Saturday, December 8, 2012

I (heart) Staticaster (1 of 2)



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.


Burning Oil, Izzet Charm + Izzet Staticaster
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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