Aggro decks have an advantage in the early weeks of a new format. Their speed and streamlined gameplans allow them to prey on experimental new decks which may not yet have all the kinks worked out. What’s more, they gain the most from the fog of metagame uncertainty, since reactive strategies will not yet know exactly what they need to prepare for.
All that said, beatdown dramatically exceeded my expectations at the StarCityGames.com Open Series in Providence. Going into the event, there was little reason not to expect U/W Delver to continue its dominance. If there was any doubt about Delver’s position in the new format, for most players it came not from aggro, but in the form of Wolf Run Ramp gaining the much-anticipated Cavern of Souls. Despite Wolf Run—aggro’s classic enemy—sitting scattered across the tournament’s top tables, beatdown was able to hold its own… and more.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 2 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 2 Hellrider
- 3 Wolfir Avenger
Lands (23)
Spells (13)
Dustin Taylor took his G/R Aggro deck to the title, and he did it in heroic fashion by defeating Chris Lachmann Wolf Run deck featuring four Huntmaster of the Fells and six maindeck sweepers! While I still wouldn’t describe the Wolf Run matchup as G/R’s strongest point, Mr. Taylor’s win provides evidence that it need not be a reason to avoid playing beatdown.
I attribute Dustin’s great success to his balanced and flexible decklist. His maindeck Acidic Slime and Sword of Feast and Famine—a piece of technology also adopted by high-finishing Delver players—provided extra game against the increasingly popular Wolf Run Ramp. More importantly, his sideboard is full of a variety of laser-targeted hate cards which provided him with ways to steal games without detracting from his deck’s aggressive plan A. They range from two Act of Aggressions and Avacyn Restored’s Zealous Conscripts, to two Manabarbs, to an Increasing Savagery—even a prepared opponent will be kept guessing.
Wolf Run matchup aside, the one card we hadn’t yet seen before in G/R Aggro is Wolfir Avenger. The raw stats on this guy already put him high in the running for beatdown’s three-drop slot, which until now was a weaker point on the curve. It’s the flash ability, though, that allows the Avenger to add a new angle of attack to the G/R strategy.
Having a mix of flash, haste, and normal creatures makes Dustin Taylor’s deck much more difficult to attack. As anyone who has played Snapcaster Mage with Runechanter’s Pike will know, flash creatures make your equipment ticking time bombs which your opponents will always need to keep at least one eye on. Beyond his whopping four maindeck Swords, Dustin also has Kessig Wolf Run to make an end-of-turn creature an untap-and-win threat.
Being able to progress your board at instant speed allows you to comfortably pass turn with Huntmaster in play. Typically, such a play risks your opponent’s removal spell becoming a time walk also, but in the case of Wolfir Avenger, you get to have your cake and eat it too. Even if they manage to kill your Huntmaster in response to its transformation, you’ve sculpted a convincing trap for an opponent to attack into!
The general strength of Dustin’s deck is its resilience to sorcery speed removal, which is evidenced by his victory over Mr. Lachmann’s four Slagstorm, two Whipflare deck in the finals. Between undying and enter-the-battlefield abilities, one-for-one removal is a losing proposition. Even Day of Judgment players can’t count themselves safe, because Wolfir Avenger—combined with the haste of Hellrider and Strangleroot Geist, equipment, and Wolf Run—allow the G/R player to create a lethal force without ever being vulnerable to such a card.
Creatures (20)
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 2 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 3 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 2 Doomed Traveler
- 2 Wolfir Avenger
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (21)
Spells (17)
Brian Desimone also took advantage of the aggression and flexibility of Wolfir Avenger.
His deck is a W/G/b hybrid of Humans, Tokens, and the W/G Overrun decks of pre-Dark Ascension. There’s a lot that I like about Mr. Desimone’s deck, but I’d have to see it in action before I’d endorse his exact list. While hybridizing in such a way reduces vulnerabilities, it also takes away from the consistency and explosiveness of the deck.
For one thing, he plays one-drop creatures in both white and green, but has only eight sources for turn 1 mana of each color. For such a split, I wouldn’t be comfortable with fewer than eleven of each. My first suggestion is to add the fourth Razorverge Thicket. Contingent on adjusting the decklist, Cavern of Souls (to name Human) could be an option as well.
Outside of Gather the Townsfolk, there are only nine humans to compliment the four Champion of the Parishes. In games where you don’t draw Gather, I wouldn’t expect him to grow bigger than 2/2 or 3/3 until the game goes long, and if he can do even that, it means you had other one-drops in your hand anyway! In the games where you curve out one-two-three-four, he may never get a counter.
Brian’s deck would be an excellent addition to a testing gauntlet, as it forces you to prepare for a wide range of threats. However, if I was to play it in a tournament, I would gravitate more towards one of these three directions:
Creatures (30)
- 4 Elite Vanguard
- 4 Mirran Crusader
- 4 Accorder Paladin
- 2 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Doomed Traveler
- 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- 4 Silverblade Paladin
- 1 Angel of Jubilation
Lands (23)
Spells (7)
The nearly mono-white Humans deck has the scariest nut draw in Standard. When its threats go unanswered, they outclass anything else available at the same spot on the mana curve and they dish out unmanageable amounts of damage. Chump blockers and life gain will not save you.
Creatures (9)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (23)
Junk Tokens is slower, but dramatically more powerful and resilient than other aggro strategies. It outclasses other decks in creature mirrors, and has remarkable ability to restock after a board sweeper.
Creatures (26)
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Mirran Crusader
- 4 Hero of Bladehold
- 2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
- 2 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- 2 Silverblade Paladin
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (24)
Spells (9)
This would be my personal take on Brian Desimone’s deck. It utilizes both the green mana dorks and Champion of the Parish, but restricts the number of non-Humans so that Cavern of Souls can provide effective manafixing.
You get the best of both worlds, as the Avacyn’s Pilgrims allow you to play the larger haymaker cards without sacrificing speed in the process. All that while making maximum use of Gavony Township, which quickly gets out of hand with token generation and doublestrikers.
Creatures (27)
- 3 Mirran Crusader
- 4 Hero of Bladehold
- 3 Stormblood Berserker
- 2 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 2 Doomed Traveler
- 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- 3 Silverblade Paladin
- 3 Lightning Mauler
Lands (24)
Spells (9)
Finally, we come to the breakout deck of the tournament, and one I personally love. Justin Schibanoff’s W/R Humans deck uses Cavern of Souls to smooth his mana and do things that would not have been possible before Avacyn Restored.
Compared to the Gavony Township decks offered above, Mr. Schibanoff gets to enjoy Lightning Mauler and Stormblood Berserker (both Humans), Slayer’s Stronghold, and Zealous Conscripts out of the sideboard.
Lightning Mauler may not be a card that jumps out at you from reading the set spoiler, but it’s quite good for a deck like this. Soulbonding with your one-drop to make a 2/1 haste for two mana is already on par with the other two-drop options available. However, the ability to give haste to a future creature is what makes it truly great. You can curve out into a Mirran Crusader, Silverblade Paladin, or Hero of Bladehold for massive damage. In the later game, you can save the Mauler and another creature to cast in the same turn and attack for haste damage your opponent won’t be expecting out of a White Weenie deck.
I also love Stormblood Berserker in this deck. In fact, I wish the bloodthirst theme was pushed even harder, with the full four Berserkers and ten or more one-drops to enable them. Personally, I’d like to see Elite Vanguard in this deck, as it works well with both Stormblood Berserker and Silverblade Paladin.
The more I play, the more I’m convinced that Silverblade Paladin is one of the absolute best cards to come out of Avacyn Restored. It looks to be at its best in this deck, adding six hasted damage when it soulbonds with Lightning Mauler and providing a devastating, unblockable clock with Stormblood Berserker. My hunch is that Justin Schibanoff will be playing four the next time he registers this deck.
Thus far my suggestions have been to add cards, add cards, add cards! So before I leave you, I’ll suggest Gather the Townsfolk, Honor of the Pure, and Sword of War and Peace as flexible slots. It may seem strange to cut the pump effects in a deck full of double-strike creatures, but further increasing the number of red creatures in the deck would make Honor of the Pure sketchy, and the Swords can be hard to find time for when you’re curving out like you want. What’s more, each of those three cards work poorly with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, which is a card I love for the format. If you were to trim the Sword of War and Peace, they could go on the sideboard instead.
Beatdown had a great showing out of the gates in Avacyn Restored Standard, and I feel it can only improve from here. The decks I featured above show great promise, and whether or not they can be improved in a strict sense, offshoots and alternative builds are certainly possible. Keep your eyes out for the next great beatdown idea, as the tools are certainly available!