#SCGCOL marked the first Standard experience with Eldritch Moon. A bevy of new cards saw play. I chose to only play one, Repel the Abominable, and even that wasn’t a necessity. Let’s take a look at what Eldritch Moon cards saw play in other decks:
And those are just from the Top 64 decklists!
No doubt the release of Eldritch Moon is affecting Standard. Spell Queller is incredibly powerful and supercharged the fringe U/W Spirit deck into a real threat. Bant Collected Company got more tools to work with (as if it needed more).
Not all decks need updates, though. I’m not the only one that didn’t dabble deep into the new cards.
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (30)
Matthew basically played Brad Nelson’s G/R Goggles Ramp deck from the Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad Top 8. Brad played it as a good option against Bant Company, and unsurprisingly we see it performing well now that Bant Company is again the top dog of the format.
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (25)
Kasey played B/G Seasons Past, very similar to the deck Jon Finkel also Top 8ed the last Pro Tour with. A Liliana, the Last Hope was added for spice, but overall it’s the same usual stuff.
When asked what his worst matchup is, Jon Finkel responded with “Bant Company.” Hrm, strange to see B/G Seasons Past doing well again with Bant Company being the best deck.
Or is it?
Then:
Creatures (26)
- 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
- 2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
- 4 Bounding Krasis
- 4 Reflector Mage
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 2 Archangel Avacyn
- 2 Tireless Tracker
- 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
Lands (25)
Spells (9)
And now:
Creatures (27)
- 4 Reflector Mage
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 2 Archangel Avacyn
- 3 Tireless Tracker
- 3 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
- 4 Spell Queller
- 4 Selfless Spirit
Lands (25)
Spells (8)
Selfless Spirit, Spell Queller and Thalia, Heretic Cathar.
No Bounding Krasis; Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy; or maindeck Nissa, Vastwood Seer or Ojutai’s Command.
Overall there are fewer grindy elements to Bant Company but the average power level of the cards are a touch better. The Bant Company players I talked to at #SCGCOL were deathly afraid of getting their Spell Queller killed, and what better deck to put the fear in them than a black-based control deck?
Bottom line: while B/G Seasons Past didn’t get many drastic improvements, the way other decks were changed repositioned B/G Seasons Past better.
Oh, and some W/R Humans decks in 12th and 14th places.
Let’s play a game. Can you spot the difference?
Creatures (31)
- 4 Knight of the White Orchid
- 4 Dragon Hunter
- 3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
- 3 Anointer of Champions
- 3 Expedition Envoy
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 4 Thalia's Lieutenant
- 2 Hanweir Militia Captain
- 4 Town Gossipmonger
Lands (18)
Spells (11)
Creatures (31)
- 4 Knight of the White Orchid
- 4 Dragon Hunter
- 3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
- 3 Anointer of Champions
- 3 Expedition Envoy
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 4 Thalia's Lieutenant
- 2 Hanweir Militia Captain
- 4 Town Gossipmonger
Lands (18)
Spells (11)
I did try the following cards from Eldritch Moon in Humans.
What I really wanted from Eldritch Moon was another one-drop to improve on something like Expedition Envoy or a really good two-drop to improve on the Hanweir Militia Captain slot.
Humans needed something new to go with Always Watching. A portion of the strength of Humans is the (overlooked?) interaction with Always Watching and Town Gossipmonger and Anointer of Champions. This is all I got.
Rather underwhelming options.
I’ve been considering going back to a straight Mono-White build. Thalia, Heretic Cathar leans me towards wanting each and every land in to be basic. Battlefield Forge gets worse when every deck intends on winning with creatures in combat. Needle Spires and Reckless Bushwhacker are great against heavy control decks, and how prevalent they are in the metagame determines how good that sideboard plan is.
Creatures (31)
- 4 Knight of the White Orchid
- 3 Dragon Hunter
- 3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
- 3 Anointer of Champions
- 2 Expedition Envoy
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 4 Thalia's Lieutenant
- 4 Town Gossipmonger
- 4 Lone Rider
Lands (18)
- 18 Plains
Spells (11)
Jeff chose to run Lone Riders instead of other two-drop options like Consul’s Lieutenant or Hanweir Militia Captain. He didn’t run any extra cards to gain life, instead aiming to transform it naturally by pumping its power through Gryff’s Boon, Thalia’s Lieutenant, Anointer of Champions, and Always Watching. Making Lone Rider deal three combat damage has been my preferred way to transform it in brewing.
Lone Riders work well together too. Two and an Anointer of Champions get the job done. Then you’re left with two copies of It That Rides As One riding together! Also cool is they are no longer killed by Ultimate Price, and often not Grasp of Darkness or Languish if you have an Always Watching or have given them a +1/+1 counter.
Sure, it takes some things to go right to work, but Mono-White Humans is a synergy deck with tons of redundancy and a low land count to further ensure that you draw your pieces in high numbers.
Overall a neat change, but I’m not completely sold.
Playing Humans in New Standard
Your deck doesn’t change, but theirs do. The real difficulty in piloting Humans is knowing what to play around. Let’s start with the main offender.
You want to resolve your important spells when you can. This means landing the turn 3 Always Watching on the play. If they leave up three mana on turn 3, I tend to play two less important spells. Always play the most important last, before playing your land for the turn. Don’t give them extra information. Lead with Expedition Envoy and try to get a read on them before playing your Plains and Kytheon, Hero of Akros.
Save Declaration in Stone as long as you can. It’s okay to get something hit by Spell Queller if you can plan on removing it later. Something like Always Watching or Thalia’s Lieutenant may even be more powerful later in the game when it comes back.
Attacking into a potential 2/3 flash blocker can be tough on turn 3. You want to start with a 2/1 and an Anointer of Champions more often than two 2/1s now.
Liliana, the Last Hope is great against Humans if you allow it to be. Before you usually wanted to play Thraben Inspector last, since it has the lowest power, but it should come down earlier against black decks now. Try to land Always Watching before a ton of 2/1s if possible. It’s okay to play a bunch of 2/1s as long as you guarantee yourself a clear attack for four into Liliana, the Last Hope to remove it. This may leave you vulnerable to Languish. You can’t be everything Game 1. That’s what the red sideboard is for.
Selfless Spirit blocks really poorly on its own and really well when the opponent has more creatures. It’s also very good with Archangel Avacyn. Against Bant Company I used to conserve my creatures more when I could threaten to go bigger than them with Thalia’s Lieutenant and Always Watching. Now I trade off more often. Every turn they’re praying you don’t attack into them. The bigger battlefield favors them. It’s likely they won’t trade anyway since they need a creature on the battlefield to use their Dromoka’s Command.
The worst spot you can get yourself into is allowing the battlefield to get huge and have them pull of the Selfless Spirit plus Archangel Avacyn combo on you. Take slightly unfavorable-looking trades like a 3/2 Kytheon, Hero of Akros for Selfless Spirit or Duskwatch Recruiter.
Thalia adds another thing to remember: if you can avoid taking damage, play your Battlefield Forge early, especially if you need to play an untapped land the following turn.
Incited Rabble tends to match up favorably with Thalia, Heretic Cathar, as the deck has many ways to make it a 3/4. You want to land one and flip it if you have something to raise its toughness. Be sure not to transform Town Gossipmonger if you can’t, as it must attack.
In general 2/1s are poor against Thalia, Heretic Cathar while Gryff’s Boon is good. Sideboard accordingly.
Blessed Alliance showed up sparingly in some maindecks and sideboards last weekend. Now, given the clear opportunity, attack with Anointer of Champions as well as your other creatures as it gives you the option to sacrifice the Anointer of Champions.
If you see this one out of Bant Company, you can be certain that they have Elder Deep-Fiend too. It can screw up combat immensely. Not too much you can do about it usually, but I’m sure there are some cases you could play around it somehow if you’re aware of it.
You’ll typically have them under so much pressure that they have to tap down two of your creatures to survive. The notable thing here is to use Gideon, Battle-Forged to untap one of your creatures to allow it to attack. This is usually better than using his 0 ability to make a 4/4, since it gives Gideon some loyalty.
Okay, this one is actually in your deck. Just a reminder of what the card actually does.
It prevents damage from:
- A transformed Archangel Avacyn.
- Chandra, Flamecaller’s –X.
- Kozilek’s Return. Be careful. If they trigger the “Flashback” of Kozilek’s Return, you have to cast Repel the Abominable before the trigger resolves. Their Kozilek’s Return will indeed stay in their graveyard for future use, but you do what you can.
- Radiant Flames.
- Anything that’s non-Human in combat.
Repel the Abominable is the kind of card that’s easy to have too many copies of, which is why I only played one in #SCGCOL. I got great use out of it when I drew it though. I disliked Eerie Interlude, but I’m becoming quite fond of Repel the Abominable.
New Standard, Week Two
#SCGBALT is this weekend. Week 1 of Shadows over Innistrad New Standard had Bant Company as the best deck, and we see a similar pattern after #SCGCOL with Eldritch Moon.
The Pro Tour competitors in Sydney are understandably hush-hush. Everyone is hungry for information. No one has broken it yet. It’s unclear that anyone will before then. Personally, I’ll be playing something I know works already. No stumbles or unproven cards.
I know W/R Humans works. Why would I try to fix it?