20 Decks That Are Good Enough To Win SCG Indianapolis

Cedric didn’t believe me when I told him my article topic.

Him:
Well, if you think you can come up with 20 good decks…

Me:
C’mon man, I already have all 20 built.

Him:
*Pikachu meme*

With Ravnica Allegiance, there are six pillars of Standard:

Realistically, your deck needs a good reason to not contain one of those
six cards in your 75. You could make some arguments for semantics’ sake
about how not all Izzet decks will focus on Niv-Mizzet, Parun or how not
all red decks will contain Goblin Chainwhirler, and that’s probably true.
However, you will get more mileage from building around those cards than
you would, say, Arclight Phoenix or Skewer the Critics. It’s possible that
both of those entities could be combined into “Lava Coil” decks, but most
red decks would play them in their sideboard.

Anyway, let’s start with the new one.

Judith, the Scourge Diva

Given that most cards in these decks are from Ravnica Allegiance,
it’s difficult to build these decks optimally without getting some
practice. Thankfully, we’ll have the opportunity to do so on Magic Arena by
the time this article goes live!

Rakdos Aristocrats

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 01-18-2019

Standard

Creatures (29)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained

Lands (23)

Spells (7)

Sideboard

The Rakdos versions of Aristocrats that people played during the MTG Arena
streamer event seemed to be more on the aggressive side, with Spawn of
Mayhem, Fireblade Artist, and the like. Overall, I’m not as much of a fan
of that plan. Priest of Forgotten Gods and Judith, the Scourge Diva are the
all-stars of these sorts of decks, and both play well with a grindier
gameplan. Meanwhile, Spawn of Mayhem and Fireblade Artist haven’t impressed
very much. If I wanted to build an aggressive deck, I likely wouldn’t have
those cards in it to begin with.

Anyway, this deck wins by accruing value. Given the tools we have available
to us now, it’s hard to get it wrong. There are so many value creatures,
sacrifice effects, and payoffs that it also seems trivial which ones you
actually play. That said, some number of Gutterbones, Priest of Forgotten
Gods, and Judith aren’t cuttable as they form your main engine.

Past that, how many sacrifice outlets do you want? If you want to double up
on pings from Judith and Footlight Fiend to clear small or medium
creatures, maybe Makeshift Munitions if what you want. Do you think you
need staying power? Then you should have Dark-Dweller Oracle, Midnight
Reaper, and Theater of Horrors. How much removal do you need?

After sideboard, we have Angrath, the Flame-Chained finally stepping into
the spotlight. Maybe there needs to be more sacrifice effects to truly take
advantage of him, but he doubles as a threat against midrange and control
decks too. Drill Bit seems like a pretty easy piece of disruption for the
deck to play, since you’ll often be attacking for small chunks of damage
against opponents with no blockers. Midnight Reaper solidifies those
matchups because it’ll be difficult for you to run out of resources, but
there’s also an Arch of Orazca to draw cards and help with the higher mana
curve.

Mardu Aristocrats

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 01-18-2019

Standard

Creatures (29)

Lands (24)

Spells (7)

Sideboard

I’m honestly not sure which is stronger between Mardu and Rakdos, but
either way, the combination of Judith and Priest of Forgotten Gods is a
strong one. Mardu is basically just a fancier Rakdos, for better or for
worse. You’ll have worse mana, slightly better toys, but a few incredibly
impactful cards like Elenda, the Dusk Rose, Mortify, and Ethereal
Absolution (which is a complete mirror breaker).

You can build around Hero of Precinct One, which I’ve elected to do here,
but it’s not entirely necessary. Tithe Taker would be a fine replacement.
If you want to stay on the Hero’s journey, you could look into playing some
of number of Heroic Reinforcements.

You could build a more aggressive Mardu deck with Heroic Reinforcements and
even utilize the power of Unclaimed Territory for Benalish Marshal if you
wanted to. Either way, your deck doesn’t have to be all-in on sacrifice
effects to make Judith powerful. Simply attacking is a fine way to ensure
your opponent’s life is hard. She doesn’t trigger on tokens dying, but
pumping them is a nice bonus.

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Azorius Control

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 01-18-2019

Standard

Creatures (1)

1 Angel of Grace

Planeswalkers (4)

4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Lands (25)

Spells (30)

Sideboard

We all thought we’d get Supreme Verdict, Detention Sphere, and Sphinx’s
Revelation this time around, right? Well, jokes on us because Azorius
Control picked up roughly zero cards. Granted, Hallowed Fountain is great,
but that’s the floor of what we thought we’d get.

Honestly though, it’s fine. The Azorius Control kit was already strong, and
it’s not like Absorb is nothing. My main issue is that we don’t get an
upgrade to Ixalan’s Binding since it and Chemister’s Insight tend to be too
clunky, but oh well.

There’s not much you can do to innovate here outside of tweaking some
numbers. I prefer having Opt and a lower land count and Warrant over Seal
Away, mostly because of Search for Azcanta. The sideboard could be more
creative I suppose, but the options are slim.

For the first time ever, I actually prefer Esper Control to Azorius
Control.

Esper Control

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 01-18-2019

Standard

Creatures (1)

1 Chromium, the Mutable

Planeswalkers (4)

4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Lands (27)

Spells (28)

Sideboard

Naturally, I started by looking at Shaheen Soorani’s take on Esper Control.

Basic Island isn’t very acceptable in a deck with Kaya’s Wrath. You could
get around needing additional blue sources by not playing Absorb, but I
think most of the control players will want access to a hard counterspell.
Absorb also tag teams with Moment of Craving and Vraska’s Contempt to ease
some of the strain off your manabase.

Esper Control straddles this awkward line between tap-out control and
normal control, which doesn’t make for the most synergetic experience, but
you’ll get spots to use your countermagic, even if they are effectively
face-up. Thought Erasure into Kaya’s Wrath is so strong that I’m willing to
jump through whatever hoops it takes to make this deck viable.

Simic Nexus

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 01-18-2019

Standard

Creatures (2)

2 Hydroid Krasis

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Karn, Scion of Urza

Lands (26)

Spells (31)

Sideboard

All this deck does is ramp, draw cards, and eventually take all the turns.
I had the pleasure of watching Eric Froehlich stream something like this
and it honestly looked kind of busted. Not many decks can threaten to kill
you on Turn 4, and those that do are typically trying to get up a big turn
where a Root Snare will be devastating.

Including this in the Teferi section is cheating because it doesn’t
actually have Teferi in it, but I’d argue that Teferi is with this deck in
spirit.

Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Temur Tempo

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 01-18-2019

Standard

Creatures (10)

Lands (26)

Spells (24)

Sideboard

I didn’t see many decks with Frilled Mystic in them during the streamer
event, so I’ve been busy trying to mend my broken heart. Make no mistake,
Frilled Mystic will be a player in Standard, and this seems like one of the
better shells that could make it happen.

Prolong the game and protect Niv-Mizzet, Parun is a viable strategy,
whether you’re trying to do it with Enigma Drake, Deafening Clarion, or
Frilled Mystic. It also helps that this deck isn’t weak to any of the
things that Niv is weak too, such as Vivien Reid or Plaguecrafter. Against
Drakes, loading up on those effects was lights out, but they barely do
anything against this version.

A faster version that eschews the whole Niv plan for Risk Factor maindeck
and Gruul Spellbreakers out of the sideboard could be nice too, especially
when backed up by a couple copies of Banefire.

Grixis Dragons

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 01-18-2019

Standard

Creatures (10)

Planeswalkers (4)

4 Sarkhan, Fireblood

Lands (26)

Spells (20)

Sideboard

We can finally put Niv and Vraska’s Contempt in the same deck! That might
not be the strongest combination Blood Crypt enables, but it will likely be
one of the most beloved.

Between Thought Erasure, Carnage, and Bolas, this deck has a good amount of
disruption. There are some dead cards against control decks, but disruption
plus a clock can still beat them. As always, the Dimir sideboard options
give you an endless array of tools for fighting control. For the moment, it
seems like your best bet is trying to go toe-to-toe with the aggressive
decks in Game 1, which Grixis is typically great at.

Dragon-centric decks have popped up here and there since Guilds of Ravnica, but now is its chance to actually put up a big
finish.

Izzet Drakes

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 01-18-2019

Standard

Creatures (13)

Lands (20)

Spells (27)

Sideboard

Niv lives in the sideboard here, but the way you built Izzet had to be
fluid, shifting week to week to combat the metagame, and this is no
different.

Pteramander works well enough with the Arclight Phoenix plan that it’s
probably better than playing a ton of Drakes, plus it enables Chart a
Course early if that’s something you’re interested in. It does pull you in
the direction of playing all the one-mana cantrips, but that’s not
necessarily a negative thing.

Trying to do your best Delver of Secrets impression in Standard is
naturally going to lead you away from the glory that is Niv-Mizzet as you
shift from midrange-leaning tempo deck to beatdown-leaning tempo deck, but
both are okay.

Llanowar Elves

Bant Tempo

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 01-18-2019

Standard

Creatures (21)