Who’s ready to go on a Battle field trip?
Today we’ll be going to see fantastic Battle for Zendikar Standard decks before they’re released into the wild.
I’ll be expanding on
my initial thoughts
about the format and providing you with plenty of lists that will form a reasonable gauntlet. I’ll focus on the decks that are easy to port over from the
old Standard format and talk about what might have a chance at dethroning them.
Creatures (14)
- 4 Siege Rhino
- 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
- 1 Dragonlord Dromoka
- 3 Den Protector
- 3 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
- 2 Hangarback Walker
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (27)
Spells (16)
Maybe if we just ignore Abzan Control it’ll go away?
Wrong!
Abzan is back–can it be back when it never left?–and quite possibly better than ever, at least compared to the rest of the field. This list keeps it
simple. No blue splash for Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and/or Dragonlord Ojutai. No red splash for Crackling Doom. Basic Abzan Control already has plenty of
powerful cards to choose from, and it will certainly be a great starting point for anyone not looking to invent a brand new archetype.
But will the deck be able to live up to its glory days without its ultimate catch-all hand disruption in Thoughtseize?
Transgress the Mind might have something to say about that. It’s not as good as Thoughtseize certainly, but I think it still does a lot of the same things,
especially in a deck like Abzan Control that’s going to be lacking in the two-drop department. Transgress the Mind will rarely miss where Thoughtseize
wouldn’t and doesn’t even make you lose life!
Well sure, maybe Abzan Control can live without Thoughtseize (if you call that living), but surely it will dip in power due to having no Hero’s Downfall
effect…
Oh, hello there, Ruinous Path.
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion is probably the biggest loss for Abzan Control, but there are some decent replacements. Threatening to drop Languish or Gideon,
Ally of Zendikar on turn 4 or Ob Nixilis Reignited or Planar Outburst on turn 5 is going to cause a lot of headaches for a lot of decks. One play punishes
an opponent with a board full of creatures, the other punishes an opponent trying to be careful and play around sweepers. Having access to a slew of good
Awaken cards will help retain some of the deck’s lategame inevitability as well. Planar Outburst still does something versus a completely creatureless
control deck, which is a nice bonus as well.
Hangarback Walker is reasonable since the deck really lacks decent two-drop removal. Ultimate Price doesn’t seem especially great against a format of
tri-colored creatures and opposing Hangarback Walkers.
It’s unclear how many copies of Ob Nixilis Reignited and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar you want. I could see 0-4 for either and those numbers will have to be
tweaked based on the format and how good they end up being.
The deck actually has very few green mana symbols, which makes the manabase and Nissa, Vastwood Seer a little tricky to juggle. It’s nice that you can use
Windswept Heath to just fetch up Plains or Canopy Vista though. You can even get nice and greedy and add something like Blighted Fen (which is great
against Dragonlord Ojutai) or Mortuary Mire, but right now I’d just keep it simple.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Anafenza, the Foremost
- 4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
- 4 Siege Rhino
- 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
- 1 Warden of the First Tree
- 2 Den Protector
- 4 Hangarback Walker
- 2 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (10)
Two! Two Abzan decks! Bwah, Ha Ha!
You think Abzan Control is enough Abzan for Standard?
Nope!
Abzan Aggro is also here to stay. Both the Abzan decks don’t lose much and gain some spicy new tools (mostly the same tools).
Drana, Liberator of Malakir is a card with a lot of inherent power. There aren’t too many fliers in Standard beyond the expensive Dragons, which means she
is free to swing in most of the time. Her ability to pump up your team alongside first strike means that all your creatures without first strike will get
+1/+1 counters before they deal damage. This is particularly synergistic with a lot of the rest of the deck, from Hangarback Walker (either before or after
it has turned into Thopters) to Den Protector, and it also works well with the newcomer Shambling Vent’s lifelink or a swarm of Allies made with Gideon,
Ally of Zendikar. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar’s Glorious Anthem effect also works well with all that stuff.
Creatures (14)
- 1 Dragonmaster Outcast
- 4 Mantis Rider
- 3 Soulfire Grand Master
- 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
- 2 Hangarback Walker
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (25)
Spells (19)
Jeskai doesn’t appear to be a big winner with the rotation. Losing Lightning Strike hurts. It doesn’t get a creature-land (though it could potentially play
a splashed Lumbering Falls thanks to Cinder Glade). The manabase seems like a big limiting issue since so many decks get great mana and a creature-land,
whereas Jeskai is going to struggle to just reliably cast its spells while still having to run plenty of painlands.
Ojutai’s Command seems like it will continue to be excellent, and one of the best things you can be doing with Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy. Dragonmaster Outcast
seems like a nice card to have access to, since it pairs very well with Ojutai’s Command in the lategame.
If you’re at the point where you’re playing Jeskai, you might just want to go a step further and play a four-color deck, perhaps something with Collected
Company and Savage Knuckleblade or Woodland Wanderer.
Creatures (17)
Lands (21)
Spells (22)
- 4 Dragon Fodder
- 4 Hordeling Outburst
- 2 Become Immense
- 4 Wild Slash
- 4 Atarka's Command
- 4 Exquisite Firecraft
Sideboard
Mono-Red Aggro with a splash of green appears to have gotten virtually nothing from the new set but still has just enough great cards that it doesn’t
really have to run any filler.
Do not play this deck unless you like seeing smiles die as you pump your swarm of Goblins with Atarka’s Command and Become Immense.
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (27)
Spells (27)
Esper Dragons continues to look good and doesn’t lose too much. The issue is that Esper Dragons doesn’t want to use the new cards as much as other decks
since it’s so focused on doing its dragony thing and not the awakeny thing.
Shambling Vent is particularly awkward because it conflicts so much with being able to cast a turn 2 Silumgar’s Scorn.
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (27)
Spells (30)
The perfect deck to wake you up inside and save you from the dark.
This version of Esper Control runs no creatures in the maindeck and wants to win through sheer card advantage. Awakened lands, Shambling Vent, and
planeswalkers can do the actual closing.
Control decks have a great shot to be big contenders in the new format. Things should have slowed down a little and there are plenty of tools to work with,
it’s just a matter of finding the right combination.
There is less incentive to play straight U/W or U/B Control since you get excellent mana and Shambling Vent for very little cost.
Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy gets relegated to the sideboard to try and avoid any spot removal, but he might just be too powerful to bother with the no creature
theme. Besides, there isn’t that much premium spot removal at the moment.
Creatures (26)
- 4 Rattleclaw Mystic
- 4 Whisperwood Elemental
- 4 Whisperer of the Wilds
- 4 Shaman of Forgotten Ways
- 4 Dragonlord Atarka
- 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
- 2 Hangarback Walker
- 3 Omnath, Locus of Rage
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (24)
Spells (5)
This deck kind of looks like G/R Devotion got eaten by Savage Knuckleblade and then went through its digestive tract.
It might look weird, but I think Temur Ramp is going to be a player. It might require some tuning to find the right balance between Shaman of Forgotten
Ways and non-creature spells, but I think Shaman of Forgotten Ways is a little too powerful to pass up on for now.
Up to Battle
It appears that the momentum and power of Khans of Tarkir block might overshadow Battle for Zendikar for a little while, but it always
takes time to discover the hidden breakout cards from new sets.
There are plenty of other decks to be explored:
– Five-Color Dragons
– Five-Color Control
– Five-Color Collected Company
– Mardu Dragons
– G/W Aggro
– R/B Aggro to abuse devoid or Drana, Liberator of Malakir and a bunch of Goblin tokens
– Allies
– Eldrazi Ramp
– Devoid and exile decks
– Jeskai Ascendancy. Possibly with Monastery Mentor and Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
– Abzan decks splashing red or blue.
Those are my initial thoughts. What do you think will be a breakout archetype? What cards are going to surprise everyone?
Questions? Let me Battle-field them for you.