We last left off with part two of this series, GB Elves. You can find that article here:

http://my.tcgplayer.com/blog/view/id_1818/title_shadowmoor-standard-primer-part-two/

and part one on Faeries, which is located here:

http://my.tcgplayer.com/blog/view/id_1814/title_shadowmoor-standard-primer-part-one/ 

Today is the final part of the primer, which will ouline RG Big Mana, Reveillark, and Mono Red. Here are the lists I refer to throughout the article for sideboarding strategies.

GR Gig Mana

GR Big Mana/Mana Ramp is a controllish style acceleration deck, aimed at 'ramping up' and playing late game spells much earlier, and overwhelming the opponent with powerful, high cost effects. The core of this strategy is using Wall of Roots and another accelerator, which differs based on the build. In the GR version, the consensus seems to be that Into the North is the correct card of choice.

Snow versions of this deck popped up right before Worlds this past year, and the simple explanation for the switch from regular basics to snow mana is quite simple: Skred. Skred is like a red Swords to Plowshares in this format, is usually never a dead draw. On the contrary, after about turn six, Skred will almost always be able to kill any relevant creature in the format. Another reason why Snow mana is desirable is that you can fetch Coldsnap dual lands with Into the North, which fixes the mana. Lastly, Into the North can also act as a delayed removal spell in the form of Mouth of Ronom, which is also fetchable. 

Despite being a 'big mana' strategy, the deck plays four Tarmogoyf because of how effective the card is on it's own. When I played the deck, Tarmogoyf was rarely good in the early game, and was often sandbagged for mid and late game battles. Playing two in the same turn is quite devastating because the amount of spot removal that reaches them at 4/5 is greatly diminished, and 5/6 limits the opponent to Terror and Shriekmaw (which are still plentiful, don't get me wrong). The creature I want on the board in most every match up as soon as possible is Siege-Gang Commander. The card is just awesome at swinging creature stalls and or finishing the opponent. It also puts your opponent under a massive amount of pressure if you have a Garruk with four counters on it. Lastly, Cloudthresher is here because it effectively Wraths against Faeries for 2GG or hardcasting, and is an overall beatstick.

One of the cards that I play main deck that a lot of people seem to disagree with lately is Sulfurous Blast, for which I cut Incinerate completely. Incinerate is just not that great anymore. Sulf Blast aids GR further against Faeries, and is awesome against basically every creature deck in the format. It's a blank in the late game, however, so I've been trying to decide if I want to go to a third Primal Command and cut the fourth Blast, or if I really need four. Hopefully I'll have that question answered by the time I need to choose a deck for Regionals.

Cards that disrupt our mana like Mwonvuli Acid-Moss are not good for this deck. Most LD spells set us back, especially early on. In the same vein, this deck has very little it can do against strategies involving the graveyard. Reveillark is a really bad match up, and so is the new Juniper Order Ranger deck that seems to be growing in popularity on Magic League. However, one of the advantages we have is that both of those decks struggle against Faeries, which is the elephant in the room. Hopefully we can prey on such a metagame. Another card that is obviously good against this deck is Flashfreeze, which it seems just about every Merfolk and Faerie deck will be packing some of. The card is clearly a hard counter against us, and is very frustrating to have to play through.

Alright, let's get on to the matchups:

Faeries

The match up requires you to play as conservatively as possible. They have the advantage because of how good Mistbind Clique is, so don't try to use a Sulfurous Blast unless you can for sure get a two for one. When I first started playing the deck, one of my opponents let me wrath the board with a clique on the stack, and then used his last mana source to activate a Mutavault and keep his guy and I'm tapped out with no action. Since then, I've also learned that it's usually not terribly hard to play around their Rune Snags; just don't walk a Harmonize into one, as that is the way we are able to pair card advantage. Harmonize is one of the cards I always want to resolve in this match up; the other being Siege-Gang. An uncontested SGC forces them on defense, because it's five power worth of guys in a single shot, and it can sink a large portion of their team. They will undoubtedly be forced to kill the head, so be aware that you aren't necessarily home free if it sticks.

+: 3 Chameleon Colossus, 2 Squall Line, 3 Firespout, 2 Krosan Grip, 1 Primal Command

-: 4 Wall of Roots, 4 Tarmogoyf, 2 Garruk, 1 Skred

After board, we get a ton of cards to improve the match up. Faeries is going to leave in Rune Snag because of the mana intensiveness of all of our cards, so be aware of that. We bring in more wog effects against them including Firespout and Squall Line. Krosan Grip kills blossom and Primal Command gives us card selection and slows them down. Chameleon Colossus is way better than Tarmogoyf because Goyf just doesn't get big in this match up (they are boarding out their own Nameless Inversions), and they can't chump the 4/4 with Bitterblossom tokens or kill it with Terror. Garruk is clunky, slow, and they can just attack him straight up and then we're back at square one, so he gets axed. Wall of Roots is a really slow accelerator against them, and doesn't block anything but Mutavault. Lastly, the reason I cut a Skred is because though it kills everything, one for ones aren't optimal against this deck: the only think I want to kill with it is Mistbind Clique and Mutavault, and it always gets countered by Spellstutter.

The match up, despite all of these great cards against them, is still a struggle, as tempo counters like Cryptic Command set us way back if used properly. Play your spells with a game plan in mind, and try to make advantageous trades over even ones, as they are trying to grind us out, and have no problem trading on the board because of Bitterblossom's inevitability.

Verdict: Unfavorable (and a coin flip after board)

BG Elves

This match up is really good, but they have a few cards that scare us, namely Profane Command. I played a bunch of games against this deck, and pretty much all of the ones Elves won were because they had the Command to force through a game winning alpha strike. Sulfurous Blast and Siege-Gang are really awesome cards in this match up, as they stall the board and finish them both. One thing I usually try to do is to save Skred for their Tarmogoyfs, as they will usually get as big as 5/6, and Chameleon Colossus, which can get out of control really quick. Sulfurous Blast kills all of their other creatures, though, so play with that in mind.

+: 3 Chameleon Colossus, 3 Firespout, 1 Primal Command

-: 4 Cloudthresher, 1 Harmonize, 2 Garruk Wildspeaker

After board, we get our own Colossi, more Wraths, and another Primal which put us out of range quickly. I usually never need to draw a million cards in this match up, and they are usually forced to Thoughtseize a Sulf or Spout, which means you are still able to Concentrate. I cut Cloudthresher because it's really just a guy, albeit a big one. Garruk, however, really sucks in this match up, and feels completely unwarranted and unnecessary because they can get to him in combat early on, and he's really bad late game. They basically have no way to deal with a Colossus beyond Thoughtseize, though, so getting one into play really puts them on defense.

Verdict: Very Favorable

Reveillark

Let me just go ahead and say that this match up is a nightmare. The reason a lot of versions of RG splashed back was because the Reveillark match up just isn't hardly winnable. Basically, they have all these awesome tempo guys with Blink, draw a ton of cards with Drifters, and Reveillark is sick advantage which we can only disrupt with Primal Command. The reason I don't address the match up very well in the sideboard is that Reveillark probably won't be on the radar because of Faeries. However, as I said before, this may change if Hollywood brings out some groundbreaking new technology.

+: 1 Primal Command, 4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, 3 Chameleon Colossus

-: 4 Tarmogoyf, 4 Wall of Roots

Tarmogoyf is never big against them, so the switcheroo to Colossus is understandable. Acid-Moss attacks their mana, which is the deck's big weak spot. Primal Command number three further disrupts their graveyard strategy, so that's an obvious inclusion. Basically though, Reveillark is still an uphill struggle. I've beaten it once, but that wasn't very reassuring because my opponent super-punted and didn't attack a Garruk that went overrun lethal next turn, so take that however you want.

Verdict: Very Unfavorable 

Aggro Red Decks

This is another really good match up, namely because Wall of Roots turns Keldon Marauders into a two mana Shock, and Tattermunge Maniac is really ineffective as well.  Primal Command is an utter blow out, and with as much removal as we have, most of their other creatures aren't going to be effective as well. In this match up, I sandbag Skred for Tarmogoyf if I see that they are splashing green; if not, I keep it for Countryside Crusher. Basically, never rely on Firespout or Sulfurous Blast to kill Crusher because they can just save it with Shard Volley.

+: 1 Primal Command, 3 Firespout, 3 Chameleon Colossus, 2 Krosan Grip

-:  4 Sulfurous Blast, 4 Cloudthresher, 1 Into the North

The game plan doesn't change much after board; we have to switch out Sulf blast for firespout because the former helps them do their job. Primal Command is obviously the blade, and Colossus is just a huge beater to apply pressure, filling the Thresher position. I shave one Into the North and Thresher number four to fill the last two slots with Krosan Grip for their Everlasting Torments. This is kind of an experiment I'm doing right now, as I think Everlasting Torment is garbage. Despite my opinion, other people don't seem to agree, and this is a match up where it actually seems fine. 

Verdict:  Favorable

Other decks that I tested against which were really good match ups included Merfolk, Mono Black Rogues, and Kithkin White Weenie. If you don't like losing to aggressive decks, then GR Mana Ramp is definitely the deck for you. However, be aware that with effectively no counters or disruption, combo decks like Reveillark, the Juniper deck, and Dragonstorm walk all over this. All in all, Mana Ramp is still a great choice in the metagame. Looking over my sideboard strats, it looks like I always want to bring it the third Primal and the Colossi, regardless of the match up. I don't think I can fit any of that in the main, though, as we really need to win game one against Faeries.

Reveillark and Mono Red

I'm doing these two together at the end because I believe both decks are going to fall out of favor in this metagame soon. Mono Red is strong against Faeries, but the match up is not unlosable by any means, and against pretty much every other archetype in the format you have a coin flip or worse. In a world of possible Kitchen Finks and Primal Commands, I really don't think non-disruptive aggro strategies are viable. However, I think that somewhere out there is a RB midrange deck that uses bitterblossom that can beat faeries and still have game against the other decks in the meta. We will see come Hollywood.

I'm worried about Reveillark's viability because it just cannot beat Faeries. If Faeries were removed from the metagame entirely, I believe Reveillark would be the deck to beat due to the power level of each of the cards in the archetype. Unfortunately, that is not reality we live in, and I think we need to accept it unwise to run a deck that stuggles badly against 'the best deck in the format'. I just really can't support that course of action.  

Other decks that only seem good:

GW Big Mana: This deck looks powerful because you get to play some awesome cards like Oversoul of Dusk, which if resolved, cannot be answered by any spell Faeries has access to. The problem is, all of the cards in this deck fulfill their functions on a level worse than RG Big Mana. Both decks have Cloudthresher, but I'd almost always take Sulfurous Blast and Skred over Wrath of God and Condemn. The match up in general is just worse against Faeries and improves match ups that are already good in the red version.

Merfolk: I think this is the one most likely to make me eat my words. Merfolk just has a lot of very synergistic cards that become explosively powerful when used in conjunction with one another. The deck is very good against Faeries, but now that they are gunning for it, I'm not sure that it will continue to play a role in the current metagame. It also really struggles against Mana Ramp, which further deters me from wanting to play it.

Seismic Swans: This deck is garbage. I know that a lot of people are hopped up on it because the interactions are cool and Pat Chapin 'designed' it, but really, the deck is terrible. I've actually just never tested it ever, but the games I've watch it play out were awful, barely-able-to-classify-this-as-magic matches that ended with everyone shaking their heads as the combo was disrupted by a Nameless Inversion, Terror, Krosan Grip, etc.   

Currenly, I'm holding out for a good deck that beats Faeries to surface for the Pro Tour, because I really would not enjoy slogging through eight rounds of Fae mirrors and red decks at Regionals. Hopefully, Wafo-Tapa or the Japanese or even an unknown will come forward with a great new strategy that can address the Faerie Problem. It seems unlikely, but we can always hope.

Until next time. 

Related to: Magic: the Gathering

Bookmark: