I played GP Costa Rica and ran the crazy UR Fliers deck popularized by Tomoharu Saito. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it going forward even though it performed admirably. It’s a very glass-cannony deck and the metagame was just right in CR but is unlikely to remain so going forward. For the decklist mongers, I’ll give you an updated one, but I wouldn’t recommend playing it unless your field is a lot of control and very little aggro. BW and Grixis are 80-20 matchups while Humans is a 20-80. GW tokens is favorable but Bant Company is unfavorable. All that being known, if your metagame lines up like this then this deck may be the ticket.
4 Rattlechains
4 Dimensional Infiltrator
1 Stratus Dancer
2 Eldrazi Sky Spawner
4 Goldnight Castigator
4 Fevered Visions
1 Oath of Chandra
3 Fiery Impulse
4 Clash of Wills
3 Spell Shrivel
4 Exquisite Firecraft
1 Disperse
1 Negate
4 Wandering Fumurole
4 Shivan Reef
9 Mountain
7 Island
Sideboard
3 Negate
4 Roast
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1 Fiery Impulse
1 Oath of Chandra
A lot of the adjustments are to focus more on mana efficiency, to concede the Humans matchup and better utilize that sideboard space, and to try and play the Fevered Visions game against Dromoka’s Command decks instead of sideboarding it out most of the time.
But this is not an article about that deck. Rather, it’s about a situation involving that deck. Specifically, one I faced multiple times in Costa Rica. Imagine you’re playing the stock list or close to it:
4 Rattlechains
4 Dimensional Infiltrator
4 Stratus Dancer
4 Goldnight Castigator
4 Fevered Visions
4 Fiery Impulse
4 Clash of Wills
4 Spell Shrivel
4 Exquisite Firecraft
4 Wandering Fumurole
4 Shivan Reef
9 Mountain
7 Island
1. Dromoka’s Command vs UR Fliers
On the play against a GW deck, Lambholt Pacifist comes down on two and you flash in a 2/1, untap and play a Fevered Visions, drawing a card. Your opponent is already in a spot where they are massive underdogs unless they have exactly Dromoka’s Command this turn, so let’s assume that they do and have to decide on modes.
I’m purposefully not giving you any more information than that. What’s the play?
2. Gifts Pile vs. Storm
The second one is from a Modern video I did for MTGCardMarket.com a while back with Thopter Gifts. You can watch the full set here but the play in question is in the third round (fourth video). It was in game three, which starts at 28:20 for full context, and the play itself is at the 38 minute mark.
The short version is that the Storm opponent fizzled but has Past in Flames and plenty of fuel in the yard and a Goblin Electromancer in play, and we’re casting a Gifts Ungiven on their end step. Here is the full gamestate and the contents of the library when Gifts resolves:
What do you get?
3. Looter Problem Variation
And the last is a simple variation on The Looter Problem that lit the internet on fire last week. For what it’s worth, I loot in the original, but I also am not the biggest fan of the presentation that LSV gave as it has too many factors that can alter how you answer and ultimately, in my opinion, obfuscates the principles that the problem should be about. In my coming up in Magic, I’ve seen the problem presented 5 or 6 times, and the one that Luis sent viral was the most dynamic and strategic of any of them [as opposed to theoretical and mathematical].
So to pull things in the other direction, let’s look at more of a vacuum. This version was brought to me by Matt Nass a couple of years ago: You have a Merfolk Looter and no cards in hand. You are dead next turn. Your library consists of one card that wins the game and an infinite amount of blanks.
Do you activate your Looter to mill one on their end-step?
Leave your answers to any or all situations in the comments and keep your eye on NumotGaming.com and/or my twitter for the solutions very soon!
