With Extended PTQ season in full swing, Sean McKeown brings us a comprehensive matchup guide to No-Stick, a.k.a. Scepter Chant. If you’re a fan of this particular deck, then this article is unmissable. Of course, if this style of deck gives you the dry heaves, I applaud you. Remember kids… don’t give in to evil.So far, I’ve spent much of the last month on “theory” work, running with numbers and the occasional graph trying to provide a solid line of reasoning to identify trends I am noting in how information flows between weeks of the metagame… and between real-life and online play. Despite compressed graphics which made last week’s efforts at charting how online events predict the metagame for real-life tournaments, it seemed pretty well-reasoned that with two major websites (here on StarCityGames.com, and over on MagicTheGathering.com) providing a weekly analysis of the online metagame, that information would begin to drive the real-life metagame as its lessons are brought over from the online world to the PTQ player. The final conclusion I was able to draw, by visual analysis, is that the PTQ metagame hews pretty closely to the online metagame as noted on the Wednesday before the event… with notable exceptions when a deck not found on the Online Play metagame radar breaks into the real world.
A lot of people have recently told you what they think you should be playing: Ben Bleiweiss with his U/G “8-Post” deck, Richard Feldman and Zac Hill with Gifts Tron, and Mike Flores with a variety of Green/White decks that frankly lose to U/W Big Mana, or the blandest Rock deck of all time, or whatever else is on his mind at the moment. My thoughts on the current PTQ format have remained reasonably consistent despite the ebb and flow of the metagame. It’s a downright shame that there have been no PTQs for me to travel to in the past month, because some element of foresight can be claimed after the fact by picking Scepter-Chant with additional access to more Basic lands plus Kataki in the sideboard, as Affinity and Destructive Flow decks have picked up steady popularity as the weeks of the metagame progressed. I’d say right about now the technology level of this deck is about par for the course, and other decks have had a chance to catch up to it… but that’s perfectly acceptable, insofar as it seems the elements of the deck as presented originally have seemed to grow to fill their role.
Consider this, then, to be a primer on playing Scepter-Chant… or how to walk softly and carry a big (No-)Stick. My list is somewhat unconventional:
Creatures (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (32)
This list started as that played by Roel van Heeswijk at Worlds in December, with distinct alterations to suit a somewhat different metagame, and to have its moving parts flow more logically with each other. Teferi is amazingly powerful and worthy of play as a four-of. Lightning Helix is absurdly powerful against aggressive decks and fills a very necessary role in the early-game attrition that brings the deck into the late-game. Fact or Fiction is omitted as a key card in the deck simply because FoF-based card advantage wars are less than necessary, and the four-mana instant is itself too slow to have a significant effect in too many cases. That last part is a key portion of how the strategy behind this Scepter-Chant list differs from all the others I’ve seen, with a stronger focus on the early game and playing non-Fact or Fiction cards in the slots traditionally held for Fact or Fiction, those currently being “basic Mountain” and “Teferi #4”.
The strategy of the deck is incredibly simple: it’s a control deck that snaps shut a hard lock to imprison the opponent, using Teferi’s ability to warp the ebb and flow of time in order to solidify the already-potent Isochron Scepter imprinting Orim’s Chant, preventing the opponent from ever playing another spell or attacking with a creature once the lock is in place. Getting to the point where that strategy clicks home to win the game is a key focus of the deck, moreso here than in many other builds I have seen. Early-game attrition is accomplished via countermagic and one-for-one removal, with the ability to “reload” with card drawing, or set up a many-for-two trade by imprinting something useful on a Scepter. The ultimate goal of the game is to lock the opponent with Scepter on Orim’s Chant, preferably with Teferi in play, but an early Scepter on Chant is often sufficient to defeat most decks as very few decks have a main-deck answer to the soft lock.
Because the long-game “lock” is so powerful, and the pieces even help to protect each other or force the missing half into play, the focus is heavily on the early game: establishing a slowed board against beatdown, or an imprinted Scepter against control, or just surviving against combo decks like Ritual Desire. The long-game is going to take care of itself, meaning that besides the lock components you should be applying a heavy bias against high-cost things. This is why you will not find Exalted Angels, Eternal Dragons, or even Fact or Fiction in this decklist… you require things that have a definite effect early in the game, not late-game “win more” cards that arguably may help against other control decks. More Teferis help against control decks instead, as does the manabase. It includes at least one more land than is currently “traditional” for Scepter-Chant and also has the ability to fight a war over an opposing Teferi after it resolves. Other than the two philosophies driving the design changes, summed up as “I don’t want to pay four mana for anything if I don’t have to” and “I don’t need more kill cards, really, I promise,” it does the same thing you expect Scepter-Chant to do, and thus it makes sense that I intend to give a matchup-analysis primer rather than a “how to imprint Orim’s Chant on Isochron Scepter” primer. Two rules tidbits are worth noting, however:
1. Teferi warps time very strangely. An opponent who is limited to playing things at Sorcery speed cannot activate Isochron Scepter, as you do not have priority during your main phase with an empty stack when you are asked to play the copied spell, even if Isochron Scepter is the only effect on the stack and it is otherwise your own main phase: you play the copy during the middle of the resolution of the Scepter’s effect, meaning there is at least one effect still on the stack, and you’re smack-dab in the middle of it when you try to play your copied spell.
2. Meddling Mage stops the named card, not the named spell… so he can stop both halves of a split card (Hi, Fire-Ice!) but is helpless against the same card he is naming once you stick it on a Scepter… as the Scepter does not play cards but instead copies spells.
Stepping through the metagame in descending order from this past week’s Magic Online results, we’ll progress in the following order:
Boros Deck Wins (15%)
Aggro Loam (12%)
Affinity (11%)
Aggro/Flow-Rock (8%)
Flow Deck Wins (7%)
Scepter-Chant (Mirror) (6%)
Tenacious Tron (5%)
Ichorid (4%)
U/W Tron (4%)
U/W Trinket-Post (3%)
U/G Opposition (3%)
U/B Psychatog (3%)
G/W Haterator (3%)
Gaea’s Might Get There (2%)
Goblinstorm / Dirty Kitty (2%)
U/B/W Trinket-Angel (2%)
Gifts Rock (1%)
U/W Post (1%)
Ritual Desire (1%)
U/R/W Trinket-Angel (0%)
Boros Deck Wins
Game 1
Game 1 of this particular matchup is almost academic on the play, but can be kind of harrowing on the draw. Either way, they have literally no answer to an Isochron Scepter in the main-deck unless they’ve added something like Tin-Street Hooligan, or something else sub-optimal (like Pillage). This is an attrition war over your life-total, and your life is the only thing that matters… you want to trade anything you can to avoid damage in the early game, especially since their land destruction can prevent you from ever really surviving the early game. You basically win or lose this one in the design portion of the event, choosing to include sufficient removal to handle threats, and including a few key Wish targets that you will clearly want if you face this matchup several times (like Pulse of the Fields). This is one of several matchups that led to desiring a basic Mountain to be found with Wooded Foothills, as some of your most powerful action cards for the early game are Red and may need to be active as fast as possible… oh, and considering their deck packs LD and is very aggressive, the extra land does help to prevent too many games lost to not having access to enough mana.
Soltari Priest is very dangerous to let into play, but Silver Knight can be readily ambushed by an incoming Teferi and thus is at least a little bit less dangerous. If a five-mana spell is actually having an impact on the game, though, you’re already in good shape for this one.
Game 2
Game 2 is harder, because you can no longer float Scepters out there unprotected and expect them to do their thing. You literally sideboard zero cards in the matchup, but now have to actually try to assemble the combo of Teferi plus Chant on a Scepter to take the match… fortunately, you usually have two games to do it in. Some Boros lists have Pyrostatic Pillar, which can certainly be annoying but is readily hit by Spell Snare and removed from play with Wish targets prior to establishing the full lock. As before, you attrition early in the game to conserve your life totals, but now have to actually combo-kill the opponent instead of relying on a Scepter imprinting Lightning Helix to win the game. Some argue that Wrath of God is beneficial to this matchup… I have never found it to be particularly helpful, because it is guilty of the cardinal sin of costing four mana and thus not affecting the board as quickly as is needed.
When on the play, I often remove a Chrome Mox to bring in Lightning Helix #4, to attempt to minimize the splash damage on artifact removal that their Ancient Grudges can inflict, and to take advantage of the fact that the deck plays an additional mana-source compared to most Chant lists. Establishing the full lock, protected by Teferi first and foremost, can be a difficult task to close the match out… but you’ll usually have two chances in sideboarded games to pull it off.
Aggro-Loam
Game 1
This matchup is a nail-biter, mostly because it’s very easy to mis-assign your roles and make a fundamental mistake because of this. You cannot stop their card advantage engine, as you do not possess enough countermagic or the appropriate tools to combat the graveyard. Because of this, you have to cede the card advantage war and control the actual threats, and defend your development against Devastating Dreams and Cabal Therapy while setting up to lock them under Scepter plus Chant. Neither one of you is truly looking to interact here, as both choose different avenues of bludgeoning the opponent to the point where they can no longer play the game, but your lock is good for the entire game once you set it up. I’d go so far as to say you are even a slight favorite for game 1, so long as you don’t make the mistake of actually attempting to play the controlling role here: you cannot stop them from gaining ridiculous card advantage, but you can nullify all of that advantage in one fell swoop by assembling Scepter plus Chant. Their game 1 outs are minimal – usually two copies of Putrefy – and going for just the Scepter will usually work out so that you can draw a counter (or stick Teferi) before they draw a Putrefy.
Getting to stick a Teferi first makes it clearly academic, and you play four copies. You are both combo decks trying to get your “combo” off first, but they have four Cabal Therapies versus your Counterspell + Spell Snare. It’s a rough matchup… from both sides. Give into the fact that your role here is highly atypical and it will work much better. For that reason, because your role is so wildly different than the role you expect to be playing in most games, this is an important matchup to test and get used to the sickening feeling of helplessness as your opponent clearly out-draws you… then you win anyway because you stuck to your plan.
Game 2
Sideboard: -3 Lightning Helix, -1 Chrome Mox (playing), -3 Lightning Helix, -1 Fire/Ice (drawing). +4 Meddling Mage.
Meddling Mage is almost always going to be “correct” on Cabal Therapy, as stopping Therapy removes their ability to attempt to force interaction. After sideboarding you can expect to face down against not just Putrefy but also Krosan Grip and Ancient Grudge, with no absolute certainty as to the quantities of each unless you happen to be familiar with their list (… or lose game 2 but see enough of their deck to be able to estimate their sideboarding changes for game 3. This is why being able to see how many cards your opponent is sideboarding in is a crucial error on their part, as that can give you positive information as to how many Grips or Grudges are actually coming in and thus whether you can name one specifically with Meddling Mage). This means your new goal is to allow the board to develop enough to plant Teferi before engaging the Scepter-lock, with the added caveat of possibly being able to beat down with Meddling Mage and go aggro-control on them.
Control, however, is still the wrong role… however, you have the ability to remove their interactive cards by naming Cabal Therapy with Meddling Mage, meaning you get to keep your countermagic online for their threatening plays. Their “interactive” cards are just Instants that can break up your combo of Scepter plus Chant; aim for the full lock of casting Teferi first and the game is done. This is necessary in multiple matchups, thus the inclusion of the full four copies of Teferi in this list of Scepter-Chant. The post-sideboarded games they are the favorite, but they are usually such a dog to your lock elements game 1 that you only have to win one of the two around Therapies, Devastating Dreams, and multiple flavors of artifact-destruction spells. Overall I place the matchup as dead even in my experience, a fact I expect players from the other side of the matchup to disagree with… but how you perceive the matchup as the Scepter-Chant player and thus how you design your deck and actuate your goals, and what you choose to pick a fight over, makes a huge difference here. Admittedly this is one of the matchups where Fact or Fiction would be really good… but the fourth Teferi is also quite strong and is very critical to the post-board games.
Affinity
Game 1
Gone are the days of Affinity players not having enough Shrapnel Blasts to actually conceivably kill you around the Scepter-Chant lock, meaning game 1 got a lot harder. The plan as always is to force board attrition early on, most importantly catching Arcbound Ravagers with Spell Snare. Unless they’re playing Pithing Needles in the main-deck, which most do not, dropping the soft-lock early will help by a mile… but is not a guarantee, as you can still eat hot Shrapnel Blast and die. Affinity is a difficult matchup… thus the presence of Kataki in the sideboard. Game 1 is generally in their favor, especially if they are on the play, but a controlling draw with Spell Snare or a Chrome Mox can make a huge difference.
Game 2
Sideboard: -2 Chrome Mox, -1 Teferi (on the play), -2 Teferi, -1 Chrome Mox (on the draw). +3 Kataki, War’s Wage.
Kataki backed by countermagic buys a practically infinite amount of turns, but can wreak havoc on your manabase just as easily as it does theirs. Chrome Mox is expendable but you can only cut so many of them before you skimp down to the point where you can no longer reasonably expect to draw enough mana. The goal remains to lock them under Isochron Scepter, but the “luxury” of planting Teferi first will likely be complicated by the fact that they will almost certainly have Pithing Needles after sideboarding, and many versions will further complicate matters by boarding in some number of Cabal Therapy as well. If you catch your opponent tapped out in the early game, so that they cannot Darkblast, Shrapnel Blast, or activate Pyrite Spellbomb before Kataki’s effect go on the stack, the disruption that causes should make a huge difference… but if you don’t have Kataki and they do get in Pithing Needle on Scepter, you will likely fall to the march of the robots. It’s a very swingy match, but one where you can catch them with their pants down — most Scepter-Chant lists don’t have Kataki presently, so they can potentially fight the wrong battle by bringing in Pithing Needle but losing to Kataki. This is not an especially favorable matchup, because of their speed and apparently newfound reach, but you can have a reasonable expectation of winning the match if you win the die roll and draw well. Your chances drop dramatically if they get to start off first two games out of three.
Aggro / Flow Rock
Game 1
Discard effects plus Destructive Flow does not make for a happy camper, but this version of Scepter-Chant has more access to basic Lands (five instead of four, plus two more Fetch-lands than most versions and an actual basic Mountain as well) and early-game removal spells to at least slow the clock down while you try and figure out your mana situation. There are effectively eleven basic lands – six fetchlands and five basics – and the new rule against decks that look like they might have Destructive Flow in them is to get as many basic lands as possible whenever you are given an opportunity to search. With those eleven lands that stay in play under a Flow, plus three Chrome Moxes, you should be able to lessen the crippling effect Destructive Flow is intended to have and focus on the actual game at hand.
The goal is to develop the board as best you can, but the opponent will be pressuring your hand… so anything on an Isochron Scepter is better than leaving the Scepter in hand to be discarded, and definitely better than waiting to try and assemble the lock if you aren’t doing something important in the meantime. Effectively you want to search up your basic lands and Moxes, recoup some cards with Thirst for Knowledge while keeping the worst threats at bay (… hopefully including the Flow itself…) with counters and burn, and win somehow. Scepter-Chant plays a game of attrition here, instead of pure control, and thus wants to keep its life total high, its opposing threats low, and make a profit somehow… whether it’s Icing the most potent threat in play, or playing Lightning Helix every turn, you want to advance your goals and improve your position wherever possible. An equipped Troll Ascetic will require you to engage the Scepter-lock, and if Umezawa’s Pointy Stick of Doom gets to four counters, things get a lot harder if you want to be certain that you won’t lose your Scepter to a possible main-deck Putrefy. This is a difficult matchup, but settling in to fight a resource war of attrition and keeping Destructive Flow off the table makes life so much easier.
Game 2
They get Ancient Grudge or Krosan Grip, you get… nothing? Depending on how truly “aggro” their “aggro” Rock deck is, you may profit by bringing in Meddling Mage for some Lightning Helixes and one copy of Teferi; while Teferi is important against Grudges and Grips, your mana is going to be taxed heavily already so by the time you’re realistically ready for Teferi you should probably have drawn one of the remaining three copies. Meddling Mage can at least shut down Cabal Therapy or Destructive Flow in the turns where they hurt you the hardest, in the early game, and help to fight the resource war that is critical to Aggro Rock-style matchups. This is a difficult matchup that didn’t get better by having a Wish-board instead of a sideboard, but play experience will help. It’s one of the key matchups I’d suggest a burgeoning Scepter-Chant player test, because it’s easy to make a critical mistake when you are battling for your resources in hand and in play in addition to fighting for your precious life points.
Flow Deck Wins
Game 1
This is actually easier than against Aggro Flow Rock, because Fire / Ice is so very, very much better against them. Game 1 is again a speed and resource war, but they aren’t trying to put Sword of Fire and Ice on a Troll Ascetic so this “resource war” gives you opportunities to go to town with Fire / Ice in the early game, often nullifying two turns worth of plays. Spell Snare also usually does more here than against Aggro Flow Rock, which seems to have fewer twos overall, just enough to want to keep the full four in but not quite enough to be backbreaking. Be aware of the fact that Tin Street Hooligan is usually in the mix here, so a Scepter won’t always be on auto-fire, but Spell Snare can let you drop an early Scepter and protect it. The same rules apply to surviving the resource war, because you can’t guarantee that you can keep Destructive Flow off the table so you should aim to try and pick basic lands over dual lands so you aren’t ruined by it… but they have burn instead of Cabal Therapy, meaning you are under less stress overall (though you should maintain your life total, and don’t be tricked into thinking that Scepter + Chant = The Win). This match is moderately favorable, moreso with this list than with others, with clunky things like Fact or Fiction that you can’t promise on ever getting to four in order to cast and fewer overall basic lands to weather the Flow.
Game 2
Game 2 is again harder, thanks to their inclusion of Ancient Grudge and Cabal Therapy meaning you have to try and stick the combo with Teferi to protect it before you can consider the game to be secured. Unlike Aggro Rock, they have significant burn and won’t be shy of using it, so Meddling Mage can’t be leaned on as a viable solution to anything. I’d normally sideboard —1 Teferi / +1 Lightning Helix to help “fight the good fight,” and continue the war of attrition in the early turns to defend your board position. Cunning Wish will be taxed heavily here, as your only answer to a resolved Destructive Flow, your combo tool for assembling Scepter plus Chant, just to draw more gas by pulling out Fact or Fiction if you’ve settled into a stable board, or to pull Pulse of the Fields if your life has shrunk noticeably into the danger zone. Thanks to the fact that Fire / Ice is almost as good as Wrath of God against them, this matchup still remains reasonable, likely favoring whoever plays first instead of either side of the matchup specifically… so hopefully you, for game 3, if you can capitalize on your game 1 slight advantage.
Scepter-Chant
Game 1
This is the mirror, and thus an excellent point to discuss what is different in this version of Scepter-Chant than in most others. Presuming this deck is the default Scepter-Chant list, because it was the first to win a PTQ this season and get noticed, you’ll note Fact or Fiction is absent, as is Wrath of God. Both cost too much mana to be truly effective in my experience, living as we do in a format where Destructive Flow is becoming more and more relevant as yet another means to ensure that your four-mana spells are irrelevant against aggressive decks. You have two more lands than they have, the same number of basic lands overall, and the same number of fetch-lands… two lands can be a massive advantage in a control mirror match. You also have no Academy Ruins, because as good as getting back an Isochron Scepter can be, the key fact remains that the most commonly played spell that kills an Isochron Scepter kills it twice, and thus the design of this deck focuses more on planting Teferi and assembling the Prison-esque combo lock than it does on just trying to protect the Scepter. After all, Academy Ruins gets back the Scepter, but not the card you put on it, so as clever as you may feel using Academy Ruins to buy it back… in theory… in practice it doesn’t come up very often, and might actually be best suited at stacking the deck with an artifact mana source before you cast Thirst for Knowledge, which is an awful lot of setup just to ensure that Thirst gives you the guaranteed +1 card.
In the place of these four-mana spells we have two more lands and one more Teferi, and those two lands can kill their Teferi, while none of their lands can kill yours. And instead of Wrath of God we have Lightning Helix, which does its good work faster and can be an absolute mauling imprinted on a Scepter, even in the mirror match where it does something as compared to Wrath of God’s effectively blank text in the mirror. They have Blastminers to your Meddling Mages, and access to Descendant of Kiyomaro if they want it; you have more relevant burn spells (… at least you started with Lightning Helix, remember?) to keep the Blastminer off your back and more mana in general before we start trading spells at each other trying to gain an advantage.
Simply put, this version wins the mirror for multiple reasons… it has more mana and more Teferi, both of which are key for the matchup, and has fewer absolutely dead cards even if it does have fewer Fact or Fictions. I don’t worry about playing Fact or Fiction or countering my opponents’ Facts, but that may be because I am one of the 10% of the Extended-playing audience who know how to split FoF rather than the 90% of the Extended-playing audience who didn’t face off against it the first time around in Standard. Controlling the opponent’s threats, gaining dominance via Teferi, and having a mana advantage are all crucial… conveniently this is the Scepter-Chant list tuned (among other thing) to profit in the mirror.
Game 2
If you expect Blastminers, you don’t sideboard very heavily at all. You can remove a Chrome Mox if you are on the play, and one to two copies of Orim’s Chant should be coming out regardless as setting up the combo is much less relevant. Teferi’s time-warping powers already provide a huge advantage by shutting down their Scepters and his butt of four is hard to burn. The fourth card I usually take out to put in the fourth Meddling Mage is the third copy of Lightning Helix; relevant though it may be at least in comparison to Wrath of God, it is still only minimally useful… it’s theoretically a threat on an Isochron Scepter, and manages Dwarven Blastminer, but eight counters plus the burn and the ability to name Blastminer with Meddling Mage to buy at least one full turn free of him (requiring him to be Morphed) mean that it’s not exactly a strict necessity. You’re already geared to beat the mirror, so worry only about the things that matter (advancing your own mana development and card flow, countering lethal threats from the opponent) and don’t worry about the things that don’t.
The Snow manabase, complete with Mouth of Ronom, means you no longer have to counter (or respond at all) to Orim’s Chant. “The worst they can do” is no longer so bad, which is again a key matchup difference… you can usually clean up after their worst efforts or most carefully executed plan, while they frequently have no such recourse to you sticking a Teferi in play and protecting him. The mirror match is clearly favorable with this design, and I’d go so far as to say very favorable given my testing of the mirror against non-Snow manabases / versions that are still playing Fact or Fiction in a turn-4-kill environment.
Tenacious Tron
Game 1
I won’t lie, Chalice of the Void for two is very difficult… you basically can’t win past it if it resolves. Fortunately, they are very limited in their ability to remove a Scepter from play, meaning you can gain a significant advantage by dropping an early Scepter with very little backlash. Spell Snare is huge, protecting against Chalice for one, forcing spells past Remand, or stopping a Signet… but should be used about as quickly as possible for whichever of those uses seems immediately relevant, as there are important uses in the early game but they lose relevance quickly.
The longer the game goes, the worse things get for you… so push the advantage early before the Tron turns on and everything goes to hell. You have a decent chance at sticking a Teferi in play at the end of their turn, as only Condescend really “answers” that particular threat, Remand only buys a turn and you get to untap before that turn is even bought. Their main goal is to plant a Chalice for two, while your main goal should be to out-card them by dropping a Scepter at the first opportunity with either Counterspell, Fire / Ice, or Orim’s Chant on it and use this to push your advantage. Picking your fight at end of turn only, or getting to clear the way with Orim’s Chant, means that while you are a dog as the game goes longer into a grueling control war, you do have clear windows of opportunity to exploit. You are not the favorite for game 1, even if things aren’t so bad that you need to be scooping… after all, it’s only the Gifts Ungiven package over Fact or Fiction, and Chalice of the Void, that makes this matchup so hard. Unless they can plant a Chalice for two, you’re still alive and kicking, making you a distinct threat. Exploit your advantage, or find out what it feels like to get Mindslavered. A lot.
Whatever you do, concede before you let them use a Wish to see your sideboard. It’s not like you’re going to survive Mindslaver resolving on you anyway.
Game 2
Sideboarding sees you put in three Kataki, War’s Wage and all four Meddling Mages, again trying to press the fact that you have an early-game advantage; they rely on artifacts to provide them with colored mana, and to try to gain an advantage in the long-run. Kataki may not ruin their win conditions or anything but he does make it damnably hard for Condescend to do anything, and stops the two-mana Chalice for 1 play that can be damaging if it slips through in the early game. To get there, you take out a Teferi and a Chrome Mox, all three Lightning Helix, one Spell Snare and one Fire / Ice, with the intention of playing the aggro-control role and taxing their early development to the point where you can press that early-game advantage from the first game.
Meddling Mage has two reasonable choices: you can name Chalice of the Void, and defend against a very credible threat, or you can name Engineered Explosives, which they should be bringing in against you if they are using the “faithful” Feldman / Rider list. Engineered Explosives isn’t easily countered by Spell Snare, even when it gets two charge counters, because anyone with half a brain will pay an extra colorless to sneak it past that particular counter if they have the option. Go beatdown to define who it is that has to respond to the other player’s threats, and by beating down and disrupting their mana you should be able to sneak in Teferi and follow up with a Scepter on Orim’s Chant. This is still a difficult matchup, but by pressing your advantage as in the first game you can walk out of it alive… it’s definitely neither favorable nor even, but not so miserable that you can’t pull out a win. Remember to watch the clock, though, as this will very likely go to three games and not quick ones either, and that’s just as much an enemy as any one particular card you have to keep in mind… fortunately after game 1 you try to use their forward momentum against them, making it easier to make the decisions and press your early-game advantage.
Ichorid
Game 1
Game 1 isn’t pretty, but it also isn’t especially hard. Put any burn spell or Orim’s Chant on a Scepter as fast as possible, then ride the storm… either Fire / Ice or Lightning Helix effectively negates two Ichorids. Orim’s Chant is a lock by itself unless they have one copy of Ancient Grudge to Dredge up, in which case you try to keep up Spell Snare or Counterspell if you can. Psychatog is a clear threat, but again he’s just a man and can be contained with Ice or Orim’s Chant to buy time. Your hand will be Therapied, but you can survive the Dredge-powered assault with a Scepter holding your best spell for you, and they have absolutely no resistance to being locked even without Teferi in play. Game 1 is favorable… but not necessarily with all Scepter-Chant lists, versions with Fact or Fiction and Wrath of God may find this matchup quite a bit more difficult.
Game 2
Both decks do the same thing, except they try to do it with Pithing Needle active and you have to worry about that one Ancient Grudge somewhere in their deck again. Teferi is minimally relevant, but so is Spell Snare, and both should be chopped into for the fourth Lightning Helix and for Meddling Mage. Pikula can name either Pithing Needle or Cabal Therapy with reasonable usefulness, or can name Ancient Grudge if they’re Dredging but didn’t draw a Pithing Needle to play. I’d aim to keep three Spell Snares and no copies of Teferi, if only because they might counter a critical early Zombie Infestation.
U/W Tron
Game 1
This is like playing against Tenacious Tron, but not as terrifying because they don’t have Chalice of the Void. Test-spell them with Teferi and press the early advantage with Scepter if you have the chance and this will go well. Unlike Tenacious Tron, thanks to their lack of Moxes and Chalice of the Void this is actually a reasonably favorable matchup.
Game 2
See: Tenacious Tron for sideboarding plan; likewise make with the Mages and Katakis, and press the window for opportunity wider open than before. This remains a reasonable matchup, and you get to beat down while their colored mana sources are overtaxed in the early game. Finish with the beatdown or the combo lock depending on their response, but the beatdown plan is mostly to pressure a response out of them and require them to do something… thus letting you murder them.
U/W Trinket-Post
Game 1
See: U/W Tron and Tenacious Tron, as a hybrid mix of the two. This is probably a very even matchup, but it helps that they have much less access to their Chalices of the Void; for the most part, they cut key countermagic like Remand and Condescend to fit in Trinket Mages and the toolbox they work with. Watch them carefully game 1, because Spell Snare is unusually dead against them, countering mana sources only in many lists… and be aware that most do not even have Tenacious Tron’s Repeals, meaning that they are more or less dead if you resolve Isochron Scepter by itself. As they are a big mana board control deck, not a deck with actual countermagic, test-spell with Teferi and watch them fall down… conveniently this version still has all four copies to most other list’s three.
Game 2
Likewise favorable, but unlike U/W Tron lists you will find that Kataki has a surprisingly equal effect on you, and thus might actually be too damaging to want to include. Meddling Mage is useful, but Spell Snare might be dead… some lists run more counters than others, and if you don’t see Remand or Memory Lapse you’ll want to take Spell Snare out. Meddling Mage should probably name Trinket Mage to keep the path clear and Chalice of the Void off your back, but if you have a burn spell or two in hand you can choose not to worry about it and “just” name Chalice of the Void directly. Some lists sideboard up to as many copies as they have Trinket Mages anyway.
U/G Opposition
Game 1
Burn elves. Counter Opposition. Scepter plus Chant. Yawn. This is a deck full of 1/1s, meaning Fire / Ice is amazing, and no matter how many cards they draw they still can’t answer a Scepter with Orim’s Chant on it game 1… and however good their deck is, they still can’t really do anything at all without Opposition in play.
Game 2
After sideboarding you now have to actually respect them and interact with them, but it’s not like you’re sideboarding any cards against them: your burn spells are still very useful, and your game-plan is still very strong. Don’t let Opposition in and their deck falls apart; set up Teferi before you play Scepter plus Chant and they’re locked like they were in game 1. Unfortunately, because they may have Krosan Grip, you have to wait before playing a Scepter, which means they have more time and might actually just beat you to death with seemingly insignificant 1/1s. If you have knowledge (say, perhaps, from game 2) that they will not have any Equipment after sideboarding, you can remove Teferi and put in Meddling Mage (to name Krosan Grip), and have a much faster combo… plus better resistance to Opposition, by naming it with the Mage.
U/B Psychatog
Game 1
This would be an interesting matchup… but not one I would really expect to see unless Planar Chaos is in the mix, boosting the Tog deck with access to Damnation and a very effective spot tool by gaining Extirpate as a Cunning Wish target against decks like Ichorid or Aggro Loam. Against your average Scepter-Chant list I would actually consider Tog to be the slight favorite, as it probably has more counters even if it doesn’t have as many dangerous cards like Orim’s Chant and Teferi to resolve. Against this version with more mana and a better Teferi game-plan, because Tog decks will inevitably be Wishing for Mystical Teachings for Teferi, I’d say this is more equal: you have more Teferi action going on and are better at locking the opponent out of the game with Isochron Scepter, which should close the slight advantage the Tog deck has over your standard Scepter-Chant list.
Game 2
You get Meddling Mages, they likely get Duress; you probably just Meddling Mage their Duresses and get to play the aggro-control route. Presuming both decks are Wish-based, the matchup should not change significantly post-sideboard as neither has the ability to really shed anything in quantity to reduce the anti-creature focus of their plans. Unless they have a fifteen-card sideboard, this likely remains a dead heat; if they aren’t Wishing, you might just get murdered in the post-sideboard games if they have the ability to drop significant quantities of their anti-aggro cards to deal with you.
G/W Haterator
Game 1
This matchup is so easy that you can (… and unless you have Teferi in play, should) target yourself with Orim’s Chant and still decimate them. Mike lost 0-3 to Scepter-Chant at his trial run of this deck for a reason, this matchup is about as easy as they come.
Game 2
They are still slow and bad, but now have artifact destruction. Change nothing, Teferi them first, they lose.
Gaea’s Might Get There
Game 1
This is a dangerous matchup, but they receive splash damage from Boros by suffering against the same set of tools. They’re a little bit faster, but lack the significant quantity of dangerous protection-from-Red creatures that can make Boros a pain… so what you lose in their added speed you make up in their added vulnerability. This then plays out much like the Boros matchup, in that a game 1 Scepter is going to do its dirty work, but is best placed with Lightning Helix instead of Orim’s Chant unless you’re applying the full lock with Teferi in play. At least they skimp on the land destruction, making them somewhat less dangerous when on the play, but again there’s no really useful trade-off if they Gaea’s Might your face in instead. Favor goes to whoever goes first… it’s an even matchup, so breaking serve is the most difficult task of all.
Note that you might want to save burn for your turn, instead of theirs, so as not to get hit with Gaea’s Might at an inopportune moment.
Game 2
Again, like Boros, they can burn your Meddling Mages, meaning aside from sneaking in that last Lightning Helix you probably aren’t sideboarding. You likewise have to engage them in a war of attrition to resolve Teferi and then very specifically lock the game up with Scepter plus Chant, but they’re a little harder to contain than your average Boros deck. It’s thus more important than normal to go first, because you’ll want to play first for games 1 and 3 to give yourself the best chance of walking away from the match with a win… but at least you have faster, more effective cards than the average version with Wrath of God instead of Lightning Helix. It helps to keep you in this fight instead of making you the underdog.
Goblinstorm / Dirty Kitty
Game 1
Another aggressive deck, very vulnerable to Fire / Ice, but even moreso because their key combo piece is a 1/1 Goblin? Sign me up! They’re like the bastardized cross-breed of a beatdown deck with The Extended Perfect Storm, meaning Orim’s Chant doesn’t even need to be imprinted on Isochron Scepter to be deadly in this matchup. Chant in response to Rituals, or Stifle the Storm trigger of Empty the Warrens, Fire any number of Skirk Prospectors… or just lock them under Isochron Scepter. You’re prepared to face beatdown and prepared to function as a combo-breaker, so this isn’t exactly a difficult matchup unless they get the stupidly explosive draw, which they are not favored to do.
Game 2
Again, after sideboarding they actually have access to Ancient Grudge, and again all you’re adding is a single Lightning Helix, taking out a Chrome Mox if you’re on the play, or a Teferi if you’re on the draw. Break the combo as before, kill the vital Goblins and protect your life total… and remember to protect your Scepter beforehand with Teferi, instead of trotting it out there like you could in game 1 like it was invincible.
U/B/W Trinket Angel
Game 1
Counterbalance is a real tough card to beat, but the rest of their deck is surprisingly unthreatening. Their long-game viability hinges on whether they can win a long fight with Counterbalance, requiring them to push your controlling cards off-balance in order to stick Counterbalance in play and protect it from Disenchant. Unfortunately, they are the aggressor while they try to do this, and their plan is reasonably effective against you… remember that Meddling Mage can’t stop an Imprinted spell and it will help. They are a slight favorite in this one, because of the power of Counterbalance against you, as it breaks the lock and is incredibly difficult on you if the game goes longer to begin with. If you can contain Counterbalance, you can drop your Scepter with impunity and lock them without even needing Teferi first; if you can’t contain Counterbalance, you probably aren’t going to win unless you pull off something incredibly clever.
Game 2
Game 2 you get to bring in Meddling Mage, and likely should consider Kataki, War’s Wage as well if you are on the play as it can help steal the early-game tempo by capitalizing on the Artifacts that Trinket Mage normally provides, like artifact lands and Sensei’s Divining Top. If nothing else it allows you to take the more aggressive stance, disrupting the back-and-forth flow of a game in which you are still not the favorite to win… after sideboarding this remains a difficult matchup, regardless of whether they are U/B/W or U/B/R.
Gifts Rock
Game 1
This, on the other hand, is not a difficult matchup. About the most damaging thing they can do to you involves playing Pernicious Deed then sitting behind it forcing you to discard key cards, as this is an attrition war and they are better oriented to win it. Fortunately, they have very minimal answers to a resolved Scepter even without Teferi, with likely a single Putrefy in their maindeck to answer your lock card. You are a reasonable favorite to win this game, so long as you can get comfortable with the idea that they are going to hit your hand with Duress and Cabal Therapy and are the long-game favorites thanks to their Gifts Ungiven recursion engine. You don’t have the luxury of sitting there forever, but you do have the luxury of invalidating their entire strategy with the soft lock.
Game 2
Again, Lightning Helix is not particularly useful, and Chrome Mox #3 can be shaved as a liability against a deck packing Pernicious Deed thanks to the fact that they are not especially fast. This lets you put in Meddling Mage, which can stop discard spells or Gifts Ungiven… or, if unanswered, just name Krosan Grip and let you go to town with Scepter plus Chant again. As you now have a reasonable strategy for dealing with the discard package, this game gets much easier to deal with, because the pressure on your hand is relieved even as the amount of time you must take before you can engage your total lockdown combo-style increases. Beware Blinkmoth Well, which some versions may have along with Life from the Loam to Gifts for; it doesn’t invalidate your strategy but it does require a second Scepter active, with either a second Chant or Fire / Ice to use on their upkeep. Unfortunately the turn they play it they may be able to wriggle out of your lock, and they can be very dangerous indeed with that one turn as all they need to do is plant a single Pernicious Deed and everything gets blown to hell… or find a window for Krosan Grip, buying them the rest of their turns back and making life truly difficult.
U/W Post
Game 1
See: U/W Tron, these decks are effectively the same deck with minimal differences to their manabase. As per U/W Tron, but not Trinket-Post or Tenacious Tron, U/W Big Mana is pretty easy for Scepter-Chant to handle. Most are vulnerable to Teferi resolving, with only Condescend as an answer lasting more than a single turn, and unlike their Tenacious cousin they cannot lock your game down with Chalice of the Void.
Game 2
See: U/W Tron, including switch for Meddling Mage but excluding any usefulness for employing Kataki, War’s Wage.
Ritual Desire
Game 1
So let’s see… they have absolutely no way to break out of your dropping a Scepter with Orim’s Chant, and you don’t even need to be able to kick it. They also basically lose if you have a Chant but no Scepter, and might just accidentally fizzle if you counter the right Ritual or Egg to prevent them from getting Mind’s Desire active. Spell Snare counters several of their most important cards, like Burning Wish and Infernal Tutor, and you can Wish for your choice of Stifle or Orim’s Chant to completely decimate them. Game 1 is not in their favor.
Game 2
Remove one Teferi and three Lightning Helix, replace with four Meddling Mage. They sideboard maybe two copies of Duress, might possibly try to set everything up with Orim’s Chant (or even funnier in some cases Xantid Swarm), and have long since gotten past the part where they considered Defense Grid to be a useful sideboard card. Clearly this match is now trickier, because you have a stand-off on the Orim’s Chant department, and they can even try to Chant you in response to activating Isochron Scepter to prevent you from Chanting them.
Ironically, if you play Isochron Scepter with Orim’s Chant, and name Orim’s Chant with Meddling Mage, you win at life. Magic is a funny game sometimes.
U/R/W Trinket-Angel
Game 1
See: U/B/W Trinket-Angel, the matchup is effectively the same though slightly easier due to lack of access to discard.
Game 2
See: U/B/W Trinket-Angel, where things probably get worse for you after sideboarding: you either overpower them, or get locked under Counterbalance.
…
So, for a composite analysis:
| Matchup | Percentage | Outcome |
|
Boros Deck Wins
|
15%
|
Favorable
|
|
Aggro Loam
|
12%
|
Slightly Favorable
|
|
Affinity
|
11%
|
Even
|
|
Aggro Flow-Rock
|
8%
|
Slightly Unfavorable
|
|
Flow Deck Wins
|
7%
|
Slightly Favorable
|
|
Scepter-Chant
|
6%
|
Favorable
|
|
Tenacious Tron
|
5%
|
Unfavorable
|
|
4%
|
Even
|
|
|
U/W Tron
|
4%
|
Favorable
|
|
U/W Trinket-Post
|
3%
|
Favorable
|
|
U/G Opposition
|
3%
|
Favorable
|
|
U/B Psychatog
|
3%
|
Even
|
|
G/W Haterator
|
3%
|
Ridiculously Favorable
|
|
Gaea’s Might Get There
|
2%
|
Even
|
|
Goblinstorm / Dirty Kitty
|
2%
|
Favorable
|
|
U/B/W Trinket-Angel
|
2%
|
Unfavorable
|
|
Gifts Rock
|
1%
|
Favorable
|
|
U/W 8-Post
|
1%
|
Favorable
|
|
Ritual Desire
|
1%
|
Favorable
|
|
U/R/W Trinket-Angel
|
0%
|
Unfavorable
|
| Favorable | Even | Unfavorable |
|
48.5%
|
33.5%
|
11%
|
(Note: These numbers match up with Karsten’s metagame analysis for MTGO as of 2.7.07, and add up to 93%. Whether the extra is lost due to rounding errors or just unknown archetypes is not said. “Split” matchups, such as “slightly” favorable, were counted half as favorable and half as even.)
It’s not quite the exact math of a complicated analysis based on thousands of matches, but presuming you win all of your good matchups and can be competitive in the “even” matchups, you shouldn’t run into a matchup you shouldn’t win more than once per tournament. And that’s about the best you can really expect from any deck that isn’t overpowered and warping its metagame. Half the time you hit a solid matchup you should win. The rest of the time you can figure yourself a way to win the match, and you don’t have to worry too much about ducking bullets. Scepter-Chant’s basic strategy is inherently unfair, denying the opponent the ability to play Magic barring a very few extenuating circumstances… most of which you can counter or remove from play before the jaws of your trap snap shut around the opponent.
I don’t think there’s a “best” choice for Extended… but I do think this is on the short list of the best, say, five choices to make for Extended, and this happens to be the one that I for one am most comfortable picking. It doesn’t hurt that the numbers have consistently been in its favor based on every predictor we have been seeing for the past month, both online and off.
Sean McKeown
smckeown @ livejournal.com