Hello Dear Readers,

Welcome back to another article and I hope that all of you enjoyed the holidays. This time I will be talking about my standard deck of choice and will give a short tournament report on the Magic Online Player of the Year event that was held last week.

I got into standard about six weeks ago and tried various UB builds featuring Master of Waves, Pack Rat, Mutavault and Jace, Architect of Thought to basically combine the most powerful threats and the best removal at hand right now in one deck. I arrived at this decklist and although I was doing okay, was not winning quite enough to be happy with the results:

Creatures

4 Pack Rat
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Master of Waves
1 Prognostic Sphinx

Spells

1 Opportunity
3 Thoughtseize
2 Far // Away
4 Hero’s Downfall
2 Pharika’s Cure
3 Dimir Charm
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dissolve

Lands

4 Temple of Deceit
4 Watery Grave
2 Dimir Guildgate
6 Swamp
6 Island
4 Mutavault

Sideboard

3 Festering Newt
3 Lifebane Zombie
1 Pharika’s Cure
1 Thoughtseize
2 Pithing Needle
1 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Gainsay
1 Negate
1 Underworld Connections

 

 

The format is seemingly too fast to play a deck like this without having access to mass removal like Supreme Verdict. The deck also lacks an easy solution for Underworld Connections, which is a big issue should you not be able to capitalize on their life loss fast. Anyway, like many others, I came to the conclusion that Pack Rat is absolutely broken, especially when combined with Thoughtseize and Mutavault

I gave standard a break due to exams and upon my return had a test-run with almost every single deck in the format, only to realize that any form of Mono-Black Devotion was consistently causing me the most problems. With about a week to go until the Player of the Year event, Austrian pro-player and friend Thomas Holzinger gave me a pretty decent Mono-Black Devotion decklist splashing Green for Abrupt Decay and Golgari Charm that won an Austrian PTQ. Although I can say that I definitely don’t like this deck’s play-style, I was soon sold on playing it. For reference, here is the original decklist:

Creatures

4 Pack Rat
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Spells

4 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Ultimate Price
4 Underworld Connections
4 Hero’s Downfall

Lands

3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple of Mistery
4 Mutavault
17 Swamp

Sideboard

3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Pharika’s Cure
2 Doom Blade
2 Golgari Charm
2 Devour Flesh
2 Duress
2 Erebos,God of the Dead

 

 

In the limited number of events that I played in preparation for the tournament I was not too happy with the sideboard, with the relatively high land count of 26 and with the choice of running Ultimate Price over Devour Flesh. However, I was extremely impressed by Abrupt Decay representing an answer to almost any creature in the format, Underworld Connections and Detention Sphere

I wasn’t exactly excited to play in the tournament, but was glad that I found a deck that was strong and consistent. Beforehand, I expected a meta consisting of various control strategies and an abundance of Black devotion decks, mixed with White-Weenie splashing either Red or Black. As you will see in my short recap, I was quite right.

First of all, this is the decklist that I registered for the tournament:

Creatures

4 Pack Rat
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Spells

4 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Devour Flesh
4 Underworld Connections
4 Hero’s Downfall

Lands

4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Temple of Mistery
4 Mutavault
14 Swamp

Sideboard

2 Golgari Charm
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Dark Betrayal
1 Deadbridge Chant
3 Duress
2 Pharika’s Cure

 

 

As I said before, I wasn’t too happy with the initial mana-base and so decided to cut 3 Swamps for a 4th Overgrown Tomb, a 3rd Temple of Mystery and a Devour Flesh. At that time Devour Flesh had to be considered as the best removal available for the slot, proving itself effective against basically all decks in the meta. This is why I also cut all the Ultimate Prices to complete the set of Devour Fleshs. The sideboard was a mix of the most effective cards in the expected meta; the only one standing out being Deadbridge Chant. I used to play a lot of BG in the previous standard format and therefore had several test-runs and a lot of experience with Deadbridge Chant, as well as Primeval Bounty. Both these cards continuously impressed me back then and were capable of completely swinging a grindy game in my favor. However, without Thragtusk to hide behind, playing more than one card at 6 mana that doesn’t impact the board on the spot is too dangerous. For this reason I went for the Deadbridge Chant as it’s deadly on its own and doesn’t require additional spells to be operational.

These are the matchups I faced in the Player of the Year event:

R1 B/W Aggro 2:1

R2 U/W Control 2:1

R3 Esper Control 0:2

R4 UWR Superfriends 0:2

R5 Mono B Devotion 2:0

R6 B/W Aggro 2:0

R7 Esper Control 2:0

Unfortunately, I don’t remember much about the whole affair but I can give you a general outline of how the games played out. The problem with most of the matchups was that I could not figure out the right boarding from the start. I had some boarding plans from the Austrian player who won a PTQ with the list, but I found them to be sub-optimal in the majority of cases. The solution was to compare them with what Owen Turtenwald wrote in his article about the matchups. Still, the boarding was not optimal, which contributed to my losses against the control decks. Luckily for you I have them figured out now and they will be presented later in the article.

The games against B/W Aggro were really close. I think you’re a dog in the first game, since you don’t have all the removal and mess around with the clunky Underworld Connections. Banisher Priest and their other removals can put a strain on your defences, so that finishing you off with Brave the Elements is almost assuredly the case in every game 1. Fortunately, this becomes a lot better after boarding. Golgari Charm is massively better than Shrivel, as you can wrath them at instant speed. In fact that’s what happened in the first round, where I established the classic 5:1 trade that ultimately won me the game. Furthermore I was quite fortunate that my opponent didn’t quite like to keep his starting hand of seven, so winning was rather easy.

As you can see, my only losses were to control decks that day and the score of 2:2 reflects the matchups well. No one is favored to win and a mix of skill and topdecks will decide these games. For example, I never thought I could win the third game of the second round against U/W Control. He had more cards in hand than I at all times and was able to handle all my threats until the last one: Deadbridge Chant. But even then he put up quite a fight. Fortunately, though, the Chant did its job and awarded me a win. The matchup is hard because he can handle your draw engine cards quite easily and his advantage spells are far more powerful. But if you can muster an aggressive start with two or three discard spells at your disposal, winning becomes more likely.

The previous match took its toll on me in round 3 as I had very little time to rest and it was already rather late due to the disadvantageous Magic Online schedule. That’s why I lost my next game immediately, due to a huge misplay on my behalf. I had enough Pack Rats to finish him off but didn’t go for the final activation in order to have enough power for the crucial attack. My opponent then proceeded to cast Sphinx’s Revelation, Supreme Verdict and I was done for soon after.

I got a rough beating in round 4. I was buried under a ton of planeswalkers and never even came close to winning.

Now I was out of the running I wanted to at least make top 16 for 24 Theros packs. The mirror-match in round five was pretty easy as my opponent apparently already dropped the tournament in his mind. His plays were not optimal, he didn’t draw too well either and was dispatched quickly. I won the 6th round without difficulty and was paired against Esper once more. My opponent played the version Brian Braun Duin played at the invitational, which is more of a mid-range than a control deck. Thanks to this I was able to resolve my Underworld Connections without fearing counter-magic. A timely Abrupt Decay on a Detention Sphere let me drown him in card-advantage. My Devour Fleshes were used to full effect here as I knew that he was running 4 Blood Baron of Vizkopa. I was holding an answer to each and every one of his threats and eventually finished him off on the back of Underworld Connections. After winning the last round I was really pleased to finish in 15th place.

Overall I am really happy with the decklist and the only change that I would consider is going down to 3 Devour Flesh in favor of a one-of Ultimate Price for a little more point removal.

In conclusion, I’d like to share my sideboard plans with you, although they are not set in stone and should only be taken as basic guidelines.

Let’s start with the Mono-Black matchup. Desecration Demon is at its worst here and should be taken out. It is most certainly going to die to a cheap removal spell, making the trade inefficient for us. I cut a Hero’s Downfall as Mono-Black doesn’t run planeswalkers and I have plenty of more efficient ways to deal with creatures. Owen Turtenwald brings Duress here as well but I don’t agree with this decision. I wanted to keep the deck as clean as possible. This way you end up with removal spells and powerful threats only.

-4 Desecration Demon, -1 [card]Hero’s Downfall

+2 Dark Betrayal, +2 Erebos, God of the Dead, +1 Deadbridge Chant

Underworld Connections is clearly the worst card in aggressive matchups. It is almost impossible to make use of the extra cards with the tempo lost due to the life-loss and the missing mana. Therefore I take all of them out for additional removal, where Golgari Charm[/charm] has a lot of “blow-out” potential. [card]Lifebane Zombie will be coming in against White and Green based aggro, usually in favor of 3 Thoughtseize

-4 Underworld Connections, (if white/green:) -3 Thoughtseize

+2 Pharika’s Cure, +2 Golgari Charm, (if white/green:) +3 Lifebane Zombie

Mono-Blue Devotion is still a big player in the format although it doesn’t show up in such overwhelming numbers as it used to. It is still very important to have a good plan against the deck. You are definitely on the defense here and it should be your goal to keep the board empty and eventually win on the back of card-advantage engines, closing the game out at some point late in the game. Pack Rats are less effective due to Cyclonic Rift. I prefer to have some Lifebane Zombies instead.

-2 Pack Rat, -2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

+2 Pharika’s Cure, +2 Lifebane Zombie

UW Control blanks almost all of our removal so we will take out most of it in this matchup in favor of more threats, disruptive elements and as much card-advantage as possible. Lifebane Zombie is great here as it is immune to Last Breath and demands an answer very fast. The built-in Peek also comes in very handy as it enables you to formulate the perfect strategy against what they have.

-4 Devour Flesh, -2 Abrupt Decay, -2 Hero’s Downfall, -3 Pack Rat

+1 Deadbridge Chant, +3 Lifebane Zombie, +3 Duress, +2 Erebos, God of the Dead, +2 Golgari Charm

I have yet to find a board plan that I’m happy with against Esper. Blood Baron of Vizkopa is definitely scary so you should better have a Devour Flesh ready. I board very similarly to how I board against UW Control and once more Lifebane Zombie is very powerful. Hitting a Blood Baron with it is one of the best feelings in the world.

-2 Devour Flesh, -3 Abrupt Decay, -3 Hero’s Downfall, -3 Pack Rat

+1 Deadbridge Chant, +3 Lifebane Zombie, +3 Duress, +2 Erebos, God of the Dead, +2 Golgari Charm

My conclusion is that Mono-Black Devotion is still a very powerful choice to play. The Green splash helps a lot and adds extremely strong utility cards. What I like the most about the deck is that you have basically no bad matchups, which is particularly important in large tournaments where a wide range of decks are played. Therefore you will be winning a lot of games on the back of superior decision-making, with the added bonus of free wins provided by the dreaded line of turn 1 Thoughtseize followed by a Pack Rat on the play.

I really hope that you enjoyed this article and will be back with a recorded 8man or daily event after GP Prague.

See you then!

Kind regards,
Patrick