Hello All,

Enjoy,
William Blondon, Mana Deprived editor

“Valor pleases you, Crom; so grant me this one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to hell with you!” – Conan, the Barbarian

Hello everyone out there in Internetland and welcome to a special “travelling” edition of The Cardboard Witch. That’s me by the way. My real name is Nina, I’m a game store manager from Toronto, I play Magic (mostly Standard/Draft) and I write a blog about the game. If you’re interested in checking out some of my other articles about MTG you can find my blog here. This is my first article on Mana Deprived so if it turns out horribly, you guys should blame KYT for picking up random bloggers on Twitter instead of hiring professional writers.

Okay so with that out of the way I guess I should just come out and ask: how do you like this Standard format? If you just answered “I think it’s awesome” I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you were not playing some version of Caw Blade, hated either [Card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/Card] or [Card]Stoneforge Mystic[/Card] and yesterday was possibly the best day of your life. If this is not the case you should probably just stop reading this article now and go find something constructive to do with your time instead of crying over the banning; may I suggest picking on small children or rooting for the Yankees?

If you’re still reading this I’m going to assume that you were getting a little sick of playing in a one-deck format where that one deck was worth 6 Ben Franklins ($600) on the open market. I’m also assuming that you didn’t own any of the key rares for Caw Blade and were tired of losing to all the “fat cats” in your local environment who did.

Let’s break it down financially for a moment here: Due to the presence of power rares like [Card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/Card], [Card]Stoneforge Mystic[/Card] and [Card]Batterskull[/Card], Caw Blade is, till July 1st at least, at once the best, most popular and most expensive deck in Standard. The average online price for this deck is about $600; you don’t want to ask about the high!

There’s a huge format rotation coming with the release of Innistrad (Sept. 30th) and only the most demented hate-troll “Spikes” in Magic believe they’ll reprint cards like Jace or Stoneforge between now and then. Sorry “Spike”, the banning seems to be a clear indication that this will not ever happen.

Winning with Caw Blade was not particularly easy; the deck demanded a masterful pilot and did not allow for play errors. In my experience it took literally “weeks” of practice before you were able to tap the deck’s full match-winning potential. In other words, if you put the deck together today and spent 2-3 weeks putting in the 200-250 or so games it takes to really learn the deck you’d basically get just over 2 months worth of play out of it. Or there are the last pre-banning PTQs, this weekend so if you can manage to cram 250 matches in by Saturday morning, you’ve got yourself a deck, for Saturday at least.

Do you know what else you could do with that kind of cheddar over that time?

Lease a freaking car. Now I don’t know about you but that just doesn’t seem like a very good return on investment to me and based on the recent attendance numbers at PTQs, Game Day Events and FNMs all over North America I think it’s safe to say a lot of people agree, some even so happen to be Wizards employees. Faced with a seemingly insurmountable enemy most players had decided either to join the ever-swelling ranks of the Caw Blade army or stopped playing in Standard tournaments altogether.

So what if I told you there was a 3rd choice?

What if I told you that you could build a competitive Standard deck right now for less than $180 that would not only perform well in the current format at large but also literally punish anyone foolish enough to cast a Squadron Hawk against you? What if I told you that you could finally turn the tables on the U/W menace? Would you be up for a little revenge?

[Deck Title=Nina Illingworth – Fried Chicken]
[Lands]
4 Arid Mesa
10 Mountain
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Tectonic Edge
3 Teetering Peaks
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Ember Hauler
4 Furnace Scamp
4 Goblin Guide
4 Kiln Fiend
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Dismember
1 Flame Slash
3 Koth of the Hammer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
4 Shrine of Burning Rage
3 Staggershock
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
3 Arc Trail
2 Combust
1 Crush
2 Dismember
4 Manic Vandal
3 Vulshok Refugee
[/Sideboard][/Deck]

Overview

When my good friend and former game designer Jared Devlin-Scherer shipped me the earliest version of this deck a couple days after the release of New Phyrexia, I looked at it for about 15 seconds total before telling him “this will never win tournaments” and closing the email.

You see on the surface this deck looks just like every other Burn build in the history of Magic; fast, aggressive and ultimately a one trick pony. Historically this is the major reason that Burn rarely dominates Standard; if your opponent finds a way to deal with your “trick” through aggressive metagaming the deck falls apart completely.

Fortunately Jared was persistent and kept bugging me to “just try it” while noting that it had a particularly good match-up against Caw Blade. Frankly I had my doubts; Red Deck Wins (RDW) was only a marginal favorite over Pre-NPH versions of Caw and the introduction of [Card]Batterskull[/Card] would make racing against the U/W player’s life total significantly harder than it was before.

When I finally relented and brought the deck to our Tuesday night practice session it took me just 3 games and roughly 15 turns to realize just how wrong I was. This deck managed to combine all the aggression and pure speed of traditional Burn while still emphasizing synergy, durability and most importantly “reach” in a way Red hasn’t been able to accomplish since Cursed Scroll passed into oblivion.

I think I finished that first night something like 14-2 but more importantly I was a perfect 5-0 against the dreaded menace: Cawblade. Naturally this initial version of the deck would change over the next few weeks as the format developed but Jared and I kept working on it; tweaking, tightening and metagaming until we ended up with the final design you see in this article. If I had to describe this deck in a single word the only choice would be “dirty”.

What I Think It Is Good At

For starters I nicknamed the deck “Fried Chicken” because when played well it usually makes short work of Caw Blade opponents; particularly those who favor Squadron Hawk over Spellskite in the main-deck.

This is not an idle boast; the deck’s extremely low mana curve combined with a number of problem cards like [Card]Goblin Guide[/Card], [Card]Dismember[/Card], [Card]Searing Blaze[/Card], [Card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/Card], [Card]Tectonic Edge[/Card] and [Card]Koth of the Hammer[/Card] allow it to aggressively attack Control decks from multiple angles and thereby force unfavorable lines of play on the part of the opponent.

We’ll talk a little bit more about exactly how to do this later in the article but I assure you that this deck was primarily designed to beat Control in game 1 and it does this very well.

When combined with a sideboard built around aggressively attacking the metagame player’s artifacts this makes it frightfully easy to consistently win these match-ups; particularly if you’re on the play in game 3!

Despite this deck’s reputation as a “Caw Killer”, and given the change to come due to the bannings, it’s also remarkably strong in the current environment as a whole because so much of the format revolves around cheap (2 drop) creatures and creature removal.

Cards like [Card]Fauna Shaman[/Card], [Card]Lotus Cobra[/Card] and [Card]Kalastria Highborn[/Card] do not fare any better against this deck’s removal suite than [Card]Stoneforge Mystic[/Card] did and if you kill their enablers quickly most of the decks using these cards simply won’t have time to “get big” with a Titan/Sphinx/Praetor or whatever. Even when they do drop a disgusting bomb on the table most of the time you can just “dome” them with burn to finish the game before it really matters.

On the opposite side of the coin everyone is running a bunch of cheap answers to cards like Stoneforge, Shaman and Cobra which is largely ineffective or at least less effective against this design. With only 16 creatures, 8 of which sacrifice themselves and 4 of which have haste we really don’t “care” very much about their removal spells after the first couple of turns!

In terms of actual decks I’ve consistently beaten Boros, Elves, Big Red (Koth + Proliferate), W/G Mystic, U/W Mystic, Tempered Steel, Valakut, RUG, U/B Control (with and without Tezzeret) and a whole bunch of homebrews in testing. The deck also seems to have a roughly 60/40 matchup against Vampires; usually you win but occasionally they draw every [Card]Bloodghast[/Card]/[Card]Kalastria Highborn[/Card] in their pile and can grind out a long one. I have never tested against “Soul Sisters” version 2.0 (infinite life gain combo) but I assume if you just burn anything named [Card]Leonin Relic-Warder[/Card] or [Card]Suture Priest[/Card] as soon as it hits the table the match-up will end in your favor.

What I Think It’s Not Good At

For the most part, this deck has very few bad game 1 match-ups in the past Standard environment as well as the immediate future of the “new” standard environment. During testing I’ve struggled to win against Splinter Twin combo decks pre-sideboard; particularly Grixis versions with a lot of discard. This isn’t to say it can’t be done but playing the match and looking at my notes it feels very much like the Twin player is the game 1 favorite; maybe 65/35.

I’ve also oddly found the deck does not match up well in game 1 with certain versions of Mono Black Control, especially if they maindeck cards like [Card]Phyrexian Crusader[/Card] or worse [Card]Phyrexian Obliterator[/Card]. Once again this isn’t insurmountable and the sideboard does address these issues but you’re looking at a 40/60 match-up in your opponent’s favor.

Unfortunately despite having very few bad game 1 match-ups this deck does have a number of problem cards from opposing sideboards that can give it some grief. By far the most dangerous of these cards is [Card]Leyline of Sanctity[/Card]; for which there is virtually no legitimate answer in all of Standard when you are playing mono red.

You can run [Card]Ratchet Bomb[/Card] but it’s not very effective due to the white artifact removal in game 2 and it takes 5 turns to be able to destroy the Leyline, by which time your opponent will be able to find and cast ANOTHER Leyline.

The other option involves destroying your mana-base to include green or white mana and sideboard cards like [Card]Naturalize[/Card] or [Card]Revoke Existence[/Card]. This will however make Koth significantly less effective and probably eliminate [Card]Tectonic Edge[/Card] from your arsenal.

Truth is, against this card we simply have to grin and bear it; win game 1 and then board in as many creatures as possible for game 2 and 3 hoping to just “get there”. To be fair this isn’t entirely impossible; just use your removal on the opponent’s creatures and crash in with 4/4 Koth Mountains and weenies as quickly as possible. As a side note remember that Leyline does absolutely nothing to [Card]Furnace Scamp[/Card] as it does not target the player (read it) but it makes [Card]Searing Blaze[/Card] completely unplayable in the match-up because it requires targeting the player. Sideboard accordingly.

Many of the other problem cards for this build are adequately addressed in the sideboard;

– [Card]Spellskite[/Card]: Sideboard Dismember and Manic Vandal.
– [Card]Kor Firewalker[/Card]: Sideboard Dismember along with Main Deck Shrines.
– [Card]Sword of War and Peace[/Card]: Sideboard Manic Vandal and Crush.
– [Card]Phyrexian Crusader[/Card]: Sideboard Dismember and Main Deck Shrines.
– [Card]Deceiver Exarch[/Card]: Sideboard Dismember and Combust.
– [Card]Vulshok Refugee[/Card]: Sideboard Dismember and Main Deck Shrines.
– [Card]Phyrexian Obliterator[/Card]: [Card]Dismember[/Card] By the way, have I mentioned that Dismember is a very important card in this format?

I should probably also mention that theoretically multiple recurring [Card]Vengevine[/Card]s should give this deck some trouble but in all of my testing I’ve simply “Searing Blazed” it a couple of times and outraced my opponent quite easily; mileage may vary I guess.

What The Sideboard Does

One of the truly beautiful things about having so many good game 1 matchups in the format is that it allows you to build a tightly focused sideboard designed to answer the cards your opponents will use to attack your deck.

The value of being “the bully” in these matches cannot be overestimated here because you can virtually guarantee that every deck in the format will be bringing in powerful sideboard cards against you when you play Red Deck Wins.

As previously mentioned [Card]Dismember[/Card] covers a lot of ground in this sideboard and in a perfect, aggro-free world I’d main deck all 4 copies and just be done with it.

The 4 [Card]Manic Vandal[/Card]s are primarily a metagame choice; typically most control players will board out their [Card]Mana Leak[/Card] while leaving in [Card]Spell Pierce[/Card] which is pretty worthless against Vandal. Additionally if your opponent does bring in a [Card]Leyline of Sanctity[/card] you’ll want the extra body to bash with.

The singleton [Card]Crush[/Card] was simply a concession to the fact that you absolutely had to control Caw Blade’s artifacts post sideboard or you’d quickly see a 1-0 lead turn into a 1-2 loss. Given the reason news there is the possibility for change.

[Card]Combust[/Card] combines with Dismember to give you 6 answers to Deceiver Twin combo decks and comes in against the periodic [Card]Baneslayer Angel[/Card].

The 3 copies of [Card]Arc Trail[/Card] are all about securing the aggro matchup and are particularly effective against Vampires, other Red decks and anything running [Card]Fauna Shaman[/Card] and mana critters.

Finally the 3 [Card]Vulshok Refugee[/Card]s are a concession to the fact that other people may realize that RDW is pretty good and you simply can’t win the mirror match if your opponent has Refugees and you don’t.

To be completely honest, the first time I saw this card in Standard was from one of Patrick Sullivan’s top 8 deck lists and as soon as I saw it, I wished Patrick had never made the deck. This is in part because people have been asking me “Are you playing Sullivan’s list?” ever since but also because the moment I saw 4 copies of [Card]Vulshok Refugee[/Card]s in his sideboard I knew I would be forced to start including it in mine. I’d have included 4 copies but I simply could not find the room while still adequately addressing Caw and Twin decks, we’ll see how this changes in the “new” format.

How To Play It

Despite rumors to the contrary, Red Deck Wins is not a particularly easy deck to play in the Standard format. This isn’t to say it’s incredibly hard but winning with RDW typically requires a rigid adherence to a special type of thinking relatively uncommon to other colors.

Those of you who sling mountains regularly already know what I mean but for those of you who don’t I’ve recently written an article about this very subject on my blog, which can be read here.

While the discussion is somewhat thorough I believe it does a pretty good job of “covering the bases” in terms of properly playing RDW. With this article reviewing most of the basics I’d like to focus here on how to play specific matchups in the format with a focus on decks I consider “Tier 1” in the post-NPH environment.

Boros

This is actually a relatively simple match-up because your role in the match will be clearly defined the moment you finish the die roll.

On the play you are the aggressor and want to spend the first two turns dumping out creatures; preferably a [Card]Goblin Guide[/Card] and [Card]Kiln Fiend[/Card].

On the draw you shift into the control role, using your multitude of burn spells to keep his landfall weenies from mattering. Regardless of who went first however you’ll want to use your removal primarily to remove enemy creatures in the early game with a particular focus on cards like [Card]Steppe Lynx[/Card] and [Card]Plated Geopede[/Card].

The only real advantage Boros has against you is its equipment, now severely mitigated by the banning of [Card]Stoneforge Mystic[/Card], and Landfall packages. By taking out the creatures that enable these cards you significantly stunt the Boros player’s game plan; typically for long enough to simply aggro him out with Koth and some weenies.

Don’t be afraid to play your burn spells at sorcery speed if your opponent isn’t saving “fetch lands”, it is better to give up the element of surprise than to suddenly find yourself unable to contain a 4/5 Steppe Lynx.

Sideboarding for this matchup can be a little tricky because it’s often hard to tell if your opponent is packing [Card]Kor Firewalker[/Card]s or not. Typically I will assume “not” in game 2 but hedge my bets by leaving in both Dismembers.

In this situation I will usually board out all 4 [Card]Furnace Scamp[/Card]s, 2 [Card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/Card] and the singleton [Card]Flame Slash[/Card] for 4 [Card]Manic Vandal[/Card] and 3 [Card]Arc Trail[/Card].

This at once allows me to attack my opponent’s equipment cards and improves my ability to “snipe weenies” in the early game. Additionally since the Shrine has a habit of winning you game 1 and by dropping down to 2 copies will often mitigate your opponent’s anti-artifact sideboard cards. Going into game 3 if my opponent has still not shown me a [Card]Kor Firewalker[/Card] I’ll usually take both [Card]Dismember[/Card]s and the remaining Shrines for 3 [Card]Vulshok Refugee[/Card] and either the [Card]Crush[/Card] or [Card]Flame Slash[/Card] depending on how much equipment I saw.

If I do see I lose to Firewalker in game 2 I’ll usually bring the 2 Shrines back for game 3 and go up to 4 [Card]Dismembers[/Card] at the cost of a [Card]Kiln Fiend[/Card], a [Card]Searing Blaze[/Card], either a [Card]Koth of the Hammer[/Card] or [Card]Staggershock[/Card] (depending on creature count) and a [Card]Tectonic Edge[/Card].

Typically you’ll beat this deck by turn 5 on the play but games that feature sideboard cards or where you are on the draw tend to drag out until turn 6 or 7. Just remember that Boros can’t win without creatures while this deck most certainly can.

B/R Vampires

While slightly harder than Boros, this is another fairly easy matchup that plays out similarly regardless of what your opponent draws: both of you kill each other’s creatures very easily but you have more direct damage, sacrifice effects and Koth whereas he has basically [Card]Kalastria Highborn[/Card] and recurring [Card]Bloodghast[/Card].

In my experience this isn’t much of a contest and as long as you focus on getting rid of Kalastria in game 1 it’s pretty easy to adopt the control role in this matchup and simply grind your opponent out with Koth and a Shrine of Burning Rage or two.

This can be complicated somewhat by the presence of main deck Manic Vandals but they are fairly easy to play around and at this point should no longer be a consideration for many players in game 1. Besides if your opponent is casting [Card]Gray Ogre[/Card] to destroy your [Card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/Card] it should slow him down enough to let you start throwing fire at his noodle.

In summation, if you kill Kalastria immediately, watch out for the Haste trigger on Bloodghast and use your removal to clear out enemy blockers as necessary than you should easily win game 1.

My sideboard strategy varies slightly depending on what I believe my opponent will be siding against me. Typically most Vampires players will be rocking [Card]Manic Vandal[/Card]s and 1-2 [Card]Crush[/Card]es in the sideboard for the artifact meta and you can bet that if you won game 1 with a Shrine all of those cards are coming in.

If I suspect this I will usually board out all 4 of my Shrines and both copies of [Card]Dismember[/Card] to add 3 [Card]Arc Trail[/Card]s and 3 [Card]Vulshok Refugee[/Card]. Recently however I’ve started to encounter Vampire decks that bring in 4 copies of [Card]Phyrexian Crusader[/Card] and a triple pack of Swords (War and Peace, Feast and Famine, Body and Mind) against RDW.

If I have reason to suspect this is my opponent’s sideboard plan (say because he’s just waffle-stomped me in game 2 with those cards), I’ll typically remove 4 [Card]Furnace Scamp[/Card]s and 4 [Card]Kiln Fiend[/Card]s for 3 [Card]Arc Trail[/Card]s, 2 additional copies of [Card]Dismember[/Card] and 3 [Card]Manic Vandal[/Card]s.

Finally while this may seem obvious I should mention that it’s important to kill your opponent’s [Card]Vampire Hexmage[/Card] as soon as possible. It is pretty much pointless to cast cards like [Card]Koth of the Hammer[/Card] or [Card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/Card] until you do and First Strike will wreak havoc on creature combat against this deck anyways.

Having your opponent tap 2 mana and sacrifice a creature to kill Koth after you’ve beat him for 4 with a [Card]Mountain[/Card] isn’t a huge loss but letting him block the mountain and then kill Koth for free most certainly is.

This is a weird match-up that can end very quickly if your opponent doesn’t draw enough creatures or drags the game out for 9-10 turns if he draws enough Kalastrias and Lifelink effects to keep you at bay. Don’t worry about the turn count just focus on getting rid of his Vampires and controlling the board long enough to run him off the table with “Kothed-up” mountains.

Caw Blade or The Next Incarnation of Control

This match is a little funny because it can swing from frightfully easy to difficult but manageable depending on the composition of your opponent’s main deck and his overall skill as a pilot. Additionally winning the opening roll to go first is fairly important here; if you do it’s almost unnecessary to play around [Card]Spell Pierce[/Card] while if you don’t this card must constantly remain on the surface of your thoughts for the entire game.

Typically you’ll want to drop a turn 1 creature regardless and wait to see what your opponent does on turn 2. If he’s a poor player he’d slam down [Card]Stoneforge Mystic[/Card], an average or above average player will typically play [Card]Squadron Hawk[/Card] and a very good player will play either a [Card]Spellskite[/Card] or absolutely nothing.

Once again being on the play is pretty helpful here because it lets you throw down a [Card]Kiln Fiend[/Card] or [Card]Ember Hauler[/Card] and make the option of “doing nothing on turn 2” pretty unfavorable.

When they played the Mystic you immediately burned it out (preferably with a [Card]Searing Blaze[/Card]) and crash into your opponent knowing that this game will likely end in victory. Oddly enough, if he plays a [Card]Squadron Hawk[/Card] you do exactly the same thing; Blaze it out and bash to seize control of the early game. If you do not have the Blaze, it’s probably a better idea to just crash with your 1 drop, letting him decide if he wants to chump block/trade (Guide/Scamp) and then cast something like the Shrine or [Card]Kiln Fiend[/Card]/[Card]Ember Hauler[/Card] on turn 2.

If your opponent plays a [Card]Spellskite[/Card] things get a little trickier; you’ll probably want to [Card]Dismember[/Card]/[Card]Flame Slash[/Card] it immediately because this card is remarkably good at blanking almost every single burn spell in your deck. Even just attacking with a [Card]Goblin Guide[/Card]/[Card]Ember Hauler[/Card] and throwing an additional spell at the Skite becomes a legitimate although undesirable option in the face of what this card can do to your game. If you can’t kill it your best bet is to throw out a [Card]Kiln Fiend[/Card] or a [Card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/Card] and ship the turn back to try and “overwhelm” the Spellskite later in the game.

If your opponent does nothing simply attack and drop some more creatures; if he wants to use a [Card]Mana Leak[/Card] at this point that’s fine but there’s no reason to walk into [Card]Spell Pierce[/Card] and [Card]Condemn[/Card] on the same turn.

Once the early game has played out, the rest of game 1 revolves around maintaining pressure, controlling your opponent’s equipment cards and baiting him into tapping out long enough to let you resolve a Koth or dome him out of the game in one furious burst.

This means playing creatures into open mana, burning out your opponent’s creatures either at sorcery speed to play around [Card]Spell Pierce[/Card] or as your opponent tries to equip if you aren’t worried about his counters and occasionally making a “poor” play just to see your opponent tap out before you drop “The Hammer” on him.

Remember, in a pinch both [Card]Flame Slash[/Card] and [Card]Dismember[/Card] can be used to execute a 4/4 Germ token and temporarily shut down your opponent’s [Card]Batterskull[/Card].

Finally I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the awesome game winning power running 4 main deck copies of [Card]Tectonic Edge[/Card] gives you in this matchup. The simple truth is that due to running 6 non-colored mana sources and 11-12 dual lands your typical Caw Blade deck has a pretty sketchy manabase; it’s often fairly easy to keep your opponent off either white or blue mana as the game progresses simply by blowing up a couple of Tectonic Edges along the way.

In particular you’ll want to try and take out your opponent’s [Card]Celestial Colonnade[/Card]s to both mess with his mana and take out a potential late game victory condition/blocker at the same time.

Naturally Caw Blade attempts to compensate for this instability by running 4 [Card]Preordain[/Card]s and 4 or more copies of Jace, that was until Jace got dropped “The Hammer”.

Lucky for the Caw Blade player with [Card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/Card] now banned, they won’t be able to misplay by having Jace in their deck, as an alarming amount of people do not realize that Jace was an almost dead play against this deck; your opponent really didn’t have a lot of time to tap out for a Brainstorm as you’d usually have more than enough burn to kill Jace almost immediately and when cast and used to bounce [Card]Goblin Guide[/Card] or [Card]Ember Hauler[/Card] borders on comically ineffective.

Frankly I was pretty happy when my opponent taps out for Jace because it usually means I get to resolve a Koth and in a straight fight 4/4 Mountains and removal, beats a sorcery speed [Card]Unsummon[/Card] every day of the week.

Unfortunately sideboarded games are an entirely different matter and owing to U/W’s ridiculous embarrassment of riches in that department games 2 and 3 are typically much harder affairs; although obviously still winnable or I wouldn’t have written this article.

First and foremost I will ALWAYS bring in 4 copies of [Card]Manic Vandal[/Card] and the singleton [Card]Crush[/Card] for Game 2. On the draw I usually remove all 4 [Card]Furnace Scamp[/Card]s and a [Card]Staggershock[/Card] for these cards while on the play I take out all 4 [Card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/Card] and a single [Card]Kiln Fiend[/Card].

The basic idea behind this sideboarding plan is to destroy every single piece of equipment my opponent plays and force him to beat me with “just creatures” twice in a row. Additionally I will also usually drop the main deck [Card]Flame Slash[/Card] for a [Card]Dismember[/Card] in this match-up because it is better at controlling Mystics and potential Firewalkers.

The rest of the sideboard is somewhat card specific; if I see Firewalkers or Spellskites I bring in the 4th Dismember while [Card]Baneslayer Angel[/Card] will usually goad me into bringing in both [Card]Combust[/Card]s.

Typically to make room for these cards I’ll cut additional copies of Shrine or Kiln Fiend depending on what I’ve already removed. As previously mentioned if I see [Card]Leyline of Sanctity[/Card], I will immediately board out all 4 [Card]Searing Blaze[/Card] and as many as 4 Shrines in an effort to get every creature in my sideboard into the main-deck and just overrun my opponent while burning/destroying every creature and equipment card he casts.

Once again this is a matchup that tends to produce very quick games (4-5 turns) when you’re winning and excruciatingly long games (7-9 turns) when you’re struggling to do so. Ideally you’ll want to beat your opponent before he can gain too much card advantage (not likely) or hard cast and protect his [Card]Batterskull[/Card] from harm (so turn 7ish).

Red Deck Wins (The Mirror)

The game 1 mirror match actually plays out very similarly to Boros except you won’t have a removal advantage and you can’t win by burning out all your opponent’s creatures. This naturally places significant emphasis on winning the die roll to go first because assuming equal draws it is much easier to win that way. Otherwise you’ll want to drop creatures first on the play while focusing on preserving your life total and adopting a “control-ish” stance on the draw.

Probably the best example of this is how you play [Card]Goblin Guide[/Card] immediately on the play but should hold it back on the draw if you’ve got a [Card]Lightning Bolt[/Card]; playing the second Goblin Guide still means you are losing the race while saving it for later and dropping a Bolt saves you 2 life and gives you the opportunity to clear away an additional land draw.

Try not to cast Dismember in game 1 unless you are either winning or losing by a significant margin; this is pretty much the worst match-up in Standard to just give away 4 life.

Finally as a general rule try not to cast [Card]Ember Hauler[/Card] without an open mana or Koth without a creature to block with. Both of these cards can be incredibly effective in the mirror if you play them properly but will be wasted if your opponent can answer them with a single card.

Unfortunately sideboarding in this matchup is essentially a fantastic game of “chicken” that revolves around who boarded in what to determine a winner. Naturally both players will bring in a number of [Card]Vulshok Refugee[/Card]s (3-4) and ideally both players will want to leave the maximum number of answers in their deck for enemy Refugees.

This would seem to make boarding out your [Card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/Card] a pretty foolish idea which in turn makes bringing in [Card]Manic Vandal[/Card] to control enemy Shrines a pretty good idea. In light of this it’s hard to rely on Shrines to control opposing Refugees which suggests that you should bring in additional [Card]Dismember[/Card]s.

Unfortunately you’d rather be boarding the 2 main-deck copies out because whoever is forced to play the most Dismembers in the game typically losses the mirror-match anyways!

Personally I usually assume my opponent is bringing in Vandals and Refugees but leaving out Dismember so I often board out all 4 Shrines, 4 [Card]Furnace Scamp[/Card]s and 2 [Card]Kiln Fiend[/Card]s for 3 [Card]Arc Trail[/Card], 3 [Card]Vulshok Refugee[/Card], 3 [Card]Manic Vandal[/Card] and the last [Card]Dismember[/Card].

This is however a very dangerous sideboard plan and I’m not 100% sure it’s correct as there aren’t a lot of people playing this deck in the format; yet.

Exarch Twin Combo

There are basically 2 common versions of this deck running around Standard right now and unfortunately neither of them are particularly good matchups for “Fried Chicken”. Of the two you’d much rather play the strait U/R version because while you don’t have a lot of answers to Exarch in game 1 you have some (2x Dismember, throwing 2 burn spells at once).

Unfortunately the Grixis (U/R/B) version runs between 5-7 main-deck discard spells and usually won’t bother to combo off until he’s scouted your hand and ripped away the answer.

To say that you are an underdog in game 1 to both of these decks would be something of an understatement; there is virtually no meaningful way for red to interact with a 3 casting cost 4 toughness creature that’s played at instant speed so if your opponent has the combo he’s probably going to go off and just kill you.

In light of this your job in game 1 becomes to go after your opponent as quickly and aggressively as you can while using your [Card]Tectonic Edge[/Card]s (Grixis) to keep him off 2 red mana sources for as long as possible. Do not keep slow hands in game 1 against this deck; losing to a mulligan is no different than losing because you couldn’t add up to 20 before he could make a billion dudes.

If you’re lucky you’ll be able to keep your opponent on the defensive long enough to get a [Card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/Card] up to 4 counters, draw a [Card]Dismember[/Card] or in magic pony land you might even get Koth to go Ultimate (Yeah Right, LOL!); at which point winning the game becomes considerably easier.

Oh by the way have I mentioned that both versions of these decks often main-deck 3-4 copies of [Card]Spellskite[/Card]? This is not a good game 1 matchup so I recommend a quick prayer to Crom and a straight bull rush at your opponent’s life total.

Fortunately this is actually a much easier match for us in games 2 and 3; primarily because of [Card]Dismember[/Card] and [Card]Combust[/Card]. Typically most Exarch combo decks will have few or no creatures with a toughness of less than 4 which makes [Card]Searing Blaze[/Card] a very expensive luxury and an easy pull for 2 additional copies of [Card]Dismember[/Card] and both [Card]Combust[/Card]s.

Additionally if my opponent is running [Card]Spellskite[/Card], I’ll usually remove either: 4 [Card]Furnace Scamp[/Card]s (on the draw) or 1 [Card]Furnace Scamp[/Card], 2 [Card]Kiln Fiend[/Card] and a [Card]Staggershock[/Card] for all 4 [Card]Manic Vandal[/Card]s.

Post sideboard playing against this deck becomes incredibly easy; you simply always leave up the necessary mana to cast Dismember or Combust in response to your opponent casting the Exarch. Do NOT get greedy; just kill the Exarch after he chooses what to tap out but before the effect resolves. You may be tempted to wait until your opponent actually tries to cast the Splinter Twin but doing so gives him more chances to counter/discard or otherwise negate your answer.

You should also execute [Card]Spellskite[/Card] on sight so it can’t interfere with your plans to kill the Exarch later. Assuming your opponent can’t combo off it will be fairly easy to kill him before he can hardcast a [Card]Grave Titan[/Card]/[Card]Consecrated Sphinx[/Card]/[Card]Frost Titan[/Card]/[Card]Inferno Titan[/Card] or whatever other ridiculous 6 drop he’s using as a backup plan. Usually they do actually get to cast their bomb the turn before you win but obviously that matters little if you’re winning anyways.

Anything with Lotus Cobra/Fauna Shaman

In Standard, these two little critters are without a doubt some of the most powerful enablers in the format. So why aren’t [Card]Lotus Cobra[/Card]/[Card]Fauna Shaman[/Card] decks tearing up Standard right now?

Simple, everyone knows how ridiculous these creatures are and thus goes out of their way to kill them. What’s more the vast majority of cards that kill a Cobra/Shaman also happened to kill a [Card]Stoneforge Mystic[/Card] and as we’ve already mentioned you had to kill Mystic in this format or you die to Batterskull/Swords.

The simple truth is that RUG without a [Card]Lotus Cobra[/Card] is just a slower Valakut/Jace deck and without Jace it’s basically Red/Green No-Valakut so play Red Deck Wins instead. As for Elves/Blumanji without a [Card]Fauna Shaman[/Card] it is just another aggro deck, that should probably be playing [Card]Birthing Pod[/Card]. In order to win these matches simply fry the enabler as soon as it hits the table and then play the same as you would against any Titan or Aggro deck respectively.

Frankly I don’t even really sideboard for these matches very much; against Cobra I’ll often bring in a 3rd [Card]Dismember[/Card] just to be sure and against [Card]Fauna Shaman[/Card] decks I tend to bring in 3 [Card]Arc Trail[/Card]s because they’ll usually have some 1 toughness “discardables” in play to work the [Card]Vengevine[/Card]/[Card]Birthing Pod[/Card] combo.

Honestly these are some of the easiest matches you will face with “Fried Chicken” so long as you don’t let them “combo” off with their enablers.

So now that you understand both the enemy and the weapons we can use to combat them there’s really only one thing I have left to ask. “Are you ready to get back into the fight?”

While I won’t pretend this is the best deck in Standard (Caw Blade was and the “new” format has yet to develop) I am absolutely certain that this is a very good deck that happens to have great matchups with 60 percent of the best decks in the format.

What’s more I’m pretty sure this is the best deck you can build without “dropping bones” on [Card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/Card] or [Card]Stoneforge Mystic[/Card]. If you were thinking, “Wait that means this is the best deck now”, slow your roll a minute.

Well folks, that’s about all my fingers can take for a moment and I’m pretty sure this is already an editing nightmare for whichever poor soul will be reviewing my work so I guess we’d better stop here.

As always thanks for reading and a special thank you to Mana Deprived for having me on their website; it’s been a blast writing for you guys. As a final note always remember that the only good Mystic/Cobra/Shaman is a dead Mystic/Cobra/Shaman and keep it weird gang.