Welcome back everyone, today we are going to be doing something a little different. Instead of the usual brews and off the wall decks, today we are going to talk about the best decks in Standard and I’m going to try and provide you with what I believe to be the best lists for those respective decks. The decks in question are Mardu and Four-Color Saheeli. Sure, you can win tournaments with other decks but I believe these two decks to be best decks in Standard. After talking and giving you a list of each of these decks, I’m also going to talk about a new Bant Eldrazi deck that focuses more on blinking creatures with Eldrazi Displacers, it’s sweet, even if it is Bant Eldrazi. Get ready to smash all your Standard events and make people cry. Let’s put on our game faces and become the best of “netdeckers” together!

First up, let’s talk about the King of Standard, Mardu.

Mardu Midrange ? Aether Revolt Standard | Owen Turtenwald

• Creatures (20)
• 2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 3 Archangel Avacyn
• 3 Walking Ballista
• 4 Scrapheap Scrounger
• 4 Thraben Inspector
• 4 Toolcraft Exemplar

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

• Instants (7)
• 3 Fatal Push
• 4 Unlicensed Disintegration

• Aritfacts (4)
• 4 Heart of Kiran

• Lands (25)
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Swamp
• 4 Plains
• 2 Shambling Vent
• 2 Smoldering Marsh
• 3 Aether Hub
• 4 Concealed Courtyard
• 4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Spire of Industry

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Fatal Push
• 2 Shock
• 1 Oath of Liliana
• 2 Nahiri the Harbinger
• 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 1 Linvala, the Preserver
• 2 Release the Gremlins
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 2 Painful Truths
• 2 Stasis Snare

Buy This Deck

Mardu isn’t overly complicated, the goal is simple, reduce your opponent’s life total to zero. You aren’t trying to buy time for a big bomb or hold up countermagic for spells. You attack your opponent from many different angles. The most obvious one is creatures, but you also have Heart of Kiran, creature lands, and the unbeatable Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Curving from 1-drop into Heart of Kiran, anything else, then into Gideon is almost unbeatable. Gideon’s counters being able to crew Heart of Kiran is just gravy. You can put on so much pressure as early as turn three you’ll threaten to end the game on turn four.

The deck is very resilient, even against control decks. You’d think a board wipe that gained them life would hinder you a lot. I mean why wouldn’t a Wrath of God hurt you? Because you Heart of Kiran and Gideon. If your opponent ever taps out, then you can slam your Gideon down and they’ll have an extremely hard time trying to overcome it.

Mardu even has reach and longevity. Scrapheap Scrounger just keeps on keeping on, even at instant speed. No graveyard hate in the format makes this card really pack a punch. Even if you’re depleted you can still top deck a Walking Ballista or Unlicensed Disintegration to get those last few points of damage in.

The deck really does do it all. What’s great is this list even has a transformational Sideboard so it can become a control deck. If you didn’t notice, Archangel Avacyn, Gideon, Unlicensed Disintegration, Fatal Push, Shambling Vents, and Walking Ballista are all great control cards. They are even better when you supplement them with more Fatal Push, Shock, Oath of Liliana, Ob Nixilis Reignited, Linvala, the Preserver, Release the Gremlins, Painful Truths, Anguished Unmaking, and Stasis Snares. You can really become a true control in the matchups you want to. Like against Midrange, for example. Usually you can be the underdog here but if you transform you can give them a bunch of dead cards games two and three while you are dropping Planeswalkers and keeping the board clean of creatures with all your removal.

This Mardu deck is great and what I would recommend if you want to be playing the best of the best.

Next up is Four-Color Saheeli. A midrange/combo deck that does so many things. The list I am going with is Oliver Hart’s winning RPTQ deck list. This is the Four-Color Saheeli deck I would play if I was playing the deck tomorrow.

Four-Color Saheeli ? Aether Revolt Standard | Oliver Hart

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 3 Whirler Virtuoso
• 4 Felidar Guardian
• 4 Rogue Refiner
• 4 Servant of the Conduit

• Planeswalkers (8)
• 1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
• 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 4 Saheeli Rai

• Instants (4)
• 4 Harnessed Lightning

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Attune with Aether

• Enchantments (7)
• 3 Oath of Chandra
• 4 Oath of Nissa

• Lands (21)
• 1 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Plains
• 5 Forest
• 1 Inspiring Vantage
• 2 Game Trail
• 2 Spirebluff Canal
• 4 Aether Hub
• 4 Botanical Sanctum

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Authority of the Consuls
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Metallic Rebuke
• 2 Natural State
• 2 Negate
• 3 Release the Gremlins
• 2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• 2 Walking Ballista

Buy This Deck

Four-Color Saheeli is extremely hard to counter since it is doing so many things. If you try to kill their creatures with a board wipe, then they can just untap and combo kill you or keep grinding you out with Planeswalkers. Not to mention that the creatures you are killing have already gained them some value. If you focus on trying to stop them from comboing you then they can easily grind you out with their creatures and Planeswalkers. What’s crazy is this deck can come back from out of nowhere. I’ve seen players have no cards in hand and then cast Oath of Nissa to find Felidar Guardian. Felidar Guardian then flickers Oath of Nissa which finds Saheeli Rai and then they combo off and win a game they had no business winning. HOW MESSED UP IS THAT?!

I tell you that you want to just try and kill Four-Color Saheeli while they are durdling with things like Rogue Refiner and Felidar Guardian. However, it’s pretty hard to do that against a deck that has Harnessed Lightning, Oath of Chandra, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Tamiyo, Field Researcher, and a plethora of creatures to block with.

Felidar Guardian isn’t only great at comboing with Saheeli Rai, it’s also great to re-buy and permanent that draws you a card or kills a creature like, Oath of Chandra. Guardian can also allow you to tap up to four creatures if you have a Tamiyo in play by minusing Tamiyo and then blinking her to just do it again. Did you know if you plus Tamiyo on two of your creatures, say Thopter tokens and then blink her with Felidar Guardian and plus again on those Thopters that you’ll draw four cards when they deal damage? Four cards. That’s basically like comboing off with Felidar Guardian and Saheeli Rai. ALL DA COMBOS!

The Sideboard of Oliver Hart’s list features cards to mostly beat the mirror match or Mardu. The deck is already pretty favored against so it’s not packing much extra for that much. If you want to play Four-Color Saheeli, start here. I wouldn’t try to get fancy with things like Elder Deep-Fiend.

The last list I want to look at before we go is a sweet take on Bant Eldrazi.

Blink Eldrazi ? Modern | NUBLKAU

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Kitchen Finks
• 1 Restoration Angel
• 1 Thragtusk
• 3 Eldrazi Displacer
• 4 Matter Reshaper
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Reality Smasher
• 4 Thought-Knot Seer

• Instants (5)
• 1 Dismember
• 4 Path to Exile

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 Eldritch Evolution
• 4 Ancient Stirrings

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Engineered Explosives

• Lands (22)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Wastes
• 2 Forest
• 1 Temple Garden
• 3 Brushland
• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 3 Ghost Quarter
• 4 Eldrazi Temple
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Blessed Alliance
• 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1 Gaddock Teeg
• 1 Kataki, War's Wage
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 4 Relic of Progenitus
• 1 Spellskite
• 2 Stony Silence
• 1 Thrun, the Last Troll

Buy This Deck

This list is traditional Bant Eldrazi except with a twist. Instead of being all in on the Eldrazi and just playing Eldrazis, it also has a blink package that can be abused with Eldrazi Displacer and Eldritch Evolution. Typically, in Bant Eldrazi you’d be blinking Thought-Knot Seer or Drowner of Hope for battlefield control. Well Nublkau let go of all the Drowner of Hopes in favor of Thragtusk, Restoration Angel, Kitchen Finks, Acidic Slime, and Eternal Witness. Outside of Restoration Angel, those are all fantastic targets to gain value out of. When I played Eldritch Evolution, I didn’t really like it, then again, I was evolving from Wall of Roots, Voice of Resurgence, and sometimes Kitchen Finks. Whereas here you have four Matter Reshaper, Kitchen Finks, and Eternal Witness that you can Eldritch Evolution to generate value from. What’s great is in the late game when you have plenty of mana you can just Eldritch Evolution your Noble Hierarch into an Eldrazi Displacer and start gaining some value from your other creatures.

Since the deck is playing Eldritch Evolution it also has a Sideboard bullets just for that card.

If you’ve got Bant Eldrazi, pick up these cards and give it a whirl, I think it will add many more dimensions to the deck.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this break from Standard brews to appreciate the Tier one decks in the format. If your goal is to play the best, then play the best of the best!

Until next time. Thanks for reading,

Ali Aintrazi

@AliEldrazi on Twitter