Standard Besieged

By Mike Flores

Coming up this weekend is Magic Weekend Paris, which includes a Pro Tour.

And by "this weekend" I mean tomorrow.

Careful readers have probably noticed that for this week, Top Decks has swapped spots with Jacob Van Lunen's column and invaded Wednesday, almost like an oncoming Phyrexian army. Take that, Wednesday! We have a very good reason, though, and that is because it wouldn't be much of a Standard preview article if the Standard portion had already been up and running for six hours before you had a chance to think about some of the new decks to be spawned by Mirrodin Besieged.

Mirrodin Besieged is one of the most powerful sets we have seen in some years, and its effects will be dramatic, and probably more immediate than those of bigger good buddy Scars of Mirrodin. We are going to look at fewer than a dozen new cards, yet will end up marveling at their collective ability to improve decks (like Slagstorm and Black Sun's Zenith), transform decks (like Signal Pest), make them legitimate (like Phyrexian Vatmother) or invent all new universes of card interaction (like Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Blightsteel Colossus).

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

We've only seen whispers of the Tezzeret decks so far, but it would be surprising if the solo Planeswalker to come out of Mirrodin Besieged didn't see play, and dramatically.

Tezzeret basically has everything going for him that you could want—he is a four mana planeswalker, he is blue, and he can defend himself—so it's just a matter of time.

Tezzeret does a fine Jace, the Mind Sculptor impression. Unlike Jace, who has a loyalty-neutral "Brainstorm" ability, Tezzeret's card drawing actually increases loyalty! The trade-off is that you have to play a certain number of artifacts in order to consistently "hit" with Tezzeret (probably north of twelve, all other things held equal).

The cool thing about Tezzeret here is that he also plays well with Jace; Tezzeret doesn't actually need to play a long game, but with Jace in play, he plays a fine one. Tezzeret gives Jace fresh looks, and Jace can Brainstorm artifacts in hand back down for Tezzeret to pick up, increasing the new planeswalker's batting average.

Tezzeret also does a fine Koth of the Hammer impression!

More than one noted deck designer has speculated that Koth will prove even more powerful than Jace, the Mind Sculptor ... The problem thus far is that Koth requires a lot of Mountains to go crazy (especially with his second ability), and the right deck hasn't been uncovered yet.

And Koth is a Hammer, isn't he? Boom! Bam! He can crash a Mountain to the jaw the turn he comes down. Tezzeret is similarly empowered. Instead of a one-time use as an offensive 4/4, Tezzeret can set up a 5/5 for an even faster clock, especially in those seemingly narrow cases that he can link up arm-and-stinger with an infect monster.

Unlike Koth's ability, Tezzeret's 5/5-machine mode can also set you up on defense. A 5/5 back is nothing to sneeze at, especially when you have multiple planeswalkers to defend.

Phyrexian Vatmother

Four-drop Phyrexian Vatmother, along with Mirrodin Besieged teammate Phyrexian Crusader are a diabolical duo that in one set catapults infect from "too good in Limited" to "possibly playable in Constructed." Finally infect has the drops to fill out the curve! Previously the strategy had a lot of non-excitement, blah, blah, blah, yawn ... Oh, Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon!

I mean at five (and ferociously at six), Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon could be considered "maybe even better than Rorix Bladewing" ... But the team had so little impact before turn five that it could just not compete with the truly elite strategies (Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle; Blue-Black Control; etc.).

However with Plague Myr on two as a potential catalyst, and a gateway to third turn Phyrexian Vatmother (plus a non-embarassing late-game pull, especially with Equipment), infect has the opportunity to go viral.

Here is a list brewed up by The Innovator, Patrick Chapin:

Infect Squad

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (18)

4 Plague Myr 4 Phyrexian Crusader 4 Phyrexian Vatmother 4 Plague Stinger 2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Sorcery (9)

2 Duress 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Sign in Blood

Instant (3)

1 Disfigure 2 Go for the Throat

Artifact (6)

4 Adventuring Gear 2 Piston Sledge

Land (24)

4 Inkmoth Nexus 4 Marsh Flats 4 Verdant Catacombs 10 Swamp 2 Tectonic Edge

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

This initial brew showcases some of the new Mirrodin Besieged stars-in-the-making, some light disruption to resolve those threats, a little removal to get the guys through ... and a surprising, but obviously high impact, add-on in Adventuring Gear.

With Adventuring Gear, the eight Marsh Flats and Verdant Catacombs make a lot more sense, and a card like Plague Stinger—which can be hard to contain in the first couple of turns—can put enough poison on the opponent that by the time he answers it, he will still be dead to a top-decked and potentially hasty Blight Dragon come the middle turns.

The One-Shot Robot

A week or so ago I was arguing that—as brutal as Blightsteel Colossus might be in formats that allow Sneak Attack—in those that have actually had the privilege of the Ramp;D Development Team that it was no scarier than Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, or even a Primeval Titan.

I mean how often do you get away from an attack by Emrakul? I lose the majority of games I am attacked with a Primeval Titan even once, and win almost every game that I can attack with a Primeval Titan once. Is Blightsteel Colossus really so bad? I mean Primeval Titan is green, and Emrakul (and his buddies) have a whole mana engine built around them! Is anyone actually going to put together the twelve mana necessary to cast this thing? If they do, more power to them, I say! And a Summoning Trap into Blightsteel Colossus is no worse than one into a Titan, or an Eldrazi alien, right?

The problem with my initial assessment was that I was thinking "fair" or even "green" when I started assessing Blightsteel Colossus, not considering initially that the right acceleration color might well be blue!

mr_thompsom's Blue-Black Shape Anew

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (6)

2 Jace Beleren 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Creature (7)

1 Blightsteel Colossus 2 Grave Titan 4 Trinket Mage

Sorcery (14)

3 Duress 2 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Preordain 1 See Beyond 4 Shape Anew

Instant (6)

2 Go for the Throat 4 Mana Leak

Artifact (1)

1 Everflowing Chalice

Land (26)

4 Creeping Tar Pit 4 Darkslick Shores 4 Drowned Catacomb 3 Inkmoth Nexus 4 Island 1 Misty Rainforest 3 Swamp 3 Tectonic Edge

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

1 Jace Beleren 1 Duress 1 Go for the Throat 1 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Black Sun's Zenith 2 Disfigure 2 Flashfreeze 2 Memoricide 1 Negate 1 Wurmcoil Engine

Deal Another Hand

The missing key that unlocks the "unfair" achievement for Blightsteel Colossus is Shape Anew. In this build by mr_thompsom, you only spend four mana to get your Blightsteel Colossus ... not twelve.

It might seem odd to see a deck with four copies of Trinket Mage but only one target ... But in this deck you have to consider the Trinket Mages as tutors, rather than in the incremental card advantage / silver bullet role that they usually play in blue control decks. Any Trinket Mage can go and get the Everflowing Chalice. At seven mana, you can even play the Mage, play the Chalice for 0, and immediately run out Shape Anew for Blightsteel Colossus!

The dream draw with this deck might be to play a second turn Everflowing Chalice with one counter, then untap and slam down the third turn Shape Anew, running mana through the Chalice itself. Part of what makes this second draw enticing is that it probably looks like you are a regular Blue-Black Control deck before you play your big card, so an opponent might be caught unawares and tap out. Then again, many aggressive decks will have no way to interact with you, anyway.

So once you have a Blightsteel Colossus ... What then?

mr_thompsom's deck has a light discard and countermagic suite to "protect the queen." You only need one hit to win the game, and typically two will be enough even when the opponent has a blocker.

Additional options:

mr_thompsom's Shape Anew / Blightsteel Colossus deck is black-blue, but another strategy you might see would be white-blue. White gives you Master's Call, which helps enable Shape Anew without adding actual artifacts to your deck. The more artifacts in your deck, the greater chance of a misfire. For example, mr_thompsom might find himself with his back against the wall, and forced to play a Shape Anew using Inkmoth Nexus as his catalyst. How much would it suck to flip up a naked Everflowing Chalice?

Though it lacks the ability to facilitate a third turn dream draw, you will see some Trinket Mage players opting for a solo Darksteel Axe over Everflowing Chalice. The advantage here is that the Darksteel Axe is indestructable, so your Shape Anew catalyst can't be disrupted by an Acidic Slime, or countered by the instant speed usage of a Nature's Claim in response. Even an opportunistic Inkmoth Nexus might bite a Disfigure in response to Shape Anew.

Interestingly, Shape Anew itself is one of the best solutions to Blightsteel Colossus. Not only can you go and get your own Colossus, presumably to block, because Shape Anew forces the controller of an artifact to sacrifice it, the card is one of the few that can KO the usually indestructible one-shot robot.

Humble Beginnings

Christoffer Andersen's Kuldotha Red

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (24)

4 Memnite 4 Ornithopter 4 Signal Pest 4 Goblin Bushwhacker 4 Goblin Guide 4 Goblin Wardriver