Commander 2013 is the exciting new product on the scene, but we've still got plenty of Theros action to delve into. Two new Standard decks, a sweet Modern control brew, and even a Legacy take on Birthing Pod! Let's go ahead and get started:

Mono-Black Devotion is one of the top tier decks at this stage in the format, but what happens when you cut the devotion engine and get a little more aggressive? RahXephon has been messing with variations on this Black-Green aggro deck for a few weeks now, and has continued to put up strong results with it. Let's take a look at his most recent iteration:

Green-Black Rock - Standard | RahXephon1, 4-0 Standard Daily Event

• Lands (23)
• 7 Forest
• 3 Golgari Guildgate
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 7 Swamp
• 2 Temple of Deceit

• Creatures (16)
• 3 Dreg Mangler
• 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
• 4 Reaper of the Wilds
• 4 Sylvan Caryatid
• 4 Witchstalker

• Spells (21)
• 4 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Gift of Orzhova
• 2 Golgari Charm
• 4 Hero's Downfall
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 3 Underworld Connections
• 2 Vraska the Unseen
• 2 Whip of Erebos

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Far // Away
• 1 Gift of Orzhova
• 3 Mistcutter Hydra
• 3 Pharika's Cure
• 2 Pithing Needle
• 2 Skylasher
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 1 Underworld Connections

Buy This Deck

This deck still has the Underworld Connections and Thoughtseize package that makes the Mono-Black so powerful, but the addition of Green gives you more powerful midrange threats and better removal. Abrupt Decay is an awesome alternative to both Doom Blade and Ultimate Price, as it answers Detention Sphere, Boros Reckoner, Underworld Connections, and all of the aggressive creatures in the format.

Vraska the Unseen is also an awesome card in the current metagame. It's great against the midrange and controlling decks of the format, and is still a playable removal spell against the aggro decks. Dreg Mangler is another awesome addition, as it's a great threat early on and can scavenge on to one of your hexproof creatures later on.

This deck seems like it's well positioned against the field right now, and is poised to improve with the release of new pieces like the Black-Green Temple. Will this deck continue to be a player as the metagame continues to develop? I'm excited to find out.

We've seen a few variations on Green devotion-based ramp in the first few weeks of this Standdard format. Most of these have been different iterations of Green-Red devotions, but recently we've seen the rise of a Blue-based version. Let's take a look at the build that Wames took to a 3-1 finish earlier this week:

[Cardlist Title= Zegana Ramp - Standard | Wames, 3-1 Standard Daily Event]

• Lands (24)
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 12 Forest
• 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 4 Temple of Mystery

• Creatures (30)
• 4 Arbor Colossus
• 3 Boon Satyr
• 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 4 Elvish Mystic
• 2 Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 4 Polukranos, World Eater
• 2 Prime Speaker Zegana
• 4 Sylvan Caryatid
• 3 Voyaging Satyr

• Spells (6)
• 2 Cyclonic Rift
• 4 Garruk, Caller of Beasts

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Jace, Memory Adept
• 4 Mistcutter Hydra
• 4 Nylea's Disciple
• 3 Time to Feed

Buy This Deck

The big difference between this deck and the Green-Red decks is that you've traded Domri Rade for Prime Speaker Zegana and Cyclonic Rift. This seems like it makes you slightly worse against the aggressive decks in the format, since Domri and Xenagos give you more of an ability to grind them out in the midgame.

What the blue Splash does is give you more powerful topdecks and a way to go over the top in the midrange and control matchups. Especially against decks like Esper and Mono-Black, Zegana gives you another way to battle through discard spells and compete with the likes of Sphinx's Revelation and Underworld Connections.

You even get access to Jace, Memory Adept out of the sideboard as another way to shore up your control matchup. Against a Green ramp deck, Esper opponents are going to load up on sweepers and removal rather than Negates. That means it'll be easier to resolve your Jace's and ride them to victory. If Thoughtseize and Sphinx's Revelation decks continue to be the defining decks of the format, this may be how ramp decks have to evolve to keep up.

So what about Modern? UWR seems to have settled in as the defining control deck of the format, leaning on the power of Lightning Bolt and Snapcaster Mage to keep the midgame under control. But what if we try to go a little more traditional and hit the metagame from a new angle? That's what MantafahrerXY is trying to do with this take on UB Control for Modern:

UB Control - Modern | MantafahrerXY, 3-1 Modern Daily Event

• Lands (24)
• 4 Creeping Tar Pit
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 2 Ghost Quarter
• 4 Island
• 2 Swamp
• 4 Tectonic Edge
• 4 Watery Grave

• Creatures (1)
• 1 Frost Titan

• Spells (35)
• 2 Cryptic Command
• 3 Damnation
• 4 Jace Beleren
• 1 Liliana of the Veil
• 3 Mana Leak
• 2 Night of Souls' Betrayal
• 4 Remand
• 2 Repeal
• 4 Smother
• 2 Spell Snare
• 4 Spreading Seas
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Damnation
• 2 Darkblast
• 4 Doom Blade
• 2 Spell Snare
• 2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 4 Vampire Nighthawk

Buy This Deck

There are a couple of very interesting things about this deck. First and foremost, Tron is hugely popular online, and this deck has a great set up against Tron decks; utilizing not only Ghost Quarter and Tectonic Edge, but Spreading Seas as well. Being preboarded against the deck you're most likely to see is always a good place to start.

The second interesting thing is that you have access to the full four Jace Belerens rather than the Sphinx's Revelations the UW deck is playing. Jace is an incredible engine against the control decks of the format, and is a perfectly reasonable speed bump against the aggressive decks. The original Jace has never gotten a ton of respect in Modern, and it's awesome to see him being played.

Last, Night of Soul's Betrayal is a very interesting choice for this style of deck. This card doesn't seem like much, but it does a ton of work against a number of the key players in the format. This kills Viscera Seer, Pestermite, and almost every creature in affinity - most notably its Inkmoth and Blinkmoth Nexuses. This may not be the most powerful deck in the format, but it's well-positioned and very interesting. Is this the shell that brings UB back to the forefront?

Birthing Pod is a card that has defined both Modern and Standard, but has seen very little play in Legacy. Caleb Durward has tried to brew with Birthing Pod a few times to varying degrees of success, and csy has taken one of those brews and started putting up results online. Let's take a look at his BUG Pod variant:

[Cardlist Title= BUG Pod - Legacy | csy, 3-1 Legacy Daily Event]

• Lands (21)
• 2 Bayou
• 3 Forest
• 1 Island
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 2 Polluted Delta
• 2 Swamp
• 2 Tropical Island
• 1 Underground Sea
• 3 Verdant Catacombs

• Creatures (22)
• 4 Baleful Strix
• 1 Bone Shredder
• 4 Deathrite Shaman
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1 Grave Titan
• 1 Kitchen Finks
• 1 Murderous Redcap
• 1 Phantasmal Image
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Thragtusk
• 4 Veteran Explorer

• Spells (17)
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 3 Birthing Pod
• 3 Brainstorm
• 4 Cabal Therapy
• 1 Green Sun's Zenith
• 1 Necromancy
• 2 Pernicious Deed
• 1 Recurring Nightmare

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 3 Mindbreak Trap
• 1 Necromancy
• 1 Notion Thief
• 1 Pernicious Deed
• 1 Sadistic Hypnotist
• 3 Swan Song
• 3 Thoughtseize

Buy This Deck

This deck is awesome; it plays an incredible combination of sweet value creatures and powerful engine cards and still manages to play an awesome pile of disruption. You get to play Baleful Strix, Brainstorm, Birthing Pod and even the Veteran Explorer/Cabal Therapy engine. All of these cards are incredibly powerful and it's incredible to see them all in one deck together.

Birthing Pod is a really interesting card in this deck. If you can control the early game, it's going to be very difficult to lose if you can get Birthing Pod active. Where other decks are looking to nickel and dime you with Wasteland and Delver of Secrets, you've got an attrition engine that curves up to Thragtusk and Grave Titan. How exactly is Young Pyromancer suppose to compete with that?

Sure, you have a little bit of a problem against combo decks, but that what your sideboard is for. After game one, you get to bring in Thoughtseize, Swan Song, Mindbreak Trap, and Sadistic Hypnotist to ensure that you get the critical turns you need turn the game in your favor. This seems like a great direction to head in if you're expecting to play against the tempo and control decks of the format, since you're more than capable of grinding those decks out with Birthing Pod.

Commander 2013 came out this weekend, but we need some time to play with the new Commanders before we can really find out what they're capable of. In the meantime, we've got one more Theros Commander to take a look at: Anthousa Setessan Hero. Ever since we first saw this Legend I was curious about what you could do if you built your deck around the heroic mechanic. Darkchair has a deck that shows us just what Anthousa is capable of:

[Cardlist title=Anthousa Aggro - Commander | darkchair]

• Commander (1)
• 1 Anthousa, Setessan Hero

• Lands (34)
• 34 Forest

• Creatures (11)
• 1 Ant Queen
• 1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
• 1 Dosan the Falling Leaf
• 1 Elderscale Wurm
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Howlgeist
• 1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
• 1 Precursor Golem
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Vorapede

• Instants and Sorceries (38)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Constant Mists
• 1 Evolution Charm
• 1 Feral Instinct
• 1 Hunter's Insight
• 1 Invigorate
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Lace with Moonglove
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Primal Bellow
• 1 Ranger's Guile
• 1 Savage Summoning
• 1 Stonewood Invocation
• 1 Sudden Strength
• 1 Sylvan Might
• 1 Vines of Vastwood
• 1 Wildsize
• 1 Creeping Renaissance
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Desert Twister
• 1 Explore
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Howl of the Night Pack
• 1 Irresistible Prey
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
• 1 Overwhelming Stampede
• 1 Primal Command
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Reap and Sow
• 1 Recollect
• 1 Recross the Paths
• 1 Regrowth
• 1 Revive
• 1 Riding the Dilu Horse
• 1 Soul's Majesty
• 1 Triumph of the Hordes

• Artifacts and Enchantments (15)
• 1 Dolmen Gate
• 1 Emerald Medallion
• 1 Haunted Plate Mail
• 1 Predator, Flagship
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of the Paruns
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Bear Umbra
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 City of Solitude
• 1 Primeval Bounty
• 1 Recycle
• 1 Spider Umbra

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Buy This Deck

I really like that you get to play all kinds of cute, cheap, targeting cantrips like Wildsize[/car]d and [card]Irresistable Prey to apply pressure and maintain card parity. Darkchair is also playing a pile of Equipment to make sure that Anthousa can profitably attack without getting eaten. That lets you continue to activate heroic triggers and get in for additional damage. The cheap auras are especially cute in this deck because they contribute to both the heroic plan and the voltron beatdown.

I like that Darkchair's deck is built to ramp into enough lands that you can afford to trigger heroic a few times and still resolve an Overrun or Triumph of the Horde. The one thing I'm most surprised not to see is Earth Surge as a double anthem to make sure your lands can still profitably attack in the midgame, similar to Dolmen Gate.

The thing that I like most is that you always have something to do with your extra lands. Many ramp decks in this format can sort of run out of gas if you deal with their first few threats, but with Anthousa you get to continue attacking with your excess lands instead of doing nothing with them. Since so many of your heroic triggers cantrip already, and they're backed up by Recycle, it shouldn't be too hard to keep your lands aggressive throughout the course of the game.