Breaking the Locket

As the title states, I will try to break the Locket of Yesterdays. I posted a poll on an article a while ago and due to a programming error the link disappeared so we only had 4 votes, of which 2 were for this article. For the future if there is any type of article you would like to me write just send me a line at [email protected] and I'll let you know what I think.

Name: Locket of Yesterday
Type: Artifact
Casting Cost: 1
Text: Spells you play cost 1 less to play for each card with the same name as that spell in your graveyard.

When I first saw this card it just screamed ´´BREAK ME´´. The only question is how?

Option 1: Use cards that only have a single colored mana in the casting cost and the rest generic mana.

Option 2: Play it in an all artifact deck.

Option 3: Play cards with Buyback generic mana costs.

Option 4: Play a combination of the first three options.

Doing a bit of investigating online, I found a decklist posted by one Adrian Sullivan, whom I played against in 1999 at Grand Prix Milwaukee. I lost badly. Here is the deck he posted:

Artifacts (7):
3 Azorius Signet
4 Locket of Yesterdays

Creatures (2):
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Enchantments (1):
1 Debtors' Knell

Spells (29):
2 Careful Consideration
3 Condemn
4 Overrule
4 Remand
4 Spell Burst
4 Whispers of the Muse
4 Compulsive Research
4 Wrath of God

Land (22):
6 Island
2 Plains
2 Adarkar Wastes
2 Calciform Pools
4 Desert
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Vesuva
1 Academy Ruins

Sideboard (15):
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Chronosavant
1 Debtors' Knell
3 Teferi's Moat
3 Rewind
3 Wipe Away
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath

The main idea of this deck is to survive the early game using the Condemns and Wraths to fend off opposing creatures. The Careful Considerations and Compulsive Research's help dump cards into the Graveyard to help lessen the cost of future spells, and they also help you draw the Lockets. With a few lockets in play and a Spell Burst or Two in your graveyard you can counter almost any spell with buyback for one or two mana. The same can be said about Drawing Cards with Whispers of the Muse. Use the first few early on as a cantrip and then later on in the game you can potentially Whispers with buyback for one mana. Overrule will help you gain back some of the life you lost early on and can also put you completely out of harms way. The Tidespout Tyrant can put every permanent back into your opponent's hand. The lone Akroma is the primary kill card.

Looking at Adrian's deck I noticed some things I felt were flaws. First off, the Tidespout Tyrant won't come out until late in the game and by that time if you don't have the game in hand then there is nothing the Tyrant can do to help. The second flaw is the lone Akroma. Yet again it won't come out until late game which by that time your opponent should have a way to deal with it. To play the Locket deck properly you have two options: Win fast or Win Slow. So far in Standard there is no way to win fast with the Locket so we are forced to win slowly. In order to win Slow you have to do what you can to guarantee a win in Game one because often times you will run out of time before you have had a chance to play a full game two.

I decided to change the deck to fit the slow style of play. In order to do this I had to make sure if game one was a long game I would win every time. Here is the decklist I came up with:

Creatures (4):
4 Court Hussar

Artifact (8):
4 Locket of Yesterdays
2 Simic Signet
2 Selesnya Signet

Spells (26):
4 Wrath of God
4 Compulsive Research
2 Gaea's Blessing
4 Remand
4 Overrule
4 Whispers of the Muse
4 Spell Burst

Land (22):
2 Saltcrusted Steppe
2 Calciform Pools
4 Azorius Chancery
4 Plains
10 Island

Sideboard (15):
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Rewind
3 Commandeer
4 Flashfreeze
3 Teferi's Moat

Here are the differences between my version and Adrian Sullivan's:
In: +2 Simic Signet, +2 Selesnya Signet, +2 Gaea's Blessing, +4 Court Hussar
Out: -3 Azorius Signet, -1 Tidespout Tyrant, -1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath, -1 Debtors' Knell, -2 Careful Consideration, -3 Condemn

Lands:
In: +4 Island, +2 Plains, +2 Saltcrusted Steppe, +4 Azorius Chancery
Out: -2 Adarkar Wastes, -4 Desert, -4 Hallowed Fountain, -1 Vesuva, -1 Academy Ruins
Sideboard:
In: +3 Commandeer, +4 Flashfreeze
Out: -1 Chronosavant, -1 Debtors' Knell, -3 Wipe Away, -1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath, -1 Tormod's Crypt

While it may look like I made a lot of changes, in reality I made the deck survive the long game. This deck can only win a long game and by adding in the Green for Gaea's Blessing I've given myself a way to ensure I will not be decked. This was also a metagame move. A few players in my area play Millstone decks and I knew I would have an auto win if I got paired against them. The Saltcrusted Steppe and Calciform Pools at first glance looked like they would be a hindrance but in playtesting with them I realized that in a long game the Storage lands can really help give you a big Overrule. After playing the deck I wish I had included the Deserts in my deck. They would have helped out in my one loss.

My sideboard choices were also metagame choices. Rewind was for Dragonstorm. Commandeer for Demonfire. Flashfreeze for aggro red green decks. Adrian's deck used Chronosavant but I don't see any point to the card. I really think it's a bad card.

Here is how my tournament went:

Round 1 vs. R/B

Game 1:
Unfortunately I do not remember too much about this match. I do remember that before the round started I told my opponent that if our game went longer than 15 minutes he should just give me game one and go to game 2. He chose not to follow this advice. Our first game lasted 28 minutes out of our 40 minute rounds. So far the deck was doing what I wanted it to do, win game one and use up a lot of the clock. It may seem like using the clock to your advantage is wrong but when you play a slow deck that requires time to win, even if you play fast it will still take a lot of time. I ended up decking my opponent with recurring Compulsive Researches.

Game 2:
Only 9 minutes to play this game and I am not a player that will play slowly to win a game. We get to the point of me being at 8 life and my opponent had two cards in hand so I cast a second Teferi's Moat, one calling red and one black. That was one of the mistakes I made this match. On his turn he casts Rain of Gore. I remand it. He recasts it. I Spell Burst it. And wouldn't you know it, the other card in his hand was a second Rain of Gore and I had no mana open for a counterspell. At the time I was holding 2 Overrule and would be unable to cast them for the rest of the game. We take turns drawing cards and playing lands. Then on his turn the Buzzer sounds telling us the round is over. He draws his card and it turns out to be a Demonfire. He has Hell-bent so I can't counter it. I made the mistake of not sideboarding in my Commandeers against him.

Matches: 0-0-1
Overall Games: 1-1-0

Round 2 vs. Mono White Millstone

Game 1:
This game I got paired up vs. Eric who knew I was playing Gaea's Blessing and I knew he was playing Millstones and Martyr of the Sands and Proclamation of Rebirth. Right away he starts telling me he hates me because of my deck. He gets a turn one Martyr out and starts beating me down. I get down to 6 before I can Wrath away his Martyr. I am able to hold him off with Overrules. They end up getting my life total back up to 92. The storage lands really helped in that area. He knows he doesn't stand a chance, but with me drawing a lot of cards each turn with Whispers of the Muse he decides to chance it. I let him resolve a Millstone because Gaea's Blessing will save me. I start to play Court Hussars, putting cards on the bottom of my deck. I end up putting a Gaea's Blessing on the bottom of my deck and I draw just enough cards each turn to keep open the option of forcing his Millstone to hit the Gaea's Blessing. He tries to mill me out and I use Whispers of the Muse to draw all but my final two cards. His Millstone hits my Blessing. Then he finally concedes. We only have 5 minutes left in the round so he concedes and I win 1-0.

Matches: 1-0-1
Overall Games: 2-1-0

Round 3 vs. R/G

Game 1:
Yet again this was an excruciatingly long game. We only managed to play one complete game as time ran out on us in game 2. Since the first round people had started talking about this deck and they started getting all cocky about it. This round was no different. My opponent though he would be able to burn me out with a Demonfire. He stalled out all game letting me counter everything he played just hoping to draw one of his two Demonfires. He never did and my Court Husars went all the way for the win. At this point I realized a major flaw in having Court Hussars as my win condition. With one in the Graveyard and 2 Lockets in play I can never cast a Court Husar and have it stay in play due to its casting cost being reduced to one Blue Mana. Sacred Mesa may have been a better choice for a Win Condition.

Matches: 2-0-1
Overall Games: 3-1-0

Round 4 vs. Dragonstorm

Game 1:
Kyle heard me talking about my deck but he failed to pay attention to a full decklist. Since he was playing Dragonstorm I knew I would be in trouble if I stayed at 20 life so on turn 3 I Overrule his Compulsive Research for one just to get out of Bogarden Hellkite Range. I'm glad I was able to do that because a few turns later he casts Dragonstorm for 4 getting the 4 Hellkites. He gets me to one life. I cast Wrath of God the following turn. He still figures he can win and the game goes on for a bunch of turns while he waits to draw a Demonfire. He forgot I play Overrule. He casts Demonfire for 8 with Hell-bent. I cast Whispers of the Muse in response and Overrule my own spell to gain 47 life (Thanks Storage Lands).

Game 2:
Only 7 minutes left. Just my luck to be playing against a Combo deck with time not on my side. I keep a hand with 2 bounce lands and 1 basic Island. On my fourth turn I have an Untapped Bounce land and a tapped Bounce land I had just played. I never got to untap it. He combos off on turn 4, hitting me for 20 damage.

Game 3:
I should have probably tried to stall to get the draw but I'm not that kind of player and with 2 minutes left in the round we start the game. I get stuck at three land by the time Kyle combo's off on turn 5. I never thought this round would have turned out this way with me winning game one with only 7 minutes to go.

Matches: 2-1-1
Overall Games: 4-3-0

Round 5 vs. Mono Black

Game 1:
He doesn't play much and my deck is able to go aggro with the two Court Hussars I start with. I win in less than 10 minutes. I have no clue what he is really playing other than a bunch of discard cards.

Game 2:
This one goes pretty much the same way except he is able to get 2 early Racks out on me. I never have less than 4 cards in my hand. Compulsive Research lets me stock up my graveyard to help the Lockets in play.

Matches: 3-1-1
Overall Games: 6-3-0

Looking back upon this deck there are a few changes I would make to this deck. The number one change is that I would keep it Blue and White. By doing this I could play Jotun Grunt in place of Gaea's Blessing and also to help as a win condition. Court Hussars also have to come out of the deck. In their place I would probably put in 2 Millstone's and 2 Jester's Cap's. I would also add in 1 Academy Ruins to help combo out with the Cap. The Sideboard would also change because I have no Enchantment or Artifact removal at all. I would probably take out the Tormod's Crypts and add in Disenchant or Repeal.

Looking forward to the rest of Time Spiral Block I feel this card will get much more powerful. We will have to wait and see, but I can guarantee you that there will be cards in the next few sets that will help the Locket become very powerful. Who knows, maybe we will even see the first banning since Mirrodin block. But for now, break the Locket any way you can. It is a very powerful card and will become a standard mainstay for the next year, I will guarantee it.

Billy Moreau
[email protected]