This past weekend marked the Magic World Championship held in Nice, France. It was the third time the event was run in its new format, and this year the
field was expanded from sixteen to twenty-four players. Despite the larger field, and despite the competition being the toughest in the world, Shahar
Shenhar remarkably managed to prevail for the second year in a row – an absolutely amazing feat.
In the (doom)wake of Shahar’s win, I expect to see a significant increase in the amount of Sultai Reanimator decks showing up in Standard. After all – the
deck won the World Championship! It must be great, right? Well, not necessarily. While it was Shahar who emerged victorious after the elimination rounds,
otherwise Sultai Reanimator decks didn’t have a very successful showing in the event.
That’s one of the quirks of multi-format tournaments. Because Worlds is split over four different formats, the actual winning decklist is much less
meaningful. In fact, among the six players piloting Sultai Reanimator at the World Championship, the overall record of the deck at the event – including
Shahar’s two wins in the Top 4, and Yamamoto’s loss – was 10-16-1. Not quite as ringing an endorsement as “World Championship Winner”, is it?
If we dig a little deeper into the tournament results, we can find the players who did perform well during the Standard portion, as well as the decks they
used. The three players who went undefeated in Standard at Worlds were Reid Duke and Shaun McLaren, while Yuuya Watanabe finished with three wins and a
draw. Here is what they played.
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (26)
Of these decks, the one that clearly stands out the most to me is Yuuya’s. We’ve seen a wide range of different Jeskai decks since Khans of Tarkir
released, some based around aggressive creatures and burn, others around Jeskai Ascendancy and various mixes of combo elements.
Yuuya’s is another new mixture of these elements, using a little from column A and a little from column B, and combining the aggressive elements of Jeskai
Aggro with Jeskai Ascendancy, but ignoring the infinite combo completely! Instead, he uses Ascendancy as honestly as can be, taking advantage of every
element of the card.
This creature base includes the standard Seeker of the Way and Goblin Rabblemaster that can put so much pressure on opponents quickly, but also a token
theme with Raise the Alarm and Hordeling Outburst. This makes the deck much more resilient to removal, since popular cards like Magma Jet and Lightning
Strike match up poorly against effects that generate multiple creatures. The bonus bodies also synergize very well with both Stoke the Flames and Jeskai
Ascendancy itself, allowing for extremely explosive high damage turns.
The real stroke of genius in Yuuya’s deck though, is Treasure Cruise. With so many cheap spells in the deck, Yuuya’s graveyard is going to fill up quickly
most games, and Treasure Cruise allows him to refill and keep going. Cruise also plays very well with Ascendancy, since the draw and discard trigger gets
cards in your graveyard while it’s digging you closer to your next Cruise. When it comes to Jeskai Ascendancy, Yuuya’s deck really does use every part of
the buffalo.
The strangest looking card in the deck is Chandra, Pyromaster. Chandra is a card that tends not to show up in many maindecks, but this is a deck that can
use all of her abilities very effectively. With a slew of small creatures that want to get damage in, the +1 ability helps bypass blockers, while the zero
ability is obviously good to generate card advantage. It’s worth noting that there are no purely reactive cards in the deck, so you can pretty much always
play any card that Chandra exiles at any point. Perhaps most unusual is that this is a deck that makes excellent use of Chandra’s ultimate as well, since
there are so many great spells to copy like Stoke the Flames, Jeskai Charm, and Lightning Strike.
All told, Yuuya’s deck is a work of art, and it comes as no surprise that he ran the tables with it, the only blemish on his record a single intentional
draw with countryman Kentaro Yamamoto to clinch a Top 4 finish for the both of them. While Shahar may have taken down the title, it is Yuuya’s deck that
really stands out as the most exciting of the tournament, and it’s one that every player should be prepared to face at their next Standard event.
And what should you play if you’re looking for a deck that matches up well against Jeskai Tokens? You need to be prepared to either kill them quickly with
the ability to disrupt their aggression – which I’ve found Savage Knuckleblade and Stubborn Denial quite capable of doing – or you need to have a plan
devoted to keeping the board clear of small creatures along with a powerful lategame of your own. For the latter, Reid Duke’s Worlds deck fits the bill
perfectly.
Creatures (26)
- 3 Hornet Queen
- 2 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Satyr Wayfinder
- 4 Eidolon of Blossoms
- 3 Doomwake Giant
- 2 Pharika, God of Affliction
Lands (22)
Spells (12)
While Reid’s deck isn’t anything new and exciting like Yuuya’s, it is an archetype that has somewhat fallen off the radar in recent weeks. Grand Prix
Stockholm saw breakout performances from Eidolon of Blossoms and friends in the hands of Lukas Blohan and several others, but after that the deck seemed to
largely fade from prominence.
While Shahar and others played Sultai-based graveyard decks, Reid and his Peach Garden Oath teammates settled on G/B Constellation – a deck that is near
and dear to my heart. I’ve been a huge fan of Doomwake Giant since the moment I saw it on the spoiler, and I spent probably more time than I should toward
the end of the last Standard season trying to get Constellation decks to work.
Now though, it may just be Doomwake’s time to shine. Between Yuuya’s deck, Mono-Red, Hornet Queen decks (like Sultai and Abzan Reanimator), and the
popularity of Hordeling Outburst in Mardu Midrange and the like, Doomwake Giant has a lot of natural prey floating around at the moment.
But it’s not just one toughness creatures that are left scattered in this Giant’s wake. Reid’s deck has the single best tool for maximizing the power of
Doomwake Giant: Pharika, God of Affliction. Since the snake tokens that Pharika generates are enchantment creatures, they trigger constellation. That means
a single Doomwake Giant plus Pharika can easily rip apart your opponent’s entire board in any game that stalls out. And if you don’t have the Doomwake,
Pharika plus Eidolon of Blossoms lets you churn through your deck to find it.
On top of the constellation synergies, Reid’s deck also functions as a Whip reanimator deck. Satyr Wayfinder and Commune help fill the graveyard,
preferably with Hornet Queens. They also do a great job of fueling the delve of Murderous Cut, which helps deal with those threats that Doomwake Giant
can’t handle by itself.
With removal to stall out the game, Whip to stay alive, and the constellation and reanimation packages to win virtually any attrition fight, this deck has
pretty much all of the tools you could ask for. The biggest soft spot I see, particularly given Shahar’s win, is the deck’s vulnerability to Ashiok.
The Nightmare Weaver is aptly named if you’re playing a midrange value deck like this one. While Eidolon of Blossoms and friends are great in long games,
they’re not so hot at actually dealing damage when they attack, which makes getting cheap planeswalkers off the board a serious problem. Ashiok, in
particular, can quickly generate a huge advantage for your opponent if they hit some of your stronger creatures early on, and the ultimate threatens to not
only empty your hand, but to undo any work you’ve done stocking your graveyard for Whip of Erebos.
While Yuuya’s was my favorite Standard deck from Worlds, Reid’s is probably the closest to my style, though if a deck is good enough, you can teach even an
old dog new tricks. On that note, it was very surprising to see Shaun McLaren’s deck choice. After his second place finish with Jeskai Aggro at Pro Tour
Khans of Tarkir, along with his propensity to play those same colors in every format, it was almost surreal to see him piloting this.
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (17)
Maybe Shaun couldn’t get over the sting of his finals loss to Ari Lax, because this list harkens back to the heavily controlling style of Abzan that my
fellow StarCityGames columnist used to win the Pro Tour. While many Abzan decks have taken a more proactive approach in recent weeks, with cards like
Brimaz and Wingmate Roc showing up quite a bit (including in World Championship runner up Patrick Chapin’s Abzan list), Shaun went with about as heavy a
control build as Abzan can get.
Shaun eschews every creature that isn’t Courser, Caryatid, or Siege Rhino, and instead packs in a ton of removal spells and planeswalkers. While many Abzan
lists lately have played perhaps a single copy of Elspeth, Shaun here is using three, making it his primary win condition, with two copies of Sorin, Solemn
Visitor and a single Nissa, Worldwaker as support.
In order to find the appropriate walkers and the mana to cast them, he’s using a pair of Read the Bones, a card that is most often found in the sideboard.
Between Read the Bones and the card draw mode of Abzan Charm, Shaun’s list is able to dig for particular cards much more easily than the average green
midrange deck. The scariest maindeck card he can try to find is Duneblast, which I have to imagine took at least one of his opponents off guard in game 1.
Even if you know about Duneblast, its existence makes the game very difficult. You can’t afford to play a slow game against Elspeth with ten spot removal
spells protecting her, including multiple copies of Utter End (which can deal with even the troublesome Ashcloud Phoenix).
Like Reid’s deck, Shaun’s list looks rather vulnerable to Ashiok, with only Thoughtseize and Hero’s Downfall that can really hope to interact with
planeswalkers early in the game–barring a Sylvan Caryatid into Siege Rhino on the play. Most Abzan decks are somewhat soft to Stormbreath Dragon, but I
don’t know that I’d want to rely on the protection from white flier here, since Shaun’s list is packing the full four copies of Hero’s Downfall in addition
to three copies of Elspeth. But with how many expensive spells this list is playing, I’d be thrilled to go up against it with an aggressive deck featuring
Disdainful Stroke, and especially one that also plays Stubborn Denial. (Hint hint…)
All told, the World Championships this year was quite diverse with a wide variety of different strategies showing up as well as performing well, a far cry
from last year’s sea of Jund and UWR (before it was known as Jeskai). That Standard shows such variety at even the highest level of competition is
testament to how healthy the format is right now. Even months after Khans was released, we’re seeing new decks breaking out and putting up great results,
not only at smaller events, but on the biggest stage the game has to offer. Whatever style of deck you might like, you can almost certainly find something
out there that you’ll enjoy and that will give you a chance to do well. And if you don’t like any of the decks, build your own! It certainly worked well
for Yuuya!
In fact, I think this might be the healthiest and most diverse I have ever seen a Standard format, and I’ve been playing for a long, long time.
Could this be the greatest Standard format ever? If not, what is?