Standard

Back To Basics: The Possibility of An Error

Welcome to a special edition column specifically for the countdown to a special event: banhammer night! We’ll have a column with the post up following this but I wanted to get this out as a primer. Hope you enjoy!

When I first starting writing for Mana Deprived, KYT and I were talking about what my articles would be about. Initially I had proposed Legacy as it is a format that uses cards that I’ve always had but also because I enjoy it not having a regular stream of complaints about how Caw-Whatever is ruining their lives. Life is good! KYT reasoned that I should not limit myself strictly to Legacy and I could write about anything I wanted.

At the time of our discussion, I was the only one who had discussed writing about Legacy but now KYT was able to recruit “Legacy Superstar” Mark Sun to the website which means I do not need to focus solely on Legacy. So I’ve decided to branch out today to the format that features Caw: Standard. Instead of proposing a deck choice and examining the Standard environment and stating its state or looking into the future to see what will be trying to beat Caw, I was hoping to approach things from a different angle. Also as someone who either plays Caw, because I win with it, or goes completely Rogue, like Pre-Mirrodin Besieged Mono White Knights rogue, I don’t believe I could provide you with insight that is original or even interesting for your metagame at the moment so I would prefer trying something else.

I’ll begin with a question, which of [Card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/Card]’s abilities is the most powerful, and follow up while being the same question, which ability would you remove if the card was reprinted? Know I’ve heard many discussions and people saying that Brainstorm should be a -1, it should not have an unsummon ability and the list goes on. My answer is no Planeswalker should be a win condition in and of itself and especially not a blue Planeswalker.

If you remove Jace’s ultimate ability you force a deck to actually dig for answers to beat someone rather than allow it to be passive aggressive and sit back and wait for the inevitable. As well each other Planeswalker that have a win condition attached relies on something else.

– [Card]Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas[/Card] & [Card]Garruk Wildspeaker[/Card] require artifact and creatures, respectively.
– [Card]Liliana Vess[/Card] requires creatures in the graveyard.
– [Card]Koth of the Hammer[/Card] requires [Card]Mountain[/Card]s and not to have those same mountains killed when they become creatures.
– [Card]Ajani Vengeant[/Card] is as close as you get to a win condition but again you at least need something else to kill your opponent.

Jace is the exception, as Jace only needs Jace to win. So the next question becomes should Jace be banned and the answer is no. Jace gets owned by a wide variety of creatures and spells however since it is such a great card people seem to lose by being in its presence. Instead of keeping a level head and focusing on your strategy, people instead focus all of their energy on Jace. I once saw someone attack three different Jaces in the same game for 7 to 8 damage each time instead of attacking their opponent and then complain they lost the game.

Learning from your mistakes is only part of the solution, it is also practical to watch other people play. One of the first Jace videos I saw was a Grand Prix match between I want to say LSV but its possible it was another pro altogether, for discussion sake I’ll just say LSV and some other guy in Standard and the guy plays a Jace to LSV’s sea of dudes. Instead of getting down, LSV drew for the turn, went to his combat phase and attacked. So his opponent immediately removed the dice on Jace and was moving it to the graveyard till LSV stop him and told him to put it back. The guy was confused, was someone actually allowing Jace to live? On LSV’s next turn he again went to combat phase but to make sure there was no confusion pointed at his opponent as to say I’m attacking you. Needless to say LSV won the match but I was befuddled; I found it hard to believe that someone would pay so little attention to Jace but as I later learned Jace is similar to the train in the first Matrix movie when Agent Smith tells Neo, “That is the sound of inevitability.”

When playing an aggro deck, your opponent landing a Jace should not detract you from your plan, sure given enough turns there is an inevitability that Jace will get them there but just like Neo, you can avoid the train. And if all else fails you can play [Card]Vengevine[/Card]s as they were created to combat Jace and from what my buddy the Professor tells me, turns out the card is awesome.

Next on the hit list is [Card]Stoneforge Mystic[/Card]/[Card]Batterskull[/Card]. Now it is a quite potent combination which if left untouched and allowed to do its thing will crush you but let’s pretend for a moment that we’re not fans of letting this combo do its thing. Here is a brief list of things available at your disposal: [Card]Natures Claim[/Card], [Card]Divine Offering[/Card], [Card]Shatter[/Card], [Card]Dismember[/Card], [Card]Unsummon[/Card], [Card]Go For The Throat[/Card], [Card]Crush[/Card], [Card]Naturalize[/Card], [Card]Revoke Existence[/Card] & [Card]Steel Sabotage[/Card]. So that’s two cards per color to deal with the problem. I suppose another solution is to quit Standard until Worldwake rotates and play Legacy in the mean time, which while I don’t support giving up on a situation playing Legacy is awesome and I understand the frustration. That gives me an idea, let’s call for the banning of the Worldwake set in entirety! Kidding.

In comparison to this next card, Stoneforge/Batterskull, seems like no problem at all. I’m talking about [Card]Squadron Hawk[/Card]. Wizards didn’t realize this when printing the card at common but they printed the greatest card every made in magic. Seriously, turn two Hawk is the most broken play ever, in fact most people just scoop when this happens. So should the card be banned? Of course not, it’s a stupid 1/1 creature that has two primary functions; recur Vengevine and slow the pace of Caw mirrors down to a Standstill.

Patrick Chapin mentioned that banning [Card]Preordain[/Card] would put an end to all of this nonsense, the Eh Team even suggested banning [Card]Island[/Card]s, interesting story, blue is not the problem. Outside of Jace, can you name me a win condition that blue decks have? I can come up with four, your list might include more; [Card]Grand Architect[/Card] to facilitate artifact beats, Sphinx beats, Titan beats and [Card]Calcite Snapper[/Card] beats. To be clear [Card]Deceiver Exarch[/Card] beats requires a red card, Architect isn’t excluded because you need to incorporate enough bad blue creatures in the deck that slow blue creature beats is a possibility.

Now I don’t support banning Preordain because it does something that is blue’s main function, digging for answer and more specifically answers in other colors. And the other win conditions require six mana, which if your deck cannot do something by turn 6, you need a new deck. As for islands, there is no reason for banning them, plains on the other hand are completely reasonable as a target as they’ve been allowed to float under the radar for far too long. Seriously why is no one ever hating on plains, they are responsible for slowing down the format and a prime example is mono-white anything is the slowest deck currently in standard, except my mono-white Knights deck, that was just pure brilliance!

Last week, Mark Rosewater wrote an article about color bleed and then Patrick Chapin tweeted something I had been thinking for quite some time:

“@mtgaaron Dismember is my vote for least fav card in the set (like BSC), for all the bleed reasons (going too far, etc)”

The next problem after everything Worldwake will be [Card]Dismember[/Card]. See dismember gives every single color instant speed creature removal. What makes this worse is that it’s not damage the card deals but instead -5/-5. The difference is this: if a titan attacks into your opponent’s [Card]Calcite Snapper[/Card] on the board, with five damage both creatures die, with -5/-5 only the titan dies, which is an effect colors outside of black should not have access to. Moreover it costs four life and one colorless to any color except for black which means that the subtraction of five power prevents more damage than you have to pay for the card.

So how would this problem be solved? Some may argue the five is the problem but turns out it is just the right amount. Instead it is the casting cost. See black’s portion on the color pie involves sacrificing life for short term gain similar to [Card]Sign In Blood[/Card] or [Card]Infernal Contract[/Card]. This allows for black to disregard its life total for an advantage that will help win them the game. Dismember however presents that opportunity to everyone, which is why Chapin has a problem with it. This card will be everywhere in Standard until it rotates because the card is a powerhouse.

Let’s move away from problem cards for a moment and focus on cards that should be causing problems but aren’t because they are underplayed, [Card]Vengevine[/Card]. Now disclaimer, I have never played or play tested with a deck containing Vengevine so my insight is to be taken with a grain of salt. The card is awesome. To further elaborate, without the presence of [Card]Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle[/Card] and [Card]Gideon Jura[/Card] the card is doubly awesome. Coupled with [Card]Fauna Shaman[/Card] there is a world of toolbox possibilities and if you want to beat Caw, you want Vengevine in your deck. Plus it has the Jake “The Professor” Mezsaros seal of approval so what more could you ask for. Oh turns out I played with Vengevine in extended elves, the card’s good.

Not sure if you enjoyed the article as it is a bit eclectic but let me know what you think and whether you agree or disagree with my assessment in the comments, I’ll read every one and until next time:

Have Fun Playing Magic!

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments