Last weekend I made a reasonably long drive for the sole purpose of getting Nashty in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is home to many aspiring musicians and—little known fact—also apparently home to a lot of Burning-Tree Emissarys. Who knew? Play Supreme Verdict. Only you can prevent forest fires.*

As for myself, I wanted to try something different than my normal fare of G/B/W Reanimator. Instead of casting, blinking, and reanimating Acidic Slimes, I opted to try out something on the complete opposite end of the archetype spectrum. I decided to run with a sweet Bant Brew—not to be confused with Boat Brew. The central strategy of the deck was to cast, blink, and then clone Acidic Slime. There was literally no overlap in strategy between the two decks. None whatsoever.

The deck featured some classic format-defining staples, such as Cackling Counterpart, along with a few newcomers to the scene in Progenitor Mimic and Aetherling. You can check out the deck tech for it here.

The deck was fun and powerful, but there was that whole Burning-Tree Emissary thing I mentioned earlier. Burning-Tree Emissary did a bit of a number on my life total and win column all in one package deal. Play a Burning-Tree Emissary now and get a second copy for free! Call in the next ten minutes to claim this one-of-a-kind offer!**

I probably should have just played Reanimator, but I felt the urge to do something new and fun. As it turns out, the finals was a mirror match between two G/B/W Reanimator decks. Derrick Roper’s winning list was even only a few cards off of the Reanimator list I played in the Versus video last week against David McDarby. Sometimes it’s best to just stick with what works if you want to win.

But sometimes winning isn’t everything.

I had fun cloning my Thragtusks and Restoration Angels and don’t regret my decision at all. I may have been the Clone Missionary in a hostile field full of Reanimator, Burning-Tree decks, and Jund, but hopefully my good work spreading the news will help others Mimic it in the future.

Needless to say, G/B/W Reanimator is still a powerful force and is here to stay.

Still, Standard is far from solved, and we’re far from being in a state where a deck is proving to be too dominant. G/B/W Reanimator may be good, but is it really any more dominant than Jund? How about Naya Blitz, which has put four copies in the last two SCG Standard Open Top 8s? Even outside of these known factors, what about some newcomers that put up results?

On a completely different note, Nashville also featured Legacy! It was the first Legacy tournament we’ve seen covered in a while, and it sure was a great one. There were a lot of exciting plays and decks that sprung out of it.

Today, I want to talk about these decks. I want to dive into the ones that are defining the format, share some of the decks that are starting to grow legs, and finally offer some ideas for dealing with them.

First on the docket: Standard.

Standard And Deliver

To start, I have to jump in with the deck that won the last Open. It’s now won two out of the three Opens since Dragon’s Maze was released. It may or may not be dominating a local metagame near you. Of course, I’m speaking of the one, the only G/B/W Reanimator.

G/B/W Reanimator

Reanimator

Derrick Roper

1st Place at Star City Games Standard Open on 05-19-2013

Standard

Creatures (25)

Lands (23)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

Reanimator

Alex Gonzalez

2nd Place at Star City Games Standard Open on 05-19-2013

Standard

Creatures (26)

Lands (23)

Spells (11)

Sideboard

Dragon’s Maze didn’t do much to knock this deck off of its pedestal. When I built a list for #SCGNJ a few weeks ago (that CVM won with), I could tell that the new additions from Dragon’s Maze in Sin Collector and Voice of Resurgence were extremely powerful options that really helped to fill all of the holes that Reanimator had before.

Instead of Dragon’s Maze bringing about the end of G/B/W Reanimator, it seems to have just reinforced its spot at the top of the metagame.

Three weeks later, Reanimator won #SCGNASH with almost an identical list. The deck is resilient and powerful and it’s apparent that players haven’t yet begun to adapt to beat it. It is definitely beatable, but it takes a real plan. You can’t just play the same old same olds and hope to somehow get a different result.

But before I talk about how to beat it, I want to first talk about the lists themselves and what they have to offer.

The main change Derrick Roper made was to add the fourth Thragtusk back into the deck. This is a change we can believe in. Aggressive decks are starting to sprout up back in force, and it’s time that Reanimator went right back to the formula that has always worked in the past: Thragtusk early. Thragtusk often. Against these decks, you want to just put as many Thragtusks into play as you possibly can, and the easiest way to limit yourself in doing that is by playing less Thragtusks in your deck. Give ’em the 5/3.

Alex Gonzalez has an interesting card in his sideboard in Curse of Death’s Hold. I can’t say that I’m a big fan of the card in the current format, but it’s definitely a powerhouse in the kind of format where cards like Lingering Souls and Falkenrath Aristocrat are making waves. We’ve seen that kind of format before and may see it again, so this is a very good card to keep in mind should those cards rise up again in popularity.

Another card that does a similar thing to Curse of Death’s Hold that I think deserves a second look is Gaze of Granite. This card is rock solid. While it is a bit of a poor combo with your own mana dorks, Gaze of Granite is a huge beating against decks like Bant Hexproof, and if you can stick one against a deck like Naya Blitz, it should typically be enough to lock up the game.

So how exactly does one go about beating G/B/W Reanimator?

I think the first thing to do is examine what works against it. At least in my experience, Jund has been the natural enemy to Reanimator. What about the Jund deck causes it to prey on Reanimator?

There are really two key cards: Olivia Voldaren and Bonfire of the Damned. Both of these cards individually highlight a key component for beating Reanimator.

The first is to disrupt them or go under them. The easiest way by far to disrupt Reanimator is to attack their mana production. Jund does this very well, and the key card in making that happen is Bonfire of the Damned, which does an excellent job at clearing away all of the mana dorks (and often a number of other creatures in the process). Other important cards for doing this are things like Garruk Relentless to fight their mana dorks and then provide a difficult to deal with threat and Acidic Slime and a way to abuse it to really go after the oft-fragile mana base.

The other is to go over the top of them. Jund again demonstrates a way to do this with Olivia Voldaren. An unanswered Olivia is unbeatable for Reanimator, as Olivia can actually get around Unburial Rites by stealing creatures instead of killing them.

The Bant deck I played in Nashville was designed with the idea of beating G/B/W Reanimator in mind. As a result, I made sure to have ways to attack it on both axes. I had Garruk Relentless and Acidic Slime to pressure their mana and try to steal a win that way. If the game did manage to go long, then I had access to cards like Progenitor Mimic to completely go over the top of their Angel of Serenity or start to lock them out of the game in combination with something like Acidic Slime.

It will be important when designing decks moving forward to ensure that your deck is at least capable of attacking them profitably on one of these two fronts and preferably both. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have a great matchup against Reanimator, but it is at least a good solid starting point. The worst thing you can do is play a deck that can’t really compete in either of these two arenas.

Next I’d like to take a look at a deck that attacks on one of these fronts exceptionally well and the other not at all.

Naya Blitz

Ben Wienburg

4th Place at Star City Games Standard Open on 05-19-2013

Standard

Creatures (35)

Lands (20)

Spells (5)

2 Giant Growth
3 Searing Spear

Sideboard

Naya Blitz

John Milner

3rd Place at Star City Games Standard Open on 05-19-2013

Standard

Creatures (36)

Lands (20)

Spells (4)

4 Searing Spear

Sideboard

There are actually a good number of differences in card choices between these two versions, but they are both still aiming to do the exact same thing: get their opponent dead as quickly as possible.

John Milner was apparently not content to just jam the four copies of Frontline Medic that Ben Weinburg chose to play. Instead, he opted for a fairly interesting choice in Kessig Malcontents. I actually like that decision a lot. While Malcontents loses out on a lot of the power that Frontline Medic can provide in a game going long, namely the ability to attack through Thragtusk with Impunity, it provides yet another bit of reach—every little bit counts. Blitz is exceptionally good at putting the opponent to a low life total, but it can sometimes sputter out and not be able to close the game. The couple points of damage that a Malcontents deals can often be just enough to finish the opponent off.

Blitz is a deck that I feel is very well positioned right now, yet not much was said about it until Ben Wienburg article this week. Chris VanMeter was seriously considering playing it at the Open last weekend, and I actually briefly entertained the idea myself, which is saying a lot because I am bad at playing these kinds of decks and also don’t really enjoy the style. The deck is brutally efficient and will take down a tournament if people aren’t ready for it. It has put two copies in both of the last two Open Top 8s, so Blitz is definitely something I would not underestimate.

Golgari Win Farm

B/G Midrange

Robbie Cordell

6th Place at Star City Games Standard Open on 05-19-2013

Standard

Creatures (14)

Planeswalkers (4)

Lands (24)

Spells (18)

Sideboard

This is a pretty interesting deck that has sprung up recently and has had a lot of success on Magic Online. It didn’t take long for that success to port over to paper Magic. Robbie Cordell’s B/G deck is a midrange list that features both a lot of cheap removal and a lot of synergy. As a result, the list is both consistent and powerful.

What makes the deck so good is how well the cards all play with each other. Every creature in the deck is resilient to Mutilate. Desecration Demon is big enough to dodge it most of the time, and Thragtusk, Geralf’s Messenger, and Disciple of Bolas all get value out of the tradeoff.

Disciple of Bolas is also an extremely powerful card in this list. With Geralf’s Messenger and Thragtusk, you get a lot of cards, and they both leave behind a reasonable body. With Desecration Demon, you simply get a very high amount of cards. Since the rest of the deck is essentially all removal spells, being able to draw this many cards means that the plan of just casting one for one removal spells on all of your opponent’s creatures is going to eventually put you ahead.

One card that I’m a bit surprised to not see in the sideboard is Deadbridge Chant. It seems like it is a perfect fit for what this deck is trying to accomplish: kill everything and then grind them out with card advantage.

Also, it’s important to note that from a flavor standpoint Deadbridge Chant and Underworld Connections combine to form Bridge from Below. Be sure to argue that point when you start putting 2/2 Zombies into play when creatures die.

Four-Color Control

Travis Bryant

7th Place at Star City Games Standard Open on 05-19-2013

Standard

Creatures (14)

Lands (24)

Spells (22)

Sideboard

I like this deck a lot. It’s basically a hybrid of Jeff Hoogland RUG Flash and U/W/R Flash. The best thing RUG Flash had going for it was the ability to really get a lot of value from Huntmaster of the Fells because of the high number of instants and the presence of Snapcaster Mage. For a long time in Innistrad Block Constructed before Avacyn Restored, RUG was a pretty dominant deck, and the main reason for its power was the ability to abuse Snapcaster Mage and Huntmaster of the Fells in tandem with each other.

The big issue with RUG was that it lacked all the powerful cards that white offered, with Sphinx’s Revelation and Restoration Angel being the most important two. Sphinx’s Revelation in particular hurt a lot. The awesome thing about this list is the ability to really get the best of both worlds.

You also get the worst of both mana bases, but who really cares about insignificant things like that anyway? Certainly not me. On an unrelated note, is anyone interested in testing my five-color Obzedat, Ghost Council + Burn at the Stake + Predator Ooze deck? It goldfishes consistently on turn 9, which is really the mark of any good deck. [Editor’s Note: I’ve got some tickets to burn on Magic Online, so ship it!]

The only thing I’m not particularly happy about is Augur of Bolas. While the card is good, in a list with only twenty targets it’s going to brick on a spell quite often. Maritime is a bad time. I would like to either cut down on Augurs or increase the spell count, likely by cutting down on some number of five-drops—either Thragtusk or the Assemble the Legion, two cards that both don’t work with Augur.

Next up, I want to talk about a few other decks that didn’t recently have a successful finish but that I think have potential moving forward.

B/G/W Value Town

B/W/G Aristocrats

Ryan Rolen

Test deck on 05-26-2013

Standard

Creatures (27)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Lands (24)

Spells (8)

Ryan Rolen showed me this deck in between rounds at #SCGNASH. While he didn’t end up doing so hot in the tournament, he definitely beat the crap out of me with it in between rounds. The deck seems like it has a ton of potential, as it is extremely synergistic and hard to attack.

The combination of Varolz, Doomed Traveler, and Voice of Resurgence make it very hard to profitably attack through this deck, and those cards provide a bit of insurance against Supreme Verdict too. Varolz also serves as another cheap sacrifice outlet alongside Cartel Aristocrat to turn on Skirsdag High Priest as early as turn 3 with a Doomed Traveler.

This deck really showcases the power of Voice of Resurgence. With all the creatures and token generators, the Elemental token from Voice of Resurgence is frequently going to be huge. Because of Cartel Aristocrat and Varolz, it’s possible to create that token whenever needed rather than relying on your opponent to kill your Voice.

Moving forward, I think the deck could benefit a lot from Desecration Demon. This 6/6 flyer for four is starting to see a good deal of play lately, largely because Supreme Verdict has gone missing, and I think it would be a perfect fit in this deck. It is a good threat to end the game while Voice and friends hold down the ground and also provides a giant boost to Lingering Souls tokens when you scavenge with Varolz.

Ooze Yer Daddy?

Progenitor Bant

Brian Braun-Duin

Test deck on 05-26-2013

Standard

Creatures (28)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Garruk Relentless

Lands (24)

Spells (5)

4 Farseek
1 Cackling Counterpart

Sideboard

This is the deck I played in Nashville. It was a lot of fun and had some really powerful draws, but it definitely needs a much better plan against Naya Blitz and kin because it struggled to beat the various Burning-Tree Emissary decks. I think Voice of Resurgence needs to be in the maindeck, and some of the Clones should probably be trimmed. Garruk Relentless was unbelievably good in this deck. In fact, I feel like this was the best Garruk Relentless deck I have ever played, and I don’t think it would be unreasonable to just play four copies in the main.

This is going to sound like heresy, but Acidic Slime wasn’t very good. The format has started to adapt to beating Slime, which means there are a lot more turn 4 aggro decks; even decks like Jund are usually able to fight through a few copies with their high land count and Farseeks. I still want access to it in the 75, but it’s possible that it should simply be starting in the sideboard for now. Besides, there was another threat that proved to be just as powerful, if not more so, for beating the kind of decks that Slime is good against.

Aetherling was really good. I feel like this type of deck is the best kind to take advantage of Aetherling because it has the ability to ramp into it and can also provide some pressure to ensure that Aetherling is actually a relevant clock once it hits play.

Moving forward, I want to tune the deck more to beat aggressive decks, mainly with the addition of Voice of Resurgence to the maindeck and probably some other hateful options like Supreme Verdict, Centaur Healer, or Rhox Faithmender in the side. To facilitate this, Acidic Slime will get trimmed, but in return Aetherling will take a more prominent role alongside Cavern of Souls to be a nightmare for control and midrange decks.

It ain’t easy being Slimey.

Give Me Fuel, Give Me Fire, Give Me That Turn 3 Sire

Four-Color Reanimator

Brian Braun-Duin

Test deck on 05-26-2013

Standard

Creatures (21)

Lands (23)

Spells (16)

This is a deck I have been toying around with for a long time but simply haven’t had the time to put in the effort to tune it and build it into something competitive. I don’t even have a sideboard for it, but I imagine it needs an answer for or alternate plan to beat graveyard hate since it is pretty reliant on Unburial Rites.

It’s possible that Farseek is better than Arbor Elf, which would also help free up the mana base since it wouldn’t have to play at least twelve Forests. It’s also possible that not having Thragtusk in the maindeck is a mistake, although the hope is that Huntmaster of the Fells is enough of a roadblock against aggressive decks to buy time for Angel of Serenity.

Finally, this may just be worse than Human Reanimator, which is likewise a much more all-in Reanimator list and less of a grindy value list like G/B/W Reanimator. At any rate, this is something I want to spend some time working on because I feel like some sort of list like this could be very powerful. As G/B/W Reanimator turns more and more from a graveyard-centric deck to a Restoration Angel deck, graveyard hate starts disappearing more and more from decks, which in turn can let a pure graveyard-based Reanimator strategy spring forth.

Legacy

Last week, I wrote an article about Esper Deathblade, a Legacy deck I designed for an Open in DC and was able to play to a 3rd place finish in the SCG Invitational. I mentioned how I believed that it was a very strong force in the Legacy format and the next evolution of Esper Stoneblade.

SCG Legacy Open: Nashville definitely helped to prove that prediction right. I don’t know how many players ended up taking the plunge to play Deathblade, but I can’t imagine it was more than a handful. Despite that, both Lauren Nolen and Jack Fogle made Top 8 with it, with Lauren winning the tournament against Jack in the finals. My own journey involved me losing round 1 to Chris Andersen and then battling back long enough to lose my win-and-in round to miss Top 8.

Esper Deathblade really is very good. Let’s take a look at it.

Esper Deathblade

Lauren Nolen

1st Place at Star City Games Legacy Open on 05-19-2013

Legacy

Creatures (16)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (23)

Spells (18)

Sideboard

Esper Deathblade

Jack Fogle

2nd Place at Star City Games Legacy Open on 05-19-2013

Legacy

Creatures (15)

Planeswalkers (5)

Lands (23)

Spells (17)

Sideboard

Jack Fogle ended up playing a fairly stock version of the list. Despite my assertion that Liliana of the Veil wasn’t very good, he decided to play it anyway and said that it performed well for him. While I’m not convinced that Liliana is the right card to play, I am definitely willing to revisit the concept.

Lauren Nolen, on the other hand, had a number of interesting choices in his list. For one, we see not only a Notion Thief but a Notion Thief in the MAINDECK. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but Notion Thief is actually an interesting hybrid card. He’s a sweet combination of these:

If you’re confused, that means you must have missed the coverage. You see, poor Justin Uppal made the mistake of Brainstorming with his Jace, the Mind Sculptor when his opponent had nothing and four mana untapped. It was the classic story of rich versus poor. It was a tale of greed against justice. It was a story of how the meek will inherit the earth.

Lauren Nolen would not stand for such an insolent display of power from Justin. Brainstorming to further push his advantage? Show some respect. I can only imagine Lauren yelling out: "Respect this!" as he threw his Notion Thief into play.

That Jace brainstorm turned into Justin putting two cards on top of his deck, Lauren drawing three cards, and Jace taking a headfirst dive into "the bin" from Notion Thief attacking it. It was the old Agonizing Memories, Ancestral Recall, Mold Shambler three-card combo that we’ve all come to know and love, all condensed into one card for the low low price of 2UB!

Notion Thief definitely seemed better than I gave it credit for initially. With that being said, I still stand by my assertion that I’d rather just have a fourth copy of Jace, the Mind Sculptor before I ever touch a Notion Thief.

For this tournament, I did exactly that. Here’s the list I played:

Esper Deathblade

Brian Braun-Duin

21st Place at Star City Games Legacy Open on 05-19-2013

Legacy

Creatures (15)

Planeswalkers (4)

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (23)

Spells (18)

Sideboard

I was very happy with this list and will likely play it again without many changes the next time I touch the format. Jace Beleren was exceptional every time I drew it, and I would certainly play it again for sure. The Fresh Prince of Beleren is baaaaaaaaack.

U/B Tezzeret

Christoffer Andersen

8th Place at Star City Games Legacy Open on 05-19-2013

Legacy

Creatures (4)

4 Baleful Strix

Planeswalkers (8)

Lands (22)

Spells (26)

Sideboard

I won’t dwell much on this deck since Chris VanMeter wrote an article about it yesterday, but I do want to say that this deck is both awesome and extremely powerful. I had the misfortune of having to play against Chris Andersen in round 1, and he had the capability of playing a planeswalker on turn 2 in at least two of our three games. That threat really forced me to play a different game than what I wanted to and set me back. I lost and did not feel favored.

This deck has a lot of customizability thanks to the power of Jace and Tezzeret to dig through the deck and the ability for a number of one-of artifacts to really provide a powerful effect to a game. Something as simple as an Ensnaring Bridge can actually just end the game against some decks, and there are other artifacts that are likewise as powerful against certain strategies.

Ad Nauseam Tendrils

The final deck I want to mention is Storm. Adam Prosak has had continued success with this archetype over the past few months, making Top 8 nearly every time he’s played the deck.

Ad Nauseam Tendrils

Adam Prosak

6th Place at Star City Games Legacy Open on 05-19-2013

Legacy

Lands (15)

Spells (45)

Sideboard

Ad Nauseam Tendrils

Jacob Baugh

5th Place at Star City Games Legacy Open on 05-19-2013

Legacy

Lands (15)

Spells (45)

Sideboard

Despite putting two copies in the Top 8, Storm couldn’t quite put ten copies on the stack and ended up losing both quarterfinals, leaving the semifinals and the finals for the fair decks to battle it out.

At any rate, thanks to the insane power level of Past in Flames and the ability of that card to allow a Storm player to still win through significant hand disruption, Storm has really risen to the top as the premier combo deck and a force to be reckoned with in Legacy.

Storm is a deck I would like to try out in an upcoming event, although it will require me to spend a lot of time practicing in advance since this is not the kind of deck you can just pick up and hope to do well with.

That’s all I’ve got for today. While I may not have done particularly well at either event this weekend, it’s certainly exciting for me to see two decks that I have designed and worked on extensively experience so much success, even though it was in the hands of other players. I’ve spent a lot of time working on and tuning both G/B/W Reanimator and Esper Deathblade, and seeing that the finals of both events were actually just mirror matches of both of those decks really gives me a lot of confidence. It also provides me with the incentive to keep tuning these decks, as well as to come up with new lists.

It’s up to you to beat them.

Thanks for reading,

Brian Braun-Duin
@BraunDuinIt on Twitter
BBD on Magic Online

*Smokey the Bear can’t because he is sadly only a 2/2 and just trades in combat with a Burning-Tree Emissary.

**Only valid on turn 2. Opponent’s rage not included. Batteries, however, are included.