The results from the first week of Standard tournaments are in. A lot of interesting decks broke out, and there are many important lessons to be learned.

The biggest point is that you can basically cast whatever you want and still curve out. Tri-lands now stink.

Take, for example, Tom Ross’s “Abzan” list.

Abzan ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Tom Ross, 12th Place at StarCityGames Open Indy

• Creatures (19)
• 4 Den Protector
• 4 Siege Rhino
• 4 Warden of the First Tree
• 3 Hangarback Walker
• 4 Anafenza, the Foremost

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

• Spells (12)
• 2 Valorous Stance
• 3 Dromoka's Command
• 3 Murderous Cut
• 4 Abzan Charm

• Lands (26)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 3 Forest
• 1 Prairie Stream
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 2 Canopy Vista
• 2 Llanowar Wastes
• 2 Polluted Delta
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Arashin Cleric
• 1 Hidden Dragonslayer
• 2 Silkwrap
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
• 3 Duress
• 2 Exert Influence

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Looking at the deck reveals that Wooded Foothills is a W/B/G fetch land since it is able to search for Canopy Vista or Smoldering Marsh, and similarly, Flooded Strand is a W/B/G fetch land since it is able to search for Canopy Vista or Sunken Hollow.

In order to curve out here (on turns one and three):

• Turn one: You should use Wooded Foothills to find a Forest to cast Warden of the First Tree.
• Turn two: Use Windswept Heath to find a Plains to “level up” Warden of the First Tree.
• Turn three: Use Flooded Strand to find Sunken Hollow to play Anafenza, the Foremost.

If you haven’t drawn another fetch land or white source by turn four, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is uncastable, but unfortunately, there’s no way around it given this hand assuming you’d want to do things on turns one to three.

Interestingly, this deck touches blue in the sideboard for some heavy hitters: Exert Influence for midrange mirrors (stealing the opponent’s best guy or blocker and then attacking him or her with Siege Rhino is a great way to pull far ahead) and Disdainful Stroke or Dispel for control matchups. I would look into adding Radiant Flames over Arashin Cleric since the red decks tend to be heavily board-presence-based now.

You do need to minimize the number of double-colored spells (notably, Tom only has spells in the above deck) since it’s much more difficult to cast those.

Delve cards become a lot better with the heavy fetch-land mana base. Notice how Murderous Cut is basically Swords to Plowshares in the above deck. I would also expect an uptick in tap-out-style control decks using Tasigur, the Golden Fang or Treasure Cruise for the StarCityGames Open in Atlanta this weekend.

Perhaps we’ll see something like this:

Tap-Out Control ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Jarvis Yu

• Creatures (14)
• 4 Den Protector
• 4 Siege Rhino
• 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
• 1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
• 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Ob Nixilis Reignited

• Spells (17)
• 1 Silumgar's Command
• 1 Utter End
• 3 Dig Through Time
• 4 Abzan Charm
• 2 Languish
• 3 Reave Soul
• 3 Ruinous Path

• Lands (27)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Island
• 1 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Lumbering Falls
• 1 Prairie Stream
• 1 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 2 Bloodstained Mire
• 2 Shambling Vent
• 2 Sunken Hollow
• 3 Opulent Palace
• 3 Polluted Delta
• 4 Flooded Strand

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Arashin Cleric
• 1 Virulent Plague
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Dragonlord Dromoka
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
• 3 Duress
• 2 Exert Influence
• 2 Radiant Flames

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Dig Through Time forces a reliance on double-blue when it’s not absolutely necessary to do so. If you replace Dig Through Time with Treasure Cruise, you can get rid of Opulent Palace as well (which forces you to play off-curve since tai-lands are terrible at coming into play untapped). In addition, the lack of one Murderous Cut in this deck (probably over the Silumgar's Command) is surprising, but all in all, this deck looks to be the future of where five-colored, tap-out control decks can go (without sporting Bring to Light).

Red still exists, and it’s more comboriffic than ever:

Comboriffic R/G ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Jarvis Yu

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Makindi Sliderunner
• 2 Lightning Berserker
• 4 Abbot of Keral Keep
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 2 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
• 4 Zurgo Bellstriker

• Spells (22)
• 3 Become Immense
• 3 Temur Battle Rage
• 4 Atarka's Command
• 4 Titan's Strength
• 4 Wild Slash
• 4 Dragon Fodder

• Lands (21)
• 1 Forest
• 8 Mountain
• 2 Cinder Glade
• 2 Windswept Heath
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 2 Goblin Heelcutter
• 2 Thunderbreak Regent
• 2 Fiery Impulse
• 3 Arc Lightning
• 2 Roast

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This deck is very cleverly built as a board-presence-based red deck rather than a burn-based one. While this gives up equity against other low-to-the-ground, creature-based decks, you gain the ability to dictate the pace of the game by threatening the combo kill of Become Immense and Temur Battle Rage at basically any turn past turn three. This comes back to the point that every deck should be playing a delve spell of some sort. Become Immense being a 1-mana +6/+6 pump spell is quite unfair.

People will figure out how to beat red as four- or five-color control (maximizing cheap spot removal and sweepers rather than life-gain). Dark Jeskai will continue to be more and more refined. (I already love the innovation of Ojutai's Command and Dragonmaster Outcast). Since Dragonmaster Outcast is dead early, it’s an easy pitch to Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. Then, if your opponent ever taps out, you are able to return Outcast and make a 5/5 on your upkeep.

Abzan “Aggro” was the default deck and performed extremely well. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best deck, just that it was a strong deck that was easy to update (mostly mana base and easy card swaps).

Jeskai Black is an interesting deck, and I expect to see it to improve since the combination of excellent spot removal and a good sideboard should give it pretty reasonable matchups all around (with Radiant Flames in the sideboard, Crackling Doom, and access to Murderous Cut).

I do hope to be surprised by some breakout deck this weekend (and next weekend). I will be at Grand Prix Madison playing Battle for Zendikar Sealed Deck, so I wish everyone the best of luck in any upcoming tournaments!

Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any comments here or on Twitter.