The First Constructed Mana Strom Game - EVER!

[Mr. Type 4]

I witnessed the first ever game of Mana Storm Constructed, and it was EPIC!  I hadn't really expected it to be so interactive, and for there to be so many insane plays.  I knew it would be a pretty sweet format, but the game I witnessed was far beyond my expectations.  This is based on what I remember happening, although I can't say I took notes so the game didn't happen exactly like this, but pretty close.

My deck is on Magic Workstation, and I didn't think I was going out to Columbus to hang out with my fellow Meandeckers this weekend so I didn't have time to put together a real Mana Storm deck.  However, Steve Mnendian and Jimmy "Lord Homer Cat" both had their decks ready to go. 

Steve had been talking his deck up for a while, and it was finally revealed that it was a control deck with a ton of Counter-spells and a few bombs.  he wanted to take advantage of being able to put land into play even if he didn't go first.  He had grasped the concept that in Mana Storm, card advantage is king, and his deck sounded pretty brutal.  The build used a lot of cards akin to Mana Leak, that allowed the spell to resolve if the caster paid extra mana. One of Steve's strongest strategies was to force player to waste their good cards by having to play them face down to get around his counters, while only playing minimal land himself.

Lord Homer's deck, on the other hand was a combo deck that utilized some of the most broken cards in the format, packing in a relentless barrage of must counter cards.  A solid contender, indeed.

So, it was a remix of the classic control vs. combo match.  it was anyone's game.

Lord Homer won the roll and elected to play first.  Menendian's strategy was a reactive one, and he benefitted as much from being on the draw as Lord Homer did from being on the play.  Steve began the game by putting two land in play before actual play began. 

Lord Homer started by playing a card as land and then casting Orim's Chant.  Menedian took advantage of this by Condescending it for 1 and then scrying, but it left him tapped out.  Lord Homer used this opportunity to cast one of the most powerful cards in the format (a card that is on the watched list for banning): Trade Routes.  Trade Routes is extremly powerful, and essentially thwarts Steve's strategy of making his opponent over extend his resources. 

Steve didn't do much on his turn save untapping and playing a few more land cards so he wouldn't be caught with no mana again.  He passed the turn.  Lord Homer untapped and returned all of his lands to his hand.  Steve took this opportunity to destroy Trade Routes with Red Elemental Blast.  Lord Homer proceded to transmute a card to get Rude Awakening, a card that would make all his lands into 2/2 creatures! He Duressed Steve to clear the way, but Steve responded by Forking the Duress and taking the Rude Awakening.

A few turns went by and the players stocked up, then Lord Homer played a card that shook up the entire match, Boseiju, Who Shelters All.  The land was uncounterable, and it became clear that his important cards were going to be able to slip by Menedian.  Steve was not happy.  When Lord Homer untapped the Boseiju, all hell really broke loose.  He tapped all of his mana and cast an uncounterable Turnabout to untap his lands.  He followed it up by tapping out to cast an uncounterable Stroke of Genius for like 10 cards.  Steve responded with a Orim's Chant to prevent anymore cards from comming down this turn. 

The following turn, Lord Homer played a bunch of mana down and cast an uncounterable ill gotten gains.  Lord Homer cast a small Stroke of Genius on himself, and it was countered. 

Steve drew a card, and played a voidmage prodigy and passed.  Lord Homer untapped, tapped out his mana and cast an uncounterable braingeyser on himself, but Steve had Divert, and got to draw the cards himself.  Steve then cast Mystic snake on Lord Homer's end step, with only a few life remaining from many Boseiju activations, it was looking grim for the combo deck.

Steve attacked on his turn bringing Lord Homer down to a 3.  He passed the turn, but EOT Lord Homer cast an uncounterable Turnabout to tap Steve's mana down for one last big turn.  He then followed it with Intuition for Diabolic Tutor, Prosperity and something else.  Steve gave him the tutor. 

Lord Homer Diabolic Tutored for Burning Wish and used it to get back the Ill Gotten Gains that had been removed from the game earlier.  He cast it returning his Rude Awakening, which he used to quickly kill Steve with a horde of killer lands. 

So Lord Homer Cat was the winner of the first ever Mana Storm game, congratulations!  It became very clear after seeing this game that both players had underestimated the possiblities of the format, and everone watching soon had many new ideas for potential strategies.  It was amazing how good Boseiju was, as it was great vs control, and if the opponent didn't have many counterspells, it could be played face down as a super dual land.  It is certainly possible to pack your deckwith several "silver bullets" to deal with strategies that are difficult to beat, because you can always play them as land if you don't need them. It was also clear to everyone watching how much potential there was in the format.  It just looks like a lot of fun.

Steve's deck was clearly a great start for a control strategy.  I'mn sure that after playing that game he had many ideas of how to tighten it up.  Congratulations to him for putting up such a good fight. 

[LordHomerCat]

That game was so ridiculous.  And, theres like a million cards I want to add now, Restock, Sunder, Sapphire Medallion, some Oboro guys, etc.  There are so many insane cards in this format!

Basically, Steve's deck was like 58 counters, a Dryad, and a Sacred Mesa.  My deck was a couple mana boosters (high tide, mana flare, Heartbeat), a few protection cards (duress, chant, abeyance), a couple untappers (turnabout, Rude awakening), and a TON of draw spells, basically anything in the format that broke even when cast off a High Tide.  It was a hilarious game for sure, how about winning after getting my Braingeyser for 12 Diverted =]

I highly recommend building some decks, theres so many insane things you can do (Mike was puzzling out some more combos while we played), and its really sooo much fun because such ridiculous things happen.  I know I'll have some tweaks to my deck for whatever tournament I show up to next.

[Lyle H]

Lord Homer absolutely proved that Boseju was one of the greatest bombs in the format. Juat as powerful as your most broken of spells.  Im glad I got to watch.

[Hi-Val]

I've been doing some prelim testing, and I've found ARRRGO to be simply devastating in this format. I look forward to dismantling combo decks with it in the future.

[Mr. Type 4]

Dibs on a Mana Storm game at Rochester(or the next time I see you), Doug.  We'll see what your aggro is made of

[Harlequin]

Just to recap deck building restrants:

- 60 card Highlander (every card is restricted to 1)
- All Sets that are legal in Legacy are legal (any rarity)

- The Ban List is as follows:
All cards banned in Legacy are Banned.
Recycle
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Goblin Charbelcher
Flooded Shoreline
Cloudstone Curio
Horn of Greed
Storm Cauldron


Anything I missed aobut Deck construction?

[Mr. Type 4]

That is 100% correct.   Legacy Highlander and the Sinister 7 banned list. I will have my deck at Rochester, as will Steve and hopefully a few others.  If someone comes with a Mana Storm deck I will make sure we get a game in. 

You think you found something we missed, Harlequin?  I'd be interested to see what you come up with.  Maybe eventually we'll ban a card in your honor. 

[Harlequin]

No, Looks good to me. 

I'm basically building a deck of some small combos, and a million tutors.  Basicially its, "how can I abuse some key interactions..." Not sure If it will preform well, but it definately taxes the mind about what your best "play" is.  Very fun.

Oh and for all you control players out there my list includes:
Xantid
City of Solitude
Bosaju
Dosen, the fallen leaf
Defense Grid
Orim's Chant
Abayance

So its not too overrun by one key counterspell.

I will say this:  Beware Mycosynth Latus + Null Rod.

Oh and In my testing ... Sundering Titan = AMAZING in this format.

I have a question.  The person who goes is going second gets to put SDL's into play before the other player starts thier turn right?  Can I cast Orim's Chant durring the first player's turn's upkeep?

[LordHomerCat]

There isn't an upkeep in the first turn.  It just starts with their main phase =[

Trust me, I was sad when I mentioned a similar thing to a friend of mine and he corrected me (Solfatara / Turf Wound anyone?)

[Hi-Val]

Sundering Titan is certainly ludicrous, but eight mana is a pinch. I suppose if you can swing playing it, it's just outright better than any other combo card you can come up with. I forsee Titan eventually being banned as just too good.

I think there are a lot of tools for aggro in the format also. Discard is obviously incredible, since it doubles as a stone rain. There's also an assortment of mana screwing cards that one could utilize after dropping a threat or two.

[LordHomerCat]

Titan is soo expensive, if you're resolving an 8 mana beast, you probably win the game.  Reanimating him seems really good, but he's only a one-of, so until someone really breaks him, I don't see a good reason to ban an 8 mana card.

Ya, theres some powerful mana-screwing cards (Limited Resources?)

[Mr. Type 4]

Limited Resources is pretty busted, and is one of the reasons I wanted the "player two starts with land in play" rule.  Let's also not forget about Uba Mask, which makes it so you can't play anything you draw as land.  Hell, Trade routes + armageddon is pretty good.  If you're aggro, you could play Ank of Mishra to punish a combo player from playing out lots of lands, or you could punish anyone that wants to milk some utility from Trade Routes(which should probably be in every deck).  I think that Titan is SICK, but fair for now.  I challenge anyone to break the format with that card.

Let's face it, though, there are sooooo many unexplored options in this format, we could go on forever.  I am a bit surprised that no one has come up with an eighth card that needs banned yet, we compiled that list in like three days, it seemed to me that we must have missed SOMETHING... yet a lot of people have checked this format out now, and no one has come up with anything on the level of the other 7 cards which seem so obviously unfair(it amuses me that Matt came up with the first banned card, Flooded Shoreline, which is the most obscure).  Good job, us. 

[Tin_Mox5831]

I might throw together a deck for Rochester. Just a quick thought, does anyone else find Carpet Of Flowers to be just insane in this format?

Later,
Dave

[Mr. Type 4]

Carpet of Flowers sounds pretty awesome.  Don't give away all your other ideas yet, Dave.  I want to be surprised.

[Hi-Val]

I tried Carpet in aggro and I was disappointed. It only gives one color of mana, so it can't really help with all the gold spells I want to crank out. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Deep Anal. If you don't like the two drawn cards, they turn into lands to flash it back. I look at it more as a "put 4 lands into play for close to free" than anything else.

[LordHomerCat]

All draw spells are like that Doug.  Imagine what Deep does when you have High Tide going?  its basically Pay 3 Life: Put 3 lands into play tapped, draw a card.  Thats one of the awesome things about this format, every spell is 99% of the time useful.

[Mr. Type 4]

My first deck is built.  I hope you're all ready to lose