SILVER BULLET TEPS

Here's a total rethink of the TEPS strategy as a straight fast-as-I-can-collect-combo-pieces exercise, called Silver Bullet TEPS.

Very, very, consistent but a turn slower than most normal TEPS (yet still able to go off turn one with the right hand).

Mana Engine: 20 Cards

4 x Lotus Bloom
4 x Rite of Flame
4 x Manamorphose
4 x Desperate Ritual
4 x Seething Song

Tutor Engine: 22 Cards

4 x Ponder
4 x Merchant Scroll (Fetch Gifts turn 2 or fetch a Silver Bullet)
4 x Peer Through Depths
2 x Gifts Ungiven (Fetch Combo pieces turn 3/4)
4 x Mind's Desire
1 x Sins of the Past (Fetch from graveyard)

Win Condition - 2

2 x Tendrils of Agony

Protection/Delay Spells - 4

4 x Remand

Lands - 16

3 x Cascade Bluffs
3 x Flooded Strand
3 x Polluted Delta
4 x Steam Vents
2 x Island
1 x Dreadship Reef

Silver Bullet Sideboard

4 x Ancestral Recall (Vs Loam, Wizards)
1 x Brainfreeze (Vs Mirror, ELVES)
1 x Echoing Truth (Vs Gaddok, Cannonist, Chalice)
1 x Chain of Vapour (Vs Gaddok, Cannonist, Chalice)
1 x Gigadrowse (Vs Counterspells)
1 x Pact of Negation (vs Counterspells)
1 x Gaea's Blessing (Vs Mirror)
1 x Trickbind (Vs Mirror)
2 x Shattering Spree (Vs Affinity, Chalice)
2 x Volcanic Fallout (Vs ELVES, Gaddok, Cannonist)

Considering the TEPS sideboard.

(NOTE: If anyone can tell me why there's a stupid-big gap at the end of this post, please twitter me on twitter.com/wrongwaygoback)

I'm currently playing a version of TEPS that makes winning the first game as consistent as possible, using Mind's Desire for as a consistent forth-turn play to set up a fifth turn win each and every time. That (hopefully) leaves the real battle for games two and three, when they bring in their anti-TEPS tech of choice.

So what answers TEPS? And what hurts the answers?

This analysis at the end of this post rates Echoing Truth, Volcanic Fallout, Gigadrowse and Shattering Spree very highly, followed by Pact of Negation, with Brainfreeze, Gaea's Blessing and Akroma having a lesser impact.

However Echoing Truth, Volcanic Fallout and Shattering Spree all overlap relatively heavily on the answers they are trying to hurt - Gaddok Teeg and Ethersworn Cannonist, with some splash damage for Fae/Wizards.

Meanwhile, Gigadrowse and Pact seem to serve exactly the same purpose and one can probably go.

Ad Nauseum is a truly narrow sideboard card good against one deck (Loam), and Akroma seems narrow against Fae.

With that analysis in hand, how would I view a sideboard now?

Probably as:

4 x Echoing Truth
3 x Gigadrowse
2 x Volcanic Fallout
2 x Shattering Spree
2 x Brainfreeze
1 x Gaea's Blessing
1 x Ad Nauseum

This provides:

9 sideboard cards vs ELVES
9 sideboard cards vs Bant
9 sideboard cards vs TRON
8 sideboard cards vs ZOO
8 sideboard cards vs Affinity
7 sideboard cards vs Fae
6 sideboard cards for the TEPS mirror
5 sideboard cards vs Tezzeret
1 sideboard cards vs Loam

The only card I have hestitation about cutting is the Pact of Negation. I simply don't see the advantage in running Akroma yet - it's a high cost spell that seems like it's never going to be cast. Of course, I'm probably wrong about that.

Running a single Ad Nauseum might simply seem not worth it, but as I'm running two Gifts Ungiven in the deck I may be able to access it regardless.

I'm unconvinced about the two Brainfreeze, and I'm tempted to drop down to a singleton.

I still want to slip a singleton Progenitus in there. Just for shits and giggles.

	Echoing Truth	Volcanic Fallout	Gigadrowse	Ad Nauseum	Pact of Negation	Brainfreeze	Gaea's Blessing	Akroma, Angel of Fury	Shattering Spree
ELVES! (Combo/Teeg)	♦	♦				♦	♦
ZOO (Teeg/Cannonist/Jitte)	♦	♦							♦
Affinity (Cannonist)	♦	♦							♦
TRON (Chalice)	♦		♦						♦
Tezzeret (Chalice/Spell Snare)	♦								♦
Loam (Raven's Crime)				♦
BANT (Teeg/Counterspells/Jitte)	♦		♦		♦				♦
FAE/Wiz (Chalice/Counterspells)		♦	♦		♦			♦	♦
TEPS (Brainfreeze/Counterspells)			♦		♦	♦	♦

Ungiven Storms

I've been playing and testing TEPS lately, based on the LSV build that is infinitely popular at the moment; I guess that's the effect of having one of the best players win with it and write it up on StarCityGames.com.

However, LSV himself noted on SCG.com that he was unhappy with the two Electrolyze in the deck. Having played the deck a few times I can see what he means; they do so little to help in Turn 3 against any deck that matters, while taking up valuable cardboard space. I also noted that he sideboarded the Electrolyze in EVERY MATCH he played; so between 50% and 70% of the time LSV wasn't playing with them anyway.

Before playing TEPS I'd been mucking around with TRON; being an Aussie TRON is somewhat in the blood. The great thing about TRON is it's ability to pull together the combo using Gifts Ungiven, while giving your opponent no good cards to discard.

As TEPS is also a Combo deck with access to large amounts of mana, I thought it might work well to use Gifts Ungiven in the Electrolyze slot. In order to provide your opponent with no good discard options, I also wanted to include Sins of the Past in the deck. That way whatever they discarded would still be available to play.

Here's the deck as a result with a European style 61 cards.

Maindeck - 61 Cards

Instants - 22

4 x Manamorphose
4 x Desperate Ritual
2 x Gifts Ungiven
4 x Remand
4 x Peer Through Depths
4 x Seething Song

Sorceries- 17

1 x Sins of the Past
2 x Sleight of Hand
4 x Mind's Desire
4 x Ponder
4 x Rite of Flame
2 x Tendrils of Agony

Artifacts - 4

4 x Lotus Bloom

Lands - 18

3 x Cascade Bluffs
4 x Dreadship Reef
3 x Flooded Strand
2 x Island
3 x Polluted Delta
3 x Steam Vents

Sideboard - 15 Cards

1 x Brain Freeze
1 x (Anti-Mill Card of Choice)
2 x Pact of Negation
2 x Echoing Truth
3 x Gigadrowse
3 x Volcanic Fallout
3 x Shattering Spree

I played a few games of the deck last night and was very happy with the results. If your deck was going to go off on Turn 3, Gifts isn't slowing it down any more than an Electrolyze in hand already was. If your deck is slow at Turn 4, Gifts is doing a lot more of the heavy lifting than Electrolyze was. Using Gifts at the end of your opponent's Turn 4 really sets up going off consistently on Turn 5.

The aim is to gift for Mind's Desire, Tendrils of Agony, Remand and Sins of the Past. If you have any of those four cards you can replace one with the utility card you may need; I found manamorphose was the other I headed for most often.

Like TRON, Gifts provides your opponent with no good cards to discard. Several times my opponent discarded the Tendrils and Mind's Desire, leaving me with Sins of the Past and Remand. This would allow me to go off next turn with Sins into Mind's Desire, Remanding Mind's Desire into hand, and then going off again. Not only does this recover the graveyard, the Sins also adds a "free" addition to the Storm count.

The other great thing is that having Mind's Desire resolve into a free Gifts almost always brought about the instant concession as I went and fetched whatever I needed to combo onwards.

One great play last night was Mind's Desire with no mana floating into Lotus Bloom, 2 x Desperate Ritual, a Rite of Flame and a Gifts Ungiven. Gifts allowed me to fetch Tendrils, Remand, Sins and Desire, and all the mana off the Mind's Desire became useful again. If that Gifts had been Electrolyze it would of been a dead storm.

I think Gifts is fantastic on the play. On the Draw, especially depending on the speed of the opponent's deck, I would consider Gifts and Sins to be the go-to cards for sideboarding - consider them a three-of set that come and go together.

Here's how I'd see sideboarding:

Against ELVES!

On the Draw:

-2 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Sins, -2 Sleight of Hand, +3 Volcanic Fallout, +1 Brain Freeze, +1 Anti-Mill Card of Choice

The goal is to take out their army just as they go off using Volcanic Fallout, with Brain Freeze the fall-back position. Remember that Desperate Ritual is an instant as well, so you can pull off a two-land Volcanic Fallout with both in hand.

Back on the Play:

Depends on what they have shown to sideboard. If they've just had Fallout sprung upon them they may head towards a more mid-range aggro build, in which case Echoing Truth may be a better option than fallout.

Against Affinity:

On the Draw:

-2 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Sins, +3 Shattering Spree

Yeah. Pretty obvious.

Back on the Play:

-2 Sleight of Hand, -1 Desperate Ritual, +2 Gifts Ungiven, +1 Sins

You can probably race well enough to Turn 4 against affinity unless they have the nut draw, in which case you're dead anyway.

Against Tezzeret Control

On the Draw:

-4 Lotus Bloom, -2 Desperate Ritual, +2 Pact of Negation, +2 Gigadrowse, +2 Shattering Spree

Your opponent will be bringing in extra Chalice of the Void and other various control artifacts. Your job is to delay and/or destroy them all. Sins + Gifts are great here because they don't get hit by Spell Snare.

On the Play:

Depends on what he's played. You may consider putting back in the Lotus Bloom if you feel you've got Chalices under control and can Remand the Trinket Mage for long enough.

Against Fae:

On the Play & Draw:

-2 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Sins, -2 Sleight of Hand, +3 Gigadrowse, +2 Pact of Negation

Gigadrowse to tap them out, Pact to protect your storm. That is all.


Well, I hope that helps. I'll be testing the deck for a hopeful run at the Perth PTQ. Guess we'll see how that goes.

Labels: Gifts Ungiven, magic, storm, TEPS

Sydney: Honolulu PTQ

The Sydney: Honolulu PTQ happened today (you can find the results at mtgsydney.com.au).
I was playing TEPS with nothing innovative about it or the sideboard. Here's a rundown of my games.

MATCH #1 - Mono-Red

I had a pretty easy matchup first round, mono-red burn. Was very happy to see it, as it's basically a bye.

GAME 1: I waited to hit about three life with my opponent tapped out in the first game and then Tendrils my way back to sixteen, restocked my hand, and killed the next round using Sins of the Past for Tendrils.

GAME 2: Again, waited until I hit four life and then Tendrils my way back up to eighteen. Got back down to seven before I Sins of the Past for Tendrils and take the final six life.

Won in two.

MATCH #2 - ELVES!

The matchup I was dreading, and nervousness led to poor play.

GAME 1: I drop a Lotus bloom, he goes off the turn before I get it.

GAME 2: On the play, I go off on turn three - and that's where things get messy.
I had a 10 storm on the stack and 10 mana in pool and play Manamorphose. In response, he Chord of Callings for (a Japanese) Ethersworn Canonist.
If I'd been thinking I could of Peered Through Depths in response - and I would of found a Remand to take care of the Chord. Instead, I foolishly let it resolve, then once Canonist hit play the Manamorphose resolved, and I put Echoing Truth on the stack in response to bounce the Canonist, and then Peer in Response.
Of course, with Ethersworn in play I couldn't do that, and neither my opponent nor I spotted it, even with a Lvl 0 judge watching.
Eventually we both spotted the mistake and rolled back the game, both getting a game warning. I took 10 mana burn and passed the turn.
AND THEN...
My opponent plays Glimpse of Nature and tries to combo out. As soon as he plays his second spell I call for a judge. He's forgotten his own Canonist, immediately after we finished resolving the first mess. He gets a second warning, but not a game loss, and eventually he beats me with his little men.

Lost in two.

MATCH #3 - Zoo

GAME 1: I play badly and lose. Basically, I waited as long as I should of, but at the end of his turn cracked a Flooded Strand and failed to keep Remand mana open. He spots the error and immediatly Helixs me for the win. I would of combo'd out if I hadn't been so foolish.

GAME 2: He plays Ethersworn, I can't find the Truth in time.

Lost in two - out of contention for Top 8.

MATCH #4 - White Weenie

Game four happened after lunch and my opponent was running late. He ended up with an automatic match loss as a result.

GAME 1: Auto loss for my opponent.

GAME 2: I wait until I'm on four life then combo out for the win. No real threat, just some careful hand crafting.

Won in two.

MATCH #5 - Martyr Proc

I handn't spotted anyone running Martyr, so was surprised to see it. I won the roll.

GAME 1: I play Strand, suspend double Lotus.
He plays Plains, Martyr, Chalice of the Void for Zero.
I die a little on the inside.
I play a storage land.
He plays a second matyr, and I start pumping the land.
I play a third land (he's still on one).
He sacs a martyr and leaps to 38, showing Crovac, Eternal Dragon, and a whole bunch of other stuff - but no plains.
Four turn my 2 Lotus arrive and are immediately countered - but they start the Storm count nicely. I play the Storm perfectly, get Minds desire up and running into another desire, boost the storm count to above 14, the Tendrils twice to outpace a second Martyr sac.

GAME 2: He gets to two mana this time. I kill him with a perfectly played storm, with ten spells on the stack and 4B, 2U an 4R in the pool for Tendrils, Remand, Tendrils for the win.

Won in two.

Game #6 - TEPS (Mirror)

I win the roll - phew!

GAME 1: We mirror each other's play - land for land, Lotus for Lotus, storage for storage. Unfortunately I can't find a meaningful spell to go off when Lotus arrives, and he can. Foolishly, though, he spends another ten minutes comboing off when he could of just shown Tendrils in hand for the concession.

GAME 2: I've sideboarded in counterspells - he's sided in gigadrowse. He get into a Lotus/Remand war - I manage to remand four Lotus before one of mine resolves, guarded by a Pact of Negation. I combo out that turn.

1-1 draw due to time (but I won the vanity match!)

So at the end I finished 19th with 3 wins, 2 loses and a draw.

What would I do with the deck? Ditch the Electrolyze for either 2 Stifle main (as every deck plays fetchlands and stifling that can be cruel) or 2 more Slight of Hand. Play Volcanic Fallout vs ELVES! And definately keep Sins of the Past as a 61st card - it was also useful to have another spot other than the Electrolyzes to slide out for my three-ofs in the sideboard.

Labels: magic, PTQ, report, Sydney

The Top Must Own Artifacts In Order To Play Competitive Magic (Extended Edition)

Last year I decided to start playing Magic competitively, aiming at Standard and Extended competition. This meant massively bolstering my relatively casual collection. To do this I made two decisions - 1. To redeem as much out of MtGO as possible, and 2. To buy playsets of the "fundamental" cards of competitive magic.

"Fundamental" coloured cards are pretty obvious - eg. White has Wrath of God, Black has Thoughseize), but deciding on the must-own artifacts was a lot harder. Artifacts, in many cases, are utility sideboard cards that answer a lot of Magic life's little problems.

So, with the game and the meta-game in mind, here's what I came up with, in no particular order.

1. Chrome Mox: Currently the mana accelerator of choice in the extended metagame. Clearly better in control decks that want to get out an early counterspell then restock their hand, Chrome Mox can be seen mixing it up in decks that just want to drop Big Things.

2. Lotus Bloom: Another mana accelerator, but use primarily for Combo, as opposed to control. Generally playing one of these first term in Combo is the equivalent of telling your play, "okay, you have three turns to kill me: go".

3. Umezawa's Jitte: Still the most crazy-powerful equipment artifact. The reasons why: It has three different and powerful effects, making it's utility high. It only requires combat damage, not combat damage against a player. And you can remove the counters from the Jitte without it being equipped to a creature. What the hell were WoTC thinking when they made this one?

4. Chalice of the Void: I've seen Chalice rip apart lesser players, consistently playing into a Chalice and having their spells countered and countered again. The backbone of many control decks, it can shut down most combo and aggro decks for just two mana. However, it takes a little brain power to use, both in knowing your opponent's deck, and knowing your own.

5. Vedalken Shackles: A control player's wet dream, you get a repeatable creature stealing effect for five mana up-front and two mana from then on. Killing someone with their own Goyf has never been more satisfying.

6. Pithing Needle: One of my favourite sideboard cards, it's easily the most effective way of shutting down any number of activated abilities. But the ones it'll have the biggest effect on are the ones that will creep up on us eventually: planeswalkers. A one mana, persistent way of shutting down any planeswalker in the format? I'll take that.

7. Engineered Explosives: The non-Wrath wrath, it allows non-White decks to sweep the board. Has seen less play with the rise of Damnation and lately Volcanic Fallout. However, as a narrow answer to Zoo and ELVES, it's certainly found it's play in the format.

8. Tormod's Crypt / Relic of Progenitus: Which one you play really depends on your meta-game, but these two still remain the best graveyard hate in the format.

9. Crucible of Worlds: Appearing in TRON and LOAM, Crucible is a narrower card than some others on this list. But as the heart of a number of recursion engines, a playset of Crucible is well worth having.

10. Affinity: Not really a "card" per se, but there's no reason not to own an affinity deck. I'd suggest affinity is the speed benchmark test of any extended deck you choose to put together. If you can't race affinity, don't play the deck.

Runners Up

1. Loxodon Warhammer: More a Standard staple, as it is seen as too "slow" in Extended, the hammer is loved by many and a great support backup both attacking into and defending against token generating decks.

2. Serum Powder: I'm not sure why Serum Powder doesn't get more love from Combo decks. I've picked up a playset that's just waiting to get to work... somewhere.

4. Bottle Gnomes: What used to be a four-of sideboard card for control decks who needed time to craft their hand has now largely fallen out of favour.

5. Howling Mine: The casual player's wet dream, conventional wisdom that giving your opponent cards means it never, ever sees play competitively.

6. Platinum Angel: The 61st card in a 60 card deck, right?

7. Razormane Masticore: A cheap 5/5 with a bonus effect and a significant side-effect, Razormane is often a narrow sideboard card or one-of main deck.

8. Isochron Sceptre: Get twenty now. Wait until the M10 block comes out. Sell 16.

9. Mindslaver: A truly un-fun card, that in the right circumstances is pretty much an "I win" situation.

10. Sword of Fire and Ice & Sword of Light and Shadow: Again, narrow equipment cards that help in specific situations. Sword of Fire and Ice can really break the back of a Control deck for aggro.

11. Sensai's Divining Top: Up until it got banned, a fine card. Maybe get a playset just in case it ever comes of the banned list.

Personally, I haven't achieved playsets of the top 10 - I'm still missing a Jitte, three Explosives and three Crucibles, and four Shackles. But, like working your way through the shock, pain and fetch lands, collecting the top artifacts really helps you to build many of the main decks in the metagame at the moment, and also build the necessary hate for them as well.

So I was thinking today a bit about available design space in Magic the Gathering. I've seen a lot of people discuss the design of cards themselves - but what about the movement of cards?

Here's a little diagram I whipped together:



Clearly, some movements (eg. Hand -> Play) feature far more heavily than others (eg. Removed From Game -> Graveyard). However there are very, very few movements that have not been explored already.

As I don't expect Phasing ever to make a comeback, I'd see only three clear interactions not explored. Removed From Game -> Library, Library -> Suspend and Graveyard -> Suspend.

As a result I'd suggest the only way to expand on card movement is to create a new zone.

Perhaps this is one of the outcomes WoTC may be trying to achieve by floating the trail balloon of naming the Remove From Game Zone "Exile" and the Play Zone "Battlefield". All it would take is to name a new zone ("Fortress?"; "Purgatory?") and a whole host of new interactions become available.