With Champs coming up quickly, and Innistrad Standard legal, we have one major tournament worth of results with the Indianapolis Open. Today I’m going to share with you a few decks I’d recommend for Champs and the rundown of those decks.

[deck title=UW Mythic by Francis Toussaint]
[Creatures]
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Grand Abolisher
4 Mirran Crusader
3 Geist of Saint Traft
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Curiosity
3 Dismember
4 Mana Leak
3 Sword of War and Peace
4 Angelic Destiny
[/Spells]
[Land]
2 Moorland Haunt
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
11 Plains
3 Island
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
1 Sword of War and Peace
4 Timely Reinforcements
2 Revoke Existence
2 Divine Offering
2 Negate
4 Gut Shot
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This is a deck Ted Slone and I brewed up. The idea behind the deck is that you want to have a bunch of creatures that like being hooked up with [card]Angelic Destiny[/card] or [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card]. It’s called UW Mythic because it will often play out like the old Bant colored decks where they would hope to play huge threat in [card]Sovereigns of Lost Alara[/card] and end the game in the next few turns.

Here’s a breakdown:

[card]Champion of the Parish[/card]

This guy doesn’t have any major bonuses for being suited up or anything, but the reason he makes the cut is because the deck want to have turn one play, and the deck is somewhat creature light without it. Its ability to grow whenever you play another human can actually be quite relevant considering every creature in the deck other than [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card] is a human.

[card]Invisible Stalker[/card]

This guy was one of the cards that gave us the inspiration for the deck. When we first were constructing the deck we wanted as many creatures like [card]Invisible Stalker[/card] as possible. The Stalker is an all-star with every creature modifying card in the deck, and is extremely hard to deal with.

[card]Grand Abolisher[/card]

This guy is a perfect fit for this deck. When Ted and I were brainstorming the deck we were looking through all the blue and white 2-drops, and this guy was the perfect fit. When he is out you don’t have to worry about any potential removal or counter spells your opponent may have so you can equip and enchant your creatures unmolested. He works especially well with the next card on the list, [card]Mirran Crusader[/card], because it eliminates [card]Mirran Crusader[/card]’s main drawback of not having hexproof.

[card]Mirran Crusader[/card]

When this guy is equipped with [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card] or [card]Angelic Destiny[/card] he will end the game real fast. The Crusader may not be hexproof, but having protection from black helps against [card]Doom Blade[/card] and [card]Go for the Throat[/card]. Against a tapped out opponent the Crusader turns [card]Curiosity[/card] in to a 1 mana [card]Divination[/card], and flies in for 12 with [card]Angelic Destiny[/card].

[card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card]

This was another card from the new set that inspired the deck. On its own Geist packs quite the punch, but the problem is that he is easily dealt with if your opponent has a ground creature to block him. With [card]Angelic Destiny[/card] he becomes nearly unstoppable, and you no longer have to be concerned with him being blocked.

[card]Curiosity[/card]

This card may look a bit curious, but it’s actually deceptively strong. Obviously it’s great on [card]Invisible Stalker[/card] or [card]Mirran Crusader[/card], but even on any other random creature it’s great when an opponent is tapped out because it can often replace itself almost immediately, and either draw you more cards or make blocks awkward for your opponent. [card]Curiosity[/card] helps aid one of the decks problems, which is running out of steam. I could see this card getting this card cut for more creatures, however it seems good so far.

[card]Dismember[/card]

Before there was a split between [card]Dismember[/card] and [card]Oblivion Ring[/card], but the deck already has too many 3-drops as is, so they all got turned in to Dismember because of its mana efficiency.

[card]Sword of War and Peace[/card]

There used to be a split between [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card] and [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card], but they all got turned in to War and Peace. The use the deck just wanted to do as much damage as possible. You’d rather be getting the extra damage in than untap your mana. You don’t really care about your opponent discarding cards. The deck is weak to Mono Red and Tempered Steel, so the life gain becomes very relevant in those matchups.

[card]Angelic Destiny[/card]

This card is the wow factor. It ends games extremely fast once enchanted to a creature, and it’s a threat that keeps coming back even if they kill the creature.

[card]Moorland Haunt[/card] 

The Haunt gets the nod over [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] because you prefer creatures that are going to be sticking around if you are going to be using [card]Angelic Destiny[/card] and Swords with them.

[card]Gut Shot[/card]

This little piece of sideboard tech is borrowed from Tod Anderson’s sideboard from the Indianapolis Open. The idea is that against Mono Red you just need time to get [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card] going, and this card is a mana efficient way to help buy time if you can hit a Mono Red players 1-drop and take the wind out of their sails.

[deck title=Draw-GO Solar Flare by Francis Toussaint]
[Creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Grave Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Mana Leak
3 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
4 Think Twice
4 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Dissipate
1 Timely Reinforcements
3 Day of Judgment
2 Unburial Rites
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Isolated Chapel
4 Island
2 Plains
2 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
1 Negate
2 Dissipate
1 Day of Judgment
3 Timely Reinforcements
3 Mental Misstep
3 Revoke Existence
2 Purify the Grave
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This list is my take on a more controlling draw-go style Solar Flare, as opposed to the Solar Flare list that I previously posted that was more Reanimator oriented.

This list tries to play as few cards as possible that cause you to tap out on your main phase other than the finishers like [card]Grave Titan[/card], [card]Consecrated Sphinx[/card], and [card]Unburial Rites[/card]. It noticeably excludes of [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] for this purpose.  Playing as few cards as possible that cause you to tap out on your turn helps you get a lot more value out of your card draw spells like [card]Think Twice[/card] and [card]Forbidden Alchemy[/card]. This also lets you keep control of your opponent with spot removal, counter spells, and [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card].

Here’s a breakdown:

[card]Grave Titan[/card]

At the moment [card]Sun Titan[/card] is the Standard fattie of choice for Solar Flare. However, I’ve been thoroughly impressed with [card]Grave Titan[/card]. [card]Grave Titan[/card] works extremely well with [card]Unburial Rites[/card]. If they kill it when you attack and then you reanimate it immediately you wind up with a huge army. He is strong against opposing Solar Flare because he can’t be hit by [card]Doom Blade[/card], and [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] isn’t very effective against him.

The main problem I have with [card]Sun Titan[/card] in testing was that you don’t always get value out of him. [card]Sun Titan[/card] with Liliana works well enough, but if you already have one in play then [card]Sun Titan[/card] isn’t very useful. [card]Oblivion Ring[/card] doesn’t get in the graveyard reliably enough for [card]Sun Titan[/card]. The problem with getting [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] back is that to get value out of that Snapcaster you need to have mana open to flashback, as well as a spell that you can flashback. [card]Grave Titan[/card] gives you value right away regardless of how much additional mana you have when you play him, or what cards are in your graveyard.

[card]Oblivion Ring[/card]

[card]Oblivion Ring[/card] interferes with the decks desire to avoid tapping out in the main phase, but it’s completely necessary in this format. [card]Oblivion Ring[/card] is great for dealing with cards that may have slipped by your counter spells. Also, there are a lot of non-creature permanents these days that threaten to completely break open games; like [card]Birthing Pod[/card], [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card], [card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/card], and [card]Tempered Steel[/card].

[card]Day of Judgment[/card]

In the previous Standard it was widely known that [card]Day of Judgment[/card] was pretty weak. However, this is a new format, and [card]Day of Judgment[/card] is quite strong now. In the previous standard a multitude of man-lands, planeswalkers, and [card]Squadron Hawk[/card]s made [card]Day of Judgment[/card] quite bad. Now there are no longer man-lands, other than [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card], and [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card] is no longer single handily winning games. Games are won by creatures these days and, other than against Mono Red and fringe decks, every major deck’s win condition is creatures. This makes [card]Day of Judgment[/card] quite strong.

Conclusion

So there you have it, 2 decklists that are ready to go for use at Champs. Personally, I’m not going to be playing UW Mythic due to it’s weak aggro matchup because I’m expecting a lot of aggro at Champs. However, if you can figure out a way to shore up that matchup, or you feel there won’t be very much aggro at your Champs then UW Mythic could be a great choice. As for me, I am highly considering Solar Flare, and will most likely playing it unless another deck really impresses me. Good luck at Champs, and thanks for reading!

Francis Toussaint