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Total Votes : 7
La_Sin_Grail
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:36 pm
Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland
--- description ---
From outsizing agro to outcountering control, see a versatile deck of an interesting color combination in full force!
--- end description ---
At Regionals, I saw a lot of interesting rogue decks compete and sometimes rather successfully, too. I saw a 5-0 U/W control deck, and I even saw a few U/G decks and twice against me R/B/W. The question is: what should you be playing?

One very powerful possibility is U/G Powerbeat. This is a mixture of some of the U/G agro-type decks I saw at regionals, but with my own little twists, turns, and tweaks to help against the metagame.

I call this deck Powerbeats because it isn’t really agro- there isn’t going to be much swinging for mass damage early, but it doesn’t have the board controllers like wrath or wildfires that control has. What it does have is some quick little mana acceleration and some heavy, heavy beating.

The general goal of this deck is to play bigger creatures than agro, but to be able to hold off control for long enough with counters. This deck is unique among the field in standard for it’s ability to be reflexive but offensive at the same time.

The Deck

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Remand
4 Ninja of Deep Hours
4 Sakura-tribe elder
3 Keiga, the Tide Star
3 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
3 Kodama of the North Tree
4 Mana Leak
4 Vinelasher Kudzu

4 Breeding Pool
4 Yavimaya Coast
6 Forest
6 Island
3 Nijoven, Heart of Progress

Sideboard- 4 Voidslime
4 Hinder
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
2 Naturalize

Birds of paradise- Birds serve a dual purpose here. First is the obvious adding mana of any color, but perhaps equally important is they are a flying, one-drop. You can swing turn two and ninjitsu in ninja of Deep Hours for card advantage on the spot. Then, replay the birds of paradise on turn three with an elder or keep mana open for counterspells, and still have a turn four kodama of the north tree or meloku.

Llanowar Elves- This is very similar to birds except it trades in flying and any color mana for a power. This one power allows llanowar to block and take out savannah lions swinging, and the mana acceleration helps the cause for fast, massiv creatures.

Remand- Remand was the MVP of the day against me at regionals (I got flames of the blood hand remanded three times in one game), and with good reason. At two mana, it has the ability to stall your opponents for either no mana loss or mana total gain. The card you draw makes up for the card that goes back to their hand easily, and this gives you time to grab big beaters and swing.

Ninja of Deep Hours- This is solely intended to ninjitsu in on turn two from a piece of mana acceleration. He provides card advantage, especially against agro decks, where there won’t be a whole lot untapped to block it. After you ninjitsu this fellow down, it’s a good trade for you if he suicides on an isamaru a turn later.

Sakura-Tribe Elder- This is a great tool against agro decks because of his free chump blocking and finding a land. He’s a great tool against control because he finds you that land you need. He’s known as the best common from K-block for a reason.

Keiga, the Tide Star- Keiga is a big flying beater who is as dangerous to kill as he is to have alive. That’s one of the best defenses a big creature can have. Aside from that, he also swings for five in the air, making him a dangerous threat to leave alive and a dangerous threat to kill.

Meloku, the Clouded Mirror- While meloku is not the toughest creature to kill in standard, leaving him alive will surely give you the game. The abilitiy to create tokens can slow down agro decks, and playing lands back down every turn will hurt in combination with vinelasher kudzu.

Kodama of the North Tree- This massive beatstick is going to cause control deck problems. Lots and lots of problems. Unfortunately, control like to play things like faith’s fetters and putrefy to kill creatures, or even char. But these are all targeting spells. If you can play two turns of mana acceleration and drop a turn three kodama of the north tree, they’d better have a wrath of god ready and hope you don’t have a counterspell.

Mana Leak- Here’s a spare counter in case of things like wrath of god turn four, that instead of just remanding them, you’ll actually need to get it out of their hand. Leak is great because if a spell of theirs leaves three mana, you’ve either already won or it’s too small to be effective.

Vinelasher Kudzu- Vinelasher is sweet here because of all the first turn mana acceleration. With a turn one elves or birds, you can play the kudzu without dropping a land first. Once you drop your land for the turn, he’ll already be a 2/2 and grow every turn. With 23 land in the deck, you’ll be able to grow him steadily for a while.

Mana Base- 23 land is on the heavy side of land count, but it fits this deck for a couple of reasons. First off, you need to be able to draw enough land to play the big creatures. Only so much can happen with birds of paradise and company. Also, the prescence of Nijovens means you’ll need the land to trigger it off. Note that this ability doees not target and consequentially can make kodama of the north tree absolutely massive. Finally, having a lot of land helps with things like meloku, who bounces lands, and vinelasher kudzu, who relies on seeing them hit the board.

Voidslime- This hard counter didn’t quite make the mainboard because there was almost never a chance to play it. At two mana, remand and mana leak can fit into the more aggressive mana base. Voidslime helps out against control decks with excess land, though, where there is a good chance of wrath of god or wildfires.

Hinder- Hinder is another nice hard counter against decks with wrath of god, wildfires, and even heartbeat of spring. Nothing is more annoying against the beat that going off and burning for thirty and getting it countered.

Umezawa’s Jitte- Jitte is your best friend against agro. All it takes is to get two counters on jitte and the game should be over in a hurry. Just be careful to watch out for other jittes.

Keiga, the Tide Star- There’s an extra copy of Keiga sitting around in the sideboard for the simple reason that he isn’t killed by wildfires. Against any sort of Urzatron or U/R Fires or whatever other names it lives by, creatures that can withstand wildfire will cause problems. Especially when they swing for five and have evasion…

Naturalize- Naturalize is just a little insurance policy against decks with Umezawa’s Jitte or heartbeat of spring. Green has some of the best artifact and enchantment destruction and it would be a shame not to use it.

Matchups

Heartbeat- Heartbeat of Spring is one of the better matchups my build for U/G powerbeats. The concept of heartbeat is to try and go off in one turn is completely impossible against the U/G powerbeats. With the whole rush to fatties concept, you’ll already be throwing a meloku or kodama of the north tree by the time they transmute for the beat. By the time they can play it, you’ll have a counterspell of some sort ready to mess with their combo if you haven’t already killed them.

Sideboard- -3 Keiga, the Tide Star
-4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
+4 Voidslime
+3 Hinder

Against heartbeat, Voidslime is an absolute beast. Being a hard counter with no tricks, just increased utility, there’s little heartbeat can do. Hinder is boarded in as well, but only three copies because they can still transmute for cards at the bottom of their library. Ninja won’t be needed because the card advantage won’t make much difference, and Keiga is a little bit slow… plus, with the lack of answers to creatures, one kodama of north will do the trick.

U/R Fires- If you can play a turn four keiga, you have the game. And there’s nor reason you shouldn’t be able to grab a keiga down turn four. Try to play all your mana acceleration asap, maybe finnick out a couple of cards to draw from ninja of deep hours. If you have a Keiga when they wildfire, you win. If you don’t or it doesn’t look like you can, play with two mana open and use remand and leak to make sure your creatures are safe.

Sideboard- +4 Voidslime
+4 Hinder
+1 Keiga, the Tide Star
-3 Kodama of the north tree
-3 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
-3 Remand

After you board in, you’ll be changing into a mostly control deck, packed with over a dozen counters to make sure wildfire does not hit the field. Just play as many little things as you can, then starting turn four or five keep enough mana ready to counter fires, preferably hard counter. This shouldn’t be too difficult

B/W Agro- This is your worst matchup by a good bit. Although hands and paladins won’t hurt you much, the fact that they will be keeping up speed with you will. Discard isn’t pretty either, and most of your counterspells will be too slow. Try to hold off the assult until you can either get a big kudzu or keiga etc. Once they are afraid to swing at you, you win. However, that point won’t always come.

Sideboard- -4 Remand
-2 Mana Leak
+2 Naturalize
+4 Umezawa’s Jitte

Counterspells won’t really help much because they’ll just swarm, but jitte will bigtime. A jitte can take out all those little pesky confidants, husks, and lions with ease, and to ensure they can’t counter-jitte, naturalize is here. They do have better creatures early, but if you can just slow them down with naturalizing their jittes or trading jittes, you’ll be set. Their chances of winning are better than yours, but if you can keep a jitte down and they can’t, it won’t matter.

Kird Beats (Gruul or Zoo)- These are lumped together because they are very similar to play against for the purposes of this deck. Basically, you want to dump out creatures as fast as you can. Then, after you have a big creature (like kodama or north, keiga, or meloku), keep a couple mana open. If you can make them too scared to swing, you’ve done your job and you can control the board until you win.

Sideboard- -4 Remand
+4 Umezawa’s Jitte

Here the mana leaks may come in handy against burn, so they stay, but because of the minisclue mana curve in Zoo and Gruul, the remands won’t do much. Jitte is the best card against any agro deck, and with luck you can swing turn three with a jitted creature. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a win here, but don’t expect it.


Overall, this deck performs incredibly against countrol decks because of all the countering going on. Against agro, you’ll really just have to either muscle out a big kudzu or throw down a Meloku/Keiga on turn turn three or four respectively.

The big questions:

1) Why this deck?

This is a break from the normal meta because you can play bigger beaters than agro has while you stop control in it’s tracks.

2) How is this deck different from all other agro?

This deck is different than all other agro because agro usually relies on an aggressive drop in terms of swinging for lots of damage quickly. This relies on aggressive mana acceleration the first two turns, then dumping a fattie.

3) Why would anybody want to play blue when most agro decks are comprised of white and any of the other colors?

The reason blue is fun in an agro deck is it takes away some of the mindless monotany. I would know- I played Zoo for a while. It’s pretty dull. You drop cards from your hand and turn them sideways. Eventually you play a burn spell or two. It doesn’t exactly demand much thinking. By playing blue, you get a lot more choices involved. To counter or not to counter? How many tokens should you Meloku back to your hand? Drop an extra kudzu or save the mana for a counterspell? There’s a more mental aspect to the game- typical agro decks will either win or lose pretty similarly with a decent player or a good one at the helm. This deck relies more on how well you figure out their hand and deck and how you play yours.

4) Why not just play control?

I don’t choose to play control to achieve this state of playing because this beats control. With kodama of the north tree, I can stop kill spells and faith’s fetters, with counterspells I can stop wildfire, and with landsearch into good creatures, Wrath of God can’t stop this either. Against most control decks, a few counterspells can kill the deck, but here I’m too fast for counters. This deck finds the happy medium between agro and control that gives no unwinnable matchups.

In General

Hope you all had fun at Regionals, and had better luck than I did. I ran what I thought to be an excellent Zoo build until I got paired against two Ghost Dads in the first four rounds. There were some interesting rogue decks do well, including U/W Enduring Ideal and a kind of random W/R control one of my friends went 4-0 with until he started making stupid play mistakes (and getting control matchups).

Till next time, have fun flaming this deck in the forums!

Bernie Makino
La_Sin_Grail
Last edited by La_Sin_Grail on Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:55 pm; edited 3 times in total
Felipe Musco
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:40 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
I just can’t see why Keiga, the Tide Star and not Simic Sky Swallower, since it is more dangerous, and I don’t think it’s just for the extra colored mana in its cost... I mean, this can’t be it...
I don't like YOU.
Cobra
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:12 pm
Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 1202 Location: Austin, TX, USA
The +1 total mana cost might be an issue, since Simic Sky Swallower hits the table a turn later than Keiga the Tide Star.

But personally I’d also favor the Sky Swallower -- even if an opponent would hesitate to kill the Tide Star, better to remove that option completely. And trample is always nice for pushing damage past chump-blockers.

Good stuff, Grail!
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La_Sin_Grail
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:31 pm
Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland
Keiga isn’t simic sky swallower because a keiga on turn four will beat agro. The agro clock in standard is about five turns usually, so unless I go first, Simic Sky Swallower will not hit the board in time. In this very matchup, they’ll need to at least two for one my keiga, leaving me with their creature. Assuming that trades with another one of theirs, I get four cards for one... and while simic sky swallower can swing with more ease, he’s a little bit of a win more card. He isn’t as good against agro, the harder matchups for my deck, while keiga causes enough problems for control; I can just counter kill spells, or get the fun effect of his death.

I also developed a theory about MTG I’ll share here. I think that unless a card with mana cost 7+ hits the board for the win, it should not be played. All the USEable (not playable always) cards with 7+ mana cost is a short list...

Akroma
Angel of Despair (somewhat playable)
Biorhythym (agruably playable)
Darksteel Collossus
Enduring Ideal (arguable)
Dragon Tyrant
Krosan Cloudscraper
Phage, the Untouchable
Platinum Angel
Razia, Boros Archangel
Tooth and Nail

However, we take away all the ones you didn’t actually pay the mana for and the list is:
Angel of Despair
Biorhythym
Enduring Ideal
Platinum Angel
Tooth and Nail

Of that list, tooth and nail wins upon hitting the board, and angel makes you unable to lose upon resolving. Ideal should end the game in a turn or two, giving you complete board control with one hit. Biorhythym has the chance to kill unstantly, and angel can blow up anything upon sight. All of these cards are FAR more dominating than Simic Sky Swallower.

The reasoning behind that theory is as follows:

By turn 5, the latest possible turn you’ll be alive from agro without major hindrance, you’ll ave about 5 land and 6-7 other cards. By playing a card that costs seven, that means you’ll need to have a minimum of 7 cards producing mana, meaning you need 2 (or three for consistancy) of your other cards producing mana. That leaves you with only about three cards to actually USE in battle.

Here, my choice ended up being kudzu and keiga over Kodama’s Reach and SSS. When I put it in terms of how the deck would have to alter for the card, I think it’s pretty clear why I chose Keiga. Not for the fact that he’s better than SSS, but because he doesn’t tinker with the build of the rest of the deck. Kodama’s reach is no good in combat, but kudzu is, and I liked kudzu over reach far more than I liked Sky Swallower over Keiga.
Felipe Musco
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:02 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
I see your poin, but I somehow miss having SOMETHING to make those big creatures trample, though... A Vinelahser Kudzu that does not trample just seems like such a loss... No way adding some "trample-makers"?
I don't like YOU.
La_Sin_Grail
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:12 pm
Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland
Um.. Kodama of the north tree? Thats a 6-power trampler right there, and for two less mana. I like him loads better than SSS, and he does trample.
Felipe Musco
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:42 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Oh, yes! Of course, I like Kodama better, too. It DOES mean trading one for two, and this is ALWAYS good, but keeping in mind that vinelasher does not trample (and I can see him getting pretty big), it seems such a loss, I mean, 2 Kird Apes take him out, and that’s it, no Moldervine Cloak to pump him allowed...
I don't like YOU.
La_Sin_Grail
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:04 pm
Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland
See the thing is vinelasher doesn’t need to get big. All vinelasher has to do is get big enough to block out a kird ape and live. If he can take down an attacker and then counterswing, it’s a huge win for me.

If you’re suggesting I add moldervine cloak, I’m afraid you miss the point of the deck. The point of this deck is I get big things that casue card advantage to swing away at opponents. If I cloak a creature and they kill it in response or even afterwards, I’m giving them the card and tempo advantage I set out to gain.

Kudzu is, I agree, an insufficient weapon. However, throw in a kodama of north and or a keiga, and you’ve got some big power.
Felipe Musco
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:39 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
I never suggested the cloak, I just needed an example of a useful card denied by Kodama, and thought of this one (’cause Conor keeps talking about it nonstop). Also, the Vinelashers are a bit of a sitting duck... have you ever thought of the Privilleged Positions x2 combo? Hum... too expensive for this deck, anyway, I think... Yeah... I think it’s ok as it is, I have to play it in simulation to see how it does.
I don't like YOU.
Cobra
Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 12:11 am
Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 1202 Location: Austin, TX, USA
I haven’t mentioned Moldervine Cloak in a while... Laughing

Vinelasher Kudzu is cool for much the same reason that cards like Watchwolf are cool. A 3/3 creature with no abilities isn’t exactly a beatstick, but it’s still a great card because it’s significantly stronger than you’d expect for its cost.

If you play Kudzu on turn 2 by tapping Birds of Paradise or something, then play your land, it’s already a 2/2. Next turn, when you attack with it, it’s a Watchwolf. And if your opponent lets the Kudzu get of hand, well then you’re probably winning, whether or not it has trample. Cool
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