I don’t need an intro. Y’all are just gonna skip to the decklists anyway.
Self-Mill
Gavin Verhey wrote an article here featuring Jarad’s Orders. This was his decklist:
Creatures (27)
- 4 Arbor Elf
- 4 Boneyard Wurm
- 1 Kessig Cagebreakers
- 4 Splinterfright
- 1 Tree of Redemption
- 2 Gravecrawler
- 2 Ghoultree
- 1 Disciple of Bolas
- 2 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
- 4 Dreg Mangler
- 2 Korozda Guildmage
Lands (13)
Spells (20)
I think we can do better. Gavin was trying to go deep on Jarad’s Orders, but Standard doesn’t really give you the time to mess around, nor are the Tutor targets all that exciting. If you’re milling yourself, you will find Jarad eventually. From testing the Innistrad Block Constructed version of the deck, it was pretty clear the deck just wanted to be an aggro deck utilizing undercosted creatures.
Try something like this:
Creatures (26)
- 4 Arbor Elf
- 4 Boneyard Wurm
- 4 Splinterfright
- 2 Gravecrawler
- 2 Ghoultree
- 2 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
- 4 Dreg Mangler
- 4 Lotleth Troll
Lands (12)
Spells (22)
I would love to be milling harder or at least splash Faithless Looting, but I’m not sure that’s doable. Would Arbor Elf be playable if I replaced some Forests with Rootbound Crags? It’s entirely possible that it’s not even good at all, as there isn’t much to accelerate into on turn 2. However, once turn 3 rolls around and you can cast Mulch and Boneyard Wurm in the same turn, you’ll be pretty happy.
A lot of these decks in Innistrad Block Constructed splashed Kessig Wolf Run, and there seems to be a lot of love for Rancor in my forums, so it’s possible that I should be playing more than two.
Abrupt Decay is a possibility, but I think a deck like this mostly wants to be ignoring creatures. You are going bigger than them so there’s not much you’re worried about killing. Also, you really want your Mulches and such to hit a bunch of creatures to make your other creatures large, so you don’t have a lot of space for random spells.          Â
Miracles
Patrick Chapin posted a lot of interesting control decklists in his article this week. One of them was a U/W Miracle deck that Brad and I will be playtesting shortly.
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (29)
My gut reaction is that this will not stand up to Zombies and will need Pillar of Flame and/or Oblivion Ring to be viable. Then again, I usually err on the side of trying to play small-ball—I’d rather nickel and dime them out than ignore them and go over the top. Whether Miracles is the type of deck that can actually pull that off, I’m not sure, but we’ll find out soon enough.
Maybe Azorius Charm and Feeling of Dread are enough to stem the early beats. Then again, Hayne’s Pro Tour winning deck had Devastation Tide over Azorius Charm, so Chapin’s list is losing a bit of punch there.
Delver
I played with a version of U/W/R Delver in the last playtesting video I did, very similar to Patrick Chapin build from his article earlier this week. I can’t say that I was shocked at how much worse the deck flowed, but it was very sad. Delver is still capable of winning, but it’s a shell of its former self.
Not only was the loss of Ponder a huge blow, but Gitaxian Probe was a pretty big deal as well. With Thought Scour, you have enough targets with Snapcaster Mage and you can make Runechanter’s Pike matter, but you have to play a higher land count and can’t prevent flooding like a string of Ponders could.
Against Brad’s Frites deck, using Pillar of Flame to keep mana creatures in check was difficult. Pillar costing one mana slowed down my early game development a lot and reduced the effectiveness of Izzet Charm’s Spell Pierce.
Cyclonic Rift is a card I’d like to have access to now. There are quite a few board stalls that develop between Delver and the green decks, and getting to seven mana isn’t that crazy. At least in current Standard, if you get to seven mana on turn 7, chances are you dealt them some damage but can’t quite close the game. That’s about the only situation where something like Sleep is good, but Cyclonic Rift could have been helpful in the early game as well.
I used to play a Disperse over a Vapor Snag, mostly because I was an idiot, but also because being able to bounce something like Gideon or Oblivion Ring on my Sword of War and Peace turned the tide in the control matchup. Those situations don’t exist anymore though, although maybe Oblivion Ring on Runechanter’s Pike will be a common occurrence.
There’s been some talk of Nivmagus Elemental, but I don’t think it’s the real deal. For the most part, you’d rather have your spell resolve than get some extra counters on your guy. If you think it’s cool that you can exile spells that they are going to counter or when they are sacrificing the creature you targeted with a removal spell, consider that Nivmagus Elemental is still not worth a card.
Regardless, I assume people will try to make it work, and I think the best way you can do that is by utilizing flashback. Changing a Thought Scour into a double Battlegrowth isn’t a good use of the card, but maybe exiling a flashbacked Think Twice is.
Creatures (15)
Lands (8)
Spells (37)
That’s immediately what I pictured in my head when I saw that card. One thing to note is the Artful Dodge, which helps Nivmagus Elemental get through but is another card that can give +4/+4 or +2/+2 if it was milled or discarded.
Jund
Not much has changed since I posted my last list. Brad convinced me that I would probably need some Tragic Slips against Zombies, specifically cards like Lotleth Troll and Falkenrath Aristocrat, and he was right. Abundant Growth was fantastic in testing and allowed Liliana of the Veil to be cast easier and made Kessig Wolf Run playable without ruining the mana base.
One card I’m excited to see in action is Underworld Connections. I love me a Phyrexian Arena, which this card is very similar to. It’s not likely that you jam this on turn 3 (unless you have an Arbor Elf); I see it as a card you’ll play once your hand is empty. One of the most powerful things in Magic is using your mana more efficiently than your opponent, and this allows you to do that by keeping the gas flowing.
Zombies
Brad played with B/G Zombies last week, and it looked very, very good. A lot of people thought he should have been using Rancor, which makes sense, but it’s also difficult to cast. Remember, Zombies will be effective because right now it’s the most brutally efficient deck in the format. When you start adding green cards with few ways to cast them, the deck starts losing some of its punch. Granted, Rancor is a fantastic card when it’s castable, but you have to keep that in mind.
The other suggestion we got the most was adding red or just being a B/R Zombies deck. Dreg Mangler and Lotleth Troll are both amazing cards, and while Falkenrath Aristocrat is good, I think B/G wins out at the moment.
Of course, you could always play both colors, but I imagine that mana base would be quite painful. With mirrors abound, that’s probably not something you want.
Reanimator
Earlier this week, Brad played this deck in a playtesting video:
Creatures (20)
Lands (24)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
While his deck performed well, I don’t think Craterhoof Behemoth is where you want to be. There was some outcry in our forums about not using Jarad’s Orders, but that card seems too slow. You don’t necessarily want to be Reanimating fatties all the time. Sometimes you need to slow the game down and deal with their threats first. That said, if you do end up including Jarad’s Orders, a singleton Behemoth is probably a good choice.
The Arbor Elf / Avacyn’s Pilgrim version of the deck is certainly fine, but there are other options when your mana dorks are constantly under fire.
Creatures (6)
Lands (20)
Spells (34)
Personally, I like this style of Reanimator more. I feel like I’m more in control of my destiny since I get to play removal spells. Granted, I miss Thragtusk. He’d be right at home in this deck. It would all be a matter of getting the mana to work.
Tokens
Populate seems like it’s being pushed, but all the cards with populate are so slow or do nothing but populate. Right now, I’m skeptical unless you’re using something like Grove of the Guardian or Geist of Saint Traft to populate things that matter. With most of the token generators making 1/1s, populate just doesn’t strike me as very powerful. The fact that there is no shortage of sweepers also makes populate look worse. All in all, the mechanics in Return to Ravnica appear to be value-based and not things that demand you build around them, such as dredge.
W/B Tokens was a solid deck for a while there, so what would an update look like? It would probably contain these cards:
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Tragic Slip
Past that, I’m not quite sure where to go. You could go the whole Champion of the Parish / Doomed Traveler route. Champion doesn’t seem all that impressive to me, but you probably want some one-drops. Precinct Captain seems fine in the archetype as well. The Human subtheme really misses Honor of Pure though.
Tokens won’t hit as hard as they used to versus control, so I’d have the full amount of Sorins, mostly for the emblem effect. The chump-blocking Vampires are solid versus Zombies too. While sweepers (and Detention Sphere) seem like a huge problem, you can play around them with Lingering Souls or just force them to use a sweeper on two or three tokens. At that point, you should easily refuel. When your guys only have one or two power, it’s tough to force them to sweep you often.
Gavony Township and Garruk Relentless are possible splashes, or you could go the populate route with the Selesnya cards. As I said earlier, those cards mostly seem slow and not very effective. In order for populate to be good, you need to be able to populate more than just a 1/1. Hopefully some of the commons make bigger tokens. Even more Selesnya Charm effects would be a welcome addition.
White Weenie
This deck might be good if only because it gets to play Knight of Glory and Elite Inquisitor. Honor of the Pure is a huge loss, but it might be able to function regardless. Most of your creatures are pretty good on their own. Instead of pumping up your whole team to invalidate theirs, you might have to go back to clearing blockers.
Creatures (34)
- 3 Elite Inquisitor
- 3 Fiend Hunter
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Silverblade Paladin
- 4 Sublime Archangel
- 4 Knight of Glory
- 4 War Falcon
- 4 Dryad Militant
- 4 Precinct Captain
Planeswalkers (3)
Spells (23)
- 21 Plains
- 2 Bonds of Faith
Bonds of Faith doubles as anti-Bonfire and anti-Thragtusk. Ajani, Sublime Archangel, and Champion of the Parish give you some nice nut draws. Perhaps a splash for Lyev Skyknight would be warranted. Either way, the deck seems efficient and could very easily be a player, especially with all the Zombie hate maindeck.
Naya Aggro
I’ll be using this in a future playtesting video:
Creatures (24)
- 2 Borderland Ranger
- 2 Arbor Elf
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 4 Restoration Angel
- 4 Thragtusk
- 4 Loxodon Smiter
Lands (15)
Spells (21)
The G/W cards all seem pretty good, but you need a way to break through. Obviously, Bonfire of the Damned is the man for the job. Grove the Guardian looks fantastic, especially with Rancor, but do you really want to play it over Gavony Township? They do different things so having a mix seems good.
With Stomping Ground not out yet, Arbor Elf is a little worse than I’d like it to be, but I fixed that by adding Farseek. Once Stomping Ground is out, the deck should function like a 1-3-4 deck instead of a 2-4-5 deck. After all, the goal should be casting Loxodon Smiter on turn 2.
Bant Hexproof
Never thought I would see the day when I actually want Gladecover Scout to be legal. Right now, there are a lot of solid things to pump with but not too many hexproof guys. Eight early ones might seem like a lot (with Sigarda to finish), but I want more!
Also, we need Breeding Pool in order to make Arbor Elf work; otherwise the mana base will be too sketchy. I’m putting this one aside for now.
Storm
Is there a Storm deck? If there is, it’s probably using cards like Battle Hymn and Infernal Plunge to generate mana, and Past in Flames or Reforge the Soul to keep it going. Of the available cards, we have:
Enablers
Goblin Electromancer
Reforge the Soul
Past in Flames
Increasing Vengeance
Mana Producers
Digging
Faithless Looting
Wild Guess
Augur of Bolas
Thought Scour
Izzet Charm
Epic Experiment
Dudes to Sac
Snapcaster Mage
Krenko’s Command
Thatcher Revolt
Gather the Townsfolk
Win Conditions
That brings our list to:
Creatures (11)
Lands (8)
Spells (41)
Note: I have no idea if this actually works or not.
Mono-Black Control
If this deck is going to be viable, it’s probably going to because you’re splashing Thragtusk. The big argument will be if Mutilate is better than the Jund cards. Right now, I’m a pretty big Jund fan, but that’s mostly because of Pillar of Flame. Huntmaster of the Fells and Bonfire aren’t all that impressive versus Zombies, so there’s needs to be some midrange deck that becomes popular, such as the above Naya deck.
***
That’s it for this week. We aren’t even halfway through the set, and I can already see fifteen or so viable looking archetypes. It certainly won’t end there. What’s looking good to you guys? What would you like to see in some upcoming playtesting videos? And the most important question:
Does anyone have a good Standard Storm list?
GerryT
@G3RRYTÂ on Twitter