Dragons standard and you!

This past weekend Dragons of Tarkir became standard legal and with it came an SCG invitational showcasing the new cards and archetypes that you're sure to play with and against in the coming weeks. Abzan and mono-red aggro were among those to top 8, but, those decks need no explanation so let's look at some of the more interesting decks that came out this weekend but didn't quite make the cut to top 8.

Esper Control
A Standard Magic deck, by Shaheen Soorani
12th place at a tournament in Richmond, Virginia, United States on 2015-03-27
As reported at www.starcitygames.com

Maindeck:

Instants
3 Anticipate
4 Dig Through Time
4 Dissolve
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Silumgar's Scorn
3 Ultimate Price
2 Utter End

Legendary Creatures
2 Dragonlord Ojutai
2 Silumgar, the Drifting Death

Planeswalkers
3 Narset Transcendent

Sorceries
3 Crux of Fate

Basic Lands
4 Island
2 Swamp

Lands
1 Caves of Koilos
4 Polluted Delta
2 Radiant Fountain
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Temple of Silence

Legendary Lands
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard:
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
1 Stratus Dancer
4 Encase in Ice
1 Virulent Plague
2 Negate
1 Ojutai's Command
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
4 Drown in Sorrow

Blue/Black control has been a pillar of this standard environment for a while now but with the printing of Narset it gives U/B players a major incentive for the splash of white. Any of you who watched coverage of this list being played know that rebounding dig through time is absurd and rebounding wrath/removal/draw spells is pretty unreasonable. During the deck tech, Shaheen stated that the U/B control decks weren't "Good" decks but just performed well but this on the other hand, plays well and actually feels like a "good" deck. If you played U/B control for any amount of time you can understand what he means. With that being said, it looks like this is the beginning of control coming back into standard and people like me (Who are tired of endless midrange mirror matches) can and will struggle to contain our excitement.


U/R Dragons
A Standard Magic deck, by Jeff Hoogland
15th place at a tournament in Richmond, Virginia, United States on 2015-03-27
As reported at www.starcitygames.com

Maindeck:

Creatures
3 Flamewake Phoenix
2 Icefall Regent
3 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Thunderbreak Regent

Instants
1 Aetherspouts
4 Anticipate
4 Dig Through Time
4 Lightning Strike
4 Silumgar's Scorn
1 Stubborn Denial
3 Wild Slash

Sorceries
2 Crater's Claws
1 Roast

Basic Lands
3 Island
3 Mountain

Lands
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1 Polluted Delta
4 Shivan Reef
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Temple of Epiphany
1 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
1 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Aetherspouts
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Dragonlord's Prerogative
2 Twin Bolt
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Roast
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon

Now this is the type of deck they drew up in R&D. U/R Dragons was the single most talked about deck at the shop this past weekend. Counter-Burn is a super fun archetype to play and being able to top it off with powerful dragons? Nothing sounds more Rad than that. Now, the deck had a respectable finish for sure, but, given the popularity I would recommend you be prepared to play against similar lists in the coming weeks, even more so than esper or U/B. People like casting dragons and countering spells, I can't blame them. Sounds awesome.

G/R Dragons
By Seth Manfield

2 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Boon Satyr
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Thunderbreak Regent

Creatures [24]

3 Atarka's Command
4 Crater's Claws
4 Draconic Roar
3 Stoke the Flames

Spells [14]

5 Forest
3 Mana Confluence
6 Mountain
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills

Here we have another one of those "Drew it up in R&D" Decks. I recall watching this deck on coverage but was unable to find the exact 75 Seth sleeved up for the weekend but this is a similar list that he posted in an article recently. This dragons deck utilizes Draconic Roar and in coverage it was played with or revealing a dragon 100% of the time and this list plays less than dragons than the U/R while the U/R had none in the 75. I forsee this changing. I expect to see this deck adapt into devotion adding the new Atarka and the U/R running roar over strike and both will be better for the changes.

Now let's take things a little more close to home with the deck that went undefeated for our first Dragons of Tarkir Friday Night Magic.

Mono-Black Aggro
By, Christian Rasmussen

Creatures:
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Gnarled Scarhide
3 Mardu Shadowspear
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain Seer
4 Mogis's Marauder
3 Pitiless Horde

Spells:
4 Foul-Tongue Shriek
4 Bile Blight
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Ultimate Price

Land:
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
16 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Duress
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Herald of Torment
3 Brutal Hordechief

Christian's been known for running suicide black decks in the previous standard format to great success when we had access to rakdos cackler and the like. The break out card to bring him back to the archetype being foul-tongue shriek. This is a card that's seen absolutely no love in any set reviews but closed out 99% of his games this past Friday. Moving to combat with three 2/1 creatures into unfavorable blockers seems loose, but, most times it is followed by 1-2 shrieks draining from 3-6 life. The card acts as a black lightning helix of better for 1 black mana. That is absurd. Also, with the growing number of people playing G/W or other G devotion strategies, Mogis's marauder allows for huge unblockable life swings. Even against decks like Abzan who uses numerous black creatures, most of the time the only creature able to block is one siege rhino or tasigur allowing 4-8 damage through their coursers and fleecemane lions and the aggro deck only losing one attacker in the process. Back that up with foul-tongue shriek and you have a lethal attack on turns 4-6 most of the time. The deck has over performed and I felt I had to share the list with you so you can prepare for the archetype should it gain popularity.

These were the three decks I wanted to share with you as they are in my eyes the most interesting. Had this tournament been only standard, the top 8 may have shown more of these lists. Hopefully people take these and run with them. With the Idaho state championship this weekend, I honestly hope we see some dragons in the top 8 or taking home the check.

Thanks for reading,
Until next time.