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Main » Articles » From San Jose to Seattle to Magic Online Standard

From San Jose to Seattle to Magic Online Standard

Jarvis Yu
Posted on November 2, 2012
 Reddit

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of formats for me.

From Return to Ravnica Team Sealed to Modern to Standard, I’ve learned a fair amount about each format.

Team Sealed

Doorkeeper
Team Sealed was definitely a format that I need a lot more practice on since it’s impossible to practice on Magic Online and I hadn’t really had any experience figuring out what decks would look like in the format. The decks tend to be high-powered Draft decks due to players’ abilities to put all of their bombs and removal into different decks. We built a U/R/b control deck with four Doorkeepers and two Lobber Crews, a W/U aggro deck (no really good bombs here except I think Supreme Verdict), and a G/W/b deck (splashing for only one Stab Wound) with Trostani, Selesnya's Voice.

Unfortunately, we only managed to go 2–3 in actual matches played (starting with two byes). I think we misbuilt our decks slightly by not swapping Inspiration from the W/U aggro deck for Voidwielder in the U/R/b deck. The U/R/b deck was very removal-dense and needed to pull ahead on cards and lands in order to win the game.

Modern and Return to Ravnica Draft

For Pro Tour: Return to Ravnica in Seattle, I felt very prepared for the Limited portion, and I felt my Jund list was tuned to beat the mirror and be reasonable against the expected combo decks. I did not think there would be much presence for Robots as there ended up being . . .

I registered “Average Jund”:

"Average Jund"

I managed to go 4–1 in the first Constructed portion:

Bloodbraid Elf

I drafted an okay, but not exciting, B/G deck, the highlights of which were Rogue's Passage killing two of the three opponents, managing a very reasonable 2–1.

On the second day, in the first Draft pod, I was seated between two people I knew, with John Cuvelier to my right and Orrin Beasley to my left.

I ended up drafting what I thought was a very good B/R aggro deck (with such gifts as a late Rix Maadi Guildmage in pack two from Orrin and such things).

Rix Maadi Guildmage
I only managed a 1–2, losing Round 1 to a G/W deck with what seemed like infinite Centaur Healers and a B/R deck that went bigger than I did. I was then paired against John in a feature match, who had been feeding me the entire Draft (of which the coverage can be found on the Mothership).

  • Round 9 loss versus G/W

  • Round 10 loss versus R/B

  • Round 11 win versus G/B/w

In the second Constructed portion, I went 1–3, losing to Shouta Yasooka playing his signature R/U/G Aether Vial deck, B/G infect, and Robots piloted by a friend from Maryland. I defeated someone else in a Jund mirror.

Overall, I would not choose to play Jund again, but if you do decide to play it, I suggest having a better anti-Robots and anti-combo plans since I don’t think my list was very well set up to beat Eggs or Robots. It was certainly well positioned in mirrors (I usually boarded like this: minus six discard spells, plus two Eternal Witnesses, plus one Batterskull, and plus three Fulminator Mages since I felt that every game would turn into a top-deck war, and I’d rather just draw gas all the time instead of discard spells).

Standard

I’ve had the chance to play quite a bit of Standard on Magic Online by this point.

The R/W/U deck with Thundermaw Hellkite, Restoration Angel, Geist of Saint Traft, and Snapcaster Mage is pretty sweet, but I think it has a few holes in its game plan. Thragtusk is somehow an issue for the deck (and would probably even be a bigger issue if people started playing a lot of Cavern of Souls). I don’t really like Azorius Charm as much as other people do, but I understand that it is a necessary evil, and I’m not in love with the mana base or number of lands it plays.

For reference, here’s the list I’ve been trying:

"R/W/U Midrange"

This list has been relatively solid for me, but it feels as though something is missing, and I am not sure quite what.

The other list that I’ve spent some time playing is courtesy of Andrew Shrout (a.k.a. JohnnyHotSauce on Magic Online):

"W/U Tempo"

I liked this list a bit more since I think Runechanter's Pike and Lingering Souls have both gained value (although Souls doesn’t line up very well against Thundermaw Hellkite). I just think it’s easier to find the cards you want with this deck (due to Forbidden Alchemy and Augur of Bolas).

I’m not totally sold on this sideboard, but I’m excited to play a few more matches with this deck and see how good it is. I do like that I think it is far better against Thragtusk simply due to Runechanter's Pike and Lingering Souls. Seraph of Dawn is pretty sweet against a lot of decks (especially with a Pike). I’m not really sure what Curse of Death's Hold is for (opposing Lingering Souls?).

The last deck that I’ve been trying (but I think needs more work) is four-color Frites:

"Four-Color Frites"

Jarad's Orders
I’ve been trying Jarad's Orders as an interesting way to bin an expensive guy (and put a Thragtusk or Centaur Healer into the hand) as a suggestion from Ari Lax. As a result, I’ve also managed to sneak in the actual Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, which lets you win through some very clogged board states (because of Thragtusk mirrors) and also lets you actually triple-exile creatures (put Angel of Serenity trigger on the stack, then sacrifice the Angel to Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord in response). Vault of the Archangel and Gavony Township both seem worth it to me as miser’s lands because you do see a fair number of your lands per game.

You also can easily operate without your graveyard in post-boarded games if necessary due to the fact that it is a very grindy creature deck (with four Lingering Souls, four Centaur Healer, four Thragtusk and three Huntmaster of the Fells).

I’m not thrilled about the matchup against miracle-style decks, but I do believe it’s certainly winnable, and maybe you want Slaughter Games to punch a hole through their counters and sweepers. Normally, I wouldn’t advocate that type of strategy, but I think it is worth a consideration here.

I look forward to playing a lot more matches with the above decks and some matches with B/G and/or B/R Zombies (although I think it’s actually pretty difficult to beat Restoration Angel with Thragtusk with those decks) and perhaps a Jund/Junk midrange deck.

Please leave any comments here or on Twitter @jkyu06.

Thanks for reading!

TAGS articles, pro tour, draft, grand prix, standard, limited, constructed, deck lists, modern, jarvis yu, return to ravnica, san jose, team sealed

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