4 Birds Of Paradise
4 Gleancrawler
4 Kami Of Ancient Law
1 Loxodon Hierarch
4 Protean Hulk
4 Sakura-tribe Elder
4 Wood Elves
3 Greater Good
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 Keiga, The Tide Star
3 Kodama Of The North Tree
1 Yosei, The Morning Star
17 Forest
1 Island
2 Plains
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Miren, The Moaning Well
Sideboard:
1 Indrik Stomphowler
4 Faith's Fetters
4 Leyline Of Lifeforce
2 Mana Leak
4 Naturalize |
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Description of deck by it's author
(quoted):
The first thing most people notice is sixteen
accelerants. Yes, sixteen. While some may say that's excessive (and it
very well may be), it just flat-out wins games. What I like to say about
it is that it doesn't do any one thing consistently, but it does
something broken just about every game; whether that be a turn 3 Kodama
of the North Tree or locking your opponent permanently down; it does
dumb things.
Usually I absolutely loathe card-choice explanations in
these sorts of articles, but I feel that this actually does need this,
just so people will know what the hell is going on. So first, let's start
off with the acceleration package.
Sixteen is a lot of cards to devote to a single purpose
in a deck, but the one thing this deck needs to do every game is ramp up
to ridiculous amounts of mana so you can make your big plays. Utopia
Sprawl is the most overlooked card in the format, I would say: for
example, if you go turn 1 Birds of Paradise, you can play both a Utopia
Sprawl and a Wood Elves on turn 2, letting you do just about whatever the
hell you want turn 3. It's one of the very, very few reusable permanents
printed in recent years that can generate as much mana as it costs with no
card disadvantage (unlike Chrome Mox). I wouldn't cut them for anything,
and anyone suggesting their removal is insane. They're just that good.
Birds are obvious, as are Elves and Elders for anti-aggro.
As for the fatty portion, there are a few obvious
questions. First, what the hell Gleancrawler? Second, what the hell one-ofs?
Gleancrawler is incredible on its own, as it isn't just
a trampling 6/6 for six; it lets you swing with your other creatures with
impunity, often generating some very good advantages fairly early. If you
happen to have a Protean Hulk die (through combat, Greater Good, or Miren),
it fetches a Gleancrawler and comes back for more. I'll explain the
ridiculousness of this a little later. The one-ofs are for tutoring up,
and aren't half bad (meaning incredible) hardcast, too. The Hierarch is
for when you really need that four life to get out of burn range, the
Keiga is for any problematic creatures, and the Yosei is for locking
people down to win.
I was expecting a ton of Heartbeat, and I was having
problems beating in game 1, so I maindecked the four Kami of Ancient Law.
Though having a bear isn't all that bad, I don't think it was the best
choice, as I never sacrificed them for their abilities the entire day. I'm
thinking that one of them should be left to tutor for, and the other three
should be more Hierarchs. Really, when is a 4/4 for four on turn 3 bad?
As to the manabase, I think it's solid… with the
exception that I forgot to run Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers. D'oh!
The sideboard is geared towards beating Heartbeat and
Izzetron. Guess what? I never played either of those decks. Naturalizes
never came in at all. Shrug.
Anyone that's been playing Magic for a while knows the
new and improved rock-paper-scissors - that is, big creatures beat little
creatures, Blue control beats big creatures, little creatures beat Blue
control. Right now, we have a metagame of little creatures and not all
that much Blue control. I know a lot of people will say, “hey, what about
Izzetron, that's a great deck!” And this is true... however, I did not see
one person playing it at the upper tables at Regionals. I'm not sure if
nobody had the cards for it, or if those playing it scrubbed out, but in
my metagame it just wasn't present. I don't expect the metagame to stay
the way it was on the 20th, but this is a deck that crushed then, and I
expect it still will.
The deck itself plays fairly simple. Turns 1-2,
accelerate. Turn 3 or 4, enormous fattie. If necessary, drop a Greater
Good. Handy fact: I have never lost a game where I get a Protean Hulk and
a Greater Good in play at the same time. Sacrifice the Hulk to fetch up a
Gleancrawler, then draw your cards. At end of turn, you get the Hulk back
to your hand. Next turn, your opponent either concedes or you replay the
Hulk, sacrifice it to fetch a Yosei, draw cards, sacrifice Yosei, draw
cards, get them both back. By now you should have found a Miren, so you
can sacrifice creatures and lock your opponent back without decking
yourself. Swing with Gleancrawler until you win. Now, games don't usually
go long enough to do this trick, but it does happen sometimes. Don't get
greedy and try to do it every game; it's much easier just to win with
fatties.
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