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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 August 23, 2014
 Reddit

This week it's all Standard and Modern, featuring old favorites and new exciting decks with Magic 2015 goodness. This week we're going to see just how big we can go, with Standard decks powering out Hornet Queen and Modern decks that try to deal huge amounts of damage early on in the game. No matter what your preferences are, these are five decks you just can't miss.

We've seen a number of fun takes on Mono-Green devotion in this Standard format. Each time a new set comes out, cards like Courser of Kruphix and Eidolon of Blossoms have encouraged people to try again to see if that was the missing piece. This week, Jacob Van Lunen takes a closer look at a Willy Edel brew: Green-Black devotion, featuring powerful splash cards to shore up some of the weaknesses of the straight Green deck. Let's take a look:

Blossoms Devotion ? Magic 2015 Standard | Jacob Van Lunen

I'm a big fan of strategies like this because they are proactive and do something fun and powerful. It's difficult to argue with curving mana creatures into powerful spells like Nissa, Worldwaker and Garruk, Caller of Beasts, especially when some of your most explosive draws can cast those spells as early as turn two. Genesis Hydra goes a long way towards making this deck more reasonable, since it bridges the gap between the early and late game reasonably well while still being a powerful topdeck once you have your mana engines revved and ready to go.

It's interesting to see that there are zero Chord of Callings in this deck, since that's a card many assumed would be an essential element of any successful Mono-Green list. It's possible that Garruk, Genesis Hyra and Eidolon of Blossoms give you enough selection that you don't really need actual tutors. It's also interesting to see cards like Doomwake Giant making their way into this style of list as a way to shut down more aggressive decks. This deck already has a ton of incidental Enchantments, so having a singleton that lets you set up one-sided sweepers seems absolutely incredible.

It's possible that this deck is just bad. Lifebane Zombie is still a thing, after all, and ramp decks generally aren't that good against Thoughtseize plus removal. That said, when this plan works, it's an absolute blast. You have access to some of the most powerful starts and topdecks in the format and can generate actual hundreds of mana when your opponents can't aggressively disrupt your development. Big mana Green decks are fun, and this one is no exception; but this one might just have what it takes to compete in Standard.

Alternatively, maybe you don't want to pay for your Green fatties. Maybe you'd rather just cheat them into play. UncleDolan has been experimenting with the Green-Black Reanimator decks that we've seen crop up, but he's looking for a much more attrition-based gameplan instead of a combo-focused approach. Instead of relying on pure reanimation, he's looking to grind people out with Soul of Innistrad rebuying a never-ending stream of powerful creatures for your opponents to deal with. How good is that plan? Let's take a look and find out:

[Cardlist Title= Golgari Reanimator ? Magic 2015 Standard | UncleDolan]

This deck does some really interesting things that are different than previous builds. It focuses less on Whip of Erebos and Endless Obedience and has cut out all of the Sylvan Caryatids and Elvish Mystics in favor of more interactive elements. Now the deck has space for removal spells and Slaughter Games.

Perhaps more interesting is the focus on Soul of Innistrad as a more robust, if less powerful recursion engine. I can't really imagine running out of gas if you get to return a Soul of Innistrad with another Soul of Innistrad, and there are a number of decks that will have trouble presenting removal spells for your Soul or Hornet Queen every turn. These cards are certainly less powerful than Obzedat, Ghost Council and Ashen Rider, but are better at grinding out opponents and don't necessitate dedicating a huge part of your deck to mana creatures.

As always, the problem with decks like this is that you're a little weak to Sphinx's Revelation and counterspells but also to fast starts out of aggressive decks. If you can get an early fatty into play, you can often ride that to victory, but those starts aren't as common as they were in the Unburial Rites days of the previous Standard. The key to this style of deck is finding the best way for it to do its thing the most consistently. This might not be exactly what we're looking for, but it's a great place to start.

There aren't many decks in Modern that can boast the ability to kill on turn two. There are none that can do it as consistently as the poison deck. We've recently seen a resurgence in Modern Infect with proponents like Tom Ross and players like Phil Napoli and Wesley Hovanec putting up Top 8 appearances with the deck. It's hard to argue with a powerful, resilient gameplan that threatens to kill that early, and compared to some of the other top tier decks, infect is reasonably affordable. Let's find out what Infect looks like in today's Modern:

Infect ? Modern | Phil Napoli, 3rd Grand Prix Boston-Worcester

The gameplan is pretty straightforward. Attack with an Infect creature, count to ten poison, kill your opponent. The way you get there is frequently much more complicated than that. It's hard to play around the huge variety of removal spells that your opponents can have, particularly since everyone is prepared for the Splinter Twin and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combos that are so common in this format. Your pump spells are fantastic against damage-based removal, but Vines of the Vastwood and Apostle's Blessing are the real lifesavers against the likes of [car]Abrupt Decay[/card] and Slaughter Pact.

What's most interesting to me is the subtle tweaks to adjust for metagame expectations. Gitaxian Probe is immeasurably helpful in playing around the Lightning Bolt/Snapcaster Mage core of URx combo or control decks. Maindeck Viridian Corrupter to buy you an extra turn against Affinity. Distortion Strike as a way to get through against decks with lots of creatures on the ground like Zoo and Birthing Pod. There's a surprising amount of flex to the new Infect lists depending on what you expect to have to battle through on a given day.

This still seems like a very solid choice in the current Modern metagame. Sure, sometimes you'll get overloaded by discard and removal spells. But sometimes your opponent is just going to be dead on turn two. Sometimes they'll sequence their removal incorrectly and you'll kill them anyway. You've got a surprising amount of play in the way you sequence your pump spells and choosing your moment to go for it. You force people to develop their own plan more slowly for fear that they're just going to die if they spend their mana more efficiently. Pressure forces mistakes, and Infect applies more pressure than almost any other deck in the format.

The Aristocrats started as a Black-White-Red deck built around Cartel Aristocrat and Falkenrath Aristocrat turning on morbid cards like Tragic Slip and Skirsdag High Priest. Cards like Boros Reckoner and Blasphemous Act or Lingering Souls and Blood Artist would define later builds. People would swap Red for Green to get Young Wolf and Voice of Resurgence. But what happens when you try to bring the strategy into Modern? There are a lot of really exciting tools available to that color combination that M2Panakin is starting to explore:

[Cardlist title= Act III ? Modern | M2Panakin]

This deck seems awesome. This color combination gets access to all of the best removal and disruption in the format. Additionally, you get both Lingering Souls and Young Pyromancer as single cards that can win the game on their own if left unchecked that also make it very difficult for hyper-aggressive decks like Affinity to force damage through. On top of all of that, you have access to incredible game enders like Falkenrath Aristocrat and Thundermaw Hellkite that enable you to turn the corner hard and end games within as little as two turns.

If that plan doesn't seem like it's going to work, you can set up games where you Blasphemous Act people to death with Boros Reckoner. You've got all kinds of creatures that are just very difficult to deal with backed by some of the best interactive elements in the format, which is always a good place to be. The one thing this deck seems like it's missing is ways to take advantage of the sacrifice effect of Falkenrath Aristocrat. Tidehollow Sculler turns into a [car]Castigate[/card], but that's not necessarily a reason to put both cards into your deck.

Windbrisk Heights is an especially exciting card in this deck because of the presence of both Young Pyromancer and Lingering Souls to give you the requisite number of creatures. I'm surprised to see that there are so few copies of this, but it's also reasonable to say that you're not really getting an immediate advantage. Casting large haste creatures after you've already attacked isn't excessively powerful, but free cards are free cards.

All told, I like a lot of the things that this deck is trying to do, and could see something in this vein being a real competitor with the Jund and Junk midrange decks that have been defining forces in Modern over the last few years.

Lastly, we've got a new take on Modern Merfolk. Since the inception of the format, people have been trying to find ways to jam all of the Lords with some combination of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Dark Confidant, or Blood Moon as powerful splash effects that win games on their own. Since then, additional Lords have been printed as well as powerful curve-toppers like Thassa, God of the Sea and Master of Waves. This had made splashing for off-tribe cards less and less necessary and has made our fishy friends more of a real competitor. This is Glenn Jones's most recent take:

[Cardlist title= UW Merfolk - Modern | Glenn Jones]

The plan is still the same as it's always been. Curve out with aggressive Blue creatures and start Lording your opponent to death. Silvergill Adept is still just incredible against removal decks and islandwalk is as powerful an ability as it has ever been; particularly when it's backed up by Spreading Seas. What I like about this deck is that it's cut down on the cute tricks. This isn't a deck that needs Cryptic Command or Remand. You don't even need Vendilion Clique. Your plan is just to get your opponent dead as fast as possible, and this is a list that embraces that role.

Merrow Reejery is still an absurdly powerful card, either acting as a repeatable Dark Ritual with Aether Vial, letting you cast spells and get in with Mutavault by untapping some lands, or just tapping down blockers to force your team through for lethal. Phantasmal Image is still cute, but less necessary with the abundance of powerful Blue creatures available to us.

Perhaps the most important thing in this list is the combination of Kira and Sygg to protect your creatures from removal spells. Traditionally, the best method of beating this deck is to just cast a removal spell every turn so that the Lords can't get out of Lightning Bolt range. maindeck Kira and Sygg make that awfully difficult to manage. Besides, even if your opponents are able to get their removal out ahead of your creatures, the White splash gives you access to Moorland Haunt, which is incredible at grinding out the last few points against removal-based decks.

Lastly, let's not underestimate how absurd Spreading Seas is in this Modern format. THere are all manner of decks that rely on Inkmoth Nexus, Celestial Colonnade or Urza lands to actually do their thing. Even more stretch their mana awfully thin and can be absolutely demolished by a timely Spreading Seas. All this while your team crashes over for islandwalking damage? Sounds like a plan to me.

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TAGS articles, standard, current events, deck lists, decks, modern, carlos gutierrez, 5 decks

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