I’m finally back from Hawaii. I didn’t come back with a trophy like Mister Kibler, but I did come back with information on the formats played over the weekend. This week, I’m going to go over what’s going to happen to Standard after Pro Tour Honolulu and how I felt about the decks played in the event.
Wolf Run Ramp
Wolf Run Ramp seems like a great place to start, since it’s what I played. It also won the whole event!
Creatures (16)
- 3 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 2 Inferno Titan
- 4 Primeval Titan
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
Lands (25)
Spells (19)
I wasn’t happy taking this deck—even though it made both sides of the final table. While Huntmaster of the Fells does give this deck a bit of play, that’s not saying much. Ramp is not the style of deck I want to play at a Pro Tour, especially with a lot of Standard games under my belt.
The next problem I didn’t figure out until after the event. We thought ramp was a great choice for the metagame, but it might’ve still been the wrong one. Every deck does powerful things in the format; Primeval Titan just costs more than most. The upside of Titan over Hero of Bladehold is not worth the two extra mana, and the same applies to the other spells played in the early game. Brian Kibler told me he won many games without Titan draws, so Primeval Titan might not have been the key card.
Being on the draw with the deck is a big disadvantage, and I lost the die roll in my first two rounds. I lost both game ones before my turn-four Primeval Titan could do anything. I just didn’t get the level of interaction I needed.
I should’ve gone against the grain and just played our best version of Delver. It was the deck that I spent the most time working on during testing. Unfortunately, we didn’t get in enough sideboarded games, and I didn’t feel my sideboard was good enough for the main event. I decided to play the team deck as a result. As it turns out, the other American team (with Patrick Chapin and Gerry Thompson) had an amazing Delver/Spirits list!
Esper Spirits
Creatures (17)
Lands (22)
Spells (21)
This was an amazing deck for the Pro Tour. It could’ve easily won the entire event; however our team’s deck happened to have a very good matchup against it. Finkel played around everything—except what was actually in Kibler’s hand.
My favorite thing about the deck is that they started Delver from scratch. We discussed a similar deck during testing but always came do the conclusion that the deck had too many three-drops because you had to include Geist of Saint Traft. We couldn’t find room for all the spells, and we didn’t think for a second we could cut Mana Leak. So instead of going down the rabbit hole, we continued to battle with our best version of Delver.
Turning Delver into more of a tap-out deck was probably a great choice for this event, but I don’t see this remaining the trend for very long. Delver will never reach a perfect 75, like Caw-Blade. It has to shift constantly to stay dominant in the format. Playing an exact copy in Charlotte won’t be the worst thing, but it won’t be better than finding the next best version.
Naya Birthing Pod
Creatures (28)
- 1 Llanowar Elves
- 1 Solemn Simulacrum
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 1 Inferno Titan
- 1 Wurmcoil Engine
- 1 Viridian Emissary
- 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
- 4 Blade Splicer
- 1 Fiend Hunter
- 3 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 1 Geist-Honored Monk
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
Lands (24)
Spells (8)
I want to give credit where credit is due. Lukas Blohon is a teammate of mine who worked on a Birthing Pod deck all week long in the beach house. I didn’t like his deck and I didn’t like that he was spending so much time working on it, but I do love that he broke out and got his first Top 8. Not only did the man prove me wrong, but he stuck to his guns and played what he felt was the best choice. He figured he would know more about his opponent’s deck than they would about his, which turned out to be a big advantage. Congrats, Lukas!
I don’t think the deck is a good choice after the event, but I could be proven wrong again. I do know this version of Birthing Pod is the most powerful version I’ve ever played against in Standard. It could easily be the real deal because of how damage-oriented it is. Give this deck a try if you are a Pod lover!
Mono Green
The last deck I want to talk about from the Pro Tour is Todd Anderson Mono Green deck.
Creatures (21)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
- 2 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 4 Dungrove Elder
- 2 Daybreak Ranger
- 2 Strangleroot Geist
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (24)
- 24 Forest
Spells (10)
Todd shook things up when he made Top 8 of the StarCityGames.com Open in Richmond the week before the Pro Tour with a new deck. Taking a deck to battle before the Pro Tour can be very tricky. Todd obviously wanted to do well at the Pro Tour but also wanted to succeed at the other events prior to it. It was a gutsy move.
Todd must have known something I didn’t because he still found his way into the top 25 and is now on his way to Barcelona. I wonder what would’ve happened if he just didn’t play this deck at the Open?
Moving Forward
Some obvious changes you can expect to see in the metagame: Wolf Run and Esper Spirits will become popular choices. I feel that Esper Spirits can move around a couple cards to get at least close to 50% with Wolf Run, so one deck shouldn’t run the other out of town.
Humans will have a difficult time trying to find ground in this format for a while. Both Wolf Run and Esper Spirits are bad matchups for the Humans deck.
Esper Spirits won’t be the only version of the deck running around. Don’t spend all of your anti-Delver cards on the new version. Geist of Saint Traft will still try to mess your day up!
There is one deck that I think will be a perfect choice for the StarCityGames.com Open: Charlotte. That would be U/B Control.
Creatures (5)
Lands (27)
Spells (28)
U/B Control falls into a very nice spot after this Pro Tour. It was a scary choice before the event because of how bad the Mono-Green matchup is and not knowing how many people would bring that specific deck. For some reason, when Todd Anderson screams Mono-Green, people listen.
That has all changed. Mono-Green and Humans are not great choices at the moment because they get destroyed get by Esper Spirits and Wolf Run Ramp. This makes it a perfect time to play U/B Control.
The deck hasn’t changed much in the maindeck from when Ben Stark 9-0ed day one of Grand Prix Orlando. The win conditions in the maindeck have changed, since Consecrated Sphinx is much more powerful right now as it is able to deal with the creature decks. Blue Sun’s Zenith is a great win condition against Wolf Run, but I don’t think the metagame is at a point where you can just play mill as the only way to lethal an opponent. There’s also a lot of risk to that strategy: you don’t control the time clock.
We tested this deck for a while, and this is the version of the deck I would have played if it weren’t for the pesky Mono-Green deck. Blue/black is a great choice as long as you follow one very important rule, taught to us by Ben Stark:
“This is a control deck with an amazing late game. You don’t have to worry about trying to kill your opponent. Just keep making land drops and preserving your life total. The longer the game goes the better for you.”
This short speech turned our win-percentage around by itself.
The Increasing Confusion in the sideboard has not been tested, but I feel it deserves the one slot. This card is set up to be a perfect trump card in the mirror. While both players try to mill one another, one of you will eventually find this card with the opponent’s help. Use Surgical Extraction to gut the other deck of ways to interact with the blue fireball and finally finish the game with this spell. I don’t think it will always play out the way I have scripted it, but I do think one slot is worth the investment when the effect is so powerful.
This is the deck that I would most likely take to battle if I were to play Standard this weekend. Instead, I’ll be with Gerard Fabiano at the Charlotte Open in North Carolina doing commentary. I have never worked with Gerard before, so I’m very excited about the opportunity. You should tune in as it should be a great time!
Next week, I’ll be spending a ton of time talking to you guys about the new Limited format. I only had about a day before I had to fly again so I didn’t want to rush that project. Limited is in a very good spot right now, but there are a ton of lessons I learned about the format in the last month that I want to share with you. Be sure to stop by next week when I bring you a Prerelease sealed deck as well as a primer for what to be drafting and what changed. I can’t wait to see you then!