mtgdeckbuilding

So this past weekend was GP Vancouver as well as Brisbane, both of which were Modern; some of the first high level events to happen since the bans. The first thing worth noticing is that Death’s Shadow is not dead, in fact, the deck took 3 of the top 8 slots in Vancouver. Without Probe, the deck has adapted by not running Become Immense, instead adding some Tarfire and Traverse the Ulvenwald. 

GP Charlotte: What Happened, What I played, and What I Learned.

A new Modern deck that I’m working on some kinks for. This build is loosely built off of Gerard Fabiano’s winning deck from a while ago, but with some changes I felt would help suit a meta closer to me. Obviously my sideboard choices might not be the best so if you want to look at other options shoot me an ask and I’ll gladly give other things that can be added against certain matchups.

A few of the changes I have made include adding a Lumbering Falls over the Creeping Tar Pit. It doesn’t have evasion so it’s worse against creature heavy decks, but the Hexproof makes it generally better against control, and not getting bolted is a plus. Liliana of the Veil over Jace, Architect mainly as something I want to try, and that is generally better in the format as a whole. Also, Clique in the mainboard as I love the flexibility of it.

I’m still working on fitting Tasigur, the Golden Fang in the mix because I feel like he belongs in this build I’m just not quite sure what I want to move around to make him fit in. 

What’s up deckbuilders, today’s deck is a little bit of a spicy one, a Mardu tokens shell that tries to make the most out of a card a lot of people have been experimenting with, Nantuko Husk. The Husk has shown up in multiple Rally the Ancestors decks, using the self-mill and filtering strategies to put multiple hasty creatures into play on the same turn to be able to swing for lethal.

However, this deck runs off of a new card from Magic: Origins being Chandra’s Ignition. With the ability to field wipe your opponent and then swing for lethal with a 10/10 Husk after saccing some tokens to feed it, the Ignition gives us the two card combo for the deck.

The rest of the deck gives us some basic Mardu good stuff, from Goblin Rabblemaster to Butcher of the Horde to Crackling Doom, which is one of the main reasons to run a Mardu colored deck. A small amount of protection is given to us in the form of God’s Willing.

Of Note: This combo is very weak to removal heavy decks, so it’s important to have good sideboard options in Thoughtseize and Duress.

Also: I’m looking for new writers to help answer questions, write articles, and all that jazz. If you are interested, e-mail me at [email protected] with a decklist and short article talking about card choices and synergies and I’ll choose a couple to join me.

What’s up guys, I am back with some new Origins brews to bring to you. Today we will be tackling Standard with a new twist on an old favorite. Death and Taxes (or as it is know to some people Hatebears) is a deck that aims to allow your opponents to do as little as possible through the use of creatures with inhibiting abilities. The strategy is popular for using against Control decks to slow their ability to stop your plans.

Death and Taxes is now something that can come to Standard with the addition of a couple of new key creatures: Archangel of the Tithes and Vryn Wingmare.

One of the key components to most D&T decks is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and while Wingmare has its Pros and Cons that go toe to toe with Thalia, the end result is the same, making your opponent have to spend extra mana on that spell they needed to help swing the game.

Archangel of the Tithes gives us two amazing abilities, one that acts like half of a Ghostly Prison, and one that will make it extremely difficult for our opponent to make efficient blocks if they want to cast things on their own turn.

Other cards in the deck include the Legacy D&T staple Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Eidolon of Rhetoric to keep your opponent from casting multiple swingy spells a turn, an ability especially effective against decks that try to go wide, and Spirit of the Labyrinth to prevent your opponent from drawing those cards that they so desperately needed.

A couple of personally chosen cards that could be easily interchangeable include: -Mastery of the Unseen: To keep making creatures on the cheap/get around Eidolon of Rhetoric -Collected Company: Because almost all the creatures in the deck are 3 cmc or less -Dromoka’s Command and Valorous Stance; For some removal when the need arrises.

Standard Sleeper #2

Today’s Standard sleeper is one of the new Commands from DTK that I think has been totally and completely looked over and passed. Kolaghan’s Command is insane and deserves more respect and love than I think it is getting. All of the Commands in the set are good in their own way in that they each doing something good and powerful for their mana costs, which makes since as people have high expectations for Commands given their own Lowryn counterparts. People were going nuts when Ojutai’s Command first got spoiled, and while it didn’t turn out to be quite as good as people wanted, it was still a fair and playable one.

But then what is it about Kolaghan’s Command that is so good? We will work our way from the worst to the best mode. To start, we have the “Return target creature card from your graveyard” option. Not the most appealing effect, but at instant speed it is much more reasonable when tacked on to a second option, and EoT getting back a Rabblemaster or maybe a Heelcutter doesn’t seem all to shabby to me. Then there’s “Destroy target artifact,” probably not usually going to be relevant, but there’s going to be that one time you’re going to be able to use it to its maximum ability, and it’ll feel good. Then we have a Shock clause, or Wild Slash in this Standard I suppose. And we all know how much play Wild Slash is seeing because of all the 2 toughness creatures in the format, see anything from RDW, Seeker of the Way, etc.

And then we get to the big one “Target player discards a card.” Now this probably doesn’t seem too amazing, but trust me when I say that it is. Making an opponent discard a card at INSTANT speed makes so much of a difference compared to just a Mind Rot or Tasigur’s Cruelty. It can make your opponent have to totally change their plans for the turn since they will always lose a key piece of what they had. And if your opponent is topdecking and you do this at the end of their draw step then that’s just downright dirty.

Standard Sleepers #1

What’s up guys! Trying something new tonight. Today’s Standard Sleeper for the new environment is Profaner of the Dead! Now at first glance I’m sure this card doesn’t look like much. It’s basic stats make it a simple Hill Giant, which isn’t terrible in and of itself at least for limited purposes. But Exploit is an interesting and deceptively powerful mechanic. People are already learning the power of Sidisi, Undead Vizier and the Demonic Tutor on a stick.

But what specifically makes Profaner of the Dead so good? Well, there’s two popular decks in Standard that work off of little mana and swarming with many small creatures. Red Deck Wins and Jeskai Tokens are both very weak to this card. Red Deck Wins loses Zurgo Bellstrikers, Rabblemasters, Goblin Tokens, all that good stuff. The tokens deck loses simply everything, and those cards aren’t coming back.

The Curious Case of Narset Transcendent

Narset Transcendent was one of the most exciting and hyped card of all of Dragons of Tarkir. People were freaking out over this card saying how powerful she is and how much she was going to have an impact on Standard and Modern. Possibly even Legacy, even though that’s crazy because Legacy already has a 4-mana planeswalker that is leagues better than this one. But where does Narset actually belong in Standard. (We’re not going to get into Modern because anything like that would be too much of a stretch)

Since her release, there’s been two main decks that have utilized Narset, U/W or Ojutai Control and Esper Control. This seems reasonable as both of those decks play a large number of spells that would be totally reasonable to draw or rebound. But in this deck she still has her own number of problems. One of which is that she will rarely be played on turn 4 in any control deck, as she will usually end up dying very quickly, and since when has a control deck EVER want to be tapped out as early as turn 4? Sure it may be reasonable in formats where you can back her up with a good ol’ FoW, but really? No. And the other problem is that she, in a vacuum, will not when you the game. Yes, she will generate card advantage, which will help you win games that go long, but she herself will not win the game. To compare, think about Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, or Xenagos the Reveler, or even Kiora, the Crashing Wave. Simply stopping your opponent from casting noncreature spells isn’t going to win you the game most of the time as most decks in Standard are very creature based. So she doesn’t really fit in there all that well, and in the IQ I attended this past Saturday I was able to observe her in action in such decks, and she seemed very underwhelming, many of those decks were at the bottom tables.

So where else could she go? Well, the honest only other deck where she would seem at home would be Jeskai Tokens. Most of the creatures in the deck are made from noncreature spells and being able to have access to more of them is always a good thing. But that deck usually curves out at 4, and that’s usually for Stoke the Flames (or 8 for Treasure Cruise if you want to be picky, but you ever cast this for more than 3 it feels bad anyways). So is Narset really something that deck would want in the 4 mana slot?

Hello Garook! I would be more than willing to give deck suggestions, just send a link in an ask and I’ll give you the best answer I can.