Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda

The next eight games were an exercise in despair.

Here's a fine example of what happened: In Match 3 against Fuz playing a (very clever) U/G combo:
Turn 2 Battlement, against...Amoeboid Changeling? I have no idea what I'm in for.

Then the Ludvec's Test Subject appears. I cast the Lodestone Myr and wait. Changeling gives the Test Subject all creature types, Moonmist is cast and I take 13.

Fuck.

The dumbest board state ever.

In game 2, I end up with all three Tanglecords in hand. A good sign, right? I should be able to create time. The Amoeboid shows up, I drop the other two walls and have this thought; Seriously, this is the dumbest board state I may have ever seen. EOT Brainstorm from Fuz.

This leads to a Test Subject, Moonmist in the same turn.

Double Fuck.

I bring the deck to Jason to test. He's taken to riffing on my idea, playing W/G Exalted and games go a little like this:

Game 2: I have a Overgrown Battlement, no Forests, in my opening, so I keep, hoping Turn 2 Howling Mine will help. It doesn't: Aven Squire vs Furnace Celebration is the board. I get a Myr, he has a Sigiled Paladin to my Wall of Tanglecord (without G!) Then he has a Battlegrace Angel and I'm looking at 8 a turn in the air.

Match 2: vs Bloodchief discard, with U for special 'suck it, bitches.' A highlight:
Game 2: I get a Myr, which does some early work but soon the Recoils and Jace's Phantasms arrive and I get a solid kicking and die.

My frustration level is very, very high with this deck. Jason wants me to cut Slobad and put in Crawlspace, whack the Heretics so I can move up to four Hellkite Tyrants. I want to like his idea but I just don't see how it's going to help me. Am I being blind to new ideas because I'm that depressed?

It strikes me, after days of dwelling on it, that Bulletproof's redundancies don't help me. It's necessary to run four Mycosynth Lattices because I need them to show up. After the first one, though, they don't do anything. I am frustrated by drawing extra Krark-Clan Ironworks, because I only need one to win, whereas I would not be frustrated by drawing multiple Squires because they, at least, have a greater impact in multiples. My opening hands all suck: I haven't had one that I felt good about since I started this series.

What does adding more Crawlspace do for me? Adding in another Tyrant wouldn't suck of course but again: if I don't get enough time to win with one, how does adding a third or fourth help?

Is it time to give up and call this one a failure? There is a point of 'why bother'.

After pouring through cards for a few hours, I think I'm going to remove 2 Slobad, 2 Heretic, up the Shattering Spree by one and add in 3 Mizzium Mortars. If time is what I need and mana is something I have in abundance, then the Mortars may be my best shot at getting there. Useful in the early and late games and my creatures don't die to it, I am hard pressed to think of a better solution.

For the time being, I'm going to set this aside. It'll stay in the box for me to play against the crew but I'm going to let it go as far as the blog is concerned, at least for now. Current decklist:

4 Furnace Celebration

4 Krark-Clan Ironworks

4 Mycosynth Lattice

4 Howling Mine

4 Lodestone Myr

2 Hellkite Tyrant

3 Wall of Tanglecord

4 Overgrown Battlement

1 Viashino Heretic

1 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer

3 Shattering Spree

3 Mizzium Mortars

10 Mountain

5 Forest

4 Great Furnace

4 Tree of Tales

A Good Idea Is A Good Idea

Let me get it out of the way: I lost the two matches I played against stonethorn. In the first game, against a Birthing Pod deck, the Wall of Tanglecords did exactly what they were supposed to do: stall out.

What they couldn't do is fix the game so I could win. I played a late Howling Mine in a desperate hope to get some cards to play with all the mana I could generate but it was not meant to be.

I did win the second game, via Lattice/Tryant combo, and this win got the seal of approval from stonethorn. He and Jason have similar deckbuilding mindsets so I take this as a good sign overall. 

The third game had an overwhelming Primeval Titan presence. You can imagine how that went.

My second match was against stonethorn's B/W tokens deck. Again: the Walls proved to be solid, blocking fliers and giving me time. But once again I found myself overwhelmed and unable to get anything going. My Fyndhorn Elder was Unmade, stunting my mana which left me unable to go further.

What I realized in these two matches is that I always had a lot of mana. The Elder is generating mana but that's it: I might as well run Moss Diamond.  The obvious choice here is...Overgrown Battlement. It makes perfect sense: turn 2 defense and it can produce as much if not more mana than the Elder with ease. Plus it's more resilient to red damage spells. I'll give it a test run and see if this can help stall long enough to assemble a combo.

Kevlar Central

My first tests did not go well. Against a R/G Aether Rift deck (which works better than you might think) that Jason was piloting, I just got spanked in game 1, paying life to keep cards like Pathrazer off the table, I lose to Gamekeeper and Arrogant Wurm.

Game 2, I kept a not so awesome hand, playing a turn 2 Howling Mine which was responded to with an Aether Rift. I was able to build up mana and drop a Mycoslynth Lattice: the question is can I race to the finish? 

My first step was to destroy Aether Rift with Echoing Ruin. My next turn involves Hellkite Tyrant and Slobad. He concedes next turn.

Game 3: An opening hand of 2 Mountain, Tree of Tails, Furnace, Heretic, Lattice. It's potentially workable so I keep it. He discards an Aether Rift on turn 1 so I know he's got a second. But despite two Faithless Lootings, his 3rd land isn't coming. This means I get the Lattice online before he has Aether Rift functioning. His Ulamog's Crusher comes out for free and I hit it with Echoing Ruin, then cast Furnace Celebration and then use Heretic to eat his Aether Rift. At this point, I am able to cast a Krark-Clan Ironworks and combo out, sacrificing everything for 12 damage. (It was a little overkill.)

That game I got lucky at: if there had been pressure, I don't know that I would have gotten the win. Wins because they got mana screwed are still wins but they don't generally provide meaningful data about my deck working. Jason likes the overall idea, which is always a good sign but we don't talk about what to do to make this better. Fortunately, my next matches with Fuz, playing a G/R/W humans aggro deck would give me that.

Game 1: turn 2 Skarrg Guildmage. I respond with the turn 3 Elder, ready for turn 4 Lattice but I'm taking beats...and then a Truefire Paladin appears. More beats and then I get the Lattice down.

Fuz's response to Lattice: "Things...are gonna get kinky, right?"

I'm down to 7 life when I drop the Hellkite. And it would've been OK if I had read what Truefire Paladin did. Sigh. But I died to the Guildmage at the prerelease, so I'm worried about and chose to block that...then die to a pumped Paladin. A perfect case of not living in the now and recognizing the board.

Game 2 I mulligan to 5 and die to the creature rush, including Madcap Skills on a Wasteland Viper. Fuz asks if I'd like to try the matchup again and I would.

Game 1.2 I have an open of 5 lands, Slobad, Lattice. Oof. I keep this because I can do things. Slobad turn 2, turn 3 has and Elder and then....

Truefire Paladin, which swings for 2 and a Boros Elite follows, with a Viper

I take 9 next turn and Slobad gets Pathed.

I cast a Growth Spasm and once again, feel a level of hate for that card. It is not helping me and has not helped me in any game I've managed to cast it.

I draw a 3rd Lattice and wither beneath the beats.

Game 2.2: 3 lands, Lodestone Myr, Ironworks. I see another turn 2 Viper, turn 3 Paladin. For the first time, I do not have a turn 3 Elder, instead casting Growth Spasm for another Mountain: I can now cast the Ironworks. I shove the Token in front of the Paladin, desperate for time.

I put the Ironworks out, hoping that the Furnace Celebration can take out enough creatures to make my life better. I have to jump the gun a little early, when a Naturalize hits my Ironworks. I take out the Paladin in response but die to another Madcap'd Viper.

Things did not go well so it was clearly time to move to the next step. It's always best to collaborate on decks and this is why:

I show my lumbering build to Fuz who instantly suggests Shattering Sphere instead of Echoing Ruin. The light goes off in my head and I make that change. I tell him the Growth Spurts are maddening and he says: "Wall of Blossoms? Because you need more time and walls can give them to you. I know that I love walls and all..."

And I hate walls. But a good idea is a good idea and I seem to hate Growth Spurt more. Wall of Tanglecord is an artifact, has a great ass, and can block flying creatures for a mere green. Plus, it comes out a turn sooner so I have a blocker that can extend my time, as well as feed into my combo with both Lodestone Myr or Furnace Celebration, should the Lattice not appear. That's the next change, and we're off to testing again.

Bulletproof Heart or A Tale of Two Decklists

Jason sends this to me with a note saying (more or less): Hellkite Tyrant is insane, man!

Lodestone Myr x4
Viashino Heretic x4
Voltaic Construct x3
Clockwork Dragon x3
Copper Gnomes x4
Metalworker x1

Fireball x1

Howling Mine x4
Mana Vault x1
Grim Monolith x1
Sol Ring x1
Blinkmoth Urn x3
Sun Droplet x4
Mycosynth Lattice x4

Tolarian Academy x1
Mountain x2
Great Furnace x4
City of Traitors x4
Cloudpost x4
Darksteel Citadel x4
Ancient Tomb x4 

He wants to replace Clockwork Dragon with the Tyrant and the Ancient Tombs for Cloudposts. Makes sense though I am loath to encourage Vintage decks or anything that involves Tolarian Academy. That card is banned for a reason, unless you want to deal with environments that go: 4x Wasteland, Strip Mine.

I sent Bulletproof Heart (I have no idea where this name came from) back to him:

4 Fyndhorn Elder
3 Viashino Heretic
3 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
4 Lodestone Myr

4 Furnace Celebration

2 Echoing Ruin
2 Journey of Discovery

2 Shattering Pulse

4 Mycosynth Lattice
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Howling Mine

4 Great Furnace
4 Tree of Tales
8 Mountain
8 Forest

Two Mycosynth Lattice decks. Mine is meant to ramp mana up and then combo out with a Krark-Clan Ironworks feeding Furnace Celebration and his wants to dump mana into Clockwork Dragon for a large flying creature or use that mana to feed Voltaic Construct in combination with Lodestone Myr. That combo lets him build a large, trampling creature. Basically, I'm saying he's compensating.

One thing we both agree on is the little known and very tiny print on Lodestone Myr that says "Play me with Howling Mine!" Seriously, it's there. You're just overlooking it. The other thing we agree on is the Viashino Heretic solution to problems.

The Tyrant has a natural fit for his deck even though certain cards become less desirable because he has fewer cards to pump extra mana into now. Just swing with Tryant and win the game--and if that doesn't work, certainly hitting for 5 in the air each turn will. Worst case, extra mana can go into a winning Fireball. That doesn't mean he shouldn't replace them, just that it's pretty clear that Hellkite Tyrant is better than Clockwork dragon.

My deck has a bigger problem: combo or die. There is no obvious choice to cut since I win in a very different manner but as Jason said, Hellkite Tyrant is insane. Passing up that kind of victory condition would need a Very Good Reason and I don't currently have one. The two cards that seem like they could go are Echoing Ruin and Shattering Pulse. I don't think I want to cut both but one of them could go and I think the deck would hold up pretty well. Testing begins today!