Locations
I currently have a couple of old articles that need a little extra info. One was intentionally left incomplete so as to prove a point and the other is missing an idea that hit me just recently. Today, I would like to fill the gaps that I've left in these articles.
First – Spawn Lessons
In Spawn lessons I began to look at how the new Spawn tokens may impact the game. They are still very intriguing little dudes! I really got caught up in the fact that they create so many extra permanents. Warp World became a main focus. Since then the world has turned many revolutions and our little Tokies haven't really impacted the game. Apparently being able to store mana for later turns and using spells that make a chump blocker in addition to their other attributes doesn't attract the Tier 1 crowd. Then only deck that I've seen outside of Limited that uses my little friends is Polymorph decks that run Awakening Zone for every turn tokens and Growth Spasm as a token producing Rampant Growth.
It looks like lovers of the Spawn tokens need to realize that they just aren't impacting our game just yet. I am willing to go out on a limb and say that when Scars of Mirrodin rotates in we may see a lot more uses for a colorless mana monkeys.
One extra wrinkle would be their sac ability. In my Spawny's World deck (Warp World with Spawn tokens) I had the pleasure of chump blocking a Rhox War Monk with a Boar Umbra attached to it for multiple turns until I drew my Warp World. Why was that a pleasure? I would simply sac after blocking. Damage isn't dealt and Lifelink doesn't trigger. I also once sac'd in response to a Maelstrom Pulse saving my other 10 Spawn from joining their Brother.
All of that aside the part of the Spawns that I didn't even think about while writing that piece was their interaction with the Devour mechanic. Devour has never really hit the spotlight so I understand if you don't remember it. Devour says the following "As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature enters the Battlefield with that many +1/+1 counters on it." For the most part we don't want to lose creatures for a +1/+1 counters since most creatures are at least 1/1 themselves so the trade off doesn't gain any muscle for us. It does however put us at more risk to those annoying removal cards like Doom Blade. There is really no reason to put all of our eggs into one basket unless we gain something else from it. Tar Fiend was talked about for a little while for its ability to empty an opponent's hand or maybe we could use Thunder-Thrash Elder since we get +3/+3 for each sacrifice.
With the advent of Spawns we now have the ability to make tons of little creatures to be eaten. Also they only 0/1 so even a basic devour 1 like Gluttonous Slime represents a gain in board strength converting our 0/1's into a +1/+1. Now I'm not going to advise building a deck around the Slime but the idea of combining Devour with Spawns got me looking back in my notes. Back in the day I had jotted down a deck list that mixed Mana Dorks with Devour dudes. It was fun to play but it was an all or nothing type of strategy. I often was able to play a 6/6 or 7/7 on turn 3 or 4 even a 10/10 is actually possible but they would just run into a Path to Exile or some other targeted removal. Since that build there have been two major cards that give the deck a little boost. Eldrazi Monument and the Spawn creators. So I've built this little casual list.
I'm Hungry
[cardlist]4 Llanowar Elves
4 Arbor Elf
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Nest Invader
4 Growth Spasm
4 Awakening Zone
4 Kozilek's Predator
4 Skullmulcher
4 Mycoloth
4 Eldrazi Monument
4 Khalni Garden
2 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
14 Forest[/cardlist]
There's nothing really fancy here. Just make tokens and mana until you hit a Devour dude. Eldrazi Monument aids in living longer. Both Mycoloth and Awakening Zone negate the drawback of Eldrazi's sac requirement. Be careful not to sac all of you dudes to a Skullmulcher with a Monument in play. That is really bad.
Notice the "budgetness" of the list. Other than Eldrazi Monument nothing jumps over the $3 dollar mark. You can go with Birds of Paradise or Noble Hierarch if you have them laying around but really the lawnmowers (Llanowar Elves) serve the same purpose. If you can't get the Monuments you can get away with an Umbra as well since you really don't need that many punches with a 10/10 Mycoloth to get the job done.
Second – Orthogonal Design
In my Orthogonal Design lesson I was trying to get across two main ideas, both of which I should have been more blunt about.
The first idea is about the possibility of building a deck and sideboard that allows you to change from one style of play to another in order to catch an opponent off guard. 90% of the sideboard cards you see are there to protect a central deck from another known deck. If you can get an opponent to sideboard wrong you can cause misplays and dead cards that can lead you to the win. In my example we went from appeared to be a Jace-less Super Pals deck to a creature-light Boros deck wins. No one really "answered" the quiz but in an honest moment you would have to admit that many players would board out their creature removal and bring in more cards that would handle the 'Walkers. Really, on the list that I gave you, the only cards that may stay that would bother Boros are Maelstrom Pulse and Oblivion Ring. And those are really slow answers considering the speed of Boros.
The second emphasis was much more subtle. The idea was that during a given game you only see about 25% of an opponent's deck. That really isn't always that much information to go on when sideboarding. I agree that most decklist are basically known via the net but your opponent could have something up his sleeve. Secret Tech, Orthogonal Board, or a Hybrid strategy could easily hose your plans. I personally love the fact that a lot of guys at my local have to second guess their sideboards when facing me.
Those things can, and should, have been gleaned from the article. The reason I'm adding on here is to give you the actual deck list that I was using as an example.
Super Surpise
[cardlist]4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Journey to Nowhere
2 Searing Blaze
3 Volcanic Fallout
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Day of Judgment
2 All is Dust
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Ajani Vengeant
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Arid Mesa
2 Marsh Flats
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Teetering Peaks
6 Mountain
6 Plains
Sideboard
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Plated Geopede
3 Ranger of Eos
2 Devastating Summons
2 Goblin Bushwacker[/cardlist]
Wrap Up
Hopefully you'll jump back and read the other articles if you haven't already. Let me know how you feel about this latest deck. I've really had some great success with it. It's not tested against anything above FNM level but I would love to see someone carry it beyond. Just remember ALWAYS keep your opponent guessing with the sideboard. I consistently put ALL 15 in between game, shuffle, and then remove the 15 I don't want. Sometimes I don't change a thing but my opponent thinks I have. Sometimes I take out the board sweepers and walkers for my whole 15. Sometimes I keep the walkers but remove the low end targeted removal instead it all depends.
For you assignment this week I want to hear you opinion about the following.
With the deck above, imagine going:
Imagine going Day, Summons, Kicked Wacker with 7 lands in play. Sounds good to me but I'll leave it up to you.
