U/R Getcha 2.0
New sets are always fresh and exciting, and Oath of the Gatewatch is no exception. While the impact on older formats is generally negligible, Standard changes heavily and is filled with innovative decks until the format eventually settles. While staple decks from the previous standard are often well-represented, altering their components to use the new tools at hand, brews are certainly a large part of a new Standard metagame. The deck I’ve been playing with and tinkering on while I stream is such a brew. Similar to Atarka Red, this deck looks to capitalize on aggressive creatures and tricks to quickly kill the opponent (sometimes on turn three!). Without further ado, my current take on this blue/red prowess deck.
Maindeck:
4 Stormchaser Mage
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
2 Brute Strength
2 Expedite
2 Wild Slash
2 Fiery Impulse
3 Temur Battle Rage
4 Slip Through Space
4 Titan’s Strength
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Polluted Delta
4 Shivan Reef
3 Island
4 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow
Sideboard:
3 Self-Inflicted Wound
3 Roast
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Negate
2 Duress
2 Dispel
2 Outpost Siege
If you’ve been watching my stream you’ll know that this is definitely a work in progress, but it has been putting up great results so far. Originally we had Elusive Spellfist as opposed to Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, but that turned out to be an awful way to go about things. Jace filters your draws, fuels Treasure Cruise, flashes back important spells, and, perhaps the most important part, is a lightning rod for removal. People are so scared of Jace that they frequently ignore your other creatures, buying you time to assemble any sort of pump effects to finish your opponent off.
As of now I’ve been toying around with a few of the maindeck slots, and the sideboard could use a bit of a change too. Originally there were two Painful Truths in the deck but we swapped those out for Brute Strength; another means to force damage through because of trample. I’m sure more veteran deckbuilders can fine-tune this list more, but as I said it has currently been putting up impressive results in the new Standard. I won’t go over too much more, I know people are mainly interested in seeing the decklist, but I will say that it is imperative that your opening hand have a threat of some sort. This deck really needs to play a creature on turn one or two, even if it’s just Jace. The fact that you’re running so few lands and so many spells that cantrip means that you shouldn’t have a problem seeing new cards if you have a creature. Don’t forget, you can also cast them on your opponent’s creatures should you need to cycle or scry a spell away.
I’ll leave you with that for now! Happy hunting and I hope you guys try out this sweet little brew if you have the chance. Thanks for stopping by and see you on the stream 🙂
~Kenji
