Well, Land Week is over and gone. Hope everyone enjoyed it! As always, I personally invite you to send out an email or a PM through the forums to any or all of the staff for suggestions, questions, and just general comments about their work. If you do that, then with your help, we can have an even better theme week next time around.

Now that the first Standard (T2) Grand Prix is over, we’re getting to see the ways that Planar Chaos is affecting the game. After the dust has cleared, we’re seeing all sorts of new twists on old decks, and a surprising lack of a few of the best decks in the current format – Blue/Black control, aka Dralnu du Louvre; Dragonstorm Combo; Red/White Weenies, aka Boros Deck Wins; and Green Aggro.

It’s interesting to note that not a single Damnation made its way into the Top 8. Ironic, huh? Harmonize made more of an appearance in the Top 8 than Damnation. According to Mike Flores, Green, my favorite color, was a relatively close 3rd to the top of the list of the most played colors, and it’s no wonder, with all the great Green cards in Standard right now. Wall of Roots, Chord of Calling, Harmonize – these cards were key to a lot of builds this Grand Prix. (If you’re interested in this stuff at all, check out Mike Flores’ article *here* and the event coverage *here*).

With all the interesting shenanigans of Standard running across the radar, it’s sometimes hard to focus on some of the cool new things that just came out in Planar Chaos. We’re busy looking at Damnation and Timbermare, and we forget other, more common cards.

Cards like Whitemane Lion.

Yes, I said it. Whitemane Lion is a great common. It saves your men, it can be played at instant speed, and it’s a 2/2 for two measly mana. What a great card! The thing about Whitemane Lion that is so good is that it not only protects your creature base, it also hits the reboot button on any creature that has Vanishing. Calciderm anyone?

This week’s deck focuses on the White Rescue creatures from TSP, and gives the Simic a whole new twist. Check out the list.

This deck uses early mana acceleration and late game counter moving to win the game. Your game plan is to play out early Aquastrand Spiders and Hunting Moas, and then after pumping a few of your creatures, returning your grafters back to your hand with the rescue creatures, only to play them again for more pumping! After dropping a Sporeback Troll, your counter-laden creatures will be able to push through just about any combat imaginable, and it’ll only be a matter of time until you crush the opposition.

Your early game is filled with smaller utility creatures, and graft antics. You’ll be playing early graft creatures and Hunting Moa, all the while waiting for a good time to drop a Whitemane Lion so you can get your grafting creatures back up to full health. Support creatures like Aquastrand Spider and Sporeback Troll keep your horde large and in charge, while Llanowar Elves accelerate your early mana so you can start playing and replaying all your creatures.

Your finishers are this week’s dollar bin rares, Cytoplast Root-Kin, and Calciderm. Both are big, better when rescue-able, and generally like to party hard and beat lots of face. In this deck, you get to oblige.

Condemn takes care of threats too large to handle, and Naturalize graces the decklist to make sure that pesky enchantments like Propaganda don’t get in your way.

Things to Remember

1) Play Whitemane Lion at End of Turn. If you don’t have any good reason to play Whitemane Lion (Dark Banishing, Rend Flesh, Volcanic Hammer being a few of those said good reasons), you can always play it at your opponent’s End of Turn phase. Since it can be played as an instant, you’ll spend your mana in your opponent’s turn, and you’ll have a 2/2 that’s ready to attack the next turn.

2) Calciderm can get bigger via Graft. Since the Graft ability doesn’t target a creature, you can always make a Calciderm bigger with Aquastrand Spider and other Graft creatures. A spell or an ability can affect a creature that has “can’t be the target of spells or abilities,"provided that the ability or spell doesn’t have the word “target” in the text of the spell. That means you can still use Whitemane Lion to rescue Calciderm and reset his time counters.

3) Sporeback Troll is better on turn 6 than on turn 4. If you have the chance to wait on a Sporeback Troll, or any creature that has regeneration, it’s sometimes better to wait until you have mana to pay their regeneration ability. (Hedge Troll, Sedge Sliver, and Mire Boa are all better on the turn when you can play and regenerate them in the same turn, just like the Sporeback Troll)

Card Suggestions

Windswept Heath and Temple Garden are both great lands for this deck. Windswept Heath will run through your deck to find the lands you need, and Temple Garden will help smooth out your mana requirements. Both are pretty expensive, but they’re worth the cost if you’re going to be playing Magic for a long time.

Speaking of mana and land, you can always switch out your Llanowar Elves for Birds of Paradise. They aren’t cheap, but they’ll do a better job when it comes to making the mana you need.

If you don’t want to grab Calciderms for this deck, you can always replace them with Blastoderm from back in Nemesis. He was more common back then (being in the common slot), and he should be relatively easy to come across.

There are some amazing Graft creatures, one of which is Plaxcaster Frogling. Some of the Blue creatures with Graft are great, and would do well in this deck, but that means you’d have to go into 3 colors, which I wouldn't advise unless you have multicolor lands, like Yavimaya Coast and Adarkar Wastes. Larger graft creatures like Cytospawn Shambler and Vigean Hydropon (aka the Hat Rack) will be able to last longer without need of bounce.

You could reformat the deck to play white and blue, using cards like Peel from Reality, Cytoplast Manipulator, and Vigean Graftmage, while still using your rescue creatures and Calciderms. If you're into a deck like that, a deck that uses counters to control the game while refreshing its counter makers, then take a look at the next deck!

This deck operates mostly like the first deck, with a few notable exceptions. First of all, your creature base is now set up so that certain cards can be "reset," meaning that something about them can be reused. For example, Primal Plasma comes into play as a 3/3, a 2/2 flyer, or a 1/6 defender. If you start him out as a 2/2 flyer, but then need him later as a 1/6 defender, just use Whitemane Lion or Stonecloaker to return him to your hand, and then replay him as a 1/6.

That being said, Calciderm again graces the decklist, because honestly, who doesn't like a 5/5 for 2WW? He literally eats opposing creatures. It can get scary. Tidewalker joins the list because it has the ability to be a very big creature in the late game for only three mana. During the mid-range game, you can easily have a 5/5 or 4/4 to hold off opposing creatures while you attack in the air. Not a bad deal, if I do say so myself.

Things to Remember

1) Aven Riftwatcher gains you life when it comes and when it goes. Aven Riftwatcher's leaves play ability doesn't have to trigger when it dies! Just rescue it when it is low on time counters, and you'll gain two life. This ability helps give a lovely buffer versus most decks, and with rescuing, the Riftwatcher can continue to deal opponents damage and gain you life.

2) Attacking with Tidewalker is a good thing. Remember, he's only big for so long - if you're planning to attack with him, you need to start attacking the turn after he hits the board. Every turn he gets weaker and weaker, so if you're intending to get all the damage you need out him, then don't be shy about turning him sideways. Plus, if things get too heavy out on the battlefield, you always have the Lion and Stonecloaker to help out.

Card Suggestions

Tidepool Warrior and Sawtooth Loon are both creatures that can reset your Vanishing creatures. They're not as good as Whitemane Lion and Stonecloaker, but if you can't get a hold of these new cards, these older Invasion-block cards may be the way to go.

Adarkar Wastes, Hallowed Fountain. I'll say it forever and ever, you need to have these. Moving on.

If you're looking for a more controlling build, you can always substitute creatures for more counterspells. Mana Leak and Cancel are readily available in the current cardpools, and if you're willing to spend a little money, you can get the amazing Invasion block rare Absorb - who doesn't like countering a spell and gaining life?

Blue graft creatures might also be a neat idea for this deck - Novijen Sages, Helium Squirter, and Cytoplast Manipulator could all be used together with the rescue creatures to overwhelm your opponent with his own creatures - an amazing plan, if you ask me.

Well, that’s all the dollar bin raiding I have time for now. Check out my next article, Going Blind #2, coming soon to a Magic Deck Vortex near you! See you then, but until that time, keep your creatures safe and strong, and never forget that casual MtG bliss is merely a dollar bin away.

~Death_By_Beebles

Death_By_Beebles is a writer for Magic Deck Vortex, and can often be found tinkering with his latest decks while concurrently studying for his next Organic Chemistry exam. He is the author of Raiding the Dollar Bins and Going Blind series at MDV.

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Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.