MTGGoldfish is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a commission.
Browse > Home / Strategy / Articles / Against the Odds: I Built a Deck to Never Lose to Prowess (Standard)

Against the Odds: I Built a Deck to Never Lose to Prowess (Standard)


Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Against the Odds! One thing people have asked me about lately is what a deck would look like if it was only focused on beating the monster of Standard: Izzet Prowess. So today our goal is simple: build a deck that never loses to Prowess, regardless of how it performs in other matchups. Thankfully, I've been wanting to build a deck around various Elspeths and Deification, to make the Elspeths impossible to kill, and the two plans happen to work perfectly together! Our deck today is overloaded with anti-Prowess cards ranging from High Noon to Temporary Lockdown to Authority of the Consuls to make sure aggro can't do much of anything, and then our unkillable Elspeths come down to close out the game! Can the plan work? Will we beat Prowess? Is Deification a playable card thanks to multiple powerful Elspeths in Standard? Let's get to the video and find out!

Against the Odds: Elsepth Deification

Loading Indicator

Wrap Up

So did the plan work? Mostly. The good news is that we did manage to never lose to Prowess, going 4-0 across our matches, which is great! The bad news is that overall we won just 37% of the time, which I guess means that if the goal is to have a positive overall record just beating Prowess isn't enough if we lose a big percentage of our other matches to control and midrange. As far as the Elspeth Deification plan, it was a bit hit or miss. We had some games where it was hilarious, with our Elspeths being unkillable thanks to Deification, but we also had games where we'd draw Deification without an Elspeth, and it's basically a dead card that does nothing. Basically, Elspeth Deification was powerful when it worked, but overall a bit inconsistent.

Anyway, that's all for today! 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.



More in this Series


More on MTGGoldfish ...

Image for Podcast 544: Is Station Better Than It Looks? podcast
Podcast 544: Is Station Better Than It Looks?

The crew talks about Edge of Eternities and a ton of new spoilers!

Jul 14 | by mtggoldfish
Image for Two for the Price of One | Exclusive Edges of Eternities Previews exclusive preview
Two for the Price of One | Exclusive Edges of Eternities Previews

Thanks to Wizards hooking us up, we've got not just one but TWO exclusive Edge of Eternities previews to show off for you today!

Jul 14 | by SaffronOlive
Image for Weekly Update (Jul 13): Edge of Eternities Commander Decklists weekly update
Weekly Update (Jul 13): Edge of Eternities Commander Decklists

This week in MTG news: Edge of Eternities Commander Decklists.

Jul 14 | by mtggoldfish
Image for Single Scoop: We Found a Way For Yuna to Go Even Bigger In Standard. single scoop
Single Scoop: We Found a Way For Yuna to Go Even Bigger In Standard.

The meta isn't as aggro and we're adding blue and going Bant Yuna to play counter magic and use Ignis to ramp even harder so we can naturally cast our giant bombs!

Jul 13 | by TheAsianAvenger

Layout Footer

Never miss important MTG news again!

All emails include an unsubscribe link. You may opt-out at any time. See our privacy policy.

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Twitch
  • Instagram
  • Tumblr
  • RSS
  • Email
  • Discord
  • YouTube

Price Preference

Default Price Switcher