This is an update to my adventures in Turbofog. For the deck list I used to play the games reported here please refer to the previous post in this series.
I started with a typical Standard Turbofog core for the deck, then fleshed it out with some countermagic and removal along with an attractive secondary kill condition. This seemed like a good place to start refining the archetype. On the way out of the door I also put together the following sideboard as I needed something to swap in for game 2 to prevent the usual “Ah, it’s just Turbofog” comments.
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The Sphinxes were there to board in after my opponent had boarded out removal. Their shroud ability offered ensured that once a Sphinx had resolve it would be hard to remove from the board. The Silences and Into the Roils were designed as a answer for burn and control decks with irritating instants and permanants. Quest for Ancient Secrets were a defence against the mirror and the mill matchup.
Match 1 – vs. mono-black vampire.
Mono-vamp was one archetype I was feeling confident against – aggressive creature decks, no matter what tribal advantage they get, are still combat damage and combat damage is beautifully preventable. Duress and Mind Sludge were a real threat though and I was grateful for my main deck Negates as I sat down.
Game 1 I didn’t draw into any early fogs and took a few to the dome in the first couple of turns as I started to draw into my and turbo cards. I got some mines and fonts online and finally had some fogs in hand along with Jace and managed to get an Ascension down and on-line as well as Jace on his way to his ultimate ability. My opponent played one surprising play against when he cast Vampire Hexmage then took my Ascension off-line rather than killing Jace. I guess he thought the angels were more of a threat than being milled. Then my opponent dropped a Sludge – and me with no Negates in hand. I binned my hand completely forgetting that Fog would have been a perfectly fine answer. He swung for 16 and killed me: I’ll never make that mistake again.
Game 2, in came the Silences, out went a Negate, a Charm, a Tanglesap and something else. This game saw the deck running smoothly. By the end of the game I had my full array of mines and fonts out, along with Jace and Magosi. I hadn’t dropped an ascension though – I kept digging but they never showed up. My opponent was also having trouble diugging up his cards as Hexmage didn’t make a return appearance in this game, despite having additional copies boarded in and the accelerated draw from the artefacts and Jace. In the end I popped Jace’s ultimate then used Magosi to skip a turn, milling my opponent.
We went 1-1 for a draw and I was 0-0-1 over all.
Match 2 – vs. mono-black vampire with evils.
This match was against a deck built by an experienced player in tte metagame being piloted by a rookie player. To be fair though, she played tightly. She managed to get a couple of early swings in before I started digging into my fogs and she made the most of the acceleration to bring Liliana Vess and Sorin Markov. My hand dwindled to Liliana, Duress and Mind Sludge, I had no answers for the planeswalkers and Sorin killed – two games in a row.
I went 0-2 for 0-1-1 over all.
Match 3 – vs. GW mana-ramp aggro.
This was a slick, well-oiled deck. Game 1 for my opponent went land, Elves, land, Cobra, land, BaneSlayer. If I wasn’t fogging I’d have had a loose bowel, as it was first strike, evasion and lifelink are only relevant if damage is being inflicted. Props to the designer, though. My fogs deserted me on a critical turn as I went from 16 to 2 on a single turn. By this time Jace was fully charged and ready to pop, followed by my letting rip with Magosi during my opponent’s end of turn, followed by a thorough milling.
Game 2 was a different story. The acidic slimes started hitting the deck, killing my turbo engine, then the only white source I’d managed to drop all game. With a clutch of Safe Passage and Angelsong in hand I had to take 16 damage (from 19 to 3 on about turn 7 or 8). My turn I dug up no more green fogs or white sources and had to concede.
Game 3 was a similar story to 2 – my mana base failed me, I got the wrong colour fogs at the wrong time, I lost my turbo, didn’t get the draws – he hit me with combat damage twice – once for 13 then for lethal.
This match went 1-2 leaving me at 0-2-1.
Match 4 – vs. BW evilness.
The same weaknesses that my deck had against mono-vamp it had against a discard black-white deck. Malakir Bloodwitch put in a regular appearance as did Liliana Vess and Duress. I was left with an empty hand and no answers more often than I’d like and got sucked dry. During the game I saw a shedload of removal being discarded – most notably Day of Judgement.
Game two I boarded out the Bant Charms – I saw no threatening artifacts of instants – and brought in a pair of Sphinxes and my Silences, figuring that the Days would be gone, as it would be fairly dim of my opponent to clear the board of creatures if thought they’re all be his. I was hoping the Sphinxes shroud would ensure they stayed in play. And to be fair, they did. However I didn’t see the point of attacking into, or blocking, deathtouching lifelinking Vampire Nighthawks. Pretty soon Sorin came out and kept pinging me. Pithing Needles were plonked down on Jace and Luminarch Ascension and after a long, slow game – even by Turbofog standards – I was dead: 0-2.
My final result for the tournament was 0-3-1.
Overall Performance
Despite losing horribly I had a great time piloting this deck, as I knew I would. I like this way of playing – bringing the game to my tempo and stopping stuff happening. I usually prefer counter magic to stop spells from resolving but preventing combat damage turn after turn filled a similar purpose. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the deck at work – speeding up the draws, slowing down the beats, milling, manipulating, winning a real attrition war.
As often as not, the reasons for losing games was down to player error. I missed a number of plays by not answering sorceries with fogs. A couple of times I had issues with my mana-base and there were a number of threats that I just did not have an answer for – like creatures’ come-into-play trigger abilities and stifling artifacts once I’d boarded out the Bant Charms. I also had nothing in the deck to deal with Planeswalkers, which in hindsight, in a metagame full of them, was a tad stupid.
The Luminarch Ascensions were an interesting conundrum. Whilst they seem a natural inclusion for this deck, they really went on-line, even if they did get onto the battlefield. That said, they do represent a threat and drew fire from Jace and my milling engine, but less of a threat than either I or at least one of my opponents thought. Another surprise for me was Jace, but for interesting reasons. Well, interesting to me, anyway. In my last article I said that Jace was a mid-game play at the earliest. I can now tell you this is absolutely not true. Sure, if he’s there to provide you with draws and card advantage, mid-game, when you’re running out of cards and options, he’s a welcome sight, but it you want to get his ultimate on-line and use him as a win condition he needs to come out as early as possible and start being a virtual Howling Mine; the earliest he can land is turn three – which is almost early enough. (He’s not enough of a reason to be running mana-ramping in this deck, however.)
A correct decision, I feel, was to run two Fonts. I frequently found multiple copies of my four-ofs in my opening hand – each of the fogs, the mines, the charms – but having the real possibility of finding two fonts in my first seven cards would have been a virtual auto-mulligan to six. These cards never landed,before turn six. Two was the right number.
One thing that did happen in almost all of the games I played, is I ended up discarding a batch of fogs at the end of my turn. Frequently, as many Tanglesaps and Angelsongs went straight to the graveyard as were resolved. I’m confident that the fog engine could have performed just as well on 12 fogs as 16, especially once the turbo had kicked in.
The turbo engine was well balanced. The cards turned up as often as I felt I needed them. Jace was almost always in my hand by turn 5 with a second turning up a few turns later. It’s quite a reassuring position to be in to have a planeswalker down and another copy in hand. The third or more copy feels a lot like a blank, though. True, a single blank isn’t necessarily anything to be to concerned about when by turn 6 your drawing 5 cards but a blank isn’t a fog or a mine or a control card.
For Next Time
I wish, I wish, I wish I had main decked the Silences. Every game 1 I played I regretted not having them in my deck. Once they were in for game 2 the trick to using them was timing and reading the opponent. Did it look like something big was about to happen? Did I have a fog in hand to deal with haste beasties? Did I have the Negates to stopping the slaps? Would I be better off saying “No spells this turn, thanks, come again”, pre-emptively shutting down my opponent’s turn? This was a tough call and varied from deck to deck.
Next time I’m also main decking Day of Judgement. Fogs or not, having a board over flowing with critters is annoying – Lotus Cobra, Llanowar Elves, annoying 1 damage pingers (keeping the Ascension off-line) – it’s easier to just splat the lot. I still hold that spot creature removal is silly in this deck – seldom is there a single creature that merits removal, except I guess the Cobras or the Elves from the green-white deck in my round 3 matchup. Tanglesaps are out, next tournament. Not for the stupid “trample limitation” reason, but because they’re not as versatile as Safe Passage and not as cheap as Fog, and I don’t feel I need to run 16 fog effects.
