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'll catch up with Standard, taking a peek at a Modern deck that made some subtle changes to fight the Eldrazi.

The Joy of Drazi-ing

Here's what went 3–1 or better at least twice in Dailies this week (Bold = won a Daily):

Mardu Green: 8

Bant Company: 6

Blue Eldrazi: 5

Dark Jeskai: 5

Abzan Aggro: 4

Green-White Hardened Scales: 3

Blue-Red Prowess: 2

Atarka Red: 2

Green Eldrazi Ramp: 2

White-Black Midrange: 2

Esper Dragons and Grixis Control each won a Daily in their only 3-1 or better appearances.

A few weeks ago, Rally the Ancestors went days without a good Daily finish before winning the Magic Online Championship Series (MOCS) event. This past week, it happened again—days of nothing followed by half the slots in the online Pro Tour Qualifier, including winning it all. What comes out to play when Rally stays home? Hardened Scales, for one:

G/W Hardened Scales ? Standard | AntoineMaugard

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Abzan Falconer
• 4 Avatar of the Resolute
• 4 Endless One
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 4 Managorger Hydra
• 4 Servant of the Scale

• Spells (13)
• 4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
• 4 Dromoka's Command
• 4 Hardened Scales
• 1 Silkwrap

• Lands (23)
• 2 Canopy Vista
• 2 Flooded Strand
• 10 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Silkwrap
• 2 Abzan Battle Priest
• 2 Evolutionary Leap
• 2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 3 Hallowed Moonlight
• 1 Surge of Righteousness
• 2 Valorous Stance

Buy This Deck

I know several people who like playing the archetype at Game Days and the like, but Nissa, Voice of Zendikar has given it muscle, making Managorger Hydra and Hangarback Walker even scarier than they already are. Abzan Falconer is a cheaper Levitation with a punch to it; the chance for surprise flying is a big deal. The +1/+1 counter theme gives Dromoka's Command, already a highly playable card, great synergy with the rest of the deck, making it even more of a blowout than normal. Hardened Scales is about to rotate out, but with all the complicated mana bases and fiddly things Standard's had of late, having a pure Timmy beat-'em-up deck is refreshing.

A couple weeks ago, straight Mardu running a few Eldrazi was the most successful archetype in Dailies. It's been replaced by Mardu Green. Taking seventh in the Pro Tour Qualifier:

Mardu Green ? Standard | floatius

• Creatures (14)
• 4 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
• 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 4 Siege Rhino
• 4 Sylvan Advocate

• Spells (19)
• 1 Chandra, Flamecaller
• 3 Duress
• 4 Abzan Charm
• 4 Crackling Doom
• 4 Fiery Impulse
• 2 Kolaghan's Command
• 1 Pulse of Murasa

• Lands (27)
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Forest
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Needle Spires
• 1 Plains
• 3 Shambling Vent
• 2 Smoldering Marsh
• 2 Swamp
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Duress
• 1 Dragonmaster Outcast
• 4 Hallowed Moonlight
• 1 Linvala, the Preserver
• 2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 3 Radiant Flames
• 3 Transgress the Mind

Buy This Deck

Although the spell combination of Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Mardu is the heart of the deck, it's Sylvan Advocate that makes Mardu Green what it is. Running twenty-seven lands to accommodate the color spread would be foolish in most decks, but Sylvan Advocate turns the downside into upside. And although Shambling Vent has been Sylvan Advocate's most frequent partner, Needle Spires might love the Advocate's +2/+2 bonus even more. Besides Sylvan Advocate and Siege Rhino, the green is for Pulse of Murasa, which is most likely to bring a fetch land back when cast early, but it can break the game wide open late when flashed back to Goblin Dark-Dwellers. The advantages of it over Kolaghan's Command, besides having more options, are the life-gain and the option to recur Shambling Vent or Needle Spires. It might not come up often, but midrange value decks have made their living for years by having game against every conceivable deck, and Pulse of Murasa gives another dimension to a deck full of dimensions.

Saturday's winner (who also made twenty-eighth place in the Pro Tour Qualifier with the deck) gives glory to a new menace powered by an old Equipment:

Blue Eldrazi ? Standard | L1X0

• Creatures (31)
• 4 Dimensional Infiltrator
• 2 Drowner of Hope
• 3 Eldrazi Mimic
• 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
• 3 Hedron Crawler
• 1 Matter Reshaper
• 4 Reality Smasher
• 2 Ruination Guide
• 4 Thought-Knot Seer
• 4 Whirler Rogue

• Spells (4)
• 4 Ghostfire Blade

• Lands (25)
• 4 Foundry of the Consuls
• 10 Island
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sea Gate Wreckage
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 4 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Matter Reshaper
• 3 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Hangarback Walker
• 2 Icy Blast
• 3 Spatial Contortion
• 3 Stubborn Denial

Buy This Deck

This is pretty much straight beatdown, with various Eldrazi, Hedron Crawler, and Whirler Rogue joined by Eldrazi and pumped by Ghostfire Blade. Ghostfire Blade, Ruination Guide, Eldrazi Mimic, and Tomb of the Spirit Dragon are the reasons to play colorless creatures specifically; it looks more normal on paper when it's a white-weenie strategy backed by Honor of the Pure, but it's the same idea: the best individual creatures to hold together with slight synergy. Tomb of the Spirit Dragon can win stalemates, which is vital when Rally the Ancestors relies on breaking the stalemate with a mound of Zulaport Cutthroat triggers. Rally the Ancestors also doesn't like seeing flyers, which this deck has quite a few of: Dimensional Infiltrator, Eldrazi Skyspawner, and the Thopter tokens of Whirler Rogue and Foundry of the Consuls. Reality Smasher's trample is also useful for cutting through the ancestors—but it's not as though I have to tell you Reality Smasher is good.

One Spicy Metaball

Remember when Jeskai Ascendancy drew ban rage in Modern? Now it's weird to see it anywhere. Fans of the archetype saw a new tool from Oath of the Gatewatch in Slip Through Space, and this deck, thirtieth place in the Pro Tour Qualifier, put it to good use:

Jeskai Ascendancy ? Standard | Toni21

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Rattleclaw Mystic

• Spells (32)
• 3 Magmatic Insight
• 4 Slip Through Space
• 4 Treasure Cruise
• 3 Anticipate
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 3 Dispel
• 4 Elemental Uprising
• 4 Expedite
• 2 Briber's Purse
• 4 Jeskai Ascendancy

• Lands (24)
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 3 Flooded Strand
• 1 Forest
• 3 Frontier Bivouac
• 1 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Mystic Monastery
• 1 Plains
• 1 Prairie Stream
• 1 Wandering Fumarole
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Fiery Impulse
• 4 Monastery Mentor
• 1 Negate
• 3 Radiant Flames
• 4 Silkwrap

Buy This Deck

The creatures to untap with Jeskai Ascendancy for a steady stream of mana are Rattleclaw Mystic and whatever's made a 4/4 with Elemental Uprising. While an Elemental Uprising land has to be blocked if able, with Slip Through Space, "if able" means "not at all." I was initially quite surprised that Lumbering Falls wasn't in the list, as being hexproof protects the combo effortlessly, but Magmatic Insight's presence in the deck means there won't be loads of excess mana to make Lumbering Falls a creature when the time is right. (That doesn't explain why there's a single Wandering Fumarole instead of a Lumbering Falls, but almost all the spells in this deck are blue and red, so maybe the mana-fixing was more important.)

I love the Monastery Mentors in the sideboard. Few decks can handle a Game 1 plan of a lethal unblockable creature and a Game 2 plan of going wide with tokens—especially when Expedite can make a heavily-prowessed Monastery Mentor hasty, making it as suddenly lethal as anything else in the deck. Unless your all-in combo is ban-worthy, you need another angle to win a second game in a match, and Monastery Mentor is as perfect a new angle as I've ever seen.

I Thought W/B Was Now C/W

Aaron Forsythe promised some action against the Eldrazi menace in Modern in the next round of banned and restricted announcements. What that will be, nobody knows. Until then, decks with a heavy disruption element are a good idea, and this deck has some disruption likely to remain useful post-banning:

W/B Tokens ? Modern | Vergard

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

• Spells (33)
• 3 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 4 Spectral Procession
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 2 Batwing Brume
• 2 Dismember
• 4 Path to Exile
• 2 Raise the Alarm
• 2 Secure the Wastes
• 2 Zealous Persecution
• 1 Spear of Heliod
• 4 Intangible Virtue

• Lands (24)
• 2 Caves of Koilos
• 2 Flooded Strand
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 3 Isolated Chapel
• 3 Marsh Flats
• 3 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 2 Vault of the Archangel
• 3 Windbrisk Heights

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Day of Judgment
• 2 Disenchant
• 2 Duress
• 1 Nevermore
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 2 Relic of Progenitus
• 3 Stony Silence
• 2 Timely Reinforcements

Buy This Deck

As a deck that is able to play a lot of Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Dismember, and Path to Exile in large numbers, W/B Tokens has a lot of opportunity to interact with good Eldrazi starts. But besides Spear of Heliod, a pretty good rattlesnake, the main next-level tech is Batwing Brume. Fog effects are always nice against fast starts for buying a turn, but it's the life-loss for attacking creatures that intrigues me the most. Grand Prix Detroit featured the combo of Training Grounds and Eldrazi Displacer on camera on Day 2, whether making infinite tokens with Drowner of Hope or forcing infinite draw with Thought-Knot Seer, and none of those are likely to be banned next month. For the infinite-tokens part of the combo, Batwing Brume can turn the game from a loss to a win.

This interaction exists with other infinite-creature combos, but the most prominent of them, Splinter Twin, had counterspell backup to nerf cards like Batwing Brume. Now? Neither Kiki-Chord nor W/U Eldrazi decks run countermagic in the main decks, increasing the odds Batwing Brume resolves. So the card might be useful for W/B decks moving forward, both in this shell and elsewhere.

Conclusion

Due to this Standard cycle's short lifespan, it's weird to have decks being discovered right as they're about to rotate out. The thing between fetch lands and battle lands has run its course with me—can you imagine if Khans of Tarkir were still on the old two-year rotation cycle?—but at least there's still some variety this late. Here's hoping it keeps up the next few weeks.