Suffice it to say, last weekend didn’t quite go exactly to plan.
Having been on a nonstop travel binge from the Open Series in New Jersey to GP Orlando to the Pro Tour in Hawaii, I was growing weary of travel. Three
weekends in a row of long trips was enough for me! I’m not a greedy man, I could have gone without the fourth. I desperately wanted to just blow off the
Grand Prix last weekend in Los Angeles, but I had booked a ticket weeks ago, and I didn’t want to just waste it. I felt committed to attending, so I did.
While it may sound like heaven to be able to travel to all these locations and play Magic, there are certainly diminishing returns. It’s exciting to be
able to travel to places like Dublin and Valencia and Hawaii from time to time, and I enjoy my trips there, but when you start to travel every weekend, the
place that starts to become the most exciting place to travel is home. I think that is especially true for myself, as I am simply not someone who really
enjoys traveling anyway.
Typically, my philosophy is that if you don’t want to play in a tournament, you probably shouldn’t. I know I personally never do well in tournaments if my
heart just isn’t in it. I’m not going to put the same level of dedication and care into my list and how I play it. I could definitely tell that was the
case for GP LA. Outside of one night playing in a bunch of 8 man events on Magic Online, I did almost no testing, and my sideboard was just a collection of
cards, not a real strategy.
However, I also think it would have been kind of poor for me to just blow off the event when I need Pro Points. My goal is to qualify again for the Pro
Tour, and I already had a ticket booked, which would simply go to waste otherwise. The end result is that I felt I should attend this event, but my heart
still wasn’t in it, and my showing pretty accurately reflected that.
Things didn’t end up falling into place for me. I posted a facebook status
about some of my fun travel experiences. The long and short of it is that I missed not one, but two flights in a single weekend. Having never missed a
flight before, it was certainly not a pleasant experience to miss on both my flight to Los Angeles as well as the flight home. The return trip in
particularly was something special. Let’s just say, I’m not eager to pick up the mantle again and head off to the nearby airport. Even if there is a
Retraction Helix involved.
I went 6-3 in the Grand Prix. I picked up a couple of early losses and then Rattleclawed my way back to 6-2, before falling in the final round in the Abzan
mirror match to miss the second day of competition. I felt like I had made the right deck choice for the event, but my deck certainly wasn’t tuned.
Having now played a few tournaments in the new Standard format, I feel like I’m finally starting to piece together exactly what Standard looks like and
why. It’s clear that Khans of Tarkir–despite being a single set amongst three Theros Block sets and a Core Set–is really the defining set of Standard.
Theros Block pushes the devotion mechanic, whereas Khans of Tarkir is a multicolor set. Unlike Return to Ravnica, where the multicolor cards of Return To
Ravnica like Nightveil Specter and Frostburn Weird could also serve as huge devotion boosts, Khans of Tarkir multicolor cards don’t play nicely with
Theros. To that end, I figured we would see a format where Theros dominated and Khans of Tarkir played second fiddle for a while until more sets came out.
Outside of the Green Devotion deck, which is really the only deck where Theros Block dominates, that just hasn’t been the case. The frontrunner decks are
looking like Abzan and Jeskai, two decks built around the powerful multicolor cards from Khans of Tarkir, such as Siege Rhinocerous and Mantis Rider.
Sorry, Theros. You got sandwiched between two multicolor blocks and were outclassed by both. Maybe next time.
I actually think that there are viable decks in each of the Khans of Tarkir wedges, even Sultai, but I want to actually just focus on a couple of them,
talk about what makes the wedge work, how I feel it should be built, and where I think it is going to end up going in the format.
The two I want to talk about are Abzan and, surprisingly enough, Temur. While Jeskai might also be a dominant force, that style of deck just isn’t really
my usual type of deck, and my only real experience is via playing against it.
I’m going to start with Abzan because, yeah, Siege Rhino.
Abzan
I feel safe in saying that Abzan is currently public enemy number one. The deck is basically another in a long line of “Jund” decks, and if the past few
years are any indication, Jund is usually pretty good. There are essentially two Abzan decks, the Courser and Caryatid version that Ari Lax used to win the
Pro Tour, or the Abzan Aggro deck that Mike Sigrist piloted to the top 4.
I think the Abzan Aggro deck is the superior of the two. Why? Because it gets on the board faster and plays more powerful cards. While the Courser and
Caryatid version of Abzan does play big haymakers like Elspeth, I frankly just don’t think Elspeth is very good in this Standard format. I would much
rather have an early board presence that I can capitalize on later than trying to win a game with Elspeth in a format that just doesn’t support it that
well.
It’s also important against decks like Jeskai or Boss Sligh to be able to put a creature with power in play as early as possible. Sylvan Caryatid just
isn’t what it used to be in blocking against decks like this. Nobody builds decks anymore that can’t attack past a Sylvan Caryatid or Courser of Kruphix.
If you play a turn 2 Fleecemane Lion, it’s going to make their Goblin Rabblemaster a lot less effective. A turn 2 Rakshasa Deathdealer or Heir of the Wilds
is just as good. Also, on the play, these cards put them on the defensive and force them to have to decide between playing a Mantis Rider or killing your
creature. When you’re playing Siege Rhino in your deck, that’s where I want to be.
I had a game at the Grand Prix where I had a turn 2 Fleecemane Lion, a turn 3 Anafenza, and just followed it up with two removal spells and my opponent
died on turn 5, despite having a reasonable hand and curve. I think there is a lot of merit in playing a strategy that can just kill your opponent.
Abzan Aggro also has less dead topdecks later in the game. Frequently, drawing a card like Courser of Kruphix or Sylvan Caryatid on turn 9 is going to be
really bad. On the other hand, Fleecemane Lion or especially Rakshasa Deathdealer are actually fantastic draws at that stage of the game. Similarly, Herald
of Torment scales from a 3/3 flier for three to an enormous boost of flying damage later in the game.
Chris VanMeter and I both independently played some games with Abzan Aggro leading up to last weekend. Chris didn’t like Anafenza but loved Heir of the
Wilds. On the other hand, I loved Anafenza and found her to be great in nearly every matchup.
Now that I’ve played a lot more with the deck, I think the end result is that we were both right. Heir of the Wilds is great, but so is Anafenza. In fact,
they are both great together. Ultimately, I think the way to build the deck is to keep the deck as low to the ground as possible and focus on getting on
the board as fast and powerfully as possible.
I know in testing for the Pro Tour, a lot of games of Standard were just decided literally by “who is the first person to get on the board.” If I played a
Rhino on turn 3, my opponent couldn’t win even if they had a removal spell. They were just on the back foot, and it was hard to catch back up. If my
opponent led with a Goblin Rabblemaster and I didn’t have a board presence, it didn’t matter what my followup was going to be. Even if I dealt with the
Rabblemaster I would still likely lose.
I feel like the Abzan Aggro deck needs to just get on the board early and then use the versatility and power of Hero’s Downfall and especially Abzan Charm
to just hammer the game home from that point. To that end, I want to play a version that looks like this.
Creatures (23)
- 4 Fleecemane Lion
- 3 Herald of Torment
- 3 Heir of the Wilds
- 3 Anafenza, the Foremost
- 2 Wingmate Roc
- 4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
- 4 Siege Rhino
Lands (25)
Spells (12)
A lot of these sideboard cards are courtesy of Brad Nelson. Hunt the Hunter is a great way to let your Lions, Deathdealers, and Heirs beat up on stuff like
Courser of Kruphix. It also lets you bash in for a big chunk of damage the turn you play it. That damage is not irrelevant when you have Siege Rhino and
Herald of Torment in your deck.
Abzan Ascendancy can provide a boost to your creatures and can also protect you preemptively from cards like End Hostilities or from Elspeth’s -3. Abzan
Ascendancy is a card that I tested a bunch with when I was building Abzan decks for the Pro Tour. I really liked the card, and I wanted to work more with
it, but I was playing it wrong. I was playing the card in shells with Courser and Caryatid, which isn’t where it belongs. This is a much better shell for
the card.
One of the main changes to this list is moving Sorin to the sideboard. While I love Sorin and feel like he is one of the most powerful cards in Standard,
he has been rather underwhelming in this deck. Even though this deck has more creatures to take advantage of his +1 ability, I found that Sorin was simply
performing better in a shell with mana accelerants like Elvish Mystic and Sylvan Caryatid. A turn 3 Sorin on the play was often game over. Sometimes you
could ultimate it before they were able to deal with it, or it just put a 2/2 flyer into play and still force a response out of them.
In the aggro version, Sorin oftentimes just doesn’t matter that much. His +1 ability doesn’t always let your ground creatures attack. Oftentimes, I’d
rather just kill my opponent’s creature rather than play a Sorin in those scenarios anyway.
However, I still have Sorin in the sideboard because I do want him as a way to gain life against decks like Mono-Red, or as a versatile threat against
decks like U/W or U/B Control.
I just don’t think he does enough in the midrange matchups, and I’d rather just have more removal spells or more cheap threats to build an early board
presence with instead.
While this deck is full of powerful cards, a great curve, and a number of fantastic mana sinks, it still does have some drawbacks. One is consistency. The
deck has a G/B and a G/W two drop. It has multiple GWB three drops. Herald of Torment and Hero’s Downfall both cost double black and the deck has seven
lands that only produce green and white.
It may be worth scaling back the power level of this deck some to improve consistency.
Another drawback is that you deal a lot of damage to yourself in the form of Thoughtseize and the manabase, along with Abzan Charm’s drawing cards mode and
Herald of Torment’s trigger. Siege Rhino and Wingmate Roc help to gain that back, but it isn’t always enough. Playing Sorin can also help alleviate that,
but as I mentioned, I wasn’t a fan of Sorin in the deck.
I think there is still room to go on this archetype, but I feel like this list is a step in the right direction.
Temur
I really liked Brian Kibler’s Temur deck from the GP. I actually lost to Temur in round 3 of the GP, and I also lost to it at the Pro Tour. I feel like I
should have won the match, and I certainly didn’t play optimally, but it was crystal clear to me that Temur has a lot of very powerful cards and a strong,
proactive gameplan.
Temur might be less powerful than Abzan in terms of pure card power alone, but what it lacks in that regard it makes up for in consistency. Temur has
access to cards like Rattleclaw Mystic that significantly improve how easy it is to cast cards like Savage Knuckleblade. Temur also has access to two of
the more powerful cards in Standard right now in Ashcloud Phoenix and whichever is better between Stormbreath Dragon and Sarkhan.
I think Ashcloud Phoenix is insanely good. While it gets handled efficiently by Abzan Charm or Banishing Light, beyond that, it’s a powerful offensive
threat, and it also plays defense well. It’s resilient and versatile. It makes Hero’s Downfall look weak. It is fantastic against cards like Mantis Rider
and Stormbreath Dragon, and makes Sarkhan much worse against you.
Going into the Pro Tour, I felt that Ashcloud Phoenix was one of the best cards in Standard. In fact, Michael Majors played it over Butcher of the Horde in
his Mardu list, and we both felt that was correct. The card is a monster.
Thankfully, this is a Monsters deck, so it fits right in.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Boon Satyr
- 4 Rattleclaw Mystic
- 4 Heir of the Wilds
- 4 Savage Knuckleblade
- 4 Ashcloud Phoenix
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (23)
Spells (11)
You’ll notice this is very similar to Kibler’s list, with one notable exception. Polukranos is gone. I feel like Polukranos just isn’t that powerful in
Standard right now, and I’d rather just have a full complement of Ashcloud Phoenix instead. I also would like to find room for a 24th land and some more
five drops like Stormbreath Dragon in the maindeck, but I’m not sure what to cut exactly without playing more games.
Cutting Polukranos might make Hunt the Hunter in the sideboard much worse as well, but for now I am going to keep them and see if having a few less green
creatures hurts the card too much. The effect is powerful, no doubt.
I also wouldn’t be opposed to finding room for Xenagos, the Reveler somewhere in the 75. A lot of people have forgotten about this card, and it does
struggle against things like Mantis Rider, but Xenagos is still a powerful threat in a lot of matchups, and I could see playing some in the sideboard. I
have to imagine a turn 3 Xenagos on the play is still going to be backbreaking against a lot of opponents.
I don’t think we’ve solved Standard yet. While Abzan and Jeskai might be the top dogs, we are still seeing powerful finishes from other archetypes. G/R
Monsters won the Grand Prix and Boss Sligh has put up a number of strong finishes lately as well. Mardu and Temur are both showing they can hang and even
some Sidisi decks are starting to sprout forth.
All of the wedges are starting to be represented in Standard, which means this could very well shape up to be a great format. Sure, you can play a two
color or mono color deck as well, I guess, but what’s the fun in that? For me, I’m all about the wedges. I guess you could say I’ve got a bit of a wedgie,
and I’m not interested in fixing it.