Hi everyone. Last week, I promised that this week I would cover milling.

Alright, let me cover milling:

Milling isn’t really good in Standard right now. The only seemingly viable option is to go Pyromancer Ascension a la Mike Flores. I had a few builds going around in my head, involving all kinds of cool and crazy stuff, but nope, it really doesn’t work.

Alright, that’s one thing off my chest. Now, I want to make a public service announcement: Dear various MTG forum members, please do not embarrass yourselves. What am I talking about? Whenever I see some random person trying to build his own deck, there are many people who rush in to comment, “you don’t run 4x Frost Titan so this deck sucks!,” even if the deck has no business running Frost Titan (yes, not all blue decks HAVE TO run it; Pyromancer Ascension, for example, does not run it maindeck). So I decided I had some time to waste, and went back and looked in to previous posts by the same members. I wasn’t really surprised at all to see that the same players declared Frost Titan “the worst of the Titans.” When does this extreme change of opinion happen? When GerryT or Patrick Chapin or some similar high level player says the card is good. So, my point is, don’t play cards because you are told they are good, play them because you BELIEVE they are good. I know not everyone has the time to test and grind every day, but try to look at cards without prejudice. Remember the RUG deck from last week? I wasn’t really threatened by the Avenger of Zendikar in the deck. I thought it was unnecessary, and several people have disagreed with me. Cue the new list by the deck’s creator, Dan Jordan (he won another large tournament, without the aid of Avenger). I’m not trying to gloat here, the point is still the same. I won’t say it again, for fear of being repetitive.

Hey, I just realized that I tell you what to build myself! So I’m basically a huge hypocrite, right? Well, what I keep telling you in my articles is that my deck lists are just a base, and you should consider building for your own metagame, and I also say why I play the cards that I do, so you can understand the thought process and get on your own feet. The deck lists themselves are totally not integral at all, they’re there just to have something concrete at the end of the article.

By the way, I’m surprised how no one has ever asked me “Why don’t you just play RUG/PyrAsc, they fit your style quite well!” I guess it’s the ‘builder of rogue decks’ title that I’ve somehow earned myself. Well, I like building decks, and I don’t like the play styles of decks that other people build. I have a very specific play style, for example I always play into counterspells to force my opponent to deplete his hand, I always attack aggressively for several reasons. Some decks aren’t built to handle interactions like those, so I just build my own decks instead. I believe this is a very important aspect of deckbuilding that many can ignore. Yes, the deck IS good, but is it good FOR YOU?

Also, what’s wrong with rogue decks? Take a look at the recent 5k results. In top 4, 3 decks are rogue, and the winner is RUG, which was a rogue deck until Chapin pointed towards it. So rogue decks can be good! I’m particularly excited about the vampires list, since I was probably the first player to jump on the vampire bandwagon in my LGS while everyone still thought it was a bad deck simply because most people were running bad lists (I went undefeated for a month or two until I got bored of playing dudes that turn sideways and not much else). Hey, you can even look at the Top 16. There’s one UB control, one UW control, 4 RUG decks. So 10 out of 16 decks aren’t decks that are considered top tier (hey, some pros even say UW is suboptimal). It’s nice to see The Deckspace developing finally.

So I thought about a few deck ideas, encouraged by all these recent developments. Right now, out of the DDRS options (Denial-Disruption-Removal-Speed), Speed is the most underrated (yes, I am ignoring RDW as usual). Everyone’s playing decks with big spells, which leaves early game an open field for small creatures. Now, there are two problems with running many small creatures. First, you are basically begging your opponent to play Pyroclasm or Day of Judgment. Second, you don’t have much game against big creatures, you’ll have to block with all of your creatures to kill one big dude, and next turn your opponent will play another one, making you want to eat your lands.

Well, I have a solution for that! I call it Value. If you get good value out of your creatures, then you shouldn’t really be sad when they die. For example, look at Grave Titan. Even if he dies immediately, you get two extra bodies. Also, your creatures dying might be the thing that gives you the value, e.g. Wurmcoil Engine. This is generally the idea of the Rock deck archetype, getting as much value as possible from your cards. That’s my favorite archetype for creature decks, by the way.

How does this tie into small creatures though? Well, let’s look at a few creatures that do nice things when they die. Perilous Myr is probably one of the best when it comes to this kind of strategy. It’s small, and it kills an opposing creature or takes two life off of your opponent. Death Cultist is also pretty good, since you can sacrifice it in response to the kill spell or chump block with it and sacrifice to create a two point life difference. We can also take Perilous Myr’s older brother, Blistergrub. While we have a theme going of taking down an opponent’s life with small creatures, we can also include Pulse Tracker. Also on theme is the ever-powerful Vampire Hexmage. Finally, I’ll include Viscera Seer, you’ll soon see why.

Now, all these are well, but a few points of life swing won’t really get you anywhere in the long run. We need some reliability, and some card draw. Since the deck’s curve is so low, we can get away with playing one of my favorite cards in M11, Dark Tutelage. The Viscera Seer is for this card. And no, the life loss isn’t really relevant because all the cards cost really low and we’re kind of going for a suicide strategy here. I’ll top it off with the punchline soon enough, don’t worry. We can also run Sign in Blood, and let’s not forget that we can also cast it on our opponent when their life is low. For repeat value and resilience, we’ll play Mimic Vat, which gives us repeated value with Death Cultist and Viscera Seer. Note that the Vat exiles at the end of turn, so you won’t get repeat value off of your Grub or Myr, but that means your opponent takes 1-2 damage anyway, since they’ll either block and kill your creatures, giving you the opportunity to hit their life, or they just won’t block it, and you can sacrifice them for a Viscera Seer after you get in the damage. Now, let’s mention some removal before the punchline. Hideous End might be less optimal than Doom Blade, but you won’t really have a use for your mana later game, and you might as well take off some life from your opponent.

Alright, the punchline. Flesh Allergy. You just cast Flesh Allergy on their creature, and sacrifice all your creatures, dealing more damage to your opponent both through Grub/Myr interactions, and the Flesh Allergy damage. It’s a cute little trick that ensures you get as much value as possible from your creatures and finish your opponent at the same time. You can also do it after an alpha strike. By the way, we can run 23 (or 22 if you’re brave) lands and get away with it, since everything costs so low and we have constant card draw.

Speaking of lands, Piranha Marsh is also a nice trick. Here’s a tentative list:

Mini Black (Mono Black Suicide Weenies)
4x Perilous Myr
4x Death Cultist
4x Blistergrub
4x Pulse Tracker
3x Vampire Hexmage
3x Viscera Seer
3x Sign in Blood
3x Dark Tutelage
3x Flesh Allergy
3x Hideous End
2x Mimic Vat
————————————————
4x Piranha Marsh
19x Swamp

Now, this isn’t a super amazing deck that blows minds on a daily basis, but it’s fairly resilient and also quite budget. If you want to add some more tricks and up the budget, you can play Kalastria Highborn in place of Blistergrub. Then you pretty much have a Vampire deck in your hands.

Now, let’s talk about something else. Again, what I’m going for here is Speed and Value. Remember how I’m fond of Lux Cannon? Well, thinking of proliferation got me to an interesting deck idea: Wouldn’t it be cool if I proliferated Luminarch Ascension? (Alright, I admit that this idea came to me because I found a Japanese playset of ascensions in my random junk box, and both cards start with “Lu”). Let’s take the traditional proliferate shell I had in my previous articles, trying to get value from Luminarch Ascension.

The repeat offenders here are: Throne of Geth, Contagion Clasp, Everflowing Chalice and Voltaic Key. While we’re at it, let’s take a page out of my archenemy’s book and play Necropede. Since we have so much proliferation, 1 poison counter can get there, and we can also take out a creature.

Now, let’s look at what white has to offer. I believe Day of Jugment is absolutely critical in this format right now, with the (pretty much) untargetable Frost Titan, Elves, Goblins, and many other creature based decks. I will go so far as to play a full set of DoJ. We have our Lux Cannons for instant-speed targeted removal, so we are okay with slow removal. As for the kill, we have Necropedes and Angel tokens, but we’ll get greedy and add more threats to be aggressive: Baneslayer Angel and Sun Titan. Sun Titan is great because he can recur pretty much everything in the deck, especially making Throne of Geth a big player, while Baneslayer just puts on immense pressure and swings the game instantly in your favor. While we’re at it, let’s be a miser and include some Mimic Vats. Why not? Sun Titan brings it back and you just wreak havoc after a Day of Judgment.

4x Contagion Clasp
4x Luminarch Ascension
4x Day of Judgment
4x Necropede
3x Lux Cannon
3x Everflowing Chalice
3x Voltaic Key
3x Throne of Geth
3x Sun Titan
2x Mimic Vat
2x Baneslayer Angel
—————————-
4x Tectonic Edge
2x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
19x Plains

The Emeria lands are fur pure mising purposes to get a little bit more value, and Tectonic Edge is there because manlands are scary.

Wow, this deck has a really good threat package, attacking from all different angles with both strong and resilient threats. As for a sideboard, well, white sideboard is always really easy. Just fill it with Leylines, Firewalkers, Revokes, and depending on what you’re scared of, either Purges or Journeys. While it does have its weak spots, the deck has answers for pretty much anything in the meta, and it has a lot of cards that I really like. It’s not super fast, but if you get an Ascension down on turn 2, not much can stop you; and if you add a Lux Cannon as protection (from Volition Reins for example), then you’re good to go.

That’s all for this week folks. We’ll see what next week brings. I still have two decks that I’ve been working on for a long while, one involving Venser and one involving Beastmaster Ascension, but the Venser deck is still being tuned and GerryT pretty much spoiled the Beastmaster one by posting something that’s almost exactly the same as my list, so those are still going to stay on the shelf. I’m sure I’ll find something to talk about next week, don’t worry. Until then, may you all get maximum value from your cards!

P.S: Obligatory metal plug: Veil of Maya – Unbreakable

Big and dumb can be pretty dangerous.

 One of my favorite decks is Naya Zoo. Yeah, it is a tier 2, at the moment,  but I think the deck has the potential to break into the top tier.

I’ve been playing Naya Zoo for quite some time now, and it seems pretty solid. That being said, I cannot say much about how it matches up in today’s metagame. I haven’t played consistently enough against the same sort of decks you would see at a major tournament.

What I can tell you is what the deck does well. It plays cheap and powerful or cheap and potentially powerful creatures and turns them sideways. Yes, it is a beatdown deck. However, it has a few tricks. Naya Zoo generates card advantage with cascade and Ranger of Eos, a pretty nice trick with all of the removal out there. It also has a bit of removal too, for things like those pesky Baneslayer Angels.

As much as a dumb monster deck as Naya Zoo is, you cannot just throw things out there without thinking and expect to win. I know this from experience. Naya Zoo still requires brains. I would have to say 50% of my losses with this deck were due to user error.

Here is a build I went 5-2 with last Friday.

Naya Zoo

Again, I can’t say a whole lot about the matchups. I only played a few decks what I would consider “mainstream”. However, I can briefly discuss some of the cards  and how they perform.  

Scute Mob: Some say he’s great, others say he sucks, but his board presence is undeniable. He has to be answered eventually, or he will quickly get out of hand. Yes, all removal kills him, but you only paid one G. Maybe he’s a 1/1, maybe he’s a 9/9.  

Knight of the Reliquary: The best trick with her is to blow up a plains and then look for an Arid Mesa. You can figure out what to do next. Not only does this help her grow by 2 each turn, but it helps to thin your deck out too. Block and do it before damage is dealt.  She can be a lot of work, and I would suggest boarding her out in control matchups where the chances of your hard work paying off are minimal. Against other creature decks with little removal, she’s a superstar.

Enlisted Wurm: Cascade is insane, and to keep up with something like Jund, you need to be able to “cheat” in as many free monsters and spells as possible. Not only can the wurm do that, but he has a solid body as well.

Naya Charm: I only saw this a few times, but it was a monster each time I did. All of the charm’s abilities are pretty relevant. The least useful ability is the 3 damage. The charm’s other two abilities are what really makes it shine. In a standoff situation, it will win you the game. It also counts as “extra copies” of spells or creatures already in the graveyard.

Oran-Rief, the Vastwood: Sometimes, 4/4 Nacatls are really useful. The extra point of power and toughness can sometimes make a huge difference.

Sideboard: Was terrible, except for the Journey to Nowhere. Sometimes a little extra removal is necessary against those big finishers.

After Friday, I made a few slight changes to the mainboard, and quite a few changes to the sideboard. Here’s the new makeup.

Naya Zoo Two

Ajani sucked in all of my games. If I saw him, that was. Even in control matchups, there was always a sphinx or sodding Baneslayer Angel flying over my head to kill him if I didn’t have a path. However, an extra bolt or Naya Charm would have won me a few games, so I added them in.

Sideboard 2

Naya does horribly against the stupid mono-red decks out there. They burn your creatures, hit you with earthquake a few times and then Spire Barrage you to death. I wished for some Captured Sunlight, which I had in the original sideboard but took out. It will also help you get back some of your burned monsters. Uril the Miststalker should be great in removal-heavy matchups, and as an added bonus, bigger than anything Jund has. The Luminarch Ascensions should help with control matchups.

Here are a few tips on how to play Naya Zoo.

Your deck is best at 5 + lands. Never keep a hand with less than 3 lands in it. I am willing to bet I’ve lost most of the games I’ve tried it with fewer.

Unless you really need guys on the field, use Bloodbraid Elf and Enlisted Wurm as if they were removal; cast them when there’s something you need to get rid of. Cascading into a path when you don’t need it sucks, and being able to get a free one and a monster is great.

Scute Mob should be dropped on turn one, if you have it in your opening hand. They’ll have to get rid of it eventually, and even if you only get in for a couple points before you have to hold it back or it gets removed.

In a control match-up, play Ranger of Eos whenever they don’t have the mana to counter, even if you don’t think you need the guys. You will. Playing a Bloodbraid Elf or Enlisted Wurm into a counterspell is okay. They’ll have to choose.

Zen has a few cards like this. However, the set seems to  have a lot more of what I call cards with potential; powerful cards without an obvious slot in the current metagame. These are cards that are good in a vacuum, “win-more” cards or cards which would necessitate building a new deck.

I think the reasons for this are two-fold. I have never seen cards like the cards in Zen before, so I’m not quite sure how to classify them. The metagame, after losing Lorywn, will probably consist of several Alara based decks such as Bant, Jund and Naya, which don’t have so many open slots and seem to do just fine without the new cards. 

Of course, new decks always come along when one set rotates out and another takes its place. Sometimes it just takes time, and cards with potential.

Here are my picks for Zen, the rare cards.

Obvious choices

Fetch Lands
At first glance, fetch lands don’t seem to be all that, but on closer inspection, they do so much. First, they are super mana fixers. A few sets of these will keep the three and four color decks running strong. Secondly, they thin your deck out. Lastly, they trigger landfall twice, once with the initial drop and once when you put the land you searched out into play. Money rares already near $20 per.  

Day of Judgment
It doesn’t kill regenerating creatures, but it is still Wrath of God. Since when has regeneration really been relevant? River Boa will probably laugh at this, but that’s about it. Control will want.

Goblin Guide
Some say he’s better than Figure of Destiny, some say he’s worse. I don’t know who’s right, but a 2/2 with haste for 1 will be played in aggressive decks in his color. Uncontested, on turn three you get the same amount of damage in as you would with the figure, minus the extra 4 mana you played. He doesn’t have late game presence, but the haste could still be relevant for the last few points of damage. His drawback is interesting too. You get to see what they are drawing next turn. Of course, they might get a land, but we’ll see if this ends up being relevant.

Cards with Potential 

Mindbreak Trap
Played for free or for 2UU, you still get to counter any number of cards. It will always counter at least one. Perhaps this will see some sideboard action against cascade. If a combo deck appears in standard, we will certianly see this.

Bloodchief Ascension
I fully expect somebody to figure out how to build a deck around this. I can already see it going in some sort of mono-black Vampire aggro deck or Blightning. With cheap damage and hasty creatures abound in standard, activating two or three of these is pretty feasible. Not to mention devastating.

Scute Mob
I don’t care what they say, Scute Mob has board presence turn one. He will get there eventually if they don’t kill him. Drop him early and get in a few pings, drop him late and he can grow to stupid size in just a few turns. He might be a removal magnet, but that’s okay. He only costs one mana.

Ob Nilixis, the Fallen
Ob might make a good finisher. If he dies before you get to drop a land, he’s underpowered. If he dies after you drop a land, you got a 6/6 and 3 damage in for 3BB. He’s great with Harrow and Fetchlands. He doesn’t even have to swing, but if he does he’ll likely be huge. Of course, he will require a bit of building around, but I think he’ll get there.

Malakir Bloodwitch
On her own, she’s a 4/4 pro white with flying, one life to you and one away from your opponent. For 3BB. Two or vamps on the field and you just got mad value from her.

Pyromancer Ascension
Might be nice on its own, but I see some U/R nonsense with draw a card, discard a card, then double your pleasure. Cruel Ultimatum X3!

Summoning Trap
Nice side for anything heavy in green if counter-control comes into power. Not bad at 3GGG and certainly not at 0. Might help you find that creature you really need in a pinch too.

Oran Rief, the Vastwood
Two of these in play and little guys like Scute Mob, Wild Nacatl and Bloodbraid Elf just seem like fun.

Luminarch Ascension
This card was built for control/fog decks and at the same time for defeating fog/control decks.

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Three land draws in a row in mono-red won’t suck so badly anymore.

Emeria, the Sky Ruin
Mono white will have endless creatures.

Thanks WotC; we were bored with our playsets of Wrath anyway.

The enemy colored fetchlands are going for between $15 and $20 a pop right now, with Misty Rainforest and Verdant Catacomb selling the highest. Day of Judgment is at the $15 mark. The greatly anticipated Lotus Cobra is selling at a whopping $25.

On the bright side, Devout Lightcaster isn’t even $2 yet; get her while she’s cheap.

Besides the obvious staples like the fetches and the wrath replacement, Zendikar is full of super powerful cards. Lorywn is  rotating out and  a power vacuum is being created. Nobody knows what standard is going to look like in a few weeks. Right now, there is infinite possibility.

To be honest, I have never seen cards like what Zendikar is packed full of. It is not just the power level of the cardboard, but the strangeness of the set. When Timespiral block dropped and Alara took its place, we got plenty of neat new cards, but it felt like the same game. I feel there is going to be an interesting shift in the game soon. 

Perhaps you should be safe and just buy a whole set.