Showdown #27: Scorch on the Rocks

Showdown

Spootyone

15 October 2014

2081 views

Hello all and welcome again to Showdown, where I pit my current standard deck against those submitted to me by you, the members of TappedOut. Last time we were together 2 weeks ago (it felt like forever for me, too! D: ), we saw the beginning of Season 2. I showcased my new deck for the season, Temur Control, and we faced off against Femme_Fatale's Mardu aggro deck. Things did not go so well. In fact, I got ruthlessly stomped. And so, being the competitive...ly obsessed person that I am, I took all this time testing and brewing with the build until I was happy with it.

Since then, we've all witnessed Ari Lax's victory during PTKTK. I absolutely LOVED this latest pro tour. I love this meta, I love the cards, the decks, and the interactions. I may just be the happiest playing standard as I've been since I first began playing. Jeskai "wins" was one of the breakout decks and really took its claim on being the Aggro pillar of the format. Abzan midrange (and in that same boat) Abzan aggro came out to fight and ended up taking the win for the tournament. And that's essentially our midrange pillar of the format. Alongside it we can the Green devotion decks, splashing various colors for different cards. The most notable of these is the black splash for Doomwake Giant. The Superfriends deck of choice seemed to be Mardu, so that's the main one we'll need to watch out for there. And as for control, we saw a majority of the lists being strict UB, opting for Prognostic Sphinx or the new Pearl Lake Ancient as their win conditions. Lastly, we actually have a combo deck in standard! Jeskai Ascendancy makes itself known in a typically-4 color archetype and can win very early in the game. Keep an eye out for that!

One of the break out cards of the Pro Tour was definitely Dig Through Time. This was a card I had previously tested as a 1-of in my deck and found it to be good. I didn't realize it was even POSSIBLE to use it as a 3-4-of. And as for burn -- it was everywhere. I was expecting aggro decks to be of the mono-R or mono-B variety, but jeskai burn was the prominent one. Burn really seemed to be a useful strategy all around, and backing that up with the refueling capabilities of cards like Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise just seemed sooo good. And so, I have adapted.

My deck now is prominently U/R Counterburn. I have 12 burn spells, 8 counterspells, and 6 card draw spells. I have dropped my number of win-con cards tremendously and am not even running a single planeswalker in the deck anymore. Instead of Sarkhan, I'm going for Stormbreath Dragon, since the pro white will help me against those Abzan Midrange decks. The one reason why I have decided that I need to stay green however, is Bow of Nylea. The card is bonkers good -- especially in a metagame full is so, so much burn. I hope I can show you all the success I've been having with my deck in this article.

But without further ado, let's get to my competitor. I decided it was best to showcase the new version of the deck against one of the pillars of the format. While there are plenty of Abzan builds suggested, I consider that one of my worst matchups. I really didn't want to get destroyed twice in a row when attempting to show this deck off, so I went for the next most difficult archetype . And so, I present to you all Tonberry333 and his Jeskai wins deck:

Jeskai Tempo/Burn

Standard* Tonberry333

SCORE: 5 | 22 COMMENTS | 1735 VIEWS | IN 5 FOLDERS

Jeskai wins, or fireworks, or aggro, or burn, or tempo, or whatever...is a very formidable foe for almost any deck in the standard environment. Being able to consistently deal large chucks of damage through burn spells and an assortment of incredibly aggressive creatures like Mantis Rider and Goblin Rabblemaster means that you really have to be protecting yourself right out of the gate. What I fear most out of this matchup is drawing the wrong spells at the wrong time. If my opponent is burning me and all I have are burn spells for their creatures, I'm dead. If they're pummeling me with dudes and all I have is a grip full of Negates, I'm dead. And most importantly, if I cannot find and stick a Bow of Nylea before too late, I'm also Just. Dead. That said, if I CAN stick that bow, I don't foresee the rest of the game to be too much of a difficulty. Let's head into the action.

Tonberry wins the flip and is on the play. He keeps an opening hand of 2x Temple of Enlightenment, Temple of Triumph, Battlefield Forge, Seeker of the Way, Banishing Light and Mantis Rider. This looks amazing.

Spooty keeps an opening hand of Temple of Epiphany, Temple of Abandon, Frontier Bivouac, forest, Negate and 2x Stoke the Flames. This isn't fantastic, but given the right draw could easily get the job done.

T1: Temple of enlightenment tapped, scrying Shivan Reef to the bottom.

S1: Draws Stoke the Flames. Yeah, alright. Well, I hope I can survive to T4. Temple of epiphany tapped, scrying mountain and keeping it. I think I'm going to need the untapped mana source since all my removal spells right now are 4-drops. Pass.

T2: Draws Lightning Strike. Battlefield forge, Seeker of the Way. Pass.

S2: Draws mountain. Forest, pass.

T3: Draws Steam Augury. He attacks with the Seeker for two, and before damage attempts to Lightning Strike me. I Negate it, but prowess does still activate. 6-point life swing. This is followed up by a temple of triumph, scrying Lightning Strike to the top. Pass. (s 17/22 t)

S3: Draws Lightning Strike. Perfect! I play my temple of abandon tapped and scry mountain to the bottom this time. I then strike the seeker while I have the chance. Pass.

T4: Draws Lightning Strike. Mantis time! He casts and attacks with Mantis Rider. Then it's another temple of enlightenment to scry a Jeskai Charm to the top. Pass. (s 14/21 t)

S4: Draws Perilous Vault. Ehh...not great here. I play the mountain and then stoke the Mantis Rider before passing.

T5: Draws Jeskai Charm. Welp, time for playing things on the opponent's turn I suppose. Pass.

S5: Draws Divination. Well, my only other plays here are burning him (not there yet) burning one of his creatures (which he may not play), playing the vault (which is not great against burn) or drawing cards and allowing him to have a free turn. Since I'm in desperate need of resources right now, I'm going to draw cards. I play divination and draw Jace's Ingenuity and Dig Through Time. That was a cruel joke, deck. I play a Frontier Bivouac and pass. EoT my opponent casts Steam Augury. Revealed is a Mantis Rider, plains, mountain, Temple of Triumph and Shivan Reef. Looks like both decks are having a good laugh right now. He places all the lands into one pile and the mantis in the other. I choose for him to keep the lands.

T6: Draws Chandra, Pyromaster. Interesting. Well, I think it's best to get in damage when it's free, so my opponent plays a mountain and then follows it up with a strike and a jeskai charm to deal a total of 7 damage to me directly. Pass. Also, ew. (s 7/21 t)

S6: Draws mountain. Plays mountain. I'm deck to the same sequence of events as last turn, but there's nothing I can do about it anyway. Pass.

T7: Draws Steam Augury. He plays the Shivan Reef and then passes, not wanting to play right into any number of counterspells. At EoT, I attempt to cast Jace's Ingenuity, which is responded to by Steam Augury. The augury reveals Searing Blood, Keranos, God of Storms, Magma Jet, Seeker of the Way, and Deflecting Palm. Dammmnnnn. He puts searing blood, seeker, and palm into one pile, and keranos with the jet. (I really can't perfectly make these piles right now). I choose for him to keep the first pile, but keep in mind that I'm giving him a deflecting palm. My ingenuity draws me into Divination, Courser of Kruphix and Dissolve.

S7: Draws Wooded Foothills. Let's get this headed back in my favor, please. I play the courser and reveal Lightning Strike from the top. I play the foothills and gain a life and pass. (s 8/21 t)

T8: Draws plains. He plays the seeker and I let it through. He then plays a plains and attempts to cast Banishing Light, which I decide to Dissolve. I scry the Lightning Strike to the top still. He passes.

S8: Draws Lightning Strike and reveals Bow of Nylea. YES. Can't wait for next turn. I strike the seeker (they know about it anyway). Pass.

T9: Draws Battlefield Forge. Hmm...This is getting out of reach quickly. Perhaps playing Chandra will get the ball rolling again? He does so and uses her 0 ability to exile Banishing Light from the top. Oh, that's so wrong...he needed that for the bow. Sorry man :/ Well, I guess he may as well use it, right? He plays it and exiles the courser, following up with a temple of triumph which scrys Mantis Rider to the top. Pass. EoT I delve 6 cards to cast Dig Through Time. I place Bow of Nylea and Lightning Strike into my hand. 2 jets, an island, a shivan reef, and a vault go to the bottom.

S9: Draws Temple of Abandon. I fetch a forest with my land and then cast Bow of Nylea. I play my tempel and scry a Disdainful Stroke to the bottom. It isn't great here. I then Lightning Strike Chandra just to get her a bit closer to death before passing. (s 7/21 t)

T10: Draws Mantis Rider. He plays and attacks with the mantis for 3. Then he uses Chandra's 0 to exile Banishing Light. AH RETRIBUTION. He casts it, which I then respond to by using it to gain 3 life. Pass.

S10: Draws Stoke the Flames. So many stokes this game. I play Divination and draw Shivan Reef and mountain. I play the reef and then pass.

T11: Draws Mountain. He attacks with the mantis, and before damage I stoke it. He uses Chandra's 0 to exile Shivan Reef, which he plays. He passes the turn.

S11: Draws Temple of Abandon. I play it and scry Negate to the top. I play my Perilous Vault and then exile al non-land permanents with it, ridding my opponent of their chandra and both banishing lights, and giving me back both my courser and bow. (and yes, I should've waited to play my land. Oops.) The Negate is revealed. Pass.

T12: Draws Searing Blood. Plays mountain. He casts both Searing Bloods on my courser, killing it and dealing 6 damage to me. Woah. Pass. (s 1/21 t)

S12: Draws Negate. I play a mountain and pass.

T13: Draws another reef. He plays the forge and passes. EoT I gain 3, then cast stoke targeting him, he attempts to palm it, but I negate that. (s 4/17 t).

S13: Draws another Bow of Nylea. I pass.

T14: Draws Deflecting Palm. Plays plains. Pass. EoT I gain 3. (s 7/17 t)

S14: Draws mountain. Plays mountain. Pass.

T15: Satyr Firedancer. Plays the satyr. Pass. I gain 3. (s 10/17 t)

S15: Draws Magma Jet. I jet the satyr and scry two lands to the bottom. pass.

T16: Draws another forge. pass. I gain 3 (s 13/17 t)

S16: Draws Courser of Kruphix. I play it and reveal a temple, which I play, gain a life, scry Magma Jet to the top. Pass. (s 14/17 t)

T17: Draws Seeker of the Way. That just dies to the jet upcoming. I don't think this game can be won by him -- especially with my other bow in toe that he doesn't know about. I'm going to have him concede so we can get on with the next game, alright?

Sideboard tech with Spooty:

Hooray! I got to show how important the bow is! My sideboarding here is simple. Perilous Vault is not great here, and Destructive Revelry kills Banishing Light and Satyr Firedancer. That's it!

Sideboard tech with Tonberry333:

Ugh. That was so close! He even got me down to a SINGLE life point at that one moment. He needs to bring in more resilient threats. Banishing Light can be replaced by Erase, Searing Blood can be replaced by Goblin Rabblemaster and 2x Satyr Firedancer can be replaced by a couple Brimaz, King of Oreskos. Let's see how this does.

Ironically, those Destructive Revelry have little to no targets now. Heh...

Tonberry is on the play again and mulligans a hand of white cards and no white mana. The six card hand is unfortunately the same exact way. The kept hand contains 2x Seeker of the Way, mountain, Battlefield Forge and Chandra, Pyromaster. I know this hand isn't great but hopefully he can draw out of it.

I mulligan a my 7 card hand not because it's bad, but because it's bad against my opponent's deck. I can't keep a hand that has a curve starting at Dissolve and Divination if my opponent is playing aggro. My kept hand contains island, mountain, Shivan Reef, Temple of Epiphany, Negate and Lightning Strike. Yeah, this is about as good a 6 as I can ask for.

T1: Battlefield Forge, pass.

S1: Draws Temple of Epiphany. I play the temple and scry a Divination on top. With my opponent having mulliganed and me as well, cards are going to be super important. Pass.

T2: Draws Brimaz, King of Oreskos. He plays a mountain and the seeker before passing. (s 20/19 t)

S2: Draws Divination. I play a mountain, strike the seeker, and pass.

T3: Draws plains. Heyo! He plays the plains and Brimaz. (s 20/18 t)

S3: Draws mountain. I need an answer for that immediately. I play an island and then use divination to draw a mountain and a Dig Through Time. Not quite what I was looking for.

T4: Draws Shivan Reef. He plays the land and attacks with Brimaz, making a 1/1 token and dealing a total of 4 damage. He follows this up with Chandra, which +1s and deals another damage to me. Pass. (s 15/17 t)

S4: Draws Soul of Shandalar. I think I just lost this game. I play a temple to scry and push a Lightning Strike to the bottom. It's just not stoke. Pass.

T5: Draws Magma Jet. He draws have been spot on, man. He pluses Chandra, attacks with brimaz and the token, makes a cat and deals a total of 6. He then plays Seeker of the Way and passes.

S5: Draws Destructive Revelry. Ohhh noooo cmonnnn. I play a mountain and pass.

T6: Draws Deflecting Palm. He plays Magma Jet, which I Negate, but prowess triggers. He pluses Chandra to deal 1, then attacks with all his creatures including another token for 10. I am dead...

I decide at this point to switch into my aggro board, simply because I'm on the play finally and I might be able to sneak out a G3 victory here. Divination comes out, Disdainful Stroke comes out, Jace's Ingenuity comes out, Soul of Shandalar comes out, and 2 Dissolve come out. I bring in a playset of Monastery Swiftspear and Goblin Rabblemaster. Cmoooon good 7.

Tonberry's deck remains the same as it seemed to do well in the matchup and Brimaz is great against my deck.

I am on the play and keep an opening hand of Temple of Abandon, temple of myster, island, Lightning Strike, Dissolve, Stoke the Flames and Bow of Nylea. Alright...like...no aggressive creatures whatsoever (which is rare), but having the bow and the mana to cast it already is something I cannot pass on.

Tonberry keeps an opening hand of Temple of Enlightenment, Battlefield Forge, 2x Jeskai Charm, Goblin Rabblemaster, Magma Jet and Chandra, Pyromaster. This seems decent, but needs another land soon.

S1: Temple of Abandon tapped, scrying Lightning Strike to remain on top. Pass.

T1: Draws Steam Augury. He plays his temple and scrys Deflecting Palm to the bottom. Pass.

S2: Draws Lightning Strike. I want this bow out ASAP so I play my other temple tapped and scry a mountain on top. I need the mana. Pass.

T2: Draws mountain. Got there! He plays the mountain and jets me while I don't have Negate mana up. He scrys a Chandra to the bottom and leaves a temple on top. Pass. (s 18/20 t)

S3: Draws mountain. I play the mountain and then the bow. Pass.

T3: Draws Temple of Triumph. He plays the Battlefield Forge and then Goblin Rabblemaster. Rabbles makes a 1/1 and it attacks. Pass. (s 17/20 t)

S4: Draws forest. I play an island and strike the rabblemaster before passing the turn.

T4: Draws Mantis Rider. Seems fine here. He plays the temple tapped and scrys another rabblemaster to the top. He casts his mantis and attacks with it and the goblin token. Before damage, I strike the mantis rider and I take 1. Pass. (s 16/19 t)

S5: Draws Magma Jet. Nice. I play the forest and pass.

T5: Draws Goblin Rabblemaster. He attempts to cast the rabblemaster, but I Dissolve it, scrying a Dig Through Time to remain on top. He attacks for one and passes. EoT I gain 3. (s 18/19 t)

S6: Draws Dig Through Time. Pass.

T6: Draws Brimaz, King of Oreskos. Nice. He attacks for 1 and then casts Brimaz. EoT I stoke Brimaz. All the answers! (s 17/19 t)

S7: Draws Temple of Mystery. I play it and scry a Negate on top. Pass.

T7: Draws Lightning Strike. Man, this doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast for him. He attacks for one. Casting Chandra here really can only better secure land drops, if it isn't countered, of course. Chandra is a bit more valuable given the boardstate, so I think I'll try to have him bait out a counterspell with something like Jeskai Charm or Steam Augury. He passes. I gain 3 (s 19/19 t)

S8: Draws Negate. I pass. EoT he attempts to Jeskai Charm me to deal 4 damage, which I Negate.

T8: Draws Erase. There is it! And perfect timing, too. He attacks for 1. To attempt to bait out counters again, he plays the lightning strike to me, and it goes through. He then plays Erase on my Bow of Nylea. I use it to gain 3 in response and then it is exiled. Pass. EoT I use Magma Jet on his 1/1 and scry both a Negate and a Dig Through Time on top. (s 18/19 t)

S9: Draws Negate. I play dig through time for 2 with delve to place Stormbreath Dragon and Goblin Rabblemaster in my hand (I gotta close out this game NOW). 2 lands, a revelry and a strike go to the bottom. I don't want to not have Negate mana up, though. I pass.

T9: Draws Temple of Triumph. He plays it and scrys a Magma Jet on top. It's a spell and all. Both Steam Augury and Chandra are good here, but I think Chandra has more potential. He attempts to cast the augury (baiting counters), but I Negate it. Pass.

S10: Draws Stoke the Flames. Good, good. I cast Stormbreath Dragon and attack for 4 with it. Pass. (s 18/15 t)

T10: Draws Magma Jet. Well...there's a dragon on the field, now. Playing the charm on it does basically nothing. Jetting it does nothing. Chandra might even die to it if it goes monstrous next turn. Blech. I guess he'll try to race it. He deals 4 to me with Jeskai Charm and then 2 more with Magma Jet, scrying Erase to the bottom and Mantis Rider on top. Pass. (s 12/15 t)

S11: Draws Magma Jet. This seems like it's going well so right now. I play Goblin Rabblemaster and go to attacks, making a 1/1 token. I attack for 5 with it and Stormbreath. During 2nd main, I convoke for Stoke the Flames to my opponent. Pass. (s 12/6 t)

T11: Draws Mantis Rider. Um.. Mantis Rider can't block Stormbreath and the goblin tokens put him at lethal. He has no outs and concedes.

Hey hey! I got one! It seems like it's been a while, at least to me. Okay, let's talk about my opponent's deck. First things first, I don't think it's a great idea right now to mainboard 4x searing blood. I think I'd personally go down to 2-3 copies and potentially put the rest in the side. When you come up against an opponent with little to no creatures like myself, having those in hand is a really bad feeling. I think that, similarly, Satyr Firedancer could be a sideboard choice and that something like Goblin Rabblemaster could come into the MB. The card is just so good at keeping up pressure and demanding an answer from your opponent.

Game 1 was a great showcase of how my deck can take a beating but manage to stabilize as long as things go smoothly and I draw into a Bow of Nylea. I also loved that Perilous Vault was able to destroy those enchantments, because without doing so I probably would've lost. Game 2 was an even better example of how a Jeskai Aggro deck can absolutely punish a deck without answers for its threats. And furthermore, it shows why people have Brimaz in their sideboard. The card is very good at resisting removal in the form of burn. Luckily, in game 3, I had the Stoke the Flames needed to take care of him on curve, and Stormbreath Dragon alongside Goblin Rabblemaster really took care of the game once they hit the field.

If there were any single card that stood out to me in Ton's deck, it was Steam Augury. The card...it puts the rest into the graveyard. The graveyard, people! That synergizes SO WELL with delve cards! Ever heard of a little thing called Dig Through Time? Yeah, I think there might just be an obvious couple here. Not only will I recommend that Tonberry put the card into HIS deck (because getting those last two burn spells for 2 mana is great), but I'm actually going to place some in my deck. I was already thinking about playing Weave Fate over Divination just so I could draw at instant speed, but Steam Augury is simply better for my deck, I think. I'm simply infatuated by the card already.

I want to thank Tonberry333 for his great submission. Good luck to you on continuing with this deck! And thanks for inadvertently telling me how awesome Steam Augury is!

Thank you to the handful of people who ended up partaking in the username design contest. I had a bit of a hard time choosing, but I went with my gut feeling on it. I decided to base my Username on the submission by Matsi883. Additionally, I think I'm going to tweak it slightly so that I can add my personal touch to it. Thank you in advance for the help, Matsi883. And thank you additionally to the other people who submitted entries. Look forward to the next contest! I'm thinking...custom card?

• Thank you to benjamin_is_nuts for the donation of $25.00. You never forget your first <3

• Thank you to gro0ve for the donation of $25.00. You can bet I'll be gro0vin with your help!

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @Spootyone

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