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Budget Magic: $175 (67 tix) Standard Wg Prowess


I've been making these budget videos for about a month now, and I have to admit that this week's deck, Wg Prowess, is the one I've been the most excited about. Maybe unreasonable excited. I'll admit on paper the list really isn't much to look at. I mean Pressure Point? I try to avoid playing that in draft. The thing is, once you actually play the deck, you'll see that it ends up being more than the sum of its parts. When every creature in your deck has prowess, or in the case of Ojutai Exemplars megaprowess, cards like Defiant Strike do a lot more than their text would indicate at first glance. I'm not claiming that this is the best deck in the format or anything silly like that, but in the past week I did manage to go 12-4 in the Magic Online queues dominating Abzan and Red Aggro decks while going 50/50 against control builds.  Anyway, let's look at the the videos and the list before I spend another paragraph gushing about the deck. Just a quick reminder, if you like these budget videos, make sure to subscribe to the Official MTGGoldfish Youtube Channel for all the latest videos.

W/g Prowess Deck Tech and Abzan Aggro

W/g Prowess versus Jeskai Tokens

W/g Prowess versus Abzan Control

W/g Prowess versus Mono-Red Aggro

W/g Prowess versus UB Control

Since I spend a few minutes talking about the build during the deck tech video, I'm not going to repeat myself here. So instead of talking about the deck as a whole, sideboarding, or any of the other stuff that is readily apparent in the videos, I wanted to talk about a couple cards in specific. 

Myth Realized

When Myth Realized was spoiled, it was obvious to almost everyone that the card was unique, mana-efficient, and powerful, but it took me playing a bunch of matches with this deck to realizes how insane this card really is. In this build, with 28 non-creature, non-land spells, it grows big and it grows fast. I was worried that it would be miserable off the top in the mid-to-late game, but it's actually the opposite. In this deck, you can play it on turn 7 and be blanking opponent's Siege Rhinos and Tasigur, the Gold Fangs by turn 8. In a draft a while back, I one-shot my opponent with a 19/19 protection from multiple colors Myth Realized, and this deck is built to do the same thing. It's not unreasonable to play Myth Realized on turn one, cast a bunch of seemingly random cantrip spells and have your one-drop end up being a 5/5, or an 8/8, or a 12/12 in short order (my record is a 35/35 in a game that stalled out against a monstrous Fleecemane Lion. Plus, if you look over the list of the 50 Most Played Cards in Standard you'll see that enchantments in general are on the decline: no Outpost Siege, no Jeskai Ascendancy, no Whip of Erebos. So apart from Dromoka's Command, you are not all that likely to run into a forcefield of enchantment hate at the moment. Give Myth Realized a try — it's super fun and addictive. 

Monastery Mentor

If the last paragraph made you think I was in love with Myth Realized, just wait until you hear me talk about Monastery Mentor. The monk is amazing, especially in this deck which is just stocked full of synergies. How many three-drops can win a game on their own in only a couple of turns? I'm sure this list is a short one, and if we limit our search to cards currently legal in Standard, shorter still. Apart from, you know, just winning the game, Monastery Mentors ability to generate tokens shores up a lot of weaknesses for the deck. We have a ton of protection/indestructible spells to protect against Hero's Downfall, Valorous Stance, and Ultimate Price. Actually, these card are among the most important in the entire deck. Unfortunately, they are not all that exciting against edicts like Foul-Tongue Invocation. This is where Monastery Mentor and his little monk friends come in. 

Budgetizing

I mentioned before that Wg Prowess isn't as cheap as some of the other decks featured in Budget Magic, and on this front we have both good and bad news. The bad news is you really can't cut any of the expensive cards from the deck; Myth Realized, Monastery Mentor and Ojutai Exemplars are essential to the strategy. The possible exception to this would be Windswept Heath. While I'm a little worried about having eight comes-into-play-tapped lands, it might not be that big of a deal and you can potentially cut a decent amount from the paper price by replacing the fetchlands with Temple of Plenty or even Sandsteppe Citadel

$ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00

The good news is that the foundation of this deck survives rotation so you should be able to play this strategy for an entire year. Some of the one-mana protection spells rotate, but these types of cards that are always in Standard in one form or another so I'm very confident that we'll have a replacement this fall (Brave the Elements would be amazing in this deck so let's keep our finger cross for Origins and Battle for Zendikar). The other good news is that pretty much all of the most expensive cards in the deck are solid investments, either having massive Standard appeal to help maintain (or even grow) their price or being eternal playable, making it less likely for prices to crash. So while building this deck now isn't super cheap (just inexpensive), you should have some equity to cash out down the road if you so desire. 

Other Options

As far as a straight Wg build, I don't think there is much to change in this list apart from adjusting the numbers for the metagame. While this is the list I played all week, there is some appeal to adding blue to the deck. A few people suggested Narset Transcendent which makes sense considering there are 28 non-creature, non-land spells for the her +1 to hit (allowing you to basically draw an extra card every other turn). While I'm not sure the planeswalker is necessary, it could be worth testing. Dig Through Time sound sweet in a deck with only 14 threats since sometimes you do run into what I like to call the Boggles problem where you draw all your enablers, but none of your creatures. The problem here is Become Immense is another insane Magic card (particularly in this deck), and Dig Through Time would be fighting for the same resource (cards in the graveyard). For me, the real appeal of blue is better/more cantrips. Anticipate would be a very natural fit, granting a bunch of prowess triggers while digging for more action. You could even play Refocus if you wanted to go super deep. I also like the idea of Jeskai Ascendancy/Treasure Cruise, but then you need to splash both blue and red, and unless you are willing to cut Become Immense, you're going to be dealing with both the Boggles problem and the "I'm trying to play a million colors in a deck without Sylvan Caryatid problem." For me, all of this was a moot point anyway because the deck just kept winning and winning and I was having a blast playing it. However I am interested in exploring the possibilities Bant Prowess or Four-Color Prowess have to offer. 

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. If I haven't made it clear yet, I love this deck. You really should give it a shot. The look on your opponents face when you cast Pressure Point to tap their blocker and then exile a bunch of semi-playable cards with Become Immense to swing for lethal makes it more than worth the cost. If you have any suggestions/improvement/thoughts, make sure to leave them in the comments, and as always, you can reach me on Twitter (and MTGO) @SaffronOlive.

 



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