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Main » Articles » Five Decks You'll Play This Weekend

Five Decks You'll Play This Weekend

Brandon Isleib
Posted on January 20, 2016
 Reddit

Welcome to Gathering Magic's weekly quintet of decks you should be aware of this weekend, whether you're playing a major online event, going to a Grand Prix, or hitting Friday Night Magic. This week, we have some decks that will need to adjust starting this weekend, one deck that definitely won't adjust, and a prerelease recap—in part through the eyes of Wizards of the Coast R&D.

Banned on the Run

A couple days earlier than intended, Wizards of the Coast announced that Summer Bloom and Splinter Twin will be banned in Modern and Cloud of Faeries will be banned in Pauper starting Friday. This has given the Twitterverse an excuse for a frenzy, saying their all-foil Twin decks are worthless now, they've lost confidence in Wizards as a company or Modern as a format, and similar expressions of grief. The responses to and at Aaron Forsythe provide a snapshot of emotional reaction to the announcement. Sam Black and Gabriel Nassif understand where the ban is coming from, which is more than could be said for some responding to them. None of the outrage seems to be directed at banning Summer Bloom; it's all at Splinter Twin.

Before breaking down why the outrage exists, let's look at what will be one of the last few Splinter Twin lists to place in a Daily:

Splinter Twin ? Modern | Elliphas

As a disclaimer, I've hated facing Splinter Twin and Deceiver Exarch ever since they were a thing in Standard (from which they made a seamless transition to Modern). So while I am emotionally overjoyed to see it go, others are less enthusiastic. Gleaned from the responses to tweets I linked above, here are some reasons they don't like it and what the banned announcement was saying between the lines (and maybe should have said in the lines) on each point:

Splinter Twin
“Splinter Twin isn't a large portion of the field” and “Modern is diverse.” Part of where Wizards disconnects with the Twitterverse is the metagame's relevant data set. The Magic Online data indicates a pretty diverse format right now—but Wizards didn't list it as part of their decision; they mentioned results in the last four Modern Pro Tours and the last six Modern Grand Prix, with an emphasis on the most recent Grand Prix having three copies of the deck.

So where social media and Wizards disagree is on whether online tournaments are relevant data for Modern decisions. When Birthing Pod was banned in Modern, Grand Prix were mentioned, but no other type of tournament was. When Treasure Cruise was banned in Pauper, the announcement specifically mentioned Magic Online results since that's where the format's main tournaments are; the specificity implies that Pauper is the exception. (When Magic Online was invoked in Modern, an 11% metagame share was enough when combined with paper results to ban Seething Song.)

There is no evidence that online results consistently factor into the ban-list decisions; it's used when it's the only data available. So players and Wizards are talking past each other as to what the metagame looks like; Wizards shows a strong preference to paper events, while players look at and weigh digital results.

Should those digital results be considered? There are good reasons not to consider them. First, they haven't been consistent precursors to Pro Tour or Grand Prix results, in part because pro players sometimes keep their decks offline to avoid information leaks and in part because Pro Tour and Grand Prix results are often responses to the online metagame.

Second, by their nature and what's at stake in them, Pro Tours and Grands Prix are the highest level of competition. Without some concept similar to league equivalency, it's hard to translate how much an online Pro Tour Qualifier or a Daily should mean for results. Those probably could be developed—number of players and prize pool would be decent indicators—but for now, it seems Wizards treats the Pro Tour as the major leagues and Grands Prix a little under that. (The Summer Bloom ban mentions a StarCityGames Open but also mentions that it had "over 1,000 competitors"; that makes the data relevant to them.) Is it inherently unreasonable to say that the metagame should be perceived largely as a paper one? I don't think so; it is not how I perceive it, but I understand the argument.

"You just killed the deck” and “Blue's now unplayable." This tweet, a response to Gabriel Nassif, is an approximation of the ban-list stages of grief. There was sadness at the deck "dying," followed by others noting that the shell was still intact, after which some brewing happened to move into other versions of the combo. Wizards discussed this idea explicitly: "We considered what one would do with the cards from a Splinter Twin deck with Splinter Twin banned," listing a few alternatives.

Summer Bloom
And that's part of the different lens through which Wizards views the deck—and rightly so. Splinter Twin receives an unfair share of the credit for the archetype's success, as it's the finishing touch on the bulk of all wins. But the reason that combo does anything is that the U/R control shell is as robust as it is. The decklist above can do everything at instant speed except cast Splinter Twin; that is why the deck wins. As I got into Magic at the end of 2002, back then, my best friend summarized tournament bans as "banning everything except Dark Ritual until they finally admitted Dark Ritual was the problem." It's an oversimplification, of course, but it points out that, for a while, various combos received credit, in the form of bannings, for the win Dark Ritual was providing all along. The win condition was less important than the engine.

Wizards doesn't believe the U/R control shell is troublesome; it believes the shell ought to have a more diverse set of win conditions. Whether that's a Restoration Angel/Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker route, incorporates Wandering Fumarole in the same way Jeskai Control has used Celestial Colonnade, or something else remains to be seen. But as long as Snapcaster Mage can flash back a Lightning Bolt, the deck will exist in some form.

The banning of Summer Bloom is more in line with the Dark Ritual reasoning than the Splinter Twin reasoning. From Friday's Daily:

Amulet Bloom ? Modern | mirakurufait

Apparently, "dies to Tunnel Ignus" wasn't a sufficient reason to stop playing this deck . . . The biggest thing I ever saw pundits say about why this deck wasn't more popular is that it was difficult to play. The trouble with that being the primary safeguard is its natural erosion; enough reps with it makes the Amulet Bloom player frightening. And at the Pro Tour level, that safeguard should not be presumed to hold anyway.

Losing Summer Bloom should, at minimum, slow the deck down to the levels compatible with Wizards's vision for Modern. Does that kill the archetype's viability? I don't think so; enough top players know how to make this deck work that it seems to me they can retool it. Whatever happens, Amulet Bloom has been more enjoyable to cover than Splinter Twin just because the sideboard options involved cards like Hornet Queen that few Modern decks have the chance to use. I assume Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch will tell us whether the deck still has legs and that it won't be worked on much past the Pro Tour if it doesn't garner good results.

Oh Yeah, and That Other Ban

Cloud of Faeries was banned in Pauper. Of the sixty-nine 5–0 Pauper League decks Wizards posted last week, sixteen of them had Cloud of Faeries enabling combo antics, helping ramp, or being a flying free spell. Having faced the combo version in paper Pauper, I'm surprised it wasn't banned earlier:

Esper Familiars ? Pauper | PeTeRuNsMaGiC2

There should be an Esper value deck here among the pieces. It's in three colors that tend to have nice enters-the-battlefield abilities, so if the archetype doesn't find a good replacement immediately, one will be printed soon enough.

A Standard Deck That's Fine As Is

This deck has no bans affecting it. Judging by its theme, it also won't take any Oath of the Gatewatch cards:

Five-Color Company ? Standard | xXLogosXx

With no sources of colorless mana, this deck can't incorporate Matter Reshaper even if it synergizes with the entire deck. It's just as well since it already has the best 3-drops in every color. The raw power of that means there are slightly fewer creatures in this deck than in many Collected Company decks; since a flashed-out Anafenza, the Foremost, Mantis Rider, or Savage Knuckleblade is the best possible return for only hitting one creature, it's acceptable if only one creature shows up. Then again, if two of those show up—if the company actually collects—combat will be disastrous for opponents.

This deck's only legal until Shadows over Innistrad, so if you want to jam all the good stuff together, now is your chance and this is your deck.

Prerelease Power

My prerelease was fortunate enough to have Wizards R&D member Rob Schuster (he of the Ramirez DePietro Commander deck from the 2015 Community Cup) spellslinging at it. I jotted down the contents of the Sealed deck he battled with and received his permission to discuss it in this article. Here it is:

Oath of the Gatewatch Prerelease Sealed Deck ? Oath of the Gatewatch Sealed | Rob Schuster

Drana's Chosen
The primary impression I received from Rob and observing the deck is that it was a little hard for the Ally synergies to come together enough for a consistently good deck. Drana's Chosen is excellent, and Ondu War Cleric and Zulaport Chainmage seemed to perform well for anyone who played them in the prerelease, but after that, the Allies weren't independently competent enough to work out. Then again, Rob has several bombs in Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim (2/3 deathtouch for 2 mana looks plenty good in this format), Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Goblin Dark-Dwellers (I saw it chained into Touch of the Void—it was gross), and Oblivion Sower. With friends like that, who needs Allies? Mana curves and Draft decks, I suppose—Allies were a little stretched in Sealed, but they should work much better in Draft.

Here are other notes from judging a prerelease and playing in another:

  • Creatures with 4 toughness seemed really difficult for anyone to deal with.

  • Flying was tough as well. Combine these two facts, and Vampire Envoy is highly playable.

  • Support is a good mechanic in the format because it adds toughness and because it's one of the only things that's difficult to see coming. There aren't as many rally triggers to be surprised by; the Allies are displaying most of their power on the board. Saddleback Lagac, Unity of Purpose, and Nissa's Judgment give an element of surprise the rest of the set seems to lack.

  • One guy won multiple games with Inverter of Truth. Because there isn't much removal for a 6/6 flyer, he was getting away with four or so cards in his graveyard before casting it and winning with it. I don't know how risky that is, but it's there to do all the same.

Conclusion

There was a lot to take in this week; release weekend will probably be more sedate. It will be nice to get a hold of more cards—there are never enough Wastes for my Wastes basket—and I'm excited to see decks that aren't seven-color monstrosities. What are you looking forward to?

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TAGS articles, standard, sealed, metagame, constructed, magic online, analysis, modern, decklist, pauper, brandon isleib, 5 decks, five decks, five decks you'll play this weekend, oath of the gatewatch, ogw

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