Feeling the Blues with a Pale Redness

Hello everyone and welcome to another Magical Blog Entry. Originally, I had planned to write the tournament report and share my thoughts on the Ban & Restricted List that will be happening on January 27th. I had to change that plan when I noticed this article was getting a little too long. Therefore, expect the B&R post to come up some time this week. And tomorrow I have a special guest that sent in an article about resource management! Now, let's begin!

Last weekend I had the (mis)pleasure of participating in a Modern GPT. It was a small ordeal consisting of only thirteen players. Luckily, it wasn't just thirteen players, it was some of the best thirteen players in Puerto Rico battling for those coveted Byes for Grand Prix Richmond. The Metagame was rather diverse in spite of the size of the player pool, with even some room for interesting decks. There was an Affinity build with Mishra, Artificer Prodigy and URw Magnivore deck. As for me? I went into the fray with the UWR Midrange deck that won Grand Prix Prague the week before. My record? 2-2. And I don't feel like I deserved the wins. Holding onto this virtual 0-4 record, I had to re-examine my entire skill set. Definitely, I'm not a terrible player. I've done quite well for myself and have been able to shift between archetypes throughout the years. This time around I've just realized that I'm completely out of it. Played a UWR Midrange deck where my match against UW Control involved me trying to play his Control game.

Unfortunately, that was a recurring theme all day--me playing the Control game. Being too conservative. There were plenty of cases where I should have just ran out a turn 3 Geist of Saint Traft and just make him have the answer. I may have tried to adjust in-game and off-game, however I didn't truly know until World Magic Cup Finalist, Jorge Iramain, pointed out that I was playing too cautiously around a Lightning Bolt with my Vendilion Clique. In retrospect, he was right. I should have played the Clique a turn or two earlier, because it was going to die at the moment that Bolt was drawn. Might as well play her as soon as possible get the information and if she lived great, if not, well, that's a shame, but now I know what he has in hand. Before we continue, you can find the deck list here.

The changes I made was due to not having Aven Mindcensors, thus I replaced them with Spell Snare. Of course, I liked Spell Snare so much, I swapped out Mana Leaks in favor of the Snares. The other notable change was made to the mana base. Suggested by a friend out of fear for Blood Moon, we decided to go down one Arid Mesa to up the Island count to three. Theoretically, three Islands gave is the potential to fetch for them and assemble Cryptic Command mana before a Blood Moon came down. His suggestion made sense and came with little expense. Maybe some percentage points in terms of consistency had to be sacrificed, but it was minimal and did not come back to bite me.

Right now, writing a regular ol' tournament report seems a little underwhelming, especially since my memory is notoriously bad. I may remember some details perfectly, yet my memories all tend to be rather fragmented. I'll still try my best, so onto the recap!

Round 1 - UWR Magnivore, Michael Torres

There's not much to say here.

On Game 1 he kept a land-light hand and got stuck on two Steam Vents for most of the game. We both never saw a Geist of Saint Traft  and mostly finished him off on the back of a Thundermaw Hellkite.

Game 2 was a different animal. I actually turn 3'd or 4'd Geist of Saint Traft catching him completely off-guard. He tried to stabilize with Ajani Vengeant, but Remands allowed me to keep the beats going.

He later admitted to removing his Pyroclasms post-board due to not seeing the Geists, which is completely understandable. In his position, I'm not sure what I would have done. Considering that this style of UWR had won a GP the week before, keeping the 'Clasms post-board would have been reasonable. I don't fault him, however, for siding them out. Having four possible dead cards after 'Board is not what you want. That said, maintaining a pair of Pyroclasms would have been ideal--just not the full set.

2-0

Round 2 - UW Control, Omar Marrero

This match is the fuzziest as I keep confusing it with my Round 4 match.

All I know is that I lost two games to one and don't even remember how I won the one game. Marrero, though, has been playing his version of UW Control for a very long time and definitely was very comfortable with it, unlike myself. The deck was lent to me the night before and, unfortunately, I'm not as sharp as I used to be when it came to picking up a deck last minute. His version, which is very well set-up, was packing Maindeck Kitchen Finks and, I believe, a full set of Restoration Angels. Ergo, it was very difficult for my Geists to get through. Third game I remember the most as it came to a point where I realized that I was not at the top of my game. I clearly misunderstood the role I was supposed to be playing, yet noticed so late in the game that I figured my best chance was to revise my game plan and see him again during any facet of the finals. Fortunately for him, he topped; I didn't.

I did want that rematch. 

1-2, 3-2

Round 3 - Gr Tron, Paul Vallejo

Ah, Tron. The scariest of the decks I faced all day. And Mr. Vallejo couldn't get his Karns! Fortunately for him, the replacement was equally fearsome. It's one of the better replacements this deck probably has for those that can't get their Karns in time--Myr Battlesphere. Said, Battlesphere even sees play in Vintage! So, a turn 3 Battlesphere is nothing to scoff at, especially if you don't draw answers to it, or can't block it. It's 12 damage every time!

First game, despite giving it my best shot, it wasn't enough to stop that Battlesphere, and crashed in for lethal around turn 5. I don't even remember what hand I kept. The flurry of Myrs was too much.

Second game presented a very interesting mulligan decision. Again, I don't recall the exact content of my hand, but it went something like:

Arid Mesa, Stoney Silence, Spell Snare, Path to Exile, and a few other cards that weren't quite relevant at the time as they wouldn't come online long after I've disrupted Tron's game.

Here lies my problem, I had Stony Silence, a card that shuts down almost half of Vallejo's deck, especially if they kept a hand with Tron lands and Chromatic Stars/Spheres and no Forests. I needed that second land, though.

So, this is Game 2. You are on the play. You see that hand. Do you keep? Maybe you do. Arid Mesa for a Hallowed Fountain, will let you Spell Snare a Sylvan Scrying and Path to Exile whatever monster comes down. At this point, you probably know he doesn't have any Karns in his deck, but you still aren't sure. All things considered, that does not even sound like a terrible plan. Drawing that second land had rather large probability of locking Vallejo out of the game forcing a game 3. What happened? The Fear.

I shipped the hand for a six card hand that seemed much more aggressive, which consisted of Geist of Saint Traft and enough land to play it on turn 3. I don't regret that decision either, as I got him down to four, where a topdecked Path to Exile would remove his follow-up Wurmcoil Engine, allowing me to get in for the win.

What would you have done?

Needless to say, 0-2, 3-4.

Round 4 - UWR Midrange/Control - Javier Rodriguez

As mentioned above, my memory is unable to separate Round 2 and Round 4 from each other. I did go 2-1 and one of the games I won was purely on the back of Burn spells. Fortunately, I did remember two specific scenarios from this match which were crucial for my realization--the one where I've been playing like shark poop. The Vendilion Clique scenario mentioned earlier is the first one and the second, though less, polarizing play involved me with a Celestial Colonnade on the battlefield and another in hand, facing double Tectonic Edge.

In this situation I was completely flooded. Had around 10 lands on the board, three more in hand, not to mention all the fetchlands that had hit the bin at that point. Fearing that the streak would continue, I figured that one of my outs would be to draw a Tec. Edge of my own, a third Colonnade, or a Cryptic Command to protect my Colonnades from my opponent's Tec. Edges. Set on this plan, I continued attacking with the one on board, which kept getting bounced by Cryptic Command until he decided to finally pull the trigger on his Tectonic Edges.

The Command Chain may have been a mistake as he pointed it out, but I'll concede that sometimes you just want to dig deeper into the deck in search for an actual Closer. Regardless, my friend suggested that I should have played the second Colonnade into the other Tectonic Edge, because that would just constrict the opponent's mana a bit more, if we take into account that he was stuck on around five lands.

Although he may have a good point, losing my Colonnade also seems sketchy. Yes, I get to capitalize on the mana stumble, however, what good does it do if I can't win the game thereafter? What if I don't draw my Thundermaw Hellkite? What if I don't draw Geist of Saint Traft? Put simply, what if I didn't draw any action at all?

You could argue that not doing anything would still give him enough wiggle room to get out of his land problems and eventually overwhelm me with his rather large grip of cards. On the other hand, allowing my Colonnade to be destroyed and me not drawing into anything useful would still give my opponent enough time to draw the lands he needs to get out of Stage 2 and into Stage 3. Either way, I'm giving my opponent turns the difference here is that I get to have an actual plan to win. Regardless, I would love someone to voice in their thoughts.

My terrible performance aside, I can see why this deck took over Grand Prix Prague. It is a very flexible deck in-game and quite customizable off-game. Being able to deliberately choose from such a massive pool of Sideboard and Maindeckable cards is a huge plus for this deck. Furthermore, this deck's worst match-ups are few and far-between. Would I battle with UWR again, given the chance? Absolutely. At least until the B&R updates next week. Just make sure you are clear about which roles you should be assuming in each game and match-up. Don't be tapping out for Geists over Electrolyze when your opponent has a Steel Overseer about to go active with a board full of artifacts. That Overseer should see lightning!

I'll reiterate, do not let my poor performance deter you from playing a perfectly fine deck. Instead, take these words and learn from my mistakes. Until next time!

Always affectionately,
Chris

What Not To Play - Vengevine Jund

Welcome everyone and hope that you are doing quite alright today. As it seems to be the theme for this week, I want to walk you through another deck that you shouldn't play. Yesterday was the RW Burn, today, it's JundRade. What is JundRade, specifically? It's pretty much a Jund deck, but with Domri Rade. Take a look.

Vengevine Jund

Creatures - 29
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Vengevine
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Olivia Voldaren
1 Eternal Witness

Spells - 6
1 Batterskull
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Terminate

Lands - 25
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Marsh Flats
2 Twilight Mire
2 Raging Ravine
3 Copperline Gorge
3 Blood Crypt
3 Stomping Ground
4 Verdant Catacombs

Like last time, the sideboard is mostly irrelevant. So... where did this go wrong? I'll be honest, this was actually a random collection of Jund-ish cards that sort of work well together. The deck in itself, wasn't even terrible. The strikes against this was that I couldn't get my hands on Overgrown Tombs for the tournament I played in. I literally built this 30 minutes before hitting the rounds and they were all a friend's cards. We just saw what we had and smashed the cards together to create this Frankenstein of a monster. Honestly? This deck has potential. A few tweaks here and there and we might have an actual beast... not the burdening kind like yesterday's RW Burn deck.

Vengevine Jund is one that could easily benefit from a few additions like Wurmcoil Engine instead of the Batterskull (Fauna Shaman fetches a Wurmcoil, but not a Batterskull). We can also remove one of each removal spell and the Eternal Witness for a Domri Rade. Out of all the cards this deck could've played, he was by far the one I missed the most. Domri Rade is a bad mamma-jamma that can break creature stalls by getting your big monsters into fights that (hopefully) they will win. Additionally, sometimes you topdeck a creature and need a second one to bring out the vengeful Vengevines (say that three times fast--vengeful Vengevines, vengeful Vengevines, vengeful Vengevines!), Domri Rade can give you that creature.


Another change that should be made is the mana base. As-is, the mana base is somewhat atrocious. If we are going to add Domri Rade, I'd suggest, at the very least, cutting a land and adding another Birds of Paradise. Putting Birds does not only make Domri Rade better, rather it will lower our curve, therefore giving us consistency when we are trying to "buyback" our Veggies. Furthermore, the deck really, really needs Overgrown Tomb, even if it is just a 2-of. Being able to fetch a Forest with Marsh Flats is invaluable and will save you in plenty of games. I might test this deck in preparation for Grand Prix Richmond in March, so I hope I can tweak the mana base to perfection.

What else can I do to make this deck slightly better? Fauna Shamans can go down to three, Scavenging Ooze can go to two, and we can cut a Kitchen Finks for four Tarmogoyfs. Let's face it. It is the best Green two-drop ever printed and in Vengevine Jund it's not just a Goyf, it's also recurring Vengevines, it fights the good fight with Domri Rade, it's a threat all by itself, and so much more. The deck has a decent match up against Aggro decks in general as you pack Goyfs that outclass most of their creatures, you have Oozes that gain you life and also become huge, Kitchen Finks that trades with their monsters and nets you +4 life including whatever damage it prevented in the process, Huntmaster of the Fells that creates blockers and gains you even more life, and then Wurmcoil Engine topping out on the curve. That's without mentioning that Vengevine can trade with most creatures and come back for a second helping of Vines-y justice.

Afterwards they play an EOT Deceiver Exarch, untap and enchant it with Splinter Twin and you're dead. How about Pod into Melira and Murderous Redcap with a Viscera Seer in play? Affinity? Don't sweat it... as long as they don't Cranial Plating an Ornithopter or Inkmoth Nexus and you die. Best way around scenarios is having a good Sideboard, but we could probably do better than than. This is where another important rule (and this one should be universal) in deck choice comes in: Do not dwell on a theme.

You have to be willing to make sacrifices if you want to build a deck that can win and if it means that we have to give up the theme, then so be it. What does this mean for Vengevine Jund? We can forgo the Fauna Shamans entirely. They are still the #1 target for most removal anyway. Rarely do we get to activate her, might as well eliminate her from our list and replace her with a creature that can be of more use to us. Either that, or we can further diversify our threats and transform Vengevine Jund into a toolbox deck. If we head down this road, it will be a matter of time until we start shoving in Birthing Pods... No. Reaching this point only forces me to recall another deck building rule (good thing I'm no deck builder): Don't play a worse version of a deck when you can just play the one that wins.

These are not sacred commandments,thus I habitually break them, yet that doesn't mean that they should go unheeded. Sometimes following some of these rules just makes it easier to jump from deck to deck without having to slog through hours of testing that will surely end with you discarding them altogether. For this reason, putting Pod in the deck should beg the question: "Why not play Melira Pod instead?" Surely that's a better idea, since Pod usually Top 8's its tournaments and in itself is quite flexible when the time comes to Metagame. Alas, that may not be true anymore considering the results from last weekend's Modern Grand Prix at Prague. The Pod decks that Top 16'd were the old UWGr versions that decided to combo with Kiki-Jiki instead.

UWGr Birthing Pod
Pilot: Pierre Dagen
13th Place - Grand Prix Prague

Creatures - 31
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Deceiver Exarch
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Phantasmal Image
3 Restortion Angel
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Spellskite
2 Voice of Resurgence
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Noble Heirarch
1 Wall of Roots

Spells - 6
4 Birthing Pod
2 Domri Rade

Lands - 23
3 Arid Mesa
1 Breeding Pool
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Forest
2 Gavony Township
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stram Vents

Sideboard -
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Fiery Justice
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Voice of Resurgence
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Kataki, Wa's Wage
2 Negate
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Obstinate Baloth
3 Path to Exile

These Pod decks are not a new breed. In fact, during last year's Modern PTQ season, this was the Pod deck of choice and it's not hard to see why. Having Blue and a different combo gives this deck a variety of creatures and spells that the Melira versions can't afford to abuse--creatures like Phantasmal Image, Deceiver Exarchs, and Restoration Angels. They not only give this deck explosive draws, a couple of them are also quite decent at attacking (kind of depends on what the Image is copying as well). I'll give you an example:

Back then, I was playing the Ad Nauseam/Angel's Grace combo. I tuned it very well to deal with whatever came my way and was hitting PTQs with it. Even though, I can't recall perfectly if this was during a PTQ, I had to battle the UWGr Pod deck and was facing a board of Birthing Pod, Wall of Roots, around two or three lands, and Birds of Paradise. Despite a slight struggle to assemble all the pieces to go off, I was nearly ready to combo and I figured I had another turn. Little did I know that... I didn't.

I passed the turn, my opponent untapped. Proceeded to generate mana with the Wall of Roots, sacked it to Birthing Pod, got Deceiver Exarch, untapped the Pod, added mana with Birds to sacrifice it, searched for a Phantasmal Image that copied the Exarch untapping the Pod, he untapped again, sacrificed the Phantasmal Image for Restoration Angel (because it's copying Exarch, it also has a cost of three, so you can search for a 4-drop), which blinked out the Exarch to have it come back, untapped the Pod once more and sacrificed the Restoration Angel for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, who then made enough copies of Exarch as needed to finish me off.

Melira Pod can't do that. Ever.

It wishes it could, but it can't. Regardless, Melira Pod makes up for that by having a pretty intense suite of disruption spells like Thoughtseize plus having access to much of the same hate cards as the UGWr counterpart. I actually wrote that at the end of the day, it is all about preference, however, a lot of the decks can hate on Melira Pod very well, like the UWR Tempo deck that won Grand Prix Prague.

UWR Tempo
Pilot: Vjeran Horvat
1st Place - Grand Prix Prague

Creatures - 13
4 Geist of Saint Thraft
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Restoration Angel

Spells - 22
3 Cryptic Command
3 Remand
3 Path to Exile
2 Mana Leak
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix

Lands - 25
1 Glacial Fortress
4 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Seam Vents
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Tectonic Edge
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Sacred Foundry

Sideboard -
1 Batterskull
1 Celestial Purge
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Wear/Tear
1 Path to Exile
1 Counterflux
1 Damping Matrix
1 Sowing Salt
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Stony Silence
2 Aven Mindcensor

Against Melira, this deck's plan is to stick a threat like a Geist, and back it up with well-placed burn spells and Paths on their Melira and Persist creatures (Murderous Redcap and Kitchen Finks). Complementing the kill spells, Vendilion Clique can clear their hand off any threats (mainly combo pieces) that can potentially get you. The evasion on Cliques and Geists will make sure you can get through as much damage as possible in little time. Snapcasters can either give you additional creature removal, or provide burn to close out the game. Post-Board the Tempo game continues with Aven Mindcensor flashing in response to Birthing Pod activations or flash it in on turn 3 just for the 2/1 body with Flying. The extra Path to Exile for insurance, While I'm not 100% sure on the Sidebaording, I don't think the Celestial Purges or the Wear/Tears come in. The inclination to play them is there, however there is such a thing as overboarding. Overboarding can lead to a diluted deck and I imagine that most of the deck remains intact. I'm not going to venture a guess--only that Aven Mindcensor is still a powerful threat for Pod.

This giant digression from the original topic (which was to not play Vengevine Jund), illustrates perfectly well what happens when you don't follow the second rule. You shove Birthing Pod into the deck knowing that there are already better options. You consider the immediate cousin which would be Melira Pod, move on to the brother UWGr Pod, and then end up with decks that beat either of them. If we had kept pulling on this thread, we would now be looking at the Jund, Junk, and GB Rock variants that are peppering the field right now and sort of brings us full circle with our very own Vengevine Jund. In other words,

Don't play Vengevine Jund... Especially if you are going to Pro Tour Valencia.

Pro Tour Valencia's (or a.k.a Pro Tour Born of the Gods) format will be Modern. From my understanding, a testing gauntlet should probably include UWR Tempo (the 1st Place list I posted should help), both versions of Birthing Pod, Jund and its variants, Splinter Twin decks, and Affinity. Incidentally, this is just to get the ball rolling. You need to get a feel for the format first, and see what possible angles are not being exploited. Those angles will probably be the same ones competitors at the Pro Tour might discover and they'll use it to gun down the established decks. So, either you come prepared for what they will bring or you find out whatever they are playing to get ahead of the Metagame. Unless one of the decks is just so good that might as well learn everything you can about the deck. Play it until your deck feels as if it was part of your soul, because when the time comes, you'll know what to do.

We are still ways to go for the Pro Tour. Give yourself a chance. Test. And think beyond the Metagame. 'Til then, let's enjoy the Born of the Gods spoilers!

Always affectionately,
Chris

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