Brewer’s Cap: Chevill, Bane of Monsters

Hey everyone! This is my first article with the site so it is time to introduce myself. I am Jared Farris and you can often find me ranting on twitter or streaming everyone’s favorite game, Magic: the Gathering. I travel to many SCG Tournaments and compete pretty much every weekend! You can find me on Twitter @jaredfarris_ and on Twitch at twitch.tv/jaredfarris87! Now on to the article. Enjoy!

What is Brewer’s Cap?

Brewer’s Cap is an article series that you can find here, where I try to identify powerful cards that may be flying underneath your radar. I approach deckbuilding in a way that looks for synergies, strength, and redundancies. This week we’re going to be exploring Chevill, Bane of Monsters.

Standard

Right now, Standard is a completely different ball game then what Chevill is good at. We do not live in a metagame where one for one removal is good, but in the light of the announcement of bans coming to the format, I have a lot of hope for Chevill, Bane of Monsters. Let us take a look at some of the cards Chevill is good within Standard.

The first thing that pops out at me is Chevill’s casting cost. Being just GB to cast, Chevill is a cheap defensive creature we can use to generate a ton of value. This reminds me of another card that can either be offensive or defensive and just so happens to pair up very well with Chevill. Enter Hero of Precinct One. Hero can be like a Young Pyromancer in the right deck and after looking at previous builds of Esper Hero, you can see that the deck operates as a control deck that uses hard removal to trigger Hero and develop a board that overwhelms your opponent quickly. What if we took this same mentality and applied it towards Chevill? Together we have a tandem duo that will quickly dominate any creature-based matchup.

Abzan Hero

Creatures (19) 4 Hero of Precinct One 3 Chevill, Bane of Monsters 4 Knight of Autumn 3 Kunoros, Hound of Athreos 2 Polukranos Unchained 3 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves Spells (17) 2 Status // Statue 3 Agonizing Remorse 3 Mortify 3 Assassin’s Trophy 4 Vraska, Golgari Queen 2 Garruk, Cursed Huntsman

Lands (24) 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Temple Garden 3 Godless Shrine 3 Indatha Triome 2 Temple of Malady 3 Forest 3 Swamp 2 Plains

This list offers hard removal and is the definition of a midrange deck. We have a game against aggressive matchups and we can grind out value in the long game. Another combination this deck gets to pull off is Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves, and Garruk, Cursed Huntsman. If you have never played these two cards together, you are missing out!

Pioneer

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a hardcore lover of everything Niv-Mizzet Reborn. Whenever a good multi-colored card is spoiled I try to jam it in every way possible until I ultimately decide that it is not good enough. Well with Chevill, it actually made its way into my Niv-Mizzet list in Pioneer.

Chevill, Bane of Monsters is a roadblock that we can set up on turn 2, then on turn 3, we can use one of our plethora of removal spells to instantly gain value off of Chevill. 5c Niv often plays out as tap-out control and having Chevill in out curve fits that game plan to a tee. Here is what my list looks like with Chevill.

5 Color Niv-Mizzet

Creatures (19) 1 Knight of Autumn 2 Chevill, Bane of Monsters 4 Niv-Mizzet Reborn 1 Questing Beast 4 Sylvan Caryatid 1 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves 3 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath 3 Voice of Resurgence Spells (24) 2 Abrupt Decay 4 Bring to Light 1 Dovin’s Veto 1 Dreadbore 1 Enter the God-Eternals 1 Extinction Event 3 Fatal Push 2 Nahiri, the Harbinger 3 Oath of Kaya 4 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Thought Erasure 1 Unmoored Ego

Lands (37) 2 Breeding Pool 4 Fabled Passage 1 Forest 3 Glacial Fortress 3 Indatha Triome 1 Island 1 Ketria Triome 1 Mana Confluence 1 Mountain 1 Plains 1 Raugrin Triome 1 Savai Triome 2 Steam Vents 2 Stomping Ground 1 Swamp 3 Temple Garden 2 Temple of Silence 2 Watery Grave 3 Woodland Cemetery 2 Zagoth Triome Sideboard (15) 1 Barrier Breach 1 Casualties of War 1 Extinction Event 1 Fatal Push 2 Kunoros, Hound of Athreos 1 Questing Beast 2 Rakdos’s Return 2 Slaughter Games 2 Thoughtseize 1 Voice of Resurgence 1 Yorion, Sky Nomad

Pioneer is a great spot for Chevill to thrive and generate a ton of value. Another deck that you could consider Chevill, Bane of Monsters in would be Jund Lurrus. The deck generates a lot of low to the ground value but has an incredible engine for the long game with Unbridled Growth and Lurrus of the Dream-Den. I do not have a list for this deck, but if this something you would like me to work on, please let me know in the comments down below or my Twitter!

Modern

I think Chevill, Bane of Monsters could see play in Modern, but it would be specific on the metagame. For this reason, instead of sticking him in an already predetermined 75, I have thought of a brew that I could see him being successful in. Say hello to Abzan Lurrus.

This list is one that I think is strong enough to compete in Modern. We have the ability to cheese out some wins through Leonin Arbiter and Assassin’s Trophy/Path to Exile. We also have the ability to grind late game with Mishra’s Bauble and Lurrus of the Dream-Den. This card advantage will only make our Chevill, Bane of Monsters better because we get to dig towards the hard removal we need to push us ahead!

Wrap Up

Okay, guys that is it for me today! You can plan on seeing this series again in the future as we take a deep dive towards deck-building synergies and with enough interest, we can even turn these decks into videos on our YouTube page! Just let me know in the comments down below what you would like to see! This is Jared signing off!