Lands:
4 Cascade Bluffs
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Ghitu Encampment
4 Graven Cairns
1 Mountain
1 Mutavault
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Spinerock Knoll
4 Treetop Village
4 Vivid Crag
4 Vivid Marsh
Creatures:
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Swans of Bryn Argoll
Other Spells:
2 Ad Nauseam
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Seismic Assault
Sideboard:
1 Ad Nauseam
2 Ajani Vengeant
2 Aura of Silence
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Vexing Shusher
2 Volcanic Fallout |
 Cascade
Swans Standard 2009.
Description of deck by its author
(quoted):
Quoting Brian David Marshall: Immediately
after Regionals Aaron Forsythe posted a note that asked if anyone saw
anything exciting, and Brian Kowal responded with a tantalizing mention
of a 42-land deck that qualified for Nats at his local event. Various
players' Facebook statuses and Twitter feeds were suddenly preoccupied
with the cascade mechanic for the next few days. Once Parth Modi's
Nationals qualifying, 42-land, Cascade Swans deck list—dubbed The Ugly
Duckling—was posted, there was a clear, hot deck list in the wake of
Regionals weekend.
This is the first deck I have seen since Alara Reborn
has been added to the Standard mix that seems to be uniquely forged by
the addition of those cards. I caught up with the deck's pilot to find
out more about its origins. Parth Modi is a 23-year-old medical student
from Chicago, Illinois who will be making the leap from FNM player to
Nationals competitor. Remarkably, he has only been playing Magic for
about one year despite knowing of the game since elementary school.
Last year while looking for some respite from studying
for a major exam, Parth's friend suggested they pick up some starter
decks of Magic.
I started drafting at a nearby store soon after that,
said Parth of his path to becoming a Nationals competitor. "After a few
months of playing Limited, I tried my hand at Constructed; a few FNMs,
then States in 2008—my first Standard non-FNM tournament—where I
finished 5-3. Since then I've played in almost every FNM at my store,
every draft there, and a bunch of Standard and Limited on Magic Online."
Parth was excited about the buzz surrounding the deck
and wanted to make sure that the credit for the deck's design went where
credit was due.
I got the deck list from a friend/playgroup member two
nights before Regionals, he explained. "He got it from a friend of his,
Chris Davis, who's the designer of the original deck. My own changes
were only minor tweaks to the sideboard. The main deck itself is very
efficient and powers out the combo very quickly and consistently."
Rashad Miller has played the deck to two PE Top 8s on
Magic Online and it seems certain that for the upcoming Grand Prix in
Barcelona and Tacoma this deck will now be one of the major players.
I think it's great that the deck is gaining
popularity. It's a fun deck to play and obviously very powerful, said
Parth of the deck's notoriety from his performance. "Everyone knows this
Standard format has much left to be explored and I think this is just a
start. My team—20,000 Leagues Under the Pro Tour—is also very excited
about the deck being in the spotlight. It's thanks to the deck's
designer and the help of my team that I was able to do well with this
deck."
The way his deck is constructed—with so many lands and
a very specific configuration of casting costs and cascade spells—means
that whenever Parth played a Bloodbraid Elf, he was guaranteed to hit a
Seismic Assault, and Bituminous Blast could only parlay into Swans,
Bloodbraid Elf, or Seismic Assault. With the Swans and Assault on the
board it is almost impossible for the deck to run out of gas with more
than two-thirds of the cards in deck being lands—which also makes Ad
Nauseam about as painless as it will ever get in a deck. On the other
hand, the high concentration of lands seems to be at odds with the
Spinerock Knolls in the deck—a card many people have had questions about
upon seeing the deck list.
I didn't like Spinerock Knoll much during the course
of Regionals for that very reason—and because if you hit a combo piece
you need and can't activate the Knoll, it's very annoying, said Parth
although his experience was not universal among all the deck's pilots.
"One friend of mine played the same main deck at Regionals, and he was a
big fan of the Spinerock Knoll. I'm still not sold on it but more
testing is underway." |
