UGW Blink

[CUB3X]

Two other friends of mine and I have been working on a UGW deck that seems pretty powerful and is very competitive. I will probably taking it to regional qualifiers as well as one of the others if not all three of us.

Here is a list that won 5th place at the Star City Games 1k tournament in April.

Bloom Tender Control
Artifacts 4 Mind Stone Creatures 4 Bloom Tender 2 Glen Elendra Archmage 4 Mistmeadow Witch 4 Mulldrifter 3 Reveillark 3 Seedborn Muse 2 Sower Of Temptation 2 Wall Of Reverence Instants 4 Cryptic Command 3 Path To Exile 2 Remove Soul	Basic Lands 1 Forest 3 Island Lands 2 Adarkar Wastes 1 Brushland 2 Flooded Grove 3 Mystic Gate 4 Reflecting Pool 4 Seaside Citadel 2 Vivid Creek 1 Wooded Bastion 1 Yavimaya Coast	Sideboard: 2 Glen Elendra Archmage 1 Reveillark 1 Sower Of Temptation 2 Wall Of Reverence 2 Runed Halo 2 Bant Charm 1 Path To Exile 4 Wrath Of God

I just joined but they have been testing for awhile so a lot has changed especially with Alara Reborn coming out. When one of us saw the release of borderposts we were especially excited. A turn 1 post into a turn 2 Bloom Tender seems really good and usually spells games if not answered. The Wall of Reverence slot has seen many cards.

So here is our list after quite a bit of testing.

UGW Blink
Artifacts (6) 3 Mind Stone 3 Fieldmist Borderpost Creatures (25) 4 Bloom Tender 3 Glen Elendra Archmage 4 Mistmeadow Witch 4 Mulldrifter 3 Reveillark 3 Seedborn Muse 2 Kitchen Finks 2 Knight-Captain of Eos Instants (9) 4 Cryptic Command 3 Path To Exile 2 Remove Soul	Basic Lands (10) 4 Forest 4 Island 2 Plains Lands (11) 2 Flooded Grove 3 Mystic Gate 4 Seaside Citadel 2 Vivid Creek	Sideboard: 2 Sower Of Temptation 4 Burrenton Forge-Tender 3 Qasali Pridemage 2 Scattershot Archer 4 Wrath Of God

So far the matches look pretty good. The hardest match-up is Blightning pre-board but gets a lot better once the Forge-Tenders come in. The match-up against Boat Brew is pretty good and after board its around 70/30 towards us.

MD Card Choices
Fieldmist Borderpost: This card activates Bloom Tender, and when you play this first turn and land a Bloom Tender second turn you pretty much win unless the yhave an answer soon.

Bloom Tender: I don't think I need to say too much about this choice. It's huge mana acceleration and helps with Mistmeadow's cost.

Glen Elendra Archmage: Counters stuff and can be blinked to counter more stuff...

Mistmeadow Mitch: Heart of the deck. Once you have this online your deck starts steamrolling.

Mulldrifter: Card draw. Enough said.

Reveillark: Gets back every creature except Finks out of the yard. Reveillark gets messy when it's teamed with the Witch.

Seedborn Muse: Also a huge card for the deck. It lets you tap out to play him and still be able to counter on their turn after you play him. It also starts shenanigans when you can blink on your turn on their turn.

Kitchen Finks: This cards is really for the blightning and aggro matches, but mainly for blightning since its our worst matchup. It proved much better then the Wall because we can blink it to gain more life. It's one of two solutions to Blightning pre-board.

Knight-Captain of Eos: Ya, ya, laugh if you want. I showed up to see the other two guys's lists and this showed up. I was like what? Apparently it just wins you the game against aggro creatures decks when you can blink it...who knew?

Cryptic Command: I don't think anything needs to be said.

Path to Exile: Removal.

Remove Soul: I currently still like Broken Amitions over Remove Soul but it is a better choice then negate since we have Archmage.

Sideboard Card Choices
Sower of Temptation: This comes in against Boat Brew to take their lark and assorted goodies.

Burrenton Forge-Tender: Much needed sideboard against Blightning decks. Blocks and prevents

Qasali Pridemage: This comes in against Fae for Bitterblossom.

Scattershot Archer: Comes in against Fae for obvious reasons.

Wrath of God: Comes in against aggro decks like bant and whatnot.



So far, the deck looks to be pretty promising. We're hoping to do well at regionals. Any feedback is appreciated.

[iLLmatiic]

I've been testing a similar build to this pre-ARB and it seems solid. Only problem i've found is that the deck just rolls over to volcanic fallout. Obviously forge-tender solves, and theres also dauntless escort from ARB that could have potential. The other problem I was finding is handling fast aggro decks like kithkin and bant pre-board and Knight captain of eos seems like a good answer to that I didn't think of. I'll have to test that out on mws.

One other problem I've noticed is in the r/w lark matchup, SGC just rolls so hard. I know you can path him but as of right now that seems like the only answer other than pithing needle out of the sb and I guess WoG.

[iLLmatiic]

I guess no one likes this deck...

[Pot Pie Man]

Originally Posted by iLLmatiic

I guess no one likes this deck...

With wrath's in the board only, I don't see how this deck can beat a half decent B/W tokens build. A little bit of disruption and some pump, and you're just so far behind that there's nothing to really hope to defend with?

I basically don't see how this deck can beat spectral procession decks running some pump.

[There There]

Have you tried Meddling Mage at all? It seems like being able to change the named card at will would be pretty nice.

[kspaeth123]

Here's my list.

Deck
Creatures-24 4 Bloom Tender 4 Mistmeadow Witch 4 Reveillark 3 Seedborn Muse 2 Sower of Temptation 4 Mulldrifter 3 Glen Elendra Archmage Other Spells-12 4 Path to Exile 4 Negate (or Remove Soul/Cryptic Command, if I can get them) 4 Bant Charm	Land-24	Sideboard-15 1 Glen Elendra Archmage 3 Wrath of God 4 Knight-Captain of Eos 3 Cloudthresher 4 Kitchen Finks

It's just me, but I would take out the Borderposts because I would rather have more spells or creatures, and I can already have a turn two Bloom Tender. In fact, a lot of my games have gone like this.

T1 CIPT land
T2 Land, Bloom Tender
T3 Land, play Witch and something that cost four (Archmage/Sower)
T4+ Whatever I want to do.

EDIT: I also plan on taking this to regionals.

[There There]

@Cub3x - Why no sowers in the maindeck. It seems like theres going to a lot more aggro with ARB and they can be ridiculous sometimes.

[JeffDerek]

Here's my take on it.

Wonky Wizard Deck
Creatures (28) 4x Bloom Tender 4x Mistmeadow Witch 4x Reveillark 3x Mulldrifter 3x Glen Elendra Archmage 3x Seedborn Muse 3x Sower of Temptation 2x Sage of Fables 2x Meddling Mage Enchantments/ Spells 4x Cryptic Command (9) 3x Path to Exile 2x Mind Stone	Land (23) 4x Seaside Citadel 3x Mystic Gate 3x Forest 3x Island 3x Flooded Grove 2x Yavimaya Coast 2x Adarkar Wastes 1x Vivid Grove 1x Vivid Creek 1x Wooded Bastion	Sideboard 3x Birds of Paradise 3x Remove Soul 2x Sage of Fables 2x Negate 2x Meddling Mage 1x Seedborn Muse 1x Sower of Temptation 1x Glen Elendra Archmage

The Mages seem to be wonderful, and have amazing synergy with the mistmeadow witch. Any tutoring by the opponent just results in me blinking the mage and naming whatever they just tutored for. Plus, with the Sage of Fables, the Mage becomse a 3/3 and resilient to Volcanic Fallout and the like.

I sub the Birds in for the Mind Stones when there isn't mass creature removal. Targeted removal will rarely target the birds, so why not have the turn 1 ramp instead of turn 2.

I'll probably find something to cut to get a 3rd and/or 4th meddling mage in, but I haven't decided what yet. Potentially the Sage of Fables, but I really like him a lot as is. Perhaps the Mind Stones. Who knows.

J

[There There]

Do you really need sage of fables when you can just flip Glen Elendra with the witch?

[kaijia]

hmm.. i think bloomtender likes borderbosts..

[chromaticbum]

Originally Posted by CUB3X

I like this deck a lot, and I am going to playtest it soon, except I am getting rid of the groves and gates for painland equivalents due to some monetary issues.

Have you tried bant charms in the lineup anywhere? My guess is that artifacts are going to come in hard in upcoming tournaments, and having some extra artifact/creature/counterspell hate may not be a bad idea, just my 2 cents.

[There There]

I've been playing with this on MWS and it's really fun. I really like wrath of god maindecked, especially if you run finks maindecked. It has so much synergy with the rest of the deck and obviously it would help against any sort of tokens matchup. It's biggest problem is that it's pretty slow so the wrath definitely helps there against aggro decks. The only thing that really concerns me is its matchup against red decks. It's gonna struggle to do anything against blightning.

[JeffDerek]

Originally Posted by There There

Do you really need sage of fables when you can just flip Glen Elendra with the witch?

Not at all. However, the Meddling Mage, the Mistmeadow Witch, and the Archmage all come into play with counters on them. Now your Meddling Mage survives Volcanic Fallout, as a 3/3. Plus, I use it for card draw regularly.

Another, albeit mana intensive, strategy, is to blink some random wizard, it comes into play with a counter, and then you pay 2 mana to remove the counter. {4}{U}{W} to draw a card is pricy, but in this deck, you often have the extra mana kicking around.

I played this for about 6 hours last night at my local shop, and won regularly all evening, although we were playing casual, not standard. I won against decks with combos I'd never have to face in standard. (I also lost to a Pyrohemia Deck when I couldn't draw something to get it off the board).

By the end of the night, I had added a third meddling mage and was running 61 cards. I also spent about half the evening with BoPs where the Mind Stones are. Having the colored mana made a big difference on several occasions. The Meddling Mage also does the same thing with the Bloom Tender that the Mistmeadow Witch, making a turn 3 Archmage or Sower possible.

I'm also considering swapping Bant Charm in for PtE. The CMC doesn't bother me in this deck, and having an extra counter or artifact removal is worth the significantly less powerful creature removal to me. Thoughts?

Also, what are your thoughts about Ardent Plea I have absolutely no idea where it would go, but if I remove PtE, it becomes 1 of the 3 most important cards in the deck everytime, Bloom Tender, Mistmeadow Witch, or Meddling Mage. I'm not planning to include it, but it interests me nonetheless.

J

[kspaeth123]

Originally Posted by JeffDerek

I'm also considering swapping Bant Charm in for PtE. The CMC doesn't bother me in this deck, and having an extra counter or artifact removal is worth the significantly less powerful creature removal to me. Thoughts?

I think twelve non-creature spells are sufficient; PtE, Bant Charm, and either Remove Soul, Negate, or (preferably) Cryptic Command. That, along with the Archmage, allows for a suitable amount of counter and removal.

[JeffDerek]

Originally Posted by kspaeth123

I think twelve non-creature spells are sufficient; PtE, Bant Charm, and either Remove Soul, Negate, or (preferably) Cryptic Command. That, along with the Archmage, allows for a suitable amount of counter and removal.

You're probably right, but since my variant only runs 9 non-creature spells (2 of which are Mind Stone), I need to be more flexible with them, which is why I'm considering Bant Charm over PtE. I played probably 8-10 games last night and never cast PtE.

J