Yay! It’s finally going to be here at the end of this week. Ral Zarek and the Goblet of Fire! *Looks at everyone placing their palm to their face*
Unless you live under a rock, which isn’t really a good excuse since even there you can get the Internet, you are well aware that the Dragon’s Maze Prerelease is this weekend, and it is going to be awesome. Unlike the Windy City where those two girls from the Disney Channel like to dance, Standard is where this shaking is going to be taking place. As if there wasn’t already a week-to-week flux in Standard causing deckbuilding euphoria, now we have another 166 cards to whet our whistle.
I’m not going to be writing a set review. However, I would like to look at a few new cards and talk about where they might fit into Standard and some possible homes for them.
There was a period of time when B/R Zombies was the dominating force in Standard. Crushing GPs and FNMs alike, as long as it is a viable option, Zombies will always be there, chasing you ridiculously slow until you least expect them to launch at you moaning “braiiiinsssssss”. Without a very good two-drop, Zombies was still able to perform and shape the metagame previously. I’m interested to see what the deck can do now that it has some “real” two-drops. Blood Scrivener and Spike Jester could play two completely separate roles in the deck besides costing two mana and attacking your opponent.
First, let’s look at Spike Jester. An obvious comparison to Rakdos Shred-Freak can be made here; however, three damage is significantly more than two damage when we’re talking about a two-mana haster. Most of the time on the play, your two-mana haster is going to hit twice before there is a Boros Reckoner standing in the way, which is an additional two damage—basically another attack from the two power guy.
Blood Scrivener plays a different role. He does attack for two, like any reliable two-drop should, but he’s actually a little better later in the game with his Phyrexian Arena impersonation. With twelve one-drops and not much on the top end, you can empty your hand pretty quickly, and once you are hellbent Scrivener kicks in to draw you enough gas to finish the game. He is also a Vampire, so you get to double-dip on your Cavern of Souls for your Aristocrats too.
Let’s check out a list!
Creatures (29)
- 4 Diregraf Ghoul
- 4 Gravecrawler
- 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
- 4 Geralf's Messenger
- 1 Thundermaw Hellkite
- 4 Rakdos Cackler
- 4 Blood Scrivener
- 4 Spike Jester
Lands (23)
Spells (8)
B/R Zombies definitely has the aggression to keep on pace with the G/R decks and to close out the game against Reanimator before they start looping Thragtusks and Angels to get out of range. It’s possible that Blood Artist is just better than either of the new two-drops, so that’s one thing I’ll be looking for while testing this deck. Decks with Augur of Bolas and Boros Reckoner might warrant Knight of Infamy, possibly leading to cutting down on some removal/burn and fitting him back in. Overall, I am excited about these guys and can’t wait to see what they can do!
Have you ever Rakdos’s Returned your opponent’s entire hand? That’s a pretty good feeling. In fact, as long as I am ahead on board, I’d usually be fine with discarding my hand too if I could get rid of theirs. Allow me to introduce you to my new friend: Sire of Insanity. He’s going to royally destroy your opponents!
Initially underrated, now everyone sees his potential. I look forward to naming Demon on my Cavern of Souls and watching my opponents get the same look on their face as when Brian Braun-Duin names Ooze for Acidic Slime. While both players discarding their hand is symmetrical, we don’t have to work very hard to break the symmetry on this one. Since it happens on every end step, they will untap with zero cards in hand, and we get to keep our 6/4. Six mana is a bit expensive, but we still have Farseek. He fits well into a Jund shell as a finisher.
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (16)
Going even further to break the symmetry, we can play flashback cards to get extra value. Faithless Looting, Lingering Souls, and Unburial Rites all work very well with His Highness.
If Sire is good on turn 5 or 6, just imagine him on turn 4, and with Faithless Looting and Liliana of the Veil feeding your Unburial Rites plan, it is a definite possibility. Getting to attack with an Aurelia, the Warleader the turn after you play a Sire of Insanity is living the dream and does eighteen damage unimpeded. Nice Stomping Grounds bud. The deck does seem a little clunky with most of its action coming at turn 3 and above, which is probably wrong, but this is where I’d start and tweak from there.
Creatures (13)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (18)
Sideboard
Having four toughness is very relevant right now. Even though we aren’t in the era of actual Lightning Bolt, we might as well be. Searing Spear and Restoration Angel give us our current “Jace Test” in Standard, and he definitely passes both of them. At six power, he will close games out quickly for sure, not to mention that he does a pretty good job of combating Sphinx’s Revelation.
Speaking of doing four damage to troublesome creatures, next I’d like to look at Warleader’s Helix. I think this card is getting looked at negatively because it’s being compared to its predecessor, Lightning Helix, which is obviously galaxies better than this card. Rather than focusing on what it doesn’t do like the naysayers, I’d like to look at the upside of it.
Even though it does cost quite a bit more than its Modern counterpart, Warleader’s Helix does something unique in Standard. As Sphinx’s Revelation has proven, gaining life while doing something else extremely beneficial is very powerful. Not only does Warleader’s Helix do four damage to a creature, killing the likes of Restoration Angel, Loxodon Smiter, and the freshly crowned Sire of Insanity, but it gains you four life and can also go to the dome. Combined with Searing Spear, Boros Charm, Geist of Saint Traft, and Snapcaster Mage, that’s a lot of damage. It wouldn’t be uncommon to finish someone from thirteen life with an end of turn Snap-Helix, attack with Snapcaster Mage and Restoration Angel, and Helix for the last four.
Joel Larsson’s Pro Tour Gatecrash Top 8 deck seems like the perfect place to start for Warleader’s Helix.
Creatures (14)
Lands (24)
Spells (22)
It might be a little radical, but I’d consider cutting Sphinx’s Revelation and going full on aggro–’MERICA. Having another spell that does four damage (not to mention the life gain) goes a long way to push the aggression you already have from Searing Spear, Boros Charm, and Geist of Saint Traft.
Spitballing along, I’d like to look at how we currently have the makings of a very good control deck in Standard that Cavern is keeping in check. We have plenty of counterspells with Syncopate, Dissipate, Rewind, Plasm Capture, Counterflux, and the like along with Snapcaster Mage. We now have a resilient finisher in Aetherling that can be accelerated into with Plasm Capture. We have a Wrath of God, Sphinx’s Revelation, and the ability to handle troublesome permanents with Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere. Realistically, Cavern and the aggression provided by Burning-Tree Emissary are the only real things keeping an archetype like this from being a major player in the Standard meta. Once Cavern of Souls rotates or if it ever falls back off, keep an eye out for a deck like this to pop up.
Saying “no” to your opponent isn’t the only thing with a lot of potential in Standard. There is a lot of ramp currently available in Standard, but there’s nothing to really go along with it. We have eight mana dorks (Arbor Elf and Avacyn’s Pilgrim), Farseek, Gyre Sage, Chromatic Lantern and now twenty different three mana artifacts (the ten card cycle of Keyrunes and the new ten card cycle of Cluestones) and Ranger’s Path. I suppose we have decks like Travis Woo Fog Door, but I can only imagine what awesome things people will come up with in the weeks after Dragon’s Maze is released.
Finally, I want to leave you with some obvious and not-so-obvious tidbits of information.
- Obzedat’s Aid can put any permanent into play. Everyone’s already thinking about Omniscience, but there’s also Angel of Serenity; Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker; and utility lands like Kessig Wolf Run and Vault of the Archangel.
- The Beck portion of Beck // Call triggers off of creatures your opponent put into play (Forbidden Orchard); also, there are a lot of free artifact dudes that are legal in Modern.
- Ral Zarek is deceptively playable in Vintage. He is pitchable to Force of Will; can kill Dark Confidant, Lotus Cobra, and a Jace that wasn’t +2ed; and can be an effective Tezzeret the Seeker doppelganger by untapping your Time Vault and giving you infinite turns.
- Plasm Capture gives you any color of mana, allowing you to play planeswalkers and the like without having to tap anything (sometimes) even if the spell is uncounterable (Cavern of Souls or Loxodon Smiter).
Thanks for reading, and as always I welcome and encourage comments below! Please feel free to message me on Facebook with any questions/comments/concerns, and I would love article topics or requests!
<3 CVM
@Chris_VanMeter on Twitter
Personal Aside
This past weekend I went to Washington, DC for the weekend to play in the WMCQ and PTQ with BBD, Todd Anderson, and Reuben Bresler. I received some unfortunate news Friday night while we were driving that my great-grandma was in the hospital and probably wouldn’t make it. Saturday morning, I got a text that she had passed in the night. Thankfully, I was able to talk to her on Friday night and tell her that I loved her.
A little shaken but still ready to do battle, I played four games of Magic during the first two rounds of the WMCQ, and eight mulligans later I was out at 0-2. I then mulliganed to six in both games of round 1 of the Elite IQ and started that tournament 0-1 (playing Reanimator in all the tournaments). Regaining focus, I ended up rattling off several wins in the Elite IQ and lost my “win-and-in.”
I was fully prepared to not play in the PTQ the next day, being a little distracted still and not “feeling it.” Gerry Thompson told me that not playing would be a mistake and asked if I thought my great-grandma would really not want me to play. She definitely wouldn’t. Even at 90, she loved life. She made crochet hats and booties for premature babies at the hospital, played bingo weekly, and could kick anyone’s butt in Texas hold ’em.
The relevance of all this is that you don’t get better if you don’t play. You can’t win if you just watch. Magic is a game of practice. Theorycrafting and study will only take you so far, so just play!
Ultimately, I started out 5-0 in the PTQ and then lost two straight. I wasn’t tired or fatigued. I wasn’t distracted. I simply played poorly and made some miscalculations. This only reinforced the notion that if you want to get better, you have to play
We have limited time here; what do you want to do with it? I know I want to play Magic and make people smile.