Making Mediocre Mythics Meaningful

I am sure many of you read the cardboard crack comics and saw their recent one about writing an article to try to boost the price of a junk mythic. If you've been reading my articles on Wizardden.com for awhile you know I was that guy who wrote an article on The Great Aurora. While I would still call it a junk mythic I assure you I legitimately play it and have grown to love it. Since the original article I wrote on the deck I have evolved the strategy thanks to local input from Ian Brune and fellow Aurora caster Rob VanNostrand as well as some Japanese pro players and their crazy deck lists. Many of you have been asking about my current list and today I will share it. I wanted to wait until I was happy with the list and sure of the direction I want to go.

Planeswalker (5)
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2x Ob Nixilis Reignited
2x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Creature (8)
4x Arashin Cleric
2x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2x Ugin's Construct

Enchantment (5)
3x Demonic Pact
2x Retreat to Kazandu

Sorcery (13)
2x End Hostilities
3x Explosive Vegetation
4x Languish
1x Ruinous Path
3x The Great Aurora

Instant (3)
3x Abzan Charm

Land (26)
2x Blighted Woodland
2x Canopy Vista
1x Caves of Koilos
2x Fertile Thicket
4x Forest
2x Llanowar Wastes
3x Plains
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
2x Shambling Vent
4x Swamp

Sideboard
3x Dromoka's Command
1x End Hostilities
2x Felidar Sovereign
2x Gaea's Revenge
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2x Rakshasa Deathdealer
1x Ruinous Path
1x Tragic Arrogance
2x Utter End

The first thing you probably noticed is the inclusion of Demonic Pact. That came for those crazy guys over seas, however they were all in on that plan and had next to no back up plan. While it is amazing and represents an 'Aurora count' of plus five if you use all three modes and kill a creature with it, I wanted to keep the control aspects of the deck in favoring wrath over ramp spells making the deck slower but more reliable. I'm not going to recap all the basic ideas of the archetype, you can find those in the original article here. What you do need to know is this deck involves a lot of counting. It is played best when you know the number of cards in both players hands and libraries without having to ask as well as the 'Aurora count' for each player at any given moment. Your life total is also an extremely important resource as it represents the number of turns you can wait to make your big play. Your goal here is to get to seven cards over them before popping your first Aurora to ensure a favorable post Aurora board. Prior to the release of Battle for Zendikar I had already made the change to Abzan to better answer some parts of the format and include the Pacts, but the new set added a whole new dimension to the deck.

Take a moment and read the Ob Nixilis emblem above and then do the math on the resolution of a Great Aurora. Sure an emblem isn't a reliable  main game plan, but it happens faster than people expect thanks to all the wrath and removal impeding their ability to stop the demon's ultimate. Gideon and Nissa also add a level of interaction to my early plays that the prerotation version was missing. The surprise all star I want to highlight the most though is Retreat to Kazandu. This whole deck is based on me trying to relive the glory days of Sphinx's Revelation through The Great Aurora but with the loss of Radiant Fountain the life gain was gone, well too bad Wizards because I made my own Radiant Fountains with the green Retreat and now they're even better because I can search them out with ramp spells and tap them for colors.

So far I have only dropped a single match with this deck, but before I can brag about my X-1 record you should know I haven't played as many events as I usually do this month. Going forward I am looking at adding Gideon's Reproach and Ultimate Price somewhere in here to better deal with the new version of Atarka Red since Arashin Cleric doesn't stump them like it used to. Be sure to check out Wizardden.com's new $10 Win-a-Box FNMS and our competitive thursday night standards where I will be playing the Demonic Aurora almost every week.