Eternal Conflict – Decks of December 2009

Posted on January 1, 2010 by spg

First and foremost, Happy New Year!

Today’s article could be considered part three in the “Intro to Classic” series that I’ve been working on for the past month or so. I’m not really sure how many entries there will be total in this ever-developing series – but for now we’re up to three. I started off this sequence with a history of Classic, moved onto a complete checklist of cards to acquire if you’re interested in the Eternal formats, and today I’ll be taking a look at a bunch of decks that form the Classic metagame in late December of 2009. First you get the history, then the cards, and finally the decks which they comprise. What better way to usher in 2010!

In Classic’s post-MED3 hangover, not many tournaments have been firing. This happens every once in a while in formats other than Standard, and represents the natural ebb and flow of interest in the configuration of your sixty constructed cards. In mid December, Wizards dropped the ticket cost for Classic events – and started firing the Eternal constructed tournaments once again. If you weren’t aware, prizes and EV also have something to do with the interest level of a format!

Today I decided to take a look at the decklists that have done well in these mid-to-late December Classic tournaments. I’m going to give a rundown of the lists that jumped out to me, with some commentary on why. If you’re interested in playtesting Classic, or preparing for a tournament, then this article represents a gauntlet that’s indicative of what you can expect to play if you shuffle up for a Classic tournament.

A lot of my discussion below revolves around my thoughts on how these decks are situated in the current metagame, so expect a bunch of talk about Dredge and Oath. Let’s get started!

Dredge Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt format

(To load a .txt deck into Magic: Online’s Deck Editor, click “Load”, select “Local Text Deck”, find the location of the downloaded deck file and double-click the deck.)

I’m not going to say too much about this deck, since I’ve talked about it a decent amount in the past few articles. Javasci’s list passes on the Force of Will control route, and instead packs Bloodghast plus Ichorid alongside the full playset of Dread Return and a serious number of reanimation targets: double Flame-Kin Zealot, Iona, Shield of Emeria, and triple Sphinx of Lost Truths.

I’m a bit surprised at the low quantity of discard outlets in Javasci’s deck, packing only Bazaar of Baghdad, two copies of Careful Study, and the conditional Cephalid Coliseum (for reference, Yasooka’s deck runs a full fifteen discard outlets). I’d be less surprised if the three Street Wraiths were Serum Powders for added consistency via the ability to mulligan aggressively into Bazaar of Baghdad. I’m also a bit surprised to see Careful Study chosen over Breakthrough, since my first instinct would be that this list would favor Breakthrough‘s explosiveness. I haven’t tested this specific list though, so take this with a grain of salt.

Here’s some bonus tech you can run in your Dredge lists: Forbidden Orchard as rainbow land to fight Oath!

Speaking of Oath…

Oath Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt format

Oath of Druids is the hot new card in town, and here’s an example implementation from cdiegor that shows some of the potential power of the archetype. The basic idea here is pretty simple:

1.) Play Oath of Druids.

2.) Make sure that your opponent has a creature. Using Forbidden Orchard to cast Oath of Druids is a great way to accomplish this.

3.) Put a powerful creature or two into play.

4.) Play some control while attacking for the win.

One of the cool things about Oath is that you get some leeway in the choice of which giant scary creatures to cheat into play. Oath has been a strong deck in Vintage for quite some time and I’ve seen tons of different creatures Oathed into play: Tidespout Tyrant, Hellkite Overlord, Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Simic Sky Swallower, Blazing Archon, Progenitus, and Darksteel Colossus are a few examples.

cdiegor’s deck plays Iona, Shield of Emeria and Platinum Angel in the main deck as Oath targets, and they are two fine choices. Ever since Zendikar hit, Iona has been Oath target numero uno – and for good reason! Iona can always shut down a huge percentage of your opponent’s deck, and can occasionally shut them down completely. Platinum Angel is a gigantic stop sign for your opponent and requires a fairly specific answer if you’re going to lose the game. Platinum Angel has the added benefit of being a strong target for Tinker, in a deck that runs plenty of artifacts.

You’ll notice that this list is built into a control shell with cards like Force of Will, Mana Drain, the AWESOME Spell Pierce, and Duress. After you manage to put some power into play via Oath, the game plan is to utilize these control elements and ride your big creatures to victory. This deck is probably the closest you’ll find to tier 1 control in modern day Classic.

I played cdiegor’s decklist (and some variations) in about 10 2-man tournaments this week, and had a blast. Tune in next time for some more complete thoughts on my findings.

Onto the next deck!

Mox Aggro Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt format

In Vintage there’s a class of aggressive creature-based Prison decks that are currently creeping in on top-tier status. whiffy penguin’s list is an adaptation of these decks for the current Classic metagame – specifically targeting Oath. Mox Diamond and Elvish Spirit Guide help to ensure that threats hit the table quickly, Qasali Pridemage easily takes down Oath of Druids while still beating in for two or three, and the full playset of Wasteland helps to keep Forbidden Orchard (and Bazaar of Baghdad) off of the table.

One of the coolest aspects of whiffy penguin’s deck is the color diversification of creature removal between Swords to Plowshares and Diabolic Edict. Let’s say that your opponent manages to use Oath of Druids to put Iona into play. One of his or her main goals is to choose an Iona color that will prevent the Angel from being removed or neutralized. If you choose to lock out black from whiffy penguin’s deck, then Iona goes down to Swords to Plowshares. If you choose White, then Diabolic Edict can still be cast. Pretty sweet deckbuilding!

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  1. Mox Aggro by whiffy penguin is just the type of deck I was trying to build! But I was doing it wrong, because I don’t have any Mox Diamonds. Doh. About that same deck, what are the Null Rods in the sidebaord for? I noticed that the smallpox deck had them too.

    Thanks for the decklists and summaries!

  3. Null Rods were a hold over from the original vintage deck. in classic they function as a further way to beat up on combo decks. The uses are exactly as spg said. They do turn off your own Mox Diamonds, however turning off every win condition in painter/stone and helm line, while also slowing belcher and storm to a crawl from turn 1 make it worth it.

    @Katastrophe – Mox Diamond is essential to the decks performance. In vintage these four slots are 3 moxen and a Lotus, obviously better then Diamond but i work with what i have. They with the help of Elvish Spirit Guide it allows you to be fast enough to actually disrupt decks that don’t play “fair”. In addition to this they turn off Wasteland and Strip Mine in the decks that do play “fair”. In essence they give you the speed that “fair” decks lack to actually compete against dredge oath and combo.
    Also you side out the Jittes if u side in the Null Rods, but anyone who follows “Decks of the Week” or mtgonline will notice that I dropped them from the sideboard for the 1st event of the new year.