Today’s Type II is a very fast, creature-heavy format. With spells like Basking Rootwalla, Call of the Herd, and Wild Mongrel, and some esoteric fatties like Shivan Wurm and Spiritmonger, green/x has the potential to come exploding out of the gate and never let up. Because of that, it comes as no surprise that some of the most played cards (besides those creatures mentioned above, of course) appear in the form of cheap, good creature kill. Just as you won’t see a green deck without Call of the Herd, you won’t see a black deck without Chainer’s Edict or a red deck without Flametongue Kavu – these spells earn automatic inclusion in any deck of their color, and even near mono-color decks will splash for them.

Indeed, even one of the “creatureless” decks I’m going to share with you today has Flametongue Kavu in it.

It seems perfectly logical, then, to assume that the dominant deck types will be either explosive creature with or without burn, or near creatureless decks with the ability to stop opposing anti-creature spells (ala Psychatog). It’s basically the two extremes – either an unstoppable horde that can shrug off an Edict or Kavu, or a deck nigh-on creatureless that makes these spells dead in hand. This article will focus on two decks of the latter type, and what they do to combat the speed of the tier 1 decks of type II, whilst trying to be somewhat original in card selection – you know, since seeing a new version of R/G beats with one creature submitted for another is so groundbreaking.

Deck 1: Ray Gun

At first glance, this deck appears to be a straight-up blue-white Millstone deck, but there are a couple of important differences. The first vast difference from today’s millstone decks is the lack of life gain spells (aside from Absorb). I’ve never been a fan of life gain, myself, as it does nothing to pro-actively win you the game. While the argument could be made that there are only four cards in the deck that do – the millstones – life gain still isn’t good enough in my opinion to use. Ancestral Tribute is arguably the best life gain spell printed since Ivory Tower, but the 9 mana cost is prohibitive enough for me not to use it.

The second difference is Ray Gun’s surprise card and namesake – Legacy Weapon. (Pause while half of you stop reading.) Those few of you left that still take me seriously…you have to use this card to appreciate it. It’s one of those rare things that are bad in theory but great in practice.

The non-counter control consists of:

Teferi’s Moat – the mono-black decks running around rampant these days all but roll over and die to this card, and most green decks perform just as admirably against it. In most cases the only creatures in either of these decks that the moat doesn’t stop cold are the Flametongue Kavus (because they’re off-color). I’m never upset to see one of these in my hand, even in my opening draw, as it basically means if I can live to 5 land, I have an excellent chance of winning.

Wrath of God – I’m sure I don’t need to explain this card. Gets rid of those few flying creatures (a thresholded Mystic Enforcer being one of the only ones currently seeing widespread play in the format) that can get around your moat, or the stray off-color FTK.

Arcane Laboratory – Once this hits play, you can start laying down the Howling Mines and you’ve basically clinched the game. You should easily be able to draw a counter a turn. If you play this card properly, you should win, but buyer beware – more than one game has been lost to an improperly timed Lab. I would side this out vs. burn decks due to the number of instants they have.

Legacy Weapon – Knock out enchantments, fliers, artifacts, pesky Lavamancers, that 12^th land to stop a kicked Rage – it does it all. Weapon + Lab = You Win. All you skeptics out there, just try it, and if you still hate it, send nasty letters to dave@22xband.com.

Enough rambling: here is the decklist.

Ray Gun Dave Marshall
	Format: Type2
»Apprentice Format«
Main Deck	Sideboard
4 Howling Mine 4 Millstone 3 Arcane Laboratory 3 Teferi's Moat 4 Absorb 4 Counterspell 4 Force Spike 4 Memory Lapse 2 Disrupt 2 Legacy Weapon 3 Wrath of God 10 Island 4 Adarkar Wastes 4 Coastal Tower 3 Crystal Quarry 2 Skycloud Expanse	2 Aegis of Honor 3 Circle of Protection: Black 4 Gainsay 3 Hibernation 3 Sacred Ground
Total deck value: $232.15

As far as the sideboard goes, many of you may choose to run more anti-green than I have chosen, over cards such as Sacred Ground. I choose Sacred Ground because of the anti-Braids properties, and it’s the best card against Tings (is anyone still playing this?). Many would choose, perhaps COP: Green over the COP: Black, or even COP: Red. To that I say, Aegis is better than COP: Red, but I couldn’t fault you for running the green circle. Usually, for me, having some Hibernation is enough to buy me time to get a Moat or a Wrath. If, in your area, green is king and black is nowhere to be seen, you could also try some Glacial Walls.

Deck 2: Fireworks

This deck evolved very strangely – and I have to admit, it’s still a bit of a work in progress, though it is very successful already. When testing the Ray Gun deck above, I asked a friend to make a burn deck with something I wasn’t expecting, and not only was it decent against control, it also defeated R/G beats and U/G threshold semi-consistently. The strange thing is, a lot of his card choices were (in my opinion) total bunk, and with some improvement in card quality I felt it could be a very competitive deck. Here’s the list after some improvements on the initial design and a lot of testing:

Fireworks Dave Marshall
	Format: Type2
»Apprentice Format«
Main Deck	Sideboard
4 Flametongue Kavu 2 Ensnaring Bridge 1 Jayemdae Tome 4 Breath of Darigaaz 4 Fiery Temper 4 Fire/Ice 4 Firebolt 4 Urza's Rage 4 Violent Eruption 3 Captain's Maneuver 2 Earthquake 12 Mountain 4 Barbarian Ring 4 Battlefield Forge 4 Plains	4 Aura Blast 4 Overmaster 4 Scorching Lava 2 Pyroclasm 1 Planeswalker's Fury
Total deck value: $192.75

The Captain’s Maneuver, much like the Legacy Weapon, is a card you’d have to play with to understand it’s utility. It can range from a Divert without the drawback, to with enough mana, being able to Earthquake or Breath of Darigaaz everything but yourself, and even functions as an instant X damage spell in many situations. You can turn a creature’s combat damage into it’s own downfall. Again, it’s impossible to see why it is good without playing with it, so go out there and use it. And, again, if you still hate it, flame me.

Speaking of the Breath of Darigaaz, many people might also question that design move. I play it over, say, Pyroclasm, because for two more mana you get two more damage and the opponent closer to zero. When you can burn to the dome as much as this deck can, that’s a good thing. Not too many creatures have toughness more than four, so economically speaking it’s a better deal than Earthquake.

There would seem to be a lack of synergy between Jayemdae Tome and Ensnaring Bridge. In theory, there is, but if you have both of these in play, there will rarely be two cards you draw that you can’t play in the same turn. The Jayemdae Tome is ridiculously useful in the damage race Fireworks can often get into, and the Ensnaring Bridge spells problems for about 4 out of 5 decks. Emptying your hand is a good thing with this deck, and Ensnaring Bridge makes it even better.

I’m very confident in all my card selections except for one – the Barbarian Rings. At the right time, it’s one of the best cards Fireworks has in its arsenal. Not only is it uncounterable, it provides double duty as a mana source, AND having a couple on the table gives you a psychological advantage as well. If they’re getting low on life, staring down a couple Barbarian Rings can really give a player a sense of urgency. However, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve drawn an opening hand of pain lands, and taking three damage to play Fiery Temper is just stupid, especially when you tend to be racing damage with this deck a lot of the time. I think I’ll leave them in for now, only extensive testing with and without can tell me which way to swing.

The rest of the burn is standard material; so let’s move to discussion on the sideboard.

The four Aura Blast are an absolute must – an Aegis of Honor or COP: Red could stuff this deck like a Thanksgiving turkey. They can also take out annoying things like Worship, Battle of Wits, or Opposition, and they replace themselves (which is why I chose it over Disenchant – there are no artifacts I can think of that would cause Fireworks problems.) The Overmasters also replace themselves and are an obvious must against a control deck (though, if you save your Rages and play smart, that matchup should be something akin to an auto-win.) The other anti-control card is the Planeswalker’s Fury – once it hits play, it’s a recurring source of uncounterable damage, and vs. control is a surprisingly good card.

The Pyroclasms and the Scorching Lava are somewhat enigmatic. The Scorching Lava is most obviously against Ichorid, which otherwise gives this deck fits. But it also pulls double duty against other burn decks. The Earthquake and Breath of Darigaaz are obviously only good against creature decks, and if you’re getting burned a lot can turn into a very bad card to have in your hand. The Pyroclasms become the better card in the weenie matchup, and also gets rid of those pesky fliers that Earthquake and the Breath can’t touch.

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So, why play these decks, when you can just go with a straightforward R/G beat deck? Well, if that’s the way you feel, I won’t try to change your mind. But I know there are a lot of you out there that would like to play something different, but be competitive – I tip my hat to you, and hope these decks can do that for you, or inspire something even better.

Thanks for reading.

-Dave Marhsall

dave@22xband.com