GW Beats 2011

So I’ve been playing a GW Aggro deck at sanctioned vintage recently, with varying levels of success. The deck is geared to be able to reliably play disruptive threats and attack the enemy’s mana base (Hello every Fish deck ever) while being immune to cards attacking blue. I’ve got the list below for comments.

My metagame is “interesting” for Vintage. Half of the people typically play your regular Vintage staples. There are always blue control decks and dredge, usually fish variants, and sometimes shops or dark times. The other half play junk piles, usually aggro. For example, last week we had suiblack, kithkin, and a few people just running piles of standard aggro.

GW Aggro

Creatures (24)

4 Gaddok Teeg
4 Quasali Pridemage
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Skinshifter
3 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Aven Mindcensor
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

Artifacts (7)
3 Null Rod
2 Pithing Needle
1 Lotus Petal
1 Crucible of Worlds

Spells (5)
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Tariff

Lands (24)
4 Windswept Heath
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
3 Savanna
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Plains
4 Forests
4 Wasteland
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Strip Mine

SB (15)
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Aether Vial
4 Elephant Grass
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Nature’s Claim

Some of the more questionable card choices explained:

1.   Phyrexian Revoker and Pithing Needle

These are here primarily to stop Jace and provide more mana disruption. I would run four Revokers, except that it can’t stop Bazaar. Having two Needles maindeck helps balance the dredge match significantly.

2.    Skinshifter

This is in testing stage, but I think this fellow compares fairly well with Tarmogoyf. He does require G each turn to operate, true, but for that investment you get a body that is comparable to Goyf in early game that can also fly over the opponent late game. Plus, by becoming a 0/8 he blocks Inkwell and Golems all day long, something Goyf stretches to reliably do.

“But they can nuke him in response to the activation of his ability!” Sure they can. But, unlike Standard, my impression is most Vintage decks are not packing x4 Lightning Bolt and x4 Dismember. At worst, I’m concerned about Darkblast and Fire//Ice.

3.   Knight of the Reliquary

I’m on the fence about her. Her primary role in the deck is to be a big fat fattie, and she does this well. Last tournament, she came down as a 5/5 pretty consistently. This was bigger than opposing Goyfs, which was important in fish, and was clutch to beating Goblins. She has some utility, fetching out Horizon Canopy or Strip Mine, but the deck is not designed to really abuse this with a lot of other effect-lands. Against more typical vintage decks, I worry she may be too slow. Maybe she really lives in a deck with Crop Rotation and Vinelasher instead of Skinshifter and Mindcensor.

4.   Elephant Grass

I love this card so much. It stops random aggro decks cold in their tracks until you can find a KotR to overrun them. In my meta, I think this is huge.

In theory it also hoses Dredge, since the zombie tokens are all black. In reality, I suspect, this is bad against Dredge because it will cut you off mana if you play it early enough to matter. You’d basically aim to have a flying creature and Grass down and then hold them off long enough to kill. Not sure this is a good plan, but at least it’s A plan.