Winning through anything
And some thoughts on a couple new cards from Tarkir: Dragonstorm
One of the brewing concepts that I am increasingly focusing on is that a deck needs to be able to win through anything.
What this concept means is no matter what deck your opponent is running and no matter what they throw at you, your deck needs to have a path to win through it.
You can’t be a deck that loses to a fast start, a wrath, unlimited creature removal, lifegain, large creatures, counterspells, etc. No matter what your opponent throws at you, you need to be able to win through it.
This is a concept that is adjacent to being able to “go over the top,” but I think that term implies something about going big or the top end of the curve, when winning through anything can often be done with relentless density of cheap cards.
Another critical component of being able to win through anything is your deck cannot do one thing. It needs to be able to threaten on several different dimensions because it is too easy to shut down one dimensional decks.
One of the clearest examples of this concept is my original Pioneer Simic Greenshell list.
A core idea of that deck was that I wanted a deck where it made sense to run maindeck Ipnu Rivulet. The mill my opponent out wasn’t plan A, B, or C with that deck, but it was a legitimate option, which gave the deck the ability to win through anything.
Adding a mill dimension to your deck is particularly effective for this win through anything concept because it attacks on such a different angle.
Current Standard Case Study
The Big Four
Zur Overlords- Without Zur this would be a good sorcery speed control deck. Zur is the card that elevates this deck and gives it the ability to win through anything. The Haste on huge creatures Zur provides, makes the deck extremely difficult to stabilize against. The lifegain makes it difficult to go under.
Gruul Mice- This deck can go under, can attack through blockers thanks to Monstrous Rage, can stop lifegain with Screaming Nemesis, can keep the pressure on through removal with cards like Innkeeper’s Talent and Emberheart Challenger, and has haste and chip damage to keep pressure on life totals.
Mono Red- Very similar story to Gruul Mice. Replaces the ability to value through a stabilized board with the ability to burn through it (backed by Screaming Nemesis turning off lifegain).
Esper Pixie- Hopeless Nightmare is the big card that gives Esper Pixie the win through anything dimension. It allows for cheap and continuous pressure on both life total and cards, along with cheap creatures applying further pressure, so it is has a chance against anything.
The Standard decks that can’t quite get there
There are several decks in the next tier of Standard decks and I think a big thing that holds them back is they can’t “win through anything”.
Dimir Midrange- Can be out board presenced
Azorius Control- Folds to decks that present more threats than it can answer, also can be milled out
Golgari Midrange- Can be both outsized and out tempoed
Jeskai Oculus- Can be outsized
Omniscience- Loses to graveyard hate and pressure and interaction
This is my perception brewing against the decks in Standard. I can improve my winrates against the big four, but never feel like I can crush them because they are so robust. All the other decks I can brew decks that can crush them.
Brews
You can see this need to “win through anything” in my recent brews. My Gruul Calamity, is built around a difficult to disrupt combo, while still being able to apply pressure as a rampy creature deck.
My Simic list started to come together when I added a mill plan to the sideboard.
You can clearly see this concept of needing to be able to win through anything in one of the major brews from the Pro Tour, Esper Paragon.
Here is Jason Ye’s list:
This deck takes a lot of the concepts from Esper Pixie, but makes it a bit bigger and more controlling. One of the biggest changes is it cuts the Hopeless Nightmares. However, this means it is also cutting Esper Pixie’s ability to win through anything and it needs to replace that with another dimension of attack.
And it does that by adding Jace, the Perfected Mind. Two main along with 5 ways to recast it and another in the board. This deck can win with removal + creatures, Restless Anchorage, or mill.
That kind of multi-dimensional attack is the key to winning through anything.
Is this new?
On one dimension, all of the above is obvious, of course you want a deck that can win through anything your opponent throws at it.
However, I suspect this matters more now than in the past. Decks these days are more powerful and far more consistent. In the past you could probably rely more on your opponents decks losing to itself, or not getting online the aspect of the deck you could not beat.
Now decks are so consistent at doing their thing that you need to have a way to beat it.
An important point is I am not saying you need to be favored against everything. But there is a big difference between being a 40% winrate and a 20% winrate against a given deck.
If you are facing a strong, consistent deck, with no way to win through it when it is doing it’s thing, you are going to start to drift to that 20%. Having a way to win through anything gives you a floor closer to 40% that you can add strong matchups to and have a deck with overall a high winrate.
Tarkir Previews
We are currently in the middle of Tarkir: Dragonstorm preview season and two of the cards I am most excited about inspired this article.
Craterhoof Behemoth is a card Green has really been hurting for in both Standard and Pioneer. I keep running Simic creature based ramp decks with a Mill backup plan. A big part is that Green really struggles with the Win Through anything concept.
Craterhoof should add a valuable extra dimension to Green decks, similar to how the game winning haste from Zur enables Domain. I am looking forward to Craterhoof allowing me to expand from primarily Simic to all sorts of other Green decks.
…and then Glacierwood Siege will pull me right back to Simic.
This is one of the most powerful mill cards we have seen. With Jace, the Perfected Mind the biggest drawback is you need to cast multiple to mill out the opponent. Whereas just one Glacierwood Siege will likely be enough to mill out an opponent. Decks like Phoenix show just how many instants and sorceries a deck can cast.
I am also interested to use Glacierwood Siege early on Sultai mode to hit land drops and the reset it with This Town Ain’t Big Enough late game, when ready to win.