I wasn't quite sure what to write about this week as my first article in my new Zodiac budget series took off like a wet squid, although it does seem to have gathered a bit more interest since I last checked. So I decided to cover my progress so far in the Bring Your Own Standard events which are now on season two, these are run by bluedragon123. I'm not going to cover the aspects of the format as that has already been done by our very own Lord Erman.
Here are the links which I strongly recommend reading if you have any interest in the format or even if you are looking for some new deck ideas.
Rogue Play - Wrapping Up the BYOS Season
Rogue Play - Your Guide to BYOS Season Two, Part I
Rogue Play - Your Guide to BYOS Season Two, Part II
So you may wonder why I'm writing an article on the subject, well the reason being is that BYOS is currently one of my favourite formats (the other being tribal) where I've been putting a lot of my deck building ideas into recently. I managed to win the season one championship with a last minute vampire build and now have a title on the line. So my quest in season two is to pull out the stops and go for the championship title again.
BYOS isn't a format you can just drop into, each deck requires lots of skill to build due to the limitations of only having two blocks and a core set to build with but that's why I enjoy the format so much due to the deck building challenge.
I'm also in the same boat as Lord Erman where I like to build a different deck each week. This is a lot of work and play testing your BYOS deck is not the easiest thing to do. I find I test my decks in the casual room in the classic format which will give you over the average losses as the decks you will be facing will not be limited like yours, so you need to take each lose with a pinch of salt and think if that deck was under the same restrictions as yours would you have stood a chance.
Currently I'm at the top of the season two standings after event 2.05 by one point with the host of the event bluedragon123 right on my tail. I'm going to be taking a short break from the event to spend some time out and about over the next few weeks of summer. So you probably won't see me playing in the event again until the last third of the season where I will be picking up any points needed to secure myself an invite to the season two championship.
Let's have a look at the decks I've been running for the first five weeks.
Box of Delights
Mirage / Onslaught / M10
The first deck that I ranin season two was built around a very old combo that goes back to the time of Legends and Mirage. The main heart of the deck is built round Underworld Dreams and Teferi's Puzzle Box. Every time an opponent draws a card while Underworld Dreams is in play they take a point of damage, if you combine this with Teferi's Puzzle Box where you have to discard your hand and then draw cards equal to the number of cards you discarded each turn you can quickly take out your opponent.
We can't just rely on those two cards to win so need to add in other spells to make your opponent draw more cards. For this I included a card from Onslaught block Wheel and Deal which makes your opponent discard his hand and draw seven new cards, as a side effect you also draw a card as well. There are two double edged swords in the deck that are mainly used for card drawing purposes for you but can be turned against your opponent if needed these are Jace Beleren and Sign in Blood.
Now let's have a look at the creatures they are an odd bunch in this deck the first is Hypnotic Specter which you would think really goes against the deck but it actually turned out to be a very good card even though you are depleting your opponents hand. The next card is Merfolk Looter which is a card draw card and the final card is Platinum Angel to help keep us alive in the late game when we our being overrun with creatures.
There are a few other spells in the deck Dark Ritual to help speed out the Box or Underworld Dreams. Doom Blade which is our only form of removal, then we have two copy's of Negate to counter any unwanted enchantment/artifact removal. Also you may notice the two Rise from the Graves which can be used to animate a card your opponent discards due to the specters or you can discard the Platinum Angel via Merfolk Looter and then bring it back.
The sideboard cards in BYOS deck's have to be very fine tuned you may find you spend more time fine tuning the side board than the main deck which I know I do a lot. For this deck we needed to include some graveyard removal as there were a few animation decks running round in season one, the best card I could find in our blocks is Ebony Charm. I included a lot of extra counter in the sideboard in the form of Essence Scatter and Flashfreeze to deal with any unwanted threats. I also ran two Pithing Needles to stop any combo artifacts or planeswalkers. I did include three Prosperity's for extra card draw but never used them.
Here's the deck list it managed to pull in second place. Its main weakness is fast aggro decks or counter decks which is what I lost to in the final. This deck also does very well in the casual room without any changes.
Elspeth's Soldiers of Fortune
Lorwyn / Shards of Alara / M10
An interesting point to note about this deck is that it will be legal in Extended after the format rotation in October, I just realized that while writing the article and may give it a go and see how it does. Also the deck is legal in Classic Tribal as well, funny enough as a Soldier tribe deck, but you may have already guessed that.
As the name of the deck suggests this deck is based on the rank and file troops of Elspeth's mighty Army
You all know Elspeth by now either you love her or hate her it's one of those relationships that people develop with mythics that are good enough to be tier one staples in Standard. I expect this will change though when she comes out in the future Elspeth vs. Tezzeret dual deck then most people will be running her in casual decks to all her foilness potential.
Let's have a look at the main bulk of the deck the Soldiers. Elspeth choose a varying size of soldiers this time round, we have your average humans and then the Kithkin support. The first two soldiers are our turn one drops which are Elite Vanguard and Akrasan Squire with his very useful Exalted ability. There's then a jump to our three drops which is where the Kithkin come into play. The best of the bunch in this deck is Preeminent Captain, he's a 2/2 with First strike but in a soldier deck he has the ultimate ability when he attacks you are able to place a soldier card from your hand into play tapped and attacking. The other Kithkin three drop is Ballynock Cohort which gets an additional +1/+1 if you have a white creature in play. There is another three drop which is a human Veteran Swordsmith she is basically a lord giving our other soldiers +1/+0.
Moving up in the chain of command we our last soldier Captain of the Watch, yes she may be very expensive to cast at 
but that's where our friend Preeminent Captain comes into play. Actually it's the other way round but you know what I mean. Rounding out our creatures we have an honorary soldier in the deck Twilight Shepherd which is our answer to mass removal with her persist ability and as an added bonus when she come back into play so do all your creatures that died that turn as well.
Spells, spells, spells or in this case it's all removal our wrath effect of choice for the deck is Martial Coup. We then have spot removal in the form of Oblivion Ring and Path to Exile. Also a bit of enchantment/artifact removal in the form of Solemn Offering.
Now let's see what we have in the Sideboard. First up is two copy's of Battlegrace Angel to help fight decks like Jund in the mid game by gaining life. I would swap these out now with Baneslayer Angels but I didn't have them when I played this deck. Next is some more enchant/artifact removal in the form of Dispeller's Capsule, I was expecting some artifact decks but never saw any. We have extra removal if needed in the form of Hallowed Burial and Unmake. Also to stop red deck wins I added Mark of Asylum. Last up is graveyard hate in the form of Wheel of Sun and Moon and Pithing Needle for combo decks as in the previous deck.
The deck started out with a bad start and lost to Ranth's kithkin in the first round the second round I was given a bye which meant I was out as I couldn't gain enough points to go through to the top four. I did win my third round without any issues but that bye took away my chances. Cursed with a free win, strange how that works out if I had won round two I would have been in the top four.
Poly want a cracker?
Shards of Alara / Zendikar / M10
This next deck is currently legal in Std at the moment it's not tier one although people do try it from time to time. You may hear screams of unfairness in the casual room when you see someone playing the main card of the deck Polymorph. I got so much abuse for playing it there that I ended up play testing this deck in the tournament practice room instead.
The card really gives the whole deck away so what do we expect to see at the end of Polymorph? An Eldrazi will be the first thing you are probably thinking shortly followed by Progenitus, see I could be a mind reader.
Well you are correct I'm only running four creatures in the deck the first two are in fact Eldrazi Emrakul, the most hated card in the casual room and Ulamog, the Infinite Noodle Beast,who is my favourite eldrazi. The other two creatures are of course Progenitus, the untargetable Hydra and Iona, the Disconnecter.
Of course we need tokens for Polymorph you may be surprised but I'm not actually running that many sources. I have Khalni Garden, Growth Spasm which is our mana fixer as well. A single copy of Bestial Menace and the last card which generates tokens is also a key player Garruk Wildspeaker.
I'm not going to just rely on Polymorph to get our big guys into play I also have a backup plan in the form of Summoning Trap which is the reason I'm running four big guys rather than the normal two.
The deck is very slow as we can't play Polymorph until turn four normally so I had to find a way of speeding it up Garruk helps a lot , I also included his friend Jace Beleren to help with card draw and Explore as well which I found very useful playing an extra land on turn three and gaining a card. I rounded out the deck with four copy's of Ponder as well so I could have some sort of control over the top of my library.
There isn't really any removal in the deck apart from Into the Roil which again when kicked acts as card draw.
Let's check out the sideboard. First we have our anti mirror match card Gather Specimens. I included a second copy of Iona for match ups vs red deck wins as this is the deck I most feared and I know it's played in BYOS as well. Against combo artifacts or enchantments I included Naturalize. Due to bad match ups vs Super Friends in the tournament practice room I included four copies of Negate to counter any planeswalkers. Pithing Needle has it's normal place in my sideboard. I also included for non blue decks four copies of Spreading Seas which I swap with Explore when needed.
The deck did very well netting me another second place in the season. I had a very short lived match vs platipus10 in the final where he was playing Tooth 'n' Nail it was a case of who went off first won the round each time unfortunately for me I was too slow in the third round and lost the match.
Now an interesting point to note this was actually going to be the deck I was going to play in the season one championship but due to a bit of miss communication I couldn't play it as Rise of the Eldrazi wasn't legal at the time.
Hyper Control
Time Spiral / Shards of Alara / M10
Now this deck was inspired by a deck I had used in a Tribal Apocalypse event a few weeks before which managed to win the event. The deck is based round Hypergenesis and uses dragons to take the win the turn you combo out.
Here's the tribal version
The problem I had was converting a tribal deck into a BYOS deck, you may think its easy but remember your deck building limitations of two blocks and one core set and things start to look a bit less clearer. For a start we don't have the lovely mana base I used in the tribal version using ME dual lands, now that causes an issue straight away. I decided to use the Shards of Alara comes into play tapped lands instead which puts you a turn behind the tribal version already. The best land in the deck is Exotic Orchard as it doesn't come into play tapped, but if you're playing against mono decks you could be let down if you need a specific colour.
Now some of the creatures I was able to move across with no difficulties Bogardan Hellkite is a staple card as it's able to deal five damaged distributed how you chose when it comes into play. Hellkite Overlord was also a straight port across as well as we want to win the turn Hypergenesis comes into play and haste is the key to that. Other cards that made it across on the creature front are the two copies of Magister Sphinx and a few of the other dragons with haste Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund and Tarox Bladewing. Akroma, Angel of Wrath came back to visit in this deck as well with her hot alternative personality Akroma, Angel of Fury.
At this point I need to find some other creatures I added another dragon with haste Predator Dragon and Thraximundar. As a little trick I also added Madrush Cyclops so my Bogardan Hellkites gained haste, enabling them to do ten damage when they come into play. To help deal an extra bit of damage and to keep my opponents on their toes I also included four Ball Lightnings, six damage for three mana isn't bad.
The spells in the deck are the cascade cards to bring Hypergenesis into play early Ardent Plea, Demonic Dread and Violent Outburst.
Now the sideboard is what really makes a difference in losing or winning with this deck. If you're playing against weenie decks you will need to side in the Volcanic Fallouts. Mid range decks are dealt with by Damnation. The hardest matchup is against counter where this deck really does shine as its able to morph into a control deck by adding Bant Charm, Cancel and Great Sable Stag. Does it work the answer is yes I played a very good control deck the week I ran this deck and it was able to out counter a counter deck now that's not bad. My only failing in the final was my mana base it just didn't want to know and I got stomped by a Jund deck. I wasn't able to pull the right colour mana for the cascade spell in my hand so finished in second place.
Level Up
Mirage / Zendikar / M10
This I thought was going to be a great deck it had done well in all the playtesting matches. Let's have a look at the deck. It's based around the level up cards from Zendikar, of course there is an interesting card interaction as well.
The interaction is between two cards the first being a shapeshifter Renegade Doppelganger which copy's the last creature you played each turn until end of turn. If you combine that with Phyrexian Dreadnought you are looking at a turn three 12/12 trample coming at you and that is a sight to see. Yes it's been done before with Stifle but I wanted to use it in a different way.
Now I'm only running two Phyrexian Dreadnoughts but have the ability to search for them with Enlightened Tutor and bring them back from the graveyard with Argivian Find. I'm also running Jace Beleren again for card draw in this deck. I seem to be using him a lot in my BYOS decks at the moment and I'm not normally a blue player, but looking at my decks recently it looks like that is changing before my very own eyes.
On to the rest of the deck it's mostly based around level up cards. First we have Student of Warfare for the early game with Hada Spy Patrol. Next is another great creature Transcendent Master his level up ability's are very powerful level. He starts as a 3/3 and levels up for a colourless mana at level 6 he becomes 6/6 with lifelink and at level 12 he becomes 9/9 and indestructible with lifelink you may think he will never get that high but he does if he's not kept in check and at that point you know you have a good chance to win the game.
Another point to note with Renegade Doppelganger is that when it copies a level up creature you can level up the doppelganger and it keeps the counters for the next creature it copy's.
As the theme is level up I included the Time of Heroes enchantment which gives any creatures that have a level up counter +2/+2. For the other cards in the deck to help round it out I included two Baneslayer Angels for the mid game which worked really well and the Doppelganger really liked being an angel for a turn, nearly as much as being a dreadnought. I included Negate as my counter of choice and Day of Judgment as my wrath effect.
I'm not sure if the sideboard was quite up to standard in this deck. Aura of Silence was a good idea but was never needed. Cancel was good and I did side it in a few times mostly vs other counter decks. Celestial Purge was also a good choice and it did save me once when I drew it. Linvala, Keeper of Silence is the star card from my sideboard as she can stop so many cards and her mana cost is perfect as well. I didn't really need Null Rod but felt if I didn't have it I would have faced a deck where I needed it. Lastly I chose Undead Slayer I have no idea why but couldn't think of anything else to put in the sideboard so she stayed there for a trip out of the virtual binder for a day.
As you will see the deck done really badly in the event ending in 8th place this was due to one reason only mana screw. Yep every round it cost me the game. I was going to include Glacial Fortresses but forgot to buy them. Who knows if they would have made a big enough difference?
That's all from me I'm not going to show you the decks I have built for the rest of the season as that would spoil the fun. BYOS is a great event and really takes deck building to a new level, if you're looking for something different to play give it a go and help support the event and stretch your imagination.
It takes place every Sunday check the player run events room on the Wizards forum for more details.
Links
My PureMTGO Archive / The Rare Drafter June / The Coalition League
11 Comments
Hypergenesis looks sexy and cheap and considering BYOS will soon be the only format I can play it in other than eternal ones, may be worth picking up, just for this event.
BYOS is a great format Shard which Flip got me into it, but have been unable to play as many as i like due to other commitments on weekends, same goes for the Tribes.
It very competitive Shard as seen by both Flips and LE articles and decks.
But if you are into current STD and have a strong deck then you have every chance, i have tried 3 different decks so far when been able to join one and if i remember did best with a current STD deck 2-1 but then again i not a very good player/deck builder so i am sure you will do better.
But i like the format and throws up some great and quriky decks.
Great stuff, let's hope this article will raise the level of interest to the format.
I myself haven't really started playing yet so to speak. After 2 failed attempts, I finally Top 4'ed with my planeswalkers and that was a start(as I told you online "how" is not important, what's important is that I top 4'ed! don't ask how!).
I still have tons of great decks ready to play, and I will enjoy them in the coming weeks. And while you're out for a while, who knows maybe I'll catch you on the season two standings!
LE
LE the vid i link down further i think shows u playing in the finals with a Lor-block fae deck :)
Is there any specific room ppl play this format in?
No there isnt, the format is only played during the event.
keep in mind anyone is welcome to join it though!
Also if people wanted to see some gameplay of the format they are more then welcome to check out my old vids from season one @ http://www.mtgoacademy.com/build-your-own-standard-2/
um first off... what exactly does a wet squid take off like?? I couldn't tell if that meant it was good or bad lol
im a huge fan of BYOS thanks to LE and was excited to finally get time to join this past weekend (though comcast screwed me out of playing through)
I love to read through others ideas on the format so thanks for sharing more :D
lol Squids dont fly, so it didn't go very well.
well at least it didn't take off like a dry squid, seeing as a dry squid would be dead and thus have absolutely no chance of leaving terra firma.
At least the wet squid can try and jump!
For the record I enjoyed your zodiac article. Wasn't much enamoured about the wiki info but the deck building and game playing were an interesting read, as it always is when you write an article.
That said however, this article is pure gold. 5 reasonably competitive deck lists - and play info as well. You really can't ask for more than that. It's spawned some great ideas for me in all formats! I especially love the level-up deck.