crow114

If you've ever read any of the three blogs I've made for this site then you may be aware that I like to try new things with regards to the standard format. So I've decided to start a bi-monthly blog thingy that tries out the stranger side of standard, and there's no better way to do that than by looking forward to Return to Ravnica, and brewing something that I hope to adjust when the set finally hits.

Now to most people that would look like a standard U/R Delver build, and those people have probably left me terrible things in the comments, and have now departed. They may be right on the fact that it does run Delver of Secrets, and that the colors are blue and red (despite the fact that the site insists on adding black because of Surgical Extraction). The way I build this deck was to not be good in any one area of the game: it has some burn, it has some control, and the creatures can do some damage if played right, but what I tried to build this deck to have was an answer to everything. The deck is more than likely not going to blow any deck out of the water in any one area, but when you've got an answer for just about any move they can make it becomes much harder to progress the game.

Now I feel the need to justify some of the cards in this deck to the people who are undoubtably going to tell me to run four Snapcaster Mage and throw in some Runechanter's Pikes. So here we go with that

Screeching Skaab

The reason that this card spoke to me was because of it's similarity to Thought Scour; now I understand that one of the allures of Thought Scour is that you draw a card, but I find that attaching Thought Scour to a 2/1 body is worth the trade off for not drawing a card.

Geralf's Mindcrusher

I've always loved this card; I wish there was more to say about it, but the simple fact is that I love the card. Now there are some points to be made about it; I like to think that undying gives you two creatures for the price of one, and while Mindcrusher doesn't have the kind of trigger that makes Geralf's Messenger so powerful, I feel that it's power and toughness make up for this, and the mill 5 can be surprisingly useful.

Mystic Retrieval

This card sat in my rare book for quite some time, glimmering whenever I flipped past it, and it wasn't until I was looking for a card to make my Slagstorms and Whipflares hit from the grave that this card struck me. I think that at a one of it works, making it so that when you need that Slagstorm you can get it.

The proving ground of this deck will be the beloved crucible that is Friday Night Magic, and if this blog has not bored you to tears you may be interested in reading how this game does on Friday after I've put it through the ringer. I hope this has been interesting to you, and if not then you subjected yourself to all this text for nothing.

Until Next Time...

Keep Your Stick on the Ice.