Video: RUG Chord In Standard!

Earlier this week
I mentioned a list from the Brazilian WMCQ, Tulio Jaudy’s RUG Chord of Calling deck. I’m playing a very slightly
different list without trying anything too radical, to see how the initial concept performs.

RUG Chord

Sam Black

Test deck on 08-22-2014

Standard

Creatures (20)

• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Izzet Staticaster
• 4 Young Pyromancer
• 1 Polukranos, World Eater
• 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 4 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Keranos, God of Storms
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 4 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 1 Hornet Nest
• 1 Scuttling Doom Engine

Lands (24)

• 1 Forest
• 1 Mountain
• 4 Yavimaya Coast
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 3 Steam Vents
• 4 Stomping Ground
• 4 Temple of Abandon
• 4 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Mana Confluence

Spells (16)

• 1 Shock
• 4 Chord of Calling
• 2 Magma Spray
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 3 Turn
• 2 Lightning Strike
• 3 Stoke the Flames

Sideboard

• 2 Negate
• 1 Magma Spray
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Hornet Queen
• 1 Izzet Staticaster
• 4 Skylasher
• 2 Xenagos, the Reveler
• 1 Nylea's Disciple
• 1 Xenagos, God of Revels

Round 1

Misusing MTGO to miss my chance to finish off the Pack Rats was a problem, but I think I was losing to Obzedat either way, though I’m not 100% certain. In the second game my opponent just didn’t have an answer for Goblin Rabblemaster, so it did its Pack Rat impression and won a game by itself (I wonder if there’s some kind of “free win” R/B Pack Rat/Goblin Rabblemaster deck to be built). I didn’t have a lot going on in the third game, but before the Duress, I thought there was a good chance I could burn my opponent out. In the end, I came much closer than I was expecting there for a while.

Round 2

That first game was really close, and I feel like I probably would have lost if my opponent didn’t bother playing the Bident of Thassa, but again, I’m not totally sure about that. Game 2 broke the other way–I thought I had everything under control, but then Domestication gave him enough devotion and put him far enough ahead that I couldn’t stop Thassa. The third game was fun in that I got to take advantage of my wide assortment of hateful creatures to answer every relevant play he had.

Round 3

I suspect this matchup is generally bad, but my opponent stumbled just a bit in the first game, which is all it takes for Goblin Rabblemaster to steal a game. In the second game, my opponent had all the right answers, and I really didn’t have a chance. For the third game, I think my opponent’s draw was a little awkward, and mine lined up pretty well.

Round 4

That Turn//Burn situation was really weird. I tried to be careful to target both golems, but I’ve had it happen before where lands move around as you tap them (which can be really awkward when casting Caustic Tar), so maybe tokens move when you target them, which seems terrible. Anyway, I don’t think I was winning that anyway since I didn’t have anything that would really stop Hammer of Purphoros from grinding me out, and that Boros Reckoner didn’t help matters. I’m really skeptical that Madcap Skills should have been in my opponent’s deck for the second game, but he might have underestimated the amount of burn I had. In game 3, both of us drew terribly, but I eventually found my land.

Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about the deck. Chord of Calling wants a lot of green mana which can be hard to get. Burning-Tree Emissary could help with that, but it pulls down the power level of the deck in the midgame quite a bit, and you’re not really fast enough to take advantage of the speed when your draw isn’t perfect. The blue splash is really minimal, and while the cards are pretty nice, I wonder if splashing black in the same shell for Thoughtseize and Pack Rat would work better.