Two Directions

Last weekend, I got destroyed. As we were just about to arrive in Memphis, we ran afoul of a giant ice storm and saw many upended cars on the side of the
highway. That’s basically the perfect metaphor for how my tournament went. After starting 4-0, I hit a rough patch of ice, and suddenly I was 4-3 and
birding feature matches. Everything seemed awesome, and then so quickly it all blew up in my face, much the same way a giant Crater’s Claws should have
blown up in my opponent’s faces but didn’t, because it wasn’t in my deck in the right quantities. It was a lot like that.

Oftentimes, after a tournament is over, it is hard to really sit down and analyze what went wrong and why it went wrong. Sometimes you have the right deck
choice, and things don’t just pan out. Other times, you have the wrong deck choice, but for one reason or another you convince yourself that you did have
the right choice and your failure was just a classic case of some good old-fashioned variance.

For example, a few years ago I went 0-2 drop with a new version of Junk Reanimator that CVM and I brought to the table for an SCG Open. I thought the deck
was good, but I just got utterly steamrolled and was out of the tournament as fast as possible. CVM went on to win that tournament. If CVM didn’t play the
deck and win the event with it, I could have easily just written off the deck as being really bad, when in reality, it was actually quite good, and I just
had a bad event.

This is honestly one of the hardest parts of Magic. How do you figure out the times when your deck was good but the tournament just went poorly and
separate those from the scenarios where the deck was bad and the reason for the poor tournament? Harder yet, how do you figure out that a deck was bad,
even when you win with it?

I wish I could just give you an easy solution, but I can’t. However, I was thankfully able to dissect my tournament this last weekend and figure out
exactly what went wrong and what I can learn from it moving forward. In that regard, even though it was an awful tournament, I was lucky enough to be able
to gather something positive from my failure.

To start with, here is the list I played in the event:

G/R Devotion

Brian Braun-Duin

Test deck on 02-27-2015

Standard

Creatures (29)

Planeswalkers (4)

4 Xenagos, the Reveler

Lands (24)

Spells (3)

Sideboard

After round 6, when I had dropped two matches in a row, I tweeted out the following:

My deck is definitely 2 cards off. Lost twice to drawing the card when the other would win. 4-2
#GPMemphis with my back to the wall.

— Brian Braun-Duin
(@BraunDuinIt) February 21, 2015

Those two cards were Crater’s Claws over Hornet Queen. I should have played four Claws and no Queens.

In those two rounds, I had to mulligan two hands that I would have kept if Hornet Queen was Crater’s Claws, and I likewise drew Hornet Queen twice that
would have been a win if it were Crater’s Claws. Now, you can say that maybe it’s a small sample size and I am being results-oriented, but the fact of the
matter is that my deck was simply flawed, and I should have built it differently than I did.

With the right build, I would have most likely won round 5 and my entire tournament could have gone so differently. Instead, I lost both rounds 5 and 6 to
my deckbuilding errors, and my tournament died shortly thereafter.

My list was hybridized between two different lists, and not having a fully streamlined strategy cost me. What I should have done was either pushed entirely
toward the style of list that utilizes a set of Crater’s Claws, or I should have just done away with the Claws and instead pushed toward the style of deck
that maximizes the value of Hornet Queen.

As it turns out, this deck was just a bizarre midpoint between two different strategies. There were Two Directions (obligatory title tie-in) I could have
gone, and instead I opted for a third direction. I went for the road less traveled, and I quickly learned that there was a reason it was the road less
traveled. That reason was because it wasn’t actually a road, but rather just a patch of dirt leading to a cliff.

Should have played around it…you know, by not playing it.

Direction #1: Claw Your Way Out

The first direction I would consider taking the deck is to play a version that really takes advantage of Crater’s Claws. Crater’s Claws was one of the best
cards in the deck, which is why I eventually went from zero to one to two copies in testing. And I quickly realized in the tournament that I simply didn’t
go far enough. I should have been maxing out at four copies.

What makes Crater’s Claws so good is that it is extremely versatile. Early in the game, you can kill a Goblin Rabblemaster, Mantis Rider, or Seeker of the
Way, but on turn 8 or 9 with a Nykthos-fueled draw backed up by the absurd amounts of mana that Xenagos, the Reveler and Voyaging Satyr can generate, you
can oftentimes just dome your opponent for an easy 20+. It serves as a cheap piece of removal and a win condition, all in one neat little bundle.

In the midgame, you can also use Crater’s Claws as a nice tempo gain as well. Something like playing a Polukranos and then Crater’s Claws for a single mana
to kill a Goblin Rabblemaster is a nice way to completely regain the initiative against a deck like R/W or Jeskai.

Hornet Queen was really good for me in testing, but the early lists I was testing had a full set of Frontier Siege. Once I got rid of the Sieges, I should
have also cut Hornet Queen and Genesis Hydra, but I didn’t pull the trigger hard enough, and I paid the ultimate price for it. Without Frontier Siege, I
think the deck needs to become a lot lower to the ground in order to be able to compete with decks like R/W Aggro and Jeskai Aggro before they just run you
over with fliers.

Outpost Siege was also just a lot better than Shamanic Revelation. I think playing a list with a cheaper curve also improves the value of a card like
Outpost Siege and lets you use it as a card advantage engine to completely outclass decks like Abzan Control or U/B Control that can otherwise just run you
out of resources.

If I wanted to go the Crater’s Claws route, I should have played a deck at the GP that looked more like this:

G/R Devotion

Brian Braun-Duin

Test deck on 02-27-2015

Standard

Creatures (30)

Lands (24)

Spells (6)

4 Crater's Claws
2 Outpost Siege

Sideboard

Obviously, this is a very rough list. I would need to play a lot with the deck and figure out the numbers better. However, I can tell you right away that
I’m positive this extremely rough and untested list would have still performed better than what I did play at the Grand Prix. It’s just a more streamlined
strategy and isn’t trying to do two separate things, failing at both.

This deck offers the ability to beatdown thanks to Shaman of the Great Hunt and giant monsters like Polukranos, World Eater and Whisperwood Elemental. It
also offers the same Nykthos style draws that devotion can present, allowing you to still be able to fire off Crater’s Claws for giant sums, activate
Shaman of the Great Hunt’s ability multiple times, or even just go monstrous with Polukranos for a nice lump sum.

With that being said, it is certainly possible that this is just a worse version of G/R than the G/R Aggro lists that Chris VanMeter has been promoting as
of late. It’s possible that Whisperwood Elemental is just worse than Stormbreath Dragon and that playing a bunch of mana creatures is just worse than a
lower curve and Goblin Rabblemaster.

All I know is that this is something I intend on testing moving forward, and I regret not spending more time really working on a list like this for the
Grand Prix.

Direction Two: Queen to D-light: Checkmate

The second direction I could have taken the deck is to play a list that is built to maximize Hornet Queen and the power that card provides. My early lists
in testing were doing exactly that, and I was putting up good results with them. I’m not sure why I ever jumped ship, but I can assure you it was a giant
mistake. The best card to pair with Hornet Queen is definitely Frontier Siege. Not only does it power it out as early as turn 4, but it also gives you an
alternate mode with Frontier Siege on Dragons, turning Hornet Queen into five Doom Blades later in the game.

This style of list is going to look a lot different than the previous one. Instead of relying on cards like Outpost Siege to provide card advantage or
trying to push through lethal Crater’s Claws, this list is all about establishing a dominant board presence and then relying on a card like Polukranos,
World Eater to do the rest.

G/R Devotion

Brian Braun-Duin

Test deck on 02-27-2015

Standard

Creatures (30)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Xenagos, the Reveler

Lands (24)

Spells (4)

4 Frontier Siege

Sideboard

This is very similar to the kind of deck that I was testing the most during my preparation for Grand Prix Memphis. One thing about this kind of deck and
the reason I eventually starting pushing for more and more copies of Crater’s Claws is that this list often just peters out and you’re stuck in these
really weird board stalls waiting for exactly Polukranos, World Eater and no other card to bail you out.

Frequently, I would find myself in situations where my opponent couldn’t attack me thanks to something like Hornet Queen or giant Genesis Hydras, but I
also couldn’t attack them or realistically put a dent into their life total thanks to something like three monstrous Fleecemane Lions or their own copies
of Hornet Queen. Eventually I would reach a point where I would draw a Polukranos, find one off of a Genesis Hydra, or manifest one from Whisperwood
Elemental, and then I would go monstrous for 20-30 and just kill every creature on my opponent’s board to finally allow me to attack for the win.

Oftentimes, I would have so much mana that I would actually monstrous for 20-25 and still have enough mana in reserve to monstrous again for twenty in case
my opponent had a removal spell. The way it works is that once Polukranos successfully goes monstrous, the damage is going to be dealt, so your opponent is
locked into killing Polukranos with the monstrous trigger on the stack. However, if you activate monstrous again with their removal spell on the stack, the
second activation of monstrous is going to be the first thing that resolves and you will still get to kill some creatures.

Generally, I would win those games when we got into weird board stalls, but the fear of having access to 60 mana and still losing the game pushed me into
finally playing cards like Crater’s Claws. Claws ended up overperforming, and I began to change my deck around it entirely, however, I didn’t go far enough
with Crater’s Claws or I went way too far and should have just wound it back to my original builds with Frontier Siege and Hornet Queen.

The Crater’s Claws builds weren’t a good home for Genesis Hydra. Without big payoff cards like Ugin or Hornet Queen, giant Hydras weren’t really even that
impressive. Crater’s Claws was the payoff card, and it was simply better to have a build that cared about dealing damage to your opponent to maximize the
value of the Claws.

However, this build is a great home for Genesis Hydra. Hydra is very powerful with Frontier Siege. Turn 3 Siege allows for a turn 4 Genesis Hydra for five,
which is the sweet spot for Hydra. You can find a Polukranos, a Whisperwood Elemental, another Siege to set up for enormous future turns, or even just
something like a Xenagos, the Reveler or a Courser of Kruphix. With Nykthos, these cheap early value Genesis Hydras set you up to do these giant turns
later in the game. And by later in the game, I mean literally the next turn.

With this build, I had one game where I went turn 2 Sylvan Caryatid, followed by a turn 3 Frontier Siege on Khans, and a second main phase Voyaging Satyr.
Then on turn 4, I cast a Courser of Kruphix first main phase, a second Courser second main phase, and then followed it up with a Genesis Hydra with X=10
finding Ugin, the Spirit Dragon.

That’s right. I cast two Coursers, a 10/10 Genesis Hydra, and found an Ugin to kill my opponent’s lone creature on turn 4. It felt about as good as it
sounds. And I’m not going to lie, it sounds pretty insane.

This is the style of deck I would recommend if the metagame is saturated with decks like R/W and Jeskai. This deck absolutely steamrolls those strategies.
However, the Crater’s Claws build is going to succeed a lot better against decks like U/B Control or Abzan Control, since it has access to a lot more
aggressive and powerful cards in those matchups. Hornet Queen and Frontier Siege aren’t that powerful against control decks, but you can often just kill
those decks with ten early points of damage and a pair of Crater’s Claws.

Green Devotion-based strategies are some of the most powerful strategies available in Standard. I played it at GP Memphis because I felt it was simply the
most powerful deck in the format. All of the decks are capable of doing great things, but Green Devotion can simply go over the top of them in such a fast
and brutal way.

Brad Nelson suggested that I play his Abzan Control list for GP Memphis, but I was stubborn and decided to stick with Green Devotion. It’s clear now that I
made a giant mistake. Brad, and many others who played Abzan Control, top 8’d the Grand Prix, whereas I was left on the sidelines watching at 4-3. The
mistake wasn’t just in playing Green Devotion though. While Abzan was a better choice for this tournament, I was still caught playing a suboptimal list. I
would have done much better at the event had I played Abzan, but I’m confident I could have also done well at the tournament with Green Devotion if I had
the best build.

While I can’t say I will ever play the deck again, I can definitively say that it is still a powerful deck and that the right build is still capable of
tearing through a tournament like the deck did at SCG Houston and GP Seville the week before. I didn’t have the right build, but I still feel like I was
able to take a lot away from the tournament, and hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes and not fall into the same traps I did.

If you’re going to play a powerful, linear, streamlined strategy, hedging is just a bad idea. You should maximize your power in one way or another. I split
between two strategies, and I paid the ultimate price. Next time, I won’t do the same thing. I was caught red-handed. My opponents should have been clawed
dead-handed.

Yeah. It was a bit of a stretch. Not sorry.