This past weekend, M11 officially burst onto the Standard scene, and players have wasted no time adapting the new cards to old strategies, with a few completely new decks popping up in the fray too. We have three sets of results to examine, including a PTQ in Pittsburgh, a PTQ in Japan, and the Finnish National Championships.
While this does mean we have results from literally around the world, it’s important to keep these events in perspective. I don’t have information on the attendance at Finnish Nationals, for example, but I wouldn’t insist my playtest group immediately proxy up a copy of the Megrim deck that placed in the Top 8 there just yet. Similarly, the information that I have heard about the Japanese PTQ seems to suggest that it had a mere 25 players, so I wouldn’t take out a second mortgage for a set of Primeval Titans quite yet.
So what decks were the big winners from M11, and what decks wish the new set never happened? Let’s take a look at the results.
The big winner from the initial roundup of results seems to be Blue Control decks. U/W Control took the title at Finnish Nationals, beating Esper Control in the finals, with two more U/W decks and another Esper deck in the Top 8. Super Friends won the Pittsburgh PTQ, with two U/W decks making the elimination rounds there.
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (17)
Spells (26)
- 4 Plains
- 4 Island
- 2 Condemn
- 2 Mind Spring
- 1 Martial Coup
- 2 Path to Exile
- 2 Day of Judgment
- 4 Spreading Seas
- 3 Everflowing Chalice
- 2 Deprive
Sideboard
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (26)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
Creatures (9)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (26)
Spells (19)
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (8)
Lands (26)
Spells (18)
Those are a lot of lists to take in, but one thing is clear – Mana Leak is making its impact felt. One of the biggest vulnerabilities of U/W strategies prior to M11 was their weakness to early planeswalkers , especially out of a deck like Mythic or Next Level Bant which was also pressuring them on another axis. It’s also a huge boon against “big spell” decks like Turboland that try to take advantage of the fact that the slow U/W decks can’t really handle an opponent casting a string of powerful spells that all generate some kind of advantage. With Mana Leak in the mix, control players can use the same card to stop Jace or Mind Spring that they use to handle Oracle of Mul Daya or Avenger of Zendikar, and that’s a big deal in that kind of matchup.
It’s interesting to note that Finnish Champion Jani Lindroos eschewed the use of Mana Leak altogether, choosing Condemn as his sole maindeck M11 card. Jani splits his removal between two Condemn and two Path to Exile, which is a relatively safe bet. Condemn is better against cards like Putrid Leech or Vengevine, but you don’t want to be caught without a Path against Knight of the Reliquary or Fauna Shaman.
The Esper Deck that Erkk Siira piloted to a second place finish at Finnish Nationals is a bit more significant variation from decks we’ve seen put up results before, although it bears some resemblance to the deck that Conley Woods built for GP: DC that Eric Froehlich played to a 10-0 record on Day 1 before the wheels fell off. The Finnish deck includes the powerful new Grave Titan, which is a card that many have been speculating might be the kind of combination win condition and defensive measure that could turn people toward playing Black in their control decks, be they Esper or Grixis. Erkki’s deck is peculiar among U/W control style decks in that it doesn’t play any Wrath effects at all in the main deck. Rather than Day of Judgments or Martial Coups, Erkki plays Walls, fat creatures, and spot removal, a plan that is only possible because of the power of Baneslayer Angel and Grave Titan to play offense and defense simultaneously so well.
People had predicted Mana Leak would be a huge player in the metagame once M11 was legal, and I’m sure it will continue to do so, but my gut feeling is that much of the reason we’re seeing Blue Control decks with Mana Leak doing so well right now is that they’re such an easy port from the old format. Put some Mana Leaks (or maybe just some Condemn) in your old deck and you’re ready to roll! Decks based around some of the other new cards will take more time and testing to develop – although as we’ve seen, some of them are already making their impact felt as well.
Cards like Fauna Shaman:
Creatures (24)
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Ranger of Eos
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 3 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
- 1 Scute Mob
- 2 Sea Gate Oracle
- 4 Vengevine
- 4 Wall of Omens
- 3 Fauna Shaman
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (16)
Spells (15)
Creatures (23)
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Ranger of Eos
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 1 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
- 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
- 2 Sea Gate Oracle
- 4 Vengevine
- 4 Wall of Omens
- 3 Fauna Shaman
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (25)
Spells (7)
Creatures (31)
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Realm Razer
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 1 Baneslayer Angel
- 3 Lotus Cobra
- 3 Cunning Sparkmage
- 1 Stoneforge Mystic
- 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
- 4 Vengevine
- 4 Fauna Shaman
Lands (27)
Spells (2)
These three decks, all from the Pittsburgh PTQ Top 8, use the card that I had personally predicted would be the most influential card in the new set: Fauna Shaman. These are all also ports of old decks with Fauna Shaman included, but you can see how the Shaman is the sort of card that influences deck design much more significantly than Mana Leak. Kurt Spless’s second place deck from Pittsburgh is more obviously built on the shell of the NLB/Conscription hybrid, while Anthony McDonough’s deck takes advantage of the tutoring power of Fauna Shaman to play a more traditional NLB build that has access to a single Sovereigns plus Conscription, as well as a single Linvala, for the blowout potential of either if the situation should happen to arise. The Shaman also lets McDonough sideboard a single Master of the Wild Hunt, a card that has similar potential to dominate particular board positions.
Neal Chase’s Naya deck takes Fauna Shaman a little further, incorporating a number of tutor targets in both his main deck and his sideboard. While the singleton Baneslayer Angel is convenient to grab when needed, and the Realm Razer gives the deck an answer to big mana decks like Turboland, it’s Stoneforge Mystic that gives the deck the most flexibility with Fauna Shaman. The Shaman lets Chase play just a single Mystic and yet reliably have access to Basilisk Collar or the new M11 Sword of Vengeance when needed, with another Collar and the more traditional Behemoth Sledge waiting in the sideboard.
Speaking of sideboards, Fauna Shaman clearly has an impact here. Chase’s sideboard includes six singleton creatures, all clearly intended as situational high impact hosers. I’m not sure I agree with his choices here – I think I’d rather have an Obstinate Baloth than the Kor Firewalker, since the Firewalker really needs to come down early to be effective and the threat of fetching Baloth in response to a discard spell is just gross. I’d also try to find room for the Qasali Pridemage in the maindeck, since it’s a card that’s reasonably efficient on its own and can inexpensively turn games around by destroying something like an Oblivion Ring or Behemoth Sledge. Sun Titan, Caldera Hellion, and Thornling are all more the sort of big trump singletons that seem like clear sideboard cards, though I’m not sure what specific matchups Chase intends the Titan and Hellion for. It’s interesting to note that Knight of the Reliquary makes the singleton Bojuka Bog in the sideboard a very relevant tutor target against other Vengevine decks, or even just to shrink opposing Knights once they get out of hand.
I think it’s clear that Fauna Shaman is a force to be reckoned with, and I’m also quite confident that we haven’t seen the little Survival on a stick employed to the fullest yet. Just from these lists we can see how big an impact she can have on deck design – it’s only a matter of time before she has her day in the sun.
The M11 card that is currently enjoying its time in the spotlight right now is Primeval Titan. The Top 8 of the PTQ in Japan had a full SIX slots taken by Titan decks of various flavors, and back here stateside a GRW Titan deck finished in the Top 8 of Pittsburgh. The relevance of the Japanese results is certainly questionable, since the PTQ was reportedly only 25 players, and who knows what the rest of the field looked like. That said, it’s worth seeing what we can glean from these lists.
Creatures (12)
Lands (10)
Spells (38)
Sideboard
Creatures (16)
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Oracle of Mul Daya
- 1 Avenger of Zendikar
- 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
- 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
- 4 Primeval Titan
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (16)
Spells (25)
Sideboard
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (26)
Spells (20)
Sideboard
The Japanese winner’s deck is particularly interesting in that it is less a big spell ramp deck than it is a land-ramp deck. There are only 12 spells in the entire deck that do something other than fetch lands, and of those, the four titans also fetch land! Ryouichi’s deck harkens back to the Valukut ramp decks we saw when Zendikar first came out, with Primeval Titan playing a much more powerful fetch spell for the key land than Expedition Map ever did.
The power of this deck type is clear. With Valukut and plenty of Mountains to fetch, Primeval Titan can win the game by itself if it’s not dealt with quickly, as can Siege-Gang or Avenger. The rest of the deck just powers those monsters out. The consistency is another matter entirely. With such a high density of mana and no way to draw cards or filter through the deck, this deck seems prone to extremely high variance draws, and vulnerable to having its single big threat answered and having nothing to follow it up. While Valukut provides a clear back-up plan, I can’t imagine relying on that card to win in a world full of Spreading Seas and Tectonic Edges. While this deck is certainly worth testing to try it out, my expectation is that its success is more the result of some good fortune in a small PTQ rather than having a new archetype on our hands.
The forth place finisher in that event played U/G Titan deck, and he also abused the ability to fetch nonbasic lands, here choosing for Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin to help power out even bigger monsters. I’m much more excited about this deck than I was about the Valukut deck, since fetching Eye of Ugin (and subsequently Emrakul) puts control decks in a serious rough spot to try to beat you before you can essentially “go off” with Eldrazi. U/W Control had fits dealing with Jace/Oracle decks prior to M11, but I could see the argument that Mana Leak gives them enough ability to disrupt your “early” big spells that you want the potential to go even bigger when the game goes long, as it virtually always does against U/W. I feel like this version of a big spell deck is much more attractive, since the Jace/Oracle interaction gives you the ability to both accelerate out land to play your big threats as well as dig to those threats when you need them. While Eldrazi may not be the way to go with these Titan decks, I’m inclined to think that Jace is.
The last Titan deck I want to look at is the one from the PTQ in Pittsburgh, which put to use one of the M11 cards I called out in my article last week as criminally underhyped: Destructive Force. Tim Berg played a GRW Primeval Titan/Destructive Force deck to a Top 4 finish. Berg’s deck is pretty straightforward, with White and Red removal controlling the early game while his Green mana acceleration builds to his big spells. A trio of planeswalkers – Garruk, Ajani, and Gideon – all serve to help control the board until he can cast Destructive Force or speed up the turn he can cast it. And once the Force happens, the entire board goes away – except for those same planeswalkers and any Titans who might be hanging around.
While I like the principles behind this deck – it’s virtually identical to what I suggested such a deck might look like in my last article – I have to wonder, again, if it’s not just better to play this kind of deck with Blue. White certainly seems attractive for the planeswalkers (though I would certainly include Elspeth in the mix if I were to go that route), but Blue offers a similarly powerful planeswalker to dominate the board once you sweep it clear – Jace. In fact, it seems more likely that Jace’s bounce effect would let you deal with a problematic creature that survived Destructive Force than any of the walkers in the existing version. It sure is hard to kill a Knight of the Reliquary when you’re blowing up land at the same time you’re dealing damage to it.
I think my take on a Destructive Force/Titan deck would merge the elements of Turboland with Destructive Force and go from there. Something like this:
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (27)
Spells (18)
Sideboard
This is obviously a really rough list, but the ideas are there. Essentially the thought is to merge the powerful elements of Turboland – the Jace/Oracle interaction and the acceleration of Cobra – with cheap counters and removal and the trump of Destructive Force. It’s possible that this is just a worse version of more traditional Turboland, since Destructive Force is largely playing the same role as Avenger of Zendikar while being vulnerable to Negate, but I think this is certainly a direction worth exploring.
As for the losers of M11 Standard – well, there’s one very glaring omission from all of those Top 8 decklists – Jund, and to a lesser extent RDW. Whether the absence of these bogeymen is the result of Obstinate Baloth or just everyone wanting to play with the shiny new toys is unclear. I certainly doubt we’ve seen the last of Jund, though I do think it’s possible we’ll see Blightning relegated to the sideboard when it does re-emerge. You know what I’m waiting for? The new Jund Fauna Shaman deck. They always were looking for another two-drop to pair with Putrid Leech, and Vengevine and Bloodbraid Elf sure do play well together.
I’ll leave you with that one to think about…
Until next time…
bmk