Team Unified Standard For Regional PTQ Competitors

“Goblin Chainwhirler needs to be banned.”

I knew this was going to be the first thing I read in chat when I began my stream after the Pro Tour on Sunday night. Here’s a hot take: Goblin Chainwhirler doesn’t need to be banned. Get over it. Please stop overreacting and asking for cards to be banned.

For those of you who live under a rock, Pro Tour Dominaria happened this past weekend and the Top 8 consisted of not just one chain, not just 2 Chainz, but seven Goblin Chainwhirler decks. Whether or not the red (and often black) menace is beatable is a question I’ve been trying to answer since Dominaria was released. I truly believe it is, but that’s not actually the topic for this article.

In the coming weeks, a unique tournament is taking place and it’s an important one: the Team Regional Pro Tour Qualifier, which will be a format that we almost never get to see: Team Unified Standard.

Team Unified Standard is the sweetest format of all. It combines two of my favorite things: Standard and team tournaments. But unlike Team Unified Modern, which is basically “Modern with Buddies,” Team Unified Standard requires that players construct three decks and there cannot be any overlap between the 75 cards used. This is a unique deckbuilding environment that presents serious constraints and potentially consequences for those unprepared. More prepared players will find themselves able to find edges if they predict the metagame correctly, and the limitations on the format allow them to do just that.

Let’s walk through how to do this for the upcoming RPTQ.

The Three Pillars

First, it’s important to identify the easy-to-split archetypes. Below I’ve split the most popular decks at the Pro Tour into different categories: Blue Decks, Red Decks, Green Decks, and Miscellanous Decks that don’t really fit into one of the three other categories.

Blue Decks:

• U/W Control
• Esper Control
• U/B Control
• B/U Midrange
• U/W Flash/Historic

Red Decks:

• Mono-Red Aggro
• R/B Aggro
• R/B Midrange

Green Decks:

• Mono-Green Aggro
• G/B Constrictor
• G/U Karn

Miscellaneous Decks:

• W/B Aggro

Now that we have the decks categorized, the next thing to do is plan out some possible configurations of decks that don’t share too much overlap. To me, the most obvious configuration is a blue deck, Mono-Red Aggro, and Mono-Green Aggro. This is a solid combination of Tier 1 and Tier 2 decks that have no overlap in cards. I would assume this is Level 1 of the metagame, which is what we have keep in mind when building our decks.

Since we know that about at least 66% of the metagame will likely be playing creature-based decks and we can assume there’s the potential that some of the blue decks will skew control in favor of B/U Midrange, we could be staring down three creature decks. For these reasons, cheap or efficient removal like Fatal Push, Abrade, and Ravenous Chupacabra goes up in value and is even more important than in traditional Standard.

If we assume that U/W Control, Mono-Red Aggro, and Mono-Green Aggro splashing black is the likely Level 1 of the metagame, let’s try to set ourselves up with three reasonable strategies that have this in mind.

U/W Control, R/B Aggro, and G/B Constrictor make for an interesting configuration, as I believe it’s feasible to achieve a positive matchup against the Level 1 decks. With stock lists on either side, the matchups end up as such:

• U/W Control is favored versus Mono-Red Aggro and Mono-Green Aggro
• R/B Aggro is favored versus Mono-Green Aggro but not against Mono-Red or U/W Control
• G/B Constrictor has a strong matchup versus Mono-Green Aggro and Mono-Red Aggro, not quite as favorable versus U/W Control

This gives us a 5/4 split, which is pretty much the best you can hope for in a format with these kinds of limitations. The rest of our edge will come from deckbuilding and sideboarding.

Now that we’ve decided that U/W Control, R/B Aggro, and G/B Constrictor are the proper archetypes for maximizing our advantage against the Level 1 decks, moving forward we will be trying to build those three decks in the best fashion for the expected metagame. While this won’t be exactly what every team is playing, the deck building strategies and sideboard plans needed against each of the three macro-archetypes tend to translate well between the different decks (e.g. discard/value is always great versus blue, midrange removal and value is great versus green, and cheap removal to shut down early aggression is great versus red).

U/W Control

This is effectively Brad Nelson’s list from Pro Tour Dominaria, except that Approach of the Second Suns has been replaced with Torrential Gearhulk in the maindeck. Torrential Gearhulk is good in the control mirrors and it’s good against the green decks, while Approach can be a serious liability versus the decks with Negate, like we’d expect in a control mirror. Torrential Gearhulk is an extremely powerful card everyone seems to have forgotten and will be a superstar in this list for Team Unified Standard.

Sideboarding

Mono-Red Aggro

Out:

In:

R/B Aggro, on the Draw

Out:

In:

R/B Aggro, on the Play

Out:

In:

Mono-Green Aggro

Out:

In:

G/B Constrictor

Out:

In:

U/W Control

Out:

In:

B/U Midrange

Out:

In:

For more information on U/W Control, I recommend checking out Brad’s articles about U/W Control over the past few weeks where he breaks down the deck and how to sideboard incredibly well.

R/B Aggro

This is very similar to Matt Severa’s list from GP Seattle with a few small changes to account for the limitations of the Team Unified Standard format. Doomfall is the required replacement to Duress and I think it’s a good option maindeck, since it’s quite functional in all major matchups.

Sideboarding

Mono-Red Aggro

Out:

In:

R/B Aggro

Out:

In:

G/B Constrictor

Out:

In:

Mono-Green Aggro

Out:

In:

U/W Control

Out:

In:

B/U Midrange

Out:

In:

For more information on R/B Aggro, go watch the Top 8 matches from Pro Tour Dominaria. Seriously, it’s basically only R/B Aggro mirror matches…

G/B Constrictor

To those of you who are regular grinders of Magic Online, this decklist will look pretty familiar. It’s effectively MTGO crusher JeffCunningham’s exact 75. I’m no expert on this deck myself, but I can assure you that this man is. The way we’ve set up our other decks, we don’t have to make any sacrifices with our list here and are able to play a pretty stock version. I think running four copies of Ravenous Chupacabra and two copies of Fatal Push in the maindeck is a strong adjustment, as it’s so strong versus the red decks and the green decks in game 1.

Most of the sideboarding wisdom comes directly from Jeff himself, so for a deeper explanation of the deck and why the card choices are as such, I recommend following Jeff on Twitter, where he has shared a great article about the deck.

Sideboarding

Mono-Red Aggro

Out:

In:

R/B Aggro

Out:

In:

U/W Control

Out:

In:

G/B Constrictor

Out:

In:

Mono-Green Aggro

Out:

In:

B/U Midrange

Out:

In:

Notes for Successful Team Events

I hope running these strategies and using this outline of all the major matchups that you’re likely to face in the upcoming RPTQ gives you a huge leg up in the competition over the coming weeks.

In addition, I’d like to note a few general things to be aware of for team events:

1. “Helping” is not always helping.

People are often way too keen to try to interfere in their teammates’ matches. I’ve found taking a hands-off approach, trusting my teammates, and having my teammates trust me is the most successful strategy. You’re on a team with these people for a reason, so be there for questions, but don’t interfere unless they’re looking for help or are about to massively punt. Furthermore, time is a huge concern in team events, especially with a control deck in the lineup. You need to play quickly to finish matches and you need to push your opponents to do the same.

2. Be aware when shuffling.

In team events it’s very common for people to accidentally show the opposing team the bottom of their deck while shuffling, which can give away a huge advantage to the opponent, especially in a Team Unified Standard tournament, where seeing as much as a Forest or a Mountain tells your opponent so much about the contents of your deck. The same goes for your hand. Be aware that shuffling your hand a lot or flicking the edges of the cards can reveal them to your opponent or their teammates, so try to minimize how much you do it.

3. Be aware that you are playing a Team Unified format, so solid communication with your teammates about cards while deckbuilding is essential.

If you have an R/B deck and a G/B deck in your lineup, make sure to communicate who is playing Duress. If you have two blue decks, make sure to communicate who is playing Negate.

For those of you not playing the Team RPTQ this weekend or just looking for a decklist, here’s what I believe to be the best deck to play this weekend and what I will personally be registering, so get your Gearhulks ready!