Constructed

Lou Ferrigno’s Affliction

By Kelly Reid ⋅ February 24, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅

In a departure from normal financial analysis, I’m going to take a look at an archetype near and dear to the hearts of many: Flash Hulk! Yes, good readers, Flash Hulk is in fact alive and well in Extended right now. I hear the cries now – Flash is banned! Mirage is ancient! Woe be unto us all! Well, get excited, because Flash is hiding on the plane of Kamigawa, disguised as a 5-mana red Instant. Wait a minute, 5 mana’s not too tough to make in Extended, especially when it’s only Red. Hmmm…

I first got the bug in my ear about this deck from fellow MTG financier Jon Medina, who suggested it almost as a joke. Or so I thought. That crazy son-of-a-Baloth was serious! I set out to get some info because, damn it, I had some questions! How were they getting Hulk out? Finding Hulk? How fast? Could it goldfish a turn 2 kill? Turn 1? Turn…..ZERO? What was the kill? How did they beat countermagic? Where do babies come from? An aside – don’t Google that. Ever. I implore you. Just don’t. The deck seemed far fetched and terrible, mainly because I had a picture in my mind of a Timmy combo deck that would take ages to combo off. What I found shocked me. The deck is real.

Now, I must warn you – the deck loses a LOT of stopping power once it’s a known quantity. Until someone top 8’s a PTQ with the list, you’ll have the advantage. After that, it’s pretty easy to mulligan into a Path to Exile to bust up the combo. Enough nay-saying. The list!

Flash Hulk

This list is courtesy of Travis Hall, who was kind enough to share with me both the list and a few videos he took to show how it plays out.   This is the list, verbatim, he sent me.  I know he and his teammates played this at the PTQ, so if you have questions about their specific matchups, feel free to leave them in a comment below.

4 Ponder 4 Peer Through Depths 3 Magma Jet 4 Desperate Ritual 4 Simian Spirit Guide 4 Seething Song 4 Through the Breach 1 Eerie Procession 4 Summoner's Pact 2 Protean Hulk 2 Sakura Tribe Elder 4 Hedron Crab 4 Dryad Arbor 4 Scalding Tarn 3 Arid Mesa 4 Steam Vents 1 Stomping Ground 1 Forest 1 Mountain 2 Island

I’ll leave out the sideboard, since the list was given to me as tuned for a specific PTQ’s metagame. The deck’s designers suggest Vendilion Clique, Gigadrowse and Echoing Truth amongst their best options. The combo is simple: Use Mana Monkeys and Rituals, just like TEPS did, to fire off an expensive spell as early as your opponent’s first turn. Through the Breach triggers on the end step, so you’ve got to resolve it during their 2nd main phase at latest. You’re also welcome to do it on your own turn and Hulk Smash for 6 before comboing them out.

If you’ve not pieced it together yet, the Hulk dies to Through the Breach’s delayed trigger on the end step, and by using its hits-the-grumper trigger, you can fetch out four Hedron Crabs, four Dryad Arbor, and a single Sakura Tribe Elder (which promptly fetches a land). If this transpires as planned, you’ll have 5 Hedron Crab triggers for each Crab. 5×3x4 is the magically delicious number 60, so your opponent has only their upkeep during which to kill you or return cards to the deck. Shockingly, they most often just move to the draw step and die before ever regaining priority.

The combo is far from perfect. It’s easily stopped by a properly timed Path to Exile, counterspell, or Thoughtseize. The good news is that proper mulliganing can give the deck some pretty consistent wins. The deck can goldfish a win from 4 cards on turn 3, which is not exactly where you want to be, but it is very possible. Games like that are far from the norm, and many are won on hands of 6 or 7.

There are also a few other issues; namely drawing Hedron Crabs and Dryad Arbors. This is not as big a deal as you might imagine. If you draw a Crab and you have an otherwise-insane combo hand, just go off. 3 crabs and 5 land is still 45 mills, and that leaves them with, at most, 8 cards left in the library if you execute it on their first turn. At worst, you can sandbag your fourth Crab until you draw another land and mill them out. Remember, you’ll have 7 chump blockers on the board so unless they’re a Dark Depths deck with The Nuts, you’ll be able to survive a few turns.

Drawing one of the Dryad Arbors is also awkward, but follows largely the same protocol as above. Just go off. Fetch 4 crabs, 3 arbors and an elder. That’s sitll a mill for 48. If you had to play a land to go off, then, fine. They’ve got at most 5 cards in their library and you have a horde of chump blockers. Again, it seems unlikely that they can kill four Hedron Crabs so early in the game, and you need only untap, land drop, and ship the turn back to them to execute the kill. Seems good! The real issue is when you draw into Crab AND Dryad Arbor. You only get 9 mills per land, and 4 land. That leaves them with, at most, 16 cards in their deck. You’re not too desperate, but you have to hope your Crabs live. Since you’ve drawn a Crab already, you should hold him until the last possible second. Remember, youll still have the Crabs on the board, so unless they sweep them or have a hand full of removal, you can just make land drops to win.

Overall, the list looks fairly tight. One change, suggested by the designer, was a single Ob-Nixilis, the Fallen. I am not personally a fan of this route, but it has its merits. The Arbor/Crab package seems like the best way to abuse a Protean Hulk, but it bears mentioning that any targets could fit into this shell. For those interested in winning via the Red Zone, a quartet of Hada Freeblades makes for a spicy board position. Add in an Ondu Cleric to gain 25 life or a Kazandu Blademaster to slice apart enemy defenses. While the Hedron Crab and Dryad Arbor package seems more consistent and powerful, there’s a certain panache to having a quartet of 5/6s and 45 life on turn 1 . Then again, for those playing at high levels, dead is dead, and no style points are awarded.

Amazingly enough, the deck can really perform. The players who piloted the deck at a recent PTQ did not top 8, but could easily identify the play mistakes in each loss of the deck. This implies that the experience of the pilot, and not the build itself, were to blame. Indeed, the designers felt like the deck had the power to make the top 8 cut, but fatigue and lack of focus were ultimately the culprits, causing the deck to fall short. While it might not be the best tech from Extended season, it is at least worth a cursory look. I’ve already bought a good number of Through the Breach on MTG Online, just in case the deck makes a big splash. It might do nothing, but I’m willing to risk a couple of bucks for a massive payoff. If you play the deck or have some suggestions for it, please do leave them in the comments below!

Kelly Reid, editor of financial news site http://www.quietspeculation.com, has been playing Magic the Gathering since 1994. With 15 years experience in the game, his goal is to teach others to fund their gaming through proactive speculation and intelligent trading.

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