Heya. I am playing my brews on the league - playing competitive weird decks is my jam. Now I got into the finals, scoring 6th place on the league points, allowing me to enter Top8.

The deck was already featured before, but it got upgraded with the Baleful Strixes as they became legal. 3 removal slots and 1 graveyard value spell was cut, so the deck both got more creatures and more neutral value, while strixes count as a removal-on-legs.

Strix is also a key piece to enabling Snackers, as this deck doesn’t run a single card “discard one, draw two”, and relies on loot engines that “draw one, discard one” - so having another “draw one” on demand makes bringing Snackers back a way simpler matter.

Deck: https://archidekt.com/decks/14469404/there_go_your_hopes_and_dreams

Games

2-1 vs Esper Affinity, going second: Deck packed with all the new good stuff as well as old stuff - Dispatches, Strixes, Utrom Monitors, Refurbs, Thoughtcasts, Hawks. Lost the first one - 3 creatures got on the board early, I’ve gradually stabilized, but got damaged to 5 live. Got killed by Tithing Blade back side, unable to strike a win in a timely manner as my gate-buffed creatures got either removed or blocked.

Second, third game = turn 3 Last Rites.

Second game they had a starting hand with 2 lands - but strixes, cryogen, and afaik some other draw spell - all the value gone, locked for 3 turns on 2 mana.

Third game, pick 2 utroms and 2 value spells. Keep the removals. Draw some more, force to discard the removals.

2-0 vs Gardens, going second: you are playing tempo against it, as it is a proper control deck with tonns of draw and tonns of removals. Hitting draw still hurts and forces to spend many turns to recover the value, but gives you an opening to spam small creatures on the board to find an opening and smack several times with the gates.

Landed a sweet sweet turn 2 disrupt on “sacrifice a …, draw 2 cards” spell second game. Still, by the time I won, I had 2 creatures on the board, 4 in the deck, all the snackers in exile. Scary shit.

2-1 vs Boros Tribe (Inside Out / Snackers / Eidolons), going first: Didn’t have a discard opener in the first, so had to block Snackers with Snackers/Strixes, Cast Down + Bojuka got rid of one snacker, and Unable to Scream rendered one Snacker inert. He went for Inside Out combo but Cast Down worked. After that, I’ve hit discard on his 3-card hand with Delirium Skeins. Outvalued, got wider, gate crushed.

Second game. He pyroblasted several of my draw spells. He also got late game Inside Out combo - tribe got unblockable, tried to Cast Down, but he had protection against color spell. Tried to find out anything with Disrupt (target that spell to draw into anything), but didn’t get an answer.

(sided off Disrupts prior to game3 for more Arms of Hadar - I already shown it, the scare factor is there, hehe)

Third game, turn 2 Nihil Spellbomb, turn 3 Last Rites. Discard my whole hand. Pick all the “discard 1, draw 2” spells, Pyroblast, keep a Snacker + Thraben Charm. Get my grave with Deep Analysis cleared with Thraben Charm, but locked him without “discard 1 / draw 2” spells for long. Close to hellbent battle both sides, hardcasted some snackers & strixes, tried to revive 2 more snackers, got them hit with Thraben Charm again. We keep drawing many lands, I also draw discard spell after it matters. Single basilisk gate hits the board, start swinging. Tried to discard with Last Rites for 1, hit a Snacker and 3-land hand. Whelp. Have a hand with 2 lands vs a hand vs 3 lands. But they didn’t draw into anything to get rid of 2 of my fliers in a 3 turn clock.

Post-Game Analysis

Lmao I can’t believe I won the league with a brew.

Last Rites discard is finally a complete deck. Strix was the missing piece to push the deck from good to unfair. Likely not for long, as I don’t think Strixes will stay. Had to play it while it’s still legal, now that I wasted some decent amount of money to obtain it mid hype.

The deck also doesn’t get sideboard hated enough by pretty much anything. Not like a vandalblast vs affinity as I only have Strix as an artifact main deck, Pyroblasts only matter slightly (don’t shut down Last Rites), GY hate is annoying but manageable.