[article] WGDX vs GAT

[dicemanx]

The following article was originally submitted to SCG, although it looks like they are no longer taking unsolicited articles. I therefore decided to publish it here after sitting on it for over a month before some of the discussion become outdated. Enjoy!

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Many vintage pundits will frequently cite what they believe to be the most dominant deck in the format, or at least point the finger with conviction at the archetypes which they believe are head and shoulders above the rest. As vintage “progresses” and certain archetypes diminish in popularity to make way for a new crop of hot archetypes, it becomes more and more difficult to make an objective comparison of archetypes; that a few leading vintage experts can sway opinions so readily and easily doesn’t make our hunt for the objective truth any easier. That isn’t to say that the opinions of excellent vintage players shouldn’t be trusted – instead, the sooner one comes to the realization that it would be a gargantuan task to generate enough evidence to make definitive assessments, and the sooner one realizes that many top vintage players rely heavily on a developed and honed judgment system more so than evidence from testing (even though some might not even realize it), the sooner one will realize that vintage is a lot more open and receptive to a wide variety of archetypes.

Vintage differs from most other formats in two critical ways. The first is based on the power level of the cards and the strategies that they enable – from combinations like Flash and Protean Hulk, Animate Dead and Worldgorger Dragon, or the building of a storm count to lethal levels, to powerful draw “engines” such as Fastbond and Gush or Intuition and Accumulated Knowledge, to devastating mana control spells such as Chalice of the Void, Null Rod, Sphere of Resistance and Trinisphere, vintage is rife with game ending cards or card combinations that can swing games in the blink of an eye or destroy an opponent before he even gets a chance to act. This allows many archetypes to have an appreciable fighting chance, even those deemed to be second tier or otherwise inferior to the perceived top archetypes.

The second key difference is the compression of activity into a single turn – vintage turns often contain a flurry of action where it is very easy to lose your way, and where it is easy to make one slight misstep without even realizing that you have made a possibly game losing play. Vintage also tends to be very unforgiving as a consequence; small inaccuracies contribute to the outcomes of games far more than the perceived “top-decking” of powerful spells, and give the stigma of vintage as a more luck-based format. The problem is that it is often extremely difficult to pinpoint when costly inaccuracies are committed; because of this, the vintage learning curve is often extremely high, and even experts are not exempt from accumulating a significant number of errors each game or each match.

I have always been of the opinion that it is far more important to focus on the surprise factor in vintage, because making your opponent fight you on ground that is unfamiliar to him will give you an advantage that can frequently overcome any disparity in objective deck strength. Because of the inherent power in a lot of vintage archetypes that disparity is often minimal, even when some experts seem to suggest otherwise. This isn’t entirely their fault when they might make such misassessments. Vintage is a complex format, and even years of testing might not produce adequate results as it is virtually impossible to test all of the iterations of a given archetype. There are for instance at least as many iterations of Stax or Worldgorger Dragon as there are total viable archetypes in vintage. One iteration might not produce favorable results in testing against one archetype, whereas another iteration based on 2-3 card swaps might produce wildly different outcomes. Consequently, one shouldn’t shy away from mastering supposedly inferior archetypes, because quite often such brands are based on perception rather than any hard evidence.

It should be no surprise then that many top vintage players who have adhered to a particular archetype have enjoyed much success on a consistent basis, as they recognize the strength of a strategy that involves pulling people away from familiar territory and exploiting minute errors, all the while confident that their decks contain enough resources to battle the “top tier” archetypes. Not only does this include top archetypes in the present and in the past such as GAT, Gifts, Control Slaver, Grimlong, or UW Fish, but also more obscure archetypes such as Worldgorger Dragon, Landstill, or Birdsh*t.

We will now take the opportunity to explore in detail a much maligned archetype – Worldgorger Dragon. The number of times that this archetype has been proclaimed as dead just about matches the number of times it has risen from the ashes and enjoyed success. Such proclamations are frequently based on gross misconceptions about the archetype, notably in terms of its susceptibility to a wide variety of “hate” cards. Forum dwellers might cite instances where a Leyline of the Void or a well timed Tormod’s Crypt would entirely obliterate WGD’s graveyard-dependent game plan, or how a timely Stifle or Swords to Plowshares would cause the WGD player to lose all of his permanents and therefore lose the game. What tends to lie outside the scope for individuals who make such proclamations is that WGD battles rarely revolve around such “hit-or-miss” circumstances where either the Worldgorger gets “lucky” and combos off, or he falls prey to a simple disruption spell. If only things were that simple from either side! Alternately, some find WGD to be a “boring” archetype, and its lack of popularity in the tournament scene even after repeated resurgences might be a testament to this perception.

Despite these conceptions, the WGD match-ups tend to be an interesting struggle of resource building, resource management, bluffing, attrition wars, and most notably success hinges on fluid and flexible main deck and SB construction. There really isn’t such a thing as a “definitive” WGD build. In fact, the moment one would come into existence it would likely no longer be definitive. That might seem like a strange statement to make, but WGD players often need to heavily rely on the surprise factor and the ability to seed doubt into opponent’s minds as far as how to effectively combat the archetype by constantly changing and morphing their build. For instance, WGD can mutate into a hybrid strategy, such as Cerebral Assassin combined with WGD; this involves the merging of the WGD combo with Welders and big, disruptive artifact creatures such as Sundering Titan or Triskelion to give the deck an alternate plan of attack. Alternately, the deck might hedge against a heavy anti-graveyard sideboard strategy by bringing in an alternate plan that is non-graveyard-reliant post game-1. For instance, Oath conversion sideboards can be very effective in fighting Leylines or heavy removal spells, as can the Illusionary Mask and Dreadnaught plan where Masks can actually be used to slip Dragons into play without losing any permanents.


Essentially, WGD deck construction concerns itself with three broad areas: the disruption suite, the card drawing engines, and the SB plan. Let’s look at each briefly in turn:

I.   The disruption suite:

WGD has a very large number of possible disruption spells at its fingertips. Duress and Force of Will tend to be customary choices due to the fact that they are very flexible spells that can protect the combo but also function defensively, stopping your opponent’s plans. Other black spells such as Unmask or Cabal Therapy can function in this role as well, as can other countermagic such as Mana Leak or Mana Drain. However, there are more efficient spells that guard that primarily function to enable the combo instead of meddling with the opponent’s plans, such as Pact of Negation or Abeyance, or more specialized defensive spells such as Echoing Truth or Chain of Vapor that are designed to fight against very specific maindeck threat cards such as Leyline of the Void. Finally, disruption spells can merely function to slow down the opponent’s progress; Chalice of the Void is one such example, which can very effectively function when set at either 0 mana (against decks like Flash) or 1 mana (against decks like GAT) to slow down the opposing game plans. Many of these cards have been used by WGD players in the past with success.

II.   The draw engines

WGD exploded on the scene based on the power of Bazaar of Baghdad, accompanied by the Bazaar-Squee draw engine. Along with Compulsion in some instances, these cards formed the backbone of nearly all WGD builds that enjoyed much success in years past. More recently however, it was demonstrated that WGD didn’t need to rely on Squee at all – instead, much of the draw power could come from Deep Analysis, along with Read the Runes (or Careful Study). Hybrid builds such as the aforementioned Cerebral Assassin hybrid deck utilize Thirst for Knowledge to great effect. Additionally, Brainstorm could conceivably find a home in WGD, but no one yet has demonstrated a viable approach utilizing this card.
 
III.        The Sideboard

WGD sideboards have varied tremendously over the years even though the builds might not have varied too much by comparison. Of particular note are the sideboards designed to transform WGD into Oath of Druids combo or the Illusionary Mask – Dreadnaught combo. The primary consideration in the current meta, given the power of Flash and Ichorid, is Leyline of the Void; current WGD builds have to address this card or face embarrassing losses post SB. Some consideration should also always be given to the faster decks in the format. This used to be Grimlong or some form of Tendrils of Agony based combo; Chalice of the Void used to be a fine card to slow such combo decks just enough to punch through. Now it is Flash at the combo forefront, but Chalice is just as effective, if not more so, against Flash, neutering fast mana and the Pacts.

Here is an example of a list that enjoyed some tourney success (two top eight finishes in Star City Games Power 9 events in Rochester in 2006); the sideboard has been redone to reflect the transformational SB plan:

“WGDX”

Instants (14):
4 Intuition
3 Read the Runes
1 Cunning Wish
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries (9):
4 Deep Analysis
4 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor

Enchantments (7):
3 Necromancy
3 Animate Dead
1 Dance of the Dead

Creatures (5):
4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Eternal Witness

Artifacts (9):
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault

Basic lands (1):
1 Island

Lands (15):
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Forbidden Orchard
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand

Sideboard:

4 Oath of Druids
4 Bogardan Hellkite
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing truth
1 Stroke of Genius

This version uses the classic disruption suite that is quite flexible – Duress and Force of Will can play strong defensive roles, slowing down the opponents plans long enough to punch through the Worldgorger combo.  The solitary Cunning Wish rounds out the disruption, as it can fetch a bounce spell in a pinch. The Stroke of Genius isn’t necessary as a kill spell, as the deck can kill via recurring Ancestral Recall by way of the Eternal Witness.

The draw engine of choice consists primarily of the 4 Deep Analysis, which can often surprisingly be hardcast, and pitch to Bazaar for a quick cheap card boost. They are preferred over Squees in this iteration of the archetype, which take much longer to develop card advantage and are almost entirely dependent on Bazaar. Deep Analysis functions much better on its own or with Read the Runes, and adds to the blue spell count to better support Force of Will. 3 Read the Runes round out the card drawing, as they double in function as a combo piece when trying to put a Dragon in the graveyard and thus take the pressure off Bazaar.  Because the Bazaar dependency has diminished, susceptibility to Wasteland (or Pithing Needle) isn’t as big of a concern anymore – it isn’t unusual to only rely on a single activation

The sideboard wasn’t run in the aforementioned SCG:P9 events, but it is an example of a more subtle approach to dealing with Leyline of the Void rather than relying on bounce spells to get rid of such problem cards. WGD players post SB can often exploit the overaggressive mulliganing of their opponents, who might be under the impression that a Leyline is very devastating.  I attempted such a SB plan at a recent Gencon vintage side event, facing Leylines in every single game 2, but still managed to achieve a 3-0-1 record. Testing has also confirmed that WGD has very good SB options against Leyline, and given that some GAT players have elected to run Ixlid Jailers over Leylines as anti-Ichorid measures takes even more pressure off WGD.

Instead of outlining some play subtleties, we will instead examine a few detailed games between our challenger, WGDX, and one of the top archetypes in the format, GAT. Preliminary testing seems to suggest close to a 50% match-up pre-SB, although the percentage would conceivably increase against a GAT player who finds himself in unfamiliar territory against an archetype that he will very likely not face in tournament play or even during testing.

Here is a GAT list that WGDX will be up against; note the 4 Duress main deck, usually a strong card to fight combo decks:


GAT

Instants (22):
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
2 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
4 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Cunning Wish
2 Opt
1 Rebuild
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries (11):
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Duress
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Enchantments (1):
1 Fastbond

Creatures (6):
4 Quirion Dryad
2 Psychatog

Artifacts (5):
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby

Basic lands (3):
3 Island

Lands (12):
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
2 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand

The WGDX versus GAT match-up is quite interesting; while either side can steal some quick victories (as both decks are capable of “combo finishes”), many games are long attrition wars where the WGDX is usually the aggressor and attempts to deplete the GAT player’s resources. The GAT player’s disruption suite is extensive, although the WGDX deck has some very efficient draw spells and effects in Bazaar and Deep Analysis, and can menace game ending Animate spells if it succeeds in getting a Dragon into the graveyard early. Let’s take a look!


Game 1

WGDX draws:

Island
Polluted Delta
Mox Emerald
Duress
Ancestral Recall
Deep Analysis
Intuition

GAT draws:

Polluted Delta
Underground Sea
Tropical Island
Brainstorm
Opt
Merchant Scroll
Vampiric Tutor

Comments: WGDX elects to keep a resource heavy hand that is light on combo pieces for the time being. GAT keeps a hand without any starting disruption, although with so much tutoring and search power he will likely find resources to stop his opponent’s plans quickly. Since GWDX isn’t necessarily that fast, and since the match-up is likely going to be some attrition slugfest, going down to six cards to find some starting counter-magic or other disruption might be a serious error in judgment given the strength of this starting hand. Plus, GAT wins the die roll,  so he obviously elects to play.

Turn 1A (GAT):

Play:
Play Underground Sea.

End turn.

Hand:
Polluted Delta
Tropical Island
Brainstorm
Opt
Merchant Scroll
Vampiric Tutor

In play:
Underground Sea

Comments: GAT refrains from playing the Delta first, anticipating the possibility of Brainstorming possibly in response to a Duress, or alternately casting Vampiric Tutor (for a Fastbond most likely). 

Turn 1B (WGDX):

Draw: Worldgorger Dragon

Play:
Play Polluted Delta
Tap Polluted Delta for Underground Sea (-1 life)
Tap Underground Sea for Duress

Response (GAT): Brainstorm -> draw Mox Jet, Underground Sea, Mana Drain
                                                    Return: Tropical Island, Mana Drain

Duress takes a Merchant Scroll.

End turn.

Hand:
Worldgorger Dragon
Island
Mox Emerald
Ancestral Recall
Deep Analysis
Intuition

In play:
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: WGDX makes the seemingly obvious play and Duresses ahead of playing Ancestral Recall. Recall isn’t terribly critical to resolve so it is OK if it falls to Duress – the WGDX player’s priority is to establish a WGD in the graveyard as quickly as possible so that he can menace an Animate spell, forcing the GAT player to be more defensively oriented if he doesn’t want to gamble. WGDX also wants to refrain from playing any mana sources until absolutely necessary, as cards in hand might be critical for a later Bazaar of Baghdad. WGDX did have an additional two options here – put a WGD in the graveyard setting up an animate threat next turn with the help of the Mox, or cross his fingers and hope to resolve Recall and discard WGD end of turn. With blue mana open on the opposing side, and a possible Brainstorm representing access to 3 more cards, there is no need to take such a senseless risk when WGD has a fairly comfortable hand of two strong threats (Ancestral and Intuition after using a Duress).

The Duress decision was a tough one; WGDX is aware of the possibility of the Vampiric Tutor fetching a Fastbond, but isn’t terribly concerned given the rest of GAT’s hand. He reasons that the GAT player might have hidden countermagic on top of the library, otherwise he would be exposing his only stopper to Duress and would likely have to waste a tutor for a Force of Will. Plus, in an attrition war (which the WGDX and GAT match-ups often seem to devolve into) every card counts, and Vampiric Tutor represents a slight loss of card advantage. Of course the Scroll is more costly and consumes tempo, but given that Vampiric doesn’t currently represent any threat beyond a blue instant (Opt and the top card in the library are weak justifications for getting cards like Lotus or Fastbond), and given that Scroll can be used immediately because of the drawn Mox Jet, the WGDX player takes the Scroll.

Turn 2A (GAT):

Draw: Mana Drain

Play:
Play Polluted Delta
Play Mox Jet

End turn.

Hand:
Tropical Island
Opt
Vampiric Tutor
Mana Drain

In play:
Mox Jet
Underground Sea
Polluted Delta

Comments: GAT leaves Mana Drain mana up.

Turn 2B (WGDX):

Draw: Animate Dead

Play:
Play Island
Play Mox Emerald

End of turn:

GAT:
Tap Mox Jet for Vampiric Tutor, fetching Ancestral Recall (-2 life)

Hand:
Intuition
Worldgorger Dragon
Animate Dead
Deep Analysis
Ancestral Recall

In play:
Mox Emerald
Underground Sea
Island

Comments: WGDX passes the turn with three mana up, menacing an Intuition. Since no Bazaar of Baghdad has been played, and a WGD is therefore still not in the yard, the Intuition could be a very critical spell as it could find a Bazaar to activate WGDX’s game plan. GAT has to be careful. WGDX’s position is a happy one with two threats (Ancestral Recall and Intuition, with an Animate Dead and Worldgorger Dragon waiting). He is well aware that the GAT player will very likely fetch an Ancestral Recall, but anticipates that if there is a big attrition war, he will still have the Deep Analysis to refuel if he manages to draw another mana source and hardcast it.

Note that the GAT player takes a risk by vamping here, since a play of Intuition on his upkeep might have to resolve since cracking a fetchland to Mana Drain would look quite foolish. WGDX decides to hold off and see what happens on the GAT player’s turn first – if he absolutely needed to resolve Intuition he would cast it immediately, but instead he holds off. Sometimes GAT can build up a lot of momentum within one turn (especially since an Ancestral is about to resolve), and the Intuition might have to be cast for three Force of Will to stem the bleeding.

Turn 3A (GAT):

Draw: Ancestral Recall

Play:
Play Tropical Island
Tap Polluted Delta for an Underground Sea (-1 life)
Tap Underground Sea for Ancestral Recall -> Force of Will, Time Walk, Tropical Island
Tap Tropical Island, Mox Jet for Time Walk

WGDX response:
Tap Mox Emerald, Island, Underground Sea for Intuition
GAT response: Force of Will (remove Opt) (-1 life)

End turn.

Hand:
Mana Drain
Tropical Island

In play:
Mox Jet (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)
Tropical Island (tapped)
Underground Sea

Comments: GAT reasoned that WGDX must not have any Intuitions to play, since he passed over the opportunity to cast one when GAT played Vampiric Tutor at the end of WGDX’s turn. He therefore tapped out of Mana Drain mana, although surprisingly WGDX produced the Intuition. GAT reasoned that the Intuition might be extremely critical to WGD, since casting it after the Vampiric resolved would still run it into a Mana Drain. If that Intuition enables the rest of WGDX’s hand, then the loss of an upcoming Ancestral could be compensated for by negating the rest of the WGDX hand. Plus, Gat also reasoned that the Force of Will back-up will keep him safe, and that pitching a relatively weak spell like Opt is a small price to pay.

So why did WGDX run the Intuition into a possible Force of Will, instead of casting it during the upkeep which would cause the Ancestral to be potentially lost if the GAT player wanted to cast Mana Drain? It is because WGDX actually wants the Intuition to be countered at the cost of two cards in the GAT player’s hand. WGDX was worried that the GAT player would not Mana Drain the card during his upkeep, but given that he Ancestraled into a FoW and tapped out to Time Walk, WGDX reasoned that the chances of extracting a FoW plus another business spell were now higher.

Turn 3A extra (GAT: Time Walk):



Draw: Demonic Tutor

Play:
Play Tropical Island
Tap Mox Jet and Tropical Island for Demonic Tutor -> Duress
Tap Underground Sea for Duress, taking Ancestral Recall

End turn

Hand:
Mana Drain

In play:
Mox Jet (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)
Tropical Island (tapped)
Underground Sea
Tropical Island

Comments: With a Demonic Tutor and Mana Drain in hand, and with Ancesrtal Recall already burned up, the GAT player turns to a defensive play of fetching Duress so that he can better utilize his Mana Drain and evaluate the consequences of using FoW on that Intuition. He sees from the WGDX player’s hand that the decision could very well have been the correct one as that Intuition would surely have fetched out three Bazaars and all of a sudden menaced an Animate Dead. Still, he is in a bad situation since he only has a solitary Mana Drain and the WGDX player has a potentially powerful Deep Analysis left.

Turn 3B (WGDX):

Draw: Mox Ruby

Play:
Play Mox Ruby
Tap Mox Ruby, Mox Emerald, Island, Underground Sea to play Deep Analysis -> Duress, Read the Runes

End turn.

Hand:
Duress
Animate Dead
Worldgorger Dragon
Read the Runes

In play:
Mox Ruby (tapped)
Mox Emerald (tapped)
Island (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: Drawing that fourth mana source was a back-breaker, although WGDX could have drawn a number of other strong non-mana cards here. WGDX has won the attrition war; let’s now see if fortunes smile on the GAT player and if he can somehow dig himself out of this hole. There aren’t a lot of cards he can top deck here though, as even a Yawgmoth’s Will would be relatively weak.

Turn 4A (GAT):

Draw: Underground Sea

End turn.

Hand:
Mana Drain
Underground Sea

In play:
Mox Jet
Underground Sea
Tropical Island
Underground Sea
Tropical Island

Turn 4B (WGDX):

Draw:
Forbidden Orchard

Play:
Tap Underground Sea for Duress

GAT Response:
Tap Underground Sea, Tropical Island for Mana Drain
 
Tap Island, Mox Ruby for Deep Analysis (flashback) -> Mana Vault, Necromancy
Tap Ruby for Mana Vault
Play Forbidden Orchard
Tap Forbidden Orchard, Mana Vault for Read the Runes for 3 -> Intuition, Intuition, Necromancy; discard Worldgorger Dragon, Necromancy, sacrifice Mana Vault

End turn

Hand:
Animate Dead
Necromancy
Intuition
Intuition

In play:
Mox Ruby (tapped)
Mox Emerald (tapped)
Island (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)
Forbidden Orchard (tapped)

Comments: After the Duress, WGDX figures the coast is entirely clear and makes a series of plays which draw cards and finally discard a Worldgorger Dragon. Drawing two Intuitions ensures that he will have a card that will let him cast the Animate spell for victory.

Turn 5A (GAT):

Draw: Mana Drain

Attack with Orchard token (WGDX -1 life)
(mana burn -1 life from unspent Mana Drain mana)

Hand:
Mana Drain
Underground Sea

In play:
Orchard token (tapped)
Mox Jet
Underground Sea
Tropical Island
Underground Sea
Tropical Island

Comments: It is hopeless. Only a top-decked Yawgmoth’s Will might have mattered.

Turn 5B (WGDX):

Draw: Polluted Delta

Play:
Tap Mox Emerald, Underground Sea for Animate Dead

GAT response:
Tap Underground Sea, Tropical Isalnd for Mana Drain

Tap Mox Ruby, Island, Forbidden Orchard for Necromancy

GAT concedes.

Comments: WGDX won this game based on winning the attrition war. He had just enough early threats, and even though the first two big threats (Ancestral and Intuition) never resolved, his opponent was too drained of resources to stop the final threat (Deep Analysis) from crashing through.


Game 2

WGDX draws:

Bazaar of Baghdad
Sol Ring
Necromancy
Animate Dead
Deep Analysis
Cunning Wish
Intuition

GAT draws:

Mox Emerald
Flooded Strand
Time Walk
Brainstorm
Duress
Force of Will
Gush

Comments: An average opening hand for WGDX – he has a Bazaar and a card he wants to discard (Deep Analysis) so he will see quite a few cards early. GAT this time has a very strong hand, with two opening disruption spells and some search in Brainstorm. It is WGDX’s turn to play first this game.

Turn 1A (WGDX):

Play:
Play Bazaar of Baghdad
Tap Bazaar of Baghdad -> Worldgorger Dragon, Underground Sea; discard Worldgorger Dragon, Deep Analysis, Cunning Wish

End turn

Hand:
Sol Ring
Underground Sea
Necromancy
Animate Dead
Intuition
 In play:

Bazaar of Baghdad (tapped)

Comments: Not much choice here. Not drawing a Mox to power out the Sol Ring is unfortunate, but the starting WGDX position isn’t so bad. With a Bazaar in play and a Worldgorger in the graveyard, he can look forward to menacing animates. The Deep Analysis will give him a nice potential explosion in cards, especially since the Sol Ring will develop mana nicely next turn, or so WGDX hopes.


Turn 1B (GAT)

Draw: Mana Drain

Play:
Play Mox Emerald
Play Flooded Strand
Tap Flooded Strand to fetch an Underground Sea (-1 life)
Tap Underground Sea and Emerald for Time Walk

End the turn

Hand:
Force of Will
Mana Drain
Duress
Brainstorm
Gush

In play:
Mox Emerald (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: With the mana in play, GAT has access to all of the key colors; he Time Walks to enable another land drop next turn, if he manages to draw a land; if not, he’ll simply Duress.

Turn 1B (GAT; Time Walk turn)

Draw: Merchant Scroll

Play:
Tap Underground Sea for Duress, taking Sol Ring

End turn

Hand:
Force of Will
Mana Drain
Merchant Scroll
Brainstorm
Gush

In play:
Mox Emerald
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: GAT plays the Duress ahead of the Brainstorm; if he were to Brainstorm and not find a black mana source (a probable scenario) that could cost him the game since he only has the Force of Will for defense, and the WGDX player already has a Deep Analysis and a Worldgorger in the graveyard. GAT wishes to be able to search deeper with the Brainstorm and be in a better position to evaluate what key spell he needs to Force of Will. Scrolling up another Force or a Misdirection is senseless at this point, since WGDX is too happy to play spells right into the pitch counters to whittle down GAT’s hand. Misdirection might stop the Deep Analysis, but it is quite useless if WGDX produces back to back animate spells where one would suck up the Force of Will currently in GAT’s hand. Fetching an Ancestral recall immediately with Scroll is another unsavoury proposition, as many cards would sit idly by in hand, and even after the Ancestral resolves next turn, there likely won’t be enough for Mana Drain mana, and a black mana source for the Duress might not be drawn. Duress seems to be the best play here, according to the GAT player.

As far as GAT’s Duress selection, Sol Ring seems like a great choice – WGDX utilizes some very costly spells in Intuition, Read the Runes, and Cunning Wish, not to mention Necromancy and Deep Analysis, so limiting him to just one Underground Sea can temporarily build virtual card advantage and exploit the opening to overwhelm WGDX early.

Turn 2A (WGDX):

Draw: Flooded Strand

Play:
Play Flooded Strand
Tap Flooded Strand for Underground Sea (-1 life)

End turn

Hand:
Underground Sea
Necromancy
Animate Dead
Intuition

In play:
Bazaar of Baghdad
Underground Sea

Comments: Not much to say here, apart from noting that WGDX refrains from unnecessary Bazaar use. He cannot dig when holding relevant business spells, even if two of the 3-casting-cost spells might not be cast for a while.

Turn 2B (GAT):

Draw: Misdirection

Play:
Tap Underground Sea for Brainstorm -> Mystical, Merchant Scroll, Demonic Tutor; return Merchant Scroll, Mystical Tutor

End turn

Hand:
Force of Will
Mana Drain
Merchant Scroll
Brainstorm
Demonic Tutor
Gush

In play:
Mox Emerald
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: Not drawing a land is very unfortunate, although the GAT player still has a lot of good cards in hand and he has the option to get a mana source with his Demonic Tutor next turn if he doesn’t draw land. With Force of Will and Misdirection back-up, the position is slightly stronger than WGDX’s position. Gat elects to return a Mystical and one of two Merchant Scrolls; he will redraw the Mystical, and the second Scroll is likely the weakest card out of the bunch so it will be lost once the GAT player tutors next turn.

Turn 3A (WGDX):

Draw:
Worldgorger Dragon

Play:
Tap Bazaar of Baghdad -> Force of Will, Mox Jet; discard Worldgorger Dragon, Necromancy, Mox Jet
Play Underground Sea
Tap both Undergound Seas for an Animate Dead

GAT response:
Play Force of Will (pitching Gush) (-1 life)
WGDX response:
Play Force of Will (pitching Intuition) (-1 life)
GAT response:
Play Misdirection (pitching Merchant Scroll)

End turn

Hand:
Nothing

In play:
Bazaar of Baghdad (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)


Comments: While many of WGDX’s draws have been less than stellar (matching GAT’s inability to produce a second land on his second turn), drawing the FoW almost allows him to break through. GAT might have won the couter war, but the attrition war was slightly in WGDX’s favor as he managed to rip an extra card out of GAT’s hand, and even without cards in hand he has a Deep Analysis waiting for him next turn without having to fear the Misdirection anymore.

Note that GAT elected to pitch a Merchant Scroll instead of the Mana Drain; he intends to play more defensively next turn by using his Demonic Tutor for a Balck Lotus, bringing his Mana Drain online and menacing an Ancestral Recall via the Mystical Tutor that he elected to put on top of the Library with the previous Brainstorm.

Turn 3B (GAT):

Draw: Mystical Tutor

Play:
Tap Underground Sea, Mox Emerald for Demonic Tutor for Black Lotus
Play Black Lotus

End turn

Hand:
Mana Drain
Mystical Tutor

In play:
Black Lotus
Mox Emerald (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: GAT doesn’t want to take any chances, so he takes on a defensive posture to pre-empt a top deck of an animate spell; his Mystical will allow him to refuel via an Ancestral Recall.

Turn 4A (WGDX):

Draw: Mox Ruby

Play:
Tap both Underground Seas to flashback Deep Analysis (-3 life) -> Duress, Necromancy

End turn

Hand:
Mox Ruby
Duress
Necromancy

In play:
Bazaar of Baghdad
Underground Sea (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: GAT elects not to Drain the Deep Analysis, as it will cost him a Lotus, and even upon resolution of an Ancestral Recall after using the remaining Lotus mana for Mystical he might not have sufficient defensive position to stop a subsequent Animate spell as WGDX will be able to see up to 3 cards next turn. WGDX wisely held onto the Mox Ruby, since it will allow him to search deeper with his Bazaar next turn. Of course, GAt had another option here – he could have Drained the spell, and gone after a Yawgmoth’s Will instead, although it wouldn’t have generated very much card advantage and might have not been enough to get ahead permanently. Ancestral would still produce very good card advantage, and retains a Will in the deck as a potential top deck. Plus, the Mana Drain trades with two blind top cards of the opposing library – it is hard to make such a blind trade, especially if the cost involves a Lotus.

Turn 4B (GAT):

Draw: Opt

Play:
None

End turn

Hand:
Mana Drain
Mystical Tutor
Opt

In play:
Black Lotus
Mox Emerald
Underground Sea

Comments: No action just yet – GAT elects to go for an end-of-turn Mystical for Ancestral play, and Ancestral on his turn, all the while retaining the Lotus. He also stays flexible in case WGDX manages to produce very powerful cards that need to be contained. Let us see how.

Turn 5A (WGDX):

Draw: Black Lotus

Play:
Tap Underground Sea for Duress, taking Mana Drain
Play Black Lotus
Tap and sacrifice Black Lotus for Necromancy

GAT response:
Tap Tropical Island for Mystical Tutor for Mana Drain
Tap and sacrifice Black Lotus for Opt, drawing Mana Drain; play Mana Drain on Necromancy

End turn

Hand:
Mox Ruby

In play:
Bazaar of Baghdad
Underground Sea (tapped)
Underground Sea

Comments: GAT made a critical intuitive play – he suspected that the opponent might be sandbagging an animate dead in his hand, so he did not respond to the Duress. If he did, and the Mystical fetched anything but a Mana Drain, the game would have ended immediately. WGDX produced a timely Lotus from the top of the Library to whittle down both hands to nothing, although there were some other possible top decks that would have been strong. Even if WGDX drew no mana to cast the Necromancy, he would have simply nabbed the Mystical with the Duress, unless somehow the GAT player was able to intuitively determine that the WGDX player didn’t have an animate threat and boldly cast the Mystical for Ancestral.

Note how important it was to retain that Mox Ruby in hand – after the attrition war, WGDX will now have the opportunity to see up to three cards next turn via Bazaar and potentially end the game before GAT recovers. 

Note also that if the GAT deck was running a maindeck Echoing Truth, the game would probably end here on the Mystical into Opt play.

Turn 5B (GAT):

Draw: Merchant Scroll

Play:
Tap Underground Sea and use 1 of 3 Mana Drain mana for Merchant Scroll into Ancestral Recall

End turn (mana burn for -2 life)

Hand:
Ancestral Recall

In play:
Mox Emerald
Underground Sea (tapped)

Turn 6A (WGDX):

Draw: Forbidden Orchard

Play:
Tap Bazaar of Baghdad -> Worldgorger Dragon, Island; discard Mox Ruby, Worldgorger Dragon, Forbidden Orchard

End turn

Hand:
Island

In play:
Bazaar of Baghdad (tapped)
Underground Sea
Underground Sea

Comments: Bad draws continue to plague WGDX, although he cannot complain as GAT is seeing little mana on his side. This is a pure race to recover from the attrition war, although careful play is still required – this time WGDX retains an Island instead of a Mox Ruby in hand, so that a potential Duress will not cause him to lose a card and prevent him from searching with Bazaar next turn. 

Turn 6B (GAT):

Draw: Opt

Play:
Tap Underground Sea for Ancestral Recall -> 2x Duress, 1 Psychatog

End turn

Hand:
Duress
Duress
Psychatog
Opt

In play:
Mox Emerald
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: GAT continues to struggle in the mana department, although even if he drew a mana source instead of the Psychatog or a Duress it would have been of scant immediate consequence unless the Opt could produce something amazing. At least he’ll have a chance to Duress next turn, but WGDX is operating on topdeck and Bazaar search mode, so Duress isn’t very effective unless WGDX makes a mistake and leaves a duressable card in his hand, denying him a Bazaar activation.

Turn 7A (WGDX):

Draw: Worldgorger Dragon

Play:
Tap Bazaar of Baghdad -> Polluted Delta, Deep Analysis; discard Deep Analysis, Worldgorger Dragon, Island
 
Tap both Underground Sea for Deep Analysis -> Deep Analysis, Read the Runes

End turn

Hand:
Polluted Delta
Deep Analysis
Read the Runes

In play:
Bazaar of Baghdad (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: While the WGDX player hoped to find an Animate spell, the chain into two consecutive Deep Analyses suited him just fine. Now both decks are mounting a comeback.

Turn 7B (GAT):

Draw: Brainstorm

Play:
Tap Underground Sea for Brainstorm -> Library of Alexandria, Tropical Island, Flooded Strand; return Library of Alexandria, Tropical Island
Play Flooded Strand
Tap Flooded Strand to fetch for Underground Sea (-1 life)
Tap Underground Sea for Duress, taking a Read the Runes

End turn

Hand:
Duress
Opt
Psychatog

In play:
Mox Emerald
Underground Sea (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: Finally, so that is where the mana sources were hiding! Still, GAT’s position at this stage is a poor one, and the Duress, as mentioned previously, is too weak at this stage.

Turn 8A (WGDX):

Draw: Mana Crypt

Play:
Tap Bazaar of Baghdad -> Forbidden Orchard, Eternal Witness; discard Eternal Witness, Forbidden Orchard, Deep Analysis
Tap both Underground Sea for Deep Analysis (flashback, -3life) -> Animate Dead, Necromancy
Play Mana Crypt
Play Polluted Delta
Tap Polluted Delta for Underground Sea (-1 life)
Tap Mana Crypt, Underground Sea for Animate Dead

GAT concedes

Comments: WGDX manages to win the attrition war in the end even after failing to draw into an Animate when he had the chance mid game. The Deep Analyses factored into the comeback, as did GAT’s inability to draw enough land at an early junction.

Game 3

WGDX hand:

Flooded Strand
Bazaar of Baghdad
Duress
Intuition
Intuition
Force of Will
Demonic Tutor

GAT hand:

Underground Sea
Polluted Delta
Fastbond
Force of Will
Psychatog
Mystical Tutor
Yawgmoth’s Will

Comments: WGDX starts with a slow but controlling hand; the Bazaar won’t factor into any action just yet, although any additional mana source sets up a potential Demonic Tutor into either a Worldgorger or a Deep Analysis, or even an Ancestral Recall. The Gat hand has two early dead slots, although the Psychatog can pitch to FoW, and Yawgmoth’s Will can quickly build into a powerhouse given that a Fastbond will come down quickly and a Mystical will fetch an early, FoW protected Ancestral Recall. Both are good hands to keep here. GAT opens the game this time around.

Turn 1A (GAT):

Play:
Play Polluted Delta
Tap Polluted Delta, fetch a Tropical Island (-1 life)
Tap tropical Island for a Fastbond
Play an Underground Sea (-1 life Fastbond)

End turn

In hand:
Force of Will
Psychatog
Yawgmoth’s Will
Mystical Tutor

In play:
Fastbond
Tropical Island (tapped)
Underground Sea

Comments: The line of play is straightforward; Gat will bank everything on an Ancestral next turn.

Turn 1B (WGDX):

Draw: Mox Pearl

Play:
Play Flooded Strand
Tap Flooded Strand for Underground Sea (-1 life)
Tap Underground Sea for Duress

GAT response:
Tap Underground Sea for Mystical Tutor, getting Ancestral Recall

Duress takes the Force of Will

End turn 

Hand:
Intuition
Intuition
Force of Will
Bazaar of Baghdad
Demonic Tutor
Mox Pearl

In play:
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: Since there is nothing to put into the graveyard, the better play is to Duress immediately and wait to draw another card. If nothing of consequence is drawn next turn, the Pearl can be used to cast Demonic Tutor and possibly fetch a Worldgorger Dragon; this way WGDX can put pressure on the GAT player by planting a Dragon in the graveyard and turning his future Animate spells into threats.

Turn 2A (GAT):

Draw: Ancestral Recall

Play:
Tap Tropical Island for Ancestral Recall

WGDX response: Force of Will pitching Intuition (-1 life)

End turn

Hand:
Yawgmoth’s Will
Psychatog

In play:
Fastbond
Tropical Island (tapped)
Underground Sea

Comments: The situation has seemingly become dire for GAT, although WGDX has yet to threaten anything. Now comes the recovery stage for both decks after the mini-attrition war.

Turn 2B (WGDX):

Draw: Read the Runes

Play:
Play Mox Pearl
Tap Mox Pearl and Underground Sea for Demonic Tutor for Worldgorger Dragon
Play Bazaar of Baghdad
Tap Bazaar of Baghdad -> Intuition, Sol Ring; discard Worldgorger Dragon, Read the Runes, Intuition

End turn

Hand:
Sol Ring
Intuition

In play:
Bazaar of Baghdad (tapped)
Mox Pearl (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: WGDX boldly goes for the Worldgorger Dragon. He is aware that GAT only has a Psychatog and Yawgmoth’s Will in hand, two presently innocuous cards, so he desires to put pressure on GAT by enabling his Animate spells, and drawing two more cards off the Bazaar. He will also have access to Intuition next turn if GAT doesn’t draw anything of consequence.

Turn 3A (GAT):

Draw: Polluted Delta

Play:
Play Polluted Delta
Tap Polluted Delta for Underground Sea (-1 life)
Tap both Underground Sea and Tropical Island for Yawgmoth’s Will
Replay Polluted Delta (-1 life for Fastbond)
Replay Polluted Delta (-1 life for Fastbond)
Tap Delta to fetch Volcanic Island (-1 life)
Tap Delta to fetch Underground Sea (-1 life)
Tap Volcanic Island to replay Ancestral Recall -> Merchant Scroll, Force of Will, Mana Drain
Tap Underground Sea to replay Mystical tutor for Gush

End turn

Hand:
Force of Will
Mana Drain
Psychatog
Merchant Scroll

In play:
Fastbond
Underground Sea (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)
Tropical Island (tapped)
Volcanic Island (tapped)

Comment: The Yawgmoth’s Will has produced a significant turn-around, although the drawing of the Force of Will was critical. Without it, GAT would be entirely susceptible to an Animate spell for a turn.

Turn 3B (WGDX):

Draw: Necromancy

Play:
Tap Mox Pearl
Play Sol Ring
Tap Sol Ring, Underground Sea to play Necromancy

GAT response: Force of Will pitching Psychatog (-1 life)

End turn

Hand:
Intuition

In play:
Bazaar of Baghdad
Mox Pearl (tapped)
Sol Ring (tapped)
Underground Sea (tapped)

Comments: WGDX had the opening based on the top deck of the animate spell, but GAT produced the critical Force of Will. Now GAT is in the driver’s seat, but without pressure on the life total the game isn’t over yet.

Turn 4A (GAT):

Draw: Gush

Play:
Tap Underground Sea for U
Tap Underground Sea for U
Return two Underground Seas to hand to cast Gush -> Vampiric Tutor, Opt
Use both blue Mana for Merchant Scroll for Gush
Tap Underground Sea for U
Tap Tropical Island for U
Return both tapped lands to hand to cast Gush -> Black Lotus, Duress
Replay Underground Sea for Duress

WGDX concedes.

Comments: Into two turns, GAT turned the entire game around, converting what looked to be an inferior position into a dominant position.


As the games demonstrate, the WGDX versus GAT match-up is very much an attrition war, where both decks have plenty of resources for rapid recovery after the initial set of flurries. However, great caution must be taken, as the slightest misstep can be the difference between winning and losing. But then again, this exemplifies vintage as a whole – rarely do we have matches decided based heavily on match-ups when it comes to top tier archetypes; instead, if built correctly, most top level archetypes have adequate resources to fight any other archetype. What will matter most in the end is how skilled the pilot of any given deck happens to be, and whether they have the ability to navigate through the thicket of decision trees successfully and with minimal error.

That is all for now; we’ll continue to examine WGDX’s ability to fight other archetypes in future articles!

[Solomox]

Very well written article.  This has kinda changed my view on WGD.  The matchups analysis with GAT was impressive.  In your playtesting has the E. Witness/Ancestral win proven to be the most reliable?  What about the old Ambassador?  Is he less disruptable?  Also, do you think you could do a card by card explanation of the deck?  I know how WDG works, but I like to hear people opinions on why they made the card choices they have.  Thanks again for the awesome article. 

[Purple Hat]

From game 3:

GAT response:
Tap Underground Sea for Mystical Tutor, getting Ancestral Recall

Duress takes the Force of Will

why doesn't gat get gush here?  next turn gat could draw gush with mystical in the yard, gush floating 2, even if gush gets countered gat goes replay lands--->will--->mystical for ancestral--->gush--->ancestral drawing 5 cards with 2 untapped mana sources in play.  is your logic that if gat doesn't get ancestral then dragon will take Yawgmoth's will?  Actually...Why doesn't duress take yawgmoth's will out of that hand anyway.  You're holding a force which means that you can force him to protect his ancestral leaving him with 0 cards in hand when it resolves and no explosive will play later barring a regrowth.  you still have a strong hand against 3 random cards here.


EDIT: the more I think about it the more I think that GaT probably can't afford to protect Ancestral here since dragon will start it's next turn with 5 cards in hand and could very well drop a bazaar to see two more.  This means that dragon has pretty decent odds of going off next turn.  I don't think GaT can bank on drawing a Force off it's ancestral and therefore if Dragon takes Yawg's will Gat is probably incorrect to cast ancestral next turn and only compounds the error by using force backup.

[7filo7]

First of all I'd like to thank you for continuing to pushing effort in the archetype, you really light up awesome pieces of advice everytime you wrote about dragon.
The article is very well written and it was from such time that I (as I think a lot of people) really long for a play by play discussion on WGDX matchups that it is really a nice surprise.

On topic, there are a couple of choices that I'd like to comment:

Hand:
Tropical Island
Opt
Vampiric Tutor
Mana Drain

In play:
Mox Jet
Underground Sea
Polluted Delta

Comments: GAT leaves Mana Drain mana up.

Turn 2B (WGDX):

Draw: Animate Dead

Play:
Play Island
Play Mox Emerald

End of turn:

GAT:
Tap Mox Jet for Vampiric Tutor, fetching Ancestral Recall (-2 life)

At the moment GAT hand has draw, disruption and next land drop, I don't see any need to make Night's Whispers,given that he can just leave the vamp+opt option backed-up by mana drain.
As a dragon player I've never felt myself threatened by draw spells, so I think GAT player choice
here as an unnecessary rush, while it has been a priority developing while keeping potentials.
I think this is the key in GAT defeat in this match (other than running rebuild instead of echoing truth in his maindeck ).

Turn 1A (GAT):

Play:
Play Polluted Delta
Tap Polluted Delta, fetch a Tropical Island (-1 life)
Tap tropical Island for a Fastbond
Play an Underground Sea (-1 life Fastbond)

End turn

In hand:
Force of Will
Psychatog
Yawgmoth’s Will
Mystical Tutor

In play:
Fastbond
Tropical Island (tapped)
Underground Sea

Comments: The line of play is straightforward; Gat will bank everything on an Ancestral next turn.

Turn 1B (WGDX):

Draw: Mox Pearl

Play:
Play Flooded Strand
Tap Flooded Strand for Underground Sea (-1 life)
Tap Underground Sea for Duress

GAT response:
Tap Underground Sea for Mystical Tutor, getting Ancestral Recall

I think I don't get WGDX line of play here. He let resolve fastbond, but he decide to to counter the ancestral fetched off by mystical tutor ?? He seems to me just picking up a plan and not adhering to it.
IMHO, if WGDX player chooses to let fasbond resolves, then, on his next turn he would just have sea, pearl -> demonic -> lotus, opening to intuition-> 3 deep (on GAT threat), then force ( removing deep) just to have the 2nd intuition open up in the future .
Underground -> duress, seems just like a tempo loss, I'd have prefered to force the attrition war first then just playing duress in a more developed scenario (once decided to let fastbond resolve).   
Letting fastbond resolve is right imho, while bothering about it in the immediate isn't.

From a general point view I think that GAT is a slightly favorable match-up for WGDX, given its ability to put pressure both via threatening comboing out and outdrawing with DA, and this way depleting GAT resources, or at least those were my impressions when I tested the matchup some month ago.
Sure I may be totally wrong, I just want to point out some play I don't get, probably for lack of experience or different playstile.

I'd be really glad to see this series of WGDX vs the World continues (maybe with flash and ichorid, which are the real dragon's nightmares...), and I have some point on sideboard choices which I'd like to comment, while for now I just prefer to rest on  the topic WGDX vs GAT.

Again, thank you for the article and sorry for the bad english.

 

[LordHomerCat]

Thanks for the article Peter.

On the oath sideboard, why 4 hellkites instead of a more ordinary creature base like Plats, Akroma-Razia, or even Simic Sky Swallowers?  Is it because of the whole no-gaea's-blessing thing, which makes you want more dudes, or is it because they are also good to reanimate in case of no leyline, or what?

-Jimmy

[Everrid1234]

Response (GAT): Brainstorm -> draw Mox Jet, Underground Sea, Mana Drain
                                                    Return: Tropical Island, Mana Drain

Duress takes a Merchant Scroll.

End turn.

Huh? How bad is this? Why return Tropical?

[islanderboi10]

Thank you for a very well written article.

It has changed my views on Dragon as a deck, and I am definetly looking forward to more articles.

I do have a few questions, though.  How is the Oath Sideboard? 

Also, do you think this deck can compete in the new metagame, with 9-13 spheres and all?

thanks again!

[dicemanx]

Thanks for the replies thus far. I will address some of the play choices, but keep in mind that some decisions were made based on general considerations and could be mistakes. I hopefully limited any serious mistakes to a minimum and simulated games where the decisions made were plausible at least as far as players of intermediate strength or higher are concerned.

why doesn't gat get gush here?  next turn gat could draw gush with mystical in the yard, gush floating 2, even if gush gets countered gat goes replay lands--->will--->mystical for ancestral--->gush--->ancestral drawing 5 cards with 2 untapped mana sources in play.  is your logic that if gat doesn't get ancestral then dragon will take Yawgmoth's will?  Actually...Why doesn't duress take yawgmoth's will out of that hand anyway.  You're holding a force which means that you can force him to protect his ancestral leaving him with 0 cards in hand when it resolves and no explosive will play later barring a regrowth.  you still have a strong hand against 3 random cards here.

If the Mystical got Gush, then the Duress would take the YWill. The decision to get Ancestral Recall was based on the attempt to maximize the number of cards drawn, which tends to be quite critical in attrition battles. Getting Gush would have forced the Duress to nab the YWill over FoW (which could be viewed as a positive), and it would supply extra mana, although that extra mana competes with an extra card, which in turn could mean an extra turn. That extra card could decide the entire game, and frankly I'm not entirely sure what the absolute correct play is.

At the moment GAT hand has draw, disruption and next land drop, I don't see any need to make Night's Whispers,given that he can just leave the vamp+opt option backed-up by mana drain.
As a dragon player I've never felt myself threatened by draw spells, so I think GAT player choice
here as an unnecessary rush, while it has been a priority developing while keeping potentials.

I don't think that GAT's hand is strong enough, with a Drain and an Opt, to have the luxury of not fetching an Ancestral with Vampiric. As a WGD player, I am in the opposite camp as you - draw spells can be used to win attrition wars and are usually my main concern rather than specific hate cards. Seeing as many cards as possible with GAT is of paramount importance in this match-up. I cannot think of any other card I'd want to Vamp up at this point; if your suggestion is to sit on the Vamp, I wouldn't agree in this case. Vamp and Opt isn't even a combo because there isn't enough mana to do something with it (given that Drain mana already ties up UU).

In other words, I prefer to play GAT with a sense of urgency in this match-up, because it is almost unfair how quickly WGDX can rain blows upon unsuspecting decks and power past countermagic, or win attrition wars and be in better positions to win later. 

I think I don't get WGDX line of play here. He let resolve fastbond, but he decide to to counter the ancestral fetched off by mystical tutor ?? He seems to me just picking up a plan and not adhering to it.
IMHO, if WGDX player chooses to let fasbond resolves, then, on his next turn he would just have sea, pearl -> demonic -> lotus, opening to intuition-> 3 deep (on GAT threat), then force ( removing deep) just to have the 2nd intuition open up in the future .
Underground -> duress, seems just like a tempo loss, I'd have prefered to force the attrition war first then just playing duress in a more developed scenario (once decided to let fastbond resolve).   
Letting fastbond resolve is right imho, while bothering about it in the immediate isn't.

I think it is too dangerous for WGDX to opt for the card advantage plan here with a quick Lotus -> Intuition into 3 DAs. GAT is in a much more threatening position with YWill and Fastbond. WGDX's plan is also consistent - his goal is to strip away countermagic and stop cards that can draw into more countermagic; he let's the Fastbond go because there is absolutely no immediate follow-up to it, and likewise doesn't touch YWill because there is little the card can do right now. If GAT opted for a Mystical into Gush, then the Duress would nab the Will, but the good news is that GAT will at least get to see one less card even though he gets to retain a FoW in hand. That FoW comes with a trade-off - the Will will no longer present a mid-game threat, so WGD can take a little more time early.

The suggestion of nixing the early Duress plan has merit, although I'm sure that such tough decisions have to be made in just about any archetype that sports Duress - do you kill early game tempo by Duressing? It is perhaps a little too easy to make such a decision with open hands, but would you not Duress if those were closed hands you'd be playing with?

Huh? How bad is this? Why return Tropical?

The Tropical wasn't returned - the Underground Sea was. If you look at GAT's next turn, he has a Tropical in hand, not the Underground Sea. That was a transcription error on my part. I will edit that part shortly.

On the oath sideboard, why 4 hellkites instead of a more ordinary creature base like Plats, Akroma-Razia, or even Simic Sky Swallowers?  Is it because of the whole no-gaea's-blessing thing, which makes you want more dudes, or is it because they are also good to reanimate in case of no leyline, or what?

From what I understand of the rules, you can no longer Animate Akroma or Simic Sky Swallower. The SB plan into Oath would involve leaving behind some animate spells (likely 5 of the 7), so the creatures cannot have pro-black or be untargetable. This narrows the options, and I think that Bogardan Hellkite is the best of all of the options. I also don't want to be losing to an early Dryad (with 4 or less counters), which can easily race a Hellkite.

Also, do you think this deck can compete in the new metagame, with 9-13 spheres and all?

9-Sphere will certainly pose a new challenge. First, we have have to wait and see how competitive and prevalent that archetype will be. If it appears in significant numbers, WGDX has two interesting ways of fighting against such a deck. The first is the old Canadian tech of SB Ancient Tomb, which, for instance, Lam used in Birdshit to beat 4-Trinisphere Stax. The second interesting option is something I read about in the mtgsalvation forums - using Kataki in 5C WGD. Kataki is immune to the effects of Thorn of Amethyst, and could clean away the Spheres.

Alternately, WGD might simply not care - unless Stax can mount an avalanche of Spheres early, WGD might put itself in a position to resolve its one 2-cc spell to win the game without casting any spells.

[islanderboi10]

What about the other Gush decks in the metagame?  And Leyline/Extripate?
How do you deal with leyline?

I am very interested in this deck, but a lot of people around here frown on it.  The meta is full of Shops, and Gush decks.  I believe a lot more shop decks will be around, so I am definetly considering Dragon.

[The Atog Lord]

Peter, thank you for this thought-provoking post. I did a double-take when I read your new topic’s title because I have been testing Dragon myself the last few days as well. I finished 7-1 in games against people on Magic Work Station, but just under 50% against ELD playing GAT. My build was very rough, and certainly incorrect. But, I made a few interesting changes that I’ll share. There is no “right” build of GAT, as you’ve stated; but some of these ideas proved fairly potent, and you may find them worth testing.

The biggest and most important change was the addition of Tarmogoyf. He’s an excellent Plan B, and something I really wish had existed when I was playing Dragon more a year ago. For two mana, he is a solid threat – often winning the game in a few hits. He has synergy with Animate Dead and friends in two ways: he can be reanimated once dead; and the Enchantment card type grows him. A single dedicated Bazaar activation can easily result in a triple battle growth.

Adding Goyf to the maindeck or at least the sideboard was the most successful idea I was testing. I was also trying to revert to the Squee plan. Misdirections are everywhere, and that makes the value of Deep Analysis plummet. The Squee plan doesn’t care about Misdirection, however. Does this reduce the power of your Intuitions, removing the Intuition-for-DA plan? Not with the inclusion of a single Life from the Loam. As I wrote long ago, this single card gives you an excellent plan with Intuition, and is perfectly viable alone.

Finally, while I realize that this may be the most dramatic and therefore worst change to the deck, there is at least some reason to play Thoughtseize over Force of Will. First, people will play around Force anyways. Second, and moreover, while Force is  a great card, the many blue cards run just to keep the blue count high enough were often less than desirable. I tuned and tweaked the deck, and before I knew it I had only ten blue cards, Force included. I removed the Forces and kept Blue for power and Intuition. This allowed me greater access to Green for hardcasting Goyfs. For the kill, a single Witness and a Laquatus combine to provide three different infinite kills – milling, infinite Timewalks, and infinite Ancestrals.

So, those are the changes that I tried. The Tarmogoyfs being maindeck have proven well worth the room in my testing. The squees were quite solid. The Thoughtseizes require further testing. One note that I want to make is that errata to Animate Dead allows it to be Misdirected now. Necromancy suffers no such problem. In conclusions, it says something that both Peter and I have been thinking about this deck. I think that Goyf provides a way around almost all of the standard hate for the deck, and offers Dragon a new chance to succeed.

[Rush]

My only problem I've found playing with WGDX is Extirpate.  Quite frankly, I love the deck.  Anyone who knows me would know I absolutely adore WGD, since the day I discovered the combo.  It is, in all honesty, my favorite deck of all time.  I even have 14 WGD, including 2 foil.  Nonetheless, I retired from playing D2460N the day I discovered Extirpate's ability.  Also, I would like to comment on the pure power of Extirpate.  I am currently working on a UBw Landstill deck at the moment.  I'm yet to test it, though I believe it would be quite powerful in the current meta.

But I digress.  I am still a fan of the deck, even though Extirpate still looms.  Additionally, I like the addition of the Oaths.  My biggest question about your particular build is the absence of Xantid.  Why would you not want the inclusion of this card at the very least as a 1 of in a meta with GAT as the deck to beat (I'm mostly basing this on this year's worlds)?

In conclusion, I have played Dragon probably more than any other deck all in all, as I've been playing with it off and on since the discovery of the combo.  I don't like the idea of Leyline and Extirpate being pretty much an auto-loss for this deck.  However, I do like the idea of changing out the normal plan into Oath against aggro decks.  Life from the Loam is indeed an amazing card.  I ran one in my old version of this deck and it did quite well.  As for Squee, he seems rather retro active with the side plan of Oath, doesn't he?

[7filo7]

I'm sure that such tough decisions have to be made in just about any archetype that sports Duress - do you kill early game tempo by Duressing? It is perhaps a little too easy to make such a decision with open hands, but would you not Duress if those were closed hands you'd be playing with?

No, I didn't want to make general statements on duress, I was just assuming that WGDX player knows he's facing GAT, of course if he expected combo I'd not questioned the choice - while for myself, I've nonetheless tutored for Lotus, given the strength this archetype develop when pushing on his front leg.

if your suggestion is to sit on the Vamp, I wouldn't agree in this case. Vamp and Opt isn't even a combo because there isn't enough mana to do something with it (given that Drain mana already ties up UU).

Yes, sorry to not make it clean, but that was what I intended.
I think that, given the cards, it would have been clever to sit on vamp->gush,opt , instead of night whispering for the same net, while I totally get what you mean when you talk about "urgency" with regard to GAT development.

As a WGD player, I am in the opposite camp as you - draw spells can be used to win attrition wars and are usually my main concern rather than specific hate cards. Seeing as many cards as possible with GAT is of paramount importance in this match-up. I cannot think of any other card I'd want to Vamp up at this point;

I agree that draw spells are of a critical importance.
What I intended was that if the GAT player choose to follow up so heavily the draw street, as a WGDX player I'll gladly race with him instead to trying to stop it.

On a conclusive note, I'm arguing that it seems to me more productive playing WGDX with a more aggressive attitude, while, on the other hand, I'd prefered GAT challenge the match with a more cautious approach.
This raise a long time question of mine.
I've really like WGDX instance of Dragon for being so persistent in producing threats, while I feel somewhat uncomfortable in taking the control role, this is why I've always felt uncomfortable in playing the deck, for example, with an high count of disruption, or with a low count of dragon or animate spells.
What do you think are WGDX strong points and right attitudes when taking the control role?

thanks once again and sorry in advance for any mistakes.

[islanderboi10]

The biggest and most important change was the addition of Tarmogoyf. He’s an excellent Plan B, and something I really wish had existed when I was playing Dragon more a year ago. For two mana, he is a solid threat – often winning the game in a few hits. He has synergy with Animate Dead and friends in two ways: he can be reanimated once dead; and the Enchantment card type grows him. A single dedicated Bazaar activation can easily result in a triple battle growth.

I, too, have thought to add Goyf in the sideboard.  Never the maindeck, though.  But what I have realized is Goyf gets wrecked by the same hate as Dragon.  The most common hate card you are likely to see is Leyline of the Void.  The only way Goyf can play around that, other than bounce of course, is to rely on your opponent playing spells.

.

[Dante]

Finally, while I realize that this may be the most dramatic and therefore worst change to the deck, there is at least some reason to play Thoughtseize over Force of Will. First, people will play around Force anyways. Second, and moreover, while Force is  a great card, the many blue cards run just to keep the blue count high enough were often less than desirable. I tuned and tweaked the deck, and before I knew it I had only ten blue cards, Force included. I removed the Forces and kept Blue for power and Intuition. This allowed me greater access to Green for hardcasting Goyfs. For the kill, a single Witness and a Laquatus combine to provide three different infinite kills – milling, infinite Timewalks, and infinite Ancestrals.

Rich - I think that no-FOW versions might be viable, but I think for this particular version, with it's draw (as opposed to a LDV's based version), replacing FOW with Thoughtseize suffers from the "top-deck" issue - meaning you get into a war of attrition and top-decks become important on both sides.  Thoughtseize can't stop the topdecked (or mystical'd/vamp'd) Yag Will from any of the Gush decks.  In addition, now all your disruption requires mana, which you'll need to use instead of (or slowing down) your own game plan of tutoring, intuition, and/or animates.  I used a non-FoW 5c version successfully against Gifts, but that deck tended to build slower and was much more susceptible to Titan disruption than anything with Gush.

[Shock Wave]

I personally cannot envision a viable build of Dragon that does not run Force of Will. The format is just too fast, and being on the draw with no way to protect yourself just seems absolutely awful for any deck. Moreover, I find that Dragon doesn't really care about the majority of spells the opponent casts anyways. Sometimes, you'll cast Duress or Thoughtseize and end up having to choose a largely inconsequential card. That's pretty bad for a deck that relies on Bazaar, since it unnecessarily puts you at -1 card in hand.

[ashiXIII]

Peter, thank you for this thought-provoking post. I did a double-take when I read your new topic’s title because I have been testing Dragon myself the last few days as well. I finished 7-1 in games against people on Magic Work Station, but just under 50% against ELD playing GAT. My build was very rough, and certainly incorrect. But, I made a few interesting changes that I’ll share. There is no “right” build of GAT, as you’ve stated; but some of these ideas proved fairly potent, and you may find them worth testing.

The biggest and most important change was the addition of Tarmogoyf. He’s an excellent Plan B, and something I really wish had existed when I was playing Dragon more a year ago. For two mana, he is a solid threat – often winning the game in a few hits. He has synergy with Animate Dead and friends in two ways: he can be reanimated once dead; and the Enchantment card type grows him. A single dedicated Bazaar activation can easily result in a triple battle growth.

Adding Goyf to the maindeck or at least the sideboard was the most successful idea I was testing. I was also trying to revert to the Squee plan. Misdirections are everywhere, and that makes the value of Deep Analysis plummet. The Squee plan doesn’t care about Misdirection, however. Does this reduce the power of your Intuitions, removing the Intuition-for-DA plan? Not with the inclusion of a single Life from the Loam. As I wrote long ago, this single card gives you an excellent plan with Intuition, and is perfectly viable alone.

Finally, while I realize that this may be the most dramatic and therefore worst change to the deck, there is at least some reason to play Thoughtseize over Force of Will. First, people will play around Force anyways. Second, and moreover, while Force is  a great card, the many blue cards run just to keep the blue count high enough were often less than desirable. I tuned and tweaked the deck, and before I knew it I had only ten blue cards, Force included. I removed the Forces and kept Blue for power and Intuition. This allowed me greater access to Green for hardcasting Goyfs. For the kill, a single Witness and a Laquatus combine to provide three different infinite kills – milling, infinite Timewalks, and infinite Ancestrals.

So, those are the changes that I tried. The Tarmogoyfs being maindeck have proven well worth the room in my testing. The squees were quite solid. The Thoughtseizes require further testing. One note that I want to make is that errata to Animate Dead allows it to be Misdirected now. Necromancy suffers no such problem. In conclusions, it says something that both Peter and I have been thinking about this deck. I think that Goyf provides a way around almost all of the standard hate for the deck, and offers Dragon a new chance to succeed.

Rich, mind posting a list?

[The Atog Lord]

Here's my list, but please keep in mind that it is more an attempt to test a few cards rather than something I'd ever consider playing at a tournament. In other words, please don't sleeve this thing up as-is and pay $25 to play it.

// Lands
    4 Bazaar of Baghdad
    2 Flooded Strand
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Swamp
    3 Bayou
    3 Underground Sea

// Creatures
    1  Eternal Witness
    4 Worldgorger Dragon
    4  Tarmogoyf
    3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
    1 Garruk Wildspeaker
    1 Ambassador Laquatus
    1 Oona's Prowler

// Spells
    1  Ancestral Recall
    2 Animate Dead
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Demonic Tutor
    4  Duress
    1 Time Walk
    3  Intuition
    1 Mox Emerald
    1  Mox Jet
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Mox Sapphire
    3 Necromancy
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Life from the Loam
    3 Thoughtseize
    1 Vampiric Tutor

The Prowler and the Planeswalker didn't work very well. Overall, however, the Squee engine and the Goyfs were pretty strong.

[fury]

First of all, congratulations to you, dicemanx, for having written such an article about the Worldgorger archetype. This article is very relevant, shows a strong and relevant analysis of the WG build, and your theoretical thinking brings a new breath to the archetype. Bravo again.

Back on some comments :

1) On the alternate kill Witness/ancestral and laquatus

In your playtesting has the E. Witness/Ancestral win proven to be the most reliable?  What about the old Ambassador?  Is he less disruptable?

The Witness/Ancestral kill is very reliable. If you have to Cunning wish something to manage a threat, you cannot reach the stroke of genius. Adding another Cunning wish to the build might be a solution, but it's not necessary, and slots are very restricted in WGDX.

But beware, the ancestral kill is very long and needs a good knowledge about the stack in Magic. Indeed, to really win, you must do as following :

* reanim WG Dragon, and put Witness into the graveyard (with read the runes or bazaar)
* reanim witness, and bring back another reanim
* reanim witness to get any card from your graveyard to your hand at each loop.
* Bring back : ancestrall, 4 duress, 4 force of will, another reanim, 1 read the runes
* then stop the loop by bringing back WGD into your hand. The 2 reanim go to the graveyard
* play ancestral, then 3 duress, so that you can start the next loop savely by discarding the WGD with Read the runes.

Outcome : for one draw, you make the opponent draw 3 cards, which will be duressed.

You must do as this, because you cannot stack more than one ancestral on each loop. If the opponent draws a bounce, you loose all your permanents.

More simple : get 3 forces on each loop, but it's costly in life.

For the ambassador kill, it's obsolete. Witness is more efficient, and overpass Needle, which laquatus does not. For the caller/kumano kill, we don't need them in WGDX : an orb of dream can be bounced to combo off, and a pure 5C manabase with gemstone mine is weaker.

2) On the card by card analysis

Also, do you think you could do a card by card explanation of the deck?

I'll try it as soon as I have more time.

3) On Flash and Ichorid

I'd be really glad to see this series of WGDX vs the World continues (maybe with flash and ichorid, which are the real dragon's nightmares...)

Flash is faster than dragon for the combo, and plays Leyline. Quite tough ! But the transformal Oath side, and Chalice to slow down the Flash's pacts might manage this. I'm testing the matchup...

For Ichorid, once again, the oath side makes the Leyline nearly useless. But it's a speed run to win. Oath is slow, and Ichorid may kill at turn 3 easily if not disrupted. To be tested too...

4) On the transformal side Oath

On the oath sideboard, why 4 hellkites instead of a more ordinary creature base like Plats, Akroma-Razia, or even Simic Sky Swallowers?

4 Hellkite kill fast, and also kill a lot of anti-win permanents, like Platinum angel or Goblin Welder. Akroma/Simic are useless if a Platz reach the table... And if you have Hellkites in hand, you can discard it and reanim it to do damage to the opponent. One Hellkite with oath, and one reanimed, 10 damage

Finally, the Oath side is very multi-purpose and replaces only the WGD combo. All the engine of the deck can be be preserved.

5) On the Stacks archetype

Also, do you think this deck can compete in the new metagame, with 9-13 spheres and all?

The second interesting option is something I read about in the mtgsalvation forums - using Kataki in 5C WGD. Kataki is immune to the effects of Thorn of Amethyst, and could clean away the Spheres.

On the MTG Salvation forum, my point was indeed to enter Kataki against any Stacks deck in game 2. Once kataki reach the table, most of the Stacks locks go away, Workshop and moxes become useless. And that is enough to permit Dragon to combo off quickly, as Stacks do not counter.

It's very efficient, but with a transformal Oath side, which I heavily tested against Stacks, I wonder if Kataki is necessary. Indeed, Oath costs the same, needs the same land as kataki to be played, and makes you win. As stacks kills slowly, when Oath is on the table, you have good chances of winning. As the slots in side are very restricted, I think Oath should be suffisant to overpass the Stacks locks.

6) On animate spells

From what I understand of the rules, you can no longer Animate Akroma or Simic Sky Swallower.

Both can be animated, but the erratum makes any black protected creature go immediatly to the graveyard. On The other hand, Simic can be reanimated, in so far as its protection works only in play, and the animate enchantment targets only when it is played (thus targets only the creature card in the graveyard).

But I explained before, as dicemanx did, why Hellkite is better.

7) On Leyline/extirpate

What about the other Gush decks in the metagame?  And Leyline/Extripate?
How do you deal with leyline?

Dicemanx's article shows a way to manage some control decks like GaT. To my mind, other GaT should not modify the golbal strategy of the Dragon player.

Leyline can be managed by the Oath transformal side. Extirpate is indeed a real problem, which had been managed by cards like Abeyance or Xantid swarm. But Dicemanx hadn't slots to side them. And I cannot see how to do place in such a build, where every card counts... Any idea or tests ?

8) Some alternate build to WGDX : Tarmogoyf, DA vs Squee and Life of the Loam

Adding Goyf to the maindeck or at least the sideboard was the most successful idea I was testing. I was also trying to revert to the Squee plan. Misdirections are everywhere, and that makes the value of Deep Analysis plummet. The Squee plan doesn’t care about Misdirection, however. Does this reduce the power of your Intuitions, removing the Intuition-for-DA plan? Not with the inclusion of a single Life from the Loam. As I wrote long ago, this single card gives you an excellent plan with Intuition, and is perfectly viable alone.

Tarmogoyf is a good card yes. In Europe, it's present in nearly every decks in Legacy. But how do you put in this card in WGDX ? What cards do you cut ? Tarmo is a creature with no CIP effet, and is just a big cheap creature. Replacing the powerful slots of the Dragon combo by Tarmo is not an evidence, according to me.

Misdirection can indeed weak the DA use. But with 4 DA, which can be flashbacked, the potential card advantage is quite relevant. Squee does nothing alone, must be used with bazaar, and reduce the number of blue cards for Force of Will. Before Ichorid, the bazaar/Squee engine was always relevant. Now that Ichorid plays also bazaar, I think the best way stays in DA, despite the Misdirection problem.

Life of the loam, in my tests, was always too slow to be efficient. And what's for ? To bring back wasted bazaar ? You don't need bazaar on table to win with WGDX.

All that depends on how you play Dragon. But the WGDX build, as dicemanx shows, is quite consistent.

9) Thoughtseize over Force of Will

Playing more disrupt instead of Force of Will seems to be stronger. But don't forget we are in vintage, where hands can be broken. In vintage, we always have to keep surprising solutions, and Force of Will is a strong one. I cannot consider a WGD build without it nowadays.

On the other hand, I would consider the total or partial replacement of Duress by Thoughtseize. Indeed, discarding creatures can be relevant in some case, against Fish for instance. But we should not forget that Thoughtseize is misdirectionable...




That's all for now. Thanks again to Dicemanx for his work on a great and very pleasant archetype, at the time when a lot of people give it no chance at all.

[ashiXIII]

Here's my list, but please keep in mind that it is more an attempt to test a few cards rather than something I'd ever consider playing at a tournament. In other words, please don't sleeve this thing up as-is and pay $25 to play it.

// Lands
    4 Bazaar of Baghdad
    2 Flooded Strand
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Swamp
    3 Bayou
    3 Underground Sea

// Creatures
    1  Eternal Witness
    4 Worldgorger Dragon
    4  Tarmogoyf
    3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
    1 Garruk Wildspeaker
    1 Ambassador Laquatus
    1 Oona's Prowler

// Spells
    1  Ancestral Recall
    2 Animate Dead
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Demonic Tutor
    4  Duress
    1 Time Walk
    3  Intuition
    1 Mox Emerald
    1  Mox Jet
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Mox Sapphire
    3 Necromancy
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Life from the Loam
    3 Thoughtseize
    1 Vampiric Tutor

The Prowler and the Planeswalker didn't work very well. Overall, however, the Squee engine and the Goyfs were pretty strong.

Rich, thanks. I'm aware the deck still needs testing. I wanted to test with something between 6-8 Duresses, and since you mentioned you already had, I figured your list would be a good starting point. Cutting the Forces after adding some Duresses also seemed obvious.

 To be honest, the Garruk and Prowler look terrible on paper. I'm not surprised they didn't work out.

About what percentage of games were you winning with Goyf instead of the combo? And was it more often because that was the draw you had, or because you needed to win around hate?

[The Atog Lord]

Goyf won, from what I recall, just under half the games I played. This could be because I had fewer Combo elements than traditional Dragon builds and had to rely on them. However, I think that they are simply a very powerful card in this deck. Dragon plays with a much diverse array of card types than most Vintage decks do, and Bazaar enables them to grow very quickly. Often, they are at least 5/6 when they first attack. Further, they can be returned via the animate spells, so that they are a continued threat.

As for the Life from the Loam draw engine, it fuels Bazaar. I've liked it in practice, both in this more unusual build, and in past traditional builds of WGDX. It has the excellent added benefit of helping the deck more quickly recover from land destruction as well.

[linsi]

i considered to play WGD on my last tournement, but i wasnt sure what to do with sb. with this deck you need a very good-working sb plan or you get crushed by leyline and extirpate and so on. my teammate told me that dicemanx posted in the SCG-forum about his 3:0:1 at the prelim, with an oath sb. that was my solution!

i got 1st place with a 4:0:1 record(19 people most of them powered). so thanks for the idea of an oath sb which is just amazing.

here is my list and some explanations:


    1  Swamp
    4  Bazaar of Baghdad
    3  Underground Sea
    4  Polluted Delta
    1  Island
    2  Forbidden Orchard

// Creatures
    4  Worldgorger Dragon
    1  Eternal Witness

// Spells
    1  Imperial Seal
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Demonic Tutor
    1  Black Lotus
    3  Deep Analysis
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Mana Crypt
    3  Necromancy
    3  Animate Dead
    1  Dance of the Dead
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Time Walk
    1  Cunning Wish
    1  Mox Sapphire
    3  Pact of Negation
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Entomb
    4  Force of Will
    3  Intuition
    1  Lim-Dul's Vault
    1  Mystical Teachings
    3  Thoughtseize

// Sideboard
SB: 2  Forbidden Orchard
SB: 1  Stroke of Genius
SB: 1  Chain of Vapor
SB: 1  Bayou
SB: 4  Oath of Druids
SB: 4  Tidespout Tyrant
SB: 1  Echoing Truth
SB: 1  Gaea's Blessing

my disruptions are as you can see 4Fow 3 thoughtseize and 3 pacts.

Fow for me is a must have.

thoughtseize over duress: cards like meddling mage or waterfront bouncer or i.e. goblin welder just suck and you have the additional option to discard dragon(very rare situation but possible).

pact: no better card to protect the combo and it is blue.

tutors:

entomb: find dragon and can dig in a deep analysis.

Lim-Dul's Vault: an eot Lim-Dul's Vault is most time a win. it can tutor for bazaar as first card, finding combo parts and back up and once.

i. seal/vamp:create very often a turn 2 kill.

mystical teachings: propably one of the best cards in the deck! ist enables so many options and even slots in the main deck. you dont need read the runes anymore because each intuition can go for dragon,dragon, teachings and thats all you need in grave.
it can also tutor for Lim-Dul's Vault, ancestral or vampiric or backup.

sb.
as i mentioned before, i was playing an oath sb i think the only point to discuss here is which creatures to use.
i tried akroma and her friend but consiedered that tidespout tyrannt as the better choice. he is amazing with 2 mana artifacts he makes you infinite mana, 2 tyrants and some spells bounce the hole(or at least everything you want) bord of your opponent.and not to forget he is blue.

@dicemanx: great artical, i have waited so long for it. i

ps.
other creatures in the main deck often deny the ability to draw the game

[islanderboi10]

What about Memnarch as a win condition?

[fury]

What about Memnarch as a win condition?

To be tested, but it's, according to me, less multi-purpose than Eternal Witness.

I now take time to analyse the WGDX build card by card. Feel free to correct me or add comments on the following discussion !

Analysis card by card :

1) The mana base :

Lands (11):
3 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Forbidden Orchard
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand

Basic lands (1):
1 Island

Artifacts (9):
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault

The mana base is a 5C one, because of the sideboard. The forbidden orchards allow some metagame choice, as we discuss earlier, like Abeyance, Xantid or Kataki. 3 are enough because the dragon deck can dig deeply to find one.

There is 12 lands only, which seems not to be enough in combo (13 is the standard), but Bazaar and all the draw spells let the player dig the deck, so that 12 lands seems to be enough and save place for other cards.

Fetches reach the basic land to avoid Wasteland or Magus of the moon. The engine of the deck is blue, so one island is enough. In my build, I nevertheless add one basic swamp, because in some case, I was unable to cast demonic or vampiric tutor. The fetches are diversified, so that we can reach with maximum probability the land we need (2 polluted delta and 2 flooded strand are better than 4 of one type only).

The tropical island is here to cast Oath with no orchard on the table, in case the opponent have already a creature on table. This is the main surprising effect of the deck, dropping a tropical often meaning that your play GaT or Madness.

Finally, we need all the mana artifact acceleration as possible, so we include sol ring, mana vault, mana crypt.

2) The tutoring engine

1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor


Less to say. These auto-include cards are powerful to reach a lacking piece of the combo, or a mana source to combo off.

1 Cunning Wish

This reaches the kill, or one managing card of the sideboard, like Echoing Truth or chain of vapor. There's no more tutor, because WGDX has a lot of draw cards.

3) The draw/discard engine

4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Intuition
3 Read the Runes
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Deep Analysis

Ancestral is quite an evidence, bazaar too.

4 intuition make the power of the deck, as it can put WGD into the graveyard, reach a bazaar to activate it and win, fetch a reanim spell, etc. It is very multi-purpose, and is generally played at the end of the opponent's turn.

Read the runes is very useful to draw/discard, and makes card advantage if we sacrifice permanents, like mana vault or lands we don't need for instance. 3 is enough, so that it can be intuitioned.

Deep has been already analysed earlier. It's a strong way to win an attrition war against most control archetypes. Replacing Entomb with a 4th Deep was not an evidence, we can argue on this choice. Deep makes card advantage to balance the card disadvantage of bazaar and often gives key spells to combo off, as the build is very redundant.

All these cards are blue, and can be trashed to FoW.

4) Disruption and counters

4 Duress
4 Force of Will

The classic disruption in dragon. As the meta goes fast and very agressive, both should be included. Is there a way to use Thoughtseize instead of duress ? I don't think it's an evidence to make the replacement, but I would try 2 duress and 2 thoughtseize to test.

It's very important to play disruption and counter at the right moment. Duress slows down the opponent's bombs, but can also be used to see his hand to be sure not to be disturbed during the Worldgorger loop. Force should be used carefully, as it's card disadvantage.

What about Pact of negation ? It's cheap and efficient to protect the combo, yes. But it's only useful for that, and you cannot use it to stop an opponent's threat, or you'll loose most of the time at your newt upkeep. For these reasons, I wouldn't include it in an WGDX build.

5) Kill and reanim

4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Eternal Witness
3 Necromancy
3 Animate Dead
1 Dance of the Dead

4 WGD is an evidence, no more to say on that. 7 reanim is a standard, because some will be countered during a game, and it's very important for the dragon player to reach one as quick as possible. Let us notice that reanim are diversified, to avoid the classic Fish threat on it, meddling mage, and to avoid a devastating Chalice@2 which ruins the combo. Moreover, Necromancy can be used as an instant to an instant kill, during the opponent's turn.

The kill is the witness one. It's the more multi-purpose one, because it allows plenty of tricks to  bounce everything which is embarrasing to win. The build doesn't rely only on it, because WGDX can also win with cunning wish and stroke of genius.

6) Sideboard

4 Oath of Druids
4 Bogardan Hellkite
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing truth
1 Stroke of Genius

I already discuss on it before, I will just clarify some choice.

4 Oath and 4 Hellkite are the heart of the transformal side. Oath can be activated with orchard, and Hellkite can kill the opponent and manage embarrassing creatures, creating a surprise after side.

The 3 chalice are there to slow down faster combo like Flash or TPS, and is very multi-purpose @1 against some control decks like GaT.

2 chain and 1 echoing are useful to bounce locks or hate. They are diversified to avoid Chalice, and all are reachable by cunning wish.

Stroke is the instant kill generally used. I mentioned a kill with ancestral, which is more complicated, because we have to be assured that the opponent's draw won't ruin the dragon loop.

That's all for now. I will post some table of side against some archetype, according to my tests.

Thanks for reading !

[dicemanx]

Rich, I thank you for your post and thevery  interesting thought provoking ideas - the WGD archetype has so much potential as far as builds and strategies are concerned. It is one of the few archetypes where one build can so radically differ from the next build.

The biggest and most important change was the addition of Tarmogoyf. He’s an excellent Plan B, and something I really wish had existed when I was playing Dragon more a year ago. For two mana, he is a solid threat – often winning the game in a few hits. He has synergy with Animate Dead and friends in two ways: he can be reanimated once dead; and the Enchantment card type grows him. A single dedicated Bazaar activation can easily result in a triple battle growth.

A very interesting idea to say the least, and even more so when I saw in a subsequent post that the Tarmogoyfs were in the main deck, not the SB! I must admit that this kind of combo dilution doesn't sound too appealing on paper, but I can appreciate the argument that Bazaar can make the Tarmogoyf plan a reality.

My question then, and this extends to some of the other posters in the thread, is whether WGD needs an alternate plan game 1. I see this talk of Leyline and Extirpate, but I have yet to see Extirpate make successful main deck appearances, and Leylines main tend to be exclusive to Ichorid. I wouldn't make any contingency plans versus Leyline game 1; if you do face Ichorid, running a plan B won't save you (they will be a lot faster and aggressive), but you have one advantage - they cannot merely settle on Leyline in their opener - they need Bazaar. The chances of seeing Leyline and Bazaar is a lot smaller then just mulling into Leyline. If other decks start running Leylines main, then WGD's best strategy might be to switch to a different archetype until the Leyline count dies down. Leylines should be fairly weak main in a diverse meta, because decks like GAT, Shop, and Fish aren't really hurt that much by it, and might even enjoy the fact that Leyline early puts a deck down a card.

Adding Goyf to the maindeck or at least the sideboard was the most successful idea I was testing. I was also trying to revert to the Squee plan. Misdirections are everywhere, and that makes the value of Deep Analysis plummet. The Squee plan doesn’t care about Misdirection, however. Does this reduce the power of your Intuitions, removing the Intuition-for-DA plan? Not with the inclusion of a single Life from the Loam. As I wrote long ago, this single card gives you an excellent plan with Intuition, and is perfectly viable alone.

I would still retain DAs even if the Misdirection count elevated in the meta. The Squee plan can be quite slow, and you also lose out on being able to support FoW better; plus, a Misdirected DA is only -1CA, so it isn't a tragic play to walk into. Plus, I cannot see GAT increasing its Misdirections to 3-4 with the looming potential of 9sphere and Fish variants.

What I would consider, however, is to run Squee supplementally, either in the main deck or in the SB. The SB Squee plan is a little weak though, because the opposing deck will bring in their graveyard hate (which will likely consist of Leyline). If opposing decks ran Crypts instead, Squee would make more sense in the SB because it could be used to bait Crypts, but this is not possible versus Leyline.

Finally, while I realize that this may be the most dramatic and therefore worst change to the deck, there is at least some reason to play Thoughtseize over Force of Will. First, people will play around Force anyways. Second, and moreover, while Force is  a great card, the many blue cards run just to keep the blue count high enough were often less than desirable. I tuned and tweaked the deck, and before I knew it I had only ten blue cards, Force included. I removed the Forces and kept Blue for power and Intuition. This allowed me greater access to Green for hardcasting Goyfs. For the kill, a single Witness and a Laquatus combine to provide three different infinite kills – milling, infinite Timewalks, and infinite Ancestrals.

FoW was never a card set in stone for me in WGD, but WGDX was built in part to optimize the defensive potential of the card by increasing the U card count. I don't view many of the U cards as being less than desirable - RtR and DAs, along with the Intuitions, formed the strong core of WGDX, and the only really weak U card was Cunning Wish, but that was a necessary card in order to reduce the dependence on Bazaar and Bazaar fueled kills. Still, I am up for exploring other disruption spells, whether in WGDX or in more offbeat builds such as the Tarmogoyf hybrid.

One note that I want to make is that errata to Animate Dead allows it to be Misdirected now.

True, although in Squeeless builds with no alternate kill cards, this is likely a non-issue (unless a Witness hit the graveyard early, but even then being forced to reanimate a Witness could result in an equally positive outcomeas you gain +2CA from the transaction).

i got 1st place with a 4:0:1 record(19 people most of them powered). so thanks for the idea of an oath sb which is just amazing.

Congrats on the good showing. You should consider writing up a tourney report - I'd be interested in hearing about the specific match-ups, and how the Pacts factored into your wins. I'm a little wary of Pacts because of the total lack of defensive capabilities, but there is so little data out there regarding their viability in WGD so it would be good to hear a report from you.

Incidentally, the Entomb in your deck is probably better off as a second Lim-Dul's Vault. Entomb is normally a poor choice in WGD unless it runs card that can achieve non-Bazaar fueled kills (which is why it appeared in WGDX as support for the Intuition/RtR/Wish alternative kill) or if you run an alternate kill main deck (Sundering Titan  is my first preference). I also would consider another Lim Dul's Vault over the Imperial Seal - the Vaults are really awesome cards in WGD if you rely on Bazaar as your discard and combo engine. With RtR builds, tutoring power is a little less important which is why I don't run vaults there.

[nineisnoone]

Newbie asking some questions about WGDX... always been my fav vintage archetype.

The Witness/Ancestral kill is very reliable. If you have to Cunning wish something to manage a threat, you cannot reach the stroke of genius. Adding another Cunning wish to the build might be a solution, but it's not necessary, and slots are very restricted in WGDX.

But beware, the ancestral kill is very long and needs a good knowledge about the stack in Magic. Indeed, to really win, you must do as following :

* reanim WG Dragon, and put Witness into the graveyard (with read the runes or bazaar)
* reanim witness, and bring back another reanim
* reanim witness to get any card from your graveyard to your hand at each loop.
* Bring back : ancestrall, 4 duress, 4 force of will, another reanim, 1 read the runes
* then stop the loop by bringing back WGD into your hand. The 2 reanim go to the graveyard
* play ancestral, then 3 duress, so that you can start the next loop savely by discarding the WGD with Read the runes.

Outcome : for one draw, you make the opponent draw 3 cards, which will be duressed.

You must do as this, because you cannot stack more than one ancestral on each loop. If the opponent draws a bounce, you loose all your permanents.

More simple : get 3 forces on each loop, but it's costly in life.

For the ambassador kill, it's obsolete. Witness is more efficient, and overpass Needle, which laquatus does not. For the caller/kumano kill, we don't need them in WGDX : an orb of dream can be bounced to combo off, and a pure 5C manabase with gemstone mine is weaker.

I don't understand this.
The way that I did it once (and I didn't really plan it, I just sort of ad lib-ed) was reanimate on a witness (on an earlier turn), reanimate on a dragon (on going off turn), then on the loop double reanimate on the dragon with recurring witness, put GY/Deck into hand with Bazaar, play whatever.

I'm not really sure if you're saying the same thing. In fact, I'm almost certain that you're not. Can you try explaining it again? It's a bit complex for me.

5) Kill and reanim

4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Eternal Witness
3 Necromancy
3 Animate Dead
1 Dance of the Dead

4 WGD is an evidence, no more to say on that. 7 reanim is a standard, because some will be countered during a game, and it's very important for the dragon player to reach one as quick as possible. Let us notice that reanim are diversified, to avoid the classic Fish threat on it, meddling mage, and to avoid a devastating Chalice@2 which ruins the combo. Moreover, Necromancy can be used as an instant to an instant kill, during the opponent's turn.

The kill is the witness one. It's the more multi-purpose one, because it allows plenty of tricks to  bounce everything which is embarrasing to win. The build doesn't rely only on it, because WGDX can also win with cunning wish and stroke of genius.

You mentioned Entomb to replace the 4th Deep Analysis, but what about replacing the 4th WGD with Entomb? You want your WGD in your GY anyways so it basically serves the same purpose. The big advantage would be the ability to combo without having a WGD in the yard.

Also, if you're worried about meddling mage, why not run 2x animate and 2x dance? Is there some reason why animate is preferred to dance?

6) Sideboard

4 Oath of Druids
4 Bogardan Hellkite
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing truth
1 Stroke of Genius

I already discuss on it before, I will just clarify some choice.

4 Oath and 4 Hellkite are the heart of the transformal side. Oath can be activated with orchard, and Hellkite can kill the opponent and manage embarrassing creatures, creating a surprise after side.

The 3 chalice are there to slow down faster combo like Flash or TPS, and is very multi-purpose @1 against some control decks like GaT.

2 chain and 1 echoing are useful to bounce locks or hate. They are diversified to avoid Chalice, and all are reachable by cunning wish.

Stroke is the instant kill generally used. I mentioned a kill with ancestral, which is more complicated, because we have to be assured that the opponent's draw won't ruin the dragon loop.

On the SB, what about Dread instead of Hellkite? It is objectively 1 turn slower than Hellkite, but is subjectively faster in a race against any other creature combination that doesn't win on it's first attack. It is still good against Platinum since nothing will be able to attack you, allowing you to stall to be able to bounce it. It isn't as good against Welder though. It can be reanimated with Necromancy as well.

Also why 4 Hellkites/Oath targets? Might it be better to run different ones to run against different decks? Maybe Platinum Angels, or Hypnox?

Also has Merchant Scroll been tested out? Scroll can get Intuitions, FOW, Recall, and Bounce helping win out attrition wars and finding answers. Might be a bit much for main deck, but might better against more all-or-nothing combo decks, where rather than a long attrition war you just need to accelerate to as much disruption as possible.

[The Atog Lord]

Peter, you raise some excellent points as always. I believe that the value of a secondary plan main deck is a function of the metagame. With some Stax builds maindecking Leyline and Trinket Mages fetching up Crypts, having a maindeck plan B seems valuable. In a GAT and Stax filled metagame, perhaps maindecking the Tarmogoyfs is less desirable. However, they tend to be at least 5/6 for 1G, and have been quite powerful so far. An opponent working to gatherer the resources necessary to handle the Dragon combo will have little left to concentrate on the large undercosted monster. Dragon as a deck is uniquely able to grow the Goyfs to huge sizes very quickly and return them should anything happen.

As for Read the Runes, I've been less and less impressed by the card. Yes, it is blue, and in an ideal situation lets you discard a Dragon for only two mana. However, it is rather expensive as a draw engine and has negative synergy with Bazaar. I'm not saying that it is bad or that it doesn't belong. However, it often feels like a weak link in a deck otherwise filled with powerful cards. Put another way, if Force of Will were cut from Dragon, I can't imagine still wanting to include Read the Runes.

Nine,
Dread shuffles himself into your library if he finds his way into the graveyard.

[nineisnoone]

true, but you can chain off Dread going to the graveyard with a necromancy to animate him.

[Dante]

A brief answer to the question - rather using the witness trigger to return the REST of your deck to your hand, once you've got a bunch of Duress in your hand, use the Witness trigger to return the WGD to hand, thus the animates don't have a WGD to target and the loop stops.  Cast your Duresses.  Discard dragon and start again.

[zack]

The Witness/Ancestral kill is very reliable. If you have to Cunning wish something to manage a threat, you cannot reach the stroke of genius. Adding another Cunning wish to the build might be a solution, but it's not necessary, and slots are very restricted in WGDX.

But beware, the ancestral kill is very long and needs a good knowledge about the stack in Magic. Indeed, to really win, you must do as following :

* reanim WG Dragon, and put Witness into the graveyard (with read the runes or bazaar)
* reanim witness, and bring back another reanim
* reanim witness to get any card from your graveyard to your hand at each loop.
* Bring back : ancestrall, 4 duress, 4 force of will, another reanim, 1 read the runes
* then stop the loop by bringing back WGD into your hand. The 2 reanim go to the graveyard
* play ancestral, then 3 duress, so that you can start the next loop savely by discarding the WGD with Read the runes.

Outcome : for one draw, you make the opponent draw 3 cards, which will be duressed.

I'm not sure this actually works.  How do you get an animate spell back in your hand to restart the dragon loop?  Suppose you only have one dragon in the yard while you're looping with two animate spells and an eternal witness.  Both animates come into play at the same time.  One triggers before the other and brings the worldgorger dragon into play.  Her CIP ability goes on the top of the stack and subsequently causes the whole loop to repeat itself.  This means the second animate spell never gets a chance to realize that it has nothing to animate, which would normally cause it to go to the graveyard as an unattached aura.  Since it never hits the graveyard you can't use the witness' CIP ability to get it back into your hand.  Am I missing something?

[Jaynel]

I think this is right - anyone with some more experience please correct me.

1) Enchant Dragon with an aura. The Dragon CIP removes all permanents you control from the game. As a result, Dragon goes back to your graveyard because it is no longer enchanted. All your permanents come back into play, untapped. The aura looks for a target, and you choose Worldgorger Dragon. The loop repeats. You can now have lots of mana floating in your pool. You  can now either activate Bazaar a lot or cast Read the Runes for a lot. Both methods dump your library into your graveyard.

2) At the point in the loop where the Aura looks for a target, enchant Eternal Witness instead. This stops the loop. With the CIP trigger of Witness, return an Aura to your hand.

3) Play the aura, targeting Worldgorger Dragon. The loop begins again.

4) Every time Witness comes back into play (after being blinked by the Dragon Comes Into Play/Leaves Play triggers), return a card from your graveyard to your hand. If it's an Instant, you can play it whenever (i.e. Ancestral Recall, Cunning Wish, Stroke of Genuis). You essentially now have all relevant cards in your library in your hand. If you want to play a sorcery, move to step 5.

5) With Aura targeting Worldgorger Dragon on the stack, resolve the Witness CIP trigger and return the targeted Worldgorger Dragon to your hand. The Aura will have no target and will be put into the graveyard. The loop stops. Play any Sorceries you want (i.e. Duress). To start the loop again, go to step 6.

6) Discard the Dragon somehow. Play an Aura (that you had returned with Witness sometime in step 4) targeting Worldgorger Dragon. The loop starts again with Witness CIP triggers.


So you Ancestral the opponent once. You then stop the loop and Duress 3 times (Forcing any threats). Rinse and repeat until you have milled your opponent. Or, you return Cunning Wish (if you haven't played it already) and go for Stroke of Genius.