I’m not sure what it is about States, but I’m excited, and so is everyone else. It’s not the most competitive of tournaments, and there isn’t $40,000 up for grabs, but everyone wants to claim their championship.
In the last couple weeks, I’ve gotten destroyed playing Standard. I went 2-2 and 1-3 in my last two Opens, both with different archetypes. I’m doing something wrong, but not sure what.
Am I supposed to just be playing Solar Flare, even though I think the Flare decks look terrible? I’ve played with them, and seen them be played, and nothing ever impressed me. I love me a control deck, especially if I get to play a bunch of colors and sweet cards like Unburial Rites and Liliana of the Veil. However, if I don’t like a deck that fits that description, you should probably take notice.
Reasons to Not Play Solar Flare
- The manabase is horrid: Terramorphic Expanse would fix a helluva lot of problems. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be telling children, “Back in my day we had Terramorphic Expanse, and the manabases were too good to even use it! We had it so good back then, kids, but we never know what we have until it’s gone.”
Is there a way to fix it? Probably. Seachrome Coast seems pretty bad for starters, as Flare has a lot of expensive white cards that it needs to stabilize like Day of Judgment or Sun Titan. Often, you don’t want to wait to cast those. More basics might actually lead to more stability, as does playing “only” three Liliana of the Veil. She’s great in the deck, but difficult to cast, and not great in multiples. Sphere of the Suns is the only fixer around, but it’s one that I endorse.
The Flare decks that did well played a healthy amount of removal and Timely Reinforcements, which isn’t very surprising. Red is both popular and very good, so you need to be prepared.
Aside from all that, I wouldn’t mind branching out and trying to improve as a player and deckbuilder. I know that season, when I was playing strictly Caw-Blade, I wasn’t very familiar with my opposition, at least from their side. When you’re trying to prepare for a format, it’s best to be knowledgeable about what’s important in their deck, and the types of lines they take. That way, when they present you with a weird opening, it won’t be as hard to decipher what’s going on.
There are also chances to miss out on what would otherwise be a great metagame deck. Maybe this first deck isn’t great right now (even though it seems like it), but could be awesome in a certain metagame.
That’s right; I might be playing Infect at States. Granted, it’s more of a Mono-Black Control strategy than aggro Infect, but I bet no one would guess I’d even be considering it. What it boils down to is that Phyrexian Crusader is a house right now. Dismember isn’t a common sight in current Red decks because there isn’t anything worth killing. They still have Shrine of Burning Rage and maybe some Perilous Myrs after sideboard (for opposing Vulshok Refugee), but those aren’t very efficient.
With Solar Flare at the top of the food chain, and Wolf Run Ramp gunning for it, Whispering Specter becomes very attractive. Doom Blade? Please. No Mana Leaks over there, Mr. Medina? This guy is going to annihilate you.
Virulent Wound is an underplayed removal spell and might actually be better than Dead Weight in most sideboards. After all, Wound plays nicely with Snapcaster. The other card that is underplayed is Distress, although that could be because BB is tough for most decks to assemble early. While building decks for this format, I’ve found that I really want a Duress or Inquisition of Kozilek, and Despise underperforms. Distress is exactly what I want to protect my Specter.
Gaudenis made top eight of Pro Tour Nagoya with his take on Mono-Black Infect (designed by Ben Dempsey, who I mentioned earlier in the week), although that was Block. Regardless, the plan seems perfectly viable. Plague Stinger might not be the best man, but he gets the job done. I’d trust him over Ichorclaw Myr, Necropede, or Plague Myr since they might be siding in Ancient Grudge against me anyway. Necropede might make a fine sideboard card though.
Whispering Specter is the card I expect to get the most mileage from. Plague Stinger into Specter is a Fugue, but you don’t even have to pull the trigger. Think of him like a Furnace Scamp, where you’re trying to get the most value, but don’t want to walk into a sweeper. I suspect a turn-three Specter followed by a turn-four Lashwrithe is going to end the game.
The maindeck Nihil Spellbombs are going to be a common sight as long as Solar Flare is winning as much as it has been. They were a holdover from when I had Piston Sledge, which was good, just not as powerful as Lashwrithe. Post-board against Mono Red, you want to turn into a control deck, and Lashwrithe facilitates that plan better than Sledge. Nihil is still fine against them because you get to exile their Chandra’s Phoenix.
Phyrexian Vatmother is particularly strong against them after boarding. Threaten effects tend to be good against control decks, especially Traitorous Blood, but I don’t really mind taking poison damage.
This next one reminds me of an old favorite:
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (12)
Spells (35)
Now, I’m not about to say that W/g Tokens is the new W/B Tokens, or something similar, as that would upset at least one of my peers. However, I will say that this deck has a ton of potential.
When I got to Nashville, I picked up a random deck on the table, and it was an untuned version of the above. My opponent was Drew Levin piloting a stock Red deck. Even though I didn’t interact much the first couple turns, it was very easy to turn the tides with Timely Reinforcements or Elspeth. With so many “army in a can” cards, you can go toe to toe with even the most well-prepared control decks.
The two most difficult aspects are figuring out what to do early game, so you can crush red every time, and figuring out exactly what cards to play. I’ve done away with the Hero of Bladeholds, as I want nothing in my deck that gets Dismembered profitably. Doomed Traveler was on his way out of the list, but after playing against Red, I think we want to keep him. Having a one-drop can be the difference between winning and losing.
Garruk Relentless was the last card I added, although I considered running two Mortarpods instead. Chris Andersen says that Garruk is the new Elspeth, Knight-Errant, and he’s pretty close to right. The Angelic Blessing ability from Elspeth was often key, which Garruk doesn’t have, but Garruk can kill things. Comparing them may make you realize that Garruk is probably more powerful than you realize. A couple situations came up for Chris where he didn’t have anything other than a Doomed Traveler to search for with Garruk, so maybe there should be a singleton Geist-Honored Monk.
Right now, your deck should be geared to beat Solar Flare and RDW, and I think both of the above decks have that chance. I’d be willing to bet that Wolf Run Ramp could blow out the W/g deck in a number of games, but they absolutely need Slagstorm. If they have Slagstorm and not a threat, or a slow draw, the W/g deck is going to recover easily.
The Blade Splicers were a recent addition, and the reason why there are only three Midnight Hauntings. There were a glut of three-drops, and since Blade Splicer might be the best card in Standard right now, something else had to go. Splicer vs. Liliana is a joke, and Splicer vs. a Red deck without Incinerate is also comical.
It’s possible that green isn’t the correct splash, and maybe I shouldn’t splash at all. Blue offers counterspells like Mana Leak and Negate, and a potential bomb sideboard card in Geist of Saint Traft. Is that even good enough? The counterspells are almost certainly good, but I have the feeling I don’t need to splash at all.
I wouldn’t mind sleeving up either of these decks for States, but I’m going to present a few wilder ideas.
Creatures (14)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (13)
Spells (31)
This is a similar take to what Brian Braun-Duin, an underrated master, took the top eight of SCG Nashville with. This type of deck isn’t exactly my style, but I’d be willing to play it, only to reminisce about the Caw-Blade decks. I have a feeling an excursion like that would only make me depressed about how good Caw-Blade actually was, and this, my friends, is no Caw-Blade.
It’s got some good stuff going on. Blade Splicer is present, as is Snapcaster Mage with counterspells. Sword of Feast and Famine into anything relevant still wins the game. You probably couldn’t do much wrong by sleeving up a list similar to this one.
When building a control deck, I can tell what’s important. Currently, Grave Titan is the best finisher. Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy are the best card drawers. Mana Leak and Dissipate are fine against most decks, especially if you’re on the play. Acceleration seems good, as does Ancient Grudge. That puts in a bunch of different colors though. Is that workable? Can we replace black with red?
I don’t think so. Grave Titan is too important vs. aggro and control to cut it. Inferno Titan just doesn’t cut it, and it would take up too many slots to splice the Green Sun’s Zenith into Primeval Titan into Kessig Wolf Run/Inkmoth Nexus finish. I’ve tried though.
However, we can play BUG splashing red or RUG splashing black. Maybe just U/G splashing both.
Creatures (11)
Lands (16)
Spells (33)
- 5 Forest
- 2 Dissipate
- 1 Mountain
- 4 Island
- 4 Mana Leak
- 3 Rampant Growth
- 1 Ancient Grudge
- 3 Think Twice
- 2 Black Sun's Zenith
- 2 Beast Within
- 2 Dismember
- 4 Forbidden Alchemy
Sideboard
This is something wild that I can get behind, but I have a feeling it’s not quite there. You probably look at it and see a “bad” U/B deck or a “bad” Ramp deck, and I kind of feel the same way. It still has all the spells I want, and I think those cards have the tools to beat everything, but the mix might not be right. There’s also the problem with the manabase…
That’s becoming a very annoying trend in Standard, but I kind of like it. Seeing someone’s sixth land enter the battlefield tapped and them unable to cast their Titan gives me a sick sense of satisfaction. If I build my manabase wrong, I would want to be punished too. That way, I actually learn my lesson.
My last list is an update, but not necessarily an upgrade, to Wolf Run Ramp. I had the whole Zenith into Titan into Wolf Run package in my Dungrove Elder deck, but the Elves I was playing were a trap. I should have played ramp effects instead.
In a world where Slagstorm doesn’t matter, Dungrove Elder looks like the king of “removal” spells. He’s going to hold their entire army at bay or charge into combat knowing that no creature is his equal. That seems more versatile than Slagstorm to me but leaves you a little vulnerable to Tempered Steel or RDW. You could still splash Whipflare for RDW, but that doesn’t help against Tempered Steel. Perhaps you should just bank on the fact that Steel is on the decline. I’d rather have Arc Trail to hedge though.
Creatures (19)
- 3 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 3 Primeval Titan
- 2 Wurmcoil Engine
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
- 4 Viridian Emissary
- 4 Dungrove Elder
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (4)
Spells (33)
Maybe it’s a little loose, and maybe it’s just worse than Sondag’s deck, but there’s not much to improve on. The Dungroves will likely improve the mirror matchup and potentially help against Solar Flare.
That’s all I got as far as technology is concerned. I’ve seen some other cute things running around, like Trinket Mage for Silver-Inlaid Dagger in the Puresteel Paladin deck. Trinket Mage was also seen doing some work in U/B Control decks, fetching Elixir of Immortality and Nihil Spellbomb.
My consideration of Piston Sledge in Infect got me wondering why more people don’t play it in Tempered Steel. Since Steel Overseer rotated, they’ve been dying for another Anthem effect, and this one is great.
I’m almost certainly going to be playing Infect or Tokens at States, although if I wanted to win, I’d probably play Sondag’s deck with some Autumn’s Veils in the sideboard. If you’ve got any better brews, I’d be more than happy to take a look at them.
GerryT