Gavony Township - A Retrospective

Among the iconic and format-warping cards of Innistrad, one has always stood out to me as under-appreciated relative to its power and influence.

Gavony Township was nothing short of revolutionary for GWx creature decks. Typically lacking card draw and/or card selection, such decks are prone to flooding out on mana dorks and lands. Township elegantly solves this problem as both a mana sink and threat enabler all with an extremely low deckbuilding cost. As of this moment, a decade after Innistrad's release, Township remains uniquely effective in this role and its difficult to imagine a better alternative will be printed.

Let's examine this card through the lens of some of the decks that have utilized it over the years.

Whether by design at Wizards or by coincidence, this Standard deck developed shortly after Township's printing and exemplified many of its qualities.  

Township Tokens, GP Kuala Lumpur, 3/25/12
Creature Spells (23) 4x Avacyn's Pilgrim 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Strangleroot Geist 4x Mirran Crusader 2x Blade Splicer 4x Hero of Bladehold 1x Geist-Honored Monk	Noncreature Spells (13) 2x Dismember 2x Mortarpod 2x Sword of War and Peace 3x Oblivion Ring 3x Garruk Relentless 1x Elspeth Tirel
Lands (24) 4x Razorverge Thicket 4x Sunpetal Grove 8x Forest 4x Plains 4x Gavony Township	SB: 2x Thrun, the Last Troll SB: 2x Ray of Revelation SB: 2x Celestial Purge SB: 2x Garruk, Primal Hunter SB: 2x Sword of Feast and Famine SB: 1x Sword of War and Peace SB: 1x Naturalize SB: 1x Fiend Hunter SB: 1x Oblivion Ring SB: 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

 

Township mitigates the downside of playing eight mana dorks to accelerate into more powerful plays. We see the employment of creatures that scale well with extra counters like Blade Splicer and Mirran Crusader (note the "non-bo" with Strangleroot Geist however 😅). The many token-producing planeswalkers also pair nicely with Township. Its no wonder this archetype often played the full playset of Townships and was called "Township Tokens". 

Our next deck is from the next format of Township's residence in Standard.

GW Humans, GP Charleston, 11/17/12
Creature Spells (35) 4x Avacyn's Pilgrim 4x Champion of the Parish 4x Doomed Traveler 4x Judge's Familiar 4x Mayor of Avabruck 4x Knight of Glory 4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 3x Fencing Ace 3x Silverblade Paladin 1x Sublime Archangel	Noncreature Spells (5) 4x Rancor 1x Selesnya Charm
Lands (20) 4x Temple Garden 4x Sunpetal Grove 3x Cavern of Souls 3x Forest 5x Plains 1x Gavony Township	SB: 4x Dryad Militant SB: 2x Elite Inquisitor SB: 2x Fiend Hunter SB: 2x Faith's Shield SB: 2x Sundering Growth SB: 2x Nevermore SB: 1x Selesnya Charm

 

 

This is an aggressive deck that isn't interested in drawing out games to the point where Township pulls its weight, but playing one copy can still be justified. 

Birthing Pod was considered one of the best Modern decks throughout 2013 and 2014. The raw power and relentless consistency of this archetype eventually doomed Pod to the Modern banlist in early 2015.

 

Melira Pod, GP Richmond, 3/9/14
Creature Spells (28) 4x Birds of Paradise 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Viscera Seer 3x Voice of Resurgence 1x Wall of Roots 1x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast 1x Spellskite 4x Kitchen Finks 1x Eternal Witness 1x Orzhov Pontiff 2x Murderous Redcap 1x Ranger of Eos 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence 1x Shriekmaw 1x Reveillark	Noncreature Spells (9) 2x Abrupt Decay 3x Chord of Calling 4x Birthing Pod
Lands (23) 4x Verdant Catacombs 4x Misty Rainforest 2x Overgrown Tomb 1x Temple Garden 1x Godless Shrine 3x Forest 1x Swamp 3x Razorverge Thicket 1x Woodland Cemetery 3x Gavony Township	SB: 4x Thoughtseize SB: 2x Dismember  SB: 1x Slaughter Pact SB: 1x Scavenging Ooze SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Kataki, War's Wage SB: 1x Harmonic Sliver SB: 1x Sin Collector SB: 1x Obstinate Baloth SB: 1x Thrun, the Last Troll SB: 1x Entomber Exarch

 

While Pod's flashiest aspects - infinite combos and toolbox creatures - received the most attention, a significant part of its power resided in its ability to play a "normal" game of Magic when all else failed. This was made possible by Gavony Township, which won Pod countless games on the back of a motley crew of creatures grown to a formidable size.

In the wake of Pod's banning, a new archetype emerged that elevated Pod's beatdown plan from backup to star of the show. 

Podless Pod, Pro Tour Fate Reforged, 2/8/15
Creature Spells (27) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Voice of Resurgence 2x Qasali Pridemage 3x Loxodon Smiter 3x Kitchen Finks 4x Siege Rhino 3x Wilt-Leaf Liege	Noncreature Spells (10) 4x Path to Exile 2x Thoughtseize 4x Lingering Souls
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 4x Verdant Catacombs 1x Marsh Flats 1x Temple Garden 1x Overgrown Tomb 1x Godless Shrine 3x Forest 1x Plains 1x Swamp 3x Razorverge Thicket 3x Gavony Township	SB: 2x Thoughtseize SB: 2x Fracturing Gust SB: 2x Chalice of the Void SB: 2x Sword of War and Peace SB: 1x Slaughter Pact SB: 1x Zealous Persecution SB: 1x Relic of Progenitus SB: 1x Stony Silence SB: 1x Rule of Law SB: 1x Leyline of Sanctity SB: 1x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes

  

This deck, called "Podless Pod" and "Liege Rhino" among other names, could be seen as the evolution of our first example adapted to the Modern format.

Fast-forwarding a few years, our final example is a new breed of combo deck.

 

Heliod Life, MTGO Event, 3/14/21
Creature Spells (29) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Conclave Mentor 4x Spike Feeder 4x Skycleave Apparition 4x Heliod, Sun-Crowned 2x Ranger-Captain of Eos 2x Archangel of Thune 1x Walking Ballista	Noncreature Spells (4) 4x Collected Company
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 2x Misty Rainforest 2x Prismatic Vista 2x Temple Garden 2x Forest 2x Plains 4x Horizon Canopy 3x Razorverge Thicket 2x Gavony Township	SB: 4x Path to Exile SB: 3x Damping Sphere  SB: 2x Selfless Spirit SB: 2x Wheel of Sun and Moon   SB: 1x Burrenton Forge-Tender SB: 1x Giant Killer SB: 1x Emeria Archon SB: 1x Veil of Summer

 

With combo pieces based on +1/+1 counters like Spike Feeder and Walking Ballista, Township takes on an interesting role in this deck as a combo enabler and can prove to be a huge nuisance for opposing damage-based interaction.

Despite its success in Standard and Modern, Township has had no presence in Legacy. The range of decks that could play it is narrow, competition with other utility lands is high, and the texture of the format makes it irrelevant in the vast majority of games.

I hope you enjoyed this little reflection on Gavony Township - a card I know I will continue playing for years to come.

DECK: Modern RG Ramp (with Inferno Titan!) 5/31/19

Here is my latest Modern Gxx pile of cards:

Maindeck

Sideboard

I played this at FNM last night and went 3-1.

Round 1: UB Faeries, W (2-0)
Round 2: The Rock, W (2-1)
Round 3: UWR Control, L (1-2)
Round 4: Dredge, W (2-1)

The list was inspired by this Naya deck I was playing a few months ago. The Angels honestly didn't feel that great, so I decided to try Inferno Titan at the top end of a similar shell instead. The deck was a ton of fun and didn't seem awful so I'll probably play it a bit more with some adjustments. 

DECK: Modern GW Aggro, 2/22/19

My latest Modern experiment has been this GW Aggro/Midrange pile. Basically, the point of the deck is to play Hero of Bladehold. This is the list as of my 2/22/19 FNM:

Maindeck

Sideboard

imgur link

Its quite similar to a "Little Kid" -style Junk deck, basically replacing Lingering Souls with Kitchen Finks, and Siege Rhino/Wilt-Leaf Liege with Hero/Elspeth.

Honestly, losing Rhino & Souls is a big deal due to the reach and resiliency they bring to a GW creature deck. Losing access to other Black cards such as Thoughtseize and Assassin's Trophy limits the dimensions of interaction available as well.

The primary upside of not splashing Black is a smoother, less painful manabase, which is perennially relevant in Modern - but this likely doesn't outweigh its downside.

This is how my rounds went at the FNM:

Round 1: Lantern Contol (L 1-2)
Round 2: UR Phoenix (W 2-0)
Round 3: Jund (W 2-0)
Round 4: Grixis Shadow (W 2-1)
Round 5: UR Phoenix (W 2-0)

Hero of Bladehold killed the opponent in six games over the course of the evening. I did not lose a game in which I untapped with a Hero. All is right with the world.

DECK: Modern Big Naya, 2/15/19

The Modern metagame has became full of relatively linear and noninteractive aggressive decks like Humans, Spirits, Dredge and Phoenix, to the point that Baneslayer Angel has become a staple in UW decks. This led me to think: why not play Baneslayer Angel in a Green midrange shell? If the card is good, isn't ramping into it even better? Starting from one of my favorite decks played by the Naya God himself, I have arrived at the list below:

Maindeck

Sideboard

imgur link

While by no means revolutionary or top-tier, this archetype definitely has legs. It has performed well at the FNM level, producing frequent prize finishes. I took it to one medium event, SCG Regionals last November, and went 4-4 with many misplays. Doing OK playing cards I like is good enough for me.

The maindeck has been quite static (despite many 2- and 3-ofs, it seems to work) until re-examination this week. Elspeth, Knight-Errant was replaced with Ajani Vengeant, and Tireless Trackers were replaced with Huntmasters. Two Bolts became two Helixes. These moves were a concession to the wild popularity of Phoenix and Burn at my store in particular. Its been so long since I played Huntmaster that I still have English ones...

Furthermore, in the sideboard Blood Moons were replaced with Damping Spheres, and Bonfires were replaced with Flame Slash + Dromoka's Command. I am contemplating swapping Rest in Peace for Relic of Progenitus in future as well.

Here's how the FNM went:

Round 1: UW Midrange (W 2-1)
Round 2: Jund (W 2-0)
Round 3: Affinity (W 2-0)
Round 4: Mono-Red Phoenix (L 1-2)
Round 5: Valakut (we drew, but L 0-2 in games)

DECK: UW Delver, 12/28/18

Its been a while since I did one of these. Here is the UW Delver deck I played at a local event recently (4-0 - beat UWr Twin, TES, UR Delver, and 5C Humans).

Maindeck

Sideboard

imgur link

I first tried this archetype in some side events at Eternal Weekend and had a blast. Legacy players love to hate Delver/Stoneforge Mystic decks for some reason, but I've always liked them and this is my favorite iteration so far. Earlier this year I played a lot of UWr Delver, but it just hasn't felt the same since Probe got banned.

The list is pretty "stock", not deviating significantly from Owen's GP list except for some sideboard choices. The amount of graveyard hate he had seemed egregious, so I trimmed it down. The omission of a 2nd Back to Basics is based on my card availability, but I'm not sure two is even the correct number. Spell Snare is fantastic right now so I had to dedicate a slot for it.

More recently a Japanese player made top 8 of GP Shizuoka with this deck, but I dislike several of their choices, primarily 1) cutting the 4th Spell Pierce and 2) running zero Council's Judgment in the side. The full set of Spell Pierce is sooo good with Snapcaster, and the versatility of Judgement necessitates its inclusion despite its clunkiness by my estimation.

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Stay a while and listen sometime.

Tournament Report: 10th @ SCG Classic with Punishing Maverick, 9/23/18

Miracles has reared its ugly head once again with a victory at GP Richmond. The deck was certain to become more popular as a result. Bad news for Maverick players. In order to have a fighting chance in this matchup, I needed to seriously re-evaluate some of my card choices. After consulting other Punishing Maverick and Miracles players, this is the list I arrived at for this year's SCG Legacy Open in Baltimore:

Punishing Maverick, 9/22/18
Creature Spells (21) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Birds of Paradise 3x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Voice of Resurgence 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (16) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 3x Punishing Fire 2x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Fire and Ice 1x Batterskull
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 2x Savannah 2x Taiga 1x Plateau 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 3x Wasteland 1x Horizon Canopy	SB: 2x Choke SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben SB: 1x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Council's Judgment SB: 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant SB: 1x Nissa, Vital Force

• The 2nd Sylvan Library is one of the best cards against Miracles, and is fantastic right now with fewer Abrupt Decays, Leovolds, and Lightning Bolt-based Delver decks in the format than before. 

• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben has replaced Ethersworn Canonist as a threat that is also good against combo, but far superior against control.

• Pyroblasts have joined Choke as general anti-Blue cards.

• Council's Judgment has replaced Fiery Justice due to its ability to reliably answer Jace, or Back to Basics/Counterbalance if necessary.

• Nissa, Vital Force has joined Elspeth as another high-impact, resilient threat. Nissa might be one of the best threats against Miracles: she hits fast and hard, and can buy back troublesome cards like Library and Choke.

Conveniently, most of this technology lines up well against Grixis Control and Sneak & Show, two other prominent decks. The cost of these modifications is that we have given up ground against Death & Taxes, Elves, Reanimator, Shadow, and Storm.

My Saturday did not go very well.

Round 1: Grixis Control (1-2)
Round 2: UWR Mentor (0-2)
Round 3: A.N.T. (0-2)
Round 4: No show!
Round 5: RUG Landstill (2-0)
Round 6: UB Shadow (2-1)
Round 7: Miracles (2-1)
Round 8: UB Shadow (1-2)

After the first three rounds, my tournament was the poster child of "things gone wrong". I had some mopey draws against Grixis. I mis-identified what turned out to be a Mentor aggro deck as Miracles. My Storm opponent cantripped into a kill after a seemingly poor Ad Nauseam down to 1 life. The only highlight of the day was triumphing over actual Miracles.

Nevertheless, I decided to play the same 75 in the Classic on Sunday, believing it was still a good place to be. Around 120 players showed up for the event so was 7 rounds. Here's how my matches went:

Round 1: Sneak & Show (2-0)
Round 2: Omni-Tell (2-1)
Round 3: Eldrazi Post (2-1)
Round 4: Eldrazi Aggro (2-1)
Round 5: UW Delver (2-0)
Round 6: ID
Round 7: BR Griselbrand (0-2)

Final Record: 5-1-1, 10th place

Unfortunately I was paired down in the final round and had to play what turned out to be a bad matchup. So it goes.

Interestingly, despite the prevalence of Miracles it failed to place in the top 32 of the Open or the top 16 of the Classic. We'll see how well Miracles fares in the weeks leading up to Eternal Weekend in what is likely a meta well prepared for it. For now, I will more or less stick with my current configuration and see where things end up.

Props to Mark and TK for putting Punishing Maverick on the map in day 2 of the Open - playing Dire Fleet Daredevil in their decks no less!!