Three weeks. Three different decks. Did Junk Aristocrats knock Act 2 of out of the format? Nope. Casey Hanford’s win in St. Louis proved otherwise. Perhaps Jund was finally going to disappear from sight? John Wallace’s win in Columbus just goes to show that "Jund in all formats" is still a motto we can live our lives by. Perhaps control really was dead? Robert Seder would like to inform us that even the summer heat can’t keep the icy grip of Esper Control from stealing a trophy.
So what’s the deck to play in Standard, then?
Honestly, that question is not easy to answer. Standard is very diverse right now, and with different decks winning each week, it’s not easy to nail down a definitive answer. A few weeks ago I was telling people not to play Junk Reanimator. Right now I actually think it’s a good choice. What was good last week might be a terrible choice this week.
While I can’t really tell you exactly what you should play in Standard, what I can do is tell you about each of the big players in the format and what they bring to the table. I’ll give you the information. What you decide to arm yourself with is up to you from there.
In the same vein as Ari Lax "Cheat Sheet" articles where he provides a very thorough rundown of the decks that a specific format consist of, I’d like to do the same thing for Standard.
The hope is that this will help demonstrate the variety of decks that are out there, what they offer, and what they are weak against.
Let’s start with the recent king.
Esper Control
Not only did Esper Control win the tournament last week, but it actually put another player into the Top 8 and a player into the Top 8 of the Open two weeks prior. By having more than just a single showing, we can reason that Esper isn’t just a complete flash in the pan, and it may take a more prominent role in upcoming weeks.
With that being said, I personally would not go anywhere near a deck like this for a big tournament. I’ll explain why below.
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (27)
Spells (23)
Notice something absent from Robert Seder’s winning list?
It’s pretty crazy to think that Esper was able to win a tournament without Supreme Verdict. Supreme Verdict and Sphinx’s Revelation are basically the core that made Esper a deck in the past, and now it’s winning without one of those pieces? How?
Here is a list of some of the cards that see a lot of play in the current format: Strangleroot Geist; Young Wolf; Doomed Traveler; Voice of Resurgence; Varolz, the Scar-Striped; Unburial Rites; Angel of Serenity; Falkenrath Aristocrat.
That’s not even considering some of the more fringe players like Gravecrawler, Geralf’s Messenger, Dreg Mangler, and Lotleth Troll.
All of those cards are able to shrug off Supreme Verdict. Terminus, on the other hand, not so much. When Terminus is cast, it’s rock bottom for these creatures.
What I Like
Far // Away is a really strong card right now. I feel like Terminus got all the praise for his success but this card really did all the heavy lifting. Sometimes the best way to beat cards like Voice of Resurgence is just to put them back in your opponent’s hand… Oh, and you can just kill their other creature too while you’re at it. Might as well. With Sphinx’s Revelation able to produce huge amounts of life late in the game, a card like Voice can be ignored for many turns as long as you are able to buy the time to get to that stage. Away is also very good, providing a strong answer to cards like Geist of Saint Traft, Obzedat, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Sire of Insanity, Cartel Aristocrat, and any number of creatures that could otherwise be very problematic for an Esper deck to beat.
Jace, Architect of Thought is very good right now. Aggressive decks and decks like The Aristocrats tend to be very much swarm decks right now. They are going to plop a bunch of Burning-Tree Emissarys and other assorted 2/2s on the table and just beat you to death with those. Jace cuts the damage they deal in half and forces them to make a tough decision of whether or not they can afford to spend the huge amount of damage and turns it takes to kill Jace or can just go for the player and actually close the deal against an active Jace.
Easier said than done.
What I Don’t Like
The deck should have access to Supreme Verdict in the sideboard. I don’t see how this deck ever beats a reasonable draw from a R/G aggressive deck without hitting a Terminus at the right time or sticking a Jace precisely on turn 4 and hoping to dodge Hellrider. My guess is that Robert either managed to dodge R/G or was very fortunate in hitting Terminus at opportune times to beat them. R/G is actually vulnerable to Supreme Verdict, and oftentimes they are just going to dump their hand and make you have it to beat it.
You can’t have it if you don’t play it.
The other thing I don’t like is simply this style of deck in a format as wide open as this one. I personally love casting Sphinx’s Revelation and playing decks like this. I enjoy the puzzle of figuring out how to set up my next few turns to win a game with a deck like Esper Control. I just don’t think it’s the right deck to play. That may sound weird since it just won a tournament, but it’s very easy to just draw the wrong answers to the wrong threats and lose even when it seemed you were far ahead when you play a deck like this. With so many reasonable decks to play in Standard, how do you prepare for everything you can face in a tournament? You can’t, really.
How to Beat It
Esper is vulnerable to two things: disruption and recurring sources of pressure.
Cards like Sin Collector, Duress, Slaughter Games, and Rakdos’s Return all pose a strong problem for this deck on the disruption front. The Esper player will set up the game in such a way to play a big card on the perfect turn to wrest control from you. Generally speaking, this will be something like a Terminus or a massive Sphinx’s Revelation. If you just strip that card the turn before they’re going to play it, then their entire game plan is ruined. Rakdos’s Return especially seems devastating, as it can kill a planeswalker and rob their hand all in one fell swoop.
The other way to beat this deck is to play permanents that pressure them every turn and force them to continually answer them as the game wears on. Sire of Insanity and Obzedat used to be these kinds of threats, but Far // Away actually reduces the effectiveness of both of those cards. Now, the key is to turn to cards like planeswalkers. This deck has a huge vulnerability to planeswalkers. Something as simple as a Garruk Relentless can beat this deck without needing much support. Don’t even get me started on the kind of raw devastation his older brother "Papa G" can provide against Esper. Assemble the Legion also seems very good against the deck, especially if backed up by something like Gavony Township, Intangible Virtue, or Sorin emblems to get around Jace, Architect of Thought’s +1.
Alternative lists to check out:
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (27)
Spells (28)
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (25)
- 2 Dissipate
- 2 Oblivion Ring
- 2 Forbidden Alchemy
- 4 Lingering Souls
- 4 Azorius Charm
- 4 Supreme Verdict
- 2 Sphinx's Revelation
- 2 Far
- 3 Warped Physique
Sideboard
Junk Reanimator
Junk Reanimator isn’t nearly the dominant presence it was before. With that said, it’s quietly still putting up very good numbers. I think the deck is poised to break out again. While I am not playing this weekend in Miami, I am planning on making the veeeery long drive to Worcester, Massachusetts in two weeks for the Open there. Right now, Junk Reanimator is my frontrunner choice for that event.
One thing about Junk is that it’s extremely customizable. Your success when playing this deck is going to hinge a lot on the card choices you make. Junk has the cards to beat any deck. Did you play the right ones to beat the field that day? As I see it, Junk is the kind of deck where two things can happen.
1. You’re getting your picture taken for Top 8 coverage. Your friends are all cheering far louder than they should be when they announce your name for the Top 8. Even a full system reboot couldn’t wipe the silly grin off your face. A fan comes up and asks you to sign their baby’s forehead, and you find $5 on the ground on your trip to the restroom. Congratulations, you picked the right cards for this tournament.
2. It’s 1 PM, and you’re seven beers deep at one of the worst bars you’ve ever been in in a city you don’t care about. You wonder if Miller Lite is supposed to taste this salty or if they changed the formula. Just as you’re about to ask someone, you come to the realization that the high salt content is probably just a result of you openly weeping into your beer. You look up at the TV in the bar at the perfect time to see a Sports Center highlight of your favorite sports team losing badly the night before in the most important game of the year. As you leave, you stub your toe. I guess you didn’t pick the right cards for this weekend.
If you’re going to play Junk Reanimator—and I think you should—be sure you actually prepare for the event and know why each card is in your deck and what your plan is for each matchup.
Creatures (24)
- 2 Acidic Slime
- 3 Arbor Elf
- 2 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Restoration Angel
- 4 Thragtusk
- 3 Angel of Serenity
- 2 Voice of Resurgence
Lands (23)
Spells (13)
What I Like
All Tusk, all the time. Four Thragtusk, four Restoration Angel, four Unburial Rites. Daniel is not afraid to gain five life and put Beasts into play, and I admire his resolve in this matter. I think the format is such that you just want to be Tusking everyone and anyone. I would even start Tusking people who aren’t in the match. I would not be opposed to tapping five and putting a Thragtusk into play two tables over. Tusk the spectator behind you. Tusk. Everyone. Call your mother after round 5 and tell her what Thragtusk is doing.
Abrupt Decay is in the maindeck. This is the kind of format where people are putting Madcap Skills on whatever creatures they find lying around. Every time I look around, I see a Ghor-Clan Rampager being bloodrushed on a random two-drop. Even decks like U/W/R are playing cards like Boros Reckoner right now. Kill them. Kill them all.
What I Don’t Like
Voice of Resurgence. Every deck in the format is adapting or has already adapted to the fact that Voice of Resurgence is one of the dominant cards in Standard. Voice is played mainly for two decks: the aggressive red decks and the control decks (of which U/W/R is the most popular). Those decks both play Pillar of Flame now. Even beyond Pillar of Flame, aggressive red decks are adapting to Voice of Resurgence by playing cards like Madcap Skills to get around it. Reanimator also doesn’t really have the capability of making the Elemental token into a big enough threat to be scary until much later into the game. I would avoid this card right now and play more real answers to red decks like Abrupt Decay.
Where is Obzedat? The Ghost Dad has a bunch of kids to feed. Give him a job. I hear he’s got a degree in beating the **** out of U/W/R decks all day every day. He’s also not bad at crushing Jund and Esper, and he’s even reasonable against Aristocrats of either variety. He’s a jack-of-all-trades, and he’s standing in the unemployment line? What has this world come to? I’d play Obzedat maindeck, and I wouldn’t give it a second thought.
How to Beat It
The formula for beating Junk Reanimator has always been the same. Aggression combined with disruption is the golden ticket. Both varieties of Aristocrats possess both of these elements, and that is the main reason it has been successful against Junk Reanimator in the past. Big R/G and Naya decks also have the tools needed to beat it. Bonfire of the Damned and Thundermaw Hellkite are both good disruption, and Thundermaw also serves as a game-ending threat. Access to something like Rest in Peace for Naya is the nail in the coffin for Reanimator.
Alternative lists:
Creatures (19)
- 2 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 3 Restoration Angel
- 4 Thragtusk
- 3 Angel of Serenity
- 1 Centaur Healer
- 2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
Lands (23)
Spells (18)
Creatures (23)
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 4 Arbor Elf
- 2 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Restoration Angel
- 4 Thragtusk
- 3 Angel of Serenity
- 1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
Lands (23)
Spells (15)
Jund Midrange
Jund is the Snow White of Magic: The Gathering. Take a look at your Jund deck in the mirror and you’ll see what it really means to be the fairest of them all. Jund never does anything broken; it’s just usually the best at doing something fair and punishes decks that aren’t doing something powerful or fast enough to compete with it.
Jund is typically going to be good enough for a solid finish, but depending on the metagame, I don’t think it always has what it takes for a tournament victory.
Creatures (14)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (25)
Spells (16)
What I Like
Vampire Nighthawk. Putting Vampire Nighthawk into the maindeck is a brilliant way to combat the current metagame. Nighthawk really is just the perfect solution to the R/G/x decks. Many of those decks cut Searing Spear for Pillar of Flame, which makes the three toughness absolutely perfect. Vampire Nighthawk also will trade with anything. Thanks to deathtouch, even the most decorated members of the Ghor Clan will only do minimal Rampaging with a Vampire Nighthawk standing in the way.
Planeswalkers. I think Garruk, Primal Hunter is really good right now. Jund has so much removal to set him up, and he’s a huge threat against a variety of decks—even Aristocrats decks can fold to Garruk if they don’t have the right board position before he comes down. I really think the biggest thing holding Garruk, Primal Hunter back from seeing more play is that Garruk Relentless is also seeing a ton of play; a preemptive Relentless is the best possible answer for Primal Hunter.
What I Don’t Like
Ground Seal. I don’t really get maindecking a marginal card against a few strategies in a format as completely wide open as this one. The card is good in a number of matchups and deserves a sideboard slot, but when your opponent curves a Burning-Tree Emissary into a Flinthoof Boar, your follow-up play of "Ground Seal, go" looks downright miserable. I feel like Ground Seal is simply a relic of a past format where Junk Reanimator was completely dominant and players haven’t yet adapted to playing real cards in its place.
Only two copies of Bonfire of the Damned. As I mentioned in my article last week, I think Bonfire is one of the best cards in the format right now. Jund is a deck that makes great use of the card. A miracle Bonfire turns almost every single board into one where Jund is favored to win simply because of the sheer high power level of Jund’s cards to close the deal or mop up afterward. Jund also has Farseek to ramp into hard casting it. Bonfire for two on five mana is actually very good against a lot of decks, and Jund can cast that fairly easily.
How to Beat It
Blank their removal, be too fast for them to catch up, or do something more powerful than they can do. I think Esper Control has a good matchup because Esper is going to win game 1 almost every time since Jund is full of so many dead cards in the first game. Sphinx’s Revelation is also more powerful than any card Jund has except for Garruk, Primal Hunter.
I also think Junk Aristocrats has a good Jund matchup. I personally have never lost to Jund playing Junk ‘Crats. The main reason is that Aristocrats can blank Jund’s removal pretty well. Outside of Bonfire, Jund struggles to keep up with the sheer number and variety of threats Aristocrats can provide. Cartel Aristocrat, for example, will never leave the board and will be getting in for a minimum of two points a turn. Jund has to race that and deal with all of the other cards at the same time. That’s often too tall of an order.
Alternative list:
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (21)
R/G Aggro
This is the most consistent aggressive deck in the format. While it doesn’t have the raw power of something like Naya Blitz, it will do relatively the same thing every single game. If the opponent stumbles at all, they are probably just dead. Out of all the pure aggressive lists, I feel this is the best choice simply because of this consistency. It’s not like it sacrifices that much on power either, as the deck is still capable of some blazing fast starts.
Creatures (28)
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
- 4 Hellrider
- 4 Flinthoof Boar
- 4 Rakdos Cackler
- 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
- 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
- 4 Boros Reckoner
Lands (22)
Spells (11)
Sideboard
What I Like
Madcap Skills. Two of the hardest cards to beat in the format are Boros Reckoner and Voice of Resurgence. Madcap Skills is a nifty way to ensure you can swing past either. Even if your opponent is capable of double blocking the guy who has the skillz that kill, they are still losing at least one creature and it means your other guys are getting through unblocked. Just be careful of running this into a Tragic Slip or Abrupt Decay.
What I Don’t Like
Actually, there is very little I don’t like in this deck. It’s very straightforward and streamlined. Just play four copies of all your best cards. This isn’t the kind of strategy I enjoy playing or am successful playing, but if aggro is your thing, you could do much worse than playing R/G.
How to Beat It
Instant speed removal is a huge benefit against this deck. Something like Azorius Charm, Searing Spear, or Abrupt Decay can completely blank cards like Madcap Skills and Ghor-Clan Rampager. Also, creatures like Loxodon Smiter and Boros Reckoner that shrug off Pillar of Flame and Searing Spear can create a problem for the deck when it can’t just put a Madcap Skills on a guy and swing past. The deck is also typically not fast enough to kill before a turn 4 Supreme Verdict and has to overextend to put enough pressure on to end a game.
U/W/R
This deck has held on to a place in the metagame almost by sheer support from the players who love playing this style of deck. I don’t think U/W/R is particularly good—I’m not sure that it has ever been that good—but it is a deck I would expect to play against once or twice in a large event because it remains ever-popular regardless of how well-positioned it is.
There are really two different types of U/W/R lists, and they are differentiated mostly by whether or not they play Geist of Saint Traft. The lists that do feature a more burn-based aggressive game plan, and the ones that don’t typically feature a more Sphinx’s Revelation oriented grindy game plan. I’m going to focus on the more aggressive version, as I feel it is the stronger and also more popular list currently.
Creatures (13)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (21)
- 1 Dissipate
- 2 Syncopate
- 3 Pillar of Flame
- 3 Searing Spear
- 1 Mizzium Mortars
- 4 Azorius Charm
- 1 Detention Sphere
- 2 Sphinx's Revelation
- 2 Turn
- 2 Warleader's Helix
Sideboard
What I Like
Thundermaw Hellkite. One of the major flaws of the U/W/R Flash deck is that it can have complete control of the game but not have a way to quickly close out the game and a series of lackluster draw steps can see that control slip away. Thundermaw Hellkite provides a quick clock, is reusable with Restoration Angel, and also takes care of Lingering Souls, a card that can sometimes attrition U/W/R out. I feel like Thundermaw Hellkite is one of the best cards in the current format, and U/W/R should definitely play it.
Warleader’s Helix. Not much fanfare has been given about this card, but it is one of the better cards to come out of Dragon’s Maze. Four life and four damage is a giant swing and can really punish your opponent if they aren’t expecting it. Race situations your opponent thought they were winning now end up with them on the losing side.
What I Don’t Like
The strategy in general. It feels like every deck in the format does something more powerful than U/W/R and the U/W/R deck is always struggling to keep up. Cards like Sphinx’s Revelation are excellent at covering lost ground, but even then decks like Junk Reanimator are able to match pace with the card advantage from Revelation with cards like Unburial Rites and Grisly Salvage. The rest of their cards are then just much more powerful than yours. If you can’t match them on card quality and you can’t even out card them, what really are you doing?
While we’re talking about Sphinx’s Revelation, another thing I don’t like is the mixed strategies present. Sphinx’s Revelation is a great card for pulling ahead when all of your other cards are designed to keep your opponent from winning in the meantime. Geist of Saint Traft is the exact opposite kind of card. Geist is the card that wants you to press the advantage and win quickly before your opponent can muster a defense. It’s hard to win with a Geist when your hand is full of cards like Sphinx’s Revelation, and it’s hard to pull ahead with Sphinx’s Revelation when all you’re drawing are offensive-minded cards like Geist of Saint Traft.
How to Beat It
It’s hard to beat U/W/R by simply being faster than they are. The swath of burn spells and Snapcaster Mages is going to crush any creature strategy that relies on speed kills over resiliency.
Junk Reanimator outlines a good strategy for beating the deck. Present a number of varied threats they have to answer (Thragtusk, Obzedat, Sin Collector, Deathrite Shaman, Garruk Relentless, Acidic Slime, Lingering Souls), and have a way to ensure those threats keep coming (Unburial Rites, Grisly Salvage). Eventually, they will run dry on answers, and one of those threats will finish the job.
Also, it’s important to have cards that can profitably interact with Geist of Saint Traft so you don’t just lose to a turn 3 Geist. Thragtusk is an excellent example.
Naya Midrange
I recorded some videos few weeks ago with a list very similar to the one Richard Nguyen played to Top 4 last weekend in Philly. The deck boasts a number of powerful draws and has game against every deck in the format. When you play the most powerful and versatile cards in the format, at least some of your cards will be good against your opponent’s strategy, whatever it might be…’cept rock.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 3 Restoration Angel
- 4 Thundermaw Hellkite
- 3 Loxodon Smiter
- 4 Boros Reckoner
- 4 Voice of Resurgence
Lands (24)
Spells (14)
What I Like
Thundermaw Hellkite and Bonfire of the Damned. Again, I can’t stress enough how much I like these two cards in the current format, and any deck capable of playing both is automatically worth considering on that factor alone.
I also really like the general strategy. Voice of Resurgence, Loxodon Smiter, and Boros Reckoner are all versatile cards. They can be a reasonable beatdown plan against a control deck, but they also serve as a huge roadblock against a more aggressive deck.
What I Don’t Like
A lot of spells and not a lot of Domri Rade. I think Domri is an exceptional card and one of the reasons to play a list like this. While none of the spells are bad, none of them also have the same power level and impact on a game that Domri can have. Call me Radeical, but I can’t fully get behind a Naya list that isn’t playing this dude.
I also feel like the deck can show two faces. On one hand, when you draw the mythic portion of your deck, it feels like you are simply doing something far beyond anything your opponent can muster. When you draw the common and uncommon portion of your deck, it feels the exact opposite. Hands full of Avacyn’s Pilgrim, Searing Spears, Pillar of Flames, and Selesnya Charms feel underpowered and situational. Who knows if Pillar of Flame or Selesnya Charm will even be good in the particular matchup you’re playing? It’s for reasons like this that I advocate playing Domri Rade and more powerful creatures. They may not have the same upside as a card like Selesnya Charm, but you can count on them to always be a solid play. The sideboard is there for when you want the situationally powerful cards.
How to Beat It
The removal and cheap defensive creatures make it tough for a deck to beat Naya Midrange off of sheer speed alone. The best way to beat the deck is go over the top or do something more powerful.
Aristocrats of both varieties are generally good against this deck because they are capable of handling the problematic creatures with Tragic Slip and can go over the top of the strategy with cards like Skirsdag High Priest or Blood Artist that simply trump Naya’s game plan.
Other Decks
There is a ton of other decks in the format that see a reasonable amount of play, but generally you will run into them less frequently than the above decks. Due to how long this article is, I want to just briefly cover those decks rather than focus in on them extensively.
Bant Hexproof
Creatures (17)
- 4 Invisible Stalker
- 3 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Geist of Saint Traft
- 2 Strangleroot Geist
- 4 Voice of Resurgence
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (21)
Spells (20)
I like that this deck has nut draws that are simply unbeatable for any deck and completely preys on any opponent who is unprepared. I dislike the inconsistency. Sometimes you have all creatures and no enchantments, and sometimes you have to mulligan three lands and four enchantments. The way to beat it is to present a faster and more proactive strategy, mix pressure and disruption, or to just have enough removal spells that interact with hexproof creatures to grind them out.
Sometimes you can also just win by being the lucky opponent who plays against them the round where their deck falls apart and does nothing.
Naya Blitz
Creatures (36)
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Mayor of Avabruck
- 4 Lightning Mauler
- 4 Flinthoof Boar
- 4 Boros Elite
- 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
- 4 Experiment One
- 4 Frontline Medic
- 4 Firefist Striker
Lands (21)
Spells (3)
The baseline for how fast a deck can be. I like that this deck can simply beat anyone who keeps a non-interactive or slow hand by consistently killing on turn 4. I dislike that the cards are all very low power on their own and a few cheap removal spells into a bigger game plan can completely outclass it. The deck also mulligans very poorly since it needs seven cards to win fast enough. To beat the deck, you essentially need a plethora of early interaction to stabilize long enough to seal the deal with sweeper effects or bigger creatures.
Junk Aristocrats
Creatures (24)
- 3 Skirsdag High Priest
- 4 Doomed Traveler
- 2 Young Wolf
- 4 Blood Artist
- 4 Cartel Aristocrat
- 3 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
- 4 Voice of Resurgence
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (8)
The most synergistic deck in the format. None of the cards are that powerful on their own, but they all work together to create a very strong game plan in combination with each other. I like how skill rewarding the deck is and how many different avenues to victory the deck provides, from Blood Artist to Skirsdag High Priest to Lingering Souls to Cartel Aristocrat.
The deck loses most of the time from either drawing all the low-power cards and not the synergy to tie them together or flooding out. It also simply cannot beat a Rest in Peace ever and has to have a way to remove the card or it’s game over.
Cards like Bonfire of the Damned and Thundermaw Hellkite are great threats against the deck because they pressure the player and help to break up synergies at the same time. Cards like Izzet Staticaster, Curse of Death’s Hold, and Rest in Peace can completely dominate a game by themselves in post-board games against the deck.
The Aristocrats
Creatures (22)
- 4 Doomed Traveler
- 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
- 4 Blood Artist
- 2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
- 4 Cartel Aristocrat
- 4 Boros Reckoner
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (11)
The Aristocrats: Act 2 plays out very similar to Junk Aristocrats with a few major differences. Act 2 has a board reset in Blasphemous Act and a bigger endgame in Obzedat, Ghost Council. As a result, it sacrifices some of the earlier synergy for more late-game power. To support those cards, Act 2 has to play extra lands and doesn’t have access to Gavony Township, so it loses to flooding out even more than Junk Aristocrats does. However, it loses less to drawing too many low power cards, as cards like Obzedat, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Boros Reckoner are all more individually powerful cards on their own accord rather than the synergy-laden cards in Junk Aristocrats.
Curse of Death’s Hold and Izzet Staticaster are just as dominant here as they are against Junk Aristocrats. The same goes for Bonfire and Thundermaw. I’m not sure if you’ve heard—I think those two cards are pretty good. I’d jot that down. It’ll be on the test.
Naya Aggro
Creatures (28)
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 4 Dryad Militant
- 4 Loxodon Smiter
- 4 Experiment One
- 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
- 4 Boros Reckoner
- 4 Voice of Resurgence
Lands (22)
Spells (10)
Sideboard
This deck won an Open and disappeared a few weeks later. It’s a more aggressive deck than Naya Midrange but has a lot of the same resilient cards. The issue is that this list struggles to beat opposing Voice of Resurgences and Boros Reckoners and is naturally weak against both versions of Aristocrats. Early interaction backed up with powerful cards, such as Boros Reckoner, should be enough to seal the deal.
B/G Midrange
Creatures (14)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
This deck has been a fringe player for a few weeks now. It plays a number of tough and powerful creatures, removal spells, card draw, and actually nothing else. It’s very good at grinding down other creature decks because it has better creatures and a near non-stop string of removal spells. It’s weak against resilient or residual threats, such as opposing planeswalkers, and cards that present multiple threats, like Lingering Souls and Voice of Resurgence. To beat the deck, play creatures that don’t get easily one-for-oned by their point and click removal spells and pressure them with threats they aren’t prepared to beat like planeswalkers.
That’s all I have on Standard for today. Hopefully, this was informative and will help give you an understanding of what decks you should consider playing, what they have to offer, and how they can be beaten. There are certainly more decks I didn’t cover, but I feel like these are the most important decks and the ones you will encounter most often in a tournament.
Normally, I would end my article here, but I actually have one last thing I’d like to talk about. It’s not related at all to Standard, although it does feature a few Standard-legal cards. I’d like to briefly touch on a fun little brew I played in the Legacy Open last weekend
Creatures (23)
- 1 Scryb Ranger
- 1 Gaddock Teeg
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 3 Knight of the Reliquary
- 3 Stoneforge Mystic
- 4 Geist of Saint Traft
- 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- 3 Deathrite Shaman
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (11)
This deck was awesome. While I ended up going 5-3, I think that the deck was certainly capable of a 6-2 or 7-1 finish if I had played a little better. I’d never played a Maverick style deck before, and I made a number of really strong plays such as locking myself out of casting spells with Gaddock Teeg…multiple times. I also fetched the wrong land somewhere in the range of 90 million times.
I felt like Geist of Saint Traft was very well positioned in Legacy, and I wanted to build a deck that maximized Geist to the most of his abilities. The best way to accomplish that, in my opinion, was to play him as early as you can and to ensure that your opponent can’t find a way to beat him after that happens.
The deck has ten accelerants on turn 1. There are the seven mana creatures and three Green Sun’s Zeniths that can fetch Dryad Arbor assuming it is not in your opening hand. That provides the deck with a critical mass of ways to ensure that Geist can be played on turn 2. There is one minor catch, though.
Dryad Arbor is always in your opening hand. Every time. It never fails. You look at the first six cards, and you’re like, "This hand is awesome. I’m going to Zenith for Arbor and then play a turn 2 Geist. My opponent is dead!" Then you draw the seventh card and it’s that singleton Dryad Arbor laughing in your face. You’re stuck playing a land that can’t tap for mana the first turn and dies to every removal spell ever printed and hoping your opponent doesn’t just Stone Rain you for a single white mana.
They always Stone Rain you.
If you are capable of playing a turn 2 Geist, it’s then important to ensure your opponent can’t come back. That’s where Armageddon factors in. It’s hard for your opponent to really catch back up to your Geist when they can’t cast any spells. Elspeth was basically there to serve a similar purpose. Throwing Geist of Saint Traft into the air like he just don’t care is also a pretty good way to just kill someone before they have time to deal with it.
I felt like a Maverick shell was best suited to maximizing both Geist of Saint Traft and Armageddon because it both provided other cards that worked well with Armageddon, such as Knight of the Reliquary and Scryb Ranger, and it provided cards that worked well with Geist of Saint Traft, such as Noble Hierarch and Thalia to keep them off of answers.
I can’t in good conscience say this deck is the next big thing or anything like that. It’s not. However, it was certainly a fun deck that I really enjoyed playing, and you might enjoy trying it out as well. Legacy is a fun and open format, and I’m having a blast building and playing new decks. Sometimes they are winners (Deathblade), and sometimes they aren’t.
It’s the journey that matters anyway. Or at least that’s what I’ve heard. It’s probably not actually true.
Thanks for reading,
Brian Braun-Duin
@BraunDuinIt on Twitter
BBD on Magic Online