Longtime MTGO grinders know that there are packs to be won in Block Constructed. The format is relatively small, has a lower entry point on price than Standard, and rewards many of the same skills – particularly combat mathematics – as the Limited formats we tend to think of when playing online. Personally, I’ve been playing a ton of Block Constructed since the release of Innistrad and I’m loving the format. Even in single-set ISD constructed, there were five or six distinct archetypes, including:
- UGb Mill Yourself
- R/W Aggro
- Jund Control
- Burning Vengeance
- U/R Tempo
With only a single large expansion’s worth of cards to choose from, players had constructed a fairly diverse metagame with many strategic possibilities. I can recall Standard and Extended metagames with half as much variety as this block format.
Something’s changed with the release of Dark Ascension, though. Looking at the results of recent ISD dailies, it’s quite clear that there is only one strategy left in today’s Block Constructed environment:
There are two or three distinct sub-archetypes within the general umbrella of token-based midrange decks, but the most popular one by far plays Black, White, and Green spells. This colour combination affords players several key benefits:
- Potential access to all of the format’s Planeswalkers
- Full usage of [card]Lingering Souls[/card], one of the most powerful cards in the environment;
- Powerful, synergistic “spell lands” in the form of [card]Gavony Township[/card] and [card]Vault of the Archangel[/card]
- Black’s potent removal spells, particularly [card]Sever the Bloodline[/card] and [card]Tragic Slip[/card].
It’s clear that Wizards wanted to push tokens with Dark Ascension, and there’s no doubt that they’ve succeeded. Baseline versions of Block Constructed token decks contain somewhere in the neighbourhood of twenty individual cards that either a) create 2 creatures for a single card – such as [card]Midnight Haunting[/card], [card]Gather the Townsfolk[/card], and [card]Lingering Souls[/card] – or b) supply a steady stream of tokens over the course of many turns, specifically [card]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/card] and [card]Garruk Relentless[/card]. Combined with plentiful power boosting effects – [card]Intangible Virtue[/card], [card]Gavony Township[/card] and the aforementioned [card]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/card] – these cheap creatures can quickly overwhelm an opponent.
I’ve been trying for days to brew something that can battle through this token menace. I’ve tried updating self-mill strategies to include [card]Ghoultree[/card] and [card]Tracker’s Instincts[/card] (similar to the Standard deck that Brian Kibler featured in a few of his live streams). I’ve tried improving [card]Burning Vengeance[/card] by adding [card]Faithless Looting[/card] and playing around with some new cards from Dark Ascension. I’ve tried Jund Control with 4 maindeck [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] and 4 [card]Blasphemous Act[/card].
Nothing has worked. So if I can’t beat ’em, I guess I’ll join ’em.
So what does the consensus deck in this archetype look like? To find out, I decided I’d look at the most recent ISD dailies and tabulate all cards in the first ten versions of the deck that I found. Armed with that data, I determined the average number of each card in each deck. After that, I rounded off the results to the nearest whole number and arrived at the following list:
[deck title=Statistically-Generated BWg Tokens]
[Lands]
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Isolated Chapel
6 Plains
3 Swamp
2 Vault of the Archangel
4 Woodland Cemetery
1 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Shimmering Grotto
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
1 Geist-Honored Monk
1 Mentor of the Meek
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
1 Ray of Revelation
4 Sever the Bloodline
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Tragic Slip
4 Garruk Relentless
1 Dead Weight
[/Spells][/deck]
The first thing I noticed was that – thanks to rounding – we have 61 cards. Clear outliers are the singletons: [card]Geist-Honored Monk[/card], [card]Mentor of the Meek[/card], [card]Ray of Revelatio[/card]n and [card]Dead Weight[/card]. In this case, I’m going to cut [card]Dead Weight[/card], since only 3 out of my 10 sample lists played any copies at all. Using the same logic we can cut the [card]Mentor of the Meek[/card] and add a [card]Geist-Honored Monk[/card] since only 3 in 10 decks played any copies of Mentor, while 7 out of 10 decks played between one and three copies of the Monk. Six out of 10 lists had at least one [card]Ray of Revelation[/card] in the main deck, and I think it’s a justifiable inclusion considering that the metagame is chock-full of good targets for it.
Unfortunately, this method of analysis doesn’t work as well with sideboards (since they are prone to containing many singletons, and tend to vary wildly from deck to deck). That being said, there are some clear trends we can discover upon inspection.
First, every single version of the deck played at least one [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] in the sideboard, with the average being 2.8 copies. Considering that the frequency of mirror matches is quite high, it seems fair to assume that 3 copies of the Curse should be considered mandatory inclusions in the sideboard. Since the statistically average version of the deck is playing so many enchantments, it should come as no surprise that the second most-played sideboard card in this sample was [card]Ray of Revelation[/card], clocking in at an average of 2.7 copies. With [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] and [card]Intangible Virtue[/card] being crucial cards in the mirror match, including the maximum number of [card]Ray of Revelation[/card] between the maindeck and sideboard seems reasonable, so we’ll assume 3 copies is the correct number.
[card]Sudden Disappearance[/card] – which is an extremely potent one-sided [card]Wrath of God[/card] in the mirror match – was the third most popular inclusion at an average of 1.6 copies. It’s fair to say that the spell has serious game-ending potential here and likely warrants inclusion. Behind [card]Sudden Disappearance[/card], [card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card] appeared 1.5 times per deck on average. The Cage is almost certainly meant to punish players who are still trying self-mill and [card]Burning Vengeance[/card] strategies, and as such, is probably worth 2 slots.
The last five sideboard cards are less clear-cut than the rest. The following list includes all of the remaining cards from our sample that averaged out to less than 1.5 copies per deck, in descending order of frequency:
[card]Tribute to Hunger[/card]
[card]Witchbane Orb[/card]
[card]Fiend Hunter[/card]
[card]Dead Weight[/card]
[card]Liliana of the Veil[/card]
[card]Mentor of the Meek[/card]
[card]Victim of Night[/card]
[card]Tragic Slip[/card]
[card]Increasing Devotion[/card]
[card]Bloodgift Demon[/card]
[card]Naturalize[/card]
Note that this list is not exhaustive. Thanks to rounding – again – there are several cards that originally appeared here which our adjusted maindeck already starts four of.
Since we already have eight cards dedicated to the mirror match, it makes sense at this stage to focus our attention on what remains of the metagame. [card]Tribute to Hunger[/card] is very good at killing large, solitary creatures. I’m not sure that there’s a particular threat people were most concerned about when they chose to include this card, but it’s likely very good against [card]Ghoultree[/card] and [card]Splinterfright[/card]. [card]Witchbane Orb[/card] is strong against [card]Burning Vengeance[/card] and RW Tokens, with the added benefit of being meaningful against Jund Control (by shutting off [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card]’s ultimate ability, thwarting Curse of Death’s Hold, and stopping them from burning you out with [card]Devil’s Play[/card]). [card]Fiend Hunter[/card] is a decent removal spell, but I’m not sure it’s better than – for instance – the 4th [card]Tragic Slip[/card].
The rest of these cards are sort of confusing. [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] is pretty poorly positioned right now. [card]Bloodgift Demon[/card] is weird but interesting as a one-of, although I’m not sure it’s particularly exciting in a format where every removal spell that sees play can just kill it. The card that I like most in the second half of this list is definitely [card]Increasing Devotion[/card], which puts 10 or more power worth of creatures into play when paired with [card]Intangible Virtue[/card] or another anthem effect.
With those adjustments, the baseline version of ISD Tokens looks something like this:
[deck title=BWg Tokens]
[Lands]
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Isolated Chapel
6 Plains
3 Swamp
2 Vault of the Archangel
4 Woodland Cemetery
1 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Shimmering Grotto
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
2 Geist-Honored Monk
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
1 Ray of Revelation
4 Sever the Bloodline
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Tragic Slip
4 Garruk Relentless
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
3 Ray of Revelation
3 Curse of Death’s Hold
2 Sudden Disappearance
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Witchbane Orb
2 Tribute to Hunger
1 Increasing Devotion
[/Spells][/deck]
So the numbers have been crunched, and it’s time to put the results to the test. Exactly how much mileage can I get out of this deck? Is it worth doing crazy things like putting [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] into the maindeck en masse to get the jump on the mirror? I won’t know until I’ve tested things out, so let’s jump into some queues and see what’s what.
Match #1 – RW Humans
Game one is sort of disappointing, as I am stuck on lands for several turns, making awkward blocks with tokens against two rather large [card]Champion of the Parish[/card]. I am unable to find an answer to [card]Mentor of the Meek[/card], and eventually get burned out by a [card]Devil’s Play[/card] for 5. Game two sees me get stuck on three lands again, but I manage to battle back to what looks like an even board state. Unfortunately, my opponent was sandbagging an [card]Urgent Exorcism[/card] for my [card]Intangible Virtue[/card], putting me on the wrong end of a very ugly 2-for-1 and ending the game in short order.
0-1
Match #2 – RW Tokens
This match is much closer, but I still lose. In game 1, I come up short on lands again (which has to be anomalous, considering the fact that there are 27 of them in the deck) and die to a [card]Brimstone Volley[/card]. In game 2, I play a turn 4 [card]Witchbane Orb[/card] and grind the game to a halt. Evidently his hand is chock-full of burn, as he starts throwing away spells on 1/1 Human tokens just to get some value out of his cards. Eventually I get ahead on life, stick a Garruk and coast to victory. In game three, I am feeling pretty good about my position until his turn 5 [card]Hellrider[/card] knocks the stuffing out of me. Still, my opponent almost blunders by attacking with the Devil as well as his tokens, but thinks better of it and denies me the opportunity to trade. He Hell-rides me for exactsies on the following turn, and that’s that.
0-2
Incidentally, [card]Hellrider[/card] is pretty much impossible to race. I suspect this matchup may not be very good, since I’m missing a decent way to kill one before they get an attack step with it. [card]Victim of Night[/card] is the only reasonable card for the job that I can think of, but its inclusion in BWg would require an adjustment of the manabase, since BB is a little bit tough to come by sometimes.
Match # 3 – RWb Humans/Tokens
Instead of racing, I elect to force trades at every opportunity hoping to keep my life total as high as possible. X-spells tend to screw that math up, though, as I swallow a rather large [card]Devil’s Play[/card] in the middle turns of the game and die. In game two, I have the better hand, and win with [card]Gavony Township[/card] pumping five Spirit tokens for lethal damage in the air. In game three, I mulligan to 5 on the draw, and keep a hand with double [card]Intangible Virtue[/card], [card]Lingering Souls[/card], and two lands. My opponent has a slightly sluggish start, leading out on turn two [card]Gather the Townsfolk[/card], with a [card]Brimstone Volley[/card] for one of my [card]Lingering Souls[/card] tokens at the end of my third turn. He untaps and plays [card]Hellrider[/card], swinging into me for 7 as I block one of his 1/1s with my remaining Spirit.
Here, I realize I’ve made a mistake: I had drawn [card]Midnight Haunting[/card] on my second turn, and elected to hold it in favor of playing [card]Lingering Souls[/card] as quickly as possible so I could flash it back and play the second Virtue on my fourth turn. What I should have done was play my third land and pass. That way, if my opponent plays [card]Hellrider[/card] and swings, I can flash in a pair of 2/2s and double block the Devil, taking 4 instead of 7 and killing Mr. [card]Fireball[/card]-on-Legs. I would have been left with a 2/2 Spirit, with [card]Lingering Souls[/card] bringing in two more Spirits on my following turn, and two more the turn after that. If he doesn’t have [card]Hellrider[/card], he still gets to kill a token, but he can only get in for 1 if he wants to waste one of his own guys. A valuable lesson learned, but the mistake definitely costs me the match as my opponent whittles me down with [card]Hellrider[/card] and random dorks, finishing me with a [card]Brimstone Volley[/card] for three the turn after I finally find a Garruk to kill his Devil.
0-3
Match #4 – RWb Humans/Tokens
This is going to sound weak, but my opponent doesn’t draw [card]Hellrider[/card], so I win. That was the whole match. That being said, I kind of think I would have won either game even if he’d found a [card]Hellrider[/card]. Trading early and often seems to be more correct than racing in this contest. Maybe I’ve finally figured it out?
Incidentally, I haven’t so much as seen [card]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/card] up to this point. I honestly have no idea if the card is even good!
1-3
Match #5 – Mirror
Finally a mirror match. In game 1, I mulligan to 5 on the play, stall on 2 lands, and lose. I board in about 9 cards – which I now think is too many – and win easily thanks to double [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card]. Game 3 I have kind of a slow draw with turn 3 [card]Lingering Souls[/card], Turn 4 Sorin. My opponent plays his 5th land, casts [card]Garruk Relentless[/card], kills one of my Spirit tokens, and concedes. I am puzzled, but he probably wasn’t winning this one unless he had a Curse of his own next turn, since I had another Sorin and a Garruk left in hand. I suppose it’s safe to assume he didn’t?
Happily, Sorin is actually the business, so I’ve no cause for concern on that front.
2-3
As we all know, there’s more to winning at Magic than playing a strong deck, and I think I’ve proven that here today. My unfamiliarity with the deck – coupled with at least one major error on my part – certainly contributed to my losing record in the queues.The real value of this exercise, in my opinion, is the process of generating an “average” decklist, representative of the typical card choices made by the deckbuilders who are working on the format right now. With this information, we can either tune the deck to beat itself or develop other strategies that seek to capitalize on the weaknesses found in this one.
I am quite happy with the results of this experiment, and I think there’s value to be had in this aggregate approach to deck analysis. Expect me to revisit this theme in the future, but in the meantime, I’d really like some feedback on this deck’s sideboard. I’m certain I’m devoting too many slots to the mirror, and would like some help correcting this problem. Sound off in the comments with your suggestions!
Until next time,
Craig Cameron-Weir
@crlachlan on the Twitter-machine
EXTRA BONUS CONTENT
After skidding three straight matches to some form of Hellrider.dec, I decided I’d quickly apply the same analytical model to that archetype, and hopefully get some idea of exactly what I was dealing with. Unfortunately, there are two pretty distinct base-Boros token decks out there right now, so it’s difficult to get a strong read on the matchup this way. That being said, here is the baseline maindeck of the straight Red/White version, which focuses slightly less on tokens and more on Human tribal synergy. The RWb version (featured prominently in matches two and three, above) has slightly worse mana, fewer “real” creatures, starts [card]Intangible Virtue[/card], and has access to [card]Lingering Souls[/card] and one or two copies of [card]Vault of the Archangel[/card]. Keep in mind that I haven’t adjusted any values in this list, and a few of the numbers are legitimately weird-looking as a result.
[Deck title=Hellrider Humans]
[Lands]
4 Clifftop Retreat
8 Mountain
12 Plains
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Fiend Hunter
2 Geist-Honored Monk
4 Hellrider
1 Instigator Gang
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Brimstone Volley
3 Devil’s Play
4 Gather the Townsfolk
1 Geistflame
4 Midnight Haunting
1 Rally the Peasants
[/Spells][/Deck]