This has been an interesting week, to say the least. Various bad beats have happened in real life, but on the bright side, I’m now on Twitter! I’ve been back in the tank trying to solve this crazy Standard format, and for those already following me on Twitter (G3RRYT, for those interested), you’ve already gotten a glimpse into the various brews I’ve been working on.
But let’s start from the beginning…
Cunning Sparkmage is obviously the nuts in this format. Everyone seems to be playing Noble Hierarch, and the Red cards are the only ones that can effectively deal with them before they power out huge threats. I wanted to make Sparkmage work, so I played Naya. Four Sparkmages just isn’t enough. I’d feel more comfortable with 6-8 copies, but things like Vithian Stinger or Stun Sniper just weren’t reliable or fast enough. They also sucked versus non Hierarch decks.
Enter Master of the Wild Hunt. This guy is like a big fat Sparkmage. He’s also rock solid against decks that Sparkmage didn’t straight up beat, so I wanted to play with him. I started brewing.
First up was this little number, which was like a Naya/NLB hybrid, but cutting out the White middleman.
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Cunning Sparkmage
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
4 Vengevine
2 Sphinx of Lost Truths
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Basilisk Collar
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
4 Island
5 Forest
4 Raging Ravine
3 Rootbound Crag
The one thing I didn’t like was that if I didn’t draw the right cards in the right matchup, it was pretty difficult to win. Also, without Wall of Omens, if they were attacking my mana guys, my deck would often put up little resistance.
However, when the deck has a smooth draw, I like its chances against anything.
Bloodbraid Elf is a notable absentee, but I don’t think it belongs in this deck. There are plenty of four-drops, and nothing powerful to cascade into, just set-up cards. I would also have to board it out against control decks if I’m bringing in counterspells.
For sideboarding, I would cut the Vengevines and Jwar Isles against decks like Mythic and Naya for removal like Forked Bolt and another Collar.
Against NLB, I wanted Pithing Needle for Elspeth, Mold Shambler for value, and probably more Sphinxes. Counterspells are also solid. Oracles are basically a placeholder and the Collar sucks. Past that, I guess I might have to really find out how good the Vengevines are against them.
Siege-Gang was suggested to me, but it’s really slow, and I’d rather have Sphinxes. Lost Truths is a great way to refill midgame, and Jwar Isle gives you a lot of help against Jund. Those are much better late games with Siege-Gang. It’s also double Red, and while that isn’t entirely an issue, it certainly is another strike against it.
Chapin suggested an Exotic Orchard, which may or may not be good.
Linvala is a big problem, but stuff like Mind Control or Flame Slash can solve that.
Still, maybe a more aggressive approach was better. Inspired by Zvi’s ZBC deck, I decided to build this:
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Nest Invader
4 Cunning Sparkmage
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Vengevine
3 Eldrazi Monument
2 Basilisk Collar
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Raging Ravine
3 Mountain
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
5 Forest
Despite all the fixing, the mana still sucked. Not having a powerful three-drop was bugging me. Sometimes you would get draws with Collar, Nest Invader, and some mana sources, and those draws don’t really beat anything. I wanted a little more power to compensate for when you were playing against decks that weren’t kold to Sparkmage or Master.
So I did something very uncharacteristic of GerryT. I sleeved up a LOT of virtual Forests. Mono colored decks probably shouldn’t have this many options, but oddly enough, Mono Green does.
In the one-drop slot:
Joraga Treespeaker
Arbor Elf
Llanowar Elf
Noble Hierarch
Birds of Paradise
Joraga Warcrawler
Two-drops:
Lotus Cobra
Nest Invader
Elvish Visionary
River Boa
Three-drops:
Leatherback Baloth
Elvish Archdruid
Mul Daya Channelers
Borderland Ranger
Great Sable Stag
Four-drops:
Garruk Wildspeaker
Wolfbriar Elemental
Vengevine
Master of the Wild Hunt
Kozileks’s Predator
Five-drops:
Overrun
Eldrazi Monument
Thornling
I tried the Elf version first, since turbo-ing out Wolfbriar Elemental (particularly with Master of the Wild Hunt) seemed very appealing in this format.
The deck was surprisingly solid. I won the first two eight mans I played in, and lost in the finals of the other. Still, even if it’s not broke, it can still be fixed. I really liked the sideboarded Baloths, and I was starting to realize Master was a little too slow. Joraga Treespeaker was probably worse than any of the other one-drops.
Not being able to deal with anyone’s stuff is pretty annoying. Baneslayer is normally something you can just Overrun or use Monument to get through, but I played against some people that (rightfully) sided in Negate to complicate matters. I wasn’t especially worried about Baneslayer since some Mythic decks don’t play it, and it seemed like the good players would gravitate towards NLB instead of Mythic anyway.
Still, a Vapor Snare splash is almost free. I’ve seen some lists that sideboard that and Unified Will. Then I’ve seen some that are ridiculously over the top with Shared Discovery and Sea Gate Oracle, among other things. I don’t think you need all that garbage. Stick to mono and splash for Snare if you want to, but you should stop there.
This is what I would play:
Creatures (31)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 3 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Arbor Elf
- 4 Leatherback Baloth
- 3 Kozilek's Predator
- 2 Mul Daya Channelers
- 3 Nest Invader
- 4 Vengevine
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (21)
Spells (6)
Sideboard
Basically, I’m unsure if it’s better to go from one to three mana or two to four. At least if you have a mix and they kill your one-drop, you can still play a Cobra or Invader and play a four-drop on turn 3. If they don’t kill your drop, you basically explode and can have them dead as early as turn 4.
Either way, I think a Monument deck is really good right now. Very few decks can beat you when you vomit a ton of permanents into play. UW is falling out of favor because of NLB, and NLB, the premier control deck, doesn’t play Day of Judgment. Sure, they have Martial Coup in the sideboard, but they should be dead long before then. Some smart people are adopted DOJs, but that just means you have to sideboard in some counterspells or find that Monument early.
From there, it was time to try a few new things. I liked the “new” UW deck that the Hollas had been playing on Magic Online, so I bought some Elspeths. Still, before I tried that, I decided to try the Japanese UW deck with the Sovereigns of Lost Alara/Eldrazi Conscription package.
I changed a few things from the Japanese list, mostly to incorporate Shaheen Soorani Emeria Angels.
4 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Emeria Angel
2 Sphinx of Lost Truths
3 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
3 Everflowing Chalice
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Path to Exile
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Eldrazi Conscription
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Arid Mesa
1 Scalding Tarn
5 Island
6 Plains
Sideboard
3 Day of Judgment
1 Deprive
1 Flashfreeze
2 Negate
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Martial Coup
2 Jace Beleren
1 Kor Sanctifiers
In summary, this deck sucks.
It has a lot going on for it, but most of that is doable in Next Level Bant, except that you get Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise. Without them, I often felt like I was a turn behind. Lotus Cobra is also a card that works perfectly with Sovereigns. I just couldn’t accelerate to my big spells fast enough, and I didn’t have enough early game to fend off aggro decks.
I also got my Sovereigns Mark of Mutinied by a RDW opponent. Apparently, he had sided in a Conscription as well. I’m sure that was fun for him, but not for me.
Oh, the life of a grinder…
Anyway, the Emeria Angels were incredibly solid. I was a little skeptical in playing a UW Control deck without sweepers, but Emeria Angel gave me a solid wall of protection. She blocked for my Planeswalkers and gave me plenty of time to get Sovereigns active.
I had a PTQ in Fargo coming up on a Saturday (that I couldn’t play in, but wanted to go and bird), and a small cash tournament on Sunday. I had my sights set on that cash tournament, especially after my car got impounded on Friday. Awkward…
Andrew Lipkin picked me up at 3:30am and we scooped up Justin Meyer on the way. Every Wednesday or so, we try to draft at Andrew’s apartment. Playing live Magic with the boys is always fun, but Andrew’s girlfriend Margaret even cooks us dinner! Andrew must have taken a page out of her book, since when he picked me up, he already had a bag full of snacks. Donuts and sodas were consumed, we talked shop, and eventually found Justin.
From there, it was another two hours while Andrew and I discussed our new Naya brew. He made Top 8 with my Naya list at the Minneapolis Nationals qualifier, so he was already well versed in the subject, and I was very confident in his abilities. We had our trusty Sparkmages and our new friend Master of the Wild Hunt. How could we lose?
We arrived a little early, so I was doing my best to keep myself occupied. I found the directions that Margaret had written for us, and they were spectacular. There were directions to my place with a hand drawn map included, and then directions to Nate Siftar’s, whose place we had to stop by first.
The directions on the back were as such:
1, 2, 3) Random directions to so and so
4) Take a left on so and so road
5) U-turn and take a right into Bowlers, right next to Gina’s Pizza (*gross*)
6) GG, MFers.
Margaret is awesome.
Round 1 was easy, but the second round was a different matter. I walked over just in time to watch Lipkin make some mistakes, but he was losing anyway. His opponent even had the opportunity to run the “still had all these!” but neglected to do so.
The third round was another simple match win, but in the next round he lost a squeaker. I sniped his deck to try and grind some win-a-box tournaments, but only one fired.
Justin was still in it after picking up his first draw in a long time against a UW player that sided in Cancel, Negate, and Deprive. Thankfully, he won out, and was joined in the Top 8 by three other Minnesotans (Forrest Ryan, Nate Siftar, and Trevor Jones), and Brad Nelson lil bro, Corey Baumeister.
The entire tournament, Brad was talking about how the Minnesotans always take their North Dakotan slots and scrub the PT. They should at least give some Dakotan that experience!
Naturally, the four Minnesotans were all in different brackets in the Top 8. Nate Siftar was running my Turbo Land list that was splashing Red for Forked Bolt, which was an idea I discussed with Gerard Fabiano. He lost the mirror match, but the other three all won.
Justin had to beat Trevor in the semis, which is always awkward since Trevor loans Justin all his cards, but oh well. Forrest somehow lost the Mythic versus Turboland matchup, and I woke up from a well needed nap in time to see Justin win the PTQ!
GG, MFers indeed.
No one else from Minnesota that I knew wanted to stay for a cash tournament, so I had to get creative. Brandon Scheel and his crew of Iowans Josh and Alex were staying at Brad’s and offered to let me ride with them, so I happily took it. Thanks guys!
Scheel woke up for the 5am MTGO PTQ and decided that if he was 5-0, he would skip the cash tournament, which I definitely agreed with. I woke up, and sure enough, he was leading the pack, so I borrowed his Sovereigns of Lost Alara.
I had a plan.
See, some matches come down to this combination of attrition, or the board just stalls out and the first person to draw their Sarkhan, Elspeth, or Behemoth Sledge usually pulls ahead. Turns out, Sovereigns is pretty good at breaking that stall also, and is probably one that they won’t see coming.
I decided to try it out, and brewed up this:
Creatures (29)
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 2 Master of the Wild Hunt
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Cunning Sparkmage
- 1 Stoneforge Mystic
- 4 Vengevine
Lands (26)
Spells (5)
I was playing with Andrew’s deck, same sleeves and all, so I was a little constricted by what I had access to. Sure, I probably could have found a Misty Rainforest, but I didn’t bother, so I had the strictly worse Verdant Catacombs instead. I would have liked one less manland as well.
Despite Master being awesome, I wanted to cut down on the four-drops and add some maindeck Oblivion Rings, since those seem to come in against everything. Surprise surprise, decks have permanents that you want to kill.
Manabarbs were mainly for Brad Nelson playing Turboland, while the Forked Bolt was for those packing Nobles and Cobras.
The prizes were supposed to be $1k total, but since half the number of people they wanted showed up (including almost no locals), they had to cut prizes in half. That was a dagger, since that was the reason I was there in the first place, but at least they bought me pizza round two.
Round 1 I played against Corey with NLB. I thought I had a good matchup, so I wasn’t that upset about being paired against the best player in the room. The entire match, he would cast cards that I wished I was casting, and would attack me with manlands that I wish I had in my deck, instead of crappy Ravines. This match really got me thinking.
I put him on the backfoot early game 1, and without his sideboarded Wraths he had no way of coming back.
For the second game, I put in the Sovereigns package and took out Vengevines, since his removal was probably all “Exile Target Creature.” He cast two Day of Judgments, and I never had a point where I could have cast Sovereigns.
I figured he probably only had two Days, so Vengevine was probably better than Sovereigns. He also had Coups, but that doesn’t affect either plan. He should hopefully be dead before he can Coup me.
The final game was pretty interesting. I had a Mystic, a Master, and all my equipment, but his Path on my Master left me with a lowly 1/2 beater. I Sledged it up and started going to town, but he took it on a Journey. I was more than fine with that as my next threat, a Knight, stuck.
He had a few lines of play he could have taken to be more aggressive and possibly get me, but once he wasted that Journey on a card that most of his creatures would make irrelevant, he was screwed.
Second round I fought a Grixis player who brought in Suffer the Past and Relic of Progenitus for Vengevines, but those weren’t nearly good enough.
Third round I was dead on board in game 3 against Jund, but managed to trick him into shooting my guys with his Siege-Gang rather than me. Sovereigns finished him the next turn.
I double drew into Top 8, but lost once I got there. My opponent was a GW Eldrazi deck, and he Summoning Trapped on turn 4 and turn 5 in games 2 and 3, hitting Iona (on White) both times. I could have beaten any alien, but Iona was more than good enough.
Brad ended up splitting in the Top 4 with Turboland, which is another victory that deck has racked up in recent weeks. It’s probably one of the best decks to play right now.
After some good news, it looks like I’ll be in St. Louis this weekend for the StarCityGames.com Open Series, but what will I be playing? Hmm…
GerryT
G3RRYT on Twitter!