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Extended
Constructing Synergy 2
[Extended] Dragon gorging Extended until November
von Christian K |
07.07.2002 |
Moin,
also erst mal kurz etwas vorweg. Dieses Mal habe ich mich entschieden meinen neuen Artikel in Englisch zu schreiben. Irgendwie ist Englisch schon quasi Standardsprache in der Magicszene geworden. Gerade als ich meinen letzten nochmals Artikel gelesen habe, sind mir so viele Anglizismen pro Satz aufgefallen, dass ich mich dafür entschieden habe gleich auf Englisch zu schreiben. Irgendwie ist es doch teilweise leicht lächerlich, wenn man während des Schreibens merkt, dass man das, was man sagen will nur auf Englisch darstellen kann oder ansonsten hässliche, grausame Übersetzungen benutzen muss. Praktische und lehrreiche Beispiele sind z.B. die Übersetzungen der Karten selbst, hört sich schon echt spitze an, was da das Übersetzungsteam so fabriziert hat: Machtmampfer, Keine Beachtung schenken, etc. Mailt mir dazu oder schreibt einen Kommentar, ob das ein Experiment bleiben soll mit dem Englischen und ich wieder zurück auf Deutsch wechseln sollte oder nicht.
The Ultimate Dragon
At first I would like to apologize for my English which is definitely not the best simply because it is not my native language, but I tried my best writing this article and when you find some errors, please do not e-mail me about. Try to respond to the content!
The whole article will be about a deck, which in my opinion definitely breaks the Extended Format at the moment. Maybe there is a possibility to reconstruct this idea although all enchantment reanimators will be gone with the rotation in November. The concept is based upon a new card of the Judgment expansion: Worldgorger Dragon.
At first this card looks like fun to play, but inappropriate for tournament use. It can be reanimated by Reanimate or other reanimators, it can be used by Artifact Red which generates enough mana to actually cast the Dragon, but you have better options when you play these to deck types with Verdant Force or Avatar of Woe for Reanimators and Covetous Dragon for Artifact Red. Although in this case the drawback, which seems to be insane at first, is the key element for the new deck. “7/7 dragons are fun, but are unplayable, jolly-magic cards,…..”
So for all of you, who do not already know about the combo with Worldgorger Dragon ask yourself what happens when you play Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead or Necromancy targeting a Worldgorger Dragon in your graveyard. Hmmmm, some sort of infinite loop happens: The Dragon is retrieved from the graveyard by Animate Dead for example, it comes into play and all your permanents are removed including Animate Dead. So the Dragon leaves play and all your permanents return to play again. Animate Dead can target Worldgorger Dragon again and at some point the loop just stops after a definite number pf repetitions you have defined. I do not know for sure what happens with the Dragon and the enchantment when the loop ends but I suspect that it and Animate Dead are discarded in the end because they cannot exist together in play like the good old Ivory Gargoyle / Aether Flash loop, which caused some trouble for the judges.
[edit 07.07.2002 - C.Kühn: Da habe ich mal glatt mangelnde Regelkenntnis revealet und fand es zu mühsam alles vorsichtshalber nachzugucken. Sollte man immer tun, deshalb hier, die wie immer ausführliche und korrekte Erklärung von Herrn Pischner:"Bei der Worldgorger Dragon/Animate Dead Geschichte handelt es sich um ein Loop, das unabhängig von den Entscheidungen der Spieler passiert. Es ist also keineswegs so, dass Du eine Zahl sagst und das Loop dann nach so vielen Durchläufen endet (wie es bei einem Loop, das Du aktiv betreibst, der Fall wäre). Vielmehr ist es so, dass das Spiel in einem Unentschieden endet, wenn kein Spieler es durch zusätzliche Aktionen beenden kann & will. Daher musst Du, um zu gewinnen, das Loop mit dem tödlichen Stroke of Genius unterbrechen. Deep Analysis und andere Sorceries helfen Dir zu diesem Zeitpunkt überhaupt nicht mehr, da der Stack nicht mehr leer wird, bis das Loop ein Unentschieden verursacht." Es sei anzumerken, dass die Funktion des Decks dadruch im Moment zwar nicht wesentlich beeinträchtigt wird, aber gerade im Hinblick auf eine mögliche Konvertierung für Extended im November ist das Ganze schon sehr von Belang. THX]
The most important thing in the case of Dragon / Animate Dead is what happens with your other permanents during the process. The lands are removed and come back into play together with Animate Dead, UNTAPPED!! The Animate Dead targets the Dragon in your graveyard and you are able to drain some mana into your mana pool and do it again for about nearly endless times. So we have generated infinite mana with this loop. At the moment it seems to be possible in Extended to generate infinite mana on turn 2 or 3 consistently. That sounds nice….
Dragon Gorging Extended 1.2
It seems to be clear how the deck functions. Generate enough mana while reanimating the Dragon and play Stroke of Genius targeting your opponent for, well, a lot…. Some choices might look a bit strange, so now I am going to explain the deck card by card:
Lands:
The selection of Lands seems to be quite logical. Yes, Underground River can cause a problem when it is your only blue mana source, but in general you only need one blue mana anyway and even if you need a few more blue for Whispers of the Muse, the chance to find a Tutor or a Stroke during the next 5-10 cards is very high. Gemstone Mine gets new counters when it re-enters play after being removed by Worldgorger Dragon, so you can think about including other colours, too. Forsaken City and Undiscovered could support this plan, but at the moment this movement to more colours seems not to be necessary because Blue/Black/red offers all options I would like to have in this deck. Red mana is needed for Pyroblast and that is it about the lands.
Entomb:
Another easy selection for the deck. It puts the Worldgorger Dragon in the graveyard and enables the combination to work as fast as possible - on turn two. Sometimes it is quite annoying if you draw the second Entomb, so I tried other cards, which are useful in the graveyard like Deep Analysis or Coffin Purge. The result was that it is annoying to draw these cards, too, so I decided it is not worth the effort to include any other graveyard based effects.
Animate Dead & Dance of the Dead:
Essential parts of the combo and the only question remains why using 4 Dance of the Dead and only 2 Animate Dead? Dance of the Dead has one small advantage. It gives the Dragon +1/+1 when it is in play and so you are going to gain one more life from Swords to Plowshares. In general it should be no problem to start the combination with 6 reanimation spells and 7 Tutors. I must admit that I like the idea of including Necromancy a lot because with it you can go into combo mode during your own endstep. Blue-based control decks tend to have only one phase where they are glad to tap all their lands – your endstep. Fact or Fiction, STOP, in response Necromancy, infinite mana, Stroke for 1000. Welcome to Classic, instant kills, that is the way decks should work  . This sounds nice on the one hand, on the other hand 3 mana is quite a lot for the Dragon Deck. I included another 2 Animate Dead in the SB, which get boarded in when facing decks with a lot of enchantment removal and are able to destroy your first reanimator.
Worldgorger Dragon:
Something went wrong here R&D. Think twice the next time when you design a creature with a global effect attached. It might be broken or even necessary to be reworded – look back at Great Whale or Palinchron for example. In general non-creature spells have more potential for the banned list, but do not get sloppy with the creatures!! Your are lucky that the format will rotate in November. Or does it even rotate due to the anticipation of such mistakes? Shame on you!!
Vampiric Tutor:
Key card for the deck which adds consistency and is able to find every card you need for just one mana. Vampiric Tutor is the reason why turn 3 kills appear so often with this deck. Sometimes it just fetches a mediocre-looking card like a land or a Careful Study, but it adds the missing piece to the combo-puzzle; and this – as we all know – is a very, very important reason for combination decks to play as much tutoring-effects as possible! (Random note: Good old Vision-Cards, I will be missing nearly all of them: Impulse, Vampiric, Uktabi, Man'O'War, Fireblast, …L)
Stroke of Genius:
The kill card. Strictly better than Drain Life due to its invulnerability to damage prevention. There is only one copy needed because of Cunning Wish and one Stroke of Genius in your Sideboard. Obstinate Familiars might generate a problem for this one if Sligh decides to board them against you, but Hydroblast and boarding in one Stroke tend to solve this problem quite easy. Yes, one Stroke of Genius plus one Cunning Wish is enough!! I do not want to debate this one.
Cunning Wish:
Your answer-tutor to cope with problematic cards like Seal of Cleansing. If you can guess what your opponent boards against you, it can be boarded out. In this case be aware of the fact that you have one less card-drawer for the kill in your deck. Cunning Wish can fetch a Stroke of Genius although your only main-deck copy is discarded or removed with your own Force of Will. (One random note again: It is unbelievable: Even LOBOTOMY for your kill-card does not matter…That's nuts!!)
Force of Will:
No, I do not explain this one. It is Force of Will and EVERYBODY should know how insane this counterspell is! Again big slops to R&D here … 
Merchant Scroll:
This can be debated a lot of time. The way I see it is that it fetches an Intuition and makes the combo even more consistent if you have a weak draw and Merchant Scroll can get you additional countermagic, a Stroke of Genius or a Cunning Wish. These are the reasons why I chose it over cards like Compulsion or additional counters, it is just to viable to be ignored. A first I thought Compulsion or other searchers might be better, testing Merchant Scrolls proved me wrong.
Careful Study:
Another questionable choice?! The clear answer is: “NO!” The Studies are very useful in nearly every situation. They fix your land draws, let you discard a Worldgorger Dragon, can be pitched to Force of Will and Misdirection, provide cycling for useless cards like the second Entomb or some lands, enable the combo to work on turn 2 even more frequently and so they can be counted as one of the most important cards of the deck. I won't change them because they are one of the reasons why I added blue to the deck although it could work in a mono-black version.
Intuition:
Why not adding another great tutor? Intuition is able to fetch the card needed, that is it. And even if you have the whole combo in your hand, you can use it for your countermagic. 3 is the right number because it can get annoying if you draw 2 of these in your starting hand and sit down there with 2 lands. Not a good way to start a game with useless cards, but Intuition guarantees the deck to work no later than turn 4. Another card which proves that sometimes R&D seems to be “a little bit drunk” and simply overlooks a card, oh well, that happened quite often during the design of Urza's Saga, but that is worth another story…
Whispers of the Muse:
On the one hand it is a cantrip to smooth your draws and on the other hand it is a potential game winner when you are able to draw your entire library with it during the combo process. I do not expect more for one blue in Extended, so I decided to play 4 of these. I cannot not even imagine why the deck should play less of these. And for those control players out there: If you have a weak draw, PLAY Whispers of the Muse, do NOT hold it back to cast it with buyback the fair and regular way. I do not advise you to throw a win-option away, but sometimes it is just necessary to cast it as a one-mana-cantrip that does nothing else.
Misdirection:
I do not like Misdirection that much. It is another backup for your combo and it is able to redirect those annoying Swords sometimes. On the other hand it is strictly weaker than Force of Will or Duress. Maybe Misdirection will be changed again during the evolution of the deck, but at the moment it seems quite viable and the cost it fair, too. If you have better ideas for these two slots be free to send me an e-mail. Current candidates are: Unmask, Tainted Pact, Defense Grid, Impulse, Foil and Brainstorm.
Duress:
Disruption, disruption, disruption. Take those pesky Force of Wills away and go into combo mode. Duress is just amazing, under-costed and it is black so it does not hurt your mana. There is no reason visible for me not to include 4 in this deck.
Sideboard Action
Hydroblast goes in against red in exchange for Cunning Wish. It is some sort of filler in the board which is needed against those nasty Obstinate Familiars and Pyroblasts.
Disrupts seem to be made to defeat Miracle Grow and Land Destruction (LLL). You can try these in the mirror taking out Careful Study and take the high risk to trap your opponent at some point with a Disrupt.
Rushing River stays in the board or gets boarded against Cunning Wish. It solves problems generated by annoying permanents like Seal of Cleansing. Board it in against Donate together with Pyroblast and it creates a nice surprise effect. Lifegain on the stack, I bounce your Illusions, game!
Stroke of Genius has the one central function to act as a target for Cunning Wish. In the Sideboard it is immune to discard like Duress, Unmask or Lobotomy. It does not get boarded most of the time. It stays in your Sideboard when you still have Cunning Wish in your deck after boarding.
Pyroblast is the only reason to include red in the deck. The investment is well worth because after sideboarding it becomes the MVP of your deck against Blue-based Control, Donate, Oath, Grow, Mirror-matchup and any other blue deck. And guess what, before boarding it is another good target for Cunning Wish.
Animate Dead goes in against decks with heavy enchantment removal or against decks which have enchantment removal as their only weapon to defeat the almighty Dragon; Secret Force or White Weenie are good examples for this boarding strategy.
Phyrexian Furnace is nice for the mirror match-up where you have to watch and control all Worldgorger Dragons in ALL graveyards. You can win with your opponent's Dragon, too. So be careful when playing Careful Study on your first turn when you have drawn first. I am reanimating your Worldgorger Dragon otherwise… . The Furnace goes in for the mirror and against traditional reanimating strategies. It will control the board. At the moment I am thinking about including some sort of Artifact removal in the board against the Furnace. Maybe one Shatter-effect or something like that is worth it for one Disrupt. But I am not sure about this choice, yet.
One central statement concerning the Sideboard: It is still in flux, so I am trying different cards at the moment and figure out which options are most important for the deck, but the sideboard given above is a good point to start from.
And the last part of my article will be a short match-up analysis against the most common decks in Extended right now:
Super-Gro / Miracle-Grow
When playing the Dragon Deck you are not going to like this match-up before boarding that much because it will be a hard fight. Modern versions of Grow just play with around 10-11 counters including 4 Daze, so you can try to force them to counter a Duress and run them out of counters with multiple reanimators although this one will not be easy it should be 60-40 before and 80-20 after boarding with Disrupts and Pyroblasts in favour of the Dragon.
Oath / Confinement / Blue based control
Again try to maximize the pain of Duress in the first game and win the second and third one with Pyroblasts. Swords, a massive amount of Counterspells and eventual Seals of Cleansing are not your best friends, so in the first game it is something like 40-60 but after boarding I won about 60% of time, it is a tough match-up though. It can help to build up a hand consisting of 6-7 spells the control-player has to counter and play them all in one turn due to their low casting costs. This match-up is the reason by the way why I am considering Defense Grid at the moment.
Donate
You have the strictly superior combo. It is faster and more reliable, so you should win about 70% of the time before boarding. It becomes a little bit tougher after boarding when the morph into Draw Go-Mode but I do not expect to see much of these decks in the future anyway. I thought the same way in January, too, but a few months ago in Nice somebody reached the semi-finals with this deck. I do not remember his name, mmmh, Bud, nooo, Bürde, noo, ahh… yes Budde it was. But ask yourself, does it REALLY matter what deck he plays….
Stompy / Sligh / Secret Force
All three decks should be an Auto-win for the Dragon before boarding. Sligh brings in Pyroblast and Stompy / Secret Force might try Emerald Charm. It will not be enough for those decks. During testing I Misdirected one Emerald Charm to Briar Shield.
[edit 07.07.2002 - C.Kühn: Auch hier mal wieder der Beweis dafür das Magicspieler manchmal wenn es um die Regeln geht einen im Tee haben und manchmal sogar 2 Leute gleichzeitig. Hier gab der TrashT korrekterweise den Hinweis:"Den kann man nämlich gar nicht auf Briar Shield misdirecten: Desroy target GLOBAL Enchantment. Will gar nicht wissen mit wem du da getestet hast... " Und er war sogar an dieser Stelle schneller mit den Regeln als Herr Pischner. Davon von meiner Seite aus ein echtes Sonderlob. Das kommt nicht häufig vor, dass jemand ehr als der Mister Zeromant irgendwo im magicmäßigen Netz einen Fehler entdeckt.]
I watched a happy opponent, who send my lines ands lines of text via Apprentice chat during the game, how great and awesome and… his Secret Force is right now. He had just played a Verdant Force on turn 3, well, during my third turn I played Stroke of Genius for 50 lines of text. That was nice…
White Weenie
A little more difficulties here due to Swords and Meddling Mage but in general it should be no problem to win around 70% before and after boarding. It just has no counters which makes it much easier to calculate the right time to force your combo through. With one white mana open the only threat is Swords to Plowshares and if you have a counter or a Duress you just have found a secure way go into combo-mode. Against Miracle Grow it would be a gamble to go for the combo during such a situation.
Others
Try to focus on the cards that might possibly destruct you and use your surprise effect in the first game. Normally you should grab one out of 3 games due to speed issues and to win another one seems quite easy if you have a solid draw.
Another idea for the deck is to keep it Monoblack and kill with Drain Life or Soul Burn. I am not a big fan of this idea because when there are duals available, it is easy to play 2- or 3- colour decks without real mana problems. Blue is definitely worth it due to additional card-drawing and tutor-effects. The mono-black version I tried to build utilizes Unmask and Defense Grid instead of Force of Will and Misdirection. During testing the mono-black version felt very good sometimes, but sometimes you just get those miserable draws with 2 Dragons and 2 Drain Life and 2 Lands. If you play blue and have one Careful Study in your hand those draws with 2 Dragons and 2 Strokes are not as nearly as bad as with a mono-black version.
In general the deck seems to be very, very powerful and although it loses key cards with the rotation of the format, which will be applied in November, the Dragon and Entomb remain in the format and the worst nightmare of this deck – multiple Force of Wills – rotate out, so it will be interesting if there is any possibility to keep this deck alive. Two Dragons in play might work the same way. You have to find a way to bring both into play, but that should be possible somehow. To be continued…
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