Hey everyone!

I’ve been hard at work testing for Pro Tour Kaladesh. The format is already beginning to take shape and new decks are beginning to emerge. Today I want to talk about a few of the decks I’ve played in local events and how they can be improved for the coming weeks.

The first deck I played at Get Your Game On, in Ann Arbor, was B/G Delirium. It was an easy port from old Standard so why not start there?

B/G Delirium ? Kaladesh Standard | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
• 2 Sylvan Advocate
• 2 Tireless Tracker
• 2 Verdurous Gearhulk
• 4 Gnarlwood Dryad
• 4 Grim Flayer
• 4 Mindwrack Demon

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Liliana, the Last Hope

• Spells (13)
• 1 Essence Extraction
• 4 Grasp of Darkness
• 2 Ruinous Path
• 2 Transgress the Mind
• 4 Traverse the Ulvenwald

• Lands (24)
• 6 Forest
• 6 Swamp
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Hissing Quagmire

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Transgress the Mind
• 2 Lost Legacy
• 2 Essence Extraction
• 1 Nissa, Vital Force
• 1 Ob Nixilis, Reignited
• 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
• 2 Tireless Tracker
• 3 Noose Constrictor
• 1 Distended Mindbender

Buy This Deck

Tireless Tracker doesn’t have a delirium effect, but it still the strongest Green creature available. The idea behind this deck was to be quick on the board and finish things off with Verdurous Gearhulk.

In practice I found Delirium to have a hard time getting on the board fast enough to take advantage of the aggressive sub-theme. It plays out like a midrange deck and Verdurous Gearhulk underperformed as a result.

A new card I tried was Essence Extraction. This is a fantastic card against Red decks because it matches up well against the popular vehicles — Smuggler's Copter and Fleetwheel Cruiser. The real reason I played it in the main deck is because there weren’t enough instants for delirium.

I had some trouble with casting my spells on time because Grasp of Darkness requires two Black while my early spells need Green mana. This is the same problem early versions of W/R Aggro had and I need to prioritize which cards I want to cast on the first couple of turns.

I also learned a lot about how to sideboard in the new Standard format. Nissa, Vital Force underperformed for me because there were already plenty of 5-drops in the main deck. Sometimes Nissa can be better than Ishkanah in midrange mirrors, but I’m just making a slight upgrade.

Emrakul was also bad in the sideboard against midrange and control because I was hurting delirium by cutting Grasp of Darkness and Essence Extraction. It wasn’t intuitive to me that the real card I wanted to board in was Filigree Familiar and Noxious Gearhulk because artifacts are a rare card type. I need to push the card type theme harder if I want to play Emrakul, the Promised End. Settling for delirium isn’t enough.

Lost Legacy isn’t currently good in the metagame, but it can serve as a safety valve in case a crazy glass cannon deck comes out of nowhere. The best time for decks like these to strike is when you least expect it. It’s currently weak because the glass cannon decks will likely be based around Aetherworks Marvel or Aetherflux Reservoir.

Noose Constrictor is great against Red aggro and U/R Fevered Visions. It’s a good roadblock against aggro, but remember the new B/R deck has Scrapheap Scrounger for resiliency. My initial mistake is taking out too many card advantage spells in favor of things that keep me alive. Red decks of yesterday will lose the game when they’re slowed down, but it can feel like you’re flooding at the end of the game against recurring scroungers.

Essence Extraction has been one of the most impressive anti-aggro sideboard cards so far. This is because having a game plan centered around blocking can fall apart against Unlicensed Disintegration so I need to recoup the life loss.

Here’s my new list of Delirium:

B/G Delirium v2 ? Kaladesh Standard| Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 1 Verdurous Hearhulk
• 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 3 Noose Constrictor
• 3 Tireless Tracker
• 4 Mindwrack Demon
• 4 Sylvan Advocate

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 1 Ob Nixilis, Reignited
• 2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
• 3 Liliana, the Last Hope

• Spells (11)
• 1 Essence Extraction
• 4 Grasp of Darkness
• 4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
• 2 Oath of Nissa

• Lands (24)
• 6 Forest
• 6 Swamp
• 4 Blossoming Marsh
• 4 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Hissing Quagmire

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Essence Extraction
• 1 Ruinous Path
• 2 Filigree Familiar
• 2 Distended Mindbender
• 3 Transgress the Mind
• 1 Noose Constrictor
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 2 Appetite for the Unnatural

Buy This Deck

Main-deck Noose Constrictor will help me Game 1 against U/R Fevered Visions, but also give me delirium out of nowhere. It’s a way to keep my aggressive game plan while being pre-boarded against Red decks. Between creatures with reach and Mindwrack Demon with flying I can protect all of the Planeswalkers well.

I cut the Grim Flayer because once I triggered the effect lands would go to the graveyard. This is fine in a version that plays low to the ground, but I actually want lands with Sylvan Advocate, Noxious Gearhulk, and Tireless Tracker. Why worry about my draws in a midrange deck that wants to draw both lands and spells? Grim Flayer is best in a Delirium deck that plays Grapple with the Past.

In the sideboard I cut the 5-drops since there are already three in the main deck as well as a 6-drop. The Filigree Familiars are less important in this version because I will have enough ways to get Delirium thanks to the Planeswalkers against control. This is all right because I now have two Distended Mindbenders; I hate when my opponent has cards in hand.

It’s very important to respect the hell out of these new Red aggro decks after looking at the results of the SCG Open. I have the fourth Noose Constrictor, 2 Filigree Familiar, two Appetite for the Unnatural, and three Essence Extraction! Red decks are resilient, but they are certainly beatable with a deck like mine.

Another approach to this deck is based on of Ben Wienburg’s 12th place list from SCG Indianapolis:

B/G Delirium ? Kaladesh Standard| Ben Wienburg, 12th Place SCG Indianapolis

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 2 Filigree Familiar
• 2 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
• 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 2 Tireless Tracker
• 4 Grim Flayer
• 4 Mindwrack Demon

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Liliana, the Last Hope

• Spells (16)
• 4 Grapple with the Past
• 4 Grasp of Darkness
• 2 Ruinous Path
• 4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
• 2 Vessel of Nascency

• Lands (24)
• 5 Forest
• 7 Swamp
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Hissing Quagmire

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 To the Slaughter
• 2 Pick the Brain
• 3 Transgress the Mind
• 2 Appetite for the Unnatural
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Distended Mindbender
• 1 Ob Nixilis, Reignited
• 3 Essence Extraction

Buy This Deck

To the Slaughter in the sideboard is a playable instant once I take out Grasp of Darkness against control decks. This is less of a concern in this list because Grapple with the Past won’t be boarded out. The other option here is Ruinous Path, but I like To the Slaughter against the mirror.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is very well-positioned at the moment. It’s a good way to exile creatures against the new Grixis Emerge deck and gains life against Red aggro. There currently aren’t many Chandras or Reflector Mages to punish you.

I completely cut the Verdurous Gearhulk because I actually want Ishkanah, Grafwidow in this metagame. My artifact count is already at three thanks to the Filigree Familiars and Noxious Gearhulk.

Sylvan Advocate is notably absent since Grim Flayer is pushing for a slightly lower curve. There are still big spells such as Emrakul and Noxious Gearhulk. I can find additional lands with Grapple with the Past and Vessel of Nascency, but don’t have room for more creatures.

B/G Delirium can be built in many ways so it will take some time to find the best version.

The next tournament I played was a “Win-A-Case” event at BC Comix in Fenton, MI. Rather than play B/G Delirium again I decided to go with a Michael Majors brew.

Bant Goodstuff ? Kaladesh Standard | Michael Majors

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Selfless Spirit
• 4 Reflector Mage
• 4 Servant of the Conduit
• 4 Spell Queller
• 4 Sylvan Advocate
• 4 Tireless Tracker
• 4 Verdurous Gearhulk

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Tamiyo, Field Researcher

• Spells (4)
• 2 Skywhaler's Shot
• 2 Declaration in Stone

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 4 Plains
• 5 Forest
• 2 Lumbering Falls
• 2 Prairie Stream
• 4 Aether Hub
• 4 Botanical Sanctum
• 4 Evolving Wilds

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ceremonious Rejection
• 3 Noose Constrictor
• 1 Skywhaler's Shot
• 2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1 Blessed Alliance
• 1 Archangel Avacyn
• 3 Negate
• 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Buy This Deck

Tamiyo, Field Researcher was pretty good for me as was Verdurous Gearhulk. Both of these cards got worse post-board because I had so many interactive cards in each matchup. In Game 1 I would play early creatures and end the game by drawing cards with Tamiyo or attacking with large threats. After board I would jockey for position with spells like Negate and Skywhaler's Shot. This means I would have less creatures to play early making my top-end less effective. For this reason Gideon, Ally of Zendikar was great in the sideboard.

Servant of the Conduit was pretty good for me, but I didn’t like ramping out Tamiyo. If I begin with a mana generator I would prefer to have Gideon on turn three. There were games where I drew Servant in the late game and it didn’t do much, but the energy was still good to make Aether Hubs get a boost. Overall, I thought it was a good 2-drop and exceeded my expectations.

The best Blue card for me was in my sideboard — Negate. Since Smuggler's Copter and Fleetwheel Cruiser can be countered and was fantastic against B/R Aggro. The Roanoke crew agreed that Gideon was the Planeswalker of choice and ditched Blue entirely. I don’t like this approach for the Pro Tour because there will be some wild decks and Blue is what can keep them in check. Decks that play wacky cards like Crush of Tentacles or Aetherworks Marvel are often favored against G/W and I don’t want to be a sitting duck. I’m sure they also went back to the drawing boards as G/W had failed to put any of the five pilots in the top 8. This is normally a high standard, but Tom Ross, Todd Anderson, and Brad Nelson were among those five.

The other draw to playing Blue is Spell Queller and Reflector Mage. It feels like an obvious point that these two creatures are awesome, but they aren’t as popular lately. While Reflector Mage did underperform for me I prefer it to something like Fairgrounds Warden to deal with creatures.

Lastly, the Blue is here to stay because it makes the lands better. Lumbering Falls was surprisingly great for me as it combos with Sylvan Advocate. It was not in the original list, but I wanted a third. Traditional G/W decks also don’t take advantage of Evolving Wilds which is a great combo with Tireless Tracker.

Here’s my new take on the deck:

Bant Goodstuff ? Kaladesh Standard | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Selfless Spirit
• 4 Reflector Mage
• 4 Servant of the Conduit
• 4 Spell Queller
• 4 Sylvan Advocate
• 4 Tireless Tracker
• 4 Verdurous Gearhulk

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 2 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
• 3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

• Spells (4)
• 2 Blossoming Defense
• 2 Skywhaler's Shot

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 4 Forest
• 5 Plains
• 2 Lumbering Falls
• 2 Prairie Stream
• 4 Aether Hub
• 4 Botanical Sanctum
• 4 Evolving Wilds

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Negate
• 1 Ceremonious Rejection
• 2 Declaration in Stone
• 2 Blessed Alliance
• 4 Noose Constrictor
• 1 Archangel Avacyn
• 1 Skywhaler's Shot

Buy This Deck

I want the third Lumbering Falls in the previous version of the deck, but I need more White mana to support three Gideons. This is a hybrid between Bant and the G/W deck played by the Roanoke crew at SCG Indy.

Blossoming Defense will protect my creatures and generate some tempo by double-spelling.

I don’t like Declaration in Stone at the moment because the Red aggro decks don’t play many creatures worth killing on your turn. This felt like an easy switch because a lot of decks don’t even have creatures to kill. Four removal spells was too much anyway.

That’s all I have for this week. Standard is wide open at the moment, but Red decks are the clear boogeymen of week one. This was a pretty standard tournament as Red takes the crown while everyone tunes their lists.

I’ll be in the tank all week. Hopefully I’ll have something sweet for the Pro Tour.

Thanks for reading,

Kyle