Survival's Dominance in SCG Charlotte
Seven Survival of the Fittest decks made top 16 in SCG Charlotte. Seven! Out of these decks, 5 made top 8. The rest of the decks either featured a heavy discard theme or sideboard graveyard hate. As I've pointed out in an article on how to beat survival, discard can stop the deck by depriving your opponent of creature cards to fuel the Survival engine.Others also seem to agree with me that Extirpate is perhaps the best graveyard hate that can deal with a resolved Survival. Of the 9 decks that can tap for black mana, 7 of them packed 2-3 Extirpates in their sideboard. The other 2 are ANT, that can win before Survival does, and Goblins, that packed 4 Leyline of the Void instead.
The other breakout sideboard card is Faerie Macabre, as it can be tutored up by Survival of the Fittest in the mirror match, and Perish/Nature's Ruin, as frankly, which deck other than Merfolk, Goblins, and combo doesn't benefit by splashing for green?
Oops, take the combo part out as the single copy of ANT has 4 Tarmogoyf in its transformative sideboard. Perhaps my metagaming process against green, blue, and tribal is still relevant today.
That aside, this article is about Necrotic Ooze Survival, and here's a new idea to spice the deck up:
Shallow Grave
When Necrotic Ooze was released with Scars of Mirrodin, Manferd, a friend of mine was hyper excited as he's the kinda guy that like oozy stuff of the sticky variant. His idea was to use Buried Alive to load the graveyard with Necrotic Ooze and combo pieces, then use Shallow Grave to reanimate the Ooze and win at instant speed.
Although all we thought of initially was to combo the slime with Kiki-Jiki and Mogg Fanatic, the combo worked out fine enough in pre-board games, winning on turn 3 a decent number of times with the help of Dark Ritual and Ancient Tomb. Being blue black, Duress and Thoughtseize help clear the path of disruption and Lim-Dul's Vault helps set up the combo.
Now that the combo is incorporated into Survival decks, it seems that Shallow Grave might be a card to consider when evolving the deck. No, it doesn't reduce the deck's vulnerability to Extirpate nor Leyline, but it provides an alternative that is not reliant on an active Survival. To illustrate, take a look at this decklist:
Shallow Survival
4 Bayou
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Wasteland
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
Threats (26)
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
4 Basking Rootwalla
1 Shield Sphere
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Vengevine
1 Necrotic Ooze
1 Phyrexian Devourer
1 Triskelion
1 Monster(e.g., Emrakul, the Aeons Torn)
Disruption (5)
4 Thoughtseize
1 Shriekmaw
Others (8)
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Shallow Grave
GW Survival can sacrifice Loyal Retainers for an Iona, Ooze Survival can Shallow Grave out a hasty Emrakul that deals 15 damage and annihilates 6 permanents.
You don't like that? Reanimate out a Nicol Bolas and Mind Twist your opponent?
You still don't like that? How about Dragon Tyrant? Or Serra Avatar? Or Maelstrom Archangel? Whatever you can Sneak Attack out, you can bring it out with Shallow Grave (apart from stuff like Progenitus and Darksteel Colossus).
If you want to increase the consistency, feel free to take out stuff like 2 Basking Rootwalla, 1 Noble Hierarch, and up to 4 Tarmogoyf to add stuff like Sensei's Divining Top and Worldly Tutor. You can then tutor out a monster, draw it with top, then discard it to Wild Mongrel/Survival of the Fittest and reanimate it with Shallow Grave.
Eerily similar to casting Monster Reborn on Winged-Dragon of Ra.
For those who are more courageous, you can take a page out from Aeon Bridge and incorporate Mosswort Bridge, as Tarmo, Vengevine, Wild Mongrel and Worldly Tutor might just net you a 15/15 flying Eldrazi.
Bonus Standard to Legacy Tip: Budget Survival-less Survival
If you're playing standard and have Fauna Shaman and Vengevine at your disposal, then feel free to replace Survival with the Shaman, and save yourself some money.No Vengevine nor Fauna Shaman and unwilling to fork out dough for Survival of the Fittest? No problem, don't build the deck! Otherwise, go all out on combo and stuff your deck with tutors like Worldly Tutor/Living Wish/Eladamri's Call, legendary monsters like Nicol Bolas/Eldrazi, and reanimators like Shallow Grave and Goryo's Vengeance. Add in disruption like Duress and Cabal Therapy and discard enablers like Putrid Imp and Wild Mongrel. It's time for someone to bring that combo out to the tournament scene and that someone might just be you!
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