It’s no secret that I’ve been taken with the power that God-Pharaoh’s Gift has in Stanard. On multiple occasions now I’ve left Winding Constrictor and friends on the bench in favor of the seven-mana artifact, even in a world full of Abrades and Scavenger Grounds. SCG Dallas saw an event dominated by three distinctive archetypes that any person who’s had their eye on Magic Online results as of late could have told you to expect and I was ready to beat all of those going into the tournament!
Creatures (26)
- 4 Angel of Invention
- 4 Minister of Inquiries
- 4 Walking Ballista
- 4 Champion of Wits
- 4 Hostage Taker
- 2 Vona, Butcher of Magan
- 4 Seekers' Squire
Lands (23)
Spells (11)
Sideboard
While I didn’t take down the trophy, I do believe I had the best deck for the tournament. You can check out the deck tech I did here for additional insight.
While the power of this card is well known at this point due to its slight uptick in popularity at the end of the previous Standard format, with the loss of Insolent Neonate, it was unclear if this deck would survive in its previous form. While at first I was a huge skeptic of that being true, the card that really pushed it over the top for me might be the most unassuming card in the entire deck!
Explore is a powerful mechanic. As someone who spent the better part of the past year or so playing with the delirium mechanic, I can certainly tell you that flipping cards into your graveyard is a dangerous game to play. While there are very few payoffs in the format for doing that anymore, Gate to the Afterlife and Champion of Wits are enough to make Explore a Constructed-playable mechanic. It’s so powerful, in fact, that of all the sideboard configurations I’ve tried, Seekers’ Squire and Champion of Wits are the only two cards I’ve never even considered trimming down on!
The real takeaway with this deck, as opposed to other versions in the past, was that this deck was more conducive to playing a normal game against the opponent, since it has a higher density of cards that are simply just good on their own.
The key card that allows this deck to play like a normal deck more than any other is Hostage Taker. The Fiend Hunter that could certainly was the most impressive card in the deck the entire weekend and “stole” more games than I could count. While it might not be the first copy of the card that gets the job done, the second or third or even fourth, thanks to God-Pharaoh’s Gift, is generally way too much for an opponent to handle.
One of the common lines of play for this deck is using the first God-Pharaoh’s Gift trigger to either catch you back up with an Angel of Invention or protect you from disruption on your opponent’s turn by gassing you back up with a Champion of Wits. The real nail in the coffin from that point is following that turn up with a trigger returning Hostage Taker to the battlefield with all your mana untapped to cast whatever you steal, since you’ve invested no mana into your Hostage Taker that turn.
I fully expect that Hostage Taker remains one of the best cards in the format, and if you don’t follow me on Twitter, you didn’t get this message I put out a couple of weeks ago that would have saved yourself a lot of hassle and money!
Hostage Taker and Seekers’ Squire weren’t the only new cards to find their way into my deck this weekend. There was one that snuck in that might not keep its place in the deck going forward.
In theory this card is a house against Ramunap Red. Angel of Invention is slightly better on the back half being eternalized, but on the front side, Vona, Butcher of Magan survives every individual removal spell Ramunap Red has in their maindeck while being able to play offense and defense.
The main issue here is I found myself sideboarding it out nearly every game against Ramunap Red. Why’s that? The gameplan for those decks is to go bigger and grind a little more with cards like Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Glorybringer, two cards I’m sure you’re more than familiar with seeing out of red’s sideboard.
Esper Gift is already vulnerable to those two cards and I’d rather not have a fragile card on five that dies to every four-point damage effect they have. That being said, I sideboarded the card out against nearly every deck I played against; of the thirteen rounds of Swiss I played, I played against either Ramunap Red or Temur Energy in ten of those rounds, with the outliers being Grixis Improvise, U/W Approach, G/R Dinosaurs, and finally Sultai Energy in the Top 8.
My record against the field was as follows:
Ramunap Red: 4-0
Temur Energy: 4-2
Grixis Improvise: 0-1
U/W Approach: 1-0
G/R Dinos: 1-0
Sultai Energy: 0-1
Now, I said I took out Vona, Butcher of Magan in nearly every matchup, so what did I bring in?
I think we’ve come to figure out what the best card in Standard really is these days. The Scarab God is one of those cards you just don’t lose with if you untap with it and aren’t immediately dead. Being able to make 4/4 copies of whatever has died or been churned into the graveyard with one of your many milling or looting effects can do a great God-Pharaoh’s Gift impression while remaining resilient to a common sideboard card that’s usually put a damper on these decks in Abrade.
The ability to avoid or mitigate the impact of generally devastating sideboard cards by playing a fair game with Hostage Taker and The Scarab God had me forgetting I was even playing a God-Pharaoh’s Gift deck at times during the tournament and not just some midrange U/B value deck.
While not ideal, it certainly got me thinking that I might have mis-sideboarded for the better half of Day 1 in Dallas, which might have explained my 6-3 record on Day 1 and 6-0 on Day 2 in the Swiss. We learn by playing, and I think I’ve come to a version of this deck better-suited to have that transformational sideboard in mind and take advantage of the guessing game that your opponent will have to do when sideboarding against you.
Creatures (26)
- 4 Angel of Invention
- 4 Minister of Inquiries
- 4 Walking Ballista
- 2 The Scarab God
- 4 Champion of Wits
- 4 Hostage Taker
- 4 Seekers' Squire
Lands (23)
Spells (11)
Sideboard
Aside from the expected changes I mentioned before, one key difference in this deck is the inclusion of a card I think people are going to start respecting a heck of a lot more that I heard the praises of from countless people this past weekend.
It might seem obvious that a card like Search for Azcanta make its way into a deck that wants to put cards into its graveyard early and look for specific cards at specific times while not minding getting an additional land for a card like Champion of Wits in the late game. For Dallas, I was certainly aware of the card but chose to play the more immediately impactful Chart a Course because of what was perceived to be a Ramunap Red-heavy field.
While that was all certainly true, when playing with a slightly adjusted sideboard plan in mind that involves going less in on Gate to the Afterlife and more toward a midrange deck with removal and disruption, Search for Azcanta certainly fills its role here. Not to mention, with a Turn 1 Minister of Inquiries, you can flip Search for Azcanta as early as Turn 3, giving you a functional Rampant Growth!
This deck also handles having additional copies of Search for Azcanta being drawn better than other decks do, since it flips the first copy sooner than any other deck and has ways to turn spares into new cards with Champion of Wits. All in all, the card has a high enough ceiling and floor alike to warrant a slot in the deck, and while Chart a Course is certainly a good card and may very well be deserving of a slot, until the metagame settles down and we have distinct decks to gear toward beating, going for more flexible cards might be best as opposed to raw power.
Sideboarding
Going forward, we have four decks I expect to see sitting across from me at the table, and knowing how to sideboard against them isn’t always obvious. While I’m not 100% certain of the correct configuration of the decks you might face, which is always huge when it comes to sideboarding, here’s how I’d sideboard with the updated version of Gift.
Ramunap Red
Out:
In:
While it took me a while to figure that you’re supposed to sideboard in some number of Duress for this matchup as well as Temur, they’re usually reliant on one key disruption spell against you and that generally gives them enough tempo to win the game against you. If you can set up a turn where they’re trying to get you with an Abrade for your God-Pharaoh’s Gift and preempt that turn with a Duress, you’re generally favored. Search for Azcanta is a little slow in this matchup and you need to be impacting the battlefield in the early turns, not casting a Think Tank.
Temur Energy
Out:
In:
It’s debatable if you want a third copy of Duress on the play, since taking an Attune with Aether can just win the game on the spot. Sideboarding in similarly to the Ramunap Red matchup shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, but the cards you’re taking out differ drastically. Walking Ballista simply doesn’t have any targets, and Angel of Invention isn’t as important, since you’re more focused on out-grinding them and they have an answer to it in Harnessed Lightning, unlike Ramunap Red. It’s a close matchup, but I’m sure people will find that is how every deck fares against Temur Energy.
U/W Approach
Out:
In:
You’re gearing up for a fight here. While I do think that you’re generally a favorite, it’s a lot about pacing the game and knowing when it’s right to shove in. You’ll note that we’re cutting down on our ability to activate Gate to the Afterlife significantly while not cutting any copies of the card itself. Most people will still value the card very highly and either counter or remove it with high priority. It’s your easiest way to remain threat-dense while cutting the most do-nothing cards from your deck. The best thing you can do here is attack, and do it often! Don’t forget that you can use your Minister of Inquiries to mill your opponent who’s about to draw an Approach the Second Sun they put back in their deck, too.
Sultai Energy
Out:
In:
This one is my fault. Many of you may have heard in the winner’s interview with Andrew Jessup that I was working with him and the rest of Team MGG a fair bit for this tournament. We both independently came up with Sultai Energy decks that looked very similar. The glaring differences were that I was experimenting with Merfolk Branchwalker, while Andrew had moved all in on “Protecting the Queen” by adding the fully four copies of Blossoming Defense to the maindeck, truly making Sultai Energy the best Hostage Taker deck.
We went back and forth on the correct number of Rishkars; he wanted three, while I wanted two and a maindeck copy of The Scarab God. The last message I received from him had two copies of Aethersphere Harvester and some other nonsense when I brought up the fact that the sideboard was severely lacking a way to disrupt an opponent’s graveyard and was pretty adamant about adding three to four copies of Deathgorge Scavenger.
Having not entirely settled on playing Esper God-Pharaoh’s Gift and at the time leaning toward playing the Sultai Energy deck myself, I felt like there was no harm in sharing that piece of tech with them, since I asked myself, “What are the odds this comes back to bite me?” How silly of me.
Deathgorge Scavenger is the card this matchup hinges on and is why this is the only matchup where Esper Gift wants to take out some number of Gate to the Afterlife and lean heavily on The Scarab God to do its dirty work. While I was ultimately the instrument of my own destruction, I don’t think the matchup is all that bad, since you get to leave in Fatal Push, while their copies aren’t nearly as good.
The plan here is to just gain Hostage Taker and The Scarab God advantage and overcome them with Champion of Wits eternalize in the late-game while killing their aggressive starts. There’s clearly more you can do to fight that particular matchup, but I’m not sure it’s worth the sacrifice you’re making across the board.
Moving forward, we have the World Championship taking place this weekend, and much like a proud father would be, I’m hoping to see my creation do well this weekend in the hands of players much more accomplished. I’d highly recommend giving this deck a try if you haven’t already and am looking forward to all the new toys that come out of the World Championship!