With Magic: Foundations lying in wait for another week, it seems the brews have dried up across all formats this week. I was only able to find one deck I felt like writing about, and I will be displaying it for everyone to see.

But in lieu of presenting more decks, I figure now might be a good time to talk about my process for selecting decks for Neat-Decking. It’s not a particularly intensive process per say, but I can share some insight into how I pick decks and how I choose to cut decks.

Pioneer

Who doesn’t love a good Soulflayer list? I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve seen one of these in the wild but Samcaster-Mage found success with the list above. Soulflayer lists are all going to have a similar package, featuring of course the namesake card, Zetalpa, and a bunch of other random creatures you’ve never otherwise heard of that have a bunch of keywords jammed on them (I’m looking at you Chromanticore). Overlord of the Balemurk is a pretty wonderful inclusion here, allowing you to fill your bin and find your Soulflayer at the same time, while also turning into a threat itself. Urborg Scavengers also does a pretty fun job of being B-List Soulflayer, but the deck having some amount of redundancy is definitely an improvement. This list is of course weak to any kind of graveyard hate, but if it can play a long enough game, you can just start hardcasting your big idiots, a la Living End style in Modern. 

Selection Process

So I’ll detail my selection process, and it actually works out because I have a deck that I almost included on this list, that I can use as an example later.

In a typical week for Neat-Decking, my initial pool of decks I narrow down to is around 7-8, and I usually end up showing 5-6. I like to keep these shorter and easier to read, and I feel like too many decklists can be overwhelming. I like to keep it to five when I can. 

I put a lot of stock in the name of the deck. I do go through all the league dumps for the three formats I cover here, and I will skim a lot of the common decks, but a deck having an interesting or unique name will make it stand out. I’m significantly more likely to look at a 5C Soulflayer list in depth than I am to look at a deck named “UR Phoenix” or “Boros Energy.” 

I’m sure this does lead to me missing the odd tech card here and there that could be interesting, but even with that, I almost never want to display a fully meta deck on here unless the tech card is significantly interesting or a card I really like (there is admittedly a lot of bias that goes into that last category. 

There is also admittedly a flaw in this system in that it does require a lot of faith on my end that the pilots are appropriately naming their lists based on what’s in them, and giving them a unique enough edge for them to stand out. This is not always the case.

Zoru’s Naya Hideaway list above is a great example of something that almost made this week’s Neat-Decking because of a unique name. When I saw a name like Naya Hideaway in the deck dumps, amidst a sea of Boros Energy and UB Murktide, I perked up a bit expecting something interesting. Instead, I clicked on it to find what is basically just Boros Energy with a little extra spice slapped over it. The only green in the deck is the one Gaddock Teeg in the sideboard, and while Collector’s Cage and Windbrisk Heights are pretty cool, the concept of just taking the best and most prominent deck in the format and tweaking it a little bit to give it additional crazy finishing power wasn’t quite neat enough to me to make the cut. 

This is not meant to be a slight to Zoru’s list, because it is still a cool concept, but it doesn’t really feel in the spirit of Neat-Decking. But I wanted to bring it up because I end up cutting a couple decks each week due to similar feelings to them that I have to this one. There’s nothing wrong with decks like this, they’re still cool and get results, and I know I have put decks like Rakdos Midrange in Pioneer on here before, but I’m trying to avoid it where I can. If I wasn’t peeling back the curtain this week to show my process, this deck might’ve made the list. Instead, it makes a really good example of something that is fringe. 

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And that’ll do it for another Neat-Decking. Hopefully people enjoyed this little insight into how I select decks for this. If anyone has any questions, I am happy to answer them in the reddit comments or in our thegathering.gg Discord server.

I also want to say again how excited I am for Foundations. I have had a very complicated relationship with this game over the last week, and it’s something I am still not fully able to process just yet. The Universes Beyond announcement has impacted me pretty severely, and while I don’t want to ruin the fun of anyone who might be very excited, it was the one thing they could’ve announced that would have soured me this heavily.

That being said, Foundations is absolutely incredible. It has lived up to my expectations for what I wanted from it in every single way. My complicated feelings on the game aside, this set is everything Magic should be and I’m excited we will have it front and center for five years. We’re going to need it. 

If anyone has any suggestions on that or wants to offer up decks I missed, please find me in thegathering.gg’s discord server @adolce95. Other than that, I’m looking forward to sharing more lists next week!