For a number of gamers, this past weekend was all about GenCon. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend. On the bright side, M11 is out on Magic Online, and it's really brought me back to the grind. I've been playing in a couple of 8-mans each day, as well as Daily Events when I can make time for them.

Spain's National Championship was also this past weekend, and that tournament showcased some interesting decks. The Top 3 were Naya Fauna Shaman, RU Runeflare Trap, and RG Valakut with Lavaball Trap. Rounding out the Top 8 was UW Control, Boros, Mono Green Eldrazi (Summoning Trap), and two copies of Fauna Shaman Bant.

One of the Fauna Shaman Bant decks really caught my attention.

"Fauna Shaman Bant - Andrés Labat"

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Fauna Shaman
• 4 Squadron Hawk
• 4 Vengevine
• 2 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
• 2 Wall of Omens

• Spells (14)
• 2 Eldrazi Conscription
• 2 Oblivion Ring
• 2 Path to Exile
• 4 Mana Leak
• 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Lands (24)
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Celestial Colonnade
• 1 Stirring Wildwood
• 5 Forest
• 2 Island
• 1 Plains
• 3 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Seaside Citadel

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Day of Judgment
• 2 Flashfreeze
• 2 Journey to Nowhere
• 1 Martial Coup
• 2 Meddling Mage
• 2 Negate
• 4 Obstinate Baloth

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I immediately put the deck together and joined a Daily Event. I went 3-1 in that event, losing a pretty close match to Valakut Ramp. Upon seeing the list originally, I was definitely skeptical about some of the card choices, however, I generally try not to change new decks until I've at least played some games with them in their original configuration. I was unsure about the Sovereigns package, the 2 Wall of Omens seemed fairly random, and I felt the deck could use a couple of silver bullets.

Squadron Hawk probably seems too cute, and I'll admit that I was in that boat too, when I first saw it. Surprisingly, the Hawk has been great. Aside from the obvious use of returning Vengevine ad nauseam, Hawk is also fuels Fauna Shaman indefinitely, and gives you tons of flying blockers for your Jaces. Speaking of Jace, Hawk allows you to do some fancy tricks like searching up a set of Hawks and using them as Brainstorm fodder, or using the shuffle effect to filter away dead cards. Combined with Noble Hierarchs, Squadron Hawk can even produce a little bit of pressure, particularly against opposing Jaces.

After running the deck in numerous 8-man tournaments, I've found the Sovereigns package to be incredibly useful. Grinding opponents down with Vengevines and/or Jace is a powerful strategy for sure, but it's also nice to have Sovereigns as an option for just slamming the door if they aren't careful. Wall of Omens didn't really impress me in this deck, and I'm now running the 3rd Birds of Paradise, and a Baneslayer Angel. Valakut and UW are extremely popular online right now, and, especially in game 1, you benefit so much from a turn 1 accelerant in those match-ups.

Sideboard

Overall, the sideboard wasn't pulling its weight. I was really only happy with Journey to Nowhere, Negate, Flashfreeze, and (sort of) Obstinate Baloth. Cheap countermagic works really well in a deck with extra mana, like this one. Journey to Nowhere handles Fauna Shaman without accelerating the opponent, while also dealing with Baneslayer Angel, which makes it very valuable.

I'm not sure what Meddling Mage is supposed to do for this deck. The only commonly played deck that relies on a key card is Pyromancer's Ascension, and Meddling Mage is pitiful against that deck because of all the removal they have post board. I've switched the Mages to Pridemages, and been very happy with this. Pridemage is a versatile sideboard option, coming in against Pyromancer, as well as any deck with Eldrazi Conscription, Oblivion Ring, and even the occasional Howling Mine.

Martial Coup and Day of Judgment never impressed me either. I generally found myself winning creature mirrors on the back of Jace to out-creature them, and eventually Sovereigns.

Finally, Obstinate Baloth was decent but not great. I'd still play at least 2 in the sideboard for Jund, as he's fine in that match with or without Blightning, but he's really only good against Jund and RDW, and I think playing the full 4 Baloth is overkill right now.

Here is the sideboard I'm working with now.

[cardlist]

2 Journey to Nowhere

3 Negate

3 Flashfreeze

3 Qasali Pridemage

3 Obstinate Baloth

1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

[/cardlist]

Overall I think the deck is a good choice right now. I haven't faced any decks yet that felt unbeatable. RDW was probably the toughest, but even that isn't unwinnable, and it has also lost a lot of popularity, at least online.

So that you can see the deck in action, here's a recap of a game of the Fauna Shaman Bant mirror that I faced in an 8man. In this example, I'm using the original main deck and sideboard.

Game 1:

On the play.

Opening Hand:

Misty Rainforest

Celestial Colonnade

Sunpetal Grove

Noble Hierarch

Fauna Shaman

Mana Leak

Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Definite keeper, we've got a turn 1 accelerant, two card advantage engines, and protection, this is pretty close to the nuts.

Turn 1:

Me: Misty Rainforest for a Forest (19) and cast Noble Hierarch.

Him: Misty Rainforest for a Forest (19) and cast Birds of Paradise.

Turn 2:

Me: (Draw Seaside Citadel), Cast Fauna Shaman and play Celestial Colonnade.

Him: Seaside Citadel.

Turn 3:

Me: (Draw Squadron Hawk), Seaside Citadel. – It's not worth it to play Sunpetal Grove and Jace, as there is a decent chance he was Mana Leak, and even if he doesn't, he could have Vengevine on his turn, which would be almost as bad. This line of play allows us to use Fauna Shaman and hold up Mana Leak. As is, our Fauna Shaman will probably win this game on her own if she goes unanswered.

Him: Forest, Wall of Omens. EOT, we activate Fauna Shaman to trade our Squadron Hawk for a Vengevine.

Turn 4:

Me: (Draw Forest. Hand: Jace, Vengevine, Mana Leak, Forest, Sunpetal Grove), Sunpetal Grove. – Still not worth it to run my Jace into a potential Mana Leak, don't want to play Vengevine for obvious reasons, Fauna Shaman is still going to win me this game on her own.

Him: Misty Rainforest for Island (18), Knight of the Reliquary. He has 2 mana left, so we Mana Leak. He Mana Leak's back and we pay. – Unfortunately, paying for his Mana Leak means we won't be able to activate Fauna Shaman, but that is a small price to pay for answering his Knight and tapping him out.

Turn 5:

Me: (Draw Birds of Paradise. Hand: Jace, Vengevine, Forest, Birds of Paradise) Play Forest and Jace. Brainstorm drawing Sovereigns, Noble Hierarch, and Stirring Wildwood, put Sovereigns on top with Stirring Wildwood under it. Cast Noble Hierarch. – I definitely made a mistake this turn playing my Forest before Brainstorming with Jace. Regardless, I think it's still right to resolve another mana guy as opposed to playing the Stirring Wildwood and passing. In addition to the extra mana it gives us, having the 2nd Noble Hierarch also gives us another blocker in case he has Vengevine. We still want to leave at least 1 mana up to Fauna Shaman, and we already have a manland to activate if we find ourselves in a position to do so.

Them: Vengevine and attack Jace, which we block with our summoning sick Noble Hierarch. Tectonic Edge and cast Wall of Omens. EOT Fauna Shaman Vengevine for Vengevine.

Turn 6:

Me: (Draw Mana Leak. Hand: Birds of Paradise, Vengevine, Mana Leak) Brainstorm drawing Wall of Omens, Vengevine, and Mana Leak, putting Birds of Paradise on top with Mana Leak under it. Activate Fauna Shaman to turn one of my Vengevines into a Squadron Hawk and cast Wall of Omens, drawing Seaside Citadel. Cast Squadron Hawk and return 2 Vengevines, searching up 2 Squadron Hawks (discarded 1 on turn 3). Attack with exalted Vengevine which he takes (13). - Quite a lot happened this turn. First of all, I used Fauna Shaman to fetch a Squadron Hawk, allowing me to shuffle away what I had put on top with Jace. This meant I could use Wall of Omens to potentially hit an untapped land, which would allow me to play the Vengevine still in my hand. As it turns out, I did not hit an untapped land, so I had to settle for Squadron Hawk. Additionally, I attacked with just 1 Vengevine because he was down to just 3 cards in hand, and I wanted to be able to kill his Vengevine if he chose to attack with it, because it was likely that I would cast 2 creatures next turn anyway. I'm not sure why he didn't block with one of his Walls, as 5 life is probably the most one is going to be worth to him in this game.

Them: Attack with Vengevine, which trades with my Vengevine. Cast Vengevine and use Tectonic Edge to destroy my Celestial Colonnade. - I really don't understand his line of play here. He is already behind and trading Vengevines when he isn't going to return his is horrible, as he knows I have 2 Squadron Hawks in hand already to return mine. Using his Tectonic Edge on my Colonnade is fine, as he's probably going to make that play eventually, so he might as well deny me a bit of mana.

Turn 7:

Me: (Draw Stirring Wildwood) Brainstorm drawing Fauna Shaman, Forest, Celestial Colonnade, putting Wildwood on top with Colonnade under it. Forest and activate Fauna Shaman to turn my Vengevine into a Sovereigns of Lost Alara. Cast Sovereigns and attack with Squadron Hawk for exactly 13, with the help of Exalted from Hierarch and Sovereigns.

As you can see, the deck has some absurd card advantage once its engines get going. It also has the ability to deal tons of damage out of nowhere with Sovereigns, and that, along with Mana Leak, really helps it compete with combo decks in game 1.

I strongly suggest this deck to anyone looking for a Standard deck for anything from FNM to grinding into Nationals. It's playing extremely powerful and synergistic cards, and Sovereigns can get you a lot of free wins if your opponents don't play around it.

For reference, here is the list I'm using now.

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

3 Birds of Paradise

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Fauna Shaman

4 Squadron Hawk

4 Vengevine

2 Sovereigns of Lost Alara

1 Baneslayer Angel

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 Oblivion Ring

2 Path to Exile

2 Eldrazi Conscription

4 Mana Leak

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Celestial Colonnade

1 Stirring Wildwood

5 Forest

2 Island

1 Plains

3 Sunpetal Grove

4 Seaside Citadel

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Journey to Nowhere

3 Negate

3 Flashfreeze

3 Qasali Pridemage

3 Obstinate Baloth

1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

Next week, and for the foreseeable future, I'll be talking about Standard. I can't say for sure which deck I'll be writing about next week, but I do plan to continue playing the list above, and I'll definitely have more to say about it then.

-Benjamin Hayes