The Monday Mulligan #4: Storming Through Standard

I will post the Gatherling entry for the event (which I would have edited to include at least all decknames and colors), so you can browse the meta yourselves. The play-offs and metagame paragraphs will list the archetypes that were played (aggro, control, etc.) and how many. A deck that played in the finals will appear in the quarter-, semi- and finals part and the metagame part.

Gatherling Metagame Breakdown

Play-offs:
Finals - Aggro-Control (1), Control (1)
Semi-Finals - Aggro-Control (2), Control (2)
Quarter-Finals - Aggro-Control (3),Control (4), Mid-Range (1)

Metagame:
Aggro - 8
Control: - 5 (two with a possible combo finish)
Aggro-Control: - 7
Mid-range: - 3 (one with a possible combo finish)

People who get the "Sad Smily of the Week" for not entering their decklists are: hurriboy. Better your life next time. (Only regular attendees can be "nominated".)

Discussion:
It was a good week for control decks, with four out of five decks making play-offs and two making top 4. The only one left out was Dreamspore Rock, which faced off against a fellow control deck and Sticks, both not easy for the boardcontrol deck. The remaining lists were UBeR Teachings, returning from it's vacation, and GrimStormer, a four color mash-up between Kingdrifter and Storm, piloted by RobE, and two versions of Storm Control. The original version of Storm Control grabbed top honours this week, while Chronic's version lost the mirror in top 4. Storms win is probably a result from a high number of WW and Blinkdrifter decks, while Grimdrifter was noteable absent. UBeR lost in the top 8 to the winning Storm list, three SB Hurly-Burly's aren't enough to stop multiple warrens of angry goblins.

If you think Kingdrifter was a weird deck, look at RobE's new list: Not only does it play Mulldrifter, Momentary Blink and Grim Harvest, but it also has a storm package with MD Grapeshot (probably to try to gain CA) and SB Warrens. All together a remarkable creation. RobE said it couldn't beat Storm (psst, MD Shamblers helps) and it lost to two aggro-control decks during the event, thus it might not yet be the best choice to run. UBeR looks really solid, even if it is a bit untuned yet. If you like difficult and skill intensive control decks, take a look at this list. Just remember to start testing immediatly, you'll need the time to play the deck well. You must know what to do in every situation against every archetype.

On the aggro site of things, life seems much harder. Five White Weenie players, a GR Changeling Aggro, Gnarly Beats and Suspend Aggro (with big suspend beaters and Rift Elementals, it looks untuned but potentially fun) and none of them got past the Swiss, though many WW decks got paired against eachother and went 2-1 with bad tie-breakers.

Midrange type decks have started to gain in popularity, with three different list played in the event and one making top 8, a GR Mana Ramp deck. The deck is base green, but splashes red for some MD removal and LD and SB Shamblers. The other two were a Jungle Storm and a Sticks list. All these decks accelerate in big and hard to deal with threats like Aurochs Herd. I still think Jungle Storm is really cool, but sadly Storm Control is just much, much better at winning.

In the aggro-control archetype, Blinkdrifter keeps losing, while Use UR Illusion keeps getting top places. Two out of two Illusions made top 4, where they were pitted against eachother. Among the five Blinkdrifter variants (one "Old school", two with Acid, one with Rebels, one with Harvest) only one with Acid and lots of bounce made the play-offs, before being beaten by Storm. Please, if you want to play Blinkdrifter, play the established list discussed here. Or better, play Illusions.

Morningtide: Green

CardName: Ambassador Oak
Cost: 3G
Type: Creature - Treefolk Warrior
Pow/Tgh: 3/3
Rules Text: When Ambassador Oak comes into play, put a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token into play.

I think it has the problem of costing the same as Cloudcrown Oak, which is 3/4 and has reach, but is a Treefolk Warrior too. This will give you one more power (and one more critter to swarm with), but can't kill and survive 2/2 flankers and flyers (and 2/2 flying flankers!). The advantage of getting a Elf Warrior is not very big, because Pauper doesn''t have mass Warrior/Elf pumpers or things that trigger of of Elves/Warriors coming into play. Nicely designed card though, why haven't we seen this before?

CardName: Bosk Banneret
Cost: 1G
Type: Creature - Treefolk Shaman
Pow/Tgh: 1/3
Rules Text: Treefolk spells and Shaman spells you play cost 1 less to play.

This might be the second best Banneret, after the white one. While the kithkin aggro decks the white one will spawn use it to empty their hands on turn 3/4, the Bosk should fit nicely in the midrange Sticks deck. It cheapens all of their big beaters and some of the cantripping LD too!

CardName: Deglamer
Cost: 1G
Type: Instant
Pow/Tgh: /
Rules Text: Choose target artifact or enchantment. Its owner shuffles it into his or her library.

There are no artifact/enchantments you'd want to shuffle instead of destroy in standard. NONE. Play Naturalize, Ronom Unicorn or Seal of Primordium.

CardName: Earthbrawn
Cost: 1G
Type: Instant
Pow/Tgh: /
Rules Text: Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. Reinforce 1-1G (1G, Discard this card: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.)

Most of the green decks in today's meta are midrange type decks, trumping your threats with bigger threats of theirs. Earthbrawn (and pump alike) is only good in aggro-green. I'd gladly play this in those sorts of decks, cause I would pay an additional for the permanent reinforce option. This option gives the card some use if you can't get through to use it as a burn spell, as you can use it as a permanent boost to save a creature and get in for +1 next turn. And it pumps your 0/0 elementals!

CardName: Elvish Warrior
Cost: GG
Type: Creature - Elf Warrior
Pow/Tgh: 2/3
Rules Text:

This little baby is played in classic, so it should be good here right? Like with the previous card, it only shines in aggro-green, midrange decks like to skip this cost and control has nothing with green beaters for unless they are Tarmogoys. This is the closest thing PDC will have to mr. T.

CardName: Everbark Shaman
Cost: 4G
Type: Creature - Treefolk Shaman
Pow/Tgh: 3/5
Rules Text: T, Remove a Treefolk card in your graveyard from the game: Search your library for two Forest cards and put them into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.

It is a nice high end beater, surviving every one-to-one combat situation in standard and killing quite a few while brawling, but it will sit primarily on defence. While on defence it can recycle those dead trees for some nice new ones, which isn't such a bad ability to have on your wall. These will probably add up to allow you to go berserk with Grim Harvest later. All and all, a nice little bugger.

CardName: Fertilid
Cost: 2G
Type: Creature - Elemental
Pow/Tgh: 0/0
Rules Text: Fertilid comes into play with two +1/+1 counters on it. 1G, Remove a +1/+1 counter from Fertilid: Target player searches his or her library for a basic land card and puts it into play tapped. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

Maby I'm a bad player, but I just didn't/don't see it. Many people are "hyping" this card as being really good. I get turned off by the activation cost most of all, but I might be spoiled by STE on that part. That's why I'll let Kehm answer this one: "It's a Sakura-Tribe Elder on steroids, and STE is already frigging good. Think grimdrifter with green. Rock decks will be very good in morningtide, I think it'll be the first "deck to beat". You don't get better mana fixing than that, though. 2 lands and a great chump blocker, that you will bring back constantly with grim harvest. Harvest decks are really mana intensive."

CardName: Game-Trail Changeling
Cost: 3GG
Type: Creature - Shapeshifter
Pow/Tgh: 4/4
Rules Text: Changeling (This card is every creature type at all times.) Trample

I'm really split about this card. On one hand, this is a 4/4 trample for , very respectable, and has the Changeling ability to boot. This would make it a nice addition to Gx Changeling builds. But why would they need a five cost beater? Changelings want to activate it's Elvish Handservants, Kithkin Greathearts and Bull Aurochs as quickly as possible, not on turn five/four. And if you don't want to take advantage of the Changeling atribute, you can get the CA generating Aurochs Herd for more.

CardName: Luminescent Rain
Cost: 2G
Type: Instant
Pow/Tgh: /
Rules Text: Choose a creature type. You gain 2 life for each permanent you control of that type.

Pure lifegain has been good only once, with Pulse of the Fields. Every other playable lifegain card was tacked on something worthwhile; removal (Tendrils of Corruption/Faith's Fetters) or a solid body (Loxodon Hierarch). This won't be played.

CardName: Lys Alana Bowmaster
Cost: 2G
Type: Creature - Elf Archer
Pow/Tgh: 2/2
Rules Text: Reach (This can block creatures with flying.) Whenever you play an Elf spell, you may have Lys Alana Bowmaster deal 2 damage to target creature with flying.

Jay! Elves will have a way to gain CA against WW and things like Faeries. I would love to shoot some Avian Changelings or Knights of Sursi from the sky for zip. Oh, and it can block flyers too.

CardName: Reins of the Vinesteed
Cost: 3G
Type: Enchantment - Aura
Pow/Tgh: /
Rules Text: Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets +2/+2. When enchanted creature is put into a graveyard, you may return Reins of the Vinesteed from your graveyard to play attached to a creature that shares a creature type with that creature.

A common Moldervine Cloak. The disadvantages are it's exorbitant cost ( for +2/+2) and the fact that you will need to play tribal, but it will turn any Llanowar Elf you draw late in a threat. Kill the elf? Swap the Reins to the next elf. And remember you don't need to play a full elves deck (par example) as long as you keep two creatures that share a type in play at the same time, you can move the Reins from a Elf Druid, to an Elf Warrior to a Treefolk Warrior, etc.

CardName: Winnower Patrol
Cost: 2G
Type: Creature - Elf Warrior
Pow/Tgh: 3/2
Rules Text: Kinship - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may look at the top card of your library. If it shares a creature type with Winnower Patrol, you may reveal it. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Winnower Patrol.

Another green card that is bested by it's white counterpart. Kithkin Zephyrnaut is just so good. But the Winnowers aren't slouches either. A 3/2 for is pretty on par for green, but in a dedicated Elf/Warrior deck (with the likes of Cloudcrown Oak, Battlewand Oak, Adder-Staff Boggart, the red Bannaret and the forgotten Boreal Centaur) it can grow to Tarmogoyf proportions pretty quickly. Maby this will be the green-aggro deck Elvish Warrior and Earthbrawn will shine in.

Last weeks aggro player is being followed by a strong control player and deck builder, kehmesis, creator of, amongst others, this weeks winner Storm Control.

Who are you if you're not playing PDC and where are you from?
I'm Max. I'm a French Canadian living in Gatineau (That's right by Ottawa, Canada's capital city). I play a lot of poker and I write screenplays (in french). Not professionally, btw :)
What is your favorite PDC format? Standard, FutEx, Classic, Block?
Standard, hands down! I really like the rotations, something that is not present in Classic and will rarely happen in Extended. Block's limited cardpool annoys me. Still, I like all formats.
If I look at your "Hall of Fame" I can see you're a big fan of control. Why do you play control decks over aggro(-control)?
I think they are more fun to play. I love puzzles. Sometimes I'll just browse the internet and look for random IQ tests or anything that will challenge me. I like how playing Control decks challenges me every time I face a difficult gameplay decision. I also think control decks are the decks that are most adaptable to a metagame. I love deck tuning, and tuning an aggro deck is not much fun to me :)
What do you most enjoy about playing Magic?
Competition. I'm very, very competitive. I like to keep stats for any games I play with my friends so I can brag about being the best :) I think Magic is the perfect game for me. Like I said previously, I love challenges, and magic is very challenging. It's also a perfect environment for competition. So I get it all in one game.
Your favorite card (non PDC)?
Hymn to Tourach
You sad it wasn't reprinted as a common in Masters?
I'm guessing that's a rhetoric question... I was so sad. But I expected it.
Your favorite standard PDC card?
Skred, but Counterspell is 2nd for both :)
I can probably guess what your favorite deck is at the moment, Storm Control am I right? Else, what is/are?
Yes, Storm Control. It's my little baby. But it has a hard time against recursive archtypes featuring grim harvest right now. I love Uber Teachings, too. That's probably what I'll play at World's. If I feel lucky, I might play SC. I also love gobvantage. Such a sweet deck, very nicely built. I just don't think it's that competitive. Since I'm a spike, I only play to win. Or maybe it's the fact that I only play to win that makes me a Spike :) But I'd rather blame it on Spike.
Talking about UBeR Teachings, you played that last monday, an archetype that was very popular before Lorwyn but hasn't seen much play since. You think this can be the "next big thing" in standard?
Well, first of all, it wasn't very popular before Lorwyn. Only Still I Rise and I [and LulThyme] played it. The only reason I stopped playing it is because I came up with a new Storm Control list that whooped the crap out of WW, which was the prominent deck back then. Otherwise I'd would have played Teachings all season long. I don't think it can be the next big thing in standard, though. It's too hard to play for a random player to pick it up. You need lots of practice with it. You need to test it against all top tier decks to know how to play it optimally against all tough match ups. And there are only 2 events left :) I do believe that it can beat WW, Grimdrifter and Storm Control.
It wasn't popular? I thought quite a bit of people played it. I wasn't following the meta then (there was no MPDC!). I thought it could beat spore cry, or was that UR control?
Yes it could beat spore cry when you knew how to do it. Maybe you're confused about its popularity because it was seen a lot, since Still and I always played it. There was also the random pick up here and there, but they dropped the deck as quickly as they picked it up. For reasons mentioned above. (I forgot to say that Lulthyme also played Teachings. I forget it because Thyme and I all play the same decks, we go hand in hand.)
Do you think Morningtide will make a big impact on standard? What cards are you excited about?
Morningtide will have a huge impact on standard, there are a lot of powerful commons in that set. I'm excited about the 0/0 creatures. The black and green especially.
And as a final question, do you have anything to add?
Shout out to my buddies in Pauper Commonity :)
Thanks for your time!
Thanks for having me!

Previous interviews:
RaiserUK
53N531/Sensei
icarodx

Storm Control, as piloted by SypherSun at MPDC 1.15

Creatures
4 Errant Ephemeron
3 Martyr of Ashes

Spells
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Grapeshot
4 Ponder
4 Remove Soul
4 Rift Bolt
4 Skred
3 Foresee
3 Think Twice

Lands
10 Snow-Covered Island
9 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Terramorphic Expanse

SIDEBOARD
4 Faerie Trickery
4 Rune Snag
3 Cancel
3 Mulldrifter
1 Martyr of Ashes

Discussion:
This standard juggernaut is the third major deck to terrorize the standard metagame. It was created as an answer to both WW and Blinkdrifter by Kehmesis and won his first MPDC at 1.08 and has repeated this trick twice and placed multiple people in play-offs over the course of the past weeks.

The primary route to victory is surviving the early game by countering and killing creatures untill you can storm for about six to eight goblins or "protect" an Ephemeron, then going to town. The deck isn't a combo deck in the traditional sense (such as Classic's Freed), it is a control deck with a very resillient win-condition in Empty the Warrens and a cheap CA "mass-removal" spell in Grapeshot. The fact that eight of it's removal spells can go to the dome gives it some nice extra reach, meaning you can die suddenly if you suffered a few goblin/EE hits, even if you take control of the board.

To finds it's win-conditions and up the storm count, the deck plays four Ponder and three Think Twice. On top of that, the underplayed Foresee has a spot in the deck too, sometimes digging six cards deep to find that neccesary win or removal spell. It's removal suit consists of standards best pair of creature control spells, Skred and Remove Soul, alongside the storm enabeling Rift Bolt. Martyr of Ashes and Grapeshot fulfull the need for mass removal.

The sideboard is the place where the deck realy shines. It consists of two parts; the ability to up the Martyr count or replace them by counters completely (for heavy aggro decks or (aggro-)control/flying decks respectively). On the other hand we have the ability to transform the deck in a counter control deck, removing all eigth storm spells and the Martyrs for the SB counterspells. This way you try to blank opposing mass removal and you will have a better match-up against decks with lots of discard or LD, because you don't need one big turn to win. Decks with a lot of disruption (and preferably some sort of mass removal) backed by a good clock will probably still be a bad matchup) As Kehm said on the boards, if you transform to counter control, you should replace Foresee with Mulldrifter, because this will give you three more beaters as win-conditions.

There are two changes made to the deck that some people think are improvements over the original. First, some people switch the MD Martyrs with the SB Runesnag. This will lower your WW match-up, but gives you a better first game against things like Grimdrifter, New Tricks, UBeR, etc. because you can protect your warrens better. This change depends completely on what you expect in the meta. If such as big number of WW decks stay in the meta (like this week) I'd go with Martyr main.

The second change is bigger, adding three Grinning Ignus and three Peek by removing two Remove Soul, a Foresee, a Martyr, an EE and a land. This gives you the ability to go for much higher storm counts at the expense of some control and carddraw elements. I find this deck a lot more combo than the original, which is primarily control. I don't think these additions better the deck very much. In what match-ups do you win with a storm for sixteen goblins, where you wouldn't win with six? Against worse match-ups, like Grimdrifter, control decks with mass-removal and RDW decks with Martyrs they will kill all your goblins anyway. Peeking is nice to protect your Ignus from harm, but it won't save your goblins: What do you do if you see mass-removal in your opponents hand, nothing? The mirror won't be much improved either, because you replaced one MD Martyr and a Foresee to find it, making you more susceptable to Warrens, and you lost two Remove Souls to counter opposing Martyrs. Maby Chronic can shed some light on this matter in the comments.

Previous decks:
New Tricks and Grimdrifter
Use UR Illusion
GW Changelings

I haven't got much to say anymore today. I just want to make note that I'm at the top of MPDC's standings this season (as of 1.14), how can this be? I haven't won/made play-offs as much as some of the other players, but I'm on top. Weird.

More ratings: Worlds is coming to MPDC, though I don't know when exactly... Hosts, can you enlighten us? SPDC has those cool PowerRankings, showing who's most likely to win Worlds, shouldn't MPDC have this too? If someone has an easy way of calculating these, PM me!

I hope to see you next monday, at MPDC 1.16!