Future Standard, and Modern.

Hello scrubbers. I'm thinking. About the new coming M13, and the shape of Standard as it'll be once we've gotten around to GP Auckland. I'm going. I'm getting revved up proper. I hope it all comes together.

So first off, current Standard:

If you ask me, zombies are winning. The worse thing is how easy it rebuilds from killing it's creatures, so things like DoJ do nothing. Thankfully we have Terminus. And Pillar of Flame, because that just eats Gravecrawler forever, right?

The problem with building "the answer" deck is that you then have to WIN as well. Does the red/deck exist that can do that, though? Control the early game, exiling threats instead of just killing them?

Not only that, but Zombies has some natural answers to any "exile" removal, in the cute form of Falkenrath Aristocrat, who can simply "wrath off" an Terminus style fun. When mentioning exiling a creature you naturally think of Fiend Hunter first, who has a cute interaction WITH Terminus, come to think of it.

"When Fiend Hunter DIES...return foo."

"Put all creatures on the bottom of their owner's library."

I don't see the word "destroy" anywhere there, so our humble hunter has a hidden permanet exile clause (when mixed with Terminus buddy).

The problem is that the above mostly makes for a cute bunch of interactions, which all need the right cards to come at the right time. True, both cards don't "kill" other cards in the traditional sense, so even on their own they're giving YOU value by denying it to the Zombie-board, but again does the red/white deck even have a realistic face?

It would immediately seem to be Aggro oriented, and a faster, more resilient aggro deck is, you guessed it, ZOMBIES!

So with those few thoughts in mind, I'm aiming to test out a red/white verison of an Anti-Zombie deck, then I'll see whether it's worth persuing an actual "hey, this could work" kind of deck.

4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Terminus (possibly 3, starting with one in-hand is like a mulligan)
4 Fiend Hunter

True that's only a starting fragment, but we have to wait for M13 to be fully revealed, AND Ravnica Return to will be upon us and NO Mirrodin, so we will have a very different Standard by the time November and GP Auckland are upon us.

And who knows how to flight cheap? Because MAN I've flown 4 times already this year (3 times for Magic) and it ain't cheap.

NEXT ONTO MODERN

This is more of a "secrets I shouldn't tell you" but, because it's decktech. And not decktech. Probably old, boring, and forgotten. The perfect kind of thing to really come back outta nowhere, and take the world by storm.

I'll just say "Izzet Guildmage" and "Kamigawa" and we'll see what lightbulbs went on in your head.

...

Any?

If you can remember a few specific cards, Izzet Guildmage and a Lava Spike with Desperate Ritual spliced on is an instant win. This can be done as early as turn 2 (1 if you wanna get technical and run every possible mana accelerant in the format) but it basically works really cute. And in a way I can't demonstrate without some kind of cute graphics. Seeing my current graphics monkey is dead, just read this:

With Izzet Guildmage and 5 mana.
Cast Lava Spike, splicing on Desperate Ritual.
While that's still on the cast, cast the Desperate Ritual (you keep a spliced card) and add RRR to your pool.
Copy the Lava Spike/Desperate Ritual spell. Opponent takes 3, you get another RRR.
Repeat ad nauseum.

Now I don't know how exciting the deck was when it was first around, despite being a player at the time. I do recall this trick showing up, and it being "cute" then. I just think now it's got much better countermeasures to everything that'll be trying to kill it, and an easier time finding it's own pieces.

There is the natural danger of combo-hate that already exists for the Splinter/Exarch Twin deck overlapping as duplicate-sideboard material against "Izzet Spike" (my term for the deck) but there are different things at play. You do have to protect a non-Flash creature for a turn, but there are tricks around it. Get creative!

For example, you can cast Guildmage with Pact of Negation back up. If you get around to your next upkeep and had to use it, then in response (before you pay/don't pay) you can always go Quick, then begin your combo. This means you'll need 6 mana, sure, but it's alternate path, and one so far completely unseen. Unlike the Exarch Twin combo, this doesn't rely on the combat step, nor having a positive power, so Elesh will still wreck this combo, but an Ensnaring Bridge from the opponent's sideboard wont, for example.

No real decklist, just a bunch of the essentials really:

4 Izzet Guildmage
4 Izzet Signet
4 Remand
4 Boomerang
4 Eye of Nowhere
4 Temporal Mastery
4 Lava Spike
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Glacial Ray (more Splicing fun!)

That's 36 right there, so I'd probably build that and play it against the Modern Gauntlet to see how it did, how well it flopped on it's face, etc. Obviously the Glacial Rays are TOO greedy, after all where's the cantrips, hey?

THATS ITS FOR TODAY.
FOX.

PS. I will endevour to have a video up for you tomorrow.