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

Five Decks You'll Play This Weekend

Brandon Isleib
Posted on May 13, 2015
 Reddit

Welcome to Gathering Magic's weekly quintet of Magic Online 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. 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, preparing for Grand Prix Shanghai, we'll tackle Standard with a little Modern, tied together with a talk on an instant sweeping the metagames.

Is Shanghai Disneyland Open?

A question posed by would-be Google poets and philosophers alike:

It isn't open, but Standard Christmasland is pretty open for good strategies and synergies. Starting last Wednesday, Magic Online Dailies started holding a maximum of 256 players instead of 128, so the number of 4–0 decks in an event can now go up to sixteen instead of being capped at eight (and so far is settling at ten to twelve). That gives us more data, which is always cool. (Bold = won a Daily)

  • Atarka Red 11

  • Mardu Dragons 9

  • Abzan Aggro 8

  • Esper Dragons 7

  • Green-White Company 7

  • Red Aggro 5

  • Red-Green Dragons 2

  • Abzan Control 4

  • Abzan Midrange 2

  • Bant Heroic 2

  • Mardu Midrange 2

  • Four-Color Midrange 2

  • Four-Color Whip, Green Devotion with Red, and Green Devotion with White each won a Daily in their only 4-0 appearances.

Some of the variety compared to recent weeks is due to better taxonomy from Grand Prix coverage, separating red decks and treating Collected Company as an engine, like Whip of Erebos. We'll get to Collected Company at the end of this article. But for now, here are some popular kids:

Atarka Red ? Dragons of Tarkir Standard | Snake Pliskan

Atarka's Command is now well known as a tremendous source of damage for red swarm decks; few decks in the format can deal 20 damage quite so ruthlessly. I posted this version for the sideboard Prophetic Flamespeakers. (I should pick up some for my Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded casual deck.) It doesn't take many hits against control to net serious card advantage, and even a +1/+1 pump from Atarka's Command makes it hard to evaluate in combat. I don't know if bringing in the second Become Immense is part of the plan as well, but if it is, that's nearly a two-card combo kill; 14 trample damage and possibly two extra cards is quite the deal.

Moving out of Atarka's endeavors and into Kolaghan's . . . 

Mardu Dragons ? Dragons of Tarkir Standard | Ryuji

The pick of Brad Nelson and Owen Turtenwald in last week's Super Standard League, Mardu Dragons is only secondarily a Dragons deck despite having ten Dragons. At least as I look at the deck construction, Mardu Dragons works because it's by far the best Crackling Doom deck. Crackling Doom is a fantastic answer to anything that's bothering you, from Dragonlord Ojutai on down. Normally, the 2 damage is an afterthought, but its synergy with Soulfire Grand Master (in that lifelink is synergy) implies some other cards, such as Draconic Roar. Curving Soulfire Grand Master into a "kicked" Draconic Roar against mono-red is tough for red to recover from, and it's plenty good against everybody else. So with excellent removal that has lifelink and can be bought back at the end, you may as well fill out the rest with Dragons to maximize Draconic Roar; Thunderbreak Regent, Stormbreath Dragon, and Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury are more than equal to the task.

While Abzan Aggro had plenty of success, starting on Saturday, control rivaled it:

Abzan Control ? Dragons of Tarkir Standard | Randizzle

Elspeth, Sun's Champion has been rediscovered as a Dragon killer (Duel Decks: Suns vs. Dragons releases never), and with her +1 serving its usual role as ground stall and win condition, it's well positioned against most things that aren't Dragonlord Silumgar or Den Protector. Put with the normal value cards that Abzan is known for, including seventeen instant-speed-removal spells, Elspeth is back in a big way. She showed up in three Grand Prix Paris Top 8 sideboards, and it doesn't appear that the metagame will change so much this week as to render her irrelevant in Shanghai.

One Spicy Metaball

Collected Company was designed by the guy two cubicles down from me last year (as tweeted by the guy in between us), which is more interesting when your department isn't R&D. (Wizards of the Coast involves any interested employees in card design as a deeper perspective and idea source.) He's a good guy, and Collected Company is a good card, mostly explored in G/W decks, as noted in the table at the top of this article. However, there is another way . . . 

Four-Color Company ? Dragons of Tarkir Standard | fmd

The creature suite looks like scrawled notes from a Gatherer search, not the basis of a 4–0 deck, but with four Frontier Bivouacs, four Mystic Monastery, and two Mana Confluences, there should be some castable creatures. And while mana might be an issue for the pilot, bringing out a Mantis Rider and Savage Knuckleblade at instant speed is incredible (with Hornet Nest in the sideboard for maximum bees blowout). Ojutai's Command seems to be useful for all modes, while the other noncreatures already have impressive Standard resumes. Certainly, this deck has one of the highest average card qualities of any deck you can build right now; it's just a matter of whether you're willing to endure the mana.

Thragtusk's Little Helpers

Collected Company's focus on converted mana costs seems to have Modern written all over it, and some explorations have been in the realm that Birthing Pod used to occupy. But that's far from the only place one can go. 4–0'ing Saturday's Daily:

Elves Company ? Modern | PietroDona

Since this archetype doesn't have a deck name, Grand Prix coverage might use Elves, Company, or Devotion somewhere in there. I like the idea of being devoted to one's work at an Elf company ("This year's team-building exercise is in . . . the forest!"), but maybe that's just me. Anyway, when Collected Company accelerates Elves, it leads to loads of mana, whether from the Elves themselves (two Elvish Archdruids off Collected Company seems ridiculous) or from Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx feeling quite devoted. That mana can be invested right back into the company with Ezuri, Renegade Leader (and CEO?) or it can go into Chord of Calling to find silver bullets, most of which are white and in the sideboard. Aven Mindcensor is good enough, but searching your library for a library-search hoser is the best kind of nose-thumbing.

Jacob Van Lunen thinks Modern Elves might make more sense as a Legacy-style combo piece, but I like the straightforward approach more. Chord of Calling and Collected Company make it difficult for the opponent to know whether his or her removal on the stack will even work, and Ezuri, Renegade Leader's regeneration ability deals with a multitude of usual answers to low-cost swarms. This is a deck I want to watch somebody pilot as long as he or she is not my opponent.

Conclusion

Like Disneyland, there are several types of sweet rides available in Standard right now, as aggro, midrange, control, and build-around engines are all present together. Shanghai might see a breakout deck, but I expect we'll mostly see a metagame consolidation. Either way, there should be a lot of great cards and players making news this. Whether you're playing this weekend or watching, I hope you enjoy it.

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TAGS articles, standard, metagame, constructed, analysis, modern, decklist, brandon isleib, dragons of tarkir, #mtgdtk, five decks, five decks you'll play this weekend

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