[easybox]We've decided to shift Dan Eckstein to a Friday publishing as it works better with his schedule, and Wednesdays tend to be our most crowded day while Fridays tend to be on the lean side. With that said, enjoy! -- Trick[/easybox]

Good afternoon class. Sorry for the time change but schedules need to be meet and Fridays just seemed to work out better.

On this go around the extra couple of days has given me some extra time to prepare our lesson for today. Which is good since I had nothing to go on last Wednesday.

Warp World Update

In a previous lesson I highlighted three decks that used Warp World as a central theme. I let you, the reader comment on which you wanted me to explore and test for the future. The opinion was resoundingly in favor of the Spawn abusing version which has now been title Lil’ Spawny's World. If you missed that article you can read the list here.

That list never made it past Goldfishing. The Warps were phenomenal and consistently went infinite. In fact I never once fizzled after casting a Warp with eight or more permanents. Eight or more are basically guaranteed because of land alone. The problem was in getting Warp World itself.

I imagined that I would generate enough chump blockers to buy time against aggro and would be able to force a Day of Judgment tap out with my Eldrazi pressure. (Not the tokens the token makers.) But I didn't even reach that level of testing. I just missed Warp World or didn't generate the three Red easy enough. When Goldfishing the deck I went with the assumption that Lotus Cobra will not live more than two turns.

So I took a step back and re-evaluated. Actually reading my previous lesson I realized the problem. I had no Cantrips! I couldn't believe it. I'm a firm believer in Cantrips, especially in Combo or Single Card strategy type of decks. I had said that I was taking them out because of the fear of decking my self once I went infinite on Warp World. While my fear was justifiable the solution was not to remove those cards from the deck. Rather the best solution was to remove them from the Warp.

How did I remove them from the Warp? Magmaw and proper hand management. Basically what needs to happen when you're Warping is you need to count up tokens. The number of tokens plus the number of playable Cantrips must be less than the cards left in your library. There are two ways to manipulate this number to your advantage. The first and easiest solution is to sac tokens and float mana. You'll be doing this eventually anyway but if you do it to much you decrease your chances of going infinite. The second is to make your Cantips unplayable. This is achieved by either storing drawn Cantrips in your hand or by using Magmaw to sac them to your Graveyard. Both of these Zones are not affected by Warp World so decrease the chance of being forced to draw from an empty library. Normally within two Warpings I’m able to place a majority of my Cantrips out of Warps Way. Once they are all in the Graveyard or in my hand I can then have permanent count higher than my Library. The extra copies of Warp World will go on bottom to insure a next turn draw if I need it.

Here is the list I'm playing now.

Lil' Spawny's World

[cardlist]4 Mountain

4 Forest

2 Island

3 Evolving Wilds

3 Terramorphic Expanse

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Magmaw

4 Emrakul's Hatcher

4 Kozelek's Predator

4 Nest Invader

3 Sea Gate Oracle

3 Elvish Visionary

4 Spreading Seas

4 Lotus Cobra

4 Mnemonic Wall

4 Warp World[/cardlist]

This list at least has made it past the Goldfish stage. The Warps take a little more thought but the consistency is still there and they happen more often. Thereby, making this deck a lot more fun.

If testing holds out I'll be able to bring you a Matchups section in a future lesson. So far things look playable. Is this the combo deck Standard needs? I don't think so but I'm willing to test it.

Spawn Math

During my Warp World exploits I feel in love with this card.

or was it this one?

or maybe this one?

Which ever it was I am just loving all Spawn making cards. They have truly reinvented the way I look at a mana curve. I have talked to you about building a deck to follow a curve so the each turn you are maximizing the expected amount of mana. Leaving a land untapped for a whole set of turns is like leaving a cornfield unharvested in real life. Unless you were holding a counterspell that never was needed that land just became wasted.

For me Spawn tokens have made me wasteful. It is just crazy how much mana you can generate in the form of these Spawns. At first I just would pump out the Spawns and plan on playing some big bomb later but recently I have started playing Spawns like colorless ritual spells. I find myself setting up plays where I plan on using the colorless mana right away. I just don’t want to lose all that mana to some board cleaner. It feels like Day of Judgment destroys lands all of a sudden.

Let's look at some Spawn cards and see how they read in my eyes now.

Awakening Zone - Add 1 mana to your mana pool. This mana doesn't empty between phases.

Brood Birthing - Play Desperate Ritual for Colorless mana as long as you control a Spawn token.

Corpsehatch - Pay 1 extra for a Terror. Pass.

Dread Drone - Pay 3 for a 4/1. Looks like a Craven Giant that can block.

Emrakul's Hatcher - a 3/3 for 2. Pretty Good

Essence Feed - Is a 6 point life swing worth 3 mana?

Growth Spasm - Rampant growth a turn to late. If you're storing mana in a token for later turns AND you get to use it then it's superior to its cousin.

Kozilek's Predator - Same as Hatcher.

Nest Invader - If you have a use for the 1 Spawn mana you just got a 2/2 for one mana with no drawback. I can see having a cheap equipment following this guy out on turn 2. Then equipping and having fun in the red Zone on turn 3.

Skittering Invasion - I'm for sure not using the mana right away on this one. Basically it reads spend 7 to store 5 mana.

Spawning Breath - Even using it right away is only 1 mana for 1 damage. Nothing to see here move along.

Of course if you're saving the mana up then it’s completely different.

Just look at the Hatcher it now becomes a 3/3 with 3 mana in storage. If our opponent plays a Volcanic Fallout we just paid too much for a Canyon Minotaur. But if we don't see any wipe then we will get to Atomic Bombs much sooner. Really the only card that doesn't make us overpay for the ability and risk of token storage is Nest Invader. Awakening Zone is still just as good at storing mana as using it right away.

But what about it being a creature? That is the really interesting part of the Spawns. By storing mana in this fashion we run the risk of getting quasi Armageddoned by any old Board Sweeper. But we also get the benefit of adding chump blockers or generating effects from bringing creatures into play or into a Graveyard from play. Imagine having a Soul's Attendant in play when you play Kozilek's Predator. Now you've gained 3 life along with your 3/3 and the 3 floating mana. Or maybe even a Mortician Beatle. Now we tap that stored mana and make our Beatle bigger than Ringo.

It seems that every time I begin to think about these little Spawn tokens I get more and more ideas to try to abuse them. With an Artifact theme set coming up we could see some crazy shenanigans.

Currently the deck I like playing runs the storage/creature route. It's based on using Eldrazi Monument to make our Eldrazi Spawns relevant in the Red Zone. But I couldn't stop there. When Fletch suggested I go with Coat of Arms as well, I went crazy. This is just a rough draft. Let me know what you think.

Spawn Monument

[cardlist]7 Mountain

7 Forest

4 Kazandu Refuge

4 Raging Ravine

4 Ancient Stirrings

4 Coat of Arms

3 Eldrazi Monument

4 Awakening Zone

4 Emrakul's Hatcher

4 Kozilek's Predator

4 Growth Spasm

4 Nest Invader

4 Brood Birthing

3 All is Dust[/cardlist]

What the Environment needs?

The early stages of Post-Rise tournaments seem to show that either U/W control or Jund are the decks to play. At least if you want to win they are. I myself won't be playing either of these but will play something more fun. The mirror matches for both of these decks are headaches to the nth degree. Even though both require precise tuning and sideboard changes every week I find them to played. I would rather be an original.

I really wish that there was some combo out there that could be a top 8er. The environment is just healthier when whole triad of rock, paper, scissors is represented. The problem is Jund is a little of all three. It can go aggro with Leech and Thrinax. It can go control with Pulse and Blightning. Or it can go comboish with Bloodbraid Cascades. That is ultimately why Jund is on top. It's like a rock hard pair of scissors with some kind of paper shield that protects its inner workings.

So can one of my Spawn decks slip into the metagame? Or is there some other combo out there that you think can make it? Feel free to post your ideas in the comments.

Class dismissed. Try to take in some of the big tournaments this weekend. If there is going to be a big shift in the meta it is going to happen now.