Welcome to Gathering Magic's weekly quintet of Magic Online 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. In an era of big data, Magic Online provides some of the biggest data, so even a quick-and-dirty snapshot of recent Dailies gets you ahead of the competition. This week, I'm looking at Fate Reforged in two ways - recent Standard results and the recent Sealed PTQ and its Top 8 draft.

Now that Fate Reforged has had plenty of events to get cards circulating on Magic Online, some cards are reliably popping up, like Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Soulfire Grand Master. They're going into decks that tend to look different as a full 75, but both creatures are the glue for multiple strategies. A lot of Standard's diversity right now isn't diversity from some angles; I see it as hub-and-spoke model, where there are hub cards (like the two just mentioned, Siege Rhino, and Whip of Erebos) and the direction you go out from them varies while the core of good value remains. Maybe that's still better than Standards past - omnipresent cards is at face value an improvement over omnipresent decks - but hopefully there's even more improvement some day.

Here's what 4-0'd on Sunday and Monday (Bold = won the Daily):

Four Times:

R/W Aggro

Two Times:

Soulfire Grand Jeskai

Abzan Aggro

Once:

Sidisi Whip

Sidisi Whisp (Yes, this is a different deck - runs Whisperwood Elemental but not Whip of Erebos)

Satyr Super Friends

Temur Midrange

Abzan Control

Mardu Aggro

Naya Aggro

Monored Aggro

The surface tale is that two-color consistency gets the job done faster than the comparative durdling of a third color. But what's the story underneath?

White-Red Aggro ? Standard | quietfish

• Creatures (14)
• 2 Ashcloud Phoenix
• 4 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 4 Seeker of the Way
• 2 Soulfire Grand Master
• 2 Stormbreath Dragon

• Spells (22)
• 2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• 4 Hordeling Outburst
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Stoke the Flames
• 1 Valorous Stance
• 4 Chained to the Rocks
• 3 Outpost Siege

• Lands (24)
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 11 Mountain
• 4 Plains
• 4 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Wind-Scarred Crag

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Valorous Stance
• 3 Abzan Advantage
• 3 Arc Lightning
• 3 Hushwing Gryff
• 3 Wild Slash

Buy This Deck

Fate Reforged brings several new cards to the established archetype. Valorous Stance gives flexibility and resilience as needed, while Outpost Siege is a source of cards or a way to lock up the game with the existing board state. Abzan Advantage and Wild Slash out of the sideboard fill important roles; the Advantage seems well-suited to dealing with Courser of Kruphix and Whip of Erebos, buffing a creature in the process. It has some of the upside of Destructive Revelry without having to commit to two colors; I wouldn't be surprised to see it pop up in sideboards for the remainder of Theros block.

But the real eye-catcher is Soulfire Grand Master, who needs almost no help to take over a game. At FNM, I lost in the final to a Stoke the Flames with faux-buyback, and I felt like I was fighting uphill. The Grand Master is proving early that you don't need to build a deck around it for it to be great - just play the cheap stuff you were going to play already.

But maybe you want to build more around the cheap stuff. In that case, this deck's for you:

Soulfire Grand Jeskai ? Standard | PigNorton

• Creatures (16)
• 3 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 4 Mantis Rider
• 3 Monastery Mentor
• 4 Seeker of the Way
• 2 Soulfire Grand Master

• Spells (21)
• 2 Treasure Cruise
• 4 Gods Willing
• 2 Jeskai Charm
• 2 Lightning Strike
• 4 Stoke the Flames
• 3 Valorous Stance
• 4 Wild Slash

• Lands (23)
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 1 Island
• 2 Mana Confluence
• 4 Mountain
• 4 Mystic Monastery
• 2 Plains
• 2 Shivan Reef

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Valorous Stance
• 3 Arc Lightning
• 4 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Erase
• 3 Glare of Heresy
• 2 Negate

Buy This Deck

While this deck still only has two Soulfire Grand Masters, it gets more value from Seeker of the Way and adds Monastery Mentor to the prowess mix. Because of the prowess focus, Wild Slash and Gods Willing each get a playset; both cards seem top-notch when they bring a Monk token with them. On the more traditional Jeskai side, a lot of talk before the set release seemed to like certain cards and strategies as long as no one was playing Mantis Rider. It seems high time to play Mantis Rider (and Ashcloud Phoenix is on the pun-intended rise maindeck for similar reasons), as the black-green-aligned decks have loads of ground stuff that's tough to slog through. Why try to kill it all when you could just fly over it?

This deck feels focused yet diverse; it knows what it wants to do, but with so many instants the opponent might not know what that something is at a given time. I like where these cards are positioned, and it looks like the best-developed list of the archetype to me.

It's nicely complementary that a red-white and green-blue-black deck each won a Daily this week. Both gained new hybrid activation-tinged blood from Fate Reforged:

Sidisi Whip ? Standard | fibero23

• Creatures (25)
• 4 Courser of Kruphix
• 3 Hornet Queen
• 4 Satyr Wayfinder
• 4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
• 1 Soul of Innistrad
• 4 Sylvan Caryatid
• 3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• 2 Torrent Elemental

• Spells (12)
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 2 Hero's Downfall
• 4 Murderous Cut
• 3 Whip of Erebos

• Lands (23)
• 3 Forest
• 1 Island
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 4 Opulent Palace
• 3 Polluted Delta
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Temple of Malady
• 2 Yavimaya Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
• 3 Crux of Fate
• 3 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Drown in Sorrow
• 1 Pharika, God of Affliction
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Sultai Charm

Buy This Deck

This appears to be where the deck is headed - Willy Edel went 3-1 with a nearly-identical list in the other Daily - so if Soulfire Grand Master isn't your thing, try Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Torrent Elemental out. Both seem unfair in Satyr Wayfinder/Whip of Erebos shells, the former for coming out way too soon and the latter for coming out way too often. In particular, bringing back Torrent Elemental with Whip of Erebos, exiling it, then doing it all over again seems impossible to beat over a long game, which Whip maindecks often find themselves in. Crux of Fate and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in the sideboard are an express admission of the grindfest - if for some reason the games ought to go longer, then the tools are there.

While one Crux of Fate deck is using it to slow down relative to its archetype, today's Spicy Metaball starts with Crux of Fate and is trying to speed up.

Although I was tempted to talk about Sidisi Whisp, telling you the pun was enough satisfaction. Instead, I turn to the last deck you'd expect to find Satyr Wayfinder in - U/B control:

Satyr Super Friends ? Standard | Yuffie

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Satyr Wayfinder

• Spells (31)
• 3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
• 2 Garruk, Apex Predator
• 2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
• 2 Crux of Fate
• 1 Interpret the Signs
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 3 Bile Blight
• 4 Dig Through Time
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 3 Hero's Downfall
• 2 Murderous Cut
• 3 Sultai Charm

• Lands (25)
• 2 Island
• 2 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Opulent Palace
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Temple of Deceit
• 4 Temple of Malady
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 2 Yavimaya Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Drown in Sorrow
• 2 Feed the Clan
• 1 Necropolis Fiend
• 2 Negate
• 1 Pearl Lake Ancient
• 1 Pharika's Cure
• 2 Rakshasa Deathdealer
• 1 Silence the Believers
• 1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
• 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Buy This Deck

The control part is recognizable - Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Thoughtseize, [card]Disdainful Stroke, Bile Blight, Hero's Downfall, Murderous Cut, Dig Through Time, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and a single Interpret the Signs. But what's green doing, especially Satyr Wayfinder as the only creature? In the maindeck, the Wayfinder isn't the major synergy piece we're used to; its primary and possibly only use is to fuel the two delve spells. Knowing that Dig Through Time and Murderous Cut are going to be deeply discounted (Sultai Charm's third mode fits this archetype's card-filtering and this deck's delve plan) helps your win conditions show up and get cast on time, something regular U/B control has trouble with.

Here, there are more win conditions as well; Garruk, Apex Predator and Kiora, the Crashing Wave are dangerous in very different ways. Kiora in particular seems usable for all modes here, as different matchups want each of those. Winning the control mirror seems easy with Kiora's ultimate, and it's not the +1 is making it easy to hit her or anything.

With Feed the Clan and Pharika's Cure in the sideboard, Yuffie seems particularly worried about dying to aggro swarms - a normal concern for control, but possibly more so here because the maindeck's removal is best on single creatures and the only counterspell is blind to three-mana-or-less spells. I assume blocking with Satyr Wayfinder happens here too. But while this deck's early game might be less than desirable, it can move quicker to the end than most current control lists, and that intrigues me.

While you were watching the Pro Tour on Sunday, Lunar4Lyfe made it to the next Pro Tour with a Brutal Butcher of a deck:

Mardu ? Fate Reforged Draft | Lunar4Lyfe

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Ainok Tracker
• 1 Brutal Hordechief
• 1 Butcher of the Horde
• 1 Gore Swine
• 1 Humble Defector
• 1 Mardu Heart-Piercer
• 2 Ponyback Brigade
• 1 Ruthless Ripper
• 1 Sultai Scavenger
• 1 Valley Dasher
• 1 Vaultbreaker

• Spells (11)
• 2 Arrow Storm
• 1 Bathe in Dragonfire
• 1 Hordeling Outburst
• 1 Collateral Damage
• 2 Harsh Sustenance
• 1 Murderous Cut
• 1 Trumpet Blast
• 1 Wild Slash
• 1 Mardu Ascendancy

• Lands (17)
• 7 Mountain
• 5 Plains
• 5 Swamp

Buy This Deck

I feel safe assuming Brutal Hordechief was the first pick of Lunar's draft. As many Standard implications as it's been assumed to have, beating it in Limited seems tough if you don't have the removal spell the instant it comes out - especially when the deck can make loads of creatures with Hordeling Outburst, Ponyback Brigades, and Mardu Ascendancy. And if Brutal Hordechief doesn't show, Butcher of the Horde (did you know Brutal Chief is an anagram of Fail Butcher?) has enough oomph to win plenty of games.

Besides the normal Mardu tactics surrounding bomb rares, my favorite thing about this list is the two-of Harsh Sustenance. It only takes three creatures to turn Harsh Sustenance into Lightning Helix, and several Limited board states have at least three creatures. (I've tried Harsh Sustenance in the sideboard of Modern W/B Tokens; I've been impressed so far.) With tokens, removal, and the best Mardu rares, it's little surprise this 3-0'd. Congratulations to Lunar for making the Pro Tour and drafting one of the scariest decks I've seen in some time.

On a Magic Online-related note, congratulations to former StarCityGames writer David McDarby for becoming Wizards of the Coast's third-ever Digital Event Coordinator (he announced it). If you play in a MOCS or PTQ online and you run into any problem - the type you'd normally file for reimbursement about in another event - go into the chat room made for the event and talk to whichever DEC is covering that part of the event. I assume these instructions on talking to a DEC are still current - it's a June 2014 article but was updated in October.

In any event, good luck to David as he presumably now sits at my old cubicle. It's a corner desk and one of the sweetest in the department, so it should work out nicely.