The Rundown is a new weekly feature that shows the results of local tournaments in Montreal and interesting decks around the world that we find for you guys to try out at your next FNM. No elaborate discussion, just list after list after list.
In this week’s Rundown, we look at a few key decks to look out for this weekend as the first post-M12 Standard tournaments are ready take place. KYT’s updated Podcaster deck is included.
[deck title=Tempered Steel by Ume_Nao (1st)]
[Lands]
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Inkmoth Nexus
6 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Memnite
4 Signal Pest
4 Spellskite
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Dispatch
4 Glint Hawk Idol
3 Mox Opal
4 Origin Spellbomb
3 Preordain
4 Tempered Steel
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
3 Contested War Zone
1 Dismember
3 Mana Leak
3 Refraction Trap
2 Revoke Existence
3 Shrine of Loyal Legions
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
One of the best-performing decks on MTGO for the last week, Tempered Steel is showing itself to be the real deal in Standard. Looking at tournament results published by Wizards, we can see that it won the last Premier and it finished 2nd in the previous one. It performed well in Block at Nagoya and seems to be just as powerful with access to [card]Steel Overseer[/card] in Standard.
For a worst version of the deck, check out Luan B Wong’s deck tech here.
[deck title=UB Control by Justin Richardson]
[Lands]
6 Island
4 Swamp
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Creeping Tar Pit
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
2 Grave Titan
2 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Doom Blade
2 Into the Roil
4 Mana Leak
1 Karn Liberated
4 Jace Beleren
1 Liliana Vess
4 Preordain
2 Despise
1 Deprive
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Go for the Throat
2 Dismember
1 Stoic Rebuttal
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
3 Memoricide
4 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Flashfreeze
1 Batterskull
4 Spellskite
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
As Gerry Thompson wrote in his recent article, it seems if you want to be playing a control deck this weekend, it should be UB. UB performs better against a wider range of decks while UW is at its best when you know what the metagame looks like. The question is: which UB Control list should you play? Justin Richardson who has been on a crazy tear over the past year (winning a PTQ, Champs and a Nats invite) suggests the list above.
He tells me he doesn’t believe in any list that contains [card]Spreading Seas[/card] anymore. Valakut players are playing more [card]Forest[/card]s nowadays, so it’s harder to color screw them. Not only that, in the post-M12 world, some Valakut players will be packing [card]Solemn Simulacrum[/card]s. Another good point Justin brought up was the fact that Spreading Seas worked well in conjunction with [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card]. A lot of games used to be won by disrupting their mana and just fatesealing for the win.
[deck title=Mono Blue Podcaster v1.1 by Kar Yung Tom]
[Lands]
13 Island
3 Forest
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Misty Rainforest
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Silver Myr
4 Spellskite
4 Treasure Mage
4 Grand Architect
1 Sylvok Replica
3 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Precursor Golem
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Platinum Angel
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Preordain
4 Birthing Pod
2 Mindslaver
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
4 Mental Misstep
1 Dismember
1 Contagion Engine
3 Batterskull
2 Ratchet Bomb
4 Perilous Myr
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
This is by no means a finalized list but it’s something I have been playing around with. I am constantly changing cards as we speak. I will however leave some ramblings.
– The [card]Ponder[/card] experiment is over. I don’t know what I was thinking. You really do need a TON of fetchlands for [card]Ponder[/card] to be better. I always wondered why it was the preferred choice in older formats. Now I know.
– Some people have suggested [card]Augury Owl[/card] as a replacement for [card]Silver Myr[/card], but I am not sure I can get behind that. I have won my share of games where a turn 2 [card]Silver Myr[/card] allowed me to cast [card]Birthing Pod[/card] on turn 3 and be able to activate it the same turn to push me really far ahead.
– Others have suggested the inclusion of [card]Misty Rainforest[/card]s and a [card]Forest[/card]. It makes logical sense and I am playing around with it, but it seems the mana is always so tight that I rarely want to be paying the full mana price for [card]Birthing Pod[/card].
– However, the inclusion of Forest does enable me to include [card]Sylvok Replica[/card] as a silver bullet. I also wonder if this is where I should also be replacing [card]Precursor Golem[/card]s with [card]Acidic Slime[/card]s. 9 power IS a lot though.
– [card]Platinum Angel[/card] is certainly the card that will get the most looks. It’s one of my favorite cards of all-time and it probably should not be in the deck, but after getting my face pounded by Milton playing [card]Tempered Steel[/card], her inclusion allowed me to turn the tide. The problem with [card]Tempered Steel[/card], which I think is Podcaster’s worst matchup, is the amount of evasion the deck has. [card]Vault Skirge[/card]s and [card]Signal Pest[/card]s are extremely annoying for us.
[card]Contagion Engine[/card] seems like one of the better solutions to the puzzle, but this is where [card]Steel Overseer[/card] is their MVP. [card]Contagion Engine[/card] is a very bad card against Allies and it is also very bad against [card]Tempered Steel[/card] when they have Overseer action going. [card]Platinum Angel[/card] won me games because not only did Milton had to have a [card]Dispatch[/card] for my Angel, he needed to have one for my [card]Spellskite[/card] too and if he actually does have that many [card]Dispatch[/card]es in his opening hand, it often means a slow hand for him where [card]Platinum Angel[/card] is no longer plan A anyway.
– Other cards I have been playing around with include [card]Frost Titan[/card] and [card]Spine of Ish Sah[/card]. Sometimes, all I need is a [card]Frost Titan[/card] to tap their Titan or their gigantic [card]Vault Skirge[/card] to win the game. The Spine was part of the original Block decklist, but the question is if it is too slow. In one of my experimental versions, I needed it as a win condition when I had stalled the game with [card]Platinum Angel[/card].
– The sideboard is very much just thrown together. I have gone on record stating that I hate [card]Ratchet Bomb[/card] as a card, but it is needed if this [card]Tempered Steel[/card] deck really is that popular.
Take care,
KYT
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.
