A New Deck Project

This is a Pre-M12 version of a deck that I think has a lot of potential.  It has a weakness to opposing swarm strategies (Elves, et al.) and Valakut, in game 1, but does quite well against UW or UB lists and has good sideboard options for the field.  I decided to take this and update it for M12 and see how it does.

What cards are in M12 that might help this deck? Well the first one I can think of is:

This card really changes the game.  The strategy of the deck is to play out small but significant threats, combine them with equipment and beat for huge swings.  Frequently the deck will spend its first few turns setting up a board state of 2-3 equipment, 1-2 creatures (sometimes germ creatures) and start applying pressure. The amount of pressure this deck can provide very quickly is surprising.

Turn one Kor Duelist.

Turn two Sylvok Lifestaff.

Attack for 4.

Seems good. Thats a clock on par with a Goblin Guide.

Now imagine that you've spent the first four turns putting out flayer husks, swiftfoot boots, swords, mortarpods and other threats, and your opponent goes and Day of Judgments your board.  You can then play Puresteel Paladin, Trinket Mage, search for Accorder's Shield.  Play it. Draw a card. Equip everything for free to Puresteel Paladin and swing for lots with the nice hasty/hexproofy goodness of the boots.  

Now think about that from your opponents prospective.  You are looking at a board that is threatening to kill you in 2-3 turns.  You have to deal with the cards on the table, but you also know that any creature in hand for your opponent can come screaming out of the gates and swing for the fences, or your head.  How do you play around that?  Discard is probably the best option, but even in topdeck mode with around 15 equipment in the deck, this deck has surprising resilience. What if the card in hand was a lonely Kor Duelist with the boots on the table when the Day of Judgment hits? Play the Duelist, Equip the Boots. Equip any other preferably power boosting equipment to it that you have mana for like Sword of War and Peace, and swing with doublestrike. That is six untargetable hasty damage plus two times however many cards you have in hand, and you had wiped the board on the turn before.

Instant speed answers are an absolute necessity against this deck, but the equipster deck has more threats than any deck has instant speed answers. 

Three swiftfoot boots go in.

So Swiftfoot Boots go in.

Grand Abolisher is another fine addition:

Man this card is really good.  With him on board, all those instant speed answers can't be played. In fact, the only thing your opponent can do is activate man lands on your turn to block.  No Dismembers, no Lightning Bolts, no Tumble Magnets, just all blockers all the time.
I can move around my equipment however I want. I can cast any spell in my hand without fear of counterspells.  If your opponent taps out once and you stick an Abolisher, they have only sorcery speed answers for as long as the Abolisher stays on board. That is a seriously strong ability. And talk about a deck custom made to take advantage of that! I don't think we play four of these since you don't really want to draw two, let alone three.  So three grand abolisher go in.

There is only one other cards I think deserves a slot in this deck from M12:

This is the premier catchall answer in the format, and deals with most random problem cards like planeswalkers (Gideon Jura in specific is not good for us) problem creatures (Stonehorn Dignitary lockdown? or Venser, the Sojourner) and almost anything else we don't like. I think we run three of these in the board.

Thats nine cards in, six main, three board.  Time to make some cuts.

Easy cuts for me are the extra Swords. This isn't because they don't deserve the slots or pull their own weight, but because I don't have that many of them yet.  I have two War and Peace and one Feast and Famine, so that makes the other War and Peace and three Feast and Famine and one Body and Mind easy cuts. In a perfect world they would stay in, but for now out they go. That frees up three board slots and two main slot.  We'll push the O Rings into the board and two Swiftfoot Boots into the main leaving us four more cards to cut.

I think one Trinket mage goes. I only found that I wanted two, as there aren't a lot of targets, and the best one, Basilisk Collar, also requires a Mortarpod to be truly effective. That makes Sylvok Lifestaff less effective, but I think the Lifestaff is needed so we keep two mages to fetch stuff. So an Abolisher goes in for the mage. Three more.

I think cutting one Mortarpod is fine, as you really want to have power boosting effects, and the extra creature is actually the biggest loss, so replace the Mortarpod with another Abolisher. Two more cuts.

Cut 1 Kor Duelist for 1 Grand Abolisher, leaving 1 more slot to cut. I think that Accorder's shield and Swiftfoot Boots accomplish almost the same task, close enough to drop the shield and bring in the boots.

And since our deck doesn't do well against decks with the ability to swarm the field like elves (and my metagame is VERY aggro heavy with frequent creature beatdown lists running amuck), I'll drop one negate, (and since we never see Valakut) one Flashfreeze and one Dismember for three Day of Judgment.

Our final list looks like this:

Lands - No Change (although since I'm lending out two Inkmoth Nexus to someone attending Cincinnati this weekend, I'll have two tectonic edges in my list tonight)

Creatures:

Out - 1 Kor Duelist, 1 Trinket Mage, 1 Mortarpod

In - 3 Grand Abolisher

Spells:

Out - 1 Sword of Body and Mind, 1 Accorder's Shield, 1 Sword of Feast and Famine

In - 3 Swiftfoot Boots

Sideboard:

Out - 2 Sword of Feast and Famine, 1 Sword of War and Peace, 1 Flashfreeze, 1 Negate, and 1 Dismember

In - 3 Oblivion Ring, 3 Day of Judgment

I considered putting in Mirran Crusaders, Phyrexian Metamorph and a Batterskull, but I don't think that is how this deck wants to be using it's mana each turn.  Five mana is a lot, and I'd rather be spending mana moving equipment around on my turn than paying five to equip or cast a Batterskull. If my metagame pushes into black more than it has, then I'll consider including the Crusaders. I tried the metamorphs in the deck, but they were almost always the last thing I'd want to cast in my hand, so out they went.

Anyway, that's my current deck.  Hope you're enjoying M12!

See you next time.

Mike