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, after three straight Standard Grand Prix weekends, and with unexpected downtimes reducing the data, it's time to look at all the formats.

Magic's Rain Daily Delay

Magic Online had trouble for a couple days this week, meaning Daily attendance was reduced significantly. As a result, I have a lot less data to work with for any given format, so you wouldn't get as much of a good column if I covered a single format. This is about the best time to pull a deck from each of the Constructed formats—Standard, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper—to find cool things to talk about. They'll all still be 4–0 Daily decks unless otherwise noted; they'll just cover a variety of formats instead of one or two.

Starting with Standard, I'm glad someone else came to the same conclusion as I did for the last few weeks of the format:

R/W Aggro ? Standard | TheStoneColdNuts

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Ashcloud Phoenix
• 2 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 3 Stormbreath Dragon
• 4 Abbot of Keral Keep
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Seeker of the Way

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Pyromaster

• Spells (18)
• 2 Lightning Strike
• 4 Stoke the Flames
• 4 Wild Slash
• 4 Hordeling Outburst
• 4 Chained to the Rocks

• Lands (23)
• 11 Mountain
• 4 Plains
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Temple of Triumph

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Stormbreath Dragon
• 1 Chandra, Pyromaster
• 1 Outpost Siege
• 2 Revoke Existence
• 1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• 4 Searing Blood
• 2 Soulfire Grand Master
• 3 Valorous Stance

Buy This Deck

Thanks mostly to Hangarback Walker, Standard is a Chained to the Rocks format again. Even though Dromoka's Command is still out and about—and with Hangarback Walker showing up in Abzan, that matters a lot—Chained to the Rocks is still the best answer because an unchained Hangarback Walker will return to the battlefield with no counters and die harmlessly. There are other decks harmed by Chained to the Rocks—Heroic's wrecked if it doesn't have Gods Willing or Stubborn Denial ready, and Hardened Scales decks aren't a fan either—but it's mainly a 1-mana answer to Hangarback Walker with utility against other things. As ubiquitous as the artifact menace is, Chained to the Rocks is very much worth splashing for right now. Plus, access to Revoke Existence, Valorous Stance, and Soulfire Grand Master in the sideboard is nice. At this point, it seems that Hangarback Walker's liable to show up in any random deck you might face, so being proactive against it is a good idea.

The Modern Landscape

The Daily results weren't very congruous in part because of the downtimes, but in addition to Jund and Sun Titan/Supreme Verdict control decks (one featuring Dragonlord Ojutai!), Scapeshift was back in a slightly altered form:

Scapeshift ? Modern | inosta

• Creatures (8)
• 2 Augur of Bolas
• 2 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

• Spells (27)
• 2 Anticipate
• 2 Electrolyze
• 2 Peer Through Depths
• 2 Spell Snare
• 3 Cryptic Command
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Remand
• 4 Scapeshift
• 4 Search for Tomorrow

• Lands (25)
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Forest
• 3 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Cascade Bluffs
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Stomping Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Dismember
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 1 Negate
• 3 Obstinate Baloth
• 2 Pyroclasm

Buy This Deck

In case it wasn't clear, Anticipate is a great role-playing card, good enough to join the ranks of Modern blue card-selection spells in established decks. Augur of Bolas shows up here in a similar role, the speed bump proving valuable against Goblin Guide and company (after the Augur's gained card advantage, who wants to have to Lightning Bolt it?). Other than that, Scapeshift is mostly the same deck as ever, with a few instant/sorcery slots up for grabs depending on metagame and preference; another 4–0 list ran singletons of Farseek, Izzet Charm, and Harvest Pyre. This list is also running in its sideboard probably my favorite Modern-legal card: Mwonvuli Acid-Moss. You have to already be a ramp deck to want it, but the pure tempo crush of destroying an opponent's best land and fetching one of your best lands (it lets you search for any Forest, not just basic ones) is hard to top.

Legacy Hatebears . . . I mean, Hatehumanbears

No, this list is not me accidentally pasting several deck parts together. This was good enough to 3–1:

Bant Stoneblade ? Legacy | Cartesian

• Creatures (23)
• 2 Sylvan Safekeeper
• 3 Hero of Bladehold
• 3 Stoneforge Mystic
• 4 Knight of the Reliquary
• 4 Meddling Mage
• 4 Werebear
• 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

• Spells (12)
• 2 Life from the Loam
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 4 Chalice of the Void
• 4 Mox Diamond
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte

• Lands (25)
• 3 Plains
• 1 Savannah
• 1 Tropical Island
• 3 Secluded Steppe
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Wasteland
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 1 Karakas

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Armageddon
• 2 Devout Chaplain
• 2 Ethersworn Canonist
• 2 Faerie Macabre
• 2 Hixus, Prison Warden
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 2 Tormod's Crypt
• 2 Venser, Shaper Savant

Buy This Deck

I called it Bant Stoneblade because that's the part that's most obvious. But there's a Hatebears element with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Meddling Mage (it and the sideboard Venser, Shaper Savant are the only blue things), and Chalice of the Void. There's also an actual Bear—a Human Druid Bear to be precise—in Werebear. The Human bit, added in the Grand Creature Type Update, matters not only for resolving one (thanks, Cavern of Souls!), but for the sideboard where, of all things, Devout Chaplain uses the tribal synergy for free artifact and enchantment removal.

And check out one of the newest legendary heavyweights in the sideboard: Hixus, Prison Warden! I didn't look at this card and think, "Ah, yes, of course they designed this for Legacy," but it works in this deck as an instant, uncounterable, 4/4 Detention Sphere against Young Pyromancer's token horde. It will also reset Insectile Aberration into plain ol' Delver of Secrets, but the Elemental tokens seem to be the main reason this is here. Chalice of the Void doesn't shut Young Pyromancer decks down completely due to the tokens being made on merely casting spells, so Hixus can finish what the Chalice started.

This might be the longest I've talked about a Legacy deck, but it has so many surprising parts that it needed full explanation. This deck seems fun for streaming, as some of the gotcha moments make good theater.

Vintage with the Fishes

Most primers on Sultai Fish are old enough to call it B/U/G Fish (which is a more biologically amusing name). An exact seventy-five 3–1'd consecutive Dailies in a world full of Stax and Dack Fayden decks, so it's worth investigating.

Sultai Fish ? Vintage | Hawkester

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Tarmogoyf
• 2 Snapcaster Mage
• 3 Trygon Predator
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 4 Deathrite Shaman
• 1 Vendilion Clique

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Spells (26)
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 3 Mental Misstep
• 4 Abrupt Decay
• 4 Force of Will
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Sapphire

• Lands (18)
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Strip Mine
• 2 Tropical Island
• 3 Misty Rainforest
• 3 Underground Sea
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 1 Darkblast
• 2 Dismember
• 2 Energy Flux
• 2 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Island
• 1 Null Rod
• 1 Steel Sabotage
• 1 Surgical Extraction
• 3 Yixlid Jailer

Buy This Deck

The most obvious reasons to run this deck are Trygon Predator and Abrupt Decay, as they answer almost all permanents in the format. Dark Confidant, Deathrite Shaman, and Snapcaster Mage might not be quite as ubiquitous in Vintage as in Legacy, but they're still plenty potent; Snapcaster Mage on Ancestral Recall or Mental Misstep (to counter an Ancestral Recall, for example) is a game changer. Given the basic tempo–control ideas behind this deck, I feel that even I could pilot this to a non-horrible result. I'm probably wrong in that feeling, but it's a straightforward deck that doesn't need a load of acclimation for the pilot to understand the game plan. Having twenty-eight cards printed in Modern-legal sets helps as well.

Of Paupers, Rats, and Merchants

There were some 3–0 Pauper Premier events this week, and this deck put a splash twist on an old favorite:

B/R Control ? Pauper | Kimul

• Creatures (14)
• 2 Gurmag Angler
• 4 Chittering Rats
• 4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 4 Phyrexian Rager

• Spells (24)
• 2 Terminate
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 3 Firebolt
• 4 Blightning
• 4 Chainer's Edict
• 4 Sign in Blood
• 3 Oubliette

• Lands (22)
• 5 Mountain
• 8 Swamp
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 2 Rakdos Carnarium
• 2 Rakdos Guildgate
• 4 Bloodfell Caves

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Duress
• 1 Electrickery
• 2 Evincar's Justice
• 2 Gorilla Shaman
• 4 Pyroblast
• 1 Relic of Progenitus
• 2 Syphon Life

Buy This Deck

Using the usual black control shell, including Chittering Rats and Gray Merchant of Asphodel, the red slows down the deck a little due to what dual lands are available, but it also gives access to Terminate and Blightning, cards with long pedigrees in rare-heavy formats. Other than them and Lightning Bolt, it's the same old black deck that's been popular in the format for as long as I can remember, its resurgence fueled in part by Gurmag Angler. I didn't think much about Syphon Life being bumped down to common in Modern Masters, but as a sideboard card here, it allows a different type of grindy deck, an inevitable clock in a deck a little short on them. (The mono-black version is able to run Corrupt; while pricey, it's also devastating.)

Conclusion

Even with decklists coming up slightly short this week, there's still something fun to look at in every format. And every format seems to be a pretty decent spot. Hangarback Walker continues to find more homes (I saw it in a Vintage Stax list), and when we next visit Standard, I expect the metagame will divide further into beating it or joining it. We'll see how things shake out as more big events roll in.