Subject: Tradewind w/LD and Flagpole Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 16:40:45 -0400 From: Chad Ellis To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Those of you who read one of my PTQ reports where I got my first ever Tradewind Rider know that I was totally in love with the card, enough that for that one noble Rider I forgave the gremlins that kept me from getting any others in the countless packs I opened. Well, with the help of Rainbow Traders I managed to get up to four and immediately built a bad Rider/Bottomless Pit deck. The basic engine of the deck is pretty strong with a Pit in play, bounce becomes bury, and the deck could handle most of the popular (weenie) decks out there with 4 Gnomes and 4 Wall of Tears standard. Volrath’s Stronghold gets back any creatures that get killed and I even managed to turn Duplicity into a good card (think about it, it really works well for mid-to-late-game card advantage). At the end of the day, however, it was still a bad deck although I’ll definitely have to give it another look with Ertai and Null Brooch to add to defense. Probably the right idea is to drop the number of Pits down to two or three and play it more like a normal Tradewind deck, only dropping a Pit after getting close to control. We shall see. Anyway, this has little to do with last Friday’s Type II at Your Move Games except that after Michelle Bush (a.k.a. The Bomb, see my “Exodus Thoughts” on the Dojo) slapped my Tradewind deck around I never went back to it, coming up with all sorts of other stuff to play. On Friday, however, as I sat in my office (during lunch, of course, otherwise I would have been hard at work) wondering what to play that night I thought back to the amazing streak I had at the PTQ with just one Tradewind…and decided to play the following: TQK Tradewind Birds of Paradise (3) Shard Phoenix (was going to be an Earthquake, but as I was looking for Quakes I remembered how strong these were against a lot of weenie decks, plus it goes better with LD and can support Twind bounce -- a bit expensive, but Birds and Roots help me get to five pretty fast) Wall of Blossoms (4) Man-o’-War (3) Uktabi Orangutan (1) Tradewind Rider (3 why not 4? Well, it’s a mix of couldn’t find the fourth and didn’t really want four) Wall of Roots (3 definitely a candidate for MVP, might shift to 4 and reduce Flagpole to 3) Mana Leak (3 a little permission goes a long way) Armageddon (3) Firestorm (2) Disrupt (1) Remedy (1 TQK tech, and worked really well…needs more testing) Impulse (4) Legacy’s Allure (2) Living Death (2) Spike Feeder (3) I won’t type out all the land (21), except to say that in true Chad style I put in not one but TWO Maze of Shadows. The guys who took Flagpole to fame are big on Quicksand (Strip Mines for creatures, as they call them), but which creatures am I afraid of? Shadows. A Maze handles shadow much better than a Quicksand, especially if Big Fat Bully Armor shows up. True, Quicksand is much better against a Ball Lightning, but with seven walls, Firestorm, Remedy, Spike Feeder, etc., I’m less worried about Sligh and I really don’t want to give up my early mana sources. Besides, Sligh has been going nowhere at YMG lately, so either Black or White shadow is much more likely than Ball Lightning. Sure enough, I saw no Sligh at the tournament but saw one Balabon Black, one WW with full Shadow contingent, and played a guy with plenty of Dauthi. OK, a bit of discussion on the deck. The idea is to play something between 5CFlagpole, which has more counters and tries to take control in a fairly straightforward way with mana-denial, permission and bounce, and 5CKastle, which wrecks you with Intuitioned Living Deaths and Firestorms. I know some players don’t like mixing themes like this, particularly since the deck won’t do the same thing any two games, but I think this is at least as big a handicap for the opponent. You see a Flagpole followed a bit later by a Mana Leak and a Tradewind, you’re much more likely to be surprised when the Living Death shows up. In almost every match, I was able to bluff more countermagic than I had, which (when combined with the number of active spells I could field) was a significant advantage. The tech card for this week is Remedy (W1, instant, prevent up to five damage to any number of targets), which I’m surprised not to have seen in any other Tradewind decks, especially with everyone packing Firestorm lately. Just imagine your opponent spends five cards to do four damage to your Tradewind, a couple of Walls and you, you spend one card saving all three creatures and take only two points. OK, to be safe you’d probably take all four and prevent as much as possible to the Tradewind to keep it out of Shock range, but still…pretty good. Plus, you can offer your sympathy if your opponent tried to back the Firestorm up with a Pyroblast. “Sorry, it looks and acts like a Counterspell, but it’s White.” Against fast shadow-weenie decks, Remedy is still four or five life for two mana, which may give you time to get control. Against Sligh, it can let a Wall block a Ball Lightning and live while preventing some other combat damage done to you or, later in the game, it can make the Shock, Incinerate, Fireblast, Fireblast not nearly so bad…I don’t mind being on two or three life if my opponent is out of cards and land, especially if I can Impulse for Spike Feeders. Sure, it’s not always good, and may belong in the sideboard (I had one there, too), but in a medium-speed deck that depends on its creatures, Remedy is definitely a strong candidate support card. Nothing else is particularly original, although my sideboard has a very unusual choice for a deck with Tradewinds and Birds…2 Tropical Storms. This card is just great against Sliver Decks (OK, Hibernation Sliver makes it harder, but you can’t have everything) or Blue Fliers, and can be an amazing surprise against another Tradewind Deck. I don’t want to damage both players a la Hurricaine, and Tropical Storm can also kill Merfolk and Tims. “But he’s not flying.” “Too bad, he still doesn’t like the Storm.” I’m afraid I don’t remember all my opponent’s names, so I’m not going to put down any… Round 1 vs. Red/Black Burn/Weenie My opponent was quite young and his deck seemed to be an unusual assortment of Black and Red creatures with some burn spells to back them up. I saw shadow and Canyon Wildcat, but no Mogg Fanatic. A Maze of Shadows and Legacy’s Allure hurt him in game one, and when he played an Abyssal Gatekeeper I couldn’t resist Firestorming for two, letting him sac his last creature. I then played mine and Geddoned. Game 2 was pretty similar. He’d brought in a few color hosers, I didn’t over commit in Green so he couldn’t Perish, I got off a Geddon, followed by Tradewind and game. Round 2 vs. Blue Flying Weenie Another young kid, but as we were getting ready to play a bunch of YMG folk were teasing me to watch out because he’d smashed Tony (one of our regulars) in round one. It wasn’t too hard to figure out how his deck was supposed to win as he started dropping Flying Merfolk and even Sage Owls. I wasn’t too worried, since even if he blitzed me in the first game I should have a big edge in games two and three with Elephant Grass (if I needed it) to hold off the rush and Tropical Storm acting like a one mana Wrath of God for his side only. As it happens, I was able to get control in the first game, Geddon backed by Mana Leak. In game 2, I Disrupted his Impulse, we each cast some creatures, and I think Living Death gave me control when he tapped out to force something past a Mana Leak. I remember him casting Gloom, which does stop Armageddon, but seems a bit much with that being my only White spell. Round 3 vs. Red/Blue w/Jokulhaups We’d started to play some practice before the tournament so we each new roughly what the other was playing. His deck featured counter-magic and burn, Blue fliers and Jokulhaups. Now, I should start by saying that I just LOVE Jokulhaups it’s the spell that made me fall in love with Magic (remember when your circle of friends played mostly multiplayer, had only a handful of BIG spells and anything was possible?) and I’m always looking for good uses for it. This deck was pretty unusual Spindrift Drakes for early beatdown, along with Fireslingers, Waterspouts and Breezekeepers (sort of a red flag that Haups could be coming). I don’t remember Game 1 very well, but I think I got the advantage pretty quick. I Disrupted an Impulse (isn’t it amazing how often you get to do this against Blue?), got out some quick creatures, and I think I geddoned. Game 2 was intense. I killed off a couple of Waterspouts with a couple of Tropical Storms, and we were both getting pretty low on life. Remedy really came through for me, effectively counterspells on his two Earthquakes, except that his Fireslinger died and he got to take damage. OK, so it was only half a counterspell…hehehe. Anyway, we’re both low on life and I really want to cast Living Death, but I can’t find a way to kill my Tradewind to do it and am not sure that I can make a defense against the two Waterspouts he’ll get back. He’s getting a bit upset that I’m thinking through the same decision each turn, although afterwards I think he realized why the math really did change each time and that I wasn’t trying to stall. Finally he casts a Breezekeeper and I make on the dumbest moves ever. I was so used to the idea that I couldn’t kill of my Tradewind that I didn’t attack before casting Living Death. We were both low on life, so one point was pretty worthwhile, and I pointed out that I should have. He answered, “Well, I’d just have blocked with my Breezekeeper,” and then immediately realized what that would have meant in terms of board control. The good news for my teams is that while I was forgetting about the Tradewind I did realize that he couldn’t attack me without dying himself because his Earthquakes had helped bring him down to two life. He missed the trick, however, and attacked with one of the Waterspouts. When I attacked with all my creatures, he chuckled and said, “Even the Birds?” Well…when you’re at two and I have two Spike Feeders on the table…yes, I’ll attack with the Birds, too. He was one blocker short, so the Birds came through, collected their counters, and did Hitchcock proud. With two Mana Leaks in hand I felt pretty safe. So, 3-0, which, with the rather small turnout meant that it was finals time between me and Michelle (yes, the Bomb, how many Michelles do you think we have?), who was playing the newest incarnation of 5CKastle. I asked if she wanted to split, she said yes, so we each took $50 and some store credit, which I used to buy a fourth Tradewind just in case I can’t find mine and decide I want four later on. Then we hung out and talked about which Exodus cards should go into our decks. Props: Michelle after I told her what I wrote about her in my Exodus ramblings she said she wanted me to become her publicist. After winning a tight match in round 3 against the Flying Fish kid (she didn’t have Tropical Storms, so she had to win honestly), she leaned over to me and whispered, “The Bomb went off.” Besides, she and Darwin are SO cute together, even if they are conspiring to build decks that will beat me up. My round 3 opponent, for going so far with an original deck and for playing Jokulhaups. Whoever wrote Jokulhaups how much fun is it in a four player game to tap your land, vaults and lumberjacks, and say, “Jokulhaups, four mana in my pool, Lhurgoyf…can everyone count the creatures in their graveyards?” The Mighty Mighty Tradewind Rider Call him Captain D, call him what you will, just call him. Slops: Come on, this is me…I don’t do slops. I love everyone.