HOW MUCH DO I LOVE ADVENT?
I gazed lovingly into
the beady eyes of the wurm, and it stared back at me with a satisfied
expression on its face and a burnt out cigarette clutched between its lips. I
leaned in on my dragon-kin mistress and whispered seductively in its ear hole
thingy:
“Do you want to watch ‘The Notebook’ tonight, honey?” The violent thrashing of its tail signaled
that she was unwilling to cry herself to sleep, and that a romantic comedy was
more up her alley.
“Well what do YOU want to do then, my dove?” The wurm smiled a tooth grin and darted out
of the $50 per night motel room before I could react. I called after her, but
she was out of my view before I could stop her. Was she trying to escape me?
Was my performance not up to par?
“Baby nooooooooooooo!” I lamented, but she was gone. All gone. I had
nothing left to remember our magical, passionate weekend together except for a
broken scale, a pool of slime, and a huge bill for the mini bar.
Deflated, I collapsed
in a heap on the dirty, sweaty blankets that were so pristine the night before.
I bunched them up in my fists, buried my face in them and sobbed... Oh how I
sobbed for the loss of my baby! Then just as the day looked its darkest, I saw
something shining in the distance, closing in on me fast. The scene was
something out of a Warner Brothers cartoon: A huge corona of dust advancing on
the hapless Bugs Bunny. Fight or flight response active, for a minute I was
frozen in place, unsure of what to do. I squinted into the sunlight… and could
it be? YES! It was my lovely wurm, returned to me with presents hanging from
its maw!
The corpse of a knight
in full armor! How sweet!
A collection of
artifacts, including a Winter Orb! Useful!!And the piece-de-resistance: A groupon for a weekend in Niagara Falls! WOWZA!!!
My heart melted as
wurm coiled me up in her serpentine form and dragged me back into our room to
fornicate.
…
…… I like Advent of the Wurm THAT MUCH!
WURMING MY WAY TO VICTORY
Dragons Maze gave
everyone a few new toys, but my favorite colors (G/W) seemed to really get a
boost. Advent of the Wurm & Voice of Resurgence are just as incredible as
my sexual prowess (Mrs. Wurm can attest to the validity of my claims) and
demand to be used in every deck I build from now until rotation.
Looking at the Bant
colors I see a few things that really jump out at me:
Thragtusk + Snapcaster
Mage + Restoration Angel (Things to Blink)
Snapcaster + Sphinx’s
Revelation + Advent of the Wurm (Snapcaster Goodness)Snapcaster + Restoration Angel + Advent of the Wurm (Flash Creatures)
… And Voice of Resurgence is just insane, is it not?
I guess that means
that each of the above is getting a slot or 4, and will look something like
this as a skeleton:
4 Thragtusk
3 Restoration Angel4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Sphinx’s Revelation
4 Advent of the Wurm
4 Voice of Resurgence
… THAT’S ALREADY 22
CARDS!
The deck basically
built itself to within 10-15 cards or so, and it then becomes a decision on how
much / which removal / utility creatures to include along with my cream of the
crop.
Well, Snapcaster isn’t
that great without something to flashback, so we’d better add some more spells.
We’re light on removal and conveniently in the colors of the best charms
(IMHO), and unsummon plays nice with Snappy for a T3 Snap + play.
X Unsummon
X Selesnya CharmX Azorious Charm
Now it looks like I’m
doing nothing for the first few turns like a control deck that plays creatures,
but without an endgame. Aggro will crush me if I don’t have some way to stem
the bleeding before hitting 5 for Tusk, so I’m going to need some other way to
stabilize. “Daddy Fat Stacks” is always ready to rumble and is undercosted for
the beef he brings to the table.
X Loxodon Smiter
CARL SZALICH’S BANT FLASH DECK
Creatures
(19)
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Snapcaster Mage4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
It’s beautiful. A pile of the best creatures in standard
just decided to have a party and invite everyone!
Snapper is busy chugging 40s and reminiscing the days of
Vapor Snag.
Tusk and Voice are having a heated debate about politics
over crumpets and tea.Smiter and Angel are off breeding in a smoke filled back room.
… Reminds me of high school! :)
Spells (16)
3 Unsummon
3 Selesnya Charm3 Azorious Charm
3 Sphinx’s Revelation
4 Advent of the Wurm
16 spells should give me enough to reliably have
Snapcaster meat. I was initially debating trying to squeeze in a Runechanters
Pike, up my spell count and run Thoughtscour but the reliability of other
choices vs. the cute pike trick won out after testing. T3 pike with no spells
in your bin and no bodies onboard is not as good as T3 Smiter with all the aGgro
running around. The situational goodness of pike loses to the consistency of
fat.
Lands (25)
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Gavony Township4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Breeding Pool
3 Hinterland Harbor
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
These aren’t the lands you’re looking for. Move along.
Sideboard (15)
3 Rest in Peace (C)
4 Centaur Healer (A)1 Sphinx’s Revelation (B)
3 Supreme Verdict (A)
2 Jace, Architect of Thought (B)
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter (B)
(A)
= Aggro Package
(B)
= Control Package(C) = Graveyard Hate
I’m still looking to write that article on how to design a sideboard, but until I do, it’s bush league, baby!
The (supreme) verdict is still out on whether to run Rest
in Peace or Tormods Crypt. RiP hurts our deck as well because it blanks
Snapcaster, but it’s a more permanent solution than Crypt that prevents them
from rebuilding their graveyard.
Jace, Garruk, and the final Sphinx’s Revelation come in
against control so that we can also experience the joys of card draw and
recover after they wrath the board. Notably absent is counter magic… I don’t
feel it’s needed as we’re normally better off playing a threat or just
answering theirs with our lucky charms.
The aggro match is only OK, but substituting elephants
for Centaur Healers really helps. The addition of 3x Supreme Verdict also lets
us play more like a control deck and bumps our removal spells up to 12.
DID YOU MOVE TO
WINSVILLE??
Nope! Instead I converted a cardboard box into a mobile
home and decided to hang out under a bridge. :S
I got the chance to try this list last Friday to a
disappointing result: 2-2. I don’t think it was so much the deck that failed
me, but more the draws. Even with 25 lands main I mulliganed almost every game
and STILL didn’t get up to 4 mana consistently.
When it was working, it still felt very underpowered.
Sure sometimes you’d get the surprise Wurm blocker and others you’d get to
flash it back with a Snapper, but when you weren’t doing that, well, you really
weren’t doing much. Could be that I didn’t really make it to 5 mana often
enough to experience the joy of dropping Tusks and playing more than one spell
a turn.
Even sphinx’s revelation felt dead in my hands with or
without the mana to cast it. It just feels too slow right now in such a fast
meta. Against blitz decks your T5 sphinx for 2 isn’t very impressive, and
midrange decks have their own CA in the form of Garruk and Prime Speaker
Zegana. I almost feel that Garruk, Primal Hunter would be a better choice than
sphinx because it still draws cards BUT can also generate blockers when you
need them. Even Jace, Architect of thought seems better here. For 4cc you can
hurt agro (-1 attack) OR draw cards like Sphinx. You don’t directly gain life
with this plan, but in a way you do by reducing attackers power.
When I managed to hit the mythical 4 mana mark Advent of
the Wurm performed just as I’d hoped, so at least I can’t blame him/her/it for
my failure.
THAT’S JUST PILLOW
TALK, BABY!
It is also unfortunate that I had to end the illicit love
affair I’d been having with wurm. She was cute, sure, but kinda bitchy and
snobbish. If it didn’t say “Prada”, she wouldn’t wear it. If it couldn’t somehow
be related to celebrity gossip, she didn’t want to hear about it. It was always
“her way or the highway”, so the highway I chose!
That’s right brothers! High five! :)
… Fine, I admit it! She broke up with me, OK?! There. Are
you happy now? When I couldn’t even muster the 4 mana to cast her and placate
her unquenchable lust for 4/4 she just up and left without a goodbye or a note.
Typical woman.
(Just don’t tell her I said that!)
Carl Szalich
@psilence6k on Twitter
I really love the way you explain this kind of topic. Cheers for the information you share!!!!
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