Rough, Formatting Needed)
The intentions of this deck are primarily to deny early game ramp as much as possible, in addition to hard-locking the table out of the game, through blitzkrieg taxation, asymmetrical prison effects, and board resets (primarily focused on MLD/resets into a landlock), or the situational spell-lock. Augustin has a reputation for hate, so I built this game fully-expecting to be enemy #1 the moment we flip our general. This is an all-in deck, where your win/loss will generally be determined by round 3.
When running Augustin with meta consideration in mind, the build will change slightly (creature light vs. creature heavy, how heavy is the disruption in your meta, the likelihood of seeing degenerate land ramp vs. degenerate mana rock ramp, etc.) When entering into a sanctioned side event, the idea will be to shed a little multiple cards with same effect redundancy and optimize tutor redundancy. Our current list maximizes speed, at the expense of going all-in. In many instances you will have the ability to shut down a god-hand, but you will be open to other disruption yourself/will kingmaker a second god-hand.
Stupidness Enablers:
Chancellor of the Annex
,
Gemstone Caverns
,
Leyline of Anticipation
Infinite Enablers:
Paradox Engine
,
Isochron Scepter
,
Dramatic Reversal
Ramp Enablers:
Lotus Petal
,
Mox Opal
,
Mox Diamond
,
Chrome Mox
,
Ancient Tomb
,
Sol Ring
,
Mana Drain
,
Copy Artifact
,
Coalition Relic
,
Azorius Signet
,
Pearl Medallion
,
Sapphire Medallion
Ramp Disruption-
Mana Tithe
,
Steel Sabotage
,
Mental Misstep
,
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
,
Thorn of Amethyst
,
Mana Drain
,
Force of Will
,
Hurkyl's Recall
,
Sphere of Resistance
(Use carefully),
Copy Artifact
Lock Pieces-
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
,
Sakashima the Impostor
,
Land Equilibrium
,
Stasis
,
Winter Orb
,
Sphere of Resistance
,
Tangle Wire
Cards to Combo with Lock Pieces-
Ravages of War
,
Armageddon
,
Sunder
, Teferi,Temporal Archmage ,
Tezzeret the Seeker
,
Time Spiral
,
Baral's Expertise
,
Crucible of Worlds
,
Felidar Sovereign
,
Sword of Feast and Famine
,
Serra Ascendant
"Bad Hand" keepers-
Brainstorm
/
Ponder
/
Land Tax
/
Sensei's Divining Top
/
Scroll Rack
/
Windfall
can allow us to keep hands that normally wouldn't work with 1-2 mana.
Your slowest hands are going to drop Augustin turn 3 at the very latest, but have some form of asymmetrical ramp disruption. If you have no pre-turn 3 disruption and you cannot pull Augustin prior, it's a mulligan.
Your good hands are going to get Augustin out Turn 2 and run some form of disruption / spot removal or additional taxation.... a turn one thalia, glowrider or wingmare, or 1 or more ways to eat a mana rock/dork followed by a turn 2 augustin, You'll have a tutor, turn 3 tax, or deck draw/manipulation effect handy.
Your great hands will have a turn 2 Augustin or land equilibrium, a turn 3 or prior land reset, Sakishima the Imposter, Baral's Expertise ready for turn 3, Bojeisu and a land reset, stax protection for Felidar Sovereign or Serra Ascendant, a winter orb with asymmetrical break, or a long-term plans with a way to same-turn grab your target.
Your God-hands will generally involve a Chancellor of the Annex reveal followed by chrome mox toss, a turn 1 Augustin or Land Equilibrium, a Gemstone Caverns while not being on the play with a very instant speed 1 drop tutor, the ability to build a dramascepter, no-stick, or bounce-stick (Dramatic Reversal, Mana Drain, Cyclonic Rift + Isochron Scepter) and multiple ways to protect it/begin exploiting it, a turn 2 Felidar Sovereign with protection
The Goal of your early game is to drop Augustin first in the large majority of considerations, or apply noncreature spell taxation to slide augustin under while we deny our opponents ramp. There are very situational times against green degenerate ramp where you may wish to wipe lands early game and drop augustin right after, or drop a 0-1 land Land Equilibrium prior to Augustin coming out (You could technically lock the board without augustin, if you've managed to play Land Equilibrium with no rocks or lands on opponents' field, coupled with 1 taxation effect.
After Augustin is successfully on the board, we have a few ways in which we may proceed, depending upon matchup. In most situations, we're trying to land-lock the table or wipe bounce mana rocks back to hands (in some situations, if we've already established resource dominance and degenerate ramp has not yet hit, we throw as many taxation effects at the table as possible, while maximizing asymmetrical ways to slip through them.) Winter Orb, Cyclonic Rift, Ravages of War, Armageddon, Sunder, and Catastrophe, Land Equilibrium are what we're looking for here (to a lesser extent static orb, Strip Mine, Wasteland, Baral's Expertise) , and our Asymmetry is either going to come through having extensive mana rocks while detonating lands, a cyclonic rift, a Teferi's protection, Faith's Reward or Crucible of Worlds, Teferi, Temporal Archmage or Tezzeret the Seeker, Paradox Engine, Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal, Sword of Feast and Famine, and select cards from the "uptap x lands" blue series.
Now, when this deck is played, it is intentionally trying to juggle symmetrical stax and taxation with asymmetrical cost reduction. Teferi's Protection is a god-tier piece of fog, and has offensive combo & defensive application. Baral's Expertise also falls into the same category, allowing us to bounce rocks OR remove too-heavy taxation once we've established resource dominance, while allowing us a tempo recently-reduced followup play (these cards can play very nice with a little stack manipulation, in some instances teferi's + winter orb, tangle wire (tangle wire + static orb even better), having Leyline on the field can have Baral's endstep bounce a winter orb/static orb). Smokestack, when we're not running Leyline, is also used either offensively/defensively, or a hate piece that may take some protection removal off of a more valuable piece. It can also be used to drop some symmetrical taxes (such as the "All noncreature spells cost....") once we feel comfortable we're in an efficient lock.
The "Win" - the deck has multiple ways to win.... Your most common will be by hardlocking a board state through a spell and land lock. More often than not, Augustin will pummel face while no change to the board state can be made.
Felidar Sovereign- Our Felidar win condition is primarily concerned with taxing the board and having protection for Felidar for 1 full-turn. We can frequently 2-card combo this with Teferi's Protection for a hard-win, Faith's Reward (or in some lesser iterations Gift of Immortality) to a slightly less extent.
Blind Obedience Infinite Extort- If you have a way to generate 3 mana (1 of which is plains) in rocks, an isochron scepter with dramatic reversal (or an isochron with anything coupled with a paradox engine), you'll be able infinitely extort your isochron casts and wipe the table's health.
Slow Voltron Beaters- maintaining oppressive taxation/stax while using augustin or an early Serra Ascendant with protection, sword of feast and famine, citadel siege, etc... Augustin or Serra will grow in size while the table is crippled. In even slower situations I may start throwing citadel counters on Vryn Wingmare for evasion.
Alternate Wincon Used in counter & disruption-light metas: Approach of the Second Sun/Remand or Deck manipulation
For this wincon, Approach of the second sun must be cast twice, successfully the second time from your hand. The easiest way to do this to have solid mana generation, Boseiju Who Shelters All or some backup, a scroll rack/wheel (Time Spiral is exceptional for this), or Remand (You cast approach, if there are no responses you remand your own reproach back to your hand, you cast it again the next opportunity you get and win the game). I'll usually shelf this wincon and personal tutor against Kess & other notorious spellslingers.
Objectives and Variations-
Speed- When I'm in a ("Tuned t1 competitive) meta, and facing some of the quickest combo decks/ some of the most heavy disruption, I generally drop pillow fort in place of speed disruption (Mana Tithe, Mental Misstep, and Flusterstorm will Come out in place of Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, Citadel Siege).
Counter-wide - When I have reason to believe I'm in a heavy "go wide" meta, I will sacrifice a little early disruption speed for pillow fort and creature wipes, and maze of ith will find its way in.
Counter-Stax - These are always the most interesting matchups, and require careful navigation. Heavy focus on early game disruption (Stony silence and other artifact-turnoff cards can ruin your day, and many stax pieces are very low to the ground). I'll generally run creature light and sacrifice some pillow fort for austere command, will include Karmic Justice & Martyr's Bond, and perhaps sun titan and a little more protection.
No knowledge of meta- I'll try for a everslightly more balanced approach, but still focusing on speed disruption. I may include propanda OR ghostly prison, Mental Misstep but no mana tithe, etc.
