After trading all of our non-mana resources in the early game, my opponent and I found ourselves in a top-deck war.

My opponent drew a Siege Rhino, knocking me to a precarious four life. I one-upped him by top-decking a Sagu Mauler.

On his next turn, all he could do was pass. I drew a Sylvan Caryatid and played it as my seventh mana source, before my opponent drew and ran his Rhino into my Mauler, telegraphing his would-be lethal Wingmate Roc.

I knocked on my deck and called for my one time. I was rewarded with a Chromanticore to bestow onto my Sagu Mauler, stealing the game.

I don't know if I was more satisfied with the 3-0 record that I was sitting on, or the look on my opponent's face.

I didn't end up in the Top 8 of Midwest Regionals with my Chromanticore brew, but a 7-2 record was good for 12th place. For reference, this is the list that I ended up registering:

Scout the Borders was a card that I played a little in older Nemesis of Mortals decks, and one that I thought might play better than the decidedly mediocre Tormenting Voice. It, like the card that it took the two slots from, was largely unspectacular, but fine.

My tournament went like this:

• Round 1: 2-0 vs. Boros Aggressive Midrange
• Round 2: 2-0 vs. Temur Aggressive Midrange
• Round 3: 2-1 vs. Abzan Aggressive Midrange
• Round 4: 0-2 vs. Jeskai Tokens
• Round 5: 2-0 vs. Boros Aggressive Midrange
• Round 6: 0-2 vs. Dimir Control
• Round 7: 2-1 vs. Abzan Controlling Midrange
• Round 8: 2-1 vs. Black Devotion
• Round 9: 2-0 vs. Gruul Aggressive Midrange

I was very happy with the deck all day, with my two losses coming from what felt like pretty poor draws.

The control matchup is admittedly rough, but the aggressive decks felt like byes and the midrange decks felt reasonably favorable. The aggressive decks can't deal with Chromanticore, or, more importantly, a Soulflayer with Chromanticore's abilities and hexproof.

Against midrange decks, Sagu Mauler is just bigger than everything. You have to watch out for Siege Rhino picking up +1/+1 counters from Abzan Charm, but knowing that that's an option makes your lines of play pretty clear.

The one element of the deck that I found somewhat disappointing was Flamewake Phoenix.

I spent the night after Regionals trying to figure out something else the deck could play. The reason that Phoenix makes sense here is that the mana for this deck is only good because you're able to focus on Jund colors, splashing white and blue.

Ally color pairs give you two fetchlands, and Jund is the only ally pair with green and black, which are ultimately your actual base colors. This is why you only see Jund colored cards on the sideboard.

Once you have your fetchlands, your red mana is relatively abundant and you really ought to take advantage of it. Tormenting Voice, while not spectacular, either adds a keyword to your graveyard that you were missing or smooths out an otherwise rough draw.

I ultimately came to the conclusion that I would board Phoenix out a lot but am still happy to have it for resilient haste threats against controlling decks.

I was planning on aggressively couching and watching Pro Tour coverage on Sunday, but I had so much fun playing this deck that I had to run it back for an SCG Super IQ. I made some very minor changes to the deck:

Maindeck Out:

Maindeck In:

Sideboard Out:

Sideboard In:

This tournament was much smaller, and naturally went much better. This is how things went:

• Round 1: 2-1 vs. WBRG Midrange (Mardu-Abzan? Marzipan?)
• Round 2: 2-1 vs. Jeskai Tokens
• Round 3: 2-1 vs. Temur Ascendancy Combo
• Round 4: ID
• Round 5: ID
• Quarterfinals: 1-2 vs. Monored Aggro

Two things about these results:

1. Playing for position in Round 5 was safe and completely right, but I was feeling a little burned out.
2. In the quarterfinals, I made several poor decisions and the match could've been winnable. Alas, life goes on.

With a 10-3-2 record on the weekend, I feel very good about the deck. It's also just completely sweet, and people were very excited to talk to me about my list. I was very excited to oblige.

It's also noteworthy that people will make mistakes both playing and sideboarding against this deck, so long as it's a relatively unknown quantity.

A cool trick is to morph your Sagu Mauler when you want your opponent to kill it in order to make a hexproof Soulflayer. The best part is that if they don't kill it, you get to flip a five mana 6/6.

I also had more than one opponent leave in too much spot removal against me, leaving them with a dead card in their hand against Sagu Maulers.

Going Forward

The red spells and the Scout the Borders are the slots I would consider changing in the future.

That said, I don't think the deck has much game against control decks without the Phoenix, and the Tormenting Voice definitely helps when you're flooded.

You do play 28 mana sources and four Satyr Wayfinder, after all. Scout the Borders should very likely be cut, and this deck would probably benefit from a Tasigur. The only reason I wasn't playing one is that all of my friends were playing theirs and his inflated price tag won't last forever. I can wait.

The sideboard might be exactly what it needs to be. The Thoughtseize and Drown in Sorrow are non-negotiable. Mistcutter Hydra is the best card I was able to come up with for fighting control, but that slot could need reexamining.

Reclamation Sage is excellent against Frontier Siege, Temur Ascendancy and random decks capitalizing on Theros block's enchantment theme, and I've been very happy with them.

Debilitating Injury was included because it can be found with Commune with the Gods and gives you an efficient removal spell to combat Goblin Rabblemaster and Heroic decks. It's not pretty, but it gets results.

The only other option I've come up with against control decks is to try some number of Torrent Elemental due to the ability to delve it away and the fact that Perilous Vault and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon both exile it. It looks really slow and easy to deal with, but I might give it a try.

Xenagos, the Reveler is another option that I could see trying, and I could more realistically see myself doing so for the Minnesota PTQ in two weeks.

Financial Relevance

There's not much to say about the specific cards in this deck that I didn't say last week. Soulflayer is very likely underpriced, but I don't know if there's going to be much to gain from a regular rare in a very good small set. Especially considering that the card gets a lot worse when Chromanticore rotates.

One thing I will say is that if you want to play Standard straight through rotation without holding onto cards that are going to tank, this deck is a great option.

Sylvan Caryatid, Mana Confluence and Thoughtseize are the only Theros cards in the deck that are worth anything. Caryatid isn't worth a ton, but it will certainly lose value with rotation. Thoughtseize is certainly poised to increase in value in the longterm, and Mana Confluence will likely always be worth at least slightly more than City of Brass.

That's certainly a relevant decline, but other decks easily take more substantial hits, and on more cards.

~

I love this deck and I strongly recommend giving it a try. I fully intend to PTQ with it in two weeks and will likely go out of my way to hit even more Standard tournaments with it.

It's super fun and likely to be misunderstood by many players.

Just try saying it out loud, "Bestow Chromanticore on Sagu Mauler."

Thanks for reading.

-Ryan Overturf
@RyanOverdrive on Twitter