I’m not sure where to go with Game Day. Additionally, with GP Phoenix coming up in April, I’ll likely be playing the same deck at Game Day as I will then.
I’m a playset of Thougthseize away from Black Devotion. I would love to play a U/R combo deck utilizing instants and sorceries to go through my deck, but it’s not good enough to win. I’m nowhere close to U/W or mono-U devotion.
Mono black is likely the best deck in the format, but it’s hard to get an edge vs the mirror.
The U/R combo deck leans heavily on burn, draw and recurring creatures to push through damage. There is a prototype a friend came up with:
x3 Young Pyromancer
x4 Satyr Firedancer
x2 Spellheart Chimera
x4 Chandra’s Phoenix
x3 Stormbreath Dragon
x2 Shock
x3 Izzet Charm
x3 Turn // Burn
x4 Counterflux
x4 Lightning Strike
x1 Steam Augury
x1 Mizzium Mortars
x1 Ral Zarek
x1 Chandra, Pyromaster
x4 Steam Vents
x4 Temple of Deceit
x4 Temple of Malice
x6 Mountain
x6 Island
Sideboard
x3 Far // Away
x4 Skullcrack
x1 Toil // Trouble
x1 Rakdos’s Return
x2 Mizzium Mortars
x1 Cyclonic Rift
x1 Act of Treason
x2 Slaughter Games
I don’t know how much I like it, but it looks like the start of a deck. I think Ral Zarek is likely the MVP, giving you the ability to burn or tap much like Ajani Vengeant did back in the day, with the ability to win on the spot with his ultimate. Steam Augury is one of those cards that also needs a deck to break it, because Fact or Fiction, You Lose was so amazing in the day and while this isn’t nearly as awesome, it’s still very good. It is missing Jace, which I think could be go either way depending on the match up. My only concern is that the 4 drop starts getting very filled with 3 Planeswalkers and Steam Augury, but I don’t forsee mono-black putting that much pressure on the deck with all the pinpoint burn to take down their small threats.
I’ll let you know next Monday what I decided to sleeve up 🙂