Standard Deviations #15.5 - "Skullkickers Part II: Slangin Packages"

Hello ladies and gentlemen; I hope you've all had a great week so far and welcome back to another edition of The Cardboard Witch.  Last time on this blog we took a *very* in-depth look at the core of a U/W Stoneforge Mystic deck I like to call Skullblade. If you haven't already read this article I suggest you click on the link now because otherwise this one probably won't make a lot of sense to you.  Okay so starting where we left off in the previous article we now have the following 58 card list:

"Skullblade" - U/W "Fish" w/ Equipment:

Creatures - 11:

4x Spellskite
4x Stoneforge Mystic
3x Mirran Crusader

Spells - 17:

4x Preordain
3x Spell Pierce
2x Condemn
3x Mana Leak
2x Divine Offering
3x Jace the Mind Sculptor

Equipment - 3:

1x Sword of War and Peace
2x Batterskull

Lands - 22:

4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Islands
4x Plains
1x Scalding Tarn/Misty Rainforest
1x Marsh Flats/Arid Mesa

Sideboard - 5:

2x Celestial Purge
1x Divine Offering/Revoke Existence
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Day of Judgment

This selection of cards helps form an excellent backbone but for obvious reasons we're going to have to add 17 more cards; partially because we need them to address the expected meta-game and partially because you can't play a 58 card deck in Standard.  Who knew?  Fortunately as previously mentioned one of the strengths of U/W Mystic decks in standard is the ability to run so many different meta packages and sideboard cards; when you change the package you change the deck's strengths and weak points significantly.  This in turn makes part of the skill in winning with Skullblade come down to correctly predicting the environment you're going to see and identifying how to proactively attack it; all while changing only 17 cards in total.  Let's take a look at some of the "meta packages" that I've found myself running and how they address specific environmental situations:


"Friday Night Firefight" - The FNM Package:

Maindeck:

+2 Inkmoth Nexus
+1 Quicksand
+1 Condemn
+1 Mirran Crusader
+2 Day of Judgment






Sideboard:

+1 Condemn
+1 Revoke Existence
+1 Into the Roil
+1 Mortarpod
+3 Kor Firewalker
+1 Cancel
+1 Sword of Body and Mind
+1 Emeria Angel

Overview:  The basic idea behind this version of Skullblade is to stay fast and flexible while actively meta-gaming against aggro and aggro-combo in the main-deck.  While obviously everyone's FNM is different in my experience they tend to contain a higher concentration of cheap, fast aggro decks while still offering up a few opponents with tier 1 net-decks like Cawblade, Valakut or RUG.  Additionally at least in my environment there's a few mad brewers with the play-skill to back up their creations so being able to potentially deal with *anything* is a very important part of winning around here.

Maindeck:  As previously mentioned this deck doesn't work without at least 25 lands so even in a semi casual setting like FNM we need to fill at least 3 of our 7 remaining slots with lands.  In this case I chose 2x Inkmoth Nexus and a Quicksand for their value against fast aggro decks and because Tectonic Edge will be dead in far more match-ups than say at a large cash/qualifier event.  Additionally Nexus gives you a 2nd out (besides Jace) against the infinite life combo in the updated Soul Sisters's deck which looks like it was practically built to crush FNM events.  Buffing up to 3 Condemns, 4 Crusaders and 2 Day of Judgments is primarily about controlling creature based aggro decks in the early game without giving up so many slots that you can't beat combo decks or the U/W mirror. 

Sideboard:  Once again versatility was the primary theme here; while each card in the sideboard package has a direct meta purpose I also tried to choose cards that could be ported over into a wide variety of matches just in case I had to play something "weird" along the way.  This produces an overlapping effect that means the deck can board in a few answers if need be while still being able to rapidly transform to address a more resilient opposing deck.  Cards like the 4th Condemn, the 3rd Day of Judgment and Mortarpod allow you to further shore up the generic aggro match-up while still being useful in the mirror (Condemn, Mortapod) or as spot meta against problem cards like Lotus Cobra and Cunning Sparkmage (Mortarpod).  Assuming that the aggro opponent is primarily Red you can bring in 3 copies of Kor Firewalker and 2 Celestial Purges; the latter of which also works great against both Tezzeret decks and Vampires.  The 2 copies of Revoke Existence combine with the 2 main-deck Divine Offerings to deal with a variety of random artifacts while still helping to contain problem Enchantments and Wurmcoil Engines; trust me casual/semi-competitive Magic Players *love* them some Wurmcoil Engine.  The also directly attack the mirror by destroying Batterskulls and Swords of War and Peace to turn your Condemns back on.  Emeria Angel is also included primarily as a way of containing a U/W deck still running Squadron Hawks; ideally you'd like to have more answers but with only 1 slot to spare this card was the easiest way to cover the problem.  She also doubles as a decent defensive creature against swarming strategies and in a pinch can come in against *any* random dangerous flyer; think a Piston Sledge wearing Plague Stinger for example.  Sword of Body and Mind is another example of using a single card to cover a lot of ground; with all the aggro meta there just aren't a lot of room for answers to Valakut, Jace bouncing or cards like Frost Titan but SoB&M gives you at least a miser's chance of pulling out the game against these cards.  Finally Cancel and Into the Roil are included as catch-all answers to any spell or permanent you just can't deal with otherwise; think of them as this build's Jokers and use them accordingly.

"Duck Hunt" - The Anti-Caw Blade Package:

Maindeck:

+4 Tectonic Edge
+1 Mortarpod
+1 Emeria Angel
+1 Batterskull

Sideboard:

+ 2 Oust
+ 1 Spell Pierce
+ 2 Leonin Relic Warder
+ 1 Negate
+ 2 Jace Belren *
+ 1 Day of Judgment
+ 1 Sun Titan

Overview:  This is the package I would take to an event where I was expecting an overabundance of "net-deck" U/W Mystic builds still rocking Squadron Hawks.  The basic idea is to aggressively attack the one thing traditional Caw Blade has that Skullblade does not; a bunch of cheap flying men (Sqwaks, Inkmoth Nexus primarily).  Additionally this package includes a total of 5 artifact removal effects (2 main, 3 side) and two Counters that can all address enemy equipment cards which is also pretty important in the mirror.  By taking away their Hawks/Nexi we hope to gain advantage with our superior beatstick; the Mirran Crusader who combined with some sort of equipment should make it pretty easy to beat our opponents down from even ridiculous life totals (50+).

Maindeck:  The 4 Tectonic Edges are primarily about controlling your opponent's Inkmoth Nexi and Celestial Colonnades to once again minimize the effect of flying against the build.  In a pinch however they can also be used to screw your opponent's mana base for a turn or two; buying you the time to finish him off with Crusaders or Batterskulls in the mid-game.  Just don't get too greedy; if your facing a good U/W Mystic build it probably has lots of ways to draw cards so hurting your own mana base just to disrupt his can come back to bite you if he just draws a bunch more lands.  Mortarpod is included in the main here because it kills Squadron Hawks and Inkmoth Nexi without costing mana to activate; this is important because you're going to want to kill the Hawks/Nexi in response to your opponent attempting to equip them with something ridiculous and you'll want to be able to do so even if you are tapped out.  Naturally it doesn't hurt that the Stoneforge Mystic can fish this card out for you and she tends to be the one who wears it once you've sacrificed the Germ token (although I have won games by sacrificing my own Skites/Crusaders it's not really optimal).  Oddly enough this card is also pretty good against Lotus Cobra and Plague Stinger as well which makes it a pretty easy maindeck inclusion in this version of the deck.  Once again Emeria Angel is used here primarily to create a bunch of flying blockers to negate the opponent's advantage in the air; try to avoid playing her unless you can drop a land immediately after as your opponent's will make every effort to kill/oust her as soon as possible if they are adopting a Flying + Equipment strategy of any kind.  Finally the 3rd maindeck Batterskull is included simply because if I'm expecting to see a lot of Cawblade then I am expecting to see a lot of maindeck artifact removal; redundancy is vital if you're planning on winning the game through 'Skull advantage.

Sideboard:  This is a much more targeted Sideboard package than the previous build; we know we're going to play a lot of Cawblade and all of it's variations and as a result we're prepared to give up some game against aggro and ramp to make sure we can beat it 2/3 times.  Oust is included because it's a straight upgrade over Condemn against Stoneforge Mystic, Lotus Cobra, Spellskite and any sort of Wall creature while simultaneously allowing us to buff up to 4 spot removal spells (albeit weaker) against Aggro in a pinch.  Spell Pierce and Negate are both included to help you win counterspell wars in the U/W Mirror although I'd advise in engaging in this activity regularly; most U/W decks run too many counters in my opinion so it's more about precise timing and winning an *important* exchange than attempting to "run them out of counterspells".  The 2 copies of Leonin Relic Warder are all-stars in this build because they allow you to address enemy equipment cards early while still providing a body to carry a Sword/Skull later.  The key to remember is you don't want to attack with them early; just cast it and leave it off to the side until later in the game when your opponent is looking helpless.  The last thing you want to see is a well timed Into the Roil giving your opponent his Batterskull back to kill yours.  Ideally I try to use these guys to take out Spellskites, Sword of War and Peace and Sword of Feast and Famine so that if your opponent does go after him on your turn it's much harder for him to generate a blowout from it. I should also mention that this version of the deck chooses the 3rd Divine Offering in the SB over a singleton Revoke to maximize it's instant speed removal and to generate huge lifeswings from destroying Batterskulls.  The 2 Jace Belrens are a point of contention amongst my playgroup; personally I feel that the card should be Into the Roil but a number of people I've shared the deck with say that 2x Belren is significantly better.  I was outvoted and so the extra 2 Jaces are included in this list instead; do not be surprised if you find me playing Into the Roils in this slot instead however.  Regardless of who is right or wrong the choice of 2x "Baby" Jace is pretty much entirely about destroying your opponent's Jace the Mind Sculptors as cheaply and efficiently as possible during the mid game; do not drop this card down on turn 3 unless you strongly believe your opponent is going to drop turn 4 JtMS, you have no counterspells and no hope of breaking through his defenses with a quick Skull to kill said Jace.  To be fair why you'd keep that hand is beyond me but in that situation I guess turn 3 Baby Jace is fine.  The 2nd copy of Day of Judgment (remember there's one already fixed in the SB) is a concession to the fact that you *might* have to play an aggro deck at some point in the night.  While it's hardly perfect, 2x Condemn, 2x Oust, 1x Mortarpod, 2x Day of Judgment gives you at least a reasonable expectation of winning games 2 & 3 against most aggro decks; you probably won't win game 1 though.  Finally a singleton Sun Titan is included to help you grind out long mirror matches by recycling your Tectonic Edges over and over again.  Once in a while he'll bring back a Mystic or a Sword but he's primarily a combination finishing creature + land destruction engine in this build.

"No Combo No Cry" - The Anti Combo Package

Maindeck:

+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Oust
+1 Batterskull

Sideboard:

+1 Oust
+3 Flashfreeze
+2 Into the Roil
+1 Celestial Purge
+1 Sword of Body and Mind
+1 Day of Judgment
+1 Frost Titan

Overview:  This is the package I play when I expect to see a lot of combo and or ramp decks; Splinter Twin, RUG, Valakut, Eldrazi and Big Red Koth Proliferate are all good examples of what I mean by combo/ramp.  While personally I would much rather play Skullblade the simple truth is that these decks are all very powerful and can be tuned fairly easily to match up well with traditional Cawblade.  Additionally in my experience I have found that these types of decks tend to be something of a refuge for good players trying to avoid playing U/W Mystic mirrors all day; at my local FNM for example Valakut was considerably more popular than Cawblade pre-NPH for this reason alone and recently I've been told there's a surge locally in Splinter Twin decks for pretty much the same reason.

Maindeck:  The 4 copies of Tectonic Edge here are something of a mixed bag; while they can definitely win you the game against Valaku, Eldrazi Ramp and Grixis Twin they are nigh worthless against Big Red Koth, RUG and the straight U/R versions of Splinter Twin combo.  Sadly you really don't have a choice if you want to be beating the Ramp decks at least so I run the full 4 pack here.  A pair of Ousts are included as a way of attacking enemy 2 drops in these match-ups; Overgrown Battlements, Spellskite, Kargan Dragonlord and Lotus Cobra all come to mind as good targets.  They're also at least reasonably decent against enemy Titans because they can stop an attacking trigger and force a recast later.  Once again the 3rd copy of Batterskull makes an appearance because most of these decks are now packing some form of artifact destruction in the main deck; typically Nature's Claim, Manic Vandal and the periodic Shatter. 

Sideboard:  Once again this is a fairly focused sideboard with a number of cards that address very specific matchups and situations.  The extra copy of Oust is again used as an upgrade over Condemn which excels in the aggro match but does very little against "sit and win" creatures like Lotus Cobra and Spellskite.  The 3 copies of Flashfreeze actually come in against pretty much every combo deck in the format because all of their "action" spells are either green or red at the moment.  Whether it's a Splinter Twin, a Primeval Titan, Koth or a Summoning Trap you'll be glad you have extra counterspells in these matches.  The Into the Roils are mostly included as meta against Deceiver Exarch and Koth of the Hammer; who still even at this late a date absolutely dominates games against U/W Mystic.  To be fair I'd actually like to get another copy into this version of the deck but I simply ran out of slots.  Obviously the 3rd copy of Celestial Purge serves the same primary function as Into the Roil (albeit better) but it's also decent in a pinch against Vampires or Goblin Guides.  Sword of Body and Mind is mostly about crushing Valakut but also works reasonably well against Eldrazi Ramp, Elves or even in the mirror to protect against Jace bouncing and/or Frost Titans.  Once again the 2nd Day of Judgment is primarily about giving you *some* way of beating aggro/swarm strategies and really isn't part of the "attacking combo" part of this package.  Finally "Old Frosty" is included as a way of metaing enemy manlands, Titans and the periodic Shrine of Burning Rage.  He's not super important but tapping our your opponent's Eye of Ugin forever or shutting down a poorly time Inferno Titan is worth the slot here.  Remember you can also use it to screw over your opponent's mana base if they're playing a particularly greedy build; Grixis Twin for example.

 "Slow Rollin" - The Anti Control Package:

Maindeck:

+2 Inkmoth Nexus
+2 Tectonic Edge
+1 Spell Pierce
+1 Sword of Feast and Famine
+1 Gideon Jura

Sideboard:

+2 Negate
+2 Into the Roil
+1 Revoke Existence
+1 Celestial Purge
+1 Deprive
+1 Mirran Crusader
+1 Day of Judgment
+1 Batterskull
+1 Frost Titan      

Overview: This package is designed to deal primarily with control decks including U/W Tapout, U/B Control, U/R Frost Titan/Inferno Titan decks, Grixis Control and Mono Black Control.  While ideally Skullblade will simply come out too fast for them to deal with there will be some long grind it out type games against these decktypes despite the build's inherent strengths against control strategies.

Maindeck:  Once again we're looking at 26 rather than 25 land; partially as a way to get out from under enemy Tectonic Edges but also because both T. Edge and Inkmoth Nexus have strong applications against most control strategies.  The Edges are primarily meta against man-lands and should be used accordingly; if I were a little braver I would suggest dropping a main-deck Island for a 3rd Tectonic Edge simply to allow me to use it more freely in the early/mid game.  Inkmoth Nexus however brings the total number of "manlands" in the build up to 6; a fact that can be lifesaving when your opponent is killing every creature you play and getting one to stick for even an single turn can win you the game with a Sword or a Skull.  The extra Spell Pierce is included main-deck to help you win counterspell wars and disrupt early discard; the vast majority of control decks in this format will be playing either blue or black and many of them will be playing both.  Sword of Feast and Famine is main-deckable in this situation primarily because it's a form of pure card advantage against control decks; stick it on a Mirran Crusader and if your opponent doesn't deal with it immediately he will quickly find himself with no hand for example.  It also has the added bonus of giving out Protection from Black which again is a particularly common color in control decks at the moment.  Finally Gideon Jura makes the cut here because like most Planeswalkers he allows you to win long draw out games against other control decks; forcing their random blockers to attack, destroying their limited number of finishing creatures and turning into a 6/6 "man" all have excellent applications at various points in these matches.  As a side bonus many aggro decks *still* can't beat a resolved Gideon so he gives you a miser's out to what will usually be a bad match-up for this build.

Sideboard:  Typically against most control decks the basic line of play Skullblade wants to adopt is to force out the first threat and protect the crap out of it.  If you can do that you'll typically win the game before the control player can stop you.  Unfortunately control decks are generally built to stop you from doing that so the focus of our sideboard here is winning counterspell wars to protect our creatures, spot removing our opponent's limited number of victory conditions and grinding out longer games with extra "critters" that are difficult for our opponents to contain.  The inclusion of 2 Negates and a Deprive make it easy to shift our deck to a more counterspell heavy build for games 2 and 3 if winning the counterspell war is likely to lead to victory for example.  Alternately cards like Celestial Purge, the 2nd copy of Revoke Existence and Into the Roil are primarily about dealing with threats/victory conditions your opponent's will play as the game progresses; notice that all of these cards cost 2 which can be incredibly important when trying to slip something through your opponent's counter/control web in this match-up.  As usual the 2nd copy of Day of Judgment is included as a catch-all counter against aggro decks and really isn't a huge factor in the Control match-up unless your opponent is resolving multiple Grave Titans or something.  The 4th Crusader makes the sideboard because I couldn't fit him into the main-deck; he's amazing against any type of black control deck and/or anything running Spellskite and there are a huge number of match-ups where you'll want 4 in your deck.  The 3rd Batterskull is mostly a concession to the rising popularity of Duress in control builds and is yet another card I'd rather be main-decking but simply couldn't find the room for.  Even against most red based control decks you're probably going to want it for the extra lifegain and the ability to wear through their shatter effects.  Finally the Frost Titan is included because of his versatility; he's hard to kill, big, works well at tying down enemy manlands and can in a pinch stop any of the billion finishing creatures open to control decks in this format at 5-6 mana; except Sphinxes who are either shroud or draw cards anyways even if you tap them out.  This is unfortunate but you can't meta everything.

Naturally of course none of these packages are set in stone whatsoever; you can easily mix and match them to address your specific environment as needed.  Additionally there are a number of cards I left out of all 4 of these packages for metagame reasons; a good example would be Tumble Magnet which is an excellent card in a non Spellskite dominated world.  If nobody around you is playing Spellskite feel free to drop 2 Tumble Magnets back into the main-deck or sideboard because it will win you games if your opponent's let it.  The important points to keep in your mind when trying to trick out your Skullblade deck remain fairly constant; what do I expect to play, how can I attack those decks and how can I deal with opponents who aggressively metagame against U/W Mystic builds.  Using these guidelines it should be easy to build literally dozens of meta-packages against even the most bizarre local environments.  In fact the current version of my build is slightly different than all 4 of the packages I listed above simply because of my experiences playing the deck here locally.  Please allow me to share:

"Miser's Touch" - Custom Package:

Maindeck:

+3 Tectonic Edge
+1 Into the Roil
+1 Mirran Crusader
+2 Day of Judgment

Sideboard:

+1 Condemn
+2 Into the Roil
+2 Flashfreeze
+1 Revoke Existence
+1 Celestial Purge
+1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
+1 Emeria Angel
+1 Batterskull

Overview:  As you can see this package is basically a hybrid of the FNM package and the anti combo package.  This is because my environment has a lot of aggro and a lot of combo but I will rarely have to play more than 1 mirror match over the course of a 4-5 round tournament.  I chose the 2/2 Divine/Revoke split because I periodically face down Pyromancer's Ascension around here and there are a *significant* number of Wurmcoil Engines hitting tables I'm playing at.  I run a singleton maindeck Into the Roil over the 3rd Condemn simply because it's more versatile and it's one of the few good ways to handle something wearing a Sword of War and Peace (hint; I bounce the Sword and block).  The sideboard is primarily about making the deck stronger against aggro or combo depending on the matchup and the only real interesting card of note is Linvala who's there to mess with Splinter Twin combo decks and Overgrown Battlements while simultaneously giving me a flying blocker who can block a Hawk wearing a Sword (as long as it's not W&P, I hate that card sometimes).  Finally the Emeria Angel sees spot duty against flying monsters while the 3rd Batterskull provides redundancy in the face of discard or artifact destruction.

Well folks as you can see there really are no limits to the number of ways you can "trick out" a U/W Mystic here in Standard; virtually no matter what you're expecting to face there's an answer out there in the cardpool.  The trick of course comes down to correctly predicting the environment you'll be playing in and then filling out your "swing slots" with cards that address that environment.  Unfortunately that's about all my fingers can take for the moment and I feel this article has been "thorough" enough at this point anyways.  As always thanks for reading and I hope to see you back soon.  Until then remember gang; they probably didn't print Batterskull to personally ruin your Magic experience, it just feels that way sometimes.  Keep it weird.