Magic World Championship competitor Sam Black continues to work on the archetype he most favors in the format! See if the deck is primed to take you to success in your next event!
Today I’m going to record some videos with my deck of choice in this Standard format, R/W Tokens. Ashcloud Phoenix has really impressed me, so I’m looking forward to trying it out in my maindeck, along with Mortal’s Obstinacy, which I’m a little more skeptical about.
Well, not much to say about that first game, but I was really surprised the second game slipped away. I guess I should have played a little more cautiously, but maybe this really just speaks to the strength of Treasure Cruise.
Round 2
I’m not sure what to say about those games. The narrative I would try to script is that I ended up a little ahead because I have slightly better sources of card advantage and very good answers to my opponent’s threats, but I may have just drawn better than my opponent.
Round 3
I don’t think I like the way I played the second game. Given that my opponent had a mana up and that drawing a Gods Willing there allows my opponent to resolve Ordeal of Thassa, and given that I had Erase in hand, I think exposing myself to that was really bad, especially since it was just a Favored Hoplite. It is dangerous not to use the white removal aggressively when I have too much of it, but that was too far. I still thought I was in pretty good shape, but then I threw away the Phoenix to Favored Hoplite’s trigger for no reason, and my opponent was able to take it. In the third game, once again I took a line I didn’t like, as I discussed in the video. I’d say this loss was thoroughly on me rather than the deck.
Round 4
I think the only real takeaway from that match is that this deck really, really struggles against Stormbreath Dragon. I’ve played it in fields where I didn’t expect a lot of Stormbreaths. If you do, play something else. I think playing Ashcloud Phoenix main helps with that problem, but it’s still one of the best cards against me.
Overall, this wasn’t a great showing, but I don’t think it was that bad either. My losses as I see them were to mulligans, playing badly, and my known Stormbreath Dragon hole. I think this was inconclusive, but I still like Ashcloud Phoenix, and I’m still definitely not sold on Mortal Obstinacy.
