“Come on in, Jay—we’ve already cleared out a desk for you. Yeah, don’t worry, just get yourself sorted first. You’ll be in the sports division, right? Well, you’ve got your work cut out for you then! We’ve got a big weekend coming up, with the races and all. Happy writing, Jay, and I’ll see you at lunch.”
The first day on a job is always daunting. You’re getting lost in the building, you forget people’s names even though they know yours, and you have no idea if what you are doing is what you are supposed to be doing. This week, with the first big tournament results with Return to Ravnica coming in, feels like one of those days for a writer of Magic articles.
By now, I can say I have done this before, but only barely. You can still see my articles for 60cards.com among the recent posts there, and before a month or two ago, I had only written for an online women’s magazine, of all things. I do, however, know something about Magic, and I hope that my knowledge, limited as it may be, is of use to you.
“Jay, hurry up! They’re almost in their final lap!”
[…krgghhh… and we see Messenger on top, followed closely by Mulch. Mulch was gaining some ground, but Messenger saw him coming and is spurring away from its opponents. Messenger still on top. Wait, it’s Angel in second now, Angel is in second, creeping up on the flank. Messenger is far ahead, but Angel is closing quickly now. Two yards behind, … one yard …. This is spectacular! Right before the finish line! Angel, … ANGEL, … IT IS ANGEL CROSSING THE LINE FIRST! …]
While I was watching the SCGlive coverage, I was thoroughly impressed with the following Zombie list by Joe Bernal. It was fast, had a ton of reach, and just seemed like the most powerful deck in the room. Let me present to you, the current top aggro deck in the format:
Aggro
[Deck title=”Rakdos Zombies by Joe Bernal (RtR Standard)”]
[Creatures]
*4 Blood Artist
*4 Diregraf Ghoul
*4 Falkenrath Aristocrats
*4 Geralf’s Messenger
*4 Gravecrawler
*4 Rakdos Cackler
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*3 Brimstone Volley
*4 Bump in the Night
*3 Pillar of Flame
*4 Searing Spear
[/Spells]
[Land]
*4 Rakdos Guildgate
*4 Blood Crypt
*4 Dragonskull Summit
*10 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
*3 Dreadbore
*1 Mountain
*1 Pillar of Flame
*3 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
*2 Sever the Bloodline
*2 Tragic Slip
*3 Underworld Connections
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
This deck is fast—really fast. With the full twelve one-mana, two-power creatures, Bernal’s deck comes out the gate blazing, and it doesn’t stop until the opponent is as dead as the creatures Bernal used to beat him.
Where other Zombies try to solve the issue of which two-drop they wanted besides Blood Artist or Lotleth Troll, this deck uses just one playset of the former, and eschews other twos. Instead, it uses a larger burn suite to fill in the holes in the curve. Thanks to this approach, the deck’s average mana cost is below 1.9, making sure Bernal gets to cast multiple spells a turn while his opponents struggle to keep up. It also makes the inclusion of the full four Guildgates less painful.
In the sideboard, we see various forms of removal to deal with specific creatures, Underworld Connections to keep the gas flowing, and an extra Mountain to help cast the three Rakdos who also dwell there. Rakdos is an interesting choice, as most decks that could cast Olivia Voldaren had her as the heavy hitter in bigger-creature matchups. She seems easier on the manabase here too.
If you plan to take this deck to your next tournament, I would suggest trying Crippling Blight over Tragic Slip in the sideboard. Daniel Caskey, the Golgari Zombie player in the SCG Open top 8, had four of the M13 enchantment main, and I can only assume they worked wonders against opposing Thragtusks and other big creatures the Zombie deck wanted to get through (more on Crippling Blight and removal used at the tournament here). They look even better here.
“Nice first draft, Jay. I don’t think anybody expected Angel to win, but your analysis that she did have the best team behind her seems spot on. Carry on, kiddo”
Now that we’ve looked at the biggest threat in the format, let’s see what people came up with to answer it. The core of the Zombie deck was well known, and team SCG Blue decided to try and beat it with a control deck. While the deck provided Todd Anderson with another trophy for his mantel, I’m not sure it disproves the common idea that the control archetype is usually weaker at the start of a format. Earlier in the day, Joe Bernal wiped the floor with Brad Nelson playing the same 75 as Anderson, and it seemed like the aggressive deck had the upper hand in the matchup.
Nonetheless, here is pillar of the format number two:
Control
[Deck title=”UWr Control by Todd Anderson (RtR Standard)”]
[Creatures]
*2 Snapcaster Mage
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
*4 Jace, Architect of Thought
*2 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
[/Planeswalkers]
[Spells]
*4 Azorius Charm
*4 Detention Sphere
*3 Entreat the Angels
*4 Pillar of Flame
*1 Supreme Verdict
*2 Syncopate
*4 Terminus
*4 Think Twice
[/Spells]
[Land]
*4 Clifftop Retreat
*1 Desolate Lighthouse
*4 Glacial Fortress
*4 Hallowed Fountain
*2 Island
*4 Plains
*4 Steam Vents
*3 Sulfur Falls
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
*2 Dissipate
*3 Geist of Saint Traft
*2 Jace, Memory Adept
*2 Negate
*2 Purify the Grave
*2 Sundering Growth
*2 Supreme Verdict
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
This deck’s endorsement by some of the notable players on the SCG circuit makes it poised to become a big player in the metagame for the next couple of weeks.
One of the more interesting things about this deck is that it splashes red solely for Pillar of Flame, or as Aaron Forsythe put it on Twitter: “People are playing shocks for shocks.” Pillar of Flame followed by Snapcaster Mage flashing back Pillar of Flame is quite good against Zombies, which represented more than a third of the metagame in Cincinatti.
While this deck might look like the “Miracle” deck with which Alexander Hayne won the Avacyn Restored Pro Tour, it is very appropriately called “Control” instead of “Miracles.” It does not play the “bad” miracles like Temporal Mastery (which would often be just an Explore when you weren’t winning anyway) and Devastation Tide (which is simply not good enough in Standard). Instead, it plays more spot removal. This lets you sculpt your own gameplan, where in the Miracle deck you would often be left to the mercy of the top of your deck.
A lot of the games involve using spot removal on early threats, so that you can cast a planeswalker or a couple of angels onto a nearly empty board, either of which will run away with the game shortly after. Terminus is your reset button if your opponent commits too much to the board. It is much better than Supreme Verdict against most decks, as Verdict does poorly against Zombies and the green aggressive decks, where almost every creature is a threat and you’d rather not spend four mana to remove just one creature. Except for Caleb Durward’s UR Delver deck, there are almost no aggressive decks around that pack countermagic (for now).
From the sideboard you can bring in countermagic against opposing control decks or against decks that try to go over the top of the aggressive decks with Thragtusks and Armada Wurms. The Geists are also for the control matchup, and you might want to board in an extra Supreme Verdict in the mirror too, as a failsafe against an otherwise devastating Entreat the Angels (you already need the Detention Spheres to fight Planeswalkers).
“What I feel is missing, Jay, is the story of the other horses in the race. Mulch was in a good spot for most of the race. Why aren’t you talking about him? It looks like a fine horse to me. Will probably win a couple of races this season. I want to hear Mulch’s story too.”
The third pillar of the format, which operates on another part of the spectrum, is the Reanimator deck. In Cincinatti, Chris Weidinger made top 4 with his four-color version, and at the TCGplayer 5K, both Bryan Gottlieb and Joel Paradee made top 8 with the following deck:
Combo
[Deck title=”Junk Rites by Bryan Gottlieb (RtR Standard)”]
[Creatures]
*4 Angel of Serenity
*3 Arbor Elf
*4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
*2 Borderland Ranger
*1 Deathrite Shaman
*3 Restoration Angel
*4 Thragtusk
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*4 Grisly Salvage
*4 Lingering Souls
*4 Mulch
*4 Unburial Rites
[/Spells]
[Land]
*5 Forest
*1 Gavony Township
*4 Overgrown Tomb
*2 Plains
*3 Sunpetal Grove
*2 Swamp
*4 Temple Garden
*1 Vault of the Archangel
*2 Woodland Cemetery
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
*2 Angel of Glory’s Rise
*2 Centaur Healer
*1 Deathrite Shaman
*2 Divine Reckoning
*2 Duress
*2 Oblivion Ring
*3 Ranger’s Path
*1 Vraska the Unseen
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
While the Reanimator deck that made the top 8 is a bit different, both decks have the same overall strategy: use cards like Mulch to put a big, back-breaking creature in the graveyard, then use Unburial Rites to put it into play. If you don’t draw the Unburial Rites, you have Avacyn’s Pilgrims and Arbor Elves to help you hardcast the monsters in this deck, and removal in Weidinger’s deck is means to the same end.
Both decks have four Thragtusks and some extra way to gain life, to make sure they have time to execute their gameplan. Weidinger has Centaur Healers, where Gottlieb has Restoration Angels. The Angels seem to fit the plan of landing a fatty and riding it to victory a bit better, as they can protect said fatty from a removal spell while also being a blocker and a way to gain life (in combination with Thragtusk).
Another aspect I like of Gottlieb’s deck, is that it is more resilient to graveyard hate. If you expect your opponents to bring in cards like Rest in Peace, you can take out most of the Unburial Rites, put in the Ranger’s Paths from the sideboard, and pretend like you are a ramp deck. The mana dorks already in the maindeck come in handy here, too.
Another “techy” choice in the sideboard is Divine Reckoning. In a format where Day of Judgment either costs six or is also blue, Divine Reckoning is a reasonable alternative—especially since the one creature you will leave behind will likely be bigger than the creature your opponent has left.
“How was your first day, Jay? Glad it’s time to head home? Good for you, kid. We’ll be here every week”
If you have limited time to test, these are the three decks that I would suggest testing against right now. All three have a very different strategy to beat you, so if your brew can hold its own against all three, you have a ticket to gold in your hands.
I hope you enjoyed our first foray into the new Standard format together, and if you did, be sure to come back next week!
Jay Lansdaal
@iLansdaal on Twitter
iLansdaal on mtgo
Mana Deprived is the #1 Magic: the Gathering Site in Canada.
