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Main » Articles » 5 Decks You Can't Miss This Week

5 Decks You Can't Miss This Week

Carlos Gutierrez
Posted on September 18, 2015
 Reddit

Preview season is in full swing, and while Battle for Zendikar is certainly an exciting set, there’s still plenty of Magic left to be played in the weeks leading up to the prerelease weekend. This week, we’ll be looking at five decks across Standard, Modern, and Legacy featuring all kinds of exciting new technology. We’ll start with a new tribal take on Standard before moving on to Modern where we’ll look at a fresh take on Gifts Ungiven and a breakout deck featuring Abbot of Keral Keep. Last, we’ll head into Legacy where we’ll find out if Werebear and Argothian Enchantress have what it takes to keep up with the rest of the format. Let’s get started!



Before Magic Origins, it had been awhile since we’d seen a good, old-fashioned tribal deck in Standard. Cards like Dwynen's Elite and Shaman of the Pack have helped put Elves back on the map, but there’s another tribe that has a lot of potential. For just a few more weeks, we have the opportunity to play with both Goblin Rabblemaster and Goblin Piledriver, and that’s an opportunity cru187 just couldn’t pass up:

Goblins ? Magic Origins Standard | cru187, 3?1 Standard Daily Event

This is a super-aggressive deck with a lot of exciting, powerful synergies, the most critical of which is the combination of token-generators with Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Rabblemaster, and Obelisk of Urd. This deck has the ability to flood the board with cheap tokens using Dragon Fodder and Hordeling Outburst and use those tokens to either cheat in an Obelisk as early as turn three or sneak in monstrous hits with Piledrivers and Rabblemasters.

What I really like about this deck is its ability to push past blockers. Between Frenzied Goblin, Goblin Heelcutter, Subterranean Scout, and Rogue's Passage, it’s not hard to attack through cards like Courser of Kruphix and Siege Rhino. Here’s the thing: You’re not just going to be getting extra hits with tokens. You can easily force enormous Goblin Piledrivers and Goblin Rabblemasters past all manner of blockers and back that up with a Stoke the Flames or two to close out the game.



Gifts Ungiven is among the most powerful tutors legal in Modern. The ability to tutor for Unburial Rites and a monster makes Gifts effectively a one-card combo that can end the game on the spot. The problem is it’s a little too slow. You can’t expect to beat decks like Affinity, Tron, or Splinter Twin when your haymaker requires back-to-back 4-mana plays. That’s why Jeff Hoogland is trying a new variation of Gifts that is a little leaner:

Goryo Gifts ? Modern | Jeff Hoogland

This is yet another deck that is trying to find a home for Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in Modern. Unlike many of the Grixis shells that are trying to use Jace to value opponents to death with discard and removal, this is a deck that is trying to use Jace to sculpt your game plan and buy an extra turn to bring your more powerful midgame online. How many decks are there that can fight through a curve of Jace into Liliana of the Veil into Supreme Verdict or Gifts Ungiven?

That said, the real spice in Jeff’s build is the inclusion of Goryo's Vengeance, which in combination with Obzedat, Ghost Council, allows you to have some truly game-breaking turns in the midgame. The trick is that Goryo's Vengeance functions similarly to Whip of Erebos, allowing you to exile Obzedat to its own ability and still return it to the battlefield on your next upkeep. The swings in life total provided by Obzedat help buy more time to stabilize using Planeswalkers and Lingering Souls while you either race your opponent to death or set up a backbreaking Gifts Ungiven.



It’s been awhile since we have seen a true tempo deck in Modern. The Treasure Cruise decks were more like attrition decks, Merfolk is more of an aggro deck, and Splinter Twin is more combo-oriented. Patrick Chapin is looking to change this by bringing an exciting take on Temur tempo, prominently featuring Abbot of Keral Keep, to Grand Prix Oklahoma City:

Temur Prowess ? Modern | Patrick Chapin, Grand Prix Oklahoma City

This is a deck that is committed to getting ahead on the board early and using cheap spells to stay ahead while keeping the pressure on your opponent. The deck is built around using prowess in conjunction with cheap or free spells to force through huge chunks of damage turn after turn. The deck makes a very bold statement about the power of Abbot by including the full four copies of Abbot of Keral Keep but only three copies of Snapcaster Mage.

What I find most interesting about this deck is how focused it is on cheap spells that affect the board. In formats like Legacy and Vintage, tempo decks are defined by cheap counterspells like Force of Will, Daze, and Spell Pierce. In previous iterations of Modern, Remand and Spell Snare have served a similar purpose as counterspells that help you stay ahead on tempo. Chapin’s deck tosses this aside, choosing to run only two copies of Remand in favor of Vapor Snag, Rancor, and Seal of Fire. This helps maximize the deck’s ability to interact with decks like Infect and Affinity early on and maintain board presence while using cheap instants to set the opponent back.

Whereas many other tempo-esque decks are choosing to go a little bigger, including copies of Cryptic Command and other 3- and 4-drops, Chapin is choosing to run a leaner, more efficient list that tops out at 2 mana. This means that you will very quickly enter a phase of the game in which you can play two and even three spells in a turn, which allows you to substantially affect the board during your turns and generate game-ending prowess turns.



Mono-colored Stompy decks featuring Chalice of the Void, Ancient Tomb, and game-breaking 3-drops have been popular in Legacy since the printing of cards like Thoughtseize and Ponder have driven curves lower and lower. The problem with these decks is your threats are typically anemic or fragile, with prior red variants relying on cards like Rakdos Pit Dragon and Gathan Raiders. Cartesian has tried to solve this problem by branching out into not one, but two additional colors. Check out this take on Bant Stompy:

Bant Stompy ? Legacy | Cartesian, 4?0 Standard Daily Event

The big advantage this deck has is the density of powerful 2-drops that can be cast turn one thanks to Ancient Tomb and Mox Diamond. Between Chalice of the Void, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Stoneforge Mystic, you have a full eleven 2-drops capable of ending games before they’ve really started. Additionally, you have access to Meddling Mage against combo decks as well as Werebear. Werebear is particularly important both because he functions as a powerful threat in the midgame and because ramps you up to your 4-drops as early as turn two. With your mana online, threats like Knight of the Reliquary and Hero of Bladehold threaten to bury your opponent under Wastelands and tokens.

This deck puts enormous pressure on your opponent’s few copies of Abrupt Decay, Force of Will, and Swords to Plowshares as answers to these monstrous threats early in the game. If he or she has those answers, you can top-deck additional powerful threats to overload his or her removal or lock the game up with Life from the Loam plus Wasteland.

This is not the most synergistic deck in the format, but it does have a lot of powerful cards that can easily win games by themselves and a mana base capable of casting those threats early and often. The raw power of the cards in this deck is off the charts, and they interact in subtle and interesting ways to help you take over games early or grind them out late. If you think your opponent is being a little too cute for his or her own good, this is the kind of deck that punishes them hard for focusing too much on the blue mirrors and other spell-based matchups.



Our last deck this week is among my favorites from when I first started playing Magic: Enchantress. There’s nothing better than building a pillow fort out of Ghostly Prisons and the like while drawing a billion cards off Argothian Enchantress and Enchantress's Presence while killing your opponent with Words of War. At least, that’s the Enchantress deck that I remember. It turns out that the deck has included plenty of awesome upgrades since the last time I played it, as Curtis Wiemann has clearly demonstrated:

Enchantress ? Legacy | Curtis Wiemann

The key to this deck is the ability to use Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth to ramp out enchantresses and powerful lock pieces. These cards have become particularly important due to the printing of Green Sun's Zenith, which allows you to have a full eight copies of Argothian Enchantress which you can play on turn two. Argothian Enchantress allows this style of deck to function, as it is immune to Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, and all manner of other removal.

The goal of this deck is to churn through the library using enchantresses and cheap cantrips so you can lock up the board. Eventually you’ll find a Solitary Confinement you can fuel with your enchantresses. Cards like Sterling Grove protect your enchantments but also allow you to tutor up singletons like Runed Halo and Banishing light to protect yourself from the likes of Tendrils of Agony or Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

By far, the most underrated card in this style of deck is Elephant Grass. Elephant Grass is the kind of card that epitomizes eternal formats for me. It’s a random uncommon from an old set that absolutely defines games. How do Young Pyromancer or Bridge from Below decks beat an Elephant Grass? How about Craterhoof Behemoth? Even the Stoneforge Mystic midrange decks have a hard time both leaving up instant-speed interaction and still being able to attack with more than one creature at a time. The best part? By the time the cumulative upkeep is too high you’ll either have found a Serra's Sanctum to pay for it or a new copy to keep your opponent locked out of combat.

Perhaps the most important advancement for this deck is the inclusion of better ways to end the game than Words of War or Sigil of the Empty Throne. This deck has two potential avenues to victory. You can either use Serra's Sanctum to hard-cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and annihilate your opponent right out of the game, or you can use Rest in Peace plus Helm of Obedience to mill your opponent right out.

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

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, deck lists, legacy, decks, modern, carlos gutierrez

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