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The New Extended:
Does Turbo Chant Have A Place?
by Captain Simian

Ah, the new extended. Its refreshing, with no Pandeburst, Full English Breakfast or turn-3 Trix (though slower, U/W control versions are said to exist; I've just haven't seen any). And without Consultation, the odds a combo deck fast enough to win turn 3 seems slim. Well, as you see by the title, I'm going to explore the possibility of Turbo Chant, the extremely mildly popular Type 2 deck, could possibly succeed in the current Extended field. Turbo Chant won't be viable after 7th rotates in to standard, as it looses Relearn and Recall, among other things, which are vital to keeping the loop going. So, play T2 chant while you can- Regionals will be the last place it can prove if it works or not. Well, enough of this Type 2 stuff, on to the real question at hand; Could Turbo Chant make a successful crossover to Extended? Well, first you have to know what's in extended. First off, Stasis and Draw-Go are back. The banning successfully ended several of their worst matches. Of course, there will always be Sligh (or at least as long as Tempest is still legal). White Weenie and Stompy are going to resurge, it seems, as they had no way to deal with those combos, but now don't have to worry about them. Suicide Black, even without Dark Ritual, will probably see play with Lake of the Dead, turn 3 Hatred kill is still possible. Oath of Druids will also see play, as Extended looks to be heading to a more creature-oriented format. As I said before, Trix, though radically different, will likely see play in a U/W form, as well as other U/W control decks. Fires has already begun morphing into an Extended deck. So, what exactly might this deck play? Here's a preliminary deck list I came up with.

4 Orim's Chant
4 Abeyance 
4 Force of Will 
4 Howling Mine 
4 Relearn 
4 Recall 
3 Island Sanctuary 
2 Stroke of Genius 
2 Merchant Scroll 
2 Enlightened Tutor 
1 Forbid 
1 Morphling 
1 Blinding Angel

4 Tundra 
4 Coastal Tower 
4 Adarkar Waste 
5 Plains 
7 Islands

Side Board: 
4 Warmth 
4 Seal of Cleansing 
2 Wrath of God 
2 Light of Day 
1 Enlightened Tutor 
1 Island Sanctuary 
1 Peacekeeper

What does chant gain in Extended? Quite a bit. Heres a breakdown.

1) Morphling. What can I say? Its THE best creature in the game. The creature that's be hailed broken more than any other. Its considered a win condition, all on its own. There are a few creatures on its level- Hypnotic Spectre, Masticore, and perhaps Kird Ape- but not many. Its just good.

2) Force of Will. Heres practice for your SAT (if you haven already taken it); Morphling:Creatures::Force of Will:______? The answer- Counters. Its the best at what it does, even better than the originally. Its the only Counter that has ever been called broken. While true Turbo chant is split color, there are enough blue cards to make its inclusion worthwhile.

3) Island Sanctuary. Hmm. Intrusting, no? This card actually has amazing synergy with the deck. First, it shuts many a deck down completely. To my knowledge, stompy has no way to stop it, maybe outside Lyrists. White Weenie must rely on Disenchant. Sligh is forced into a situation where they must burn you to death or Scroll you to death (and drawing 5 cards a turn, that can be pretty hard). And Suicide Black well, against the Sanctuary, it just cant win if you cast it turn 2. As well, it works well with Howling mine, allowing you to draw cards, but still deck your opponent. Sanctuary and 2 or 3 Mines is wicked.

4) Abeyance. The card that Chant was measured against. They operate fairly similarly, and this guy cantrips. It increases the chances of getting ONE of them, and Abeyance works even better with Sanctuary.

5) Merchant Scroll. Look, its from Homelands! That being said, its really good, allowing you to tutor Mystically into a Chant or Recall on demand.

6) Forbid. The reusable counter. With a couple of mines going and the Chant engine going, this can remove all hopes of your opponents win. Since you'll be drawing more than 1 card a turn, the drawback is fairly negated, and you don't have to pay buyback, if you don't want to (or if you've got a Relearn).

7) Tundra. Not a lot to say here. Adds mana constancy. The deck becomes slightly more vounarable to Wasteland, but thetas a negatable drawback, as being caught with all blue mana or white mana really hurts- it needs both.

8) Stroke of Genius. This card can be used many ways. It can accelerate your opponent in to doom, or draw some cards to fuel a Force of Will, Forbid or Recall. Opportunity may prove better, but only time will tell in that respect.

Side Board Advantages

1) Warmth. Just nasty against Sligh, even more so than Chill. One of these hurts them- 2 and they can't win. Also, it becomes outright disgusting when you back it up with a Sanctuary. They become forced to Scroll you to death. However, to realistically be able to do that, they have to have a small hand size. Which means casting spells. Which means you gaining life. Which means it takes longer to Scroll you to death. Not to mention they'll be drawing 2-5 cards a turn. Its really hopeless for them. Side in with an Enlightened Tutor and an Island Sanctuary. Sorry Spike.

2) Seal of Cleansing. A great anti-Stasis, U/W Trix and Oath card. Of course, they probably will wont be activating the Oath a hole lot. Stasis could be a difficult match, so dropping this early with protection is important.

3) Island Sanctuary. Well, its for all the creature decks. It just drives the stake a little further into Stompy, Secret Force and White Weenie's heart.

4) Peacekeeper. This guy (or Gal) hurts creature decks worse than the sanctuary. As a 1/1, it isn't effective against Sligh, but it stops Green dead in its tracks, as it does to White Weenie, as long as Swords to Plowshares doesn't resolve.

Well, there you go. Extended Turbo Chant seems to have quite a bit to gain. I haven't gotten a chance to test or play it yet, but it would seem that it would do well against creature decks in general, and after sideboarding, it has a decent chance against control as well. If you like the deck and get a chance to play it, please to send it, along with suggestions or other assorted mail to Captainsimian99@yahoo.com with the results against the deck you played against. I'm heading out tonight and ill see if I can get some testing done, and ill right up a follow-up after Regionals or so. Later, everyone.

 


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