Hi, my name is Johnathan and I’m addicted to Blue.
This realization snuck up on me, but I took a look back over the past year and a half and it hit me: every deck that I’ve sleeved up for a PTQ, FNM, GP (GPT) or sanctioned competitive event has had blue in it. I’ve played [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card] in every Standard, Extended, and Legacy deck from the day he was printed up until the day he was banned in Standard. Was this wrong? Actually, no, I don’t think so. The power level was high enough, and fit into my comfort zone (control)so much that NOT playing him would have been a mistake.
But post-banning? Why would I still play Blue in Standard? I tried to adapt my pre-banning UW Blade-Blade deck, but ultimately it didn’t have enough late-game punch and couldn’t close out games. There are 4 primary good blue decks right now (UB Control, UR Twin, UR Pyromancer Ascension, UW Caw-Blade) and they all leverage the 2 best blue cards in Standard: [card]Preordain[/card] and [card]Mana Leak[/card]. But do I play an entire colour for just two cards? I’m not sold on these decks (exception: after watching Hayne play Pyromancer Ascension I want to try it). I hadn’t played a deck that didn’t have counterspells in it for a year in a half. I needed to prove to myself that I could play a non-blue deck properly. Balance is important.
Here is the list I sleeved up for the PTQ on July 30, 2011:
[deck title=Junk]
[Creatures]
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Blade Splicer
4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Sun Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Dismember
2 Doom Blade
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Gideon Jura
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Stirring Wildwood
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sunpetal Grove
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
2 Tectonic Edge
3 Forest
3 Plains
2 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Kor Firewalker
4 Memoricide
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Day of Judgment
3 Nature’s Claim
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
I think White is very strong right now. White gives you:
- [card]Squadron Hawk[/card]
- [card]Blade Splicer[/card]
- [card]Oblivion Ring[/card]
- [card]Hero of Bladehold[/card]
- [card]Emeria Angel[/card]
- [card]Gideon Jura[/card]
And you see these cards show up again and again in many white decks right now. [card]Blade Splicer[/card] is the nut-high against Vampires. [card]Hero of Bladehold[/card] is a must-kill-right-away creature. [card]Emeria Angel[/card] produces a never-ending stream of 1/1 fliers. [card]Oblivion Ring[/card] is really good against any deck that doesn’t run [card]Into the Roil[/card].
NOTE: this list is extremely similar to the list Ari Lax posted. I was in the middle of brewing when that list came out and I took a fair amount of inspiration from that. It ended up being 71/75 of that list. I am not trying to steal credit.
—–
So, I showed up with a largely untested list, having not run it through a Standard gauntlet. However, as it happens, I played against 7 distinct, (mostly) relevant matchups – the PTQ was my first gauntlet. The only relevant matchups I didn’t play were UR Pyro/Twin, Birthing Pod, and Tempered Steel. I played against:
- Big Red
- Caw-Blade
- BR Vampires
- Mono-Green Poison
- Mono-Red Goblins
- Valakut
- UB Control
The field is quite diverse right now. Control decks can’t pack highly-specific, highly-effective answers until the metagame stabilizes. US Nationals showed that Caw-Blade is the real deal, but not necessarily because the deck is broken, but because Aggro-Control (the best archetype in Magic) is a deadly weapon in the hands of masters that allows them to adapt to whatever deck their opponent brings. I don’t think pure control is a good choice and I remain unconvinced Blue is necessary.
“People like control because they think it shows that they’re good Magic players. Active decks, on the other hand, produce threats, and control decks must have the right answer to the right threat. If not, they’re in trouble… while there are wrong answers, there are no wrong threats.” – Dave Price, known as “the king of beatdown”.
Round 1: Big Red
I lose the die roll.
Game one he leads with Mountain, go, so I put him on either Mono-Red with a slow start, or Twin. Turn two he plays an [card]Everflowing Chalice[/card], and I am a little surprised. I get down a [card]Lotus Cobra[/card]. Turn 3 I land two [card]Squadron Hawk[/card]s. I fail to draw enough land to play my [card]Gideon Jura[/card] and his [card]Inferno Titan[/card] kills 5 of my creatures, then me.
Game two I get [card]Kor Firewalker[/card] down on turn 2, and turn 3 [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] + [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card]. He plays out 2 more turns and then scoops.
Game three I make two key mistakes. Mistake one is I play out a Sword on a turn where I can’t equip it and attack (due to constrained mana) and his [card]Manic Vandal[/card] is able to come into play and kill it for value. Since it is, in essence, the only artifact card in my deck (except [card]Blade Splicer[/card] tokens) and he plays several mana artifacts I should have slow-rolled that Sword. Mistake number two is in the late game I put him on having [card]Inferno Titan[/card] and make a conservative play; playing around a blow-out that would kill me. Two turns later, for some reason, I decide to go for it and “make him have it” and die to Inferno Titan. Oops. I was probably dead in 2 more turns unless I drew a removal spell or bomb anyway, but I didn’t play to all my outs, I tried to get the quick victory and I paid for it.
0-1
Round 2: Caw-Blade
I lose the die roll.
Game 1 we both start with [card]Blade Splicer[/card]s, then I follow up with Hero. He doesn’t draw that many creatures and I overwhelm him, using my [card]Stirring Wildwood[/card]s aggressively.
Game 2 takes at least 20 minutes and is very close. He gets [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] and so do I. He then draws a [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card], which I can’t answer, and [card]Elspeth Tirel[/card] a couple turns later. Luckily, I have [card]Gideon Jura[/card] to keep the sword from hitting me. For 5 of his turns the game revolves around Gideon; neither of us draw a “trump” card. Eventually I get overwhelmed, as my [card]Doom Blade[/card] and [card]Dismember[/card] essentially get stranded in my hand. (stupid protection from black sword mumble grumble grumble)
I start Game 3 with 10 minutes on the clock, and we start playing speed Magic. I have a [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] into fetchland allowing turn 3 [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] and [card]Blade Splicer[/card], whereas he just has his own [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] in play. Based on the time we have left, I think I can win if I just “all in” and commit to the board. He doesn’t hit his fourth land drop until one turn too late and I kill him thanks to my Wildwood post-[card]Day of Judgment[/card], on turn 6.
1-1
Round 3: BR Vampires
I lose the die roll.
Game 1 I draw maybe one land and lose.
Game 2 I draw two of my [card]Blade Splicer[/card]s into [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] and win.
Game 3 is actually quite close – there was one turn where he dropped a pre-combat Gatekeeper with kicker, and I currently had a [card]Blade Splicer[/card] token and a [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] left in play. My life total was 12 and I was going to take 5 damage if I didn’t block (2 of them were [card]Bloodghast[/card]s, which aren’t very profitable to block), I had no lands in hand, 4 land in play, and a Garruk and a [card]Sun Titan[/card] in hand. I bet on drawing a land that came in untapped, so I had something like 13 live draws in my deck. Luckily I hit and then was able to play [card]Sun Titan[/card] into [card]Blade Splicer[/card], and won the game.
2-1
Round 4: Mono-Green Infect
I lose the die roll.
Game 1 he goes turn 2 [card]Ichorclaw Myr[/card], and I have turn 2 [card]Squadron Hawk[/card]. Turn 3 he plays an [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] and attacks. I decide not to block, assuming I was about to take 5 infect or so. MISTAKE!!! [card]Groundswell[/card]? Yep. [card]Groundswell[/card]? Yep. [card]Mutagenic Growth[/card]? Yep. Take 11.
Game 2 I have turn 2 [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] and he has an [card]Infiltration Lens[/card] – so when I decide to block many of these creatures to avoid death, he draws 2 cards each time. I draw zero lands, and after 4 [card]Squadron Hawk[/card]s and a [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] sacrifice themselves for the cause, I lose.
2-2
So, at 2-2, I am out. However, I feel that my draws have been sub-par and I want to see more of what the deck is capable of – plus I’m still learning the deck. I keep playing.
Round 5: Mono-Red Goblins
I lose the die roll.
Game 1 he mulligans to 4. I win.
Game 2 I have a good start, with [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] into [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] into [card]Gideon Jura[/card]. He uses a [card]Goblin Grenade[/card] to kill the Gideon (he has to or else Gideon will run away with the game) and this gives me the ability to stabilize, and win.
3-2
Round 6: Valakut
I win the die roll.
Game 1 my opponent keeps a hand without a second green source other than his [card]Overgrown Battlement[/card], which I kill. He gets a second Battlement, and I kill that too. He ends the game without a second green source.
Game 2 he goes turn two Battlement, I get turn two [card]Lotus Cobra[/card]. He goes turn three [card]Explore[/card], and I can smell the incoming Green Monster next turn. Luckily, I draw a land that comes in untapped, and am able to cast my [card]Memoricide[/card] on turn three. His hand: [card]Verdant Catacombs[/card] X 2, and TWO [card]PRIMEVAL TITAN[/card]S. Must be nice, right?
4-2
Round 7: Blue-Black Control
I win the die roll.
Game 1 I have too many threats for him and an explosive start. He lands a Wurmcoil, but I have an [card]Oblivion Ring[/card] for it, and win.
While sideboarding, I realize I basically have nothing to bring in. The matchup is already quite good, perhaps one of the best matchups. I decide to bring in one [card]Memoricide[/card], just so that I can see his deck in game 2 (probably naming [card]Mana Leak[/card] or [card]Into the Roil[/card]). I didn’t draw it, but I think this was a fine choice so that even if I lost I had information going into game 3.
Game 2 I get my Thrun down on turn 4, and he has no answer.
5-2
So I went 5-2, and the decks I lost to were the ones that are least likely to show up: Big Red and Mono-Green Poison. The record was good enough for a first run of the deck, and I punted a bunch of games away, plus I found I was often getting land-screwed. I also found that I needed more fliers, to connect with Swords and also maybe another sword needed to be added. This is the version I ran at the PTQ on August 6, 2011:
Craw-Blade (Get it? Because [card]Craw Wurm[/card] is Green!)
[deck title=Craw-Blade]
[Creatures]
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Blade Splicer
2 Emeria Angel
1 Hero of Bladehold
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Sun Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Dismember
2 Doom Blade
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Gideon Jura
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Stirring Wildwood
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sunpetal Grove
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Forest
3 Plains
2 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Kor Firewalker
4 Memoricide
3 Nature’s Claim
2 Day of Judgment
2 Obstinate Baloth
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
Notes:
That Hero should have been an [card]Emeria Angel[/card], but I was still in a little bit of a testing phase, and I wanted to give Hero one last chance.
I added [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card] because it was very good against Caw-Blade before, so why not now?
I added 1 [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card], to bring the land total to 26.
With this many fetchlands in the deck, [card]Emeria Angel[/card] was awesome.
Round 1: Caw-Blade
I lose the die roll.
Game 1 I keep a hand without a lot of business, but with a lot of reactive answers ([card]Dismember[/card], [card]Doom Blade[/card] X2) and a [card]Squadron Hawk[/card]. After I hit him with the first Hawk, he plays [card]Timely Reinforcements[/card]. My one-for-one removal is not super effective and he plays a second Reinforcements after a [card]Day of Judgment[/card].
Game 2 isn’t close as I have Cobra into Hawk X 2 into [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card] (with enough mana left over to pay for the [card]Mana Leak[/card] thanks to a fetchland).
Game 3 goes a little longer, but he taps out for a [card]Sun Titan[/card], which I [card]Doom Blade[/card], and then drop Garruk. He has no answer (I don’t think he was running [card]Oblivion Ring[/card]).
1-0
Round 2: Mono-Green Poison (Working Title: Suckerpunch)
This is the SAME GUY from the PTQ the weekend before. I assume he is playing the same deck, and keep an opening hand accordingly. I am right.
I win the die roll. (I am mentally high-fiving myself when I roll this 11, because in this matchup that puts him way behind)
Game one is pretty close, as I am playing around the Suckerpunch (you could say I had “The Fear”, but my rebuttal would be that it’s the only way I’m losing this match, and it’s appropriate to play around). Only one creatures ever gets through my endless stream of chump-blockers on which he promptly plays [card]Vines of Vastwood[/card] (kicked). He gets a [card]Livewire Lash[/card], and gets two damage out of it. He drops a [card]Throne of Geth[/card], which is his last card in hand. He now has 3 artifacts and I am at 8 poison. I don’t quite have lethal on the board but I have a lot of damage but he has an Ichorclaw Myr back to block. Luckily I have an [card]Oblivion Ring[/card] in my hand and I end the game at 9 poison.
Game two is not close. [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] into [card]Blade Splicer[/card] into [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] & [card]Blade Splicer[/card] # 2. I also have a [card]Dismember[/card].
2-0
Round 3: A wet sponge *
I win the die roll.
Game one I get stuck on three lands and lose to the wet sponge as it doesn’t produce much of a clock and has no disruption and it kills me on turn 9. My Hawks, a [card]Blade Splicer[/card] and a late [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] stall, but eventually they are sponged to death. I draw no removal.
Game two I mull to 6 and keep a three-lander and don’t draw another land. The wet sponge kills one of my lands for the “rub-ins”.
2-1
Round 4: Dan Kramer with RUG-Twin-Pod
I lose the die roll.
Game one I have a [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] start, but he has Birds into [card]Spellskite[/card], into [card]Birthing Pod[/card], and he Pods into [card]Cunning Sparkmage[/card] and kills my [card]Lotus Cobra[/card]. I had a fetchland in hand, and a Gideon to play off it. Sparkmage kills all of my Hawks, and I lose.
Game two I have an average start with Hawks, but he is having problems hitting a blue source (this becomes apparent later in the game, only by turn 5 or 6 did I realize he had no access to blue, he had 3 or 4 different lands that produced R/G and I was really only paying attention to his [card]Raging Ravine[/card]) and I get a sword on one of the Hawks, and win.
Game three he goes turn one Forest, Birds. I [card]Dismember[/card] it on my turn. He misses his second land drop and I play [card]Squadron Hawk[/card]. He plays a Birds on turn 3, and I [card]Doom Blade[/card] it. He scoops a couple turns afterwards after failing to draw a land. Kind of a lame win, but meh.
3-1
Round 5: Mono-White Control (Flores’ list, I’m pretty sure)
I win the die roll.
Game one I buy my ticket to Magical Christmas Land:
Turn one: [card]Stirring Wildwood[/card] — he plays [card]Emeria, the Sky Ruin[/card]
Turn two: [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] — he plays a chalice for 1
Turn three: play [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] #2, Fetchland into Garruk, make a beast, attack for 2 — he plays land then [card]Pilgrim’s Eye[/card]
Turn 4: I use Garruk’s -3 to draw 3 cards, and I draw into a fetchland. I play the fetchland, [card]Sun Titan[/card] returning fetchland, Gideon, [card]Dismember[/card] his blocker, and swing for 7.
He scoops.
Game two I punt it away, and I am so angry at myself that I don’t really want to talk about it. Did you know proliferate can increase the counters on a planeswalker by one? It’s true!
Game three I play [card]Memoricide[/card] on [card]Sun Titan[/card], and I hit one in his hand. I have him down to 6, when he plays an [card]Elspeth Tirel[/card] and gains back some life before I can kill it. Time is called. I am about 3 attack steps short of killing him but he is at no cards in hand and with no [card]Sun Titan[/card]s in his deck. I should have played faster in game 3 or better in game 2.
3-1-1
Round 6: Pyromancer Ascension
I win the die roll.
Game one I put some early pressure on him by having a [card]Lotus Cobra[/card] start. He kills the Cobra, but not before I resolve [card]Squadron Hawk[/card]. He is very close to stabilizing at 6 life and has an active Ascension. I have an [card]Oblivion Ring[/card] that I have been slow-rolling to take care of that Ascension, but I don’t find a good window until turn 7 – when I draw my second [card]Oblivion Ring[/card]. He taps out to counter the first one. The second one seals it for me; he isn’t able to recover. He bounces the O-Ring and counters it on the way down, but I drop [card]Sun Titan[/card] and return it to play.
Game two I have the [card]Memoricide[/card] in hand, he uses 2 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]s to kill my early beats (go go Cobra!) and then drops the Ascension. He is tapped out to do this so on turn 4 I play [card]Memoricide[/card]. Since there is already an Ascension in play, I decide to name [card]Burst Lightning[/card]. This leaves him with only 2 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]s and 4 [card]Slagstorm[/card]s to close out the game with. It isn’t enough.
4-1-1
Round 7: Dan Macdonald with Splinter Twin (I think?)
X-1-1 could not make top 8 at this tournament. I was automatically out, and DMac was X-1. I conceded.
So the real record with the deck is 9-3-1 over 2 PTQs and I think with some tuning the deck can get better. Here’s what I plan on testing next:
[deck title=Craw-Blade 2]
[Creatures]
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Blade Splicer
3 Emeria Angel
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Sun Titan
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Dismember
3 Doom Blade
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Gideon Jura
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Stirring Wildwood
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sunpetal Grove
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Forest
3 Plains
2 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Memoricide
4 Kor Firewalker
2 Day of Judgment
2 Obstinate Baloth
3 Nature’s Claim
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
My good friend Evan Berry (who finished 2nd in this PTQ – you’ll get there next time, buddy) had some helpful comments, and I updated my deck to match . The [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] just wasn’t really doing enough, so I replaced it with a second [card]Sun Titan[/card] (which has 17 nonland targets to return in this deck). Since I have the mana to support black, I probably want more [card]Doom Blade[/card]. There aren’t that many black creatures worth killing right now, and if I run into that in a match, I’ll just board them out.
Again, there’s not that much green and black in the deck. The white is what is really making Caw-Blade (and Craw-Blade!) go right now.
The deck is quite solid. It just needs a better pilot 😉
So, tell me Caw-Blade players: why are you playing blue?
Thanks for reading.
Johnathan
* (The actual deck was a Green-White Pod list which has almost no removal and a slow clock. A Splinter Twin deck would just murder him, and I’m assuming that’s what happened since by round 7 he had dropped from the tournament)
Johnathan Bentley has been diagnosed with Brewer’s Disease and as such is compelled to try new things, rather than stick with boring ‘stock’ decklists. Aside from winning CMT Ottawa 2011, he has yet to put up an incredibly notable finish – this makes him: Under the Radar.