Brad’s Naya Blitz deck is very, very good, but Boros Reckoner is still a huge problem. Things get even worse when Reckoner is in a deck with Restoration Angel, making Pacifism a very poor answer from Naya. Jund gets things like Abrupt Decay and Dreadbore in addition to fliers like Falkenrath Aristocrat, so they are much better off.

If I were to play a Burning-Tree Emissary aggro deck, it would be Jund without question. From the U/W/R side, I’ve always liked that matchup, but there are probably things you could do to make that matchup a little better from the Jund side.

Rancor is sketchy against all the Searing Spears out there, but it allows you to power through Restoration Angels and Loxodon Smiters. Ghor-Clan Rampager provides a similar effect that might actually be better. It also plays better with Domri Rade post-board, which you should certainly be bringing in against blue decks.

Sphinx’s Revelation

These are the decks I have the most experience with by a large margin. While several people expected Burning-Tree Emissary to speed up the format to the point where Sphinx’s Revelation would be too slow, Boros Reckoner and clever deck tuning revealed that not to be the case. In fact, thanks to cards like Boros Reckoner and Devour Flesh filling much-needed roles, Sphinx’s Revelation decks might be even better than before.

U/W/R Flash

I’m confident this is the best deck in Standard; otherwise, I wouldn’t be playing it. I have yet to play this deck and not make Top 16, which is pretty nice. U/W/R has game against everything, and when you’re drawing cards, dealing with their threats, and making land drops, it’s very difficult for anyone to beat you.

The caveats are Human Reanimator, which doesn’t care about most of your cards and can combo kill you, or something like Esper Control that has a win condition you can’t really interact with. That said, if you expect those decks to be a large portion of the metagame, you can make sideboard choices that basically guarantee you wins those matchups.

With Esper eschewing Detention Sphere in favor of Planar Cleansing, things like Jace, Memory Adept and Pithing Needle are incredibly effective against them. Surprisingly, they have few ways to stop your Boros Reckoner / Harvest Pyre combo kill. If you’re able to deal with their Restoration Angels, they have very few ways to answer an active Jace, Memory Adept.

Aside from that, I’ve had some problems with decks that try to go under me, like Brad’s Naya Blitz deck. Removing Pillar of Flame and Izzet Staticaster and skimping on Supreme Verdicts is the only reason though. If I wanted to crush those matchups, I certainly could. Regardless, the current configuration is hardly bad against hyperaggressive decks (as Boros Reckoner mostly brick walls them), but it could be much better.

Falkenrath Aristocrat is another pain, but again, that’s only because I wasn’t playing with Izzet Staticaster.

I feel like all of the problems are easily solvable, just not necessarily at the same time. Last weekend, I bombed out of Grand Prix Charlotte, winning zero total matches. Somewhat thankfully, StarCityGames.com was hosting a Standard 10K the next day, so I was able to play some Constructed!

This is what I played:

U/W/R Flash

Gerry Thompson

13th Place at Grand Prix Side Event on 02-24-2013

Standard

Creatures (14)

• 3 Snapcaster Mage
• 3 Restoration Angel
• 4 Augur of Bolas
• 4 Boros Reckoner

Lands (25)

• 1 Plains
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Island
• 2 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Sulfur Falls
• 3 Clifftop Retreat

Spells (21)

• 1 Unsummon
• 1 Harvest Pyre
• 4 Thought Scour
• 3 Searing Spear
• 2 Izzet Charm
• 2 Mizzium Mortars
• 4 Azorius Charm
• 1 Counterflux
• 3 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard

• 2 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Negate
• 2 Dispel
• 2 Jace, Memory Adept
• 3 Supreme Verdict
• 3 Izzet Staticaster
• 2 Boros Charm

The deck was far from perfect, but I got to try out a decent amount of new things.

Unsummon: I wanted a cheap, Pillar of Flame-esque card that wouldn’t necessarily be dead against control. Unsummon is also pretty good at turning stable boards into racing situations that you’ll win. Consider them tapping out for Thundermaw Hellkite and you casting Unsummon with a Snapcaster Mage in your hand. It’s cards like Azorius Charm and Unsummon that caused me to cut the Thundermaw Hellkites from my sideboard.

Tormod’s Crypt: I almost cut these at the last second for more control and Geist of Saint Traft hate. In the end, I decided that I’d be better be safe than sorry, but I didn’t play against Reanimator at all.

Izzet Staticaster: The Aristocrats was nowhere to be seen, but I heard several people talking about it. I did play against a Jund deck in the vein of Saito’s/EFro’s Naya deck, which looked pretty cool, and Staticaster was solid there. I’ll most likely keep a pair of these in my sideboard.

Zero Geist of Saint Traft: As always, skimping on answers to Geist was a mistake. I panicked the night before and started adding cards like Izzet Staticaster that I thought I needed more. Supreme Verdict was solid, but the Geist decks have Boros Charm, so it’s not a perfect answer.

Zero Assemble the Legions: I will likely play with this card in the future, but I don’t like it. It loses to Kessig Wolf Run (although Jace isn’t great against Wolf Run either), loses to garbage like Curse of Death’s Hold, which Esper might actually start playing now, is super slow, and gets Acidic Slimed.

Once it gets going, it’s nearly impossible to beat. Then again, so is Jace.

Harvest Pyre: While I didn’t kill too many people at the Pro Tour with Harvest Pyre, I think Harvest Pyre ended 60% of my games in the 10K. Todd Anderson tried playing two, but if you don’t draw a Thought Scour, it’s a very miserable card in the early game considering how big the creatures are.

I was 8-1 in that tournament and couldn’t intentionally draw into Top 8, so I conceded Owen Turtenwald into Top 8 and got a head start on my drive home. It would have been nice to play out the Top 8, but it wasn’t realistic for me to do so.

If I needed affirmation that U/W/R Flash is good in Standard, that tournament provided it.

Esper Control

The Restoration Angels do fantastic work in this deck. If not for them, Esper would be good but not great. Instead, Esper is stuck fighting on just the Sphinx’s Revelation axis. They present the same problems to Jund as U/W/R does, where Jund can’t simply board out its removal for Slaughter Games anymore. The Esper decks are getting smarter with cards like Witchbane Orb and Jace, Memory Adept.

Esper also has a slight advantage against U/W/R, although the matchup used to be heavily in Esper’s favor. With Harvest Pyre, Esper has very few ways to actually interact. Esper might have some Devour Fleshes or some counterspells, but that’s it. If they can sandbag a Snapcaster Mage and a Boros Reckoner, you might just be dead.

Instant speed removal that kills Reckoner would help, but what is there? Victim of Night? I like my Esper decks to be mostly U/W with a black splash, so that’s not going to happen.

Wolf Run Bant

While also a Thragtusk deck, without Sphinx’s Revelation it would be a bad Jund deck. Instead, it gets to gain life, pressure the opponent with Kessig Wolf Run, and still has a fantastic late game with Sphinx’s Revelation.

I see a lot of weaknesses against other control decks, and those aren’t very easily solvable. You probably have to bite the bullet on that one and be happy that your maindeck Centaur Healers will frustrate aggro decks.

If this deck is the bane of your existence, Ghost Quarter is probably what you want to have. The net decks don’t have any basic lands, and it’s very difficult to kill anyone in a Sphinx’s Revelation mirror without access to Kessig Wolf Run.

Thragtusk

This is the pillar that I have the least experience with. Regardless, I’ve had to fight through these matchups with Sphinx’s Revelation decks enough times that I know their weaknesses, at least from the blue side.

Jund

Right now, Jund is incredibly vulnerable to any noncreature permanent that costs four or more. People are boarding Witchbane Orb, Assemble the Legions, Staff of Nin, and Jace, Memory Adept to fight you, so you need to adapt!

Of these, Jace is probably the least problematic because of Dreadbore, Rakdos’s Return, and Kessig Wolf Run. It’s vulnerable, but it still kills quickly and can provide card advantage after their Sphinx’s Revelations have been Slaughter Games’d. Additionally, Esper has adapted the U/W/R engine of Augur of Bolas / Restoration Angel, so Slaughter Games is definitely not the knockout it used to be. If you want to hate out Human Reanimator, that’s fine, but using Slaughter Games against Sphinx’s Revelation decks is not a good strategy.

Arbor Elf is a step in the right direction, as is Acidic Slime. Together, these cards give Jund the tools it needs to survive in a hateful metagame. Then again, it’s very unlikely that Jund is good enough to ever win a tournament because it’s not doing anything overly powerful and doesn’t have a particularly great late game, especially compared to other decks.

Naya

I don’t see the appeal here. You’re a bad Gyre Sage deck, a bad Jund deck, and a bad Falkenrath Aristocrat deck. There is a reason most if not all successful Naya decks toward the end of last season had a black splash. I’m not opposed to Jund splashing Restoration Angel, but I am opposed to Naya decks that think they can beat up on control decks without black cards.

The reason EFro made Top 8 of Pro Tour Gatecrash is because he took Saito’s Naya deck and made it more aggressive. He had Burning-Tree Emissary to stymie aggression and create his own. He also had Thundermaw Hellkite at the top of his curve, which is very difficult for a lot of decks to beat.

Traditional Naya decks have been all about the one-drop mana creatures, but I like that EFro’s deck has mostly good draws, even in the late game. While drawing Burning-Tree Emissary on turn 10 might be close to as useless as a 1/1, it really starts adding up when you’re drawing multiple 2/2s instead of multiple 1/1s. I would recommend building your deck in such a way that it has an aggressive curve that isn’t relying on playing a one-drop on turn 1.

***

Going forward, I expect Jund and Human Reanimator to adapt to other decks’ sideboards, which will make them incredibly dangerous. U/W/R and Esper will remain very good and will continue to find new ways to lock out the green decks, whether it’s with noncreatures or things like Angel of Serenity.

There will be weeks where Burning-Tree Emissary decks are number one or Human Reanimator is number one, but the other decks will adapt quickly. If aggro decks are on the decline, Zombies might show up and make everyone regret leaving their Pillar of Flames at home.

Standard is changing week to week, and how you build your deck will depend on what happened last week and what type of tournament you’re playing in. At this point, it’s almost better to change your deck week to week, knowing that  while your list last week was perfect, it will be out of date the next. Some people like to switch decks, which is all right too, but just be sure you’re not setting yourself up for failure by playing something with a target on its head.

GerryT

@G3RRYT on Twitter