A few months ago when teammate Meadbert finished his huge testing which he posted
here, I was looking for a deck to play and decided to hold my own tournament with 40 lists, most of which were taken from the top performers from his testing (adding TPS and a few other storm decks). I held it in single elimination until 5 decks were left and then switching to double elimination. The results were what I expected ... almost. There was one deck that absolutely shocked me, it was a Bert Kyle creation that he called Vinelasher Kudzu.dec. In essence it was a mono green prison deck that simply tore through every blue deck that it faced, only losing 4 games in its 7 rounds, losing one round to a turn 1 combo deck that had also performed well in Bert's testing. Here was the deck as Bert proposed it:
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
4 Centaur Garden
5 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Bazaar Of Baghdad
1 Maze Of Ith
4 Null Rod
4 Chalice Of The Void
4 Exploration
1 Fastbond
4 Root Maze
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Vinelasher Kudzu
4 Life From The Loam
4 Sylvan Scrying
sideboard
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Wheel Of Sun And Moon
2 Krosan Grip
4 Deglamer
3 Oxidize
My curiosity piqued and I began testing it for the Tower of Power event that was supposed to happen in Jacksonville the next week. I traded out the gardens for some bayous and the scryings for a demonic, vampiric and 2 reanimates (the reanimates were a random choice the day before as a way to recur creatures or steal creatures from others). I fused in black to have a better chance of facing oath by trading the deglamers for innocent bloods. Unfortunately the tournament never happened as only 4 people showed up including me and the person I brought. I did however get to do a lot of game one testing versus dredge (the wasteland version I used to win the cary cup towards the end of the gush era, which was testing better for me than fatestitcher dredge) and I got a ridiculous win percentage of well over 70% by mulling to wastes, which would strand the dredge player with just one or two dredgers in the grave, making them wait turns to get the discard phase to work for them as I piled up root maze, wastes and creatures.
I also got to do a lot of testing against GWSx (the second best performing deck in my tournament results) piloted by Jay Carter. I also got a ridiculous win percentage there with over 65% in almost twenty games switching who went first by massive amounts of mana denial combined with chalice at 0 and 1 by turn three almost every game. I was convinced that this deck was awesome and wanted to wait to post it until I could play it at a tournament to prove its power. In comes dead week, finals, friends' graduation parties and most importantly, a new set. This new set introduced a new creature that promised to be much better than kudzu in lorescale coatl.
My initial attempts to break this creature followed much of the other people's thoughts in using a grow like strategy. Much like other people I couldn't get it to work, but I came close wit bazaar and accumulated knowledge. Then I remembered the awesome deck that had been pushed out of my mind by school and lightning came down and struck my brain:
Snake Pit// Lands
3 Forest
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Strip Mine
4 Tropical Island
4 Wasteland
3 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
// Creatures
3 Lorescale Coatl
4 Tarmogoyf
// Spells
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Misdirection
3 Life from the Loam
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
// Artifacts
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Null Rod
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
// Sideboard
SB: 4 Annul
SB: 3 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 4 Seal of Primordium
SB: 4 Trygon Predator
The deck gives up two things that matter from Kudzu.dec; Root Maze and the biggest goyfs in vintage. I traded these off for counter magic and a better than kudzu creature. For the blue portion of my deck I looked at Storm and Harlequin's versions of noble fish and proceeded to graft it into the deck. I tested this version 3 times versus tez, all three with tezz on the play and twice with tezz sideboarded. Snake Pit blew Tez out of the water all three times and I was hooked. The Meandeck Open was scheduled for a week and a half after I finished this testing and I decided it would be a good time to try the deck out as I wanted to spend the week after that with family in Indiana. So I made hotel reservations and proceeded to not test the deck again once before last sunday. The following is my report from that tournament.
Round 1 vs Korey (Gifts)Game 1I'm on the play and he mulls to six. I start with a chalice at 0 and not much more. He cracks a fetch and tries to play something that I daze. My next turn I waste the land he fetched for. He then goes to get out basic island after basic island and my loams only go toward feeding the bazaar until I finally get a snake on the board. The snake swings for 5 on the next turn as I lay another bazaar and a goyf. He passes and I grow my snake to a 9/9. On my turn I grow my snake to a 14/14 (lethal) and swing with both, he truths the snake and takes 4 from the goyf. I replay the snake and and swing next turn for 11 after playing an ak for 4.
Game 2 (no sideboarding)We have a huge number of counter wars as he counters my creatures and gets out goyfs. Eventually I am able to sneak in a snake which picks off his goyfs and my goyf (the 7th creature that I've seen this game, take a look at the list and do the math) goes the distance.
1-0-0 (2-0)Round 2 vs Jerry Yang (Tez)Game 1I'm on the play again and I mull to 6 keeping a sketchy hand with only one mana source but with chalice null rod and triple goyf. I play forest chalice pass. He plays land go. I draw a fetch land and play tarmo number 1. He plays land go. I play trmo number 2 and attack for 1. He fetches and scrolls for mystical tutor. I draw a bazaar, chuck a mox, rod and (loam?), swing for 8 and play tarmo number 3. He goes to draw phase and concedes.
Game 2 (no sideboarding)This game goes back and forth for a while. The most amusing part happened at the beginning when he played mox, mana crypt and an island and on my turn I played a mox, waste and null rod. The game then went on a bunch of turns with him countering some of my creatures and eventually tinkering the crypt for inkwell. My bazaar and ak for 3 and 4 drew me into hurkyl, multiple force back up and a merchant scroll in case all else fails. I strand the leviathan in his hand and play out a snake and two goyfs which he concedes to.
2-0-0 (4-0)Round 3 vs. Robert (Tez)Game 1He's on the play and we both keep. I kept a sketchy hand with one mana source but two chalices and a null rod. I drew another mana source and was able to ride the chalice into a strip plus loam lock. It helped that he couldn't draw into lands, but I have to admit that a lot of current vintage decks are like this if they don't have access to their draw spells.
Game 2 (no sideboarding)I live the dream and get chalice at 0 and 1 on my first turn. With this we have a couple of counter wars, some goyfs go back and forth across the red zone and he eventually has to concede to my 3x tarmo and strip loam lock.
3-0-0 (6-0)Round 4 vs Brian (BUG Fish)We decide to draw into top 4 and play the round for fun (and so I could put the results into this thread
)
Game 1He's on the play and we both keep. I decide to keep a hand with an opener of chalice at one and a later bazaar. It doesn't matter much as he plays a vendellion clique and I don't see a creature in my top 20 cards. I did see a merchant scroll though, but it didn't matter as I ran 2 hurky'ls instead of 1 hurky and 1 e truth.
Game 2 (-4 rod, 2 hurky, +4 predator, +2 relic)I mull to six and keep a hand with a slow hand with a snake, bazaar and possible chalice at 1. I play the chalice at 1 after he already got a cursecatcher in play. He forces my snake and threads the tarmo that I play in the next turn. I don't see another creature before he can kill me with the goyf he stole.
3-0-1 (6-2)After making top 4 in first place I was ready to split being in the throws of a cold and hungry for a Thurman burger. Everyone else agreed and we went out to Thurman's Cafe (an absolutely awesome place, well worth the long wait).
Questions from the Ohio Crew:How about Sensei's Divining Top?The top is incredibly slow. Bazaar + Loam gives a lot more card selection, fuels the snake better, is less vulnerable to counters and isn't shut off by null rod. Top might be good in a grow like version of the deck, but a version like that can't exist without unrestricted brainstorm, and I'm not sure if top would be the best card there.
What about Deep Analysis over Accumulated Knowledge?The more I think about this one the less I like it against anything other than a chalice at 2. The first ak always either cycles when you don't have anything better to do with 2 mana or gives you an uncounterable frantic search with bazaar (fairly common play). The second ak is better than night's whisper (not saying much, but better than DA too) and also gives you an uncounterable frantic search. The third ak is better than any other 2 mana draw spell in magic and gets played almost every game. The fourth ak, even if you somehow had to discard the other three, is absolutely amazing and serves as a better bomb than a recall. Deep Analysis can only ever get you two cards, needs bazaar to be any good at all and still costs you a free lightning bolt for the opponent. Not to mention that DA can be misdirected.
Intuition?Intuition costs too much for too little in this deck. You don't run huge amounts of mana accel so 3 mana happens turn 4 half the time, if your best play turn 4 is intuition it isn't that good. Not to mention that without grave recursion outside of loam the tutor isn't nearly as good as it is in other decks.
Crop Rotation?I didn't have crop rotation in this one and I only felt the need for it when I really wanted a strip mine. I found a bazaar almost every game before turn 3. I never really found a need for a second bazaar so crop rot would only tutor for strip mine the majority of the time. That said, most people just concede to a strip lock, especially if it is backed up with any kind of pressure, so it may have a place in the deck.
Fastbond?The card is good, no doubt. It might also go to grow goyf an extra point if I discard it to bazaar, but the biggest possibility is to be able to waste multiple lands in one turn. This is a pretty big play, but I would need a lot more experience with the deck before I could make an accurate assessment of how much this is needed. On the day I could have used it in one of the six games I won, but it didn't end up mattering anyway. It might be just win more, but it will stay in my thoughts as I tweak the deck further.
Regrowth/Reclaim/Eternal Witness?These might deserve a spot in the deck just as a way to recur creatures most of the time. Luckily they all provide other usefull benefits with things like walk and recall in the deck. At this point I think a witness or two could work in the deck, but I need to test to see what is ok to take out for them. I'm not sure that I would include more than 2 witness though.
4 Bazaars?I never had a game where I had no cards in hand. I also never had a game where after turn two my only option was to draw 1 card and pass. you want to see a bazaar as soon as possible, and they really aren't that bad in multiples. 4 is number you want and the number you need.
What were the boarding plans?Vs. Stax-4 chalice, -3 daze, -1 misD
+4 Predator, +4 seal
Your biggest fear is chalice at 2, if you can try to get a predator on board as fast as possible, otherwise run out tarmo and snake while wasting shops. If they are 5c then watch out for balance by striping their non shop lands, and hope for seals/hurkyl's/preds to take care of their artifacts.
Vs. FishThis one is hard, you definitely want to go -4 rod, +4 Pred as you have a hard time winning creature wars just because they run so many more. It is also ok to trade out the hurkyl's for relics to have an answer to their goyfs (or yours if they steal them). The deck would be better if it had an e truth in it in place of one of the hurkyl's which I'll address later.
Vs. Dredge-4 rod, -3 daze, -1 misd
+4 relic, +4 predator
Set your chalices at 1 to protect your hand and stop pithing needle if possible. Save your forces for needle, dread return and unmask. Use hurkyl's on yourself when you can play relics, preferably more than one but judge the situation as needed. Unless they get amazing dredges you should be able to control the game from turn one if you mull to waste.
Again, an e truth would make this match up even easier, especially in game one.
Vs. Tez.Don't. Period. The deck is amazing against tez, and every other drain deck that I've put it up against.
Vs. Oath-4 rod, -4 goyf, -1 misD, -2 Hurkyl's
+4 annul, +4 predator, +3 seal
This is the match that I fear. I haven't been able to test it yet, but I know this is the big bad wolf for the deck. You really can't let them get an oath activation unless you already have a lethal snake that you can protect. Since that never really happens you want to put out seals or chalice at 2 (this play sucks hard core, but is there for the desperation pass) and don't worry about holding back wastes for the orchards. With green prison you could hold them back if you got a root maze to stick but not here :/ Past that, fight tooth and claw for every bit of tempo that you can. Stop them from playing draw spells, counter their tutor spells and don't give a thought to any of their bounce spells. Make them work as hard as possible to find and play that oath, make them draw into that akroma or dragon or whatever before they can oath and get them to sweat.
What would I change to the deck now that I've played it some more?The first change is a hurkyl's for an e truth. It might hurt the chances to answer inkwell or stax, but it helps against fish, ichorid and still works against workshop aggro. It also gives the deck a better chance to answer random cards like the bitter blossom that Jerry was trying to find in our game 2 match.
Other than that obvious change I want to look into adding witness first and see how that affects the deck.
Remember friends, if you want to piss off the boys in blue, whip your 'snake' out in public.
