Time for an update. I have no MTG tournaments to report because I haven't been playing lately. As many of you may know, my family flew into Portland a few days ago to celebrate my law school graduation, so I haven't had much time to playtest or event think about MTG. Not that my family's presence really matters though, because the creation of Zealous Conscripts has drastically influenced my desire to play MTG---Simply put, I don't know what deck to play.

General Reflections About Zealous Conscripts

First, I am still feeling dejected about the viability of R/G Wolf Run, and about ramp strategies in general. Although I realize Zealous Conscripts aren't in every deck, the card's presence in the current metagame makes running any kind of ramp strategy inherently dangerous. It's just not fun when you wait 4-5 turns to cast a Titan (or any creature), just to have it stolen and deal damage to you. R/G Wolf Run already has trouble dealing with early aggression---relying on Slagstorm and Whipflare to sweep away armies---and it's completely viable that a Zealous Conscripts stealing a Titan will result in lethal damage. In addition, cards like Strangleroot Geist and Wolfir Avenger are extremely hard for R/G Wolf Run to kill, and such creatures are often able to deal quite a bit of damage before I'm able to cast a Titan to block. If my opponent then has a Zealous Conscripts, he simply steals the Titan for a turn and kills me with it.

Zealous Conscripts also appears to mess with any sort of Unburial Rites strategies. Casting Unburial Rites to animate a creature from the graveyard is a kind of ramp strategy on its own---the idea is to get a fatty into play as soon as possible. And just as ramp decks are now weak to Zealous Conscripts, decks based around Unburial Rites are too. I mean, what's the use of cheating a fat creature into play if my opponent can just steal it and kill me with it? Decks based around Unburial Rites lack the bomb creature (i.e., Inkwell Leviathan) that exists in other formats. For example, casting Unburial Rites on Sigarda, Host of Herons makes little sense; she costs 5 anyway and dies to easily to the clone effects which run rampant in the current metagame. Cards like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, while effective at removal, are easily killed with spot removal, clone effects, Day of Judgment effects, and once again, Zealous Conscripts.

There are obviously cards that help against Conscripts. I've thought about adding white and running Naya Wolf Run, for the addition of Cloudshift (and Day of Judgment). Cloudshift is an excellent card in Wolf Run, as it often allows you to blink your Titans, Solemns, and Huntmasters, protecting them from targeted removal like Go for the Throat. In addition, after my opponent casts Zealous Conscripts and chooses a (creature) target, I can use Cloudshift to protect the creature. The problem is that the card is sort of useless on its own, and it may just sit in my hand without a good target the entire game. Also, it would delay a Titan an extra turn, since you need to have the additional one white mana ready to Cloudshift when you play the Titan.

Another choice is Spellskite. Spellskite survives Slagstorm and Whipflare, and can stymie early attackers like Wolfir Avenger. The problem is---aside from the fact that Spellskite's ability costs 2 life to use every time---most decks will sideboard in artifact hate in the second and third games to deal with Inkmoth Nexii, Solemn Simulacrum, and Sphere of the Suns. A Spellskite will only present an additional target and will be unlikely to live long enough to prevent the Conscripts from doing its job.

There are other creatures and strategies who are more Conscript resistant. I like Grave Titan because the zombies can act as blockers. I also like token strategies because the various anthem effects make the tokens quite large, but only while they are under your control. To a lesser extent, Batterskull and Consecrated Sphinx are also good.

The real question is: Am I too paranoid about Zealous Conscripts? Is R/G Wolf Run still viable, or is it time for a change? The more I play online, the more I realize that Zealous Conscripts are a serious threat.

So, I'm trading decks. Still not sure what to play though. Any suggestions?