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.

Lessons Learned from Khans of Tarkir Prerelease

Hey Everyone! Josh here with another article for Wizard's Den! I want to start by thanking everyone for checking out the last article. I hope it has helped get a feel for what standard may look like this Friday!

Unless you live under a rock you know last weekend was the Khans of Tarkir prerelease. I had the opportunity to play only one single and one 2 headed giant event but I had a blast! I want to talk about some of the cards and mechanics that really stood out to me so let's jump right in!

As anyone who read my last article already knows, I love my Temur. That being said it should go as no surprise that this was my guild of choice at both events I played. The massive power of it's creatures alongside the insanely powerful morph cards makes Temur a Clan to be reckoned with. I would like to share my decklist from my only solo play prerelease I was able to play (though our two headed giant deck for me was INSANE)

Temur prerelease pack
(Promo: Trap Essence)
1x Smoke Teller
1x Highland Game
1x Heir of the Wilds
1x Icefeather Aven
1x Bloodfire Mentor
2x Monastery Flock
1x Mardu Heart-Piercer
1x Bear's Companion
1x Surrak Dragonclaw
1x Avalanche Tusker
1x Ainok Tracker
1x Glacial Stalker
2x Snowhorn Rider
1x Woolly Loxodon
2x Singing Bell Strike
2x Bring Low
1x Ghostfire Blade
1x Temur Banner
1x Incremental Growth
1x Thornwood Falls
1x Frontier Bivouac
5x Forest
5x Island
5x Mountain

I was able to finish 4-0 with this list thanks to the power of morph and it's little friend Ghostfire Blade. The deck has a good ammount of removal for the early and late game in the form of Singing Bell Strike and Bring Low. My only issue with the Singing Bell Strike was how bad of a draw it is in the late game, and how bad in general it is if the game goes extremely long. I did like having the green Cone of Flame which is realistically what Incremental Growth is.
I'm not sure what the third undefeated player chose at this release but there was also an Abzan player as well.

The mechanics that were heavily played this weekend were Raid, Morph, and Outlast (I'll talk briefly about Prowess, Delve and Ferocious as well)

Raid: This mechanic was a perfect support mechanic in my opinion. It allows you to benefit off your attacks with key abilities that range from a few points of burn, to making creatures. I really enjoied the Mardu Heart-Piercer this weekend as his ability to kill several problematic creatures or win you a game is pretty amazing.

Morph: I picked up limited destroyer Tim Z (the 4-0 Abzan player) before the event and asked him about morph and he said to just play them all. I'm glad I played as many as I could. Morph is a ridiculous mechanic that makes combat very difficult for your opponent. You have the ability to blank removal by morphing in response, your opponent literally has to hope they are hitting the right thing. Temur is a great clan to play if you are looking for a strong morph deck, though I recomend playing just about every morph card in your colors. I say this due to the inability to play around the card flipping and due to it's ability to deny your opponent the information of what creatures are actually on the battlefield.

Outlast: This mechanic was a little less flashy than I had hoped as you are often left with the decision to advance your board or to buff your guys. Late game it is significantly better if you can position the game to a huge board stall that is going no where. While this may be common in regular sealed the prerelease packs made for some pretty well honed decks it seems. 

Delve: This mechanic is very potent in small doses. Reducing the number of cards with delve in your deck assures that your spells are at excellent value and very potent as far as their casting cost. I personally am a big fan of Sultai Scavenger, Treasure Cruise, Dead Drop and Murderous Cut. All of these cards can be a huge swing in your favor and get even better when cast for next to nothing allowing you to play a critical spell late in the game and a second spell of choice. I'm not a fan of loading up on all of the delve due to the inability to consistently have enough cards in the bin to actually get value off of every delve card you case.

Prowess: While this mechanic is deceivingly powerful, I feel as though it is counteracting itself before you even actually cast a spell. It's very hard to have some form of trick every  turn meaning everything has to be perfectly timed to optimize the bonus from prowess. Misuse of a spell could cause a missed blow out or potentially worse, cause you to miss a big damage turn with a flurry of noncreature spells.

Ferocious: This mechanic is really powerful with certain cards. An example of this came in my 2 Headed Giant event this weekend. Using Temur Ascendency alongside several morph creatures allowed huge card advantage throughout the evening and even gave made my Heir of the Wilds  a sweet buff on occasion.

I hope this gives some brief insight to some of the cards and power of some of the mechanics Khans of Tarkir has brought to the table. I leave you today with the list of the Standard deck I almost sleeved up to have some fun this Friday.

UW Dragons Throne

4x Loyal Pegasus
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Raise the Alarm
4x Chief Engineer
4x Triplicate Spirits
3x Scuttling Doom Engine
3x Soul of New Phyrexia
3x Colossus of Akros
3x Dragon Throne of Tarkir
4x Banishing Light
4x Flooded Strand
6x Island
14x Plains

This deck's  goal is to be really, for lack of a better word, silly. This deck is built idealy to get artifact convoke going with a Chief Engineer and all of the other cheap creatures on the battlefield. From here the goal is to get a Colossus of Akros on the battlefield with a Dragon Throne of Tarkir. From here the fun begins. If you've kept your cheap creatures through this process you probably win the game. Not only that, but as crazy as this sounds, I don't think the format is going to jump right to Silence the Believers or Utter End and I really think that with how slow the format is going to be, there is room for this guy to, on occasion, get a game on his own by going monstrous. If anyone decides to give this a try let me know in the comments how you do and if there are any improvements that might help the deck.
I hope this article helps out in deciding how limited may shape up for the last few PTQ's before the new system starts up. I hope someone gets to live the Colossus dream as well!

Got Mana? PT. 1

With Khans about to overrun our standard and limited environments it’s a fine time a to take a very close look at mana. Since this set is a wedge color set we can expect to see plenty of multicolor decks in both limited and constructed formats. Casting your spells consistently in this type of environment can be a major problem. This has been on our minds here at Wizardden.com, so to alleviate a great deal of this stress lets really break down what it takes to make your mana work.

From a great deal of research, experience, and discussions with players far more experienced than myself, there are some very helpful guidelines to follow. Obviously the most important part of mana is that it pays for the colors of your cards. Almost equally important however is when exactly it pays for those cards. For example Thoughtseize, in most decks, is intended to be used on the first turn. So this requires a single untapped black source on your first turn. So to meet this goal with 90% or greater probability in a 60 card deck, 14 or more untapped black sources would be the recommendation. For similar odds in a 40 card deck 10 sources are needed. This rule follows great for all your one drop must haves; Soldier of the Pantheon, Cloudfin Raptor, Despise, Monastery Swiftspear, and Elvish Mystic.

One drops are fairly simple to work with however so lets take a look at the more mana intensive cards. Cards like Hero’s Downfall and Cryptic Command. These cards have more specific requirements making them harder to cast, but you also grant more turns to gather the needed mana before you can first cast them. This is where we start get to get into a lot of very particular scenarios, so lets simplify it all and save time with a table.

These charts are a great guideline follow. Originally put forth by the esteemed Channel Fireball and shared with the world a while back. Comparing these charts against top performing decks shows that these numbers are tried and proven. Lets really break down how to use them though.

When building in multiple colors it is important to establish when you will be needing which colors. This is often most evident in green and white decks. We can often see a heavy favor of one color in the lower mana costs and then more of a blending in the higher mana costs. This thought process is key to thriving in a multicolor block. I was recently discussing a control variant with local player and teammate Will Pickett. We were trying to decide which combination of Courser of Kruphix, Anger of the Gods, and Despise would be best. Understanding the minimum mana requirements to cast all three consistently we accepted the fact that we could only run two of the three cards.
 These type of compromises will have to be made when working with the multiple combinations available in Khans. Centralize your early, mid, and late game around certain colors and unless that early color is green you may want to focus on that early color throughout the entire deck.

Last on today's list of topics is the non-mana factors that can influence your mana. Drawing cards or tutoring cards, scrying, and spells like Elvish Mystic that later produce mana. Early mana produces can be counted as up to half a mana source on the above charts as they have their own requirements that need to be met. Scrying and drawing also helps you to acquire your mana and can each be counted as about a quarter of a source. This means that for the purposes of later turns scry lands like Temple of Silence can be counted as slightly more than a source of mana. These extra numbers can be applied to any color as they effect the deck as a whole.

This has been the first look at mana and thinking about how to work with it. Next week join us here at Wizardden.com and we will break into the specifics of Khans and showcase a few different decklists and how we balanced the mana to make them work.

KTK Pre-release Primer. Mechanics and Sealed play!

Hey all, as you know Khans of Tarkir pre-release is next weekend (full event schedule and information) and that's when I get most excited about Magic: the Gathering! It offers me a chance to play with all of the cards I've been so painstakingly watching during spoiler season and most of all, gets my hands on a good chunk of cards to start off rotation with.

All the cards have been spoiled and now available for pre-order.

What I like to do in preparation of pre-release weekend, is spend some time discussing some of the cards I believe to be the most powerful for the sealed format. I've learned not to account for rares and mythics because you're not even close to guaranteed to get one in your sealed pool. I'll focus instead on the commons and uncommons of Khans of Tarkir and try to figure out the best clan choice based on the options.

Let's start off by looking at the mechanics of KTK.

Abzan's mechanic is called: "Outlast".

It allows you to pay a little mana and tap the creature in order to put a +1/+1 counter on it. A handful of creatures with that mechanic also have abilities that trigger upon activation of Outlast or offer a passive bonus to creatures with +1/+1 counters on them. The ability seems fine, but having to tap the creature is a pretty huge downside for me. The first time I read the mechanic I missed that part and I thought it was pretty good. Now, not so much. For limited playability, it's fine, but taking away a potential blocker to make it bigger doesn't seem like a great use of your turn and mana.

However! There are a couple creatures here that I like. For instance;

It's a good sized body for the mana, Outlast is cheap, and it provides evasion for himself and any other creatures you manage to get counters on. Overall, a very powerful card and one to look out for if you're in white. Even without much synergy in the rest of your deck, this is a pretty nice addition. Overall, I would recommend Abzan over some of the other clans this weekend.

Jeskai's mechanic is "Prowess::

This ability seems slightly contradictory to me. If you want to build around this mechanic(for standard), you need enough creatures with the mechanic in your deck to see them consistently. However, you obviously want to be running a ton of non-creature spells to trigger the ability. It seems 'Delver-esque' to me, but way worse. For limited formats, you don't tend to run a lot of non-creature spells so this mechanic won't really be useful at all. I recommend staying away from Jeskai for pre-release if you can help it. That's not to say there aren't good cards in the clan... just that their mechanic falls very short of my requirements for playable in sealed. You'll generally get underpowered creatures for the mana cost just because this ability is tacked on. Considering you won't get more than a couple triggers at best, and assuming they're not blocked in combat anyway, it's just not worth it to me.

Sultai's mechanic is "Delve": 

For this mechanic, you're going to see grossly overcosted cards in general. That's fine in that you can use your graveyard here to help cast the cards for some nice effects. The problem I run into here, is that you'll most likely spend your graveyard on one creature or spell and not have anything left for the next, leaving you with a handful of very expensive, and very dead, cards. There is a bright side to this though. It allows you to trade aggressively in combat early on to provide yourself with an advantage later with some powerful effects that you wouldn't normally have access to given the mana cost. Also, you don't have to flood your deck with these expensive 'Delve' cards. Save room for a couple good ones, but likely that's all there is. I put Sultai fairly low on my choice of clans along with the Jeskai, so again, I wouldn't recommend choosing this clan if you can help it.

Mardu's mechanic is "Raid": 

Raid is actually pretty good overall in this set. The best part is that you don't need a creature to connect with your opponent, it just has to attack. You can throw a 1/1 token at them and get some pretty nice bonus effects during your second main phase. There's not a lot to say here. Generally, you want to be attacking anyway whenever favorable, so 'Raid' just adds a little cherry on top for your efforts. The Mardu clan overall has a lot of utility creatures and most are aggressively costed so it's a clan I'd recommend choosing for your pre-release fun. Utility is what I look for most in my creatures. Most creatures with a box full of flavor text generally end up warming benches. Even if the body isn't great for the mana, if it does something useful, I'm usually on board.

Temur's Mechanic is "Ferocious": 

As you can see here, the mechanic checks to see if you have a creature with power 4 or greater to trigger. Other creatures have "ETB" effects that trigger and spells that are more powerful if you meet the Ferocious requirements of the Temur. I strongly believe that wars are won with boots on the ground. Bascially, limited games are won with your creatures, not your spells. When the mechanic focuses on you having huge threats on the board to generate even more advantage, I'm in! The clan has plenty of 4 powered(or bigger) creatures and at common and uncommon rarities too!

Rests assured, if you play me next weekend, you'll be facing Ferocious creatures and even more Ferocious spells!

Aside from the specific mechanics of the clans, there are a lot of powerful cards out there that may influence your clan choice. A few examples of cards I find most powerful for sealed format;

Murderous Cut: 

Probably the best removal in the format. Easily splashed for, a staple for any black deck, and really easy to cast. Highly recommend playing this if you find yourself with swamps in your deck.

Monastery Swiftspear: 

Contrary to what I said about the Jeskai earlier, this one is actually pretty good. A 1/2 for one mana is already great. Haste is fantastic. The benefit of getting bigger with combat tricks, is amazing. Guaranteed staple for any red deck. You're crazy if think it's bad in any way.

Armament Corps: 

This definitely locks you into your colors if you decide on playing it. However, if you get the chance to cast this guy(guys?), you'll much appreciate it. You basically get 6 power for 5 mana. With the full cycle of ten common tapped lands, the 5 uncommon clan lands and the artifact flags, 3 colors is not an issue at all. You can even put both counters on himself if he's the only creature you got for a 6/6. Not many creatures in this set, even at higher rarities, can beat that. If you're Abzan this weekend, this guy is your bread and butter bomb.

Bear's Companion: 

If you find yourself in Temur, however, you still have access to 6 power for 5 mana. This one is beneficial for the fact that it provides you with a 4 power creature to turn on Ferocious, not to mention that you get 2 creatures for one card. Effects like that are huge in limited. Always be on the lookout for 2-for-1's!

Scaldkin: 

A 2/2 flyer for four mana isn't exactly great, but the ability to deal two damage to a creature or player makes Scaldkin worth including in your blue decks. You'll obviously want to be in red too so you have the option of Temur or Jeskai which is nice. The evasion can put a clock on your opponent while having a little extra reach to finish the job. If they have a bigger flyer, then you can use it for removal so it's a nice all-around versatile flyer. Not great, but definitely worth running.

Mardu Hordechief: 

Another example of 2-for-1's. Turn 3 is a little late for a measly 1/1 token as it won't likely be attacking much, but it can be a nice chump blocker later and best case scenario, can even trade with an x/1 creature which would be crazy good card advantage here. Making your opponent waste combat tricks to take care of your tokens is nice, so try to find ways to do that.

Finally, if it's not obvious enough, all of the charms are ridiculous. If I had to pick the best one, in my opinion, I would have to say Mardu Charm. It kills big creatures. If you can use the tokens to kill a creature in combat instead, you're up 2 power on board. For limited, the instant speed duress mode probably is the least useful, but still good in the right situations. It's mostly the tokens that push this one in my favor. It's not only useful to have options, but to be able to kill creatures while advancing your own board state is a big deal. If you can't see how good this charm is, maybe you can't even see why kids love cinnamon toast crunch... n00b

Anyway, I think that wraps it up for me tonight. Like I said, I'll most likely be going with Temur for the weekend unless someone can change my mind. If there are any other cards you think I left out, let me know in the comments below. I'm always interested in other's thoughts on limited playable cards.

Until next time,

DannyO

Team RogueT3ch