Naya Zoo in Middle School

I recently played in the Romancing the Stones Fall Semester Middle School League. I went 3-3 with Naya Zoo and finished in 15th place. 

The Deck

4 Jackal Pup

4 Savannah Lions

4 Jungle Lion

1 Grim lavamancer

4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Goblin Legionnaire

1 Granger Guildmage

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Rancor

2 Cursed Scroll

3 Wax / Wane

1 Armadillo Cloak

4 Battlefield Forge

4 Karplusan Forest

2 Brushland

3 Rith's Grove

3 Gemstone Mine

2 City of Brass

1 Thran Quarry

1 Undiscovered Paradise

Sideboard

3 Seal of Cleansing

2 Pyroblast

3 Tormod's Crypt

1 Phyrexian Furnace

3 Winter Orb

2 Simoon

1 Armadillo Cloak

I wanted to play a few cards that are only legal (or good) in Middle School: Jungle Lion and Goblin Legionnaire. I even tried to play Kird Ape. It is possible to build the manabase to support Ape with eight fetches and two Forests. However, basic Forest is not good. Basic Plains and basic Mountain are not good either, and the deck failed to cast two spells in a turn quite frequently. So I scrapped the Apes for a better mana base, once again playing zero basic land.

The creature suite is solid. I don't know if Legionnaire is great, but it certainly wasn't bad. I considered playing a couple of Anurid Brushhopper but decided against in order to keep the curve low. Lavamancer is just fine without a lot of ways to fuel the graveyard. I could see Guildmage being the better choice and would play a second and third Guildmage before adding the second Lavamancer. Rancor sort of counts as a creature in this deck. I don't think you need four copies when you have Jungle Lion to up the power of your one drops. It can be clunky sometimes to play out and trample was not that relevant. I would play three copies or fewer going forward.

The only spells you have to play are Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares. I think Wax / Wane does enough in the format that I would also want at least three copies, but the Wax side is a bit underwhelming. It does shore up lots of matchups against Oath, Survival, Necropotence, Humility, and Deed. Scroll is kind of slow and the mana base doesn't support it that well. Drawing Gemstone Mine or Undiscovered Paradise or Rith's Grove can make it hard to utilize. It could be just a sideboard card. The other options for spells would be to play Seal of Fire or another burn spell, or to mainv deck some copies of Winter Orb. After playing the league, I think I would try to play two or three Orbs in the main and go up to the full four Rith's Grove to supplement it. When everything in the deck costs one mana Orb will be asymmetrical against most other decks even when it isn't shutting them down completely. The Armadillo Cloak was about as good as expected, which is to say I expected it to be not that great. I only played it for the style points.

I really liked the sideboard I played except for Simoon, but other options to include if you shift Orbs to the main deck would be Absolut Law, more Cursed Scroll or Lavamancer type cards, or some more resilient threats like Anurid Brushhopper or Call of the Herd.

There are four and five color versions of this archetype popular in Premodern that play Carnophage and Sarcomancy along with Duress. They are usually base Jund colors or Mardu. The mana base isn't that much worse for them since they replace the pain ands with more City of Brass and that means you take about the same amount of damage. Damage from your own lands is the biggest drawback to this archetype. 

I considered a straight Red Green approach that would utilize Kird Ape and Skyshroud Elite to replace Savannah Lions and Goblin Legionnaire along with more burn spells. Giving up the Lions is not that big of a deal, but not having Swords to Plowshares, Wax / Wane, and Seal of Cleansing is a big deal. The mana base would be a lot better at not doing damage to yourself. 

The Games

Round 1 vs Jake Baltz on Urzatron Time Spiral Time Stretch deck

Game one he mulligan to five on the draw and I have Lion Lion Pup so he's facing 6 power before he can even play a spell. He plays two islands and Mana leak on my Legionnaire but then concedes when no third land.  Game two he has Force of Will for my turn one Lion and Syncopate for turn two Legionnaire. I have two Savannah Lion turn three and then land Winter Orb. He takes two turns to get mana back online and tries for Chromatic Sphere plus Fire to kill my creatures but I save one with Wax. I draw another Pup off the top and another Wax to kill him the turn before he has enough mana for time Spiral. 

1-0

Round 2 vs Phillip Collier on White Weenie

Game one I have enough Bolts and Swords to eliminate his problem creatures (Paladin and Mother and Silver Knight) and he only has shadow guys that don't win the race. Game two he stuck on one land and forced to block with Mother of Runes to prevent damage from my Rancored Lion but I have Wax to make it huge blowout and by the time he finds Tithe and more lands he's dead.

2-0

Round 3 vs Lorien Elleman on Bubblick Muck Tendrils Necropotence

This match was streamed here. Game one I have two Cats and Rancor and he never really recovers. Game two he kills my first two guys and has Necro plus Zuran Orb and I flood out. Game three I lead Pup he has Carnophage, I decide to use Wax to trade instead of letting my guy die with Rancor. I follow up with second Pup, but he has Cabal Ritual into Priest into Engineered Plague on Jackal and I'm blown out. The rancor I'm left with doesn't answer Necro and I lose shortly after.

2-1

Round 4 vs Robert Wilson on CounterRebels

Game one goes very long as I get two Cursed Scroll active. My sixth land is Undiscovered Paradise so its tough for me to activate both each turn though. I kill a Lin Sivvi and a Sky Marshall but then he sticks Standstill and starts attacking with Conclave once my hand is a bit more full. I have four cards, two are Rancor and I miss like four Scroll activations at 50% before I'm forced to break Standstill. He wins from there. Game two I have enough pressure and removal and he gets too far behind so I easily win. Game three I kill his first Mother and Rebel, he has Disenchant for my Cursed Scroll though. I have Lion with Cloak to try to race his Thermal Glider but I end up drawing 8 land and 8 spells flood out while he kills me with Glider and Factories.

2-2

Round 5 vs Dustin Ransom on Blue Storm

Game one I keep hand with Wax/Wane thinking he's on Stasis like he's played every other league but he plays turn two Helm and then kills me on turn five when my clock wasn't fast enough. Game two I have two Legionarre and Seal for his first Medallion. I have no green mana so my clock is a bit slow. He has second Helm and I bolt him to 9. I draw City for Rancor attack for 6 he's at 3. I can activate both Legionnaires to kill but I also have Pyroblast in hand and only two red sources so I tank a bit. In the end I decide letting him untap on his turn is too risky so I go for it and he can't kill at instant speed. Game three he mulligan to five and I keep Lion Lion Rancor Seal Brushland two red cards on the draw. I never draw a second land but he never finds third land and I win with just 2/1 beats somehow.

3-2

Round 6 vs Keith Sweeney on Black Aggro

Game one I'm looking good with double Rancor to get him down to five life but he gets Cursed Scroll online and I'm forced to top deck mode. Because of his Sarcomancy doing damage each turn, I have four turns to draw any of Mogg Fanatic, Goblin Legionnaire, Lightning Bolt, or Cursed Scroll  but I don't and he attacks for lethal while he's at 1. Game two I have Lion plus Rancor off of Undiscovered Paradise so my development a bit slow. All he has is the one Sphere of Resistance he left in but Wasteland and Hymn make it so I can't play any of the three Legionnaire in my hand. I kill his Factory but he has Slayer to start chipping away. Eventually I get him to 3 life with Legionnaires before his Scroll takes over and I fail to find the Lightning Bolt to win.

3-3

Lessons Learned

All three of my losses ended up making the top eight, and they all felt close enough that with better draws or slightly better build I could have been there instead. In several games against Necropotence and Rebels I really wanted to draw Winter Orb after sideboard and never did. I think going forward I would try to play Winter Orb main deck in some quantity.  I also think playing fewer Rancor is fine as I routinely had multiple in my hand without anything to put them on. Cursed Scroll was a tough card to beat, but maybe the best answer is more Scrolls of my own, but this is would not work with Winter Orb. 

This was probably the deck that surprised me the most from how good I expected it to be compared to how well it performed. I would definitely consider playing this again if I felt the metagame was right. 

Props:

Once again, Middle School format for letting you play with sweet Portal cards

Once again, Romancing the Stones crew for running these great events

MasaH for finally winning one of these leagues

Slops:

Once again, formats where you can't play sweet Portal cards like Jungle Lion

Cursed Scroll for missing my coin flips. 

"Abzan" Aluren in Middle School *2nd Place*

 I played in the most recent Romancing the Stones Middle School league. I played Abzan Aluren and went 6-3 overall finishing in 2nd place. I think the deck is fairly strong and this take my have advantages over more traditional builds. I had planned on playing this in the previous league but due to my cross-country move I was unable to participate. That did give me more time to help refine the list.

The Deck

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Wall of Blossoms

3 Mesmeric Fiend

3 Imperial Recruiter

1 Man O War

2 Cavern Harpy

2 Wall of Roots

2 Academy Rector

2 Spike Feeder

1 Arctic Merfolk

2 Eladamri's Call

4 Living Wish

4 Cabal Therapy

4 Aluren

2 Phyrexian Tower

4 Havenwood Battleground

4 City of Brass

4 Llanowar Wastes

2 Brushland

3 Gemstome Mine

2 Caves of Koilos

1 Reflecting Pool

Sideboard

1 Gemstone Mine

1 Volrath's Stronghold

1 Phyrexian Tower

1 Imperial Recruiter

1 Academy Rector

1 Mesmeric Fiend

1 Gilded Drake

1 Stern Proctor

3 Xantid Swarm

1 Man-O'-War

3 Pernicious Deed

The genesis of this build actually started with Phyrexian Tower. I realized that turn one Bird or Elf and turn two Tower could cast a turn two Aluren. Turn two kill is definitely ahead of the fundamental turn so I decided to look into it further. Separately, I had been thinking the strength of the Full English Breakfast decks was in the Mesmeric Fiend plus Cabal Therapy combo. I wanted to try to skew towards heavy black and likely eschew blue and Force of Will except for the requisite combination pieces. The next piece was Academy Rector now that there were enough sacrifice outlets to reliably get it in the graveyard. 

Making the actual Aluren kill as lean as possible was a goal to allow for the most Mesmeric Fiend and tutors in the deck. As built, the combo is to get Recruiter for a bounce creature (Man-o-war or Arctic Merfolk) to recur the Recruiter and find Cavern Harpy. This lets you recur the bounce creature and then find Spike Feeder to gain unlimited life. From here you can draw the deck with Wall of Blossoms, generate unlimited green mana with Wall of Roots, move unlimited +1/+1 counters from Feeder onto a Recruiter, and exile the opponent's hand with Harpy + Fiend shenanigans, including in the next draw step. I've brainstormed and haven't really found a reason to play any other dedicated kill in the list, but putting a Maggot Carrier or Rishadan Cutpurse in the sideboard to Living Wish for is an option.

I was somewhat interested in playing more Cavern Harpy in the deck but it is not easy to cast and I didn't have a good reason. Eventually, I figured out that Harpy + Fiend is a pretty solid combo with Aluren that can win some games when you don't have Imperial Recruiter. For that reason, I would consider trying to play the four copies of each going forward, likely trimming on Eladamri's Call and the extra Feeder/Roots copies. However, Wall of Roots has overperformed just as a good card in the deck.

Having Academy Rector in the deck opens up options to playing other enchantments that might be good. The ones I considered were Survival of the Fittest (to find Recruiter if you already have Aluren), Worship, and Form of the Dragon. I don't think any of them are needed in the main deck unless you are playing the maximum number of Rector. In that case, I think Worship has the most upside as it can steal more games than the other options. 

The sideboard has some Living Wish targets, but the two you get most often are Rector and Recruiter. Three land in the SB is probably overkill but they are each different. I think Tower and Gemstone Mine are required, but the Stronghold is too cute. Pernicious Deed was amazing and there should be four copies. I also wanted four copies of Xantid Swarm to be able to board in three and leave one to wish for. Stern Protector is only there to deal with permanents that might prevent you from comboing, like Arcane Laboratory or Sphere of Resistence. The extra Man-o-War I think is needed, but at this moment I can't remember why. Could be a Bone Shredder. I don't think you want to play "fair" cards like Uktabi Orangutan and Monk Realist, but they are options as well. 

If I were to play again, my sideboard would look something like this:

1 Gemstone Mine

1 Phyrexian Tower

1 Imperial Recruiter

1 Academy Rector

1 Gilded Drake

1 Stern Protector

4 Xantid Swarm

1 Man-O'-War / Bone Shredder

4 Pernicious Deed

The manabase shows the deck is only Abzan in theory. Obviously you have Red and Blue cards, and you cast them with mana quite frequently. For that reason, four City of Brass and three Gemstone Mine are crucial. Llanowar Wastes is the next best land. Havenwood Battleground is additional acceleration for turn three kills. It is significantly better than Hickory Woodlot in my opinion. The other painlands support the Abzan colors and one Reflecting Pool rounds out the lands. I think one Pool is the right number but I could see playing two. The deck wants enough green for turn one/two Birds of Paradise and enough black for turn two Mesmeric Fiend / Cabal Therapy. You would play eight copies of Llanowar Wastes if you could.

I'm not sure this build is possible in Premodern. Without Recruiter to make Aluren a two-card combo, you need more dedicated space for combo pieces and less room for Academy Rector. I do think playing Mesmeric Fiend is still viable.

The Games

Round 1 - Bant Slivers

I win game one when he taps out on turn three and doesn't have Force of Will. Game two I misplay my Therapy and leave him with Winged Sliver which means I can't block with my walls. I'm one mana short from being able to Rector for Deed to stabilize when I die. Game three he makes a questionable Meddling Mage play and names Man-o-War, which lets me combo with Arctic Merfolk instead. 

1-0

Round 2 - GW (mostly colorless) Prison

This was on stream here. Close games two and three and I wish I had Orangutan somewhere. We missed him casting Tangle Wire for three through Sphere of Resistance that probably made the game closer than it should have been, but I managed to survive and win.

2-0

Round 3 - Goblins

I don't remember much about this match except he missed a kill game one when he forgot he had Warchief in play that would have made his second and third Piledriver cheaper. Game two he had no interaction and I was free to combo turn four.

3-0

Round 4 - Full English Breakfast with Stifle-Naught

Game one I Therapy two separate times and get Survival both times, but he still finds the third copy with a Shapeshifter in play. I have a play to set up for a win a turn later with Living Wish for Recruiter and Therapy his Phage plus Akroma so that I don't die, but I would still be dead to Phyrexian Devourer if it is in his deck. I think there could be a chance he doesn't have it, but when I Wish I remember I have Gilded Drake. I play this hoping to take his Shapeshifter, but I forget that its currently copying is Iridescent Angel and I lose on the spot. Game two I'm on the play and take his Survival with Fiend and then I'm free to combo a few turns later. Game three he's on the play and has turn two Survival before I can play Fiend. He then searches in wrong order and doesn't get Squee so when he plays Shapeshifter on Hypnox he gets my hand of lands and nothing else. He has no follow up but I draw some relevant creatures to try to race. He Stifles the Man-o-War trigger and finally finds a creature to discard to Survival and kill me with Phage.

3-1

Round 5 - Stasis

Game one is epic as he dodges my early Fiend plus Therapy by having Chain of Vapor to complicate things. He sticks Stasis and the game starts to drag. A second Therapy and some Tower activations let me try for Aluren, but he has enough free counterspells to weather that volley. Eventually he finds Black Vise and I'm forced to go for it when I have one mana less than ideal. I had discarded third Therapy to hand size earlier. I use it and it is countered. I then play the fourth one from hand and he responds with two Chain of Vapor on my only two creatures and I'm unable to flashback. He then Misdirection the Therapy. I'm forced to go for it with the mana floating from Wall of Roots but he has the last Force of Will and I die to Vise. Game two I use a Deed to clear the first Vise and Stasis. I attack him down to 5 life with Imperial Recruiter chains. The last Recruiter finds Man-o-War but he has Counterspell. I have a second Deed that kills my own Fiend returning a Force of Will to his hand. I try a Therapy but it is Forced on cast and on flashback. Now he's at 3 life and I play Arctic Merfolk with kicker and replay Recruiter to present lethal damage. He has Stasis as expected and Chain for the Recruiter but falls to 1 life. I draw two land to hopefully play Mesmeric Fiend but first I play Xantid Swarm and then attack to force through when I find the land I need. He has nothing and dies to the Fiend attack. Those two games were epic, but game three was anticlimactic. He has turn one Vise which does about 10 damage to me, but the only follow up is two Counterspells which my tow fiends take care of and then I win with Aluren combo through no resistance. 

4-1

Round 6 - Esper TaxTog

This was also on stream. Game one I start with Birds and he only has Plains. I Therapy for Meddling Mage and miss, but see two Force of Will and Enlightened Tutor. Now his start makes sense. I take the opportunity to play Wall of Blossoms and flashback Therapy on Force of Will. He uses Swords to Plowshares on Birds to set my mana back, but then finds Land Tax. I slowly redeploy Birds and Wall of Roots but I'm able to use Gemstone Mine to keep his Tax from triggering. I start some beats with Imperial Recruiter and Spike Feeder, but he finds Meddling Mage for Aluren and then Sea Drake to race while triggering Land Tax. I am forced to use both Spike Feeder to put counters on my Birds to trade with the Drake, but I'm too far away from comboing thanks to his Mage and he finds another Drake shortly to kill me. Game two my Fiend and Therapy combine to remove his Swords to Plowshares, but he has two Engineered Plague he plays on Nightmare and Beast. His Meddling Mage on Aluren is attacking me, but I resolve a Pernicious Deed and then just wait until I have combo set up before popping it with Therapy protection. Game three I think I therapy most of the relevant cards in his hand, but he has Meddling Mage for Aluren. I remove his countermagic and then search up Academy Rector to try to find either Deed or Aluren while playing around his Annul. Last turn facing a Tog, Drake, and Mage I can either find Deed to try to buy time, but this lets him get back another Drake from my Mesmeric Fiend. Instead I go for Aluren and hope to draw one of the eight ways left to play Imperial Recruiter and win, but I miss. 

4-2

5th place after Swiss

Top 8 - FEB with StifleNaught (Rematch from round 4)

Game one he leads on Island and passes. I Therapy turn one for Survival and hit. I see a Stifle but no Dreadnaught so I'm hoping to dodge. He passes turn two and I play Wall of Blossoms. His turn three he plays Volrath's Shapershifter and I play Birds and another Wall. I hold back on using Therapy flashback since I've now drawn Aluren and may be able to instead use it to protect combo. He passes with four mana up. I flashback Therapy on Intuition which he doesn't cast. I see Stifle, Akroma, and Iridescent Angel. I then cast Aluren and Wall of Roots to get mana for Living Wish, but I can only grab Fiend since he has Stifle. I do have Harpy to go with Fiend and exile his hand, but he discards Akroma in response to Harpy so now I have to beat the legendary angel. I Fiend him in his draw step and take 6 from the Akroma down to 11, but my next draw is Eladamri's Call and I can find Recruiter to win. Game two he mulligans to five cards and has turn one birds but no follow up play. I have turn one and two Battleground and cast Birds on turn two. He still has nothing turn three and I play Mesmeric Fiend. He shows Dreadnaught and two copies of Naturalize. I take a Naturalize and then Wish for Recruiter. He plays Impulse on his turn and passes with three mana up. I play Aluren and pass. He tries for Naturalize but in response I combo off and he didn't have the Stifle.

5-2

Top 4 and Finals Videos here

Top 4 - Survival Nightmare

Game one he mulligans to five cards and I Therapy his Survival on turn two. He draws another one but I draw the Living Wish I need to kill him with my turn three Aluren. Game two he leads on Birds of Paradise and I also play Birds, but I should have played Therapy turn one. He has Therapy for my Deed and Aluren and a turn two Survival and I die shortly to his combo. Game three was pretty neat. I keep hand without disruption but it has Birds Aluren and Havenwood Battleground, so I have lots of draws on turn two that set up a turn three kill or disrupt him. I only draw a land so he gets to Mesmeric Fiend my Arctic Merfolk and Therapy my Aluren. He has no reason to flashback Therapy though so it remains in his yard. This makes it awkward when I draw Imperial Recruiter. I have to search up Wall of Blossoms to dig. He doesn't flashback Therapy on Wall and just passes. I Wall into Academy Rector and pass. On his turn he plays Survival and another Birds to flashback Therapy on Living Wish, but my last card is another Aluren. On my turn I draw Phyrexian Tower allowing me to sacrifice Rector to find Deed and blow up the Deed for two. This gets back the Arctic Merfolk to my hand and I cast Aluren, representing a kill with the Recruiter on board. In response to Deed he used Survival to go get Veteran Explorer leaving only one unknown card. I assume it has to be Monk Realist since he didn't search for it and pass the turn. On his turn he just plays Veteran Explorer and passes back. I draw Eladamri's Call to play around the Monk, but he didn't have it and I win.

6-2

Finals - GW TerraGeddon

These games were not particularly close as he kills all my lands with Wasteland. Game one I sort of make a game of it by drawing two Wall of Roots and two Birds of Paradise but I never find Aluren to combo. Game two he has Mox Diamond Weathered Wayfarer and Wasteland turn one and then searches up never ending chain of Wastelands to kill me. Finally punished for playing zero basics.

6-3

2nd Place

Lessons Learned

I was impressed with how well the deck performed. The disruption was better than expected and the combo didn't run into a lot of hate. I'm not sure what changes I would make besides cutting Volrath's Stronghold from the sideboard for another Deed and maybe trying to play the fourth copy of Xantid Swarm as well. I still wish there was a better way to win without Aluren, but it is not quite as glass cannon as it looks. I did manage to win one game with attacking I think.

Props:

Middle School for having Portal sets legal

RTS crew for putting on great league and great streams

All my opponents for some interesting games (until the finals)

RTS metagame for only one Force of Will deck in the top 8

Slops:

Premodern for not letting you play with sweet Portal sets

Me for not knowing the name of Stern Proctor until literally yesterday

Wasteland

-Ty

NightmareWhale in Premodern

I recently participated in a Premodern league put on by the Philadelphia Old School Discord. I managed to win first place with my NightmareWhale list. I went 6-1 in matches over the league and playoffs. The league only had 10 12 players so it doesn't mean this deck is now a deck to beat, but I do think it means its worth exploring further. Here I want to talk a bit about how this deck came to be.

This deck has evolved somewhat slowly for a variety of reasons. One, I don't spend as much time thinking about Magic as I used to. Two, in Texas the preferred format is Middle School, not Premodern, and I think there are way better ways to do this kind of thing, particularly Worldgorger Dragon. 

A Not-So-Brief History

My origin with this idea started in September of 2020 when the Romancing the Stones leagues started up. I made a quick list of deck ideas I wanted to explore and the NightmareWhale list was at the top. I didn't make a list at the time, but I did save some links to some historic decks for reference. These historic decks came from the golden age of combo decks, the late 1990s. 

The truest source of the deck is probably the HorseCraft deck played by Randy Buehler at the 1998 World Championships. It is a block constructed deck that uses Earthcraft, Workhorse, and Recurring Nightmare to create infinite mana. 

Something like this is playable in Middle School with Earthcraft, Deranged Hermit, and Recurring Nightmare. 

Later in 1998 after the release of Urza's Sage, Dave Humphreys finished in 9th place at PT Rome with a dedicated NightmareWhale list. 

The power of Great Whale was subsequently nerfed by errata requiring it to be played from your hand. This was the end of the deck's competitive history, as Palinchron and other future cards also received the power level errata. At some point in the next 20 years (I think it was 2005?), power level errata was removed from all cards and this combo became possible again, but no longer had a format home.

The basic combo has shown up in Premodern and Middle School before, mainly as a way to combo kill with a value Survival deck. In a recent league, David Gleicher managed to combo off on camera with his list: 

The first list I actually built wasn't in Premodern or Middle School, but for a Set Roulette tournament in December 2020. This showed me the power of Cloud of Faeries and Frantic Search in the list while having the extremely elegant Crypt Ghast win condition.

 

I'm ready to defend my title for @Mythic_Society Set Roulette. I really wanted to play this deck, but it required too much clicking on MTGO :( pic.twitter.com/YLt8c8g7TE

— Ty Thomason (@ceciliajupe) December 20, 2020

My love of Frantic Search + Sol land + Intuition led me to spend time on the aforementioned Worldgorger Dragon deck as well as the Pandemonium Replenish deck I played in the RTS leagues. The Whale set on the back burner through several leagues because I didn't think it would hold up in the MS meta of Force of Will. The nature of discarding so many cards made playing your own FoW much more difficult. But it was still appealing because it had so many copies of the combo cards. 

My Decklist

Here is my decklist:

4 Cloud of Faeries

4 Palinchron

4 Great Whale

3 Merfolk Traders

3 Voldalian Merchant

1 Highway Robber

2 Raven Familiar

4 Recurring Nightmare

4 Frantic Search

4 Intuition

4 Cabal Therapy

4 City of Traitors

4 Polluted Delta

2 Swamp

2 Island

3 Mishra's Factory

4 Salt Marsh

4 Darkwater Catacombs

Sideboard

2 Duress

4 Phyrexian Negator

3 Null Rod

3 Defense Grid

3 engineered plague

How does the deck work? To start, you need to get a creature in play, a Palinchron or Great Whale in the graveyard, a Recurring Nightmare to bring back the big creature, and access to enough mana from lands untapping to repeat this process while generating additional mana. You can do this with four lands and two of Whale/Palinchron, three lands with City of Traitors and those creatures or a Cloud of Faeries, or five lands with Cloud of Faeries and one big creature. Once you have an unlimited amount of black mana, you can switch to casting the Recurring Nightmare for value, usually bringing back a looting merfolk to dig through the deck until you find Highway Robber, which will then be looped back and forth until the opponent is dead.

The manabase may look odd at first glance, but it is this way for important reasons. When comboing off, you need lands to tap for black mana repeatedly without doing damage to you. This is why there are no Underground River or City of Brass. Darkwater Catacombs does a great job turning the colorless from City of Traitors and Mishra's Factory into useful mana in the combo. It is also worth noting here that if you are only making extra blue mana in the loop but have Palinchron, you can use the Palinchron ability to turn that mana into black as well, allowing you to continue the combo. Mishra's Factory lets you start the combo without a creature in play, as well as being an alternative win condition by animating and pumping itself an unlimited number of times.

The creatures do warrant some discussion. Great Whale and Palinchron get the nod over Peregrine Drake because they can win games by just being reanimated on turn 3 against some matchups. Cloud of Faeries lets you combo with City of Traitors, is a free creature to start the combo earlier, can generate explosive mana turn with City and Frantic Search allowing you to play both Intuition and Recurring Nightmare on turn three, as well as cycling in a pinch. I don't think you need any more untap creatures, but there is always Drake if you decide that.

The looting creatures are vital to get the big creatures in the graveyard while sacrificing for Recurring Nightmare. They help dig both before and during the combo. With Frantic Search and Intuition, I don't think you need the full eight copies and I've been happy with six. They also block surprisingly well against some creatures in the format like Goblin Lackey. Raven Familiar digs deeper, and can let you draw additional cards while comboing to set up backup plans against possible removal on Highway Robber. I think Familiar is good to have, but not entirely necessary. Highway Robber is better than Triskelion for a win condition because it lets you avoid losing to Seal of Cleansing and allows you to play Null Rod in the sideboard if you want. You can also cast Highway Robber sometimes, unlike Ghitu Slinger.

Recurring Nightmare and Intuition are must haves at four copies each. Intuition is the best card in the deck and Nightmare makes the deck work. Frantic Search is incredibly powerful and I like playing four copies before any copies of Careful Study or even the looting creatures. They do get sided out when you expect more attrition.

The Cabal Therapy is the weakest card in the deck. It lets you protect your combo but extra black mana can be hard to come by. It could be Force of Will in a Middle School but with all the discarding you likely won't have extra blue card in hand. It could also just be main deck Defense Grid. 

The sideboard I played isn't optimal. In Middle School, I would prefer Sea Drake to Phyrexian Negator. I don't think Negator is good enough to keep the sideboard slot, but I would still play Sea Drake. Duress is good at nabbing opposing hate cards before they can be deployed. Null Rod stops Tormod's Crypt, Defense Grid stops instant speed interaction. I think playing more Grid and Duress as well as some ways to deal with permanents like Meddling Mage or Planar Void might be the better way. You don't really need a backup aggro plan when you can sometimes get out early fatty without combo. Perhaps something like Grim Monolith to power out an early Whale or Palinchron could work?

Strengths and Weaknesses

The main strength of the deck is the redundancy of a powerful game winning combo as well as a solid backup reanimation plan. The combo is resilient to enchantment removal, and the size of the creatures makes it somewhat robust against burn spells. The biggest weakness is the overall speed of the deck as well as interaction with opposing permanents. This is not the fastest combo by any means, it requires at least three actual lands in play and usually more. It also struggles to deal with disruptive permanents or creatures attacking when the plan isn't coming together immediately. I don't think it can be a tier 1 deck in either Premodern or Middle School, but could be a solid tier 2 choice for people who enjoy combo decks like this.

-Ty

NecroZombies in Middle School

 I recently played in the Romancing the Stones Home School Middle School League. I went 1-5 with NecroZombies and finished in not-last place. Here are some thoughts about my deck.

The Deck

4 Carnophage

4 Sarcomancy

3 Carrion Feeder

4 Withered Wretch

2 Rotlung Reanimator

4 Lord of the Undead

1 Plaguebearer

4 Cabal Therapy

4 Hymn to Tourach

3 Bad Moon

1 Contagion

4 Necropotence

18 Swamp

4 Lotus Petal

Sideboard

3 Duress

1 Plague Bearer

4 Mishra's Factory

2 Engineered Plague

1 Diabolic Edict

2 Rotlung Reanimator

1 Vicious Hunger

1 Planar Void

The idea behind the deck is pretty straightforward. Aggro with disruption and Necropotence to refuel. Unfortunately, the aggro clock is just too slow in the current iteration to clock the opponents fast enough. I played Necropotence on 18+ life vs no board from opponent six times and lost five of those games. The 3cc threats were not great given my opponents. I was heavily skewed towards trying to beat Landstill, which ended up with three copies in the top eight anyway, so maybe this would have done better with better pairings. 

The best draws were playing three one-drops in first two turns followed by Bad Moon or Lord. I think that is the direction to take zombies and play Shepherd of Rot. You can't play Shepherd and Necropotence at the same time. If you wanted to try Necropotence again, I would consider playing some amount of Zombie Infestation. This can be a much faster clock and lets you leverage dead discard spells in the mid to late game. 

Plaguebearer was a good find, it kills Mishra's Factory. I think more removal like Diabolic Edict would be good but I'm not sure it is good enough. Factory was good in the sideboard for when I was cutting Lotus Petals. There was probably still too much mana in general but Necropotence really wants you to hit the third mana on time (or early) I think. 

A third option is to splash red to add Lightning Bolt and Terminate to the Shepherd of Rot build. You get about 12 dual lands with Tainted Peak. 

The Games

R1 vs RectorPattern

I got early necro and him empty handed, but I drew a bunch of lands and my clock wasn't fast enough to force him to block with his mana birds (plus he had Wall of Blossoms). He drew Symbiotic Wurm with enough mana to cast and I couldn't overpower it and was Necro locked. Game two I win with early Hymn and pressure. Game three he has turn three Akroma after he takes my discard spell with Therapy on turn two.

0-1

R2 vs StifleNaught

I win game one with multiple Hymns and he can't assemble a combo. Game two he has turn two Dreadnaught Stifle with Unmask protection. Game three he draws a Stifle the turn after I take one with Therapy and I then Unmasks my edict.

0-2

R3 vs Tinker

I get destroyed by Masticore and Upheaval. Stroke of Genius let him recover from Hymn.

0-3

R4 vs Sneak Attack

Split first two games, game three he draws Gamble last turn with one card in hand and I lose the coinflip. 

0-4

R5 vs 5 color Zombie Infestation Squee

Game one I cast necro on 18 and when I was down to 5 life, he hard cast gush into gush island to firestorm me for 5 from 2 cards in hand. Game two I flood out and don't find Necro.

0-5

R6 vs Sneak Attack

Game one I double Hymn him and take both Sneak Attack and he can't find another. Game two he mulligans to five and plays Petal Petal Land Spirit Guide Sylvan Library turn one turning off all my discard. He finds a Sneak Attack shortly and hits me with Nicol Bolas then Dragon Tyrant. Game three I play Sarcomancy Carnophage Carnophage Bad Moon, and he is one mana short of Sneak Attack + Havok Demon so I finally win a match.

1-5

TurboLand Oath in Middle School

Very late report from second Romancing the Stones Middle School league. 

4 Oath of Druids

1 Spike Weaver

1 Spike Feeder

1 Morphling

4 Horn of Greed

4 Exploration

2 Time Warp

2 Gaea's Blessing

1 Scroll Rack

4 Impulse

4 Counterspell

4 Force of Will

3 Thawing Glaciers

4 Yavimaya Coast

3 Treva's Ruins

1 Treetop Village

4 Forest

9 Island

Sideboard

4 Gainsay

4 Chill

1 Annul

1 Emerald Charm

1 Capsize

2 Spike Weaver

2 Spike Feeder

Maindeck needs more Time Warp and Scroll Rack. Morphling is bad. Sideboard is very bad. Need more answers to Deed I think. 

R1 - Jason Gaudard - Blue storm

He is on what is basically a High Tide deck without any High Tides (since it's not legal) and instead plays Sapphire Medallion and Helm of Awakening. Game one he couldn't kill me through Gaea's Blessing. Game two I had enough Gainsay, Counterspell, and Force of Will to prevent him from going off and his Helm of Awakening made my combo even easier to perform.

1-0

R2 Robert Connolly - Necro Rock

I think I steal a game when he uses his Deeds to fight over my Oaths letting me win with Horn of Green plus Exploration shenanigans. The other games the Deed was too difficult to fight through and I lost.

1-1

R3 Travis Brown - Elves

Game one I have Oath and am racing with Morphling but an Armageddon makes it hard to activate Spike Weaver. I have something like six turns in a row where if I draw a blue source to give Morphling flying I win the game but I can't find one. He also sets me back with Plow Under. Eventually he finds a second copy of Biorhythm after I had Forced the first one and it puts him out of range. Game two he has Tormod's Crypt to slow down my combo and Naturalize for my Oath so I get run over. 

1-2

R4 Will Miertschin - Grixis Control

I don't remember much besides Horn of Green, Thawing Glaciers, and Gush putting me so far ahead, and his creature removal being completely blank.

2-2

R5 Nate Golia - RW Land Tax / Devastating Dreams

He just doesn't have the tools to beat my deck.

3-2

9th place

Worldgorger Dragon Combo in Middle School

I recently played in the 5th Middle School league put on by Romancing the Stones, the School's Out Forever league. I played Worldgorger Dragon combo and finished 3-3. I wanted to describe the process of how I built my deck and how I think it compares with other Dragon decks that people played. 

I chose to play Dragon combo after the good experience I had playing with Ancient Tomb / City of Traitors along with Frantic Search in the PandeBurst Replenish deck. I decided to look for other ways to abuse Frantic Search, and the Dragon combo requires fewer pieces and much less mana than the PandeBurst combo.

The Deck

The way Dragon combo works is by bringing back a Worldgorger Dragon with Animated Dead, Dance of the Dead, or Necromancy. The dragon will exile the aura when it enters the battlefield, which will then force you to sacrifice the dragon. The aura then comes back from exile when the dragon leaves play, and once again brings back the dragon from the graveyard. This process repeats over and over, with each loop exiling and returning all of your permanents. If you tap mana in between the iterations, you generate an arbitrarily large amount of mana with which to do whatever. However, if you don't have an instant speed way to win the game, or another creature in your graveyard (or the opponents graveyard, since the auras can hit both), the game will end in a draw when the loop cannot be broken. 

This is what I played:

4 Worldgorger Dragon

1 Ambassador Laquatas

4 Animate Dead

4 Dance of the Dead

4 Entomb

4 Intuition

4 Careful Study

4 Whispers of the Muse

4 Frantic Search

4 Duress

1 Cunning Wish

4 Gemstone Mine

3 Undiscovered Paradise

4 Polluted Delta

1 Swamp

2 Island

4 Ancient Tomb

4 Underground River

Sideboard

1 Capsize

4 Defense Grid

3 Snap

3 Null Rod

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Force of Will

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Stroke of Genius

Background

When researching ideas for this list, I discovered something interesting. While this combo was legal for a brief time period in extended after Judgement was released but before Onslaught released and all of the auras rotated out, there are no lists in the archives of Dragon combo that I could find. The combo was only around for maybe four months and the major event during that time, the 2002 World Championship, did not include extended as a format. I'm sure some exist, but nothing on the pro level. 

I spent a lot of time thinking about ways to kill at instant speed, or creatures to use as part of the loop to kill. This was the key factor in my mind. Other formats where Dragon has been viable have also usually included Bazaar of Baghdad, a perfect way to find the combo and to kill once the combo has been assembled by milling your own deck and finding the Ambassador Laquatas to win the game. This is not available in Middle School, and I did not want to play a bunch of dead Stroke of Genius in my deck that only did something when I was actively comboing. Below, I talk about the options of various kill cards I looked at, but the main criteria was finding one that wasn't a dead draw when I was still assembling the combo.

I made the decision to optimize for speed. There are other ways you could build the deck to maybe be better against disruption by having more disruption or alternative win conditions. I didn't think this would be necessary given the decks that had been doing well in the leagues, but its worth remembering for the future.

Main deck

4 Entomb

Clearly the most powerful card in the deck. Premodern has it banned, and I can see why, especially when you can also have Dark Ritual. Later I'll talk more about bans; not much else to say about this other than play 4. Don't get cute and try to put one in the sideboard to wish for.

4 Worldgorger Dragon 

There are certainly ways to build the deck without the full four copies of the namesake card, but since I was already planning on using Frantic Search and knew from my experience with PandeBurst that playing Frantic Search without the maximum number of copies of cards you actively want to discard was suboptimal. Once the number of copies of Careful Study increased, 4 Dragon easily locked in

4 Animate Dead

4 Dance of the Dead

0 Necromancy

These all combo with Worldgorger Dragon to usually make infinite mana and occasionally do other things as well. I'm not sure the right number for total copies, but it's probably somewhere from eight to ten. There is also the theoretical situation that you want nine reanimation cards to be able to Intuition the full three times and still guarantee finding one.  I was optimizing for speed, so Necromancy didn't make the cut. Necromancy does offer some advantages and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand however. A big advantage is giving counter play to cards like Tormod's Crypt and opposing countermagic. You can play a two mana enchantment and then flash in Necromancy in response. Since the kill can happen at instant speed, the Crypt activation never gets to resolve until it is too late. Additionally, Necromancy can allow you to choose when to draw the game with more information. With Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead, you may be in a situation where you cannot win, only draw, but passing the turn could let your opponent kill you before you get another draw step. Necromancy lets you pass and see if they do have lethal before committing to the draw, and when they don't you still get to see the card for the next turn. With Ancient Tomb in the deck, it isn't as cost prohibitive as it may seem. I think if I wanted to play a ninth reanimation card, I would likely play three Necromancy to have the ability to find it with Intuition. 

4 Intuition

Blue Demonic Tutor with upside. I think this card is likely the second best card in the deck, and I went out of my way with my mana base to be able to play four of these. Things this can do in the deck: 

1. Find three Dragon to set up combo

2. Find two Dragon and one Laquatas to set up combo with the win from additional discard (Frantic Search or Careful Study) but don't do this if you have Entomb in hand.

3. Find three Animate Dead or other enchantment to start the combo

4. Find three Entomb or Whispers of the Muse to use once the combo is going to actually win the game

5. Find whatever other card you need if you have three in the deck. This might be Duress game one or Defense Grid game two. 

I had purchased my fourth Intuition around this time last year, so I've been trying to play with four when I get a chance. Here it is a no-brainer.

1 Ambassador Laquatas

Even though most UB lists have one of these, it isn't the main win condition. Sure, it is usually the card that actually does the killing, but there are many ways to end up in that spot. The reason it gets played in all the UB versions is because you can find it with Entomb. This turns extra Entomb in hand into an  actual win.

4 Whispers of the Muse

This was the key find for me to play the deck. Here was an additional card that could win the game when comboing that wasn't completely dead when drawn while still setting up. It has many advantages , or lack of disadvantages, over other cards people play in this spot (see Cursed Scroll and Wu Spy below). The main disadvantage is that it requires colored mana, so you can't draw your deck without an Island, Gemstone Mine, Undiscovered Paradise, or other untapped pain-free blue source. It wasn't difficult to get enough of these into the deck so Whispers was the direction I pursued. 

1 Cunning Wish

Sometimes Ambassador Laquatas doesn't actually win the game. Maybe they have Necropotence in play or Gaea's Blessing in their deck. I looked for other possible ways to cover corner cases, including a strange infinite Capsize to set up re-combo with Shivan Gorge or Ancient Hydra on the following turn, but Wish is simpler to use and better when not part of the combo. Having access to Enlightened Tutor means it can be almost the ninth animation enchantment. I think you can build this deck with more copies of this, but I think it is important to not rely on it and keep the Intuition and Entomb at four copies main even with additional Wishes.

4 Frantic Search

4 Careful Study

The numbers on these varied a bunch as I was narrowing my list, but I found the maximum to be the best when optimizing for speed. With these eight plus four Whispers, the deck operates almost like a 40-card deck. Mystical Tutor was the card I tried in lieu of these but it was always underperforming, while these looting cards overperformed, especially Frantic Search. Frantic Search is another way to get Laquatas into the graveyard after drawing your deck with Whispers. This can be important if you don't have the pain-free blue source to draw the whole deck and you draw the Laquatas before you find an Entomb. Frantic Search can also generate mana with Ancient Tomb, allowing for plays like turn three Frantic floating a mana and then casting Intuition for Animate Dead and casting it all in the same turn.

4 Duress

I couldn't decide between Duress and Force of Will for disruption. The blue card count is more than enough for FoW, but the large amount of card disadvantage from the looting cards made it less likely to have the extra blue card around. The one mana from Duress was hard to fit in to the game plan when optimizing for speed however. I ended up on Duress to go with the sideboard plan, but that plan was inherently flawed and I'm still not sure which one is better. I might look at 3 Force of Will 1 Cunning wish in these spots, with at least 3 Duress and the 1 Force of Will in the sideboard.

22 land

You need about 18 colored sources to enable the various cards, especially for the Whispers plan. I had 21 with only three Ancient Tomb for a while, but Ancient Tomb also overperformed and I went up to 22 while optimizing for speed. With the eight looting cards, drawing extra land isn't a huge deal so you can get away with a slightly higher land count to help the goldfish kill. Cutting a few lands for additional cantrip might make Force of Will better.

4 Ancient Tomb

This is too good with Intuition.

4 Gemstone Mine 

3 Undiscovered Paradise

These let you cast both Animate Dead while still providing infinite pain-free blue mana for Whispers of the Muse. Additionally they can support a small splash of another color or two for cards like Enlightened Tutor, Abeyance, or some of the red kill cards like Shivan Hellkite or Shivan Gorge.

4 Polluted Delta

2 Island

1 Swamp

You don't need a ton of lands in play so no issue playing more fetches than fetchable lands. 

4 Underground River

First builds actually didn't play this at all because it didn't work with Whispers but that was dumb. You can still see 10 cards or so with Whispers and these to find a kill card, or just draw the game. It also helps so much at casting early spells without hindering future mana development like Paradise and Mine

Cards I didn't play

Impulse / Lim Dul's Vault - I'm not a huge fan of either of these cards in this deck. Impulse doesn't dig deep enough, and Vault loses a card while being less explosive than Careful Study and Frantic Search. I could see trying a couple of either but I'm not interested in playing four copies of these. 

Sleight of Hand / Portent - Could be reasonable to play these and trim some land, but they don't add to the speed I was optimizing for. One mana is the right price though and I like these better than the two mana options even at sorcery speed. If Ancient Tomb was not the plan, I would consider playing lots of these and 19-20 land.

Cursed Scroll - its a reasonable kill card and doesn't require colored mana, but does almost nothing without the combo. It also requires an upfront mana investment that delays the combo when compared to instant speed win conditions like Whispers or Stroke of Genius

Wu Spy - similar to Cursed Scroll it requires significant investment before delay the combo, but does have the upside of helping you set up the combo. Unfortunately, it also turns on opponents creature removal that can turn a won game into a draw with what would otherwise be a dead Smother or Lightning Bolt. It does let you flashback Cabal Therapy if that is a card you are interested in. I don't think there is enough upside to this card other than showing off the depth of card pool for the Middle School format.

Other win conditions: Ancient Hydra, Shivan Hellkite, Shivan Gorge, Stroke of Genius all are much worse than Whispers in the main deck. 

The Sideboard

I need to address the Null Rod right away: it doesn't actually work. I had it in the sideboard of all my graveyard based combo decks so I defaulted to playing it here without thinking how this combo was different. It doesn't stop Tormod's Crypt. It can stop Phyrexian Furnace if you have an extra Dragon in the graveyard for each Furnace they have in play. It does function as a hate card for some artifact strategies, but there aren't enough of those in the format to justify this. Don't play Null Rod, save it for the Hermit Druid deck.

4 Defense Grid

This has similar problems to Null Rod when it comes to stopping Swords to Plowshares or Disenchant, but it is too strong against countermagic to not play. There should be at least three in the sideboard to support Intuition.

3 Snap

Mainly for the card Meddling Mage or Withered Wretch. The free option was the choice because I'm optimizing for speed. Chain of Vapor does hit non-creatures, but I had better answers for those. I'm not sure which is correct in this spot.

1 Enlighted Tutor

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Force of Will

These turn Cunning Wish into a solid utility card and should stay in the sideboard at all times.

1 Stroke of Genius

I think this is the best kill card to wish for. As such, it should also stay in the sideboard at all times.

1 Capsize

If for some reason they have a board that doesn't die to Laquatas or Stroke of Genius with like Sterling Grove and Solitary Confinement or something, I think this should get you the win. If it still isn't enough, draw the game and hope they don't do that again. This can be cut if you would rather take more draws in these rare corner cases.

The other card I think should be considered for the sideboard is Abeyance. I had one in my sideboard but cut it for the Mystical Tutor right before submission. I really regret it once I realized that Null Rod didn't work. Abeyance can work against Tormod's Crypt if you have follow up Careful Study / Frantic Search / Entomb and the combo ready to go. It also does a good job at stopping Swords to Plowshares / Disenchant / etc. I would definitely include one in the sideboard and maybe more if you think the mana can support it. Having more Cunning Wish in the main to reliably find the Abeyance is also a consideration. It doesn't stop that pesky Nantuko Vigilante though!

Dealing with on-board permanents that interact with the combo is hard. I think one strategy that I came up with after playing the league would be to include Pernicious Deed in the sideboard. This can answer all of the problematic permanents while minimizing the number of slots you need. 

The Matches

R1 - Merfolk - He lost game one when I was too fast. Game two he tried to get me with Misdirection but I was on the Laquatas kill. 

R2 - Grixis Squee Tog - I don't remember much except he flooded in game three I think? This might have been on stream.

R3 - Tog with Hymn - Game 3 he kept one land with Duress and countermagic but never drew another land. 

R4 - FEB with Fiend and Gilded Drake - I have turn two kill if I don't draw Laquatas for the turn, but I draw Laquatas and have to cast it. He then Gilded Drakes it and I can't win. Game two he disrupts my hand with Mesmeric Fiend and then gets Withered Wretch and I die.

R5 - Tradewind Survival - I win game one when he floods. Game two I don't play around his singleton Counterspell and he has it, I could have easily Duressed it first. Game three he realizes the countermagic isn't the best way to beat me and I can't beat on board Crypt and Nantuko Vigilante.

R6 - Rector Oath - On board Crypt and Seal of Cleansing do me in. Also maindeck Funeral Pyre. 

Revised Decklist

This is what I would register if I was to play this deck again. I think it is a very strong choice for Middle School and just needs some more sideboard tuning to be a real contender.

4 Worldgorger Dragon

1 Ambassador Laquatas 

3 Animate Dead

3 Dance of the Dead

3 Necromancy

4 Entomb

4 Intuition

4 Careful Study

4 Whispers of the Muse

4 Frantic Search

2 Force of Will

2 Cunning Wish

4 Gemstone Mine

3 Undiscovered Paradise

4 Polluted Delta

1 Swamp

2 Island

4 Ancient Tomb

4 Underground River

Sideboard

1 Capsize

4 Defense Grid

4 Pernicious Deed

1 Abeyance

1 Enlightened Tutor

2 Force of Will

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Stroke of Genius

Replenish PandeBurst in Middle School

Back in February, I played the Romancing the Stones Middle School Dance Party League with Replenish PandeBurst. I went 2-4 for 33rd place, with one win being the bye. I learned a lot building and playing the deck and I wanted to make sure I documented my thoughts. Luckily I have some notes from the time of the event as well.

The Deck

3 Saproling Burst

3 Pandemonium

4 Replenish

4 Intuition

4 Frantic Search

4 Merchant Scroll

4 Accumulated Knowledge

4 Counterspell

4 Force of Will

1 Fact or Fiction

1 Mystical Tutor

4 Flooded Strand

4 Adarkar Wastes

4 Plains

9 Island

1 Skycloud Expanse

1 City of Traitors

1 Ancient Tomb 

Sideboard:

4 Hydroblast

4 Powder Keg

1 Wrath of God

1 Dismantling Blow

2 Seal of Cleansing

1 Mana Short

1 Seal of Removal

1 Swords to Plowshares

This deck was based off a Katsuhiro Mori list from a Japanese Grand Prix in 2000. Make of that what you will, but I'd point out the 1 City of Traitors and 1 Ancient Tomb as reasonable "evidence". The original list got to play Brainstorm and Dual lands, which would vastly improve the deck. I replaced Brainstorm with Accumulated Knowledge since the deck already had 4 Intuition, and I decided to not play the 3rd and 4th colors at all. These were both likely mistakes. One card I also cut was Lilting Refrain, which might actually be good. It was fine in goldfish testing but I didn't play any real games with it. 

Not playing the 3rd and 4th colors of mana made the deck too reliant on graveyard shenanigans, and too susceptible to graveyard hate. Postboard games went very long and would have had plenty of time to hard cast enchantments for value or even victory, but I was drawing dead to cards like Tormod's Crypt and Planar Void instead. 

Accumulated Knowledge is just unplayable in Middle School in general I think, but especially here in the combo deck. Careful Study with additional combo pieces would probably be better, and I took this idea to the next league with my Dragon combo deck. If you really wanted to play AK, I would look at playing Sunscape Familiar.

Frantic Search along with Ancient Tomb / City of Traitors was surprisingly good, also used in the Dragon deck.. Merchant Scroll was solid, but not amazing. I searched for Frantic Search a surprising amount. 

The sideboard is mostly fine. Dismantling Blow is never going to happen, and the weird number to make Intuition work are probably too cute. Better to load up on Seals and Defense Grids I think. 

I don't have an updated list because I haven't decide what the 4 color mana base should look like. Maybe just 4 Grand Coliseum and thats it. Also not sure how many of the 2 colorless producing lands you want and which ones. More Ancient Tomb means less likely you want City of Brass, etc. 

Notes from my matches (unedited)

R1 - Stasis 

couldn't untap any lands with frantic search either game. should have waited out standstill.

0-1

R2 - Jund

Win game one easily but early Planar Void in game two and three lock me out.

0-2

R3 - Green Stompy

Game one I draw a bunch of cards and its all lands. Game two I punt by not casting Wrath of God.

0-3

R4 - Rock with Living Wish

win game one but can't beat Withered Wretch game two or three

0-4

R5 - Bye

1-4

R6 - Squirrel Bombardment

Lose a game to mana screw, win game three on turn three on the play. 

2-4

Fall 2021 Updates

 Hi there, it's been awhile. I haven't posted on here since January, and the majority of posts since last fall when I started school again have mainly been the PWP history series that I'm also behind on. I do have several drafts that I never got around to finishing that I hope to put up soon. These are going to be mainly about the Middle School format, as that has been the majority of the Magic I've played this year. Below is a short timeline of this year in MtG for me, as well as links to relevant blog posts (if they ever come). I'll have at least write-ups for the MS decks. 

January - Romancing the Stones Festival of Friendship Old School event - 1st place with Atog

February - RTS Middle School Dance Party League - 33rd place with PandeBurst Replenish

April - RTS MS School's Out Forever League - 22nd place with Worldgorger Dragon combo

June - RTS 21 - 5th place with Doomsday (I took a bad ID last round to miss top 4 on tiebreakers)

August - Hunter Burton Memorial Open - 36th place with Four-Color Elementals

September - RTS MS Home School League - 33rd place with NecroZombies

I don't know if I'll get to play any more significant events this year, but hopefully after graduation the world will be in a better spot and I can get back out there and compete. 

Goblin Sligh in Middle School

I recently finished the Swiss portion of the Romancing the Stones Fall Semester Middle School league. I went 4-2 and got 10th place on tiebreakers. I played Goblin Sligh.

Goblin Sligh

When trying to decide what to play, I first thought I would play some type of Necropotence deck. It is one of the stronger cards allowed in the format. Unfortunately, without Dark Ritual, Vampiric Tutor, or Demonic Consultation, most of the classic Necro decks don't really work that well. Next I becan scouring old tournaments for lists, thinking maybe I'd play a Ramosian Sergeant / Whipcorder build. The tournament that gave me a bunch of ideas was Grand Prix Reims from 2002. This was fresh after PT Houston and a still fairly new Extended format. The Goblin Sligh lists caught my eye.

I have a fondness for Goblins in general. It was one of the first constructed decks I really loved playing. I played it almost exclusively in Onlsaught Block PTQ season and many times over the years later. If you want to see a good video of Legacy Goblins circa 2012 (and a great mustache!) check out this feature match. However, my love of Goblins goes back to pre-Scourge Standard lists. These lists looked really similar to the Extended lists at GP Reims. The Standard list I remember was from Jay Schneider. I talk a bit about my experience with this style of Goblins in this post.

The real card that had me interested in Goblins was learning that Goblin Grenade was legal. One mana for five damage is just about the best rate possible. This incentivizes you to build a lower to the ground, more aggressive Goblin deck. I wanted to play a low land count, and saw some old lists with as few as 18 lands. I started tinkering and eventually came up with this list:

4 Goblin Lackey

4 Goblin Cadets

4 Goblin Piledriver

4 Mogg Flunkies

4 Mogg Fanatic

2 Goblin Grappler

1 Sparksmith

1 Raging Goblin

4 Goblin Grenade

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Fireblast

4 Reckless Charge

1 Barbarian Ring

1 Goblin Burrows

18 Mountain

Sideboard:

4 Sulfuric Vortex

4 Pyroblast

4 Rishadan Port

3 Flaring Pain

Having now played six matches with this, I can tell you what worked and what didn't. 

I think the core of the deck is Lackey Piledriver Flunkies and Fanatics. Cadets is the most aggressive one mana Goblin for a Burn style deck. You want to play as many Goblins as possible to make Grenade reliable and to take advantage of Lackey. I think 24 was a good amount, but maybe you could play fewer. I don't think you want to play Jackal Pup (not enough Goblin) or Goblin Patrol (echo is too rough on 20 lands). You can maybe try 4 Jackal Pup if you have 24 other Goblins in the deck, but additional Goblins always help Piledriver.

Reckless Charge was sided out in almost every matchup. It is a reasonable card in those old Standard and Extended lists because the removal available wasn't cheap. It is not good in a field of STP, Hydroblast, and Lightning Bolt. They should probably just be more Raging Goblins, but maybe one or two Charge is fine.

One of the last cuts I made was Seal of Fire / Firebolt / Cursed Scroll. It would be nice to have more removal, but you need that critical mass of Goblins. I went with a split of Goblin Grappler and Sparksmith to fill that need. I was really impressed with Sparksmith. I wish I had at least 2 in the main deck and maybe 2 more in the sideboard. It isn't dead against the control decks of the format like Landstill (kills Factory) or Psychatog. Goblin Grappler was solid but nothing spectacular. It has a cool interaction with both Goblin Cadets and Reckless Charge. I got to provoke one Cadets in one match, and was able to use it to force through a bunch of Piledriver damage in a different match. I wouldn't want more than 2, but they could be better than Raging Goblin especially if you play Goblin Burrows.

I wish I had played a Goblin King or two. I lost a game to an Engineered Plague and it is a reasonable answer. It is also something that you can abuse with Lackey while still being good enough rate for non-Lackey draws. Goblin Burrows was good, as was the Barbarian Ring. I think you need 18 mountains for Fireblast. I wanted 20 land total to help my mulligan decisions (I may write more about this later). I can see playing some number of Rishadan Port main over either land if you want to save sideboard space. I'd rather have a Burrows than a Barbarian Ring. 

Every sideboard card was used, but Flaring Pain was the least useful. My two losses were to reanimation strategies and I really could have used some Tormod's Crypt. 4 Sulfuric Vortex may have been a bit too many, since you can only afford so many non-creatures and you have to fit the Port in there somehow. Pyroblast was chosen since I assumed most combo decks would be blue and it is reasonable against blue control decks (it straight up kills Psychatog). I should have maybe had a split with it and Red Elemental Blast as I had one opponent who had both Meddling Mage and Misdirection, but I did not get punished.

I think the deck is favored against non-Oath control strategies. It's also favored against some slower combo and midrange decks. It is weak to Oath, reanimation and faster combo decks. It also is likely to be unfavored against more traditional Sligh decks that have much more removal. 

If I was to submit this deck again, I'd probably play something close to this:

4 Goblin Lackey

4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Goblin Cadets

1 Goblin Grappler

3 Raging Goblin

4 Goblin Piledriver

4 Mogg Flunkies

3 Sparksmith

1 Goblin King

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Fireblast

4 Goblin Grenade

2 Rishadan Port

18 Mountain

Sideboard

2 Rishadan Port

4 Tormod's Crypt

3 Sulfuric Vortex

4 Pyroblast

2 Flaring Pain

League Match Reports

Round 1 vs Thomas Conmy on UW Landstill

I win the die roll and play turn one Lackey, which is Force of Will. I play a turn two Piledriver, and he plays turn two Standstill. I play two creatures, one of which he Forces off the three cards from Standstill. He then follows up with another Standstill. I have a second Piledriver and a Reckless Charge, and he doesn't have Force so I'm able to use Fireblast to kill him. Game two I have double Mogg Fanatic beatdown which can get through the first turn he plays Factory. I also have Sparksmith and Goblin Burrows, so I can attack unabated by Factory for 4 a turn. I draw a Port to keep him off double white and he can't ever interact while stuck on three lands.

1-0

Round 2 vs John Russel on UB Psychatog

I win the die roll. Turn one I play Lackey which  is met with Force of Will. He plays Portent and passes. I play Piledriver, but it is Smothered. I then play Lackey and Flunkies, while he plays Nightscape Familiar. I have the Bolt for the Familiar while his shields are down, and attack for 4. I Lackey in Cadets, but have no follow up. He plays a follow-up Familiar. I attack with everything and he blocks Cadets taking 4 again and going to 11 life. At this point my hand is Grenade Fireblast Fireblast, but I'm hesistant to go all in. His turn is draw go, but I draw a land. I decide to go ahead and Grenade to see what happens, and it resolves. He has an unused fetchland so I'm hoping to wait on him to use it so that when he goes to 5 life he can't Force a Fireblast and let the other resolve. He has a Psychatog the following turn so I can't attack anymore. He starts attacking me with Tog and I use the opportunity to force an issue with Reckless Charge on my Raging Goblin and Lackey, but the flashback is Dazed., forcing him to give back the Cadets and kill my Lackey while he takes no damage. I draw a third Fireblast so I'm just waiting for the right time to play around Daze and Mana Leak. I'm drawing nothing and he's cycling cantrips like AK and Shadow Rift while pinging me with Tog. Eventually he attacks and when I don't block he casts Meditate. I use the opportunity to Fireblast him three times, and he can only counter the first one and he dies. Game two I start strong with Lackey Cadets and Sparksmith. The Sparksmith kills his Nightscape Familiar, and I resolve a Sulfuric Vortex. He has the better trump with Engineered Plague and I'm now relying on my Vortex to get the job done. He ends up at 6 with a Psychatog while I have Barbarian Ring. Almost any non-mountain card is lethal for me, but he has Shadow Rift and Meditate to kill me before I get a chance to topdeck. Game three is extra epic. I once again have early Sparksmith, this time with Fanatic. I kill his Familiar again, but he ends up killing most of my team. I'm able to resolve two Vortex this time with a Pyroblast (and a Blast to kill his Psychatog). I have two ports to try to slow him down but he casts two Meditate that puts me in a precarious spot. I try to Pyroblast one but it is countered, and we are both at 2 life when I finish all my extra turns, but he still doesn't have an answer to Vortex and I squeak out the win.

2-0

Round 3 vs Eric Vergo on UGW Threshold

I lose the die roll. Game one he leads with Nimble Mongoose and I have Goblin Cadets. He has a Quirion Dryad followup and I play a Goblin Piledriver. He has another Dryan and Swords to Plowshares on the Piledriver. I play a Flunkies and he attacks for 4. I try to Lightning Bolt both Dryads, but another STP and Accumulated Knowledge saves one. I try to finish it off with Fireblast, but I made a mistake and let the AK resolve so he drew a blue card for his Force of Will to save the Dryad and I am basically out of resources and dead. I cut Cadets for Pyroblast in sideboarding. Game two he has turn two Meddling Mage on Lightning Bolt. I have two Pyroblast in hand, but immediately draw Lightning Bolt. I play some Piledrivers first but they are removed by Hydroblast and STP. I then Pyroblast the Meddling Mage, he has another Hydroblast to save it. I Pyroblast again, which lets me use Lightning Bolt on his Quirion Dryad. I only have a Mogg Flunkies in play, and he has STP for my follow up Piledriver and then plays Mystic Enforcer. I draw Barbarian Ring but only have four cards in my graveyard. He attacks me down to 9 life, and I draw Goblin Lackey and play it. He thinks for a while then decides to Force of Will the Lackey. This gives me five cards in the graveyard so Goblin Grenade plus Barbarian Ring finish of the Enforcer before I die. I draw a Grappler and start beating for 3 with Goblin Burrows, and he can't find another creature. Eventually I draw Lightning Bolt and Fireblast to kill him before he can grow the Dryad he finds. Game three I lead with two Mogg Fanatics. The first is answered by STP and the second immediately kills his Quirion Dryad. He has Meddling Mage on Lightning Bolt again, stranding one in my hand. I have a Grappler and Piledriver that can attack, and when I draw Pyroblast to kill Meddling Mage and turn on my Bolt for his Enforcer I start doing large chunks of damage. He draws another Enforcer which I Fireblast. In the meantime, I'm using Rishadan Port on his City of Brass every upkeep and he draws no more answers or creatures and I win.

3-0

Round 4 vs Brian Tweedy on Rock Reanimator Oath?

Game one he mulligans to five and just plays lands until a turn five Deranged Hermit. It almost stops me completely since I've also flooded, but using damage on the stack I can kill his board while only losing two Mogg Fanatic. He draws more land and dies to the rest of my army. Game two he has turn one Entomb turn two Exhume for Phantom Nishoba. I can't win. Game three I start with Grappler into Piledriver, but he has turn two Oath. If I had known about Oath, I would have Ported him instead of playing my two-drop since my hand had plenty of land. He ended up being land light and I would have easily won. As it happened, he Oathed into Thunder Dragon and I couldn't recover in time to race. 

3-1

Round 5 vs Andrew Webb on Hermit Druid Combo

We have each other's decklist, so he gets to play Therapy turn one on the play and name Mogg Fanatic which hits. I have to Fireblast his Hermit Druid on turn two, but he has a second one and I die. Game two he has Therapy on himself for Phantom Nishoba and then Exhume. I can't win. I really should have played some Tormod's Crypts in my sideboard

3-2

Round 6 vs Woodrow Bogucki on Landstill

Woodrow plays first. I keep a one lander with two Lackey but he has Swords for both and a Standstill. I manage to get a little bit of damage in but he blocks a Cadets and has a Conclave and Factory to block. I use Fanatic on Conclave and eventually Lightning Bolt the Factory and he had flooded out. Game two I have two Pyroblast in hand so I don't play a turn one Cadets to try to play around Chill which I thought he had in his sideboard. He had swapped it out for CoP: Red from last league though, and played it turn two. I try to Port and Vortex him but he has enough land to CoP everything and eventually I die to my Vortex. Game three I have Lackey and Cadets with a Port. He uses Swords on Lackey but Cadets does some damage. I also resolve a Sparksmith to turn off his creature lands. He Tutors for CoP Red and now the Flaring Pain in my opener is going to come in handy. I attack and he taps out for CoP. I use this opportunity to Flaring Pain and Lightning Bolt, putting him to 5 life. The next turn he casts Wrath of God. I flashback Flaring Pain and Bolt plus Fireblast, but he has Force of Will to survive at 1 life. The next eight or so turns are draw-go. I'm trying to find some more red mana since I sacrificed all my mountains to not kill him. I get to Port his Conclave / Factory for a while but he draws some Wastelands to deal with my Port. I slowly deploy some more Goblins but they can't attack. Eventually he draws some cards with Standstill and then casts Impulse to find Exalted Angel. He is forced to Counterspell a Vortex to get Angel online and finally deploys the Angel face down. I have no better window and my hand of Flaring Pain Fireblast Fireblast Goblin Grenade Goblin Grenade was more than enough to power through his final counter magic reserves before he could start gaining life.

4-2