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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 December 28, 2013
 Reddit

This week we've got five decks across Standard, Modern, and Legacy. We'll start in Standard with two interesting takes on aggressive red decks. Next we'll head into Modern to take a look at what Zur the Enchanter can do in that format, before finally heading into Legacy to look at a new take on classic Stasis. Let's get started!

If you thought Standard was all about Pack Rat, you may just be right. But that doesn't mean we can't have multiple Pack Rat decks. Kawa_Pedros has taken the rat in a new, more aggressive direction that looks to capitalize on other decks that stumble or try to get a little too aggressive. Let's take a look at his Rakdos Aggro deck:

Rakdos Haste - Standard | Kawa_Pedros, 4-0 Standard Daily Event

What I like about this deck is that every card is incredibly aggressive or clears creatures out of the way. Every creature in the deck either has haste or can gain haste with Exava's help, and most of your removal can go to the face to close out games.

Many decks straight up can't beat Stormbreath Dragon, and it's surprising how good of an impersonation Exava can do. This deck may not have the Thoughtseize into Pack Rat curve, but this deck is in a unique position to capitalize on Pack Rat eating a removal spell on turn two. It clears the way for your other hasty creatures that can put the game away in short order if your opponent can't chain together removal spells.

So we know that Boros Devotion powered by Fanatic of Mogis is a thing in this Standard format, but what happened to the Domri Rade monstrous Nykthos decks? Zbishop is bringing back the Domri Rades to fight back against the removal-heavy control decks of the format. Let's take a look at his Gruul Devotion deck:

[Cardlist Title= Gruul Devotion - Standard | zbishop, 3-1]

We know that the Burning-Tree Emissary plus Nythos, Shrine to Nix shell is powerful, and enables game-ending plays like Stormbreath Dragon and Fanatic of Mogis. But the Boros shell is better set up to fight against Pack Rat and Master of Waves than Supreme Verdict and Jace, Architect of Thought.

Zbishop has tried to shift this deck into one that is better suited to grinding out longer games against control decks by utilizing Domri Rade and Xenagos, the Reveler to apply continuous pressure and overload the limited copies of Supreme Verdict and Detention Sphere.

You even get access to Mistcutter Hydra out of the sideboard to further shore up your Blue matchups, and Domri goes a long way to fixing up your aggressive matchups. I don't know if this deck is better than the Boros build, but it certainly has upsides against the Blue control decks.

People love toolbox decks. There's something about being able to leverage powerful singletons to absolutely demolish opponents, even before sideboarding that is positively addicting. Zur the Enchanter has seen limited play in Modern on Magic Online, but Caleb Durward has put a new spin on the card. Let's take a look at his take on Zur Tempo:

Zur Tempo - Modern | CalebD, 3-1 Modern Daily Event

This deck is doing a lot of things, and I love all of them. Preboard, you're just looking to curve Deathrite Shaman into Geist of Saint Traft on turn two or Zur the Enchanter or turn three. From there you can just aggro players out with Steel of the Godhead, using Detention Sphere and Thassa, God of the Sea to clear the way and keep you ahead in the race.

After sideboarding, you get access to all manner of awesome cards that can just end games. Stony Silence, Rest in Peace, and Nevermore are just the start against combo decks. You can certainly go deeper with Phyrexian Arena, Ethereal Armor, or Ghostly Prison.

I think this deck is uniquely positioned to fight against most of the decks in the Modern metagame. your creatures are appropriately resilient and powerful enough to end games on their own, and you get to play awesome cards that are just unbeatable and ensure that you regularly have access to them. I don't know if this is the best possible build, but there's certainly something exciting going on here.

Stasis was one of the first cards that I ever built a deck around, and I know this card created an entire generation of people like me who love the occasional griefer deck. Magic players love their nostalgia and to play long, drawn out games that they've already won. Stasis does both of these things, which was why I was so excited to see Rob Vaca's build featured in Caleb Durward's article:

[Cardlist Title=Stasis - Legacy | Rob Vaca]

There's nothing cute going on here. No Forsaken City or Rescue going on here, just a straight Blue control deck with Stasis and Back to Basics to keep the board under control.

On top of that, you've got Lightning Bolts and countermagic to keep any untapped threats under control, Ancestral Visions and Jace to make sure you keep hitting land drops, and Ral Zarek for the actual hard lock that leads to Time Walks.

The cutest interaction here is the Crucible of Worlds plus Zuran Orb Stasis lock, letting you hit your land drop every turn even if you don't continue to rip lands off the top. Daze is also particularly awesome in this deck, since they're going to be a hard counter more often and will let you pay for Stasis for an extra turn.

We took a week off of Commander last time, but we're back with a vengeance this week. It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Salvaging Station and the pure value that it can generate, but this deck by Darcykun takes that to a whole new level. I've always been a fan of Second Sunrise combo decks, and Darcykun has managed to build a control deck that feels like a Second Sunrise deck. Let's take a look at his Glissa Eggs deck:

[Cardlist title=Glissa Eggs - Commander | Darcykun]

I love what this deck is going. Darcykun isn't looking to go big. He just wants to gain value every time a creature dies. Glissa and Salvaging Station don't have to do anything hugely impressive. Even if you're only rebuying Chromatic Spheres and Wayfarer's Bauble every time, that advantage adds up over the course of the game. Darcykun's plan is to maximize their opportunity to generate these small advantages and draw the game out as long as possible so that these edges become more pronounced.

In the midgame, you get to start grinding a little harder. You can rattlesnake people with Executioner's Capsule and Oblivion Stone, and let people chip away at other players' life totals. All you're looking to do is keep drawing cards, hitting lands, and preserving your life total. Once everyone else has lost a little life, you can start enacting the last phase of your plan.

Once people haverun out of cards and is low on life, you can just start casting Wurmcoil Engine and Mindslaver every turn of the game until you win, sometimes multiple times per turn. Sometimes it's Crypt Ghast extort, sometimes it's a comboriffic turn with Geth, Lord of the Vault, but eventually you'll stick a threat and your opponents will die.

My favorite thing about this deck is the interaction between Glissa and Recycle. Glissa keeps you stocked on cheap artifacts to power through your deck and keep finding additional cheap spells and lands to cantrip into the powerful spells you need to close games. This deck is all about incremental card advantage and pushes that theme in a very powerful and unique way.

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TAGS articles, standard, current events, deck lists, legacy, decks, commander, modern, carlos gutierrez, 5 decks

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