Transition to the New Extended

by Frank Karsten | posted at 2010-06-22 01:29:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, New Extended, Frank Karsten

 

Huge changes to Extended were announced a couple of days ago. From now on, Extended players won’t have access to the Mirrodin, Ravnica, and Kamigawa Blocks anymore (and Coldsnap and 9th Edition are also gone). This completely new format gives a big challenge for deck builders. As I will be participating in Pro Tour-Amsterdam, I will also have to figure out how to tackle this new format.When building decks for a new format, I always find it useful to look back at previous formats as a starting point. Hence in this article I want to explore which deck archetypes we lose due to this rotation and which deck archetypes may rise up to be the best in the New Extended, with the eventual goal of making a good playtest gauntlet consisting of the most important deck archetypes. My methodology will be as follows: I will consider the most popular 20 Old Extended deck archetypes of the last 12 months. For each deck, I will determine which cards it loses and whether it can reasonably survive the transition. The main question that I will try to answer is "Are there decks that did well in the Old Extended, while using no crucial cards from the sets that have rotated out?” I’ll also discuss interesting individual cards that are no longer legal. I will review the 20 most popular Standard deck archetypes of the last four years (starting with the Time Spiral – Lorwyn Standard era and gradually moving towards the current Alara – Zendikar Standard). The main question that I will try to answer is “Are there archetypes that were a mainstay in Standard over the course of all these years and/or is there unexplored synergy between a Time Spiral – Lorwyn Standard deck and an Alara – Zendikar Standard deck?” Finally, I’ll combine both perspectives, i.e., the old Extended decks and the old Standard decks, in an attempt to provide some insight into how the New Extended format is shaping up.

 

The 20 most popular Extended deck archetypes of the last 12 months

 

I selected these 20 decks based on the metagames of Extended Pro Tour and Grand Prix tournaments over the last 12 months. I’ll start with decks that lost everything in the rotation and gradually go towards decks that are still very much alive.

 

Affinity: The difference between Mirrodin Block Affinity and Extended Affinity has always been rather small. Clearly, this deck is no more.

 

Dredge: The dredge mechanic has left with Ravnica Block. That means no more Golgari Grave-Troll, Stinkweed Imp, Golgari Thug, Life from the Loam, nor Darkblast. In addition enablers such as Glimpse the Unthinkable, Ideas Unbound, and Drowned Rusalka are also gone. Without the dredge engine, this deck is completely dead.

 

Thopter/Depths: Dark Depths has rotated out, so the Vampire Hexmage / Dark Depths combo is no more. Similarly, Sword of the Meek is banned, so the Thopter Foundry / Sword of the Meek combo is also out. No combo, no deck. No pure Dark Depths combo, no pure Thopter Foundry combo and no combination of both. By the way, Dark Confidant and Muddle the Mixture also rotated out.

 

Hypergenesis: With the banning of Hypergenesis, this deck has gotten the axe.

 

Martyr/Proclamation: I am happy that I will never have to face this deck again. Both Proclamation of Rebirth and Martyr of Sands have rotated out.

 

Urzatron Blue: It loses the entire set of Urza lands, along with the big mana spells like Sundering Titan and Mindslaver. Thus, the entire point of the deck has rotated out.

 

All-in Red: Seething Song, Desperate Ritual, Chrome Mox and Rite of Flame have disappeared. As such, insane plays such as a turn 1 Deus of Calamity or a big Empty the Warrens are now out of the question. Furthermore, this deck loses important disruption in Blood Moon and Chalice of the Void, which is also important to keep in mind.

 

Scapeshift: I think we won’t see decks with Scapeshifts and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle anymore, even though both combo cards are still legal, and there are two main reasons why I think this deck is dead. Firstly, this deck is hurt significantly by the loss of Ravnica block dual lands. Without Steam Vents and Stomping Ground, a new manabase with a lot of basic Mountains is needed, which will often lead to color screws. Secondly, the deck loses a lot of excellent mana acceleration (Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves, and Coiling Oracle), card selection (Peer Through Depths, Remand, Repeal), and utility (Boseiju, Who Shelters All and surprising sideboard plans with Meloku, the Clouded Mirror or Rude Awakening). There are alternatives for these cards, but they are certainly less efficient. In conclusion, I think this deck has lost too many key ingredients.

 

Tezzerator: This deck loses a lot. Firstly, it loses Thirst for Knowledge along with artifact lands and Chrome Mox. Secondly, it loses Trinket Mage along with Spellbombs, Chalice of the Void, Engineered Explosives and the aforementioned artifact lands. Thirdly, it loses nice targets for Tezzeret: no more Vedalken Shackles or Sword of the Meek combo. All in all, a lot of the artifact synergy is now gone and there does not appear to be a lot of incentive to play a control deck based around artifacts and/or Tezzeret at the moment (Time Sieve combo may be possible, but that’s not a control deck like Tezzerator).

 

Naya/Domain Zoo: This deck has always been built around the Ravnica block dual lands. Without Stomping Ground, Temple Garden, Sacred Foundry, etc. all the fetch-lands lose a lot of their value and furthermore cards that relied on basic land types, such as Kird Ape, Loam Lion, Wild Nacatl, Tribal Flames, and Might of Alara will also get a lot worse (Actually, Kird Ape rotated out regardless). Therefore, I think the traditional Zoo decks are gone. Admittedly aggro players still have access to highly efficient cards such as Lightning Bolt and Goblin Guide, but they will likely go for a single-color or two-color deck now.

 

Gifts Rock/Death Cloud Rock: I am grouping these two decks together since they are somewhat similar mid-range control decks. Both tried to keep up in the early game with Sakura-Tribe Elder, Tarmogoyf, Kitchen Finks, and mass removal and subsequently tried to take over the late game with big spells like Death Cloud and Gifts Ungiven (in combination with Eternal Witness). Both decks have something else in common: their namesake cards have rotated out. Though I don’t think we have seen the last of green-black mid-range decks, we certainly don’t have access to Gifts Ungiven or Death Cloud anymore.

 

Combo Elves: We have lost Glimpse of Nature, Chord of Calling, and Cloudstone Curio for real combo purposes; that’s a major blow. However, we still have Llanowar Elves, Heritage Druid, Nettle Sentinel, Elvish Archdruid, and Regal Force, so an Elves combo deck (probably similar to, e.g., Kenji Tsumura’s Top 8 deck from Japanese Nationals 2009) is still possible, though it will be less explosive.

 

Smallpox Vampires: I’m not sure whether this was ever a highly popular archetype, but Charles Lancaster made Top 8 with it in Grand Prix-Houston a couple of months ago, so I figured I’d put it in. This deck has lost some late game staying power as Dark Confidant and the equipments (Umezawa’s Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice, and Sword of Light and Shadow) have rotated out. Nevertheless, you can still play Smallpox and sacrifice Bloodghast and Flagstones of Trokair (although Flagstones of Trokair can no longer find Godless Shrine). The deck doesn’t appear to be overly powerful to me, but it’s also not completely dead.

 

Bant: This deck is hurt a bit by the loss of Breeding Pool, Hallowed Fountain, and Temple Garden, but they can be replaced with different lands. A similar observation holds for cards like Mana Leak, Spell Snare, Umezawa’s Jitte, and Engineered Explosives; it’s too bad they're gone, but there are valid alternatives. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Noble Hierarch accelerating into Vendilion Clique in the New Extended, along with Tarmogoyf, Knight of the Reliquary, Kitchen Finks, Path to Exile, some blue countermagic, etcetera.

 

Doran: This deck is somewhat similar to Bant, in that Godless Shrine, Overgrown Tomb, and Temple Garden can be replaced with other lands, and it should be noted that Verdant Catacombs can fetch Murmuring Bosk. Furthermore, cards like Loxodon Hierarch, Putrefy, Umezawa’s Jitte, and Dark Confidant have reasonable alternatives. All in all, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Noble Hierarch accelerating into Doran, the Siege Tower in the New Extended, along with the same green/white cards that I mentioned for the Bant deck, just with Thoughtseize and Duress rather than countermagic to battle the combo decks.

 

Landfall Boros: This deck mainly loses Lightning Helix, which takes out a big incentive to splash white in a red-based aggro/burn deck. Furthermore, Sacred Foundry is also gone, which makes Arid Mesa and Flagstones of Trokair a lot worse. However, with some tweaks the mana can still work. Ghost Quarter has also left, which makes the landfall strategy less explosive. Other losses such as Jotun Grunt and Magma Jet are no big deal. I’m not entirely sure whether a splash for mainly just Steppe Lynx will be worth it, but it is likely that we will see Plated Geopede, Searing Blaze and fetch-lands in the New Extended.

 

Monored Burn: This deck loses Shrapnel Blast (and accommodating artifact lands), Molten Rain and Lava Spike in the rotation. However, these are replaceable by (admittedly slightly less efficient) burn cards like Flame Javelin. An alternate idea would be to make the deck a bit slower and add creatures like Figure of Destiny. Either way, I expect that this deck will continue to burn.

 

Faeries: This deck loses a bunch of cards, but most of them are replaceable with cards of the same functionality. I’m talking about Mana Leak, Spell Snare, Engineered Explosives, Umezawa’s Jitte, and Threads of Disloyalty. Just replace these with different countermagic and creature removal and the Faeries are ready to fly again. Given that Faeries dominated Standard for as long as Lorwyn block was legal, as I’ll discuss in more detail later on, I’m sure that this is a deck we’ll continue to see quite often in the New Extended.

 

Living End Cascade: Using Travis Woo’s Top 8 deck from Grand Prix Oakland 2010 as a reference, we see that this archetype doesn’t lose anything (!) except for Night of Soul’s Betrayal, which was probably meant as a specific answer to the Thopter/Depths combo decks running around anyway. Hence, if you want to cascade, Living End is the way to go.

 

That’s the end of the list. Several decks carry over well: Living End Cascade, Faeries, Red-based aggro/burn (with or without a white splash), and white-green based mid-range (Bant or Doran). 

 

Before I turn to the defining decks of the Standard formats that we’ve seen in the past few years, let me give a (non-exhaustive) categorized list of important tournament staples that have rotated out and that I have not yet mentioned above. It’s quite striking how many familiar cards are gone. In the New Extended, we no longer have access to:

 

-Several mana fixing lands: Golgari Rot Farm etc., Forbidden Orchard, Tendo Ice Bridge

-A lot of solid mana accelerants: Talisman of Progress etc., Azorius Signet etc., Solemn Simulacrum, Coldsteel Heart, Into the North, Kodama’s Reach

-Various combo cards: Heartbeat of Spring and Early Harvest, Second Sunrise, Tooth and Nail, Isochron Scepter, Greater Good and Yosei, the Morning Star, Crypt Champion, Kami of the Crescent Moon

-A bunch of anti-combo cards: Cranial Extraction, Leyline of the Void, Castigate, Persecute, Ivory Mask, Damping Matrix

-Solid artifact hate: Kataki, War’s Wage, Shattering Spree, Tin Street Hooligan

-Good ways for combo decks to battle countermagic: Defense Grid, Gigadrowse

-Several card drawers and card selection: Compulsive Research, Phyrexian Arena, Plunge into Darkness, Court Hussar, Sleight of Hand

-A land destruction plan: Stone Rain, Annex, Wildfire, Magnivore

-A bunch of red burn cards: Flames of the Blood Hand, Seal of Fire, Demonfire, Char, Skred, Volcanic Hammer, Electrolyze

-Various white weenies: Isamaru, Hound of Konda, Savannah Lions, Samurai of the Pale Curtain

-Solid countermagic: Rune Snag, Voidslime, Condescend, Rewind

-A random mention: Crime // Punishment

-A bunch of well-costed creatures: Watchwolf, Burning-Tree Shaman, Orzhof Pontiff, Phyrexian Ironfoot, Ohran Viper, Giant Solifuge, Kodama of the North Tree, Arc-Slogger, Angel of Despair

 

The 20 most popular Standard deck archetypes of the last 4 years

 

My choice of 20 decks is of course extremely subjective, but hopefully it will give a decent overview of the most important archetypes that we’ve seen in Standard over the last four years. I’m adhering more or less to chronological order. For every deck archetype, I’ll give a list of characteristic key cards as a memory aid. I’m not going to discuss the viability of each deck in detail, but rather give a list that can be used to quickly recall what kind of Standard decks we have seen in the past four years and as a source of ideas.

 

1. Red-Green Big Mana (Wall of Roots, Search for Tomorrow, Harmonize, Bogardan Hellkite, Chameleon Colossus, Firespout…)

2. Mono-red Storm (Lotus Bloom, Fungal Reaches, Spinerock Knoll, Manamorphose, Dragonstorm, Grapeshot…)

3. Doran (Birds of Paradise, Tarmogoyf, Doran, the Siege Tower, Kitchen Finks, Thoughtseize, Maelstrom Pulse…)

4. Green-Black Elves (Llanowar Elves, Wren’s Run Vanquisher, Tarmogoyf, Treetop Village, Thoughtseize, Profane Command…)

5. Blue-Black Pickled Teachings (Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Brine Elemental, Mystical Teachings, Cryptic Command, Damnation…)

6. Red Deck Wins (Figure of Destiny, Magus of the Moon, Boggart Ram-Gang, Incinerate, Flame Javelin, and various other cards over the course of four years, e.g., Demigod of Revenge, Volcanic Fallout, Devastating Summons, or a splash for Blightning or Tarmogoyf…)

7. Blue-Black Faeries (Spellstutter Sprite, Bitterblossom, Mistbind Clique, Vendilion Clique, Ancestral Vision, Cryptic Command…)

8. Merfolk (Lord of Atlantis, Merfolk Reejerey, Silvergill Adept, Stonybrook Banneret, Ancestral Visions, Cryptic Command, …)

9. U/W/r Reveillark (Reveillark, Body Double, Greater Gargadon, Sower of Temptation, Mulldrifter, Mind Stone…)

10. Five Color Control a.k.a. Quik 'N Toast (Reflecting Pool and Vivid lands, Wall of Roots, Mulldrifter, Kitchen Finks, Cryptic Command, Firespout, Wrath of God, Volcanic Fallout, Esper Charm, Broken Ambitions, Cruel Ultimatum…)

11. Cascade Swans (Swans of Bryn Argoll, Seismic Assault, Bloodbraid Elf, Bituminous Blast and a LOT of lands…)

12. Boat Brew (Figure of Destiny, Mogg Fanatic, Ranger of Eos, Ajani Vengeant, Reveillark, Siege-Gang Commander…)

13. Kithkin (Figure of Destiny, Goldmeadow Stalwart, Wizened Cenn, Spectral Procession, Windbrisk Heights, Path to Exile…)

14. Black-White Tokens (Bitterblossom, Spectral Procession, Cloudgoat Ranger, Ajani Goldmane, Tidehollow Sculler, Windbrisk Heights…)

15. Time Sieve (Howling Mine, Time Warp, Time Sieve, Elsewhere Flask, Open the Vaults, Pollen Lullaby…)

16. Jund (Bloodbraid Elf, Putrid Leech, Sprouting Thrinax, Kitchen Finks, Volcanic Fallout, Maelstrom Pulse, Blightning, Lightning Bolt…)

17. Boros Bushwhacker (Steppe Lynx, Plated Geopede, Ranger of Eos, Goblin Bushwacker, Path to Exile, Arid Mesa…)

18. Naya (Noble Hierarch, Wild Nacatl, Woolly Thoctar, Bloodbraid Elf, Ranger of Eos, Lightning Bolt…)

19. Bant (Noble Hierarch, Knight of the Reliquary, Rhox War Monk, Path to Exile, Baneslayer Angel, Jace, the Mind Sculptor…)

20. U/W/r Planeswalker Control (Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Gideon Jura, Ajani Vengeant, Wall of Omens, Day of Judgment…)

 

It should be observed that Red Deck Wins has been a mainstay in Standard for four years; it was playable in Time Spiral – Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Standard, as well as in Alara – Zendikar Standard. A “best of” variant would therefore appear to be an excellent choice for the New Extended. Another interesting observation is that U/W/r Reveillark and U/W/r Planeswalker Control were played in disjoint formats, although there is a lot of unexplored synergy between these decks. Not only do they contain the same colors, but combining these decks can lead to fun plays such as Jace, the Mind Sculptor bouncing Reveillark, which brings back Wall of Omens in turn.

 

Reviewing the other decks, I would think that Faeries and Jund have been the defining decks of Time Spiral – Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Standard and Alara – Zendikar Standard, respectively. Faeries has dominated Standard for as long as Lorwyn was legal and Jund has dominated Standard for as long as Alara was legal. Therefore, these are serious contenders for the New Extended.

 

Conclusion

 

Now, let me make a playtest gauntlet for the New Extended format. The goal is to use this as a starting point in the playtesting for Pro Tour-Amsterdam. An initial gauntlet should hold the best decks in the format, while still having some variety (i.e. at least one aggro, control, and combo deck) and limited size (i.e., no more than five or six decks). Based on the deck reviews of the Old Extended and Old Standard, I want my playtest gauntlet for the New Extended to start with the following set of deck categories (no actual decklists yet; I prefer to wait with that until M11 has been released):

-Faeries. This one is clear, as it has been a dominating force in Standard and has also seen a lot of play in Extended.

-Living End Cascade. The interplay between cascade and suspend cards remains quite broken. This deck did well in Old Extended and doesn’t lose anything significant in the rotation. Hence, it seems like it will be the default combo deck.

-Green-White based mid-range. This category encompasses Bant, Doran, and Naya, all of which are quite similar decks at heart. I’m not sure which of these I will eventually pick for the gauntlet, but any deck that starts with Noble Hierarch or Birds of Paradise accelerating into a good three-drop will turn out to be solid. The third color (black, red or blue) probably doesn’t matter all that much. However, there is a lot of evidence from past formats suggesting that a mid-range deck like this can perform well.

-Red-Green based aggro/burn. This category may need to be split up in two, i.e. separate it into Red Deck Wins and Jund, but in order to limit the number of decks in the gauntlet I have combined the two. Given the availability of excellent aggressive red creatures and burn cards in all four New Extended Blocks, a Red Deck Wins type deck looks quite solid. It need not be Monored per se, as a green splash for Tarmogoyf and Bloodbraid Elf may very well be worth it (and I would expect this to be better than a white splash for Steppe Lynx and Path to Exile). Jund, on the other hand, is still winning PTQs every week and it used to have the perfect answers to Faeries in Great Sable Stag and Volcanic Fallout. However, given the availability of excellent red/green cards in Time Spiral and Lorwyn blocks, including Magus of the Moon, the black may not be necessary.

-Reveillark combo/control. Some control deck has to be added to the gauntlet, but I wasn’t sure whether Five Color Control or Reveillark combo/control was best. Mainly since I want to try out Reveillark with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Wall of Omens, and because an answer-laden Five Color Control deck is difficult to build in such a brand new format, I went with Reveillark combo/control.

 

The New Extended is shaping up to be an interesting format, with many deck possibilities to explore. The above gauntlet, which was limited to just a few of the most promising decks, certainly doesn’t encompass all the options. Just look at that list of 20 Standard decks; almost every single one of them may be playable in the New Extended. We shall see in Pro Tour-Amsterdam…

 

-Frank Karsten

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