Subject: Tourney report -- Donais U5C Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 19:19:55 -0400 From: Chad Ellis To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Warning -- this is a long report! (I need a life...) For some time now, I have been trying to tune a U/W/g control deck. Like many Magic players, I have been impressed with the power of Gaea’s recursion, and the potential it has to provide an incredibly strong "soft" lock for U/W late game. A big fan of the Sylvan Library, I played around with various support cards – Pursuit of Knowledge (replacing Impulse with Brainstorm), Scroll Rack (with or without Mulch), Contemplation for life gain (instead of Gerrards), Humility (with or without Orim’s Prayer), but nothing seemed convincing. The Contemplations were too slow – they are amazing when you get close to control (gaining two life when casting Dismiss is great), but didn’t impress Sligh very much. The whole Sylvan/Gerrard’s Wisdom combo is similar – it was almost always game-over when I could afford to take extra cards, but by then I was usually in control anyway and I’m a big believer in the idea that combos that win won games aren’t very good. So, when I saw that Mike Donais had posted a U5C control deck, I was naturally intrigued – maybe he’d hit on the right mix of these amazing cards? Instead, I saw the sentence that converted me to playing U/W/g his way – "If you have the willpower to resist using Sylvan and Diamonds and Humility then you can obtain serious card advantage just from dead cards." We all remember when creatureless decks were popular – one of the reasons they worked is that they had built-in card advantage, since Swords, Terror, Edict, Wrath, etc., etc., were all dead cards, giving the creatureless player instant card advantage. Donais U5C extends that idea to having NO permanents except for a few card-advantage creatures (the Wall and the Uktabi Urangutans) and, of course, land. With all the removal spells out there, this adds up to serious card advantage against most decks. Normally, I don’t like to copy decks spell-for-spell – I may use an idea I like (such as putting Invasion Plans into Sligh), but I’m generally a deck slut. I like building lots of neat, fun, lose-in-the-first-round-because-I-never-even-played-it-before-the-tournament decks, often trying out a new one every week. I’m not sure whether the people at Your Move Games like playing me in Type II more because my decks are usually interesting or because they know they’re likely to make it through to round 2 unscathed. (OK, I don't to THAT badly, but still...) This deck, however, I decided to play almost card-for-card. I made one TINY change to the main deck, putting a second Undiscovered in place of the City of Brass (mostly a meta-game choice, since the local environment is heavily into speed and Worbs). I did change the sideboard quite a bit, since I didn’t understand some of Mike’s choices and didn’t want to offer NO surprises to any Dojo players I might face. Since Mike has already posted the deck, I’ll just post my sideboard: Reverse Damage (3) Warmth (3) Karma (2) Abeyance (2) Mangara’s Blessing Phyrexian Furnace Disenchant Null Rod CoP Artifact Changes and the Reasons I made them: Karma instead of Teferi’s Realm: The Realm is a great way to meet Bottomless Pit, but I figure that Karma is at least as nasty, since any Pit players will be heavy Black, and Karma is great vs. Necro or Pox. Reverse Damage instead of CoP Red: I like sticking with the no permanents idea, and since I’m only afraid of Red burn in the early-mid game (before I start buyback Whispers), RD seems better. Reverse Damage can also be used against Maros, and is an instant win against Haunting Druid. Abeyance instead of Pyroblast: In my amazingly limited experience, Abeyance is still very strong against a wide range of decks – cast it against Tradewind lock before Wrath, vs. U/W before Whispers, vs. any U deck before letting loose with the big Fireball. The main weakness is being less able to win counterwars. I’m going to have to keep working on this one, but I suspect it's a meta-game choice -- Pyroblast is much better against heavy counters, Abeyance is probably better against most proactive control decks. Taking out the Lobotomies: I’m an idiot. It’s funny, because I’m a big fan of Lobotomy in general, I have no idea why I took them out of a deck that can obviously use them so well. Anyway, after playing some goldfish duels and some "for-fun" games against folks from YMG, I took Mike’s deck to one of the side tournaments at last weekend’s PTNY. Single-elimination, 1 hour rounds, 8 people. Round 1 v. Imtiaz Hussain I felt optimistic about round one when Imtiaz objected to my shuffling his deck – he didn’t seem familiar enough with tournament Magic to know that I could do that. I explained that it was legal, and further explained (gently) that ONE of us was certainly going to shuffle his deck some more, since the last thing he had done was to self-cut, looking at the bottom of each stack. I don’t think he was trying to cheat (hence the gentle part), but I am amazed at the number of players who will look at their own (or your) deck while handling it. Anyway, my optimism fades when he starts with Swamp, Mox Diamond, Orcish Settlers. With only 23 lands and no creature removal other than Wrath, the Settlers were a bit worrisome – all the moreso since I only had two lands in my opening draw! He attacks next turn, I cast a Wall of Blossoms to stop that nonsense, and he uses a Ritual to kill both my lands. Under Wall cover, I make it back up to two lands, cast another Wall to hold off the two creatures he cast, and he uses one of the dead-creature enchantments to bring back the Settlers! Wham, there go my two lands again, although I Implused for a replacement and still have the Walls… Well, he gets rid of one of the Walls and I cast a Sex Monkey to get rid of the Mox and hold off the attack…and he brings back the Settlers AGAIN! Sigh…one pack of Orcish Settlers takes out seven lands in three incarnations. With Necro on the table, there was little hope of a comeback, and I figured I’d avoid showing him any more of my deck, so I conceded. In comes Karma, the Furnace, and Mangara’s Blessing (I didn’t see any discard, but it was a pretty safe guess), out came 2 Dismiss, Gerrard’s and I think one Whispers. Game 2 is much more fun. I have both the Furnace and Karma in my opening hand, and get a Wall out fairly early – I took only one point of damage, from Bottle Gnomes (I think). I realize his deck is a lot more funky than I even realized – he is packing Coffin Queen and Buried Alive, along with Volraths’ Stronghold (naturally). I eat away at his Graveyard until I can play Karma, at which point he has three Swamps out. 20, 17, 14, 11, 8, 5…all the while I’m waiting with my Furnace for when he tries to bring back the Gnomes. When he brought out the Coffin Queen, I realized he had TWO recursion paths open, which meant that he could activate the Stronghold and if I responded by removing the Gnomes from the game he could use the Queen to put them in play. I decided to let the Queen in (I only had one counter), and to force the issue by casting my Monkeys. Here is where it got interesting. He sacrificed the Gnomes in response, and I sacrificed my Furnace to remove them from the game. It took a bit of explaining to show that since the sacrifice of the Gnomes is a cost, it resolves immediately, allowing me to activate the furnace in the same batch of fast-effects. (He didn’t have enough mana to respond with the Stronghold.) When he understood, he sighed a bit, removed them from the game and then said, "Well, at least you have to bury the Urangutans." Apparently, he thought the destroy-artifact effect was a cost, and that they would be buried otherwise – a judge had to explain to him how the card worked. His argument was that you always had to activate Man-o’-Wars, but we were finally able to convince him that it was pretty tricky to have a Jellyfish in play without having ANY creatures in play for the ability to target… He then tried casting Buried Alive, but I liked his graveyard better without any Gnomes – alas, I did have to let him cast his Eagle to Cloudchase away my Karma, but he was in easy Fireball range. Game 3 wasn’t much of a game, since we only had 8 minutes left in the round. I took out a Whispers and put back a Gerrard’s, since we were clearly going to decide on life. This game I found out yet another angle to the deck – good, old-fashioned Nether-Shadow recursion. The furnace was working again, and a Monkey kept him at bay, even sneaking in for two points of damage before he got out another creature. I didn’t draw any Gerrard’s but I did fireball him for a mighty three points, which is the margin by which I won the life-duel. Afterwards, he told me of his hopes for drawing Goblin Bombardment and doing infinite Shadow damage during his upkeep… Round 2 versus Andres (last name unknown) playing 5CG w/Tradewinds and Living Death Game 1 was just how this deck should do against 5CG. I basically ignored his creatures, gaining card advantage from my Walls and only countering things like Armageddon and (because I was Wrathless) Living Death. I got control with 15 life left, Gerrard’s put me to 31, then 45, then 59, while I Dismissed, Whispered and Blessed. When I cast my fifth Wall, I thought he was going to have a judge check my deck – he’d forgotten that I’d brought one back with the Blessing. Anyway, we kept going like this for most of the hour – he was down to 11 from CoB and Guildmage damage (I used one Wasteland to get rid of two or three Undiscovereds), and I could easily Fireball him out, but I didn’t see the point. He knew he was busted, but wanted to see how my deck won. If the rounds had no time limit, I would just deck him with recursion – as much as I hate stalling, if I’m playing at normal speed but there’s a time-limit, it’s up to him to concede and try to win round two if I have another victory path that doesn’t give him unnecessary deck info. He finally concedes with fifteen minutes left, after asking the judge (for like the third time) what will happen if we time out in game one and being told it will come down to life. (OK, it would actually have come down to a Fireball during my last turn…) Game 2 is a bit better for him, but not enough. He gets out the quick creatures and I only see one Wall. He gets me down to 6, but only because I want to hold my Wrath off until I can get total control. I Wrath, he leaks, I counter. With just a couple of minutes left, he concedes before I can Gerrard’s. I tell him about the Fireballs, and he says he was pretty sure I didn’t win ONLY by decking. Round 3 vs. Pete Grauer Pete finished before us, and walks over while a few people are still asking questions about the deck. Then, I shuffle extensively, explaining that I’ve got almost all of my land in one clump. He nods, and asks, "You playing Mike Donais’s U5C?" Uh…maybe. "This should be fun, then – I’ve never faced it in a tournament before, but Mike and I play-tested it extensively over the net." Something tells me that Pete knows the rulings on Uktabi Urangutans… Game 1 is one of those thrill-a-minute starts you get when two control decks face off. Land, go, land, go, land, go…the action is fast and furious. Every now and then he incinerates me, which I like since I figure if and when I cast Gerrard’s Wisdom, I’ll be psyched. I draw a really large number of counters (so many I actually countered one of his early Impulses), so I decide to try for Whispers buyback. We have a major counter-war, with two Dismisses on both sides and it goes very badly…not only do I lose, I use up the last counters on two Gemstone Mines and sac my Temple! Let’s see…I give up three lands, you draw two cards…STRONG. Somehow I manage to win the second counter-battle (my one moment of happiness was watching him go through my graveyard and shake his head at how many I’d managed to draw), but that left me open to a 14-point fireball. I die with three Gerrard’s in my hand, figuring he wouldn’t tap out to kill me. Ah well, they’d probably have been countered anyway… Game 2 isn’t much of a game. Opting to draw, I have a Plains and a Pool in my opening hand, along with two Walls, Whispers and three counters. With more than 1/3 of my remaining cards being land, I figure there is less than a one in three chance that I don’t draw land by turn 3, and about a one in five chance that I don’t draw land by turn 4. With two cantrips and a Whispers, I decide to keep my hand, figuring the chance for mana-screw is offset by the card and a GREAT hand if I don’t get screwed. I’m not familiar enough with the deck (or good enough) to know whether that was a sensible risk, but when he Lobotomies me on turn six, I still haven’t drawn land…I do have three Whispers of the Muse, though… So, not a complete success, but not bad for a first outing. Now for some general impressions on playing the deck, both from these games and a bunch of friendly games. The deck is STRONG, especially in the current environment. My opponents generally had lots of dead cards, and the only deck I’ve had trouble with was Pete’s, which was very similar – aside from the fact that he knew exactly what I was playing, and he’s a better player. I tested against quick creatures, Living Death, Tradewinds, etc., and always had the upper hand. It's also reasonably fast. Even with one-hour rounds, I only timed out once -- remember, I could have ended Game one of the second round a lot earlier. You don't want to lose a drawn-out first game, but I'd be reasonably confident about ending with a higher lift total in a short third game against most decks, with the Walls to prevent early beatdown and double-digit Gerrard's. Fireball is the ideal finisher, and two looks right. (Gee, a scrub with a dozen playtest games agrees with Mike Donais...he must be right!) The deck could win just by running you out of cards (replace the Fireballs with Lobotomies), but this would be VERY slow, would reduce your board control and would give too much freedom to Sylvan/Necro decks. The Wall. I believed WoTC when they said they Stronghold would have tournament-quality walls, and I trusted them to make Green’s the best (hey, Wall of Roots established Green as the color of good walls), but I never thought I’d describe a Wall as broken. In this deck, I think it is. It does almost everything an Icy Manipulator used to do in the old Millstone decks, the most important differences being it doesn’t cost four mana to cast and it’s a cantrip. Allow me to illustrate its power through its impact on the reactions of a control deck to various threats: Jolrael’s Centaur Old reaction – "Damn, I don’t want to have to waste a Wrath on this…maybe I better counter it." New reaction – "Whatever. Let me know when you reach your discard phase, or something else I care about happens." Scragnoth Old reaction – "Damn, I’m going to HAVE to waste a Wrath on this…why aren’t I playing with Propaganda?" New reaction – "You paid five mana for that? Hmm…have you ever wanted to own some real estate?" First turn Pup, second turn Flunkies, third turn Ball Lightning Old reaction – "Damn these cheesey Red decks…wow, it really takes skill to just throw everything forward…well, the Chills/Warmths should help a lot in games 2 and 3." New reaction – "Let’s see…I’m at 13 life with seven cards, you’ve got three cards and the Pup and Flunkies are still in play. I guess I should Wrath first and Gerrards next turn, even if it’s only going to be for 12 life…" Living Death Old reaction – "Damn, there goes my last Wrath…I sure hope I can counter the next one." New reaction – "Well, there goes my last Wrath…sure was nice of you to Ancestral Recall me, though so I’m sure to have counters or Wraths for the next one." (Yes, Moses, you can have it – can I see the picture when it comes out?) A creatureless opponent Old reaction – "Damn Edict. Well, at least he’s got dead removal, too. Sure wish I knew what his sideboard looks like – the last time I took out my removal I found myself staring down the wrong end of some surprise fat." New reaction – "It’s nice to know my useless spells replace themselves." The list goes on – Steel Golem, Man-o’-War, weenies backed up by Shock/Incinerate, any one-for-one removal, the Wall is the burly protector that’s so modest it insists on giving you a card just for playing with it. It helps you win, and you’ll say, "Damn," a lot less often, which will make your mother happy. Too little = Enough. Donais U5C seems to have too few of a lot of cards for them to work – only one Disenchant and two Uktabis to handle artifacts/enchantments, one Furnace for graveyards, one Wasteland, one Quicksand, one Blessing for discard, etc. I’ve played maybe a dozen games with it, so his claim that "it is actually difficult not to…always find the card you are searching for" is a lot more credible on its own than my affirmation, but it is amazing what 19 cantrips including 4 Impulses can do, especially when you can Bless cards back into your deck. I Wasted multiple lands in several games, and with the one exception of game 2 vs. Pete (where I never had the mana to use my cantrips), I always seemed to have the right balance of spells and land. Long live the Sex Monkeys. Many people observing the deck questioned the Orangutans, arguing that more Disenchants would be better – "After all, this is a control deck, you’re not trying to give beatdown." Well, Disenchants are a wonderful card, and I’m a big fan of instants, but the Monkeys are so good. I almost always got card advantage off of them, since my opponent would have to waste a card killing them. That isn’t such a big deal, since sometimes that card would be dead without the Monkeys (or used on a Wall, whoopee), but often it was an Incinerate or another creature that killed them. Plus, if my opponent is playing without artifacts or enchantments, the Monkeys can still play. In game 3 of round one, they totally saved me from early beatdown (only relevant because we timed out, but still) and in a non-tourney game I was able to cast them against an opponent with 24 life and announce that he had twelve turns left to live – and with five counters and a Whispers in my hand, I meant it! The hardest of soft locks. I have always suspected that people who love "lock" decks are unhappy with normal control because of the amount of time you spend with the upper hand but knowing that a few good topdecks can bring you down. If this describes you, give Donais U5C a try – I was regularly amazed at how quickly the various card-advantage engines turned a modest advantage into "This game is over, I just have to decide whether or not to Fireball you out or deck you." Having 42 life, five counters, a Wrath and a Whispers while your opponent has three cards (most of which are probably dead permanent removal) is as close to Kismet/Stasis as I really need to get. Don’t take out the Lobotomies. While Mike’s rules no. 1 and 2 for not winning with the deck (you changed the deck, you changed the sideboard) may be a little aggressive, let me be the idiot you learned from when you decide to tune it to your own style/environment. You don’t want to have someone like Pete staring incredulously at you as he gasps, "You don’t have any Lobotomies in your board?" My one concern is that the deck looks VERY vulnerable to land destruction, especially with Dwarven Miners (Settlers are nasty too, but they usually don’t come back to life for two more helpings). The entire deck only has five basic lands, so a turn two Miner may never let you reach Wrath level, and Wastelands will always have a target. Once the deck gets going it is incredibly strong, but something like, "Wasteland your Gemstone mine (the Pool now doesn’t reflect Blue), Stone Rain the Pool, go," is going to be tough to deal with. Fortunately, the current environment of fast creatures and Worbs makes LD pretty tough to play, but a control version of Sligh or a mana-happy mono-Green deck with Molds and Grasps would be a tough match. Any ideas, Mike, or do I just have to suck it up and deal with the idea that no deck can score 80% against everything? This deck is going to be big. I have no doubt that if Mike hadn’t made level 4 this deck would have done very well at Nationals. As hard as it is to accept, the U/W/g (r/b is just for Fireball and Lobotomy) control deck is stronger without Diamonds, Sylvans, PoKs, etc. Well done, Mike and thanks for sharing this with the rest of us. Love and Rockets, Chad