Locations
So after weeks of extended coverage and the recent release of Worldwake, the new standard metagame has finally been handed down from on high by the pros at PT San Diego. I ran a series on my blog titled 'The Price of Extended' before I started here at ManaNation, and as it was so well received I'd like to repeat it here for standard. I've grabbed the prices from CoolStuffInc, rounding as is convenient for my arithmetic. Read on for an overview, costing and analysis of two of the top decks in the format with more to follow in the coming weeks. First things first, what was the winner of San Diego? What hot new Worldwake tech broke the metagame wide open, leading to a flood of innovative decks?
...It pains me to say that Jund was not only the most played deck at San Diego, it also won the whole shebang after defeating – you guessed it - Jund in the finals. Jund has been the dominant deck in standard since Lorwyn block was knocked out of the format some months ago, and it has had no peer in that time in terms of metagame prevalence. Let's take a look at the list Simon Gortzen piloted to victory on the weekend:
Jund (with Leech)
While there were many other builds of Jund at the tournament, they were by and large only slight variations. This list is definitely the best place to start with an analysis of the archetype - as the winner it will likely be cited more frequently than other builds in forum discussions and test gauntlets and the netdeckers out there with no time or desire to tinker will likely copy this list most often.
For those of you new to standard you may be surprised at the dominance this deck has managed. This unassuming mid-range deck with bad mana now rivals Five-Colour Control, Faeries, [card]Dragonstorm" href="/p/Magic%3A+The+Gathering/%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3B%2Ftd%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3Btd%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%281x+%2422.00%29+%2422%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3B%2Ftable%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%0D%0A%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3Bstrong%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3BTotal%3A+%24368.50%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3B%2Fstrong%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3B%2Ftd%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3Btd+align%3D%22center%22+style%3D%22padding%3A+20px%3B+width%3A+300px%3B+vertical-align%3A+middle%3B+border%3A+none%3B%22%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3Ba+class%3D%22thickbox%22+rel%3D%22same-post-3417%22+title+%3D+%22Bloodbraid+Elf%22+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fs3.gatheringmagic.com%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F01%2FBloodbraid-Elf.full_.jpg%22%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3Bimg+src%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fs3.gatheringmagic.com%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F01%2FBloodbraid-Elf.full_-211x300.jpg%22+alt%3D%22%22+title%3D%22Bloodbraid+Elf%22+width%3D%22211%22+height%3D%22300%22+class%3D%22aligncenter+size-medium+wp-image-1936%22+%2F%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3B%2Fa%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3B%2Ftd%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3B%2Ftr%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3B%2Ftable%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%26amp%3Bamp%3Blt%3B%2Fdiv%26amp%3Bamp%3Bgt%3B%0D%0A%0D%0AWhile+there+were+many+other+builds+of+Jund+at+the+tournament%2C+they+were+by+and+large+only+slight+variations.+This+list+is+definitely+the+best+place+to+start+with+an+analysis+of+the+archetype+-+as+the+winner+it+will+likely+be+cited+more+frequently+than+other+builds+in+forum+discussions+and+test+gauntlets+and+the+netdeckers+out+there+with+no+time+or+desire+to+tinker+will+likely+copy+this+list+most+often.+%0D%0A%0D%0AFor+those+of+you+new+to+standard+you+may+be+surprised+at+the+dominance+this+deck+has+managed.+This+unassuming+mid-range+deck+with+bad+mana+now+rivals+Five-Colour+Control%2C+Faeries%2C+%5Bcard%5DDragonstorm"> | (1x $22.00) $22 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total: $368.50
While there were many other builds of Jund at the tournament, they were by and large only slight variations. This list is definitely the best place to start with an analysis of the archetype - as the winner it will likely be cited more frequently than other builds in forum discussions and test gauntlets and the netdeckers out there with no time or desire to tinker will likely copy this list most often.
For those of you new to standard you may be surprised at the dominance this deck has managed. This unassuming mid-range deck with bad mana now rivals Five-Colour Control, Faeries, [card]Dragonstorm and even Affinity in their respective hey-days. The key to the deck is the card advantage inherent in almost every spell. Bloodbraid Elf is the poster-girl for this feature, as every time you cast your respectable 3/2 haste creature you get to essentially draw a card and play it for free. When this card has its own inbuilt card advantage, such as Sprouting Thrinax or Blightning, you can see how things quickly reach an absurd level. The cards that do not contribute to this plan are either simply the best available choice for their role, such as Putrid Leech as an early beater or Lightning Bolt as a burn spell; or they are answers to specific problems the deck faces like Deathmark to deal with Baneslayer Angel or Great Sable Stag to attack past Wall of Denial.
The silver lining to the overwhelming dominance of Jund is that it is not very expensive to put together, relatively speaking. Most of its power cards – Bloodbraid Elf, Blightning, Putrid Leech, Lightning Bolt etc – are commons and uncommon, and its big ticket cards like Maelstrom Pulse and Garruk are basically chump change when compared to the expensive blue and white mythics that other decks rely on. The largest expense in the deck is the manabase as you may expect from a three-colour deck. I really think you can cut the Dragonskull Summits for Lavaclaw Reaches without losing anything in the power stakes. Often in the coverage Jund players would cheerfully lay their M10 dual lands tapped, where if they had a Worldwake dual at that point they would be able to attack with it later! One of my favourite writers Alexander Shearer did some more in depth analysis on this very topic a few weeks ago on another site, and concluded choosing Ravine over Crag involved very little opportunity cost – that is, in his testing it was rarely significant if his dual came into play tapped or not. If you do have Rootbound Crags this may be your best chance to dispose of them at a good price as they are likely to dwindle in popularity as the power of Raging Ravines is recognised.
Jund is certain to remain a powerful force in standard as long as Alara block is part of the format. If you decide to play it you are getting a powerful competitive deck at a reasonable price, albeit one that may get you sour looks from your opponents after they've been battling it all day.
Rather than just rattle off a list of the most played, most expensive decks in standard I'll instead try to find a playable, competitive alternative for players on a budget. Frequently the best place to start when you only have limited funds is with a mono-coloured deck and so it is here, with PT San Diego Top 8-er Jeroen Kanis' blisteringly fast aggro deck.
Red Deck Wins
Total: $220.10 Total minus fetches: $112.10 |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mono-Red aggro, or Red Deck Wins as it is named, is one of the perennial strategies in Magic. Combining cheap, high power creatures with cheap, high damage burn this deck aims to reduce the opponent's life total to 0 before they are able to get their own gameplan – be it control, aggro or combo – off the ground. The original 'Sligh' deck that brought this strategy to tournament players' collective attention had to make do with such terrible creatures as Ironclaw Orcs, where the modern deck gets powerful tools like Goblin Guide and Hell's Thunder. The burn suite is also exceptionally strong, featuring extremely efficient red spells that can take out a blocker or go to the face for the final points of damage.
As a mono-coloured deck one might be tempted to add Tectonic Edge to the manabase, but I think this is a mistake. The deck is surprisingly colour intensive and while it doesn't have to make RGW or BRG like the Naya and Jund decks do, it does need to make RRR for Ball Lightning. You will often want to cast two spells in the same turn – say, Searing Blaze and Lightning Bolt to finish off the opponent – and Tectonic Edge just doesn't produce useful mana in this situation.
This deck, while already cheaper than Jund above, is ripe for budgetizing. Simply replace the fetchlands with mountains if you don't have them available and you halve the cost of the deck. While the creatures are mostly rares and thus quite expensive, they are absolutely necessary to give the deck the speed that makes it work. Fortunately the burn spells are largely commons, and look at the cost of that sideboard!
Red Deck Wins is a perfectly respectable choice for the frugal mage – it just top-8ed the Pro Tour, and it has been there or thereabouts all through pre-WWK standard. Without the fetchlands you can put the whole deck together for just over $110 which is a real bargain.
I hope this has been informative if you're just getting into standard and want to know where to sink your money, or if you just needed a refresher on a couple of the popular decks. Let me know what decks you'd like me to look at next week if you have any particular preferences!
