Magic the Gathering

Constructed

Off the Beaten Path — A Better One Card Combo

By Sam Feeley ⋅ January 15, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅

It has been brought to my atten­tion that Scapeshift is a tier one deck now, dis­qual­i­fy­ing it from inclu­sion in this column.

Screw the rules. I promised you a Scapeshift arti­cle and that’s exactly what you’ll get.

Scapeshift is a card that had to wait a while before find­ing a home. When it first came out in Morn­ingtide, the best use I could find for it was 8-Post (Cloud­post + Vesuva). Then it became obvi­ous that wasn’t going to last, and they never had to be dusted off until Zendikar came out with Valakut, the Molten Pin­na­cle. That’s when all the talk started. Ini­tially the deck was straight-up red/green, as shown in this very early incarnation:

RG Scapeshift Combo by SaTiVa
4th Place, Magic-Leage.com Extended Trial, Sep­tem­ber 29, 2009

1 Bogardan Hellkite 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Solemn Simulacrum 4 Harrow 3 Lavaball Trap 2 Lightning Bolt 1 Banefire 1 Life from the Loam 4 Scapeshift 4 Search for Tomorrow 2 Worm Harvest 4 Khalni Heart Expedition 2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Snow-Covered Forest 9 Snow-Covered Mountain 4 Stomping Ground 3 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle Sideboard 2 Ancient Grudge 4 Krosan Grip 2 Skred 3 Volcanic Fallout 4 Firespout

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but then Pro Tour-Austin rolled around, and the Japan­ese took a good thing and made it better.

UGR Scpaeshift by Mak­i­hito Mihara
54th Place, Pro Tour-Austin 2009

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Wood Elves 2 Harrow 4 Peer Through Depths 4 Remand 2 Firespout 4 Scapeshift 4 Search for Tomorrow 4 Khalni Heart Expedition 1 Engineered Explosives 1 Breeding Pool 2 Forest 1 Island 4 Misty Rainforest 3 Mountain 2 Scalding Tarn 4 Steam Vents 4 Stomping Ground 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle Sideboard 2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror 3 Ravenous Trap 2 Repeal 1 Firespout 2 Shattering Spree 2 Chalice of the Void 1 Engineered Explosives 1 Relic of Progenitus 1 Tormods Crypt

See? Blue makes every­thing bet­ter. I appre­ci­ate the explo­sive­ness of this deck much more so than Tooth and Nail, as unlike Tooth, there is plenty of pro­tec­tion, as well as more ways to sift and dig and more ways to survive.

Five Cards I Like in this Deck…

Coil­ing Ora­cle — One of my all-time favorites. This card is a win-win: either you ramp, or it replaces itself. For two mana and a body? Yeah, it’s a 1/1, but any­thing that stalls Zoo and does some­thing rel­e­vant is a win­ner in my book. I don’t see why this isn’t an auto-include.

Cryp­tic Com­mand — With all the ramp­ing in this deck, that spare mana lying around has to go to some use. Why not shut down your opponent’s offense for a turn, or counter his game-winner, or draw a card, or kill Marit Lage?

Kitchen Finks — Gavin Ver­hey touched on this in his very good arti­cle about this deck last week over at Star City. It is a ridicu­lous anti-aggro tool and serves as an alter­nate win con­di­tion against con­trol decks. Alas, I like it a lot more against Zoo than Faeries, etc., and while Zoo is a force to be reck­oned with, you likely won’t play Zoo often enough that you need more than two in your main deck. Def­i­nitely put two more in your board, though.

Life from the Loam — Resiliency – don’t head to a PTQ with­out it. If Ghost Quar­ter’s ruin­ing your day, bring in Loam to laugh in his face. And if you bring Ghost Quar­ter into the deck (I approve this deci­sion, though I haven’t worked it into my build below), who doesn’t like recur­ring Waste­lands? Oh, that’s right, your opponent.

Syl­van Scry­ing — Time and time again while play­ing Faeries or Thopter, I wish I could dig for that one copy of Boseiju to force Scapeshift through a counter wall. Well, here’s your answer.

…and Four I Don’t Like

Har­row — Blas­phemy! Well, not really. There’s enough ramp in this deck that Har­row isn’t a bad choice, but can be eas­ily cut if need be.

Har­mo­nize — Way too much of a mana sink for this deck. If I’m going to dig for Scapeshift I’d rather be able to do it for two mana and at instant speed, thank you very much.

Pri­mal Com­mand — Again, a mana sink. Seems great against aggro, but doesn’t do much for you other than gain seven life in that matchup.

Solemn Sim­u­lacrum — Another body is always nice, but I want to keep my pre-Scapeshift spells as cheap as possible.

With all that in mind, here’s my cur­rent build of Scapeshift.

Scapeshift by Sam Fee­ley

4 Coiling Oracle 2 Kitchen Finks 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 3 Condescend 2 Cryptic Command 1 Life from the Loam 4 Remand 2 Repeal 4 Peer Through Depths 4 Scapeshift 4 Search for Tomorrow 2 Sylvan Scrying 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All 2 Breeding Pool 4 Forest 3 Island 2 Misty Rainforest 2 Mountain 4 Steam Vents 4 Stomping Ground 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle Sideboard 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All 3 Echoing Truth 4 Firespout 2 Shadow of Doubt 2 Kitchen Finks 3 Relic of Progenitus

As always, I’ll take sug­ges­tions, but I’m also toy­ing around with Threads of Dis­loy­alty, and I’m try­ing to fig­ure out where Ancient Grudge and Krosan Grip would go, if anywhere.

With this deck I would make side­board as follows:

Scapeshift: +2 Shadow of Doubt, +1 Boseiju, –1 Flooded Grove, –2 Repeal

Zoo: +4 Fire­spout, +2 Kitchen Finks, –2 Syl­van Scry­ing, –4 Remand

Thopter: +1 Boseiju, +3 Relic of Prog­en­i­tus, –2 Repeal, –2 Kitchen Finks

Dredge: + 3 Echo­ing Truth, +3 Relic of Prog­en­i­tus, –2 Syl­van Scry­ing, –2 Repeal, –1 Life from the Loam, –1 Condescend

Faeries: +4 Fire­spout, +1 Boseiju, –1 Flooded Grove, –4 Remand

Dark Depths: +3 Echo­ing Truth, +1 Boseiju, –1 Flooded Grove, –2 Kitchen Finks, –1 Remand

All-In Red: +3 Echo­ing Truth, +2 Kitchen Finks, +3 Relic of Prog­en­i­tus, –2 Syl­van Scrying

One last thing – Do not, I repeat, DO NOT splash a fourth color. I’ve tried it and it slows the deck down far too much. You can argue all you want for Cra­nial Extrac­tion, etc., but if you’re going to stop them, stop them with on-color solu­tions like Shadow of Doubt.

More Valakut next week, only this time in Stan­dard.

Until next time, enjoy the scenery – while it lasts.

–Sam

Sam Fee­ley is a Timmy-Spike and PTQ semi-regular orig­i­nally from Con­cord, Mass­a­chu­setts. He enjoys Magic, sports, cook­ing, and writ­ing. He maintains two blogs, Samurai Entertainment on news, games, and nonsense; and Samurai Sports, about interior decorating. And by interior decorating he means sports.

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