CUT #12 Finals - Nothing Personal, It's Just CUT Business

The world outside whizzes by as I sit by the fire and sink into my favorite book, "The Halo that Got Away" by a very well known member of the Brokers gang. Suddenly there was a tapping, which quickly turned into a beating on my front door. Placing the bookmark delicately back into the book, I head to the ferocious sounds emitting from the entryway. "I'm coming, I'm coming," doing my best to reassure the apparent urgency. To my surprise, it was a small boy with a cap and a note. Hurriedly he placed the note in my hand and scampered back down into the sea of people. The letter just had three simple letters: "CUT". I thought I was done with the game, but it seems the game wasn't done with me...

Welcome to CUT #12 Finals, where we find out who made it to this round by your votes!

Here are the results from the prior round:

Looks like Jack and Christian made it to the Finals! Congratulations! A big thank you to Nick and his contribution, Queza, Augur of Agonies

Unfortunately Christian wasn't able to contribute to this week's CUT, so I will fill in and do my best to make him proud with a creation of my own!

Our deckbuilders have had their hands full with these challenges, and speaking of challenges, this time around they were:

• Commander must be from Streets of New Capenna Commander Decks

• Minimum 15 three-colored spells in the 99

• Max 15 rares/mythics

First up we have Jack; let's see what he brought to the table!

Good day to you! I'm so excited that I got to move on to the final round of CUT, I hope y'all like the deck that I brewed.

With the deluge of new sets that does not seem to be letting up anytime soon, other than the legends that were included in the Bedecked Brokers deck that I purchased, I honestly hadn't looked at the legends that were in the Streets of New Capenna Commander decks. With this set of CUT criteria, I set out to do just that.

Jolene, the Plunder Queen

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus

Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva

Kros, Defense Contractor

Mari, the Killing Quill

[/ec]

Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer

Parnesse, the Subtle Brush

Perrie, the Pulverizer

Phabine, Boss's Confidant

Syrix, Carrier of the Flame

[/ec]

The Beamtown Bullies

Tivit, Seller of Secrets

Vazi, Keen Negotiator[/ec]

The Naya/Cabaretti legends have certainly garnered a lot of discussion, and The Beamtown Bullies

I like how this guy functions: he's focused on combat, but at the same time, he's a Sphinx, so he's gotta make it unique and weird. The fact that he also includes voting only served to heighten his appeal.

This may make for a less-than-interesting read, but this deck largely built itself based on the following Scryfall searches:

• I wanted as many vote-related cards as I could get (I didn't include all of them, but I included a lot of them)
• Blink/flicker effects are useful on two fronts: a) Tivit
  's ability triggers on combat damage AND on ETB, so we get lots of sweet, sweet value; and b) they give Tivit pseudo-vigilance. The instant-speed effects are especially good since they can turn into combat tricks and surprise our opponents. NOTE: this Scryfall search could probably be narrowed down, but I got lazy when trying to construct it
• You wanna know how many Commander-legal cards are exactly Esper colors? 51. You wanna know how many of them aren't rare or mythic? 16! I tried to use as many of the common and uncommon ones as I could while still having them be at least somewhat tangentially related to the deck; this allowed me to use as many rare/mythic slots on cards that would help the deck function, although Aminatou, the Fateshifter
  nicely fits in because she can blink Tivit for more sweet, sweet value.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how the deck turned out. In a lovely bit of serendipity, a fair number of the voting cards trigger on ETB, so your blink/flicker effects have more targets than just Tivit.

Lemme know what you think of the deck; I hope you like it!

Until next time!

Thank you Jack! Lastly here is my entry into this week's CUT.

It's been a little while since I had to step into the ring myself and tackle these challenges I give to so many others. This week I went with (what was Christian's original pick) Henzie "Toolbox" Torre

As Christian was telling me he couldn't do that article this week, he gave me his idea for the deck he wanted to make: a Ball Lightning

Speaking of value, sacrificing and getting the biggest bang for your buck is what Jund (or in this case, the Riveteers) does best! Big daddy Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

With all of this death and sacrifice going on, you know that this is a party that Juri, Master of the Revue

Rounding out the deck, we have cards that I like to call "graveyard reclaimers"; the purpose of these are to grab creatures from your graveyard and place them back into your hand, or better yet back onto the battlefield. An innocuous uncommon from Oath of the Gatewatch, Baloth Null

Henzie "Toolbox" Torre

Hanging my coat back on the coat rack, I sit back down and open my book back to where I left it. The fire had gone out long ago, but the heat remained, as if to welcome me back home. As I sink deeper into the pages of this wonderful novel, I am reminded of times where life wasn't this easy, where the streets decided whether or not you were done. I pull a small flask out of my pocket and sip the magical liquid contained inside, a prize for leaving my book and fire. I stare outside, thinking about this city, these people, that all work to make things happen.

As the sun sets on the Streets of New Capenna, let's all take a minute to really soak in what this set has brought us. These crime families and their Demon leaders have given us some really interesting cards to use in all of our decks, and some ideas for new decks to build. I hope these sets of articles have given you all some ideas, or sparked something new in seeing these creations. Remember to vote below and choose who you think won this round of CUT!*

When deckbuilding you next deck take my advice, if you don't love it, CUT it!

If you or a friend would like to participate in a future CUT article, feel free to email the.only.travis.stanley@gmail.com or @ me on twitter @chipman007!

Poll Closes June 5th.

*Christian wasn't able to participate and get the chance that he deserves, so I just hope I did him justice with my creation.