Top 8 Bad Cards in Standard

Well, there's a new set out with Dragon of Tarkir and with it a whole bunch of sweet new cards are hitting Standard play.  However, instead of looking at the new good cards, today I went and put together my Top 8 list of bad cards that see Standard play.


Top 8 Bad Cards in Standard

8:  Evolving Wilds

This card keeps managing to sneak its way into real Standard decks and every time it does a part of me dies a little.
Unfortunately, the current Standard mana base is god awful and Evolving Wilds remains a necessary evil.


7:  Foundry Street Denizen

I have chosen this pass out draft common as the poster child for the current available 1 drops for the hyper aggressive red deck.  Dragons of Tarkir have introduced 2 great red 1 drops in Zurgo and Lightning Berserker but the synergy with Hordeling Outburst is unfortunately still keeping the old Denizen in decks.


6:  Satyr Wayfinder

I get it.  It’s an enabler.  That doesn’t change the fact that this is a 2 mana 1/1!
Is this card needed in the decks that run it? Yes, it probably is.  Does it still suck? Absolutely!


5:  End Hostilities

Five mana wraths are awful.  Yeah they’re all we have but they really are bad.
End Hostilities gets the nod for the list here over Crux of Fate because I do like the dragon win con synergy Crux allows you to build into your deck.


4:  Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

Every time I play against a blue-black control deck and my opponent smugly plays one of these one turn 3 I let out a sigh of relief, untap, play a Rabblemaster and kill my opponent.
I have no idea why people still include this Tibalt level planeswalker in their decks but I’m ok with it!


3:  Outpost Siege

See my previous blog entry regarding the specifics on this one.
Additionally, I feel that with DTK hitting standard, Outpost Siege has gone from bad to outright embarrassing.  There was so much main deck and side board enchantment hate already and the addition of Dromoka’s Command made it even worse.  That coupled with the fact that Thunderbreak Regent is now a standard legal 4 drop make this siege a very bad idea.


2:  Ashcloud Phoenix

This.  Card.  Sucks.
There are roughly a million exile effects being played but all the top tier decks (Chained to the Rocks in RW, Abzan Charm in all forms of Abzan, Perilous Vault in control, Banishing Light in GW Devotion, Silence the Believers still comes up from time to time) that all crap all over this card.  Couple that with the fact that token decks are a very real thing at the moment and that it has 1 toughness and you end up with one unplayable bird.
This card’s always been bad and Thunderbreak Regent firmly closed the door on ANY excuse you had to still be running this.


1:  Every card in the Blue-White/UWR heroic deck

Was there ever any doubt?
The top spot here cannot be given to any single card but instead goes to this entire deck.
I’m not saying the deck itself is bad, apparently it STILL puts up results… , but it cannot be denied that almost every card in it is an atrocity and an affront to constructed magic.
There have been other successful draft commons/uncommons decks in the past, current season mono red, last season’s mono blue ect, but none of them come anywhere close to this deck’s level of jank cards.
This is not a draft commons deck.  With all start like Aqueous Form, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Stratus Walk, Battle Mastery and even the format defining Mortal Obstinacy often making the cut, it truly is the first constructed playable draft passouts deck.

Outpost Siege is a Bad Card

Outpost Siege has been seeing heavy play out of red decks to gain card advantage but it is actually worth it?

How many cards does a draw spell need to give at sorcery speed for 4 mana you before it's actually good?

Harmonize is probably the line where it's acceptable; 4 mana sorcery speed should draw 3 cards before it's a consideration.

The standard legal comparison is Treasure Cruise, a card that has proven super busted in older formats, and that matches up fairly similarly to the Harmonize rate where you're happy paying 4 for it and anything under that is just gravy.

Sorcery speed draw 2s cost 3 mana and don't really see much play in main decks at that cost so you're certainly not happy playing a 4 mana draw 2.

If you take this and look at Outpost Siege you find that it takes 4 turns to return 3 cards for your 4 mana investment!

When you further consider that flipping cards to it is not as good as drawing them, since it doesn’t let you hold up removal ect, it will realistically take at least 5 turns to be on par with a sorcery speed draw 3 in terms of raw card numbers, and that's assuming you're not dead and that your opponent can't remove it which in a format full of Sultai Charms, Perilous Vaults, Utter Ends, Ugins and Erases is FAR from a sure thing.

In my experience, if you take a turn off to play Outpost Siege and your opponent kills it at instant speed, you almost always lose the game due to the massive tempo loss.

Yes Outpost Siege draws you cards, yes drawing cards is good but current standard is extremely hostile to doing nothing.

Even against blue black control, a glacial deck which is the reason the red decks need Outpost Siege and where it is the best, I've been in situations where I knew if I played siege I would just give my opponent the breathing room they needed to get to Ugin mana and lock the game up.

I would rather it have been any threat.

I've won more games off Chandra than I can count and it's always upsetting to me to see more and more people cutting my Lady in Red from their deck lists for a stupid 4 mana enchantment that only has 1 of her 3 excellent abilities.

In my experience, Chandra's +1 wins more games than her zero in an aggressive red deck and I'll be sticking by her through thick and thin.

Yes, she dies to Hero's Downfall but she will be avenged with stormy breath if my opponents dare such heresy!

Disclaimer:  Tom takes no responsibility for your deck building choices and cannot be held accountable for any games lost due to not running outpost siege.

Reforging Fate

Fate Reforged has been a much anticipated set for various story reasons and just because it's a follow up to one of the most popular sets ever printed in Khans, also, Dragons are cool.
People didn't really know what to expect apart from Dragons and Ugin and speculations were pretty varied and wild.
Well, the set is here and mostly spoiled so has it lived up to the hype?
For me the answer to that question is unfortunately a big fat resounding:  No, it has not.

There are clearly some super strong cards in the set that will see heavy play in standard but I feel that the set is lacking flavour and has some weird design issues that I just can't get on board with.
What it comes down to most for me is the way Mythics have been done in the set and the super underwhelming dragons being printed.

I understand that when you’re printing something like 10 dragons in a set, they can't all be mind blowingly sweet constructed all-stars but would it be too much to ask for 1 or 2 of them to at least be decent?  Instead, each time a dragon was spoiled was more disappointing than the last.
Now that they're all spoiled, there are only 2 that are even remotely worth talking about, those 2 being the GW and RB ones.

I feel these, in particular the GW one, may see some niche play but I'm not holding my breath even on these.The rest are flat untouchable from any constructed point of view.
PS:  Yes, you should first pick the dragons in limited.  Cos you know, reasons...

The other issue for me are the mythics.
WotC has completely switched around which cards they put at mythic in this set and I hate it.
In all other sets, the legendary Dragons and the Khan leaders would be printed at mythic and the power mythics in this set would be printed at rare.
I would be fine with the dragon cycle here being at rare given the limited mythic slots in a small set but the entire hybrid mana activated ability mythic cycle should be at rare as well as cards like Monastery Mentor.  These cards are all very powerful but they are not 'mythic'.
It's like if Boros Reckoner was printed at mythic and Aurelia, The Warleader was printed at rare in Gatecrash.
Overall a giant flavour fail.

The weird choice of cards to put at mythic has also left the set with super powerful mythics and basically zero playable rares which is annoying for monetary card values at the very least.



The new manifest mechanic also seems to have led to some uninspired and repetitive card design.
Just take a look at these 2 commons for example:

There are two huge issues I have with these 2 cards in this cycle.
a) They're the same card with minor number tweaks
b) The red one makes a bigger creature than the green one

Really?  Is this the best design space the manifest mechanic provides?
I hate this mechanic a lot in general but what I hate most about it is the lack of diversity it seems to allow.
Still, would it have been so hard to make the green on cost 5 and give 2 counters and the red one cost 5, give 1 counter and haste? Or hell, just flip their colours and leave as is for much better colour pie adherence?


With all that said, there's no doubt that the set will impact standard heavily and people are already jamming the new cards into decks to see what works.
Below are 3 decks that I've been having a look at.  They are still early versions obviously with little to no play testing but I feel each of them represent a viable strategy going forward in Fate Reforged standard.


With all but 1 of the mythics and most of the rares spoiled, I think it's fair to say that Shaman of the Great Hunt is the best agro card in the set which means that we musts plays it my precious!

I'm still not sold on mono-red, outside of the sligh version which has no time for 4 drops, since the 2 drop slot is super lacking for the deck at the moment and the field is extremely hostile to small ground creatures that don't go real wide.
Also, apparently Shaman of the Great Hunt has an activated ability.  Admittedly it's a bad one since it doesn't do damage to things but an activated ability none the less so why not see if we can activate it at some point.
Savage Knuckleblade is another card I've been wanting to play since it got printed and one I feel is underplayed right now for its stupid power levels.
To this end, I decided to roll out my Lounging Kibler playmat and make its subject proud.

Here's the hunting party I ended up with as a first draft:

Creatures(25):
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Heir of the Wilds
3 Boon Satyr
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Savage Knuckleblade
4 Shaman of the Great Hunt
2 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells(12):
3 Crater's Claws
4 Lightning Strike
2 Temur Charm
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Disdainful Stroke

Lands(23):
4 Frontier Bivouac
2 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Temple of Epiphany
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Shivan Reef
1 Mana Confluence
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
2 Mountain


Sideboard(15):
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Arc Lightning
2 Wild Slash
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Back to Nature
3 Hunt the Hunter


RUG has seem some play but it's never really been a top end contender.
I've always found the deck inconsistent and lacking that little bit of extra punch to put it over the top.
I don't know if Shaman of the Great Hunt will fix its issues but this is a home I feel will suite the hunter well.


The other card, again a Mythic because apparently playable cards all get printed at mythic now *shrug*, that was immediately in my wheel house when spoiled is Brutal Hordechief.

The obvious comparison to Hellrider is obvious but realistically I expect this card to play very differently to my demon friend of seasons past.
The lack of haste is a VERY big difference and means you can't really play this as the top end to a creature heavy RDW style agro deck like Hellrider saw play in.
I think the best shell for the Hordechief is a BWR tokens list where it adds a lot of value to your random 1/1s, even if they’re just chump attacking.
This brings is to the token master himself, Young Pyromancer 2.0 or as I like to think of it, Goblin Rabblemaster 2.Slow, Monastery Mentor:

I feel this card is currently being slightly over hyped but probably not by very much.  The card's a good one to be sure and will see heavy standard play.
A lot of people are excited for him in UWR tokens but I feel he has a very good home in BWR too.

Here's a preliminary list featuring both these cards that I'm keen to try out:

Creatures(12):
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Brutal Hordechief

Planeswalkers(3):
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Spells(20):
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Hordling Outburst
4 Crackling Doom
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Lightning Strike

(Haven't bothered adding a mana base but you should be able to sort it out)

I'm not really sure if Hordechief is actually better in this deck than Butcher of the Horde but I'm willing to give him a go.
He's also a warrior and the mass of playable warriors IS slowly creeping into the critical range so a BW warrior list may be on the horizon pretty soon.


The last deck I revisited was the classic UWR tempo/argo list from early in the season since Monastery Mentor and Shaman of the Great Hunt both look to fit in there too:

Creatures(18):
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Mantis Rider
2 Shaman of the Great Hunt

Planeswalkers(2):
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Spells(16):
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Lightning Strike
4 Wild Slash


It's highly likely that the tokens Ascendency version of UWR is still just better but I did enjoy playing the tempo deck and wouldn’t mind picking it up again at some point.
Also, Mantis Rider is WAY too sweet to not see play.
The curve of mantis rider into Shaman of the Great Hunt (btw, really wish it had a shorter name...) seems rather good.  Even if you can't attack with the Shaman, Mantis rider gets a +1/+1 counter and next turn you can remove or bounce their blockers to get through on the ground as well, or just draw 2 cards, attack for 4 in the air and get another counter.
Sure, I get that removal exists and that this scenario isn't too likely but hey, everything dies to removal and sometimes they don't have it.

I'm sure I'll be brewing a whole lot of decks in the coming few weeks but that's it for now.
I'll be running the Saturday pre-release event again as usual so looking forward to seeing how the limited game play is changed.


I guess I can't really leave it without commenting on Ugin himself so here he is:

I don't like this card.  Basically at all.
Sure, it will probably see 1, maybe 2 of, play in some sort of UW, UB or Esper control list but this is certainly one of the weakest mythics in the set.





PS:  None of the siege cycle are playable.  Sorry Sam.

That's a Pieing!

Last weekend saw the world's best Magic pros battle it out in Pro Tour, Khans of Tarkir.
The decks played were their takes on the still forming new standard format and will form the baseline for standard for at least the next few months.

The top 8 lists for the event can be found here:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptktk/top-8-decklists-2014-10-11

There were several popular decks but the clear winners in the format were UWR Tempo and Junk Midrange/Agro with UB Control also rearing its ugly head, almost keeping up with the field.

To me, the UB control list looks like a pile of I don't know what but several very high ranking players (basically those that are nostalgic for the UW or Mono Black lists they played last season) were running the deck and Ivan Floch even managed to sneak one copy of the list into the top 8 so there might be something there going forward.
Ultimately, I feel that the lack of playable planeswalkers, no wrath and no real available finishers is going to keep this list from becoming particularly dominant in the general meta, particularly in places where people play agro.
That said, it is at least an indication that there might be a control deck out there for people willing to do actual nothing other than kill creatures and counter things.

The UWR and Junk decks were fairly clearly going to be a dominant force going in based on the early open series results and while the lists being played did vary a lot, the general principle behind them is the same as before.

The variance of the Junk lists was very apparent throughout the weekend and even for the 3 lists that made the top 8, the rage was from a two and three drop based argo deck (notably not running mana dorks or Coursers) in Mike Sigrist's list to the grindy planeswalker, approaching control, version that Ari Lax eventually piloted to overall victory with Thiago Saporito being somewhere in the middle.
While their colours were the same, the only non-removal cards that all three lists actually shared were Siege Rhino and Sorin, Solemn Visitor.
This is interesting as it indicates that at least the Junk colours are dense in high quality cards which allows players to build their decks in a variety of ways, catering to their personally preferred play styles.
This makes for a far more interesting format as more decks mean more play variety which means more fun for everyone.
This is already a vast contrast to the identical 75s of 3-4 decks that we had last season in basically every event that would fluctuate 0-2 cards week to week.

When all is said and done, the real hero of the event for me was Ari Lax and his excellent card choices.
Namely, this guy:

My Hero!

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is in my opinion a highly undervalued planeswalker that has not seen the play time he deserves.
He saw some amount of play in the Junk midrange lists that were popular on the open series toward the end of last season but I think his best times are yet to come.

The quality of the card aside, the reason I was very happy to see Ari include two copies of this walker in his main deck is that I may have had a little something riding on Ajani seeing top 8 play before the next set comes around.

The background is that when Ajani first came out, I did a set review of Journey into Nyx with a friend of mine, Byron, on his YouTube channel and we had some, shall we say disagreement regarding the quality of this Ajani.

The review discussion can be found here:
 http://youtu.be/UF0WU1LMIfo?t=58m45s

I liked this card a lot immediately but Byron was very down on it.
We borrowed a solution to this kind of dispute from Evan Erwin and Brad Nelson who make pie bets regarding cards they disagree on in their reviews.

The Bet:  Ajani, Mentor of Heroes will see top 8 play with 2 or more copies in the main deck at a GP or PT level event before the second set in Khans block comes out.
The Participants:  Tom for, Byron against.
The Prize:  Winner gets to pie the loser in the face.

Well thanks to Ari Lax, THAT'S A PIEING!
And not for me :)

Byron originally offered to up the stakes to 2 pies for top 8 at a PT but I was not up for that one so it will be only 1 pie this Friday at our local game store.

As for the actual card itself, I still believe it is very powerful and I was very impressed with what it was doing in Ari's deck and other Junk decks that brought him in from the sideboard.
Every time Ajani was in play on camera over the weekend he was doing serious work and quickly swinging games.

The decks that he ended up seeing play in were basically exactly where I originally saw him fitting.
He saw play in the Junk lists of last season, fetching up underworld connections, and now in a PT winning Caryatid/Courser/Elspeth deck.

Here is Ari Lax's PT winning Junk Midrange list for reference:

Creatures(16):
2 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Wingmate Roc
4 Siege Rhino

Planeswalkers(7):
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Spells(13):
4 Abzan Charm
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Utter End
4 Thoughtseize

Lands(24):
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Silence
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Caves of Koilos
4 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard(15):
1 End Hostilities
1 Duneblast
1 Mass Calcify
3 Drown in Sorrow
3 Bile Blight
2 Murderous Cut
1 Unravel the Æther
1 Liliana Vess
2 Nissa, Worldwaker

Ari clearly skewed his deck to the upper end of the mana curve available in Junk and I have to say that I am a fan.
There's so much gas at the top end of this deck that I don't see any other decks keeping up with it when the game goes long.
This could be seen in a lot of Ari's matches where he was playing against other junk lists where the board would grind out a bit and then Ari would take over the game with his heavy hitting planeswalkers.

The other interesting side of the PT is looking at what cards and decks were absent.
I think the two most notable deck absences were Green based devotion/monsters and all of the delve/reanimator decks.
I was not particularly surprised by this since in my experience, neither of these decks have enough power or upside in them to compete with the Junk or BWR midrange lists.
There was also a distinct absence of Polukranos anywhere near the top 8 (not counting the sideboard of the combo deck...) which is something I predicted early on when the spoilers for Khans were coming through.
I've never really liked Polukranos.  To me it's not much more than a vanilla 5/5 for 4 mana which is not standard playable and now that there are real creatures to replace him with, I don't see the World Eater seeing anywhere near as much play as he did previously.

Anyway, this week I'll be battling it out in the top 4 of the Highlander league on Wednesday and then taking another look at my standard list to iron it out a bit more for Game Day this weekend.

Congratulations again to Ari Lax on his win and my whole hearted approval of his deck building choices.

Durdle: The Format

Khans standard has been upon us for two weeks now and it has already begun to form shape with several very distinct decks and strategies rising to the top in the first few opens.
The big winners so far have been UWR tempo, Junk midrange and Green based devotion with BWR midrange, RUG monsters, BUG delve (not to be confused with BUG Delver) and some stupid combo deck also making space for themselves.

Unsurprisingly, at least to me, all of these decks are based heavily around their three colour creature card of choice and filled in with a supporting act.
These cards are Mantis Rider, Siege Rhino, Butcher of the Horde, Savage Knuckleblade and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant.  There is obviously more to each deck than just these powerful creatures but these are all very good magic cards that play a big part in enabling these decks.
Green devotion is the outlier here as it is not based on playing a few very good magic cards and supporting them but rather it is based on playing an overwhelming number of bad magic cards and overrunning their opponents with them.  Personally I think that the best magic card in mono green is likely Elvish Mystic.
(Yeah ok, Courser durdles pretty well, I get it.  I prefer killing my opponent.)
Obviously the format is very young and far from settled.  I expect to see a bunch of sweet new decks from the Pro Tour just like we did with PT Theros except hopefully the PT decks won’t be the only decks played for the entire season like they were last time...

Of all the cards in Khans, Mantis Rider was by far the most underrated and undervalued.
It started off at a measly 2$ bulk rare price tag and being called 'probably playable' and 'ok but not great' by the vast majority of sites and reviewers.
Did people not read the card?  Did they look at it and go 'oh, UWR are control colours, creature must be bad'? 
Whatever the case may be, just in case anyone is still confused, the card is very obviously insane.

The insanity of Mantis Rider aside, it is unfortunately in the wrong colours for the type of deck I like to play so for me, Khans standard became all about this guy:

The power level on this bad boy is through the roof.  I played a lot with Falkenrath Aristocrat and Hell Rider back in their days and hasty 4 drops with evasion/reach is exactly where I want to be.
Now granted, Butcher needs a little bit of work to gain haste but given it's a 5 powered flier, I'm willing to let it slide.  The guy hits harder than Stormbreath Dragon or Sarkhan and only costs 4 mana to their 5, even without haste, the card is fine in my books.
I immediately started putting together agro lists that curved into Butchers and my initial attempts had a creature base that looked something like this:

4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Chief of the Edge
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Butcher of the Horde

Which I was supporting with a couple Sarkhans, removal and burn.
The synergy between Butcher and Rabblemaster/Bloodsoaked Champion is very real as both provide an endless supply of food for the demon, more or less for free.
Unfortunately it became very clear that even the best 2 powered 1 drops are not playable in a world where 85% of people are on midrange with at least two thirds of them running the Courser + Caryatid durdle special.
I removed the 1 drops entirely and eventually ended up and the same creature base as the list piloted to a second place open finish by Jon Goss which can be found here:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=73384

The creature base I was left with was this:

4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Butcher of the Horde
4 Stormbreath Dragon

Goblin Rabblemaster can win games on its own and doubles here are food generation for Butcher, Brimaz is a house, Butcher is my boy and Dragon? Well everyone loves dragons.
Originally the rest of my deck looked like this:

2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Lightning Strike
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Crackling Doom
2 Mardu Charm
1 Hammer of Purphoros
25 Assorted lands

Towards the end of last season, a few people in my play group were working on a 'RabbleCats' deck which worked on the principle of having Rabblemasters and Brimaz as your creatures and running a ton of removal and burn to clear the path for them to win you the game.
I was not a fan of this deck before rotation as it had an extremely low threat count in a format full of 2 mana removal spells which meant you had issues actually killing your opponent.
Now we are in a 3-4 mana removal spell format and with the addition of Butcher, the time has come for RabbleCats II:  The Butchering.  (Div came up with the name, blame him ;) )

I'm a red mage at heart and so had initially leaned the deck heavily into burn for removal but Stoke the Flames is actually pretty bad if you're not convoking it and it also doesn't kill the green fatties you need it to so Hero's Downfall is the correct card in that slot.
The Charms played fine but they were a little too cute.  Hammer of Purphoros is one of my favourite cards in standard and was an all-star against control in the red devotion decks I played last season but control doesn't really exist (at least yet) in Khans standard and with the low creature count it didn't really do much in a lot of matchups.
Realistically, Thoughtseize is the clear choice for this deck but I was avoiding it because I hate the card and don't like playing with it.  In the end I decided I do like winning games so I cut the weak cards and pulled my play set of Thoughtseizes out of my folder.
The final changes where swapping out the Elspeths for Sorins (taken from Jon's list) to lower the curve a little while gaining access to some life gain and finding room for a Chandra as the card is super powerful in midrange fights.
My sideboard ended up a bit different as I tuned it for my local meta and personal play style.
I ended up pulling the mana base entirely from Jon's list as it checked out fine.

The final list I've been running looks like this:

Creatures(14):
4 Butcher of the Horde
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Planeswalkers(5):
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Spells(16):
4 Crackling Doom
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Lightning Strike
4 Thoughtseize

Lands(25):
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
1 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Mana Confluence
4 Nomad Outpost
2 Temple of Malice
2 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard(15):
1 Hushwing Gryff
2 Bile Blight
2 Magma Spray
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Whip of Erebos
1 End Hostilities
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Despise


The deck has been playing very well in testing and I went undefeated with it at the first two sanctioned weekly events I played with it last week as I have finally acquired all the new cards I needed.
I feel the deck is very well positioned to battle against other midrange decks while also having enough early interaction to deal with aggressive decks.

Cracking Doom is a personal favourite and is definitely the Honeybadger removal spell of the format; it doesn't give a fuck.  Oh you have pro white? Dead.  Indestructible? Still dead.  Hexproof? Definitely dead.  Nice regen shield brah! You're dead. 
Oh, and you take 2.
Seriously, the card is gas, don't leave home without it in a BWR deck.

I wasn't sold on Sorin going in but the man has earned his price tag in my eyes.  Sure, he doesn't do anything super broken on paper but in play he supports the rest of the deck extremely well and he's a must kill threat that will win you the game if your opponent decides to ignore it.
Firstly, making a 2/2 flier for -2 is almost worth a card which ensures a 2 for 1 every time unless your opponent crackling dooms you, in which case you are sad but it's still a 1 for 1 trade which is fine.
It is however his +1 that makes Sorin good.  Even in this low creature count deck, the +1 swings the game hugely in your favour if you start hitting your opponent for 10-12 point swings with Butcher or Dragon/Sarkhan.  The +1 is also super hard to beat with Brimaz for agro decks.
In my match against a mono red agro opponent, I was a reasonably low life and had a Sorin on my otherwise empty board.  My opponent decided to attack me with his creature rather than kill the Sorin as he had just scried 2 burn spells to the top with a Magma Jet on my vampire token and would be able to burn me out the following turn but I followed up with a Sarkhan on my next turn, plused Sorin and gained 5 life, firmly sealing the deal.
You also want the life gain against the Junk midrange decks as the drain on Siege Rhinos is something you can't keep up with if you're trading 1 for 1.
Siege Rhino is the reason I've included a Hushwing Gryff in the sideboard as the Helix Rhino sees a lot of play in my local meta and it can be difficult to keep up.  Card also has nice interaction with Hornet Queen.

I have been thoroughly enjoying Khans standard so far, even though it is a gigantic midrange grind fest.
One of my matches last week was against a Junk reanimator/dredge deck which I ended up winning 1-0-1 with us going to time in game two.
I didn't draw enough threats to close the game but the reanimator list is super threat light, even more so than my deck, and I was able to keep up with an active Whip of Erebos easily as I had an active Chandra in play for probably 10+ turns that my opponent was unable to deal with through my removal.

The one major concern I had coming into this season was the viability of 3 coloured mana bases but they seem to check out fine.
This deck requires RR, BB and WW and apart from the game when I mulled to 5 with my hand being Strike, Chandra, Rabblemaster, Swamp, Swamp (yes I lost that game), I have not had any significant mana issues.
I've even messed with the Idea of cutting Brimaz for Mantis Rider but that might be pushing it slightly... we'll see...

Anyway, I'll be sticking with the Yemen Midrange list for the foreseeable future and look forward to tuning it further once the meta game fully shapes up and settles.

Taste the Rainbow

Taste the Rainbow

With the third Melbourne Highlander league wrapping up its final round, I thought I'd share some thoughts on the deck I've run to a 6-1 finish in the rounds with the top 8 to come.

I haven't played Highlander all that long, getting into it a month or so before the first Melbourne league, but it's very quickly become my favourite format.
I started off playing White Weenie in the first league and narrowly missed the top 8 in the top 8 play offs.

In the second league I ran Zoo list pretty close to the list Highlander players know as 'Karl Zoo', deservedly named for Karl Eyre who's been running the list for many years and has the folder full of Moxen winnings to back it up with.
The deck is clearly good and was very popular in that league with, I believe, 6 basically carbon copies of it floating around and 2-3 making the top 8 and Karl piloting it to the top spot.

I liked the deck well enough but felt there were aspects to it that didn't match my playing style (I could never run a Zoo list without lightning bolt for example) so when I scrubbed out rounds 5 and 6 putting me out of top 8 range, I decided to spice it up a bit and swap out the Stripmine/Wasteland points package for a Time Walk and a Geist of Saint Traft, adjusting the mana base accordingly.
I also cut the Elspeth, Knight-Errant for Falkenrath Aristocrat cos the card's sweet.  Better than Elspeth? Maybe not, but it's sweet I tell you!
Elspeth's my girl but the deck doesn't really support 4 drops very well and I really wanted to smash face with Falkenrath so the lady had to go.

 

Turned out that Time Walk tends to win the game on the spot if you have anything resembling a board presence and even just cast as an Explore early can put you very far ahead.  Geist is also no slouch.  Backed up by Ghor-Clan Rampager, Colossal Might and Selesnya Charm it can put the game away on its own very fast.
I liked the changes immediately but after the league, decided I still wasn't completely happy with it and set my eyes on the equipment package.

Normal Zoo runs Jitte, Skullclamp, Stoneforge Mystic and Steelshaper's Gift as its major points package, along with Grafter Wargear as an additional equipment target.
Clamp and Jitte are both inherently powerful Magic cards but ironically, I felt that Wargear was actually the best equipment in the deck a lot of the time.
Jitte is very slow in Zoo and it feels a lot like a sideboard card, coming out in a lot of matchups.  Clamp is very good but the deck actually runs very few X/1s so it only really shines against control where they have to kill your creatures.
Gift and Mystic are obviously only there as tutors so if their targets can go, so can they.

Clamp and Jitte are busted Magic cards, no doubt, but I decided to bench them for a bit and started play testing with this bad boy:

Turns out Ancestral Recall is also super busted, who'd have thought?
At this point I swapped out the entire removal package (Path, Journey and Chained to the Rocks) for damage based red removal which doubles as creature, planeswalker and face removal and added two value creatures in Dark Confidant, because free cards are good, and Snapcaster Mage, because ACalling twice is better than ACalling once.
The mana requirements were now fully five colour so the utility lands in Kessig Wolf-Run and Slayer's Stronghold had to go as I needed more coloured mana sources.

The third league was starting so it was time to run my new deck through the paces:
Super agro? Yup.
Super greedy? You bet!
Plays Falkenrath Aristocrat? Naturally.
Upsets people's Zoo playing sensibilities?  Woo yeah!

It was good to go, the deck was definitely me.

The deck I ended up running in league three is a variant that looks like this:

Creatures(26):	Land(22):	Spells(12):
Deathrite Shaman	Tundra	Ancestral Recall ****
Noble Hierarch	Tropical Island	Time Walk ***
Goblin Guide	Volcanic Island	Chain Lightning
Experiment One	Scrubland	Lightning Bolt
Sunblade Elf	Bayou	Lightning Helix
Soldier of the Pantheon	Savannah	Boros Charm
Figure of Destiny	Plateau	Selesnya Charm
Steppe Lynx	Taiga	Tribal Flames
Skyshroud Elite	Sacred Foundry	Colossal Might
Kird Ape	Temple Garden	Mental Misstep
Loam Lion	Stomping Ground	Green Sun's Zenith
Wild Nacatl	Forest	Rancor
Scavenging Ooze	Misty Rainforest
Snapcaster Mage	Bloodstained Mire	Sideboard(15):
Dark Confidant	Arid Mesa	Path to Exile
Strangleroot Geist	Marsh Flats	Journey to Nowhere
Flinthoof Boar	Scalding Tarn	Council's Judgment
Fleecemane Lion	Flooded Strand	Price of Progress
Tarmogoyf	Verdant Catacombs	Red Elemental Blast
Qasali Pridemage	Windswept Heath	Pyroblast
Porcelain Legionnaire	Wooded Foothills	Ancient Grudge
Geist of Saint Traft	Mana Confluence	Seal of Cleansing
Knight of the Reliquary		Destructive Revelry
Loxodon Smiter		Tariff
Falkenrath Aristocrat		Ethersworn Canonist
Ghor-Clan Rampager		Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
		Grafdigger's Cage
		Rest in Peace
		Zealous Persecution

The deck may look similar to normal Zoo but it plays and feels very different.
There are 12 cards that are different from the standard Zoo list:

Goblin Guide
Experiment One
Snapcaster Mage
Dark Confidant
Geist of Saint Traft
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Chain Lightning
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Helix
Tribal Flames

The removal package changes meant that I have 18 points of direct burn in the main deck plus Snapcaster Mage for re-use and Price of Progress in the side board.  I've ended many games by burning people out.
I also added two more 1 drops in Goblin Guide and Experiment one to speed the deck up a bit more. 
I've been happy with Experiment One but have somewhat of a dilemma with Goblin Guide.  The card is as aggressive as you can get but the issue with it is that it draws control decks was too many cards due to their deck manipulation.  You also can't side it out against control since that is where you need your 1 drops the most, hence the dilemma.
I'm sticking with it for now but feel I might swap it out for an Isamaru which while slower, still performs well.
In hind sight, one mistake that I made was not cutting the Knight of the Reliquary.  The card is still fine and often quite large but with the removal of all 4 utility lands from the list, he's just a big, dumb idiot in the new deck which isn't what you want your 3 drops to be in Highlander.

Luckily, Khans of Tarkir have introduced a slew of very powerful multi-coloured creatures that I've started testing in the 3 drop slot.
The three cards I've looked at are Mantis Rider, Savage Knuckleblade and Anafenza, the Foremost. 
Of these, Anafenza is not going to make the cut but Mantis Rider definitely is and Knuckleblade is likely going to take the Loxodon Smiter slot.
The fact that both of these have/can have haste, along with flying on the Rider, is a huge upgrade from Knight, it just remains to be seen how often I can cast Knuckleblade with haste.
The addition of two more blue cards has pushed the mana base again so I will also be cutting the last basic Forest for a City of Brass to sure it up a bit.

The only other card from Khans that caught my eye is Blood-soaked Champion and were he in any other colour he'd be a windmill slam addition for the deck.
Unfortunately, not even I am greedy enough to add a black 1 drop to a Zoo list.

In the rounds of this league I played against Scapeshift, Hermit Druid, 2 Bant lists, BUG control, UWR delver and 4 colour midrange and the main deck has been solid throughout.
The round I lost was to James playing BUG control and while I did get destroyed 1-3, there were definitely mulligans and flooding at least partially involved.
BUG is a very good deck when played well but I think the matchup is a lot closer than that match indicated.
I've been particularly happy with the deck's performance against Bant midrange which was always a problematic matchup before.
White Weenie basically scoops to the deck and with normal Zoo I often found myself getting real close, yet not close enough.
The addition of burn seems to solve this issue nicely.  It lets you finish off the opponent, as well as deal with their planeswalkers and sometimes prevent a Jitte equip at instant speed.

One card I have been on the fence about for some time is Price of Progress.
This once pointed card is brutally devastating is the midrange and control matchups, often killing the opponent form a seemingly safe 10+ life, but in race situations it quickly becomes uncastable and is obviously dead against decks that only run basics.
It also doesn't have the luxury of getting pointed at creatures which means that when it's dead, it's really dead.
I ran it in the main in league 2 but quickly moved it into the side board due to the high number of agro decks in that league.
On the other hand, in league 3 I started it in the side but moved it into the main in the last few rounds due to the lack of agro in the meta.

Is this a deck I'd recommend for someone wanting to get into the Highlander format?
Well, realistically you should probably start off with a more traditional Zoo list if you're looking at playing Zoo, but if you want something a bit less consistent while being oh so spicy, maybe this is the deck for you.

I look forward to battling it out in the top 8.
Until next time, may you Acall into Ghor-Clan + Boros Charm mid combat.  That was a sweet one :).

Khans Baby!

Khans Baby!

Khans has been a highly anticipated set due to its fetching new flavour as well as the, allegedly, popular returning morph mechanic and the landing of some cool new mechanics to set the clans apart.
Oh, I hear it also has fetch lands in it.

(Personally I rather dislike the morph mechanic but more on this later.)

I got my first taste of Khans at the pre-release where I participated in 4 events, going 4-0 in my first one and 2-2 in the rest.
Pre-releases are always fun but in general sealed is my least favourite format due to the extreme variance and the lack of deck building/card selection nuances that you get in draft.
Still, it did let me get a feel for the new mechanics and confirm that I could not beat a triple Siege Rhino pool... (yay sealed variance!!)

Across my 4 flights I went all the clans except Sultai and consistently found that the Abzan outlast mechanic was far and away the strongest.
I went undefeated with my Abzan deck even though I had zero bomb rares and even in my Mardu and Jeskai decks, the white outlast creatures were consistently the best parts of my decks.
Flying also seemed to be at a high premium as the boards ended up hugely stalled on the ground very often.
(My pre-release fetch count was 3.)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to get in an early Khans draft with some mates, which I managed to win, and it gave a rather pleasant initial glance at the format.

I first picked a Chief of the Scale as black/white warriors was an archetype I had pegged for being achievable and good.
I pretty quickly settled into Junk colours as I picked up an Abzan Charm and some decent green cards.
The core white warrior cards never came but I did end up with a few in black and white though with no further chiefs, it wasn't really the focus of my deck anyway.
I ended up the draft, as I often do, with no bomb rares (I think I actually played zero rares in my deck) but with a pretty solid core of defensive outlast creatures, triple Abzan Charm, an Armament Corps and a few fliers which I hoped would get me through in the air.



Unfortunately I only ended up with 2 on colour dual lands which made my mana a bit loose but with 7 sources of each colour, it did the job passingly.

I also got to try out Kin-Tree Invocation with 2 Disowned Ancestors in my deck and while I never got to turn 2 make a 4/4, making a 4/4, or often bigger, for 2 mana seemed fine at any stage of the game.



In the end, the Armament Corps and the 3 Abzan Charms were about as excellent as they look and I was able to defeat 3 decent decks to 3-0.

I also cracked a Bloodstained Mire in pack 3, fetch count moves to 4.


Some things that my first draft taught me:
- Agro is definitely achievable, though I'm not sure if it's good yet.
I played against Max in the finals and he had a very aggressive Mardu deck with Pony Back Brigades and Trumpet Blasts in it, as well as 3 Skullhunters which kept my hand empty very well.
I got overrun super fast game 1, got there in game 2 with some sided in Sidisi's Pets (being able to flip these for 2 mana is super brutal against a deck full of 2/1s) and Max never drew a black mana source in game 3.
The deck looked sweet but I feel it's very hard for agro to get through in Khans without going super wide.

- I still don't like morph.
Look, I get why WotC put the no blow outs below 5 mana rule but it leads to super linear game play to me.  At below 5 mana you can't bluff with the morphs at all and if you do have 5 mana, no one is going to go anywhere remotely close to your morphs unless they have a kill/bounce spell in hand in which case you get super blown out.
I've been finding that I'd much rather play a decent 3 drop on turn 3 (there are quite a few) than play a generic morph.  The exception being the morphs with spells attached, like Icefeather Raven, which are excellent and well worth the durdly process that is the morph mechanic.
Don't get me wrong, there are some very strong morph cards and you should play them, I just am not a fan of the mechanic as a whole.



- Fixing is important, take it.
The should be pretty obvious but it's worth stating again.
I feel I'd like 4-5 pieces of fixing in an ideal world but you're not always going to get it.
That said, there are very few double cost requirement cards in the format so you can get away with a 7 of each source mana base reasonably ok at 2-3 piece of fixing.

- Outlast is strong.
I didn't have any of the premium, namely lifelink and flying, outlast creatures in my deck but even the lowly Disowned Ancestor always felt super strong.
Played on turn 1, the guy was almost always a 3/7 or 4/8 which is nothing to sneeze at.
Early impressions lead me to believe this will be one of my most drafted cards.


Anyway, all things point to Khans being a super sweet draft format and I look forward to getting more of it in this weekend.
Hopefully I'll get passed 3 Abzan Charms again! (In case you were wondering, card's pretty much insane.)