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I wanna talk some about the decks which barely get hurt by the rotation (such as Affinity, Zoo, U/W Tron etc.) but first I need to present something to you:
Extended Belcher:
Mainboard:
5 Mountain
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
4 Wild Cantor
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Chromatic Star
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Manamorphose
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Chromatic Sphere
3 Guttural Response
4 Seething Song
4 Chrome Mox
4 Goblin Charbelcher
# 60
Sideboard:
4 Shattering Spree
4 Defense Grid
3 Pithing Needle
4 Tormod's Crypt
# 15
The past couple weeks there have been some practice Post-Rotation extended tournaments going down on Magic Workstation. The top 8 deck lists are being posted periodically to DeckCheck.net. I'll go over all the lists thus far on a later date, but I wanted to share the above list in particular, since I thought it was amazing, and very reminiscent of the CRET Belcher builds in Legacy and Vintage. This deck took first in the tournament it was in.
Urrggh I'm sober and at work, this depresses me. If only I had some more vicodin, but alas, let us continue.
The Rock: The deck retains all of its solid mid-range creatures like Doran, Tarmogoyf, and Loxodon Heirarch. However it loses some of its most valuable disruption tools in Duress, Cabal Therapy, and Vindicate. These can be replaced with Oblivion Ring and Thoughtseize, but neither of these are as good as the original. The deck is still good and will be played, its just weaker. Also, Pernicious Deed rotates... sadface
Next Level Blue: In terms of the actual rotation of this only really loses Force Spike. However, Sensei's Diving Top is now officially banned in Extended. So its Counterbalance-Top super disruption combo is now over. Trinket Mage can still search for some bombs like Engineered Explosives and Pithing Needle, but the main force behind this deck is gone. I expect to still see it around since it retains amazing control cards like Vedalken Shackles, Threads of Disloyalty, Crytic Command, and Remand, but like the Rock it'll just be significantly weaker.
Enduring Ideal: This deck loses Solitary Confinement, which was its main defensive card which made the deck actually work. Burning Wish is also gone, and there is no good tutor to replace it. Sensei's Diving Top was also huge in setting up the draw needed to Enduring Ideal and win. I don't expect this deck to survive... at all.
Goblins: Don't get me wrong, Goblins will still be a decent deck post rotation, especially with all of the good Goblin cards Lorwyn added to the mix (such as Frogtosser Banneret and Earwig Squad). Goblin Ringleader (Amazing Card Draw) and Goblin Matron (Amazing Tutor) both rotate out, making it much harder for Goblins to come back if they are under pressure.
Next post, Ill cover which decks barely got hurt by the rotation. Also, I'm in the process of trying to find a way to auto-link cards. Hopefully I'll be able to remedy that problem soon. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go try to find a pill of some sort to eat. Yum!
Ya know ... I wanted the first post on this blog to be creative, fun, unique, and all those other things people strive for in writing. I wanted to write something that would set me apart from all the random magic nerds and pro tour players writing about Magic for the main stream sites. But then ... I realized I wasn't drunk enough to give a shit about what anyone who reads this blog is gonna think about it. Yeah, FUCK YOU READER!! I said it! What?! We can take this to fisticuffs later.
Instead, this blog is simply going to be an outlet for all my musing about Magic's current most exciting format: Extended.
As some of you should already know, Extended is about to face a massive rotation. With the release of Shards of Alara on October 3rd, the following sets will be leaving extended: Invasion, Planeshift, Apocalypse, Odyssey, Tormet, Judgement, and 7th Edition. With such a large number of sets leaving, the format itself is going to cease to exist as we know it. Sure, some juggernauts such as Affinity will still be around untouched, but just about every other deck known in Extended's existence is about to die or about to undergo some massive overhauls. So, before we can start brainstorming on what the best way is to break this format wide open, we need to discuss which decks got slapped in the face with the new rotation.
U/G Tron:
Sadface :( U/G Tron only loses one card: Moment's Peace. However, this is the card which made the deck amazing. Sure Life from the Loam combo'd with Gifts Ungiven sets up Mindslaver locks and guarantees the player finds all three Urza Lands. But Moment's Peace is the card which allowed the deck to even survive to the point where it can cast Gifts Ungiven and do ridiculous things. Its the only thing which kept the deck from rolling over and dying horrible to aggro. The closest replacement I can think of is Wall of Roots, which is an almost irrelevant card to have out when you're staring down two Myr Enforcers, two Frogmites, and a Ornithoper with Cranial Plating equipped ... on turn three. If you really want to play Tron, stick with U/W or U/R instead, or better yet just don't play it at all. Tron is only a good deck in a control heavy metagame, and this new format is looking to be more and more aggro dominated.
Scepter Chant:
All three spells which this deck abused with Isochron Scepter are rotating out: Counterspell, Orim's Chant, and Fire/Ice. With those around, this is just a bad U/W control deck. And oh yeah, its main card draw was Fact or Fiction which is also gone. You can probably put together a decent W/U control deck using Cryptic Command, Exhalted Angel, Wrath of God, Remand, Vedalken Shackles and so on, but there are better control options out there (such as Mono Blue with a green splash for Goyf or Faeries)
Madness:
There is not too much to say about this deck. Almost every relevent card with Madness is rotating out with the Odyssey Block.. along with most of the good discard outlets available in Extended. But this deck hasn't been a force to be reckoned with for a long time, so really this whole paragraph was pointless.
Aggro Loam:
This deck loses all of its core elements except for Life from the Loam and Seismic Assault. Without Terravore, Devestating Dreams, Burning Wish, and Werebear, the deck simply loses a lot of its power. This is a shame, since this was one of the better and more flexiable decks in Extended available for the past few seasons.
Dredge:
The loss of Icorhid is bad, but thats manageable. The loss of Deep Analysis hurts, but again this deck can survive without it. The loss of Breakthrough, Careful Study, and Putrid Imp make this deck almost unplayable. Sure the main combo is there, since Dread Returns and Narcoameoba are still around, but all of its main discard outlets are gone. Magus of the Bazaar and its ilk are too slow to make the deck the force it once was. At least now we don't have to worry about trying to hose two broken linear decks in our sideboard.
TEPS:
The Extended Perfect Storm only really lost the Invasion sac lands, which allowed it to go off turns earlier than it had any right to. I doubt highly that we'll be seeing anyone Sins of the Past targeting Mind's Desire on turn three anytime soon, but since Storm is such a broken mechanic, we'll probably see some other iteration of this deck. This will most likely be either u/r or mono red for consistency and kill with Grapeshot coupled with Pyromancer's Swath, or Empty the Warrens. Either way, the deck as we once knew it is gone (although it had fallen from popularity for some time now)
More to come! But first I must go drink, there is a gallon of Rossi sangria calling my name right now.
