facebook

CoolStuffInc.com

Jurassic Sale ends Sunday!
  
Account Meeple
Location IconLocations
Account MeepleLogin
0 Item
Advanced Search
   Sign In
Create Account
Main » Articles » Besieging Block Constructed

Besieging Block Constructed

Russell Tassicker
Posted on January 24, 2011
 Reddit

It has often been said that the best way to "go infinite" on Magic Online is by playing constructed, and in particular playing block constructed. The reason is these smaller formats are easy to solve; that is, to find the best strategy that is simply a step above everything else, and crush everyone playing the weaker decks. This might make block constructed sound boring for the deckbuilders out there but it isn't always. Because the decks are lower in power level than those in larger formats, and there aren't often a lot of pro players working on the format, there is more room for amateur brewers to come up with something spicy and not just get crushed on turn 3 by Boros or ground out by the Jace decks.

Today I am going to bring you up to speed on a format that hasn't had a lot of press so far – Scars of Mirrodin block constructed. Although the format is soon to rotate I hope I can provide newcomers to the format with a bit of an understanding of what has gone before, and some encouragement to give it a go yourself. Prepare for a high density of decklists as I go over the top decks that have come out of the first set, then a bit of speculation as I look out the Mirrodin Besieged spoilers and consider how they might affect the format.

The Contenders

There are really only three decks in SOM block constructed that show up frequently in the 3-1 or better event lists – a blue ramp list, a red ramp list, and a WU planeswalker control list. The reason for this is the expensive cards – Myr Battlesphere, Precursor Golem, Wurmcoil Engine, Contagion Engine, Sunblast Angel, Hoard-Smelter Dragon – are so far above the cheap cards in power level. Each of these strategies exploits these powerful cards in different frameworks, and I've pulled some lists I like from recent Daily Events to demonstrate.

"Architect Blue - tamirliron (3-1)"

This deck is based on the one-card engine room that is Grand Architect. While his primary function is as a Palladium Myr that ramps you into your selection of fatties, he can also improve your team's clock and mess up an unprepared opponent's combat math with his ability to turn your artifact creatures blue and thus subject to his anthem ability. This deck can present significant problems for the opponent to deal with early, such as an Argent Sphinx followed by Precursor Golem, but it also has a powerful late game with access to Volition Reins. While people do play incidental enchantment removal in their Disenchant effects, Volition Reins is one of the most powerful cards in the format precisely because all the best decks are trying to land huge threats. Taking your opponent's Steel Hellkite is better than playing your own and having to trade them.

Twisted Image is a cute innovation that I am quite a fan of. Precursor Golem is 9 power of guys for 5 mana, but unfortunately its rules text means your opponent can kill all three with a simple Shatter. Twisted Image lets you take advantage of this seeming hindrance by casting instant speed Ancestral Recalls – The whole spell is copied for each golem you have, so even though the swapping-power-and-toughness bit doesn't do anything relevant, you get 3 cantrips from the one mana spell. In a format with so little card draw, landing a Twisted Image on your Golem – or your opponent's, for that matter – can be backbreaking in long games. I kept cutting Precursor from my blue lists to try other things out until I fell in love with the Twisted Image tech. The Golem is still an extremely swingy card – unanswered it will dominate the game, and who gets to point a useful spell at it first can be decisive. Silver Myr is a card that has drifted in and out of the deck, but it usually just sets you up to get blown out by your opponent's Contagion Clasp or Arc Trail, and the only four drop you have to accelerate out on turn 3 is Argent Sphinx so it isn't really worth it in the current environment.

The blue deck's weaknesses are two-fold: Shatter effects are the premier removal in the format, putting artifact creatures at a disadvantage. Unfortunately for blue, the best fatties it has access to are artifact creatures, meaning even after you put in all this work with Architect and so on your Battlesphere can just die to Shatter, Oxidda Scrapmelter, or many similar cards. The other weakness is the reverse of the first – blue doesn't have any good, cheap removal, and so an opposing Hoard-Smelter Dragon can pose a serious problem. Disperse in the maindeck here is probably a concession to this issue, because you can't always have the Volition Reins, but it is a really poor excuse for a Doom Blade.

"Big Red - cashcashcash (4-0)"

The mono-red deck in SOM block is not like the ones people expect in other formats that vomit out burn spells to finish you on turn 4. As the blue deck is a Grand Architect deck, this one is a Koth deck, and it is at a huge advantage when he lands. The other decks aren't well equipped to handle a 4 power hasty mountain on turn 3 with Iron Myr, and there's no Oblivion Ring or Maelstrom Pulse to handle him either, so activating his ultimate is an excellent path to victory. The deck also features powerful fliers in Kuldotha Phoenix and Hoard-Smelter Dragon, and either unmolested can quickly end the game. To get you to these powerful late spells the deck features a swath of removal, including 4 Galvanic Blast and 4 Oxidda Scrapmelter. Spikeshot Elder is in a strange place, sometimes it is a huge blowout when your opponent drops a bunch of Myr but then sometimes it does nothing as you get beat down with an Argent Sphinx. Then, of course, sometimes you draw Strata Scythe and just crush them.

Liquimetal Coating is an interesting card that I haven't had a chance to see in action yet – it makes your Scrapmelters awesome, it gives you metalcraft for Blast and Phoenix almost on its own – but is that worth a card? You will see lists with and without, so if you want to try this deck I would test Coating and see if you like it. The burn and haste guys are particularly important against the planeswalker deck, and Coating may also provide some extra value there by letting you Shatter their Elspeth Tirel or Venser.

There is also a version of this deck utilising Blackcleave Cliffs to play some black cards as well, notably Grasp of Darkness and Carnifex Demon. I am really impressed with the upgrade in card quality this deck gets, and Grasp in particular is a very strong card. The mana may become problematic as there is very little fixing in the format but the deck has been showing up in the Daily Event decks fairly frequently so it is certainly workable.

"Planeswalker Control - Flaxh (3-1)"

They say your deck should either be the fastest or the biggest, and this deck certainly isn't the fastest. The payoff for having nothing meaningful to do until turn five, however, is the best end-game in the format. Sunblast Angel is a complete house and can massively set-back your opponent, but don't hold on looking to wipe their board – if you can get one of their decent guys while landing a 4/5 flier, that is still pretty awesome. Board-wiping is not something this deck is light on, in any case, with Sunblast and Elspeth Tirel both featuring "Destroy all" in their text box and Venser, the Sojourner combining with Sunblast Angel to kill all of your opponent's attackers forever. Pretty sweet, right? Tumble Magnets help you get extra value with the angel and just generally keep you alive against random aggro decks or Hoard-Smelter Dragons.

At its core this deck is a Venser control deck. Because of the way the timings work, bouncing your Glimmerpoint Stag to return on your end step lets you exile another permanent with the Stag's ability until the next end step – that is, your opponent's end step. This lets you temporarily take out your opponent's best permanent every turn while charging up your Venser laser. Blinking Tumble Magnet is strong for obvious reasons – it resets the counters and lets you tap twice for each untap step. Blink Precursor Golem, Contagion Clasp, even just a land to have it untapped for a spell on their turn. If you resolve Venser and can protect it at all, you are a huge favourite. Elspeth Tirel is your nominee for Best Supporting Actress, as she keeps you alive into the end-game where you are nearly unbeatable and provides a route to victory once you have taken over by attacking with your 1/1 tokens. You can even blink her to reset her loyalty counters!

Origin Spellbomb is my least favourite card in the deck because it doesn't really do anything, but it is kind of like a really bad Squadron Hawk as used in Brian Kibler's "Caw Go" deck – it doesn't cost you a card but it lets you begin a board presence. The little Myr token will happily jump in front of whatever random dorks the poison decks are throwing at you or the Palladium Myrs trying to kill your venser, and buying just one extra turn can make all the difference for this deck. I don't really think this can be cut yet, but hopefully Mirrodin Beseiged will give us a better early play.

The Rest

Wait a second, you may be thinking. Metalcraft and Infect are the two big mechanics from this set, where the heck are they?! Well just to satisfy your curiosity I have dug up two aggressive lists from the daily events, one a Tempered Steel beatdown deck and the other a mono-black poison deck. If you can find a decent deck type in the format that includes at least one green card, please let me know! I won't go into these decks as they are pretty self-explanatory and really, I don't want to encourage you to play them any more than I already might have.

"Tempered Steel - terrordactyl (3-1)"

"Mono-black Infect - sneakattackkid (4-0)"

Fire up the Boiling Oil, We're Under Siege

So, with the format dominated by Numot-coloured decks heavy at the top end of the curve, what can Mirrodin Besieged do to shake up matters? An awful lot, it seems, if the early spoilers are anything to go by. Poke your head in to ManaNation's spoiler to see what I'm talking about.

Go For The Throat

Remember how I said there weren't any good answers to non-artifact bombs? Yeah, about that. This is one of the most important cards on the spoiler because it gives us an easily splashable, instant speed answer to big guys like Hoard-Smelter Dragon and Carnifex Demon. Investing in these huge threats is not nearly as strong a plan if they can be easily solved by a two mana instant. I expect this card will drive strong interest in black, in combination with…

Black Sun's Zenith

This cycle is some good, and the black one is one of the best. Almost a Day of Judgment, it has the added bonus of killing renegerators and indestructible guys. Though it is expensive if you want to outright kill a 4 or 5 toughness guy, even just putting two counters on their team of bigger guys will dramatically decrease the damage you are taking and it plays very well with proliferate. In some cases shrinking is better than killing their dude, like Wurmcoil Engine or Kuldotha Pheonix.

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

The first of several cards in MBS that demand their own deck. Tezzeret provides a powerful clock by 5/5ing your mana Myr or utility artifacts, gives you card advantage in the long game, and threatens to end the game suddenly with his Drain Life ultimate ability. At first I thought the planeswalker deck would want to splash black for the tasty new removal, but now I think there will be an entirely new UB Tezzeret archetype. Whether both can coexist remains to be seen.

Phyrexian Rebirth

Another new wrath effect, this one looks like it will play something like Martial Coup, wiping away the board on both sides but leaving you with a new presence. This is certainly one to consider alongside Sunblast and Elspeth, and it gets everything except indestructible guys and regenerators, but who plays those riCUE FORSHADOWING.

Slagstorm

Could things get any worse for aggro decks? Already the format was very hostile to them, and now there are multiple board sweepers in red, white and black. This will give the red deck a nice weapon against Architect as it kills that deck's namesake card as well as any Myrs or Argent Sphinxes they may have run out there, but the format will likely change so much that these may not be relevant concerns post rotation.

Creeping Corrosion

The pseudo-Wraths keep coming, but this one could actually be a strong play for a more aggressive green deck against the artifact fatties their opponents are putting in the way. Carapace Forger does not like this card, however.

Inkmoth Nexus

Wow. This is one of the strongest cards in the set, and it's the one people will remember in ten years' time. Mirrodin Besieged? Oh yeah, that was the Inkmoth Nexus set. Well, this and the following card. Anyway, this card gives Infect a huge kick up the behind, dodging sorcery speed removal and wraths and having built in evasion. It could also be the kill condition for some awful grinding control deck that just sits on counters, bashes for 1 and proliferates end of turn. Incidentally, note the interaction with Tezzeret.

Green Sun's Zenith

Stepping outside of this focused block discussion for a moment, I can't believe how insane good this card looks. People are calling it Titans 5-8 for Valakut, but it is so much more. It is Titans 5-8, Battlement 5-8, Avenger 5-8, Ezuri 5-8, Putrid Leech 5-8, Kitchen Finks 5-8, Fauna Shaman 5-8… It even changes depending on what you want at that particular time! Playing this card correctly won't be easy, but even misplayed it seems absurdly strong. Within block there isn't currently a green deck that wants to find certain key guys, but one may well develop just to exploit this card. It just needs some strong guys to MORE FORSHADOWING.

Thrun, the Last Troll

Yeah. Infect is the only thing holding this guy back, and if you give him a Sword of Feast and Famine to hold you can just go to town. Thrun is a total house and there are very few ways to deal with him – Black Sun and Contagion Engine are the only things coming to mind besides infect blockers. He's cheap, the Wrath effects are expensive, and your opponent is going to have to put a lot of effort into answering him. In tandem with Green Sun's Zenith I don't know if you want more than one in your deck but you are almost always going to want to search him out first and foremost, and if they ever do kill him and you have a second to find, that's got to be pretty crushing. One other way they might be able to stop him is just by throwing a stream of Elspeth tokens under the big green bus.

Sphere of the Suns

A rather innocuous card, this little artifact stretches the format's boundaries in another direction – mana fixing. With no Birds of Paradise, Terramorphic Expanse or Civic Wayfinder decks have been pretty limited in how many colours they can play. As you can see above, the most successful decks are all one or two colours. This is a very important card as it lets you play black cards in your white blue deck, or red cards in your green white deck, without giving up too much in the way of consistency. I think that Crushing or Shattering this as soon as you see it on the opponent's side of the board will be as important as Bolting their turn one Birds of Paradise is in other formats, and I am really interested to see what you deckbuilders come up with in the way of multi-coloured decks.

Although there are a lot more relevant cards to discuss, this article is already very long. So far it looks like control will continue to reign supreme while Tezzeret will demand his own new deck. Keep an eye on the green creatures being previewed, because Green Sun's Zenith and Thrun, The Last Troll could be the core of a new green based beatdown strategy. Glissa I am going to have to play with to understand but her effect certainly seems powerful and her stats are nothing to sneeze at. I hope you have made it this far, and if you want to talk about the spoilers or share your experience in block constructed please let us know in the comments, or hit me up on twitter @rtassicker! Thanks for reading.

TAGS articles, constructed, block

Recent Articles

View Archive
Sell your cards and minis 25% credit bonus