With the season of National Tournaments winding down, results from the German, Great Britain, and United States Nationals will more or less define Standard until the release of Scars of Mirrodin and the rotation of Alara block. And there were some sweet decks at Nationals last weekend.
Creatures (36)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Merfolk Looter
- 4 Extractor Demon
- 1 Sedraxis Alchemist
- 3 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Hedron Crab
- 4 Enclave Cryptologist
- 4 Renegade Doppelganger
- 4 Vengevine
- 4 Fauna Shaman
Lands (24)
Sideboard
Let’s kick off with Dredgevine. The deck finally had a breakout performance at U.S. Nationals last weekend, carrying Brad Nelson and David Ochoa into the top 8. The deck, designed by Brian David-Marshall, is incredibly synergistic. After the M11 release, pretty much everyone was on board with using Fauna Shaman to tutor up Vengevine, then bin that Vengevine, search up another, repeat, and eventually maul your opponent with angry plants sometime during the midgame. Dredgevine goes further, using Merfolk Looter and Enclave Cryptologist to simultaneously provide more ways to get Vengevine into the bin while digging for more Vengevines. Renegade Doppleganger is on the team as a sick card to trigger Vengevine, getting in for even more hasty damage.
However, even a super sick Vengevine draw isn’t necessarily enough to explode through an opponent…so the Dredgevine deck also has a Hedron Crab/Extractor Demon engine. Hedron Crab can dig up more Vengevines, but it’s also pretty sick for finding Extractor Demon, which you can unearth for considerable value…perhaps even using the Demon’s ability to mill into more Demons and Vengevines. All of the looters are also pretty happy to pitch the Demon for value.
Earlier incarnations of Dredgevine usually included Bloodghast, but Ochoa, Nelson, and BDM eschewed the 2/1 for not being a sizable enough body. By trimming out Bloodghast, they were able to make the rest of the deck more streamlined, more redundant…and were able to include the single copy of Sedraxis Alchemist as a Fauna Shaman bullet that could be used to bounce itself to trigger Vengevine even without a second creature in hand!
Creatures (11)
- 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
- 1 Terastodon
- 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
- 2 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
- 1 Obstinate Baloth
- 4 Primeval Titan
Lands (27)
Spells (22)
But Dredgevine wasn’t the only fringe deck to break into the top 8 of U.S. Nationals. John Kolos’s Ramp deck looks like the realization of Jamie Wakefield dreams; over forty mana sources and ramp effects can propel Kolos to Primeval Titan mana as early as turn 4. Alternatively, if Kolos is long on mana and short on gigantic monsters, he can clear the board with All is Dust while he keeps making more and more land drops. Note how resolving Primeval Titan and fetching Eldrazi Temples implies mana for Kozilek or Ulamog on the next turn, regardless of any removal your opponent might have. Of course, if you’re not fortunate enough to have any Eldrazi in hand to go with your Titan, you can simply fetch a bunch of Tectonic Edges and blow up all of your opponent’s lands, or get Mystifying Maze to lock down, say, Baneslayer Angel.
And, of course, if your opponent is bold enough to Mana Leak your Primeval Titan, you can always stand up and shout, “ADMIRAL! ENEMY SHIPS IN SECTOR B-7!”
“IT’S A TRAP!!!”
Mana Leak my Titan? How about I Summoning Trap out Emrakul and teach you a lesson?
Lands (22)
Spells (38)
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 3 Time Warp
- 4 Mana Leak
- 3 Foresee
- 4 Ponder
- 4 Burst Lightning
- 2 Into the Roil
- 4 Pyromancer Ascension
- 4 See Beyond
- 4 Preordain
- 2 Call to Mind
Sideboard
A lot of the technology last weekend came from across the pond. Tobias Grafensteiner’s update on Pyromancer Ascension combo contains a nasty sideboard surprise for opponents. Consider game 1. Tobias tears through his library with Ponder, Preordain, Foresee, whatever. He finds his namesake enchantment, he ascends, takes extra turns, finds Call to Mind, goes infinite, sure, yeah, okay.
Then he sideboards.
Tobias’ opponent proudly shows Relic of Progenitus on turn 1.
Tobias, for his part, shows the other guy a bag of oranges.
Sideboarding into a Polymorph deck gives Tobias a ton of extra flexibility. What do you do when you make Qasali Pridemage only to watch your Birds of Paradise bite it to Spawning Breath and start staring down Progenitus? How are you going to fight that? Leave in your Lightning Bolts after sideboarding? Now what are you taking out for your Ascension hate? What if Tobias shuffles his sideboard back in for game 3 and pulls out fifteen cards? Is he Ascending? Polymorphing?
The best part is, Tobias doesn’t have to concede very much to achieve his flexibility. Maindeck Khalni Garden buys time against Putrid Leech; probably not as good as Halimar Depths, but certainly not the end of the world. The rest of the transformation can live in the sideboard, where all it’s replacing are cards to fight opposing hate cards. Very slick.
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Creatures (34)
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Realm Razer
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 2 Qasali Pridemage
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 1 Baneslayer Angel
- 3 Cunning Sparkmage
- 1 Stoneforge Mystic
- 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
- 4 Vengevine
- 4 Fauna Shaman
- 1 Obstinate Baloth
- 1 Sun Titan
- 1 Sylvan Ranger
Lands (25)
Spells (1)
Naya decks were also quite popular all weekend. In Great Britain, Joseph Jackson and Richard Bland played the same 75 and were both rewarded with slots on the British National Team after playing each other in the finals. Their Naya deck is somewhat reminiscent of the Vengevine deck that Gerry Thompson built for U.S. Regionals, but updated with a Fauna Shaman package. The interaction between Fauna Shaman and Sun Titan is synergistic to say the least, but Jackson and Bland have a number of other bullets.
Fauna Shaman allows them to assemble the Cunning Sparkmage/Basilisk Collar combination quite easily despite playing a mere three Sparkmages and a single Stoneforge Mystic to search up the Collar. Sylvan Ranger can act as a color fixer as needed, and Obstinate Baloth is even more of a Blightning deterrent than Vengevine. Linvala, Keeper of Silence trumps other Cunning Sparkmage decks as well as blanking all of Mythic’s mana-producing creatures, and, of course, Baneslayer Angel is on the team, because, you know, if your opponent can’t kill your Fauna Shaman, he’s probably going to have trouble with your Baneslayer Angel as well.
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Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (9)
Lands (26)
Spells (17)
Sideboard
Eric Frolich, on the other hand, took a different approach with his Naya deck. One of the problems people have been pointing out with Destructive Force decks is that it’s pretty tricky to kill Knight of the Reliquary with Destructive Force. That’s true, but it also means that you can simply play Knight of the Reliquary in your Destructive Force deck, which powers out Destructive Force faster and can keep grabbing fetchlands to ensure that your Knights are always bigger than your opponents’. Primeval Titan is always a welcome addition to any big mana strategy, and can fetch out Tectonic Edges if your Destructive Forces are nowhere to be found.
One of the cooler uses of Trace of Abundance is using it to give your manlands shroud. Making Raging Ravine impervious to Lightning Bolt and Tectonic Edge is pretty sweet, but it also helps Frolich power out Destructive Force a turn ahead of schedule.
And even if Frolich’s opponent can handle Knight of the Reliquary and Primeval Titan, Frolich has a bunch of planeswalkers to ensure that he gets value from Destructive Force. Garruk in particular is strong with Destructive Force, both accelerating out the Wildfire and ensuring fast ramping afterwards, but Ajani Vengeant is always a welcome addition to any mana denial strategy, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Gideon Jura are excellent at both defending Frolich prior to Destructive Force and acting as finishers after Frolich blows up the world.
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Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (9)
Lands (25)
Spells (22)
I only want to highlight this deck for two reasons: Preordain and Flashfreeze. Patrick Chapin has been singing the praises of Preordain in virtually every deck with Blue mana for some time now, but it was Gerard Fabiano who stuck Preordain into his U/W control deck and took it to the top 8 of U.S. Nationals. Fabiano’s list has gone back to maindeck Spreading Seas to punish Jund players, and Fabiano is backing up his Seas with maindeck Flashfreeze. Maindecking Flashfreeze is pretty reasonable in a world where Fabiano was the only player in the top 8 of his tournament without targets for it, especially when he has Preordain and Jace, the Mind Sculptor to filter through the Flashfreezes if he gets into any sort of mirror match.
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Creatures (20)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (25)
Spells (8)
And, of course, Mythic remains on top of the format. Josh Utter-Leyton’s list isn’t spectacularly different from the builds of Mythic that have gone before, but his changes are still significant. Explore gives Josh more ways to ramp with value up to Sovereigns of Lost Alara. Explore also implies that Josh will have four mana on turn 3, so he’s included four copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and has three Elspeths to back up Jace. Elspeth is a huge threat against control decks and in the mirror, and Jace can play defense or offense with his Unsummon ability, or just hang out and Brainstorm.
Josh’s sideboard is very interesting. Linvala has seen occasional use in Mythic sideboards as a mirror trump and an answer to Cunning Sparkmage, but Josh has the full package. He also has Spell Pierce to trump big-mana plans like Eric Frolich’s Destructive Force, and can even imitate a control deck for a few turns while sitting on a Mana Leak or two and casting Jace’s Ingenuity.
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Creatures (18)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (14)
Sideboard
The bogeyman is always waiting in the wings. Obstinate Baloth was supposed to put Jund on the ropes. Instead, Aaron Wilburn simply cut his Blightnings, made room for more maindeck removal spells, added Grave Titan, and went 7-1 in the Standard portion of U.S. Nationals. Not everyone benched Blightning; Sebastian Potyka went 8-0 at German Nationals with Blightnings and maindeck Obstinate Baloths, although he also included Grave Titan, who appears to be quite an upgrade on Broodmate Dragon for the purposes of the Jund deck. With Thought Hemmorhage to take apart combo and control decks and Slave of Bolas as a trump against other Titans, Jund is something you can’t ever count out.
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Standard is still an exciting, evolving format. I’m excited to play basically all of these decks at local tournaments in the next few weeks. I want to particularly encourage people to try the more out-of-the-box strategies such as Dredgevine or Pyromancer’s Ascension. There are a lot of cool things you can do in Standard right now. Go have fun.
Max McCall
max dot mccall at gmail dot com