Introduction
In the week since the set became available online, the innocuous artifact has been showing up in more and more places.
What seemed like perhaps an innocuous homage to 《Monastery Mentor》 now seems like a version of the card updated for the Standards of the year 2025. It’s cheaper; it dodges creature removal; it triggers Prowess by itself; and Flurry can even be triggered with Creature spells!
Modern
Izzet Prowess
Baku_91, 1st place at Modern Showcase Qualifier
Baku_91 took down the Modern Showcase Challenge and qualified for the MOCS with a deck we haven’t seen in Modern in a while – Izzet Prowess!
《Cori-Steel Cutter》 joins the long and ever-growing list of cards that love to get paired with 《Mishra’s Bauble》. You can simply play your 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 and instantly trigger it on turn 2 – a play pattern that’s entirely unavailable in Standard!
The existence of plentiful and powerful zero-mana spells in Modern makes triggering 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 much easier. The damage output scales even more favorably – the more often you get to trigger 《Cori-Steel Cutter》, the more Prowess Monks you control, the more power you add to the board with each spell!
A traditional Prowess deck would virtually stand no chance against, for example, an Energy deck running a slew of 《Galvanic Discharge》 and 《Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury》. 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 is perfect to offer some help here, as pumping out a Monk every turn – sometimes even another one during your opponent’s turn! – is a way to actively embarrass a player holding a hand full of cheap removal.
《Cori-Steel Cutter》 addresses one of the most glaring weaknesses of the Prowess deck without sacrificing much speed! Looking at that through those lenses, it’s no surprise that Baku_91 was able to take down the event.
But what if we were to take advantage specifically of 《Cori-Steel Cutter》‘s artifact card type?
《Jeskai Ascendancy》 Combo
The runner-up in the Modern Showcase Qualifier was lunaloveee, with an innovative build of 《Jeskai Ascendancy》 Combo. In a way, a spiritual successor to the recently banned 《Underworld Breach》 combo deck, this deck retains the core of 《Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student》, 《Emry, Lurker of the Loch》, and a pile of Moxen.
lunaloveee, 2nd place at Modern Showcase Qualifier
The issue? While 《Jeskai Ascendancy》 can go infinite with 《Emry, Lurker of the Loch》, the combo is way, way worse than 《Underworld Breach》 was. Most importantly, a well-timed removal spell on 《Emry, Lurker of the Loch》 will nearly always be enough to thwart any combo attempts. It seems hard to rely on the 《Jeskai Ascendancy》 combo as your main route to victory.
Upon getting second place, Luna herself claimed that the deck might best be rebuilt as a 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 deck – and while I love and respect 《Kappa Cannoneer》 as a backup plan, I’d have to agree.
Online players instantly went to work, and Magic Online user Junkmener has already top 8’d a Modern Challenge with a build incorporating the 《Cori-Steel Cutter》.
Junkmener, 3rd place at Modern Challenge
Pairing 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 with 《Mox Opal》 seems pretty incredible. It’s easy to double-spell with Moxen in your deck. 《Emry, Lurker of the Loch》 is awesome at recasting zero-cost cards over and over as well; it’s also nice (and rare!) to get to recast actual threats with 《Emry, Lurker of the Loch》.
Jeskai Ascendancy will let you combo off, but it can also be used to essentially double your prowess triggers. In a pinch, you could even equip your 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 to 《Emry, Lurker of the Loch》 to haste her and combo off without waiting to untap!
Quite importantly, 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 gives the deck a real angle of attack against 《Stony Silence》 and artifact removal effects. Monk tokens do stick around if you get hit by a 《Meltdown》!
A build like that seems very promising to me and I expect the card to keep making waves. Perhaps abandoning the combo entirely in favor of a straight-up Affinity style build could be the way to go?
Pioneer
Pioneer has been out of competitive focus for a while, but one of my typical go-to decks in the format – Izzet Phoenix – seems like a great home for 《Cori-Steel Cutter》. 《Third Path Iconoclast》 was my favorite way to beat graveyard hate – partially because Soldier tokens carry 《Proft’s Eidetic Memory》 counters so well – and Cutter is just a better version of that card. If I were to play any Pioneer soon, I would definnitely explore that.
Standard
Standard is a much lower power level format than Modern, but 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 seems to have quickly become a menace in the format. Playing the 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 on turn 3 and following it up with an 《Opt》 is still a really powerful play.
In the format’s Showcase Qualifier this Sunday, a whopping four copies of the newly rejuvenated Izzet Prowess deck made the top 8 – one of them piloted by yours truly.
Izzet Prowess
UR Prowess by kanister, Standard Showcase Qualifier, top 8
When preparing for the Qualifier, I haven’t even tried many new decks. Prowess with 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 was the deck I was most excited to play with, and it didn’t take many matches to realize that it’s doing something really powerful.
I was pretty happy with my build before the Qualifier. The most aggressive aspects of the strategy – 《Slickshot Show-Off》 and 《Monstrous Rage》 – can be weak draws if the game gets slowed down by removal, but I appreciated how much pressure to represent removal merely plotting a 《Slickshot Show-Off》 put on my opponents.
The amount of damage a 《Monstrous Rage》 can push through is pretty impressive as well, and I liked having access to those tools even if I’d often sideboard it out.
Bernastorres, Top 8 at Standard Showcase Qualifier
Other players – like Bernastorres – opted for a slightly less explosive approach, omitting the most aggressive aspect of the deck in 《Slickshot Show-Off》 and 《Monstrous Rage》 in favor of 《This Town Ain’t Big Enough》 loops. A valuable approach as long as you don’t get run over!
Regardless of the approach you prefer, your list should probably acknowledge opposing 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 going forward. Mine failed at that, and I wish I had run a couple of 《Abrade》 in my sideboard at that tournament.
Another approach entirely is to simply use 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 in a traditional Red aggro featuring the usual Mouse package.
Mono Red Aggro
Mono Red Aggro by sebastianpozzo, Standard Challenge, 8th place
Mice decks are traditionally much more creature-heavy, and without cantrips can have trouble both triggering flurry and taking advantage of prowess. On the other hand, 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 is an awesome way to trigger Valiant abilities of your Mice later in the game!
How to Answer 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 in Standard?
In general, while you won’t be making any Monks on turn 2, 《Cori-Steel Cutter》‘ power in Standard seems to mainly come from the resiliency it offers to a deck that could previously be considered glass-cannon.
Turns out, artifact happens to be a card type that’s not easy to interact with using common removal in the current Standard. It’s one of the card types not listed on 《Get Lost》!
Blue and Black lack ways to deal with artifacts in play. Picking up 《Nowhere to Run》 over and over doesn’t quite match up well against an endless stream of monks. Only discard spells like 《Duress》 or 《Dreams of Steel and Oil》 or counterspells like 《Spell Pierce》 will do the job efficiently.
Red has options like 《Untimely Malfunction》 or good old 《Abrade》, but even if you use one of those, you aren’t getting any mana advantage, and the opponent already got a token out of the deal. It’s often not going to be possible to trade for 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 in a way that leaves you feeling great!
Esper Pixie decks have used 《Loran of the Third Path》 in the past. While 《Loran of the Third Path》 is not great against the rest of a red aggressive deck, she’s probably the best solution to the 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 itself still.
《Temporary Lockdown》 is an ever-present entity in Standard, but it just gained one more important reason to be played. The Lockdown player needs to be wary of bounce spells – a well-timed 《This Town Ain’t Big Enough》 or 《Into the Flood Maw》 freeing the trapped permanents can result in a significant amount of burst damage.
In any case, if you are preparing for an upcoming Standard Regional Championship, you need to have a plan for the best card out of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Don’t get caught off guard!
