Hey guys, DannyO here with WizardDen.com and team Rogue T3ch! Today I wanted to talk about the first major(ish) standard constructed tournament to feature the new cards from Fate Reforged and see what people have come up with. I'll stick to the top 8, but there are several honorable mentions outside the Top-8 worth discussing.
Anyway, the top-8 was fairly diverse here with 2 Abzan Aggro, 1 Jeskai Aggro, 1 Abzan Midrange, 1 Sultai Ramp, 1 U/W Heroic, 1 R/W Aggro, and 1 Sultai Control taking it all.
All this means is that the format is still all over the place as it has been. With the release of Fate Reforged, standard was definitely shaken up, but for the most part, it seems like anything goes.
That being said, let's look at the two Abzan Aggro lists. For the most part, they're fairly similar. The biggest difference I notice, is Ryan Boswell's 6th place deck played Soldier of the Pantheon and Warden of the First Tree. Nance's 3rd place played Wingmate Roc, Courser of Kruphix and Tasigur, the Golden Fang.
Despite the difference in placing, in the head to head I would expect Nance's to win most of the time. I really like Boswell's 6th place deck, however:
Creatures:
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Rakshasa Deathdealer
4x Siege Rhino
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Warden of the First Tree
2x Boon Satyr
3x Anafenza, The foremost
Spells:
4x Abzan Charm
3x Bile Blight
4x Valorous Stance
Lands:
2x Forest
2x Plains
3x Swamp
3x Llanowar Wastes
4x Mana Confluence
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Temple of Malady
1x Temple of Silence
4x Windswept Heath
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard
1x Murderous Cut
1x Utter End
2x Nissa, Worldwaker
3x Drown in Sorrow
2x Glare of Heresy
2x Hunt the Hunter
4x Thoughtseize
Truthfully, Boswell's deck looks like it's extremely consistent. The mana-base gets a lot of help hitting colors with 4x Mana Confluence and he is practically running 4x Copies of every creature. The advantage to running a curve like this is just statistics. Mulligans go down, more hands look the same and have the same plan, and they become easy decks to pilot successfully after some practice.
Let's talk about Warden of the First Tree. I like him in these aggro lists, because he can essentially give you 8 copies of 2 cost 3/3's. Him and Fleecemane Lion of course. Later when you don't have much to do, he can become a lot more annoying, not so dissimilar to Fleecemane Lion as well. There are many decks that can struggle to go wide enough to handle 3/3's that early so I think he's a great addition. Plus having things to do on turn-1 alongside Soldier of the Pantheon puts the pressure on early, which is great. If you're thinking about picking him up in speculation of a price jump, I'd do it now just in case this deck picks up much steam. Any deck that wants to run this guy, probably wants 4 and that's a good sign that he can see a rise in price if more people catch on.
Nance's 3rd Place List:
Creatures:
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Rakshasa Deathdealer
4x Siege Rhino
3x Wingmate Roc
3x Courser of Kruphix
3x Anafenza, The foremost
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Planeswalkers:
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells:
2x Abzan Charm
3x Bile Blight
2x Thoughtseize
4x Hero's Downfall
Lands:
1x Forest
2x Plains
3x Caves of Kolios
3x Llanowar Wastes
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
3x Temple of Malady
1x Temple of Plenty
2x Temple of Silence
4x Windswept Heath
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard
1x Back to Nature
1x Bile Blight
1x Murderous Cut
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Liliana Vess
1x Nissa, Worldwaker
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4x Drown in Sorrow
3x Glare of Heresy
1x Thoughtseize
This list looks mean, and with Tasigur in an aggro list, spicy. Its sacrificing a little bit of the early game board presence and consistency for more powerful creatures and spells. Luckily for this deck, it has Sorin mainboard (the best walker from Khans). Sorin in an aggro list can easily put games out of reach.
All in all, Abzan Aggro has been putting up a lot of good numbers lately and I expect this deck to hang around a bit so this is definitely something to keep in mind while brewing.
.
Happy Brewing,
DannyO
Rogue T3ch
www.WizardDen.com
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