A New Brew for a New You (or a New Standard Format)
A new brew, a new you.
With Magic 2015 fully spoiled, there are some exciting cards that will immediately impact standard. Will the Soul “Titan” cycle be good enough? Will everyone underestimate Liliana Vess for a second time? Will Chandra, Pyromaster shine in its second term? These questions and more I hope to answer with some prospective brews to try with the addition of M15. Refer to Mythicspoiler.com for any M15 cards that can’t be seen here.
Standard has defined itself with Jund(RGb) Monsters, mono black variants, blue/white and Esper(UWb) control, mono blue, mono red, and more fringe midrange variants that are often Naya(RGW) and Junk(BGW). This is a fairly diverse format, especially for those who have witnessed the dark ages of Caw-Blade and such. It could be argued that mono black has choked the format out pretty handily however. But I digress…
Wait…what was that? Deck lists? Ah, right. On to the deck lists! (All lists are untested)
Touching on two existing decks today with “new” cards being added in, and first up is the ever popular Jund Monsters.(New means not yet standard legal, reprints are new for all intents and purposes)
[deck title= Jund Monsters]
[Creatures]
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Soul of Shandalar
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Ultimate Price
1 Rakdos’ Return
3 Domri Rade
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Stomping Ground
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of Malice
2 Mutavault
1 Mana Confluence
4 Forest
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
4 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Putrefy
1 Liliana Vess
1 Rakdos’ Return
2 Doom Blade
1 Golgari Charm
1 Gruul Charm
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
The main deck Soul and sideboard Liliana are the only cards not currently legal that will be once M15 releases. The list looks fairly stock and the numbers would lead us to believe it is. Since the goal is to drop a turn four or five [card]Soul of Shandalar[/card] or [card]Rakdos’ Return [/card] their entire hand quickly, many of the optimal mana producing cards are played in full sets. The mana producers will fuel our X cost spells and abilities as well. [card]Liliana Vess[/card] is in the slot [card]Vraska, the Unseen[/card] takes up for right now. Liliana is a more imminent threat to your control opponents and does not die to [card]Mutavault[/card] in one fell swoop. Our new six drop also allows us some much needed reach. On to the next one.
[deck title= Junk Midrange]
[Creatures]
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Soul of Theros
2 Polukranos, World Eater
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
2 banishing Light
2 Underworld Connections
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Golgari Charm
4 Hero’s Downfall
2 Ultimate Price
2 Thoughtseize
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of Malady
3 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Plenty
3 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Mana confluence
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
4 Mistcutter Hydra
2 sin Collector
1 Underworld Connections
2 Bile Blight
2 Devour Flesh
1 Liliana Vess
2 Soul of Innistrad
1 Thoughtseize
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
The [card]Soul of Theros[/card] and [card]Soul of Innistrad[/card] are interchangeable in this build. The white soul is a strong proactive gameplan to overtake the board with Elspeth tokens and then use the activated ability or the Elspeth ultimate to close out your opponent’s chance of winning. The black soul is powerful against heavy removal strategies. The recursion of your best men after you exhaust your opponent’s resources can be backbreaking.
The last list is a bit of a new idea that one of the newer spoilers inspired. While I don’t know if the new Avacyn is what the deck needs, it is definitely a fun and powerful card in some situations.
[deck title= White Devotion]
[Creatures]
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Precinct Captain
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Banisher Priest
4 Eidolon of Countless Battles
2 Angel of Serenity
3 Heliod, God of the Sun
2 Soul of Theros
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Brave the elements
4 Banishing Light
1 Spear of Heliod
4 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Spells]
[Land]
15 Plains
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Temple of Plenty
1 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of Enlightenment
3 Mutavault
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
3 Boros Reckoner
1 Acolyte’s Reward
2 Last Breath
2 Reprisal
1 Deicide
2 Blind Obedience
1 Celestial Archon
1 Banisher Priest
1 Rest in Peace
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
This deck could be awesome, or flat out bad. The new Avacyn that inspired the idea could belong in the deck, but for now I think the list looks solid. [card]Mass Calcify[/card] would be a nice addition to the deck as well as we have exemplified with everyone’s favorite one sided board wiping blowout [card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card]. Once the new core set is released I will be trying these decks out, and I hope you will too! I like casting fatties, so I’m hopeful that the new mythic avatars will prove their worth.