Standard Natural Order

Hello everybody! Normally I would post an FNM report today, but there's not much to talk about... fine, you want the report? Here it is:

Round 1: beat mana skrew 2-0

Round 2: lost because I am really dumb (had 1 red source in play turn 4 facing down a lethal board from Red Deck. 4 lands also included a Ghost Quarter. I could have Ghost Quartered my own land, fetch mountain, and then Slagstorm his board to survive)

Round 3: I had to drive my girlfriend home, so I missed the round

Round 4: played Mau instead of MTG

Round 5: played Legacy instead

So I didn't really get to test my deck much, though it was evident I didn't do much testing against Red Deck or other aggro decks. But I feel if I didn't misplay in both games then I would have been fine. In game 1 he was on the draw and went T1 Stromkirk into T2 Shrine. He played the Shrine pre-combat and I had to choose between Geistflame and Mana Leak (I topdecked Geistflame). I wound up using going with Geistflame, but I think I should have Mana Leaked... Shrine is much harder to deal with than a dude... But that is why I need to test more. I think the  Tribute to Hunger could be cut as it is very beatable. Bu that's not what I am here to talk about today!

As you should know If you have been following the blog (although if you haven't I still love you anyways) is that I LOVE playing combo decks. There's something sweet about breaking the rules as to what magic is supposed to be. Breaking the restrictions of mana and other sweet things is how I roll. I was very sad to learn Pyretic Ritual wasn't reprinted in M12, because I was hoping to make a deck using Pyretic Ritual, Infernal Ritual, Snapcaster, Past In Flames to do... something... probably make a huge Devil's Play.

But there is a combo deck out there that reminds me most of Legacy Natural Order decks. In Legacy, you can just go to the Red Zone every turn with Tarmogoyf and Vendillion Clique until your opponent finds an answer. In the same way, this deck can attack with 4/4 tramplers on turn 3 (Goyf anybody??) and 5/1s on turn 4, and then use it's combo pieces as if the combo didn't even exist until all of a sudden your opponent blows everything up. So you happily untap and immediately combo-kill them. Sounds sweet right? Well... such a deck does exist! This isn't exactly an unknown quantity either, but regardless, I present Grim-Grin Combo:

2x Hex Parasite
3x Reassembling Skeleton
4x Skinshifter
3x Spellskite
3x Civilized Scholar
3x Bloodline Seeker
4x Necrotic Ooze
3x Grimgrin, Corpse Born
1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

3x Distress
1x Doom Blade
1x Go for the Throat
2xNaturalize
3x Forbidden Alchemy

4x Drowned Catacombs
3x Forest
3x Hinterland Harbor
4x Island
7x Swamp
3x Woodland Cemetry

If you don't see the combo, here's how it goes: With Necrotic Ooze in play and Bloodline Seeker + Grimgrin in your graveyard, you tap Necrotic Ooze to make a 2/2, then sacrifice it to untap the Ooze and put a +1/+1 counter on it. You can repeat this until Ooze in infinitely large. If Skinshifter is in play, you can also give Necrotic Ooze flying or Trample. I will almost always pick trample, however they might have a Glissa in play (want to beat Wolf Run Green? play Glissa!), at which point flying is appreciated.

The one thing I don't like about this deck is how there's very few 4-ofs which makes the deck far more inconsistent. That, and it looks like a not too straightforward deck to play, more or less a pile of cards that can surprise work well together. That being said, it does simply look fun to play. One cool thing about having Civilized Scholar is that if you have a Necrotic Ooze in play with Dr. Jeckyl in the bin and the other 2 combo pieces in hand, you can still combo off. Because part of Civilized Scholar's ability includes untapping when you pitch a creature you can:

Tap Ooze to draw a card, discard Grimgrin and untap
repeat, but discard Bloodline Keeper and untap
combo kill

When I first started writing this post, that was the only deck I wanted to talk about. However, I had an epiphany at 1:30am when I was still awake about 45 minutes after I wanted to be asleep and I realized Blightsteel Colossus is REALLY good right now. Wolf Run has no way to interact, so they just lose, and it helps you completely dominate any rogue decks you might face. I build it in a UW shell that should theoretically be just as good with or without the combo. Here's what I came up with:

3x Azure Mage
2x Snapcaster Mage
4x Blade Splicer
1x Geist of Saint Traft
4x Mirran Crusader
1x Blightsteel Colossus

4x Ponder
1x Disperse
4x Mana Leak
4x Master's Call
3x Oblivion Ring
4x Shape Anew

2x Ghost Quarter
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Island
2x Moorland Haunt
5x Plains
4x Seachrome Coast

Sideboard:
2x Flashfreeze
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Divination
2x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Sword of War and Peace
4x Timely Reinforcements
3x Day of Judgement

Basically, this deck can bring the beats with all of its guys which deal more damage per hit than the mana you invested (which is a key theory of red decks). Then when you finally get slowed down (or midway through the beat face action) you drop a Blightsteel and give the opponent a "you just lose fool" look.

The sideboard is obviously theoretical, but I don't think I have enough against UB. Clearly I can uptake the control role with DoJ, Timely, Divination, and Snapcaster. I am not too familiar with UB Control overall, so I don't know what beats it. I feel like Geist of Saint Traft is where I want to be though.

One thing that is really nice about this deck is that you can board out the combo whenever you want. Even if it helps you beat red deck game 1, it really isn't too powerful, but something like Timely Reinforcements is VERY wanted, especially because we can just race them and let them get just 1 more creature than us before blowing them out.

I have done minimal testing with the deck so far, but it has been VERY good. I am very pleased with how everything has been going. I have almost nothing for the deck though, so I might not be able to FNM with it this week, unless people love me and throw all their cards at me. One development that I am considering is cutting Ponder for Champion of the Parish to make you have a better beatdown curve. If I do that, I would probably cut the Moorland Haunts for basic Plains to increase the odds of a turn 1 untapped white source.

That's all I have today! Basically, despite the seemingly defined meta that we have right now, there are still plenty of potential decks out there that can capitalize on a stationary target. Until next time, Stay Classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com