On July 13th and 14th two major events took place: the Arena Championship 6 and the Qualifier Weekend. In the past weeks we have seen Bor Energy completely dominate the Historic Format: 58.1% of the decks submitted to the Arena Championship 6 were Boros Energy and in the top 8 , 75% of the decks were Boros Energy with only 2 Jeskai Lotus Field decks. Although we do not have reliable data on the Qualifier Weekend, it is easy to assume that there was also a predominance of Boros Energy.
Personally, I managed to reach day 2 of the Qualifier Weekend and among the 11 games played at least 6 were played against Boros Energy.
During the Qualifier Weekend, a really interesting deck managed to qualify to the Arena Championship 7 using a really interesting interaction among Shifting Woodland and Omniscience.
The deck was created by Matthieu Avignon and it performed really well during the Qualifier Weekend: 14-3 is the final score among the 2 different days and a great score against Boros Energy for a total of 6-2.
What’s the deck plan?
The deck heavily relies on the graveyard and more specifically on the Delirium ability: the main objective of the deck is to transform Shifting Woodland into one of the many strong permanents in the deck (Omniscience is probably the best option) thanks to its Delirium Ability.
Omniscience is our target number one for Shifting Woodland. In fact, the deck is filled with really strong and expensive creatures. In a format like Historic, it's almost impossible to cast these spells and the best option is to “cheat” them.
Whenever we fail to put Omniscience into our graveyard, another decent option is represented by God-Pharaoh's Gift that will generate really powerful tokens considering the quality of our creatures.
Against aggro matchups, transforming Shifting Woodland into Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is a really good option as well as it should be enough to clear the board.
Thanks to cards such as Artillery Enthusiast, Faithless Looting, Cathartic Pyre, Malevolent Rumble and Smuggler's Surprise, it should be really easy to put into the graveyard one of the aforementioned cards while also drawing Shifting Woodland.
Another relevant card is Traverse the Ulvenwald: its delirium effect is perfect within the archetype as it lets us find Shifting Woodland or one of our powerful creatures to end the game while still being a decent card whenever we don't have access delirium yet.
Why is the deck good against Boros Energy?
A-Haywire Mite is a great way to interact with Goblin Bombardment and gain some life. Basically, it's a cheap blocker that can generate some life and can interact with a powerful tool for Boros Energy.
Cathartic Pyre is never a dead card in the deck as we are happy to have access to the 2 different effects depending on the matchup. In the case of Boros Energy, it's most likely to use it as a removal spell.
Vampires' Vengeance is a decent way to clear the board against Boros Energy and it only costs 3 mana. On top of that, it's an instant speed spell and can help us fill the graveyard thanks to the blood token generated.
Why include a 7 mana creature card against Boros Energy? Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is a needed inclusion in this list because we can transform Shifting Woodland into her potentially already on turn 3.
Why did this deck perform so well?
Before the Qualifier Weekend, everyone was focusing on how to improve their matchup against Boros Energy. There were many hate cards against Boros Energy both in main decks and sideboards. This eventually reduced the number of flexible cards in the sideboard.
This deck was completely unknown before the Qualifier Weekend and I can guarantee that almost no one had a decent sideboard plan against it since at that point there wasn't much graveyard hate (assuming it would be enough) in the format.
Personally, I believe that the real strength of this deck is that it was able to beat Energy Decks (Boros, Jeskai and Mardu) consistently.
The Sideboard
Alpine Moon can be good in the mirror and still decent against Lotus Field decks and in general decks that heavily rely on specific lands.
Smuggler's Surprise is probably a good inclusion against decks that don't put much pressure in the early stages of the game.
Stone of Erech is really good against Lurrus and Phage decks.
I assume that Vexing Bauble is supposed to be used in the mirror or in general against other decks that can cheat spells. This is a card that needs to be used wisely as it will also counter our spells. Use it when your opponent is closer to achieving his plan but sacrifice it as soon as you are ready to go with yours.
As already said, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, A-Haywire Mite and Vampires' Vengeance are really good against aggro decks that are currently being played in the format. A-Haywire Mite is also good against decks that heavily rely on artifacts or enchantments.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is always good in grindy matchups and it shines against control decks.
Pithing Needle is a cheap way to stop specific activated abilities that are really common in the format.
Conclusions
The deck was completely unexpected and I feel like it was a good surprise for the format. The deck reminds me of Show and Tell as they both can cheat Omniscience and eventually the whole deck.
From Show and Tell decks I think we could consider adding a copy of Borne Upon a Wind to the deck. In this way, we can potentially answer instant speed removal spells on Shifting Woodland. I'm not saying this is for sure a good inclusion but I believe it is a card that should be at least considered.
Overall, I think a deck like this was really needed in the format as the meta was completely dominated by Boros Energy decks.
