Eternal Conflict – Building a Classic Gauntlet

Posted on August 10, 2009 by spg

Work has been really busy for me lately, and as a result I haven’t played a ton of competitive Classic. Fortunately my project is wrapping up, and it looks like I’ll have some time in the near future to get back into the tournament scene. Not only am I looking forward to getting back into one of my favorite forms of intellectual exercise, but I’m also psyched to play in some of the new four-man Swiss daily events.

Of course with all of this come many new challenges. Thankfully I’m not totally out of it. I have been following the development of Eternal formats (Classic, Legacy, and Vintage) even though I haven’t been actively competing in tournaments. I’m sure this is a situation that’s familiar to many players.

Does this sound familiar? You get really into Magic and play in every tournament you can find, tweaking decks and learning every possible edge in the format… and then ‘real life’ picks up for a while. By the time you get back to Magic things have changed. Old decks are gone, new decks have arrived, and there’s a whole bunch of new stuff to learn. There are many different ways to learn this information. You could, for example, just shuffle up something random and enter a few different tournaments. You could also spend a few days or weeks watching replays (if they’re enabled), reading forums/articles, and just take in as much non-interactive information as possible. The correct strategy here depends largely on your own personal preference.

One tactic that I like to use in this situation is to assemble a gauntlet of important decks in the format. The goal here is to put together a representative list of decks you are likely to come up against. This involves a decent amount of research, studying of tournament results, and understanding of the various decks in the metagame. In paper Magic my friends and I would get out a sharpie and a bunch of basic lands in order to proxy up decks. One of the major current bummers of Magic Online is that you’re currently not able to do this. Maybe in the future there will be some functionality added in order to make this type of thing possible?

Once you’ve created a gauntlet, it becomes a fantastic testing tool. If you’re interested in playing an established deck, then you’ve got a whole bunch of solid decks to choose from. If you’re interested in creating a new deck, then you have a bunch of decks that your new creation needs to beat in order to be worth it. Any deck that you plan on bringing into battle should have a plan against every deck in the gauntlet. I’m talking maindeck strategies, sideboard strategies, and understanding of the fundamental plays against these decks. To me this is a fantastic way for new or returning players to get an idea of what a particular constructed format is all about.

So today I’m going to go through decks that I would personally include in a Classic gauntlet. For each deck I cover I’m going to provide a sample decklist, some info on why this deck is important in a gauntlet, and potential variations on the strategy. Credit goes to classicquarter.com for their awesome job providing both metagame data and decklists. Time to get started!

Zoo is the current multi-color aggro deck of choice. Staples here include Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix for Direct Damage and beaters like Kird Ape, Wild Nacatl, Grim Lavamancer, and Tarmogoyf. Zoo comes out fast and furious with an aggressive assault and destroys any opponent who is unfortunately enough to stumble at all in their development. This deck also uses creatures that double as utility like Ethersworn Canonist, Qasali Pridemage, and Gaddock Teeg.

Naya builds are the most popular choice right now, although these decks do sometimes splash black for cards like Dark Confidant and Duress. Zoo often runs an Isochron Scepter sub-theme, often bringing Orim’s Chant out of the sideboard for an unexpected soft-lock. Even if Chant doesn’t come into play, spells like Bolt, Helix, or Path to Exile are awesome while stuck on an Isochron Scepter.

Due to the low and aggressive mana curve, Zoo is fairly susceptible to the Counterbalance/Sensei’s Divining Top combination. Krosan Grip often comes in from the sideboard to fight this strategy.

RDW runs the same basic aggressive strategy as Zoo, although it forgoes the wacky many-color manabase in favor of a more solid manabase of Mountains.Cards like Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape are replaced with Keldon Marauders and Hellspark Elemental, and the amount of burn is cranked up to the limit. Many current RDW lists run full playsets of Lightning Bolt, Laval Spike, Magma Jet, Rift Bolt, and Fireblast. This gives the deck more reach than typical Zoo lists, but not as much continual creature pressure.

One major weakness of RDW is that pretty much everything in the deck costs one or two mana, which makes Counterbalance/Top’s job easy. Vexing Shusher is an awesome option here, and I would never run a RDW list without four of these guys. It slows you down a bit, but he makes sure that none of your spells get countered and beats down two. While the mono-color nature limits the sideboard options available for RDW, it does enable Blood Moon – which is very powerful against a Classic field that loves non-basic lands.

In my opinion, Elves is the premiere combo deck in Classic today. NecroSpike held this crown for a very long time, but with recent restrictions the torch has officially been passed on from the black skull monster. I guess it’s more like the torch was dropped and then picked up… but you get the idea. This Elves deck is currently played in different ways in many different formats from Standard through Extended, Legacy, and Classic. The basic idea remains the same across formats – use Elf tribal synergy to unload a huge number of the little green guys into play.

In Classic, Elves revolves around a few key cards. Heritage Druid allows us to tap our Elves for mana instantly as they come into play, ignoring summoning sickness. Nettle Sentinal and Wirewood Symbiote provide the ability to untap our creatures and generate more mana. Glimpse of Nature is one of the major players in the deck, keeping our hand full of cards as we run lots of creatures into play.

This deck runs a few different win conditions. After casting a whole ton of Elves, this deck can cast Grapeshot to deal twenty or more damage all in a single shot. It can also win the old fashioned way, sending a ton of Elves through the red zone. Earthcraft is another keystone card for the deck, combining with Squirrel Nest for an infinite creature combo win condition. Each one of these win conditions is completely explosive and capable of generating a huge board advantage out of nowhere.

Elves relies on a tribal component, a storm component, and a token generating combo. This provides three potential weaknesses, but also alternate game plans if one route to victory is shut down. Something like Ethersworn Canonist on the other side of the board can shut down Elves’ Grapeshot route to victory, but doesn’t do much to prevent Squirrel Nest token beatdown. Elves can go off on turn two fairly easily so any sort of hate needs to come down quickly if it’s going to be effective at all.

As of right now, my personal opinion is that Merfolk is the best deck in Classic. If you’re not sure what to play, and you’re comfortable at all with playing aggro-control, then I’d recommend Merfolk. Not only does this deck get to run a synergistic tribal aggro strategy, but it adds the availability of awesome disruption like Force of Will, Daze, Spell Snare, and Stifle. Æther Vial not only allows us to bring threats into play while keeping mana open for disruption, but also combines with Standstill into an amazing draw engine and dodges things like Counterspell and the Counterbalance/Sensei’s Divining Top combination.

Merfolk’s monocolor nature allows not only great mana consistency, but also a strong suite of utility lands (Wasteland, Mutavault, Mishra’s Factory). This aspect can become a weakness if your opponent is packing something like Pyroblast or Boil. The tribal nature of the deck, which is its greatest aggressive strength, can also be a weakness. Not only is Engineered Plague a problem, but if you’re unable to accumulate a couple of creatures into play at the same time then you’ll quickly realize that your creatures are sub-par on their own.

Often mono black, successful Pox lists (pioneered in the Classic tournament scene by dunkle stille) are shifting towards black-green. Pox is probably the most disruptive deck in Classic. It hits your hand with Duress, Thoughtseize, Hymn and to Tourach. It hits your creatures with Smother. It hits everything with Smallpox, Pox, Pernicious Deed, Maelstrom Pulse, Engineered Explosives, and Pithing Needle. Other than spells on the stack, Pox has the ability to take on just about everything. Land destruction in Smallpox and Wasteland combines with Crucible of Worlds for some long-term resource advantage.

The creature core of Pox is formed around Tarmogoyf, Tombstalker, and Kitchen Finks. Tarmogoyf is an all-star creature, hopefully no explanation is needed here. Tombstalker comes down on the cheap, comes with evasion, and dodges Counterbalance. Kitchen Finks helps to keep your life total up and provides some less-than-conventional card advantage. Nice Smother, got a second one?

Mono black versions generally run Pox in addition to Smallpox, Innocent Blood for additional creature control, Epochrasite as a tough-to-kill creature option, and Extirpate as graveyard control. Both versions are very strong, and bring the same basic strategy to battle. The versions that choose to run green sacrifice some consistency for the availability of more powerful options as discussed above.

Aggro Loam starts off with a high land count, Life From the Loam for recursion, and then a bunch of cards that benefit either from lands going to the graveyard or lands in the graveyard. The creature suite is a perfect example of graveyard synergy here. Countryside Crusher grows whenever a land hits the graveyard, Dark Confidant draws lands for a loss of zero life, and Tarmogoyf gets bigger the more stuff that hits your graveyard. Terravore is also often used in Aggro Loam as a giant, evasive beater thanks to land in the graveyard.

In addition to creatures, many spells in the deck also play well with the high land count. Devastating Dreams decimates the land count of both players, but Life From the Loam helps this deck recover quicker. Seismic Assault turns spare lands into Shock, and Life From the Loam into triple Shock. Burning Wish provides access to a serious toolbox of sorceries in the sideboard and provides redundancy for the deck’s most important spells.

Mox Diamond often allows Chalice of the Void to come into play for one on turn one, which is serious disruption against a large portion of Classic decks. Terminate and Maelstrom Pulse function as board control, and Burning Wish provides access to cards like Hull Breach, Jund Charm, Krosan Grip, and Chainer’s Edict in order to deal with whatever particular situation happens to come up.

The main weakness of Aggro Loam is the deck’s reliance on the graveyard. Cards like Leyline of the Void, Tormod’s Crypt, and Relic of Progenitus throw a serious monkey wrench into Life From the Loam recursion plans. If you’re playing a deck in the current Classic metagame, it’s important to have some plan for how to deal with graveyard-dependant strategies. This will only get more important when Urza’s Saga hits the scene and cards like Ill Gotten Gains and Yawgmoth’s Will enter the format.

Speaking of strategies that rely on the graveyard, no deck is guilty of this on a greater scale than Dredge. Dredge is an amazingly focused deck that trades heavy reliance on the graveyard for explosive power.

The main goal with Dredge is to get a ton of cards into your graveyard ASAP, including as many copies as possible of Bridge From Below. Narcomoebas come into play as you dredge. Flashing back Cabal Therapy or Dread Return creates even more tokens with Bridge From Below, as does reanimating Ichorid. Flame-Kin Zealot is a popular Dread Return target as a finishing blow, growing your entire team and providing haste for an immediate strike.

The obvious way to fight Dredge is by attacking the graveyard with tools like Leyline of the Void, Tormod’s Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, and Yixlid Jailer. Many cards of this style are one-shot effects that clean out a huge amount of Dredge’s accumulated advantage. Leyline of the Void is a preemptive strike that comes down on turn zero in order to prevent anything from successfully making the trip from library (or hand) to graveyard.

Speaking of prevention, the other way to attack Dredge is through their enablers. One of the major goals with this deck is to cast something like Breakthrough for zero, Lion’s Eye Diamond, or Putrid Imp on turn one as a discard enabler. Landing one of these enablers allows you to dump cards into the graveyard which gets Bridge from Below and dredgers like Stinkweed Imp online. If you’re playing against Dredge, then preventing them from resolving an enabler can stunt their plan in a serious way.This is one of the most effective ways to fight this powerful strategy.

Landstill is generally a blue/white/x control deck that runs many traditional control elements in its two main colors: Wrath of God, Moat, Force of Will, Counterspell, Spell Snare, Swords to Plowshares, and Daze. The deck’s name comes from the combination of Standstill and manlands (Mishra’s Factory, Faerie Conclave, Mutavault), which allows you to function even with the Ancestral Recall enchantment in play.

There are many different variations that run within this basic shell. Cycling Decree of Justice is another way for Landstill to put forward a strong threat under Standstill. Lately the trend in Classic seems to be towards Planeswalkers (Elspeth and Jace), who are able to operate and generate advantage both under Standstill and around Wrath of God or Humility. One of my personal favorite variations (Dreadstill) combines CounterTop and the Phyrexian Dreadnought/Stifle combination into this basic shell, although Stifle has taken a bit of backseat in Classic lately.

Control decks in this style have a ridiculous late game plan. Planeswalkers provide ongoing advantage, Decree of Justice trumps just about all strategies in the long game, Eternal Dragon is a tough-to-remove win condition, Humility and Moat shut down a large percentage of opposing offenses, Cunning Wish tutors for specific solutions, Crucible of Worlds recurs Wasteland and manlands, and Academy Ruins recurs powerful effects like Engineered Explosives. The main weakness of UW Control style decks is the early game, surviving to the late game is key to winning with this strategy.

I don’t consider any Legacy or Classic gauntlet complete without at least one aggro-control deck based on the Counterbalance/Top combo. These decklists generally start out with blue and green for playsets of Counterbalance, Tarmogoyf, and Sensei’s Divning Top. From here there are a decent number of options. Despite the terrible deck name, Baseruption is my personal favorite deck in this style. Baseruption has serious street cred – Gabriel Nassif used a deck in this style to win this year’s Legacy World Championship.

The core of this deck, as mentioned above (and in several other decks), is the Counterbalance/Sensei’s Divining Top combination. Control elements like Force of Will, Daze, Spell Snare, and Swords to Plowshares combine with card draw in Brainstorm and occasionally Ponder to form a solid backup suite of spells. Thoughtseize and/or Duress often come in the sideboard to increase early-game disruption.

Baseruption generally runs ten creature threats. Tarmogoyf is the all-star beater once again, Dark Confidant provides great card advantage and has strong synergy with Sensei’s Divning Top, and Trygon Predator evades blockers while busting up opposing CounterTop locks and other problematic enchantments/artifacts. Sower of Temptation occasionally makes the maindeck here, and often comes out of the sideboard as an additional aggressive board control option.

I’m not going to go in depth with this deck here, but instead I’ll refer you to a primer that I wrote on the Imperial Painter deck – which is a variation on Dragon Stompy. Many of the strategies remain the same.

Imperial Painter Primer

The reason to have Dragon Stompy in your gauntlet is to make sure that you’re prepared for things like Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, turn one Trinisphere, and Chalice of the Void. These are strong weapons against many decks, and you should have a gameplan for how to deal with these powerful cards.

Wrap-Up

I decided to limit myself to ten decks for this exercise, and I think I did a pretty good job of capturing the Classic metagame here.This list contains aggro decks, combo decks, control decks, and everything in between. Good luck testing with this gauntlet, familiarizing yourself with the metagame, and hopefully finding a few chinks in Classic’s armor.

Thanks for reading!

Steve Gargolinski
spgmtg@gmail.com
twitter.com/spgmtg
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