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State Of The Art Technology

Tired of playing the same old Standard decks? Then check out what dedicated deckbuilder Jesse Smith has been brewing up with new cards from Avacyn Restored! Get in on his state of the art technology.

There are times when technology for a deck doesn’t come out until late in a season. This recently happened to Wolf Run Ramp in Standard, which caught the eye of Cedric Phillips as well. The deck and its recent pilots have been demolishing PTQs and Magic Online queues.


Despite Glimmerpost being in Standard for quite some time, it’s not until recently that this technology has been adopted. And this is at the point when Avacyn Restored is just a week away. Glimmerpost fixes one of Primeval Titan’s only problems—once you slam him, you often are facing down lethal the very next turn. That doesn’t happen nearly as much here because straight G/R ramp can afford to play so many non-basic and non-colored sources.

This technology is so hot that I fear how much more powerful the deck can actually be with the new cards we’ve seen so far. There’s little doubt in my mind this is the deck I’ll be PTQing with for the season, unless someone finds something that can trump what we’re doing here. I find that unlikely.

Moving forward, I’ve already seen a couple additions from Avacyn Restored that ramp decks can use. With four Green Sun’s Zenith, there’s such a powerful toolbox in the deck. The latest cards I could see working out are Ulvenwald Tracker, Cavern of Souls, Borderland Ranger, and even Reforge the Soul. The latter is in need of some testing.

Here’s how I see Standard’s top deck evolving with Avacyn Restored:


Ulvenwald Tracker is a new one-drop creature that seems to be mostly under the radar, but as far as one-drops go in Standard, it’s one of the strongest. Gut Shot kills it, but it’s good enough that if your opponent lets it stay on the board for a couple of turns you’re going to start gaining card advantage. Fighting with Solemn Simulacrum, Borderland Ranger, Acidic Slime, and Titans are all favorable for you.

Ulvenwald Tracker is a solid toolbox creature in a Titan deck that will have fewer issues against counter spells. Unfortunately, people will be sick of this deck in no time as Cavern of Souls makes it much less fun to play against. That being said, if you want to win this deck is going to be extremely difficult to stop.

With 244 new cards coming our way, there will be a lot of new ideas with some powerful cards but also with some synergistic cards. I didn’t hear too many people raving about Revenge of the Hunted. And I’m not, either, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t some state of the art technology for one of my favorite archetypes: Infect.


The idea here is to kill as fast as you can since aggro-control style matches won’t be as relevant with the printing of Cavern of Souls. You have enough filtering to just go haywire the first four turns, with a possible turn 3 kill.

I’ve already tested interactions with Noxious Revival and the miracles; it’s a powerful synergy to say the least. One of the main reasons I’m splashing red here is for Faithless Looting and the way it sets up these combos and also gives the card quality needed for a deck like this to succeed. A single Inkmoth Nexus being targeted with Revenge of the Hunted can wipe all your opponent’s Lingering Souls tokens if you don’t end up winning on the spot.

We have ten looting and library manipulation effects that all cost zero or one mana, allowing us to do multiple things to set the combo up in our first turn or two. A benefit here is that Mana Leak will be played less, which makes a card like Ranger’s Guile out of the sideboard more relevant because the switch to targeted removal will likely increase. It also lets our pump spells hit more often.

Overall, the mana base in this deck may be pushing towards the greedy end of the spectrum. However, the point of this is to display the hidden gems Avacyn Restored offers and the ideas that I’ve seen and come up with so far.

How about an update to the best Faithless Looting deck to date—Frites? Here’s how we can abuse one of my favorite new cards of the set: Reforge the Soul.


You’ll notice a few small changes such as an adjustment to the mana base to fit in Desolate Lighthouse and Alchemist’s Refuge. Both of which do exactly what this deck wants: drawing, discarding, and instant speed interaction. Reforge the Soul will mostly benefit us as Frites is a deck that can utilize every bit of the graveyard, hand, and mana during a turn. It can also hard cast Reforge the Soul fairly quickly.

Let’s say you mulligan to five and have a starting hand of two mana, two Birds of Paradise, and a Reforge the Soul. You may not be doing anything until turn 3, but you will most definitely have an empty hand and a lot of mana to spend. Situations like this give you a fighting chance on your do-nothing hands. Reforge the Soul also works in a similar fashion to Tracker’s Instincts—it finds gas. Let’s not forget it lets us dump our hand as well, which in Frites can be beneficial.

Midrange decks seem miserable the way things look to be heading. However, there does seem to be ways to deal with Titan decks and control decks alike. Either you strip your opponent’s hand or you go back to good old land destruction! Patrick Chapin recently wrote about Restoration Angel and how it too hasn’t been looked at too closely as of yet. I think this card is awesome and powerful. As far as a midrange strategy goes, this is something I’d consider looking at.


This deck is one of my favorite new ideas; it not only uses instant speed interactions, but it can have aggressive opening hands. A turn 2 Strangleroot Geist followed by a Silverblade Paladin is a lot of damage if left untouched. And we know how difficult Strangleroot Geist is to kill.

Due to the fact we are running flash creatures as well as Gavony Township, Sword of Feast and Famine becomes much stronger.

This is also strong against control as anti-board sweeper technology because we can leave mana open for one of our flash creatures and follow it up with another Sword, equip, and attack. In addition, both Strangleroot Geist and Wolfir Avenger are difficult to kill. This is something that G/W decks of the past have had issues with. I think this sort of midrange deck can solve that issue.

If we look at exactly what Restoration Angel does for us, you start to see the power of all the synergies and creatures in the deck. Blinking Strangleroot Geist resets his counter; this can be used both offensively and defensively. Acidic Slime, Borderland Ranger, and Blade Splicer are obvious synergies. If you look at Silverblade Paladin, you notice a more subtle synergy.

Blinking the soulbond creature lets you re-soulbond. For instance, you already have a 2/2 double strike on the ground as a defensive measure; you flash in Restoration Angel to re-bond it to the Angel. This leaves you with a 3/4 double striker and a 2/2 double striker, which can lead to a complete blowout. Doing this on the offensive is great too, as you can sneak in a bunch more damage or in best-case situations, lethal damage.

It’s good to note that this deck may be a good fit for Ulvenwald Tracker as well. It really depends on how the metagame shapes up.

One final deck that received a lot more tools is Mono Red. Last week I posted a U/R Delver burn style deck; it’s still performing well, but here’s a similar mono-red version that’s worth looking at.


Pillar of Flame actually solves a lot of problems Mono Red had. Strangleroot Geist was near impossible to deal with, and it made Stromkirk Noble far worse than he actually is. With Pillar of Flame, we can easily handle Strangleroot Geists to free our Stromkirk Noble in turn 2. Pillar of Flame also kills Delver and makes Moorland Haunt less good because there isn’t a creature in the graveyard early. And it’s still a Galvanic Blast that can recur Chandra’s Phoenix.

Tibalt will get in a respectable amount of damage versus control decks, and there’s plenty in this deck that you’re ok with discarding, such as Thunderous Wrath, Chandra’s Phoenix, and Faithless Looting to name a few. Porcelain Legionnaire is more consistent than Stormblood Berserker, and this version of Mono Red sacrifices turn 1 threats in place of more burn and reach. Therefore Porcelain Legionnaire fits a lot smoother in here. His first strike essentially gives him evasion.

Magic is evolving as it always does. This set may be the largest power jump we’ve seen in terms of all the formats in quite some time. There’s so much technology for existing decks as well as for new decks. You’ve seen only a fraction of the options available and ideas that I’ve conjured up. Avacyn Restored is overwhelming and amazing.

Can you create the next state of the art addition to our Standard metagame?

@Smi77y