The mana in this deck is perfectly balance using probability equations. For whatever reason the mana ratio doesn't count fetch lands as sources of mana. Technically there are 18 sources of green mana, and 14 sources of red mana.
A successful deck will be able to deal with planeswalkers, play ahead of the curve, break stalemated board situations, sweep aggro board states, clear out enchantment removal, and have reach to close out games. A few cards came to mind, and I'd like briefly go over them
Mainboard
Crater's Claws helps with planeswalker and creature removal while also allowing me to close out games via direct damage. Very good early game to eliminate premier one drops such as
Sunblade Elf
, Elvish Mystic, Bloodsoaked Champion, and more importantly Soldier of the Pantheon. It gets better as the game goes on. Once we get a 4/4 into play, three mana one shots a Stormbreath Dragon and gives us reach after a resolved
End Hostilities
.
Icy Blast
can be used on offense or defense and can be a blow out. Gets better as the game goes on. The card is absolutely insane with a 4/4 on the field.
Polis Crusher
is a card that is really good post rotation. What would happen during testing is I'd get jammed up with multiple Polukranos, World Eater when I needed to be playing more threats. I also wanted to diversify my threats so they have to find the right answer at the right time.Trample is relevant, can't be controlled by banishing light or suppression field, can't be blocked by enchantment creatures, being able to make it a 7/7 and blow up enchantments to free up stuff late game seems good.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave
is really good now that cards like
Mutavault
are gone. It doesn't matter whether we're stopping and opponents creature from dealing damage. or drawing a card and ramping our mana base..it's all relevant.
I don't like taking damage off of my pain land or fetch lands. It sucks, but we get to run Courser of Kruphix. With this in play we get to stay on par concerning life total. Fetch lands are free, and the 1 point of life we gain from playing a pain land give us a free activation for color. With Jeskai burn being a thing life gain is super good. Worst case scenario it draws a removal or burn spell which is cool with me considering the bigger threats that we play after on turn 4 and 5.
Savage Knuckleblade can be played on turn 2, and is good at every phase of the game. My favorite card in the set. It can hit the field as early as turn two by playing Yavimaya Coast or Mana Confluence into Elvish Mystic on turn one, into untapped red source on turn two. Knuckleblade can also be timewalked on turn three. Mid game he comes down with haste, late game he comes down as a 6/6 hasted creature. Being able to send it back to your hand and blink removal is pretty sweet.
Stubborn Denial is an all star in this deck. It stops on time planeswalkers, especially Elspeth, Sun's Champion. A lot of people never see it coming, and if they play around it by waiting to cast a turn late...we are thrilled. It also allows us to play a 4/4 creature and immediately defend it from removal. It also stops Chord of Calling dead in its tracks, so no surprise
hornet's nest
. Being able to protect our hand on the play against Thoughtseize on turn 1 has its merits as well.
Thassa, God of the Sea will never be a creature, but it can make our creatures unblockable, and provide overall card quality improvement via scrying. Originally I was running 2 Divination, but it never felt right. With cards like Thoughtseize in the format, card quality off the top of the deck is super important. Thinning the deck with Thassa, God of the Sea, Wooded Foothills and Courser of Kruphix makes a big difference. Thassa also contributes to overall theme of tempo, and breaking board stalemates.
With the best removal belonging to white Stormbreath Dragon just became an all star.
Sideboard
Circle of Flame
does a lot of things we need. It kills tokens, protects planeswalkers, and makes normally unprofitable blocks...well profitable. 1/1's can trade with 2/2's. 2/2's with 3/3's, and so forth.
Goblin Rabblemaster
becomes significantly worse, and that makes me happy. It also stone walls a lot of the formats 2/1's like Soldier of the Pantheon and Bloodsoaked Champion.
The strategy of this deck is highly dependent on he quality of your opening hand, therefore mulling decisions should be made carefully. The optimal opening gambit is Yavimaya Coast or Mana Confluence into Elvish Mystic on turn one, into untapped red source on turn two, cast Savage Knuckleblade or a courser of kruphix[[. The second best play is [[elvish mystic on turn one into scry land on turn two, cast Sylvan Caryatid setting up to cast a five drop on turn three. Other games may require using
Icy Blast
and Crater's Claws to buy time to set up.This deck should be a 5-6 turn kill with enough game to go longer if need be, and diversified enough to respond to the many threats of an unknown format.
Our creatures have hexproof, protection from white, protection from enchantments, trample, monstrosity abilities, evasion, and flash. That is a lot for any one deck to have the answers at the right time. This forces awkward blocking decisions, punishes opponents for waving through damage, and opens the doors for kills out of nowhere with Crater's Claws. We're not overly concerned with getting our opponents creatures off the table. For the most part our creatures are better than theirs, and the biggest source of removal will be them chump blocking. Games will most likely be decided with Crater's Claws or
Icy Blast
.
