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Main » Articles » 5 Decks You Can't Miss This Week

5 Decks You Can't Miss This Week

Carlos Gutierrez
Posted on May 31, 2014
 Reddit

The dust is starting to settle on Journey into Nyx, and we're starting to settle back into more normal metagame cycles. The bad news is that it means people are going back to their Pack Rats and Supreme Verdicts instead of their new brews. The good news is that it means new decks that attack the established metagame are more reasonable. This week we've got a pair of Standard decks that try to leverage different parts of the metagame to their advantage. We've got a new take on a fun Modern strategy; something that's might be just crazy enough to work in Legacy, and King Macar, the Gold-Cursed ready to shut down recursion in Commander.

Standard is sort of polarized right now. There are Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx decks that try to go really big. There are various aggressive decks in different flavors of Red, White, and Black. There are slightly more midrangey Pack Rat and Master of Waves decks. How do you attack all of that at once? Brad Nelson is starting to mess around with a shell that tries to be just midrangey enough to beat up on the more aggressive half of the format, but with enough attrition engines to still dominate the late game against the controlling half. This is Naya Superfriends:

[Cardlist Title= Naya Walkers - Journey into Nyx Standard | Brad Nelson]

This deck is awesome because of the powerful interactions between the key cards. Mana creatures let you ramp into Planeswalkers or a kicked

All of this token generation is supplemented by Trostani, Purphoros, and [card]Assemble the Legion" href="/p/Magic%3A+The+Gathering/Mizzium+Mortars+indiscriminately%2C+and+both+of+those+are+absolutely+stellar+in+this+format.+Fundamentally%2C+the+goal+of+your+Planeswalkers+is+to+generate+board+presence.+Ajani+buffs+your+mana+creatures+or+digs+into+more+spells.+Chandra+eats+away+at+opposing+X%2F1%27s+and+digs+for+more+gas.+Xenagos+generates+creatures+early+and+lets+you+%22go+off%22+once+you%27ve+stabilized%2C+frequently+letting+you+cast+two+or+three+spells+in+a+single+turn.%0D%0A%0D%0AAll+of+this+token+generation+is+supplemented+by+Trostani%2C+Purphoros%2C+and+%5Bcard%5DAssemble+the+Legion">Mizzium Mortars indiscriminately, and both of those are absolutely stellar in this format. Fundamentally, the goal of your Planeswalkers is to generate board presence. Ajani buffs your mana creatures or digs into more spells. Chandra eats away at opposing X/1's and digs for more gas. Xenagos generates creatures early and lets you "go off" once you've stabilized, frequently letting you cast two or three spells in a single turn.

All of this token generation is supplemented by Trostani, Purphoros, and [card]Assemble the Legion to give you a way to grind out life, damage, and even more creatures in appropriate matchups. Voice of Resurgence is a great two drop in almost every matchup and gives you a great token to start populating.

What I like most about this deck is that it's a pseudo-combo deck. All of the pieces interact with multiple other cards in the deck to do something very powerful. Purphoros plus tokens to deal damage. Ajani plus mana creatures to defend your Planeswalkers. Chandra plus Xenagos to cast the spells you're exiling. The deck is much more than the sum of its parts, and there are plenty of really powerful parts.

Many decks in Standard are trying to out-midrange each other with various card advantage engines. Sphinx's Revelation, Underworld Connections, Eidolon of Blossoms, and Bident of Thassa are all reasonably common cards to play against in this format. Are these cards a big enough piece of the metagame to make Notion Thief a reasonable thing to do? Sam Black seems to think so, and is starting here:

Notion Thief Midrange- Journey into Nyx Standard| Sam Black

This deck is awesome. If your opponents are playing card drawing spells, Notion Thief is already insane. Otherwise? Let's help our opponents out with Master of the Feast and Dictate of Kruphix. Not deep enough? How about Whispering Madness?

The interesting thing is that the engine cards like Dictate of Kruphix help you dig into your Notion Thief to really start pulling ahead. One you've assembled the engine, you're going to keep hitting your land drops so that cards like Cyclonic Rift and Hypnotic Siren become more reasonable. What's even better is that Hidden Strings gives you a way to keep up with all the cards you're drawing and make sure you can cast multiple spells every turn. It's not like they're going to block Master of the Feast anyway, right?

This deck is the kind of thing that I really want to be playable in this Standard environment. Forget Thoughtseize into Pack Rat. Isn't it way sweeter to curve Dictate of Kruphix into Notion Thief?

We've talked about Prison in Modern before. The biggest problem with the deck was finding a way to close out games that didn't take away from your plan or proactive locking down the board. Celestial Colonnade was fine, but put you cold to decks with enough Tectonic Edge[card]s and [card]Path to Exiles. zoly has tried to solve this problem by moving away from Blue in exchange for Red. Let's look at what Boros Prison looks like:

[Cardlist Title=Boros Prison - Journey into Nyx Modern | zoly, 3-1 Modern Daily Event]

The plan is still the same, curve out hateful enchantments into Nykthos and start locking down the board. Runed Halo turns off Splinter Twin, Grapeshot, Valakut, and more. Nevermore names anything from Scapeshift to Cryptic Command. Ghostly Prison plus Sphere of Safety lock the game down against Affinity just as well as they do against Splinter Twin. Porphory Nodes shuts down Birthing Pod decks given enough time to eat their board and gives you game against Hexproof creatures and Etched Champion.

The big difference is that this deck doesn't lean on Celestial Colonnade to win games. Instead, you've got both Heliod and Assemble the Legion, which means that you have a lot more flexibility and resiliency to both removal and counterspells. Plenty of people play a pile of Combusts and non-basic hate in their sideboards. Very few people pack more than two or three enchantment removal spells, which means that Assemble the Legion is more likely to stick around. Even better? Assemble actually contributes to your plan of just staying alive.

I still don't know if this is a reasonable plan in Modern, but I know that the combination of Ghostly Prison, Nevermore and Runed Halo shuts down a significant portion of the decks in the format, which has to be a good place to start.

Tolarian Academy is banned. Gaea's Cradle is a key piece of a very respectable combo deck. What about Serra's Sanctum? Sure, it sees some play in Enhantress lists from time to time, but largely this land is relegated to Commander and other casual formats. Not today. Today, jhhdk's Leyline combo deck:

[Cardlist title= Opalescence - Legacy | jhhdk]

What is there to say? Mono-Leylines. [card]Serra's Sanctum" href="/p/Magic%3A+The+Gathering/Serra%27s+Sanctum%5B%2Fard%5D+is+a+key+piece+in+%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mtgthesource.com%2Fforums%2Fshowthread.php%3F18587-IDEA-Opalesence%22+target%3D%22_blank%22%3Ejhhdk%27s+Leyline+combo+deck%3C%2Fa%3E%3A%0D%0A%0D%0A%5BCardlist+title%3D+Opalescence+-+Legacy+%7C+jhhdk%5D%0D%0A%5BLands%5D%0D%0A4+Temple+Garden%0D%0A4+Savannah%0D%0A4+Serra%27s+Sanctum%0D%0A%5B%2FLands%5D%0D%0A%5BSpells%5D%0D%0A4+Serum+Powder%0D%0A4+Opalescence%0D%0A4+Enlightened+Tutor%0D%0A4+Crop+Rotation%0D%0A4+Leyline+of+the+Void%0D%0A4+Leyline+of+Sanctity%0D%0A4+Leyline+of+the+Meek%0D%0A4+Leyline+of+Punishment%0D%0A4+Leyline+of+Lifeforce%0D%0A4+Leyline+of+Vitality%0D%0A4+Leyline+of+Anticipation%0D%0A%5B%2FSpells%5D%0D%0A%5B%2FCardlist%5D%0D%0A%0D%0AWhat+is+there+to+say%3F+Mono-Leylines.+%5Bcard%5DSerra%27s+Sanctum">Serra's Sanctum[/ard] is a key piece in jhhdk's Leyline combo deck:

[Cardlist title= Opalescence - Legacy | jhhdk]

What is there to say? Mono-Leylines. [card]Serra's Sanctum. Opalescence. If you have five Leylines that start in play, you can twenty your opponent on turn one. If not? That's what your tutors are for, to set up the win on the second or third turn. Enlightened Tutor finds Opalescene or an extra Leyline. Crop Rotation finds the Serra's Sanctum you need to actually cast your key spell.

The interesting thing about this deck is the actual combination of Leylines. Sure, you could just pick 32 and call it a day, but most of these Leylines actually contribute something to the deck. Leyline of Anticipation means you can ambush early attackers or gives you a more effective way to battle against counterspells. Leyline of Sanctity and Leyline of the Void can actually just win games on their own against unfair decks like Storm and Dredge. Leyline of Vitality helps your creatures beat Batterskull in combat while Leyline of Punishment helps you race. The effects are subtle, but significant when they come up.

This deck is certainly not going to take Legacy by storm. It's a glass cannon that can steal a few games here and there, but can never realistically beat Force of Will or Thoughtseize. That said, it's off the wall and is a really fun idea to consider.

Last week we saw what King Macar was capable of in Theros Block Constructed. But what can the gold sovereign do in Commander, where there's even more enablers and plenty of targets? What are the best ways to enable King Macar and what can you do once you've stocked up on Gold tokens? Nthrof set out to find out with his take on King Macar in Commander:

[Cardlist title=King Macar Control - Commander | Nthrof]

You'd think that you'd have to put in a ton of work to make King Macar worthwhile in this format. After all, there aren't a ton of enablers that immediately jump to mind and you only get one combat step every turn. How are you going to try to get enough activations to make it worthwhile? Nthrof found a number of really elegant solutions to these problems and has put together a deck that I'm really excited to talk about.

First, let's talk overall themes. This is an aggro deck. You're looking to Voltron up King Macar and make sure he gets through for damage every single turn. That's the easiest way to make sure you're getting at least one trigger each turn cycle. Then you start adding in cards like Honor-Worn Shaku and Paradise Mantle. Now we're talking! But how do you untap him? The Talisman cycle will do it, if you can find the appropriate colors for the decks your opponents' are playing. Umbral Mantle and Staff of Domination are both fine. Sword of the Paruns taps and untaps! Between these cards, you can start shooting down creatures on each players' turn and keep the board locked down.

That whole time, King Macar will keep crashing in for a few points at a time. It's Commander damage, so they're on a pretty fast clock and King Macar does a great job of keeping blockers out of his way. But don't assume that this is just some aggressive-ish tempo deck that keeps the board clear. That Gold starts piling up pretty quickly, and then your opponents will have more traditional finishers like Blightsteel Colossus and Sheoldred to worry about.

My first impression of Macar was that he would be way too much work to be viable in Commander. Nthrof has not only proven that there's a very powerful shell for King Macar, but has certainly made me want to see what King Macar can do.

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TAGS articles, standard, constructed, current events, deck lists, decks, commander, block, modern, carlos gutierrez, theros, 5 decks

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