Earlier this week, Patrick Chapin laid out the new Standard gauntlet here. This week, I’m going to suggest some updates to those lists so that they perform better.
First up, we have Illusions. I like Illusions a lot—I like the type of Magic it plays, I like playing against it, and I like trying to beat it. It’s fair in most ways, but can get unfair draws. It also has a surprising amount of late game play with Snapcaster Mage, Phantasmal Image on Snapcaster Mage, and Moorland Haunt. Overall, it’s a very well-constructed deck.
So let’s break it.
Todd Anderson column has given you the skinny on how to play and sideboard with the deck. One major thing has changed since Worlds, and that’s everyone’s adoption of Gut Shot. If Gut Shot is good, and in every deck including yours, and is being used to kill creatures that you play…at some point, Mental Misstep becomes better than Gut Shot.
Yes, you can draw into Misstep with a Ponder or Gitaxian Probe after they’ve cast a Delver, and that sucks. However, there are upsides to Misstep as well, such as countering a key Vapor Snag/Galvanic Blast or using it to fight a sideboard card like Autumn’s Veil.
Geist of Saint Traft looks like the other clear winner. With Gut Shot and Vapor Snag (hopefully) keeping the battlefield clear, Geist will likely get in for a hit or two. Against Mono Red that seems especially easy, and that’s where you need the help.
Stitched Drake is still good, but Geist looks like it’s even better.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Phantasmal Bear
- 4 Lord of the Unreal
- 4 Phantasmal Image
- 4 Snapcaster Mage
- 2 Geist of Saint Traft
- 4 Delver of Secrets
Lands (20)
Spells (18)
Sideboard
Mono Red is a problematic matchup, mostly due to Shrine of Burning Rage. They’re going to kill all of your guys, but you can fight that battle with Geist, Drake, and Moorland Haunt. Those don’t race a turn 2 Shrine very well, which is why we need the Oblivion Rings in the sideboard.
I wouldn’t mind a couple Timely Reinforcements as well, but that would be a luxury. Todd is right when he says that taking a defensive stance in the matchup isn’t going to help. However, a couple Reinforcements would be nice, as they make you win every race.
I know for a fact that players will incorporate Geist, and they will likely add Missteps to the maindeck. The above list might not be what people play, but it will be close.
With everyone playing Gut Shot and Galvanic Blast, maybe the time isn’t right for Illusions. Yes, you can sidestep those fights in the sideboarded games, but why not try to sidestep them in game 1?
I can’t help but think something like this might be good:
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Lands (23)
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Yes, that sideboard is two cards short. However, Michael Jacob has that super-secret technology on lockdown. If you want to find out what it is, pay attention to the SCGLive coverage of the St. Louis Standard Open this weekend. I assure you, it’s not for the faint of heart.
These “fish” decks have seen some success on Magic Online. I’ve wanted to play similar decks, but haven’t had time. MJ says it looks like a bad Illusions deck, but I think it looks like a good Illusions deck. You have most of the upside—it’s coherent, aggressive, punishes bad draws, and has a flowing strategy—with fewer downsides—weakness to spot removal and Shrine of Burning Rage.
Most importantly, you can finally play from behind! Todd bemoaned the fact that once you’re using Vapor Snag to save some life, you have probably already lost. In this deck, you have Day of Judgment, Timely Reinforcements, and White Sun’s Zenith to come back.
The Sulfur Falls might be wrong, but it’s just an example of what sorts of deckbuilding layers aren’t being taken advantage of.
Most of these decks play Midnight Haunting, but I’m not sure if I can get behind that. Yes, you need a clock, but is Midnight Haunting the clock you want? Sure, Geist doesn’t flip Delver, but I think you’re fine with that. Geist just seems better overall.
Wolf Run Ramp is the deck I’ve seen the most variation from, at least on Magic Online. Players are reverting back to Dungrove Elder in order to fight the mirror, Red, and control. That leaves them weak to last week’s decks, which is a gamble I guess they were willing to take.
Beast Within might have a mini-resurgence. It’s good in the mirror and against cards like Tempered Steel. Iyanaga didn’t even have an Acidic Slime in his Wolf Run list! That type of effect seems warranted, though.
The various Garruks are poised for a comeback as well. Primal Hunter is exceptional in the mirror and against control, but like Dungrove, falls short against the white aggro decks. Olivia Voldaren is another option for the mirror, but I’m not sure it’s worth disrupting your mana base. Into the Maw of Hell is another cute card.
Fighting Mono Red can be tough, especially if they have Traitorous Blood. Tumble Magnet sort of solves that issue, but if you’re relying on Sphere of the Suns and they want to clear Solemns out of the way, siding in Manic Vandal isn’t out of the question. Instead, I would look into sideboarding Glimmerpost or going back to Tree of Redemption. Garruks and Dungrove Elder help too. What version you play just depends on what you want to beat.
If Tempered Steel does take off, you could play a version that I saw a couple times, with Ancient Grudge maindeck. You get to play Liquimetal Coating and a bunch of Wellsprings to make it playable. Coating is cool against Illusions. Phantasmal Bear? How adorable. Phantasmal Image? That’s dead too!
I wouldn’t advise playing that one, but it’s innovative.
If I were going to play Wolf Run, I’d hybridize Iyanaga’s with Sondag’s. Maybe a couple Beast Withins, couple Garruks, keep the spot removal. I like Rampant Growth and Sphere of the Suns over Birds and Elves, as one-toughness creatures are still under fire.
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Fabian Thiele wrote his Worlds report earlier this week, where he detailed his 5-1 finish with G/W Tokens. Most of the players who played G/W cursed its existence. Gut Shot was everywhere, and that’s a tough card for G/W to beat.
G/W’s whole plan requires using one-drop accelerators to get an edge with quick three and four-drops. If Gut Shot is one of the most played cards in Standard, you should probably choose a different strategy.
I’ve seen players adopt Gut Shots of their own to level the playing field, but that doesn’t really work. G/W is all about tempo, so getting your one-drop killed is far more devastating than G/W killing an Illusions deck’s Phantasmal Bear.
Players have even gone so far as to adopt Mental Misstep in order to counter opposing Gut Shots. I’m fine with that plan, but Fabian’s use of Mutagenic Growth is much better. He talked about how it won most of his games for him, and it certainly seemed like it.
Gut Shot my Elf? Please. Putting your Titan in front of my Hero when I have Township? Big mistake buddy.
Mutagenic Growth proved itself a worthy inclusion. If you haven’t read his report already, you should.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 3 Mirran Crusader
- 4 Hero of Bladehold
- 3 Blade Splicer
- 2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 2 Geist-Honored Monk
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Spells (8)
Tempered Steel is probably the hottest topic to come out of Worlds. Was it the best deck for the tournament? If so, why did three of the four CFB guys lose in Top 8? I think the naysayers, myself included, are going to point out Junya’s record with Wolf Run, and the fact that the CFB players could have made Top 8 with a ham sandwich.
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Tempered Steel was good, but it wasn’t the holy grail. In fact, I’d wager that it won’t be played heavily in St. Louis or the Invitational in Charlotte. As I said, it was good for that tournament, but now that it’s back on the radar people are going to be playing hate. That alone is going to make players shy away from it.
That said, I have seen a few crazy innovations. Indomitable Archangel might be a better sideboard card than Hero of Bladehold right now. Just think of how many Ancient Grudges there will probably be, and try to figure out how an Ancient Grudge deck is going to kill a big flier. They better have Dismember, Oblivion Ring, or Devil’s Play, otherwise that Angel is going to crush them. Basically, Angel demands an answer, just like Hero, but protects your other guys in the meantime. It’s not a one-man one-woman army, but it’s very good.
Aside from that, Luis has suggested going anti-Ancient Grudge with Darksteel Axe alongside Etched Champion. That plan seems fine to me as well.
Maindeck, I’d like to see a bit more action. One of the Quick Questions at an Open was, “What deck do you think has untapped potential in Standard?” I answered with Tempered Steel, which surprised a lot of people. At the time, I was toying with various builds, including those with Origin Spellbomb, Piston Sledge, and Etched Champion.
I feel like Piston Sledge may have been the one card CFB overlooked for Worlds. Granted, their tournament was a huge success, but Piston Sledge would have been insane. It’s certainly better than a Mikeaus, although he’s no slouch either.
Another card that I think has potential is Mutagenic Growth. I already went over how awesome it is in the G/W portion, but it bears repeating. It’s also worth noting how many of these white-based aggro decks there are, and how many of them could benefit from playing a Growth or three.
Mono Red made top eight in the hands of Canadian Threshold master David Caplan. Clearly the man knows his way around aggressive decks.
Creatures (20)
- 3 Grim Lavamancer
- 1 Spikeshot Elder
- 4 Chandra's Phoenix
- 4 Stormblood Berserker
- 4 Goblin Fireslinger
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
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- 21 Mountain
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Sideboard
He came prepared, and was greatly rewarded. However, for red technology, you probably came to the wrong place. I mostly skim the MTGO red lists, as they all look roughly the same and don’t have many interesting things going on. Sticking to one color will typically do that, especially something with such a linear game plan.
The deck isn’t exactly broke, so maybe you shouldn’t fix it. The only real question for Mono Red is, “Is it well positioned?”
Moving on, we’ve got a strategy that had new life breathed into it. First, there was Solar Flare, then U/B Control, and now we have nearly unlimited options—U/W, Esper, Grixis, Tezzeret, U/W/R, and hell, even B/R. Even though the control decks aren’t as dominant as previous formats, it’s a good time to be a control mage. You have plenty of flavors to choose from.
First up, we have Chapin’s list from Worlds, which has been by far the most popular deck on MTGO (at least out of the decks placing well in events).
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Planeswalkers (3)
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There’s a lot of room for change here, but not necessarily innovation. I think Patrick’s deck was great for Worlds, and thankfully you can tune it to beat whatever you want to. One of the big concepts is how easy it is to do twenty damage to someone with Grixis. Between Galvanic Blast, Devil’s Play, and other lesser-used options like Shrine of Burning Rage and Sorin’s Vengeance, the deck has a lot of reach.
Check out these two lists:
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Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (27)
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Stensia Bloodhall? Chandra’s Phoenix? Hell yes! These cards are great in the control mirrors, specifically those without white. Decks like these are one of the reasons why I like white in my control decks. Lifegain helps against a lot of strategies, and not just the Mono Red ones. Celestial Purge and Oblivion Ring are great answers for the randomness that you can face.
Sorin’s Vengeance is particularly interesting, given that it’s easy to get in the first ten damage. They’ll often take a few hits from Snapcaster Mage or Olivia, as using your life total as a resource seems better than trading away your creatures. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t type of situation.
Even if you can’t deal ten, you have Snapcaster Mage and Chandra, the Firebrand to help you out.
Shrine is also intriguing. As a removal spell, it isn’t very efficient, but in a control deck, it is a ticking time bomb. Meets’ deck is really well-designed. Geistflame and Desperate Ravings both power Shrine and are great with the Phoenixes out of the sideboard.
There was an interesting Tezzeret list that also looked to deal twenty as quickly as possible.
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Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (23)
Spells (22)
These guys used Etched Champion to great effect. They also used “bad” cards like Vault Skirge and Flayer Husk in order to help them deal 20 as fast as possible.
The interaction between Mortarpod, Brimstone Volley, and Snapcaster Mage should be noted.
If you’re looking for something more traditional, look no further than old-schooler Andrew Cuneo’s take on U/W Control.
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I wouldn’t play some of the same cards that Cuneo played, but I know why he played them. I also know that they worked well for him. We’re at a point in Magic where there might not be a “best” list for any given archetype. There are so many powerful, similar cards out there that it’s hard to justify one over the other. You could almost always come up with a few situations where one is better than the other.
That said, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a few players adopt such things as Consecrated Sphinx, Solemn Simulacrum, Midnight Haunting, or Dispense Justice in similar lists. I know that Cuneo is a big draw-go fan whereas others, like Batutinha on MTGO, would rather tap out for a Consecrated Sphinx. Is one style better than the other? Probably not; it all just depends on what you expect to play against, and what you want to beat.
Nothing is set in stone.
GerryT