A Durdle's Guide to Dragon's Maze - Gold, Part 2

Welcome back to A Durdle’s Guide to Dragon’s Maze for what should be the final part of the series. If you missed the first two instalments or if you forgot, let me remind you that this is not a traditional set review. I’m not making finance calls or talking about constructed powerhouses, for the most part. Instead it’s meant to get your creative juices flowing, as well as mine, and to set up some achievements for the coming season of FNMs. As always I appreciate feedback on my ideas as well as suggestions for achievements.

Preambles are nice and all, but you’re here for ideas. So let’s give you some!

[card]Nivix Cyclops[/card]
I have a soft spot for guys with defender that do other things. [card]Wall of Blossoms[/card] and [card]Wall of Roots[/card] remain two of my favourite cards ever printed (thought not [card]Wall of Omens[/card] for some reason) (probably because you’re racist – Travis), and when designing my cube I had to be cajoled into removing [card]Wakestone Gargoyle[/card]. That still smarts a little.

That said, I’m keeping an eye on [card]Nivix Cyclops[/card] (6/10, a good start). That’s a really big bonus he gets, and casting a few cantrips a turn is not that hard. The 4 toughness is very relevant in a format where 3-power guys are swinging on turn 3, providing a way for some of my slower ideas to survive. I want to [card]Dragonshift[/card] this guy to make at least a 7/4 (layers are fun), which will be one achievement. He also gives a ton of value to pump spells on the defensive, or even on the offensive if you do something like [card]Farseek[/card] in the first main phase. I also really want to cast the red half of Armed//Dangerous on him at some point.

[card]Notion Thief[/card]
I tried building around this guy once and ended up with the worst streak of mana screw I have ever had in my life. I don’t know if it was trying to tell me something or if I just caught a massive downswing on the variance scale, but it almost scared me off trying to do it again.

Almost.

Notion Thief’s reveal was met with all sorts of achievement-worthy suggestions from all sorts of people: [card]Whispering Madness[/card], [card]Reforge the Soul[/card], opposing [card]Brainstorm[/card]s or Jace the Mind Sculptor activations, [card]Jace Beleren[/card], [card]Vision Skeins[/card], [card]Howling Mine[/card], [card]Rites of Flourishing[/card]…I could go on. With the exception of the Legacy cards, I will probably be trying all of these at some point. Obviously the card’s main raison d’être is to steal [card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card]s, which is another achievement to unlock. If [card]Deadbridge Chant[/card] is my favourite card in the set from a gameplay perspective, this guy has stolen my heart from a fun perspective. (Can’t believe you missed calling this the “Horde of Notions” Thief).

[card]Obzedat’s Aid[/card]
People got moderately excited about the prospect of playing [card]Unexpected Results[/card] and hitting [card]Omniscience[/card] for a mere 4 mana. It wasn’t a sure thing, but people tried it. [card]Obzedat’s Aid[/card] lets us get [card]Omniscience[/card] for 5 mana as a sure thing, while also giving us the option of reanimating [card]Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker[/card] or [card]Griselbrand[/card]. One of the things I really want to do is reanimate [card]Omniscience[/card] and then cast [card]Blast of Genius[/card] to dome them with a second copy. Of course we could also just use the Blast to ditch [card]Omniscience[/card] in the first place.

Splashing white in a [card]Grixis[/card] shell will give us the best chance to pull this off, and also provide us with [card]Pilfered Plans[/card] and [card]Dimir Charm[/card] to set up the library as well as some good early removal to keep us alive. We can even run [card]Breaking // Entering[/card] as both a way to set up our win and to bring back one of our beefy beaters. It also makes a good pitch to [card]Blast of Genius[/card], dealing 8. Even if there’s nothing else I end up doing with it, helping me to run [card]Omniscience[/card] will be enough for me.

[card]Plasm Capture[/card]
I did my best to catch a playset of these on prerelease day, and was lucky enough to get a foil to boot. Let me tell you, the foil looks incredible. Any sort of reprint of [card]Mana Drain[/card] was always likely to capture the attention of players from all the psychographics of course, so it’s no surprise to see the value on the foils. (2/10)

The dream is of course to use the mana obtained from countering whatever spell to ramp into [card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card] for a bunch or some other huge spell, preferably way before you should be able to cast it. Stopping a [card]Restoration Angel[/card] on turn 4 to cast a tur 5 [card]Griselbrand[/card], for example. Or anything to cast [card]Omniscience[/card]. Casting any 8-drop or better after a [card]Plasm Capture[/card] will be on the achievement list for sure, and I will in all likelihood have to stop myself from leaping from the table in joy the first time I cast one.

The most likely place for me to put this is in some sort of Bant or RUG [card]Flash[/card] build where holding the mana up won’t seem suspicious and cause people to play around the Capture. If there’s a chance my four mana could cast Yeva, [card]Restoration Angel[/card], [card]Advent of the Wurm[/card] or [card]Plasm Capture[/card] then the opponent is in a world of trouble…potentially.

[card]Progenitor Mimic[/card]
Do I need to explain why I love this card? Making token copies every turn of any creature I want is like a dream come true for me. And then I can populate these tokens? Take my mana! And yes, populating a Mimic token will be on the list.

There’s another list, this one of things I need to copy with this card: [card]Acidic Slime[/card], [card]Thragtusk[/card], another [card]Progenitor Mimic[/card] (giving the second one TWO copies of the token-making ability), [card]Angel of Serenity[/card], [card]Armada Wurm[/card], [card]Biovisionary[/card]…this could get nasty. As a six-drop it won’t fit everywhere but like another six-drop of which I am fond ([card]Deadeye Navigator[/card]), it will often win the game if you can untap with it. Heck it even combos well with the Navigator. Adding a Yeva or [card]Alchemist’s Refuge[/card] to allow us to flash in a copy of anything we want could be another achievement and a ton of fun to boot. Oh, and a [card]Cavern of Souls[/card] on [card]Shapeshifter[/card] also lets us cast [card]Aetherling[/card] without fear.

[card]Ral Zarek[/card]
And we have our planeswalker for the set. Ral, or Johnny Two-Bolts as he should be called, presents an interesting set of possibilities that we haven’t had before. A few flashes of inspiration came to me when he was first spoiled, chief among them being using him to untap a [card]Gilded Lotus[/card] for super ramping action. [card]Farseek[/card] into Ral on turn 3 could mean a turn 4 [card]Gilded Lotus[/card] and a six drop. In Modern I don’t even want to THINK about what we can do if that six drop is [card]Primeval Titan[/card].

He also interacts very well with [card]Maze’s End[/card], and will almost certainly be in that deck when I build it. Everyone I’ve heard talking about [card]Maze’s End[/card] has acknowledged the card advantage possibilities but rued the fact that both it and the gates it fetches enter the battlefield tapped. Ral can mitigate that drawback, and if we play this in a TurboFog shell we can ensure Ral ultimates. If you can’t win with 2 or 3 extra turns of gate-fetching…well, you were probably going to lose anyway.

Ral’s +1 has a fair bit more utility in older formats where he can untap more powerful things. [card]Aether Vial[/card] comes right to mind, as does [card]Isochron Scepter[/card]. There might be a UWR Stick deck to try in Modern that plays both Ral and [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card] along with all the usual Stick options and [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]. Now if only [card]Lapse of Certainty[/card] cost 2…

[card]Ruric Thar, the Unbowed[/card]
This card is just such a perfect fit for Gruul. Cast spell? SMASH! Make dude? Ehh, OK. More to fight! And fight he does, beating down for 6 every turn AND still blocking anything you want him to block. Naya was a very strong deck before Dragon’s Maze (since Dark Ascension, really) and can be built to run with few, if any, spells. I think Ruric slides right into that archetype. The combination of Ruric Thar and [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card] presents a two-headed threat that few decks are equipped to handle, all but making it impossible for them to execute their own game plan.

Giving Ruric Thar lifelink, ideally through a [card]Nearheath Pilgrim[/card] pairing, deftly removes the symmetry of his ability while also turning him into a lifegaining machine. A deck with [card]Zhur-Taa Druid[/card] and [card]Avacyn’s Pilgrim[/card] as its ramp spells to get us to [card]Thragtusk[/card], [card]Restoration Angel[/card] and/or early [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card]s along with the aforementioned tag team of Voice and Ruric Thar is where I think I want to be. As for an achievement…I’m at a loss. Again. Any ideas?

[card]Sire of Insanity[/card]
The first week of a new set’s legality in Standard does not normally see many cards from that set breaking into decks on the SCG circuit. Discard was one of a select few to see play at the first Open after Dragon’s Maze hit the format, and it was insane all day. (3/10, Low hanging fruit, Christopher!) Decks that can ramp into it and make the opponent play off the top of their deck while facing down a 6/4 present a very real clock, and of course he makes life even more miserable for control decks.

That’s not enough for me though. There are three things I want to do with the Sire, one of which is pairing it with [card]Deadbridge Chant[/card] to ensure I can still get value from my discarded hand. Not that I really needed much of an excuse to play the Chant, that thing is nuts. [card]Blood Scrivener[/card] is also a natural fit with Sire, almost making the discard into a benefit. It’s a lot easier to mitigate playing off the top if you get two bites of the apple each turn, and since we’ll have at least 6 mana we can probably cast everything we draw. Lastly I want to blow someone out with an end-of-turn overloaded [card]Cyclonic Rift[/card] into [card]Sire of Insanity[/card]. [card]Planar Cleansing[/card]s that beat down for 6 seem like a lot of fun.

[card]Species Gorger[/card]
One of my favourite early decks was Stompy. At least, that’s what we called it at the Whippendo Institute in Woking, where I learned to play. The deck was built around [card]Stampeding Wildebeests[/card] and turning its drawback into a massive advantage by bouncing [card]Arctic Wolves[/card], [card]Wall of Blossoms[/card] and [card]Wall of Roots[/card]. There may have been others but those are the cards I remember.

Wildebeests (and its functional reprint [card]Stampeding Serow[/card]) had trample, unlike [card]Roaring Primadox[/card] and this newcomer [card]Species Gorger[/card]. The latter two however don’t restrict us to bouncing green creatures, which might just be a reasonable trade-off. The problem is that it exists to do the same things that [card]Restoration Angel[/card] does, and Resto doesn’t subject the bounced creature to counterspells on the way back in. So…I guess I wrote all this to tell you that although this is a nice trip down nostalgia lane and a bargain-basement price for a 6/6 beater, it’s not yet time for the origin of this species (6/10).

[card]Trostani’s Summoner[/card]
Ten power. Four creatures. One spell. The best part is that any spot removal the opponent has will have to be spent on the 1/1 to make sure you don’t blink, bounce or clone it and do the dance again. While an [card]Unburial Rites[/card] on the Summoner generates more than a token offense, it puts no more power on the board than a reanimated [card]Armada Wurm[/card], and only 4 of that power has trample. However it DOES put more threats in play which can sometimes be a bigger problem for the opponent.

No, where the Summoner really shines is in combination with [card]Reveillark[/card]. Getting two Summoners in the yard and killing off a [card]Reveillark[/card] is pretty much the definition of value, and of course will be on the achievement list. It might be a little slow, and if I’m killing [card]Reveillark[/card] I might just be better off getting Melira and [card]Viscera Seer[/card] back, but it’s FUN.

[card]Varolz, the Scar-Striped[/card]
As soon as this guy was spoiled people started picking up [card]Death’s Shadow[/card]s. Well yeah, that’s kind of insane. I’m already testing that deck in Modern and it can be very explosive, especially with the addition of the never-used [card]Phyrexian Soulgorger[/card]. Yes that IS an 8/8 for 3. I had the same reaction. Scavenging either one of those will be an achievement. The deck runs [card]Phyrexian Crusader[/card], [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] and [card]Lotleth Troll[/card] as prime scavenge recipients, and of course Troll helps you stock your yard as well. Not that either of the aforementioned dudes need any help getting in the yard.

In Standard you want to play a deck of a different stripe. Although [card]Boneyard Wurm[/card], [card]Splinterfright[/card] and [card]Vexing Devil[/card] are fine choices, you can also build around his regenerate ability and use him as a sacrifice outlet. Sam Black has already published a Junk Aristocrats list (surprise!) using this guy, but I want to resurrect my old Junk Servitude deck with him as another sac outlet. Considering that deck also gets [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card], I think it might actually be a good time to give it another run. If you WANT to play the Jund version, don’t overlook Flesh//Blood and [card]Slumbering Dragon[/card] as possibilities. Scavenging on to the Dragon will allow it to attack and block relatively quickly, and of course three +1/+1 counters for R is a decent deal anyway.

One last idea: scavenging [card]Misthollow Griffin[/card] repeatedly. Scavenge, cast, use to protect Varolz, repeat as desired. I haven’t really given much though to the shell this goes in, or even if it’s any good, but if it works I will be Scar-Striped (why not just say “scarred”? 4/10) forever.

[card]Vorel of the Hull Clade[/card]
I was ready to relegate Vorel to my EDH binder, thinking he was just a nice bit player in a [card]Jenara, Asura of War[/card] or [card]Experiment Kraj[/card] deck. The fringe case of doubling the loyalty on an animated [card]Gideon, Champion of Justice[/card] seemed too little to get our merfolk friend into a playable deck.

Then someone on Twitter pointed something out to me. Something I hadn’t considered, something that has left me hull-bent on making Vorel a thing. That something was [card]Azor’s Elocutors[/card]. Yes, that works. I know, I was surprised too. If we can play some sort of TurboFog shell around this (Vorel also makes our [card]Otherworld Atlas[/card] a lot better), we’re looking at a lovely little deck here. Sadly, I think splashing black for [card]Notion Thief[/card] might be a touch too greedy.

In Modern Vorel does a LOT more. Things like [card]Everflowing Chalice[/card], sunburst spells like [card]Pentad Prism[/card], [card]Gemstone Mine[/card], the Vivid lands and level-up creatures all get a lot more powerful when you can double their counters each turn. We can also add [card]Liquimetal Coating[/card] in a pinch to make any planeswalker a lot more interesting. All these ideas certainly run counter to my initial assessment of Vorel, and I can’t wait ti build around him.

Summing it all up

I’ve left out obviously insane cards like [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card], as well as some others like Zhur Taa Druid, that I want to play with but can’t really think of achievements for. I’m always happy to accept suggestions for those in the comments, so get to it!

Dragon’s Maze seems to be one of those sets with one or two obvious chase cards on release and a dozen or more by the time the next set hits. Cards like [card]Aetherling[/card] and Varolz are already starting to see a price jump as they see more and more play in competitive decks. It’s also becoming more and more fun as I take longer looks at some of the cards we’ve been given. I have a few articles ready to go with my results from the first few weeks of the season, and you might be surprised by what I learned. Above all though, I am still having a ton of fun at FNM…and that’s the point, right?