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Main » Articles » Always Have a Plan B

Always Have a Plan B

Michael Flores
Posted on March 18, 2025
 Reddit

Plan B: Parting Gust

Parting Gust
Parting Gust
Parting Gust

Collector's Cage | DFT Standard | barbosao, 5-0 MTGO Standard League 3/18/2025 mtgo=Standard

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BARBOSAO's Collector's Cage deck is actually kind of a funny way to open an article about Standard Plan Bs (Plans B?)... Because the deck itself - the core strategy itself - is so much about flexibility.

The Collector's Cage strategy predates Aetherdrift in Standard. Collector's Cage itself is... a card. A continual source of value... Given enough time it will outstrip the costs associated with playing it in terms of +1/+1 counters distributed; in terms of combats made difficult for opposing mathemagicians. But the "real" payoff has always been that Hideaway 5.

Get out a few creatures (not difficult in a deck of 26 creatures). Some of them will be great (Llanowar Elves!). Some of them will even be more than one creature to start (Pawpatch Recruit or Sanguine Evangelist). And when you hit that payoff? It might just be Overlord of the Mistmoors! That's always been the Collector's Cage dream.

But with Aetherdrift, the strategy got Brightglass Gearhulk. Now it's not just a deck that can power out an undercosted, even "free" Overlord... It's a bulk card advantage toolbox machine! Oh, and Brightglass Gearhulk itself is a 4/4 with both first strike and trample for the low low cost of four mana!

You add the flexibility of Haywire Mite and "get" to play Dusk Rose Reliquary. You even get to ensure your next land drop because Valgavoth's Lair is eligible for Gearhulk searching.

So, how's that second plan coming?

Parting Gust is a pretty cool addition to this kind of a deck. It's never been that popular; but when we've seen it in the past, it was often in Blue-White decks in Standard... In kind of that space occupied by Get Lost, Not On My Watch, or Soul Partition. For the low low cost of a Fish token (something this deck can trample over easily) BARBOSAO can theoretically deal with something as big and burly as Atraxa, Grand Unifier without blinking. But speaking of blinking...

Overlord of the Mistmoors
Brightglass Gearhulk

Parting Gust on your own big creature can give you a chance for another powerful trigger (in one of these cases maybe two more small bodies to add to Sanguine Evangelist's Battle Cry), or save your big finisher from point removal.

Plan B at its best.

Plan B: Horned Loch-Whale

Horned Loch-Whale
Horned Loch-Whale
Horned Loch-Whale
Horned Loch-Whale

Blue-White Control | DFT Standard | Izzy90, 5-0 MTGO Standard League 3/18/2025

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Last week I threatened to update y'all on if I personally found anything out on Blue-White Control. I didn't get to the exact same list as IZZY90 here, but the most important element is the same: Horned Loch-Whale. ALL FOUR COPIES of Horned Loch-Whale.

I actually have more Jaces in the main (because that remains the one of the main ways you can lose the mirror, and even your Counterspell-poorer cousins are starting three or even four these days), at the cost of Beza.

Between Horned Loch-Whale and Ride's End you have an enormous amount of resistance to Cacophony Scamp and Heartfire Hero for very little mana. The big ups of course is that Horned Loch-Whale itself becomes the finisher to close out games before they get away from you (IZZY90 has only three Three Steps Ahead to prevent the worst, and the worst can still happen if the games go too long, regardless of how little the opponent's creatures start).

What I, in particular, like about Horned Loch-Whale is that it can pick a fight against the Omniscience combo deck in a way that might actually win you the game. The Omniscience combo deck (see below obviously!) threatens to outright kill you starting on turn four. You can gamble on a Jace, the Perfected Mind - especially on turn three and especially going first - but that's actually kind of awkward. What if you put Omniscience into their graveyard? Is that bad? They have one fewer Omniscience [maybe, see below I said!] but their graveyard is also where they can get it back with Abuelo's Awakening. This is a very risky way to do it, depending on a bunch of factors.

But the Omniscience combo deck is not actually that great at answering a 6/6 Ward 2 with Flash. Tap out for a Beza? Depending on what point it is in the game they might just kill you. The Horned Loch-Whale? The worst you're going to get is a trade for their Confounding Riddle... Which you wanted out of their hand anyway.

I love this Plan B because it so synergizes with Plan A (you know, to stay alive against Heartfire Hero decks).

Plan B: Riverchurn Monument

Riverchurn Monument

Blue-White Control | DFT Standard| Buckeyepat97, 5-0 MTGO Standard League 3/16/2025

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BUCKEYEPAT97 came with a let's say "more traditional" Blue-White Control... Undid a lot of the Counterspell numbers from the Pro Tour, but still with Overlord of the Mistmoors where our new pal IZZY90 had the Whales...

But what I like about this deck is one card in the sideboard: Riverchurn Monument.

Wow what a banger!

It's like Jace number five but also sneaks under Counterspells; especially on the play. Riverchurn Monument puts an opposing Azorius player on a clock. I don't know that it's literally unbeatable, but the opponent is going to have to have good resources distribution while you are chopping up their library and the ability to resolve some way to kill you before the Monument gets them.

And it's not just the Millstone effect. This card, provided you can get the first Blue pip, is substantially better than Millstone, which won the first Pro Tour in the first big and successful Blue-White deck. That's actually enough and would have been enough for me to give it a second look. But that Exhaust ability puts it over the top. When I say Jace number five I mean you can mid-game this and probably outright kill the opponent for six mana. Even the Plan B has a Plan B!

I think what we'll see moving forward is a marriage of strategies: Whales in the main with more access to Monuments. I might even imagine a world where Monument becomes the Elspeth's Smite of the mirror and there are lots and lots in the sideboard of Azorius Control decks in the near future.

Plan B: Monument to Endurance

Monument to Endurance
Monument to Endurance
Monument to Endurance
Monument to Endurance

Red-White Aggro | DFT Standard | Edel, 13th Place MTGO Standard Challenge 64 3/16/2025

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While we're on the subject of "Monument" cards I thought I'd highlight this build by PT Champion EDEL before getting back to the you, know, regular decks.

This one is a hodgepodge of strategies that we've seen in one form or another. The creatures might be different - Fear of Missing Out and Guardian of New Benalia as the 2-drops - but this is still a Red-White aggressive deck that gets to abuse other aggressive decks with four copies of Sheltered by Ghosts and bedevil control players with hasty Screaming Nemesis.

Guardian of New Benalia is a weird one. I don't know that I was even consciously aware that it was still legal in Standard. The last I remember this particular rare 2/2 for two, Adrian Sullivan was trying to convince Roman Fusco to play it in the sideboard of his Azorius Control deck because most aggro opponents would never be able to get past its Indestructible.

Here, EDEL actually wants it for the discard cost more than the Indestructible effect. Guardian of New Benalia is a kind of Wild Mongrel that can catalyze Phyrexian Dragon Engine (or really anything for Helping Hand / Recommission)... but also trun on Monument to Endurance.

If you have Monument to Endurance in play, it can do all kinds of mischief with the creatures (some of which you might have been willing to play anyway). Unearthing a Phyrexian Dragon Engine seems like a complete riot to me [aka a disaster for the other player]. But at a minimum Inti, Seneschal of the Sun becomes an absolute must-kill once the Monument is online. Just draws too many cards per turn.

Plan B: Oracle of Tragedy

Oracle of Tragedy

Omniscience Combo | DFT Standard | Beekeeper, 3rd Place MTGO Standard Challenge 3/16/2025

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If you don't know this strategy, it is quietly one of Standard's strongest.

The basic idea is to get Omniscience into the graveyard somehow. Moment of Truth might do it; you can Chart a Course if you drew one, or flip it over with Fallaji Archaeologist.

Once it's there you cast Abuelo's Awakening, ideally on turn four, to get Omniscience onto the battlefield; at which point the party starts.

The best games involve having a second Omniscience that you immediately play from your hand; because Abuelo's Awakening makes burly Omniscience into a pathetic 1/1 that even a Torch the Tower can remove forever via a single mana. But assuming you have Omniscience in play you can do basically whatever you want, typically starting with Invasion of Arcavios // Invocation of the Founders.

Plan B comes into play as a kind of safety valve. This strategy is a lot about putting your key cards into your graveyard. Sure, you have Abuelo's Awakening. Sure Invasion of Arcavios can search your graveyard. BUT! Not everything goes to plan 100% of the time. Not everything goes to Plan A 100% of the time.

Thank the island of Krakoa for Plan B, am I right?

Plan B: Grim Bauble

Grim Bauble

Orzhov Pixie | DFT Standard | TripleQ, 7th Place MTGO Standard Challenge 3/16/2025

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In this case that's kind of "Line of Defense B" more than Plan B; but I wanted to keep with today's aesthetic.

This is just an Aetherdrift-informed look at the old Black-White Pixie deck from a year ago. Everything is 187s; so Nurturing Pixie makes them all twice as juicy.

TRIPLEQ apparently just lurvs Aetherdrift, because my expectation was Nowhere to Run into Momentum Breaker, not Momentum Breaker into Grim Bauble; but Grim Bauble does in fact cost less mana and is pretty great at preventing Cacophony Scamp / Heartfire Hero death damage.

The actual alternate Plans here are around Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber and Liliana of the Veil; or I guess killing the opponent with their own (albeit 1/1) Atraxa with those four copies of Ghost Vacuum in the 'board.

Plan B: Lukka, Bound to Ruin

Lukka, Bound to Ruin

Gruul Beans| DFT Standard | PredatorStyle, 5-0 MTGO Standard League 3/17/2025

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"And now for something completely different."

Sick of Zur powering out your Leyline Binding as a lifelinking attacker?

Is winning with Overlord of the Hauntwoods in the default Domain deck just too easy?

What am I going to do with boundless mana of any color?

How about just casting more giant monsters? I mean, Bonehoard Dracosaur and Trumpeting Carnosaur will, in fact, trigger Up the Beanstalk.

All the Planeswalkers can potentially take a game over, and the giant creatures (shout out to Spinewoods Armadillo, who is in fact a 7/7 for six WITH WARD 3 and REACH when shrouded in his own Plan B) can protect them. But the most "special" or at least "unusually played" has to be Lukka, Bound to Ruin.

Lukka is at least interesting. I don't know how likely it is to Poison an opponent to death with monsters as big as these (even Lukka's own Beasts will deal 21 before even 8 Poison); but given life gain it is within the range of possibility. Making mana is cool. You can use it to cast giant monsters! But the real Plan B here is a legitimate big removal option. The option of a player so rich with - did we say "giant monsters"? - that Lukka can burn away the opponent's monsters, big or many.

A Plan B for rich people. Or Phyrexian Planeswalkers.

Stay weird, Standard!

LOVE

MIKE

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TAGS articles, standard, theory, constructed, analysis, decklist, michael flores, dft standard, 03182025

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