Mana bases in Middle School / Premodern

Over the past month, I've been playing in a Middle School league put on by my friends at Romancing the Stones. I had played some Premodern over the past year and I've really enjoyed the deck building space in both formats. One thing that is clear about both formats: the mana is awful. I've played two instances of Constructed Set Roulette and observed a few others. Every time, the six random sets provide better options for mana bases than Premodern or Middle School. I want to spend this post looking at what causes the mana to be so bad, what that means for deck construction, and some overlooked synergies.

Premodern vs. Middle School

The format rules for Premodern and Middle School are very similar. They both focus on the time period of Magic sets between traditional 93/94 Old School and the official Modern format. Both include an extensive banned list that allows for some classic Standard decks from this era, and some of the weaker Extended decks. There are three major differences between the two formats:

1. Premodern uses current 2020 Magic the Gathering rules. Middle School uses some rules from 1995-2003, specifically mana burn, damage on the stack, and pre-exile zone Wish functionality.

2. Premodern uses sets that were Standard legal from 4th edition through Scourge. Middle School allows Portal sets, as well as reprint sets printed in this time period like Chronicles / Renaissance and Anthologies. Anthologies allows for some strange cards to show up that you might not expect, like Pendelhaven and Hymn to Tourach.

3. The major differences in the banned cards: Premodern bans both Necropotence and Force of Will, while Middle School allows these. There are other differences that somewhat relate (Dark Ritual is banned in MS), but these are the two major ones in my opinion. Relevant to my post today, both ban Brainstorm.

I think overall I prefer the Premodern rules and cards. I much prefer using current rules without mana burn etc. I also support Force of Will being banned, if only to give the format a different feel from Legacy. I think I prefer Portal sets allowed, but I don't like the confusion of the reprint sets (Anthology specifically). However, I'm not in charge of the events, so I play what they tell me is allowed.

Historical Mana Base Context

The majority of decks that are played in these formats are decks that were played in the old Extended format. When examining the mana of these old decks however, there are some issues.

Extended was created in 1997 and allowed cards from The Dark and Revised. Importantly, this meant original ABU dual lands were legal. These are the gold standard for dual lands (see my rankings of best dual land cycles at the end of this old post) and cover all 10 color pairs. When Extended rotated in 1999 to remove Revised and 4th edition, these dual lands were excepted and allowed to be played despite not being in one of the included sets. These remained legal until the printing of Onslaught and the rotation before PT Houston in 2002. 

If you look at those dates and compare to the dates of sets covered by Premodern/MS, you see that for all but the final year of the 1995-2003 window the original dual lands were played in Extended. For those playing Premodern/MS for a nostalgic experience, it can be quite a shock that some of your favorite decks just don't function because the mana is so awful.

One reason for not allowing dual lands in Premodern/MS is to keep the price of entry down. Many of the staples of Premodern decks are quite affordable (though the reserved list exceptions are very very expensive as seen by recent Mox Diamond and Gaea's Cradle spikes). Additionally, fetch lands from Onslaught are a major part of the format and fetch-dual mana bases are too good. 

My Suggestions

I have yet to prove my case that mana in Premodern/MS is awful, but here are some alternatives I would like to suggest.

1. Allow original dual lands in the format, but ban fetch lands. This is a big hit to the affordability of the format, but restores some formerly exciting cards to their old power levels (Land Grant, Tithe, Eternal Dragon, Mirage slow fetches). Additionally, banning fetch lands is not without precedent (see Pioneer) and allows Brainstorm to be unbanned. Having to go out of your way to play cards that shuffle is a large enough cost to playability I would not expect it to be ubiquitous like in Legacy.

2. Allow the five enemy-colored fetch lands to be legal. Enemy color mana bases are significantly weaker than allied colored mana bases. This would allow them to be mostly on the same level, with the limitations being less frequently played cards like Skycloud Expanse etc. 

3. Extended the format to include Ravnica block shock lands and ban the Onslaught fetch lands. I think shock land / pain land formats are the best for mana bases, balancing between aggressive, controlling, and midrange strategies. Additionally, I think a lot of the classic Extended decks I remember include cards from some of these sets. Including Time Spiral and Timeshifted cards lets you add even older cards in a roundabout way. The real shift in design wasn't with card frame change and either came in Lorwyn block with Planeswalkers (these 5 are mostly harmless), or Alara block with Mythic Rares. You lose the appeal of only old card-frame, but the formats already allow new-framed printings. I personally would select a set through Eventide and call it Pre-Mythic.

There are many ways to mix and match some of these ideas, and I want to encourage those running events to think outside the box and not just do something that someone else prescribes without agreeing 100%.

The Mana

After 1000 words, we finally get to the good stuff. I will look at the tools available in Premodern/MS and discuss the implications of them with regards to deck building.

Fetch Lands

Fetch lands from Onslaught

Fetch lands without dual lands to fetch are not very good. I ranked them 9th when I ranked dual land cycles six years ago. I still think that ranking is accurate. Fetch lands fail to support decks with CC cards in more than one color. It is greedy to expect to be able to play both White Knight and Counterspell on turn two with a given mana base, but it is not unreasonable to expect Counterspell and Wrath of God. A turn one fetch land can only help cast one of those cards, and the decision sometimes must be made before you know which other lands you draw. Fetch lands require a lot of shuffling as many others have noted, but that isn't a big issue in a format that isn't played under the tightest rules enforcement levels. B

The format with fetch lands as the primary dual lands leads to some interesting ramifications. 

1. Decks almost always have a primary color and a secondary color supported by the fetch land. This secondary color can't have too many cards with CC in the cost. This limits which cards are playable in the format.

2. All the fetch land decks play lots of basic lands. I've seen lists with up to 16 basics. This means the card Wasteland is surprisingly ineffective. Other cards like Blood Moon, Back to Basics, and Price of Progress see almost no play. While this might be seen as a good thing, I think it stifles creativity and risk taking. I like when the format lets you take risks on playing a third or fourth color but you can get punished. I also like when you can mitigate the risks by choosing to play a one or two color deck. This format makes those choices for you.

Wasteland isn't very good in this format

3. Enemy colors don't have these. Allied colors are preferred.

4. Brainstorm must be banned if these are legal.

Pain Lands

Pain lands from Ice Age and Apocalypse

From the first printing in Ice Age until the printing of shocklands in Ravnica, these were the essential dual lands for Standard. I ranked them 3rd when I ranked cycles, which may have been too high, but they are effective. I wish these would see more Standard play in current formats.

These are the default lands you will see in just about every two-color deck. They skew aggressive, but control decks likely won't have more than four in the entire deck so the drawback is manageable. If you plan on playing a lot of Premodern/MS, you should pick up a set of 40 of these. They are also fairly affordable since they don't see play in many other formats.

Filter Lands

Filter Lands from Odyssey

These aren't very good (I ranked them 10th in my post from six years ago). They do two interesting things I want to point out.

1. They turn colorless mana into colored mana. This is useful for things like Mishra's Factory and Skycloud Expanse in Landstill decks. Also makes the colorless option from pain lands better.

2. They only exist in allied colors, further skewing the metagame to only allied color decks.

Mirage Fetches and Invasion Duals

Fetch Lands from Mirage and ETB Tapped Lands from Invation

I group these together because they have almost identical functionality in Premodern/MS. It's hard to believe, but the printing of Coastal Tower et al. was a pretty big deal in the day. The Invasion lands are almost always better than Mirage except against the non-basic hate cards. Both are weak enough you should never play them.

There are some other cycles of dual lands I won't go over in detail, but they are almost all strictly worse than the ones I've discussed above. These include Ice Age depletion lands, Homelands filter lands, Tempest ETB tapped pain lands and delay lands. Avoid at all costs.

Lairs

Lairs from Planeshift

These are a personal favorite of mine in Premodern/MS. These may look awful at first glance (and in the realm of all of Magic, they are terrible indeed), but there are specific reasons why they are better than they look.

1. They are the second (or third) option for enemy colors. Don't look at them as three color lands, but as enemy dual lands with significant drawbacks. Crosis's Catacombs is Volcanic Island when you squint hard enough. As we've seen above, there is a dearth of options for enemy color decks.

2. The draw back is real, but manageable. Because of the card Counterspell, you notice the majority of spells in Premodern/MS fall in the one and two CMC range. These lands let you cast those two mana spells on turn two, and if your deck isn't trying to cast a four mana spell, the drawback won't be that painful.

3. There are some interesting ways to use these for real or psuedo-advantage. Using these with Mox Diamond can let you cast a variety of spells of different colors with CC requirements starting on turn two. (Turn one basic, turn two lair plus Mox you now have a very solid manabase.) They can also be used with Thawing Glaciers to fix mana further without being set back at all. (Turn one Glaciers, turn two Lair activate Glaciers with the trigger on the stack, then return the Glaciers with the Lair.) 

Here are two decks that take advantage of lairs (or could take advantage):

RW Tax Rack by Nathan Golia

Turboland by Ty Thomason

The RW tax deck could use Lairs to fix the mana while still letting Land Tax trigger. Additionally, it wants to cast Devestating Dreams as well as some WW spells like Soltari Priest. Rith's Grove can help this deck a lot at casting spells while the drawback isn't as severe.

The UG Turboland deck uses the aforementioned Thawing Glaciers trick, as well as Explore plus Horn of Green to turn Treva's Ruins' drawback into a benefit.

5 Color Lands

The playable 5 color lands in Premodern / Middle School

These are somewhat reasonable as second or third options in enemy color decks. They also enable some five color strategies. None are so good to be widely played, but they show up when you need them. Keep them in mind. Note that Gemstone Mine works well with Lairs

The Artifacts

Lotus Petal and Mox Diamond

The Diamonds from Mirage are also playable in a pinch, as is Mind Stone from Weatherlight. The Medallions from Tempest can be used with the untap mechanic in Urza's Sage to solid effect. Lotus Petal can enable some fast starts, but Mox Diamond is the real star.

Mox Diamond has a lot of synergy with the land return cards from Masques block, mainly Daze and Gush. There isn't much incidental hate for it. Mana costs being low means drawing extra isn't that much worse than drawing extra lands. I'm going to be exploring some more in the Mox Diamond space in the future.

Fast Mana

These all tap for two mana!

Like the five color lands, you will know when you want these. These are ways to get out of the one and two mana spell fest that is the rest of the format. Dark Ritual is also worth mentioning here, but it is banned in Middle School.

Thawing Glaciers

Thawing Glaciers, AKA Slowest Fetch

This card is pretty good at getting your splash color in a two or three color deck. It also is very important in control mirrors where making land drops is vital. It can fuel Dust Bowl (if Dust Bowl was any good) or combo with Lairs. I think this card should see more play in general.

Other lands to remember

Creature lands like Mishra's Factory and Treetop Village are big parts of the format. Gaea's Cradle is very good, but Tolarian Academy is banned and Serra's Sanctum not that great. Rishadan Port and Dust Bowl might be better than Wasteland. There are still a lot of lands that might be okay if you give them a chance. I didn't think Lairs would be playable at all until I put them in my deck; now I'm looking for more ways to play them.

Some future programming notes

I've recently started school. This combined with working part time will probably take up more of my free time than before. I don't know how much Magic I'll actually be able to play, and even more skeptical about how much time I'll have to write. So this may be my last blog post for a while.

Thoughts on Growth Spiral and other ramp cards

I hadn't planned on writing anything about the latest Standard bannings. Overall, I felt like they did a good job, even if it was a few months too late for most of them. I've always advocated for banning Uro over banning Growth Spiral, but as long as one goes I think it should be enough.

In the week since, I've spent some time thinking about exactly why Growth Spiral was so strong. I've seen a lot of arguments making a variety of cases. I want to talk about these arguments and why they are valid or why I think they are missing the point. I also want to bring up a few things I haven't seen as often that I think do a lot to explain the dominance of Growth Spiral.

This may be a bit heavy on some theory, but I hope I can get my point across.

*Begin Theory*

What is Ramp?

The "one land drop per turn" limit is one of the most important rules in Magic. It is the way a cards mana cost dictates what turn it can see play. Without the growing nature of incremental mana increases, the game would be completely different.

There are several ways to play a card on a turn before it's mana cost would normally allow. These ways can be split into four categories. I will call them Ramp, Ritual, Tron, and Affinity.

Affinity refers to any cost reduction mechanic. Affinity for Artifacts is the classic example, letting you play a 7cc Myr Enforcer as early as turn 1. The Medallion and Familiar cycles from Tempest and Invasion would be in this category, as would Marauding Raptor and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV.

Tron refers to special lands that produce more than one mana when activated. These lands usually require some setup (like Tron, Tolarian Academy, and Lotus Field) or restrictions on mana type (Mishra's Workshop, Ancient Tomb, and also Tron).

Ritual refers to a one-time boost of mana, usually coming at the expense of card advantage. Dark Ritual, Black Lotus, and Ancient Spring are examples.

Ramp refers to a permanent increase in the amount of mana you have. This can come in one of three forms: Mana Rocks (Azorius Signet, Mox Ruby, and Coalition Relic are examples), Mana Dorks (Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch, and Llanowar Evles are examples), and Land Ramp (Rampant Growth, Farseek, and Cultivate are examples).

Growth Spiral, Explore, and other similar cards don't necessarily fall into one of these four categories, but they mostly resemble Ramp when they work as intended. 

How to use Ramp cards

Mana Rocks can be used to power out expensive spells, but are more commonly used as fixing and ways to fill out the curve. They are less about accelerating into a game-breaking 6+ mana cost spell and instead about ensuring a deck gets to four mana and then reliably casts 4cc spells the rest of the game. These usually run between 24-26 lands. Example Deck

Mana Dorks are usually used to power out 3cc and 4cc creatures on turns 2 and 3 and then turn into attackers themselves when there is nothing left to cast. These decks run much lower land counts (20-23) and tend to be more aggressive than Mana Rock and Land Ramp decks. Example Deck

Land Ramp decks are trying to cast an expensive game-changing spell as fast as possible. Usually, this spell is Primeval Titan, but it can be anything similarly powerful. Example Deck. These decks run 26+ lands due to what I like to call The Fundamental Rule of Land Ramp:

The Fundamental Rule of Land Ramp: A land ramp spell is only useful if you are still making your land drop for the turn.

Land Ramp decks need to cast their big splashy spell *early* to have success. The Mana Rock and Mana Dork strategies can still execute their game plans adequately when they don't have the follow up land drops. Mana Rock and three lands is enough, Mana Dork and two lands is enough. The Land Ramp deck usually needs a combination of six Lands and Mana Ramp cards, preferably four lands two Ramp cards.

When I look at the various Growth Spiral decks in Standard the past two years, I see much more similarities to Mana Rock decks than I see similarities to Land Ramp decks. The main exception is the Field of the Dead / Golos deck from when Field was still legal for play.

Mulligans, Explore, and Rampant Growth

Ramp decks mulligan poorly, but topdeck fairly well. 

I've played a fair share of Primeval Titan ramp decks in the past. The card Explore has been always been an option, but I've usually decided to not play it. My main issue with the card is it's reliability. Consider a hand of three land, Explore, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and two Primeval Titan. On the play, this hand can cast a turn four Titan whenever you draw two land over four draw steps (three draw steps for turn, one from Explore). With 27 lands in the deck, this is about 61% of the time. If the card Explore is replaced with Farseek. you only need to draw one land over three draw steps to cast turn four Titan. This happens about 81.8 % of the time with a 26 land deck.* 

Now, this is a specific scenario I've cherry picked to show the advantages of Farseek over Explore. Explore has advantages too, mainly when you topdeck in the late game with enough mana to cast everything. But Explore also had another downside that was a bigger issue for me. When you mulligan with the deck, especially to 5 or fewer cards, Explore becomes much worse. Explore only gives you the extra land drop the turn you cast it, so a hand of two land, two Explore (lol), and Primeval Titan is significantly worse than two land, two Farseek, and Primeval Titan. Also depending on your interactive spells, it can be way better to have Farseek and guarantee having three mana on turn three to cast Anger of the Gods than it is to roll the dice and hope to draw a land over two draws. 

For these reasons, I've shied away from using Explore in a dedicated Land Ramp decks. Others have had success with it, and maybe they are right that the benefits outweigh the downsides, but this is how I've seen it for the past decade or so.

The difference between a deck that HAS to get to six mana vs one that just wants to get to four or five more consistently can be seen in these two lists.

RUG Control

Valakut

The first deck is playing a much more interactive, controlling style using Explore more as a Mana Rock. It does have a 6cc Titan, but it is not imperative that it comes down on turn four. The second deck is a classic Land Ramp deck that only plays two explores (lol) despite having 28 lands in the deck, instead choosing to play Overgrown Battlement and Green Sun's Zenith to have more hard ramp spells.

*End Theory*

Growth Spiral in Standard

Why was Growth Spiral so oppressive in Standard? I think it has less to do with the Ramp aspect and more to do with the surrounding cards. Lets look at two more recent lists.

Esper Control

Bant Control

I chose to use two lists from the same player instead of maybe better performing lists to get a sense of the internal consistency in the deckbuilding choices. I want to focus on Growth Spiral in the Bant decks because it's less of a combo enabler like the Temur Reclamation deck. Wilderness Reclamation is itself an incredibly powerful Ramp card that adds some complications to discussing the raw power of Growth Spiral.

I think both of the lists above by Andrea Mengucci are very similar. Both are controlling strategies looking to stabilize and end the game with planeswalkers. When you compare the numbers, both have similar amounts of 5cc+ spells. The Esper deck had four Teferi, Hero of Dominaria as well as two Command the Dreadhorde. The Bant deck has two ECD, two Nissa, two Shark Typhoon, and two Hydroid Krasis. The difference in the decks is how they plan on getting to the point in the game of casting these 5cc cards. 

The Esper deck plays a traditional control role, using early disruption like Thought Erasure, Cast Down and Oath of Kaya to disrupt the opponents early plays. It has Kaya's Wrath to clean up the board if it gets out of hand. Once the board is stabilized, Teferi Hero of Dominaria can take over the game.The Bant deck has the same end game of the control deck, but gets access to eight Explores. This means it doesn't need as much early interaction, it can skip that stage of the game.

4 Thought Erasue, 4 Cast Down, 3 Oath of Kaya, 3 Basilica Bell-Haunt, 1 Despark, 3 Kaya's Wrath, 2 Elderspell = 20

4 Growth Spiral, 4 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, 2 Aether Gust, 2 Dovin's Veto, 1 Brazen Borrower, 2 Mystical Dispute, 2 Shatter the Sky, 3 Land = 20

I think Growth Spiral functions more as a Mana Rock in a controlling deck than a Land Ramp card in a Ramp deck. Cards like Nissa, Who Shakes the World and Elspeth Conquer's Death are still reasonable plays on turn five without any ramp. The deck uses the accelaration from Growth Spiral and Uro in lieu of interacting early. It plays just enough early interaction for the games it doesn't draw one of the Explore effects.

Other Arguments about Growth Spiral

I want to mention a few things I've seen other people argue for why Growth Spiral was so strong. 

First, the instant speed nature. The argument goes that it is significantly better than Explore because it lets you hold up mana. I think by the end of the Standard format this argument was fairly well debunked. The instant speed is certainly a benefit, but I don't believe it to be the main reason it seems much more powerful than Explore. Explore was used in similarly powerful ways when it was in Standard as I showed above. The decks that use Spiral at the end of the format weren't playing cards like Quench to leverage the flash aspect, and playing against Spiral decks wasn't that tricky with regard to instants on your turn (at least, not because of Growth Spiral instants). The Bant deck above is largely a tap out control deck. The additional color requirement of Blue compared to Explore was largely irrelevant in Standard because Blue and Green were probably going to be in your deck anyway.

Second, that Spiral is hard to interact with compared to Mana Dorks. Mana Dorks can be Shocked or Bolted on turn one or two (always Bolt the Bird) to disrupt their effectiveness.  A turn three Mana Dork in a deck with nothing costing more than 4cc has been effectively neutered. However, I don't think this comparison is reasonable. Mana Dork decks look nothing like Growth Spiral decks. I will say in the games I've played post-ban that countering turn three Uro has been a very strong play, so maybe the issue was that there was too many to reliably disrupt (see the next point).

Third, that you can play eight copies of the card. I think this has more merit than the other two arguments, but I'm still skeptical to the extent. Eight copies means its harder to stop from happening, but I'm not sure you would actually put all eight copies of the card Growth Spiral into the Bant deck. The strength here is that Uro lets you dilute your deck with 29 lands and 8 Explores while still having a reasonable amount of late game threat density. This is the reason I advocated for an Uro ban instead of a Growth Spiral ban, but I do see the reasons for leaving Uro around into future Standard.

Fourth, the lack of pressure from other decks. This one I actually agree with. The biggest threat to Ramp decks in the past has been very aggressive aggro and reliable countermagic for late-game threats. Teferi, Time Raveler basically removed all hard late-game counterspells from the format. The lack of aggressive one-drops is another issue. Aggro decks can try to "go under" the Growth Spiral decks, but don't have the tools necessary. If your best aggressive creatures don't come down until turn three or four, why would you choose that over just playing Growth Spiral yourself?

Final Word on Growth Spiral

I don't think Growth Spiral is an objectively over-powered card. It would not have needed a banning in a different Standard format without Uro. Perhaps even a different banning philosophy would have let it stick around. I still think this is a good choice to ban for the last few weeks of this Standard format. I think a card like it can be printed again in the future, but it would be important to only have one in the format at once.

I hope I've explained my thoughts and theories adequately on this card and ramp cards in general. If you have any questions on something I may have not explained adequately, feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on Twitter @ceciliajupe.

-Ty

*Note on the math here: I ignored ETB tapped lands and ramp redraws. Ramp redraws really help the first hand a lot, but also negate the relevance of Explore. Perhaps having both is better and I'm completely wrong. I originally posted with incorrect percentage for the Explore case.

Goblins in the MTG Arena Open

In my last article about Historic and the various tribal decks, I mentioned that I didn't think Goblins had the tools needed to actually win games. Well, Muxus, Goblin Grandee was the card they were missing. With the release of Jumpstart on Arena, Muxus Goblin decks have been everywhere in Historic. 

I picked it up and immediately got the last 8 wins in a row to make Mythic. It wasn't just the high win rate or turn 3 and turn 4 kills. The real kicker for me was seeing the games that Muxus would win out of nowhere that no other card was capable of. Sure, you need to roll high on your top six cards to win them, but he gives you the chance. The fail rate of occasionally having a bad Muxus was more than compensated for by the times you killed them from 30 life and a dozen Zombie tokens.

I never really though I would play anything other than Goblins for the Arena Open, since even the decks going all out to beat Goblins could still lose to a turn 3 Muxus. I mostly worked on this list with Will Lowry and Jose Pineda, with some input from Drew Iafrate early on and Collin Rountree at the end of the process.

The Deck

Most Goblin decks are going to have a few things in common. 4 Prospector, Wily Goblin, and Goblin Instigator to enable the early Muxus, 4 Muxus for the payoff, and 4 Goblin Chieftain as the best way to kill immediately when Muxus resolves. 

One card that surprised me early on and continued to impress until I played all 4 was Krenko Mob Boss. The real combo of the deck is Chieftain plus Krenko. Muxus is just the best way to cast those two cards at the same time. The interaction between Conspicious Snoop and Krenko lets you win some otherwise unwinnable games, and enables turn 3 and turn 4 kills without Muxus. Maximizing Goblin Warchief to make sure Krenko has haste was the next logical step. 

I always wanted at least 24 lands. You win a lot of games by casting Muxus for the full price after your first wave or early Muxus is answered. When you have 5 lands in play and a Muxus in hand, land is by far the best possible drawstep. Phyrexian Tower lets you play Muxus a full turn earlier without Prospector or Warchief, and the curve of Warchief into Tower lets you cast Muxus turn 4 without any other cards. Because you can announce Muxus for 3RR with Warchief in play and sacrifice Warchief to Tower to pay for Muxus, the cost reduction is already "locked in". This is an important interaction to remember. 

The last spot was 4 Goblin Matron. This card lets you set up Muxus on turn 4 by either fetching the Grandee himself, or fetching a Prospector to act as a Ritual. Additionally, when you resolve Muxus and have a board full of goblins, Matron can go fetch another Muxus or a Krenko to make sure you have enough to actually kill the opponent. Being able to tutor for specific sideboard cards like Goblin Cratermaker, Goblin Trashmaster, Gempalm Incinerator, or Gobln Chainwhirler was not that relevant but occasionally came up.

Here is the final maindeck I settled on:

4 Skirk Prospector

4 Goblin Instigator

4 Wily Goblin

4 Conspicuous Snoop

4 Goblin Warchief

4 Goblin Matron

4 Goblin Chieftain

4 Krenko, Mob Boss

4 Muxus, Goblin Grandee

2 Phyrexian Tower

2 Castle Embereth

20 Mountain

The real story is in the cards I chose not to play. Fanatical Firebrand was nice to have as another one drop, but only actually good in the mirror as a way to kill Skirk Prospector. Goblin Chainwhirler was also nice to have in spots, but the metagame being hateful to goblins meant there weren't a lot of non-goblin decks you actually wanted it against. Goblin Ringleader was nice to refill your hand if they had an answer to the first Muxus, but was too clunky to cast. Maindeck Gempalm Incinerator was a consideration, but the card you most wanted to kill was Hushbringer and you can't use Matron to tutor up Incinerator with it in play. Siege Gang Commander almost made the cut as a one of, since sometimes you can search it up or hit it off Muxus and kill the opponent even if they have a Magmaquake on your turn, but it didn't come up enough in testing to be better than the next best card (probably an Instigator or a Matron.)

The Metagame

Matchups against sorcery speed sweepers in control decks and general midrange decks felt almost unloseable. Quickly the metagame shifted away from those decks to decks that can actually beat goblins. Here are some matchups and how I saw them going into the weekend:

Temur Rec (With or Without Field)

I don't think Field of the Dead does much to help the matchup against you. It's already a bad matchup for Goblins thanks to instant speed sweepers like Magmaquake and Flame Sweep. I'll discuss ways we tried to beat this deck later, but this was the big concern going into the event.

Mono Blue Flash / Tempo / UW Fliers

Counterspells are very good against Muxus. Here, the Goblin deck can win by playing first and getting enough pressure to force the issue, or by hitting Krenko of a Snoop and putting the game away early. It gets a lot better after sideboard for Goblins with Gempalm Incinerator and other cards, so it was mainly a best of one concern.

Mono Black Devotion

I don't think this deck is good, but Massacre Wurm can give you trouble if you don't remember to hold full control with Prospector in play. If Arena would actually give you priority in response, I doubt this deck would have the results that it does.

Mono Red Burn / Red Deck Wins

If you can hit land drops and resolve a Muxus and they don't have Ferocidon, you should be able to win. Your best draws are still easily disruptable and they have a fast enough clock that it turns out to be about 50/50 if they are playing correctly.

Jund / Rakdos Sacrifice

For a while, this was crushing me but eventually moved to the 4 Krenko plan and just tried to be more aggressive and less controlling and it got much better. I'd say its favorable, but it's going to depend on their sideboard choices.

Grayeyard Combo (Kethis and Breach)

Strictly a race, though sometimes they draw a one-of Urza's Ruinous Blast or something. 

Mono White Auras

Probably the worst matchup game one since Hushbringer is so strong, but you can still win with Snoop / Krenko / Chieftain shenanigans if their clock isn't fast enough.

UW Control / Bant Field of the Dead / Other Controlish types

Very favorable game one. Could be tough after sideboard but they are slow clock. Sometimes when the first two Muxus don't get the job done, the third or fourth does.

How to beat Temur Reclamation

We tried a lot of options, but the best success was with Chance for Glory and Chandra Awakened Inferno. 

Chance for Glory was good if they didn't know about it and you cast it in response to a sweeper on your turn (or when they tapped out in your end step for something and you think you can kill them). The card obviously requires some mana commitments, but with 8 dual lands and 4 Wily Goblin, it was castable when we needed it. My first run on day one actually played 2 Chance main but I didn't play against nearly enough Temur on day one to warrant it. I moved to the mono red version for the other two runs with goblins.

Chanda Awakened Inferno was only okay against Temur, but way better against the various Blue Flash decks and against control decks. Aether Gust isn't the best card agaisnt Muxus so many decks were playing Essence Scatter or Tale's End, which does nothing to stop Chandra. I even used here -X ability to exile an Uro from play and then win over the next few turns with emblem damage. 

Day one:

My first run I used RW Goblins with Chance for Glory. I went 4-3 with losses to decks that Chance wasn't good against. For the next two runs, I was on the list I shared above. Both went 4-3 as well. The amount of White Auras I was facing was too high, so I decided to switch to something else to try to make day two.

Accidentally played both Chainwhirler and Ferocidon in my burn list after switching off goblins from first 3 runs. Obviously get to 7 wins with it. #MTGArenaOpen pic.twitter.com/Lw0ac5xGgE

— Ty Thomason (@ceciliajupe) August 1, 2020

I got there with RDW that played both Chainwhirler and Ferocidon. I don't think it was actually a good plan and mainly did it by mistake, but whatever works.

Day two:

For day 2, I decided to play mono red Goblins with Chandra in the sideboard and no Chance for Glory. I also moved an Incinerator main to maybe help against all the white aura decks I saw. I started off 2-0 against White Auras, but then lost to Red Deck Wins when I was missing land drops in a close game one and game three. My final loss was against another White Auras deck when I mulligan to 5 game one and never had a chance against all his hate in game two.

2-2 today with goblins in day 2 of the #MTGArenaOpen. Beat MonoWhite Auras twice before losing to RDW and MonoWhiteAuras. I'll have a blog writeup with my thoughts on goblins later this week. pic.twitter.com/FZD2JqzjcR

— Ty Thomason (@ceciliajupe) August 2, 2020

I like the cards and sideboard choices I made, but maybe the metagame was too harsh to actually play Goblins. 

Thoughts on the Open in General

I think best of one is fine, but not great. The metagame for day two was much different than the metagame for the best of three ladder since most people (especially the white auras players) were running back the same deck. I still felt favored against the one-trick pony best of one decks, but you only get one shot day two. I really enjoyed preparing for the tournament, and had a good time playing in the event though. I would like to see one of these every month or so.

I'd have some thoughts on Historic, but they announced a bunch of bannings today including Wilderness Reclamation. I still think both Field of the Dead and Muxus need to be banned as well, but it is a start. I'm glad they are planning on reacting fast with everyone playing digitally these days. It might keep me playing MTG instead of playing Hearthstone Battlegrounds again.

Thanks,
Ty

MobstercoM

On Saturday, I played in the Old School MobstercoM event put on by Bryan Manolakos. Last year they did team unified constructed, but with the move to doing events online, team events weren't going to work logistically. I had hoped to maybe attend with some other Falling Stars, but now that it was online I was for sure going to play. 

The format still required some creative deckbuilding. Participants had to build three Swedish legal decks that met unified construction requirements. You would play your decks randomly against your opponents corresponding list, no sideboards. Best of three. Also, you can play as many Savannah as you want in any deck. Even though Mano usually runs Atlantic rules for events, Swedish made sense. Last time, almost every team played a mono-black deck with 4x Hymn to Tourach as one of the three builds. That would certainly be the case again, so the Swedish rules were chosen to exclude Fallen Empires. However, the event still used EC/Atlantic reprint policy and damage on the stack, so maybe it would have been less confusing to just say "Atlantic Rules with no Fallen Empires". That may have saved me some trouble in round 3...

Brewing

I did most of my brewing with fellow Falling Star Simon Christie (aka mtgmisprint). There was concern about how many dead cards you could afford in your decks, since you didn't have opportunity to sideboard them out. If you were to find a way to play all creatureless decks, you could blank all the creature removal across all of your opponents lineup. Simon decided to take this route and build three different creatureless control decks. I kept this principal in mind when selecting my lists, making sure to minimize the amount of potential dead cards against creatureless decks in my lists that weren't also creatureless. By having at least one creatureless deck in the lineup, I'd hope to have an advantage against slower decks. The other decks I used generic answers like direct damage and Icy Manipulator to support a land destruction plan.

My Decks

Deck A (A is for Atog) is pretty standard powered Atog list. I moved the black power cards to deck C, but this may have been a mistake. Demonic Tutor isn't very good without stuff like Ancestral and Time Walk to fetch, and Mind Twist much better with fast mana like Mox and Sol Ring and Lotus. Shatter were the narrowest cards I played in any deck, and I wasn't impressed. Overall though, the deck was a machine and definitely lived up to it's reputation as the best deck in Old School (according to me).

Deck B (B is for Bant) is Land Tax / Ivory Tower control deck. Perhaps the Sylvan Library was unnecessary, but I'm a big fan of it with Ivory Tower. Sylvan could have helped the GB deck in the card advantage department. Millstone as the kill is very good with Sylvan though, letting you dig deeper when you are looking for key end game cards. I likely should have played more cards like Moat and Wrath of God and maybe fewer Swords to Plowshares.

Deck C (C is for Crap) is a BG Land Destruction deck. I recently acquired Sinkholes and wanted to put them to use, along with the Ice Storms I never play. I'm a big fan of decks with 8 elves from Standard and Modern, so I wanted to use some of the same philosophies here. It would be pretty easy to splash a third color if you wanted to, but I had everything I needed already so I didn't get greedy. The Triskelion was nice as a tutor target, and the Arena wasn't actually legal (oops!) so maybe it should have been the second Trike.

I'll do my best to recollect the individual records of decks. I wasn't keeping detailed notes since I was also playing the MTG Arena Open in between rounds (insert link to future blog post here).

A 5-1

B 4-2

C 3-2*

*would be 4-1 if the Arena game counted

The Games

R1 - David Craig - CAB

David is probably my favorite person I've met from playing Old School. We met at the Battle for the Alamo back in February, and have played several times on webcam since. It's good to start against a familiar face. My C deck mulligan and then he had turn one Library of Alexandria. Despite 8 LD spells in the deck, I didn't draw one soon enough and lost to the card advantage. My deck A had an extremely powerful draw and killed him with multiple Black Vice and Ankh thanks to getting to play first. Game three with the B decks was a grind. I countered his early Mirror Universe, but he was on some time of Enchantress combo. I get out Millstone and try to work on ending the game. He casts Timetwister, which I counter. I counter the Regrowth for Timetwister. I counter a Feldon's Cane. Eventually I've used all my countermagic trying to stop his Timetwister and I can't find a Recall to get them back. He gets another Recall and resolves the Twister. Post Twister, I have to be careful until I can find all my countermagic again, but I'm able to use Swords to Plowshares on Force of Nature and Yavimaya Enchantress to prevent dying. Eventually Sylvan plus Millstone finds me the goods and I lock up the game. I had to play super fast first thing in the morning. We both needed more caffeine after the match.

1-0

R2 - Sammy Haghour - BCA

Game one I get to Land Tax quite a bit, but I'm not drawing any action spells. I resolve a Braingeyser but I'm at 2 life facing a Serra Angel. I brick again and use Recall to get back Braingeyser and an STP for the Angel. He has a follow up Angel that he had been holding after seeing me discard a Wrath of God earlier. I don't draw an answer and have to decide between casting Braingeyser for 5 and hoping to draw an STP or to use the Balance in my hand and discard down to 2 cards (counterspell and geyser) as well as sacrificing about 4 lands. I decide to play it safe and Balance. He chooses to use his own Swords to Plowshares on his Angel to force me to discard down to one card, but I use Counterspell on my own Balance to avoid that fate and win easily with Braingeyser and a full grip. Game two we both play Bayous. I have Icy and Royal for a Fungalsaur but he Crumbles the Icy. I get out an Erhnam and some mana Elves. He has a Whirling Dervish and an Erhnam. I use a Sinkhole and Ice Storm on his black mana. Eventually I attack with Erhnam which he blocks with his own. This lets me use Triskelion to kill his Djinn and Dervish. He finally draws second black for Pestilence, which is threatening to kill most of my team. I start being aggressive towards his life total. He kills my Ernie with a Terror I think and I lose the rest of my team to Pestilence. I decide I can afford to keep Pestilence in play because he is at two life and play another elf. He plays an Ernie and now I'm in trouble. I have to continue to Icy his Icy, but at any moment that could be over. He has Sylvan and finding what he needs. He gives my Elf forestwalk and attacks with Ernie leaving back Bayou and Factory. I tap his Icy at end of turn, and draw Pendelhaven. I immediately play it and he learns that you can't respond to land drops. I attack with the elf which puts him to 1 life and he can't activate Pestilence anymore and has to give my elf forestwalk again which kills him.

2-0

R3 - Andy Baquero - BAC

His B deck has a bunch of Savannah in a WW shell with Sylvan and Giant Growth. I try to Land Tax and Tower, but it's not enough. I Mana Drain something, but then don't use my mana correctly and take mana burn and die. I have turn 1 Library of Alexandria in game two and it helps me win even through a Nevinyrral's Disk for 7 of my permanents. Game 3 is super epic. I have early Erhnam and Sengir, but he has Rukh Egg and Ali from Cairo. He's stalling with Maze of Ith and eventually casts Lightning Bolt on his egg to get a Rukh. I draw some LD spells for the Maze and start racing, but he has a second Ali. I draw Arena which lets me start fighting his Ali or he can choose to lose his Rukh to my Djinn. Eventually he tries to Fireball my Sengir and I use Arena in response, forcing him to trade with the Rukh. Arena picks of the last Ali and I win the game.... 

....except Arena isn't legal in Swedish! Oops! We decide to give him the win and I'm forced to play Arena as a Savannah the rest of the event. I wasn't the only one confused on some of the rules. There was early confusion about if mana burn was in effect, as well as another player playing Rainbow Vale (I had Vale in my early Land Tax builds but realized it wasn't legal early on. Didn't help me figure out the Arena problem though.)

2-1

R4 - Øyvin Skattum Vesteng - ACB

I don't remember much about our game one. I think I killed with multiple Serendibs and his Juzam wasn't fast enough for my burn. Game two was much more interesting. I mulligan to five and play turn one elf. He uses Swords on the elf and then casts Winds of Change, hoping to screw me further. I play some more land and eventually an Erhnam. He has Land Tax and uses Strip Mine on himself to turn it on. I'm trying to kill him as fast as possible, but take a turn off to use Ice Storm on a Plateau to maybe cut him off of red mana and prevent Land's Edge. He has Mountain and Land's Edge anyway. On the last turn I attack him down to 2 life but don't have a land to kill him. I use Sinkhole on my own City of Brass to prevent him from using Tax one last time. He ends up with 14 points of damage with Lands Edge, but I'm at 15 life because of the Swords to Plowshares on turn one. Truly an epic finish.

3-1

R5 - Jeff Dehnhardt - CBA

Game one he plays the first Erhnam, but that means mine gets to do damage first. Icy and Ernie and Segnir race his lonely Djinn and I win. Game two he has Counterspell for my turn two Sylvan and then some Merfolk of the Pearl Trident. I'm Land Taxing but I can't find a way to stop the beats after he Spell Blasts my Ivory Tower. Eventually he has two Lord of Atlantis and I draw more lands and lose. Game three I keep an iffy hand that was Mox Emerald, Time Walk, Volcanic, Volcanic, Mountain, Shatter, Black Vice. I draw a bunch of mana and I'm never really in the game. I think I'm supposed to mulligan hands like this. The deck is too good to lose this way.

3-2

R6 - Dakota Martinez - BAC

His B deck is RG beats. I take a bunch from a Berserk Giant Growth Scryb Sprite before casting Wrath of God. I'm at 5 life but I Strip Mine his only Mountain and we play draw go for a while. I eventually find a Tower and he is on a short clock. I have removal for his fatties like Juggernaut and Erhnam but I'm still wary of being burned out. Eventually I get a second Tower and some more cards in hand and lock up the game with some Counterspells. My Atog deck puts enough pressure on him with Serendibs early and then I finish him with some Lightning Bolts.

4-2

R7 - Thomas Sutherland Borja - ABC

I have turn 1 Library of Alexandria and start using Lightning Bolt on his Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise. After four turns, he casts Armageddon hoping to stop the Library. I'm too far ahead and I'm able to deploy more lands afterwards while he has none. Game two he's able to use Dark Ritual to play Sengir and Juzam while stopping me from using Land Tax. I use Balance to clear the board, but he has Hypnotic Specter. I get to Tax once, and I'm trying to find an answer to Hyppie. Specter hits me twice discarding a Wrath of God and Tropical Island, but I still have enough mana left to Recall for Balance and we're in topdeck mode. I get a Tower out and start building up my hand. Eventually I'm at over 50 life with multiple towers and a Sylvan Library. He has a few Nevinyrral's Disks, but I have the Disenchant each time. Eventually I use Millstone to win the game.

5-2

Aftermath

I finished in 15th place, the worst of all the 15 point players. Simon also finished 5-2 and got 10th place. 

Overall I had a great time playing the event. Webcam Magic isn't ideal, but I still felt drained by the end of the day (double queuing the Arena Open probably helped). I got to meet a lot of new people, but it was mainly my opponents. I didn't get to meet the people at the event that I didn't play against like I would have at a real life event. I did enjoy playing everything in one day and not over several weeks like some other events going on. The event was very well run and the concept was a huge success. I think both Simon and I did well by understanding the strength of creatureless strategies in a no sideboard environment. I learned some more about building Old School decks and got to pick up some cool versions of cards in preparation to add to my collection.

Props:

Mano for putting this on

The rest of the people that helped Mano do this, read his stuff or listen to his podcast All Tings Considered to find out more

All my opponents, especially those that let me Millstone them. I tried to play as fast as possible

Arena (the card) for being awesome!

Slops

Me for not mulliganing in round 5

Arena (the card) for not being legal in Swedish. Why? Its so awesome! I'll keep playing it when I can.

Savannah - you really didn't impress even when people could play 20. Be better.