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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 November 16, 2013
 Reddit

Even in the midst of the MTGO-Apocalypse, we've got big events coming up and sweet decks to take a look at. This is the weekend of Grand Prix DC, featuring Legacy, and we've got a pair of sweet Legacy decks that don't play Delver of Secrets, Show and Tell, or Mother of Runes. We've also got an awesome Mono-Blue Sam Black Brew in Modern, as well as Burn and Corpsejack Menace in Standard. Let's get started!

Mono-Red is nothing new in Standard. People have been curving Rakdos Cackler into Burning-Tree Emissary for almost a year now, with subtle variations on that fundamental theme. But Michael Jacob recently put up a good finish with a Red deck that focuses on just burnig your opponent out rather than curving out with creatures. Let's take a closer look at his take on Mono-Red:

Burn - Standard | DarkestMage, 3-1 Standard Daily Event

I like what this deck is trying to do. In the current format, removal and sweepers are at a premium to fight against various creature-based aggressive decks like Mono-Blue, Mono-Red, and Boros. This deck gets to blank most of those cards while still applying a ton of pressure. You even have maindeck Skullcrack to make sure that Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Sphinx's Revelation don't steal random games.

You do play a few creatures, but even Rakdos Cackler and Chandra's Phoenix operate primarily as burn spells. You can trick people into holding their sweepers back to get value while you plink away for two damage a turn and shave turns off of their clock and burn them out with Boros Charm and Lightning Strike.

Temple of Silence is especially interesting, because it's not a red land. This lets you cast Rakdos Cackler, Chained to the Rocks, and Toil while digging you past excess lands.

The most interesting thing about this deck is that you get to sideboard in creatures for either game two or three, once you've convinced your opponent that you're very light on creatures. That helps you get maximum value out of Young Pyromancer and Spark Trooper, while Boros Reckoner helps you shore up your aggressive matchups and swing the races in your favor.

Since it was first printed, people have been trying to figure out the best way to go big with Kalonian Hydra. I'm not sure if tybdal's approach is the best, but I am convinced that it's the biggest. Let's take a look:

[Cardlist Title= Corpsejack Jund - Modern | tbydal, 4-0 Standard Daily Event]

Every single creature in this deck is very aggressive and utilizies +1/+1 counters. Every one of them is a threat that is capable of taking over a game on its own if left alone, and each one of them gets way out of hand with either Corpsejack Menace or Kalonian Hydra. And if you ever stick the two of them together? You'd better break out another bag of dice and a calculator for that kind of math.

Then you take a look at the spells, and it's still mostly cards that can win games on their own. Domri Rade and Whip of Erebos can absolutely crush decks that aren't prepared to fight against them, and can put you back at parity on a board where you were very far behind. You have a few utility removal spells like Dreadbore and Golgari Charm, but just enough to not randomly lose to Detention Sphere and Desecration Demon.

I really like what this deck is trying to do; you have powerful, resilient, threats backed by spells that can win games on their own if left unchecked. The longer the game goes, the more likely it is that you get to assemble your combo of Corpsejack Menace or Kalonian Hydra and other creatures. You just have to be careful not to play into Supreme Verdict!

Faeries has been occasionally been a thing in Modern. Mono-Blue was okay at the beginning of the format, Blue-Red has been picking up recently as a budget option more recently, but Sam Black is interested in taking the shell in a different direction. Rather than a controlling tempo deck built around Vedalken Shackles and Sword of Feast and Famine, Sam is looking to get more aggressive with Zephyr Sprite and Bident of Thassa. Let's take a look at his new brew:

Mono-Blue Faeries - Modern | Sam Black

There are two very exciting cards in this deck: Aether Vial and Bident of Thassa. Aether Vial gives Faeries the ability to be aggressive and controlling at the same time. You can Remand their spell and still cast your Scion of Oona. You can Mistbind Clique your opponent midcombat and still back it up with countermagic.

Bident of Thassa is also an interesting choice, because it encourages you to play things like Zephyr Sprite, and really makes the deck look much more aggressive than previous iterations of faeries. In a lot of ways, this makes much more sense though, since Bident helps you find the extra Mistbind Clique, Scion of Oona, or Cryptic Command that you need to turn the corner and win the race.

I think I'd like to see a Thirst for Knowledge maindeck to get rid of excess Bidents and Vials, but I can certainly understand wanting the play the maximum amount of Bidents to see how good the card is. I'm incredibly excited about this deck and can't wait to see if Spellstutter Sprite can become a major player in Modern again.

Everyone knows about Delver and Show and Tell in Legacy. They're probably familiar with Dark Ritual decks and Counterbalance decks as well. But it's been a good long while since Standstill was a good card in Legacy, and that means that a lot of players aren't prepared to play against it. Does that make it a perfect time to revive Landstill? XShockWaveX thinks so:

[Cardlist Title=UR Landstill - Legacy | XShockWaveX, 4-0 Legacy Daily Event]

This is a pretty typical take on the Landstill archetype. These decks are generally blue-based for Force of Will, Brainstorm, and Jace, and utilize Crucible of Worlds plus Wasteland and Mishra's Factory as their primary win condition. These decks tend to splash either Red or White for a one casting cost removal spell, and back that up with as much countermagic as they can fit.

The shocking thing about this deck is that it's playing just one Jace and the full four Stifle. Stifle. is generally not a card that you see many copies of in Control decks, as it is usually eschewed in favor of card advantage engines like Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top, which are also notably absent. [card]Stifle enables you to protect yourself from Wasteland and to steal games from land-light Delver of Secrets opponents. This style of deck frequently plays Teferi's Response in the sideboard, so it may just be that maindeck stifle is a more appropriate, proactive answer in a more aggressive format.

We've seen a few takes on poison in Legacy, but the biggest problem with that deck is the lack of good one-drops. Glistener Elf is obviously insane, but every other creatures slows you down by at least a full turn. Let's take a look at this list by Chemfy, who abandoned the infect plan to find out what happens if you max out on resilient one-drops in your all-in green deck:

[Cardlist title=Mono-Green Get There - Legacy | Chemfy, 3-1 Legacy Daily Event]

This is an all-in Berserk deck if I've ever seen one. Chemfy is maxed out on evasive or hexproof one-drops and the best pump spells in the game. All he wants to do is untap with a threat and twenty you in one turn with a combination of pump spells and Berserk.

I like that this deck is very much resilient to the Delver decks of the format, and is more than capable of racing the Show and Tell decks. You have no Fetches or Non-Basics worth mentioning, so your mana is resilient to both Wasteland and Stifle. Your threats are generally resilient to both Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares, especially if your opponents tap out for Nimble Mongoose or Sensei's Divining Top because they don't know they might be dead. You can even win before cards like Counterbalance can come online.

To me, the only real question is whether this plan is better than Goblin Charbelcher or not. Belcher has a much better game one against the format, but this deck is capable of stealing games if you don't win on the first two turns. This deck can win games by just curving out with resilient creatures, but Belcher seems like the better deck if you're just looking to get there.

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

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