Monthly Archives: February 2016

Pulse of Murasa is Still Misunderstood

Pulse of Murasa
Pulse of Murasa is a card with a bright future. It is not yet fully understood, or widely enough played.

Patrick and Michael start in a strange place… A Grixis deck that won a recent PPTQ in the hands of Zak Elisk:

Zak Elisk Grixis

2 Duress
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Murderous Cut
3 Painful Truths
2 Rakshasa’s Secret
2 Ruinous Path
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

1 Dig Through Time
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

2 Kolaghan’s Command

1 Pulse of Murasa

2 Chandra, Flamecaller
4 Fiery Impulse
2 Goblin Murk Dwellers
2 Roast

4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cinder Glade
1 Island
2 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
2 Smoldering Marsh
2 Sunken Hollow
2 Swamp
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Wooded Foothills

sideboard:
2 Rakshasa’s Secret
1 Transgress the Mind
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Dispel
1 Exert Influence
2 Pulse of Murasa
2 Kozilek’s Return
1 Roast
1 Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker

It turns out this is a Gerry Thompson deck from a recent article! (which is probably part of the reason Mike likes it so much to begin with)

… But they end up in an unanticipated place.

Pulse of Murasa is sweet, right?

Pulse of Murasa v. Renewed Faith

Renewed Faith
Renewed Faith

Renewed Faith was, once upon a time, a tournament Staple. It was awesome and flexible. It could cycle you into a land, or get your six life. It did everything a control deck might want…

Pulse of Murasa is kind of like both halves of Renewed Faith. For one more mana than a cycled Renewed Faith, Pulse of Murasa is both halves. You get six life, and keep the land!

One of Mike’s ideas is to run Pulse of Murasa in a conjectural sixty-four card deck. Keying in on the Ben Rubin strategy of playing a bigger deck in order to accommodate more fetch lands as tutors, Mike posits hybridizing with a further [real] tutor engine of Bring to Light. An additional tutor theme will further pay off a larger deck size.

Patrick responds with an interesting question:

Why not sixty-eight cards?

If you’re going to play Five-color Bring to Light anyway… What about 20 + 5 + 5?

Patrick points out that by playing even more cards than BR did you can play all five colors but have better mana than a sixty card deck with twenty-seven lands!

Patrick presents a hypothetical mana base of:
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Canopy Vista
1 Cinder Glade
1 Prairie Stream
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow

… THIRTY lands [in a sixty-six card deck]

Each of the fetch lands is effectively a “quad land”. You will draw a lower percentage of battle lands and a lower percentage of basics; and a greater percentage of the fetch lands that can each get four of the five colors!

This is a mana base that maximizes the ability to hit more, different, colors and a huge percentage of your lands will enter the battlefield untapped!

Bloodstained Mire

  • Cannot get white
  • Can get black via any Swamp
  • Can get blue via Sunken Hollow
  • Can get red via any Mountain
  • Can get green via Cinder Glade

Flooded Strand

  • Can get white via any Plains
  • Can get black via Sunken Hollow
  • Can get blue via any Island
  • Cannot get red
  • Can get green via Canopy Vista

Polluted Delta

  • Can get white via Prairie Stream
  • Can get black via any Swamp
  • Can get blue via any Island
  • Can get red via Smoldering Marsh
  • Cannot get green

Windswept Heath

  • Can get white via any Plains
  • Cannot get black
  • Can get blue via Prairie Stream
  • Can get red via Cinder Glade
  • Can get green via any Forest

Wooded Foothills

  • Can get white via Canopy Vista
  • Can get black via Smoldering Marsh
  • Cannot get blue
  • Can get red via any Mountain
  • Can get green via any Forest

What follows is a truly Innovative discussion of a new approach to deck design, plus a rundown of all the current top Standard archetypes.

You simply can’t miss “Pulse of Murasa is Still Misunderstood”

Direct Download

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MOCS to the Max!

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar was just one of the surprising innovations to appear in the MOCS Top Decks.

Pro Tour Champion and Pro Tour Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin joins MichaelJ in a discussion of the Magic Online Championship Series (MOCS) Standard decks.

Our intrepid duo hits all the MOCS decks in the Top 8 (and some of the sweet Top 16 ) but each of them has a favorite…

Mike’s Favorite:

Atarka Red by wrapter*

4 Atarka’s Command

4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Fiery Impulse
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Outnumber
3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
3 Zurgo Bellstriker

4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Cinder Glade
1 Forest
11 Mountain
1 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

sb:
3 Den Protector
4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
2 Yasova Dragonclaw
2 Arc Lightning
3 Windswept Heath
1 Cinder Glade

What’s so great — and what’s so different — about wrapter’s take?

First of all, wrapter went heavier on the tokens theme than most Atarka Red decks, main deck. In addition to Dragon Fodder and Hordeling Outburst (which aren’t always played as four-ofs, each), wrapter ran Pia and Kiran Nalaar in his MOCS main deck.

Keying off the likelihood of having a ton of small token creatures in play… wrapter played Outnumber as a main deck removal spell! This might be the first appearance of Outnumber in a serious Constructed deck, let alone in an offense-oriented red beatdown deck.

What makes this deck really interesting, though, is wrapter’s sideboard.

Check out those four copies of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar!

In order to hit the GG in Nissa’s top-right corner, wrapter bolstered his mana base with an additional Cinder Glade and not one, not two, but three additional copies of Windswept Heath out of the sideboard! Presumably those eight cards all come in together (Nissa actually needs a little help hitting GG). Even if wrapter sides out some basic Mountains, with 4 Bloodstained Mire (which can get Cinder Glade), 3 Cinder Glade, 1 Forest, 4 Windswept Heath, and 4 Wooded Foothills he has a fat sixteen sources of green, making GG reliable and possibly even on-curve in a largely mono-red deck.

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar can make tokens of her own, build to a Control-esque advantage, or go Crusade style for all of wrapter’s other token creatures. This is a truly inventive and exciting innovation in terms of Red Decks.

Patrick’s Favorite:

Jeskai Black by beena**

4 Duress
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Murderous Cut
4 Painful Truths

2 Dig Through Time
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

4 Crackling Doom

3 Fiery Impulse
2 Roast

2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Soulfire Grand Master

1 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Needle Spires
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
2 Prairie Stream
2 Shambling Vent
2 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp

sb:
1 Transgress the Mind
3 Disdainful Stroke
1 Exert Influence
1 Negate
1 Ojutai’s Command
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Radiant Flames
1 Roast
2 Arashin Cleric
1 Mastery of the Unseen
1 Surge of Righteousness

Patrick loves not only Jeskai Black, but this style of Jeskai Black!

He is currently enamored of decks that play Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet; the graveyard-hosing on Kalitas is appropriate for a world full of Rally the Ancestors, but the lifelink is also relevant for a deck that is planning to get ahead with Painful Truths.

Speaking of Painful Truths, all that card drawing makes a ton of sense with so many quick interaction cards like Duress, Fiery Impulse, and so on… And all of those cards of course work beautifully with Monastery Mentor. Anyone who has been listening to the podcast for the past several months knows how Patrick feels about Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy; Monastery Mentor; Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet; Painful Truths; and of course Dig Through Time.

… And this deck even makes room for a copy of Chandra, Flamecaller.

It hits a lot of bases for Patrick; so beena’s MOCS build might be one you might want to take a closer look at.

For our commentary of the entire MOCS Top 8 (and more), check out “MOCS to the Max!”:

Direct Download

* wrapter = Josh Utter-Leyton

** beena = Yuuya Watanabe

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Reality Smasher Solutions!

Reality Smasher
Reality Smasher is a key threat in all versions of Modern Eldrazi Aggro

“Sometimes you smash reality. Sometimes reality smashes you.”
-Frank Lepore

What is the “core” of the Modern Eldrazi deck? Is it Eldrazi Mimic, Matter Reshaper, Thought-Knot Seer, and Reality Smasher?

Or is it, like Mike and Patrick agree… Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin?

What’s the best draw you can get with an Eldrazi Aggro deck?

Turn one: Eye of Ugin + three Eldrazi Mimics
Turn two: Eldrazi Temple, Simian Spirit Guide, and Reality Smasher… Swing for 20!

“The capabilities of each and every deck that exists, that has ever existed in any format, eminates from its mana base. The deck itself is a product of what the mana base can produce.”
-Mike, paraphrasing Mike Long

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Modern format has been turned on its ear by Oath of the Gatewatch. There is a new Tier One strategy and it is largely defined by the powerful threats from the newest set (with some mana base help from the last time we encountered the Eldrazi).

Patrick’s “buddy”, office-mate, and collaborator on Eternal Luis Scott-Vargas added yet another feather to his much-decorated hat with another Top 8:

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
2 Ratchet Bomb
4 Reality Smasher
2 Spellskite
4 Thought-Knot Seer

4 Dismember

4 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Mutavault
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Wastes

sb:
3 Oblivion Sower
2 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
1 Warping Wail
2 Gut Shot

Mike like LSV’s take on Reality Smasher best… But it wasn’t even the most successful build!

Jiachen Tao actually won the event with Izzet Eldrazi:

4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer

3 Dismember

4 Drowner of Hope
4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
2 Ruination Guide

3 Eldrazi Obligator
4 Vile Aggregate

3 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
1 Gemstone Caverns
2 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Shivan Reef
2 Steam Vents

sb:
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
3 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Stubborn Denial
2 Gut Shot
1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon

“This is a deck that has lots of different ways to do great things. Its turn three is consistently glorious.”
-Patrick

“This is, I think, a deck where you should know what your cards do.”
-Mike

“This deck is going to require a lot more practice, no question.”
-Patrick

Rounding out the different Reality Smasher decks in the Top 8 is Frank Lepore (in his very first Pro Tour!)

Frank played a Sultai Processor Eldrazi Aggro:

4 Blight Herder
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Scrabbling Claws
4 Thought-Knot Seer

4 Wasteland Strangler

4 Drowner of Hope

1 World Breaker

4 Cavern of Souls
4 Corrupted Crossroads
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

sb:
2 Ratchet Bomb
4 Spatial Contortion
2 Spellskite
3 Sun Droplet
2 Warping Wail
2 Surgical Extraction

4 Relic of Progenitus and 2 Scrabbling Claws main deck? Frank Lepore is prepared for Living End!

While it’s all fun to celebrate the Eldrazi bad guys, Emily Lense pinged us on our Facebook Page and asked a pretty compelling question:

Emily Lense

So how do you fight the Eldrazi in Modern?

Patrick has a hell of an answer that you’ll really want to hear. Find out what it is in “Reality Smasher Solutions!”

Direct Download

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Thopter Engineer Secrets

Thopter Engineer
Thopter Engineer was a surprising addition to Tom Ross’s Top 8 deck

While Collected Company and Rally the Ancestors won the Star City Open in Columbus, OH last weekend, one of the best performing decks — played by good friend of Mike and Patrick — was B/R Dragons played by Tom “the Boss” Ross:

B/R Dragons by Tom Ross

4 Hangarback Walker

2 Duress
3 Grasp of Darkness
2 Murderous Cut

4 Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury

4 Draconic Roar
2 Fiery Impulse
3 Flamewake Phoenix
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Thopter Engineer
4 Thunderbreak Regent

4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
4 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
3 Smoldering Marsh
4 Swamp
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
1 Crux of Fate
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
4 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Transgress the Mind
2 Kolaghan’s Command
2 Kozilek’s Return

And in typical Tom Ross style, there was a little something extra going on in The Boss’s deck.

And that something was Thopter Engineer!

Thopter Engineer what the?!?

Thopter Engineer might just look like a random draft uncommon from Magic Origins, but it is actually quite well positioned in a deck like Tom’s. Consider…

Thopter Engineer v. Hordeling Outburst

Thopter Engineer essentially takes the “Hordeling Outburst” slot in this deck. Hordeling Outburst makes three points of power and three points of toughness “3/3” for three mana… Thopter Engineer is not much worse; its two points of power and four points of toughness “2/4” are spread over only two bodies but the two cards are at least somewhat comparable. On balance, the 1/1 token on Thopter Engineer both can fly and has haste, which are advantages relative to Hordeling Outburst.

It probably goes without saying that Thopter Engineer can be a superior card defensively, given the additional two points of toughness when leaving a body back.

Thopter Engineer with Hangarback Walker

Thopter Engineer gives artifact creatures haste. Hangarback Walker — a card that Tom plays four of main deck — happens to be an artifact creature! Playing Thopter Engineer allows Tom to save a mana later in the game whenever he topdecks or plays a Hangarback Walker. Instead of spending four mana, say, for a 2/2 Hangarback Walker he can pay only two mana (1/1) and then tap it with one mana (three mana total) for the same 2/2 size.

A dying Hangarback Walker can attack immediately with all of its tokens thanks to the Thopter Engineer’s haste; and Thopter Engineer into Pia and Kiran Nalaar three-into-four is also offensively effective.

Interested in a visit to Magical Christmas Land? How about playing a Hangarback Walker, adding a counter at a discount (with haste), sacrificing it to Pia and Kiran Nalaar for two… And then attacking with all your Thopters? Like you do.

Thopter Engineer and… Haven of the Spirit Dragon?

Tom’s deck — perhaps unsurprisingly with eight main-deck Dragons + Draconic Roar — plays three copies of Haven of the Spirit Dragon. What does that have to do with Thopter Engineer.

Hordeling Outburst costs 1RR.

Thopter Egineer costs 2R.

Just cutting one red mana off of the three mana cost makes it much more convenient to cast in even a two-color deck with nineteen sources of red mana (not counting Dragon-red). Imagine you open with Duress and follow up with Grasp of Darkness; that’s Swamp and then Swamp-Swamp. You wouldn’t even be able to cast Hordeling Outburst from that spot, but Thopter Engineer is cake!

Mike and Patrick talk tons and tons about Thopter Engineeer and B/R Dragons, but also Rally the Ancestors, Reflector Mage, and Collected Company decks various and more in “Thopter Engineer Secrets”

Direct Download

Check out Patrick’s new card game, Eternal!

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