Initial Technology – A Knight to Remember

March 7, 2010 |

lsv

A Knight to Remember

Whew, I'm finally home! I had a whole 14 hours between my return from San Diego and my departure to Madrid, and as much as I like traveling, that was a bit much. I even brought back a cold from Spain, although I blame that on PV and GerryT, as they were both sick at various points. Luckily, it turns out that MTGO is a good thing to do when sick, so my last few days probably haven't been all that different from normal! I also managed to play in the weekly Legacy tournament at Superstars before getting fully infected, so I have a bunch of stuff to talk about today, most of which involves my new favorite card, Knight of the Reliquary.

The first is my unexciting performance in Madrid. I chose to play Enchantress, which wasn't a great choice for a few reasons. The biggest error in my deck selection was an erroneous assumption on my part: namely, that the matchup against Counterbalance decks was decent. See, the last time I played Enchantress was at Worlds 2007, and at that point the Counterbalance matchup wasn't abysmal. The biggest difference between then and now is the prevalence of 3-drops in Counterbalance. Back then, most Cbalance decks had only a few 3-drops, if any, so Choke and Blood Moon and Enchantress' Presence were all hard for them to stop. Now they have Rhox War Monk, Trygon Predator, even Trinket Mage in some builds, so it isn't difficult for them to just lock Enchantress out, and that is exactly what happened in one of my matches. Of course, had I done any testing I probably would have realized this, but my testing time for Madrid was consumed by preparation for the other three formats I had to prepare for. Considering how San Diego went, it was time well spent, but it did hurt my chances in Madrid.

I ended up beating a Counterbalance-Depths-Hexmage deck, then losing to what looked like Canadian Thresh (with Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Daze, and Force), "normal" Counterbalance, and finally the mirror, of all things. He even had Cleansing Meditation! So, that was that. I spent the rest of the weekend birding PV, Sam Black, and PT Austin T8er Evangelos "Van" Papatsarouchas (who had a pretty sweet Stoneforge Mystic deck that he t16ed with , which is incorrectly credited to me) and doing event coverage. It was pretty fun, but I would have preferred to keep battling in the tournament. After the event, I brewed up some sweet lists, and just wish I had the time to test them beforehand. PV ended up Top 32ing with Natural Order Counterbalance, and I'm sure he will deliver one of his usual epic reports on the subject, so I'll leave that to him.

I do have a list to talk about, although I would warn anyone against playing it in its current incarnation. The beauty of having a weekly Legacy event is that I can play whatever loose concoction I want, just to see how it works. I played the following:

Now, this may look a bit wild, but I actually had a reason for all the 1-ofs. First, with Brainstorm, Top, and fetchlands (and possibly Ponder, although I didn't run any this time), you can pretty reasonably see most cards at some point in a game. Therefore, the more different cards you have access to, the more depth your deck has. By "depth" I mean potential answers and threats, since just adding one card like Krosan Grip or Qasali Pridemage gives you a ton of % against something that our Natural Order deck couldn't beat, like Moat. I'm not saying that justifies all these 1-ofs, but it certainly justifies some of them. The rest can be explained by my desire to try as many different cards as possible to see how well they worked, since that provides a better long-term return than winning 12 packs or whatever.

I went 2-2 in the tournament, beating Counterbalance (I was going to say "the mirror" but I thought better of it; this beast has no mirror!) and 2-Land Belcher while losing to Counterbalance and Dredge. I did get a decent look at how some cards worked, which is useful. I know that this is a small sample size, but it doesn't take much play to figure out some things, and I would like to think that my judgment about how cards work is fairly sound at this point.

The Core of the Deck

The twenty cards that all Counterbalance decks should have are:

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Counterbalance
4 Force of Will
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm

and the four Swords to Plowshares aren't far behind in my mind.

These 20 (or 24) cards are pretty much uncuttable, and at this point I would have a hard time not playing the full 24. Swords is just that good, and you run the risk of just dying to Goyf if you don't run them, much less dying to aggro in general. Playing less than four Counterbalances or Tops is just greedy, and I hope nobody debates the merits of Force of Will, Tarmogoyf, or Brainstorm. When I talk about other cards, assume that all of my decks have the above 24 cards in them.

Cards that are sweet

Knight of the Reliquary – It really feels like this guy has to fit somewhere in a Blue deck. I know Zoo uses him to decent effect, and I would like to figure out a way to play him Counterbalance. Maybe it's my recent infatuation with him in Standard, but a three-mana 4/4 or 5/5 that grows by two a turn and can find a limited supply of bullets seems good enough. He mainly competes with Rhox War Monk, which is worse in the mirror but better against decks like Merfolk and Zoo. One problem is that three-drops are better in a deck with Noble Hierarch, but once you play the Hierarch, War Monk starts looking better. I haven't found a Counterbalance deck where I am certain that Knight is the pick, but I would be surprised if there wasn't one. Once you are playing three or four, I could see playing some 1-of sweet lands, like Wasteland, Karakas, Maze of Ith, or even Mishra's Factory (which I will talk about in a second).

Predict – With Top in play, Predict not only mills something undesirable but draws you two, which is nice. I am aware that having Top in play is already pretty sweet, but Predict also works with Brainstorm and Ponder. If you are playing Submerges it gets pretty filthy too. Predict isn't quite powerful enough to really be a high priority, but it isn't a bad choice for the 2 slot, a casting cost that is hard to fill if you aren't playing Dazes.

Spell Snare – This is pretty efficient, and a good way to recoup the advantage when you lose the die roll. I wouldn't mind finding room for two of these, since any more and you risk drawing a bunch against a deck that lacks two-drops.

Mishra's Factory(or Wasteland) – This may look a little odd, but as I have said many times, I like cards that let me play extra lands. At GP Chicago (which Nassif won with our list), we played two more lands than most Counterbalance decks and only two Ponders instead of four. In the above list, I played 22 lands and 0 Ponders. In general, I think people get greedy on lands, and would rather hit my first three or four lands without having to spend much time searching for them. After all, with Sensei's Top and Brainstorm in the deck, it isn't like you can get flooded all that easily. Still, most Cbalance decks top out at 4, so playing a ton of lands can backfire, which is where something like Mishra's Factory (or Wasteland) can come in. Having extra lands that do something is nice, and I kind of liked the Factories. They let you play blockers without tapping mana mainphase, and even though they are only 3/3's on their own, that is enough to dissuade many attackers, and if you draw multiples it gets even better. Plus, if you are playing Knight of the Reliquary, having a stream of Factories to search out could be awesome. While I wouldn't go so far as to actually play Standstill (though I definitely considered it!), playing 3 or 4 Factories / Wastelands could be sweet.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor – In any Counterbalance deck not playing Natural Order, Jace should probably be an auto-1-of, and might even make it in as a two. Natural Order decks have their 4-slot pretty filled up, but other Blue decks don't, and Jace is pretty good. If they only have one guy, bouncing it is insane, and against an empty board Jace should win you the game in short order. Jace also gives you an alternate win condition, which is actually relevant, since it kolds a deck like Stax unless they have Smokestack going. I lost to Jace's Ultimate twice with Enchantress, which is actually something Enchantress and weird decks like it have trouble stopping.

Trinket Mage and Engineered Explosives – Even if you don't play Trinket Mage, Explosives deserves a spot somewhere. It is a versatile answer to creature hordes and stuff like Aether Vial, and it isn't very hard to get good value out of it. PV beat Merfolk twice at the GP, and I know Explosives was a pretty critical card in the matchup. It also hasn't been seeing a ton of play lately, so I wouldn't be surprised if Zoo players overextend into it, which could lead to some sick blowouts. Trinket Mage I'm less sure about, although I still like it. Adam Prosak has been championing the Mages for quite a while, and Top 8ed the Starcitygames 5k in LA with them. Even if all it gets is Explosives and Top, Trinket Mage is still decent value, and is only hampered by how slow it is. Three-drops aren't great in a deck with Dazes, so keep that in mind when constructing.

Cards that aren’t

Stoneforge Mystic and Jitte – Unsurprisingly, the control deck with few creatures just isn't the best place for this package. I sided it out every time, and really doubt it will succeed in such a deck. Van's deck used this well because he had a ton of utility guys that were terrible on their own, but the whole point of the Counterbalance deck is that all the threats are solid by themselves (another reason I don't like War Monk; in any Goyf matchup he just doesn't do anything).

Vedalken Shackles – I used to be a huge fan of this card in Legacy, but that was quite a while ago. Now, Vedalken Shackles doesn’t even trump the mirror, since they can just Natural Order out a 10/10, and it is too slow most of the time against Zoo or Merfolk. Merfolk can even Islandwalk past it, since even if you steal Lord of Atlantis it still makes everything unblockable! Combine all that with the fact that Shackles is dead against Ad Nauseam, Reanimator, and 43land, and you have a card that just doesn’t cut it anymore.

The rest

These are the cards I haven’t fully formed an opinion on. They may be sweet, they may not, and I’m not quite sure.

Vendilion Clique – I like what the Clique does in the mirror and against Combo, but three mana is a pretty contested slot, and Clique is pretty lacking against aggro. I could see sideboarding some Cliques, but right now I suspect that it will be hard to find room for them maindeck.

Karakas – This effect is insanely powerful, and comes at almost no cost, assuming that White mana is useful to your deck. If you are playing even a couple Legendary creatures, I would strongly consider adding a Karakas, since it makes your creatures that much harder to kill. You can even re-use guys with enter the battlefield effects, like Vendilion Clique or Llawan.

Llawan, Cephalid Empress – Speaking of Llawan…the one thing keeping Llawan from being insane is Aether Vial. If Merfolk couldn’t get around Llawan by simply Vial’ing guys in, I would be much happier about siding a couple Cephalids in. As is, if you think you can keep Vial off the table with EE or Qasali Pridemage or whatever, Llawan might be a sick choice. She even bounces Progenitus, Trygon Predator, and Rhox War Monk in the mirror, which is interesting. As I just mentioned, re-using her with Karakas is kinda neat.

Qasali Pridemage – In a deck that isn’t really interested in the beatdowns, Qasali Pridemage loses a bit of luster, since unlike in Zoo, the 3/3 attacker isn’t all that relevant. It still is a 2-drop that blows up Counterbalance, Vial, and Jitte, so I wouldn’t be necessarily opposed to playing one or two of these in a more aggressive version of Counterbalance.

So, using the evaluations I outlined above, a more “serious” version of Counterbalance with Knight would look something like this:

A rough list, but most lists start rough. I don’t know if something like this is better than a Natural Order deck that just plays Knights, but I figured I might as well start with something much more different. Losing Noble Hierarch and Daze might slow the deck down too much, so cutting the Counterspells, Ponders, Spell Snares, and 2 land for 4 Hierarch 3 Daze 1 (something sweet) could be a good way to go also.

Next up, I have a deck that I know for sure wants Knight of the Reliquary…

I came home from the Pro Tour expecting Naya to have lost some edge, now that everyone knows what the deck is up to. To my pleasant surprise, I found that Naya is still pretty awesome. I have been playing it a fair bit, and have been pretty impressed with the results. I have changed some cards, and still am constantly refining the deck. The current list is as follows:

Not a huge amount of changes, but some of them are pretty important. Baneslayers are pretty awesome, and I like having access to the full four after boarding. I don’t board them in for every matchup, but they come in quite often. I tried the Qasali Pridemages, as suggested by the Boss, and they have also been quite good. They are pretty sweet against UW, the mirror, and most random White decks. Oblivion Ring and equipment are getting popular, so having Pridemages as extra removal spells can come in handy. I also switched the Tectonic Edge to the sideboard, adding a Raging Ravine, and giving myself the option to board up to a 25th land when the Baneslayers come in. I hadn’t found myself really in need of the extra Stoneforge/equipment package in the sideboard, so that is how I made room for all the new stuff. Like I said, no huge changes but a few small ones. Rather than go through a full sideboarding guide, I do want to give some general notes.

First, a quick note on sideboarding guides in general. They are the first thing that everyone seems to want, but many writers (myself included, of course), don’t really like giving blanket sideboarding advice. There are a few reasons for this, the first being that sideboarding is very dynamic. That is to say, it changes based not only on what the opponent is playing, but how they are playing it. Against some opponents, you won’t want to sideboard the same way as against others, even when they are playing the same deck. If your Jund opponent plays around Lightning Bolt with Putrid Leech every time, you really can just take out the Bolts and get him. It is really hard to quantify that, but doing so is part of tournament success. Another factor is minor card differences. For example, when I was playing UWR Control, I would side out Earthquake against Jund much of the time, mostly dependent on whether they had Siege-Gangs. Sideboarding can vary so much, and following a strict guide without knowing why each card is going in and out can be detrimental. That all being said, I don’t mind talking about sideboarding and even giving guides, but people seem to treat such things as holy writ, and appear to mostly be interested in the how instead of the why.

The main ways to make room in Naya for sideboard cards are to a) cut Rangers and Nacatls, b) cut Stoneforge Mystic and the equipment or c) trim stuff, like Bolt, a Noble Hierarch, the Ajanis.

Rangers and Nacatls go out in the creature matchups that aren’t particularly attrition-based like GW, the mirror, or Bant. In these matchups, Ranger and Nacatl are just outclassed by Knight, Baneslayer, Rhox War Monk, and Sparkmage + Collar. The matchups where you want Rangers are the matchups where they plan to control your guys with removal spells, matchups like Jund, UW Control, or Vampires.

Mystics and equipment are almost the opposite; they tend to be useless in the matchups where Rangers shine. If the opponent has few creatures and many removal spells, playing equipment and 1/2′s isn’t a good way to approach things.

Against Jund in particular, it can be difficult to tell what to take out. My sideboarding tends to vary, and I honestly haven’t found a plan I’m firmly satisfied with. I mostly default to cutting Collar, the Ajanis, a Nacatl, 2 Bolts for Tectonic Edge, Baneslayers, and Dauntless Escorts. The mileage you get out of Bolt can vary, so be sure to consider cutting more or less of them, depending on how the opponent plays (and whether they have Leech).

Most decks in Standard can be lumped into the categories of “creatures” or “removal”, and unsurprisingly it is only Jund that really acts like both (which is part of its strength). Hopefully my general guidelines should help you figure out how to board, since once you know the things you should be considering while sideboarding, you are set. The power is yours! Of course, I will do my best to answer any specific questions in the comments, although I can’t promise to answer “hey LSV how do u sb with naya” or questions like that…

LSV

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About This Author

Luis Scott-Vargas

LSV is the current record holder for most wins in the Swiss portion of a Pro Tour after his perfect 16-0 run at Pro Tour San Diego 2010, although Conley Woods came close to matching that during Worlds 2011. Luis' other accomplishments include a win at Pro Tour Berlin 2008,...