Protecting The Den

While I did not make my way across the world to any of Grand Prix Toronto, Grand Prix Sao Paulo, or the Open Series in Portland this past weekend, I had my
eye on all three events for any sweet tech I might be able to adopt for my matches in the Standard Super League. The events did not disappoint.

While it was great to see Paulo back in winning form with his victory in Sao Paulo (seems rigged when you say it that way, doesn’t it?), and the U/G
Devotion deck from Portland was really cool to see, it was Toronto that really caught my eye. Fully seven out of the Top 8 decks played with my favorite
card from Dragons of Tarkir.

It’s not surprising to me at all to see so many Den Protectors in top finishing decks. I was totally sold on Den Protector before the Pro Tour and was just
trying to find the best shell in which to play the card. While most of the uses I tried were in combination with Deathmist Raptor, it’s clear by now that
the second coming of Eternal Witness needs no such support in order to justify her use.

Lucas Siow took down Grand Prix Toronto title playing a fairly typical Abzan Midrange deck with three copies of Den Protector simply to return whatever
removal spell or threat best suits the situation.

Abzan Midrange

Lucas Siow

1st Place at Grand Prix on 05-02-2015

Standard

Creatures (14)

Planeswalkers (4)

Lands (26)

Spells (16)

Sideboard

This looks like a pretty standard Abzan Midrange list that trades Tasigur and a few extra spells for Den Protector and maindeck Fleecemane Lions. I’m
definitely a fan of this shift since one of Abzan’s biggest weaknesses has been choking on too many slow reactive cards. Once you’re already playing Den
Protector, your opponents are going to have targets for removal spells like Dragon’s Roar or Bile Blight, so it makes sense to play Fleecemane Lion in the
maindeck rather than in the sideboard as was typical for a while. Taking a more proactive stance improves the deck significantly against control as well
since you can actually put pressure on them early in the game, and you’re stuck with situational removal spells in your hand less often.

As I discussed last week, Den Protector is extremely powerful
against control decks like Esper Dragons, especially in combination with cheap disruption like Thoughtseize and Duress. Siow and his fellow Top 8
competitors were able to shut Esper Dragons out of the elimination rounds entirely, certainly due in no small part to that strength. Among those other Top
8 lists were Mark Jacobson and Ben Weitz playing Bant Megamorph, for whom Disdainful Stroke took the place of Thoughtseize in their disruption package.

Bant Megamorph

Ben Weitz

6th Place at Grand Prix on 05-02-2015

Standard

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Ajani Steadfast

Lands (24)

Spells (8)

Sideboard

These decks are descendants of Craig Wescoe’s list from the Pro Tour, with which he posted a strong finish. I’ve chosen to highlight Ben Weitz’s list here
rather than Mark Jacobson’s mostly due to the choice of four-drop. While Mark played Surrak, the Hunt Caller – a card whose stock has rapidly fallen in my
eyes lately, especially as Deathmist Raptor has grown in popularity – Ben played Ajani Steadfast, which I have grown to appreciate a great deal.

Ajani Steadfast is a planeswalker that hasn’t really had its time to shine. Previously, it’s occasionally shown up as a sideboard card for aggressive
creature decks against red, mostly for the lifelink and vigilance effect from the +1 loyalty ability. Here, though, we’re really using every part of the
buffalo. Deathmist Raptor is a card that can frequently lead to standoffs, with neither player particularly wanting to attack, or just the Raptors
themselves crashing into each other and dying while every other creature stares at one another. That’s a prime situation for the -2 ability, which can
steadily grow the rest of your team to win any fight that might occur – or even grow your Den Protector big enough to start attacking past your opponent’s
team undeterred by blockers.

There are several little synergistic quirks with the +1 ability as well. Most notably is Dragonlord Ojutai, who has hexproof while untapped. Usually, that
means you have to let your shields down in order to attack with him and potentially dig with his damage trigger, but with Ajani giving him vigilance, you
never have to expose him to a potential removal spell. Deathmist Raptor also happens to work well with the +1 ability since a combination of deathtouch and
first strike is pretty difficult to deal with in combat. Last, but certainly not least, the lifelink effect works particularly well with Dromoka’s Command.
You can use the same creature you targeted with the +1 ability to fight with that mode of Dromoka’s Command to double the amount of life you gain in a
single turn.

I like this deck, but it’s a little slow for my tastes. Thankfully, joining them in the top 8 was another Craig Wescoe creation, piloted by Craig himself.

G/W Megamorph

Craig Wescoe

8th Place at Grand Prix on 05-02-2015

Standard

Creatures (26)

Lands (24)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

Now this deck is much more my speed. As I joked with some of my testing partners before Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir who were trying to sell me on G/W
Devotion rather than G/W Aggro – I much prefer doing math with Boon Satyr than Voyaging Satyr. I’d rather be using my mana creatures to play more attackers
rather than slowly grind things out with Mastery of the Unseen.

This deck is pretty similar to the Collected Company deck that Bram Snapvengers played at the Pro Tour that also caught my eye, but it has a lot of
elements that I like a great deal more. While Bram was focused on something of a +1/+1 counter theme with Avatar of the Resolute and Reverent Hunter, here
Craig instead fits the Den Protector + Deathmist Raptor engine in the deck. Shifting away from needing GG for Avatar on turn 2 and the desire for green
devotion makes both Brimaz and Seeker of the Way possible inclusions.

While the Lion King is just an all-around solid creature that makes sense to play in a Collected Company deck to maximize your strong hits, Seeker of the
Way is a little less obvious. When I first saw Craig’s list, I was somewhat skeptical of the Seekers since there aren’t all that many spells, and they can
often end up getting brick walled by something as simple as an opposing Fleecemane Lion. After playing around with them a bit, though, I was very impressed
by how they performed against any other opposing aggressive deck. Obviously, lifelink is powerful against red decks, but it’s less obvious how powerful
Seeker is with Dromoka’s Command. Between the +1/+1 counter and the Seeker’s prowess trigger, you can immediately fight with Seeker as a 4/4 and then
attack with it, hitting for four and gaining a total of eight! That’s a huge swing, and it can often put the game totally out of reach for something like
Atarka Red.

Craig was clearly worried about red decks since alongside his Seekers, he played the full four copies of Courser of Kruphix. This was the card that I was
most skeptical about in the entire list. While Courser is clearly a powerful card in long games, this doesn’t really seem like a deck that is looking to
play that kind of game. Collected Company can give you midgame value and pressure, but it doesn’t offer anything to go over the top. It’s not surprising to
me that Craig lost 0-2 to eventual champion Lucas Siow since his deck doesn’t seem to have any way to ever beat a resolved Elspeth, Sun’s Champion – a
phenomenon I experienced quite a few times myself when I was testing G/W Aggro for the Pro Tour. Courser of Kruphix certainly does nothing to help the
cause.

I really liked the core of Craig’s deck but felt like I could improve upon some of the particulars for my list for the Standard Super League. Here’s what I
played this week:

G/W Megamorph

Brian Kibler

Test deck on 05-07-2015

Standard

Creatures (25)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Ajani Steadfast

Lands (24)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

Obviously, the core of the deck is very much the same, but I made a few changes. I replaced the four copies of Courser of Kruphix with three Boon Satyrs
and an Ajani Steadfast. Boon Satyr alongside Den Protector adds an element of strong evasion to the deck, allowing you to close games out when your
opponent gets low almost regardless of their board. It also gives you a way to handle a resolved Elspeth that would otherwise simply be lights out. While
Boon Satyr is clearly worse than Courser against aggressive decks, it’s not a total loss. Keep in mind that bestowing Boon Satyr counts as casting a
non-creature spell, so if you bestow Boon Satyr on a Seeker of the Way, you end up with an absolutely enormous lifelinker for the turn.

Speaking of lifelink, Ajani Steadfast serves to help shore up matchups against aggressive decks. As I mentioned earlier when I was talking about the Bant
list, I’ve really come to appreciate how powerful Ajani can be in the right matchups, which for this deck is pretty much anything except heavy removal
decks. I like Ajani against other midrange green decks as well as against red, since in the former it can generate a huge board advantage over time, and in
the latter it can buy you the time you need to play your more powerful cards. Ajani works particularly well in this deck since you get more value out of
the -2 ability than most, thanks to cards like Collected Company and Deathmist Raptor essentially giving you more than a single card’s worth of value in
creatures, so you’re more likely to have more creatures in play to pump.

As for the sideboard, I thought Craig went a little overboard on the Windstorms, so I shaved a few of those and an Arashin Cleric (since I have Ajani now),
along with the Boon Satyr I added to the maindeck to make some extra room. I also cut one copy of Valorous Stance, though I think that may have been a
mistake. In their place, I added two copies of Glare of Heresy to give me more of a fighting chance against Abzan’s Elspeths, Lions, and Rhinos, as well as
two copies of Setessan Tactics.

The Setessan Tactics were mainly a response to the success of the U/G Devotion deck from Portland, which I thought might show up in the Standard Super
League since it was a cool new deck. I felt like I wanted a little more interaction than just the four copies of Dromoka’s Command, and I felt like they
could also potentially come in against other green decks as stalemate breakers. I did bring them in against Paul Cheon’s G/R Devotion deck in our match,
but they were somewhat underwhelming when I drew them. I ended up using one to trade my Raptor for a Whisperwood Elemental and kill his Elvish Mystic, but
it was at the cost of my entire turn.

The high cost – both in terms of mana and having to tap my creatures to fight – made the card clunky to use and also not terribly exciting as a target for
Den Protector. I’m pretty sure that if that Setessan Tactics had been Hunt the Hunter, I would have won the game easily. Sadly, I lost that game after I
gave him too much time to get set up, and then lost the last when he spoiled our honorable green creature fight by playing Ugin, the Spirit Dragon.

All that being said, here’s the list I would play if I wanted to play G/W Megamorph in a tournament this week:

G/W Megamorph

Brian Kibler

Test deck on 05-07-2015

Standard

Creatures (25)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Ajani Steadfast

Lands (24)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

Pretty simple swaps here – cutting the Setessan Tactics for Hunt the Hunter since it’s a powerful tempo play in a world full of green creature decks, and I
don’t expect the U/G deck to be nearly as popular. I cut one Radiant Purge for the final Valorous Stance since Glare of Heresy and Hunt the Hunter both
overlap with Purge against Abzan Aggro. All three are great cheap tempo plays that work especially well with Den Protector, which Setessan Tactics
certainly was not.

What do you think? Is Den Protector going to continue her reign over Standard? What’s the best shell to take advantage of her? And what do you want to see
me play in the SSL next week?