I recently played in the Romancing the Stones Fall Semester Middle School League. I went 3-3 with Naya Zoo and finished in 15th place.
The Deck
4 Savannah Lions
4 Jungle Lion
1 Grim lavamancer
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Legionnaire
1 Granger Guildmage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Rancor
2 Cursed Scroll
3 Wax / Wane
1 Armadillo Cloak
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Karplusan Forest
2 Brushland
3 Rith's Grove
3 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
1 Thran Quarry
1 Undiscovered Paradise
Sideboard
3 Seal of Cleansing
2 Pyroblast
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Phyrexian Furnace
3 Winter Orb
2 Simoon
1 Armadillo Cloak
I wanted to play a few cards that are only legal (or good) in Middle School: Jungle Lion and Goblin Legionnaire. I even tried to play Kird Ape. It is possible to build the manabase to support Ape with eight fetches and two Forests. However, basic Forest is not good. Basic Plains and basic Mountain are not good either, and the deck failed to cast two spells in a turn quite frequently. So I scrapped the Apes for a better mana base, once again playing zero basic land.
The creature suite is solid. I don't know if Legionnaire is great, but it certainly wasn't bad. I considered playing a couple of Anurid Brushhopper but decided against in order to keep the curve low. Lavamancer is just fine without a lot of ways to fuel the graveyard. I could see Guildmage being the better choice and would play a second and third Guildmage before adding the second Lavamancer. Rancor sort of counts as a creature in this deck. I don't think you need four copies when you have Jungle Lion to up the power of your one drops. It can be clunky sometimes to play out and trample was not that relevant. I would play three copies or fewer going forward.
The only spells you have to play are Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares. I think Wax / Wane does enough in the format that I would also want at least three copies, but the Wax side is a bit underwhelming. It does shore up lots of matchups against Oath, Survival, Necropotence, Humility, and Deed. Scroll is kind of slow and the mana base doesn't support it that well. Drawing Gemstone Mine or Undiscovered Paradise or Rith's Grove can make it hard to utilize. It could be just a sideboard card. The other options for spells would be to play Seal of Fire or another burn spell, or to mainv deck some copies of Winter Orb. After playing the league, I think I would try to play two or three Orbs in the main and go up to the full four Rith's Grove to supplement it. When everything in the deck costs one mana Orb will be asymmetrical against most other decks even when it isn't shutting them down completely. The Armadillo Cloak was about as good as expected, which is to say I expected it to be not that great. I only played it for the style points.
I really liked the sideboard I played except for Simoon, but other options to include if you shift Orbs to the main deck would be Absolut Law, more Cursed Scroll or Lavamancer type cards, or some more resilient threats like Anurid Brushhopper or Call of the Herd.
There are four and five color versions of this archetype popular in Premodern that play Carnophage and Sarcomancy along with Duress. They are usually base Jund colors or Mardu. The mana base isn't that much worse for them since they replace the pain ands with more City of Brass and that means you take about the same amount of damage. Damage from your own lands is the biggest drawback to this archetype.
I considered a straight Red Green approach that would utilize Kird Ape and Skyshroud Elite to replace Savannah Lions and Goblin Legionnaire along with more burn spells. Giving up the Lions is not that big of a deal, but not having Swords to Plowshares, Wax / Wane, and Seal of Cleansing is a big deal. The mana base would be a lot better at not doing damage to yourself.
The Games
Round 1 vs Jake Baltz on Urzatron Time Spiral Time Stretch deck
Game one he mulligan to five on the draw and I have Lion Lion Pup so he's facing 6 power before he can even play a spell. He plays two islands and Mana leak on my Legionnaire but then concedes when no third land. Game two he has Force of Will for my turn one Lion and Syncopate for turn two Legionnaire. I have two Savannah Lion turn three and then land Winter Orb. He takes two turns to get mana back online and tries for Chromatic Sphere plus Fire to kill my creatures but I save one with Wax. I draw another Pup off the top and another Wax to kill him the turn before he has enough mana for time Spiral.
1-0
Round 2 vs Phillip Collier on White Weenie
Game one I have enough Bolts and Swords to eliminate his problem creatures (Paladin and Mother and Silver Knight) and he only has shadow guys that don't win the race. Game two he stuck on one land and forced to block with Mother of Runes to prevent damage from my Rancored Lion but I have Wax to make it huge blowout and by the time he finds Tithe and more lands he's dead.
2-0
Round 3 vs Lorien Elleman on Bubblick Muck Tendrils Necropotence
This match was streamed here. Game one I have two Cats and Rancor and he never really recovers. Game two he kills my first two guys and has Necro plus Zuran Orb and I flood out. Game three I lead Pup he has Carnophage, I decide to use Wax to trade instead of letting my guy die with Rancor. I follow up with second Pup, but he has Cabal Ritual into Priest into Engineered Plague on Jackal and I'm blown out. The rancor I'm left with doesn't answer Necro and I lose shortly after.
2-1
Round 4 vs Robert Wilson on CounterRebels
Game one goes very long as I get two Cursed Scroll active. My sixth land is Undiscovered Paradise so its tough for me to activate both each turn though. I kill a Lin Sivvi and a Sky Marshall but then he sticks Standstill and starts attacking with Conclave once my hand is a bit more full. I have four cards, two are Rancor and I miss like four Scroll activations at 50% before I'm forced to break Standstill. He wins from there. Game two I have enough pressure and removal and he gets too far behind so I easily win. Game three I kill his first Mother and Rebel, he has Disenchant for my Cursed Scroll though. I have Lion with Cloak to try to race his Thermal Glider but I end up drawing 8 land and 8 spells flood out while he kills me with Glider and Factories.
2-2
Round 5 vs Dustin Ransom on Blue Storm
Game one I keep hand with Wax/Wane thinking he's on Stasis like he's played every other league but he plays turn two Helm and then kills me on turn five when my clock wasn't fast enough. Game two I have two Legionarre and Seal for his first Medallion. I have no green mana so my clock is a bit slow. He has second Helm and I bolt him to 9. I draw City for Rancor attack for 6 he's at 3. I can activate both Legionnaires to kill but I also have Pyroblast in hand and only two red sources so I tank a bit. In the end I decide letting him untap on his turn is too risky so I go for it and he can't kill at instant speed. Game three he mulligan to five and I keep Lion Lion Rancor Seal Brushland two red cards on the draw. I never draw a second land but he never finds third land and I win with just 2/1 beats somehow.
3-2
Round 6 vs Keith Sweeney on Black Aggro
Game one I'm looking good with double Rancor to get him down to five life but he gets Cursed Scroll online and I'm forced to top deck mode. Because of his Sarcomancy doing damage each turn, I have four turns to draw any of Mogg Fanatic, Goblin Legionnaire, Lightning Bolt, or Cursed Scroll but I don't and he attacks for lethal while he's at 1. Game two I have Lion plus Rancor off of Undiscovered Paradise so my development a bit slow. All he has is the one Sphere of Resistance he left in but Wasteland and Hymn make it so I can't play any of the three Legionnaire in my hand. I kill his Factory but he has Slayer to start chipping away. Eventually I get him to 3 life with Legionnaires before his Scroll takes over and I fail to find the Lightning Bolt to win.
3-3
Lessons Learned
All three of my losses ended up making the top eight, and they all felt close enough that with better draws or slightly better build I could have been there instead. In several games against Necropotence and Rebels I really wanted to draw Winter Orb after sideboard and never did. I think going forward I would try to play Winter Orb main deck in some quantity. I also think playing fewer Rancor is fine as I routinely had multiple in my hand without anything to put them on. Cursed Scroll was a tough card to beat, but maybe the best answer is more Scrolls of my own, but this is would not work with Winter Orb.
This was probably the deck that surprised me the most from how good I expected it to be compared to how well it performed. I would definitely consider playing this again if I felt the metagame was right.
Props:
Once again, Middle School format for letting you play with sweet Portal cards
Once again, Romancing the Stones crew for running these great events
MasaH for finally winning one of these leagues
Slops:
Once again, formats where you can't play sweet Portal cards like Jungle Lion
Cursed Scroll for missing my coin flips.
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