One-mana threats
8 cards4×Monastery Swiftspear Creature1Fastest clockA 1/2 that attacks the turn it lands. Prowess is only +1/+1 until end of turn, which matters in both directions: it makes the Swiftspear bigger than the blocker and it does nothing at all against removal that does not use damage.
4×Dragon’s Rage Channeler Creature1Best one-dropSurveils on every noncreature spell, which is most of the deck, and turns on delirium at four card types in the graveyard. Delirium makes it a 3/3 flier that attacks each combat if able, and the compulsory attack is a real cost against a bigger board.
Two-mana threats
4 cards4×Slickshot Show-Off Creature2Highest ceilingFlying and haste on a body that grows +2/+0 rather than +1/+1, so it converts a cantrip turn into damage faster than anything else here. Plot is the reason it beats discard: paying {1}{R} exiles it from your hand, and a card in exile cannot be taken.
The engine
4 cards4×Cori-Steel Cutter Artifact2The whole pointFlurry triggers on your second spell each turn and makes a 1/1 Monk with prowess, and the Equipment can attach to it for free. One Cutter turns every second cantrip into a hasty attacker, which is how the deck rebuilds after a sweeper. It is also an artifact, which is what makes Boseiju a maindeck answer to it.
Selection
12 cards4×Preordain Sorcery1Deepest digScry 2 then draw. The draw is the part to notice in one matchup: it is a card drawn outside your draw step, which is exactly what Orcish Bowmasters is waiting for.
4×Expressive Iteration Sorcery2Best in the mirrorPuts a card into your hand rather than drawing it, which is not a distinction the card cares about but Orcish Bowmasters does. The exiled card is playable only this turn, so cast it before the mana is gone rather than after.
4×Mishra’s Bauble Artifact0Free triggerZero mana, so it is the cheapest way to reach the second spell for Flurry and a free prowess trigger. It adds an artifact to the graveyard for delirium. Its draw is delayed to the next upkeep, which is still a draw outside a draw step.
Burn and removal
8 cards4×Lightning Bolt Instant1Reach and removalThree damage at instant speed, pointed at a blocker or at the opponent. It is both halves of this deck in one card and the reason the clock does not stall against a single blocker.
4×Lava Dart Instant1Two triggersOne damage twice, and the flashback costs no mana at all, only a Mountain. Two spells from one card is two prowess triggers and two steps toward Flurry, which is worth more here than the damage usually is.
Pump
6 cards4×Mutagenic Growth Instant1Free triggerFree, so it is a prowess trigger and a Flurry step that costs no mana. What it is not is protection: +2/+2 answers damage and nothing else, and the removal this format actually maindecks exiles or destroys. See §12.
2×Violent Urge Instant1Damage multiplierFirst strike wins a combat the pump alone would not, and with delirium the double strike turns a prowess stack into roughly twice the damage. A combat trick, priced as one.
Lands
18 cards4×Arid Mesa Land0FixingFetches Steam Vents or a Mountain. The life it costs is real in a deck that also pays life for Mutagenic Growth.
3×Scalding Tarn Land0FixingThe blue-red fetch, and the one to lead on when the hand needs Steam Vents.
3×Bloodstained Mire Land0FixingFetches a Mountain or Steam Vents here. A fetchland is also a card type in the graveyard only once it is sacrificed.
3×Steam Vents Land0DualThe only untapped source of both colours. Taking two to have it now is usually right in a deck that wants to cast two spells a turn from turn two.
3×Mountain Land0BasicAn untapped red source that Blood Moon cannot switch off, which is not the same as a hedge: Blood Moon turns the nonbasics into Mountains too, so what it costs you is blue. Not the Lava Dart constraint either, since Steam Vents and Thundering Falls are both Island Mountain and the deck runs seven Mountains.
1×Fiery Islet Land0UtilityA land that becomes a card when the game goes long, at the cost of life the deck is already spending elsewhere.
1×Thundering Falls Land0UtilityThe one land that costs a tempo. It surveils, which helps delirium, and it is the land to play on a turn you were never going to double-spell.
MV = mana value, shown where the guide states it. Mana value and type come from the printed card; the notes are the guide’s own reading of the slot.
Sideboard · 15
4×Consign to MemoryTriggers and colourless spellsCounters a triggered ability or a colourless spell for one blue. Against Eldrazi it answers the cast triggers that beat you, and against the reanimator decks it counters the Goryo exile trigger and the Atraxa entry trigger alike.
3×Unholy HeatCheap removalTwo damage for one mana, six with delirium. It is the answer to the blockers a burn spell cannot kill, and this deck turns delirium on as a matter of routine.
3×Spell SnareTwo-mana taxCounters exactly mana value two, which in this format is a long list: Cori-Steel Cutter in the mirror, Goryo’s Vengeance, Psychic Frog, Wrath of the Skies at X=0.
2×MeltdownArtifact sweeperDestroys each artifact with mana value X or less. Against Affinity it is a one-sided sweeper; be aware it also kills your own Cutters and Baubles, so pick X with your own board in mind.
1×Into the Flood MawUnconditional bounceReturns a nonland permanent an opponent controls to hand. The answer to a resolved permanent no burn spell handles, and it is not removal: it buys a turn.
1×Spell PierceTempo counterTaxes a noncreature spell by two on a turn they are tapped out for it. Narrow, and free enough to hold up alongside a threat.
1×Tormod’s CryptGraveyard hateZero mana, so it does not cost a turn. One card against the reanimator half of the field, and it is an artifact that feeds delirium once it is used.
The engine, not a threat · Cori-Steel Cutter wins nothing by itself. It converts a second spell into a hasty attacker every turn, which is why a sweeper buys one turn rather than the game.
It is an artifact · That is not a footnote in this format. Boseiju, Who Endures answers it from a land slot, and it is the single most-played maindeck removal spell in the sampled field. §12 →