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, it's a look at the new Standard in advance of this weekend's Pro Tour in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Is for Brewers

Magic Online is in prerelease season, and its Daily decklists are glitching a bit, so for Standard, I'm going to the two StarCityGames Opens that have happened in this Standard season: Indianapolis two weekends ago and Atlanta this past weekend. Indianapolis listed decks to sixty-four places, and Atlanta listed to thirty-two, so I've done a point system with each event to rank performances and give an aggregate. A deck archetype earns 4 points for a Top 8 finish, 3 points for a Top 16, and 2 points for a Top 32. From there, I'll take the best finishes of high-scoring decks and discuss them for a bit.

Here are the archetypes that scored at least 10 points across the tournament:

So . . . what is this Jeskai Black? Here's a version from Atlanta:

Jeskai Black ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Todd Anderson

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Monastery Mentor
• 4 Mantis Rider
• 4 Seeker of the Way
• 2 Dragonlord Ojutai
• 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

• Spells (17)
• 1 Valorous Stance
• 2 Dispel
• 2 Jeskai Charm
• 2 Murderous Cut
• 3 Crackling Doom
• 3 Wild Slash
• 2 Treasure Cruise
• 2 Silkwrap

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 3 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 2 Battlefield Forge
• 2 Prairie Stream
• 2 Smoldering Marsh
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Polluted Delta

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Arashin Cleric
• 1 Hidden Dragonslayer
• 1 Stratus Dancer
• 1 Mastery of the Unseen
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
• 2 Exert Influence
• 2 Radiant Flames
• 2 Self-Inflicted Wound

Buy This Deck

At heart, this is the Jace, Vryn's Prodigy Jeskai deck from last Standard season but with Crackling Doom, Murderous Cut, Sorin, Solemn Visitor, and some converge cards in the sideboard. Having Battle for Zendikar dual lands to find with the fetch lands helps a ton. In a three-color deck, Radiant Flames is basically the just-rotated Anger of the Gods; in a four-color deck, Exert Influence is able to steal Siege Rhinos. As to be expected this early in the season and with this many colors in the deck, there are many builds out there, but they seem to agree on Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Mantis Rider, and Crackling Doom being a great place to be.

While the new mana allows decks like the above to exist, old decks had to reconfigure around what the mana supports. Taking ninth place in Indianapolis:

Abzan Aggro ? Battle for Standard | Kyle Nisswandt

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Warden of the First Tree
• 3 Den Protector
• 3 Wingmate Roc
• 4 Knight of the White Orchid
• 4 Siege Rhino
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 2 Anafenza, the Foremost

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

• Spells (10)
• 1 Murderous Cut
• 1 Valorous Stance
• 3 Dromoka's Command
• 4 Abzan Charm
• 1 Reave Soul

• Lands (25)
• 1 Forest
• 4 Plains
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 3 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 4 Shambling Vent
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Arashin Cleric
• 2 Evolutionary Leap
• 2 Utter End
• 1 Valorous Stance
• 2 Despise
• 3 Duress
• 2 Reave Soul

Buy This Deck

Although there are very few new cards, the big one, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, and the rotation of Fleecemane Lion moves the center of this deck away from Rakshasa Deathdealer and toward Knight of the White Orchid (the reason a single Canopy Vista's in the deck). The mana is focused on white, with Hangarback Walker helping the deck cast things on time regardless of its mana development. Shambling Vent looks right at home here; having Den Protector in the deck to bring it back makes it that much harder for control decks to fight it effectively. So while most of this consists of known quantities, the specific mix is new to Standard, and for all intents and purposes (particularly sideboarding purposes), it's a whole new deck.

One of the big reasons Abzan Aggro didn't do so well in Atlanta was the prevalence of G/W Megamorph and its Hidden Dragonslayers. Winning the Atlanta Open:

G/W Megamorph ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Jacob Lively

• Creatures (24)
• 2 Hidden Dragonslayer
• 3 Wingmate Roc
• 4 Deathmist Raptor
• 4 Den Protector
• 4 Warden of the First Tree
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 3 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

• Spells (7)
• 3 Valorous Stance
• 4 Dromoka's Command

• Lands (25)
• 5 Plains
• 6 Forest
• 3 Canopy Vista
• 3 Flooded Strand
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Archangel of Tithes
• 2 Whisperwood Elemental
• 2 Evolutionary Leap
• 1 Mastery of the Unseen
• 2 Gideon's Reproach
• 3 Surge of Righteousness
• 1 Dragonlord Dromoka
• 2 Tragic Arrogance

Buy This Deck

This is a lot of the Abzan creature suite but with Deathmist Raptor, Hidden Dragonslayer, and Nissa, Vastwood Seer. Dromoka's Command's creature-removal utility goes up with Deathmist Raptor's deathtouch and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar's damage prevention-and-indestructible thing he's done for years. In his Top 8 profile, Jacob mentioned the streamlined mana base as a great reason to play the deck: "[P]laying effectively zero tapped lands is absurd." If the metagame continues to explore infinite-colored decks, expect this deck to prey on them.

Atarka Red's trying to prey on the same weakness. Winning Indianapolis:

Atarka Red ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Brian Demars

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Makindi Sliderunner
• 2 Lightning Berserker
• 4 Abbot of Keral Keep
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 2 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
• 4 Zurgo Bellstriker

• Spells (22)
• 3 Become Immense
• 3 Temur Battle Rage
• 4 Atarka's Command
• 4 Titan's Strength
• 4 Wild Slash
• 4 Dragon Fodder

• Lands (21)
• 1 Forest
• 8 Mountain
• 2 Cinder Glade
• 2 Windswept Heath
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 2 Goblin Heelcutter
• 2 Thunderbreak Regent
• 2 Fiery Impulse
• 3 Arc Lightning
• 2 Roast

Buy This Deck

The biggest addition Atarka Red gains is Cinder Glade, reducing the painful decision points of when to find a Forest for Atarka's Command. In almost every circumstance, Atarka's Command isn't useful until the third turn, at which point Cinder Glade enters the battlefield untapped. Atarka Red was always powerful, but now that the mana's near-perfect, it should shape a lot more of the metagame than before.

One Spicy Metaball

Although Dromoka's Command's popularity might keep this deck down, the ideas in here are so foreign to the metagame that it—or an adaptation—could take the Pro Tour by storm. Taking thirty-ninth place at Indianapolis:

G/W Eldrazi ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Matt Moreno

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Bane of Bala Ged
• 1 Ruin Processor
• 2 Conduit of Ruin
• 3 Oblivion Sower
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
• 3 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

• Spells (18)
• 2 Nissa's Renewal
• 2 From Beyond
• 3 Quarantine Field
• 3 Stasis Snare
• 4 Silkwrap
• 4 Hedron Archive

• Lands (26)
• 3 Forest
• 6 Plains
• 1 Spawning Bed
• 2 Flooded Strand
• 3 Canopy Vista
• 3 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
• 4 Sanctum of Ugin
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Arashin Cleric
• 3 Den Protector
• 1 Gaea's Revenge
• 1 Erase
• 2 Surge of Righteousness
• 2 Dragonlord Dromoka
• 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
• 1 Planar Outburst

Buy This Deck

One of the benefits of the fetch-land/dual-land mana is increased opportunity to run spell lands like Sanctum of Ugin, and this deck takes full advantage. Using Silkwrap, Stasis Snare, and Quarantine Field to keep the worst permanents off the board (and Quarantine Field is for nonland permanents, not just creatures), the deck buys time for From Beyond and Hedron Archive to find to the nastiest of nasties. Oblivion Sower's the most obviously playable of the large Eldrazi, and its enabling the casting of larger things helps out—so does having Eldrazi triggers happen on casting instead of entering the battlefield. Between that and Stasis Snare having flash (key for nabbing Dragonlord Ojutai), control decks don't get to run over this deck just because it's a ramp deck.

This is also probably the only deck well positioned to use Nissa's Renewal. Here, it approximates a Primal Command in terms of having a mode that advances the deck while gaining a significant amount of life. Sure, Primal Command had other modes, but if ramp and life-gain are the two modes you want anyway, it doesn't matter that Nissa's Renewal does only two things.

Conclusion

So far, Battle for Zendikar’s main effect has been to fix mana in place of the departed Temples, Sylvan Caryatid, and Courser of Kruphix. There's a lot of open space to explore, and while it might take another set for Zendikar's themes to have enough support for Standard, we should see enough deck techs this weekend that point to the future. And for some brewers in Milwaukee, the future might arrive early. Here's hoping for an innovative and exciting Pro Tour.