Rynders Grinders #1

The Rusty Machete would like to introduce Alex Olson, a new writer who will be bringing you in-depth articles covering deck design and analysis, with regular insight into gameplay.

Allow me to introduce myself.

Name: Alexander Olson     Age: 20  Height: 6'3"  Weight: 215

Occupation: College Student at Michigan State University
Owner of Nonstop Cards and Collectibles (Launching Soon!)

Nicknames: The Puntorian, Rynders Grynders, Watchtower, OlsOn

Favorite Art: Full Art Cereal Bowl Island. Runner-up: Staggershock!

Interests: Good brews (and lagers!) and Magic Finance

Now that we have everythiing but my Colonic Map on record (coming soon!) we can get down to specifics. I love me some MTG.  I've been playing for a while and I've got the lay of the land. The one thing I see that most Magic players don't do enough is brew. 

Definition:

To create, or innovate, a previously unknown or untested deck.

e.g. Kai brewed up a deck.

Most players believe that brewing is just sitting down and putting different combinations of underused or extremly powerful cards together. And while in virgin formats this is true, I do not think in this manner. My personal
best results have come when the format is in full swing. A format, like wine, is best after it has aged a bit. Brewing is best after getting your hands dirty in playtesting.

Players such as Conley Woods or Kurtis Droge almsot exclusively play brews because of the edge they can give a player when the opponent doesn't know what to play around is valuable. Woods and Droge can then use matchup knowledge to play more optimally than their opponents.

The idea for the upcoming brew is rooted in two separate events a year apart from each other.  

The first is GP Chicago 2009. 

Kurtis Droge went X-0-1 on Day 1 playing a different take on a "zoo" list.

Blue Zoo | The Rusty Machete

Spells:  
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Fire // Ice
4 Force of Will
2 Path to Exile
4 Ponder
1 Rushing River
4 Spell Snare
4 Kird Ape
2 Ranger of Eos
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl

Lands:  
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Plateau
4 Polluted Delta
1 Savannah
2 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
2 Windswept Heath

Sideboard:  
3 Krosan Grip
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Stifle
1 Submerge
2 Tin Street Hooligan
4 Tormod's Crypt

I am good friends with Kurtis.  When asked about his decklist he explained that the idea was to tempo out your opponents by playing small dudes and then hitting them from behind with Force of Will.  But that you also had the option to play a longer game with Ranger of Eos and Ponder.

While this is all nice and good, the fact of the matter is that only Kurtis can play Kurtis brews correctly. The reason for this is because Kurtis can usually(not always) see an odd angle of attack and can use that and his superior ability to interact with the board and understanding of tempo to win matches.

The next event was GP Columbus 2010. 

It had been some time since I had played Legacy and I had a few things in mind that I wanted.

Legacy Checklist:

1.  I didnt want to fold to Wasteland or mana denial strategies without having a chance to
interact in the game

2.  I wanted to play blue cards because I wanted to know going in that I was not going to lose to
turn 1 Charbelcher or Ad Nauseum even if I was on the draw.

3. I wanted to be proactive but not play a combo deck. (Essentially I wanted to win by attacking).

That led me to test and play a tempo Bant list that I help collaborate on with Matt Hetzner. But when it came time to the event I personally played horribly. My head was not in it that weekend, and I was very upset with myself which stopped me from playing in any side events the whole weekend. 

Saturday night as I dozed off I reflected on my terrible plays and on some interesting things i had seen on the day.

Interesting Things:

The first thing really caught my eye. Almost every Zoo matchup I observed saw at least one game where the
zoo player just ran out of gas. Either they drew too many lands or played suboptimally or their creatures could not win in combat as the game dragged on. 

The second interesting thing I saw was how non-interactive combo vs Zoo games played out.

The third thing was more of a realization then an observed phenomena*. I had the fear. The fear of losing games
to Wasteland. I observed almost zero games where one player was land screwed and Wasteland locked up the game.

The final observation was watching Wafo-Tapa, Owen Turtenwald, Saito and an awesome kegger of pros, sideboard out Standstill against zoo.

This field data combined with a few things learned in testing and a three round legacy tournament. And I think I have a little monster on my hands.

Allow me to introduce:

Zoo with Blue | The Rusty Machete

Spells:  
3 Standstill
4 Lightning bolt
4 Path to Exile
3 Lightning Helix
2 Spell Pierce
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Loam Lion
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Noble Hierarch

Lands:  
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
3 Arid Mesa
3 Taiga
3 Plateau
1 Savannah
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
1 Treetop village

Sideboard:  
2 Volcanic Fallout
2 Negate
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
7 Cunning Sparkmage (Look Kurtis Sparkmage!)

That is correct! Standstill in zoo. I will note that this list is not tempo orriented like Kurtis' list.  That comparison was for the idea of a blue splash in the tradition Naya Zoo shell. 

Card choices:

3x Standstill

You never want multiples in your opener but having 2 throughout the game isn't always terrible. It replaces the Sylvan Library spot which was pretty loose normally. In testing it was observed that if you gave zoo an inch they would take a mile and probably the game. Standstill is alot more then an inch.

4x Noble Hierarch

I think this is one of the best cards in legacy.  It fixes mana. Accelerates. And diminshes the
value of opponents Wastelands.  AND it allows you to be agrresive in goyf fights/ creature stalls.

19x 1 drops

What I learned from that tournament was that I wanted to unload my hand to give myself a favorable board position and then lay a standstill to put them in a lose-lose. So maxing out on the most efficent 1 drops seems most appropriate. Playing turn 3 or 4 Standstill is almost more excellent then turn 2 standstill as you have a more developed board position.

1x Tundra, Tropical Island, Volcanic Island

You would think that 1 of these 3 would be superior to the other but that is simply not the case. Depending on your hand you may want more red sources after Standstill pops.  Or you may want need a white source for
Loam Lion on 2 after Kird Ape on 1.

1x Treetop Village

I normally hate this land in legacy (or extended zoo) because it always seems to mess up my curve. But at the tournament I had the insane play of turn 1 Wild Nacatl turn 2 Wild Nacatl, Loam Lion.  Turn 3 Standstill Treetop.

Lets just say we won that one.

2x Spell Pierce

For some people I know, this is my Spell Pierce rant. I think Spell Pierce is the best soft counterspell ever printed. It has seen play in every strictly competitive sanctioned format it has ever had the pleasure of being a member. It alone shores up an entire angle in decks that cards such as Daze and Spell Snare never could. The pros to Spell Snare is the cornicopia of awesome 2 drops it hits. the downside is its restrictiveness.  Spell Pierce handles 80% of the same cards and the ones it doesnt handle can be dealt with by better cards in your deck already. End Rant. It also gives you much needed tempo and interaction with countertop and combo decks such as *sigh* Aeon Bridges (I HATE corny deck names that become mainstream), Hypergensis, Show and Tell, and Sneak Attack.

2x Volcanic Fallout

Gandhi introduced me to this card as a tribal trump card. At the tournament my goblins opponent broke Standstill, laid out a plethora of goblins only to have them Fallout'ed away. This card is also very effective versus Merfolk due to its uncounterability and can help keep Zombie tokens and Ichorids from the red zone.

I look forward to actually getting some real testing on this guy. It has potential but may be no good. I hope
to write some more articles for the Rusty Machete in the future. I like to dabble in a lot of non-political issues
concerning magic.

“As he brews, so shall he drink”~ Ben Johnson

ThePedestrian136 on MTGO
alexanderrolson AT gmail DOT com
alexander DOT R DOT Olson on Twitter
alexander DOT R DOT olson on Skype