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Main » Articles » The Sneak-In Article

The Sneak-In Article

Michael Flores
Posted on February 8, 2022
 Reddit

So, this podcast isn't actually the audio of this week's article. Roman Fusco came to visit me in New York a few months - months - back and we recorded an Ancestral Recall-style review of The Chained to the Rocks Dilemma. Which is actually one of my favorite articles all-time, not just from the CoolStuffInc era. It was recorded shortly after Roman's epic performance in Las Vegas, so the Standard bit at the end is a little dated given the more recent bans. Sorry about that! But the rest of it is quite great and I hope you enjoy it.

Anyway...

yes

Yes

YES

I agree!

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is super exciting; and will be coming up mere days after you read this.

But there is still Magic being played right now!

Standard, you may recall, recently got a little bit of a facelift. The reactions have been amusing from my perspective. On one hand, lots of people didn't like Alrund's Epiphany for some time. Others (like myself) felt like the card was an important pillar of the format holding in check other stuff that would actually become abusive instead of just best1.

So, when I say they are amusing... I mean the not-reactions, really. There has been relatively little fanfare from the "We all hated Alrund's Epiphany / It took you long enough" crowd; nor the usual angry fist-waving from the "Everything's fine" cadre. Some people have taken that to be a signal that players just didn't care about Standard one way or another.

I think there is some validity to that position. I confess that I haven't even tried to hit Mythic in 2022... But there is another contributing factor. Because so much Magic, visible Magic anyway, is being played on MTG Arena best-of-one; the relatively simultaneous emergence of Alchemy has diverted much of the Constructed spotlight away from Standard. After all, top Pros like Andrew Cuneo have talked about focusing on Alchemy and Historic at least until Neon Dynasty comes out, while a returning CovertGoBlue has pondered the future identity of his juggernaut of a YouTube channel... Will The One in Best-of-One rebrand himself as an Alchemy channel? [I, at least, hope not.]

For my part, I'm still kind of in this mindset that all my Arena play - Limited and Constructed both - are just keeping my feet wet for a return to serious paper play. As a result, I haven't played hardly any Alchemy. You might think me batty, but I liked Standard even before the recent round of bans, and despite some admitted burn out; I find the current format at least fresh.

So that was roughly 300 words about why, with one of the most exciting sets to come out in years about to rain its futuristic hot pink ninjas on us, I'm sneaking in decks from merely "current" formats. Following are three I'm playing, two Standard and one Modern.

Standard #1 - Mono-Black Control

If you've been reading my features here for the last few months, you probably know that I was really, really, into Blood Money-esque Snow Control decks for literally months. I battled my way to Mythic in 21 hours with Golgari Snow, and wrote probably my best article in years largely from the perspective of figuring out how to compete against Izzet opponents topping up on Spider Queens.

Mostly for speed purposes (but also just the feeling of seeing how the other half lives, honestly) I ended up playing a lot of Izzet Dragons in Standard, at least post-Worlds. In the above linked podcast I think I said something snarky like "if I were playing for your life I would play uw, but if I were playing for mine, I'd play ur". But it's not like I ever stopped actually loving Blood Money.

This is essentially the version I started playing with Innistrad: Crimson Vow, and only four cards changed with the recent bans:

Mono-Black Exploit Snow | VOW Standard | Michael Flores

This deck is quite good.

My underlying thesis was that Alrund's Epiphany was the best, but not abusive if only because the Mono-Green decks were so good against it. That said, if most folks down-shift into worse versions of Mono-Green and Mono-White; or spread into either mid-range or Ramp Selesnya decks, then Blood on the Snow actually becomes abusive because its effective impact widens so damn much.

Some of the decks people play in the new universe (e.g. Mono-Red) are not competitive against a deck like this. Too many stupid 1/1 guys that gain life and buy time. Sorry!

Mono-Green was arguably the best non-Izzet deck in the previous iteration of Standard; and one of Mono-Black's featured selling points has always been that it absolutely demolishes Mono-Green.

Both Mono-Green and Mono-White principally lose Faceless Haven. Mono-Black also loses Faceless Haven but it's far less of a big deal. The beatdown brothers need Faceless Haven to get in the last few points after being eviscerated by the second or third sweeper; whereas Mono-Black just included it as a free Snow land that was good just because. Or, I guess, as a source of pressure against Izzet; but that doesn't matter as much anymore.

I lost to the Orzhov Wedding Invitation // Wedding Festivity quasi-mirror the last time I played it, but I was kind of distracted / on a conference call at the time. I will concede that the presence of certain permanents that are difficult to remove (Wedding Festivity; Edgar, Charmed Groom // Edgar Markov's Coffin) can be troublesome... But it's not clear one way or the other. The Mono-Black deck just goes over the top so much more effectively while drawing so many more cards than a deck with fewer Planeswalkers (even in-matchup). Furthermore, it is beyond me why so many people have switched out of Professor Onyx for the cheaper - but vastly less powerful - Sorin, the Mirthless.

The one weird concession I've made to this build is shifting away from Skullport Merchant in favor of Fell Stinger. Skullport Merchant is much more persistent in long games (and potentially Ramps you near term) but Fell Stinger is faster on defense and is better at putting an opposing Control deck on a clock. While not really a preferred strategy, you can also get a few ping-points in from Fell Stinger's exploit ability. It's a nice final two, especially in combination with The Meathook Massacre and as the reanimating from your own Blood on the Snow.

I like this deck, I guess partly because I find Blood Money decks the most intellectually engaging to actually play. That said, it's maybe the second-best strategy.

Standard #2 - Azorius Control

Per this article, the above referenced podcast comment, and probably some 1:1 conversation if you had asked me; I would have said that uw Control was the second best deck in the pre-bans Standard. It wasn't actually better than Izzet, but with the ability to deploy offense at instant speed, it wasn't that much worse. In fact, it would probably perform better than another Izzet deck against the average Izzet player on ladder.

And now? Azorius only benefits from the bans. So much so that I'm kind of incredulous that uw isn't the consensus best strategy at the moment! Like, they already threw a rock through Hullbreaker Horror's window in Alchemy. The card was compelling enough to build around before... The Standard version got even better in two ways:

  1. The banning of Alrund's Epiphany kind of promotes #2 to #1 intuitively

  2. The banning of Faceless Haven actually removes the main thing that Hullbreaker Horror can't simply dominate from the metagame

It used to be that you could have a Horror down with cards to fuel it but still eat lethal from a permanent that could be neither countered nor bounced. Now the hated beatdown players are not even allowed to play the most popular iteration of that card!

Azorius Control | VOW Standard | Michael Flores

The build I'm playing hasn't changed whatsoever from The Case for Azorius Control in Standard. It already didn't play Faceless Haven; it already didn't play Divide by Zero! Incidentally, Divide by Zero has to be the most milquetoast spell ever to have been banned in Standard; Blue decks in best-of-one didn't even always play it.

Ultimately, I prefer the uw v. Mono-White matchup versus the Mono-Black v. Mono-White matchup. Mono-Black is so advantaged on paper, but sometimes your eighth land just comes into play tapped because that's what Reidaine says, and you manage to lose despite having only cards that are great against them. Mono-Black doesn't play much point removal because it has less margin to give up against other controlling decks, so can fall behind against Mono-White early. Azorius, on the other hand, kind of doesn't care how many Clues the opponent has as long as it can live long enough to resolve a Horror that will eventually dominate not only in combat but on every strata.

The bigger thing is that the Azorius deck has no holes. If you want to play best-of-three you can supplement with lots of Devastating Masteries to even more thoroughly house opponents who have all different kinds of permanents; but the main deck here is fundamentally flexible against all comers. Cemetery Protector is a plan. It punishes other permission decks and completely embarrasses almost every fair creature strategy. In weird spots you can gobble up the opponent's Storm the Festival. It wouldn't be my first choice; but it's part of the range / ain't a bad play sometimes.

The combination of actual permission (including hard counters like Saw it Coming) plus the ability to sweep multiple permanents plus the ultimate lockdown capability of your 7-drop means that there is literally no strategy you can't interact with.

Perhaps most importantly, if Mono-Black is good because it beats up on creatures, mid-range, and potentially Ramp... Azorius can make similar claims while also beating the bejeezus out of Mono-Black. I'd much rather be Mono-White against Mono-Black than Mono-Black against uw.

So those are the two main only Standard decks I am playing right now on MTGA. But as has been mentioned several times already, what I'm really jones-ing for is some competitive paper.

Modern Deck - Paleolithic Burn

There is a large Modern event coming up this weekend in Philadelphia. If this were two years ago you wouldn't be able to hold me back, but despite my desire to get back into The Gathering, I'm a little apprehensive about the format right now.

This week I gave myself a small challenge. Play in a local Modern tournament. If I won it, then I'd justify the train trip, hotel, whatnot for this weekend's Modern tournament. Your old buddy MichaelJ finally got the 3-0 with a slight update to Paleolithic Burn:

Paleolithic Burn | Modern | Michael Flores

I actually hated my previous sideboard, and simultaneously was kind of impressed watching Patrick O'Halloran-Gannon disassemble local superhero Jeff Jao with Roiling Vortex.

Mini-Tournament Report

Round 1: Gabe with Hardened Scales

This was exactly the kind of deck I wanted to play against with my version of Burn. There is little doubt that a Hardened Scales deck's cards (in particular, creatures) are better than mine; but it also kind of doesn't matter how many cards they draw with Esper Sentinel if Boros is playing its non-interactive game.

Sideboarding:

I took out Lava Spike because I wanted all my cards to be able to impact the battlefield. The Paleolithic Burn deck is lousy with two-for-one removal cards after sideboarding. It's not only that almost everything kills something, but you get a benefit at the same time.

The only interesting decision point was in Game 2. My opponent had a large Walking Ballista, and I had already bought Lurrus to my hand. He had previously bought and used Lurrus to bring back Welding Jar.

I played Smash to Smithereens on the Ballista, and the question was whether or not to save it. I argued that he should just take two counters off to kill my Goblin Guide, and send the rest of the +1/+1 counters my way. If the Ballista lived, he'd go to one; and at least at the time, it looked like I'd have two, if not three, draw steps. After long consideration, he saved the Ballista. The next turn he topdecked a second Hardened Scales, which gave him a path to do 16+ the next turn!

Got it back the following game.

WLW 1-0

Round 2: Oliver with Four-color Elementals

Sideboarding:

A large Yorion, the Sky Nomad-based control deck is not usually where you'd expect Searing effects to be great, but Oliver's had Ice-Fang Coatl, Ragavan, etc.

In the second game I escaped three Omnath triggers, in part due to a Roiling Vortex I played eight life [theoretically] too late.

WW 2-0

Round 3: Gio with Bant Stoneblade

The first game was super close. I blew five points (Gio stuck around on five for two turns) killing a Teferi. I kept topdecking lands in the late game. This was doubly bad as I simply forgot to buy Lurrus. I think if I had I would have won the game by spitting Haste creatures out of the graveyard.

Sideboarding:

LWW

I played kind of sloppy all night (missing the Lurrus purchase is inexcusable) .

I guess wish me luck this weekend.

LWW

LOVE

MIKE

1 The nature of competitive Constructed Magic is that there is always a "best". The goal isn't to not have a best, or even a known best; but rather that that best isn't oppressive or unapologetically miserable to play against.

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, modern, decklist, michael flores, vow standard, 02082022

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