Faithless Brewing MTG: Modern and Pioneer for the Spike Rogue

The Case for Sylvan Caryatid

Kaldheim Season, Episode 16: This Week in Brewing (March 12, 2021)
Is Niv-Mizzet the best deck again in Modern? Is Sylvan Caryatid the most powerful card in Pioneer? And can you go infinite with Ugin's Nexus, or is six turns in a row good enough?
Meanwhile on the Flashback, we tested four new builds with Esika's Chariot, notching a slick 5-0 in Modern and some encouraging results in Pioneer. Is this the new face of Cat Combo?
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Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com
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Chariots of Fur: Esika's Chariot and the New Cat Combo

Kaldheim Season, Episode 15: Esika's Chariot
The cat's out of the bag on Esika's Chariot. The green Kitty Wagon is already making waves in Pioneer thanks to its purrrfect synergy with Transmogrify strategies as well as Naya Winota. But that's just the tip of the whiskers for this magical Cat-illac. The card is already outstanding value by itself, but with the aid of a certain cat-loving planeswalker, Chariot has the potential to be something really special. One cat just leads to another, so lets see what this chariot can do!
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Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com
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The Clock Strikes Midnight: Time Spiral Remastered and Our Worst Results Ever

Kaldheim Season, Episode 14: Post-B&R Week 2 Roundup
 
In last week's Brew Session we vowed to go In Search of Greatness, at any cost. One week later, as we tally up said costs, the result is a big yikes. Our pursuit of Greatness resulted in a truly MASSIVE losing streak, the likes of which our podcast has never seen. Was it just bad luck? Or is this Search for Greatness doomed to be a "Fail to Find"?Meanwhile, in the category of things that don't suck, Time Spiral Remastered is looking great, and the innovations continue apace in both Modern and Pioneer. We take a look at spicy new builds with Birgi, God of Storytelling, plus Picks of the Week featuring Midnight Clock, Storm Herald, and several new Elves from Kaldheim.
 
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In Search of Greatness, At Any Cost

Kaldheim Season, Episode 13: In Search of Greatness
In Search of Greatness is a real brewer's card. It bears a passing resemblance to many different cards, but in each case the differences far outweigh the similarities. The most famous comparison is Aether Vial, a mana generator so powerful that it spawned an entire class of archetypes. But where Aether Vial has a clear ask -- fill your deck with creatures and put them at similar spots on the mana curve -- In Search of Greatness is far more demanding. To unlock its powerful but capricious free cast trigger, you need to play all up and down the mana curve, and dig deep into the bag of deckbuilding tricks. Getting even one free activation off Greatness feels like an achievement, much less activating it turn after turn. Toski is a fickle little squirrel it seems, always asking for something new and bigger in your hand. Then again, we can always scry 1!
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Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com
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What's Winning After the B&R + Strixhaven First Look

Kaldheim Season, Episode 12: Post-B&R Week 1 Roundup
There's nothing quite like that new meta smell. With one week of tournaments in the books and nary an Uro in sight, the crew takes a look at what's been winning in the new Modern landscape. Is Heliod Company a cut above the field? Which archetype is poised to become the new face of control? And why the sudden uptick in squirrels? Meanwhile in Pioneer, the brewers are out in force and there is tons of innovation. From Dragon tempo, to Emergent Ultimatum combo, to Giant Ox vehicles, there's something spicy for everyone. If you've been sitting on the sidelines of Pioneer, now is the perfect time to dive back in!It feels like Kaldheim has just begun all over again, but there's no rest for the brewing as Strixhaven is just weeks away. Wizards gave us a sneak peek at a cycle of enemy-color Commands; do any of them have what it takes?
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Decklists and timestamps for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com
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Gettin’ Jiggy with Righteous Valkyrie (ft. Arun Singh)

Kaldheim Season, Episode 11: Righteous Valkyrie
There’s nothing subtle about Righteous Valkyrie. Pay three mana, get a 2/4 flyer. Make angels or clerics, gain some life, and double buff your team. It’s an eminently fair bargain, the exact kind of card that ought to be sweet but is rarely good enough in non-rotating formats.
But hope springs eternal, especially when all the formats are brand new. 2W for a 4/6 flying double anthem is plenty of payoff, but is the supporting cast going to be too weak? We’ve got six configurations to put through their paces, so let’s fire up the life gain and see what this angel can do!
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Brew Session: Righteous ValkyrieSketch 1: Bant Coco Angels (Modern)Sketch 2: Mono-W Heliod (Modern)Sketch 3: Righteous Soul Sisters (Modern)Sketch 4: Orzhov Angels (Pioneer)Sketch 5: Mardu Kaalia Angels (Pioneer)Sketch 6: GW Angel Company (Pioneer)
Flashback: Birgi, God of StorytellingBirgi Showdown 1.0: 1-4 leagueBirgi Song Combo: 1-4 league
Where to find Arun:Twitter: @asingh517MTGO: JiggywiggySerum Visions Podcast
 

Nuke It from Space: Fallout from the Biggest B&R in History (ft. Arun Singh)

Kaldheim Season, Episode 10: Analyzing the Feb. 15 B&R Update
 
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath is very hard to kill. You can try to fight Uro with this strategy or that one, but the card just keeps coming at you, in format after format. Natural metagame forces were powerless in the face of Uro's F.I.R.E. design friends. In the end, Wizards took a page from Sigourney Weaver and did they only thing they could: You have to nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Brewer extraordinaire Arun Singh joins the cast this week to help us make sense of the biggest B&R announcement in Magic history. Five cards were banned in Modern, including a beloved monkey, and the Cascade mechanic was altered to end the brief but terrifying reign of Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor. Five cards were also banned in Pioneer, sending shockwaves through a metagame that now seems completely wide open. Did WOTC go too far with these bannings, or have they perhaps not gone far enough? And what does this all mean for the formats we so know and love?
 
"Vehicles: Rails Were Meant to be Broken (ft. Cavedan!!)" -- Serum Visions Podcast #12
 
Where to find Arun:
Twitter: @asingh517
MTGO: Jiggywiggy
Serum Visions Podcast
 
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Fetch Me a Horn of Bounty, and Pour One for Yourself: Brewing Up a Storm with Birgi

Kaldheim Season, Episode 9: Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty
When evaluating new cards, a quick hack is to look for anything that cheats on mana. These are the cards that can really do something special. Cheating out a 7 mana Tibalt? Yep, that tracks. Fistfuls of Treasure off Magda? Sign us up.
This week continues that trend. Birgi, God of Storytelling is a cost reducer dialed up to 11. Her front face resembles Baral, Chief of Compliance or Goblin Electromancer: mana engines that scale the more spells you cast. But Birgi is even more generous. Cards that cost 1 are completely free, and cards that cost zero actually send up you mana. Mishra’s Bauble becomes a ritual; Mox Amber becomes Seething Song.
Once you have this much mana, all you’re looking for is a source of cards. Birgi makes this easy as you please: just flip the card over and you have Harnfel, Horn of Bounty, a multi-use Magmatic Channeler that trades each card in your hand for two fresh ones. Standard players learned to fear the pairing of Runaway Steam-Kin and Experimental Frenzy; Birgi gives you both effects on the same card.
All told, Birgi is shockingly open-ended, capable of supporting existing engine decks or perhaps spawning new archetypes all her own. We’ve got seven lists to test across multiple formats, so let’s see what Birgi can do!
 
View decklists for this episode at FaithlessBrewing.com
 
Decklists for Birgi // Harnfel
Sketch 1: Boros Showdown Storm
Sketch 2: Temur Artifact Ramp
Sketch 3: Pioneer Song of Creation
Sketch 4: Modern Birgi Song
Sketch 5: Birgi Grinding Breach by Nilsfit (5-0 league)
Sketch 6: UR Prowess
Sketch 7: Birgi Waste Not
Flashback: Magda, Brazen Outlaw
Magda Jeskai Ascendancy: 1-4 league
Temur Treasures: 0-4 league
Jeskai Dwarf Tempo: 2-3 league
Aura of Dominion Combo: 2-3 league
 
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