Quite often the metagame at the Release Weekend SCG Tour® stop is relatively bereft of new cards. A combination of card availability issues, a lack of time to test, and a comfortable familiarity with older tech will conspire to keep the new hotness off our screens in favor of the old and busted. That was decidedly not the case at #SCGINDY as we saw everything from Verdurous Gearhulk to Torrential Gearhulk to R/W Vehicles to Aetherflux Reservoir Storm decks and a plethora of things in between.
Whatever your weapon of choice, it has to be able to cope with the Level 1 deck in the format: R/W Vehicles. Most people agreed that an aggressive deck was the place to be forWweek 1, but opinion was split between R/B, G/R and W/R. With half of the Top 20 being R/W at #SCGINDY (if we include Jason Reid’s Mardu list in that), you can be sure that you’ll see it all over your local FNM.
This is actually a brewer’s wheelhouse: a defined deck to beat, but everyone is still optimizing their list and figuring out which cards they shouldn’t have played. Team Cardhoarder, for example, is likely looking to replace those two Pia Nalaar, a card that has gone down in many people’s estimation. Not only can we exploit those tweaks, we also know what our targets are for our 75. So what have we learned? What can we use going forward to #PTKLD, #SCGRegionals and beyond?
There Is a Real Graveyard Deck
Three G/B Delirium decks made Top 16 in Indianapolis, although none of them was running Ever After for some reason. Seriously, have you people read that card? The deck that really grabbed my attention, though, was Ryan Hovis’s G/B Graveyard effort:
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)
There’s definitely something here. One thing that isn’t here is Ever After, but that’s a common thread right now. I can see where the deck is trying to go, but I can also see a couple of things that should almost definitely change.
First among them is that Perpetual Timepiece is probably worse than Liliana, the Last Hope. While it’s true that Liliana has lost some points due to Smuggler’s Copter, she is still very powerful. I would pull a straight switch from sideboard to maindeck here. I would also be terrified in this format to play a deck with one removal spell, and a sorcery at that. Decimator of the Provinces is without a doubt powerful, but this deck does not seem to go very wide and that lowers the power level of the Eldrazi Boar. Shaving two of those and one of the Ghoulsteed for Grasp of Darkness or even Murder would make me much more comfortable.
I think there are more options for the graveyard, though. One of the recurring themes I heard from people was that my Mardu Gearhulks list was both very powerful and very rough. I think, having seen the Week 1 metagame, that my mistake was in the inclusion of too much white. While Refurbish does allow us to Gearhulk on turn 4, I don’t think Nahiri, the Harbinger and Cataclysmic Gearhulk are the best choices. I also think I made a significant error in not including Haunted Dead in my list. With that in mind, we might not need the third color at all:
Creatures (13)
- 1 Void Winnower
- 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
- 4 Haunted Dead
- 1 Demon of Dark Schemes
- 3 Noxious Gearhulk
- 3 Combustible Gearhulk
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (20)
Hey, look, Ever After! Unlike the Mardu version, this deck plays more of a value game. One thing I discovered with the previous list was that a turn 4 Gearhulk could be good, but unless it was Combustible Gearhulk, it didn’t have much of an impact on the game state. One removal spell quickly undid all of our setup, and we likely didn’t get a ton of value from the enters-the-battlefield effect. Instead I wanted to try a more midrange approach that keeps the battlefield clear until it can land a more impactful Gearhulk later in the game. Drawing them early isn’t a disaster, as we have plenty of ways to cycle them out and draw into the removal we need. Three Ever After might be one too many, and we might want one more Energy generator, but this is where I want to start testing.
The Roanoke Crew Are onto Something
It might not have put up the flashy numbers that R/W Vehicles did, but watching Todd Anderson and Brad Nelson face off in the 75-card mirror with their G/W Aggro list made me sit up and take notice. Tom Ross did manage to pilot the list to a Top 16 finish:
Creatures (22)
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 2 Tireless Tracker
- 4 Verdurous Gearhulk
- 4 Fairgrounds Warden
- 4 Servant of the Conduit
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (9)
I get the feeling this deck started as a Stitcher’s Graft deck and then evolved from there. Watching it in action, Fairgrounds Warden seemed a little out of place and Servant of the Conduit also felt underwhelming. Perhaps Aerial Responder has a place here? As it stands, the deck feels like it’s stuck between trying to be aggressive with Thraben Inspector into Smuggler’s Copter and trying to be midrange with Fairgrounds Warden, 25 lands, and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. We could end up going in either direction:
Creatures (26)
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 4 Kessig Prowler
- 4 Verdurous Gearhulk
- 2 Longtusk Cub
- 4 Toolcraft Exemplar
- 4 Servant of the Conduit
Lands (23)
Spells (11)
Going lower on the curve while keeping the top end of Verdurous Gearhulk lets us capitalize on the explosive starts we have open to us in Standard while still having a plan to go big late. The deck might need some Nissa, Voice of Zendikar as well, and a Tireless Tracker or two in the maindeck might not go astray, but there is some potential here for fast starts. And fast endings, for that matter.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 2 Archangel Avacyn
- 2 Tireless Tracker
- 4 Verdurous Gearhulk
- 2 Arborback Stomper
- 2 Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
- 4 Fairgrounds Warden
- 2 Servant of the Conduit
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (9)
I am less confident in the first list than in this one. Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter is a very powerful card that reminds me a lot of Dragonmaster Outcast. Sure, she’s a one-drop, but we don’t want to be casting her on turn 1. We can’t even activate her until turn 3, and even then the ability has little impact. Casting her on turn 6 or 7, however, gives you a lot more flexibility: you can hold up mana to protect her, you have the ability to activate either of her abilities, and she has time to go to work.
The worry with both of these decks is their lack of instant-speed removal. Natural State is fine against Sumggler’s Copter and opposing Stasis Snares but is kind of dead otherwise. I don’t know if Creeping Mold is a good answer to all the animatable threats in the format, but it’s worth a try. Week 2 Standard may look very different from Week 1, and instant-speed removal is likely to be far more prevalent, so bear that in mind when maxing out on Copters in any deck.
Metalwork Colossus Is on the Verge
Eleven-mana 10/10s without evasion are usually unplayable. Five-mana 10/10s are much more like it. Team Next Ridge Nexus made a run with a U/B Colossus build that both Emma Handy and Brennan DeCandio were able to pilot to a Top 64 finish:
Creatures (16)
Lands (23)
Spells (21)
I love this idea and was working on something similar with red instead of black. NRN’s deck has black for Metalspinner’s Puzzleknot and Scrapheap Scrounger only, and neither of those actually requires black to cast. On the other hand, the deck already has Spirebluff Canal, so changing to a red base should not be too hard. I love what we’re trying to do here, but I want to go a slightly different way:
Creatures (17)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
We might want more seven-mana Eldrazi in here to trigger the Kozilek’s Return from the graveyard, but as it stands I am pretty happy with this idea. Filigree Familiar plays a multitude of roles in the deck, helping us bridge the gap to Hedron Archive and also providing delicious sacrifice fodder for Elder Deep-Fiend. Saheeli Rai can do some beautiful things in this deck, as copying an artifact also copies the converted mana cost. It is not unheard-of to be able to cast Metalwork Colossus for one or two mana, sacrifice the Sanctum of Ugin to find another, cast that one, and then leave our opponent needing some serious removal to survive. We even have Hanweir Battlements to grant some haste where needed.
The NRN deck went heavier on the cost-reduction theme with Foundry Inspector, but that left too much of my deck being vulnerable to Kozilek’s Return. Does the deck need some recursion? I don’t believe so, but some more instant-speed removal would not go amiss. Aside from anything else this deck will let you cast a quick Colossus, potentially giving it haste and making it unblockable in the same turn. Oh, and having the ability to make Clues with Magnifying Glass makes it much easier to recur our Colossus if needed.
Blinking Is Powerful
Also making the Top 64 is possibly my favorite list I saw all weekend. Nick Gajary seems to be as big a fan of value as I am:
Creatures (24)
- 4 Eldrazi Displacer
- 1 Sylvan Advocate
- 4 Thought-Knot Seer
- 4 Hedron Crawler
- 2 Archangel Avacyn
- 1 Tireless Tracker
- 2 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 1 Subjugator Angel
- 4 Verdurous Gearhulk
- 1 Arborback Stomper
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (25)
Spells (9)
The concept behind this deck is almost everything I want to be doing. Some of the execution is a little different, but we can forgive that. Nick just wants to get value. Approximately all of it, in fact. While I can definitely get behind that, I am not convinced we want all of those one-ofs with only a pair of Duskwatch Recruiters to find them. We can flesh out some of those and cut others for more consistency. It’s also possible that this is the Standard deck that wants Eldritch Evolution, which would mean we could add a one-off Brood Monitor for a combo finish.
Speaking of the combo, I like that Nick didn’t max out on Panharmonicon. I wouldn’t mind adding a second, but drawing multiples instead of creatures that work with it would feel really bad. Here’s where I would start:
Creatures (28)
- 4 Eldrazi Displacer
- 4 Thought-Knot Seer
- 3 Hedron Crawler
- 2 Archangel Avacyn
- 2 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 1 Subjugator Angel
- 4 Verdurous Gearhulk
- 2 Filigree Familiar
- 2 Arborback Stomper
- 2 Angel of Invention
- 2 Servant of the Conduit
Lands (25)
Spells (7)
I really like Mockery of Nature right now in decks that can support it. On turn 4 we can often blow up a Smuggler’s Copter and get ourselves a large threat at the same time. It might not be a good blink target, but we need to make sure the deck can function without Eldrazi Displacer and Panharmonicon.
One important thing to remember is that getting two Fabricate triggers means you can choose the same option twice or go for one of each. I would like to be able to really take advantage of this, but I am not sure we have any other powerful options in these two colors. I’d love to have more Servant of the Conduit than Hedron Crawler, but we need the access to colorless mana to make Displacer work. This is probably the deck I will be running if and when I get to play paper Magic again.
That’s all we have time for this week folks. As always, thanks for stopping by the LAB. Until next time, my friends…Brew On!