Fun with Standard

Standard is not my favorite format and it will never be. But sometimes I enjoy playing it. It usually is just for a brief moment but it is a nice change from different formats. The only time when I really enjoyed playing T2 was when I could play Solar Flare. This happened twice in the history of Magic. Anyway this time it wasn't about playing standard but it was rather about building a deck from some commons and uncommons at first and adding cards as I found them laying around. So how it happened that I don't have a deck for standard available right now?

This weekend there is Grand Prix Krakow. Since it is quite close many players went there to try their luck. When big events are held in the vicinity players ask me if they can borrow cards or decks from me. They usually start three days before the event and usually bother me during the night^_~. Anyway majority of my type two cards (which is not much anyway) is in Krakow right now. This weekend there are Game Day events though held throughout the world. I decided to take part in one (at least) but for that I need a deck. (I have UW Heroic which I doubt would be any good) So I was wondering what to play? I have majority of cards for Atarka Deck Wins and Gruul Devotion but I'm missing the key cards and still I wouldn't want to play it. I build some BG common/uncommon delve deck few weeks ago so someone from the LGS could play with some kids that would venture there and would be looking for a friendly game. So I thought that I could tweak that deck somehow and try that (so I would have a chance not to end up last). I opened MODO and stared at the deck for a while. I was thinking about adding Ultimate Price and Thoughtseize. I would cut Rakshasa's Secret, Scout the Borders and Endless Obedience. I would also add some fetchlands, temples and painlands I could find. But that wouldn't be enough... (how the deck looked like more or less is bellow. For some reason there is one forest that wasn't supposed to be there when I was taking the screenshot).

Some time later I was going through some random cards laying around and found a playset of Sidisi from Khans of Tarkir and not only that. There was also Sylvan Caryatid (three of them) and I knew that a promo one was laying on my table somewhere. So I grabbed those cards and decided to add blue. This would actually make the deck relatively 'competitive' or at least it seemed as a better plan to have Sidisi and a zombie on the table on t3 rather than a 4/4 on t2 followed by usually nothing^_^. So I went through what the rest of my type two cards and found 1x Torrent Elemental, 3x Hornet Queen (strange...I thought I have sold all of those), 2x Thoughtseize, 3x Whip of Erebos, 1x Tasigur, 1x Courser of Kruphix, like 5x Silumgar (the drifting one), Pharika, Soul of Innistrad, Temple of Malady and Llanowar Wastes (found many other cards but those wouldn't fit in this deck). That actually looked good. So I added majority of the cards to the deck, also extracted Polluted Deltas from my legacy deck and added them to this one. It seemed pretty 'Highlanderish' so I really wanted to put the new Sidisi in. But I did not have any because someone decided that these would be cool in Abzan Control (so they are in Krakow). Ondra though had two copies and brought me even more cards - 2x Thoughtseize, Hero's Downfall, Tasigur, Drown in Sorrow and Llanowar Wastes. A new deck was born^_^.

We played few games and the deck seemed to work. I played against Ondra's Boros which had difficulties with Silumgar. Torrent Elemental and Whip of Erebos where just insane. Today I played against few other decks at an FNM and it was quite fun as well even though I usually mulled to 5 (went 3:1). But this shouldn't be really happening. I played with Sidisi Whip before playing the same number of lands, Caryatids and Satyrs and it worked. This deck though even though being relatively similar is way more fun than the version I played before. So I will keep it this way and try my luck with it today and tomorrow.

After all those games I would move Pharika to sideboard, added Dragonlord Silumgar (just because I can^_^ well at first I wanted something to deal with walkers), added Torrent Elemental and cut Gurmag Angler and probably Soul of Innistrad. My sideboard for the time being contains 2x Duress, 4x Drown in Sorrow, 1x Feed the Clan, 2x Reclamation Sage, 2x Ashiok, 1x Thoughtseize, 1x Tasigur. It's not because I would think about it much or anything I just had those cards around. I was siding in 2x Duress, 3x Drown in Sorrow (even though it seems the deck does not really need it), 1x Reclamation Sage, 1x Thoughtseize and I certainly have a use for Ashiok. Feed the Clan and Tasigur just stayed in the SB so I should cut those and put there something more useful..but what? Not sure. I used to play Disdainful Stroke and Crux of Fate. But so far it looks it would need Negate and Hero's Downfall more (not going to play that as I don't have it, but Negate should do the trick^^ I don't usually tap out fully unless I play Hornet Queen). Anyway the deck itself really needs a 3 drop or 2 drop that would either accelerate, filter or just block. Courser of Kruphix is the best choice as it seems even though I don't really like the card much in the deck. But again this card is very important if (abzan) midrange decks are around.

I haven't probably come up with anything new as Sidisi Whip used to be quite popular at certain point and some cards are simply 'auto-include' but it was nice putting this together. Figuring out what to put together when one does not have the cards was actually good and served me good as well. Changing perspective is a good thing and I wish I could do this with my life because I'm stuck at one point and just can't move on. I would fancy to experience the very same thing as with this deck on the 'life' level.

edit: when building this deck I completely omitted that some people might actually play Abzan of any kind (I expected mono red decks or RG decks). I encountered three today. Sultai Charm is not a good card against it:-) But at least I can draw and discard with it:-) So I was reminded why Hero's Downfall is better (not only because it can hit a walker but also kills Anafenza or Siege Rhino. I won the games against Abzans but only because my opponents screwed it up (mostly). Report follows but does not give much relevant information ...

Round 1
Abzan Aggro. I played against the winner of the former Game Day. I'm glad he had the chance to win the tournament but on the other hand he has no idea how to play (yet). Unfortunately he did not tell me that his experience with Magic is almost 'none' so I did not explain to him what my cards do. He wasn't aware that my creatures go to the graveyard when he has Anafenza in play. I was screwed from turn 3 because I had no creatures in my graveyard and no creatures in my hand. I had to tutor removal to get rid of Anafenza but was facing two Rakshasa Deathdealers that I couldn't deal with at all. Sultai Charm in hand was pretty useless against all those multicolored creatures. When I finally drew Sidisi, Brood Tyrant I felt a bit happier. I knew the game is over for me since turn 3 but I still wanted to try. When I Thoughtseize'd my opponened and managed to discard Hero's Downfall I saw a light of 'hope'. Sidisi managed to stay in play and produced 2 zombies before she died and then...in my opponent did the most unlikely thing and finally attacked with the Deathdealers but it was the only turn he should have not attacked because all his green sources were tapped. I blocked the cats and few turns later finally managed to kill him. I milled about 40 cards of my deck and was hoping to get a creature...finally one showed up (it was the 14th card from the bottom of my library). I sided the Charms out and sided in all the creatures I found in my SB. I managed to play Whip of Erebos and kill all the Siege Rhinos so I want.

Round 2
Another Abzan Aggro. This time we both started with Courser of Kruphix in play. I saw my opponent's draws so that helped a lot. I played creature after creature hoping that he would hit one of them with Utter End that he drew early in the game and he finally did it. After that I played Whip of Erebos which was more or less game. I managed to deal with few creatures but the rest threatened me a bit. Indestructible Fleecemane Lion and Siege Rhino. But I managed to play Hornet Queen (that immediately died) and reanimate it. Those eight tokens destroyed Elspeth that was a bit annoying and killed my opponent later. In game two my opponent kept a hand without 2 sources of black and was stuck with one for the whole game. So it was quite easy for me to win the game. My creatures died more often than not but where not swept with Drown in Sorrow (not that this card would that good against this deck).

Round 3
We got an intentional draw. My opponent played UB control and he beat me in the finals. Round 4 or 5
I played against RW aggro. My opponent kept 6 cards with only one plains card. My draw wasn't any better but he was top decking better. Seekers of the Way finally did the job and killed me in game 1. In g2 I somehow managed to win. From earlier games against Boros Aggro I knew that Sidisi alone is quite a problem and if I have some removal for some annoying dragon I can easily win. In game 3 he kept a one lander once again. Managed to draw 2 lands and managed to play 2 Rabblemasters and 2 Soulfire Grandmasters. Because of his missed land drop I managed to deal more damage to him but still could die to both Rabblemasters and some tokens + any burn spell. I had two Murderous Cuts in my hand and wainted to see what card he would play. He did not have any burn spell so he did not gain life from it and gaining 2 life (because I could kill one of the Masters for sure) wasn't enough to finish me off. So my alpha strike won me the game and I got in the top 8 (from the first place). He certainly could have won this game though I think...Because there was difference in 2 points of damage that he could have probably squeezed in somewhere. (also removing one of my creatures from the game would do the trick as well)

Round 5 or 4
This time I played against Jeskai Tokens deck. In game one I was mana screwed and couldn't do much. Even though I managed to destroy the Ascendancy ten tokens was just too much for my lone creature. In the next game I sided in all the Drown in Sorrows I had and managed to draw some of them as well. My sideboard plan though was 'rewarded' Dragonlord Ojutai. I stared at the Dragon for a while wondering what to do with it. The only creature that could possibly kill it was Silumgar that I had in my hand already. But my opponent would have to block with it. I had two Drown in Sorrows and it seemed as my only chance to kill the dragon. I was afraid of a counterspell but I've seen a few already so I hoped both Drowns would resolve. I attacked with Silumgar destroying all the tokens and making Ojutai smaller. My opponent was surprised and wondered what would happen next. So I played my first Drown in Sorrow (seeing Whip on the top of my library) and played the second one. A long thought from my opponent, followed by Anticipate and ... Ojutai died. ^_^. I won the game later.

Round 6
Abzan midrange? I really had no idea what to expect from this deck. My opponent wasn't playing much in the first game so I wasn't sure what kind of deck it is. Anyway I saw Siege Rhino and some removal and disruption that can be found in both Abzan Aggro and Midrange version. In game two things got way worse as I had to deal with early Rakshasa Deathdealer, Heir of the Wilds and Fleecemane Lion. My only removal being Sultai Charm I did not really feel that good. I killed the Heir and hoped to draw something better before Lion would get monstrous and hoped my opponent would tap out so I could deal with Rakshasa Deathdealer. My only plan was to outrace all that. When it seemed I could 'possibly' have the advantage my opponent played End Hostilities that I couldn't counter. My only creature that was available was Reclamation Sage so I played that. My opponent played Hidden Dragonslayer. Reclamation Sage died and the Dragonslayer won the game later. In game three it was very strange on both sides. I had no idea if I want to be aggro in this matchup or control and just couldn't decide. I knew that Wrath effects could hit me if I go all out and playing less creatures wouldn't really help me much as well because Abzan has more removal and more resilient creatures. My only chance was to resolve Whip and hope it would stay in play and that I would manage to get some creatures in the yard. So I decided to play Sidisi hoping that the card would seem too much of a threat and would lure out Banishing Light. My opponent played the Light removing Sidisi from the game so I could play my Whip. The game continued for quite some time. Anafenza enchanted with Herald of Torment was quite a threat. I couldn't dig much from my graveyard except Courser of Kruphix, Satyr Wayfinders and Sylvan Caryatids so racing 7/7 flyer wasn't that easy. In the end though I managed to win even though it seemed that I could just terribly die at any time...

Round 7
I did not know what I would be playing against. But by turn 2 I knew I play against UB control and wasn't really glad about that. I miraculously won game 1 because my Whip played on t4 resolved. Game 2 I tried my best to get rid of his counterspells and discard any Dig Through Time but after Dragonlord's Prerogative, Jace's Ingenuity and anothe Dig Through Time my chances of winning the game were very slim. I kept Ashiok to annoy my opponent if it resolves and hoped that Silumgar would help as well. In the end it all got either countered or discarded. My counterspells did not show up and even if they would I guess they woudn't really help. Keeping two mana open was a small threat and the UB control had all the time it needed. So I tried to play few discard spells and them my Whip but it all got countered. In game 3 I mulled to 5 (I think) and I did not have anything good (except few lands which are always important but those alone do not win games (usually)). Even though my opponent tapped out in t3 I did not have the Whip so I could punish him for that. When I finally drew something his hand was full and nothing could get past. He played Ugin some time later exiling all my creatures. I could steal it and kill it but it wouldn't really help me much. My Dragonlord Silumgar died the turn after and my Torrent Elemental that I (re)played got stolen by my opponent's Silumgar. We could play some stealing game a bit longer but still there was no way for me to win the game so I conceded.

Even though I came up second the record does not really show if this deck is capable of surviving in the new metagame. I very highly doubt it because any control deck is a huge problem. Game 1s are really tough and even after sideboarding it's not easy to win. My sideaboard will have to change so I can deal with Hexproof dragons (Disdaiful Stroke and Thoughseize is not enough). Anyway it was fun to play with the deck. If the field will remain more aggro oriented I will certainly play it at some other event later.^_~.