Judging by the title, I think you may have a slight hint as to what I’ll be talking about today. However, this is not the story of Jonathan Sukenik. He wouldn’t dream of playing any of those decks at any tournament. He would practically rather not enter the tournament and bird his friends than play Red Deck Wins, Infect, or Combo. Today, you will be hearing from none other than Watchwolf92.
I have been unable to show up that much on the Magic Online scene. Classes and studying have bogged down a ton of my time. However, I always have time to watch replays of Standard, Pauper, and Block Constructed. I have a firm view that if you want to have time for something, you can make it. Instead of playing every night, I usually save my entire Magic Online craving for a massive frenzy of about 20+ straight hours of Magic Online double or triple queuing.
So, what decks has Watchwolf92 been playing online? Let’s start with the first one, Red Deck Wins:
Creatures (20)
- 3 Grim Lavamancer
- 1 Spikeshot Elder
- 4 Chandra's Phoenix
- 4 Stormblood Berserker
- 4 Goblin Fireslinger
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
Lands (21)
- 21 Mountain
Spells (19)
Sideboard
Note: This deck was originally piloted by MTGO ringer _megaphone_.
A lot of people know of Jonathan Sukenik as some sort of innovator with off the wall strategies but with a knack for Faerie-esque decks. However, I consider myself more than capable of playing red decks. In fact, I would say that Watchwolf92 enjoys playing with them.
Let’s analyze a few of the cards and some cool plays involving them:
First of all, Gut Shot is bonkers! I just couldn’t stop telling the suite all of my Gut Shot stories. I’ll share the awesome ones with you.
One time, it was game three against an aggressive G/W deck. I was on the draw and had to mulligan into Stromkirk Noble, Volt Charge, and four Mountains. My opponent led with a Birds of Paradise. On my turn, I proceeded to peel a Gut Shot off the top, so I played it on his Birds of Paradise and slammed down Stromkirk Noble. He dropped a land and passed and then played Mirran Crusader on turn 3.
What are the other possible things I could have drawn? If I drew Shock, I would have had to decide on whether to shoot the Birds of Paradise or land the Stromkirk Noble. Granted, I definitely would have played the Stromkirk Noble in this situation, but what if he played Blade Splicer instead of Mirran Crusader? That would have put a huge damper on my plans.
In essence, Gut Shot was a “pay two life, Time Walk.” Yes, Alex Wong, it practically reads off “pay two life, take another turn!” It can’t possibly get better than this… except it does!
In another game, I was playing against W/u Humans that happened to play Timely Reinforcements in its sideboard. The board was his three lands alongside his Champion of the Parish, to my Goblin Fireslinger, Chandra’s Phoenix, and three tapped Mountains. The life totals were my twenty life to his seventeen. He went for a Timely Reinforcements. In response, I used Goblin Fireslinger to shoot myself for one and paid two life to Gut Shot my Goblin Fireslinger. My opponent responded with a “oh wow… that’s a nice play” in the chat screen.
Gut Shot also allows you to do a lot more unexpected things. I once killed my opponent from sixteen with three Mountains, three cards in hand and a Shrine of Burning Rage in play. I end of turn Volt Charged and proliferated my Shrine of Burning Rage. On my turn, I added another counter to my Shrine, paid four life for double Gut Shot and burned him out.
Another example of an unexpected play was against a very good Solar Flare control player on MTGO. I played a turn one Stromkirk Noble. Naturally, he Doom Bladed it on turn two to prevent me from hitting for so much over time. However, I was able to Gut Shot him and drop a bloodthirsty Stormblood Berserker. That card dealt about twelve damage by itself.
Note that Gut Shot can really go well with your Grim Lavamancer, allowing you to do an extra Shock out of nowhere. Gut Shot to allow you to replay your Chandra’s Phoenix when you are “stuck” on three is a neat trick, too.
Back to the decklist, the only other card choice I would like to justify in particular is Brimstone Volley vs. Volt Charge. I have seen MTGO ringer JohnnyHotSauce play Brimstone Volley in his rendition of Red Deck Wins, but Volt Charge was particularly amazing for me. With Shrine of Burning Rage in play, it practically deals four to five damage.
The other point is how well it interacts with your creatures. Stromkirk Noble and Stormblood Berserker are able to apply so much pressure when given a slight boost. I was once able to kill my opponent’s Thrun, the Last Troll with a second Volt Charge when he blocked my Stormblood Berserker with Thrun and a Blade Splicer.
Don’t get me wrong; Brimstone Volley is amazing too! I will have to play with both of them more to give a more accurate assessment of which one is better. However, I do know that I sure liked Volt Charge a ton.
This covers the Red Deck Wins part of the Watchwolf92 Saturday Magic Spree, but how about the infect deck? For that I, I decided to go with Smi77y’s decklist:
Creatures (14)
- 4 Plague Stinger
- 2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
- 4 Phyrexian Crusader
- 2 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 2 Whispering Specter
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (26)
- 22 Swamp
- 4 Inkmoth Nexus
Spells (17)
- 2 Trigon of Rage
- 1 Black Sun's Zenith
- 1 Go for the Throat
- 4 Virulent Wound
- 1 Piston Sledge
- 4 Lashwrithe
- 1 Gitaxian Probe
- 1 Dismember
- 2 Victim of Night
Sideboard
Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to play with his recent changes of moving Spellskite to the maindeck, but I do have a lot to talk about with regards to this deck.
First of all, this deck is a very prime example of why each and every one of you people who want to go infinite should play Block Constructed. I know personally that Mono-Black Infect was one of the best strategies in Scars/Besieged Block Constructed. The only decks that would compete with it were Tezzeret decks and Tempered Steel. However, the prices of the cards from those days have gone up a lot, since Scars Block is hardly ever drafted. Building this deck was easy because I only had to buy like one card.
As for the deck itself, it is a lot of fun. Game one, I always try to play a really aggressive strategy in an attempt to smash my opponent with Lashwrithe, Piston Sledge, or Trigon of Rage on an infect dude. However, I usually sideboard the same way against almost every deck. I usually take out the Plague Stingers, Whispering Specters, Trigon of Rages, and the Piston Sledge to bring in a ton of more removal. I prefer to play this deck like a control deck after sideboarding; that way I can laugh at the Gut Shots in their hand.
Infect is in a relatively good spot right now, since many people are playing Gut Shot instead of Dismember. However, Infect is not so limited as to only be able to win through poison counters. I have beaten multiple opponents by using Lashwrithe in conjunction with Phyrexian Metamorph to just beat down my opponents.
Another point is that Phyrexian Crusader is in a really good spot right now. Personally, I think white is probably the best color in Standard, due to all of the nice aggressive strategies that you can play. There is W/u Humans along with G/W Tokens. Note that on Magic Online, these decks are a lot more popular than in person. This makes Phyrexian Crusader particularly good against all of these Celestial Purge lovers.
The last card I want to address in this deck list is Liliana of the Veil. First of all, I am very glad that she went down in price. She was very overhyped, but that has finally subsided. Liliana of the Veil sort of reminds me of Lotus Cobra. They were really expensive when they first came out; then they went down because the homes for them weren’t that good. Later on, Lotus Cobra became really high in demand because it was easier to build around it (see Mythic). I have a feeling that Liliana of the Veil will go through the same path.
Anyhow, in this deck, Liliana of the Veil is a Chainer’s Edict first. You can try to set up your myriad of removal spells to put yourself in a position where your Liliana of the Veil will be able to Edict your opponent and live. She is part of the reason why you can change gears so well after sideboarding.
On the other hand, Liliana of the Veil allows you to attack your opponent’s hand once you run out of cards. It is very common to run out of cards, especially when you are on the play, because your curve is so nice. I could see going down to two Lilianas, and like I said before, I might try out Smi77y’s changes this weekend.
Lastly, let’s switch gears and talk about everyone’s favorite Magic Online only format… Pauper!!
Here is the deck that I have picked up recently and have had tons of fun playing:
Creatures (4)
Lands (15)
Spells (41)
- 4 Brainstorm
- 2 Gush
- 4 Desperate Ritual
- 4 Seething Song
- 4 Lotus Petal
- 4 Rite of Flame
- 4 Empty the Warrens
- 4 Ponder
- 3 Manamorphose
- 4 Preordain
- 4 Gitaxian Probe
Sideboard
Note: This deck was originally played by SKK.
I should probably explain why I exclusively only play combo decks in Pauper. Personally, I view this format a lot more as Vintage than any other format. The card pool is very deep, despite a few sets not being available on Magic Online. I feel like playing a combo deck is the most powerful thing to do.
Combo is also the perfect deck for when you are multi-queuing. You only have to really play Magic and calculate things for about two minutes, which makes time management very easy.
However, these are not my only reasons for playing this format. Pauper is a format that does not change much. This means that you can build a deck, and it will last you quite a long time. Right now, I have access to Mono-Green Infect, TEPS (in Pauper it plays the Invasion Lands like Sulfur Vents and kills with Grapeshot and Empty the Warrens), and the deck I have posted here. Each of these decks has its own pros and cons.
Mono-Green Infect has the fastest goldfish. It is the best against other combo decks. However, I have stepped away from it after losing to Standard Bearer six times in a row…
TEPS is the deck I have worked on the most in Pauper. I found out that I liked Ponder and/or Preordain a lot more than Gitaxian Probe in here. The reason is that the information didn’t really help, and there had to be a reason as to why Ponder and Preordain are banned in Modern and not Gitaxian Probe! Obviously, they want Aaron Petronico playing this format!
When I would play with this deck, I played both four Grapeshot and four Empty the Warrens in the maindeck. However, after sideboarding, I would take out all of my Empty the Warrens, side in a few more lands along with Shred Memory, and just Grapeshot them out of the game. Last weekend, I wanted to try something different.
The decklist I have posted here has been taking over the Pauper metagame by storm (get it??). The deck is playing all of the cantrips it can. Personally, I think a Goblin Bushwhacker could be cut for the last Manamorphose. All in all, I feel like this build is a lot more consistent than TEPS. Brainstorm combos very well with your fetchlands (almost like in Legacy!) and your Preordain/Ponder.
The card that has surprised me the most is Gush. This card is very much like a UU mana, draw two, add UUU to your mana pool if you have not played a land this turn. With all of these awesome cards, what is the downside to this deck?
The main problem with this deck is its lack of resilience. I lost a game one because my opponent had one maindeck Echoing Truth and drew it. Luckily, the sideboard is here to save the day!!
We have cheap counterspells. There are cards to kill Krark-Clan Shaman. Some of them can stop Prismatic Strands. We even have a card to bounce all of your opponent’s Goblins in the mirror! This sideboard has it all!!
As of right now, these are the decks Watchwolf92 is planning on playing on Magic Online. These are of course subject to change. In fact, they are very likely to change in the ever-changing world of Magic. However, I will also try to start working on a Block Constructed deck once I get enough data and practice in the format. In conclusion… Magic Online is awesome!!!
Thanks for reading,
Jonathan “Watchwolf92” Sukenik