At this point, Izzet Prowess has solidified itself as a dominant archetype in Standard. The deck has put up massive numbers at every Regional Championship so far, and the Regional Championship this weekend in Montreal, Canada was no exception. In fact, five players in top eight registered playsets of Cori-Steel Cutter.
Interestingly, though, one of those players took a very different approach. Kevin Anctil registered a collaborative Temur brew that combines ideas from both Izzet Prowess and Simic Terror. They’re unique decklist is capable of applying lots of early pressure while also generating tons of value, which gives it a strong edge in the field.
Traditional Prowess Elements
Whether you’re playing a more assertive Prowess deck with Slickshot Show-Off or a slower version, perhaps with Thundertrap Trainer in the mix, you still need a high density of cheap spell in your deck to facilitate your gameplan. Cori-Steel Cutter is your primary engine. The more reliably you can trigger it every turn and make your Prowess threats as big as possible, the better you’ll do.
As such, you’ll find plenty of efficient removal spells, cantrips, and interactive elements even in this Prowess variation. In the cantrip slot, Opt gives you some nice card selection at a good rate. Cantrips play an important role in Cori-Steel Cutter decks, because they ensure you don’t run out of gas.
For removal, Torch the Tower is a premium piece of disruption. Early on, Torch the Tower serves as a two-damage kill spell. Once you factor in all of the token production that Cori-Steel Cutter provides, though, it makes sense why Torch the Tower is the primary removal spell of choice. Getting to answer problematic threats like Screaming Nemesis or Enduring Curiosity for one mana is quite strong.
You can also Bargain away Enchantments like Stormchaser’s Talent in a pinch to keep the pressure on. Most of the time, though, you’ll want to keep Stormchaser’s Talent around to rebuy spells in grindy games.
This deck does make use of a couple interactive spells that are a bit unusual but serve as important metacalls. The copies of Heritage Reclamation in the maindeck, for example, may look a bit out of place at first glance. In a world dominated by Cori-Steel Cutter and Omniscience, however, Heritage Reclamation is a strong catch-all option.
Having the ability to exile Omniscience from your opponent’s graveyard after they target it with Abuelo’s Awakening is a great luxury to have. Add in the couple copies of Spell Pierce in the deck, and you’ve got game against combo and spell-centric decks alike.
Up the Beanstalk Package
Where things start to get interesting is with the addition of Up the Beanstalk. Up the Beanstalk is a Standard staple but only shows up in decks with enough spells with mana value five or greater to make Up the Beanstalk worth the inclusion.
Fortunately, this deck utilizes playsets of two main spells that trigger Up the Beanstalk, both of which can be cast on the cheap. The first spell is, unsurprisingly, This Town Ain’t Big Enough. This Town synergizes perfectly with Stormchaser’s Talent. Bouncing Up the Beanstalk is also a perfectly fine way to pull ahead on resources. You’ll find a couple copies of Roaring Furnace in the decklist to return to your hand, too.
By itself, This Town doesn’t warrant Up the Beanstalk’s inclusion. Once you add in the presence of Hearth Elemental, though, you’re golden. Hearth Elemental is typically worse as a Creature than Tolarian Terror, but the Adventure portion of the card more than makes up for this. If you ever run low on resources, Stoke Genius will refill your hand and give you a solid body to play that triggers Up the Beanstalk.
Importantly, you can tutor for Hearth Elemental later in the game with Analyze the Pollen. Analyse the Pollen makes it easier to hit your Land drops earlier, increases your cheap spell count for Cori-Steel Cutter, and is a great topdeck in the late game.
One other cool aspect of the deck that’s worth mentioning is the inclusion of Tarnation Vista in the manabase. As a three-color deck with intense color requirements, Tarnation Vista does a good job fixing your colors.
Then, once you control Up the Beanstalk, Stormchaser’s Talent, and any of your red permanents, Tarnation Vista will actually pull you ahead on mana by tapping for three colors via its final ability. This extra mana can be used to Level Up Stormchaser’s Talent and cast a flurry of spells to close the game.
Tradeoffs
At the end of the day, it’s cool to see some innovations still taking place in Standard, considering the chokehold Izzet Prowess has on the format. This deck still functions as a Cori-Steel Cutter archetype at heart, but at least there’s some cool stuff going on.
The addition of Up the Beanstalk allows this deck to play a stronger long game than other Prowess decks. A classic way to gain an advantage in an aggro mirror is to go slightly bigger than the opponent. Having access to green mana to make use of Heritage Reclamation improves the Azorius Omniscience matchup, too, as mentioned earlier.
One major downside to constructing your deck this way, though, is that you’re playing a greedier manabase. Sure, Tarnation Vista certainly helps. The problem is that it enters tapped. Versus mono-red aggro, this can be the difference between winning and losing.
Up the Beanstalk is quite slow by itself, making it a liability against mono-red in its own right. Increasing the number of nonbasic Lands in the deck only makes Sunspine Lynx more devastating as well.
Mono-red isn’t as popular as it used to be with Prowess being the new hotness, and these changes to the Prowess shell have their benefits. Still, playing a slower version that’s more susceptible to fast draws from the opponent does come at a cost. This top eight performance is extremely impressive, so if you’re going to play Standard in the next couple weeks, you may see more Temur Prowess decks around.
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