This weekend’s SCG Cincinnati is Team Constructed, so the team will be rocking some sweet Standard, Modern, and Legacy lists.
Ally Warfield—Modern Izzet Phoenix
Modern Izzet Phoenix
| Creatures (12) 2 Snapcaster Mage 4 Thing in the Ice 4 Arclight Phoenix 2 Crackling Drake Spells (29) 4 Faithless Looting 1 Flame Slash 2 Lightning Axe 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Opt 4 Serum Visions 2 Surgical Extraction 4 Thought Scour 4 Manamorphose Enchantments (1) 1 Pyromancer Ascension | Lands (18) 1 Flooded Strand 3 Island 2 Mountain 1 Polluted Delta 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Spirebluff Canal 2 Steam Vents 1 Wooded Foothills Sideboard (15) 2 Dispel 2 Spell Pierce 1 Surgical Extraction 1 Dragon’s Claw 2 Abrade 2 Blood Moon 1 Anger of the Gods 1 Beacon Bolt 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 1 Ravenous Trap 1 Shatterstorm |
This is likely what I will be playing in SCG Cincinnati. Once again, I am recommending Izzet Phoenix for the Modern seat—the deck has proven its power level and resiliency against various hate cards time and time again. Izzet Phoenix has all the tools in the sideboard to beat some tougher matchups, such as Burn, Tron, or even Grixis Whir. While Whir is a very hard matchup, I don’t expect a lot of it at Modern events because people tend to not enjoy the playstyle of prison decks.
This list is very similar to Austin Collins’s list that won SCG Philadelphia last week. However, I prefer Opt to Sleight of Hand because I value the ability to flip Thing in the Ice on your opponent’s turn against cards like Inkmoth Nexus that can kill you the following turn if you decide to flip Thing in the Ice on your turn. With classic Affinity on the rise, Opt makes more sense to me. Additionally, it allows you to be more reactive in som matchups you want to be by utilizing Snapcaster Mage, Spell Pierce, and Dispel. Sleight of Hand felt better to me only when you kept a one-land hand and were searching for the second land.
Overall, playing Faithless Looting is one of the most powerful things you can be doing in Modern right now, and Izzet Phoenix is more resilient to hate cards than Dredge is, so my recommendation for Modern continues to be Izzet Phoenix.
Chad Harney—Legacy Grixis Delver
Legacy Grixis Delver
| Creatures (13) 4 Delver of Secrets 2 Dark Confidant 3 Young Pyromancer 3 True-Name Nemesis 1 Gurmag Angler Spells (27) 4 Brainstorm 1 Forked Bolt 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Ponder 2 Spell Pierce 1 Spell Snare 3 Stifle 4 Daze 4 Force of Will Enchantments (1) 1 Bitterblossom | Lands (19) 1 Island 4 Polluted Delta 4 Scalding Tarn 3 Underground Sea 3 Volcanic Island 4 Wasteland Sideboard (15) 1 Engineered Explosives 2 Flusterstorm 1 Grim Lavamancer 2 Pyroblast 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Abrade 1 Bitterblossom 2 Diabolic Edict 1 Price of Progress 1 Izzet Staticaster |
At this point, I feel like a broken record. Every time there’s a Legacy event I try my hardest not to play Grixis Delver, but the next thing I know, I’m sleeving up Lightning Bolts, Underground Seas and Dazes again. I tried to like Izzet Delver, I really did—but I’m a sucker for Bitterblossom.
I think Izzet Delver and Grixis Delver largely fill the same role in the meta. Izzet Delver is better against Moon Stompy, Death and Taxes, and Delver mirrors, while Grixis has better game against combo, Miracles, and other fair decks. In my experience, matchups like Moon Stompy and Death and Taxes center too much around their Turn 1 artifacts (Chalice of the Void and Aether Vial) to actually get a significant advantage picking between Grixis and Izzet.
My only point of contention is whether I want to run back Stifle. Prior to SCG Syracuse, I believed Stifle was good again for the first time in a while. Which is saying a lot, because I hate sleeving up Stifle. Post-Syracuse I’m not so sure. If you’re not feeling up to the Stifle and Dark Confidant life like me you can cut those for the second Gurmag Angler, some discard, and a Preordain. I also wouldn’t fault you for playing straight Izzet Delver, either.
Austin Collins—Legacy Izzet Delver
Legacy Izzet Delver
| Creatures (13) 3 Pteramander 3 True-Name Nemesis 3 Young Pyromancer 4 Delver of Secrets Spells (33) 1 Vapor Snag 2 Light Up the Stage 2 Forked Bolt 2 Spell Pierce 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Ponder 4 Daze 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 2 Chain Lightning 4 Lightning Bolt Land (14) 2 Flooded Strand 1 Wooded Foothills 1 Polluted Delta 1 Mountain 3 Island 4 Wasteland 2 Volcanic Island | Sideboard (15) 3 Abrade 1 Electrickery 1 Blazing Volley 2 Flusterstorm 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Blood Moon 3 Pyroblast 1 Price Of Progress |
I plan on playing Izzet Delver this weekend in the Legacy spot of my team with Brad Carpenter and Zan Syed. I think the deck is in a really strong spot right now—I Top 8’d a few weeks ago and won a Legacy Challenge a week after with it, so obviously the deck is sure to crush.
I plan on playing close to my exact 75 I played at the Legacy Open with some tech for the mirror, as I expect it to be popular. I plan on cutting Preordain, a Spell Pierce, and a Chain Lightning in favor of two Light Up the Stages and a second Forked Bolt to gain an edge in the mirror. Rich Cali, who won that Legacy Open, was playing three Light Up the Stage but I’m not a huge fan, since he plays a fourth Pteramander and cuts all the Spell Pierces, which I don’t think is worth the sacrifice.
I do think this deck struggles with the Storm match up, so it could be worth it to play something like Null Rod if you expect it to be popular; however I don’t quite respect Storm enough to do so. I am playing a Blazing Volley over an Electrickery in the sideboard because it costs one less, and a Price of Progress over a Blood Moon because it’s not as weak to removal while being just as impactful—except vs Depths, which I don’t expect to see this weekend.
Brad Carpenter—Standard Selesnya Tokens
Standard Selesnya Tokens
| Creatures (16) 2 Huatli, Radiant Champion 3 Emmara, Soul of the Accord 4 Tithe Taker 3 Trostani Discordant 4 Venerated Loxodon Spells (23) 4 Flower // Flourish 4 Saproling Migration 4 March of the Multitudes 4 Conclave Tribunal 4 History of Benalia 3 Legion’s Landing Land (21) 4 Forest 9 Plains 4 Sunpetal Grove 4 Temple Garden | Sideboard (15) 2 Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants 3 Baffling End 1 Crushing Canopy 3 Knight of Autumn 4 Kraul Harpooner 2 Vivien Reid |
This weekend I’m in the Standard seat, joining the newly-crowned tater tot (Austin Collins) and Lotus Box captain Zan Syed. I haven’t had a chance to really explore the Standard format since the Standard Classic in Syracuse, where I played LSV’s Izzet Phoenix deck from the Mythic Championship and 6-2’d for a nice 10th place (or something).
I would normally run back the Izzet Phoenix deck but a lot of the young guns on the SCG tour have been doing well with Selesnya Tokens. Zach Kiihne qualified for the Mythic Invitational playing Tokens and Ethan Gaieski played it in the Magic Online RPTQ to a Mythic Championship invite. I am also terrified of being paired against Esper Control while playing Izzet Phoenix (just watch LSV’s semifinals match from the Mythic Championship) and Simic Nexus doesn’t appear to be the best matchup either, so I think Selesnya Tokens an easy slam dunk. I also happened to 5-0 a Magic Online league with it so the deck is clearly broken, right? Right?!
In all seriousness, I believe Selesnya Tokens has a serviceable matchup against Esper Control, while having a rough, but not unwinnable, matchup against Simic Nexus. In the creature matchups I believe that Selesnya Tokens reigns supreme, with Mono-Blue is likely the worst matchup of the creature strategies. But Selsnya Tokens, with the help of four Tithe Taker and four Kraul Harpooner, can make the matchup more favorable. The only other matchup that semi-worries me is something like Sultai, but if we can manage to fade Find // Finality then we’ll be fine.
Overall I am pretty happy with the choice and hopefully it pays off. Worst case I’ll audible to Izzet Phoenix.
Drake Sasser—Standard Simic Nexus
Standard Simic Nexus
| Creatures (2) 2 Hydroid Krasis Spells (25) 2 Blink of an Eye 4 Chemister's Insight 4 Growth Spiral 1 Negate 4 Nexus of Fate 4 Opt 4 Root Snare 2 Sinister Sabotage Enchantments (8) 4 Wilderness Reclamation 4 Search for Azcanta Land (25) 6 Forest 5 Island 1 Arch of Orazca 4 Breeding Pool 4 Hinterland Harbor 4 Memorial to Genius 1 Woodland Stream | Sideboard (15) 3 Biogenic Ooze 3 Druid of the Cowl 3 Kraul Harpooner 2 Murmuring Mystic 2 Crushing Canopy 2 Negate |
You may recognize this list from Ally Warfield’s Nexus article that was posted earlier this week! I would play Simic Nexus this weekend because, outside of the White Aggro decks, Simic Nexus appears to be very well-positioned. Even the White Aggro matchup felt reasonably close and far from unwinnable. I also get to leverage a lot of my experience playing Nexus of Gates throughout this Standard since the primary game plan is very similar.
Overall, I think Simic Nexus is the best Wilderness Reclamation deck. Despite the hype for Temur Reclamation that has been circulating around I think there’s a better choice available. Choosing to play the card Wilderness Reclamation without having the backdoor of just going off on your opponents with Nexus of Fate seems rather silly to me, especially when Nexus has such a low deckbuilding cost. If you choose to play Temur Reclamation this weekend, I highly recommend at least a singleton copy of Nexus of Fate to give yourself the ability to combo off.
Feel free to let the team know what you think or if you have any questions about their decks post on Twitter at @TeamNovaMTG.