Extended Extinctions Part 1

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.