Rocky Mountain Yetis

My path to lichdom has been a long and winding one. I’d been in search of an exciting, casual deck that creates fun games for both players regardless of the outcome. I surveyed people informally on discord on what were their favorite ways to lose a game. Games are always more fun when you’re winning, but by asking people how they have fun losing, I was hoping to design a great experience in each game regardless of the outcome. The answers varied, but it basically boiled down to three things. 1) Their deck did everything it could, and it was a close battle down to the wire. 2) The opponent’s deck is beautiful and full of expensive old cards that have been lovingly collected over time. 3) They lose to a wonky interaction of rarely seen cards. When I started playing TwiddleVault, it was meant to fulfill bucket 3, but after a few years of playing that with largely the same crowd, the novelty has worn off for some. So I chased after something new, and found my way eventually to lich.

I ended up brewing in the spicier end of the card pool, and found a Lich deck that I really enjoyed and checked all my boxes. I knew I wanted to play it at the local Rocky Mountain Yeti event Yeticon 3: Death’s Door that Jared M. puts on. But, with such a new combination of cards, I knew I needed to put it through the paces some before showing up cold to a tournament, and the NEOS league was the perfect opportunity. For Season 12 last fall, Jared D. posted each month’s format in advance, so I was able to map out my decks for the season, and shoot for winning a few spice prizes while I was at it.

I’m always inspired by Lucas Glavin’s league recaps, but it’s hard to follow that act without, you know, winning 4 of the last 5 leagues (5 of 6?). So I set out for a different goal to quietly amass spice prizes for the monthlies, sporting a very cool deck, Lich combo, but with my own unique twist. 

For this NEOS season last year, there weren’t spice prizes, but I like to think I would have picked up at least one. I still wanted to write up my experiences playing Lich and some of the cool plays from the season.

Leaning into Lich

I wrote already about the origins of the deck in my Yeticon report here, but to briefly recap, my Lich brew grew out of a Tax/tower deck Greg K. played with Moat and Abyss. I tried to speed up the end of the game via Lich and it turned out to be a really fun deck. 

I wanted a deck that’s more casual than TwiddleVault, and didn’t leave people groaning when playing for fun. TwiddleVault is a strong deck with super interesting decisions on both sides of the board, but isn’t what I want to play for every meetup. I’ve tried a lot of the different decks in OS, but I’m not into the slow plodding play one-spell a turn decks. I tinkered a lot with monoblack and worked on blinging it out, but I just didn’t enjoy playing out the games that much, casting one grindy spell each turn, so I kept brewing.

Lich combo, like TwiddleVault, goes off with a flurry of spells out of nowhere. It doesn’t play creatures, so no slow, inevitable death as my 2-power creature taps repeatedly over the next 10 minutes. Lich goes boom, and the game is over, win or lose. I also liked the different card mix from your average old school deck. Playing blue cards is almost a guarantee in decks in 93/94. And there are more bolts and mountains floating around than you can shake a stick at. So I eschewed blue and red, and played the other colors. The restricted cards available are still no slouch, sporting Mind Twist, Balance, and Demonic Tutor. Resolving those by themselves will win games outright so I figured my Lich deck could still collect at least a few W’s. And for what it’s worth, this is the best Balance deck I’ve ever played. Everything is an artifact or enchantment, and you can very easily kill all the lands too. Refill with a Land Tax or Sylvan and you can recover post-Balance almost instantly.

I knew I needed to get in some games with such a fresh pile of cards to prep for Yeticon, and the NEOS monthly league was the perfect chance. I played Lich or another fun pet deck each month in the league.

August: Classic Atlantic 93/94 (1 – 3 – 2)

I began my studies of lichdom. I went 1-3 and wasn’t able to get my last two matches in. Plus I knew it wasn’t quite a fully functioning deck. I won my first match exactly as I drew it up. I landed a Moat, stopped their assault, and combo’d out. I did it again for a second game. Then I proceeded to lose the rest of my matches. After discussing with Greg K. who made the deck that inspired this, I dropped the Rainbow Vales and added more Moats and Abysses. The combo was good and could win, but the deck was pretty weak on having answers to any sort of offense the opponent put up. I made tweaks to a few slots to shore up that weakness, and slotted in another Moat and Abyss for the next month. 

September: 7pt Old School Singleton (8 – 2, finalist)

This month I went for a different school of wizardry and played UR elementals, naming my deck “Elemental Blast”. My deck only plays cards from Unlimited and plays all the elementals and walls, so this reduces my options, but creates a beautiful white-bordered deck pic that captures a deck I dreamed of when I was a kid. These are the cards I love playing, so of course I’m going to mash them all together into a deck. 

I ended up going all the way to the finals and lost there to Mark E.’s sweet monoblack list. I love this deck because it plays such iconic cards, and stretches out the game enough that there is real room for critical decisions and a ton of games come down to play skill. 

From the list, Wall of Fire was the MVP. I even cloned it once. I was getting beat down and I needed to stem the tide to give my Air Elemental time to do its work. I cloned the Wall of Fire and that gave me enough defense on the ground to get there. Wall of Water also did work, but I drew it less often.

I cloned a lot of Shivan Dragons too. I won a top 4 game against Jared D. by cloning a Vesuvan copy of the dragon. In another game, he cast animate dead on my deceased dragon. I cloned it, then I killed his. I remarked that most of my games were won or lost by some version of a Shivan Dragon, either mine or my opponent’s. I do love a format where this ancient old lady gets to shine.

October: Legends Month – must play 5 legends maindeck (3 – 3)

I went a solid 3-3 with these legends. This deck was basically a pre-sideboarded version of my Lich deck. Jasmine Boreal and Gabriel Angelfire had errata to lower their mana costs to four mana each. That made them comparable to the Ernies and Serra Angels I usually have in the sideboard. I’m pretty happy with a 3-3 showing this month. Shooting .500 was my goal here and I achieved that. 

I wanted to get some games in playing my transformational sideboard ahead of Yeticon later that month and this was the perfect opportunity. I was tempted to play TwiddleVault and squeeze in the quota of legends. I’d won the last Legends monthly in NEOS playing TwiddleVault with exactly zero legends, and Jared explicitly called me out for it when adding the new requirement this month to play 5 legends main. I kinda wanted to try to run it back with TwiddleVault despite Jared’s new rule. But I was itching to play more Lich, so I did that instead. Armageddon is card it turns out. Playing some medium-sized fatties with geddon and a smattering of card advantage in Land Tax and Sylvan Library was enough to do the trick a few times.

Highlights include winning a Game 1 with Lich and Mirror Universe. We got into a creature stall with a Jasmine Boreal on the board. I had a mirror in hand. I drew Demonic Tutor and decided Lich was the best thing to look for right then, which is an awesome feeling. I knew I’d built this deck right when I can feel myself hoping to draw Lich, or even tutoring for it to pull out a win. In other lists I’ve tried, casting Lich is an afterthought or just a subpar win condition where I’d rather just have Nightmare or Juzam. But here, Lich was just the card I needed to win the match. I tutored for Lich and two turns later and I had my undead victory. 

This month I also encountered Tranquility in the wild. That’s a card that’s not played too much and I was hoping to just dodge it altogether. He hit a Land Tax and a Moat with it, so it could have been worse. It could have been “you lose the game” worse. 

Journey to Death’s Door (1 – 2)

This was the main event for my Lich deck in the first place, and I had a blast playing it there. Yeticon is (other) Jared’s annual event in Colorado, where I live. I’d missed the previous two for personal reasons, but was excited to finally make it to this one. I got to win some great games and also lose some sweet ones, and had a blast. I went 1-2 (4-4 in games).

I wrote about it last year here.

November: ATL Doubleton (2 – 4)

Doubleton was a format that allowed 2 of each card (except the restricted cards), so while I knew it would be a bit more powerful than singleton, I didn’t think it would be terribly different. You can’t play 12 bolt or robots after all. 

I had really enjoyed the UR elementals deck from two months ago, and I had long wondered how good a powered version would be. It plays many of the format’s most efficient answers in Counterspell and Lightning Bolt, and if it packs the same power cards as any other top tier deck, it can’t be that far behind. Earth Elemental does a good Suchi or Erhnam impression, so it seemed like it might be a turn or two slower than other decks but I thought that might not matter much when plenty of games are blowouts one way or the other based on who draws more power.

My first match I lose to The Deck. I can’t really beat The Abyss. It turns out a lot of players were on The Deck this month with Abyss and Library and this deck doesn’t really have any outs to those cards, except the lone Chaos Orb. I had Nevinyral’s Disk in the sideboard, but that didn’t help enough either. And since I’d limited myself to single cards in red or blue in Unlimited, there just aren’t more answers available. You can’t play 12 bolt in Doubleton, but you can pretty much play The Deck with a few substitutions and many people figured that out and were on that gameplan. Against a typical metagame, this deck might do fine, but against 4 opponents playing The Deck, it just didn’t do a whole lot. So I think this deck could still be okay for local games or mid-tier decks, but against tables full of The Deck, I’m probably just better off scooping. I went 2-4 which isn’t bad for the build. My goal was 3-3.

December: ATL A2A (6 – 0*)

I was really excited for this Alpha to Alliances month. Last time we played this format, my only loss in the pods was to Jesse S. on a Necro Lich deck. Necropotence was restricted, so he only had one, but Game 2 he drew it and won with it in short order. It’s a great game plan to use all your life to draw cards with Necro since you’re going to lose them to Lich anyway. So I’d been tinkering with this for months and playing phone tag with Jesse to learn his ins and outs from playing it. Then, with just a few days before the monthly started, Jared decided to unrestrict Necropotence. That was a big boost for the deck I was going to play anyway. Fortunately those days before Dec 1 were Thanksgiving, so I had a lot of time to test cards and goldfish it. It’s definitely capable of busted plays and turn 2 and 3 wins, but also dies pretty easily to a pair of bolts. I didn’t know how it would end up in practice. 

In my first match, my opponent played Erg Raiders and Brassmen and I was able to pull out a win. He did sneak through a Howl from Beyond while I had Lich out which made me sacrifice a few more cards before going off. 

In my second match, I didn’t even see a Necropotence and just combo’d out with Lich, so the deck has strength even if Necro is restricted.

The toughest matchup for this deck is 16 bolt with Gorilla Shamans. Burn is good when every point of damage makes you sacrifice cards. The answers main and in the board are largely centered around killing the gorilla, since you can’t go off if the ape can easily kill your Zuran Orbs. In match three in a sideboarded game, I was staring down two early Gorilla Shamans and lots of mana, cutting off my Zuran Orb plan. With Fastbond and Dark Rituals, I could generate 10 mana and Drain Life one of the apes, and Merchant Scroll for Hydroblast to kill the other. Then I dropped Lich and Zuran Orb and won from there. Glacial Chasm is great here too. It blanks bolts early, and gives you breathing room to spend all your life on Necro. Then it negates Fastbond damage to keep the engine going smoothly. One maindeck was perfect. I wanted a second but couldn’t fit it in so I put it in the sideboard just in case.

In match 4, game 2, I played a second Zuran Orb and my opponent pointed out correctly that the card was restricted. Drat. I’m always terrified I’m going to play an illegal deck with 58 cards or something. It finally happened. I’d been brewing this deck since the beginning of the league months ago and had missed that Zuran Orb was restricted. It wasn’t restricted the last time we played A2A and I think of the card as largely unplayable in any constructed format these days, unlike Demonic Consultation and Mana Crypt. No matter, I played cards that weren’t allowed so I told Jared I’d be conceding all my matches. But I was so proud to have finally brewed a cool deck for a niche format that worked, that I still wanted to play my deck more. My opponents agreed and I was able to play out the rest of my matches, which I also won. 

Drain Life filled out the deck nicely. It was a much needed answer to the gorilla. It punished opponents who went too low with their own Necropotence (I got to do this once). It added a whole mirrorball angle to the deck where the Lich plan couldn’t work, with Necro being a far better alternative to Sylvan Library. And it added a boost of life that could restock your hand mid combo with either Necro or Lich. It did a lot for the solo slot. 

My final game showcased what the deck can do. I started with Dark Ritual into Necropotence, and then Force of Willed his lone Gorilla Shaman. I had a chance to just go for the Mirror Universe and draw another 20 cards, but instead I took a few turns to Merchant Scroll for a counter and play out lands to protect the mirror and wait for Lich, ensuring my victory. I was really only playing around Force of Will at that point, but I had the luxury to be able to do that and still win handily.

Playing the deck, I only lost 2 games the whole month. I lost to a Blood Moon despite my 5 basic Swamps. I had Demonic Tutor in hand to fetch Chaos Orb, but after 8+ turns I didn’t see one and succumbed. I lost my subsequent game after realizing that my deck was totally illegal. Since the points didn’t matter, I tried to combo off with Lich way sooner than I needed to and ended up sacrificing all my cards for naught. I recovered after that and didn’t drop another game.

In my testing, this deck is about even with the 16-bolt deck, although maybe the surprise factor gives it an edge. So if you’re organizing an A2A event, I would recommend unrestricting Zuran Orb. And if the top tables at your event are dominated by Lich decks, then I think you’re doing something right. Thinking about the deck more after the month, it could probably work fine with restricted Zuran Orb. I’d lean more heavily on Mirror Universe with Necro and probably change up the mana base, possibly adding Sol Ring and/or Mana Crypt. But I didn’t have time to work out those kinks and acquire another Mirror Universe with less than a week left in the league. It’s better for everyone if I just take the losses and we move on.

Post mortem

In the end while Lich offered me true power, I paid too high of a price for it. I won all of my matches with it for one pod and almost all of my games, but even after achieving all of that I still had earned nothing. That is the true path of lichdom I suppose. And maybe even makes for the better story 😉 But I had a lot of fun playing Lich across formats and especially in A2A and was pleased with what it can do. I’ll definitely be playing more Lich in the future. Because I loved it so, I needed to get a few upgrades for next time.

Extra Life – MirViLight (2 – 2)

I played another Drain Life deck in December. This time in MirViLight. I went 2-2 with some clear mulligan and play mistakes. It’s okay. I’d say the deck is less fun than TwiddleVault since most decks have zero way to interact with it once it’s going. So games are either a clear loss before anything gets started or a clear win. TwiddleVault is much more back and forth in my opinion, probably because of the Howling Mines, Time Vaults, and plentiful artifact removal. Plus the OS card pool has more interactive cards like Strip Mine and Mind Twist that can hurt. I do love the look of the cards from Mirage block, and I’m glad I played it once, but I’d do something different if/when I revisit Jamuraa in the future. I do like casting Hammer of Bogardan 🙂