I have been checking on MTG Canada for blog topic ideas, and they have a variety of topics in several formats, as well as discussions on play strategies. I found one of their recent topic for Standard detailing the possible return of the discard archetype in the format and based on this article here, I have come up with this decklist below:

Creatures
4 Fell Specter
2 Urgoros, the Empty One
3 Dread Shade
4 Kitesail Freebooter
4 Dreamstealer

Spells
2 The Eldest Reborn
2 Torment of Hailfire
4 Raiders’ Wake
2 Heartless Pillage
1 Walk the Plank
1 Cast Down
3 Duress
4 Harsh Scrutiny

Lands
22 Swamp
2 Cabal Stronghold

While sorting my files to work on at the office, a Standard deck idea popped in my mind again. This reminded me of a ruling post at the Magic Judge Tumblr account that is discussing on the rulings of the M19 card, Doublecast, in certain scenarios. I have checked if it is possible to fit the card into a purely Red Burn deck. Hence, the decklist below:

Lands
21 Mountain
4 Canyon Slough

Spells
2 Abrade
2 The Flame of Keld
2 Tormenting Voice
4 Lightning Strike
3 Wizard’s Lightning
1 Fight with Fire
4 Shock
3 Sweltering Suns
4 Doublecast
4 Banefire
2 Lava Axe

Planeswalkers
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Jaya Ballard

There are two burn spell types if categorized: the core burn spells and situational burn spells.
Here we have the core burn spells: Banefire, Lava Axe, Lightning Strike, Shock, Wizard’s Lightning, and here are the situational burn spells: Abrade, Fight with Fire.

The cards that will get you the gas once you are done with the first barrage of burn damage are Tormenting Voice, The Flame of Keld, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and Jaya Ballard. The walkers take the role to also ramp up your mana for your Banefire or Kicked Fight with Fire.

The Saga enchantment is somewhat tricky in a sense that you will cast it with the max of one card in hand to discard. It can stay longer in hand if you have drawn your planeswalkers or your Banefires which you would to fire up with a lots of mana later on. You might want to cut it off the list if you weren’t comfortable with it.

I’d prefer to have zero creatures in the main deck so as to null their spot and mass removals which will take them more time to set up threats before you burn them out.

The Canyon Slough can be cycled in the late game but if ever you’d want to splash Black for access to discard spells like Doomfall and Duress, I would suggest you add Dragonskull Summit and cut four Mountains.

That is a wrap for this deck tech. For comments and suggestions, just hit em up on the box below.

Until the next post.

Taking a short break from my office work and grad school write-ups, I decided to brew one Standard deck with the upcoming Core Set 2019. The deck’s main strategy revolved around the Blue Saga: The Mirari Conjecture and I saw one key card in M19 that will gain value on this strategy and is pretty impressive on my initial evaluation. The card is the reprinted Banefire, one of my favorites during the Shards of Alara days. The addition of this card in this deck theme gets you to win games more quickly and efficiently.

Hence, here below is the initial version of Blue Red Mirrari Conjecture in M19 Standard.

Lands
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Aether Hub
2 Field of Ruin
7 Island
6 Mountain

Spells
3 Abrade
4 Banefire
4 Disallow
3 Lightning Strike
4 Glimmer of Genius
2 Magma Spray
4 Hour of Devastation
4 The Mirari Conjecture
2 Divination
1 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Search for Azcanta