Riding the New SuPar Wave Deck to Top 8
PLUS: More Premodern Substacks to follow, the finals of EPIC, and updates to the infamous Angel McAngelface deck
No long introduction today since it’s already a long issue. I recently started a new job (more on that next time, maybe) and so I haven’t been able to publish as much as I’d like. I did want to quickly discuss a new brew that I worked on that has shown some promise. As usual, appreciate any likes, comments, shares, subscribes, etc. Enjoy!
Kind of a Guide to SuPar Wave
I made the Top 8 of the May webcam monthly with a new deck called SuPar Wave (i.e., Survival Parallax Wave). My brewing partner, Brian Kowal (of Ponza fame), also played the deck in the monthly and made Top 8 — he also Top 4’ed a $1K in Madison with it. I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the deck so I wanted to share a few thoughts about building the deck, how it works, and potential improvements. To start off, here’s what I played in May (deck list):
At first glance it may just look like a fair Survival deck but what takes it to the next level are the inclusion of Parallax Wave and Opalescence, together referred to as Opal-Wave. This two-card combo has rather absurd ability to:
Exile as many creatures as the Opal-Wave controller wants to by using Parallax Wave’s ability to exile a target creature and then while holding priority, targeting the Parallax Wave itself with its own ability. Once these resolve, the Wave will get exiled, then return to play due to the Wave’s leave the battlefield trigger. Then the initial exiling of a creature will take place. Since the Parallax Wave is a new object now (remember it was exiled and return to play), there is no way to get the exiled creature back. And now the Parallax Wave is back with a fresh five Fading counters too!
Turn the Parallax Wave (and any other global enchantments) into creatures based on their mana cost. This means you have at least a 4/4 creature that can protect itself from targeted removal by exiling itself and returning to play (remember, new object).
These are the most common play patterns utilized by Replenish and Enchantress, the main decks you’ll see running Opal-Wave. Less commonly seen is that Opal-Wave can blink any creature in and out an infinite amount of times — usually you’re just exiling them forever. SuPar Wave takes this interaction as the top-end finisher, allowing you to blink:
Wall of Roots for infinite green mana
Wall of Blossoms to draw your deck
Spike Feeder for infinite life and +1/+1 counters (if you have infinite mana)
Uktabi Orangutan/Monk Realist for infinite Disenchant effects
Deranged Hermit for infinite Squirrel tokens
Karmic Guide to bring back all creatures in your graveyard
The beauty is that most of these creatures are playable as they are. So think of SuPar Wave as a midrange deck with combo finish. After building the deck with Brian and the Survival Discord, as well as playing it, we discovered that the deck had a lot more gameplay and nuance than we knew. I’ll get into that further down, but the deck ended up with three distinct and viable paths plans. Here’s the sections I’ll cover:
Genesis of the Deck: How the deck came to be
Card Choices: Which cards were used and which cards were being considered
Gameplay: How to play the deck
What’s Next and Other Thoughts: Thoughts on the deck’s future and miscellaneous things
Genesis of the Deck
I primarily build and play my own creations. Some of them remain locked in my Google Sheet for months or years (there are 185 deck lists in my “PM Brews” tab, yes, all on a single sheet). This particular list began in December 2023 after Rich Shay posed a question in the Premodern Discord:
Rich, of course, would go on to find the better win condition he sought. At the time, I replied back to him about my red-green Festive Enchantress deck that had made Top 16 in the December 2023 webcam monthly, which had considered using the classic finisher of Pandemonium and Saproling Burst, but ultimately didn’t. The conversation progressed about Rich’s search for a win condition in Enchantress that didn’t need to pass the turn and it set me off on a brewing adventure to build a deck that won with Opal-Wave plus Pandemonium (i.e., infinitely blinking your Wave would cause infinite Pandemonium triggers).
The first thing I tried was a take on an old brew by Robert Cuellari that used Oath of Druids into Anarchist, which would then grab your Replenish from the graveyard. Although the linked version doesn’t contain this, some variants of the brew had utilized Pandemonium and Saproling Burst to hopefully one-shot the opponent. I viewed Saproling Burst as a generally weak card, so I hoped to “improve” upon the deck by replacing it with Opal-Wave. The problem is that Pandemonium itself isn’t very good and quite a liability to send out early against a Stiflenought opponent. I decided to scrap Pandemonium too and for a while I crawled through Scryfall trying to figure out if there was a combination of cards that would allow me to win the game on the spot if I: Oath into Anarchist, bring back Replenish, cast Replenish to bring back Opal-Wave, blink Anarchist to bring back [X] sorcery, cast that sorcery to generate enough mana that I could blink Anarchist again to use Living Wish for Ghitu Slinger, cast the Slinger, blink it infinitely with Opal-Wave for the win. I just could never find the right [X] sorcery to generate enough mana just in case I didn’t have five extra mana sitting around for the Living Wish and Ghitu Slinger following a four mana Replenish. And so I was stuck on this question for over a year:
My breakthrough was realizing that we could just one of the other busted green enchantments in Premodern: Survival of the Fittest. What could go wrong with combining some of the most powerful strategies in Premodern: the utility and card advantage engine of Survival alongside the usually game-ending interaction of Opal-Wave? What’s more, unlike what usually happens when you jam two strategies together, the pieces actually kind of worked together synergistically.
Once I made that change the rest of the deck came together quickly and I shared my first iteration of the deck in April 2025. I got some solid feedback but no one was particularly hyped about the deck… not even the readers of this newsletter (side note, sorry I haven’t played Slivers yet, still need to acquire the pieces)! No one except… Brian Kowal and a few others in the Survival Discord (QuirionGamer, SamuraiFunn, and a few others).
Here’s the evolution of the deck as I sketched it up before suggestions, what I played in May, and what Brian played:
And here’s Brian’s deck photo on Bluesky, give it lots of love:
Card Choices
I’m going to list most of the cards of the main deck with brief explanations. I wouldn’t use any of the cards or quantities as set in stone though. The deck is still very much in its infancy and it’ll likely change as time goes on.
Combo Pieces
Parallax Wave — We go with four Parallax Waves here to maximize the combo potential but also because the card works surprisingly well with our value creatures. A common play pattern in the deck involved exiling three of my opponent’s creatures and then two of my own, such as a Wall of Blossoms and an Auramancer. When my upkeep rolls around and Wave leaves the battlefield, I get to draw a card and return Parallax Wave from the graveyard to hand. And then repeat!
Opalescence — I was originally more all-in on Opalescence but was convinced to shave it down to just one. They’re not great early on but a timely one will shut the door on a game. With Auramancer in your deck, you’re not that concerned if your only copy gets destroyed or discarded.
Seal of Cleansing — A great utility card to include in any Enlightened Tutor deck, it plays well with Auramancer and in a pinch can combo with Parallax Wave.
Tutors and Engines
Survival of the Fittest — One of the most powerful cards in Premodern, it’s simultaneously an instant-speed creature tutor and a card draw engine alongside Squee.
Enlightened Tutor — One of the most controversial cards in the format, it was ranked by the community as a Top 10 card years ago but has since faded in popularity as players began to run more Disenchant effects in the main and the card disadvantage became too much. This is one deck that can often play through both of these issues: 1) Auramancer grabs your enchantments back quite efficiently and 2) Survival is a card advantage machine over time and Opal-Wave shuts the door quickly.
Considerations
Sylvan Library / Mirri’s Guile — Some early builds had been heavier into these cards (along with an ambitious Serra’s Sanctum) and lower counts of Enlightened Tutor. I could see trying this out again too, especially since we play so many shuffle effects.
Beatdown
Exalted Angel — I was inspired by Corned Beef Hash, the Survival Terrageddon deck pioneered by Billy Mills-Curran and others. Corned Beef Hash often won games on the back of an Exalted Angel alongside protection from Sylvan Safekeeper and I liked having that beatdown option in the deck. Brian was more high on that plan, going up to four, while I settled for two plus a Deranged Hermit and Masticore for extra utility.
Deranged Hermit — I chose Hermit because the green mana requirements felt more approachable than Exalted Angel and I thought I might want extra bodies on the field (plus added benefit of infinite Squirrels with Opal-Wave). Hermit wasn’t bad, though I think I will shaving it for a third Exalted Angel next time to try out Brian’s plan more fully. Hermit was consistently an OK card for me.
Masticore — I wanted a way to remove troublesome creatures, such as Meddling Mage. Masticore ended up being good for me but also sometimes too expensive to cast and activate. Overall, I enjoyed the card and although my next list won’t be using one, I’d be happy to include it back in, depending on the results.
Mana Producers
Wall of Roots — Often the best Survival target, it also generates infinite green mana with Opal-Wave. You can even just reset the counters with a value Wave (i.e., Parallax Wave without Opalescence) too.
Birds of Paradise — Really lovely to help with the double-white costs of Opal-Wave. With Anger active, Birds of Paradise can also generate infinite mana of any color with Opal-Wave.
Llanowar Elves / Fyndhorn Elves — Wanted two extra mana producers for fast Exalted Angel, early Survival activations, and ramping out Opal-Wave.
Quirion Ranger — A suggestion by QuirionGamer (go figure), it’s a nice way to get extra white mana with Birds of Paradise. A versatile card alongside Mother of Runes, giving Exalted Angel pseudo-Vigilance, and a tool against Stasis.
Utility
Auramancer / Monk Idealist — An incredible card to get back your impactful enchantments. Often it was the first creatures I would tutor up with Survival. The card alongside Parallax Wave is a mini-engine by itself. Brian ran two copies in his 75 and I’ll be adding in a second copy too.
Genesis — A backup engine, Genesis can help grind away in longer games. I think I might try the deck without it next, as the card may just be training wheels and rely on Karmic Guide to get back any utility creatures I need. Three mana is a lot to use Genesis’s ability and I’m not sure there’s many cards I am worried about dying.
Karmic Guide — A versatile card, often used to bring back an Exalted Angel or whatever utility card you need.
Monk Realist — Enchantment removal is a main deck need against many decks in Premodern in the year 2025. There are definitely decks that it won’t do anything against, but that’s the beauty of Survival decks, right? You can just pitch it.
Mother of Runes / Sylvan Safekeeper — These two cards fulfill similar needs but I ultimately landed on Mother of Runes because I wasn’t certain I’d have the mana to support Safekeeper. I also was planning to run Quirion Ranger, which helped potentially give another benefit to Mother. After playing the deck, I’d love to try Safekeeper instead. Often I found Mother of Runes just a little too slow (Survival up a Mother of Runes and cast it, Survival up an Exalted Angel and cast it morphed, then on your third turn, flip it over). Meanwhile, if I had Safekeeper I could protect the Angel the same turn, shaving off a turn.
Spike Feeder — A pretty mediocre way to gain life against Burn, the card shines in this deck because you can use it as a win condition once you’ve assembled Opal-Wave. Feeder gives you infinite life and if you have infinite mana through Wall of Roots, you can generate infinite +1/+1 counters. This would be your primary same-turn win condition as the opponent shouldn’t have any blockers thanks to Opal-Wave.
Squee, Goblin Nabob — A staple in almost every Survival of the Fittest deck, Squee lets you “draw” an extra card each turn.
Uktabi Orangutan — Similar to Monk Realist, Orangutan is a reasonable include in the main, especially with Stiflenought as a top deck in the format.
Considerations
Academy Rector — I had contemplated playing it when I was running red since Ghitu Slinger could theoretically bin it. I decided four mana was too much, but Brian tried it out and said it did an OK Moat impression, but perhaps too slow overall.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa — A top-end win condition which can utilize infinite green mana, Kamahl has other uses too if you wanted to Wave out your opponent’s lands. I think he’s too expensive though and the Spikes are better uses of infinite green mana.
Nantuko Vigilante — More flexible than Monk Realist and Uktabi Orangutan but also slower and doesn’t allow for shenanigans with Wave. I think it might be right to include one in the sideboard though as a second Disenchant effect you can tutor up with Survival.
Spike Weaver — Brian and I debated the merits between Feeder and Weaver. I ultimately chose Feeder but I think I want to try Weaver next. The ability to blank aggressive decks for two turns and then Wave out the Weaver to keep it going seems really appealing. I may miss out on the infinite life angle of the deck, but you should be winning without it.
Thornscape Battlemage — A suggestion by Mike Harris, I like it as a potential swap for Uktabi Orangutan. Although it’s not as efficient at destroying artifacts (a liability against Stiflenought) and doesn’t interact with Parallax Wave but it does fulfill my desire for a cheap way to interact with small creatures. I think I will try it even with my limit red mana (Birds of Paradise, City of Brass, and Rith’s Grove).
Sideboard
The sideboard is still very much in flux as we discover the deck’s strengths and weaknesses. I had originally put in Gaea’s Blessing and Replenish in there to be even more grindy but I felt that with Auramancer, Karmic Guide, and Genesis, the deck had plenty of ways to bring back permanents. The Blessings were also a hedge against Devourer, which had done well at Lobstercon and I anticipated there may be players looking to try out the deck. I think I may be a bit over-indexed on Disenchant effects, so I may shave that down a touch. Just don’t copy Brian’s Karmic Justice, he misremembered the effect (it doesn’t trigger off of creatures).
There’s no set sideboard guide quite yet, but if the deck becomes more battle tested then perhaps one will be created.
Gameplay
The deck has four distinct game plans and knowing which to use has been a work in progress for me:
Exalted Angel beatdown: You have the ability to attack with a face-up Exalted Angel on turn four and with Survival you can keep tutoring up Angels, one after another. Protected with Mother of Runes, Sylvan Safekeeper, or Genesis, it’s a potent threat that many decks cannot beat.
Opal-Wave control: Opal-Wave is nothing new and one of the most powerful interactions in the format. Clear the board, protect itself from targeted creature removal, and hit in for four damage each turn. Not bad!
Opal-Wave infinite: Mentioned a few times already, Opal-Wave plus your creatures such as Wall of Blossoms, Spikes, Deranged Hermit, etc. can sometimes win the game on the spot.
Value Parallax Wave: This plan was actually one of the most powerful that we didn’t fully appreciate until playing the deck. Combining Wave with Auramancer (to get back your Wave over and over) and your value creatures while exiling your opponent’s, even temporarily, was pretty devastating.
During my Top 8 run in the May webcam monthly, I played against:
Pit-Rack (W) — An early Hypnotic Specter wrecked me in a game and was a case where I wished I had a cheap creature like Ghitu Slinger to take it down. Game 3 I was able to navigate through multiple hate pieces (Gloom, Planar Void, Bottomless Pit, etc.) thanks to an Exalted Angel cast through morph. If you can stick a Survival then it becomes really hard for Pit-Rack to reduce your hand size.
Gro-A-Tog (W) — I lost to a Mystic Enforcer but Opal-Wave caught them by surprise in other games and I was able to combo out. Xantid Swarm did some work here and I’m wondering if I need more if I’m ditching Genesis.
Survival Cheerios (W) — An inventive deck based off of SamuraiFunn’s Lobstercon list, I felt like my combo engine was more streamlined, though their ability to have quick beats with Anger almost got me before I assembled Opal-Wave.
SuPar Wave (W) — The mirror is just a headache. Opal-Wave mirrors are still something I’m trying to wrap my head around. Gary Roth has an excellent writeup on interactions between two Waves that is worth a read. I basically boarded out all beatdown creatures, except for Masticore, and banked on sticking Opal-Wave and going off in the same turn.
Survival Welder (W) — Harder matchup than it appeared on paper, a testament to Survival Welder’s explosiveness and strong pilot. Here’s another matchup where their ability to utilize Anger made it difficult for me to contain them effectively. I got there in the end thanks to a sideboard that was better tuned to the matchup, but it made me question whether it was worth stretching the mana base for red.
Blue Skies (L) — Lost in a close three games! My opponent showcased all the sweet sideboard tech, including a Steal Enchantment on my Survival and an Intervene.
EDIT: A few people have asked about this Blue Skies list and I asked my opponent, Alfredo, if he would share and he obliged. Enjoy!
Hermit FEB (L) — Matchup felt pretty bad going in and I think I assembled solid hands but I was more prepared for the Survival side than the Hermit Druid side and my opponent won with the latter both times. Another instance where I was missing a cheap way to answer small creatures.
Brian recorded his Top 16 match in the May webcam monthly against Mono Black Clerics
What’s Next and Other Thoughts
The deck has a real problem, like most Survival decks, against combo decks and Brian lost to Replenish twice (May webcam monthly and the Madison $1K). It’s not easy to shore up the combo matchup. I’ve thought about Abeyance or Orim’s Chant effects, but I think you need at least three slots available to make use of them. I was able to find two slots in my sideboard and will likely try Armageddon. The card isn’t necessarily good in a deck seeking to cast four mana enchantments, but desperate times and all that. After chatting with my Top 8 opponent, Matt Harper, we also considered cards like True Believer, Ivory Mask, and Worship as possibilities too.
I’ve pondered going back to a red splash after being impressed by Anger in my matches against Survival Cheerios and Survival Welder. If I did, I’d probably try using: Anger, Ghitu Slinger, Krosan Tusker, Wooded Foothills, and a Mountain in the main, plus a Goblin Sharpshooter in the sideboard. I like the idea of Exalted Angels swinging in fast, though perhaps the deck doesn’t have many other uses for Haste (no Goblin Welder or Priest of Titania). But the solid mana base is pretty appealing too, so sticking to two colors is a real strength.
Kudos to Alexey Samoylov, who played an Opal-Wave deck back in February 2025 that utilized Wall of Roots and Magma Mine as a win condition in a blue-white-green Replenish shell. I didn’t know this deck existed until recently but it’s a cool one!
As a personal milestone, this was the first time I’ve won a playoff match in a webcam monthly since I started playing them in June 2020. By my count, I’ve advanced to the playoffs (UB HecaNought, Fish and Chips, ZombieStill, Nic Fit False Cure, Noughtical Tide, Raging Glaciers (twice), Festive Enchantress, and Guilty Oath) at least nine other times, all with original brews, but failed to convert. Perhaps open deck lists ruin the brewer’s advantage. This is also only the second time I’ve played a Survival deck in the webcam monthlies (the first being a 4-2 run with a Natural Order Survival Opposition deck). For a long while I felt that it was impossible to brew with Survival because you would inevitably end up with a deck worse than Elves or Full English Breakfast. I’ve softened on that stance a bit after seeing the neat decks people have built with the card in the last few years.
Overall, I’d love to continue working on the deck. I don’t think we’ve created some sort of monster that will upend the existing Premodern meta, but I do think it’s a solid entry into a long line of Survival + “cool thing” decks out there. I’ve enjoyed building the deck alongside a few great brewers in the Premodern community and what can be more satisfying than that? If you try out the deck or have any thoughts on it, comment below!
Angel McAngelface 2025 — Deck Showcase
Every so often I like to make updates to my infamous Angel McAngelface deck that utilizes as many unusual printings as possible. The deck is an ongoing art piece / abomination (up to you to decide which) that began all the way back in 2021 and utilizes Flint Espil’s July 2021 webcam monthly winning list:
The latest update included four changes, with the top row in the image below as cards that have been moved out while the bottom row are newly acquired cards. What do you think of the substitutions? I’m particularly fond of the “First-Place” foils from Aetherdrift
The deck has been a passion project of mine for many years, partially because I think it’s fun to be invested in spoiler season in a limited way. As someone who primarily plays formats with closed card pools these days, I sometimes missed the rush of excitement when a perfect new card would be revealed or a Secret Lair drop announced. The upcoming Final Fantasy release, for example, contains three cards (Lightning Bolt, City of Brass, and Battlefield Forge) that I am contemplating adding to the deck. I also love when the deck inspires others to craft their own artistic Premodern deck, such as Michael Flores’s beautiful Burn deck.
One final thing, although I didn’t build the deck with the intent of “tilting” old frame purists, you do encounter funny interactions every once and a while using the deck. One of my favorites at the August 2022 meetup in NYC in which I had brought the deck to play. A random passerby was curious what we were playing and I explained to him that we were playing Magic: The Gathering. He paused a moment, looked at my cards on the table, and said with complete sincerity: “Really? I used to play Magic and that doesn’t look like Magic to me.”
Content
I’ll include my usual list of outstanding content from the Premodern community in the next issue, but this week’s ran a little long so I’m just going to highlight three things…
Read
- has started a Substack newsletter/blog showcasing their amazing deck photos and tournament reports. He just released his excellent Lobstercon report and I highly recommend reading it and subscribing.
- also launched a Substack as well with a nice tournament report for Lobstercon as well. Another great read!
Watch
Tomorrow on the unparalleled Wak-Wak stream, the finals of the European Premodern Invitational Challenge between Martin Berlin and Danny de Rooij! This is can’t-miss content.
is there a list anywhere for the blue skies deck that beat you?