Puresteel Paladin for Innistrad Standard

As many of you may know, this coming Friday represents the yearly rotation for Standard in Magic the Gathering. As of 30 September 2011, Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi are no longer permitted in decks, and is replaced by Innistrad. This change has wide ranging implications for the entire face of standard, as the majority of current strategies are no longer viable. Valakut and Splinter Twin, both decks that put a hard clock on the format, have rotated out. In addition, one of the two namesakes of the dreaded Caw-Blade is gone, freeing up 4 slots in almost every deck running white. Preordain is gone, as are the person-lands, and fetches.

If nothing else, Zendikar block brought a ton to the table, as far as format-defining blocks go. On the other hand, Innistrad brings a ton to the table in the way of graveyard interactions and spell efficiency. As is usual with a freshly rotated format though, the future of Standard is destined to be defined by the larger card pool – Scars of Mirrodin.

Today's deck list is an iteration of the deck that I'd been running for a few months. When I first saw Puresteel Paladin, he leapt out at me as a 'build around' card. At the time, Sword of Feast and Famine was already the powerhouse that's coming to dominate any deck with more than 17 creatures, and Batterskull was running roughshod over every deck not smart enough to run 4 JTMS and Stoneforge Mystic. Even then, the card had immense potential, and while it never quite got there during Zen-Som Standard, it's my hope that the deck, which has lost near nothing with the rotation, will be a powerhouse that could help define the format in the coming months.

Here's the list that I ran prior to rotation:

There are a few design philosophies in play here that should definitely be noted, to properly understand this deck. This deck is not aggro, nor is it control. It can't even properly be called midrange, because it certainly doesn't play the same way that Hero Blade does, or even Dungrove Green. The way that this deck was described to me was 'progressive card advantage.' None of the individual cards in the deck were suberb enough to win the game alone, but each of them got more than one card's worth of value out of the opponent – and more than that, each synergized with just about every other card in the deck.

Let's analyze that for a moment. Metalcraft means that all cards with that synergize with every artifact on the field. Each Living Weapon synergizes with all the creatures, as they provide their own value, and then survive to do more. Trinket made is a natural two-for-one, often more. Puresteel Paladin turns every equipment in the deck into a cantrip. Not every card in the deck follows this design paradigm, but those exceptions are few and far in between.

Preordain is a card filtering tool so powerful it was recently banned in Modern. Diggigng for whatever piece you needed was too potent to not include. Dispatch, likewise, was too good in a deck that can consistantly activate metalcraft. It's a no-downside Path to Exile, or Swords to Plowshares. Any time you can get that much value out of a single mana, it becomes difficult to justify other choices. Oblivion Ring was a late concession to the deck's weakness to planeswalkers – specifically Gideon.

I didn't list a sideboard here deliberately, because it shifted so often depending on my expected metagame that week. I brought a very different board to FNM than I did to PT Philadelphia. It generally focused pretty strongly on my matchups against Valakut and Twin, which I considered the weakest matchups for the deck. We just didn't have enough power to push that much damage through before they could safely go-off.

But those decks are gone now, and we've got a brave new world in Innistrad. Vampires and werewolves, spirits and humans.

What did the deck lose?

The first, and probably the most notable change, is that we no longer have Basilisk Collar. Regrettable as this is, since Mortarpod + Collar is removal second-to-none in the format, especially in a deck that creates so many bodies to use as fodder, it isn't nearly the deathknell that many are making it out to be. While Collar did win games for us, by itself at times, it wasn't the power that the deck was riding on – it was just more of the same – progressive card advantage.

At the Innistrad Prerelease, I aggressively traded for a few cards and managed to get the deck into a place that I like. Here's the list that I'll be playing at my first event:

The first change I made was filling the list. Squadron Hawks out, Mentor of the Meek in. Basilisk Collar out, Silver Etched Dagger in. Preordain out, Ponder in. Play with land totals and add in Moorland Haunts. Remove one Mortarpod to add a fourth Flayer Husk. Cut two Etched Champions, adding in Mirran Crusaders. By all accounts, this list should have been good, and so, with little more than theory to back it up, I took it to testing.

Around this time, the first results from the Magic-League Standard Trial popped up. The first two showed two decks far and ahead of the pack in early tests – an Esper Solar Flare list, and Red Deck Wins.

I made a few tweaks, expecting that metagame. I'm less worried about the solar-flare deck, because it focuses on stripping card advantage, and I've got that in spades. They shouldn't be able to run me dry, and I put on a healthy amount of pressure that I doubt they can handle. Plus, they're in the three colors least equipped to handle my artifacts. Liliana is concerning with her Edict effect, but she's so weak to start that I'm not afraid of her as much as I otherwise would be.

RDW, on the other hand, has long been a thorn in the side of Puresteel. I started my old sideboard with 4 Kor Firewalker – a choice I never regretted. They just have enough burn to keep you off of good blocks, and have enough pressure that you have trouble with setting up your engine.

I made some swaps, especting enough Red that I wanted to be sure of a solid game 1. I swapped the Mirran Crusaders back out, and picked my Etched Champions up again. Sword of Body and Mind got cut for a second Sword of War and Peace. Strongly considering re-adding the fourth mortarpod, because of how punishing it is to Reckless Waif and Stromkirk Noble, even ignoring how useful it is in every other matchup ever.

I sat down to test.

I was a little surprised what I found.

First, Mentor of the Meek was great, as I expected, but not quite as good as I had hoped. Puresteel is naturally a deck that gulps mana down, paying for equips while trying to play more of them, constantly drawing cards, playing out more equipment. No matter the situation, I always felt like I never had enough mana – and burning one to draw extra gas, while a great option to have, was one that did slow the deck down. It's safer, but at the same time, lets your opponant have more time to draw his Gideon.

I decided, with a little bit of a twinge, that I needed to cut at least one. I marked it down and moved on to other concerns.

I didn't miss Sword of Body and Mind, and began questioning it's inclusion in the sideboard. That's something to handle once we have a more solid idea of what we're facing though. I noticed that all my changes did make the deck a little higher on the mana curve, so the replacement for the cut mentors should be something that's a 2 drop or less. I ended up deciding on Invisible Stalker. The card has gotten some hype as the de-facto sword carrier in blue – being near impossible to stop, and nearly guaranteed to connect.

I didn't like him as a one-of, so I cut two mentors and added in two Invisible Stalkers.

That gives me the list that I'm currently running with. The only thing that's still significantly in the air is the actual count on Moorland Haunt. It didn't pop up too often in my testing, but I'm still not sure if I should be running two or three. My gut says two, but I'm open to being wrong on that count.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you UW Puresteel (SOM-ISD Standard).

Have any questions about the deck? Comments? Concerns? Leave them in the comments. Have another deck you'd like me to take a hand at brewing? Likewise, let me know. I'm actively looking for things to write about now that I've revitalized this blog, and the current list is kind of skimpy.

Open poll as well: What decks are you worried about in the new standard? What do you expect to do well? What decks do you think will take off, and which are going to have tons of hype and ultimately not deliver?

As for me, I think it's about time for bed.

-Andrew