Not surprisingly, Standard is the hot topic right now in competitive Magic. Although I don’t feel as though there is a lot more to be said about this format that hasn’t already been said, it wouldn’t hurt to discuss the decks in Standard post-GP: DC and pinpoint the direction things are going. I’ve always said that playing the right deck for any given event is probably the biggest edge you can give yourself, so let’s get right to it.
A few weeks back I made the statement that Grand Prix: DC would be a creature-based tournament, and whether or not I was right is more or less unclear. While UW won the event, it was fairly easy to see that the majority of the tournament revolved around Bloodbraid Elf, Cunning Sparkmage, Sovereigns of Lost Alara, and, of course, Vengevine. The Naya deck was literally everywhere, and Jund and Mythic showed up in numbers proportionate to the data from the Nationals Qualifiers. Evolutions of those same decks, such as Sovereign-less Mythic and Michael Jacob Maelstrom Pulse-powered Naya deck, also had good showings. Vengevine and Bloodbraid Elf were by far the most-played creatures of the tournament, aside from maybe Wall of Omens (okay, and maybe Baneslayer Angel). That puts me somewhere in the “probably right” range, doesn’t it?
Now that the event is over, I can’t say my opinion has changed that drastically. I may hate UW, but I never doubted that it was good. However, I still feel like it isn’t really the deck to be battling with this PTQ season. The mirror is annoying at best, and it’s not as though you’re enormously favored against the field as you once were. Vengevine is insanely good against your deck, and if Jund players take up Owen’s Prophetic Prism technology for Spreading Seas, then even once-strong match-ups start to deteriorate. What is beginning to happen is that UW is becoming more and more of a “fair” deck, where it has solid match-ups across the board but not that many easy wins — the issue? Well, the problem with that is the other decks of that nature (Jund) have the ability to do absurd things like get the double Blightning draw off of twin Bloodbraid Elves.
Now, that isn’t to say that UW is just a poor deck. It won the Grand Prix, after all. Brad Nelson UW list was very good, and he is a master — he played well and was able to dispatch all of his competition. I was going to present my own list of the UW deck and explain my card choices, but I found that I really didn’t want to play anything else. Brad’s list was just very solid, and if you’re going to play this deck you should just play his list. It’s probably worth dedicating a few sideboard slots to techy mirror cards (such as Recurring Insight or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre), as the mirror can be very frustrating and you can alleviate some of that by coming prepared.
Would I want to play UW? No. UW and I just don’t get along. It’s not like playing it is some foreign thing to me — I’ve played decks like it hundreds of times. I suppose for me I often feel that it is pretty clunky and I tend to feel as though I am powerless to the popular decks’ “nut draws.” I understand that the idea of nut draws is that they “just win,” but that has not been my experience in this format. If I’m piloting Jund and my Mythic opponent has the turn 3 Sovereign, I’m not left with the single out of Path to Exile. Granted, UW has Day of Judgment the following turn as opposed to cards like Doom Blade and Terminate, but that’s after you’ve been domed for 12. If UW falls to 8 or less and doesn’t find a Baneslayer Angel within a few turns, it can be very hard to win. The reason UW is so powerful is because of how well it plays cards like Gideon, Jace, and Elspeth. However, I’m not convinced it is the best deck for any of those cards. Personally? Personally I think this deck might be:
Creatures (23)
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 3 Ranger of Eos
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 1 Kor Skyfisher
- 2 Scute Mob
- 3 Sea Gate Oracle
- 4 Vengevine
- 4 Wall of Omens
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (24)
Spells (6)
This is the kind of deck that I really like. Despite loving traditional-style control decks, creature is still my favorite card type. And here is what we would call a true creature-based control deck, showcasing Vengevine arguably better than any other deck in Standard. Pat has already talked about his deck last week, but it should be known that I fully endorse this style of deck — Sea Gate Oracle is about infinitely better than I could have ever imagined, and winning nearly all of your games with Vengevines is just satisfying. Between Ranger, Jace, and Oracle, Vengevine never stays dead and even when he does you can just off them with your planeswalkers. Everything that the format has been moving toward is accomplished by this deck, save maybe having some sick combo finish. But you have Vengevine!
Here is an updated list, taking heed of the changes that Gerry suggested:
Creatures (21)
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Ranger of Eos
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 1 Scute Mob
- 4 Sea Gate Oracle
- 4 Vengevine
- 4 Wall of Omens
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (25)
Spells (7)
This what I’ve been working with, and so far everything seems to be working very well. The fourth Jace definitely needs to be in the sideboard, but I’m of the inclination that Elspeth perfectly walks the line between aggro and control that this deck is all about, so rolling with less than two of that card seems sketchy to me. The thing I really wanted was a third Gideon, but five mana is an awful lot for a deck with such a low curve, and adding another five-drop seems pretty difficult. That’s probably why Baneslayer Angel wasn’t featured in the deck at all, though she might be a reasonable sideboarding option for this archetype moving forward.
I’m strongly considering just playing this deck for the PTQ season. It gives you lots of room to outplay opponents, has a nice balance of removal for Mythic and Naya, and has a solid line of defense against Jund (Wall of Omens is very good, remember). And, as I said, it might be among the best Jace/Elspeth/Gideon decks, and that unholy trinity of cards is easily what defines Standard. I very much enjoyed playing Mythic at the Grand Prix, but the inconsistency found with that deck just turns me off from wanting to battle with it again. Mythic, much like Jund, is simply just a powerful deck, and one that will always put up numbers. But if you’re like me, when you head off to a PTQ you want to feel like you’ve got something that the other players don’t, and I’m not talking about just skill — I mean that you feel as though your deck gives you a distinct edge. For example, take the following Jund deck:
Creatures (22)
- 2 Siege-Gang Commander
- 4 Sprouting Thrinax
- 4 Putrid Leech
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 4 Cunning Sparkmage
- 4 Vengevine
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (10)
Sideboard
If you expected lots of Mythic, Naya, or Next Level Bant at an upcoming PTQ, a deck like this would serve you well. It gives you an edge against a large portion of the field just by combining the explosiveness of Jund with the powerful combination of Sparkmage and Basilisk Collar. Now, there is no way to fetch said Collar, but you won’t really need to — after all, Sparkmage does a number on the format all on his own, never mind what he can do with a Collar slapped on him. I decided to give this build of a Jund a shot after getting wrecked by Sparkmage out of the sideboard in two of my Jund match-ups — it was very effective, and I think it can work really well if you want to punish players for taking Noble Hierarchs and Scute Mobs to tournaments. In fact, this style of Jund might be the best weapon one could wield against the aforementioned Next Level Bant deck, as between Maelstrom Pulse, Sparkmage, and Jund’s nut draws I’m not so sure that any amount of planeswalkers and Vengevines would be able to overcome this deck.
Of course, unlike Mythic Conscription, even classic, Vengevine-less Jund is simply a monster on its own. Mythic is a fairly awkward deck if you don’t have the combo, as playing early Baneslayer Angels isn’t really an auto-win. Jund just often plays its cards and wins — Bloodbraid Elf, which is the embodiment of variance, is so inherently powerful that it is no wonder that countless players have flocked to Jund, regardless of whether or not that they had more “consistent” options. That being said, it is hard for me to not just recommend Jund to you. It doesn’t matter if you’re rocking Vengevines or Cunning Sparkmages — all that matters is whether or not you’re cascading into Blightnings and dropping Leeches on turn 2. Jund may not be the clear-cut best deck anymore, but saying it isn’t a good choice for the PTQ season is just absurd.
Now, you’ve no doubt seen those 100% creature decks that attempt to push Vengevine to its limits. Naya is one of those decks, and the Flores Jund deck is another. Don’t play those decks. Naya is probably fine, to be fair, but Jund without Pulse and Blightning? No thanks. The issue with both of those strategies is that they don’t support much interaction. Flores packed Sparkmage in his Jund deck, but without Blightning and Pulse I just don’t see how he’s beating many UW decks. And what about Naya? Vengevine is good, but not good enough to beat UW and UWR without any sort of noncreature interaction. Better yet, how do you realistically hope to beat a Conscription player? I mean, if you happen to draw Sparkmage before it’s too late, awesome. Otherwise? Yeah, nice work just letting them do what they want. It isn’t hard to see why interaction is a valuable thing in this format — between UW’s tricks and also all of the combo decks, just goldfishing only gets you so far.
The moral of the story? I still think you should be playing creatures, and specifically Vengevine. Don’t play it without noncreature spells — just minimize your noncreature count and get creative. Chapin and company’s Bant deck is a very solid brew, and I expect it to make more than a few splashes in the coming months. Jund is also fine, with or without the “cute” tricks, and Mythic is obviously very explosive if you’re feeling lucky.
For the rest of you, there is UW. It’s consistent, but its hold on the format may be waning. It was trailing Jund and Mythic in numbers after National Qualifiers, but only time will tell how things pan out. As I’ve said, I’m not a fan of the deck, but it’s clearly good. The decision you as a player have to make is would you rather play a consistent control deck or an engine deck with explosive draws, like the Vengevine decks or Jund/Mythic?
Whatever you decide, the best of luck.
Until next time…
Chris Jobin
Team RIW
Shinjutsei on MTGO