Extended Tech: Finkula Alex Shvartsman Friday, January 4, 2002 I love Extended. Apocalypse and Odyssey have drastically altered Extended... This is not a statement I make lightly. In fact, I have not really liked any Constructed format since before Tolarian Academy and its evil Urza's Saga ilk were released. Ever since then, I have always been far more of a Limited player, managing to avoid playing Constructed except casually, or at high-level events like Grand Prix and Pro Tours. My expectations for Pro Tour-New Orleans were fairly low. Not that I did not believe I could do well - I just did not expect to have very much fun doing it. Boy, was I ever wrong. Turns out that Apocalypse and Odyssey have drastically altered Extended, perhaps more so than it has been changed by any other pair of recently printed sets. New archetypes were plentiful. Crazy-looking decks such as YMG's Reanimator, CMU's Zombies, or Alan Comer's Aluren deck actually worked. I haven't had this much fun playing Constructed in ages - and I have continued to enjoy the format over the course of several tournaments since then. The deck I chose to play in New Orleans was a "Finkula" variant designed by Craig Wescoe. This archetype is named after Jon Finkel and Chris Pikula - the winners of the Magic Invitationals in 1999 and 2000 - whose cards, Shadowmage Infiltrator and Meddling Mage, are prominently featured in the deck. Craig Wescoe came up with the version I ended up playing, with modifications added to it the day before the Pro Tour by Sigurd Eskeland, James "Bo" Bradley and I. Sigurd opted to play Sligh in the end, but the rest of us played the deck. Other teams arrived at a similar conclusion. Kamiel Cornelissen played the following version: Kamiel Cornelissen Pro Tour-New Orleans, 57th place Main Deck Sideboard 2 Bad River 2 Flood Plain 1 Island 2 Plains 4 Scrubland 1 Swamp 4 Tundra 4 Underground Sea 2 Masticore 4 Meddling Mage 4 Shadowmage Infiltrator 4 Spectral Lynx 4 Brainstorm 1 Divert 4 Duress 3 Gerrard's Verdict 2 Seal of Cleansing 4 Swords to Plowshares 4 Tithe 4 Vindicate 2 CoP: Red 3 Cursed Scroll 3 Hydroblast 3 Massacre 3 Perish 1 Seal of Cleansing This is very similar to the deck we arrived at. The major difference is that Wescoe added red for Pyroblasts in the sideboard. The reasoning behind this move is that anti-dual land cards, such as Price of Progress and Ruination, are already devastating against us, so why not take full advantage of the non-basic lands? The only difference between my Grand Prix version of the deck posted below is that in New Orleans I played one more Masticore and one less Cursed Scroll. Alex Shvartsman Grand Prix-Curitiba, 2nd place Main Deck Sideboard 4 Scrubland 4 Caves of Koilos 4 Tundra 4 Underground Sea 4 Plateau 1 Plains 2 Masticore 4 Spectral Lynx 4 Meddling Mage 4 Shadowmage Infiltrator 2 Seal of Cleansing 3 Cursed Scroll 4 Tithe 4 Swords to Plowshares 4 Vindicate 4 Gerrard's Verdict 4 Duress 4 Perish 4 Pyroblast 3 Samite Ministration 3 Bottle Gnomes 1 Seal of Cleansing So let's go through the deck card by card, explaining the tricks involved in playing this archetype and cards chosen: Main Deck Masticore - An excellent way to win the game against aggressive decks such as Sligh, Stompy, or 3-Deuce. Finkula features plenty of removal, but the creatures are very susceptible to burn, providing a Sligh player with too much time to top-deck burn and Ball Lightnings or worse yet, Price of Progress. Masticore allows you to win the match much more quickly, as well as driving the nail into the coffin of any other creature matchup provided you survived long enough to cast it with about six lands in play, which should usually work out easily. You certainly do not want to draw Masticores against control decks. However, if you managed to reduce their life total earlier in the game, it is a reasonable threat and they will be forced to counter it, or remove it pretty quickly, before you are forced to throw away too many cards. I strongly recommend against casting it against them early, when they have plenty of life points to work with. A perfect strategy for them at this point would be to go down to about 4 life (since you have no burn) forcing you to lose 3-5 cards, then use Swords to Plowshares or Diabolic Edict to take out your lion. This is definitely a card you want to sideboard out against control or combo decks (such as Trix). Spectral Lynx - In order to apply enough pressure against control and combo players, Finkula needs more two-drops than just the Meddling Mage. Spectral Lynx is a perfect choice. Against creatureless decks, it works just as well as any other two power creature for two mana. Against Morphling - the card this deck fears the most - a pair of Lynxes can punch through as you regenerate the one that is blocked. Sligh will have a difficult time removing the Lynx as they need to conserve their Incinerates to deal with Shadowmage Infiltrator, and the Lynx is obviously great against Stompy and Secret Force. It is also good against control decks with Call of the Herd, such as the one Tomi Walamies navigated to the second place in New Orleans. Although generally the matchup against Walamies's deck is not very good, it is certainly possible to win, and Lynx contributes its little part. Even against Reanimator decks, Lynx denies them the option of winning with a quick Multani or Verdant Force, reducing that deck's chances of a "broken draw". Meddling Mage - One of the key cards to the disruption strategy of the deck, Meddling Mage works exceptionally well with Duress. Optimally, you might be able to disrupt their hand on turn one, then cast the Mage on turn two, naming the best card in your opponent's hand. Of course, you will have to cast Meddling Mage without the benefit of Duress often enough. In that case, it is important to name the best possible card in order to squeeze the most value out of Meddling Mage. Against a Donate player, playtesting suggests that the best card to name early is Accumulated Knowledge. Although not a part of the combo itself, lack of search cards in the modern Trix decks makes it very difficult for them to "go off" without the benefit of the Intuition for AK, AK for 3 play - especially with all the other disruption you are casting against them. After sideboarding, you might often want to name Ruination, as the card is devastating in the matchup. Against control decks such as Draw-Go or Walamies, you might name Force of Will, Counterspell, Wrath of God, or even Swords to Plowshares despite playing them yourself, depending on the board position and your hand. Against Sligh, Ball Lightning is the best call on turn 2, and Price of Progress in the mid game. Zombie Infestation is an excellent call against Reanimator if their graveyard is still empty, Reanimate or Exhume your next option if they already found a way to discard some large creatures. Even if you happen to name the wrong card, do not despair - you are still getting a 2/2 creature for your mana. Shadowmage Infiltrator - If you have been playing Extended for a while, you will recall the days when Ophidian was feared nearly as much as the Morphling. Any engine that lets a player draw an extra card per turn with no mana investment is tremendously powerful, and will often win the game alone if an opponent does not find a way to deal with it very quickly. Infiltrator is far better, as most decks in the format do not have a way to block it. In most games where Finkel resolves and is not immediately removed, victory is near. Seal of Cleansing - A powerful weapon against Donate decks, it allows you to stack the life gain effect of Illusions of Grandeur and destroy it in response, causing its controller to lose 20 life, and the game, before gaining the 20 life Illusions was intended to provide. This card is the main (but not the only) reason for an Illusions player to run Capsize or Rushing River main deck. More and more Donate players are also main decking Morphling, so do not assume you won the game if you get Seal of Cleansing to resolve. Your chances do improve however, as your opponent can no longer "go off" before drawing a way to deal with this enchantment. Seal of Cleansing is useful in other matchups as well, to remove Cursed Scrolls, Pernicious Deeds, and Zombie Infestations. It is far inferior to Vindicate in all matchups other than Donate, but it complements it well nevertheless. Cursed Scroll - This is perhaps the least obvious card in the deck. Cursed Scroll together with Shadowmage Infiltrator? Heresy! You will never get a consistently active Scroll going that way! Those arguments have been made, and they have been wrong. I've had games where two Finkels were attacking and yet I was able to Scroll my opponent or his creatures every turn. Fact is, this is not a control deck, and there are no counterspells. Furthermore, most of the spells in the deck cost 1 or 2 mana. You will easily be able to cast the extra cards you might be drawing off a Shadowmage and still take advantage of this powerful artifact. Strangely enough, you will often want to sideboard Scrolls out against aggro decks, but definitely keep them against any kind of control. Control decks are generally a bad matchup, and Cursed Scroll helps to diversify your threats against them and make it more difficult for them to sideboard against you - they must keep in the Disenchants. So why board them out against creature decks, such as Sligh? Against creature decks, your most important goal is to survive the early onslaught - something a card that does not come online till turn 5 or 6 will not help you do as well as the sideboard cards you are replacing it with. The deck already has long-term solutions such as Shadowmage Infiltrator and Masticore, so you are far better off with, say, Bottle Gnomes than Scroll against the decks that seek to win the game within the first eight or so turns. Tithe - An excellent mana fixer that will also occasionally provide card economy, Tithe has been seen in everything from aggro, to control, to combo decks. Tithe allows you to fetch one or two plains - but it does not say basic plains, which means you are welcome to get Scrubland, Tundra or Plateau. Without it, splashing red for Pyroblast would simply be impractical. As is, Tithe allows Finkula to run a fairly low mana count yet avoid serious mana troubles most of the time. You should always choose to play first with Finkula but, should your opponent win the die roll, you can take advantage of it, casting Tithe at the end of his second turn to fetch a pair of lands. Even if your draw includes one land only - an opponent does not know that and will be extremely reluctant to ever counter Tithe on turns 1-2. Thus, you can afford to keep otherwise questionable draws on the strength of having access to one white mana and a Tithe. Swords to Plowshares - Rather self-explanatory. The great thing about this card is that you do not loathe to draw one against Trix - you might force them to go off twice or to try and find their Fire/Ice or Morphling by Plowing your own creature when they Donate Illusions to you. Not a great answer to their plan, but it does make the Trix player's life a bit more difficult. You will even want to keep some of these in against Walamies.dec even as you board out Vindicates. Vindicate - Being able to blow up any kind of permanent at any time provides you with additional versatility. You've got yourself Stone Rain if an opponent is manascrewed, an additional Swords if they just reanimated a large monster (and they don't even get to gain life!), and a way to kill Sapphire Medallion, or threaten Illusions of Grandeur if they are unable to Donate it on the same turn. Board these out against Donate, but they get to stay in almost all other matchups. Gerrard's Verdict - In a deck that has no problem getting Black ManaWhite Mana on turn 2, this card is as near to a Hymn to Tourach as it is possible to get these days. Excellent disruption value is made even better by the fact that no one can really spare the sideboard slots for Dodecapod, or otherwise punish you for playing discard. Verdict is doubly painful against Donate - if they discard a land, they can no longer win by simply donating the enchantment since you have just gained 3 life points! It is also amazing against aggressive decks. There is no matchup where you want to sideboard these out - but you definitely do not want to draw them against a Reanimator deck. Duress - Often called the best spell in the format, Duress is an amazing tool that, once again, works against virtually any archetype. The only time you might consider sideboarding it out is against a Secret Force deck. A common mistake rookie players make is to cast Duress as soon as they draw it in midgame. You are far better off holding on to Duress until you have a spell you would like to get through. Waiting as long as possible means that your opponent might have drawn Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, or some other answer to your card. Cast the Duress to clear the way, and then summon that Finkel safely! On The Sidelines A number of cards did not make the cut - simply because there is not enough room in the deck to play everything you could possibly want to. Here is a list of several strong contenders you might want to look at if you decide to alter the deck design. Flood Plains - This, or any other "fetch land" from Mirage, would help further improve your color base. There are two disadvantages to playing it though - first, the deck already has a low land count at 21 and you decrease your chances of drawing a land when you fetch one out of your library early. Second, playing with any "come into play tapped" lands decreases your chances of a turn 1, or even a turn 2 play sometimes. Finkula has a lot of early plays and cannot spare a turn easily. Should you choose to play fetchlands, Flood Plains is the best choice as it can retrieve any dual land in the deck. Another important trick to remember is that you can sacrifice Flood Plains and respond with Tithe. Sacrifice is part of the cost, and so you will suddenly have one less land in play as far as Tithe is concerned, possibly able to search for two plains instead of one because of that. Brainstorm - In some ways similar to Flood Plains in that it smoothes out your draws at a minor time cost. Should you choose to play Flood Plains, this card makes more sense in the deck because you can shuffle away undesirable cards by using a fetch land or casting Tithe. Problem is, you would have to cut the number of lands played even more to fit in Brainstorm, and cut some active spells to - something this deck has a hard time doing. Divert - A cheap but potent Misdirection variant can be either devastating or useless, depending on what and how your opponent is playing. A little too inconsistent for my taste, it is a card that might more likely find room in the sideboard. Phyrexian Furnace - This card seems tailor-made for the format. It's awesome against Reanimate. It's annoying to Trix. It removes Call of the Herd from the game. It does mean things to Squee and Krovikan Horror. And, of course, it cycles when you no longer have need of it, or when you simply need to draw an extra card. Beyond Finkula, I'd say that playing 2-3 of these main deck might work in most Extended strategies. Sideboard Perish - A solid answer to any deck that relies on green creatures - Stompy, The Rock, Secret Force, 3-Deuce - it is a versatile Wrath of God for three mana that is fearsome in many matchups. Occasionally you might even board Perish against Walamies (better than Swords to Plowshares?) or Reanimator (kills Multani, Verdant Force). Pyroblast - It might even surprise your opponent, since he saw no red spells in game one, but do not count on that. More importantly, it will help in those bad control matchups. Since you are playing an aggressive deck, try to use Pyroblast to force your own spells through, rather than to try and counter their own permanents. Super extra bonus points if you can Pyroblast a Morphling successfully. Samite Ministration - This card is mainly here to combat Public Enemy #1: Price of Progress. However, in lean times it's just fine to "counter" a Ball Lightning and gain six life in the process. With Sligh being such a minor part of a current metagame, Ministration has probably overstayed its welcome in the sideboard, but it is an excellent choice should you worry about facing the red mages. Bottle Gnomes - Another anti-Sligh card, this one is very good early on as it forces an opponent to burn through it in order to let their Jackal Pups and Fanatics pass - and nets you three life points in the process. Once again, this card was meant for a different metagame and can stand to be replaced. Finkula 2002 Based on my experience with the deck at GP-Curitiba and the recent metagame changes, I feel that it remains a reasonable choice for qualifiers and GP tournaments both. Finkula beats Donate, which is the best deck in the format, and beats most anti-donate decks, such as 3-Deuce. It has a very hard time with Walamies.dec and The Rock though, but the numbers of those decks played seem to be declining somewhat since GP-Las Vegas. I would most likely play the same exact main deck configuration, but definitely change the sideboard. The most important card I would like to add is Diabolic Edict. It is a viable way to deal with Morphling and it is good in most other matchups. My current sideboard looks like this: 3 Perish 4 Pyroblast 3 Samite Ministration 4 Diabolic Edict 1 Cursed Scroll Good luck at the remaining Extended PTQs and Happy New Year. Please send comments on this article and suggestions for future articles to me at ashv80@hotmail.com.