All the Answers

Hello Everybody! Almost a year ago, PV posted an article on Channel Fireball that cemented itself as a piece of eternal Magic theory. If you haven't read it, I highly suggest you do: Playing to Win verses Playing Not to Lose. Standard seems to have a major separation in decks that win and decks that don't lose. Here's some major decks that are players in the meta:

GW Tokens
Red Deck
Tempered Steel
UB Control
Solar Flare
UW Blade
Wu Tokens (Wu Tang as GerryT calls it)
Wolf Run Ramp
Wolf Run Green
MB Infect

There are a lot of decks that are working to win quickly like Tempered Steel, Red Deck, GW Tokens, UW Blade, and Wu Tang. Other decks are playing to win, though are slower and offer more resiliancy like MB Infect and Wolf Run decks. Solar Flare is just bad.... With these decks identified as the ones to answer, effective control decks can uprise like Jeremy Neeman's UB Control deck. I have seen other decks uprising recently where the only win condition in the deck is Inkmoth Nexus, Nephalia Drownyard, or Snapcaster Beats. There's no actual legitimate threat in the deck, it just capitilizes on your opponent trying to trying to be cool and play magic. I have been working a deck recently that can out-control the control decks while providing proactive threats that can end the game in short order. It's similar to the deck I played at States, I present Grixis Vengeance:

3x Snapcaster Mage

4x Burning Vengeance

4x Think Twice
4x Desperate Ravings
4x Forbidden Alchemy
4x Mana Leak
2x Dissipate
2x Geistflame
3x Slagstorm
1x Go for the Throat
1x Tribute to Hunger
1x Sever the Bloodline
2x Devil's Play

2x Ghost Quarter
5x Island
3x Mountain
1x Swamp
4x Sulfur Falls
3x Dragonskull Summit
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
3x Drowned Catacombs
2x Darkslick Shores

Sideboard:
2x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Dissipate
1x Flashfreeze
1x Olivia Voldaren
3x Memoricide
1x Sever the Bloodline
2x Jace, Memory Adept
1x Tribute to Hunger
1x Doom Blade
1x Geistflame

Burning Vengeance is a very cool card because it gives you huge card advantage. In addition to doing whatever you were planning on doing you get to kill opposing creatures or even win the game! To use Burning Vengeance, you have to play with a lot of Flashback cards, which are inherently card advantage. Thanks to all these sources of card advantage, it is very for us to play the "play to not lose" game while actually having a reasonable way to win. Having one Burning Vengeance is a threat, having 2 is incredibly good, 3 is a complete blowout, and 4 is just an automatic victory. If for some reason this all fails, you can always Devils play your opponent for 10 or 11 and then flash it back and win that way with just 1 card.

I was testing this deck against GW Township and UB control and I felt completely dominant in both matchups. Wolf Run was tricky, which isn't a good position, but that was solely due to Thrun. I imagine Dungrove Elder will also be a problem because of Hexproof, but he can be countered, which takes out his teeth after turn 3. They are pretty much the main reason I have Memoricide in the Sideboard. I feel like this might be completely wrong though and I would rather just have a card like Black Sun's Zenith because it gains bonus points against aggro like Township. I do also use Wurmcoil against them which has Deathtouch and make racing impossible for them, while obviously providing a little card advantage when he dies.

One card choice I want to point out for a moment is the maindeck Go for the Throat. I feel that right now artifacts aren't in a good place. That is why I cut Ancient Grudge from the deck, and as a part of that: green. What Artifact cards to I care about? Wurmcoil? I can Mana Leak or Sever the Bloodline. Inkmoth Nexus? Burning Vengeance! ....and that's it! Black creatures are relevant though -- Phyrexian Crusader (another reason for Black Sun Zenith) and Grave Titan are 2 major targets worth killing with Go For the Throat. Grave Titan can be answered in the same manner as Wurmcoil, but Crusader is a bastard! MB Infect is legitimate deck, and it took down a couple state tournaments, so you must prepare accordingly.

This is a deck that reminds me of 5-color control. Well it doesn't REMIND me of it, as I started playing at ZEN release, but based on what people like Chapin have said about the deck, it is similar in that it must be constantly tweaked to beat the threats of the day. I can absolutely see this deck going through various stages of life depending on what the meta brings. I can't see artifacts ever getting too big again thanks to Ancient Grudge and how much it destroys those decks.

Quick Aside
{
Dismember is so oppressive to the format that it isnt even played anymore! Just something to think about if you're always looking for that edge. I have my super special secret awesome card, do you?
}
End Aside

Anyways, that's all I have for today! Tomorrow I should be rocking this deck at FNM, so I will have more data to crunch and present. I feel like this deck has a ton of potential because it has an answer to EVERYTHING. With 12 draw spells that all have flashback, you see 1/2 your deck every game, so every card counts! Until next time, Stay Classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie@gmail.com
@ThingsILack