Brace yourself! Mono-Red Aggro is coming! The Standard metagame on Magic Online became aggressive a few weeks ago, and a plethora of aggro decks in Top 8 of SCG Standard Open: Dallas proved that the pair of Naya Blitz decks in the Top 8 of #SCGNASH last weekend wasn’t a fluke. The online metagame has already started hating on aggro, and SCG Standard Opens will probably see this trend very soon as well.
The simplest answer to the question of how to beat aggro in Standard is to just play Jund. It eats aggro for breakfast and is much better against control since Sire of Insanity’s introduction to format—which probably eliminated control from the Standard equilibrium. However, Jund is weak against G/B/W Reanimator and must adapt to be a good choice for a long tournament—there’s a very low chance that you can avoid Unburial Rites all day.
Creatures (13)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (25)
Spells (20)
Terry Stoute’s Jund from #SCGDAL is an interesting example of such adaptation. He cut Sire of Insanity from the maindeck, correctly anticipating very few control decks, and packed clear anti-aggro cards like Vampire Nighthawk supported by the full four copies of Bonfire of the Damned, which is effective against both aggro and Reanimator.
This approach may be the best that can be done with Jund Midrange right now, but I’d go a little bit deeper and pack more one-mana removal maindeck to be able to use mana a little bit more effectively. Terry had the second pair of Tragic Slips in his sideboard, but I’d play Pillar of Flame instead. Falkenrath Aristocrat decks aren’t that popular right now, while being able to deal with Voice of Resurgence and Strangleroot Geist is helpful.
Voice of Resurgence is one of the best anti-aggro cards on its own. Two mana is a very cheap price for two blockers, and GW is simpler to pay for than the GG for Strangleroot Geist. Both cards are somewhat diminished by Mono-Red Aggro’s quartet of Pillar of Flames, but they are pretty good if the opponent doesn’t draw one—or if the opponent is playing a different aggressive deck like G/R, Naya Blitz, or BUG or Bant with Young Wolf and Rapid Hybridization. Voice’s anti-aggro potential is best used in Bant Flash, but the most interesting non-Jund approach to beat aggro includes combining Voice of Resurgence with another great anti-aggro card: Lingering Souls.
Possible variations include B/G/W Aristocrats and G/W/B Tokens. The first deck has been played a bit but still doesn’t get enough credit outside of Magic Online. If you want to be the one to put it on the offline Standard map, you can borrow the list of hopefalls1, who made the finals of a Magic Online Premier Event with it last week.
Creatures (21)
- 3 Skirsdag High Priest
- 4 Doomed Traveler
- 3 Blood Artist
- 4 Cartel Aristocrat
- 3 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
- 4 Voice of Resurgence
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (23)
Spells (13)
I’m still not sure if the straight and powerful Advent of the Wurm is what this deck really needs, and I’d definitely exchange it for Young Wolf to specifically beat aggro. The builds I’ve seen thus far are somewhat divided between trying to be fast aggressive deck that exploits Cartel Aristocrat and Varolz, the Scar-Striped as a way to sneak through opposition and midrangey creation that tries to be good against both aggro and Reanimator due to versatility.
The first approach is represented above, while the second one tends to utilize Garruk Relentless instead of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and adds powerful singletons to support the planeswalker. Obzedat, Ghost Council is a good example of such a singleton, while the largest creature in more aggressive builds is the Demon token from a Skirsdag High Priest or a Cartel Aristocrat with numerous +1/+1 counters.
G/W/B Tokens uses similar weapons to survive early—Voice of Resurgence, Lingering Souls, and maybe Doomed Traveler—but tokens are this deck’s primary weapon, so you can expect more powerful ones and Sorin’s emblem being key to this deck’s success.
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (4)
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Wesley Harding’s Top 16 list from Dallas is an interesting example of such a deck. I’m not a fan of Call of the Conclave with only a single way to populate Centaurs, but the mana base is complicated enough to prevent Doomed Traveler from being cast on time. There aren’t any good two-mana token makers aside from Call of the Conclave and Selesnya Charm (I’d consider having more Charms instead of Centaur tokens). You should also note that there are so few Supreme Verdicts around that Wesley decided to have zero Rootborn Defenses in his token deck, while Craig Wescoe nontoken Block Pro Tour-winning deck included four Rootborn Defenses as an anti-sweeper measure.
Other changes I’d make are exchanging Restoration Angels for other four-mana spells—like the fourth Advent of the Wurm and second Garruk Relentless—and maybe cutting one copy of Intangible Virtue since I actively dislike drawing two early instead of token makers. The increased quantity of little Garruk may also make a small toolbox playable. Obzedat, Ghost Council or Scion of Vitu-Ghazi are fine additions to Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice, and such a toolbox may significantly improve the deck’s chances in midrange mirrors, especially against thinks like Sire of Insanity.
Another approach to a tokens deck is demonstrated in naniha’s deck from a Magic Online Premier Event. Loxodon Smiter is a great anti-aggro card too, and a simpler mana base may balance the lack of Lingering Souls (absence of land-associated pain also helps you survive).
The deck’s overall concept is to go big and actively populate tokens, which are big enough to be good without Intangible Virtue. It’s a little bit too straightforward and clumsy, but when it works, it’s devastating. Remember how B/W Tokens from Scars-Innistrad Standard played only two or three spells that interacted with opposing threats? This deck is from that tribe, even if it replaces the great amount of little Spirits with smaller quantities of mighty Wurms. This also increases the efficiency of populate, actually making it comparable to Sorin’s effect on Spirit armies.
Creatures (20)
Lands (24)
Spells (17)
The list is very simple and attractive like a two-handed sword among rapiers. However, it would be nice to polish it up a bit and add some flexibility. First, some Intangible Virtues are needed—vigilance is important in many matchups to help win creature stalemates. Two copies would be enough for this purpose, while two Collective Blessings may be excessive even if there are eight mana dorks in the list.
Another potential problem is the lack of maindeck card advantage aside from populate. The quality of threats is awesome, but there is no way to utilize mana dorks, which may be a problem, so I’d add Garruk to the mix, but I’m not sure which one. Garruk, Primal Hunter helps utilize mana by drawing more threats, while Garruk Relentless may recycle Avacyn’s Pilgrim into Scion of Vitu-Ghaz and is better against aggressive decks, so he’s better for current metagame.
Other changes would include more Gavony Townships, even if I actively dislike reducing the amount of turn 1 green mana sources. I also wouldn’t include a black splash because I’ve actually tried it but came to conclusion that the package of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Lingering Souls is much better in a deck with small creatures, which this one simply isn’t. Attempts to incorporate Lingering Souls in here eventually led me to lists similar to Wesley Harding’s above or to worse B/W decks.
A last note on this deck: eight mana dorks with Garruk Relentless may allow you to add a singleton Craterhoof Behemoth to the sideboard. Behemoth’s effect is similar to Collective Blessing but is much more powerful even if it’s harder to utilize. Trample is a thing that may be crucial for this deck, and having a one-slot alternative win condition is huge.
Speaking of compact alternative win conditions, are you ready to search for Thespian’s Stage with Knight of the Reliquary in Legacy when the new legendary rule comes into effect for M14? Dark Depths already costs a lot, be sure to get your copy of it and Gerry Thompson token before it costs too much!
I’m also very curious to see Jace, the Mind Sculptor wars in Legacy and many other funny things. The new rules will probably impact Eternal formats very seriously, but that will be a little bit later. Standard is right here right now, and aggressive decks are on the rise. The lists I’ve posted are obviously not the only ways to suppress them, and there are many other ideas like combining Voice of Resurgence and Advent of the Wurm in a Bant Flash core (check out Matt Costa article on Premium here), playing anti-aggro decks like B/G Demons (I recently covered them here, going bigger aggro, etc.
Lastly, the most interesting thing I want to do after M14’s release is to finally put Treacherous Pit-Dweller into a Constructed deck. GerryT proposed an interesting take on Jund Aggro here with Varolz, the Scar-Striped as additional sacrifice outlet to make Pit-Dweller less dangerous, but eight ways to deal with undying may be not enough. Then again, the spoiling of Scavenging Ooze will surely help solve this problem…
But that’s the future! Good luck to everyone playing this weekend, and see you next week!
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