Bloodchief Beats

The StarCityGames.com Standard 5K will be in Ft. Worth this Saturday and my partner and I will be there ready to grind it out. Nicky will be playing his beloved Grixis Control deck featuring Chandra Ablaze and Cruel Ultimatum. I happen to think his deck is the best Control deck going right now. I have been testing out quite a few different builds looking for a way to beat Jund. My Shroud Control deck is very strong against Jund but has struggled against speedy token decks. I toyed with the idea of adding Red to the Blue and White I was already running and I got much better results because of Earthquake. In fact, Luis-Scott Vargas just won the StarCity tournament in LA with a similar strategy. Here is the deck list he ran...

UWR Shroud Control

3 Ajani Vengeant
2 Jace Beleren
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Wall of Denial
2 Divination
2 Double Negative
2 Earthquake
4 Flashfreeze
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Mind Spring
2 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas

4 Arid Mesa
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Sejiri Refuge

SIDEBOARD
4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cancel
2 Essence Scatter
3 Luminarch Ascension
2 Mind Control
2 Negate
1 Oblivion Ring

I am very tempted to go to battle with this deck as I have a lot of experience playing it in various forms. The only problem is that I expect to see quite a few players show up with this deck as their answer to Jund as well considering it won the whole thing in LA. I always like to go Rogue whenever possible because I feel it gives you an advantage over the rest of the field. Sometimes it works and sometimes it fails miserably. With this in mind I've decided to make a 180 degree turn and focus on speed as my ticket to victory. I love the color Red in magic and I'm very impressed with the sheer speed and finishing power of RDW. However, I don't think Red is enough to do the job especially with a Wall of Denial on the board staring down at you. I decided to take the strengths of RDW and splash in some Black to the mix. The deck list I came up with is...

Bloodchief Beats

4 Goblin Guide
4 Hellspark Elemental
3 Hell's Thunder
4 Plated Geopede
3 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
4 Earthquake
4 Blightning

4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Teetering Peeks
4 Mountain
4 Swamp

SIDEBOARD
1 Bloodchief Ascension
3 Duress
2 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Manabarbs
2 Terminate
2 Volcanic Fallout



The key to this deck is Bloodchief Ascension. It gives you a significant advantage in both the mirror match as well as the other speedy deck in the format, Boros. Grixis control has very few answers for it and LSV's UWR deck only runs one Oblivion Ring in the sideboard to answer it. This spell could be a nasty surprise for anybody out there not prepared for it. Because of the addition of Black I've also added Blightning and Terminate to the main deck mix. Blightning is one of the scariest spells going right now and works really well in combination with Bloodchief Ascension. Terminate is our main deck answer to Baneslayer Angel, Rhox War Monk, and other powerful creatures that prove to be annoying. The rest of the main deck is basically the best spells that RDW had to offer. Plated Geopede can be an absolute beast in this deck with 8 fetch lands and 4 Teetering Peeks to power it up and Goblin Guide might be the best one drop creature Red has ever had.



The sideboard is where we really make a difference in dealing with the tougher decks out there. Duress and Manabarbs are obvious inclusions when up against any Control deck. Fleshbag Marauder is mainly in the sideboard to help against the Shroud creatures. Wall of Denial and Sphinx of Jwar Isle can be really tough to deal with. Malakir Bloodwitch is also good against Wall of Denial but is really good against anything running Baneslayer Angel. Volcanic Fallout is sided in against Boros and White Tokens.

I feel this deck has all of the strengths of RDW and adding the Black helps neutralize some of the weaknesses. I highly recommend the deck to anyone looking to play something a little less expensive while at the same time competitive. I hope you guys are doing well and good luck on your next coin flip!