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15-08-2001
 Counter-Burn in Standard
A friend of mine asked me recently - what do you think of
counter/burn in Standard?
I've always liked U/R ever since Hammer of Bogarden (My very first
rare) was released. It has had enjoyed moderate success over the years
but has never reached the accolades that I believe it deserves.
A quick stroll down memory lane let me remember when it had viable
archetypes.
Mirage - Counter/Hammer (1).
Has it been that long? Reminds me of a long lost red-headed step sister.
Let's look her up to see what she's been up to in the last 5 years.
(1) Counter Hammer
BLOCK - Pros
Squandered/Bloom. This was when I first started the game, so due to a
lack of cards I played Counter Hammer because I only needed 3 rares
(hammers). The Bloom decks were dominant because they were a great
combo, but as with any combo they were sucseptible to heavy control.
Beating the best deck in the field makes anyone stand up and take
notice.
BLOCK - Cons
Very weak to a good start by Stompy, rogue elephants stampeding
wildebeasts etc. Remember back at this point the only sideboard card was
Dream Tides which cost 4 and Creeping Mold - due to it's amazing utility
- was in all good green decks. Mono green wasn't winning much at this
point but the "net-effect" (dojo) wasn't quite in full swing and people
were still doing stupid things like building their own decks.
TYPE 2 - Pros
In type 2 we introduced Necro & Counter-Post to the environment.
Counter-Post had enjoyed success as the favoured deck right until the
"Black summer" of Necro.
Type 2 heavily added to the counter magic of U/R, (FoW & Arcane Denial).
Necro was hosed a little with the Anvil of Bogardin while Counter-Post
had many wasted cards without sideboarding and these matchups would
seldom be settled within 50 minutes.
TYPE 2 - Cons
Sligh was also introduced to the equation - Sligh has 2
things in common with Windows...
Like Stompy, Sligh could outrun control into the ground with a good
start. This was the beginning of Sligh's good run that didn't
end until the Rath Cycle dropped out.
5-colour decks -- these deck were designed to beat anything, which from
memory was Jakob Slemr's winning deck from the 1997 worlds.
(2) Counter Phoenix
BLOCK
Again we were left with a deck I loved that never fulfilled its
potential. The archetypes floating around were Recur/Survival,
Tradewind/Ophidian, Living Death & Counter Sliver. The abundance of
non-basic land gave rise to too many metagame options for other decks.
Tradewinds ruled the table until Exodus, when Survival dominated.
Reliability was the big question here as the Rath Cycle brought the
quickest tempo ever to the game.
TYPE 2
If you wanted to play control, you'd play cuneo blue (Rainbow
Efreet), it was as simple as that. You look back at the match-ups and
think that phoenix was the better option, but that year's Euro's was
ruled by cuneo, which made the worlds sideboard heavily against blue.
That year recur/survival won the worlds - because, I believe, blue
decks had been scared off. Sligh was the runner up because of its
reliability. Other decks of note were White Weenie, Oath and Bloom.
Don't get me wrong, U/R was a good deck, but the good players were just
playing other decks.
POST-URZA'S TYPE 2
2 words. Tolarian Academy. What the hell, I'll name some more. Time
Spiral, Mind Over Matter & Windfall. Truly, this was the week the
wizards playtesting team went to sleep. There was only one hope to beat
Academy: Academy.
This deck dominated more than ever before and beat everything else, hence it's bannings. Black featured with Hatred and control variants. Replenish had graduated from Urza's
Block. The Covetous Dragon deck that followed was also sort of silly.
Indeed, my poor long lost red-headed step sister was getting no
attention whatsoever, as from set to set CounterBurn withered away and
died.
Replenish was strengthened with Nemesis, and U/R couldn't match the card
advantage of Rebels. The good players seemed to be all playing Accelerated Blue & Tinker. U/R didn't get any consideration during this time.
OK, so what have we learned, children??? Counter has had it's success but
never at top level since Counter-Post days.
People will play U over U/R, unless there is a significant advantage in
2 colours, and it will only have success if there isn't a broken deck in
the environment.
TODAY:
The blue decks today are Xerox, Skies & Prison, both Xerox & Prison do
well against the Fires, while Skies beats Xerox & Prison.
Paper-Rock-Scissors any one???
U/R in today's Standard??? Try to bear in mind that it has to beat
Fires. Just pack up and go home if you can't. It then has to deal with
other blue decks.
Fires: Fires has brilliant tempo. Fire/ice is an answer to that as it's
really good against Birds & Elves, but U/R really lacks enchantment
removal. Hibernation is an option but only in the sideboard. Creatures
that cannot be countered are also a problem. Theft in the environment is
too slow (Confiscate & Dominate).
Other Blue decks: What was tough to get through against other counter
decks? The kill. Urza's Rage will do it if you can control the game for
long enough, something you should be able to do against other blue
decks.
Now let's look back at the keys to the success of the R/U decks of old
and try to put it in context with today's environment:
Card advantage can be done with Fact or Fiction & Acc. Knowledges, but
the ability to clear the board still remains a mystery. Solve that and
you've got yourself a great deck.
Earthquake? Cave-In? Evacuation? More burn?
Can't do it????
Bugger it - play Fires.
Dan Gow |
