SnapCastro Mage- Game Day Insider

Hello everybody. I’m Christian Castro, and I will be one of the newest writers for AZMagicPlayers. Some of you might remember me from the front page—Yeah, I’m the one holding the Mox Sapphire. I live in Tucson, AZ and play most of my Magic the Gathering at Amazing Discoveries. I am very well known for my Standard play—because that’s the only format that I am good at—ever since Merfolk stopped being a good deck in Legacy. I will be writing about Game Day—or what I like to call “City Champs.”  People have been asking for my current lists of my undefeated U/W Humans decklists—and my updated version of U/B control so I thought I would post them and tell you what decks I would look out for this weekend.

So first up is my current version of U/W Humans. It’s undefeated 3 weeks running by the way—just thought you should know.

U/W Humans

I know what you’re thinking: This looks nothing like the StarCityGames U/W Humans decklists! That’s because what’s good at SCG Opens isn’t necessarily good at FNMs or other in-town events. They are simply good models, but you should never copy the same 75. To begin, Ratchet Bomb was in the sideboard as a 2-of for tokens. Corrosive Gale wasn’t even considered, but looking at it, Corrosive Gale actually kills more, considering it can kill Delver of Secrets, Dungeon Geists, and Drogskol Captain on top of the tokens that are made from Lingering Souls. It’s also a lot cheaper and easier to find at the moment and doesn’t kill any of your creatures.

Another thing I thought about when building this deck is WOW! Turn one Champion of the Parish into turn two Gather the Townsfolk is just a blowout. Five power on turn two seems good.  When we follow that up with a turn three Honor of the Pure, your opponent is definitely contemplating the scoop at that point.

I have been playing this deck for about 5 weeks and have lost 1 round during that period, which means I am about 24-1 at my local FNM. You’re probably wondering what I lost to. You should, because it leads me to my next list, which is Red Deck Wins–AKA RDW!

Red Deck Wins/Wolf Run Red

This is obviously not the red deck I lost to a month ago, but this is the list that just dominated the SCG Open in Charlotte this weekend. This means that this is the most updated version of Red Deck Wins. This is not the complete 75 that I would play for Game Day however; like I said above, don’t copy the same 75. The deck I lost to was fairly similar to the deck written above. The big card you want to look out for is Stromkirk Noble; it basically says it has pro humans. The blows from a Stromkirk Noble every turn is hard to race.

The reasoning for losing this match-up was the amount of burn in the deck that kills your little creatures. This causes the deck to slow down and be very vulnerable to their little creatures that end up killing you. Another thing is that a turn 1 Stromkirk Noble means you have to race it which is very hard to do when your creatures are dying every turn you play them. I noticed that Timely Reinforcements has not been all that relevant against Red Deck Wins, since Hero of Oxid Ridge is a huge beating after a Timely. So that’s why they got cut for 4 Celestial Purges, since it takes care of Stromkirk, Chandra’s Phoenix, Stormblood Beserker, and Hero of Oxid Ridge. Also, since Zombies took 2nd at the Open, I’m sure someone will play Zombies as well. If we were to change things with the deck I would say cut the 1 Ancient Grudge and the 4 Volt Charge and play the 4th Brimstone Volley, the 4th Galvanic Blast, and the 4th Stormblood Beserker. Lastly, I would up the Gut Shot count up to 3. With Delver of Secrets , Champion of the Parish, and Stromkirk Noble running around Gut Shot is house.

On to something that doesn’t try to kill you as fast as possible, but actually do the complete opposite, U/B Control!

U/B Control

This deck has a lot to do with using its graveyard cards for its wincons. I really like my original idea of Unburial Rights to bring back creatures, because you can mill yourself without thinking for a second that it might be risky. Furthermore, I put the Lingering Souls package in for two reasons: to stay alive until you wipe the board and to win the late game when you’re in control.

Milling yourself in this deck is actually a great thing. If anything, it’s a win condition. The one thing I really changed was playing Batterskull over Wurmcoil Engine. A friend and I were talking about it and realized that Batterskull comes out faster and is more versatile. The bounce ability assures you have a threat all the time assuming your opponent doesn’t remove it. The only other problem with playing control is that you need to have a pretty solid draw almost all the time. Because of how fast the metagame is today—a turn 2 flipped Delver could single handly kill you without the early removal—I put the Curses maindeck because it is the best card to use against those very aggressive decks. My thoughts on this deck are that if you’re going to play this, be prepared for some major thinking and critical play making. However, if you succeed at that, you will win.

So the last deck on the list is probably everybody’s favorite considering how much I’ve seen it being played–that would be the one and only Esper Spirits by the one and only Jon Finkel.

Esper Spirits

If you haven’t noticed this is probably the most played deck in Standard ever since it was introduced. It’s a good deck so I don’t blame people for playing it, but I will definitely stand by my statement by repeating don’t copy the same 75!

When doing revisions for this deck I would obviously cut the main boarded Divine Offering and the Revoke Existence. I would cut the 1 Negate and the 1 Dissipate from  the sideboard and put those in place for it–or don’t play the extra Revoke Existence in the first place. I would play more Celestial Purges and put 1 Mana Leak and/or another Dismember.  These cards are good for the mirror match because you don’t want lords to resolve against you, since the power and toughness bonus gives the player an advantage in the mirror match. Gut Shot is good, but doesn’t kill the important things like Captain and Geists, whereas Dismember kills everything in the deck.

Now that we have 2 slots left in the mainboard. I personally would put 2 Oblivion Rings or 2 Dismember. It’s hard to say which one because everyone is playing enchantment removal, but since that is usually after sideboard so it might be worth playing because you don’t play any other enchantments or artifacts. Dismember is a good answer to any of Espers creatures but at the cost of some life. To me, it’s a judgement call whether you want to play O-Ring or Dismember.

So whatever you decide to play, I hope it does well. I will more than likely do a tournament report at Amazing Discoveries regarding  Game Day so I guess I will see what you guys decided to play. I can’t wait to see what makes the Top 8. Good luck and I hope you enjoyed the article, and hopefully more to come.

If anyone wishes to comment on the decklists or writing itself please do so below. This is my first article and hopefully not my last. Thanks and goodbye.