The talk coming out of #SCGINDY is all about the dominance of Smuggler’s Copter and that’s not without merit. Smuggler’s Copter dominated the opening week of Standard like no card has ever done, and it’s certainly established as the best card in the format for the time being.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed with non-Copter decks. It would be a gross overreaction to assume Smuggler’s Copter is that strong with only a week of data. It’s certainly strong, but it also slots into aggressive decks which tend to do well on week one, and it also plays well with the Dwarf-Vehicle theme of Kaladesh, which gives a clear direction for deckbuilders early on.
Other decks take some time to work out all the kinks because the gears are more intricate and the balance between all the pieces is more delicate. Nowhere was this truer than in Ryan Hovis’s dedicated graveyard deck, which he took to a solid 33rd-place finish in the tournament.
Hovis takes the Haunted Dead – Prized Amalgam core that has already seen success in Standard, most notably in Sultai Emerge last season, and builds on it through the addition of Noose Constrictor and Perpetual Timepiece as additional ways to get key pieces in your graveyard as well as Ghoulsteed and Scrapheap Scrounger as additional creatures to recur and trigger Prized Amalgam.
But all these pieces need a payoff card to work, as most decks can answer or race these creatures consistently, since you spend so many turns and resources setting up. Decimator of the Provinces is that payoff. Haunted Dead and Ghoulsteed are the primary creatures you’ll be sacrificing so you can cast your payoff card on turn 4 or 5, just about the time you should have the battlefield flooded with creatures.
Decimator of the Provinces gives the deck an important new angle, allowing you to race the more aggressive decks of Kaladesh Standard. The recursion element of the deck naturally insulates you against removal spells, so having a dedicated element against removal-light, proactive decks fills an important hole in the archetype and gives the deck a combo feel.
Decimator of the Provinces also plays an important role against midrange decks that play to the battlefield. Often they can clog the ground to the point where you can’t make a profitable attack, at which point the recursion on your creatures becomes irrelevant. Decimator of the Provinces lets you go over the top of decks like that and either win the game on the spot or decimate their battlefield, at which point you can bring back your creatures and generate a dominating advantage.
There are always going to be players who refuse to play the most popular decks and cards. The results of last weekend may have been disheartening at the top, but as you search through the rest of the Top 64, you’ll find plenty of cool decks like this one to work on. Hope springs eternal.
Creatures (26)
- 4 Prized Amalgam
- 3 Ghoulsteed
- 4 Gnarlwood Dryad
- 3 Decimator of the Provinces
- 4 Haunted Dead
- 4 Noose Constrictor
- 4 Scrapheap Scrounger
Lands (22)
Spells (12)
