What's Cooking? Firing Up the Witch's Oven

Faithless Brewing, Episode 31: Witch's Oven

Let's face it, Vantress Gargoyle is probably not going to make the leap to eternal playable anytime soon. It struggles to attack in Pioneer, although our Modern explorations did yield some very interesting builds using powerful tools like Archive Trap and Into the Story. That being said, when a card can't even hack it in Standard, we shouldn't ask too much of it off the bat.

On the other hand, when a card is dominating Standard and meets the benchmark metrics for eternal playability (best in class effect, highly efficient, useful card type) it is certainly worth a closer look. Witch's Oven fits that bill. The "Kentucky Fried Kitten" / "Meow Mix" combo with Cauldron Familiar was a breakout star at the most recent Mythic Championships, and those two have started to make some inroads into Pioneer as well. But how good is this combo really? And is there more to the Oven than just cat food? While Damon and Dan are busy prepping Niv-Mizzet in Modern for GP Columbus, David has been cooking up some spicy Oven lists that he thinks just might hit the sweet spot.

Flashback: Vantress Gargoyle

Modern

Simic Flying Goyfs: 3-2 league. Extremely effective at finding big flyers and attacking with them, but struggles against creature decks and high density of removal.

Sultai Flying Goyfs: 2-3 league, noticeably clunkier than the Simic version because Glimpse and Hedron Crab fight for mana, but some additions like Drown in the Loch are well worth the price of admission.

Gargoyles, Please!: 2-3 league. Yes, this is a Modern list with four copies of Didn't Say Please. The concept here is not bad, but the execution could use refinement.

Turbo Trap Control: 4-1 league. This strategy might be secretly excellent. Needs a more diverse set of spells in the main deck, but Mystic Sanctuary + Into the Story is incredible and the sideboard juke plan can steal games.

Pioneer

Emry Ascendancy: achieved numerous turn 3 kills, but this deck relies super heavily on Emry surviving, and probably shouldn't run any Gargoyles as they can never attack

Gargoyle Gift: 3-2 league, Gargoyle is actually a decent blocker here and synergizes with both Kiora and Gift

Bonus list: Retraction Helix Ascendancy by MrRaeb

Brew Session: Witch's Oven

Pioneer

Sketch 1: Sultai Cat Dredge

Sketch 2: Rakdos Bone Picker

Sketch 3: Grixis Emerge Oven

Sketch 4: Orzhov Life Gain

Modern

Utopia Niv-Mizzet (GP Columbus build)