I was certainly prophetic when I surmised that my day job would eat up my MOL hours, let alone writing about it.  Outside my one Lorwyn league (with a deck that didn't get playable till week 3, when it got ridiculous), I haven't really played online much.  Hence no infinite goings.

Today's article won't be about said infinite goings, instead I want to talk more about the UR Snow list I posted in the last blog, what I've done with it IRL, and why I think it belongs in the standard pantheon.  It's hard not to crow about a list you've gone 10-1-2 (two intentional draws) with in constructed tourneys.  I should add another friend went 4-1 and his friend went 5-0 with the list when they tried it out.

First, the list:

UR Snow

12 Snow-Covered Island
6 Snow-Covered Mountain
3 Scrying Sheets
3 Shivan Reef

4 Incinerate
2 Aeon Chronicler
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Chandra Nalaar
4 Coldsteel Heart
4 Cryptic Command
2 Jace Beleren
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot
4 Skred
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
2 Venser, Shaper Savant

Sideboard
3 Persuasion
1 Aeon Chronicler
3 Faerie Trickery
4 Flashfreeze
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
3 Pyroclasm

If you saw the last list, or paid any attention, you'll notice a few differences.  Trickbind is gone from the board, since D-storm was sort of a flash in the pan in our area, whereas Goblins and Faeries get played.  Online, probably switch the two.

Now, the deck looks like an odd collection of 4s and 2s, and, in a way, it is.  But as much as I've tried to fiddle with the numbers, I keep coming back to the 4s and 2s.  Let's break it down.

4 Skred

The best removal in Standard, bar none.  Tarmogoyf?  Whatever.  Ironfoot? Please. Hellkite? Well, sucks that I took 5, but it ends there.  One red, one question asked (how much snow do you have?)

4 Incinerate

Skred Red only touched on the control capabilities of this card.  The biggest drawbacks to blue decks is they have problems with small guys that blow through Desert or aren't always creatures (like Treetop Villiage).  Not anymore!  Planeswalker slip through? Incinerate can often handle it.  Oona's Prowler? Gone.  Small Goyf? Dead.  Often goes to the head for the last few points.

4 Ancestral Vision
4 Cryptic Command
2 Venser Shaper Savant

The best reasons to play Blue right now.  These, along with the two red cards above, are non negotiable.  As is...

4 Coldsteel Heart

I tried 3, but hitting RR for Chandra and UUU for Cryptic is difficult without them.  Plus, turn 3 Venser or turn 4 Teferi/Chronic/Chandra are all gangbusters.

2 Teferi
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Jace Beleren

The iffy spots.  They all do so much game one, but Teferi, Sower and Jace, in that order, are almost always the first cards to come out for game two.  It's likely these numbers should be different, but I don't want more Sowers (too fragile) more Jaces (too legendary, too fragile, don't impact the board) or more Teferi (too legendary, too UUU).  But fewere?  I'm loathe to drop any of them to zero, and one is just dumb.

2 Aeon Chronicler

Expensive for a deck with no chargelands and only 28 sources, but i still want to fit in a 3rd somehow, probably from the above list.

2 Chandra

So, so good.  Basically, this deck took all the best parts of Snow Red (Sheets, Skred, Chandra) and added blue, because blue rocks.  Chandra I could see at 3 at some point, but it would probably be replacing Teferi for cost considerations.

4 Phyrexian Ironfoot

Possibly the best card in the deck, if not the best creature in standard.  Eyeblight's ending and Skred kill it...and nothing else.  It stops BG kold, minus Goyf.  He's the reason this deck works.  Never go to 3 here.

Matchups

I'm on the christmas clock, so I'll do this quickly now and elaborate later.

Mannequinn - 90% ish...this is a joke.  Their cards don't impact you in any way.  Shriekmaw is uselss.  Their best chance is a big Profane Command.  That's it.  Litterally.

SB: -2 Teferi, -2 Sower (The Shriekmaw targets) + 1 Chronic + 3 Tricker (for their Shriekmaws and Commands)

BG - 50% ish...I'm still undecided how close this is, but it's quite draw dependent.  Do they have Eyeblight's Ending?  Does Skred find a Goyf? I'm seriously contemplating adding Steel Golem to the board as Ironfoot 5-6, because Ironfoot is that key in this match.

SB: Still figuring that out...

Dragonstorm - 70% ish...this was higher with Trickbind in the board (read: unlosable), but because of Venser, Teferi, and Cryptic, it's really, really hard for them to win.  I've never dropped a game, though I'm sure better players could have changed that.

SB: -4 Ironfoot, -4 Incinerate -2 Sower +1 Teferi, +4 Flashfreeze, +3 Faerie Trickery, +2 Persuasion

Faeries - 65% ish...sometimes they just out-tempo you, but then they're still attacking with 1/1s and 2/1s.  Scion is easy to kill, and Pyroclasm after board makes things academic.  If you ever land a Chandra, they really can't win.  Sowers are actually really good here, especially when stealing Scion of Oona.

SB: -3 Ironfoot, +3 Pyroclasm

Guile/Pickles/anything with Rune Snages - 20% ish...here's where the trade-off is.  While it gets difficult for them to keep a win condition on the table, it's even harder for you.  Thankfully, these aren't particularly popular decks at the moment.

(As I'm re-visiting this article I just beat a mono-blue deck round one of an 8-man, and then lost to another in the 2nd round)

SB: Still working on that...