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Mastering Prowess in Modern: Deck & Sideboard Guide
Intro
Prowess is a beloved mechanic and players happily sleeve up the strategy when the time is right. According to many aggro specialists and aficionados, this time is now - mainly thanks to a new Outlaws of Thunder Junction addition in Slickshot Show-Off!
true aggro deck that can really catch opponents by surprise by presenting turn three kills
This is the list none other than Ryan Overturf used to smash faces at NRG.
(7 - 2)
77% in NRG Series $10,000 Showdown - Minneapolis, Minnesota (Modern) @NRG Series [237 Players] — 20-Apr-2024
$382/126.34 Tix
Maindeck (60)
| Creature [16] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Monastery Swiftspear | $0.69 | |
| 4 Soul-Scar Mage | $1.79 | |
| 4 Slickshot Show-Off | $19.99 | |
| 4 Questing Druid | $5.49 | |
| Artifact [4] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Mishra's Bauble | $0.79 | |
| Instant [16] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Lightning Bolt | $1.29 | |
| 4 Wild Slash | $0.35 | |
| 4 Lava Dart | $0.35 | |
| 4 Manamorphose | $2.79 | |
| Sorcery [4] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Crash Through | $0.35 | |
| Enchantment [1] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 Seal of Fire | $0.35 | |
| Land [19] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2 Stomping Ground | $14.99 | |
| 1 Commercial District | $6.99 | |
| 3 Scalding Tarn | $23.99 | |
| 3 Bloodstained Mire | $27.99 | |
| 2 Arid Mesa | $20.99 | |
| 2 Wooded Foothills | $32.99 | |
| 4 Mountain | $0.01 | |
| 2 Fiery Islet | $1.99 | |
| Sideboard [15] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Tormod's Crypt | $0.59 | |
| 4 Pick Your Poison | $0.35 | |
| 4 Unholy Heat | $0.35 | |
| 1 Destructive Revelry | $0.35 | |
| 1 Cursed Totem | $2.79 | |
| 1 Turn the Earth | $0.35 | |
$126.34 Tix @cardhoarder
$3.16 / Week @cardhoarder
$332.57 @tcgplayer
$431.41 @cardkingdom
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Similar Decks
Proxies
Archetype Analysis
Magic online format
Apprentice and MWS .dec
Let’s dive in!
Card Choices
The Creatures
You don’t get more classic than Monastery Swiftspear. Pauper-banned aggro all-star that’s played in every red deck.
The combination of haste, naturally red and desirable mechanic, and prowess makes it the perfect combination. While typically deployed on turn one to get that damage in, it can be sandbagged for future deployment alongside a flurry of spells to create the best Fireball impression.
The other staple one-drop alonsgide Swifty. They share the stats and prowess but Soul-Scar crucially lacks haste. Does it make it clearly worse? Not at all.
Soul-Scar’s replacement effect is very relevant, so I advise that you not overlook it. Dealing damage in the form of -1/-1 counters opens up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to making profitable in-combat exchanges. It becomes so much tougher for the opponent to calculate how to block when they need to account for Prowess *and* the fact that their creature might shrink. Let’s add Crash Through and trample into the equation and it becomes a real headache.
I’ve praised Questing Druid a fair bit already and here it shines even more - yes, it’s possible.
First, being a creature is super relevant. As your gameplan is creature-centric and you want to push damage through, every single threat you can muster in the face of interaction counts.
On top of that, it provides card advantage, allowing us to go toe-to-toe with decks that want to counter us like Rakdos Grief or Izzet Murktide. They can’t just hope that one or two removal spells are going to be enough, as there will always be more.
Last but not least, it adds a whole new layer of gameplay where we can play a bit more of a draw-go playstyle. The opponent can’t ever truly know whether we’ve run out of gas.
Now for the real star of the show. Slickshot Show-Off is a new addition to the archetype and it seems to have single-handedly invigorated the whole deck. This Sprite Dragon / Kiln Fiend split card is putting in the work.
You can look at it through multiple lens - a flying Swifspear with better prowess, a hasty evasive Kiln Fiend, Sprite Dragon with temporary buff. However, it all boils down to the fact that it has the perfect combination of key words that a deck like this would be interested in. It’s a must-kill, as it alone pushes ungodly amount of damage.
To some Plot seems like just flavour text - but those same people said it about Ragavan’s dash. Plot is very relevant, because it opens up new play patterns. When you know that your Murktide opponent is clearly holding up Counterspell, plot your Slickshot and effectively waste their mana.
A fact that this particular version does not take advantage of is that it’s a Wizard, so it plays really well with Flame of Anor.
The Burn
As any aggressive strategy in red, you do have access to burn spells to finish the opponent off. In this version, the burn suite is absolutely sublime.
The first is the predictable classic - Lightning Bolt. It doesn’t get better than that. It kills off most early opposing creatures but is also great on rate when it comes to going face.
Wild Slash is an interesting one. At first, you might think that playing Shock is just a bad idea in a high-power format like Modern and that if you wanted to play Shock it’s better to go with Play with Fire. However, Wild Slash matches up particularly well against a known anti-creature predator - The One Ring. What protection does specifically is prevent damage from being dealt to the player with protection. Ferocious Wild Slash makes that impossible and hence allows you to deal that damage. Just shoot yourself or your creature to trigger it and enjoy a win out of nowhere!
Lava Dart doesn’t have as many targets as it used to but it still hits DRCs, Ragavans, and Orcish Bowmasters. Crucially though thanks to flashback you can doublespell off of a single card which is going to come up a lot. I tend to side it out against decks where 1 damage doesn’t matter but in racing matchups it can be the difference maker.
The Card Draw
This deck draws surprisingly many cards. Cards that draw cards are great because you’re card neutral but you trigger prowess along the way. Mishra’s Bauble is a criminally powerful and efficient way to trigger your creatures, especially in multiples.
Crash Through grants trample which is a great surprise tool against opponents who thought they’d have good blocks - and suddenly they very much don’t!
Manamorphose infrequently accomplishes much - its main application is triggering prowess for free, similarly to Mishra’s Bauble. Sometimes in postboard games you’ll actually fix the mana to GG.
Tips and Tricks
- You can use Mishra’s Bauble as a free Opt. Bauble yourself and if you don’t like the card, shuffle it away with a fetchland.
- If you exile Questing Druid with another Questing Druid, you get to choose whether you go on an adventure again or deploy the creature.
- Every spell in the deck triggers Druid except for other Druids and Mishra’s Bauble.
- Sometimes it’s better to hold onto your Manamorphoses for more explosive future turns rather than use them as a ‘Draw a card’ effect. They are best combined with as many creatures as possible.
- Remember that you choose the colours for Manamorphose before you draw, so you won’t know the fresh card when deciding.
- When you grant creatures trample but the opponent still has blockers, you can let them declare blocks and kill a blocker then - this makes all the trample damage go through. It’s much more deceptive than if you’d killed a creature before blocks, giving the opponent more info and allowing to re-distribute blocks.
Sideboard Guide
Golgari Yawgmoth
I cut 4 burn spells that don’t kill anything into 4 burn spells that kill everything. You want to still have your aggressive plan as the main avenue to victory but it’s super useful to interact at a few key junctures.
Domain Zoo
Another matchup where I side in 8 relevant removal spells in exchange of 8 rather lacklustre spells. You play an almost Delver-esque game where you deploy a threat or two and are disruptive whilst pushing damage through.
Amulet Titan
Unholy Heat kills Titan and Dryad super cleanly and Pick Your Poison gets rid of Saga, Amulet, and Dryad. This combination makes it much easier to combat their main plan while executing our own. Their main removal spell is Dismember which we are very happy to see by and large.
Rakdos Grief
Against a deck that brings the deck to such a low resource fight, I’d rather play an Underworld Breach version but Questing Druid is doing a great job at refilling your hand and being a threat at the same time. I side in Heats to be ready to trade on resources and answer Grief, Dauthi Voidwalker, or Sheoldred efficiently.
Goryo’s
This is *the* Tormod’s Crypt matchup. They don’t do much if they do their thing. They can only Ephemerate Solitude but we’ve got multiple ways to stop it.
If you see that racing doesn’t work out against a certain version or opponent and you get Solitude-d too hard, you can side Slash back in for Lava Dart.
Conclusion
And this is all you need to know to sleeve up Prowess! This true aggro deck can really catch opponents by surprise by presenting turn three kills, seemingly out of nowhere.
And remember to hold my hand and pass the turn together. Cheers!