Hi, my name is Adam Alexander. As I haven’t written here before, I guess I should give you some background on myself. As the title suggests, I am from Ireland, Belfast to be exact. I am a full time student studying Finance and Investment and I have been playing competitive magic for about 2 years. My biggest achievement to date is making it to Pro Tour Valencia last October. (Result was 2-3 drop; TEPS did not like me that day) I have also made the top 8 of 3 of the 4 PTQ’s I have played in.
I am going to discuss the deck that I will be piloting this weekend at PTQ Berlin in Cork. I based my deck on the Solar Flare variant Patrick Chapin posted last week, though there are some major changes.
Before I go any further I guess I should give you my list: -
4 vivid creek
4 vivid marsh
3 vivid meadow
2 vivid grove
4 reflecting pool
4 sunken ruins
3 mystic gate
2 fire lit thicket
2 mist meadow witch
3 fulminator mage
2 wispmare
2 Brion Stoutarm
4 mulldrifter
2 shriekmaw
3 reveillark
2 cloudthresher
2 negate
2 cribswap
3 firespout
3 makeshift mannequin
4 cryptic command
Sb
2 puppeteer clique
2 plumeveil1
1 cribswap
1 firespout
2 Nath of the Gilt Leaf
3 incremental blight
2 wispmare
2 cloudthresher
“Wow, there are some strange card choices in there” I hear you say. Fear not, all will be revealed.
Negate vs. Broken ambitions.
Obviously broken ambitions is the better all round card than negate. What can be better than countering a turn 2 bitter blossom followed up by a mill for 4?? The answer is nothing, however, negate is the stronger situational card. The whole point of this deck is its reach. Negate can still counter that turn 2 bitter blossom, but it can also counter that turn 1 million cryptic command and mind spring. That is the main reason why it made it into this deck.
Brion Stoutarm vs. . . . anything else.
Most of the quickentoast variants are running a full compliment of 8 counterspells, I have opted for the 6 counter, more creature option. The main reason for this is that, in the mirror, forcong them to react to you is a more powerful stragegy. Against kithkin, he can put your life total out of reach, against Fae, he can force through the last few points of damage and in the mirror, he’s a guy that none of their removal bar cribswap can deal with. I see no problem with that.
Wispmare main???
This is obviously tailored towards a Fae heavy environment, if there are only a few fae decks around, these may be replaces with sowers of temptation
For a long time, I have been debating the inclusion of murderous redcap over shriekmaw. The synergy between the redcap and reveillark as well as with the mistmeadow witch is astounding. However, the reason you see a shriekmaw in the list is because it can kill a mistbind clique for 2 mana, it can kill a wizened cenn for 2 mana and it can be hard cast as a 3/2 fear guy. Some decks just can’t deal with that. (I would appreciate any input on the maw vs. redcap argument)
Down to the nitty gritty
The basic idea of this deck is to have at least a 50/50 matchup against all the big decks i.e. kithkin, quickentoast, KidGW and Fae. The deck basically wants to “go long” in all its games as its late game is, for want of a better word, UBER! There are a few key cards needed to get long in certain matchups.
In the Fae obviously there are wispmare and cloudthresher, however fulminator mage plays a great role in this matchup. In game 1, it kills mutavault before they can scion it up, in game 2 and 3 it does the same role, unless you see a vivid land or mystic gate. If you do, they are undoubtedly playing cribswap, so think twice before auto killing the vault. A point to note is that it may not be wise to always kill a land straight away. You may want to hold off a turn to see if you can deny them the triple blue mana needed for a cryptic command.
Kithkin, GW – shriekmaws and firespouts are your mvps here, mannequin the maw as many times as you can and try to keep them below 3 creatures if the hideaway land is in play. Fulminators can be useful in this matchup as well. Brion Stoutarm can just win you the game if he sticks. He enables you to utilize your basically useless cloudthreshers game 1 by possibly killing the spectral procession tokens then going to the dome for 7, puting your life total out of reach.
I needn’t mention the mirrormatch too much as it will inevitably go long anyways. Needless to say the reveillark/mistmeadow combo is totally backbreaking for the mirror.
I’ll talk through the sideboarding matchups : -
Kithkin
In game one try to stay the forces as much as possible, if you can firespout away 2 guys, do it, don’t get greedy. Keep them below 3 men at all times if you can. The matchup should be very winnable,
Sideboarding: +3 incremental blight, +2 plumeveil, +1 firespout, - 1 mulldrifter, -1 reveillark, -1 fulminator mage, -1 mistmeadow witch, -2 thresher. With 7 sweepers and 2 surprise HUGE blockers, you should just win.
KidGW
Depending on their start, this could be tough. Hold your cribswaps for the teeg as he messes with your happiness. Firespout is good here, and shriekmaw is your obv MVP. Side boarding – +1 cribswap, +3 incremental blight, +2 plumeveil, take out the same as above.The cribswap comes in because, undoubtedly, oversoul of dusk comes in against you; the other 2 are obvious choices.
“Mirror” i.e. 5 colour control i.e. quickentoast
1st game you should demolish, your late game is sooooo much stronger than theirs.
Sideboard – +2 puppeteer cliques, +1 cribswap, +2 nath of the gilt leaf. - 2 brion, -2 thresher, -1 firespout. (you may want to replace the 2 other firespout with incremental blights) Card advantage is key is key in this matchup and Nath does it on 2 fronts. They probably side out their firespouts 2nd game, so Nath nets u a card and a guy. He is just awesome in this match.
Fae
This matchup changes drastically depending on the build. If the Fae Deck is running sowers over vendilion cliques, you have at least a 50/50 matchup game 1 due to your mainboard wispmares etc. The clique messes that up as they can ship your cloudthreshers and your wispmares leaving you completely vulnerable.
Sideboard +2thresher, +4 wispmare, -1 firespout, -1 reveillark, -1 mulldrifter, -1 mistmeadow witch.
You should win this, unless you get totally outdrawn. Fulminator mage can play a key role in this match, wither denying them the uuu they need to cast cryptic or killing a mutavault before they can scion it up.An argument that has been happening in my test group (I call it an argument, it’s me against all of them) is whether or not to side out firespout against fae. I think in this style of deck that a well timed firespout can buy you the time you need to draw into your proper answers. So don’t just auto-side them out.I think this deck is a really solid choice for a skilled magic player, new players may find it very difficult to win games, but with a little skill it can be piloted to victory.
I will post match reports after the tournament tomorrow
Adam Alexander
Head Down, Play Hard, Go Pro
Tags: MTG AdamAlexander Block
Related to:
Magic: the Gathering
