What Not To Play and a Wave for Kiora!

Welcome everyone to another Blog Post. At the time of this writing, we are at the initial stages of the Born of the Gods spoiler season. A couple of cards have already been spoiled, some of them are the Pre-Release Promos, and an assortment of rares including the first Blue/Green Planeswalker. Surely I'll talk about them, but first a word of warning.

Part I - Don't play RW Burn.

RW Devotion? Sure. Why not? You get to play Stormbreath Dragons, attacking Purphoros, God of the Forges, and overloaded Mizzium Mortars! Doesn't it sound mighty nice? Go ahead, take a look. This one Top 8'd the Star City Games Open in Indianapolis back in January 4th:

RW Tokens
Pilot: Michael Kenney
8th Place - SCG Indianapolis

Creatures - 16
2 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Younger Pyromancer
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Poenix
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge

Spells - 19
4 Magma Jet
2 Warleader's Helix
4 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Assemble the Legion
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Lands -25
1 Boros Guildgate
2 Mutavault
3 Plains
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
11 Mountain

Sideboard -
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Wear/Tear
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Pithing Needle
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Last Breath

White-based Aggro decks are well-positioned right now, especially the ones splashing Black for Xathrid Necromancers, like Ben Stark's Wb Humans deck that made Top 8 back in Grand Prix Dallas-Fort Worth in early December:

Orzhov Humans
Pilot: Ben Stark
4th Place - GP Dallas
 
Creatures - 29
4 Banisher Priest
4 Boros Elite
3 Imposing Sovereign
4 Daring Skyjek
4 Dryad Militant
4 Precinct Captain
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
2 Xathrid Necromancer

Spells - 9
2 Spear of Heliod
3 Orzhov Charm
4 Brave the Elements

Lands - 22
1 Orzhov Guildgate
1 Swamp
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of Silence
4 Mutavault

Sideboard -
1 Orzhov Charm
2 Xathrid Necromancer
2 Sin Collector
2 Profit/Loss
2 Thoughtseize
3 Doom Blade
3 Dark Betrayal

But for the love of God, don't play this: 

Creatures - 8
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Ash Zealot

Spells - 30
3 Toil/Trouble
3 Warleader's Helix
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Shock
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
4 Annihilating Fire

Lands - 22
1 Boros Guildgate
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
12 Mountain

I'm not even going to post the Sideboard, because this was a colossal failure. I tuned the deck as much as possible to fight off most decks, but Mono Black's newfound hold on the Metagame has made playing this deck a losing proposition. I'll explain.

Considering the nature of the deck, you can't afford to play more creatures, because more often than not, yours will be outclassed. In Red decks, what are our options really? Firedrinker Satyr? Put a Precinct Captain in front of it and guess who wins that fight? How about big Pack Rats? Gray Merchant of Asphodel? Desecration Demons? A Nightveil Specter or a Thassa, God of the Sea? Same goes for Burning-Tree Emissaries and the rest of the merry, red entourage. Thus, cutbacks had to be made. The best of these were Ash Zealot and Chandra's Phoenix. The First Strike on the Zealot helps him win creature-on-creature combats while the Haste allows it to act as additional Burn. Most of the time, Zealot gets in 4-6 damage before it dies or a Desecration Demon shows up. Chandra's Phoenix has the same philosophy behind it. Evasion on the Phoenix means you can get roughly around the same amount of damage and perhaps more if left unchecked.

After a couple of these creatures hit the field and smacked around a bit, the rest of the your game plan was to unload burn spells onto your opponent's face. Warleader's Helix is there to take out a 5th of their life total and gives it to you so you can race the Aggro decks. Annihilating Fire is there because of the rise of Xathrid Necromancers as it won't trigger the Necromancer when it kills a creature. Not that you will be targeting many creatures with the Fire. For the Control Match ups? Toil/Trouble and Skullcrack punishes them for not playing their cards fast enough and for trying to Sphinx's Revelation.

The battle against Mono Black is another beast entirely. In theory, you should have the upper hand since their Underworld Connections does most of your job for you. Most of the time, you do, however it is very draw dependent. First, you have to get a few attacks in with your Zealots and Phoenixes. Secondly, they have to play their Gray Merchant of Asphodel into your Skullcrack. Thirdly, you'll need another Skullcrack to cover their second Gray Merchant, if you don't, your chances of winning go down to a 43% (I invent percentages for 67.72% more entertainment value). Regardless, pre-board the match up is more on their favor. Post-board, you have a much better chance in part, because you get to board out all of your creatures to makes their removal useless. Invalidating their removal will keep their hand full for your Toil/Troubles to be much more devastating. Or so I thought. Apparently, if you aren't careful, they can Devour Flesh their Desecration Demons in response to a lethal Helix or what-have-you. Luckily, they don't always have that option keeping your lethal Helixes, well, lethal.

It isn't all bad, however. The deck definitely has some power behind it, otherwise, I wouldn't have played it. All it needs is a little push and it's an automatic contender. What would I play in this format, right now? With only two weeks to go for Born of the Gods? I would maybe stick to playing Mono Black Devotion.

Mono Black Devotion
Pilot: Owen Turtenwald
1st Place - SCG Open Indianapolis

Creatures - 16
4 Pack Rat
4 Desecration Demon
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Spells - 18
4 Underworld Connections
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize
4 Devour Flesh
2 Pharika's Cure

Lands - 26
4 Mutavault
4 Temple of Deceit
18 Swamp

Sideboard -
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Pharika's Cure
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Eerebos, God of the Dead
4 Duress

The interaction between the Underworld Connections and Gray Merchant of Asphodel is as close as we are going to get to Necropotence and Drain Life in Standard. This deck perfectly demonstrates how powerful trading life for cards is, even more so than Sphinx's Revelation decks which tread closely along the same lines as this deck. As long as you have more than 0 life, every bit of the life can translate into more turns. More turns means more draws. Each draw is a potential land drop that will later fuel a big Revelation, essentially giving you more life points and more cards. Looking at it in this light, what would be the difference between the two? Aside from their colors, Mono Black's game plan is a proactive one. Pack Rats, Desecration Demons, Gray Merchants, and Nightveil Specters are all proactive threats that can quickly get out of hand when backed by sufficient removal and discard effects.

If Mono Black's not your cup of tea, maybe a Mono Blue list will be more your style.

Mono Blue Devotion
Pilot: Tyler Wilkerson
1st Place - SCG Orlando

Creatures - 28
4 Master of Waves
4 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Tidebinder Mage
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Judge Familiar

Spells - 7
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Bident of Thassa
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Domestication

Lands - 25
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Mutavault
20 Island

Sideboard -
1 Bident of Thassa
1 Domestication
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Dispel
1 Negate
2 Dissolve
2 Rapid Hybridization
4 Gainsay

Mono Blue does not have the same pedigree as Mono Black at this rate, but it's power cannot be contested. The synergies found in this deck are by far the best in the format (GR Monsters is a close second), to the point where you can't effectively stop a Mono Blue deck that has got its plan in full swing.

In the end, I did learn my lesson and won't ever break my rules again. Yeah, I do love me some rules. I'm like Gibbs from the NCIS series or Jason Statham on 96.64% of his movies. And I violated one of my most inviolate rules on deck choice: Play a flexible deck. Besides being able to race Aggro decks with the Helix, or Skullcracking in response to Sphinx's Revelations and Gray Merchants of Asphodel, or the fact that you can Magma Jet randomly just for the Scry ability, the deck isn't very flexible. The deck is mostly one-dimensional--just burn. You can't play Control or Aggro-Control. Actually, it's more of a Combo deck. Either you deal the 20 damage (roughly), or you die trying to get exactsies. If you want a flexible deck, the two main pillars of the format (the two aforementioned Devotion decks) have that. If you don't feel like playing those, you can always consider playing UW Control or Esper Control, those tend to be flexible, though in a different way. For these two, the plan is mostly the same which is to survive the first few turns, jump to Stage 2 by stabilizing with a Wrath and ride a wave of Sphinx's Revelations  and Jace, Architect of Thoughts into Stage 3 by slamming down an Elspeth, Sun's Champion or an Aetherling. Yet the make up of the deck can vary wildly. In late 2013, players were dragging games long enough to the point where they could Sphinx's for their deck and use Elixir of Immortality to replenish their libraries. That's one way to do it. Another could be to simply have a more aggressive plan that aims to end games in less than 25 turns. Just saying that there are options. We'll see what Born of the Gods have in store for us. Speaking of which...

Part II - SPOILERS!

Well, spoiler season is here again as we wind down to the release of Born of the Gods and the first spoiled card was the first UG Planeswalker: Kiora,the Crashing Wave

Initial glances don't say much about this card. That little number two is one of the biggest strikes against Kiora. I mean, most people believe that she's incredibly good, and she can be if she's not bothered. Without the complete set out and having no experience testing her, she may not survive in the current Standard long enough to make an impact of any sort. Most decks in the format value clogging up the board with creatures, some with evasion like on Mono Blue decks, others by playing Pack Rats, Young Pyromancers, or even Burning-Tree Emissaries. Kiora can stop a Desecration Demon, which is certainly valuable, but if you can't protect her from the rest of Mono Black's creatures, then what?

There's the option of building the deck around her as well. I'm not exactly a deck builder--I'm more of a deck tuner, so I can't really picture well where Kiora would fit. Some people think Bant is a good place for her, and they may be right. Perhaps a sort of Midrange-y Bant with efficient creatures and Elspeths as a high-end spell to ramp on to. Creatures like Voice of Resurgences and Loxodon Smiters protect Kiora well and your other Planeswalkers. Having access to Elspeth would give the deck a more robust late-game with a perfect way to use Kiora's ramp ability. Even more interesting is Elspeth's and Jace's interaction with Kiora. Elespeth's, Jace's and Kiora's +1 abilities can make screw things up for your opponents that are trying to get through with their creatures, and eventually, Kiora and Elspeth ultimate and I can't fathom a world where opponents could win from this position.

Anyway, if she's as good as people say she is, then Lightning Strike has gotten that much better.

Alright, that's it for today! I wish I had any additional comments about this new Planeswalker, but I want to reserve them until I see her in action. Although, I'm inclined to say that she won't be splashing her way into Pro Tour Top 8s (pun totally intended), I just don't have enough information on her playability. We'll see. Stay tuned for more spoilers!

Always affectionately,
Chris