The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white."
---Samuel Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
Time for a new post. On Tuesday evening I ventured to Guardian Games for their usual Standard tournament. I scored 2 wins and 1 loss, placing 6th on tiebreaks, which earned me absolutely nothing. Nevertheless, I consider the tournament a success because, aside from the fact that I earned 7 Planeswalker Points (whoohoo!), it allowed me to test a home-brewed version of Wolf Run. Here is the decklist I sleeved up for the tournament:
4 Primeval Titan
3 Grave Titan
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Rampant Growth
4 Sphere of the Suns
3 Abundant Growth
3 Day of Judgment
3 Whipflare
2 Go for the Throat
2 Beast Within
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Forest
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
3 Copperline Gorge
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Glimmerpost
Basically, this deck is just awesome. I get to have everything that I want. Allow me to explain.
R/G Wolf Run has been underperforming as of late. Matches against RUG Midrange, Solar Flare, and Control seem to be heavily one-sided for two basic reasons, which I've catalogued in previous blog entries: R/G lacks spot removal and effective sweepers. Consecrated Sphinx, Sun Titan, and Wolfir Silverheart are all problems which can't be dealt with by Slagstorm or Whipflare, and there aren't enough copies of Beast Within to go around.
A deck played by James Gates at the TCG event this weekend gave me some ideas. You can see James's decklist here. James basically ran B/G Wolf Run, replacing Slagstorm and Whipflare with Black Sun's Zenith and replacing Inferno Titan with Grave Titan. He also added Abundant Growth to try and fix some of the mana issues. The following are my reflections regarding James' deck, and how it led to my version, listed above.
First, I have never liked Black Sun's Zenith as a sweeper in Wolf Run. It's just too slow and conditional. Early game, it is very rarely effective without a ramp spell, and the two black in the casting cost can sometimes be hard to find. Slagstorm is often just better. After all, Slagstorm does three damage to all creatures for three mana, whereas the same amount of mana pumped into Black Sun's Zenith will only give you one -1/-1 counter on all creatures.Consider the following situation: My opponent casts a first turn Champion of the Parish, second turn Gather the Townsfolk, and a third turn Honor of the Pure. Black Sun's Zenith will never really kill anything. The same holds true for a first turn Stromkirk Noble, or any undying creature...
Obviously, what Black Sun's Zenith lacks in the early game it makes up with effectiveness in the late game. Unlike Slagstorm and Whipflare, Black Sun's Zenith is able to remove those pesky creatures which come out later in the game, like Consecrated Sphinx and Sun Titan, even though it does require an enormous amount of mana to achieve the kill.
So this got me thinking, what's better than Slagstorm and Black Sun's Zenith as a sweeper? Day of Judgment of course! As long as I can produce two white mana consistently, Day of Judgment is by far the best sweeper spell in Standard. Yes, for the moment Black Sun's Zenith is better at killing Thrun, the Last Troll and Wolfir Avenger, but I don't see those creatures too often. Day of Judgment is just the best sweeper and I should run several copies of it if I can. But how will I produce white mana consistently? This brings me to my next point...
Abundant Growth. I absolutely love this card. Abundant Growth cantrips, costs only one green mana, and generally puts me one step closer to casting everything in my deck. It turns those colorless lands into painless Cities of Brass. Combined with all the other mana fixing cards in my deck (Rampant Growth, Sphere of the Suns, Solemn Simulacrum, Cavern of Souls, Primeval Titan) I rarely find myself without the right colors to cast a particular spell (so far). The only thing that sucks about Abundant Growth is that I had to cut a copy of Grave Titan and two copies of Huntmaster of the Fells from the deck to fit it. Which leads me to my next point.
Grave Titan. Yes, he's a bad ass, but I will miss Inferno Titan. There were just so many situations where Inferno Titan was awesome. For example, when my opponent casts Phantasmal Image---I'd much rather have them copy my Inferno Titan than a Grave Titan, for obvious reasons. On the other hand, Grave Titan is just so good against Zealous Conscripts. I just block with a zombie, and move on. Both Titans seem effective against U/W Delver, so there's not much difference there. I dunno. I could go back to Inferno Titan's if I really wanted to; I'm just trying Grave Titan out.
Lastly, my deck has two copies of Go for the Throat, to give it the spot removal I've always wanted. I'd add another copy if I could, but there's just no room. My deck has everything I want now; the only question is, will I have the mana to cast everything when I need it?
A quick note about the matches. I lost the first round to RUG Pod, but only because I punted. I played hastily and mistook this guy, for this guy. They look so similar! Fuck you Wizards for using the same artist. My opponent cast two Hounds of Griselbrand and it was only after I cast Day of Judgment on the following turn that I realized what they were and that I was about to take 12 damage. Again, fuck you Wizards.
The following matches I won against U/W Venser Control and U/W Delver. Might try this deck again tonight. Stay tuned!
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