I have been playing the game for years on end and preparing for a major MtG event usually gets me into serious mode. The recent Pro Tour Qualifier for Journey to Nyx was no exception. It felt like the schedule was a bit too early. The preparation time was a little short due to Born of the Gods becoming a part of the Standard format two weeks before the tournament. My team wasn’t able to do a lot of playtesting on paper but reading up on new technology and predicting how the new cards in the set will affect the metagame helped a lot somehow.

The Deck Choice

Before Born of the Gods Standard, playing various archetypes to some extent helped me learn more about how every deck operates. During the year-ender tournament in Iloilo last December, I played a Devotion to Boros deck that I have tested for a month prior to that event. It got me into a top 4 finish for that event. The metagame shift heralded the rise of Blue White Control and Mono Black. These decks are the Boros Deck’s weak matchups. It made me decide to move on to another deck archetype.

I tried my hand with Red Green Monsters. I was initially not a fan of the deck as most of its threats are easy prey to Black spot removal. The recent SCG tournaments and also the Grand Prix showed that the deck has potential to be a Tier 1 archetype for Standard. Xenagos, the Reveler and Domri Rade have proven to be solid threats against control decks. Stormbreath Dragon is also a viable threat as it can close out games and can also stop white aggro decks in their tracks. Polukranos trumps most creatures in the format with its cheap cost to P/T ratio and a monstrous ability that also helps to remove threats. The mana acceleration from Elvish Mystic and Sylvan Caryatid completes the package.

The initial playtesting was just Red and Green with the Magma Jet tech as based from the Dundee PTQ article. The Born of the Gods first batch of card inclusions were Xenagos, God of Revels and Fanatic of Xenagos. The latter was then changed to Courser of Kruphix.

Testing showed that the deck was still vulnerable to Mono Blue and could not kill a full-blast Master of Waves without a Polukranos to go monstrous and kill it. Thassa also posed another problem. The God was hard to remove once the devotion is turned on and her ablility to make others go unblockable was a pain. Even with Mistcutter Hydra in the sideboard they can still run the damage race. Adjustments in the sideboard were made which included cards like Time to Feed and Ratchet Bomb but those did not seem to be enough. The solution we came up with was to splash a third color.

The first color that came to mind was White for Chained to the Rocks. As referenced from its use in Boros Devotion. A detailed explanation of this archetype splash can be found on my blog post here.

Initial playtest showed that the white splash improved the deck’s Mono Blue matchup, but it was performing weak against Mono Black. The addition of Lifebane Zombie post board made it all the more difficult. We assumed that if we could at least disrupt their hand then their game plan might crumble. The color splash of choice was Black.

Fellow Ilonggo player Mao Gonzalez presented the idea of using Black to make the deck operate like Jund Midrange. The splash gave the deck access to powerful cards like Dreadbore, Putrefy, Rakdos’s Return, Slaughter Games and Golgari Charm.

We came up with this list:

Dark Monsters v. 1.0
Standard

Lands
5 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Stomping Ground
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blood Crypt

Creatures
4 Courser of Kruphix
3 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Xenagos, God of Revels
1 Reaper of the Wilds

Spells
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
4 Domri Rade
1 Putrefy
2 Dreadbore

Sideboard
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Doom Blade
2 Golgari Charm
4 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Putrefy
2 Rakdos’s Return
2 Slaughter Games

The deck initially was a carbon copy of Mao’s list but then he preferred a fourth Ghor-Clan Rampager instead of the lone Reaper of the Wilds. He also added a Mutavault over a Forest in the lands.

The main deck access to Dreadbore makes it easy to deal with planeswalkers and it kills Desecration Demon and Polukranos when facing the mirror. The lone Putrefy served as instant speed removal and for dealing with pesky threats. It also kills Obzedat which can be problematic in some matchups. Reaper of the Wilds was a personal choice.

Coming from the sideboard, Slaughter Games proved to be great against control decks. It helps to remove their win conditions which the deck can’t answer (e.g. Aetherling) and it takes away Sphinx’s Revelation which runs them out of gas. Rakdos’s Return can be a good finisher and it also helps to destroy the opponent’s hand which helps out a lot in winning the card advantage war.

Here is the sideboard plan:

Vs. Mono Black Devotion

-1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
-2 Polukranos, World Eater,
-1 Xenagos, God of Revels,
-1 Courser of Kruphix

+1 Golgari Charm,
+1 Putrefy,
+2 Rakdos’s Return
+1 Slaughter Games,

Vs. Mono Blue Devotion

-3 Ghor-Clan Rampager,
-4 Stormbreath Dragon,
-2 Xenagos, God of Revels,
-2 Xenagos, the Reveler

+2 Anger of the Gods,
+1 Doom Blade,
+4 Mistcutter Hydra,
+1 Mortars,
+2 Golgari Charm,
+1 Putrefy

Vs. U/W Control

-2 Ghor-Clan Rampager,
-2 Mizzium Mortars,
-4 Polukranos,
-1 Putrefy,
-1 Sylvan Caryatid

+4 Mistcutter Hydra,
+2 Rakdos’s Return,
+2 Golgari Charm,
+2 Slaughter Games

Vs. RG Monsters

-2 Xenagos, the Reveler,
-1 Courser of Kruphix

+1 Doom Blade,
+1 Putrefy,
+1 Mizzium Mortars

Vs. Red Deck Wins variants, or splashed with White

-4 Stormbreath Dragon,
-2 Xenagos, God of Revels,

+2 Anger of the Gods,
+1 Doom Blade,
+1 Putrefy,
+1 Golgari Charm,
+1 Mizzium Mortars

Vs. Boros Devotion

-3 Ghor-Clan Rampager,
-1 Xenagos, God of Revels,
-2 Xenagos, the Reveler

+2 Anger of the Gods,
+1 Doom Blade,
+1 Golgari Charm,
+1 Mizzium Mortars,
+1 Putrefy

Vs. White Aggro, or splashed with Black

-3 Ghor-Clan Rampager,
-2 Xenagos, God of Revels,
-2 Xenagos, the Reveler,

+2 Anger of the Gods,
+1 Doom Blade,
+2 Golgari Charm,
+1 Mizzium Mortars
+1 Putrefy

Part two will feature the PTQ tournament summary and a few details of my trip so stay tuned for that one.

This would be all for now. Thanks for reading.