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THE FNM PROJECT—Enter the Goblin! By Marco Orsini Jones Every now and then, Magic players all around the world are surprised by an idea, a mechanic, a combo or a card that they simply hadn’t considered before. Often – in fact almost always – this innovation comes from the pros. They can test all day, they have greater resources at their disposal and quite simply they’re better players than us mere mortals. Take ‘The Solution’, the janky U/W aggroish deck that Alex Shvartsman piloted to victory in Invasion block against a tide of RG aggro, or more recently Ghost Husk, which was initially piloted to a top 16 finish at PT: Honolulu by Michael Diezel and has since defined our current type 2 format. These inspired flashes of genius break the mould, often go against conventional wisdom and always leave a vastly different metagame behind them. So, how does any of this relate to my article for today? Well... ladies and gentlemen you are about to witness another such format-breaking discovery, which will revolutionise the way you approach the type 2 format. It comes in the shape of one card. One powerful little guy. In fact, one powerful little goblin to be more precise. To paraphrase the great Rolf Harris, ‘Can you guess what it is yet’? No? You sure? Damn. Well here it is: the mighty, the unstoppable, the mirror breaking (hint, hint).......... KIKI-JIKI, THE MIRROR BREAKER!! It was worth a shot... As you may have guessed my now, today’s report is based around my love for the little goblin from Champions block and all the cool things that he can do. During Tooth and Nail season, I attempted (unsuccessfully) to qualify for Nats using a RG Kiki-Jiki deck with Solemn Simulacrums, Eternal Witnesses and Sakura-Tribe Elders and, though I learned the error of my ways (just play the best deck), I also retained a desire to make a Kiki-Jiki deck work. So, fast-forwarding a year or so to the present, I decided to continue Tony’s (that’s the editor Tony Skinner) FNM project of making cool, fairly competitive decks and using FNM to test them out, by developing a Kiki-Jiki deck for the current, amazingly flexible, type 2 format. The obvious targets I wanted in the deck for Kiki-Jiki were Loxodon Hierarchs, as they quite simply spell doom for any aggro deck and have a coming-into-play ability which can be exploited. Tribe Elders were also quickly added to the mix, as they are very solid against aggro, would smooth the mana of what I from early on decided would be a five colour deck and once again work well with K-J out. Because of the heavy mana commitments of the deck I also threw Wood Elves in, and, as a cool target for K-J, Izzet Cronarch also got the nod. Last, but by no means least, Sky Hussar and Simic Sky Swallower made the deck as ‘the kill’. Hussar because of its cool combo potential with the Kiki-Jiki (if both are out and unanswered, you create a bazillion 4/3 Fliers and win!) and the SSS as an alternative kill in case my not overly solid combo plan was disrupted. With the Cronarch on the team sheet, I obviously needed instants and/or sorceries in the deck. Farseek was an easy choice, as were a couple of Wraths to stave off the beats. Supply//Demand seemed to fit into the deck perfectly, allowing me to search for a multitude of powerful gold cards such as Hierarchs as well as providing an alternate kill, and Electrolyze was also too good to leave out. I felt I needed as much time as possible for the kill to be prepared, so Repeal found its way in, and finally lone copies of Congregation at Dawn and Demonfire were added to find the kill (or make aggro cry with triple Hierarch goodness) and be the kill respectively. Also, although not an instant or sorcery, Sensei’s Divining Top was too good in this deck to leave out, with loads of shuffle effects to abuse and a combo to be searched for. I had originally played around with black in the main deck, with a couple of Angels of Despair and Putrefy/Mortify, but the mana became far too shaky so this plan was abandoned. Black did however make the sideboard, where Cranial Extraction came in as well as a Gifts package versus control to give me the following list: Kiki-Jiki Control Main Deck 4 Temple Garden 3 Stomping Ground 1 Breeding Pool 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Watery Grave 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Steam Vents 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Mountain 1 Plains 1 Island 5 Forest 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Loxodon Hierarch 1 Kiki-Jiki, the Mirror Breaker 1 Sky Hussar 1 Simic Sky Swallower 2 Izzet Cronarch 3 Wood Elves 4 Supply//Demand 2 Wrath of God 4 Electrolyze 3 Sensei’s Divining Top 4 Repeal 1 Congregation at Dawn 4 Farseek 1 Demonfire Sideboard 3 Cranial Extraction 3 Gifts Ungiven 1 Recollect 1 Reclaim 1 Indrik Stomphowler 1 Naturalize 2 Wrath of God 2 Condemn 1 Swamp With the list done, I was ready to go at my local FNM at Bishop Games in Coventry, which is as cool place to play with a fairly strong local player base. After turning up and borrowing the cards that I needed (which is a common ritual that is much loved by the other gamers, I assure you), the unstoppable team of me + Kiki-Jiki was ready to go, despite much ridiculing from the other players. They would soon see. Round 1 vs. Richard Marriot with Big Zoo Richard tends to bring his own takes on competitive decks (which however usually render them less competitive) and so this would not be an easy start. G1: He won the roll and I have to mulligan, so not a great start. This is compounded when he fires off t2 Watchwolf and t3 Burning-Tree Shaman, to which I can only reply with t2 Sakky T and t3 Wood Elves. The little guys do however take one for the team and stave off the beats, and like the lucky topdecker that I am I topdeck and bust out a turn 4 Hierarch, taking me back up to a healthy 21 life (the Shaman had hit me once). However the elephant is Charred at end of turn, and followed by a hasty Giant Solifuge, which comes through with the Shaman and Wolf to take me to 11. Not good. I desperately make 3 Saprolings with Supply in order to hold off his horde. He then makes the stellar play of enchanting his Shaman with a Moldervine Cloak and then casting Bathe in Light naming green to make it fall off, but despite this he has another Bathe in hand and so I take 20 points of damage in 2 turns and die. In: 2 Wrath of God, 2 Condemn Out: Kiki-Jiki, Sky Hussar, 1 Izzet Cronarch, 1 Supply//Demand The combo is just too slow in this matchup and so it makes way for much needed removal. G2: No mulls this time so we’re off. He starts with a t1 Isamaru off a Foundry, which I Repeal on my turn. He follows with a Dryad Sophisticate, which gets Demonfired in my turn, and I also drop a Top. He keeps ’em coming, with another Sophisticate and the previously Repealed Hound on his turn, to which I can only reply with a Wood Elves, leaving 1 mana up for the Top. He presses the advantage with a Cloak on his Sophisticate and a big swing which takes me to 11 as I chump the Hound. However, little does he know that he is playing into my hands, as my Top duly serves up a Wrath which clears the board. All he has to follow up is another Hound, so it’s looking good for me as I slam down a Hierarch, going up to 15 life. The elephant once again gets Charred, though, and I take 2, going back down to 13, then stare down a Kird Ape. I’m not done yet though, as the lone Cronarch in the deck pops up to hand me back my Wrath and block the Isamaru, leaving me on 11 from the Ape. I follow up next turn with a blocker for the Ape in the shape of Sakky T and a Demand for a Hierarch, and he makes his own Hierarch on his turn, going up to 19. After I too make one, he decides to lure out the Wrath by dropping a pair of Watchwolves and another Ape, more than slightly overdoing it, which means that once I do Wrath next turn he is as good as dead, and indeed he scoops following a Congregation on the next turn. G3: He thinks long and hard about his hand, finally deciding to give it a go, so with me also keeping we start. He has no turn 1 play and I make a Top. When he also has no turn 2 play I begin to wonder why exactly he kept and suspect that there may be some big critters hitting play soon. I Farseek on my turn, and he indeed drops a Shaman on t3. I have a chumper in the form of Wood Elves, who takes me up to 5 mana: i.e. more than enough for Wrath. Yet on his turn Richard swings and drops a further Wolf and Sophisticate, which makes my Wrath on the next turn very brutal. From here it’s all downhill for him, as Demand fetches me a Hierarch which eventually goes all the way, backed up by Electrolyze x2 (one fetched back by Cronarch) to clear out blockers. Matches 1-0 Games 2-1 Round 2 vs. Darren Medforth with UrgaTron Darren is very much an improving player and so though he has become a lot better over this year, play mistakes are often his undoing. I hoped to be able to take advantage of any in what isn’t exactly a great match-up on paper. G1: I win the roll and after we both keep I start with a Farseek, to which he replies with a Simic Signet. Next I make Wood Elves and lay a top, while he just makes another signet without dropping a land. On his next turn he still has no land, but he has topdecked a Compulsive Research, to which he pitches a Mana Leak and a Tidings, as he still fails to find land. I Electrolyze him at EOT and follow up with my first resolved Kiki-Jiki of the day, which makes me another Elf and takes me up to 6 lands to his 2 (+2 signets). He again has no land, but lays his third signet and is able to Leak an attempted Hierarch. By this stage though, I have the mana to pay for it and so he takes 4 hasty elephant beats (and a Wood Elves nibble). Darren’s deck clearly hates him by this point as he draws dead again and only manages a Demonfire on my Kiki-Jiki. After another couple of swings and my own Demonfire to his dome, it’s time for game 2. Now that I’ve mentioned Darren’s propensity to make mistakes I must also admit that I didn’t Sideboard for game 2 because I forgot. What a great play. I must have been caught up in a wave of euphoria over my stunning victory in game 1 (so what that he was manascrewed...). G2: Anyway, moving back to the game, once again there are no mulls and this time I lead off with an Elder. After taking one from my Elder, Darren has assembled his Tron and busts out a Keiga. Poo. However, with my hand I think that I can race him so EOT I send an Electrolyze to his head and then on my turn lay a Hierarch, taking the life totals to 20/17 in my favour (shocklands). He serves with the Keiga and passes, so I do the same with my Elder and elephant and Farseek. On his turn he decides that he can’t race and so passes without attacking, so I Electrolyze him again at EOT (life: 15/10). On my turn I attack again and he blocks the Hierarch, so with damage on I throw my third Electrolyze at Darren and his Keiga (15/8), drawing into a Top. He attempts to steal my Elder with his dying dragon so it is sacrificed to fetch me a land, and I lay a Top. On his turn Darren lays a Meloku, leaving himself no blue mana open and so on my turn I am free to use the Demonfire that I had been holding and end the game. Matches: 2-0 Games: 4-1 Round 3 vs. Callum Rose with ‘the Masterpiece’ Callum is another regular ‘Bishop Gamer’ and is known for his wacky constructed deck designs (such as his 3 Shoal Special which featured Autochton Wurm among other stellar hits) and his ability in limited formats. He also showed me the combo between Kiki-Jiki and Sky Hussar, so I’ve got to thank him for that. Today however he was playing a fairly standard Masterpiece deck, with one or two changes to the win conditions and the addition of Tidings to the main. It’s an absolutely awful matchup for me as turn 3 Arena is game over and he has loads of threats which I struggle to deal with. Anyway, to the games: G1: I win the roll and after no mulligans lead off with a Farseek. I follow up with Wood Elves and on his turn he ominously taps his 3 mana. Sure enough, it’s the Phyrexian Arena of doom. I don’t scoop immediately as I might as well have done and instead fetch a Congregation with a Demand, hoping to be able to combo out before he draws into removal. He however has the kill spells and, though I valiantly fight on, eventually he just overpowers me with an Ink-Eyes and a Meloku plus all the extra cards he is drawing. I board into the Gifts plan, but for the life of me I can’t remember what I boarded out. Damn notes. G2: He leads off with the dreaded t1 Birds, allowing a possible t2 Arena, while I just have lands. However, he has no black lands and so on the next turn I am able to Electrolyze away his Birds. He draws into a black source, but now it’s too late and he just passes. On my turn I have one of my three black sources so I fire off one of the two Cranials that I have in hand, naming Persecute so that he can’t wreck me the next turn if he draws black mana. I whiff and see a hand of Mortify, Arashi, Putrefy, Fetters x2 and Arena. He doesn’t draw a land and passes, so I am free to extract his Arenas. This time he does draw a land and lays Arashi, bemoaning his bad luck at not having drawn this at any time earlier in the game, while I lucksack a Wrath off the top on my turn (Muahahaha Magic can be a cruel game). I don’t use it straight away, instead casting Gifts at his EOT (having taken 5 and gone to 13) for Simic Sky Swallower, Reclaim, Recollect and Cronarch. He gives me the latter two so that I can’t reclaim the SSS at EOT, as I have 1 mana up. Therefore on my turn I Wrath away his Arashi and Recollect the Sky Swallower (not the Guildpact version luckily). All he has on his turn is a Farseek, so I lay the SSS which laughs at his hand of spot removal. After a couple of swings from the big guy Demonfire to the face seals the deal and we’re onto game 3. G3: By now we’re very short of time, so the Blasmeister, Richard Bland, accepts note-taking duty. Callum leads off with a double mulligan, but then has the dreaded Birds, Arena start, while I lay a Top and an Elder. He follows up with a Hierarch, putting the pressure on, while I just sac my Elder and lay the mighty Wood Elves. However at this point time comes to my rescue, leaving Callum with three turns to finish me off. On his turn he swings, taking me down to 16, but can only follow up with another Birds. I have more Wood Elves, which allow me to lay a Hierarch of my own, taking me up to 18 (having taken two from a shockland). The elephant is dispatched at EOT with a Putrefy, though, and trumped by a Keiga on Callum’s side, which follows an elephant attack that is chumped by an Elf. On my final turn I Electrolyze the 2 Birds, stopping any Ninjutsu tricks, and follow up with my third and final Wood Elves. This leaves Callum with too much to do on his turn, and though he lays a Fetters on my Elves he can only punch through for nine damage, taking me to 9. If he’d had one more turn Callum would have won this one so all in all I’m pretty relieved with the draw, especially as this leaves me playing on the top table in the deciding match of the evening. Matches: 2-0-1 Games: 5-2-1 Round 4 vs. Matthew McFeely with BGwr Control Matty is sporting his Black Green based homebrew control deck which he has been very successful with for a long time now at the shop. I’m not really sure what to expect matchup-wise, as his deck is similar to Callum’s Masterpiece in terms of threats, but without the dreaded Arenas. G1: Neither of us mulligans and having won the roll I start with lands, while he goes with a t2 Sakky T. I topdeck and play a t3 Farseek, but he trumps my start with a Hierarch in his turn off the Tribe Elder. I just have more land, so he swings and grabs some of his own with a Kodama’s Reach. I now draw and play an elephant of my own, which steps in front of Matty’s on his next turn, but he just lays another, going up to 28 life. Following a double Electrolyze on my turn (the second of which is fizzled by the sacrificial Hierarch) Matty is left elephantless again, but keeps the pressure on with a Grave-Shell Scarab. However, I one-up the puny insect with the mighty Simic Sky Swallower, and keep the beats up next turn with a Sky Hussar, threatening to combo out next turn (though I don’t actually have the Kiki-Jiki in hand). However, Matty ends any of these shenanigans with an EOT Putrefy on the bird and then lays his own untargettable beatstick in the form of Kodama on his turn. I’m not done yet though, as an EOT Congregation serves me up Hierarch, Kiki-Jiki and Cronarch in that order, and after another swing from the SSS the big elephant comes out. Matty swings with just his Scarab on his turn, getting himself a card by sacrificing the insect after I take 4, and then lays a Kokusho. On my turn the SSS takes Matty to 8 life, then Kiki-Jiki comes down to join the party. From here on in, Kiki-Jiki allows me to stay in control while the SSS serves the beats, getting me 4 point life boosts and free Electrolyzes to finish Matty off despite his continued resistance through a Shizo-fuelled, Hierarch-grabbing Ink-Eyes that momentarily threatens to keep him in the race. Once again, the gifts plan comes in, but once again I’ve no idea what for. Sorry. G2: Time is once again looking like a factor, so by far the weaker side of the OJ team :P (i.e. my beloved little brother Matteo – check out his reports on this site btw, they’re really good) comes to the rescue to take notes. Following a mulligan I stick with a risky hand that has Vents, Foundry and Electrolyze but no green source or third land. Matty’s first play is a turn 3 Reach and I reply to this with an Electrolyze to the face, having drawn the Forest that I needed. I then get a Wood Elves off the top which fully stabilises my mana, but doesn’t do a great deal to stop the t4 and t5 Hierarchs which Matty is now beating me down with. All I can muster on my side is a further Farseek off the top and a Cronarch fetching back Electrolyze, which is no match for the army on Matty’s side of the board which now also includes an Ink-Eyes and a Scarab. A Demand for a Hierarch allows me to survive an extra turn, but the beats are eventually too much as I don’t topdeck the required Wrath. G3: I mulligan away a hand of lands and a Farseek and keep a better six-carder. My turn 2 Elder onto an empty board is matched by Matty’s own on his turn, which blocks my Elder when it serves on t3, to once again leave the board clear. However I’m not done yet and lay the third Sakky T of the game. Matty follows up by Extracting my Supply//Demands (he misses), while all I can do is Farseek. The pressure isn’t exactly being piled on by Matty either, as he Reaches (for the stars...) then passes. At EOT I Gifts for the SSS package, minus the Cronarch and plus an Extraction, which gets handed to me along with the Reclaim. I Cranial away his Savage Twisters, hoping to get rid of all of the outs in his deck for the SSS, and he follows up with a Hierarch, leaving the life totals at 24-16 in his favour (four life lost due to shocklands), to which I reply with another EOT Gifts, this time fetching Cranial, Congregation, Chronarch and Hierarch, with the latter two making my hand. In my upkeep I Reclaim the Cranial, this time naming Arashi, his final out for an active SSS, and pass the turn, confident of the win. But on his turn Matty makes the ultimate topdeck (though I suppose Ink-Eyes would have been even better) and slams down a Cranial Extraction of his own, taking away the SSS and putting me under pressure with another swing from the elephant, taking me down to 12. My own Hierarch lets me stabilise life-wise, but it gets putrefied EOT, allowing Matty to take me back down to 12, at which point time is called. Matty follows up with another Hierarch, taking himself up to 28, so for me it’s now more about surviving than taking home the prize. My third and final Gifts allows me to do this, giving me a Condemn and a Hierarch (over a Wrath and a Demonfire, which I probably shouldn’t have gone for and which he should probably have given me, though it turns out to be irrelevant really), which close out the draw. Matches: 2-0-2 Games: 6-3-2 Overall it was a fun deck to use and a fairly good performance from a rogue deck, so I was satisfied with my day’s work. I hope you can all tune in next time to see what changes I would recommend to the deck and see how an updated (but unfortunately Kiki-Jiki-less) version of the deck does at the next FNM. Adios, Marco Orsini Jones |
