Life Outside PLT1

Shadowmoor in Lorwyn Block Constructed

June 10, 2008 on 12:17 pm | In Magic | | DarkSentinel

Alright, so at time of writing, the Lakers are 2 games down against the Celtics; close games though, so maybe the home team advantage will work for the Lakers in the next 3.

Moving right along to Lorwyn block constructed with Shadowmoor…
While people were busy with Standard, munching on Quick’n’Toast and hating on Faeries, I was busy messing around with Vivids, Reflecting Pool, and Bitterblossom. Errr… The point being that Lorwyn has a lot of powerful cards that are pretty much defining Standard right now, and thus should have a heavy impact on Block constructed.

Personal testing and results have shown that Mirrorweave Kithkin is probably the best deck in the block. I’d intended to test Kithkin heavily pre-Shadowmoor in this block season, but was assuming that the list would involve Mirror Entity and Preeminent Captain. So instead we get the monstrosity that is Spectral Procession+Wilt-Leaf Liege+Mirrorweave. For reference, the list that won GP: Birmingham:

3 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Goldmeadow Harrier
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
2 Thistledown Liege
4 Wizened Cenn

2 Mirrorweave
3 Surge of Thoughtweft
4 Spectral Procession
2 Militia’s Pride
4 Oblivion Ring

2 Mutavault
16 Plains
2 Rustic Clachan
4 Windbrisk Heights

Sideboard:
2 Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Kinsbaile Borderguard
1 Thistledown Liege
1 Mirrorweave
2 Pollen Lullaby
2 Thoughtweft Gambit

Personal testing has shown that Wilt-Leaf Liege > Thistledown Liege, both in conjunction with Mirrorweave, and on it’s own. In terms of power the following seems stronger:

4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Goldmeadow Harrier
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Knight Of Meadowgrain
3 Wilt-leaf Liege
4 Wizened Cenn

4 Mirrorweave
4 Spectral Procession
2 Militia’s Pride
2 Surge Of Thoughtweft

13 Plains
4 Mutavault
4 Rustic Clachan
4 Windbrisk Heights

This is what we’ve been testing with, and it seems to win at least 2/3 of the time against whatever we throw at it (currently 7/9 against Merfolk). Burrenton Forge-Tender is a must-have in the sideboard, with Pollen Lullaby and Wispmare also looking good. Brigid is a good candidate for anything vaguely resembling a mirror match, and I personally like Forfend as both a back-up Lullaby and Forge-Tender. Seemingly not much room for innovation.

Faeries is the next choice, both as being the other dominant deck at Birmingham and being close to what it is in Standard.

4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scion of Oona
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Vendilion Clique

4 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
4 Nameless Inversion
3 Ponder
4 Bitterblossom

8 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Shriekmaw
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Peppersmoke
2 Incremental Blight
3 Mind Shatter
4 Thoughtseize

Nice solid list that tries to recreate Faeries in Standard. Personally I don’t like Spellstutter Sprite unless it follows a turn 2 Bitterblossom, and opted for Shriekmaw instead (admittedly it’s sorcery speed, but then so is Ponder, Bitterblossom and Sower). Speaking of Sower of Temptation, that card is absolutely nuts in a creature-dominated format, since it almost always has a target. My version doesn’t have a well thought-out sideboard, although 4 Thoughtseize should be in most decks that can afford both the first-turn B and the rather hefty price these are going for. All the major decks in the format have something to hit with this – it might even be worth maindecking. Incremental Blight, Mind Shatter, Mulldrifter and Faerie Trickery are good, Faerie Trickery being particularly good against Mannequin type decks.

Mistbind Clique
4 Scion of Oona
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Shriekmaw
3 Vendilion Clique

4 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
4 Nameless Inversion
1 Faerie Trickery
4 Bitterblossom

8 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Swamp

Sideboard:
3 Faerie Trickery
2 Incremental Blight
3 Mind Shatter
4 Thoughtseize
3 Declaration of Naught

Next we have 3 flavours of Elves. GB because that’s what won the last PT, GW because it’s good, and G because it beats Kithkin.

4 Bramblewood Paragon
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher
4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Wolf-Skull Shaman

3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Profane Command
2 Primal Command
4 Nameless Inversion
4 Eyeblight’s Ending

4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Mutavault
8 Forest
8 Swamp

The sideboard would have the usual suspects of Thoughtseize, Cloudthresher, etc. Wolf-Skull Shaman is really nice in this deck, the token advantage generated by him can be considerable, and a big advantage against Kithkin. In essence the deck runs undercosted 2/2s and 3/3s and pokes them through the red zone via Overrun or a Command. Eyeblight’s Ending is included because this IS a creature format, and it kills stuff that Inversion can’t (e.g. Clique). Unsurprisingly, the deck is a solid contender in the format, pushing numbers similar to Kithkin. The matchup vs. the little white men tends to favour the latter, but is draw-dependant, see above or below for sideboarding options.

4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher
4 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Heartmender
4 Safehold Elite
2 Oversoul of Dusk

2 Mirrorweave
4 Shield of the Oversoul
4 Oblivion Ring

15 Forest
9 Plains

Sideboard
3 Wispmare
4 Pollen Lullaby
3 Cloudthresher
2 Mirrorweave
3 Chameleon Colossus

The first list I tried in Block (was toying with it for Regionals), very good against aggro decks that don’t run Mirrorweave, has a good game against Mannequin and Ramp but crumbles to both Kithkin and Faeries. The Kithkin matchup requires a good opener involving 2 and 3 drops, with Pollen Lullaby back-up, and Faeries requires sideboarding and them not using Sower on a Liege with Shield of the Oversoul on it.

4 Imperious Perfect
4 Devoted Druid
3 Wren’s Run Packmaster
4 Heritage Druid4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher
4 Wolf-Skull Shaman
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Primal Command
4 Hunting Triad
4 Gilt-Leaf Ambush

4 Mutavault
20 Forest

Sideboard
4 Elvish Promenade
2 Primal Command
4 Spring Cleaning/Elvish Hexhunter
4 Cloudthresher
1 Chameleon Colossus

This deck was the result of the tremendous success I had with Wolf-Skull Shaman, and the fact that Kithkin (our “best deck in the Block”) doesn’t like facing tokens with Deathtouch. Initially both Gw and Gb variants were tested (for Firespout protection and removal, respectively) but they, unsurprisingly, overlapped a bit much with the lists above. Eventually it was decided that the 4-drops were enough to still have game after Firespout or Incendiary Command (Hunting Triad has reinforce) and Deathtouch and sheer numbers could act as pseudo-removal. The list is reasonably new, and far from final, so there may well be room for Bramblewood Paragon, Rhys the Redeemed and the like. Leaf Gilder (if not Bramblewood Paragon, or Farhaven Elf) may be better than Devoted Druid, although being able to play both Garruk and Imperious Perfect on turn 3 is pretty strong. The Packmaster is actually really good, since he evades Nameless Inversion, Lash Out and Firespout, and gives you something to do with Heritage Druid and makes attacking hazardous for the opponent – potentially floating Devoted Druid’s mana and then championing is pretty nice too.
Since GB Elves came first at PT: Hollywood, next we’ll look at what came second: Merfolk. I really like Merfolk, probably because Lord of Atlantis is one of the cards I can remember playing with, and I felt a tang of nostalgia when he was Timeshifted (TM?). That was obviously a tangent, since the fish lord isn’t in Block, and the whole “I win via Aquitect’s Will+Lord of Atlantis backed up with counter-magic” doesn’t seem to work in this format without him. Nevertheless the deck still seems reasonable, allowing turn 2 Banneret into turn 3 Reejerey and a seemingly-endless stream of Silvergill Adepts, followed by a Mirrorweave win on turn 4. Interestingly, Merfolk is the only deck we tested that kept it’s familiar, Kithkin worked out to prefer a Knight of Meadowgrain to a 2/1 (often vanilla), while Merfolk likes its “2 mana for a cantrip-counter” plays a lot.

3 Sygg, River Guide
4 Cursecatcher
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Mulldrifter
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Stonybrook Banneret

3 Cryptic Command
4 Sage’s Dousing
4 Mirrorweave

4 Mutavault
4 Mystic Gate
4 Wanderwine Hub
5 Plains
7 Island

Sideboard:
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Forfend
3 Wispmare
4 Pollen Lullaby

Considering how strong Mulldrifter, Sower of Temptation, and Cryptic Command are, the numbers definitely need adjusting. But the basics are there. The deck does poorly against Kithkin (see above), since Kithkin comes out fast and fairly big, but does well against most other decks. The almost-equal ratio of white-to-blue is there to support a turn 1 or 2 Forge-Tender, if necessary.
Elementals also made the Birmingham top 8, but I apart from Incandescent Soulstoke-shenanigans I don’t find them overly appealing. I did throw together a random list, more for what I call “shits’n'giggles” than anything else, and it’s probably not playable. It’s 61 cards, and completely unplayed.

4 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Smokebraider
4 Incandescent Soulstoke
4 Brighthearth Banneret
4 Mulldrifter
1 Shriekmaw
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Cloudthresher
2 Reveillark
2 Nova Chaser
1 Supreme Exemplar
4 Spitebellows

4 Impromptu Raid

4 Primal Beyond
4 Vivid Crag
5 Mountain
4 Island
4 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Plains

In the interest of public security, we’ll move right along:

4 Devoted Druid
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Mulldrifter
1 Shriekmaw
2 Mistmeadow Witch
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
3 Farhaven Elf

3 Primal Command
2 Profane Command
4 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Nameless Inversion
3 Crib Swap

4 Vivid Grove
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
3 Secluded Glen
4 Vivid Creek
1 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Island
2 Plains

Lol. This deck is awesome. Or at least it was initially, when it ran 2 Cryptic Commands. It was also all over the place, and for some reason I thought that adding a 4th colour (white) for Crib Swap, together with a bunch of green acceleration would actually improve consistency (from memory I added white for Crib Swap after tutoring up a lot of kitchen Finks to keep an opposing Chameleon Colossus under control, before losing to a second one – additionally the Changeling mechanic worked nicely in conjunction with Secluded Glen and Gilt-Leaf Palace. Further memory suggests that Mistmeadow Witch is really good sometimes). The deck plays a lot around being a Primal Command toolbox, and loses a lot against Kithkin. The sideboard would be really great if I could finally decide on the correct mix of Firespout, Mind Shatter, Shriekmaw, Fulminator Mage, Cloudthresher, Sower of Temptation. And the deck would probably work better if I stop changing it completely every time I touch it.
Trying to improve the consistency of the 4-colour mannequin led to the following (untested) list:

4 Mulldrifter
4 Shriekmaw
4 Murderous Redcap
4 Sower of Temptation
2 Oona, Queen of the Fae

1 Liliana Vess
4 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Nameless Inversion
4 Cryptic Command
4 Bitterblossom

4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins
1 Mutavault
8 Swamp
8 Island

I’m not even sure what the deal is with that incongruous 1-of Mutavault. This list was more an academic exercise than anything else, since I much prefer the inconsistent comes-into-play-tapped list above it.
I think I’ll stop here with the decklists.
Overall Lorwyn block constructed seems to be a bit limiting in that the tribes have very powerful synergies that make non-tribal builds difficult, and since there are only a handful of tribes it (more-or-less) follows that there are only a handful of decks that can compete with the best. Additionally the format has a lot of powerful cards that are almost compulsory inclusions with certain tribes/colours: most decks with black in them will benefit heavily from Thoughtseize, Nameless Inversion and Shriekmaw, and most decks will benefit from Mutavault. This also means that trying to come up with new decks inevitably leads to the scenario I found myself in while trying to come up with a UB Aggro list: continuously thinking “this is not as good as Faeries, so why not just play Faeries?”.
However, unlike others, I really like Tribal decks ^_^.
DarkSentinel’s Top 10 cards in Lorwyn Block Constructed (with Shadowmoor):
1 – Mutavault
2 – Firespout
3 – Thoughtseize
4 – Primal Command
5 – Cryptic Command
6 – Makeshift Mannequin
7 – Profane Command
8 – Sower of Temptation
9 – Mirrorweave
10 – Nameless Inversion
… Honorary Mentions:
11 – Bitterblossom
12 – Garruk Wildspeaker

NB: any errors in this document are a result of me either a) not believing in the art of proof-reading (or re-reading in general, for that matter), or b) being a 1600 player.