LARK LARK LARK

-Greg

For the PTQ this past weekend, I decided to change decks last minute from the RWU Lark build I've been working on to Five Color Blood, I deck I have little experience with. I said to myself, what's the worst that can happen? I have plenty of experience with Cruel Control, this runs the three best cards I can think of (Cryptic, Bloodbraid, Cruel Ultimatum), and it's all nestled in a nice, removal heavy Jundy shell. NOTHING CAN GO WRONG RIGHT?

Game one, I double-double-Crueled (which is when you cast Ultimatum twice in a game, two games in a row), and I was feeling pretty OK. Kitchen Finks was doing his thing, Fallout was stellar (as always), Putrid Leech applied the early beats, and the deck was working with only minor hiccups. The mana was perfect, the curve was decent, and a deck with a few tricks is always better than a deck with no tricks.

Then everything went wrong.

Round two, I lost in a very close third game to a highly competent Faeries pilot. 1-1. Then, I played a hobbit who was playing Jund, and realized that, in my hasty building, I brought literally no answer to a Chameleon Colossus. I massively punt game three, when I inexplicably name Kitchen Finks instead of Colossus with my turn four Thought Hemorrhage. 1-2. Then, I play Faeries again, mulliganing into even weaker hands only to be triple-Mistind Cliqued in two not-so-close games. 1-3. Brenna is doing ok, so I stick around, and can hopefully regain some point loss on the rating. Next round, I'm at the why-are-you-even-here tables, and I eat this poor kid alive. He hits me with a main-deck Traumatize, and I can't even hold my laughter in. He says "Your deck is fucking amazing, why are you 1-3?" I have no idea, good sir, perhaps it is a lack of playtesting. 2-3. Then I lose two quick ones to mana screw, never finding the seventh land for my game-changing Ultimatum.

So what do I think about the deck? It's alright. It offers some oppurtunity to outplay an opponent, and on paper it has a seemingly tight game against most of the field. The problem is, you need to be drawing a land and a spell every turn - something Cascade can't always do for you. This is an especially troublesome situation against aggro, as you have to be tapping out on your turn to put up a fight, making your instants much less valuable than before. Furthermore, aggr0/control hybrids have a very real tendency to completely fold to real control decks - and there are lots of those around these days. I would definitley not recommend anyone play it anytime soon, unless they are going to use a time machine to go back to before Chapin thought it up - and even then I'd really have to recommend B/W Tokens.

Anyway, we're gearing up now for PTQ Madison on the 8th, and I'm going to stick with what I know is right - Reveillark. Stay tuned for a possible decklist after we test tonight.

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