Scrubbing Post DKA

Feb 9, 2012

Welcome back

There is a “new” metagame to attack and this scrub is itching to get started. Well, at least I was itching to get started. Then I saw the so-called “new” metagame.

SCG Richmond Top 8:
Tempered Steel
3 Delver decks
Solar Flare
UB Heartless Summoning
Mono Green
Wolf Run White

Not that new. Sure there is some spiciness there. One of the Delver decks took on some new tech (not the one that placed higher) and Heartless Summoning and Mono Green are both pretty interesting, but I don’t want to attack such a small part of a metagame. I especially don’t want to attack them when they were not in the finals!

Where does that leave me?

I still want to be attacking creature decks. Every deck today will be a rough start with no tuning, but here is where I started:

*Note-I came up with this before I saw Fabiano’s list. I leaned in some other directions than he did, but I like his list a lot too. His list looks more tuned than mine and I would go back and compare and take some of his suggestions to heart. I’m not going to lie, he is better than me.

I felt like something was off though. Then it struck me. If this deck was off in the slightest against the metagame then it would falter terribly. Other thoughts invaded my brain. Undying, Lingering Souls, and Moorland Haunt all make Day of Judgment not as effective. All of which is being utilized in those Top 8 decks.

An image of Daybreak Ranger immediately popped in my head. I have never been that big of a fan of the card. In a world filled with Delver of Secrets and Tempered Steel it seems appealing. It also acts as repeated removal for Moorland Haunt and Lingering Souls tokens.
Being in green actually seems pretty strong right now as it can kill artifacts and enchantments as well as having some play versus control with Thrun, the Last Troll and some of the best Undying creatures. Maybe it is the scrub in me talking, but I just don’t want to be Mono-green. I want a little more interaction than just bashing face with creatures.

Where to turn for more help?
My first thought was Blue. I love to draw some cards and counters are always welcome. UG is also one of my favorite color combinations. Just as I put pen to paper another card leaped to mind. I’ve opened several of the now and it causes an itch in the back of my mind. Grim Backwoods

I shook my head of the notion but just couldn’t make myself brew UG decks. Then I saw GerryTV and he mentioned the Backwoods. Maybe it isn’t so crazy.

Here is a rough sketch of a deck where I started:

This list just strikes me as very very rough right now. I am not sure it applies the pressure I want it to apply, but it has the resilience that I was going for when I started building it. I need to sleeve it up and do some test games to see if the power level can withstand what the format is doing.

Some of the odd things-
I said I don’t want to be casting sweepers but I put in Black Sun’s Zenith. The interaction with my own Undying creatures seems very good and I can see getting swarmed by tokens unless I can find a Ranger early.

Ambush Viper in the SB. This card needs to be thrown around some and seen if it is worth the slot. I want to test it mainly against the mono-green deck as Dungrove Elder seems brutal. It is green so it doesn’t care about Bellowing Tanglewurm granting Intimidate. Might be too cute.

The zombies and the Chant. I wanted to put up pressure and make the opponent answer me this time. Gravecrawler seems like a pain to deal with as long as it keeps coming back. The Diregraf Ghoul is just another cheap zombie. I thought about Geralf’s Messenger but the triple B is a bit too brutal. These should possibly change to discard spells.

I find myself wanting to find room for Garruk Relentless and/or Grave Titan. Garruk is just a good card overall and can help me find a Ranger or just spit out dudes to help pressure the board. Grave Titan is of course a great finisher and would be awesome to search up via Garruk. It also just spits out dudes, dudes that help bring back Gravecrawler.

In fact both of these sound so good I’m going to fix the deck right now.

I dropped the Young Wolf as it seemed like the card that was the least impressive. I lose some of my synergy with Altar’s Reap, Grim Backwoods, and Garruk but the power level of Garruk and Grave Titan should more than make up for it.

I am a little disappointed in my Sideboard this time around. It feels like I just put hate cards in. I don’t want to do that. My brain keeps seizing when I try to do something different. I put Batterskull in at the last moment instead of Thrun, the Last Troll because I felt exposed to faster decks and wanted to gain some life back. This may be a mistake as well.

My other concern is that I might just be a bad version of the Mono-Green deck that Todd Anderson played.

Let me know which deck you like better and how you would take the scrub out of one or both of them.
Leave a comment here or find me on twitter @writer1007

BONUS:

When a new set comes out I usually go a little brew crazy. I latch onto a card and just have to brew around it. This time around it was Chalice of Life/Chalice of Death. The scrub in me loves LOVES lifegain. I played Soul Sisters a ton. Here is this little gem that I should never sleeve up.