Vengevine Shenanigans

Vengevine Shenanigans

I’ve only played a couple of games (maybe less than a hundred) with this deck, but I had a bunch of funny and interesting games along the line. Some included great sideboard decisions, others has been more board-state oriented.

First – UR Storm

Storm is always a tight Matchup. Especially on the draw Vengevine Aggro does need a good draw (a reliable Turn 3 kill) to keep up with the blistering fast combo deck.

Boarding out 4 Gather for 2 Tormod’s Crypt and 2 Lightning Axe fits perfectly. Crypt attacks the graveyard Storm needs so badly (and serves double-purpose for having a Revolt-trigger for Hidden Herbalists) and Axe kills the other Engine-part Baral, Chief of Compliance / Goblin Electromancer.

I had a Match were I was on the play Game 1 and came out quickly. With Vengevine and Superion I had 11 power Turn 2 and won that one. The more interesting Game was the 2^nd one. Again I had the Nut-draw and rushed in for a potential Turn 3 kill.

My opponent had a single Baral and has to block to survive, so his chances of going off Turn 3 would have been decreased significantly.

I was attacking, my opponent declared blocks – Baral for Vengevine. Than there were a Card I haven’t had on the radar – Apostel’s Blessing! for 0 Mana. He went down to 1 life and I had to laugh out loud. The next turn my opponent combo’d me to death.

The 3^rd game was a one-sided battle as I stumbled about a mulligan to 5 and therefore couldn’t go off soon enough – sad story this one is L

On another occasion I’ve played against the deck and smashed him game 1 against a couple of Remands and Lightning Bolts, but my opponent was stucked on 2 lands and died because of this. Game 2 was more of a challenge: I’ve kept an opener with 2 Bolts, 1 Axe, 1 Emissary and Tormod’s Crypt (+ 2 Lands).

Many could argue that this hand is a pile of “hate-you” cards, but remember that mulligan with VengevineAggro is a nightmare. If the next 6 are not keep-worthy the chances of winning decrease significantly – the deck does need a bunch of cards to go off (in this matter it behaves much more like a combo-deck).

My opponent put a turn 2 Baral onto the table, I bolted it. Next turn another one – Bolt, a turn after an Electromancer came down and I had Axe for it (drawn another Bolt already). He had the next Baral which I’ve bolted too. I exiled his grave with Crypt because he had found a Past in Flames.

Until this point I just had played 3 Creatures, 2 had been removed. A single Insolent Neonate fought against the (that’s no joke) next Baral – Menace does work sometimes ;) My opponent was at 4 life and I found a Faithless Looting for my 2^nd Crypt. My enemy ripped a Gifts Ungiven from his library and I was not in desperately doubt that he could find some way to go off.

Instead he gifted for 2 Rituals, a Grapeshot and a PiF – guess what I took. I won soon afterwards.

Second – TitanShit

Titanshift / Breach the huge Spaghetti Monster is an even Matchup. Most of the times the dice roll will decide which player will win. The Shift player does always have some way of interaction – Anger, Bolt, Chalice, Tribe-Elder etc.

Game 1 my opponent didn’t found his finisher and I brought him down. Game 2 he had an Anger of the Gods and killed me soon after. Game 3 became more interesting. An Anger of the Gods wiped BTE and Vengevine away, but I still had Myr Superion.

On his next turn my opponent put together 5 Lands (until this point I hadn’t seen any Breach). He breached into Woodfall Primus (?!). Sad story – this one destroyed 2 of 3 lands and therefore I couldn’t kill him the next turn.

With a single land in play I’ve put down another one and played Insolent Neonate. Vengevine was in my graveyard, so i just need another 1-Drop. (Hoping for Hooting Mandrills) I discarded something useless and found a Lightning Bolt (not a particular great card in this Matchup) but in this case it killed him.

Great the feeling is to have the possibility of coming back once behind on board – a great difference to other Aggro-Decks that doesn’t share this ability.  

Third – Grixis

Grixis is a rough Matchup. Control has fallen out of favor and Death’s Shadow is the name of the game nowadays. The combination of disruptive elements paired with a fast clock and superior removal will always be pretty tough to fight against.

The control deck is easier to battle, because it’s a Cryptic Command – Deck. These aim to remove and stall threats until they land a threat themselves. Once I fought through early disruption until a Tasigur, the Golden Fang landed. I hold Lightning Axe in my hand for a couple of turns and it killed Banana Joe.

I had shaped my hand for a couple of turns and was now able to put 15 power on board in a single turn (all with haste). My opponent Cryptic’d and tried to find Anger of the Gods. He Cryptic’d 4 whole turns until he ran out of options. Finally I crushed in with one swing for lethal.

Thoughtseize on other occasions were a single-card beating. It just shredded my hand. Either they picked my Enablers, payoff-cards or even removal. Stubborn Denial counters Mill-Spells, Faithless Looting and even Blood Moon L Kolaghan’s Command kills Myr Superion (one of the big payoff-cards) and Tasigur, Shadow and Angler block for days.

To noone’s surprise I’ve won less than 30% of the games against Death’s Shadow – as I’ve said earlier, Vengevine Aggro behaves much more like a aggro-combo Deck rather than a pure Aggro-Deck.

Last Words

Many may have noticed that this deck isn’t about some super-spectacular lines of play. It is putting a lot of pressure onto the board, has some great tools out of the sideboard, but struggles against well accepted disruption.

I think it’s on par with other graveyard-decks like Dredge or Griselbrand Reanimator, maybe Living End too. If your meta is filled with BGx, Grixis or Death and Taxes Decks, Vengevine will not be the right tool to smash your next tournament.

On the other side it’ll always be a super-fun deck to pick up and turn some creatures sideways.