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Main » Articles » Three-and-a-Half Off-Label Two-Drops

Three-and-a-Half Off-Label Two-Drops

Michael Flores
Posted on February 26, 2019
 Reddit

The two.

Arguably the most important casting cost in all of Magic: The Gathering, twos even have their own iconic countermeasure!

Spell Snare

There are lots of useful twos; and more than that, lots of well-known useful ways to use those twos. What might be more fun - and perhaps more surprisingly, profitable - are the so-called off-label applications of some of our favorites. What do I mean about this?

Let's look at an example:

Merfolk Trickster

Standard Operating Procedure: Main Deck, Mono-Blue Tempo

Mono-Blue Tempo | Allegiance Standard | Autumn Burchett, Mythic Championship I Winner

Merfolk Trickster is of course a four-of Staple in the dominant Mono-Blue Tempo deck in Standard. It is in a sense the most boring member of the Mono-Blue team. Burchett played a solo Mist-Cloaked Herald (which can never be blocked)... But every other non-Trickster creature in this list starts out with flying. It is only Merfolk Trickster that can typically be blocked at all.

So what's going on with this card?

In addition to helping to force through damage (by tapping down potential blockers); and racing (by pre-empting attacks) the Trickster also offers a much-appreciated eraser to the opponent's text box. For example, a White Aggro player can send a Healer's Hawk; you can let it tap into The Red Zone and then cast Merfolk Trickster. This can remove flying (allowing a block), get your 2/2 in front of the opponent's 1/1 (which is a lopsided fight) and even deny the anticipated life gain by nixing lifelink!

So what's the alternative take?

Off-Label Merfolk Trickster: Sideboard, Curious Obsession cleanup; various blue decks

Any deck that can muster uu early can plausibly sideboard Merfolk Trickster. It's "not that bad" even when it doesn't seem to make sense in a list. A pure control deck - arguably the weirdest sideboard home - can use Merfolk Trickster as an initiative tool against other combo or control decks (see also below)... But that's not all.

How about this?

Curious Obsession

Curious Obsession has a flavorful bit of extra text justifying its +1/+1 upgrade over the original Curiosity:

"At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't attack with a creature this turn, sacrifice Curious Obsession."

In addition to getting a potential fast trading tool (or surprising attacker in the right matchup), Merfolk Trickster is just a great tool against Curious Obsession. Weird, right? The on-label version plays alongside Curious Obsession, but is the least likely creature on the team to actually wear it. It is only 2/2, after all, and doesn't fly.

But when the opponent casts a Curious Obsession, Merfolk Trickster gets some cool new functionality. All you have to do is tap the intended Obsession recipient in response and you don't just save an attack... You "Disenchant" the Aura along the way!

Kor Firewalker

Kor Firewalker

Standard Modern Operating Procedure: MIrror Tech, Boros and Naya Burn Sideboards

Kor Firewalker is a card that has flitted in and out of popularity in Modern Burn sideboards, largely depending on whether you think that other people will be playing Burn. Up until the banning of Krark-Clan Ironworks, Burn was one of the best positioned decks in the format... But was I think reasonably overshadowed by that more powerful linear.

Kor Firewalker is seeing some resurgent popularity in Boros Burn decks, in part because an increased interest in Burn implies that other people will also be interested in Burn.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of Kor Firewalker in Boros (or presumably Naya) right now. Landing one on the second turn in the mirror might just mean winning the game then and there. But that's not the only area of applicability...

Off-Label Kor Firewalker: Sideboard against Mono-Red and ur Phoenix decks

Mono-Red Phoenix decks are freebies, of course. They're like your fellow Red Decks but lack Kor Firewalkers of their own or Path to Exile to get to even. In fact, Mono-Red Phoenix, which has to cast so many cards - Red cards - in quick succession to cash in its advantages will be in an even worse position.

But what about ur?

Izzet Phoenix | Modern | Eli Kassis, GP Oakland Winner

Call a spade a spade: Kassis played a number of specialized cards that can interact with Kor Firewalker. Engineered Explosives is full-on "okay" against a Modern Red Deck, but especially if you think your opponent is packing Kor Firewalker.... Definitely you'll want Threads of Disloyalty.

And to be 100% fair, if the opponent steals your Kor Firewalker, you're probably in serious trouble from the Red Deck side.

So let's concede that ur may be able to check a Firewalker. May or may not.

To wit:

Izzet Phoenix | Modern | Kale Thompson, 3rd Place GP Toronto

Kale Thompson's more recent Grand Prix Top 8 deck played none of those cards. Dragon's Claw? Sure. Kinda sucks. But doesn't attack for two! And neither deals with your Kor Firewalker nor outright steals it.

Point being: Some versions of U/R Phoenix absolutely can't directly answer a Kor Firewalker. The closest thing they can do is flip Thing in the Ice.

But!

If there is anything a Red Deck is good at, it's killing creatures profitably. Thing in the Ice pre-flip isn't too hard to kill, especially for decks that run Grim Lavamancer. Even more, against ur after sideboarding, Boros Burn should have Path to Exile and / or Chained to the Rocks. If your Firewalker isn't dealt with, chances are it just races the opponent.

Is 2/2 smaller than 3/2? Sure. Is it smaller than however big Crackling Drake is? Quite possibly. But nobody is blocking yours. Plus you're gaining life for both players cards while they're busy not blocking. So it's not a clean three (or x) versus two; you're going to send three with a Searing every so often, and pick up a point for your trouble.

Growth-Chamber Guardian

Growth-Chamber Guardian

Standard Operating Procedure: Main-deck beater in Gruul (and maybe beyond)

Archetype Deck:

Gruul Midrange | Allegiance Standard | Shota Takao, 4th Place GP Memphis

Growth-Chamber Guardian makes a ton of sense in this main. In addition to the ten dual lands (including Guildgates!), the Elf Crab is also a Warrior,

That means that you can name Warrior off of Unclaimed Territory to cast this or Kraul Harpooner on turn two. But if you hamburger the Territory with Mountains on one and three, you can still hit Goblin Chainwhirler on turn three; because it is of course a Goblin Warrior.

Growth-Chamber Guardian can give typically "beatdown" decks a straight avenue to card advantage, and fast decks big creatures... Without interrupting whatever else they've got going on.

But wait! There's more!

Off-label Growth-Chamber Guardian: Sideboard, ug Reclamation (and related decks)

Check out the sideboard of Michael Bonde's ug Reclamation deck from the first Mythic Championship:

Simic Nexus | Allegiance Standard | Michael Bonde, 6th Place Mythic Championship I

Eleven creatures in the sideboard! In another context we might call this a transformational sideboard, but a lot of these cards have specific functionality and / or don't come in at the same time.

A card that he did not play but might have some legs in this sidebaord is of course the Growth-Chamber Guardian. While Bonde played a good number of 2-drops, none of them are particularly threatening, offensively. I mean Incubation Druid can there there eventually, but it starts off with no power at all.

Growth-Chamber Guardian, on the other hand, is a threatening card on its own. In matchups where the opponent is likely to side out Kaya's Wrath or Root Snare, it starts off by forcing the other player into a corner. It's a self-contained source of card advantage; but more importantly, challenges your opponents to play a certain way... Without necessarily having the right cards in their decks.

At the Mythic championship, we repeatedly saw Ikawa have the Cast Down for whatever creature Bonde had at the time. Cast Down is a particularly weak answer to Growth-Chamber Guardian... At the very least, you can help tax a small number of fast one-for-one reaction spells.

Its efficacy goes beyond stealing a little initiative, though. Growth-Chamber Guardian is an outstanding mana sink if you actually hit Wilderness Reclamation. A single Elf Crab implies 20 mana of consumption. The 4/4 version on the battlefield is actually pretty meaningful in the metagame. It trades with a Tempest Djinn (if you can pull that off) and dominates most of the rest of the go-wide stuff. In addition, it provides a meaningful bridge to your bigger threats, like Biogenic Ooze.

But wait! There's still more!

Gaea's Blessing

Gaea's Blessing

Standard Operating Procedure: Finisher of choice of legendary deck designers like Brian Schneider, or Hall of Famers Bob Maher, Jr. and Jon Finkel... Circa 20-22 years ago.

No one has gamed seriously with Gaea's Blessing, despite its being reprinted multiple times. The closest I think I've come was playing it in that Truefire Captain combo deck and getting randomly paired against a Mono-Blue Mill deck on MTGO. That was fun.

But seriously, Gaea's Blessing has some additional functionality when considered in the Simic Nexus deck.

For one: It raises the ceiling on your Growth-Chamber Guardians. It makes them potentially infinite, instead of topping up on four creatures and twenty mana. Actively trading your Growth-Chamber Guardians creates future opportunities to compound card advantage.

Subtly, it also increases the ceiling on your defensive cards. A deck with three copies of Sinister Sabotage and a couple of Negates in the sideboard is not plausibly going to be able to answer all the threats in, say, the mirror. They just have more ways to generate an enormous advantage than you have counterspells. And that is before you even consider that four of their [probably] must-counters are Nexus of Fates, themselves infinite given enough time.

I'm not saying you should try to become some kind of a Draw-Go fortress with Gaea's Blessing... But I do think that given your other card drawing engines - Growth-Chamber Guardian [now] and Search for Azcanta especially - you can establish a meaningfully different interactive game plan in the mirror.

Standard is wild and fun right now. Let's all work to keep it weird and wide open.

LOVE

MIKE

TAGS articles, standard, theory, constructed, analysis, modern, decklist, michael flores, allegiance standard, 02262019

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