Competetive Junk

Let ‘s Kami War!

Hi Everyone!

Today we are going to try something a little different.

Instead of coming up with the best option for your Standard tournament, I’m going to bring an off meta deck. But calm down, it got to a top8 in a Magic Online Standard Challenge!

LucasG1ggs is a Brazilian grinder who does well on Magic Online and is known for playing with more aggressive rosters. However, he got this ramp list to a top8, reminiscent of his Valakut playing times.

Thinking about the strategy, the deck is by definition a ramp deck, having at the top of the curve Titan of Industry, so your job is to accelerate mana to reach it, holding the game until then. Like any ramp, its late game is very strong, and I assure you that when you get to the end game, the tendency is to win the game, as our Sagas begin to accumulate effects.

The Kami War is so important because in addition to having an effect close to an Elspeth Conquers Death, it has synergy with the rest of the deck, in the second chapter we can return one of our cards, and as most of our permanents have ETB it creates a snow ball scenario.

Playing a little with Lucas’ list I came up with some changes and in the following update:

The first thing I noticed about the deck is that mana developing on turn 2 is more important than it seems, because from aggros to midranges, everyone has moves that pressure and if I didn’’t respond to it I’d lose. I won most of the games where I made Courier’s Briefcase on turn 2 and lost the ones I didn’t. Increasing the acceleration on the 2 drops to 8 copies helped a lot, besides having a blocker feels almost like getting one full turn. I thought about using Prosperous Innkeeper, but that would make The Prismatic Bridge worse, which doesn’t please me, so much so that I cut an Esika, God of the Tree for it, but if I give it up, I’d play with Prosperous Innkeeper and 1 The Celestus instead of Esika, God of the Tree.

The plan remains the same, ramp and then make Titan of Industry (for me, the most underrated card of the new set, although I think it will have the right hype during the Championship Set).

The sideboard is where I most wanted to do work. There are two lines I use on the sideboard of a ramp deck. One I just put more threats and each game is about the same game plan, accelerating and then making bombs, just varying which ones, and in the other I keep the bombs I already have on the maindeck supporting it with discards spells and counters. In this deck I preferred the latter because I don’t have that many options, so I valued the ones I have and just try to leave the battlefield open.

My side has a pattern, Azusa’s Many Journeys usually comes out when I want more early game plays, same thing with Spirit-Sister’s Call and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. On the other hand, the easier it is for my opponent to deal with Esika, God of the Tree, and/or The Prismatic Bridge the more likely she is to come out.

Sideboard

vs Esper

Side in: 4 Ray of Enfeeblement, 2 Infernal Grasp, 1 Unleash the Inferno

Side out: 4 Azusas’s Many Journeys, 1 Esika, God of the Tree, 2 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

vs Naya Runes

Side in: 4 Ray of Enfeeblement, 2 Infernal Grasp, 1 Unleash the Inferno

Side out: 1 Azusas’s Many Journeys, 1 Esika, God of the Tree, 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, 1 Spirit-Sister’s Call

vs White Weenie

Side in: 4 Ray of Enfeeblement, 2 Infernal Grasp

Side out: 1 Esika, God of the Tree, 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, 1 Spirit-Sister’s Call

vs URx

Side in: 3 Disdainful Stroke, 2 Infernal Grasp, 3 Go Blank, 2 Tangletrap

Side out: 4 Battle of the Frost and Fire, 1 Burn Down the House, 4 Azusas’s Many Journeys, 1 The Kami War

vs Jund

Side in: 3 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Unleash the Inferno

Side out: 4 Azusas’s Many Journeys

vs Rakdos Sacrifice

Side in: 2 Tangletrap

Side out: 1 Burn Down the House, 1 Esika, God of the Tree

Today we went with this list more focused on having fun, even knowing that versus slower decks the deck is real and can be a surprise. I like to explore decks like this to see the real impact of some cards. Titan of Industry is already a reality for me, but Binding the Old Gods showed that it still plays well and The Kami War was sensational. It’s always good to know what the next tech might be.

Rudá dos Reis