Creature (15)
Land (21)
Instant (14)
Sorcery (10)
Sideboard
Maybeboard
Creature (4)
Instant (1)
Sorcery (1)
Does the thought of dining on Pâté de Foie Gras and beluga caviar tantalize you? Or would sipping a Commonwealth cocktail and savoring its 71 ingredients bring you delight? Then this deck is not for you.
This is a meat’n’potatoes kind of deck, the cardboard equivalent of ordering a Bourbon, neat. This is mono colored Prowess, straight up, with no added frills. The single liberty I’ve taken to differentiate it from the pack is to confine everything herein to a less common color associated with Prowess:
These scrawny weaklings would otherwise find themselves in the ‘Bulk Commons’ bin, were it not for the Prowess keyword. Leaning into the strategy and firing off as many spells per turn as possible sees them hulk out to much more lethal proportions. Turn a handful of 5/5’s and 6/6’s sideways and watch the color drain from your opponent’s face.
•Spellweaver Eternal is a bit fragile at its baseline 2/1 stats, but Prowess will fatten it up enough when the time is right. Afflict is interesting and pairs well with what we’re trying to accomplish, guaranteeing us a minimum of 2 damage when it attacks.
•Jeskai Sage reads similarly, but trades a point of power for a free draw upon death.
•Jhessian Thief ratchets it up a notch, dangling the enticing possibility of card draw as a reward for inflicting damage. Aim Slip Through Space directly at this rogue when possible to reload your hand.
•Mistral Singer adds Flying to the mix, with any luck soaring over enemy lines to push that combat damage through.
Traditional Prowess typically shoehorns a metric ton of cheap pump spells into the build, pushing the needle as far into the offensive spectrum as it’ll go. Blue gets the short end of the stick here, but there are alternatives.
A suite of control spells, deck manipulation and some clever battle tactics means we can compete effectively. A more elegant strategy, for a more civilized color.
•Card draw is crucial in a deck where we’ll be flinging cheap 1 cmc spells every which way, and being able to replace a played card is most welcome. Brainstorm and Preordain give us a glimpse of things to come, letting us stack the deck in our favor. File these under ‘Planning & Preparation’.
•The best laid plans can be jostled askew by an opponent’s well timed play, hence countermagic is a necessity. I briefly considered Remand-type spells that replace themselves, such as Disrupt, but in the end settled on the sure thing. Counterspell and Spell Pierce are a lock, thwarting threats.
•Slip Through Space paves the way for our temporarily buffed Prowess army to push some of that damage through unabated, and that bonus draw is oh so sweet. Artful Dodge accomplishes the same purpose, and may be cast at a later point from the graveyard owing to Flashback.
•Mutagenic Growth Yeah, ok, so there’s one green card here which makes it technically not mono blue—but as my caddy manager, Patty Tannager, says “Big whoop—wanna fight about it?”
Besides, doesn’t have a whole lot of pump spells, and certainly not in Pauper. Sometimes you have to make do with what’s available.
•Control the early game while concentrating on fortifying board presence
•Fire off as many spells as possible, triggering Prowess in the process
•Cast Slip Through Space and Artful Dodge, initiate combat and push that damage right on through.
I’d wager Prowess is one of the better and more well balanced mechanics overall, but it has an inherent weakness. Creatures bearing the keyword are fairly weak on their own—Bolt fodder, if you will. Burn and Aggro are generally poor matchups; we lack the speed to compete effectively with little weenie builds, and there are a thousand direct damage spells that will wipe out our creatures as soon as they hit the table.
is the embodiment of both these strategies, so it felt reasonable to bolster our defenses in this regard.
•Blue Elemental Blast reigns supreme against the color, while Flash Flood hits the one thing it can’t: The opponent’s mana base.
•Tormod's Crypt
wrecks reanimation strategies and certain combo builds, and if nothing else it’s a free spell to trigger prowess. Still concerned about card draw? Substitute Relic of Progenitus and pad out your hand a bit more.
I left a floating spot open for meta dependent spells, as much of the success you’ll have with this deck is linked to specific matchups. It’s all part of the learning curve.
”He blesses them and they increase greatly…”
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28% Casual
72% Competitive
Revision 1 See all
(11 months ago)
| +3 | Artful Dodge | main |
| -1 | Brainstorm | main |
| -1 | Counterspell | main |
| -4 | Diminish | side |
| +1 | Mistral Singer | main |
| -1 | Preordain | main |
| +3 | Spellweaver Eternal | main |
| -4 | Umara Entangler | main |