Last week, I ranked the ten most popular decks in Ravnica Allegiance Standard. For the most part my analysis was good, but there were a few outliers here and there. I wanted to take another crack at the topic this week with Grand Prix Memphis on the horizon, but this time I’m only ranking the decks that I could seriously see myself playing if I were heading to Tennessee this weekend. I’ve also learned more about the format and didn’t really get enough time to talk about everything I wanted to last week.
#5 Esper Control
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (30)
- 4 Absorb
- 3 Mortify
- 2 Negate
- 3 Vraska's Contempt
- 2 Search for Azcanta
- 2 Moment of Craving
- 1 Cast Down
- 3 Thought Erasure
- 2 Chemister's Insight
- 2 Precognitive Perception
- 2 Cry of the Carnarium
- 3 Kaya's Wrath
- 1 Warrant
Sideboard
It’s crazy to see Jonathan Hobbs take second in both Standard Opens this season. If you don’t remember, he’s the one who played the innovative Bant Flash deck at SCG Indianapolis a few weeks back. It might sting to be so close to two trophies without winning one, but the points have to ease his pain, as he’s set himself up well for a run at the Players’ Championship.
I personally don’t like Esper Control, but I always say that about control decks, so I guess I’m a broken record. Esper Control just feels like the kind of deck that has the best chance to go 50/50 against the field in Game 1. Outside of the Sultai Midrange matchup, the deck needs things to go right for it, and that often requires it to draw the correct spells against the correct matchups. When it does that, the deck feels unstoppable, but that’s not really the place I want to be when playing Standard – especially in a format with such polarizing matchups like Azorius Aggro and Simic Nexus.
There’s really not much more to say about Esper Control that’s objective. The deck is putting up mediocre results when you look at all the events happening. That’s telling when I’ve seen a lot of the SCG Tour’s finest playing the deck. The deck has very little room to evolve in the maindeck and will continue to have a presence in the format, as it’s the best Teferi, Hero of Dominaria strategy available. I just fear that it will continue to be more difficult to win with as the other decks continue to evolve with solid plans for the matchup.
Trust me, I also wish I had more to say about this deck besides, “It’s fine if you like it, but don’t expect it to take over the metagame.”
#4 Sultai Midrange Golgari Blue
Creatures (24)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 1 Hostage Taker
- 4 Wildgrowth Walker
- 4 Merfolk Branchwalker
- 4 Jadelight Ranger
- 2 Ravenous Chupacabra
- 4 Hydroid Krasis
- 1 Incubation Druid
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (19)
Spells (13)
Sideboard
Golgari Blue is having a tough time right now, but don’t think for a second that means the deck isn’t capable of a comeback.
It’s not really putting up bad results, as three copies were in the Magic Online Mythic Championship Qualifier this weekend, but it’s still not doing as well as I thought it would. It almost feels like how the deck felt back at Grand Prix New Jersey last season. It’s being targeted heavily now, as it was Public Enemy No. 1 right out of the gates. The metagame has warped around it, and now it’s Golgari Blue’s job to evolve to once again fight the metagame. To do so, we must start looking at cards that weren’t starters in the original list I posted a few weeks back.
Yas Queen!
Vraska, Golgari Queen seems great right now. The card’s -3 ability has never been better, given so many copies of History of Benalia, Tocatli Honor Guard, Search for Azcanta, Curious Obsession, and even Hydroid Krasis running around, and it even now has a lot of targets against Esper Control after sideboard! I was originally scared to play Vraska in my deck, as I didn’t want to sacrifice early lands because I always want to have giant Hydroid Krasis, but that was very one-dimensional thinking.
It’s true that you don’t want to sacrifice your lands, as it reduces the size of your mana sinks, but that’s not the important aspect of the card right now. In fact, it’s nice to just sit around blowing things up in the mirror, as neither player sits behind a Carnage Tyrant anymore (well, some players play one or two copies, but we’ll get to that later…).
Right now, Vraska, Golgari Queen can mow down creatures in the mirror, including the biggest of them all, and have that actually matter. It’s also true that there’s so little planeswalker removal in the format right now as very few decks actually play them, but also planeswalker removal isn’t that effective in the format. There’s even less removal for the card in the mirror now that everyone’s cutting Assassin’s Trophy from the deck.
News flash! Don’t do that!
Assassin’s Trophy isn’t a great Game 1 card. It felt fine to play a copy or two in the maindeck a couple of weeks back when people were getting used to the format, but now it’s dangerous. That doesn’t mean the card is bad, though! Most of the aggressive decks play four-mana noncreature permanents like Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants and Experimental Frenzy that can cause us some serious problems if we don’t have answers for them. It’s also an answer to Legion’s Landing even after it transforms into Adanto, the First Fort. I get playing Thrashing Brontodon in the sideboard, but don’t do so if you lose access to this card.
It’s most likely time to go back to playing one or two copies of this bad boy. It’s not the best card in the world in the mirror, but outside of that it’s a very powerful card with additional mana in the deck.
I’ve come around to Incubation Druid, and in fact like playing two copies. The issue is that there’s not much to spend the mana on if you don’t have one of your more expensive cards. I think it’s totally reasonable to add one more into the mix and make sure you have enough top-end spells that can also help manipulate your deck. Don’t go crazy on Doom Whisperer but try to squeeze one in.
The day of the Ravenous Chupacabra is over. I used to like Chupacabra more than Hostage Taker, but not after the two most prevalent aggressive decks became Mono-White Aggro and Mono-Blue Aggro. Now there’s just too much of an upside to play the Pirate over the old Golgari staple.
These two cards are lumped together only because they’re both cards you play to be good in the mirror. I still want to have access to them, but I still wouldn’t fault anyone for removing them from the deck entirely.
With all this said, here’s the list I’m working with right now.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 2 Hostage Taker
- 3 Wildgrowth Walker
- 4 Merfolk Branchwalker
- 4 Jadelight Ranger
- 1 Doom Whisperer
- 4 Hydroid Krasis
- 2 Incubation Druid
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (20)
Spells (12)
Sideboard
Plaguecrafter isn’t the most popular card, but I’m not going anywhere without them due to how good they are against Esper Control and Izzet Drakes. It’s just too difficult to find answers for both Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Thief of Sanity, so I’ll make sure to play the best one. This does leave issues in other matchups, but hopefully the overall power of the deck can help in those matchups.
#3 Simic Nexus
Creatures (4)
Lands (13)
Spells (43)
- 6 Forest
- 6 Island
- 4 Opt
- 4 Search for Azcanta
- 3 Blink of an Eye
- 4 Nexus of Fate
- 4 Root Snare
- 4 Chemister's Insight
- 4 Growth Spiral
- 4 Wilderness Reclamation
Sideboard
Last week Bant Nexus was the Nexus of Fate deck of choice in my article, but that’s all changing after this past weekend. One of the biggest reasons to play Bant over Simic was the Mono-Red Aggro matchup, but Mono-Red just isn’t good. It doesn’t feel bad when you play against it, but I’m now convinced that it’s the type of strategy that’s rarely going to crack a 50% win percentage, regardless of how good you are, because it’s just a very high-variance deck. Since that’s my opinion, I think Simic Nexus is the Nexus of Fate deck of choice going into this next weekend.
Matt Nass added Opt to the build and I can’t imagine that’s incorrect. The deck wants to transform Search of Azcanta as quickly as possible and needs specific cards at specific times to function properly. This comes at the sacrifice of some of the powerful creatures, but I don’t think you every want to clump on those effects. Simic Nexus is trying to be the best Game 1 deck in the format, and it seems like Matt’s identified that, as he’s turning it into more of a combo deck Game 1 than others are doing. This could hurt its chances ever so slightly after sideboard, but that’s just speculation to keep the drama alive!
Take note of the sideboard, though, and be sure to prepare for Biogenic Ooze after sideboard. I expect most Simic Nexus players to sideboard this in against decks where it can be good. It’s just such a powerful creature when opponents are taking their removal out in favor of Duress and Negate. This deck having access to this spectacular threat will make it difficult to sideboard against Simic Nexus, which is why you need to know your plans before you get to the event. If you get a chance to test against Simic Nexus, make sure you spend most of your time doing so after sideboard!
The only reason why I don’t think this is the best deck in the format is because it struggles against the aggressive decks which happen to be what I think are the two best choices for this weekend. I’d most likely play Azorius Aggro myself, but that’s just because I’m not as confident with Mono-Blue Aggro as I would want to be. If I knew both decks equally, I’d just have to flip a coin, as I really don’t know which deck’s better.
#1 and #2: Azorius Aggro and Mono-Blue Aggro
Creatures (25)
- 4 Adanto Vanguard
- 4 Skymarcher Aspirant
- 4 Snubhorn Sentry
- 3 Benalish Marshal
- 4 Dauntless Bodyguard
- 4 Venerated Loxodon
- 2 Hunted Witness
Lands (8)
Spells (27)
Sideboard
Spells (22)
- 4 Opt
- 3 Spell Pierce
- 3 Chart a Course
- 2 Dive Down
- 4 Curious Obsession
- 1 Blink of an Eye
- 4 Wizard's Retort
- 1 Essence Capture
Sideboard
Both decks have similar advantages and weaknesses. They both have countermagic for the Nexus of Fate matchups that make it very difficult for those decks to win. Sure, Mono-Blue Aggro has more, but Azorius Aggro hits way harder, meaning that a single piece of interaction will usually be enough. Azorius Aggro is also favored in the head-to-head but struggles against Sultai Midrange, where Mono-Blue Aggro is favored. All-in-all, both these decks are fabulous choices, and I don’t think you can go wrong with either of them. That is, as long as you know how to play one of them.
The Metagame I Expect
The past two weeks I’ve written about what I consider to be the best decks in Ravnica Allegiance Standard, but that doesn’t really equate to metagame predictions. It’s important to know what to expect out of the weekend besides what I consider to be the best, but oddly enough I don’t think much changes. All five of these decks should make up the five most popular strategies going into the weekend. I’d personally only focus on these five matchups and ignore the rest of the metagame.
I bet those of you not playing one of these decks are happy to hear I’m trying to make your life easier by getting the masses off your scent, but that’s always the benefit you get for playing an inferior deck. Don’t take that the wrong way; just today I abandoned a brew I was working on for the Mythic Championship in Cleveland. I was pretty sad at first, but it just became too difficult to beat all these decks. Now I’m feeling pretty good about just selecting one of the best decks in the format rather than running the risk that my brew isn’t up to snuff. Don’t worry – I’ll write all about it soon and will continue working on it on stream after I get back from Cleveland.
That’s all I have until after I get back from Cleveland. The Bash Bros Podcast will still be coming out each Friday, but I won’t be writing an article next week or streaming. I have something very exciting to do in New York City this weekend and then need every moment I have in Cleveland to give myself the best chance to win the event. I still need to learn how to draft Ravnica Allegiance plus find a Standard deck that gives me the best chance to win.
Hopefully I’ll have a big win to celebrate in two weeks!