Head's Up!

 I’m quite excited.  When I was discussing FNM Relax with Jim Freeman and Justin Parker (sorry Paul but you weren’t in the office) our number one goal was to bring the fun back into Friday Night Magic.  One of the things I was convinced about was that in order to do that we needed some variety with regards to our formats and to cover things that we just didn’t cover.  One of those formats was two headed giant (2HG).   With the first FNM Relax 2HG tournament on Friday 31st August 2012 we will have gone through our complete FNM Relax 8 week cycle for the first time.  2HG plays the same as any game of magic with regards to the actual mechanic, you play lands and tap them for mana, and then that mana is used to play your other cards, which are either permanents which remain in play or one off effects in the form of sorceries and instants.

Used as an illustration of land and as a shamless plug for From the Vault: Realms,

due out next week!

In Raw Deal we used to have a tag team format which was inherently busted, quite often with one player only there to set the other up so that they could win very quickly.  This gives me a mild distrust of team formats, but having played 2HG at Nationals last year with Stephen Kay I knew that a lot of fun can be had, and it is not in the same form of brokenness as Raw Deal tag format.

However, there are subtle differences and rules for 2HG which require closer inspection.  The 2 members of each team act as one to a point.  They have a shared life total of 30, they share phases during the course of their turn and may openly converse about cards in play, in hands and strategic decisions they are making as long as they don’t write it down.  It takes 15 poison damage to kill them, rather than 10, and if one loses due to something other than life loss they both lose.  There is no side boarding as 2HG duels are best of 1 rather than best of 3.  Lands and cards in play belong to the person who played them and each individual pays for the cost of his own cards with his own mana.

With time for the M13 starter decks running out in FNM Relax – my last chance to play one is 14th September 2012, before Return to Ravnica gives me some new starters to play with.  My initial plan was to play Yeva in 2 headed giant and then Talrand on the 14th September.  Then I looked at the deck list and thought Yeva was a far weaker deck overall and as I have a partner in the form of Mark Smith for the 2HG  and I didn’t want to let him down. 

No love for Yeva this week.

I have taken Talrand and fudged it into Mono – Purple Wizards.  Here is the original list from the starter for depths of power:

Creatures: 18

2 Archaeomancer
2 Augur of Bolas
1 Fog Bank
1 Harbour Serpent
3 Kraken Hatchling
2 Mindclaw Shaman
2 Scroll Thief
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
3 Wind Drake

Spells: 18

2 Divination
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Essence Scatter
1 Hydrosurge
1 Negate
1 Rewind
1 Ring of Evos Isle
3 Searing Spear
1 Sleep
1 Smelt
1 Switcheroo
2 Talrand’s Invocation
1 Turn to Slag
1 Unsummon

Lands: 24

1 Evolving Wilds
15 Island
8 Mountain

As always I wanted to put in a “proper” mana base so ended up with the following:

4 Sulphur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
3 Cavern of Souls
8 Island
6 Mountain

22 Land

This has saved me a few times!

Normally when I do this I look for cards which I wouldn’t want to play and replace them with better cards that I do want to play.  However, I know the cards I want to put in and as there is not side-boarding in 2 headed giant I decided to let myself have an extra 5 cards to change so I will put in 15 cards instead of ten.  Those 15 will be:

1 Augur of Bolas
3 Grand Architect
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
2 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Negate
2 Pillar of Flames

Not actually a wizard but you feel he should be.

Archaeomancer seems like a poor mans Snapcaster to me so he is out.  I also want to get rid of the 2 scroll thief.  Unfortunately with putting so many creatures in I am going to have to lose a lot more of the cards already in there so I will be getting rid of the  3 Kraken Hatchlings.  I will also only be running 22 land instead of 24 as the deck can function quite happily at this level and still make a turn 3 Wurmcoil Engine.  

The sixth Titan, on turn 3 simply "winning".

I still need to remove another 6 cards; Switcheroo can go as the obvious target for this is Kraken Hatchling.  Hydrosurge is just a bad card, and 1 copy of essence scatter is just not worth it.  I’m really struggling at this point as I don’t want to get rid of the cards that are left, unfortunately the 2 divination's will have to go as will the smelt , which leaves me with this;

Creatures: 22
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Augur of Bolas
1 Fog Bank
1 Harbour Serpent
3 Grand Architect
2 Mindclaw Shaman
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Stormtide Leviathan
2 Talrand, Sky Summoner
3 Wind Drake

Spells: 16
1 Elixir of Immortality
3 Negate
1 Rewind
1 Ring of Evos Isle
3 Searing Spear
1 Sleep
2 Talrand’s Invocation
1 Turn to Slag
1 Unsummon
2 Pillar of Flames

Lands: 22
4 Sulphur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse

3 Cavern of Souls
8 Island
6 Mountain
 

I had already discussed this with Mark and we had decided that if he went Green White that would be a good counterbalance to this deck, it also suits Mark’s play style. 

Some form of Elf tribal going on mayhaps?

We then had a 4 hour discussion over Facebook, bouncing ideas and deck lists back and forth to come up with a solid 60 cards for Mark to play.  I have realised while writing this that I made a massive mistake and have had to now rectify that in this list (we left the Green Sun’s Zenith out, sorry Mark).

4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
2 Gavony Township
10 Forest
2 Plains

22 Land

 

4 Llanowar Elves
2 Arbour Elf
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Viridian Emissary
4 Elvish Arch druid
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Primordial Hydra
1 Mikaeus, The Lunarch
2 Sun Titan

25 Creatures

 

4 Oblivion Ring
3 Rampant Growth
2 Caravan Vigil
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Green Sun’s Zenith

13 Spells

How did we forget you?

Thank you Mark for being happy to put this up – the blog should really be the tale of 2 decks rather than 1.  I’m not going to tell you what Mark’s deck does, you will have to work that out for yourselves. 

This Friday is Modern Pauper at FNM Relax, look forward to seeing you there…