Manamorphose at the MOCS

Manamorphose
Does Manamorphose go in every deck? Apparently it at least goes in Burn now!

Manamorphose in Every Deck?

We’ve kind of nudged and nudged and winked and winked about it.

One Hall of Famer plays three Manamorphose in a deck that doesn’t usually play it; another Pro Tour Champion runs a singleton. Together they get it right.

Manamorphose has been Staple essentially since its printing. There is almost no better card in Storm combo. Not only does it dig in that deck like a blue card, with Goblin Electromancer on the battlefield, Manamorphose even nets mana!

But in Burn?

The Implications of Manamorphose in the Red Deck

Josh Utter-Leyton brought Manamorphose to Modern Burn for perhaps the first time!

To make room for this Innovation, Wrapter went down to one copy of Eidolon of the Great Revel, cut all the Skullcracks, and… Added Bedlam Reveler!

The Innovations are not all intuitive (so we’ll rattle through them). First of all, with Manamophose but not fringe garbage like Shard Volley, Josh will just draw his Lightning Bolts and Lightning Helixes more often than other Red Decks. That’s a given. He is also better set up to grind with those Bedlam Revelers (in-part powered by the Manamorphoses). But colors matter more now!

  • While Mike has won with Stomping Ground Red Decks, he’s been on R/W since Inspiring Vantage was printed. While he can “get” someone playing Stomping Ground, playing it for [only] three sideboard Destructive Revelries makes little sense. Here, Wrapter splashes for both Destructive Revelry and Ancient Grudge… And can hit green with no Stomping Ground on the battlefield. Surprise!
  • Kor Firewalker makes great sense in this build. The WW isn’t too hard to hit for Red Decks, but it’s particularly easy when you can turn GG, RR, or GR into WW.
  • The Eidolon of the Great Revel cut might hurt on its face, but Eidolon is kind of bad in a deck chaining multiple spells with Manamorphose. Not intuitive, maybe, but internally consistent.

Tips and Tricks that have nothing to do with Manamorphose

  • Nissa, Vastwood Seer + Path to Exile – Path to Exile is always interesting in a pinch (respond to fizzle their removal and Thaw up a land). It’s even more interesting if you have Nissa, Vastwood Seer in play. If the opponent shoots at your Rhox War Monk, say; you can play the Path to Exile trick and flip your Nissa! Ditto if they try to kill your Nissa (you can respond by Path-ing someone else)
  • Legacy! Jim Davis put together a trifecta of Portent, Predict, and Terminus to make up for the lack of Sensei’s Divining Top – Jim’s U/W Miracles deck can set up a Terminus with Portent, or mess up the opponent’s draw (while drawing tons extra). Portent + Predict being an oldie-but-goodie.
  • Legacy! What can you get with one Crop Rotation? If you’re playing one Crop Rotation in Elves, you can grab a singleton Cavern of Souls to crush blue, or increase the redundancy of your Cradles.

Is Burn Even Good? Manamorphose or No?

Uh, Bogles just won [again].

This time with 4x Leyline of Sanctity MAIN DECK.

Discuss.

I guess listen to the podcast first:

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Breaking Branchwalker: New Technology in Standard

Merfolk Branchwalker
Merfolk Branchwalker is great on two
Think you know what’s going on in Standard? Mono-Red Beatdown, some vanilla Sultai with The Scarab God, maybe some B/U Control?

Have we got a GP for you…

Merfolk Branchwalker, Ajani Unyeilding, and Carnage Tyrant?

PT Champion Ari Lax just missed the Top 8 with his Naya Monsters deck. A surprising take on a relatively intuitive build, Ari opted to play Ajani Unyeilding, Cast Out, and Thopter Arrest as white splashes.

Merfolk Branchwalker teams up with multiple 2/x buddies to build towards ambitious mana.

  • Servant of the Conduit at the two – One taps for mana, one digs towards it
  • Jadelight Ranger – co-explore creatures as an explore creature to help build towards ambitious mana.

Lax’s take played tons of cards that cost four mana or more between deck and sideboard, topping up with some powerful, game-winning, six drops.

I mean come on. Carnage Tyrant! Rawr.

The Khenra Technology: Merfolk Branchwalker in G/R Monsters

Tyler Schroeder won Grand Prix Memphis with a brand new take on Gruul creatures.

We’ve seen similar shells before. After all Merfolk Branchwalker and Jadelight Ranger make a lot of sense together. Twos and threes, these creatures attack, block, fix the top of your library, and generate card advantage.

By the same token, Rekindling Phoenix and Glorybringer represent a similar thematic duo. Great red flyers with built-in card advantage capabilities, these 4/x creatures represent the kind of high end payoff that you really want to get to with your green explorers.

So where is the innovation?

Adding Earthshaker Khenra and Resilient Khenra as a third pair creates a whole new dimension to the deck. Because “explore” creatures like Jadelight Ranger and Merfolk Branchwalker can put cards into the graveyard, they can imply future card advantage because you can play the respective Khenra cards out of the graveyard.

This is new technology!

Often when Merfolk Branchwalker flips a land, we call that card advantage; now if it flips a Khenra — and puts it into the graveyard — it is stockpiling future card advantage!

Will this become an industry standard way to play Standard?

Maybe?

Find out more in this week’s podcast:

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Masters 25 Previews: Courser of Kruphix and Coalition Relic!

Courser of Kruphix
Courser of Kruphix. Swoon.
Courser of Kruphix was a centerpiece of Patrick’s Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx-winning Abzan* deck. This three drop is already a fringe player in Modern. Our prediction is that it becomes even more popular.

Courser of Kruphix is of efficient size for its casting cost.

2/4 for three mana is deceptively great in-context. Courser of Krupix is too big to kill with a lone Lightning Bolt. In this podcast, Mike shares a story of being forced to run his fellow enchantment creature Eidolon of the Great Revel into an opposing Courser of Kruphix and blowing a Bolt to finish it off. But resistance to opposing removal isn’t the only story told by this defining creature…

Courser of Kruphix is great with Bloodbraid Elf

First of all, Courser of Kruphix is the exact right casting cost to max out Bloodbraid Elf’s Cascade ability. When you flip a Noble Hierarch, you get two cards — essentially a Lotus Petal plus the Hierarch itself — but when you flip a Courser of Kruphix, that Lotus Petal is upgraded to a Black Lotus. So great!

But that’s not all… Courser of Krupix is good before Bloodbraid Elf, not just being flipped by Bloodbraid Elf. The ability to see the top card of your library can be useful when you play interactive cards. For example, Bloodbraid Elf decks often play cards like Path to Exile or Terminate. If the opponent doesn’t have a creature on the battlefield, flipping one of those with cascade will result in a wasted trigger. Courser of Kruphix can help you aim your cascades a little bit better.

Courser of Kruphix is and “Better than All”

As a three drop with solid toughness, Courser of Kruphix is an efficient pre-Jace, the Mind Sculptor play. It can defend Jace well on the turn you tap out for it. But that’s not all! Courser of Kruphix’s ability to see the top card of your library (and play lands from it) is delicious when combined with Jace’s Fateseal and Brainstorm abilities. You can fix your hand by putting a land on top with Jace, and then play it with Courser. Or you can dig deeper (with either) to get a fresh look (for either).

This card from Masters 25 will surely go up in popularity.

Coalition Relic
Also Revealed: Coalition Relic
With the ability to tap for any color of mana, Coalition Relic once held a special place as a five-color control enabler. It was also a solid accelerator, taking you from three to six in a single turn!

Patrick and Michael are cooler on this preview than Courser of Kruphix, though.

There are just too many cards people play in Modern that beat up on Coalition Relic (often with value): Kolaghan’s Command, Abrupt Decay, and certainly Ancient Grudge! The Lantern deck’s performance in Modern recently has jut put too much of a target on artifacts, at least artifacts of this casting cost.

Still, was sweet in its time, and may yet be sweet again if and when the format shifts.

Check out our Exclusive Masters 25 Previews Podcast here:

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* Abzan before it was “Abzan” if you grok.

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Half Hazoret the Fervent

Hazoret the Fervent (Invocation)
The Hazoret the Fervent Invocation

Hazoret the Fervent in Modern?

Tell ya what, Top Level Podcast fans: We’re skipping Modern for the week. Patrick intends to “activate the [0] ability” … Starting next week.

Were there multiple Modern events last weekend? Yes.

But the world is about to change, officially, and soon.

That Gruul Eldrazi deck? How do you think that is going to run once Bloodbraid Elf starts pumping out Eldrazi Obligator? Exactly.

So for now: Innovations in Standard!

Half Hazoret the Fervent Decks

The SCG win by Todd Stevens with Dimir Control may throw you off. And Ali Aintrazi’s Four-color Mastermind’s Acquisition in third place is certainly exciting. But make no mistake: Hazoret the Fervent is a fixture of something like half of the top performing players, whether Mardu Vehicles or Red Decks (including, I guess, Boros Path of Mettle decks).

Fear not! The control decks are aware, playing cards like Moment of Craving, Vraska’s Contempt, or even Gift of Paradise to defend their life totals.

The Price of Hazoret the Fervent

Hazoret is a powerful threat. And not just in the mirror! (But particularly in the mirror.)

Generally, we think four Hazorets is mandatory. There are other powerful four drops in red, but Hazoret is often completely unstoppable. Further, redundant copies can always be tossed for two damage.

Hazoret doesn’t come cheap, though: This God demands sacrifice! In deck building an otherwise (“take two”). Not only is it an expensive card (in more ways than one) but Hazoret generally implies playing with cheap set up cards. Bomat Courier is almost always on board. There are a smattering of other one drops, removal cards, and so on in every successful Hazoret deck… You need to drop your hand in order to get this card online.

Mardu has its own concerns. In a sense Mardu is “an homage” to Toolcraft Exemplar + Unlicensed Disintegration. Don’t shave either down to three copies (ew). In fact some builds push redundancy with Inventor’s Apprentice.

None of this makes the Mana any easier BTW.

More in the cast!

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Bloodbraid Elf versus… Bogles?

Bloodbraid Elf
Bloodbraid Elf also broke out of its ban this week; but first… Bogles!
Dan Ward piloted Bogles to the Grand Prix Toronto trophy last week. Bogles!

Dan Ward is one of the strongest deck designers in the world. He first hit our radar with that innovative Kari Zev’s Expertise combo deck at SCG Regionals about a year ago. That deck was so awesome (or at least awesomely angled), WotC R&D banned almost immediately.

Moving formats over to Standard, Dan produced a legitimate contender archetype in U/W Approach of the Second Sun. Yes that U/W Approach of the Second Sun.

And while Dan can’t claim to be the first person to suit up a Hexproof creature, he never let up on his trademark innovations. Like…

Leyline of Sanctity in Bogles

Dan played three copies of Leyline of Sanctity in his main deck. This may seem like an odd choice for the strategy… If it isn’t in your opening hand, Leyline of Sanctity will just clog your grip later. Further, Leyline of Sanctity provides little or no offensive value to this attack-oriented deck. Why might Dan have played it?

  • He’s playing a Hexproof deck: With 4 copies of Slippery Bogle and 4 copies of Gladecover Scout, Ward is clearly heavy on the Hexproof plan. His creatures are largely free and clear to wear powerful buff Auras, but they’re not quite immortal. Do you know what suited up Hexproof guys hate? Edict effects. Do you know that one of the best Edict effects is also one of Modern’s Staple three-drops? Leyline of Sanctity can defend you from Liliana of the Veil.
  • Lantern just won the Pro Tour: While it doesn’t defend you from Pyxis of Pandemonium or Ghoulcaller’s Bell, Leyline of Sanctity turns off not only Codex Shredder but the Lantern decks’ many hand destruction sorceries.
  • It makes racing difficult: Dan was able to overcome Jon Stern’s Burn deck in the Toronto finals. Leyline of Sanctity is pretty decent against Burn decks, turning off all the Lava Spikes and taking the edge off of most of the rest of the burn cards. Can Searing Blaze suddenly target Slippery Bogle?

All in all, a pretty cool three-of.

Bogles in Context

Dan on Bogles in the future
Them’s fightin’ words, am I right?
Fighting words or not, Dan might have a point. His version, with Leyline of Sanctity, actually cuts off two of Jace, the Mind Sculptor’s abilities. They can’t Fateseal or Ultimate you without answering the Leyline. Plus, unless they are on Damnation or Supreme Verdict, fast, huge, Hexproof guys can be hard to race.

Further, if you’re planning to use Bloodbraid Elf to grab Lightning Bolt or other spot removal… That plan isn’t so good against Bogles. Plus, with a couple of buff auras, most of Dan’s cards will be able to tussle with a 3/2 and walk away, easily.

Grab the popcorn!

Because if Champion-Bogles remains good enough, it will soon clash with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf in Modern!

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Jace, the Mind Sculptor Unban

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is about to make its Modern debut

Jace, the Mind Sculptor Banned?

Not any more!

Earlier this week, some pretty big news broke that has instantaneously flipped Modern from Patrick’s least favorite format to most favorite format! We were too excited to keep our reactions bottled up until Thursday. Don’t worry, this is an EXTRA episode: We’ll be back Thursday 😉

When in doubt, use Jace, the Mind Sculptor to Brainstorm

Jace has never been legal in Modern before. For many format aficionados, this will be the first time they have Jace in front of them at a Modern table. With so many abilities to choose from… Which one should they pick?

Noted Jace, the Mind Sculptor master (and Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Famer) Patrick Chapin says that, in the dark, it should be the Brainstorm ability. That isn’t going to be true all the time — Jace both has a ton of abilities and Modern is a diverse format after all — but it’s a good place to start.

Why might you want to use the [+2] “Fateseal” ability instead? Usually it will be because the opponent has some kind of red spells to attack Jace. You know, like Lightning Bolt.

Speaking of which…

Is Blightning Good against Jace, the Mind Sculptor?

Not surprisingly, Patrick and Mike reminisce about some of their old Jace Standard decks. Patrick attempts to recuse himself, being both a Grixis-lover and a Jace-lover. Mike is happy to jump in, being a Jace-Grixis fan himself.

Mike’s favorite take on Jace in Standard was alongside Blighting. He cites the ability to attack Jace as well as the opponent’s hand.

Patrick points out that — especially at the same casting cost — Kolaghan’s Command is probably a better choice. It is arguable that Kolaghan’s Command + Lightning Bolt is actually a better anti-Jace plan than Blightning. “Blightning is too tempo-negative.”

The Kolaghan’s Command argument is strong. Not only is it an instant, you can set up Snapcaster Mage and lace together multiple cards to deal sufficient damage.

New Jace, the Mind Sculptor Decks

Mike himself — longtime Modern devotee of Lava Spike — is threatening to switch allegiances to Team Jace.

Our intrepid pair do tons of brewing in this episode. For example, a pretty sweet-sounding Bant deck list from Patrick featuring Spell Queller inspired by Wrapter’s “Counter-Cat” from way back when.

What about Courser of Kruphix with Jace?

  • Courser is a great three; Jace is the best four (better than all, we have it on good account)
  • Courser has awesome toughness, so can defend Jace well
  • Together these cards build life and card advantage; and can affect the top cards of your library, further strengthening both sources of card advantage!

What deck idea does Mike not like? No Oath of Nissa / Oath of Ajani …

When you’re playing with Jace and Liliana, your cards are just better than theirs; he doesn’t like the idea of messing with your mana when you can just play more consistently.

Also, thumbs down to “Jace in Merfolk”. Because, Merfolk.

More, many more, ideas in this special episode!

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Young Pyromancer at Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan

Young Pyromancer
Young Pyromancer posted Top 8 in two different strategies

Young Pyromancer Goes Wide in Blue-Red

Just as there are a variety of viable Young Pyromancer decks, there are a variety of viable blue-red decks in Modern. The one that made Top 4 of Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan was a flexible build by Pascal Vieren.

Vieren’s deck played several creatures… Four copies of Snapcaster Mage, three copies of Thing in the Ice, and of course three Pyromancers. All of those creatures excel with instants and sorceries. Snapcaster Mage gives you card advantage with them. Thing in the Ice flips into a huge monster when set up by them. And our Human Shaman can build an army while doing something else.

Vieren’s deck can win multiple ways. Thing in the Ice clears all the blockers and presents a threat by itself; while the Pyromancer can push a lead once you’ve already got it. Lightning Bolt is one of the most efficient tempo plays you can make. Of course Cryptic Command can both answer threats and tap all the blockers in one move.

Young Pyromancer Goes Even Wider in Mardu Control

Gerry Thompson — already a PT Champion and friend to the ‘cast — put up another Top 8, this time with a Mardu Pyromancer build.

It takes a singular kind of deck designer to figure out to play one copy of Manamorphose… But in Gerry’s deck, it doesn’t just power up the Pyromancer, it gives you white mana for Lingering Souls! Cool little card in support of the Human Shaman.

The advantages in Gerry’s deck all build on one another. Cheap instants and sorceries like Inquisition of Kozilek fuel not just the Pyromancer, but put fodder into the graveyard for Bedlam Reveler. More important is Kolaghan’s Command… Not only is it even more redundant discard, the ability to re-buy a creature is always nice; but what about when the creature is a card advantage engine?

All That and the Kitchen Sink

There was more, much much more, to the Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan Top 8 than a 2/1 for 1R.

We leave no deck un-discussed!

No, not even that one.

Check it all out now:

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Gambling on Path of Mettle

Path of Mettle
Let’s get something out of the way:
Path of Mettle is actually awesome!

Path of Mettle is almost effortless to play

When Path of Mettle enters the battlefield, it triggers a Simoon-like effect, dealing a point of damage to every creature that lacks first strike, double strike, vigilance, and / or haste.

The solution is simple: Just play creatures with one or more of these abilities, and the “Simoon” trigger will be one-sided; largely a Simoon for the same amount of mana.

We can consider the deck played by US National Champion Craig Krempels to the Top 8 of last week’s Team Open as a model for this strategy, but many Red Deck creature shells can suffice.

All of Bomat Courier, Earthshaker Khenra, Ahn-Crop Crasher, Hazoret the Fervent, and Glorybringer (you know, just the creatures the old Ramunap Ruins deck played) start out with haste. This makes the first line on today’s enchantment “free”.

But flipping it is nearly free, also!

So long as you are playing such creatures, turning your Legendary Enchantment into a Legendary Land shouldn’t be too tough.

When you flip Path of Mettle, you’re doing it. You’re really DOING IT

Metzali, Tower of Triumph
When the Path becomes Metzali, Tower of Triumph, “Triumph” may be closer than it initially seems. This land is super disruptive to many different kinds of opponents.

The “red” ability largely serves as a stand-in for the now-banned Ramunap Ruins.

The “white” ability has a broad range of applications, including (but not limited to) cutting of the ability for many control decks to win. Attacking with one creature? How about “randomly” putting that creature into the graveyard? The “white” ability can also ignore hexproof, so it is potentially a problem for the Hydras out of Energy variants.

Okay, sold! Um… So what’s the gamble around Path of Mettle?

Why? The mana base of course!

Craig played a couple of Plains in his twenty-two land aggro deck. It was vital for him to play enough red (especially untapped) to be able to field some sixteen one drop creatures.

Will WotC print another Boros dual land? Will they just reprint one we already love?

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No Room for Longtusk Cub

Longtusk Cub
Unlike its friends Attune with Aether and Rogue Refiner, Longtusk Cub was not banned.
It just isn’t getting played for some reason.

No Longtusk Cub in Temur Monsters

William Ho finished 5th in the Standard portion of the Team Open with Temur Monsters.

While he played a variety of both two drops and Energy themed cards… Longtusk Cub was not one of them.

“It’s surprising to me that Longtusk Cub wouldn’t make the cut in this deck with ten removal spells AND AN ENERGY THEME…”

That said, Thrashing Brontodon made an important debut in this deck. Per Patrick…

“Thrashing Brontodon is the Truth”

  • 3/4 for three mana is actually pretty solid right now. Believe it or not, the size alone is a positive consideration in this format.
  • Thrashing Brontodon gives you main deck ways to deal with Cast Out or specialty enchantments
  • It also lessens a deck’s potential reliance on Abrade. A deck like Temur Monsters can potentially lean on the side of Harnessed Lightning (to feed an Energy theme) instead of Abrade’s flexibility. You don’t need Abrade to be as flexible because Brontodon is.

“Does Voltaic Brawler make sense over Longtusk Cub?”

“No. Next question.”

No Longtusk Cub in Golgari Constrictor

Andreas Campion finished second in the Team Open with Golgari Constrictor.

Once again we have a deck with 12+ two drops (more, if you count Walking Ballista)… Again no Longtusk Cub.

Campion’s deck plays four copies of Merfolk Branchwalker but only three copies of Jadelight Ranger. Patrick suggests if you only have room for seven, tilt the other way (with four Rangers). Mike argues to play eight, and just cut a land. After all, that is a lot of Explore.

No Longtusk Cub in Sultai Energy

Were we always supposed to be playing four copies all along?

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Perhaps the best deck of the weekend was Dan Jessup’s Sultai Energy.

This deck is notable for its use of four — count ’em, four — copies of The Scarab God main deck! Were we supposed to be playing all four all along?

Glint-Sleeve Siphoner… Merfolk Branchwalker… Servant of the Conduit… Again twelve two drops, but no Longtusk Cub!

Did everyone just think the most dangerous Grizzly Bears from the last format got banned?

Where in the world?

Don’t worry, there is no shortage of deck discussion, just Cub appearances. Check out “No Room for Longtusk Cub” now:

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Rampaging, Ramunap, Rivals, and Rants

Lots of bans in Standard this week. But Rampaging Ferocidon?

Rampaging Ferocidon

Rampaging Ferocidon Banned in Standard

Of the four most recent bans, three are relatively understandable.

  • Attune with Aether – Perhaps the most obvious of the Standard bans, Attune with Aether is the quintessential one mana manipulation spell that is just too good. There is ample precedent for cards like Ponder and Preordain being banned at the one. Why not Attune with Aether? Attune with Aether is essentially a Lay of the Land (a “good enough” card) with an Energy add-on.
  • Rogue Refiner – Rogue Refiner is just a cantrip. It’s a 3/2 creature for only three mana that does two things. Unfortunately one of which is “draw a card”. Rogue Refiner is probably a little too good, but it isn’t clear it would or should have been banned if not for all the other Energy cards.
  • Ramunap Ruins – So it turns out that Temur Energy wasn’t even the highest performing deck in Standard. Ramunap Red was! While Ramunap Red might have been challenged by Temur Energy, it was absolutely great at killing everyone who didn’t buy into the “there are only two decks” Standard paradigm. Ramunap Ruins is the card that sets this deck apart. Getting rid of Ramunap Ruins makes room for other decks post-ban.

So these three make sense.

You might not have bet on Ramunap Ruins… But it makes sense.

Rampaging Ferocidon wasn’t the best, or the second-best, or the eighth-best card in Mono-Red. In fact, many Mono-Red decks didn’t even play four copies main deck!

The Brilliance of Banning Rampaging Ferocidon

While counter-intuitive, the Rampaging Ferocidon ban is wonderful in a certain light.

Forget for a moment about the Randy Buehler-era paradigm of banning only the broken cards. What about banning cards that make the format less fun?

The problem with Rampaging Ferocidon is that it makes it very — very — difficult to sideboard against Red Decks. It’s nice to be able to side in life gain cards and have them work, right? But even cards like Regal Caracal become liabilities… It stinks to trigger Rampaging Ferocidon but not be able to cash in on lifelink.

And Rivals of Ixalan, Too!

While most of this podcast is a discussion of the recent bans (plus a master class in game design by Patrick), we would be remiss to leave out some of the new cards that, you know, came out last week.

What red creature might make a massive impact coming up?

A flyer that pre-empts Glorybringer and might even compete with Hazoret, the Fervent?

Check out “RRRR” to find out!

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This episode is sponsored by ZipRecruiter. Top Level Podcast listeners can post jobs to ZipRecruiter for FREE at Ziprecruiter.com/TopLevel

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