Looking forward to Standard without Marvel!

Posted On 3:07 PM // Leave a Comment

Newsletter
Thursday, June 15th

Grand Prix Las Vegas is already capping off one of the most eventful Magic weeks we've ever seen! Standard is back in a big way with the expected banning of Aetherworks Marvel, which is why Pro Tour Champion Gerry Thompson can't wait to tell you about the updates he's made to Zombies! We also have Emma Handy weighing in on the strange year we've seen in Standard and none other than #SCGCHAR Champion Todd Stevens telling you how to pilot his Eldrazi Tron deck in Modern! It's a deck, he says, that has an unbelievably strong win percentage against Death's Shadow! To everyone in Las Vegas who is already battling: Best of luck! We hope you don't have to discard the card you searched up with Gamble too often!

— Danny West, Content Coordinator

Todd Stevens
Modern Open

Brad Carpenter
Standard Classic

James Jordan
Modern Classic

The Best Deck In
Post-Marvel Standard
By Gerry Thompson  

Westvale Abbey gets better for a few reasons. Fatal Push gets better, which means we're playing fewer Grasp of Darknesses. That reduces the chance of having those awkward turns where you need BBBB for Grasp of Darkness and Relentless Dead.

Additionally, Westvale Abbey is better against the format in general. There will be more midrange fights, which means it's more likely the games will devolve into Ormendahl games. If that ends up not being the case, I'd be fine with playing 24 Swamps.

The sideboard has changed a decent amount.

Transgress the Mind is completely absent, as it was mainly there for Aetherworks Marvel and I never wanted it against U/R Control anyway. The tempo loss is huge and most of their cards do the same thing. Forcing them to discard a card drawer, removal spell, or threat will often leave them with that same effect. In order for discard to be effective, you need to be able to strip them of something vital, not simply trade one-for-one.

You're better off in the U/R matchup having the maximum amount of Grasp of Darknesses post-sideboard to fight Torrential Gearhulk and Thing in the Ice. Force them to commit time and resources into playing them and win the exchange with a timely removal spell. From there, their position typically crumbles.

Grasp of Darkness is the best removal spell against Glorybringer and the various threats in the U/R Control deck, but Fatal Push is probably a necessity against Mardu Vehicles and G/B Energy. There are some matchups where you'll want to go up to 12 removal spells post-sideboard, but most of the time it's about configuring your deck against their post-sideboard configuration and finding which 6-10 removal spells are best.

July 8-9
sealed & 2hg sealed

July 15-16
Standard

July 22-23
Team Constructed

Reactions To Announcement Week
Day 2: Decks To Play In
Post-Marvel Standard
By Emma Handy  

These bannings hurt. I'm right there with you. I was planning to play a not-Aetherworks Marvel deck at the Invitational and had most things planned out until a few hours ago. I was as far as having my Aetherworks Marvels and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hungers listed online, and now I'm out some money. It sucks. Despite my writing, Twitch, and having access to a lot of cards through friends, I still have to buy cards and have a collection.

That being said, I'm confident that things are going to be okay. I'd go as far as to say I'm optimistic about the future. These bannings are unlikely to be the norm, and once we catch up to the point where Wizards had all of the information they needed during set design, we'll be closer to the normalcy with which many of us have become accustomed.

Your Guide To Battling
With Eldrazi Tron
By Todd Stevens  

First off, every game you get to do something. Sure that thing isn't always spectacular—maybe your first play is Turn 3 Matter Reshaper—but the amount of games you automatically lose to your manabase is extremely small. You never have problems with having the right color of mana and all of your lands come in untapped. Compare this to Grixis Death's Shadow where I won three games at #SCGCHAR simply from my opponent not having the correct color of mana available to cast spells. This may seem like a small thing, but having a chance in every single game over 15 rounds is a big deal.

Some percentage of games you have Turn 3 Tron and a nearly unbeatable draw. It's not common, but combine this with other decks losing a percentage of games to their manabase and you start each tournament off with a much higher than normal win percentage due to variance compared to other decks.