What Not To Play and a Wave for Kiora!

Welcome everyone to another Blog Post. At the time of this writing, we are at the initial stages of the Born of the Gods spoiler season. A couple of cards have already been spoiled, some of them are the Pre-Release Promos, and an assortment of rares including the first Blue/Green Planeswalker. Surely I'll talk about them, but first a word of warning.

Part I - Don't play RW Burn.

RW Devotion? Sure. Why not? You get to play Stormbreath Dragons, attacking Purphoros, God of the Forges, and overloaded Mizzium Mortars! Doesn't it sound mighty nice? Go ahead, take a look. This one Top 8'd the Star City Games Open in Indianapolis back in January 4th:

RW Tokens
Pilot: Michael Kenney
8th Place - SCG Indianapolis

Creatures - 16
2 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Younger Pyromancer
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Poenix
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge

Spells - 19
4 Magma Jet
2 Warleader's Helix
4 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Assemble the Legion
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Lands -25
1 Boros Guildgate
2 Mutavault
3 Plains
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
11 Mountain

Sideboard -
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Wear/Tear
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Pithing Needle
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Last Breath

White-based Aggro decks are well-positioned right now, especially the ones splashing Black for Xathrid Necromancers, like Ben Stark's Wb Humans deck that made Top 8 back in Grand Prix Dallas-Fort Worth in early December:

Orzhov Humans
Pilot: Ben Stark
4th Place - GP Dallas
 
Creatures - 29
4 Banisher Priest
4 Boros Elite
3 Imposing Sovereign
4 Daring Skyjek
4 Dryad Militant
4 Precinct Captain
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
2 Xathrid Necromancer

Spells - 9
2 Spear of Heliod
3 Orzhov Charm
4 Brave the Elements

Lands - 22
1 Orzhov Guildgate
1 Swamp
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of Silence
4 Mutavault

Sideboard -
1 Orzhov Charm
2 Xathrid Necromancer
2 Sin Collector
2 Profit/Loss
2 Thoughtseize
3 Doom Blade
3 Dark Betrayal

But for the love of God, don't play this: 

Creatures - 8
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Ash Zealot

Spells - 30
3 Toil/Trouble
3 Warleader's Helix
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Shock
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
4 Annihilating Fire

Lands - 22
1 Boros Guildgate
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
12 Mountain

I'm not even going to post the Sideboard, because this was a colossal failure. I tuned the deck as much as possible to fight off most decks, but Mono Black's newfound hold on the Metagame has made playing this deck a losing proposition. I'll explain.

Considering the nature of the deck, you can't afford to play more creatures, because more often than not, yours will be outclassed. In Red decks, what are our options really? Firedrinker Satyr? Put a Precinct Captain in front of it and guess who wins that fight? How about big Pack Rats? Gray Merchant of Asphodel? Desecration Demons? A Nightveil Specter or a Thassa, God of the Sea? Same goes for Burning-Tree Emissaries and the rest of the merry, red entourage. Thus, cutbacks had to be made. The best of these were Ash Zealot and Chandra's Phoenix. The First Strike on the Zealot helps him win creature-on-creature combats while the Haste allows it to act as additional Burn. Most of the time, Zealot gets in 4-6 damage before it dies or a Desecration Demon shows up. Chandra's Phoenix has the same philosophy behind it. Evasion on the Phoenix means you can get roughly around the same amount of damage and perhaps more if left unchecked.

After a couple of these creatures hit the field and smacked around a bit, the rest of the your game plan was to unload burn spells onto your opponent's face. Warleader's Helix is there to take out a 5th of their life total and gives it to you so you can race the Aggro decks. Annihilating Fire is there because of the rise of Xathrid Necromancers as it won't trigger the Necromancer when it kills a creature. Not that you will be targeting many creatures with the Fire. For the Control Match ups? Toil/Trouble and Skullcrack punishes them for not playing their cards fast enough and for trying to Sphinx's Revelation.

The battle against Mono Black is another beast entirely. In theory, you should have the upper hand since their Underworld Connections does most of your job for you. Most of the time, you do, however it is very draw dependent. First, you have to get a few attacks in with your Zealots and Phoenixes. Secondly, they have to play their Gray Merchant of Asphodel into your Skullcrack. Thirdly, you'll need another Skullcrack to cover their second Gray Merchant, if you don't, your chances of winning go down to a 43% (I invent percentages for 67.72% more entertainment value). Regardless, pre-board the match up is more on their favor. Post-board, you have a much better chance in part, because you get to board out all of your creatures to makes their removal useless. Invalidating their removal will keep their hand full for your Toil/Troubles to be much more devastating. Or so I thought. Apparently, if you aren't careful, they can Devour Flesh their Desecration Demons in response to a lethal Helix or what-have-you. Luckily, they don't always have that option keeping your lethal Helixes, well, lethal.

It isn't all bad, however. The deck definitely has some power behind it, otherwise, I wouldn't have played it. All it needs is a little push and it's an automatic contender. What would I play in this format, right now? With only two weeks to go for Born of the Gods? I would maybe stick to playing Mono Black Devotion.

Mono Black Devotion
Pilot: Owen Turtenwald
1st Place - SCG Open Indianapolis

Creatures - 16
4 Pack Rat
4 Desecration Demon
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Spells - 18
4 Underworld Connections
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize
4 Devour Flesh
2 Pharika's Cure

Lands - 26
4 Mutavault
4 Temple of Deceit
18 Swamp

Sideboard -
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Pharika's Cure
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Eerebos, God of the Dead
4 Duress

The interaction between the Underworld Connections and Gray Merchant of Asphodel is as close as we are going to get to Necropotence and Drain Life in Standard. This deck perfectly demonstrates how powerful trading life for cards is, even more so than Sphinx's Revelation decks which tread closely along the same lines as this deck. As long as you have more than 0 life, every bit of the life can translate into more turns. More turns means more draws. Each draw is a potential land drop that will later fuel a big Revelation, essentially giving you more life points and more cards. Looking at it in this light, what would be the difference between the two? Aside from their colors, Mono Black's game plan is a proactive one. Pack Rats, Desecration Demons, Gray Merchants, and Nightveil Specters are all proactive threats that can quickly get out of hand when backed by sufficient removal and discard effects.

If Mono Black's not your cup of tea, maybe a Mono Blue list will be more your style.

Mono Blue Devotion
Pilot: Tyler Wilkerson
1st Place - SCG Orlando

Creatures - 28
4 Master of Waves
4 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Tidebinder Mage
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Judge Familiar

Spells - 7
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Bident of Thassa
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Domestication

Lands - 25
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Mutavault
20 Island

Sideboard -
1 Bident of Thassa
1 Domestication
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Dispel
1 Negate
2 Dissolve
2 Rapid Hybridization
4 Gainsay

Mono Blue does not have the same pedigree as Mono Black at this rate, but it's power cannot be contested. The synergies found in this deck are by far the best in the format (GR Monsters is a close second), to the point where you can't effectively stop a Mono Blue deck that has got its plan in full swing.

In the end, I did learn my lesson and won't ever break my rules again. Yeah, I do love me some rules. I'm like Gibbs from the NCIS series or Jason Statham on 96.64% of his movies. And I violated one of my most inviolate rules on deck choice: Play a flexible deck. Besides being able to race Aggro decks with the Helix, or Skullcracking in response to Sphinx's Revelations and Gray Merchants of Asphodel, or the fact that you can Magma Jet randomly just for the Scry ability, the deck isn't very flexible. The deck is mostly one-dimensional--just burn. You can't play Control or Aggro-Control. Actually, it's more of a Combo deck. Either you deal the 20 damage (roughly), or you die trying to get exactsies. If you want a flexible deck, the two main pillars of the format (the two aforementioned Devotion decks) have that. If you don't feel like playing those, you can always consider playing UW Control or Esper Control, those tend to be flexible, though in a different way. For these two, the plan is mostly the same which is to survive the first few turns, jump to Stage 2 by stabilizing with a Wrath and ride a wave of Sphinx's Revelations  and Jace, Architect of Thoughts into Stage 3 by slamming down an Elspeth, Sun's Champion or an Aetherling. Yet the make up of the deck can vary wildly. In late 2013, players were dragging games long enough to the point where they could Sphinx's for their deck and use Elixir of Immortality to replenish their libraries. That's one way to do it. Another could be to simply have a more aggressive plan that aims to end games in less than 25 turns. Just saying that there are options. We'll see what Born of the Gods have in store for us. Speaking of which...

Part II - SPOILERS!

Well, spoiler season is here again as we wind down to the release of Born of the Gods and the first spoiled card was the first UG Planeswalker: Kiora,the Crashing Wave

Initial glances don't say much about this card. That little number two is one of the biggest strikes against Kiora. I mean, most people believe that she's incredibly good, and she can be if she's not bothered. Without the complete set out and having no experience testing her, she may not survive in the current Standard long enough to make an impact of any sort. Most decks in the format value clogging up the board with creatures, some with evasion like on Mono Blue decks, others by playing Pack Rats, Young Pyromancers, or even Burning-Tree Emissaries. Kiora can stop a Desecration Demon, which is certainly valuable, but if you can't protect her from the rest of Mono Black's creatures, then what?

There's the option of building the deck around her as well. I'm not exactly a deck builder--I'm more of a deck tuner, so I can't really picture well where Kiora would fit. Some people think Bant is a good place for her, and they may be right. Perhaps a sort of Midrange-y Bant with efficient creatures and Elspeths as a high-end spell to ramp on to. Creatures like Voice of Resurgences and Loxodon Smiters protect Kiora well and your other Planeswalkers. Having access to Elspeth would give the deck a more robust late-game with a perfect way to use Kiora's ramp ability. Even more interesting is Elspeth's and Jace's interaction with Kiora. Elespeth's, Jace's and Kiora's +1 abilities can make screw things up for your opponents that are trying to get through with their creatures, and eventually, Kiora and Elspeth ultimate and I can't fathom a world where opponents could win from this position.

Anyway, if she's as good as people say she is, then Lightning Strike has gotten that much better.

Alright, that's it for today! I wish I had any additional comments about this new Planeswalker, but I want to reserve them until I see her in action. Although, I'm inclined to say that she won't be splashing her way into Pro Tour Top 8s (pun totally intended), I just don't have enough information on her playability. We'll see. Stay tuned for more spoilers!

Always affectionately,
Chris

Blisters & Mantles

 

Hello everyone and welcome to another instalment of my modern series of articles. Today I will dedicate this article to a special Modern concoction that has been running around the field for awhile. It's a glass cannon deck in a way, sort of like Charbelcher, where if your opponents deal with the main combo card it will fall apart--like a glass cannon that had someone smash it with a baseball bat. This means that if they kill your Blistercoil Weird and you don't have a way to back him up, it's usually a game loss. Yeah, it has Blistercoil Weird. And Paradise Mantle. And as a cherry on top: a lethal Grapeshot.

You see, Blistercoil Weird has this ability that lets him untap every time you cast an instant or sorcery spell; Paradise Mantle, when equipped, allows the Weird to tap for any colored mana; mana you will use to cast a cheap spell to untap the Weird, and these cheap spells are all one-mana cantrips. Because he can only produce one mana at a time, you want spells that can be cast for that lone mana, that way you can play those spells over and over by tapping and untapping him. Now, all you need are one-mana spells that draw cards (Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand, and their kin), so as to draw more one-mana spells. Turns out, that as you untap the Weird spell after spell, he also gets +1/+1 until the end of your turn. Therefore, if you can manage to string a boatload of cantrips together and eventually attack with a giant Weird, usually a 20/20, or a Grapeshot with a storm count of 19 or more which is supposed to be lethal for opponents. On to the decklist!

Blisters & Mantles

Creatures - 4
4 Blistercoil Weird

Spells - 40
4 Paradise Mantle
1 Grapeshot
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
4 Crimson Wisps
4 Cerulean Wisps
1 Aphotic Wisps
4 Faithless Looting
4 Peek
4 Gitaxean Probe
1 Mizzium Skin
1 Dispel
4 Visions of Beyond

Lands - 16
4 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Mountain
5 Island

Having the deck list as a reference, we should take this opportunity to break down these card choices.

1. Serum Visions/Sleight of Hand/Faithless Looting: These are, perhaps, the most important cantrips in the deck. They are the only ones that permit you to filter your draws as you combo off. Serum Visions lets you push back the lands that are on top of the deck to the bottom. Sleight of Hand is also tasked the same job, albeit to a lesser degree considering that you can only look at the top two cards and choose one of them, regardless you get to pick non-land cards in order to maintain the chain moving. Finally, Faithless Looting ensures that you can draw two fresh cards and throw away the lands or extra Mantles and Blistercoils that have piled up in your hand. The best part about the Looting is that you can Flashback it if your hands has been strayed by lands.

When not in the middle of the combo, though, they will help you find whatever parts of the engine. They may not be as efficient as Ponder and Preordain, but they do your job well.

2. Cerulean Wisps/Gitaxean Probe: Probe and Cerulean, are tied for the second best cards in the deck, because these will have you "cheat" on the one-mana-per-spell restriction of the combo. Cerulean Wisps untaps your creature as part of its effect, thus you can tap your Weird for mana, untap it with the Coil's trigger of having played a spell, tap the Weird again for mana, and then untap it as part of the Wisps's resolution. This will effectively net you +1 mana and a card for the trouble. Gitaxian Probe, aside from giving you the benefit of knowing your opponent's hand, essentially untaps the Weird without having to expend any mana (assuming you paid the two life), also netting you +1 mana. The extra mana you gain may seem trivial, yet that mana becomes important when you are comboing out on turn two, and are tapped out. You can't play any more lands during the combo and you will need, at least, two mana to play the game ending Grapeshot or the three mana for a Flashback Faithless Looting if you get stuck with a handful of lands and no cantrips. Even if you don't have the Grapeshot as win-condition for something (possibly the victim of a Thoughtseize). You always have the option to attack with the Blistercoil Weird. Wait a minute... What if there are blockers?

3. Aphotic Wisps: Lo and behold, the answer to your distress! Not only does Aphotic Wisps cost one mana, untaps Blistercoil, pumps him and draws you a card, it also grants Fear! Fear will let it get through those pesky blockers when the going gets tough. Admittedly, this plan is flimsy at best and does not get past Dark Confidants and other black creatures, but this is one of the best ways to win through whatever creatures they may have gotten. The other advantage to Aphotic is that you can play it at any moment during the combo without disrupting the chain, whilst providing you with a way out if need be. Remember, the primary win-condition is Grapeshot, Aphotic is basically a Plan B in case Plan A fails for whatever reasons (they Thoughtseize'd Grapeshot, was forced to kill creatures to stay alive, had it milled, etc.). Speaking of failing Plans...

4. Crimson Wisps: The Red Wisps is or can be a Plan C. Crimson Wisps, Mantle, Blistercoil, and three lands means you can combo out when your opponent is either tapped out or after probing the opponent for any signs of removal. This is added flexibility that the deck desperately needed. Without the Crimson Wisps, the deck would try to stick a Blistercoil, then cross its metaphorical fingers for the Coil to see the dawn of next turn. One last thing the Wisps lets you do, is to get multiple Weird+Mantle combos moving while comboing with the first one. As you are drawing and generating mana, you can play another Weird and a Mantle, and Crimson Wisp the Weird to have two Weirds giving your mana. Although, it is rare that one will need multiple Coils comboing, it is better to know the option is there--just in case.

5. Mizzium Skin/Dispel: Skin and Dispel are there for the protection of the Blistercoils. They are cheap answers to any removal that may come your way. Dispel has broader applications as it can counter counterspells as well, or, to a lesser degree, keep you alive against Burn decks by countering a lethal burns spell. I chose to keep one of each, because drawing too many mid-combo are as useless as lands. That's why I strongly suggest adding one of either card to the sideboard, but not more.

Creating a sideboard for this deck is outstandingly tricky and complicated. What cards can we sideboard that won't dilute the deck? Bad Moon doesn't do anything for us. Adding more Mizzium Skins and Dispels will only make the combo weaker, regardless of how much they can protect your Weird.

To be honest, the best options we have for sideboarding might as well be transformative Sideboards. Slap a couple of Deceiver Exarchs and Splinter Twins, sprinkled with Spellskites and Mizzium Mortars; or a set of Manamorphose and Pyromancer Ascensions, making opposing creature removal obsolete; or if you are feeling frisky(er) we can try Spawning Breaths, an Emrakul, and Polymorphs. Granted the low land count might prove to be troublesome, fortunately that can be remedied by adding a land or two in the Sideboard. More than 50% of the deck is composed of cantrips, consequently your goal should be to abuse them as much as possible before and after Sideboard. Something like this might be acceptable:

Sideboard A:

4 Spawning Breath
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Polymorph
2 Mizzium Skin
1 Dispel
3 Magma Jet

If we are to approach the Sideboard this way, having more Skins and Dispels will help you protect the Eldrazi token generated by the Spawning Breath. The Magma Jets are there so you can kill any Thalia, Guardian of Thrabens, Gaddock Teegs, Melira, Sylvok Outcasts, Ethersworn Canonists, and so on. Magma Jet also has its uses if you stick with the Blistercoil Weird combo.

Sideboard B:

2 Spellskites
4 Deceiver Exarch
1 Pestermite
4 Splinter Twin
1 Kiki-Jiki, the Mirror Breaker
1 Dispel
1 Mountain
1 Sulfur Falls

Our other option is going all-in on the Spinter Twin combo plan. This plan requires a slightly higher land count to reliably get four lands by turn 4 and Spellskites gives us much needed redundancy in creature protection. Frankly, neither of the two Sideboards I'm in love with, and only a good amount of testing will ever paint the picture we need to make a better and informed Sideboard. On the meantime, just enjoy free turn 2 wins--they sure are sweet and tangy.

 

Well, this is the end of the line for now. I like to go down the rabbit hole when exploring formats, so expect a lot more of these articles in the future. I'll have another Modern article for next week, so stay tuned!

Always affectionately,
Chris

PS: By now, Steam Vents are on the cheap side topping at about 8 dollars compared to the 15-20 dollar mark they used to be before they were reprinted in Return to Ravnica. If they are still a pain to get (see what I did there?) you can probably get a playset of Shivan Reefs and/or a few Sulfur Falls for half the Vents' cost and that of a Fetchland. The deck can easily play without the Fetches, as well. Anyway, have fun!

Cascading for Balance

Hello everyone and welcome to my second Blog Post and my first for 2014. May I get a Happy New Year's in the house!? Ah, I can't hear you so please sound it out on the comment section! Anyway, today's post is actually about a very budget-friendly Modern Combo deck that saw it's beginnings in the lost, ancient format we once knew as Extended. By now, Extended is basically the Atlantis of formats, sunken somewhere into oceans of myth and legend, except that, unlike Atlantis, Extended actually existed (or did it?) and we get to see its remains constantly in Modern. Decks like Zoo, Scapeshift, Tron, Jund variants, Junk decks, Storm decks and more, are all ruins of the Old Extended that now form the foundations of Modern. Perhaps the Restore Balance/Cascade deck isn't part of this foundation, yet it is a vestige of times bygone.

Let's face it, this deck is so far off the radar that it doesn't even have an actual name. Some people called it Balancing Tings which is reminiscent of a Terravore/Balancing Act that roamed the tables of Extended tournaments back in 2007 (here's an example). Around 2010, they named it Garga-Geddon and made an appearance at GP Oakland (coverage found here). Fast-forward to 2013, the deck is simply known as, "Restore Balance." Well, I won't have it! Henceforth, Restore Balance shall be officially known as Garga-Geddon... again... Why? Because, it will amuse me! Though not as much as it will amuse you if we just hit the crust of the pizza that is this Blog post.

To reiterate, this deck has been around for four years now spawning a number of articles and Youtube videos throughout the years, most notably a series of Building on a Budget articles that can be found here, here, and here; a deck tech from Pro Tour Amsterdam; and another more recent deck tech of a very intriguing version of Garga-Geddon that went undefeated at a Magic Online Daily.

The last list I mentioned is quite unlike any other, forgoing much of the Borderpost action in favor of a complete manabase, creatures that cycle, mana ramp with Search for Tomorrow and a couple of the Return to Ravnica Keyrunes that serve as even more creatures at a moment's notice. To save you the burden of having to go to the link, here's the list:

Pilot: Spanky_kc
Cards - 60

Creatures - 20
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Nihilith
4 Deadshot Minotour
4 Monstrous Carabid
4 Simian Spirit Guide

Spells - 18
3 Restore Balance
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Violent Outburst
4 Demonic Dread
2 Rakdos Keyrune
1 Golgari Keyrune

Lands - 22
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
3 Copperline Gorge
1 Forbidden Orchard
2 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
2 Treetop Village
4 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard -
3 Ingot Chewer
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Slaughter Games

Upon closer inspection and recalling the interesting points to note about this deck, the most striking aspect of this list is its manabase. Again, Spanky forwent the 12-land/16-Borderpost route in order to have a more consistent plan of mana development. Curiously, along with the cycling creatures, the deck closely resembles a Living End deck. It even plays Simian Spirit Guide for the option of turn 2 Cascade-into-Balance trick, or of speeding up the cycling, and/or of accelerating into his mana ramp. If we were to play the more traditional version of Garga-Geddon, Spirit Guide would still be a fine card to play. Aside from accelerating and having the oft chance of giving you a needed red source, exiling it reduces your hand size so that the Balances become better at shredding your opponents' hands.

Spirit Guide's role is slightly broader in Spanky's version., too. In his creation (at least, I suppose that it is his creation), attacking with Spirit Guide is an actual plan. I can easily fathom a game where attacking with that motley crue of cyclers and Spirit Guides is a plausible form of victory. That's another difference between Spanky's deck and traditional 'Geddon--the former has an Aggro-Combo mentality, while the latter follows the Combo-Control mindset. Spanky's Restore Balances act as enablers for playing Gargadons and Nihiliths faster while sweeping the board and Mind Twisting the opponent.

Traditional 'Geddon, on the other hand, use Restore Balance as either a Wrath of God or as a sort of Cruel Ultimatum. Against aggro, the first couple of Balance resolutions will keep you alive, then the subsequent Balances will cripple an opponent with March of the Machines and Greater Gargadon fulfilling the job of the clean up crew. Against Control, it is all about casting a Balance that can pretty much destroy an entire board, so that your win conditions do the rest of the dirty work. Put simply:

Restore Balance in Aggro-Combo = Proactive
Restore Balance in Combo-Control = Reactive

Every Keyrune, Spirit Guide, and Search for Tomorrow, along with 22 lands, reflect that Spanky counts on actually casting those big monsters. I mean, what else is he going to do with all that mana? The way the deck is set up, makes it so that the deck matches better against the Aggro-Control decks that crop up around Modern, like UWR Aggro-Control with Geist of Saint Traft and Vendilion Cliques. However,  his list lacks the efficiency the traditional lists have of fighting off decks that heavily depend on lands to further their game plans (Tron and Scapeshift, for example). This is where knowing your Metagame becomes highly important. Thus, this traditional Garga-Geddon list for comparison and consideration:

Modern Garga-Geddon

Creatures - 4
4 Greater Gargadon

Spells - 44
4 Veinfire Borderpost
3 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Firewild Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Wildfield Borderpost
4 Restore Balance
2 March of the Machines
2 Darksteel Ingot
1 Beast Within
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Violent Outburst
4 Ardent Plea
4 Demonic Dread
3 Thirst for Knowledge

Lands - 12
3 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Evolving Wilds
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Island
2 Mountain
1 Plains

Sideboard -
3 Firespout
3 Ricochet Trap
2 Dismember
2 Sin Collector
1 Wipe Away
4 Leyline of Sanctity

Usually after posting a list, I supplement it with a card by card breakdown, since I already did that in a video (with a bonus match) that you can find by clicking here, I'm just going to touch on the changes I made to the deck and discuss the merits of playing either version.

If you took the time to watch the video, you'll notice that the differences are in the manabase and the Sideboard. Taking mental notes on the way the manabase was performing made me realize that I needed at least three of each of the Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse. Initially, I was afraid of not being able to Borderpost on turn one if I had to crack an Expanse or Wilds instead. Fortunately, that fear quickly dissipated when I realized that you could still play two Borderposts on turn two if that was the case. I mean you can still, turn one crack Expanse, turn two play Borderpost returning the searched land, replay the land and return for a second Borderpost, all without missing a beat. Furthermore, these search lands help thin out the deck to avoid running into excess lands when you need spells in the late-game. There are deck lists with four of each search land. It may be correct, but feels redundant and clunky.

Turning our attention to the Sideboard, I removed a Sin Collector and the three Lingering Souls for Leyline of Sanctity. During the recording of the video, I made mention that I was fond of the idea of playing Sanctities in the 'Board to help against decks packing hand disruption (e.g Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Vendilion Clique, Duress), because those spells can target Borderposts. A discard effect nailing a 'Post might as well be a Stone Rain for our game plan, making this a problem. It gets worse when the disruption comes with Abrupt Decays and any leftover Affinity hate (Affinity, Robots, call it what you want) decks might be sporting. Leyline essentially makes this a non-issue.

Additionally, research in the aforementioned articles reveals that our biggest enemy is Ancient Grudge and for good reason. Ancient Grudge can destroy two Borderposts by itself. Therefore, taking Spanky's list to battle seems to be the cleanest option we have; either that, or max out on Darksteel Ingots. On the surface, Grudge does seem devastating, though if it's any consolation, the deck does not really need piles of lands to operate. Being able to generate three mana at any time is all you really want for this deck to function properly. Even with your back against the wall, suspending a Restore Balance and having it resolve is sometimes enough to have your opponents concede or to get back into the swing of things--yes, Balance is and can be that powerful.

Personally, both versions of Garga-Geddon are perfectly fine depending on your local Metagame. And your main deck and Sideboard should be tweaked to reflect that. If you don't know what to expect, then I do suggest you play Spanky's list. His list is easier to tweak for unknown Metagames, to the point that you can probably take that exact list and do alright for yourself at a GP. Not to mention that, compared to my (roughly) fifteen dollar Garga-Geddon, his is higher in price due to the Fetchlands and all the dual lands. Regardless, that is the sacrifice you will have to make if you want to have a better shot at a Grand Prix. Having access to a stronger manabase that is largely Green, Black, and Red means you get to play with some of the same cards decks of the same colors are playing. In the repertoire of three-plus mana spells that you can cast in those colors without screwing up the cascades, you have Liliana of the Veil, Chandra, Pyromaster, Maelstrom Pulse, and more. Come to think of it, if you are adding all these card... why not just play Jund? Or Living End since it's mostly the same shell.

Speaking of Grand Prixes, Grand Prix Prague is the first Modern GP of 2014, which will be held on the weekend of January 11th. If you are looking to battle it out over there, then here are two deck lists to consider. What you should be aware of is that the European Metagame can be radically different that of the Western Hemisphere. Honestly, I'd suggest playing a proven deck with decent match ups across the board, that is slightly tailored to suit your strengths. Unless you just want to have fun or not a lot of money, in which case, by all means pick up Garaga-Geddon. It's a fun deck with very powerful plays.

So, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the end-of-year celebrations and may 2014 bring you with many blessings, many wacky decks, and many victories!

Always affectionately,
Chris