Unlocking the Vault #53: True-Name Nemesis in Classic

Nearly 8 weeks ago, Commander 2013 (C13) was released into the world of paper. In the most ridiculous time lag between paper and digital worlds that has ever been seen (Power 9 and pre-Invasion sets aside), C13 is finally coming online on December 20. The world has already witnessed the impact that C13 has made on both Legacy and Vintage. True-Name Nemesis and Toxic Deluge have appeared in various decklists in both formats already. We’ll now finally be able to see what kind of impact True-Name Nemesis and Toxic Deluge will have on Classic.

True-Name Nemesis (TNN) has been the talk of the town in Legacy since Legacy Champs when it first debuted. Commonly referred to “mini-Progenitus”, once the card hits the table, it’s incredibly hard to deal with. Ironically, or perhaps strategically planned, Toxic Deluge is a decent answer to TNN, among other cards. That said, the card has consistently placed well at all of the large events since C13 was released.

True-Name Nemesis in Legacy

Osyp Lebedowicz’s UR Delver deck was the runner-up in the event with 3 maindeck TNN. That tournament was held exactly 1 day after the release of C13 so it’s safe to say that supply of the card was still quite limited.

Two weeks later at GP DC, 6 of the Top 16 decks played some number of TNN either in the maindeck or in the sideboard. Owen Turtenwald won the tournament with a UWR Delver deck:

TNN has continued to do well in Star City Games Legacy Open events over the last month as well. 22 decks have Top 16′ed an SCG Open since TNN has been released, including 2 wins and 1 runner-up finish. Legacy decks utilizing TNN have included various Delver (RUG, BUG, UWR), Stoneforge Mystic (Bant, Esper, UW), and Merfolk. The one thing all of these decks have in common is that they are all “fair” decks. I never quite agreed with the connotation “fair”, since all of these decks do some unfair things, such as AEther Vial in creatures at instant speed, or search and cheat nigh unbeatable equipment into play, etc. Nonetheless, they are not trying to break the rules of the game in the same way that Show and Tell, Storm, Dredge, and other combo decks do, so I guess “fair” is the best way to describe them.

Back to the point: TNN is at its best against other fair decks. As the trump card, TNN can quickly turn an evenly matched game in the favor of the player who successfully lands TNN first, especially if they can speed up the clock by equipping it with a Batterskull or an Umezawa’s Jitte. Tempo decks, like Delver of Secrets variants, can also put TNN to good use by providing just enough disruption through countermagic, removal, and mana denial while utilizing a cheap creature threats to quickly whittle down opponent’s life totals. TNN is similar to Tarmogoyf where it can take out huge chunks of life in just a couple of swings, except that it has the added bonus of being unblockable, untargetable, unenchantable, and undamageable.

Surprisingly, to me at least, most Legacy decks with TNN are not dedicated Merfolk decks. Merfolk lords would pump TNN as well as, or better than, any equipment would. While lords don’t provide TNN with lifelink or any of the special abilities of Jitte, the goal is to reduce your opponents to zero life as quickly as possible, which lords do quite nicely. AEther Vial can also ensure that both your lords and TNN are uncounterable and can be deployed at instant speed. I suppose that the flexibility of decks like RUG and Stoneblade provide greater utility (removal, etc.) than what Merfolk can offer, which is why we aren’t seeing many winning Merfolk decks right now.

True-Name Nemesis in Vintage

Vintage has had only a couple high profile events since the release of TNN, but it has made a small splash. The Vintage Championship was won by Joel Lim piloting a Merfolk deck. His list had one TNN in the maindeck:

Other than Lim’s Merfolk deck, there aren’t many winning decks that have utilized TNN. A quick look on morphling.de and themanadrain.com showed only a dozen total tournaments since TNN was released with only a couple tournaments in which TNN posted winning results. Most have been the exact same deck that Joel Lim piloted. Noting that, however, the Muehtal event on November 24 reported that only 8 total players participated. There were 3 TNN decks in this event, and they managed to finish 2nd, 4th, and 5th. The 2nd-place deck was a Landstill build, while the 4th- and 5th-place decks were near identical BUG Fish builds:

*Note that the 15th sideboard card of the above list was absent from the source material.

Another tournament in Barcelona earlier this month had 39 players. The 3rd-place deck was a Bant Stoneforge Fish deck with 2 maindeck TNN (as well as a couple maindeck Voice of Resurgence!):

True-Name Nemesis in Classic
How is Classic situated in advance of TNN being released online? Are there any parallels that we can draw from either Legacy or Vintage? Are there entirely new possibilities opened up in Classic?

Let’s firstlook at what TNN is in Classic. TNN is a 3-drop creature that does not affect the board state when it hits the table, other than being the best non-flying blue wall ever created. Three mana is expensive for a creature in Classic. Few non-artifact 3-drops have made an impact in the format over the last 1-2 years. Knight of the Reliquary, Vendilion Clique, and Trygon Predator are the only 3-drop creatures that have seen regular play, and even that is stretching the truth a little bit. There’s been an occasional Banisher Priest, Cold-Eyed Selkie/Edric, Spymaster of Trest, and Guttersnipe, but for the most part, creatures in Classic cost 1 or 2 mana, or are cheated into play because they would be impossible to cast otherwise (side note: Yes, Lumberjacking a 5-drop into play constitutes “cheating”. Sorry, PlanetWalls.).

Thus, the barrier to reverence for TNN is quite high in Classic. When you look at it, the only 3-drop which isn’t strictly a hate card that TNN would directly compete with is Knight of the Reliquary. Knight has traditionally been found only in non-blue decks, so there is little reason for anyone to swap out their Knights for TNN. Clique is probably the most similar, and not simply because it is also 3/1, has the same casting cost, and is blue. Utilizing Clique or TNN would be a matter of preference for what you are looking to get out of the card. Clique is useful at interacting with an opponent’s hand and getting rid of a potentially problematic card, though not quite as useful as Thoughtseize.

If TNN isn’t a direct replacement for cards already found in certain Classic decks (I’m ignoring Merfolk for the time being), then where would we slot TNN in? It would appear to me that TNN’s application in Classic is more aligned to what is found in Vintage: Fish decks. Tempo decks (like those found in Legacy Delver-based decks) have not been performing well in Classic over the last year or so, perhaps because one of the best Tempo deck in Classic is actually, in a strange way, Workshop. The mana denial plan of Workshop is a much stronger Tempo strategy than one based around Wasteland and Stifle. This has as much to do about the fact that Mental Misstep is legal in Classic as it does the amount of decks that Stifle is not as useful in (Workshop and Fish).

Next, let’s look at how Classic is currently situated. There haven’t been any DEs in several weeks, but prior to that, the DEs were dominated mostly by Oath, Workshop, and Fish/Hate decks (and the occasional Dredge deck). The Top 8 of the Classic Quarter League QT #2 looked like this:

2x Workshop
Dredge
U/W Sky Hussar Fish
Bant Fish
Bant Delver
Affinity
Orcish Lumberjack Hate

And here were the results of QT #1:

Dredge
Oath
Workshop
Bant Fish
Show and Tell
4-Color Zur
Dark Depths
GWb Hate

This basically re-affirms the same metagame witnessed in the DEs, except that there are no Oath decks. What are we to glean from this information? TNN is suited to work well both with and against those Fish/Hate decks similar to the Vintage BUG/Bant decks listed above. Those types of decks leverage the best attributes of TNN (blue, untargetable/unblockable, 3-Power clock).

Here are a couple of decklists that I could see Classic players exploring early on as they test out their newly acquired TNNs:

BUG Fish decks have a couple of things going for them. First, you get to play with the best Dredge hate card (Leyline) without fear of drawing a completely dead card later in the game. BUG can also use Jailer, another effective anti-dredge card. Deathrite is an interesting “upgrade” over other mana dorks as it can interact with graveyards and provide a useful clock (or even gain some life in a pinch). Dismember is not quite as flexible as Swords to Plowshare, but doesn’t also give your opponent extra life that could provide them with another turn or two to find another answer. The tutors also help find the card that you need, especially in sideboard games.

Bant decks offer some better options over BUG decks. Stoneforge is a great way to speed up the clock for TNN but is also a decent option if you don’t happen to draw into TNN. I’m not 100% sold on the Sword of Fire and Ice over other equipment options, specifically Umezawa’s Jitte, but it’s worked for others piloting similar decks, so I’m willing to give it a shot here. Qasali, Karakas, and Swords to Plowshares are some of the best reasons to run white instead of black.

Bant decks also get some of the best sideboard cards in Classic, such as Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, and Leyline of Sanctity. I’m opting to not run Leyline here, but if Oath comes storming back, it’s worth considering again.

I’m curious if Voice of Resurgence is worth running over Qasali the way that the Vintage pilot above has done, but I worry that there aren’t enough non-Oath blue decks running around to make it worthwhile. I doubt an Oath player would be too worried about another creature on their board, since that is what they need for Oath to work anyway. It would only be a problem if there were already near lethal damage on the board anyway. If I didn’t just sell my Voices the other day, I’d give it a try.

Delver decks used to be a good way to fight off Workshop decks (Metalworker/Stax builds) in the days before Affinity took off. Delver was just fast enough to be able to put a decent clock on them, but that all changed when Affinity was discovered. Affinity is simply too fast and powerful for Delver decks, which forced Delver out of the metagame. Would TNN be able to make a difference?

Would this be a good shell for a RUG Delver list post-TNN? Would ‘Goyf + TNN and spot removal for artifacts be enough to overcome the speed of Affinity? Maybe Null Rod is needed in the board instead of the Fluxes and Recall?

How about BUG, instead of RUG?

Finally, I’d like to talk about an entirely “new” deck that could be viable with TNN. True Control has been dormant in Classic for years. The only deck that has appeared from time to time is Standstill, mostly UR, but sometimes UW. Perhaps now that there is a difficult-to-remove creature threat in TNN, true Control can make a comeback? The question is whether there is room in a Standstill list, or if a new deck needs to be created. Here are a couple of untested decks that I would like to explore:

I’m sure that these are far from finished products, but they are where I’d like to start. My love of Mox Diamond is probably misguided, but I have to somehow get Mana Drain online Turn 1, or cast TNN on Turn 2. Another idea that might be worth exploring is BUG Standstill. I don’t know what it might look lie, but I presume I would start with a planeswalker-heavy list highlighted by Liliana of the Veil and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Perhaps some number of Pernicious Deed, too.

Predictions

This has been a decklist-heavy article. I hope you enjoyed looking at possible ways to use TNN in Classic. I didn’t even get into TNN’s most straightforward deck, Merfolk. I expect that some people will try some variation of Joel Lim’s Vintage Championship deck, either with Vial or Cavern of Souls… or both.

Regardless, I think TNN is going to have some impact on the format, perhaps as early as the Invitational the day after it releases. It’s impossible to say if it will be the story of the tournament like it was for the Legacy Championship, but I expect that there will be a handful of copies amongst decks in the field. Who knows, maybe I’ll pilot him myself?

We may also see some Toxic Deluge at the Invitational. It’s not quite as “powerful” as TNN, but it has some nice applications. Sadly, Tarmogoyf and Arcbound Ravager laugh it off, but there are many, many creatures that will just crumble to a Deluge for 3-4.

If you think I missed some potential fits for TNN, or any other C13 card, please feel free to discuss in the comments!

enderfall
Clan Magic Eternal
Follow me on Twitter @enderfall