In every format it is good to know the specialists. They are typically the best people to get deck lists from even if you are late to the party. Brad Nelson is one of the great Standard players of our era and the B/G Aggro deck he played is going to be a knockout punch for the next few weeks until Aether Revolt is released. Brad brought this deck to a 5th place finish in the highly competitive SCG Players’ Championship. It has a lot of the typical good-deck-Jund-style cards that I love, but you can also curve out and bring the beat downs. Grim Flayer, Smuggler's Copter, and Catacomb Sifter do a lot to filter your draws and Verdurous Gearhulk is the knockout punch that ends the game.

B/G Aggro ? Kaladesh Standard| Brad Nelson, 5th at the SCG Players? Championship

• Creatures (21)
• 2 Gnarlwood Dryad
• 3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 4 Catacomb Sifter
• 4 Grim Flayer
• 4 Servant of the Conduit
• 4 Verdurous Gearhulk

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Liliana, the Last Hope

• Instants (6)
• 3 Blossoming Defense
• 3 Grasp of Darkness

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Traverse the Ulvenwald

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Dead Weight

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Smuggler’s Copter

• Lands (24)
• 7 Swamp
• 8 Forest
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Hissing Quagmire

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Fleetwheel Cruiser
• 1 Gnarlwood Dryad
• 1 Dead Weight
• 3 Natural State
• 2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• 1 Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1 Flaying Tendrils
• 4 Transgress the Mind

Buy This Deck

Match 1: Temur Aetherworks

Match 2: B/G Delirium

Match 3: Mardu Vehicles

Match 4: R/G Energy

Match 5: U/R Colossus

This deck exceeded my expectations, it is really good. I did win most of my die rolls but in a lot of situations it just felt like my cards were better. Even against Aetherworks Marvel, this deck can go pretty wide and pretty fast. The cards are just so generically good and well rounded that in the "bad matchups" there is still a lot of play. Kalitas was a card that I was a little skeptical of at first, but it was just great. The Life Link makes turning the corner and winning the race a lot easier and it covers the deck's weaknesses. I am obviously super stoked to see Oath of Ajani get spoiled, but this B/G deck has me pretty excited and I like it a lot more than the Mardu Vehicles deck I played at my last few events. What could this Aether Revolt have for B/G strategies? Only a few cards have been spoiled so far but I am certainly going to start brewing variations of this deck as soon as I can.

Until next week, GLHF friends. May you smite thy enemies with a Golden Axe!

— Andrew Boswell