|
| |
 A 6/6 pro-black flier for four mana. A reliable mana base for
three colors with only thirteen lands. A one mana permanent answer to
almost any creature. Free counterspells. Free
card-drawing. The ability to shut down ONLY your opponents mana
production. Deck thinning, deck searching, and being able to prevent
the opponent from even PLAYING his best cards.
Aside from being sentence fragments, all of the above share one thing in common. They
are features of my favorite deck of all time - Super-Gro. While being nothing
but a memory as far as Extended goes, this deck is a powerhouse and has even
made an impact on the degenerate Type I format.
Over the next few weeks, I'll be doing several articles on this deck, starting
with a tournament report from a Type I tournament in Burlington, IA. After
the report, I’ll do another article on some modern possibilities with the
deck. Speaking of the deck, here’s the build I’ve played in the
past.
4 Brainstorm
3 Sleight of Hand
4 Gush
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Foil
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Werebear
4 Quirion Dryad
4 Meddling Mage
3 Mystic Enforcer
3 Winter Orb
4 Land Grant
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
1 Savannah
4 Flood Plain
Obviously, this decks has a lot that can be modified, depending on metagame. But,
I piloted this exact build to several victories, including one at a GenCon
Extended tournament.
I don’t own any of the power nine, nor any of the other type 1 power cards. The
only thing I’d really like to add would be Ancestral Recall in place of a
brainstorm or Sleight of Hand.
The key here will be not to simply roll over to certain overpowered Vintage
strategies. Losing to a random Moat would be silly, and the Sideboard
will be pivotal in preventing something like that from happening. So,
let’s look at some options.
Legacy’s Allure - this is a traditional option for the board. Great
in the mirror, this little enchantment is good against other creature based
decks. I must admit to disliking it as an option in Type I, where
creatures aren’t so hot, but maybe there aren’t better options. In
the end, I think I’ll nix them, but I haven’t decided yet.
Chill - Gro crush Sligh. After board, Gro crush HARDER.
Wax/Wane - I really, really like this card. It’s good against
Sligh’s hate and burn. It’s good against anything with
enchantments. It’s just never a completely dead card…ok, so maybe
not never, but compared to most SB cards, it’s good a lot of the time. Also,
it helps against Stasis.
Submerge - This card is good against Trinity Green, the mirror, and Stomy. Since
I’m not too worried about these in Type 1, and the only other mirror I
anticipate is a friend, I think I’ll decide against these.
Hydroblast - No; Don’t even think it.
Annul - Good looking at first, it is. Too conditional at further
inspection, be it.
Rootwater Theif - It’s got bad power, I know. But in Type 1, there
are so many cards you want to get rid of. I don’t know if it’s
any good. I personally have used them…and usually, it’s best at
nabbing their creature elimination and paving the way for your better creatures.
I think I’ll run a few of the next card over these.
Voidmage Prodigy - I haven’t tested these guys out yet. I will test, and I
actually plan on playing a few main. I hate not knowing what to mage
for, and this guy might help out in that case.
Winter Orb - Yes, the fourth of this little guy is good. Drawing a
lot of them sucks though, so I don’t want it taking up space anymore.
Phyrexian Furnace - Hmm, this could be good against a lot of strategies,
Including Oath and even the mirror. Although, against the mirror,
I’d hope to have something better than this. Still, it’s better
than something that nukes both graveyards like Tormod’s Crypt. With
Reanimator being “popular” in current Extended, perhaps that could carry
over to this and make Furnace a happy card to pack. I think I will.
I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head, but I’ll be scouring
my binders looking for something that I might have missed. As for
testing, I’ll be making a few alterations to the main deck. First
off, Flooded Strand is better than Flood Plain, so
-4 Flood Plain
+4Flooded Strand
Then, I kind of like Voidmage Prodigy. So, I want to test him out.
Dual purpose creatures are nice. Also, in an uncertain metagame,
Meddling Mage is just a bear at least first game. And, well, I really
like the two Foil, but it is the weakest link….Goodbye!
-1 Meddling Mage
-1 Foil
+2 Voidmage Prodigy.
With this main deck set, I think I’ll settle with the following sideboard.
4 Chill
3 Legacy’s Allure
3 Wax/Wane
3 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Meddling Mage
Until we meet again with the report of how this deck fares.
- Adam Whitlatch
awhitlat@knox.edu
|
