Metagame: A Cutter for Every Format

These circumstances make Cori-Steel Cutter the biggest addition to Tarkir: Dragonstorm for competitive Magic, with the potential for significant changes to them as they now have to deal with an artifact that can be a bit more difficult to interact with before generating value, especially if the Metagame does not favor cheap and flexible interaction against artifacts.

Standard

Izzet Prowess

The first appearances of Cori-Steel Cutter came from the Izzet Prowess lists in Standard. The archetype was already showing some results in Leagues on Magic Online before Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and the set added enough elements to put it in the spotlight.

Early versions sought the interactions of Stormchaser’s Talent with This Town Ain’t Big Enough to trigger two spells per turn consistently, while others opted for the “cleaner” route with efficient cantrips, Stock Up and Slickshot Show-Off to end games quickly.

Grixis Bounce

The interaction of Bounce decks, which return permanents to the hand with Fear of Isolation and This Town Ain’t Big Enough to reuse ETB effects, soon gave rise to another variant of the archetype in Grixis colors with the new equipment. This variant, however, did not have much success in recent Challenges.

Gruul Prowess

It didn’t take long for Mice lists and other Prowess versions to take advantage of the new card. In addition to the ease of casting two spells per turn, these variants can take advantage of the equipment to trigger the Valiant abilities of Heartfire Hero and Emberheart Challenger, making them more relevant threats when coming from the top.

Cards like Questing Druid and Hearth Elemental also make it easier to cast two spells in a turn, increasing the deck's consistency in creating tokens.

Rakdos Mice

The Rakdos versions follow almost the same the mold of the other lists and also extracts value from Cori-Steel Cutter as an equipment to trigger Valiant while benefiting from the wide range of low-cost spells, with the added bonus of the potential combo-kills that the combination of Callous Sell-Sword and Slickshot Show-Off provides.

This variant forgoes Leyline of Resonance, a common staple of Sell-Sword lists, for a more consistent and less damaging card to draw off the top in longer games.

Pioneer

Rakdos Prowess

Prowess and Red Aggro lists were the first and main strategies to utilize Cori-Steel Cutter in these two weeks. Whether it's with four copies in the Maindeck, or a split between them in the Sideboard, but there's still no consensus on where the card belongs and/or if these are the best lists to take advantage of it.

There are some micro-interactions in Pioneer that make it even more attractive than in Standard. One of them involves the way Claim // Fame allows you to trigger the equipment with just one card.

Mono Red Aggro

Mono Red Aggro is the current deck to beat in Pioneer today, and a lot of it is due to its explosive early game potential combined with the inevitability that Sunspine Lynx guarantees in a Metagame unaccustomed to non-basic land hate.

This list swaps Sunspine Lynx for a full set of Cori-Steel Cutter, betting on a more stable mid-game now that many players are adapting to deal with the archetype's most famous branch, either with decks that are not as preyed on by Sunspine Lynx, or using cards that are more efficient in dealing with it.

Izzet Phoenix

Cutter has also made appearances in Izzet Phoenix lists over the past week, with splits divided between the maindeck and sideboard. Cori-Steel Cutter may not have the most relevant properties as equipment in this list, but it benefits from the wide range of spells that Phoenix naturally plays each turn, creating more tokens that complement Arclight Phoenix as recurring threats that require specific interaction from the opponent to be dealt with.

Modern

Izzet Prowess

Izzet Prowess was revitalized in Modern by the release of Cori-Steel Cutter. The archetype has been absent from the competitive Metagame since Modern Horizons 3 and was one of the strategies left behind by Boros Energy's dominance as the format's best deck last year.

Amidst the various interventions that occurred last year, which also included the banning of The One Ring, and the addition of a new card that allows for a constant flow of threats — which has always been an inherent weakness of Prowess decks —, the archetype returned to the tables and has grown as one of the potential competitors for the Tarkir season.

An inherent advantage of Cutter in Modern lists is that it counts as an Artifact for cards that care about Delirium, namely Dragon’s Rage Channeler, Unholy Heat, and in some cases Violent Urge, whose potential alongside Slickshot Show-Off should not be ignored.

Jeskai Prowess

Jeskai Prowess variants have performed well recently and follow a less explosive approach than the Izzet shells and make up for it with broader interaction potential for the current Metagame.

Jeskai Ascendancy

Without Underworld Breach, lists that try to take advantage of the interaction of Emry, Lurker of the Loch with Mox Opal and Mox Amber now resort to Jeskai Ascendancy to win games.

In this case, Cori-Steel Cutter also comes in as a card that complements the main game plan by putting more creatures on the board and granting Trample for a token with infinite power. In addition, it also complements the more interactive plan that includes Urza’s Saga and running some cards like Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student for a fair game.

Legacy

Izzet Tempo

Despite being commonly referred to as Delver, Izzet Tempo decks have sought to replace the card that gave rise to the archetype's name at every possible opportunity — Delver of Secrets no longer does enough to justify its place in Legacy — and the most recent versions have adopted a mix of Cori-Steel Cutter with zero-mana cards like Urza's Bauble and Mishra's Bauble to trigger the artifact.

Unlike in other formats, the possibility of using Cori-Steel Cutter as a permanent threat in which we create one or two tokens and carry the game with them while we hold the board with removals and the stack with Force of Will and Daze is a surefire possibility, in addition to invalidating the opponent's targeted removals that do not directly deal with the artifact, since the cheap cantrips allow us to restore the board position at any moment.

Some variants have also opted for Stormchaser’s Talent to increase the number of interactions with Delirium or Slickshot Show-Off for more explosive turns, while others have given up on equipment in favor of Delver of Secrets, maintaining the more traditional core.

That’s all for today!

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