STD DEKTEK: Boros Initiative "COMBO"

Ah, Theros. You’ve breathed new life into the dusty bones of a stale format that was once dominated by Thragtusks. Now instead, we get to be dominated by our mono black / blue / red overlords. I don’t know which one is worse yet, but I get the feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of Nykthos in the next few months. Esper decks are also well positioned due to the flexibility of Hero’s Downfall / Detention Sphere, and the strength of Supreme Verdict and Thoughtseize. Joining it as a “deck to beat” is mono B with its infinite removal spells and powerful finishers like Desecration Demon.

Can any kind of fast aggressive deck deal with these game plans? How should an aggro deck match up against these two grindy control decks? Is there even hope to win before your team eats a Supreme Verdict or your opponent recovers off a Grey Merchant?

I answer with a new deck I’ve been championing: Boros Initiative Combo.

Here is the list I’ve been brewing with:

CARL’S BOROS INITIATIVE COMBO DECK

2 Rakdos Cackler

4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Magma Jet
3 Legions Initiative
4 Ash Zealot
4 Frostburn Wyrd
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandras Phoenix
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
4 Fanatic of Mogis

4 Sacred Foundary

4 Temple of Triumph
2 Boros Guildgate
13 Mountain
 

THE DECK EXPLAINED

There is nothing worse than overextending your board into an opposing Supreme Verdict. Legions Initiative solves the Supreme Verdict problem while still allowing you to pressure your opponent because of the power boost it gives your team. Only Reckoner benefits from the +1 to toughness, but let’s face the facts… it’s all about power for this deck anyways. As long as you’re able to keep RW up, you can safely roll out threats secure in the knowledge that you won’t lose your entire team.

Initiative is also very important for the “combo” aspect of the deck, as it plays nice with both Purphoros and Fanatic of Mogic. Sometime having an Initiative in play, 6 mana and a Fanatic in hand is just game over. You play Fanatic, opponent takes chroma damage. You blink your team with Initiative, opponent takes chroma damage a second time. When you’ve probably already done a good amount of damage in the first few turns with Ash Zealot & friends, you’ve probably got them dead after the double chroma damage because of the high devotion to red in your permanents. Initiative also combos with Purphoros, as when your dudes come back into play, each one will deal another 2 damage. When you have both a Fanatic AND Purphoros in play it’s easy to blink and deal 10+ damage out of nowhere with a top decked Initiative.

 

YOU TALK A BIG TALK… WHY SHOULD I BE IMPRESSED?

Picture this magical Christmasland (but entirely possible) scenario:

You’ve got Ash Zealot, Frostburn Weird, Legions Initiative and Purphoros in play and the game is stalled, but it looks like your opponent is about to take control. You’ve got 6 lands in play. You draw Fanatic and play it. Opponent takes 2 from Purphoros, then another 7 from chroma damage (9 so far). You use the last 2 mana to blink your team, and come combat phase opponent takes another 6 from Purphoros (3 creatures) and then 6 more from chroma (1 less than last time since Initiative is no longer in play). That’s 9 + 6 + 6 = 21 damage out of nowhere AND you could still attack w / Purphoros since your team has haste!!

 

CURVE IN, CURVE OUT

23 lands seems right since you often want to be able to play a threat and leave up RW for Initiative should you need to pop it. Let’s take a look at the curve:

1 – 6

2 – 15
3 – 9
4 – 7

So far it’s fairly consistent because of the 8 sources of scry in the deck. I’m not a huge fan of Magma Jet overall, but in a deck like this one that want to dig to a “combo” piece or revive a fallen Chandra’s Phoenix it does the job. Mortars can come in out of the sideboard if it needs to deal with Smiter / Bloodbaron etc. I miss not having 8 1 drops, but we’ve got a backup plan for those matches that they’re normally best in (control) and they don’t add much chroma on their own or effect the board as much as our other cards.

(Note: I used to hate Firedrinker Satyr but he’s starting to grow on me. Being able to attack into annoying “walls” like Omenspeaker and Sylvan Caryatid make him kinda good I guess?)

You’ve probably noticed a lack of Nykthos? No error there. I tested quite a few games with it and because of both the low curve and the fact that we really, REALLY need reliable colored mana for Zealot, Weird & Reckoner having a hand with Nykthos in it actually ends up working to our detriment. Even when you CAN chroma for a ton of mana, what are you going to spend it on by that point? Our curve ends at 4, and there are no X spells to dispose of our extra mana. For these reasons I cut it, and I have no regrets. If I were to move into a more midrange style build that used Stormbreath Dragon I’d definitely think about including 1 or 2 because I’d probably be removing some of the lower end RR stuff to make the room anyways.

 

SPEAKING OF SIDEBOARDS…

Some of the options I’m debating include:

-          Wear / Tear: Kills Enchantments AND Artifacts. All-star vs. Mono B since it can take out a Whip AND an underworld connections all in one card!
-          Mizzium Mortars: Comes in vs. Creature based decks. Can kill tough threats like Stormbreath Dragon, Bloodbaron and Loxodon Smiter, as well as sometimes overloading and killing a team.
-          Assemble the Legion: Basically kills control on its own if it resolves and they have no Detention Sphere. Combos with Purphoros as well!
-          Elspeth, Sun’s Champion: Bring it in vs control / midrange decks? Unsure if it’s high CC would be welcome in the deck but it’s too powerful to not use in some capacity.
-          Glare of Heresy: Really, really good against a huge portion of the field relying on W spells like Elspeth and Detention Sphere. Also good vs the mono W deck (obv).
-          Burning Earth: Again, very good vs control and other 3 color decks with greedy manabases.
-          Hammer of Purphoros: May as well go Hammer Time against control and keep a steady stream of attackers / Purphoros activations.
 

PREY ON THE HUNTERS

Fast aggressive decks are the bane of slow decks and decks that require setup everywhere. Sure if Esper is given lots of time it will stabilize with Sphinx’s Revelations, or mono Black will recover all its life with a Grey Merchant, but at the same time this deck is well positioned to beat both of these boogeymen. With the popularity of these two decks on the rise this deck has a good game plan to beat them.

Against Esper your fast start keeps them backpedaling until they are within “reach” of your finishers. You can often do so much damage to them in the first few turns that even a supreme verdict or Revelation won’t save them. Esper and Mono B also have a lot of spot removal, but paying BB1 to Hero’s Downfall a Frostburn Weird doesn’t seem like a very good deal. Mono B in particular has a tough time against this deck as without an Erebus in play it’s 1 for 1 trades for tiny little people really sets them back. Both of those decks also use Thoughtseize… and we are more than happy to trade one of our spells for a card n their hand and a free 2 damage.

It's important to remember that you don't have to attack with this deck. You can literally just stall,  build a board presence, then combo out to win.

 

ASSEMBLE THE COMBO!

I hope you guys enjoy this deck. I’m posting this article even before I get to play it in any kind of “official” constructed event, but so far in testing it’s had game against all comers (except sometimes mono G… their guys just get too big!). You need to know when to shift your strategy from being the beatdown deck, to being the control deck in your matches, and I think that’s what’s going to be the hardest part to master as you’ve got two completely different game plans.

Playing this deck made me wonder about the potential to make a more midrange version of Boros featuring Anger of the Gods and other controlish elements. In fact, I built a “Big Boros” deck and played it last week to a 4-1 finish at FNM. Since I already had this article written I figured I’d still post it for your viewing pleasure as it is an unexplored archetype and one of the only “combo” decks I can think of ATM.

(I’ll try to get my “Big Boros” decklist up later this week.)

Enjoy burning face and be sure to wear your hot gloves when you handle those Fanatics! :)

Cheers,

Carl Szalich

Re-Evaluating My Theros Specs

Now that the metagame has evolved a little I figure it’s as good a time as any to take a look back at how things have been going with my picks and give a little update on what I’ve been specking on lately.

 

 

RECENT BUYS

I managed to buy 18x copies of Master of Waves @ $6 before they spiked, and managed to move all but 8 when they hit their peak of $25 a few weeks ago. In retrospect I should have bought more, but I’m still happy with the huge profits it’s netted and have a couple more that I can still out at their stabilized price of around $15 which is still almost triple.

Got in on Underworld Connections @ $1 each and bought 12x of them. They’re up to a solid $3 now. Again, should have bought more as I saw them as 4x in the insanely popular mono-B builds but I was late getting in on them so had to struggle to find ANY at a price I was happy with. Hey, $12 is still $12! That’s like, 2x $5 footlongs! lol

I also tried picking up an uncommon at $0.25… Fanatics of Mogis. When he started to show up in mono-R decks I managed to snag 25 of these for $0.25 each. I’m outing them @ $4 per playset so have been rewarded handsomely. Dump uncommons soon tho, as the more Theros opened, the more of them there will be!

I’ve invested in 40x Legions Initiative because I found them @ only $2.50 each and SCG had them for $5 with ebay auctions closing around $16 (now $4 on SCG… ouch… hoping I can still win on these! Break out darn you… BREAK OUT! Lol). My thinking was that with Boros and mono-R being real decks that people may adopt them into their boards / main as a way to combat Esper, and they also “combo” with a Mogis Fanatic and/or Purphoros in play. Hasn’t panned out yet, BUT a Boros deck DID just win the recent SCG Open (no, it has none main / board) so I’m holding onto hope that I didn’t just burn $100.

Here’s that Boros list for reference:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=60384

Daxos of Meletis… oh Daxos, how I need you to succeed! I’m up to around 50 of the little Azorious legend that could. Let’s hope he does some heavy lifting soon as right now I seem to be the only one playing him. Like, THE only ONE. If I were to ask who’s tried him out in a crowded room full of magic players my answer would be the sound of crickets chirping haha.

LOOKING BACK TO MOVE FORWARD

I wanted to see how I was doing so far on my buys, so I’m going to compare my old article and my buy in / predictions to todays price on SCG since that’s the price guide I’d been using initially to reference.

Card: Boon Satyr

Bought in at: $0.99
Predicted: $3-5
Currently: $4

Obviously this was one of my best calls considering it went up to $7 for a while and I moved out all my extra copies at that price. Since it’s a rare I didn’t want to hold it for too long as the more pack of Theros that get opened the less desirable rares become because of the quantity opened. The card still sees play in a ton of decks so I think my prediction of $3 is probably the floor for this guy since he’s proven himself worthy.

Card: Hammer of Purphoros

Bought in at: $1.50
Predicted: $3-5
Currently: $1.50

The card is seeing a lot of play as predicted, but isn’t a 4x and the supply is starting to outweigh the demand. I already moved a bunch of these at $3, and while I don’t see them as going to bulk, I’m glad I ditched mine while they were more than I paid for them. No regrets on this one, as it will continue to see play (at least in sideboards) as long as control continues to dominate.

Card: Spear of Heliod

Bought in at: $1.50
Predicted: $3-5
Currently: $2

Another rare being outpaced by the amount opened. Surprising that it’s worth more than the Hammer when hammer is putting up more results, but this effect is probably more desirable. SCG is still priced higher than what I paid and I’m having no trouble moving them so although my prediction was off (again) it was still a fine buy. If mono-W or more Boros continue to rise in popularity the Spear will rise as well.

Card: Daxos of Meletis

Bought in at: $2.25 (then again @ 1.50)
Predicted: $4-6
Currently: $1

Noooooooo Daxos, why??? I thought we could be friends and dominate standard together while sipping punch and playing croquet. Instead you’ve become my first “real” loss so far. I’ve got hope D-Man, so don’t worry, I’m not about to abandon you. You can stay in my little shoebox of specs for a good, long while. At least you’ll always be great in commander if nothing else! L

Card: Colossus of Akros

Bought in at: $0.50
Predicted: $2-3… in a year or 2.
Currently: $0.50

No surprise here. The card has no standard appeal and was purchased for commander purposes. In retrospect I should not have made cash purchases on them (now I’m down $4 oh noes!) since everyone just wants to dump them as throw ins. Oh well.

Card: Heliod, God of the Sun

Bought in at: $9
Predicted: $15+
Currently: $8

I’m a little surprised here, but just don’t think the time has been right for him… YET. I’m totally willing to continue to sit on mine for a while and wait for them to pay out. Worst case scenario it becomes casual trade fodder but again, I’m still hopeful as he’s the only god to NOT have performed in a competitive capacity.

Card: Akroan Horse

Bought in at: $0.50
Predicted: $0? LOL
Currently: $0.50

I haven’t lost all my money on these yet??

… Oh wait, I’ll never be able to move them at almost ANY price.
*WAO-WAOOOOOO*

Card: Arbor Colossus

Bought in at: $0.75
Predicted: $0.25-1
Currently: $1

I had a good feeling about this guy and although he’s narrow because of his GGG CC, he’s seeing play! Who would have imagined that a big dumb undercosted monster could have a place in standard? I guess I did! I’m still thinking he has room to grow, especially since most decks that run B have 4x Desecration Demons main and this guy is more than happy to eat them and become 9/9 J.

Card: Ember Swallower

Bought in at: $0.50
Predicted: $0.25-1
Currently: $0.50

For a guy that’s actually seeing play in a bunch of decks he sure hasn’t picked up in price. The fact he’s both a promo as well as in an intro deck is obviously quite detrimental to his value. He’s still very tradeable and liquid albeit his low dollar value.

Card: Hundred Handed One

Bought in at: $0.50
Predicted: $0.25-1
Currently: $0.50

SOMEWHERE IN THE BETWEEN…

So I’ve had a few really good hits (Master of Waves / Boon Satyr / Underworld Connections) and a few losers (Heliod / Daxos / Anything that cost me $0.50), but overall I’m still ahead because of my big gains. As I’ve been saying for a while now the window is closing on Theros RARES as they are starting to be opened en mass and Magic Online redemption will cause a further influx of cards into the market.

Until next time spec LONG and spec HARD. (Sexual connotations implied :P)

Cheers,

Carl Szalich

STD DEKTEK - "No Durdle" Esper

I’ve always been a far of Esper. Last season I was obsessed with Obzedat, and my love for the necrotic gang of ghouls hasn’t faded. Sure, I play mostly midrange decks, but it’s always nice to have some form of (quasi) control in your arsenal for those pesky mono-U decks and their infinite threats. While we’re at it, having answers to indestructible gods is also pretty good these days. And say! Aren’t Planeswalkers pretty darn decent? May as well run a couple since I’ve been told they’re OP. Hmmm… by that logic if I’M playing planeswalkers, I’ll bet OTHER people are as well… Hero’s Downfall all the shiny things!

Esper seems to have the tools to take down any deck in the format with a combination of card advantage, efficient removal, and life gain. Most of the lists I see run some number of permission spells (counters) as well as 4 Jace AoT, 2 Elspeth SC and an Aetherling. I call those “durdle” builds because they do nothing except try to resolve one of their meager 3x threats and then ride it to victory. They “durdle” around wasting everyones time then just plop out an Elspeth and try to call it a game.

I HATE THOSE BUILDS.

Sure they’re powerful, but eugh, I find playing them tedious and kinda boring for both myself and my opponent (not that I care about my pesky opponent… they’re just a roadblock to my inevitable victory and need to be ground in to the earth asap so I can move onto crushing the next hapless chump who comes my way! lol). So to spice things up a little I’ve been playing a modified build to a T8 at games day (40+ people) and a cool 2^nd at a 30+ person FNM 2 weeks ago (opened a Deathrite Shaman in my price packs! Score!)

Here it is:

CARL SZALICH’S NO DURDLE ESPER DECK

2 Thoughtseize

4 Azorious Charm
3 Omen Speaker
1 Far/Away
4 Detention Sphere
3 Hero’s Downfall
1 Daxos of Meletis
3 Sphinx’s Revelation
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Aetherling
1 Elspeth, Suns Champion

4 Godless Shrine

4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Watery Grave
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Silence
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp

SIDEBOARD

2 Daxos of Meletis

1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Pithing Needle
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Thoughtseize
1 Sphinx’s Revelation
2 Doom Blade
3 Negate
2 Ultimate Price
 

WHY SHOULD I PLAY THIS?

The main differences are the lack of counterspells and the additional threats. Although many Esper decks have started gravitating towards running 2x Blood Baron main, this takes it to the next level by including the anti-control all-stars that are Obzedat and Daxos as well as the card filtering guru known as Omenspeaker. Let’s break it down by theoretical matchup archetype.

VS AGGRO DECKS

Instead of relying on a few Doomblade & Co. we get Omenspeaker, which is surprisingly relevant in the aggro matchup. Their Precinct Captains and Ash Zealot don’t look so hot when you’ve got a 1/3 to block them all night long. Even if they get burnt out, you’ve still gotten to scry which hopefully put you closer to a Supreme Verdict or one of your other removal spells AND they’ve had to use a card from hand to deal with it and allow their team to keep swinging. Afterall, 3 damage from a Lightning Strike to Omenspeaker is still 3 damage less that’s dealt to you.

The deck also runs a 1x of Daxos of Meletis which I’m unsure as to why more decks aren’t adopting. In the aggro matchup, he gains you life, can block a creature in a pinch, and can use their own removal against them. I play 2x more in my board because aggro decks tend to take out their removal game 2 vs Esper which lets Daxos run rampant. (He’s also amazing vs control as you’ll see in the control writeup).

My boarding typically looks like this:

-1 Elspeth

-1 Aetherlng
-1 Jace, Architect of Thought
-2 Thoughtseize
-1 Supreme Verdict
+2 Daxos of Meletis
+1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
+2 Doomblade
+1 Ultimate Price
 
Basically we’re lowering our curve so that we can make it to late game where all of our “bigger threats” (Obzedat & Blood Baron) just auto-win the matchup. Conveniently, both of those threats also gain life, which is exactly what the aggro matchup hates to see. We’re getting more main deck instant speed removal bringing our “kill all the things” count up to 18!! I take out one Supreme Verdict because I’m replacing it with spot removal that’s a lot faster, as I expect we can’t just chill and relax until T4 in the matchup as by then they could have landed a very high chroma Fanatic of Mogis and we’re dead to their follow-up grip of burn and Chandras Phoenix.

VS CONTROL DECKS

-3 Omenspeaker

-4 Supreme Verdict
+1 Thoughtseize
+2 Daxos of Meletis
+1 Sphinx’s Revelation
+3 Negate

I MAY also choose to bring in the 2^nd Elspeth or Obzedat in this match depending on how I’m feeling.

I LOVE slipping in the 2x bonus Daxos for G2-3 vs control because as I’d alluded to above they normally take out a lot of their removal and are left with basically Hero’s Downfall and Detention Sphere to deal with him. Believe me when I say there is no better feeling than playing Daxos T3, swinging T4 and revealing a Jace off your opponents deck.

“Soooo… I guess I’ll gain 4 life and play your Jace? Totally fair.”

You also get a 3^rd Thoughtseize, 4^th Sphinx and some permission in the form of Negate. Your main deck is already (arguably) a more favorable matchup because of your additional threats. Obzedat and Blood Baron dodge almost all the removal out of opposing Esper decks in different ways, so are both very frustrating to deal with. I like to play 1x Far/Away right now (and may increase the count to 2x) because it’s one of the only ways we CAN deal with a Blood Baron post board.

 

IF YOU LIKE PINA-COLADA…

So if you’re a far of Esper style control decks, but want a few more lines of play than holding up counterspells and waiting to EoT Revelation to find one of your (very) few threats, give this build a try. You’ve got an improved game vs. Aggro game 1 (and let’s face it, a good curve out from an aggro deck is Espers number one worry) and more threats than a standard Esper deck. You’ve also got a few lines of play that they won’t see coming like Daxos out of the board (and main!).

Speaking of Daxos: Even if you DO love permission, at least try running Daxos of Meletis a few rounds to test him out. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think the guy is a house! I need more people to test with him so that I can know for sure tho, so sleeve him up and get playing!

I’ve got a couple other “newish” decks that take an “old” archetype and mess around with it in my arsenal. I’ll try and post a couple little articles like this one in the near future to showcase them once I’ve had a chance to run them through a tournament.

 

Cheers,

Carl Szalich