As I sat at my computer trying to think of an interesting Standard deck with which I could record a video, eventually I just wanted to say, “I give up—there are no interesting decks in Standard that are worth playing through.”
Then I realized I could probably just say that, so here we are.
I still think Mono-Blue Devotion is the best deck, though I also respect Mono-Black. I think playing three colors is kind of ridiculous, and I wouldn’t want fewer than four Mutavaults. I basically never like aggressive red decks, so I don’t have a lot of options. The white-based aggro decks are fine, but this week you’re just going to see more of what I know. As usual, I’ve changed a couple cards but nothing too significant. I’m playing:
Creatures (28)
- 4 Judge's Familiar
- 4 Frostburn Weird
- 4 Cloudfin Raptor
- 4 Nightveil Specter
- 4 Tidebinder Mage
- 4 Thassa, God of the Sea
- 4 Master of Waves
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (25)
Spells (5)
I thought that was a pretty interesting mirror match, and I’m genuinely surprised that I managed to win.
That was much easier. My draws were fantastic, and it’s nice to know that my best draws beat their best draws, which I think this match demonstrated, though black removal would certainly have helped my opponent there.
More or less everything that could go wrong in that first game did. Well, that two life certainly wasn’t irrelevant—if he’d been at three, I would’ve blocked with the second Judge’s Familiar instead of the Raptor, and then Raptor and Frostburn would’ve been lethal. Frustrating.
That second game kind of slipped away from me when I thought I might have turned it around after a strong start from my opponent, though it might not have been nearly as close with better play from my opponent. That third game was just bizarre. Clearly drawing Tidebinder Mages was relatively lucky given my opponent’s draw, but it’s hard to feel like I got too lucky when lands would’ve been about as good.