Standard Singleton is a vivid format that rewards innovation and focused deck design. I broke the format a few months ago by creating Grixis control to counter a field full of Naya based midrange decks. Since then Grixis has been one of the most popular archetypes, usually with at least 2 spots in the top 8 and winning the whole show consistently. This weekend, I decided it was time to reclaim my format and teach these imitators some lessons.
The rules of the format are simple: only one copy of of any card legal in the current standard format (Shards of Alara through Rise of the Eldrazi) can be in your 75 with the exclusion of basic lands. My first attempt at the format was a 5 color bombs deck that lacked the cohesion afforded by the Zendikar block refuges and manlands and thus resulted in disaster. Though Enlisted Wurm into Bituminous Blast into Elspeth was pretty sweet, decks in this format need a stable manabase more than anything else.
On a whim I joined an Alara Block draft and came out of it with some packs and a Cruel Ultimatum. I put on my designer hat and created a Grixis deck based around the finishing power of the card. After acquiring a Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker I was ready to go. I top 8'd a few times before going 4-2 in the swiss of another tournament with the two losses being to the exactly 75 I had played 3 weeks ago. For anyone interested, I wrote about that deck over at puremtgo.com and my articles are in their archives.
After this I took a break from Singleton for a few months due to PTQ's and other weekend obligations. Upon my return I took 1st, 2nd, and 4th in consecutive weeks. Noticing a giant swath of the metagme being Grixis, as well as the majority of my losses coming at the hands of the mirror, I decided to break the format again.
Having extensive experience playing with and against the Grixis Singleton deck, I knew its strengths and weaknesses inside and out. While most of the decks in the current metagame offer slight variations to my original list, the theory of the deck remains intact. Trade efficient removal early, pull ahead with card drawing and planeswalkers, then kill at leisure. While the deck may appear ponderous, once it is ready to win, the opponent will be dead in 2 turns. And one of those turns may very well be from a Time Warp. This strategy is very strong against creature decks like Bant or Naya as you can effectively trade up your mana, as an example playing Lightning Bolt on a Dauntless Escort then playing Jace in the same turn. Also the creature decks lack adequate answers to something as powerful as Mind Spring or Cruel Ultimatum.
The weaknesses of the deck were obvious to me, but as nobody else had come up with the deck I eventually won with, I assume it wasn't as glaring to everyone else. The most often way I lost was to an unanswered Sedraxis Specter or Elspeth, Knight Errant. This highlights a weakness to certain permanents, notably those immune to pinpoint removal, or in the case of Specter creatures that provide value even if they are removed. Additionally, due to the high manacost of the gamebreakers in the deck, a land disruption strategy could be very effective out of the board. Dealing with an opposing Mind Shatter or Mind Spring often proved a daunting task as well. Lastly, and the starting point of my build, the Eldrazi were nearly impossible to deal with profitably. Countering or killing a Kozilek still put you behind by 4 cards, and Ulamog is immune to all the spot removal (not edicts though, like Consuming Vapors and Cruel.) And if you are ever caught without a solution, the annihilate trigger is impossible to recover from.
I chose to focus on beating Grixis with the maindeck due to the fact during the last Singleton Challenge Grixis claimed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place so I expected it to be popular and I wasn't going to be okay with having a bad matchup against it.
Due to the constraint of being able to cast these 10 and 11 mana spells, I knew I wanted to be a green deck. Green has the best mana acceleration and creatures like Oracle of Mul-Daya which further boost your development. Additionally, green has finishers on the level of those available to the Grixis deck in the form of Avenger of Zendikar and Rampaging Baloths. Both provide mass tokens even if "dad" is removed. Due to the necessity of running ramp, I wanted to avoid the ramp decks have classically had, ie drawing all ramp and no threats or vice versa. Running out of gas was a huge problem as well. And of course, the answer to all consistency issues is to add blue. Not only does this improve the control matchup with cards such as Mind Spring, Jace Beleren and Mind Sculptor, and Sphinx of Lost Truths, it also affords control magic effects to make up for green's lack of creature removal. So I had my starting point: U/G ramp eldrazi.
The question of whether to run a third color was an important one to answer early on. As I only had about 2 days to get the deck ready and didn't want to waste testing time. Due to the constraints of the singleton format, mana is hard to fix. Only 1 M10 dual, 1 manland, 1 fetch, and so forth. Due to this, I decided 2 colors would be the most consistent, and I could design a powerful enough deck without going into other colors. Additionally, because my mana would be strong and I would have more lands that came into play untapped than my opponents, I would be able to sometimes just get free time walks that way.
Here's one of the initial builds of the deck:
I had Dan test the deck in the 2-man queues for a day and he was undefeated. Including beating Grixis 4 times. So I knew the deck was real and just needed to finish tuning it.
First to go was the Emrakul. He's big, he's bad, and he always kills your opponent. However, he's supposed to come in for the control matchups to play trump, but those are the same matchups where you take out a lot of your ramp since you need higher threat density. This renders him very difficult to cast short of a huge Everflowing Chalice or an Oracle of Mul Daya. Active Oracle should put you far enough ahead that you can win easily anyways (as it indicates your opponent has no removal and you will only ever draw gas) and everflowing chalice has many ways to put you ahead as well.
Secondly, Harrow was cut for Noble Hierarch in order to adjust the speed of the deck. Every accelerator is capable of playing a 4 cost spell on turn 3 with the exception of Harrow. Hierarch fixes the problem. Plus, being able to Hierarch into turn 2 Jace or Divination or Awakening Zone is insane. I remember Joraga Treespeaker, AKA Sol Ring, soon after and immediately made room.
Lotus Cobra was a card that went in and out of the deck in various stages of design. I initially cut him for Overgrown Battlements. Even though Cobra is more powerful as it synergizes with Explore, Rampant Growth, and fetchlands, it is always far more vulnerable. Not only is it dead to Burst Lightning and Lightning Bolt unlike the wall, people are also way more afraid of Cobra and will kill it even if they would not kill the wall in the same position. If my goal is to play a 4 cost spell on three, Battlements will do that just fine while having a higher likelihood of survival. In the end I brought Cobra back in and also left the Battlements. This also necessitated adding Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds to maximize its ability. The speed boost provided by Cobra in the finished version proved to be critical against aggressive decks, allowing you to pull far ahead even when on the draw. Also, it was often possible to avoid playing Cobra on turn 2 by playing another accelerant, then using Cobra on turn 3 along with a fetch to put yourself ahead while still robbing your opponent of his turn since he is obligated to remove Cobra.
Sphinx of Magosi: I have been very impressed with this card as a finisher in Grixis. It provides card advantage while being unrivaled in size. However, in this deck he is not the best finisher, as we have Rampaging Baloths and Avenger of Zendikar, both capable of killing faster. I had to make room for all the acceleration and other threats, so the Sphinx was relegated to the sideboard. Note that I believe Lost Truths is better maindeck as it provides a way to dig early and an immediate three cards at 7 mana while the Magosi would take 15 to get to the same 3 cards.
The Mind Control package. From my experience with Grixis, I discovered control magic effects were the best way to steal tempo from an opponent and provide you with their best threat. I had always wanted to play Domestication in the board but for Grixis that wasn't an option as you could not afford to be unable to take something you really couldn't deal with, and you didn't care about taking their mana creatures. But for U/G this card was fine as you were very interested in taking accelerators and you would be able to block the more menacing threats. Oh, and we still have this Roil Elemental in the board too, which was added over the Pelakka Wurm to complete the full control magic suite. While fragile, it is likely your opponents will board out removal to bring in "anti-control tech" against you, making your Elemental safer. I also added Master of the Wild Hunt to the sideboard once I obtained a copy, so as to continue the overload on my opponent's now decreased removal suite.
Keening Stone was abandoned soon after its addition. While the control decks were not yet running Eldrazi, I could not guarantee they would continue on the current trend. While the Stone is almost a guaranteed 3 turn kill, it is a passive win condition as it does nothing to influence the board state and cannot solve a planeswalker unlike creature based threats. I also determined that any of my other threats from Sphinx of Magosi to Avenger of Zendikar would be able to win in 2 turns, faster than the Stone, as well as provide uses other than as a pure finisher at other stages of the game.
Pithing Needle was advised as an answer to problem permanents like planeswalkers, Behemoth Sledge, manlands, and Luminarch Ascension. I chose to not include the Needle as it is a reactive answer, and they will already have gotten a use out of any walkers since this list doesn't run discard to be able to preemptively name a walker. This deck is also fine in combat, with a plethora of creatures ready to step in between your opponent's forces and your face, so manlands and Ascension weren't too big a concern. The Nature's Claim as a replacement answers Sledge and Ascension more proactively, can free important assets from Oblivion Ring or Journey to Nowhere, and can mess up mana by blowing up Obelisks and Borderposts
Rite of Replication was a card I never played in Grixis as that deck lacked good targets for it outside of Siege-Gang Commander and Sphinx of Magosi and you didn't really care about cards your opponents had and would rather Mind Control them anyways. However, in U/G it is capable of copying Baloths or Avenger maindeck, which is very powerful, and is a combo with Acidic Slime postboard as a faux-Armageddon. I used this card to great effect in the tournament and have been very happy with it. Gelatinous Genesis was suggested as a replacement, since at 9 mana it is 4 4/4's and at anything higher it is nearly unanswerable. However Genesis is a very one-dimensional threat while Rite is very flexible and can be just cast as a Clone in the early game.
One of the earlier builds had Living Tsunami in the board. You may laugh. Well, he was mostly a placeholder so I could play the deck in the queue's to test. He's actually not too bad just as a guy and I had visions of sideboarding into U/G fish against control. Luckily I came to my senses and Djinn of Wishes replaced him. Did I mention Djinn *casts* the spells? 4 mana Kozilek anyone? While the days of Djinning Cruel Ultimatum on their draw step are over, Djinn is still more than adequate as a premier threat in the board.
With a strong anti-aggro sideboard and a great plan for control, I made a few more minor changes and arrived at the following decklist:
Now I was ready to take the tournament by storm. Join me for Part 2: the Rampdrazi Hurricane.
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