CUT #29 - Rith vs Jace vs Experiment Kraj!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to CUT #29! Last time, we had a Ravinican showdown between Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth and Aurelia, the Law Above; let's uncover the mystery and see who won that battle:

Am I the winner? Oh my, looks like I am! This is a first in CUT history: I have entered the fray and won! How fun! A huge thank you to Mike for all of your contributions to the CUT series. I know I can always count on you to provide some awesome decks with any challenges I throw at you. If you haven't, please make sure you go and give Mike some love on his article series Am I the Bolas? and the spin-off podcast Am I the Bolcast?. Once you've check those out, go and tell Mike how wonderful he is over on his twitter/x!

Now on to this week's CUT.

For this week and the next CUT, we're going to be doing things a little bit different. Instead of the usual two-article format to determine one winner, we are going to do these final two articles Single Slice style, meaning the winner will be decided and announced in the next article. The deckbuilders also had the options of submitting a write-up explaining their decks or answering a list of questions about their creation. 

The challenges that our deck builders will be facing this week are:

• You must use a commander that had its first printing the year you started playing Magic

• In the 99 you can only use cards from sets that were released in 2023

• You must play at least one of each card type (artifact, creature, land, enchantment, planeswalker, sorcery, instant, and battle)

First up is Nick! You my remember Nick from his previous entries on CUT #21 and CUT #24. Now he's back and ready to show his creation for CUT #29!

The year 2015. What was I doing, you ask? Browbeating my friend into teaching me how to play Magic: The Gathering. While the early days of playing this game in a semi-competitive or above atmosphere no longer rings clear in my mind, one thing does: timing is everything. In short, I missed what is a high number of people's favorite time playing Standard, coming in on the heels of the Ravnica block, and on the precipice of one of the most expensive and possibly unfun Standards of all time. One reason for the high price level of Standard decks at the time is the card I am choosing as my commander for this build: Jace, Vryn's Prodigy.

• What was the most difficult part about building this deck?

The most difficult part about building this deck was finding a way to win. Once I realized that I might not have a true way to win the game, I decided to do what any good blue mage does: ignore that and add more card draw. Jokes aside, this deck does not have an "I win the game card" like some other strategies often employ, but with the right set of circumstances, I can win with a smattering of Zombie, Bird, and Drake tokens or, in magical Christmasland, by milling out my opponents with a Jace emblem.

• What is something you learned by tackling this challenge?

I learned there were some powerful cards printed and reprinted in 2023. A year can feel like it happened much further in the past than what is true. This became prevalent to me when I found myself constantly coming across cards from Dominaria Remastered while searching for cards. The next biggest surprise and the one that is most prevalent for this deck was Commander Masters: I have access to some truly powerful cards thanks to this set, like Bribery, Capture of Jingzhou, and Sapphire Medallion. Reprints are often not as eye-catching as the new hot card, but a good reprint set can do wonders for the game.

• Did you discover a card you had not really seen before, or found a new use for a card?

Until doing this challenge, I had never heard of the card Fallowsage before. I think most people would not find this surprising, but I don't often find myself building a deck and running into a card I have never once seen or heard of. Not the strongest card by any means, but I do love the interaction this card has with Azami, Lady of Scrolls by allowing me to draw two cards.

• Do you think you would build this deck in real life? Or has it inspired you to build anything?

This is not a deck I would build in real life. I am not the biggest fan of building kindred decks, and this deck has a heavy Wizard theme and it runs a lot of cards that fit into a category that needs more exploration by the community: "cards that will get you killed, even if you do not deserve it". Things like Peregrine Drake, Displacer Kitten, and High Tide. All of these deserve the reputation surrounding them, and while my deck can "combo off" with Peregrine Drake, in the full one-hundred-card suite, these cards go from great to pretty good with a staggering quickness.

• What is your favorite thing about this deck?

My favorite part of the deck is the randomness of how well all these cards look next to one another. Many of the alternate frames and treatments featured in cards from 2023 mesh nicely with one another. Artifacts from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth come with a bit of blue in them. Even the old border reprints of basic lands inside Dominaria Remastered bring the deck together nicely in my eyes.

• Anything you would like to add?

This might be, of the four decks I have submitted to the series, the most and least difficult simultaneously. It was easy just based on having the most malleable restrictions so far. I felt like I had a lot of decisions to make and a lot of directions to go in when choosing what to build. At the same time, it was the most difficult because of how open it was. With the other challenges I had a clear direction to go in, and it often boiled down to my idea of having enough cards to hit the required limits before me and form a functioning deck.

Awesome stuff, Nick. I also started in 2015! Great to have you on for a third time! You are now in an exclusive club, not many folks can say they've been on three whole times. Once you're done reading the other decks and voting on your favorite, make sure to go and check out Nick's articles over on EDHREC, Myth Realized.

Next up, we have a first-timer to the CUT series, John Sherwood! John is another writer on EDHREC with his series Digital Deckbuilding, which I highly recommend you check out. Thanks for joining us this week, John; what did you come up with for these challenges?

• What was the most difficult part about building this deck?

Overcoming my aversion to double-sided cards and planeswalkers. I'm not fond of double-sided cards in general. They rarely make the cut in my personal decks unless I'm short on alternatives. I evaluate planeswalkers on the the worst-case scenario of getting one activation before they die. Based on that criteria, most planeswalkers are less efficient versions of instants or sorceries. Wrenn and Realmbreaker gets a pass for fixing mana, but I would rather have Chromatic Lantern.

• What's something you learned by tackling this challenge?

I ignored a lot of hot new cards in 2023. Most of my attention in the revolving door of preview season is on identifying upgrades for decks I already have. I missed a lot of sweet tech outside my narrow focus.

• Did you discover a card you hadn't really seen before, or found a new use for a card?

Pollen-Shield Hare is probably underrated in its colors. A pump spell and an anthem on one card in a color identity with rabbit-like creature reproduction.

• Do you think you'd build this deck in real life? Or has it inspired you to build anything?

I have a soft spot for the old primeval Dragons, and I've always wanted to build decks with them. Rith, the Awakener might be the one that scales best to the format as it is today, but it isn't my favorite.

• What's your favourite thing about this deck?

The damage multipliers in this deck make me grin. I have a pretty broad red mage streak, but damage multiplication isn't something I'm presently doing in any of my decks with red.

• Anything you would like to add?

I think players who like token decks should give Rith an honest try. This deck can go wide by going tall. The lines of play are seriously dangerous at tables with other creature decks.

Great entry, John! I agree that Rith, the Awakener is criminally underplayed, and in fact, most of the primeval Dragons are underplayed. Power creep has really pushed them out of the format, but I believe they still can pull their weight in a lot of decks, so thanks for the reminder of how cool those Dragons can be.

Finally, we have Clint! He's another first-timer here on CUT, so let's see how he closes out CUT #29!

Hey, soup's on! Come and get it while it's still hot!

The commander I picked for this challenge was first printed in the original Ravnica block. Yes I am that old. When given the CUT challenge, I knew I wanted to showcase one of my new favorite artifacts that was printed in Wilds of Eldraine: Agatha's Soul Cauldron.

The hard part was finding a commander that would fit that bill when I first started playing in the early 2000s. Lucky for me I had found a commander that also cares about creatures having +1/+1 counters. Meet our main ingredient: Experiment Kraj.

The main thing when playing, or should I say "cooking", with this deck, is the infinite combos that can be had! For example: Experiment Kraj is on the field with Agatha's Soul Cauldron, meanwhile in your graveyard you've got the Kami of Whispered Hopes and Sleep-Cursed Faerie just ready to be dumped into the cauldron. Now everything with a counter on it has become a mana dork that infinitely taps and untaps for maximum value.

Proliferation is a key ingredient to make this soup as salty as can be, as well as Danny Pink, The Thirteenth Doctor, and Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood to ensure you're always untapping. Up the Beanstalk and Tribute to the World Tree become paramount staples if you need to draw cards.

If your opponents don't like the flavor you're throwing down and try to yuck on your yum, a well-timed Wrenn and Realmbreaker can sneakily get stuff back from your graveyard. Then we threw in a Vorinclex, which can in itself win you the game.

The biggest issue I had was how little spice there was in the mana base. I'm not big on putting too many tap lands in my builds, so stuff like Blast Zone, Karn's Bastion, and Drannith Ruins are very important parts of the utility lands I put into it. Sometimes you can't make every meal have hot sauce in it.

The deck -- I mean soup-- has everything a growing Johnny/Jane could ask for in a nutritious Simic Build. So who's hungry... for value?

Great Simic build, Clint! Love me some delicious blue/green value! Great to have you on!

A huge thank you to all of our deckbuilders for CUT #29! For those who paid attention, I mentioned before that this and CUT #30 will be the last CUT articles. Will it come back? Who knows, but what I do know is that CUT is being put on the shelf for an indeterminate amount of time. Make sure you vote and share and prepare for the next and final CUT in a few weeks: CUT #30. Not only will it be the #30 in the series of CUT articles, but it will also mark the 3rd year that CUT has been around. I'll get more sappy and thankful next time, though. Again, thank you so much for reading and voting for your favorite, and remember, if you don't love it, CUT it!