End of the Season Squeeze-in: The Great White Hope

Mike Flores

The New York Grudge Match Invitational is now over. New York's Champion is Eric Ziegler, a Pro Tour regular who should be a fine representative for Neutral Ground against Your Move Games's young champion, Billy DiJohnson. Though Eric won the New York Grudge Match with a modified version of Dave Price Red, I think that the surprise hit of our Top 32, and according to tournament organizer Brian David-Marshall, "the best metagame call", was r-w Rebels. If you would like to make a similar rogue deck choice for Standard tournaments before the Ramosian Sergeant, Lin Sivvi, and the rest rotate out for Odyssey, maybe The Great White Hope is the deck for you.



The Great White Hope
Don Lim, Mike Flores, Toby Wachter
Main Deck
	
Sideboard

4 Battlefield Forge
6 Mountain
15 Plains
	
2 Defiant Falcon
2 Defiant Vanguard
2 Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
1 Ramosian Lieutenant
4 Ramosian Sergeant
1 Ramosian Sky Marshal
4 Steadfast Guard
4 Goblin Legionnaire
	

	

3 Blood Oath
4 Urza's Rage
4 Parallax Wave
4 Disenchant
	

	

4 Dodecapod
1 Blood Oath
3 Flametongue Kavu
4 Seal of Cleansing
3 Worship
	

Though Dennis Tsao took his version, White Heat, to the finals, of the three players running our version, two made the Top 8... unfortunately these two players met in the quarterfinals, and Don eliminated Toby. Given other pairings, there could have well been a The Great White Hope mirror match in the New York Grudge Match finals. After all, as I will explain below, the deck has solid matchups across the current Standard environment.
Everyone is supposed to know that Fires is no longer the archetype it once was...

The predecessor to The Great White Hope was originally designed by Don Lim for the Amateur Championships at Origins 2001. (You may have heard of Don for his previous signature deck, Parallax-Replenish.) Though Don had a disappointing outing at Amateurs, the deck was a solid design that we thought would do well in a field defined by the Worlds 2001 top decks. Go-Mar and other control decks were historically a favorable matchup, Rebels has had the better of Skies since the days of Masques Block Constructed, Saproling Burt would be vulnerable to our eight Disenchants over three games, and everyone was supposed to know that Fires is no longer the archetype it once was.

In any case, testing showed that post-Hovi Go-Mar decks running Gerrard's Verdict were pulling out about half the games. While the versions we saw before Worlds would generally take enough Rebel and Goblin beats to succumb to Urza's Rage, the versions with Gerrard's Verdict had a two-pronged additional defense. On the one hand, they were just generating additional life, which meant additional turns... in a creature deck against a permission deck matchup, additional turns will almost always favor the permission deck. More importantly, the entire Rebel theory against control is that a single searcher can generate an entire army... if the Go-Mar player used Wrath of God to clear away the ground, the Rebel player could always squeak out just one searcher and come back from almost any position. The combination of Gerrard's Verdict ripping future searchers out of the Rebel player's hand and the spot removal of Dromar's Charm and Vindicate really hurt this plan.

As such, the former best matchup for the deck, polychromatic blue-based control, was down to a 50/50 matchup. While the wins were avalanches in favor of The Great White Hope and the losses were all tight games, at the end of the day, only the W/L column really matters. Enter Blood Oath. Toby was already dissatisfied with Flametongue Kavu's performance in most of the expected matchups. It was next to useless against control. It was a 1/1 killer against u-g, and it was generally too slow against Fires. While it had some merit against other creature decks, against Rebels we already had the ability to burn Sivvi with Urza's Rage and replace her ourselves, and the other main creature decks, Merfolk and Skies, had Static Orbs that made even Nekrataal-quality spells potential liabilities with only four Disenchants main. Why not just add the "steal a win" card, Blood Oath?

Blood Oath was a perfect addition. Against control, we would force a Wrath with a Sergeant and a bear or so, and then hit them for 9 damage before replacing the forces. Against expensive creature decks like Fires and Machine Head, we could pull out "unwinnable" games with free hits in multiples of 3.

In practice, the deck performed even better than expected. Fires is probably the worst mainstream matchup. Against this busty deck, the games will generally come down to whether or not The Great White Hope draws the proper number of Disenchants, and whether it can keep Lin Sivvi out of Flametongue Kavu's way long enough to search up a Defiant Vanguard or two. The Great White Hope can capitalize on many suboptimal Fires draws, and will tend to win the match over three games, due in large part to Worship. None of this is to say that one shouldn't be afraid of Fires... a large reason for our playing The Great White Hope at all was based on a perceived disincentive to the format's onetime leader.


This is public enemy #1
Against Merfolk, there is primarily one card that matters: Static Orb. The existence of this card, especially in combination with Opposition, is why The Great White Hope runs Disenchant over Orim's Thunder. Even while stuck in the Opposition lock, Disenchant gives the deck the opportunity to try to destroy Static Orb. If the Orb is not in play, Merfolk has little or no chance against the superior creatures, card advantage, and Parallax Wave lineup of The Great White Hope. As such, the first several cards to side in are Seals of Cleansing... if all the deck does is draw enough Disenchants to take out the Static Orbs on the other team and pick up a searcher along the way, it is favored against the fish.

Skies is a slightly more problematic matchup. I still believe that Static Orb is the key card. However, fatter creatures make for a quicker clock against The Great White Hope, and unlike Merfolk, it is much harder to lock the opponent's creatures with the deck's Rebel engine... after all, they are of superior size, and fly over most blockers. Zvi believes that the matchup heavily favors Skies, but I don't know that is the case; unlike more conventional Rebel decks, The Great White Hope can rip cards like Flametongue Kavu and Urza's Rage off of Indentured Djinn, making that game-winner much less reliable. Furthermore, Parallax Wave is a nightmare for Indentured Djinn, and a serious problem in most Orb-less board positions. Seth Burn has pointed out that Goblin Legionnaire is a big problem for Skies: it makes Troublesome Spirit far less troublesome, and can assist in taking out almost any other creature in the deck. When sideboarding against Skies, all four Seals of Cleansing are even more vital than in any other matchup: not only is Static Orb a significant issue, but Juntu Stakes is also a common anti-Rebel measure. Also, make sure you don't make the mistake I did against Zvi: You should leave the Sky Marshal in the deck.

Dave Price Red: Ziegler's win in New York notwithstanding, the matchup dramatically favors The Great White Hope over monored beatdown. Barring incredibly unusual circumstances, like topdecking (both) Disorders back-to-back with the opponent at 6 life, Dave Price Red has little or no answer to Worship combined with Rebel searchers. The ability to diversify burn targets on the ground and swarm with Falcons and the Sky Marshal in the air is an extremely potent plan with Worship in play. Even games (like game one) that don't involve Worship tend to favor The Great White Hope. Not only do its creatures match Dave Price Red's in terms of curve and quality, most of them are capable of generating card advantage. Couple that with solid support cards, like Parallax Wave and Urza's Rage, and The Great White Hope has a very good shot against what is probably the purely best deck in Standard.

Polychromatic Control decks these days tend to be b-u-r (Go-Sis, with or without the Purger) or b-u-w (Go-Mar) variants. As we've discussed, Go-Mar decks are capable of recovering both life and card advantage though a variety of white spells, such as Gerrard's Verdict and Wrath of God. The Blood Oath version is heavily favored against Go-Mar main deck, nonetheless, due to the ability to follow up a steady beatdown with such a devastating main deck addition. Post-board is a massacre for Go-Mar. While their main deck plan is Gerrard's Verdict and Probe, they now get to deal with Dodecapod, which is an extremely rare sideboard card in Standard. Go-Sis, on the other hand, lacks the game one card advantage of Go-Mar; most of its strategic incentives come with the speed/spot removal of cards like Terminate and Recoil. Matchup specifics are going to be based on the version the opponent is running, but in general, it is not advisable to take out Disenchants when playing Go-Sis with The Great White Hope in games two and three; the opponent may be bringing in Engineered Plague, which is somewhere between annoying and unbeatable, depending on the deck's own draw. Nevertheless, the prospects of four post-board Blood Oaths create a deterrent against Fact or Fiction, Probe, and Tsabo's Decree - namely the opponent's best cards - which will oftentimes leave the board wide open for a weenie assault.


This little fellow will get you out of a lot of jams
Monoblue control decks will generally fall into one of two categories, those based on Opposition and small creatures, and those based primarily on drawing extra cards. Both matchups tend to be favorable. Once again, the Opposition matchup is going to be based on whether or not the blue opponent can keep Static Orb in play. If he can't, he is very likely to lose to a lone Ramosian Sergeant, who will get out of hand rather quickly. The more controllish versions, based on either Thieving Magpie or Fact or Fiction (or both) for long-term advantage will tend to have 2-4 Wash Outs for main deck Rebel defense. These tend not to be enough, unless the opponent also has a way to stop The Great White Hope from recasting an unmanageable number of threats back, for example Rising Waters. Main deck Blood Oaths will take this deck by surprise, but are not strictly necessary for victory... but watch out for Misdirection.

Machine Head is an interesting matchup. I don't personally believe it is a favorable one, but Toby was able to win a number of Machine Head games via blind Blood Oath for 12 or more damage; the opposing deck is admittedly full of expensive creatures. While Machine Head has all the tools to beat a small creature Rebel deck like this one, The Great White hope can also ruin its day with an impressive number of sideboard cards... Dodecapod is absolutely amazing against Blazing Specter, especially when joined by his friends Flametongue Kavu and Worship. You will also note, that while amassing an impressive defense against the Dark Ritual-based acceleration of the Machine Head deck, Dodecapod and Flametongue Kavu also aid in long term card advantage... as non-Rebels they will weather Tsabo's Decree, and with four mana cost, they bring some much needed diversity against the potentially game-ending Void.

The last mainstream matchup, and one of the most important, is of course u-g Saproling Burt. The deck is interesting because most versions sacrifice both mana consistency and card quality to simply reduce the number of creature cards they have to run. Spontaneous Generation, a lone slot, does the duty of many dedicated creature slots, and is itself a significant defense against most small creature-based rushes. Much of the game one win potential, therefore, is going to be based on things like stealing a Blood Oath kill against Gush and Thwart, and strategic use of Disenchant; this popular deck is a perfect example of why Flametongue Kavu spent his time in The Great White Hope's sideboard. Like all of the Opposition decks we have discussed, most of the Disenchants against Saproling Burt should be directed against Static Orb, rather than Opposition or Saproling Cluster. The Great White Hope has some very solid cards against this opponent, starting with Ramosian Sergeant and ending with a kicked Urza's Rage. Sideboarded games will tend to favor the Rebel deck handily... with eight Disenchants post-board, keeping Static Orb in play for Saproling Burt will be difficult, which should lead to long term Rebel advantage. Special mention should be given to the Godzilla version of this deck... Spiketail Hatchling is not itself very good against a deck running multiple Defiant Falcons, but it can deter critical midgame Disenchants and Parallax Waves. More dangerous is the Waterfront Bouncer... combined with Static Orb and Gush, he can buy enough time to set up either the key Disenchant targets or the permission to defend them, deter Rebel searching indefinitely, and generally complicate a board position.

If I were to play The Great White Hope in upcoming weeks, I would consider one of the following two options:

1. Cho-Manno, Revolutionary. If you assume that the primary purpose of Defiant Vanguard is Blastoderm defense, then Cho-Manno serves that role fairly well. Significantly worse against tramplers like Shivan Wurm and kicked Kavu Titan, Cho-Manno also raises the team curve and reduces the long game searcher count aginst control by one Defiant Vanguard. So why would we play him in lieu of a staple card since PT-Chicago 2000? He is close to a hard lock against Dave Price Red and Fires. With Cho-Manno in play, there is almost no chance of losing any game where The Great White Hope draws Worship. If you consider the fact that Don Lim missed the finals off of back-to-back ripped Disorders (both of them I tell you!), then the Revolutionary may be a worthwhile addition. Freeing up a sideboard slot, at least, is something worth considering.

2. Standard Bearer. Played in the main deck at the Amateur Championships, this dream child of Jon Becker didn't make the cut for the Grudge Match finals version of the deck. This does not mean that it is not a good card: Standard Bearer single-handedly wipes out the Opposition lock, and makes it very difficult for any aggressive deck to bust out of The Great White Hope's own Worship strategy. This card is especially good in areas where the metagame is known to be Opposition or beatdown, with less u-w or Probe/Nether Spirit-based control.

Good luck drawing that twelfth land against control!