Wrath of Wydwen

Yesterday was FNM and guess what I played. No, not Cruel Control. I call it Kind Control because I axed Cruel Ultimatum from my deck as well as Volcanic Fallout (I didn’t expect faeries) and the Dragon. In fact, the only red mana symbol was on Banefire. So without the cruel cards, it’s fair to call it kind. What’s not fair is that I couldn’t participate at the Alara Reborn prerelease today. But that’s a different story. Let us discuss the card I was building my deck around for yesterday.

Why do I want to play this anti-faerie card while axing the real faerie hate Volcanic Fallout. The answer is, I don’t see Cloudthresher as hate against faeries. I think Cloudthresher is a great creature for a control deck. It has flash and every control player want to play his stuff when it’s necessary and not when it’s the own main phase. It can block fliers. And it has an impressing 7/7 body. That means Wall of Reverence dies. The downside is that Cloudthresher is vulnerable to Terror. And I really had situation where I couldn’t cast it because of the two damage.

//Lands (26)
2 Island
2 Exotic Orchard
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Grove
2 Vivid Marsh
2 Vivid Meadow
2 Flooded Grove
2 Sunken Ruins
3 Mystic Gate

The GGGG in the mana cost was the reason for me to cut the red stuff to smooth out the mana base. I wanted to Wrath of God with its WW so RR had to go. In my experience you can’t consitently support GGGG, WW and RR. This is also why the Ultimatum is out.

// Creatures (9)
4 Mulldrifter
3 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
2 Cloudthresher

After my foreword about the Cloudthresher, there is no surprise here. Mulldrifter ensures my 4th landdrop and Wydwen just rocks.

//Spells (25)
4 Cryptic Command
4 Broken Ambitions
2 Negate
4 Esper Charm
2 Pithing Needle
4 Path to Exile
3 Wrath of God
2 Banefire

I wanted the Wraths, because I expected fast and big creature like in the Ziggurat.dec my wife is playing. The purpose of the Negates is to catch Swerves and the like. And the Needles are meant to shut down Manlands and Planeswalker.

// Sideboard (15)
1 Negate
1 Wrath of God
1 Pithing Needle
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Wall of Reverence
3 Plumeveil
3 Celestial Purge

Mostly an anti-creature sideboard. The Vendilion Cliques and Celestial Purge are additional control-hate.

Match 1: Ziggurat.dec
I knew this will happen. I had to fight my wife. And her deck is meant to smoke control. So I expected an exciting match. Game 1 started with two(!) Tidehollow Scullers on her side. Damn it. She took my spot removal away before I even got the mana to play it. And then came Gaddock Teeg. I was almost about to concede. She was beating me down to two life. I had a Cloudthresher and couldn’t play it. But the final Esper Charm and my last draw brought me Path to Exile, Land and Wrath of God. This is what I call just-in-time management. I proceeded to win game 1.
Game 2 started with Treetop Village beat-down. At 6 life I resolved Wall of Reverence. Two rounds later, at 8 life, Rafiq of the Many hit the table. As a consequence, the Village was trampling down my wall. I was again at 2 life and drew a Cloudthresher. But this time I had a plan to cast it. I resolved a second Wall of Reverence. End of turn I increased life to 3. During her turn Cloudthresher hit the board and Treetop Village was sent into Exile. Again a just-in-time win. To be honest, I should have lost both games. But I don’t complain to have a little luck with topdecks.

1-0-0

Match 2: Grixis something
The same guy as last week. I don’t remember details of this match, but I was countering some stuff and Wydwen was getting him down. In game 2 he was keeping a hand with one land. I resolved Wall of Reverence and Cloudthresher and won with about 50 life.

2-0-0

Match 3: Swans control
I lost game 1 to Mutavault. This is something that can happen when you rely on Wrath of God to solve creatures. I was holding two Wraths and cast three Mulldrifter as chump blockers, but I was not seeing Path to Exile or the Needles.
I won Game 2 with two swings of Cloudthresher and a little Banefire.
Game 3 was the game I enjoyed the most at this FNM. I had a pretty good start and was able to counter some Swans of Bryn Argoll and Seismic Assault. I needled a Vexing Shusher. And then I made a mistake. My opponent was playing Jace Beleren. I let it resolve because I was holding two additional needles. He countered the first. And I was forcing the second through two Guttural Responses, tapping out in the process. This enabled him to resolve swans and assault in his turn. To much card advantage. I had him at eight life, and was holding a Banefire. But I (correctly) guessed that he has a Swerve. And I couldn’t play around it. I tried everything possible including tricks with Esper Charm and Path to Exile to make him play the Swerve, but in the end I died to his Banefire.

2-1-0

But still good enough for second place.

So again, we learned something from this FNM.

• I need my Fallouts back. They would have easily solved the Sculler/Teeg problem in my first game and the Mutavault. I could also benefit from opposing Swans.
• I still think that Cloudthresher is worth playing.
• Twincast is a card to consider. It effectivly counters Cruel Ultimatum, solves counterspells and Swerve and perhaps Banefire.
• Sometimes you can’t afford to fight Jace at all costs. The card advantage is a problem. But the Swans/Assault engine is just bigger.
• I was right with my guess about swerve last week.

Too bad that the next Standard FNM is end of May. Five weeks. Next Saturday is Alara Reborn release and then its only four weeks.

Until then…

Wydwen makes a Banefire

Yesterday was FNM Standard. And I played (surprise, surprise) Cruel Control.

// Lands
2 Cascade Bluffs
2 Island
1 Exotic Orchard
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Mystic Gate
3 Sunken Ruins
2 Vivid Meadow
3 Vivid Marsh
4 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Crag
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Crumbling Necropolis

A word to Sanctum/Necropolis. I needed some color-fixing and my wife was playing with my other Vivid-lands. The rest of the manabase is without surprises.

// Creatures
4 Mulldrifter
2 Wydwen, the Biting Gale

I expected much control mirrors so I was playing two Wydwen in the main deck. I like Wydwen by the way. This is a real control creature. It reminds me of an old friend from Ice Age, Blinking Spirit.

The good thing about Wydwen is her speed. Makes her even more controlish. And she can fly and survives a Fallout without additional action. The downside beside beeing legendary is of course the cost to get her out of trouble. But having this ability for free made the Spirit to annoying.

// Spells
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Volcanic Fallout
2 Banefire
4 Path to Exile
2 Wrath of God
2 Martial Coup

I wanted to try Martial Coup, because I’ve had good experience with it in my first FNM and I expected a plethora of solutions for the Dragon. And yes I was always aware that 1/1 soldiers are going to die to Volcanic Fallout. But since it is only a kill condition and is nuking all other creatures anyway, the little soldiers will at least not die to my own Fallout.
And why was I playing Path to Exile and Wrath of God over the walls? First, I don’t like permanents other than lands and sometimes the finisher. And second, the same thought that axed the dragon from my list. Everybody should have solutions for the walls. Plus, as mentioned above, I expected many mirror matches. And I feared boring matches where both control players are sitting behind their walls increasing life total until one is unable to draw.
So, my plan for the control mirror was to get the opponent into Banefire range with Wydwen, Fallout or Cruel Ultimatum and Banefire him for the kill.

// Sideboard
SB: 2 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
SB: 2 Wrath of God
SB: 3 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Negate
SB: 3 Celestial Purge
SB: 3 Vendilion Clique

Obviously an anti-control sideboard. Which leads us to the question, why don’t include the anti-control cards into the main deck and saving the creature removal for the sideboard?  At least I’m sideboarding 12 cards in the mirror. But until the opponent is not bringing in his anti-control stuff, my own anti-control stuff can’t shine. For example Needle against Scepter of Fugue. And I need a way to get rid of walls until they are replaced by e.g. said Scepter.

So how successfull was this deck in combination with its pilot yesterday? It started with

Match 1: Cruel Control
After having the better start, I screwed up game one by trying to resolve a cruel ultimatum.  I knew better. Before tapping the mana, I was sure it will be a mistake. And I was not listening to myself. And I lost.
I also screwed up game two before it actualy started by forgetting to bring in the Pithing Needles. And of couse the first thing that hit the table was a Scepter of Fugue. But to my own surprise the game was far from beeing over. I resolved a Vendilion Clique and almost got my opponent into Banefire range. Then I wanted to speed up things and resolved a second Clique. For everybody not aware of this really stupid mistake, Vendilion Clique is legendary. To restore parts of my honor, I heard this is a pretty common mistake. But anyway, this was the end of this match, because I had to throw to many lands to the Scepter to make a big enough fire. And I had a feeling that I will get a second chance to (im)prove my skills to play a mirror.

0-1-0

Match 2: Cruel Control
I conceded game one after facing Obelisk of Alara, a dragon and its mate and a countered last chance Martial Coup. Save time where you can to avoid the time limit. Game two and three followed the plan. Wydwen and friends were beating the opponent into Banefire range. And making the fire big enough makes it uncounterable. But you always have to fear Swerve. Interestingly this was a pretty fast match even though one would expect a three games control mirror to take days.

1-1-0

Match 3: Grixis something
Exactly what I needed after two control mirrors. Time to relax. This Grixis deck was built and piloted by a newbie. So I went 2-0. The biggest threat ever hitting the table on his side was Onyx Goblet. But he was a nice guy and I think he enjoyed playing without thinking to much about winning. I like this attitude. At least from my point of view magic should always be more about fun than about winning at all costs.

2-1-0

Match 4: Elves with Bitterblossom
I lost and I lost without having fun playing because I had to mulligan down to 5 in both games, followed by manascrew in the first and manaflood in the second. But even with the right amount of mana I have the feeling that this is one of the harder matchups for 5cc. Hopefully I get a second chance to play against this kind of deck in the near future.

2-2-0

At least not a negative record…

So we learned something from this FNM.

• You should always listen to yourself. If the inner voice says “don’t” than you better don’t.
• Stick to your sideboarding plan. Just as Logen Ninefingers says. (If you don’t know Logen, I recommend “the first law” trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.)
• Even tiny faeries can be legendary.
• I finished every game with Banefire so there is a chance that I will face Swerve or the like next time. Or others will also get to the Banefire plan and I should bring Swerve myself. And Swerve is a versatile card, because beside the obvious target changing thing it can change the target of a counterspell on the stack to itself.
• Manascrew sucks as much as manaflood.
• Perhaps I should go back to the Dragon.

Next friday is the next Standard FNM so I don’t have to wait to long to (hopefully) get in control again.

Until then…

Getting caught up in the maelstrom

Earlier today I read the latest article by Mike Flores on wizards.com and got pretty excited about the Alara Reborn preview card. I was just thinking that I should perhaps start to fear Planeswalker when Pithing Needle is rotating out this summer. And then I saw Maelstrom Pulse.

A real good reason for me to add a little more green to my control deck. Currently, the only green mana symbol in my deck is on Broodmate Dragon. So I need to check if my green mana supply is sufficient because I really want to play this new Vindicate. Perhaps adding a Vivid land  or some Flooded Grove is in order.

OK, enough jabbering about mana supply. Why do I think Maelstrom Pulse is good? It’s the very first line in the text box. Destroy target nonland permanent. Everything after this is negligible because Volcanic Fallout is better in removing tokens. Maelstrom Pulse should be the solution for everything annoying coming your way. But there’s the sad thing about its sorcery slowness. And the inferiority to Path to Exile when it comes to solve creatures. I like Path to Exile by the way because it can handle Manlands and Kitchen Finks and leaves no targets for Reveillark.

Anyway, I think I will try Maelstrom Pulse in my Path to Exile spot maindeck, but I fear it will turn out to be “Destroy target Planeswalker” and replace Pithing Needle in the sideboard. One way or another, I can’t wait to play Maelstrom Pulse to see if the extended target range can compensate the slowness.

Until then…

Hello world!

Welcome to my blog. I’m Link Ramirez (that is of course a pseudonym). My passion is to play Magic: The Gathering. More precise, my passion is to play control. I was always attracted by just playing a land and pass the turn. Unfortunately I was not playing Magic since Onslaught. Over the last Christmas holidays (2008) I remembered how much fun Magic is. So I took a look at the current Standard environment and smiled. It was a great feeling to see a competitive five color control (5cc) deck. I decided to build a so called cruel control deck and took it to the next Friday Night Magic (FNM). I finished 3rd and, more important, had much fun playing the deck. I really love this Standard. A metagame that is slow enough to play Cruel Ultimatum is fun. Look at it.

I mean a card that cost UUBBBRR should be unplayable. But it is not and I will play it again next Friday.

Until then…