From: Thomas [avatar81@libero.it]
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 6:07 PM

Subject: "The Rock":why is it not as popular as it should be in extended
? Thomas

After playing a lot of extended, I decided to attend a few tournaments with
a Rock deck,finding it suitable for my gameplay style and hoping it would
have play against most other decks. And that was true,but...

The Rock is a quite famous deck, based on big Black\Green bombs such as
Spiritmonger and Pernicious Deed,along with a whole load of powerful and
versatile cards,useful during most matches (Spike Feeder,Duress,Phyrexian
Plaguelord and the long-game plan Yavimaya Elder-Dust Bowl).
Most "The Rock" decks also run a couple of Spike Weavers,2 main deck
Phyrexian Furnace,Living Death,Recurring Nightmare and a couple of Vampiric
Tutors.
The deck I decided to play was a slightly modified version,since I found
some main-deck cards to be dead-cards.The speed of The Rock, supported by
Birds of Paradise and Walls of Roots, together with early-blockers such as
Spike Feeders and Elders, ensures that fast beatdown decks will never be
able to deal tons of damage in the first turns,then the table will find a
reset button in Pernicious Deed and the game will be essentially over.
Therefore there's no need to play Spike Weavers. A 3\3 for 4 mana with a
cheap and powerful ability is good,but it's just not necessary in this deck.
What this deck lacks is the ability to get a rid of untargettable
(Morphling),protected from black (Mystic Enforcer) or huge regenerating
fatties (Spiritmongers). This is the reason for which I decided to play 3
maindeck Diabolic Edicts.
Another difference between my deck and Malka's is that I prefered Sylvan
Library over Vampiric Tutor. I expected to find a lot of Sligh decks,and
there was no need at all to help them in the job of dealing me 20 points of
damage. Playing a maindeck Volrath's Stronghold helps against control  and
Sligh decks as well. Sylvan Library also performs much better against slow
control decks,since it allows you to get a lot of useful cards,while 2
Vampiric Tutors can't do the job done. I was also scared by idea of facing
many Miracle-Grow decks,so i maindecked 2 Powder Kegs.
Now I'm going to describe the 5 Matches...

Round 1
My opponent was an unexperienced player playing a randomly-assembled
Green\White deck,with River Boas,Blastoderms,Kavu Chameleons (maindeck!),a
lot of mana-producers (8 elves plus 4 Werebears) and Swords to Plowshares.
The first 8 turns of the game looked greatly for me:after a Pernicious Deed
reset he has no more card in his hand and I have 3 Mongers ready to be cast.
I have more then 20 lifepoints as a couple of Feeders exchanged for his
early threats. During the next 3 turns I play one of my Mongers and my
opponents top-decks Swords to Plowshares for 3 turns in a row (no words to
describe my sadness...). At that point I was the player with no more cards
in hand and within 3 turns he played Kavu Chameleon, Blastoderm and then
Rancored the Kavu. Geeez....game over pretty son,as no Deed showed up.
For game 2 I sided in a Phyrexian Plaguelord at the cost of a Powder Keg. My
mana accelerators let me play one of my Plaguelords on turn 5 and it was
essentialy game over a few turns later.
In game 3 I kept a hand thet included Duress,2 Diabolic Edicts ,a Sylvan
Library and a bunch of lands. I cast Duress and saw River Boa, Voice of All
,Swords and Armadillo Cloak. I got a rid of his Swords and when he tried to
Cloak his Boa I forced him to sacrify it. My Dust Bowl didn't let him get to
the double white mana needed for the Voice of all and the good old
Plaguelord took a rid of his life points.
Total: 2-1     1-0

Round 2
Stasiiiiis.....moan moan.
The first game is extremely long. I tapped out to cast a Deed on turn 2,he
Countered and on the next turn he played his 3rd land and cast Stasis.
We've had a draw-go game for about 20 turns,then I decided to scoop. I
wanted to win the next 2 games,but I needed time in order to do it.
I sided out Living Death,Recurring Nightmare and the Feeders to play 3
Tsunami (far better then Choke) 2 Uktabi Orangutan (instead of Rescue,he
just plays 4 Claws of Gix) and the third Powder keg.
My start was:Land-Bird,Land-Wall of Roots\Powder Keg on turn 2,
Duress\Sylvan Library. He cast stasis with only 1 mana left and at the end
of his turn I sacrified my Keg to get a rid of his Claws. On the next turn
he didn't play land and the very next turn I was able to untap, Duress his
hand and cast a lot of threats that ended the game pretty soon.
The third game was much harder to win. He cast Morphling on turn 5 and Force
of Willed my Edict. His Morfo was keeping my army, and an turn 9 I played
Pernicious Deed. He cast Thwart returning his only 3 untapped lands to his
hand. He didn't take any mana from his lands in response and my Plaguelord
got a rid of his Morphling. A few turns later I played another Pernicious
and when I asked him if he was going to counter it he replied :"No,I can't
do anything about it". I knew it was not a mere bluff....he really did not
have any counters! I cast Tsunami and his 10 lands were sent to the
graveyard. When he was at 4 life points under the continuos attacks of my
Plaguelord he had two untapped lands. He was willing play boomerang,and he
did. But I had another Tsunami to get a rid of those 2 lands,and after a few
seconds he decided to scoop.
Total: 4-2    2-0

Round 3
Oath!
I kept a hand of 2 Birds,2 Wall of Roots and a Sylvan Library expecting a
Miracle-Grow...on turn two he cast Oath and I immediately scooped not to
waste any time. I sided out all the mana accelerators and sided in
Tsunamis,Emerald Charms and Phyrexian Furnaces.
The game had been extremely well balanced since the point when I decided to
cast my Mongers. He had 3 Swords in hand (damn it...everyone I face has 3
Swords !!!) and with my main army beeing transformed in a bunch of farmers
my chances of winning were flying away. I tryed to deal some damage with a
Plaguelord...and he was Sworded as well...That was the 4th Swords,along with
3 Counterspells,3 Force of Wills and 4 (!!!) Oaths. I Managed to cast a
Tsunami,and this slowed him down,but my dack was running out of threats,and
he was able to waste me with a 6\6 Treetop Village (upgraded by the Spike's
tokens).

Total:4-4    2-1

Round 4
Sligh...
On game 1 he deals me 28 damages within 8 turns. My 2 feeders had not been
enough against him.
I didn't sideboard anything,as my maindeck is already heavy equipped against
Sligh, I just hoped that I would have had a better draw, since I didn't see
anything apart from the Feeders.
My mana accelerators are sent to the graveyard pretty soon and I'm at 10
life. I couldn't believe I would have lost 2-0 against Sligh!!! My Elder
blocked a Jackal Pup and net me 2 lands and a Feeder in the process. After
shuffling my deck and knocking on it, my Sylvan library let me see Spike
Feeder,Volrath's Stronghold and Spiritmonger. When I cast double Feeder and
Stronghold in the same turn he scooped.
On game three he kept a poor hand and he had to empty it to get a rid of my
turn3 Monger, He had no card's in hand and I cast another Monger,and he
scooped.

Total:6-5   3-1

Round 5
Mirror match against a traditional "The Rock" !
That was just what I wanted:check what version of The Rock was better!
Game 1 was extremely fast,as I was able to send Diabolict Edicts on his
Mongers,while he couldn't do anything on mines. He did cast Living Death,but
my own Living Death,followed by multiple Edicts,made the difference.
Game 2 was a much longer match up. I couldn't find my Edicts and our Mongers
stared at each other. He tapped out to cast multiple threats and I managed
to wipe off the table with my Deed. The time run out and I was at 18 life
with 2 Mongers in play. I would have not been able to kill him during the
additional turns,but he decided to scoop as I would have been able to win if
the game lasted longer.

Total:8-5   4-1



The Tournament was won by the other The Rock simply because his final score
was 8-1-4 (I lost the first place due to his draw...that just gave me
something to complain about :)   )

Afterall I found my version of The Rock more suitable for the actual
Extended decks. It has game against every deck,and even though I lost to
Oath during that tournament,I've had a lot of playtesting during the next
week and the deck performed much better, scoring 5-2.
But this is also the main problem of The Rock (as well as the reason that
makes most Pro's play some other decks rather then this one.).
It has game against everything,but everything has game against The Rock as
well.
If we don't consider Three Deuce and Sligh decks a big problem (The Rock
should always perform well against those fast decks), any other deck can
beat The Rock,or get wasted from it. Miracle Grow has virtually no chances
to win: Kegs, Deeds, Mongers, early blockers and Dust Bowls are a win on
their own,but if it has some Swords and a large amount of permissions,The
Rock won't be able to cast his main threats. Oath and Turboland will usually
win game1 and will have a hard time winning the next games.
The sideboard is definitely scary,but the problem for The Rock is game 1.
Losing it to an Oath or to an infinite Time Warp lock means that you have to
win 2 consecutive games,and it's not exactly easy against good players
playing good decks.



I do think that the best deck in extended is The Rock due to its versatility
and ability to win against any other deck, but I must also admit that it
doesn't actually dominate,since it can lose against any other deck as well.
The old, various versions of Recurring Survival (or Tradewind-Survival,or
any other deck based around that stupidly overpowered enchantment) were
dominating as they could win tons of rounds without even losing a single
game. The first version of Illusion\Donate (the one playing Necro) was
another dominating deck.
The Rock just can't dominate. It wins,but doesn't rule, and that's not
enough to place it in the "Deck's Heaven".
But this deck's luck is that it's an old archetype following a continuos
evolution. It's not one of those decks whose life only lasts an extended
season, but he keeps showing up with new threats...almost a Role Playing
Deck :)

I will keep playing this deck, and I think I'm right. Only the next
tournaments will tell who's right, but even if I'll score a 0-5 I won't give
up with this deck, which is one of the few powerful decks which are also
funny to play. I love counter-decks in type2 ,but with all the cards that
can be played in extended, I will always prefer a mid-game utility
deck,rather then a counter-deck.

Have a nice game!

Thomas

avatar81@libero.it