UR Emergent Card-Counting (Standard)

Background

This deck was mentioned in Mull to 3, Episode 2 'Showdown Hoedown' posted on the 14rd of May 2017.

Before the Amonkhet standard Pro Tour, zombies were not really a thing. I bought playsets of Relentless Dead and Diregraf Colossus hoping to brew a deck with them. Haunted Dead and Prized Amalgam came around as a Tier 3 deck instead. I built that for a while but it was just not keeping up with the meta at the time.

Concept

This deck isn't particularly original, and its variants are few. The basic idea is to use discard and reanimation to get value from the blue zombie flyers and use red creature removal spells and rummaging draw spells filter fast and use your cards more efficiently.

Starting Hand

I won't lie - you have to have a good start. Otherwise you run out of cards by Turn 4 with no recovery path and no discard fodder for your draw spells. As such, it's imperative that you have a Cathartic Reunion, Tormenting Voice as a second option, or at the very least a Lightning Axe to get your reanimation engine going. I would typically keep two-landers if I have a Cathartic Reunion in hand. Never keep 1 land. 2-4 is the window here.

Discarding to Hand Size

I've tried this a couple of times. I don't think there was ever one time when I said, "That was a great idea". You essentially would only do this when you're on the draw against a non-aggressive opponent when you have the nut draw except for a proper "discard-er". There's truly very little reason in the current Standard to lose a turn when you have zombies, Mardu, and Aetherworks Marvel decks getting kills by Turn 4.

Removal Sequence

The beauty behind this deck is the tiered process of damage-based removal. It offers destruction at 2, 3, and 5 consistently. The downside is that - being in blue-red - we can't get rid of indestructible threats. There's only one way to solve that problem but I will discuss that below.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

With 4 copies of Kozilek's Return, you get hella good value out of this card. In truth, hard-casting it is only 3/4 of the card because you can use it out of the graveyard again. You can also fish out Magma Spray or Shock from the sideboard. I'm using 1 each because I don't own a second Magma Spray owing to laziness.

Mad Combat

You also worry a bit less about small things because most of the creatures in this deck have 3 power. Trades are generally favourable if you're managing hand size and draw appropriately, but you have 9 aerial threats so you'd likely win the race. You also have 4 Fiery Temper as spot removal at Madness cost.

Bigger Things

2 Lightning Axe main and 2 in the side are covering spot removal. It also helps discard your Stitchwings into the graveyard or get Fiery Temper for madness.

More importantly, you have to remember the trigger for Kozilek's Return when you cast your Elder Deep-Fiend (presumably) for its Emerge cost. It's sweet because with Elder Deep-Fiend you can flash it in, effectively getting a 5-damage wrath prior to it coming into the battlefield (because the second text on Kozilek's Return triggers on cast).

Strengths

This deck shines against the new zombie decks if you know how to pick your removal correctly. This deck grinds better than it can and essentially has 8 boardwipes in 4 cards. Remember you can always pitch the Kozilek's Return directly into the graveyard and go big if you need to do it one turn faster. It usually fares well against Mardu because you can wrath and remove most of their stuff (except Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, which sucks).

It also can go toe-to-toe with other control decks because you never really cast your creatures. Any wins I've had revolve around getting 9 power on the board by Turn 3 using a Stitchwing Skaab that pitched out 2 Prized Amalgams. Unfortunately, the current set has gifted us with Magma Spray, so careful post-sideboard with the small Stitchwing in particular.

Weaknesses

I've struggled against ramp and combo decks with this one. I've never tested against it, but the new onslaught of Aetherworks Marvel decks put out questions to which this deck has no answers. To be fair, they are effectively the best Tier 1 deck around at the moment but I think their success is somewhat more dependent on the pilot's proficiency and to some degree on spinning luckily on Aetherworks Marvel.

I have run this against a couple of ramp decks, and for this I truly have no answer. At least with Marvel decks I can run Ceremonius Rejection, Release the Gremlins to get some leverage. If they have 2 mana dorks and 8 lands after a Nissa's Renewal with plenty of life to hard-cast an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger or kill my Fevered Visions with a Worldbreaker, I've got nothin'. Even Elder Deep-Fiends Time Walk effect doesn't do anything if they have plenty of lands to cast more stuff.

Future Considerations

In view of the above weaknesses, I'm trying to mould the sideboard into something I can switch into something aggressive if necessary. The most enticing consideration is to add Bloodrage Brawler while pulling out Fevered Visions. I'm also toying with permission using Negate, Disallow, and Reduce to Rubble.

Conclusion

This is an amazing deck if you want to play something interactive that puts your brain to work. A good knowledge of the meta helps a lot. I think it's a good deck for someone at a novice to intermediate skill level that wants to level up their piloting.

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