Format is still open - A reflection of Mardu (part 1)

I was watching GP Paris last week and this particular GP brings back a lot of sweet memories and time traveled me all the way back to September 2014. 

September 2014:

My current teammate and good friend from secondary school asked me to consider whether to come back to Standard. I was playing EDH all thanks to him as well. I was in the midst of my honeymoon and he was sharing how he won the Khan of Takir's Gamesday. I was also looking at the Spoilers and 1 card really caught my eyes, yes no longer my wife, it was a card:

Nope, if you think it was the ability that caught my attention, you are wrong! It was the art. Look at the lightning and look at the flavor text, how cool that was: "Do not fear the lightning. Fear the one it obeys." After the art and the text, then the ability hits me, sacrifice a creature with the greatest power. I am like, how could Magic create such cards? I had to admit, the last time I touched Magic was Urza Saga to 7th Ed period, and during those period, gold card with specific targeted ability such as this was pretty rare. I may be wrong or ignorance but this card really blow me away.

So this friend of mine wanted to build me a deck so that when I returned, I would already have a ready deck to play with. I told him, a deck with no blue and green (because my EDH was mono-green), see the link from the card above? Alas, with r/w/b, that give rises to Mardu. From then, it was a path of no return.

Our first version as follows:

Bearing in mind that he was doing all the testing while I am still in Europe enjoying life with my wife. He would report his wins and loses for the day that he tested the deck. No matter how he play, he feels that there is still something missing. He voiced out the lack of aggro plays and the deck being clunky and with that comment, here comes Version 2:

Early 1 drops with Swiftspear and Thoughtseize followed up with Skullhunter for maximum hand disruption. After 10 over testing, and with the honeymoon coming to an end, he told me he had enough of testing, and he left the rest to me.

Early weeks of October 2014:
After I returned (yes, it was a 5 weeks honeymoon), I felt that the top curve gets removed easily and I wanted creatures that are more resilience as Butcher of the Horde gets removed or destroyed easily. Hence, I decided to take out the swiftspears and welcomed Wingmate Roc (Mardu clan creature for the win!) with open arms. I figured I can almost trigger raid with Hordeling Outburst and Wingmate Roc can be sacrificed for Butcher if she ever get targeted. The token she created is of utmost importance to the gameplan, and here goes version 3:

I was winning FNMs with the above decklist, however, the removal feels lacking and Mardu Charm(s) feels inadequate at times, especially when the Meta during those time were Sidisi/Abzan whips.

During the end of third week of October 2014, guess what:

Brad Nelson brought Mardu to GP LA and scored a 6th place with it. I examined the deck list and realised what I am missing out. Aggro main + cheap removals (chained to the rock) + synergistic maneuvers (outburst + sorins, outburst for Butcher's fodder to gain haste, prowess trigger with Seekers, etc.) were of solid gameplan that brought Brad to his top 8.

November to January 2015 (right before Fate Reforged):

With the above, I build my deck around his list and produced some good results. I was satisfied with the list, and a lot of guys was still playing Whips, Heroic and Mono-red. The list which lasted me up til Fate Reforged's season was as follows:

It was a matter of personal preference towards Stoke the Flames, and to me, it was of so much value together with Hordeling outburst!

January 2015 - Fate Reforged's release til Mar 15:
 Well with Fate Reforged's release, it was pretty unfortunate that Mardu get the least upgrade. Partially due to the fact that the ability 'Dash' was a little counter-intuitive towards a tempo-based deck like what I used to have. As far as I would like, I always prefer to maintain board presence rather having it back to my hand. With the limited upgrade to the above list, I guess it was still ok, just that I felt like, almost all the other decks got a huge upgrade. And for me, only 2 cards made entry into my list:

The modes on Valorous Stance are also pretty relevant. Imagine giving Rabblemaster indestructible in the late game to ensure 6 solid damage going through the next turn. As this card is so good, almost all decks that has White (hint hint: Abzan and Jeskai) also has this card. Stance also synergise with Seeker of the way, and heck even making Butcher indestructible feels overwhelming!

 Yes, finally Red gets to have a card that gives it some card advantage!  Outpost Seige puts Mardu into similar league with decks that run Courser of Kruphix. Though seldom used, but there were times where I have 3 goblin tokens in play with opponent at a low life count, I chose Dragons mode to close out the game.

As stated above, with Valorous Stance running around, my 5cmc creature have to be tweaked to be more aggressive and evasive towards white spells. Guess what:

I have removed the Chained to the rocks as Valorous Stance seen as a better removal, imagine when playing against Abzan post sideboard, a Mardu player with chained to the rocks played against a Seige Rhino, just to see the Chained get Erase(d) and trigger Seige Rhino's ETB (enter into battlefield) effect again. So much tempo lost!

All in all, the main theme of the deck was still maintained. The upgrades were awesome and I never feel disappointed with deck. There were 8 4-drops and decisions have to be made with which to drop, the following were my thought-process:

1. Am I on the play or on the draw? If I am on the draw with tempo achieved and opponent is of an aggressive deck, I will play either Sorin or Butcher. If opponent is playing a Control deck, I would most likely play an Outpost Seige.
2. What is my turn 3 drop? If I have casted an Hordeling outburst, I would be inclined to follow up with Sorin or Outpost Seige (as outburst tokens can chump-block if necessary). If I played a Rabblemaster, it is likely I will follow up with a Butcher or Outpost Seige.
3. What is the board state? If opponent did not develop board state, I would play an outpost seige. If there is, depending on the creature size, I may either play Sorin for a token or Butcher.

Of course the above thought process were not exhaustive and conclusive, most of the times, they have to be read together and not in isolation. I mean, this is the fun part of Mardu, so many types of play under different circumstances.

With Dragon of Tarkir, most of the Archetypes have been developed, and fortunately, somewhere, somehow, Mardu is still the deck that is embraced by some of the pro-players out there. For that, I will dedicate the next post on Mardu Dragons. Stay tuned!

Deck Preference : Jeskai Ascendancy Combo

I spent last Saturday at a local game shop for my last PPTQ of the season. My season has been a relatively short experience. I only started last October and was fleetingly unsure as to what I was landing myself in. My first six months of competitive play was fruitful. I haven’t won anything yet – the best I did was second place at a GPT with my Jeskai Ascendancy Combo deck.

I have a habit of brewing three different decks (Combo, Control and Aggro) and the frequency of game exposure is dependable on how I ranked my favorites. And since it was the last Standard PPTQ of my season I decided to play Esper Control instead of my usual favorite.

It was horrific.

Not because I dropped out of the competition with a 1-2 record, but because each match lasted an average 20 to 25 minutes. I won my last game in the nick of time, just after the judge called for the last five turns, and that was only two matches played. (I won 2-0 that particular round). What if that game was tied at 1-1? It would have been a draw game after 50 minutes of mind-grinding.

My friend who was also in the competition, told me that’s what I deserved for playing a control-based deck. Sometimes it’s either you have no time to win, or you find yourself losing after playing for an hour. ”You should have played your combo deck. What was previously a win away from Top-8 became a win away from the bottom,” he said.

My friend was right. It just wasn’t my style to drag play, and hence my decision to end my PPTQ early. It was a six-round swiss format and I didn’t want to grind for another 3 hours playing control.

Yes. I was seriously bored playing my own deck and that is not a good sign. It was a bad decision to play something I’m so out of touch with.

I practically took a stranger to a tournament and blew my own chances.

There are times when you go on a date and realized things are not quite right and you just felt that you are wasting your partner’s time as well as your own. You might want to leave right away and not waste anybody else’s time. I didn’t do my research well enough and realized I would be much happier playing my preferred deck even if I had to lose eventually.

Deck preferences. 

It took me nearly two months of deck testing before I finally brewed my own variant of the combo. It wasn’t an easy deck to play against all the odds. People have solutions all over, and the only way I figured out to play this deck as efficiently as possible, was to replicate what card draws was to Storm decks in Modern, with the inclusion of some excellent top-decking luck.

This was Pro player Lee Shi Tian’s version which made its way to Top 4 of the Manila GP 2015:

How this deck gets to win is simple. With a Jeskai Ascendancy and a mana dork in play, a Retraction Helix would enable your mana dork to bounce either the Astral Cornucopia or Briber’s Purse back to your hand. You recast the X=0 spell again to untap your mana source which triggers the Ascendancy and you get an infinite loop to either buff up your creatures to swing for lethal or find yourself an Altar of the Brood for infinite mill.

My luck dries up whenever it comes to Commune with the Gods because I tend to mill my Retraction Helices into the graveyard, along with Altar of the Brood and Briber’s Purses. 

And so I decided to make some changes:

Since I’ve been getting played out by the bloody Communes on a regular basis, Taigam’s Scheming becomes an inevitable choice for me. It is not card advantage at first instance, but it manipulates your next five draw steps and does the filtering anyway.  The slots for Briber’s Purse and Altar of the Brood has been increased for consistency. There is now three times more of a chance that I would get these cards into my opening hand. 

I replaced Tormenting Voices, a single Voyaging Satyr and Rattleclaw Mystic with Defiant Strikes and Anticipates. The one-casting cost Defiant Strike has been crucial in my build-up.  There was this scenario where this card was particularly impressive.

It was turn three. My opponent had just tapped himself out for a Courser of Kruphix and this was a golden window for me. I had three lands tapped out for Ascendancy with an untapped Sylvan Caryatid in play. I had a pair of Defiant Strikes, one Dragon Mantle and two lands in hand.

I proceeded to trigger the Ascendancy with a string of Defiant Strikes and Dragon Mantles, generating six to seven loops and a Dig Through Time to get all my combo pieces for a third turn win. That is at least 18 cards off the top of my library in a single turn. That play would hardly be possible if I had two Tormenting Voices. Perhaps I got lucky that game, but winning a game is also about setting yourself up when you are reliant on luck to get the right draws.

The variant also features a transformative sideboard that enables the combo to convert into a control deck. The underplayed Ojutai’s Command is able to hold off Dragonlords during midgame, null Stoke the Flames and also reanimate your Caryatids at end of turn after a boardwipe by your opponent. Reprisals are cheap removal spells to get the bigger threats out of the way, while Seismic Rupture and Anger of Gods deal with the weenies.

Narset Transcendent is a surprise inclusion during sideboard testing. When the game is running in Control mode, Narset’s first ability helps the extra draws into combo pieces. And if there is an 8/8 dragonlord staring down at you, you could also cast your one and only Retraction Helix to bounce the attack and activate the second ability of Narset to rebound the Helix for the next turn and hopefully combo off with a free trigger on Ascendancy. The final ability of Narset is almost the best protection in the format for the combo.

The Jeskai Ascendancy Combo is not broken yet, but it’s the only deck at the moment that doesn’t bore me to death.

Standard: Meta in a flux - To be decided right this weekend!

As I am writing this post, I have the RPTQ Melbourne showing right in front of me. It was round 5, and 2 Atarka Red blazing the field with each other.

2 newest additions to what used to be known as Mono Red and literally transform it to a more resilient Atarka Red. Atarka's Command provided a 2 for 1 trade with all opponents, a 2 cmc burn similar to that of a Lightning Strike and a +1/+1 pump. The Command also allow the user's creatures to gain Reach which is invaluable in this format of Dragons. With DTK, Boss Sligh in this current standard no longer become a 'cast all gas and pray for the best' deck. It becomes a more strategic deck:

1. How much do I commit?
2. Do i Dash my Zurgo?
3. When do I cast Atarka's Command to gain maximum value
4. How will my plays be, matching up against Control, Mid-range, Aggro, Mirror

A one-of Become Immense allows any 'no-block' from opponent to become extremely dangerous. The delve also give cards like Lightning strike, Hordeling Outburst and Dragon Fodder to add extra value.

Of course, the match ends with the player who brings in Stoke the flame to get extra value from the tokens created.

On the other side of the field, making its presence from GP Krakow - Esper Dragons:

Before DTK, UB control is a force to be reckon with , with the addition of dragons such as Dragonlord Ojutai, coupled with 'hard counter' - Silumgar's scorn, the power level of the deck has just increased to a stage where the lower curve control becomes more efficient and effective, the upper curve's win condition (win-con) provides better value, other than winning.

During KTK, when Crackling doom first spoiled, it was termed as one of the best removal in the format. However, due to its challenging casting cost, unless you are into 'Mardu' (r/w/b) colours, it is almost never see play. Now, with Foul-Tongue Invocation, any hexproof/indestructible creature becomes a viable target. Also, the gain life function allows UB control to 'time-walk' any Boss Sligh decks that normally deals up to 3/4 damage by turn 2.

Interestingly is the splash of white to add Dragonlord Ojutai, referring to the decklist below:

Esper Dragons by Alexander Hayne Winner
Planeswalker 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon Creature 3 Dragonlord Ojutai 2 Silumgar, the Drifting Death Sorcery 2 Thoughtseize 2 Crux of Fate Instant 3 Anticipate 1 Disdainful Stroke 4 Silumgar's Scorn 2 Bile Blight 2 Ultimate Price 3 Hero's Downfall 2 Foul-Tongue Invocation 2 Dissolve 4 Dig Through Time	Land 2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon 4 Temple of Enlightenment 4 Temple of Deceit 4 Polluted Delta 4 Dismal Backwater 1 Flooded Strand 3 Island 2 Swamp 2 Caves of Koilos 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Sideboard: 2 Thoughtseize 2 Bile Blight 1 Ultimate Price 1 Foul-Tongue Invocation 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang 1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver 2 Dragonlord's Prerogative 2 Drown in Sorrow 2 Dragonlord Silumgar

From above, it can be seen that Dragonlord Ojutai (DL O) joins the rest of the team of 'win-con'. What role does DL O plays in a deck like this?

1. Roadblock, like literally dropping a DL O and not tapping which allows it to have hexproof can put all aggro deck to a halt
2. Constant 'anticipation', with each hit, it allows the caster to dig deeper into the deck for answer to maintain board state
3. Synergise with Foul Tongue and Silumgar Scorn
4. Able to recur with the help of Haven of the Spirit Dragon

Superficially with the above 4 reasons, it is already strong enough reasons to splash for DL O. Not to overlook is Haven of the Spirit Dragon (HotSD). In the past, UB control match ups with Abzan variants tends to drag and grind because the Control decks tend to wait to a point where they can cast Ugin with counter back ups due to Hero's downfall. Now, Esper Dragons can go ahead and tapped out for Ugin due to HotSD. Now, this point can never be overlooked. In competitively plays, the pity to all Control decks is the 50 minutes time limit and because of that, most of their matches end up in a Draw. Speeding up the casting of win-cons without much backlash allows a more aggressive plays and hence more wins!

Well, at this moment, I just finished a match ending up in Intentional Draw (ID) between Abzan Aggro and Atarka Red. Looking forward to the SCG Cleveland and hope to bring all of you the latest updates and plays from it!

Cheers, MT out.