A Pre-Nats Decklist

With nationals just around the corner, I find myself needing to win a grinder to qualify. I'm pretty deep in the tank, but there is a brew, so all hope is not lost! Kai outlined the standard metagame fairly well in his article on this site (aside from U/W, which has been written about a lot on other sites lately anyways). What struck me especially was when he advocated playing a proactive deck, which was something that I'd been thinking about doing lately anyways.


The format has evolved to prepare for battles of attrition involving cascading, vengevines, and planeswalkers. The way to beat an attrition-based format is either to be better at it than your opponent (casting Rite of Replication, e.g.) or to play a deck that isn't based on attrition. The two leading non-attrition decks at the moment are Pyromancer's Ascension combo and Monored (more of a combo deck than an aggro deck, I think). The issue is that both of these decks share two common problems. One of them is that their entire gameplan is based around one card. For Ascension, this is its namesake enchantment, and for Monored, this is Goblin Guide. It's not that it's impossible to win without playing one of those cards during the first few turns of the game, especially considering that Monored can just use its other spells and Ascension can play a bunch of manipulation to hit the enchantment later on, it's just that the percentages are very, very different depending on when/if you draw that card. For Ascension, the importance of the enchantment is obvious, but I don't see why people who talk about Monored don't stress Goblin Guide more; the deck simply wouldn't be playable if that card didn't exist. The other weakness that they both share is that they are very vulnerable to certain hate cards that are actually played in sideboards. Note that being vulnerable to cards that no one has in their 75 is irrelevant; people actually have oblivion rings and disenchants and negates for Ascension and people actually have Firewalkers and Obstinate Baloths for Monored. Again, it's not that the hate is unbeatable by any means, it just poses a significant problem for both decks, especially since neither of them can post the 80% game one win percentage that a deck like Dredge can use to hope to overcome this effect.

 The question becomes what can we do or change about one of these decks to fix these problems. For Ascension, the answer may be to play a different combo deck, but the only suitable option, Runeflare Trap, suffers the same problems only to a greater degree. That leaves Monored, which poses a different problem. In order to change the deck, we're going to have to add another color. To figure out which color, let's begin by isolating the truly good cards in the deck and getting rid of all the crappy cards that are forcing us to be a "combo" deck rather than an aggro deck. We're left with Lightning Bolt and Goblin Guide, and that's about it. The premier problem with red right now is its thorough lack of exciting creatures. Some dudes that want to make the cut in a more creature-intense version of the deck are Plated Geopede and Cunning Sparkmage. They do not fit in with the hasty mindset of RDW right now, but they are both solid role players in an aggressive strategy. Sparkmage is an Onyx Goblet that helps keep mana guys and Elspeths in check, while Geopede is good at dealing a bunch of damage through fetchlands.

 The next problems are the lack of a real removal spell, the lack of other powerful one and two-drop creatures, and the need to have some sort of 'endgame' lined up. When I think endgame, I'm not talking about super expensive stuff, I mean something like a Ranger of Eos, a Bloodbraid Elf, or a Vengevine that could provide a truly powerful play in the 3-5 portion of the deck's curve. This would seem to suggest Green and White as two alternate colors. White provides Steppe Lynx on one and Stoneforge Mystic as a two-drop (good with Sparkmage) while it has Ajani and Elspeth in addition to Ranger in the upper cost range. Green has Hierarch and/or mana dudes early in the curve with Elf and Vine later on. The tipping point is that white has a real kill spell in Path to Exile. A lot of lists are playing Baneslayers and Knights of the Reliquary, and having something to beat fatties is very important. Also, Path is synergistic with landfall as a combat trick. So, I assembled the following list:

R/W Aggro | The Rusty Machete

24 Creatures:
4 Goblin Guide
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Plated Geopede
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Cunning Sparkmage
4 Ranger of Eos
11 Spells:
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Adventuring Gear
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant

25 Lands:
4 Marsh Flats
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
5 Mountain
5 Plains
1 Teetering Peaks

15 Sideboard:
15 Umara Raptor

A few explanations about numbers and such. 2 Bushwhacker is necessary because it's a decent card when combined with all the early drops and I want to be able to cast 2 Rangers in the same game profitably. Ranger seems like by far the best 4-drop this deck can play, so I want to max out on him and on the cards I want to search for with him. Mystic has been relegated to a 2-of because playing two in the same game is pretty unnecessary and the targets have been relegated to one that does damage (Gear) and one that gains life / combos with Sparkmage (Collar). The final two slots are the 25th land (more on this in a second) and 1 Elspeth, just to mix it up a little and serve as the fifth mid-to-late game type of threat.

 The sideboard is a little up for grabs. I want something to come in for Sparkmage and Collar against the control and combo decks, probably including at least one more Adventuring Gear so that I can leave in Mystics profitably. War Priest of Thune, Oblivion Ring, Elspeth, Ajani, Manabarbs, and Ruinblaster are all candidates for this slot. Having something against Jund might also be nice, though I'm not quite sure exactly what card I'm going to want in that spot. One thing I'm definitely going to have is 4 Act of Treason with a Smoldering Spires. Courtesy to Lance and Kai for this idea, but I just can't get enough of it. Act of Treason your Primeval Titan, fetch up Peaks and Spires when you attack. And it only gets better if there's a Lynx or a Geopede on the table. I have the Peaks main as a pseudo-spell that makes mana so I only need the Spires in the board. This will also let me switch out the Peaks for the Spires in matchups where blocking is more relevant than the two points of damage (Jund, U/W, e.g.).

 I imagine this deck to be very strong against the combo decks and all the ramp/Titan/Turboland decks, where your speed should be enough to kill them before they get online. U/W has trouble with Rangers and is being built more and more for attrition and control mirrors, so I don't see that matchup as too rough. Against Naya and Mythic we have Sparkmage as the all-star, and while we don't quite have the same late game, both of their decks have problems dealing with fast starts backed by disruption in the form of removal for their early plays (not to mention Sparkmage-Collar is unbeatable if we can get it online). Monored shouldn't be tough since we're basically playing a better version of their deck with better early creatures, Rangers, and Basilisk Collar. Jund will probably be a bit unfavorable, but with tight play I think it's by no means unwinnable, especially if they don't mulligan aggressively into hands that can kill our early plays.

 There are some notable absences from this list. Student of Warfare didn't make the cut. He grinds hard, but we're not a rock deck, we're an aggro deck, and spending our first two turns on a creature that can just get bolted is underwhelming. Our Rangers are also trying to let us assemble a kill, not just letting us utilize all our mana to make many big guys. Searing Blaze is great tempo, but I don't want to have these sitting in my hand against decks without creatures. Another issue is the manacost- I realize Bushwhacker realistically costs double red too, but removal needs to be castable at any moment and I don't want to be staring at a Cobra I can't kill because I wanted to play a Lynx on one while Whacker doesn't need to come online until turn 5. Ajani just isn't good enough to justify play over Ranger or Elspeth in the main in that slot.

 Before I go, a quick note on why I built this deck to grind in with rather than just playing my Frost Titan/Rite list; I don't think the other list is bad, by any means, in fact I still think it's actually pretty strong and I would consider it for the main event if I can win a grinder. For grinders, though, I want to be aggressive. This deck is much better at punishing opponents' play errors since it has a fast clock and forces them to make decisions from the start of the game. Another consideration is that Nats has 60 minute rounds, while grinders are only 50 (I believe). Regardless, even if they were the same time, in grinders, if they go to time, after five turns the game is decided by life total. If this situation arises, this deck is in a good place whereas slower decks are not. This is why I agree that it is paramount to play a deck that can win in the time alotted for a grinder. Hopefully, I'll have good news to report from Minneapolis in a few days.