My only real life memory of Billy Moreno is standing alongside Brian David-Marshall watching him play at Pro Tour Honolulu 2006. Moreno kept a one land hand on the play with his Zoo deck, leading with an impressive 1/1 Kird Ape. BDM and I both chuckled during his first draw step as he drew the Temple Garden he needed to actually stay in the game (any later and I think he would have been struggling). He turned to us with a grin and said something like “see? I’m totally pro!” and then attacked with the Ape. His opponent picked up his pen and said “take one.” Moreno hung his head in shame, and played his land post combat. Not so much known for his clean play, Moreno arrived on the Magic scene with a finals appearance at Pro Tour Los Angeles 2005, showcasing his homebrew Psychatog/Madness deck, making a name for himself as a Mad Genius deck designer.
After a bit of a hiatus, apparently Moreno is back and has The Fire, which is fine by me! I think the game needs more Conley Woods-like designers to keep things fresh and interesting. Earlier this week, Moreno posted the first draft of his post-Rise Junk deck on tcgplayer.com (Brainburst still breathes? who knew!) and this evening, he posted a revision on his blog. This is his most recent list:
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Kitesail Apprentice
4 Putrid Leech
3 Bloodghast
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Vengevine
3 Ranger of Eos
2 Scute Mob
1 Adventuring Gear
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
4 Swamp
2 Plains
5 Forest
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Sejiri Steppe
The inevitability of Vengevine and Bloodghast in the same deck looks like a recipe for beatings. However, the first thing I that caught my eye was the absence of certain cards. Whether this was an oversight on Moreno’s part, or he just didn’t think they were worth mentioning, I don’t know. Most importantly, the “kiddy combo” people were going crazy over when Vengevine was first spoiled.
This card is playable on its own, so it’s certainly not dead if you don’t draw Vengevine, but it’s the way it fuels the 4/3 that really makes me think it deserves a place in this deck. Summoning the Skyfisher and bouncing itself twice in a turn gives you everlasting Vengevines. Outside of that, you can use it to bounce and replay a land to reanimate Bloodghast, reuse Ranger of Eos or Stoneforge Mystic or even the Sejiri Steppe. Hell, if you wanted to replace one of the Maelstrom Pulses with an Oblivion Ring, you could even Live the Dream of O-Ring’ing a Planeswalker, then returning the O-Ring with Skyfisher to take out the replacement copy via the Legend Rule. I’m pretty sure Skyfisher should be a four-of in this deck, on the strength of its interaction with Vengevinealone.
This card isn’t as obvious as Skyfisher, but the deck does want landfall triggers, and targets for Ranger or Eos. My gut feeling is that the Lynx is better than Putrid Leech here. The mana would probably need to be reworked a little, but if you really wanted to, you could probably forgo black altogether, replacing the Pulses with an O-Ring/Journey to Nowhere/Path to Exile split. The downside to this is cutting Bloodghast. Without a Wild Mongrel variant in the format, you need to be able to spend BB to make use of it (or face Blightning/Cruel Ultimatum every round) meaning Leech is not really a problem on the mana front. There could possibly be an especially aggressive version of this deck that can summon both Lynx and Leech. Vengevine definitely benefits from the lowering of the overall curve of the deck, helping ensure you’ll be able to summon two men in one turn. It’s entirely possible that Moreno’s Kitesail Apprentice is enough, and the Leeches are a better fit.
The potential resilience of this deck suggests that some kind of answer to it may be important in the future. Bojuka Bog is a reasonable late game card that can be fetched by Knight of the Reliquary to neutralize an opponent’s graveyard. Even if mirror matches aren’t commonplace, the hype behind Vengevine in Jund and Naya decks might be of merit, and having the ability to trump Vengevine parity could be useful.
As for the numbers in Moreno’s list, he mentioned on twitter that the second Scute Mob is there because the first one dies too easily. My experience with the card in Boss Naya tells me that you absolutely hate drawing it, and that two is too greedy. I suspect a second (or even a third) Birds of Paradise could help any mana issues more than what Noble Hierarch brings to the table. While exalted is usually pretty ridiculous, I don’t imagine many creatures attacking alone in this deck. I do think you want all four Bloodghasts, but maybe I’m the one being too greedy there. Lastly, the revision of Moreno’s list removed the playset of Stirring Wildwoods, which was possibly a little heavy handed. I think you want at least one – maybe two – to fetch with Knight of the Reliquary.
I don’t have a list of my own for this deck I like yet, but I have been penciling a few up in my spare time, trying to figure out where I can squeeze in those Skyfishers. Once Rise of the Eldrzai hits Modo, I’ll definitely be giving this deck a spin. Does anyone want to sell me some cheap Vengevines? I hear they’re totally overrated (cough).
Need moar posts.
I know what all those words mean individually, but combined is another story….