GGoober
10-16-2008, 08:12 PM
One of the cards that are often explored and tested is:
Erayo,Soratami Ascendant
http://resources.wizards.com/Magic/Cards/SOK/en-us/Card87599.jpg
There have been a few decks using her in Legacy testing, Extended and in Vintage. Some variants include Storm Erayo which uses the storm engine to drop an Erayo flipped early game. Erayo is now explored in the Affinity shell, with Ethersworn Canonist (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=ethersworn%20canonist). However, I feel that each of those decks are packing in too much to include something that's not in the very nature of the deck philosophy. If storm were to play Erayo flipped, why not head on to drop 8-20 Empty the Warrens token? If Affinity is packing a lock, does it mean it's not winning fast enough, contrary to the deck philosophy?
I've been tinkering with the list, and so far this list has showed promise. The deck's philosophy is simple. Control the board for the first 1-2 turns using counters (FOWs, Dazes, StPs, Chants), and flip Erayo by turn 3. This deck is different from the other Erayo decks in a sense that there's no rush to flip Erayo on turn one. It is possible with the deck's resources, as I shall list below, but it does not overextend to get the combo out. Rather, it focuses on controlling the board on the first 1-2 turns, and letting things that are not a huge threat get pass, and ensuring that Erayo stays in play to safelock the remaining game, while you finish off the pieces of the board that have escaped your control. Without further talk, here's the decklist.
// Manabase
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
3 Plain
4 Tundra
5 Island
// Acceleration
4 Chrome Mox
// Cantrips
4 Brainstorm
4 Sensei's Divining Top
// Protection
4 Meddling Mage
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
// Tutors
4 Enlightened Tutor
// Lock
4 Erayo, Soratami Ascendent
4 Ethersworn Canonist
Sideboard:
3 Orim's Chant
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Warmth (great side against burn)
3 Repeal (answer more threats e.g. vials, and generates a spell, or 2 spell when used on your own permanent)
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Arcane Laboratory
How to play this deck:
Unlike, the typical Erayo deck, this deck has no rush to flip Erayo on turn 1-2. It is in fact not capable of doing so and can only accomplish this on turn 3. To play the deck, one tries to play as much as a landstill or threshold player. Laying down permanents such as Chrome Mox and Top in the game. The suite of 8 fetches and 4 Tops + 4 Brainstorms make the deck flexible. There are a total of 12 shuffling effects (4 Enlightened Tutor and 8 fetches). Play like the control player, and counter only spells that affect the late game if they come down early e.g. Lackeys, Bobs, first turn Hymns, Pernicious Deed, Humility. You can let all other spells through otherwise (with the exception of Goyf >:( )
Control the board as much as you can, until you have enough to play Erayo flipped. The hard lock would be Erayo + canonist, but most of the time, Erayo herself is irritating to deal with. Her ability is a triggered ability that ignores Krosan Grips, and can only be countered by Stifle and the likes. It forces your opponents to overextend, from which you would have had counters in hand to counter them anyway. Setting up for Erayo + Canonist is easier than it seems. Enlightened Tutor searches for both the lock cards. Depending on the meta, one may also feel free to maindeck 1 Arcane Laboratory (played over Rule of Law since it's blue and therefore feeds to FOW), and play 1 copy of Moat, Engineered Explosives, etc).
The deck itself has some beaters. Meddling Mage is annoying as always, and resolving one is usually very helpful in maintaining early board position.
So why play this over the other Erayo variants, or other control decks?
Pros of the deck:
-Erayo + Canonist is a hard lock, that ignores Krosan Grips and any form of removal, with the exception of established board removal e.g. Pernicious Deed/Humility.
-The deck is consistent because of cantrips, and has a strong suite of control spells that deal with most things that come in Legacy. StP is the best removal. Meddling Mage is strong as always in UW decks, and the deck packs 4 FOW, 4 Daze, and can even include 4 Spell Snares/Stifles depending on the meta, giving it reach to what Threshold has as well.
-Cantrips that make Threshold strong, also make this deck strong. The cantrips are weaker but SDT serves another purpose in the deck to build up spell counts for Erayo (tap draw during upkeep, draw SDT, play it again for 1 extra spell).
-Good combo matchup with the strong selection of control cards, and Chants in SB. Against combo, try to resolve Erayo asap, since combo decks have problems dealing with creatures such as Teeg, Moon, and not to mention an enchantment. Chain of Vapor works, but it would have been countered by Erayo, otherwise by you.
Cons of the deck:
-It's a slow "combo" although it's not meant to be a combo deck, but a control deck that aims for a hard lock. Therefore this leads to the next point, that it has bad matchups against fast decks.
-It can be overwhelmed if the wrong hand is kept, e.g. it gets overwhelmed by goblins if you can't deal with first turn lackey (any deck gets overwhelmed by a resolved lackey). It also gets overwhelmed by Dredge, and could suffer under Burn decks, although a resolved Erayo would buy time and eventually lock burn out.
-The deck is still new, so it is not optimized, and there are many other cards to be considered to make the deck better.
-Can't deal with Aether Vials. Survival will easily search out harmonic sliver and screw it up. Use repeals in sideboard when necessary.
So keep the deck philosophy in mind: Let anything that doesn't affect the late game pass through, even if they are huge threats e.g. Figure of Destiny is a huge threat late game, but this deck has answers in the form of StP. So, control the board and counter components which make the deck impossible to recover e.g. Pernicious Deed/Humility/Lackey.
Do not overextend while playing the hardlock, and when it's time to play it, do so. Once Erayo is flipped. She really can't die. Unless Krosan Grip is the second spell played. It's fine anyway since it would mean the opponent's wasted a turn killing Erayo, which can be searched out again easily in the deck. Use Meddling Mage to your advantage. Don't name spells that are popularly played. Name the spells that directly affect your lock.
Please comment, and help out with the development of this deck!
Erayo,Soratami Ascendant
http://resources.wizards.com/Magic/Cards/SOK/en-us/Card87599.jpg
There have been a few decks using her in Legacy testing, Extended and in Vintage. Some variants include Storm Erayo which uses the storm engine to drop an Erayo flipped early game. Erayo is now explored in the Affinity shell, with Ethersworn Canonist (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=ethersworn%20canonist). However, I feel that each of those decks are packing in too much to include something that's not in the very nature of the deck philosophy. If storm were to play Erayo flipped, why not head on to drop 8-20 Empty the Warrens token? If Affinity is packing a lock, does it mean it's not winning fast enough, contrary to the deck philosophy?
I've been tinkering with the list, and so far this list has showed promise. The deck's philosophy is simple. Control the board for the first 1-2 turns using counters (FOWs, Dazes, StPs, Chants), and flip Erayo by turn 3. This deck is different from the other Erayo decks in a sense that there's no rush to flip Erayo on turn one. It is possible with the deck's resources, as I shall list below, but it does not overextend to get the combo out. Rather, it focuses on controlling the board on the first 1-2 turns, and letting things that are not a huge threat get pass, and ensuring that Erayo stays in play to safelock the remaining game, while you finish off the pieces of the board that have escaped your control. Without further talk, here's the decklist.
// Manabase
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
3 Plain
4 Tundra
5 Island
// Acceleration
4 Chrome Mox
// Cantrips
4 Brainstorm
4 Sensei's Divining Top
// Protection
4 Meddling Mage
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
// Tutors
4 Enlightened Tutor
// Lock
4 Erayo, Soratami Ascendent
4 Ethersworn Canonist
Sideboard:
3 Orim's Chant
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Warmth (great side against burn)
3 Repeal (answer more threats e.g. vials, and generates a spell, or 2 spell when used on your own permanent)
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Arcane Laboratory
How to play this deck:
Unlike, the typical Erayo deck, this deck has no rush to flip Erayo on turn 1-2. It is in fact not capable of doing so and can only accomplish this on turn 3. To play the deck, one tries to play as much as a landstill or threshold player. Laying down permanents such as Chrome Mox and Top in the game. The suite of 8 fetches and 4 Tops + 4 Brainstorms make the deck flexible. There are a total of 12 shuffling effects (4 Enlightened Tutor and 8 fetches). Play like the control player, and counter only spells that affect the late game if they come down early e.g. Lackeys, Bobs, first turn Hymns, Pernicious Deed, Humility. You can let all other spells through otherwise (with the exception of Goyf >:( )
Control the board as much as you can, until you have enough to play Erayo flipped. The hard lock would be Erayo + canonist, but most of the time, Erayo herself is irritating to deal with. Her ability is a triggered ability that ignores Krosan Grips, and can only be countered by Stifle and the likes. It forces your opponents to overextend, from which you would have had counters in hand to counter them anyway. Setting up for Erayo + Canonist is easier than it seems. Enlightened Tutor searches for both the lock cards. Depending on the meta, one may also feel free to maindeck 1 Arcane Laboratory (played over Rule of Law since it's blue and therefore feeds to FOW), and play 1 copy of Moat, Engineered Explosives, etc).
The deck itself has some beaters. Meddling Mage is annoying as always, and resolving one is usually very helpful in maintaining early board position.
So why play this over the other Erayo variants, or other control decks?
Pros of the deck:
-Erayo + Canonist is a hard lock, that ignores Krosan Grips and any form of removal, with the exception of established board removal e.g. Pernicious Deed/Humility.
-The deck is consistent because of cantrips, and has a strong suite of control spells that deal with most things that come in Legacy. StP is the best removal. Meddling Mage is strong as always in UW decks, and the deck packs 4 FOW, 4 Daze, and can even include 4 Spell Snares/Stifles depending on the meta, giving it reach to what Threshold has as well.
-Cantrips that make Threshold strong, also make this deck strong. The cantrips are weaker but SDT serves another purpose in the deck to build up spell counts for Erayo (tap draw during upkeep, draw SDT, play it again for 1 extra spell).
-Good combo matchup with the strong selection of control cards, and Chants in SB. Against combo, try to resolve Erayo asap, since combo decks have problems dealing with creatures such as Teeg, Moon, and not to mention an enchantment. Chain of Vapor works, but it would have been countered by Erayo, otherwise by you.
Cons of the deck:
-It's a slow "combo" although it's not meant to be a combo deck, but a control deck that aims for a hard lock. Therefore this leads to the next point, that it has bad matchups against fast decks.
-It can be overwhelmed if the wrong hand is kept, e.g. it gets overwhelmed by goblins if you can't deal with first turn lackey (any deck gets overwhelmed by a resolved lackey). It also gets overwhelmed by Dredge, and could suffer under Burn decks, although a resolved Erayo would buy time and eventually lock burn out.
-The deck is still new, so it is not optimized, and there are many other cards to be considered to make the deck better.
-Can't deal with Aether Vials. Survival will easily search out harmonic sliver and screw it up. Use repeals in sideboard when necessary.
So keep the deck philosophy in mind: Let anything that doesn't affect the late game pass through, even if they are huge threats e.g. Figure of Destiny is a huge threat late game, but this deck has answers in the form of StP. So, control the board and counter components which make the deck impossible to recover e.g. Pernicious Deed/Humility/Lackey.
Do not overextend while playing the hardlock, and when it's time to play it, do so. Once Erayo is flipped. She really can't die. Unless Krosan Grip is the second spell played. It's fine anyway since it would mean the opponent's wasted a turn killing Erayo, which can be searched out again easily in the deck. Use Meddling Mage to your advantage. Don't name spells that are popularly played. Name the spells that directly affect your lock.
Please comment, and help out with the development of this deck!