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Main » Articles » 5 Decks You Can't Miss: Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx Edition

5 Decks You Can't Miss: Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx Edition

Carlos Gutierrez
Posted on May 15, 2014
 Reddit

It's the eve of Pro Tour Journey into Nyx. The players are gathering in Atlanta. Will players continue to devote themselves to Thassa and Erebos as they have in Standard? Or will this Block Constructed Pro Tour bring us exciting new combinations? Perhaps Heliod or Iroas can make a splash. Perhaps obscure infinite combos will break the format. What are the key players in the Theros Block Constructed metagame heading into the Pro Tour? Let's run down the top five performers.

Perhaps the flashiest deck in Block Constructed is the Junk Reanimator deck. What other deck can trigger multiple Ashen Riders per game while gaining life off of Whip of Erebos? This deck is capable of some very explosive draws and is also capable of going way over the top of many of the fair decks in the format. Let's take a look at the Satyr Wayfinder deck of the format:

[Cardlist Title= Junk Reanimator - Theros Block Constructed | McToast, 4-0 Block Daily Event]

This deck has two powerful gameplans. The first is to use Satyr Wayfinder and Commune with the Gods to stock the graveyard and dig into Whip of Erebos. From there you can start Whipping back Abhorrent Overlord and Ashen Rider until the game is over. The plan is backed by Pharika's Mender, which will let you hardcast creatures later on or rebuy a Whip that your opponent was able to answer.

You've got the alternative plan of just ramping out your fatties with Courser of Kruphix and Sylvan Caryatid, using various removal spells to buy the time you need to hit your land drops. Additionally, the white splash for Ashen Rider also lets you play what may be the most powerful card in this Block Constructed format, Elspeth.

This deck has two powerful, resilient gameplans and is capable of going toe-to-toe with the other late-game decks of the format and still has enough speedbumps to keep the aggro decks from just running it over. This has been a powerful player in the format on Magic Online since Satyr Wayfinder was first printed, and that seems unlikely to change heading into the Pro Tour.

One of the cards that has promised to shake up the format the most is Mana Confluence. Previously, the only fixing in this format were Temples and Unknown Shores; both of which have seen extensive play in this format. The addition of Mana Confluence has two anticipated effects: first, two- and three-color decks with aggressive mana requirements are a thing now. Second: Red- and Black-based aggressive decks only have to deal 16-18 points of damage to win a game. Let's take a look at the aggressive decks of the format, starting with Derkoe's Mono Red Aggro:

Mono-Red Aggro - Theros Block Constructed | Derkoe, 4-0 Block Constructed Daily Event

Journey into Nyx was kind to this archetype. Prophetic Flamespeaker and Mogis's Warhound were both huge pickups, giving these decks more reach, resiliency, and the ability to battle through the likes of Prognostic Sphinx. This deck is built around Dragon Mantle and Titan's Strength powering up your heroic one-drops and enabling Prophetic Flamespeaker to consistently get through for damage and cards.

This is a format where many people are going to be playing combinations of Temples and Mana Confluence. A format with slow or painful mana and even slower, sorcery-speed removal seems like the perfect format for a Red deck to take over. In Block Constructed, Red decks tend to look like a pile of commons and uncommons that's been cobbled together from draft leftovers. People consistently underestimate the Red aggro decks, and it has continued to put up results.

That said, there are cards like Nyx-Fleece Ram in the format now, which may make it a lot harder to win games after sideboarding. Is that enough to put players off of the Red deck? We'll find out on Friday.

The other option for a consistent aggro deck is a Black-based midrange deck featuring Agent of the Fates. Black-based heroic decks have been a mainstay of Theros Block Constructed since the inception of the format. The big changes are that you no longer have to splash White for powerful heroic cards to put together a 60 card deck. Now your splashes are dictated by powerful sideboard options and how many Temples you feel like playing. Let's look at Kaz41's Mono-Black Midrange:

[Cardlist Title=Mono-Black Midrange - Theros Block Constructed | Kaz41, 4-0 Block Constructed Daily Event]

These decks can cover the spectrum from super aggressive decks with eight one-drops all the way up to builds like this one, white are much more midrangey and lean harder on the three-, four-, and five-drops to win games than on the aggressive heroic draws.

The idea behind this deck is that you have powerful heroic and bestow interactions to help you grind out control decks. The deck is capable of some very fast, resilient starts. It also goes just a little bigger than the Red- and White-based aggressive decks, and gets Gray Merchant of Asphodel to act as an enormous roadblock and huge life swing. On top of that, you also get access to Agent of Fates which helps you battle your way through other bestow creatures and grind through Elspeth tokens.

This deck has a powerful, resilient gameplan and is infinitely tuneable to be appropriately aggressive or midrangey depending on what you want to beat. Perhaps more importantly, it's one of the best Thoughtseize decks in the format, which is almost always a good thing.

Let's go a little bit bigger and take a look at the good-stuff deck of the format: Naya. Naya has been a huge force in the format since it first began, and gets to play some of the most powerful cards in the format. Elspeth. Xenagos the Reveler. Stormbreath Dragon. Even Courser of Kruphix. Not to mention that all of this is tied together by Sylvan Caryatid. The best cards, mana acceleration, and a powerful top end; what's not to like? Let's take a look at Expert's Naya Midrange.

[Cardlist title= Naya Midrange - Theros Block Constructed | Expert, 4-0 Block Constructed Daily Event]

There seems to be two builds of this deck floating around online in the wake of Journey into Nyx. There's builds like Expert's, which have adopted Eidolon of Blossoms as a way to generate card advantage. This deck has enough powerful cards to win most games, but it can have trouble finding the tools to battle through the likes of Elspeth and Prognostic Sphinx backed by removal spells. It's much easier win control mirrors when your Eidolons and Coursers cantrip into other powerful late-game cards.

The second take on this deck focuses on Voyaging Satyr and Anger of the Gods as alternative ways to generate card advantage in the midgame. The upside to this is that you can just beat control decks before they can Divination into enough Gilds and Hero's Downfalls to control your Dragons and Planeswalkers. The downside is that, if games go longer, you can get ground out by engines that generate actual cards instead of creature tokens.

Especially in a format like Block Constructed, there's something to be said for just jamming all of the best cards. Last year it was Sphinx's Revelation, Jace, Architect of Thought, and Aetherling. Maybe this year it'll be Elspeth, Stormbreath Dragon, and Xenagos, the Reveler.

Our final deck for this special edition of 5 Decks is the actual control deck of the format: Esper. I'e alread talked about how good Elspeth, Sun's Champion is. The impact that Elspeth has had on Block thus far simply cannot be overstated. What happens when you back her up with a solid suite of removal and card drawing? You end up with something that looks a lot like RobVaughan's Epser list:

[Cardlist title=Esper Control - Theros Block Constructed| RobVaughan, 3-1 Block Constructed Daily Event]

This deck gets to do a little of everything. Thoughtseize and Dissolve are powerful answers to some of the format's most defining threats like opposing Elspeths. You also get all the best removal in the format to battle against the aggressive heroic decks. On top of all of that, Prognostic Sphinx is basically unkillable and lets you start digging for the best cards to help you maintain parity and start pulling ahead.

This is one of the few decks in the format that is capable of interacting profitably with cards like Elspeth and effectively leveraging actual card advantage like Divination, Font of Fortunes, and Silence the Believers. The good thing about playing a deck like this is that every deck in the format is heavily reliant on creatures. If you can chain card drawing into removal, you should be able to keep pace until you can stick a powerful threat. The problem is that there are not Supreme Verdict-style effects besides Drown in Sorrow. This means that if you fall behind in the first three turns, there's a chance you'll just die without being able to do anything about it.

If the metagame shifts too far away from aggressive Red decks, it may just be that the greedy control deck with stable mana and plenty of Divination is exactly where you want to be.

So what do you think will happen come Friday? Which decks are poised to break out at this tournament? Which cards are under appreciated and ready to smash unsuspecting opponents? What are you expecting to see in Atlanta this weekend?

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TAGS articles, pro tour, current events, deck lists, decks, carlos gutierrez, 5 decks, journey into nyx, #mtgjou, ptjou

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