphinx Control

Tonight was my first FNM of the New Year. I was pretty excited to go and hang out with all my friends, but in the minutes before I left my house, I was still unsure of what deck to play. I had a full Vampire list completely sleeved up but I wanted something different. Vampires would have to be my backup plan if I couldn't get a full deck together. Digging through my cards I found a partially sleeved Esper/Open the Vaults "combo" deck. For a minute I was excited, but then I remembered how inconsistent the deck was. I decided to take a better approach and go with straight up Esper Control. I started brewing, and here is how the deck turned out:

UWB Sphinx Control:

4x Deft Duelist
4x Wall of Denial
1x Sphinx of the Lost Truths
3x Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2x Sphinx of the Steel Wind

4x Path to Exile
3x Agony Warp
1x Doom Blade
4x Esper Charm
3x Oblivion Ring
3x Jace Beleren
2x Day of Judgement
2x Liliana Vess 

4x Arcane Sanctum
3x Drowned Catacombs
2x Glacial Fortress
2x Sejiri Refuge
2x Terramorphic Expanse
3x Swamp
4x Plains
4x Island


Sideboard:
4x Celestial Purge
3x Flashfreeze
3x Hindering Light
3x Identity Crisis
2x Vedalkin Outlander


The deck is absolutely amazing. Having all shroud creatures is absolutely nuts in this metagame (Sphinx of Steel Wind essentially has shroud in this metagame full of Jund). As stated by LSV and many other Pros, making your opponents removal dead Game 1 gives you a great advantage.

Now the deck is great, but it does need a few tweaks. First off, It needs more Day of Judgement. I only own 2 so thats all I could get for the night. Also, the Terramorphic Expanses should be Marsh Flats (my friend borrowed my Vampire deck and I figured he needed flats more than I did). I would also probably drop the 1-of Sphinx of Lost Truths and bring Jwar Isle up to 4. Agony Warp and Liliana werent seen all night, so I'm not sure what to say about the two cards. Warp is a pet card of mine and it almost always finds a slot in any U/B/x decks I play. Liliana, on the other hand, seems like an underachiever. Her tutor ability can win games, but is she really worth the 5 mana? I dont really think so. Id probably switch her for a third DoJ or possibly an Elspeth (though Elspeth isnt as great when none of my creatures can be targeted with the +3/+3 ability). As for the sideboard, I was quite happy. Identity Crisis is such a powerful card. I just cant say it enough! Putting any deck in topdeck mode on turn 6 is pretty good when I still have a full grip of cards thanks to Jace and Esper Charm. Flashfreeze and Hindering Light were also pretty good, even though there were a few games where I wished Hindering Light was a Negate instead. But in most situations, the extra card draw was worth the minor setback. Vedalkin Outlander was pretty good, but Im curious as to whether or not Luminarch Ascension would be a better board slot. Dropping it Turn 2 or 3 against any Control Mirror is just absurd, especially if i can use Hindering Light to keep it safe on the battlefield.


Overall I am very happy with this deck and with a few minor changes I think it can be quite a contender. Im still toying around with trying to fit a few Negates in the mainboard, but as far as I could tell, having 6 counterspells in the board was plenty good. I would definitely suggest this deck to anyone looking for a solid control deck with some of the strongest Anti-Jund creatures in the format (Duelist, Wall of Denial, Jwar Jwar, Steel Wind, etc). Heck, all the creatures are great against Jund!


Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment on the deck and let me know how you would change it up.


-David

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

My 5K Deck

This past weekend I made the short 4 hour drive up to Fort Worth, TX for the Star City Games Dallas/Fort Worth 10K Weekend (specifically the 5K Standard Open on Saturday). After a week of jumping from decklist to decklist, I decided on a fun GBW "Junk" deck that I had been testing. The list was pretty different to most GWB Lists, as it included no Lotus Cobra, no Emeria Angel, and (as it turns out) is alot less consistant than I had thought. Here is the list I played:

// Lands
    4 Forest
    4 Plains
    3 Swamp
    4 Marsh Flats
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    2 Terramorphic Expanse
    4 Sunpetal Grove

// Creatures
    4 Knight of the Reliquary
    4 Birds of Paradise
    4 Baneslayer Angel
    4 Putrid Leech
    3 Vampire Nighthawk
    1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen

// Spells
    4 Path to Exile
    2 Grim Discovery
    3 Maelstrom Pulse
    2 Garruk Wildspeaker
    1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
    3 Gift of the Gargantuan

// Sideboard
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Wall of Reverence
4 Celestial Purge
2 Malakir Bloodwitch

So I dont really think I need to explain how the deck works, but some of the card choices probably do need some explination. Vampire Nighthawk is actually a star in the deck. Being able to stop Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Wall of Denial is pretty sweet for a mere 3 mana. Nighthawk has been a pet card of mine since the release of Zendikar and I have fit the 2/3 into many different decks (Vampires, UB Control, Junk, Jund, etc). He usually eats a bolt or some other form of removal, but he is still a force to be reconned with. Putrid Leech is another card that I have always liked, but unlike Nighthawk didnt perform so well. In a format full of Bolts, Burst Lightnings, and Disfigures, Leeches ability will usually end up being a waste of 2 life. Leech was only good in hands where I could get off to a quick start, and those were few and far between. Another interesting choice was Gifts of the Gargantuan and Grim Discovery. Gifts was suggested to me by none other than Kyle Sanchez on the day of the 5K, so I decided to fit in the Gifts where I had originally played Harrow. Gifts was good, but never really felt like the kind of spell I wanted to play on Turn 3 (when I could instead be playing Nighthawk, Knight of Reliquary, or with the help of Birds a Garruk or Elspeth). Grim Discovery, on the other hand, is a card that continues to amaze me.The ability to return a Baneslayer or Knight from the graveyard late game was absolutely insane. Plus, Grim can help with your mana if you return a fetchland or Terramorphic Expanse as well. But enough about the deck itself, let's get on with the actual tournament.

Round 1 vs Jund
Game 1 was terrible on my part. I mulliganed a 1 Forest 2 Birds of Paradise hand that would have acutally given me an insane start (I peeked at my top few cards, which were 2 lands and a Baneslayer). I instead kept a slow 4 land, Baneslayer, Leech hand. My opponent led off with Savage Lands and won the cascade lottery in a few turns thanks to Sprouting Thrinax and Bloodbraid Elf.
Game 2 went much better for me.My hand was fast and resilient and I quickly took care of the Jund menace before any major card advantage could be gained on the back of cascade.
Game 3 was by far the closest match. My opponent and I both had a board full of creatures, but we both couldnt attack profitably thanks to blocking. All my opponent needed was a Maelstrom Pulse to destroy my 2 Baneslayer Angels and that would have been game, but luckily he just couldnt draw 1. I ended up winning the game after killing his Broodmate and Token, activating Garruks final ability, and swinging overhead with a 3/4 Birds while my Baneslayers got chump blocked by Bloodwitchs. My opponent looked at his top card and showed it to me... Pulse. I had barely pulled off a win.

Round 2 vs Mono White (Emeria's Pledge)
I dont remember too much about this match, other than the fact that I won it quickly in 2 games. Bloodwitch came in from the board and easily ended the match. Later in the day I learned that this deck actually made it all the way to the Top 16 and I was one of the guy's only losses.

Round 3 vs Grixis Control
Nothing interesting happened in this matchup. I got blown out by a total of 6 Cruel Ultimatums (3 in game 1, 3 in game 2). And of course, all of my threats got killed before they had a chance to attack.

Round 4 vs 5 Color Creatures
Game 1 I got blown out after getting stuck on 3 mana. Game 2 I managed to pull out a win with Vampire Nighthawk. Game 3 he played 2 Meddling Mage, naming both of my removal spells, and then quickly took care of my remaining life total with a Baneslayer Angel.

Round 5 vs A Strange Mono White Token Deck
Not too sure what I played against in this match. It was definitely the kid's homebrew deck which featured Baneslayer Angel, Conquerers Pledge, World Queller, Iona, and other big white creatures. Not really sure how or why I loss this match, other than the fact that I didnt draw a single Baneslayer or Knight the whole round. Bad luck I guess.

Needless to say, I went 2-3 Drop. A pretty unimpressive score if you ask me. But I had alot of fun and the tournament was a great experience. I was quite happy when Vampires took the title, as I have been itching to play a Vampire list for a while, but was worried that with a Jund filled metagame I would get blown out all too often. However, I think I'm going to take the winning Vampire list for a spin at my local FNM this week so hopefully it does good. Another deck that I was excited to see do so well was the Valakut Ramp deck with Harrow and Khalani Heart Expedition. The deck is not only inexpensive, but is explosively good and has been winning for me when I play it on MTGO. The combo is still too fragile and inconsistent, and there are probably better lists than the one that Top 8'd the 5K, but for now I am enjoying playing a combo deck in a format filled with cascade and blightnings.

Thanks for reading!

-David

Sunday, January 10, 2010

First Post

Here it is, my very first blog post! Im pretty excited to start blogging about Magic. Ive been playing for about 2.5 years now and just recently started writing for the website http://www.quietspeculation.com (a Magic financial website). I'll probably update my blog at least 2-3 times a week, usually with strategy infromation, decklists and analysis, or just my thoughts on MtG related subjects. I'm a heavy twitter user, so feel free to follow me for faster information (@dcampa93). Well, that's it for now, hope everyone out there enjoys reading my blog as much as I'll enjoy posting content for it!

-David