What is Standard's Next Great Deck?

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Newsletter
Thursday, June 22nd

With the SCG Invitational coming up next weekend, everyone is setting their sights on figuring out this Standard format! Season One will come to a close, and though Hour of Devastation is on its way, there's still a huge going away party in Roanoke! With only a short time to solve a format without Aetherworks Marvel, who will come out on top? Conley Woods is brewing up something special using the forgotten Eldrazi, and Shaheen Soorani is all over finding the optimal control deck! Brad Nelson has taken it even further and is giving his rankings of all the decks that are on the metagame's radar! He's got his choice narrowed down to three! What about you?

— Danny West, Content Coordinator

The Marvel-Less World Of Eldrazi
By Conley Woods  

Curving out a turn 2 Mimic into turn 3 Eldrazi Skyspawner is seven power worth of creatures that threatens a turn 4 Reality Smasher at the same time. This puts our opponent in a position where they almost certainly need to stop what they were doing and go on the defensive. We can run into some problems if our opponent is on the play and gets out to a faster start than ours, but even in that world we have a battlefield full of blockers to stabilize. These bursts of pressure ultimately give this deck its biggest advantages.

We have eight creatures in the maindeck that can be played at instant speed. Yes, Warping Wail does make tokens and they will often be bigger than 1/1 thanks to those Mimics and Ruins. When coupled with haste or removal, a small end-step play can win the game. The token aspect of Warping Wail and flash on Dimensional Infiltrator are especially savage when you can turn on an Aethersphere Harvester at instant speed for a surprise block.

Speaking of flash creatures, it would be a mistake not to talk about Elder Deep-Fiend some more. While many decks featuring the 5/6 will max out on copies because they are often built around it, we choose to use it as a finisher and curve-topper. Chaining out a pair of Deep-Fiends (via Sanctum of Ugin) allows us to turn around races or to win a close game out of nowhere, so it is nice to have those lines. That said, if we don't draw Deep-Fiend or can't cast it, it is still entirely possible that our deck operates swimmingly and we win anyway.

Season One Invitational Weekend June 30 - July 2

July 8-9
sealed & 2hg sealed

July 15-16
Standard

July 22-23
Team Constructed

Building Control After Marvel
By Shaheen Soorani  

Liliana, the Last Hope is going to have a power level increase with Aetherworks Marvel being removed from Standard. She was already the best shot control had against the former best deck in the metagame, casting one early and fighting to keep Aetherworks Marvel and its creature allies from the battlefield. The ultimate was the main course to victory, being a much easier route than expecting to dominate Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's late-game.

Liliana, the Last Hope is relatively weak against the Temur creatures, but she is very powerful against the rest of the field. This planeswalker utterly obliterates Zombies when piloted by a control mage. Control utilizes planeswalkers in a different way, which makes her more powerful in this U/B shell than in the Zombie deck. Zombies, or aggressive decks in general, cast a planeswalker to give added pressure, where control players land one with a handful of removal spells to protect her. This allows for dominating games, killing off lords with Grasp of Darkness, punishing "going wide" strategies with sweepers, and ticking Liliana, the Last Hope up with each move. The same theory applies for the control mirror, against U/R Control specifically, but replacing removal with countermagic and hand disruption.

My Top Three Choices For Standard
By Brad Nelson  

Derek Pite (Misplacedginger on Magic Online) currently has the most trophies in Standard competitive Leagues. I sat down with him to learn more about B/G Energy, and learn I did. Derek believes B/G Energy to have the highest power-to-curve ratio of any deck, and it's difficult to argue against that. We all know how Winding Constrictor can get out of hand, but even without the namesake spell, the deck has legs. Longtusk Cub and Glint-Sleeve Siphoner both can do damage starting on turn 2. Both have their own unique strengths, yet combine to create powerful synergies for the deck to exploit.

The biggest boon to this deck's success is Fatal Push. Like I said earlier, two-drops define the early turns, and Fatal Push is the only reliable removal spell that allows you to cast your own while dealing with theirs.