Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Forcing Through: Vintage Quick Look - Worldgorger Combo

4:21 PM | Posted by | | Edit Post


Vintage is arguably the most thought provoking format in all of magic. Between power nine and cards like Necropotence there are a potentially endless number of decks that you could build in order to be competitive is this high powered format. I would like to introduce you all to the deck that I am currently playing when somebody asks whether or not I want to play in this format.

Dovahkiin Dragonborn: (Worldgorger Combo)
By: Corey Vangel

Lands: 18
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
2x Gemstone Mine
1x Island
4x Polluted Delta
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Swamp
3x Underground Sea
2x Tropical Island

Creatures: 5
1x Oona, Queen of the Fae
4x Worldgorger Dragon

Instants/ Sorceries: 25
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
2x Entomb
1x Intuition
3x Mental Misstep
1x Mindbreak Trap
1x Pact of Negation
1x Read the Runes
1x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
4x Duress
1x Imperial Seal
1x Time Walk

Artifacts: 6
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire

Enchantments: 6
4x Animate Dead
2x Necromancy

Sideboard: 15
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Echoing Truth
2x Energy Flux
1x Flusterstorm
1x Krosan Grip
1x Misdirection
2x Nature’s Claim
1x Pact of Negation
3x Ravenous Trap
1x Tormod’s Crypt
1x Virtue’s Ruin

For those who do not understand how this deck works, it goes simple like this. You find a way to get Worldgorger Dragon into your graveyard somehow, albeit through Bazaar of Baghdad, Intuition or Entomb and then reanimate it using Animate Dead or Necromancy. Now what happens here is Worldgorger Dragon removes all of your permanents from the game, which includes your reanimation spell, which causes the dragon to be put into your graveyard bringing all your permanents back, since all your permanents return from exile they come into play untapped, this allows you to gain infinite mana and infinite Bazaar of Baghdad activations, allowing you to kill your opponent by removing their deck from the game with Oona, Queen of the Fae.

These are some of the cards that you will be using often to ensure your victory.

Bazaar of Baghdad:
Before examining the deck in any other way, we really should stop and look at the absurdly powerful Bazaar of Baghdad. In this deck, Bazaar is essentially an uncounterable draw spell that can be used and abused every turn in to draw into Worldgorger Dragon or a Reanimation spell. Post-board it gets even better as it can easily draw into more counters or hate cards depending on your match-up.

Entomb:
Entomb can be used in several ways in this deck besides the obvious put Worldgorger Dragon or Oona, Queen of the Fae in graveyard scenario. The easiest example of this is to bait counterspells out of your opponent by casting it at the end of their turn; you can then pitch your Worldgorger Dragon from your hand with Bazaar of Baghdad and win the game while they are tapped out. Entomb can also be used in fringe scenarios to pull dead cards out of your deck in your match-up.

Read the Runes:
Read the Runes is your alternate win condition in the event that you do not have Bazaar of Baghdad in play, giving you another option to dredge your library and get Oona, Queen of the Fae into your graveyard in order to deck them. Read the Runes can also be used in response to them using Wasteland/ Strip Mine as you can keep the cards you've drawn via sacrificing the lands they are targeting.

Versus Dredge:

When playing against dredge with this deck it is highly dependent on the list the dredge player in question is running. If they are running the list that involves main deck Leyline of the Void then unless they keep a hand without it, you probably have lost game one. If however they do not drop a Leyline of the void when the game starts then you have to play as aggressive as possible with your spells as besides Cabal Therapy, they have very few spells to interact with you. Post-board you should side in all three of the Ravenous Traps, the Echoing Truth and the Tormod’s Crypt and do your best to get the dredge player to over-extend with bazaar so you can Ravenous Trap them in response.

Versus Workshop:

When playing against workshop remember that you should only counter the important spells, i.e. Lodestone Golem, Trinisphere, and Thorn of Amethyst. Besides those cards, let everything else resolve as Workshop can’t really deal with the permanents that you have in play and they have no ability to stop your combo when it resolves. Post-board you should side in both the Energy Fluxes, the Krosan Grip and both the Nature’s Claims and prepare for a grind as they will side in all of their spells to stop your graveyard interaction and all of their enchantment hate.

Versus Mayor Humans:

When playing against G/W/x humans in vintage in game one, besides Swords to Plowshares, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Stony Silence you don’t really care too much about what they are doing. All you really have to do in game one with this deck is protect your Bazaar of Baghdad until you absolutely need it to win and go off like you are supposed to. Post-board is odd as you should bring in the second Abrupt Decay, the Krosan Grip, both Nature’s Claims and your Virtue’s Ruin to deal with Thalia and potentially Qasali Pridemage.

Versus Tropical Storm/Storm:

When playing against Tropical Storm or Storm in general in game one you should Duress them early and Duress them often, also in these match-ups know what they are trying to bait you into countering and what they actually need to resolve. Never let any storm variant resolve a Necropotence, or in the case of Tropical Storm Fastbond is the card that you have to make sure never resolves ever. Post-board bring in the second Abrupt Decay for problematic permanents, the Flusterstorm for obvious reasons and depending on their list either the Misdirection to change the target of their Hurkyl’s Recall or the second Pact of Negation if their deck runs counterspell heavy.

Versus Landstill:

When playing against Landstill in game one, do your best to keep your hand stocked and bazaar for your win-condition only when you have to as they will have problematic permanents such as Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Engineered Explosives that you will have to counter. Also don’t be afraid to break a Standstill if you have the counter backup to combo off, most of their deck is intended to deal with smaller creatures so unless in some way you have to pass the turn with an enchanted creature up, they have a lot of dead draws game one. Post-board you should bring in the second Abrupt Decay, the Echoing Truth, the Misdirection, the second Pact of Negation and the Krosan Grip in order to either push through their counter back up with your own counters or bounce or destroy their answers when they drop them.

Versus Tezz/Turbo-Tezz:

When playing against the Tezzeret lists in vintage you have to do your best to take advantage of the turns that they have where they are tutoring. Take advantage of this by trying to force through your tutors in response and try and keep your counters back for when you attempt to combo off unless you absolutely have to counter something like a Tinker or a Time Vault. Post-board you should bring in the Abrupt Decay, the Echoing Truth, both Energy Fluxes, the Krosan Grip and both Nature’s Claims to stop them from taking infinite turns and as a way to deal with Grafdigger’s Cage when they drop it.

While side boarding with this deck keep in mind that besides your combo cards which are integral to the deck, almost anything can be interchanged out for your sideboard cards.

You should play this deck if:
  • You like abusing interactions with your graveyard.
  • You like playing a control roll whilst assembling your combo.
  • Your vintage environment contains a lot of workshops, aggro, combo and Tezzeret.

You shouldn’t play this deck if:
  • You like playing an assertive aggressive role while playing magic.
  • You think winning by creating an infinite loop out of your graveyard is stupid.
  • Your vintage environment contains a lot of landstill and pure control decks.
This is but a short view into the possibilities of Worldgorger Dragon and the fun that can be had while playing this deck in vintage. If you have any questions about the deck or another deck that you would like me to cover, please feel free to comment in the comment section below.

Corey Vangel

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