Boat Brew (Revisited)

[John Galli]

Well now that the deck has been played once, I might as well try to improve it then throw it to the seas.

Here's my list from Chicago-
Main Deck
60 cards

3 Mountain
2 Plains
3 Reflecting Pool
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Arid Mesa
24 lands

4 Figure of Destiny
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Soul Warden
2 Ranger of Eos
3 Reveillark
3 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Goblin Bushwacker
19 creatures

3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
2 Umezawa's Jitte
17 other spells

Sideboard
4 Magus of the Moon
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
3 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Wrath of God

One direction I was thinking of taking it would be a token route to further enhance my game against zoo (which is already reasonable) and to put pressure on other aggroish decks-

4 Figure of Destiny
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Spectral Procession
4 Path to Exile
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Soul Warden
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Conqueror's Pledge
3 Ranger of Eos
2 Reveillark

Sideboard:
4 Kataki War's Wage
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Ethersworn Cannonist
2 Duergar Hedge-Mage
2 Wrath of God

Another route could be more boat brewish

Artifacts
2 Mind Stone

Creatures
4 Figure Of Destiny
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Knight Of The White Orchid
2 Duergar Hedge-Mage
2 Goblin Bushwacker
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Ranger Of Eos
2 Reveillark
4 Siege-gang Commander

Instants
4 Path To Exile
4 Lightning Helix

Basic Lands
4 Mountain
4 Plains

Lands
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Reflecting Pool
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Windbrisk Heights


OR

Goblins-

4 Goblin Bushwacker
4 Goblin Chieftan
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Shortcutter
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Warren Instigator
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Magus of the Moon
1 Mogg Fanatic

19 Mountain
4 Teetering Peeks

4 Shatterstorm
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Blood Moon
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Pithing Needle


Rough builds, but something to build on

[Travis Lannoye]

The Goblin build is pretty rough...needs more red fetchlands and less Goblin Shortcutters, but it has potential.

As for the Boat Brew lists, they look like Standard decks that aren't legal anymore. Do you have any ideas about what your good/bad matchups are, your strongest and weakest points in the deck, things like that?

[John Galli]

I was mulling over extended today, and trying to iron out kinks in my red-white decks to make them competitive. There are several different variants, but they all share quality cards, and now there's the rise of the new boros deck that has a fairly standard beatdown package. As I plowed through ptq results, gp results, sideboards, etc, it started making me reminisce about the strengths of my boat brew while at the same time keeping hold of some of the strong ideas that formed out of the Crucifixion deck.

As a result, I eventually started toying with a decklist, and after about an hour of deliberation back and forth on cards, I came up with the following-

Main Deck
60 cards

4 Figure of Destiny
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Magus of the Moon
3 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Reveillark
17 creatures

4 Ajani Vengeant
4 Lightning Helix
4 Boom // Bust
3 Lightning Bolt (or Searing Blaze / Reflection Trap)
3 Path to Exile
18 other spells

6 Mountain
4 Plains
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Arid Mesa
25 lands

Sideboard (15 Cards)
4 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Wrath of God
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Path to Exile
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Kataki, War's Wage

This build really hit home with me, I think because it combined a lot of the strengths of both my boat brew and my crucifixion lists without going too many different directions or losing necessary win-cons. It took a while to finess the numbers down, but right now I really like where they are. You've got the heavy LD element, which especially attacks in the early game - Ghost Quarter, Boom // Bust + Flagstones, Magus, Fulminator Mage. This will cripple many decks, notably faeries, depths, thopter, and occasionally aggro. On the flipside though, you have a nice removal package between helix, ajani, bolt, and path so I can still play more of a draw-go game if I need to. Kataki main-deck brings some serious metagame punch in attacking decks like Thopter, Affinity, Jitte, etc, and it's a nice Reveillark target should one of those decks try to deal with it.

The main issues that I see with the deck in it's current iteration are possible issues with Zoo and Boros. I've got a lot of removal, and a decent amount of lifegain, so that part of the Boat Brew package is still there to help. Unfortunately, you'll notice I've moved away from spectral and siege gang, but it's pretty obvious why. Still, the LD can be fairly relevant, and out of the board I can bring in Wrath of God, Path to Exile, and possibly even Jotun Grunt as a big blocker since both of us will have lots of cards in our graveyard. I'm also considering Searing Blaze and Reflection Trap, as both can be devastating to zoo if played at an appropriate time. (or maybe even Kitchen Finks)

Against Faeries I have more hate out of the board in the form of Volcanic Fallout (which can also be used against thopter) and ghost quarter, against hypergenesis I have Ethersworn Canonist and Wrath, against Dredge I have Jotun Grunt and Wrath, against Depths I have a 4th Ghost Quarter and copious amounts of LD, etc etc. The only thing I really don't have a board against is the boros deck, but again I'm relying on my lifegain capabilities to get me out of those jams (and the heavy removal I run). Fallout is a possibility for this match too, as it can help at instant speed to deal with landfall guys.

Overall I'm really pleased with what's above. Testing will flesh out if it's viable or not or what changes need to happen, but I think it has a chance. I'd say if I can still beat zoo or have a half-decent game against them pre-board, I'll be ok. Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

[Travis Lannoye]

- Kataki is narrow enough that it should stay in the board. I haven't actually used one, but I think that there are better options out there if you want to try and beat the Thopter combo. Crovax comes to mind, or just a couple Disenchants on their Foundrys.
- What's the point to running Figure of Destiny? It was a good card in its Standard days, but this isn't Standard, and Figure just isn't what he used to be.
- I would consider a full set of Chrome Moxes so that you can power out your LD stuff a turn earlier, if you want to go the LD route.
- If you just want to beat the best decks out there, then your best cards are probably going to be Ghostly Prison and Aven Mindcensor. Another good one is Samurai of the Pale Curtain (stops Sword of the Meek and Punishing Fire).

[matth]

Agree with Travis. Damping Matrix is better than Kataki for what you want to accomplish, and it should stay in the board anyway. You should play 3 Jotun Grunt or Ghostly Prison main against aggro if you want to beat the metagame.
Also, does the deck want Boros Signet? You don't have many turn two plays outside of removal. Chrome Mox could be an option too.

[Travis Lannoye]

I'd vote for Chrome Mox over Boros Signet because it can accelerate you by a full turn as soon as you draw it.

[John Galli]

Here are some of my thoughts on what you guys said, and yes all of those ideas you mentioned were in the consideration process.

- Kataki wasn't in there because he was the best card against current artifact strategies. Damping Matrix is a much better card and Kataki is fairly narrow. The main reason I included him over Damping Matrix is because he is a creature and a Reveillark target. This helps to ensure that he'll either stick to the board (at least after a recur), and that he'll get in some damage against control decks that don't have many blockers. That said, just in goldfishing I'm reconsidering his value as his ability is not always as powerful as one wants, and if he ever is a problem it's not that hard to get rid of him. He's much better against Affinity, and that deck just isn't terribly popular right now.

- I still think Figure of Destiny is very competitive in Extended, and part of this is probably due to my experience playing with him in the format as opposed to your limited experience (Travis). While he seems slow, he's single-handedly won me a ton of games in extended and often will reach global at some point in a game (or just be a decent 4/4 blocker). That said, he often focuses your first few turns in a direction that is not always favorable, so he may not be the right fit for this deck. He's arguably much better alongside a swarm of spectral tokens or siege gang.

- Chrome Mox and Boros Signet were both in the Crucifixion deck (Stax). I'm iffy on both for various reasons. First, Chrome Mox is a great card in making a deck "unfair" as they say in the pro circles, and can help accelerate me into a turn 1 or turn 2 LD play. That's a pretty significant swing in the game depending on the matchup, but at other times it's just a casual delay. The Mox is also good at letting me have some available mana when I do end up busting (armageddon). HOWEVER, Chrome Mox creates significant card disadvantage, and against decks like thopter and rock where a thoughtseize or duress is likely, this can often spell the game. A lot of times if I've used up a decent card to put under the mox and then I'm thoughtseized, not only am I down a few cards in hand but I'm also out of quality playables. Chrome Mox seems better suited for an all-in-red deck or a red sligh deck, because generally it's mana is used to drop a very significant and threatening creature in the first few turns. This focuses the opponent's attention away from your hand, and requires him to use removal spells on the creature to stop from being overrun.

Boros Signet to me was underwhelming in playtesting. A few of Matt's timely Bant Charms spelled certain doom for me when I cast the Signet, and it was rare that it ever accelerated me into anything useful (or even helped in fixing mana). This is not a card that I'd likely play, although Chrome Mox could still have slight consideration.

Ghostly Prison is an OK card, but ultimately it just stalls, and even against zoo it wasn't very impressive because Matt usually had the mana to pay for enough attacks. Now, granted, if it's followed up by Wrath, Firespout, or Magus of the Tabernacle, then it's much better. But even then, I wasn't 100% sold. It's still under deliberation, but I'm not sure if it's right just yet.

Aven Mindcensor is fairly narrow IMO. He's fine as a sideboard card but I disagree with many decks running him mainboard. Sure he's nice against fetch lands, and yes he's good against tutoring (depths, thopter, scapeshift), but he's 3 mana for a 2/1 flash which is terrible in any aggro match.

The deck that I have above is probably not in the right place though. A few goldfish sessions seemed awkward, and right now my hands are kind of up in the air. As much as we didn't put an enormous amount of time into testing for this PTQ, I would say we put in a fair amount. And I still have an interest in doing well, and bringing something to the table that's competitive. I have all the cards for the Barely Boros deck, but I really loathe playing something that others in the room are assuredly going to have. There's so many magic cards out there, and everytime there's a ptq or a gp, you usually see at least one new idea spawn forth. There's gotta be something we can do to get things going with a rogue strategy.

Btw, did you guys see that Elves won the GP? If that and fae gain in popularity at all, it may be worthwhile to have 3-4 fallouts in the board of whatever deck you lean on (unless it doesn't have red). Thopter-Depths seems like it's going to be heavy, all the online queues are flooded with them. At least right now the way I see it here is what I'd be prepped for in order-

Thopter-Depths
Boros Red or All in Red
Zoo
Faeries
Elves
Marytr
Dredge
Affinity (this deck always surges when it's forgotten about)
Suspend combos

[John Galli]

ugh guys I've hit a wall. I really need help figuring out a list for Saturday

Holla at your boy.

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Ajani Vengeant
4 Lightning Helix
4 Searing Blaze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
4 Rift Bolt
4 Boom // Bust

24 Lands

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