We’ve seen seven weeks of Return to Ravnica Standard events, with the format evolving from week to week and converging to form more clearly-defined archetypes. Two gigantically important Grand Prix this past weekend certainly shook things up, allowing players to unveil what secret technology they’d discovered. It was especially interesting to see that the pro players took radically different approaches on how to attack the format, with healthy representations of GW Aggro, Bant Control, UW Flash, and Reanimator.

Going into GP Bochum and GP Charleston, single-target removal (and removal in general) was on the decline. [card]Pillar of Flame[/card] and [card]Terminus[/card] started out as four-ofs in many decks after the Standard rotation but shrunk to smaller numbers through the weeks.

As Patrick Chapin explains, “Most people don’t play creatures worth killing. This is not to say that you don’t want to be able to deal with them, but rather they aren’t worth dealing with on a one-to-one basis. This makes relying on cards like [card]Pillar of Flame[/card] and [card]Ultimate Price[/card] a losing proposition.”

The most important thing that I took away from the weekend was that most of the successful decks took advantage of this hole in the metagame. Insightful players expected a lack of [card]Pillar of Flame[/card]s and [card]Ultimate Price[/card]s going into the weekend and chose to play powerful creatures that do need to be dealt with on a one-to-one basis. Creatures like [card]Somberwald Sage[/card], [card]Mayor of Avabruck[/card], and [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] were more likely to live long enough to have an impact on the game. And with not a lot of [card]Doom Blade[/card] effects around, haste creatures like [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card], [card]Hellrider[/card], and [card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card] were able to dodge sorcery-speed removal and end the game on the spot.

[deck title=”Craterhoof Reanimator by Martin Juza”]
[Creatures]
4 Arbor Elf
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
3 Deathrite Shaman
4 Somberwald Sage
4 Craterhoof Behemoth
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Grisly Salvage
3 Mulch
4 Tracker’s Instincts
4 Lingering Souls
3 Unburial Rites
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Temple Garden
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Woodland Cemetery
1 Shimmering Grotto
6 Forest
2 Gavony Township
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Loxodon Smiter
2 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
4 Angel of Serenity
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Here’s Martin Juza’s winning deck from GP Bochum, also piloted by Brad Nelson to a top-16 finish at GP Charleston. [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card] was a known element in the Reanimator decks but usually only as a one-of. Juza’s deck ran the full set of ‘Hoofs, along with [card]Somberwald Sage[/card] to power them out and allow for a turn-four kill.

This kind of deck is extremely fragile to a turn-three [card]Rolling Temblor[/card] or [card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card], but Juza and Nelson weren’t worried about those cards seeing much play. The sideboard allows for a transformation into a more typical Reanimator deck, but I’m sure that this deck stole a lot of games from opponents who were unprepared for [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card].

[deck title=”BR Zombies by Jon Bolding”]
[Creatures]
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Gravecrawler
4 Knight of Infamy
4 Geralf’s Messenger
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
3 Hellrider
3 Thundermaw Hellkite
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Searing Spear
2 Sign in Blood
2 Victim of Night
2 Brimstone Volley
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Blood Crypt
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Rakdos Guildgate
4 Cavern of Souls
7 Swamp
1 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Appetite for Brains
2 Cremate
3 Pillar of Flame
1 Victim of Night
2 Underworld Connections
2 Zealous Conscripts
3 Bonfire of the Damned
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Meanwhile, the North American GP in Charleston was won by a different set of hasty creatures. The Zombies archetype, in general, had been stifled by all of the [card]Thragtusk[/card]s and [card]Pillar of Flame[/card]s in the format, but Bolding’s plan was different: he decided to go bigger.

Instead of running the normal dozen two-power one-drops, Bolding’s deck had ten powerful, hasty threats at the top of its curve. Even if opponents tried to stabilize by gaining life via [card]Thragtusk[/card] and [card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card], [card]Hellrider[/card] and [card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card] would still end the game in a couple of attacks when left unanswered.

Bolding’s was also one of the few decks running [card]Victim of Night[/card] as a solid answer to what he himself was doing-casting huge creatures. This was a guy who came ready for Craterhoof Behemoth!

[deck title=”GW Aggro by Peter Kelly”]
[Creatures]
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Judge’s Familiar
3 Fencing Ace
4 Knight of Glory
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Silverblade Paladin
1 Sublime Archangel
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Rancor
1 Selesnya Charm
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
3 Cavern of Souls
5 Plains
3 Forest
1 Gavony Township
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Dryad Militant
2 Faith’s Shield
2 Elite Inquisitor
1 Selesnya Charm
2 Sundering Growth
2 Fiend Hunter
2 Nevermore
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

[deck title=”GW Aggro by Samuel Black”]
[Creatures]
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Precinct Captain
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Silverblade Paladin
3 Restoration Angel
2 Sublime Archangel
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Faith’s Shield
4 Rancor
3 Selesnya Charm
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Cavern of Souls
6 Plains
4 Forest
2 Gavony Township
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Faith’s Shield
2 Rest in Peace
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Intrepid Hero
2 Loxodon Smiter
1 Nevermore
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Thragtusk
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Peter Kelly (fourth place) and Sam Black (ninth place) had high finishes at GP Charleston with GW Aggro. While there were four GW Aggro decks total in the top 16, Kelly and Black finished the highest, and both ran the full playset of [card]Mayor of Avabruck[/card]s. Mayor certainly gave their humans the edge in any sort of mirror match, and he has the potential to produce an entire army on its own when transformed. It’s a must-kill creature in many cases, and the Standard format’s being less hostile for a 1/1 helps its case for being played over the more durable [card]Loyal Cathar[/card].

GW Aggro also has access to [card]Selesnya Charm[/card], a flexible spell that happens to match up perfectly against [card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card] and [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card]. If the card only read, “exile target creature with power 5 or greater,” then it wouldn’t be playable, but it’s not out of the question for a deck like Bant Control to start it if [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card] continues to be a factor.

It’s something to think about when tuning your Standard deck for the coming weeks, especially for a control deck-do you have ways to deal with [card]Mayor of Avabruck[/card] and [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card]? How about a swarm of 2/1s and 2/2s followed by Thundermaw Hellkite? Cards like [card]Victim of Night[/card], [card]Ultimate Price[/card], [card]Selesnya Charm[/card], and even [card]Murder[/card] might be worth consideration if your deck has a glaring weakness to threats both big and small.

Alex Bianchi
Gemmanite on Twitter and MTGO