by Steve ‘DDT ‘Giannopoulos

There have been many new decks brewed with the advent of Gatecrash into the Standard format. People are experimenting at local FNM’s trying to figure out what the ‘Next big thing’ will be. This is a good time to put those decks to the test. Playing a deck that has proven itself in the previous Standard format will help us to improve upon it as well as teach the greedier decks a lesson.

I introduce to you: Blue/White Flash , again!

The core of the deck has not changed much, because let’s face it: who plays this? Well, I for one, do play it. I like to use it at FNM’s since I don’t have that much free time to concoct something these days. Maybe I have time down the line, who knows… For now, UW Flash is what I choose to duel with. One of the prime reasons that drove me to this conclusion was that the RB Aggro decks are getting less numerous and that is great news for this deck. Cavern of Souls + hasty dudes equals Our doom!

 +  = 

Simple enough right?

Yeah, seems that no actual removal and counterspells that don’t counter aren’t effective versus RB Aggro. The good news is that most decks right now save for humans don’t really play Caverns. Or at least, not efficiently. On top of that, a lot of brews I have run into do not really have hasty dudes (save for Monored decks). This allows us to be pretty well positioned in this metagame (at least before the next Pro Tour)

Currently going on in Montreal (my hometown)

For the time being though, playing this deck is somewhat safe. It often does really well and has done its fair share of earning me numerous boosters packs and other prizes. Most of you are undoubtedly aware of the ‘tech’ behind the deck, so I’ll try to be brief.

The deck basically tries to cast everything on opposing turns, hence the ‘flash’ part. Most of our cards provide us with card draw and allow us to dig for things in order to eventually finish of our opponents with spirit tokens, Restoration Angel or something attached to a Runechanter’s Pike. If it gets really nasty, we have our one-of Angel of Serenity to bail us out. It can actually 3 for 1 an opponent if paired with an Unsummon. In response to the ‘enters the battlefield’ trigger we return it to our hand with Unsummon. Its leaves play ability will go on the stack. The stack will resolve on a last in/first out basis and this will result in up to three creatures being exiled for good.

Oh my! it’s been a while!

The deck also has 2 Supreme Verdicts maindeck, something that was not always there in the previous versions. We want to punish our opponents for overextending and we want them to fear the card. The best way to achieve this is to actually pack it in our deck, right? I notice a lot of the newer players always just try to spam more threats unnecessarily, even though they are winning. This is just plain greedy as you do not get bonus points for winning more. We also have McSnapington to recycle those Supreme Verdicts in case the lesson was not learned the first time.

Oh Snap!

While it’s obvious that it’s in there and will not really ‘surprise’ anyone, its presence will force your opponents to play more carefully. He obviously works really well when he’s doing overtime thanks to cards like Restoration Angel and Unsummon. He even manages to attack a few times or make nice sacrificial blocks.

One such example is when your opponent is attacking with say, a Loxodon Smiter and paired Silverblade Paladin. This pair boasts a total of 12 damage! That’s 60% of our life total. It is rather hazardous to our health. Suppose be flash in a Snapcaster and flashback our Unsummon (that we probably used on an Avacyn’s Pilgrim in response to our opponent targeting it with Rancor). We would bounce back the mighty pachyderm to our opponent’s hand and then block the now ‘regular strike’ Silverblade Paladin.

pach·y·derm (pk-dûrm)

Uh, what?

Yes, this is really in the decklist. I have no gone mad, I just got mad. Mad at peering across the table at this:

Oh! How I dislike thee!

While I am not a huge fan of this creature, I will admit it’s one hell of a card! It is beyond frustrating to deal with and is usually not counterable in decks such as Esper Spirits that have been popping up. I wanted to stay in the same colors to not further aggravate my mana base and needed a card to deal with him. Obviously, the card needed to be playable at instant speed. I stumble upon Rapid Hybridization and decided to try it. It was fun to play and kill people with a Frog Lizard Token.

Isn’t he adorable? Who wouldn’t want him as a pet?

Then as the games went by, I started to realize how versatile this card was. It even kills hardcore nuissances such as the might and much hyped, Boros Reckoner.

Leading the charge and slowly becoming the new face of Standard.

For those of you that pre-ordered them, I congratulate you. While it was obvious it would be a good card, not many people jumped on the bandwagon early on. The card is currently sitting at around 25-30$ with good reason. It’s insane!

UW Flash however, simply bounces him around and eventually kills him with Supreme Verdict or turns him into a Frog Lizard. I could say that sometimes you are turning your own creatures into 3/3 Frog Lizards, but those are dire times indeed. You almost never really want to do that unless your creatures are tapped and you need a blocker from the token and another blocker from Moorland Haunt.

Deck Update

With the post Gatecrash Standard taking shape, this deck is becoming somewhat less effective. The main changes are 2 Blind obedience main deck to deal with hasty creatures. The other change lies in the sideboard, with 2 Jace, Memory Adept to defeat control decks.

Esper control seems to have taken over for most of what this deck does as its removal is slightly better but sometimes the mana is a bit rougher. In the end, it’s a matter of personal preference. The Flash build still wins via creatures whereas the Esper build can go the planeswalker route.