Arena Standard - Giants, Dragons, and Taxes (2021)

14 40
26 10 0 24
Midrange Control

I've been trying to think of how to build a deck around tectonic giant as I feel it's a criminally underused card, and I believe I've unlocked the card. Better yet, I believe I have unlocked it in a rotation proof shell. Enter Giants, Dragons, and Taxes. We will, however, not be taxing our opponent in the same way a traditional death and taxes deck does. Instead, we will use creatures that our opponent will have to pay life if they wish to remove them.

Starting on turn one, we us four copies of serrated scorpion; this card helps us two fold when we gladly use it as a blocker or even use one of our sweepers on it. First it will deal two damage to the opponent for each scorpion killed, then we will gain two life for each scorpion killed, which helps us stabilize against midrange decks and really puts stress on weenie aggro decks. We also run four copies of shock which we prefer to use as removal, but if drawn later serve as a nice combo with Chandra's incinerator. 

On turn two we have four copies of careless celebrant which is killer against aggro decks as we can block one creature, kill it, and use its death trigger on a different creature, hopefully killing it as well. As a general theme of this deck we are trying to do as much two for one trading as possible; meaning, if you can use one card to take out two of your opponents cards, it's a winning trade for us and we'll take it every time. Our other two drop is VERY important to the deck, so we run four copies of Kroxa. This is why we will gladly feed our graveyard while trading with the opponent as far as card advantage goes. We also run four copies of bone crusher giant, and as we all know, a card that can be played twice gives us further card advantage, we'll gladly use it to remove our opponents early creatures or just use the stomp to burn our opponent directly to the face.

On turn three, depending on board state, we either want to start coming at our opponent even more aggressively by using bonecrusher giant and going to face, or we'll play pestilent haze to clear a lower decks creatures out of the way first.

On turn four, if we didn't sweep the board with pestilent haze, we may do it here with storm's wrath. If not we are wanting to play tectonic giant. The versatility of this card is sweet. It can either deal three damage just by attacking (which synergizes with us being able to cast an incinerator early), or we can use it to dig into our deck the same way light up the stage does (which has been a mainstay in standard red decks in standard since it was printed), and either of these abilities are also triggered by our opponent targeting it for removal. The answer is almost always to go to face with the three damage. We also may be able to escape kroxa as early as turn four (that's one of the reasons we have four copies of fabled passage, we want to feed that graveyard early and often).

On turn five we run four copies of terror of the peaks. A lot of people complain about this card not haveing haste or an enter the battlefield trigger, but for us, the three life our opponent has to pay should they wish to use targeted removal on it works just fine. If they don't remove it, start raining down creatures and burning their creatures to clear a path to face, or just burn them straight to face, either way, we should be winning soon if they haven't raged scooped already from the onslaught of early removal. This is also the turn where we may be escaping kroxa if we didn't do so on turn four. 

Thanks for all the continued support. While I am still displaced from my home, there isn't a big enough hurricane to keep me from bringing mtg content to y'all. Simply put, I'm not going anywhere. If you have a card, cards, or general deck idea you'd like to see in action, let me know, because I'd love to brew it up for you. Expect to start seeing YouTube and twitch stream links toward the end of September as well as the novel size deck guides I write y'all, because, like me, they aren't going anywhere. Check out my other decks as I truly believe I have something for every playstyle; don't think so? Challenge me to make one! Pressure makes diamonds baby! Most importantly I hope you enjoy the brew, and, as always, good luck!

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BillyRed
Last Updated: 01 Sep 2020
Created: 01 Sep 2020
897 593 0

Mainboard - 60 cards (14 distinct)

Creature (26)
$0.20€0.150.03
$0.20€0.070.03
$2.64€3.310.43
$0.492.25
$0.38€0.220.02
$18.38€17.150.98
$1.28€1.220.02
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (10)
$0.20€0.050.03
$0.35€0.380.02
Land (24)
$0.45€0.380.02
$5.77€4.260.15

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