Standard

Interesting New Innovation from US Nationals

Rx Constructed with Noah Long #3

image from manadeprived.typepad.com

by Noah Long

Noah has been extremely busy, but he drops by to give some quick thoughts on a few new decks from US Nationals that piqued his interest.  Have you been trying out these fresh brews?  Let us know in the comments section!

First off I’d like to apologize for not writing last week as I had my first week back at work and I also had a function on the weekend which went from 10am – 11pm Friday to Sunday. Let’s just say I was pretty busy.

This week I’d like to look at a couple US Nats top 8 decks which really stood out to me as interesting innovations. I know the format is rotating soon but I’d like to give some mention anyways because whatever the deck, we can always learn from past decks and apply them to newer formats.

The first deck I’d like to talk about is the Dredgevine list that David Ochoa and Brad Nelson both top 8ed US Nats with.

Dredgevine

3 Drowned Catacomb
6 Forest
3 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Enclave Cryptologist
4 Extractor Demon
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Hedron Crab
4 Merfolk Looter
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Renegade Doppelganger
1 Sedraxis Alchemist
4 Vengevine

Sideboard
3 Nature's Claim
4 Obstinate Baloth
2 Pithing Needle
3 Sleep
3 Unified Will

I gold fished this for a while and am totally convinced by David Ochoa’s comments about this list, “the deck has the most broken draws in the format… most people wouldn’t be prepared for the deck”.

Ideally the deck revolves around an alive Fauna Shaman discarding Vengevines and Extractor Demons to get Renegade Doppelgangers. The synergy of Renegade Doppelganger combined with Vengevine and/or Extractor Demon is very, very powerful as the deck can win on turn 5-6 fairly consistently even through minor disruption.

Overall I do not know much about the list but I thought I’d make a point of saying it looks awesome and I can’t wait to play more with it!

The next list I’d like to mention is Eric Froehlich’s take on Naya Force which help him top 8 US Nats as well:

Naya Force

4 Arid Mesa
5 Forest
3 Mountain
4 Plains
4 Raging Ravine
2 Stirring Wildwood
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Verdant Catacombs

4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Primeval Titan

2 Ajani Vengeant
4 Destructive Force
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Gideon Jura
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Path to Exile
4 Rampant Growth
4 Trace of Abundance

Sideboard
3 Celestial Purge
3 Day of Judgment
4 Obstinate Baloth
2 Realm Razer
3 Ricochet Trap

I like how this list is constructed. Just looking at this deck lets me see how strong this could be in a UW/Mythic/Naya meta which everyone was probably expecting.

First of all, other then the 8 Ramp spells and 3 Path to Exiles, every single card in the main deck is more or less a must counter for any control deck. The list runs 9 Planeswalkers which are all very synergistic with Destructive Force. This list also runs Knight of the Reliquary along side Primeval Titan making the Destructive Forces even more valuable. After board the list gains the help of Realm Razor and Ricochet Trap which should be enough to put any UW player out of commission.

Against Aggro this deck should also have a strong match up as the main deck removal package combined with the Walkers is very balanced and the SB gives the list 3 more Wrath effects to really seal the deal.

I could see this list not having a very strong match up against the Combo or other Ramp decks in the format. Combo would just ignore what this deck tries to do and go off faster and the Ramp decks could easily out draw them if they’re playing blue for Jace or easily lose to Valakut out racing them. Unfortunately for Eric he played against eventual 3rd place John Kolos’s Mono Green Eldrazi Ramp list that played main deck All is Dust. All of Dust destroys all of Eric’s Planeswalkers and more ramp spells basically negate Eric’s Destructive Force plan.

Overall I like it but it needs to find a better game against Combo and other Ramp variants.

Speaking about ramp, here's the Mono Green Eldrazi Ramp list that John Kolos played to a 3rd place finish at US Nats:

Eldrazi Ramp

4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Eye of Ugin
13 Forest
4 Khalni Garden
1 Mystifying Maze
3 Tectonic Edge

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Primeval Titan
1 Terastodon
2 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

3 All Is Dust
1 Ancient Stirrings
4 Cultivate
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Explore
2 Rampant Growth
4 Summoning Trap

Sideboard
2 Autumn's Veil
1 Back to Nature
1 Fog
3 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Nature's Claim
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Pelakka Wurm
3 Relic of Progenitus

Other then the SB being a little all over the place, I think this is my favorite new list from this past weekend. I’m sure the SB makes sense when explained so I’m sure he could convince me otherwise if I talked to him about it.

The cards which really stand out to me in this list are All is Dust and Summoning Trap. Summoning Trap is so powerful against most Control lists and combined with Eldrazi monsters, Primeval Titans and a couple 1 ofs, this list looks extremely exciting and lots of fun to play! All is Dust right now is at it's hottest for me. Noble Hierarch/Birds deck are all over the place as well as other decks with multiple Planeswalkers or Big Fatty Boom-Booms. All is Dust even deals with Pyromancer's Ascensions so don't count it out in any match up.

As for the other decks out there the majority of them didn't do much for me as far as innovation is concerned but the future always has room for new and exciting ideas which I can't wait to discover and hear about!

Let me know if there's a specific topic you want me to write about in one of my articles. I'm not very active in Magic at the moment so please let me know and I'll look into the topic then write about it! You can let me know via email:

baba_baba_33@hotmail.com

Ok, I'm officially out of time. I now need to go play some ball hockey and kick some butt! We're 5th heading into our first playoff game tonight against the 4th place team. Wish us luck, and I'll let you know how we do.

'Till, next week gentlemen,

Noah Long

PS::: I'm now back after Hockey sending this to KYT… We won 7-4 and are going on to play the 1st place team next week! I scored 1 Goal and 3 Assists, DING!

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