The Retired: Golden Blunders

 As much as I wanted this to work, it just didn't. 

1 Apocalypse Hydra
4 Vigean Hydropon
2 Simic Guildmage
4 Animar, Soul of Elements
4 Fertilid
2 Protean Hydra
4 Primordial Hydra
3 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

4 Abundant Growth

1 Evolution Charm
4 Cytoshape
4 Manamorphose

11 Forest
7 Island
5 Mountain

I did a writeup on this deck back in 2012 (whoa!) but looking at it now, I just have to admit: no. I never wanted to play this deck. If I don't ever want to play a deck that means something about it is unfun and since I have so many choices, there's no reason to keep a deck going that isn't entertaining.

To put it succinctly: the payoffs really didn't do what I would hope. By getting multiple counters on Animar, my payoff cards didn't fundamentally shift the game, excepting for Jin-Gitaxias. Couple that with removal spells that were reliant on me having a Vigean Hydropon in play to work and you've got a recipe for a deck that just isn't very engaging. It wanted to do cool idea things but...the cool things it did weren't cool enough.

I did all this work to get the mana to happen and...it feels a little bad. However, there's a phrase for continuing to do something even when it isn't working, and I am trying to get better about letting things go. 

That said: I have a plan (to be revealed Thursday)...

Away and Home again

I'll be on the road starting this weekend through Wednesday, which means I won't have an opportunity to play much Magic. Since that's the case, I'll take the next week to re-play the decks from the past few weeks, including more work on Ratchet, the acquisition of cards to change Late For The Kill, further tests with Look Up, the exploration of a Eureka! moment I had for New World Disorder, and the cultivation of hydras in Golden Blunders.

I may not have much to talk about even next Thursday but hopefully there will be some Magic news to discuss, perhaps even the necessity to eat humble pie on my evaluation of Rakdos. Possibly G/W decks too because everyone seems to be all funny in the pants about Populate but...I still don't see it and the data from last week's States event convince me to change my mind. While I did see quite a few RBG and mono-Red decks I didn't see many people trying to push a mechanic.

What I know now, that I didn't when I wrote about Return to Ravnica, is that all of the guilds will have their mechanic extended in the third set. This could be the 'missing piece' to help boost those mechanics into a more heavyweight position and I look forward to it.

Higher learning's just begun

Despite not having a decent substitute for Protean Hydra and feeling that I really do need one, I took Golden Blunders off to Rider's place to test it out. I didn't have Utopia Trees but I did have Harvester Druid and as it turns out, the budget version will work just fine.

Things went much differently and this is partly because I was in a multiplayer game. This meant a little more time than the 1v1 matchups which I think this deck benefits from. In addition, though facing blue on one side, I had white on the other and this meant that any time Animar landed-which it did in both games-that was going to present problems.

In game one, the deck functioned like I'd hope: mana boosters, fighting Hydropons, and a gently swelling Animar, reaching 6/6, allowing me to cast Primeval Hydras for 5 and swing for 10, then 20.

In game two, my opening play was Ulvenwald Tracker. It didn't meet an untimely death and after that, despite Rider milling at least half my deck, I was able to continually pick off creatures at will with a Vigean Hydropon and then Animar and a Primeval Hydra, whist holding off a Serra Avatar that was at 20/20 with Animar.

Repeatable fight effects are savage.

While Hydras were scary, the element that helped me seal it was Jin-Gitaxis. The addition of Harvester Druid meant that if I played one with an Animar on the table, I was actually gaining two mana instead of one, on top of helping to put Animar outside of easy burn reach.

What this meant was that I was able to make it to the midgame and play Jin, which in both matches, meant that the endgame begun.

Essentially, Jin is going to be better than nearly anything else if it survives a single turn, because it means that if I've made it to the midgame and I can make you play off the top of your deck whilst I draw into an extra 7, I've got the game won. If I just get Jin out, it lets me win by itself but if I have a Hydra out, this ensures a victory because unless they have the board sweep, I'm going to come in for lots of damage.

Even if they do get the board sweep, I've just refilled my hand and can immediately reapply pressure.

Of course, just having a Primeval Hydra is a problem so being able to increase my threat density is even better.

Now all I have to fix is Protean Hydra...