Grand Prix Manchester Champion – Theros Block Constructed on June 1st 2014
Winner of ‘the other’ Theros Block Constructed tournament was Fabrizio Anteri playing a powerful BUG Midrange deck. This deck is the flip side of the Elspeth, Sun’s Champion coin and as such runs the means to beat it rather then join it. As was proven at Pro Tour Journey into Nyx that the battle lines were drawn with the majority taking sides between either Elspeth and Prognostic Sphinx then jamming in the formats Green acceleration package.
In this format the most commonly played cards it turns out are a pair of Green mana accelerants which most likely are going to become the dynamic duo come the next Standard season. This decks ideal opening lies with a turn one Scry land into a turn two Sylvan Caryatid followed by a turn three Courser of Kruphix before making your land drop. That provides the deck with the possibility of rushing out that early five drop which is where the deck plays into. The main avenue of attack lies in the Prognostic Sphinx which was discovered to be the main foil to Elspeth as it not only will fly over her ground forces but also is able to skirt her destroy creatures ability by virtue of being not too powerful. There is also additional beatdown provided by Reaper of the Wilds which sports great stats as a 4/5 for four mana able to protect itself if necessary, but also provides some added bonus with a Scry whenever another creature dies. A pair of planeswalkers are included with Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver doing a lot of heavy lifting by not only milling away possible threats and answers from the opponent but also stealing some of those threats away, and Kiora, the Crashing Wave which can add extra draw and acceleration, lock down a particularly troublesome creature or even ‘Call the Kraken’ if allowed to build up enough loyalty. As this deck chose the Midrange route instead of Control the only disruption in the deck is provided from a set of Thoughtseize to not only strip them of their most bothersome card but also provide you with all the information about their plans so you are able to set yourself up properly. Then we have the removal suite which is as robust as they come. Centering around the formats best there is a full set of Hero’s Downfall to rid the board of creatures or planeswalkers alike, a trio of the pseudo-sweeper in Silence the Believers which can often hit two or three necessary targets, a pair of Bile Blight that is extremely good at taking care of an army of Elspeth tokens, and a misers Unravel the Æther to deal with any troublesome artifacts or enchantments including Gods as they are shuffled back into the library. A solitary Read the Bones provides the deck just a tiny bit of draw power to help dig for the cards it needs.
We had on one side of the Theros Block coin the RG Elspeth deck and other White based decks like Patrick Chapin’s winning Junk Midrange running the powerful planeswalker Elspeth, Sun’s Champion. But the flip side of that coin has the decks which were able to figure out its natural enemy was Prognostic Sphinx. That second pillar which emerged in the format was BUG Control which used the Sphinx to attack into Elspeth through her natural defense, ramp up quickly with the staple Green creatures and dipped into Black for efficient removal. This is definitely going to be a player at Grand Prix Manchester.
It is no surprise to see that as a Green deck the creature package starts with both staples of the format in Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix there to help ramp quickly into an early Sphinx or getting multiple planeswalkers out. The only other creature is Prognostic Sphinx who’s main goal is to fly over defenders to beatdown Elspeth and conveniently skirts her destroy ability, not to mention is already able to protect itself well with its Hexproof granting ability. Moving into planeswalkers there is first Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver that while there is a low threat density in the deck from creatures can often steal one of the opponents fatties to bring down the beats upon them. The other is Kiora, the Crashing Wave who plus is able to lockdown the biggest threat on the other side of the board, can do a fantastic impersonation of Explore, and realistically will be able to create an emblem to ‘Free the Kraken’ if you can offer he a bit of protection. The title is a bit misleading as it does not play a big permission role as a Control deck but more of a board control through removal which is why there is only the misers copy of Dissolve in the main deck. As far as removal though there’s a full set of Hero’s Downfall to smash either creatures or planeswalkers, the pseudo-sweeper Silence the Believers to banish at times two or three nuisance creatures, Bile Blight which is an excellent way to rid the board of an overwhelming amount of Soldier Tokens or any other creature they have out in multiples, and also Unravel the Æther which will save you from enchantment or artifact alike especially an Indestructible god that’s ruining your day. It wouldn’t be right for a Control deck running Black to not include some discard and for that we have a full set of Thoughtseize to not only strip away the opponents most relevant threat but also to provide you with some extremely valuable information about their game plan.
It’s going to be very interesting to see what configuration of this powerful deck emerges as the most dominant. I’m sure we will see some tweaks shake out to mold to the expected meta. As three different copies were able to make the top 8 at Pro Tour Journey into Nyx I would be surprised if it doesn’t show itself in Manchester. Definitely going forward into the next Standard season this is well positioned to be a powerplayer there as well.
Xenagos, God of Revels – this is where I am really getting interested in playing a very aggressive GRuul deck. Looking at the recently spoiled Fanatic of Xenagos paired up with his God we already see a huge potential to end games quickly but then add Boon Satyr into the equation and we have what amounts to a serious beatdown.
Karametra, God of Harvests – while on the surface it appears to be a pretty interesting ramp card the fact that you need to follow her up with a stream of creatures to trigger the search out your lands. If it triggered whenever you had a creature enter play aside from being completely bah-roken it would have been much more reliable. It’s hard to feel out how this card is going to play out but it looks like it doesn’t quite live up to the expectation.
Mindreaver – a new and interesting spin on Grimoire Thief, this snappy little wizard could pose as a nuisance against some decks. While very situational and also requiring a spell to target him for his trigger you can often get lucky and hit a relevant spell on the first try. Just be sure to always keep up two blue or they’ll try to jam it through as soon as they see an opening. Would have been miles better if the cards were exiled face down the same as the Thief.
Ragemonger – minotaurs are the stuff made of legend and this block is certainly rife with their legendary lore. The most appealing part of this new minotaur is that you chain out additional copies for just one colorless mana so you can get a small army assembled with ease. And while the cost reduction only applies to red and black mana there is still a plethora of creatures it will work to make cheaper, and in multiples even your Boros Reckoners can become free.
Searing Blood – following along a similar vein of Searing Blaze, this guarantees a bolt to the dome as long as the targeted creature dies. Just be sure your opponent doesn’t have a buff to save his creature and you’ve basically got a handy two for one, in a sense. I can’t wait to hit a Firedrinker Satyr with this one and hit my opponent with a nasty five blast to the face.
Unravel the Æther – this one was definitely designed specifically to deal with the Gods Indestructibility within the block. The shuffling back into the library also prevents and kind of graveyard recursion shenanigans. While exile would have been much more permanent it also would have made the cost much higher.
Bile Blight – not too bad as a spot removal for the cost and capable of demolishing token armies, but it certainly isn;t enough of a catchall to warrant taking a spot from other removal. Also at issue if you are in a mirror match there is a high risk that you’ll be hindering yourself in the process. The time I’d most want to see this is when facing down multiple Boros Reckoner.
Thassa’s Rebuff – why not slot this into Mono-Blue Devotion shell, certainly not as a four-of but I could easily see utility with two. Sure you’ll have those turns where the devotion count just isn’t high enough but with Thassa, the Bident and Domestication in your deck as non-creature sources of devotion I wouldn’t think it to be all too hard to get what you need.
