Week 2: Black-Red Hazoret

You can find my stream at twitch.tv/edubious and you can read all about the Week 1 League and a bunch of other great content over at StrictlyAverageMTG.com

For my 2^nd trip out in the Standard Competitive Leagues, I decided to take an iteration of my first deck.  I really like the position that Mono-Red Hazoret is in, but it feels like it could use juuust a little bit more oomph.  I added a black splash in to give me access to Unlicensed Disintegration.  A creature removal spell that ALSO damages the opponent?  Sign me up.  Having access to black mana means that I can also run Scrapheap Scrounger in the place of Firebrand Archer to up the artifact count.  I had added the Archer into the original red list as my personal spice to make up for the range that was missing from the extra “free damage” after Ramunap Ruins was banned. Sadly, it proved too slow, incredibly underwhelming, and simply got outclassed by what other 2-drops are doing in this format.

Now, without further ado, I give you the edubious Standard League Streaming Adventure, Volume 2!

Match 1: vs UB Control (0-2)

I got off to a pretty solid start, but did get tripped up with only a single red mana source.  Being stuck on mana, I decided to crack my Bomat Courier in response to a Vraska’s Contempt.  After my opponent Essence Scattered a Scrapheap Scrounger and used a 2^nd Vraska’s Contempt, I was starting to feel the pressure of inevitability.  I deployed a couple more hasty threats only to get a Torrential Gearhulk into flashback Contempt to essentially wipe my board.  When my opponent followed up that play with a copy of The Scarab God into another Gearhulk to flashback the other Vraska’s Contempt, this one was in the bag.

Because this is pretty much a port from my mono-red list, the sideboard cards and thus the sideboard strategy against control is pretty much the same from last week.  Bring in the two copies of Glorybringer, the extra Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and Vance’s Blasting Cannons to give the long game some extra reach.  Also bring in Vraska’s Contempt to deal with The Scarab God and the extra copy of Abrade to deal with the Torrential Gearhulks.  Because they are so creature light I took out the Shocks and Moment of Cravings.  I also took out the Soul-Scar Mages because they just get outclassed too quickly.

Game 2 did not go very well for me either.  With another mull to 6 and keeping a slow hand, my opponent just had every answer to everything I put out.  It also didn’t help that I drew into 2 copies of Unlicensed Disintegration and an Abrade in the first 3 turns against a deck that doesn’t deploy creatures all that often.  My opponent landed a copy of The Scarab God and was able to start reanimating all of MY OWN creatures to beat me down.

Match 2: vs UB Control (0-2)

This matchup highlights the effectiveness of a deck like UB Control.  Even though I had a pretty strong starting hand AND my opponent got stuck on 3 lands until turn 7, they were still able to deal with all of my threats, and using spells like Vraska’s Contempt and Moment of Craving, gain enough life to get out of reach of my deck.  Your opponent down to 5 life, knowing they GAINED 6 off the removal spells that were also taking your win conditions off the board is a very frustrating place to be.  I also made some severe misplays due to not being totally familiar with my deck.  There were several occasions where I should have recurred the Scrapheap Scroungers out of my graveyard but didn’t, and that gave my opponent fuel for his The Scarab God once he landed one.

Sideboarding is the same as from match 1 so I’ll save you the details and move on to game 2.  This time I got off to a pretty quick start, but again thanks to some severe misplays and a never ending stream of answers in the form of murder and permission from my opponent, my advantage very quickly dried up and two Torrential Gearhulks and a The Scarab God later, I was toast.

Match 3: vs Sultai Energy (2-1)

Game 1 got off to a pretty slow start for me.  A mull to 6 left me with a couple lands, a couple removal spells and a Glorybringer.  After drawing a couple more lands I was flooding out, but still applying pressure.  Hadana’s Climb is a REAL card though, and a late-game Walking Ballista put my opponent over the top.

Sideboarding against the Energy decks is always tricky.  Are they going to stay on the Bristling Hydra plan, or will they switch it up?  Are they bringing in extra removal to slow you down, or extra creatures to try and make themselves faster?  I decided to go into this thinking they would stay on the Bristling Hydra plan while bringing in extra removal.  I sided out a copy of Moment of Craving, a Magma Spray, both copies of Shock, and the copy of Aethersphere Harvester.  I brought in Vraska’s Contempt and an Abrade to get my removal a bit bigger, 2 copies of Glorybringer, a Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and an Angrath, the Flame-Chained to give me a long game edge since their creatures can quickly outclass mine.  You’ll notice those counts don’t match.  Well, I couldn’t quite decide what else to cut, so I went with 61 cards for game 2.

Game 2 was what I was expecting out of my deck.  Turn 1 Bomat Courier into Turn 2 Scrapheap Scrounger, followed by removal and a Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and my opponent scooped on turn 5.

No changes to the deck (yes, still running 61 cards) and we shuffled up for game 3.  I got off to a terribly slow start and thought my opponent was going to quickly outclass me.  His ability to deploy threats every other turn while alternating with removal for my own threats meant I was on the back foot.  Luckily I was able to get a Glorybringer online to remove a few of his guys, then dropped Hazoret the Fervent to give me reach and power through his pair of Bristling Hydras.  The big game sideboard cards helped me close this one out.

Match 4: vs Mono-Red Hazoret (1-2)

Game 1 was a red mage’s dream.  Let’s just say if this were a full match at a Grand Prix, there would be PLENTY of time for lunch.  We both landed a flurry of early threats and pressure, used removal spells where we had to and the match was over on turn 6.  Being on the play, I had an advantage in game 1 thanks to a turn 4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance.  My opponent attacked her for 5 damage on turn 5 which gave me a comfortable enough life total to take a gamble and swing with the team to get them down to 6 life, holding a Lightning Strike in hand.  My turn 6 draw was another copy of Lightning Strike for lethal!

Just recently being a Mono-Red Hazoret pilot, I figured I knew how to beat the deck pretty well and sideboarded accordingly.  I brought in 2 Glorybringers, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and Angrath, the Flame-Chained to give me big-game, the extra copy of Aethersphere Harvester for the lifelink, and the 2 copies of Chandra’s Defeat, because red.  I took out 2 Shocks, an Unlicensed Disintegration, and the full 4 copies of Scrapheap Scrounger.  Not being able to block an aggro onslaught is a pretty big liability and the last think I want to top deck in a war of attrition is a dead card.

Game 2 again started off in typical red fashion.  Fast cheap creatures trading chip shots at each other’s life totals.  Except I found myself mana screwed and got stuck on 2 lands until turn 6 when I drew…a Canyon Slough.  That’s not going to help bring me back, so I scooped and went to game 3.

For game 3, I realized that not bringing in the Vraska’s Contempt to both gain me some life AND deal with a Hazoret the Fervent was a pretty big mistake.  I brought that in, opting to take out an Earthshaker Khenra.  I chose to start off with a tapped Canyon Slough rather than the Mountain I had in my opener so that I could have access to black mana on turn 2 for the Moment of Craving I had in hand.  The game slowly progressed with both of us being stuck on 3 mana until turn 7.  I could 1-for-1 his threats, but there was always that pesky Thopter token from Pia Nalaar holding back my Bomat Courier.  I didn’t want attack into the token because I didn’t want to have to crack the Courier.  I was holding a Chandra, Torch of Defiance, a Hazoret the Fervent, and a Glorybringer in hand.  All I needed to do was draw into a land or two.  Eventually I did, and was able to deploy all of my threats, attacking my opponent down to 3 life while I sat pretty at 11.  The problem was that I didn’t have enough mana to take care of the token from Rekindling Phoenix after killing her with an exterted Glorybringer and my opponent was able to slam down a 2^nd copy of Glorybringer on his side of the board and swing for 12 on the crackback.

Match 5: vs WB Vampires (0-2)

This deck is fast, wide, and can get big.  AAAND it would seem just about every spell in the deck gains them life!  Radiant Destiny is a real card and it gives a deck like BW Vampires a major advantage against red strategies.  Achieving the City’s Blessing on Turn 4, my opponent was able to overwhelm my meager forces as I also managed to flood out, unable to get under 2 cards in hand for Hazoret the Fervent.

Never having played this matchup and not really knowing what to do, I brought in Vraska’s Contempt to deal with some potential late game big Vampire and a Blazing Volley which was my idea of tech in case I ran into a tokens deck.  1 damage to each creature isn’t going to do much to a bunch of buffed up dudes (and/or dude-ettes…I don’t presume to know these Vamps).  I also brought in Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Angrath, the Flame-Chained mostly for funsies.  In reality they are probably too slow and I should have been trying to get faster.  Out went the 2 copies of Shock and all 4 Scrapheap Scroungers.

Game 2 I felt like I was starting off strong.  Threats and removal was keeping my opponent off pressuring my own life total.  And then came the Authority of the Consuls.  What a beating that card is.  You’re telling me that red decks can’t have Rampaging Ferocidon anymore because “it single handedly negates the tokens strategy”, but the tokens decks can have THIS?  REALLY!?!?! THIS!!!  My opponent also followed that play up with a Radiant Destiny and it was quickly lights out for me.

Wrap-up

My biggest takeaway from this week’s league is “just because you CAN doesn’t mean you SHOULD.”  I decided to fire up this league during my flight to Hong Kong.  Streaming from an airplane presents a plethora of challenges that make for terrible content.  I’m not even going to bother posting the recordings OR the playbacks because of it.  The airplane wifi was very spotty, causing severe lag and several dropped connections.  The stream recording had to start and stop several times.  It would also have been pretty rude if I were to be constantly talking in such close quarters, especially on a red-eye flight when everyone in their right mind is sleeping (notice I was awake playing Magic Online…what does that say about me?).  So you don’t get any of my real-time thoughts and analysis of the game state.  Plus, airplanes are hella noisy.  The background whirring of the jet engines makes even watching the replay for just the game action unbearable.

Beyond the issues with the stream and the recordings and the spotty internet connections, there is also the “should you” question of ruining your decks consistency, game plan, and most importantly the mana base by adding another color.  I can say that I rarely felt like my deck was beating itself with the mono-red version, but with as much mana issues that I faced during this go-round, I seriously question whether the added reach of extremely powerful spells like Vraska’s Contempt and Angrath, the Flame-Chained were worth it. Also adding in an extra suite of creature removal in the main deck while the meta is seemingly dominated by control decks is probably not the greatest deck building decision.

As for the state of standard, it appears there is a major shift towards blue, and more specifically, control versions of blue decks at hand.  Red strategies are still quite viable, and at the end of the week, I think this Black-Red version of the aggro deck can be VERY powerful.  It has early threats, a very strong suite of removal options, and some of the format’s most powerful finishers.  But it needs the right meta, and even then, the right matchups.

The decklist

Creature
4x Bomat Courier
2x Soul-Scar Mage
4x Earthshaker Khenra
2x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4x Scrapheap Scrounger
3x Hazoret the Fervent
1x Glorybringer

Instant
1x Magma Spray
2x Shock
2x Moment of Craving
2x Abrade
4x Lightning Strike
4x Unlicensed Disintegration

Artifact
1x Aethersphere Harvester

Planeswalker
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Land
2x Canyon Slough
4x Dragonskull Summit
1x Field of Ruin
1x Ifnir Deadlands
6x Mountain
4x Sunscorched Desert
4x Swamp

Sideboard
1x Blazing Volley
2x Chandra’s Defeat
1x Magma Spray
1x Abrade
2x Harsh Mentor
1x Pia Nalaar
1x Aethersphere Harvester
1x Vraska’s Contempt
1x Vance’s Blasting Cannons
1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2x Glorybringer
1x Angrath, the Flame-Chained

Eric Wendorf

Eric has been an avid Magic fan and player since re-discovering the game in 2012. He is a Red mage at heart but likes to confuse himself with the varying decision trees presented by mid-range and control decks from time to time.
Eric plays mostly casually with his 9-year-old daughter, but manages to get out for every prerelease and a few FNM’s and GP’s every year.

Please reach out to me on twitter @edubious

Watch my Twitch stream at twitch.tv/edubious

The time is perfect for collecting spicy cards from the Unglued and Unhinged sets. Unstable looming over the horizon means there will soon be increased interest in silver-bordered deliciousness. Which means you can grab the goodies from the other Un-sets before they become good trade bait.

But rather than waste your time with all the random bulk (I’m calling you out, Little Girl and Paper Tiger), you can target the cards that will bring fun to your gaming group. Fortunately, many of the silver-bordered cards are low in value. You don’t have to aim for expensive charmers like Blacker Lotus or Super Secret Tech, since there’s plenty of fun all around both sets.

Let’s start off by examining what artifacts worth less than $2 can bring some fun to your games.

Bronze Calendar starts out our year with two great effects. First, you get cost reduction for everything, without restrictions such as spell color or card type. This is especially nice with artifacts, which can’t take advantage of many of these narrower cards. Bronze Calendar also brings in the silliness by requiring you to speak in a different voice. If you want to be a min-maxer, just whisper. But if you really want to have a blast, bring an entertaining character to the group. Just maybe not Elmo or Jar Jar.

My First Tome rewards the Vorthos player, since if you’re a Vorthos, you’ll be delighted to dig up the really obscure flavor text on cards. What could be better than getting to do some game-related flavor text digging?!? Oh, that’s right, drawing cards cheap. A tome that costs 3 and can snag you a guaranteed card (for those sneaky Vorthos players) for only 1 is an absolute powerhouse! Even better, it’s worth well under $1.

Urza’s Hot Tub is one of the most underrated cards of all the Un-sets! This sweet tutor can be instrumental to your deck when used correctly. First, let’s consider pitching a card to search for itself, in the event of reanimator or Eternalize strategies. Yes, pitch an Adorned Pouncer to fetch for another, and now you’re ready to roll with an Eternalized kitty. Second is the obvious use in tribal decks where you’re guaranteed to have locations, tribes, species, or other proper nouns in the card names. The easiest are Slivers, but Goblins, Elves, and Zombies also share similar commonalities in naming. It’s so much fun to pitch something like a lowly Metallic Sliver and get the return of a Sliver Hivelord. The third strategic use of the hot tub is as a toolbox effect, searching for a card with common words like “the” or “of.” Did you have an extra land fetch card like Seek the Wilds and need a combat trick? Pitch it for Might of the Masses. Or have that Might but need to take out critical cards? Go in search of something like Watchers of the Dead or Appetite for the Unnatural. This brings less silliness to the table, but it certainly rewards the Vorthos who’s clever with the card names, or the Johnny who min-maxes the words.

Giant Fan is so much more than the suboptimal version of Power Conduit that it appears to be. Priced at just under $1, you can pick up this thing as a political powerhouse. First thing to notice is this thing can deposit counters on more than artifacts and creatures, references their own counters, and isn’t limited to your own permanents. This puts you in the center of political favoritism and punishment in a group game, since you remove age counters from a Glacial Chasm to put loyalty counters on a Garruk Relentless, or vice versa. You can even scheme with or against the users of Undying or Persist creatures. The uses go on for days.

Clay Pigeon is a nice way to show off your dexterity skills and have an all-around Circle of Protection for everything. As long as you can catch the little critter, you’re protected. Sure, this makes it a target of removal spells, but you can have some fun in the meantime. To bring the silliness back into the action, practice some spin and throw tricks with flare and entertainment value. Yes, I’m fond of entertainment value, which is why I’m a fan of Emcee, but that’s a tangent for a later article.

Water Gun Balloon Game is absolute silliness in a small package. For pure strategic value, this card is best in a duel where you can crank out small spells like Lotus Petal or Soul-Scar Mage. But if you want to maximize the silliness and fun value, ditch the weenie deck, use this in multiplayer, and watch the free-for-all ensue. Players will race to be the next one to win a Giant Teddy Bear token! This is a group hug gone wacko in the very best way. I’d say it’s well worth consideration, even as the most expensive card on this list at under $2.

Time Machine can be a political metagame card. You can send a Kami of the Crescent Moon or a Magus of the Vineyard to the next game, either to enjoy it there while the current game is about to end, or to stifle an opponent who is being less appreciative than they should. Or, you can use it to send some utility to the future, or some other type of group hug card to guarantee another trigger in the next game, such as Iwamori of the Open Fist (who is also an amazing budget card!) and get everyone excited. The best thing about the Time Machine is it keeps going once you use it. You only cast it once, and then you keep getting it back in every subsequent game if you play your politics right. Sounds like the perfect card for an all-nighter!

Mana Screw is the bane of each and every Magic player, but the card version at least lets you gamble. That’s perfectly in flavor for the game, since everything is so RNG heavy. I’ve been a fan of sub-gambles in Magic since I saw my first coin-flipping cards, Mijae Djinn and Bottle of Suleiman. You could go around trying to fix things with Goblin Bookie or Krark’s Thumb, but you’re already at 50% odds. The restriction to instant timing is no problem at all, since you could use this to boost yourself into a large spell like Fact or Fiction on turn two, or a colossal X spell like Comet Storm faster than you should be able. Whatever your gambling heart desires, Mana Screw is willing to tempt you.

Chaos Confetti is the final card on the list, at around 50 cents. It is certainly a political card, and rewards you for dexterity practice. You get to go to 11 in the Derium impression as you both flip it and rip it (from a distance of five feet). Yes, it can get messy, but that’s part of the charm. Unlike Blacker Lotus, you can afford to rip apart one of these cards with the current price tag. The destruction of a card, especially one almost twenty years old, might seem unappealing, but that’s part of the charm of the confetti. There aren’t likely to be cards this strange in the new Unstable set, so why not go retro, literally destructive, and bizarre all at the same time as you prepare for that December release?

The small size of the Un-sets means that there were few total artifacts. Fortunately, we’ll soon explore the more plentiful and colorful offerings. Join us next time for the exploration of blue Magic with a silver coat.

Puggernaut

Sick brags aside, the Top 8 of Pro Tour Hour of Devastation had 6 variants of RDW, 1 copy of Black-Green Constrictor, and 1 copy of Mono B Zombies. A lot of players will misread these results, and assume that RDW is the only deck to play in this Standard format.  Do not get me wrong; it is a great deck. I considered sleeving it up for Game Day. However, after a bit more thinking I realized that this may not actually be the best deck in my hands coming up this weekend.

A lot of players misread tournament results, forgetting that there is so much more than just the final results that matter in an event where limited is also involved.  Someone could have had the absolute best deck, and lost to variance.  Or possibly could have 0-3d their draft pod, and never made it deep enough into the tournament to make a splash.  The idea of the Pro Tour is to be a giant commercial, and sell product for Wizards of the Coast.  To me, a Pro Tour dominated by mono red decks is an indicator that the format is wide open, and the Pros haven’t figured out the format already.  This sounds silly to think about, but with the current state of Standard the past few Pro Tours were just rehashes of decks that were broken and an indicator of an unhealthy format. I believe Standard has been turned on its head, and the field is wide open for the next best deck to emerge.

I do not have a crystal ball, and probably would break it if I did.  I cannot tell the future, nor predict what the best overall deck is going to be.  I believe the new gods have yet to be heard from.  I think Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh can power a sweet Grixis List. I like that I am seeing people play sweet cards like Storm Chaser mage in random events. I will admit that I was super happy to see the emergence of Black Green Constrictor Decks at the PT, and have been wanting to play a similar deck for some time.  I love Winding Constrictor and have really wanted to do some damage with this card.

I decided that I really liked Paul Rietzl’s deck, and wanted to do some testing with it.  So far, the results are great.  I am testing over on XMage, and as expected I have run into copy after copy of Red Decks.  This is an interesting phenomenon in Magic, where everybody wants to play the deck that won the Tour.  This means I will assuredly see multiple opponents on this deck this upcoming weekend.  So far I have learned the play lines that will give me most chance to win verse the horde of red I am encountering, and feel well positioned with this deck.  I have only changed out 2 cards in the sideboard, adding 2 Collective Brutality in place of the Tireless Tracker, and Ob Nixilis Reignited in the sideboard. I am also playing around with finding room for Rhonas the Indomitable, and more Aethersphere Harvester in the main board.  I think both of these cards can prove to be really good against the RDW strategy.

I am not claiming that this is the best deck in the format, I just feel like it plays well against what the majority of the field has thrown against me this week in testing.  I enjoy this deck so much that I am acquiring cards on MTGO to make it run.  It is a solid choice and loses very little come rotation.

Feel free to comment and let me know what you plan on playing this weekend at Game Day.  I will be attending two, possibly three events, so I am sure I will either have lots of stories of victory, or some great bad beat tales,

Good luck, and have fun.

-Strictly

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE STRICTLY AVERAGE MOVEMENT OR IF YOU WANT TO GET IN ON NEXT MONTHS DRAWING, FEEL FREE TO CHECK OUT OUR PATREON

Jeremy Beardsley

Jeremy aka “Strictly Average” is an ‘average’ guy with ‘average’ plans. He is the creator and overboss of Strictly Average Gaming, which includes the Patreon group and StrictlyAverageMTG.com

https://strictlyaveragemtg.com

4 Aether Hub
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Forest
2 Island
1 Mountain
2 Swamp
2 Catacomb Sifter
1 Distended Mindbender
1 Elder Deep-Fiend
3 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
1 Noxious Gearhulk
4 Rogue Refiner
1 Torrential Gearhulk
2 Walking Ballista
1 World Breaker
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Fatal Push
4 Grapple with the Past
4 Kozilek's Return
2 To the Slaughter
1 Prophetic Prism
2 Sinister Concoction

Sideboard
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Appetite for the Unnatural
1 Dampening Pulse
2 Negate
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 Release the Gremlins
4 Transgress the Mind
1 Unlicensed Disintegration

It seems that the popularity of Delirium decks went down after the banning of Emrakul, The Promised End in Standard and I was really excited to see this list pop up.  As soon as I read the article I felt that there were some seriously fun things I could be doing in my matches. The entire point of playing is to have fun… No.. Win… But if I can have fun and win, this is really winning.

During my league matches, I consistently had Delirium super early in the game and found myself way ahead. Often times, I would cast Traverse the Ulvenwald Turn 1, Grapple with the Past Turn 2, and cast Walking Ballista with X=0 to give myself Delirium on Turn 3. The Ballista for 0 is super cute, and a great way to get a revolt trigger, and hit Delirium early. Even more effective is the act of playing the Ballista for some value of X, using the counters to ping the opponent and then benefiting from the Revolt trigger or the 2 for 1 special on Delirium.

Another thing I noticed while playing this list was that it felt to me like a Modern deck with its variety of threats, and most cards only having 1 or 2 copies in the main deck. I was slightly weary of this and normally do not like this as a deckbuilding strategy in Standard, but with almost guaranteed Delirium for Traverse, it is pretty much a tutor every time you need it to be. There is a wide variety of big fatties at the top end of the curve that all have differing uses, and it is nice to have the option to find exactly what you need.  The inclusion of 4 Grapple With the Past in this list allowed me to bring back the important creatures in my particular matchup and made it really hard for Control Decks to have all the answers to my threats.

One of the highlights of my league performance thus far was casting 5 copies of Ishkanah, Grafwidow. This definitely felt like cheating.  At one point, I had 3 in hand at once and laughed as he sighed every time I cast one. Although this was definitely the exception, and not the rule when it comes to this deck, it showed me the diversity of such a brew.

I enjoyed playing this deck immensely and if you are tired of playing Heart of Kiran, Winding Constrictor, or Saheeli in the current Standard metagame, give this list a spin.  It is super strong and every game plays out differently.  Although I find this to be really interesting, it makes it harder to give play advice without seeing particular board states.  Feel free to comment if you have a chance to test it out. If there is enough interest, I will do some match by match analysis of this deck.

Be kind, Have fun, and Don’t Forget to Smile!

-Strictly

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE STRICTLY AVERAGE MOVEMENT OR IF YOU WANT TO GET IN ON NEXT MONTHS DRAWING, FEEL FREE TO CHECK OUT OUR PATREON

Jeremy Beardsley

Jeremy aka “Strictly Average” is an ‘average’ guy with ‘average’ plans. He is the creator and overboss of Strictly Average Gaming, which includes the Patreon group and StrictlyAverageMTG.com

https://strictlyaveragemtg.com

I started to learn Dredge because I found the deck to be super interesting. It operates on an axis that other decks don’t. Just as I finished collecting the last pieces of it, it would be banned. Probably due to the rumblings of angry mobs with pitch forks demanding Wizard of the Coast’s intervention in the oppressive reign of Dredge as the Dictator of Modern. I expected WoTC to cave into the angry rabble, so as soon as the deck was done, I began the process of converting the deck into a Legacy Variant and looking for a new deck.

A friend recommended an Eldrazi & Taxes list by Craig Wesco, so I began to work on getting the Aether Vials and other expensive pieces.  I built the list with paper cards and tested a lot of matches online. Before I even played my first match with the deck at a live event, I was feeling some concerns with running this list at a large event.  My biggest issue was that I do not enjoy what I consider ‘Non-games of Magic’.  This deck wins by denying an opponent the ability to play their cards in what is better known as ‘Locking them out.’ I actually found this to be zero fun while playing at a live event and hated being the guy who won by stopping my opponents from playing Magic. I do not mind this approach if I am playing just one event, and it is the strategy for the best deck, but if I am going all in on a strategy, I prefer it to be with a more interactive strategy.

A few weeks ago, another friend invited me to a private forum designed to discuss a fairly fringe Modern Deck, Esper Transcendent. The current iteration of this deck was originally designed by Francesco Neo Amati.  This group consists of nearly a thousand supporters of this deck, all working to test, practice and refine the deck for larger events. After reading many discussions about this list, and the different card choices, I began to get really interested in trying it out. The cost associated with these variants is no insignificant, and not having a limitless Modern collection, building this list for June will not be easy.

The desire to learn this deck, and find a good deck candidate for the Open in June, spawned an idea for a fantastic idea for a series of Modern Articles entitled Strictly Learns Modern. Over the course of the next few months, I will be chronicling the process of me trying to find a deck, build it, and learn a format that I am very unpracticed in. This will be a sort of ‘learn with me’ series.

I have done some preliminary testing of the Esper list, using the exact list from GP Brisbane that took 21st place, piloted by Dylan Brown.

Creatures (4)
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Planeswalkers (7)
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Narset Transcendent
Spells (25)
3 Fatal Push
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
3 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
2 Esper Charm
4 Lingering Souls
2 Supreme Verdict
Lands (24)
2 Concealed Courtyard
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Flooded Strand
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
2 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
2 Shambling Vent
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
Sideboard (15)
1 Dispel
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Countersquall
1 Disenchant
2 Meddling Mage
2 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Wrath of God
1 Baneslayer Angel

I tested a series of matches on Xmage making notes on the matchups without actually reading the guides available on this deck.  The goal was to see what I could gather about the strategy and the process of playing the deck from the cards alone.  My first impression of the deck is that it played like a toolbox deck as opposed to straight control list.  When I needed to be a beatdown, I was able to swarm my opponent with damage from Gideon, Tokens, and Snapcasters. When I needed to control the game and let my opponent run out of steam, I was able to control the board state with my variety of answers. I really liked this concept, because it didn’t play like a normal control deck in the sense where I didn’t feel like I was playing ‘Draw-Go Magic.’

Match 1 – Rakdos Tibalt Demonic Pact Offering

In game 1 my opponent worked so hard to get his Tibalt on board, as I disrupted his hand until he was out of cards. My Creeping Tar Pit and Spirit tokens killed Tibalt.  In game two, he played his Liliana of the Veil, and I discarded a multitude of Lingering Souls while shaping my hand to deal with his threats. I flashed in double Snapcaster Mage without using the flashback ability during opponent’s End of Turn with his Lili on 6 Loyalty.  I attacked her and dropped her to 2 loyalty. He sacrificed Lili to force me to sacrifice one of my Snapcasters. On my next turn, with 7 lands in play, I played another copy of Lingering Souls, flashed it back to add 4 tokens to the board, leaving me enough mana for the Countersquall in hand.  The opponent was out of cards in hand and had a clear board.  He drew Thoughtseize which I Countersqualled and proceeded to beat down with tokens and Snapcaster.

Match 2 – Naya Burn

Game one, after a quick beating, I started to stabilize on the back of Shambling Vents gaining life, until my opponent untapped and laid down double Boros Charm plus a Lightning Bolt, 11 damage was enough to close the game. Looking at my notes for Game two, they are very revealing in how the rest of the testing would go.  I simply wrote ‘Just got wrecked. Maybe I should read a primer.’ My notes also had some spots that looked like water-damaged, probably from the salty tears.

Match 3 – Sram/Cheerios

This match was also easy to define. In game one, my opponent played a sub-par threat, dumped a bunch of 0 cost bad artifacts on board, and drew a ton of cards. I untapped and killed his threat – skill game. My opponent eventually scooped to escape the disgrace of decking himself. Game two, he conceded to a second copy of Fatal Push.

Match 4 – Grixis Delver

This matchup felt very fun.  There was a lot of back and forth, and I eventually won. All of the games came down to very close life totals.  The ability for this deck to burn me out with Bolts and other instants seems to be a weakness that I need to understand more from reading how to actually play. I almost wonder if Rest in Peace is a good inclusion for the current online meta in the sideboard since I also faced some Dredge in testing.  In both games that I won, it was able to jam a Tasigur after they wasted their removal on lesser threats.

Match 5 – Dredge

I lost in another close matchup.  I feel like my plan could come together better if I had a better understanding of the sideboard and which cards to deal with when.  This matchup felt like a coin flip that was decided by how poor or how well my opponent drew (dredged) his threats. As it turns out, I was wrong in thinking WoTC would gut this deck, they just banned one dredge card (Golgari Grave-Troll) and was replaced with its little dredge cousin (Golgari Thug).

This short testing session was meant to help me understand the viability of this deck in my hands and to understand if what it’s doing is what I wanted to be doing while playing Magic.  So far I decided that I prefer to let my opponent play things, and then get satisfaction from killing those things.  It feels much more rewarding to let them play cards, then cut them out of the game altogether. I definitely understand that Modern will take a lot of practice to learn and is not easily figured out by playing a winning deck list.  I also understand that in the matches I lost, I most likely could have won if I was more practiced and seasoned with this deck.

My current Modern homework is to actually read the primers and guides provided to me and understand the right way to play this deck.  In my next Strictly Learns Modern, I will play some tests matches after researching the proper play lines, and see if I am still interested in playing this.  If I had to make a decision today, on where I thought I would want to go in June, it would be with Team Transcendent, as this deck does the things I want to be doing while playing Magic.

Good Luck and Have Fun!
Strictly

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE STRICTLY AVERAGE MOVEMENT, FEEL FREE TO CHECK OUT OUR PATREON

Jeremy Beardsley

Jeremy aka “Strictly Average” is an ‘average’ guy with ‘average’ plans. He is the creator and overboss of Strictly Average Gaming, which includes the Patreon group and StrictlyAverageMTG.com

https://strictlyaveragemtg.com

I was in a weird place with standard, coming off of Gameday weekend, and a mediocre performance in the Standard events, as discussed in my Game Day Decknology article.  I had two serviceable decks that had potential to be strong, but they really didn’t speak to my play style. Both of these decks were fun to play but I wasn’t overly passionate about either of them. I messaged a testing buddy to discuss plans for the evening, and he told me about his new Standard. Then he asked me, “What do you actually need to want to play Standard.” I thought on this, and the answer came easy; a deck with Thalia’s Lieutenant and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar. I started brewing and sent him a list of cards I would need to borrow.

I brewed this list on short notice, which is generally a bad idea.  In this case, I feel confident in my understanding of the Human Tribal in the current meta.  I’ve played many local events and even a GP with Human Tribal, because Always Watching is my spirit in the form of an Enchantment, and Thalia’s Lieutenant is my Spirit Creature in the form of a creature card. I’ll admit, the deck I went into battle with had some flaws, but it was based on cards I had available to me at the time of construction.

Creatures
3Thraben Inspector
4Duskwatch Recruiter
4Metallic Mimic
4Thalia’s Lieutenant
1Renegade Rallier
2Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3Tireless Tracker
3Heron’s Grace Champion

Planeswalkers
3Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Spells
2Declaration in Stone

Artifacts
2Aethersphere Harvester

Enchantments
3Always Watching
2Stasis Snare

Lands
4Aether Hub
4Canopy Vist
3Forest
4Fortified Village
8Plains

Sideboard
2Authority of the Consuls
4Blossoming Defense
3Fragmentize
1Heroic Intervention
3Selfless Spirit
2Bruna, the Fading Light

The intent was to leverage some of the strengths of the RW list that I ran on Game Day, but have some longer term survivability.  I had tons of trouble with black-based control cards in while playing the faster more aggressive list. The purpose of the mainboard suite of spells was to allow me to get my creatures out of reach of Yaheeni’s Expertise before my opponent could cast it. This would require me to go bigger with a few creatures, instead of going wide with many small things. I also didn’t want to go all-in on just one creature because I’d be susceptible to spot removal.

The inclusion of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Gideon. Ally of Zendikar allowed me to make my game plan flexible. They also gave me to have a better chance of winning game-ones that were previous an instant loss for me.  If I faced an opponent that I put on running a full playset of Yahenni’s Expertise, I could add counters from Nissa, and even ultimate Gideon instantly to give an additional toughness, this would make a resolved Expertise less backbreaking. If my opponent started picking off my threats with single target removal, I could move into a wider strategy embracing the power of these two Planeswalkers to fill the board with small creatures.  While the planeswalkers were sculpting the board state, I’d be doing powerful things such beefing up Tireless Tracker with +1/+1 counters while gaining card advantage. For the first time in a while, I was super excited to play a regular Standard event.

I showed up at the event with a freshly sleeved deck and ‘gold-fished’ a few hands. I thought to myself, ‘there is no way this can be as much fun as it looks.’ I was wrong, it was more fun than I had imagined, and I quickly fell in love with this deck.  This may very well save Standard for me, in a time where many people are grumpy over the format being dominated by apparently broken combos, and a super strong color pair that didn’t need more help (Black/Green.)

Round One – Black Eldrazi

Round one started and I knew instantly that I’d be facing big, fat, and ugly Eldrazi.  The Mage piloting
this deck was an avid home brewer who had been intrigued by Eldrazi and trying to make them work for months.  I knew his brewing style, and although his brews were well thought-out and powerful, I felt favored in the matchup.  In game one, by the time he cast his first big spell,  an Oblivion Sower, I had a Gideon Emblem, Nissa, 7/7 Thalia’s Lieutenant, and a 6/4 Tireless Tracker on the battlefield. I attacked with both humans and had 2 Clue Tokens and 4 open mana, bluffing that my plan was to buff the Tracker to kill the Sower. He blocked Thalia’s Lieutenant with the Sower, and I cast Heron’s Grace Champion, giving my humans +1/+1 and Lifelink.  I killed his Sower with my Lieutenant, hit him for 7 damage, and gained 15 life on the attack.  After this crushing sequence in game one, my opponent never fully recovered and I also took game two, with a half an hour wait until next round.

Round Two – Fevered Emerge

In round two I faced off against a variant of Fevered Emerge which I was pretty nervous about.  I hadn’t played against this deck, but I knew I’d have to be super fast and kill him before he could start looping Elder Deep-fiend.  Kozilek’s Return could be a problem if I wasn’t aware of it.  Thraben Inspector, into Duskwatch Recruiter, put me on my way to victory as Recruiter flipped on my opponents turn, and I cast a Tireless Tracker and Thalia’s Lieutenant for reduced costs on turn three.  Always Watching and a second Thalia’s Lieutenant made short work of his slow defense.

I moved Blossoming Defense, Selfless Spirit, and Heroic Intervention in from the sideboard and it was onto to game two. A turn two Selfless Spirit slowed down his plan for Kozilek’s Return since  I could give my creatures indestructible in response to the K Return. I swung with the team into his board, expecting him to block- then I would sacrifice Selfless Spirit while he didn’t have mana to cast K Return. Upon doing this,  I saw a hint of satisfaction in my opponents face since he planned on casting a K Return to wipe my board when he untapped.  During my second main phase, I played Renegade Rallier with a Revolt trigger, returning my Selfless Spirit to the Battlefield. On his next turn, he hard cast Kozilek’s Return, knowing I would sacrifice my Selfless Spirit and I put him on an Elder Deep-Fiend after my untap phase, during my upkeep.  I knew this would flash the K Return from the graveyard, and possibly cost me the game.  But I had an answer in hand.

As I went to untap all of my permanents I gave a dramatic pause as my opponent stops me so he can cast a card.  He smiles as he tapped mana and sacrificed his creature to Emerge the Deep Fiend. I respond while the Deep Fiend is on the stack with a Heroic Intervention, protecting my creatures from being tapped down and protecting them from damage from the Kozilek’s Return. Once my opponent registers what has happened, he scooped his cards and extended his hand.

Round Three – G/B Control?

I lost miserably in round three, as I was outmatched with cards that were the kryptonite to my Superman. I named this deck ‘G/B Control?’ because it was very similar to the Snake decks floating around but very control oriented. He crushed me on the shoulders of Liliana, the Last Hope.  The combination of Winding Constrictor, Liliana, the Last Hope, Verdurous Gearhulk, Walking Ballista, Yahenni’s Expertise, and 10 other removal spells in the main deck was just too much removal for my deck – not to mention the tank he had in the parking lot. Since losing this round in two games, I have played the various flavors of GB in 20 test matches, and have only lost three. More testing is definitely required to tune my deck if others decide to mash together the GB archetypes and play similar decks.

Round Four – Fevered Combo Kitty

Game one, I was decimated with a resolved combo and no answer on turn five. Game two, I took mulligans until I had an answer in my hand for the combo. My 5 card hand revealed a Stasis Snare and mana to cast it.  On my opponent’s turn three, he cast Fevered Visions and this helped my situation from starting with a hand of five.  I slowly built up my board as my opponent dug for his combo.  As soon as he drew the last pieces to his combo I could tell from his expression that he thought the game was sealed. I responded to his Saheeli Ra being cast with the Stasis Snare targeting his Felidar Guardian to disrupt the combo.

In Game three, I had an opening hand with Authority of the Consuls and the land to cast it on my first turn. ‘I have no answers to enchantments, but let us play it out and see if I can find a way to win.’ I smiled and cast a second Authority on turn two. He laughed and shook my hand.

Lessons Learned

I learned very quickly that although Metallic Mimic was a powerhouse in the lower casting cost human variants that it didn’t really fit with this more midrange sort of deck. I always felt like I wanted more if I drew that card.  I have updated the list to include Selfless Spirit to the main board, in place of the Mimic. Aethersphere Harvester just did not fit the strategy I was going for as I rarely wanted to take a turn off from casting creatures that affected other creatures, so I removed them to add in 2 more Renegade Rallier. The synergies of returning Selfless Spirit or Thalia’s Lieutenant with Rallier is just too powerful to avoid playing. I am now testing out Oath Of Ajani in the sideboard, as I feel it is another great way to try to get too big for Yahenni’s Expertise and Grasp of Darkness.  My updated list looks like this:

Creatures
3Thraben Inspector
4Duskwatch Recruiter
4Selfless Spirit
4Thalia’s Lieutenant
3Renegade Rallier
2Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3Tireless Tracker
3Heron’s Grace Champion

Planeswalkers
3Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Spells
2Declaration in Stone
Enchantments
3Always Watching
2Stasis Snare

Lands
4Aether Hub
4Canopy Vist
3Forest
4Fortified Village
8Plains

Sideboard
4Authority of the Consuls
4Blossoming Defense
2Heroic Intervention
4Oath of Ajani
1Thalia, Heretic Cathar

This is a list that I’m extremely excited about, and I’m relieved to have accidentally found a deck I could be passionate about playing in Standard. I will be announcing details of a Strictly Average Sponsored Standard League using XMage.  Spoiler Alert, this is the deck I plan on winning the League with.

If you have found the recent Decknology articles useful, please let me know.  I will be expanding formats that I cover in these articles as I get an opportunity to play more and test for the Modern SCG Open in Charlotte this summer.

Good Luck and Have Fun!
-Strictly

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE STRICTLY AVERAGE MOVEMENT, FEEL FREE TO CHECK OUT OUR PATREON

Jeremy Beardsley

Jeremy aka “Strictly Average” is an ‘average’ guy with ‘average’ plans. He is the creator and overboss of Strictly Average Gaming, which includes the Patreon group and StrictlyAverageMTG.com

https://strictlyaveragemtg.com