It’s that time again. My articles are usually very polarizing, where some people think I’m a stupid jerk and others think I’m a genius. That polarization finds to be even stronger for my more abstract rants. If you are in the former group, please select any one of the other fine articles on this fantastic website instead. If you are in the latter group, please enjoy.
Standard has shaped up quite well coming into the American Grand Prix next weekend. It seems that Mythic Conscription is still going strong, though not quite as much as during the initial boom. The UWR Planeswalker deck is probably my favorite, as not only does it have a lot of game and some great match-up percentages, it is also just my type of deck. In Kyoto, when everyone else had Mulldrifters, Broodmate Dragons, and walls, I was playing 14 Planeswalkers and no creatures. Planeswalkers are awesome. That has been scientifically proven using science.
In Kyoto, I went out to eat with some good folks, all of whom scoffed at the deck idea. All except Ben Lundquist, who was able to see ecosystem of the forest rather than the color of the trees, as it were:
Planeswalkers are just like the Epic spells, except you get to keep casting spells. Also, there are multiple abilities and most of them are better than the Epics. Also, they cost about half as much. Okay, so they’re not JUST like the Epic spells, but they are an incremental advantage that fundamentally changes the way both players play the game.
If the Red is too much for you, then straight UW is fine, but I would still play 10ish Planeswalkers.
Remember when we thought that Jace, the Mind Sculptor wasn’t good enough because of his vulnerability to Jund’s guys? Well, Wall of Omens was a nice way to shore that problem up. The Spreading Seas and Wall of Omens stall so much that the removal has time to take over and you can stabilize with the Planeswalkers instead of having to produce a ton of mana (under the heat of Blightning and Maelstrom Pulse siege) and Mind Springing out of it. All of the Planeswalkers protect themselves very well, and Wall of Omens is the perfect buffer while you get your Planeswalkers going. After that, sit back and watch them completely take over the game.
Not only are they good in theory, but you have to remember that your opponent isn’t an abstract thinking process. It is a human being! A real person! Not a robot! They’re made of carbon! They have things like body hair and a pituitary gland! Holy mother of crap, this is exciting!
Ahem, my point is that people mess up against Planeswalkers quite often. This is less true for a GP than it is for a PTQ, but they give your opponents lots of decisions that can punish them if they slip up. A deck like Jund is very vulnerable to making these types of mistakes in spots like that.
Speaking of Jund, it got a make-over! In case you haven’t heard the news, the creature base has called Plated Geopede up from Triple A ball. A lot of people that hate Jund have to show a little more respect now, because the new builds address 2 of the 3 major complaints about the deck.
1. It has bad mana: The new builds play much more fixing and basics and fetches to keep from getting Spreading Seased or double Ruinblastered straight out of the game.
2. It lacks focus: The new build is much more streamlined aggression, cutting a lot of the midrangey high-end power cards for another undercosted two-drop.
3. Cascade is too good and luck-based: This one hasn’t changed, but that’s nothing that looking at a picture of a kitten or a cute baby couldn’t cure.
Personally, I don’t hate Jund. I hate H-bombs and the Jerry Springer show. Jund is just “that deck,” and I’ve come to accept that. You should too. It’s good for your blood pressure. Think about your children.
The second tier of decks consists of quite an array of potential archetypes. Polymorph is a deck that keeps popping up and showing great potential but lacks real results. The strategy makes sense and the pieces are there, but inconsistency and troubles in the face of mass disruption has kept it from the center stage.
I find there are two key flaws people make when playing the deck. The first is that they don’t maximize their spells properly, instead just aggressively digging and treading water hoping they’ll trip onto a 15/15 and that it will be enough. The second mistake is that people often forget to yell “Guess how much I bench!” when Emrakul is put into play. Your win rate will skyrocket. Science isn’t sure why.
RDW is a deck that has gotten a lot of press and seems to have good matchups almost across the board, but being slightly underpowered has cost it when it comes to crunch time. It also doesn’t help that any deck that really wants to beat you will, and there isn’t much you can do about it besides hope. Besides Firewalkers, the real trouble with this deck is the splash hate it receives from the overload on go-to Jund hate cards, Flashfreeze and Celestial Purge (and/or Wall of Denial). That being said, the deck has focus, speed, and some decent power. If someone wants to play dodgeball with Kor Firewalkers all day and gets a lot of Devastating Bushwhackers, the deck could still steal a tournament.
I think Smoldering Spires may deserve two slots. I’ve seen a few people playing them, but they haven’t caught on in the mainstream yet. It’s good against Wall of Omens, and lets you actually race a Kor Firewalker if you get the right draw, allowing you to attack past it, increasing the size of the chunk of life your suicide attacks take out of your opponent. I don’t think the comes-into-play-tapped (Enters-the-Coliseum-Exhausted) effects the deck too much, either. Besides Goblin Guide, there aren’t any other one-drops, so that is often a good spot to play it normally. There are also a lot of twos, so you can go Geopede, next turn Spires and Dragonlord or whathaveyou. Then you are getting to 4 level counters next turn anyway if you hit your land drop. Then, after three the curve just ends so the rest of your lands coming into play tapped doesn’t matter.
Besides, spell-lands are just awesome. Science could not be reached for comment at this time.
Naya is a deck that has fallen out of favor due to the printing of Wall of Omens, which in addition to being good against Naya, also allowed Day of Judgment decks to sprout back up, but I have a feeling it will be making a comeback with a much more resilient shell.
Allies is not a good deck and never was. It put up very moderate results for a very short time due to the insane amount of people that played it then. If you’re tempted by Allies, just play Naya.
The last section of the second tier decks is pretty vast, so I am not going to go into them at all here as many writers (myself included) have written individual articles on these decks. Time Sieve, TurboFog, Open the Vaults, and Runeflare Trap. I group these decks together for obvious reasons, but it’s important to know what is generally in each deck and how to identify them from one another, as well as how to attack each individual strategy. Instead of explaining it all here, I am going to ask you to read the articles about these decks to learn the most about them in the least amount of time. It also wouldn’t hurt to get a couple of games under your belt against them. Nothing extensive is necessary, as each one of them takes up a tiny percentage of the field, but a couple of games to understand how the match-up plays out is worth the time.
This is the first time in quite a while that the most recent set is on Magic Online well before the Pro Tour, and I can’t be happier about that. I guarantee you I have been making the most of it, drafting into the wee hours of the morning. Examining and studying and practicing and discussing the new cards and strategies. I am loving the set and am slowly figuring it out. I have done zero work for Block, however, and seeing as Constructed is far more important at the Pro Tours than Limited, that should probably change. In the meantime, I have some Limited talk for you.
Verdict is out, and Lust for War is very good. It is another “remove blockers” effect for Kiln Fiend (although it doesn’t trigger it), and gets better the more aggressive your deck is. There are also cards that make it one sided, like Guardian Gomazoa and Narcolepsy. It works very well with things with low power and high toughnesses that can just block the Lusty creature all day.
It makes them race when they don’t want to, then gives you a leg up in the race. It’s like you have a 3 power unblockable creature with haste, and they aren’t allowed to pull up when they are losing the race. It does a very impressive amount of damage.
Totem-Guide Hartebeest has been very good in just about every archetype that he can be played in. Finding the really good Umbras is one thing, but giving them a nice target with a big enough butt to be a challenge to kill is another. The fact that it also finds removal in the form of Guard Duty and Narcolepsy is helpful as well. Finding something like Lust for War or Domestication is always game-changing.
When the set first came out, I thought that Green was the worst color. It is now fighting with Blue for the best in my mind. The Invoker is aggressively costed and obviously game-winning late. The Snake and Boar Umbras are quite good, and the mana acceleration is all very good. Nest Invader and Overgrown Battlement are probably the best ones, giving you a step up as well as some much-needed early drops. Growth Spasm is good at what it does, but Ondu Giant is a lot better. Kozelik Predator leads to turn 5 Pelakka Wurms or curves into a Broodwarden to power up 2 Spawn. There aren’t many 4 drops in other colors, so Green pairs well curve-wise with just about everything. Beastbreaker is only answered in combat by 2 creatures in the format (Null Champion and Arrogant Bloodlord (and Guardian Gomazoa if you insist)).
The sideboard options for Green are better than any other color as well. Leaf Arrow and Naturalize are invaluable, and you can evaluate the power of Irresistible Prey and pump spells post-board. The ability to utilize the many Eldrazi Spawn it makes is a skill that the other Spawning color, Red, greatly lacks. Broodwarden, Bramblesnap, the multiple fatties, Might of the Masses, and Jaddi Lifestrider all take advantage of the little 0/1s that could.
Tim Aten had a great point about the pump spells, saying that the reason they seem to be underperforming is because the aggressive Green decks prefer Umbras, and the ramping strategies don’t care about things like combat tricks.
Pretty much every color combination has the potential for success in this format. Besides general Limited strategies, there are specific game plans that have high rates of success. I talked a lot about the RB aggro/burn deck and the UR Kiln Fiend + Falter deck in my prerelease article. I also talked about how straight Eldrazi Ramp and “The Wall” decks were ineffective. All of those speculations have turned out to be largely accurate. A few more archetypes that are really good:
UW Levelers — The deck focuses on abusing Venerated Teacher and Training Grounds in conjunction with Level Up creatures to get fast starts. The fact that a lot of the creatures fly and all levelers are good late gives the deck a naturally good late-game that doesn’t require playing specifically late-game cards that clog up your hand early.
UB Levelers — The deck has more explosive draws due to the levelers being more powerful ultimately in Black than in White, but the drawback of that is they cost more to level manually giving the deck more clunky draws when it doesn’t have Teacher or Grounds. Narcolepsy, Domestication, and Regress are great in both, but UB over UW upgrades Guard Duty and the Slinger into Vendetta, Induce Paranoia, Last Kiss, and so on. Cadaver Imp is a lot more Cadaver Impressive when it can get back Levelers later on instead of crappy aggressive guys in RB.
UR Control — The deck uses a ton of removal and defensive creatures such as Guardian Gomazoa and Halimar Wavewatcher before pulling ahead with things like Staggershock for 2 guys, Surreal Memoirs for 2 guys (or Staggershock for 3), Mnemonic Wall to kill another guy (Or two with Stagshock or Surmoirs, or three with both) for value. See Beyond and Cryptologist to prevent from flooding before you kill with some fliers or an awesome Eldrazi.
GW Aura Gnarlid — That creature is quite good, and the Green Umbras are the best. White isn’t necessary, but I find it to be the best complimenting color. It has good Umbras, Dawnglow Invoker is probably the best non-removal common, and has things like Emerge Unscathed to protect Umbra targets from being two-for-oned. Totem-Guide Hartebeest is truly at home in this archetype.
I’m done. Time to go back to hibernation. Yes, I hibernate. Like a bear. Except more awesome. [citation needed]