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Hello and welcome to another edition of Out of the Blue.  Several of my friends and even a prospective employer have read a piece from this column recently, and it seems that it REALLY confuses people who aren't familiar with Magic.  With that in mind, if for some reason you're reading this, and you're not familiar with the rules and nuances of the game, here's a nice picture of a rabbit.

Rabbit, or cat disguised as a fat tribble?  You decide...

Anyway, I've been experiencing shuffler hell lately.  Or perhaps I'm just looking for excuses, maybe I'm just being consistently beaten by better decks?  Whatever the reason, I'm finding that whichever of my hundred or so decks I select, I come up against the perfect anti-deck which proceeds to dismantle me with a sequence of perfect draws.  Or so it seems.

I find there are three options when confronted by this level of frustration:

1. Punch the monitor and bite your keyboard viciously.
2. Focus on the good things in your life.
3. Set fire to something.

After I'd exhausted the possibilities of numbers 1 and 3, I tried number 2.  How often do we take a moment to appreciate good health?  It's like silence, you only appreciate it once it's gone.  So take a moment now (unless you're ill, in which case, get well soon) to give thanks for being hale and hearty.  In fact, let's go further than that.  What's the best way to celebrate something?  Why, to make a Magic tribute deck of course. There's no better way to make a tribute to something, than to make it your win condition.  You might recognise the slightly angry looking lion in fancy dress here.  Why's he angry?  Who knows, but to me he looks remarkably similar to the rabbit we met earlier.  For those of you still in the dark, he is of course our good friend, Felidar Sovereign.  Get up to 40 life, and you win the game on your upkeep, if he's in play.

So we want to get a 6cc creature into play, preferably gaining plenty of life in the process.  There's a lots of different ways to go here.  Let's take a look at what the different colours give us (assuming white will be present in each case, of course).  I should mention at this point that I'm only considering Standard legal cards for the purposes of this article.

 

Mono White

White can do pretty much everything by itself, so is my first port of call.  Here's my crack at a deck.

 

Most the card selections speak for themselves, but special mention needs go to Survival Cache, which I think here is in its perfect deck.  Obviously Felidar Sovereign and forty life isn't the only win condition, you're probably more likely to send Battlegrace Angel over the top four times for the win, but having more than one route to victory can only be a good thing.  Brave the Elements is there partly as removal protection, but it can also set up an alpha strike past any blockers for a surprise win.

Here are some of the cards I considered, but ultimately discarded.

Alternatives:

Lone Missionary doesn't quite do enough for me.

Baneslayer Angel is strictly better than Battlegrace Angel, and should go in if you have the budget.

Angel's Mercy isn't good enough.  Life gain by itself isn't enough.

Cradle of Vitality can be good, and could be better than both Celestial Mantle and Invincible Hymn.  Possibly worth a shot.

Lifelink is just plain no.  You're just demanding a two for one, and it does nothing for already lifelinked creatures anyway.

Archon of Redemption is a little too expensive for what it does.

Landbind Ritual see Angel's Mercy.

Perimeter Captain would be potentially decent with a Defender sub-theme.  This isn't his deck.

How does it play? Very well thank you.  There's enough lifegain to allow you to get off to a slow start, and still come back from the brink into a strong late game (I went down to two life against a burn deck, before stabilising and winning at 40 life).  I did manage to win several games with 40 life and a Sovereign out, rather more than I expected in fact.  Brave the Elements was excellent when I drew it, saving creatures, allowing alpha strikes or both.

 

Green / White

This was the combination of colours I was most excited by when I was first thinking of card choices.  Here's the deck.

 

Luminarch Ascension can be great if you get it down early.  It's not entirely on theme, but it is another win condition.  Obelisk of Alara wasn't worth it in a mono white deck, but here the second option I think gives enough to justify its inclusion.  It's also worth noting that you could add blue and go Bant, giving you access to Rhox War Monk, among other options.

Here's what I didn't pick.

Alternatives:

Grazing Gladehart is solid but unspectacular.

Pelakka Wurm is great, but didn't fit the already slightly steep curve.

Cliffrunner Behemoth is borderline if there's a chance it will have haste.  Without it, it's just Bolt fodder.

Bountiful Harvest see Angel's Mercy.

Momentous Fall is a great card, and could be good here.  I couldn't find room for it, but it's probably better than Captured Sunlight in this deck.

How does it play? Slightly disappointingly.  I wished Captured Sunlight was removal every time I drew it, and it mostly wasn't.  Mycoid Shepherd worked well both as a beater, and a source of life, and I was never sad to see Behemoth Sledge.  Remember, Birds of Paradise love a ride on the sledge of life!  Overall, this felt slower than the mono white version.

 

Black / White

Initially I didn't think this combination could work, but it proved effective in testing.  Black has lots of lifegain, and you can take advantage of it if you keep white to a small splash.

 

Alternatives:

Not much else specific to black, but here are the other cards I considered:

Bloodchief Ascension needs a slightly more aggressive deck to function.

Absorb Vis was close for the landcycling ability, but ultimately not quite good enough.

Blood Tribute is interesting but too mana intensive.

Feast of Blood might work with a higher vampire count.

Kalastria Highborn is decent, but I couldn't find room for her.  A possible inclusion over the Bloodghasts.

How does it play?  Surprisingly effective, although it felt like a watered down mono black Sanguine Bond deck, which I've already written about here.  I won generally through unanswered creatures, or more often through whittling down an opponent through lifegain with a Bond out.  I don't think the Felidar gives as much to the deck as he takes away, as the deck is far more efficient without the white.

 

Blue / White

This will be the least aggressive strategy, and the one with the most reliance in the Felidar win.  In that way, it's purest to this week's theme.  Having said that, I've kept the playset of Battlegrace Angel to preserve some sort of pressure on the opponent's life total.

 

Alternatives:

Deprive could just as easily go in for Cancel, and could even be beneficial when bouncing Halimar Depths, provided you're not desperate for mana.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor is strictly superior to the cheaper version, but he's out of my budget.

Kiss of the Amesha could be good, but felt slightly overcosted to me.

Wall of Denial can be a house against certain decks, but I wanted Wall of Omens card draw more.

Sphinx of Jwar Isle could be used instead of Battlegrace as another potential finisher, but it's a little off-theme.

How does it play? Fantastically!  With the amount of defence the deck is fairly safe in the early to mid game, and by the late game your card advantage and lifegain should be paying dividends.  Luminarch Ascension shines in this deck, because it's so good at preserving your life total.  It might even be worth jacking that up to a full playset.  I won a lot of games off the Felidar, and I'd usually try to keep a Cancel around to deny the inevitable removal.  Obviously the decklist runs a very light counter suite, but it felt like enough to deny only the most game affecting spells your opponent attempts.

If I was to build a Bant version, it would be this decklist, with a playset of Rhox War Monk in place of Wall of Omens and one Sea Gate Oracle.

 

Conclusions

Felidar Sovereign is an intriguing card that provides an alternate win condition.  I would be very reluctant to build a deck entirely around him with no other means of winning, as you never know when your opponent will cast a Magister Sphinx or similar, ruining your carefully collected hoard of life.  But combine him with Battlegrace Angel (or the Baneslayer if your wallet's bulging), some life gain, defence, and other threats, and he can be surprise win that comes from nowhere.  For that reason I'd generally advocate casting him as late as possible, unless you don't have another threat / means of protection.  In the games I won with him, I usually cast him the turn before I was about to hit forty life, preferably with a counter or Brave the Elements in hand as insurance.

And that's all I have to say about the strange lion / rabbit hybrid.  Now the sun's shining, I'm feeling both hale and hearty, and I'm over my recent long run of defeats.  Time to get outside and enjoy what the world has to offer.  Mmm, or maybe just one more game with the Azorius decklist.  Well, two.  All right, seven.

Splendid Belt

www.splendidbelt.com