Coming out of the weekend Grixis Midrange was looking like the established tier-0 archetype that all others would need to be tuned against to have any chance at the top tables of upcoming tournaments.  The online decklist postings only reaffirmed that as multiple decks featuring the God-Pharaoh appear.  And let us not forget about the impending “Combo Summer” I forewarned you all about in last week’s meta update.  Sai Storm (a much better naming convention than trying to force the Paradoxical narrative…) appears in multiples in both of the decklist updates as well.  So, as the Star City Games Classic unfolded this past Sunday, you would have expected a top-8 full of Ornithopters tapping for mana against flipping Nicol Boli (how DO you pluralize a Bolas…or I guess the real question is can the Multiverse HANDLE more than one Bolas?). It cannot – Editor

I guess this is why we actually play the games.  The winning deck?  Why, Mono-Black Zombies of course!  Death Baron and friends lumbered their way to two copies of the deck in the top-8 of this tournament, while Nicol Bolas, the Ravager shows up in only the 5th place (and incorrectly labeled) “U/B Midrange” deck.  Sai, Master Thopterist finds himself completely missing, even going down through the full top-16 decks.  The Zombie decks have only made a few small tweaks since first popping up 3 weeks ago, highlighted by upping the anti-Red Aggro hate with a full 4 copies of Gifted Aetherborn in the sideboard.

The real winner of this tournament has to be Heart of Kiran though, appearing in 5 of the top-8 decks and showing off just how powerful the Vehicle mechanic was when Wizards first introduced (and severely PUSHED) it.  Having access to a permanent that is only a creature when you want it to be (i.e. on your own turn) and considering that instant speed removal has been just about nerfed out of the game, means that aggressive strategies have an upper hand against the slower Combo and Control archetypes.

But that doesn’t mean that Combo and Control are dead.  No, far from it my friends. It just takes the right string of draws and matchups, and you get some spectacularly fun decks like Drake Haven Control, Mono-Black Desecrated Tomb Value-Town, Bant Turns featuring the much maligned Nexus of Fate or the wacky “8-Mare” list that combines the best of the anti-aggro lifegain strategy with Crested Sunmare for a long-game engine that is “neigh” impossible to beat!

So, with the Pro Tour next weekend promising to deliver us the “correct versions” of the decks we have been seeing at the top tables from the Star City events and in the Magic Online 5-0 decklist updates, the one thing that we need to keep in mind is that these decks will be highly tuned for a small and insular metagame, consisting of the top players the game has to offer, competing for one of the top prizes you can hope to earn.  Oh, and did I mention that it’s a team event, so the results are made up and the standings don’t matter? You should still be prepared for anything come Friday night.

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

sound the bugle horns, cue the slow march of finely dressed gentlemen (and women). Old Glory is flapping in the calm breeze as a somber mood consumes the air…
RIP M19 Standard: July 7 – July 23, 2018.  So young, so much potential…

As I was preparing for this week’s article, anxiously awaiting the SCG Classic reults to confirm my assertions from last week that Grixis Midrange would be the new deck that makes the biggest impact on M19 standard, I pulled up the Magic Online Competitive Standard Constructed League decklists that were posted on July 16 and record scratch…well, the title of this article really says it all…this is why we cant have nice things.

Sai, Master Thopterist is a fine card.  Really, Sai isn’t the problem.  It is the same story that we have been dealing with as a Magic Community for nearly 2 years now.  Artifact themed sets are inherently broken.  Design simply cannot create new and interesting COLORLESS cards on a power level that is on par with other expansions without pushing the boundaries.  When you combine a full set worth of these pushes, it tends to break the game.  Giving Sai access to 0-mana artifacts like Mox Amber and Ornithopter, who really does a good Mox impression in this deck thanks to Inspiring Statuary, makes this deck is fast, explosive, and very hard to interact with.

This deck is scary good, and the Pro’s haven’t even had a chance to tune it.  I fully expect to see this deck at the top tables during the next Professional level event, which just happens to be Pro Tour 25th Anniversary on August 3-5.

Looking beyond the doom and gloom of the impending “Combo Summer”, and diving into the rest of the July 16 Online decklists, as well as the July 19 Online decklists and the Star City Games Open (another Team event, where the results are made up and the standings don’t matter) and Star City Games Standard Classic results, we see what WAS expected.  From the aggro end of the spectrum we are well represented by Gx Stompy and Rx Aggro, to the control end of the spectrum with Teferi’s and Scarab God’s.  We also see other old archetypes represented in Approach, GBx Constrictor, Green-Red Monsters, and various God-Pharaoh’s Gift builds.  While the newer Knight’s, Zombie’s, Monument, Tezzerator and Dragons archetypes that popped up after M19 was released are still alive, it looks like Wurm Ramp has fallen off.  Considering Grixis Midrange featuring Nicol Bolas, the Ravager won the SCG Classic, and managed to take down 5 of the 16 top-8 decks across the two SCG tournaments, I’d say that my analysis from last week was spot on and our new overlord Nicky B is here to stay!

As always, I want to leave you with a look into the new tech and any new decks that popped up and look like fun!

First off, a nice new addition to the Esper Control Archetype, several of the July 19 Online results are showing that they have ditched The Scarab God/Torrential Gearhulk plan and have gone a more hardcore control route with a single copy of Chromium, the Mutable for a main deck way to break the control mirror, and to complement Teferi, Hero of Dominaria as the alternate win con.

Finally I’d like to leave you with a 5-0 list from BOTH the July 16 and July 19 Online decklist results, to show that there is still plenty of fun to be had.  Check out these Kitties!

I’ve wanted Pride Sovereign to be a thing since reading the card, so I built a Green-White value deck on MtGArena, before they unlocked full Standard, featuring the fuzzy little guy and had a blast playing it.  The addition of Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants and his Leonin brethren from M19 has made this synergy machine really purr (sorry, not sorry).

While the Pro Tour in 2 weeks will give us a glimpse into what the Pro’s are doing with M19 Standard, it is still a Team Constructed event.  To be honest, there is pretty much zero likelihood that a Standard player would go 0-14 while their teammates put up 12-2 or better records in Modern and Legacy at an event like a Pro Tour, so we don’t REALLY have to worry about a bad deck cracking the top-4, so even though the results and standings are not truly representative of what the “best decks” in Standard are, it still gives us an idea of what the Pro’s were thinking and what direction the meta is headed.  We will have to wait until August 8-10 at Grand Prix Orlando and Grand Prix Brussels for a standalone Professional level Standard tournament to see how these SCG and MtGO lists fare on their own merits.

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

This week we’ve got some spice. I mean some real spice. Yes, there’s a Karn involved. But more than that, there’s THE ANTIQUITIES WAR. This list comes to us from good man Danny Batterman off Twitter, and it is spicy as all get out.

The Core of the Deck

This list is absurdly fun. Master of Etherium + Karn is gross, and Antiquities War digging through your deck while eventually making your Baleful Strixes into 5/5’s for a turn is rather dumb.

It’s pretty obvious that this deck is a control deck at heart, using its mana ramp and Chalice/Sol Land plan to lock out the opponent before making an army of dudes to swing through. Post-board it can bring in even more powerful control lock pieces, making it a very interesting and fun deck to play.

We played five matches with this list, going 1-4 overall. Let’s take a look at the matches!

Match 1 vs DnT (1-2 LOSS)

Match 2 vs Grixis Delver (0-2 LOSS)

Match 3 vs ANT (2-0 WIN)

Match 4 vs Maverick (1-2 LOSS)

Match 5 vs UB Death’s Shadow (1-2 LOSS)

Post Thoughts

Despite the performance this deck was a lot of fun to play, and getting to kill an opponent with three 5/5s off The Antiquities War was gas. Definitely an amusing deck and something that would be fun for anyone looking for something silly and brewful to play.

Wrapping Up

That’s all the time we have this week! Next time, we’re hopping off the Karn train for a little bit to dive into a deck that plays… Orcish Lumberjack??

Until next time, join me again on A Lumberjacking We Will Go!

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

You can find my stream at twitch.tv/edubious and read all about the previous weeks’ leagues, along with a bunch of other great content over at StrictlyAverageMTG.com

For this week’s trip in the Standard Competitive Leagues, I needed to get back to the roots of my aggro deck and rediscover its winning ways.  I stripped the black splash back out and restructured the mono-red main deck.  In a nod to the rise in copies of The Scarab God and Rekindling Phoenix, I added more main deck exile effects in the way of Magma Spray and Puncturing Blow.  I also decided to cut the ever-underwhelming Firebrand Archers and get a little bit bigger by adding in a 2^nd Glorybringer, a 2^nd Aethersphere Harvester, and a 3^rd Chandra, Torch of Defiance to the main.

And so, without further ado, I give you the edubious Standard League Streaming Adventure, Volume 3: now with more Chandra!

Match 1: vs UW Approach (1-2)

I kept a decent but questionably slow hand on game 1.  Only one creature to cast but a few removal spells; I figured I’d at least be able to stall the game against an aggro opponent long enough to draw into some action.  My opponent starts on Plains into Glacial Fortress and was able to counter my turn 2 and 3 plays keeping me from getting out to a blistering start.  In retrospect, I should have played around the Censor by going with Earthshaker Khenra on turn 3 instead of Ahn-Crop Crasher. Instead I got greedy, wanting to get in some extra points of damage because I figured they were on Approach.  A well timed Settle the Wreckage and some removal and counter magic from them, coupled with a little bit of top-deck flood for me, meant I had plenty of mana but ran out of gas. My opponent was able to take game 1 on the back of consecutive Approach of the Second Suns.

Sideboarding against Approach calls for getting rid of targeted creature removal and bringing in any and all creatures available in an effort to be more resilient and faster.  In come the 3^rd Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and Glorybringer along with the 2 copies of Harsh Mentor; out go Magma Spray, Puncturing Blow and a copy of Shock.

Game 2 my opening hand of 3 lands and 2 Bomat Couriers had me excited.  I have mentioned before that leading off with dual Bomats feels near unbeatable for this red aggro deck.  Getting my opponent down to 7 life on turn 3 feels pretty darn good too.  They were able flash in a Shielded Aether Thief on turn 4 to stop my Soul-Scar Mage from dealing too much damage, but that didn’t stop my remaining Bomat Courier from attacking in for 1 and “drawing” me an extra card every turn.  I nearly made a costly play of tapping out for Hazoret the Fervent on turn 5, but realized the mistake and knew that the long term card advantage the Bomat Courier was gaining me far out-classed whatever short term gain I might have achieved from landing a Hazoret.  It turns out when I went for it the next turn, my opponent had the Disallow to counter Hazoret, but I had drawn a land and was able to keep up a red to crack Bomat if necessary.  A few turns later I had pinged them down to 4, then was able to finish them off with the cards I drew off the back of my earlier Bomat.

After seeing a Torrential Gearhulk in Game 2, I decided to bring in my 4^th Abrade and cut the last Shock for game 3.  On a mull to 5, I knew this would be an uphill battle if I wanted to win against a control deck with such a major lifegain component. In perhaps the biggest bone-head play of the match, I led with a tapped Desert of the Fervent on the draw, rather than deploy my only threat to get whatever early points of aggression in that I could.  Not only did this delay my attacks by two full turns, but it also ended up costing me the ability to land a turn 4 Hazoret the Fervent with the ability to attack.  I was able to stick Hazoret a few turns later and even got an attack and one discard activation in, but the 2^nd attack was caught by a Settle the Wreckage.  Thanks to not 1, not 2, but 3 copies of Authority of the Consuls the opponent was able to stave off my threats, gain life, and on the back of two Torrential Gearhulks, close out the game in resounding order.

Match 2: vs Esper Zombies (2-1)

Starting this game on the draw and a mull to 6, I wasn’t feeling great. However 3 mana and 3 hasty threats made it a little better.  Scrying a land to the bottom, I was hoping to draw more action.  Turn 1 draw gave me a 4^th land.  Good thing I was able to scry the first one to the bottom!  My opponent led with Plains, pass, Unclaimed Territory naming Zombies…record scratch…wait, what?  Well after my turn 2 play of an Earthshaker Khenra and the opponent’s draw on turn 3, I guess they had seen all they needed to and snap conceded.  Or rather, I guess they didn’t want to give away any super secret tech.

Siding against an unknown gameplan is difficult, but at least I knew they were on Zombies.  I brought in the copy of Silent Gravestone to shut off any graveyard recursion shenanigans.  I also brought in the 2^nd copy of Puncturing Blow to maximize on the exile effects.  I also brought in both copies of Harsh Mentor and both copies of Dire Fleet Daredevil to give me more creatures because most Zombie decks rely on swarming.  Out went the slow cards like both Aethersphere Harvesters and 2 of the Soul-Scar Mages as well as the smaller removal spells in 2 copies of Shock.

I decided to keep an awkward hand of 2 Desert of the Fervent, 2 more lands but a Glorybringer andBomat Courier as threats and, most convincingly, my silver bullet sideboard tech of Silent Gravestone.  My opponent starting things off with an Authority of the Consuls definitely made me groan.  Thanks to a great draw of Lightning Strike, I was able to deal with the first threat to land on my opponents side, but then no thanks to a string of lands off the top I was quickly flooding out.  Because of a Fatal Push coming from the opponent I had a great excuse to crack the Bomat Courier for the 4 mystery cards underneath.  Two threats and a Chandra, Torch of Defiance were MUCH better than the 3 lands and Glorybringer that I was holding.  I dropped the 2 creatures to get action on board for the following turn that I would deploy Chandra.  After getting my Kari Zev, Skyship Raider Fatal Pushed and drawing a Dire Fleet Daredevil, I decided to change up the gameplan and swing with Bomat Courier to start “drawing” cards. I was going to dispatch the Dread Wanderer with my opponent’s own Fatal Push out of the yard.  It actually took me until watching the replay to realize why the Dire Fleet Daredevil didn’t trigger.  My OWN graveyard hate tech made it so I couldn’t target any Instants or Sorceries! Next, I missed my opportunity to exile the yard with both Dread Wanderers down, then again missed the line to use Chandra to deal 4 to one of the remaining threats. I cast a 2^nd Chandra out of my hand to deal 4 to the other guy and wipe my opponent’s board, then conceded and went for game 3.

I decided to bring in my 3^rd copy of Kari Zev, Skyship Raider for more creature aggression and cut an Abrade for game 3.  Being on the play I just wanted to be able to deploy mass threats and out swarm the zombies.  On a mull to 6, I kept a middling hand of 2 lands 3 damage spells and only a single threat.  I scry’d a Bomat Courier to the top and was able to cast it on turn 2, only to have it immediately Fatal Pushed (pre-attacks?  A possible misplay by the opponent here to not let the top card get exiled first).  Wanting to save the Dire Fleet Daredevil for maximum efficiency, I slow rolled deploying threats to the board, opting to leave up mana for my suite of removal in hand.  Taking out both of my opponents Wayward Servants with damage spells, then being able to Fatal Push their Dread Wanderer felt very right.  A turn 3 Radiant Destiny from the opponent told me they were out of threats.  Thanks to Chandra, Torch of Defiance I was able to out card-advantage the opponent and finish them off.

Match 3: vs UW Cycling (0-2)

On the play and on a mull to 6, I kept a 2-land hand and led with a tapped Desert of the Fervent.  I wanted to ensure that I could deploy Kari Zev, Skyship Raider on turn 2.  That turned out to be a great play because I didn’t draw a 3^rd land until turn 5, and Kari Zev was able to put in major work.  My opponent being on UW lead me to believe they were playing Approach of the Second Sun and after getting my next two 2-mana plays countered by Censor thanks to being mana-screwed, the card advantage that Search for Azcanta was putting in on the other side of the board started to feel oppressive.  Also, I don’t know if you’ve ever read Renewed Faith, but I think that card was designed to give a mono-red fits.  2 mana for “draw a card, gain 2 life”.  What more could a control deck want?  As I was sitting there worried about Approach, my opponent eventually plays an Abandoned Sarcophagus and I now realize that this is a different monster altogether.  After landing a Chandra, Torch of Defiance and getting a couple activations in, I had them down to 3 life and just needed something.  Drawing an Earthshaker Khenra made me realize that there was one of those sitting in my yard, so I Eternalized that bad boy and swung, only for it to be met by Settle the Wreckage.  Another Renewed Faith to go back up to 9, and my small chip damage just cant pull it out.  They land a Drake Haven and start amassing an army of 2/2 Flyers that I don’t get through.

Sideboarding for this deck left me feeling clueless.  I didn’t have a plan.  I knew I needed flyers so Glorybringer definitely came in.  I also brought in both Dire Fleet Daredevils to try to use all of those instants and sorceries against my opponent.  Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and both Harsh Mentors came in to add aggression and incidental damage.  I brought in Vance’s Blasting Cannon to give me some sort of late game and the Silent Gravestone to combat the Sarcophagus. Out came early game removal and creatures that would be outclassed on their own in both Magma Sprays, both Shocks, and all 4 copies of Soul-Scar Mage as well as the single main copy of Puncturing Blow.

Game 2 I decided that I had too much of an advantage, so I F6’d through my first turn, costing me not only early aggression but also major card disadvantage (no this wasn’t really on purpose, just an unfortunate side effect of not concentrating on the task at hand).  No matter what I did it seemed like the opponent had an answer for it, and thanks to an early Drake Haven, they were able to delay the game long enough to string together a bevy of cycling cards and overwhelm my forces with too many flyers.

Match 4: vs UB Control (Gaby Spartz) (2-0)

I saw that I was matched up against Gaby Spartz for this round and was pretty stoked to be playing against one of Magic’s most popular personalities.  I gave her a pre-game message saying that I love her work and went about my business.  I mulled to 6 and kept a 3 land single threat opener, and decided to put a Shock on the bottom, instead hoping for more threats.  My deck did not disappoint, however with Gaby also mulling to 6 then being stuck on a single Field of Ruin for 3 turns, she quickly conceded and we went to game 2.

Knowing that Field of Ruin is typically run in more controlling decks, I put her on UB Control and sideboarded accordingly.  I brought in late game stuff like Glorybringer, Vance’s Blasting Cannons, and Primal Amulet.  I decided to also bring in the Silent Gravestone to cut off a potential The Scarab God.  I took out the smaller removal suite in both copies of Shock as well as the slow threats of Aethersphere Harvester.  I chose not to bring in my 2^nd copy of Puncturing Blow as a hedge in case I was wrong about the deck she was on.

Starting game 2 with two lands, two threats (including a hasty Bomat Courier), and 2 removal spells, I figured I was in pretty good shape.  Gaby led with an Island and a Drowned Catacomb and I was very pleased to see that my wild speculation was spot on!  Getting in a couple times with my early threats, while drawing just the right mix of lands and threats kept me applying pressure even though she was able to start pressing a control deck’s advantage on me.  I made what feels like a very crafty play in attacking with my Earthshaker Khenra without casting spells pre-combat to get her to commit her mana to removal and allow me to cast Kari Zev, Skyship Raider post combat without the threat of it being countered.  Again, figuring there was counter magic waiting in the wings, on my next turn I chose to play my Desert of the Fervent tapped and leave 4 mana up on the attack with Kari Zev.  When another Vraska’s Contempt came on my end step it made me very glad that I hung on to my Hazoret the Fervent.  My suspicions were confirmed a few turns later when the 1 card she had in hand ended up being an Essence Scatter to prevent Hazoret from making an impact.  However thanks to a top deck Glorybringer and an apparent flood out by Gaby, I was able to close out the game.

Match 5: vs UW Approach (2-0)

Starting on the play with a Bomat Courier is a great feeling.  When your opponent starts things off with turn 1 tapped land, it feels even better.  Getting my 3 attackers Settle the Wreckaged did not feel as great and I made what probably turned out to be a mistake in cracking my Bomat Courier in response, discarding a Glorybringer, a Hazoret the Fervent, a Lightning Strike, and an Aethersphere Harvester for 4 random cards.  I ended up getting a couple small threats and a couple more lands (on top of the ones that I got to go search up off the Settle).  I then made another misplay in cracking Field of Ruin to allow the opponent a 3^rd untapped land to cast their 2^nd Disallow of the turn to nullify BOTH of my best threats.  Luckily for me, after my opponent’s 3^rd (yes 3^rd!) Settle the Wreckage, I had enough mana to cast the Hazoret that I found off the top with Chandra, Torch of Defiance, activate Hazoret once to get my hand size down, swing for 5, then activate Hazoret a 2^nd time to deal the final 2 points of damage for the win.

Sideboarding followed the same lines as match 1.  Get bigger, get faster, and take out the creature removal.  Starting game 2 off with a Bomat Courier gave me a nice card advantage engine that red decks just aren’t supposed to have against control decks.  Getting my next two plays Essence Scattered made the card advantage all that much more important.  Being able to respond to a Baffling End by pitching a couple dead removal spells and a couple lands for more action feels like winning.  Deploying an Earthshaker Khenra and a Glorybringer to get my opponent down to 8 on turn 5 was nice, then making an unintuitive play by not casting my Ahn-Crop Crasher to give me 9 points of damage on the board and representing the win.  What I didn’t tell you is that my opponent had 6 open mana and I didnt want to risk it being either countered or getting Settle the Wreckaged and being left with potentially nothing the rest of the game. So I swung with just the forces I had out knocking them down to 2.  A turn 7 Approach of the Second Sun had my opponent tapped out and up to 9 life now, with me representing 6 damage on board.  I think holding back that Ahn-Crop Crasher is what gave them the confidence to tap out to make this play and go for the win the next turn on a likely 2^nd copy of Approach in hand.  I dropped the Ahn-Crop next turn and swung for lethal.

Wrap-up

This mono-red deck still feels like an unstoppable force in this era of Standard.  Granted there are bad matchups, and most of the other decks have really started loading up on the utility lifegain spells. There is an undeniably obvious skew against the red aggro decks with the amount of incidental lifegain. Not only does the cycling deck that beat me play it, but so do some of the green-based decks, the obvious Vampire decks, and the new flavor of the week, a UW Auras list that runs Sacred Cat and a bunch of Auras to give them evasion and pump up the lifegain.  There are still plenty of Hazorets, Chandras, and Bomat Couriers in those lists; with a 4-1 record you can’t argue with this week’s results. Taking a look at the recent 5-0 Competitive League decklists: the format is wide open.

The Decklist

Creature
4x Bomat Courier
4x Soul-Scar Mage
4x Earthshaker Khenra
2x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
2x Ahn-Crop Crasher
3x Hazoret the Fervent
2x Glorybringer

Instant
2x Magma Spray
2x Shock
3x Abrade
4x Lightning Strike

Sorcery
1x Puncturing Blow

Artifact
2x Aethersphere Harvester

Planeswalker
3x Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Land
2x Desert of the Fervent
2x Field of Ruin
14x Mountain
4x Sunscorched Desert

Sideboard
1x Blazing Volley
2x Chandra’s Defeat
1x Silent Gravestone
1x Abrade
2x Dire Fleet Daredevil
1x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
2x Harsh Mentor
1x Pia Nalaar
1x Vance’s Blasting Cannons
1x Puncturing Blow
1x Primal Amulet
1x Glorybringer

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

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

Because I love my home so much, a few weeks ago I decided that I would invite the public in for a peek. I started my own stream where I could play a viable Standard deck in a 5-round Competitive League.  The idea is that I will play one league per week, stream all 5 matches (regardless of record) and write up a “state of standard” style article based on my experience.  I hope you enjoy this series as I build my skills both as a Magic player as well as a content producer.  Please feel free to stop by and check out the stream at twitch.tv/edubious and leave me some feedback.  Let me know what you like, what you don’t like, and if you have any tips for making my stream better.

Without further ado, I give you the edubious Standard League Streaming Adventure, Volume 1!

Week 1: Mono-Red Hazoret (aka Standard on Rails)

I decided to start the stream off with a deck and play style that is near and dear to my heart as an aggro Magic player.  I chose the Hazoret Red deck archetype as the deck with which I would be most familiar and comfortable to start my streaming career. You can find my article about my experience playing this deck in a paper PPTQ about a month ago (although a few tweaks were made to the list since) here at StrictlyAverageMTG.com

Match 1: vs Sultai Energy (2-0)

This match was over quite quickly.  My opponent was apparently having a bit of a rough night with his deck not functioning or performing for him.  After a strong curve out and the opponent conceding on turn 5 in game 1, game 2 was apparently over before it even started.  My opponent mulled to 5 and after dropping a tapped Fetid Pools snap conceded, but not before leaving me this gem:

The tilt is strong with this one.

Match 2: vs Black Red Aggro (2-1)

After a slow start and a couple of misplays, I ended up losing game 1 to a flurry of cheap quick threats out of my Black-Red Aggro opponent.  This is what I’m supposed to be doing, not my opponents!

Sideboarding against “the mirror” is pretty straightforward.  Bring in the extra Aethersphere Harvester for lifegain, bring in the two copies of Glorybringer to go over the top of the smaller creatures that an aggro deck typically runs, bring in the two copies of Chandra’s Defeat to take care of opposing Chandra, Torch of Defiance or Glorybringer threats, in comes the 4^th copy of Abrade to take care of Bomat Courier or potential Scrapheap Scroungers coming out of the black-splash version of the deck, bringing in the Vance’s Blasting Cannons to give myself another way to gain resource advantage in case it becomes a war of attrition, and after a bit of debating as to whether the 3^rd copy of Kari Zev, Skyship Raider or the singleton Ahn-Crop Crasher was the correct play, I decided that Kari Zev was going to be a removal target that probably wouldn’t get any damage through due to the lack of haste and the Crasher would give me a slight advantage in disrupting potential blockers.

Game 2 started out as would be expected from this matchup.  Both sides dropped early, quick threats but my hand and draws gave me better removal to get out to a faster start with stronger pressure on  my opponent’s life total.  Going into game 3, I chose not to make any changes.  After mulling to 6 and having my only red source be a tapped Desert of the Fervent, I was afraid I would end up being too slow.  My opponent started with Bomat Courier into Bomat Courier, which is one of the stronger openers for any red aggro deck.  I decided to Abrade the first Courier (with more cards under it) on the opponents draw step; that way there was an extra card in hand to make the decision a bit more painful.  I followed that up with more removal on turn 3 to get rid of the 2^nd Courier.  My opponent ended up getting stuck on 2 lands until turn 5.  Over the course of the next few turns, I was able to land an Aethersphere Harvester, remove his important threats (Hazoret the Fervent tends to look a little silly when you are short on mana and have 4 cards in hand), and deploy a few threats of my own to take what felt like commanding control of the game.  A few well timed removal spells later and a pesky Rekindling Phoenix that just won’t stay dead, and my opponent was gaining traction and getting right back in it.  Thanks to a well timed top-deck 6^th land I was able to Eternalize two consecutive Earthshaker Khenras to prevent the Phoenix from blocking and wore my opponent down to 1 life.  Now all I need is a for my deck to give me one of it’s signature burn spells.  After drawing a 2^nd Abrade, I was able to take care of Rekindling Phoenix AND it’s pesky token.  But my opponent had another Phoenix waiting in the wings (you see what I did there) and was able to fend me off.  Finally after 3 more draw steps plus seeing an extra card from a futile Bomat Courier attack, I was able to draw into the Lightning Strike I needed to pull out a very close win.

Match 3: vs RG Monsters (2-1)

Game 1 started pretty strong for me with a solid curve out of creatures into removal into a Chandra, Torch of Defiance.  My opponent also stumbled on mana and I was able to efficiently overwhelm him.

Sideboarding against Monsters means you need to get bigger while also having more removal options.  I brought in 2 extra copies of Glorybringer, the extra Aethersphere Harvester, an Ahn-Crop Crasher and the 2 copies of Chandra’s Defeat.  I took out Repeating Barrage because 3 mana for 3 damage is not a great rate when the opponents creatures are so big. Plus, their creatures are typically large enough to put up a wall that cannot be attacked through quite quickly, so the Raid ability often proves useless.  Also out comes a copy of Shock as that spell gets quickly outclassed by the sheer size of the Monsters this deck presents.  I also took out the full 4 copies of Firebrand Archer as it is often too slow of a clock to be effective.

Game 2 was a bit of a different story as my opponent had his own suite of early removal to take care of the early threats I was deploying.  I stumbled on mana myself, not finding a second source of red mana until turn 7, which was just too late.  I was overwhelmed by an onslaught of Rekindling Phoenix followed by Glorybringer followed by Carnage Tyrant, then a Chandra, Torch of Defiance of his own.

Sideboarding for game 3, I brought in another copy of Abrade to get big enough to deal with the Rekindling Phoenixes and Jadelight Rangers, and took out another copy of Shock.

Game 3 was a bit better with my opponent having some good early interaction and threats of his own.  I started off with a flurry of Bomat Courier into Kari Zev, Skyship Raider (who always seems to eat instant removal :thinking: ) then another Bomat Courier.  As I mentioned in the Match 2 recap, the games where red aggro decks start off with double Bomat starts feel nearly un-losable.  The sheer card advantage those little guys generate means that an aggro deck that would normally be out of resources by turn 5 or 6 gets to refill their hand and keep the beats rolling.  My opponent used a Sweltering Suns to try to slow down my Bomat advantage, so I cracked one, ditched the one card left in my hand for the 4 “mystery cards” sitting under the turn 1 Bomat, and was able to continue rolling.  After deploying a few threats and getting them insta-removed, I was finally able to draw into a Chandra, Torch of Defiance and burn my opponent out.

Match 4: vs Naya Approach (0-2)

This match highlights my inexperience with the format.  There were a couple decision points that I completely whiffed on and a game winning play at the end of Game 2 that, had I realized an Approach player wouldn’t tap out to cast Approach of the Second Sun unless they held another copy in hand to win the next turn, I would have gone into the tank a little longer and found the victory to force a game 3.

What I can say about this deck is that the lifegain is REAL (annoying).  Game 1 My opponent was able to gain 16 life by turn 7 off the back of 3 Gift of Paradise and his first copy of Approach of the Second Sun.

Sideboarding for this match was something I had to come up with off the hip as I hadn’t played or studied this matchup yet.  I brought in the 2 copies of Glorybringer, another Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and Pia Nalaar from the board, choosing to take out the Aethersphere Harvester and 3 copies of Firebrand Archer.  When I watched the playback, I kept hovering and right-clicking on Ahn-Crop Crasher. I probably should have brought it in, taking out the 4^th Archer.

Game 2 was more of the same.  Another 6 lifegain off Gift of Paradise means that my attacking the opponent down to 6 life by turn 5 could have spelled victory.  But their deck is built to handle that kind of aggression; I have to overcome that through stronger play decisions.  An Approach of the Second Sun on turn 6 meant my opponent has now gained 13 total life this game and was sitting at 13.  I was representing 12 damage on board and had been holding a Glorybringer the whole time, just waiting for a 5^th land to be able to deploy it.  Turn 6 draw gives me a Sweltering Suns; the 5^th land didn’t come.  Had I been thinking about anything but that Glorybringer, I would have realized that casting the Sweltering Suns would have given me lethal, but instead I chose to +1 my on-board Chandra, Torch of Defiance for the 2 mana to cast Glorybringer but was still only be able to swing for 12 damage.  There was even another line I could have taken had the Sweltering Suns been some other spell that didn’t deal immediate damage.  I had a Bomat Courier with 5 cards sitting under him.  If I had just swung for the 8 damage on board, I could have cracked the Bomat on 2^nd main and had the chance to have drawn into the damage spells necessary to close it out.  Chalk this one up to a lessons-learned moment: always be aware of the unintuitive plays, and don’t get hyper focused on one line.

Match 5: UB Control (2-0)

After mulling to 6, I was stuck on 1 mana until turn 5, but somehow my opponent still let me get 7 cards under my turn 1 Bomat Courier.  Thanks to that little card advantage engine that could, I was able to get in chip damage, and eventually deploy a couple threats, then refill my hand to keep the gas on and eventually overwhelm my opponent’s 2 Torrential Gearhulks.

Sideboarding against control is a matter of getting bigger and planning for the long game.  I brought in the extra 2 copies of Glorybringer, the 3^rd Kari Zev, Skyship Raider, my control tech Vance’s Blasting Cannons, as well as the 4^th copy of Abrade to deal with those pesky Gearhulks.

With an opening hand that felt just too slow, I mulled to 6 again.  This set of cards gave me enough early pressure to feel comfortable while hoping to draw into my late game action.  I got started with the typical red plays: a few small 1 and 2-drop creatures. My opponent started things off with back to back Contraband Kingpins.  Not only are those things a wall for my guys, the lifelink pretty much negated any attacks that I could make.  I was able to draw into a Hazoret the Fervent, Glorybringer, and Chandra, Torch of Defiance to pair with my smaller chip damage. Together those proved too much, and ran my opponent out of answers.

 Wrap-up

Standard seems to be quite healthy. I was paired against 5 different archetypes in my 5 matches.  Mono-Red Hazoret still stands up as one of the tier 1 decks of the format, but the Approach decks attack on an axis that I’m not sure many decks in the field are equipped to deal with.  Another thing I noticed is that more exile effects might need to be a mainboard requirement to handle Rekindling Phoenix and the other Eternalize/graveyard recursive creatures I played against.

Going 4-1 in my first Competitive Standard League with Mono-Red aggro is a very nice start to my streaming and leagues career.  I have a strong excitement for continuing the series, making adjustments to my deck, picking up new archetypes, and hopefully providing entertainment as you follow along on my journey.

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

I like to play my bombs, and I like to have answers and removal to deal with my opponents’ bombs, so Jace, Cunning Castaway jumped out at me first. However, other than Jace there weren’t many cards pulling me to play Blue. White and Black both looked to be pretty thin overall. The Red and Green dinosaurs and curve were both appealing, along with the Rootbound Crag and a few sideboard options like Plummet and Naturalize.

I always like to try out new mechanics with a new set, and the Tilonalli’s Summoner would be a huge threat if I could manage to Ascend and gain the City’s Blessing. Traveler’s Amulet to find a second land and the colorless flip Golden Guardian were going in any deck I built.

I attempted to put Jace in a U/G shell; the defensive nature of the blue creatures in this pool would hopefully be able to protect Jace when I drew him, allowing him to take over the game. Aside from Jace, however, it looked pretty mediocre. I also looked at U/R, with all the red dinosaurs. However, my original R/G deck looked to be the most consistent, with both a good curve and a solid plan – to cast big creatures and turn them sideways! Since my removal is pretty light, I would have to rely on my creatures to hit.

Match 1 was against B/W fliers, and lifelink was tough to beat in game 1 (although an active Tilonalli’s Summoner did make for an interesting last turn). Game 2 would have been mine if I could have hit a third land drop before turn 6, but once again lifelink coupled with a flying creature went over my head. 0-1.

Match 2 started off with a mulligan to 5, with 5 lands in each of the first two starting hands. My opponent was on R/G dinosaurs as well; his bit harder and had Bombard to help decimate my meagre forces. Arch of Orazca came out for my opponent to give them card advantage, and a well-timed Mutiny cleared the way for their Raging Swordtooth to finish me off. Game 2 was eerily similar to the previous round, except I was stuck on 3 mana with my 4-drops rotting in hand. 0-2.

Match 3 found me an opponent playing Grixis, and a flying vampire looked to suck me dry. Fortunately a misplay by my opponent (playing a Tilonalli’s Crown on a 2-toughness flier) allowed me to ping it with my Fanatical Firebrand and extend the game. I waited for the right moment to activate my Golden Guardian, but just couldn’t bring myself to kill my own creature to get the engine running. It ended up being a moot point as I drew more threats. In Game 2 I found more threats than they had answers, and tasted my first win of the league. (1-2)

After playing the first stage, here are the cards that I added to my pool. Should I stay with the original build, use one of the others, or scrap it all and start with something else?

Craig Simpson

Craig is a husband, and father of 4, living in the frozen north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Outside of collecting cards to build old school decks with, he has a love for merfolk in modern and occasionally drafting online.

I downloaded the MTGO client shortly after getting back into the game in 2009, and discovered drafting through triple Zendikar queues. The draft itself was always fun, but time-consuming to complete a 3 round event, or disheartening to lose in round 1 of a single elimination queue. I enjoy seeing the different limited interactions, so swiss queues are what I prefer to enter. Over the years, I’ve only drafted occasionally (usually closer to set release when the best archetypes haven’t been decided on) and would not consider myself to be an expert by any means. Since I know that I am not an expert drafter, I like to keep a window open with MTGO bot prices and make sure that I don’t pass foil mythics that are unplayable but valuable to set redeemers (a free draft, is a free draft!).

Fast forward to Wizards bringing leagues to the client, which allow you to draft in an 8-person pod, build your deck, and then play the rounds on your own schedule. This changes the draft slightly: you don’t need to worry about hate-drafting cards you won’t play in your deck or would be good against you, as it is unlikely that you will be paired with anyone from your pod. The league structure allows you to take your time and play 1 match a day, or play 3 matches in a row very efficiently (since you don’t have to wait for the other matches in your pod to finish to move on to the next round).

With the abundance of video content available for Magic today, I fondly remember reading David Ochoa’s draft walkthroughs on ChannelFireball (ex: https://www.channelfireball.com/videos/according-to-webster-rtr-draft-1-with-videos/ ), and that is what I hope to leave you with today, a chance to look at my picks and decide what direction you would have taken (I am not posting the videos of the matches though, you’ll have to bear with my recaps).

On to the draft!

Pack 1, Pick 1:  I see a white rare that flies and can have a great late game impact. I like Puncturing Blow, but not over this Angel. Also of note, there are 3 other white playables in the pack, we’ll see if I wheel one. (Angel of Condemnation)

Pack 1, Pick 2 :  I thought about taking the life gain bird, but the upside to the blue enchantment is high, even if I am just scrying in the late game. (Riddleform)

Pack 1, Pick 3 : The Vizier looks like a strong card to help punch through defenders, and the Aerial Guide helps another attacker without the exert. (Aerial Guide)

Pack 1, Pick 4 :  I was really hoping to see some quality removal in either Black or Red to help steer me into one of those colors, but it wasn’t there so I continued to take good creatures. The rare doesn’t look great to me unless you draw it at exactly the right time, leaving the cycling angel, another Aerial Guide and Oketra’s Avenger. I decided on the 2-drop. (Oketra’s Avenger)

Pack 1, Pick 5 : Although I wouldn’t consider myself locked in, I am definitely leaning towards a W/U fliers deck. This pack really didn’t offer much, so I took the cycler/conditional counterspell, most likely for the sideboard. (Countervailing Winds)

Pack 1, Pick 6 :  I highlighted the 2-drop in my screenshot, which I like with the prowess as you can hold up mana during attacks to keep your opponent guessing. I have also noted that I passed a lot of solid green creatures, hopefully this will mean I see either white or blue passed to me in pack 2. Also on that note, I have also left playable white cards in many of the packs, so the payoff in pack 3 could be blue. (Spellweaver Eternal)

Pack 1, Pick 7 : Unsummon is an unspectacular playable, but the potential to get a second use out of the Cleric makes it the pick here. (Steadfast Sentinel)

Pack 1, Pick 8 : Being able to play on your opponents’ turn is always a useful tool to have, and flashing in a blocker to surprise an opponent or on their end step makes for efficient use of your mana. (Aven Reedstalker)

Pack 1, Pick 9 : The 1-drop doesn’t get me excited at all, whereas the chance to bring back the Naga Warrior at a discount does. (Sinuous Striker)

Pack 1, Pick 10 :  I took the aftermath card as a hedge in case I turn to black in pack 2. (Consign // Oblivion)

Pack 1, dregs: Razaketh’s Rite, Grave Abomination, Strategic Plan, full art Plains, red card

After pack 1, I have 7 creatures, looking like the start of a decent (if unexciting) deck.

Pack 2, Pick 1 : I could see the Dauntless Aven being great in a deck with lots of exert, but the card advantage that the Champion offers (bonus if I can toss another Eternalize card) is excellent. (Champion of Wits)

Pack 2, Pick 2 : The red cards aren’t strong enough to make me want to leave my plan of W/U, same goes for the green creatures. The zombie can beat down and sometimes trade up. (Mummy Paramount)

Pack 2, Pick 3 : Maybe I should take another Aerial Guide here, but I like to have a couple of good combat tricks, and it will also turn on my Riddleform. (Act of Heroism)

Pack 2, Pick 4 : I like the cycling on the serpent, and the life gain on the bird, but I like the aggression more. (Oketra’s Avenger)

Pack 2, Pick 5 : Finally, a piece of (conditional) removal! I’ll grab it. (Sandblast)

Pack 2, Pick 6 : Very similar looking pack, and the same pick. (Sandblast)

Pack 2, Pick 7 : If I was all in on spells and walls, maybe the swarm intelligence is playable? (Unsummon)

Pack 2, Pick 8 : Unexciting pick of the cycle/tapper. (Djeru’s Renunciation)

Pack 2, Pick 9 : Imaginary Threats looks interesting, but I haven’t played with it yet and think that I want to be attacking and not blocking. Even though I don’t have a desert yet, I took the wall. (Wall of Forgotten Pharoahs)

Pack 2, Pick 10 : Tragic Lesson is instant speed card draw, and I think the drawback will not hurt us much in this deck if we can toss a card with Eternalize. (Tragic Lesson)

Pack 2, Dregs: Magmaroth, full art Island, Fraying Sanity (playable?), full art Forest, full art Plains. Even if I don’t go 3-0, I will at least have some nice basics in front of me!

I am now at 10 creatures, and would like to get above 15 in pack 3. I have a good mana curve and only one card with double white, many creatures have evasion or built in recursion. A concern is that I only have 2 pieces of removal, so getting a good counterspell or removal will be priorities in the last pack. My fliers should give me a chance to close out games, but I could use another top-end sphinx or angel.

Pack 3, Pick 1 : This picked really hurt! Oketra and her monument side by side. I think the monument is a bomb all by itself in a deck with a high creature count, but I have a high enough creature count that I think Oketra will be able to attack and block without her activations. Would the exert bird have been the safe pick here? (Oketra the True)

Pack 3, Pick 2 : I like the upside of the combat trick over the cycling. (In Oketra’s Name)

Pack 3, Pick 3 : I already have a few zombies (Eternalize and normal), so this 2-drop may get multiple uses, especially in the late game. (Binding Mummy)

Pack 3, Pick 4 : With Eternalize cards already in the deck, the multicolored bird warrior is a perfect fit. (Aven Wind Guide)

Pack 3, Pick 5 : The blue Cartouche doesn’t excite me since many of my creatures already have flying, and getting 2 for 1’ed with a removal spell always feels bad. A 2-drop with Embalm it is. (Tah-Crop Skirmisher)

Pack 3, Pick 6 : The camel doesn’t do what I want to be doing with a 5-drop in this deck, the counterspell should help me deal with a bomb, maybe out of the sideboard. (Essence Scatter)

Pack 3, Pick 7 : Okay, I guess I should have at least one camel in this desert plane. Maybe I should have taken the cycle/disenchant card for the sideboard if I face a monument or Sandwurm Convergence. (Supply Caravan)

Pack 3, Pick 8 : I like the trick, more likely that I will play it than the other spells to choose from. Lots of blue coming my way this pack! (Mighty Leap)

Pack 3, Pick 9 : The exert bird wheeled! Yay! That might be a game-ending card to play. (Tah-Crop Elite)

Pack 3, Pick 10 : I took the nice land. (Plains)

Pack 3, Dregs: Plains, Failure // Comply, Shimmerscale Drake, red card, swamp

The blue cards certainly came in pack 3, and although they weren’t high quality in most cases, the Drake was a welcome inclusion to the main deck. The mana curve looks good, with six creatures at 2 and 4 mana, and a few tricks to buff them. Not a lot of situational sideboard cards, but there are at least a few options. I chose to run the Act of Heroism over Mighty Leap as I have some creatures that I will want to exert. My only regret is not opening any Unquenchable Thirst in the first two packs, which would have been an upgrade over my light removal package. Onto the 3 round friendly swiss league (2-1 will win me 2 packs)!

This was my 40-card main deck, I didn’t have many cycling cards so I went with 17 lands.

Round 1 I faced a RG big green creature deck, I had a great opener with both Oketra and Angel and my opponent was stuck on three lands, not a very exciting way to win but I’ll take it. Game 2 I kept a 2-lander with 4 cards costing 2, but was stuck on those two lands until turn four. My opponent started with an Exemplar of Strength and ramped into an early Sifter Wurm off an exerted Oasis Ritualist. I had no answer and was dispatched shortly after. Essence Scatter was brought in and Riddleform came out. Game 3 we both agreed to have no mana problems, and the race was on with his Exemplar and my small fries whittling down the life totals. The game got interesting when Oketra made an appearance to face off against the Wurm. Unfortunately for me, my opponent had enough removal to keep Oketra locked away when I needed her most and trampled over my feeble defenses.

Round 2 I faced a UG deck running Plains and Mountains, but I could not apply enough early pressure for my fliers to finish them off, and a Rampaging Hippo outclassed my blockers (and I didn’t draw the Sandblast to force a trade). Getting Unquenchable Thirst played on two of my creatures was the difference in this game. Once again I brought in the Essence Scatter to deal with their big creatures, and it came in handy game 2 when I used it to counter a Rhonas the Indomitable! Now I knew what I was really up against, and in game 3 my opponent got a turn 3 Rhonas and kept the creatures coming to bring my dream of prizes to a crashing halt.

I wasn’t going to let my first article ever be tainted with an 0-2 drop, so I soldiered on to play out the string against a UR cycling/eternalize deck with fliers. I had mana problems in game 1 and died to an Ominous Sphinx and Glyph Keeper. Game 2 was also uneventful as I curved out and got a concession on turn five. In Game 3 my early pressure, and my opponent’s Hazoret’s Favor had us both top decking for the win. My opponent had me down to 7 life with a hasted and exerted Khenra Scrapper. On the second last turn of the game, he chose not to use the haste ability on his Ominous Sphinx facing down my three small creatures, and I attacked right into it, getting to use Sandblast to great effect. His topdeck was the Glyph Keeper of course, and I acknowledged a ‘ggs’.

Unfortunately for my opponent, the sphinx counters the first ability that targets it every turn, so they were not able to attack me for lethal damage and the third round ended in victory for me!

To sum it up, I was 3-3 in games played and didn’t mulligan once, but the games that I had 4-drops in my opener ended in victory, and the games I had 2-drops didn’t.

I didn’t get to attack even once or use the ability on my first pick Angel of Condemnation, and when Oketra was live she was unstoppable (I would have like to have a couple more ways to generate tokens and support her). I feel like if I had been able to draft more/better removal that I could have realistically ended up 2-1, as the big green creatures gave me trouble in both my losses. Perhaps I should have drafted green in the first place!

Thanks for taking the time to read, and remember to let the Woolie win!

Craig Simpson

Craig is a husband, and father of 4, living in the frozen north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Outside of collecting cards to build old school decks with, he has a love for merfolk in modern and occasionally drafting online.