I’m Marshall McClarnon, III. Well, that’s what my birth certificate and all my match slips say, but I’ve never gone by anything besides Trey. My parents decided early in my life that all of my initial conversations with strangers would be centered on my name not being my name, so I figured I’d stick with it in introducing myself to you StarCityGames.com readers.
As I was preparing with my team for the recent SCG Open Series in Nashville, I was testing a lot of U/W Delver mirrors, and it is a skill-intensive, fun mirror match. I liked the deck and I liked our list, but I kept finding myself reaching for Griselbrands every chance I could. On the day of the event, I went with the Griselbrands over Insectile Aberrations for one simple reason: drawing fourteen cards and making an undead army of Zombies hungry for the blood of opposing planeswalkers is way more fun than playing with Delver of Secrets. It has the added bonus of being the most powerful thing that can be done in Standard, especially in an environment where there is little to no graveyard hate.
Plus, would you rather have a weird bald guy that turns into a bug mutant or a rocking demon that made a bargain with Yawgmoth? I decided to stop worrying if I was playing the best deck and love the bomb.
Here is the list that I played in Nashville:
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (21)
- 3 Zombie Infestation
- 2 Day of Judgment
- 1 Revoke Existence
- 3 Timely Reinforcements
- 4 Unburial Rites
- 4 Faithless Looting
- 4 Lingering Souls
Sideboard
You may have seen this deck during the coverage of #SCGNash this past weekend in one of the deck techs; if you missed it you can see it here.
Some of you may be thinking, "Hey Trey (people love rhyming), this looks like a deck we’ve seen before." It’s true; my version started when I saw that StarCityGames.com own Brad Nelson was dreaming of a Standard environment full of treats from Magical Christmasland. You can see Brad’s article that inspired me here.
When I first saw this list, I knew that Brad was right about one thing: Griselbrand and Zombie Infestation are absolutely insane. Also, this deck is a total blast to play.
Maindeck
Necrotic Ooze is the worst card in the deck, and there should be more Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. I’ve seen a lot of Standard Reanimator lists that want to play a mix of bombs to different threats, but there is simply nothing more powerful than Griselbrand and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, especially with Zombie Infestation. There is no reason for you to be reanimating anything else in Standard. Who doesn’t want to Unburial Rites a Griselbrand, draw fourteen cards, and then discard them all to Zombie Infestation to make seven Zombies at the end of your opponent’s turn? Then you untap, flash back Unburial Rites to make an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, and swing for 37. GG.
The first change I made from Brad’s list was cutting two Necrotic Ooze and putting in two more Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Having eight bombs in the deck has felt much more consistent than the deck did with six. There are several games where you have all the pieces and can’t draw a bomb, so playing eight reanimation targets seems right. It does occasionally create some awkward hands where you have nothing but lands and big monsters (Wes Craven presents "Lands and Big Monsters" next summer). It is also important to note that this is a deck is certainly subject to some problems with variance, but what Standard combo deck isn’t? The majority of the games that you lose will be because you draw all monsters and not enough business spells.
Faithless Looting is crazy good in this deck, and the games when you draw one versus the games that you don’t are very different. In this deck, Faithless Looting is like red Brainstorm. I would play eight of this card if I could (Legacy Dredge has all the fun). The deck could really use another draw spell. The obvious cut point for another draw engine is the last two Necrotic Ooze. He is not terrible as he acts like a fifth and sixth Griselbrand, and sometimes he can just go the distance against a slower deck when he is paired with a Vault of the Archangel. But Necrotic Ooze is always the first cut for sideboarding in game 2. He is serviceable but not exciting.
Another draw spell may be where you want to be. Some that are worth further testing are Dangerous Wager and Shattered Perception. They have synergy with your overall game plan and don’t tax your mana base, although Shattered Perception does live in the very crowded three spot on the curve. You often don’t want to discard your whole hand with this deck because you may be sandbagging a Day of Judgment or setting up to get the best value out of Liliana of the Veil. Some people have asked about Reforge the Soul; draw seven is awesome, but you are playing the best Liliana of the Veil deck in Standard. You want your opponent playing hellbent, not joining you in drawing full grips.
Another cut from Brad’s list was one Vault of the Archangel. I replaced it with one Clifftop Retreat. This deck is very color hungry, and having two colorless sources was a big problem in testing. Drawing one Vault of the Archangel is insane. Drawing two Vault of the Archangel makes me want to go to the park with a guy hopped up on bath salts.
The final card in the maindeck I want to discuss is Revoke Existence. I think there is room for preference here. A teammate of mine played this deck in Nashville, and he opted for the fourth Zombie Infestation instead of Revoke Existence; he may be right. I wanted an answer for Sword of War and Peace and Oblivion Ring in game 1 because they can create some problems for you, and the fact that you also have an answer to Birthing Pod is a nice bonus when you are trying to extend the game.
Sideboarding
In the sideboard, the two most exciting cards are Mental Misstep and Torpor Orb. Mental Misstep is awesome against U/W Delver. It hits Delver of Secrets, Vapor Snag, Ponder, and other stuff that you care less about. I am about 50% against U/W Delver in game 1s in testing, and postboard they normally get two Ratchet Bombs, which are ok against you but not too scary. Your postboard game gives you a lot more ways to interact with the spells you’re scared of. Being able to counter Vapor Snag is good in any deck, but being able to counter Vapor Snag targeting Griselbrand or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite…happy as a clam at clam camp (are clams happier than other mollusks?).
Also, there is not a lot of graveyard hate out there right now, but if it starts to show up Mental Misstep hits Surgical Extraction, Grafdigger’s Cage, and Nihil Spellbomb. I also played against a weird Turbo Fog deck that I was able to beat because of access to Mental Misstep. That’s the kind of diversity a sideboard card should have.
Torpor Orb exists to handle the crazy number of come in to play effects that exist, but mostly Zealous Conscripts which is clearly a bad card for you. The fact that it also gives you value against Blade Splicer, Snapcaster Mage, Restoration Angel, Huntmaster of the Fells, Primeval Titan, and Solemn Simulacrum is just a nice bonus. I think there is an argument that could be made for Spellskite in the side instead because it can block in the early game, take the fall for Zealous Conscripts, Vapor Snag, and Oblivion Ring. It also can get the beats in when Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite comes to visit. Maybe a mixture of the two artifacts is right…definitely worth more testing.
Piloting Tips
The most important thing you need to know about this deck is it is not Frites. Frites is designed to dig through its deck and put big beefy monsters in the graveyard as quickly as possible. The only spells played are focused on that one goal. Griselbrand Combo plays a wider variety of spells that are designed to extend the game by stalling your opponent with Lingering Souls and Timely Reinforcements, shredding their hand with Liliana of the Veil, or just using some good old-fashioned board sweepers like Day of Judgment. That’s not to say that you don’t have games where you just Faithless Looting into turn 4 Griselbrand; it’s just that this deck can do a lot more than that. Frites doesn’t. As a result, this deck can be difficult to play because you have different decision trees to follow depending on what type of game you are trying to develop.Â
There are a lot of decisions to be made with this deck. The mana base is pretty fragile, and it is extremely color hungry. You often want red on turn 1, then double black and a white on turn 3, then double white on turn 4, and then quad black by turn 8. Needless to say, Evolving Wilds decisions become very important. The deck doesn’t have a lot of action on turn 2, and you often use that turn to try and set up your mana to make your colors for the next few turns.
Once you get your mana sequencing figured out, ordering your spells doesn’t get any easier. Say you cast Faithless Looting on turn 1 off of Blackcleave Cliffs and your hand is Evolving Wilds, Mountain, Isolated Chapel, Lingering Souls, Liliana of the Veil, Zombie Infestation, and Griselbrand. What do you discard? There are a lot of things to think about.
The first answer might be Lingering Souls and Griselbrand, but it’s not that simple. Sure, you can flashback Lingering Souls on turn 2, but would that turn be better spent using Evolving Wilds to set up your mana base that’s more color hungry than that double rainbow guy? Also, are you going to be able to protect Liliana of the Veil if you only get two tokens by flashing back Lingering Souls instead of casting it twice? I would likely discard Griselbrand and Mountain with that hand depending on the matchup, and then next turn I would play Evolving Wilds to get a Plains. This is a deck that I would recommend spending some time with before taking it to a tournament.
Unburial Rites on a big bomb is your primary goal with this deck. Ideally, you play a Zombie Infestation and then make a Griselbrand happen. Then you can probably kill your opponent in quick order afterwards. But there are plenty of times that you just play a bunch of Lingering Souls, a Liliana of the Veil, and then hard cast an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite on turn 7. That is a surprisingly effective game plan in several matchups.
U/W Delver hates Lingering Souls. The majority of the games that you win against U/W Delver will be because of this card. It is without a doubt the most important card in this matchup. If I could start every game against U/W Delver with double Lingering Souls and double Faithless Looting, I would buy the god of Magical Christmasland an extra eight reindeer.
Well there you have it: my first StarCityGames.com article. We made it! If any of you have any questions or suggestions, I’d love to hear them in the comments.
Until next time friends, good journey.