Wizards has been releasing some annual casual sets the last few years first, starting with the original Planechase in 2010 and Commander in 2011. This year, Wizards released Planechase 2012, which included brand new cards similar to Commander and unlike the original Planechase. Last year Classic received high-quality cards such as Flusterstorm, Scavenging Ooze, and Edric, Spymaster of Trest, along with some other marginal cards.
This year, Wizards has again presented us with a couple of cards that could have implications in Classic: Baleful Strix and Shardless Agent. Of the two, Strix is better-suited for the Classic environment, as the Agent is ideal in a reanimator-Hypergenesis deck which can be easily hated out in a metagame teeming with Dredge. While Strix may look the part of an aggro or aggro-control card, it’s actually best suited in a streamlined control deck.
What Does Baleful Strix Offer Classic?
Strix is uniquely situated in the Classic format. First and foremost is that Strix is an artifact creature. Being an artifact creature means that it avoids many sphere effects from Workshop and Affinity decks, specifically Lodestone Golem and Thorn of Amethyst. Unfortunately, being an artifact creature also means that there are a significant amount of removal options that can be thrown at it. In addition to typical creature removal such as Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolt, Strix can also be felled by Ancient Grudge, Nature’s Claim, Ingot Chewer, Qasali Pridemage, and many other artifact removal cards.
Despite all that, the Strix is a great option because it replaces itself upon entering the battlefield. In fact, it’s arguable that it’s enters-the-battlefield (ETB) triggered effect is the best part of Strix. Beyond Brainstorm and the few decks equipped to exploit Gush, there are few draw options in Classic for control decks (yes, Ponder and Preordain exist, but control decks don’t really need more Brainstorm-like cards, especially slow ones). Strix’ ability to present a threat (to planeswalkers, etc.) and draw a card is a welcome benefit. Additionally, if one can exploit the ETB effect, one can possibly create a draw engine that would make Dark Confidant jealous. Enter: Goblin Welder.
Welder is an all-time favorite of mine. The number of things that Welder can do is remarkable. Long known for its ability to mess with opponents’ artifacts, and specifically, Tinker-bots, Welder can also be used to recur your own artifacts that have been destroyed or in some instances milled into your graveyard. With Strix, Welder creates a draw engine that can lead to a blowout. Could you imagine if damage still stacked? Either way, combat can be a pain for decks staring down a Welder with artifacts in the graveyard and a Strix in play (or vice versa). If you can chain two Striges, look-out!
Strix is also a cheap flyer that has deathtouch, making it able to trade with just about every creature in the format. Delver decks, which have been the bane of pure control decks for nearly a year, now have a foil to their Turn 1 Delver of Secrets. Jace, the Mind Sculptor decks now have another cheap flying creature to deal with except that it can’t be countered by Mental Misstep, and if bounced, grants the caster more cards.
Earlier, I mentioned that draw spells for control decks were limited. Strix might be the perfect card to bring Thirst for Knowledge back to the Classic metagame. Discarding Strix to Thirst can be a great way to gain significant card advantage, which can be supercharged with a Welder in play. Recently, Thirst has been pushed to the sidelines in Classic due to the inability to slot in a critical number of artifacts in most decks. Strix helps ease the artifact count to a point where Thirst as a 1- or 2-off can be highly useful.
Many of the same reasons that Thirst’s value is bumped up by Strix also raise Tinker‘s value. Most control decks have to resort to a somewhat low artifact count even when running Tinker, which can be a liability in some games. 3-4 copies of Strix in a control deck makes it that much easier to find an artifact in order to cast Tinker, and Strix makes for a perfect sacrificial lamb.
Similarly, Tolarian Academy is a much more reasonable option to ramp up the mana base. Academy has all but disappeared from all decks other than Workshop/Affinity and Storm. Strix makes Academy a key card in control decks again. Casting spells like Jace or hard-casting a Force by tapping a single land feels as broken as you can imagine.
Finally, being a blue card means that Strix can be pitched to a Force of Will (or perhaps a Misdirection). The flexibility to avoid the tax imposed by Lodestone and still be able to be pitched to a Force is quite important.
Decklist
Taking all of these factors into consideration, I’ve come up with the following list, which has been adapted to Classic and based off a Vintage deck piloted by Stephen Menendian a couple months back:
Strix Control for Classic, by enderfall
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This is the deck I should have played in the Classic Quarter League Invitational Qualifier Tournament #1. I’m not sure it would have been good enough to win the QT, or maybe even finish in the Top 8, but I would have liked to think that I wouldn’t have scrubbed out in Round 2.
Regardless, let me go over some of my card choices for this deck, beyond those already discussed above.
Dark Confidant – Bob is a great source of card advantage, and this deck has a low mana curve. The curve isn’t quite as low as that of some decks, such as Storm, but the curve is low enough to avoid “death by reveal”, unless of course you flip over a Blightsteel. Bob is an important card to help dig for more threats as well as re-fill your hand after a counter war… basically, he’s just as good in this deck as he is in other control decks.
Snapcaster Mage – As a 1-off in the maindeck, Snapcaster is another way to gain incremental card advantage. Snapcaster is not the focus of the deck, but being able to flashback tutors, countermagic, and Brainstorms goes a long way to getting the upper hand versus your opponent. Post-board, there is another Snapcaster available along with a trio of Lightning Bolts as well as a single Red Elemental Blast that can be further abused by Snapcaster.
Flusterstorm, Mana Drain, Mental Misstep, Force of Will – The countermagic suite is designed to be flexible and able to catch a host of potentially problematic cards. Flusterstorm is there for the Storm matchup, obviously, but also as a trump card in counter wars. Misstep can deal with Turn 1 threats such as Delver, Dark Ritual, discard, and much more. Drain can be used to stop any mid-game spells that our opponent wants to get through as well as to ramp into our Jaces, Tinker, or a main phase Thrist. Force is obviously a catch-all card.
Lotus Petal – While Classic doesn’t have access to the 5 Moxen, we do have the luxury of unrestricted Petals. Petal is an important card which can be used to cast a Turn 1 Bob or Strix, but also fixes our mana to be able to cast a Turn 1 Welder without needing to crack a fetchland, or expose ourselves to Wasteland. Petal can also be used to cast Drain a turn earlier if need be.
Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault – These cards do not need any explanation as they are the quintessential artifact ramp cards in Classic. I have tried using a singleton Mox Opal, as the artifact count is high enough to support it, but in testing I found it to be unspectacular in the early game and a dead draw in the late game… your mileage may vary.
Tinker, Time Vault, Voltaic Key, and Blightsteel Colossus – With a high concentration of artifacts, this package is required to increase the number of win conditions.
Nihil Spellbomb – As a singleton in the maindeck, it offers an out to Dredge in Game 1 as well as provides a cantrip in the matchups that it won’t matter. Despite that, there are many subtle uses for the Spellbomb, such as shrinking Tarmogoyfs, shutting off opposing Snapcasters, and turning off Yawgmoth’s Will, to name a few. Similar to Strix, it can be abused with Welder and can provide a recurring card advantage engine.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor – I’ve chosen to run 2 Jaces, though I wouldn’t fault anyone to add 1 more to the deck. With the amount of draw and filtering, though, 2 has seemed like a solid number.
Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor – The quintessential tutors to find the right card for the job. Not much explanation is necessary.
Senseis Divining Top – Sensei’s Top is another way to filter through your deck as well as provide a boost to your Bobs.
Sideboard
The sideboard has the requisite number (7, including the maindeck Spellbomb) of anti-Dredge cards in Grafdiggers Cage, Tormods Crypt and more Spellbombs. The Cages might seem out of place in a deck that is geared to abuse Welder and Tinker, but in the matchups that you want to bring in the Cages (besides Dredge, obviously) are Oath and Storm. Against Oath, you will want to side out the Welders since fewer and fewer Oath decks are running the Blightsteel package these days and you don’t need to run out a early Welder, which could turn on an Oath in the first place.
As for the rest of the sideboard, there is a package of removal spells for the creature-heavy matchups, which includes the Bolts and a pair of Pyroclasms. With the number of red spells available post-board and as a way to combat the Wasteland decks, an extra Mountain is included. For the control-on-control “mirror”, I’ve included the Red Blast and another Flusterstorm.
Potential options to improve the deck
There are some interesting options that one may want to test out and see if they improve the deck in any way.
Artifact lands – My preference is to not play with artifact lands, but they could help make Mox Opal worth playing. The artifact lands are vulnerable to Wasteland and artifact removal, so I don’t tend to use them in control decks where lands are at a premium.
Staff of Nin – Naoto included a copy of the new Staff in his QT#1 decklist, which I thought was an interesting choice. The Staff is obviously a card advantage engine, but it also can double as removal against many creatures in the format and as a (slow) win condition. Plus it can pressure enemy planeswalkers. Its casting cost is quite high, but Drains can help power it out a couple of turns earlier than normal.
Different Tinker-bots – One could argue that Blightsteel isn’t the best robot to be playing with these days as Swords to Plowshares might be being played at an all-time high. With that in mind, Inkwell Leviathan, due to its shroud and islandwalk, and Myr Battlesphere, due to the 4 1/1 Myrs that come along for the ride, could be better fits in this type of deck. Sphinx of the Steel Wind is another option, though vulnerable to Swords, because it can dodge nearly all artifact removal.
Wrap-up
I firmly believe that Baleful Strix can be a major player in Classic. The deck is perfectly suited for a Workshop-filled metagame and has the tools required to beat many of the creature-centric decks. I’m keeping a close watch on Naoto and his results in QT #1 to see how his deck performs. It’s possible that the deck might not be the best choice for the current metagame, which appears filled with Delvers and other creatures, but that should be easily remedied with a couple tweaks to the maindeck.
enderfall
Clan Magic Eternal
Follow me on Twitter @enderfall
BlueDiamonds is also running 2 Baleful Strix in his deck. Not sure how he is doing but his deck is very sweet (been playing it).
I like Strix quite a bit, and particularily in Welder builds. Havent had the nerve to bust it out in such a heavy Oath environment.
Yes, Oath is a problem. Might need to throw in some Spell Snares or Nature’s Claims to effectively fight them off. Also, Cage plays an important role post-board against Oath.
So against Oath, a Strix Control list, as you noted, would probably board in Cage, or at least could board in Cage. Does this mean it boards out Welders, or is the Welder-synergy still so powerful that it’s worth keeping the Welders in in order to weld other artifacts and for situations in which the Cage hasn’t landed?
Another note: Has anyone tried playing my other favorite 1/1 for 2, Myr Retriever, with Welder and mana ramp artifacts, etc.? That seems like some sick card advantage, but maybe less consistent than Strix netting you a draw each Welder activation.
When you board in the Cages, you would board out the Welders. Really, the only way you are beating Oath is to keep it off the board and get Vault/Key online or Jace’s Ultimate. Tinker for Blightsteel (if you don’t have a Cage out) can also work so long as they don’t have an Oath already in play. It’s a tricky match-up, for sure.
I don’t think it’s speculative at all to say that strix can be a real player, it’s been making waves in vintage for months now:
http://www.eternal-central.com/?p=2827
Oh, my bad, i just realised you linked that in the article! Sorry about that.