[casual, standard] The Stand

[Ephraim]

Somehow "The Stand" (Stephen King reference) just seemed like a good name for a deck that involved Evacuation and a kill spell that features the word "Bio."  I'm going to be playing this at FNM this week.  I don't think that it is going to be stunningly good, but if I win just one match, I'll be stoked.  I have wanted to build a deck with Biorhythm and Evacuation for a long time, now.  Time Spiral block has made this possible because creatures with Flash make this combo viable.

Instead of casting Evacuation at the end of my opponent's turn and then trying to cast a creature and Biorhythm on my following turn, I can cast Evacuation and an instant-speed creature at the end of my opponent's turn (at a cost of 7 mana) and then cast just Biorhythm on my following turn (at a cost of 8 mana.)  In fact, if the instant-speed creature is Scryb Ranger, I can pick up a tapped Forest and replay it so that the deck can go off with "just" seven  lands in play.  Seven lands is still quite a few, but the deck features a lot of acceleration.

The Stand
The Combo
4 Evacuation
4 Biorhythm
Counter-Magic
1 Spell Burst
4 Remand
Card Drawing
1 Whispers of the Muse
3 Think Twice
3 Harmonize
Acceleration
3 Search for Tomorrow
2 Prismatic Lens
2 Simic Signet
Creatures (and equivalent)
3 Dreamscape Artist
4 Sprout Swarm
4 Scryb Ranger

Land
2 Simic Growth Chamber
7 Island
13 Forest

Sideboard
2 Prismatic Lens
1 Ur-Golem's Eye
3 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 Spell Burst
1 Scragnoth
1 Quagnoth
1 Petrified Wood-Kin
2 Seal of Primordium
3 Tormod's Crypt

***

Whispers of the Muse and Spell Burst may seem like somewhat unusual choices.  I have to admit that Spell Burst has not been tested yet.  All I know is that last week, a deck featuring the Urzatron kept me at bay using Spell Burst.  Granted, I will not have quite as much mana at my disposal as a typical Urzatron deck, but even if I only get to use Spell Burst twice, it's still advantageous.  Whispers of the Muse has worked very well for me.  It helps me to draw into combo pieces when I've developed the required mana, but can't find either Evacuation or Biorhythm.

Dreamscape Artist is quite amazing.  I never experienced Harrow the first time around, but I can appreciate how good it must have been.  Harrow every turn until I have all of the mana that I need makes this deck hum.

The sideboard is where all of the interesting stuff happens.  Tormod's Crypt protects me from Reanimator, which tore me apart last week.  Mwonvuli Acid-Moss is defense against Urzatron decks.  Prismatic Lens and Ur-Golem's Eye are there for the Land Destruction matchup.  In many cases, I believe that I can safely drop 2 or even 3 copies of Evacuation to make room for them because the LandD decks that I've seen recently are light on creatures.  I don't know if I'll see any traditional "counterspell" decks this week, but I see enough counterspells that I'm running Scragnoth, Quagnoth, and Petrified Wood-Kin.  In the event that a deck looks like it'll be able to hold back a counterspell for Biorhythm, I'll transform into a deck with uncounterable win conditions instead.  The deck might not be as good, but it probably beats having one's win condition countered every game.

[Ephraim]

It is a simple fact that this deck is terrible.  I went 0-4 last night.  I won two games in there, but lost eight.  The Timmy/Johnny in me, though, delighted in those two victories.  When my combo came together and I got to cast my stupendous, eight-mana spell to win, it was marvelous.  This deck will be relegated to casual play from now on, though.  It is good enough, as we've seen, to win about 1 game in 5 against a modestly competitive field.  I can probably up that to 2 in 5 against a more casual field.  That's good enough for me.  It was fun to play and the looks of shock I get to see when laying down Biorhythm to win are worth every loss.

It didn't help anything that I made some last-minute changes to the deck that weakened the mana base.  I removed both Simic Growth-Chambers and replaced them with signets.  That left me with only 20 lands, so I added a 21st land / 61st card.  Despite having 6 mana artifacts in the deck and 3 Search for Tomorrow, I had to mulligan entirely too many one-land hands.  I think that I am going to cut a Search for Tomorrow and a Signet (leaving me with 2 Search for Tomorrow, 2 Prismatic Lens, and 3 Simic Signet) so that I can add another basic land to the deck.  It may also be worth my while to cut a copy of Dreamscape Artist for a 23rd land.  Dreamscape Artist is really good, but I only ever need one copy.

Spell Burst may also need to come out.  By the time I have enough mana to try to use it effectively, I really should be trying to win more and counter less.  It is entirely possible that I will replace it with a 4th copy of Think Twice or a 2nd copy of Whispers of the Muse.

I suppose that the possibility also exists that I could use more counters, albeit not ones like Spell Burst.  Should I make room for Cancel?