March 26th was the last time I wrote an article about a Standard tournament I’d attended. After a six-month hiatus and a format rotation, I decided it was time to get back in the saddle and sleeve up a new Standard deck. My starting point was a UW Heroic deck that Tom Ross wrote about a few weeks ago on Star City:
Tom Ross UW Heroic
| Lands (20) 2 Island 7 Plains 4 Flooded Strand 3 Mana Confluence 4 Temple of Enlightenment Creatures (20) 4 Battlewise Hoplite 4 Favored Hoplite 4 Hero Of Iroas 4 Seeker of the Way 4 Eidolon of Countless Battles Spells (20) 4 Aqueous Form 4 Ordeal of Thassa 2 Stratus Walk 2 Ajani’s Presence 4 Defiant Strike 4 Gods Willing | Sideboard (15) 3 Singing Bell Strike 2 Suspension Field 2 Hopeful Eidolon 2 Erase 4 Stubborn Denial 2 Glare of Heresy |
Now despite the fact that it’s a blue-white deck, this sort of thing is not really in my wheelhouse. It plays kind of like a combo deck except that instead of making infinite mana, drawing through your deck, and doing cool things, you attack with some dorky creatures and pile on the heroic triggers. What’s worse is that on paper the deck looks to be composed entirely of Theros block draft cards that have sat dormant in boxes ever since M15 was a draftable format. Something just feels wrong about playing Ordeal of Thassa, Favored Hoplite, and Aqueous Form when my opponents’ are playing stuff like Siege Rhino, Sarkhan, and Wingmate Roc. Regardless, I decided to give the deck a chance because it was cheap to build and I already had most of the cards.
The only maindeck cards UW Heroic plays from Khans of Tarkir are Flooded Strand, Seeker of the Way, and Defiant Strike. While this is relatively few compared to most other Standard decks, these cards really do help to move the Theros draft archetype towards being a playable Standard strategy. First off, Flooded Strand shores up an otherwise abysmal mana base. While this deck is only two colors, for tempo reasons it can’t really afford to play too many tapped mana sources and the set of Temples is already pushing it. Flooded Strand allows the deck to cut down on basic Islands while ensuring that it can reliably hit both colors on the first couple turns. Seeker of the Way seems tailor-made for this kind of strategy; the prowess triggers off of all the spells you’re using on your heroic guys, the lifelink helps to keep you afloat against the aggro decks, and it’s a cheap creature to suit up with Ordeal of Thassa or Eidolon of Countless Battles if need be. Lastly, Defiant Strike is a cheap spell that triggers heroic and prowess alike while cantripping into another spell to keep the chain going.
While I certainly was not excited to play the deck, I was thankful for the fact that I wouldn’t need to open up my wallet just yet to play Standard. I took the deck to Wednesday Night Standard at Pandemonium Books & Games in Cambridge and played it through a few rounds of swiss. These are my games.
ROUND ONE—Don with Gr Devotion (2-1)
Don was a very friendly opponent with a sweet Zelda playmat and a Gr Devotion deck. The deck seemed reasonably stock to me except that it played Xenagos, God of the Revels and Terra Stomper to deal huge amounts of damage out of nowhere.
Game one, I suited up a Hero of Iroas with Thassa’s Ordeal, Eidolon of Countless Battles, and an Aqueos Form. I was able to attack right through his Caryatid, Courser, and Arbor Colossus. Even when he gained nine life off of Nylea’s Disciple, I was able to clinch the game on the swingback.
Sideboard:
-2 Ajani’s Presence
+2 Suspension Field
Honestly, I have no idea how to sideboard against this deck. I figured the Ajani’s Presence‘s weren’t necessary given the relative lack of ways a green based devotion deck can interact with UW Heroic and I opted to bring in Suspension Field to slow down the clock against me.
Game two, I kept a relatively slow hand and Don assembled Xenagos, God of Revels + 16/16 Terra Stomper and was able to swing at me for approximately one million damage.
Game three, this happened. Seeker of the Ways was a 10/10 unblockable lifelinker.
ROUND TWO—Souk with Jeskai Wins (1-2)
Game one, Souk kept a slower hand light on burn spells and I came out of the gates with Favorite Hoplite, Ordeal of Thassa, Hero of Iroias, and another Ordeal on Hoplite. Souk did try to Jeskai Charm the hoplite to the top of my deck but I had the God’s Willing to stop it and end the game shortly after.
Sideboard:
-2 Stratus Walk
-2 Eidolon of Countless Battles
+4 Stubborn Denial
Here I just wanted to bring in a way to stop his burn spells and Jeskai Charms. In the early turns, Stubborn Denial is a glorified Force Spike but usually that’s still enough to stop the deck from burning your creatures before they can become heroic.
Game two, I mulliganed and ended up keeping a creature light hand. After he burned my Battlewise Hoplite, I had to resort to running out Eidolon as a 1/1 creature. He won pretty easily with a pair of Mantis Riders.
Game three, Souk burned my first three creatures but eventually I got a guy on the board and started attacking. We got to a point where I could win on my attack step, with a God’s Willing to protect my creature, but he was able to just point two burn spells at my head to close out the game.
ROUND THREE—Ryan with Mono Red Aggro (0-2)
The entire time we were playing I didn’t realize that Ryan had turned his playmat towards me. I don’t know if he did this because he knew I was taking a picture or because he just thought that I was a big Scott M. Fischer fan.
Game one, I felt pretty good, I had a lifelinker that managed to gain me ten life over the course of the game against a mono red deck. On the turn before I had lethal, Ryan used his three mana to play a Monsastery Swiftspear, a Frenzied Goblin, and use his other Frenzied Goblin to prevent my Eidolon from blocking. All of his Foundry Street Denizens were 4/1’s while his Goblin Rabblemaster was a 7/2. With everything added up he was able to deal me 19 damage, my exact life total.
Sideboard:
-2 Stratus Walk
+2 Hopeful Eidolon
As you can tell, there might be a theme of me not sideboarding assertively enough. Here I opted to just take out Stratus Walk for Hopeful Eidolon in the hopes to gain enough life to swing the race in my favor.
Game two, I once again had a Seeker of the Way and was able to gain a few life as a result. It once again didn’t matter as my opponent was able to Harness by Force my Battlewise Hoplite I had left on defense, and then use his one remaining mana to Titan’s strength another creature to kill me for exactsies again.
ROUND FOUR—Bye
This round I was supposed to play some guy named Ritchie. He didn’t show up. Your picture could have been right here, Ritchie.
So yeah, anyway you slice it, I didn’t run very well with UW Heroic. However, I didn’t hate the deck quite as much as I suspected I would. Against Green Devotion or midrange decks with clunkier removal, UW Heroic actually seems like a reasonable choice. The first few turns you make a creature, suit it up, and then keep open God’s Willing/Ajani’s Presence. Your creature should be big enough to battle through a Siege Rhino or have evasion via Aqueous Form/Stratus Walk to just get around them. While the devotion/green matchups seem good, I can’t say the same for the Jeskai Wins deck. Any deck that can reasonably interact with you in the first few turns and can threaten to burn your creatures with heroic on the stack just seems like bad times. One card I like adding to the maindeck to help with this matchup is Triton Tactics. While Defiant Strike/Stratus Walk may draw you a card, I can’t help but feel that Triton Tactics ability to counter a burn spell, trigger heroic twice if you have two creatures, and surprise block might just be better. This is a relatively small change, but I want to try this list next week:
Tom Ross UW Heroic
| Lands (20) 2 Island 7 Plains 4 Flooded Strand 3 Mana Confluence 4 Temple of Enlightenment Creatures (20) 4 Battlewise Hoplite 4 Favored Hoplite 4 Hero Of Iroas 4 Seeker of the Way 4 Eidolon of Countless Battles Spells (20) 4 Aqueous Form 4 Ordeal of Thassa 2 Ajani’s Presence 3 Defiant Strike 4 Gods Willing 3 Triton Tactics | Sideboard (15) 3 Singing Bell Strike 2 Suspension Field 2 Hopeful Eidolon 2 Erase 4 Stubborn Denial 2 Glare of Heresy |
At age 15, while standing in a record store with his high school bandmates, Shawn Massak made the uncool decision to spend the last of his money on a 7th edition starter deck (the one with foil Thorn Elemental). Since that fateful day 11 years ago, Shawn has decorated rooms of his apartment with MTG posters, cosplayed as Jace, the Mindsculptor, and competes with LSV for the record of most islands played (lifetime). When he’s not playing Magic, Shawn works as a job coach for people with disabilities and plays guitar in an indie-pop band.