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

Five Decks You'll Play This Weekend

Brandon Isleib
Posted on September 2, 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, there isn't a Constructed Grand Prix, but the World Championship and this season's Magic Online Standard Championship happened, so we'll look at Standard, with a peek at an innovative Modern deck about to get some new toys.

Get Charged with Champ Ions!

Daily attendance was low this week, although Standard Championship Qualifier attendance was solid. Consequently, I'm expanding the Daily list to include all the 4–0 decks, although I'll also be pulling from the Championship files in this article:

  • Hangarback Abzan: 4

  • Abzan Aggro: 1

  • Bant Heroic: 1

  • Red-Green Devotion with Blue: 1

  • Red Aggro: 1

  • White-Blue Control: 1

Hangarback Abzan is the Daily favorite. It makes sense that the archetype most centered on midrange value adopted the new poster child for value. Friday's winner:

Hangarback Abzan ? Magic Origins Standard | Legioner

Thankfully for lovers of deck-building (and writers of decklist articles), Hangarback Walker isn't just a four-of jammed into stock Abzan lists. It's part of a package with several other choices that had otherwise fallen out of favor from the archetype. First is Anafenza, the Foremost (First . . . foremost? Get it? Such thrills around here), who loves to put counters on allied Hangarback Walkers while preventing enemy Hangarback Walkers from converting into Thopters. Second is Sorin, Solemn Visitor. The format has enough fast decks that life-gain is important (as we'll see in a later deck). More to the point, Anafenza and Hangarback Walker move the deck into space that prefers to attack in most games, so Sorin is a good choice. Wingmate Roc is the third logical extension. Hangarback Walker is tough to block profitably, so attacking with it to benefit from the raid trigger creates a nightmare for the opponent unless he or she killed the Hangarback Walker and has a sweeper for the next turn.

This version also loses little in staple cards to the upcoming format rotation. The loss of Temple of Malady and Temple of Silence might be enough to set the deck back, but Jungle Hollow and Blossoming Sands are around at the very least, and Canopy Vista from the new dual-land cycle should help, too. If there's any reasonable replacement for Fleecemane Lion, expect to see Hangarback Abzan in some form or fashion for a while.

Of course, you still can use Hangarback Walker in the other colors, as the Standard Championship proved with an archetype mirror match:

U/R Ensoul Artifact ? Magic Origins Standard | ryota09

This variant beat the more "traditional" build with Stubborn Denial and Whirler Rogue instead of Stoke the Flames, Thopter Engineer, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Pia and Kiran Nalaar nearly pay for the entire convoke cost of Stoke the Flames (how kind of them!), and that plus the increased mana consistency seems to compensate for Whirler Rogue's inevitability. To continue the note from the Abzan list above, both decks chose Swiftwater Cliffs's life-gain over Temple of Epiphany's scry; the Sphinx's Tutelage deck that made fourth place made the same choice while also running four Radiant Fountains. I would not have expected that swap to be the right call, but with control having been slightly underrepresented of late, the long-term edge of scrying isn't as worthwhile as the immediate benefit of a life point.

If you don't like either of those Hangarback Walker builds, why not try Bant Heroic, with which the +1/+1 counter theme plays nicely? Winning Saturday's Daily:

Bant Heroic ? Magic Origins Standard | madarameBK

Having cards that give themselves +1/+1 counters without needing to be targeted allows a more immediate payout on Ordeal of Thassa if necessary, allowing the card-draw to be more reliable than in previous Heroic builds and, with that angle, a better long game. Treasure Cruise is in here as a nod to that angle; it can get the party restarted if the first flurry of spells didn't work. I'm leery of playing all-in combo decks with which winning involves drawing the right numbers of multiple types of cards (Boros Landfall is the go-to example in my head, which might date me), but this version has inherent hedges against the style's main weakness while not moving too far off core synergies to do so. It only has a month left in Standard, but it could make a difference in that month.

One Spicy Metaball

It appears to count as spice these days to win without Hangarback Walker. Going 4–1 in a Standard Championship Qualifier:

B/G Pact ? Magic Origins Standard | chuyingfei

After making a splash at the last Pro Tour, we haven't heard much from Demonic Pact or those who have signed it, but the strategy is still solid given that black's control spells are so good. Thoughtseize, Bile Blight, and Languish provide a great start for anything, and on the other side, Den Protector and Courser of Kruphix are as good as ever. The cards I listed are emblematic of a core deck problem—curving black control spells into green creatures is rough on the mana—but going down to two colors from the Pro Tour deck's three ought to help. Assuming both colors of mana show up and aren't too slow—there are ten enters-the-battlefield-tapped lands—the curve seems perfectly fine, and the massive flexibility Demonic Pact offers can shape the game as needed. The deck looked fun to play at the Pro Tour—and who doesn't like getting out of an evil contract because you have a swarm of insects?—so if midrange value is your style and Hangarback Walker isn't, give this a spin, and see if you can somehow factor in.

Kate and Ally

As if the tribe got excited by Battle for Zendikar spoilers, Allies formed a company and won Sunday's Modern Daily:

Naya Allies ? Modern | Niran

Kabira Evangel
So it's not just an Ally theme, but a Human Ally theme, chosen because turn-one plays make the deck so much better than when it lacks one, and Champion of the Parish is the closest thing available to Hada Freeblade. If you've ever faced Allies, you know this deck has most of the nastiest ones. Akoum Battlesinger was an important part of the Standard Allies deck, Kazandu Blademaster is tough to get through, and Kabira Evangel gives many decks fits. Collected Company and Aether Vial make Kabira Evangel that much harder to predict while giving their usual value otherwise. Mirror Entity and Abzan Falconer are here as swarm finishers; while Mirror Entity has a longer history in that role, Abzan Falconer's flying is not to be overlooked—it’s certainly an unexpected ability to give to a Naya swarm. Sticking to Humans allows Cavern of Souls to fix the mana, which in turn allows Mutavault to support the deck, even as there aren't synergies with the creature abilities the way that, say, Merfolk gets to use it.

That might change with some of the Allies that come out in Battle for Zendikar. We've seen Allies that benefit all creatures when they rally (the new ability word for Allies entering the battlefield—I might continue to call it allyfall), and Mutavault would love that sort of card. Veteran Warleader, Lantern Scout, and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar all seem reasonable somewhere in the seventy-five, and there are sure to be more Allies worth considering. Just as Magic 2014 and Magic 2015 gave Slivers enough oomph to tangle in Legacy every now and then, Allies easily could move up a tier in Modern when Battle for Zendikar releases. They have enough to win a Modern Daily now; just wait until next month.

Conclusion

It's a Hangarback-eat-Hangarback world right now, and while some of the decks in the xx-rated metagame should rotate out soon, the upcoming support for colorless creatures might offset that. It appears that more decks have chosen to join it rather than beat it for now. Watch for tools in the upcoming spoilers that might address it; the best deck that can incorporate those tools seamlessly might be the first Next Big Thing in Battle for Zendikar Standard.

Okay, maybe Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is the Next Big Thing. But I digress . . . 

The Battle for Zendikar is coming. Order singles, booster packs and more at CoolStuffInc.com today!

TAGS articles, standard, metagame, constructed, magic online, analysis, mtgo, modern, decklist, brandon isleib, 5 decks, five decks, five decks you'll play this weekend

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