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. 

Magic Theory: Threat Diversity

(This is part of my ongoing series about Magic Theory in Old School.)

For the first post in this series, I want to discuss Threat Diversity. It's one of the highest level concepts in deck building, but the one I've spent the most time thinking about. Perhaps I'll organize the series from the top down, instead of from the bottom up.

Threat Diversity, or Why Disenchant is So Good

There are no wrong threats, only wrong answers - David Price

When I first began reading strategy articles in the late 90s, this was the common wisdom. The following 20 years of the game has only seen creatures get even better, new threat types like Planeswalker, and the answers struggling to keep up. It's so ingrained in my understanding of the game that I assumed it was always true. I'd see deck lists from the early years of the game and laugh at the perceived narrow answers the decks would play, and in such quantities! Almost every deck has 4x Disenchant, how were they ever winning?

 Since getting into Old School Magic, I've seen there is more to it than the famous David Price quote. I've come to realize that the quote was so important because of the timing of it. As Magic moved out of the early dark ages of deck building and the creatures slowly began to get better, the quote came at the perfect time to shift the thinking of the masses. That doesn't mean they were wrong before, the game was just different.

What is a threat?

In general, a threat presents an opportunity to gain a recurring advantage. Spells with one time effects are threatening but not threats, because once they've resolved they stop producing the advantage effect. Only if the spell is going to win the game on the spot can it be considered a threat. For the most part, in 93/94 threats are permanents. Creatures generate a recurring advantage by being able to attack the opponent or activate abilities. Artifacts like Black Vice, The Rack, and Jayemdae Tome provide more advantage the longer they stay in play. Enchantments like Sylvan Library and Land Tax are threats against many decks. Even Lands can be threats with the existence of Mishra's Factory and Library of Alexandria.

It's not important to clearly classify a card as a threat or not, at least when playing the game. Game play is more focused on how threatening an opposing threat is, while deck building is more concerned with which threats you expect to face. Pendelhaven can be a very big threat or completely irrelevant during a game, but if it is hard for your deck to beat you need to consider it as a threat when building your deck.

What is an answer?

Answers are defined by their ability to neutralize a threat. Some answers neutralize the threats as they are being cast, like Counterspell. Some answers remove creatures from play, like Terror. Some answers remove other threat types, Shatter for artifacts, Stone Rain for lands, etc. Also, in the David Price sense, they have no value if there are no threats to neutralize.

Some answers can neutralize different threats as the game progresses. In this way, creatures can be answers by preventing opponent attacks. A White Knight can hold back an army of goblins early on, or a larger threat like Juzam Djinn later in the game. Icy Manipulator and Maze of Ith both neutralize the most threatening attacker. 

Answer like Moat or Shatterstorm can deal with multiple threats at once. As the answers get better at neutralizing multiple cards from the opposing deck, they can be considered threats. The Abyss can completely blank an opposing creature strategy, so the creature deck sees it as a threat and requires its own answer to it. Blood Moon can prevent multicolored decks from being able to play spells at all, and thus requires an answer. Perhaps this means the best way to define a threat is something that requires an answer, but this could be a chicken and egg scenario. Are the commonly played answers common because of the commonly played threats, or vice versa? Eventually it reaches a sort of equilibrium where there isn't anything left to be discovered.

What are the threats and answers like in 93/94?

The answers available in Old School are still some of the best answers ever printed. Counterspell can stop any non-land threat in the format. Swords to Plowshares stops every creature without protection. Disenchant stops almost every non-creature threat, as well as some creatures. These represent what I call the Holy Trinity of Answers. Chaos Orb deals with all permanents.

insert image of venn diagram

Creatures are very weak, especially when compared to the available removal. No creatures generate any value upon entering the battlefield, and only a few do anything upon death. The best commonly played creatures are either very efficient, very cheap, or dodge the commonly played answers. A creature with 4 toughness dodges Lightning Bolt. A creature with Protection from White dodges Swords to Plowshares. Cheap creatures can get onto the battlefield before countermagic is available. Protection from Black avoids The Abyss, and Flying avoids Moat. 

The non-creature threats are much more reasonable. Many of these represent the few ways to gain card advantage in the format. Disrupting Scepter and Jayemdae Tome provide it in the most pure forms. Cards that can generate the recurring card advantage can run away with the game if left unanswered. The most common threat that can do this is the Library of Alexandria. Library is a very strong threat because it avoids the Holy Trinity of Answers.

How can you use this in deck building?

When choosing threats for you deck, think about how they line up against common answers. If your deck is already strong against one of the common answers, add threats that line up better against the others. Alternatively, try to overload the few copies of the correct answer the opponent has. If they only have 4 Swords to Plowshares and 4 Lightning Bolts, you can try to play only creatures with 4 toughness to effectively cut their removal options in half. Or only play creatures with Protection from White. This is usually easier said than done because of the limited card pool.

Playing non-creature threats is very appealing, but it's also worth thinking about turning on opposing Disenchants. Because the non-creature threats are so much better than the creature threats, Disenchant sees more play than even Swords to Plowshares. If you choose to play some non-creature threats, try to play more than the number of answers you think your opponent has.It can look like playing a few Disrupting Scepter in your deck can add a separate dimension, but if its your only Shatter target, maybe its better to leave them out.

Here are two lists I've built recently to try to minimize effectiveness of the opponents Disenchants (also, I love Merfolk):

Building a deck to turn off opposing creature removal is much easier, though also kind of unexciting at this point. The Deck is great, and you already know this.

Trying to make a deck that avoids both Disenchant and Swords to Plowshares is a much bigger challenge. Spell-based combo is basically limited to just Channel-Fireball, and with Channel restricted it probably isn't consistent enough to build an entire deck around (though it can add an extra dimension to other decks very effectively). Other options to ignore the white answers would be to build a straight Burn deck, or a Counter Burn deck to use Counterspell to protect your few threats from the white answers.

If you are building a controlling deck, its hard to go wrong with the full 12 Holy Trinity cards. When you branch out into other colors instead of UW, think about the Venn Diagram for which answers overlap on possible threat types.

So Much Depth

I've always enjoyed the challenge of building new decks that can beat the best decks of the format. Old School has been very enjoyable for that so far. Come back next time when I talk about Threat Density and why I think Strip Mine should be restricted!

Old School Atog at the Festival of Friendship

It's been a while since my last post. My streak of monthly posts has ended but not without reason. The last two months of 2020 were busy finishing my first semester of grad school, and I'm still partially working on my Planeswalker Point series in the background to be published in the future.

I did manage to play a lot of Magic over the holidays, mainly on MTG Arena and the Historic format. There isn't much to say there as of now, but I enjoyed it.

This past weekend, I participated in the Festival of Friendship, and Old School MTG event put on by the great people at Romancing the Stones. I played a fairly standard DibAtog list and was extremely fortunate in many spots and ended up winning the event! The event raised over $1000 for charity so it was a great success all around (more on that from Stu).

The Deck

The format was going to be Eternal Central rules with no proxies. The RTS community generally plays unlimited proxy Vintage, so I knew the metagame might include more decks either without full power or no power at all. I hadn't played Old School since Mobstercom back in July so I was very excited to play some games. I hadn't been idle thinking about the format though. I worked with Simon Christie behind the scenes on several of his OS ventures in the past few months, but I was ready to do it myself.

I knew that I wanted to play as many restricted cards as possible, and that meant playing something that could use both Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister. If the unpowered meta was skewed towards Hymn to Tourach, these are the best ways to recover from the kinds of starts the black deck can bring. A burn heavy Atog build was appealing, and I began to look at various lists. In the end, I registered this:

4 Serendib Efreet

4 Atog

4 Black Vise

1 Ankh of Mishra

1 Jalum Tome

1 Copy Artifact

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Chain Lightning

1 Earthquake

1 Shatter

2 Psionic Blast

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Timetwister

1 Time Walk

1 Ancestrall Recall

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Chaos Orb

1 Mind Twist

1 Balance

1 Felwar Stone

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Black Lotus

4 Volcanic Island

2 Badlands

4 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

4 City of Brass

1 Tundra

Sideboard

4 Psychic Purge

2 Red Elemental Blast

2 Blue Elemental Blast

1 Shatter

1 Braingeyser

1 Falling Star

1 City in a Bottle

1 Library of Alexandria

2 Chain Lightning

The maindeck is pretty much locked for about 52 of the spots. The artifact threat spots beyond Black Vice can vary from Ankh of Mishra to Copper Tablet and Relic Barrier. Of these, I prefer Ankh, but didn't think it would be stellar in the expected meta. Additionally, I wanted to have more than the minimum 26 mana sources from the lists I had seen, especially in the 4 Strip Mine environment (one of these days I'll finish writing my anti-Strip Mine article). The solution for me was to play 1 Copy Artifact and 1 Fellwar Stone as additional artifacts for Atog that can be also mana sources 27 and 28. What's old is new again, as Copy Artifact kind of works like a Glasspool Mimic or Kazandu Mammoth. 

My experience from Mobstercom also showed me that this deck can flood easily if you don't draw a draw-7 or Ancestral, or if the game isn't over in the first few turns. I included again a pet card Jalum Tome. It was even better this time that before and I think all Atog decks should consider playing one. The Library of Alexandria in the sideboard was something I saw someone else do. The idea is to only bring it in on the draw, and I think it is reasonable to do but maybe a bit too cute. There are still two ways to get back to 7 cards in hand, so maybe its worth playing main. There were definitely situations where I wanted it even on the play game three in certain matchups where I was taking a more controlling roll.

Balance in the main was originally going to be Braingeyser and the Tundra to be an Underground Sea. Simon convinced me last minute to switch to Balance because it was so strong against under-powered decks. I think Balance is worth playing and the cost to the manabase isn't that high. I moved the Braingeyser to the sideboard instead of a Winter Orb. I never cast the Braingeyser despite boarding it in just about every matchup, so I can't say whether or not you want access to it. 

I played 4 Psychic Purge to target Hymn to Tourach decks, but this is probably not necessary at all. I just like to have my sideboards have clear plans even if they are narrow. The City in a Bottle was only in the sideboard because I had acquired one and wanted to play it. It probably hurts me more than my opponents outside of specifically Arabian Aggro matchup, which would be the only time I'd bring it in. I was very excited also to acquire a Falling Star, since Falling Stars is the name for the Houston Old School club. Because I now own one, I actually practiced some flips of both Star and Chaos Orb before the event and can now flip with much more confidence than before.

The Event

I think there were only 18 players in attendance. Five rounds of swiss and then a top 8. 

Round 1 - Joseph Kendall on White Weenie

Joseph is from Oklahoma City and I had met him there just over a year ago at the Grand Prix. I won game one after using Bolt and Chain Lightning on his creatures and then using Jalum Tome to pull ahead late game. Game two I Lotus out a Serendib that is Plowed and I only have one land that gets Stripped. I draw only one more land and die without casting any other spells. Game three I probably mis-sideboarded and draw three Black Vise which do nothing and by the time I find Demonic Tutor for Balance I'm at 4 life and die to a topdecked creature in two turns. If the Vise had been Shatter or Psionic Blast I think I would have stabilized. 

0-1

Round 2 - Stuart Ziarnik on RW Tax Tower

Game one takes an incredibly long time. I was basically never going to win because he had multiple Towers and a full grip for a long time. I was hoping that after he cast Wheel of Fortune he might not have enough lands left to kill me before reshuffling his graveyard with Feldon's Cane. I had to draw my own Wheel or Ancestral and hope he was low enough on library to deck him. He had activated Land Tax a few times and Library of Alexandria many times. Eventually he was down to 8 cards left and digging for the Cane. He found it with 4 cards left in library and I never found my draw spell to kill him anyway so I conceded about 30 minutes in. Game two he draws three Blood Moon but no white source and I do almost the full 20 with a single Atog. Game three he once again draws Blood Moon and I have no answer and he can actually play spells so I lose before running out of time.

0-2

Round 3 - David London on Goblins

I don't remember much about this match. I win in three games, losing once again with a Lotus Serendib one-lander. He didn't draw Blood Moon which was good for me.

1-2

Round 4 - Ian Files on Erhnageddeon

I win game one with a forest-walking Atog. Game two he has no forests and I'm trying to race a Serra plus Erhnam. I make a mistake of holding lands in my hand so when I draw Copy Artifact for my Factory and attack with two Atogs, I can sacrifice everything to put him to 3 life. My hand is Volcanic plus Chain Lightning but I have already used my land drop for the turn. I have to pass and hope he doesn't have a way to gain life, but he Demonic Tutors for Spirit Link and I lose. Game three on the play my hand is Strip Mine, Black Lotus, Mind Twist, Demonic Tutor, Black Vise, Atog, and Psionic Blast. I keep, but can't decide what to do turn one. Eventually I decide I should just Mind Twist for 3. Eventually some more Strip Mines set us both back, and I draw more land first and win. I'm not really sure how it ended.

2-2

Round 5 - Tim Everett on UR CounterBurn

Both games he gets stuck on low mana after I Strip Mine his land and Chaos Orb his Sol Ring. It was over really fast.

3-2

So after the swiss ended, I was in 10th place, once again on tie breakers. I made the joke that I keep missing out on top 8 in the Romancing the Stones events after 9th on breakers here and 10th on breakers here. Maybe the universe was tired of the cruel joke, or maybe my luck changed, but while we were waiting for Stu to announce the top 8, two players ahead of me decided to drop. This put me in 8th place and fighting for the title!

Quarterfinals - Patrick Vincent on Guardian Beast Disco Troll

Game one is the craziest game all day. My opener is Black Lotus, Fellwar Stone, Ancestral Recall, Atog, and a few lands. He goes first however and plays Mox Badlands Demonic Tutor Black Lotus and passed the turn. I lead with Lotus which resolves, but my next play of Fellwar Stone is countered by Mana Drain. I use the floating blue mana to Ancestral Recall and play a Mishra's Factory for the turn. He uses the mana from Drain to play a Mana Vault and then Mind Twist me for 6 cards. I'm left with only an Atog in hand, but I draw a Strip Mine and start attacking with my Factory. He's taking one a turn from the Mana Vault and only has three mana available. I draw another Factory so I can Strip one of his lands and continue attacking. He draws another Mana Vault and uses it to cast Guardian Beast. I draw the blue source I need to Psionic Blast it and then resume attacking with Factories. I draw a Lightning Bolt to finish him off before he can stabilize and untap his Mana Vaults. Beating a turn two Mind Twist for 6 feels incredible! Game two he has a slower start and I have a couple of Moxes and a Timetwister. I don't remember how it ended but he couldn't overcome that explosive start.

4-2 overall

Semifinals - Robert Wilson on three color Hymn deck

Game one we trade resources early and I'm getting some beats in with Factories and an Atog but he drops a Shivan Dragon and I'm about to die. I topdeck Wheel of Fortune and cast it, but he responds with Swords on my Atog. I draw Demonic Tutor and another Atog. I Demonic for Time Walk to cast the Atog and then I need to draw a Bolt or other answer for his Sedge Troll blocker so I can attack with lethal Atog. I don't so I die. Game two I'm a bit faster and burn him out before he can stabilize. Game three I draw three Strip Mine and keep him pretty low on mana, but his Hymn to Tourach when I have four cards in play takes my Timetwister and Mind Twist leaving me with Bolt and Psychic Purge. Eventually he sticks a Sedge Troll and then draws a Maze of Ith to slow my attack. I draw Library of Alexandria and get up to seven in hand but his Troll starts attacking me. I'm at 7 life and he's at 9. My hand is three Pyschic Purge, a Lightning Bolt and a Psionic Blast and thanks to a Black Lotus I can cast it all. I want to wait for him to make a move so I don't end up drawing the game with Blast, but when he casts Lightning Bolt in my end step I discover Psychic Purge is a Sorcery. I now have to live through his turn. He attacks with Sedge Troll and I block with a double pumped Factory after he Disenchants one. He Lightning Bolts me down to 1 life. I draw a blank for my turn but activate Library and draw the fourth Strip Mine. I use it on his Maze and attack with Factory, and he uses Swords to Plowshares to remove it. This gives me the two life cushion I need to burn him out with my spells in the second main phase and I'm on to the finals!

5-2 overall

Finals - Brian Tweedy on The Deck

Hot take: I don't think The Deck is a tier one deck in Old School, at least not in Eternal Central rules. I think there are at least three decks that have highly favorable matchups against The Deck without sacrificing too much power vs the field. Anyway, game one I play a series of threats and he can't answer a Serendib that does about 12 points to him. I also resolve Ankh of Mishra and he takes two from that. I have a few Factories and I draw Balance to force a discard of 3 cards or he must counter it and take 2 from his City of Brass. He lets it resolve and the next turn my Earthquake finishes him off. Game two I have another good start with some Mox and a Wheel of Fortune. He's stuck without White mana for a while and dies to something.

6-2 overall

Winner!

The Rest

It's always great to win a Magic tournament, no matter the stakes or format. This is my first real-ish success in Old School (it helps to play a legit deck). I'm still very much in love with this format and the community around it and I hope to play more in the upcoming year.

Props:

Simon for helping me with the decklist

Stu and the RTS guys for putting on a great event and raising money for charity.

The two people that dropped and let me sneak into top 8

All of my opponents

Everyone in the event

Slops:

None this time