Arena Standard - UG Sphinx of the Beanstalk

25 28
24 7 2 27
Midrange

Intro:

Initially designed to be a Stompy Ramp deck, things morphed in an intersting Big Bodied Tempo direction that I've not seen anyone else playing. 

The basic gameplan is to bounce and ramp through the early turns, play big things and drawing a surprising amount of cards. End game is to bounce a couple of their key blockers (using the material advantage we've acrewed) and then alpha striking them over to the Defeat screen.

Warning: This deck is NOT recommended for Bo3 play.

Core Cards:

  • 4x Sphinx of Clear Skiesimage: This card is criminally underplayed. Cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifierimage, Sunfallimage and Farewellimage have been what keeps this out of the meta, but with Beanstalk stapling "On cast, draw a card" to the textbox, it's finally playable.
    • 5 mana for Beanstalk.
    • 5/5 Flying. That's a body opponents have trouble dealing with on the ground, much less in the air.
    • Ward 2 (which makes this shockingly hard to kill). 
    • Draws at least 1 card when it connects (I've personally never been without 1 form of basic) but Spara's Headquartersimage allows for us to pick the best option 3 cards deep as a ceiling. It doesn't need to be a full Fact or Fictionimage to be awesome.
  • 3x Up the Beanstalkimage: While nice to have early, don't worry too much getting these out there quickly, they're in the deck for the late game so focus on survival and getting to 5 mana first. Once you get there though, you'll soon find out why people complain about this card so much in older formats.
    • There's a strong argument for 4x, but I never felt the desire to draw more than 2x of them so I dropped one in favor of some early game plays.
  • 4x Beanstalk Wurmimage: I started out using Azusa's Many Journeys // Likeness of the Seekerimage. The lifegain on chapter 2 was nice but the synergies with Up the Beanstalkimage were just too good to pass up. The Reach is nothing to scoff at either, it's amazing how little in the air gets through this thing.
  • 4x Horned Loch-Whaleimage: Pretty much the glue that hold this deck together. It's such a brutal tempo swing to be able to Aether Gustimage any opposing aggression. You'll be playing the adventure side waaaay more than the creature side, but having a 6/6 in the back pocket looming during End Step is a nightmare for everyone from control on down.
  • 4x Sentinel of the Nameless Cityimage: Mostly just an stat-stick we can get down early, but that's definitely a role that needs filling. This plus the Whale are how we even stand a chance of making it to 5 mana vs the MonoReds of the world. It's also The Wandering Emperorimage-proof and produces Map tokens which can clear the top of the deck.
  • 4x Fading Hopeimage: Blue and Green only have trash-tier spells that deal with creatures but 1-mana bounce with upside fits in perfectly fine to this deck. You'll always wish you had at least one of these in your hand since it keeps enemy aggression stifled, let's you create a gap for your own big idiots to punch through and also serves as a psuedo protection spell against the removal of creature-less control decks.
    • TIP: Try getting into the habit of bouncing stuff during the Declare Blockers vs opponents that play instant speed pump spells. It's such a blow-out when they cast Monstrous Rageimage and you bounce the target.
  • 2x The Goose Motherimage: This card SCALES. It's no Hydroid Krasisimage but it's better early and we have so much mana late that you'll be 1-2 shoting oppponents if they don't kill this thing.
    • Don't be afraid to cast for 3-mana. Casting during the early turns will usually mean it'll die quickly, but so long as it delayed the opponent or cost them a removal spell, it did it's job.
    • It triggers the "Hawk/Falcon Cry" sound-effect when it lands which I've always found weird...
  • 2x Vorinclex // The Grand Evolutionimage: It bananas how good this card feels vs just about everything.
    • 5 mana for Beanstalk.
    • 6/6 Trample.
    • Draws more mana.
    • Reach. As with the Wurm, this comes up way more than you might think.
  • 2x Nissa, Ascended Animistimage: Another card that scales extremely well while also providing a distinct angle of attack. Don't be afraid to cast of 5 mana though since accruing loyalty in the form of large creatures can only be so bad.
    • 5+ mana for Beanstalk.
    • Down-ticks to kill an enhantment/artifacts quite often.
    • Immune to creature sweepers.
    • The -7 has killed a lot of unsuspecting foes even if we only get +2/+2. The trample combines extremely well with our large fliers.
  • 2x Kitesail Larcenistimage: Blue's Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Bruteimage... that has Flying and Ward. Yes please.
    • Normally Raffine, Scheming Seerimage would have rotated by now and this is probably what would have taken it's place. Thankfully they loosened up the mana constaints so we get access too.
  • 1x Colossal Skyturtleimage: This plays surprisingly well. Don't know if I'd want 2x, but the extra bounce and Beanstalk fuel is certainly nice to have around. The Bala Ged Recoveryimage Mode rarely comes up, but it's also nice to have when want it.

Cards I'm Less Sure About/Flex Slots:

  • 1x Shigeki, Jukai Visionaryimage: Serves as an early game play that can combine with Turtle to recur just about everything in the graveyard. Not exactly a thrilling choice overall so feel free to replace with whatever.
  • The Mana Base:
    • Blue and Green dual lands aren't the greatest. We have so many tap-lands that curving out each turn as we'd like becomes a concern so I'd strongly recommend sticking to untapped colorless utility lands.
    • 2x Volitile Fault: Field of Ruinimage-lite. Our deck is so mana hungry we don't have much leeway so the cheaper activation is what I'm going with. Some alternatives you could try include:
      • 2x Promising Veinimage: My second choice configuration. Untapped land that can thin the deck should we have some space.
      • Could go up a 2nd copy of Otawara, Soaring Cityimage + another basic Forest.
      • Could go up to 4x of Spara's Headquartersimage and Restless Vinestalkimage - tap land problem.
      • Blast Zoneimage: Blow something(s) up if you really super need to but the mana investment is so high I'd recommend other options first.
      • Cavern of Soulsimage: The ability to punch something through counter-magic but only allows for one creature to get through which isn't usually going to do the job.
      • Could switch to 2x Field of Ruinimage - mana hungry deck problem.
      • I tried Mirreximage - mana hungry deck problem. Plus since we lack permanent removal the board is generally going to have something in the way that can handle a derpy 1/1.

Matchups:

There are only really 7 viable archetypes in the current WOE Bo1 Standard format. Brews like this one do exist (and we have good matchups against most of those), but 80% of your matches will likely be played against one of the following:

Aggro:

  • MonoRed
    • Our dearest friends.
    • Strongly Us Favored matchup.
    • The early turns can be a bit tricky but it's fun as hell bouncing their stuff and then watching as their low land count bites them in the ass.
    • Fading Hopeimage, Horned Loch-Whaleimage and Sentinel of the Nameless Cityimage let us survive, but they'll quickly concede after we've cast 2-3 of our 5-mana spells.
  • MonoWhite
    • The "Do you play sweepers?" gameplay check of the format. We don't, so it can get tricky.
    • 50-50 matchup.
    • We've got big bodies and Flying to go over the top, but it's really just a linear race. Because we can't play any permanent removal they amass incredibly quickly so get into the Red Zone fast and hard.
    • Thalia, Guardian of Thrabenimage is outstanding against us in surprising ways.

Ramp:

  • 4xAtraxa
    • The version that actually bothers to play interaction like enchantment removal and sweepers.
    • Us Favored matchup.
    • Save all of our bounce spells for the Big Dumb Angel and keep punching them in the face until they die.
    • The Ward mechanic is an all-star vs them since it prevents easy double-spelling where they can ramp and cast removal in the same turn.
  • Invasion of Alara Combo
    • The version that just wants to combo you out on Turn 5.
    • Us Favored matchup.
    • They try to have one big turn where they 3|4-for-1 using Invasion of Alara // Awaken the Maelstromimage, but we can accelerate a bit faster and go almost as big all while drawing a ton of cards so just keep powering through and you'll be surprised how often their combo isn't enough to keep up with us.

Midrange:

  • BG Midrange
    • 1-for-1 removal spells and pretty medium threats until they've accrued such a material advantage that they just win.
    • Us Favored matchup.
    • Play aggressive and overwhelm them. Other than Shelly, we're bigger, have tons of flyers and draw a crap ton of cards so pour on the gasonline.
    • Special care needs to be taken when dealing with Sheoldred, the Apocolypse, we need to play Beatdown role exclusively because we can't permanently deal with this WotC mistake.
      • Her greatest weakness is her "steep" 4CMC so if you can bounce her once or twice that's a lot of tempo you can generate. Just remember, you need to have a threat out there beating face beforehand for the tempo swing to mean anything.
  • Esper Legends
    • Just play a pile of random Rare and Mythic creature spells? ...that's some good deck building right there.
    • We're Unfavored matchup.
    • I'm only slightly joking about the deck building choices they've had to make. They really are just a pile of efficient, good cards that don't really do much individually but overwhelm you with their quality when enough are out on the battlefield. And that's exactly how the games play out since we don't have sweepers.
    • Besides Raffine they have little that can deal with the air so just race them in the skies if you can.
    • Thalia and Sheoldred hose us really bad.

Control:

  • Esper "Kill Spells"
    • Literally nothing but responsive cards. Kills you in 20 turns using Mirrex and/or The Wandering Emperorimage 2/2s
    • We're Unfavored matchup.
    • If we can land an early Up the Beanstalkimage we can keep up, but otherwise just save yourself the misery. They're designed to kill decks that try to cast 1 big spell a turn and that's us to a tee so just move on with life.
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AlleyArts
Last Updated: 20 Nov 2023
Created: 19 Nov 2023
451 93 0

Mainboard - 60 cards (21 distinct)

Creature (24)
$2.39
$0.80
$1.24
$0.18
$6.82
$0.34
$0.50€0.330.03
$0.60€0.560.01
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (7)
$0.35€0.620.03
$3.35€2.39
Land (27)
$4.00
$34.79
$18.19
$0.78€0.730.02
$0.15€0.060.03
$0.15€0.030.03
$0.39€0.49
$10.37
€0.16
Planeswalker (2)
$2.900.35

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