Frank Lepore
7/11/2012 10:40:00 AM
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My friend Nick Esposito has been begging me to write about his Junk Superfriends list for some time now. A few months back - and nearly every week since - he played it at FNM and simply smashed everyone and everything in his path. I was immediately interested, and while going undefeated at an FNM does not equate to winning a Pro Tour or a Grand Prix, it does show that something was going right. Nick sent me over the list, and I...well, I didn't have much luck with it. I thought the lands were too few, the spells too expensive, and the ramp too sparse; I mean, that's why we play green instead of blue in Superfriends, right? To be able to play our Planeswalkers faster? I found myself losing quite a few games on Magic Online and I came to the conclusion that the deck simply wasn't ready for the online metagame. I had shelved the deck.


You might have noticed, however, that the deck we're talking about today is indeed Junk Superfriends. So what happened?

Months later and here we are today. Nick has still been bugging me about showcasing the deck because he thinks there's really something there. I played the deck a few more times on Magic Online and went 2-1. This isn't some insane record, I know, but It actually played...fairly well! It allowed me to see that the deck was capable of some pretty powerful things.

I was honestly surprised! Had the deck changed? Had I not given it a fair shake? Had the metagame shifted to a place where the deck could truly shine? Were those past games a fluke? Were these?

So, before we go any further, I should probably show you the deck I'm talking about...

Junk Superfriends by Nick Esposito Main Deck Sideboard 2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 2 Grave Titan 2 Wurmcoil Engine Creatures [6] 1 Elspeth Tirel 3 Garruk Relentless 2 Gideon Jura 1 Karn Liberated 3 Liliana of the Veil 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad Planeswalkers [12] 2 Day of Judgment 2 Go for the Throat 4 Lingering Souls 3 Oblivion Ring 2 Rampant Growth 1 Terminus 2 Tezzeret's Gambit 1 Tragic Slip Spells [17] 2 Evolving Wilds 2 Forest 4 Isolated Chapel 4 Plains 4 Sunpetal Grove 4 Swamp 1 Vault of the Archangel 4 Woodland Cemetery Lands [25] Deck Total [60] 1 Beast Within 3 Celestial Purge 2 Curse of Death's Hold 3 Doom Blade 3 Naturalize 3 Nihil Spellbomb Sideboard [15] View a Sample Hand! Solitaire this Deck! Click for full deck stats & notes!

Tantalizing, isn't it? There were a few problems that I immediately noticed however. First off, Nick's list only had 24 lands. I remember adding a 25th land, but neither of us could remember what was taken out for the life of us. (Edit: Nick got back to me after he realized that the 25th lands was added over the third Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.) The other change, which was subtle, was as follows:

-1 Tezzeret's Gambit
+1 Rampant Growth

Rampant Growth is one of the most relevant cards in the deck in my opinion. It ensures that you have the right mana, as well as enough of it, and in a deck with only 25 mana sources, that is vital! Running two seems pretty random though, and a Gambit seemed like one of the best choices to remove; the format is very aggressive right now, as I've mentioned before, and often times you don't really have two life to spare for a Tezzeret's Gambit against decks like Delver or Zombies, or what not. I might even be tempted to cut the second for the fourth Rampant Growth since I think it's that important, but I'm not sure yet. One Tezzeret's Gambit might be where we want to be.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's check out some games to see how the deck actually plays...

Junk Superfriends vs. UB Zombies



Junk Superfriends vs. UB Delver (Don't ask me...)



Junk Superfriends vs. Tezzeret Control



Vault of the Archangel was the extra land that I added to the deck, and as you can see it definitely pulls its weight. I think I say that every time I talk about that card, but it's just so good, especially in a deck that has access to a ton of token creators. While this deck would very easily be called Junk Tokens (a deck which I covered a while back), typically when I'm naming decks I try to focus on the most prominent theme. Often when a deck - most notably Esper decks - has six or more Planeswalkers, I feel it should be given the “Superfriends” moniker; Nick's version has twelve Planeswalkers, and six of them make tokens.

Even the creatures make tokens, the few of them that there are; well, except for Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, anyway. But both of your six drops, Grave Titan and Wurmcoil Engine will also find themselves making tokens at some point in their life span! Even though this brings the token making cards up to eight, the number of Planeswalkers still trumps that.

Now you might have realized that the deck is basically separated into four categories: removal spells, creatures, Planeswalkers, and lands. (For the sake of simplicity we'll lump Rampant Growth into the lands.) We've gone over everything but the removal, which is actually seems somewhat random, but it's actually quite an effective package with a lot of versatile tools. Go for the Throat is just better than Doom Blade right now. The one Tragic Slip seems random, but there are plenty of ways to enable morbid between tokens dying and the, uh, other removal spells, so the ability to kill something annoying for one mana is pretty useful. You can also use Liliana of the Veil to make them sacrifice, and then Slip their better creature. Nick originally ran three Day of Judgment, but then he ended up swapping one for a Terminus. This seems like a fine change when you consider the amount of Zombie decks that are running around; after all, simply destroying Gravecrawlers and Geralf's Messengers is not the most effective plan. Oblivion Rings are there to take care of anything else that you might simply need to remove. Finally, to a lesser extent, Karn Liberated, Gideon Jura, Liliana of the Veil, and Garruk Relentless can all act as removal, and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite can also play the role of a sweeper. All things considered, the deck has twenty cards that remove something in one way or another.

High Mid Low

Thragtusk

$19.99

$11.00

$8.04

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The sideboard is kind of just a who's who of good, useful cards. Nick said it could easily be changed, but it has a lot of some of the most useful cards. We have ways to get rid of Enchantments, Artifacts, Black permanents, more removal, graveyards, tokens, etc. If anything, I would consider a little more lifegain. Be it swapping in some Divine Offering, some Timely Reinforcements, or maybe even some Vampire Nighthawks. Maybe that guy can find a home in the maindeck even. Who knows!

All in all, the deck ran much better than I expected and I assume it has to come down to the insane power level of most of the cards. With twelve Planeswalkers, it's hard to deal with them all, especially when they're supplemented with four Lingering Souls, two Titans, and two Wurmcoil Engines. You can't counter and deal with everything, and that's pretty much the fact that the deck tries to exploit. I also think it has to do with the fact that this is more of an aggressive format, and this deck really shines there, where as when I tried it out before, I think it was at the peak of UB Control; it's very hard to resolve multiple Planeswalkers through multiple Mana Leaks and Snapcaster Mages. It's a fun build since you can very easily get four Planewalkers out at the same time, and I think it has enough oomph to really be competitive. Some cards to consider adding from M13 might be:

- Vampire Nighthawk (Early Defense)
- Thragtusk (...need I explain why this guy is good?)
- Elvish Visionary (Not sure his role, but being able to block for a turn and dig deeper seems helpful)
- Duress (This can help push through Planeswalkers)

Well, that's all I have for this week, guys! Thanks for reading and I'll see you later this week before we head off to the TCG Open in Orlando with my Top 10 sleeper picks for M13!

Frank Lepore
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