You Can't Save My Life

Knives is in a pretty good place, I think.

In some final matches, I experienced the good and the hard limits of Wave of Reckoning. Even with six charms to help me with spot removal and versatility, Wave being unable to take out a Deathrite Shaman is problematic, as that kind of creature is a beast in every stage of the game.

That said, ten cards to act as removal generally goes a long, long way and I've been very happy with the team of Treva & Bant.

One of the big surprises is Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. However, in the spirit of My Money > less of My Money, I discovered that I had an Ajani, Caller of the Pride. I may still get a second copy of the MoH, but CotP serves as a similar tool for making my previously unintimidating creatures more formidable.

No, I won't be able to cast CotP on turn three but that's not the requirement in this deck. It's the incremental push that'll make things work.

I still may get a second Mentor of Heroes-the card is very difficult to ignore and in a game with Noah, I was even able to gain 100 life off it, effectively negating his endgame plans-but I'm pleased I've found an effect that really suits this deck well.

Still, you can see from the picture in a matchup against Lauriel, I have been able to start generating some impressive boardstates with strong positions.

All in all, I feel that I have come away from this with good lessons about mana, and positive ways to shore up some weaknesses. Knives is still fun to play and offers a lot of possibilities both as a 1v1 deck and in multiplayer. It's got some nice flexibility with a nice late game powerhouse capability.

That I'm Confused

Let's get to it, yes?

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes took over the spot from Tamiyo. I only had one but it showed up in two different matches, against both Matt and Caitlin and it did a LOT better than I had hoped and while it might seem obvious to anyone-duh, making creatures bigger is a better thing-it works specifically in Knives because 1) my global removal still doesn't hurt me, no matter how big my creatures get, and 2) my inability to take out a problematic creature sometimes matters a lot less if I'm able to attack for four or more a turn.

Essentially, Ajani allows me to put the pressure on my opponent, whereas before that I was playing defense and hoping I could turn the tide.

In the pictured matchup, Ajani eventually appeared and helped me take down a Soul Sisters variant that I made and Matt was piloting.

Because Ajani shoves that tide back and it does so without creating more of a strain on my blue mana. Which brings me to another point-one I'm really happy about.

While I'm actually very pleased with the way the mana has worked out for me, especially since I tweaked a Botanical Sanctum for a Forest, Tamiyo was pushing a little hard on the availability of Islands that I might have. However, considering I am not running really expensive dual lands or fetches, my ability to get the colors I need has been consistent! I'm pleased with this result.

Unfortunately I only have one Ajani so for now, I need to stall. One more would be pretty helpful, although I have two slots. The Mentor of Heroes is around $14 a piece though and that's a little high. One more I can justify but two is a lot harder, so the third slot is going to be claimed by Matt's suggestion of Arachnogenesis. 

I Need Help

(As with most deck-related posts, that's a line from the song, not a direct plea. Although help is always good).

I got a few games in with Knives and, though it grates on my weirdo sensibilities, I have to admit that it's pretty likely that Rite of Passage will have to come out.

This makes me sad. Making creatures bigger via what I want to do with Wave of Reckoning really seemed like the way to go. However, I'm not doing anything else with +1 counters so there is very much a "cool" factor happening. I'm not going to give up on it just yet but it's on the chopping block.

In contrast, I knew I wanted to cut Acridian because there's no need for the echo cost and I figured 2/4 creatures come in better flavors. I did a search though and it's hard to find a replacement. Most creatures have Defender or zero power or both, or just don't quite fit. Two mana isn't much and I suppose I'm asking for a lot.

I ended up with Druid of the Cowl as my replacement, because I kept seeing a logjam of cards at the 3 mana spot. Making sure I can cast those 3 drops seems like a solid idea, as well as potentially making Wev of Reckoning castable on turn four. Yes, I am aware that Noble Hierarch would be a perfect card for this deck but that card costs $65 despite being reprinted and I'm invoking the "my money > less of my money" rule.

The next thing I did was run this through deckstats.net and that's when I noticed the mana color problems. There just isn't enough blue. But at 42% lands I don't think I need to add more, just adjust the lands I do have to represent the colors I need. Fortunately that's an easy tweak, as I can adjust both my green and white mana without much impact on their availability.

Time to see if Rite of Passage really, truly sucks here...

Knives

What happens when you look at Wave of Reckoning and think: hey, that should anchor a deck?

2 Acridian
3 Canopy Spider
3 Court Hussar
2 Skyhunter Prowler
2 Rhox War Monk
4 Saber Ants
2 Ancient Spider

3 Rite of Passage

4 Wave of Reckoning

4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Treva's Charm
3 Dismantling Blow

3 Treva's Ruins
8 Plains
3 Island
2 Bant Panorama
9 Forest

While I named this deck after the excellent Therapy song, this deck is really about butts. Which I also like, however that isn't quite as relevant to the discussion, except for how I'm solving the Wave of Reckoning problem. Also, I know, I know: I should've called this deck 'Baby Got Back' but I just didn't make the connection at the time.

Now, there is some ancient tech in here with only the slightest tweaks done during Alara block for mana. That was long ago, though and it's time to get this sucker tweaked!

What's the plan? Draw cards. Play creatures with big butts. Cast Wave of Reckoning and benefit because 1) my creatures won't die, 2) Rite of Passage is cool. Swing for 20.

That's it. Simple, right?

One thing I will say about the mana base is that WotC has really dropped the ball by not making wedge dragon lairs, a la Treva's Ruins. I'm not sure why they haven't made more of these-I think they're really cool and go a long way towards solving these kinds of problems-but Planar Chaos came and went (the perfect time!), then the whole Khans block came and went and...no wedge liars.

For the longest time, those Ruins were the best fixers I had and they are still pretty good. But the base as a whole may need to adapt, depending on what changes get made. Time to get to it!