[Deck] Vial Angels

[urdjur]

This is my first post at this forum, so I will try to make it worth your while. I’ve been tinkering with an affordable tier 1 deck for my meta the last two weeks. It’s been under review at wizards.com and our national Legacy board. Before I present the current list, let’s look at the decks in the current meta in order of importance.

1) Ux-aggro: A broad category. We see a lot of successful UGx-threshold (a wonder dog variant won the nationals), some UG-madness, a few Faerie Stompy and some random aggro decks with counters. Top priority to defeat.
2) Vial Goblins and goblin variants: A common archetype, but not very successful mostly due to poor players. High priority.
3) 43land: Two of them placed top 8 in a small, recent tournament that only had 3 of them total. Success is likely due to unoptimized goblins opposition and innate uncounterability against Ux-aggro. High priority.
4) IGGy Pop: Combo is not that common here, but our latest nationals saw a very good iggy player place second. Not something you can ignore.
5) Random aggro: A very broad spectrum that has met little success. Anything from rogue RG decks, a pretty decent slivers deck, perhaps an odd Survival-build etc.
6) Random control: Fairly common, and can sometimes place top 8. May be stax-ish, blue-ish, chant on a stick etc. You’d want a decent game one against this, and some additional sideboard support.
7) Random combo: The least common of them all. Which means that when they DO arise, they can often place top 8 (lower half) just from being rogue and not anticipated in the sideboard.

I first turned to Angel Stompy, which is really good against goblins, and one of the worst MU for Faerie Stompy. I wanted to improve it’s resilience against counters and thought about a Vial concept, and about borrowing some land resilience from Wayfarer White Weenie. To make a long story short, this is the present result of my efforts and the contributions of others:

Vial Angels by Urdjur

LANDS
6 Plains
3 Flagstones of Trokair
2 City of Traitors
2 Ghost Quarters
1 Quicksand

ACCELERATION
4 Chrome Mox
4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Aether Vial
3 Ramosian Sergeant
3 Sword of Fire and Ice

CREATURES
4 Serra Avenger
3 Exalted Angel
4 Soltari Priest
4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
4 Mother of Runes
3 True Believer
1 Children of Korlis
1 Whipcorder

OTHER SPELLS
4 Swords to Plowshares

SIDEBOARD
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Rule of Law
4 Abolish
3 Tormod’s Crypt

Concept: Sneak in under the counter/removal radar with time bombs like Aether Vial, Ramosian Sergeant, Weathered Wayfarer and Mother of Runes. Spew forth uncounterable creatures, removal, and tech, while maintaining board position with the protection mechanism.

Card Explanations

Lands, Mox and Weathered Wayfarer: Flagstones of Trokair + Ghost Quarter offer the same land thinning as fetch lands, with the added benefit of Armaggedon resilience (Flagstones) and response to problem lands (in 43land mostly). If you tap a flagstone and target it with quarters, you will get a tapped and an untapped plains back for no net loss of mana or tempo. You can use Weathered Wayfarer in response to Ghost Quarters. Wayfarer will also get you City of Traitors if you draw into Angel or Sword and uncounterable removal (Quicksand) that kills goblins, meddling mage, dark confidant etc. All non-basics sacrifice somehow, to keep your opponent’s land count higher and give added wasteland resilience. Chrome Mox has great synergy here too, as it doesn’t just accelerate your first turn, but helps keep the land count down throughout the game.

Aether Vial and Ramosian Sergeant: These turn one drops provide you with uncounterable threats at instant speed. Vial accelerates your mana, and Sergeant accelerates your draw when you have mana to spend, for added synergy.

Sword of Fire and Ice: The equipment of choice for my meta. Protection from U and R is huge, it gives card advantage, kills creatures and buffs to boot. It’s a perfect fit with the deck’s many evasion creatures and the 3 cc bypasses a Chalice for 1 or 2.

Serra Avenger: Great synergy with Vial allows you to play it turn 3 rather than 4, if you drop Vial on turn 1. Also a very good topdeck with or without Vial, as you’ll usually have less land than your opponent.

Exalted Angel: I couldn’t fit 4 in the deck, but all the acceleration pieces of Angel Stompy are still here (and then some), so why not run this lady? Turn 1 Mom, Turn 2 Angel is a very good play, and quite feasible. Also a good top deck mid game, since you have mana to spend with all the acceleration going on.

Soltari Priest: A good creature against goblins, that can also carry a sword to the dome even against formidable opposition like Faerie Stompy. Also uncounterable from a Vial set at 2.

Knight of the Holy Nimbus: Slightly weaker than Silver Knight against red, but a house against threshold. It comes out uncounterable from both a Vial and a Ramosian Sergeant, it goes toe-to-toe with Nimble Mongoose, and works well against all random aggro, since paying two just so they have to possibility to kill it seems like a bad deal when they have threats they’d rather play.

Mother of Runes: Of course.

True Believer: This bear extraordinaire is an uncounterable Gilded Light in disguise. Vial it out as a response to Tendrils. You won’t pull it off every game against IGGy Pop, but when you can, you will win. There’s also the added comfort of black disruption immunity, forcing burn to waste resources on your creatures etc.

Children of Korlis: An additional silver bullet against Tendrils, that can be played pre-emptively on turn 1 if you happen to draw it, come out fast from a vial with only one counter on turn 2, or come out at any time in reponse from a Ramosian Sergeant.

Whipcorder: A utility creature that can be tutored by Sergeant. Use it do deny equipment, keep a fatty tapped until you can play a matching creature of your own or remove it, deny activated abilities etc. Or just a simple bear for attacking if you have no other uses for it.

Swords to Plowshares: Of course. Makes for a nice removal package with fetchable Quicksand and SoFI.

SIDEBOARD

Chalice of the Void: Wrecks many decks that don’t run Vial. Chalice for 1 is bad for threshold and 43land, while a chalice for 2 completely destroys the Loam engine. It can also defeat combo at an appropriate setting – at times even for free with a Chalice at 0.

Rule of Law: Most of my spells aren’t usually “played”, so this will hardly affect the deck. It will hit hard against anything with draw, counters, manaacceleration, recursion etc. In short, it will wreck combo and many other things.

Abolish: I don’t think this is worth running in game 1. It comes in against certain decks to destroy key components, or if I expect a sideboarded pithing needle or other nuiscance in games 2 or 3. It attacks the acceleration of 43land, which they can’t recur with Loam. Of course, the reason to pick Abolish in particular is the Chalice friendly cc and synergy with Wayfarer.

Tormod’s Crypt: Threshold, 43land and many combo decks are hosed by the crypt. The 0 cc means it will often bypass a Chalice in place.

MATCH UP ANALYSIS

Returning to the list above...

1) Ux-aggro: Very favorable. I have uncounterable threats and removal, stronger creatures, and a formidable sideboard with both chalice, rule and crypt.

2) Vial Goblins and goblin variants: Very favourable. It’s not quite as strong as Angel Stompy against goblins, but it doesn’t have to be. I may win 8 games in 10 instead of 9 games in 10.

3) 43land: The most difficult match-up to anticipate main deck. I choose a defensive route, with land resilience and ways to escape the lock. I have fetchable Ghost Quarters against problem lands, and can play around Tabernacle/Maze fairly well. Games 2 and 3 hold lots of hate with Chalice at 1 or 2, crypt and Abolish. A favourable MU.

4) IGGy Pop: I have quite a few main deck answers to Tendrils, and uncounterable ones at that. The board seals the deal with Chalice and Rule. A favourable MU.

5) Random aggro: Difficult to say, but many creatures, lots of removal and protection often means you can take on aggro fairly well. Should be favourable.

6) Random control: This is likely an even game 1. The opponent has a hard time responding to my threats, but it may very well be that I have a hard time responding to the opponent too. Chalice, Abolish and Rule of Law may all be of use against different deck types. An even MU.

7) Random combo: An unfavourable match-up. I will most likely loose game 1, but Chalice, Crypt and Rule of Law holds promise for games 2 and 3. You can’t win ‘em all.

Revelations 16:1
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

[TheDrunkDwarf]

Pretty good writeup. Some tourney reports might be nice. A few suggestions:

Armageddon - this deck can bounce back from a geddon pretty easily, its somthing to consider for yur SB (or even maybe MD if it tests well).

Pithing Needle - This card has lots of uses, and it if u have no targets you could always choose Knight of the Holy Nimbus so he can loose his regeneration.

Splash Blue - This deck can put threats into play pretty easy without actually playing them. Standstill seems like a good card here, allowing sergeants and vials to play around it while your opponent is forced to break the standstill. Meddling mage always seems to be a good card as well.

[Cavius The Great]

Why are you running City of Traitors over Ancient Tomb? You have Exalted Angel.

[Tacosnape]

Agreed. KOTHN + Needle = funny shit.

Why aren't you running the fourth Flagstones of Trokair, out of curiosity?

[urdjur]

Pithing Needle is a good card, and I hadn't thought about the KotHN synergy. Good times! The 1 cc casting cost doesn't jive very well with Chalice, but I still might consider it.

Armageddon was in the initial sideboard, but got swapped in favor of Rule of Law. It would mainly help against solidarity and threshold, but solidarity is so uncommon and threshold is already such a strong match up, that Rule seemed broader and more useful.

I've been pondering splashing blue the last days, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Adding a single island and tundra means I can fetch blue with flagstones, ghost quarters and wayfarer, which give quite a few blue sources. But the tundra is a clear wasteland target, and I don't know what to take out. Sure, flinging out instant Meddling Mages in response would strengthen the odd combo match-up, but I don't know if it's worth it. It CAN work very well though. Here's a link to a completely different U/W fish with wayfarer, vial and low land count running Standstill and Meddling Mage, that placed 2nd at Richmond:
http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=13272

As for City of Traitors over Tomb, I tried Tomb first. It would do two taps and the sit there, blocking wayfarer. It's interesting to note that the two cards that it accelerates - angel and sword - both require it to tap twice. City precisely fits the bill, doesn't deal damage to me and has better synergy with Wayfarer.

And yes, 4 flagstones were tested but it resulted in two flags on the draw too often. Playing two makes you loose a tap, which is sort of unimportant on turn 5, but very important on turn 2. Targeting one with Ghost Quarter is much prefered, since there is no tempo loss. With 3 flags, the risk of getting 2 flags and no wayfarer or ghost quarter is much smaller.

[Phantom]

I have actually been working on a similar deck, except I built mine from more of a Goblin base. Mana denial lands + Wayfarer is really deadly. 2 Waste, 1 Port, and 2 Vesuva works amazing (this wouls allow you to cut down to 1 Quicksand as well). I mean, you're using your mana fetch to thin your deck when you could be using it to deny the opponent mana. Karakas is another fun land to fetch up if you're running some legends (Isamaru or Jitte) and always works nicely on opponents legends.

I agree that armageddon is a must, at least a two of. Works great with mox, Wayfarer, and Glowrider. Which brings me to my next point. Run Glowrider. True Believer may be better in your meta, and may still deserve mainboard consideration, but Glowrider is great in a more traditional meta, and goes perfectly with the deck.

I sort of have the same point about Jitte. Sword may be better in youir meta, but I think Jitte really fits this deck better, although a split isn't out of the question.

As for the Tomb/City debate, there seems to be no reason not to run both since most of the time you'll be fetching them and have a nice choice.

I personally see no need for the splash at this point, but I guess it could get us to Vial faster, which is never a bad thing.

I hadn't thought of Ramosian Sergeant, and it seems kind of slow, but I will admit that it looks nice and deserves some testing on my part. Thanks for the idea's and good luck with the deck.

[TheDrunkDwarf]

I like the idea phantom has. Another way to go with this deck would be to take out a little aggro and put in some lock components. Glowrider, tangle wire, wasteland, vesuva, rishadan port, geddon. If you optimized the deck it could have alot of potential tripping up opponents while u beat on them.

If you think about it, trinisphere might even find its way in here. Trinisphere works well with morphs, and a first turn sergeant/vial/wayfarer followed by a second turn sphere is pretty nice...

[urdjur]

I tried a Vesuva in the place of a ghost quarter but thought it was a bit slow. I think that if you really want a mana denial concept with wayfarer, you should try to fit Crucible too. Mana denial is nice if you need to slow your opponent due to the fact that your slow. Now, this isn't a slow deck, so I didn't feel it was needed. Might give it some thought though.

First I had true believer, then I switched to glowrider, and then I switched back to true believer :) It's the "Gilded Light emulation" that makes it a done deal for me.

Phantom, you're right about Ramosian sometimes being too slow, but it's too good a fit with the concept not to run. Right now I'm feeling like I'm seeing to many sergeants and to few wayfarers, so I might switch to 4 wayfarers and two sergeants. We'll see.

And yes, there's a distinct possibility in taking this deck in a more control-ish way. The main problem there is that it's difficult to "splash" the needed artifacts and/or enchantments without adding tutor. And then we're back to the more typical WWW archetype with little aggressiveness. But it's a possibility.

[Phantom]

I tried a Vesuva in the place of a ghost quarter but thought it was a bit slow. I think that if you really want a mana denial concept with wayfarer, you should try to fit Crucible too. Mana denial is nice if you need to slow your opponent due to the fact that your slow. Now, this isn't a slow deck, so I didn't feel it was needed. Might give it some thought though.


See, you're thinking of a Landstillish Wastelock kind of mana denial, which is quite slow. I'm thinking of a Goblins style mana denial suite, where we cheat things into play without paying for them and lock down their lands for long enough to win. There's absolutely nothing slow about that. Vesuva is nice because it allows us to play 4 Wastes against Thresh, 3 Quicksands against Goblins, and 3 ports against control, or it can always target a plains or Flagstone.

[urdjur]

Let's consider that for a moment. To be able to do that, we need Aether Vial. We will only get it on the initial draw 40% of the time, so we can't rely on it. Neither can Vial Goblins, so what's their trick? Well, they have MANY mountains. We're not running 16 plains (or 8 plains and 8 fetches - whatever). More on this below. They also have quite a few 3cc and 4cc goblins that can benefit from the colorless mana, whereas we always need two W sources (or one W and a vial) to play our deck.

This either means that we have to run a fat land package like goblins, or try the "Vesuva toolbox style" you describe. The problem is the interdependencies between the lands and wayfarer. You have 1 Quicksand, 2 Vesuva and 4 Wayfarers, correct? Let's look at the gobbos match for instance. First, you have to play wayfarer - that's a white source, ideally turn 1. Then you have to fetch quicksand and play it, which costs you W, so you can only play vial of the quicksand at this point. That's turn 2. Then, using your only W source once again, you have to fetch Vesuva and play it, tapped. That's turn 3. You can kill one creature if goblins attacks, and you have one 1/1 of your own. And if you want that second Vesuva to be a 3rd quicksand, you're gonna get even slower. This is all assuming you went last and your opponent dropped land every turn.

The exact same argument can be made for assembling a small army of wastelands. It's likely that your opponent's wasteland will eat your vesuvas alive while tapped and defenseless, since they have nothing better to target. While you get around to destroying thresholds lands, they have already played their hand and you're at 7 life and have a 1 cc in play, if you were lucky enough to draw one. Because all this assumes that we actually get that wayfarer. Those Vesuvas won't be anything of value to us, unless we get a wayfarer (slow option) or draw the land they are supposed to emulate (quicker but unrealistic option). It's starting to sound like "if we had some bacon, we could make bacon and eggs, if we had some eggs".

I'm not criticizing *you*, I'm criticizing depency on wayfarer - something that applies to the above deck list as well. Look at my fetching combo of 3 flagstones and 3 ghost quarters for instance. An additional 3 wayfarers are the glue that make this happen at all. But since ghost quarters depend on flagstones to be efficient, I'm depending on drawing any one of 6 cards (wayfarer+flagstone) before I draw a ghost quarter. That's like splashing a deck with 3 blue cards when you have 6 blue mana sources. The rationale is that the GQ produce colorless mana of their own that sometimes helps with angel, SoFI, vial, ramosian fetching etc, and that they are useful on their own in certain match ups. The added deck thinning is a bonus, if and when it happens. I must still admit, I'm not particularly fond of seeing those ghost quarters when I'd rather have a simple plains.

I've been doing some math in regards to the lands situation, and the results are so-so. Two run this deck, I figure you need 2 white source, 1 white source and a Vial, or 1 white source and a wayfarer. Just to get a rough estimate of how often this will happen, I did 10 7-draws on apprentice. 7 draws out of 10, I managed to get the requisite cards. That's bad, I thought, so I did some probabilities to see if I was just unlucky.

Now, the deck presently has 12 white sources (counting moxen), 3 wayfarers and 4 vials. If we disregard the times when we will be getting 2 wayfarers, 2 vials or a wayfarer and a vial (but no white sources), we can calculate the probability of getting at least two of these 19 cards on the draw. That probability is 72%, which matches perfectly with the 7 in 10 draws that I did in apprentice. That's not enough. I don't want to mulligan that often just for mana shortedness. If I drop a quicksand in favor of a plains, and swap a ghost quarters for a fourth wayfarer, I get 21 sources instead, which translates to 78% probability. I might want to increase this to 22, which would translate to a mulligan every 8 in 10 draws, but I haven't settles on an updated deck list yet.

[urdjur]

If you don't like math and probabilities, skip this post.

I've decided to go with this distribution:

LANDS (14)
6 Plains
3 Flagstones of Trokair
2 City of Traitors
2 Ghost Quarters
1 Quicksand

ACCELERATION (18)
4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Chrome Mox
4 Aether Vial
3 Ramosian Sergeant
3 Sword of Fire and Ice

This also enabled me to fit another KotHN, for a full play set. Okay, so we have one more mox and one less City. First question: Is the added mox to disruptive? 3 moxen means the following distribution on a seven card draw:
0: 68%
1: 28%
2: 3.3%
With 4 moxen, you will get the distribution 60%, 34%, 5.9% instead. The chances of getting one increases with 6%, and the risk of drawing two increases with 2.5%. However, remember my previous post? We have swapped a colorless source (City) for an on color source (Mox). This means we don't have to mulligan as often due to lack of mana. So even if we would mulligan if we would draw 2 moxen a bit more often, this is compensated by not needing to mulligan thanks to having more white sources! That's benefit number one.

Benefit number two comes from the mox accelerating more cards (all the WW cards) than City. The questions is, have we now messed up so that we can't play turn 2 angel as often? No. To play turn two angel, you need any one combination of the following:
1) land, land, city (pretty good, city dies after tapping the second time)
2) land, land, mox (good option)
3) land, mox, wayfarer (the best option, fetching city)

By swapping city for the fourth mox, the probability of 1+2 is the same, but 3 increases, which means we will actually increase our chances of putting an angel into play on turn 2. That's benefit number 2.

Benefit number 3 is more straight forward. Cutting down on colorless land enables us to play with 1 more Wayfarer and one more KotHN, which is good. The above build has more white sources, better acceleration, fewer lands and more important creatures than my first draft, and most importantly: works better when I play the deck.

The loss of going down to one quicksand instead of two is trivial. Remember, I upped the wayfarer count, so I still have the same number of sources for the quicksand. It's an additional response to turn one Lackey (and then, 2 are not useful), or used as uncounterable, fetchable kill for Meddling Mage (if it attacks). I don't think I'll be fetching two of them with wayfarer in most games. The same argument applies to going down from one ghost quarters to two. It also reduces the chances of having a quarter without flags or wayfarer.

I have updated the first post to reflect these changes. Enjoy.