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Thirst for Knowledge – Putting It All Together

Read Chris Jobin every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, July 31st – In his first article for StarCityGames.com, Team RIW’s Chris Jobin examines the fallout from U.S. Nationals, and takes us through his own personal metagame predictions for the immediate future of Standard. Welcome aboard, Chris!

Here I find myself, in a new place and before a new audience. I’ve been writing for a while now, but this is my first article here on StarCityGames.com. For those of you who don’t know me, I seem to be much better known by my internet-based handle, “Shinjutsei.” I’ve been a moderator over at MTGSalvation.com for over a year now, and earlier this year I began writing a weekly column there called Thirst for Knowledge (my archives can be found here). My primary focus with this column is and has always been to inform, entertain, and inspire.

I myself am a PTQ grinder, and therefore you will find that my articles reflect that in most cases (that is to say, they are written for my peers). I’ll discuss Constructed generally (and that encompasses everything from Standard to Legacy, save Vintage), but I also would like to write about Limited once in a while (though I’ve also found that I enjoy writing articles on self-analysis). I have a distinct knack for deck-building, much greater so than I do for actual technical play, and so you will find that I will spend a lot of time in the think tank brewing new technology for whatever format that’s the most relevant and shipping it straight to you, my readers. That is, after all, the underlying purpose of writing articles about Magic anyway, right? To best equip readers with the knowledge they need to play, build, and perform? Therefore, you have my solemn promise that I will do my best to do just that.

Now that the introductions are out of the way, it’s time to get down to the meat and potatoes. This past weekend was U.S. Nationals, and now that it’s over we can finally get a good look at what the rest of the Standard PTQ season will look like. But before I get too far ahead of myself, let’s take a look at the cold, hard truth of the matter:

Number of Great Sable Stags in the Top 8 of U.S. Nationals: 32
Number of Volcanic Falllouts in the Top 8 of U.S. Nationals: 31
Number of Reflecting Pools in the Top 8 of U.S. Nationals: 31

Patrick Chapin wrote an article earlier this week discussing the effects of these numbers, and just exactly what they mean for the rest of us. He also went in-depth on how the Vivid manabase has ruined Standard, an assertion with which I must unfortunately agree. When you can play anything that you want and don’t have to sacrifice any consistency in order to do so, why shouldn’t you just play all of the best cards? When you have no restrictions, won’t we all just end up at the same conclusions? Won’t the format just become incredibly stale?

So what does that teach us? Merely that Reflecting Pool is busted, right? Granted, Reflecting Pool wouldn’t be nearly as degenerate if the Vivid lands didn’t combo so well with it, but in any case it doesn’t take a genius to look at the Top 8 of the Nationals tournaments (and not just here in the U.S.) and conclude that the numbers in which Pool showed up were pretty unacceptable. Still, there is a more pressing issue. While it may be true that having an effortless five-color manabase that will dumb Standard down to nothing but grueling mirror matches is indeed a pretty big problem, the larger problem is that Great Sable Stag was featured as a four-of in every single one of the Top 8 decks.

I really enjoy playing Faeries. It has been the best deck in Standard (more or less) since Morningtide was printed, and I’ve always been drawn to playing Bitterblossoms and Cryptic Commands. Volcanic Fallout was a little insulting, but manageable. Great Sable Stag, however, is downright ludicrous. Considering that we’re talking about a card that was specifically-bred for a single purpose, I’d say that R&D has more than succeeded in what they set out to do: kill Faeries. The United States has always been home to many great Faeries players (Luis Scott-Vargas, Sam Black, etc), but this Top 8 did not reflect kindly on their efforts. Faeries, as an archetype, was absolutely slaughtered at the National Championship by a slew of decks packed full of as many Stags and Fallouts as they could muster.

However, that isn’t to say that Faeries didn’t perform well in other countries. Quite the contrary, really, as a number of European countries featured multiple Faerie decks in their Nationals Top 8s, including a pair of decks featuring maindeck Time Warps in France. Still, how much does this matter in the end? The Americans proved this weekend that putting Faeries in its place is actually easier than we all imagined that it would be, and now that the method (4 Stag, 4 Fallout) has been proven, it isn’t hard to guess what happens next: Faeries is rather unplayable in PTQs for the foreseeable future (at least it is in the States). In fact, a friend of mine left me a message on Facebook asking for a Faeries list for the Boston PTQ this weekend, and I actually laughed out loud. As much as it kills me to say it, that just seems like suicide.

How did this happen? Two weeks ago, Kithkin was the deck to beat. Cedric Phillips was on Cloud Nine, his overwhelming joy literally bursting from him at the seams. Then the GW Elf deck took Japanese Nationals by storm (a deck that was a turn faster than Kithkin, give or take), and it all went downhill from there. The two “best” decks in Standard were both creature-based decks? Oh, and the creatures in those decks were 1/1s and 2/2s? In all honesty, the format was just begging for Five-Color Control to take over. The only thing holding it back for the last few months was Faeries, and now that it has that little 3/3 in its sideboard it can literally take down any deck in Standard without breaking a sweat.

Enter the Conley Woods Special:


Back in May, I played a very similar deck at Michigan Regionals, as did fellow RIW teammate Travis Ladouceur. That was back when Five-Color Bloodbraid was brand new, and the two of us didn’t even end up running Putrid Leech (Travis will still blame that one on me, as I was too busy at RIW playing Werewolf to test the card out in order to realize that it was insane), but otherwise we played something that very much resembled Conley’s latest. We didn’t have Caldera Hellion back then (to be fair, at that point in time it wasn’t all that necessary), but I’m actually really happy to see it now. It goes a long way in ensuring that we aren’t totally cold to a Great Sable Stag in the mirror or from Five-Color Control, which would be pretty embarrassing.

I was quite convinced that I would be playing four Baneslayer Angels and four Cryptic Commands this weekend at the PTQ in Chicago, but just maybe this deck has changed my mind. That is, I don’t know if I want to play Cryptic Command for the first time in what must be two years. I suppose I could always just play Five-Color like everyone else, but apparently this Mannequin brew actually has a fairly strong matchup with Five-Color (and was supposedly designed to beat the crap out of that deck), so maybe I don’t actually need Blue cards this time (aside from Mulldrifter, of course).

I mean, the mana with this deck is just superb, and we don’t need to worry about hitting triple Blue on turn 4 or 5. That means we can stop fighting against our mana and instead focus on making sure our plays are as explosive as possible. First of all, let’s look at Bloodbraid Elf in particular. If you cast this guy on turn 4, your cascade possibilities are Kitchen Finks, Putrid Leech, Maelstrom Pulse, or Volcanic Fallout. I’ve been working with Bloodbraid Elf for a while at this point, but I must say I think that this is the first time I can honestly say that the card is truly broken: not a single one of those cascades will likely ever be a whiff. By making our spot removal and card-drawing impossible to cascade into (Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter), the deck’s efficiency skyrockets. With this setup, you’re almost always going to get a three-for-one or better (considering Bloodbraid Elf as a creature itself and the fact that Finks can block twice, Fallout can kill multiple creatures, and Pulse has its Echoing quality). In fact, the weakest possible cascade is into Putrid Leech, which I think is a testament to how strong this deck is. Out of the sideboard things get even better, since cascading into a Stag in the mirror or against Faeries can downright shut an opponent down, and don’t even get me started on Anathemancer

What doesn’t this deck do? It stomps all over Kithkin and GW Elves, it spits in Fae’s face, and it allegedly even goes toe-to-toe with Five-Color Control. How do you beat a deck like that? I’d wager that a Red-based aggro deck (think Blightning) could probably give it a run for its money, and I can’t imagine that this deck ever wants to run into Time Sieve Combo (Thought Hemorrhage seems pretty important in that matchup) or a Reveillark deck, but otherwise I think this archetype looks to be sitting at the top of the food chain. I’m pretty disturbed at the lack of Broodmate Dragon in any of the lists, but then again I’m in no position to judge the list as I’ve yet to have extensive testing with it.

In any case, considering that Five-Color is Enemy Number One, it might be a good idea to take a look at that deck:


Shuhei Nakamura Five-Color Control deck has become the best in its class, and quite rapidly. Having played with his version of the deck quite a bit myself, I have to say that this is the real deal. I have an unfathomable love affair with Baneslayer Angel, but I’m alright with Broodmate Dragon edging her out mostly because this format is overly saturated with removal right now, and two heads are better than one. The deck is pretty much standard issue, but tried and true wins just as effectively as new and fresh.

An important thing to note is that the two copies of Identity Crisis and Jace in the deck’s sideboard are the only true “tech” for the mirror match. Now, certainly you’ll be bringing in Negates and whatnot, but as far as an “edge” is concerned there just isn’t a whole lot to go on with these lists as they are. It seems that if the format is pushing towards large numbers of Five-Color at any given PTQ, then more attention will undoubtedly need to be given to the mirror. I think more Jaces (as many as four) would be a great place to start, and Banefire might be an acceptable sideboard card too. Thought Hemorrhage is also a legitimate answer to the mirror, and probably among the best sideboard cards available. Ajani Vengeant also gains a lot of value when playing against the mirror, so I’d also keep that in mind when building for any PTQs you’re attending in the near future.

Conley’s Mannequin deck is also something to consider, and playing as many Runed Halos as you can in order to defend yourself from Anathemancer is probably not a bad idea, nor is a sideboard plan possibly including Jund Charms to exile their graveyard in response to an unearth or Mannequin. The added bonus here is that you can also bring Jund Charm in against the Time Sieve deck for when they try to play an Open the Vaults, or just against creature decks like Kithkin and Elves.

If I were to decide on this deck for the PTQ this weekend, I’m sure my list would look something like Gindy’s list. Like Patrick said earlier this week, when you’re all playing any card you want, you’ll all eventually wind up with the same deck. I think the only remaining innovation with Five-Color would be finding a way to beat the mirror, and that may prove difficult considering that, again, any card is fair game.

So now what? Putting everything together, we have some key concepts to keep in the back of our minds:

Faeries is unplayable until the hate dies down (though it very well could not).
Kithkin is unplayable as long as Five-Color is running rampant.
Elves! is unplayable as long as Five-Color is running rampant.
Five-Color Control is the deck to beat.
Jund Mannequin has the best shot at beating Five-Color Control.

To best take advantage of this, I think a deck that can manage a strong matchup with Five-Color and Jund Mannequin is perfect. I realize that something such as that is a pretty tall order, but if there is a deck out there that can pull that off then we might have a real gem on our hands. It really wouldn’t matter if it had a terrible matchup with Faeries or Kithkin or something, because those decks are either nonexistent (again, at least here in the States), or they will be pushed out of the tournament sooner rather than later by the Five-Color and Jund decks. That window of opportunity is what we need to aim for.

So what deck is it? I wish I knew, and if I did I’d ship a decklist right now. Unfortunately, I don’t yet know exactly what it takes to beat Conley’s deck and Five Color, but hopefully I can either figure it out by the weekend (it is Sunday night as I write this) or come up with something to give me an edge in the Jund or Five-Color mirror. To those battling it out this weekend as well, the best of luck!

Unfortunately, however, this is where we part ways for this week. This particular article has left somewhat of a sour taste in my mouth, as I’m at a loss. By the time this article sees print, I’m sure others will have said many of the same things I have said here, but nevertheless I guess that’s just the fate that befalls every writer immediately after a large event like Nationals. I’m also at a loss because I don’t know how to tackle the format right now, but hopefully within the next week or so I can get a better handle on how to use all the Nationals results to the best effect. Maybe I can find that deck I was talking about?

In any case, thanks for reading! To those still following along from MTGSalvation.com, thank you, and to those who are just now being introduced to me I hope you’ll come back next week. I’m looking forward to writing here on StarCityGames.com, and hope to be here for a long while.

Until next week…

Chris Jobin
Team RIW

“Shinjutsei” on MTGO and everywhere else