Before we start class today I want to do a little braggin'. Our Chess team went to the State Championship this weekend. We fared well and placed 5th out of all schools. I know that 5th isn't huge to most of you but when you consider that we beat schools with 3 and 4 times larger enrollment than our small town you start to realize what an accomplishment it is. The reason I mention it to my Magic classroom is the fact that many of my players are also MTGers and they help me playtest when they have the time.

This weekend we had a lot of time. Normally in competitive chess we play with a chess clock. Basically a chess clock is two different countdown timers. When it's my turn my countdown is going while yours is on pause. At the end of my turn I click my pause button and start your count. We normally play where each player has 30 minutes but at State they allow for each player to use up to a whole hour. Needless to say most of my players keep the pace they're use to and so we sit around between rounds.

This sit around time is why I started embracing Magic in the first place. As a coach I don't feel that playing more chess between rounds is necessary. In fact I think it can serve to exhaust and burn out some average players. The better players who need more chess time will want it on their own. I also will never require a player to take more time at the board. If they don't see the move they simply won't see it. I've seen to many players sit at a losing table watching their clock burn just so they can tell their coach that they used all of their time up. So I like to have something for my kids to do between rounds and Magic is perfect for that. Besides I get a little playtesting army as well.

Add to that fact that State is an overnight trip we played more games than I had during the entire month of February. Most of the kids were into testing up their Standard concoctions versus the top 8 from San Diego with Chapin's B/W build thrown in since it is a serious contender. We spent a lot of time trying figure out the Allies deck for quite a while but like the Japanese we scraped it. The most promising versions were a Grixis colored Allies looking to abuse Hagra Diabolist and Agadeem Occultist with mega removal spells and a Bant Colored Version that used Harabaz Druid to power out an early Clarion Ultimatum. The ultimatum can be truly sick when fetching a Shapeshifter and an Excavator.

I myself focused on Extended which is my next big thing. On March 13th I actually get to attend a PTQ. It's rare for my life that the stars align and all non-Magic restrictions leave me an open weekend when there is actually a PTQ within 300 miles. I've been sitting on an idea that I think is really tech since Christmas day. All of my testing shows that my idea has legs. I haven't shared it with you but I will in two weeks. Promise.

That's a lot of time to sit on an idea and it's almost an unhealthy fixation. All the time spent testing, tweaking, changing the gauntlet, testing, tweaking some more, and finalizing the deck means that I'm stuck with it. All that being said I almost changed decks this weekend. The deck that almost pulled me away? That's what I'm going to share with you today.

It all starts with the interaction of two simple cards.

These two gems of old are a landfall machine. Imagine the following scenarios.

You have a Flagstones in play and play a second. Legendary Status check causes both to be destroyed triggering two other Plains into play. That's three Landfall triggers.

You have a Flagstones in play and play a Ghost Quarter. Ghost Quarter alone is awesome versus Depths but if you want to be greedy you can tap the Ghost targeting the Flagstones. Flagstones gives you a tapped Plains and Ghost Quarter gives you any basic land untapped. Once again three landfall triggers.

Mix in a collection of Fetch lands and you have yourself a mana base that will create multiple landfall triggers each or your early turns.

This mixture of land is what Brozek was able to abuse at GP Oakland in his Brozek deck wins.

[cardlist]4 Goblin Guide

4 Plated Geopede

4 Steppe Lynx

4 Zektar Shrine Expedition

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Lightning Helix

2 Magma Jet

3 Path to Exile

4 Searing Blaze

3 Shard Volley

3 Mountain

1 Plains

4 Arid Mesa

4 Ghost Quarter

3 Sacred Foundry

4 Flagstones of Trokair[/cardlist]

I absolutely love the explosiveness of this deck. But when it doesn't explode it can have issues. Mostly from the fact that its creatures have no butt during you opponents turn when a Landfall trigger is more difficult to obtain. Also this deck has very little mid game and basically no late game play at all. One of my students set out to make this better and I think he has succeeded.

First he started to try to create a bigger explosion on the early turns. While staying in White and Red he was unsuccessful but by bringing in a Temple Garden and a Stomping Ground he was able to. What did he use the Green on? Khalni Heart Expedition. With the "Heart of the Cards" he can generate even larger and grosser landfall triggers in a single turn. I was on the receiving end of this little game.

Turn 1: Flagstone, Lynx

Turn 2: Arid Mesa into a Stomping Ground, Geopede, Attack with Lynx unblocked for 4. Putting me at 16 life.

Turn 3: Khalni Heart Expedition, Ghost Quarter, Sac Ghost to hit Flagstones netting Temple Garden and untapped Plains, Sac Heart netting 2 tapped mountains, Path to Exile my Dark Confidant. Attack with both Lynx and Geopede for 21.

With two landfall critters Khalni actually does more damage than Zektar and now we have both!!

So we really started thinking about mid game since our Zoo matches where turning into removal battles with Boros being a little easier of a target. Basically we could never get our critters to stick for more than one swing. By the time we got one online we were faced with to large of opposing forces or a lack of landfall options. Basically the only hitter we had was the Zektar token making us a glorified Burn deck. Sure we would still win games but without the Boom we love in the deck.

So we started searching Green options again. This time not for landfall triggered stuff but stuff that would help create landfall. A leading contender for awhile was Explore but it was the same as Khalni just more godly God hands. In the end we found inspiration from the Zoo deck we weren't beating.

Knight does so many things for this deck. First with all the Fetch lands and Ghost Quarter shenanigans it comes into play with a butt that can survive almost all commonly played removal. Seeing the Knight as a 6/6 is not uncommon. Second it can help to create extra landfalls for our kittens and rolly pollies. The 1 landfall is obvious but with a Flagstones in play it can fetch another which then triggers two more Plains. Third it can do this at instant speed gaining a way survive those pesky Volcanic Fallouts that are becoming more prevalent since they combat both us and Elves!.

The rest of the deck stayed the same as Brozek masterfully designed. I really think you should try these adjustments. Like I said earlier I almost switched over myself after seeing it play. In the end the only reason I didn't is because I feel I have some cool tech in my other deck and ego makes me want to play with my idea come hell or high water.

Here is the list we run right now.

Knight of the Boros

[cardlist]4 Plated Geopede

4 Steppe Lynx

4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Zektar Shrine Expedition

4 Khalni Heart Expedition

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Lightning Helix

4 Path to Exile

4 Searing Blaze

2 Mountain

1 Forest

1 Plains

4 Arid Mesa

4 Ghost Quarter

2 Sacred Foundry

1 Temple Garden

1 Stomping Ground

2 Scalding Tarn

2 Marsh Flats

4 Flagstones of Trokair

Sideboard

3 Oblivion Ring

3 Smash to Smithereens

3 Volcanic Fallout

3 Dead//Gone

3 Damping Matrix[/cardlist]

There is the bell. Feel free to run with this one. It's fun fun fun.

Update: Fixed the final deck list with a new copy sent to me from Dan. -- Trick