Going forward in Standard, I plan to continue working on The Aristocrats until the metagame forces me to change. I know it might not be the most powerful deck in the format and that we had an edge before because our opponents didn’t know what to expect or how to play against it (we also lost a lot of that edge as a team since I think many of us didn’t know how to play it either), but it’s still the most fun deck for me to work on right now.
I’m thinking about trying some radical changes, but for now, I think people are most interested in seeing how the deck works and what they can expect from opponents playing it.
That said, I still wanted to try a little something different, so I changed around a couple cards. Today, I’ll be playing with:
Creatures (29)
- 2 Skirsdag High Priest
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Doomed Traveler
- 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
- 2 Silverblade Paladin
- 2 Zealous Conscripts
- 3 Knight of Infamy
- 4 Cartel Aristocrat
- 4 Boros Reckoner
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (24)
Spells (6)
I cut Restoration Angel for Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Before the Pro Tour, we were trying to decide which one to play, knowing that it was close, and I’ve been impressed by Sorin. I also cut Rest in Peace from the sideboard. It was the only card I never used (though I know it was probably the most important card in Andrew Cuneo’s sideboard since he played against Human Reanimator three times), and I don’t expect many Unburial Rites decks at the moment since they didn’t do much in Montreal.
Also, I wanted access to more Zealous Conscripts and Skirsdag High Priests.
In the first game, I kept a questionable/bad hand and died because I never drew black mana to kill his Master Biomancer.
In the second game, he stumbled on lands, and Falkenrath Aristocrat did its thing.
In the third game, Skirsdag High Priest did what it does against people who don’t play removal. This is exactly why it’s in the deck. Too many G/W/x decks in the format try to win by playing “superior” creatures and think they can just run over their opponent’s guys. It’s extremely difficult to just run over a good Skirsdag High Priest draw.
In game 1, his draw was terrible. He was stuck on two colors and flooded, and I never saw what his deck did. Game 2 my draw was land light, his was excellent, and I wasn’t sideboarded properly because I didn’t know what he was playing. In the deciding game, I killed him with Aristocrats.
Part of why I thought it would be ok to cut Rest in Peace is that in my experience, some portion of games you can beat graveyard decks by racing/their deck failing them anyway. So even if you do get paired against them, you’re not completely dead without dedicated hate. You still have removal and pressure.
Olivia Voldaren is a powerful Magic card.
I’m not really sure what else to say about that match.
I assume the Unexpected Results deck is built to prey on midrange decks, and while The Aristocrats certainly isn’t the fastest deck in the format, it can still function as an aggro deck when the situation calls for it. Unexpected Results doesn’t seem to have enough resistance to realistically live through a deck that’s actually focused on trying to kill them.
That’s all for this week.
Thanks for watching,
Sam
@samuelhblack on Twitter