Ahoy, Pinoy Planeswalkers! All props to the
people who support this page – it is awesome to have you all fan the flames of
the site! Cheers to Magic in the south-side!
This week we will be looking at a new
deck I’ve been working on – UWR flash - midrange based on the builds of Gerry
Thompson and our very own Andrew Cantillana.
Andrew has been piloting mostly UWR recently
– except for his experimental take on Grixis which he took to Mike Batac’s 100k
event – and has had a fair amount of success with it: having won and opened enough
packs into a set of Steam Vents, not to mention a Top 8 slot at Turn1Kill’s big
RTR standard event (UWR Delver + GST).
Here is Andrew’s deck list from the said
tournament:
Maindeck | Sideboard | ||
Delver Of Secrets | 4 | Faith’s Shield | 3 |
Snapcaster Mage | 4 | Pillar Of Flame | 4 |
Geist Of Saint Traft | 4 | Negate | 3 |
Restoration Angel | 4 | Dissipate | 3 |
Essence Backlash | 2 | ||
Thought Scour | 4 | ||
Unsummon | 4 | ||
Searing Spear | 4 | ||
Izzet Charm | 4 | ||
Syncopate | 3 | ||
Spectral Flight | 2 | ||
Cyclonic Rift | 1 | ||
Glacial Fortress | 4 | ||
Hallowed Fountain | 4 | ||
Sulfur Falls | 4 | ||
Steam Vents | 4 | ||
Island | 3 | ||
Mountain | 2 | ||
Plains | 1 |
Built while the metagame was just on its way to
shape, this deck is a raw, straight-forward, post-rotation version of
tempo-delver relying on landing early threats of DOS and GST backed up with fast
creature removal and counter-magic. Andrew’s approach on UWR has gone a long
way from this deck which has let go of the beloved Delver and has taken in
Thundermaw Hellkite.
Gerry Thompson’s latest UWR deck list shows
the mighty options of UWR in the current metagame: Pillar of Flame (bane to Zombies),
Sphinx’s Revelation (pure awesomeness), Snapcaster Mage (effin spell layer
cake), Izzet Staticaster (Hoof! Where’d your critters go?) and Restoration Angel
(more layer cake on creatures).
My failure at UW flash left me with the
thought that I had a strategy that I felt was good but was incomplete and the
irk of regret for not playing my RDW instead (man, that deck drew well almost
always). A couple of Thundermaw Hellkites were acquired to drive the RDW deck
into the version that ran more lands and a more midrange umph – it was dismal
to mana screw after raising land count to 23 when I usually drew well and won
with 21. It was awfully frustrating at this point. Returning beaten to the
Jamias Headquarters that night I pondered thoroughly at my position in Standard
and thought of who to sell the signed Restoration Angels and the Thundermaw
Hellkites who have yet to prove their worth. It was then that Andrew and Jamie
suggested that I should try UWR since most of the stuff available pointed
towards it. I, of course, ignored the good advice – having two decks with
distinct characters was something I wanted to have around. I also felt UWR was
a bandwagon I wouldn’t jump on – I felt that not having Geist of Saint Traft
was not having a license to play the color.
That week, Juza repeats and effectively
re-prices Craterhoof Behemoth to $15 while Zombies make a comeback. The Hoof
archetype was something neither RDW nor UW flash deck could deal with consistently.
UW flash was peanuts to Zombie. RDW was positioned to lose to the only deck
that stood a chance against the raging Rakdos archetype – Bant Control. I was
stuck with two decks that stood to lose.
Enter
Izzet Staticaster
I’m sure this card caught my eye right
when it was spoiled but thought that it sucked since it didn’t shoot players
(therefore ineffective against planeswalker cards) – it wasn’t a Fireslinger –
which was my benchmark for a good shooter. But with the need to consistently rid
the board of lots of early creatures, the Staticaster drove me to consider UWR. Here's the list I brought in for FNM:
Main Deck | Sideboard | ||
Snapcaster Mage | 4 | Pillar of Flame | 4 |
Restoration Angel | 4 | Supreme Verdict | 2 |
Izzet Staticaster | 3 | Detention Sphere | 2 |
Augur of Bolas | 2 | Negate | 2 |
Dispel | 2 | ||
Azorius Charm | 4 | Thundermaw Hellkite | 2 |
Thoughtscour | 4 | Izzet Staticaster | 1 |
Burning Oil | 3 | ||
Dissipate | 2 | ||
Unsummon | 2 | ||
Sphinx's Revelation | 2 | ||
Izzet Charm | 2 | ||
Detention Sphere | 1 | ||
Supreme Verdict | 1 | ||
Runechanter's Pike | 2 | ||
Hallowed Fountain | 4 | ||
Steam Vents | 4 | ||
Glacial Fortress | 4 | ||
Sulfur Falls | 4 | ||
Clifftop Retreat | 4 | ||
Island | 2 | ||
Moorland Haunt | 1 | ||
Desolate Lighthouse | 1 |
The Gameplan
The play was to defend effectively while
dropping land, garner card advantage and eventually win with creature gnaws or
a mighty pike swing. This deck features an excellent draw suite (Both Charms, Thought
Scour, Sphinx’s Revelation and Desolate Lighthouse) which can get the
land drops and answers needed, and, 30 instant-speed spells and creatures to make
sure that you make the best options based on is on the board. The best part of
this deck is the depth and versatility of its ability to take out creatures
using damage.
I maindecked Staticaster over Pillar of
Flame because I didn’t want to have too much sorcery-speed cards that hindered
the overall strength of flash strategy – that is to be reactive during an opponent’s
turn. I also did not feel that the power of the one-to-one trade of Pillar of
Flame against agro was enough reason to drop my newly-favored shooter. At turn
three, a Staticaster hits the board at flash speed and can block and take out a
one-toughness creature. Even if it gets speared, survival and card advantage is
already on its way. If it does make it to the next untap, board control is
almost immediately established. The robust presence of burn spells is
complemented by Staticaster by making Burning oil an instant speed Mizzium Mortars
and Izzet Charm an anti-creature bolt. This strategy was also designed to deal
with Thundermaw Hellkite and it did.
My consideration of agro strategies that seek to overwhelm by dropping creature after creature is what got the single Supreme Verdict unto main. Four counter-magic items are there to thwart Sphinx's Revelation which I do not want resolving on the other side.
The main deck is meant to check anyone employing manadorks, small creatures (including tokens) and Soulbond strategies. It deals well with mirror, other midrange and is decent against Bant.
Catch the second part of this article where several tournament matches of this deck are discussed.
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For the more articles about Magic: the Gathering, do follow this link.
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