Achievement...Unlocked - Popping the Cherry

It’s Thursday evening, 6 days after Return to Ravnica became available. The cards I ordered are meant to arrive today, sweet! I practically run from the bus stop to my house, partly in anticipation of tearing into pack after pack of the new set but mostly because it was raining, and raining hard. My thin hoodie (it’s still relatively mild here) was offering little respite from the precipitation as I took one last, long stride up on to my front deck and lifted the metal lid to my small mailbox.

Nothing.

Well OK, that makes some sense. The package I had coming wouldn’t fit in there anyway. Maybe they slid the pickup slip under the door. I fumbled with my keys for a moment and opened the door, greeted as always by a loud meow from Vader at the top of the stairs. Fending off his aggressive affections, I looked for the slip.

Still nothing.

OK Chris, no need to panic yet. Maybe the mail is late? Let’s go check the tracking number and see what happened. It’s not like I have 5 people relying on me for cards for Provincials or anything. Once again dodging the affections of Vader I check on the parcel…delivered. Umm, yeah. Not so much, since I don’t actually, you know, have it. A quick phone call reveals that it was in fact delivered…to number 10. Seeing as how I live at number 19, that is less than useful to me. Hoping that the occupants of number 10 have not gone out to eat, or aren’t on vacation, or don’t frown on big strange black men with wild hair knocking on their door at twilight looking slightly desperate, I donned a different (less saturated) hoodie and ventured out into the now-misty rain.

Fortunately they were are very nice couple who also had a son named Chris who was also expecting a parcel, so they signed for it without reading the label. They were about to call me and let me know they had it when I knocked on the door. Awesome! Let’s get cracking on this week’s deck.

Battle Plan

I wanted to start off light, so my main aim for this week was to get the [card]Cyclonic Rift[/card] Blowout achievement. I really like that card against any decks that need several permanents on board to kill me or to stop me killing them. It kills tokens, resets aggro and, given that it’s an instant, can cause them to have to discard at the end of their turn and possibly free my planeswalkers and/or creatures for a turn from any Spheres or Rings in which they may have been contained (or detained). Even in the early game it can save you from a giant exalted attacker or reset something like a [card]Champion of the Parish[/card].

I had been working for a while on a Grixis control list that included Rift, so that would be where I was heading this week. It would enable me to set up some secondary achievements too. Some of these were not in the initial list, but have been suggested since. My goals for the week:

Blow someone out with an overloaded Cyclonic Rift
Rakdos’s Return for someone’s whole hand
Ultimate three or more planeswalkers in one game
Beat an opponent with Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker’s ultimate
Win a game in which your opponent has no cards in hand and fewer than 5 permanents on board

Quite the list! Let’s take a look at the deck we’ll be using to try and get there.

Weapon Selection

There was never really any doubt for me this week. The deck I had been testing for a few weeks was playing so well that I knew I had to take it to FNM. A couple of people were looking at playing it in Provincials (since I was judging) so I wanted to make sure it had a good showing. I wanted to play as many stupidly powerful spells as I could and ramp into them while keeping the board clear. Here’s the list I played:

2 [card]Rakdos’s Return[/card]
3 [card]Cyclonic Rift[/card]
2 [card]Tamiyo, the Moon Sage[/card]
3 [card]Jace, Architect of Thought[/card]
1 [card]Blasphemous Act[/card]
1 [card]Mizzium Mortars[/card]
3 [card]Divination[/card]
2 [card]Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker[/card]
3 [card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card]
3 [card]Pillar of Flame[/card]
2 [card]Gilded Lotus[/card]
1 [card]Devil’s Play[/card]
2 [card]Izzet Keyrune[/card]
1 [card]Rakdos Keyrune[/card]
3 [card]Dreadbore[/card]
2 [card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/card]
2 [card]Olivia Voldaren[/card]

4 [card]Steam Vents[/card]
4 [card]Blood Crypt[/card]
4 [card]Drowned Catacomb[/card]
4 [card]Sulfur Falls[/card]
3 [card]Swamp[/card]
5 [card]Island[/card]

2 [card]Sever the Bloodline[/card]
2 [card]Desecration Demon[/card]
2 [card]Mizzium Mortars[/card]
2 [card]Ultimate Price[/card]
2 [card]Dreadbore[/card]
3 [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card]

The sequence of EOT [card]Cyclonic Rift[/card], untap, [card]Rakdos’s Return[/card] for your hand is just brutal, especially if you have any sort of board presence whatsoever. Jace and Tamiyo are the best of friends (almost as good as Jace and [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card], which I was forced to put in the board for Act and Mortars main), and both Olivia and Niv Mizzet are very powerful creatures who are capable of taking over the game by themselves. [card]Pillar of Flame[/card] is a concession to the fact that Zombies was likely to be everywhere, and is scary fast. [card]Divination[/card] is just a more efficient draw spell than [card]Think Twice[/card] when you don’t have to hold mana up. One of my favourite plays is to drop [card]Gilded Lotus[/card] and then play [card]Divination[/card], setting you up for a truly disgusting turn that hopefully includes Nicol Bolas.

In testing the deck was beating other control decks, mainly due to [card]Rakdos’s Return[/card]. Aggro was tough game 1 but with the extra sweepers from the board (and the Curses) it fared a lot better in games 2 and 3. [card]Thragtusk[/card] isn’t really a problem, the 5 life is a minor inconvenience and I can often just steal the creature. Stuff like an early Entreat or a turn 2 [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card] are troublesome, but then that’s the case for most decks.

War Report

As you might expect, everyone was scrambling for cards. Shocklands were the most popular request, though Jace was a close second. No wonder that card is worth the soul of your firstborn. I played a few practice games to get a feel for how the deck would deal with the local meta, and it seemed to be pretty robust. To battle!

Round 1 – Chris Stoyles with Jund

Good ol’ Extra Balls. I had a vague idea of what to expect from his deck so I figured the only achievement I was likely to get here was the [card]Rakdos’s Return[/card] one and possibly the Rift one. Neither would materialise but I did manage to take the round down in two quick games, with Niv Mizzet and Olivia supplying the beatdown. Jace is not really good in this matchup, at best he ticks down once before eating a burn spell or an attack. I left him in anyway but took out the Pillars for more beef.

1-0

Round 2 – Dawson Gallagher with Junk

Dawson had put together a deck based on [card]Corpsejack Menace[/card] and adding counters. The idea was solid but the card choices were a little too founded on the cool factor. In game 1 I was facing down two Menaces and another creature, I think with Rancor on it, and he had all his mana untapped. I was on a fairly low life total with only a Tamiyo for board presence, and if he just attacked I would be forced to pull the Rift in combat and allow him to replay some dudes. Lucky for me he got greedy and dropped [card]Necropolis Regent[/card] and [card]Lotleth Troll[/card] before attacking, tapping himself out. I couldn’t tap 6U fast enough as I sent his whole board back to his hand. Yeah, I think that qualifies.

Game 2 ended when I stopped being scared of the [card]Necropolis Regent[/card] I knew was in his hand by remembering it was a Vampire and I had Olivia out. Sadly Dawson did NOT remember…until it was pounding on him.

2-0

Round 3 – Jens Hansen with Jund Zombies

Here we go, the matchup I was really worried about. Playing against a fast deck is bad enough, but Jens has been playing some form of Zombies for months and is very proficient with it. When you consider that he’s under 13 it’s even more amazing just how good he is with the deck. Game 1 was not even remotely close. He had the 2/2/2 start and followed it with Messenger on turn 3. I had Bonfire for 2 but could not find a [card]Dreadbore[/card], Mortars or Olivia to handle the returning Messenger.

Game 2 was closer, but not by much. I found an Olivia early and he had a slower start, but then he drew the [card]Dreadbore[/card] and I was toast. I made a minor misplay that could have bought me another turn or two, when you’re under 5 life and the opponent has [card]Brimstone Volley[/card] it’s really just a matter of time.

2-1

Round 4 – David Barnes with GB Zombies

To rub things in from my crushing defeat last round, I was sitting next to David and his round 3 opponent Mark. I had been testing against Mark all week and his deck was a complete dog to mine. Then in round 4 we switch opponents and I get another Zombie deck. Well, that sucks. My opening hand was just about as good as it could be though, with [card]Pillar of Flame[/card], [card]Cyclonic Rift[/card], Olivia and a Keyrune. I took out his first-turn [card]Gravecrawler[/card] and bounced his second-turn [card]Lotleth Troll[/card], then played the Keyrune. Olivia was next and he couldn’t kill her, which meant I untapped with her active. Zombies has trouble coming back from that, and even more so when I can play a Lotus into [card]Divination[/card].

Sadly, Dave got stuck on mana game 2 and I had a [card]Dreadbore[/card] for the only creature he was able to cast before I took his hand with [card]Rakdos’s Return[/card]. Wait…did I say “take his hand with Rakdos’s Return”?

3-1

Round 5 – Blair Grouchy with Jund
Blair and I were at the top of the tiebreakers for the 3-1 players, so the winner was likely to end up in third. Game 1 saw me get nailed with a [card]Rakdos’s Return[/card] for 5, taking my hand and leaving me in top-deck mode. Lucky for me my topdecks were Jace into [card]Divination[/card] into [card]Nicol Bolas[/card]. I made a run of it but the card advantage was just too much to overcome.

Game 2 was all about [card]Rakdos Keyrune[/card]. This was the match where the lack of instant-speed removal hurt me most. The answer might just have to be [card]Searing Spear[/card] I think, although Murder isn’t horrible. I couldn’t find Olivia or Niv Mizzet to deal with Blair’s Keyrunes and lost in fairly short order.

3-2

Aftershocks

The deck definitely needs instant-speed removal, [card]Izzet Charm[/card] and [card]Searing Spear[/card] being the best options I can see. I still love playing it and some of the things it can do are just more powerful than anything your opponent can do.

I was able to cross two achievements off the list, which felt pretty good for my first time out. As we go along I will get better at building around the achievements, but I need more suggestions! Please keep them coming folks, the ones I’ve had so far are really good. Some additions this week:

In response, [card]Worldfire[/card]. Suggested by my friend and playtest partner Adam, there are a few ways to do this in Standard. All of them seem like a ton of fun.

Blink [card]Armada Wurm[/card] with Trostani in play. I inadvertently left this off the initial list, which is pretty silly considering it led me to the idea in the first place!

Beat someone with [card]Psychic Spiral[/card]. It’s one of the strangest cards in the set and it certainly lends itself to some sort of self-mill strategy, but could also be a weapon in the control mirror.

Have 5 or more enchantments in play with [card]Sphere of Safety[/card] and/or [card]Ethereal Armor[/card]. I spoke about this deck on a recent Horde of Notions, and I really want it to be a thing.

Go at least 2-2 with a [card]Bruna, Light of Alabaster[/card] deck. In the previous Standard environment, there was really only [card]Angelic Destiny[/card] and [card]Spirit Mantle[/card] to put on Bruna. Maybe Phyresis too if you wanted to go deep and one-shot the opponent. Now we have [card]Righteous Authority[/card], [card]Ethereal Armor[/card], Rancor and maybe even [card]Knightly Valor[/card] to buff her. Combined with the achievement above, I foresee a very fun FNM.

Go at least 2-2 with a tribal deck. While I love this idea, I think it needs a little work. There are three tribes I want to try: Vampires, Angels and Spirits. They won’t be tribal decks in that they run 20 creatures of the chosen tribe, but they’ll be close. I will likely accept this one in several different forms.

I’m still working on the best way to bring these results to you, so if you have any ideas I’d be glad to hear them. Thanks so much for joining me, and hopefully next week I’ll have more Achievements…Unlocked.