Title: A Quick Look at Standard
Tags: Magic Standard Looks that are quick
Blog Entry: US Regionals are coming up soon, and it’s got me thinking about Standard. Also the May FNM card is the most badass looking Pendelhaven I’ve ever seen and I wants me one something fierce. So the first thing I like to do before jumping into a new format is wander around the web and compile some information so that I can get an idea of what kind of important information I need to keep in mind while preparing for whatever event I happen to want to play in. This is just such a compilation. Faeries I guess I’ll start with the 800 pound gorilla in the room. I’ve heard this described as the perfect example of an aggro-control deck. Only 3 cards in the deck can’t be used at instant speed, Ancestral Vision, Bitterblossom, and activating a Mutavault. That is out of control. Combine that with a basically perfect mana base and 12 counter spells and it’s pretty easy to see why everyone seems to be winning with this. I had some one tell me it was like Timespiral block teachings, but without the requisite skill needed to play it. Here’s the list I would probably play. 4 Mistbind Clique 4 Pestermite 4 Scion of Oona 3 Sower of Temptation 4 Spellstutter Sprite 4 Ancestral Vision 4 Bitterblossom 4 Cryptic Command 4 Rune Snag 3 Faerie Conclave 4 Island 4 Mutavault 2 Pendelhaven 4 River of Tears 4 Secluded Glen 4 Underground River I think this list is pretty standard of what people are running, but I’ll talk about it a bit anyways. The first thing that might look out of place is the 2 nd Pendelhaven, but I have it on pretty high authority that it’s probably the best card in the mirror and that getting yours first is probably the best thing that can happen to you. That said it doesn’t let you play Visions on turn one, which is the very same reason this deck doesn’t Sunken Ruins, and might be better off in the board just for the mirror, but if you do take it just make sure you don’t replace it with something that can’t make you a blue mana on turn one. In fact I’m just going to say it should either be a Pendelhaven or an Island and that’s probably it. As for the sideboard I’m not sure about it right now because well I don’t know what the metagame will look like, but there is one card that I’d like to mention as something I think could possibly be really strong, Faerie Macabre. This card is really exciting to me as it can do its job in any deck, but will always be useful in this particular one. Sadly this deck is probably also the one deck that doesn’t need any help shoring up its combo matches, but the idea of wreaking the other combo decks in the format at instant speed for zero mana is still pretty enticing and something I’m going to look into testing in the near future. Red Deck that may or may not Wins I keep hearing about how Shadowmoor made out of control awesome, but I just don’t see it. I’m not saying that it didn’t get some goodies, by all means I think it did improve a lot, but it’s not all of sudden the bees knees. In fact I can’t seem to track down a definitive list of what should or should not be in the deck. But if I had to guess it would probably look something like this. 4 Tattermunge Maniac 4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Keldon Marauders 4 Countryside Crusher 4 Bogart Ram-Gang 4 Flame Javelin 4 Lash-Out 4 Tarfire 4 Fire-Lit Thicket 4 Karplusan Forest 12 Mountain 4 Treetop Village Now this list is probably far from perfect, but it has everything I would want in a R/g deck. I posted my feeling in other blogs about Fulminator Mage and he might be really good in the sideboard, but I just don’t think he’s aggressive enough and not nearly good enough against decks like Faeries to be in the main deck. This build is capable of throwing the most damage at someone with access to 2 power on turn one, and 3 power on turn two and 3 hasty power on turn three. It also has pretty decent mid-game finishing power, in Tarmogoyfs, Treetops, and Flame Javelins, which we can easily play because of the awesome Fire-Lit Thicket, and I just felt that if I ever had to play a Fulminator Mage on turn three I’d be wishing he was just a big dude so I went with the Crusherator instead. Lash Out might also seem odd here, but I was talking with some friends recently about how often we just use Incinerate to clear the way for dudes and a few days after that I read GerryT’s article on Star City and he brought up that same point. So I switched to Lash Out and I haven’t looked back. If you burn your opponent’s face then play a Flame Javelin. The board is still a little wishy-washy, but it defiantly starts with 4 Vexing Sushers, and 4 Firespout. After that I really have no idea. Revilark Now I’m going to be 100% honest and say I have little no experience with this deck and every where you look people are saying different things about it, but I think the general consensus is that it’s not very good any more. I think the major reason was that it has a terrible time against Faeries, who doesn’t, and that U/W Fish decks were also beating up on it. As a result it seems to have fallen out of favor for some. I’m going to put a list up here, just a straight up Copy/Paste job of Kenji’s deck from the GP. 3 Aven Riftwatcher 2 Body Double 1 Mirror Entity 4 Mulldrifter 4 Reveillark 4 Riftwing Cloudskate 2 Sower Of Temptation 1 Venser, Shaper Savant 2 Careful Consideration 4 Mind Stone 2 Momentary Blink 4 Rune Snag 3 Wrath Of God 4 Adarkar Wastes 8 Island 2 Mutavault 4 Nimbus Maze 6 Plains Obviously this deck is a little behind the times, but it’s a good starting point. The first obvious upgrade is the uw hybrid land. After that I have no idea what this deck gets, or really any desire to find out to be honest. UW Fish For awhile this deck seemed to be the deck to beat. It could just beat up on Faeries and Revilark without any problem and Dragon Claw made the Red Decks basically a joke. I understand that this had also changed. GerryT himself, master mind behind this list, said so himself. Dragon Claw just isn’t good anymore because Red decks are doing their damage with creatures now and you’re not really making all that much progress. Teferi’s Moat helps, but really you don’t want the red deck match up coming down to one card. Combine that with the recent decline in popularity of Revilark and you can see why this deck has lost a lot of its umpf. That said if the things change at all it could become very strong again so here’s a list for you to keep in mind if the meta-game should take a twist in its favor. 4 Lord Of Atlantis 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Sower Of Temptation 4 Stonybrook Banneret 4 Ancestral Vision 4 Cryptic Command 4 Ponder 2 Remove Soul 3 Sage's Dousing 4 Adarkar Wastes 11 Island 4 Mutavault 4 Wanderwine Hub Not much else to say about this one really. I will say that I like this version better than the one with Sygg in it. Also for those of you who are wondering this deck has white cards in its sideboard. Swan Song Combo I haven’t played this deck before, but people say it’s pretty good. People like Pat Chapin. So it’s probably pretty good then. At the very least everyone should proxy it up and put it into their gaunlet. Here’s Pats most recent list. 2 Dread 4 Swans Of Bryn Argoll 1 Vexing Shusher 4 Beseech The Queen 4 Lotus Bloom 4 Manamorphose 1 Mishra's Bauble 4 Ponder 4 Seismic Assault 4 Telling Time 4 Dakmor Salvage 4 Graven Cairns 2 Reflecting Pool 4 River Of Tears 4 Shivan Reef 2 Sulfurous Springs 2 Sunken Ruins 2 Tolaria West 4 Underground River For those of you who don’t know how the combo works you play Seismic Assualt, toss damage at Swans until you get 2 Dakmor Salvages and then kill your opponent. I’m told you can do this as early as turn four, but again I’ve never played with it so I haven’t a clue. I think that covers what most people are considering the top tier of decks right now. If I get some free time soon I’ll go over some of the more under the radar decks out there and if I get a lot of free time I might even do some testing with something and write something really useful. Until next time. Bob
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