The best part of Magic for me is brewing decks. And I have a special treat for you today. I have been brewing this since the beggining of the ELD standard and let me say upfront - the deck feels super cool and is actually competitive - it got me to mythic twice with around 80% winrate and is keepeng me in high ranks (~99%) now. But it did not look this way at first. In this particular build, I lost a few dozen games before I started to understand how the deck is actually supposed to work. The deck is very hard to master, since there are so many little things that can make or break a game - but once you actually get a grasp of how to play with this deck - it is a very, very rewarding experience. It is a deck that has all sorts of crazy synergies and understanding them is a key to playing well. This version is optimized for best-of-three play.
First and foremost - this is a control deck. It is crucial to survive until late game - a very late game. The best-of-three matches ending by timing out an opponent (or, sadly, sometimes us) is not that rare. I happened to have a few wins as early as turn 7, but in general, you want to survive until the late game. You do that via three things:
a) Putting early chump blockers like Cauldron Familiar, the human token from Lovestruck Beast
adventure, or Charming Prince
.
b) Generating and sacrificing lots of food from Gilded Goose, Golden Egg
and Trail of Crumbs
for life. Trail of Crumbs
is also the central combo piece of the deck which I will describe in a moment.
c) Removing opponent's early threats with cards like Murderous Rider, Prison Realm
and Oath of Kaya
.
Second - this is a Stax deck. One of the most important cards in the whole deck is Doom Foretold. You only play three copies because unlike in the Esper Stax, where you can bring it back with Dance of the Manse
, here you do not want the Doom to 'go off' - you want to keep it on board as long as possible with both your opponent and you sacrificing permanents. That is why a lot of the removal cards in the deck come in the permament form, like Oath of Kaya
and Prison Realm
- but this is by far not the only reason. One of the Key interactions in this deck is sacrificing a Golden Egg
with Doom Foretold
. That would be no different from the way Esper Stax works, if it weren't for Trail of Crumbs
- Trail does not care if you sacrifice the food for life, for mana with Gilded Goose
of because of Doom Foretold
- it triggers anyway. So what you want to do is sacrifice Golden Egg
s with Doom Foretold
. The sad thing about Doom Foretold
is that you can not sacrifice token foods for it. Well, unless you have the Cauldron Familiar
it is - you can sacrifice the Cauldron Familiar
to the Doom Foretold
and then being it back with a token food - effectively sacrificing a token food to the Doom Foretold
Third - you win in this deck with Bolas's Citadel - both the static and the activated abilities play their part. The huge upside of this deck is a lot of cards that scry and Trail of Crumbs
which by paying 2+ mana can both add some fule to the Bolas's Citadel
engine by giving oyu life - and removing a land stack on the top of your library by putting it into your hand. I had one game where I played 20 spells of the top of my library in a single turn, with 10 spells achievble frequently. And yes, the way you kill your opponent is by sacrificing those 10 permanents...
Fourth - for a pretty high mana curve control deck 22 lands is very little. Such a small amount is however necessary to generate value with Bolas's Citadel. 22 land work, but you have to make it work, by 'aggresively' scrying for lands in the first few turns. That is why anything that scries Charming Prince
like or draws you cards like Golden Egg
early in the game is huge.
Now that the gameplan in general is presented, let's go over specific cards and their role in the deck:
Cauldron Familiar - a great chump blocker in the early game, you can sacrifice him to Doom Foretold
and most importantly, it is a way to sacrifice the food tokens for free, so that the mana you have can be spent for Trail of Crumbs
triggers.
Cavalier of Dawn - destroys opponent's threats. When it dies, you can get an Oath of Kaya
back from the graveyard or if the opponent has destroyed your Bolas's Citadel
, you can get it back too.
Charming Prince - scires in the early game, give you life if in a pinch and in the late game it can blink your Cavalier of Dawn
, Massacre Girl
or Knight of Autumn
for some additional value. If you cast your second prince and are not sure which of the triggered abilities is best now, you can postpone the choice by making the charming princes blink each other until you are in need of aither scrying or life.
Gilded Goose - ramps, produces food and is a blocker in the air. Only 3 copies though since there is no need for utra consistent turn 1 ramp.
Knight of Autumn - destroys Fires of Invention
. Also gives 4 life which is a lot of fuel for your Bolas's Citadel
. Also has only 1 toughness, so it makes our Massacre Girl
kill more creatures.
Lovestruck Beast - he is not here to attack, but to protect. Turn 1 he provides a 1/1 chump blocker and turn 3 another 5/5 blocker which can kill Questing Beast
. Also when casting him with Bolas's Citadel
you can spend just 1 HP casting his adventure side, and then later cast him with mana.
Massacre Girl - kills all creatures. Especially since we have a couple of 1 toughenss creatures ourselves that generate more massacre triggers. Moreover, it leaves bahind a 4/4 body which can block and kill a Questing Beast
. Also is a permanent so it's fetchable with Trail of Crumbs
. Great against adventure decks. And you can blink her with Charming Prince
!
Murderous Rider - a black staple. The life loss is however very painful in this deck, so only a 2-of.
Bolas's Citadel - a way to win the game, as described above.
Doom Foretold - keeps the board in check, as described above.
Find//Finality - I initially put that card for the Finality side. Killing everything, wihile leaving your biggest body behind is very useful against aggro and midrange decks. But the Find side is even more powerful against control.
Gift of Paradise - beacuse of Doom Foretold
, we need a ramp card that can't be destroed as easily as Gilded Goose
. It also gives 3 life which is huge for Bolas's Citadel
as well as provides huge mana fixing allowing us not to worry about casting Cavalier of Dawn
or Bolas's Citadel
.
Golden Egg - draws you cards in the early game which helps you stay on curve. More importantly, it is a NONTOKEN FOOD, which matters a lot for Doom Foretold
and Trail of Crumbs
.
Oath of Kaya - removal and lifegain that leaves a permanent behind. Do not be afraid to cast your second Oath of Kaya
, which would result in putting the first one to the graveyard, even if you have Doom Foretold
- a dying Cavalier of Dawn
has to have a target in the graveyard.
Prison Realm - you could argue that instead of two copies of this, one could play additional 2 copies of Murderous Rider
. There are however some things that you can't kill - like Wicked Wolf
- or dont wont to kill, because they have a death trigger. Moreover, it scries.
Trail of Crumbs - this is what gives the deck significant card advantage. The most important card in the deck.
Giant Killer - I can not stress this enough how important this card is. It is good against decks that run moderately powerful creatures (most notably gruul). It kills Questing Beast
, instant speed. Against aggro, it is an additional 1-drop blocker that improves our survivability. I cant be fetched with Trail of Crumbs
. But most importantly, the card is HUGE against SIMIC FLASH - one drop that taps their power grown Brineborn Cutthroat
, and it kills the Nightpack Ambusher
s.
Realm-Cloaked Giant - great against aggro and creature-based midrange decks.
Shifting Ceratops - great against simic flash, UW Control and Esper Control.
Duress - great against most control decks.
Legion's End - perfect against aggro and adventure decks, not so much against cat decks.
Sorcerous Spyglass - turns off planeswalker and Witch's Oven
s
Ashiok, Dream Render - great against all decks with high graveyard synergy. Moreover against vary late -game control decks like Esper and azorius control - they draw more than you, so you can try to mill them out.
These are general advice, what you do shoud depend on the particular build the opponent is running as well as weather you are on the draw or on the play.
Simic Flash: -2 Cavalier of Dawn, -2 Lovestruck Beast
, -1 Oath of Kaya
, -1 Doom Foretold
+2 Giant Killer, +2 Shifting Ceratops
, +2 Duress
Make sure you are casting more than one spell per turn. Try to flood the board with one-drops as quickly as possible. If you have a Giant Killer, you want to use his adventure side to kill the Nightpack Ambusher
at your endstep when the simic player is short in mana and then cast the Giant Killer
on your following turn.
Adventure decks and aggro decks: -3 Doom Foretold, -2 Knight of Autumn
(unless their playing lucky clover)), -1 Oath of Kaya
+2 Giant Killer, +2 Legion's End
, +2 Realm-Cloacked Giant
You want to exile their Edgewall Inkeepers and wipe the board again and again. Eventhough Doom Foretold is one of the most important cards in this deck, it does nothing of us here.
Grixis Fires: -2 Massacre Girl, -2 Lovestruck Beast
-1 Oath of Kaya
+2 Duress, +3 Sorcerous Spyglass
Turn of Bolas first.
Jeskai Fires: -2 Massacre Girl, -3 Oath of Kaya
+2 Giant Killer, +2 Duress
, +1 Sorcerous Spyglass
Beware of Kenrith, the Returned King and Cavalier of Flame
- if you expect them, leave mana for Giant Killer
or Murderous Rider
adventure.
Cat sacrifice decks: -3 Doom Foretold
Turn off the oven, not the cat. Doom foretold actually hits us more than them in this matchup, espectialy is they play red and Mayhem Devil
Temur Reclamation: -3 Oath of Kaya, -1 Find//Finality
+2 Shifting Ceratops, +2 Duress
You want to be as agressive as possible. Duress away the Expansion//Explosion an not the reclamation.
Gruul Midrange: -2 Cavalier of Dawn, -2 Charming Prince
, -1 Oath of Kaya
, -1 Doom Foretold
+2 Gaint Killer, +2 Legion's End, +2 Realm-Cloaked Gaint
Azorius and Esper Control: -3 Oath of Kaya, -2 Knight of Autumn
, -2 Lovestruck Beast
,
+3 [[Sorcerous Spyglass], + 2 Duress, +2 Ashiok, Dream Render
Stall. Try to survive as many turns as possible and keep them thiking. Do your moves quickly. Maybe they time out.
More matchup sideboard advice coming soon.
1 comments
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$10.82€9.520.24 | |||
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$0.45€0.280.02 | |||
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