쥐비의 g/w 브레인버스트 프리미엄 아티클

[영준비]

I'm going to take a break from block today and talk about Standard, because I have a Qualifier I will have to run this weekend and I don't want to put myself in an awkward position. Having now had some experience playing in Standard and doing an examination of a lot of lists, I have come to love the Green/White Astral Slide deck. The basic idea would seem to be to abuse Astral Slide with Eternal Witness and sometimes with Viridian Shaman or Solemn Simulacrum, and that is indeed a very powerful interaction that I have used to run over a number of people, but the deck's true strength is that with almost every card it plays it generates incremental card advantage and combines that with a very strong defense against attacks. Either you run into the creature defenses, or you start into a card war that will be very hard to win.

My term for this technique is torture. I call it torture because each individual effect is small, but after each one your opponent is in a slightly worse board position. They can likely stop some of them, but there aren't enough good counters to stop them all no matter what deck you run. Eventually something is going to get through, and each turn you feel like you're a little bit farther behind. I also use torture as a separate term in team draft, which is where you pass them packs where they have to choose between hate drafting cards and letting them bounce, or giving them too many cards of one type to take them all in the correct seat. Torture is a hard strategy to pull off properly, for several reasons. One, it has a real problem with dead cards, so you need to be able to manipulate your deck in such a way that all but a small handful of cards can torture your opponent. You can't give them room to breathe. Second, you have to be able to turn around and deal with their big bomb. The torture strategy doesn't naturally solve the problem of a big threat. With both good artifact removal and Astral Slide, you can put on a good show of dealing with some big threats, but others can be big problems. The last issue is conversion. Often these decks are good at getting extra cards but have trouble turning that into a victory.

White/Green solves all these problems, because it can use Eternal Witness to focus on the cards that are important in a given matchup and Astral Slide to keep things at bay. You also dodge artifact hate by having Solemn Simulacrum as your only artifact, and if they kill that it's no big deal. I'd say the core of the deck, which consists of the cards you must play, looks like this:

4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Windswept Heath
6 Plains
6 Forest
4 Rampant Growth
4 Astral Slide
4 Eternal Witness
3 Decree of Justice
4 Wrath of God
4 Renewed Faith
3 Viridian Shaman
2 Eternal Dragon

That's fifty-two cards, leaving eight slots open. I love the mana, which thins itself out quickly. You have thirty mana sources counting Eternal Dragon and Rampant Growth, but in the late game you're probably drawing to only about thirteen or so mana cards that can't serve a useful purpose. A third Dragon would likely be a good idea, and I wouldn't object too much to a fourth, even if you can't quite take full advantage, but it certainly is not necessary. The possibilities for the last few slots are numerous, and depend on what you are aiming at. Plow Under goes after control decks, and there it will be very good. Plow Under is the ultimate torture card. However, it will be too slow to impact many other matchups so I don't think it is quite automatic. Oxidize helps a lot against Affinity, and is great so long as it is not dead, but does nothing otherwise. Akroma's Vengeance is a good cycling way to mop up Affinity, but kind of clunky otherwise. Jens would be great if it fits, as would be a third Dragon. Jens doesn't quite build into anything too important, but echoes the themes well. Pulse of the Fields is good additional general purpose defense against attack, but maindecking it seems like overkill. The fourth Decree of course would be welcome, but so far the card has felt somewhat slow.

My feeling right now is that some Plow Unders are worthwhile to give you a good card to recurse to slap around control decks and save you sideboard space, and I want to put Oxidize in the other slots. While Akroma's Vengeance is nice, it seems redundant and the late game should not be your problem. I wouldn't sideboard it against Affinity, which makes maindecking it hard to justify too many copies. Right now I like three Akroma's Vengeance, a third Eternal Dragon, two Oxidize and two Plow Under in those last seven slots.

The sideboard has two goals. One is to pack hate, the other is to soothe the elephant. You have fifteen slots to achieve both. Having a lot of cycling is a huge boost, because those cards never have to be sideboarded out, but you still have a bunch of Wraths and artifact removal that you want to be able to remove at will. In addition, there are a number of spells that serve only one purpose but do a very good job of it. I'll start with the hate.

Obliterate is out there, as are land destruction decks. At least, in Denver there seem to be land destruction decks. It's hard to get a handle on things right now, which is a good thing, and I don't see those decks as doing well or having a good matchup against you but it's great to have a card that ruins entire game plans. Sacred Ground is the obvious answer to land destruction, and would seem to be good against Obliterate as well. However, when I played against an Obliterate deck in a local tournament this week, I chose not to bring in Sacred Ground despite having it in my sideboard. The reason I left it out was that it's too easy to see coming. Echoing Truth, which I knew he played, can take out any number of them, and often he'll be able to choose whether it's worth an Annul. Meanwhile, I've taken a card and used it for something other than torture. Sure, eventually he'll have to trade it off, but that does not do me that much good.

The card that does seem like an excellent answer is Second Sunrise. This counters Obliterate outright, if you have the three mana, and they are unlikely to have a second one or to be able to win the game without it. You also have a number of other ways to beat it, among them Astral Slide, which survives and can let other cards survive, and just holding lands in your hand. No Obliterate deck can keep up with your torture, so you'll be up by many cards. I won a game in which I was Obliterated off the board by just holding two lands, then playing Eternal Witness for first another Witness and then Astral Slide after I drew land three. Being able to take March of the Machines off the table will buy you the time you need for things like that, so perhaps that would be better.

Naturalize would be best there, splitting the difference between Wipe Clean, which is excellent in the mirror, and Tel-Jilad Justice which is best against Affinity. You have Oxidize and Viridian Shaman in your board to bring you up to four, but that's a given. Altar's Light is sort of a hedged Wipe Clean, but to me it is too slow for me to want it against Affinity. It does have the advantage that it can take out a Darksteel Ingot, if that proves important, but four mana is a bit extreme. I would consider all of these hate in the sense that they are only worthwhile when your opponent has targets, but none of them are so dedicated that they can't serve other functions. Wipe Clean in particular cycles, which means that it can fill in your elephant if it has to. Scrabbling Claws can deal with Eternal Witness, Eternal Dragon and other graveyard issues at no card risk, but like everything else eats up slots rapidly.

Plow Under is so good against control that it can almost be considered hateful, but it is utility. It's only bad against fast assaults, and in those cases the deck does not need to take many cards out so the elephant won't pose a problem. Pulse of the Fields is in the sideboard for such situations, and that's almost enough to bring you home, but even then you still have to be careful. If they have no artifact targets, suddenly you have five cards out and two cards in. It's when Wrath leaves the deck that you can have big problems as opposed to small ones. You would ideally bring in good cards for each separate matchup, but here you want cards that can do double or triple duty.

That means a tuning sideboard is in order, at least to an extent. Solemn Simulacrum, Decree of Justice and Eternal Dragon are all cards that you can always bring in if there's an emergency, and several of the hate cards have cantrip effects that accomplish the same goal. In the tournament I played with the deck, I was looking for a tuning card that would help in random situations and matchups while never being that bad, and I decided upon Exalted Angel. Now, this is the kind of pick that in many ways seems like it has to be wrong. You can make all the technical challenges to the card that you want, but the truth is that Exalted Angel wins games, especially when protected by Astral Slide. It is a great way to solidify the deck against bad and/or aggressive opponents, and it can also be good against control since it is a card that must be dealt with. Against Tooth and Nail, it may seem counter intuitive but it's not a bad addition: This thing can compete with Darksteel Colossus and fight it almost to a standstill. In general, it will rarely be that bad, and that is important. However, it is very possible that more experience at the high levels will change that, and it is also possible that my experiences have been abnormal. I'm going to leave it out for now, since it seems you can do better, but in formats as undefined as this one the direct route can be far more effective than people think.

If I was going to continue playing the deck, right now I would assemble it like this:

G/W Slide Zvi Mowshowitz


Format: Type II - Fifth Dawn

»Apprentice Format« - »Printable Format«

Main Deck Sideboard
3 Eternal Dragon
4 Eternal Witness
3 Viridian Shaman

3 Akroma's Vengeance
4 Astral Slide
3 Decree of Justice
2 Oxidize
2 Plow Under
4 Rampant Growth
4 Renewed Faith
4 Wrath of God

6 Forest
6 Plains
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Windswept Heath
1 Decree of Justice
1 Naturalize
2 Oxidize
2 Plow Under
2 Pulse of the Fields
2 Scrabbling Claws
1 Second Sunrise
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Viridian Shaman
2 Wipe Clean

Total deck value: $284.15
Notes:


Average Casting Cost (ACC)= 3.37

Spells by Color:
Cards by Type:

*Hover mouse cursor over pie chart to see ==>> COLOR/TYPE : # CARDS : % OF CARDS.
*Left click on pie chart or legend to isolate a field.




That gives you eight safe universal ins for long games: Claws, Wipe Clean, Simulacrum, Decree and Plow. That will let you get rid of Wrath of God, Oxidize and two Viridian Shamans. At that point, it is hard to believe that you won't be able to benefit from either Second Sunrise or Naturalize given you face no men, and at any rate leaving behind one of those as insurance should be fine. Against aggression, the worst case scenario is that your Plow Unders and artifact destruction must leave. If that is the case, you'll be a little short since two Pulse of the Fields are your only top quality substitutions. The other five cards now have to be replaced. What is your opponent doing? He must be fast but without artifacts. You can run Solemn and Decree without too much trouble, then Scrabbling Claws is a cheap cantrip. The last card can just be a Shaman left in as a man I suppose. It's hard not to have a combined fifteen cards that are bad against aggression or kill artifacts or enchantments, but I can't think of a deck in that form you can't dominate.

Against control, you should just start test spelling them into oblivion. Cycle like a madman for a bit, then once that's done start casting spells. Sometimes it will be right to rush in, sometimes you'll play around Mana Leak but mostly you should be so far ahead on cards that you should just walk in. They are only dangerous in a very long game, so don't give them a chance to get to one without earning it. Thin your deck like a madman, and then give them a stream of spells they don't know how to deal with. Sideboarding should only make their problem worse, and there is no card that will hose you too badly. Try to figure out what's in their hand by the way they react to the spells you cast, and test spell them from there on in accordingly. Above all, don't get greedy.

Against a deck like Blue/White, you have tons of time to make this work, but against Tooth & Nail you must act quickly. Concentrate on going after their lands with Plow Under early and often, and if you can't then cycle to try and find some. If they get to nine mana and the shoe does not drop, then move into aggressive mode to try and take them out with damage - unless you can lock them under a recursive Plow Under of course. Game two your plan has a much better chance of working. Both sides got rid of dead cards, but the exchange favors you because their basic plan was already in place and yours was in large part missing. Obliterate is in between, but you should generally have enough mana that you can hold land ass insurance after a while. There your goal is to set up while they are assembling their mana, trying to draw out counters, then try and set up a defense based around either Plow Under or protecting creatures with Astral Slide. Also note that gaining life recursively can be a strong defense against Obliterate, because you can then have the time to use Witness to rebuild your base.

Against aggression, your goal is simple. You want to stay alive. Don't worry about anything else, and let the long game take care of itself. The number of extra resources your deck has are astounding, and having too big a horizon is a mistake. Similarly, facing land destruction means just trying to play them faster than they can be blown up. I realized that once you get to two, you then have so many extra lands that you should be very hard to beat that way, so Sacred Ground seems like it won't win you that many extra games. The mirror seems like a true nightmare, since I can't find a card that is too ridiculous but it will definitely come down to who gets recursion going while stopping their opponent from doing the same. Whoever does the best job of it likely wins, and caring more will be a huge help with cards like Wipe Clean.

Overall, I think this is a very strong deck. The only deck against which this seems very weak is Krark-Clan Ironworks, which should be able to beat you because while you're setting up they just go win. Your attack on them will rarely be enough fast pressure, although you do have a chance by setting up recursive Oxidize or Shaman quickly. The problem is that they fail to be impaled on the horns of your dilemma: They don't attack you and they don't play control. Once their engine is in motion, yours looks downright worthless. You might be able to find a hateful solution, but none occurs to me yet and certainly I can't think of one that doesn't involve a lot of cards. The good news is that the rest of the format is very hostile for KCI, so unless someone builds a better KCI deck it will continue to be a minor issue, but Green/White is dangerously good at making the world safe for the deck whose mention causes my mind to start the imperial march.

I'm sure it's nothing. I mean, Quiet Speculation was fine too, right?




- Zvi Mowshowitz

[bradyoo]

이것또한 bluemtg에 번역이 되어있습니다.

[[TOP]진검승부]

오호~ 브래드 광고를 했었어야지~ 얼른 가서 읽어봐야겠군

[[TOP]진검승부]

니가 글 썼으니깐 그 아티클을 광고해~ 가만히 보니 지금 글 1번 리플도 광고구먼 ㅋㅋ 글 잘봤다. 이정도면 한글 따로 배우고 뭐고 할것도 없겠는데.

[bradyoo]

저는 별로 bluemtg 광고 하고 싶지않습니다.

[bradyoo]

아까 글 제가 잘못쓴거에요 생각없이 썻어요

[영준비]

-ㅅ-/ 브래드유님이 진검승부님 리플을 잘못이해해서 한 이야기였습니다-ㅅ-/

[[TOP]진검승부]

아 브래드와 방금 엠에센으로 대화했어요. 브래드 내 블로그에 꼭 한번 들러주길~ 요새 빠른 데클을 치는 모노블랙과의 매치가 너무 힘들어 죽겠단 말이야... 대처방안이 당췌 없을까나? 내 블로그는 여기다 -> http://blog.naver.com/ppai5.do

[BM_Glissa]

새이크리드 그라운드 깔고 길디드 라이트로 버티면 됨 =_= 내지는 그쪽이 내 핸드 털기 전에 내가 먼저 털면 됨 =_=; 이지랄