Friday 19 February 2010

Deck Tech: Mirandoran






Hi everyone.
Last Saturday, me and some friends attended the PTQ San Juan at Oporto. Personally I sticked to the best-deck-in-format, Thepts. However, this post is not about what I playes, but about the deck that 2 friends of mine piloted to top4 and top12.












So let’s go for the list:
// Lands
1 [RAV] Temple Garden
2 [RAV] Overgrown Tomb
1 [GP] Godless Shrine
1 [RAV] Watery Grave
2 [10E] Treetop Village
1 [ZEN] Forest (2)
1 [ZEN] Swamp (1)
1 [ZEN] Plains (1)
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
1 [DIS] Breeding Pool
1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
// Creatures
3 [LRW] Doran, the Siege Tower
4 [RAV] Dark Confidant
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
2 [ALA] Tidehollow Sculler
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
3 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
3 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
// Spells
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
4 [CFX] Path to Exile
4 [ALA] Bant Charm
2 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [LRW] Thoughtseize
1 [WWK] Basilisk Collar
1 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
// Sideboard
SB: 2 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
SB: 2 [PLC] Extirpate
SB: 3 [ON] Smother
SB: 3 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 3 [ARB] Thopter Foundry
SB: 1 [FUT] Sword of the Meek
SB: 1 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow

So, first of all this is a Doran deck. Doran decks are often called bad zoos because they just don’t put the same amount of pressure as any another aggro deck. While that is often true, thing is, Doran can capitalize in multiple game states such as card advantage, damage and hand disruption.
Doran creatures also have some interesting atributes, like an aggro deck it has goyfs which are the most cost efficient vannilla creature alonside with Doran itself, and other creatures are usually “handy”. While zoo decks play only cost efficient vannilla guys, Doran decks play guys that can be some sort of card advantage such like Dark Confidant aka Bob and tidehollow sculler.
But let’s go with card by card analysis:
Doran and Goyf – Like I mencioned before, these are the cost efficient, go aggro, muscle heads of the deck. No real t3ch here.
Kitchen Finks – These while still some muscle heads as the ones mencioned before, finks are usually a x for 1 since the persist ability and the bloat ability can lead to some sick plays.
Noble Hierarch – These are still in the auto-4-of’s since they are useful birds since the exalted trigger makes them able to carry equipments and win goyf wars. Pretty handy dude.
Dark Confidant – Bob, man of the hour, player in the most sick opening in extended (land, mox, bob) it’s also a auto-4-of. This is the difference between Doran and Zoo decks, the card advantage. Bob, while a little shy in combat, it can provide gás to make sure you will not run out of steam.
Tidehollow Sculler – Another 2 for 1 guy, this one started as a 4 of in maindeck, but while we had to had some other more useful things, scullers got cut. I mean, they are good, but maybe for their lameness against zoo, they were considered the weakest link.
Mystic Sunforger – Now, this is where the t3ch begins. Sunforger is the MVP of the deck. It made things possible that were not before. Things such as: only having 1 jitte in the deck, a equipment toolbox with the pro’s your guys need and to turn an aggro-midrange deck to a deck with the most powerful late game in extended. Sick stuff.
Path, Bant C., Thoughtseize – The handy disruption package. Seize is obviously powerful in a metagame thepts oriented and so are the path’s and bant charms. Bant charm is actually one of the top3 instants in extended alonside with path to exile (spell snare is missing) since they can answer basically all decks.
Chrome Mox – This deck doesn’t have na high land count, so some extra mana source is yet needed, alonside with that it actually powers up some sick plays such as t1 Bob <3.

Jitte, Sword and Collar – First of all these are the best equipments. Second of all, I wanted them to have diferent costs since that can matter in some games. Sure collar has the less impact in the game, however is powerful enough for a mere 3 mana activation. It really gives you an edge over other aggro decks. Jitte and Sword are pretty much paired in power and they have diferent costs. That is just awesome. Basically equipments have a desvating effect on board. They do more than pump your creatures, they actually can make life swings and act as removal. They stay on board and every creature you play becomes a threat, even a noble.
Sideboard
1 Sword of Light And Shadow – Since the most removal in extended is path or smother, this becomes a pretty neat choice for tuttoring. Also the triggers are pretty decent against aggro.
2 Qasali Pridemage – Some more artifact hate alongside with some answer’s to blood moon won’t hurt.
2 Extirpate – Basically against Thopter combo. But also cool against dredge and the sick play seize + extirpate vs scapeshift.
3 Smother – additional removal against those pesky aggro decks.
3 Gaddock Teeg – A nice solution for wrath’s, cryptics and scapeshift. Teeg with a specific sword equiped can be a gg against some decks.
3 Thopter Foundry + 1 Sword of the meek- And here comes the über-t3ch! So remember stoneforge mystic tutors for equipment? Do you actually know that sword of the meek is an equipment?? So, you got 3 mystics and a sword, but unfortunently there’s no other creature that can search for thopter, so I had to play 3 in side. But come on! What some awesome sideboard plan!!
So this is the deck. So it basically lost against 3 thepts and 1 zoo while got some other 11 victories, while some were other thepts and zoo’s. So I guess those mu’s need to be improved. But hey this is a 4 color deck, you can splash some pretty cool stuff.
Still with the new metagame, I mean, the updates from GP Oakland, the deck strategy has certainly to change, maybe adding some night of souls betrayl, chalices or darkblasts.
Well, that’s all folks.
Cya

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