April 13th - Regionals Decks #1

This past weekend a PTQ for Nagoya took place in Garden City. Basem Askoul made the finals with an innovative U/G Scapeshift deck, and we will bringing you his report shortly.

For now, all eyes are on the prize, AKA Regionals this weekend. Today we'll take a look at the first of many standard decks that are viable options for the tournament.


In what I'm sure will be a shock to no one, CawBlade is the best deck at the moment. The deck, in various color combinations, has dominated Standard in a way not even Faeries or Jund achieved. Every Top 8 of all major tournaments features multiple copies of the deck, and it has a very high conversion rate once the deck reaches Top 8.

I will personally be battling with U/W CawBlade this weekend. Three years ago I played Merfolk at Regionals when Faeries was the clear best deck. I lost twice to The Rock and once to Faeries. I'm not willing to make the same mistake again. So let's look at the most recent GP winning list courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

U/W CawBlade | The Rusty Machete

8 Creatures:  
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Stoneforge Mystic

26 Spells:  
2 Condemn
2 Day of Judgment
3 Gideon Jura
1 Into the Roil
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Mana Leak
1 Mortarpod
4 Preordain
3 Spell Pierce
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Tumble Magnet

26 Lands:  
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
1 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Island
4 Plains
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Tectonic Edge

15 Sideboard:  
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Condemn
1 Day of Judgment
1 Deprive
2 Divine Offering
2 Flashfreeze
2 Journey to Nowhere
1 Sun Titan
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
2 Volition Reins

This list incorporates some relatively new innovations for the archetype, and I will probably play something extremely close to it. Some key observations:

1 Sword, 1 Mortarpod maindeck. The second Sword has been delegated to the sideboard, likely because there is little chance of facing maindeck artifact removal. Mortarpod gives the edge in the mirror as it is capable of shooting down Hawks, and in a pinch kills Lotus Cobras and Steppe Lynxes in other matchups.

1 Inkmoth Nexus maindeck. This is the 5th colorless land, and the manabase is not strained too much by it. The inclusion of another manland is not to be underestimated, and it seems like it's relatively free value.

1 Into the Roil maindeck. Precursor Golems and Swords alike don't want to see this card. Also solves Gideon for a turn when necessary.

2 Reins in the board. I imagine this comes in for the mirror to steal their Titans and likely also against other Jace decks as a trump to walkers.

2 Divine Offering in the board. I'm surprised this card is still there, given how much talk there has been about Offering not being that good in the mirror. I guess there's nothing better to solve the fast Sword issue? I'll look more into it.

Possible tweaks:

Maindeck Jace Beleren. This seems a key point to gain an edge in the mirror. It can preempt his big brother, and because it is not a common choice, the opponent can be caught with their shields down, as it were.

Emeria Angel/Hero of Bladehold. Generating tokens is a good way to win the hawk war. However, neither of these creatures passes the Jace test too well. Emeria Angel is better in the mirror because the tokens fly, however Hero has its upside in the 4th point of toughness and the much faster clock it generates. Some testing needs to be done before these cards make it into the list.

Maindeck Sun Titan. This is nothing new, but I do want to note that Sun Titan is better than Baneslayer as the maindeck fatty. Due to the dominance of CawBlade, it is likely the top tables will be flooded by the deck. Sun Titan is much less vulnerable to Gideon, and the ability to disrupt opposing manabases with Tectonic Edge is huge.

Trusty Machete. Having a trusty companion when you go to a large tournament is always a good idea.

As always, comments are welcome.

Good luck!