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Main » Articles » Exciting Choices for the Mythic Championship

Exciting Choices for the Mythic Championship

Adrian Sullivan
Posted on June 21, 2019
 Reddit

As a deck-builder, one of the most exciting things for me at an event is seeing the choices that people make. Sometimes, a player can make a very dramatic choice that makes for an exciting and surprising turn in a game. At other times, players can make a small, but very significant decision.

I love both of these things. Before it was commonplace, I loved the boldness of a card like Command the Dreadhorde. In that same vein, think about the first time you saw Experimental Frenzy or Glorybringer from Mono-Red Aggro in this or past Standard. Those splashy, bold choices feel like they shake up the game.

But at the same time, I'm someone who is a fan of subtlety as well.

Debtor's Pulpit

Mythic Championship III in Las Vegas has a lot more of the latter. Looking through the lists of the competitors, there were more than a few choices that really struck me. Here are the best of them:

The Boldest in Vegas

The first Simic Manipulation deck I saw came out of the mind of Sam Black, pairing a lot of mana acceleration with Mass Manipulation and Entrancing Melody. Intrinsically, these effects are very powerful, and paired with fast mana, cruel things can come out of this. One of the more absurd pairings with fast mana has always been Hydroid Krasis, and Nissa, Who Shakes the World is somewhat of a one-person factory for mana.

All of this is commonplace enough. Merging the mana elements of that shell with Simic Nexus isn't entirely new, but it isn't something you see very often at all. Simon Gortzen's list does just that, and if he does well, you can expect this to become a new player in Standard in the final weeks before we get Core Set 2020.

Simic Creature Nexus | War Standard | Simon Görtzen, Mythic Championship III

The small details aren't that remarkable, but the broad strokes here are great. Like older, traditional builds of the deck, it can use Hydroid Krasis to fuel its way into the potential for a combo victory. Importantly, however, because this is such a creature oriented deck, there are a great many games where the deck only needs to cast Nexus of Fate one or two times to win the game on the back of power and toughness.

That Simon keeps access to classic elements of the Simic Ramp deck in his sideboard is great. However, the card I find the most exciting in the deck is a longtime regular in Standard: Jadelight Ranger. The deck has much fewer of the elements to build toward the combo than a pure Simic Nexus deck would, but Jadelight Ranger furthers the game plan of potentially just winning by attacking, but it also helps dig into a Nexus for the kill scenario.

I love Simon's choice of this deck, and am excited to see how he does!

Not Dismissing a Problem

Another excellent choice for this tournament comes to us from Autumn Burchett and Emma Handy, and an important decision they made in their Simic Nexus deck.

Simic Nexus | War Standard | Autumn Burchett and Emma Handy, Mythic Championship III

One of the canniest choices that Autumn and Emma made was to respect a card they could expect to be ubiquitous at the event: Teferi, Time Raveler.

Teferi, Time Raveler is a card you absolutely need to address if you're going to decide to play a Wilderness Reclamation deck. Whereas Simon can certainly cast Nexus of Fate as a sorcery, that is much more difficult for Autumn and Emma. As a result, their decision to run three bounce spells to supplement their two Blast Zone is quite excellent, especially in how they split those bounce spells.

Blink of an Eye is basically the most powerful of the potential choices and they ran a pair of Blinks. Adding in a single Callous Dismissal adds another excellent element to the deck: a finisher other than Nissa, Who Shakes the World. This reduces the deck's potential to conflict with itself to a minimum, and keeps the deck resilient in the face of the unlikely event that Nissa finds herself exiled.

Altogether, I think this small choice is quite excellent- kudos to Autumn and Emma!

Red-y to Grind

Another small choice that I appreciated came from Raphaël Lévy.

Mono-Red Aggro | War Standard | Raphaël Lévy, Mythic Championship III

Raphaël's maindeck is quite typical, but there, lurking in the sideboard, is a plan that is ready to grind.

I haven't seen the Treasure Map/Dire Fleet Daredevil plan in quite a while, but it certainly offers the deck a real option for a late game against anyone who can take the game there. Rather than making use of a card like Tibalt, Rakish Instigator, Raphaël opts to go over the top of any lifegain by just overpowering it with cards and an eventual Fight with Fire. Personally, I've found Tibalt to be a bit lackluster even against lifegain plans, so Raphaël's decision to take it on sideways is quite exciting to me!

Double Domri - FIGHT!

Old-school Magic is totally my style, and Gruul Midrange seems like it comes out of that earlier era. William Jensen and Andrew Cuneo picked the deck, and their build has a choice from the board that I just love.

Gruul Aggro | War Standard | Andrew Cuneo, Mythic Championship III

Huey's solitairy difference from Cuneo is a third Domri, Anarch of Bolas over a Ripjaw Raptor in the main, but it is the Domri in the sideboard I find exciting.

These two old-schoolers are playing Domri, Chaos Bringer.

Domri, Chaos Bringer

Personally, I absolutely love this choice. Domri, Chaos Bringer seems like a great weapon against control, coming down and potentially replacing itself or better, and then turning the game into a nightmare, where hasty creatures can tear up opposing Planeswalkers with a little help from the Riot mechanic, and any already hasty creatures can come in even harder.

This list is an excellent aggressive take on approaching the format, but Domri, Chaos Bringer feels a bit brilliant to me.

Doubling a .45

If you have enough spells to trigger with God-Eternal Kefnet, it's practically like drawing an extra spell every other turn.

Corey Burkhart and Wyatt Darby both chose to play Izzet Phoenix, filled to the brim with burn spells and a pair of God-Eternal Kefnet. Here is their list:

Izzet Phoenix | War Standard | Corey Burkhart and Wyatt Darby, Mythic Championship III

This is a really cool deck, just by itself, but what I love is the way that God-Eternal Kefnet adds just another vector of potential aggression or control, depending on what you need.

Burn is the key for that to work out, since it can play either role, but it is easy to see the scary scenario: Kefnet triggers off of a Lightning Strike, and ten damage could be offered up that turn. Scary stuff! The chance to trigger on something is about 45%, which is wickedly impressive. Opt is the only way to get an extra potential trigger, but that would just be a bonus.

What's exciting to me about the God-Eternal Kefnet choice is that it provides that threat while simultaneously resolving a real problem for this archetype - Narset, Parter of Veils. Narset makes a ton of the cards in this deck feel really silly, but because Kefnet rewards instants, playing Lightning Strike actually fits how the deck operates, meaning you have a potential immediate kill for Narset, not to mention the creatures you might have to keep Narset from reasonably being cast into.

Corey and Wyatt - cheers, you two.

My Favorite Innovation

Like many of the innovations I want to shine a spotlight on, my favorite one is another sideboard choice, this time from the excellent Noah Walker:

Esper Control | War Standard | Noah Walker, Mythic Championship III

I haven't seen the card in quite a while, but there in Noah's sideboard is something exciting: Knight of Malice.

Knight of Malice

A lot of people look to dodge Teferi, Time Raveler (and to a lesser extent, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria) with Nightveil Predator. Noah, instead, is going aggro, counting on the Knight of Malice to be a nearly untouchable 3/2 first striking powerhouse.

Opponent's are going to be in a rough position in the mirrors where Noah brings this in: at large, removal is bad against Noah's deck, and it has to manage to stick around past Thought Erasure and Duress. If other people are running the now-more-common Nightveil Predator plan, dropping any White permanent gives the Knight the advantage head-to-head, effectively weakening two of the best weapons in the mirror. In addition, an opponent is much more likely to have a lower life total for a late-game Command the Dreadhorde, potentially turning the card into a solid play, rather than a slam dunk.

Subtle choices like this are impressive precisely because they often not only sidestep a plan of the opponent, but deftly sidestep their likely potential counter-plan as well! I won't be surprised if Knight of Malice becomes a mainstay in Esper sideboards after this weekend.

There are a lot of great people playing in this event, but the nine people above represent the people whose specific choices most impressed me for this event. I have a lot of people I want to be rooting for, but I'll certainly be rooting for each of them just because I appreciate the choices they've made. Noah's choice in a stock deck was my favorite of the bunch.

Well-done, Noah. I love this small choice, and I know I'll be rooting for you and the Knight of Malice throughout the weekend!

- Adrian Sullivan

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TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, decklist, adrian sullivan, war standard, 06212019

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