If you are a regular visitor to Gathering Magic then you know at least one thing about us: we aren’t exactly a pair of super-Spike tournament players.  Most of our competitive experience comes form drafts and other limited formats that still hold an element of surprise to the player.  That isn’t to say that we don’t occasionally get our Standard/Type II feet wet at a FNM or on MTGO.  When we do feel that pull, it is normally because we have created something fun (read: cheap and unique) that is good enough to shuffle up at an event and with a little luck take home a few packs as reward.  Worldwake brought a slew of cool new rares to the table, and one of my favorites was Deaths Shadow.  A 13/13 for one mana is the best cost per power/toughness ratio ever printed.  Trying to find a way to effectively use this nasty creature we stumbled across Ad Nauseam sitting alone in some trade binder.  The light bulb turned on and after a few takes the deck ended up looking like this:

In a competitive environment the first question of any new build is simple, can you beat the stand-bys:  Boros, Naya, and of course Jund.  The answer, more often than not, is “no”.  You won’t waltz into a Grand Prix and hand Louis Scott-Vargas his ass, but you’ll be more than competitive online and at FNM.  The reason is simple, all the elite decks rely on creatures as a win condition.  With the card advantage of a well-timed Ad Nauseam or Mind Sludge your opponent won’t stand a chance.  And just when your foe closes in on your nearly defeated corpse, you can lay out a pair of 8/8 Death’s Shadows for a measly two mana.  Leaving enough left over for to Doom Blade a path to victory.  Often within a turn of dropping the Shadows.  Jund is a challenge because of the natural card advantage (it’s still freaking Jund!), but Black Knights and Smother can delay long enough for a coupe de grace Ad Nauseam.  All of this might sound preposterous, so we dove in to MTGO’s tournament practice room to find out for ourselves.

A perfectly healthy 5-2 MTGO match record did leave a few things to be desired and gave us some others to ponder.  First, if you are playing against a deck using a non-traditional win condition you will need some luck on your side.  Ad Shadow’s first match was against a turbo fog build that won consecutive close calls.  A few matches later, the second loss came at the hands of a Valakut the Molten Pinnacle deck.  Your best bet against any of these types is to sideboard every creature and swarm while praying for a turn five Mind Sludge.  Hopefully with a little luck, or a well placed Tectonic Edge you’ll prevail.  Second, if you fail to draw Ad Nauseam at some point in the game you are basically wheeling out a weak Vampire tribal deck.  That can be as bad as it sounds.  Even against creature heavy builds it lost most of the non-Nauseam games.  Finally, Jund is still very tough to play.  Partly because knowing when to ‘go off’ is much harder due to all the direct damage/haste involved.  So be careful against the King of Standard, err on the side of caution life-wise, for he takes no prisoners.

Not everything need be a cautionary tale however.  This deck won the Jund match (barely) and won somewhat easily against the two Naya decks it faced.  There really is something satisfying about not caring when your opponent drops that Basilisk Collar, because nothing they equip will live to see the red zone.  After a few matches it became clear that this is a deck with which you will want to use all your removal early.  Especially on soon-to-be threats like Knight of the Reliquary (who will protect itself with Sejiri Steppe if you let your opponent untap with it) or Scute Mob.  Where Boros is concerned you’ll have the natural advantage of life-gain so muddle up the ground (Black Knights are nice here) and save your removal for bigger threats.  In the fist game of the Boros match, hanging on with 5 life against 18, a double dose of Death’s Shadow along with a Doom Blade drew a concession.

Apologies for boring you with quasi-real matches and fatherly advice, but we can’t help ourselves.  Magic is fun in all of its forms, and that means playing a competitive deck now and again.  For those not too dedicated to the cause, spending a little less $$$ (all-in this decks should cost you no more than $20) or piloting a rogue build is really cool.  Of course if money is no object, and you want a slightly more competitive build try throwing some fetch lands in the mix.  Sorry, that was more advice, right?  Enough of that, now get out and start playing this thing for yourselves.

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Here at Gathering Magic we take great pride in our unique articles and thoughtful analysis of the game as we see it.  One common yet important way to do this is through the good old fashioned deck list!  Lately this hasn’t been part of our repertoire because we assume most of you know what we’re talking about when we refer to a Time Sieve deck o r “5-Color Control” strategy.  But with the release of a new major block, most of us are sitting on the sidelines, refreshing top 8 deck lists hoping for a glimpse into the future of standard.  Surely these preliminary returns aren’t enough to predict an entire year’s worth of deck construction, but the way we see it – the more information you have in your hands, the better.  Starting with Zendikar we will post an article after the release of a new block with three standard deck options for the competitive player.  These decks aren’t hobbled together concoctions with labels like  “fae” or “elf” slapped on them.  These decks are play tested and thought through from land count to sideboard.  Of course they’re sure to change as the landscape changes but these decks are chosen for this article because they are highly adaptable.  They’re perfectly delicious right out of the box, but feel free to season to your own taste.

I’ve associated a price tag with each of the decks.  While it may not be possible every time, I will attempt to give you one expensive, one moderately priced and one cheaper option.  These prices are for the entire deck; commons, uncommons and rares.  You’ll probably own half of the cards in the deck so be sure to factor that in when you’re frozen from sticker shock.  You can also make substitutions such as Battlegrace Angel for Baneslayer Angel and save yourself upwards of $110 bucks.  Keep in mind that the prices are not the main thrust of this article.  They are merely there for your own information.  All prices are calculated from Troll & Toad’s database of prices.   I’ve also included a small guide to playing each of these decks against other popular/timeless deck formats.  Alright, enough jibber jabber let’s get to the deck lists, shall we?!

Street Price for all cards in deck: $335.55

This was the Jund Aggro deck that flat out dominated the first major constructed event post-Zendikar.  At the Star City Games 5K in Philadelphia, Jack Wang took 1st place battling his way though…10+ other Jund Aggro decks?  I think this guy missed the memo that Zendikar had been released before the tournament.  ONE, yes one land was tweaked in favor of a Zendikar fetch-land.  The sideboard also features a Goblin Ruinmaster or four, just in case.  Otherwise, this is the same old Jund Aggro deck you’ve probably seen 100 times over online or otherwise.  Cascading Elves, Putrid Leech and Sprouting Thrinax fend off the creatures in the field while you arc Blightnings at your opponent’s face.  Things getting out of control?  4X Maelstrom Pulses should take care of any token/swarm problems you might be experiencing.  If the discarding doesn’t damper your opponent’s spirits, surely your hand full of direct damage will.  People thought that the Lorwyn lands rotating out of standard spelt doom for the average “shard” deck.  But this deck proves the new pain-fetches paired with the M10 allied lands are more than enough to get the colors you need.

The Jund Charms are primarily used for sweeps if needed.  What’s great about this deck is that you can rush your opponent with leeches, bolts and hasty elves and go for the throat but if things go awry, you’ve got plenty of sweeps, card advantage and direct damage to win on an empty battlefield.  Supremely versatile and tough to gain the upper hand on, if you bust out two Blightnings and a Duress your opponent will have a tough time dealing with your 4/4 leech and 3/2 elves.

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vs. Creature Swarm – Advantage – Use sweeps and discard to keep the game slow and plodding.  Card advantage, direct damage and cheap yet effective creatures will keep you on top.  Pulse any tokens and just block or Terminate anything bigger.

vs. Mirror – N/A – Blightning or be Blightninged.  This might be a long game.  Sideboard in those 4 duresses.  Grab the sweeps as well because you know he doesn’t play much over two toughness.

vs. Vampires – Advantage – Most vampires can be swept for three mana in this deck.  Watch out for the Vampire Nighthawk and save your Terminates for the bigger creatures.  Again, make them discard as fast as possible to avoid having to deal with them at all.  Otherwise, sweep and rush.  Keep them on their vampric heels and save your pulses for either doubles of vampires or their walkers.

vs. Heavy Control / Combo – Stong Advantage – Combos don’t work very well when they’re getting Duressed on turn 1.  Follow up with another Duress or Blightning and I doubt they’ll be ‘controlling’ anything.  I’d even recommend taking a mulligan if you don’t have one or two discarding cards in your hand.  Yeah, its that important.

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Street Price of all cards in deck: $248.45

I’d like to dedicate this deck to Spectral Procession – The best token creating card ever printed.  Though you may never be reprinted, you’ll always be legal.. in my heart.  This deck is a simple adaptation of the Cloudgoat Ranger, Ajani Goldmane, Spectral Procession deck that popped up at events every once in a while over the past two years.  The idea is to get out a creature on turn one and two, follow that up with another creature on turn three (or a timely O-Ring or Honor of the Pure).  Top it all off with an Ajani -1 ability and you’re looking at some 3/3 creatures with varrying abilities including vigilance.  Continue dropping five CMC bombs for the rest of the game.  Defend your creatures with Safe Passage and the ridiculously underrated Brave the Elements.  Have you ever seen a card so versatile?  Use it as an Avoid Fate against a Doom Blade.  Use it to ATTACK with an unblockable swarm.  Use it to BLOCK with your swarm.  Use it to avoid a red sweep.  Use it to clean out your dirty gutters!  You want utility?  This thing is a swiss army knife for one mana!  Okay, so you know how I feel about BtE…  moving on.  The Ethersworn Canonist is great because your deck is hardly hindered by the one spell per turn limit.  You’ll be playing a creature, and hopefully your bonuses (HotP and Ajani) are already in place!  The Judgments are there as an ejection seat.  While you should be the king of creatures, you may want to wipe a particularly quick elf rush or out of control vampire army and follow it up with 6 Kor Soldier tokens (which are hopefully 2/2 or 3/3 by this point).  I always feel safer with a sweep in my hand, whether I’m doing the rushing or not.

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vs. Jund – Moderate Disadvantage - Discard can be rough on anyone but luckily you’ve gotten three or four creatures out before he’s able to play Blightning.  First strike will help a lot against Jund’s two toughness creatures.  Sweep if you need to and don’t be afraid to heal with Ajani.  Sideboard in your Baneslayers and try to drop them to keep your life total up.   It’s going to be a rough game but you have a chance if they lose pace and/or limit themselves to one or two blightnings.

vs. Mirror – N/A – I’d call this mostly a luck game.  Safe Passage and Brave the Elements should be held until you find the perfect scenario for them.  Keep the sweeps coming if you’re falling behind.  Pithing Needle Ajani on turn one if you can.  Don’t commit everything to the board and save some of those token generators for post-sweep.  I promise they’ll be doing the same.

vs. Vampires – Advantage - This deck is faster and ultimately stronger than a Vampiric army.  First Strike is again your best friend (same against elves) and sweeps will hurt them a lot more then they’ll hurt you.  Keep sweeping until they’re sitting there with nothing.  Play a token generator and call it a day.  Their life total might get a little crazy so watch out for a timely Sanguine Bond + Tendrils of Corruption (Kor Sanctifiers should help with this).  Put out Ajani and gain some life if you have the leeway.  Your life can get rocked by Sanguine if the game goes long and he’s packing 10 swamps.  The Nocturnus will also quickly get creatures up and over your head with higher P/T than you can handle.  Just sweep if it gets out of control.

vs. Heavy Control / Combo – Moderate Advantage – Did I mention this deck was fast?  Use that to your advantage.  This deck is capable of getting damage in the teens on the table by turn four or five.  Sideboard in the Pithing Needles and take out any combo pieces you can with the O-Rings / Kor Sanctifiers.  If you’re locked down with two cards in hand you’re probably not going to come back from it.  Just keep playing Conquerors Pledge until it lands.  The Silences are in the sideboard for a reason.  Bust those out for a final blow or just to clear the way for your bombs.  If nothing else, get Luminarch Ascension going while they try to lock the game down.

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Street Price of all cards in deck: $180.66

This deck is built on the completely factual premise that Vampires are just, pound for pound, better than just about any other creature type out there.  They’re cheap, they have great abilities and even throw some life points your way once in a while.  Only now are they united behind a common lord – Vampire Nocturnus.  The key here is to get creatures on the board and keep them there.  Drop your own bombs like Mind Sludge, Eldrazi Monument and Sorin Markov ASAP.  Bloodchief Ascension is one of the keys to this deck.  Hopefully you can easily complete the quest before turn five or six.  By then you should be ready to defend yourself.  Blast your opponent’s creatures and watch them lose two, maybe even four life while you gain a few points.  The Bloodghasts are a great suprise element and are really tough to be rid of.  Say you have two or three in your graveyard.  Play a land, throw out the Nocturnus or the monument and wreak havoc for only the cost of the bomb.  If this thing gets going, your opponent is in for a rude awakening.  Unfortunately, your evil plans can be easily thwarted by discard, heavy sweep and even another swarm can outpace Vampires.  The trick here is to gain control of the board through your superior cheap creature drops, creature destruction, and Planeswalker cards.

This tribal deck is one or two chase rares away from being a real tournament-level powerhouse.  It just has one too many weaknesses at the moment but if you can avoid an untimely sweep, you should be able to grab control of the board fairly early on.

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vs. Jund – Weak - Hopefully you can get a creature on the table before you’re discarding two, three or four cards.  Even then your creatures don’t match up to a leech, g/r elf or thrinax.  The Jund Charms are the perfect sweep for your 2/2 and 2/1 creatures.  I think this is mostly a lost cause but if you can catch them on a bad mulligan, or without their discard in hand you might be able to get some creatures on the board and pump them up with the nocturnus or the monument.  I’d pack the Duress’ and try to get Blightning out of the picture if at all possible.  Disfigure should also help with the elves and leeches.

vs. Vampires – N/A – Vampire Wars!  Save your disfigures for timely kills on key vampires.  Race your opponent to the Mind Sludge but keep the creatures coming.  Planeswalkers will probably get Hexmage’d so don’t even bother if you have other options.  This game will go on for a while due to the life gain pieces so don’t be afraid to get Sanguine Bond going and Tendrils for some major damage.  Oh, and don’t forget to cycle out those Doom Blades.

vs. Creature Swarm -  Moderate Disadvantage – Vampires are fast, don’t get me wrong.  There are plenty of one and two drops to choose from.  But I don’t think they’re fast/consistent enough to deal with a finely tuned elf deck, let alone the White Weenie deck mentioned above.  There aren’t enough black creature pumping combos out there to get them above three toughness other than the Nocturnus.  However, the Vampire Nighthawk just might be your saving grace.  For only three mana you can tango with the 2/2 swarm that’s sure to come your way while gaining a little life.  Basically, the idea behind vampires is to stall until you can drop bombs or overwhelm your opponent with landfalled Bloodghasts, but I just don’t see it hanging on long enough against a well executed all out rush.  Just keep an eye out for sweeps, make your vamps indestructible if you can, and avoid trading creature for creature if possible.  You have the advantage if you make it to turn six.

vs. Heavy Control / Combo – Advantage - These new Vampires are both cheap and effective.  You should be able to get them going early enough to start disrupting your opponent’s lockdown.  Late game is where you’ll really shine so counters and bounces shouldn’t hurt you too much.  Get Bloodchief Ascension going ASAP.  Mind Sludge is always a good answer to a hand holding stare down.  Just keep putting out threats and wait until their control breaks.  You can Doom Blade and Disfigure the little creatures they’re sure to throw your way.  If there’s one place this deck shines, it’s in the late game so just keep playing lands and bringing on the heat.  They’ll break under the landfalling 2/1’s eventually.

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I hope one of these decks tickles your fancy and you decide to build it to your own tastes and budget.  Decks can come and go in a single expansion, but I’m guessing these three decks will be played in some form at least until M11 in 2010.  Feel free to respond with your own suggestions for these decks, and your own experiences playing in post Zendikar standard events.

In other news, yours truly is featured in a guest article over at Mananation.  Give the article a read and leave me a comment to let me know you’re my biggest fan!  Or.. just leave a comment telling me how much I suck, per usual.

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