New Meta for Magic the Gathering - UWR Planewalkers

It's a Magic the Gathering post, non geeks can stop reading

As shared previously, I'm going serious in Magic the Gathering. Every weekend since 2 weeks ago had tournaments which I will take part.


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2 weekends ago was a good day for me. Reason? It was just 1 week after Rise of Eldrazi, the newest Magic set turned legal for tournaments. As such, not many people knew what deck they should play (big tournaments were happening that day too, thus people really had no idea what deck to play).

I read the metagame back then as still dominated by Jund followed up by the new Devastating Red (no thanks to Devastating Summons) and probably Polymorph/Summoning Trap Eldrazi to be around. I was playing UW Tapout pre-Rise of Eldrazi and I decided that I should upgrade the deck into something much more reliable.

My game play is strictly control. As Blue has lost most of its power to counter spells no thanks to the lack of low casting cost counterspells and Cascade in the format, I'll have to rely on other cards to stall the game and have strong finisher for my game. Nothing does the job as well as Planeswalkers namely Jace, Elspeth and Gideon in Blue White decks.

The problem with UW Tapout for me was most of the time, my life total was so low, even when I clear the board using Day of Judgment and Martial Coup, I was still struggling to be in the game, fearing opponent draws a Lightning Bolt and aim it to my head.

Thus, that weekend, I said, that's it. No more bending down to Red Decks and low life total. I'll play a shield deck (which meant defenders) to protect my planeswalkers and win them all!

Check out my deck list below.


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Packing Perimater Captain, Wall of Omen, Wall of Denial, Wall of Reverence with a few removals namely Oblivion Ring and Path to Exile, I was set to launch off my Planeswalkers ultimate abilities each game providing everything goes well.

And on that weekend, indeed everything was well. I read the meta well. Half the field were Jund with a lot of mixture in everything else. True enough there were Eldrazi decks as well as a Devastating Red (which I met in the quarterfinal) but my walls were just totally unexpected for most people. The moment I drop a turn 1 Perimeter captain, aggro decks shook their heads. Not to mention when Gideon uses his ability to force all creatures to attack him, my walls will gain my tonnes of life!

I did suffer 2 game loses that day. One was against Naya Boss which packed Basilisk Collar which is obviously a nightmare for my walls. The other was in semifinal, a Jund deck which never fail to Blightning me twice in the 2 games we played (try recovering from that :/). I was proud that I made little mistakes that day and went so far into Top 8 for the GPT.

Thanks to my game play and deck, I was featured in Jankz.com, one of the local websites covering news of Magic the Gathering. Thanks, Nik!

However, after that day, Ben Stark (not related to Iron Man) won the Starcity 5k tournament packing UWR Planeswalkers deck which features similar build with my deck with exception, he ran Ajani Vengeant and Day of Judgment mainboard rather than walls. I must admit that it was a powerful deck and thus I was drawn towards playing that deck as well.

His deck list was as follows;

Creatures
4 Wall Of Omens

Enchantments
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Spreading Seas

Instants
4 Path To Exile

Planeswalkers
3 Ajani Vengeant
3 Elspeth, Knight-errant
3 Gideon Jura
3 Jace, The Mind Sculptor

Sorceries
2 Day Of Judgment
3 Divination
2 Martial Coup

Basic Lands
4 Island
1 Mountain
5 Plains

Lands
3 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Tectonic Edge

Sideboard:
1 Kor Firewalker
2 Meddling Mage
3 Wall Of Denial
1 Celestial Purge
3 Flashfreeze
4 Negate
1 Day Of Judgment

However, I realized that I would not be the only one playing this deck as this deck list was made public to everyone in the world. Malaysians aren't exactly toads to not catch word of the deck. As such, I was expecting the deck to be widely played in the following week's GPT. Thus, I made some changes to the deck with more cards to fight control matches and planewalkers removal.

I was right once again, just that I did not foresee that it was even more popular than Jund. GPT Manila at Decards, Summit had half the field playing Planewalkers control and I sadly, contribute to one of it too. Thanks to a series of misplays, bad judgment (translates to lousy player skill), I lost badly that week.

Nevertheless, I will improve my deck and be more careful with my play to ensure that I will fare better in this weekend's GPT at Comics Corner, Subang.

That's all for Magic rant this week. I promise you guys, there won't be any more till next. ;)

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