Next week we will see the start of Season 28 for both MPDC and SPDC debuting the new cards from Fate Reforged.
If you are wondering about what to play, what will be the top decks and if new decks are coming to shake the metagame, I assure you that chances are great that the top decks remain the same, only receiving a few updates from the new cards. For what I've seen so far there may appear new variations on existing decks, like WW Tokens or Mono Blue Control splashing a second color and there is always the chance of the top Wx Heroic deck to change its second color but I don't think this is likely this time. Also, a deck which run out of favor by the season's end - but got a formidable runner up finish at MPDC 27 Worlds by Carnuz - is RDW: this deck is receiving more playables than most of the others and I expect a raise on its popularity and power level.
Instead of diving into these matters, it is obviously much more fun to try new things (even if they are not so new), so I've been trying to have some brews ready for the coming season. None of these decks is supposed to be a top contender because while powerful, they are not optimized and they have some weakness to certain decks that make them not reliable for tournament play, but they are fun, solid lists that may (or may not) get there with more tweaks.
Delve Without Cruise
The first deck I want to talk about is based around the black Delve creatures from KTK block. All of them have good stats and even the worse in the pack, Shambling Attendants, is interesting being able to block almost everything in the ground. But the star in this deck is the newcomer Gurmag Angler, everyone's favorite undead fish.
I decided not to go on the self mill route since I'd rather put effort on things that actually move our game forward, so I decided the best way to make this work was via cheap removal with Magma Spray, Lightning Bolt and Pharika's Cure, and ramp provided by Generator Servant. This card means 3 mana when you are casting a Delve spell and can give Haste to the creatures you cast. A good enough deal. We also have one Bathe in Dragonfire which can remove big blockers from our way, Read the Bones, Tormenting Voice and Bitter Revelation to give us more gas with the later two providing some extra graveyard fuel without the risk of milling a need card. Completing the package there is Hammerhand which can remove a blocker from our way and also give haste to a fattie, Barrage of Boulders which usually means game if you have your big fish on the table and Goblin Heelcutter as a repeatable way to make our fatties get past blockers.
I made a good amount of testing and I think it is a good deck against aggro because it packs a lot of removal and when it beats, it beats hard. Six Mind Rot effects in the sideboard confirmed my suspicious that against Wx Heroic decks the best thing you can do is to attack their hand. The removal package is great and there are some dream scenarios like casting two Delve creatures with haste on the same turn or double striking with the giant fish with Temur Battle Rage. Unfortunately, the match up against Treasure Cruise based Control decks is almost impossible. I could steal a few wins out of the Fonts of Ire and Bolts of Keranos in the sideboard, but I don't think playing those cards is a solid choice and I feel if you are not playing Cruise, you better be playing an ultra fast aggro deck like RDW or WW, or a heroic deck full of protecting spells. Anyway, the deck is fun and maybe some of you masterminds can find a way to improve that matchup.
Mardu Warriors
The biggest problem with White tokens decks is their vulnerability to X/1 sweepers. Many matches are decided by their opponent drawing or not their Scouring Sands or Festerglooms. At the cost of losing some of their speed I'm trying to give that kind of deck more depth with some card draw and more creatures which won't die to those spells. Looking at my choice of creatures I noticed a lot of Warriors, so I wanted to test Rush of Battle instead of Inspired Charge. While the Charge is a better card for being Instant speed, Rush of Battle worked well in my tests (lifelink is a magic word in Standard pauper). I've chosen Mardu Colors, but you could also try it without Red (and probably without the Warrior theme) for better mana base and speed. I'm in fact not sold to the 3 colors choice since I lost some games due to being too slow or lacking one more mana of the color I wanted, but when it worked it was a blast, Borderland Marauder, Lightning Strike and Tormenting Voice are great cards. Here you go:
Here we have the usual tokens package plus Warriors that survive Scouring Sands: Sultai Emissary (he doesn't survive, but you get it), Borderland Marauder and Sultai Scavenger, which usually can be cast for cheap. I couldn't find a way to put more fliers, but it would really help the deck. Rush of Battle is surprising relevant because of the lifelink provided.
Deck Updates
Last time I've showed you other two FRF brews. After a week I tested enough to have a better feel of the decks and their opponents. The Manifest deck really won't work. It is similar enough to Mono Blue Control to win some games, but it is often too slow and usually it is not able to effectively protect the player while it is trying to create board presence. I've seen a lot of people testing similar ideas, usually with more colors and morph creatures, but all those decks had similar characteristics: good late game, but nothing great, and terrible early game.
The other deck, Harsh Esper, looks really solid, however. It doesn't lose much of the consistency of the Dimir version and the white cards really give the deck more reach. I wouldn't say it is clearly better, specially in the "mirror" where the Dimir deck looks more focused, but it improved even more on the ability of recover from almost lost games, which is my favorite feature of the Dimir deck. Here is an updated list after testing.
Recent News
- The Standard Pauper Sealed League has started. Here is a video from a round 1 match: bava vs vhaso. After Round 1 is finished you can check the standings here.
- Gwyned, the tireless host of MPDC had published a series of posts on Treasure Cruise and the need of banning it or not, including the arguments from Zoltan, a strong supporter of the banning of this card. You can check it on his Blog. He comes to the conclusion that there's no need to ban it right now, which I agree 100%. But it is a overpowered card and we should watch for its effect on the metagame as new sets arrive.
- BigBee is the new Captain of the Standard Pauper Players Clan! I wish you a fine stay as our clan leader, buddy! You probably know him for his numerous MPDC wins, including the recent taking of MPDC 27 Worlds but BigBee is also a strong supporter of our format, advertising it in MTGO in every chance he gets. He is also strong critical of everything V4. Stop complaining BigBee! :-) (of course I'm joking, any reasonable person is critical about V4).
Ok, that's all folks! I hope to see interesting brews and updated top decks next week when he season start. Take care!
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