From: chrismims@aol.com (ChrisMims) Subject: HowlingWorb Deck/Tourney: Extensive Pontifications Date: 1 Jun 1996 14:21:40 -0400 HowlingBindingOrbing myself into oblivion by e. e. cummings with a little help from Chris Mims Usually, I write about a new deck idea. Occasionally I go to tourneys. So today, I'll tell you, the reader, about my latest deck monstrosity in the context of its performance in a great testing ground- the South-central regionals in Lubbock, Texas. First, the premise: after noting that Lestree lost partly because he only had one route to victory, i.e. creature damage, and realizing that A: Necro is scary and pro-white and B: Stormbind and Storm Seeker are really, really cool, I decided to build an Orb mana-control deck. Yeah, I realize that that doesn't necessarily follow, but it made sense at the time. The premise was simply this: take the original Machine archetype (i.e. Black Vise/Winter Orb/Howling Mine) and make it work now that Black Vice is restricted. Storm Seekers were therefor a logical and in some ways superior (and inferior) replacement for Vise punish-you-for-having-cards-in-hand damage. Once I had put in Winter Orbs, it wasn't long before I had put in four Icy Manipulators which, in addition to being great at turning off my opponent's irr turns off its effect if it has a constant effect), allowed my deck to deprive my opponent of all mana, forever. Sounds like a pretty neat trick, eh? Well, for those of you who aren't already familiar with the Icy/Winter Orb lock, here's the lowdown: First, it depends on the fact that your opponent doesn't have any non-land mana sources out. Fortunately, Elves and Fellwar Stones are pretty easy to kill. The lock works, at its most basic level, like this: wait for your opponent to tap out, then drop a Winter Orb. If you've got an Icy Manipulator and a Fellwar or Elf out, you can now tap your opponent's one untapping land every round. That's not a complete lock, however: you see, your opponent still might draw land, which comes into play untapped, of course (obviously, one nasty version of the Orb lock involves Kismet, such that your opponent doesn't even get this measly amount of mana). With two Icy's, a Worb, one non-land mana and a tapped out opponent, you can now tap your opponent's one untapping land during his upkeep and tap any land he might drop. Permanent and complete mana lock- your opponent's only options now are one casting-cost instants or interrupts that he can play during his upkeep, i.e. Lightning Bolt or the one way to get out of this lock: Crumble. But I've never seen Crumble in a tourney deck, and I'm not holding my breath. This sounds like a rather complex lock, seeing as how it requires four cards for the full deal. But it works much better than even the best-tuned of Stasis decks (which is also a four-card combo), for a number of reasons: 1. Getting your opponent tapped out isn't difficult- they do it all the time, and two Icy's out means that every round that your opponent doesn't drop a land is a round that you gain on him until he is fully tapped out. 2. Unlike a Stasis or some other lock (Glacial Chasm/Hallowed Ground, etc.) every single card in the lock is supremely useful on its own and can come out at virtually any time. This is what's key and why this deck wins- on its own an Icy is great for depriving your opponent of one land a round (great if he's only got out one land of a certain color) or for tapping a creature before it attacks, etc. The Winter Orb is the best brakeing maneuver in the game- let your opponent tap out for that Willow, Wrath, drop a Winter Orb and just kick back for a while whilst your opponent flails about with little or no mana. Fellwar Stones are stupendous against land-kill decks, 'geddon decks, and other Winter Orb decks, and occasionally get you just the right color of mana. So the Winter Orb portion of the original Machine archetype that I was trying to emulate blossomed into half the deck and half my wins. I had sort-of replaced the Black Vice with Storm Seekers. But what about the Howling Mines? The Howling Mines suggested yet another direction for this deck to take- the HowlingBind direction. Howling Mine/Stormbind is a great combo. Stormbind on its own hoses weenie decks of any sort with a vengeance (and especially Necro;), and in combination with Howling Mine you can now take out Erhnams at will and blast your opponent for six points of damage a round. So I now had a HowlingBind/Worb Control deck. It was nifty, damn nifty. It was Red/Green. It needed creature elimination, in addition to the mandatory Shatters. Tossing in eight bolts (4 bolts, 4 Incinerates) meant that I could toast Necro like nobody's business and still use them to finish off an opponent. Plus, Bolt + Stormbound card = 5 damage = Dead Erhnam/Ihsan's Shade. Big creatures were still a problem. Rather than getting into a creature war by using my own Erhnams (mostly just 'cause I've lost in situation where our Ernies were forestwalking each other and I was just a little behind in life), I decided to use Meekstones in the main deck. I figured that they'd work pretty well. What I didn't figure on, and I found out at the tourney, was that Meekstone IS A GOD CARD. You really have no idea. I'll explain later... Finally, I figured that while I was planning on just rolling over some opponents, I might as well have a weenie rush factor that could double (and this was its real purpose) as Knight Stoppers. In went the Archers and Mishra's Factories. Here's what the deck looked like, ultimately: Artifact: 3 Howling Mines 4 Winter Orbs (always draw too many, and my opponents always disenchant 'em, so actually I could've used more...) 4 Icy Manipulators 4 Fellwar Stones 2 Meekstones (with what I hit I coul've had four in the main deck) 1 Ivory Tower 1 Zuran Orb 1 Black Vice Green: (creature) 3 Elvish Archers (spell) 4 Storm Seeker Red: 3 Shatter 1 Fireball (this went in since I was missing a Stormbind) 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Incinerate Gold: 2 Stormbind (should've been three) Land: 4 Mishra's Factory 4 Karplusan Forest 2 Brushland (for sideboarding in white stuff) 7 Mountain 5 Forest Sideboard: 1 Earthquake 1 Pyroclasm (die weenie, die) 1 Meekstone (was supposed to be 2, couldn't find a second one, boy do I regret that) 2 Brushland 3 Disenchant 3 CoP: Red (control dies to burn without these, period) 3 Whirling Dervish (anti-Necro) 1 Feldon's Cane (for the Mill decks) And now, the tourney... Drive in from San Antonio. Seven hours. Get there at about 12:30 in the morning. Registration starts at 8:00. Motel room smells funny. Match 1, Game 1: I didn't take notes, and I didn't get names. Damn shame, too, because I played some great people. Anyway, the first match, I can't help but notice that behind me is a 6 year-old girl playing some random guy. Looks like she's good, too. My first opponent was from Chorpus Christi, on the coast. He uses a big stack of Lifelaces as life counters. Cute. Anyway, the opening game he puts out forests and City of Brass, dumping a bunch of weenies in the process. We go back and forth with bolts and creatures. He knocks down my life a little but eventually, the machinery kicks in to the extent that I've got out a Winter Orb, most of his land is tapped, and I've also got out a Meekstone and an Icy which I'm using to shut down every mid-size creature he puts out. I've also got out a Stormbind, so none of his weenies are doing anything, either. The game's going really long. (ultimately 35 minutes, and we only had 1 hour for 3 games) He Armageddons, which surprises me since it's turn 30 or something like that. We both have out Zuran Orbs, so we go up to ridiculous life totals. We both realize that it's going to be a deckin'. I've got 63 cards in my deck, he's got less, and I've got out Howling Mines, which means that he draws first and I could deck him even if our decks were the same size. He concedes, since we've got to play two more games. Essentially, he lost because his only artifact destruction was Scavenger Folk and I had Stormbind. He didn't even have an Icy with which to tap my Meekstone, otherwise he would've barreled over me. Game 2: Sideboarding pays off, as my opponent quickly dumps three weenies and a Lurgoyf, which at this point is1/2. I Earthquake for two. His momentum is broken and the Stormbind/Meekstone/Winter Orb/Icy pattern repeats. He conceeds again, this time under heavy Storm Seeker fire, however. Game 3: This one's a bit closer, and it becomes a damage war. I'm eating Willow damage and my opponent dies to a big Storm Seeker, topped off with a bolt here and there. My theory about Lightning Bolt's extra utility due to the fact that vs. weenies it's just as good as an StP except that it can also kill opponents seems to be correct so far. Record: (3/0) Match record: (1/0) Match 2: I'm playing a straight land-kill/Erhnam deck. It's r/g, and he's got big critters, Thermokarst, Stone Rain, Strip Mine, yadayadayada. Game 1: I put out a second and third turn Elvish Archer, which he eats for a while until putting out an Erhnam Djinn. Then he just eats two damage a round since one of them has Forestwalk, and I finish him with a couple of bolts. It's a fast, fast game and I just roll over him before he can do anything like I'm a Necrodeck or something. Afterwards, I say: "my deck's not supposed to do that." And it's not: I don't mind winning that way, but if this deck works best in a purely offensive mode, than my control just distracts from it, which isn't a comforting thought. Game 2: This game is way, way too close. He puts out an Erhnam Djinn, I double-bolt it, etc. I get my Meekstones (two so he can't just blow up one of them) and a Winter Orb that's slowing him down majorly. Even so, at one point I realize that I have two of my opponent's turns left to live as he's Stormbinding me for two a round, so I drop a Howling Mine. On my turn, my second card is the one I need to stay alive: Zuran Orb. My opponent harrumphs. We're trading Stormbind damage. Once again, I've got one turn to live since my Zorb's in the graveyard. I've got 2 Fellwars and one tapped land out, with one card in hand. I've got two life, my opponent has four. Next turn I'm dead, and I draw the one land I need to win: I drop it, throw two cards at my opponent and it's game over, as close as they come. My opponent, who really seems like a nice guy, harrumphs again. Game 3: My opponent manages to nail my first four lands. Then he puts out an Ernham Djinn, on about turn 5, when I've got one land out. Once again, I'm praying for the one card I'd have eight of in my deck if it were legal: Meekstone. He kills me with the Ernie- I never get a second bolt or the Meekstone I need to neutralize it. My opponent seems a little too happy that he's won the final game- probably because of the way that game 2 essentially got pulled out of nowhere. Record: (5/1) Match record: (2/0) Match 3: Yet another person who was really cool and I wish I got his name. Anyway, he's from Oklahoma, and before the game he puts a pack of Homelands on the table. It's ante. I inform him that I haven't any counter-ante on me, but he says that's OK- he just thinks that ante should be a bigger part of Magic, it's fun, he's selfless, yadayadayada. In the end, this proves to be a more effective tactic than simply asking me if I wanted to play for ante ("no"), since I feel obligated (guilty) and slap a Sunstone I happen to have in my pocket onto the table. (I dunno where these things come from- I think my mom sews 'em in there, instead of sewing my name in or something. Y'know, just a theory...) Game 1: It's a big critter deck. It's supposed to be really fast, with Tinder Walls and Lumberjacks and land kill. Ugh. Land kill. Anyway, the speed seems to be sorta non-operational, and in addition I've pulled a first-turn Tower, I'm manascrewed (full hand) and my opponent seems to be sans artifact destruction. However, he is hitting me with some big, scary creatures (in addition to an Autumn Willow, which I HATE HATE HATE) so, y'know (HATE), eventually, (HATE), he, uh, (HATE) kills me. Game 2: Once again, the old adage Meekstones are God comes into play. Either I didn't get one or it got nuked or neutralized with an Icy- I don't remember. Naturally, I die a horrible death by big creatures, despite the slowing efforts of my multiple Icy's. Game 3: This one gets interesting. The Meekstones come into play and stay there. The Icy's come out. My opponent is now in a creature lock. Time is running out. Rightly so, he won't concede because "I can't picture you doing enough damage to kill me." Then, I draw. My opponent's down to something like 10 life, and there are two Howling Mines out. I pull a Storm Seeker, an Incinerate, and a Stormbind. I've got enough mana and cards in hand to cast all three and still throw what's left in my hand at him. My opponent is dead. I mean *really* dead. Like all at once out of the blue dead. So, naturally, just as I complete my draw, the judge calls time. Technically, gameplay freezes- I can't even cast all the crap I drew. My opponent, however, seeing as how it's either no game points or loss- and in either event he gains nothing, but on the other hand I had him and it might help me, concedes after some deliberation. Half his buddies note that they would not have done the same, but, as I said, this was a really cool guy I was playing against. Record: (6/3) Match record: (2/1) Match 4: This match, my opponent is a deliberate, washed (this is an important disctinction- while my opponents tended towards the I-actually-own-soap end of things, many of the people around me apparently feared water), monotone college-student type. Nice guy- does a neat little commentary on the game as we go. Anyway, he's playing g/w creature/seeker/(apparently Howling Mine- he took 'em out when he saw mine) deck. In a way, it's standard fare, but seemed to lack any form of global control like Armageddon. Game 1: Game one is firmly in the steamroller vein. I get out two Elvish Archers, on turn two and three (again), and then, with the help of the fact that my opponent has just Land Taxed for three lands, I Stormseeker him for 10. He later notes that he had no idea I was playing with Storm Seekers or he never would've Taxed. Game 2/Game3: Both game 2 and game 3 are fuzzy- I was a bit demoralized after my last match. Once again, it came down to the presence of Meekstones. I hadn't hit a non-big creature deck all day, and in these games I either didn't get them or they were Disenchanted. I lose both Game two and three to big critters, and especially to (HATE) an Autumn Willow that I can't just bolt/tap/Stormbind. Record: (7/5) Match Record: 2/2 Match 5: At this point, the dealmaking commences. If anyone has any ideas on why they think I was an unethical [expletive of choice] for making agreements with my opponents to guarantee that at least one of us would make it into finals, I'd like to hear 'em. As it was, this was my first swiss-style tourney, and once I and everyone else in my bracket had figured out that we would need at least a 2/1 and a 3/0 win in the next two matches to make it to finals just about everyone was making the same deals. Game 1: This is definitely not a speed deck. It's Mishra's and Blinkies, with a bunch of White creature hose and Healing Salves (presumably as anti-bolt work). I'm sitting here wondering what this guy does when he hits Gloom (it's mono white/artifact) when, low and behold, on his turn 4 he taps out for a Jester's Cap. As luck would have it, I've already got an Icy Manipulator and a Fellwar Stone out. So on my turn, I drop a Winter Orb and shatter the Cap. It was the fastest it ever came out: a partial Winter Orb lock on turn five. This screws my opponent up for a long, long time. In addition, it looks like he's really in for it when I pull a second Icy and begin to make the lock complete (tapping the lands he had since drawn) when he Disenchants the Winter Orb. Oh well. By now I have a huge advantage and he dies to the usual contents of my deck. Game 2: I'm really, really tired by now. So I start making playing errors like they're going out of fashion. Somehow or another I manage not to get a Stormbind or an Icy, and since my blockers weren't sticking around to long I die a very, very slow and agonizing death to Blinking Spirits. Game 3: We're running out of time. I decide to just go for it and start throwing all the damage I can at my opponent, i.e. Stormbind/Bolts, ignoring the four a round he's doing with a Blinkie and Mishra. I could've played a normal game and shut down his creatures with the Icy's I had in hand, but I was thinking only of time. Naturally, time is called before we're done. We both know that one of us has to come away 2/1 to have a chance at finals- the way the game was going he could've killed me, but if we were playing for an adjudication and not just to finish in time he wouldn't have been in that position. So we roll a die. Yep: that's what it came down to. I come away 2/1. Who says Magic isn't about luck? Match 6: We come to an instantaneous agreement that whoever prevails 2/1 will be granted the 3/0 win so he has a chance at finals. My opponent is an older, mustachioed character, who seems to be one of George Baxter's buds. Before the game, he divulges the contents of the deck that has so far lost only a couple of games- a goodstuff deck with just enough white for Balance. (the woman who was playing it posted her own tourney report earlier on this newsgroup) Game 1: Oooooo- classic. First land out of the starting gate on his side is a black FE sack land. It's Necro. Finally. The deck that my deck was designed to hose six ways from Sunday. On his second turn he discards an Ihsan's Shade (instead of putting down a land) and animates it soon afterwards. No matter- I draw the Necro-killer: Stormbind. I am now in a very good position. I bolt/bind his Shade, and proceed to do the same to everything else he puts out. Unfortunately, within the first five turns he's got out an Ivory Tower, A Zuran Orb, and Necropotence. I never draw the Howling Mines I need to equal his card drawing, or the Shatter, or anything besides land. Soon, every card I draw is going for the Orders. I just can't keep up with that kind of card advantage, and I draw a Shatter for his Tower too late. (besides, he also had the Zorb) He ends up killing me with weenies. Game 2: This time its my Meekstones acting up again. First I see the same Ihsan's Shade twice- animated both times, I think, and then I see a new Ihsan's Shade. And I'm all out of bolts/don't have an Icy or Stormbind or a Meekstone. I end up dying to it. Sigh. I must note that this was r/b Necro, so I thought it futile to put in my Whirling Dervished (did anyway), in the end I was right (he bolted them). And that's where it ended. My opponent got the 3/0, and I don't know if he made it to finals- matter of fact I don't know anything about finals since, dog tired, we left as soon as we were both out. Notes: It became quickly apparent that just about all of the decks at this tourney could be divided into two categories: big creatures and little ones. That may not sound too profound, but there really weren't that many (I only heard of one) creatureless decks. In retrospect, had I taken my highly-tuned U/W creature-hoser and played the people I had, I would have swept all of the rounds except maybe the last one, and probably that one, too. I hit tons of big creatures. I should have had more Meekstones. There should've been three in the main deck. A couple more Pyroclasms in the sideboard would've been nice for Necro, but for those particular games sideboarding in all the rest of my anti-artifact (Disenchants) would've been better. Comparing notes with other players and further play-testing has revealed the following Circle-of-Life/Rock-Paper-Scissors broad generalization about Type II Magic: U/W beats Erhnamgeddon. Too many plows, Wraths, and Counters for the Armageddons. Erhnamgeddon, when played well, beats Necropotence- Necro has a fundamental dilemma that I faced as well: essentially no way to deal with big creatures. It is my own private theory that a four Meekstone/Necro deck could potentially beat just about everything. Finally, Necro beats u/w because of speed (especially the land-kill versions of Necro). It's a never-ending circle of luck. Loconto never faced a Necro deck going into the finals- so he didn't lose. I'm not sure where Worb/Howlingbind decks fit in to all of this. Perhaps were I a better player, or perhaps were this deck better tuned, it would have fared quite well. The deck really does hose U/W (few creatures/DD/Stormseeker) and Necro (Stormbind/Howling Mine/Bolts/Seeker) and perhaps it was just that I hit way, way too many (five out of six) Big-critter (Erhnamgeddon) decks against which my only real line of defense wasn't even a full set of Meekstones. On the whole, the deck did get me essentially one game short of finals (although that was because of deal-making) and I'm happy with its performance. This has been yet another lengthy exposition on not much in particular. Tune in next week for more Crap from Chris. Send your gripes/hints/tips/suggestions/burning ASCII religious effigies to: ChrisMims@aol.com Hopefully this stuff will soon be available at the FTP site: supernova.uwindsor.ca (Thanks to Jeff Donais) The posts are also available at Richard Soule's web page: http://www.sr.unh.edu/rcc/operations/rjs/magic.strategy.html But they're moving to Magic: The Database. (there's a link to it on the aforementioned page)