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21-07-2001
 Breaking Wild Research
Card Name: Wild Research
Card Color: R
Mana Cost: 2R
Type & Class: Enchantment
Card Text: [1][W]: Search your library for an enchantment card and
reveal that card. Put it into your hand, then discard a
card at random from your hand. Then shuffle your library.
[1][U]: Search your library for an instant card and reveal
that card. Put it into your hand, then discard a card at
random from your hand. Then shuffle your library.
Tournament players conventionally want their decks want to be as consistent and powerful as possible. That means either
playing with as many copies of each card as possible, or having fewer copies of cards, but ways to tutor for them.
Naturally this second deck style is only possible if there are tutors in the environment. Wild Research is such a tutor,
but it goes further than it's predecessors. Whereas previous tutors have been one-shot deals, this is a permanent that
threatens to turn every card in your hand into a tutor. Only time will tell if
Historically, there have been two uses for tutoring cards, combo and utility. About the only combo deck I can think of that could benefit from Wild Research is the NecraGrove deck, a GWB deck that already employs the tutor Sterling Grove to find Necra Sanctuary. Adding red to the deck for Wild Research might work. Here's a preliminary combo list: Research and Development Necra Grove Combo BRGW 4 Necra Sanctuary 4 Wild Research 4 Sterling Grove 4 Kavu Chameleon 4 Spiritmonger 4 Lay of the Land 4 Rout 2 Armadillo Cloak 2 Story Circle 1 Overgrown Estate 2 Urza's Rage 1 Seal of Cleansing 24 LandThe combo works by plunking down Necra Sanctuary, with a green and a white permanent in play. Your opponent slowly dies. Both the Kavu Chameleon and Spiritmonger help by being able to change colour (to white), if there isn't a Cloak or Grove in play. Lay of the Land helps smooth the mana. Rout, Cloak, Story Circle and Overgrown Estate help to stop creatures killing you, with the Cloak making your monger a very angry chappie indeed. Urza's Rage and Seal of Cleansing help with Idol difficulties. But it's the utility deck which seems to me to be a much better option for abusing Wild Research. The blue card which works best is Accumulated Knowledge. This is already a tournament worthy card, and looks to provide the base for any deck looking to tutor for instants with Wild Research. But before we get to instant fun with a variety of UR based decks, there is a RW beatdownish deck to consider. Research and Beatdown RW 2 Wild Research 4 Bloodfire Dwarf 4 Goblin Legionnaire 4 Chimeric Idol 4 Desolation Giant 2 Serra Angel 4 Parallax Wave 4 Fire/Ice 3 Urza's Rage 2 Scorching Lava 1 Orim's Thunder 2 Squee's Embrace 4 Battlefield Forge 9 Plains 11 MountainThis deck definitely wants to play creatures and go to the dome. All of the non-creature spells (except Wild Research) are ways to remove blockers, or do more damage to the opponent. The only problem is that it seems like the best thing to do to make this deck better is to remove the Wild Research and one-offs and just go for a good draw every turn. This is a bit sad, and possibly a sign that there isn't a good straight RW Research deck out there. Enough of that. Now for fun stuff, the base UR decks. It seems like there are three ways to go with UR wild toolbox decks, straight UR, UR with a splash for white and UR with a splash for black.
Blue/Red offers a number of good instants/enchantments to use:
Removal Urza's Rage, Fire/Ice, Scorching Lava, Prophetic Bolt
Card Drawing Accumulated Knowledge, Fact or Fiction, Tolarian Winds,
Brainstorm
Counters Counterspell, Foil, Thwart, Prohibit, Exclude, Gainsay,
Confound, Teferi's Response
Utility Dominate, Confiscate, Repulse
Critters Squee, Avatar of Fury, Glacial Wall, Mahamoti Djinn
(ok, so they're not instants or enchantments. sue me)
Adding Black give more aggression and recursion:
Removal Vendetta, Terminate, Tsabo's Decree
Counters Undermine, Spite/Malice
Utility Yawgmoth's Agenda, Recoil, Duress
Critters Nightscape Familiar, Crosis
Adding White gives gives protection from creatures and life gaining:
Protection Wrath of God, Rout, Story Circle, Teferi's Moat,
Mageta, The Lion
Counters Absorb
Card Drawing Reviving Vapors
Utility Orim's Thunder, Seal of Cleansing, Dismantling Blow,
Story Circle
There are a plethora of two casting cost Artifacts that can help us. Diamonds can provide mana acceleration, Tsabo's Web
helps protect us from mana predation and Millstone can be a victory condition.
Here's what a RWU deck with life gain and lots of ways to stop creatures could look like: Research and Development RUW 3 Wild Research 4 Fact or Fiction 4 Accumulated Knowledge 2 Reviving Vapors 3 Foil 1 Misdirection 2 Counterspell 2 Absorb 3 Squee, Goblin Nabob 3 Mageta, The Lion 1 Teferi's Moat 1 Story Circle 1 Dominate 1 Orim's Thunder 1 Scorching Lava 1 Fire/Ice 2 Urza’s Rage 2 Millstone 4 Coastal Tower 4 Battlefield Forge 4 Shivan Reef 2 Mountain 3 Plains 7 Island Thats 13 Card Drawing Engine 8 Counters 8 Creature bulk stoppers 6 Targeted removal 2 Artifacts 24 LandThis deck's biggest worry is probably surviving the early game. To help with that are Absorb and Reviving Vapors, both have excellent primary abilities, and the life bonus is gravy. There are three separate paths to victory: Millstone, Urza's Rage, and Mageta beatdown. That said, this deck may be trying to do too much. It aims to keep it's hand full with card drawing, selectively counter spells, while defending against the creature rush. Mageta was selected over both Wrath of God and Rout because it has an effect which can be used repeatedly, and can serve as an attacker if need be. Additionally, Squee is great with Wild Research, Fact or Fiction, Foil and Mageta.
** Side Point ** A straight UR deck would have a more consistent mana base, although it would not have access to the white cards, which almost universally help to keep you alive (the sole exception being Orim's Thunder). A UR deck would not have many good ways to stop a creature rush, so it would need more creatures of it's own. Research and Development RU 3 Wild Research 4 Fact or Fiction 4 Accumulated Knowledge 3 Thwart 2 Foil 1 Misdirection 3 Counterspell 1 Teferi's Response 2 Squee, Goblin Nabob 4 Glacial Wall 2 Mahamoti Djinn 1 Prophetic Bolt 2 Dominate 1 Fire/Ice 2 Urza’s Rage 2 Millstone 4 Shivan Reef 8 Mountain 12 IslandThe deck translates easily into a UR version. The key differences is that it now is much more susceptible to rush decks now, with it's creatures and spells primary trading one for one with the opponents cards. While this isn't card disadvantage per se, it's probably not good enough against the more dedicated creature decks. Glacial Wall provides some precious breathing space against fires, holding off fading Blastoderms to boot. Facing Spiritmonger, Squee can be employed in his alternate role as a creature.
** Another Side Blip **
Lisa: No I can't! I can't eat any of them!
Homer: Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute. Lisa honey, are you
saying you're *never* going to eat any animal again? What about
bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad! Those all come from the same animal!
Homer: [Chuckles] Yeah, right Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.
** End Side Blip **
The final strain that Wild Research can take is adding black to the RU deck.
Research and Development RBW Critturs 4 Nightscape Familiar 4 Glacial Wall 2 Mahamoti Djinn 1 Crosis, the Purger Engine 3 Wild Research 4 Accumulated Knowledge 2 Fact or Fiction Counters 2 Counterspell 1 Undermine 1 Misdirection 3 Thwart 1 Foil Crittur Control 1 Tsabo's Decree 2 Urza's Rage 1 Prophetic Bolt 1 Dominate 1 Fire/Ice Random 1 Teferi's Response 1 Yawgmoth's Agenda Land 2 Crosis Catacombs 4 Shivan Reef 4 Sulfurous Springs 2 Salt Marsh 12 Island*Bonus Mana Breakdown* If we were to add up all of the coloured mana symbols in the deck, the breakdown is:
U - 24 (+ Research activation) You can see that the overriding need this build has is for blue mana. The deck may need more than 24 land, but with the card drawing, it's probably enough at this stage. Breaking down the lands gives:
U - 22 sources That's alot of non-basics, but will probably give us the right colours at the right time. Only Crosis, Agenda, and kicked Rages have double coloured mana requirements in the minor colours. Since they're all late game finishers, I think that's acceptable. The familiars are just amazing with both the blue card drawing and the red damage spells (Fact or Fiction for U anyone?). Kicked Urza's Rages seems to be the order of the day, as Yawgmoth's Agenda takes over for you once you've stabilized. The fat flying creatures can block well, and also serve for the kill. Well, hopefully that's a reasonable breakdown of the different decktypes which seem to be buildable in the environment for Wild Research. Overall, I'd say the the white build is probably the strongest, with the most chance of surviving the early game. The black one looks like the coolest though. Then again, I could be talking through a hole in my head. Thanks for reading. Comments/discussion are welcome.
Mark Wilson |
