I decided to “retire” my Phal Control deck, and run a casual W/D/F/N Control deck with Divine Riptide. There are a lot of cool combos you can design around Divine Riptide, like the “Aqua Fencer Mana Lock.” I originally wanted to have some crazy fun and include Headlong Giant as one of the finishers. With the 9 or more cards in my hand thanks to Divine Riptide, I’d have plenty of cards to chuck for Headlong Giant’s attack payment. My opponent won’t be able do much except charge mana and try to swing with something. Sure, an opponent could rely on his shield triggers to save him, but not if I pre-empt Headlong’s attacks with Cryptic Totem. FACE! My aim is to have fun, so why not go all out, right? I couldn’t find my copies of Headlong Giant, so I settled on using Bolmeteus and Cryptic.

 

Well, I threw one copy of Divine Riptide into the monstrosity below (and into my Phal Control deck = so much fun). Let’s check it out: 

“The Bride of Jankenstein”

3x Bronze-Arm Tribe
3x Essence Elf
2x Cryptic Totem
2x Rumbling Terahorn
3x Mana Nexus
3x Aqua Hulcus
3x Corile
3x Hunter Fish
3x Phantom Fish
2x Thrash Crawler
3x Energy Stream
2x Crystal Memory
1x Divine Riptide
3x Locomotiver
2x Dark Reversal
4x Terror Pit
2x Hopeless Vortex
2x Lost Soul
1x Chains of Sacrifice
2x Magmarex
2x Bolmeteus Steel Dragon
1x Bazagazeal Dragon
3x Phantom Dragon’s Flame
3x Burst Shot
2x Apocalypse Vise

[60 cards]

The Deck –- She’s Insane and Her Deck’s Rotten!

The deck plays like most other W/D/F/N Control decks. The main difference here is that I ran Essence Elf instead of Faerie Life, Burst Shot instead of Searing Wave, some negation finishers instead of Twin-Cannon, and no Merfolk. Oh, and I slapped in that Divine Riptide thingy. Let's look how each civilization contributes to the deck:

Nature

3x Bronze-Arm Tribe
3x Essence Elf
2x Cryptic Totem
2x Rumbling Terahorn
3x Mana Nexus

[13 cards]

Bronze Arm-Tribe gets the deck’s mid and late game online sooner, and increases my chances of having the right civs of mana out sooner. Mana Nexus prolongs the duel and creates mana advantage from the deck’s various triggers. Cryptic Totem just slams the final nail in an opponent’s coffin and ideally will be supported with Divine Riptide. Rumbling Terahorn is a great asset because I run singles and doubles of my finishers.  

I’d capitalize on Essence Elf’s cost reduction more if I used cards like Crimson Hammer, Ghost Touch and Searing Wave. But, with the proper mana supply it allows me to do something fun: conserve mana so I can drop a card drawing/kill card on the same turn that I play a CIP effect creature/another draw card/another kill spell. Essence Elf also gives me a shot at playing Divine for 6-8 mana--depending on how many copies I have in play--so that it more closely follows a Cryptic or Bolmeteus drop.  

Water

3x Aqua Hulcus
3x Corile
3x Hunter Fish
3x Phantom Fish
2x Thrash Crawler
3x Energy Stream
2x Crystal Memory
1x Divine Riptide
[20 cards]

I have several 2 and 3 mana Water cards, so I want to see Water cards in my early hands = why I have 20 Water cards. Hunter and Phantom provide answers to Rush decks, and some stall so I can draw cards early and not need to immediately nuke something. Also, late game they offer protection when I drop Divine Riptide.  

Crystal Memory thins my deck for Divine Riptide or a finisher. The Best part—my opponent won’t even know Divine Riptide is coming! Energy Stream and Hulcus are more deck thinners—they help me get all colors of mana in hand sooner so I can charge all civs in the mana zone quickly. Corile is control—tempo and card advantage. Thrash Crawler nabs cards like Riptide or Baza from my mana zone. 

Divine Riptide is unexpected swarm support—you should cast the spell when your battle zone presence is greater than or better than your opponent’s battle zone presence. It’s a finesse spell, but it can be utterly crushing when timed properly.  

Darkness

3x Locomotiver
2x Dark Reversal
4x Terror Pit
2x Hopeless Vortex
2x Lost Soul
1x Chains of Sacrifice

[14 cards] 

Typical Darkness spread for a control deck—hand discard, creature kill, and recursion. Locomotiver puts body out and opponent loses an option in hand—and that all might happen off trigger to net mana advantage. Lost Soul = no late game progression for my opponent, and hopefully it’s accelerated into play by BAT or Essence so it also cripples his mana progression.  

Terror Pit/Hopeless Vortex target anything—you need flexibility like that in a Control decks as choosing which targets leave the battle zone can make or break some duels. Chains of Sacrifice is more flexibility and removes two threats, albeit with the loss in some field advantage. I lose something dinky like Locomotiver and they lose two good threats. Nice. Dark Reversal helps combat hand discard tactics = great because I run doubles and singles of some creatures. 

Fire

2x Magmarex
2x Bolmeteus Steel Dragon
1x Bazagazeal Dragon
3x Phantom Dragon’s Flame
3x Burst Shot
2x Apocalypse Vise

[13 cards]

Fire is just kill, kill, and more kill with some card negation. Yes, Searing Wave would be better in this deck than Shot with BAT and Essence to accelerate it. I made some metagame choices that weren’t as helpful as they were at other tourneys, lol. I ran Burst Shot for the trigger option. Magmarex is teched in to punish some popular Rushes. Dragon’s Flame is included over Hammer for the mana advantage aspect. Apocalypse Vise is more flexible kill—hit fattie or hit some swarmers. 

Bolmeteus Steel Dragon would be Twin-Cannon if I were concerned about winning somewhat sooner, but this deck is about having fun. It renders shield useless, and that’s super fun to have around with Divine Riptide drops. Bazagazeal is a great control card and is flexible. It can kill something tapped, untapped, or break two shields.  

That’s the lowdown on the card choices. Let’s see how the deck did: 

The Tourney Report – Yeah, I Actually Played That Thing…Competitively

Saturday September 3, 2005
Dizzy Dugout
Collinsville, IL

Round One— Donnie (Light/Nature Aggro-Control)

Opponent’s cards: Mist Rias, Barkwhip, BAT, Elf-X, Holy Awe, Natural Snare, Vess, Emerald, Dia Nork, Torcon, Cryptic Totem, Charmilia, Magris, Mana Nexus, Crow Winger 

We did some playtesting before the tourney, so we knew what to expect from each other’s decks. This is a matchup where Searing Wave would have totally pwned. Oh well… 

1^st Match—I basically lost this match due to Donnie Holy Awe-ing my field when I had out like 3 Essence, 2 Hulcus, 2 Corile, 2 BAT, Loco, and some other stuff with Totem. Donnie was able to rebound from my killings by igniting Mist Rias late game with one and two mana blockers/hitters thanks to mana buildup. He pwned me with a Cryptic-lead assault. 

2nd Match—Things went in my favor as Shot hits his field and mine gingerly, I am able to cut his hand down with Soul, Vise’d a great deal of his blockers off the field, Vortex hit Barkwhip, draw into some answers—and some moves were done on the same turns thanks to Essence Elf. I drop both Totem and Bolmeteus, tutor for Riptide, and then Riptide our mana zones. He straved off a few attacks with his blockers, but I pillaged his shields.  

3^rd Match—Whip comes out early take some shields. He tutors for Totem, and I quickly get rid of it. This match came down to my killing a lot of stuff (especially Mist, Elf-X, Totem, and Charmilia) at discount with Essence at same time I drew cards or played some CIP guys, and then making attacks here and there. Chains, Vise and Baza got rid the defense, and I wrapped this match up.  

Winner: Me, 2-1 

Round Two—Mark (Light/Darkness/Water/Nature Control)

Opponent’s Cards: Aqua Hulcus, Mongrel Man, Crystal Lancer, Terror Pit, Lost Soul, Aqua Guard, Senatine Jade Tree, Cryptic Totem, Rumbling Terahorn, BAT, Mist Rias, Brian Serum, Corile, Locomotiver, Natural Snare 

Mark is another player who playtests with me, but we didn’t do any testing until after the tourney. Needless to say, he wasn’t expecting Divine Riptide.  

1^st Match—He’s able to get out both Lancer and Cryptic thanks to tutoring and drawing, and attacks with Cryptic--which I block--and then I gain 2 cards in hand with Lancer. I follow up by Chains of Sac’ing this tandem force. He plays down more foundation hitters. I Vise his field, and manage to get Totem and Bolmeteus out with a few hitters. He keeps them at bay with some blockers, and has a lone Lancer out. Baza slams Lancer. He plays some bait and blockers. I tutor for Riptide and next turn Riptide our mana, and use Totem to seal the win.  

2nd Match—He knows Riptide is in the deck so he plays more aggressively. I’m able to wrap this game up due to having ample kill and deck manipulation options, despite his being able to summon more than one Lancer and Totem. No Riptide since it was discarded.  

Winner: Me, 2-0 

Round 3—Daniel (Mono-Fire Aggro)

Opponent’s Cards: Pyrofighter, Rikabu Dismantler, Rikabu Screwdriver, Apocalypse Vise, Twin-Cannon, Deadly Fighter, Comet Missile, Choya, Mini Titan, Energy Charger, Spastic Missile, Crimson Hammer, Valkaiser, Migasa, Bolmeteus 

Daniel only plays mono-Fire. Nothing else. Ever. This is the matchup where the Fire weenie kill is a solid asset and where Mana Nexus is crucial.  

1^st Match—He has me down to 1 shield. He’s in topdeck mode, and I haven’t hit a single one of his shields. I just build up my forces, kill/Corile what he plays. I use Nexus to regain 3 shields, use the Bolmeteus I tutored for with Terahorn to destroy two shields. He summons another hitter—has like 2 out. I play Riptide and ride the game out with Bolmeteus destroying two more shields and hitting with rest of field to win.  

2^nd Match—He managed to get me down to zero shields, but can’t pull the win since I have blockers out and he doesn’t topdeck anything useful but Twin—which I destroy after it slams into a blocker. I used Terahorn and Memory to tutor for some blockers in case he topdecks speed. He doesn’t draw anything useful. I rebuild 2 shields, and then I peg off his shields in a couple of turns.  

Winner: Me, 2-0 

Round Four—William (5 Civ Survivor Aggro-Control)

Opponent’s Cards: Factory Shell Q, Smash Horn Q, Blazosaur Q, Forbos Q, Gigaling Q, Brigade Shell Q, Faerie Life, Mana Nexus, Terror Pit, Natural Snare, Bladerush Q, Q-tronic Gargantua, Ballus Q, Ballonshroom Q, Split-Head Q, Promephius Q, Gallia Zolh Q, Skullsweeper Q, Tornado Flame 

William’s Survivor deck ran just about every Survivor under the sun, but left out Grave Worm Q to run Ballonshroom Q. Major worry here is that the weenie trigger kill I chose to run can be rendered useless thanks to Smash Horn Q. That meant he had solid chances of building that dreaded combo field—something you can’t let any Survivor deck do.  

1^st Match—I won this match basically because William made mistakes that I exploited. He just played way too conservatively. His best bet was to Rush me—I don’t get lucky triggers often. He had out the necessary hitters with Bladerush Q in tow and Spilt-Head to draw more cards—and my defense wasn’t too hot. Couldn’t put my finger on why he hesitated so much, but his loss was my gain. I’m able to take out some of his field with Vise, and once Smash Horn was off the board Shot did clearing of the rest. I use Totem to negate triggering and slam with my field.

2^nd Match—Things look bad for me. He has out that Gallia-Gigaling-Smash-Ballonshroom combo action, so my Bolmetues wasn’t destroying anything. My field was kept at bay, tho I pegged off some of this guys. He evos in GQ but it slams into blockers. I kill it, but still can’t risk attacking. He gets thru for some hits. I do something silly—but it ended up saving me—I send Baza at Gallia. He blocked with Smash, which slayed my Baza and went to his mana zone. I hoped that he’d do this—seeing as how he really wanted to keep the Gallia-Gigaling combo going to keep Bolmetues away. Next turn I Shot his field and hit with Bolly. Next turn he Snares Bolly. I wrap the game up by Riptiding and assault.  

Winner: Me, 2-0 

Results: 1^st Place—cecillbill, 2^nd Place—Donnie, 3^rd Place—Mark. Divine Riptide stays in my decks. I want to have fun before it’s time to test decks for the CC.  

What’s Up Next?

From The Battle Zone Tourney Report: Invitational Circuit IL Report (Phal Control)

Metagame Spotlight: US metagame D/W/F Control deck

If you have any questions, want to see something covered in an article, or just want to chat, feel free to drop me a line at my new email address: pojodmgirl@hotmail.com.