Super Modern Mans (or not)

Lets start off with the decklist:
The Acceleration:
4 Seething Song
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Pentad Prism
4 Manamorphose
The dig:
4 Serum Visions
3 Telling Time
The land:
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Arid Mesa
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Blood Crypt
2 Watery Grave
2 Steam Vents
5 Islands
3 Mountains
The buissness:
4 Hive Mind
4 Pact of Negation
4 Pact of the Titan
2 Slaughter Pact

This deck is super sweet, I won multiple games in a 10 game session on turn 3, as well as many others on turn 4. I love that this deck isn't seeing any play right now, it's really hard to expect and it can just roll up on people and destroy them with no forgivness. It isn't the MOST consitant deck I admit, but the wins are hard to stop a lot of the time (turns out 1 mana leak desnt beat the Hive Mind, Pact your leak, Pact, go draw). Try it out, maybe it isnt your cuppa' tea, but its pretty sweet.

Delving Into a New Deck

So after not getting an opportunity to watch the SCG open in Las Vegas, I took a bit of time to look at a new deck that peaked my interest. Lu Cai had a sweet deck with U/R counterburn, and I had to try it out, so I sleved it up and played some standard at FNM. My various observations come from a variety of matchups. First off, by far the best cards in this deck are Delver and Brimstone Volley, it's absolutely absurd what the deck is capable of thanks to these two cards. As far as matchups are concerned Tezeret was awful but besides that I had at least a chance in every game I played. G/W aggro decks have trouble when you kill all their guys and fly over them with 3/2's and 2/2's. Haunted Humans has much the same problem, lessened only by the haunt itself, but I was able to overcome even that obstacle. In the Kessig matchup you just need to be fast, not much else to be said there. The mirror is the weirdest dance ever but it usually hinges around Spellskite and Arc Trail. Overall the deck is loads of fun to play, flipping delver on t2 is so sick its hard to even explain and it just wins alot of the time. Suffice it to say I shall be picking up this deck to play whenever I have the opportunity.

Peace and happy gaming

Why Not Run?

Watching this weekend's SCG open coverage was a lot of fun for me. Among my friends, Daniel Dusang made top 16 in standard and top 32 in legacy, Sam Davis made legacy top 8, Will Craddock won the first draft open, and Tyler Lytle didn't do too shabby either. As my friends get better at Magic though it become harder and harder to see myself being on their level. For one thing I'm a college student now, so I no longer live in my hometown with my normal Magic community, which was a big loss no doubt. Of the times I've been home I learned that I hated the new mono-red, nothing against it but in my hands the deck just feels wrong. Also winning prereleases is mad fun, playing Innistrad limited is one of the most fun things I have done in a while. But what I want to focus on right now is the Standard format.

I have already stated my dislke for monored despite the fact that I think it is a very powerful deck and fits well in the metagame. It has great cards for current standard. Brimstone Volley is an extremely exciting card that seems lackluster until you get to five someone to the dome. Hero of Oxid Ridge is still a major beating as he will usually come down and dominate a game. The true masterpiece of the possibilities though is probably Gut Shot, it is so well positioned in the meta game that it is almost irresponsible to play the card: killing early birds, nobles, infectors, and pumped Inkmoth Nexus' is just amazing. Where the deck falls down in my view though is that it fails to break through what appears to be the new most popular deck in standard Wolf Run Ramp.

Solar Flare seems to me to be a good deck in a metagame that wants to play against it, making it seem much worse than it actually is. Unburial Rights is a great card when paired with the draw suite and creatures being played in the deck. But I think the deck starts to fall in the current meta when it trys to be an esper graveyard-based control deck with only top end creatures and counter spells. It gets very divergent and I think the superior option becomes to play a more Mage-blade style deck or a UB control deck.

The new wave of human decks aim to fight the meta game with a fast paced deck that can protect from the strategy of Wolf Run decks while also being fast enough to deal with other decks in the format. The white based aggro decks however have a favorable option: G/W Township Overrun, the deck is so bonkers it is hard to deal with the threats and it has a very favorable matchup against Wolf Run.

Even with all this information at my fingertips I really like playing the boogyman Wolf Run Ramp deck. I have no qualms about it, at The Game Closet I played the more monogreen version with Dungrove Elder's before Brian Sondag took down an SCG open with the slagstorm version. The deck just fits how I like to play (some would call this autopilot, but I argue that it's just me doing what I do)I play big things and trample over your little things, CONSISTANTLY. In case you didn't get that subtle hint, I really like my deck to be consistant. If my opponent stumbles on mana I have a way to punish them for it and take down games that way, or I can just win with one of the various other plans. The decks that just jam in wolf runs are not my cup of black coffee, but the monogreen version is just where I want it to be. Dungrove Elder is really difficult for opponents to deal with, it says hey, wrath me or potentially be trampled by a 15/9 dude. and who didn't like swinging with 15 power creatures?

Suprisingly this blog post is not trying to convince you to play wolf run however, it is trying to play the deck you feel at home with. When I spoke of monored it was obvious that I disliked it, it just doesn't go down the same path as my mind. So find the deck that makes you feel like you're enjoying the game and take it to the top.

Always open to suggestions for future stuffs: Twitter: @A_Payne1