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A Heavy Fog

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Nexus of Fate
Last weekend I was at Grand Prix Orlando. One of my very good friends, Joseph Heorira lives in Florida, so I figured I could go visit him and play some Magic. I was pretty set on playing Esper Nexus, especially since it's the deck I've had the most reps with, but Joe was set on playing Turbo Fog from the Pro Tour. He already had the deck built and he really liked it. I knew I was going to be playing Nexus of Fate, but with the success of Turbo Fog on the Pro Tour and Joe being on the deck, I was torn on which deck to play. Luckily, I had arrived early on Thursday and we began play-testing. We jammed Esper Nexus versus Turbo Fog and it was surprising how Turbo Fog didn't just fold. This was mostly due to Search for Azcanta and power flipping it with Chart a Course. Then we tried Grixis Midrange against Turbo Fog and it still fared well against Grixis. Don't get me wrong, Esper and Grixis were both still advantaged against Fog, but it wasn't a huge difference. I figured if Turbo Fog could do well against its worst matchups, then I should probably switch to Turbo Fog for the Grand Prix.

However, there was a flaw in my analysis. I knew decks evolved quickly in Standard, but I didn't take into account how quickly. I figured it hadn't even been a week yet, so people might struggle to adapt quickly. I was very, very wrong. Every deck had adapted to Turbo Fog in one way or another. So, your worst matchups became every Game 2 and three against almost every deck. I should've known better. I've seen this happen before where the Fog deck does really well but then falls off the weeks after.

You see, Fog decks always take advantage of a hole in the metagame. When most of the best decks are creature based, people play less Duress, Negates, Doomfalls, and countermagic. After all, Duress and Negate are bad against a creature heavy meta. This metagame is where Fog decks thrive and crush. Creature decks with very little interaction is what Turbo Fog wants to play against every round. This had changed a lot faster than I anticipated in less than a week.

This is the list I registered for the Grand Prix.


Bounty of the Luxa
I ended up making day two at a 6-1-1 record, but I felt after day one that I wasn't going to do too well day two. The deck just wasn't good, and I was winning a lot of games just because of the power of Teferi and outplaying opponents. I was having to bring in Negates against br because of planeswalkers and mostly, Insult // Injury. This is not what you want to be doing against an aggressive or midrange deck. Negate is a terrible way to try and fight Duress and an aggressive deck in general but I was forced to so I just wouldn't snap lose to Insult // Injury. br was supposed to be a bye but it was not anymore. Everybody had hate for Fog.

Joe and I tried to next level the br decks by playing Gideon's Intervention for Insult and Approach to stabilize and as an alternate win condition but ultimately it wasn't enough. I really wanted to play Bounty of the Luxa to make use of the Fogs and basically have a Howling Mine. Bounty of the Luxa also allowed us to cast Nexus of Fate next turn, even if we didn't a draw a land. This meant Nexus of Fate didn't rot in our hand and we got draw two cards on the on Nexus of Fate turn thanks to Bounty of the Luxa.

Side note: Sadly, no vendor had any Bounty of the Luxa. They also had no commons or uncommons, I had to ask friends and random people for Manglehorn. That was a pretty awful experience and I feel like at a Standard Grand Prix you should be able to get any Standard card, but instead it was impossible. So, the tech I had come up with didn't matter because nobody had any in stock.

Where would I go from here for Turbo Fog? Honestly, I'd just go back to a ramp list. It's so much better in this meta and you have more angles of attack. I should have more trust in brews, even if a new deck spikes an event (pro tour with Fog.) This is what I would play if I was playing Bant Fog tomorrow.


Pelakka Wurm
The deck still has some combat prevention in Haze of Pollen, but now you can also just wipe the battlefield or punish your opponent for continuously alpha striking with their creatures. One of the biggest problems with the eight Fog deck is that you have... Eight Fogs. People catch on and just continuously attack all out every turn. I highly recommend playing some battlefield wipes instead of the full eight Fogs if you don't want to play this deck but rather play the Turbo Fog version. Thing is, Teferi is just the best card in all these decks and the best way to protect him is with a mixture of Fogs, Fumigates, and Settle the Wreckage.

I like the alternate win condition of Hour of Promise here. The zombies can protect Teferi or you, pressure your opponent, and other walkers. Hour of Promise is also offering utility since you can get things like Arch of Orazca, Scavenger Grounds, Field of Ruin, Ipnu Rivulet etc. Ipnu Rivulet does work well with Commit by milling your opponents' card that you put back in their deck with Commit or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria.

As far as the Sideboard goes, I like Pelakka Wurm over Lyra Dawnbringer. Lyra is always hit or miss. You either win or lose on the spot because of a removal spell or Ahn-Crop Crasher. Pelakka Wurm gains the life right away, replaces itself if it dies, and doesn't have to attack to gain life. It kills in three turns instead of five which matters if you are taking extra turns. On top of all that, it plays well with Bounty of the Luxa too.

I like Reclamation Sage over Manglehorn because it also hits enchantments. Destroying a Search for Azcanta or Cast Out is very relevant. I'd rather just have more countermagic against Paradoxical Outcome because Manglehorn can look silly against a Paradoxical Outcome and you are just trying to destroy Inspiring Statuary most of the time anyway.

Again, even if you don't want to run this version of the deck but want to stick more closely to the Bant Fog deck that did well at the Pro Tour, that's fine. Just make sure you play some board wipes main deck, just eight Fogs isn't going to cut it from here on out. Punish your opponent's for playing Insult // Injury by Fumigating or Settling all their creatures away.

My next event will most likely be Grand Prix Richmond. I need to decide if I want to do that or go to Dragoncon. Decisions decisions... I've been working on a Sultai Veteran Explorer deck for Legacy, so I really want to try and play that sometime. What do you all think?

Well that's all I got for you today. If you decide to play this deck, make sure to keep me updated. I love to hear about how people did with my decks.

As always, thanks for reading!

Ali Aintrazi

Follow me @AliEldrazi

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