Uncategorized

Constructive Criticism: Standard and Extended Tech

image from www.wizards.com

by Noah Long

Hey everyone, it’s Noah Long here. I see that everyone enjoyed my last article so I decided to write once a week for Manadeprived.com. The website has allowed me to write every Monday which I’m very excited about and my article will be titled: “Constructive Criticism with Noah Long”. I’ll be mainly writing about various Constructed formats as I am very active in them all including Vintage. I will also be including tournament reports and updates of decks that I have written about in past articles.

To start off, here’s my newest update to my Standard deck from Nationals:

Titan Force: a potential Standard deck by Noah Long

4 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
3 Garruk, the Wildspeaker

4 Primeval Titan
2 Frost Titan

4 Destructive Force
4 Mana Leak
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Into the Roil
1 Jace’s Ingenuity
3 Rampant Growth
3 Everflowing Chalice
3 Cultivate

4 Raging Ravine
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Halimar Depths
2 Khalni Garden
4 Forest
4 Island
3 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Negate
3 Flashfreeze
1 Jace’s Ingenuity
4 Obstinate Baloth
3 Earthquake

After reading PVDdR’s comments about my list on Channelfireball.com, I absolutely agree with the addition of Frost Titan to the main deck. It adds another threat, it adds much needed help vs. other Titans and Knight of the Reliquary and it also is another must counter vs. UW Control. To make the room I cut the last main deck Flashfreeze and 1 Into the Roil. I moved the Flashfreeze to the sideboard due to the number of wins by the UW decks and their probable rise in popularity especially by better players. I also cut a Jace’s Ingenuity and another Into the Roil to add the 3rd Cultivate and the 3rd Lightning Bolt to the deck. With 2 more 6 drops and less main deck counter magic, I wanted 1 more accelerator and the best card against Goblin Guide and a resolved Jace, the Mind Sculpter. I hope this works out for you all!

Unfortunately I won’t be attending PT Amsterdam due to work obligations… SOOO WEAK!!! In the mean time, I thought I’d share a couple of my potential TPS Extended deck lists with you guys for the PT.

To start off, I wanted to state that Faeries won’t win this PT. It’s a very good deck but I think the Grove of the Burnwillows/Punishing Fire combo will be too hard for Faeries to fight through. Enough about predictions, let’s get to the deck lists!

First off I’d like to introduce the 5CC deck I’ve been testing on MODO for a while now:

5CC: a potential Extended deck by Noah Long

4 Wall of Omens
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Cloudthresher

2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
2 Cruel Ultimatum

4 Cryptic Command
4 Mana Leak
4 Esper Charm
2 Mystical Teachings
3 Path to Exile
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Pact of Negation

4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Meadow
3 Vivid Marsh
3 Island
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Sunken Ruins
2 Mystic Gate
2 Flooded Grove
1 Cascade Bluffs

Sideboard:
4 Great Sable Stag
3 Negate
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Cloudthresher
1 Jund Charm
1 Krosan Grip
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Wrath of God
1 Damnation

As you can see, this deck is a hybrid of almost every control deck since TPS Standard. It has Teferi with a Teachings package, the 5CC mana base with Cruel Ultimatum, Jace, the Mind Sculpter which is protected nicely by 4 Walls and 3 Finks and the best counter magic in the format.

I chose to go with Kitchen Finks over Plumeveil mainly because the deck doesn’t have a lot of win conditions. They’re both very strong against Aggro but Plumeveil is much weaker against other strategies. Plus, it clears up SB space since the Finks are now main deck.

All in all this deck has potentially all the answers due to running 5 colors and would be something very close to what I would have played at the PT. “Draw Go” has always been my favorite archetype since I started and this fits into that category quite nicely. I know, I know, Faeries is also a “Draw Go” deck but it gets hated out too easily for my liking.

Another deck that has been on my radar as well as everyone else’s is Jund. The only difference is that most other lists I’ve seen do not incorporate Vengevine.

Vengevine Jund: a potential Extended deck by Noah Long

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Putrid Leach
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Vengevine
2 Shriekmaw

4 Lightning Bolt
3 Punishing Fire
4 Blightning
2 Maelstrom Pulse

4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Verdant Cataombs
3 Twilight Mire
2 Treetop Village
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Thoughtseize
4 Jund Charm
4 Great Sable Stag
2 Shriekmaw
1 Maelstrom Pulse

Vengevine, in my opinion, is a perfect fit for this deck. The decks creature density keeps it consistently coming back and the fact that it’s very aggressive by itself allows the deck to stay focused. The only reason why I wouldn’t play this deck at the PT is that the Cascade match ups (Living End/Restore Balance) are very difficult, even after sideboarding.

If you do not expect to see a lot of Living End or Restore Balance decks in Amsterdam then I would play these 75 cards, even over the 5CC list.

The last deck I’d like to talk about is a Restore Balance list I’ve been fooling around with for a bit. This list is probably not optimal but I think it’s going in the right direction and is better then all the other lists I’ve seen so far.

Restore Balance: a potential Extended deck by Noah Long

4 Greater Gargadon
4 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Vendilion Clique
3 Venser, Shaper Savant
2 Magus of the Moon

4 Jace, the Mind Sculpter

3 Restore Balance
4 Ardent Plea
4 Violent Outburst
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Firewild Borderpost
4 Wildfield Borderpost

4 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Flooded Grove

I haven’t included a sideboard due to me not testing any post-board games yet.

The list mainly wants to play Borderposts and stay low on lands so when you cast Balance they sac most of their lands and all their guys. The creatures in this list are mainly defensive especially the Oracles which mainly search for Cascade cards or Greater Gargadons and can also fix your mana. They work well as tempo chump blockers so you can bait out more of their guys for your Balance or just stay alive! The optimal hand is a turn 1 Borderpost, turn 2 Gargadon and Borderpost, then a turn 3 EOT Vendilion Clique to see if the road for a turn 4 Balance is clear or not. All your lands and creatures are then sacrificed to you Gargadon and they lose all of their permanents. So far it has been smooth but counter magic is still a problem.

As far as Cascading in Amsterdam goes, I think Restore Balance is better then Living End overall because it has all the same good and bad match ups but it beats Living End one on one in the Cascade Mirror. In the end though, I think the Cascade decks won’t be the best choice if Faeries will be one of the more popular decks out there. Even Living End has a hard time against Spellstutter Sprite and friends.

Some final notes:

If you want to play a Control deck in Amsterdam, something along the lines of the 5CC list would probably be a good choice due to the meta being up in the air at the moment. Being able to play around with the Mystical Teachings package to fit what is floating around the room at the PT is also pretty handy. Faeries will be a good choice as well but, as I stated before, Faeries just can’t beat Jund and will probably be the top hated deck there.

If you want to play an Aggressive deck, I think Jund is definitely the way to go. It has a bye against Faeries, has lots of room for meta versatility and is playing the most powerful combo in the format: Grove of the Burnwillows and Punishing Fire. Plus, Bloodbraid Elf is one hell of a drug!

As far as Combo goes, you could do so many different things. There are potentially Swans Assault, Scapeshift, Living End, Restore Balance, ANT, Hive Mind and ELVES!!! If I’ve missed something I apologize. I just think that Balance does more against more match ups, has lots of room for improvement and let’s face it, Restore Balances’ effect is probably the most powerful in the format.

So that’s it for my Extended rant but I’d like to see what you as readers would like to hear me write about. Here’s my personal email:

baba_baba_33@hotmail.com

I would love to hear from you guys as to what you want to hear about and I’ll try my best to accommodate most of the requests. Let me know sometime before every Friday as I write these articles on the weekends.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Noah Long

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments