Mask/Glitters Bo1 (Historic)

https://mtgarena.pro/decks/mask-h-e58eeb71-4fb0-4c83-ad38-e36a0962297e for matchup data

I finally got around to posting this list here, I’ve linked variations on stream before but I wanted to make a write up as well as I have been having decent success, I’m up to plat 2 right now. This if for BO1 Historic.

So, the first thing I want to make clear is that we are not an aggro deck, we are a combo deck. We’re trying to draw through our deck with [[Setessan Champion]] and [[Season of Growth]] using the cost-reduction from [[Starfield Mystic]]. Those are our pieces.

Key cards, [[Alsied of Life’s Bounty]] and [[Karametra’s Blessing]] are the only cards that fight [[Teferi, Time Raveler]] in this deck which absolutely blows us out. He can bounce our creature while putting our auras into the graveyard and can also wrath at instant speed where we can’t respond to it. If you can’t swing for lethal you kill him every time. I had initally built this list with [[Stonecoil Serpant]] but the lifelink of [[Serra Ascendant]] is much better for the aggro matchup. If you’re expecting a control heavy meta I think that would be a smart switch.

[[Sentinel’s Eyes]] is a great card for you to have a big blocker and some small recursion. I will probably drop this card for something else when M21 comes out and I’ll have [[Speaker of the Heavens]] replacing Serra Ascendant but I’m not sure yet.

[[Setessan Training]] and [[Warbriar Blessing]] are both cards that help you swing for lethal through chump blockers while having secondary effects. Training helps you draw a little more and it’s been clutch, the last game I played was a mull to 5 on the play but I had a turn 3 Season of Growth and Training and it got me back into card advantage.

[[All that Glitters]] and [[Ancestral Mask]] are both similar effects that are what makes this deck close our games. It’s very normal for us to have a 6-6 or something in the mid-game and in one main phase we now have a 35-35 trample lifelink vigilance flying. This is fun. 😊

[[On Serra’s Wings]] is a spice card I put in the first brew and it has won me multiple games. Once was the vigilance/lifelink against an RDW stabilizing health and another time it was giving flying for the lethal swing past chumpers. The deck is probably better with just running more of one of the cards we’re not at a 4-of but hey man.

Matchups, I’ll just talk about the most common ones I’ve seen:

Gruul is scary AF because they’re always getting you low but running no burn allows us to stablize on turn 4-5 consistantly.

RDW is one the weakest matchups, their burn kills our early creatures and we’ll run out of things to put our auras on, in addition they close the game out fast.

White-Artifact is one of the most common decks I’ve seen, and I haven’t dropped a game. Something must go seriously wrong for you to lose this matchup like screw/flood.

UW or Esper control play pretty much the same with only hand discard in black as the main difference. How the matchup plays is how much they can fuck you over with Teferi or if you have counter-play with Alseid or Karametra’s Blessing.

White Lifegain is another weak matchup because they can get their boys bigger than yours on turns 3-5 and just kill you before you can draw through your deck, card draw and chump blockers is how you win this.

General gameplay tips:

You must quickly identify what your opponent’s game plan against your deck is because it changes drastically how you can play. I’ve frequently played a Sentinel’s Eyes and attack in for 2 lifelink to keep up Karametra mana instead of playing Setessan Champion against Teferi mana or if I’m scared of a [[Lightning Strike]].

There are basically two ways to play, expecting interaction and playing slow with mana up or racing the other deck to the win-con faster.