This past weekend I managed to make the semi-finals in the TCGPlayer 1K in Lowell, Massachusetts. One of the key cards in my deck is the much-maligned white enchantment Séance. The deck was an update to the Reanimator deck I failed so miserably with in Providence the week prior. This time I decided to use my graveyard to provide value rather than relying on it to win me the game.

The Deck

First of all, here is the list I played at the event.

Creatures
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
3 Arbor Elf
2 Borderland Ranger
2 Centaur Healer
1 Disciple of Bolas
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
2 Armada Wurm
1 Angel of Serenity

Planeswalkers
2 Garruk Relentless

Artifacts
1 Golgari Keyrune

Enchantments
2 Séance

Spells
1 Sever the Bloodline
4 Grisly Salvage
1 Unburial Rites
3 Tragic Slip

Lands
1 Gavony Township
1 Vault of the Archangel
5 Forest
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Woodland Cemetery
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Temple Garden

Sideboard
3 Appetite for Brains
2 Centaur Healer
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Purify the Grave
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 Vraska the Unseen
2 Sundering Growth
1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice

Looking at the Junk lists which performed well at StarCity Open Providence I noticed two trends: decks which focused on Planeswalkers/tokens and decks which focused on the graveyard/creatures. As their performance indicates, both decks were very good, yet I felt like each was missing something. I came to the conclusion that combining the two decks would address their weaknesses and make them more formidable across the field.

I made the deck on MTGO and tested it for a while. I found that it was still missing something to help it outlast opponents in grindy games or help it survive longer against the more aggressive decks until it could take control in the mid-to-late game. As I am wont to do from time to time, I booted up Gatherer and took a look at all the cards in Standard which fell into my colors. That is when I came across this dollar-bin standout:

Who you gonna call?

Seance is so synergistic with everything else in this deck that including it instantly gave me the stabilization force and staying power the deck really needed. Every creature in the Junk deck, with the execption of the mana creatures, has an enters the battlefield effect. Simply playing out the game while being willing to make even trades with your opponent will turn Seance into a card advantage machine. Even the mana creatures serve a purpose as providing an extra blocker for no expenditure of resources.

Seance almost always has an immediate impact on the board. At four mana, the card would not be good enough if you had to wait until your next turn after playing it before it did something. An entire turn of waiting is more time than you can afford to spend on a card. Since Seance triggers during every upkeep, however, you are frequently able to drop it on turn 3 or 4 and make a creature token during your opponents upkeep to force them to make awkward or unsuccessful attacks. If you played a Centaur Healer on turn 2 and used it to trade with a Zombie player’s creature you can follow that up with dropping Seance to make a Centaur Healer token which will gain you an extra 3 life and make another trade or force your opponent to wait a turn without attacking as to not lose a card to your temporary token.

The value becomes even greater as the game progresses. The downside of Seance is that the token is temporary, so in the abstract it doesn’t provide any lasting value, but utilizing creatures which permanently create something when they come into play, or using the Populate mechanic, allows you to gain permanent value from these temporary tokens.

A quick example: I was facing down a Zombie opponent who had managed to put me to 6 life. I stabilized the board, but I was still well within the reach of his deck. I had a Thragtusk and Trostani in play and a Restoration Angel in my graveyard.

I then played Seance. During his upkeep I made a Restoration Angel token (+4 life), flickering Thragtusk (+12 life) and making a Beast token (+15 life). I then populated the Restoration Angel token (+19 life) to flicker the Thragtusk again (+27 life) and make another Beast token (+30 life). I ended the turn with a Thragtusk, Trostani, Restoration Angel token, two 3/3 Beasts, and the ability to make extra Restoration Angels every turn. This was the most absurdly fun thing I’ve ever done in a game of competitive Magic.

Weaknesses

So what about the deck didn’t go right? Well, for one, it was very weak to Bant Control. If you check out the Top 8 of my event 5 of the 8 decks were Bant Control. I narrowly defeated one Bant deck to make Top 4, but lost to another one piloted by Dustin Taylor (who also provided me my only loss in the Swiss). I was completely cold to his Sigarda, Host of Herons.

So, how do you rectify this problem? Well, for one thing I needed to add more Planeswalkers. The games I won against the Bant decks were the ones in which I was able to play a slew of Planeswalkers that they were unable to effectively deal with. Unfortunately, this means cutting Grisly Salvage, as milling away a Planeswalker means you will be unable to ever access it again.

I also want to cut out the mana creatures (Avacyn’s Pilgrim and Arbor Elf). Even with Gavony Township in the deck, they are too much of a liability to draw in the late game and too easy to kill in the early game.

Here is the deck I am currently testing out on MTGO:

Creatures
3 Elvish Visionary
3 Borderland Ranger
4 Centaur Healer
1 Disciple of Bolas
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Armada Wurm

Planeswalkers
3 Garruk Relentless
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Spells
4 Farseek
2 Selesnya Charm
1 Ranger’s Path
1 Sever the Bloodline

Lands
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
2 Isolated Chapel
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Plains
1 Swamp
5 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Vault of the Archangel

Sideboard
3 Appetite for Brains
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Golgari Charm
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Vraska the Unseen
1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
2 Seance
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Sever the Bloodline

My local metagame is heavily skewed towards control decks. The national metagame is very splintered at the moment, so if you are living in an area heavily in the G/W or Zombies field I highly recommend mainboarding Seance. It is incredibly powerful and fun to boot. I have sideboarded mine to hedge my bets against Control as, even without Seance, I have a pretty good match-up against Zombies in Game 1 while I am pretty cold to Control in Game 1 without my Planeswalkers.

I cannot recommend Garruk Relentless enough right now. If your deck has access to green mana and is willing to have 4-drops as a major part of its curve you need to be playing this card. It provides endless blockers or threats, kills any annoying smaller creatures, and becomes a card advantage powerhouse if you manage to flip it. Slowing down your opponents by killing his Pilgrim on turn 3 and then using Garruk to find a Resto Angel, Thragtusk, or Armada Wurm is amazing. The 1/1 Deathtouch Wolves by themselves can steal many games. Play this card!

Try out this deck at FNM this weekend and let me know how it goes! I hope you have as much fun and success with it as I have had. I’ll try to get up some MTGO videos of this deck sometime during the weekend.

Until next time, BOO!