With Fate Reforged on the horizon, everyone wants to check out spoilers, but we’re not done with Khans of Tarkir yet! This Standard format is absolutely
crazy — There are 20 viable decks! As a person who grew up with Standard formats that typically had three viable decks, this format is rather unique.

A while back
, I posited that the three pillars of Standard were Courser of Kruphix, Goblin Rabblemaster, and Dig Through Time. These cards might not be the most
powerful ones in Standard (hello Siege Rhino), but ultimately, they are the cards that nearly every deck in the format is built around. Overall, these are
the three cards that have unique traits which greatly benefit the decks they’re built around.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you want to jam all of them into your deck, nor does it mean your deck absolutely has to have them, but you better have a
good reason for playing without them. Despite writing that article two months ago and the format evolving and shifting several times since then, those
three cards are still the pillars, which is pretty insane.

Since there are so many viable decks already, cards from Fate Reforged will likely slot into already existing decks more often than it will create brand
new archetypes. Because of that, I think it’s important to look at the decks that exist already (sorted by pillar for ease) and pick them apart. What do
they fear? What are they missing? What’s their secret?

The Secret

This is the Jund of the format. It’s great at navigating the swiss rounds into the Top 8s, but has the problem of actually closing. Among the “best” decks,
this is probably one that suffers the most from having a knowledgeable opponent. If they are able to figure out your plan, as well as play and sideboard
coherently, you are typically in a lot of trouble.

Abzan Aggro popped up as a response to this deck, and for good reason. Not only does it smash this deck, but their plan is so straight-forward that it’s
nearly impossible to make a tactical error with the deck. They are going to attack you and kill your creatures and your deck probably isn’t set up to beat
that.

If you want this deck to be good moving forward, you’re going to have to make some radical changes. In the meantime, everyone else is going to be catching
up and figuring out how to beat you. This is one of the few decks in Standard that is infinitely customizable, but you really need to work on it before
playing it this weekend.

The Secret

Sultai Reanimator is similar to Abzan Reanimator, except that I think it’s a weaker deck for a number of reasons. While Sidisi fits the theme of the deck
better than Siege Rhino, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best fit for the deck. There are things that matter far more than just how synergetic your
deck is. For example, against Abzan Aggro, Anafenza, the Foremost is the card you’d least like to see. It turns Sidisi into a Hill Giant and significantly
neuters your other cards.

With Abzan Reanimator, you have Siege Rhino and a bunch of cards that don’t like to see Anafenza, but you can certainly operate just fine when it’s in
play, unlike the Sultai deck. In this case, being too synergetic leads to getting blown out by a very popular hate card. Don’t let it happen to you!

Obviously there are some positive aspects to going hard on the graveyard shenanigans, such as being a little more robust in the mirror matches, but I don’t
think it’s worth it.

The Secret

I expect this deck to be relatively popular before Fate Reforged comes out, mostly because of the coolness factor and because people expect it to beat the
graveyard mirrors. In reality, this is basically a worse version of the Whip decks, albeit one with slightly higher threat density. You rely on having a
board presence, which most of the decks are actively trying to prevent you from achieving. Abzan Aggro is especially potent at doing this.

This deck is incredibly weak to sweepers and control decks in general, mostly because of how poorly their graveyard payoff lines up against control.
Playing a full complement of mana accelerants, Wingmate Roc, and Murderous Cut don’t help your cause either. It’s as if this deck was built completely
ignoring the fact that control exists.

Maybe only Jim Davis, Adrian Sullivan, Andrew Cuneo, Ranjan Pradeep, and Andrew Brown play it, but you’re going to run into it eventually, and the
sacrifices you’ve made in that matchup will punish you.

The Secret

Zach Scales destroyed me at the Season Four Invitational with a similar deck. With enchantment removal, sweepers, fliers, and direct damage, you end up
with a relatively solid matchup against the various Whip of Erebos decks. On top of that, the deck is solid enough that it doesn’t have any auto-lose
matchups.

I’m actually shocked that Chris VanMeter hasn’t been playing the crap out of this deck because it seems like it’s relatively well-positioned.

The Secret

“Read the Bones is the truth.”

-Gerry Thompson, 9/19/13

Sometimes you play with a card, you see how great it is, but that card doesn’t end up being well-positioned. It took over a year for Magic to finally swing
in its direction, and Underworld Connections rotating certainly helped as well.

So here we are, finally at a place in time where a deck can maindeck Read the Bones alongside Abzan Charm and happily sideboard up to the full four. It’s
kind of mind-blowing, but I like it. Abzan Midrange wins by eking out small edges here and there — an extra land drop from Courser of Kruphix that comes
with a point of life, controlling your draw steps with temples, and chump blockers (or attackers!) left behind from an Elspeth, Sun’s Champion all
contribute to Abzan eventually getting a stranglehold on the game.

In the truly grindy matchups, Read the Bones is what allows you to keep pace with your opponent, even if they’re using Whip of Erebos every turn. If the
format starts to shift back the other direction (maybe because a brand new set is about to come out, which almost always speeds up the format), you have to
anticipate that and adapt accordingly.

Abzan’s strength is its ability to adapt to fight whatever the common threats are, although I suppose that’s no secret at all.

The Secret

I’m not a huge fan of Taghoy’s list, but I chose his list to represent his archetype because it was a recent finish, which gives the deck a little more
legitimacy. His deck seems a little confused, but does feature some cool cards like Singing Bell Strike, Hornet Nest, and Hunt the Hunter.

I believe that a great Temur deck exists, except that it probably had to be modeled after the first successful Jeskai decks. You have cheap threats, lots
of reach, and some countermagic for scary cards. It’s possible we just haven’t found the right configuration yet.

The Secret

These decks are too one-dimensional for my tastes. Similarly to Abzan Aggro, they never force your opponents to make tough decisions, either in game play,
deckbuilding, or sideboarding. They are supposed to give you a leg up in the mirror-ish matches by going over the top, but is that the correct way to go
about things?

Focusing too much on one matchup is going to leave you weak against the rest of the field. Even if something is the “best” deck, it’s not going to be a
large enough portion of the field to warrant playing what is effectively a “hate” deck.

Additionally, the percentage you gain by focusing on hating the mirrors isn’t even significant! You can still very easily lose to what they’re doing, which
makes me question why these decks exist in the first place.

The Secret

Well, for starters, it doesn’t actually contain Courser of Kruphix!

Courser doesn’t quite belong in an aggro deck, but not all of the games are quick and dirty affairs. Courser of Kruphix might actually be good here,
especially considering the Elspeths that BBD has maindeck. He did end up sideboarding some Coursers, but some number in the maindeck might be good.

In a previous article, I talked about the dangers of being linear,
or rather, what you gain by not being linear. The secret to Abzan Aggro is that you make very few choices per game. Your opening hand dictates how the game
is going to play out, and you don’t make your opponents make any difficult decisions. If you’ve been complaining that Standard isn’t skill intensive or it
isn’t fun, it might be because you’re playing decks like this.

Despite that, Abzan Aggro is quite good, you just might not have the amount of control over the games that you’d like. If you don’t like it, you should try
to play a different deck.

The Secret

Since we’re in wedge world, decks like Naya aren’t getting enough attention. That said, Naya is the perfect deck for Siege Rhino, so maybe Naya is a worse
Abzan. We’d need to be living in a world where the red cards were better than the black cards, so it basically comes down to Stormbreath Dragon and
Xenagos, the Reveler against Hero’s Downfall and Siege Rhino. That’s not a fight that red will often win, but it will be correct occasionally.

Of course, you could always do what Brad Nelson has done and push the limits with various four color strategies.

Recently, people like Chris Fennell and Aaron Barich have been playing Naya Tokens, which is a unique way to gain an advantage in the Naya / Abzan
comparison. It’s not quite as weak to things like Doomwake Giant as Jeskai Tokens, but still has the benefits of any “go wide” strategy.

The Secret

Losing to Doomwake Giant isn’t where you want to be. Jeskai and Mardu have tried to make up for that huge issue by maindecking Hushwing Gryff, but it might
also be time to maindeck Disdainful Stroke. In my testing for the Season Four Invitational, I liked my maindeck Strokes, but even with those, my Siege
Rhino problems still existed.

I think most of the problems Jeskai faces can be handled with the maindeck flex spots the deck always had, but also with some clever sideboarding. The
issues that remain are the ones that won’t go away without some new cards — The deck feels too slow when it’s on the draw.

The Secret

Most of what I said in the Jeskai Tokens section is true here as well. For the most part, these decks are trying to carry out the same game plan, just with
different threats and different goals for the mid-game.

Because this deck lacks the draw engine of Jeskai Ascendancy plus Treasure Cruise, it’s pigeon-holed into the position of trying to burn people out. With
cards like Siege Rhino and Whip of Erebos running around, it’s often a tall order.

The big thing to keep in mind when playing against these Jeskai decks (and Mardu for that matter) is that they often can’t deal you twenty points of damage
just with burn spells. If you’re able to remove their creatures, they probably won’t be able to piece together lethal damage before you kill them. Even
though their deck is creature light, you should typically be bringing in more removal against them.

The Secret

I don’t get this deck. It looks so medium on paper and during game play, but it still manages to win occasionally. There are a few good pilots behind it
right now, so it’s actually been doing quite well. A lot of it has to do with the deck’s ability to shift roles and the lack of knowledge about the deck
that allows you to exploit your opponents during sideboarding.

Is it a bad Mardu deck because you don’t get to play with the powerful gold cards, or is it a good Mardu deck because you’re not stretching your manabase
to play with wedge cards that are weaker than everybody else’s?

It’s hard to say. This does feel like one of the weaker decks overall and definitely needs some help in the early game department.

JOSEPH SCLAVZERO (MARDU MIDRANGE) – GRAND PRIX MANILA 2015, 1st place

The Secret

In general, I like Joseph’s deck more, although there have been enough rumblings about the Murder King deck to be wary of it. I tried the smaller, more
aggressive version but didn’t like how difficult it was to curve out. I also didn’t like how one-dimensional it was. Typical Mardu decks really capitalized
on the transformational sideboard, but Tymaret only has one speed.

Despite my issues with the deck in general, I love the maindeck Hushwing Gryffs, and I feel like they give the deck a degree of legitimacy. Losing Chained
to the Rocks is kind of a dagger, but having access to Thoughtseize and Hushwing Gryff makes you so much better against Siege Rhino that it might be worth
it.

I’d say you are probably better off sticking to something closer to Joseph’s version, but the Whip decks generally overestimate how good their aggro
matchups are. I like Boss Sligh right now for that reason, and the Tymaret decks might fall under that camp as well. They don’t respect you, they don’t
sideboard enough for you, and they certainly don’t mulligan aggressively enough.

The Secret

Honestly, I like the bigger G/R deck more. I tend to err on the side of Courser of Kruphix instead of Goblin Rabblemaster though, so I might be biased. It
just seems like this is another one of those decks where the game is decided on your opening hand. The matchups seem similar to those of Abzan Aggro except
Abzan Aggro has more powerful cards and a better “mirror” matchup. Of course, the tradeoff is a three color manabase full of enters-the-battlefield-tapped
lands, but G/R’s manabase isn’t perfect either.

I think the format is underprepared for aggressive strategies in general, so I wouldn’t be shocked if this deck continues running over people. I thought we
were finally done getting killed by Goblin Rabblemaster, but the Grey Ogre keeps beating people.

Truth be told, the Dig Through Time pillar has kind of shifted into being a half-and-half with Treasure Cruise. Either way, these decks utilize a delve
card drawer as a central part of their strategy, even if it’s just out of the sideboard.

The Secret

Please start playing things that kill Perilous Vault.

How often have you seen U/B Control forced to slam a Perilous Vault on turn 4 and hope that it’s good enough? Most of the time, it is, but that’s only
because you let them. They lean so hard on this card and everyone is playing infinite Back to Natures trying to blow out the Whip of Erebos decks when they
should really have a split between Back to Nature and Reclamation Sage.

People are aware that green decks have Back to Nature and are starting to craft sideboard plans around that. Meanwhile, you’re drawing up an opening hand
with a bunch of useless cards and don’t have enough sideboard cards for one of your worst matchups.

Fix that.

Once U/B Control can’t rely on Perilous Vault to clean up the mess, they won’t be able to catch back up.

The Secret

Unless you’re Jim Davis, I would recommend against this. Like Jeskai, these decks have a pretty rough time on the draw, which likely means it’s just a
problem with U/W decks in general. Sure, there are things like Nullify, but we’re really missing an Azorius Charm. Not only would that give us something to
do on turn 2 that affects the board, but having cheap interaction allows us to start having “double spell” turns earlier. Right now, that happens far later
in the game that we’d like, so once we’re behind, it becomes even more difficult to catch up.

Despite being a two-color deck, I’ve found the manabase to be horrifying. There are twelve dual lands, and yet that doesn’t seem to be enough as some lists
play Mystic Monastery or Evolving Wilds just to fix their mana. How many “enters-the-battlefield-tapped” lands do you want to play? For a two color deck,
my answer would not be nine or more.

If you enjoy starting every game on the back foot and trying to claw your way back into it, then by all means try to replicate Jim’s success, but I’d
prefer to be a little more proactive.

The Secret

When only Shaheen Soorani can win with it, you should probably stay away. While Jim Davis has been doing relatively well with U/W Control, Esper Control
has been largely absent from Top 8s.

There’s a reason for that.

In theory, this deck should have a fundamentally sound advantage over the various midrange strategies in the format. However, it’s difficult to actually
piece together a three card combo, and even then you can still fizzle!

If you are “wacky combo guy”, then be thankful you have an option, but I wouldn’t expect to continually do well with it. The rise of Whip of Erebos might
have given you more prey, but it just means that enchantment is more prevalent than it’s ever been.

Know what you’re getting into and play at your own risk.

The Secret

For a while, I was content to sit on the secret of W/U Heroic. Eventually people started figuring out how to play against me and I won less as a result.
Once people figure out what they’re supposed to be doing, it will be nearly impossible for W/U Heroic to win anymore.

Those are some bold words immediately following an SCG Open where Heroic not only won the tournament, but put three copies into Top 8 (and two more in the
top 16), but I’m willing to back them up.

Many of my opponents brought in Drown in Sorrow against me. Many of my opponents sided out their smaller creatures since they assumed they wouldn’t be able
to do much against my bigger monsters. Many of my opponents tried to kill my threats, one by one, but I almost always came out on top. Do you know why?

They never put any pressure on me.

Imagine a game where you draw four removal spells. When turn 7 rolls around, I’m finally going to stick a guy through your removal and I’ll either protect
it or you’ll be out of gas. Now, imagine it’s turn 7 in the same situation, except the entire time you’ve been hitting me with a Fleecemane Lion.

Those games are very different!

Don’t take time off from what you’re doing to kill my fresh Hero of Iroas. Make me waste some mana and cards to pump it while you develop your board.
That’s when you should start trying to kill my creatures. You can afford to take a hit or two. You can afford to let me pop one Ordeal of Thassa, just make
sure you’re actually putting me under pressure.

If my opponents had played like that from the beginning, I wouldn’t have continued playing W/U Heroic. You might be able to trick people, even now, but how
do you plan on winning the tournament when you’re hoping your opponents don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing. If you’re Joe Lossett, you might
spike a tournament, but as time goes on, people will discover your secret.

W/U Heroic is basically never going to get any better — It’s only going to get worse.

The Secret

I have a feeling that a red aggro deck might be great right now. Cards like Treasure Cruise and Hushwing Gryff are fantastic right now, and Eidolon of the
Great Revel can do some serious damage, especially if it’s on the play. Post-board, cards like Glare of Heresy and Disdainful Stroke give you plenty of
game against Siege Rhino. Unlike Jeskai and Mardu, this deck doesn’t feel as behind on the draw because it has the cheap one drops.

That said, this deck could end up being really flimsy. If you end up hitting the midgame and start drawing Firedrinker Satyrs, you’re probably going to
lose. Jeskai and Mardu have cards that are almost always great, whereas even if this deck casts Treasure Cruise, it might draw a bunch of useless cards.

Regardless, I think this deck has potential. Again, people just aren’t prepared for aggressive decks.

Of course, there’s always something that doesn’t fit within the paradigm. This one could certainly fall under the Goblin Rabblemaster camp, but the deck is
too low to the ground to play it.

Putting W/U Heroic into the Dig Through Time / Treasure Cruise section is kind of a stretch, and even if Treasure Cruise is a very important tool for
fighting through Abzan’s wall of removal, the true fourth pillar might just be the heroic mechanic.

The Secret

This is, hands down, one of the scariest decks to play against in the entire format. No other deck has me sweating so hard in the early turns, and I think
we should be using that to exploit the format.

Cards like Hammerhand and Frenzied Goblin make Siege Rhino mostly a non-issue, at least if you’re able to keep the board relatively clear. Monastery
Swiftspear is probably at its best here, especially since it helps you play around cards like Drown in Sorrow.

Plus, you get to play Peak Eruption, which probably means Brad Nelson is a bye.

Takeaways

It’s not crazy for maindecks to contain Erase, Destructive Revelry, and/or Back to Nature. Don’t kid yourself – Whip of Erebos decks are the number one
threat out there, and most of the reason is because of how versatile they are.

Beat up on the dead money. Don’t play a deck that doesn’t take each of these decks into account, even if it’s just a little bit. With the format being as
wide open as it is, make sure you have a plan for everyone.

It’s also worth noting that before some of these decks were popular, a non-zero amount were featured in my Daily Digest! I don’t claim that each Daily
Digest is the newest technology, guaranteed to win your next tournament, but there are some gems out there.

For fun, I stack ranked all of the above decks, in the order of which I be happy registering them for my next Standard tournament:

Abzan Reanimator (with heavy alterations)

Abzan Midrange

Mardu Midrange

Abzan Aggro

Sultai Reanimator

G/R Monsters

R/U/w Aggro

Boss Sligh

Ascendancy Combo

U/B Control

W/R Aggro

G/B Devotion

Naya Midrange

Four-Color Soul

W/U Heroic

Jeskai Tokens

Temur Midrange

Jeskai Aggro

G/R Aggro

U/W Control

G/B Constellation

Esper Control

***

Before I go, I’d like to leave you with a story.

I never officially wrote a Grand Prix Nashville report. It was good times full of ups and downs — All the stuff that makes for an excellent tournament
report (for people who like those sorts of things). My teammates, Josh Cho and Josh Utter-Leyton, are two of my best friends, clutch teammates, and we had
a blast despite our eventual crash and burn.

We started 8-1 and then did a lot of losing on Day 2. I was certainly responsible for part of that. In the last round, playing for money, we got paired
against a team of unknowns — Tao, Hwang, and Brown. I asked where my opponent, Brown, traveled from, and he replied California.

That gave me pause.

California is a long way to travel for a Grand Prix, and you don’t make that type of decision lightly. Cho’s opponent, Eugene Hwang, had won a Grand Prix
two weeks earlier in Orlando, and while I was aware of that, I didn’t think my teammates were. One of the surest ways to put yourself at a disadvantage is
to underestimate your opponent. So our opponents had one Grand Prix Champion on their team? Big deal.

My opponent was calm, collected, and systematically tore me apart.

As our final game played out, my subconscious was screaming, “He has Act of Treason!” To this day, I have no idea why that was the case, but I’ve been
trying to listen to that little voice more often. The key point in the game is where I made an attack with the majority of my creatures, leaving back a
Bear’s Companion.

Suspiciously, he took it all, and I passed the turn. His teammate, who was deeply involved in his match as well, motioned toward my morph and mouthed
something to the effect of “That’s an Icefeather Aven.” My opponent knowingly nodded, as if I had played it transparently and he knew all along.

On his turn, he flipped up Jeering Instigator (the Act of Treason!), took my Bear’s Companion, and attacked me with a few creatures, although certainly
fewer than I would have expected. I didn’t mind, since I could bounce my own Companion and replay it, further solidifying my board position. How could I
turn down that value?

Well, the next turn I got Barrage of Boulders-ed for exactly lethal thanks to his single creature with ferocious, the mighty Canyon Lurkers.

This was one of those games where I walked away thinking about how all the context clues were there. Just because my brain told me to not get Act of
Treasoned, and I successfully didn’t, doesn’t mean that my opponent is out of tricks.

Barrage of Boulders was a card that I should have had on my mind, as it was one of the few ways he could possibly beat me. I should have been able to suss
out what was happening, but for whatever reason, I didn’t. It’s one of the things I love about Magic, and why I keep coming back. If I were playing in top
form, I would have been able to figure it out, and I strive to play at that level consistently.

As it was, Andrew Brown knocked our team out of the money, and helped complete our 0-5 streak on Day 2. It was one of the soundest beatings I’ve received
in recent memory, and one I won’t soon forget.

It came as no surprise to see Andrew in the Top 8 of Grand Prix Denver. He swept the Top 8 in the same calm, collected manner in which he dispatched me.
Now their team has two Grand Prix trophies and I doubt it will stop there. Eugene and Andrew might just be a couple of dudes living together who happen to
be having a good year, but you know who else were just a couple of dudes living together who played a bunch of Magic?

Paul Cheon and Luis Scott-Vargas.

Now, I don’t think it means these guys are the next big thing, but their results have been great and I was immensely impressed by Andrew’s play, so I
wouldn’t be surprised if they went on a tear. You know what it does mean though?

The dream is alive.

For any of you who have ever dreamt about playing on the big stage, racking up paychecks, trophies, and Pro Tour invites, you can look at these two guys
and the hard work they’ve put in, along with their willingness to travel, and say, “That could be me.”

And you’d be right.