A big weekend for standard!

Christian with www.wizardden.com here to talk to you about everybodies favorite format: Standard. With a new standard in front of us, this has been a big time for brewing and creating a new meta game. This past weekend showcased what people have been up to. With two starcity open events, there this definitely a lot to talk about. I am here to talk about the winners of these events and the decks they did it with. So lets jump right into it.

Here is his list:

Creatures

1 Ashen Rider

4 Elvish Mystic

3 Hornet Queen

2 Necropolis Fiend

4 Satyr Wayfinder

4 Siege Rhino

4 Sylvan Caryatid

Enchantment Creatures

3 Nyx Weaver

Instants

1 Empty the Pits

4 Murderous Cut

Legendary Enchantment Artifacts

2 Whip of Erebos

Sorceries

4 Commune with the Gods

Basic Lands

2 Forest

2 Plains

2 Swamp

Lands

4 Llanowar Wastes

4 Sandsteppe Citadel

4 Temple of Malady

2 Temple of Plenty

3 Windswept Heath

Legendary Lands

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard:

1 Necropolis Fiend

1 Reclamation Sage

1 Resolute Archangel

2 Banishing Light

1 Bile Blight

4 Hero's Downfall

2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

3 Thoughtseize

In Indianapolis this weekend Samuel Valentine took the tournament down with an Abzan Reanimator build. Using cards like Satyr Wayfinder and Commune with the gods to feed his graveyard, Samuel was able to abuse the very powerful Sultai mechanic: Delve. Very early Necropolis fiends and casting murderous cuts for one black is nothing to underestimate as Samuel proved by winning the entire tournament! Another element of this deck is getting cards with great enter-the-battlefield abilities to get extra value off of Whip of Erebos. Utilizing Siege Rhino, Hornet queen and Ashen Rider Samuel was able to take whip over the top.

Now I’ve had a lot of personal success with reanimator strategies in the past and like this list a lot. One big aspect of the deck is it’s manipulation. Nyx weaver being my favorite. It feeds your graveyard while still supplying a good blocker and a giving you a way to recover your needed threats or utilities that may have been lost to the graveyard. With the way this deck puts cards in the graveyard at such a fast pace. You see almost one copy of every card in your deck in the graveyard each game. This allows Nyx Weaver to act as a tutor to grab what you need depending on the situation. Now the final piece of this reanimator pie is Empty the Pits. This is a great card for this deck. From experience, I know that by the late game you could have 40-70%  of your deck in the graveyard. Being able to turn that into an army of 2/2 zombies is awesome! I can’t stress enough how fun this style deck can be and encourage anyone interested to give it a try. I can’t wait to play this deck myself!

Now the other deck everybody is talking about came out of the Starcity Open in New Jersey. Kevin Jones was able to take the big W using his Jeskai Temp deck. Now looking at this deck my first thought was Value. Using the strongest creatures for the mana cost it is no surprise to see Goblin Rabblemaster make the deck as a four of along side Mantis Rider. Rounding out the Creature base is a three Seeker of the way.  This caught me as strange but watching the deck tech, it makes sense. With the amount of burn in the deck, Seeker attacks for three power if not higher more often than not. The added lifelink is a nice buffer if in a “Race” scenario.

Here is the deck:

Maindeck:

Creatures

4 Goblin Rabblemaster

4 Mantis Rider

3 Seeker of the Way

Enchantments

2 Banishing Light

Instants

2 Dig Through Time

4 Jeskai Charm

4 Lightning Strike

4 Magma Jet

2 Steam Augury

4 Stoke the Flames

Planeswalkers

1 Chandra, Pyromaster

2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Basic Lands

2 Island

3 Mountain

2 Plains

Lands

3 Battlefield Forge

2 Flooded Strand

1 Mystic Monastery

3 Shivan Reef

4 Temple of Epiphany

4 Temple of Triumph

Sideboard:

2 Ashcloud Phoenix

3 Disdainful Stroke

2 Magma Spray

2 Negate

1 Narset, Enlightened Master

1 Keranos, God of Storms

1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

2 Anger of the Gods

1 Temple of Enlightenment

Looking at the list, it’s very burn heavy. It’s game plan seems pretty simple. Jam a great creature then burn your face. Of course there are a lot of tempo elements. Jeskai charm is a great tempo play. Say they tap out for a Polukranos, you end of turn Charm it back to the top of their deck. You essentially just took two turns from them. The turn the cast it and the turn they re-cast it. All the while you’re beating down with Mantis riders and Rabblemasters. I think that is the best description of what this deck wants to do that I can give.

Needless to say the deck is good. Who doesn’t like casting Vigilant, flying, haste 3/3’s for 3? If that sounds like what you’re about, I highly recommend this list.

Thanks again for reading.That’s all for now.

Until next time,

Christian.