Justin Vizaro
7/31/2012 11:00:00 AM
I have been very busy lately - both with life and magical cards, and watching the carousel of decks in the standard format is utterly exhausting when trying to juggle more than just keeping up with this environment. While it's difficult to keep track of the things that you'll be facing week in and week out, it's pretty easy to brew up a list or two and take them to tournaments just as you normally would at FNM. I call this type of brew the strategy brew, which, when contrasted with its counterpart the contra-strategy brew, appears to care very little about its opponent's plan. In a volatile format like this one, brews like this have a better chance of being successful, as they typically rely upon using strong cards that aren't exactly dead in any matches. Ramp decks often fall into the solitaire category, and decks like the one I am about to propose today add a bit of interactivity to the game, but mostly tend to the same objectives.

Borzhov has been a very intriguing color combination for me for quite some time, and I usually try to throw something together in the event that the mana makes the deck possible. We're currently in a situation in which the mana more than adequately supports a shard deck, so naturally I have been tinkering with ideas like BUG and Junk, but Borzhov is the soup du jour because of its access to a strong sampling of removal and win conditions. If you like combo decks, this might even be up your alley, as the deck contains one of the only combo win conditions in the entire format. Here's a look at what we will be working with this week:

M13 Borzhov by Justin Vizaro Main Deck Sideboard 4 Flayer of the Hatebound 2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon Creatures [6] 2 Gideon Jura Planeswalkers [2] 1 Black Sun's Zenith 4 Day of Judgment 1 Devil's Play 4 Faithless Looting 4 Lingering Souls 1 Mortarpod 2 Oblivion Ring 1 Sever the Bloodline 4 Sphere of the Suns 1 Sword of War and Peace 1 Tragic Slip 4 Unburial Rites Spells [28] 4 Clifftop Retreat 4 Dragonskull Summit 4 Isolated Chapel 6 Mountain 6 Plains 1 Swamp Lands [25] Deck Total [61] 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight 1 Massacre Wurm 3 Mirran Crusader 1 Oblivion Ring 3 Phyrexian Metamorph 3 Pillar of Flame 1 Sever the Bloodline 1 Sword of War and Peace 1 Tragic Slip Sideboard [15] View a Sample Hand! Solitaire this Deck! Click for full deck stats & notes!

Slightly different from the list I posted a few weeks ago as a teaser, this deck is a little more streamlined, moving the crusaders to the board, dropping a few cards, and cleaning up the look to take more advantage of Flayer of the Hatebound. It's no secret that I absolutely love Flayer, and I think he is one of the most underutilized creatures at his mana cost. Many players complain about their expensive spells failing to win the game outright, but Flayer of the Hatebound is one of those cards that can do exactly that. Two Flayers combo with each other to deliver 20 points of damage as soon as one of them dies, which makes it one of the only (and certainly the easiest) instant-win combos in standard. In addition to this, Flayer is difficult for players to navigate if they are unfamiliar with the card, making it a very strategically sound choice for players with a higher level of understanding of the game than others.

High Mid Low

Flayer of the Hatebound

$1.50

$0.30

$0.14

Store QTY Price   The Mana Fix 3 $0.14 Static Age Games 2 $0.15 Miniature Exchange 4 $0.16 Miniature Exchange 4 $0.17 IDeal808 36 $0.17 GameTimeCC 3 $0.19 OldSchoolGaming 8 $0.19 adventuresON 1 $0.19 Wild Rabbit Ent. 1 $0.20 >> View all Prices for Flayer of the Hatebound << Store.TCGplayer.com allows you to buy cards from any of our vendors, all at the same time! Shop, Compare & Save with TCGplayer.com! - [Store FAQ]

The main idea with this deck is that you will be interacting minimally with the opponent, but not playing solitaire. The deck includes cards that are excellent at playing the stall game, like Day of Judgment, Lingering Souls, and petty spot removal, but is predominately business and setup spells. The selection of win conditions for the deck is immense, but such a narrow list of choices implies only a few things, and the first of which is the fact that this deck wants to just end games, and that when it enters its win sequence, the game is afoot. As mentioned, Flayer of the Hatebound combos for 20 damage immediately, and further along that idea, Skithiryx wins the game (often) in just 2-3 attacks.

The deck's win conditions are relatively limited, but again, they tend to get the job done in short order, and they are supplemented by the flashback of Unburial Rites, which should allow this deck the sense of redundancy and assurance that its threats will outnumber the opponents' removal options. Setting up for the win and interacting with the opponent are both things that this deck does pretty well, and there are a few standout cards in this brew that we've seen elsewhere for sure.

Setting up and Interacting

Faithless Looting and Sphere of the Suns are among the only spells that I can actually cast in the early turns, but that hasn't really been a problem. My three and four drops are so good at turning game-states that it has been determined that I don't even need a steady flow of things like Whipflare to bail me out. Faithless Looting might be one of the most important cards in the entire deck, mostly because of the ridiculously powerful hands it helps me sculpt. Digging for answers, lands, or ‘combo pieces' happens often, and Faithless Looting puts me through as many of this deck's cards as possible each game. Sphere of the Suns is the deck's only fixing and acceleration, and for a deck with three colors (and one so strongly in each of them) it's a bit of a surprise that it's more than capable of handling the mana needs. Perhaps the most surprising factor about the Sphere is the fact that it typically sees more use as an accelerant than a color fixer in this build- a redundant point that I feel is crucial to understanding why this deck works.

Colors aren't an issue in this deck at all, which allows me to run greedy spells in all three colors and constantly find myself able to cast everything in my hand. The removal options are diverse, but I have to have double white for Day of Judgment, and that is often a card that can't afford to sit in the hand because of color issues. Black Sun's Zenith and various colored spot removal like Oblivion Ring round out the deck's impressively flexible removal suite, leaving me with only one component of interactivity left to discuss.

High Mid Low

Lingering Souls

$2.99

$1.95

$0.90

Store QTY Price   WittyParker 1 $0.90 Zigmorph 1 $1.10 HotsauceGames 1 $1.18 Static Age Games 12 $1.25 CrimsonImpGamesInc 3 $1.25 ChannelFireball 19 $1.34 Geeks MTG 5 $1.45 SuperGamesInc 74 $1.47 Deck Factory 3 $1.48 >> View all Prices for Lingering Souls << Store.TCGplayer.com allows you to buy cards from any of our vendors, all at the same time! Shop, Compare & Save with TCGplayer.com! - [Store FAQ]

I mentioned this card among a list of others that I feel are slightly imbalanced in power level at the moment. To me, Lingering Souls is the most unfair card in the entire format (it might not be the most powerful, but it's definitely the most unfair). In this deck, Lingering Souls' primary purpose is to drag games into the turns on which I will be winning via combos or infectious dragons that don't care about my opponent's skyscraping life total (more on that in a minute). The deal with Lingering Souls, however, is that you can quite easily win the game if you draw more than one copy by simply casting all of them and making a million flying dudes. Attacking in the air is never a bad plan, and if you happen to find the sword in the deck, you're really in business. For this deck, Lingering Souls taps every facet of the game- setting up, interacting, and winning, and in that regard, certainly becomes the best-value card in the deck.

In terms of ticking all of the boxes, however, Lingering Souls isn't the only card that puts in multiple duty in this deck. Gideon Jura is bananas, and still remains one of the Planeswalkers I am most excited to see leaving the format because of how strong he is. He will often put the cap on the aggro decks, particularly the ones that look and feel red, and he provides one of the strongest win conditions against decks that don't interact with Walkers. He even wins games in the event that I can't do it with the other men in the deck.

Winning all of the Games

High Mid Low

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

$10.80

$4.29

$2.89

Store QTY Price   Dark Light Opticon 1 $2.89 CrimsonImpGamesInc 1 $3.00 The Card Nexus 1 $3.37 Geeks MTG 3 $3.59 Mythic Realm 1 $3.63 Web-Head Enterprises 1 $3.69 Happy Viking Games 2 $3.74 Phoenix Games Inc 2 $3.94 Happy Viking Games 1 $3.94 >> View all Prices for Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon << Store.TCGplayer.com allows you to buy cards from any of our vendors, all at the same time! Shop, Compare & Save with TCGplayer.com! - [Store FAQ]

Winning with this deck is pretty straight-forward as mentioned above, but here are the things that you need to know about Flayer and Skittles

Flayer of the Hatebound

• Two Flayers almost always means a win
  One in play, one in the graveyard means Unburial Rites will trigger each flayer, allowing the following sequence:
  - ETB triggers for each flayer, (4,4)
  - Resolve ETB trigger 1, targeting one Flayer, killing him, undying trigger
  - Resolve undying trigger, ETB trigger from both flayers (5,5 – resolve both to the opponent's dome for 10)
  - Resolve the other 4 damage trigger, targeting the other Flayer, Undying trigger
  - Resolve undying, ETB from both flayers (5,5 – to the dome for a total of 10 + other 10 = 20)
• Two Flayers in play, cast Day of Judgment, dome opponent for 15
• Two Flayers in play, attack, use Gideon's -2 ability to start the chain of Flayer damage described in scenario 1 when the first undying trigger resolves, netting 15 damage to the dome

Skittles

• Combos well with Flayer of the Hatebound if you're targeting Skithiryx with Unburial Rites, as Flayer makes the creature deal the damage, not Flayer itself
• Stable, fast, and unconcerned with the opponent's life total, which is very relevant with Thragtusk, Huntmaster, and others in the mix
• Lethal in two turns with Mortarpod as long as you have Unburial Rites

After you've found a way to win the first game, you will want to win more thereafter, and the sideboard gives you a few options.

Mirran Crusader is a card that was actually in the maindeck for a short period of time, but was actually bumped in favor of Oblivion Ring and more streamlined cards like Day and Unburial Rites. Still strong in the sideboard, he can often come in against decks that don't expect you to establish board presence and blindside them with a strong and aggressive creature.

Many decks rely on Birds of Paradise and other X/1 creatures, so the number of cards that kill small critters is moving up as well after the sideboard.

Clones are amazing, and I can't think of a reason for them to not be in the maindeck aside from the fact that I'm already at 61 cards, and that I like all of the ones that are in there. Metamorph comes in quite often, whether as legend removal, bomb thieving, or just plain efficiency boosts.

Many will ask me why this isn't just Grites, and more importantly where the Griselbrands, Norns, and other cards are, but to be honest, I really don't have an answer other than to tell you all that while animating Griselbrand is extraordinarily powerful, casting him is cool and very difficult. He also doesn't win the game as immediately as my other options.

Gisela and Massacre Wurm in the board are nods to the fact that people will play cards like Surgical Extraction, and it's always nice to have some kind of contingency plan.

I'd like to keep going with more Flayer lists this week, but I think it would be best to wait for future brewery articles to deliver more lists. I have one that utilizes Flayers in Birthing Pod, chaining into Angel of Glory's Rise in an attempt to trigger the win immediately. It has been a cute experiment so far, and we'll see how it ends.

Next week I don't know whether to stay in standard or to post my modern zombie list, so there will be a thought or two going into content for next time around. Until then, thank you very much for reading, and good luck to everyone that decides to give this deck a ride at FNM or some other local event.