SPDC 31.01

Hello there! Long time no see!

Yesterday, season 31 has officially started for Standard Pauper, meaning Theros block and M15 are gone for good while Battle For Zendikar is now legal.

This is very interesting because Theros and Battle for Zendikar are completely different from each other and to be fair, most of us were very tired of Theros.

While I'm not a fan of the new set, the new format looks very good. I've seen a lot of good decks and there seems to be a lot of room for brewing. Since it is a new format, let's make a report!

SPDC 31.01 Report

The tournament had 16 players and the most popular color build was Rakdos, with 6 decks, followed by Izzet with 3 decks. All the other color archetypes presented had 1 deck each. The Rakdos popularity is not really a surprise. The deck was already among the best in the previous format and it translates very well into the new one. It was a solid and safe choice. Red has been the best color in the format for a while now and I think this will not change soon. Red is great in both aggro and control and has the best answers to all the tokens that are swarming the format right now.

pproteus took down the event with his UR Tempo deck, beating tortadelimao's Rakdos deck in the finals. Forli with Sultai Grind and kakuyasu with another Rakdos deck completed the money finishes while Izzet Tokens, Gruul Landfall, Jeskai Control and Esper Tokens completed the top 8.

The new format looks very grindy. Creatures die a lot, all decks are looking for 2-3 for 1s all the time and I've seen and experienced a lot of comebacks from decks that were apparently losing a given match. A midrange feast!

Let's highlight some of the top decks in the tournament before I talk about what I played.

UR Tempo by pproteus - 1st (6-0)

4 Evolving Wilds 4 Swiftwater Cliffs 8 Mountain 5 Island 4 Mage-Ring Bully 4 Elusive Spellfist 4 Valakut Predator 3 Eldrazi Skyspawner 2 Clutch of Currents 1 Ojutai's Summons 4 Tormenting Voice 4 Treasure Cruise 1 Anticipate 2 Fiery Impulse 1 Outnumber 3 Twin Bolt 3 Touch of the Void 2 Claustrophobia 1 Dispel Sideboard: 3 Dispel 2 Negate 4 Boiling Earth 1 Jeskai Sage 1 Claustrophobia 1 Murk Strider 1 Ojutai's Summons 1 Twin Bolt 1 Touch of the Void

pproteus deck was a true tempo deck. He would play a few early creatures and proceed to clear the way for them to attack with removal and bounce. He crushed me in our round-3 match and Elusive Spellfist looked especially good. While I can say to my defense that my flooding, especially in game 2, helped him a lot, but it was clear to me that his deck was much more well built and he knew what he was doing very well. And his 6-0 record shows just that.

Rakdos by tortadelimao - 2nd (4-2)

4 Gurmag Angler 4 Sultai Scavenger 4 Vulturous Aven 4 Ghirapur Gearcrafter 3 Fiery Impulse 4 Dragon Fodder 4 Read the Bones 4 Tormenting Voice 3 Arrow Storm 3 Twin Bolt 1 Rakshasa's Secret 1 Temur Battle Rage 7 Mountain 6 Swamp 4 Bloodfell Caves 4 Evolving Wilds Sideboard: 4 Duress 3 Act of Treason 2 Butcher's Glee 2 Barrage of Boulders 1 Twin Bolt 2 Unholy Hunger 1 Fiery Impulse

My fellow Brazilian tortadelimao had the best finish of the Rakdos guys. He's beaten me in the top 8 match after 3 fun and grindy games. The main innovation here is <span class="mtgcard">Arrow Storm</span> which gives him the ability to win against a stabilized board and also deals with opposing <span class="mtgcard">Gurmag Angler</span>. This deck beats hard and never runs out of gas.

Sultai Grind by Forli - Top 4 (4-1)

4 Sultai Emissary 4 Vulturous Aven 4 Blisterpod 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner 2 Eyeless Watcher 1 Swarm Surge 2 Dutiful Attendant 2 Silumgar Butcher 4 Bone Splinters 4 Treasure Cruise 3 Altar's Reap 2 Ethereal Ambush 4 Dismal Backwater 4 Evolving Wilds 4 Jungle Hollow 4 Thornwood Falls 2 Forest 2 Swamp 1 Island 2 Mortuary Mire Sideboard: 4 Debilitating Injury 2 Sidisi's Faithful 2 Duress 2 Dispel 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Fetid imp 1 Aerial Volley 1 Complete Disregard

Not unlike my own deck I'll be discussing later, Forli's deck is grindy to the bone. It gets extra points for being the BUG colors, the best color combo in MTG. Forli plays a lot of token generators of both the ETB and the dying trigger types. He then used them as resources to fuel the Exploit creatures, Altar's Reap and Bone Splinters. The result is a deck that is very hard to deal with, since killing his creatures doesn't detract his gameplan that much.

GR Landfall by amnaremotoas - Top 8 (2-2)

4 Looming Spires 4 Rugged Highlands 1 Tormenting Voice 4 Titan's Strength 4 Mage-Ring Bully 4 Infectious Bloodlust 4 Makindi Sliderunner 3 Temur Battle Rage 4 Snapping Gnarlid 4 Valakut Predator 4 Evolving Wilds 2 Belligerent Whiptail 4 Titanic Growth 5 Forest 6 Mountain 1 Barrage of Boulders 2 Hooting Mandrills Sideboard: 3 Barrage of Boulders 2 Plummet 2 Savage Punch 2 Aerie Bowmasters 2 Epic Confrontation 4 Fiery Impulse

A few days ago my friend Sam from MagicGatheringStrat.com asked me my opinion about a GR Landfall deck in the format and I said him I thought it wouldn't happen because the support cards were not very good and the creatures, while not bad, were not very impressive. It seems I was wrong. While this deck may have a hard time against a grindy field, it is surely capable of stealing wins out of nowhere, especially with Temur Battle Rage. The creatures are naturally powerful and with the help of the best pump spells in the format, they will never let you feel safe against them.

My deck: Esper Tokens

So this is what I played yesterday.

Esper Tokens by rremedio1 - Top 8 (2-2)

5 Swamp 2 Complete Disregard 2 Scoured Barrens 2 Dutiful Attendant 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner 3 Read the Bones 2 Gurmag Drowner 3 Harsh Sustenance 2 Plains 1 Monastery Loremaster 2 Nantuko Husk 4 Palace Familiar 5 Island 3 Sandsteppe Outcast 4 Evolving Wilds 4 Dismal Backwater 4 Anticipate 3 Treasure Cruise 3 Vulturous Aven 2 Tranquil Cove Sideboard: 1 Complete Disregard 2 Gideon's Reproach 2 Celestial Flare 2 Spell Shrivel 2 Negate 2 Send to Sleep 2 Clutch of Currents 2 Macabre Waltz

I've been running this kind of deck for a long time and I think this is the format where it can really shine. My 2-2 record is not that impressive, but the deck felt very good overall. While this deck is capable of pretending of being an aggro deck with an unlikely fast draw against a very slow opponent, it is, in fact, a midrange, stall deck, not unlike Forli's Sultai Grind deck. We will play tokens and cycle through our deck using our exploit creatures, our draw spells, and Anticipate, get things back from the graveyard with Dutiful Attendant and Monastery Loremaster and eventually win. Harsh Sustenance is a big card here, doing double duty as both removal and finisher (3 of the 5 games I won were finished by this card).

But not everything is great. The deck felt much better after sideboarding in removal in every match which probably means I should play more removal in the main deck. That removal is white, which meant that sometimes I had a hard time casting it because of having few white sources. This can be fixed by changing the mana base, or simply playing black removal. Bone Splinter is a very cheap and effective card with so many tokens on our side and maybe it is the better option. Anyway, Gideon's Reproach overperformed and Celestial Flare was very useful dealing with Anglers. That's a tough call.

Other cards that I missed in my list were Altar's Reap, Disdainful Stroke and Duress.

Altar's Reap can replace Read the Bones, which wasn't very good. RtB is actually the better card of the two, and by a long margin, in my opinion, but Altar's Reaps instant speed and synergy with the deck are good arguments for it. As I said before, creatures die a lot in this format, and this can make Altar's Reap completely free of downside.

Disdainful Stroke seems to have targets in almost all decks I've seen so far. So many important targets that it may be a main deck card for many decks. Our deck taps out a lot and because of that I would probably keep it in the sideboard, but it is clearly better than Spell Shrivel for us.

Duress is a common choice for black sideboards and I usually advocate it as a main deck card in Standard Pauper. It could have been very good against the Izzet deck I faced in round 3 and I think it was a big mistake not including it.

As for the rest of my sideboard: Complete Disregard was lackluster both main and side; Spell Shrivel just doesn't belong in this deck; Negate would be nice if I ever drew it in my matches; Clutch of Currents was never sided in and given the way the deck played, I think the Awake mode would not have been that great, so maybe it can be cut (or changed for Dissolve, which is an instant); Send to Sleep was surprising good, even finishing the match against GR Landfall, but I feel it is not really the kind of card I need, even if I'm willing to test it a bit more.

So here is the list I'm going to test before my next tournament. I'm still not sure about Altar's Reap and I've chosen to play both Bone Splinters and Gideon's Approach. I'm cutting 1 Anticipate and 1 Vulturous Aven for the time being, but the Aven is likely to come back.

Esper Tokens by rremedio1 - Testing

4 Swamp 2 Bone Splinters 2 Scoured Barrens 2 Dutiful Attendant 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner 3 Altar's Reap 2 Gurmag Drowner 3 Harsh Sustenance 3 Plains 1 Monastery Loremaster 2 Nantuko Husk 4 Palace Familiar 4 Island 3 Sandsteppe Outcast 4 Evolving Wilds 4 Dismal Backwater 3 Anticipate 3 Treasure Cruise 2 Vulturous Aven 3 Tranquil Cove 2 Gideon's Reproach Sideboard: 3 Duress 2 Celestial Flare 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Negate 2 Send to Sleep 2 Clutch of Currents 2 Macabre Waltz

That's all for now. Feel free to critique and send suggestions.

I see you next time!

Peace!

rremedio1
@Zygrunt on Twitter
rremedio1 on MTGO

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