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Main » Articles » Fighting the Flow

Fighting the Flow

Adam Styborski
Posted on February 2, 2011
 Reddit

Like many of you, I'd like to think I'm clever. That is to say when I'm sitting there with a few cards in hand and looking over the game, I'd like to believe I can make the correct decision: destroy guy X or cast spell Y? Perhaps I should attach first and see if you're going to block bad? Wait, do I need blockers?

Of course, I'm quite the faulty player so when I begin to thumb through the information in my brain it's no surprise pieces are missing or misinterpreted. Last week left us looking at the online Planeswalker metagame of Big Green: Troll Ascetics and beef getting suited up in powerful enchantments or equipment. I asked which of my two decks should be used: the black and white flying with removal deck, or the Jund-styled good stuff deck?

Ultimately, the best call was laid down for the black and white deck under two ideas:

  1. It would be surprising and different.

  2. White would have access to Disenchant or similar effects.

I was all ready to play a few more games and fired up Magic Online to see what else was available in white. Which artifact and/or enchantment answers would I be considering through the courses of additional test games?

Answer: none.

No, you didn't read that wrong.

Likely as a result of working with commons through my Pauper Cube and playing since way-too-long-ago I incorrectly assumed that there would be something in white that could answer artifacts or enchantments. In a surreal daze I stared at my collection screen rereading each white card. I must have missed Demystify or something, right?

Zip. Zilch. Nada.

So here's the crux: green will bring the beats, so how do I handle it now? I came to conclusion that playing a deck with one out (Wrath of God), or perhaps just two (Mass Calcify), wasn't the smart play. Perhaps I'm wrong but something tells me taking massive damage to my weak point wasn't a well-conceived plan.

Research and Development

Before jumping forward I will point out that there are more Planeswalker cards than I currently have, I'm just still working under the direct assumption that I'm not putting any additional funding in just yet. I need to work with what I've got.

So let's take a second look through the collection and see what can bind up big beats.

White

Blue

Black

Red

  • Nothing (I wish at least Shatter was here)

Green

It's tricky to say that red and green don't offer much: green is stomping the scene and a little reach from red would certainly help one race in a "mirror" match, Naturalize also being the only direct artifact or enchantment destruction available.

What I was surprised with was blue: bounce effects are pretty solid against enchantments and having a few hard and soft counter spells (Flashfreeze and Cancel look promising) can go a long way in stopping the opponent's plans.

Before I brew up something new I decided to see exactly what my black and white deck would do over the course of several games. Here's where it stood last:

"White-Black Flying Removal"

I played against several decks:

  • Green-White with Glorious Anthems, Serra's Embrace, and, of course, Troll Ascetic. (I won via racing with flying and a first turn Soul Warden.)

  • A Jund colored deck that dropped Great Sable Stag into Loxodon Warhammer into Madrush Cyclops. (I lost as the Terrors and Nekrataal I drew were worthless here.)

  • A monoblack Vampire deck that got to ramp all the way into Ascendant Evincar. (I lost despite drawing three Pacifisms because my removal is half-blanked but his was fine. And facing multiple Vampire Nighthawks is never easy.)

  • A monogreen Elf deck with the staples (Including Coat of Arms, which he Naturalized after I dropped Youthful Knight, Youthful Knight, and Nekrataal – all Human creatures. Yes, I won that.)

  • A Green-White Beastmaster Ascension deck where I saw one Swamp to his Emeria Angel, Rampaging Baloths, and namesake enchantment. (I lost to a double Sigil Blessing combat blowout with three double black mana spells stranded in my hand.)

  • A monowhite artifact-equipment deck, with Howling Mine and Font of Mythos. (I won with a Loxodon Warhammer equipped to my Voice of All set to white. Sometimes unfair is what I dish rather than eat.)

  • A red-green aggro deck that conceded immediately after I dropped Voice of All (set to green) against the opposing Troll Ascetic. This was after a Blaze for 2 at my Glorious Anthem boosted Youthful Knight. (There wasn't more burn?)

  • A red-green Dragons with ramping and Elvish Piper deck. (I lost partially to misunderstanding that it was Dragons and not green beef coming; a miss-set my Voice of All to green instead of red. Much burning and bashing with dragons proceeded despite looping Gravediggers and drawing chump blockers. Not a Terror or Pacifism to be found.)

These games tell me quite a bit more about Planeswalker:

  1. The metagame is not as narrow as I had previously believed.

  2. Having the other Planeswalker Deck Packs is a powerful advantage as a repeatedly ran into cards I don't even own.

  3. Naturalize is really good, as the effect is so rare to encounter.

Also, it tells me one more important fact: my black and white deck isn't cutting the mustard.

Crack Open a Brewski

With a review at hand and some additional games to work with, it's time to get busy with some new decks.

"Black-White, Take 2"

This revised take on the current black-white deck loses a few creatures, including the awkward Soot Imp, and added both of the board sweepers available (Wrath of God and Plague Wind) along with another Swamp. This adds two crucial outs when the board is getting lopsided. As a bonus, both effects kill Troll Ascetics dead.

"Mean White-Green"

Flying and mana fixing/ramping. While we lose a little removal we gain the leverage of Troll Ascetic and Naturalize. And by including eight mana-getters we’ll be able to rip lands out, draw a little better, and drop Reya if she shows up.

I’m not exactly comfortable with this deck as an all-in on Elf creatures may be a bit more powerful. But that leads to the third deck.

"All In Green"

"If you can't beat them, join them." is how it goes, right? Like the dominate decks of any era, jumping on the bandwagon when it looks much sturdier than anything that can overtake it can be the smart play. Here, Elf creatures of every sort will come crashing down, backed up by a multitude of Glorious Anthem type effects.

While Coat of Arms can be risky, as seen earlier, winning the ground fight and pounding in seems to be the way to win. Racing and pushing your opponent into block mode first really helps things go your way, and even in the case of a mirror having Overrun pop up should help hammer home the damage.

And, of course, this is where you come in. I've shared what I know and you can see what I'm up again. Where do you think a deck should go? What's the best approach for cleaving random decks and fighting the green gorilla in the room?

Or should I just take the gorilla for a walk myself?

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