I really liked the BW deck I had been posting about a couple weeks ago. I won a lot of games with some sub-par cards. I was beginning to convince myself that the deck was PTQ worthy. That was, until I hit a rash of faeries/N-Level blue decks on MWS and began to lose faith. I decided I should try to add a little more power to the deck by cutting Descendant and Ghost Council for Tarmogoyf and Doran.

I sent my newly christened Doran list to local favorite/extended Doran expert Chris “magic players just call me Calcano” Calcano. He checked it out and sent me back this list, which I have been testing on and off for the past two weeks:

Doran
2 Windswept Heath
2 Godless Shrine
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Fetid Heath
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
2 Reflecting Pool
2 Treetop Village

4 Kitchen Finks
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Dark Confidant
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
4 Tarmogoyf

3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
3 Chrome Mox
1 Slaughter Pact

This deck is a lot of fun to play. Who, other than MichaelJ, doesn’t love a turn 1 Dark Confidant? I was having pretty good success against Zoo and Bant decks, and non-elves combo. However, my blue deck matchup still seemed really bad even with the improved creature base. I am going to continue tweaking the sideboard to see if I can crack the matchup (testing Darkblast’s currently), but as a backup I have begun testing the Bant list that Jeff Cunningham placed 2nd with in the Seattle PTQ last weekend. I found the list in this tournament report.

I really like the Troll Ascetics, and I love the Worship in the sideboard. Blue decks seem to have a really hard time dealing with the Troll, especially once he picks up a Sword or Jitte. The sideboard is a little too advanced for me; I don’t think I could pull off the Trinket Mage + Relics and/or Engineered Explosives. I think I would rather just play 2x more Explosives and not have to spend the extra mana/turns to get my EE into play. I would also cut the single Kataki for a third Relic. Between Bant Charm, Path to Exile, and randomly Stifling a Modular trigger, that matchup is pretty good.

If all continues to go well, this is what I will be sleeving up for the Brooklyn PTQ in a couple of weeks. If anyone has any sideboard advice or tips on playing the deck, post them in the comments.

WillPoP