Generally I try to avoid cliches. Sometimes they just fit the situation perfectly, but for the most part, I will try to find another way to word what I want to say. This week ended up being a case of the former: We don’t play the games on paper.
While building the Sultai Control deck I wrote about previously, some
of the things I was trying to do felt a little counter-synergistic. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is often going to exile Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver when he has to
come down and minus. I’m not really doing anything to fill up the graveyard to enable delve. I speculated that Nyx Weaver might be needed, and I quickly
came to the conclusion that it was. With the reduction in game-winners, I probably need a second Ugin.
As FNM approached I still wasn’t sure exactly what my gameplan was with the deck. It has powerful synergies, but it needs a few turns to get to a
point where they are good. I didn’t want to go with Satyr Wayfinder to enable turn 3 Tasigur, but at the same time I didn’t want to lose every round with a
bunch of game-breaking bombs sitting pretty in my hand.
It occurred to me then that what the deck really needed was a reliable way to churn through the deck at speed. Nyx Weaver is all well and good, and it has the bonus of being able to bring something back, but it doesn’t stand up well to a field full of removal. Both Monastery Siege and
Sultai Ascendancy do a better job of filling up the yard while staying safe from removal, and each has its benefits. The Siege puts cards in your hand,
while Ascendancy gives you more flexibility in when you want to mill yourself and when you just want to leave things as they are.
Creatures (6)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (22)
Spells (29)
On paper the deck looked great. Trying some test hands, it felt great. In practice? It was not great. Now this could be a question of sample size,
or even my opponents getting insane draws against my mediocre ones, but the deck just didn’t work. I played against R/W Aggro three times, and even with
all my removal and sideboarded Drown in Sorrows, I only managed to beat it once. I lost to the Sultai Control mirror because his draw matched up well with
mine, and U/B Control had more staying power. Despite reservations from a few people that there was too much delve and not enough to enable it, I actually
found that very often I had too many cards in my graveyard and that Tasigur was giving my opponent some easy choices. Especially against decks like R/W
that can get in damage early then sit back and burn you out, it’s often easy to just give me back a spot removal spell. Some of this might be due to my
inexperience with the card and the deck, but I also think I went too heavily on beating midrange with my removal choices.
Font of Fortunes was a test. With very little to do on turn 2, it seemed like something I could “set and forget” for card draw later on, and it filled my
yard whenever I needed it. In reality it ended up being mediocre. With no constellation triggers, the card type ended up being largely irrelevant, and
although I can see reasons to run it over Divination, I think it might have been better as Treasure Cruise. I was super happy with the Ascendancy but very
much less so with the Sultai Charms. Where Ascendancy let me control my draws and manage Tasigur better, Charm seemed to get stranded in my hand or (and
this surprised me) not be able to get rid of the biggest threats on the other side of the board. Likely better out of the sideboard, where the flexibility
really shows its charm.
Reality Shift was amazing against decks with big creatures, with the upside of also shifting Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker off the board. Had I played the
fourth Downfall instead of a Sultai Charm, the removal package would have felt a lot better. It also might be time to consider maindeck Drown in Sorrow
given the prevalence of token-based strategies right now.
I’m not convinced that the deck needs to be trashed. I made more than a few misplays, and the R/W Aggro matchup seems especially bad. I probably need to be
less stubborn on the Satyr Wayfinder front and just replace some removal with those guys. Pharika’s Cure would be excellent, as would a Palace Siege or two
either in the maindeck or the sideboard. If playing Captain Bananas a-peels to you, slip this one in your deckbox and give it a spin. The biggest lesson I
took away was that there is such a thing as “too much removal.” A better split on removal and card draw (and maybe threats) will likely yield better
results. The manabase wasn’t horrible, but there’s certainly room for some tweaking. Not twerking though. There is never room for me
to twerk.
Rebuilding the Shrine to Nyx
This time last year, the big debate in Standard was over how many copies of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx should be in Mono-Blue Devotion and whether or not
Mono-Black Devotion needed any at all. I’ll give you a minute to get over the involuntary convulsions that memory has likely caused.
Ugh.
And we’re back. I’m sorry to put you through that, but it’s an important segue into what we’re doing here. One of the first things I do when I want to try
something new is to look at the most powerful cards and effects not currently being played, then try to figure out why not. Until the results of Grand Prix
Miami, Nykthos was seeing close to no play, only popping up in Mono-Green Devotion and its cousin Temur Ascendancy. Why was that?
The obvious answer is that cards like Pack Rat, Frostburn Weird, and Nightveil Specter all rotated. Without a plethora of mana symbols available on cheap
permanents, it becomes harder to break Nykthos in the face of sweepers. In turn, that reduces the effectiveness of the big payoff cards for devotion, the
Gods, and cards like Master of Waves or Gray Merchant of Asphodel. This view was confirmed at SCG Houston when Cedric and Patrick both agreed that devotion
strategies, except for green, were dead.
Challenge accepted.
I’d been talking with my friends about the viability of a red devotion deck for a while, and now I am determined to make the deck work. Fate Reforged
brought us something that we had been lacking, namely a second RR two-drop in Mardu Scout. Combined with Eidolon of the Great Revel, we have a solid start
to our curve. We know we’re going to want Fanatic of Mogis at four along with Big Daddy P, Purphoros himself. The five spot will be taken up with some
combination of Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and His Sausageness, Stormbreath Dragon the First. That just leaves the three-drop slot, which presents some
interesting choices. Hammer of Purphoros lets us have two devotion in a way that is harder to remove while also being a reliable source of threats and making every subsequent threat better. Goblin Rabblemaster is a “free win” button but only gives us a single pip. Flamewake Phoenix has
potential but likely necessitates another four-power creature, probably Ashcloud Phoenix or its cousin Flame-Wreathed Phoenix higher up the curve.
Prophetic Flamespeaker is a pet card of mine that gives us two pips and keeps the cards flowing while also playing nice with Purphoros’ activated
ability.
While sketching out the list, I noticed that Conley Woods had posted something similar and used that as a base. Here’s where my testing will start this
week:
Creatures (29)
- 2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
- 4 Stormbreath Dragon
- 4 Fanatic of Mogis
- 3 Eidolon of the Great Revel
- 4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
- 4 Ashcloud Phoenix
- 4 Flamewake Phoenix
- 4 Mardu Scout
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (3)
Spells (24)
It feels like I might be pre-boarding a little heavily against control, but as I expect that to be the hardest matchup, that might not be a bad thing.
Eidolon won’t be doing too much damage to us, and the idea of a huge Crater’s Claws as a finish (and essentially Fanatics five and six) or as removal is a
pleasant one. I’m excited to take this for a high-velocity spin soon, if only because nobody locally will ever expect to see me slinging Mono-Red. I do
revel in keeping people guessing, You might even say I am something of a fanatic about it.
We might be a little light on the low end of the curve, but honestly that’s unavoidable with the card pool we have. Red’s one- and two-drops are not
exactly designed to stick around long, and even the better ones like War-Name Aspirant don’t really fit in this style of deck. Although our gameplan favors
a quick finish, we aren’t necessarily getting there by turning creatures sideways at every opportunity.
I really enjoy hearing what you like and dislike about these lists, as well as your suggested changes, and of course, any results you have with them.
Please keep that feedback coming! Until next time…Brew On!