The Sky Cracks Open

With my new Energy Field'd deck, I brought it to the table against Noah, playing a WB aggroish token thing. Not dissimilar to the RWB deck Lauriel was playing that smashed me, only this time Planeswalkers and angels were taking up the red slots.

I had to hustle out my Recycle/Spellbook combo and then I had to play the combo again to keep the cards coming.

"That's two cards," Noah says when I play the second Spellbook.

Huh. Why, so it is!

And that's how we began one of the silliest games we've played in a long while. Noah put out three different planeswalkers, generating tokens and buffing them while I drew an insane amount of cards per turn while hiding behind Energy Field.

Then the whole game swung of if I could finish the game before he could destroy Energy Field, somehow. I kept drawing cards-too many, it seemed-and although I was able to play and protect a Stormtide Leviathan, Noah had enough removal coming to him that he could force me to use Capsize on my creature instead of attacking with it.

One turn had me using eighteen mana in order to protect my creatures from his removal, drawing six cards, then replaying those creatures, drawing six more.

Eventually, I just ran out of cards and milled myself to death.

Hell of a way to lose. Wish you'd seen it.

Matt started watching the game about halfway through, suggesting Reliquary Tower while it was going on. While I'm balking at something that doesn't provide me colored mana, the extra ability is probably worth it.

By the end of the game, though, he suggested Wheel of Sun and Moon.

"How does that help?"

Noah explained: "It's a replacement effect so your cards never go to your graveyard."

The light went on. They saw a way for me to not sacrifice my Energy Field or deck myself. But with that combo, the drawback to playing Counterspell or Anticipate goes away which means I can look for ways to close the game and protect that without having to subject myself to pure grinding. And I own a couple Wheel of Sun and Moon, which means it's a great time to try that out.

We Still Pretend

When in doubt, go for overpowered.

It's not a bad way to go, when looking for ways to improve a deck. Which is why when I saw a Garruk on my desk, I thought 'Well, maybe we just overpower them.'

But not with Garruk: that card doesn't exactly help me if I've got a Recycle out but no Spellbook. And Jace generally doesn't provide a win condition unto itself.

Enter Kiora, the Crashing Wave.

So with a deck tweaked to add KtCW, I went to play Jason online. I told him: I'm testing this but it's just not working out and I need some help.

He started throwing some decks at it, specifically looking at aggro decks because we know that's where things are bad.

They were still bad. But better bad!

Capsize-buyback is pretty good with Prophet of Kruphix. Elvish Fury however, isn't. In game after game, that card just didn't matter, even when I was in a position to use it.

So after a multiple games I finally put it to Jason: what do I do?

His first thought was a Fog effect. Lull was the first thing that came to mind, with Respite being a close second.

I can't say I'm entirely surprised about this: Saga block is one Jason frequently references because it's power level is just so off the charts. I thought that Respite might might be a better effect-Fog + lifegain = more time.

Our test of Respite didn't really impress us.

Kiora, however, showed some potential. Getting her ultimate off was something Jason was constantly trying to stop and that took pressure off of me and gave me more time to get things set up. An ultimate on her would, we agreed, be incredibly good for The Wretched.

"What about Energy Field?" Jason asked.

That's a pretty damn good idea. I mean, I had some small reservations but I know better than to dismiss Jason's out of the box ideas. So we tested it.

That test went incredibly well. I had to be careful about putting creatures into play, along with making some very deliberate decisions about when to use Counterspell but the pressure was immediately transferred to Jason to find an answer, once Energy Field came down.

Now we're getting somewhere.

Another Day, Some Other Way

As is becoming my habit, I ran The Wretched without changes so I could really get a feel for the glaring holes.

And boy, did I get that.

Aggro decks. Lauriel was playing a very nice BRW tokens deck and just killing it. While I had...well, you can see the picture. Nothing.

Granted, I had scooped my board at that point but the fact remains! I had nothing and did very, very little.

So I took out Brainstorm and Ancestral Vision for Anticipate and Gitaxian Probe (as suggested by Matt), removed a Stormtide Leviathan for Kruphix, God of Horizons, along with adding three Prophet of Kruphix while removing Fable of Wolf and Owl.

Games against Matt the next evening merely enforced the weakness, though: I can't stabilize the board fast enough. I don't have enough action to start forcing opponents to play the game on my terms. I need to try and brainstorm something for this deck that can't quite be a combo deck and isn't exactly a control deck.

So, what next?

Jason. 

The Wretched

This deck has been sitting on my desk for months now, waiting for me to pay attention to it. Time to get that done. (Quick aside: I know this is a flavor fail deck, since it's blue/green and has no space for The Wretched. I have no defense against that, sorry!)

10 Island
10 Forest
3 Simic Growth Chamber

4 Spellbook

1 Simic Sky Swallower
4 Quirion Elves
3 Stormtide Leviathan

2 Fable of Wolf and Owl
4 Recycle

3 Capsize
2 Elvish Fury
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Rethink
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell

It's a Recycle-Spellbook deck. Step 1, play Recycle, step 2, drop Spellbook to negate the drawback and have the opportunity to draw the deck out. Step 3 is where I'm a little more concerned because the winning part is a bit less clear.

I added Fable of Wolf and Owl years ago because it seemed like a natural fit: play the enchantment, use the buyback ability of Capsize and Elvish Fury to create an army for free and then win. That's the theory, anyway. However, it's a six mana enchantment that doesn't win me the game on the spot and I already have one of those. The Fable is probably a story for another deck.

As you might imagine, this deck was built back when Tempest block was legal, which means I laid the groundwork for it in 1997. Some of the card choices certainly reflect that. However, 20 years is a long time and this is why I cannot remember why I named the deck after the Nine Inch Nails song. Then again, given how this deck may perform, calling it wretched might be more appropriate than I would like.

The most obvious thing to add would be Prophet of Kruphix to help boost my buyback spells. Spells with Rebound may be worth testing, if I can find something that's useful: The list is not encouraging. Ancestral Vision and Brainstorm may not be the best fit either, with Anticipate being a better choice because I'm not running fetchlands. Don't get me wrong: Ancestral Vision is powerful but I'm thinking I need to be more proactive.

Gigantor final list

So it's come to this:

6 Mountain
3 Jund Panorama
6 Forest
1 Crucible of the Spirit Dragon
3 Swamp
2 Jungle Hollow
2 Bloodfell Caves

4 Fertile Ground
3 Rampant Growth
3 Naturalize
3 Painful Truths
3 Crux of Fate
2 Radiant Flames

1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
4 Fierce Empath
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Steel Hellkite
3 Kilnmouth Dragon
1 Harbinger of the Hunt
1 Destructor Dragon
1 Atarka, World Render
1 Swift Warkite
3 Thunderbreak Regent
1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
1 Thundermaw Hellkite

I think this is a solid decklist for me. Perfect? No. Is it going to win even a Modern event? Not without heavy sideboarding. 

But after playing a few games against Jason last Sunday, I have to admit: I never felt out of it, never felt like the tools were out of reach, even as, in the picture, I saw my cards getting milled away. 

That feels pretty good. Is Gigantor brilliant? No. Should I be looking to slot Belbe's Portal? Absolutely. But for now, I think this deck is in a pretty good place. 

Wheedly Guitar Solo

So it has come to this acknowledgement: creature based mana reduction is bad.

Dragonlord's Servant, as much as I wish was useful, isn't helping. Fierce Empath is still pretty cool and there's a neat little combo that can come up with Swift Warkite, helping to fill my hand with useful tools.

But while I was gone I played several games against Fuz and Noah against almost all aggressive decks and what it came down to was: those creatures aren't as good at mana ramping as the green suite of ramp is.

Now, while that's as it should be, it is a little silly that it took me so long to work it out. So I'm callin' Radiant Flames back in to add to the removal suite. I'm also keeping in Bloodfell Caves and Jungle Hollow because the lifegain, while very small, is enough to blunt the worst of Painful Truths.

I also feel like I could use a different dragon: three Kilnmouth Dragons, as perfectly fitting as they are for this deck, seem like overkill. But I'm not sure where to go; dragons tend to warp towards cool, not win and as a result it's been challenging to find a proper fit in a deck that already has enough cool.

Finally, I'm not sure I can convey how discouraging it is to play Grand Coliseum. It's not even that the card is bad-although it isn't good. So I'm cutting that and at the moment, likely candidates are Flameblast Dragon, Balefire Dragon and Utvara Hellkite. Although Stormbreath Dragon can't be overlooked either. It may just depend on what I have.

If I have the money, a single Thundermaw Hellkite is also a clear winner.

Edritch Moon Card Evaluations

I really like doing this; survey is here.

Ruthless Disposal-this is a good card. The cost is very, very high but on the other hand, there are only two creatures in the game of Magic with toughness over 13 (barring BFM, of course). And it's pretty easy to find a deck to fit this card in, I think.

Hanweir Battlements-any card that needs another card to realize it's best form has to be marginal at best. If the Battlements didn't have the third ability (which is how one should approach it) it would be a Flamekin Village and nobody's beating down the door for that.

Prey Upon, EM edition-I really like the art, especially in the way it evokes the last Innistrad set. After that, the card is fair. Green removal isn't great but it exists.

Identity Thief-while I still really love the art and the name, the card is just fair. It needs something else to be good and that something else that is good is a bit narrow.

Smoldering Werewolf/Erupting Werewolf-I dig on SW's art but not EWs to much, so I split the middle to good. I rated the play value poor though: I just don't see any reason to play this card, beyond Limited formats and even then, the stats are pretty weak, unless you invest 10 mana. Marginal because this does have a little use in Limited.

Ulrich of the Krallenhorde-This was the first time I felt the art was marginal. Gold card with gold border and a figure that's a bit wonky on proportion? I'm now starting to reevaluate every card art... In the end, I gave this a fair rating. It does do some powerful things but you can't control it.

Tattered Haunter-here we go again, blue art with blue border. Kinda looks like just a big tube with chains coming out of it, too. I didn't like the flavor text either; the Nebelgast was not only new data, it wasn't very helpful in worldbuilding since EM is about Emrakul wrecking things. That said, a 2/1 flier for 2 is not bad, so it got a fair rating.

Blessed Alliance-I think this card is excellent. Good at 2 mana, but amazing at 4, I really like this one. Except for the white on white art.

Graf Harvest-While I like the art and the name, I don't see any reason to play the card. Poor.

Sigarda's Aid-that aid looks like it's coming too late, doesn't it? But the flavor text makes up for a lot, and the ability on this card is outstanding for its cost. It will take a specific deck to house it but it will be a great support card when that deck is found. Rated good.

Eldritch Evolution-Really not enamored with this art. I'm also not in love with this card. It's good but it isn't amazing.

Extricator of Sin/Extricator of Flesh-Marginal. 3 mana for two creatures isn't bad but it isn't great and unless you a) hit Delirium and b) have it survive a turn, it's not very awesome.

Contingency Plan-Poor. Getting to dispose of any chaff on top of your deck, plus adding to certain strategies isn't bad but as a sorcery? I'd rather do something else.

Woodcutter's Grit-I finally get a green card that doesn't center around green colors and it looks like THIS? Ugh. It's like someone blew on all the ink as it dried. That complaint aside, +3/3 and hexproof for three mana is a solid deal. Fair card.

Field Creeper-yup, I still love this art. It's a maginal card at best but I think I'm giving it a bump because of the art and flavor text.