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Extended - The long and the short of it
By Richard Bland
Most players
(until recently, me included) don’t play much extended. It’s the same story
every year. You find out there’s an upcoming extended PTQ, so you borrow a deck
from a friend, or if you have a decent collection, netdeck
something yourself. You turn up having little experience of the deck and its matchups, make some sideboarding
errors and a few play mistakes during the day and go home disappointed. “Next
year,” you promise yourself, “next year will be different!”
The PTQ’s for
AGGRO
There are a
fair few aggressive decks in the format. These decks all aim to win around turn
4 (or at least be able to burn out the opponent from there). They run cheap,
efficient beaters, and disruption to stop control decks from stabilising.
First up, Boros Deck Wins
21 Land
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Windswept Heath
2 Barbarian Ring
18 Creatures
4
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Goblin Legionnaire
3 Silver Knight
21 Spells
4 Pillage
4 Molten Rain
4 Firebolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Lava Dart
1 Char
This deck has
an incredibly low curve (19 1-mana spells, 11 at 2-mana, and 9 at 3-mana) and
the Onslaught block fetchland heavy manabase allows it to fuel its lavamancers,
activate the threshold ability of the barbarian rings, and thin its deck of
useless lands in the lategame. The 8 land destruction
spells topping the curve make it very difficult for control decks to mount an
opposition and keep them off of wrath or hierarch mana.
This deck is quite popular and you should expect to face it. Bear in mind that
it is very consistent and can burn opponents out easily even after their
initial onslaught is stopped (the deck can deal 60 points of burn to the face,
not counting lavamancers!)
Affinity
17 land
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Glimmervoid
19 Creatures
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Frogmite
3 Myr Enforcer
3 Ornithopter
1 Somber Hoverguard
24 Spells
3 Chrome Mox
2 Pithing Needle
3 Shrapnel Blast
4 Fire//Ice
4 Cranial Plating
4 Thoughtcast
4 Terrarion
Affinity is one
of the cheaper decks in the format to build with its rare light manabase and creature selection, and so is a definite
option for anyone on a budget. The deck is capable of some horrifically fast
starts, and is very capable of swinging for 10 on turn 3 despite losing 2 of
its favourite cards to last year’s bannings (disciple
of the vault and aether vial), just showing how
strong the affinity mechanic is. The deck runs maindeck
answers to Kataki and other threats with some
pinpoint removal in fire/ice, and to other disruptive strategies with pithing needle, and the deck packs its own disruption such
as duress and cabal therapy in the board.
Friggorid
18 Land
4 Cephalid
Coliseum
4 Watery Grave
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
22 Creatures
4 Ichorid
4 Putrid Imp
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Psychatog
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
2 Wonder
20 Spells
4 Chrome Mox
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Tolarian Winds
4 Deep Analysis
4 Cabal Therapy
Named for the
deck’s inventor, John “friggin’” Rizzo, this deck
abuses the dredge mechanic by dumping most of the deck into the graveyard in
the first couple of turns, then swinging across with Ichorids
or huge ‘togs. The deck is highly synergistic, and has multiple flashback cards
that allow the deck to cast spells and gain card advantage while spending its
draws on dredge cards. To appreciate the synergy and strength of the deck, you
really have to see it in action; it really can get some sickeningly good draws.
Unfortunately, the deck is quite easy to hate out, and so its sideboard is
dedicated to dealing with the hate cards, running pithing
needle to deal with withered wretch, scepter and
tooth decks, chain of vapour to deal with leyline of
the void, scepter and tooth, and moment’s peace to
deal with aggro decks, which can sometimes race this deck.
“Aggro”
Loam
25
land
4 Forgotten Cave
4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Stomping ground
1 Sacred foundry
1
2
2 Mountain
1 Barbarian Ring
15 Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Werebear
3 Terravore
20 Spells
3 Seismic Assault
4 Firebolt
3 Life from the Loam
4 Burning Wish
3 Thoughts of Ruin
3 Lightning Helix
This deck, while
unconventional for an aggro deck, may well be the best deck in the format. The
deck has a big pile of synergy, and uses the all-star life from the loam to
fuel not only a card draw engine, but also for seismic assault, wild mongrel
and to boost hand size for a big Thoughts of Ruin. The dredging and fetchlands also make for a gigantic terravore
and enables werebear’s threshold. The Burning Wishes
allow not only for up to 7 Thoughts and Loams but also give the deck access to
potent silver bullets such as Morningtide against
graveyard-centric decks, Shattering Spree versus affinity, and Hull Breach as a
sorcery speed naturalize.
CONTROL
Control decks
have to have a lot of answers available to them, due to the diversity of the
format and the sheer size of the card pool. Many of the decks therefore utilise
the Judgement wishes to allow the deck to answer any threat presented to them.
The decks here all aim to neutralise the opposing deck’s threats, gain card
advantage and end the game with either a large/difficult to deal with beater,
or some sort of lock mechanism that makes winning a formality.
No-Stick
23 land
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Adarkar Wastes
2 Steam Vents
3
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
3 Plains
2 Seat of the Synod
2 Shivan Reef
4 Flooded
4 Win conditions
2 Exalted Angel
2 Decree of Justice
33 Spells
4 Isochron Scepter
2 Orim's Chant
3 Fire//Ice
2 Mana Leak
2 Lightning Helix
3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Chrome Mox
4 Counterspell
3 Force Spike
3 Wrath of God
2 Fact or Fiction
3 Cunning Wish
No-Stick,
otherwise known as Scepter-Chant, plays as a regular
blue/white control deck - countering spells, drawing cards and sweeping the
board. But this deck also incorporates the powerful Isochron
Scepter to counter every threat an opponent plays
with an imprinted counterspell, or to deny them their
turn with a kicked Orim’s Chant. The deck runs the uncounterable decree of justice,
and the aggro-killing exalted angel as win conditions. The deck also utilises
cunning wish to search for either extra copies of its lock pieces or silver
bullets like stifle, disenchant and echoing truth.
Burning
Tog
23 Land
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Oboro, Place in the
Clouds
1 Swamp
5
1 Blood Crypt
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
10 Creatures
4 Nightscape Familiar
4 Psychatog
2 Flametongue Kavu
27 Spells
4 Burning Wish
4 Fire//Ice
4 Memory Lapse
4 Remand
4 Counterspell
4 Fact or Fiction
2 Repeal
1 Deep Analysis
Burning Tog is
the most successful of all psychatog variant control
decks. The deck runs counterspell disruption and
plenty of card draw, with nightscape familiar acting as a one sided helm of
awakening, as well as slowing attacks on the ground. The acceleration provided
allows tog to wish for answers such as morningtide, pyroclasm, global ruin and shattering spree from the
sideboard and play them while leaving counter mana
open. Tog is difficult to play, but can cope with all sorts of threats and
benefits a skilled player.
Gifts Rock
22 Land
4
4 Windswept Heath
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Polluted Delta
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
1
1 Breeding Pool
1 Swamp
1
1 Plains
1 Golgari Rot Farm
15 Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sakura Tribe Elder
3 Eternal Witness
2 Loxodon
Hierarch
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Genesis
23 Spells
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Living Wish
3 Leyline of the Void
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Putrefy
1 Vindicate
1 Plow Under
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Deep Analysis
Rock has been
around forever it seems, and for good reason. The power of Pernicious Deed
makes this control deck something to be reckoned with. The deck runs plenty of mana acceleration and early game disruption such as the
therapies and the plentiful removal. The deck’s late-game however is
staggering, with witnesses, genesis, gifts ungiven
and its board sweepers all providing card advantage. The deck can lock out an
opponent with Witness + plow under + genesis, or can
constantly recur hierarchs to thwart aggro staregies.
The deck can also wish for silver bullet creatures like the graveyard hosing
withered wretch, or the late-game bomb Simic Sky Swallower or even useful lands like Boseiju.
COMBO
Combo decks aim to win around turn 4 or
5 and run a variety of cards to search for and protect their combo pieces from
disruption. They tend to run stall cards like Moment’s peace, Remand and
Sakura-Tribe Elder to delay their opponent’s development, giving them opportunity
to combo out. The decks all require some skill and lots of practice to play
with as many important decisions tend to be made over the course of a single
turn that will make the difference between comboing
off and losing horribly.
Tooth
and Nail
23 Land
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Tower
4 Windswept Heath
5
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Boseiju, who shelters
all
11 Creatures
4 Sakura Tribe Elder
2 Eternal Witness
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror
Breaker
1 Sundering Titan
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Mephidross Vampire
1 Triskelion
26 Spells
2 Talisman of Unity
3 Moment’s Peace
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Reap and Sow
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Tooth and Nail
2 Mindslaver
3 Oblivion stone
This deck aims to quickly assemble the Urzatron and
fire off an entwined Tooth and Nail on around turn 4 or 5 (needing only a Tron set and 2 forests to cast it) bringing out either a
one-sided wrath in Trike & Vamp, or a one sided
Armageddon in Kiki & Titan. The deck also runs
Oblivion stone and Mindslaver to abuse the plentiful mana to sweep the board, or just wreck your opponent. The
Windswept Heaths not only provide shuffle effects for the divining top, but
also allow a white splash in the sideboard for Kataki
(to beat affinity) and Orim’s chant (to protect the
combo and to stop opposing combos)
Heartbeat
22 Land
12
10
4 Creatures
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
34 Spells
4 Ideas Unbound
4 Remand
4 Heartbeat of Spring
4 Cunning Wish
3 Rampant Growth
3 Early Harvest
3 Gifts Ungiven
4 Nostalgic Dreams
2 Fact or Fiction
1 Revive
1 Deep Analysis
1 Brain Freeze
This deck aims
to deck the opponent by building up a large storm count with Early Harvest,
Heartbeat of Spring and card draw spells. The deck can usually go off with 5
lands in play. The current version of the deck eschews the traditional Mind’s
Desire for Ideas Unbound, which does just as much to help the combo go off and
is less useless early on in the game. The cunning wishes can grab combo pieces,
countermagic and bounce as needed. Nostalgic
dreams makes the deck highly resistant to disruption, as it can easily
restock its hand with Ideas Unbound, and then get back the necessary cards. The
loop of drawing cards, early harvesting, then casting nostalgic dreams to
return them all allows the deck to easily build up the requisite storm count -
with Remand allowing you to “cheat” the storm count by casting Brain Freeze for
say, 8 copies, Remanding the original Brain Freeze, then recasting it for a
total of 17 copies!
This is by no
means an exhaustive list of all the decks you can encounter. There are many
other archetypes lying on the fringe of competitiveness, such as Zoo, Izzetron, U/B(/g) Tog, Balancing ‘Tings, MadnessTog, slide and wake – all these will show up from
time to time. Time Spiral looms on the horizon, and almost certainly will make
some impact in extended. Whether it will inspire entirely new archetypes or
augment existing ones, only time will tell…
- Richard Bland
(Blasmeister on the forums)