The Biggest Tokens You know

Hello again, Dear Reader.   Today I'm here to help out a new player at our LGS (wizardsnorman.com)!  Dalton (@JDaltonGregory) has asked me for some help tuning a deck he wants to take from casual Magic to FNM.  I accepted his invitation readily, as I won't ever turn down the chance to brew or to give advice!

Enough formalities, what did Dalton bring to the table?!  He brought a sweet Splicer deck:

Artifacts:

1 Conjurer's Closet

Enchantments:

2 Intangible Virtue
2 Parallel Lives

Creatures:

2 Dawntreader Elk
4 Blade Splicer
2 Wing Splicer
2 Vital Splicer
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Master Splicer
2 Restoration Angel
2 Precursor Golem
2 Maul Splicer

Planeswalkers:

1 Venser, the Sojourner

Spells:

3 Cloudshift
4 Sheltering Word

Lands:

4 Evolving Wilds
1 Gavony Township
9 Forest
2 Island
9 Plains

First, I like what this deck is trying to do: fill your side of the table with flying, first-striking, 4/4s.  I like how every creature you play is a literal 2-for-1.  I think this strategy has a lot of play in the currect field of creature decks and planeswalker decks.  So, my first task would be to make this deck more consistent.  And the easiest way to add consistency is to run 4 copies of all your best cards.  I also think the green splash in this deck is underwhelming.  "Alright smart-guy, how would this look if YOU wanted to take it to FNM," you ask gruffly?  How about something like this:

Enchantments:

3 Intangible Virtue

Creatures:

4 Blade Splicer
3 Wing Splicer
3 Master Splicer
3 Restoration Angel
3 Precursor Golem
3 Fiend Hunter
2 Stonehorn Dignitary

Planeswalkers:

3 Venser, the Sojourner

Spells:

3 Cloudshift
3 Negate
3 Think Twice

Lands:

3 Evolving Wilds
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Mooreland Haunt
8 Plains
6 Island

First, I know we don't all have infinity dollars or trade cards, so I tried to keep this as budget as possible while still bulking up the power level.  To go buy all the cards to make the difference between these two decks it will run you just over $40 on LegitMTG.com.  I added a few rares, but nothing too pocket-breaking.

As you can see, the deck is trying to accomplish the same basic goal, overrun the table with golem tokens and bash.  I added more copies of the key cards, a way to dig to the cards you need, and a new package to taking over a game.  More Venser, Splicers, and Intangible Virtue means you will have more and better golem tokens on any given board.  Think Twice gives you something new to do on turn 2, or at the end of any turn where you have mana sitting around.  Stonehorn Dignitary is quite the combo with Venser.  We have all heard of these soft-locks, and some of us have even played against them.  Well, in a deck with this much potential damage output, stalling your opponent until you find that Wing Splicer, or Intangible Virtue will easily win you more games.

Well, there you have it, my first deck-alter in article form.  Dalton, I hope this helps.  We are always welcoming new faces to the competitive side of Magic in our store, and I hope playing this deck makes you want to stick around!  And for the rest of you (and Dalton) let me know what you think of the article!  Do it here in the comments, or on twitter (@CapnTopDeck).

Doing the Full Moon Flip

Quick update today to post a list for @revisedangel.  @samdavisboyhero was hanging out at my place yesterday and we decided to brew some deck lists.  We wanted a Werewolf tribal deck and this is what he and I came up with on the fly.  It's raw and will need some testing, but it is packed with dudes and it will overpower your opponent quickly if a Moonmist resolve.

Feedback and especially results from playtesting are always welcome! Hit me up on twitter: @CapnTopDeck

Creatures:

3 Reckless Waif

4 Wolf-Bitten Captive

3 Young Wolf

4 Mayor of Avabruck

4 Scorned Villager

3 Gatstaf Shepard

4 Immerwolf

1 Kruin Outlaw

3 Daybreak Ranger

3 Garruk Relentless

4 Huntmaster of the Fells

1 Instigator Gang

Spells:

4 Moonmist

Lands:

4 Rootbound Crag

4 Copperline Gorge

2 Kessig Wolfrun

7 Forest

6 Mountain

Revamping G/W in Standard!

Greetings, Dear Reader.  I would like to shift gears from writing about Modern for a moment and focus on standard.  The format has become dominated by Illusions (kind of).  Which means that Day of Judgment decks are having more success.  Given these facts, what should you be playing? Well, something that beats both of those strategies, obviously!  Now, call me a one-trick pony, but I believe you can do exactly that with G/W.  Prepare yourselves, as this deck is going to be my grand unvailing of Molten-Tail Masticore.
 
Yea, call me crazy, go back and re-read that line...I said Molten-tail Masticore.  This card got a lot of hype when it was released and saw some limited play in Fauna Shaman decks in previous standard formats.  Since then the card has seem literally no play and all the hype was dismissed.  This card may not be what I think it is, but I do know that it still does very powerful things.

In a deck like G/W this card can come down on turn 3 if you have the right hand to support it.  This means that against a control deck with a hand full of creatures this robo-cat can be your entire game plan.  Having the ability to swing for 4 and/or dome your opponent for 4 in the same turn makes for a pretty wicked clock (especially against some of the durdle decks that are popping up now).  The other way to use this creature is as a follow-up to an opponents Wrath effect.  They put 2-3 of your creatures in the graveyard and you start with ammunition.  Mooreland Haunt has shown us how powerful having a way to use your graveyard in a creature deck can be. 

Masticore gives our G/W Township deck something similar (and more powerful, in my opinion) to Mooreland Haunt without running another colorless land.  We also get a bonus, Masticore is more versatile than Mooreland Haunt.  Have you ever tried to kill a titan with 2 Haunt activations?  Yea, that doesn't work out so well.  With your opponent at 4 your Haunt gives them at least 3 turns to draw another answer (on an empty board).  Mooreland Haunt also gets set back by board wipes.  All of these shortcomings can be overcome by Masticore, but there are a couple of downsides.

First, Masticore can be countered.  One of the biggest advantages to Mooreland Haunt is the fact that your opponent can't interact with it outside of land destruction.  Another downside (which can partially be played around) is point destruction.  As long as you leave 2 mana up when Masticore resolves he will live through anything short of 2 removal spells or a Revoke Existance.  So, play around/through counterspells (every countered Mirran Crusader is 4 to the dome later!) and Masticore can give this deck the reach it has needed for the past few weeks.

So, without further ado, the list:

Artifacts:
3 Mortarpod

Enchantments:
3 Oblivion Ring

Creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Mirran Crusader
4 Blade Splicer
3 Fiend Hunter
3 Molten-Tail Masticore
3 Hero of Bladehold

Planeswalkers:
3 Garruk Relentless
2 Elspeth Tirel

Lands:
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Gavony Township
8 Forest
4 Plains

I explained how to beat control decks well enough with Masticore, but I didn't talk about Illusions.  The list should be pretty self-explanatory on that front, Garruk and Mortarpod are your best friends.  I have had nothing but success against Illusions in the past with this archetype.  The addition of more Fiend Hunters to the maindeck further bolsters that matchup.  The sideboard should be pretty standard, some combination of Elesh Norn, Thrun, Celestial Purge, Timely Reinforcements, and graveyard hate.
So, feel free to take this baby for a spin and make sure to let me know how it goes.  I am especially interested in other peoples impressions of Masticore in this format. 

If you are going to GP Austin this weekend make sure to get ahold of my via twitter @CapnTopDeck.  I would love to meet you and play some games!  I will be rocking this G/W list in the Invitational qualifiers/FNMs/Win-a-Boxes when not in the Main Event, and you should too.  So, shoot me some feedback on twitter and make sure to listen to the podcast that I lend my voice to, Planeswalker Asylum over at couchpirates.com!


After tutoring up Emrakul against his control opponent in Modern Ali Aintrazi (@AliEldrazi) said these words about his opponents concession: "He's probably seen enough hentai to know where that was going."