What does all this mean?
Using these tables, my prediction is that the Control decks of the format would run few counters, relying predominantly on removal as a means of managing threats. The removal will have to be cheap and plentiful in these decks as sweepers are in short supply. The threats for these decks will have to be resilient versus other Control decks that are also packing large quantities of removal, especially with the low yield of counter-magic. Creature s like Sphinx of Jwar Isle or Broodmate Dragon are a premium here and non creature threats may even be better. This would include nearly all of the planeswalkers as well as Obelisk of Alara. Hard to answer finishing spells like Resounding Thunder and Banefire are likely to also be good options for Control or midrange Aggro decks.
Because of the lack of sweepers Aggro decks are going to want to hit hard and fast. Control decks will be hard pressed to keep up and will be back peddling very quickly if they hit a land glut, asthey may not have the draw or time to refill their hand with more 1 for 1 answers. GW, RG, or RGW decks are going to be king of the hill here, which isn’t all that unexpected since they are generally the Aggro colors in any format. These decks are going to want to load up on lots of 2 and 3 drops to hit the control decks before they can get their powerful late game threats active. Goblin Ruinblaster, Acidic Slime, and Ajani Vengeant can all help keep the Control players off their crucial 5th or 6th mana, (especially since, as you may have already gleaned, Control decks are almost sure to 4-to-5 Color builds). Naya decks were doing well early in the format. I expect that trend to continue, as there is never a wrong threat, only wrong answers.
If the regular Standard format is any indication, midrange decks in the form of Jund will eventually take shape. I do remember this color combination having scant showing in the early PEs, but I don’t believe that is due to lack of card quality. Jund has some of the most powerful cards in the format along with many of the formats best card advantage engines in the format of 2 for 1 creatures. The right mix of spells just needs to be found and this should be a powerhouse deck. For those of you wondering, I was heavily experimenting with Jund decks in the first PE I played, but just didn’t manage to find that crucial balance and curve.
Alara Block makes it relatively easy to predict many deck archetypes, as it is almost a necessity to build using the Shards since that is how the color fixings and gold cards are all organized. It is very easy to splash a 4th color, but I would imagine most decks will be predominantly 3 colors and only dip into a 4th or even 5th color to a minimum.
How did I do?
The December 19, 2009 PE is the most current T8 available as I write this, so it is the one I will use.
The break down is this:
1 — Jund Midrange
2 — Grixis Control
3 — Jund Midrange
4 — 5-Color Control
5 — Jund Midrange
6 — Grixis Control splash white
7 — UWR Control (Numot Control?)
8 — Naya Aggro
Not quite what I expected, but not too far off either. I really anticipated more Naya decks and the lone representative is way down at number 8. Jund really looks to have come into its own with decks not too far off from my initial lists. I do see some definite improvements though. I did expect to see some more pure Esper colored decks, but it looks like Grixis is the better way to go. This is not too surprising since it has some of the best top end cards in Cruel Ultimatum and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. Let’s briefly look at what makes some of these decks tick.
1st Place — Jund Midrange— played by Filipini
Jund Midrange
Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt format(To load a .txt deck into Magic: Online’s Deck Editor, click “Load”, select “Local Text Deck”, find the location of the downloaded deck file and double-click the deck.)
This is exactly how I would have expected Jund to attack the format. The deck is loaded up with 2 for 1 creatures and difficult to answer creatures like Cudgel Troll and Great Sable Stag. The card advantage from its threats is then backed up by more card advantage in the form of planeswalkers. This is a deck that should easily be able to just run its opponent out of cards through favorable trades with its superb 187 guys.
2nd Place — Grixis Control — played by Sti
Grixis Control
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Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt formatAs I expected, our highest placing Control deck packs very few creatures. Hoping to ride few quality guys and planeswalkers to victory, it lets its superior removal handle the threats. One of the prime reasons that it is likely Grixis has proven to be a good strategy in this T8 over other Control options like Esper is that Red gives access to a greater amount of removal than White. Burn supplements as planeswalker removal should any slip past the discard and counter-magic.
Nice article! You really hit all the bold strokes, plat! Bravisimo!
Neat article- I liked your card inventory. Recently I’ve been trying to play a bit of standard singleton myself, and I’ve noticed that the games feel pretty swingy (i.e. one turn you feel like you’re winning the next you’re trying to find the next trump card). It’s also a bit like block constructed- limited card pool, with Jund dominating because of decent discard and cascade. I was wondering if there were any initial thoughts about a deck to combat Jund? I’ve been working on U/W control with alot of sweepers, Wall of Denial and other untargetable or fat creatures like Baneslayer Angel, and those situational counters you mentioned. My thoughts are that though they’re situational, your counters are a bit better because you’re countering their one copy of that card in their deck. A fog like mill deck also comes to mind, but I haven’t really worked that out. Help me out on breaking Jund Menace! http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/809761
Thanks for the feedback.
My intent was originally to show people a way of approaching a new format, but like you when I looked up the recent T8s and saw the Jund dominance I was left wondering what to do to combat such a metagame. One of the strengths of Jund is there premium access to removal, so fat creatures aren’t necessarily a problem. While a great card, I wouldn’t consider Baneslayer an issue for Jund to deal with as they will have at least 4-6 answers for Baneslayer. The problem that I see is that one needs a way to win a war of exhaustion vs Jund. The idea that immediately sprung to my mind was an Esper deck based on recursive threats like Sharuum, the Hedgemon. Baneslayer would likely make an appearance in such a deck, but not as a specific answer to Jund. If one can consistently recur must deal with threats eventually the Jund player will run out of removal. The issue is getting to 6-8 mana to start abusing some of the recursive artifact synergies without losing first.
I haven’t tried such a build myself yet, but like I said it was the first thing that sprung to my mind.
I am taking a gander at Std Sing for my next battery of articles/videos, and I am not going to play Jund! Soooo, any brainstorm would be helpful. Maybe a UWb Esper would be the way to go (Steel Wind should auto win versus Jund)? I like the 5c decks, but I really don’t want to lose games to my own mana.
Sadly, even the four/five drop LD spells seem to give some decks trouble- I was playing Jund in the daily event I joined and lost due to mana screw. Ruinblaster and Acidic Slime being pretty good. As far as Esper, Thopter Foundry found a home at Hawaii so maybe that’ll be good for this format as well?
Dear WoTC,
Pls quit creating one overly dominant deck per STD season. Kinda sucks, yo.
Regards,
Trav-bo
Oh, and before I forget, I started up a thread in our forums. Take a gander and share some. I’m sad, I’m lonely, I eat stories to stay slightly rotund.
Without Sword of the Meek I’m not sure how good Thopter Foundry would be. Unless there is another way to abuse the effect in standard that I am not aware of.
Yeah LD is pretty good in this format, especially against decks that run double colored mana costs across 3+ colors. I tend to try and keep all of my double colors to a single color in a deck and run the other colors as splashes. I made that mistake in the first PE I entered. I ran a Jund deck with double green, red, and black and lost due to mana issues.
LD, still my fav. Pls reprint Plow Under someone!
Thanks for the format introduction and getting my interest piqued. Although I wish I could say that I read this and went off to build some super-techy deck for the premiere event today, I cannot. Straight up copied the decklist here with few changes to sideboard/maindeck configuration and rode the card advantage / removal suite (and some timely luck)to a second place finish.
Thanks again,
Brian (StasisFreak)
Nice job StasisFreak! Just goes to show you not to innovate- Dust_ and I made homebrews and only made Top 4 and Top8, respectively.
The Blue-Red-White deck you played in the finals seemed pretty good; I don’t think I could have beaten it either!
Hey man great job, StasisFreak. I likely would have played Jund too if i entered a recent event, so I don’t blame you for not coming up with some super0techy deck.
I think Mono Red might be better than Jund!