Hey guys! Thanks for being patient with me as I took a break from writing articles for a bit there. This time though, there's a lot to talk about. Last week I covered the big changes to the competitive circuit due to take effect in December and the only other big change that has happened since then is that they also announced that Advance level and higher shops will be able to host a GPT for the GP of their choice once per month. This is pretty cool news since our local GPTs have often been for Grand Prix across the country. The ability to choose which GP you host a trial for means a bigger turnout on average which is always great.
Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the Pro Tour that just took place in Portland over last weekend. I didn't watch much of the coverage, in fact hardly any at all, but looking at the top 8 deck lists sure is interesting to say the least. If you haven't researched any of the event, Ivan Floch took the trophy home with his spicy U/W control. No Elspeths... No Aetherling... Just 3 copies of Jace, Architect of Thought. If you like to durdle, this is the deck for you. With no apparent win condition until you can ultimate a Jace and steal something of theirs to kill them with, you're going to have very long games. Not really my style at all. I like to be actively trying to win the game, even when playing control. He's got a couple Archangels in the sideboard, but the games will still go pretty long after those come in. He also had a lot of wrath effects in the deck to help that stall with 4 Supreme Verdicts and 3 Planar Cleansing. Apparently slow and steady wins the race... as they say.
Ivan Floch - U/W Control
4 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Dissolve
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Azorius Charm
3 Planar Cleansing
3 Divination
4 Quicken
2 Last Breath
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Syncopate
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Azorius Guildgate
2 Mutavault
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Temple of Triumph
6 Island
6 Plains
Sideboard:
2 Last Breath
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Deicide
2 Dispel
2 Gainsay
2 Archangel of Thune
As great as that is for him to win the Pro Tour, the deck is pretty boring(to me). I'd rather talk about the other lists that performed well. Notably, Team Channel Fireball brought a fairly stock list of B/W midrange to the table and managed to put 2 of their players into the top 8, William "Huey" Jensen and Owen Turtenwald. Both players have fantastic professional records and are regarded as some of the best in the world so it's no surprise that they ended up here, but the deck is pretty good too. It's pretty similar to the list that I used to get the best result at a competitive event I've ever had. It uses the best removal in the format ala Thoughtseize and Hero's Downfall while running the usual must-answer threats in the form of Pack Rat, Desecration Demon, Blood Baron and Obzedat. Top it off with a couple Elspeth, and you've got a deck with so much power in it, that it's just good against any strategy there is out there. This deck isn't really anything new, but with most players being on B/g control/midrange lately, it's interesting to see that white was the splash color of choice here.
William Jensen/Owen Turtenwald - B/w Mid-range
1 Ultimate Price
2 Devour Flesh
3 Bile Blight
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
3 Desecration Demon
4 Thoughtseize
4 Pack Rat
3 Underworld Connections
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Banishing Light
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
3 Hero's Downfall
8 Swamp
1 Plains
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of Silence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Mutavault
4 Caves of Koilos
Sideboard:
1 Underworld Connections
3 Duress
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Sin Collector
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Last Breath
3 Doom Blade
2 Deicide
There were also 2 Jund decks that made it into top 8. 2 very different builds in fact.Yuuki Ichikawa decided that 4 Nissa, Worldwaker was the way to go and Pierre Mondon thought that number was zero. Both decks ran a pretty basic removal suite for Jund with Abrupt Decay, Downfall, Golgari Charm, Dreadbore, Mizzium Mortars, etc. But the biggest difference was in the walkers. Pierre ran 3 of each Chandra, Xenagos, and Vraska. Yuuki was on 4 Xenagos, 4 Nissa, 2 Chandra, and 1 Vraska. I honestly think that any combination of jund walkers here will be pretty powerful and it'll most likely be affected most by how much control there is out there. Supreme Verdict just can't handle walkers, but as you saw, Ivan's 3 Planar Cleansing was an incredibly good decision.
Yuuki Ichikawa - Jund Walkers
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Xenagos, the Reveler
4 Nissa, Worldwaker
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Vraska the Unseen
2 Thoughtseize
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Dreadbore
1 Golgari Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Putrefy
2 Ultimate Price
1 Rakdos's Return
2 Mutavault
3 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Llanowar Wastes
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
1 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
Sideboard:
2 Thoughtseize
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Golgari Charm
1 Rakdos's Return
2 Magma Spray
4 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Doom Blade
2 Scavenging Ooze
Pierre Mondon - Jund Walkers
3 Vraska the Unseen
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
3 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Read the Bones
2 Rakdos's Return
2 Putrefy
1 Hero's Downfall
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Dreadbore
2 Golgari Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Elvish Mystic
2 Blood Crypt
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Stomping Ground
3 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Malady
4 Temple of Malice
1 Mutavault
1 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
SIdeboard:
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Golgari Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Slaughter Games
1 Pithing Needle
4 Magma Spray
2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
Possibly one of my favorite archetypes to show up here, is the 2 G/W aggro decks(1 G/W/R). Both were pretty similar with only a few differences, but the best part was the Ajani, Caller of the Prides in the decks. I never actually sleeved this archetype up, but I've thought about it a lot and maybe I should now that it shows to do so well. The creatures alone are powerful and fast, causing 1-for-1 removal to be underwhelming. Ajani is the rope that ties it together though. He comes down on a tapped out opponent for a huge doublestrike attack in the air to likely steal many games. It's the biggest reason I've wanted to try this myself. For the aggro guys(and girls) out there, this is a likely a nice place to start for the rest of the large standard format.
Jackson Cunningham - G/W Aggro
8 Forest
8 Plains
4 Mana Confluence
4 Temple Garden
4 Experiment One
2 Sunblade Elf
3 Soldier of the Pantheon
3 Selesnya Charm
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Fleecemane Lion
3 Loxodon Smiter
3 Boon Satyr
3 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
3 Banishing Light
4 Advent of the Wurm
Sideboard:
4 Setessan Tactics
4 Unflinching Courage
4 Skylasher
1 Ajani Steadfast
2 Ajani's Presence
Patrick Cox - Brave Naya
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Dryad Militant
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Fleecemane Lion
2 Precinct Captain
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Brave the Elements
4 Selesnya Charm
1 Boros Charm
3 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple Garden
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Plenty
4 Mana Confluence
2 Battlefield Forge
Sideboard:
3 Boros Charm
1 Back to Nature
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Ajani Steadfast
3 Setessan Tactics
2 Banisher Priest
2 Advent of the Wurm
Lastly, there was 1 deck that made top 8 and it's pretty cool because it's a deck I've been playing quite a bit in the past few months... Boros Burn! The deck is pretty stock wherever you look at it, but the sweetest addition is Stoke the Flames. I initially looked at the card and decided it didn't work in the deck, but that was because I was running 4 Chandra's Phoenix and 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel as my creatures. Matt Sperling's top 8 list ran 4 Young Pyromancer over the Eidolons(though still keeping 1 in), making Stoke the Flames ten times better. With all of the burn spells, you're likely to have 3-4 Elementals out after just a few turns and Stoke the Flames becomes a free spell pretty quick. I'll definitely have to switch up my list now and learn the new ways! It seems pretty powerful and I'm a huge advocate of this deck as it seems to have a good match-up against most archetypes.
Matt Sperling - Boros Burn
4 Shock
3 Skullcrack
4 Lightning Strike
4 Boros Charm
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Warleader's Helix
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Searing Blood
4 Mutavault
3 Sacred Foundry
9 Mountain
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Temple of Triumph
Sideboard:
1 Skullcrack
1 Eidolon of the Great Revel
1 Banishing Light
3 Chained to the Rocks
2 Glare of Heresy
4 Satyr Firedancer
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Wear // Tear
All in all, that's a good bit of diversity in the top 8, which is always nice to see, and the best part of all... no Mono-Blue! Though it did show up a bit in the top 24 or so along with more of the same archetypes that showed up in the top 8 with small differences.
We're getting pretty close to spoiler season for Khans and I'm very excited to see what we get. I have a hunch that we'll be getting a lot more powerful cards in Khans than we did for Theros so hopefully standard will be full of exciting new decks and builds over the course of the Block.
Thanks for checking out my review on the Top 8 decks from the Pro Tour and I'll see you next time!
DannyO
WizardDen.com
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