Hi guys. It's been awhile since I last wrote about magic, I promise that this won't be a thing in the future. See the thing is.... THIS STANDARD ENVIRONMENT GOT SUPER BORING. After a very rigorous PTQ schedule this summer, what ended up happening is that we ran out of new ideas to work with in standard. I know it sounds crazy with this card pool being so large but that is really what happened.
An aside about the PTQ season. I have to give a shout out to my friend Brian Weller-Gordon who after loosing in the quarterfinals of all the PTQ's he has top 8'ed, he finally got there and won the tournament. I am so excited for him and I don't know anyone I think deserved it more. I am equally excited that I had a small hand in his win. You all don't know Brian but he has a tendency to not make decisions about decks until the night before. The week before I had been urged to stop playing Delver of Secrets in every deck and switched to a mid-range strategy that relied on the absurdly powerful interaction between Restoarion Angel and Blade Splicer. This was the list I played the day before the PTQ that Brian won.
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Blade Splicer
4 Restoration Angel
3 Phantasmal Image
1 Consecrated Sphinx
Spells
4 Ponder
2 Thought Scour
2 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Go for the Throat
4 Gut Shot
2 Dismember
2 Gideon Jura
3 Mana Leak
Lands
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Drowned Catacombs
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Island
2 Planes
1 Swamp
1 Evolving Wilds
Sideboard
2 Day of Judgement
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Celestial Purge
2 Lingering Souls
2 Dissipate
1 Negate
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Surgical Extraction
This List did fine for me, nothing fantastic. I ended up 4-4, and playing against some very good opponents in the last couple rounds (shout outs to GCB and Zaiem Beg for some great matches). But I took a step back and tried to analyze what was wrong with the list because we were leaving that night for another PTQ and I wanted to figure out what the problem was with the deck. It was obvious to me that the best thing about the deck was the interaction between Restoation Angel and Blade Splicer. But the problem with the deck in general was that it had trouble dealing with the combination of hexproof creature+equipment/enchantment. What better to deal with that sort of threat than cards like Bonfire of the Damned and Whipflare. So what I ended up with was something similar to a list that did well at the Star City Games open the same day as the first PTQ. It sacrificed the consistency of the esper manabase and made up for it with a more powerful late game and more powerful spells in general. Here is the 75 that both Brian and I played at the Sunday PTQ.
4 Blade Splicer
4 Restoration Angel
4 Ponder
1 Dismember
1 Gut Shot
2 Sun Titan
3 Phantasmal Image
3 Mana Leak
3 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Day of Judgment
2 Vapor Snag
2 Gideon Jura
1 Arc Trail
1 Whipflare
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Clifftop Retreat
2 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Island
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Desolate Lighthouse
Sideboard:
1 Stony Silence
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Tamiyo the Moon Sage
1 Day of Judgment
1 Combust
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Celestial Purge
1 Dissipate
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Negate
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Zealous Conscripts
I went 1-4 drop with this list mostly due to bad luck but Brian did not drop a match all day. I am a bit sour that he did well with the deck while I did terribly but I couldn't be happier for him because he deserves it so much.
This brings us to present day about a month after a string of 6 PTQ's and a format that I was no longer enchanted with. Then I had an interesting suggestion from one of my friends who has always been on me about my deck choices. But this time I actually am listening because for me to do well in an event I need to care and the only way for me to really do that is to enjoy the deck that I am playing. So in the off chance that changing my deck choice makes my results better, I am going to begin my dive into what I consider the deep end of magic strategies.
The first deck that caught my eye was Trading Post, championed by Brad Nelson. This strategy is potentially powerful because of it's ability to work itself out of almost any situation. I quickly jumped ship from that when I heard about the power of another deck. As a magic player I enjoy strategies that either attempt to grind opponents out or ones that just do not care about what their opponent is doing. UB Zombies in the current standard environment is a deck that doesn't pay any mind at all as to what your opponent is doing. Most people know about this strategy, it has results and is perceived to be "good." Until now I had not given it any respect because previous versions seemed like plain old aggressive strategies. Now it has become more of a combo deck with Birthing Pods and Bloodthrone Vampires, and this peaks my interest. Here is the list I am playing at the moment and hopefully will be playing for the foreseeable future.
Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
4 Blood Artist
4 Bloodthrone Vampire
4 Phantasmal Image
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Diregraf Captain
3 Butcher Ghoul
Artifacts
3 Birthing Pod
1 Moartarpod
Spells
3 Gut Shot
Lands
1 Woodland Cemetery
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacombs
11 Swamp
Sideboard
3 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Duress
1 Birthing Pod
1 Gut Shot
2 Spellskite
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Skinrender
1 Dismember
2 Go For The Throat
This list comes to me courtesy of Gabe Carleton-Barnes. I have not played a single match with the deck but I have a feeling that this will be a fun little experience to add to my magic arsenal. Hopefully I will be writing more consistently than I have been lately. Thanks to you all who take your time to read my blog, it is really appreciated.
Cheers,
Thomas Overton
@ Darkwingduckz on twitter
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