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Today, I am going to elaborate on what popular decks you will meet in any future Standard tournaments you play, and most importantly, prepare for Team Standard. I will give you the pros and cons of each deck, and outline some ways on how to improve its weaknesses against other decks.
Aggro
Zoo
| Zoo A Standard deck, by Craig Jones 2nd place at a Pro Tour tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on 2006-03-05 | ||
Creatures 3 Burning-Tree Shaman 3 Kami of Ancient Law 4 Kird Ape 4 Savannah Lions 4 Watchwolf Instants 2 Bathe in Light 4 Char 3 Flames of the Blood Hand 4 Lightning Helix 3 Shock Legendary Creatures 4 Isamaru, Hound of Konda |
Basic Lands 2 Forest 1 Plains Lands 4 Battlefield Forge 1 Brushland 1 Karplusan Forest 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Stomping Ground 4 Temple Garden Legendary Lands 1 Eiganjo Castle | 2 Giant Solifuge 3 Hunted Wumpus 2 Tin Street Hooligan 1 Flames of the Blood Hand 3 Guerrilla Tactics 4 Umezawa's Jitte |
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This deck uses the cheapest and most efficient creatures from all five colors available. However, the biggest weakness of the deck is actually the deck itself. Without the fetchlands from Onslaught, it is only able to commit to three colors... and it still suffers mana issues. I would certainly try to fit at least two copies of Skarrg, the Rage Pits in the deck, but the is already plagued by huge mana problems. This was in the Pro Tour Honolulu Finals, where, in two out of the five games, Craig Jones gave away the match through mana problems.
Good Matchups
Urzatron
Owling Mine
Heartbeat
Land Destruction
Bad Matchups
Any decks packing some spot removals, such as Lightning Helix, Putrefy, and Mortify, followed up by Wrath of God. A good example is W/B/G Control, a.k.a. Roxodon Hierarch.
Cannot survive Gruul mid-game plays, such as Moldervine Cloak and Rumbling Slum.
Having said that, you might want to improve your matchup against these two matchups by putting some spot removal in the board, such as Reciprocate - it works against Rumbling Slum — or cards like Shining Shoal, which are strong against Gruul. As for W/B/G control decks, you should consider cards like Bathe in Light, Otherworldly Journey, Ghostway, and Giant Solifuge.
Pros: The deck is very fast, and it plays efficient spells from a range of three colors. This gives it a good variety of spells in both the maindeck and sideboard. The deck is able to come out of the blocks with lightning hands, stopping most decks with first turn Kird Ape followed by second turn Watchwolf. Most decks cannot handle a start like this.
Cons: As I've mentioned, the deck suffers mana inconsistencies. In addition to that, it also takes a fair amount of pain from its lands. Like all aggro decks, a Wrath of God followed by a beefy creature is usually Game Over. In addition, Zoo decks have problems against fat creatures (be them from Gruul decks during the midgame, or from decks that utilize Ghost Council of the Orzhova or Loxodon Hierarch).
Gruul Beats
| Gruul Beats A Standard deck, by Mark Herberholz 1st place at a Pro Tour tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on 2006-03-05 | ||
Creatures 4 Burning-Tree Shaman 4 Dryad Sophisticate 3 Frenzied Goblin 4 Giant Solifuge 4 Kird Ape 4 Scab-Clan Mauler 4 Scorched Rusalka Enchantments 3 Moldervine Cloak |
Instants 4 Char 3 Flames of the Blood Hand Basic Lands 6 Forest 7 Mountain Lands 4 Karplusan Forest 2 Skarrg, the Rage Pits 4 Stomping Ground | 2 Rumbling Slum 2 Tin Street Hooligan 4 Blood Moon 1 Flames of the Blood Hand 2 Naturalize 4 Umezawa's Jitte |
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| Gruul Aggro Fat Featured by Terry Soh on 2006-03-05 (Standard) | ||
Creatures 4 Burning-Tree Shaman 4 Dryad Sophisticate 3 Giant Solifuge 4 Gruul Guildmage 4 Kird Ape 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Rumbling Slum Enchantments 4 Moldervine Cloak |
Instants 3 Char 4 Shock Basic Lands 7 Forest 5 Mountain Lands 4 Karplusan Forest 2 Skarrg, the Rage Pits 4 Stomping Ground | Stats: Average mana: 1.48 Average creature mana cost: 2.37 Average creature power: 2.52 Average creature toughness: 2.19 Deck Composition: Creatures: 45.00% Instants: 11.67% Basic Lands: 20.00% Lands: 16.67% Enchantments: 6.67% |
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Well, well, well... I actually proved myself right about the Gruul Deck. The Gruul deck that took first place at the Pro Tour proves that, despite its weaknesses, it's a forced to be reckoned with. I mentioned this deck before in my previous article, and I feel this should be the benchmark for any future aggro decks. It is very consistent, and does not suffer the mana problems of the Zoo builds. The creatures are also bigger, especially with Moldervine Cloak, and can happily patrol the red zone against other aggro decks.
This deck can go many different routes after sideboarding. It can change to a land destruction deck if needed, to stop control decks from stabilizing the game.
Good Matchups
Urzatron
Owling Mine
Heartbeat
Land Destruction
Bad Matchups
As with Zoo: any deck packing some spot removal, such as Lightning Helix, Putrefy, and Mortify, followed up by Wrath of God.
If you look at the decklist from Mark Herberholz, you will find that his deck is somehow tuned to beat control. He has eleven one-mana creatures to accelerate to a 3/3 second turn Scab-Clan Mauler. In this case, the Maulers are good against control, but they decrease in value against any aggro deck. This is because the Maulers rely on having an uncontested one-drop... against an aggro deck, you'll often face their own one-drop creature acting as a makeshift wall to halt your bloodthirsty charges.
As for the sideboard, the Gruul deck can always side in land destruction cards to handle control decks easily. Playing Blood Moon is a very good sideboard card against most decks in the environment. If you are expecting a lot of Blue decks, you may even want to consider Leyline of the Lifeforce. I find sideboarding for this deck to be very easy, as it is extremely flexible.
Pros: Less mana problems, and the creatures are bigger compared to Zoo decks. It is the most consistent aggro deck in the field.
Cons: Like all aggro decks, a Wrath of God followed by a beefy creature usually spells game. The deck also has lack of good one-drops (only Kird Ape truly makes the grade), forcing it to play creatures like Llanowar Elves to ensure its three-mana 3/3 immediately.
Aggro-Control
Looking on to the aggro-control decks, we have two types of deck in contention... and both belong to the Orzhov Guild.
Hand in Hand
| Orzhov Aggro A Standard deck, by Olivier Ruel 4th place at a Pro Tour tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on 2006-03-05 | ||
Creatures 4 Dark Confidant 3 Hand of Cruelty 2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 2 Paladin en-Vec 4 Plagued Rusalka 4 Ravenous Rats 2 Shrieking Grotesque Instants 3 Mortify Legendary Artifacts 3 Umezawa's Jitte Legendary Creatures 4 Ghost Council of Orzhova 3 Teysa, Orzhov Scion |
Sorceries 4 Castigate Basic Lands 2 Plains 6 Swamp Lands 4 Caves of Koilos 4 Godless Shrine 4 Orzhov Basilica Legendary Lands 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse | 1 Descendant of Kiyomaro 2 Orzhov Pontiff 2 Phyrexian Arena 2 Seize the Soul 2 Slay 2 Cranial Extraction 2 Distress 2 Terashi's Grasp |
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This deck gives you the ability to gain card advantage through Dark Confidant, and the option to disrupt your opponent's hand with Castigate, Ravenous Rats, and Shrieking Grotesque. This is usually too much for your opponent to handle. The deck itself has some resistance against decks with Wrath of God, in the form of Teysa and Ghost Council. Against Wildfire decks, it has also one of the best cards in the environment - Paladin en-Vec. I find many of the games in the mirror match are decided by this guy, when equipped with Umezawa's Jitte and swinging for the win.
If you are looking at the land base for this deck, it has twenty-two lands... and four of them are Orzhov Basilica. This is good, as this enables you to cheat on lands for better spells... but in my opinion, playing this land in an aggro deck will slow tempo far too much. I have found myself unable to lay my two- and three-mana creatures due to this land. If you are playing this deck, you may want to consider reducing the number of bounce lands for a little more consistency.
Bad Matchups
Owling Mine
Good Matchups
Heartbeat
As you can see, this deck does not have a lot of overly bad - or overly good - matchups. I find this deck tends to have a lot of average matchups against other aggro decks, and games often come down to the player who has the better draws on the day. For example, against a Gruul deck, any creature enchanted with Moldervine Cloak would lure a Mortify for a two-for-one trade, and cards like Ravenous Rats and Castigate will probably chump block or lure a burn spell from the Gruul player's hand. Furthermore, you really don't expect Dark Confidant to live very long, and thus you can't rely on receiving boatloads of card advantage. Another thing to note is that this deck tends to be a little vulnerable to Pyroclasm (as played by Urzatron), due to most of the creatures having a single point of toughness.
After testing, I have concluded that Owling Mine is this deck's worst matchup. Overall, my testing statistics show that, for eight out of ten games, I lose to the anti-control Owl deck. I have tested it many many times, only to get the same outcome. This deck loses because its discard spells are simply useless against a deck that offsets it through Howling Mine and Kami of the Crescent Moon. The creatures are simply too small to Pressure Owling Mine decks. The lack of instant spells in the deck (only Mortify) usually causes Ebony Owl Netsuke to deal four damage with regularity.
Here is a tip for when you're facing this deck: after a resolved Castigate, try to force the discard of his draw engines (like Howling Mine and Kami of the Crescent Moon), rather than the admittedly damaging Ebony Owl Netsuke. By doing so, your discard spells will have more effect on the outcome, as the draw engines are unable to offset the loss of a card.
Orzhov aggro control decks tend to get better after sideboarding, as the colors open to a variety of cards against a number of popular decks. Cards like Persecute and Cranial Extraction destroy control decks. Removal — such as Nekrataal - can be brought in against aggro decks. All-purpose cards like Terashi's Grasp can be used to deal with artifact and enchantments.
Pros: The deck doesn't have many bad matchups. This deck does not suffer against decks armed with Wrath of God - unlike other aggro decks, it plays cards like Teysa and Ghost Council. Furthermore, the discard spells (Castigate) is able to net a removal spell from their hand.
Cons: I find the manabase to be a little shaky, due to the four bounce lands. Loses badly to Owling Mine. Do not play this if you expect a lot of Owling Mine decks in your area. Can be vulnerable to Pyroclasm.
Ghost Dad
| Ghost Dad A Standard deck, by Ben Goodman 22nd place at a Pro Tour tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on 2006-03-05 | ||
Creatures 4 Dark Confidant 3 Kami of Ancient Law 3 Plagued Rusalka 4 Tallowisp 4 Thief of Hope Enchantments 1 Indomitable Will 3 Pillory of the Sleepless 1 Strands of Undeath Instants 4 Shining Shoal 4 Sickening Shoal Legendary Creatures 4 Ghost Council of Orzhova 2 Teysa, Orzhov Scion |
Basic Lands 6 Plains 6 Swamp Lands 4 Caves of Koilos 4 Godless Shrine Legendary Lands 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse 1 Tomb of Urami | 2 Pithing Needle 1 Kami of Ancient Law 1 Enfeeblement 1 Pillory of the Sleepless 2 Blessed Breath 2 Umezawa's Jitte 3 Cranial Extraction 2 Persecute 1 Miren, the Moaning Well |
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This deck has been going on a rampage through Magic Online lately, and it definitely deserves some attention. I doubt I have much more to say about this deck, as Ben Goodman has talked a lot about his deck in the premium article entitled The Official Ghost Dad Primer.
Control
URzatron
| Izzetron A Standard deck, by Osyp Lebedowicz 5th place at a Pro Tour tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on 2006-03-05 | ||
Artifacts 4 Izzet Signet Enchantments 2 Confiscate Instants 4 Electrolyze 4 Mana Leak 4 Remand 2 Telling Time |
Legendary Creatures 4 Keiga, the Tide Star 4 Meloku the Clouded Mirror Sorceries 1 Blaze 4 Compulsive Research 1 Invoke the Firemind 2 Pyroclasm 1 Tidings Lands 4 Shivan Reef 4 Steam Vents 2 Tendo Ice Bridge 4 Urza's Mine 4 Urza's Power Plant 4 Urza's Tower Legendary Lands 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge | 4 Giant Solifuge 4 Annex 2 Repeal 2 Smash 1 Ryusei, the Falling Star 2 Pyroclasm |
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This is one of the stronger control decks right now. This deck has various ways to win, such as Meloku the Clouded Mirror and Keiga, the Tide Star, or even with a twenty-point Blaze. It plays the Urza lands, generating insane amounts of mana to gain a strong advantage over your opponent, and drops big threats on the table.
Against control decks, Urzatron plays slowly by just countering key spells, casting card draw, and laying lands to slowly form the pieces of Tron.
Against aggro, it can stabilize the board with Repeal, Pyroclasm, and Electrolyze, before laying down Meloku the Clouded Mirror or Keiga, the Tide Star.
Bad Matchups
Land Destruction
Owling Mine
Gruul
Zoo
Good Matchups
Greater Good Gifts
Looking at this deck's bad matchups, it is very hard for Urzatron to deal with Gruul and Zoo decks due to their three-toughness creatures. A first turn Kird Ape against Urzatron is enough to give them a headache. This is because most of their removal spells are only able to deal two damage (Electrolyze and Pyroclasm). Therefore, if you are expecting a lot of Aggro decks like this, try using Volcanic Hammer instead. This would really improve the matchup. Against Owling Mine decks, I suggest you try playing Shattering Spree in the sideboard.
Any deck with Gifts Ungiven has always been a good matchup for Tron decks. Gifts decks are usually unable to stop a twenty-point Blaze, and most of the time that is what you will be doing against them to win.
If you look at Osyp's deck at Pro Tour, I find that it is definitely missing Miren, the Moaning Well... as that card by itself works so well with Keiga, the Tide Star. If you are going to play this deck, I suggest you find a space to play Miren, the Moaning Well, and see the difference it will make.
Pros: Multiple ways to win. Has advantage against many control decks. It is regarded as one of the best control decks in the format.
Cons: Has problems dealing with three toughness creatures early game, which both Gruul and Zoo have. Sometimes has a problem finding colored mana.
Greater Good Gifts
| Greater Gifts A Standard deck, by Makihito Mihara 13th place at a Pro Tour tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on 2006-03-05 | ||
Artifacts 3 Sensei's Divining Top Creatures 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder Enchantments 3 Greater Good Instants 4 Gifts Ungiven 2 Goryo's Vengeance 1 Mortify 1 Putrefy 1 Reclaim |
Legendary Creatures 1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer 2 Kokusho, the Evening Star 4 Yosei, the Morning Star Sorceries 2 Farseek 4 Kodama's Reach 1 Recollect 4 Wrath of God Basic Lands 4 Forest 1 Island 2 Plains 2 Swamp Lands 3 Brushland 1 Godless Shrine 1 Golgari Rot Farm 1 Orzhov Basilica 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Selesnya Sanctuary 1 Temple Garden 2 Tendo Ice Bridge 1 Watery Grave Legendary Lands 1 Miren, the Moaning Well 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse | 1 Hana Kami 3 Loxodon Hierarch 2 Ghostly Prison 2 Mortify 1 Soulless Revival 1 Wear Away 1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni 1 Myojin of Night's Reach 1 Cranial Extraction 1 Life from the Loam 1 Nightmare Void |
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This deck made a good performance in Worlds and the best performance in the Pro Tour was at 13th place. This deck wins by constantly pressuring their opponent with Kokusho, the Evening Star or Yosei, the Morning Star followed up by Greater Good to generate card advantage. The combo part of this deck would be by casting Goryo's vengeance splicing to another one to give you the ultimate lock with Greater Good in play.
Bad Matchups
Urzatron
Heartbeat
Owling Mine
I will not comment about the good matchups for this deck, because it comes in a number of vastly different versions. Some versions play Loxodon Hierarch, Wrath of God, Putrefy, and Mortify to stop aggro. This gives them a good chance against them, but at the same time makes them much more vulnerable against control. Other versions have some form of hand and deck disruption, such as Cranial Extraction, to stop control decks. Playing Putrefy will increase your chances of winning Owling Mine... just make sure you destroy the Howling Mines and not the Ebony Owl Netsuke.
Pros: Has access to a lot of removal cards to stop aggro decks. Plays like a solution deck, as well as a combo deck. This gives the player an advantage, as it has answers to most decks.
Cons: The deck is slow, and it may also rely too much on getting Greater Good and Yosei lock against control. This causes the decks to be weaker against cards like Cranial Extraction.
Combo
Owling Mine
| Owling Mine A Standard deck, by Tiago Chan 3rd place at a Pro Tour tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on 2006-03-05 | ||
Artifacts 4 Ebony Owl Netsuke 4 Howling Mine Instants 4 Boomerang 2 Evacuation 4 Remand 4 Sudden Impact Legendary Creatures 4 Kami of the Crescent Moon |
Sorceries 4 Exhaustion 4 Eye of Nowhere 4 Sleight of Hand Basic Lands 10 Island 2 Mountain Lands 4 Shivan Reef 4 Steam Vents Legendary Lands 2 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea | 3 Blood Moon 4 Threads of Disloyalty 3 Mana Leak 2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror 3 Pyroclasm |
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Owling Mine decks may be quite a popular choice for the upcoming Team Standard events. This deck, as many have said, works like the Turbo-Stasis deck in the past. This deck locks your opponent by letting them draw insane amount of cards while tampering with their mana base. After that, the deck wins with Ebony Owl Netsuke, Sudden Impact, or even Gaze of Adamaro.
Good Matchups
Any control deck
Surprisingly, Hand in Hand (W/B aggro-control)
Bad Matchups
Zoo
Gruul Beats
Ghost Dad
However, the deck fears aggro decks with burn, such as Zoo and Gruul Beats. If your metagame is full of aggro decks, I certainly do not advise you playing it. But in Team Standard, both Zoo and Gruul Beats play almost the same cards, this means that the chances of you facing those decks are only one out of the three. (Assuming that every team you faced plays Zoo or Gruul.) For those of you who are thinking of a budget deck, this can be the deck for you, as most of the cards from this deck are affordable.
Looking at this deck, Owling Mine can either dedicate a fifteen card sideboard to hate Gruul Beats and Zoo (like Tiago Chan), or just write off any aggro match as a loss and focus more against control (like Antoine Ruel). However, siding in a fifteen card sideboard may not necessarily stop the aggro decks, as proven by Tiago Chan.
Pros: Beats any control deck. It also benefits players trying to get a budget deck to play.
Cons: Its biggest weakness is that it loses to aggro decks with burn. This makes Owling Mine deck a very risky deck to play in any tournament, as it really does not have any chance against aggro.
Conclusion
After talking about each of these decks, I hope I gave you guys a starting point for playtesting. These decks will be the decks you should be expecting in the Standard format. There may be some decks that I have left out, but I am pretty sure I have covered most of the important decks in the field.
I wish all of you good luck in testing Standard. My next article will delve deeper into the Team Standard waters, so until then...
Over and Out!
Blisterguy is back, fully refreshed and feeling feisty! After a week-long illness, he returns to form with more musings on the Magic Online metagame, and more... 
Abe returns to retire some of the most underused cards in Casual Magic. He's looking for a spanking... will the forum folk 
Chris continues his examination of the Orzhov precon deck... with suprising results. Could this precon experiment be a success?... 
