Are You Ready? Dark Selesnya Deck Tech

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Spootyone

14 January 2014

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The Background

Ever since I started playing this game I have had a desire -- a great desire -- to create a deck that utilizes cards that no one else uses or that they consider non-competitive. I've always wanted to be one of those "brilliant" deck designers capable of taking something previously unplayable and making it tier 1 (or at least 1.5?). Over the time I've been playing I have struggled to do this. I mean, it's not an easy thing to do, finding a hidden gem before the thousands of other professionals do. Granted, I'm not saying I have yet, but I think I've gotten incredibly close to it and I wanted to share this with you all.

What if I told you set out planning to create a selesnya control deck? It's crazy, I know. Especially in the standard environment we find ourselves in with not a single Oblivion Ring or Wrath of God. I did try, though. And that was where the origin of this deck came from. But then I returned to one of my favorite cards that were released from Dragon's Maze. A card that was used momentarily and then quickly considered lackluster. A card that I first saw and went "this is one of the best cards in the set..."

That card is Ready / Willing. It's one of the many fuse cards released in DGM that have yet to get any real respect from the competitive scene. One that began seeing competitive play recently has been Flesh / Blood, which was "introduced" to competitive magic by Brad Nelson during Pro Tour Theros. Seeing him do with Flesh / Blood what I want to do with Ready / Willing was really inspiring, but I had been so caught up trying to make what was my current standard build at the time work that I completely disregarded it. It's time, now, though. So allow me to begin by going into detail on the card, itself:

Let's start by looking at the "ready" portion of the card. For 3 mana, you can give all your creatures indestructible, as well as untap them all. Rootborn Defenses is usually the preferred method of indestructibility in G/W decks due to its "populate" ability, but it's very worth noting that they have the same cmc. The untap function is great because it allows you to give all your creatures pseudo-vigilance. And this pseudo-vigilance works wonders as a combat trick against many decks -- especially when you don't have to worry about trading in the process. So, for the "ready" half of this card, we have protection from Supreme Verdict and other removal. Control deck defenses: Check.

The "willing" half of this card is what really drew me into it when the card was first spoiled. I mean, at the time Vampire Nighthawk was a thing (and might I add, a terrible thing), so I was very alert to the whole lifelink/deathtouch combo. So for three mana at instant speed, you get to potentially trick your opponent into losing all or many of their threats, as well as gain a chunk of life back in the process. And the best part is that they can play around it all they want -- it doesn't help them all too much (assuming they aren't control decks that can Counterspell it into oblivion). Do they allow you to attack through their Desecration Demon at the risk of losing him? Do they hold back their Polukranos, World Eater for fear of a now-vampiric bear ruining their day? You don't even need the card in your hand after they fall for it once -- the will fear it every single time you have mana open to play it. And I just absolutely love that about this card. Best of all, this half actually works quite well against aggro decks. The lifegain + removal combo can easily give you the tempo advantage needed to last until you play your bombs that they cannot handle, namely Archangel of Thune. And yes, this deck contains the angel I so adore (but we'll get to that a little later). Aggro deck defenses: Check.

So finally, let's talk fuse. At 6 total cmc, we can fuse the two effects of ready / wiling into a real powerhouse of a card. All your creatures untap, are indestructible, have deathtouch, and have lifelink. Wow. That's a game-changer. One misstep by your opponent and they're right in your trap. And it will completely blow them out -- I assure you. I mean...I'll always take a one-sided board wipe that gains me a large amount of life in the process. Aggro decks will be completely shut down. Midrange decks take a very serious hit. Control decks don't particularly care about the fuse, but we all know we're only using the "ready" half against them anyway.

The Building

Hopefully, I've grabbed your attention. Because it's time to discuss the kind of deck this card fits into and what I've decided to do with it. If Hythonia the Cruel is anything of an example, we already know that deathtouch on an already huge creature is essentially non-existent. If I'm going to be killing the opposing creature anyway I don't need deathtouch. Conversely, if I'm going to only be killing it due to the deathtouch, I don't want to waste my 4/4 or 5/5 in the process. The best kind of creatures to have this set of abilities would be tiny, efficient creatures and/or creatures with first-strike or double-strike.

This also fits well with the first half of the card which only gets full value if you're alpha-striking on your turns. Thus, we are left with a generally aggro/weenie playstyle in the colors of green white and black. That's good! It's the colors we want to be in.

Many people probably already know of Craig Wescoe's G/W aggro deck that won Pro Tour Dragon's Maze. His is the sort of deck we want to start with -- a basic white weenie. It has the creatures we want to build with. I already knew I wanted to use Precinct Captain as he is both a first-strike creature as well as a weenie engine, and is very good against several decks right now. Along with him came Voice of Resurgence, which not only is a good card but whose token takes advantage of the large number of tiny creatures we plan on having. Needing a one-drop, I decided to go with Soldier of the Pantheon. It's one of the best one-drops in standard right now and is much easier to curve out with over something like Experiment One or Tormented Hero. At this point I knew I needed a top end, so I figured Loxodon Smiter and/or Boon Satyr and/or Advent of the Wurm would do the trick. But it was brought to my attention during playtesting how well Elspeth, Sun's Champion synergizes with Ready / Willing. I tried her out and was immediately hooked. Unfortunately, this left me with a lot of bad combos in the deck and lots of clunky play.

First off, Elspeth is a 6-drop. That's a bit high in this format without any ramp unless you play control. I tried out ramp and although it got me to 'Speth faster, it left me in an absolutely horrendous position against control. And so I decided to go with disruption instead. I may not be in control colors but I did what I could! Celestial Flare and Selesnya Charm did a good job of removing threats both big and small as I did what I could to survive til 6 mana. But again, I was struggling against certain matchups. The biggest of which was the MBD matchup, as I simply could not beat the turn 2 Pack Rat.

The second issue I was having was that I wanted and needed to use her -3 ability, but I had creatures too big for it, and would end up killing myself in the process. It felt weird. And it meant I needed to remove G/W staples like Loxodon Smiter, Advent of the Wurm and Boon Satyr from the deck just to play her effectively. What problems did this cause? I didn't have the creatures to out-power the turn 2 Pack Rat.

"Use Last Breath ya' ding-dong!"

I tried. It was...okay. But unfortunately, it kept becoming a dead draw in a number of matchups, and I actually wasn't able to deal enough damage after giving my opponent that life. Ratchet Bomb has been my answer to Pack Rat for a while now, but my 2-drop slot was already full of my own creatures. I was pretty sure I was doomed in this endeavor. Whip of Erebos also meant instant loss, as I could not overcome Gray Merchant of Asphodel shenanigans or the lifegain the opponent had over me.

Around this time, I had a friend suggest to me that I try out Putrefy. After all, I had already made the decision to splash black for the second half of the signature card for the deck. Why not use that to my advantage? Well, I tried it. And it actually fit so very well! it killed big pesky threats like Stormbreath Dragon and Arbor Colossus and Desecration Demon. It blew up Spear of Heliod and Whip of Erebos. It even makes a Ratchet Bomb here and there fail miserably.

At this point one of my only problems was the whole Pack Rat thing. And then it dawned on me -- Abrupt Decay! Not only did this removal hit the rat, it also hit Underworld Connections, opposing Nightveil Specter, fleecemane lions. You name it! It was a great and solid addition.

Next was to find another beater in case Elspeth hit the bin or was Pithing Needle'd (Did I mention both Putrefy and Abrupt Decay hit that too?). I chose to test out Archangel of Thune and Angel of Serenity. Bet you all can't guess which one I wanted to make the cut! It was a close one, but ultimately the big angel was just too expensive. Archangel of Thune does an AMAZING job of handling aggro. If they don't have an answer immediately, it's practically game right there. And she fits with the theme of the creatures I have decided upon, which is that they all can win on their own. I wanted every single thing to be a threat in here. The opponent has to "waste" removal on my early threats and then has none left by the time I get my win-cons out there. As Travis Woo once commented noting how well Archangel of Thune wins stalemates. He's very right and that's another big reason for her inclusion.

The Battle

I would now like to cover a few matchups to discuss how things normally go. I've done pretty extensive testing with this deck -- both as me piloting both decks as well as against other players. I must say the results were very positive. I ended up winning my first 4 matches of testing, which was very good for my morale if nothing else. As with any deck, though, there are bad matchups. We will get to that.

First off, Mono Black Devotion.

As previously mentioned, a T2 Pack Rat will almost always ruin this deck unless we have an Abrupt Decay in hand or draw into one. Keep this in mind when mulliganing. There are also 2 copies of Pithing Needle in the sideboard to act as additional copies of rat removal when needed. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is our hopeful win-con in this matchup, so the basic strategy is to use our small threats to pull out the Hero's Downfall from the opponent's hand, only to land Elspeth afterwards. There have been several matchups I've had that I've won on the back of Precinct Captain and Voice of Resurgence however. We have a lot of answers to their threats, and can fairly easily keep their devotion to a minimum, making dumb ol' Gary of little value to them.

After sideboarding, things get a little trickier, as they tend to bring in more removal and most importantly, Thoughtseize. Thoughtseize sucks. It's very hard to play around in this deck and most times you just have to grin and bear it when they spend their first turn pulling Elspeth out of your hand. This is why I will sometimes just board out the 'Speth for the 2x Experiment One in the sideboard. They don't expect it and they play around the planeswalker when they don't need to. Here are my two sideboard options for this matchup:

Sideboard 1:

• -2 Archangel of Thune

• +1 Pithing Needle

• +1 Putrefy

OR

Sideboard 2:

• -2 Archangel of Thune

• -2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

• -1 Selesnya Guildgate

• +2 Experiment One

• +1 Pithing Needle

• +1 Putrefy

• +1 Celestial Flare

The second option involves switching our land base a tad to better suite our aggro curve. Experiment One is pretty much a 5th and 6th copy of Soldier of the Pantheon, but the additional chance at regen is fantastic.

Also, if the opposing deck is a more Orzhov-focused one, Blood Baron of Vizkopa easily becomes a big problem. But that's why we have the 4th copy of Celestial Flare to bring in. Just play it safe and keep one in hand just in case.

Mono Blue Devotion

The MUD matchup has actually been really easy for this deck. We have a lot of answers to the deck in the main board, including Abrupt Decay, Celestial Flare, and Selesnya Charm for Thassa, God of the Sea. Putrefy even hits Bident of Thassa which can be devastating for them.

After sideboard, things can get even more favorable for us, as we board out Elspeth and bring in Skylasher and usually Unflinching Courage, since they have very little removal. Jace, Architect of Thought is really the only thing that stops us from completely bowling the opposing deck over, and even he isnt' much of a threat anymore when we have an army of lifegaining tramplers. Typical sideboarding for the matchup goes as follows:

• -2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

• -3 Fleecemane Lion

• +3 Skylasher

• +2 Unflinching Courage

Mono Red Devotion/RDW/Misc. Red Aggro

This matchup isn't horrible by any means. Much like in the previous matchup, we have a large assortment of option to handle aggro decks -- especially ones that thrive off of devotion. Precinct Captain really shines here, and is normally removed immediately if the opponent has burn in hand. They know how bad he can get. Occasionally, he'll live in game one if the opponent is feeling up to a challenge. The same mistake isn't made again.

Sideboarding is a bit different than against MUD, but the basic principals are the same:

• -2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

• -1 Selesnya Charm

• +2 Unflinching Courage

• +1 Celestial Flare

Celestial Flare does a really good job of handling both Purphoros, God of the Forge and Stormbreath Dragon, which can be troublesome otherwise. Just make sure to remove their threats while getting damage in here and there and eventually the game will be in a winning position for you.

Some versions also splash white for Boros Charm and occasionally Chained to the Rocks. These decks can be a bit tougher to deal with, but with a careful eye and a bit of strategy it's still not a bad matchup. Sometimes it's okay to get 2-for-1'd after putting Unflinching Courage on something if you made sure to get an attack in before that happens. A lot of times I will play out Fleecemane Lion first to draw out Lightning Strike or Magma Jet so I can easily land a Precinct Captain. It's a strategy that has won me many games.

G/W aggro/Mirror-ish Match

This one is actually surprisingly difficult at times, since we don't have the normal G/W beaters in here to spar off with them. Loxodon Smiter and Advent of the Wurm can be big problems, but luckily, we have a large amount of removal in both the main and side board to handle them. G/W has little in the way of answers to Elspeth, and even Archangel of Thune, so all we have to do is "control" the board long enough to get them out there. And if we can, it's usually just a matter of time before we come out on top. Sometimes it's actually okay to let a Fleecemane Lion go monstrous on their side, as we will eventually have chump blockers for days (Elspeth) or ways to race it (Archangel). Here's the normal sideboarding:

• -3 Fleecemane Lion

• +1 Celestial Flare

• +1 Putrefy

• +1 Unflinching Courage

We bring in our additional removal while removing one of the only cards in the deck that doesn't do particularly well, which is Fleecemane Lion. Our Soldier of the Pantheon are fantastic at being blockers, and having one of those in opening hand is always a good sign. Keep that in mind.

U/W/x Control

This is the bad matchup I mentioned previously. And it only makes sense. We're not normal G/W aggro and we're normally relying on win cons that decks like esper have many answers to or that can outrace with AEtherling or their own copies of Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Supreme Verdict is the big enemy here, but we have those 3 copies of Ready / Willing that will hopefully show up before that. Usually surviving one wrath with some board presence will be close to enough to get the win. Jace is a much bigger threat here, as he buys the opponent time to get the mana for Elspeth. I should mention that apart from Archangel of Thune or lucky trample from Selesnya Charm, we don't have any good answers to the opposing planeswalker. So we must win before it hits the field.

After sideboarding, we go full-throttle into our aggro side. We board out lands, big drops, and removal to bring in all the cheap, quick, and efficient power we can muster. The only way we win in this matchup is to burst out of the gates game 2 with immediate threats that might not even be able to be answered. Here's how it goes:

• -2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

• -2 Archangel of Thune

• -1 Selesnya Guildgate

• -1 Temple of Silence

• -3 Celestial Flare

• -1 Putrefy

• +3 Experiment One

• +3 Skylasher

• +3 Mistcutter Hydra

• +2 Pithing Needle

We have many pro-blue creatures to make Detention Sphere and Azorius Charm usless. Pithing Needle can answer their threats, and Abrupt Decay handles the Detention Sphere that actually manages to hit something. We don't run big tokens so we don't have to worry about getting destroyed by the exile or bounce. The plan is just to explode onto the field immediately with our threats and hope they don't get a Supreme Verdict unless we have Ready / Willing there to answer it. We certainly don't win every game in this matchup. I'd say the odds of winning are about 50/50. But for being the worst matchup I would say that's not too horrible. You can't win them all.

And there we have it! My new G/W brew. I hope it fares well in the next edition of Showdown so I can prove its worth to you all! If you have any comments, thoughts or suggestions please feel free to stop by the deck itself and let me know. And if you like the deck, please don't hesitate to press that +1 button. It helps me a ton. If you want to play with or against this deck feel completely free to do so! It's a ton of fun and you won't be disappointed. And as always, thanks for reading!

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Are You Ready? | Dark Selesnya Aggro

Standard* Spootyone

SCORE: 55 | 43 COMMENTS | 8800 VIEWS | IN 10 FOLDERS

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