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Main » Articles » Standard: The Old Guard and the New Guard

Standard: The Old Guard and the New Guard

Josh Silvestri
Posted on August 25, 2011
 Reddit

This week, I’ll be focusing on the movers and shakers of Standard from the past few weeks of Standard tournaments. We’ve had U.S. Nationals, SCG Opens, and even a $75K tournament, so there’s plenty to look at. Let’s begin with a look at the updates the established decks have received.

The Old Guard

Valakut

"Valakut (by Pat Cox, first place SCG Richmond)"

This build is a step away from the traditional Valakut builds we’re used to seeing at tournaments. Instead of having a ton of 2-drop acceleration, instead only Explore and Rampant Growth is used while Overgrown Battlement is benched. Considering that the format has fully embraced removal that could kill Battlement, and even decks like Caw can interact with early creature-drops via Dismember, this move makes a lot of sense. The Titan package follows a similar vein; instead of relying on cards that are soft to Spell Pierce, Cox focuses on having a bunch of high-impact 6-drops that demand immediate answers from a Caw or Pod player.

Instead, Cox added Khalni Heart Expedition back into the deck and also removed all the usual support for it—no Harrow, no Cultivate, and no Solemn Simulacrum. Instead the deck is all-in on Oracle of Mul Daya as it’s midgame power play to get you into the 6-drop land where all your options lie. Also notable is the split of Trap and Green Sun's Zenith when a squad of Valakut players were firmly entrenched in the “GSZ is just better” camp.

There’s no messing around with this build. It’s quite blunt, with seven Titans, and GSZ has no targets Game 1 outside of a fatty or Oracle. This feels like the culmination of the streamlining the top Valakut players have been trying to showcase over the past month in an attempt to get an edge on the new Caw menace and the other new contenders in the field.

Caw-Blade

"Caw-Blade (by Kyle Rose, second place SCG Richmond)"

"Caw-Blade (by Todd Anderson, first place TCGplayer $75K)"

"Caw-Blade (by Luis Scott-Vargas, Top 8 U.S. Nationals)"

Caw has had a few changes since we last left it; no longer the most dominating force in Standard, recent results have begun to reflect players stepping up to the challenge of the deck. Caw has moved toward largely a board-control presence, and this can be seen in the amount of removal the decks now play as well as the type of additional creatures. My own tech of Azure Mage was used in the sideboards of the ChannelFireball team at U.S. Nationals, to some solid success. For those who are unaware, Azure Mage is a must-kill in the Caw mirror; otherwise, they can simply sit there and outdraw you over time while still keeping counter mana open against Gideon or Consecrated Sphinx.

It also happens to wreck Splinter Twin and is reasonable in other long, grinding matches such as U/B. It turns out that the Mage is just very well-positioned in the current metagame. Other such tomfoolery came from the mind of GerryT, showcasing the power of Phantasmal Image and Sun Titan working together. Phantasmal Image and even Phyrexian Metamorph are both interesting choices in Caw; in the mirror, they can become a Hawk, Emeria Angel, or a copy of Azure Mage, while in the late game they can seal a game up by recurring with Sun Titan netting a second copy and a huge resource swing. Sun Titan clearly grows stronger with Image support, but even in general trying to maintain a solid board state is often better than what Sphinx provides in raw card draw.

That isn’t to say you should cut all your Sphinxes; they are still very powerful, and most important, can actually block opposing flyers even with Swords equipped, unlike the Titan. Speaking of Swords, the usefulness of Sword of Feast and Famine has slowly decreased, going from being the actual blade* to being something that’s great in the Valakut match and often seals the game, but just not as useful as it once was. People are prepped for it with Nature's Claim, Into the Roil, and Dismember in larger quantities, and to top it off, Sword can only seal up a game you are winning. SOFAF isn’t really a card that can bail you out of a bad situation in many cases. It may even be correct in the future to remove the Swords from the deck as the metagame trudges forward.

* Sorry, LSV moment.

At the end of the day, Caw is still one of the best decks you can choose, just because it has very few, if any, bad matches. It’s effectively a Rock deck with cards that let you outplay opponents instead of the usual issues Rock-esque decks have. The last real question for Caw is whether there are any more major evolutions left in its future, or whether it’ll settle into the state U/B control is in, where it’ll simply be metagame tweaks rather than a deck overhaul.

U/R Twin

Meh. I’m not a fan of this deck anymore, and most of the pilots who were sufficiently versed in it and could take down a larger tournament have all abandoned it for greener pastures. The final advance for the deck was Grim Lavamancer, and I’ll say it was probably the best thing it could have done to help against certain creatures now existing in the format. Past that, the deck has changed very little from the U/R shell we saw a month ago. The biggest drawback for the deck currently is that it simply can’t beat newer Caw lists post-board, and it doesn’t beat every other deck in the format by enough to accept that. Both Pod and U/B can put U/R Twin into situations where it practically can’t win the game anymore, so it becomes difficult to justify its continued existence in Standard.

U/B Control

"U/B Control (by Ali Aintrazi, first place U.S. Nationals)"

Welcome to two months ago, when we all thought Caw wouldn’t exist anymore and U/B would be the new hotness until rotation. While I was quite clearly wrong on this count, I remained confident that U/B control was a real strategy if someone would put the work into it. Why stick with this dying deck when Caw is back en masse, though? Caw doesn’t get Inquisition of Kozilek, which is one of the top ten cards in the format. Everything being equal, U/B is one of the few decks that can beat a turn-two Squadron Hawk and actually grind Caw out of the game. Now throw in that the deck is naturally well-situated against both the combo decks in the format and could easily sideboard a removal package that crushes aggro.

Doesn’t look so bad now, does it?

Ali Antrazi put the time in and was rewarded with a victory at U.S. Nationals, defeating a multitude of skilled Caw pilots on his way to the trophy. The few keys to keep in mind are that you are very much an old-school draw-go answers deck with the best end-game threats in the format. Use the discard when you need to hit a key card or maximize the amount of information you’ll gain on the exchange. I often won’t turn-one Inquisition people in the dark, but rather will wait until I know what the deck is and proceed accordingly. The only decks I turn-one IoK are RDW, Caw, and U/B control, since all of them have immediate threats that can deploy before Leak and that you really want to stop. Everything else, I don’t mind waiting a until turn two or three before I play my discard spell, because you can quite frankly easily deal with anything else decks play.

Also, take note of that grinding philosophy when you go to sideboard; people like using Bloodghast and Vampire Nighthawk because they are very obnoxious threats to deal with. Don’t assume it means any old creature you feel like slinging around. Same goes for Memoricide and effects of its ilk; it’s tempting to just board a bunch of them, but not very effective since you end up with a clogged sideboard and a fair number of openers that feel like you mulliganed to six. Treat your sideboard with care when constructing it, and you will be rewarded.

The New Guard

Illusions Aggro

"Illusions Aggro (by Thomas Carter, ninth place SCG Richmond)"

This was the fresh face for many people over the past two weeks. It should remind you of the classic Merfolk decks: lots of bad creatures held together by a very strong lord, cheap countermagic, and mana-denial. Sadly, we missed out on the mana-denial part, but on the upside, this is an even better lord creature than Lord of Atlantis was in Fish, and Phantasmal Image has plenty of creatures to copy on either side of the field. You can even feature the sweet Grand Architect/Treasure Mage setup in sideboarded games and fetch up Wurmcoil Engine or Mindslaver against hapless foes.

As one might imagine, this is a specialized type of deck. You’ll have major trouble against RDW or Grim Lavamancer in general, and I can’t imagine the deck beating a good Birthing Pod start, either. This deck should be a nightmare for Caw; unless you get hit with multiple Dismembers and Into the Roils, your opponent really needs a Day of Judgment or Gideon Jura to hit play to stop you. Obviously, this plays right into Spell Pierce, which is likely to be the most important card for the Illusion team. Additionally, Valakut will be a struggle Game 1 and a pretty easy match post-board if you pack Flashfreeze and perhaps a few Unified Wills. If you want to play Illusions at a larger tournament like an SCG Open or GP: Pittsburgh, you need to be prepared against the aggressive decks that will plague you in the early rounds.

Really, the question isn’t so much what the core of Illusions is going to be; it’s if keeping it mono-Blue is more effective than splashing White or Black for additional disruption and protection. Going White gives you Oblivion Ring as a catchall and Timely Reinforcements against the aggressive decks you have issues with. Black has Inquisition of Kozilek, which is one of the best pinpoint disruption spells in the format, and Illusions can make great use of the extra information. I haven’t had a chance to sink enough time into the deck to say one way or the other, but it seems like a very easy splash to make. I hope to get enough time in over the next week to figure out if either splash makes the deck more viable than its current form.

R/U/G Pod

"R/U/G Pod (by Patrick Chapin, ninth place U.S. Nationals)"

R/U/G Pod was a popular strategy without a true build until Patrick Chapin and Michael Jacob took up the call. Now we have a far more refined deck list to build on and one that actually has a favorable matchup against all known versions of Caw. Instead of trying to outvalue every opponent, this deck can switch modes from establishing a board presence to a little bit of permanent destruction to a Urabrask/Inferno Titan final mode. The deck isn’t perfect by any stretch, but it’s just much further along in the tuning process than any other iteration I’ve seen.

So far, I’ve really hated Sylvok Replica and Vengevine, both of which are great in very specific circumstances and really terrible the rest of the time. For Replica, this may be acceptable, but for Vengevine, it’s pathetic to see how bad the card is. You can almost never run the rebuys, and even when you can, you would be much better served by just having a second Hero of Oxid Ridge. Hero is actually so strong right now that part of me just wants to jam a few more and have Hero beatdown be the deck’s backup plan. Getting past Squadron Hawk, Deceiver Exarch, Spellskite, and a host of other annoyances is well worth the extra color investment.

The other card I would definitely add is one Spellskite; you can have additional copies if you feel it necessary, but having a single copy to Pod up against Splinter Twin and RDW is huge. Same goes for being able to do it off a 1-drop instead of a 2-drop, which can be huge later in the game. If you naturally draw your singleton, the extra mana also can make a big difference when playing around Mana Leak or simply in making multiple drops on the same turn.

Outside of those tweaks, I’m a big fan of the deck and would recommend it to anyone who is willing to put the time into learning it. It feels a lot like Survival of the Fittest and Vampiric Tutor toolbox decks used to and still maintains a lot of raw power. By far the most important aspect to learn is proper mulligans, so keep that in mind when you begin practicing.

Twin-Blade

"Twin-Blade (by Daniel Duterte, fourteenth place SCG Richmond)"

There’s a fair amount to say about the deck, so if you’re interested in Caw with a combo twist, give my article on ChannelFireball a onceover.

Long story short, the deck gains a very strong Plan B against the field (especially Caw and Valakut) in exchange for worse matches against U/R Twin and U/B control.



That’s all for this week. As always, if you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or e-mail me at josh dot silvestri at gmail dot com. Until next time!

Josh Silvestri

TAGS articles, standard, metagame, constructed, decklists, josh silvestri

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