One of the reasons I was so keen to run FNM Relaxed is that I wanted to try more decks out which are not viable in standard as they will just get squashed by the top tier decks. It is interesting that they have recently scrapped the "building on a budget" column on the Wizards main magic site (known as "the mother ship" by many MTG players, the article can be found here). I appreciate the reasons stated for the end of this column but I can't help but feel that this is an admission by Wizards that you just can't really be competitive at MTG without buying lots of cards and spending lots of money.
Being ultra-competitive is not the purpose of FNM Relaxed so, thanks to Jim Freeman for the idea, I have decided that when we need a standard deck for FNMR I will be playing a modified starter deck. The rules I have imposed on myself is that I am allowed to change 10 cards in the deck (only 4 of which can be Mythic rares, and not including lands) and build a 15 card sideboard for it. On top of which I will be posting the decklists here on this blog so anyone who wants to look will know exactly what I am playing in advance (pro-tip: this puts me at a massive disadvantage if you are playing against me as you know what is in my deck)!
The first deck I am doing this with is the Blue-White "Path to Victory" deck from M13. Here is the basic deck list:
Path to Victory
Magic 2013 Intro Pack
Main Deck
60 cards
1 Evolving Wilds
8 Island
16 Plains
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25 lands
3 Ajani's Sunstriker
2 Arctic Aven
3 Attended Knight
1 Battleflight Eagle
1 Captain of the Watch
2 Chronomaton
1 Courtly Provocateur
2 Crusader of Odric
1 Faerie Invaders
2 Griffin Protector
2 Healer of the Pride
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Serra Angel
3 Silvercoat Lion
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25 creatures
2 Captain's Call
2 Divine Verdict
1 Downpour
1 Glorious Charge
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ring of Thune
1 Safe Passage
1 Tricks of the Trade
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10 other spells
Firstly I need to decide which ten cards I am going to drop. Battleflight Eagle just seems very expensive for what it does at 5 mana so that is gone. Chronomaton also does not do what I want to do with this deck so the 2 of those are out. Silvercoat Lion is what they call a "vanilla" (creature that has no abilities) creature so that is another 3 out.
Safe passage is what they call a combat trick but I am either going to use it to stop myself from dying or to answer my opponents combat tricks. As Odric, Master Tactician is key in this deck I should already be deciding what happens in combat which makes this card redundant. Serra Angel is a cracking card but I have an idea for another angel which costs the same but has more synergy with what I want my deck to do so that too is out. Griffin Protector is ok but i will cut him down to only 1 in the deck I think. Finally I am going to drop the glorious charge, pretty much for the same reasons as Safe Passage.
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
1 Evolving Wilds
2 Moorland Haunt
10 Plains
4 Islands
This is the manabase I am going to run for the deck. The moorland haunt will allow me to make double use of my creatures and keep as many as possible on the table. Otherwise these lands are just a good way of making sure I have the right mana at the right time. I am also keeping the land count at 25 as I have the ability to never draw a land no matter how many are in my deck!
I want to run about 25 creatures still and have taken 8 out so I want to replace them with something. Firstly I am going to include another Odric, Master Tactician as the deck revolves around him and having 2 copies makes me twice as likely to see him. As he is Legendary I can only have one in play at a time so running 2 is enough.
I am also going to replace Serra Angel with Angelic Overseer a mythic rare from Innistrad which has hexproof and is indestructible when I have a human in play.
I am also going to include 3 copies of Invisible Stalker - a hexproof unblockable human seems like a good idea and gives me back the 2 mana cost creatures I took out in the form of the lions. As my second mythic I am goingot include 1 copy of Giest of St Traft, with the Tricks of the trade attached he becomes a 4/2 unblockable, hexproof guy who swings with a 4/4 flyer as back up - seems good.
The last 2 slots will be filled by Giest honoured monk and my third mythic in the form of a Sun Titan. Giest honoured monk goes great with Odric and Crusader of Odric.
The sun titan can also bring back my dead guys to give even more board advantage. My creature base now looks like this:
3 Ajani's Sunstriker
1 Angelic Overseer
2 Arctic Aven
3 Attended Knight
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Courtly Provocateur
2 Crusader of Odric
1 Faerie Invaders
1 Giest of St Traft
1 Giest-honoured Monk
1 Griffen Protector
2 Healer of the Pride
3 Invisible Stalker
2 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Sun Titan
I am going to replace the 2 non-creature spells with an additional Oblivion Ring and my fourth and final mythic in the form of Elspeth Tirel a 5 cost planewalker who makes tokens and gets me life for all the creatures I hope to have out.
That now gives me this;
2 Captain's Call
2 Divine Verdict
1 Downpour
1 Elspeth Tierl
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Ring of Thune
1 Tricks of the Trade
We now need to construct a sideboard of 15 cards to complement the deck and allow me to swop out cards from my main deck to deal with specific threats. Keep in mind that these cards are only available to me in the second and third games of a match. Here are the cards I have chosen for my sideboard;
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Celestial Purge
2 Ratchet Bombs
3 Mirran Crusader
2 Erase
1 Day of Judgement
3 Snapcaster Mage
An extra Oblivion Ring is a great answer to so many things from nasty creatures to planeswalkers so having an extra one is a good idea. Zombies and vampires are very popular at the moment with lots of annoying undying creatures. Celestial purge exiles them and sorts that problem out for me. Ratchet bombs are a must - there are so many tokens in standard at the moment that this is a must. Mirran crusader is hard for black and green decks to deal with, also the ring of Thune giving him a +1/+1 token each turn and vigilance is going to ruin somebodies day. Erase helps me deal with my opponents Oblivion Ring and Day of Judgement will help with the token and the weenie decks (lots of small creatures). Snapcaster mage is one of the best cards ever printed and if I have to go down a more control based path with my decks allows me to flashback my removal spells from the graveyard.
So this is the deck I will be playing for our first Standard event at FNM Relaxed on 20th July 2012 - I look forward to seeing you there.
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