Charlie Rinehart was able to stymie SCG circuit superstar Chris VanMeter on his mission to shave off his beard, which he has sworn to wear until he is victorious in a major tournament. This came down to a battle of the Midrange decks after both successfully dispatched Esper Control decks in their semifinal matches. While CVM chose to attack the format with an ever popular style with Jund, Charlie took a different route and combined the strengths of Black and White known as Orzhov midrange, which has been a powerful choice of late.
The deck follows some similar lines that this formats bogeyman Mono-Black Devotion has in using a trio of creatures that form the foundation of the Black deck. We see the pest know as Pack Rat as the two drop of choice in the deck, quick to grow into a swarm of vermin if unchecked and synergistic with the manland Mutavault to big fast and effective beats to the enemy. There is also Lifebane Zombie which against the Green based monster decks is truly effective but also is able to sneak past most defenders to either chip away at life totals or finish off annoying planeswalkers. Then continuing up the curve we the other borrowed creature with Flying powerhouse Desecration Demon which is a bargin at four converted cost and will most often force your opponent to sacrifice his worst creature in an effort to stave off the onslaught for another turn, but eventually he will be out of fodder and you’ll have a gigantic flying demon. Then we get to the creatures which helped to inspire the dabble into white. There are two five drops which both help the deck to recover lost life points first with a singleton of the legendary Obzedat, Ghost Council which also has a great synergy with another singleton Whip of Erebos that allows it to be returned from the grave and then use its own trigger to stick around for more turns after. The other five drop is the powerful and elusive Blood Baron of Vizkopa with not only Lifelink to assure that you remain alive against aggressive strategies but also protection against both White and Black which ensures it dodges a lot of the formats removal to ensure it keeps you alive and kicking. The last creature is a one of Sin Collector which work with the other key disruption in your deck Thoughtseize to provide important information about the opponents plans and strip away a valuable card. For planeswalker power we find Theros Block superstar Elspeth, Sun’s Champion which this deck is often able to drop down behind some protection then use it to ramp up the board state into a one sided slaughterhouse on your road to victory, and is also a very key as additional removal to rid the board of huge monsters that have accumulated on the other side of the table. As far as removal is concerned this deck is rife with a plethora of choices starting with a full set of the creature and planeswalker killer Hero’s Downfall, then also adding pairs of Ultimate Price to rid the board of any of the many mono-colored creatures in the format, Bile Blight that functions as the decks sweeper although it is limited to shrinking all copies of one particular card, and as a catchall answer Banishing Light which is able to remove a good variety of threats. The final card is the decks only real source of card advantage, although the scrylands do help filter bad draws, with another choice borrowed from Mono-Black with Underworld Connections that is so key for this deck to grind out small bits of advantage to try and pull ahead to seal the deal.
Welcome everyone to this edition of “My top cards from Standard” pt.1 for Dragon’s Maze.
We see a diverse meta starting to form with the exciting new release of Dragon’s Maze and decks have evolved a lot since my last Top cards from Gatecrash. It’s a small set, but it has a lot of powerful multicolored cards adding tools to decks like Jund, Bant, Junk, and Grixis. Although we see a few two colored decks, three colored decks are preferred as we can see with the results put up so far. We’ll take a closer look at some of the top cards I’ve found for Standard and I’ve pulled up some of this weekends top decks to see them in action. There are more cards then just these that will get played in standard, but this is already quite a lot to look at. I’ll be continuing in part 2.
Sire of insanity: This guy makes coming out the gates strong really pay off, and especially if you’re ahead you can really lock the win once your opponent discard their hand. An especially good tool versus control decks. We see him in almost all Jund builds right now.
Putrefy: Great removal and easier to cast then Murder that can’t be regenerated with the added option of removing artifacts instead like Staff of Nin or Rakdos Keyrune for instance. Another great tool for Jund that’s also in some Junk sideboards.
Jund
Tyler Phelps
2nd Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Creatures (13)
Gaze of Granite: Finally a decent sweeper for Jund and BUG, kind of like a new Pernicious deed that you need to pay for all up front. It’s starting to see some play in some Jund sideboards like this one:
Jund
Danny Li
6th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Deadbridge Chant: I’ve heard a few people wanting to brew with this card. For now we’ve seen copies in Jund sideboards like this next list. They want to abuse it by exiling their graveyard to make sure that they always recur the same spell, like a Rakdos’s Return for instance, each turn. This is a sick card and I’d love to see more decks abusing it.
Jund
Kyle Thomas
4th Place at StarCityGames.com Classic on 5/12/2013
Voice of resurgence: This badboy 2-drop should see a lot of play in this standard meta coming up and those to follow. Will it become on par or even better than others like Tarmogoyf, Dark confidant, Stoneforge mystic and Snapcaster Mage? Only time will tell.
First off two versions of Junk Reanimator, one from Ali Aintrazi with an Angel of Serenity plan using 4 Voice of Resurgence in it’s sideboard in the list right below. The other reanimator uses Immortal Servitude as tech using all 2 drops including Voice of Resurgence.
Next we have two Bant versions: Bant Auras and Bant Flash. Replacing an old favorite one-drop Delver of Secrets with Voice of Resurgence in Bant Auras in the third list. Combining Geist of Saint Traft and Invisible Stalker with Voice of Resurgence in the auras deck makes opponents options awkward when trying to answer your auras. Bant Flash however is also keeping it in its sideboard with the fourth list. You will see further below that Bant Auras and Bant Flash are also using other Dragon’s Maze cards that had high expectations.
Reanimator
Ali Aintrazi
9th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Immortal Servitude
Elliot Smith
2nd Place at StarCityGames.com Classic on 5/12/2013
Unflinching Courage: This new Loxodon Warhammer style aura is quite powerful. When played at the right time you can take over a game even in limited. We find it here in Bant Auras as an easier to cast replacement to Gift of Orzhova. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see another version of Naya blitz using it in it’s side.
Bant Auras
Robert Rusch
4th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Advent of the Wurm: This Awesome 5/5 4-drop is one of my favorite new cards from Dragon’s Maze, except you’re summoning this badboy at instant speed. It allows you to abuse cards like Augur of Bolas and Snapcaster mage like in this Bant Flash list. Who said Sphinx’s revelation was dead yet? I also added a sweet G/W Token list with Advent of the Wurm and Voice of Resurgence.
Bant Flash
Zachery Byrd
7th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Renounce the Guilds: Interesting new removal tool we see in Bant control’s sideboard, the only permanent you might lose is your Wurm token. This is good against Planeswalkers like Ral Zarek or used like Devour Flesh against Geist of Saint-Traft .
G/W Tokens
Ben Suddueth
17th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Viashino Firstblade: It’s an aggressive 3-drop as a 4/4 when it comes out with haste. This can get hard to manage when you’re facing a deck like this Naya Blitz version.
Naya Blitz
Daniel Battle
5th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed: I imagine this guy must be a beast against decks like Bant Auras and Bant Flash, making it awkward to remove anything once he’s on the board especially if you’re behind at all. This next Naya list went on to win 1st place.
Naya
Justin Tracey
1st Place at StarCityGames.com Classic on 5/12/2013
We see another version of the Naya Blitz list here with 4 Frontline Medic in the main instead of Viashino Firstblade. He also opted for 3 Unflinching Courage in the side, the new Loxodon Warhammer-style aura from Dragon’s Maze.
Naya Blitz
Ben Ragan
8th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Sin Collector: This is a weaker Duress on a stick. We see him in some of the new Junk Reanimator lists. Also used in The Aristocrats deck where he makes a good sacrifice to Falkenrath Aristocrat since he’s human.
Reanimator
Wayne Polimine
12th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Profit // Loss: Can be used as a combat trick for all of your creatures or a sweeper against opponents opposing Falkenrath Aristocrat, their Invisible Stalker or if you prefer take out all there dorks like Arbor Elf and Avacyn’s Pilgrim. You can always fuse it for best results with that all out swing. We see The Aristocrats with one in the sideboard.
Wear // Tear: This versatile fuse card is an answer for artifacts like Staff of Nin or if you prefer to remove an enchantment like Unflinching Courage you can too. This is the second fuse card we’ve found in an Aristocrats deck like this one:
The Aristocrats
Dylan Farmer
13th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
Ral Zarek: The newest Planeswalker in the roster which has neat abilities. His first one can be used to tap an opponents blocker or a land to screw up his answers, then it gets interesting where you can untap a land to ramp up or a permanent to get his effect a second time, like Izzet Staticaster in this next Grixis Control list. Ral Zarek’s second ability is probably one of the most played cards in Magic a Lightning Bolt with two bolts before he croaks. His ultimate ability with an average of 2.5 Time Walk each time will get you so far ahead it will be hard for opponents to recoup, but not impossible.
Far // Away: Another great split card. In this current meta I believe you want to use Far against Bant Auras to bounce an enchanted creature and then Away against his Geist of Saint Traft. Here’s the Grixis Control deck using it in sideboard probably for exactly that.
Grixis Control
Andrew Schneider
83rd Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013
