“Magic, historically, is a game of two drops.” – Mike Flores
It’s hard to disagree. Since the day the community learned/created the term “mana curve” thanks to Jay Schneider’s original Sligh deck, which played “terrible” cards like [card]Ironclaw Orcs[/card], a large part of any game of constructed Magic has revolved around what can be done on turn two. They say the key to understanding a large part of how a game of chess develops is by understanding the opening. What do these openings (turn 2 plays) tell you?
[card]Dark Ritual[/card], [card]Hymn to Tourach[/card], [card]Sinkhole[/card], attack with [card]Carnophage[/card].
[card]Lord of Atlantis[/card].
[card]Survival of the Fittest[/card].
[card]Island[/card], go (with two Islands untapped).
[card]Flesh Reaver[/card].
[card]Dark Ritual[/card], [card]Dark Ritual[/card], [card]Yawgmoth’s Bargain[/card].
[card]Defiant Falcon[/card] (or [card]Ramosian Lieutenant[/card]).
[card]Wild Mongrel[/card].
[card]Goblin Piledriver[/card], attack with [card]Festering Goblin[/card].
[card]Arcbound Ravager[/card].
[card]Sakura-Tribe Elder[/card].
[card]Umezawa’s Jitte[/card].
[card]Dark Confidant[/card].
[card]Rift Bolt[/card] you (from Suspend), [card]Scab-Clan Mauler[/card].
[card]Tarmogoyf[/card]. (Let’s assume there’s a [card]Misty Rainforest[/card] and/or [card]Ponder[/card] or something in the graveyard already)
[card]Bitterblossom[/card].
[card]Putrid Leech[/card].
[card]Lotus Cobra[/card].
[card]Explore[/card].
[card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card], fetching [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card].
[card]Squadron Hawk[/card].
Attack with [card]Goblin Guide[/card] (for the second time!), [card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/card].
[card]Shrine of Piercing Vision[/card].
[card]Tempered Steel[/card], attack with [card]Memnite[/card] and [card]Signal Pest[/card].
[card]Snapcaster Mage[/card].
[card]Lord of the Unreal[/card], attack with [card]Phantasmal Bear[/card].
Yes, some of these excellent two drops are actually not that good to play on turn 2, I understand. (I especially didn’t want to include [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], since he’s best late in the game, but I couldn’t leave him off this list. Could you say no to that face?) But each of these openings represent the start of a path. At the end of that path, the game is over, hopefully because you’ve won.
This is true because your deck has a plan, or else you shouldn’t be playing it. After you’ve played enough games of Magic, you can almost see the games materialize in your mind’s eye after these signature openings, with you as the victor.
SIDEBAR
The reverse is true. Your opponent probably isn’t just sitting there durdling. He/she probably has some fiendish plan in store for you. Your job is to stop it. What’s the best way to do this? The way I see it, these are the three fundamental ways:
1) Ignore your opponent by attacking on a different axis.
This is typically seen in older, more powerful formats, where it is feasible to deal 20 direct damage or mill the entire player’s library or deal them 10 unblockable infect damage in a very short amount of time. This is how combo decks operate. You’re playing more against the deck than against your opponent.
2) Race them.
If they’re trying to kill you but you can kill them faster, who cares? If your creatures are bigger or faster, and you’re better at ending the game quickly, end the game quickly. Don’t block unless you know 100% that it is profitable, and use your spells to capitalize on when your opponent stumbles. This is how aggro decks operate.
3) Respond to them.
Use your cards to destroy or neutralize their cards. In the later turns, your spells are most likely better than theirs. Use your life as a resource. Put up a defense, then when the time is right, counter-attack. This is how control decks operate.
Or, as is usually the case, use some combination of the three, since Magic is a complex and nuanced game. Hold back from attacking for too many turns and your opponent may draw out of it, but attack too wantonly and you will lose the exchange and run out of cards before your opponent does. If you don’t pack any removal in your deck, you may get [card]Venser, the Sojourner[/card]/[card]Stonehorn Dignitary[/card] locked out of the game.
If you can figure out your opponent’s plan, you’re two steps ahead of where you started.
END SIDEBAR
What if I told you I had one of the best Turn 2 decks in Standard?
Here is my list.
[deck title=Johnathan Bentley – Caw-Blade]
[Creatures]
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Mindshrieker
2 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Bloodline Keeper
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Dismember
2 Vapor Snag
1 Doom Blade
4 Mana Leak
2 Think Twice
1 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Mortarpod
2 Dissipate
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Batterskull
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
6 Island
3 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Despise
2 Flashfreeze
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Life’s Finale
1 Doom Blade
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Spellskite
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Jace, Memory Adept
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
Before you dismiss it as some random pile of junk, let me explain some of the card choices.
[card]Reassembling Skeleton[/card] – This guy carries equipment with the best of them (and always comes back for more) and he makes it so that in the late game you always have things to do with your mana, even if the thing you’re doing is bringing back a 1/1. Not a bad turn 2 play, he will chump-block something early and attack late.
[card]Mindshrieker[/card] – Not nearly as bad as it looks, although it comes out against people running [card]Gut Shot[/card]. Another mana sink, and it will surprise you at how hard it hits. Also, sometimes your opponent will have The Fear and won’t attack into it if you have at least 4 mana available. Also, an amazing sword carrier. It puts the “Caw” in “Caw-Blade”! If you know you’re about to untap (say, due to [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card]), you get free mills on yourself! It generates a ton of advantage if left alone. Drawing it in multiples isn’t that great though, which is why I cut down to 2.
[card]Bloodline Keeper[/card] – If you untap with BK in play you are probably the odds-on favourite to win the game. Once he transforms the game should be over that turn. He’s a late game win condition that gets better in multiples and comes down on turn 4. If your opponent deals with the first one after you have vampires in play, the second one threatens to seal the game up just as quickly.
[card]Vengeful Pharaoh[/card] – My initial list had 2, but drawing the second one is kind of miserable. But the first one is nuts! This guy works well with [card]Mindshrieker[/card] (if he gets put on top of your library, just mill him during your upkeep and attack with your 6/6 bird), [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] (an excellent choice to discard, makes your opponent’s attacks miserable) and also just playing him on your own! He blocks everything exceedingly well, except one giant A-Hole: [card]Mirran Crusader[/card], which we’ll get to later.
[card]Mortarpod[/card] – [card]Mortarpod[/card] is good for the same reason [card]Gut Shot[/card] is being played right now: a lot of the format (the early game) is comprised of X/1 creatures. [card]Mortarpod[/card] works well with [card]Vengeful Pharaoh[/card], [card]Reassembling Skeleton[/card], and also, when drawn late, provides a body for a Sword. It also is very important as an efficient way to kill [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card]. If you’re on the play, this card kills every threatening one-drop.
[card]Forbidden Alchemy[/card] – My initial list didn’t play the full four, but that was a mistake. Cards in the graveyard for this deck are worth about 1/4 to 1/3 of a card. That makes [card]Forbidden Alchemy[/card] like an instant speed [card]Divination[/card] that has flashback.
[card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] – I will probably be playing with her in decks that can run her for as long as she’s in Standard. The initial list had 3, which I shaved down to 2 so that one of my playtest partners can run the deck as well (he has no Lilianas) but it’s been pretty good with 2. Again, drawing her in multiples is alright, but occasionally she’s a miserable topdeck in the very late game. I might put a 3rd one in the sideboard if I were taking this to a serious tournament.
[card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] – One of the defining cards in Standard right now, a proper “Caw-Blade” deck runs as many man-lands as it can.The full playset is called for here, as the combo of Inkmoth + [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card] sometimes wins games on its own.
2 [card]Nephalia Drownyard[/card], 2 [card]Ghost Quarter[/card] – If I had another set of 2-colour lands available to me in Standard, I would probably run at least 1 more of each of these colourless lands. Having your lands do spell-like things is the key to mitigating Mana Flood.
sideboard
1 [card]Jace, Memory Adept[/card] – This is how you punish control decks that tap out, and against some slower midrange decks it can be quite powerful also. Since the +1 ability will typically mill myself, I tend to get more than a card’s worth. Once he gets to 7 loyalty, your opponent is most likely on a 3 turn clock, perhaps 4. Or, you can mill yourself for 10 if you have Snapcaster in your hand, or you can mill them for 10 if you have [card]Surgical Extraction[/card], etc. He’s really good. Really.
This portion of the sideboard could be described as “cards that are good against [card]Mirran Crusader[/card]”.
2 [card]Despise[/card]
1 [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card]
1 [card]Life’s Finale[/card]
2 [card]Ratchet Bomb[/card] (a little slow, but sometimes you need it to perform that role)
[card]Mirran Crusader[/card] is Public Enemy Number One. Luckily, there are many ways to deal with him, especially after sideboarding, but he’s probably the “Boogeyman” of this deck. If I see that my opponent is playing white and could conceivably have Mirran Crusader in the deck, most of these cards come in after sideboarding.
————————————————————
What can you do on Turn 2?
[card]Reassembling Skeleton[/card]
[card]Mortarpod[/card]
[card]Mindshrieker[/card]
[card]Mana Leak[/card] (counters Public Enemy Number One and as such is crucial)
[card]Doom Blade[/card]
[card]Dismember[/card]
[card]Vapor Snag[/card]
[card]Think Twice[/card]
[card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] (not ideal on turn 2, sometimes necessary)
– after sideboard –
[card]Ratchet Bomb[/card]
[card]Flashfreeze[/card]
[card]Vapor Snag[/card]
[card]Spellskite[/card]
————————————————————–
“I love it when a plan comes together.” – John “Hannibal” Smith.
What is this deck’s plan for the early game?
React.
The capability to do something in the early game will be based very strongly on mulligans. Early game reactionary cards: [card]Dismember[/card], [card]Doom Blade[/card], [card]Mana Leak[/card], [card]Mortarpod[/card], [card]Vapor Snag[/card], [card]Think Twice[/card]. [card]Think Twice[/card] is important to react to “Draw-Go” style decks in the early game, but is miserable against an aggro deck. This may be replaced with [card]Desperate Ravings[/card] in a future incarnation of the deck.
What is this deck’s plan for the mid-game?
Establish a threat, while not falling behind. Above all else, strive to achieve board parity.
The usual suspects here are [card]Reassembling Skeleton[/card] (to carry a Sword later!), [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card], [card]Mindshrieker[/card], [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] and [card]Forbidden Alchemy[/card] to dig for what you need situationally. Failing that, you want to maintain board parity with sweepers ([card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card]) or more removal, plus at this point [card]Dissipate[/card] is likely able to be cast because hopefully you’ve hit 2 blue sources by this point.
What is this deck’s plan for the late game?
Run the opponent out of cards, then win with a hard-to-answer threat.
Liliana’s +1 ability is fantastic at reducing the opponent’s hand to zero, as is [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card]. The Swords will generate advantage turn after turn, especially when equipped to [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card]. [card]Bloodline Keeper[/card] is a One Man Army, who happens to produce flyers, who are also good Sword carriers!
At this point, your graveyard has cards than can be used, like flashing back [card]Forbidden Alchemy[/card] or [card]Think Twice[/card], returning [card]Reassembling Skeleton[/card] to play, and using [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] as a sort of [card]Mystical Tutor[/card] when the majority of your instants and sorceries are in your graveyard. Also, [card]Vengeful Pharaoh[/card] should be around, and as soon as you take damage from a creature, he returns to the top of your deck, ready to be cast.
Sounds good, right?. But things don’t always go according to plan.
How could this plan go wrong?
There are many ways your opponents can thwart your plans:
- By rushing you and then dealing direct damage with burn spells.
- By countering everything you play.
- By resolving a hard to counter, hard to kill threat and killing you with it (is anyone else sick of Hexproof yet?)
- By playing off the top of their deck extremely well – by drawing threat after threat and outpacing your removal.
How do we address this?
We change our strategy to fit our opponent.
Against a blisteringly fast aggro deck:
Bring in [card]Despise[/card], [card]Ratchet Bomb[/card], [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card], [card]Vapor Snag[/card], [card]Spellskite[/card], and [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card] (have we reached a point where life gain is overpowered? It feels really strong in Standard right now).
Against a draw-go style deck:
Bring in [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card], [card]Surgical Extraction[/card], [card]Jace, Memory Adept[/card], [card]Reassembling Skeleton[/card].
Against a concentrated aggro or ramp deck with marquee threats:
Bring in [card]Despise[/card], [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card], [card]Flashfreeze[/card] (as needed), [card]Life’s Finale[/card], [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card] (if the deck plays White), and [card]Surgical Extraction[/card].
Against people who always seem to topdeck well:
You may be giving them too many turns to draw good cards. They can’t draw out of it if they’re dead.
The Fear is not needed.
————————————————————–
BONUS CONTENT OMG
Two weeks ago, I sleeved up a Legacy deck to play in a Grinder for the 4th Annual CHEO Magic Tournament (Wizard’s Tower, Barrhaven, ON, December 10th – be there!) in an attempt to get a round one bye and free entry. This is what I played:
[deck title=Johnathan Bentley – Bant Stoneblade]
[Creatures]
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Vendilion Clique
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Batterskull
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 Sylvan Library
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Wasteland
2 Tundra
2 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Tower of the Magistrate
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Purify the Grave
1 Manriki-Gusari
3 Spell Pierce
1 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Path to Exile
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Qasali Pridemage
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
Yes, 61 cards, I assumed many of my opponents would try and Mana Screw me out of the game, so I removed a dual and added 2 basics. (Many opponents did try the mana denial strategy, by the way)
This deck was super fun, and I highly recommend it. The deck has a relatively high amount of velocity, as there are three different cards that tutor ([card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card], [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card]), as well as some good draw engines (Jace, [card]Sylvan Library[/card], [card]Brainstorm[/card]). My Turn 2 insane plays: [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] or [card]Noble Hierarch[/card] into [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] or [card]Vendilion Clique[/card].
It was my first time playing with the card [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] in Legacy. Let me tell you something about [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]:
It wins games.
Against everything except fast, non-graveyard based combo decks, it’s insane. It shrinks opposing [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s and [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card]s, stops Snapcaster shenanigans, and it gets bigger and gains life! Once it is a 4/4, Delver decks don’t usually have a good way to deal with it!
If you have a chance to pick any up, I highly recommend it. It should also go in every cube (that plays with Rares) and every green Commander deck.
And what’s its mana cost?
2.
Case closed.
What does your deck do on turn 2?
Thanks for reading!
Johnathan
fightingmongoose on Magic Online
@JohnMBent on Twitter
P.S. If you pick up Caw-Blade and decide to try it out (go for it!), I would advise mulliganing all hands that have no action before turn 3, especially on the draw. You might get “Zergling rush”ed.
LAST MINUTE EDIT: I managed to win a Grand Prix Trial for GP Orlando (only 20 people, but still relevant) with this deck, but I managed to dodge my bad match-ups pretty well. If you expect a lot of Mono Red, adjust your 75 to be pre-boarded against Mono Red.
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.