Much Abrew: Mono-U Metallurgic Rise (Standard)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to the new and improved Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week in our Instant Deck Tech voting, it was Mono-U Metallurgic Rise—essentially an updated version of our old Mono-U Brains deck, minus the Brain in a Jar—rising to the top. As such, this week, we are heading to Kaladesh Standard to play a creature-free deck that's looking to draw a ton of cards, cast a bunch of spells, and then win with Metallurgic Summonings or Rise from the Tides. Does the deck have what it takes to compete with the fastest decks in Standard but also fight through the counterspells of Jeskai and Grixis Control? We're about to find out!
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Metallurgic Rise Instant Deck Tech
Metallurgic Rise vs. RB Aggro (Match 1)
Metallurgic Rise vs. UW Midrange (Match 2)
Metallurgic Rise vs. GW Tokens (Match 3)
Metallurgic Rise vs. UR Colossus (Match 4)
Metallurgic Rise vs. Mono-Red Madness (Match 5)
Metallurgic Rise (Wrap Up)
Discussion
- Going into these matches, I expected to enjoy playing Metallurgic Rise, but I also expected to have a middling record. On paper, the deck only looked good but not great, and I was really worried about the backup plan of getting to 12 mana to cast Part the Waterveil and Rise from the Tides being off the table thanks to the rotation of Mage-Ring Network. It appears that my fears were unfounded, considering we cruised our way through our matches with a 5-0 record.
- Since the deck performed so well, instead of spending our time talking about what went wrong and what needs fixing, let's talk about some of the things I really liked about the deck.
- First, on paper I couldn't understand how this deck would get delirium, and without delirium, Scour the Laboratory seems way too expensive to be good. It turns out I was underestimating just how good Pieces of the Puzzle is at turning on delirium. A reasonable amount of the time, we would cast Pieces of the Puzzle on Turn 3, grab a couple of spells, and immediately turn on delirium, and even when we missed, the second copy almost always got the job done.
- Select for Inspection was sneakily one of the best cards in our deck because it did two really important things. First, one of the biggest challenges of our deck is finding a window to resolve Metallurgic Summonings without dying. Once we get the enchantment on the battlefield and untap with a bunch of mana, it's really hard to lose, but finding a turn to tap five mana for no immediate reward is often difficult. Select for Inspection allows us to tap out on Turn 6 for Metallurgic Summonings and then use Select for Inspection to bounce our opponent's best attacking creature. Second, Select for Inspection was great for bouncing our single Torrential Gearhulk from the sideboard to reuse the flashback ability.
- Speaking of Torrential Gearhulk, it's the one card that I really want to add to the deck. Sure, we have one copy in the sideboard, but it was great every time we drew it, which makes me want to put at least a couple in the main deck.
- So, what do we cut for Torrential Gearhulk? While it might sound silly to cut a namesake card, Rise from the Tides doesn't really seem that important in the main deck. Out of all of our games, we cast Rise from the Tides only once, and most of the time, we either discarded it or put it on the bottom of our library with Anticipate. While I think Rise from the Tides is important in the 75, since it provides a hedge against Lost Legacy taking our Metallurgic Summonings, it doesn't seem all that good in the main deck. Otherwise, I would probably just cut a counterspell (mostly likely Scatter to the Winds).
- One of my main fears about the deck was that we would simply get overrun by aggressive lists, but it seems that Engulf the Shore is enough to keep us alive in these matchups, especially combined with the fact that we are really good at cycling through our deck to find more copies.
- Oh, and we got to ultimate a Jace, Unraveler of Secrets by casting multiple copies of Part the Waterveil, and it was just as unbeatable as you'd imagine.
- So, should you play Metallurgic Rise? Yes! The deck performed amazingly well and was a blast to play. If you have the old Mono-U Brains deck, it's an easy upgrade, and even if you're building from scratch, the deck is cheap enough that it almost falls into the budget category. All in all, it seems like Metallurgic Rise has the ability to compete at FNM for sure and possibly in more competitive environments as well!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, subscribing to, and commenting on Instant Deck Tech videos! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
