Pro Tour Origins Aftermath Part 1: Brewing R/u

I wanted to do a short recap on what decks we tested for the Pro Tour that didn't make the cut and why, and discuss why the deck we chose was wrong, but in the future could be right.  I'm not going to be able to do that in one post - this will probably end up as a three part series.  I will be focusing on constructed for this portion and limited in the next.

My team ended up with everyone from our team making Day 2, which I think is a huge accomplishment.

Early in testing we started by running a whole bunch of brews against our gauntlet.  Most brews (including our own U/R Ensoul deck) got demolished by the gauntlet and were ruled out for the Pro Tour.  There were two decks that seemed to perform very well - the deck we ended up choosing (Mardu Dragons) and this one:

Here's my brew which I was championing throughout testing, which I want to talk about in depth.

4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

4 Wild Slash
2 Searing Blood
4 Lightning Strike
3 Stoke the Flames
4 Exquisite Firecraft
4 Magmatic Insight
4 Treasure Cruise
2 Anger of the Gods
4 Shivan Reef
4 Temple of Epiphany
2 Swiftwater Cliffs
2 Mana Confluence
10 Mountain
2 Island

Sideboard:

2 Anger of the Gods
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Outpost Seige
2 Searing Blood
4 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
1 Disperse
2 Psychic Rebuttal

The concept was that this deck could just be burn G1 and transform into whatever it needed to be. The sideboard was never quite finalized, so there is a lot of room to improve there (Smash to Smithereens against Thopters for example).

This is much more of an all-in prowess deck than anything else - the reason we want Magmatic Insight is to trigger Prowess for one mana and set up Treasure Cruise for one mana, all so we can cast 3-4 spells in a turn to set up a lethal attack. Abbot is almost always a T3 play where we are trying to hit a free land, but is live to hit a free Magmatic Insight, Cruise (if our yard is stocked), Wild Slash, or Swiftspear.

Maindeck Anger of the Gods looks weird in a deck with creatures, but it actually is very easy to cast it as the second spell of the turn to both keep and pump our Swiftspears. This deck can steal a lot of wins by for example T5 playing Searing Blood + Anger to get rid of multiple Deathmists/Den Protectors and a Seige Rhino, then attacking for 8.

Our matchups look like this: (pre-Pro Tour lists)

Other Red Decks

60/40 at worst G1. G2/3s are closer to 80/20. Goblins is just a bye. This is why you should play this deck.  We are playing a main deck with so many answers (even maindeck Anger) that they can't easily keep up. Post-board they really don't have great options other than hope to draw Eidolon. We slow down a bit with more Angers and Psychic Rebuttal. They generally win by drawing 15+ points of burn. We win by killing the first two or three creatures.

U/B control, Esper Dragons, Thopter Control

70/30 at worst. We are just a creatureless burn deck in these matchups. Comes down to how many counters they have and how many draw spells we draw. We have Disdainful Stroke post-board to counter Digs which often catches them off guard.  Foul-Tongue Invocation is sometimes a problem, but most decks are not running it any more (expect that to change though!).

Green Devotion

30/70 at best G1. 40/60 at best G2/3. This is our worst matchup. Our burn spells don't double as removal most of the time, so we are stuck either making poor trades or directing all of our cards at their face and racing. Some games are won by bolting an Elvish Mystic and winning the race, others by just them drawing poorly. They should be winning the others though. Post-board we bring in Disdainful Strokes which are huge, but we can't always have them in time.

Abzan Rally

Not sure. We didn't end up testing this matchup since this deck had been scrapped before Rally became big. I believe it will be in our favor, because their little dudes don't really do anything against us. We don't have any way to stop the combo though, so they have the potential to nut-draw us. Bringing in Disdainful Strokes seems good.

U/R Ensoul Artifact

I would guess that this matchup isn't too bad, but beating Ensoul is very hard. We can modify the sideboard to beat this matchup though, by adding copies of Smash to Smithereens and Disperse. Negate is very, very strong in this matchup in my opinion because it counters both Ensoul and Shrapnel Blast, which are the only cards we are very afraid of.