Welcome to yet another week of Precon Recon here at Pojo.com! I have to say I had a bunch of you readers write me with some great decks for me to take a look at, and while I wish that I could get to them all at once, but they will be stretched out over a few weeks. Today’s article features a shout out to Kelvin Brazell. Kel asked me to take a look inside the Devouring Skies deck this week and try and give it a more control with scry feeling. Hopefully I can do just that. For a peek at the original deck list, please check it out over at the Magic the Gathering site here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/newphyrexia/themedeck#deck2.

Devouring Skies - New Phyrexia Intro Pack
Main Deck

60 cards

13 Island
11 Swamp

2 Augury Owl
2 Blind Zealot
2 Brass Squire
1 Darkslick Drake
2 Dementia Bat
3 Hovermyr
2 Impaler Shrike
1 Kiln Walker
2 Mortis Dogs
1 Necrogen Scudder
1 Neurok Invisimancer
1 Phyrexian Ingester
1 Silver Myr
2 Spire Monitor

1 Argentum Armor
2 Copper Carapace
1 Doom Blade
1 Necropouncer
2 Sickleslicer
2 Vapor Snag
2 Viridian Claw
2 Warlord's Axe

      So in trying to stay control based while using the advantages of scrying in standard, we will have some very direct approaches to this reconstruction. Anything that is not in some way either doing what the deck is designed to do or utilizing what we want the deck to accomplish is useless, and believe me, there is plenty of overhauling required. The decks original design was based on air supremacy. However, the deck fell short in many ways. The main part it falls short in is not having as many threats in the air as it could have. Luckily, we will remedy that while adding the flavor of control and scry.
 
    So what are we pulling? I’ve been talking a whole lot, but not saying anything. So let’s get the show on the road. Let’s start things off by removing the Kiln Walker. Only one of them, and how touch and go it is means that is an easy decision for me. Necrogen Scudder is another easy pull for me, since I am usually not a fan of anything that helps my opponent. Spire Monitor is just too slow for what it doesn’t do, so there is another easy pull. The Mortis Dogs also do not do much in the way of aiding the over all good of this particular deck, and should be removed. The Dementia Bats would be more of a fit if we were trying to build a discard deck, but in this particular setup, useless. The Warlord’s Axes, Necropouncer, and Sickleslicer are all too costly to make this deck fire off at a rapid pace. The underlying idea is to use the Brass Squires to move the equipment faster. However, there are only two of them in there, and that makes use of expensive equipment slow. Therefore, those aforementioned equipments must be removed to find much more useful equipments. The single Silver Myr is a waste, and I will opt to remove it instead of adding more. Neurok Invisomancer is another wasteful card considering some of the other options. The single Doomblade is also unnecessary, and frees up the space we could use for some other options.
 
     So that should be a decent amount of space to begin the remodeling. Sixteen cards out, but what to put in? What could sent this deck over the top? Obviously any of the swords could be of great use, but perhaps you cannot obtain them very easily, what then? For starters, Darksteel Axe is a great option, cheap, effective, and can turn even small threats into repeating nightmares. Four in, no question. To help take advantage of scrying, two more Augury Owls should also add in the fun. Another way to help out with Scrying is Preordain. It reached the heights in popularity it has for many reasons, and should not be overlooked in this deck either. Four copies, no question. Another very impressive card that should go in to get the best of some of your equipment is Trespassing Souleater. The ability to make it unblockable for either one blue mana or two life makes it so versatile and really a decent addition. For the final two spots, I elected to go with some more equipment, Barbed Battlegear. But the fact that they reduce the toughness could be problematic. Just be careful what you go putting this on. But in putting it on either a Hover Myr or Trespassing Souleater could end the game very fast. But, this can also be exchanged for two more Vapor Snags. That way when and if something with flying lands in your way, you can simply bounce it back out of the way, hitting for another damage, and getting through for some more damage, all while hopefully scrying into another Vapor Snag. So the final decision is ultimately up to the reader. Either option could be very decent, just comes down to play style. If it were up to me, than the better option could be the Vapor Snag.
 
      And there you have it. A deck made to control things based off of the scrying and Vapor Snags, while getting you damage very fast and in the air, where it is hardest to stop.
 
    I am very glad to have been receiving e-mails from you readers with some awesome ideas, and hope that more of you will write in!
 
     So until next time, when I look at the Artful Destruction deck for Randal Bozza, keep safe, and keep gaming!