This deck is desgined and built to beat Humans and Coco. One of the best ways to beat Coco is to have a strategy that can ignore their tempo swings. The way to do this is to have a winning strategy that does not play creatures or plays them minimally so that their Reflector Mages and Bounding Krasis' become vanillas. Then, you one for one their creatures while using
Demonic Pact
to gain life and pick off creatures, restock, or strip your opponent of remaining resources.
Against humans our game 1 match is pretty good with three mainboard Languish and alot of early interaction and 4 mainboard ways to handle
Always Watching
. It gets even better after Side when the Blood-Cursed Knights come in as well as the 4th Languish.
Our weak match up is hard control because we dont have access to counters. In this match your bring in
Sigil of the Empty Throne
, Blood-Cursed Knight, and
Transgress the Mind
.
Against Ramp you bring in
Transgress the Mind
but the rest of our deck is pretty good since we have main board answers to Pyromancer's Goggles and Ulamog.
Same goes for U/R control. The main board is pretty solid since we have main board answers to Goggles and Fevered Visions
The deck has a ridiculous engine with Starfield of Nyx,
Demonic Pact
, and
Bound by Moonsilver
. Every turn you can bring back a removal spell or a Pact for a massive amount of resources and can even turn all of it into creatures for a huge swing.
At your upkeep you should always stack your
Demonic Pact
triggers before your Starfield of Nyx triggers so that you can lure any spells they may want to play before you decide what to bring back. There have been times where after choosing to make my opponent discard two cards they Coco or Dromoka's Command in response which may effect what you bring back with Starfield. If they Command you can sac and enchantment and bring it back in the same upkeep. If they Coco then you may be more inclined to bring back a removal enchantment then a Pact. You may also force them to over commit into a Languish
Some will argue that Esper Starfield is better because of
Oath of Jace
filling your graveyard for Starfield and bounce effects like Silumgar's Command. Personally I believe complicating the mana for
Oath of Jace
and bounce spells is not as good. Bounce spells are vulnerable to counters where as Angelic Purge and
Bound by Moonsilver
can barely be interacted with.
Important things to remember:
Angelic Purge can target Pact and sac the same Pact since targets have to be made before it goes on the stack. This also means that Pact ends up in your graveyard and not in exile.
Bound by Moonsilver
can sacrifice Pact and target the same creature it is attached to already. REMEMBER that is is a SORCERY speed effect!
Starfield of Nyx is NOT a creature when it is live. Two will turn each other on but be weary of Declaration in Stone taking out your main win conditions and engine pieces.
Dead Weight can target Dragonlord Ojutai when brought back with Starfield of Nyx because it doesnt target. This can put Ojutai back within Languish range if your opponent has am
Always Watching
in play.
We will see what the Pro Tour brings to the table but for now I see this deck being very well positioned in the meta.
