At my local game store, this weekend is the first weekend of Eldritch Moon Standard, since last Friday was the release day draft. There's been a StarCityGames Standard Open, but Magic Online doesn't have the set yet. The Pro Tour's only next week! So, just as James Acaster does here, we must soldier on with what we can do now.

A Note on What We Can Do Now

There's a lot of Bant Company in the Open results, as summarized below. How much of that is due to the deck's strength in Eldritch Moon isn't known yet, for a couple reasons. First, it mostly existed already. Some versions are better than others, but that's worlds away from building a new deck, not only in deck-building effort but also in proficiency with a deck's basic lines of play. And on the other hand, new decks' lines of play are still being mastered even by the deck designers.

Second, card availability greatly affects these results, and possibly this upcoming weekend's results as well. Card availability doesn’t just affect people playing existing archetypes; it also affects how varied decks are in the first few rounds of a tournament. The likelihood of playing against someone with poorly tuned list is high, because they didn’t have a chance to acquire everything they want for the deck. I want to play U/W Spirits, but I'm missing one Mausoleum Wanderer, one Spell Queller, three Selfless Spirits, and other random things. Unlike Jason Alt's Commander series, I can't go 75 percent into that deck and win with it, but the excitement of playing with new cards means some people might show up at an event this close to release and try anyway.

So here's what showed up in the Star City Games Standard Open Top 64 from the weekend:

Most of the results back up the idea there's a lot of tuning left; there were six archetypes in the top eight, but four of them were the archetype's only appearance in the entire top 64.

There's a lot to unpack here, but it's clear that Bant Company has at least some game still:

Bant Company ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Devin Koepke, 1st, StarCityGames Open, July 23, 2016

• Creatures (27)
• 2 Archangel Avacyn
• 3 Duskwatch Recruiter
• 3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 3 Tireless Tracker
• 4 Reflector Mage
• 4 Selfless Spirit
• 4 Spell Queller
• 4 Sylvan Advocate

• Spells (8)
• 4 Collected Company
• 4 Dromoka's Command

• Lands (25)
• 1 Island
• 3 Forest
• 5 Plains
• 2 Lumbering Falls
• 3 Canopy Vista
• 3 Yavimaya Coast
• 4 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Prairie Stream

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Lambholt Pacifist
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 2 Negate
• 2 Ojutai's Command
• 2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
• 2 Declaration in Stone
• 1 Planar Outburst
• 2 Tragic Arrogance

Buy This Deck

All three Bant Company decks in the top eight agreed that Spell Queller was great; two agreed about Thalia, Heretic Cathar; but only this winning deck added Selfless Spirit. In my write-up last time that explored U/W Spirits, one of my urgings is to use Ojutai's Command with cards like Selfless Spirit to, in effect, expand the range of Commands and other cards. Spell Queller and Selfless Spirit expands the range of Collected Company from value creatures with the occasional bounce spell (Reflector Mage) to value creatures, bounce spells, counterspells, and indestructibility to the team, the last of those joining Archangel Avacyn as a combat blowout.

In the post-finals interview, Devin was glowing about the Selfless Spirit choice (besides hailing Spell Queller as a ridiculous card), and I'm inclined to agree. It's competing with Bounding Krasis in other Bant Company lists, but Selfless Spirit is easier to cast, flies, and has an ability that's relevant in the long game.

Devin said in that interview the Spirits deck felt like it needed to curve out perfectly, so it was unreliable. As the second most frequent archetype in the top 64, I suspect Devin's team didn't find an optimal list. But Jeff Hoogland might have:

U/W Spirits ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Jeff Hoogland, 13th, StarCityGames Open, July 23, 2016

• Creatures (20)
• 4 Archangel Avacyn
• 4 Mausoleum Wanderer
• 4 Rattlechains
• 4 Selfless Spirit
• 4 Spell Queller

• Spells (15)
• 1 Essence Flux
• 1 Scatter to the Winds
• 2 Anticipate
• 3 Clash of Wills
• 3 Ojutai's Command
• 2 Planar Outburst
• 3 Stasis Snare

• Lands (25)
• 8 Island
• 8 Plains
• 1 Meandering River
• 4 Port Town
• 4 Prairie Stream

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Bygone Bishop
• 2 Silkwrap
• 2 Blessed Alliance
• 1 Confirm Suspicions
• 2 Negate
• 2 Summary Dismissal
• 2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
• 2 Planar Outburst

Buy This Deck

Of Hoogland's 50 non-lands in the main deck and sideboard, only 18 must be cast at sorcery speed. To put that in perspective, 23 of Paulo Vitor Dama da Rosa's 50 non-lands from the Blue-Black Faeries list on his Pro Tour Hall of Fame page needed to be cast at sorcery speed. Granted, 15 of those were in his sideboard, so his main deck was much flash-ier than Hoogland's. But even approaching the level of Faeries, while having more creatures, is potent.

Of Hoogland's "slow" spells, four of them are Planar Outburst. As Patrick Sullivan explained while wrapping up tournament coverage, 5-mana spells are critical in the upcoming Standard because they're out of Spell Queller range, similar to how Modern has the Lightning Bolt test for whether a creature is good and how Modern and Standard have cared about converted mana cost due to Collected Company. Between this deck and the new iteration of Bant Company, the main conclusion after one weekend is Spell Queller's hype was more than justified. Hoogland's build next-levels Spell Queller as much as it can with both Planar Outburst and a play-set of Archangel Avacyn; both decisions seem completely correct moving forward.

Brew-Infused Metaballs

Since Bant Company was so prevalent and since new cards are more interesting, I want to highlight decks that heavily explored new cards that aren't Spell Queller. Of these, Max McVety's list (he won the StarCityGames Invitational in April with White Humans) is one of the most intriguing for being one of the only Red decks:

Mono-Red Aggro ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Max McVety, 59th, StarCityGames Open, July 23, 2016

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Abbot of Keral Keep
• 4 Insolent Neonate
• 4 Thermo-Alchemist
• 4 Thunderbreak Regent

• Spells (22)
• 4 Draconic Roar
• 4 Fiery Impulse
• 4 Fiery Temper
• 2 Exquisite Firecraft
• 4 Collective Defiance
• 4 Incendiary Flow

• Lands (22)
• 20 Mountain
• 2 Geier Reach Sanitarium

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Bedlam Reveler
• 4 Weaver of Lightning
• 2 Rending Volley
• 3 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
• 2 Exquisite Firecraft
• 1 Mountain

Buy This Deck

Multiple times through the tournament, Max called this deck unplayable in some form or fashion, "potentially unplayable" when it was 3-1, and "unplayable" (seemingly about 50 percent in jest) when 9-5-1 got him into the top 64. The lesson out of this list isn't so much that this list is good to go; it's that, even with play-sets of Thermo-Alchemist and Weaver of Lightning, the burn package in Standard is good enough to 9-5-1. To be fair to Thermo-Alchemist, its 0/3 defender body can block Sylvan Advocate for awhile and present a reasonable part of a clock. To be unfair to it, it's an 0/3 defender in a burn deck. But enough work on this might get it in good shape for the Pro Tour.

The moderate success of this deck helps confirm a few impressions back in spoiler season. First, Incendiary Flow is playable. Nobody was doubting this, but seeing how many Sylvan Advocates and Spell Quellers are running (or flying) around, Incendiary Flow and Fiery Temper keep pace in a way Languish-based decks seem to have some trouble with. Second, Geier Reach Sanitarium has a place as free value in a mono-colored deck. I didn't expect it in Red, but being able to turn excess Mountains or Insolent Neonates into burn spells looks good.

Third, and this was only a half-impression going in, Collective Defiance is all that. It looked good, but seeing it in an actual burn list as the top end, killing a large creature, hitting the face, refilling a hand, or all three, gives Red flexibility it rarely gets. Every burn spell in the deck is capable of dealing three damage to a creature, but Collective Defiance gives a reliable slate of options for the long game while costing little enough to be functional midgame.

Fourth, and I had no read on this card one way or the other, Bedlam Reveler is useful, included here as a sideboard option for more grindy matches. As with emerge, delve, and other cost-reduction cards, Bedlam Reveler was tough to evaluate because of its theoretical eight-mana cost, even though no deck that runs would it ever need to pay 8 mana. Bedlam Reveler was main-decked in Scott Ferguson's 56th-place U/R Prowess deck (joining Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Thing in the Ice, and Curious Homunculus in the creature suite), and it looks good in that list as well. At this point, though, I like Mono-Red more, if for no other reason than that the majority of its spells can kill Sylvan Advocate and Spell Queller. That looks massively important coming up, and with Bedlam Reveler and Collective Defiance available, I wouldn't be surprised to see a successful Red deck at the Pro Tour that ditches the small creatures and puts Bedlam Reveler at the top of the curve.

Speaking of Spell Queller, here's a deck whose main goal involves spells well above 4 mana:

B/G Emerge ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Ian Bosley, 49th, StarCityGames Open, July 23, 2016

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Decimator of the Provinces
• 2 Loam Dryad
• 2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
• 3 Elvish Visionary
• 4 Deathcap Cultivator
• 4 Distended Mindbender
• 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
• 4 Foul Emissary
• 4 Matter Reshaper
• 4 Reality Smasher

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Liliana, the Last Hope

• Spells (3)
• 3 Cryptolith Rite

• Lands (23)
• 3 Swamp
• 5 Forest
• 2 Caves of Koilos
• 2 Yavimaya Coast
• 3 Westvale Abbey
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Hissing Quagmire

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Gilt-Leaf Winnower
• 1 Voldaren Pariah
• 2 Evolutionary Leap
• 3 Aerial Volley
• 2 Ultimate Price
• 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1 Liliana, the Last Hope
• 3 Transgress the Mind

Buy This Deck

This is the successor to the B/G Rites deck that fell out of the last metagame. Unlike that deck, Ian's endgame involves naturally huge creatures. Matter Reshaper, Foul Emissary, and Cryptolith Rite maximize the chances of a turn-four Distended Mindbender, while the Reshaper and Emissary can replace themselves when emerging. Distended Mindbender seems incredibly well-positioned in a Spell Queller metagame, ripping apart a carefully crafted hand and sometimes forcing a Spell Queller onto the battlefield (if it's the only three-mana spell in the hand) before it can exile a spell. Reality Smasher and Decimator of the Provinces offer a boatload (or boarload in one case) of trample and haste, both massively important in addressing the ground-stalled board states of recent Standard.

I assume this isn't near the best version of a Distended Mindbender/emerge deck, but the core strategies look good, and emerge strategies naturally foil Spell Queller strategies and Languish strategies. Breaking the power-speed axis in deck-building, doing hefty things faster than you ought to be able to do them, is everybody's dream, and if Pro Tour competitors find a better version of this deck, it might indeed be broken.

McVety's deck had escalate and Bosley's deck had emerge. So why not show the most successful Eldritch Moon mechanic so far, meld?

W/B Angel Control ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Ronnie Ritner, 8th, StarCityGames Open, July 23, 2016

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Archangel Avacyn
• 1 Bruna, the Fading Light
• 1 Linvala, the Preserver
• 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 2 Thalia's Lancers
• 3 Gisela, the Broken Blade

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 2 Liliana, the Last Hope
• 2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis

• Spells (19)
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Blessed Alliance
• 2 Ultimate Price
• 4 Grasp of Darkness
• 2 Duress
• 3 Languish
• 3 Read the Bones
• 3 Ruinous Path

• Lands (26)
• 5 Plains
• 8 Swamp
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 4 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Forsaken Sanctuary
• 4 Shambling Vent

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Felidar Cub
• 2 Dead Weight
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Bruna, the Fading Light
• 1 Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1 Collective Brutality
• 1 Duress
• 2 Flaying Tendrils
• 1 Planar Outburst
• 1 Read the Bones
• 3 Transgress the Mind

Buy This Deck

If you ignore the creatures, you'll see last Standard's W/B Control shell. It wasn't quite a first-tier deck in part because it had trouble finding a win condition. Shambling Vent pulled far too much weight (how can a vent even pull weight?) in several games, and matches could go to time without any slow play. An Angel suite, tutorable by Thalia's Lancers and culminating in the melding of Gisela, the Broken Blade and Bruna, the Fading Light, shores up that problem handily; and, while this deck seems too clunky to me to sustain success, that might just be my looking at the removal suite, remembering last Standard, and drawing conclusions.

It feels like the Pro Tour metagame will go in a direction that makes these catch-all control decks the wrong choice to win it all, but for an undefined metagame like Ritner entered it makes a lot of sense. And it if can consistently hold the fort until Brisela, Voice of Nightmares shows up . . . that's scary.

Conclusion

Spell Queller has all the splashy early results. That puts a target on its head for this weekend and the Pro Tour next month. Is it robust enough to survive the hate and keep Bant Company and U/W Spirits the premier decks? Will emerge be good enough? Is something else the real deal? The next two weeks will be fascinating as everybody tries to work all that out.