Welcome back! This is the weekend of the Dragon's Maze Prerelease, and that means this is the first week where we've got the whole set to look at. People are starting to explore which cards they think will make an impact on their favorite constructed formats, and we're going to get some awesome decks out of it. Let's start off in Standard:

Dragon's Maze has just hit Standard, and our first week of results are in the book. One of the decks that seems to be getting quite a bit of attention out of the gate is a new take on the UWx Flash decks that drop Red in favor of Green. What does the change in colors do for the deck? Let's take a look at one of the preliminary lists proposed by Jarvis Yu:

[Cardlist title=Bant Flash - Standard | Jarvis Yu]

• Lands (25)
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Temple Garden
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 3 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Forest
• 1 Cavern of Souls

• Creatures (11)
• 3 Augur of Bolas
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Restoration Angel

• Spells (24)
• 4 Advent of the Wurm
• 2 Dissipate
• 1 Syncopate
• 4 Farseek
• 1 Selesnya Charm
• 3 Azorius Charm
• 2 Unsummon
• 3 Sphinx's Revelation
• 3 Think Twice
• 1 Supreme Verdict

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Geist of Saint Traft
• 2 Jace, Memory Adept
• 2 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Negate
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Detention Sphere
• 1 Psychic Spiral
• 2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

Buy This Deck

There are a lot of sweet things going on here. In a format full of X/4s and other creatures that are resilient to burn, Red is seeming pretty lackluster as a splash. Sure, it gives you Boros Reckoner and a Harvest Pyre combo kill, but is that enough on its own?

This deck looks to return to the roots of the Flash deck, focusing on Unsummon, Counterspells, and instant-speed threats. Why is this build better than the more traditional Red splash? Advent of the Wurm. This card is kind of a big deal, and fundamentally changes the functionality of your deck and many of your cards. Now, you have an instant-speed creature that can fight with the threats that Searing Spear couldn't. Not only that, but Advent of the Wurm is a fast clock and Snapcaster Mage-able. This increases your threat density, and frequently puts your opponent into a Faeries-esque situation. Do they cast spells into your open mana and get countered? Do they attack into it and get their creatures eaten? Or do they sit back and let you Sphinx's Revelation them out of the game?

The only card that seems a little strange to me is Farseek. This isn't really a ramp deck, and I think you're more than happy to sit back and make land drops instead of rushing to your four-slot. In the midgame, Farseek is just worse than a land. I think a lot of the time you'll prefer the slots for a few more utility cards. Thought Scour seems good for powering up Snapcaster Mage and making sure you hit land drops, and Rewind seems like an incredible 1-of with all the four-mana cards with flash.

Varolz, the Scar-Striped[card] is a Dragon's Maze card that has caused a lot of discussion, but hasn't really put up results just yet. This card seems a lot like [card]Thrun, the Last Troll and Knight of the Reliquary. He's a midrangey green creature that can be very large, very difficult to removal, and can take over games given a few turns in play.

There's been a lot of speculation about Varolz in Legacy and Modern in conjunction with cards like Death's Shadow, but not too much talk of him in Standard. Valeriy Shunkov is the first person I've seen to try to build a shell around Varolz to see how good he is, and I think this may be a deck to keep an eye on. Let's look at his Junk Aristocrats deck from his article this week:

Junk Aristocrats - Standard | Valeriy Shunkov

• Lands (22)
• 2 Swamp
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Woodland Cemetery

• Creatures (30)
• 4 Blood Artist
• 2 Blood Scrivener
• 4 Cartel Aristocrat
• 4 Diregraf Ghoul
• 4 Geralf's Messenger
• 4 Gravecrawler
• 2 Lotleth Troll
• 3 Skirsdag High Priest
• 3 Varolz, the Scar-Striped

• Spells (8)
• 2 Orzhov Charm
• 1 Putrefy
• 2 Tragic Slip
• 3 Lingering Souls

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Nearheath Pilgrim
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 2 Cremate
• 1 Putrefy
• 2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
• 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
• 3 Duress

Buy This Deck

This deck is sort of a hybrid of Zombies and Sam Black's The Aristocrats, and I really like what it's trying to do. You have Cartel Aristocrat and Skirsdag High Priest to fight against creature decks, Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messenger to fight against removal decks, and Varolz plus Blood Artist for the combo kill in the late game.

Probably the strongest thing about this deck is the way that it matches up against the removal of the format. You can very easily overload your opponents Pillar of Flames and Detention Spheres with Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messenger so that your Varolz, the Scar-Striped sticks and dominates the game.

The only thing I really want to see from this deck is some number of Restoration Angels. Restoration Angel gives you some evasion, a way to make Geralf's Messenger even better, and a creature with a reasonable amount of power to scavenge with Varolz.

Jund, Junk and other iterations of "not-blue" midrange decks are nothing new. We've even seen builds of them with Glittering Wish before. What we haven't seen is a build with Kavu Predator and Fiery Justice. Not only that, but with Dragon's Maze newly legal, there's no end to the options for your Glittering Wish sideboard. Let's take a look at Segal's take on Glittering Wish midrange featured by Sam Black on DailyMTG.com:

Glittering Junk - Modern | Segal, 4-0 Modern Daily Event

• Lands (24)
• 4 Arid Mesa
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Forest
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 4 Marsh Flats
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Plains
• 2 Raging Ravine
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Temple Garden
• 4 Verdant Catacombs

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 4 Deathrite Shaman
• 4 Kavu Predator

• Spells (19)
• 2 Fiery Justice
• 4 Glittering Wish
• 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 3 Lightning Bolt
• 3 Lingering Souls
• 2 Path to Exile
• 1 Terminate

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 2 Ajani Vengeant
• 3 Liliana of the Veil

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Bituminous Blast
• 1 Dreadbore
• 1 Fiery Justice
• 1 Fracturing Gust
• 1 Fulminator Mage
• 1 Kitchen Finks
• 3 Lightning Helix
• 1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
• 1 Pure // Simple
• 1 Rakdos Charm
• 1 Slaughter Games
• 1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
• 1 Terminate

Buy This Deck

There are really two awesome things going on here. We've started with a pretty straightforward Jund/Junk deck full of the most efficient effects in the format. But on top of that we have Kavu Predator and Glittering Wish to give the deck a little bit of flexibility.

The first thing to notice is that Kavu Predator has taken the Tarmogoyf slot, which means this is a little lighter on your budget. The second thing to notice is that Fiery Justice is insane, and you have access to six of them maindeck. You can sweep away early mana creatures and robots, kill Tarmogoyfs and Deathrite Shamans, and fight through Splinter Twin combos. And by the way, your Kavu Predators get +5/+5. The awesome thing about Predator in this deck is that, if the game goes long, Predator can be bigger than even the largest creatures in the format If you resolve two Fiery Justices, even Knight of the Reliquary will be back on the defensive.

And then there's Glittering Wish. This card gives you infinite flexibility at the cost of a high impact sideboard. You can have Slaughter Games and Fulminator Mage maindeck, but you get fewer copies after sideboarding. The awesome thing about this is that your topdecks are infinitely better in the midrange mirrors, because you can draw Glittering Wish. It's a removal spell when you need it, Bituminous Blast if you're behind, or just Obzedat or Sorin if the board is even. The real question is which Dragon's Maze cards make the cut in your wishboard. Varolz, the Scar-Striped? Wear//Tear? There's only one way to find out!

Our last competitive deck is a Legacy deck featuring one of my favorite cards: Life from the Loam. The Aggro Loam archetype is one that shows up occasionally with a huge amount of variation between lists. Jeff Hoogland is one of a few players who has put up consistent results with the deck, and this week he wrote a primer on the deck. Let's take a look:

[Cardlist title=Aggro Loam - Legacy | Jeff Hoogland, 2nd StarCityGames Legacy Open]

• Lands (26)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Badlands
• 1 Bayou
• 2 Forgotten Cave
• 2 Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Nantuko Monastery
• 1 Plateau
• 1 Savannah
• 2 Taiga
• 3 Tranquil Thicket
• 4 Wasteland
• 4 Wooded Foothills
• 1 Karakas
• 1 Dryad Arbor

• Creatures (8)
• 3 Dark Confidant
• 4 Knight of the Reliquary
• 1 Gaddock Teeg

• Spells (26)
• 4 Chalice of the Void
• 4 Mox Diamond
• 2 Sylvan Library
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 3 Punishing Fire
• 4 Burning Wish
• 2 Devastating Dreams
• 1 Green Sun's Zenith
• 3 Life from the Loam

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Gaddock Teeg
• 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1 Chainer's Edict
• 1 Devastating Dreams
• 1 Dreadbore
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 1 Perish
• 1 Reverent Silence
• 1 Shattering Spree
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 1 Bojuka Bog

Buy This Deck

It's no secret that Legacy is a format where spell-lands are a big deal. This deck gets to play all of them to maximum effect. You're the best Grove of the Burnwillows/Punishing Fire deck because you can recur your Groves and Wasteland all of theirs. Your Karakas is always going to stick given time. This deck eschews some of the Barbarian Rings and Horizon Canopys, but those are certainly options as well.

So what's your gameplan? Early on, you have huge amounts of removal and card advantage. Dark Confidant and Sylvan Library demand answers immediately, Life from the Loam gets your engines revving, and removal keeps your opponents from pulling ahead. Just like in the Glittering Wish midrange deck, Burning Wish gives you infinite utility

Eventually you can start grinding away with Punishing Fire and recursive Wastelands while Life from the Loam keeps your hand full of gas. Once you've ground your opponent down, you can go for the Knight of the Reliquary and Devastating Dreams one-two punch to end the game, or just keep grinding away with Punishing Fire to close things out.

It's our third week of featuring Dragon's Maze Legends; we've already looked at the Simic and Izzet legends, Melek, Izzet Paragon and Vorel of Hull Clade. This week we're headed to the Azorius senate to check out RileyFire's Lavinia the Tenth Commander deck. RileyFire's deck is built around blink effects, and using them to maximize Lavinia's ability to control the board. Let's take a look:

Lavinia of the Tenth - Commander | RileyFire

• Commander (1)
• 1 Lavinia of the Tenth

• Lands (39)
• 1 Safe Haven
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Nimbus Maze
• 16 Plains
• 16 Island

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Galepowder Mage
• 1 Restoration Angel
• 1 Flickerwisp
• 1 Phyrexian Ingester
• 1 Pentarch Paladin
• 1 Draining Whelk
• 1 Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1 Djinn of Wishes
• 1 Knight of the White Orchid
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Frost Titan
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Clone
• 1 Sakashima's Student
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Fiend Hunter
• 1 Aether Adept
• 1 Man-o'-War
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Sower of Temptation
• 1 Palinchron
• 1 Meddling Mage
• 1 Trinket Mage
• 1 Urbis Protector

• Spells (34)
• 1 Conjurer's Closet
• 1 Sudden Disappearance
• 1 Momentary Blink
• 1 Vanish into Memory
• 1 Helvault
• 1 Cold Storage
• 1 Flicker
• 1 Otherworldly Journey
• 1 Ghostway
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Devastation Tide
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Venser, the Sojourner
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Coalition Relic
• 1 Wrath of God
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 1 Isochron Scepter
• 1 Disenchant
• 1 Boomerang
• 1 Jace Beleren
• 1 High Tide
• 1 Luminarch Ascension
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Equilibrium
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Followed Footsteps
• 1 Retraced Image
• 1 Mitotic Manipulation
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Silence

Buy This Deck

There are some awesome interactions going on here. Lavinia of the Tenth enables you to do plenty of very powerful things. You get to lock down Equipment, Planeswalkers, mana rocks, and utility Creatures. This means that you get to focus more of your deck in interacting with other kinds of permanents and on powering up Lavinia.

So what does RileyFire do with his extra slots? He's playing value-creatures like Mulldrifter and Archaeomancer and Flicker effects in conjunction with Clones to keep the cheap permanents detained and the board at parity. When things get out of control, you can always just Sudden Disappearance your board and sweep away the cards that are giving you trouble.

When the time comes to lock the game down, there are a few paths RileyFire can take. He can go infinite with Palinchron, do any number of degenerate things with Deadeye Navigator, or reset Djinn of Wishes for infinite value. These all help you put yourself ahead on the board and start to attrition out your opponents.

That said, there are a few things that I think this deck misses out on because it is so heavily focused on flicker effects. Lavinia decks are in a unique position to leverage spot removal very effectively. If you can lock down all the small permanents, then you don't mind trading one for one quite as much as you might ordinarily. You can even play cards like Reprisal instead of Swords to Plowshares for style points! Haste seems like an important effect, either granted by Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves, so that you can bring the beats while Flickering your board. Last, Ghostly Flicker is one of the best Flicker effects printed, and certainly deserves a slot here.

All told, this is a very interesting style of deck, both in conception and practice. Being able to ignore cheap permanents gives you all manner of flexibility in gameplay and deck construction, and I'm excited to see what other kinds of decks can be built around Lavinia.