Dictate of the Twin Gods can be a real magic card if you aren’t afraid of maths or mana flood. Below is the deck i took to my local shop for a win a box tournament we had last Thursday night. It was a ton of fun for a short 4 rounds of play with a fair reward on the line for a small entry fee. The deck was inspired by Conley Woods’s Dictate of the Twin Gods Combo deck. While he didn’t have the best run in this video set i think he showed how the deck could win from out of the blue and take a tournament by surprise.

4 Deflecting Palm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Anger of the Gods
3 Arc Lightning
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Fated Conflagration
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Dictate of the Twin Gods
2 Circle of Flame
23 lands
4 r/w temples
4 r/w pain lands
2 r/w/u tru lands
rest mountains

So how did it play? 3/1 good enough for 3rd. Not the win i was hoping for but good enough i am going to keep it together and retool/find the rest of its missing cards. I had to bum a few key cards for this tournament and i need to make some changes for the future.

R1, was a win when i should have lost. G1, I got the land flooded right the heck out. I am not afraid to admit i thought that i might have made an error in deck choice. G2, I drew a good mix of lands and spells and ran my opponent over. G3, I thought i was done. But got a window to throw a 5/7 Courser back at its owner for 20(taking him to 3) damage (thanks to Dictate + Deflecting Palm) going to 2 off a 3/3 lion. Thankfully i had scryed a burn spell to the top on my upkeep and put that game away. It was real close had my opponent monstroused his lion i would have lost.

R2, Was vs Travis. He had loaned me some of the missing cards and knew the idea behind my list but not the details of the 75. G1, Once again i tasted the land flood and lost the turn before i tried to go for the kill thanks to an attacking Sarkhan. G2, I resolved a Dictate during my own end phase as he went for a dig through time and hit him for 10 damage and scrying for 2  with a Fated Conflagration taking him to 1 life. He kept a Sarkhan and game in for lethal thanks to my Dictate+ his Lightning Strike.

R3, was short and sweet vs a Jeski combo/weenie hybrid. Both games i burned his only men down resolved a Dictate on turn 5 and followed up with double Fated Conflagrations on 6 and 7.

R4, was very fun as this was the only other games where i needed to cast Deflecting Palms, Heroic W/U. My opponent got to play in to my main deck Angers and once his men were too large for angers they when back to his face again and again.

Bonus round, While waiting for the rest of the games to finish i played against a B/W weenie deck. Damage came in fast until a sweeper showed up like Anger or Arc Lightning even one of two main deck Circle of Flame.  Then got to a point where burn could go to the face for the win.

There was a game where i was dead. Or i should have been dead. I had double Dictate and a Deflecting Palm vs his 6 1/1s tokens while i was at 14 on turn 5. I flashed in a Deflecting Palm at the end of his turn because i had to go for it. Turn six played a land an passed. Took 12 from his 1/1s going to 2 he played a 2/1 and passed. I cast a Magma Jet end of his turn pushing down 2 more lands and then pealing another going to 7 lands in play. My hand is Dictate + Deflecting Palm, figuring that i would just draw the game out he attacks… with just the 2/1. Wow, i get to win. Flash in Dictate #2 and then palm his 2/1. 2×2=4 4×2=8 palm 8×2=16 16×2=32 to the face. Had he attacked with any other man i would have had to draw the game but woot for me.

This deck is not perfect, but there is a ton going for it. Good mana if a little floody at times. I would like a way to get to 5 or even 7 reliably but then never draw another land again or a way to use extra lands. Something like Tormenting Voice if it was an instant would be great. There is also the option to go Jeski for the charm and your own digs. That would let us have less Dictates in the list but still find them a fair amount of games. While increasing the number of 4 damage burn spells and allowing us some other options/tricks. Another perk of adding in blue mana is the option to add in more scry lands. Magma Jet was the deck MVP allowing me to push away extra lands once they were no longer needed was great, and more scry would be welcome.

Circle of Flame was both the worse card and one of the best. So hard to explain why i chose to run 2 in the main vs just having them in the sideboard and i am not sure i can other then to say they can win some game ones that we should loose and when they are bad they are super easy to cut. There is a card that i ended up leaving out of the deck and i am thinking that it might have to work its way in the 75 someplace, Spite of Mogis. This is should be a great card in a 27 instant & sorcery deck. Card is almost Swords to Plowshares in this current standard.

As always, please leave a comment if you have feedback.

<3s

I am trying something new for today’s post, i gave myself 30 mins to put a fresh 60 together and to write a few words about it. And i don’t have a lot of time left to write so bare with me.

The List:

4 Magma Spray

4 Lighting Strike
4 Magma Jet

4 Stoke the Flames
4 Fated Conflagration

4 Hording Outburst
4 Goblinslide
4 Rabble Master

3 Purphoros
2 Lightning Volley

23 Mountains

Going wide is a real option again in constructed formats. Mass removal is at a low, people are pushing for 3 or 4 colors decks and battle ship (okay more of build the fleet) magic is making waves. Nothing prays on decks like that like going wide fast.

5 mins left.

I don’t know if this deck is good or not but i do know that sticking a Purphoros is huge when you can make 4 guys the next turn for 4 mana and one card. We are loaded for bear, even 4/5 bears with horns as we can shoot them down for 1rrr and scry to boot. Over all this is just another one of those decks that looks great on paper but might not have the control elements that really make it work but we could make some cuts add in some one mana hand disruption spells and a few ways to make hero’s fall down and we could have a spicy R/B list.

I don’t have time to get into it but it also seems tasty.

As always comments are welcome and i will see you next week.

<3s

I didn’t get to make it to last weeks FNM do to massive amount of real life bull shit. But i did make it in time to watch 2 or 3 matches of my deck for states the next day. I learned a lot but then got less then 2 hours of sleep due to that real life bullshit and ended up bailing on going because i just knew that i couldn’t play to the level i know that i can play at with that low amount of sleep and i didn’t want to burn the cash to play/eat/drive to just loose and wish that i didn’t go.

But this weekend is StarCityGames’ states and i hope to make that one.

Okay so back to watching those games on Friday, Dan (he borrowed my standard deck for FNM) was playing Brandon. Brandon was playing a Mardu deck that got my brain turning. And i have a rough list.

First thing i do is lower the curve a ton and cut a color. Now i am just Red/White and top the curve out at 3. And i want to focus on going wide and pure speed.

2 Herald of Anafenza
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Soldier of the Pantheon

4 Akroan Hoplite
4 War-Name Aspirant

4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos

4 Crowd’s Favor
4 Dragon Mantle
4 Titan’s Strength
4 Lightning Strike
2 Trumpet Blast

18 lands

4 Battlefield Forge
4 Mana Confluence
6 Mountain
4 Plains

I don’t know if it is good or not. Going to say maybe… I could see having 3-4 lands in the sideboard and Purphoros, God of the Forge to get some extra reach. Stroke the Flames might also need to be included in the main but i am not sure what to cut to work them in.

Thoughts?

<3s

First off sorry for no write up last week, i have taken on a project and i was caught up in it last week. That might happen from time to time but i will try and keep posting a Magical Monday write up at the first of the week in my short list.

Now on to Magic.

One of my favorite decks over the years was a deck build around the enchantment Wild Pair.

This deck was standard legal for me and gave me some of my most fun games ever. It was build mostly around 2/2s like Mystic Snake, Venser, Shaper Savant and Whitemane Lion. It is a beating. As it is still 98% together i could whip it out and give someone some good beats like it was 2008…

I bring it up because what i am playing now feels a lot like that Wild Pair deck, I don’t really have a cool name for the deck but i am kinda calling it the Power of Music…

It is a G/u/r Yisan, the Wanderer Bard/Kiora’s Follower/Prophet of Kruphix deck. But really it is a Prophet of Kruphix deck. That girl is just hot stuff. So like everyone and their dog that is into Magic, i am looking at Khans hoping for some power and dreading the cuts to the mana base…

That being said the deck looses like 7 cards, 4 lands and some men. Aka nothing that can’t be replaced with simi-random Khans, cards.

So lets look at what 3-5 cards that Khans’ might bring to replace the following.

• Burning-Tree Emissary
• Skylasher
• Izzet Staticaster
• Prime Speaker Zegana

To be fair there is not a lot of solid replacements to me… Which is strange as the deck has a slight Temur tilt already. Well every slight as the only red card is the one Staticaster but you would think that there would be some kind of Tim in the set. I mean isn’t there always a Tim? Well guess not. But there is a whole clan around this wedge…
There is an argument that one  mana dork for 2 could be replaced with another Theros more mana dork but that seems worse in the long run but a Rattleclaw Mystic could work as a burst mana guy just not in the same manner. At least it could attack vs another 0/3 mana wall.

But the rest? There is just not a lot of love in those colors.

But there might be some help in Sultai… Hear me out, Rakshasa Deathdealer is a bundle of options in a handy 2/2 for 2 shell. He can’t stop flyers but a possible 4/4 regenerating attacker might make the cut. Grim Haruspex might be the replacement card engine we need if we add in a little Bloodsoaked Champion as a recurring sacrifice.  Speaking of sacrifice that could be sweet as a one of Embodiment of Spring. Trust me sometimes you want another 1 cc guy other then E. Mystic.

There is one card i am looking forward to working in, Clever Impersonator. “A copy of any nonland permanent” that i can cord/Bard up is a super sweet tool box option.

Thing is i am not one of those people that can just read the spoiler and “Know” what card will better my deck and what wont. I will say i feel that Bug aka  Sultai will be my Khan of choice for a while in standard. Although i am playing with another Affinity like deck that i will see if i can get a hard list together soon.

See you next week,

<3s