For a few weeks now Turbofog has been on the shelf and I’ve been playing with a couple of different archetypes.
Before I get too much into that though I want to say a few things about the metagame and some of the changes that are afoot. Of course, when I say ‘the metagame’ what I mean is ‘my metagame’ – Magic in Plymouth.
My meta is ridiculous. Weekly tournaments are attended by 10 to 14 players, typically. 16 is considered a good turn out. Of these, something like 7 or 8 come along every or most weeks. For a meta this small the deck you can expect to play against varies depending on who comes and whether they fancy a change from their usual archetype.
The decks being run at the moment are more or less like this: 2 jund, a handful of Valakut Ramp, a few Boros Bushwhacker, one Black-White life-loss, two vampires, one vampire-flavoured Agadeem, Bant Turbofog (huzzah!), Jacerator (Calafell’s list – if it aint running Fog it ain’t Turbofog), White Weenie which has morphed into mono White control – but Im yet to play against this incarnation – and the once and future Esper that got replaced with Luis Scott-Vargus’ RWU control maindeck with a locally tuned sideboard (no Baneslayers). Oh yes, and Red-Blue Runeflare, featuring Time Warp,Twincast, Ponder, Lightning Bolts, and of course the eponymous Runeflare Trap. In fact, it was this deck that prompted me to write this.
In a metagame like this I can see a lot of value in going rogue so last week I ran the deck that has been decried since Zendikar rotated in as being the worst deck in the current Standard: Blue-White control. Actually, it’s probably the second worst; mono-Blue being the worst. I ran 13 counters including 2 Cancel because, you know, sometimes what you want is a late-game hard counter for three mana. I also ran Flash Freeze, Negate and Essence Scatter. I lacked enough Hindering Light to make running it feel worthwhile. I also had Ponder to help dig up those lands to make the drops. I am fortunate enough to own a playset of Baneslayer Angel and it’s rude not to run them if you’ve got them. I teamed them up with Sphinx of Jwar Isle.
Actually, the Baneslayer vs Sphinx debate is one I’ve been paying attention to recently. I’ll have my say in another article. For now I’ll just trailer that by saying that if the Angel Sticks it’s insane and it only needs to stick for a couple of turns to be completely hatstand. This is one of those old-fashioned control decks with a heavy finisher.
The counters are intended to keep you alive long enough to be able to cast the creatures and then to keep them on the board. It’s not exactly a new strategy and frankly it’s far from a broken deck. That said, it spends a lot of time being draw-go, which I love. I love.
Is Blue as dead as everyone claims? Probably not in Plymouth. I think Blue control has a viable build somewhere but it definitely wants White, perhaps with a splash of Red for removal. Or possibly with a little bit of Green for Vines of Vastwood and ramp (Harrow, Llanowar Elves, maybe Rampant Growth). Giving up removal in exchange for game-plan acceleration might just work. Goldfishing the Bant version leads to plays like Forest – Elves, Plains – Harrow, Plains – Baneslayer Angel.
Against an opponent that would never happen, of course. It’d be ‘goodbye Elves on turn two and I’d want to keep a couple of mana open to ensure Baneslayer doesn’t bounce, get double bolted, or otherwise splattered, but a defended Baneslayer on turn 4 is very attractive, especially in a meta where I regularly face down Plated Geopedes pumped with fetchlands on turn three.
