New Brews For Post-Ban Blues

So we have Rivals of Ixalan. We have the bans. Now, it’s time to
get to work brewing decks for the new Standard format. Even though the Pro
Tour is Modern, my guess is that Rivals of Ixalan won’t change
much, aside from Merfolk getting one or two new cards. Regardless, Standard
is the format on everyone’s mind because so much has happened to it in the
last week.

Yeah we’ve all heard it by now. Banning two big cards from Temur Energy and
Ramunap Red has completely changed the format. So what are we left with
now? Tribal decks are getting a huge boost from Rivals of Ixalan, control decks might be the cream of the crop, and why the
heck did everyone forget about God-Pharaoh’s Gift?

I don’t know exactly what I want to be doing in Standard just yet, but my
gut tells me that God-Pharaoh’s Gift is going to be absurd. I’ve tried
beating it with control decks, and it just seems too difficult. Resolving a
single Gate to the Afterlife isn’t that hard, and the accumulation of small
creatures forces you to tap out at some point to kill them. And when the
control deck taps out, that’s when the deck strikes, landing a huge
artifact that is pretty tough to deal with outside of playing red for
Abrade.

While God-Pharaoh’s Gift could be the reigning champ of the new Standard
format, I also think there’s a lot of exploring to do (both literally and
figuratively). Jadelight Ranger could easily be the next Tireless Tracker.
Winding Constrictor could make a comeback. Token decks don’t have much to
fear now that Rampaging Ferocidon is out of the picture. And above all
else, Energy could still be a solid deck in some form. At the very least,
some energy-based cards are self-sustaining enough to see play. I, for one,
still think Glint-Sleeve Siphoner is a legitimate threat in the early game.
But I don’t want to start there. I want to start here.

The combination of these three cards will absolutely dominate
creature-based strategies, so long as you can slow them down enough to set
up for the mid-game. Merfolk have the ability to overwhelm you in the early
turns with the right mana and the right draw. Luckily, cards like Fatal
Push are getting quite a few new targets.

With Fatal Push and Ravenous Chupacabra at the ready to punish the
creature-based decks in the early turns, you should be able to buy yourself
enough time to set up The Scarab God without much trouble. And since there
still aren’t that many cards that profitably interact with The Scarab God,
I think it will still be a major problem. The fact that you now have an
extra ridiculous creature to bring back in Ravenous Chupacabra is just
icing on the cake.

So now that we know our core for this U/B/X deck, what else do we want? A
third color? If so, what should that color be? If not, do we want to lean
toward God-Pharaoh’s Gift and all the creatures that help fuel it? Red
seems like a reasonable option, giving us Harnessed Lightning, Whirler
Virtuoso, and enough energy to justify Glint-Sleeve Siphoner. Green seems
mediocre now since we lost Attune with Aether and Rogue Refiner. White
doesn’t seem like a terrible idea if we go the God-Pharaoh’s Gift route.

We’ve seen something like this Grixis shell before, and my teammate,
Brennan DeCandio, played the deck at a Team Open in the Standard portion
just a few months ago.

Grixis Siphoner

Brennan DeCandio

17th Place at Star City Games Team Open on 11-18-2017

Standard

Creatures (19)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Lands (26)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

On paper, it looked pretty awesome, but seemed like it was lacking
somewhere. It had a ton of removal, which was a bit awkward against the
control decks, and flooding out on removal wasn’t exactly ideal in a world
where Bristling Hydra was everywhere. On top of that, the Grixis deck
didn’t seem to have a great plan in the early turns of the game. Outside of
Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, you just didn’t have very much to do on the first
few turns other than kill your opponent’s creatures.

In practice, you also had too many five-drops. Trying to play The Scarab
God and Glorybringer in large numbers just wasn’t practical, and especially
so without Attune with Aether, Rogue Refiner, and Servant of the Conduit.
It was just too clunky. And while Brennan’s record in that tournament
wasn’t bad, I saw him lose games because his deck just didn’t function
“normally.” It wasn’t smooth. The kinks weren’t worked out. But now we have
a new card in Ravenous Chupacabra to help close the gap.

Grixis Siphoner

Todd Anderson

Test deck on 01-19-2018

Standard

Creatures (22)

Lands (26)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

My gut says we want another energy card to help fill the gap. Turning on
both Whirler Virtuoso and Glint-Sleeve Siphoner is a big deal, but I just
don’t like any of the options at our disposal. I also want a few more
creatures for Vizier of the Many Faces to copy, but I’m banking on my
opponent having some good stuff in the meantime.

Having a flexible sideboard to help get removal out of your deck is
important. Control decks won’t have many, if any, targets for your spot
removal, so making sure you turn those into stuff like Duress and Negate is
important. It might feel like we’re overdoing it a bit, but I think the
options we’ve chosen should give you a great shot at beating them in
post-sideboard games. Decks like this tend to struggle in the first game
against control because most of our deck is centered around interacting
with creatures. And, consequently, it’s one of the reasons why I think
control might be very good right now.

Regardless, I think this deck is pretty sweet, and it’s definitely
something I’d like to try in the near future.

Moving Toward Control

Hardcore control decks aren’t something we’re used to seeing nowadays.
Beside the occasional Approach of the Second Sun deck, I haven’t seen a
Torrential Gearhulk cast in a while. And for a card as powerful as
Torrential Gearhulk, that almost feels like an oversight. I think we could
build something pretty that interacts with most opponents in a positive
way. And now that we don’t have to deal with Energy as much, our
deckbuilding just got a lot more flexible.

In the past few years, Izzet in all its forms has been my wheelhouse. I
love drawing cards. I love countering spells. I love killing creatures.
It’s what I do best. But I also like having some sort of engine around to
capitalize on when I’m “spinning my wheels.” There are two cards that come
to mind when I think of “control” in the traditional sense, assuming that
energy is our method of generating that engine.

A lot of people forgot about Dynavolt Tower, and for good reason. Abrade
really pushed it out of the format. Plus, it wasn’t able to deal with some
of the heavy hitters like Glorybringer, Bristling Hydra, or The Scarab God.
But now with tribal decks coming back in a big way, my gut is telling me
that Dynavolt Tower could be a knockout blow to a lot of these decks. We
just have to make sure we build our strategy the right way.

While Dynavolt Tower is certainly a strong card against aggressive decks,
it doesn’t do much the turn you cast it. And without access to Attune with
Aether, it might be a little harder to turn on than normal, but I think a
traditional U/R Control deck could be just fine. And while Whirler Virtuoso
can’t clear the battlefield in the same way as Dynavolt Tower, it can
certainly help put up some road blocks to buy you time. And if all you want
is time to start casting Torrential Gearhulk, then cards like Whirler
Virtuoso are perfect. It’s great in the early game at pressuring opponents,
and it can give you a much needed outlet to burn extra energy from cards
like Glimmer of Genius or leftovers from Harnessed Lightning. Let’s take a
look at what a potential U/R Control deck could look like with Rivals of Ixalan.

U/R Control

Todd Anderson

Test deck on 01-19-2018

Standard

Creatures (7)

Lands (26)

Spells (27)

Sideboard

It might turn out that Dynavolt Tower and Whirler Virtuoso aren’t what you
want to be doing, but I do like that both of them can directly attack
planeswalkers, which is the card type that gives this kind of deck the most
trouble. I also don’t know if this deck is as good as something like U/B
Control, which is a current control deck that is a bit more tested. But
what that deck was being tested against is no longer relevant, and I think
this version could be much stronger at combating aggressive decks.

But you’ve all seen my “U/R Control” deck featuring new cards before. And
this particular version doesn’t have anything from Rivals of Ixalan in the main deck, so I’m sure it’s not nearly as
exciting as it could/should be. But with the banning of cards in Standard,
it’s important to look at archetypes that could make a comeback as a
result.

Mer Money Mer Problems

Of all the decks that could come out of Rivals of Ixalan, and
perhaps the archetype that got the biggest boost, I think that Merfolk will
be a major player in the new Standard format. You have an insane amount of
aggressive tools, and a lot of your creatures replace themselves. The only
downside to building a U/G Merfolk deck is that your mana base might give
you some problems, which is pretty weird considering it’s just a two-color
deck. But hear me out.

Botanical Sanctum is the nuts. For obvious reasons, this cycle of lands has
been influential in Standard since their printing in Kaladesh. Any
opening draw featuring one or more copies of Botanical Sanctum should give
you the right combination of colors, untapped, to cast most of your spells.
But the draws that don’t contain Botanical Sanctum might be a little
troublesome. You want to play a one-drop green creature, but most of your
best cards are blue. You want to play a double green card in Jadelight
Ranger, and yet again most of your best cards are blue. And if you’re
trying to have an even split on colors, drawing one or two of the wrong
type of land in your first ten cards could be disastrous. And for a deck
that relies on curving out every game, that could spell the end before the
game even gets started.

Unclaimed Territory is a pretty sweet gift for a deck like Merfolk, but it
doesn’t help you cast your support cards. Lands like Unclaimed Territory
present you with a choice. If you play Unclaimed Territory, your deck
should have very few, if any, support cards that aren’t creatures. That
means no interaction with Fumigate/Settle the Wreckage. And that means your
matchup against decks with sweeper effects will be a little harder than
normal. In the past, decks like Merfolk are traditionally favored against
spell-heavy decks because you get to apply pressure and back it up with a
few counterspells. And lucky us, Spell Pierce is legal in Standard again.

But we don’t have Mana Leak. We don’t have anything even close to
resembling a Mana Leak for Merfolk. And if you go so far as to main deck
something like Negate, I think you’re going to fold to the mirror and other
creature-based decks.

This color combination of U/G also makes it so we don’t get access to real
removal. An opposing creature is going to stay there for virtually the
entire game until we decide to attack into it, block it, or overrun it.
That means Glorybringer will be a huge pain in the butt. That means
Glint-Sleeve Siphoner will bury you in card advantage. And coupled with a
lot of removal, you will lose to a card draw engine.

With all of that said, I do think that Merfolk still has a viable chance to
break into Standard in a big way. The overall power level of your creatures
is pretty high, and you have a gameplan that involves overwhelming their
spot removal with Deeproot Waters. And while Deeproot Waters might not have
been all that exciting before, I think it got significantly better with the
addition of these three gems.

Before Rivals of Ixalan, I thought that Merfolk was on the cusp of
breaking through. But with these three awesome additions, as well as the
turbo boost to Deeproot Waters, I think Merfolk is going to be a solid
contender. For reference, here is where I want to start.

U/G Merfolk

Todd Anderson

Test deck on 01-19-2018

Standard

Creatures (27)

Lands (23)

Spells (10)

Since we’re an Unclaimed Territory deck, I honestly have no idea what my
sideboard should be. More creatures? If so, which Merfolk would actually
make fine additions after sideboard? And do we want stuff like Vizier of
the Many Faces to help win longer games against Ravenous Chupacabra? Should
I bother with green spells since I only have twelve sources for
non-Merfolk? Do I want ways to exile my opponent’s graveyard to help fight
God-Pharaoh’s Gift? All these questions are running through my head right
now, and I honestly have no idea what I would want.

But it’s a start.

And even though Jadelight Ranger feels like a slam dunk for this type of
deck, I thought that the two green mana symbols pushes it slightly out of
favor. For now, I want to see how this version of the deck runs. I want to
see if cards like Spell Pierce and Unsummon are even worth playing. If not,
then maybe we could move more towards green and play stuff like Blossoming
Defense to protect our more important Merfolk.

Well, that’s all I got this week. Aside from these three decks, I have
about a hundred other ideas I want to work on, but I only have so many
Magic Online Event Tix to burn and only so many hours in the day. I’ll be
looking at the results of Magic Online 5-0 lists in the coming weeks to get
a better idea of what this new Standard format is going to look like. All I
know is that it won’t look like Temur/Four-Color Energy, and that alone is
getting my creative juices flowing. With Energy having been so dominant in
the last fifteen months, it’ll be a welcome change of pace.