Season 18, Episode 23: Brew Session (Archfiend of the Dross) + Flashback (Invasion of Gobakhan)

Archfiend of the Dross burst onto the scene at DreamHack Dallas, where cftsoc unleashed a devastating combo with Metamorphic Alteration that took the tournament by storm. Turning an opponent’s creature into a copy of Archfiend, without access to Oil counters, means instant death on their upkeep. The one two punch of a 6/6 flier for 2BB, paired with a blue two drop, harkens back to the days of Dimir Inverter, when the unique combo-control strategy menaced the Pioneer format while racking up an impressive 47% win rate.

Excitement for the Archfiend combo has abated in recent weeks. Despite the heavy scrutiny among dedicated Pioneer players, there is still no stock build of the combo that has delivered consistent results. While cftsoc splashed blue into a mostly Rakdos shell, others like laa11 and DJeffMTG have pushed for a dedicated Dimir build. Then there are weirder options like Golgari Fight Rigging, or even Jund with Harmless Offering — all decks predicated on the promising observation that Archfiend of the Dross is a powerful standalone card. This is a combo that should work, and it’s a great mystery why the new Inverter has so far failed to live up to its billing.

Today on Faithless Brewing, David and Cavedan put on their sleuthing caps to get to the bottom of the mysterious missing demon. We look at eight different Pioneer builds with Archfiend, some featuring Metamorphic Alteration, and others not. We also review our testing results with Invasion of Gobakhan, which snagged David a nifty 5-0 trophy with a unique aggro brew.

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Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com

Decklists

David’s Sultai Fiend Rigging

Sultai Fight Rigging by biz1 (5-0)

David’s Jund Harmless Offering

Dimir Archfiend Combo by DJeffMTG

Dimir Alteration (Yorion) by laa11 (5-0)

Dimir JVP Alteration by OafMcNamara (T16 Pioneer Challenge)

David’s Atraxa Rise to Glory

Drossed to Kill by KilgoreTrout503

David’s RW Shatterskull Invasion (5-0)

Dan’s BW Demonic Processors