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Main » Articles » Marvel-less Day

Marvel-less Day

Ali Aintrazi
Posted on June 23, 2017
 Reddit

Welcome boys and girls! Today is a marvel-less day. I didn’t think Wizards was going to go through with it, so major kudos to Wizards of the Coast for banning Aetherworks Marvel. As soon as the ban was announced, I took in a breath of fresh air. Sure, we still have Gideon, Ally of Zendikar; but, I really have hope that we can overcome Gideon. On top of that, Gideon will also rotate soon! So, with the banning, I’m very excited to try out some new and old strategies that you couldn’t really play because it felt wrong to play alongside Aetherworks Marvel. I’m mostly talking about ramp strategies. Why ramp into Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger when you could just Aetherworks Marvel into Ulamog? Other decks that were hard to play were control decks because they would inevitably just cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger since the games tended to go long. So, today we are going to talk about some decks that aren’t obviously good now that Marvel is gone. What I mean by that is it’s obvious that Mardu Vechiles, Zombies, and Temur Energy and any aggressive/midrange deck with Gideon are good decks. So, I plan to spotlight the decks I believe are good that aren’t those decks.

First up, let’s talk about my favorite deck!

U/G Ramp ? Amonkhet Standard | Ali Aintrazi

Commit // Memory
This is where I’m currently at. The only thing I’m unsure of is if I should just cut the Coax from the Blind Eternities for the second Ulamog. Right now, I like being able to Coax early for something like an Oblivion Sower if I need some lands or a World Breaker if I need to destroy an artifact or enchantment. If I need Ulamog, I can just get Ulamog too. The only problem that comes into play is when you top deck Coax from the Blind Eternities and you want Ulamog. You’ll need to spend three mana to wish for it and then ten mana to cast it. I’ve run into that problem but not enough to make the switch.

The newest addition to the deck is Torrential Gearhulk. The Blue Gearhulk mostly has two spells you want to hit, Commit // Memory and Glimmer of Genius. You can also hit a Fog effect in a pinch with Haze of Pollen or Commencement of Festivities, but you’d rather hit Glimmer to keep your engine going or target Commit and choose Memory so that you and your opponent get a new seven card hand, but you get to untap with your new hand first.

I still played this deck when Aetherworks Marvel was legal and it was the only deck I really struggled with. Everything else felt even or favored for the most part, the hardest “even” matches being Zombies and, to a lesser extent, Mardu. Zombies only because they can get under you and grow their team very, very quickly to the point where casting a Nissa's Renewal may be too slow. Those are the games I lost; but, if I got to Renewal then I tended to be in very good shape. This is the deck I plan to be playing until Hour of Devastation comes out, then I might have to abandon it for Nicol Bolas!

Next up is a deck a friend of mine sent me. If you like traditional ramp more than ug ramp, then this is a wonderful place to start.

R/G Ramp ? Amonkhet Standard | William Courson

This is another deck that was silly to play when you could just be playing Aetherworks Marvel. Unlike ug ramp, this one is faster since it is more streamlined. It has the more explosive draw of mana creature into Hedron Archive / Chandra then into a Nissa's Renewal or Ulvenwald Hydra. It’s also playing the full playset of Ulamogs whereas the ug deck is not. The drawback to this is rg Ramp is a slave to their deck. By that I mean they can’t really manipulate their draws in any way outside of Oath of Nissa. So, if the deck has five lands on top then you’re most likely drawing those five lands on top. rg Ramp tends to also interact a lot less which makes it easier to pilot since you’re trying to do the same exact thing time and time again. The power of the deck is undeniable though. While it may not be able to filter cards, an unchecked Chandra, Torch of Defiance or Chandra, Flamecaller can, and will draw the ramp player a ton of cards in a very brief time frame. This deck is a ticking time bomb, and the longer the game goes, the more and more favored this deck becomes.

A few cards I’d consider for this deck are:

  • Sweltering Suns: Good against aggressive creatures and cycles when you don’t need it.

  • Mirrorpool: Tutoring up Mirrorpool with Ulvenwald Hydra allows you to clone your Hydra next turn for another huge body and another land.

  • From Beyond: This card was great for me against control decks since it acted as another win condition. If control isn’t big, however, then you don’t need this one.

  • Glorybringer: A solid threat and an effective way to deal with Gideon which can sometimes be a problem for the deck.

  • Haze of Pollen: Just a solid card against aggressive decks that can give you that last turn you need or it can protect your Planeswalkers.

I think ramp is a solid choice for the current metagame, especially if you can solve your aggressive matchup.

All right, enough ramp already. Let’s look at the combo deck in Standard now that Aetherworks Marvel is gone.

New Perspectives Combo ? Amonkhet Standard | Ali Aintrazi

Approach of the Second Sun
This deck is all about getting New Perspectives into play and then cycling all of its cards to either hit a Shadow of the Grave to get them all back and do it again or find Approach of the Second Sun, cast it, and then dig into it again with all your cycling cards. The best way this deck goes off is when you can enchant your lands with Weirding Wood. After that you play New Perspectives, then can untap that Weirding Wood land for free with Vizier of Tumbling Sands to net extra mana and draw some cards. You will also net free mana when cycle Shefet Monitor. Traverse the Ulvenwald is in this deck so you can hit your land drops early in the game and later you can tutor up your best cycling cards in Vizier of Tumbling Sands and Shefet Monitor. After sideboarding, you can even get Sphinx of the Final Word against control decks.

This deck isn’t the easiest one to pilot, but after a handful of matches you’ll get the hang of it. It’s a very consistent deck in that it does basically the same thing every match and combos off consistently after playing New Perspectives, especially if you get to untap with New Perspectives in play. If you like combo decks, drawing cards, or not interacting with your opponents, then this deck is for you!

Next up is a control deck that wasn’t very viable when Aetherworks Marvel was around since they couldn’t counter the Marvel, and an Ulamog meant lights out.

Mardu Control ? Amonkhet Standard | SABEREX

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Saberex recently went 5-0 in a competitive Magic Online League with their Mardu control list. This deck tends to prey on Mardu vehicles and other aggressive / midrange strategies. Even against control the deck has some game in its Planeswalkers. A resolved Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is a nightmare to deal with for control. Not to mention resolving anymore of your Planeswalkers against them. I really like this deck idea against creatures. You can go a lot of diverse ways with it too, like playing Thalia's Lancers and a Legendary package. Gisela, the Broken Blade, Bruna the Fading Light, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and Linvala, the Preserver are all very strong cards. The only thing I don’t particularly like about this list is the lack of Radiant Flames or Sweltering Suns. Also, the playset of Aether Hubs when you have no other way to gain energy seems a bit ambitious to me. That means an opening hand of double Aether Hub or basic land and Aether Hub is very risky to keep. I do really like the Scrapheap Scrounger sideboard plan against control decks along with Cut // Ribbons, though. Overall, it’s a solid start and one that can easily be built on if you so desire. I tend to favor control decks with a lot of removal, so this strategy is very appealing to me, especially since Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is a card.

Welp, that’s all I have for you today. Go out and enjoy this marvel-less day, week, month, and year! Next week I’ll be tackling some of the cards I’m hyped about from Hour of Devastation. I’ll talk about cards and possible homes they might fit in so make sure to tune in.

As always, thanks for reading.

Much love,

Ali Aintrazi

@AliEldrazi on Twitter

Hour of Devastation is now available for preorder at CoolStuffInc.com!

TAGS articles, strategy, metagame, constructed, standard, ali aintrazi, decklist, amonkhet standard

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