Adjusting My Bloody Junk

I discussed a few changes in the comment section of the TCGplayer article about the titular deck, Bloody Junk. Got to try some of them tonight and get some more games in with the deck.

The first round of changes was: -1 Sigil of Distinction, -1 Protean Hydra, -1 Scute Mob, -1 Birds; +1 Swamp, +1 Plains, +2 Path

Testing Vengevine Naya

Evan’s been pretty excited about Vengevine, as many are, and wanted to plug it into Boss Naya as soon as he saw it. For tonight’s session he got the list together, swapping out 2 Rangers, a Scute Mob, and Ajani Vengeant. Ajani seemed fine to swap out, as you can’t just go piling more 4′s in the deck without cutting some. Evan used the same reasoning in trimming some Rangers and this reveals one of the problems with Vengevine. His competition is extremely stiff. Not only is the new Mythic not as good as Bloodbraid Elf, neither is Ranger (though he’s much closer), but Vengevine probably requires you to lose some amount of one or both of these cards and he happens to work slightly better with the slightly worse option. Naya decks are facing a real clustercuss at the 4 spot, especially since Ajani Vengeant, while completely cuttable for the purposes of exploration, provides the deck with a different and effective angle of attack. It will all take some sorting out, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Vengevine ended up stuck on the bench.

A Session with UR Polyplosive

If you look at my Polymorph posts from yesterday (Part 1 and Part 2), you’ll notice two things. First, and most importantly in a world where I didn’t screw up egregiously, I thought the UR build would be the worst of the 3. Second, and most importantly in this world, I forgot to put Polymorphs in the deck.

So first, an updated list:

Polly Wanna Morph Part 2

The red version is obviously going to be a little more aggressive. Featuring treats like Dragon Fodder (which would be sweet if we were ‘morphing into dragons), Goblin Assault, and Zektar Shrine Expedition, it…doesn’t quite seem close to playable. I do like that there’s a second monster combo to insert into the deck, namely Explosive Revelation into Emrakul, as set up by Jace. Ok, let’s see what we can do with that.

Polly Wanna Morph

One of the two best ways to cheat an Eldrazi into play is Summoning Trap. But I already built a deck around that, so now I’m gonna look at the other one…Polymorph, of course. Polymorph decks are pretty much always around, with the latest batch including finishers like Progenitus and Iona, Shield of Emeria, each of which is sufficiently hard to kill. Progenitus kills in two hits while being largely unblockable and only dies to wrath effects. Iona needs 4 turns to do the job, but she turns off all of the removal (usually decks lean on one color for it) and supplementary game plans as well. Emrakul seems to be an upgrade to both. He matches Progenitus’ speed at ending the game and is only slightly worse at the resource denial aspect than Iona is. Due to annihilator 6, when you ‘morph into Emrakul your opponent has a turn to operate and recover and that’s usually it.

2-ofs a kind…What Funny Card Counts Have to Do with Winning.

Just had a quick idea, an addendum really to the brewing I’ve been doing lately and the reactions I anticipate from readers bamboozled by the density of singletons and two-ofs in the lists. Now, everything I’m about to say has nothing to do with the fact that I have no compunction about weird numbers in decklists I actually register. I am not about to make the case for this, even though I think there are many compelling psychological, mathematical, and strategic arguments.

The Deep End of the Pool – The Reality of an Eldrazi Endgame

Tonight I spent some time testing the UW control list from the previous post and learned the following:

The slowest, longest long-game axis of the Standard format will not be defined by manlands crashing through on empty boards after control has been established, but by this 6-8 card package: 4 Eldrazi Temple, 1 Eye of Ugin, 1 Ulamog/Kozilek/Emrakul. It’s possible that an extra Eye become necessary as the format adopts the package. It’s possible that you want 2 of the Eldrazi overlords. It’s also probable that the 15-drop becomes the finisher of choice as Path to Exile returns to vogue as the best answer for this Eye powered onslaught.

For Brian Kibler: Testing ‘All is Dust’ Tonight

Rough Draft:

UW Eldrazi Control

3 All is Dust
4 Wall of Omens
4 Everflowing Chalice
3 Treasure Hunt
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Sphinx of Lost Truths
2 Into the Roil
1 Day of Judgment
2 Wall of Denial
1 Martial Coup
1 Kiss of Amesha
1 Hindering Light
2 Negate
1 Mind Control
3 Flash Freeze
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
2 Path to Exile
4 Eldrazi Temple
1 Eye of Ugin
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Halimar Depths
2 Sejiri Refuge
2 Marsh Flats
3 Plains
5 Island

Hardcasting Eldrazi

I attended GP Houston this weekend, and even though I only posted a 4-2-1 with Scapeshift Zoo, the juices are flowing again. The next round of relevant tournaments are Standard qualifiers for Pro Tour Amsterdam, so that’s what I’m going to be looking at for the near future.

Coming to the format with fresh eyes (I know Jund is good, but I don’t hate it yet), the first thing that strikes me is how awesome the mana ramp is right now. Saturday, Bdm asked me what officially-spoiled card excited me most. At the time, I said Joraga Treespeaker, but that’s only because I hadn’t seen Kozilek’s Predator yet. I’m pretty comfortable comparing this guy to Garruk Wildspeaker; it offers similar flexibility and slightly better defense, while providing a Veggies effect much more consistently and just a little less explosively. I know he doesn’t come equipped with Overrun, but if that’s the party you’re going to, his three warm bodies are more than welcome. Steve Sadin, in his column at dailymtg.com, predicted heavy block play for this card but was hesitant to vouch for it in standard. Personally, I have no doubts.