Bad Decks, Extended, Que Sera Sera

-Greg

So, despite my spotty record in the year I've been playing competitive MTG, I still can''t consider myself much of a casual player. I don't really enjoy playing EDH more than once every six months or so (although I do love to watch the games - especially if Pete and Luciano are playing. SHOUTOUT GUYS!). I find Planechase to be especially unlikeable, as each player's turn is excrutiatingly long, leaving me to watch in bordeome as everyone shouts and grabs at cards and stacks enough triggers to make me roll my eyes. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I also don't enjoy playing the inevitable 60-card formatless decks that people will always have - but for opposite reasons. Since these decks are normally carried around and piloted by people new to the game, or just getting back into it, I try to suffer through the matchups with whatever I have on me, sticking around after to offer whatever advice or new card primers I can - and while the latter part is always a good experience, I do not find the games themselve to be enjoyable. Sadly, it's as if I can't shake that need for competition and winning. Sure, casual games can test your knowledge, memory, and ability to juggle various triggers (especially true for EDH), but the thrill is just not there for me.

The best part about any casual format, something I hope most of you would agree with, is that casual players are just awesome people. EDH players always want to show you their insane combos and win conditions. New players always want to share interesting deck lists and ideas, and still have that New Player Smell® of someone who's just having a good time. Old players starting up again have cool stories about their experiences with older sets, and share my appreciation of the sort-of return to basics (or at least flavor) that M10 brought. On the flip-side, players like myself who prefer slugging out out 1v1 matches full of tricks and mind-games tend to be enormous assholes. I've heard enough sarcastic iterations of "nice deck" or "nice draw," or even straight-up aggression and resentment to losing to know that the only real joy to be had at a PTQ or higher is winning. I'm ok with that, sure, but no matter how thick-skinned I am, I still wish I could be playing these intensely competitive games with these intensely friendly people - something that only really happens when we can organize a good 8-man cube draft.

The point I'm trying to make, in a very round-about way, is that Standard right now is just not my favorite format. There are interesting ways to win, interesting cards, and there's definitely been a gauntlet thrown down by Jund (who doesn't love a challenge?) - but I can't seem to get into a format where you just do this:

1) Grab four Baneslayers
2) Add 46 support cards
3) Bash

Not to say there's no complexity or room for maneuvering, but it definitely says something when both the Channelfireball crew and Japanese national team's sickest take on the format is to run a stock Jund list with more gas. These problems were really becoming obvious to me this weekend, as Brenna took to our kitchen table with a white-weenie deck that packed only eight mana-producing lands. It was fast, scary, and cute - but by using this modified strategy...

1) Grab four Baneslayers
2) Add 46 support cards (board sweepers, stallers, mana rampers, and big dudes)
3) Survive six turns until she runs out of gas
4) Deal fifty damage in a few big swings

it was not too difficult. There are other options in the current meta, too, but they seem to fall back on similar strategies. That is, if you play Rhox War Monk, isn't he doing the same thing as Baneslayer? He's a big dude with lifelink, meant to establish board presence and lower your opponent's life total while upping yours. Throw this thinking in with a staggering glut of spot-removal, mostly irrelevant card-draw, and you've got yourself a format that's defined by creatured-driven attrition wars. Do you have a bigger dude than me? Do you have spot removal? Cool, let's sideboard.

What you'll notice in my modified strategy is no real mention of what the support cards are, which I assure you, is irrelevant and predictable. In fact, you could probably build the deck I was running with only that information, and knowledge of my colors (GWb). Lotus Cobra? Check. Knight of the Reliquary? Check. Path? Check. Maelstrom Pulse? Check. Furthremore, what would you say the most powerful control cards in the format are? Is Wall of Denial on your list? Because if not, it should be, and regardless of whether or not people will agree with me that WoD is a "control card," it most certainly is. It is, in fact, a prominent control card, central to a deck's strategy. Last season, Plumeveil filled a similar function, but didn't even come close in the wall's level of importance. In short, mucking up the battlefield before laying down a flier is the control strategy in the Standard season of late 2009. There are other options, sure, but how long can you cascade into Spreading Seas and still say to yourself, yeah, Blue rules? Not long, I don't think.

But to tie this in to my previous statements about casual vs competitive magic... Well, people who are playing Standard seem to be strictly divided in two camps: nice casual players, and competitive jerks. In a bizarre twist of fate, though, these two player camps are using the same strategy, and it revolves almost entirely around tables covered in dudes. Just think what life would be like if they hadn't printed Day of Judgement...


So, with my rant aside, I've been getting more and more into Extended. There is an entirely new level of complexity to explore, more options and outs available, and more explosive games that rely on your ability to build and drive.

All I have to do now is convince my wife that it's fun...