Pro Tour-Austin Part 1

Hello friends, this is a big week for me as I will be traveling down to Austin with my blogging partner to participate in the Pro Tour-Austin festivities. We will both be playing in four separate Standard Constructed events, one on Friday, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday. I'm sure we'll both have plenty of stories, both good and bad, to tell when it's all said and done.

As you know there is always a lot of speculation as to which deck ideas will be strongest in the meta-game once a new block is released. I have decided to bring three decks with me. One of them is a creation of mine called Esper Mill which I will be discussing extensively in a bit. Another is a Red/White control deck I've seen before that uses Goblin Assault with Elspeth, Knight-Errant. I've made a lot of changes to the one Mark Hendrickson took to the Top 8 at Nationals earlier this year but the idea is the same. The last one is Jund Cascade. The only real difference between mine and the other current Jund decks is I use Sarkhan Vol in place of Garruk Wildspeaker.

Esper Mill is, you guessed it, a three color Mill deck using the Esper colors. I've always been a sucker for the decks that feature an alternate way to win. This deck will be my main play unless it proves to be too weak in the current meta-game. One big reason I will play this deck is the amount of really strong creatures in Standard. Because of this I feel there will be a lot of decks either featuring the really strong creatures or playing the spells that get rid of the really strong creatures. The reason this is important to me is that I don't have any creatures in my deck at all. So, all of those removal spells in the other decks become wasted spells. Sure, most good players will side in the necessary cards to deal with this in game two but if I can get that advantage and win game one it makes it much easier on me.



The early game cards in this deck are Duress and Esper Charm. I want to try my best to disable my opponent's hand first before I turn my attention to destroying his deck. Esper Charm is also great when your opponent has a pesky enchantment on the board or maybe you need to reload by drawing a little later in the game. This deck would not be as effective without the versatility of Esper Charm.



I will control the board with Day of Judgment and Path to Exile. These are both very efficient creature removal spells that should buy me enough time to destroy my opponent's deck. Path to Exile is also great when used as a combo piece with Archive Trap. I take out a creature, my opponent searches for a land, and boom I drop Archive Trap for zero mana cost. If I have two Traps in my hand and one Twincast then it's basically game over. This brings me to the meat of the deck...





These are the spells that eventually get us the win. Mind Funeral and Archive Trap are used to set up the big finishers, Jace Beleren and Haunting Echoes. If you're able to successfully cast Haunting Echoes after a Mind Funeral and an Archive Trap it virtually guarantees you the win as most decks carry three or four copies of each spell in their deck.



Last, but not least, our utility spells are Twincast and Negate. Twincast is very important in this deck as it allows you to copy Archive Trap or Mind Funeral at a cheap cost. I regularly mill ten to fifteen cards with Mind Funeral. Twincast lets you double that for a total of five mana. It's very similar to the Sanity Grinding / Twincast combo. Twincast is also useful in many other situations. Anytime your opponent plays a powerful sorcery or instant you can copy it and yours resolves first. Imagine if you are able to Twincast Cruel Ultimatum. It would be a nasty surprise for your opponent. Negate is in the deck as a spot counter against potential problem spells like Thought Hemorrhage or Blightning.

Here is the final decklist...

Instant Spells
Path to Exile x4
Archive Trap x4
Esper Charm x4
Negate x3
Twincast x4

Sorcery Spells
Day of Judgment x4
Haunting Echoes x3
Mind Funeral x4
Duress x2

Planeswalker Spells
Jace Beleren x3

Lands
Arcane Sanctum x4
Drowned Catacomb x4
Glacial Fortress x4
Marsh Flats x3
Plains x3
Swamp x3
Island x4

Sideboard
Telemin Performance x3
Pithing Needle x3
Celestial Purge x3
Mindbreak Trap x2
Identity Crisis x2
Negate x1
Duress x1

I'll let you guys know how this deck fares in Austin when I post Pro Tour-Austin Part 2 next week. I look forward to any comments you might have and good luck on your next coin flip!