Welcome back, everyone. I hope you've had a good week. Last week, I showed off my Lich's Mastery project to the world. That weekend I took to the deck to a PPTQ and ended up getting 3rd place. I ended up punting my last match and lost to player error. While frustrating, it continues to show what this deck is capable of. It is very rewarding when piloted correctly. So, today I'm going to give you my updated list and how I sideboard with the deck. After that, I'll give you a couple of matches with the deck so you can see how it functions and what it can do.

First, let's look at the updated list.

Rainbow Lich | Guilds Standard | Ali Aintrazi

• Instants (15)
• 1 Chemister's Insight
• 1 Vraska's Contempt
• 2 Assassin's Trophy
• 3 Settle the Wreckage
• 4 Chance for Glory
• 4 Revitalize

• Sorceries (8)
• 2 Cleansing Nova
• 2 Mastermind's Acquisition
• 4 Discovery // Dispersal

• Enchantments (11)
• 1 Search for Azcanta
• 3 Lich's Mastery
• 3 The Mirari Conjecture
• 4 Gift of Paradise

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Gateway Plaza
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 2 Hinterland Harbor
• 2 Sunpetal Grove
• 2 Watery Grave
• 3 Overgrown Tomb
• 3 Temple Garden
• 4 Isolated Chapel

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Duress
• 1 Nature's Spiral
• 1 Deafening Clarion
• 3 Knight of Autumn
• 1 The Mirari Conjecture
• 2 Carnage Tyrant
• 1 The Immortal Sun
• 1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1 Banefire

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I changed a handful of cards from last time and that is because the metagame shifted after Columbus. Mono-Green Stompy was no longer a deck so I didn't need Root Maze anymore. Control was on the rise and I didn't want to be a complete dog to them Game 1 so I added Chemister's Insight and Vraska's Contempt main deck while still having the dinosaur plan in the Sideboard backed up by a big Banefire with The Mirari Conjecture.

Keep in mind that you will need to adapt this deck as the meta shifts. If more control is popping up, you'll want to find room for another Chemister's Insight main deck or even a couple of Duress / Thought Erasures. Just be careful when adding early Blue or Red cards since we have the fewest colored sources for them.

Before we get into some game play, let me explain to you how I sideboard against some of the biggest decks in the current metagame.

Control decks:

• + Every card in your sideboard except Deafening Clarion
• -3 Lich's Mastery
• -4 Chance for Glory
• -3 Settle the Wreckage
• -1 Cleansing Nova
• -3 Revitalize

Beat them down with dinos while eating key spells with Duress. A late game Banefire can be game ending by itself, but especially when backed up by double turns with The Mirari Conjecture. Casting an early Banefire to kill things like Teferi, or just hitting your opponent, is an option since you can buy it back with The Mirari Conjecture later in the game.

Golgari Decks:

• +1 Deafening Clarion
• +1 The Immortal Sun
• -2 Assassin's Trophy

Goglari have a ton of ways to re-buy their cards so blowing up planeswalkers with Trophy isn't ideal. Instead just focus on wiping the battlefield and shutting of all their walkers with The Immortal Sun. If they are going really big with things like Doom Whisperer you can leave in an Assassin's Trophy, but Doom Whisperer is a bit slow since he costs five mana. This matchup is very good for the Lich deck.

Mono-Red Frenzy:

• +3 Knight of Autumn
• +1 Deafening Clarion
• -2 Cleansing Nova
• -1 Chemister's Insight
• -1 Search for Azcanta

The sideboarding here is simple: cut some of the top end or cards that don't do much of anything early for a sweeper and a creature that gains life, destroys frenzy, or draws four cards late game.

Tokens:

• -2 Assassin's Trophy
• -2 Revitalize
• +1 Deafening Clarion
• +3 Knight of Autumn

Trophy isn't good here since they go so wide. Knight of Autumn is excellent at keeping pace with History of Benalia, killing a Conclave Tribunal, or buying you some time with life gain and again, drawing four cards late game.

Boros Angels

• -3 Revitalize:
• +3 Knight of Autumn

This deck is on the decline but is a good matchup since they are slow without History of Benalia draws. Knight of Autumn helps with that post board games.

Those are the major decks seeing play right now, so hopefully that guide helps you out. Now let's get to a couple of matches so you can see how the deck works.

Time Stamps

Match 1 - 00:05:20

Match 2 - 00:44:50

Wrap Up

I do really believe this deck is a contender and is well positioned currently in the metagame. If you like being rewarded for your plays and having a ton of options every game, then I would recommend this deck. It's a sweet combo that I've had a blast playing. Easily my favorite deck in current Standard. If you have any questions, post below and I'll try to get back to you in a timely fashion. If you want to see more matches, follow my twitch channel. I'm a little sporadic when it comes to streaming now, but I do test all my decks on stream.

As always thanks for reading, let me know how you do with the deck if you decide to play it.

Ali Aintrazi

Follow me @AliEldrazi

Twitch Channel

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