Welcome back to the Tree of Tales. Gather round, and we will begin. I know I promised I’d spin some yarn about the impact of New Phyrexia on limited, but instead I have decided to write about something a little more dear to me, a new archetype of deck that looks quite promising.
It revolves around the combination of a few cards printed in the new set, Myr Superion and Birthing Pod. When you look at a creature like Myr Superion, you can’t help but wonder if that huge body attached to that tiny mana cost is breakable in some way. A 5/6 for 2 colorless mana puts it in the same category of Tarmogoyf, at least until you look at his drawback. Being forced to use creatures to cast him is a pretty undeniable wrench in the plans, but there are several ways to get around this.
The first is Birthing Pod, the other card I listed earlier. This card enables you to sacrifice a one casting cost creature, bringing the huge 5/6 directly onto the board, ready to smash face a turn from then. This really is a pretty effective strategy, as there are tons of ways to play Birthing Pod on turn 2, all of which revolve around playing one casting cost creatures. Pretty convenient huh?
Aside from the Pod, you can simply cast the giant myr by playing him using mana from creatures as the card suggests. Joraga Treespeaker, Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise, and Lotus Cobra all fit this bill, and several of them also allow themselves to transform into him via Pod. I’d call that a win-win every time. Playing a 5/6 on turn 2 is so rediculous I won’t even get into it. That’s actually significantly better than playing a Tarmogoyf on turn 2 in almost every single situation, as he will beat face sooner as a huge fattie.
So when you begin to look at building a deck using these cards, you find that there is an essential core to this deck. It contains the following:
| (20) 4 Joraga Treespeaker 4 Birds of Paradise/Llanowar Elves 4 Lotus Cobra 4 Myr Superion 4 Birthing Pod |
So that entails the bare core of the deck, the only truly essential cards. Interestingly enough, this idea lends itself to several different routes, all of which have merit depending on your goals. Day of Judgment and effects similar are always something to watch for, although Birthing Pod gives you much better reach, as a top-decked Treespeaker can turn into a Superion. Your pace dictates that you will be the aggressor, and your deck choices should reflect this fact. The current top dawg in the format (Caw-Blade) cannot match the speed of this deck, and will be forced to rely on hard control as a means to win this match. Other aggro variants will usually be slower than you, but can also be problematic, as cards like Lightning Bolt can severely impact your game plan. Due to the size of your creatures, you can usually play the mid-range role in these match-ups, as your sheer size will win the game.
Keeping this in mind, the next step is to look at each color and see what they offer you to further your direct game plan.
Green
Vengevine – For obvious reasons, will be hated out more often, but still solid.
Leatherback Baloth – a 4/5 for GGG, definitely a solid beater, but only in Mono-Green.
Garruk Wildspeaker – Beasts, Mana and Overrun, just right for this deck.
Beast Within – Instant speed Vindicate that gives them a pretty irrelevant creature. Yes.
Fauna Shaman – Another way to dig fatties out, works well with Vengevine.
Acidic Slime – Creeping Mold on a death-touch Stick.
Blue
Jace, the Mind Sculptor – Duh!
Preordain – Smooths out draws, helps you find the answers you need cheaply.
Mana Leak – A much better mid-range counterspell than for pure control, which makes it perfect for our uses.
Spreading Seas – Pretty good if your strategy is to deny mana via Acidic Slime and Beast Within.
Frost Titan – More mana denial on a pretty huge stick, also answers problematic permanents.
Black
Go for the Throat – ……..
Phyrexian Crusader – Pretty beast if your opponent doesn’t have an answer. Really beast.
Bloodghast – Amazing with Fauna Shaman, recurring off landfall after being used to find a better creature.
Discard (IoK, Duress, Despise) – Good for disrupting opponents plans, helps to further your own agenda.
Abyssal Persecutor – Really good when you can just get rid of him whenever you want.
White
Stoneforge Mystic (and friends) – We all know what these do, period.
Baneslayer Angel – Can be fetched off a Vengevine with Pod, which isn’t bad. She’s still pretty good, despite her underplayed status. SoWaP will hurt this a bit, but oh well.
Red
Burn (Lightning Bolt, Burst Lightning, Arc Trail, etc.) – Still pretty good, especially with equipment getting used so much.
Inferno Titan – Still really good at times, but probably not the best of the Titans in a deck like this.
Raging Ravine – Always nice to have a land that beats face hard.
So after analyzing all this, it becomes clear that Red would be best if used in a three color combination (such as RUG) in a deck such as this, supplying Raging Ravine and Lightning Bolt. Blue offers some of the best, with Jace 2.0 and friends supplying strong assistance. White gives it the same mid-range power that it gives Caw-Blade, making each creature more powerful. Black offers the most aggressive cards in nature, but also some very real card advantage in the form of Bloodghast, as well as good removal, so it is not to be scoffed at. Even mono-green has possibility, as it can simply run a chain up to a huge fatty pretty easily, and would offer pretty strong threats.
I personally like a U/G mana disruption strategy. My decklist would look something like this if played:
U/G Food Chain
| Lands (24) 8 Forest 4 Island 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Scalding Tarn Creatures (24) 3 Joraga Treespeaker 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Lotus Cobra 4 Myr Superion 4 Vengevine 3 Acidic Slime 2 Frost Titan Artifacts (4) 4 Birthing Pod Instants (4) 4 Beast Within Planeswalkers (4) 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
This list would seek to attack mana, using Beast Within and Acidic Slime to great profit. Using Birthing Pod, you can turn Vengevines into Acidic Slimes, thus continually destroying land and disrupting opposing game plans. Coupling this with the aggressive nature of the creatures in the deck and Jace 2.0, it can be a pretty difficult deck to deal with, often beating you before you even feel like you’ve set up. You lose a couple lands in the first 5 turns, and suddenly the game doesn’t look so well, especially with an opponent fetching up either more mana denial or huge beaters.
In either case, there are literally tons of strategies that stem from this interaction. Some lists may run a lower number of Superions and attempt to use the Pod to abuse come-into-play effects, chaining them together in an extremely profitable fashion. Expect these cards to find their way up in value, as this interaction has been noted by many players this week, and may end up being the format defining cards from this set. They certainly appear to have the reach necessary to close the gap between aggro and mid-range, which is really all you need.
I was forced to cancel my trip to Orlando this weekend due to a work snafu. Oh well. As a consolation, I bought 4 boxes of New Phyrexia, and plan to draft it out this weekend. After doing so, I will have a much better feel for the limited aspect of this set, and will definitely have some thoughts on the Limited side of this set. I’ve been told it’s great fun, so here’s hoping. In either case, 4 foil Surgical Extractions = Winning, so everything else is just gravy. Anyway, until next week, thanks for joining me at the Tree.
-Mike