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 activity gets you ahead of the competition. This week, with Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir coming up, it's Standardpalooza 'round these parts, with a peek at Pauper in a post-Treasure Cruise universe.

The Hustle and Brussel

It looks like a wild time this weekend, with a lot of cards in Dragons of Tarkir that could augment existing wedge strategies or enable two-color ones. The prereleases on Magic Online have cut down Daily traffic some, but here's what 4-0'd on Sunday and Monday (Bold = won the Daily):

Four Times:

• Mono-Red Aggro

Twice:

• Red-Green Dragons
• Abzan Control
• Abzan Aggro

Once:

• Abzan Rally
• Mardu Control
• Sidisi Whip
• Green-White Devotion

Most of the unusual archetypes came from Monday, when more new cards were available. What looks enticing?

Mono-Red Aggro ? Standard | sebastianpozzo

• Creatures (19)
• 4 Foundry Street Denizen
• 4 Frenzied Goblin
• 3 Goblin Heelcutter
• 4 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 4 Mardu Scout

• Spells (21)
• 4 Dragon Fodder
• 4 Hordeling Outburst
• 4 Stoke the Flames
• 4 Wild Slash
• 1 Hall of Triumph
• 4 Obelisk of Urd

• Lands (20)
• 20 Mountain

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Goblin Heelcutter
• 4 Arc Lightning
• 2 Bathe in Dragonfire
• 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
• 1 Peak Eruption
• 3 Searing Blood

Buy This Deck

The reprinting of Dragon Fodder gives red players a couple different directions - efficiency, tokens, Goblins, or maybe even prowess centered around Monastery Swiftspear. Sebastian has gone for Goblins and the convoking goodness of Obelisk of Urd, which keeps Goblins from asphyxiation from a Drown in Sorrow or dying to a Virulent Plague. The main drawback to a Goblin strategy is that Frenzied Goblin is the one-drop over Firedrinker Satyr, but that might not be a huge tradeoff given the increased synergy available and the increased redundancy with Goblin Heelcutter.

The Fastest Deck in the Format (a trademarked name) normally impacts a Pro Tour regardless of whether it actually shows up:

Wherever mono-red shows up on those axes helps place other archetypes on the grid. It seems like mono-red's already a good and feared deck, with sideboards aiming to make it bad and feared - in which case a tweak is a good idea. Obelisk of Urd might be the tweak necessary to dodge the metagame already warped by the Mountain menace.

Goblins can get surprisingly big with Obelisk of Urd, but there's a prominent tribe in the format known for getting bigger:

Red-Green Dragons ? Standard | nikouni

• Creatures (24)
• 2 Ashcloud Phoenix
• 4 Courser of Kruphix
• 2 Dragonlord Atarka
• 4 Elvish Mystic
• 4 Stormbreath Dragon
• 4 Sylvan Caryatid
• 4 Thunderbreak Regent

• Spells (12)
• 3 Xenagos, the Reveler
• 3 Crater's Claws
• 2 Roast
• 4 Draconic Roar

• Lands (24)
• 6 Forest
• 3 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
• 2 Mana Confluence
• 3 Mountain
• 2 Rugged Highlands
• 4 Temple of Abandon
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Roast
• 2 Arbor Colossus
• 2 Destructive Revelry
• 2 Hornet Nest
• 3 Mistcutter Hydra
• 3 Seismic Rupture
• 2 Wild Slash

Buy This Deck

There have been several decks in recent Standard that excel at clogging the ground; it's part of what's made Ashcloud Phoenix playable. Why not expand on that with loads of Dragons? Haven of the Spirit Dragon looks pretty good when you have your choice of midrange or bomb threats, and Thunderbreak Regent curving into other Dragons means it's difficult to kill any of them without dying. This deck looks explosive, streamlined, and capable of punishing board states. It's weaker to control than the more Whisperwood Elemental-style red-green builds, but Xenagos, the Reveler helps a lot.

Don't miss Seismic Rupture in the sideboard; it gets to be a near-Whipflare based on this deck construction. Arbor Colossus has had plenty of Standard time; in a world of Dragons, it should be employed all the way to rotation.

But maybe you don't like either option. Maybe you barely like creatures. In that case, why not kill them all?

Mardu Control ? Standard | Rvng

• Creatures (1)
• 1 Resolute Archangel

• Spells (34)
• 2 Chandra, Pyromaster
• 2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• 2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
• 3 Anger of the Gods
• 2 End Hostilities
• 3 Read the Bones
• 4 Crackling Doom
• 4 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Murderous Cut
• 3 Utter End
• 3 Wild Slash
• 2 Chained to the Rocks

• Lands (25)
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 2 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Mountain
• 1 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 2 Temple of Malice
• 4 Temple of Silence
• 4 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
• 1 Erase
• 4 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 1 Magma Spray
• 1 Outpost Siege
• 4 Thoughtseize

Buy This Deck

With Crux of Fate increasingly unreliable as a sweeper, control decks are swinging back towards End Hostilities. Here, Rvng has End Hostilities and Elspeth, Sun's Champion reinforcing Anger of the Gods as a way to kill loads of creatures. And if an opponent thought they could play independent threats, Crackling Doom, Hero's Downfall, Chained to the Rocks, and Utter End (a card rarely seen as more than a one-of; Rvng played three) have other plans.

Control decks have been going for the Fleecemane Lion or Brimaz, King of Oreskos fake-out in the sideboard for awhile, but Rvng goes deeper than Brimaz with Goblin Rabblemaster available. It's a lot of slots dedicated to transforming, but it seems reasonable given how extreme the maindeck is. I don't know if blue-black has the gas to compete this weekend; it seems to me that control decks have to start with white at the moment. This deck's as good an idea as any of where to go past End Hostilities, and Anger of the Gods/End Hostilities is a very defensible choice of shell.

One Spicy Metaball

I didn't profile the main Abzan decks in part because we've seen them plenty. Mainly, though, I wanted to profile this:

Abzan Rally ? Standard | xsarq

• Creatures (22)
• 4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Mogis's Marauder
• 4 Nyx Weaver
• 4 Satyr Wayfinder
• 2 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 4 Siege Rhino
• 3 Sylvan Caryatid

• Spells (15)
• 3 Commune with the Gods
• 1 End Hostilities
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 4 Murderous Cut
• 4 Rally the Ancestors

• Lands (23)
• 2 Caves of Koilos
• 3 Forest
• 1 Jungle Hollow
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 2 Plains
• 4 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 2 Temple of Silence
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 4 Arashin Cleric
• 1 Archfiend of Depravity
• 3 Duress
• 1 Erase
• 2 Mastery of the Unseen
• 3 Virulent Plague

Buy This Deck

Several of the cards in this deck were players in the Abzan Whip deck, and the idea's not too far off here. The main difference is that Whip of Erebos is replaced by Rally the Ancestors, making the creatures more about enter-the-battlefield effects and less about other types of value. Rally the Ancestors's primary strength is that it can bring loads of creatures in at the same time, sort of like a copied Dragonstorm or a Warp World finding several Bogardan Hellkites, and Gray Merchant of Asphodel can do the same thing. We're used to seeing one Gray Merchant at a time, so it's not as obvious looking through the decklist that half the point here is to get several out together - three along with any other black symbol is lethal life loss. Should some combination of Gray Merchants and Siege Rhinos not be enough on their triggered abilities alone, Sidisi, Undead Vizier can set up more tricks, or Mogis's Marauder can give the newly-rallied team a hasty, mighty swing before going to exile.

If white creature decks are prominent this weekend, Arashin Cleric might grace several sideboards as an anti-red measure, as it is in this deck. It's one of the best two-drop speed bumps available, for what it's worth; Brussels will tell us that value soon enough.

Splinter Twin: The Common Years

With Treasure Cruise gone from yet another format, there's a little more chance for decks to get cute rather than go for sheer efficiency.

Green-White Soul Sisters ? Pauper | Nukular

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Essence Warden
• 4 Midnight Guard
• 4 Pallid Mycoderm
• 4 Selesnya Evangel
• 4 Soul Warden
• 4 Veteran Armorer

• Spells (14)
• 3 Scatter the Seeds
• 4 Sprout Swarm
• 4 Presence of Gond
• 3 Spidersilk Armor

• Lands (22)
• 4 Blossoming Sands
• 4 Forest
• 4 Khalni Garden
• 6 Plains
• 4 Selesnya Sanctuary

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Ambush Viper
• 4 Gleeful Sabotage
• 1 Prismatic Strands
• 3 Scattershot Archer
• 4 Standard Bearer

Buy This Deck

The idea is to stick Presence of Gond on a Midnight Guard, gaining infinite creatures and, with Essence Warden or Soul Warden, infinite life. In the meantime, making tokens and gaining life is a good way to buy time against several decks, especially as aided by Veteran Armorer and Spidersilk Armor (you know you want to see some Saprolings block and kill an Insectile Aberration). Pallid Mycoderm can let the bulk of tokens in this deck get huge in a hurry, and as Electrickery is a major sweeper in the format, having three ways of keeping out of its range gives this deck serious game.

I love the singleton Prismatic Strands in the sideboard as well as Standard Bearer. Standard Bearer was in the sideboard of the Daily-winning Affinity deck the same day; it might not be the Spellskite Pauper deserves, but it's the Spellskite Pauper needs.

Conclusion

Very early returns indicate that Standard is far less obvious than it was a few weeks ago. Guessing the "right" red deck to play with or sideboard against looks like it will matter greatly, as will determining the mix of removal. Whatever happens this weekend, it looks like it will be entertaining and give plenty of surprise cards a chance to shine. That's all I want from a Pro Tour. Hopefully you get what you want out of it.