Unlocking the Vault #41: Round 3 — FIGHT!

Posted on February 12, 2013 by enderfall

First things first, I’m proud to announce QT #3 of the Classic Quarter League. Details can be found here, including directions to register for the tournament. The biggest change for QT #3 is that www.gatherling.com will be hosting the tournament. They host many PREs, including some of the more prominent ones out there. Moving the registration/pairing responsibilities to Gatherling will help ease the work load on me. The season starts on March 4th, so there are about 3 weeks to prepare!

Not much has changed in Classic over the last several weeks. Last time, I introduced my BUG Control deck, and quite frankly, due to real life circumstances, I haven’t played more than a couple games in the last month. Unfortunately, we don’t have any Daily Events to discuss that would indicate any sort of change in the metagame. Affinity, Workshop, Oath, and Aggro-Control Tempo decks still rule the format. Unfortunately, Gatecrash doesn’t add anything to change up the metagame.

That’s not to say that there aren’t any Classic-playable cards in Gatecrash; it’s just that there are no format-defining cards, nor others that will push any particular borderline deck over the edge. I guess we’ve been spoiled over the last couple of years, as it seems that Gatecrash is a disappointment since there are no Snapcaster Mages, Blightsteel Colossuses, or Deathrite Shamans in the set. With that said, here is my short list of cards that could see play in Classic:

Enter the Infinite – If there were an award given out for most over-the-top card ever designed, it would be hard to argue for anything other than Enter the Infinite (‘ETI’ for short). It’s been joked that this card basically says “You win the game” on it, and let’s be real: If you can’t win the game after this card resolves, then you built your deck incorrectly or something went horribly wrong!

With a casting cost of 12, this card is never going to be cast; thus it needs to be cheated into play. There are 2 ways I can see this being cheated out, first is through Omniscience (which needs to be cheated out itself which is easily done via Show and Tell, and the other is with Dream Halls. You could also include casting either Sins of the Past or Spelltwine, but both require two things in order to cheat out ETI. First, you need to have ETI in the graveyard, and second, you need to have 6 mana available. (Spelltwine also requires your opponent to have an instant or sorcery spell in their graveyard). Both would take too long to set up.

This leaves us with Omniscience. At the end of the day, Omniscience is nearly as powerful as ETI in that if you can cheat it out, you should be able to win the game right then and there. So, why fool around with ETI when you can just win with Omniscience into Emrakul or Griselbrand? Emrakul can’t be countered, while ETI can! That’s the point: ETI is simply “win more” and is best suited as a singleton slot in a Burning Wish sideboard for Griselbrand in an Omniscience deck.

Shattering Blow – This might appear to be just another in a long line of 2-mana artifact destruction spells except that it’s not artifact destruction at all. Exiling an artifact can, in certain situations, be more powerful, such as dealing with a Tinker-bot, especially Blightsteel. Shattering Blow can also shine by exiling a Time Vault from the player with Yawgmoth’s Will or any other artifact from a Goblin Welder. It’s marginally better than a Swords to Plowshares in these cases, but 2 mana is significant. It’s harder to cast, but can’t be Mental Misstepped, though it can be Spell Snared. Tinker is at an all-time low right now, so this is sideboard material, at best.

I’ll still prefer Ancient Grudge in the current metagame and will continue to rely on StP as my Blightsteel removal spell of choice.

Hellkite Tyrant – This card was most likely designed for Commander, but as an Oath target against Workshop strategies, it has some interesting potential. Taking all of their artifacts can be quite pleasing; however, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is simply a better Oath target.

Balustrade Spy and Undercity Informer – Both of these guys provide another angle for Hermit Druid-style decks. For those unaware, Hermit decks aim to mill your entire library and Dread Return some sort of monstrous calamity that would make even Emrakul cower in fear. The latest iteration used Giant Solifuge and a Lord of Extinction to paste on a The Mimeoplasm.

While Hermit requires an untap step to be able to use his ability, both the Spy and Informer can be “active” the turn they come in to play. The trade-off is that each requires 4 mana instead of 2, which is not a small difference. Where things really get interesting is that, while Hermit only checks for basic lands, Spy and Informer look for any land to stop their mill effect. This requires Spy/Informer decks to resemble Goblin Charbelcher decks instead. Getting to 4 mana in Classic with nothing but artifact mana and Simian Spirit Guides seems like a tall task. And besides, how is this any better than Belcher?

In the end, I’m not sure that these guys are any better than Hermit. Either way, there is enough Dredge hate going around to make one hesitant to depend on the graveyard to win the game. Hermit could sideboard into a real deck to deal with Dredge hate. A land-less Spy/Informer deck will be much harder to adapt to Dredge hate, especially Leyline of the Void.

That’s about it for Classic-playable cards from Gatecrash. There are a few other cards that are worth monitoring. Among them are Blind Obedience, Illness in the Ranks, Cloudfin Raptor, Dimir Charm, and Whispering Madness.

Preparing for QT #3

Seeing that not much is going to change the metagame, we can focus on the usual suspects. That means we should expect to see some number of Affinity, Workshop, Oath, Aggro-Control, and Dredge decks. Combo is still on the outside looking in with so many Workshops running around.

In the previous QT, the breakdown for the metagame went like this:

Metagame by Deck:
7 Oath
6 Workshop
6 Jace/Tezzerator/Blue Control
5 Fish
5 GWx Bears
4 Dredge
4 Merfolk
3 Delver
2 Affinity
1 Oath/Storm
1 Pod Shop
1 Helmline Combo
1 Hermit Druid Combo
1 UW Stoneforge

I don’t see any reason not to expect a similar breakdown for this QT. In fact, I expect it to be eerily similar when all is said and done.

Let’s take a look at some typical lists for each of the most prominent archetypes in Classic:

Affinity has a lot going for it. It’s fast, disruptive, and has tools to fight any job. It’s quite amazing that it took so long for Tangle Wire to find its way into the deck, but it’s a powerful addition to the deck which requires an immediate countermagic spell, or it’ll likely be game over. If you want to win the tournament, you need to find a way to beat Affinity or simply hope that someone else will.

Calavera ran the list above to a 3-1 record in a Daily Event in early January. The deck is a pretty typical Metalworker build with some of my favorite staffs of all time: Staff of Nin and Staff of Domination.

Dredge hasn’t changed much at all recently, as ncsu31sb’s 3-1 decklist from early January indicates. Grafdigger’s Cage is still a problem for Dredge, but this deck has 2 maindeck answers with 7 more in the sideboard.

ShOath has evolved recently, and it’s possibly a direct result of the number of Cages running around. Here, FishyFellow has eschewed a full playset of Oaths for a full playset of Show and Tells. Cage be damned, FishyFellow still wants to cheat giant fatties onto the battlefield!

The rest of the deck is a fairly common ShOath deck with lots of tutors to go with some disruption and control elements. My preference is to stay with the GG Oath list and sideboard into Show and Tell when Cage is present.

Picking the right Aggro-Control deck can be difficult with many different axes to build upon. The last successful Delver deck was TommyTopDecker, who was runner-up in QT #2. There are many other variations with which one can approach a deck like this, even adding 2-3 more colors to the deck to give it some more reach.

The Rest of the Metagame

I can only imagine that Deathrite Shaman will be out in full force. Whether that’s as an aggro-control deck or as a full-on control deck, I’m not 100% positive. I put together a BUG Control list featuring Deathrite in my last article, which you can find here.

Of course, there was also the QT #2-winning WGB Hate Bear deck piloted by Duranoth. It will be surprising if no one tries to make some changes to the deck and run it back for this upcoming QT. Here is his list as a reference:

There have also been some Tezzeret Control lists that recently popped up. Here is a list that Cownose took to a 3-1 finish in a Daily Event in early January:

Cownose’s deck eschewed the normal Tezzeret the Seeker for his Agent of Bolas counterpart. With Baleful Strix, Tezz 2.0 can transform it into a formidable 5/5 flyer, or it can be used on another artifact to continue the beatdown. Original Tezz is better at searching up the missing piece for Time Vault-Voltaic Key, although getting to 5 mana is slightly more difficult without Moxen.

One final card I expect to make an impact on this QT is Abrupt Decay. There is little this card can’t do. I’m setting the over-under line for copies of Abrupt Decay in the Top 8 at 9.5.

Conclusion

With that, I’d like to make a prognostication for the decks in the Top 8. Please feel free to make your own predictions in the comment section below! My prediction for the Top 8 will be:

1 Affinity
2 Oath
2 Workshop
2 Deathrite Decks
1 Concoction made up by PlanetWalls

enderfall
Clan Magic Eternal
Follow me on Twitter @enderfall

 

  1. I appreciate your confidence in my concoctions, and I must say, I’m not certain that the Top 8 won’t be entirely comprised of PlanetWalls concoctions!

    Then again, there’s only one of me, and it would be awfully unlikely for everyone in the Top 8 to be playing Battle of Wits!