When Cavern of Souls was spoiled—first on Twitter then with a non-English photo—I just couldn't believe the "can't be countered" part of the text. I thought it was good enough as just a tribal color fixer. Subsequent events have proven me wrong. The first tribe to adopt Cavern was Giants and the second was Zombies where Cavern was more color restriction than color fixing (Phyrexian Obliterator). Simultaneously the most powerful tribe in the current Standard doesn't even have universally adopted colors!
Another important reason that Cavern of Souls has been underused is that the first month after Avacyn Restored's release was highly influenced by G/R Aggro decks which are very good against possible Cavern of Souls; so there was simply no reason to build anything based on this theoretically powerful land. But now when so many words have been spent talking about the return of the U/W Villain it's time to find an answer. Let's focus on what Cavern of Souls can give to us.
Two most important things allowed by Cavern of Souls are the ability to cast one-mana creatures of different colors and the ability cast important expensive creatures through Mana Leak. A third less known advantage is the ability to splash expensive creatures consistently. Unfortunately when we're speaking about splashes it becomes clear that Cavern of Souls is not really good with Glacial Fortress and friends. Some two-colored deck don't play Cavern because they don't need to (Delver); some play Cavern just because it's better than nothing (W/R).
There are 49 one-mana creatures in Standard and only two creature types have one-drops in different colors. The second one is Bird consisting of Birds of Paradise and Glint Hawk. The first one is obviously Human: Champion of the Parish Avacyn's Pilgrim Delver of Secrets and Grim Lavamancer are backed with sixteen more nonblack contenders. Given how powerful the other Humans are in Standard the obvious main color is white. So unsurprisingly U/W Humans R/W Humans and G/W Humans exist and are played.
U/W Humans was always around because having 23 lands and 37 one-drops is good against both Vapor Snag and Mana Leak. The downside is that these cards are extremely bad against Slagstorm but if we're speaking about other U/W decks you are able to apply more early pressure insensitive to Vapor Snag. Cavern of Souls allows playing both Champion of the Parish and Delver of Secrets to increase deck's speed even more.
U/W Delver Humans was invented by Sam Black early this year and then was used by Dennis Rachid to secure a PT Dark Ascension Top 8 and most recently used by Rick Stout to qualify for the PT in Seattle by making Top 4 of GP Minneapolis. The problem is that the deck was forced to use five Plains and five Islands having only nine ways to cast either Delver or Champion on turn 1. I call this sort of deck "draw proper half of the deck in time" and recommend you to avoid this sort at all costs. The simple addition of Cavern of Souls will increase the available amount of sources on two or three which is far better.
So the build I want to present makes some changes to Rick Stout's GP Top 8 deck.
Creatures (19)
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Delver of Secrets
- 2 Elite Vanguard
- 2 Phantasmal Image
- 4 Snapcaster Mage
- 3 Geist of Saint Traft
Lands (21)
Spells (20)
This list is optimized to win as fast as possible so there are Elite Vanguards instead of the more versatile Doomed Travelers there is no slow and Vapor Snag weak Hero of Bladehold etc. The important thing to highlight is Mutagenic Growth. This card is just insane now since Delver decks have adopted Restoration Angel and Blade Splicer. Mutagenic Growth allows your Delver of Secrets Champion of the Parish and Geist of Saint Traft to kill an opposing Angel or Golem token. The speed is also a reason to play Runechanter's Pike over Swords and Gather the Townsfolk over Blade Splicer.
As a final note about U/W Delver Humans it's obligatory to say that you can find Sam Black playing his fresh new and very different build of the deck here. While not spoiling the entire list I should say that Sam's approach is far heavier than mine is and that Cavern of Souls allowed him to play Champion of the Parish in the deck without basic Plains.
But Delver despite everything is not the only deck around. There is still G/R Aggro Wolf Run Ramp Naya and a couple of other decks. And if the key against Delver is to have cheap threats in a creature mirror you will likely win if your creatures are just bigger than opposing ones. Fellow online ringer _batutinha_ recently played a few Daily Events with a sort of W/G corner case: his maindeck contained 24 lands and 36 Human creatures. Did he think about Descendants' Path?
W/G has no nonwhite removal (besides potentially Ulvenwald Tracker); so in choosing green over blue and red we automatically prefer raw power and straight aggression to possible interactions with an opponent. I've always liked similar decks so let's take a look.
Creatures (36)
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Blade Splicer
- 4 Champion of Lambholt
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Hero of Bladehold
- 3 Mayor of Avabruck
- 4 Mirran Crusader
- 2 Silverblade Paladin
- 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Lands (24)
The biggest problem with W/G Humans is the impossibility of Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise. G/R Aggro and Birthing Pod have eight or even nine mana dorks while Humans can play only four. So the dramatically overloaded three-mana slot becomes an even worse problem than it used to be. Eighteen three-mana creatures without consistent mana acceleration is not what I want to have; casting one spell per turn is not a way to win even if each creature is an "answer." I'm not so greedy as to ask for Lotus Cobra but I secretly hope that the recently spoiled Nefarox Overlord of Grixis gives Steward of Valeron a chance.
But there is no acceleration (Scorned Villager is not really good in an almost mono-white deck that is unable to flip her) so the only decision is to tweak the mana curve. But before I try to do so why would I even play the deck? The answer is very simple: Champion of Lambholt gives this deck a fantastic edge in creature mirrors breaking a stalled battlefield very easily.
Another advantage of the deck is that G/W always has blockers to prevent either Sword of War and Peace or Sword of Feast and Famine from connecting to your life total. This also means that you can easily capitalize on your own Swords. My attempt is the following:
Creatures (34)
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Champion of Lambholt
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Fiend Hunter
- 2 Grand Abolisher
- 4 Hero of Bladehold
- 3 Mayor of Avabruck
- 3 Mirran Crusader
- 2 Silverblade Paladin
- 1 Wolfir Silverheart
- 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Lands (24)
Spells (2)
This list utilizes Grand Abolisher (which is extremely good against Restoration Angel) to improve the mana curve. Another possible addition is Mikaeus the Lunarch but I think that Abolisher is just better right now. And don't forget that equipped Sword makes your Champion of Lambholt significantly better.
One of the problems with G/W is that although its creatures are extremely good they require a full turn to start being useful. Champion of Lambholt and Fiend Hunter are obvious exclusions but Hero of Bladehold is not. Gavony Township makes your creatures bigger but it doesn't solve this problem too. Grand Abolisher helps you to play against Mana Leak and Restoration Angel and the next step is to combine him with some sort of haste to make your threats invulnerable to Vapor Snag as well.
Soulbond is a virtual haste so Silverblade Paladin is our weapon of choice but red offers Lightning Mauler (whose combination with Hero of Bladehold is just devastating) and Slayers' Stronghold. This land is in my opinion underrated in Standard. I've seen its power during Block Constructed testing and converting any of your creatures into a small Ball Lightning should not be ignored. The last creature you should take note of is Nearheath Pilgrim who fits into our soulbond subtheme perfectly and who is extremely useful in creature mirrors. Thalia didn't make the cut because in this deck because she is never really good except in the Delver matchup.
Creatures (30)
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 3 Doomed Traveler
- 3 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Grand Abolisher
- 4 Hero of Bladehold
- 3 Lightning Mauler
- 2 Mirran Crusader
- 3 Nearheath Pilgrim
- 4 Silverblade Paladin
Lands (24)
Spells (6)
As I said the idea is simple: we're minimizing our opponent's ability to interact with us at instant speed and maximizing our ability to use haste or pseudo haste. This deck does not have W/G's ability to win through blockers but it's faster and better equipped for actual battles in the red zone.
Each of three decks I've covered has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on the deck's gameplan. U/W's is tempo W/R's is speed and W/G's is brutal power. But all of these decks are just other Champion of the Parish decks. They all use different support for the same set of good threats: Champion of the Parish Thalia Guardian of Thraben and Hero of Bladehold. These creatures are very good together especially the first one whose power drastically increases when you fill all the free space with his folks. But how can we evaluate which Humans are the best ones without support?
The idea of having "some serious threats and good support" in the deck has always been around and that deck never contained White—just because two best creatures in Standard are Delver of Secrets and Snapcaster Mage. The third one is (not without doubt but very legitimately) Huntmaster of the Fells (and Brian Kibler believed in green Werewolf even before Huntmaster was printed). The problem is that green is mostly used for cheap powerful creatures and color fixing. The combination of these purposes almost inevitably makes green the main color of the deck significantly shortening other available options—such as the option to cast Delver of Secrets or Ponder on turn 1.
Cavern of Souls solves this problem and led me to build the following deck where it is a mandatory mana fixer on any turn (including the first one) and a way to resolve the deck's threats. So the last Humans deck for today combines all three splashes but without white as the main color.
Ladies and gentlemen RUG Humans!
Creatures (15)
Lands (22)
Spells (23)
- 1 Runechanter's Pike
- 2 Galvanic Blast
- 3 Mana Leak
- 4 Thought Scour
- 4 Vapor Snag
- 2 Bonfire of the Damned
- 3 Pillar of Flame
- 4 Ponder
- 2 Dungeon Geists
- 1 Phantasmal Image
- 2 Act of Aggression
- 2 Ancient Grudge
- 1 Combust
- 1 Dismember
- 2 Mental Misstep
- 1 Negate
- 1 Steel Sabotage
- 2 Arc Trail
Sideboard
Another idea behind this deck is splashing Christian Calcano's winning U/R Delver list from GP Minneapolis to Huntmaster of the Fells. All the good cards from the deck are still here (including the amazing Bonfire of the Damned) but we have powerful Huntmaster of the Fells instead of weak Invisible Stalker.
Cavern of Souls does nearly everything in this deck: it allows us to have twelve solid blue mana sources for turn 1 Delver of Secrets it prevents Huntmaster of the Fells from being countered and it allows us to even play Huntmaster in a deck where the amount of blue and Red sources for noncreature spells is crucial. Clearly this deck is what I wanted to see when Cavern of Souls was first spoiled. The deck's mana base is nevertheless a little bit better than horrible—but it's significantly better than the famous "three Sulfur Falls" mana base so it's very possible to win a tournament with this deck.
Other creatures aside from the three most powerful Humans and the commonly adopted pair of Phantasmal Images that were tried by players on Magic Online (there is a pool of three or four RUG adepts) are Grim Lavamancer Fettergeist and Zealous Conscripts. I've tried different configurations and I finally came to conclusion that I need fifteen creatures and one Runechanter's Pike (while the most common Magic Online configuration includes a second Pike over my Dungeon Geists). Dungeon Geists is not superior to Restoration Angel but it is a solid 3/3 flier and a powerhouse against the second and the third most common matchups: G/R Aggro and Wolf Run Ramp.
Endless two-ofs in the maindeck and the sideboard are legitimized by eight cantrips and four Snapcaster Mages. Of five one-mana burn spells I think that two instants are mandatory so the only serious maindeck change that I would think about is dismissing Mana Leaks in favor of additional cantrips or a third instant burn spell (probably Incinerate).
The deck requires some time to get familiar with playing but after all it's very fun to play. So while I feel that all four decks I've looked at are good choices for PTQs right now I'm finishing this article and leaving to go to the PTQ with RUG Humans in my backpack.
Good luck to everyone playing at PTQs and SCG Open Series: Worcester this weekend! Let me know if you want some additional info about any sort of Cavemen; let's crush Delver together!
About Valeriy Shunkov
Valeriy Shunkov is a 26 year-old research engineer from Moscow, Russia. Since starting out with Shards of Alara, he's used Magic to "play the game, see the world." He is the winner of the SCG Talent Search and has a new article every Monday.