This week I wanted to discuss a brew I have been slowly testing online using Solemnity in Twelve Post as a defensive tool. Going right into the decklist this time around I present to you:
Solemn Post
Creatures
We have a fairly standard Twelve Post suite of the Legendary Eldrazi like Emrakul, Kozilek, and Ulamog. Though I usually prefer having access to Primeval Titan for the early cast and mana ramp, I decided to go straight for the gas in this build.
I usually wouldn’t but this time I will include Marit Lage since we are using Solemnity for a bit of a combo with Dark Depths. Since it prevents counters being placed on artifacts, creatures, lands or players it allows Dark Depths to trigger the turn it enters play without any additional work required.
Counters no More
Elephant Grass means that we never have to be worried about being attacked by hordes or black creatures like an opposing Marit Lage or Gurmag Angler. Solemnity in play allows us to either pay very little for a counter that may have previously been placed on Grass, and we never have to add a counter and pay for the cumulative upkeep.
Phyrexian Unlife essentially extends our life total to thirty since it forces our opponent to damage us down to zero and then up to ten poison. Tendrils of Agony can’t kill us with Unlife in play, so if our storm opponent gives us the time we can lock them out game one. Combined with Solemnity we can no longer get poison counters, so having both allows us to either buy time to set up our mana and start dropping bombs or completely lock our Storm and Burn opponents out game one.
Removal
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon can wipe the board when it hits and then slowly pick off each and every creature an opponent tries to commit to the board after that. There is no doubt in the power level of this card given that it wins games more often than Jace after resolving.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger also gets a shout out in this second since casting this Eldrazi allows us to exile two permanents that may be causing us trouble. I’m looking at you Jace and Knight of the Reliquary.
Utility
Bojuka Bog is here to use with Crop Rotation as an instant speed way to dump a graveyard when things go awry. Combined with Vesuva we can also keep an opponent off a Gurmag Angler for several additional turns.
Eye of Ugin is our plan when we have developed our mana but just haven’t been able to find the requisite threat to end a game. Nothing like making twenty mana to go find Emrakul and cast her.
Glacial Chasm out with Solemnity means we never have to pay life to preserve our life total again, and that is just quite dandy as the life loss on the cumulative upkeep stacks up quickly. Outside of a Wasteland—which is our first Pithing Needle choice—we are pretty much good to go!
Karakas is defense against Sneak and Show, while also being a great way to use our Eldrazi legends’ cast triggers multiple times to completely take over a game.
Maze of Ith is in the maindeck slot I usually reserve for The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, but with access to cards like Elephant Grass I don’t have to worry about the hordes as much as singular creatures. This is where Maze of Ith and Swords to Plowshares (out of the board) become even more efficient.
Thespian’s Stage can become whatever we want it to be. Multiple creatures coming through? Maze of Ith number two. Wasteland targeting it? Now it’s a basic. One Cloudpost short? Done and done. Dark Depths without Solemnity or perhaps an opponent decided they wanted to play Depths? Yes, I now have a Marit Lage. Thanks friend.
Dark Depths has already been touched upon, but I wanted to really remind people of why Solemnity rings a bell after all that hype that completely died.
Riftstone Portal is a great contender for the sacrifice on Crop Rotation. Havng Portal in the graveyard has proven to be essentially all the mana fixing that I could ever need allowing me to be extra greedy on locus lands.
Initial Thoughts
So far the deck has performed fairly well. Burn and Storm tend to be the worst matches for many Twelve Post decks, and having the tools to fight them extra hard main board while not being dead in other match ups has been nice while I have found an increase in my game one victories over these two menaces.
Aburpt Decay, while frustrating, is on super overload status because we have so many need-to-hit targets. After the first couple decays fire off we are smooth sailing.
Overall testing has taken place on MTGO so while I have access to playing often with this deck MTGO is still buggy and as reported early in the release of Solemnity MTGO still doesn’t allow the proper interaction with Cumulative Upkeep. Please Wizards either dump MTGO in the trash where it belongs and replace completely with Arena or actually make it work.
Happy brewing to each and every one of you. If anyone has an idea for a brew that they would like to see, I will gladly take requests and challenges on twitter or in email at [email protected].
Aaron Gazzaniga works part time at a game store and in his off time has been an avid magic player/brewer since 2003. Having begun in Odyssey Standard Block and always favoring control and prison style decks, we come to this moment in time where Aaron finally gets to talk about and share his ideas. If you want to contact Aaron tweet @aarongazzaniga