Magic the Gathering

Constructed

Trial and Error — Swan Song

By Sam Feeley ⋅ April 14, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅

No report this week (don’t worry, I’ll have one next week); rather, I present to you some spec­u­la­tive analy­sis. Sounds fun, right?

With Shad­ow­moor around the cor­ner, and spoiler/preview sea­son in full swing, spec­u­la­tion about the best post-rotation decks is once again a hot topic. And why not? After all, one card in a set can change the con­structed metagame. Such was the case with the reprint of Drag­on­storm in Time Spi­ral, as well as Bridge from Below in Future Sight and Doran, the Siege Tower in Lor­wyn, just to name a few. This time around, the John­nies have already gone crazy for one card in par­tic­u­lar from Shad­ow­moor: Swans of Bryn Argoll.

It’s a solid card in itself, but what makes it more ridicu­lous is the deck arche­type that comes with it, some­thing I refer to as “Swan Song.” This red/green/white combo deck uses the afore­men­tioned Swans of Bryn Argoll in con­junc­tion with Seis­mic Assault and Dak­mor Sal­vage. Yes, Dak­mor Sal­vage, the lone Dredge card in Type 2. The combo can go off as early as turn 3 with the right hand and draws. Here’s what you need:
Turn 1: Karplu­san For­est, Birds of Par­adise.

Turn 2: Land that pro­duces red, Seis­mic Assault.

Turn 3: Land that pro­duces white, Swans of Bryn Argoll. With Dak­mor Sal­vage in hand, dis­card it to Seis­mic to deal 2 dam­age to the Swans. Replace one of the draws by dredg­ing Sal­vage. Repeat process until you have enough lands in hand to kill your opponent.

Swan Song’s Util­ity Belt

As if that weren’t enough, the deck has lots of pro­tec­tion and tutors to work its way around many poten­tial stum­bling blocks and dis­rup­tions. Because of its mul­ti­color theme, I have a feel­ing there will be a revival in demand for Glit­ter­ing Wish with the release of Shad­ow­moor. Not every deck would play it, but Swan Song cer­tainly would. With it, you can grab Swans, Gad­dock Teeg, Vex­ing Shusher (an uncoun­ter­able bear that can make other spells uncoun­ter­able), and Ful­mi­na­tor Mage (a 2/2 for 3 that sac­ri­fices to destroy a non­ba­sic land), among other things.

Even with­out Glit­ter­ing Wish, the deck has so much util­ity it’s not even funny. Man­amor­phose, a com­mon instant from Shad­ow­moor, turns the two mana you spend to play it into two mana of any col­ors, and it cantrips! Syl­van Scry­ing allows you to get Dak­mor Sal­vage if your draws aren’t kind. Idyl­lic Tutor can get Seis­mic Assault or Obliv­ion Ring for pro­tec­tion. And when you dredge Gaea’s Bless­ing with Dak­mor Sal­vage, well, then it’s just “lather, rinse, repeat.”

The Prob­lem With Speculation

Of course, because Shad­ow­moor hasn’t been released yet, because we don’t know every card in the set, and because we are still a month and a half away from the next Type 2 tour­na­ment of con­se­quence with Shad­ow­moor, Pro Tour Hol­ly­wood, so many things about Swan Song are still up in the air. Ini­tially some thought the deck needed as many as 39 lands in order to work. Oth­ers thought you needed much more accel­er­a­tion, such as Rite of Flame or Simian Spirit Guide or Lotus Bloom. (Some were quick to remind those peo­ple that this is not a storm deck.) Like any deck in the­ory, it will take a lot of test­ing to see if it will stand up to the other promi­nent decks. What kind of suc­cess could it enjoy? Can it chal­lenge Project R for top combo deck? Does it have answers for aggres­sive decks like faeries, Red Deck Wins, and kithkin? How will it deal with con­trol? What else could come out of Shad­ow­moor that hoses or helps this deck? So much remains to be seen.

On top of that, while the list I pro­pose for Swan Song is red/green/white, other lists use blue and black instead. Some may run green and white but no Glit­ter­ing Wish. One list I’ve seen even worked in a Reveil­lark suite. Unlike many con­structed arche­types, not one color com­bi­na­tion or gen­eral list has been agreed upon just yet.

Burn­ing Ques­tion: What Else Do You Expect?

In the mean­time, feel free to dis­cuss any other changes in the Con­structed scene you see com­ing out of Shad­ow­moor. What cards and decks ben­e­fit the most from the theme, the new cards, the new mechan­ics? I’ll be check­ing in at the forums to see what you think.

–Sammy Time

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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