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MBC in Extended: A Hindsight preview of Decks to come" by Chris
"Jeff" Colwell
Well the tournament is over and I've treated what wounds I can. I ran the day
with a less-than-spectacular 3-2 match record (6-5 game record), but it wasn't
my worst showing. I played MBC (or Monoblack Control, for those of
you unfamiliar with the abbreviation) which was a deck I'd tested in various
forms for a while now, so I wasn't totally uncomfortable with playing a deck I
built at 2 in the morning the night before the tournament. I show up,
secure the rest of the cards I was promised have loaned to me (Thanks to the
Whitlatch brothers), and sat down to play. First, a deck list:
1 Visara the Dreadful
1 Riptide Replicator
1 Undead Gladiator
1 Engineered Plague
1 Mindsludge
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Chainer's Edict
3 Smother
1 Skeletal Scrying
4 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Mirari
3 Mutilate
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Corrupt
1 Soul Burn
22 Swamp
3 Cabal Coffers
Sideboard:
2 Engineered Plague
1 Mutilate
1 Smother
4 Phyrexian Negator
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Reanimate
1 Withered Wretch
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Aladdin's Ring
1 Soul Burn
You might notice the "one-of" in the deck. With a deck like MBC I
prefer the "silver bullet" strategy with tutors rather than running
more copies to maybe draw them. Also the heavy redundancy in the sideboard makes
my removal various types of removal more flexible for games 2-3. This
deck wins in a couple different ways. Your early-game strategy is deny them of
all creatures, then do one of 3 things:
1) Land a Visara, and swing like you're Babe Ruth.
2) Land a Mirari, and Corrupt your opponent like he's a Catholic schoolgirl.
3) Drop a Replicator with lots of counters, make up a silly creature-type/color
combination, and assault your opponent until they die from it or lose, whichever
comes first.
Lets go to the match-ups:
Round One, Adam Whitlatch with Coggie-Oath
Knowing exactly what he's playing, this is an ugly match up for me in the first
place. Game one Treetop Villages swing for the win, so I board out my slow
edicts for smother and some therapy. Little do I know game two gets uglier with
Palinchron. I manage to Corrupt three times, and then Soul Burn for six, and
he's holding counters for all of them. He attacks, I die. That's about the jist
of it.
0-1 Match Wins, 0-2 Game Wins.
Round Two, Paul Wang with some crazy G/W graveyard..incarnation...thing.
Paul's a good guy and I always enjoy playing against him in the tournaments
because unlike some people who continually play the same deck, you never know
what Paul's playing. Game one I'm removing his creatures like they're
stains on my favorite shirt, but genesis recursion and a land bubble seal my
fate. I board in some more appropriate removal and a little graveyard hate to
try and fend off Genesis for game two. Game two is pretty much the same. I see
the green half of U/G Madness, but a Plague for lizards slows him down.
Eventually Genesis and Wurms do me in.
0-2, 0-4.
Round Three, Brian with Black/White clerics
I don't really know this kid. He said his name was Brian, but what does that
mean since I was entered in the tournament as Jeff today? Game one was pretty
exciting. I've got lots of land and removal, he has clerics. His creatures die
and I go from 20 life to 6, then to 24, and then he topdecks a Silent Specter
while I draw into land and smothers for enough turns for him to kill me. Since
he's playing a heavy creature-type deck, in come the Plagues. Game two goes my
way with a Plague on the board for clerics, and a Replicator for 6/6 Blue
Kobolds. He butchers away my blue beauties fairly constantly, but they kept him
occupied long enough for Mirari and Corrupt to get together for the win. Game 3
I shuffle and leave the Board alone. I start off with a Plague for clerics, and
then I topdeck like my name is Rudy. Two additional Plagues later and 3/4 of his
creatures can't even make it on the board. The White Leper Replicator makes an
appearance, but before it can become effective I Corrupt/Mirari for the win.
1-2, 2-5.
Round 4, Lenny with Green and Black
This round was pretty tame. I play land, kill his creatures, and Corrupt
finishes the deal. Game two ends up like a bad sequel, cause we both knew it was
going to be too much like the first. I didn't even board.
2-2, 4-5.
Round Five
So I've recovered from my terrible start by at least matching it with wins. The
final round comes up, and I end up paired against Robert Lukan running
reanimator. He's the only person to beat Andrew Witlatch, someone I'd rather
have played because I know how fast his deck is, and I wanted to see if MBC
could handle the elf rush. But alas, it is not to be.
Game one is one huge discard war. Robert ends up with some beef in the 'yard,
but we've been stripping each other’s hands for the first few turns, so no
action. I topdeck creature elimation every time he drags one into play, and
things proceed slowly until I corrupt him for the win. I notice he actually did
most of the damage himself since he was reanimating a Nishoba and never getting
to attack to gain life, and also he was running pain lands. Game two repeats. I
boarded in my own reanimate, and a Wretch, just for safety's sake, but Miraried
Corrupt for 18 damage wins the day.
3-2, 6-5.
All in all, I'm always happy to end off a day with a winning record, even if I
don't place. Looking back, a few personal preferences in the deck list would've
gone the other way if I had to do it again. I'd squeeze in 4 Phyrexian Arena in
the main deck, probably taking out 1 Skeletal Scrying, a Soul burn, a Mirari,
and 1 therapy, because I noticed I had no way to re-fill my hand at a certain
point. I'm glad I didn't run Bane of the Living as well, because it's just not
as efficient as the other removal. The Aladdin's Ring in the board
was for situations that never arose, and the more I think about it, they
would've most likely been irrelevant situations anyway. I'd probably replace
that, and the 4 Phrexian Negators, because boarding those in for an aggressive
strategy doesn't work when they make you sacrifice permanents (i.e. swamps, the
very thing the deck almost revolves around, an oversight on my part), so I think
I might have put 1 more Skeletal Scrying in the board, and then 3 of something
or other.
Today was fun, and the deck was fun to play, and I’m sure frustrating to play
against. Soon we’ll be doing a type two tournament, and who knows
what could happen? Maybe I’ll be writing a tournament report from the top 4,
or maybe not at all.
Anyway goodbye and until next time, remember:
Play what you like, not just what wins.
-Chaos |
