Crazy Cat Peeking Through A Lace Bandana

Here's the list I've been playing.

It's been all of one week since I made an obnoxious Twitter post where I said "Sorin's too good", so of course I've cut Sorin. Right around the same time I was playing Sorin and climbing to Mythic with it, Nik was doing even better with a Lurrus Jund build. I made a point to try his list out.

I also wanted to try out Sign in Blood, which I haven't yet for a few reasons, one being Jegantha. But also, it's not really doable with Abundant Harvest, and I'll explain why. First, it's just another spell that improves the quality of your hand, which is fine but that takes time away from actually affecting the board, so it's not great there. Second, Sign in Blood requires double black, which skews the mana base in a weird way so that it's hard to reliably have green mana on turn one. Also, in order to play enough total black sources and sources for the other spells in the deck, you need to up the total land count, which is not what you want to do with Harvest.

Last week, I mentioned:

"However, I can't say that I'm really 100% happy with the list as it is. Bloodthirsty Adversary, Chevill, and Sorin all work well with removal spells, but the exact number and configuration is a tough nut to crack."

What Sign in Blood does for the deck is keep Bloodthirsty Adversary fed (since it's thirsty for blood, of course) while gaining you card advantage. You're powering both of your engine cards, since Adversary has a wider array of cards to flash back, and you're drawing into removal spells to trigger your Chevill, and simultaneously putting those extra life points to work. All the while, we're cutting our overall mana costs and playing a card that can go toe-to-toe with Expressive Iteration on card quantity, especially with Inscription and Lurrus in the mix.

Sign in Blood feels like it works well in a Lurrus shell, because, similarly to Sorin, ideally the cards you're drawing off it are relatively cheap, so that you have the time to cast them and you can play defense early and protect your life total. It's also not inconsequential that Lurrus is a three-power Lifelinker, so if the game grinds down enough that you can get Lurrus into play, you can pad your life total enough to cast all this stuff. With Bloodthirsty Adversary in the mix, you can cast Sign in Blood lots of times in a long, drawn out game, and even if they don't pressure you at all, eventually that life loss can catch up to you.

Lurrus also works fantastically with Ooze, Chevill and Bloodthirsty Adversary. Having the ability to rebuy your Oozes works out nicely, since you can rely on getting it back and taking down graveyard shenanigans so long as you can reach the late game. Lurrus rebuying a Chevill is a fine play for five mana, since it gums up the ground, forces your opponent to attack into it, and Chevill's deathtouch trades off with opposing creatures to do it again next turn. And of course an Adversary coming out of the graveyard is just always going to be hard to beat.

I think it's also important to note that this deck can both utilize the graveyard shenanigans nicely, but also functions totally fine against opposing graveyard hate. Between Pulse and Witherbloom Command, you can nail opposing Rest in Peaces if you need to, and you can always Thoughtseize them too. But, it's totally fine to just ignore their graveyard hate and win with Sign in Blood, free 3/2 lifelinkers, and removal spells. I had a game today where an opponent used a Skyclave Apparition on my Outland Liberator and instead of using my one leftover mana to hit their Rest in Peace, I just let the ability resolve so I could get a 2/2 elemental later. It was more important. 

Because of this, Lurrus works especially nicely in this build. Lurrus is great, of course, but the companion mechanic itself is a huge boost for a deck like this that wants to grind the game down. I just want to trade off resources until all that's left is Lurrus, and if I get back a creature or two, that's a bonus.

I like Witherbloom Command in this deck. First, it just has more stuff that it hits these days, so that's good. There are decks with Mind Stone, with Trail of Crumbs and Witch's Oven, Search for Azcanta, Portable Hole, etc. Also, there are a lot of 1-toughness creatures out there too, like Llanowar Elves, Soul Warden, Inkeepers, Ravenous Squirrels if you're lucky. So, the format has shaken out in a way where you can expect this to do something relevant, which is great. Also, since we are playing a higher land count, we're more likely to hit off the blind flips. The difference between 26 lands and 23 lands is not huge, but it counts for something. And, since we've increased our land count, I added some Barren Moor to help make our draws more consistent, so if you can nail an opposing creature or permament and then get back a Barren Moor, we're talking actual factual 2 for 1s. I'm always in the market for cards that can trigger a Chevill but are useful in other ways, too.

I have one copy of Soul Shatter and one copy of Kolaghan's Command in the deck right now, which I'm not convinced is correct in any capacity, but it is useful to have a few different cards at your disposal when casting Bloodthirsty Adversary. Inscription will usually be about the best thing you can do, but outside of that, feel free to diversify your removal to make sure your Adversary can do whatever needs to be done. Also, look at the art on this card, it's the sickest.

I also like Crush the Weak a lot right now in Historic. For one, it's a three or less mana spell, which has extra utility in a Bloodthirsty Adversary deck. You'll see three-of Crush, Cleansing Wildfire, and Go Blanks in this sideboard. A lot of that has to do with Lurrus, but also, you just want to hit them multiple times with your sideboard cards if possible. When you draw an Adversary and one of these hard hitter sideboard cards, it's like you get to play with 7 copies instead of three. Crush has been great at a couple of things. One, when you Foretell it on turn two and then cast it on turn three, you can dodge Thalia, Esper Sentinel, and Elite Spellbinder ruining your day. Pyroclasm effects might not hit all the creatures your opponents play, but when you set your deck up to Wrath away the small stuff and then answer the big ones one-for-one, you'll do great. I usually shy away from exile effects when playing with Chevill, but Crush is great with Chevill because he survives it. Also, Crush is great against any of the Witch's Oven stuff. The Cat/Oven combo might be able to dodge it, but it still is going to be useful sweeping up Squirrels, Geese, Cats, Llanowar Elves, etc.

It pains me to cut Bonecrusher Giant from the deck, but Lurrus might be worth it. One thing I've said, probably in this blog somewhere and definitely on stream a few times, is that I'm not opposed to cutting good cards, I'm opposed to playing bad cards. Having to cut Bonecrusher to make Lurrus work and having to cut Abundant Harvest to make Sign in Blood work, it's tough but it's not like we're replacing them with cards that suck. Every card in the deck has value on its own. However, it's important to recognize that cutting something is going is change how you can normally expect matchups to go. I've had trouble with Gruul decks since moving away from Jegantha, and even moreso since cutting Bonecrusher. Bonecrusher was, outside of Chevill, the best card against that deck, so having since cut it, you can expect the matchup to change. As the list stands now, I think we're weaker on that front, but also, you can expect less Gruul and more Selesnya Humans and other kinds of aggro decks, instead of the Gruul-heavy metagame that made up Historic a few months ago.

~

I streamed a bunch today and yesterday and got requests to make another Youtube video. I'd love to, it's just a matter of having the time to do it. If I can get my life together, maybe I can bust one out this weekend for this deck. Also, check out Nik's Stream if you like this kind of deck. Thanks for reading.

One Man Gathers What Another Man Spills

 For a card that I didn't think made the cut in Standard, Sorin has been impressive in Historic.

The difference between the two formats is that in Historic, the tools are there to keep the board clear early, or close to it, so that Sorin can gain you card advantage every turn without being threatened or having your life total be at risk. The overall cost of your spells will be a lot cheaper, too, so the life loss is less of a big deal. That's important for another reason: in Standard, you're usually just casting the biggest thing in your hand every turn all game, but in Historic, with your cheaper and more clinical utility spells, you want to be able to cast more of them per turn. 

Sorin does great work as a threat as well. There will be a lot of matchups where your life total isn't at risk, and card advantage is at a premium. When this is the case, the opponent will have to eat the card advantage loss and use a removal spell of some sort on Sorin. They can't just let it sit around and out card-draw you, because the -7 will kill the opponent most of the time, and it doesn't take that long to get there.

There have been pretty few times when I've used the -2 ability, since drawing a card and pumping Sorin's loyalty is so good, but if your life total is at a premium then it's not that bad. 2/3 Flying lifelink matches up pretty poorly with Dragon's Rage Channeler but is nice against a lot of the rest of the aggressive red stuff in the format.

There are a few reasons why I like Sorin more than Chandra Torch of Defiance at the moment, but one of them is that when you +1 a Sorin, you get to keep the card in your hand. Chandra can draw you cards, but Sorin will draw you cards. You don't have to untap with Sorin to get your value, you get it immediately if you cast it on turn four. Also, the card Sorin draws you might not be useful now but could be later. When Chandra reveals a Bloodchief's Thirst and the opponent's board is empty, it's gone, but with Sorin, you keep that in the holster for later. Also, double black is easier to cast than double red, but that's kind of a small issue.

This is the deck that I used to make Mythic this month. In it, I'm playing three copies of Sorin, which is a lot for a planeswalker. Something I've said about planeswalker builds in the past is that it's better to have two different planeswalkers in your hand than a specific one. Sorin is a little bit different, because if you have one in play, you won't get stuck with a legend rule issue, since Sorin will often just find you a different card to cast. But, if you're finding that three is too many, then something like Chandra or Davriel or Vraska can work here too. Alternatively, you can just play the fourth Bonecrusher Giant, which is the best planeswalker.

Sorin fits nicely alongside the already existing engine of the deck, which basically is just casting removal spells. However, I can't say that I'm really 100% happy with the list as it is. Bloodthirsty Adversary, Chevill, and Sorin all work well with removal spells, but the exact number and configuration is a tough nut to crack. Plus, with Thoughtseize and Scavenging Ooze existing in the deck as "cards I will not be playing less than 4 of" space for all the things we want to be doing is tight.

I also wish that I could give a better sideboard guide, but the board was really a work in progress as I was climbing. I'm happy with two new cards that I've added, Cleansing Wildfire and Crush the Weak. Crush has been a fantastic workaround for the Esper Sentinel decks, allowing you to pay for Sentinel and Thalia taxes and wipe the board early, while also exiling small creatures against graveyard engine decks. Cleansing Wildfire isn't exactly the super-duper-knockout-blow card against Niv Mizzet I was hoping for, but it is really good, and if you can draw a Bloodthirsty in the same game, then it actually is a super-duper-knockout-blow. It's got a few applications outside of that matchup specifically, but it's also the kind of card that might get boarded in too often if you're not careful.

~

That's about it for me. Be sure to comment if you've got any questions or are looking for some tips, or you can find me on twitter @griffinzoth. I also have a Patreon if you're interested, but it's not that serious, I just kind of set it up because subbing on Twitch sucks. Thanks for reading.