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Today, I want to talk a little about deck conceptualization. "Packaging" is what I call it.
The theory behind Packaging is to include cards in your deck that can interact effectively with other cards in your deck. If you like staunch, hot-shot business terms, this is simply just deck SYNERGY.
So, let's get to some examples.
Let's start off with what ISN'T Packaging. Cards like Rampant Growth, while part of a Land Ramp theme, are card advantage, but not part of the Packaging Paradigm. This is because you can tutor for any basic, and you're not looking for something necessarily specific- just another piece of land to get out of your deck.
Similarly, Mono-B cards like Demonic Tutor and Increasing Ambition aren't Packaging either. Though they allow you to access any card you could want to fulfill a need in any given game, Packaging requires there to be a certain specificity.
On the other hand, the nonblack versions, Mystical, Worldly, and Enlightened Tutors can be part of Packaging, provided there isn't one consistent, go-to target in the deck.
I talk about my Momir Vig deck a lot, but in examining this deck, you'll really be able to see this packaging concept well. The deck has great individual packages, and when they're used together, they actually work really well with each other.
There are several different Packages in the Vig deck, and I define each one by its "Cornerstone," the card that either inhibits different lines of play or allows you to structure your deck around it. This is usually a tutoring effect, but it can be a permanent.
These cards are what I consider Cornerstones in the Vig Deck:
Fabricate
Strip Mine
Fierce Empath
Mystical Tutor
Spitting Image
Drift of Phantasms
Sylvan Scrying
Snapcaster Mage
Crucible of Worlds
Muddle the Mixture
Let's walk through each one, and I'll show you how they interact.
1. Fabricate
Targets in the Deck:
Tezzeret the Seeker
Crucible of Worlds
Phyrexian Metamorph
Wurmcoil Engine
Solemn Simulacrum
Oblivion Stone
Nevinyrral's Disk
Myr Battlesphere
Sol Ring
Expedition Map
Lightning Greaves
Steel Hellkite
Courier's Capsule
Tree of Tales
Seat of the Synod
Fabricate is pretty good in the deck. It can get me anything from land to creatures to removal and sometimes both. I can even get my Lightning Greaves if I want to protect my board state. Tezzeret the Seeker can also act as a copy, looking for mostly the cheaper cost things. I like to tutor for 0 with his second ability and grab Tree of Tales or Seat of the Synod so I can continue to ramp and maintain card advantage if I can avoid dying for a few extra turns. Once those cards are out, Tezz then basically becomes another copy of Garruk Wildspeaker, which I also run in the deck.
2. Strip Mine
Targets:
Crucible of Worlds
Wasteland
Life From The Loam
Sylvan Scrying
Expedition Map
This is a different kind of packaging here, mostly because Strip Mine is all about getting Strip Mine and recurring it. We also have Wasteland acting as a "lesser" copy of Strip Mine, even though we're probably trying to destroy a nonbasic anyway. A Tectonic Edge could probably be in here too, but I took mine out to keep the colorless land ratio lower.
3. Fierce Empath
Targets:
Duplicant
Myr Battlesphere
Krosan Tusker
Stormtide Leviathan
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
Steel Hellkite
Hornet Queen
Consecrated Sphinx
Empath is definitely one of my favorite Cornerstones. It's in every green deck I own, and I think you can see why here. With Empath, I have access to cards for every situation. 8 times out of 10, I'm usually grabbing the Tusker to make sure I'm not missing land drops and drawing an extra card, but he's fantastic for getting Consecrated Sphinx, or even Stormtide Leviathan to close out the game.
4. Mystical Tutor (And Snapcaster Mage)
Beast Within
Brainstorm
Capsize
Counterspell
Cultivate
Kodama's Reach
Pongify
Life From The Loam
Spitting Image
Rite of Replication
Fabricate
Cryptic Command
Dissipate
Fact or Fiction
Krosan Grip
Muddle the Mixture
Realms Uncharted
Voidslime
Mystical Tutor can sometimes be a meta-tutor in my deck, or be used to act as a way to get a missing piece for another cornerstone, like Life from the Loam, or to grab a Spitting Image.
After I play these spells, They obviously all become targets for Snapcaster Mage, with the exception of Spitting Image, because I don't want to exile it from my graveyard. Another piece of synergy with Snappy is Riptide Lab, which allows me to bounce him back and repeat.
5. Spitting Image
Rite of Replication
Life From The Loam
Realms Uncharted
Kodama's Reach
Cultivate
Sylvan Scrying
Expedition Map
Consecrated Sphinx
Solemn Simulacrum
Myr Battlesphere
Eternal Witness
Wurmcoil Engine
Snapcaster Mage
Phyrexian Metamorph
Mystic Snake
Stormtide Leviathan
Steel Hellkite
Oracle of Mul Daya
Some interesting notes here. Spitting Image is the Cornerstone of this deck because it can be recurred more consistently than Rite O' Rep. As a result, there are several other cards, like the mana ramp in the deck, that won't be dead draws in the late game because I can put it in my hand and possibly Loam it back. Hence the reason my deck plays 42 lands.
The targets on this list are obviously short, mostly because not everything in the deck is good to copy. Also, you never know what your opponent is playing, and those are usually some of the better targets.
6. Drift of Phantasms
Beast Within
Capsize
Crucible of Worlds
Cultivate
Kodama's Reach
Dissipate
Eternal Witness
Fabricate
Fierce Empath
Hinder
Jace Beleren
Krosan Grip
Loaming Shaman
Oblivion Stone
Realms Uncharted
Trygon Predator
Voidslime
Winged Coatl
Yavimaya Elder
Drift Transmutes for 20 different cards in my deck, including other Cornerstones, removal, card draw, and ramp. Drift can also get Crucible of Worlds, which is pretty sweet.
7. Sylvan Scrying
Expedition Map
Realms Uncharted
Strip Mine
Wasteland
Academy Ruins
Riptide Laboratory
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
Breeding Pool
Flooded Grove
Reliquary Tower
Temple of the False God
Basics, any of the others.
Note that Sylvan Scrying and Realms Uncharted are DIFFERENT from most ramp spells like Cultivate and Kodama's Reach because in the deck, they go to get specific cards.
And, unlike most of these cards, Sylvan Scrying and Expedition Map have many targets, thus creating the Packaging concept, which is different from decks that strictly use the Expedition map as another copy of Cabal Coffers.
Oh, and both Scrying and the Map can be recurred. (Snapcaster, Academy Ruins)
8. Crucible of Worlds
Targets:
Terramorphic Expanse
Misty Rainforest
Verdant Catacombs
Evolving Wilds
Strip Mine
Wasteland
Realms Uncharted
Life From The Loam
And any other land that gets put in the yard. This is a pretty obvious pack here. Realms also makes this card pretty good, because those cards can come back. Dredging Life From The Loam is also pretty good for Crucible.
9. Muddle the Mixture
Snapcaster Mage
Courier's Capsule
Sylvan Scrying
Lightning Greaves
Coiling Oracle
Counterspell
Thought Courier
Vedalken AEthermage
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Life From The Loam
If I don't use it for its primary countering purposes, Muddle's excellent for Transmuting into any targets. This is more of a desperate meta-tutoring situation, which doesn't come across often, but like Batman, I prefer my utility belt to be outfitted for many encounters.
So there's the deck and all its themes. Together, they create a really resilient control deck that's able to draw out games and disrupt your opponent enough to get a grip on the board state and win in the 15-18 land phase, which should come earlier for you, if you play it right.
There are a lot of cards that are used as utility in this deck, and there are cards I didn't even mention. It's not to say that those cards don't also help the deck. They're really just used to facilitate and transition.
You can't really have every card making perfect synergy, reason being that you have to have endgames in your deck. Your deck is a tree, growing outward. Its branches don't grow into its other branches. Still, they have to be connected by a solid root in the ground.
So this is my deck. Feel free to comment and post your thoughts.
Peace. Love. Land Drops.
-UL
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