Honolulu is right around the corner. From March 3rd-5th, our Pro Tour Qualifiers will clash with one another for prize payouts equaling – get this – $240,245.
Man, I picked the wrong career.
Right now, somewhere, a pro is no doubt thinking about his deck, analyzing its matchups and deciding whether Card Z is a better fit than Card A. Months of hush-hush lists and methodical testing of potential matchups will hopefully culminate in victory. Reputations are born, and legends begin.
We, of course, get to read about it. All this week, your Premium writers will be commenting on the upcoming event, with analyses of what decks to see, how the metagame will shape up, and updated revisions of existing powerhouse decks. StarCityGames.com favorite Mike Flores will be providing commentary for Sunday’s Top 8 matches. I’m looking forward to the fact that the time zone difference is relatively minimal; 3:45 EST on a Sunday afternoon means that podcast just might be doable for this late sleeper after all.
Right now, the Standard environment is as open as it has ever been. There are enough options and counter-options that while you’ll certainly see some staple decks such as MUC, GhaziGlare, Critical Mass Update, Urzatron, Boros weenie, Orzhov aggro-control, Gifts, Greater Good, and… hey, wait a second! What the hell? Can there really be that many viable options out there? *rubs hands together*
Oh yes, there will be decks.
The pros are going to set the norm for Standard. Remember GhaziGlare? It went from surprise to staple overnight. Day 1 of Worlds showed the power of four vastly different decks. Aside from the Saproling-spawning monstrosity, we had Blue-Red Tron, Critical Mass with Black, and Greater Good Gifts put in 6-0 showings. Anyone who expects any of those decks to have weakened in the last two months is sorely mistaken.
In my Expectation article, we saw a listing of decks I expected people to try. Ravnica had turned things on its ear, but Guildpact, as I’ve said numerous times, has balanced things out quite a bit. The manabases available to us mean that people will attempt much more splashing than they did at Worlds. You’re going to see those third colors appear in the strangest places for the strongest cards. Imagine a Gruul deck splashing Blue for Meloku. We’re still short the Dissension dual lands, but there’s enough out there that we can sidestep into almost any color we desire for Random_bomb_01.
I’m not sure how many bombs Guildpact has brought us yet, but it’s given us a number of very good cards and effective decks have sprung up like Wildfire. Really, that’s not just a bad pun; it’s the truth. Last time I looked, I had five Wildfire builds sitting in my Apprentice. Red-Green, Red-Blue Domain, Red-Blue Magnideck, Red-White, and Mono-Red. Remember when I wished for a viable land destruction/resource denial strategy? I got it, baby, and disgustingly janky as it is, it “just wins” more than I thought possible.
Hold that thought, however.
What’s the real difference between G/W Glare and G/W/b Glare? G/U/r or G/U/b Critical Mass? Is WW the same as WW/r, the same as Mono-R, the same as W/G or WW/g? At what point do deck archetypes become blurred to the point where metagaming against one is effectively similar to metagaming against all of them?
What you need to do is identify the main threats that these decks feature. Glare decks use Glare. That’s what you focus on. If you can find a way to stop Glare, it doesn’t matter what they’re splashing, or if they’re splashing. You’re ready for them.
Still with me? What we’re gonna do is twofold, so grab your partner and follow my lead as we foxtrot through the gamut of decks.
First, we’re going to look at the cards that need to be answered in this environment. Some of them might surprise you.
Second, we’re going to look at the myriad of possible decks, and observe their pros and cons. I’ll relate this section to the cards that need to be answered, even though it won’t be some hugely graphical ordeal involving a 20×20 grid with green dots for PLAY ME and red dots for STAY AWAY. No sir, it’s simply a congruent analysis.
A lot of the decks you will recognize. Some of them, you won’t. Two new deck archetypes have clearly risen above the rest of the chaff so far. One is relatively straightforward, and the other seems to be twitchy and personalized depending on who’s playing it. The former is the Magnivore archetype, which appeared during States when Joseph Grier placed sixth in Alabama, and Richard O’Neill placed seventh in Vermont. The decklists featured one win condition (Magnivore) backed up by a metric ton of sorceries, card drawing, and land destruction. That description doesn’t do the deck justice. I like the deck because it reminds me of my old Ankh-Tide deck, sans the Ankh. I remember my first opponent’s glare when I threw a second turn Hoodwink and a third-turn Stone Rain and a fourth turn Parallax Tide. Resource denial is powerful. This time, the gimmick is Magnivore, a huge, hasty four-mana critter with a severe grudge against anything that’s manages to survive Pyroclasm and Wildfire to block it. I’m not sold on the deck’s ability to get to a Top 8 in a high-end tournament with only one huge, ground-pounding, evasion-lacking creature. However, with the right draw, it’s a serious contender for Most Annoying Deck You’ll Play Against. People will defend GhaziGlare‘s neo-lockdowns ’til their faces are blue, but put them in front of Magnideck and they’ll fume and stew like Mike Holmgren.
The second archetype is Orzhov Blank. Why Blank? Because it varies depending on who’s listing their deck. People are all over the board on this one. While Magnideck basically builds itself to a very high correlation rate across the board, Orzhov lists are crapshoots. The archetype has a lot of potential, but putting the pieces together has been rough. For the most part, they’re attempting to take advantage of the discard elements in the White-Black pairing. However, part of the difficulty is that much like land destruction, denial strategies such as discard can be inherently inconsistent. If the engine doesn’t start strong and continue churning its way to a victory, it’ll stall worse than a beatdown deck. A land destruction deck against someone with seven lands out is going to draw more dead cards than threats; a beatdown deck still might draw into a big beater that’ll win it for you. Discard? It’s a tough sell. We all like its potential, but can’t harness it. Cry of Contrition, or Castigate? Rats and Grotesques are staples, but are Shortfangs going to make it in? Is Ghost Council really a finisher? Phyrexian Arena, or Dark Confidant?
Somewhere, a Pro Tour player has the answer to that, and I suspect we’ll see it made public. Just remember, certain strategies are inherently inconsistent, and these two decks du jour fit that bill. Not everyone likes land destruction and discard, and I guarantee as many people decry the strategies as praise them. So be it. They’re viable. Maybe not viable enough to win it all, but they’re out there, guaranteed to take those carefully hoarded plans of yours and tear ’em to shreds if you aren’t prepared.
A maxim that we bandy about freely is the “there are no wrong threats, only wrong answers” dynamic that for the most part represents truth. However, it’s a perception thing, tricksy like hobbitses, because there are wrong threats. They’re wrong when they’re not a threat against a certain deck.
For example, a Scab-Clan Mauler is the wrong threat against multiple Carven Caryatids. A Lightning Helix is the wrong threat against Meloku. A Hypnotic Specter is the wrong threat against Boros flyer decks in general. Those cards are indeed dangerous, but they aren’t 100% dangerous 100% of the time.
That’s when they’re wrong threats.
Part of the general metagaming strategy is to find ways to neutralize popular and/or common threats. That is, we render them inert by planning for them ahead of time. Can you over-metagame, and wind up over-thinking the environment? Certainly. At the same time, you can safely analyze Standard and realize there are cards that you must be able to handle in some form. That could be removal, blocking, counters, or protection. It could be something different. What matters is what you do when Card X hits the board.
I remember when I originally built my Orzhov deck that it did wonderfully. Being disruptive and discard-based, it was competitive immediately. By competitive, I don’t mean a 90% winner, but that it held its own in a wide range of matchups. However, there was one card that it couldn’t deal with: Umezawa’s Jitte.
If Jitte hit the board, I could remove it. I could remove creatures around it, but eventually, Jitte will stick somewhere. If I’m facing GhaziGlare, they’ll keep pumping out Saprolings ad infinitum until they start getting counters on it.
That, of course, is when I happened upon Order of the Stars as a defense. Generally, it blocks whatever the Jitte is attached to. Order for Green against Ghazi Glare sent Jitte to the sidelines, as well as providing a strong defense against anything not named Kodama of the North Tree.
Yeah, more on that bastard in a second.
Obviously, if you can’t answer Jitte, you’re likely to face a long day of frustration. It headlines the list of cards your deck must be prepared to face. These cards are very rarely wrong threats. Why? Because they’re persistent. They have qualities that make it hard to claim they’re neutralized at any given point in time. Sometimes, it’s a creature; sometimes, another type of permanent.
1. Umezawa’s Jitte
Why: It’s the best tool in existence for aggro decks. Its versatility is legendary. It pumps, it keeps you alive, it kills annoying 0/1 Protection From Your Deck creatures, and its power multiplies turn after turn. If there are counters on it, be wary. If there are sacrificial creatures out, be wary. Few cards inspire fear or hatred like this one.
2. Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Why: It’s the Blue finisher of choice. It can end a game extremely quickly. It flies, and its four toughness makes it durable. Blue can make creatures each turn and hide behind a wall of countermagic until that one recurring blocker becomes six or seven swarming attackers. Decks with Green can splash Blue, bounce multiple lands and still out-generate your mana due to elves and land finders.
3. Glare of Subdual
Why: It dictates creature combat. It controls the game on both offense and defense. People don’t realize how powerful it is until they’re neutered by it. It’s Pacifism to an extreme degree, and fits in decks with Jitte – meaning opponents have hard choices about which one to Naturalize.
4. Wildfire
Why: It’s in a wide variety of decks, and there are enough creatures out there with five toughness that you should be worried. It sweeps the board clean and leaves you with a short clock to recover. If the deck has Blue in it as well, your lands are going to be bounced, destroyed, or under your opponent’s control. If the deck has Green in it, they can out-resource you. Wildfire can put you so far behind that you’ll ask for a mercy kill.
5. Kodama of the North Tree
Why: It’s untargetable, and huge, and tramples. It’s not as glorious as some other cards, but it kills, and if you’re just relying on your Putrefies and Last Gasps to kill things, you’re in trouble. Once you kill one, if a second follows, you usually can’t handle both. It runs over Meloku tokens, and doesn’t care about bounce, or control, or spot removal.
6. Ghost Council of Orzhova
Why: It’s the worst enemy of Kodama and Hierarch, as it trades any other creature to kill them off. It dodges removal by sacrificing something you don’t really care about, like a Ravenous Rats (which just might have Cry of Contrition of it, by the way.) If Council is in a deck with Kokusho or Yosei, look out. Ghost Council survives your Wildfire a significant portion of the time. It survives a lot, period. 4/4 ground-pounders never had it so good. If it had any sort of evasion, it’d be overpowered.
7. Magnivore
Why: Because it’s the backbone of Green/Red and Blue/Red land destruction strategies, and can easily swing for ten-plus on a single turn, especially if a Wildfire cleared out all the blockers beforehand. It grows, and it grows fast. If your deck can’t handle an X/X mob where X is greater than seven most of the time? Yup. Seeya. Did I mention it has Haste? Yeah. When this drops, it drops you.
8. Greater Good
Why: Because with Yosei (or, to a different extent, Kokusho), it’s game over. Because recurring Yosei and drawing six cards a turn is pretty much a lock against any deck in the environment. I don’t need to say anything else. Trust me.
9. Heartbeat of Spring Combo
Why: Because it’s still deceptively fast, but has largely fallen off the radar because it isn’t shiny and new. With Gigadrowse in the sideboard, can hurt even the patient counter decks that it previously struggled against. It can explode by the fourth turn and punish opponents who make calculation errors.
10. Dryad Sophisticate
Why: Because people lost to Rushwood Dryads, and this is better. People become too accustomed to terms like “chump blockers” and forget that if you can’t remove something that completely bypasses creature combat, it will kill you. Laugh at the 2/1, go ahead. Think the decks playing it are going to have burn, or creature enhancers like Jitte or Moldervine Cloak? Is that’s dangerous? You’re right.
11. Rumbling Slum and Burning-Tree Shaman
Why: Because these cards enable Gruul strategies to win despite a creature lockdown or stall, particularly if they’re packing significant burn backing the creatures up. Beatdown generally reaches a point where it either wins or can’t damage you unless it topdecks a burn spell. Voila – now, look at what happens. Slum can win on defense while Gruul sits and picks idly at the nearest corpse waiting for you to get in burn range. Wanna stall for six turns? Go for it. Likewise, the Shaman is a threat and deterrent against numerous cards in the environment. One is annoying. Two is serious pain. Being able to stall creature decks is one thing. Being able to handle these two after you’ve stalled them is another.
12. Flying 5/5 Dragons
Why: Because they’re The Finishers in the environment, and by now we should all know this, hence the capitalization. Their reputation precedes them. The reward for investment in them is typically huge: the lifeswing from Kokusho, the creature swap from Keiga, and the lockdown of Yosei bestow significant benefits when they die. They’re a step ahead of all other fatties in the game. There are other large flyers, but as of yet, they don’t quite compare. These are some of the most impressive creatures ever to dominate an environment.
Voila. List over.
Are there other dangerous cards in Standard? Certainly. However, these twelve (yes, I know it’s really sixteen, but bear with me) are the ones you have to be prepared for the most. Anytime a list is made, people will take umbrage at the inclusion or exclusion of certain cards, but this is fairly representative. Arguably, the Slum, Shaman, and Sophisticate are dubious calls, and I accept that. However, I’ve seen people sitting across the table from them wondering how in the world they can stop the bleeding. Some people will argue with anything that doesn’t fit their notion of a “power card”. Burning-Tree Shaman isn’t overpowered; you don’t build decks around it and write sonatas about its uberness. However, it’s a threat that you have to be prepared for. If you’re Eminent Domain, you have to be ready for your Manipulators to hurt. Tops? Jushis? Jittes? Guildmages? Vitu-Ghazis? Just think how many cards have an activated ability. Really think about it.
Yup. That’s what makes Gruul dangerous, to me. It’s not the creatures; we’re all familiar with a bunch of critters looming large over our lunch tables. It’s the fact that they can damage you indirectly. The Rumbling Slum is a fine example of a persistent threat. Remember the Scab-Clan Mauler facing an impenetrable blocker above? The threat is nullified until you can remove the answer, which is a significant against many creatures in a Gruul deck. When the Slum’s threat is thwarted, however, he remains a threat. Often, that’s key in threat analysis.
Kokusho that can’t attack remains a threat.
A Jitte with a counter on it but no creatures in play remains a threat.
Meloku with any amount of land in play remains a threat whether the current situation is defensive or offensive.
Sophisticate, regardless of the board situation, remains a threat to deal damage against any opposing creature lineup.
These cards have varying degrees of pure power – no one’s going to argue that a Sophisticate matches Meloku in raw strength. These are cards whose power is that they are far more insistent than a random beatstick or booster. That’s why they have to be dealt with.
Looking at viable decks in the Standard environment, you can come up with a short list from the plethora of available options. I chuckle as I say that. Short list? Yeah, I narrowed the field down to “only” twenty-one decks. Way to go, Mason, way to cull! I’ve listed appropriate Pros and Cons for each archetype. I briefly considered making this part a twin to above, with an “Answers You Must Be Prepared For”, but that was a bit broad in scope due to the plethora of sideboard cards. It suffices to say that there are certain cards that can shut down entire strategies. Pithing Needle. Sacred Ground. Leylines, particularly of the Void. Cranial Extraction. Ivory Mask. Some of these decks are extremely vulnerable to them, and ergo I’ll simply include notes on that within the deck discussions. If you’re running Magnideck and don’t know what your plan is against Sacred Ground, however, you’re in trouble before you even sit down.
1. Boros/Weenie
Pros: Can outrace a lot of the field, including combo decks. Strong evasion. Creatures can be versatile offensively and defensively (see Eight-and-a-Half-Tails). Withstands land destruction if doesn’t over-commit. Good enchantment/artifact removal. Many creature removal options. Straightforward and easy to play.
Cons: Lacks beef. Runs out of steam due to weaker power creatures. Can have problems with large creatures despite overall versatility. Removal inclusion is difficult to choose, due to few blanket removal spells and a mismatched variety of burn, resulting in blind spots. Suffers from bad press.
2. Mono-Red Beatdown
Pros: Best mana-base in the game: nothing but Mountains. Runs cheap, efficient, and fast. Almost everything does damage. Has versatile removal of creatures and artifacts. Can run Blood Moon and hose the majority of decks in Standard. It’s straightforward. Has a number of ways to get around stalls with Rusalkas and Guildmages turning your deck into essentially a giant Mogg Fanatic.
Cons: Not good against enchantments, for obvious reasons. Can’t handle larger threats without card disadvantage, and can struggle against more powerful cheap creatures. Suffers against the strong lifegain elements in Standard, as even a Hierarch can set you a couple of cards back. Topdeck mode is weaker than mono-Red builds in the past.
3. UB Beatdown
Pros: Tempo decks can sometimes “just win”. Good evasion, card drawing and removal. Can prevent opponent from mustering a defense. Can pack enough disruption to throw any deck off its game. Countermagic makes its early game resilient against pure control strategies. Opponents have difficult choices in deciding what’s more dangerous to them.
Cons: Lacks the finishing power of Boros. Creatures are often poor defensively. Hard to balance threats and answers with this combination. Suffers from lack of lifegain compared to other creature-based decks, lessening its matchups against them. Can’t handle enchantments and artifacts well, aside from bounce or dropping its own Jitte.
4. RG Beatdown
Pros: Consists of acceleration and fat. Can field effective threats even if creatures are locked down. Has some durable and evasive creatures available that cannot be blocked or targeted traditionally. Handles enchantments and artifacts well. Can get the opponent within burn range quickly.
Cons: Few guaranteed tramplers means it can have trouble pushing its damage through if playing a straightforward, non-evasive build. Problems against game-ending flyers. Not overly disruptive against combo-ish archetypes like Greater Good or Heartbeat. Only one reliable threat that can withstand a Wildfire. Only has Kird Ape as a one-mana threat, slowing its development.
5. RGW Zoo
Pros: Efficient and fast. Some utilitarian creatures; mostly the best and brightest of multiple colors that are difficult to kill due to higher toughness than other weenies. Straightforward and easy to play. Can overpower an opponent before they can finish setting up.
Cons: Occasionally sketchy manabase and seems better suited by skewing towards a two-colored build. Not much in the way of evasion. Can’t disrupt combo decks. Vulnerable to over-committing and petering out against decks featuring multiple creature sweepers that are designed to stop decks exactly like this from beating them. Lacks finesse.
6. Critical Mass variants
Pros: Has acceleration and a heap of solid threats that demand answers (including dragons). Can drop them consistently, turn after turn, and protect them with countermagic. Resilient versus combo because of the counters. Can put opponents on the defensive for a long period of time.
Cons: Occasionally vulnerable to Wildfire if deck has been overly thinned. Weak removal of creatures, artifacts, and enchantments. This is one reason variants including Black or Red have arisen. Relies a bit much on the fickle mistress we call “tempo”, but can lack a threatening early game without effective cheap creatures. Mere acceleration does not a threat present.
7. Orzhov Aggro-Control
Pros: A smooth creature curve from two mana upwards. Great set of disruptive cards that can be devastating against the entire field. Evasive creatures. Ability to generate strong threats late; can pack two of the major dragon threats. Strong enchantment and creature removal. Wins gradually.
Cons: Doesn’t accelerate as quickly as anything packing Green. Can compete with itself by having a glut of two- and three-mana cards. Often struggles versus artifacts pre-sideboarding. Pithing Needle can hurt its tricks, such as Nezumi Shortfang or Ghost Council. Can lack “oomph” despite its collection of great cards; is more annoying than fierce. Vulnerable to Meloku rushes and Kodama blitzes dependent on removal choices.
8. GB Rock
Pros: Effective creatures with a lot of tricks. Dredge mechanic is strong and occasionally under-appreciated. Good acceleration and removal of all permanent types. Can generate some serious fat in the late game. Resilient versus discard depending on build.
Cons: Not overly disruptive; creatures lack evasion. Tricks don’t always equate to wins. Has problems handling small flyers or fast, evasive decks. Can spend more time setting up than threatening, hurting it against combo. Has trouble against land destruction strategies pre-sideboard.
9. BUG Aggro
Pros: Very similar to GB Rock, but often contains countermagic and card drawing, hence separate inclusion. Uses solid creatures with good effects. Good all-around removal. Has versatile answers to problem cards. Counters help against combo and land destruction.
Cons: Deck often plays defensively, which puts it at odds with itself. Colors lend themselves towards aggression, not sitting back. Often has more effects than threats, which makes it more a potentially dangerous deck than an actually dangerous one. Very tricky to build effectively.
10. Magnivore
Pros: Can easily “just win”. Cost-efficient sorceries help the deck do what it needs to do; it plays itself. Strong card drawing lets it see a lot of its deck. Stops big threats from getting on the table and stops decks from playing the game they want to play. Has the virtue of a cult following at the moment that will make it overly prevalent in some circles.
Cons: Loses to big threats that actually make it on the table. Inconsistent. Lacks varied win conditions and evasion, and relies too heavily on Magnivore or “alternate sideboard choice”. Vulnerable to Cranial Extraction. Can suffer against fast decks; will take damage until it can Pyroclasm or Wildfire them away. Sacred Ground called: it wants its land back.
11. Eminent Domain
Pros: More resilient than people realize. Is dangerous. Uses your deck against you, and has evolved into a stronger build. The myriad of enchantments often overwhelms opponents and their anti-enchantment strategies. Has effective late-game threats and board control. Can negate any deck’s strategy through resource denial. It doesn’t fear any card it can control or copy.
Cons: Can’t remove powerful enchantments and artifacts; it can only control them. Early Jittes and Needles can hurt it, as Domain can be slow to develop. Can struggle against Gruul’s multiple Slums and Shamans. Lacks countermagic, which means it can struggle to punch through important cards. Ghost Council can avoid its gimmicks if it gets out and can be protected by a plethora of cheap-to-cast weenies. Doesn’t have the strongest card drawing capabilities and can get into a topdeck mode in which it may have trouble recovering from a disadvantaged board position.
12. RG or RW Wildfire
Pros: Creatures that can survive its own sweepers and Wildfires. Both decks are similar, relying on survivable acceleration in form of Signets and land searching for more explosion and recovery. Good defense, good threats. Resilient, with strong card redundancy via Savage Twister or Wrath of God. Can effectively destroy all types of permanents. Built to combat creatures and control the board, and do so very well.
Cons: May not have enough threats to push through countermagic, which can patiently wait it out. Creatures typically lack evasion. Usually weak on spot removal due to reliance on sweeping removal. Often slow and somewhat ponderous; struggles against fast combo decks and can suffer from an inability to respond to large threats at instant speed.
13. GhaziGlare
Pros: Controls the board. Can overwhelm with creatures. Vitu-Ghazi can’t be countered, and Selesnya Guildmage often slips through and can win the long game even if you do nothing but play land. Can generate Jitte-wielders at will. Produces a series of cost-efficient threats consistently. Has a strong manabase, is unafraid to trade creatures, and can remove dangerous enchantments and artifacts.
Cons: Weak creature removal. Relies solely on creatures (and control of them) for the win. Poor evasion. Needs significant mana to operate at peak efficiency, which makes it vulnerable to resource denial strategies. Can win in topdeck mode, but sans Glare can lose to fast, evasive decks that it simply can’t catch up because it can’t kill anything. Can be outraced by combo decks. Pithing Needle can be a headache.
14. MUC (Jushi Control)
Pros: Control, control, control. Dictates the pace of play. Excellent card drawing. Mimeofacture adds to the deck’s ability to indirectly handle any permanent. Meloku backed with counterspells wins games. Second-best manabase in the game: nothing but Islands. Can handle any moderately paced deck. Punishes bad players.
Cons: Creature decks may be too fast for its bounce and control. Subpar countermagic in the environment makes its overall game inconsistent; it’s a thinking man’s deck requiring good judgment. Land destruction can overpower it or stunt its necessary growth. Hates Kodama and Orzhov decks packing discard and Ghost Council. Has problems with Vitu-Ghazi.
15. Mono-Black Aggro (or lightly splashed)
Pros: Effective discard elements. A hard to disrupt mana base. Very strong overall creature removal. Good utility creatures, and can have decent evasion depending on build. Can splash light elements of white or green for better removal options. Access to powerful late game cards.
Cons: Weak artifact and enchantment removal unless splashing. Can fall victim to acceleration and fat of green. Has to rely on discard to cover its weaknesses in these areas. Doesn’t have the huge, cheap, black creature threats we’re accustomed to.
16. Urzatron
Pros: Card drawing leads to fast and massive mana generation. Attempts to simply overwhelm with multiple high cost threats. Has enough countermagic to keep opponents honest. Has numerous outlets for victory, from Blaze to creatures (Keiga, Ryusei, Meloku) to swarms (Orochi Hatchery). Plays excellently against Jushi Control decks. Can abuse cards like Mimeofacture.
Cons: Land destruction, particularly Sowing Salt, is oh so cruel to Urza’s lands. Problems with strong creature rushes; Pyroclasm is too small for some aggressive decks, such as anything packing Kird Ape or Scab-Clan Mauler. May have already peaked in performance and flexibility. Not necessarily easy to play.
17. UW Control
Pros: Underdog. Not discussed much due to lack of Azorius Senate presence. Has most of the virtues of MUC, including card drawing and countermagic, but increases its ability to handle permanents with Wrath of God, Faith’s Fetters, and Devouring Light. Has access to Yosei as a more direct finisher. Might be the first place Quicken shines. Has lifegain options available and a good selection of sideboard options.
Cons: Very reactive deck. Is dangerous only late game. Discard gives it problems. Has problems with the transition from the early creature rush to establishing long game control due to lack of instant-speed permanent responses. Without Sacred Ground, can be hurt by land destruction preventing it from going long. Vitu-Ghazi can threaten it without ever casting a spell.
18. Greater Gifts
Pros: Has numerous options for abuse. Packs some of the strongest cards in the format. Its recursion/sacrifice engine is second to none; Yosei lock is fast. A lot of opponents struggle with decisions against this deck; everyone fears Greater – Yosei – Reclaim – Recollect being presented to them. Good library manipulation and acceleration into threats. Good matchups against most of the field.
Cons: Leyline of the Void and other graveyard hate may appear in force. The need for creature decks to feature enchantment hate means Greater Good is fragile. Mana base is sometimes scary, and can be fragile against intelligent and concentrated destruction efforts.
19. Enduring ideal
Pros: It accelerates and tutors. Has an answer to just about any situation. Privileged Position gives ideal protection from removal. Able to pack significant answers to a myriad of situations. Form of the Dragon is a fast clock. Can lock down opposing creature decks. Makes Kodama cry, particularly when people attempt to figure out rules interactions on Confiscate being brought into play.
Cons: Vulnerable to Cranial Extraction, MUC, and land destruction, all of which are prevalent (though it does have answers available in the sideboard). Somewhat slow to get rolling, though powerful afterwards. Self-limiting. Ivory Mask can turn Form back on itself, and the newer control/duplication strategies of a few decks can work against it.
20. Heartbeat Combo
Pros: The best true combo deck in the environment. It plays solitaire and outraces you. Self-sustaining engine. Offers transmutable tutors and consistent acceleration and mana base establishment. Can handle land destruction better than some other decks. Is all business.
Cons: Hates Ivory Mask, although no one uses it anymore. Can have trouble winning counter wars. Combo isn’t totally smooth; requires intelligent playing and can misfire or stall easier than some decks in the past. Aggressive discard can stop it from “going off”. Requires a bachelor’s degree in mathematics to play.
21. UB Milling
Pros: No one takes it seriously, yet it can win. Library depletion is the great equalizer in win conditions; it worries about what you have left, not what you have. Solid search and combo effects. Can work as a control or combo strategy. Has good countermagic and creature removal/control available depending on build. Bides its time but tends to win quickly once it mills in earnest. Solid mana base.
Cons: Vulnerable to fast, aggressive decks. Combo method may die before completion. Control build may take too long to win. Poor removal of artifacts or enchantments. May put things in the graveyard that the opponent can recur for a win. May be too much of an either-or deck, winning convincingly or losing convincingly with little in between.
You know, I’m sure I didn’t cover all the decks, but those twenty-one should be a relatively accurate overview. Just like last time, there’s seriously that many options out there. If you don’t believe me, look around, talk to the players. I guarantee someone’s thinking Enduring Ideal needs to make a comeback, or that their UB Mill deck is so close to being an autowin, it’s so close! You have people working on Green-Blue beatdown anticipating Dissension, and people trying to build weird Nephilim-based decks just to say they can. There’s some pro in the corner smirking over their mono-Red deck, and someone’s tweaking GhaziGlare to ensure another dominant performance.
That’s my bet, by the way. I’m shooting for Glare splashing a removal color – probably Black, possibly Red – for the win. I think it’s a consistently underrated deck that has proven itself time and again as a contender. Regardless, this snapshot of the environment hopefully gave you the opportunity to think about what’s out there. Don’t think of decks merely as archetypes; think of their strengths and weaknesses, and how they interact with the strongest cards in the environment. When you wonder why a deck didn’t perform as well as you thought it would, consider what it’s up against. Someone has to be the lowest on the totem pole, the first voted off the island. In Honolulu, we’re going to see some amazing competitions and find out what the hardcore testing of our Pro Tour players has come up with.
Despite that, the rebel in me wouldn’t actually play a Glare deck. If I had to take something to play, I’d shoot for something Orzhovian. I know I’d enjoy it, and I think a proper build could go far. Here’s the type of build I would take to Honolulu:
Creatures (20)
Lands (18)
Spells (22)
Sideboard
Yeah, I finally found a spot for Cry of Contrition. This is a very straightforward aggressive build, but it’s competitive against most of the format. When you’re haunting cheap, disposable Jitte-wielders, you’d be surprised how often it fires. I like this deck, a lot, but its biggest weakness is as I said above: in topdeck mode, it doesn’t stack up to some of the other top decks in the field. Critical Mass might rip a Kodama, Keiga, Meloku on consecutive turns. GhaziGlare might throw down Kodama, Hierarch, Kodama, Glare without blinking. Orzhov doesn’t really do that, because it’s so strongly geared towards a different game strategy. Still, I foresee a lot of control decks, and discard hates on control. The sideboard has a lot of potential tools; note I don’t even have Cranial Extraction or Nightmare Void in there, but I easily could. I went with Sacred Ground versus Wildfire, Descendent against fast aggressive decks, Pithing Needle as a catchall against Glare and Meloku, and Reciprocate for those nasty, nasty Slums and Shamans. Disruption strategies are fun to play; it’s often the careful measurement and allotment of disruptive spells that create victories. Don’t be surprised to see a deck along these strategic lines performing very well in Honolulu. A lot depends on what pros are willing to risk; do they stick with the tried-and-true deck lists like MUC, Ghazi, Greater Gifts, and Urzatron, or will they attempt to blaze a new path for something out of the new Guildpact combinations?
I think there’s going to be some innovative decks. I can’t wait to see how it turns out, and what they’ve thought of that none of us saw coming. Best of luck to all of the competitors.
-Mason
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