3 Seekers' Squire, 4 Merfolk Branchwalker
I've talked about this a lot before, but these are the perfect cards for the deck. You get to keep up the pace on the board by playing some pretty solid rate creatures, you get to hit land drops or even get a little scry value, and you get to do this while adding to your creature count to help Vivien Reid and Find/Finality have plenty of targets. I'm down to seven total copies of this effect, because we are in need of some extra late game help, and they aren't at their best against the mono-blue tempo deck. By the way, the mono-blue tempo deck is Enemy #1 right now, but it's perfectly beatable if you tune your deck to beat it.
4 District Guide, 2 Midnight Reaper, 2 Thrashing Brontodon
So District Guide is just straight up better than Jadelight Ranger in this deck. The reason is that we don't need a ton of lands, but we do need specific ones, since we have strict color requirements. If we needed a large volume of mana, for say, Hydroid Krasis, we would want Jadelight because it can get you two lands at a time. District Guide is just perfect for us.
I've been impressed by Midnight Reaper, but it's an effect I don't think I want too many of. Multiples being drawn could net you a lot of cards, but you're likely to lose a lot of life in that way and it becomes a problem, and in a related story, it's bad against red. It is, however, awesome with Angrath and with Vraska, Golgari Queen.
Brontodon lives on the chopping block in the 60. It's your best card against anything with Gates, anything with Wilderness Reclamation, red, and it's great against control decks, too. However, it's at its worst against any midrange mirror or against decks that don't care about the body. It has the perfect stats to be useless against Crackling Drake, Enigma Drake, and Tempest Djinn, as well, so I take them out there. I like having 4 in the 75, and they aren't the worst draw in the world even if the activated ability is a blank.
2 Bedevil, 1 Vraska's Contempt, 3 Carnival/Carnage
I'm not sure about the split here, but Contempt's life gain and exiling is certainly welcome so I don't mind having access to it. If you end up facing more Rekindling Phoenixes, then by all means go to more copies of Contempt, but the cheaper removal spells are important.
Carnival/Carnage is a card that I tried to get into the list here and there in the past, but now I'm not playing without it. If you can answer the tempo and aggro decks one-for-one and break even on mana, you're way way way ahead of the game. It's a godsend against Sultai, since fast Llanowar Elf draws are the most common way to lose the matchup, but Carnage isn't dead in the late game. If it could hit planeswalkers like Blightning could, it would be absolutely amazing, but I think it's great anyways.
4 Rekindling Phoenix, 2 Ravenous Chupacabra, 2 Rakdos Firewheeler, 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
The thing about Chupacabra at the moment is that it's the only dead card against Esper control. Every other card in the deck at least does something, even if targeting a Teferi with a removal spell isn't really the best thing in the world, it's at least got value. That said, the effect of a value creature that deals with your opponent's stuff and then pressures their planeswalkers is really really good in the format. Firewheeler does this too, while not being completely dead against control decks, it's like a 4/3 with crappy haste. It can't hit the big creatures, but, not a lot of big creatures exist that don't have flying, and those ones can get picked off by Vivien. Being the deck with Firewheeler when both decks have a Vivien Reid going is a big deal.
Vraska kind of has this same effect of a removal spell attached to a permanent of varying value. If you can remove something and force your opponent to attack into a blocker, that's usually pretty good. It also is another answer to Search for Azcanta, which can't be understated. The ultimate threat is helpful but it rarely ever happens. Don't be afraid to cash in a Vraska when you feel pressured, it doesn't have a ton of value outside of the removal spell aspect, and if you can get two Abrupt Decays out of it, you're doing great.
2 Vivien Reid, 3 Angrath, the Flame-Chained, 1 Find/Finality
These are your big payoff spells, which is actually pretty light considering everything. I've been pretty happy cutting Find/Finality and using those slots on the cheaper Carnival/Carnage. C/C always has at least some effect on the game, but F/F can make your hands quite clunky and is really susceptible to Spell Pierce. Being able to play at instant speed can make or break the mono-blue matchup.
Angrath has moved from sideboard-flex-slot-maybe card to the main source of late-game power in the deck. I'm just so impressed when it's in play, it's either a really awesome removal spell that deals your opponent damage, or it gives you an incredible inevitability engine while clocking them and taking away their resources. The fact that the +1 ability hits them from two angles is phenomenal, and alongside Vraska, Golgari Queen and Midnight Reaper, you can even get a little bit of extra value out of the Threaten effect. If you're sitting there hoping your opponent plays a 12/12 Krasis, that's a good card.
I've even brought Vivien Reid down to a 2-of to make room for Angrath. Vivien is awesome in her own right, however. I don't think I need to expand much on why, but Naturalize effects and shooting down flyers happens to be really strong in the format right now, not to mention she has a huge amount of loyalty and helps you either draw a card or hit land drops every turn, whichever one is better for you.
Before we continue, I'm noticing that it's really easy to make this article just be, like, "here are the cards I play, I play them because they are good." when in reality, the whole problem with deck building is figuring out what to cut from the deck, not add. I think my next post will be about the cards I'm not playing, which is maybe more interesting. At least it'll give insight to how I build decks and why I choose the cards I do.
24 Land, including 5 basics and 0 Memorial to Folly
5 basics is the bare minimum for District Guide. You draw them pretty infrequently, but even when you do, they help out your check-lands but don't cost you life. One Forest is the worst one to draw because it doesn't help cast Rakdos Firewheeler or Bedevil, but I have yet to have that come up.
0 Memorial could be wrong, but again, unlike the Sultai decks with their Jadelights and Llanowar Elves, we have good and enough mana, but not excessive amounts usually. Not having late game mana sinks isn't as big of a deal when you can hit every spot on your curve with the strongest threat at each mana cost, and Memorial costs us in that department.
Sideboard
The sideboard for this deck has been an interesting puzzle to figure out. 4 Duress is a must, but which removal spells and how many is a big question. Shivan Fire has been a godsend, since it helps with both aggro decks with cheap creatures and aggro decks with big creatures. I don't want Shock or Moment of Craving against Gruul or Mono-Green, but being able to shoot a Llanowar Elf on curve is something I'll take when it's available to me.
In addition to that, we've got the rest of the Thrashing Brontodons to round out 4 in the 75. Don't leave home without 'em. Outside of that, we're just looking for cards that add a bunch of value, but specifically aren't so expensive that we lose some of our advantage in the midrange mirror. 1 Vraska, Relic Seeker is the deepest I'll go down the midrange arms-race rabbit hole, since it actually deals with Hydroid Krasis pretty effectively. Siege-Gang Commander is the next card on the chopping block, as I haven't found myself bringing it in very often.
Sideboard Guide
Mono Blue Tempo: +2 Shivan Fire, +2 Moment of Craving, +2 Cast Down, +1 Vraska, Golgari Queen, -2 Thrashing Brontodon, -1 Vivien Reid, -2 Angrath the Flame Chained, -1 Seekers' Squire, -1 Find/Finality
I could be convinced that Duress is worth bringing in, now that these decks play a lot more non-creature spells. But either way, the idea is to just have really cheap and instant speed removal to help not get tempo'd out. That's basically the trick to the whole matchup, keep the board as clear as you can, say go with an instant speed removal spell up, and when they counter it, untap and use a Planeswalker or Nekrataal to kill the creature instead.
Red: +2 Cast Down, +2 Shivan Fire, +2 Moment of Craving, +1 Vraska, Golgari Queen, +2 Thrashing Brontodon, -2 Angrath, -2 Bedevil, -2 Midnight Reaper, -1 Find/Finality, -2 Merfolk Branchwalker
Vivien is okay here to have some insurance against Experimental Frenzy, but she's not at her best. She doesn't hit any creatures, and so is kinda useless at affecting the board outside of Frenzy. It's a red deck, their whole plan is pretty easy to figure out, if not very easy to actually beat. Knowing how and when to turn the corner is tricky, and you need to do it fast because they don't need a lot of time to kill you off the top of their library.
Esper Control: -2 Ravenous Chupacabra, -2 Rakdos Firewheeler, -3 Seekers' Squire, +1 Vraska, Golgari Queen, +4 Duress, +2 Thrashing Brontodon
I hate boarding out the Seekers' Squires, but at the same time you kind of have to. You'll hopefully draw one Explore creature and then no more for the rest of the game, but having all 11 copies of mana-smoother creatures doesn't really work out in the late game. I leave in Bedevil and Vraska's Contempt to fight their creature plan out of the sideboard, but at the same time, you can't get caught against Teferi with Cast Downs in your hand. Luckily our Planeswalkers are awesome against the creature plan if they take that route, just try and make sure you can beat a Thief of Sanity.
Sultai: -2 Thrashing Brontodon, -2 Seekers' Squire, +2 Cast Down, +1 Vraska, Golgari Queen, +1 Vraska Relic Seeker
The trick here is to spend the early turns controlling the board, which pretty much centers around Wildgrowth Walker. If you can have yourself a better board presence for when Vivien comes down, you'll be doing fine. Rakdos Firewheeler and Angrath are great here at taking out opposing creatures and letting you deal with Vivien the old fashioned way. The Krasis plan is tough to deal with, but it's slow, and we have a lot of answers for the creature itself that are pretty cheap and easy. If they are just going to load up on cards and life but only add the one creature to the board every turn, you can usually just race it with Planeswalkers and Phoenixes.
That just about covers the majority of the format. Similarly to all Jund decks ever, the plan for combo decks is just identical to beating Esper Control, take out removal and board in discard and disruption.
I really, honestly think that this deck is in a great spot. It's pretty focused on beating a few things right now, but all the tools are versatile enough to hit whatever crazy stuff people play these days. It's also incredibly consistent, which is a major plus when trying to grind on the Arena rankings or play traditional events. Give it a spin!
