Act of Reason Counter-Burn

I’m going to try and get back to weekly writing again for this website, but I can’t make any promises. Unlike most people who write articles, I work a normal 9-5 day as a Desktop Support Analyst for a publishing company.

There will be some weeks that I don’t even play at Friday Night Magic, but that doesn’t mean I’m not researching, testing and tweaking some of the best decks out there. In case you didn’t already know from other articles, I’m somewhat biased toward blue. You can follow me on twitter @iplayislands. This past Friday I piloted the Blue Red Delver of secrets counter-burn deck.I’m going to get this out there first and foremost: my deck was not a stock 75.

Here is my list:

My reasoning for not including Stromkirk Noble and Grim Lavamancer are simple: they kinda suck right now. Grim Lavamancer feels terrible now that fetch lands are gone, and it also feels completely counterproductive being that I want to keep my graveyard for Snapcaster Mage. So instead of those creatures I added a package of “removal” in the form of 2 Dissipate and 3 Dismember. Dismember is really good right now and if you aren’t running it again, I highly suggest you take a look at your builds. I also included Gut Shot over Geistflame due to the fact that I can cast it turn 1 on the draw to kill off a Champion of the Parish or a Birds of Paradise. Not to mention baiting an attack from an Inkmoth Nexus turn two by playing an Island instead of a Mountain is just phenomenal! I’m going to say this now because I will be repeating it. There are a LOT of */1 creatures in this format that are worthy of just blowing up as soon as you see them. In hindsight, Dissipate was incredibly disappointing in the deck and at the end of the article I will discuss my modified build with the notes I was able take from the night’s events.

I piloted this deck to a record of 3-0-1 on the night. We split the finals and went home. I also was able to ID the last round. So without further ado, let’s get into the night!

Round 1

I had to immediately mulligan my hand to 6 against an unknown deck. Turn 1 he played a Champion of the Parish and I put him on UW Humans. The next turn he followed with more dudes and I was dead pretty quickly drawing no action, and no outs. It turns out he was Mono-White Humans.

Game 2 I brought in Arc Trails benching one Ponder and two Dissipates. I was soon on my way with a pair of flipped Delver of Secrets and Arc Trails clearing the way for the quick win. Snapcaster absolutely shined for me in this matchup as it was able to bring back Arc Trails to kill off what I needed.

Game 3 was almost a carbon copy of game 2. He couldn’t keep creatures on the board while I played a couple of Chandra’s Phoenix and swung in the air for the win. Arc Trail out of the sideboard is great against these tribal and token type decks because you can sit on it and two-for-one them all day. This was the type of matchup that I anticipated I would do well against simply because they have very little interaction against me. He was however packing Fiend Hunters and I lost a Phoenix to one. I was able to get it back with a timely Snapcaster Mage and Arc Trail + Gut Shot.

Round 2

I am paired up against our very own @Jessehogie and his GW Humans deck. This match didn’t really turn out to be the match I expected it to be. He was very mana screwed and didn’t get to do much of anything in the 2 games that he lost. Game 1 he kept a 1 land hand and was blown out by Gut Shot and a Phoenix. I had an answer to everything that he was able to try to cast and we were on to game 2.

Game 2 I brought in the Arc Trails and ditched the Dissipates and Ponder (seeing a pattern yet?)I faced a turn 4 Thrun, the Last Troll. It was at this point I realized that I had absolutely no answer to this beast. Mental Note taken, he beat me to a pulp and we were on to game 3.

Game 3 he mulliganed a 1 land hand into a no land hand, into a 1 land hand into a 4 land hand. He kept his 4 land hand and we were off. I was able to draw some action early and put some pressure on, but he managed to draw another Thrun off the top for turn 4. I had already hit him twice with a Phoenix and knew we were off to the races. Another Phoenix evened up the race but he was starting to hit some action in the form of a Hamlet Captain. I blocked Thrun with one of my Phoenixes and hit him in the face with a Brimstone Volley for 5. This is where things got interesting as I was now in top deck mode as well. After hitting a Ponder I saw Snapcaster Mage, Brimstone Volley and Mana Leak. I drew the Snapcaster Mage leaving the Brimstone Volley on top for my next turn. I was then able to play the Snapcaster as a blocker bringing back my Brimstone Volley in the graveyard for another 5. A few turns later I was able to set up the same play for the win. This game was the toughest I had for the night and I’m thankful that he had to mulligan down to 4 as Thrun just ruined me.

Round 3

Round 3 I’m paired up against a Wolf Run Ramp deck with red in it. I have played that deck for the previous 4 weeks and know it well. My opponent just decided to play it Friday night to give it a try. He was playing a version I hadn’t seen yet, sporting Devil’s Play and Birds of Paradise. He seemed to be on a removal heavy package as well with fewer true threats in his deck. This to me was ideal because I was able to disrupt his tempo fairly easily.

Game 1 he played an Inkmoth Nexus and passed the turn. I played Island and said go. He followed with another land and tried to swing in with an Inkmoth Nexus which was met with a Gut Shot. I followed with another land and a turn 3 Phoenix to put on the pressure. He was able to drop another land and start ramping, but I was holding all of what I needed to win in the next few turns while he spent time ramping and not playing any threats. Finally I was able to get him within burn range and he tapped out for a Primeval Titan. I let it resolve knowing that he was dead on my upkeep.

Game 2 he was much more hesitant to swing with his Inkmoth Nexus and he kept them back for ramp and removal. He was able to hit my Delver with a Beast Within and then Slagstorm it all away. I was able to keep pressure on with Brimstone Volley and Snapcaster Mage. He then attempted to tap out for a Primeval Titan which was met with a Mana Leak from me and shortly thereafter it was over.

Round 4

I was paired up against 1 of 3 or 4 Mono-Black Infect decks at our shop. I was anxious to test things out against this deck. We had agreed to intentional draw before this round, but both of us were interested in testing things out. We ended up playing 6 games in the time it took for the round to end. I can tell you that at couple of good things and bad things came out of this matchup. First, I realized how terrible my sideboard strategy was against this particular deck. Second, he learned how to properly sideboard against my deck, and third, things were going to change for my next build. I ended up winning the first 2 games we tested and then proceeded to only win 1 of the next 4. We discussed my sideboard options and his and decided that most of my sideboard was worthless against him, especially my Manic Vandals. They just sat in my hand doing a whole lot of nothing.

All in all this deck performed very well (as I thought it would for our metagame). It is still under the radar as far as most metagames are concerned, but aside from Thrun, the deck is completely live against every other deck in the format. I would however make some changes as Dissipate was just horrible for me. The manabase is kind of shakey, but there was not one game where I was dead to mana screw. Ponder is really good at helping filter out any issues you might have along with digging for action when you’re getting low on cards. If I had to change the deck for this Friday, it would look something like this:

Obviously now if I’m playing against an opponent with Green, I have to assume they are playing Thrun, the Last Troll and bring in the Phantasmal Images. They also double as removal against Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon as the only out I truly have against him is Dismember. Against decks that want to bring in Nihil Spellbombs, I can bring in Crush for instant speed removal, but it is also really good against opposing Sword of Feast and Famine and Sword of War and Peace along with any Lashwrithes or random equipment that could cause some problems. Burn the Impure is simply because our meta is flooded with infect decks. I suspect that the aggro deck of choice however will shift back to Tempered Steel after this past weekend’s worlds tournament. My bounce package is for threats such as Titans and Planeswalkers as well as any particularly annoying enchantments such as Oblivion Ring or Honor of the Pure. The reason I ditched Dissipate is mainly because the double blue mana wasn’t super easy to rely on, at least if I got hit with discard with a Phoenix in hand I was able to pitch that instead. Also you really still want to be able to play a Delver of Secrets and be able to counter a spell turn 3 if you didn’t have the turn 1 Delver. I also found myself siding out Dissipate every single game.

I’ll say it again, this deck is fun to play, it is live against every deck in the format right now and is still under the radar. Give it a shot, practice with it, and you absolutely need to know when you’re the beat down and when you’re control. It also has the ability to switch gears between the two quickly allowing adaptability over the course of a game. If you have any questions, DM me or tweet at me, I’ll be happy to answer them.