So there’s a Magic: The Gathering Movie in the works and everyone from pros, to casuals, former players to current ones and even WOTC employees and the artists are all thinking the same thing: CASTING. Who will play Jace? Who will play Karn? Who will play Fblthp? (My votes on these go: Joseph Gordo-Levitt – yes I call him Gordo, Vin Diesel, and Bobcat Goldthwait, respectively.)

Sorry but this guy sucks.

I can tell one thing, artists have been thinking about the Magic movie since the game’s inception. You can tell because they’ve been not-so-secretly casting actors and celebrities to play the parts of legendary creatures in their cards since there has been such thing as a legendary creature. But is anyone really interested in a movie about [card]Marhault Elsdragon[/card] starring the always questionably hair-plugged John Travolta? No, of course not. That sounds terrible. But what about some other Legends who resemble celebs? Could their movies turn out to be the cash-cow Hasbro is looking for? Let’s check out 5 commanders who look like celebrities and then build a deck around the one we think is the least terrible.

Look, there’s nothing not cool about Sean Connery playing Odric holding a glowing sword, but the guy is like 100 now.

[card]Odric, Master Tactician[/card] – Sean Connery

This is the classic as far as I’m concerned. Sean Connery as Odric leading an army of soldiers into battle against some evil presence, probably something that looks like orcs but we’re not going to call them orcs because we don’t want to be accused of ripping off LOTR even though we fully are. Not a terrible pitch, but we can’t use Connery as Odric, because this movie would have to end up with Odric deciding for the orcs that they just wouldn’t block/fight back and the movie would only last as long as it takes for 3 other dudes to join him.

Lena Dunham was born to drive goats.

[card]Anafenza, the Foremost[/card] – Lena Dunham

I’d watch a movie about Anafenza just to see Lena Dunham ride a chariot pulled by goats, so I’m going to say this sounds strong to me. I’m not so sure about the clause that I’m positive Lena would write into the contract however; that Anafenza must get sloppily nude at least once in the film. I mean, I’m all for getting tastefully nude, but something about the proximity to the goats is making me uneasy. Wait, the goats are always naked! Lena will LOVE this!

This casting also works out if we ever need someone to play “bored person waiting for storm player to finish turn”.

[card]Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts[/card] – Aubrey Plaza

When it comes to an actor who;s mastered looking bored and angry sitting in a chair, look no further than grumpy cat’s human form, Aubrey Plaza. Her job on Parks & Rec was to basically act as disinterested as possible and if I can judge anything about the character of Teysa by purely going on the art from her card and not reading any of the books or anything, it’s that she is mighty indifferent about most things – especially that chair and possibly even that old cane she is holding. But does all this add up to a Blockbuster film? Probably not, right?

Jason Momoa was on Baywatch. I found that out writing this article.

[card]Daxos of Meletis[/card] – Fat Jason Momoa

Big Daddy Daxos, or more like Big Dad-Body Daxos could easily be an action star, we just need to get Momoa to eat nothing but burritos and spray cheese for a few months first. Look I’m not saying Daxos is fat, but when he took his shirt off Elspeth tried to jump behind him and choke him out with a chain. Seriously folks, Daxos is so fat when Olivia Voldaren bit him she got diabetes. For real, the guy gets no respect, no respect at all.

How could you go wrong with a Sith Airbender? Wait he’s Bant colours? And he sucks!?

[card]Johan[/card] – Darth Maul mixed with Avatar, the Last Airbender

Gone are the days when you could ask a 7^th grader to draw you a picture of a “rude demon”, put it on a magic card where the colours make no sense and have an ability that I get tired of trying to understand about 2 seconds into reading it. No, nowadays the people in charge of Magic make sensible creatures like Chromanticore and make reasonable abilities like Annihilator. Seriously, the text on this card is so brutal whoever writes the Oracle text couldn’t even figure out how to just say “Creatures you control get Vigilance if Johan is untapped” without their head turning into a mashed turnip. I don’t want to make a movie about this card based purely on spite.

Look, this hairstyle was obviously as popular in Sengir as it was on Earth in the 1970’s… and in the Morlock’s Tunnels.

[card]Veldrane of Sengir[/card] – Joan Jett/Chrissy Hynde/Pat Benatar/Callisto from the 90’s X-Men cartoon

In a bizarre chain of events, if Wizards really wanted to mess everything up, they could go a real “The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus” route and have this obscure character played by 3 former rock goddesses and a fairly obscure cartoon character. Now THIS is the movie I want to see. Admittedly, there’s never ever been a good movie made with the word “Imaginarium” in it’s title, but I think this time it could work. “The Imaginarium of Veldrane of Sengir” is a title that just screams TAKE MY MONEY, does it not?

So which one of these magnificently bad movie ideas/celebrities should I build a budget deck for? Well I’m going to go with Lena Dunham and her nude goats for what I think are pretty obvious reasons. Despite the pure bliss that making a deck around Veldrane would be, I’ll pick something that you may actually be able to win with once and a while.

[deck title= Lena Dunham as Anafenza in NUDE GOATS, the Magic: the Gathering Movie]
[Creatures]
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Abzan Battle Priest
1 Abzan Falconer
1 Ainok Bond-Kin
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Archetype of Finality
1 Attended Knight
1 Bane of Progress
1 Bloodflow Connoisseur
1 Bloodspore Thrinax
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Crowned Ceratok
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Elite Scaleguard
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Fertilid
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Goldnight Commander
1 Gyre Sage
1 High Sentinels of Arashin
1 Knight-Captain of Eos
1 Longshot Squad
1 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Mer-Ek Nightblade
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
1 Mirror Entity
1 Mycoloth
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Pathbreaker Ibex
1 Sigil Captain
1 Skullmulcher
1 Springjack Shepherd
1 Tuskguard Captain
1 Viscera Seer
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Abzan Ascendancy
1 Abzan Charm
1 Arachnogenesis
1 Ashnod’s Altar
1 Cathars’ Crusade
1 Collective Unconscious
1 Conqueror’s Pledge
1 Decree of Justice
1 Deploy to the Front
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 End Hostilities
1 Hardened Scales
1 Kodama’s Reach
1 Martial Coup
1 Mobilization
1 Nature’s Resurgence
1 Nomads’ Assembly
1 Ordeal of Nylea
1 Palace Siege
1 Rampant Growth
1 Return to Dust
1 Shamanic Revelation
1 Sol Ring
1 Titania’s Boon
1 Trading Post
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Blighted Fen
1 Blighted Woodland
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Evolving Wilds
7 Forest
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Grasslands
1 Grim Backwoods
1 Jungle Hollow
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Orzhov Guildgate
7 Plains
1 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Spawning Bed
1 Springjack Pasture
4 Swamp
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
[/Lands]
[/deck]

So Anafenza likes to attack, place counters on things, and she doesn’t let our opponents’ creatures hit the graveyard, so naturally, lets get some things that care about counters, let us attack and kill the other guys’ creatures.

So let’s start things off by playing to the Abzan colours’ strengths and build around token producing and mass +1/+1 counter addition. This is something Green & White love to do and since we have access to black, let’s add some sacrifice benefit since that also synergizes with our token theme. We’ll sac tokens to draw cards and also to force our opponents to sacrifice their creatures. Finally, we’ll use some creatures like [card]Abzan Falconer[/card] to give our team a mass ability like flying and see everyone just sail over our opponents and put them out of their misery.

Of course since we’re in green, ramp should be no problem, especially when we get great synergy out of cards like [card]Gyre Sage[/card] and [card]Fertilid[/card]. The more counters the better on these guys and Fertilid even takes advantage of Bolster triggers which generally look pretty weak in EDH.

As far as token producers go, it just doesn’t get too much better these days than [card]Mycoloth[/card]. Since his reprinting in C15, he’s had a drop in price, and really, if you’re running a sacrifice/tokens build, you just can’t go wrong with the big fungus. Other budget token makers I love are [card]Conqueror’s Pledge[/card], [card]Mobilization[/card], and since we need to represent Lena’s goats, [card]Springjack Shepherd[/card]. Goats are a bit of a theme in this deck and when I say “theme” I mean “joke”.

Release the goats!

So with an army of tokens, and probably a lot of other guys, the best thing to do is mass pump them all and swing for the win, right? Well, since this strategy tends to ramp up instead of explosively going off in one turn, we’ll take a lot of creatures that add incremental value to the creatures we have out on our board. Something like [card]Elite Scaleguard[/card] or the aforementioned Abzan Falconer do a good job of arriving on the battlefield and letting you win of you have a decent state already, but they also add value to your board state as you get ready to swing for the win with adding damage over many turns and even Outlasting. [card]Crowned Ceratok[/card] is another solid way to add evasion to your creatures with counters and once you get your [card]Bloodspore Thrinax[/card] up and running, everything is huge anyways, so let the nude goats run free!

Finally, you’re not always going to be on the attack in EDH. We know this, Lena Dunham knows this, and certainly [card]Butcher of Malakir[/card] knows this. Naturally, since Anafenza sports a Junk/Abzan colour scheme we’ve included some sacrificing effects that work well with our numerous tokens. Sac outlets like [card]Viscera Seer[/card] and [card]Ashnod’s Altar[/card] are staples in the format and Butcher of Malakir (played by Adam Driver? Nice Girls synergy there.) and [card]Dictate of Erebos[/card] help us out when the board stalls and/or we’re staring down any hexproof voltron generals.

Just picture the Kylo Ren voice: “Ok, so my token dies and now you have to sac a creature”.

A few hidden gems that help keep this deck competitive but also under $50 are [card]Palace Siege[/card] – now you can sac your non-token creatures too, [card]End Hostilities[/card] – arguably better than [card]Wrath of God[/card] in decks not running much equipment and [card]Titania’s Boon[/card] – not a super powerful effect, but one you will often wish you had in this deck. Put those beside limited all stars like [card]High Sentinels of Arashin[/card], [card]Ainok Bond-Kin[/card] and [card]Abzan Battlepriest[/card] and you have a sub $50 deck that can swing with the big boys in your playgroup. Also you can act out a weird movie starring Lena Dunham as Anafenza, Adam Driver as the Butcher of Malakir, a host of goats and Andy Serkis as the lovable [card]Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest[/card]! You’re Welcome, HOLLYWOOD.

So I was kind of hoping that there would be some updates to the Legacy Banlist I could look at the new format, brew some new decks, and hope that [card]Show and Tell[/card] would finally get banned. But no, all is well. So what is there to talk about? Well my last article looked at some of the non-blue alternatives in the format but there’s one that I wanted to save all on its own because I’ve been playing it an awful lot lately, and it deserves more love. The deck in question is Goblins.

The tribe is a Magic mainstay, appearing in almost every set released, and for a long time, the tribe dominated Legacy. However, in recent years the little red men have had a hard time dealing with changes to the format. That being said, it has had a history of punishing blue midrange and control decks and seeing as the format is currently favouring those decks, it looks like it could be a good time for Goblins to make its return.

Goblins is a deck that can perform one of two functions. It can either play a hyper aggressive role with cards like [card]Goblin Piledriver[/card], [card]Goblin Warchief[/card] and [card]Goblin Chieftain[/card], or it can slow the game down and grind out a win with superior card and board advantage using [card]Goblin Ringleader[/card], [card]Goblin Lackey[/card] and [card]Goblin Matron[/card]. It also functions as a strong mana denial deck with four copies of [card]Wasteland[/card] and [card]Rishadan Port[/card].

The Core

No matter what list you see, every Goblins list is going to contain a playset of five cards that are ever present in the seventy-five.

Goblin Lackey

Goblin Lackey is possibly the best card in the deck and is the primary way the deck generates board advantage. A turn one Lackey off of [card]Cavern of Souls[/card] is the best opening play Goblins has and can lead to some absolutely blistering starts. Having the ability to drop a Ringleader on turn 2 is not only a way of filling up your hand for the early game and establishing card advantage, but it can also make mulligans less harsh.

Lackey does have a big problem, though, in that it is blocked by [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card]. The printing of Deathrite was one of the last nails in the coffin for Goblins as the powerful start of a turn one Lackey, was countered by an equally powerful turn one Deathrite. There are ways around it, of course, but it certainly made the format hostile to the red one-drop. That being said, all Lackey ever needs to do is connect once and it’s provided you with some from of advantage and is the primary reason the deck still has game.

Goblin Matron

Tutor effects in Eternal formats are nuts. And this one is no exception. Goblin Matron is part of the reason this deck functions so well as a control deck. Most of the time, you’ll be fetching a Goblin Ringleader but including four copies of Matron allows you to build the deck to have a suite of one-of silver bullets that you can fetch when you need to. Allowing this to resolve can often times swing the game in your favour, picking up a much needed Ringleader or perhaps a [card]Siege-Gang Commander[/card] or [card]Tuktuk Scrapper[/card]. Not playing Matron in Goblins is a move that you need to have a good reason for doing.

Guys, trust me. Seriously.

Goblin Ringleader

Very few four mana cards get high praise in Legacy and Ringleader is one people always seem to ignore. Yes, it’s not got amazing stats but it effectively draws you 2-3 cards when it enters the battlefield. There is nothing more satisfying than flashing in a Ringleader with [card]Aether Vial[/card]. Ever since it was printed it’s been included in Goblins lists wherever it can. It’s one of your best cards against Shadless BUG and it can often be the way you turn a near unwinnable game to one you are in full control of. And yes, it does whiff. But being able to clear four non-Goblin cards from the top of your deck is at least somewhat of a plus, surely?

Goblin Warchief

This is another card that facilitates blisteringly fast starts from Goblins. The cost reduction is incredibly significant and granting all of your Goblins haste is an incredibly overlooked ability. Being able to activate a [card]Krenko, Mob Boss[/card] the turn he drops is insane. I’ve seen some lists run Warchief as a three-of but I honestly think that he enables such an aggressive strategy and allows you to get multiple Goblins in play a turn is reason enough to play the full four copies.

Aether Vial

Vial is a card that just fits right at home in tribal strategies, from Merfolk to Slivers to Goblins. The ability to dodge countermagic and operate at instant speed means that you free up your lands and can instead spend your mana activating Wastelands and Rishadan Ports. Vial is also key in getting your mana intensive Goblins into play, like Siege-Gang Commander and Goblin Ringleader, though hardcasting them is not an impossibility. Regardless, Vial is another automatic playset.

So that’s the glue of the deck. The above cards should be present in every Goblins list you see or build and should be the foundation from where you build your rabble. But what do we use to fill out the rest of the sixty?

A good place to start is removal and with that I believe everyone should be running four copies of [card]Tarfire[/card]. The presence of cards like Deathrite Shaman, [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] and [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] means you need to have cheap creature removal and Tarfire is the perfect answer. Not only does it deal with most every creature in the format, it can also be found off of Ringleader and Matron, which is huge. However, do remember that you can’t cast Tarfire off of Cavern of Souls as it specifies that it can only be used for creature spells. Still, Tarfire is, what I believe to be, the best removal spell that Goblins has access to.

Most lists will often include some number of [card]Goblin Chieftan[/card]. Chieftan is often times a finisher, turning your Siege-Gang tokens into legitimate threats. Cheating this into play with Lackey can often set you up for an early kill and demands that your opponent answers the lord. I’m currently running it as a two-of but I’ve seen people play as much as four copies in the main.

You’ll also find people playing some number of [card]Mogg War Marshall[/card] as a general value card and way of chumping big threats like [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]. [card]Gempalm Incinerator[/card] is a card that used to see much more play but is now usually there as a single Matron target. While I’m not a huge fan as it can often be a dead card, it is one of the few ways that Goblins can deal with Tarmogoyd or [card]Batterskull[/card].

Goblins also packs some form of artifact hate in the form of either Tuktuk Scrapper or [card]Tin-Street Hooligan[/card]. There are pros and cons to both. Scrapper costs four mana but can be played in monocolored versions, where Tin-Street costs less but means you have to be playing green and also has some serious anti-synergy with Goblin Warchief. I prefer Scrapper as I’m not running green but both cards are excellent additions.

There are tons of other Goblins that you can include, most often as Goblin Matron targets. The ones that I’m including in my list are Krenko, Mob Boss, [card]Grenzo, Dungeon Warden[/card], [card]Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker[/card], Siege-Gang Commander, and [card]Goblin Piledriver[/card]. I’ve also seen people run [card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/card], [card]Warren Weirding[/card] and [card]Skirk Prospector[/card]. These utility cards are all excellent and depending on what your meta is like, you can tailor your main deck to have the perfect angles of attack.

The Lands

Goblins plays a great mana denial game and is often compared to Death and Taxes in some ways. To start, the deck plays four copies of Wasteland and Rishadan Port. Using Aether Vial to get your creatures into play frees up your mana to be used to take care of the opponent’s mana base. Having the ability to grind out the opponent using card advantage and mana denial is one of the reasons this deck still has an awful lot of game.

Goblins also runs four copies of Cavern of Souls, for obvious reasons. Most any tribal deck should be running four Cavern but especially so in Legacy where [card]Counterbalance[/card] and other forms of cheap countermagic rule the roost. In the post board games, it can also be set to human and you can get through a copy of [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card], a card that has found its way into Goblins sideboards since it was printed.

Finally, the last few slots go to any fetchlands that can fetch a mountain, 2-3 duals if you’re splashing any colour, and then a few basics to round out the sixty.

And that’s Goblins! The deck is relatively cheap to put together and has a low skill barrier, meaning that it won’t bite you for not playing absolutely 100%. That being said, a skilled Goblins player is a geniune threat and putting in the reps with the deck can make you a formidable enemy, even in the face of the pesky Golgari mana elf.

Until next time!

Welcome back for Brewing With Oath of the Gatewatch. After an insane thirty decks last time, we have a much more reasonable ten decks for Standard. These decks only have “Sideboard Suggestions” other than the Atarka Red list, which is where I plan to start when the set is released.

This had been the scariest deck in Standard for a few months due to being able to deal nearly twenty damage in one turn. Now it gets another creature to help with burst damage when you can’t try to combo.
I’m still trying to figure out how to fit [card]Nissa, Voice of Zendikar[/card] somewhere in the deck, but I’m not sure I can manage it.

[deck title= Atarka Red]
[Creatures]
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Zurgo Bellstriker
2 Lightning Berserker
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Fiery Impulse
4 Titan’s Strength
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Atarka’s Command
3 Temur Battlerage
4 Become Immense
[/Spells]
[Land]
2 Cinder Glade
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
8 Mountain
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
2 Firey Impulse
3 Rending Volley
2 Boiling Earth
4 Roast
2 Hordeling Outburst
2 Outpost Siege
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

I call it “Big Red”, but it will play like a control deck most of the time. Every creature is a value creature, making it very difficult for your opponents to really gain an advantage in the game.

[deck title= Big Red]
[Creatures]
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
3 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Fiery Impulse
4 Draconic Roar
3 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Outpost Siege
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
[/Spells]
[Land]
2 Blighted Gorge
2 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
16 Mountain
[/Land]
[Sideboard Suggestions]
1 Rending Volley
2 Roast
3 Kozilek’s Return
4 Scab-Clan Berserker
[/Sideboard Suggestions]
[/deck]

This deck got a huge bump from the Eldrazi spells from this set. I expect to see a lot of this as people try to figure out the format. It is a little low on power, but can just grind out the game with incremental card advantage.

[deck title= B/W Eldrazi]
[Creatures]
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Knight of the White Orchard
4 Hidden Dragonslayer
4 Bearer of Silence
2 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Wasteland Strangler
4 Thought-Knot Seer
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Silkwrap
2 Stasis Snare
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Shambling Vent
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Wastes
6 Plains
2 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard Suggestions]
1 Duress
2 Surge of Righteousness
3 Transgress the Mind
4 Utter End
[/Sideboard Suggestions]
[/deck]

This deck just wants to live the dream of casting the same spells over and over again. This deck will likely be good, but I expect it to end up as four colors for a more diverse array of spells.

[deck title= Jund Midrange]
[Creatures]
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Den Protector
2 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Fiery Impulse
2 Ultimate Price
1 Roast
3 Kolaghan’s Command
2 Painful Truths
1 Ruinous Path
2 Murderous Cut
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Hissing Quagmire
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Cinder Glade
2 Smoldering Marsh
3 Forest
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard Suggestions]
1 Duress
2 Roast
3 Flaying Tendrils
4 Exquisite Firecraft
[/Sideboard Suggestions]
[/deck]

Abzan got a lot of great cards to replace some of its already really good cards. It will be the most heavily played deck again, especially since it got better ways to deal with the Rally decks. I’ll be glad when [card]Siege Rhino[/card] rotates out of Standard.

[deck title= Abzan Aggro]
[Creatures]
4 Warden of the First Tree
4 Sylvan Advocate
2 Den Protector
4 Anafenza, the Foremost
4 Siege Rhino
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Wingmate Roc
1 Linvala, the Preserver
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Silkwrap
4 Dromoka’s Command
4 Abzan Charm
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Murderous Cut
[/Spells]
[Land]
3 Shambling Vents
2 Hissing Quagmire
2 Canopy Vista
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Smoldering Marsh
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
2 Plains
[/Land]
[Sideboard Suggestions]
1 Duress
2 Surge of Righteousness
3 Transgress the Mind
4 Flaying Tendrils
[/Sideboard Suggestions]
[/deck]

This is another deck that got some great new toys. Fortunately most of them are just sideboard cards, but some could end up being huge in the main in the right meta. I expect to see a lot of this deck in the near future, and I may even end up playing it myself.

[deck title= R/G Ramp]
[Creatures]
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Jaddi Offshoot
1 World Breaker
2 Dragonlord Atarka
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
2 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Ruin in their Wake
2 Sylvan Scrying
4 Nissa’s Pilgrimage
4 Explosive Vegetation
2 Hedron Archive
4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Sanctum of Ugin
2 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Evolving Wilds
9 Forest
2 Mountain
3 Wastes
[/Land]
[Sideboard Suggestions]
1 Spatial Contortion
2 Kozilek’s Return
3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4 Thought-Knot Seer
[/Sideboard Suggestions]
[/deck]

This deck is a lot like the G/W Aggro decks from a few months ago that got hated out of the format. The new toys it got may push it back into being competitive again, but either way it looks like a lot of fun to play.

[deck title= G/W Tokens]
[Creatures]
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Warden of the First Tree
4 Den Protector
4 Knight of the White Orchard
4 Deathmist Raptor
4 Whisperwood Elemental
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Dromoka’s Command
4 Oath of Gideon
3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Canopy Vista
4 Blossoming Sands
2 Foundry of the Consuls
4 Windswept Heath
5 Forest
4 Plains
[/Land]
[Sideboard Suggestions]
1 Arashin Cleric
2 Mastery of the Unseen
3 Surge of Righteousness
4 Valorous Stance
[/Sideboard Suggestions]
[/deck]

Now we have an update of my Enchantress list I was running a while back. The worst card was always [card]Suspension Field[/card], and a very good replacement is [card]Oath of Chandra[/card] which in long games could end up being recurred every turn to kill a creature. This deck is really good as long as Esper and R/G Ramp aren’t seeing a lot of play, as they are terrible matchups.

[deck title= Enchantress]
[Creatures]
4 Herald of the Pantheon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Myth Realized
4 Oath of Chandra
4 Silkwrap
4 Stasis Snare
2 Outpost Siege
4 Starfield of Nyx
4 Sigil of the Empty Throne
4 Quarantine Field
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 canopy Vista
2 Cinder Glade
2 Needle Spire
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
8 Plains
[/Land]
[Sideboard Suggestions]
1 Celestial Flare
2 Surge of Righteousness
3 Radiant Flames
4 Suppression Bonds
[/Sideboard Suggestions]
[/deck]

With the printing of [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card]s big brother [card]Stormchaser Mage[/card] a U/R Tempo decks seems like it could be a thing again. I’m very excited about the card myself, but am not sure it is competitive at the moment.

[deck title= U/R Tempo]
[Creatures]
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Stormchaser Mage
4 Jeskai Elder
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Titan’s Strength
2 Fiery Impulse
4 Wild Slash
4 Dragon Fodder
2 Exquisite Firecraft
4 Treasure Cruise
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Shivan Reef
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Island
6 Mountain
[/Land]
[Sideboard Suggestions]
1 Dispel
2 Rending Volley
3 Boiling Earth
4 Roast
[/Sideboard Suggestions]
[/deck]

This is the likely home for [card]Goblin Dark-Dwellers[/card], and being backed by a ton of lifegain will be hard to race. I expect a lot of Abzan players to make the leap to this if only to have an edge in the mirror.

[deck title= Abzan Red]
[Creatures]
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Den Protector
3 Soulfire Grandmaster
4 Anafenza, the Foremost
4 Siege Rhino
2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Wingmate Roc
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Painful Truths
3 Kolaghan’s Command
2 Crackling Doom
3 Abzan Charm
1 Murderous Cut
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Shambling Vents
2 Hissing Quagmire
2 Canopy Vista
1 Cinder Glade
1 Smoldering Marsh
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Plains
3 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard Suggestions]
1 Duress
2 Roast
3 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Flaying Tendrils
[/Sideboard Suggestions]
[/deck]

That’s all I have for now. I’ll see you again for Brewing With Shadows Over Innistrad. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below and I will do my best to answer them.

Thanks for reading,

Josh Milliken

If you haven’t already heard that [card]Splinter Twin[/card] was banned from Modern play this weekend after being spoiled (yes, another inadvertent spoiler!) by an overzealous Magic Online playtester, then, my friend, you are just the player for which I am writing this article. Typically, I write about casual stuff like Commander and how I like to play budget decks in Standard, but this week we have something spicy and delicious to devour, Competitive Magic ban lists.

Modern is a format, like Commander, where cards do not rotate over time. It was devised by those geniuses at Wizards of the Coast to allow newer players without the deep pockets or longevity in Magic to compete in a non-rotating format outside of Legacy and Vintage. Legacy and Vintage decks include the oldest, rarest, and hence the most expensive cards in Magic. It isn’t uncommon for Vintage decks to break the $20,000 mark. It isn’t likely that newer Magic players will be forking out that kind of cash to purchase one deck to participate in one format. Modern was supposed to help solve that problem. For the most part, it has. Most modern decks come in under $800, and some competitive decks can even be purchased for just a fraction of that cost. Modern is a fun format with a wide diversity of, so called, Tier 1 decks. Tier 1.5 or 2 decks (slightly less competitive, but still able to beat Tier 1 decks on occasion) add dimension to the format’s diversity as well. I, myself, play one of these less competitive decks in the format called Death and Taxes, with my latest list below. It is a blast to play and I beat my buddies Tron deck regularly.

[deck title= Modern Death and Taxes]
[Creatures]
4 Flickerwisp
1 Kitchen Finks
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Loxodon Smiter
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Restoration Angel
4 Scavenging Ooze
1 Tarmogoyf
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Aether Vial
4 Path to Exile
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
[/Spells]
[Land]
*1 Cavern of Souls
*2 Forest
*2 Gavony Township
*4 Ghost Quarter
*1 Mutavault
*2 Plains
*3 Razorverge Thicket
*1 Tectonic Edge
*4 Temple Garden
*4 Windswept Heath
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
1 Dragonlord Dromoka
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4 Mirran Crusader
1 Qasali Pridemage
3 Sunlance
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Vryn Wingmare
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

[card]Splinter Twin[/card] was a “pillar of the format” according to many Magic writers and Modern players. It has been played in the Modern format since it’s inception, and decks featuring the card have been top eighting tournaments left and right. I am not going to get into the “should Twin have been banned” argument here, but what you need to know as someone who may want to start playing Modern, is that the format is going to be very fun and somewhat unpredictable for a while as dew decks take their place in the sun.

[card]Splinter Twin[/card] decks were everywhere in the format. There were many shells that the card with its other combo friends, [card]Pestermite[/card] and [card]Deceiver Exarch[/card] lived in, which helped to mask its overall prevalence in the format. Now that Twin is gone those shells are going to have to find ways to live on their own or die off. New decks that were held in check by Twin before will now start to rise again. I am no expert on the Modern format, but I think you, as a new player, might be able to find a cheaper entry way into the competitive format right now than at any other time. Here are some of the decks that you have to choose from. Hint: Ignore the ones that have [card]Splinter Twin[/card] and [card]Summer Bloom[/card] as both of these cards were recently banned. These decks are all considered Tier 1 and 1.5.

• Tron
• Living End
• Scapeshift
• Jund
• Junk
• Bogles (predicted by some to be much better post-Twin banning)
• Affinity
• Burn
• Infect
• Eldrazi
• Merfolk
• Abzan Company
• Control
• Kiki Chord
• Zoo
• Lantern Control
• Grishoalbrand
• Elves
• Ad Nauseum

There are other budget decks that are likely less competitive in large paper tournaments, but that I have found success with on MTGO. I’ve been playing the Evoke Control deck on MTGO, and it is a blast! I’ve won more than 50% of my games, which I take to be a success considering I am often playing against deck lists similar to or exactly the same as the lists found in large tournament top eights.

Budget decks are a great way for you to get a feel for the format and certain kinds of decks that inhabit it. You can build a budget deck, invest into some of the staple lands of the format, play in a tournament or two, and start to see what it is like. You might like it, or you might not, but there has never been a better time to try!

Hurry up if you plan to buy into any of the tier one decks, as Modern season is upon us. The staple cards in the format will be rising in price over the next few months as the Modern Pro Tour gets underway and many other tournaments across the country follow suit. If you acquired many of the fetch lands from Khans of Tarkhir, then you will be happy to note that those cards will play nicely in Modern. Older and popular cards like [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Tarmogoyf[/card], [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card], and [card]Cryptic Command[/card] are very pricey right now, and I would avoid them during the turmoil of the format finding itself again.

Play a budget deck for now to see if you enjoy Modern play. For the time being, everyone else will be “figuring out” the format along with you. It is a good time to enter as you won’t feel like the only one who isn’t sure about what is happening in the game in front of you. Modern is quite different than Commander and Standard, but a blast nonetheless. Go one, give it a shot. What is the worst that could happen, ending up with a handful of [card]Mulldrifter[/card]s and [card]Esper Charm[/card]s with no place to play them? They will still be fun in your Commander games.

The spoilers are out.  All of them. The complete card list for Oath of the Gatewatch was finally released just a few days ago. A lot of cards caught my eye. A devoid, conditional [card]Rampant Growth[/card] variant looks to push the ramp decks’ abilities to get their game plan rolling faster than ever, despite putting heavy restrictions on deck building. Black gets a very solid, cheap piece of instant-speed removal, though it requires BB to cast. The Oaths themselves, legendary enchantments that represent the commitment of Nissa, Jace, Gideon, and Chandra to defend Zendikar from the Eldrazi, all look to be possible role-players in the upcoming Standard format. Despite having a tumultuous spoiler season plagued by unintended leaks (and the consequences for said leaks threatening to tear apart our community), I’m quite excited and impressed by this set.

So, why am I so impressed with Oath of the Gatewatch? This set offers a LOT to each type of player. Whether you’re a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike, you’re going to find a large number of cards you can’t wait to play with. Furthermore, this set looks to have not just a fairly high power level with some eternal format implications, but from the perspective of Standard playability, it looks like it has a fairly flat power level.  At various times in the modern history of Standard, many of the cards from Oath would be highly playable. As of late, Wizards of the Coast seems very committed to having a high level of deck diversity available in Standard, with multiple competitive options for both Timmy and Johnny, not just Spike. The reason I bring this up is I have some very serious Timmy and Johnny tendencies.  I like doing big things and I absolutely love brewing to maximize synergy and value.  That said, I like to win.  What’s of even more personal value to me than winning is brewing or tuning decks that others win with.  The ultimate accomplishment for a brewer is to create a deck that not just wins a tournament, but becomes a known part of a metagame. It’s a very difficult goal to achieve as the Magic community as a whole is very intelligent, competitive, and innovative. So, as a brewer, I have to analyze my brews through the lens of a Spike.

I know I have an affinity for Jund decks and had moderate success with them shortly after Battle for Zendikar was released.  Before the community saw the first spoilers, I was hoping there would be more support for a Jund strategy in Oath of the Gatewatch, and was the color combination in which I wanted to brew.  The first card that really caught my attention was Goblin Dark-Dwellers.

No, it’s not [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], but I don’t care.  It’s like Snapcaster Mage.  That’s all I need.  As soon as I saw the potential for value I was hooked.  I knew I would be brewing around it.

I made a mental short list of every instant and sorcery I could see myself flashing back with it and filed it in the back of my mind, waiting for additional spoilers before writing down potential deck lists.

The next card I was impressed by was Chandra, Flamecaller.

Chandra is really interesting.  As other writers have pointed out, you almost need to look at her minus ability first.  It’s the board-impacting ability, the ability that actually helps when behind on board.  At her base level, Chandra is similar to an overloaded [card]Mizzium Mortars[/card].  That is a card worth considering in the format.  The other abilities are, in my opinion, upside.  If 4RR for a sorcery that deals 4 damage to each creature is playable, then Chandra is playable.  The fact that she can be both a potent threat on an empty board and a source of card selection and card advantage are icing.  I don’t know if Jund becomes the best shell for her, but she definitely stood out as a possible curve-topper in the right deck.

The card that almost forced me to put pen to paper was Sylvan Advocate.  Without trying to abuse its ability to pump land creatures, this card screams midrange.  Right now, the Standard format is full of cards that cost three, four, and five mana that are good rates, powerful for their respective costs, and offer some form of card advantage.  What we have been missing are powerful two-drops.  Sylvan Advocate is precisely what many decks have, in my opinion, been screaming for.  Abzan Aggro has tested [card]Snapping Gnarlid[/card], [card]Heir of the Wild[/card], and [card]Hangarback Walker[/card] in that role and none seem impressive.  I would be surprised if Sylvan Advocate is not immediately adopted to replace the other options.  When playing with Jund shells over the last few months, I’ve been frustrated by the lack of a solid green, red, or black midrange two-drop creature and have felt it was a slot that had to be filled before I considered revisiting the color combination.  Sylvan Advocate looks to be the precise card I’ve been wanting (short of a [card]Fleecemane Lion[/card] reprint with a different mana cost).

The other realization I came to when playing Jund is that [card]Ruinous Path[/card] has felt solidly playable, if not outright good, in this color combination.  Although it’s seen little play in Standard, it’s been very good as a late top deck and very serviceable so long as it’s not your first play of the game on turn three.  The Jund color combination also lacks a better catch-all removal spell.  What stands out to me is not only the synergy between Sylvan Advocate and awaken cards like [card]Ruinous Path[/card], but the fact that support cards that make either Sylvan Advocate or [card]Ruinous Path[/card] better generally make them both better.  The card I feel most strongly ties Goblin Dark-Dweller, Sylvan Advocate, and Ruinous Path together is [card]Map the Wastes[/card].

[deck title= Map the Wastes Jund]

[Creatures]

*2 Hangarback Walker

*2 Den Protector

*4 Sylvan Advocate

*2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

*4 Goblin Dark-Dwellers

*1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*2 Duress

*2 Fiery Impulse

*1 Roast

*1 Grasp of Darkness

*1 Read the Bones

*3 Ruinous Path

*2 Kolaghan’s Command

*4 Map the Wastes

*2 Murderous Cut

*1 Ob Nixilis Reignited

*1 Chandra, Flamecaller

[/Spells]

[Land]

*4 Bloodstained Mire

*4 Wooded Foothills

*1 Polluted Delta

*4 Hissing Quagmire

*2 Llanowar Wastes

*2 Swamp

*1 Mountain

*3 Forest

*3 Smoldering Marsh

*1 Cinder Glade

[/Land]

[Sideboard]

*3 Transgress the Mind

*1 Outpost Siege

*3 Pitiless Horde

*2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

*2 Ultimate Price

*1 Dark Petition

*1 Infinite Obliteration

*1 Virulent Plague

*1 Tainted Remedy

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

This deck may be a little too linear, a little “too cute”, but it’s built to take advantage of a moderate amount of ramp in the form of [card]Map the Wastes[/card] with creatures that work well with +1/+1 counters.  By ramping your land drops, you’re able to speed up the process of growing Sylvan Advocate, awakening with [card]Ruinous Path[/card], and generating more resources than your opponent.  Goblin Dark-Dwellers has a host of removal spells to flash back when it isn’t allowing you to replay disruptive spells like [card]Duress[/card] in the main or [card]Transgress the Mind[/card] out of the sideboard. The Dark-Dwellers is also able to flash back [card]Map the Wastes[/card] to potentially grow to be bigger than [card]Siege Rhino[/card] or just continue to ramp towards powerful cards like Chandra, Flamecaller.

The sideboard is a rough draft.  I haven’t established a predicted metagame or built a gauntlet.  I have not proxied this list and started testing to see how many cards are actively bad in each match-up.  What I do have is a number of silver bullets for 4C Rally decks (in light of its recent success).  Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet plays the [card]Anafenza, the Foremost[/card] role and the combination of [card]Dark Petition[/card] with [card]Infinite Obliteration[/card] and [card]Tainted Remedy[/card] work as ways to stop [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card] in its tracks.  [card]Transgress the Mind[/card] is very powerful against midrange and control decks, its power level increased substantially when combined with Goblin Dark-Dwellers.  Stealing a page out of Logan Mize’s playbook, I am relying on [card]Pitiless Horde[/card] to provide a very substantial clock to attack control and Eldrazi ramp decks alike.  [card]Outpost Siege[/card] is a great mirror-breaker in the midrange, attrition match-ups. The match-up that has the fewest dedicated sideboard slots allocated for it is Atarka Red.  Relying only on a pair of [card]Ultimate Price[/card], and, to a lesser extent, Kalitas, only makes so much of an impact.  After testing, I may conclude that the match-up requires more interaction, but Sylvan Advocate appears to be somewhat of an ideal two-drop against red.

There are a lot of other intriguing cards in the set, but the aforementioned Jund list seemed to build itself in my head.  The other, perhaps flashier, cards in the set include a new wave of Eldrazi.

Reality Smasher is the card that speaks to me most. Thundermaw Eldrazi (ish). What we have here is a very aggressive, efficient beatdown creature that generates value if your opponent chooses to target with a removal spell. Your opponent should, in most cases, swallow their medicine and choose to remove it. I’ve heard more talk of this card and the potential to cheat it’s mana cost with [card]Eldrazi Temple[/card] and [card]Eye of Ugin[/card] in Modern, but I believe it will also have an impact in Standard.

Similar to Reality Smasher, Thought-Knot Seer is also surrounded by lots of Modern hype. It’s an efficient creature, if not the most impressive rate. It’s been described my many as a “delayed [card]Vendilion Clique[/card].” It’s disruptive, provides immediate value, and is a card that will see play if the right shell emerges. Thought-Knot Seer can also be utilized as another enabler for the Eldrazi processors, which did not receive much help in Oath of the Gatewatch.

Matter Reshaper is somewhat less powerful than the preceding cards, but is still a noteworthy value creature. It’s been pointed out that it’s a solid [card]Collected Company[/card] target, and looks to be a reasonable curve-filler.

In the upcoming Standard format, I see a potential divergence occurring.  The GR Eldrazi ramp decks will most likely continue to focus on playing out [card]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/card], [card]Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger[/card]. and potentially Kozilek, the Great Distortion.  With the addition of Kozilek’s Return, it seems like flex spots will be few an far between, leaving little or no room for some of these midrange Eldrazi threats.

I do see the midrange Eldrazi showing up in decks containing Khans of Tarkir wedge colors.  Each wedge has access to two playsets of painlands, becoming pseudo tri-colored lands in terms of casting Eldrazi with colorless casting cost requirements.  Each wedge seems to offer pros and khans, i mean cons, as far as support goes.  My initial inclination is to explore Mardu Eldrazi.

[deck title= Mardudrazi]

[Creatures]

*4 Forerunner of Slaughter

*4 Eldrazi Mimic

*2 Eldrazi Obligator

*2 Matter Reshaper

*3 Wasteland Strangler

*4 Thought-Knot Seer

*4 Reality Smasher

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*2 Fiery Impulse

*3 Silkwrap

*2 Transgress the Mind

*1 Kolaghan’s Command

*3 Stasis Snare

*1 Murderous Cut

[/Spells]

[Land]

*4 Caves of Koilos

*4 Battlefield Forge

*4 Nomad Outpost

*4 Shambling Vent

*2 Evolving Wilds

*1 Mountain

*2 Swamp

*2 Plains

*1 Wastes

*1 Sea Gate Wreckage

[/Land]

[Sideboard]

*2 Bearer of Silence

*3 Arashin Cleric

*2 Radiant Flames

*1 Surge of Righteousness

*2 Transgress the Mind

*3 Hallowed Moonlight

*Painful Truths

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

I’m not entirely sure this list is optimized or even quite quick enough with its manabase. Despite that, many of the Eldrazi are reasonably priced and create either value or tempo. If it gets off to a fast start, this deck has the tools necessary to stay ahead. Ahead on board, ahead on resources, ahead in general. Curving [card]Transgress the Mind[/card] into [card]Wasteland Strangler[/card] was a successful combination for Craig Wescoe at GP Indianapolis a few months ago. When you’re able to follow that up with Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher, it should be a curve that lines up well with most of the midrange decks that are currently dominating the Standard format.

This is but one of many options for creating a wedge-colored Eldrazi midrange deck.  Temur and Abzan also offer their own advantages, but Mardu seems well-equipped in terms of diversity of threats and enablers for playing with Eldrazi processors. I’d love to see your take on midrange Eldrazi lists including what will most likely be my favorite creatures in the set: Reality Smasher and Thought-Knot Seer.

First off, a belated happy holidays and a happy New Year to everyone!  As I mentioned in my previous article about the Modern ban list, I have spent the limited amount of time I’ve had to enjoy Magic: The Gathering testing different brews in Modern.  Lately I’ve been going off the deep end trying to make [card]Death’s Shadow[/card] work in Grixis Delver, have tried [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] + [card]Life From the Loam[/card] shells with [card]Ghost Quarter[/card], and have made every terrible Sultai midrange build possible.  What I keep coming back to, especially when I need to recoup lost player points on MTGO, is Gruul Blitz.  This style of deck is also known as “Little Zoo”  or “Green/Red Aggro”, but I feel Gruul Blitz best encompasses the feeling you get when stampeding over your opponent before they’re able to establish any sort of meaningful advantage.  Right now, there’s a very wide spectrum of playable red-based Naya strategies in the format.

The most commonly played Naya build is the much maligned burn deck.

[deck title= Naya Burn by Jasper Johnson-Epstein Top 8 GP Oklahoma City]

[Creatures]

*4 Goblin Guide

*2 Grim Lavamancer

*1 Vexing Devil

*4 Monastery Swiftspear

*4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Lightning Bolt

*4 Lava Spike

*4 Rift Bolt

*1 Shard Volley

*4 Atarka’s Command

*4 Boros Charm

*2 Searing Blaze

*2 Skullcrack

[/Spells]

[Land]

*2 Arid Mesa

*3 Bloodstained Mire

*1 Copperline Gorge

*4 Sacred Foundry

*3 Scalding Tarn

*2 Snow-Covered Mountain

*2 Stomping Ground

*3 Wooded Foothills

[/Land]

[Sideboard]

*2 Searing Blaze

*1 Skullcrack

*3 Kor Firewalker

*1 Electrickery

*1 Grafdigger’s Cage

*1 Path to Exile

*2 Rending Volley

*1 Deflecting Palm

*3 Destructive Revelry

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Here’s a pretty straightforward, powerful version of the Naya burn deck.  It’s consistent, fast, and has several match-ups that are almost guaranteed wins in the format.  Despite its strengths, it is, in my opinion, one of the easier decks to hate out in the format.  When playing bigger Naya zoo decks or Abzan lists, every time I’ve resolved a [card]Kor Firewalker[/card], I’ve gone on to win the game.  Cards like [card]Kitchen Finks[/card] and [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card] put the burn list at a tremendous disadvantage.  When Jund can [card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card] to see if the coast is clear to [card]Feed the Clan[/card], the burn deck has basically just been 3-for-1’d.

As a way to combat the card disadvantage a more streamlined burn list faces, many players started adding more threats.  Most coverage commentators refer to the creatures in the lists as the “sources of renewable or consistent damage” as opposed to spells that simply trade for an opponent’s life points.  The most widely adopted threat has been [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] to quickly eat three, six, or even nine life from the opponent.  The following list is an example that 5-0’d a Modern event recently:

[deck title= Naya Burn by STREJDA]

[Creatures]

*4 Goblin Guide

*4 Kird Ape

*4 Monastery Swiftspear

*4 Wild Nacatl

*2 Grim Lavamancer

*4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Lightning Bolt

*2 Mutagenic Growth

*4 Atarka’s Command

*4 Boros Charm

*2 Lightning Helix

*2 Searing Blaze

[/Spells]

[Land]

*2 Arid Mesa

*4 Bloodstained Mire

*1 Mountain

*3 Sacred Foundry

*3 Stomping Ground

*3 Windswept Heath

*4 Wooded Foothills

[/Land]

[Sideboard]

*2 Lightning Helix

*2 Ancient Grudge

*4 Destructive Revelry

*4 Path to Exile

*2 Rending Volley

*1 Skullcrack

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

On Christmas day, a highly refined list was posted by Brian Demars on ChannelFireball that eschews the widely adopted inclusion of [card]Eidolon of the Great Revel[/card]

[deck title= Burning Zoo by Brian Demars]

[Creatures]

*4 Kird Ape

*4 Wild Nacatl

*4 Goblin Guide

*4 Monastery Swiftspear

*2 Grim Lavamancer

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Lightning Bolt

*4 Lava Spike

*4 Rift Bolt

*4 Boros Charm

*3 Searing Blaze

*4 Atarka’s Command

[/Spells]

[Land]

*2 Mountain

*2 Sacred Foundry

*2 Stomping Ground

*4 Bloodstained Mire

*4 Wooded Foothills

*4 Scalding Tarn

*1 Arid Mesa

[/Land]

[Sideboard]

*4 Skullcrack

*2 Path to Exile

*2 Rending Volley

*4 Destructive Revelry

*2 Ancient Grudge

*1 Searing Blaze

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

The iterations of burn decks that were widely popular a few months ago have slowly begun to adopt more creatures, looking to deploy multiple threats as early as possible. Many of the creatures dodge [card]Pyroclasm[/card] by having three toughness and these decks have the capability to kill an opponent before he or she is able to cast a four mana sweeper.

I’ve been a big proponent of pushing the creature blitz strategy even further, cutting sacred cows like [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card] and [card]Grim Lavamancer[/card] completely.  Currently, [card]Anger of the Gods[/card], probably the best card against a deck that looks to empty the vast majority of its hand by turn two or three, is seeing very little play right now.  There are sufficient playable cheap threats available to Gruul and so few ways to combat them.  Creatures also dodge a lot of the interactive cards that decks like Grixis Control, Abzan, and Jund looks to employ against a more spell-heavy version of Naya.  [card]Dispel[/card], [card]Duress[/card],  and [card]Feed the Clan[/card] are all either very narrow or have limited effectiveness against an all-out creature rush.

[deck title= Gruul Blitz]

[Creatures]

*4 Experiment One

*4 Kird Ape

*4 Wild Nacatl

*4 Goblin Guide

*2 Vexing Devil

*2 Flinthoof Boar

*4 Burning-Tree Emissary

*3 Tarmogoyf

*2 Ghor-Clan Rampager

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Lightning Bolt

*3 Path to Exile

*4 Atarka’s Command

*1 Searing Blaze

*1 Domri Rade

[/Spells]

[Land]

*4 Wooded Foothills

*4 Windswept Heath

*3 Arid Mesa

*3 Stomping Ground

*1 Temple Garden

*1 Sacred Foundry

*1 Forest

*1 Mountain

[/Land]

[Sideboard]

*3 Kor Firewalker

*1 Plains

*1 Lightning Helix

*2 Ancient Grudge

*1 Stony Silence

*1 Kataki, War’s Wage

*2 Destructive Revelry

*2 Rending Volley

*1 Gruul Charm

*1 Pillar of Flame

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Several of the creatures are not format staples and should be discussed.

[card]Experiment One[/card]:  This is the ideal one-drop for the “nut draw” and obviously is what should be played on turn one for ideal sequencing.  In this list, there are multiple ways to push Experiment One to become a 4/4, making it the best rate for size in the deck.  It’s also very comparable to [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] as it attacks fairly consistently for three on turn two.  Experiment One led me down a path of building this deck to optimize everybody’s favorite human ooze.  I didn’t want any creatures that would fail to evolve it, so it was a big reason for cutting [card]Grim Lavamancer[/card].

[card]Vexing Devil[/card]:  I’m typically not a fan of this card.  Allowing your opponent to choose whether it is sacrificed or not is generally pretty bad, though its synergistic reasons for inclusion outweigh its potential drawbacks.  First of all, whether your opponent chooses to allow the devil to live or not is irrelevant in terms of evolving [card]Experiment One[/card] and is one of the few ways to actually allow it to evolve to a 4/4.  Secondly, the damage rate on Vexing Devil (as most frequently, your opponent chooses to have it sacrificed) is amazing for the one mana investment.  Finally, with the inclusion of [card]Domri Rade[/card] as the one way to build card advantage in a prolonged game, the fact that Vexing Devil is a creature helps to keep that count very high.  During the course of the game, you’ll be fetching lands and will generally have at least a fifty percent chance of flipping a creature with Domri’s +1.

[card]Burning-Tree Emissary[/card]:  This is the highest variance card in the deck (as it’s usually one of the worst topdecks if the game runs long), but is the best card to include when you want to maximize your chance of having a turn three kill.  Playing a turn one Experiment One, turn two Burning-Tree Emissary into a [card]Kird Ape[/card] and [/card]Wild Nacatl[/card], and a turn three [card]Atarka’s Command[/card] will kill your opponent and nearly all of the one-drops in the deck are interchangeable so long as you have the Atarka’s Command, the Burning-Tree Emissary, and enough one-drops.

*On a side note, be wary of playing Burning-Tree Emissary into an untapped blue source on turn two.  One of the easiest ways to lose a tremendous amount of tempo and potentially the game is running Burning-Tree Emissary into a [card]Spell Snare[/card].  In those situations, I generally opt to play two one-drops on turn two and pressure the opponent into dealing with that board state and opening up the opportunity for another big tempo push with Burning-Tree Emissary into a [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] or [card]Flinthoof Boar[/card].

[card]Flinthoof Boar[/card]:  This pig is just big and fast enough to earn its keep.  Having the activated ability to give it haste allows this card to win when there’s a board stall or if both players are in topdeck mode.

[card]Tarmogoyf[/card]:  Potentially the biggest single threat in the deck, though it is somewhat clunky and is generally a 3/4 until turn four or five.  By no means is Goyf needed to make this deck competitive, but it does edge out its competition to earn its place in what I would consider the optimal build.  Goyf is also generally the best topdeck in an attrition war.

**If your budget does not allow for Tarmogoyf, substitute either two [card]Flinthoof Boar[/card] and a [card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card] or one [card]Vexing Devil[/card], one boar, and one Ghor-Clan Rampager.  Goyf is only a modest upgrade from the testing I’ve done.

[card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card]:  The Rampager really shines in this list.  The number of threats this deck spits out at the speed that it does forces your opponent’s hand.  This deck has such a speed advantage (even on the draw), that you can force your opponent to use his or her instant-speed removal before committing to Bloodrush.  Ghor-Clan Rampager is great as a topdeck, is a great combat trick that can be flipped with Domri, and is another way to continue evolving an Experiment One past being a 3/3.

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So, what are some reasons to play this list?  It’s one of the most proactive decks in Modern, which is definitely a good thing.  I remember one day this last summer when I was watching Michael Jacobs streaming Jund in a Modern event on MTGO.  He was discussing various cards and strategies that the chat, myself included, were asking him about.  At one point he said “Stop talking about strategies that win on turn six or seven.  Modern is all about having a strong game plan and winning as quickly as possible.”  That stuck with me.  Despite a few rare exceptions, like Lantern Control, it’s been a perspective on the format I’ve adopted as well. You need to be fast.  You want to win quickly.  And this deck is among the fastest in the format.

As I mentioned before, much of the hate that targets burn decks is far less effective against this list.  One observation that reaffirms my passion about this list is its threat density and the fact that its threats are just the right size to avoid being two- or three-for-one’d.  Historically, most all-out, pure aggressive strategies that aren’t able to win by turn four or five see their expected win percentage tank drastically by each passing turn.  This deck feels as though it strikes a beautiful balance of having strong removal, just enough reach, and such a massive number of threats that it can easily win a twelve turn game.  It’s very hard for many of the highly competitive decks in the format to truly stabilize against this strategy and turn the corner.

If you’re new to the Modern format, this is a list highly recommend.  It teaches good fetch sequencing, hones your ability to make mulligan decisions and rewards you for making good choices in that regard.  Gruul Blitz affords you the luxury of not needing to play around many of your opponent’s cards, but rewards you immensely when you recognize when it’s advantageous to do so.

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As far as the sideboard goes, most of it is pretty standard, though there are exceptions.  There’s the typical Affinity hate in the form of  [card]Destructive Revelry[/card], [card]Ancient Grudge[/card], [card]Kataki, War’s Wage[/card], and [card]Stony Silence[/card], as well as a hidden gem I’ll discuss a bit later.  I like having a broad mix of hate in the match-up, as playing a [card]Kataki, War’s Wage[/card] and then casting a [card]Ancient Grudge[/card] after your opponent has paid the upkeep cost on his or her artifacts is back-breaking.  Since this deck relies on playing so many threats itself, drawing multiple [card]Stony Silence[/card] is pretty abysmal and is an easy way to allow your opponent to turn the game around.

Many sideboard cards for Affinity are also brought in against Tron.  For that match-up, I tend to sideboard minimally and only look to add 1-2 [card]Destructive Revelry[/card] and the single [card]Stony Silence[/card].  This deck is incredibly fast and [card]Pyroclasm[/card] only kills a few threats out of this list, so it’s a favorable match-up.

For the Splinter Twin match-up, you have the ubiquitous [card]Rending Volley[/card].  Having three [card]Path to Exile[/card] maindeck along with these bullets solidifies the removal base for the format’s most widely played combo deck.

Burn will always be a race for a strategy like this, and a race I hope to win.  During a recent StarCityGames Modern event, I saw a deck tech with Steven Long (whose list, along with other similar decks, was my jumping off point for testing and honing this final 75) and he had an interesting plan for the match-up.  [card]Kor Firewalker[/card] is my favorite tool against burn and apparently it’s Long’s as well.  He also added a Plains to the sideboard to reduce the damage taken to fetch double white mana (and increase the total number of white sources in the deck) to pay for the Firewalker.  I’ve also adopted his choice to play the singleton [card]Lightning Helix[/card] out of the sideboard for that match-up.

The last match-up, and potentially worst match-up, for this deck that I’ve allocated sideboard slots for is Abzan.  [card]Kitchen Finks[/card], [card]Siege Rhino[/card], and when it’s played, [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card] are very difficult to beat.  [card]Pillar of Flame[/card] is not the highest impact card in the sideboard, but it does offer a cheap way to deal with Finks and Voice.  [card]Gruul Charm[/card] is incredible against Abzan.  It can sweep away [card]Lingering Souls[/card] spirits or it can be a [card]Falter[/card], letting you bypass their powerful creatures.  I’ve also found [card]Gruul Charm[/card] to be a great way to combat the nexuses out of Affinity and Infect, and another answer to [card]Vault Skirge[/card] with an attached [card]Cranial Plating[/card].  I wish the third mode on Gruul Charm was relevant in the format, but the other two modes have been great in the right match-ups.

There are several other cards that could be added based on an expected meta.  [card]Electrickery[/card] is another great choice for dealing with [card]Lingering Souls[/card] and is also powerful against [card]Timely Reinforcements[/card].  It also has applications against Infect and Affinity.  Additional copies of [card]Searing Blaze[/card] is great if you anticipate smaller creature strategies.  If the new Green/Black Infect deck continues to rise in popularity and replaces the Blue/Green Infect list in the metagame, some number of [card]Dismember[/card] may be necessary to deal with [card]Phyrexian Crusader[/card].

I wanted to look at another possible addition to the deck; Reckless Bushwhacker. This freshly spoiled beauty from the upcoming Oath of the Gatewatch looks like it could be incredibly powerful in this shell. After goldfishing with it, it creates several new opportunities for turn three kills when combined with [card]Burning-Tree Emissary[/card]. Whether or not it earns its keep in the deck after testing is still to be seen, but I can’t wait to test it out!”

There could easily be meta shifts that are less hospitable to a deck like this.  Until that time, I’ll happily continue to grind Battle for Zendikar packs on MTGO to fund my next trainwreck of a Modern brew.  If you have any questions about the list or want to discuss the Modern format in general, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.  I hope everyone has a great to start to the new year!