Lots of changes to multiple formats today: https://t.co/d6nUmtCPiJ
As a reminder, Pioneer’s announcement will be posted later this afternoon.
— Aaron Forsythe (@mtgaaron) November 18, 2019
Given that a large majority of Standard decks played some or all of Oko, Thief of Crowns; Once Upon a Time; and Veil of Summer, we can expect a big shake-up in Throne of Eldraine Standard. In today’s article, I’ll talk about the decks I perceive to be immediate winners and losers from this ban, as well as some first-impression updated lists for the decks I think are good.
Loser: Simic / Sultai Food
Creatures (19)
Planeswalkers (8)
Lands (7)
Spells (26)
This one is pretty obvious. This was an Oko, Thief of Crowns deck, and it also relied on Once Upon a Time to get busted early hands and on Veil of Summer to win sideboard games. I believe both these decks are now dead as we know them.
Winner: Golgari Adventures
Creatures (25)
- 3 Paradise Druid
- 2 Massacre Girl
- 3 Rankle, Master of Pranks
- 4 Foulmire Knight
- 2 Order of Midnight
- 3 Lovestruck Beast
- 4 Murderous Rider
- 4 Edgewall Innkeeper
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (7)
Sideboard
Golgari Adventures was a good Game 1 deck, but it suffered in sideboarded games because Veil of Summer was so efficient against it. You were basically forced to play both Murderous Raider and Noxious Grasp for interaction, and then for only one mana your opponent could blow you out. Now there’s no more need to maindeck Noxious Grasp and your Murderous Raiders become a lot better.
This deck often plays Once Upon a Time (though there are versions that don’t), but it’s not nearly as reliant on finding Edgewall Innkeeper as the Selesnya version is, since it’s more grindy and less all-in, so it’s not nearly as big a loss. Eli Kassis himself only played two copies of the card, though whether that was right or not I can’t tell (my inclination was always to play four copies). It also plays Veil of Summer, but it never needed it and it would much rather other people don’t have access to it.
All in all, I believe Golgari will be the Edgewall Innkeeper deck, though the deck should undergo some changes to reflect the new metagame. Obviously you need to remove Once Upon a Time from it (and don’t forget to add lands to make up for that in all your decks!) but you also no longer need Noxious Grasp.
I would just streamline the deck more, with four copies of Lovestruck Beast (playing only three is kinda crazy to me) as well as third or fourth copies of Order of Midnight, which I really like. Massacre Girl is still good in the Trail of Crumbs decks that can find it, but now that you don’t have Once Upon a Time here, I think Find // Finality might be a better inclusion. You could also swap Liliana, Dreadhorde General for Garruk, Cursed Huntsman, now that dodging maindeck Noxious Grasp isn’t going to be a strong consideration. But in this deck I think Liliana’s passive ability is actually super-relevant, so I’m sticking with them.
Here’s where I would start:
Creatures (26)
- 3 Paradise Druid
- 3 Rankle, Master of Pranks
- 4 Foulmire Knight
- 4 Order of Midnight
- 4 Lovestruck Beast
- 4 Murderous Rider
- 4 Edgewall Innkeeper
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (4)
- 2 Find
- 2 Legion's End
Loser: Selesnya Adventures
Creatures (25)
- 4 Venerated Loxodon
- 1 Flaxen Intruder
- 4 Lovestruck Beast
- 4 Faerie Guidemother
- 4 Giant Killer
- 4 Edgewall Innkeeper
- 4 Shepherd of the Flock
Lands (21)
Spells (14)
Selesnya Adventures is a loser in two spots. First, I think it had a good matchup versus Simic Food (though not Sultai Food) and I expect that deck to disappear. I don’t know what will replace it, but Selesnya Adventures is extremely vulnerable, so if the replacement decks have sweepers or strong utility creatures, that’s bad for you.
Second, it loses Once Upon a Time and that’s what I think is the nail in the coffin. Selesnya Adventures is a shell of Edgewall Innkeeper and Venerated Loxodon alongside 52 cards that just aren’t that strong; the reason you can afford to play stuff like Flaxen Intruder and Faerie Guidemother is because your deck is very consistent at finding your two payoff cards and a big reason why it’s so consistent at doing that is because you have four Once Upon a Time. Once you no longer have Once Upon a Time, the deck lacks the critical mass of payoffs to justify playing this many underpowered cards, and I don’t think it will have much reason to exist.
Winner: Simic Flash
Creatures (21)
- 4 Frilled Mystic
- 3 Spectral Sailor
- 4 Nightpack Ambusher
- 4 Brineborn Cutthroat
- 2 Wildborn Preserver
- 4 Brazen Borrower
Lands (24)
Spells (15)
This list is already post-ban, and it doesn’t include Mystical Dispute or Aether Gust because I think the format will be more wide-open moving forward.
The ban article mentioned Simic Flash as the only deck in the Top 10 most-played with a good matchup against Simic or Sultai Food. I find this to be puzzling, as I’ve always thought the reason Simic Flash was bad was because it had a bad Food matchup – their deck is just more proactive and fewer things have to go right for them than for you. On top of that, they have excellent sideboard cards (Mystical Dispute and Veil of Summer) and you didn’t. I don’t know why my results don’t match Magic Arena’s, but I think it’s possible that Simic Flash is a very hard deck to play against and the average Arena player is struggling a bit with it (but it’s also possible I am wrong in this, of course).
Even though not everyone played four, Once Upon a Time is a real loss. It was very strong in this deck, since you could use it to find your finisher (Nightpack Ambusher) and your interaction (Frilled Mystic, Brazen Borrower); you could also cast it in the middle of the game without tapping out. But Veil of Summer is an even bigger loss for everyone else, as Veil of Summer was a nightmare for this deck and everyone had access to three or four copies of that card in sideboarded games, Therefore, I expect this deck’s popularity to increase.
On top of that, the large metagame shifts look like they might benefit this deck as well, because it’s very good versus some of the other decks that were held back by both Veil of Summer and Food in general. For example, if decks like Grixis Fires or Esper Dance make a resurgence, Simic Flash is a good option to prey on them. The fact that people will stop playing maindeck Noxious Grasps to randomly kill your Nightpack Ambusher is also a good thing.
Overall, if the metagame goes in the direction I expect, this will be a strong contender.
Loser: Sultai Sacrifice
Creatures (16)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (24)
Spells (14)
Oko, Thief of Crowns is a very good card in Sultai Sacrifice, but it’s not integral to the deck’s gameplan – the deck’s combo revolves around Witch’s Oven, Cauldron Familiar, and Trail of Crumbs. In fact, I’d argue that banning something like Massacre Girl would be more detrimental to the deck and I fully expect this deck to remain a force in Throne of Eldraine Standard. However, without Oko, there’s probably no reason for the deck to play blue, so Sultai Sacrifice as we know it is dead.
Winner: Jund Sacrifice
Creatures (22)
- 3 Midnight Reaper
- 3 Paradise Druid
- 4 Mayhem Devil
- 4 Gilded Goose
- 3 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
- 1 Murderous Rider
- 4 Cauldron Familiar
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (23)
Spells (11)
Once you have no reason to play blue, you can play red for Mayhem Devil (or straight Golgari, but I think Mayhem Devil is strong enough with the cards you’re already playing that it’s worth it). I believe this will be the stock Cat Food version in the future.
Now that all the other best decks in the format have been banned, there is some concern that the Cat Food decks in some form will dominate the format. However, I believe these decks were always made under the assumption that people would not go over you, and that assumption was correct because Oko made sure that no one went over anything. Now that Oko is no longer a player, it’s not a given that people will not go over you anymore, and you might see yourself facing more Questing Beasts, Embercleaves, and Fires of Invention than you did before. So my verdict is that this deck is still definitely viable and definitely strong, but it’s not necessarily going to dominate everything.
I would make a couple of changes from Thiago’s list (including adding more land – even though this deck didn’t play Once Upon a Time, it seems remarkably land-light to me).
Creatures (24)
- 2 Midnight Reaper
- 4 Mayhem Devil
- 2 Massacre Girl
- 4 Gilded Goose
- 2 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
- 3 Murderous Rider
- 3 Wicked Wolf
- 4 Cauldron Familiar
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (8)
Winner: Esper Dance
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (25)
Spells (30)
This deck gets better with every announcement, but so far it hasn’t proven to be quite good enough. Is this its moment to shine? It might be! As a Dimir-based control deck with removal and Thought Erasure, this deck suffered tremendously from Veil of Summer. The key to whether this deck will be good or not will depend on what type of card people replace Veil of Summer with. If all Veil of Summer decks take out Veil of Summer and simply replace it with Negates or Disdainful Strokes, this is not that big a win for you because these cards are arguably even better against you than Veil of Summer. However, if they replace them with something else, you could be in business.
Without the Food focus, I like going back to the more streamlined list I liked before since you no longer need Noxious Grasp or Sorcerous Spyglass. There isn’t much that I think you can change here without compromising the core, so this is the list I’d play:
Creatures (2)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (29)
Winner: Golgari Henge
Creatures (31)
- 4 Pelt Collector
- 4 Spawn of Mayhem
- 4 Growth-Chamber Guardian
- 2 Paradise Druid
- 4 Rotting Regisaur
- 4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
- 2 Lovestruck Beast
- 4 Murderous Rider
- 3 Questing Beast
Lands (25)
Spells (4)
Some cards, mostly expensive creatures and artifacts, were so thoroughly dominated by Oko that we kind of had to forget they existed. One such card is The Great Henge. It’s a build-around that got completely neutralized the moment they cast their planeswalker. There are many ways to use a card like The Great Henge and I have no idea if this list is any good (it’s been a while since I’ve played something like it), but it felt like negligence to not mention it. Other cards in a similar boat are Feasting Troll King, Midnight Clock, and Niv-Mizzet, Parun.
I’m not sure what direction the metagame is taking, but I do know that, for at least a while, it’s going to be wide open. Both Oko and Veil of Summer were very oppressive cards and there were several decks that could not exist because they were popular, so these are the ones I will turn my eyes towards as I figure out what to play at Mythic Championship VII in just a few weeks.