Since we now have the full Eldritch Moon Spoilers I thought I might revisit a few past brews and discuss some cards that I think might fit in perfectly. This will be a quick look back on a few of my designs and talk about how these new cards could slot into the decks.
Here we begin with the Abzan version of Squandered Jund. The deck was designed to ramp into [casthaven]The Gitrog Monster[/casthaven] quickly and build a value engine while sacrificing lands to great effect. [casthaven]Squandered Resources[/casthaven] was featured as a way to get multiple triggers a turn and also be able to ramp even further into the cards we began drawing off Gitrog. I have updated this decklist to add the card [casthaven]Bloodbriar[/casthaven].
Junk Estate
Here we have less silver bullet cards and more business and action. [casthaven]Squandered Resources[/casthaven] leads to some sweet plays: tap four lands and sacrifice four to make eight mana to pump into [casthaven]Pernicious Deed[/casthaven] to destroy [casthaven]Sneak Attack[/casthaven] and [casthaven]Griselbrand[/casthaven] during combat. I found that some of the more aggressive matchups could be problematic, so I replaced [casthaven]Squandered Resources[/casthaven] with [casthaven]Overgrown Estate[/casthaven]. We still have access to a decent sacrifice outlet, while we get to pad our life total in the face of aggression.
Our new addition to the deck from Eldritch Moon gives us another potential value creature. Now every time we sacrifice a land we could draw a card, make a guy bigger, and if we get the trifecta a 5/3 elemental token as well. I think it will be a great addition and I can’t wait to pick some up once the new set is released and legal for tournament play. [casthaven]Tireless Tracker[/casthaven] could be another great option. Since we are more in the business of destroying our lands, I felt that it should be foregone, but could easily find a home either in the main or sideboard.
The next design that I felt we had some new toys for was Azorious Death and Taxes. The list has changed quite a bit since we last visited it. The mana base has gone to a twenty-four land [casthaven]Dust Bowl[/casthaven] version, with an additional Tundra, more basics and [casthaven]Flagstones of Trokair[/casthaven] to combo with [casthaven]Dust Bowl[/casthaven] for value. We also now have two [casthaven]Spirit of the Labyrinth[/casthaven] to pair with [casthaven]Vendilion Clique[/casthaven] for some real misery-inducing plays.
I have now replaced [casthaven]Dust Bowl[/casthaven] with [casthaven]Geier Reach Sanitarium[/casthaven] to further combo with [casthaven]Spirit of the Labyrinth[/casthaven]. The other new toy that I am excited to test in this deck is our new answer to cards like [casthaven]Abrupt Decay[/casthaven], [casthaven]Supreme Verdict[/casthaven] as well as [casthaven]Toxic Deluge[/casthaven] and the like. [casthaven]Spell Queller[/casthaven] featured below is a great tool in answering these efficient and high impact cards that we may sometimes lose to.
Azorious Death and Taxes
Using [casthaven]Geier Reach Sanitarium[/casthaven] alongside [casthaven]Spirit of the Labyrinth[/casthaven] means that we can, end of their draw step, activate Sanitarium and force them to draw a card when they aren’t able to, then discard a card essentially locking them out of their draw step. Although we will also be cycling through our deck, we still end with the usual one card drawn in a turn cycle. [casthaven]Spell Queller[/casthaven] gives us great answers to many problem cards for our deck as well. It can hit all types of spells and has the “Old [casthaven]Oblivion Ring[/casthaven]” enters and leaves triggered abilities. This means that we can sometimes exile a spell like [casthaven]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/casthaven] or [casthaven]Abrupt Decay[/casthaven] forever. Having the three [casthaven]Flickerwisp[/casthaven] and three [casthaven]Restoration Angel[/casthaven] means we have a lot of opportunity to arrange for this interaction.
The last deck in question is actually one that I have long loved and got my first top 8 at a large event with. GW Twelve Post is an old favorite of mine. Recently at the SCG Worcester Legacy Open Kate Donnelly piloted it to a 5-2 start before unfortunately losing in round eight two miss day two. The deck was powerful as is and rarely lost to any fair deck, variance aside. The obvious new toy is [casthaven]Emrakul, the Promised End[/casthaven]. I have designed this list with the goal of being able to cast Emrakul for as little as seven or eight mana on average not including [casthaven]Eye of Ugin[/casthaven] or being able to ditch a Creature somehow.
GW Post
Here we have added [casthaven]Elephant Grass[/casthaven] to the main for matchups like Eldrazi Aggro and decks that go wide with [casthaven]Young Pyromancer[/casthaven] and [casthaven]Monastery Mentor[/casthaven]. [casthaven]Elephant Grass[/casthaven] is also nice to have when staring down Marit Lage. It also happens to be an Enchantment which we don’t usually have in the main and is easily dumped into the graveyard when we have the opportunity to bring about our Promised End.
[casthaven]Expedition Map[/casthaven] wasn’t originally in there, but now has been included as another discount on Emrakul and a further way to fix our mana and get the right land when needed. We still have [casthaven]Crop Rotation[/casthaven] to feature as our Instant and [casthaven]All is Dust[/casthaven] can not only clean up an opponent’s board, but gives us a double discount on Emrakul being both a Sorcery as well as a Tribal spell. The Legendary Eldrazi have all been changed to the newer versions to avoid some of the graveyard shuffling effects, aside from Emrakul, the Aeons Torn for the sheer power level her original printing presents. I look forward to see Kate test out this new build and will likely run it myself at some point.
My next article will be about Bant Control featuring [casthaven]Tamiyo, Field Researcher[/casthaven] that I am currently working on.
Happy brewing to each and every one of you. If anyone has an idea for a brew that they would like to see, I will gladly take requests and challenges in the comments. 🙂
Aaron Gazzaniga manages a restaurant and in his off time has been an avid magic player/brewer since 2003. Having begun in Odyssey Standard Block and always favoring control and prison style decks, we come to this moment in time where Aaron finally gets to talk about and share his ideas.