There are too many respectable decks in Standard right now. There’s no way one person can play them all, track a reasonable number of results, and isolate the best one. Instead, people play a few that look good until they find one they like and stick with it. As a result, many people don’t get to the best deck. I think that deck is probably Bant Hexproof, but this may be because I spent Saturday with Dan Cecchetti while he easily crushed the WMCQ without dropping a match.
I think the theory behind the deck is very sound, and people just aren’t playing the right kinds of decks to beat it even though they exist in Standard. This can’t be the best deck the way that Junk Reanimator has been because if people are building their decks with this as a primary target, we’ll see sideboards with three or four Ray of Revelations and lots of Rolling Temblors, Tribute to Hungers, Devour Fleshes, and Liliana of the Veils. This isn’t a deck that stands up to hate well, but as long as there are other boogeymen and people keep playing the lists that have done well in previous weeks, this deck will continue to win very easily.
I’ll be playing Dan Cecchetti’s list today. I’ve followed his suggestion to cut the Selesnya Charm he played for another Simic Charm, and I’ve added three Spell Ruptures to the sideboard in place of one Nearheath Pilgrim and the two Mending Touches he never used.
Creatures (18)
Lands (23)
Spells (19)
Sideboard
Well, game 1 showed what happens when Hexproof draws perfectly, but I doubt anyone was really confused on that point. In game 2, everything came together just right for me to barely win—he failed to draw black just long enough for me to get him low enough to kill him because I drew Spell Rupture at the right time. Ray of Revelation is excellent, but it’s not enough to win by itself, especially against Rancor.
I just recorded a match that I won in which my opponent never played a spell. I deleted the recording. There was some discussion about how I hedged in sideboarding, but really, it seemed like a waste of time. Note that the fact that the deck gets free wins if the opponent can’t do something important right away is an important reason to play the deck though.
Game 1 I think my draw was pretty average. I did reasonable things, and he didn’t have an answer. I think it was probably totally wrong to play the Voice of Resurgence before the Invisible Stalker.
The second game showed what Blood Artist can do—it’s definitely their best maindeck card in the matchup.
In game 3, I had the kind of draw that that deck generally shouldn’t be able to compete with without a dedicated sideboard card and won handily as expected.
I won another under five minute match here where my opponent didn’t do anything that mattered, and his deck didn’t look very good, so I’m skipping it.
Game 1 was interesting because I was able to win even though I didn’t actually do anything good. I enchanted weak, targetable creatures against a control deck with a lot of removal, and that was somehow good enough to win. Obviously, it wouldn’t be against a good draw, but it’s good to see that the deck doesn’t only win with nut draws—as long as its mediocre draw is lined up against another mediocre draw, it can still win.
The second game was similar. My draw was ok but not great, but it was good enough to punish him for stumbling on a color. When this deck draws well, it cuts off all interaction while putting the opponent on a short clock like a real combo deck. When its draw is mediocre, it still puts them on a short clock like an aggro deck; it’s just a slightly fragile aggro deck, which is still often good enough.
I guess I outsmarted myself in that first game. The Rakdos’s Return really got me. If I’d played Spectral Flight, the Sorin tokens wouldn’t have been an issue, and I probably would have won.
Game 2 I just drew comically perfectly, and game 3 I hit the land I needed to make my hand perfect. This deck generates a lot of free wins.
Primary takeaways: this deck is likely the best deck in Standard, but it’s much more fragile than Junk Reanimator if it gets played as much as it should because it’s weak to sideboard cards in a way that Reanimator isn’t. If my opponents had played cards like Ray of Revelation or Tribute to Hunger, I probably would have had serious problems. You should likely be playing it and/or hating it unless things change quickly. Also, Spell Rupture was sweet.
Thanks for watching,
Sam
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