Burns My Eyes

(Ed. sorry I meant to mention I was going out of town and there would be no posts until the 31st. My bad.)

The card that stands out as being less helpful in Xnoybis is Rootgrapple. I understand why the card is there, since it can be cast for four, draws a card and has a positive interaction with Leaf-Crowned Elder. I knew a little bit about what I was doing when I made the deck!

However, it also slow. It doesn't protect my creatures and the Achilles' heel of Xnoybis has to be a removal spell on Timber Protector in response to an Armageddon. 

There isn't much in the realm of Changeling spells to help though, with Crib Swap being a decent removal option but that's about it. There are a few Treefolk with graveyard interactions but the most appropriate one is Tilling Treefolk and that isn't a spell I want to cast until after I've played an Armageddon. 

Except the whole point of Xnoybis is to not lose my lands after an Armageddon. 

The reason I'm thinking about these four cards so much is because I'm trying to take my own advice. Frequently, when I see people asking for deckbulding help on Reddit, they lack one of two things: either interaction with their opponent, or ways to consistently do what they want to do. 

Examples of the former could be cards like Counterspell, Crib Swap, or even Kogla, the Titan Ape. In the case of Xnoybis, I'd want to do something that deals with creatures because that's the most common victory axis. But, dealing with creatures could look like Blossoming Defense or Tamiyo's Safekeeping, where I protect my stuff in risky situations.

Examples of the latter would look like running four copies of Armageddon, Night's Whisper or Harmonize. In this case I would want something to help me dig deeper into the deck so that if by some chance my copies of Armageddon are all in the final 30 cards, I'd have a chance to find them. 

Green and White are not known for their exceptional card drawing abilities but they do have some good interactive pieces. Since I'm already running copies of Swords to Plowshares, and I've already identified the big weakness here, I'd like to look for something to save my stuff.

The other card to consider axing is Dungrove Elder. It seems to do one thing but that's it and I'm not sure this deck needs an untargetable idiot. Since the first two turns don't have plays with massive impacts, having something happen on turn three that is important. Doran counts as such a thing-but what else might?    

This is where some playtesting will be necessary and so that's next.

Touch The Sky

(Apologies, I thought I hit publish on this on Thursday!)

I got a game against Matt where I was able to cast both Doomskar and Armageddon with Heroic Intervention backup and I still lost.

That...is demoralizing.

Now, I lost because Matt's deck was utilizing a an axis of intervention that Xnoybis isn't: artifacts. The fix to a matchup like that would be in the sideboard, of course. Which means that once I take this into consideration, I have a deck that was able to wipe the board of what are relevant permanents in 80+% of matches, while keeping mine on the board!

That feels pretty good.

Nevertheless, further testing just did not go well. As much fun as Xnoybis can be it is just too slow and doesn't have enough going for it yet. That's a hard pill to swallow, given the work I put into the deck. 

However, the picture of my last game against Noah helps sum things up. I had Doran out, with the ability to cast Heroic Intervention and completely blank the Phyrexian Dreadnought. I just had nothing for Eater of Days.

Noah's very reasonable question: "Don't any of your treefolk have reach?"

No. No they do not. These are the treefolk with reach, and they all suck.

There's definitely a neat deck here. It's probably a lot of fun to play, but I haven't been introduced to the circumstances where that's the case. My meta just isn't having it-but I'm still keeping the deck. I clearly can do fun stuff with: the ability to triple block a Dreadnought and kill it seems pretty cool! I've pulled off remarkable plays with Xnoybis...but they haven't lead me to closing out games. 

However, I'm taking that information as "this deck is on the cusp of being good" not "this is a wild dragon chase". 

So here's the final list, for now.

4 Timber Protector
4 Treefolk Harbinger
3 Leaf-Crowned Elder
4 Bosk Banneret
3 Unstoppable Ash
2 Doran, the Siege Tower
2 Dauntless Dourbark\

3 Heroic Intervention
1 Swords to Plowshares

5 Plains
4 Murmuring Bosk
1 Temple Garden
1 Savannah
11 Forest
1 Swamp

1 Basri Ket

4 Armageddon
3 Doomskar
3 Dig Up

Sideboard

4 Seeds of Innocence

Feels Like No One

Once I decided to address where Xnoybis was falling short, looking for mass removal that would be appropriate was my first step. I went with White, because the mana demands for trying to utilize Black mass removal would mean either a poorly done or expensive investment in the mana base. A little search later: Doomskar became my removal of choice. I can foretell it on turn two, and have mass removal as soon as turn three. Turn three board wipes should offer me plenty of time to get this deck going. 

With mass removal added, though, that means Swords to Plowshares becomes less useful. What does become important is that I have WW by turn three and that means trying to get lands out of my deck. 

Enter Dig Up. A card mostly ignored from Crimson Vow, utilizing a mechanic that I felt was clunky in execution. Yet, as I noted in a previous post, I don't think I can ignore the addition of Black to the deck-but as I pointed out above, I don't want to make many demands on the color. Dig Up is perfect for this: early game it is a card that keeps the lands coming. In the late game, it can find me the Armageddon that I need. 

Testing and goldfishing has also lead me to decide to cut one Unstoppable Ash as well. As much as I love the effect for the deck, the cost of championing a creature is a real thing. It's definitely the sort of high impact card for Xnoybis that I want to play, but the drawback keeps it from meeting Hexdrinker rule status. 

Xnoybis

I got a spicy one for folks today. Appropriately, this one is named after a Godflesh song. 

4 Timber Protector
4 Treefolk Harbinger
3 Leaf-Crowned Elder
4 Bosk Banneret
4 Unstoppable Ash
2 Doran, the Siege Tower
2 Dauntless Dourbark
3 Dungrove Elder

4 Rootgrapple
3 Swords to Plowshares

5 Plains
4 Murmuring Bosk
1 Temple Garden
1 Savannah
12 Forest

4 Armageddon

Armageddon. There are probably fewer spells in Magic that are as iconic, polarizing and impactful in the game as Armageddon is. 

I understand why modern design has stepped away from these kinds of cards: They often narrow, if not eliminating all meaningful gameplay decisions. Decks that run Armageddon are frequently reduced to "can I get Armageddon or not" and players going against these decks are reduced to "can I make enough meaningful decisions before Armageddon to win or not". 

Neither of which are great for the long term health of the game. 

One of the worst things I feel players can experience is having someone cast an Armageddon without any follow up. I've seen this in Commander, especially: Players drop a haymaker of a spell that doesn't end the game but instead results in everyone just twiddling their thumbs until a topdecked answer appears.

UGH. 

But, what if Armageddon wasn't symmetrical? What if I didn't have to wait for an answer; my answers are all on the table and ready to go, and their responses can only come from a dwindling set of resources? 

Enter Timber Protector. I get it, Treefolk is not the most thrilling of tribes. The curve is wonky and top heavy, and there doesn't seem to be much of a theme beyond 'butts'. 

Which this is a job for Doran, the Siege Tower. That means Xnoybis can play a subgame where my creatures are often in a position to do more damage than my opponent's, helping me accelerate into a win. This isn't even a new idea; for awhile there were Doran decks in Modern that could be pretty fast! 

It's time to give this deck a tune up, so here I go. 

Shallow Ground

I've been holding off on this one, but it's time. I named this after the Corrosion of Conformity song, just to give y'all a sense of how long ago I first started on this deck.

2 Talisman of Unity

3 Quirion Elves
3 Terravore
3 Werebear
3 Watchwolf
3 Soltari Champion
3 Mother of Runes
2 Titania, Protector of Argoth

2 Seal of Cleansing

3 Wild Might
4 Swords to Plowshares

8 Forest
1 Havenwood Battleground
4 Windswept Heath
2 Flagstones of Trokair
6 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy

4 Armageddon
2 Catastrophe

Why have I been resisting playing this deck? 

First, Magic has largely moved on. Armageddon was once a terrible spell to witness. Now, it barely registers. Mana has gotten a lot better since Armageddon's heyday, the game has sped up significantly and losing all your lands doesn't sting like it once did.. 

Second, Armageddon creates unfun game states. That's just a fact and it's why WorC hasn't printed a Standard legal version of this card in literal decades. 

But now; now I'm wondering if this should still exist--and if it does, should it just be combined with Xnoybis. 

Lift Your Arms Up

Serendipity is a thing.

Whenever I'm looking for a card to fill a slot, I usually start with a search for a card at a certain mana value with the word 'draw' in it. After searching each card type at three mana in White for the word 'draw', I decided to look for a planeswalker in Green and White-but I neglected to remove the mana value of three. 

Which is when Huatli, the Sun's Heart came up. Considering how well this fits into Xnoybis' themes, that's a welcome thing to stumble on. Gaining 3 to 10 life can represent anywhere from one to three cards, while also giving me some Doran redudancy. What I'm uncertain about is how many copies I should run. Huatli might be annoying on turn three, but it doesn't win, and while it changes combat math, it doesn't actively change the board. 

I'm not even sure if Huatli is good but it's at least an idea. 

In addition, things have not been going well in testing. I've been playing against aggressive decks, mill decks, and in between stuff, yet nothing has been breaking my way. It's becoming clear that having a 0/3 and a 1/3 on turns one and two aren't great plays unless I can back it up quickly with a Doran effect. Even with Swords to Plowshares to help me remove early threats, things haven't gone well.

I did try swapping out Tamiyo's Safekeeping for Heroic Intervention-the coverage Heroic Intervention provides is clearly a good thing. But the situations when it has felt useful have been limited. 

Truthfully, I'm a little shocked by this. Armageddon is such a blowout card, yet it doesn't seem to matter and that's leaving me a little confused as to what to do next.

Feel So Much

The losses stacked up enough that for a few days, I had no idea what to do. When I don't know what to do, I research.

Looking for decks that go with Timber Protector, I really didn't find much. Commander is still the most popular format and the demands of that format are different than for sixty card decks. Still, stumbling on at a deck made with Doran reminded me that I am running Black in Xnoybis, and that color has plenty of removal options for the early game.

Cards like Abrupt Decay and Assassin's Trophy aren't ones I can easily dismiss. Then I decided to dig even further: Basri Ket as a three mana Planeswalker that can immediately start to take my early creatures and make them more formidable walls. Again, not something to wave away. 

After some lengthy thought on the matter though, I wondered if I was coming at this from the wrong angle. If I'm getting overwhelmed by creatures because I only have spot removal, why am I running spot removal? 

I have Timber Protector and Heroic Intervention: maybe mass removal is the solution?

This, of course, opens up a whole new direction for the deck and I'm not sure that is a good thing. There are mana questions that come up, because any Black mass removal requires BB: similarly most White mass removal is WW-much easier to come up with in this deck, of course, but there are color demands just the same.

Looks like there's going to be an overhaul.