Now that we finally have the full Fate Reforged spoiler, the real brewing can begin. This weekend is the Prerelease, and while I’m excited to battle with
40-card decks with the new cards, I’m even more excited to battle at the Open Series in Washington DC next weekend with 60-card decks.
Before we jump into the Fate Reforged ooey gooey goodness, let’s chat a bit about the very first Legacy Open of 2015 that happened last weekend in
Philly
Oaks, PA. I had made the decision shortly after the Players’ Championship that I was just going to play Sneak and Show for the next Legacy event that I was
going to play in. I had some ideas on cards that I wanted to play, but since Brad was on the same deck and seems to be plugged directly into whatever
metagame he is preparing for, I was going to chat with him about it and share my thoughts and just play whatever 75 he was set on.
I started with his build from the Players’ Championship, and after he made a few changes and played the deck in a video last week, I took that list and played some games. I
could tell right away that there were some things I loved and some things that I hated. I wasn’t particularly happy with Dig Through Time. I would just
rather have a normal cantrip if that’s what we were looking for. With the UU cost, it can be rough to cast with all of our City of Traitors and Ancient
Tombs, in addition to it being almost worthless in a common situation where we get to attack with an Emrakul, the Aeon’s Torn and wipe our opponent’s
board, but they aren’t dead and then we shuffle our graveyard into our deck. At that point, drawing a Dig Through Time is pretty laughable. I was also
skeptical of the Omniscience in the sideboard, and was about half and half on Preordain over Gitaxian Probe.
I loved the Overmasters, and I really liked having some number of Flusterstorms in the maindeck, and when Brad sent me his final list, I couldn’t have been
happier with it.
Creatures (8)
Lands (19)
Spells (33)
I had experience with the deck, had two byes in the tournament, and was playing for a nice chunk of change. I felt good, but I was quickly out of the
tournament without even winning a match. Nothing of note even happened. I just played poorly, made poor decisions, and my opponents played all of their
cards right. The only interesting thing that happened came in my first match where my opponent mulliganed to five and played a Volcanic Island, a Mountain,
and a Ponder before conceding to my Show and Tell for Emrakul on turn 3. The Mountain tipped me off that he was likely U/R Delver, so I sideboarded with
that in mind, and when I jammed my Show and Tell with backup for a Griselbrand, he simple put an Emrakul of his own into play and killed me.
Oops.
I was a bit upset that I had missed an opportunity to do well in the Legacy Open, but I had a sweet Birthing Pod deck for Modern with me, and I was ready
to battle with that in the Modern Premier IQ on Sunday. BBD’s Rhino Pod deck was awesome, and I should have done much better than I did, except I hadn’t
played it, or Modern, in quite some time and got promptly crushed by prepared skilled opponents and my own misplays. I really only have a few take aways
from the event, and even though I think there will likely be a couple cards being banned and/or unbanned before the Pro Tour, Rhino Pod decks will probably
still be pretty good.
Anafenza, the Foremost is actually a house in Modern. The body is sizeable, and when cast on turn 2 she can put a huge clock on your opponent when
you are following it up with cast and Podded Siege Rhinos. Getting to put counters on your creatures is also a bonus, but her secondary ability is actually
pretty sweet. Being able to shut down Living End with a creature that can’t be hit by Shriekmaw is great, and she even puts a wrench in the Jeskai
Ascendancy combo deck by exiling their Fatestitchers when they hit their graveyard. She also shuts off your opponent’s persist and makes it so that modular
from Arcbound Ravager doesn’t happen.
Anafenza, the Foremost is amazing in Modern and is only going to see more and more play; likely alongside Siege Rhino.
The U/R Delver opponent I lost to had two awesome sideboard cards for me in Tidebinder Mage and Combust. With the Rhino Pod’s plan against the Delver decks
basically being to stick a Rhino and then gain as much life as they can while attacking with a 4/5 monster is pretty effective, both of these cards work
well against it. Tidebinder Mage being able to shut down a mana accelerant to slow us down, or lock down an early Anafenza, Kitchen Finks, or Siege Rhino
is a lot of utility from a 2/2 beater. Combust is just an efficient answer for both Anafenza and Siege Rhino, but can also even hit things like Restoration
Angel and Archangel of Thune while playing roles against the Splinter Twin combo.
However the format shapes up, if Siege Rhino is going to continue to see play, I definitely expect both Tidebinder Mage and Combust to rise in stock. I’m
sure BBD will write about his experience in Omaha, but here is the list that I played:
Creatures (30)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Wall of Roots
- 1 Orzhov Pontiff
- 1 Shriekmaw
- 3 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 1 Qasali Pridemage
- 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
- 1 Restoration Angel
- 1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
- 1 Sin Collector
- 3 Voice of Resurgence
- 3 Anafenza, the Foremost
- 4 Siege Rhino
Lands (23)
Spells (7)
I really loved the deck and will likely continue to play it as we move forward, but enough of these older (yes, that is an Obzedat, Ghost Council, it was BBD’s list) formats, let’s get onto the Fate Reforged brews!
I chatted a bit with one Anthony Lowry while I was in Oaks last weekend about how much I loved Yasova Dragonclaw, while he just wanted to talk about how
much he loved Shaman of the Great Hunt. It’s really looking like Valorous Stance is going to stand out as one of the most played cards. Decks that want to
play Hordeling Outburst but can’t play Chained to the Rocks have always been short a removal spell that kill Courser of Kruphix and Siege Rhino,
and now they have one; it’s not even dead if our opponents are on creatures we can’t kill with it! With this in mind, I kind of like Anthony’s idea of
trying to play heavy-hitting creatures that aren’t completely vulnerable to this versatile new removal spell. The big problem comes in Bile Blight, since
if you are dodging Valorous Stance and you aren’t Stormbreath Dragon, you are dead to Bile Blight. I think that should be alright though, since our hitters
cost three mana, or can get in for some damage before they are dispatched.
I’ve been reading and watching as many videos as I can on the current iterations of G/R Aggro, and while I didn’t pull the trigger on it the weekend of SCG
Columbus like I wanted, it’s definitely where I’m starting with my Fate Reforged testing. I really like some of the work that Brian Kibler has been putting
into the deck and highly recommend his recent article and video on the archetype. Even though the deck is obviously going to
change, it’s still worth checking out for a baseline understanding.
Here is what I’ve had rattling around in my head since the weekend.
Creatures (29)
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Stormbreath Dragon
- 1 Boon Satyr
- 3 Rattleclaw Mystic
- 4 Heir of the Wilds
- 4 Ashcloud Phoenix
- 2 Yasova Dragonclaw
- 4 Flamewake Phoenix
- 3 Shaman of the Great Hunt
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (23)
Spells (6)
Even though we’re still in the honeymoon phase, I’m just in love with Yasova Dragonclaw. She does die to removal, sure, but she has the ability to deal
such an absurd amount of damage in addition to turning on ferocious for our Flamewake Phoenix and Crater’s Claws. I just can’t get enough.
To be honest, I’m a little torn on whether I want the Shaman of the Great Hunt or just Polukranos, World Eater, or maybe more copies of Xenagos, the
Reveler (I know for sure that I want a total of four in my 75), but I’m willing to give him a shot. With a lot of lands entering-the-battlefield tapped,
the chance to get in some quick damage is pretty huge, and I see Flamewake Phoenix into Shaman of the Great Hunt getting in uncontested for a single turn
making games tough for our opponents to get back into. Shaman even has the added benefit of letting us try and draw some cards in the lategame, which can
always be relevant, and I can even imagine times where we are going to cast Yasova and use her ability in the same turn to get in some damage.
With Flamewake Phoenix being 1RR, there are some times I can imagine we aren’t going to be able to cast it on turn 3, and it will be neigh impossible to
cast on turn 2 unless we have a Mana Confluence in our hand. We may want to just play four copies of Mana Confluence, or just go back to Goblin
Rabblemaster, but for now I want to try out the Phoenix.
As for the sideboard, there are a few cards that I think that I want, but for the most part, it’s really going to depend on how the format shapes up.
Wild Slash is something that would be great in the mirror if Yasova catches on, but it is also pretty good at killing Goblin Rabblemaster and Monastery
Mentor if they are tapped out. Barrage of Boulders and Arc Lightning are both things that I think I’m going to want access too. With a bunch of X/2s, I see
us being a little vulnerable to Hordeling Outburst as a defensive spell, and both of these handle it nicely (Hornet Queen as well).
Polukranos, World Eater is a great card against opposing red decks, and I really like Fated Conflagration against the planeswalker decks and potentially
against Siege Rhino. Chandra, Pyromaster, Xenagos, the Reveler, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, and Whisperwood Elemental are all options against the control
decks and Destructive Revelry is great against the Whip of Erebos decks.
There are a lot of options, so figuring out where we think everyone is going to be will go a long way towards building the sideboard.
My other “project” for Fate Reforged testing is trying to figure out if there is an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon deck. I feel like Ugin is the most powerful
card in Fate Reforged, but I just don’t know if there is a deck that can take advantage of running a full four copies. My initial reaction wants it to be
some sort of control deck, but even then we may want to be ramping. Sultai gives us access to Courser of Kruphix and Sylvan Caryatid to ramp and hit land
drops, and while I’m not a huge fan of having to kill our own things when we finally do get Ugin out, I’m pretty sure that’s it’s just not going to matter
once we do.
I will be here in Roanoke battling in the Prerelease and collecting my awesome Fate Refished playmats, and if you can make it here, I would greatly
recommend it! The Prerelease events at the Star City Game Center are always extremely fun and packed with awesome people here in Roanoke, and you
get a sweet limited edition playmat.
I’d love to hear what everyone thinks about the G/R deck! Hit me with your suggestions for an Ugin deck if you have one. Who knows! We may just break the
new format before it even starts with a deck using four copies of an eight-mana planeswalker!