I’ve written a couple of articles on decks that I haven’t been extremely passionate about in the past, but I do have some speculations on what’s going to happen with Standard in the weeks leading to Pro Tour: Kyoto, as well as a deck I’ve been playing for a few months (and really love). That deck is UWB Reveillark, which first premiered at the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Philadelphia.
I have to admit that when I first played the UBW Reveillark deck in the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Philly, I had a version that wasn’t quite as finely tuned as it is now. Since then, I’ve played it at Worlds and for a solid month or two of Constructed events on Magic Online. The deck list has changed a lot over time, but I guess that’s what happens when you play it more and more. I ended up starting with a list that Alex Bertoncini and I discussed on a car ride back from Grand Prix: Atlanta. The manabase was a little rough around the edges, but it ended up being almost impossible to get the mana wrong with this deck. Here was the initial list:
Philly $5K Esper-Lark
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Fulminator Mage
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Mulldrifter
3 Reveillark
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Cryptic Command
3 Esper Charm
2 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Thoughtseize
3 Wrath of God
2 Adarkar Wastes
4 Arcane Sanctum
2 Fetid Heath
2 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Sunken Ruins
2 Underground River
2 Vivid Creek
2 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Meadow
Sideboard:
4 Burrenton Forge-tender
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Stillmoon Cavalier
3 Runed Halo
2 Condemn
1 Negate
I instantly discovered a few things in that tournament: The Glen Elendra Archmages were really good, Thoughtseize was sideboarded out far too often (it wasn’t even that great at hitting a Bitterblossom when I was on the draw because I only had two ways to cast it on turn 1), and the Stillmoon Cavaliers were great against almost everything. Hmm, kind of an odd thing to realize, but that’s where playing two of the three games with a sideboard really helps. In that tournament I went 2-1 against Red, 1-0 against Elves, 2-0 against Kithkin, 1-0 against Faeries, and 1-0 against Nick Eisel Dramatic Entrance deck. Since then I’ve played it in at least 100 other matches, but the cards have always been changing two or three at a time. As I played against more and more decks, I cut Thoughtseize, Kitchen Finks, Burrenton-Forge Tender, and Even Runed Halo. Oddly enough, I even tried the deck without Fulminator Mage for a while, and many of the games were almost the same. I also played this deck for the Standard portion of Worlds, where I got 9th place. I really would have liked to play against that entire Top 8, seeing as my configuration for that tournament was built to handle Kithkin, Faeries, Red, and Five-Color Control. My only losses with the deck were to the Black/White Token deck. I think it’s a good matchup, but you still have to be able to cast a Sower of Temptation, Stillmoon Cavalier, or Wrath of God to get past turn 5. If you successfully play any two of those, you should win pretty easily. I lost two really close game 3s, and that put me in a poor position at the end of day 1 when I was expecting a better record. Interestingly enough, I had a chance to play against Jamie Parke in the last round of Day 1. I ended the day up a match on him, but he managed to get ahead of me in tiebreakers. I’m glad he made it to the finals, but I was really hoping for a USA full sweep of all Pro Tours last year.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that the deck is real. The strength of the deck is that it can play so many powerful cards, just in a different order and a different configuration each time so that you end up ahead of your opponent after six or seven turns. It’s a deck with decisions, but the path always leads you to a good turn 7, if you get there. The losses generally occur by turn 7 or so when Kithkin has resolved one-, two-, and three-drops then follow with an Ajani Goldmane. That kind of start is hard to beat, but you still can draw the right cards to deal with the situation. If you get the crucial Condemn, Wrath of God, or Sower of Temptation, then you should be able to win at a low life. Winning is still winning even if you lost a few life points.
Pre-Conflux Version
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
2 Fulminator Mage
4 Mulldrifter
3 Sower of Temptation
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Reveillark
2 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
2 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Wrath of God
2 Condemn
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Mystic Gate
2 Sunken Ruins
2 Fetid Heath
2 Vivid Meadow
2 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Marsh
2 Adarkar Wastes
2 Underground River
1 Caves of Koilos
Sideboard:
1 Wrath of God
2 Condemn
1 Sower of Temptation
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Wispmare
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Negate
3 Flashfreeze
Games inevitably end with a resolved Reveillark, a Cryptic Command, or a series of good creatures after a Wrath. Sometimes a giant creature stall will ensues and Glen Elendra Archmage ensures that the opponent can’t draw out on you. Other times it’s the Stillmoon Cavalier that holds down the fort, until he can get in for a few hits followed by a max pump attack. The nice part of the manabase is that you can pump it with any land in the deck (except for the one Island that’s going to be in the post-Conflux version).
Since the deck isn’t very common, it’s often very difficult to play against. The decklist is almost always different whenever you see anyone playing this archetype due to the lack of notoriety of the deck. I’ve seen it played by a few people in premier events in the last few months, but even my versions seem to change and I still seem to win, which is a testament to the merit of the deck. I do have to say that the deck takes a little practice before sleeving it up for the next big tournament. It’s a little difficult from the start, but you’ll soon see that similar game situations occur all the time and you begin to understand exactly what you need to do to win. Sometimes its playing the Glen Elendra Archmage before the Sower of Temptation while taking an extra six points of damage (but still be able to protect the Sower of Temptation on the following turn), sometimes its not playing the Tidehollow Scullers until the turn you cast Wrath of God (and also waiting the extra turn or two to get to six mana), you might even not cast spells against Five-Color Control for turns 4 through 8 (in order to set up a lot of disruption and force through a Reveillark). One thing that is a constant is that other decks will run out of resources to match yours in the long game. You have the best of the best cards in this deck, and they all happen to work well together.
To update the list for Conflux, I would play it as follows:
Creatures (21)
- 4 Mulldrifter
- 4 Sower of Temptation
- 3 Reveillark
- 2 Glen Elendra Archmage
- 4 Stillmoon Cavalier
- 4 Tidehollow Sculler
Lands (25)
Spells (14)
The obvious basic lands and more flexible Path to Exiles go right into the main deck. The ability to target your own Reveillark is nice. In addition, the Stillmoon Cavaliers stay as good as ever with their Protection from White. The sideboard is still there to handle problem cards like Planeswalkers, Bitterblossom, and Banefire. Runed Halo is a nice answer to Banefire and has another 1,001 uses! I expect Red to be popular, and I expect Kithkin to remain a constant deck in tournaments. With a variety of cards and the flexibility to use whatever suits the precise deck you’re playing against, I feel as though the sideboard is quite balanced to the field. Here are a few sideboarding tips:
Faeries
+2 Wispmare
+2 Negate
+1 Makeshift Mannequin
-2 Wrath of God
-2 Sower of Temptation
-1 Path to Exile
They need to resolve a Bitterblossom and a Jace to beat you handily. You have minor disruption to slow them down and few ways to stop the enchantment. I recommend shaving a few cards rather than boarding out the 3 Wrath of Gods and 2 Sower of Temptations, because the singleton Wrath of God is a nice ‘just in case’ card so that they can’t overcommit to the board, and Sower of Temptation is still there to snag a Scion of Oona from them. When you do it once, you’ll understand what a nice feeling it is.
Mono-White Kithkin
+1 Wrath of God
+1 Path to Exile
+1 Glen Elendra Archmage
+2 Negate
-4 Tidehollow Sculler
-1 Makeshift Mannequin
You dream of this matchup all day, every day. Your main deck is so good against them it’s not even fair. The extra Negates and Glen Elendra Archmage are there to ensure the game is locked up after turn 4. Their best cards are Spectral Procession, Ajani Goldmane, and Cloudgoat Ranger.
Red/White Ranger of Eos and Reveillark
+1 Wrath of God
+2 Runed Halo
+2 Celestial Purge
+1 Glen Elendra Archmage
+2 Negate
+2 Flashfreeze
-4 Tidehollow Sculler
-2 Esper Charm
-1 Makeshift Mannequin
-3 Path to Exile
This matchup is all about attrition. Trade threats for threats and don’t let them keep an Ajani Vengeant in play. Make sure to save a Sower of Temptation to take their Reveilark, because that’s how you pretty much win instantly. If you can steal it and protect it until it dies, then you should win with no contest. The problem cards are Ranger of Eos getting enough Mogg Fanatics to kill all your Stillmoon Cavaliers, Ajani Vengeant, and Siege-Gang Commander. Ajani Vengeant wouldn’t normally be an issue because we have Stillmoon Cavalier, but it’s the goblins that throw the wrench in our machine. This is one of the more difficult matchups, but entirely winnable.
Five-Color Control
+1 Glen Elendra Archmage
+2 Runed Halo
+1 Makeshift Mannequin
+2 Negate
+2 Flashfreeze
-2 Sower of Temptation
-3 Wrath of God
-3 Path to Exile
The reason Sower of Temptation is still in there is because it’s a nice answer after they play Broodmate Dragon, or after they manage to resolve a Cloudthresher. I know you may have to play the waiting game with it, but it’s worth keeping a couple in. If you have a land-heavy hand against this Five-Color Control, it’s a good idea to keep it and just play the waiting game while dropping more land into play and occasionally drawing cards. The Tidehollow Scullers should keep you informed of their hand from time to time, and the Makeshift Mannequins will let you play counter wars on the end of their turn when you try and get back a Glen Elendra Archmage (yay persist!). Sometimes that little trick is a five-mana counterspell. A pretty good matchup, just be careful about getting hit by discard and Wrath effects for too many creatures.
Elves
+1 Wrath of God
+1 Path to Exile
+3 Runed Halo
+1 Glen Elendra Archmage
-4 Stillmoon Cavalier
-2 Esper Charm
I hate taking out Stillmoon, but the cards you bring in are just so good. This is a good matchup unless they are able to hit you with an early Garruk Wildspeak or resolve a late game Mind Shatter. Sower of Temptation, and Reveillark are just absolute monsters here, and I would consider the Wispmares and Celestial Purge if they were running Bitterblossom and Necrogenesis. If they only play Bitterblossom then it’s not as crucial, but just something to consider.
Mono Red
+1 Path to Exile
+2 Celestial Purge
+1 Glen Elendra Archmage
+3 Runed Halo
+2 Flashfreeze
-4 Stillmoon Cavalier
-1 Reveillark
-2 Esper Charm
-1 Wrath of God (this is assuming they aren’t overly heavy on creatures)
-1 Makeshift Mannequin
This is all about staying alive. You have the cards to handle the early game in your deck; just don’t be afraid to mulligan on the draw. The Runed Halos are important for Demigods and Banefire. You should have a mix of cards that deal with both until it gets too far into the late game where you need to drop a Runed Halo on Banefire. Many Red decks will be different soon, so you will have to board according to their deck. Just be mindful of what specific cards they need to have to beat you and what would be the worse-case scenario (barring triple Demigod of Revenge or something crazy).
Let’s move onto a deck I constantly see on Magic Online, a deck which will probably be one of the most popular decks for the Pro Tour because of its card advantage and the fact that the deck can play so many different angles. I’m talking about Red and White Ranger of Eos/Reveillark deck.
Creatures (23)
- 3 Mogg Fanatic
- 3 Siege-Gang Commander
- 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
- 1 Flamekin Harbinger
- 3 Reveillark
- 4 Fulminator Mage
- 2 Balefire Liege
- 3 Figure of Destiny
- 3 Ranger of Eos
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (23)
Spells (11)
Sideboard
This is the gold standard of Kithkin decks these days. It’s got the slower elements to handle most control decks, and it has the chance to go out-card-advantage the Mono-White Kithkin decks. If I didn’t have the time to test for a tournament, this would be the deck I pick up. Granted, this deck will have to deal with more Pyroclasm-type effects like Volcanic Fallout. But this has the refill options like Siege-Gang Commander and Reveillark. This deck has also always wanted to play the late game, and the Banefires will be gold. I expect this deck to become the front-runner for tournaments for quite a while leading up to Kyoto.
I think that there will also be a slight shift to Red decks trying to race this deck to 20 first. Right now, there are really two main schools of thought when building a Red deck. The first involves early beats, lots of damage, and-hopefully-they’re-dead-soon mentality. Hellspark Elemental and Banefire make this dream come true. The other plan is to play the efficient Red spells and keep control of the game until your awesome cards, like Demigod of Revenge and Banefire, can just end the game. Simple enough, but Banefire goes in both of them. What does this mean for the evolution of the format? Well, life gain is going to become more important. Kitchen Finks will often be played in sets of four, and stranger cards like Wall of Reverence will see some play. Gaddock Teeg and Shield of the Oversoul might even get played. Either way, there will be a new Renaissance of Red decks. Banefire will skyrocket and then we’ll see the hate come out, but I think it’ll be after Kyoto when the excessive hate against Red shows up.
On a last note, I think that Patrick Chapin might be onto something with his Ancient Ziggurat/Noble Hierarch deck, and I’m interested to see what a five-color beatdown deck can do. But first, I’ll be thinking about Legacy and hoping to find a nice little deck that is off radar. I know I’m still new enough, but I really would like to hear from you about what you want from me in future articles. I enjoy writing and would like to know what’s missing from the world of Magic writing.
David
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Aim: davidirvine2000
Magic Online: Plain Bagel