/r/spikes

Photograph via snooOG

The serious, play-to-win side of the Magic: The Gathering community.

The serious, play-to-win side of the Magic: The Gathering community.

/r/spikes is about improving your skills in competitive environments. Being a spike isn't about winning, but the desire to win and improve. This subreddit's goal is to provide players with a place that has a serious atmosphere devoid of jokes, memes and low-effort content in order to help more spikes better themselves at magic.


Who is Spike?

"Spike is the competitive player. Spike plays to win. Spike enjoys winning. To accomplish this, Spike will play whatever the best deck is. Spike does not care about deck price, spike will copy decks off the Internet. Spike will borrow other players’ decks."


Do you love Magic, but dislike the competitive, play-to-win atmosphere? Check out /r/magicTCG!


Subreddit Rules

Constructive criticism(s) only.
Comments should be constructive. Explain your reasoning respectfully. Derogatory/abusive comments will get one warning and a temporary ban from the Mods. Further actions of this nature will result in a permanent ban.

Do NOT clickbait your title!

No win rates, Mythic Rank, or 'I made Mythic with this!' in post titles. Let content speak for itself.

Show Your Work - General Discussions and Questions:

Discussions and Questions about specific decks require a decklist in the OP. Discussions are better when readers know these three things:

  • What you're asking for
  • Why you've reached the point(s) you're at so far
  • How you've come to the conclusion(s) presented

Posts that include all three points are welcomed and encouraged.

Posts that do not meet this bar are better suited for a weekly thread or the /r/spikes Discord, and will be removed from the subreddit.

Show Your Work - New Decks, Brews, and Theorycrafting:
We know that spikes like testing the waters of the metagame, particularly around the time of new set releases. With that in mind, we ask for three key points when posting about new decks:

  • Why does this deck exist in its current form? Explain your choices clearly.
  • What does it do well / not so well in the current/established metagame? Why should someone play this deck as a competitive option over a different one? - "Just because" or "I like it" is not a valid answer

  • (If Bo3) How do you currently sideboard with this deck against the established metagame?

If you can discuss these three questions, your post is welcomed and encouraged. Otherwise, please use the weekly Deck Check thread or the /r/spikes Discord, as posts without these points addressed are subject to removal.

[Description Tags] are required in all posts.
Posts without descriptive tags in square brackets will be removed automatically. No exceptions! See this post for details and accepted descriptive tags.

Non-deck magic discussion must be had with competition in mind. (i.e. psychological factors, tips for tournament preparation, etc). Topics such as finance, alters, cosplay, etc should be directed to r/MagicTCG.

Budget-based competitive discussion should only be posted in our weekly "Ask Spikes" or "Deck Check" threads (posted on Mondays).

Posts discussing Hypothetical Formats will be removed. Treat formats as they do exist, not how you want them to exist.
We take competitive Magic as it is. Posts discussing potential bans/un-bans, decks with cards from only half-spoiled sets, anything 'post-rotation' or non-WOTC sponsored formats are prohibited. We do not allow ban chatter to overshadow everything else, so complaining about how X or Y needs to be banned outside of a Banned & Restricted announcement will be removed.

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Post your deck along with some information in the body of a self post instead. Articles / YT links must include a brief writeup (Paragraph or two) of what the article is about. If it is a deck tech / focus, please post your decklist in a copiable form in the body of your self-post or as a comment.

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6

Weekly Deck Check Thread | Monday, February 03, 2025

Hello spikes!

This is the place where any and all decks can be posted for all spikes to see. The goal of this is to fit all your needs for competitive magic. Maybe it's a card consideration given an X dollar budget. Maybe you need that sweet sideboard tech that no one else thought of? Perhaps you just can't figure out the best card to beat a certain matchup. The ideas here are only limited by your imagination!

Feel free to discuss most anything here. We only ask that with any question, you also make sure to post your decklist so people have some context to answer your question. Otherwise, have at it! If you have any questions, shoot us a modmail and we'll be happy to help you out. Survive your deck check and survive your competition!

1 Comment
2025/02/03
14:01 UTC

60

[Draft] Aetherdrift Limited Breakdown

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ruSrALri7Irx_gTIaNBEzXd67TOVD2rlqdqfzhm-Hgw/edit?usp=sharing

I'm a part of the MTGRebellion discord, a competitive minded group with it's own Competitive Team that recently put 5 of 8 members into the Top 200 of ATL Spotlight, and some of the more experienced limited players in the group and myself have been trying to grow the limited community there. So, we put together this primer to help those newer to limited find their footing in Aetherdrift. We're trying to do something new that no one else does and call out what decks the cards will best fit into. We feel if you add that information to a good grade set then people will have the greatest chance at success.This is a living document with the goal of being updated as new information comes out!

We hope this spreadsheet helps you dive into limited and if you're interested in competitive play and/or would like to grow a limited community come on and introduce yourself!

https://discord.gg/23DV94pg

8 Comments
2025/02/02
13:57 UTC

0

[modern] help me understand some card choices please

I'm coming back into modern. Format looks fun and I miss strong magic after drafting for several years. Theres a few archetypes and pet cards I'm going to try to push into my local meta and then work out what I like best from there. I'd like some opinions and thoughts on why certain cards are picked over others and whether some of my pet cards can still be jammed.

TLDR: Any grixis or rakdos decks that can jam [[dreadhorde arcanist]] [[bedlam reveller]] and/or [[Ob nixilis the adversary]]? Really want to jam some Grixis tempo with a blue splash rather than dimir with a red. Bolt snap bolt is never not fun.

Generally speaking I'm a big fan of tempo and midrange. Especially when it involves lots of instants and sorcery. I used to jam mardu pyro back in the day but I see that removal is just too strong for him to be in the format.

Looking at the archetypes I like and what's available in the format I figure I have a few choices. Dimir/Izzet/Grixis Murktide. I'll probably land on this in some variation. Definitely try out the grixis shell. I know red isn't as favoured in the format but Rakdos is my jam so I try to push it where I can. Would it be reasonable to just take a dimir list and swap the majority of blue spells out for red and black burn and discard? I'll splash the blue for snap, cantrips, maybe a few counters. Could bedlam replace murktide? I know it's not anywhere near as strong but could it not have some impact? It's a pet card of mine.

Deaths Shadow RBx I left modern just a Rakdos Death shadow took off. Still got most of the parts for it. Any spicy shenanigans I should know about? I used to slip dreadhorde arcanist in here because I didn't have snap but that's not a problem now. Grixis still good enough right? I want to chuck Ob Nix in here with [[necrogoyf]] don't know if it's been done but just glossing over the most played cards in my colors and Necro popped up. Sacrificing Necro or DS is decent and with unearth I might as well jam [[seasoned pyro]] and [[psychic frog]] or would blue be too hard on the mana base.

Dreadhorde arcanist decks One of my favorite cards. As soon as it was spoiled I knew I found my almost not good enough red snappy. No lurrus right? But unearth and all it's shenanigans should be enough to make this fun right? Again. Do I go grixis for the frog and that Ninja and snappy or keep it rakdos with Fomo and seasoned pyro?

Thanks for making it this far in my ramble. Just so excited to get back into modern but don't have enough experience in the format to fully understand what's strong enough for the format these days or not. I don't need a super tier 1 deck. Just something I can pilot well enough to challenge some tier 1/2 decks.

Edit: Oh and that Kiki enchantment. Is it a fever dream to target bedlam with that thing or is that too slow for the format?

15 Comments
2025/02/02
01:04 UTC

17

[Standard] Aetherdrift Verge Lands

With the verge lands coming out, what archetypes do you think will benefit the most? Do you see them enabling any new ones?

I’m really looking forward to some Izzet brews and especially with spell piercer coming to standard.

44 Comments
2025/02/02
00:25 UTC

66

[STANDARD] Triple tournament Report and Deck Guide for UW Oculus!

The Logic Knot member Prez Kuhnke wrote a MASSIVE triple Tournament report on UW Oculus (including two qualifications) along with Sideboarding tips, deck tech, and in-depth guide. Check it out here!

6 Comments
2025/01/31
20:42 UTC

45

[STANDARD] Mastering Golgari Midrange: Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide by Lucas Giggs!

Hey everyone!

Golgari Midrange remains one of the most consistent decks in Standard, and Lucas Giggs has put together a free guide on MTGDecks after multiple Top 8 finishes with the deck!

In this in-depth breakdown, he covers:

  • How the deck adapts to the current meta and why it’s still a strong contender.
  • Key card choices—including the surprising inclusion that changed his approach.
  • When to apply pressure vs. when to grind for maximum value.
  • A fully updated matchup & sideboard guide to help you navigate the field.

If you’re playing Golgari Midrange or considering picking it up, this guide is a must-read!

Check it out here:
🔗https://mtgdecks.net/guides/foundations-standard-golgari-midrange-deck-tech-sideboard-guide-2025-mtg-331

Enjoyyy!

37 Comments
2025/01/31
17:21 UTC

50

[[Standard]] Thoughts: What will Aetherdrift bring to the format?

Hello everyone,

We've seen nearly all of the Aetherdrift spoilers at this point and I'm curious what is catching folks' attention! Are there certain cards that you see bolstering current meta decks? Any new brews that you anticipate popping up? Sleeper picks for cards that will see lots of play in the format?

I've spent some time tinkering with a Boros Reanimator list with [[Tune up]] and [[Valor's Flagship]]/[[Detention Chariot]], interested to see what becomes of the Selesnya mounts package, if Unstoppable Plan will be put to any broken use, and curious to see if the new verges vastly improve the mana of any existing decks.

Looking forward to hearing what folks are excited about!

163 Comments
2025/01/30
22:04 UTC

9

[Standard] Jeskai Convoke vs Esper Bounce

I've been prepping for my RCQ with jeskai Convoke. My games against Esper bounce just feel soo draw dependent. Its either i get the t2/3 nuts or I lose hard. Any advice on how to play against that matchup?

Decklist

https://moxfield.com/decks/ou3FvS6HG0usplR8AIQT4g

(Any advice on how to play the deck in general would help bc i feel like when i play its VERY feast or famine and hard to come back)

16 Comments
2025/01/30
21:46 UTC

61

[Standard] Golgari mid wins 3 straight challenges

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6894677#paper

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6892875#paper

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6891361#paper

That’s 3 straight challenge wins - rumors of the deck’s demise were greatly exaggerated

It’s probably easier to do on mtgo since the meta is more self-contained - the lists that have been doing well don’t have as many strong tools for the domain / monoW matchup other than hot elf starts. But those decks aren't common in mtgo challenges, letting lists like this run cards like obstinate baloth

But overall, golgari is a deck with good red aggro and UBx bounce matchups, and along with the decline of dimir midrange, it makes sense the deck is well positioned

69 Comments
2025/01/30
14:16 UTC

11

[Standard] DFT is a nerf to pain lands

Hello all, I wanted to pick your brains about pain lands as DFT enters the standard format. Myself I am a bit concerned about the interaction between pain lands (see for example [[Caves of Koilos]]) and Start your engines! as tapping the land for color mana will trigger the effect as soon as turn one.

Note that this only applies to instants cast during your opponents turn.

An example of this interaction would be the following:

– Player 1, turn 1: [[Caves of Koilos]]

– Player 2, turn 1: [[Burnout Bashtronaut]]

– Player 1, in response: [[Cut down]]

– Player 2 gains one speed, as this ability is only initiated by a permanent but not tied to one.

Edit: As /u/ExpansiveExplosion points out in the comments, you can tap the land before the spell resolves and prevent the speed trigger. This applies only to turn 1.

IMO The DFT mechanic, while it seems underwhelming, is a big nerf on pain lands especially and instant spells in extension. Also notably is that we have not yet had any creature cards revealed that is a combination of Start your engines! and Haste, indicating that from a design perspective that this combo might be overpowered and reaching level 2 on turn one could be extremely strong.

20 Comments
2025/01/30
09:42 UTC

8

[Standard] Crystal Barricade in Jeskai Convoke

What is it for exactly? To save your (sheltered by) ghosted creature from getting lithomancer's Barraged? Red Sweepers? Does it come in against gruul and mono red, or just mono red? Any specific play patterns??

Thanks!!

3 Comments
2025/01/30
04:58 UTC

1

[Standard] How to beat the Omniscience deck?

I don't think I've won a single game ever against this deck across about a hundred games playing Littlebeeb's Lunar Pact deck. It seems impossible to beat by any means. Discard only helps them, you never get enough damage in, they cast duplicates of omni, they seem to never have bad draws, can counter anything and even if you get them to one step away from dead, they find the answers to stabilize and pull of the combo. How on earth do you fight against this monstrosity? I've found Ghost Vacuum completely useless against it. Maybe Soul-Guide Lantern is a better sideboard card if can get it resolve since it would exile their entire graveyard in one hit?

24 Comments
2025/01/29
17:38 UTC

17

[Standard] Sentinel of the Nameless City in Gruul Aggro?

I've included 2x [[Sentinel of the Nameless City]] in my Gruul Aggro deck and I think it's performing well.

At 3/4 it dodges Nowhere to Run. The map token generation works to trigger Valiant keywords on my Emberheart and Heartfire mice. And Vigilance helps defend a bit against other aggro decks.

Is this a viable card to include in this deck? I am only running 2x Manifold Mouse and 3x Screaming Nemesis. Should I drop the 2x Sentinel to increase those instead? Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

15 Comments
2025/01/29
15:28 UTC

9

[Standard] Mono-white tokens: Ossification or Parting Gust?

Hey champs, I've been enjoying mono-white tokens for a while now and was curious on opinions on Ossification vs Parting Gust in the current meta. I've seen a few lists run a single ossification in the main deck (notably Mario Engleberg in Atlanta), though it feels to me like parting gust may be more effective in the current meta, particularly given the rise in decks running the stormchasers/this town package. It removes the risk of your exile target being brought back so cheaply. Obviously, the downside is the requirement for two white mana, and the lists have slowly been incorporating more generic mana lands (2* demo fields are common now), increasing the unreliability of having it as an option on turn 2. It seems to me as if parting helps the matchup against the stormchaser/this town decks, but likely hinders it slightly against red aggro variants and convoke decks. Lacking the ability to target plainswalkers does hamper parting against the blue bounce decks as they commonly run kaito - however I often feel that I get lost the kaitos , and save exile effects for other targets in those decks. One other plus for parting is using it to protect/generate more tokens from overlords/beza in control v control matchups, though this is pretty rare. I would be curious to hear others opinions on the choice between the two! Thanks.

6 Comments
2025/01/29
02:09 UTC

17

[Standard] Jeskai Convoke vs. Azorius Artifacts

Hi!

What do you guys think is a better deck to play in the current meta?

Jeskai Convoke:
https://ibb.co/fYpnRXX0

or

Azorius Artifacts:
https://ibb.co/yFv860f4

According to the win rate Azorius has a better change but I don't know that this only counts for MTGO or tabletop too. What's your opinion?

13 Comments
2025/01/29
01:01 UTC

19

[DFT] [Spoiler] Gonti, Night Minister

Gonti, Night Minister - 2BB

Legendary Creature - Aetherborne Rogue

Whenever a player casts a spell they don't own, that player creates a treasure token.

Whenever a creature deals combat damage to one of your opponents, its controller looks at the top card of that opponent's library and exiles it face down. They may play that card for as long as it remains exiled. Mana of any type can be spent to cast a spell this way.

3/4

___

Talking about Standard here.

Play patterns seem similar to [[Enduring Curiosity]] but obviously a bit more vulnerable. That said, the actual effect is pretty great, since there's no restriction on what you can do with the card it exiles. You can play lands, cast spells regardless of color, etc. In Standard it just seems like another card advantage engine that takes over the game if it sticks, even if that means it just comes down before combat on turn 4 or 5. There's also more ways to synergize with the treasure-generating ability depending on colors, but [[Decadent Dragon]] is the one I've got my eye on, being a card-advantage generating Adventure with a genuinely threatening creature half. A deck like this would also probably love [[Urabrask's Forge]] and there's likely enough incidental token generation to easily abuse [[Torch the Tower]] alongside the black removal suite, especially if we lean into anti-pixie shenanigans like [[the witch's vanity]] or [[tithing blade]] which are also solid against the aggro running rampant, too. [[Generous Plunderer]] is an evasive attacker, which Gonti likes, and only really needs to make the treasure if you've got something to cast with it. [[Fountainport]] is also begging to be abused by more than just MonoW.

What do you guys think? Is Gonti good enough for Standard? Are there enough good cards for an RB midrange deck like this to live?

14 Comments
2025/01/28
19:20 UTC

2

[Modern] Metagame Breakdown & Recapping the Prague Regional Championship

0 Comments
2025/01/28
19:16 UTC

26

[Spoiler] [DFT] Voyager Glidecar

Voyager Glidecar W

Artifact - Vehicle (r)

When this Vehicle enters, scry 1.

Tap three other untapped creatures you control: Until end of turn, this Vehicle becomes an artifact creature and gains flying. Put a +1/+1 counter on it.

Crew 1

2/3

18 Comments
2025/01/28
13:26 UTC

9

[Standard] Dimir Bounce EC vs. ET

Hi!

What you guys think of running Entitiy Tracker instead of Enduring Curiousity in Dimir Bounce? I've seen some decks running it but was curious if it's better or not.

Rest of the Decklist (filling up last 3 spots with either EC or ET):

Maindeck:

3 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

4 Fear of Isolation
4 Floodpits Drowner
4 Spyglass Siren

1 Cut Down
2 Go for the Throat
4 This Town Ain't Big Enough

3 Hopeless Nightmare
4 Stormchaser's Talent
4 Nowhere to Run

4 Darkslick Shores
4 Gloomlake Verge
4 Island
2 Restless Reef
2 Soulstone Sanctuary
4 Swamp
4 Underground River

Side:

2 Cut Down
2 Duress
1 Get Out
1 Ghost Vacuum
2 Gix's Command
2 Negate
2 Preacher of the Schism
1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
2 Tishana's Tidebinder

Cheers!

21 Comments
2025/01/28
11:26 UTC

17

[Spoiler] [DFT] Riptide Gearhulk

Riptide Gearhulk -1WWUU

Artifact Creature - Construct

Double Strike

Prowess

When this creature enters, for each opponent, put up to one target nonland permanent that player controls into its owner's library third from the top.

https://imgur.com/a/ONPsygS

12 Comments
2025/01/28
05:58 UTC

35

[Spoiler] [DFT] Voyage Home

Voyage Home

5WU

Sorcery

Uncommon

Affinity for artifacts

You draw three cards and gain three life.

https://imgur.com/a/3XmvZ9S

41 Comments
2025/01/28
04:33 UTC

25

[Standard] Golgari Roots/Mill

Video Deck Tech

Decklist from Brian Zeng @ MSS Atlanta

Golgari Roots is a Combo deck that looks to leverage an engine of cards to flood the board with Plant tokens, creating a sizable army to smash through blockers and kill opponents outright. As a backup plan, it looks to utilize the same spells fueling it's engine pieces to sneak a Reanimation package into the deck that allows for some of it's games to be dominated by large Creatures hitting the battlefield well ahead of the curve.

Engine Cards

[[Tyvar, Jubliant Brawler]] + [[Insidious Roots]]

The namesake card to the deck Insidious Roots provides us with a Plant token every time a Creature leaves our Graveyard - entering the battlefield, going to our hand, or exiling it. The static ability grants all our tokens the [[Birds of Paradise]] ability to generate any color of Mana. Tyvar synergy is here not just with it's ability package - allowing us to generate a Plant on it's minus 2 ability - but allowing for the Plants made to immediately tap for mana with his own static ability.

This engine powers our deck to continue pumping out spells like [[Cache Grab]] to fuel the graveyard while making a Plant - essentially cutting the mana cost by 1 - as well as the ability to get extremely large in power and token number with a [[Scavenging Ooze]]. Ooze itself allows us to get as many tokens as Creature we have in our Graveyard, which gets fueled by Surveils and Mill effects on our Creatures & spells.

Reanimation Targets

Big bad Phyrexian Angel [[Atraxa, Grand Unifier]] is the main target for our reanimation package, as the threat refuels our hand for 4+ cards quite frequently with the way our deck is constructed. Another solid target is [[Overlord of the Balemurk]] - which doubles as a self-mill for 2 mana with it's Impending cost. The choice spell to reanimate with here is [[Squirming Emergence]] for two reasons:

  1. It's cheaper than effects like [[Zombify]] and we circumvent it's normal drawback by have 52 permanents in our deck
  2. It allows us to bring back Tyvar and Insidious Roots as well as our large Creatures, allowing us to Surveil or Mill aggressively to find combo pieces or lands in the early stages of the game.

Other Creatures

The deck has a number of Surveil Creatures low to the curve to try and set up for it's engine ASAP. Old time favorite [[Rubblebelt Maverick]] finds a home alongside [[Broodspinner]] to fuel our Graveyard and top of the deck - while [[Llanowar Elves]] allows us to Turn 2 Tyvar and explode as early as Turn 3 with the mana acceleration. [[Thornvault Forager]] allows for a 2 mana generation that can net a Plant token - which also taps for a mana - allowing for explosive turns where we can hard cast our 5 & 7 drops early instead of reanimating them.

In the video deck tech, I go over some more of the lines surrounding the Creature package and which ones to play early, as well as how they can lead to different lines of attack.

Pros and Cons of the deck

Like most engine decks, the Roots deck can struggle if the pieces it requires get dealt with. The deck also revolves around the Graveyard, so disrupting it can lead to difficult situations for our deck. However, Insidious Roots does have a small plus side to the fact that a later [[Rest in Peace]] or [[Ghost Vacuum]] type effect will still trigger the token creation - only it wont be on our own terms. Squirmergence helps against traditional removal like [[Get Lost]] as we can bring back Tyvar or Roots with the reanimation spell.

The deck is also fairly weak against [[Temporary Lockdown]] as all but 3 of our things are 2 mana or less due to Tyvar's restriction on bringing them back. Our sideboard has multiple ways to deal with this card, such as [[Maelstrom Pulse]] and [[Cankerbloom]] - but without card draw engines we need to naturally draw or Surveil into these hate pieces. [[This Town Ain't Big Enough]] can make us stumble a lot, and nullifies our reanimation angle a bit by bouncing Atraxa - and even if we can recast it - means we never land attacks or blocks with the lifelinker.

Trample is also an issue for a deck looking to survive turns 2-4 by chump-blocking with 1 & 2 toughness creatures until it can get the ball rolling.

On the plus side, the deck thrives in an environment where Midrange decks are powerful. At the MSS the deck was 3-0-1 against the traditional Midrange version of Dimir, and with Gruul decks slowing down and adding more 3+ drops to their lists, the deck can play to the board extremely well. It's also not that bad against traditional removal spells - as we actively want Creatures in our graveyard. Having Scavenging Ooze and our Engine also means we can recover post-board wipe like [[Day of Judgement]] with just one open mana available to us, and as long as we don't over-extend into a [[Sunfall]] and keep some fodder in our graveyard we can quickly re-pressure a tapped out Control player.

[[Harvester of Misery]] put of the sideboard is a great effect to have against decks like Convoke, where an early reanimation spell on the Creature makes it a [[Malicious Eclipse]] with a body attached to it. [[Nissa, Ascended Animist]] can break stalled board states as well, making our increasingly powerful army of tokens trample over things.

We do have to balance bringing in spells and taking out Creatures when sideboarding - which I go over a little more in the video as well. In general, we want to have good sideboard options that are on Creatures instead of spells - but some of these like [[Cut Down]] or [[Anoint with Affliction]] are too good to pass up.

What do we think of the deck? It might be a little slow for the current stages of the format - and I'm not all too certain what Aetherdrift could add to the deck as strict upgrades to the Roots plan. Has anyone else played or seen this deck?

(Deck list for those that can't view the link):

Planeswalker 4 cards

4 Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

Creature 23 cards

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Rubblebelt Maverick

4 Overlord of the Balemurk

4 Broodspinner

3 Scavenging Ooze

2 Atraxa, Grand Unifier

1 Thornvault Forager

1 Skyfisher Spider

Enchantment 4 cards

4 Insidious Roots

Sorcery 4 cards

4 Squirming Emergence

Instant 4 cards

4 Cache Grab

Land 21 cards

6 Forest

4 Llanowar Wastes

4 Blooming Marsh

4 Swamp

1 Restless Cottage

1 Fountainport

1 Underground Mortuary

Sideboard 15 cards

2 Haywire Mite

2 Harvester of Misery

2 Glissa Sunslayer

1 Tranquil Frillback

1 Skyfisher Spider

1 Anoint with Affliction

1 Cut Down

1 Liliana of the Veil

1 Nissa, Ascended Animist

1 Dissection Tools

1 Maelstrom Pulse

1 Cankerbloom

12 Comments
2025/01/27
23:52 UTC

14

Weekly Deck Check Thread | Monday, January 27, 2025

Hello spikes!

This is the place where any and all decks can be posted for all spikes to see. The goal of this is to fit all your needs for competitive magic. Maybe it's a card consideration given an X dollar budget. Maybe you need that sweet sideboard tech that no one else thought of? Perhaps you just can't figure out the best card to beat a certain matchup. The ideas here are only limited by your imagination!

Feel free to discuss most anything here. We only ask that with any question, you also make sure to post your decklist so people have some context to answer your question. Otherwise, have at it! If you have any questions, shoot us a modmail and we'll be happy to help you out. Survive your deck check and survive your competition!

1 Comment
2025/01/27
14:01 UTC

26

[Standard] Making Selesnya Rabbits competitive

So. Rabbits have some seriously strong cards, but deck’s never been really competitive. I have been checking the decklists and have found them to be quite poor and lacking coherence and gameplan (https://mtgdecks.net/Standard/selesnya-rabbits).

First of all, every deck here plays Knight-Errant. It’s a trap, Gruul Aggro playing convoke would be ridiculous, right? Well, it’s almost as silly here. Many decks have only 8 1-drop. Only half of the decks play Sheltered By Ghosts. Most play 2 copies of Finneas. I could go on and on.

My point is that there doesn’t seem to be a clear idea about this deck. Here’s a clear idea: it’s not a midrange deck, it’s an aggro deck where you must maximize the consistency of t1-t3. 4x Pawpatch and 4x Mightcaller goes without saying, but that’s clearly not enough. The deck needs to play 4x Seasoned Warrenguard to be a real aggro deck with a healthy curve (for this we need to play token t3 basically every game, more about that later). We play 2x Hinterland Sanctifier to beat red based aggro and also to have enough 1-drops to play Pawpatch as a 3-drop when we don’t other 3-drops to bring a token (and multiple creatures) to play.

2-drop creatures are also clear and obvious to me. 12 superb cards. Finneas is must remove, so drawing multiples is not a problem at all, if it sticks, we win. We could play maybe a single copy of Regal Bunnicorn, but I slightly prefer not to. Sheltered By Ghosts is a card that suddenly made this deck competitive in my theory crafting and also in practice. We have very strong semi-incidental lifegain without making much compromises.

To 3-drops. Hop To It is very obvious, no need to explain. What really made this deck tick is four copies of Sanguine Evangelist. It’s not at all the most exciting or efficient card of the deck, but it makes the deck super consistent, provides both bodies and boosts them. Finneas and Questcaller obviously both boost the Bat tokens, so it’s a natural fit.

With this line-up of creatures, we have superb consistency. I am well aware that run of this weekend (7-2, 7-1, 7-0, 7-0) is not sustainable, but it is telling anyway: this is efficient and this is consistent. Not touching the utility lands or the 4-5-drops makes our manabase very solid and consistent and we don’t need to go over 22 lands. Here’s the list in all its simplicity.

I could write about the match-ups, but my tl;dr here would be that it’s a deck that apparently beats basically every deck red based aggro decks beat and it beats red based aggro.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Kv7sm1NmlESQl25SNQz4VQ

26 Comments
2025/01/25
17:12 UTC

3

[Standard] Dimir Bounce 2 alternative cards

Hi guys!

Just a short quick post about a card that I think would fit very good into Dimir Bounce.

Talking about Sporogenic Infection from DSK.

You can enchant a creature from your opponent and they have to sacrifice another creature. Then for example if you can block the other creature with your 1/1 otter it's basically a 2 creature removal (one beeing sacrifice which is good atm).

Plus you can bounce it back to your hand and play it again or even enchant your own creature if the enemy only has one creature on board. Then bounce it back and repeat.

The second card I wanted to mention is Kitnap from BLB. You can get control of an opponent creature and if you want to keep the control you can gift a card and use it against him. Or you cannot gift a card and just bounce Kitnap back to your hand and leave your opponent with a 3 stun counter creature.

What you guys think of those 2 cards for Dimir Bounce? I'm really suprised that especially Sporogenic Infection isn't played in almost all of the decks instead of GFTF, Cut Down or something else.

Cheers

19 Comments
2025/01/25
14:47 UTC

18

[Draft] The Ultimate Guide to Innistrad Remastered Draft

Hello r/spikes!

Innistrad Remastered is unfortunately being wedged right before a major Standard set release, so Aethershift might end up overshadowing this year's remastered set. That's a shame, because it looks to be the best one yet. Still, it's draftable and uncontested for at least a week, so we had Bryan Hohns give his usual breakdown of the set.

If you've played any previous Innistrad sets, you'll recognize a lot of what's going on here. The fun part comes in combining different parts of different Innistrad sets. For example:

  • Mixing Blood tokens from VOW with madness cards from SOI.
  • Emerge creatures from Eldritch Moon combine well with the "exploit payoffs" from VOW
  • Rarity downshifts add a lot of power to UG self-mill decks.
  • Also, most importantly, Spider Spawning's back! (minus a few of the key cards that made it really tick in OG Innistrad)

Even better, daybound/nightbound are completely absent from the set! Werewolves are still plentiful, but no more tracking day/night cycles.

INR looks like a blast to play, with extremely tight themes and plenty of cross-synergy between color pairs (if you can find the fixing!). If you end up getting a draft in, share your decklists and let us know what worked. Unfortunately, the set's going to have a short life cycle, so play it while you can!

6 Comments
2025/01/24
18:35 UTC

17

[Discussion] [Article] Article Requests

Hey all! I'm looking to make a library of some of the most foundational articles of MTG Strategy and The spikes of the game seem like the best place to find people who read them. Think things like Mike Flores "Who's the Breakdown?" Or Reid Duke's series of Card Advantage. Also

6 Comments
2025/01/23
19:28 UTC

60

[Draft] I've been experimenting with forcing against bots in quick draft and it's been working so I made a guide for you

Hey all, I'm a decent player who has been making guide content on youtube over the last few months. I've mostly been focusing on draft because I think it's one of the best ways to play MTG.

I'd mostly focused on Premier draft because it's the best EV. However, I'd heard that often in Quick draft there were exploitable strategies the bots would ignore. So I tested it with DSK and got a 93% winrate forcing RB over 4 drafts back to back. But this was in Silver to Diamond so there was an asterisk next to it.

People wanted me to do the same for WOE so I did and got to 80% winrate and top 250 Mythic. I hope you find the guide interesting at least!

https://youtu.be/JnCYWQAhslk?si=s2HHfc3dct0KIV9Z

(If you saw this before I kept failing to follow the post guidelines so I had to repost)

16 Comments
2025/01/23
08:29 UTC

6

[SPOILER] [DFT] Chandra, Spark Hunter

Chandra, Spark Hunter (3R)

Legendary Planeswalker — Chandra

At the beginning of combat on your turn, choose up to one target Vehicle you control. Until end of turn, it becomes an artifact creature and gains haste.

+2: You may sacrifice an artifact or discard a card. If you do, draw a card.

+0: Create a 3/2 colorless Vehicle artifact token with crew 1.

−7: You get an emblem with “Whenever an artifact you control enters, this emblem deals 3 damage to any target.”

Loyalty: 4

~~

I haven't seen mentioned comparing this with [[Urabrask's Forge]] but I think it has a similar role. It does damage faster but lacks trample. It synergizes with Caretaker's similarly. It has the upside of the tokens sticking around and not dying to a wrath. The tokens can be used defensively. (E.x., make a fish, crew up, block the curiosity cat.) The downside is it gets hit by Get Lost---where Urabrask's is harder to get off the board generally. That said, the 2nd Chandra can eat the map tokens and crew an existing vehicle.

I look forward to jamming 2 into a caretaker's boros shell and seeing how it goes. I'm hoping we get a good pilot generator for more token/crew/mount synergies.

23 Comments
2025/01/23
04:46 UTC

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