So, a couple weeks ago I had this idea for a Standard deck, and it wasn’t until tonight that I’d gotten a chance to actually play it in a tournament. This is the last Standard tournament for a while and the last one before Mirrodin Besieged rotates in, so I’ve been bummed that I haven’t had a chance to play it, but I had to miss FNM last week for a date night with my wife. These things happen.
Anyway, I’ve changed the deck some since I originally posted it. Here’s the list I actually played:
[deck title=Sin City]
[Creatures]
4 Wall of Omens
4 Emeria Angel
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Sunblast Angel
1 Sun Titan
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
3 Gideon Jura
[/Planeswalkers]
[Other spells]
3 Everflowing Chalice
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Doom Blade
2 Luminarch Ascension
2 Mimic Vat
2 Day of Judgment
[/Other spells]
[Land]
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
6 Plains
3 Swamp
2 Mountain
2 Tectonic Edge
3 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
4 Duress
2 Luminarch Ascension
2 Revoke Existence
2 Pyroclasm
1 Day of Judgment
3 Baneslayer Angel
1 Liliana Vess
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
Not playing Day of Judgment in the main was simple lunacy; Day is amazing. Admonition Angel is very cute and all, but with Gideon and Luminarch Ascension, my opponents tend to swing, so Sunblast Angel is just too good not to play 2 of in the main deck. Emeria Angel is a weird card. There are some games when she is just so good it’s ludicrous, and other games where I just want to hit myself for even thinking about playing her. I never figured out a better option, though, so I kept her in. The Revoke Existence in the sideboard are admittedly iffy; Act of Treason is probably a better choice.
In my mind, the sketchiest thing about this deck going in is the mana base. Three colors is hard to support without any really serious color fixing beyond the fetchlands. Fortunately you never really need more than one black or one red source, as long as you have two white available, the deck is happy.
The deck name comes from the color combination, in case that isn’t obvious. Sin City is partly a response to something someone said at FNM earlier, that there are only two viable choices in the current envrionment: all-out aggro and decks that require 4 or more $40+ mythic rares, usually Jace. I wanted to build a viable control deck where nothing in the deck cost more than $25; Gideon Jura is by far the most expensive card in the deck and is findable at under $20, so this fit the bill… if it’s actually viable. I am not, nor have I ever been, a great deckbuilder, but I’m proud of this one.
Turnout at Montag’s Games hasn’t been all that great lately and that trend continued tonight, only 16 people showed. 4 rounds of Swiss, cut to top 4.
Round 1: Brandon, playing RDW
Well, a real test right out of the gate. I’d seen Brandon at Montag’s before, but we had never played. I knew he was playing RDW because he and a friend were talking about it beforehand. Game 1 can be pretty tricky but post-sideboard should favor me since nobody actually plays Combust and four Wall of Omens plus multiple Baneslayers is still awfully good against RDW. Game 1 I opened with an Inquisition and a couple spot removal spells. He won the die roll, played a Mountain, and passed. I Inquisitioned him first turn and saw a Mountain, a Staggershock, a Koth, a Searing Blaze, and two Goblin Ruinblasters (main deck? really?). I took one of the Ruinblasters. Now, I don’t know why he kept this, as it’s not exactly what you’d call a pressure-packed hand. I guess in an environment with a lot of Lotus Cobras, it’s keepable. However, this gave me time to play out a Chalice then a Vat and then Gideon on turn 4. He got a Goblin Guide after I put down Gideon so Gideon was at 6, and I just killed the Guide with Gideon and put the goblin under the Vat… not exactly the greatest Vat run ever. He Staggershocked Gideon down to 2, so I pumped Gideon back up and played an Angel, which ate his topdecked Bolt. From there I just beat him up with Gideon. He threw various bits of burn at me before playing Gideon and I did end the game at 8, but I never felt like I was in serious danger. I sided out the Luminarch Ascensions, two Inquisitions, and two Emeria Angels for the extra Day, the Pyroclasms, and the three Baneslayers. Game 2 I opened with a Bolt, a Doom Blade, and a Pyroclasm and four lands, which I kept. He put down a Plated Geopede on his turn 2, then swung without landfall on his turn 3, then played out another Geopede. Then I Pyroclasm’d. He came back with a Mountain and a Kargan Dragonlord, which I did not immediately Blade, but waited for him to pour all three of his mana into next turn before paying homage to @Doom_Blade_Guy. I followed up with Gideon. He burnt Gideon out after two hits, but I had drawn into a second one and he went all the way. Hey, not bad!
1-0 matches, 2-0 games
Round 2: John, playing Valakut
John is a regular at Montag’s and we’ve played many times, though not lately as John has been kind of sour on Standard of late. Nobody at the store had played Valakut in a long time (I think I may have been the last person to do so) and so I hadn’t really thought about that matchup much. In retrospect, my deck seems pretty soft to it. Game 1 I mulled down to 5 because of no white mana at either 7 or 6… and actually the five I kept had no white either. I didn’t draw a white source until turn 5 and by then it was just way too late, Mountains were bolts and I just died horribly. I sided out all four Emeria Angels and something else for the four Duresses and the extra Day.Game 2 I took a hand with 3 hand kill to keep him off ramp, but… no black source. In fact, I got stuck on two Plains and a Tectonic Edge for a couple turns, and I had to Edge off a Valakut. Needless to say, I lost this one as well. These were two quick and hopeless beatings. Completely hosed on mana, but I knew that was a risk with this deck so I decided to just suck it up and win the rest of them.
1-1 matches, 2-2 games
Round 3: Daniel, playing Caw-Go
Daniel is a regular who I’ve played before, though not too many times. He got stuck on a Seachrome Coast, a Mystifying Maze, and a Tectonic Edge for a couple turns. I wasn’t really putting much pressure on, but I did get a Luminarch Ascension on turn 4 and then just hit him a couple times with a pumped manland. He got Gideon, but that turn I got the fourth counter and thus two Angels, who made short work of his planeswalker. I came back with my own Gideon, but he came back with his second, killing both. However, I still had angels and they ended it. I sided out all four Walls and the two Days plus one Emeria for two more Luminarch Ascensions, the Duresses, and Liliana. Game 2 I got a little land-hosed, and he hit me with Spreading Seas three times in my first four land and I never really got anywhere. Game 3 I got a Luminarch Ascension on turn 2, hit him with Duress on turn 3 and took a Revoke Existence, and then got another Ascension on turn 4. I actually almost let him keep the Revoke and took big Jace since I had the second Ascension in hand, but I decided it was better to put max pressure on him. That worked, and angel tokens went all the way.
2-1 matches, 4-3 games
Round 4: Carlos, playing Gr homebrew
Carlos is another regular who I’ve played many times. His deck was largely Elves (including Nissa) with Bolts, but with a few curveballs in there, like Precursor Golem. Game 1 Carlos managed to get ahead and had a couple Nissa’s Chosen (one summoned by Nissa, who ate a Bolt) and 3 golems beating up on me, but I had a Wall of Omens, a Luminarch Ascension, and a Wurmcoil Engine. He had me at 7, but I dropped Gideon and made him swing into the Wurmcoil. Gideon took 7 but lived to force another attack, costing Carlos another dude, gaining me 6 more life, and I was accumulating Ascension counters. Gideon died to a kicked Burst Lightning, but by then I had 4 counters on the Ascension and that was it. I was at like 31 life when it ended. Game 2 I thought I had a good draw with a Day and a Baneslayer, but Carlos hit my land with Acidic Slime on turns 4 and 5. I had fetches to get more Plains to replace the lost ones and got a Day off killing the elf and both Slimes and followed that up with a Baneslayer, and I figured I had it, but he immediately answered my fattie angel with Chandra Nalaar. Wow, Chandra, hadn’t seen her in a while. Well, I got stuck on those 5 land with both a Wurmcoil and a Sunblast in my hand, and Carlos finished me off. Ugly. Game 3 I got off a Day on turn 4 and then got a Baneslayer on turn 5, which I had to swing into his Garruk which had made two Beasts. He also had two other creatures on the board and swung with everything since I had no blockers. This meant on turn 6 I managed a 4-for-1 with my Sunblast Angel. He never really recovered from that, and scooped when I followed that up with a Wurmcoil.
3-1 matches, 6-4 games
Semis: Daniel, playing BUG Wave
The other two in the top 4 were my round 1 opponent Brandon (he hadn’t lost since) and my round 2 opponent John (undefeated). I’d played Daniel a couple weeks before and knew he had the same deck as that time. It’s basically a green ramp deck with Genesis Wave, which waves into Ob Nixilis, the Fallen or Avenger of Zendikar. The only blue main is, I believe, Jace. It’s a very streaky deck: when it doesn’t work, nothing much happens, and when it works, it’s a freaking explosion. Anyway, game 1 was a train wreck. He won the roll, and I faltered a little on mana after hitting him turn 1 with Inquisition and seeing Explore, Ob, Primeval Titan, Genesis Wave, and three lands. I took the Explore, and of course he topdecked a Cobra. Meh. He Cobra’d into Primeval Titan getting two fetches, and while I had a Doom Blade, it did not bode well. He got an Oracle then Ob and then Waved for the win. Yikes. I sided out all four Emeria Angels for the Pyroclasms, the Day, and a Duress. I got a turn 2 Luminarch and that was the difference. He ramped into a bunch of land but I knew what he had from an early Inquisition and he didn’t have the two black he needed for the Ob in his hand. I got the Luminarch active and made angels, hitting him down to 7. He fired off a big Wave and got an Avenger, but all the plant tokens in the world won’t block a sky full of 4/4s. I went back to the sideboard, putting in a third Luminarch and changing out the Inquisitions for Duresses. This game was really tight. I got a turn 2 Luminarch again, but he got Ob before I got enough counters to go crazy. I came back with a Wumcoil. He played a basic land to Ob me down to 8, but of course he didn’t swing. I swung with the Engine going back up to 14 and played a Sun Titan. He got a Wave and hit some land and an Oracle and a couple small dudes. He flipped the top card in his deck and missed a land, so he cracked a fetch to put me down to 2 and missed land again on the top of his deck. He probably figured he had to get rid of the Sun Titan to get in next turn with his new little guys, so he swung with Ob. I chumped with my Titan, and came back with a Sunblast Angel to kill Ob. I could then swing in with the Wurmcoil to go back up to 8 life. He was at 7 so he chumped with a Treespeaker. We both knew his next draw was another Oracle, so he couldn’t really do anything, and that got my Ascension up to 4 counters. I made an Angel and swung for lethal. Whew!
4-1 matches, 8-5 games
Brandon bested John in the other semi, and because he really wanted to get to another store that was having a midnight prerelease, we agreed to split.
I got to bank my credit toward a Tezzeret 2.0 which Guy (the store owner) said he’d almost certainly acquire on Sunday, which is when Montag’s has its prerelease. Excellent!
So, the deck. It’s not the most consistent deck in the universe, as the mana is a little suspect. Sphere of the Suns would be much better than Everflowing Chalice here, though the Chalice was pretty good to me overall, I only cast it with more than 1 counter once all night. On the other hand, the deck has some great tools. Luminarch Ascension is a really terrific card against non-aggro decks, and combined with 8 1-mana discard spells makes post-board games pretty good against control decks. Day and a full suite of Walls and Bolts, plus Wurmcoil, is a fantastic pain in the ass for aggro decks and that worked out great as well. Valakut is definitely the worst matchup and I’m not sure what the best solution is there.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that a 16-man FNM isn’t exactly the Pro Tour or anything and 8-5 isn’t a stellar game record. I’m not suggesting that Sin City is a Tier 1 Standard deck. However, I think I was able to make my point that it is possible to build a reasonably viable deck that isn’t all-out aggro and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Later edit: OK, so the right answer for Valakukt is (well, was, since the format is all different now) probably Leyline of Sanctity. Not sure that it’s really all that great since most Valakut builds run some kind of artifact/enchantment control in the side, but it has to better than the current nothing.