Welcome back for Brewing With <i>Fate Reforged</i>! Unfortunately, this set didn’t lend itself to a lot of diversity for me, but hopefully you’ll enjoy the lists I did come up with. Also, I must apologize for my lack of content lately—I did not do quite as well as I had hoped at Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir in Honolulu and have not done well at anything larger than a Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier since then. In my eyes, my performance at the Pro Tour was so poor and I made so many mistakes that I just couldn’t bring myself to write about it. But I did have a very good run last year, making top eight in 17 of the 47 events I played in, winning a PTQ along the way.
As usual I’m only providing some sideboard suggestions, as I don’t have time to tune all these decks and test the matchups. Hopefully I’ve come up with something you’ll like.
Get to the Lists, Josh
This is the first list I thought about creating. I liked the idea of being able to cast [card]Crackling Doom[/card] every turn, and also the ability to sideboard into [card]Thoughtseize[/card]. Burn decks with [card]Soulfire Grand Master[/card] and [card]Monastery Mentor[/card] should be quite strong for much of Standard,
[deck title= Mardu Burn]
[Creatures]
4 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Monastery Mentor
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Wild Slash
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Mardu Charm
4 Crackling Doom
3 Read the Bones
4 Stoke the Flames
2 Murderous Cut
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Temple of Malice
4 Nomad Outpost
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Caves of Koilos
3 Battlefield Forge
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
[/Land]
[/deck]
Sideboard Suggestions: [card]Erase[/card], [card]Thoughtseize[/card], [card]Hushwing Gryff[/card], and [card]Utter End[/card].
[card]Wild Slash[/card] gives the red decks something it’s been missing for a while now: a turn-one burn spell that can go to the dome. With the extra burn spell in the mix, it is now easier to burn your opponent out.
[deck title= Red Deck Wins]
[Creatures]
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Frenzied Goblin
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Wild Slash
4 Titan’s Strength
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Stoke the Flames
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodstained Mire
12 Mountain
[/Land]
[/deck]
Sideboard Suggestions: [card]Arc Lightning[/card], [card]Break Through the Line[/card], [card]Satyr Firedancer[/card], and [card]Searing Blood[/card].
While you probably won’t be buying [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] back much, you may find yourself spamming [card]Jeskai Charm[/card] to overwhelm your opponents. The blue splash over the black splash seems like it might not be as powerful, but it does open up other options that black doesn’t have access to. Beware though, Jeskai was a very popular deck for much of the season, and people love to run those colors.
[deck title= Jeskai Burn]
[Creatures]
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Goblin Rabblemaster
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Wild Slash
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Stoke the Flames
3 Treasure Cruise
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Triumph
4 Mystic Monastery
4 Flooded Strand
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Island
2 Mountain
1 Plains
[/Land]
[/deck]
Sideboard Suggestions: [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card], [card]Erase[/card], [card]Reality Shift[/card], and [card]Satyr Firedancer[/card].
Gruul Aggro is already a fairly known quantity in the format, but I think it gets access to quite a few new potent cards like [card]Yasova Dragonclaw[/card], [card]Flamewake Phoenix[/card], [card]Shaman of the Great Hunt[/card], and [card]Shamanic Revelation[/card]. This version may be what is needed to keep up once all the burn decks flood the format.
[deck title= Gruul Aggro]
[Creatures]
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Heir of the Wilds
4 Flamewake Phoenix
2 Yasova Dragonclaw
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Shaman of the Great Hunt
3 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Stormbreath Dragon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Strike
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Mana Confluence
4 Forest
7 Mountain
[/Land]
[/deck]
Sideboard Suggestions: [card]Fated Conflagration[/card], [card]Reclamation Sage[/card], [card]Shamanic Revelation[/card], and [card]Wild Slash[/card].
Boros Burn seems like it will be very good for a while. Being able to run a lot of high-impact, low-investment creatures, means you’ll get quite a few wins from just resolving a creatures and burning your opponent out from there. One cards that this deck gets to make great use of is [card]Collateral Damage[/card], since it pumps out a ton of tokens on the way to victory.
[deck title= Boros Burn]
[Creatures]
4 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Wild Slash
3 Collateral Damage
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Searing Blood
4 Stoke the Flames
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Battlefield Forge
8 Mountain
5 Plains
[/Land]
[/deck]
Sideboard Suggestions: [card]Chained to the Rocks[/card], [card]Chandra, Pyromaster[/card], [card]Erase[/card], and [card]Hushwing Gryff[/card].
This deck gained access to a couple of new toys that may or may not push it into competitive range, the biggest is [card]Brutal Hordechief[/card], which is very reminiscent of [card]Hellrider[/card], which was very good when it was Standard legal. Another key card this deck gained is [card]Mardu Woe-Reaper[/card], which is a great one-drop that fights against the decks that abuse their graveyards. And the final cog is [card]Harsh Sustenance[/card], which acts as removal or a way to kill your opponent through a board stall.
[deck title= Orzhov Warriors]
[Creatures]
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Tormented Hero
4 Mardu Woe-Reaper
4 Mardu Skullhunter
4 Chief of the Edge
3 Chief of the Scale
4 Brutal Hordechief
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Bile Blight
4 Harsh Sustenance
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Temple of Silence
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Mana Confluence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
5 Plains
7 Swamp
[/Land]
[/deck]
Sideboard Suggestions: [card]Banishing Light[/card], [card]Erase[/card], [card]Merciless Executioner[/card], and [card]Utter End[/card].
Orzhov Tokens may look more like just a creature deck, but it has more permanent ways to generate tokens like [card]Brimaz, King of Oreskos[/card] and [card]Monastery Mentor[/card]. I could easily see a deck like this making life difficult for the multitude of burn decks that show up this season. The only real issues I see are that it doesn’t have enough to do in the early game.
[deck title= Orzhov Tokens]
[Creatures]
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Brutal Hordechief
2 Wingmate Roc
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
3 Launch the Fleet
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Harsh Sustenance
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Temple of Silence
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Scoured Barrens
2 Mana Confluence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
5 Plains
5 Swamp
[/Land]
[/deck]
Sideboard Suggestions: [card]Bile Blight[/card], [card]Brain Maggot[/card], [card]Erase[/card], and [card]Utter End[/card].
That’s all I have for now, I’ll hopefully see you again for Brewing With Dragons of Tarkir. If you have any questions of comments, pleases feel free to leave them below and I will do my best to answer them.
Thanks for reading,
Josh Milliken
@joshuamilliken on Twitter
2 comments on Brewing With Fate Reforged
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I like the Mardu and Boros Burn decks here. I’m still trying to figure out which one is better for the meta-game right now and how to play them properly. Any advice on playing the decks against the field or sideboarding strategies for either deck would be greatly appreciated!
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, I kept forgetting to reply when I had time. As far as playing with or sideboarding with the deck, I haven’t played either of them yet to figure that out. I am tweaking the Mono Red list currently though.