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, with Grand Prix Quebec City coming up, it's a tale of last Saturday—both on paper from the Pro Tour and online with a Pro Tour Qualifier.

Hour of Quebeckoning

Part 1: From Milwaukee, Battling with Cardboard

Other people will give you plenty of interesting Pro Tour data, so I won't duplicate their fine work. What I will do (or, since you're reading this article, what I have done) is give links to all the Pro Tour Standard decks that Wizards provided, covering two decks from the Top 8 and a deck apiece from the other tiers:

• Top 8
• 24–27 points
• 21–23 points
• 18–20 points

First up is the Pro Tour champion:

Abzan ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Kazuyuki Takimura

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

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

• Spells (9)
• 1 Murderous Cut
• 4 Abzan Charm
• 4 Dromoka's Command

• Lands (26)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 2 Canopy Vista
• 2 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Shambling Vent
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Wingmate Roc
• 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• 1 Self-Inflicted Wound
• 3 Transgress the Mind
• 1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
• 2 Duress
• 3 Silkwrap
• 2 Ultimate Price

Buy This Deck

The main differences I see from last week's posted Abzan list are responses to a better-known metagame. Many decks are hoping for three-color-producing lands on turn one instead of playing 1-drops, both so Warden of the First Tree can get under several decks and because Transgress the Mind has utility against most of the field. It's not a surprising list in any way, but it's Little Kid–tested and Maternal Witness–approved, so it's no wonder Kazuyuki got his kicks with the deck.

There were two Abzan decks in the Top 8, one GW Megamorph deck, one Atarka Red, and four strains of Jeskai. Owen Turtenwald and Jon Finkel ran Dark Jeskai (formerly Jeskai Black) with its many Ojutai's Commands and Kolaghan's Commands and access to Crackling Dooms, and even Martin Muller's Jeskai Tokens had Crackling Doom in the sideboard. But the Jeskai deck without black made the semifinals:

Jeskai ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Ryoichi Tamada

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Mantis Rider
• 4 Seeker of the Way
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

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

• Spells (16)
• 4 Fiery Impulse
• 4 Jeskai Charm
• 4 Valorous Stance
• 3 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Silkwrap

• Lands (24)
• 1 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 2 Mystic Monastery
• 2 Prairie Stream
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Silkwrap
• 2 Arashin Cleric
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Mastery of the Unseen
• 1 Roast
• 1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• 1 Wingmate Roc
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Rending Volley
• 2 Surge of Righteousness

Buy This Deck

(Note: I have no idea what the Canopy Vista is for. He ran neither green cards nor converge spells.)

Tamada's choice of instants is the main thing to see here. Jeskai Charm's been in decks lately, but not as a four-of; neither has Valorous Stance. Valorous Stance remains the premier Siege Rhino–killer in Standard, while Jeskai Charm is mana-efficient against Hangarback Walker, as was shown in the finals. The finals write-up notes Tamada's "innovative sideboard plan;" while none of the cards are complete surprises, it is fair to say there are enough two-ofs in different roles that opponents can't reasonably play around more than one of them at a time. Disdainful Stroke seems the roughest, given that the main deck lacks counterspells. There's enough flexibility here to take on everything competently. Dark Jeskai might be flashier, but the straightforward build has plenty of game.

Hao-Shan Huang finished in tenth, going 8–2 with Dragons and a load of removal:

B/R Dragons ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Hao-Shan Huang

• Creatures (14)
• 4 Thunderbreak Regent
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 3 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
• 3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Ob Nixilis Reignited

• Spells (18)
• 2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
• 2 Murderous Cut
• 3 Complete Disregard
• 4 Draconic Roar
• 2 Despise
• 2 Roast
• 3 Ruinous Path

• Lands (26)
• 4 Mountain
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 2 Blighted Fen
• 2 Smoldering Marsh
• 4 Bloodfell Caves
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Self-Inflicted Wound
• 2 Dragonmaster Outcast
• 2 Crux of Fate
• 3 Radiant Flames
• 3 Duress
• 2 Read the Bones
• 1 Outpost Siege

Buy This Deck

(Note: This time, the green mana is for something: the converge on Radiant Flames.)

Ob Nixilis Reignited showed up in a few decks—Fabrizio Anteri's Painful Truths control deck, finishing similarly to this one, was a great place for it. Here, Ob Nixilis is mostly an overseer for a lot of value. All the creatures are efficient while having different types of benefit against control. There's a load of removal, and Huang has Ruinous Path, which looks good against Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, and Complete Disregard, which looks good against Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Hangarback Walker. Blighted Fen, my preseason favorite among the Blighted lands, is exactly what this deck wants in the late game against control finishers. It gets around almost everything, so I'm positive this isn't the last we'll see of it while Battle for Zendikar is Standard-legal.

Part 2: From Magic Online, Battling with Digital Objects

There was a Standard Pro Tour Qualifier on Magic Online while the pros were gathered in Milwaukee. A "traditional" Atarka Red build (i.e. without Scythe Leopard/Den Protector) won it, headlining a Top 8 full of A-named decks: Atarka Red, Abzan, a G/W Hardened Scales deck, and a Jeskai deck. Beneath them but still with high finishes were some fascinating explorations in Battle for Zendikar. Here's one:

U/B Control ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Kumazemi

• Creatures (7)
• 2 Blight Herder
• 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Spells (22)
• 1 Grip of Desolation
• 1 Murderous Cut
• 2 Complete Disregard
• 2 Grave Birthing
• 3 Spell Shrivel
• 4 Clash of Wills
• 4 Dig Through Time
• 4 Horribly Awry
• 1 Despise

• Lands (27)
• 3 Swamp
• 4 Island
• 2 Blighted Fen
• 2 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 4 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
• 4 Sunken Hollow

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Dragonlord Silumgar
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 4 Ultimate Price
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Duress
• 1 Orbs of Warding

Buy This Deck

At first glance, this is a regular control list—with twenty-one instants, most of them counterspells, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. But it's the critical mass of exiling instants—Horribly Awry and Spell Shrivel for counterspells, Complete Disregard and Grip of Desolation for removal, and Grave Birthing for a few things—that allows this deck to go in a scary direction. Curving with counterspells allows Blight Herder to gain full value on casting (with Grave Birthing, it can come out a turn early). And once it's made its three Eldrazi Scions, it's possible to curve into Ugin right after. Is this a permission control deck that might drop a fifth-turn Ugin? The ramp-/value-lover in me can get behind that idea. Shrine of the Forsaken Gods as a four-of doesn't have a load of finishers to ramp to, but the deck's color commitments are so light that both it and Blighted Fen can coexist without a loss of consistency.

As long as ramp isn't huge in Standard as it was for the last several months, Clash of Wills and Spell Shrivel are real cards, which leads me to believe this deck's a tweak or two away from surprising a lot of folks.

Speaking of surprises . . . here's an Abzan deck that doesn't run Hangarback Walker or Siege Rhino:

Abzan Rally ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | robert15184

• Creatures (27)
• 3 Grim Haruspex
• 4 Blisterpod
• 4 Catacomb Sifter
• 4 Elvish Visionary
• 4 Nantuko Husk
• 4 Sultai Emissary
• 4 Zulaport Cutthroat

• Spells (10)
• 4 Collected Company
• 4 Rally the Ancestors
• 2 Evolutionary Leap

• Lands (23)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 3 Canopy Vista
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Evolutionary Leap
• 4 Arashin Cleric
• 1 Minister of Pain
• 1 Tragic Arrogance
• 3 Abzan Charm
• 1 Merciless Executioner
• 4 Surge of Righteousness

Buy This Deck

Yep, the only white card in the main deck needs double-white, but it's also often a game-ender when it's cast, thanks to multiple Zulaport Cutthroats and sacrifice outlets like Nantuko Husk combining for a lethal blow. And that's just the obvious stuff. Collected Company finding a Zulaport Cutthroat might mean that board sweeper might kill its caster. Catacomb Sifter is half a Reaper of the Wilds in both size and players' creatures that trigger it, but this deck's built to trigger it consistently. It appears it would take a lot of practice to know which creature to sacrifice to which effect when there's a choice, but there's a high reward for learning it. And the deck's pretty cheap to build—Collected Company's a lot less than it was at its peak, and Evolutionary Leap and Zulaport Cutthroat are the only other nonlands clearing $1. That combination should get variations of it played at FNM for a while; knowing you might face it is at least a good start to beating decks like this that can out-value anyone unprepared.

Conclusion

The top ranks of the Pro Tour showed a mostly steady metagame, but the season is young, and there are some credible finishes with brewing. People are still learning how to use Processors, colorless Eldrazi, and engines like Zulaport Cutthroat, and a big win for any of them should shift the metagame significantly. Until then, expect a lot of Siege Rhinos, Mantis Riders, and Atarka's Commands.