TNT FNM 3/25/11

Hello Everyone! So after practicing with Pyromancer Ascension all week, I decided to audible to the Junk list I had just posted about and conceptualized. I made many changes to the deck from its original listing, dropping a bunch of cards, making more 4-ofs and 1-ofs. Ultimately I went from a 3-color deck that tickled my interests to a Fauna Shaman deck that tutored up ultility creatures to respond to your opponent's threats. When the deck worked it felt fantastic, but unfortunately I feel like I lost to the miserable mana for than anything else. Here is what I ran:

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Squadren Hawk
4x Phyrexian Rager
2x Skinrender
1x Vampire Hexmage
1x Acidic Slime
1x Grave Titan
1x Massacre Wurm

2x Gideon Jura
2x Doom Blade
3x Disfigure
1x Condemn
4x Inquision of Kozelik
1x Duress
1x Mimic Vat

4x Marsh Flats
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Forest
4x Swamp
2x Plains
4x Razorverge Thicket
2x Sunpetal Grove

Sideboard:
2x Vampire Hexmage
2x Baneslayer Angel
1x Acidic Slime
2x Acid Web Spider
2x Skinrender
2x Condemn
3x Tumple Magnet
1x Kor Firewalker

One of the first things I want to point out about this deck is the heavy mana requirements. I have cards in the dec that are incredibly mana intensive in all 3 colors:

Acidic Slime: 3GG
Gideon Jura: 3WW
Massacre Wurm: 3BBB

With only 6 dual lands in the deck and 4 Birds of Paradise, it's incredibly easy to get locked out of a color or simply short on specific color sources to cast some of those spells that you need in a pinch. I feel this is one of the major reasons the deck failed to a 1-2-1 record. The only win was due to an incredibly lucky topdeck against my best friend/archenemy Mark. He was at 7, I was at 4. He had a dominating board position with 4 Squadren Hawks in play along with Gideon and Celestial Colonnade. I always play it out these days because you never know what could happen, and something crazy did happen: I topdecked my Massacre Wurm and resolved it to kill all his Hawks and deal him 8 damage! But that was lucky and doesn't really count.

So how can we fix the mana to make this deck work? There are 3 options available to us: cut a color, reduce specific costs, or add more color fixing. I think adding a 25th and maybe a 26th land will help, along with playing Sylvan Ranger to add color fixing. Playing man-lands is a great way to reduce the pain of mana flood by still giving you choices, even if they're not great options you aren't left cold. Also, an option I considered than dismissed is to play Vengevine. I originally felt like the card was too difficult to recur to  make it worthwhile. However, I feel like this deck can move into more of a disruptive zoo deck.

I still feel like adding black to the GW Stompy deck is a worthy thing to consider, expecially considering how powerful Inquisition of Kozelik is right now. Also, black gives us access to intant-speed removal like Doom Blade and Disfigure. Lastly, Vampire Hexmage can be your lifeline when your opponent falls to a dangerously low life and tries to stabelize with Gideon.

If I had to play this deck tomorrow, it would look a little something like:

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Sylvan Ranger
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Vengevine
4x Squadren Hawk
1x Skinrender
1x Acidic Slime
1x Baneslayer Angel

4x Inquisition of Kozelik
3x Disfigure
2x Doom Blade
1x Condemn

4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
4x Forest
3x Swamp
3x Plains
4x Razorverge Thicket
3x Stirring Wildwood

I feel it's necessary to consider the rights and wrongs with every deck that you play, and innovation (I owe Chapin 25 cents) should never be suppressed or stopped. Maybe this piece of junk will turn into something? It's worth trying! Until next time, stay classy!