Decktech Standard: Mihara Ramp (Combo-ish)

In watching the coverage of the Pro Tour, Mihara had quite an interesting deck that I took note of after the following tweet from Brian Kibler: (http://twitpic.com/dh1oyx).


Mihara G/R Ramp.



    3 Arbor Colossus
    4 Burning-Tree Emissary
    4 Elvish Mystic
    3 Scavenging Ooze
    4 Sylvan Caryatid
    4 Voyaging Satyr
    4 Polukranos, World Eater
    2 Nylea, God of the Hunt

    3 Domri Rade
    4 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
    2 Xenagos, the Reveler

    9 Forest
    2 Mountain
    4 Stomping Ground
    4 Temple of Abandon
    4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

    Sideboard
    3 Mistcutter Hydra
    2 Nylea's Disciple
    1 Sylvan Primordial
    2 Wasteland Viper
    1 Destructive Revelry
    2 Chandra, Pyromaster
    1 Xenagos, the Reveler
    3 Mizzium Mortars



This deck's closest analogy is probably to old Standard Gaea's Cradle decks of yore, although nothing let you untap them in Monogreen back then....(Frantic Search and Time Spiral let you untap Academy until Academy got banned (someone else could maybe confirm this).)

It's pretty obvious how this deck works: You have 12 acceleration guys (4 Elvish Mystic, 4 Voyaging Satyr, 4 Sylvan Caryatid).

The boom-booms: 4 Polukranos, World Eater, 3 Arbor Colossus, 2 Nylea, God of the Hunt (sort of, Nylea also functions a great mana sink).

Bridging the gap: 4 Burning-Tree Emissary, 3 Scavenging Ooze. BTE in particular is an absurd enabler for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, since each copy is +2 mana for Nykthos, and if you draw multiples, you can really explode.

Good matchups: Other creature decks.

Bad matchups: UW and Esper Control. I believe it is solvable to beat them more often than not, but it requires a lot of work. In particular, if everyone adopts the Wafo-Tapa Esper list, readopting Burning Earth gains a ton of value (it's nearly unbeatable for his list, given he has 20 nonbasics).

There's some lines of play that are matchup dependent that I think are worth discussing.

In particular, versus Esper or another black control deck or Monored, given the option of BTE into Satyr or Caryatid on t2, you should BTE into Caryatid for obvious reasons. Caryatid can almost always block a 2 power guy safely (barring Boros Charm or a bloodrush guy).

You can also sandbag BTE if you absolutely need it to cast Domri or Xenagos (with an all Forest draw). Second, remember that the new legend rule works in your favor (use the first Nykthos to float a bunch of mana, play the second and choose to keep it).

In the above list, I had cut Burning Earth for 2 more Hydras, but after discussing things with Ari Lax a bit, it might be time to return them to the sb, as well as cut the loose-ish Primordial and perhaps a Viper or two. Viper 'combos' with Polukranos to wrath them, but this should actually be in the maindeck if anywhere.