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Balancing the Scales

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Another action-packed weekend of Magic has come and gone with both Grand Prix Toronto and StarCityGames Open Portland in the books. Though nothing completely shattered the format and dominated the weekend, we did still have a great deal of healthy, balanced Magic being played. As the format seems to have leveled off with only a single copy of Esper Dragons between the Top 8s, we had some new archetypes blossom.

Collected Company
This week, since there are a number of new decks with some crossover between them, I am going to talk about the cards that have propelled each strategy in general, not just within the context of each particular list.

One of the big cards for me when I saw the spoiler was Collected Company—as I am a connoisseur of shaky combo decks that can topple with the lightest of breezes, it seemed right up my alley. Of course, since I have taken a more serious approach again to Magic, I usually dismiss these delusions immediately—or at least after a few beatings on Magic Online. I had a G/W Warriors deck I was working with about a month ago that included Collected Company out of the ’board to some great success. Outside of that and a deck that featured Hardened Scales and some other spice a few weeks ago, I have not found as many places as I would have liked to jam this card.

Luckily, I also have Craig Wescoe to dive right in on what seem to be the strategies I enjoy playing now and provide gems such as the one he used to Top 8 the Grand Prix in Toronto this weekend. The deck had early-game pressure to force your opponent to tap out at optimal times when you could then make use of Collected Company and Den Protector, and with Deathmist Raptor, it could create some very powerful advantage engines.

Seeker of the Way
When I look at most Standard lists, the first thing I do is look for holes in the deck through which one can exploit it, and by doing so, I look for what deck would be best angled to beat it. From there, I usually look at the ’board to find what exactly the answers to those strategies are—all fairly rudimentary. Wescoe is a little different when I see his lists—in fact, he may be among the few I feel this way about. I imagine whatever seventy-five Wescoe posts was exactly where W/X decks needed to be that weekend—it may sometimes not be good enough for the meta, but when it is, he dominates the standings and finds his way into a great number of Top 8s.

I have a great deal of respect for Craig. He has made his career from not just the game of Magic—which is already difficult enough to do—but he has gone even further and limited himself to a very small wedge of competitive Magic. And the result after this long with all of his hours and dedication as well as the stream of consistent results year after year places him in what I would consider the role of master of that archetype. If you think of white—certainly G/W aggro variants—and you aren't looking at whatever Wescoe is playing as at least a launching point, you should take another look at your approach.

It clearly takes more than just the deck to play this type of variant, and Wescoe has mastered the play and percentage of aggro just as much as the seventy-five he sits down with, but that is even more reason to look at his lists, and for me, if he says Collected Company is where he wants to be, I am inclined to agree.

So what if we want to branch out from the old Wescoe special and look elsewhere for our gatherings? Well, luckily, we don't have to look far this week, as on the other side of North America, we also had the SCG Open in Portland going, and that is where this gem Top 8’d.

Master of Waves
I am not going to lie; I have not enjoyed the idea of mono-blue since Nightveil Specter left, and though people keep trying to find a home for Thassa, God of the Sea, it had really just become a sad joke—that is, of course, until this weekend, when someone also decided he needed some two-for-ones at instant speed in his life. I feel that Collected Company is exactly what this deck was looking for, and it may in fact be a host for some great speculation targets, as many of the cards have bottomed out, and some, such as Thassa and Master of Waves, have Modern support to lift them.

As for this deck, however—though probably the exception and not the rule—it does seem that it may retain playability outside of just this one weekend. I would not expect to see a flood of mono-blue again—or at least I would hope not—but with two of the most expensive cards in the deck unlikely to lose much at rotation, and with almost everything else being either cheap or from the new block, this is a great deck to get into now and ride through rotation.

Green seemed to be the theme for the weekend, as Deathmist Raptor and Den Protector both showed up in even more overwhelming force than last weekend. We also had a great deal of Abzan Aggro, which does not play the pair, but as that deck has gone through very few changes over the past few months, I instead would focus on where the mono-green archetype has managed to find itself now.

I am not sold that this deck could not use a little love from Collected Company at least out of the ’board, but with Surrak, the Hunt Caller also available, I can see why they are nonexistent. This has the remnants of a G/U +1+1 counter deck I was toying with, including Servant of the Scale, Avatar of the Resolute, and Reverent Hunter. I shelved the idea just because I haven't been on Magic Online this week, but if the meta has shifted to make this deck favorable, I may bust mine back out. Here is what I am currently working with. Hardened Scales, while cute at first glance, can do a great deal of work. This is by no means tier one, but the deck was cheap to assemble and a blast to play.

I have played against the gauntlet online with the deck, and when it pulls ahead, it can snowball hard enough to overwhelm almost anything in the format, but when it stumbles, it can be exceedingly difficult to claw your way back, as so many cards rely on others to be of optimal power level. I would not be sleeving this list up for a Grand Prix, but it would be fun for Friday Night Magic or to kill some time on Magic Online.

The last deck I want to talk about this weekend is the new Dragon flavor of the week: Mardu! It has been a while since we have seen much in the way of Mardu in any form, so this deck, while identified prior to the event as an archetype, probably was not given enough respect going in. Watching Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury come rumbling in with a Stormbreath Dragon or Goblin Rabblemaster was enough to get me excited alone, but the other cool interactions, such as Kolaghan's Command and Soulfire Grand Master really appealed to me as well.

Though I am going to try to stick to Heroic for the end of the Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier season, I may sleeve up this list—or something similar—soon enough. I can very much appreciate all of the angles this deck can attack you from and just how well it can switch gears. I will be working on testing this weekend, so I will probably start with this shell and work from there. I will see where I am next week, and we can reconvene at that point. Modern Masters 2015 Edition is rapidly approaching, and I should probably cover at least some of what the set holds for the format, but I will still be including Standard content as well next week. Until then, keep testing, and good luck at any tournament you may find yourself at this weekend!

Ryan Bushard

@CryppleCommand


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