Rebuilding Red/Green for Amonkhet Standard

Ahoy planeswalkers!

Jeez, I have not been on top of my blog lately! Part of it’s that I’ve been doing a little extra writing for Hipsters of the Coast–in addition to my latest Scry 5 going up as usual last Friday (this one featuring a crazy theory about what’s coming next in-story, based on upcoming set codenames), I wrote some previews for top teams in the Pro Tour Team Series heading into Pro Tour Amonkhet, as well as a post-Pro-Tour look at the top of the standings.

Alas, this has kept me from finishing this post about my beloved standard homebrew, which I really wanted to get online before the Pro Tour. I’ve been testing a new build of my red-green beatdown deck on TappedOut.net. I’ve found a build that I like; I think it’s going to give me a couple fun nights of standard, and I’d like to share my new build!

So, here are the things that have been on my mind in revising the deck. Sheltered Thicket and the other cycling dual lands tell me that it’s time to move in a slightly more midrange direction; come rotation, the allied colors aren’t going to have any fast dual lands (pending the rare land cycle in Ixilan). That may be just as well, though; there also just aren’t great one-drop options in red and green. Village Messenger just runs into Thraben Inspector too often, while Soul-Scar Mage, as much as I really like the card’s design, just doesn’t seem to do quite enough.

So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to go over the cards I’ve added to the list, then I’ll show you the updated deck list and talk a little about how it’s handling.

I caved, y’all. I caved and bought an eight-dollar card. (Granted, I used an Amazon gift card from Christmas, which I had set aside for buying singles, to do so. But still.)

Hazoret is actually one of the cards I feel more ambivalent about from testing, but I like her in the deck overall, and I’ve been using her as a two-of. She seldom hits the table on-curve–usually I have some two- or three-drops I need to get into play first, and sometimes she gets stuck behind Bristling Hydras–but I think she still works as a curve-topper. Five power with haste and indestructibility is great and can ambush a careless opponent, and her ability to discard cards for damage can help me steal games where I stop being able to attack fruitfully.

Yup, this is a good card. I started playing this as a one-of, and I’ve bumped it up to two mainboard with a spare in the sideboard for annoying creatures like Scrapheap Scrounger. (It also hits a number of creatures in the Zombies deck.)

Khenra Charioteer is actually proving to be just what this deck was missing in the three-drop spot, where it has replaced Brazen Scourge and become a three-of. It didn’t even merit consideration in LSV’s constructed set review, but I’ve been really happy with what this card brings to the deck. Usually I don’t want to curve into this, but on turn four when I have an Lathnu Hellion in play? Or turn five, following a Bristling Hydra? Oh yeah. Exactly what I need.

The Khenra Charioteer has also finally brought me around on another card…

So, I was not bullish about the Greenbelt Rampager when Aether Revolt came out, but I’ve changed my tune now; after all, the card has shown up in the top eight at two straight Pro Tours! I just recently added this to my testing as a two-of, and I’ve already gone up to three–the ability to give it trample with the Charioteer definitely helps, I underrated how useful getting this kind of body into play on turn two can be, and its four toughness means it evades some key removal in the format compared to my early drops (although it is still vulnerable to Fatal Push).

Manglehorn is going to be a sideboard all-star for the next year and a half, sharing its whole standard life with Kaladesh block and all. I currently have one in the sideboard, but I think I want two–it’s so useful against Scrapheap Scrounger, Heart of Kiran, and Aetherworks Marvel.

Alright , so here’s the full current list:

CREATURES

3x Greenbelt Rampager

4x Voltaic Brawler

3x Longtusk Cub

2x Duskwatch Recruiter

4x Lathnu Hellion

3x Khenra Charioteer

4x Bristling Hydra

2x Hazoret the Fervent

NONCREATURE SPELLS

3x Attune with Aether

2x Magma Spray

3x Incendiary Flow

3x Harnessed Lightning

2x Collective Defiance

LAND

4x Game Trail

3x Aether Hub

1x Cinder Glade

1x Sheltered Thicket

7x Forest

6x Mountain

SIDEBOARD

3x Village Messenger

2x Devour in Flames

2x Release the Gremlins

2x Akoum Firebird

2x Appetite for the Unnatural

2x Manglehorn

1x Magma Spray

1x Skysovereign, Consuls Flagship

Overall, this deck has one big problem: Aetherworks Marvel. As long as the Aetherworks Marvel/Ulamog combo is in standard, this deck will not be making waves beyond the LGS level. Vehicles is a little bit unfavorable in game one, but my sideboard targets vehicles aggressively–last I knew, there were two vehicles players at my LGS, and I’m hoping they are still on that archetype. Zombies is also a playable match-up that has felt fairly even in my testing. (I also kind of need all six pieces of artifact hate against Marvel: Manglehorn to make the Marvel enter tapped, plus a removal spell to actually destroy it.) I like Village Messenger as a control-killer–at the LGS level folks are more apt to play homebrewed decks that suit their tastes, and one of the chief standard stalwarts at my store runs Grixis Control–and I also think it’s good on the play versus Marvel (they only have one one-drop spell in Attune With Aether, so there’s a reasonable chance that a turn-one Messenger does a Goblin Guide impression). Akoum Firebird is also for grindier matchups. Devour is for planeswalkers (Gideon) and Skysovereign is for matchups where I just want to go a little bigger.

This deck has been doing very well against other homebrews on Tapped Out, and it’s competitive against other top decks in standard (apart from Marvel), which feels like a good place for a LGS-level deck.

So, that’s the current version of the deck! It’s not a huge force now, but I think it might be a solid tier-two deck at rotation (or even if Marvel/Ulamog proves too oppressive and gets banned), or perhaps even better. I don’t lose a lot of key pieces (Game Trail is probably the biggest loss), and with Marvel, Zombies, and Vehicles all poised to take big hits, Ixilan might see red-green return to standard relevance. I may have to take it for a spin in a standard side event at GP Providence in September.

Game Day doesn’t really jive well with my schedule this weekend, but I’m hoping to take this deck for a spin at a standard FNM tomorrow; if all goes as planned, I’ll report back soon with how it went!

Amonkhet Prerelease

Ahoy planeswalkers!

During prerelease weeekend I got to take Amonkhet sealed for a spin, attending a prerelease at Gamingetc. I opened my kit, saw the shiny face of a foil promo Angel of Sanctions, and just started cackling to myself.

I’ll get into where my event went from there soon, but first, following that auspicious start, here’s the pool I opened:

WHITE

1x Angel of Sanctions (foil promo)

1x Protection of the Hekma

1x Seraph of the Suns

1x Time to Reflect

1x Compulsory Rest

1x Anointer Priest

1x Gust Walker

1x Rhet-Crop Spearmaster

1x Sacred Cat

1x Tah-Crop Elite

1x Unwavering Initiate

2x Winged Shepherd

1x Djeru’s Resolve

1x Forsake the Worldly (foil)

1x Mighty Leap

BLUE

1x Glyph Keeper

1x Trial of Knowledge

1x Zenith Seeker

1x Censor

2x Galestrike

1x Open Into Wonder

1x Sacred Excavation

2x Illusory Wrappings

1x Scribe of the Mindful

1x Tah-Crop Skirmisher

1x Decision Paralysis

1x Essence Scatter

1x Wings of Rebuke

BLACK

1x Dispossess

1x Grim Strider

1x Trespasser’s Curse

1x Dune Beetle

1x Horror of the Broken Lands

1x Soulstinger

1x Supernatural Stamina

1x Wander in Death

RED

1x Trial of Zeal

1x Battlefield Scavenger

1x Bloodlust Inciter

1x Hyena Pack

1x Manticore of the Gauntlet

2x Minotaur Sureshot

1x Nimble-Blade Khenra

1x Magma Spray

GREEN

1x Manglehorn

1x Bitterblade Warrior

3x Colossapede

3x Hooded Brawler

1x Initiate’s Companion

1x Naga Vitalist

1x Spidery Grasp

1x Benefaction of Rhonas

GOLD

1x Rags // Riches

1x Ahn-Crop Champion

1x Decimator Beetle

ARTIFACT

1x Pyramid of the Pantheon

LAND

So, this wasn’t a super difficult build. My red and my black were super thin. My green was alright; it had a nice curve and a reasonable top-end. Again, though, it lacked removal and bombs. Blue and white each had a big bomb and worked together well for a skies strategy, so this is what I built (using the two Evolving Wilds to attempt a green splash for Mouth // Feed).

CREATURES

1x Anointer Priest

1x Gust Walker

1x Tah-Crop Skirmisher

1x Ancient Crab

1x Hekma Sentinels

1x Unwavering Initiate

1x Aven Initiate

1x Tah-Crop Elite

1x Angel of Sanctions

1x Glyph Keeper

2x Winged Shepherd

1x Sea Serpent

1x Seraph of the Suns

NONCREATURE SPELLS

1x Censor

1x Essence Scatter

1x Compulsory Rest

2x Galestrike

2x Illusory Wrappings

1x Mouth // Feed

1x Trial of Knowledge

LANDS

7x Island

7x Plains

2x Evolving Wilds

1x Forest

ACTIVE SIDEBOARD

1x Djeru’s Resolve

1x Time to Reflect

1xWings of Rebuke

1x Might Leap

1x Open Into Wonder

1x Rhet-Crop Spearmaster

1x Forsake the Worldly

1x Decision Paralysis

1x Ahn-Crop Champion

1x River Serpent

1x Forest

I thought two Evolving Wilds would make the green basically a free splash, but in hindsight I think it was a little too greedy. Often I had to use my first wilds to find my first white or blue source, and I ended up with a green card stranded in my hand more often than I got to cast a green spell (I cast Mouth // Feed once in eight games). Since my deck was constructed such that I was very unlikely to cast Mouth on-curve anyway, perhaps I should have run the second River Serpent over it.

The second Galestrike also may not have been correct–it was the last card into my main deck, where it served as a defensive bounce spell (trying to stay alive to draw and play my strong late-game cards), which isn’t the best use of bounce spells. If I built this again, I think I would have main-decked Forsake the Worldly instead–I found myself wanting it often (I sided it in in two out of three matches), it can screw up combat math by blasting a cartouche, it can take out key opposing removal (or semi-removal) like Edifice of Authority and Cast Out, and if it isn’t useful it just cycles. Djeru’s Resolve also may have been better than Galestrike–it offers an ambush-blocker, can recharge an exerted creature, and still cycles if it isn’t helpful.

Overall, I was pretty happy with this deck. My removal suite was thin–beyond the Angel, I had no reliable ways of getting a troublesome creature off of the battlefield. I did, however, have three very good flying beaters, a trio of big creatures I could cycle early or play late, and a solid suite of creatures and tempo to help me survive that long.

I promptly got wrecked in round one by someone with a better version of the blue-white skies deck. In game one, he out-bombed me. He played a turn five Regal Caracal, which I promptly exiled with Angel of Sanctions; he used Angler Drake bounce my angel, get the Caracal back, and get even more lifelinking cats. When I played my Angel and took the Caracal again, he found a Cast Out to get it back again and make still more cats. With six 2/2 lifelink cats now on the board, he just ran me over.

In game two, I got to see the other way his deck could work. As we both came out slowly, looking for lands and playing around each other’s Censors, he got three different Gust Walkers into play over the course of the game, steadily chipping away at my life by exerting them to leap over my Ancient Crab while I held my removal out of fear of his other bombs. I was definitely too conservative with my removal in this game, but I’m not sure a win was going to be in the cards for me regardless. (He went on to 3-0 the prerelease, so at least I have that consolation.)

In round two, I faced a newish player with a green-red deck featuring Vizier of the Menagerie, two copies of Electrify, and two copies of Deem Worthy. I got out really slow in our first game, taking a couple hits from Nef-Crop Entangler before stabilizing the board with an Ancient Crab. He found his Vizier plus two removal spells to take out my Angel of Sanctions. Eventually I got into a sufficiently stable position to chip in with Seraph of the Suns; I decided to take a line where I would outrace him if he didn’t draw a creature and lose if he did, and he found the creature he needed to snag the win.

Game one was nearly 30 minutes, so we both had to play fast for the next two games. In game two, I made good use of Illusory Wrappings to shut down big creatures (including a Greater Sandwurm) and managed to take the win, while he flooded out a bit in game three, giving me just enough time to take the match in turns.

In the final round I faced another player on blue-white who told me up-front that he was unimpressed with his pool. I didn’t take many notes and don’t remember this match well; I outraced my opponent narrowly in game one, then he flooded out a bit in game two, chipping in with an embalmed Sacred Cat boosted by Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun in a futile attempt to outrace my bigger creatures.

My 2-1 finish meant I won three packs, which featured another copy of Rags // Riches (ugh), a Drake Haven (neat!), and a Liliana (BOOM!). Alas, my new Lili seems to have come with a bit of damage on the back, so I couldn’t profitably sell it back to the store while the price was still pre-release high, but I did sell the Angel of Sanctions, which helped me get over the top to pick up my second Liliana of the Veil for 8Rack.

So, some early impressions of Amonkhet limited!

Illusory Wrappings impressed me

Because each color has a big cycling creature at common, we might see more big vanilla (or vanilla-ish) creatures in this format. If so, it makes Illusory Wrappings better than usual. (Putting it on a Greater Sandwurm felt good.)

More generally, with Illusory Wrappings and Lay Claim, blue has more semi-permanent answers to opposing threats than it has had in recent sets, which I think will also help make blue competitive in Amonkhet limited.

I like Ancient Crab a lot in this format

Ancient Crab stops a lot of creatures in this format; if you’re on a deck that wants to survive to the late game, this is exactly the three-drop you want, and I think blue is generally designed for a strong late game. I just wish I’d had two!

I think I underrated white’s creatures

Gust Walker is a powerful attacker; facing down multiple copies is scary. Unwavering Initiate often forces a trade early and then comes back. I wasn’t feeling the love for white’s creatures when I started my limited power rankings, but I think I was badly underrating how much embalm improves the value of these creatures.

That’s all for now! I’m looking forward to getting in some more AMonkhet limited, but that might have to wait until June–with Game Day coming up and with how much I’ve been enjoying testing my standard deck, I think I’m feeling constructed this month. Coming next week: I’m going to talk about how I’ve changed my green/red deck now that Amonkhet is here, and I’ll have another vorthos column at Hipsters of the Coast! In the meantime, what do y’all think? Did I misbuild my pool? Are there any cards I’ve underrated or overrated?

Amonkhet Limited Power Rankings, Pt. 2

Ahoy planeswalkers!

It’s time to continue with the Amonkhet limited power rankings! First I wrote about the creatures in each color; now it’s time to look at the next most important piece in limited decks, removal! Once again, because the meat of any limited deck is commons and uncommons, those are what I analyze here–the various rares and mythics aren’t all that likely to show up in your draft pod or sealed pool, but you can expect to see many of these show up somewhere at the table during a night of limited play.

#5–GREEN

Uncommon: …Nothing

Common: Cartouche of Strength, Stinging Shot, Dissenter’s Deliverance

Tricks: Hapatra’s Mark, Shed Weakness, Spidery Grasp, Synchronized Strike

Green has one very good removal spell in Cartouche of Strength (a Hunt the Weak that’s cheaper and grants trample is real)–putting this on a Colossapede or, better still, a Scaled Behemoth is a powerful line. The rest of green’s removal repertoire is thin, however. Stinging Shot is great flyer hate (it hits hard when you need it and cycles when you don’t), but it still misses most creatures. Dissenter’s Deliverance is strictly sideboard fodder.

I’m tentatively considering green’s combat tricks as semi-removal for this article’s purposes–they are highly conditional, but combat tricks do generally need to trade for an opposing card to be worthwhile. Synchronized Strike is super-powerful: two surprise buffed-up blockers can land a devastating blow against an opponent’s board, as can recharging exert creatures. The untap in Spidery Grasp is nice upside, but it is a bit expensive. Hapatra’s Mark and Shed Weakness are a bit less exciting–Hapatra’s Mark is probably better as anti-removal. Shed Weakness will be Giant Growth a reasonable amount of the time if that’s what you want, but opens you up to instant-speed two-for-ones with opposing removal.

Overall, Cartouche of Strength and Synchronized Strike are very good, but green is a bit short on ways of dealing directly with opposing creatures.

BLUE

Uncommon: Lay Claim

Common: Cancel, Essence Scatter, Illusory Wrappings

Tempo: Censor, Galestrike, Decision Paralysis, Floodwaters, Winds of Rebuke

Blue’s removal isn’t terrible this time around; Illusory Wrappings is a fine way to render an opposing creature useless (and may be better than usual in a format where folks might have more big dumb six- or seven-drops, with the cycle of big creatures who cycle cheaply at common), Lay Claim is overpriced but powerful and makes up for its cost with its cycling, and Essence Scatter particularly seems like it might be solid for keeping an opponent off of their big creatures late.

It’s not quite removal, but I do want to note that the blue tempo suite looks strong to me. Censor can take down a creature that an opponent tries to play on-curve early or cycle cheaply late, Galestrike’s bounce-draw can be powerful (although the tapped requirement is a serious drawback), and Floodwaters, Decision Paralysis, and Wings of Rebuke all can clear the way for big attacks in the late game.

On the whole, I like blue’s interaction, and I think it’s going to be pretty good in this format.

BLACK:

Uncommon: Bone Picker, Lay Bare the Heart, Ruthless Sniper, Trial of Ambition

Common: Cartouche of Ambition, Final Reward, Splendid Agony, Wasteland Scorpion

Trick: Supernatural Stamina

Apart from the powerful Final Reward, black actually has a rather difficult time dealing with a single, specific threat. Splendid Agony should be a pain to play against, much like Subtle Strike in Kaladesh–it threatens a cheap two-for-one that ruins combat math, and the fact that the debuffs linger is powerful. Trial of Ambition is fine, but unlikely to hit a high-value target unless you can use cartouches to play it a couple of times. Lay Bare the Heart seems worse in limited than Harsh Scrutiny was–it costs more, and the lack of scry means it’s just a dead card later in the game. Wasteland Scorpion and Bone Picker should do a good job of holding off an opponent’s big threats. Supernatural Stamina is a good way to blow opponents out on double-blocks and, as an added benefit, re-triggers enter-the-battlefield effects.

Overall, you have to like the array of tools at black’s disposal, but it can’t take down specific targets quite as cleanly as white and red.

WHITE

Uncommon: Cast Out, Time to Reflect

Common: Compulsory Rest, Fan Bearer, Forsake the Worldly, Impeccable Timing

Tricks: Djeru’s Resolve, In Oketra’s Name, Mighty Leap, Trial of Solidarity

At uncommon, white gets two powerful spells with wildly different setup costs. Cast Out looks to be the best unconditional removal spell in the set; granted, it can be removed itself, but there isn’t a lot of enchantment hate in Amonkhet, and it can take care of whatever’s causing problems (not just creatures). Time to Reflect won’t go in most white decks, but black/white zombies (and possible white-blue embalm) gets a conditional Path to Exile. It will be powerful in a deck that can support it.

Compulsory Rest is efficiently-priced, even if it lets your opponent gain some life, regain access to the creature from their graveyard, and use activated abilities. Fan Bearer is a fine way of shutting down an opponent’s best creature (or opening the way for an attack), and Impeccable Timing looks to be fine but not great (four toughness seems to be the magic number for a lot of creatures). Forsake the Worldly might belong in the main deck more often than you might think–it cycles if it isn’t useful, and it answers some hard-to-answer cards.

Djeru’s Resolve is probably white’s most interesting trick: it lets you recharge an exerted creature, it can set up a profitable block during an apparent race, and it can cycle. I don’t love Mighty Leap or In Oketra’s Name, but the vigilance and potential repeatability of the Trial of Solidarity means it’s a card to keep an eye on.

With Cast Out and Compulsory Rest, white has the best one-two punch for definitively taking a creature out of the equation for combat.

RED

Uncommon: By Force, Deem Worthy, Trial of Zeal, Warfire Javelineer

Common: Blazing Volley, Electrify, Magma Spray, Violent Impact

Tricks: Brute Strength, Pursue Glory

Deem Worthy is basically an unconditional removal spell (albeit an expensive one) that can also be used in a more tempo-y way to kill a smaller creature and draw a card, while Trial of Zeal’s potential to be a repeated spell with Cartouches (combined with its ability to target players) may make it the strongest of the Trials. Warfire Javelineer will often be able to take down a smallish creature in the mid-game or the late-game (perhaps even an opponent’s best creature in a blue-red spells deck, if the archetype works), which isn’t terrible value. By Force, like Dissenter’s Deliverance, is a sideboard card, but one you might want against the likes of Oketra’s Monument and Edifice of Authority.

Red could use another solid common removal spell but the two good ones red gets are very good indeed (sorry, Blazing Volley). Magma Spray can kill a lot of creatures and has good upside with Embalm, while Electrify seems poised to be powerful in this format, where most creatures have four toughness or less (remember how good Chandra’s Revolution was in Aether Revolt).

Red’s combat tricks are better at forcing through the last bit of damage than winning combats, but they certainly could have their place in the format, as red does not seem as well-positioned to win long, grindy games as other colors.

So, the best creature and the best removal? If red’s not over-drafted at your table, beware the red decks–I really hope I get a chance to play red in Amonkhet draft.

So there you have it–my take on all of the removal in the format! Hopefully next week I’ll be back with my odds and ends and final power rankings for the colors; before that, though, look for my prerelease report later this week! In the meantime, what do you think? What am I overrating? What am I underrating?

The Gatewatch Love Triangle–at Hipsters of the Coast

Ahoy planeswalkers!

The latest Scry 5 just went live at Hipsters of the Coast! In this week’s column, I’ve written a primer on the Gatewatch’s Nissa-Chandra-Gideon love triangle. Give it a look!

I think I forgot to post it here two weeks ago, so here’s a link to my previous column too (my second to make the DailyMTG digest!), in which I went through a bunch of Amonkhet spoilers to try piecing together some hint about just where this block’s story is heading.

I’ve been writing slowly for the blog, but I have a prerelease report and the next piece of my limited power rankings coming soon–hopefully both of those will go up next week.

Have a great day, y’all!

Amonkhet Limited Power Rankings, Part 1

Ahoy planeswalkers!

I’ve got to say, I’m incredibly stoked for Amonkhet–it looks like a powerful set that will make for an exciting, diverse standard environment, and I’m really eager to see what its limited is going to be like.

I’m doing something a little different this time around–rather than writing one big article, I’m breaking my posts into three parts: creatures, removal, and odds and ends. I will give my final color rankings in the third post. In these I focus on uncommons and commons, since these cards are the true bread and butter of limited play; after all, in many formats, you can win your draft pod with a well-constructed deck that boasts no rares. By identifying the top cards in each color, I hope to get some sense of which cards will be key signals, as well as how the colors match up against each other for depth and raw power beyond the bomb rares.

#5–BLACK

Top Uncommons: Lord of the Accursed, Bone Picker

Top Commons: Soulstinger, Wasteland Scorpion, Cursed Minotaur

A couple of powerful uncommons aside, I think black has the lowest raw power level among its creatures, although its synergies will still make it very playable; black/white zombies looks to be very strong, and I’m curious to see how viable the cycling deck is in limited.

Lord of the Accursed is going to be bonkers in black/white, and there might be enough zombies running around to make him good enough in other black-x decks (blue, in particular, also has a strong Embalm theme). While Gravedigger‘s card advantage and selection is great, Bone Picker will often be a 3/2 deathtouch flyer for one black mana–an absolutely absurd rate, especially with flying being great on offense and deathtouch being excellent on defense.

Soulstinger makes combat math complicated (and also plays well with creatures like Doomed Dissenter, which reward you for debuffing your own creatures), while Wasteland Scorpion can fend off your opponent’s best ground threat–one mana more for one additional power and toughness on Typhoid Rats is still good, and the option to cycle the Scorpion is just more upside. I think evasion is going to be at a premium in this format, so Cursed Minotaur gets the nod over Horror of the Broken Lands–a creature that absolutely requires two blockers seems poised to create more challenges for an opponent than a single huge creature.

#4–WHITE

Top Uncommons: Seraph of the Suns, Oketra’s Attendant

Top Commons: Tah-Crop Elite, Gust Walker, Binding Mummy

White feels like a support color–it has cards that play well with black (zombies), blue (skies), and red (exert), and Vizier of Remedies will be very strong in green-white, but on the whole I feel like I would rather have white be my second color in this format.

I will say that it’s hard to get a read on these uncommons; it’s possible that I’m underrating Devoted Crop-Mate or Vizier of Deferment. I’m going with Seraph of the Suns as the king of white’s uncommons because, in a grindy format, an indestructible, evasive 4/4 is a powerful threat, even at seven mana. That said, this is less powerful than it might otherwise be: with -1/-1 counters and exile effects in play, the Seraph can still be defeated. Oketra’s Attendant is well-designed; the Embalm cost being the same as the casting cost means that cycling it in the early game will often be a good line, since it in essence stays in your hand to play as a reasonable 3/3 flyer for 5. Flying might be a key ability in this format to break up board stalls.

Tah-Crop Elite plays well with white’s token-makers and can either open up advantageous attacks through a board stall or do a potent impression of Dawnfeather Eagle in Aether Revolt. Gust Walker’s exert ability means it will seldom be irrelevant, as three power is sufficient to at least trade with most of the set’s creatures with flying or reach. Binding Mummy offers nice upside with white’s Embalm focus and might be downright busted in the black-white zombies deck.

#3–GREEN

Top Uncommons: Scaled Behemoth, Crocodile of the Crossing

Top Commons: Oashra Cultivator, Quarry Hauler, Bitterblade Warrior

How good green is will depend on how easy it is to cheat the -1/-1 counters in a way that gives you above-curve creatures; at first glance, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be super-easy. Additionally, there’s a surprising shortage of trample; green’s going to need some help getting its creatures through to the red zone.

I like Crocodile Crossing the most of the uncommon -1/-1 cluster (over Defiant Greatmaw and Exemplar of Strength) because of the ambush factor–ambushing your opponent with 4 or 5 hasty power can open up some good attacks (compared to Exemplar of Strength being a creature opponents will largely trade for rather than letting it get big). Scaled Behemoth, meanwhile, may the biggest and the dumbest of the big dumb creatures, but having hexproof means it will be very difficult for opponents to deal with, it will threaten to eat your opponent’s biggest attacker on defense, and it is a safe target for instant buffs and auras.

Oashra Cultivator is green’s most important common. Why you might ask? She’s a lightning rod for green’s -1/-1 counters on your own creatures theme: you can dump counters on her, making green’s creatures come into play above curve, and then chump-block or sacrifice her to thin your deck of land/fix your mana. Nothing else fills this role quite so cleanly for green; Oashra Cultivator is a key enabler, and I think green decks will want to run 2-3 for the dynamic starts she can enable. (It is possible I’m underrating Defiant Greatmaw’s ability to serve a similar function productively.)

Quarry Hauler looks to be the second best green common, again for its interaction with the -1/-1 counter theme. Bitterblade Warrior is a two-drop with good upside, which can leave opponents with difficult decisions when it’s exerted. Look for Giant Spider to be a key card against white and blue, while a Hooded Brawler played on curve can likely be trusted to land at least one big hit.

BLUE

Top Uncommons: Angler Drake, Vizier of Tumbling Sands

Top Commons: Naga Oracle, Shimmerscale Drake, Scribe of the Mindful

Oh, heaven help me. I’m historically pretty bad with blue in limited, but I think blue looks strong in this format–it has a good spread of tough ground blockers and potent aerial threats, and I think they will work well with the color’s tempo spells.

Angler Drake is going to be a key card in blue; the format looks poised to be pretty grindy, so a big beater that can close a game out on its own and/or bounce a key blocker to open up a big strike is going to be powerful. Vizier’s untap ability is potent in a set with exert, and its cycle-untap ability is going to score the occasional surprise two-for-one.

Blue’s commons mostly want to do the same thing: lock down the ground (Ancient Crab, Naga Oracle) and get in through the air; Shimmerscale Drake has good stats for a five-drop flyer. Naga Oracle’s high toughness will be helpful to buy time to get winning cards into place, while its filtering ability can translate into a card quality advantage in the late game. Blue also has a couple of big, non-evasive creatures, which probably don’t do enough on their own but can quickly become game-winning threats with the Cartouche of Knowledge or Open Into Wonder. Scribe of the Mindful’s ability to bring blue’s powerful tempo cards back (or recover Open Into Wonder for a second round of free attacks/card draw) promises to make it a lynchpin of some blue decks.

RED

Top Uncommons: Ahn-Crop Crasher, Bloodrage Brawler

Top Commons: Emberhorn Minotaur, Manticore of the Gauntlet, Nef-Crop Entangler

This might be my eagerness to build mono-red for standard talking, but red looks strong and deep to me. It doesn’t really have bad uncommon creatures; I like Trueheart Twins quite a lot, and Warfire Javelineer will be a potent removal spell that leaves behind a 2/3 creature in some decks (even two instants/sorceries will let it pick off a small creature). I like Ahn-Crop Crasher best, though–it hits hard early with haste, and its exert ability can set up some tricky lines for your opponent to work out. I might be overrating Bloodrage Brawler slightly (I think it will be better in constructed), but a 4/3 on turn two is still apt to be a beating, and the body is still a reasonable size if you play it late and pitch an excess land (or nothing, if it’s the last card in your hand).

Red’s common creatures include reasonable threats too; Emberhorn Minotaur is another card that makes your opponent think twice about attacking you, as they must leave at least two creatures back against it; Manticore of the Gauntlet comes with a reasonable body and burns your opponent’s face for three; and Nef-Crop Entangler is probably red’s best early creature, as its exert ability means it stays relevant longer than most two-drops (and trample is nice upside). Thresher Lizard also has nice upside, as a creature that starts with an average body but avoids being so thoroughly outclassed once both players are in top-deck mode.

And there you have it! The red mage in me is certainly psyched for prerelease, but all five colors look like they have the creature depth to be playable. In a couple days I’ll be back to weigh each color’s removal; until then, though, how do you think I’m doing? Which creatures and colors am I overrating/underrating? Fire away in the comments below–I’m curious to hear your thoughts!

Early Amonkhet Spoilers for Green-Red in Standard

Ahoy planeswalkers!

It’s time for Magic: the Gathering’s quarterly holiday season! Yes, it’s spoiler time, and I’m gearing up for a couple fun weeks of writing about Amonkhet (building up to limited power rankings like I did for Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, which I will release during the week before prerelease); I’ll also be weighing in on the spoiler discussion thread for Hipsters of the Coast, which goes live in a couple hours and will update daily over the next couple weeks, so do keep an eye on that! However, we’ve already seen a few cards I want to talk about for constructed because they affect my precious red-green standard deck, which I hope to bring to Game Day this time around.

So, let’s dive in!

This is a very good reason to take a shot at Game Day for me, because I think this might be great as a two-of in my deck. It’s almost a guaranteed two-for-one if you take the tempo hit of exerting it, it’s a potent planeswalker-killer, and it at least trades for Heart of Kiran. I’m not sure if this is a good card with my mana base (I need to test it), but it’s definitely on my radar. It might be a sign that it’s time for my deck to cheat towards a little higher curve; there are certainly other cards that are also worth a look at higher CMCs.

At worst, this is a good sideboard card against control, particularly since it’s possible, judging by the Invocations, that Amonkhet might be home to some potent counter-magic. There’s a chance that this is the replacement I’ve been looking for to take Brazen Scourge‘s place in my 75; my gut is that the Scourge’s haste is still better in my deck, but a 4/3 for 3 with upside is strong, and I’m going to test it.

This… is not what I was hoping for.

That this is the cycle of rare lands we’re getting in Amonkhet is not good news for ally-colored aggro decks; if we don’t get a reasonable replacement for the Shadow-lands in the fall, red-green will probably need to move a little more towards mid-range, because untapped lands are vital if you want to run a deck with 7-8 one-mana spells.

I’m searching for another one-drop creature, and a one-drop that can grow and has some evasion is a promising starting point. I’m not sure this is the one’s good in my deck–my deck doesn’t discard, so it would pretty much be stuck on 1 power–but maybe it has a place in a deck like black-red madness.

There’s one more card we need to talk about, and boy is it a big one…

Get. In. My. Deck.

Hazoret is everything an aggressive red deck wants: good size for her mana cost, haste, indestructibility, and an ability that helps give the deck reach to finish the fight. Any red deck with a curve topping out at 4 should want probably 2 copies of Hazoret as a top end. Alas, I expect Hazoret is going to start out a bit too expensive for me… But maybe I’ll get lucky at prerelease. If this card sneaks south of $5, I’m going to pick up a pair, and even if it doesn’t I might just not be able to help myself.

Overall, I am psyched for Amonkhet–it looks like it’s going to be a great set. What do you think–am I off on my assessment of any of these cards? What cards are you most excited for?

A First Glimpse of Amonkhet

Ahoy planeswalkers!

Just wanted to let folks who follow me here know–my third column for Hipsters of the Coast, which looks at a few flavorful bits from this week’s spoilers, is now online here!

Also, since I forgot to link it on my blog, here is the link to my column from two weeks ago, with bold Amonkhet predictions (a column which got featured in the DailyMTG update)!

Happy spoiler season, everyone!

Counting to 20 in MM3

Ahoy planeswalkers!

My local shop held a Wednesday night Modern Masters draft for only $30, and I jumped at the opportunity.

After a first-pick Restoration Angel, I was looking to go Bant, but white and blue dried up very quickly, while green and red were open, so I moved towards Gruul with a possible white splash. (The player on my right was, indeed, in Esper, so I made the right read). Pack two was a little unexciting (the player on my left was doing green-white tokens), but pack three I opened a Boros Reckoner and saw some very nice cards (including two Goblin Assaults and a Woolly Thoctar), and I ended up with this deck:

CREATURES:

1x Burning-Tree Emissary

1x Wayfaring Temple

1x Wooly Thoctar

1x Thornscape Battlemage

1x Vithian Stinger

1x Pyrewild Shaman

1x Boros Reckoner

1x Restoration Angel

NONCREATURE SPELLS:

2x Goblin Assault

1x Harmonize

LANDS:

2x Selesnya Guildgate

8x Mountain

5x Forest

1x Plains

SIDEBOARD:

1x Traitorous Instinct

1x Thundersong Trumpeter

1x Slaughterhorn

1x Giantbaiting

1x Pyroclasm

1x Soul Warden

In match one, I went up against a durdle-y deck that didn’t really show me much of anything in game one, as I rode Goblin Assault and Gruul War Chant to victory. He had alluded to powerful mythics, so with all his ramp I put him on Craterhoof Behemoth; in game two, I got to see that it was Bonfire of the Damned and Sphinx’s Revelation, as he nearly decked himself before he could assemble enough creatures to actually kill me. (I also made a serious error by throwing a Thunderous Wrath at his face in response to his Sphinx’s Revelation, when I should have held it to try picking off what I already suspected to be a pretty marginal suite of creatures.) I managed to run him over again in game three (turn-two Goblin Assault off of Avacyn’s Pilgrim is fun), however, starting the night off right.

Game one of match two might have featured one of the best plays I’ve made in a while. I’d gotten off to a good start–Scorched Rasulka, Burning Tree Emissary, Tattermunge Witch, Vithian Stinger, and Gruul War Chant meant I was getting after his life total quickly. Then my opponent dropped a Deadeye Navigator and soulbonded it with a Mist Raven, giving him the bounce-lock on me.

I had Thunderous Wrath in hand (I never got to miracle it, sadly), but not enough mana to kill the Navigator while he was tapped out. I chipped in a little damage with an attack while he was tapped out, and then sacrificed the Stinger for a damage with the Rasulka when he bounced it (before he bounced everything else), bringing him to 7. Then he bounced the rest of my board.

I had the choice of killing his Navigator while he was tapped out or trying to go for the surprise Thunderous Wrath win by playing into his bounce-party and pinging him with the Rasulka a few more times to get him down to 5; I would lose to a counter spell, but I decided that seemed like the best path after the huge tempo loss. I recast the Emissary and the Rasulka, unearthed, pinged with, and sacrificed the Stinger (bringing him to 5), and waited for him to bounce my team again (using up his mana). Then Thunderous Wrath hit, he didn’t have a counter spell, and I took the win!

Game two was more straightforward–I had to weather a Wall of Denial, but he was mana-flooded, his early plays were a Youthful Knight and a Tandem Lookout (both of which I got to kill with my Stinger). I was ultimately able to get enough creatures going to take the win. (We finished early, so we jammed a couple of modern games too, with my 8Rack deck handling his Sultai deck admirably.)

Alas, in my third match, I just got stomped. My opponent was on Rakdos with five Spike Jesters, several Mogg Flunkies, and a quite adequate amount of burn and removal to back them up. In game one, he simply outraced me (partially because I had mana issues and couldn’t find white to cast my Wayfaring Temple on-curve). Game two was a little better–we got to a stable, empty board–but then he peeled a Falkenrath Aristocrat and I never found an answer.

Even so, I got two packs, making my evening total five packs for $30–a very good deal! I added Olivia Voldaren and Gifts Ungiven to Restoration Angel, Summoning Trap, and Boros Reckoner as my rares–nothing too exciting, but Olivia, Gifts, and the Angel might bounce back to the $5 neighborhood in a year or so, and they’re certainly better than bulk and see some Modern and/or Commander play.

So, a few parting thoughts on my deck…

I would rate this deck a B+ or A-

My creatures were all awesome, and I had several very powerful enchantments. I would have liked one more good, aggressive creature that I could have run in place of Giantbaiting, though. My removal suite was also a little weak, and my mana base was a bit awkward (another Pilgrim probably would have been the best remedy).

I’m not sure if I over-played the white splash

Restoration Angel, Wooly Thoctar, and Wayfaring Temple are all powerful cards, but with such a low curve (and having a deck that wants less than seventeen lands) made it difficult to get them into play when they would have had the most effect. Splashing for the Angel was definitely right, and I think the Thoctar was good, but I think I needed one more Guildgate or Pilgrim for the white splash for the Temple.

I don’t think I chose the right fortieth card

Giantbaiting can be a beating, make no mistake. It never felt like the card I wanted, though; it does stone nothing on defense, and drawing it in games where I was taking a beating (like game one of match three) felt bad, and on account of my powerful enchantments, I was a little creature-light for a red-green-based deck. I probably should have run one of my Penumbra Spiders–not a good beatdown card, but high in value, since it essentially needs to be killed twice, still a good attacker if I find Gruul War Chant or Gaea’s Anthem.

Aggro is real

I feel like I’ve read more articles about the shortcomings of aggro decks in Modern Masters 2017 than articles about how good they can be. If that’s what’s open, though, I certainly don’t think aggro is underpowered. Now, I benefitted a great deal from some powerful uncommons (Gruul War Chant plus Goblin Assault is dynamite), but I really liked how my deck felt (I mean, it was explosive enough to win through Deadeye Navigator!), and this specific draft pod did come down to aggro versus faster aggro.

I really hope there are Modern Masters 2017 drafts at GP Providence

Drafting this set again is not in the budget for the foreseeable future, but my day of playing side events at GP Providence in September is basically my Magic-playing Christmas. I’d love to get the chance to draft this set again, because it really is a lot of fun.

What do you think of my deck, reader? How would you have built it with this pool of cards?

8Rack Unbroken!

Ahoy planeswalkers!

I’m really excited to report back on my latest 8Rack hijinks; for the first time in nearly a year, I just ran off an undefeated record, going 4-0, beating red-white burn, naya zoo, sultai midrange, and sultai control, snagging $40 in store credit to Gamingetc along the way! My opponents weren’t exactly soft either, running up a combined 10-6 mark–0-4 against me, 2-2 against each other, 8-0 against the rest of the field.

It’s been a while since I played 8Rack (for those who don’t remember, my last outing didn’t go great), so here’s my latest list:

MAINBOARD:

4x The Rack

4x Shrieking Affliction

4x Raven’s Crime

3x Blackmail

2x Funeral Charm

2x Inquisition of Kozilek

1x Thoughtseize

4x Wrench Mind

4x Smallpox

3x Victim of Night

2x Augur of Skulls

1x Geth’s Verdict

2x Dismember

1x Liliana of the Veil

3x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

2x Mutavault

1x Dakmor Salvage

17x Swamp

SIDEBOARD:

4x Extirpate

3x Ghost Quarter

3x Languish

2x Pack Rat

1x Illness in the Ranks

1x Darkblast

1x Leyline of the Void

There are still cards I need to replace here; I don’t love Illness, and I’m becoming skeptical of Languish (although it did win me one game at this event). Most of the time I was bringing in Pack Rat, so I’m starting to wonder if I should just run the Pack Rats in place of the Augurs. Overall, though, I’m really happy with how the deck handled, and this win gave me a big boost towards Liliana number two–I think I’m just going to wait for a couple months to see if the price falls a bit more (it’s at $70 now, I’m crossing my fingers for $60).

Now, time for some match recaps:

Match 1: Red-White Burn

Ah, burn. A fascinating matchup for 8Rack, and one that I’m starting to think might actually favor me. It’s pretty good if you have a rack in hand (and very good if you have two), since your opponent often fetches and shocks away 5 life and usually helps you empty their hand. My opponent clearly wasn’t sure how to play against 8Rack and helped me a little–in game one, he flooded a little and kept playing his lands, when his deck really doesn’t need more than three lands in play–but at the end of the day I was able to win the damage race in games one and three and start the night with a win. Pack Rat out of the sideboard helped too, forcing him to throw a Lightning Bolt at it instead of my face in both game two and game three.

Match 2: Naya Zoo

Zoo is one of my tougher matchups, and game one didn’t go well. It did give me a chance to watch how my opponent played, however; my opponent was on the young side, and he made some loose choices with his sequencing (for instance, playing creatures before combat and taking damage from his own Eidolon of the Great Revel). I sided out my Augurs and Funeral Charms in favor of the Languishes and Pack Rats. In game two, a timely Languish let me wipe the board when he was a two cards away from an Atarka’s Command that would have killed me, giving me the time I needed to ride a rack to victory. In game three I got to Smallpox him twice (taking him down to zero lands) for a fairly easy win.

Match 3: Sultai Midrange

This spicy brew traded the red of Jund and the white of Abzan to double-down on delirium for Grim Flayer, Traverse the Ulvenwald, and Tarmogoyf with help from Architects of Will as cycling artifact support. I didn’t see anything else that stood out in blue–he may have been running Snapcasters or something like that and just never drawn them. It also featured Bitterblossom–a card that may have hurt more than it helped against my deck. (Alas, I never got Illness in the Ranks into play post-sideboard for the chance to make Bitterblossom truly terrible.) I mulled to five in game one and came up a turn short of killing him, as he found a Tarmogoyf (backed up by a small army from Bitterblossom) once I was out of removal. I brought in Darkblast, Illness, and the Pack Rats over the Augurs and Funeral Charms. In game two an early Inquisition of Kozilek tipped me off that he had two Abrupt Decays, which let me hold my Rack until I could empty his hand; eventually I got his hand and board empty and drew another rack, which allowed me to take the game in short order. In game three I had to kill a couple of his threats, but then I got two racks into play (to go with his Bitterblossom) and I was able to close the game out. This made me the last undefeated player standing, one win away from total victory!

Match 4: Sultai Control

This was a match of draw-first decks–something I’m not sure I’ve seen in modern. Where my previous opponent was playing a Jund-style value deck with blue instead of red, this fellow was on a more controlling build, with Cryptic Command, Snapcaster Mage, and Ancestral Visions. I may just start having nightmares about Abrupt Decay-Snapcaster-Abrupt Decay taking out two of my win conditions, which is what happened in game one. He then had an Ancestral Visions go off, and I couldn’t really get his hand shrunk back down. In game two, I managed to out-race another Ancestral Visions thanks to the timely draw of a second Rack effect, sending us to game three.

In game three, I started with both of my Inquisitions in hand (as well as a Rack), and my first Inquisition revealed a hand that included two Snapcaster Mages, an Abrupt Decay, and a Maelstrom Pulse. Ugh. I took my time getting my Rack into play, taking the Snapcasters with my Inquisitions and the Abrupt Decay with a Blackmail once I’d used Raven’s Crime to shrink his hand. I drew a Pack Rat, which I used to bait out the Maelstrom Pulse, and only then did I play the Rack. A second Rack effect and a Wrench Mind to keep him from refilling his hand followed, and I had pulled off the 4-0 (including winning all six post-sideboard games in rounds two through four)!

So, a few parting thoughts on a very good night…

I’m glad I fixed my mana base

Going down to one Dakmor Salvage and up to 23 total lands should help with my deck’s consistency. Twelve games is a small sample size, clearly, but I did not get mana screwed in any of them, and I only had to mulligan below six once (and still had a competitive game in that one).

I picked up Mutavault number three

I want the fourth Urborg before I play it, but this will be another good mainboard upgrade for my deck. Liliana number two, meanwhile, is on the horizon–I don’t think I’m going to get to play much Magic in April, so maybe in May I’ll be back with two Lilianas in my list rather than one.

Zoo aside, I do think I had a pretty friendly draw

Red-white burn is probably the best flavor of burn for 8Rack, since it means my opponent damages themself with fetches and shocks (unlike mono-red) but I also don’t have to deal with the range of creatures Naya allows (especially Wild Nacatl). The first Sultai deck was like Jund–it only has a finite number of threats, and it wasn’t usually terribly hard to get down to empty boards/empty hands. 8Rack also tends to be very good versus control, and I managed to pick my final opponent’s hand apart in all three games (it’s just that in one of them Ancestral Visions went off, which is not a card 8Rack wants to see).

I got to try 8Rack against another Sultai player between rounds on Wednesday when I drafted Modern Masters, and my deck backed up its good results versus Sultai with a friendly 2-0 run where I had all the answers. As for how the draft itself went… Well, stay tuned, and I’ll have an event report for that for you next week!

I’m Back! I’m Back! With an Aether Revolt Draft!

Ahoy planeswalkers!

I’ve finally found the time to finish the write-up on my draft from nearly a month ago! I’m just going to dive in with my deck list, and then I’ll tell you how the draft went.

CREATURES:

1x Embraal Gear-Smasher

1x Aethertorch Renegade

1x Reckless Racer

1x Maulfist Doorbuster

1x Sweatworks Brawler

1x Wind-Kin Raiders

NONCREATURE SPELLS

2x Shock

1x Built to Smash

1x Implement of Combustion

1x Prophetic Prism

1x Destructive Tampering

1x Renegade Freighter

1x Deadlock Trap

1x Siege Modification

2x Leave in the Dust

1x Chandra’s Revolution

LANDS

9x Mountain

7x Island

SIDEBOARD

1x Spire Patrol

1x Renegade Wheelsmith

1x Gremlin Infestation

1x Spireside Infiltrator

1x Embraal Gear-Smasher

1x Wind Drake

1x Night Market Guard

1x Take Into Custody

1x Countless Gears Renegade

1x Alley Evasion

1x Lifecraft Awakening

I was a very naughty limited player and started with 41 cards in my deck. After a few games I determined that Siege Modification felt really bad, and once I got rid of it things started to go better for me.

I also should probably not have been in blue. The players on my right were blue-black and blue-red-black (and the player on my left ended up in green-black). I was seduced in by the early Wind-Kin Raiders and the Skyship Plunderer, which I got in the second-to-fourth-pick range in pack one, and I also got the Leave in the Dusts late, but it slowly became clear that white was crazy open, and I probably should have pivoted. Green also eventually became quite open, and I had to grit my teeth as I passed three Thriving Rhinos in pack three.

So, I ended up short 1-2 improvise payoffs/top-end beaters, which the deck sorely missed. Even so, I don’t think it’s a terrible draft deck; it could get a pretty good pop from the aggro synergies of blue-red improvise and it had a couple of solid ways of finishing the game. If I didn’t get a quick start, though, I was in trouble. On the whole, my 2-1 finish was probably a touch above expectation.

During deck-building, I thought long and hard about splashing for the Spire Patrol and the Renegade Wheelsmith, but in the end I felt like I couldn’t justify them. The cards are strong but not really bombs, and with a poor top end, my deck needed to be fast; complicating my mana base would have increased the risk of losing tempo early in games.

My first match brought me up against a blue-black improvise deck, splashing white for activated abilities on cards like Cogworker’s Puzzleknot. He had a Tezzeret; he never drew it against me, and he never needed it. In game one he started bashing me with Tezzeret’s Touch on an Implement of Malice, while I kept a six with three red cards and three Islands (which wasn’t completely crazy–I was on the draw and had the scry plus two turns to draw one of ten ways to make red mana–but instead it took me four turns). While I was eventually able to stabilize, my top end wasn’t big enough to hold off his. In game two, I once again failed to find an explosive start and got smashed. (I also lost a third just-for-fun game. He went on to 3-0 the pod.)

My second match was against a young player with a highly synergistic (but threat-light) Grixis deck. During game one, we both started very slowly, and he drew probably eight to ten extra cards over the course of the game. He had a lot of artifact card-draw synergies, but not a lot of scary creatures; eventually he got an Efficient Construction into play and made enough thopters to finish me off. I was able to punish his deck’s durdling in games two (mostly thanks to Renegade Freighter) and three (a turn-six win where I improvised out both Sweatworks Brawler and Wind-Kin Raiders).

My third match was a couple of races with green-black. I managed to win the first by dealing early damage with Aether Chaser and Sweatworks Brawler, and then finishing him off with a Destructive Tampering. (I had the Tampering in my starting hand, but it took a long time for me to build a critical mass of damage–he stabilized and got a Walking Ballista and a flyer into play, so I had to get to seven mana so I could Leave in the Dust his flyer, and I had to get enough power on-board to survive him blowing up his Ballista.) I beat him to death with a Brazen Scourge in game two, dealing enough damage with that creature (backed up by removal and tempo plays like Leave in the Dust and Take Into Custody) to outrace three Thriving Rhinos! (Remember how I said green was open during the draft? Yeah. This was my neighbor who got all the rhinos.) I was helped by his decision to commit to the race rather than leaving blockers back, and I was able to surprise him by killing him from 7 life thanks to Built to Smash and Shock.

So, a few takeaways from the night…

Blue/Red Improvise is as good as advertised

This was a subpar version of the archetype–again, I could have used two more payoffs and a couple more enablers–but even cut on blue as I was, all of the blue cards in my deck felt good, and this may have still been a better deck than the hypothetical red-white deck I may have built.

I love Destructive Tampering

I was excited about this card when it was first spoiled (you might remember I was eyeing it for my standard deck), and I loved getting the chance to play with it. With how many artifacts are in this format, it’s useful for artifact destruction (it’s how I got rid of the Tezzeret’s Touch), and sometimes it just wins the game.

I might finally be figuring out how to play blue

This was my first time playing blue to a winning record in limited since the Battle for Zendikar prerelease. It helps that blue is clearly an aggro color in the improvise deck–it makes the tempo gain from bounce spells more relevant in the absence of more permanent removal–but after how many rough nights I’ve had on blue, this one felt really good.

Battle at the Bridge looks sweet in foil

The highlight of my prize packs was pulling a foil Battle at the Bridge. His body is mostly not foiled except for his golden clothing and his glowing eyes; it has a really nice pop to it.

That’s all for now! Coming soon, though, I’ll have a writeup on a night of playing 8Rack, and I’m playing again later this week. And, soon, we’ll have Amonkhet spoilers!

Behold, Planeswalker!

Off-Beat Deck Techs, Lore Speculation, and Other Musings on Magic: the Gathering

Category: Uncategorized

Rebuilding Red/Green for Amonkhet Standard

Amonkhet Prerelease

Amonkhet Limited Power Rankings, Pt. 2

The Gatewatch Love Triangle–at Hipsters of the Coast

Amonkhet Limited Power Rankings, Part 1

Early Amonkhet Spoilers for Green-Red in Standard

A First Glimpse of Amonkhet

Counting to 20 in MM3

8Rack Unbroken!

I’m Back! I’m Back! With an Aether Revolt Draft!