So I guess I’m the U/R guy now. I’ve been trying to make U/R decks work in Standard for a while, but mostly because I haven’t really been excited by anything else. Too much clunky combat math with Collected Company. Too many mind-numbing attacks by small white creatures. Too much removal followed by mythic rares out of B/W Control. I fell in love with Pyromancer’s Goggles, and that small taste of something powerful, something beautiful, hooked me real good.
Drawing cards, killing creatures, all in a neat little package with a lot of style and a bit of flair. That’s my kind of Magic, and it’s something I’ve been trying to pull away from since I kept getting destroyed by all the more consistent, powerful strategies in Standard. Collected Company decks could generate an endless stream of card advantage, and you needed to kill every single creature. It was tough to win games with Thing in the Ice thanks to Reflector Mage. It was even more difficult to stop Spell Queller when protected by Selfless Spirit.
Ever since Pedro Carvalho (@_megafone_) went on an insane run at Pro Tour Eldritch Moon with U/R Thermo-Alchemist, I started to get that itch again. And the very next weekend, I picked it up for a Standard Classic when the SCG Tour® came to Syracuse, and miraculously won the whole thing. It felt good to be playing the spells I wanted to play, and the type of deck that actually made me happy. But it wasn’t good enough. It had a lot of holes, and there were plenty of sideboard cards that made your life a living hell.
So I put it down, and I listened to my friends, and I played Michael Majors’s version of Temur Emerge at the last Standard Open in Richmond. It was clunky and had too many cards that just cycled, but it was powerful. And I won a lot of matches. And in the future Standard with Kaladesh, it doesn’t lose all that much with the rotation. But I’m also not sure what it gains either. It might mean moving away from Temur into a different color combination, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. My friends can talk about Emerge and Emrakul, the Promised End all they want. I’m gonna smoosh people with Thing in the Ice for now.
New Life on Kaladesh
Kaladesh has given new life to Standard. I’m excited to brew with all the new cards, including Chandra, Torch of Defiance herself.
This is obviously the biggest addition to the U/R deck. Acting as a card advantage engine but also a Swiss Army knife, Chandra really does it all. The comparisons to Jace, the Mind Sculptor are perhaps a bit off the mark, but we won’t really know until we play with her a bit. On the surface, Chandra, Torch of Defiance seems rather ridiculous. She can protect herself, generate extra mana, gain card advantage, or act as a constant source of damage.
The only downside is not being able to play lands from her ability, but I’m sure that disappointment will dissipate rather quickly when you realize how much damage output you’re getting from a free ability every turn.
Unlike Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Chandra isn’t going to win you the game outright if you get to untap with her. Jace, the Mind Sculptor could gain card advantage immediately on an empty battlefield on the fourth turn. Untapping with a surviving Jace, the Mind Sculptor meant you got to draw cards again or just bounce an opposing creature to buy some time or gain some tempo. And, if you had your deck configured correctly, it wasn’t difficult to use fetchlands to shuffle away extra lands, giving you prime card selection on top of card advantage. And, you know, finding answers to whatever threats your opponent had on the battlefield.
But what Chandra, Torch of Defiance does for U/R in Standard is still very, very good. The last iteration of U/R in Standard didn’t have a very good planeswalker to build around. Six mana is asking a lot, even though Chandra, Flamecaller was certainly powerful. But now, with a Chandra at four mana, we can build our deck in a much different way. A lower land count means less flooding out. Plus, we’re probably going to stay the course with Thermo-Alchemist, which actually provides a surprising amount of defense alongside Thing in the Ice. And keeping your Chandra, Torch of Defiance alive should be a major priority.
You’ve probably read a lot of stuff by now about how good Chandra is. I’m not going to bore you by pointing out how good it is to kill a creature, or make two mana, or draw some cards. You know all those things are awesome, and a planeswalker that can pick and choose between those abilities probably has to be good too.
Moving on, Kaladesh offers some more prime spells to put into our U/R shell.
Energy is a strange mechanic that will take some getting used to, but luckily most spells with Energy requirements are self-sustaining. Harnessed Lightning is one of those spells. Three damage to a creature for two mana at instant speed is just fine with me. But pair it with any other Energy card and it starts to scale up a bit. Now we’re looking at a card more like Harvest Pyre, but a bit easier to enable.
While Harnessed Lightning won’t be breaking the bank anytime soon, I think it is important to mention you can chain them together nicely. The first one can kill a small creature, leaving you with one or two Energy. The second one can kill off a much bigger creature as the game goes along.
As I said, Energy is tricky, and there will be growing pains in how we understand the concept. And any deck that revolves completely around the Energy mechanic will be nearly impossible to evaluate until we’ve seen it in action. I’m excited by Energy as a whole, because new dimensions are interesting. This mechanic feels a lot like the addition of planeswalkers to the game. We have to reevaluate the game with an entirely new angle.
But mostly, you need to know that most cards that use or produce Energy will just be normal cards. We’ve seen a lot of creatures that generate Energy when they enter the battlefield but have the ability to spend it all during the next attack step to get a +1/+1 counter. This will be more commonplace than something like Aetherworks Marvel, which requires a much higher investment in the Energy mechanic (and will feel a lot like a combo deck).
This card is basically Tendo Ice Bridge for us old folk but has the upside of pairing with Harnessed Lightning to deal more damage or activate multiple times. And that’s the actual beauty of Energy. You get to choose how you spend it, and how you spend it will depend entirely on the situation.
I expect Aether Hub to see play in literally any deck with Energy but probably some play in various aggressive decks. Acting as an untapped two-color land for G/R is going to be pretty sweet with all the cheap, Energy-generating creatures. In those decks, having the option to use Energy to play another spell or pump your creature will make for some tough decisions, but also some great games.
I’m excited about this card, but mostly because it showcases just how cool the Energy mechanic really is.
Likely the best possible land you could ask for, Spirebluff Canal is fantastic in U/R. Having cheap spells of both colors makes a card like Spirebluff Canal really shine. I’m not certain just how I’m going to build U/R just yet, but four copies of this card go in every single version.
Best of the Rest
There are some other cards in Kaladesh that could potentially see play in U/R. Here’s the short list:
A sideboard card at best, but a great one against aggressive decks. This card feels a lot like Kitchen Finks or Matter Reshaper, though a bit smaller. If the aggressive decks in Standard feature creatures much bigger than Filigree Familiar (so that it won’t trade), then it probably won’t end up making the cut.
Obviously, this card looks like it should fit into the deck, but I’m afraid it will be too difficult to protect, and you won’t get much use out of anything but the first ability. But that might end up being enough. At the very least, it could be a sideboard card to go alongside Fevered Visions and Thermo-Alchemist to do continual damage output.
Diversifying your threat-base against decks with heavy removal is important, but that would have to be at the top of my list in order to play Saheeli Rai outside of an artifact-heavy deck. It is pretty funny to think about using her ultimate to find Combustible Gearhulk and a couple of friends.
Kaboom!
If we end up going heavier on the burn side and lighter on the control side, Lathnu Hellion could be a brick house. It hits pretty hard (and at least twice, if you want), so it will likely make for a good sideboard option against B/W Control and the like. It also curves nicely with all the other two-drops from U/R like Thermo-Alchemist and Stormchaser Mage.
Come to think of it, there is probably a solid start to a Mono-Red Aggro deck here.
Three power for three mana is a big deal in a red deck, especially when it comes with two bodies and the ability to breathe fire. Pia Nalaar is subtly one of the better creatures in the set, but I won’t know just how good until I get to play with it some.
Drawing cards and dealing damage are both things that U/R wants to do, but this creature seems a bit clunky, and I feel like it is the worst of the cycle. Considering it doesn’t affect the battlefield much if your opponent just wants you to draw three cards, I’m not sure how good this one is going to be. Of course, flipping some giant monsters like Emrakul, the Promised End from its ability is pretty sweet. But it still has the “punisher” mechanic, where the opponent will always choose the ability that is least detrimental. Like Blazing Salvo and Browbeat before it (as well as some others), this card will be popular with more casual players but won’t make a huge impact on Standard.
If we moved towards a more controlling route and away from stuff like Thermo-Alchemist, Torrential Gearhulk could be ridiculous. But that would mean more counterspells, and instants in general, and less stuff like Collective Defiance and Incendiary Flow. I do think this card is great, though.
Finally, Some Decks!
There are a few ways you could go with U/R with the new cards from Kaladesh. Fevered Visions gets a bit of a boost thanks to the rotation of Dromoka’s Command, but honestly the card is pretty mediocre if the field is full of aggressive decks. Since you’re stuck trying to kill everything, Fevered Visions gives your opponent a lot of extra resources to attack you. Drawing an extra land or two could be bad. But, if everyone is trying to durdle around and cast Emrakul, the Promised End, then Fevered Visions is pretty absurd.
Here’s the first take at a new version of U/R focused on Fevered Visions.
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (24)
I can’t stress enough how unsure I am of Fevered Visions in the maindeck, but if that’s your jam, then this is a great starting point. Of course, the whole set isn’t out yet, and it might require reevaluating if another cheap removal spell or burn-synergy creature comes along. For now, this is where I’m at.
But if you’re looking for a more controlling version that utilizes Fevered Visions from the sideboard, I would start here:
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (24)
- 4 Fiery Temper
- 4 Tormenting Voice
- 4 Galvanic Bombardment
- 4 Incendiary Flow
- 4 Collective Defiance
- 4 Harnessed Lightning
Sideboard
Of course, the two are very similar, but the theory behind each version is significantly different. Thing in the Ice works well when your plan is to control the battlefield. Fevered Visions puts you in a spot where you’re just trying to kill your opponent before they can make use of all that extra card advantage, which is why that version plays Stormchaser Mage.
Of course, Thing in the Ice could still be mediocre if Reflector Mage is seeing a lot of play. Being a roadblock early is fine and all, but I might just want to go for the jugular with Stormchaser Mage if my creature is going to get bounced or just die before I’m able to trigger the flip ability.
But cleaning up the battlefield is awesome, and Thing in the Ice has been the sole reason I’ve won a lot of games with U/R, so I’m hesitant to just cut it before seeing how the new Standard is going to shape up. I’d like to test it out against a creature-based deck first, which you’ll see in a VS Video next week. If it doesn’t look good there, then I don’t know what it will actually be good against, and that might be argument enough to just play Stormchaser Mage.
Well, that’s all for me this week. Kaladesh has a lot of sweet cards worth exploring, but I know that this style of deck is right up my alley, and hopefully something you’ll enjoy playing too. While you might not be as enthusiastic about U/R shells as I am, I will go on record saying Chandra, Torch of Defiance gives it the shot in the arm it needed. Everything else is just cosmetic.