In the fall, we saw a handful of decks trying to utilize Hardened Scales in conjunction with Managorger Hydra and Avatar of the Resolute. These decks preyed on other aggressive decks by using Hardened Scales and Dromoka's Command to go a little bit bigger. Those same cards let you apply additional pressure to the control decks of the format. Those decks fell out of favor as the format shifted to decks heavy on removal spells, like Abzan and Jeskai variants. But now the format is moving back towards Dragons, ramp, and Blue-based Eldrazi decks and bolov0 thinks it may be time for this archetype to make a comeback:

G/W Scales ? Oath of the Gatewatch Standard | bolov0, 3-1 Standard Daily Event

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Abzan Falconer
• 4 Avatar of the Resolute
• 4 Endless One
• 4 Managorger Hydra
• 4 Servant of the Scale
• 4 Hangarback Walker

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

• Spells (8)
• 4 Dromoka's Command
• 4 Hardened Scales

• Lands (24)
• 1 Plains
• 11 Forest
• 2 Canopy Vista
• 2 Flooded Strand
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Den Protector
• 3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 4 Gleam of Authority
• 3 Hallowed Moonlight
• 4 Surge of Righteousness

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This deck is largely unchanged from when it was first popularized after Battle for Zendikar. The deck still attempts to utilize the likes of Managorger Hydra, Servant of the Scale, and Hangarback Walker with Hardened Scales to create a dominating board presence early in the game. The game plan is to just overwhelm opponents with the sheer size of your creatures, especially when they are backed up with Dromoka's Command. You can stall the ground with gigantic monsters and eventually either break through with a Managorger Hydra or take to the skies with Abzan Falconer.

The deck has picked up one enormously exciting card from Oath of the Gatewatch. Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is absolutely absurd in this shell, as each of her abilities contribute positively to the overarching game plan. Making plants helps to gum up the ground and buy you the time to create a dominant board presence. Putting +1/+1 counters on your team is way better when you get additional counters. This kind of interaction is especially powerful with Hangarback Walker, since you can curve Hardened Scales into Hangarback Walker into Nissa, which is already very difficult for a number of decks in Standard to beat.

As soon as sweepers come into favor, this style of deck becomes all but unplayable, since you have very few options but to overextend into a card like Planar Outburst. However, when damage-based removal like Fiery Impulse and Draconic Roar are popular, the ability to use Hardened Scales to completely shut off Red removal spells is very powerful. This deck’s resilience to some of the most popular removal spells, ability to go bigger than Siege Rhino, and ability to block Dragons with Avatar of the Resolute may mean this is an awesome metagame call.