1. My Addiction to Blue-Green

My fondness for blue-green decks dates back several years. I have always liked combining the mana acceleration and creature quality of green with the permission of blue to protect against my opponent's funny business. What? What about creature removal, you say? What better creature removal is there than to steal creatures from your opponent?

In 1996 I qualified for PT-Dallas with a deck full of creatures, binding grasps, and permission. Tony Perodi named this deck "The Web Browser" because it had Wooly Spiders and Browse (actually, it had only one Browse). In PT-Chicago '97 I played a blue-green extended deck with 10 permission spells, Control Magic, and an army of green creatures including Fyndhorn Elves, Jolrael's Centaurs, Erhnam Djinns, and my favorite creature, Kaysa (it went 4-3, so I didn't make second day). The combination of Tradewind

Rider and Wall of Blossoms increased my liking for blue-green. In 1998 I qualified for Rome with a Trade-Awakening deck, on my third attempt. At PT-Rome, I played a blue-green based extended deck called "The Four-Color Pile". My idea was to beat Academy decks with 4 Uktabi Orangutans and 4 Force of Will, and to beat red decks with 4 Wall of Blossoms and 4 Wall of Roots. This deck also had Tradewinds, and it splashed red for Pyroclasm and white for Armageddon. Unfortunately, this deck couldn't beat Necro, so I only finished 49th.

Sadly, not all of my blue-green efforts have been successes. At the '99 US Nationals, I played a deck with 4 Tradewinds, 4 Wall of Blossoms, and 4 Spike Weavers. This deck was designed to beat the white weenie decks. Unfortunately, I was not paired against any white weenie decks. My deck couldn't seem to beat anything else, and it went 1-5 (and the win was due to a bye).

2. The Evolution of Squirrel Prison

I was a spectator at a PTQ-London at Edison, NJ, and I was doing some practice Urza block drafts. I noted that a mostly green deck with multiple Yavimaya Grangers and Yavimaya Elders could effectively play cards which would otherwise require a heavy mana committment to other colors. I also observed that Opposition was a really, really, good card. So I quickly scribbled a deck down on a piece of scrap paper. The deck had Elvish Lyrists, Priests of Titania, Yavimaya Grangers and Elders, Opposition, and Morphlings. When I showed the deck to Zvi, he commented that the deck was "not deranged enough". I took the hint and added four Deranged Hermits to the deck.

I tested the deck heavily at Neutral Ground NY. The Elvish Lyrists proved to be ineffective even against Replenish decks, and too "gimpy" against beatdown decks. Even with 24 land, I was getting mana hosed too much. It doesn't help play 4 Grangers and 4 Elders if you never get to three mana. So I went to 25, and then to 26 land. I went up to 7 creature lands (4 Treetop Village, 3 Faerie Conclave) to make the extra land more useful.

Finally, the deck was tuned to the point where it was performing well against both beatdown and control decks. I searched

for an effective sideboard card against control, and concluded that Sunder (one of Brian David-Marshall's favorite cards) was the way to go. I took the deck to a GP trial at Neutral Ground with a sideboard containing a couple Sunders and a whole lot of garbage. I won the trial, despite my poor sideboard. Since I planned to play the deck at GP-Memphis, I requested that Adrian Sullivan withhold my decklist from The Dojo. He did, describing it only as a "Trade-Awakening" deck (the joke was Adrian's, not mine).

At PT-Washington DC, several top pros asked me about my "Trade-Awakening" deck. They had guessed that the deck was Deranged Hermit/Opposition. They introduced me to Nate Heiss, who had independently designed a similar deck. Nate and I compared our decks, which were remarkably close. His deck had only 24 land, and had 4 Annuls, fewer Morphlings, and 2 Masticores. He told me that he had Gaea's Embrace in his sideboard to deal with Wildfire decks. We both played in the PTQ-Chicago at Washington; Nate went 6-2, and I went 5-2-1, losing to a Sneak Attack deck, and a suicide black deck that went turn one Swamp-Ritual-Negator a lot. Nate and I agreed to discuss the deck further by e-mail, in preparation for GP Memphis. I persuaded Nate to support "Squirrel Prison" as the name for the deck.

In the e-mail discussion, Nate advocated 4 Arcane Labs in the sideboard, to deal with combo decks. Nate insisted that Squirrel Prison was weak against combo (I disagreed), so the sideboard needed the Labs. GP-Memphis proved that Nate was right about the deck's weakness against combo, but I still don't think that Arcane Lab is the solution; the strongest combo decks (Replenish and Sneak Attack) don't necessarily need to cast more than one spell a turn to beat you. At Memphis, I tested against Eric Kesselman's Yawgmoth's Bargain deck. This deck often got out a turn 3 Bargain, and killed the same turn with Skirge Familliar-Soul Feast. It used Reprocess to keep its momentum going. My deck performed poorly against Eric's deck, which was terrifyingly fast and seemingly consistent. As it turned out, the consistency of Eric's deck was more apparent than real, and those who played the deck in GP-Memphis had only moderate success. I also tested against Randy Buehler's Replenish deck and got smacked around some more. He proved to me that my main deck Hush, which was there to beat Replenish, was not useful because when he cast Replenish, he usually Opposition/Opalescence locked me that same turn.

I did some final tuning the night before the Grand Prix, and Scott Seville helped me to improve my deck and especially my sideboard. I went down to 25 land, and with reluctance, took out the fourth Morphling. One Stroke of Genius, one Sunder, and one Masticore went into the main deck, and 3 Harmonic Convergences went into the sideboard.

Here is the deck I played:

3. Squirrel Prison

2 Heart Wardens

4 Priests of Titania

1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

4 Yavimaya Granger

4 Yavimaya Elder

4 Deranged Hermits

3 Morphling

4 Opposition

2 Power Sink

1 Annul

3 Treachery

1 Stroke of Genius

1 Sunder

1 Masticore

11 Forests

4 Treetop Villages

8 Islands

2 Faerie Conclaves

Sideboard:

1 Delusions of Mediocrity

2 Douse

4 Gaea's Embrace

1 Masticore

2 Sunder

2 Annul

3 Harmonic Convergence



The primary strategy of Squirrel Prison is to cast Opposition, and tap the opponent's land and creatures during his upkeep. Deranged Hermit is ideal for this, since it provides five creatures for only one card. Morphling works pretty well too, due to its untapping ability.

A common criticism of the deck is that "if you don't draw Opposition, you just have a pile of creatures". This may be true, but they are very high quality creatures. The 2 casting cost elves provide excellent mana acceleration, and the Grangers and Elders fetch the land you need (usually Islands) and improve the card economy of the deck. The Morphlings and Deranged Hermits are top-of-the-line creatures that can kill an opponent very quickly. This deck therefore often wins even without casting Opposition.

The 3 Treachery and the one Annul are there to stop enemy Masticores, which are a great enemy of the deck. The 2 Power Sinks help against control and combo decks. Finally, the one Stroke and the one Sunder give the deck two extremely dangerous instants. The mana-production capability of this deck is such that a late game Stroke can be very large indeed. The Stroke also provides an alternate way to win if the opponent sets up an Argothian Enchantress/Worship defense. The Sunder is the MVP of the tournament. It is there because you have mana producing elves, and the opponent probably does not. It is an instant Armageddon; and it can devastate not only control, but combo decks. And didn't Armageddon used to go in the old Winter Orb prison decks?

Sunder is not good against beatdown decks, or in the mirror matchup. Therefore, the second and third Sunders go in the sideboard rather than in the main deck.

I believe that one Rofellos belongs in the deck. Three times with his help I cast a turn three Deranged Hermit, setting up for a turn five kill- speed comparable to that of a beatdown deck. However, since the deck only plays 11 forests, and he is a legend, more than one would be incorrect, IMHO.

4. Evaluation of Matchups

Squirrel Prison has a large edge over Stampy, for several reasons. Often they will play an Elvish Lyrist and pump up your Priest of Titania. Treachery is more effective than usual since you do have the green mana to pay echo on the stolen creature. Finally, one Deranged Hermit can pretty effectively stall the Stampy deck's ground assault. However, Stampy is such a fast deck that their good draws will get you down to 2-5 life, so be careful.

Suicide black is a tougher matchup, because of draws like Swamp-Ritual-Ritual Lurking Evil-Skittering Skirge on turn one. But on the other hand, a draw like that will beat any deck. Try to survive their initial assault, and chump block the Phyrexian Negators with Grangers and Elders. Once you get Opposition on the table, you have the advantage.

I haven't tested against Sligh.

Wildfire is about even with Squirrel Prison game one; Gaea's Embrace (Nate Heiss' idea) should give you the advantage after sideboarding. But since I didn't play against Wildfire at GP Memphis, this evaluation remains untested. Don't take out the Treacheries because of Covetous Dragon and Masticore.

Squirrel Prison is strong against control. The blue deck's Miscalculations and Power Sinks are weak against the mana-producing elves. The Grangers and Elders allow you to drop land more consistently than the control deck, even if they have more land in their whole deck. They also provide annoying two-point beatdown that must be eventually dealt with. The deck also has eleven "bombs" that must be countered- the 4 Hermits, the 4 Oppositions, and the 3 Morphlings. Finally, if they tap out in your end phase to cast Opportunity on turn six, you can ambush them with a Stroke, or better still, a Sunder. "Oh, you want to have four more cards in your hand? Here, have six more!" The extra Sunders in the sideboard will increase your advantage. Only Hibernation will give them a fighting chance.

Yawgmoth's Bargain combo decks (such as Eric Kesselman's) are tough matchups for this deck, since your beatdown isn't fast enough to significantly hurt their card-drawing, nor do you have enough permission. Against their good draws, you just lose. Against their average draws, do as much damage as you can, or play opposition and lock them down until you can kill them in one turn.

Sneak Attack is not a great matchup. Douse will help against monored versions, but is less effective against red-white versions, which can disenchant Douse, or Rector out the Sneak attack.

Replenish will beat Squirrel Prison game one. The Harmonic Convergences and extra Sunders give you the advantage in games two and three.

5. Sideboarding Strategy

vs. Stampy: -1 Sunder, -1 Stroke, +1 Masticore, +1 Annul

vs. Suicide Black: -1 Sunder, -1 Stroke, +1 Delusions of Mediocrity, +1 Annul

vs. Sligh: -1 Sunder, -1 Stroke, -1 Morphling, +1 Delusions of Mediocrity, +2 Douse

vs. Wildfire: -1 Sunder, -4 Deranged Hermits, -2 Power Sink, -1 Masticore, +4 Gaea's Embrace, +2 Douse, +2 Annul

vs. Blue Control: -1 Masticore, -1 Treachery, +2 Sunder

vs. Yawgmoth's Bargain: -1 Masticore, -1 Morphling, +2 Annul (if they have Skirge Familiar, Academy Rector, and Cathodion, leave the Treacheries in)

vs. Sneak Attack: -1 Masticore, -2 Deranged Hermits, -3 Treachery, -1 Morphling, +2 Douse, +2 Annul, +2 Gaea's Embrace +1 Sunder

vs. Replenish: -1 Masticore, -3 Treachery, -2 Morphling, -1 Yavimaya Granger, +2 Sunder, +3 Harmonic Convergence, +2 Annul

Mirror Matchup: -1 Sunder, -1 Heart Warden, -1 Yavimaya Granger, +1 Masticore, +2 Annul (if the opponent plays the first Priest of Titania, elves are less good)

5. Tournament Report

Rounds 1-3: Third round bye from winning a trial

3-0

Round 4: Shawheen Mahini- Bargain

Game 1 he rituals out an Academy Rector, but he has no way to kill it. I play a Granger, and Shawheen still can't find a way to sacrifice his Rector. I don't pay echo, Treachery his Rector, untap, and play Opposition, locking down his two land with a Priest of Titania and the stolen Rector.

Game 2 Shawheen is stalled at one land, but he duresses away my Annul. I play an Elder, then he double rituals out a Skirge Familliar. I attack with the Elder and a Treetop Village, and he counterattacks with the Skirge. I draw another Annul, attack with the Elder only, sac it for two Islands, and play an Island. He attacks again with the Skirge, plays a second land, taps both land, and discards four cards and attempts to cast Bargain. My Annul gets me a five-for-one!

4-0

Round 5: James Stroud- Bargain

I win this match, largely due to James' poor draws. Against Bargain all you can do is put your opponent under as much pressure as possible, and hope that your modest permission is enough to stall your opponent long enough for you to win.

5-0

Round 6: Mike Heffern- Replenish

Game 1 Heffern gets a good draw, with a turn three Attunement, followed by a turn 4 Replenish that completely locks me with Opalescence/Opposition.

Game 2 I get the good draw, with turn 2 Rofellos, turn 3 Deranged Hermit.

Game 3 is a repeat of game 1. I don't draw a Harmonic Convergence. Yuck.

5-1

Round 7: Jamie Parke- Monoblue Control

I refuse Jamie's draw offer, since my tiebreaks are good enough for me to make second day even if I lose.

I win game 1 when I cast a Deranged Hermit and Power Sink Jamie's Rewind.

Game 2 is tougher, since Jamie draws a lot of permission. We exchange damage while Jamie counters almost everything I cast. Finally, I exhaust his supply of countermagic, steal his 2/2 Veiled Sentry, and cast Sunder. The stolen 2/2 wins it for me, with the help of a Treetop Village.

6-1

Round 8: Lance Pittman- Stampy

Game 1 I get a turn four Deranged Hermit, followed by turn 5 Opposition. Game 2 we both get good draws. With Rofellos's help, I get a turn three Hermit, but he has been beating me down with a Pouncing Jaguar. After I pay echo on the Hermit, he attacks again with the doubly Rancored Jaguar. I block with two squirrels (so as to kill the Jaguar even if he has a Symbiosis). Of course, he has a Might of Oaks, which brings me down to 4 life. While I play a Morphling, he gets me down to 2 life. I play a second Morphling.

I now make my worst play of the tournament. He has an Elvish Lyrist and a Treetop Ranger in play and a Rancor in his hand. I have one Hermit, one 2/2 squirrel, and two Morplings. I am at two life, he is at 15. I should have attacked with one squirrel and one Morphling to get him down to 10, leaving myself with adequate defense, and preparing to win next turn. Instead I attack with a Treetop Village and both Morphlings- not enough to kill him, but enough to weaken my defense. He takes 9 damage. Now he can win by drawing another Might of Oaks. I compound my error by playing another Deranged Hermit- useless for defense against the Treetop Ranger. I now have only two Islands left, one to untap a Morphling, another to make it fly. I no longer have the colorless mana needed to pump my Morphling's toughness, so now I lose to a topdecked Symbiosis as well. He draws a Yavimaya Hollow, casts Rancor on the Treetop Ranger, and attacks. I untap a Morphling, make it fly, and block. He tramples over for only 1, so I survive my blunder-barely!

7-1

Round 9: Craig Wescoe- Replenish

Game 1 he double mulligans, and I barely manage to Opposition lock him. He is forced to use up his Lilting Refrain on a Morphling, so I am able to Power Sink his Replenish.

Game 2 he crushes me.

Game 3 he keeps a one land hand that is otherwise very strong. He doesn't draw his second land in time, and I win with yet another turn 3 Deranged Hermit. All hail Rofellos!

8-1

Round 10: Randy Wright- Squirrel Prison

Randy's deck seemed similiar to mine, except he played Elvish Lyrists.

Game 1 I get the first Priest of Titania, and the early mana advantage helps me win.

Game 2 was horrible. He plays a Lyrist. I play a land. He plays and Island and a Priest of Titania. I have only one other land, so I have to play my Heart Warden. He plays another island, and drops Opposition and two more Elvish Lyrists. He has three untapped Lyrists and Opposition, and all I have are two lands and a Heart Warden. "I have some effects during your upkeep," he says gleefully. He shows me the last card in his hand- a Deranged Hermit. "Do you give up? Do you give up?" I quickly concede the game before he can gloat any more.

Game 3 I get the first Priest of Titania. His sideboarded Temporal Adepts prove to be only marginally useful in this matchup, and steal one of them and soon win.

9-1

Round 11 Mark Pacheco- Bulwark Bargain

Mark had a very interesting rogue deck, with Bargain, Bulwark, Energy Field, Delusions of Mediocrity, and Replenish. He gets Bargain into play against me. He floods his graveyard with three Bulwarks but only one Delusions, and he Replenishes it all into play. I have been beating him down a bit, so the game is still close. He can draw cards to inflate his hand size to 15, but I have six cards in hand, and an Elder ready to be sacced. The sacrifice of the Elder woull raise my hand size to 9, so the three Bulwarks would do only 18 damage, and he would have to discard down to seven cards. He therefore needs to search for another Delusions instead. Before he can find one, I Sunder, which gives me several more turns of beatdown. He survives and finds more Delusions, but he no longer has enough cards in his library to beat me. A weakness of his deck is that Replenish does not work very well with Energy Fields; Replenish goes to the graveyard on resolution, then the Energy Fields join it there so that the Replenish won't feel so lonely.

Game 2 he Rectors for an Energy Field to stop my early attacks. However, I have three Hormonic Convergences in hand, so I keep putting his Energy Field on top of his library and attacking for more.

10-1

Round 12: Adrian Sullivan- Counter-Troll

Intentional draw

10-1-1

Round 13: Kyle Kloeckner- Squirrel Prison

Intentional draw

10-1-2

Quarterfinals: Ric Watts- WR Sneak Attack

Game 1 he gets Sneak Attack in play, and accidentally reveals a Serra Avatar in his hand. I could attack with my Heart Warden, bringing him down to 19, and rely on my Granger to block the Avatar. Instead I keep both untapped, in case his has a Parch. He shows me that he also has a Bloodshot Cyclops. Twenty to the head. Ouch!

Game 2 I Annul his Grim Monolith, and I play Douse. He Gambles for a Disenchant and gets rid of the Douse. He plays Sneak Attack, and Rectors for Yawgmoth's Bargain. He is at 13 life, so he draws 12 cards. He only finds one creature- a Crater Hellion. I have an elf and some Squirrels in play. He can't play the Hellion on his own turn, because then he would lose to my Treetop Village. He Disenchants his own Bargain, and says "done". I attack with my creatures, and he kills them with a sneaky Crater Hellion. I play an Elder. He finally draws a creature- a Serra Avatar. I play Gaea's Embrace on my Elder and attack.

Game 3 I Sunder, and follow up with an Opposition lock.

Semifinals: Kyle Kloeckner- Squirrel Prison

Kyle's deck was quite different from mine, with much more permission, and no Grangers or Elders.

Game 1 I Opposition lock him. He Strokes twice for quite a bit during his own upkeep, but he can't break the lock, and I soon win.

Game 2 he counters my Opposition and plays one of his own. He doesn't have enough creatures to lock me completely, and I keep playing land with the help of a few Elders. I beat him down to 15. He has tons of mana, with 4 Priests of Titania and a stolen Rofellos in play. If he draws a Stroke, he can deck me in one turn. I play a Morphling. I attack for 5 twice. He is now at 5 life, and draws a Faerie Conclave. On my turn, he keeps tapping my Morphling, and I keep making it untargetable in response. I have all 8 of my Islands in play than he has only 6 creatures, so I attack for 5 (flying over his Treetop Village) for the win. And the top card of his library was a Stroke!

Actually I only needed three Islands to win- do you see why? I could have let him tap my Morphling as much as he liked. I simply let my untargetability effect resolve, untap the Morphling, and fly in for the kill.

Finals: Mike Heffern- Replenish

Game 1 he beats me with an early Replenish.

Game 2 he again plays a Replenish, but this time I have a Harmonic Convergence. Before can redraw all the enchantments on the top of his library, I kill him with creature damage.

Game 3 I Sunder just before he can Replenish, and I beat him down with elves. The turn before he dies he tries to Replenish, but I Power Sink it for one.

Game 4 he has a big Lilting Refrain out. He lets me cast a Deranged Hermit, and instead uses his Refrain to protect his Attunement from my Annul. I pay echo on my Deranged Hermit, and attack. He takes six, blocking one squirrel with a Forbidding Watchtower. He Attunes frantically, while my squirrels munch on him. He can't find a Replenish, so he concedes the game. But I had both a Power Sink and a Harmonic Convergence in my hand.

6. Conclusions

Squirrel Prison was arguably the deck of the tournament, with three Deranged Hermit/Opposition decks in the top four. But actually, those three decks were quite different. Kyle's deck was much heavier on permission, but lacked the Grangers and Elders. Matthew Norton's Enchantress deck was even more different from mine. How the differences in the decks affect the various matchups I can only guess at. For instance, I expect that Kyle's deck is stronger than mine against combo, but weaker against Stampy, and more prone to poor mana draws. Nate Heiss' deck was much closer to mine; he finished ninth.

I was happy with the deck overall. It is strong against beatdown and control; its only weakness is combo. Luck certainly played a large role in my wins against the Bargain decks and against Watts' Sneak Attack deck in the quarterfinals.

The deck is meant to be played aggressively. Generally speaking, it is better to get creatures into play rather than to bluff a counterspell that you do not have. Do not fear control decks; play your elves, and the adverse Miscalculations and Power Sinks no longer work very well.

One thing that I know is that I do no enjoy playing the mirror matchup. Trade-Awakening vs. Trade-Awakening was interesting and skill-intensive. Squirrel Prison vs. Squirrel Prison often comes down to who draws the first Priest of Titania, or who gets the first Opposition into play.

My last question I do not know the answer to. Is Squirrel Prison the deck to play, is it the deck to beat, or is it neither one?

Props to the people who helped me test and tune the deck:

Alex Shvartsman, Joe Cain, Scott Seville, Nate Heiss, and many others.

Props also to Jeff Donais and his friends for a very well-run tournament.

I'll end with a quote from Zvi Mowshowitz:

"Opalescence- an enchanting new fragrance from Calvin Klein"


Michael Pustilnik