The Standard format has been in a massive upheaval in the last month or so, as the Rise of the Eldrazi set continues to make its impact felt. Just when it seemed like we had a clear view of what to expect at the upcoming Grand Prix: DC, the Nationals Qualifiers came along this past weekend and shook everything up once again.
I wanted to play Grixis at GP: DC. I’d been messing around with a few different builds, some more aggressive and some more controlling, but ultimately I knew that I wanted to play with Jace, Sedraxis Specter, and Blightning — not to mention Creeping Tar Pit, which is the best manland that has never really had a home in a good deck. These cards seemed incredibly attractive in a field of U/W and Planeswalker Control decks, and Grixis certainly isn’t lacking for efficient removal, which is the best way of handling the other top deck that came out of the first wave of Rise of the Eldrazi Standard — Mythic Conscription.
I tried a few off the wall builds to start, including a really goofy one that looked something like this:
4 Plated Geopede
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Sedraxis Specter
4 Calcite Snapper
2 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Blightning
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Sarkhan the Mad
3 Deprive
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Darkwater Catacombs
3 Island
3 Mountain
2 Swamp
There was some potential here, but too many cards that weren’t significant enough threats on their own. Plated Geopede and Calcite Snapper each represent respectable threats early on, but make the deck’s damage potential highly dependent on landfall, which can be a really awkward place to be, especially against control decks. Even more difficult was the mana, which really needs both Red and double Blue early on, as well as the full spread by turn 3 to make the best use of Specter. This is much more difficult than in Jund, which can at least use a Verdant Catacombs and any tapped dual land to get GB for Leech on turn 2 then another fetch land or the missing basic on turn 3 to play Thrinax — playing Coralhelm Commander and then Specter is much more difficult.
Ultimately, I scrapped the deck and decided to look at more controlling versions of Grixis. I was feeling pretty good about a Grixis build similar to that which Thomas Ma won a PTQ with not long ago:
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (27)
Spells (19)
The deck got to play with many of the cards that attracted me to Grixis, but had better mana since it didn’t have to try to play Coralhelm Commander and the like, as well as being able to use more tap lands without totally stumbling. This is the sort of deck where I actually like Lavaclaw Reaches, since when you clear the board with removal you can easily finish your opponent off with a fireball-like attack. It also let me play with Spreading Seas, which the other deck couldn’t use effectively because of competition at the two-slot and the need to be aggressive. Gatekeeper, too, is a powerful card in its own right, but especially shines in a deck like this where you can take advantage of its synergy with Jace. I knew I wanted to make some tweaks to the deck, and I was thinking about possible sideboard strategies I wanted to try out, like Forked Bolt or Cunning Sparkmage against Mythic to help deal with mana creatures and increase the effectiveness of my Edict effects, when I heard rumblings on my Facebook feed about a deck GerryT made that had put a substantial number of its pilots through to Nationals.
Creatures (32)
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 3 Ranger of Eos
- 3 Wild Nacatl
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 2 Lotus Cobra
- 1 Scute Mob
- 4 Cunning Sparkmage
- 2 Stoneforge Mystic
- 4 Vengevine
Lands (26)
Spells (2)
Sideboard
I don’t think I have ever lost all excitement for a deck as quickly as I did for Grixis after seeing this list. It’s almost like a list of cards an attrition-based control deck doesn’t want to see. Bloodbraid Elf, with virtually no true blanks to hit, alongside Ranger of Eos and Vengevine. I briefly spent some time trying to think up some decent answers to Vengevine. Sphinx of Jwar Isle? Chump with Siege Gang tokens? Both lose to Behemoth Sledge. And when you start thinking about trying to Thought Hemorrhage against a beatdown deck, you know you’re in trouble. Even if you do find a solution for Vengevine, there’s Manabarbs sitting pretty in the sideboard, just DARING you to try to play control.
Basically, it’s a nightmare. I’m not even sure if I built a Grixis Control deck specifically to beat Vengevine Naya that I’d find something I was happy with — and that’s to say nothing of still having a shot against the rest of the field! It was time to go back to the drawing board.
So here I am, a week before GP: DC, and I don’t know what to play. It’s hard to pinpoint what to expect at the Grand Prix, too. With Nationals Qualifiers just last weekend, how many players will switch decks in response to the results of those events? Unless you’ve been paying close attention to the lists and have been listening to the buzz coming out of the weekend, it really just looks like more of the same — Mythic, U/W, Planeswalkers, and a smattering of other decks. But Vengevine Naya is the real deal, even if it didn’t put up the same kind of numbers as the more well known decks. It clearly has the tools to handle the rest of the field.
Interestingly, in this field with Mythic, U/W, Planeswalkers, and Vengevine Naya all jockeying for the top spot, I find myself somewhat drawn to Jund. Jund is a deck that has gotten much less attention lately than it has in the past, and understandably so given that it was so dominant for so long that people are eager for a breath of fresh air. The new Conscription Mythic decks seem less suited for fighting against a Jund deck that wants to beat them than their predecessor, and Naya is similarly less than thrilled to go up against a boatload of removal backed up by Sprouting Thrinax and company. The aggressive angle we saw with Geopede Jund seems like one way to approach beating through Wall of Omens — I want to take a look at another possibility.
Creatures (28)
- 3 Siege-Gang Commander
- 4 Sprouting Thrinax
- 4 Putrid Leech
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 2 Borderland Ranger
- 4 Cunning Sparkmage
- 3 Nest Invader
- 4 Vengevine
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (3)
Yes, that is a Jund deck without Blightning. Yes, it is also a Jund deck without Maelstrom Pulse. It’s possible I’m just completely off base here, but I wanted to look at how Jund could go down the same road as Naya by optimizing Vengevine. Every cascade in this deck hits a creature, which means every Bloodbraid Elf brings back a Vengevine. The closest thing to a blank that Bloodbraid can hit on an empty board is a Cunning Sparkmage, which can help both Bloodbraid and Thrinax punch through Wall of Omens, and with both Mythic Conscription and Naya playing a significant number of one toughness creatures, even a naked Sparkmage can pose a serious problem.
We’ve seen a lot of Jund decks that cut down on Maelstrom Pulse during the deck’s heyday, but Blightning has always been pretty much sacrosanct. I think that’s an assumption worth questioning. The more aggressive Jund gets, the less likely it is that games will come down to attrition, and three mana is a lot to pay just for the direct damage aspect. Against Mythic Conscription, the games can be so fast that Blightning is rarely relevant, while against Vengevine Naya you can actually set your opponent up for incredibly explosive turns by letting them discard Vengevines to Blightning!
The attrition cards this deck uses instead are Cunning Sparkmage, Consuming Vapors, Siege-Gang Commander, and Sarkhan the Mad, all of which can also have an immediate impact on the board. Sarkhan is a card that stood out in my beatdown Grixis deck that let me turn otherwise unexciting creatures into huge threats, and it’s clearly much more powerful in a deck that can sacrifice Sprouting Thrinax or Nest Invader tokens! This card has gone largely under the radar so far, but its effect is the sort of thing that can break a game wide open, and I expect it will get a lot more attention very soon.
I feel like Consuming Vapors, too, is quietly one of the best cards in Rise of the Eldrazi. I’m not sure if it’s quite worth including in the main deck here, since it’s at its best when it’s supplemented by other removal spells, but it does work particularly well with Cunning Sparkpage picking off mana creatures and tokens. Even when you’re not living the dream and taking out Baneslayers or Sphinx of Jwar Isles, the fact that Vapors kills two creatures and bolsters your life total at the same time can be hugely significant in any kind of race situation. Keep in mind that you can Vapors yourself, and sometimes splitting up a Thrinax into three tokens and gaining three life is better than Edicting your opponent.
The sideboard listed here is more a collection of ideas than a suggestion for a real sideboard, since I haven’t had a chance to sketch out what the swaps against major decks might look like. Doom Blade and Lightning Bolt give the deck the most efficient removal there is against Mythic and Naya which, combined with Consuming Vapors and Cunning Sparkmage, should be able to tear through Green creature decks like the Jund removal package of old. Basilisk Collar can combine with Sparkmage to form the lethal Visara combination or just lifelink your creatures to help race other creature decks. Goblin Ruinblaster as the anti-control sideboard card of choice continues the all-Vengevine cascade plan, while I included Thought Hemorrhage mostly as a nod to possible anti-control cards that don’t interfere with that plan. I’d also consider Vithian Renegades against U/W with Chalice and Borderpost, as well as potentially Vampire Hexmage against Planeswalkers for hate cards that mesh with “the plan.”
Is Vengevine Jund the solution to the current Standard mess? Quite honestly, I have no idea, but it will be my starting point for Standard testing I can squeeze in before GP DC. And then it’s on to Block Constructed in San Juan, and then back to Standard for Sendai and Manila. I have a busy month ahead of me!
Until next time…
bmk