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| Artist's Rendition of the Author preparing for Game Day |
I recently had the distinct pleasure experience of playing in my local FLGS Khans of Tarkir Game Day, and, as I'm wont to do, I brought a decklist that was definitely not meta for the small town of Hilo, Hawaii. Or really much of anything for that matter.
Story Time
The plan to run this deck was birthed with a passing joke when my friend Blankato threw the following decklist at me on
Khans release weekend.
I looked it over, took a sip of whatever magical alcohol Blankato had served that night, and jokingly said that I should run it for Game Day. At the time, I was brewing an Izzet deck that ran
Ornithopter/
Darksteel Citadel/
Ensoul Artifact,
Scuttling Doom Engine, and other shenanigans, like
Shrapnel Blast. The deck wasn't really doing what I wanted it to do, and I had most of the cards that were worth something. It would have been little effort to pick up the cheap rares and commons -- I had just cracked something like 28 Khans of Tarkir packs at the time, and had plenty of commons and most of the rares from that set needed for this deck.
So, I started making my usual secret trade for bad cards thing I do prior to an event, while showing off my ideas for post-rotation
Minotaurs in order to throw off potential snipers and other information gatherers.
As an aside, I seriously hate that when asking/trading for cards over facebook -- almost instantly one's super sekret awesome deck plan is found out and everyone prepares for it. That's why I do most of my random rare trading offline, to give the illusion of spontaneity.
Long, terrible story short, I placed 5th at my FLGS, going 3-1-1 and scrubbing out in the quarter finals. Not bad, considering most times I play Standard Constructed, I usually go 1-3 and wonder why I even bother playing the format (and in fits of cold rage, Magic as a game) at all.
The Deck
Holy crap this thing is hilarious, due to the fact that it's so goddamn fragile, yet if an opponent isn't ready, you can dunk them by turn 6 at the latest. Let's take a peek at a few of the card choices Takahashi Naoya took when putting this list together:
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| One of many sleeper hits for this deck. |
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon is a card I wouldn't normally bat an eyelid over, but after playing it at Game Day, I might actually throw one in my
Sharuum Commander Deck. Being able to gain an impressive 6 life a turn with two of these out, all open land due to convoking Ornithopter shenanigans makes for a hilarious turn of events against aggro. Also, the look on your opponent's face when you drop this turn one makes it worth it.
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| What's your's is mine, what's mine is also mine. |
Daring Thief is just a great card when built properly around. With
Springleaf Drum and useless permanents such as Ensoul Artifacts and
Singing Bell Strikes that are already enchanting stuff, you can use those $15
Courser of Kruphixs that you traded away after the
Born of the Gods Prerelease! On top of that, they don't even have to be yours! Or trade that Ornithopter with their
piece of absurdist bullshit Siege Rhino!
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| Die in a fire, activated abilities. |
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| Chump blocking. That's cute. |
When faced with the hated
Sylvan Caryatid or the annoying
Hornet Nest, you must be able to get around it, and shut it down. Also, locking down their creature that has Singing Bell Strike enchanted to it is great. General
planeswalker neutralization is good too.
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| TeeHee™ |
Not only did I almost single-handedly demolish a dude with my Bident in a game, but being able to draw free cards off my weenies is great. Having them swing with their (bad) blockers is even better.
Observations
Upon playing the deck for a time, I did discover some interesting things about it as well as the format:
- With only 20 land, including 12 islands, the potential for mana screw is rather high. I recall one particluar game against Abzan where I had to literally run off of a Tomb of the Spirit Dragon, a Darksteel Citadel, and Ornithopters/Springleaf Drums in order to cast my colored permanents, most of them promptly removed by the Abzan player. That leaves me to my next point:
- I'm about 90% sure that this deck loses straight up against spot removal.dec. In games against Abzan, Mardu and Jeskai, the player with the removal would merely burn/remove the offending artifact
creature as I attempt to cast Ensoul Artifact upon them. In Abzan and Mardu's case, having access to Utter End (and to an extent, Crackling Doom) makes things like getting rid of Doom Engines much easier. Jeskai has access to blue, which can start counter-wars or other blue shenanigans. Abzan has its charm, which, much like its Rhino, is the "I win" button against your win conditions. End Hostilities also throws huge wrenches into your plans.
- If you can't match the speed of the Rabblemaster, don't even bother. I can understand why he's so sought after in Standard nowadays. If he isn't dealt with (or summarily countered), he will rekt you, since it's likely the Rabblemaster player is clearing the way with removal galore.
- I feel like I need practice with sample hands and mulliganing. There are many times where I feel that I have a good hand that works fine only to be blown out by a single Thoughtseize. Of course, there were times where I didn't know what lands looked like, and other times where I drew 10/12 Islands in the deck.
- Dig Through Time is a great card that I almost want to throw a copy into the deck for more "send help" options. Either that, or Treasure Cruise, because that's also a pretty good card, and it's not like I have ways to return cards from my graveyard back to the field in this format.
- Wingmate Roc is a
dirty totally balanced and fair card. That second ability is fantastic, by the way.
Some Final Thoughts
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| Artist's rendition of the Author 2-1ing people left and right. |
Everything about this deck screams potential value at high risk, and that's what makes it fun. Much like my Minotrolls deck during RTR-THS standard, or even prior to that, the famed StuffyDoll
™ deck from ISD-RTR standard, I go for wacky, silly things that amuse me, although in this case I did netdeck this. I hate netdecking, so I felt particularly dirty playing it. But whatever.
Unfortunately, as with most great plans, I may scrap it due to the ever changing meta. Who knows? Maybe I'll throw in some
Clever Impersonators and
Stubborn Denials in the board to help me out.
